Morgan Kate

Morgan Kate's upper GI is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9:30. The procedure will take place Richland's Children Hospital. After pre-registering and talking to numerous people I think everything is scheduled and ready to go. Everyone I talked to was extremely nice and helpful, but I did want to share a piece of my conversation with who I will call the "GI lady".

Me: So exactly what does this procedure entail? (Keep in mind I myself have had an upper GI before, but I wasn't sure what it would look like for an infant, especially an infant that doesn't always drink from a bottle)

GI lady: You all should arrive around 9am. Do not let your daughter eat anything three hours before the procedure. Once you arrive your daughter will have to drink barium and we will watch it move through the throat, esophagus and so forth....

Me: I'm sorry. Drink?

GI lady: Yes, we will put the barium in her bottle and she will drink it.

Me: (Laughing in my head) Ummmm, well you see, she's not taking bottles exclusively so that may be a problem.

GI lady: Well, she has to drink some because we have to watch her swallow.  

Me: Okay, well I'm not sure how that will work out. Should I also bring her "tube stuff"?

GI lady: Yes, please bring everything.

At this point I am thinking, "Great, first she's going to have to drink this awful stuff, which I know she probably will not do. And then we have to bring all the "tube paraphernalia" too. Great. This is going to be  quite interesting."

Me: Well, exactly how long will this take? 

GI lady: As long as it takes for her to drink the barium.

Me: (Laughing hysterically) Okay, well hopefully you have the morning blocked off because it takes her a very long time.

Anyway, I am praying that things go smoothly and that Morgan Kate will at least drink some of the barium. Travis and I are both really anxious to see what is going on in that little digestive system of hers. We started the Levsin drops Tuesday afternoon and for the first 12 hours afterward things seemed to be heading in the right direction. However, shortly after that things reverted back to usual. She is crying during her feeds and just seems so uncomfortable. There were several days where she was sleeping at night and awake during the day, but that has changed too. She is now staying up till around 3am and then sleeping a lot during the day. It has worked out so far, because we haven't had anywhere to go, so we can sleep too. However, we have several appointments in the next few days and we won't be able to "sleep in". 

Not really sure how you get a infant to stay awake during the day. Still working on that one....