Taylor Grace Kipp

Well, looky here. It's a sunny Saturday morning and my husband took the kids to the pool. I am enjoying a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee in peace while the baby naps. I just so happen to have a minute to update my blog! My last post was way back in JANUARY. We welcomed Taylor Grace into our family April 26, 2012 the day before her official due date. I woke up at 5 a.m. with uncomfortable contractions. I took a shower, finished packing my bag, and woke up my husband. We were on our way to the hospital by 7:30 a.m. and had our sweet baby girl in our arms by 10:30 a.m.! Not bad. LOL. I was already 5-6 cm when they admitted me. I remember the nurse telling me, "You're more than halfway done!" YES, more than halfway done and I wasn't even miserable yet! By the time I was hooked up and settled into a room I was at 8 cm and handling contractions like a champ. My midwife came in and said, "We can take our time and wait for your water to break on it's own or we can get this over with." I'm all about getting it over with. BRING. IT. Then the fun began. It felt like an eternity, but it was really only an hour of PAIN unlike any other. I pushed for about 10 or 15 minutes. For some reason Taylor was more painful to push out than the other two combined. Oh the pain. It was over in no time though (or so everyone says) and soon I was looking into her pretty eyes, making this one of the top 5 best moments of my life.

Fast forward to today, Taylor is 5 weeks old and doing real good. We did have to go back into the hospital because Taylor seemed to have trouble breathing at times and would spit up feeds every now and then. They initially suspected she had something called tracheomalacia because of the noise she made, but thankfully they ruled that out with x-rays finding that she had reflux instead. She is now on medication to treat the reflux and doing much better, however, she still has what sounds like stridor. I have spent many late nights stressing and racking my brain trying to figure out what's wrong with her. This has to be more than reflux. Her symptoms match up perfectly with a condition called laryngomalacia which is, "... a condition, in which the soft, immature cartilage of the upper larynx collapses inward during inhalation, causing airway obstruction." It doesn't bother her all the time, but you can hear her struggling in the evenings before her Zantac dose, during feeds, when she's upset, lying on her back, etc. I have had to figure out how to position her during feeds, while I'm holding her, or while she's sleeping so her airway doesn't collapse. That doesn't sound good. I know right? Apparently it's just an inconvienance though and some thing that she will eventually grow out of. 12-15 months the books say and it will get worse before it gets better unfortunately. Severe cases require surgery, but those are the babies that can't eat and aren't growing. Babies that turn blue and can't breathe. Taylor's case isn't that serious. I do my best to keep her comfortable. At her 2 month check up I will bring it up with the pediatrician and we'll probably get an ENT referral. I don't know if I want them shoving a scope down my baby's throat just to tell me it's something she has to grow out of though you know?

Until then I do my best to manage her condition. She feeds best when I'm laying on my back so it's hard to go anywhere or do anything because, well that can look kind of awkward. I made a run to the store the other day and had to cut it short because her position in my sling was causing her to start squeaking and people were starting to pull out their phones to call 911. I feed her very carefully being sure to pace her so she doesn't aspirate. Thankfully she is a very calm, happy baby and really only fusses to tell me she has a dirty diaper or that she's ready to eat. When she does get fussy she starts squeaking and when she really gets upset she can have trouble breathing - so I have to drop everything as soon as she starts in order to keep her from getting all worked up. That's real convienant with 2 other kids let me tell ya. Haha. Besides all that she really is a good baby. When she's calm she doesn't seem to have any trouble at all. She is sleeping through the night and is just as sweet as can be.

So that's a little update on Taylor Grace. Thank you for those who prayed for us while we were in the hospital. Please continue to pray for her as we try and figure out what else she has going on. I pray for wisdom every day, how best to care for her. She is otherwise healthy though and we are so blessed to add another little one to the family.