Laryngomalacia

Once again, I'm way behind on posting. Two weeks ago we took Darren up to Primary Children's to see an ENT. Since birth he has had very noisy breathing, but his lungs were clear and he was getting enough oxygen so we were scheduled to have that looked at on June 24th. Right after his two week appointment, however, Darren had a few instances where he was struggling to breathe, and he had started spitting and throwing up quite a bit, so I was able to get that appointment moved up two weeks.

Darren was diagnosed with laryngomalacia, which we suspected, as well as acid reflux, which I also suspected. Laryngomalacia sounds scary, but basically it just means that there is a partial airway obstruction at his larynx. His larynx is too flaccid and his epiglottis is a funny shape and is collapsing down and blocking his airway when he breathes in, and then opening when he exhales, causing the stridor when he breathes.

In 99% of cases babies outgrow this by the time they are 18 months - 2 years. The reflux is actually proving much harder to treat, because Darren isn't tolerating the medicine. Obviously it's not doing him any good when he just throws it back up after taking it. We're actually trying a new medicine starting today, so we'll see how that goes. Once his reflux is under control, the doctor said that his breathing should get better as well. I'm looking forward to having a happier baby at night and less throwing up (meaning less laundry) to deal with.

As a mom it was horrible when they had to scope Darren to look at his larynx (I wasn't a fan of being the one to restrain my screaming three-week old baby), but as a speech pathologist I have to admit that it was fascinating getting to watch. When I did my internship at a hospital I was able to assist with quite a few scopings to diagnose swallowing disorders, just on adults, and from that and my dysphagia class I was able to identify his arytenoids, aryepiglottic folds, epiglottis, and of course the vocal folds of the larynx itself. Fascinating.

Darren is officially one month old today. Here are a few recent pictures.

Miriam loves "helping" Darren with tummy time.
Yes, I confess. I am an absolute sucker for baby shoes. Who cares if he can't walk--the shoes are so cute!
In case you needed it put into perspective just how small Darren still is, here he is wearing one of Mirian's diapers. This made me laugh so hard when Kendall put it on the baby a few nights ago. :)
And here are few of the girls, too. On Sunday Adriana asked if she and Miriam could be "twins." She seemed to think that everyone at church wouldn't be able to tell them apart if they wore similar dresses, tights, and shoes, and had their hair fixed the same way. Sorry to disappoint you, Adriana....
And that's us. It's been a rough couple of days, with Darren's reflux getting worse and then I've been cooped up in the house with two sick and crabby girls. The snow yesterday didn't help morale much here yesterday, either. The antibiotics should help everyone to feel better soon, though, and thankfully Darren hasn't caught whatever nastiness they have, and I don't think the snow killed my garden (I was out there yesterday covering the plants with whatever I could find--empty #10 cans, tupperware, buckets....). I am very ready for spring to really be here!