A Week of Waiting Rooms

Landon's rapidly expanding medical file grew a bit more this week. Last Friday we were in the emergency room for his constant screaming; yesterday we visited the pediatric urologist at Northwestern Children's Hospital; and today we traveled to the pediatric gastroenterologist at the University of Chicago Children's Hospital. I wish adult hospitals were more like the ones designed for children- everything is so bright and colorful and the people who work there are generally very nice and smiley. At both appointments we were seen precisely on time- I've had a few doctor appointments in my day and I've come to regard that as something of a miracle. Both doctors were warm and obviously knowledgeable.

Urology update: his testicle has already almost fully descended on its own. The doctor said they don't usually make any surgical decisions until the baby is 1 year old and we have every reason to believe the situation will have fully resolved itself by then- which is good since the very mention of "surgery" and "testicle" in the same sentence makes Landon's dad and grandpa look faint.

GI update: he's staying on the Prevacid and we may be in for another formula change. The doctor felt that he definitely had a severe case of acid reflux and that Prevacid was the right medication for him (it's stronger than Zantac). He has improved over the past few days- no more screaming fits while eating- which means that not only is the stomach acid production down, but his esophagus has been able to heal. She warned us that reflux usually gets worse at around 4-5 months before it gets better at 6 months, so he may need a medicine adjustment at that time. While his esophagus is better, his tummy is still unhappy. The switch to Alimentum has nearly eliminated his gas pains but added diarrhea. If he's not doing better on Monday (which is his 2-month check-up, complete with lots of shots- poor kid), we're switching to Nutramigen. It's also hypoallergenic, but it lacks a protein contained in Alimentum which sometimes gives babies trouble. Apparently Nutramigen doesn't taste as good (our gastroenterologist was an expert in the baby palate- she ranked all the reflux medication and formula by taste), but Landon hasn't seemed picky so far. If that switch doesn't work, we have to try to the crazy "scientifically created in a lab" formula that makes Alimentum look cheap and Nutramigen taste good. Ugh.

In other news, my dad flies in today to see Landon for the first time- he's very excited and plans to teach his grandson how to fish in Lake Michigan. We also finally broke down and ordered the Fisher Price cradle swing, and I'm so glad we did. It's amazing. He was crying about an hour ago, so I stuck him in there and turned it on- he immediately stopped crying, got his suspicious look on his face, and within three minutes was fast asleep. Every now and then one eye pops open- I don't think he's actually tired- but after a few seconds he once again succumbs to the soothing rocking motion. I have a feeling he'll be spending a lot of time in there.