I mentioned in my last post that Grady had a swallow study performed. He was a champ, and we learned he has an uncoordinated swallow that causes him to occasionally aspirate on thin liquids.
We had another study the following week to check to see if he has
Laryngomalacia, aka A Floppy Airway.
Grady always sounds like he's congested and needs to cough/clear his throat. ALWAYS. He and Atalie both had RSV when they were two months old, and he has sounded terrible ever since.
So a couple of weeks ago we went back to Children's in Little Rock for a scope that would check his airway and give us an idea of what's going on. (This day also happened to be Jarrod's 32nd birthday! He's a great Daddy.)
We met with an ENT and a Speech Pathologist during our visit. Grady was called "a ham" and made several professional females blush more than they ever knew to be possible before!
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| My chubby boy being so sweet before the test! |
The doctor, who was very professional and didn't show a lot of personality towards Jarrod or me, declared right before the test that she really didn't want to have to scope Grady because he was smiling so much at her!
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| The nurse was the sweetest, most informative person ever. She held Grady all swaddled up while the doctor put the scope down his airway. We watched everything vibrate onscreen as he screamed and cried for the 60 seconds it took to get the view the doctor needed before pulling the scope out and calling it done. |
The test revealed that Grady does have Laryngomalacia (a floppy airway), and that we do need to continue to thicken his liquids. We, thankfully, got some more instruction on this during this visit than the one we had previously with an OT in the radiology dept. We also found out about a thickener that's safe for Grady to use and will work with breast milk. We had previously been told that the only thickener safe for him to use would not work with breast milk. It's been a rough couple of weeks getting things figured out with all of this!
So now Grady gets his bottles with thickener and the milk looks like the consistency of honey. If you tilt a jar of honey, that's how his milk runs now. I feel like most days he tolerates it well, and then on others he seems a little frustrated.
These babies have been bottle fed from basically the time we got home from the hospital. I tried tandem nursing them in the hospital (you haven't nursed until you've tandem nursed babies!), and we continued to try after we got home. I was totally prepared with a huge, double nursing pillow and the assistance of my mom, Jarrod and the nurses in the hospital, but it just did not work out for us. The babies had jaundice and feeding them on a very set schedule was a must. We didn't have time to sit and try to get one latched on and then get another latched on while the first one came off and then to repeat the whole ridiculous thing. During all of these tests, we also learned that Grady has a bit of a tongue-tie. We were told this at birth, but no one else ever said anything about it to us. So learning about his swallow issues and the tongue tie being re-confirmed, have helped me a little with the regret over not being able to nurse him.
Moving on...
The twins are growing and going. Everyone who saw Grady at Children's Hospital said, "Well, he clearly isn't having any issues getting nutrition!" Because, yes, he is a chunk!! Like a hefty, hefty chunk. Atalie is army crawling and scooting everywhere, but Grady lays on his tummy and flails his arms and legs like a beached whale. He hates being on his tummy!
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| Tears in those pretty, gray eyes because he didn't want to be on the floor! |
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| He was still upset, but sister was talking away! |
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| He's a little happier here because Collin was making him smile. Gotta love that big brother who comes to the rescue! |
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| Grady LOVES playing with toys. You just have to keep them rotated in and out steadily so he doesn't lose interest. Atalie loves to chew on everything! |
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| And this kid, he just wants to sit and take silly selfies. |
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| I can hardly get her to keep a headband on these days. She pulls them down, eats them, flings them across the room, etc. |
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| Sweet babes |
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| Love how Atalie looks like she's laughing at a funny joke! |
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| Telling secrets |
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| Atalie is telling brother that it's all gonna be alright! |
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| LOVE her sweet, sweet face. Good luck trying to give her sugars! She is squirmy and will slap ya! |
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| I was tickling Grady to get him to laugh! Collin is just playing away in the background. |
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Collin's new favorite thing is to get to take a bath with his brother. I call this "Tub Time with Fatso Watso and Skinny Mini".
Jarrod took Collin fishing one day last week, just the two of them. We didn't tell Collin until that morning, and he was super excited and super surprised. They went fishing on the Little Red River and had lunch together.
They even ate chocolate pie, my favorite, and then bragged about it!
They were supposed to come back to town and go play racquetball (something only those two do and Collin really enjoys), but Collin requested fishing some more over racquetball. They did make time to fit in a snow cone before coming home, though. Even if it meant Jarrod dragging a super exhausted Collin into the snow cone place!
I was told that Collin managed to stay completely safe all day until he fell backwards off this bench and hit his head on the ground. He was fine! But of all the things that could have happened, it had to be that!
School started this week. Collin is in Pre-K, conveniently located right across the hall from "his babies", instead of on another hallway. I cannot believe this time next year he will be in Kindergarten! I love him so much, and I'm so thankful for his help with the babies. They think he is the coolest thing EVER. He is right up there with the dog and ceiling fans.
Almost 2 years old, almost 3 years old, almost 4 years old and now - almost 5 years old. He's such a big boy! And handsome ;)
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