One Month Check-up

Taylor's one month stats are in!!

Granted, she didn't have her check-up until she was 7 weeks old... we can blame the holidays and the snow for the pediatrician's office being backed up.  She was supposed to go at about 5-1/2 weeks, but her original appointment was during the snow week.  Anyways, we ventured to the pediatrician's office on Taylor's 7 week birthday... and had a BIG day!

And by big, I mean big!!  She is firmly 90th percentile or higher in all categories.  I think she's going to be our little basketball star!

• Height- She was 22-3/4" tall (90%)
• Weight- She weighed 13 pounds, 6 ounces (95%) (more later on why this is a wonderful thing!!)
• Head circumference- 39-1/2 cm (95%)

So, she has grown 3/4 of an inch and gained 3 pounds, 6 ounces in 7 weeks!

Just a little comparison to Sydney at 9 weeks...

• Sydney was 22" long.
• Sydney weighed 11 pounds, 1 ounce.

Basically, Sydney was almost as big at 2 months as Taylor was when she was born!  Crazy!

Ok, so that's always the fun part to me... seeing how much the baby has grown.  Now, the not so fun part.

Taylor has always been a really loud breather.  People comment on it all the time- how do you sleep with her breathing that loud?  Is she congested?  We keep her in church with us, and luckily we sit by our friends- they're constantly looking at her and smiling, as Taylor is in a deep sleep, snoring away during the service so everyone can hear. 

I've been concerned about it, but I never saw any other crazy signs- no runny nose, no coughing or sneezing, no fever... I just kind of assumed it was her baby noises.  I remember Sydney being kind of a loud breather, too.

Well, thankfully Taylor was breathing like this when the doctor came in.  Just a side bar- I LOVE our pediatrician.  She is absolutely amazing.  For example, I showed up at 10:45 AM this day, thinking that's when my appointment was... only to find out it was actually at noon.  My pediatrician was rushing to get to us as soon as possible, and kept apologizing for us waiting... I laughed and said, it was MY fault! ;)  OK, back on topic.

So, she hears Taylor's breathing and is quiet for about 2 minutes.  She looked at me and asked how long she's been breathing like this.  I told her since birth.  She paused and said, "Brooke, this isn't normal."  My heart sank.  For as many times as I've rushed to the pediatrician, panicked with Sydney having green snot or a fever, I couldn't believe I didn't realize this should have been checked out.  So, the doctor listened to her chest... no congestion... looked in her nose, ears, etc. 

She told me that Taylor is struggling more to breathe- evidenced by the noise, the contracting of her stomach when she breathes, and her nostrils flaring.  She said she hopes it's something called laryngomalacia, something she has only seen twice in her years of practice.  But, she said that's the best case scenario (and the most common reason why babies are "loud breathers".)  I asked her what the worst case scenario would be, and she said that, unfortunately, there were a few.  She went through them briefly, and all of them required some sort of operation/surgery.  My sweet pediatrician let me cry on her shoulder for a good 3 minutes.

She got me an appointment at the Ear, Nose, Throat doctor at Children's Healthcare that afternoon.  I went, took Taylor and Sydney, and my dad met us there (of course, things like this only happen when Stephen's out of town!).  Long story short, the ENT doctor put a probe down Taylor to look past her throat to her larynx, and she does have laryngomalacia.  (Laryngomalacia is when the tissues above and below the larynx collapse when a breath is taken in.  It makes the passage of air that much harder).  Whew!  Not that that is great or anything, but it could be a lot worse.  Plus, her larynx (vocal chords) were swollen from acid reflux, which made the air that much harder to get through.  He said on a scale of mild, moderate, and severe, Taylor's case is moderate.

The good news about Taylor gaining so much weight is that it's a bad sign for babies with laryngomalacia who aren't gaining.  That means that they are struggling to breathe so badly that they are burning more calories, and not putting on weight.  These are babies that may have more long-term effects (which happens in 10-20% of all cases).  Thanks HEAVENS Taylor is gaining without any problems right now!

So, there's nothing you can do about the laryngomalacia... basically, as the baby grows, the tissue gets stronger and stops collapsing.  So, what they do now is treat the reflux so the vocal chords aren't as swollen.  We were told to have her sleep upright at night, as that helps her breathe better.  Of course, we have to look out for horrible things like her stopping breathing or turning blue.  I PRAY that doesn't happen. 

My sweet baby... it's funny, I had a long list of questions for the pediatrician... more superficial ones (when will her baby acne go away?  What do I do about cradle cap?)  Those all went out the door the minute I heard, "Brooke, this isn't normal."  Who really cares about little things when something really important is wrong?  I pray for the health of my sweet baby girl. 

And on that note, I leave you with pictures of Taylor in her second month of life!

The shirt is fitting... Thanks, Molly and Ben!

What's up?

Playing on her little mat.

This is how Taylor will be sleeping for a while- tucked into her carseat!

Just chilling...