We saw the nurse practitioner and i was very pleased with her. It's the first time we've seen her and she was very, very thorough. First she just observed his breathing while he was still sleeping in his carseat. She got him out and checked his color, felt his pulses, made sure he wasn't in any distress while trying to breathe, and otherwise looked him over. She called in another nurse and they checked his pulse and oxygen. His oxygen level was 100%--perfect, but his pulse was 180. A normal newborn heart rate is 120-160. His respiratory rate was around 75 (normal is <60). She listened to his heart and lungs and said they sounded great, she heard nothing abnormal. After gathering all the information she brought in the doctor to get a quick second opinion. Ryan was pretty upset by this point as he had been messed with and undressed for awhile, so we made him a bottle. The doctor was pleased with how well he was eating, he was gaining weight like he should, everything looked and sounded good...just the numbers (breathing and heart rate) were too high! They decided to send us to a cardiologist to make sure nothing was wrong, and they got us an appointment first thing the next morning.
Friday morning we got up bright and early and made it to the cardiologist's office on time. (That's a first for me!) The nurses undressed him (he really, really does not like that) and hooked him up to a bunch of things. They did an EKG to monitor his heart, counted his respiratory rate, and checked his heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen. This time his heart rate was fine...when he finally calmed down! It was in the 180s when he was agitated, but they said that's perfectly normal. The EKG, blood pressure, and oxygen level were all normal. But still his breathing was too fast. The doctor came in and looked over all the info and did an exam. Again he basically repeated what the pediatrician said: Everything looks and sounds great, he's just breathing too fast. He decided to do an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) to double-check. The echo was a looooong process but Ryan did amazingly well considering. He had to lay there cold and naked for 45 minutes while the tech smeared goo all over his chest and poked and prodded. We kept him as calm as we could, but he was understandably not a happy baby. I hated watching it and paced the room most of the time. After the doctor reviewed it he said that he saw no abnormal findings. Ryan does, however, have PPS, which is a narrowing of the vein that goes from the heart to the lungs. This is apparently a fairly "normal" finding in newborns and generally corrects itself as he grows. He also has the little hole in the heart that all babies are born with and it usually closes on it's own as he grows. So the cardiologist gave us the all-clear.
The pediatrician called us right before lunch to check on Ryan and see how everything went at the cardiologist. After hearing about our visit she decided to get a chest x-ray and bloodwork right away since it was Friday afternoon and she wanted the results back before the weekend. So...we then had to go to Pediatric Urgent Care to get everything done. For the bloodwork they pricked his heel and then squeezed drop by drop of blood out of his foot. It took FOREVER. I had to try to keep him calm the whole time and he did pretty good. They sent us to the waiting room until the x-ray people were ready for us. But a minute later they came back in and said they had to RE-DO the entire thing and get blood from a vein. I was pretty upset by this, and i cried when they stuck him with the needle. It was the first time i've cried in front of strangers in a long time. Ryan, of course, was crying too. It didn't take too long and we got him calmed down just in time for the x-ray people to call us.
The x-ray was the absolute worst experience ever. Because they needed a chest x-ray they had him lay on his back (cold and naked, of course) and Jake had to hold his arms tightly above his head and i had to hold his legs still. Ryan was soooo upset and screaming and had huge, giant little tears in his eyes. It was absolutely awful. Having to hold him down like that and him not understanding why just killed me. The x-ray tech was very sympathetic and tried to be as fast as possible but it still wasn't nearly fast enough. She'd get one shot and i'd pick him up and cry with him and cuddle him and he'd calm down...and then we'd have to do the whole process over again. She took 3 x-rays and then i finally cuddled my baby and promised him we were done and we'd go home. He calmed down quickly and we left. He slept the whole way home.
After all the stuff we put him through we found out...that he's perfectly healthy. His heart, lungs, kidneys, blood and everything else came back absolutely normal. We still have no idea why he's breathing so fast, but the pediatrician thinks he'll just eventually grow out of it as he gradually gets to "normal". I was really upset that i put him through all that for nothing, however now that it's over i'm glad we got him checked out. I was worried and i would have continued to be worried had i not questioned it. And if something *had* been wrong and i didn't get it checked out i never would have forgiven myself.
So after a really long week we are happy to say we have a healthy little baby! As of Friday at the cardiologist he weighs 8lb 15oz and is 22 inches long.
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