March

This was a busy month as the kids adjusted to having a new little person in the house. Jeffrey was underway with his ship for a couple of weeks and I was blessed to have a few visitors during this time. First was Jeffrey's mom, followed by a visit from my sister, Rebecca, and her daughter Maci. The kids had so much fun with our visitors and I loved the help!

We began having concerns about Carson this month. About a week after he arrived home from the NICU we began to notice that his breathing was really loud, especially while he was nursing. All of our babies were loud eaters at first so we didn't think much of it. Then he began coughing and coughing and coughing.... Not just a little cough but a really deep, wet sounding cough. He was also having a hard time regaining his birth weight. At the end of the month, Carson's pediatrician decided to send him in for a few tests. One was an upper GI test using a barium labeled milk. This showed that he had significant amounts of reflux, a surprise to us since he NEVER spit up. We were told that he had "silent" reflux where it would come up as high as his nasal cavity and then go back down, which could be causing much of his coughing. He also had an airway fluoroscopy test which showed that his airway was partially collapsing in on itself during breathing, which caused stridor, or loud breathing. He was put on Zantac to help with the reflux, started having regular breathing treatments to help with the irritation in his throat, and was referred to a pulmonologist for further testing. Carson was an angel this month and is such a sweet, calm little guy.