Our little squeezebox

What a day.

Ever since we brought Leif home, he's been a noisy breather. I remember Augie being a noisy breather, too, so I didn't think much of it. But he's still noisy. And there's one particular squeaky noise he makes when he inhales that had us a bit concerned, so I sent a video to my dear friend Sabrina, a pediatrician in Chicago. She told us that the squeaky noise he was making is called stridor and is not normal. So today we went to the hospital to have it checked out.

At the initial consult, the pediatricians confirmed that Leif's breathing isn't normal and that he has chest retractions. They sent us to see the ENT specialist in the hospital, who stuck a tube up Leif's nose and down his throat to have a look at what's going on. The test confirmed what we all by this time suspected - that Leif has laryngomalacia, a congenital softening of the tissues of the larynx above the vocal cords. The condition usually resolves itself by 18-20 months, and as long as Leif is eating well and gaining weight, there's no reason to be worried. And as Leif is accelerating up the growth curve, nursing well, and sleeping well (as well as a newborn does!), we aren't worried. The ENT doctor even said, twice, "I'm not very worried about this."

Waiting to see the ENT doctor

After we saw the ENT, we were admitted to the hospital for observation: they wanted to check his saturation, respiration rate, etc., for a few hours and possibly overnight to see how bad the condition is. Leif's saturation (amount of oxygen in his blood) was great even when he was having the stridor, so after about 5-6 hours in the ward we were sent home.

We'll go back to see the doctor in about a month to see how Leif is doing and possibly do the procedure again to have another look.

Leif held up well through the day, though he didn't much care for having the tube stuck up his nose (I didn't much care for it either). We were so lucky to have Grandma here to help look after Augie while we were tending to Leif. He's now sleeping happily in the bedroom, squeaking away.

Napping in our room while under observation

For some great news, last night Leif slept eight hours straight! We had a tough time putting him down again (took about six hours), but then he slept from about 9pm to 5am! I'm not crazy enough to think it might happen again tonight, but I do have the slightest glimmer of hope...