EEG Results

I just got a call from the neurologist. Even though Glenn has abnormal activity in the spot in his brain that has a calcification, the neurologist doesn't think that it will cause a seizure. He'll always have some sort of abnormal activity in that spot. So, we're going to start weaning him off his meds. It's kind of scary, but exciting, too if he can stay off them.

I went in to Glenn's class today for his birthday. I had them help me make cupcakes. My mom had given me a cupcake kit that has different shapes you put together to make animals. We made a fish cake. The kids loved it and I had a lot of fun. If I have time later, I'll post some pictures. But I need to finish packing first. We're going to Disney for the weekend for Glenn's b-day and I've hardly starting packing.

Alex slept through the night last night. He went to sleep at about 6:45 and didn't get up until 6:15. That means I slept through the night for the first time in probably over a year. When I was pregnant, I always woke up to go to the bathroom. I woke up about 10 minutes before Alex did. When I looked at the clock, I paniced. I thought I heard Alex crying and checked the monitor to see if it was on. It was. Then I went to outside Alex's door and didn't hear anything. So, I let him be and went back to bed. It was the rain that I had heard and misinterpretted as crying. The mind can do crazy things. So, then I laid in bed hoping he was okay because he had his immunizations yesterday. But I kept telling myself that that shouldn't have caused any problem because he's had the same set at least 2 times prior. So, I just laid there trying to convince myself to go back to sleep. Then I heard Alex make some noise and I felt much better. Glenn arrived at my door shortly, so Alex must have heard Glenn come out of his room. Of course I'm very excited he slept through the night, but I have to keep reminding myself that one night does not make a pattern. So, this does not mean he'll sleep through the night tonight. But if he does wake in the middle of the night, I know I'll be very disappointed. In the meantime, I'm just happy that I got to sleep through the night.

Glenn loves to ride his trike, but he's just getting too big for it. We have been working on him to ride his big boy bike, and suddenly he figured it out. He's doing really well and he rode it to the park yesterday. It was a little scary because he can really get moving. Here's a picture of him on his bike when we got back from the park (it looks dark out in the picture, but it was just only starting to get dark):

Here's another picture of Glenn bowling with Daddy on the Wii:


Alex is still waking up twice a night, even with all the pacifiers in his crib. However, he's not usually awake for an hour when he wakes up. So, that's progress.

I was hoping to have had a full night's sleep last night, but it didn't happen. Bob was going to sleep in Alex's room so that he could take care of Alex when he woke up and not bother me. Well, it didn't happen. I hear Alex screaming at 1:30 and heard that Bob was warming a bottle. So, I stayed in bed. It was quiet while Alex was eating. Then the screaming began again. So, I was up by 2:00 and fed Alex while Bob went back to our bed. I guess a bottle is no substitute for Mommy in the middle of the night. Then, of course, I couldn't get back to sleep for another half hour. So, I was up for an hour during the night anyway. At least he didn't get up again until almost 6. I was just so sad that I couldn't get even one night of sleep. :(

Glenn had a teddy bear picnic at school yesterday. The class was cute all carrying their teddy bears at pick-up. One of the papers he brought home was of him trying to recreate the shapes that the teacher had drawn on the paper (X's, O's and squares). I asked him what the X's were and he said they were crosses. Also, last Sunday, his Sunday school teacher gave me some papers for him to look at during church and it had Jesus on them as an adult. Keeping in mind that we just had Christmas, Glenn kept asking where Baby Jesus was. I kept telling him that Jesus grew up and is an adult in the picture, but he continued to ask where Baby Jesus was. It was so cute.

Glenn had his EEG today. Bob took him, and he said Glenn did very well. He stayed very still while the wires were put in his hair and he fell asleep pretty quickly when they were ready for him to. That's because I got him up at 5 am to the detriment of my day (I took a nap when Alex napped this morning or else I wasn't going to make it to lunch). And poor Glenn was so tired tonight that he didn't even want a bath. They left an electrode on his chest, so I had to carefully scrape it off. He had such a long day that he lost it and cried until I got it off. I would have just ripped it off quickly like a bandaid, but I had a bad experience with an electrode when I gave birth to Alex- it took a patch of my skin with it. So, I took my time taking it off him even though he was so upset- but I didn't get any skin, so it was worth it. He fell asleep very quickly tonight.

It was in the teens this morning! My dad emailed me in an attempt to make me feel better by telling me that it was just 2 in CT. I put a hat on Glenn before taking him to school and he asked if he was going to play in the snow and moved his arms like he was making a snow angel. Such a cutie!!! It was definitely cold enough for snow, but the atmosphere has been very dry the past couple days. It's supposed to be in the upper 60s tomorrow. We're looking forward to that.

We're all sick here. It started with runny noses in the boys. Then Bob started not feeling well, and today it was my turn to join the misery. Poor Alex wakes up with snot all over his face because he usually rolls to his tummy while he's sleeping. It was in his hair this morning, too. Yuck!

