Brady is giving mommy gray hairs!

Since Brady has been born, he has been trying to worry his parents constantly with medical problems. We were worried before we ever met him as the doctor shared concerns about his ability to handle the labor due to an irregular heartbeat. The irregular heartbeat continued for his first few days of life. Even though the doctors were certain the condition would fix itself, it still left Adam and I worried about our new son. Of course the doctors were right, and soon the problem fixed itself.

Next was Brady's thyroid test. It had come back borderline, and we would have to take blood again. Like the first time, the doctors were confident everything would come back fine, which it did.

Most recently, we were sent back to Brenners Children's Hospital for an upper GI test. Brady has had a lot of spit up, and the night before we were going in for a routine doctor's visit, Brady had some yellow in his spit up. This made the doctor a little concerned that possibly something from his intestines or liver was backing up into his stomach. They sent me and Brady to the hospital that afternoon. Luckily Adam was able to get off work and join me.

Once there, Brady experienced and awful procedure. First they had to insert a tube through his nose and to his stomach to inject the barium. He was strapped to a board, stretched out with his arms above his head. Once he was ready, the X-ray machine stopped working. The young doctor (whom I believe to have been on his first day) had no idea what to do. I stood there with my screaming child as they tried to re-boot the system. It was clear that it was not coming back on. They had to take the tube out, move us to another room, strap him down again, and insert the tube a second time. It was almost too much for me watching him go through that a second time. Finally they had things rolling. The rocked the board back and forth while taking a syringe that looks like it was for an elephant, filled it with air and pushed it in and out of his stomach. I was allowed to stay at his head. All I could do is put my fingers in his little hands that were strapped above his head. He held on for dear life. The procedure felt like it took forever. In the end, it was decided that Brady has problems with reflux. Luckily it is not bad enough to need treatment, and there is really not much I can do for it.

Brady has put us through enough scares in his first month of life, then some children give their parents in several years. I don't think I can keep taking such a little body being poked and prodded on. At least every time it comes out to be nothing. Better safe than sorry, but it sure is hard on mommy!