Update on the update...

Carson is perfectly normal!! He does not have a vascular ring or anything else compressing his esophagus or trachea. He doesn't even have acid reflux, which he has been on meds for since he was 5 weeks old!! The dr, radiology tech and nurses at LeBonheur are the BEST!! The dr was training an intern so he was thinking out loud as the test was running. I was nervous about that at first and kept asking him questions. He finally told the intern that I was the "typical helicopter mom, hovering over her baby." LOL!! He later asked me if he offended me when he said that and I told him, "No" but that I was going to blog about it and asked if I could take his picture.

Dr. Young and Carson

Carson so was so good, as usual. He drank that Barium like it was kool-aid and stayed pretty still while he was being x-rayed. He has undergone lots of tests and procedures in his short life and he ALWAYS has a smile on his face...unless he's hungry...imagine that!! :)

Praise God that my prayers were answered and my baby is healthy!!! Thanks for all your prayers as well.

Some pictures...

I thought this picture was so sweet! Alex is such a big help. He was my first baby! I lived with he and his mama the first year of his life. He was holding Carson while I was getting LG's dinner and Carson's late afternoon snack ready. He is like their big brother!

Then, of course, LG could not be left out so she wanted to get up on the counter and get in the pictures too! She NEVER looks at the camera!
And then when I get her to look at the camera, Carson looks at her! LOL!!!

All my babies!!

Ahh Laaa

A little play on words. I told you in an earlier post that we call Carson, Laaa, because that's what he says when he cries so we call him Ahh Laaa in this picture:

Andy loves to put the burp cloth on Carson's head and make him look Muslim so when he brought Carson up to my work we had him pose with my Muslim friend, Noha. He doesn't look as good as she does in the head wrap, maybe that's why Muslim men don't have to wear them...hmmm, points to ponder from other religions. :)

Update

We got discharged from LeBonheur late Sunday afternoon. Carson sounded so much better after they sucked all that junk out of his nose and throat! He does however still have a wheezing sound coming more from his upper airway, which is of concern. I kept him home from daycare and took him to his dr's office yesterday for a follow-up. The two dr's that saw him said his lungs sounded good but they could still hear the wheezing in his throat. We are scheduled for an upper GI test at LeBonheur on Thursday to find out if there's anything pressing/squeezing his trachea causing the wheeze. It could be that he has a normal trachea and the bronchiolitis caused inflammation in it but at the other extreme, it could be a rare congenital heart defect called a vascular ring. This is where a vessel from the heart has wrapped itself around his trachea and is squeezing it. Some children who have this do fine with no intervention but in some cases, surgery is warranted. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, we would appreciate your prayers that we have a healthy baby boy with just some tracheal irritation.

Here he is last night with his buddy, Alex. He looks HUGE in this picture. I mean, I'm not in denial that he's a big baby but he looks exceptionally big in this picture. :)

I know God is going to take of my sweet boy but of course, as any mother would be, I am nervous/anxious about the test. Please pray for me that I would be able to rest in God's plan for Carson, cast my cares on the Lord and not worry (Phil. 4:6-7).

Dejavu...

We have been dealing with an upper respiratory issue with Carson for several weeks now. We have been back and forth to dr's offices trying to figure out what is going on. He has a lot of drainage and has recently started wheezing. He was diagnosed with bronchilitis a couple of weeks ago (as you may know from earlier blog posts) but has always been sent home.

Yesterday I took him in to the dr's office because he sounded like he was wheezing quite a bit more than usual. The dr checked his pulse oxygen level and it was 92. She gave him 3 breathing treatments and his pulse ox stayed at 92. She said it was like she hadn't done anything. She stared at me with a look on her face that I had seen once before...when LG was 4 months and 2 weeks old she was having the same issues and we were transported from that same dr's office by ambulance to LeBonheur Children's Hospital for an overnight stay. She was eventually diagnosed with bronchilitis and underwent several deep nasal suctionings to get all that pesky snot out. Carson is 4 months and 1 week old and that's exactly what happened again. We were transported by ambulance yesterday and admitted to Lebonheur for the night. They did a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia and other respiratory problems. But like LG, he has been diagnosed with bronchilitis and has received the same suctioning to clean all that junk out of his nose and throat. The problem is babies can't blow and cough that stuff up so it settles in their chests and causes breathing problems. Today his oxygen level has remained around 99-100 so we are being discharged.
The pictures below chronical our journey yesterday and today. This was Carson at the dr's office getting his first breathing treatment. He fought it so hard at first that he passed out in my lap.

My friend, Alisha was kind enough to come get LG from the dr's office after we had been there for two hours so she could take her to get donuts and just to get her out of the office. LG was being so helpful and good but she was getting bored and that can spell disaster for a 3 year old. Thank goodness she came and got her before we had to ride in the ambulance.

Alisha wanted to hold the big baby before she left. The smile on his face was indicative of his attitude all day~happy except when he was getting his breathing treatment or nose sucked. Everyone has commented on how he doesn't seem to notice that he's sick.

