Two months old

I love the little marks left on her arm by her bracelet...her arms are the chubbiest part of her body and I know those little marks will one day remind us of that. :)


It has been quite the month for little Scarlet. She was blessed by her dad on March 8th, 2009 and has been laughing, cooing, smiling, has rolled over, and is happy as ever. A few weeks ago she was referred to our ENT because of some breathing issues she was having. Take a listen:

Sorry, the video is so dark. I had the light off because she was trying to go to sleep. Sometimes she sounds better than this while other times she sounds worse.

After having a fiberoptic laryngoscope inserted in her nose, down her throat, and into her stomach it was discovered that she has a breathing disorder called Laryngomalacia and GERD (Stomach Acid Reflux Disease) commonly confused with Acid Reflux or GER. The interesting part is that she showed very little symptoms of GERD like no vomiting and never spitting up but, according to the scope definitely has it. I feel really bad because the only symptoms she really ever showed would be during one or two feedings a day where she would choke and cry. If I sang to her while she was eating she would kind of bite the bullet and try to stay calm and not cry. I feel really bad now knowing that she was suffering and I was trying to quiet her up. The ENT says, that GERD is more serious than GER because the infant never vomits or spits up causing the acid to sit in the throat constantly burning the esophagus. When the scope was performed they filmed it and showed me the damage to Scarlet's esophagus but, thankfully medication can fix all of that or at least most of it.


As for the Laryngomalacia it is the most common cause of really noisy breathing in an infant. In fact the ENT told me when I presented him with the video up above that he did not need to view it he could have diagnosed her just by listening to her on the phone. Laryngomalacia occurs as a result of a floppy portion of the larynx (voice box) that has not yet developed causing obstruction of the airway therefore making a narrower breathing passage. The obstruction is the source of the loud, whistling, wheezing, breathing sound. Usually this condition peaks around six to eight months and goes away on its own when the child is between one and two years of age.

In 10% of infants that have Laryngomalacia surgery is performed due to poor weight gain or lapses in breathing which Scarlet has struggled with both. She usually only has lapses in her breathing when she is eating or sleeping. The good thing is is that her breathing is so loud that even when Brandon and I are asleep and she stops breathing we immediately wake up because it's suddenly quit. The ENT is giving her two months to gain adequate weight and to start decreasing the number of times she stops breathing in a given day before he decides if she needs surgery or not. The great part is is that they put her on a compounded dose of Previced in hopes that medicating the GERD would help the Laryngomalacia...and it has. She is eating better, breathing loud but not lapsing as much, and is gaining quite a bit of weight.

At her two month check-up she was:

24 1/2 inches long putting her in the 97th percentile
weighing 12lbs. 3 oz putting her in the 90th percentile
her head circumference was 38 1/2 cm putting her in the 50th percentile


I'm positive that her ENT will be happy with these results making it less likely that she will have surgery. :-)

As for her brothers...they are still in love with her. Kai's nick named her Scarley and Jace claims he is going to marry her one day and calls her "girl". When he walks into the room he says, "Where's my pretty girl, or there's my girl, is my girl awake yet, I love my girl, or hey girl." One day we were driving to school and I heard him say, "Scarlet I have something important to tell you...welcome to earth." I love how much they love her and how much she loves them. She cries when they leave the room and puts on the hugest smile as soon as they come back. Brandon and I also love her to pieces and feel so blessed to have her with us and that she is a happy healthy little one. :-)