Blakely's Breathing/Swallowing Issues

Since birth Blakely has had issues with swallowing liquids and randomly has had a few irregular breathing episodes.  Since I rarely blog these days (I know, I need to get back into it!), I guess I should just start from the beginning.

Four Days Old

Day 1 in the hospital, Blakely turned blue and luckily we had just been trained on how to use an "aspirator," so we did.  We were able to clear whatever it was.  The nurse didn't really think much of it, she thought it was just some leftover amniotic fluid making it's way out of her lungs.  Trusting that she was right and us being first time parents, we went with the flow.  Needless to say, we were terrified to take her home in just a couple of days!

The first month or so was filled with the typical sleepless nights and just trying to figure her out.  Babies are all so different and make weird noises, their eyes at times look like they go in different directions, and are just overall very fragile.  We basically didn't sleep for a month straight because at night she would gasp for air at random.  This seemed to dwindle by 6-8 weeks and she was by then sleeping 6-8 hours at night (and in her crib!).

Months pass and in August we get the scare of our life (well... one of two now).  Blakely starts intensely gasping for air in short spurts, which in total only lasted about 10 minutes or so.  Throughout the rest of the day that day she would randomly have a small breathing episode, but nothing quite as traumatic as the first one that day.  We rushed her to urgent care and they listened to her lungs and said she was fine.  Her oxygen was also just fine.  The Doctor actually witnessed one of the small episodes and said it was probably just her finding her voice.

These episodes happened very mildly a couple of times after that.

Then, just last weekend Tommy had already left for work (Saturday, since he works 6 days a week now), and I had just fed her a bottle.  Blakely and I were watching the end of "Frozen" in bed and she started to get restless, so we walked into our living room to play with her toys.  As soon as I sat down, with her on my side, she started gasping.  VERY intensely.  My first reaction was to flip her over and start doing back blows, as it sounded like maybe something got stuck in her airway.  She kept doing it and I without hesitation called 911.  They were literally at my house in minutes.  Of course when they came, she was just fine.  They urged me to take her to urgent care since it was Saturday and her Doctor's office was closed, so I did.  They said the same thing, she looked fine, etc.  Ugh, she's not fine and that's NOT normal.  I know my baby and I know normal from not!

Blakely in the Car on Our Way Home From Urgent Care Last Weekend

Throughout the week this week I have been "Googling" every possible breathing disorder, and stumbled upon "Laryngospasm."  There is a YouTube video that PERFECTLY showcases what it is that she does.  The episode last weekend sounded much more intense than this one, however https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqSx4Ir3qa4'.  You can't tell me that's a normal noise and that you shouldn't be at least a LITTLE bit worried if your child can't breathe!

We have an appointment next week to get everything checked out, both the swallowing and breathing issues.  I'm assuming they are both related.  But who knows.  The swallowing issues we have somewhat figured out at this point because she underwent a Barium Swallow Test.  It's basically an X-ray that takes video of her swallowing barium (since milk/other liquids won't show up on an X-ray).  When she drinks liquids, after each swallow a little bit starts going into her airway.  When it reaches her vocal cords, she coughs/chokes and we have to sit her up.  It doesn't seem to bug her much as she's never cried from it, she actually still wants to eat afterwards which is why I didn't really think much of it until recently.

She sure has put us through the ringer lately with health scares.  She's a perfectly normal baby otherwise and we are soooooo incredibly lucky to have such a happy-go-lucky, beautiful little girl!

~Sunny

Sleeping In? What's That???

The title of my post pretty much sums it up.  Sleeping in no longer exists when you have a baby.  Blakely sleeps from 7PM-5AM on the DOT.  Sometimes she can go back down after a bottle in the morning, but that messes with her naps for the day and I usually don't want to have to deal with that.  So, here I am, on a Sunday morning when most normal people are sleeping in until 9, and I'm writing a blog post and running to the aid of my child every time she rolls into something potentially dangerous.

Aside from having a baby, house projects are sort of on hold right now.  We are trying to build up our savings to buy a new car, as Tommy now drives my car in to work since he has a longer commute, and I'm stuck with his gas guzzler of a truck.  Once we get that figured out, we do have some aspirations for the inside like painting all of the main walls, putting up new trim, replacing our roof, new flooring.... and then hopefully we can save again :)  Owning a house can definitely be a money pit at times- this year was one of them for us.

I have done a few "cheap" projects over the last few months, however.  I can't completely go cold turkey, that's just not my style :)

Pinterest spray painted wine bottle project

 Bench that Tommy built

Dining room table refresh

7 Months.. Time is Flying By!

It's been quite some time since my last blog post- life is literally insane but I'm loving it!  Having a baby completely transforms your life.  In many, many, many ways!  You start to see life from a different perspective and life just seems to make sense at that point.  It's weird but I've totally turned into "that mom."  You know, the one that posts a million pictures of their baby on Facebook everyday?  Yeah.. that's me.  I'm sure I'll end up doing most of the things I said I wouldn't when I used to think about having kids.

7 months. She's seven months old now, I can't believe it sometimes.  It seems like it was yesterday yet SOOOOOOO long ago that she was born.  You go through so much that it feels like it should be longer.  But then again I feel like I just had her.  We weighed her the other day and she's 19 pounds.  At her 6 month doctor appointment she was still in the 75th percentile for weight and 95th for height.  She can now sit up, babble (mamama, bababa, dadada), loves to eat baby food, plays in her bouncer, and grabs toys.  She also just recently started learning how to wave so that's a work in progress :)  She no longer depends on her swaddle to sleep and sleeps only on her tummy.  She was in her crib around 6 weeks old so transitioning her to her crib was never an issue.  Weaning her from her swaddle was our only hurdle but it only took about a week to break her from it.  I say the earlier you can wean them from their vices, the better!

Tommy and I are doing really good.  Blakely is such a lucky girl to have such an amazing male role model in her life.  We both have new(ish) jobs, since I last blogged anyway, and both are going really well.  I still stay home one day a week with her (and on occasion work on my day off if I can bring her in).  Tommy has been working 6 days a week so our weekends do feel a bit short lately.  I can't seem to think of Friday night as being a weekend night if he has to work the next day.  So we cram it all into Sunday!