More to come later about this amazing vacation!
Sailing Vacation Pictures
November 30, 2011
What we have been doing lately and updates on Austin
So what has been going on with us? Well it has been 3 years since my last blog post! But I promise to be a better blogger! Since it has been so long I have remodeled the place with a new design and some new pages. Go check out the older posts of Noah, how cute is he!!
I first started this blog as a new parent, so excited about the joys of parenthood. It was easy to update with only one newborn, then Noah became a toddler, we had another baby and I lost the free time I once had to blog. With new adventures ahead, I hope to now use this blog to keep our friends and family up to date on what is going on in our life. I also hope to reach any parents that are suffering from Breath Holding Spells or Relex Anoxic Seizures because there is not a lot of information out there. If you want to know what has been going on in the last few years, see the About Us tab. To get an overview of the last few years with Austin, see the Living with BHS & RAS tab. Below was our last few weeks, we were busy!
November 10th-19th, 2011- We were on our amazing sailing vacation. The grandmas were watching the boys for us. Thank you Grandma and Nanny! There will be a seperate post about our vacation, because it deserves it. While we were gone Austin had a few breath holding spells that seemed to be getting progressively worse than the one before. The boys both did very well with Grandma and Nanny, although I think Grandma and Nanny were tired! :)
November 19th-22st, 2011 - We were trying to get life back to normal after our vacation, but so glad to be home. I really really missed my babies. Noah and Austin were suffering from mild seperation anxiety, which I was okay with, a few extra snuggles wasn't so bad. Howerver, this is when I started to video diary Austin's episodes. They seemed to be getting worse. Each episode seemed to be set off by some sort of anger or small injury. He will breath out, and never breath back in. He will lay on his side with his back arched, legs kicking, and hands turned inwards. His lips and fingers would turn very blue. This would last for 30 or so seconds. He would then pass out completely, almost snoring for another minute or so. Some episodes were worse than others, but they were more frequent.
November 23rd, 2011 7:04am - 2nd Reflex Anoxic Seizure. Adam was upstairs with Austin in Noah's room. I was down stairs trying to brine the turkey for Thanksgiving. Adam started yelling down to me to come immediately. Austin was trying to get on Noah's bed. Adam stopped him to fix his jammies, and he went into a BHS. Adam laid him on Noah's bed on his side to get through the spell. He had a typical BHS, but then started to seize. This is when Adam started to call for me. As I entered, he was on his side, very pale, and seizing. I called 911, then my mom. My mom beat the ambulance here, Noah and I went outside to see the ambulance arrive and to get him out of the room. Austin's seizure was 2 minutes long and was over by the time the ambulance arrived. They checked his vitals and they all seemed normal. We decided to not take him by ambulance to the ER, instead that we would take him over to the Children's Hospital Urgent Care, just a mile away. They were able to see us immediately. At triage, they checked his stats again, and all were normal. We told the doctor about the episode, she examined him and found an ear infection. Again something else viral that could have helped trigger the seizure. She then called Neurology to see if there was anything else that she needed to do. They released us, only to tell us again that this is NORMAL and that he will grow out of it. I was shaken and furious. We received a prescription for Diastat and Amoxicilion for the ear infection. I spent the rest of the day trying to locate some Diastat, an emergency medicine needed to stop a seizure over 3-5 minutes, because now we need to have it at home. With no luck, we had to order it for Friday after Thanksgiving. The day before a holiday is not a good day to go to a pharmacy.
I called his predication after we get home, she of course was out of town. Great timing, the attending physician recommended that I wait until the next week, that the matter didn't seem urgent enough to make a any decisions that day (and I am sure he had a big Thanksgiving planned, I would have hated to ruin that ;))So I decided to call Neurology at Children's Hospital without a referral. I explained my story and they were able to get me in on the following Monday.
