Oliver's 8 Weeks

Oliver is a very content baby. We love having a happy baby that only cries when he's hungry, has a stomach ache or has a dirty diaper. He's a dream baby like Lincoln was. Oliver reminds me so much of Lincoln. Oliver eats every 3 hours in the day and any where from 3-8 hour feeds at night. His night time feeds, he barely wakes up, we feed him, change his bum and he's out. We are able to feed him at night in 30 minutes or less. I say we because I pump and Josh bottle feeds Oliver. With our team work it makes it doable, as pumping and bottle feeding can be double the amount of work at times. I couldn't do it without Josh. I also like pumping as I can then feed Oliver when he needs to and pump  when it's convenient for the Day Home.  

When Oliver was first born and we brought him home we had any where from 1-3 appointments each week, which was busy. I thought I was going to go crazy with all the appointments. It felt like they were taking over our lives. Lucky that only lasted for the first 6 weeks. Once we had our follow up and mylo clinic appointments, the appointments then slowed down. The paediatrician every 3 weeks, physiotherapy once a month and mylo clinic every three months. 

We are still watching Oliver's head circumference. When we were up in Calgary at our last mylo clinic appointments and met with the neurosurgeon on March 7, we were told to come prepare to stay as Oliver would most likely (80%) have surgery for a shunt to be put in to help drain his ventricles in his brain. Josh and I were both shocked when Dr Riva-Cambrin, Oliver's neurosurgeon told us he'd still like to wait. Meaning no surgery yet... When you have Spina Bifida and are in the womb, the cerebrospinal fluid from your brain drains through the lesion, where the spinal cord is out of the body. With this happening your body learns to produce way more cerebrospinal fluid then your body needs after the spinal cord is put back in and the back is closed up. Once Oliver had his back surgery at 24 hours old, the cerebrospinal fluid is suppose to drain to our stomachs. The reason Oliver's head circumference is still growing is because his body had been producing the same amount of cerebrospinal fluid. They hope over time his body with adjust to producing less cerebrospinal fluid, if he's body can't regulate that on his own then a shut needs to be put in place. The reason Oliver's doctor wants to wait is because Oliver's heads been growing but he has no other symptoms, like vomitting, irritable, full soft spot on he's head, etc which are signs a shut is needed. With Oliver only having one symptom. Baby's heads have a grow spurt till 6-8 weeks then their grow slows down a bit, so the doctors want to see if Oliver's head circumference starts to slow down on his own. Oliver's head has been growing a cm a week since we've been home (11 days old), but over the past two weeks Oliver's head circumference has only increase by 0.4cms.