First of all, did you notice those two shiny teeth? They are here to stay, folks! I guess that means we will likely be having our first taste of solid food soon. I'll be sure to keep you updated on that monumental step in babyhood when it happens. For now, though, I thought I would fill you in on our first, and hopefully only, trip to Seattle Children's Hospital. Mostly I want to document that we were ever even concerned about a couple of things regarding this sweet baby's health. Because, you know. Once you find out it's no big deal, those stresses and concerns you have about your child seem to be forgotten over time. And then you eventually remember that once upon a time you were worried he had something terribly wrong with him, like maybe his trachea was being strangled by some cancerous chord and he would slowly suffocate. Or maybe you don't because you're not me. But if you are me, then you have to fight not fearing the worst. And I might just go out on a limb here and say that if you are a mother at all, you have to fight the same battle. Maybe I'm wrong? So anyway, back to our baby. At about six weeks old, we noticed that Ezra was breathing really funny when he would fall asleep in his car seat. If I could describe it in words, I'd say it sounds like a whooping snore. He snored a bit on his back and did the typical weird baby breathing, but this is different. And it's alarming enough that on several occasions I pulled the car over to wake him up. I mentioned it to the doctor at about 2 months and he thought it might be something called Tracheomalacia, a fairly common condition in which the tissue around the trachea is a bit flimsy and makes a funny sound during breathing when the baby is really relaxed (i.e. sound asleep). In most cases, babies outgrow it within the first two years of life. OR, if not tracheomalacia, there could possibly be some sort of growth in his trachea obstructing air flow. Now this is where I need to mention that Ezra has an odd dimple right in the center of his neck that he was born with. When you pull on the skin around it, the dimple deepens. I thought nothing of it at first. But one day I showed it to my mother-in-law while I was bathing Ezra and she sort off handedly commented that it looked like a tracheotomy. Ding ding ding! For the first time ever, I was a bit concerned about that funny little dimple. I showed it to the doctor at Ezra's next well child visit and sure enough, he was concerned as well. So, he sent us to Seattle Children's Otolaryngology Clinic to have it looked into further. His appointment was this last Wednesday, and I am oh-so-thankful to be able to say that Ezra will, most likely, be perfectly fine. It turns out that, in Ezra's case, the abnormal breathing is actually called Laryngomalacia. Basically, the cartilage around the larynx is not as strong as it should be and flops a bit when he breaths and therefore causes a funny sound. For some children, this is a major problem and they immediately do surgery to correct it. For those babies, they struggle to grow because their bodies are using all their energy on simply breathing. Fortunately for Ezra, his has a very minor case and nothing needs to be done about it. They stuck a little camera up through his nose and down his throat to rule out any sort of growth and sure enough, you could see the floppy tissue. No growth, thankfully! The doctor thought that for Ezra, he should outgrow it by about 18 months, if not sooner. The dimple in his neck they labeled an epidermal inclusion cyst. From what I could understand, when babies are developing in the womb, they have little gill like openings in their face and neck that eventually close up and form ears, tonsils, and such. (If you are a doctor or a nurse or have any extensive medical knowledge, you are likely chuckling right now because I might be way off on what really happens in utero, but like I said, this is what I could understand!) In some cases, those little openings don't close all the way and form long tubes that are tethered to something inside the baby, like a tonsil. In Ezra's case, the doctor didn't seem to think it was tethered that far, but instead formed a tiny pocket inside his skin that is attached to the skin around it. It will be there for good and will likely be just fine as it is. There is no need to do anything about it unless it starts to get infected or he hates having a weird dimple in his neck later in life. So there you have it: a really long, boring explanation of some potential health problems that thankfully turned out to be no big deal. And let me just say, I do not take the health of my children for granted. Even just going through something as little as this makes my heart ache for parents out there whose children have legitimate medical issues. I am so thankful that, by God's grace, my children are strong and healthy. I know there is no guarantee that will always be the case, so for now I am grateful!
