Reflux part 2

So, Emily had an appointment with the ENT today. After seeing our pediatrician (Paul Smolen) on Monday, we all decided an airway check would be the wisest thing to do under the circumstances. We went to the Charlotte Eye Ear Nose and Throat office on Fairview across from Southpark. They did a laryngoscopy and checked out Emily's throat. The tissue we saw was red from reflux and her vocal cords were also a little floppy. She was diagnosed with reflux and stridor (laryngomelatia). This is not particularly serious, but she will be taking Prevacid until she grows out of the condition. They want to see us back in 3 to 4 weeks. The only other possible problem is that you often find low muscle tone and delays in other areas in kids that have both the stridor and reflux. I think she'll be fine, but until she grows out of it, we will be giving her the medicine and keeping her upright after feeding.

?Reflux?

Here is one of our first pictures together as a family. It is less than glamorous, considering Ben is sweating and I'm in sweats. My mom wanted to make sure she had a picture of us before leaving to go back to Washington.

On a totally different note, let me address the title of this post. Last night we had a pretty scary experience. At about 7 o'clock we were all sitting around the dinner table when we noticed Emily making strange sounds and weird faces. Then, all of a sudden, she made what the Dr.s classified as a "wheezing" sound- but was more like an inward squeaky gasp that said "I can't breathe." Scared me to death. She had one bad episode of it and then did it a couple more times. Needless to say, we were immediately on the phone with Providence Pediatrics after hours service. They said we should take her down to the CMC Children's Emergency room. We've been there quite a few times with Anna, but this was our worst experience by far. The waiting room was packed. Packed with sick, vomiting, hacking, feverish older children. And one kid who fell and busted his head. We hid out in a corner until we could be seen. The rooms in the back were so full that the Dr was coming out in the waiting room trying to triage people. Emily ended up with a chest X-ray (to make sure she didn't aspirate anything) and a diagnosis of "reflux". This can be particularly scary in infants because when they reflux they can actually stop breathing. Anna had reflux, but the kind that spews out and is more messy than anything. The silent reflux is more sinister because it can come up in your throat unnoticed until you breath it in and choke. Baby's can also easily aspirate and get pneumonia. So. After 6 hours at the hospital, we finally made the drive back home at 2am. This was particularly hard on me because I haven't really been outside the house since my surgery, except for Emily's first check up. We were there so long that all my medications wore off- not even an ibuprofen in my system by the time I hobbled my tired, worried, surgically recovering abdomen out of there.

Email Problems

It seems that my update email didn't attatch the pictures properly, so here are the photos that you all were supposed to recieve. To see a few more from Emily's first day of life, you can click the link in the Emily post below.

Thoughtful Ben

After the C-section, our bed looked a lot higher than before. To help me climb in, Brad put the white ladder from our closet next to the bed. Yesterday, I walked in the room and noticed that there was an addition to the set up. Ben (a very observant 2 year old) had added his little step stool from the bathroom to help Mommy get in bed. I thought that was sweet considering we hadn't talked about it or anything.

Emily!

Emily Grace Donahue emerged at 12:59pm today- bottom first. She weighed in at 7lbs. 1oz. and was 19" long. The consensus is that if we had allowed her to go completely full term, she would have been another 8 lb. baby. The C-section went well and my recovery is on track. Emily scored an 8 and 9 on her very first "test" (the Apgar). Today has been pretty busy with folks in and out of the room all day. The staff here at Presbyterian has been EXCELLENT! Dr. Godsey preformed my surgery with Dr. Land. That was a nice surprise because I had been told Dr. Land wasn't going to be working today. Those two were quite a comedic pair in the OR. The most discomfort I've had all day has been from laughing. We'll do a better update tomorrow with some more details and maybe a few personal musings of my own. Here's a little peek at Emily. If you want to see more you can....


Click Here to view our full photo album of Emily's first day in the outside world.

There It Is, Folks

With three days left, I thought I should preserve a photo of the belly for posterity. I have gained what is getting close to 35 pounds (*edit- went to the Dr. today and it is a confirmed 35 1/2). To put that in perspective, my normal weight is 85. So. The next time someone tells me how "small" my stomach is, I think I am going to scream. Stay tuned for exciting updates this week. I think Presbyterian has wireless internet....