New mama, new blogger

Ethan Michael (and daddy)

5 weeks old

Hello my name is Jenn and I am a new mom and blogger!! On April 10, 2007 at 5:14 am I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy Ethan Michael he was 7 lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long. (exact same measurements as I was). Daddy (Jake) despite what we all in the family had thought was there and conscious for the entire birth. I've never felt so loved by him in the entire 3 years we have been together. We really surprised not only each other but ourselves with the amount of strength we had to get through labor as well as we did. We both LOVE being parents more than either of us could have imagined.



I have decided to blog as sort of an outlet now that I am a stay at home mom. I've also decided to blog because Ethan's great grandma Bev is a blogger and through her blogs she asked for prayer and support of alot of you fellow bloggers out there to help Jake and I through a very tough time after Ethan's birth. I CAN'T THANK YOU ALL ENOUGH!!!! (you know who you are).

When Ethan was just 5 days old he started to have seizures. I've never been so scared and unsure of the future in my entire life. Jake and I took him to our local hospital ER in Bellingham where the poked him and tested him for every infection and possible cause that is the most dangerous for infants. I guess the list is very long for what can cause seizures in infants so they usually test for the worst things first. After about 4 hours of unknowns Ethan was admitted to the hospital and would have an MRI the next day. Needless to say it was quite a restless night. The next morning the Pediatrician came top tell us that all his initial tests were coming back normal and no infections were showing but that the MRI machine at the hospital was not properly equipped enough to monitor an infant his size while he was under anesthesia. So they then told us we were going to be sent to Children's Hospital in Seattle by ambulance. At first I was nervous and unsure of how to feel. I felt better after a few hours because I knew that taking him there he would get the proper care and have the specialists he needed in order to find a cause. While in Bellingham Ethan had a total of 11 physical showing seizures. While at Children's he had one seizure that showed on his EEG test. While there the neurologists and anesthesologists decided to wait one more week to do the MRI because they weren't yet comfortable with putting him under at his age and size so we were sent home with only one possible answer. The 5 day fits. Its when seizure begin on an infants fifth day of life and may go away after a few months or could go on for up to a year. He was released and put on an oral version of the Phenobarbital that he had be given through IV since he was in the ER. The next week he had his MRI and all that showed from that was two spaces or holes in his brain one on each side if his ventricles about the size of my finger tip (about 1/2 an inch). This is not uncommon and something that happens late in pregnancy and is usually never pin pointed by any specific event but that it could have been anything from and injury or trauma to an interruption in the blood flow to his brain. I had no injury or trauma so it maybe the later of the two. We have a follow up in August with his neurologist (Lauren L Plawner, MD) at Children's he will have a little more development by then and we should know if his motor skills have been affected. (so far they are fine). Dr. Plawner told us that we probably won't know anything until he is between 6 and 9 months old so its just a matter of time.



Anyway, I just want to thank all of you who's thoughts and prayers were with us through this hard time and thank you for listening to this new mom and blogger through this long first blog. And please excuse my poor spelling of medical words. LOL