Little Lungs!

Bennett had a pulmonology appointment yesterday. There is some bad news and some good news.

Good news first - He's doing reaaaaaally well!!! His lungs sound great, his baseline respiration rate has lowered into normal range and he has much fewer wheezing episodes!

Bad news - Our pediatrician's suspicion was correct - Bennett's illness in March caused new scarring in both lobes of his lungs that were not present when he was discharged from the NICU. This means his lungs will be all the more fragile and susceptible to further damage. And it "restarts" the clock on healing.

Neutral news - Bennett's tiny - what's new? He weighed in at 18 lbs 1 oz fully clothed a diapered (so he probably is about 4 ounces less) and was 27.25'' (that comes to less than 1/2 a lb weight gain in two months and no height gain). That places him under the 3rd percentile for his actual age of 14 months and almost exactly at the 5th percentile for his adjusted age of 1 year (tomorrow is his due date!) for his weight. For his length, he is under 3rd percentile for both actual and adjusted ages. But - the good news is that he's 50th percentile for weight to height ratio - meaning he is perfectly proportioned! He's just miniscule all over. What to do? He eats really well, still is breastfeeding and drinking 10+ ounces of whole milk a day. Even on the preemie charts, he's super tiny. The Pulmonologist would like to see him get to the 10th percentile by his second birthday, but that is more aspirational the a criteria. He's clearly healthy, so we shall not worry too much about it.

The FABULOUS news is, since he's pretty stable with his asthma meds (she gave us a new oral steriod to use when he starts wheezing), we don't need to go back for six months barring any major episodes!!!!!!