Heavyweight Champion!!

Maddox is 8 pounds!!!

We are pretty excited! Three months old and finally the size of a normal newborn. We're making progress!

This week is full of appointments. 4 in total.
On Monday Mad and I spent many hours in the hospital waiting for and eventually getting a Gastric Emptying Scan. He went over 4 hours without food before the test, which is a lot considering that he has been on continuous feeds for the past two weeks, but he just slept through it for the most part. Thankfully. The scan consisted of them putting sugar water into his tummy and then he spent the next hour flat on his back under a CT scan type of machine, where they recorded how his stomach emptied, hence the name. It came back normal, which is good.

Today Maddox got a chest x-ray and then went to the cardiologist. His x-ray didn't look so hot, which is concerning, but his EKG looked good, his oxygen saturation was 98-99 and he had gained a pretty good amount of weight. The cardiologist was going to talk to our Pulmonary doctor to see if he wanted Maddox to start breathing treatments. Not quite what I wanted to hear, but overall he was pleased with how maddox was doing and said that we could go six weeks before seeing him again.

On Friday we go to the Endocrinologist, where Maddox will have to get blood drawn. Poor baby. They need to test his thyroid levels and then they might possibly do some genetic tests concerning his reproductive system. Yeah, Maddox is going to love it!
Friday afternoon the ECI(early childhood intervention) people are coming to our house, and I have to say I am excited to have them come and show me what to work on with Maddox. He doesn't have much neck strength or head control yet, so it will be very helpful to have some things to try.

Overall Maddox has had a good week. He has been a much happier baby overall and is smiling and starting to coo at us. I love it! His siblings love him, but sadly, from a distance. They do ask to kiss his head and his feet and we let them, but due to constant colds, they mainly have to stay away. This is particularly hard for Tracen. Trace just wants to talk to "Baby Maa-iix" as he calls him and is always trying to involve Maddox in playing with the collection of Star Wars figures that Tracen is currently obsessed with. It is pretty cute to watch.

Maddox is on an apnea monitor, which is especially helpful at night, but there have been quite a few times where the ear piercing alarm sounds in the middle of the night and both Jeff and I are bolting it to Maddox's room. So far it has only been the sensor stickers on his chest falling off or moving out of position that has set off the alarm, but it still gets my heart pumping.

Jeff has spent a lot of time on the phone with our insurance company figuring out the insane number of claims and bills that are pouring in. Surprisingly, Jeff and I are starting to come to terms with the fact that we may never be completely caught up with medical expenses. We'll just pay as we go and I'm sure the Lord will provide. We have been so blessed with Jeff's job, good insurance, friends, neighbors, ward members, and family all helping so much...somehow it will all work out. The Lord sent us Maddox and I am sure He will give us a way to take care of him.