November 28th, 2011- Neurology appointment at Children's Hospital. They take his weight and blood pressure. He was 17lbs 13 oz.. up almost 6 ounces from the Wednesday before! His blood pressure was a little high, so we will need to follow-up with Cardiology again. She undresses him down to a diaper, and watches him play. She interacts with him, while taking notes. She watches my videos of his episodes and reads my notes. Diagnosis- He is mentally normal and seems to be progressing very well in every area except for growth and walking. She isn't too worried about his lack of walking yet but we will need to re-evaluate that in 3 months. She doesn't know exactly what is growing on with him, but she does now that the severity of his spells and seizures is NOT NORMAL! Finally, what I needed to hear. She doesn't want to jump directly into drug therapy, and neither do we. We are starting off with Iron supplementation therapy. This has been documented to help reduce the severity and frequency of breath holding spells. Since he has Reflex Anoxic Seizures, which are triggered by a reflex and definitely more probable with a virus, if we remove the reflex (which for him is BHS) we should see a decrease in the seizures. The next step is to have an Echo Cardiogram performed. She wants to double check and make sure his heart is 100% functional, given his growth issues. Then in 3 months we will do a full brain MRI to check the brain stem for any defects. We will also follow up with Neurology in 3 months with our progress. I was pleased that we were able to see a Doctor that knows what the hell is going on, and is making a plan. My type A personality needed this!
November 29th, 2011 - Appointment with his pediatrician. On the morning of his pediatrician appointment, he is a normal happy baby and a hungry one! I couldn't give him enough food. On top of his good mood, he also did not have one breath holding spell! NOT ONE! He was even clocked in the head with a ball from his brother and recovered like a normal crying baby! This got me thinking, is the ear infection finally clearing up? All this time, has he been suffering from chronic fluid of the ears? Is this why he doesn't want to eat, pockets food, and might explain his not walking? This triggered a conversation with his doctor. She agrees with my assumptions, so we might as well see Ear Nose and Throat for possible tubes. Yes it is a procedure, but at least it is not drugs, and he might be happier.
FINALLY in the last few days I have my happy and somewhat healthy baby boy back. I hope we get to see him a lot more soon. We have had ZERO breath holding spells today, which for me is a big big celebration!
So our next steps are an appointment with ENT on December 15h. Continue the Iron therapy and schedule an Echo Cardiogram in the near future. Stay tuned for more!
I first started this blog as a new parent, so excited about the joys of parenthood. It was easy to update with only one newborn, then Noah became a toddler, we had another baby and I lost the free time I once had to blog. With new adventures ahead, I hope to now use this blog to keep our friends and family up to date on what is going on in our life. I also hope to reach any parents that are suffering from Breath Holding Spells or Relex Anoxic Seizures because there is not a lot of information out there. If you want to know what has been going on in the last few years, see the About Us tab. To get an overview of the last few years with Austin, see the Living with BHS & RAS tab. Below was our last few weeks, we were busy!
November 10th-19th, 2011- We were on our amazing sailing vacation. The grandmas were watching the boys for us. Thank you Grandma and Nanny! There will be a seperate post about our vacation, because it deserves it. While we were gone Austin had a few breath holding spells that seemed to be getting progressively worse than the one before. The boys both did very well with Grandma and Nanny, although I think Grandma and Nanny were tired! :)
November 19th-22st, 2011 - We were trying to get life back to normal after our vacation, but so glad to be home. I really really missed my babies. Noah and Austin were suffering from mild seperation anxiety, which I was okay with, a few extra snuggles wasn't so bad. Howerver, this is when I started to video diary Austin's episodes. They seemed to be getting worse. Each episode seemed to be set off by some sort of anger or small injury. He will breath out, and never breath back in. He will lay on his side with his back arched, legs kicking, and hands turned inwards. His lips and fingers would turn very blue. This would last for 30 or so seconds. He would then pass out completely, almost snoring for another minute or so. Some episodes were worse than others, but they were more frequent.
November 23rd, 2011 7:04am - 2nd Reflex Anoxic Seizure. Adam was upstairs with Austin in Noah's room. I was down stairs trying to brine the turkey for Thanksgiving. Adam started yelling down to me to come immediately. Austin was trying to get on Noah's bed. Adam stopped him to fix his jammies, and he went into a BHS. Adam laid him on Noah's bed on his side to get through the spell. He had a typical BHS, but then started to seize. This is when Adam started to call for me. As I entered, he was on his side, very pale, and seizing. I called 911, then my mom. My mom beat the ambulance here, Noah and I went outside to see the ambulance arrive and to get him out of the room. Austin's seizure was 2 minutes long and was over by the time the ambulance arrived. They checked his vitals and they all seemed normal. We decided to not take him by ambulance to the ER, instead that we would take him over to the Children's Hospital Urgent Care, just a mile away. They were able to see us immediately. At triage, they checked his stats again, and all were normal. We told the doctor about the episode, she examined him and found an ear infection. Again something else viral that could have helped trigger the seizure. She then called Neurology to see if there was anything else that she needed to do. They released us, only to tell us again that this is NORMAL and that he will grow out of it. I was shaken and furious. We received a prescription for Diastat and Amoxicilion for the ear infection. I spent the rest of the day trying to locate some Diastat, an emergency medicine needed to stop a seizure over 3-5 minutes, because now we need to have it at home. With no luck, we had to order it for Friday after Thanksgiving. The day before a holiday is not a good day to go to a pharmacy.
