And now for that promised one step back.

See what I get? As soon as I post about the fact that Alex has had no setbacks, he goes ahead and gets set back. Hopefully, this is nothing major, just another example of the doctors being extremely cautious. He had been up to eating 18 ccs of breast milk every three hours. After a few days of reflux and related minor problems he seemed to be tolerating his food very well and was up to 2.5 pounds. They started him on multivitamins and began fortifying his milk with high calorie formula.

Yesterday right after his morning feed however, he spit up some green bile, which could be the sign of an infection. The doctors, fearful of his developing a dangerous infection or rupture in his digestive tract (known as NEC) immediately stopped his feeds for 24 hours while they ran some tests. He has shown no other signs of illness and xrays of his belly reveal no ruptures or signs of infection. Because he seems ok, he began feeding again today at noon, at a reduced amount of 9 ccs every 3 hours. Hopefully this was just a temporary reaction to the fortification of his milk and not the sign of a major problem to come. I am a little disappointed because I was so excited about the idea of him gaining weight, but hopefully this is just a minor step backward.

As the staff has told us: "expect setbacks." Of course my mind has now been recalibrated to skip directly to the worst case scenario, but I am fighting this urge and trying to take each day for what it reveals to us instead of trying to extrapolate long term outcomes.

Up next week for AOK: the first of many eye exams. Because he is is so small and was born so early, he is at increased risk for a kind of eye condition called retinopathy of prematurity. This condition can lead to impaired vision or blindness in the worst cases but is treatable if caught early. So his eyes will be carefully monitored as he gets bigger. Just another nugget for the bag of worry.