Swallow Study: Pt. 2 & a little fun in the sun!

Things have been moving at a breakneck pace these past few weeks! So at the beginning of the month, the swallow study was conducted. This time, I had so many hopes and expectations, it was hard for me to try to relax this time around. 


However, Colin has really come into his own, and this time around, he pretty much said "Mom, I got this!". And got this he did! He passed with flying colors! There was not even a hint of him aspirating like he did during the first swallow study. They even lay him on his side, used different flow nipples, and each time, he swallowed like a champ. 


With that HUGE monkey off our back, we were now ready to start feeds by mouth. However, as much as I (and Colin) would like to go full blast into eating by mouth again, because he is starting over again, we have to go slow so he doesn't tucker out and start to not like it over time. 


For this reason, for the first few days, we had to go slow and start with 1 feed by mouth a day. However, the next few days after the swallow study were crazy busy, and we had to wait about a week before we could start. 


First, it was our 5 year wedding anniversary! Every year we have usually done something fun and romantic, and with the past year we had, I wanted this one to be no different. 


I read about this hotel in Laguna Beach and thought it would be nice, so we stayed here:


Pacific Edge Hotel

The room literally looked over the beach!

For a little fun, I decided to book a kayak tour of the harbor. Sometimes my great ideas sound great in theory, but reality sometimes is rougher than I imagined, however, this was NOT one of those times!

After this relaxing trip, we met with Colin's Occupational Therapist who then helped us to devise a plan to get Colin eating by mouth again. Yet our plan had to wait a few days, as we had to travel to Houston to see Rich's daughter Lauren (funny blog post about our travel experience to follow!).

Once we did start 1 feed a day and Colin was doing FANTASTIC with it, earlier this week, our Gastroenterologist decided we could then increase his feeds to 3 by mouth a day. 

This is when I came to a crossroads. Up till this time, my plan had always been that I had wanted to breastfeed Colin if it was ever fully possible. Now was my chance! However, my bosom was not cooperating. 

A few weeks prior, I had reached a "pumping" burnout. Because Colin's growth had increased the amount of milk he had to take in a day, over time I was not producing enough breast milk by just pumping. For this reason, I figured that until Colin was ready to breastfeed, I would just reduce the number of pumps a day, then eventually transition from pumping exclusively to just breastfeeding. 

Yet in doing this, I had reduced my "supply" considerably, and now that we were suddenly ready to put Colin to breast again, I had to make a decision. If I wanted to go forward with my exclusive breastfeeding plan, it would have to mean I would have to start including multiple pumping sessions a day (in addition to Colin breastfeeding 3x a day) in order to increase my milk supply to a level that could sustain him. 

Maybe it was after reading this article: "Are you Mom enough?", or maybe it was just reality, but similar to my kayak type of idea, I realized, the idea sounded much easier than the reality. 

Because as much as the "idea" sounded great, the reality was much harder. I lasted 2 days! Is that pathetic? I don't know, in the end, I just said to myself, "Is being stressed out about this what I really want? Or did I just want the chance?". I realized just being given the opportunity to nurse at all was really all I could ask for. 

Being able to look into Colin's eye while he breastfeed was pretty amazing. Watching him fall into a blissful sleep was cute. Yet making sure he was growing and getting healthy each day, formula was just as easily doing the trick for me. With that, my mommy instinct grew a little stronger!

So now I have been bottle feeding my little guy 3x a day, and if I'm honest, sometimes 1 more time than usual, as I realized I have created a monster! To say Colin LOVES eating by mouth is pretty much an understatement. Just look at what he does when I have to take away his bottle to burp him:

"Mom, I'm not done yet! What ARE you doing?"

Guess he doesn't miss my boob that much...........

The day of travel from HELL! aka: Our trip to Houston!

Rich always teases me about this fact that I share with people about myself: I used to be a flight attendant. Why does he tease me? Well, much like I tease him about talking about the Highland Games as an expert, he teases me about being the flying expert. 


I flew for 4 1/2 years as a flight attendant. I saw many things in my travels. So when I married Mr. Travelling Man (aka: Rich Campbell), it has come in real handy. 


Yet this time around, we have a preemie. Before Colin's arrival, we always said that no matter what, we were going to incorporate our baby into our travel plans as soon as possible. I knew exactly how I needed to make travelling with a child possible, and I couldn't wait to test out my "idea" (remember this earlier description of me?). 


So after blessings from our Pulmonologist and our Pediatrician, we were given the ok to travel by airplane. I was to take strict precautions to make sure germs were kept at bay. I figured, with as much medical waiting rooms we have seen over the past several months, an airplane was pretty much no different. 


Yet nothing could have prepared me for the day of travel from HELL! Everything and anything that could go wrong that day, happened. Where do I start............