I called his predication after we get home, she of course was out of town. Great timing, the attending physician recommended that I wait until the next week, that the matter didn't seem urgent enough to make a any decisions that day (and I am sure he had a big Thanksgiving planned, I would have hated to ruin that ;))So I decided to call Neurology at Children's Hospital without a referral. I explained my story and they were able to get me in on the following Monday.
November 28th, 2011- Neurology appointment at Children's Hospital. They take his weight and blood pressure. He was 17lbs 13 oz.. up almost 6 ounces from the Wednesday before! His blood pressure was a little high, so we will need to follow-up with Cardiology again. She undresses him down to a diaper, and watches him play. She interacts with him, while taking notes. She watches my videos of his episodes and reads my notes. Diagnosis- He is mentally normal and seems to be progressing very well in every area except for growth and walking. She isn't too worried about his lack of walking yet but we will need to re-evaluate that in 3 months. She doesn't know exactly what is growing on with him, but she does now that the severity of his spells and seizures is NOT NORMAL! Finally, what I needed to hear. She doesn't want to jump directly into drug therapy, and neither do we. We are starting off with Iron supplementation therapy. This has been documented to help reduce the severity and frequency of breath holding spells. Since he has Reflex Anoxic Seizures, which are triggered by a reflex and definitely more probable with a virus, if we remove the reflex (which for him is BHS) we should see a decrease in the seizures. The next step is to have an Echo Cardiogram performed. She wants to double check and make sure his heart is 100% functional, given his growth issues. Then in 3 months we will do a full brain MRI to check the brain stem for any defects. We will also follow up with Neurology in 3 months with our progress. I was pleased that we were able to see a Doctor that knows what the hell is going on, and is making a plan. My type A personality needed this!
November 29th, 2011 - Appointment with his pediatrician. On the morning of his pediatrician appointment, he is a normal happy baby and a hungry one! I couldn't give him enough food. On top of his good mood, he also did not have one breath holding spell! NOT ONE! He was even clocked in the head with a ball from his brother and recovered like a normal crying baby! This got me thinking, is the ear infection finally clearing up? All this time, has he been suffering from chronic fluid of the ears? Is this why he doesn't want to eat, pockets food, and might explain his not walking? This triggered a conversation with his doctor. She agrees with my assumptions, so we might as well see Ear Nose and Throat for possible tubes. Yes it is a procedure, but at least it is not drugs, and he might be happier.
FINALLY in the last few days I have my happy and somewhat healthy baby boy back. I hope we get to see him a lot more soon. We have had ZERO breath holding spells today, which for me is a big big celebration!
So our next steps are an appointment with ENT on December 15h. Continue the Iron therapy and schedule an Echo Cardiogram in the near future. Stay tuned for more!
May 28, 2009
San Diego - 2 year Anniversary
We had such a great trip to San Diego. We were so busy with Grandma and Grandpa. We went to the Zoo, beach, LaJolla Cove, Seal Beach, Point Loma, Aquarium, and celebrated our two year Anniversary with a sunset dinner. It was a really awesome trip. Noah loved loved the beach. Although going to the beach was not as relaxing as I once remembered it. Adam and I were constantly trying to keep Noah from eating sand, wood pieces, and whatever else he could find on the beach. The sea gulls loved us, we always left them a treat. We also had an interesting trip to the pool, I don't really want to get into the details about the old man yelling at us, but just so I can remember it one day I must say this CAN YOU READ ENGLISH, THE RULES ARE WRITTEN IN ENGLISH!
Here are the pictures of our awesome trip!
THE END
Here are the pictures of our awesome trip!
May 20, 2009
9 Month check up
Noah did so well! I can't believe that he is already 9 months, it just seems crazy to me.
Stats:
Weight: 21 lbs (50th%tile)
Height: 31 in (90th%tile)
He is ahead of all of his milestones.
