NO MORE SEIZURES!!!

I had to keep him awake for the entire 2 hour drive to the hospital which meant keeping him awake from 9 am to 2 pm when the EEG started hence the bottle to fill him up and put him to sleep for the sleeping part of the test.
These are all of the wires that the paste to his head with what looks like Vaseline.
They have to then but cotton balls on so that they don't stick to the gauze the wrap around to make sure he doesn't pull them off when he wakes up for the awake part of the test.He had just waken up for the awake part luckily he is a very happy baby when he wakes up from his naps.
This is what it looks like without the gauze. He loved the painted walls in the room I meant to get pictures of it but the battery died before I could.

NO MORE SEIZURES FOR ETHAN!!! August 16th is when we had the follow up of the EEG and for the Doctor to check his development in all areas. He tested VERY high!! She said that 90% of the things he is doing are all 6 to 9 months of age. I am sooo proud of my little Ethan!! She said that alot of his development is do to what I have been working with him on. That made me feel like an excellent mother. Sometimes you just need to hear it from someone. There is still a small chance he could have another seizure but at this point the doctor is very very optimistic. He has been officially diagnosed with a mild case of Periventricular Leukomalacia (PVL) but also still the 5th day fits. In english it describes the tiny spaces in his brain...lol. I have been doing some research and have found a few websites with good information. Basically PVL doesn't cause seizures which is why she is still saying the he had the 5th day fits. The major down fall of this appointment and his condition is the only way we are going to know if its the spaces or the 5th day fits is either to have another child because it is 100% hereditary which means if thats the case our next kids will also have it. We are keeping our heads up and praying that it is not the 5th day fits. I am definitely standing in the light at the end of this tunnel. All I needed to know was that our son is developing well and is on the right path to no seizures in the future. The doctor did also have to let me know that there is a 10% chance he could develop cerebral palsy or epilepsy. Thank you all for your strong prayers and thoughts!! God has most definitely answered them!!

Update

Unfortunately our camera is lost and no where to be found along with the memory card. Jake and I both looked everywhere for it and have yet to find it. We will most likely have to get new ones. Luckily there was only a few pictures on there that were not downloaded last time that are now lost. As soon as we get new camera I will have more pictures for you all.

Also I received the reminder for Ethan's EEG and it is actually on August 8th which is next Wednesday. We will still have to wait until August 16th for any results and as soon as I can I will post them. Thank you again for all your support and reading.

Mommy's new job and my new friends!

Jerred (age6) and Abagayle (age 4)


Darion (age 12, which is why this is the
best picture I could get of her LOL)

These are my cousin April's 3 children they are all very well raised which means they are very easier to watch. I feel sometimes like I should be paying them because all they like to do is play with Ethan and see who can make him squeal the loudest. Its really adorable when their mom comes home and they all start talking at once about what Ethan had done that day and how they got to help me take care of him. Abagayle loves to help me feed him and burp him. Its amazing they all love to get him cleaned up when he spits up after he eats. They take just the corner of the spit rag and dab his little chin and say eeewww yucky I bet that doesn't taste good. Its what I say when I clean him up and they noticed that when I say that it makes him smile. Jerred sure does know how to make him smile and talk to him. He always calls him his little buddy. Darion does a really good job keeping an eye on him so that mommy can actually go to the restroom by herself...LOL.

I began taking an anti-depressant about a month ago and between the help of the medicine and the fact that I'm making an income has really really helped. I am soooo thankful that I know myself well enough to know when I need to talk to someone and when talking just isn't enough. Another great thing that has helped is the fact that I have reconnected with my cousin and the best friend anyone could ever ask for April. I had forgotten over the past few years just how close her and I really are and how much we are alike in sooo many ways. I am sooo happy and thankful for the fact that I have someone who has gone through a lot of things that I have and can understand my on so many levels and to think she lived just 10 minutes away from me and I was too busy and ignorant to forget what a great person she is and how good of a friend she really is. Thanks April for everything!! You have done such a great job raising your children and teaching them so much and making sure that they ALWAYS come first!!! We love you guys!!

Ethan rolled over from his stomach to his back a few weeks ago I was sooooo happy!! Both Jake and I were there to witness it which made it all the more special. I guess he started this a little earlier than average along with the cooing and smiling so far which makes me feel so much better that he is soo smart and advanced. We go in for EEG on August 9th in the afternoon and then on August 16th in the morning we go back down for the follow up and the EEG reading. I am hoping and praying and asking for prayers that everything comes back normal and that he has grown out of these seizures. He's obviously very smart and completely normal in every way so I have high hopes!! Thank you all again for visiting and again I apologize for the delay. I'm trying to get better organized so that I can do this more often like I had planned. Thanks!!

Ethan's Father's Day Scrapbook for Daddy!!

Things my Daddy is going to teach me.

Teach me how to....drive.

Teach me how to....drive RC cars and trucks.

Teach me how to....drag race.

Teach me how to....fish.

Teach me how to....hunt.

Teach me how to....floor.

Teach me how to....play video games. Teach me how to....work on cars. He's already taught me....how to love.

When you don't have much money but alot of imagination great gifts are given.

I will update more soon

Sorry to everyone who has been waiting over a month now for new blog. I have started babysitting my cousin's three children as a source of income 4 days a week and on the days I am at home Jake and I try to spend it all together. Jake has also had possession of the camera for quite some time now. He kept leaving it in his car at his Grandpa's property. I do have some adorable pictures that I took of baby Ethan for a scrap book that I made for Jake from Ethan for his first Father's day gift. I will post them as soon as I possibly can. Again I apologize for the long wait. Thanks for you support and thank you for visiting the site!!! Luv you all!!!

Sleeping like mom and dad used to

Ethan sleeping-8 weeks old

Daddy and I both have baby pictures of us sleeping this same way I wish I could figure out how to use my scanner so that I could put them all side by side. The doctors all say that no days babies should ALWAYS sleep on ther backs which I do at night but if I'm awake and can check on him every few minutes he does seem to sleep longer during the day than he usually does. I have been reading in one of the many baby books I have and it says that fussyness during the day can sometimes be caused by sleep deprivation. Most of the time he just took little 20 minute cat naps and was really really cranky towards the end of the day and I believe that was the cause because now he seems to do alot better. I have also been using a few of the ideas I got from a nurse that comes out to our house every couple of weeks to answer questions, weigh him and just seem how he is progressing. Its called Mother Baby Center and I am really glad that while I was still pregnant I signed on to do this because with his condition its nice to have. I only have a few more visits that my insurance will cover but I am looking into new insurance that will cover it longer because she truly is a huge help and relief to know that he is completely normal other than his seizures.

Ethan and I spent yesterday with his daddy. First we went to a remote control airplane show it was amazing that these guys can fly these huge airplanes like its nothing. It was alot of fun. Then we walked around the mall (because it had air-conditioning it was in the low 80's) then we went for a drive down a highway of the coast which is a great drive a nice day. Then we went to my mom's house for a BBQ with a few family members. We ate steak and talked and watched Ethan as he was mesmerized by the ceiling fan and was not at all interested in anything but that. LOL.

The weather has been pretty hot for us here in Washington. I've been taking Ethan outside a little bit it seems to help when he's cranky its a nice change of scenery for us both. I was nervous at first because out here we have alot of bee's around the yard and i'm afraid he'll get stung but i just keep my eye out for those little stingers!! I can't wait until we go camping this summer it will be interesting with a baby but it should be fun to watch him grow and observe everything around him when we go.

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