God's Many Mercies

Bella had some tests done at the Univ. of MD hospital yesterday: a sleep study and an Upper GI/Airway Fluoroscopy. The sleep study entailed many electrodes, 2 belts hooked around her chest and abdomen, and gauze wrapped around her head. We nursed (or tried to) while hooked up to all that, and she was supposed to sleep and be awake for a little bit, too. She did all of this for the technicians, and they were able to make some definitive observations.

Mostly what came of that was a clear indication that Bella has some really bad acid reflux. The two women who administered the test said that it was some of the most significant demonstrations of reflux they had ever seen: lots of arching, gulping, gagging, and very irritable. Even as an "experienced" mom, I did not necessarily see all the signs pointing to reflux. I was noting over the last couple days that she wasn't eating as consistently or very much at a feeding, but I never thought it could be a result of the pain and discomfort she was experiencing from reflux. It didn't occur to me because the way reflux showed up in the boys was through lots of spit up, vomiting, etc. Bella wasn't really spitting up all that much.

Because Bella's reflux is so bad, she was put on another reflux medicine to work in conjunction with the Zantac she's already taking. The doctor told me to watch for signs of dehydration over the next day or several days in case she decides to stop eating because she's in so much pain, and the new medicines may take a couple days to have an impact on her. Last night's feeding was very difficult; it took over an hour to get a 4 oz. bottle down her, and that while gagging, gulping, arching, and just generally not interested in eating. Lawrence and I prayed (several times), and the subsequent feedings have gone much better. I wondered if a bottle might be easier for her to take rather than dealing with my fast let down, but she's actually done better with me *reastfeeding her.

Even with this additional challenge, we have experienced much of God's mercy in the last 24 hours:

• Bella did relatively well with the testing yesterday.
• She does not have a rare defect called a vascular ring, something they were looking for in their testing yesterday that would have required surgery.
• She does have both tracheomalacia and laryngomalacia (if you want to know the difference between the two, let me know and I'll gladly share)...both defects within her airway that she will, God willing, grow out of. Despite the "double whammy", she is protecting her airway sufficiently and her oxygen levels are fine per the testing yesterday. This in itself is an amazing display to me of Ps. 139:14 and God's power to sustain.
• The Pharmacist was able to make the medicine Bella needed as it comes in tablet form and at an adult dose. Upon first calling in the prescription, the pharmacist was unsure whether or not she'd be able to get it made for us last night. She was, and we see God's mercy in this.
• Bella began to nurse better this morning and is having wet diapers again. Thank you, Lord!

Please continue to pray for us as Lawrence's work is piled high which means long days for both of us, Judah started with a cold last night and was up ??? times (I lost count) throughout the night, and Bella needs to keep eating well. Please pray her reflux will be well managed with the medicines she's on and that her yeast infection in her mouth will go away. Please pray that God will continue to show us His many mercies and keep us from falling prey to anxiety and mistrust of His goodness.

Thanks so much.