Crawling really fast
Pulling up on furniture
babbling mamama and dadada
putting toys in things
hates being diapered and clothed
will not stay still for 5 seconds
climbs the stairs
We are pretty sure that his first word is kitty or kikiki, he says it every time the cats are around.
We are leaving for San Diego tomorrow! I am so excited to let him see the beach because he loves his water video.
Stats:
Weight: 21 lbs (50th%tile)
Height: 31 in (90th%tile)
He is ahead of all of his milestones.
Crawling really fast
Pulling up on furniture
babbling mamama and dadada
putting toys in things
hates being diapered and clothed
will not stay still for 5 seconds
climbs the stairs
We are pretty sure that his first word is kitty or kikiki, he says it every time the cats are around.
We are leaving for San Diego tomorrow! I am so excited to let him see the beach because he loves his water video.
May 17, 2009
Balloon Launch!
We had such an amazing day! We started the day with the balloon launch at the gold course! Noah LOVED it.
Then we spent the day at Peter and Rachelle's doing yard work and work benches. It was a great time! Noah loves to eat dirt! I couldn't keep him out of it and he is so fast!
Then we spent the day at Peter and Rachelle's doing yard work and work benches. It was a great time! Noah loves to eat dirt! I couldn't keep him out of it and he is so fast!
May 13, 2009
The last 9 months....
Wow, I can't believe this is how long I was pregnant. The last 9 months have flown by, it is just amazing. Let me see if I can recap:
1-3 Months
Noah started smiling at 2 months. This is when I realized how much I love being a mother. Having your child smile back at you is an experience that cannot be explained.
We went to Texas to see my family in October. We had such a great time. This was Noah's first plane ride and he did amazing. Many people commented that they didn't know that there was a baby on the plane! During our trip Noah rolled over for the first time! It was amazing!
Shortly after our trip to Texas Noah started holding up his head during tummy time. This was when he really mastered rolling both directions. This became his way of getting around for a several months.
4 Months
Noah has now discovered his hands and his feet. Everything is in his mouth. I also got a new camera that I LOVE! We have also introduced the exersaucer into the family. This is the best invention so far, he loves to stand and play.
Noah has also started discovering his voices. He gets so excited and really loves to talk!
5 Months
Noah's first Christmas was so amazing. Everyone was so generous, and he was a great trooper. I think he was a little spoiled, but it was expected for his first Christmas.
6 Months
Noah has started sitting up on his own. This is a milestone that has pros and cons. I love it because he can entertain himself for a good 30 minutes, I hate it because he now sits up in his crib and cries when he should be sleeping. We are still breastfeeding, so I get up with him as much as I he needs, but we are starting to cry it out. Mommy needs more sleep, but it was a really hard transition. To celebrate 6 months we took a trip to the park with our new stroller, the Bob! I love my new stroller, it is a great addition to the family.
My little boy is so big! We have now moved to a big boy car seat! He is so much happier in this seat, and sleeps like a baby in it.
More to come.....
1-3 Months
Noah started smiling at 2 months. This is when I realized how much I love being a mother. Having your child smile back at you is an experience that cannot be explained.
We went to Texas to see my family in October. We had such a great time. This was Noah's first plane ride and he did amazing. Many people commented that they didn't know that there was a baby on the plane! During our trip Noah rolled over for the first time! It was amazing!
Shortly after our trip to Texas Noah started holding up his head during tummy time. This was when he really mastered rolling both directions. This became his way of getting around for a several months.
4 Months
Noah has now discovered his hands and his feet. Everything is in his mouth. I also got a new camera that I LOVE! We have also introduced the exersaucer into the family. This is the best invention so far, he loves to stand and play.
Noah has also started discovering his voices. He gets so excited and really loves to talk!
5 Months
Noah's first Christmas was so amazing. Everyone was so generous, and he was a great trooper. I think he was a little spoiled, but it was expected for his first Christmas.
6 Months
Noah has started sitting up on his own. This is a milestone that has pros and cons. I love it because he can entertain himself for a good 30 minutes, I hate it because he now sits up in his crib and cries when he should be sleeping. We are still breastfeeding, so I get up with him as much as I he needs, but we are starting to cry it out. Mommy needs more sleep, but it was a really hard transition. To celebrate 6 months we took a trip to the park with our new stroller, the Bob! I love my new stroller, it is a great addition to the family.
My little boy is so big! We have now moved to a big boy car seat! He is so much happier in this seat, and sleeps like a baby in it.
More to come.....
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