Leah's Health Scares

Leah was born with a sacral dimple. Kason has one, too, but his is very shallow and was never cause for concern. Leah's dimple is deep and our pedi could not see the bottom. Deep sacral dimples can be an indicator of a spinal cord problem, such as spina bifida or a tethered cord. Because Leah's is so deep, our pedi ordered an ultrasound while we were in the hospital.

Kyle and I were really not concerned at all since Kason also has one and it has never been an issue. After the techs came in to do Leah's ultrasound, though, we got a little worried. The ultrasound seemed to take FOREVER and the techs, of course, refused to tell us anything. Our wonderful nurse knew how worried we were and bugged the techs and our pedi for any info she could get.

Shortly before our pedi called Kyle to tell him what was going on, the nurse came in to tell us she spoke with him and he said that while the ultrasound did rule out spina bifida, it was inconclusive. We later found out the inconclusive part was that Leah might have a tethered cord, which would require spinal surgery to fix.

After our 2-week checkup, Dr. P referred us to a neurosurgeon at the Children's Hopsital. We went in to that appointment a couple of weeks later and were scared, to say the least. We knew that in all likelihood, the neurosurgeon would want an MRI and Leah would need to be sedated.

Imagine our surprise and joy when the neurosurgeon took one look at Leah's sacral dimple and said she was fine. He was not as gentle as the nurses and our pedi. He spread her little butt cheeks apart and said, "see that? There's the bottom of the dimple. Your pedi was just too gentle.". Hallelujah! He does still want to take a peek at the ultrasound images since the radiologist said she had a borderline thickened terminal filum, which is an indicator of tethered cord syndrome. At this point, he is convinced that no further testing will be needed and Leah is 100% okay.

In other news, Leah has a skin tag on her ear, so we have also been referred to a plastic surgeon to have it removed. She ALSO has an umbilical hernia. Her pedi said it will most likely resolve by age 3 and if it hadn't by that point, we would talk surgery. It is already going down, though, and I don't think anyone else would even notice it at this point. I will probably scream, though, if surgery and my baby is mentioned again!

The last health issue we have going on is lack of weight gain. Our little Leah is quite the lazy nurser. We have struggled getting weight on her, but I think I've finally managed to get a system down that is working. Since we have a baby scale at home, I am doing weighed feedings to make sure she gets a minimum of 22 oz, but shooting for 25 oz a day. So far, so good. With nursing 8-10 times a day and following feedings of less than 2 ounces up with a bottle of pumped milk, she has put on 6 ounces in the past 4 days. I am so happy I was able to manage without using formula and hope we can keep the improved weight gain up!

So, after all of our issues, we are thrilled to say that Leah seems to be happy and healthy!