*there's day 1 of the appetite stimulant

First, part II of the month of check ups: last week we saw the pediatrician again. It was an uneventful trip - we just got clarification on the wheeze we hear sometimes when Will has a cold or virus. He has an inhaler with a spacer that he loves. Sometimes he pretends to give himself a treatment and he even demonstrated that to his doctor. She was given the job of pretending to press on the inhaler to make the medicine pretend to come out.

At the end of the week we checked in with the GI doctor. He gave us the prescription for the appetite substitute as predicted. He also mentioned Will's pediatrician. He has a new son and said he chose the same pediatrician after seeing what good care she gave Will!

Will has a really great pediatrician. Since he has a lot of appointments I probably know her better than any of my own doctors. She takes everything we say very seriously and if I have a complicated question she calls me to talk. Since we moved it takes almost an hour to get to her office which is really inconvenient, but right now I wouldn't dream of turning his care over to someone else. There will be a day that Will doesn't need as much attention as he does now and by then I might be ready to switch to a local doctor. Maybe. But I doubt we will find another one with a Choo-choo like this:

After we left GI we went to the NICU to see if one of Will's primary nurses was working. We have met up with her a couple of times before - a few times when he was in hospital rooms on other floors and once in the cafeteria. This time she had us meet her in the NICU. This was our first trip back inside those double doors. I found myself smiling as I walked down the long hallway with Will in his stroller, snacking on Goldfish crackers and drinking Pediasure from a cup. It was nice to know that we were coming back to a place with a lot of difficult memories in a MUCH better time in Will's life. She was thrilled to see him so happy and eating!

She also told us about this baby that recently left the hospital after being there for OVER A YEAR!! I often think that even in our worst times there is always someone that is coping with something more difficult. Well, this baby is the latest example of that. Will spent his first Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year in the hospital but at least he was home for his first birthday!

Now for the feeding news: the appetite stimulant is actually an antihistamine that has the side effect of increasing appetite. After only one day we can say we've definitely seen an increase in what he is eating. Breakfast and lunch were about the same, with a slight increase in bites. But his 10 am snack and dinner were definitely bigger. He ate a whole cereal bar by himself for snack. Normally he would only eat about a third of one. And for dinner he ate a half a peanut butter sandwich AND many spoonfuls of the diced tomatoes from my taco soup. He started out eating the meat, corn, and beans too but once he got a taste of the tomatoes he couldn't be stopped. Since I don't like tomatoes I think this could work out really well for both of us!