DEAR REFLUX...YOU SUCK!!!

I know this blog has been about Arianna but it has truely become a place for me to come and put my thoughts down.

As you can tell from my title...we are dealing with reflux and IT SUCKS!!!

As I'm typing this Devin is SCREAMING his head off in the living room. Feeding has now become a challenge. He will start to eat and then he refluxes and arches his back, cries and then refuses to eat. Of course that just leaves him hungry so he is miserable.

On a positive note, we have started him on ranitidine (Zantac) for his reflux. We are giving it till Monday to see if it helps. If not then we will put him on Prilosec. I'm so relieved to finally be able to give him something.

I'm just completely overwhelmed with emotions when I can't calm my poor baby down and know he is in pain. I dealt with a little reflux (nasal regurgitation) with Arianna but it was nothing like this.

I did talk to the pediatrician today and the x-ray results were in and they said he has viral pneumonia. His peditrician doesn't believe that and says if it was the case he would be having fevers, which he is not. Which brings me to our lately diagnosis for Devin....Pectus Excavatum.

Pectus Excavatum is a depression or hollow caused when the sternum (breastbone) is abnormally pushed inward. The depression in the chest is due to abnormal growth of the cartilage that attaches the sternum to the ribs. This condition can give an inaccurate diagnosis of lung infections on x-ray....OR...he is possibly aspirating and we need to figure out which one it is.

We are going next Tuesday to see the pulmonologist. Nice thing is we already have wonderful doctors that have taken care of Arianna so we are going to see the same doctors for Devin. We are waiting for the hospital to call and schedule his upper GI test and appointment to see the GI doctor.

Well I have to get off now but I wanted to write a few things down while I had the chance. Thanks for checking on us.

Exhausted

So the past 2 nights I've let Devin sleep with us cause I'm breastfeeding and it seemed easier to just have him right there. I was also hoping it would mean I could sleep better. Well I was wrong! His breathing is so bad that I am pretty much up most the night trying to reposition him and get him comfortable. Then once I get his breathing sounding a little better his reflux starts acting up and that makes his breathing REALLY loud and he gets really cranky. I have to say this condition has to be one of the most scary things. They literally sound like they are gasping for air and his retractions can get REALLY bad sometimes. The mommy in me wants to start calling the doctors and pushing to get him in but then I'm scared that they will want to put him through all kinds of unneccesary tests.

Well Devin is crying...I'll update later

Devin's 5 Week Check up

Yesterday we took Devin for his 5 week check up. Our lil' chunker weighs 10lbs 4ozs!!! He has gained 3lbs already. I'm so not used to this type of weight gain but I can't complain.

So a little background info first. When we brought Devin home from the hospital we noticed he breathed a little funny. At his 2 week check up we asked the pediatrician and they said it was "periodic breathing" and would go away by 4 weeks of age. Something inside told me it was not just that but I decided to not worry about it. I figured they would just think I'm looking for problems since I had an older child with health issues.

Okay - So now forward to yesterdays pediatric appointment. We go in, get him undress, weighed and taken into a room. The nurse comes back in to recheck his respirations. I made the comment, "What did you have a hard time getting it over his loud breathing?" She immediatly gets concerned and asks if this was normal for him. I told her yes and she continues to freak out in front of me saying, "This is definintly not right." I get a little panicky cause at this point I realize his retractions are getting worse than before. So of course we wait another 15 minutes until the resident pediatrician comes in and I go over all my concerns with her. FINALLY 10 minutes later OUR pediatrician comes in.

Right away she watches him breath and says she thinks he has "laryngomalacia."

This is a picture of laryngomalacia seen during an exam.

Laryngomalacia is a softening of the tissues of the larynx (voice box) above the vocal cords. This softening causes the tissues to become floppy, and they may fall over the airway opening and partially block it. It is a common condition in infants.

So we are now being referred to a pulmonologist to see if this is indeed what Devin has. Our pedi did order chest xrays yesterday to make sure we weren't missing something.

Now on top of this, I believe Devin is dealing with "silent reflux." He doesn't spit-up but you can hear/see when it's happening. I've done some research and babies with larygnomalacia have a higher chance of having reflux due to the weakened tissues. So I put a call back into our pedi today and she is getting him referred to a GI specialist as well and ordering an upper GI study.

This all being said I'm living on edge here worried that he may stop breathing when sleeping. I asked if he needed an apnea machine and the pedi said no. I guess that's a good thing...right? We have learned he sleeps/breaths better when elevated so he needs a pillow. This is the same thing I had to do with Arianna.

So please keep Devin in your prayers. We want to find out exactly what is wrong and are believing God will heal whatever it is that is wrong. We have seen first hand with Arianna that prayer works!

Well I just wanted to give an update while he was resting. I'll update when we get our appointments set up.

4th of July!

I was finally feeling good enough to take the family to church this Sunday. We are in the process of looking for a new church and I think we might have found one! Arianna enjoyed the children's class which had about 8 kids. That is the biggest classroom size she has ever been in. It did take two attempts to stay in the class but she did and seemed to really enjoy it! After church they were offering hot dogs and hamburgers which was nice to feed the family before even leaving church. :) Plus...Arianna got some time to play with her BFF Alyssa!

After church we went home and baked a flag cake while Devin took his nap. Not bad for our first attempt.

Then we went to my moms for dinner before the fireworks.

Arianna & Poppy

4 weeks old!

I can't believe how BIG he is getting. I can't wait to take him to the peds next week and find out how much he weighs.

Some new things that Devin is doing is....coo'ing, tummy time (turned his head twice so far!), tracking with his eyes a little and making me fall in love with him more and more each day! :)