Sunday - Eric started having some problems eating. He was hungry but kept pushing the bottle away. It only happened a couple of times and then he started eating normally again.

Monday - He threw up a bit around 3 am, Cris said it wasn't too bad. Eric started having problems with pushing his food away even though it was obvious he was still hungry. I started to become worried that Eric had picked up the cold that Cris and I had. Around 5 pm, I had finally gotten Eric to eat a full bottle, but as soon I put him on my shoulder to burp him, he began violently vomitting. He didn't have a fever or any other signs of sickness. I let him sleep for a bit. When he woke up, I tried giving him a bottle again. Eric began crying in distress, wanting food but pushing it away. Poor baby had tears in his eyes, but he just would not eat. Eventually, I was able to feed him a couple of ounces and then let him sleep again. When Cris came home, I told him what had happened. We called our doctor's office and they told us, that while normally they would have us come in early in the morning, since Eric was a preemie, we needed to take him to the ER.
At the ER, they examined him, no sign of a cold or anything like that. Then they took X-rays and found a blockage in his colon. We had gone to Northwest. They do not have a Pediatrics ICU that could deal with this, so they sent us to UMC. By this time it is 3 am in the morning.

Tuesday - We headed off to UMC. They did more exams, ultrasound and another x-ray. They found the mass that Northwest found, but reduced significantly. They thought it might be intussusception, when the intestines fold into one another. It did look like it was beginning to resolve itself, which it often does, since it was not as bad as it was at Northwest. In the Pediatrics ICU, they let you stay with your baby the entire time, not even kicking you out for rounds. While the chair-beds were not comfortable, at least we could stay with Eric overnight.
Definition
Intussusception is a rare but serious disorder in which part of the intestine — either the small intestine or colon — slides into another part of the intestine. This "telescoping" often blocks the intestine, preventing food or fluid from passing through. Intussusception also cuts off the blood supply to the part of the intestine that's affected.

Intussusception is the most common cause of intestinal obstruction among children. Intussusception is rare in adults. Most cases of adult intussusception are the result of an underlying medical condition. In contrast, most cases in children have no demonstrable cause.

With prompt attention, intussusception can often be successfully treated without lasting problems.

Cris and I went home to shower, change, vote. They called Cris telling him we needed to come back to the hospital in case they needed to do an emergency operation. They suspected Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) . NEC is where the intestinal walls begin to die. It spreads very quickly and can be fatal. They were doing another round of x-rays. This is when all of you got my panicked text thinking he was going to surgery.

The next x-ray showed absolutely nothing, no NEC or intussusception. The blood work looked normal, just slight elevations showing that Eric was dehydrated. By this time, Eric hadn't eaten anything since Monday. They had hooked him up to an IV for his nutrients and hydration.

Wednesday - Another x-ray, everything still looked very good. They finally let Eric have some Pedialyte. Poor baby was thrilled to get something in his belly. After a few bottles of Pedialyte, they let him have breastmilk. UMC kept him overnight to make sure he ate well and wasn't throwing up.

Thursday - They finally released him after giving him his first RSV shot of the season. We really did not want to leave without it. When we first got to the PICU room, there was another family in there whose son had just gotten over RSV. Their 18 month old son (full-term) had been having seizures and other serious medical problems.

Thankfully, everything is resolved now, we just need to be aware of it in the future and take him back to the ER if the symtoms reappear. Many times they do not.

Thank you everyone for your calls, texts and posts. We really appreciate the support during this!