Courtney's Test

Well, we have been busy here. Wednesday Courtney had an appointment to see her GI Specialist. He felt that she needed to have an Upper GI test done in order to make sure we were not missing something. So, we scheduled that for Friday.

Thursday was an interesting day. They have a program here in town called First Visitor. It’s a branch of this state wide service, Bright Beginnings. It’s a service that actually started in Denver. It’s a volunteer service of mom’s who come and visit new mom’s. They bring you a ‘gift bag’ that has a small quilt and lots and lots of information and resources. Our local library even gives you 2 books to read to your child. There is also Mozart CD. Their big philosophy is that the more information and support you have the healthy and happier your baby is going to be. It’s a nice service. They are there to talk to if you have any questions or problems. They will also come back when your baby starts crawling and help you baby proof your house. If you know of anyone who is having or has recently had a baby, I would recommend them! It’s a wonderful free service.

Shortly after the visitor left, Courtney had her worst choking spell yet. She was making some odd noises; I had stepped around the corner. By the time I got to her, her lips were blue and she was coughing. The coughing was able to clear the stuff she was choking on. But it was pretty scary. I was so thankful she was okay! These are the types of things that can happen to a baby that has reflux, so you have to watch them carefully.

The next morning, early in the morning, she had her upper GI. They tell you not to feed them at least 2 hours ahead of time so they are hungry when they get there. So, Thursday night (Friday morning) she woke up at 1am, and ate 2 oz. of formula, then I set my alarm for 4:30am, I woke her up and fed her another 2 oz of formula. By the time she was on the table ready for the test, it was 7:30am and she was hungry. So, she eagerly drank the barium. We did see on the test that she does have reflux, we watched the barium ‘splash’ up out of her stomach, half way up her esophagus. The doctor also saw that some of the liquid started go down her wind pipe instead of the esophagus. That’s not good. But the test also showed that there is no blockage at the end of her stomach and her stomach can empty fine.

The doctor at the GI test called Courtney’s GI Specialist almost right away. We spoke with the specialist’s office later and they want her to have another test, called a swallow test. It’s supposedly very similar to the test she had Friday, but we do it with a speech pathologist, who watches how she is swallowing. We are not sure yet when that test will be. I will hopefully find out on Monday.

We spent the rest of Friday running errands and getting everything accomplished that we had been putting off for a while. I got an emissions test on my car, dropped of my breast pump, and all the other small errands we had to run, like to the bank, dog food, grocery store, etc. That night we made enough dinner for 4 people and took it over to Tony and Kelly’s house and ate it there. It’s so nice to have someone to talk to who is going through the same things as us! Their baby who is 13 day’s older than Courtney has pretty bad reflux, and possibly other issues. They are trying to figure that all out now too. They go to the same specialist’s office as us.

One of the things that the doctor’s are having us do is to add a small amount of rice cereal to her formula. The hope is that it will thicken it up enough to help with her swallowing, as well as the reflux. The rice cereal should make it just heavy enough that it should sit heavy her in her stomach and not come back up. The hard part we are dealing with now is trying to make the holes in her bottle nipples a tad bit bigger so it will flow through. We are just now starting to find the right opening and tricks to get the food flowing.

Today we spent a lazy morning around and then went and ran more errands. Courtney needed more diapers and wipes, and other stuff. Then we went to my parent’s house for dinner to have an early celebration of my dad’s birthday.

We came home tonight and as I was getting Courtney dressed for bed; I started playing peek-a-boo with her. She started to smile and giggle. She has been smiling for about 2 weeks, but it was so cute to watch her really enjoy it! That is the first time I have seen her act that way towards me! The other night she was in her bouncy chair, it has lights and music. She was laughing and giggling at her lights. She loves lights. She is so cute! But hey, she is my child!