laryngomalacia, or why G squeaks

I have suspected for some time that the cause of G's squeak is a condition called laryngomalacia. All of the symptoms just made sense. I first read about it in my Baby 411 book (which is probably the best book we have about parenting. It has calmed us many times and answered pretty much every question I've had.) the Pediatrician who co-wrote the book is married to an Ear/Nose/Throat doctor, so I am just guessing that she knows a lot about the condition. Anyway, in the book it says that if your baby makes noise when breathing that sounds like G's, then it is something called "floppy larynx" and that kids usually grow out of it. So, given my interest in research, I decided to wade into some of the literature and see what I could find out. It said pretty much the same thing that the book said, but added a few details, like sometimes kids need to have surgery to correct the problem (this is generally done when it is keeping a kid from "thriving"). So that was reassuring, still, I wanted my diagnosis confirmed, and wanted to make sure that G was being watched for this (in case it was or became a problem).

Well, we got a referral from our primary care giver's partner (it was a big PITA trying to get the right kind of referral) to go to Children's Hospital in Seattle. I was excited about going to Children's because one of the studies I read about laryngomalasia was actually written by the team at Children's, so I felt like G would be seeing great people. It was a long wait, because our referral started out getting sent to the wrong speciality clinic. There were many phone calls made to straighten it all out, and everyone was confused because G is not called Myles. (Why is that so hard?) Finally we got the call on Friday to make an appointment, and we got in today at 3. (very quick turn-around really once they got the right referral).

First of all, Children's is an amazing facility. If G needs emergency care, we're going there. The Gates have been generous donors, and it shows. We had a long wait, but they give you a beeper (like when you go to a busy restaurant) that buzzes you, so you can walk around the facility more. G was weighed and measured (we weren't sure if he was 6.1 kg or 6.5 kg) and we were taken to an exam room. The room was nice, and there was obviously a lot of attention paid to the details. For example, instead of chairs they had a couch thing kind of build into the room. It was designed for families. We had to wait again for the doctor to come in.

First we saw the resident. He asked us a lot of questions, and we told him what we'd observed. He confirmed my suspicion. He took a look at G and G smiled at him and kicked his feet. Then the doctor came in and said we were going to take a look in his throat. They put a scope in his nose and down his throat, so we could see what was going on. Of course, G was crying, which makes the throat open wide, so you couldn't really see it (G does not make his noise when crying, which is pretty typical for kids who have this.) Anyway, the doctor said that sometimes surgery is necessary, but that they did not think that G would need it, because he's gaining weight well. She suggested that we go in to our doc every week or two to check his weight to make sure that he stays on track weight-wise. But, we don't have to go back to Children's unless he stops gaining. They said that he'd likely stop doing it by the time he's 9-12 months, so we'll have a squeaky baby for the foreseeable future. The resident gave us a copy of the movie they made when they put the scope down his throat too. I think I'll put it in his baby book.

And as a reward for reading the whole post, here's some eye candy.

daddytainment

From g's fourth month

who does G look like?

here are some pictures of amos and me as babies. I've included the picture that shows the back of my head. Unfortunately this is exactly what the back of G's head looks like (his birthmark is lower on his head than mine, but it looks just like mine). (1) is that picture, me taking a bath. (2) me age? (mom, can you help out here?) (3) G about 4 days old. (4) G about 3 months old. (5) A at 2 months old (6) A just home from the hospital. (maybe next time I'll post the ugliest baby picture ever--my hospital picture.)

sitting on daddy's futon with md

Here are some pictures of G and MD sitting on the couch in A's office. MIles is kind of like a secret service guy for G. He's a bit aloof (aside from occasional kisses he sneaks in), but mostly because he's looking out for the bad stuff that might be coming to the house. He has taken to sitting in front of G and when G seriously cries he wants to kiss his hurt away (like he does with me when I'm watching a sad movie). 

shiny things

One of G's favorite things to do is sit on Amos' lap and look around. Usually they'll play a game like the one where G is riding his 60's era Indian motorcycle and he stops at various places. Most of the ride G is busy looking around the room. Today as he looked around he set his eyes on something shiny. He fixated on one thing--a munchos bag. For those of you who are not familiar with munchos they are a tasty snack that was quite popular (along with funyons) in the 80s (today they serve as a poor substitute for the totally yummy pop chips which are often not in stock at the store they're so popular). Anyway, G was enthralled with the shiny red-orange bag and the noise it made. I had to hide it from him to break his gaze so he and Amos could get back to their game.

snoozin'

From g's fourth month

whazzzup!?

From g's fourth month

what's new in G-town--TOYS.

As G gets more and more alert he craves interaction more and more. HIs face lights up and he kicks his feet in delight when someone bends over to talk to him. He smiles and coos and tries his hardest to have a conversation with you. He's also interested in toys. Our friends Amy and Kris sent him a red bag with dinosaurs on it and we have all of G's toys and a couple of books in it. When he's looking playful we'll pull out the toys and hold them up for him. Over the last 5 days or so he's gotten to the point where he will grab onto them. One of his favorites is a bee/butterfly toy. He grabbed it once and promptly smacked himself in the head with it (the hand-eye coordination isn't quite there yet). Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of G with two other favorites--the rings and a very soft frog (from my mom's lovely friend, Iris). He's sporting one of his favorite onesies from Aunt Jenn, Uncle Vance and cousin Lucy.

Oh, and G wanted to say happy birthday to Tom. And a belated happy birthday to Unkie Vance!

this just in: dirty baby takes bath!

Last Friday we had the pleasure of finding a flooded utility room. Ick. We had been planning to replace the aging water heater for a while, and just hadn't gotten around to making the call to have it done yet. The water heater forced our hand. Anyway, we got a tankless "on demand" water heater, which we did for two reasons, the freed up space in the utility room and the energy efficiency. When your house is 900 square feet reclaiming roughly 42 square feet is a pretty big coup, so we were willing to shell out the extra dough it cost to go tankless. 5 x 5 storage places in seattle cost at least $40 a month, so...The bad thing about the water heater going on Friday was that we couldn't have it install next-day. It ended up being a multi-day affair to install the thing (pipes were moved, etc.) so we were without hot water until Wednesday night. Thankfully we have the electric kettle to boil water, because that's how I had to do all of our bottles and dishes. Because of some funky plumbing in the utility room, we were also without a clothes washer, so we were really roughing it. The new water heater is great, and we have a digital thermostat, so we'll never get scalded. Why do the Brits use these hot water heaters almost exclusively and we use those stupid dinosaurs that take up so much space and waste so much electricity?

Needless to say, we were all ready for bathing after the water heater was installed, G included. In honor of the new water heater we got G a REAL tub. Until now we'd been using a foam thing for sponge baths, and doing it on the kitchen counter. We decided he was ready for a big-kid bath. The one we got him is cool and folds up for storage (again, ideal for our tiny house, I will probably store it in my 42 sq feet of space in the utility room). At first when I put him in he was a little bit freaked out, but in about ten seconds he quieted down and seemed to enjoy himself. He definitely liked it better than the plain old sponge bath. After the bath I rubbed him in olive oil (that's what our doc recommended we use for moisturizing, because it's so safe) and he was just so tickled with himself. It reminded Amos of how Miles Davis is after a bath--really excited and happy.

Oh, and congrats to Amos' former colleague and our friend, Amy, & her hubby Kris who welcomed their new daughter Eloise at 1 pm today.

Mommy, does it always hurt this bad when ILL loses?