This picture was taken in the ER in his cute little hospital gown. He fell asleep with his paci hanging out of his mouth~long, rough day for my little Laaa.

We finally got moved to a room after around 6 hours in the ER. This was Carson's "jail-like" bed. He has seemed relatively comfortable in it.

Different angle of the bed.

This was Carson after he got his nose sucked for about the 5th time. He hates it but can breathe so much better for a couple of hours after. I wish we had one of those machines at home! Those stupid nasal bulbs don't do anything! A nurse told me that she thinks they sell a little battery powered suctioner at Walgreens. I will definitely be checking that out ASAP.

This is the entire room which is much better than what we got when we came three years ago with LG. She was in the PICU and shared a giant room with about 10 other babies. We were not allowed to stay with her and that was agonizing, especially since she was our first child and we had never experienced anything like that before. Andy slept on that pull-out chair to the left and I slept on the couch in Carson's room.

The dr's and nurses have been wonderful!! They have loved on Carson and spent so much time with us, explaining things and just talking to us.

We should be discharged in a couple of hours. All in all, I'm glad we came here so Carson could get some much needed snot removal and so we could rule out any critical issues, but I think we'll all be happy to sleep in our own beds tonight.

The mind of a child

Last night as I was giving LG a bath, she said, "God is the bestest!" and I said, "Yes, He is. Why do you think so?" and she replied, "because he put me down here to you."

Wow!! God knew I needed that. I have been getting so frustrated with her lately. It's only because she's doing the stuff that all three year olds do but I just expect her to know better. I have been so lazy, not giving her the attention she needs and not taking the time to teach her about rewards and punishments. She is growing so fast and I don't want to miss out on this time. Advice to myself~slow down, take one day and a time, and enjoy your babies while they're still babies!!

ENT again...

LG had to go to the ENT again yesterday for a follow-up (after a 6 week round of Dimetapp and 7 days of antibiotics). She did have some fluid still in her left ear but Dr. Cunningham said they look so much better than they did 6 weeks ago. He wants her to continue to take Dimetapp for 3 more months and then he wants to see her again to assess the need for a second set of tubes. I thought this part of the visit was funny:

LG had to get a hearing test. She was standing up so Ms. Sarah (the tech) squatted down so she could get the device in LG's ear so since Ms. Sarah squatted down, so did LG. So Ms. Sarah had to kneel down even further on the floor so naturally, LG knelt down even further. This is how the test was done:

Get low

Get Lower

Lesson #51

A little background story~when LG was around 18 months old, she was holding her snack grabber full of fruit snacks. She took the top off and they spilled out on the floor in the den. I scooped up the snacks and put them back in her snack grabber. I then went into my bathroom to finish getting ready. A few minutes later she came into the bathroom crying and said she had eaten "poop." I told her there was no way she had eaten poop and asked her if she just ate a fruit snack that she didn't like. She handed me the "fruit snack" after she spit it out and it was indeed a piece of poop!!! OMG~I had scooped up a small piece of poop that Bella had so graciously left on the floor when I was getting her snacks!!!! I laughed so hard and of course, she continued to cry! We brushed her teeth and rinsed her mouth out.

Fast forward 2 years to this morning~While LG was getting ready for school, Bella would not stop licking her and LG yelled, "Bella stop licking me with your nasty tongue!!" So while Andy was driving her to school she said, "Lesson #51, sometimes when your dog comes up to you she licks you with her nasty tongue...and sometimes she poops in your snack grabber." LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!! Andy said, "What lesson is that?" and she replied, "Lesson #52." How funny is that?! I can't believe she still remembers about that poop!! She can't remember to say, "Yes mam" even though she's reminded 100 times a day but she remembers that I accidentally put a piece of poop in her snack grabber over two years ago. I guess the woman's selective memory skill starts early!! :)

4 months and alot to show and tell...

I waited until after Carson's 4 month check-up to post about all that's been going on with him lately. Within the past week he started reaching out and playing with toys. In the picture below, we sat him in his Bumbo and Lilley Grace put as many toys as she could fit onto his tray.

Dr. Lacy (his pediatrician) told us to start feeding him rice cereal right before his 4 month check-up so Carson got his first taste of rice cereal on a spoon this past Saturday and he did GREAT!!
He had his 4 month check-up yesterday and did such a good job. He smiled the entire time (except when he got his shots)! While we were waiting on Dr. Lacy, Carson chilled out in his bucket, sucking his two middle fingers on his left hand, which are the same fingers his daddy sucked!! It's crazy to think that even something like "finger sucking" can be hereditary!! Dr. Lacy said fingers are better than thumbs. :) Carson doesn't really care for his paci, he always prefers his fingers.

Carson weighed in at 20 lbs. 10 oz.--OFF THE CHARTS, he measured 27 in. (95%), and his head measured in the 95th percentile. Even though he has bronchilitis, Dr. Lacy said his lungs sound great and that we could start giving him 1 oz of warm apple juice a couple of times a day to break up the mucus that is draining from his head. He also put him on an oral antibiotic for the massive ringworm on his scalp. Even though oral meds are not typically given to such young children, Dr. Lacy said he has done it before and as long as he was conservative with the dosage, Carson would be fine. He has to take it for 2 months. Andy gave him his first dose this morning and he HATED it and spit most of it out. So I am going to call this morning and ask if we can put it in his morning bottle. Otherwise, everything looked great.