Glenn made it the whole day today without having an accident (we're talking potty talk here). We were so proud of him. He did wear a diaper to his EEG, but it was dry. It's rarely his idea to go to the bathroom, we keep reminding him to go. Usually he says he doesn't have to go, but we insist. I think he's going to stick with it this time. I've very excited.

Then there's Alex and night time. A friend recommended putting several pacifiers in the crib so that when he wakes up, he can find one and plug his mouth and fall back to sleep. I bought several yesterday and we tried it last night. He was awake still for an hour (even though I fed him half way through the hour), but he didn't wake up until 2:30, which I think is the latest he's ever woken up for the first time during the night. And he wasn't screaming because he had a pacifier in his mouth. It was more of a whine. So, we'll see how it goes.

I think I just wrote a book- I guess we have a lot going on. I think I'll go get ready for bed so I can get to sleep early tonight.

This isn't right...

I know I shouldn't be complaining to all you northerners, but it's cold here. It was in the 20's this morning, and my hands almost froze off while I was pumping gas. There were even puddles frozen over. But at least it'll be getting to 46 this afternoon. Friday it's supposed to be 70! I don't remember such fluctuations in the weather last year. I remember a couple of mornings being in the 30s, but not weather we've been having lately.

Anyway, on to the good news. Glenn was dry the whole time at school yesterday and loved telling his teacher he was in underwear. He gave me the whole run-down of the day- telling his teachers, "Potty! Potty!", going to the potty, Diego underwear, high fives! He was actually dry all day yesterday until after he got off the phone with Nana and Papa- then he had an accident. He felt really bad. But I was very proud of how he did yesterday. He was very excited to wear underwear again to school today.

I had my semiannual visit with my nephrologist today (kidney doctor). I had a good check-up. My creatinine level is stable (shows how much protein waste is in the blood, higher number means that the kidneys aren't filtering out that waste as well)- it was 1 right after giving birth, and is still 1. My uric acid (can cause gout and kidney stones) is kind of high, but that's to be expected since I'm just using diet to keep it low and no medication while I'm still nursing Alex. It was 9 (it's usually 4.5 when I'm medicated). So, it's low enough that I get to continue nursing Alex until he's a year, at which point I'll go back on medication and will be able to eat meat again-Yay!! (sorry Lisa!)

Nights are still tough with Alex. He just can't seem to go to sleep in the middle of the night unless I feed him. Any other time, it's not a problem. I'm completely exhausted because since we've started this sleep training thing, he's up a whole hour in the middle of the night. Two nights ago, once he finally fell asleep, it took me a while to go back to sleep. That just made things worse. He's got to get it soon, or else I won't be able to keep this up.

Bob's nursing his Wii shoulder. But he'll work through the pain. He thinks he'll be more fit on his right side than the left.

Glenn went to school wearing underwear today. I hope he's doing well. He did so well over this long weekend. I think he only had 2 accidents (not counting the night). He's even been staying dry through his nap. So, hopefully he did well enough. I'm not expecting him to be perfect, and neither is his teacher. She suggested once he made it to the toilet 50% of the time to send him in underwear. But I would have felt to guilty. I'm excited to hear how he did.

We got a Wii this weekend. Bob had been trying to find one for a couple of weeks now, and finally found one yesterday. It's a lot of fun. I say this because I can actually beat him at some of the sports. I beat him twice in bowling and once in boxing (he hasn't won in those two sports at all). The boxing is really a good workout. I guess I should mention that Bob does win in tennis. He also got Guitar Hero, but we can't play the drum set when the boys are sleeping- TOO LOUD!

Since there's no school tomorrow, a bunch of moms (and kids) are meeting at the park by our house tomorrow morning. So, we're looking forward to that. Hopefully it'll be in the 50's by then since it's supposed to be really windy. I am sorry to hear it's so cold up north. We had a couple from Ohio visiting at church today, and they said they had come here for the warmth, but was a bit disappointed since we had a few cold days here (40s and low 50s). Reminds me of when Bob and I went to Disney in December one year and it was the longest cold snap they'd had in many years. I think it was actually warmer in CT than it was in Orlando while we were there.

Now I'm rambling, so I'll just go back to reading my book...

Making Progress

Alex tried a new food today. He loves nectarines, or at least doesn't spit it out or try to vomit. But he is getting very smart- he'd still rather not eat solid food, so it's a pain to convince him to open his mouth. Anytime the spoon comes near, he clamps his mouth shut. Previously, we had tried rice cereal and sweet potatoes. You'd think I was trying to poison him. He hated them. We'll try them again in a couple of weeks. I'm just happy he'll eat something. He ate a half an ounce at dinner, which is quite a bit for his little tummy.

