a floppy larynx!

this little piggy went to the hospital

After 5 hours at the hospital this morning, we finally have a definitive answer to Ben's breathing abnormalities: he has laryngomalasia, or a "floppy larynx." This means that the cartilage in his larynx is a bit softer than normal, but it will harden as he gets older. This is apparently the very best possible outcome we could have hoped for.

The doctor also said that Ben's reflux may be making the laryngomalasia worse, so we've got a prescription for reflux medicine. He wants us to continue the inhaler twice a day and the reflux medicine once a day, and the doctor thinks we will probably see an improvement in how hard he has to work to breathe in a few weeks. I have an appointment to go back to the doctor's office in mid-June and he'll take another look a Ben and adjust (or eliminate) the meds.

pre-op kisses

I am so, so pleased that this is the outcome. I feel like I've had this constant worry stomach-ache for the last few weeks, and finally can let it go.

 I am also so so tired from getting up at 1 a.m. to feed Ben right before his 6 hour fasting started, then getting up at 4:00 to have him at the hospital by 5:30 a.m. Poor Ben wasn't happy to be fasting for that long, but he eventually got so tired of fussing that he fell asleep right on the gurney, so he was alseep when they wheeled him away. The procedure only took like 30 minutes (most of that time was them trying to get the IV in), and then the doctor came out to explain everything to us. What a morning!

In other news, I continue to thoroughly enjoy having my wonderful sister's company this week. She, Ben and I spent yesterday at the zoo, and he got to splash around in the Tiny Tots area's Riverbank for the fist time (see video below) . He was a little unsure at first (he still doesn't like baths), but after a while really loved it.

This week Nic also helped me get a bit more organized: we separated all of Ben's outgrown clothing into different sizes and then used space bags to shrink them down. Ben will probably have a brother or sister one day and I'm hoping a lot of the clothes will be wearable.

sleepy buddy

Ben "helping" us to organize all of his outgrown clothes

ALL of Ben's outgrown clothes space-bagged down to this

baby bear (in front of the bear enclosure at the zoo)

enjoying the Riverbank at the zoo

Auntie N and Ben with a tapir

petting zoo piggy

more Auntie time