It's been so long since I've taken the time to write anything down. I kept putting it off because so much has happened and it all seemed too overwhelming to write. Then more happened and before I knew it it'd been months and I hardly remember everything I was going to write about in the first place.
Kevin and I are in our last quarter of school before we graduate! I'll graduate with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Family and Consumer Science. Kevin will have a BA in Japanese Language and a BA in Asian Studies. We'll move back home the day after we graduate. I'm taking a bunch of fun fitness classes this quarter: yoga, swim conditioning, tennis, weight lifting, self defense, and ballroom dance. Most of them are once or twice a week and no homework so my schedule is not too crazy. It does mean I can't miss a lot of days which is proving challenging. Ellie and I are needing doctor's appointments and juggling everything is a little intense. Actually no it's do-able it's just intense having multiple medical concerns.
We had an frightening weekend. We had friends over for dinner and board games, which was fun and then we had the paramedics come to our house a little later and that was really really not fun. Ellie has had quite a few problems since birth. She's been different from Alex and has been more colicky, had trouble sleeping, has had pretty constant rashes or eczema and things just kept being added to the list. She's 8 months old and the only solids she has are bananas. With a variety of other solids we've tried she ends up projectile vomiting a couple of hours later. I don't know how much of the banana she actually eats, it's mostly just gumming.
The good news is that for the most part she is happy, healthy, and meeting milestones. She weighs 20 lbs, is standing up with the help of anything around her, and finally cutting her first tooth. With all of her other "symptoms" the pediatricians said that these were not of concern and I think individually they may not be. Together I think they point to an underlying problem. Anyway back to the paramedics. I was hesitant to write any of this out. I'm not sure why, it just is personal and frightening and I don't like to draw attention to the drama and stress. I know some people are aware though and are wondering what happened so here it is. Ellie wasn't sleeping, as usual, but when she started crying she sounded like something was stuck in her nose or throat. She was suddenly wheezy and very congested and gaggy. Kevin picked her up to look at her and her face was just vacant. Her head and body were limp, she was breathing but her coloring was off and her eyes... I'm not sure how to describe her eyes. She just looked disoriented and absent. Then she went sort of rigid and started spasming. She had a short seizure and we called 911. It didn't last long but it took about a minute before she seemed aware. She was crying hard and differently than normal. It was just a different sounding cry. The paramedics came and checked her out and they sent us to the ER. They followed us there.
The ER was a few hours of torture trying to get enough blood to run tests. My babies are "fluffy" and hard to get blood from since the veins are deep. They eventually had to just get the blood from her foot, and even that took awhile to get enough blood. She didn't have a fever or bacterial infection but her white blood cell count was at 20,000 which is high. They thought she had something viral going on. I'm not so sure. I'll go in on Thursday for a follow-up appointment and I'm hoping we can get either a skin prick test for allergies or a referral to a gastroenterologist. I don't have a whole lot of answers right now.
It's been about a month since I wrote that, and here's the update. The Dr. was never really sure but they decided to call it a breath holding seizure. She was also prescribe Zantac for reflux. We tried the Zantac for awhile and it wasn't really making a difference. We were frustrated that they put her on a prescription before testing her for anything but apparently with reflux that's how they rule it out before sending you to a specialist. Kevin and I talked about it and I remembered what some other moms have done so we decided to try Probiotics. Ellie's eczema cleared up, she's sleeping better, holding solids down and eating more. She loves eating now but only if she can do it herself. If we come at her with a spoon she closes her mouth and won't budge. She's happier and we've pretty much seen an improvement in every way. She's standing on her own now too and getting ready to start walking. Alex walked at ten months and I think Ellie will too.
Lastly, we had family pictures taken. Here are some of my favorites.
Also, I'm pregnant again. Yay baby number 3!
Kevin and I are in our last quarter of school before we graduate! I'll graduate with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Family and Consumer Science. Kevin will have a BA in Japanese Language and a BA in Asian Studies. We'll move back home the day after we graduate. I'm taking a bunch of fun fitness classes this quarter: yoga, swim conditioning, tennis, weight lifting, self defense, and ballroom dance. Most of them are once or twice a week and no homework so my schedule is not too crazy. It does mean I can't miss a lot of days which is proving challenging. Ellie and I are needing doctor's appointments and juggling everything is a little intense. Actually no it's do-able it's just intense having multiple medical concerns.
We had an frightening weekend. We had friends over for dinner and board games, which was fun and then we had the paramedics come to our house a little later and that was really really not fun. Ellie has had quite a few problems since birth. She's been different from Alex and has been more colicky, had trouble sleeping, has had pretty constant rashes or eczema and things just kept being added to the list. She's 8 months old and the only solids she has are bananas. With a variety of other solids we've tried she ends up projectile vomiting a couple of hours later. I don't know how much of the banana she actually eats, it's mostly just gumming.
The good news is that for the most part she is happy, healthy, and meeting milestones. She weighs 20 lbs, is standing up with the help of anything around her, and finally cutting her first tooth. With all of her other "symptoms" the pediatricians said that these were not of concern and I think individually they may not be. Together I think they point to an underlying problem. Anyway back to the paramedics. I was hesitant to write any of this out. I'm not sure why, it just is personal and frightening and I don't like to draw attention to the drama and stress. I know some people are aware though and are wondering what happened so here it is. Ellie wasn't sleeping, as usual, but when she started crying she sounded like something was stuck in her nose or throat. She was suddenly wheezy and very congested and gaggy. Kevin picked her up to look at her and her face was just vacant. Her head and body were limp, she was breathing but her coloring was off and her eyes... I'm not sure how to describe her eyes. She just looked disoriented and absent. Then she went sort of rigid and started spasming. She had a short seizure and we called 911. It didn't last long but it took about a minute before she seemed aware. She was crying hard and differently than normal. It was just a different sounding cry. The paramedics came and checked her out and they sent us to the ER. They followed us there.
The ER was a few hours of torture trying to get enough blood to run tests. My babies are "fluffy" and hard to get blood from since the veins are deep. They eventually had to just get the blood from her foot, and even that took awhile to get enough blood. She didn't have a fever or bacterial infection but her white blood cell count was at 20,000 which is high. They thought she had something viral going on. I'm not so sure. I'll go in on Thursday for a follow-up appointment and I'm hoping we can get either a skin prick test for allergies or a referral to a gastroenterologist. I don't have a whole lot of answers right now.
It's been about a month since I wrote that, and here's the update. The Dr. was never really sure but they decided to call it a breath holding seizure. She was also prescribe Zantac for reflux. We tried the Zantac for awhile and it wasn't really making a difference. We were frustrated that they put her on a prescription before testing her for anything but apparently with reflux that's how they rule it out before sending you to a specialist. Kevin and I talked about it and I remembered what some other moms have done so we decided to try Probiotics. Ellie's eczema cleared up, she's sleeping better, holding solids down and eating more. She loves eating now but only if she can do it herself. If we come at her with a spoon she closes her mouth and won't budge. She's happier and we've pretty much seen an improvement in every way. She's standing on her own now too and getting ready to start walking. Alex walked at ten months and I think Ellie will too.
Lastly, we had family pictures taken. Here are some of my favorites.
Also, I'm pregnant again. Yay baby number 3!
I'm glad you wrote about this. Sometimes it helps to process something scary when you write it out. Can't wait to see more of all FIVE of you (just testing it out…)
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