Backtracking....

I don't normally like to try to play catch-up on the blog, but I wanted to post about Logan's perfect attendance award. On the last day of school they presented the perfect attendance medals to all the kids who didn't miss a single day of school. Logan got a medal for the 2nd year on a row! Pretty crazy, huh! My kids don't seem to get sick very often and Logan really loves school and doesn't want to miss it. We were really proud of him!
After the medals were given out all the recipents got to go to the cafeteria with their parents and have donuts and juice with the principal. There were a few other kids from our ward that got the award too. I felt bad for Mason because he only missed 1 day of school, but there's no award for that. I gave him one of my old medals from junior high and said it was the "Almost Perfect Attendance" award. He seemed okay with that.
Today we'll be taking Logan to get an MRI like Noah had a few months ago. They just want to check that Logan doesn't have a similar brain problem as Noah. Wish us luck!

Kids say.....

I know no one is reading our blog anymore because I only seem to update once every 4 months!!! Oh well, life is busy. I feel a new resolve to be better at using this blog as a journal, to update more often, and to blog about everyday life- not just the big events. Here's my jumpstart effort! The summer has been pretty boring so far. We did just go camping for a couple days, that has been the highlight so far. I'll post on that soon. I just had to get the ball rolling.

Today, Noah asked if he could watch the movie "the Chronicles of Narnia". He means the first one. Roman got all excited and said, " I wanna watch the "barnicles of marnia!!" I just laughed and said, "sure! you can watch the barnicles of marnia!" I love it when he says things wrong!

Photography blog updates!

I've been updating my photography blog with some fun pics of the boys. They're such good little models. I also did a fun shoot with this engaged couple. Become a follower of my blog so you can keep up with my updates!

Noah's 24 hour EEG

So this time we went to a company who is contracted to do the 24 hr. EEG's. We went to this office and the technician was just soooo sweet to Noah! She knew just what to say to make him comfortable and happy. He got to watch a movie while she applied all the electrodes, etc.... Since this was his second time he was much more relaxed than the first. She told Noah he was getting a special space helmut like Buzz Lightyear and a spaceranger computer. He was so excited about that.
Here he is getting the electrodes attached with a special glue.

Once they got all the electrodes on she covered it all up with layers of stretchy gauze so he couldn't take the electrodes off. We were to write down most of his activites over the next 24 hrs. especially when he went to sleep and if he woke up at all in the night. Dave had to sleep on the floor in Noah's room that night to moniter him. Noah did great and never bothered with his "hat" until an hour before his appointment to get it all off. I was feeding Baron and looked up and he'd pulled his hat off! The pic below is what he looked like after that. I kind of gently tried to cover his head back up with the leftover gauze.

you can see all the wires sticking out from underneath the hat.

Here he is with the electrodes glued on his forehead.

the pic below is from the first day when he was all done being fitted with the hat and he had his little computer battery pack in his fanny pack.

We love our little Noah so much, even more now that he's being put through all of this. He's been so brave and such a little trooper. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers on his and our behalf. I'll update more on his diagnosis later.

Noah's EEG experiences

Well, we've had a busy last couple of months. We took Noah to Sutter Roseville Hospital to get an EEG, electroencephalogram- {taken from WebMD} a test that measures and records the electrical activity of your brain. Special sensors (electrodes) are attached to your head and hooked by wires to a computer. The computer records your brain's electrical activity on the screen or on paper as wavy lines. Certain conditions, such as seizures, can be seen by the changes in the normal pattern of the brain's electrical activity. EEG is the most useful and important test in confirming a diagnosis of epilepsy.

Here's our sweet little Noah, all happy and excited to take the test. We were instructed to keep him up until midnight the night before and then wake him up at 5am and give him a big pancake breakfast. Basically, they wanted him sleep deprived and full and happy to take a nap. We tried to prepare him a bit ahead of time but it wasn't enough. When we got into the testing room he started to get a bit scared. (He's been through a lot lately). It took us an HOUR to get him to finally let the technician to prep him for the test. The prep work takes a long time too!

(Here he is giving himself "bunny ears")

First the guy needed to draw blue dots all over his head where he would place the electrodes. Then he rubs the dots off with a q-tip. Then he puts a glop of glue on all the dots where he then placed the electrodes and covered them with cotton balls. There were 32 electrodes all over his head and a couple on his chest and neck. He was violently fighting us to avoid all this. It was very sad to make him do it. Once he gave in he realized it didn't hurt and he was okay with it all. Once he was all prepped the tech turned the lights off and told him to get comfortable and take a nap. He just sat on Dave's lap and slept there. He only got to sleep for like 30 minutes then the test was done. We were glad to be done and get home. I took him to Target afterward to get an ICEE and pick a toy for being so good.

