The past week has been a blur! Here is the run down for you family and friends who have called and are concerned for Vaughn’s health.

Tuesday afternoon Vaughn spit up blood mixed with milk a few times after I fed him on two separate nursings about 3 1/2 hour apart. I was a little concerned but thought it may just be coming from me. Though there was nothing painful or visible that would suggest the blood was from me. So I decided to test the strange symptom by feeding him from a bottle with some milk I had frozen. The time was almost 8pm and Marc was home and took Vaughn to burp him. The poor boy spit up a lot of brown (old blood) then he spit up some fresh blood round clots as well. I new now something was wrong so I called the nurses line and then took Vaughn into the ER. We luckily did not have to wait long and once in an examining room with the ER Dr. he spit up another time with blood! I was officially freaked out at this point and I called Summer (our good friend and neighbor) to have her get a hold of Bryan because he was with Marc and I knew Marc’s phone was out of battery. I was relieved when Marc and Bryan showed up at the Hospital to give Vaughn a blessing. The Dr’s determined it would be best for us to stay overnight and have Vaughn undergo a endoscopy in the morning to take a look at his stomach and esophogus. So baby Vaughn and I spent the night in the children’s pediatric unit of the Hospital. I was able to feed him a little bit at midnight. The night went arlight. Vaughn did not spit up or throw up any more blood but in the morning he had black runny stools (filled with old blood) this almost put me over the edge — I must have said 100 prayers! He continued to have diapers full of this runny black (oxidized blood). Then I was informed the endoscopy would take place at 1:30. Poor guy was starving so I had to hold him and give him the binki and entice him to sleep as much as possible which was difficult! The Pediatrician specialist at the Hospital explained what would happen during the procedure and he said he would be the one to sedate little Vaughn. We then moved into the neonatal and waited a while for the GI specialist to show up. Then nurses and Dr’s filled the room. I watched as they conected so much crap to my son and put him to sleep. It was very unsettling to say the least. I really had wished Marc was there to give me some moral support and comfort. I stood right outside the door and listened. Although it took 7 minutes it seemed a lot longer. I heard little Vaughn gagging and then they let me back in. Vaughn was already starting to come back to his awake state (sort of) so I picked him up. He was crying and very stiff and his eyes glued shut! It was bizarre, he didn’t look like himself at all and that totally scared me! Finally after 20 minutes he fell asleep in my arms and I waited another 30 min or so for him to wake up and I was able to feed him a bottle! It gave me some relief to at least be able to feed my baby. He continued to have a few more black bloody poops (6 in all) and I nursed him every couple hours until 10 pm and then we were both exhausted and slept another night in the hospital! He slept well and woke up at 8 am to eat. After breakfast he had a major blow out with green poop and still a bit of blood. The nurses continued to test his stools for blood. I had also had them check the milk I had pumped from the previous day spent in the hospital when I could not feed him. No blood in my milk and the Dr. told me everything looked healthy and normal in the esophogus, stomach and small intestine. AND the test results from the 2 times they had taken blood were negative for other serious diseasess (THANK GOODNESS). So there was absolutely no explanation! The only other possibility would come from testing the biopsy taken during the endoscopy which wouldn’t be ready for at least a day! One Dr. said it could be a milk protein allergy and then another said if it is an alllergy it would have just been fresh blood in the stools and not spitting up blood as well. We finally got to leave Thursday at 5:30 which I was happy about because Vaughn had not had any other bloody spit up and he was nursing just fine with no other symptoms. But I was irritated there was not an answer! So today we saw his pediatrician who will test his poop next week again and I have to stick to a dairy free, nut free diet with a limited amount of spicy foods. We see the GI Dr. in a week and a half for a follow-up. I just pray it was a fluke thing as the specialist told me he could have had a lesion inside and it healed before they did the scope. I’ll keep you posted. just keep Vaughn in your prayers. I am soooo sorry for all you parents out there who have to watch your child suffer and stay for long periods of time in the Hospital. It is misery watching your children suffer!