He also did well sleeping last night. He went to bed around 7:00, woke at midnight, 4:30, and 6:00. I did feed him for 2 minutes after giving him a chance to try to go back to sleep. I was happy he slept for 4 and a half hours after his first waking. Usually it's every 2 or 3 hours after he first wakes up. So, that's progress. And tonight, I'll only feed him for one minute when he won't go back to sleep. Tomorrow night will really be the test as I won't feed him at all.

Not much to tell about Glenn. I don't have as many stories about him when he's in school for half the day and sleeping for usually 2 hours in the afternoon. We are still trying to potty train him. He's pantsless when he's home (and not sleeping). We find he's much less likely to have accidents if he's not wearing anything. Today, he must have gone to the potty 50 times because every time he's actually productive on the potty, he gets a little snack. He would be so frustrated when he couldn't produce anything even though he'd just gone 5 minutes before. We're really frustrated with the whole potty training thing, but hopefully this tactic will help him. When he's wearing a diaper or underwear, he doesn't care if he goes, and is too busy to be bothered with going to the potty.

Alex did fairly well sleeping last night. He fell right to sleep at bedtime. I did feed him when he woke at 11:30. At 2:00, I kept going in to check on him while he cried for 45 minutes, until I gave in and fed him for a few minutes. Then he didn't wake until 5:30 (fed him again). I'm going to try to wean him from the night feedings, but would feed him at 5:30. He woke a few times before I went to bed last night, and cried for 20 seconds and went right back to sleep. So, that's a good sign. Hopefully it'll get better each night.

Here's a picture of him laying on the floor. I would think that he'd lose blood in his feet keeping them in the air so long.

Sleep Training is on!

We had a tough night last night. Alex woke up 5 times. Ugg! So, we're back to sleep training again. He's definitely old enough. But it's so hard to hear him cry (especially when I'm trying to sleep). I've taken the paci away, because that's what worked for Glenn. He's in his crib right now screaming because he can't fall asleep without it. It's going to be a long day (and night). I had to go out shopping this morning just so I could buy some coffee because I was all out. Part of the problem is that he'll roll to his tummy some times and can't get back over because he's all worked up. He will roll back to his back when he's playing, but he's more focused then. Please pray for us that we make it through these next few days with our sanity intact, and hopefully Alex will start sucking his thumb or find some other way to sooth himself.

Glenn had a neurology appt yesterday. It's been almost 2 years since his last seizure. He's been on the same dose of meds since March of 2 years ago. So, we're going to have an EEG next week to see if he has any seizure activity going on in his brain. An EEG is where they put a bunch of electrodes on his scalp and look at the brain waves when he's awake and asleep. If there isn't any seizure activity, then we're going to try to wean him off the meds and see how he does. This makes me a little nervous since he's at school 5 days a week, and when he has a seizure, he just sits there and stares. So, it'll be hard for the teachers to notice. We might decide to wait until summer to wean him off and not have him go to summer school. But first we need to see the results of the EEG before we have to make that decision.

Last year in school, Glenn got kicked in the mouth while they were all being worms or something. The roots to his 2 front teeth have been slowly disintegrating since then. I noticed one was really loose this weekend and he was complaining that it hurt. So, I brought him to the dentist this morning. She pulled one tooth, and we're going to hold on to the other as long as we can. I have to talk to his speech therapist about when he loses the other tooth. The dentist recommends a partial to put in since his speech is still developing. Poor kid. He was so good about it and is happy it doesn't hurt anymore:


Here is a slide show of pictures from our trip to CT:

Alex Cut a Tooth

Alex cut his first tooth today. He's been working on his two bottom front teeth for a couple months. One finally broke through and I'm sure the other will happen in the next few days. We had a horrible night last night. He woke up 4 times after I went to bed, so I hardly felt like I slept last night. He hasn't been napping well the past few days, either. So, now we know why. Poor little guy!

Glenn had so much fun playing outside in the snow today. He played with his Uncle Brad this morning. After his nap, we went over to Uncle Brad's house and Glenn got to ride on Brad's 4-wheeler. We also went sledding. He has the best yard for sledding. He was completely worn out tonight.

We are enjoying our time with our family in CT. We left Christmas day to drive up and it was easy traveling that first day. However, we had difficulty finding a place to eat dinner with everything closed. We stayed overnight just north of Richmond, VA. The day after Christmas had a lot more traffic, but we expected it. It was warm when we got here, but the weather has turned. We drove in a snow storm yesterday to get from my parents' to Bob's parents' house. But we made it safely. Glenn kept saying, "Snowman" when he looked at it snowing outside. His cousins went playing in the snow with him yesterday while it was still snowing. He really enjoyed it, but wasn't able to make a snowman since it wasn't the right kind of snow. We woke to 15 degrees today with a wind chill below 0 this morning. Bob decided the best thing for him to do was to just go back to sleep. Glenn just wants to go outside and play in the snow. I think we'll have to wait until this afternoon when the temp reaches 26 (brrr). You'll have to wait for pictures. I didn't bring the cable to go between my camera and computer. We'll be going home early next week (weather permitting).