The Cauley Triplets: Update on Alex

Ella looking out the window and fighting to stay awake

I don't know how she does it, but Helen sleeps with her arms straight up in the air.

Grandpa and Alex taking a snooze....

Alex in his "going to see the speech therapist" clothes

On Tuesday, we went to see the speech therapist Leah (who I went to high school with). She works with problems with the throat and swallowing. She watched Alex eat from his bottle and thought that he was probably aspirating some of his milk into his lungs when he ate. So she put some thickener (this clear thick gel) in his milk so it would slow down Alex when he ate and make it less likely that he would aspirate. It worked! It was the first time in several weeks I had seen him be calm and relaxed while he ate. He had to work a lot harder to get the milk out, but it was worth it to see him not be in pain or struggle for air while he ate. I did not realize how bad he had gotten until I saw him eat like he used to (calm and relaxed).

Mommy trying to get a burp out of post feeding coma Helen

Ella looking cute and wide awake

Alex in his "going for the swallow study" clothes (have I mentioned how much fun it is to torture my kids with these outfits???)

Sorry Cecil, you've been replaced as my Valentine this year! This cutie was an easy choice :) On Thursday, we went up to the Childrent's Hospital in Akron for a swallow study. Alex had to drink a barium solution and then they watched him through an x-ray machine as he swallowed it. They were able to determine what was going on inside when Alex eats. Sure enough, he was aspirating milk into his lungs when he swallowed. So they played around with different nipples on his bottle and different thicknesses of his milk until we found a combination that did not cause him to aspirate. They doubled his thickener so now his milk is incredibly thick and it is taking him awhile to adjust to the effort he has to make to eat. It will take about 15-18 months for him to outgrow this and for the cartilage in this throat to fully develop and harden so that aspiration is no longer a problem. Every time we make a change in his food (i.e. changing nipples, eating solid foods, etc) we will have to have this study done to make sure the food is the right thickness to prevent the aspiration. I think I might have to buy stock in the company that makes this thickener..... We were lucky that we caught this so early and that there are no side effects (i.e. pneumonia) from what he has already aspirated. Now he just needs to do some serious strength building to be able to eat!

On Friday, everyone went to the pediatrician for the two month check up. Everyone is doing great! Helen is 9 pounds 8 ounces, Alex is 8 pounds 10 ounces, and Ella is 8 pounds 2 ounces. Not only is it great that they are gaining weight, but these weights mean that we don't have to keep waking them up to feed which means more sleep for mommy at night! They also got their first round of immunizations which they did not particularly enjoy. It wore them out and they pretty much slept the whole day when we got home. Here's Helen in her swing looking a little worn out from her trip to the doctor.

Ella