Maddie had a great appointment with Dr. Lung today. It helped that Maddie was in a fantastic mood – smiling, laughing, and babbling like crazy. Dr. Lung about fell over when she walked into the room and was greeted with Maddie’s ramblings. “She is so talkative! Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!” Dr. Lung said. What she didn’t know is Maddie was saying, “Dr. Lung, you smell like a cutter. Stay away from my lung tissue!”
Dr. Lung surprised us by not taking an x-ray of Maddie’s chest. Instead, she and her on-the-sly Cystic Fibrosis nurse examined Maddie and said they were thrilled with how her lungs sounded. Of course, preemie lungs still sound like junk, but we’ll take what we can get. Based on her exam today, she is about 90% sure that Maddie has Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia. This is good because it means she’ll eventually outgrow all of this. It’s also bad, because there isn’t a cure until she gets bigger, so any little bug she catches in the meantime could lead to more hospitalizations. At this rate, Mike won’t let me take Maddie out of her bubble until she’s at least seven years old.
We don’t have the results back on the Cystic Fibrosis test, we should have those next week. Dr. Lung also wants to do the sweat test. We have to call a special technician to administer it. After that, we will be able to put CF to bed, one way or the other.
The other issue Dr. Lung brought up was Maddie’s weight. She is sooooo close to being ten pounds, but she just can’t quite get there. She’s been stuck between nine pounds nine ounces and nine pounds 12 ounces for the last month. Dr. Lung asked how often we feed her. Well, Dr, we feed her in the morning, and then we let her eat dog food all day. I mean, seriously. The baby eats and eats all day and doesn’t gain weight! I wish I was like that. The doctor mentioned meeting with a nutritionist, but we deferred and will speak with Maddie’s pediatrician (loooove) about it next week when we go in for her SIX MONTH check up.
I’m a little tired of the looks we get when people find out she’s almost six months old. I’m okay with her being small and everything, but I sometimes get tired of explaining WHY. Dr. Lung did say that the oxygen Maddie is on at night should help her burn less calories when she breathes, so hopefully she’ll start gaining soon. For now, I will have to be content with her still wearing newborn clothes. She’s like the skinny girl you know at work that wears a size zero. No normal person should be that size, but she’s so nice you can’t help but like her.
Gemini Girl says:
I knew her being small had to do with her burning those calories to breathe!
Hopefully you should see a diff soon, and when she does gain weight- she will have a huge growth spurt!
so glad things are going well! love the pics as always
Kristin.... says:
Glad things went well yesterday. Maddie is due for a huge growth spurt now! Then you won’t be able to keep her in clothes!
Shauna says:
Hi-I’m a total lurker, and I don’t even remember how I found your blog, but I’ve got a preemie too (3 1/2 pounder, almost a year old now), so I’ve been keeping up with Maddie a bit. Anyway, hurray for Maddie being out of the stinking hospital. Also, she’s so dang cute I think my head might explode.
Oh, and I really do have a point. I was just going to say that the size comments taper off after a while. Even though Lucy still isn’t on the charts at 15 pounds and almost a year old, it gets less evident as time goes on. The comments definitely get annoying, so I was glad when they stopped.
Grow Maddie, grow!!!
london2434 says:
i have trouble breathing all the time…up the subway stairs, running to work cause i’m late…and without the same results. sux!!
so glad to hear the bambino is back in good health and spirits. you and mike are amazing!!
mandy
Bec says:
I really hate that question “She’s so little, don’t you feed her?” *rolls eyes*.
You might know about this already, if you do I’m sorry for repeating it, we add carb powder to Erin’s milk for extra calories (30 cal per scoop at 1 scoop per 100ml). The stuff we use it called Poly Joule (I think it might be called Poly Cal in the US) but there’s one we can’t get here that I’d prefer to use called Duocal which has fats as well as carbs. The down side is that it constipates her.
newduck says:
I just found your blog through the bloggess and I’m glad I came over. I wrote a post called “Skinny baby” when mine was first born two months ago, and it’s funny to see another one. Love your blog!