Carson hit another milestone as well. We started feeding him 7.5 oz at 6 am, 9 am, 12 pm, and 3 pm, one tablespoon of rice cereal in a bowl at 5 pm, then he gets 8 oz plus 2 scoops of rice cereal for his last bottle around 6:15 pm. He gets his bath at 6 pm and then his last bottle and then down for the night between 6:30 and 6:45 pm. He sleeps until Andy wakes him up at 6 am. Whew!! We finally made it to the 12 hour stretch! It's fabulous! We are able to get him down and have some time alone with LG.

I really enjoyed this time of LG's life (4 months to 18 months). Not that I haven't enjoyed every stage of life so far with her but I truly am amazed at all the new things babies learn everyday during the first two years of their lives. They change so much in a week's time. I love it and plan on trying to enjoy every minute with this precious little boy...who's really not so little anymore. ;)

Fun at the zoo!

Last Saturday Andy and I took LG to the zoo mainly because we haven't been in a while and it was a beautiful day. We didn't realize that it was opening day for the dinosaur exhibit so it took us forever to get into the zoo, we had to park really far away (in a field) and it was packed up inside. We had a great time though and we got to see all the animals we wanted to. All the animals were out probably because they were enjoying the pretty day too.

LG rode the merry go round

She got her face painted

This meerkat looks like he's enjoying the day too!! If I could take any of the zoo animals home, I would take the meerkats!! So cute!

We had a really great time and I am so glad we have such a wonderful zoo right here that we can visit any time we want.

The dreaded flu!!

LG has been coughing for the last few days but I thought it was just allergies. When I went to pick her up from school yesterday her class was out on the playground but LG was sitting off to the side. I asked her why she was in time-out and she replied that she wasn't in time-out, she just didn't feel like playing. Uh oh!!!! Red flag! So I checked her temp when we got home and it was around 100. She had the chills and felt kind of weak. This morning I took her to the dr because she still had a low grade fever. She tested positive for the flu but the dr said she is the most active child with the flu that he has seen! Shocker! She seems to be feeling fine of course. Why is that? What did I do to deserve such a wild child? I mean, I don't want her to feel really sick, don't get me wrong, but it would be nice to just lay around on the couch and watch movies all day. Instead I am constantly having to say settle down, quit jumping around, quit getting off the couch, quit asking me questions, quit doing back bends on the couch, lay down, etc etc etc! AHHHH!!!! He gave her some tamiflu and said if she feels up to it, she can go back to school on Thursday. I have a feeling she will be going to school Thursday!

Bigger and bigger and bigger...

Last Friday night I took Carson to the dr because he was coughing so hard he couldn't catch his breath. He was diagnosed with bronchilitis. He tested negative for RSV but they treat bronchilitis the same as the do RSV, it's just not contagious. His pulse oxygen was 99%, so that was reassuring. They also did a chest xray which showed that he didn't have pneumonia. They used this fabulous machine to suck all the mucus out of his nose~I asked if I could buy one of those! Sadly, you can't. They sent us home with an inhaler that we give him as needed~which is usually first thing in the morning and right before he goes to bed but otherwise, we just have to let it run its course. He is as happy as always, just with a wheeze and a cough.

But the one thing that stood out to everyone in the office was Carson's weight. He is 16 weeks and weighs 20 lbs!!!!! I am looking forward to his 4 month check up coming this Monday so I can see his stats! I bet he is off the charts in ALL areas!

Self sufficient

Carson held his bottle for the first time Saturday morning! I don't know why I was surprised~obviously he loves to eat so he figured out how to do it with or without us!!! ;)

Big ole baby and childhood insights

Carson looked so cute yesterday in his church clothes! My mom said he looked like a football player and he really does! I was holding him and saying, "Hurry, take the picture!" because my arm was hurting! LOL!!

When I dropped LG off in her Sunday school class yesterday her teacher told this story and then sent it out in an email to the parents of the class in their weekly class email:

"Last week, in teaching the story of Jesus feeding the 5000, a teacher said that Jesus always talked to His Father, God, and God always answered Him. One of your precious ones said with all confidence, "I heard from God this morning." When the teacher asked her for a further explanation she replied, "He was talking through the ceiling as I came into church!" From now on I will chuckle each time I hear a voice via the 2nd Presbyterian sound system!"~Mrs. Sarah Gaye

That "precious one" was LG!! TOO stinkin' precious!!!

Dr. Seuss' birthday

LG's class is celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday today so they were to wear Dr. Seuss attire and bring their favorite Dr. Seuss books to read. LG has a "one fish, two fish, red fish, blue shirt" on and her favorite book (by far), "Go, Dog, Go!" She knows every word of that book~she's had it memorized for well over a year. She's so cute~couldn't you just eat her up?!