First, it started innocently enough when we got up at 6am on Friday morning to get ready for our 9:30am flight. After a restful night sleep, I was ready to get my sleepy little boy up from his bassinet to start getting him ready. Yet right away, I noticed that his blanket was SOAKING wet. Thinking maybe his overnight feeding pump had somehow malfunctioned, I looked around for the cause, until I found the reason: HIS G-TUBE HAD COMPLETELY COME OUT OF HIS STOMACH!


Never having had this happen before, we ran around like chicken's with our heads cut off before we were told by his doctor to quickly head over to the ER at CHLA. And so our day began!

Rich helping with Colin's xray's.

After 4 hours in the ER, we finally got the tube put back in. Cause of it falling out: undetermined. Somehow the balloon that was supposed to hold it in place under the skin burst, but how, we will never know. For now, it's back in, and hopefully, not for long! (see earlier post here.


Undeterred, we decided to reschedule our flight for a later one, but this one was not going to be a non-stop (a must when you travel with a little one! Get it over and done with as soon as you can, I say!). 


When we got to the airport, Rich forgot that he left a pocket knife in his backpack from an earlier camping trip. While Rich would usually just chalk it up to "oh well, just confiscate it", this time it was hard for him because the pocket knife was bought on his trip to Finland! But as we were short on time, there was nothing left to do but let them confiscate it. 


Continuing on, we started our 4 1/2 hour flight to Houston. Another tip I learned from watching so many parents travelling with infants: buy them their own seat to sit in. While most people can't afford the cost and figure they will just have the infant sit in their lap, trust me, while doable, it makes things super tough!


So with his car seat in place on the plane, for the most part, Colin did fine. In the back of my mind, I was still concerned over the fact that Colin hadn't pooped in 5 days! I knew something was gonna come out sooner or later, but never figured it would be anywhere else but his behind. However, about an hour before we landed, Colin's tummy pretty much had enough, and decided it couldn't handle any more milk, so he spit up about a cup of milk on me!


With my bags checked, the only one who really suffered was me, since I couldn't change my top (well, Colin did have a sad look after he did it, so I guess he suffered too!). But by the time we landed, I was pretty much dry (although I smelled horrible!). 


As we collected our bags in baggage claim, we soon realized that Rich's bag was not there. Soon enough, he was told that his bag didn't make the flight, and wouldn't be there till the next morning. Our luck was only getting better! 


As we started in the shuttle to the car rental lot, it suddenly started raining like crazy, with lightening going off all around. And of course, no rain gear! Thank heavens the lot had an awning to stand under. 


Yet with our luck, we soon found out that the car we reserved was not available, so another vehicle was given to us. Since it was so late by this time, we didn't care and decided to just load up and get out of there. 


However, this was our lucky day, for no sooner did we have everything loaded up, but we found out the back seat was broken and we couldn't fit in Colin's car seat!


After transferring everything to a new car, we soon thought we were on our way. But just about a block away from the car rental lot, we discovered the GPS device they had given us was not working! Ahhhhhhhhh!


Back to the lot, and after that delay, we were finally on our way. Yet our 1 hour drive to the hotel was a tense one for us, because as we drove along, signs on the freeway indicated that a tornado watch was in effect till 2am that night! You haven't lived until you stare out of a car in fear for tornado's I tell you!


The fun continued when we made it to the hotel. We soon discovered that they did not have a crib in our room for Colin, so we had to wait until one was located. In the meantime, I decided to help Colin get ready for bed and finally had a chance to change him out of his smelly clothes!


Yet, I soon realized that the smell wasn't just attributed to his spit up earlier. No, his tummy had finally decided to cooperate, and when I opened his diaper, Colin finally had the blowout that I had been looking for all week! To make it even "better", he decided to add a little pee to the mix while I was trying to clean him up!


I quickly scooped him up while Rich tried to clean up the diaper pad. Of course, this allowed my shirt to have the lovely look of spit up AND poop! Lovely! 


And that folks, was our day. 


However, the entire trip wasn't all horrible. Colin ended up sleeping through the night as usual. We were able to relax the next day with Rich's daughter Lauren and her husband Ian. We checked out some yummy Texas eateries around town, while Colin would politely nap in my Ergo carrier. And my 1st Mother's Day was spent exploring the NASA Space Center in Houston (another tip: not much to explore here!). 


After our Friday trip, our return trip on Monday was a breeze. We made the non-stop flight no problem, and Colin's tummy cooperated throughout the flight. Even better, Colin is showing NO signs that he caught a cold on his first plane ride! 


So despite all this, watch out world, the Campbell's have decided that we are ready to travel with Colin (at least till flu season starts again!). Just have to make sure Colin has pooped before we go..................