…Where Did You Go…
After a couple of days of only bottle feeding Aleck was back to his cranky self during 4 out of 5 of his feedings, arching his back, crying when he needs to be burped, crying while he’s being burped and crying while he’s taking the bottle. The good new is, the feedings are only lasting thirty minutes including the burping, spitting up and crying, so it made our trip to Detroit way more manageable. My dad even gave Aleck a gold star for the car ride up, and he got another gold star for the car ride back. All in all, he’s a much happier baby but clearly there is still something wrong.
That’s the bad news. He’s still on two forms of acid-reflux medication and the other morning he puked almost his entire feed over my shoulder, missing the burp cloth completely and covering the carpet. He’s also still insisting that I burp him while bouncing on the ball or over my shoulder. We went back to the pediatrician’s for his weigh in, just over 10 lbs-we finally hit double digits- but he’s really concerned there is something else going on. According to the doctor he should be done with the acid reflux by now since he’s about 5 months old, and he’s also very inconsistent with what he takes from the bottle. I give him five ounces at each feed since that’s what he seemed to want when we first went to the bottle, and he very often leaves over 2 oz in the bottle unfinished. He very often aspirates during his feedings, sometimes he aspirates just swallowing his own saliva. I just figured, oh it went down the wrong pipe, that happens to me sometimes, but it happens to Aleck regularly and is a much more severe issue than I originally thought. I asked my OT what she thought of feeding time since she watches lots of people feed their babies bottles and she said how it’s usually very relaxing, a very peaceful and happy time for the babies. In our house it’s practically a contact sport and I need to ice my sore muscles after a long day of feeding.
On top of it all Aleck makes these snorting noises all the time. My sister compared his breathing to that of an adorable pug I once lived with (may Roxy rest in peace). As cute as these dogs may be I don’t really want my son to be compared to one and isn’t that a sign that something else is wrong. I kept thinking that it had something to do with the cold he had but we are now more than three weeks since his cold began and he’s still making these noises and he’s started rubbing his nose on his crib sheet and on his blanket.
Enter a new doctor, an ear nose and throat guy for our little Aleck. Next week (Friday-March 2nd) they are going to do a series of scopes to check all his airways, study how he swallows and how he’s digesting his food. This was our pediatrician’s recommendation and at this point I think there is an important need to rule out any other issues Aleck might be having. They will have to put him under to do the procedure and the whole thing should take about an hour. We won’t have to stay overnight so that’s the good news. He’ll have a swallow study, a bronchoscopy, and a nasopharyngoscopy/laryngoscopy. I’m so overwhelmed with all the different scopes that I don’t even know what to hope for.
Do I hope that there is something small but very treatable, a reason for all of his discomfort? Sometime that can be operated on so he doesn’t sit in my arms and cry at the end of his feeds?