UPDATE ... still at the hospital

I've finally got a few seconds between struggling with breastfeeding and other things to post an update... and I know it's late - a whole week later. Little Eirik Joseph Nilsen turned one week old today, at St. Olav's Hospital in Trondheim. Right now he's hooked up to a catheter, which drains his bladder, something he has trouble doing on his own.

During week 19 of my pregnancy, we had our routine ultrasound done, and they found that his right kidney was larger than normal. After that, we had an u/s done every three weeks to make sure that it didn't get abnormally larger, which it never did. It was always on the borderline of being too large. They told us that this is fairly common in boys, and that most of the time it fixes itself after the baby is born. Either way, he was to have an ultrasound a few days after birth to see how the kidney and bladder were functioning. Last thursday he had his ultrasound, and it showed an enlarged kidney and bladder. He wasn't able to empty his bladder completely, and had some reflux back up into the kidney. So on Friday, he was scheduled for a type of digital xray (can't think of what it's called right now) where they injected a dye into his bladder through a catheter, and then waited to see him urinate. However, he never did.

We were still pretty optimistic, and were actually on our way out the door to head home for the first time, when the hospital sent up a pediatric surgeon to talk to us about the xray results. He said that they would need to look closer at his urinary tract, and would be able to get to it on Tuesday, and that he would have to have a catheter until then. That put us down on the Children's Surgery floor through the weekend. Eirik is scheduled for his scope/surgery in the morning, where he will be put under anethesia, and they will go in with a scope and see what the problem is. If if is just a little flap that is blocking the flow of urine from the bladder, they should be able to fix it, as long as their scope is small enough to fit. If not, he will be sent home with us after he is stable for a few days, with a catheter. We'll be home with that for a few weeks until his urethra grows large enough to fit the scope. Either way, we'll be here a few more days.

Otherwise, he's a happy, healthy little boy who is just a joy to cuddle with. It is, however, a stressful time here at the hospital, just waiting to see what will happen. Arnt and I have a bed in his room where we can stay with him and live here like "normal". We get our meals in the kitchen, and I have access to most things I need in regards to breastfeeding, etc. We have to weigh Eirik before and after each meal to make sure that his intake of fluids matches or is more than his outtake, so that he doesn't get dehydrated. He is also taking a dropper full of antibiotics twice a day to prevent infection, because of the catheter going directly into his urethra and bladder.

Let's hope all goes well in the morning, and that we ge to home sometime this week.

Love, Aimee, Arnt-Einar and little Eirik