Things happen so quickly...

Sigh...  We ended up in St. Louis Children's ER Thursday evening.  The past two days Melanie had been doing this thing where she was making a huge gasping noise.  It was very infrequent, so we didn't really worry about it a ton.  However, Thursday night she started doing it quite a bit.  I called the exchange and was advised to take her to the ER.  We didn't get much out of the ER visit.  We were offered two options.  Some things to try at home or steroids.  We decided to do the things at home since we were to follow up with her pediatrician in the morning. 

Up waaaaaaaaaaay past her bedtime.

Friday we saw doctor Madden.  (Who I think I would follow off a bridge.  We LOVE him.)  After hearing what was going on and examining her.  He told us that she has something with a long clinical name.  Many preemies that were born as early as her have this issue.  She has floppy lungs.  It just means that her lungs didn't completely develop.  They are a muscle, and hers is a bit floppy.  So when she is sick or has a cold, (which she has been,) she will get mucus plugged in there.  When she breathes it gets stuck and when the breath loosens the mucus it makes this gasping noise.  So...the gasping is a good thing.  It means she is unplugging the mucus.  According to her doc, she will always have floppy lungs.  However, she won't have the gasping problem when she gets older because her lungs will get bigger.  He drew us a diagram that made a ton of sense.  This may not.  Anyway, the long and short of it all is that it sounds really bad, but she will be okay as long as she can clear the mucus.  If she can't we will know because she will get blue and be having great difficulty breathing.  That's when we would call 911.  Hopefully that will NEVER happen.  She gave Mommy and Daddy quite a scare.  We are so relieved to hear that it's not anything serious.