GI Procedure

Porter had his Upper GI procedure done this morning at Wolfson Children's Hospital to see if he has been suffering from reflux. He had to be fasting, so I could not feed him past 6 this morning. I woke him up at 5 to eat, and of COURSE I couldn't get him to wake up to eat! How ironic! Every time he would start eating he would fall right asleep. I ended up putting some breastmilk in a bottle so I could squeeze a little in his mouth to get him to start sucking. I got him to drink about 2 oz. like this, and that took until 6, so we had to be done. He went back to sleep until 8:30, so we only had to hold him over for an hour before we were able to leave for the hospital. He was SUCH a good boy! I was totally surprised at how well he was handling not being able to eat. It helped that Craig took him most of the time because he knows Daddy can't feed him, and also because it is ridiculously heartbreaking not to be able to feed your baby when he is hungry. It goes against every maternal instinct. Luckily, it wasn't too bad. He took the pacifier like a champ this morning, which he doesn't usually do, so that was a small miracle. Here he is with Daddy at the entrance to the hospital. (Don't make fun of me for taking pics! I knew I would blog about this!)

Here he is being such a good boy right before they started. He was lying on this giant x-ray machine where I had to hold his arms back and feed him a barium substance that showed up black on the screen. It was so cool to watch it go down into his very empty tummy and see him swallowing and his belly filling up. After a couple of minutes, his belly opened into his bowels and we could see it travel into his intestines. Cool! He pooped right after that :) They were watching to see if any of it came back up into his esophagus. We didn't see any at the time.
Getting ready. You can see the bottle of goo on the table. It was about 4 oz.
Tiny baby, big machine!
After we watched him swallowing the liquid, the doctor had me stop feeding him so he could take more pictures. After a few minutes he had me hold him and give him the rest so they could take another series of pictures. Here I am in my super awesome leopard skin x-ray apron feeding him that nasty stuff (which he ate like it was going out of style.) Craig says Granny Cathy would love my apron!
He was such a little champ! I nursed him for a few minutes when we were done, but he was mostly full from the barium. Daddy and I stopped by the hospital cafeteria to grab a quick bite to eat, and little man fell right asleep after his busy morning. We couldn't have asked for it to go any smoother. I received a call from his pediatrician this evening with the results and we are happy to report that Porter does not have reflux!! I immediately felt bad for putting him through all this, but we are so happy to know that all his little parts are working well. I am also vert grateful that she ordered this procedure for him instead of just medicating him like most pediatricians do. We love her! All in all things went very well, and Porter doesn't seem to mind that he still has quite a bit of that goo in him. He hasn't acted bothered by it at all :) This whole experience has helped me realize how grateful I am that nothing was really "wrong" with him. I hated being in that hospital and I am so sad for parents who have to take care of their sick babies. I am so unbelievably grateful that everything turned out great.