20 things to be thankful for

In no particular order:
1. My three little peanuts, Isaac, Savannah and Isabella
2. Todd, my husband
3. My parents and in-laws who have helped us out through every bedrest and NICU stay
4. Medical technology
5. The sun
6. Chocolate ice cream
7. God
8. Rock and roll
9. Education
10. Neonatologists
11. Dreams and aspirations
12. Seafood
13. Everyone who has supported us through our tough times (and prayed for Bella recently!)
14. Swing sets :)
15. Dishwashers
16. Lessons learned
17. Smiles
18. Chubby baby thighs
19. Sleep
20. Speech therapists!

Now it's your turn! Pick 20 things to be thankful for, leave a comment here with your blog address, make a post just like this one on your blog!

Bella's neurology update

Well, we finally heard something. The neurologist wasn't sure what Bella's strange jerkings were on the video, but does NOT think it is seizure activity. WHEW. It leaves me to wonder, "what is it then?" ANYWAY, the episode at the restaurant was more likely to be seizure activity, but she has only had that kind of activity that one time, so it is hopefully "an isolated event." We are to continue to watch her, and let them know if she would have any more nonresponsive events like the one at the restaurant with her eyes rolling around and fluttering. If so, then we go in for a stay at Children's. Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and prayers.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY ISABELLA!!

Happy first birthday to my sweet baby girl. It's hard to believe you are already one. I will update more later. Savannah has speech this morning, and then Bella's NICU follow-up is this afternoon.

Preschool Graduate!

Mr. Isaac is officially a preschool graduate! May 10 was his last day. He had alot of fun this year and learned so much. I know he has really grown socially too. Next year he will be off to kindergarten all day, every day! The last week of school the preschoolers got to have lunch in the cafeteria with all the "big kids." Isaac tells me it was "so much fun!" Hopefully that means the transition next year will be a smooth one:)

Medicine is not always cut and dry

There seems to be a huge gray area. When you are a parent waiting on results, and ANSWERS, it is hard to hear things are not definite. Bella's pediatrician called us last night to say the EEG came back normal. It does not rule out seizure activity, but shows there was none during that 20 minute time frame. Well, I could have told them that. She forwarded the video we took to the neurologist and will be following up this week. She could not be sure either way if what she was seeing was seizure activity. She said since there is still some concern there, that the neurologist will probably want to see Bella. Now we wait some more.

Here are some pictures from the night before and morning of the EEG. We were trying to sleep deprive her in preparation, as this will sometimes bring on seizure activity for the EEG.
Bella's first swim


Exploring

Falling asleep sitting up

Still nothing

Still no news on Bella's EEG. I called the doctor today, and she called back this evening. The results still are not back from the EEG, but are expected Monday. So nice. We can sit and worry some more over the weekend. Not that it would change much of anything, but we still want to know if the EEG will explain anything. It has been very hard to concentrate on studying for finals with all this lingering.

On a brighter note, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the mom's out there!! And HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Todd, if you are reading this. We celebrate 7 years of wedded bliss on Sunday, as well. What a crazy 7 years it has been....

No news yet

We are back from Bella's EEG. Everything went smoothly. We stayed at a hotel in Bloomington, since we had to sleep deprive her, and it's an hour drive from our house. Let's just stay it was an interesting night. HA We did take her swimming for the first time in the hotel pool. She did try to fall asleep several times sitting up last night and this morning. Kind of funny to see. Once to Children's we got her to sleep, and they attached all the leads to her head. They recorded for 20 minutes and then we were done! Her hair looks kind of like Albert Einstein's right now. She is sleeping and its all full of glue, standing straight up. Anyway, now we wait for the neurologist to read it. They said it could be 3-5 days before we hear anything.

On a scary note, we witnessed another of her "episodes" last night while having dinner out. It seems like it happens in the high chair alot. This time there was no head shaking, but her arm twitched a bit and her eyes rolled back several times. We were not able to get her attention at all. This is the first time we've seen anything like that with her eyes. She was completely out of it. I was glad Todd was there to see it, so we have two of us to describe it. The more details the better. It is like torture waiting to hear something on what's going on. Hopefully they can give us some kind of direction.

Bella went down the stairs

It seems the drama is nonstop around here lately. First, let me say SHE IS OK. Bella took a tumble down our flight of 15 stairs tonight. It was the most aweful sound ever and makes me sick to my stomach when I think of it. We took her to the ER and she checked out ok. We'll just keep a closer eye on her for the next day or so. The doctor said she was lucky, and that it's good we had carpet. She came out with some rug burns on her head and some minor bumps. We did find out her ear infection flared up again in the right ear, so we got another antibiotic.

Of course, this all happened when I had stuff due tonight for my online class. It's now 2am here, and I just finished two small paper projects for my online Med Terminology class. And I thought college was hard before kids!

EEG

Well, Bella has an EEG scheduled for Monday to see if they can pinpoint any seizure activity. For a few months now she has been having some strange jerking going on. We had been trying to get it on video forever. We started to relax a little more about it, as she was reaching milestones and it didn't seem to be impacting her negatively. Then on Monday, while in the Wal-Mart check-out line, she had an episode that really scared me (and the lady behind me!). She screamed afterward, and then slept hard for a few hours. I took her in to the doctor on Tuesday. She decided to call the neurologist, who ordered the EEG. Ironically, yesterday she started again while in her high chair, and I was able to get a 4 minute long episode on video. We dropped it by the doc's and now have the EEG on Monday at Children's. We are supposed to sleep deprive her beforehand. We ask that you please keep us in your prayers. We have been pretty worried, and are hoping to get some answers. They told us the EEG isn't always conclusive, as it may not reflect anything unless an episode were to happen during the test. I really hope this isn't just a wild goose chase.

NICU Reunion

Savannah dancing to the music
Right after our March of Dimes walk on Sunday, we went to Children's in Minneapolis for their annual NICU Reunion. It was a great time! We met up with Ashlyn, and her mom and grandma. They are old friends from the NICU. Ashlyn (28 wkr also) was born a few weeks after Isabella, and they were roommates for part of the time that Isabella was in the NICU. It was fun to catch up with them and see little Ashlyn. Savannah had a great time entertaining the little ones. Isaac had fun eating 3 pieces of cake :0.
href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_h52qH46hIsA/Rjn4aUztubI/AAAAAAAAATo/sVfcSzt3AQg/s1600-h/PICT0027.JPG">Savannah, Ashlyn, and Isabella playing
Savannah telling Ashlyn a story
The two moms with babies Ashlyn and Isabella
One of Isabella's primary nurses from the ICC, Christine, came to see her. We also saw Isabella's primary nurse from NICU, Grace, and another primary nurse from ICC, Pam. It was great to see them all and show them how much Isabella has grown. Unfortunately, Savannah's primary nurses were not working:(
Isabella with nurse Christine
Ashlyn and Isabella with nurse Grace
Isabella with nurse Pam

After all of Sunday's action the kids slept the whole hour home. It was so quiet in the van we didn't know what to do!