Look at that BIG baby!

NEC? NEC who?

For a baby who lost so much intestine, and was considered a short gut baby, you sure can't tell it now can you? Thanks to the skillful hands of Riley's surgeon, Riley should have normal bowel function one day. If Dr. H had taken out all the sick bowel during Riley's first surgery at 9 days old, Riley would likely still have a Broviac and be receiving TPN and lipids. Instead, he eats pretty much any and everything he wants and is GROWING and THRIVING! Right now he is still not allowed to eat, post surgery, and once he can begin to eat, we will have to be cautious again for a while, but then the sky is the limit it seems. Is there ANYTHING this kid can't do? LOOK at how big he looks in these pictures. And this is with him being only in the 10th percentile for his age. But many short gut kids are in the 1st or 2nd percentile, and he once was too, but look at him now! Tonight, he weighed 20 pounds!! I'm so proud of him.



He's having some neck strength issues, and we think it's basically just a sore neck, related to the stuck in one position situation that flattened his head (it's better now). So I tried sitting him up some today. He did well with it tummy wise. But he kept wanting to let his head flop backwards.


I liked this picture because you can see his finger stuck in his paci, which I think is cute, but you can also see his belly, and how great it looks. All that old blood on the steri strips covering his incision has been there since the day of surgery. He has had absolutely NO leaking or weeping of his incision this time thus far. Yay!


Other than when I was holding him today, this is pretty much what he looked like when he was awake:


He would draw his legs up to his belly lots like this picture. We think it's due to the rumbly in his tumbly



He has had quite a few Dr's, Residents, and Nurses that treated him in the past, come by to visit him. One Dr. was from Infectious Disease, and treated him during the stool spilling from the abdomen days. Jay happened to see her in the hall and told her Riley was here, and she had to come visit. She was AMAZED at how big and healthy looking he is now, even 3 days post yet ANOTHER major abdominal surgery. His case was actually a topic of discussion recently amongst some colleagues and she couldn't wait to report back on his current health status. She admitted to us that she was SO worried about him, and whether or not she could keep him alive through the infection that resulted from that incident. It was a good visit.

Riley's current status is:
We are still waiting for poop. He is expected to have his first poop basically anytime now. Every time he seems fussy, I think "this has to be it". And it never is. So we wait some more. That sneaky/aggravating fever keeps coming and going. He remains pretty serious and mellow, definitely not himself at all, but that should improve as he feels better. I hope that is soon because I miss seeing that smile of his!