Pulmonology Appointment

Where do I begin!? Bennett saw Dr. Chaney with Children's National Hospital today - she is a leading pediatric pulmonologist in this area. We were with the doctor for about an hour and a half!!

Bennett weighed in today at 9lbs15 oz, and is 20.5 inches long. He's still not on the full-term growth curves, but he is doing REALLY well. So well in fact, that the doc said he's rather chubby - his weight to height ratio is a little heavy on the weight end. Sounds a bit like his big brother :) So...she said to keep him on the 30-calorie feeds, but to not push the volume and let him sleep as long as he wants at night, and not freak out if he only takes a little at night when he wakes (which he's been doing).

They put him on the pulsox with his oxygen still on and he was saturating 100%. Then, later the doctor had us turn off his oxygen and he was saturating in the high 90s!!! Soo..... drum roll please....we can discontinue the oxygen while he's awake!!! We need to take him overnight to the hospital for a sleep study to make sure he saturates well during deep sleep, and if he does, we'll be done with the oxygen! She said we will be keeping it on hand through the winter though, because colds are probably going to be his biggest issue.

His left lung sounded beautiful, but his right lung still has quite a bit of disease in it, according to her. The right lung is the one that always showed problems on x-rays too. BUT, she thinks this is related to his reflux, which tends to cause fluid to build up in the right lung moreso than the left. So, she increased his reflux medication to three times daily and is going to leave his diuretic as is for now, since he's on a pretty low dose anyway. We go back to see her in a month, and if it doesn't sound better by then, she is going to send us to see a gastroenterologist to see if the reflux can be better managed. However, because of the persistence of the lung disease, she believes Bennett is at a very high risk for developing asthma. That wouldn't be surprising since I had very bad asthma as a child and Carter has viral-induced asthma. Add on to that Bennett's lung disease, and you pretty much can write the Rx now. Anyway, because of his delicate lungs, she wants to see him if he starts sounding wheezy, rather than taking him to the pediatrician's office. She said she can better manage the respiratory issues right now than the Ped. can.

So, we talked about a lot, but the bottom line is, Bennett is doing REALLY well. She is very very pleased at the functionality of his lungs particularly when considering how long he was in utero without fluid. She said should would have expected it to be much worse. YAY BENNETT!!!

And here is a smattering of pics:

Visiting with Nana
Playing with brother

Big brother having some summer fun (can't forget the big one!)
Loving his activity mat!
The hints of the beginnings of a smile! Should be soon, huh?

We had a photographer come to the house yesterday and do a photo session of us all. She has a few of the pics up on her home page - www.lauralarosaphotography.com - three of our pics are mixed in on the slide show.