But things aren't apparently that easy...
Cooper goes to bed around 8pm every night. Occasionally he will wake up between 1-4 for a bottle but usually it is him telling us he needs more baby food. But if he is up all night- something is going on.
About 2 weeks ago Cooper went to bed like usual and woke up around 10:30pm screaming at the top of his lungs. The rest of the night he only slept for 45 minutes at a time and by 4am a fever showed up. By the morning, he wouldn't let you near his ears. So we rushed to the doctor first thing (for his march sick visit - cause the kid goes every month!).
We go to Pediatrics Associates of Richmond, which also happens to be the same practice I attended from birth - 18 years. I remember when this doctor we were scheduled to see started working at the practice... but I suppose that is unimportant.
He basically said that he thought it was crazy that I hadn't taken Cooper to an ENT specialist and planted many seeds of doubt in the originial, unofficial diagnosis. He was concerned that Cooper could have an abscess or a growth and we wouldn't have any idea because it was never definitely diagnosed (although it was HIS PARTNERS that told us an ENT consultation wasn't necessary.)
Needless to say, the doctor said Cooper did in fact have an ear infection and he suggested a couple ENTs along with his script.
So we went to see the an ENT this morning. I will skip the part about how we had to wait an hour to see a doctor and the part about how nobody seemed to think they were unprofessional (for making us wait without any heads up and getting a 6 month old baby completely off of his schedule) and move straight to the important part.
They used a scope, not any more invasive than the tubes they used for the deep suctioning in the hospital (i.e. no sedative or straight jacket necessary, thank God!) and were able to watch Cooper's throat and voice box move as he breathed and cried.
The conclusion... Cooper does not have Tracheomalacia but actually Laryngomalacia (great a whole new word to train myself to say!). The difference is apparently very small since, none of the doctors we have seen until today have corrected us (probably a total of 10).
What does this change? Nothing really but now we can confident that we know what is going on. Now that I have seen the movement of his larynx while listening to him breath, I feel waaay more confident that I will be able to assess a more serious situation should that arise. I know what to listen for and I know what should cause concern.
They want us to go back in June to look at his larynx again to be sure it is improving but the doctor seems to think all should be well by 12 months.
So bittersweet to think my sweet baby Coop won't always be my SQUEAKY baby Coop!
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