We also took him a week later to do an MRI-Magnetic Resonance Imaging
{WebMD}
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a test that uses a magnetic field and pulses of radio wave energy to make pictures of organs and structures inside the body. In many cases, MRI gives different information about structures in the body than can be seen with an X-ray, ultrasound, or computed tomography (CT) scan. MRI also may show problems that cannot be seen with other imaging methods.

For this test we had to go downtown. He had to be given general anesthesia for this one. That was a little scary but he's done that twice before with his eye surgeries so we're used to it. He prepared him better this time so he wasn't as scared. He did so well! No pictures to share from that because we couldn't be with him during that. He was pretty funny coming out of the anesthesia. He couldn't walk too well and then was just really cranky. He kept demanding chocolate. That's not really like him at all so we kind of giggled. When we met with the Pediatric Neurologist we were informed that the EEG results came back abnormal and that we would need more testing. GREAT! So glad to hear! (heavy sarcasm) I've got more pics from our next adventure, the 24 HOUR EEG!!! Stay tuned.....

Our Scarey Experience....

(Noah getting a CT scan)

We've had quite a crazy last 6 months with hospital visits. On February 3rd, our sweet little Noah had a seizure in the car while I was driving home from his opthamologist appt. downtown. After his appt. we met Dave for lunch and then began the 30 min drive home. Noah fell asleep on the drive home so I wasn't really paying attention to him in the backseat. When we were almost home I heard some noises back there and figured he was waking up. When I looked in the mirror he looked a little odd and falling over in his seat. I asked him if he was okay and he didn't answer me. I noticed that his head was turning to one side repetatively and he started drooling. I knew then that something was wrong. It's kind of weird but I remembered my dog doing the same head movement and drooling the day we had to put her to sleep. I realized he must be having a seizure. I was nearing the freeway exit home but I didn't know what to do. I decided quickly to get back on the freeway and I called 911. They met me when I pulled over into a business park nearby. Needless to say I was crying uncontrollably and totally scared for my sweet little Noah. The firetruck arrived first then an ambulance. They checked him out and put him on a gerny(sp?). The rushed him to the ER and I followed behind. I called Dave in a complete panic and told him to meet us at the ER.
To make a long story shorter....he was given anti-seizure meds in the ambulance and put on an IV and oxygen when he got to the ER. He started to return to normal slowly. He was very scared and crying so we tried to distract him with the red light attached to his finger. We told him it was a laser like Buzz Lightyear. So he lasered everything in the room. He became happier until they gave him a catheter! (Yikes) They ordered a CT scan and the results showed a part of his brain that hadn't completely formed together. That made him more susceptible to seizures. They sent us home with instructions to meet with a pediatric neurologist and to have an MRI and EEG done ASAP. He's been doing just fine since we got home but we're all a little scared. He is such a trooper, he has been through soooo much and always has such a sweet smile on his face. We were so blessed to have so many caring friends and family there for us, praying for Noah and keeping us in their thoughts. We'll update as we get more test results, etc.... We would appreciate your prayers for Noah.

(Noah's laser finger that kept him happy!)

BWO!!

Okay, now that I have 5 kids I have a completely legitimate reason to become a fairweather blogger. I have now decided to take up the mindset of BWO: Blogging Without Obligation. I have enough in my life to be stressed about, I cannot stress myself out over not blogging in two months. HEY, I just had a baby for crying out loud! That's the best excuse there is besides dying really. So now, I am back into the swing of things a bit but I won't be blogging as often as I used to I'm afraid. So maybe I'll try to make my posts longer when I do, or I'll make multiple posts when I finally get around to it. We'll see. I'm lifting the burden off of my shoulders, I refuse to feel guilty for not blogging. So THERE!
Here's my cute little baby bear smiling! He's such a little cute muffin! He's really grinning a lot now. Especially when he wakes up in the morning. No laughing yet, but we'll get there. We've got him on Prevacid now for acid reflux and that seems to help with his crankiness. It's hard to enjoy his cuteness when he's crying all the time! He seems much happier now. What a relief! And incase you're wondering, even when he was cranky all the time, he actually slept pretty well at night, like 6 hours straight. Thanks for checking up on us, I'll be blogging more I think but without guilt.