He is sporting the gift he got from Auntie Kellie (aka joelsgirl in the digital scrapbook community) today. We went to the hospital for his checkup. There were good news and a little bit of not so good news (I don’t want to call them bad news either)

From 2.7kgs at birth, Alphonse now weighs 3.2kgs. He gained weight pretty well during his first 3 weeks and it is a good sign. I am so lucky to have enough breast milk supply for him. I still try and get him to latch at times but unfortunately, it really puts pressure on him so I just have to keep pumping on regular intervals to have enough when we he is hungry. We are doing well together.

Our first stop is with his Pediatrician. Good news, his Newborn Screening results were normal, however, doctor said that we still need to check his thyroid at 4 weeks old to make sure that he doesn’t have Hypothyroidism. A referral to an endocrinologist is necessary so we set another appointment to a new doctor this week.

I am bad at taking photos inside the doctor’s clinic, maybe I should try taking some next time.

During our last visit, he was given his BCG vaccine. His first dose of Hepa B vaccine was administered at birth. He’s going to have his second dose this coming Friday. He’s now ready to take his vitamins too!

We got to meet with his cardiologist later this afternoon. After checking Alphonse’ vitals, he said his oxygen level is good, another good news. He then noted that Alphonse is too small so we still  have to work on gaining weight. We were also advised to check on another cardiac surgeon who has good experience in smaller infants. Things have started to change according to the initial discussion we had.

We had quite a long conversation about the surgery plans. First we discussed about hospitals, the bills, the pros, the cons. As you may have already known, we don’t live in a place where insurance are provided for medical needs such as this so I kept on asking him everything I want to know and every possible thing that could and might happen – every little thing. I am glad that he is such a nice doctor and is very much ready to explain all the details and options to me.

Alphonse will have another 2D Echo appointment on February 7th. The doctor said that they might schedule the surgery between mid to last week of February. Hopefully by then, he will weigh better, we’ll have enough fund and I, enough courage to deal with the situation alone. My husband works in Singapore and we’re still unsure if he’ll be able to make it home for the surgery.

Our fund raising campaign is still ongoing. It is nice to see that we’ve managed to receive almost half of the cost already and we are very thankful to all the people who have reached out to us to help – whether buying my products, purchasing the collab created for Alphonse, direct pledges and our personal campaign. There were digi designers and digi stores who also went  with their own way of gathering funds to help. We sincerely appreciate everything. At present, all we can say is Thank You Very Much! We still have to wait for 2-3 more weeks before his surgery and we’ll take advantage of that time for him to gain weight.

I will keep you all updated about our journey towards having a new life for Alphonse.