Tobie and her posse heading to the GI appointment.

 Tobie here:

So Cole’s GI appt today wasn’t as fulfilling as Paige’s eye appt yesterday.  In fact, the more I replay the appt in my mind, the more annoyed I become.  We have been dealing with the same GI crew (doc and nurse practioner) the entire time since Cole was discharged from the hospital last year for weight concerns.  We have been dealing with the same issues for soooo long now.  Suddenly today it’s like GI woke up and actually heard me (us).  All of a sudden the things we’ve been telling them are serious and need attention.  Huh?  I actually videotaped Cole pooping a few months ago so they could see how much agony he is in and they didn’t want to see it.  Today I say he screams when he poops (nothing new) and our GI team says that shouldn’t be happening and can have long-term issues if we don’t resolve this and I’m supposed to call them if the new laxative doesn’t work.  I tell them that Cole still eats like a bird (nothing new) and suddenly we’re referred to the PCH feeding clinic that I tried to get Cole into last year but I was told he wasn’t eligible for because he never had a feeding tube.  Because if we don’t fix Cole’s eating issues now, he’ll have eating aversions that will carry forward to childhood, possible adulthood.  We have had three?  four?  feeding specialists who have done absolutely nothing to help Cole eat solids.  Also I was told today that Cole might need to see an allergist if he doesn’t start eating well soon to see if there are any underlying food allergies.  We already have seen an allergy specialist on our own through our pediatrician (who actually acts on our concerns).  Hello?  GI?  Are you listening to us at all?  The best part of this story….there’s a six month waiting list to get into the feeding clinic.  Thanks GI.  Eric thinks we should discontinue seeing GI.  I’m not so sure.  I’d like to tell Cole when he’s in high school and 5′4″ weighing 120 lbs with a 270lb 6′6″ little brother that I did everything I could to help his growth.  The good news:  Cole had a huge jump in his growth curve these last few weeks (remember he’s now on the growth chart for actual age).  Maybe he’ll continue this weight gain, start eating, and we’ll not need GI anymore.  Wishful thinking?  Worked for Paige….

Me @ 3 months and Drew @ 3 months.  Hmm…I guess he is mine!

We had another behavior-doc appointment today with Dr. E.  Basically we are charting at 12-15 months for most stuff.  Ugh!  On the bright side, I gotz me some official data:

Paige: 24 pounds , 32 inches (she lost a pound from all her new activity the past few weeks)
Cole: 22 pounds, 30 inches (He’s finally on the actual growth chart for weight at the 5th percentile)
Drew: 18 pounds, 26 inches (the doctor said he looked tankish)

Looking at those stats, I think if we lined the kids up from smallest to biggest, they would look like an evolution chart!

I wonder if Drew feels left out of the blog? It seems like we never talk about him. Poor little guy. Tobie and I talk all the time about having Drew. We comment on the fact that if we didn’t have Drew, we would have never known what’s it’s like to have a normal full-term baby. Everything about him is different than P & C. I know you can’t compare the two pregnancies/births, but here we are, so on closer evaluation, I guess I can compare them!

Last year was so hard. Incredibly hard. To be honest, while we were going through everything, I didn’t realize how hard it was. People would always comment on how well we were handling things and how much they looked up to us. My response was always, “well, what else would we do, it’s all we know”. It wasn’t till the last month or so that I’ve pulled my head out of the sand and look back and wonder, how did we survive last year? Man it was hard! Having Drew has definitely opened our eyes on how easy he is. Now, don’t get me wrong, having one kid or a whole bushel of them is hard work, but comparably, he’s really a piece of cake. Parents of premature kids know in their minds it’s easier having a full-term kid, but until you do, you just don’t know what you are missing. While I’m so glad Drew is in our lives, I’m sad that there are so many other families that can’t get the opportunity to know what millions of people take for granted.

Okay, getting back to Drew. When he’s not crying for the boob or puking from a full feed, he’s pretty cool. He’s so alert. He watches everything nowadays. Right now he’s in his laughing and screeching phase. P & C were never like this. It’s like Drew is our first born, because everything we are experiencing with him, we never really did experience with P & C. The other night Tobie tells me before going downstairs to check out Drew in his room. I walk in the bedroom and he’s sleeping soundly in his crib. He’s bulging out of these pajamas that Cole was just wearing the other month. That blows my mind sometimes. Drew has to be pushing 18 pounds. He’s gained 1/2 a pound a week since birth. Which in turn reminds me of how hellish our life was last year with trying to feed Cole. Remember when he would take in about 7 ounces a day over 10+ feeds a day? Oh, good times. I’m sure there were people who read the blog back then and would say “what’s the big deal, he’ll feed when he’s hungry, it’s not like he’s going to starve”. Before having Drew, I would scoff at that comment, but now after seeing how Drew eats, I totally understand why people would think feeding a baby is a piece of cake.

Anyways, I had a point to all this, but I think I’ve just rambled. That’s what you get when I don’t blog all the time anymore. So rusty. So in summation your honor, premature births suck, full-term births rock, people shouldn’t take pregnancies for granted, and everyone deserves to have an uneventful pregnancy. Oh and Drew and his big brother and sister kick ass.