9 months

Grady weighed in at 24lbs 14 oz and 30.25 inches long, both 96%! He is now starting to make a little more noise with the sounds ba ba and ma ma! His personality it starting to blossom and it's so fun to watch him enjoy his brother and sister so much. He is ON THE MOVE! He crawls super fast, pulls up on everything and cruises all around. He can even stand for a few seconds on his own and has taken a few steps here and there. He is so much fun to have in our family! Here are some pictures from his haircut he got tonight. Haircut #5, but his first time in the professional's chair! He did awesome. Sat up there like a big boy and let her cut off his curly locks!

Clap, clap, clap your hands...

Grady has learned his own version of clapping....

Update

EEG results on Drake came back normal so the doc suggested we just wait and see if he has any more seizures before we would do any further testing...

Medical Drama

I was always a big fan of the show ER and have watched countless episodes of medical shows, however, I really prefer to leave the drama to TV. Unfortunately, though, we have been having some medical drama of our own around here.

A little background...on March 11, Drake woke up very disoriented, couldn't answer our questions like where we lived, etc. and we were concerned for about 40 minutes or so, then as he started becoming more aware we had him take a shower and then he threw up a few times. I took him to the doctor that day but by the time we got in to her office, he was acting completely fine and she thought it was probably just that he wasn't awake yet and had some kind of virus that caused the throwing up. I was fairly annoyed because I knew how he acted that morning was more than just "not being awake" but I didn't have any other proof.

Last Tuesday evening (May 10), Gabe was gone to Chicago for a staff retreat for a few days. I had put the kids to bed and was enjoying some kid-free time to myself on the couch. Drake came out of Hadley's room (where he has been sleeping since he and Grady share a room, but Grady wakes Drake up sometimes so he often sleeps in H's room) and asked to go to sleep in my bed because he was having a hard time falling asleep. I let him go crawl in my bed. I was having a hard time falling asleep that night for some reason and finally went to bed myself at 2am. Around 6:30am I felt the bed shaking and quickly jumped up to see Drake having a seizure in the bed next to me. It probably lasted about a minute but felt like forever at the moment. Once it was over I kept talking to him until he started making some noises like he was trying to talk. Then, I jumped up to grab my phone (and discovered it was OFF! so I had to wait for it to turn on, again seemed like forever in that moment!). I first called my mom... I know, I know..but at the moment I needed another person's opinion of what to do. She told me to hang up and call 911. So, I did. Then, I called a friend (who thankfully was IN her car just leaving a park where she had been doing her devotions) to come over to stay with Hadley and Grady until my mom could get to town. First, a firetruck arrived and they came in and checked Drake's blood sugar, did a quick check over him until the ambulance arrived. After asking several questions to me and Drake, they loaded him up and off we went to the hospital. At this point, Drake was awake and responding but slow to process what was going on. About 1/2 way to the hospital he started crying a little bit when he asked where we were going and the paramedic told him we were going to the hospital. Once in the ER, things happened pretty quickly. The nurse and the doctor we saw were both great. Drake was very brave and didn't even cry when they took blood. He also did a great job holding completely still for a chest xray and CT scan. After several hours in the ER and all the test results coming back normal we were sent home with instructions to follow up with our doctor the next day. Papa and Nana came over and kept us company in the ER and Gabe made it back from Chicago about 20 minutes before we got sent home!

We went to our doc the next day and she ordered an EEG to be done at St. John's. In the meantime, I've been paranoid to let Drake sleep by himself. So, he has either been in our bed or I've been sleeping with him in the basement.
I'm not sure when I'll feel ready to let him sleep alone again...

Today, we went for the EEG. His appointment was at 8:30am but he needed to be able to fall asleep during the test so they said to only let him sleep from 12-4am. Yikes. For a kid that normally sleeps 11 hours every night, I wasn't sure how that would go. He was very excited to stay up until midnight. Gabe took that shift (which he informed me this morning that he fell asleep from 11:20-11:45 while Drake was playing the Wii!). I took the 4am shift. When my alarm went off I felt like I had just gone to sleep, ugh. But I dragged us both out of bed and we first headed over to Walmart to pick out a lego set to work on. After about 30-45 minutes at Walmart we stopped off at Denny's for breakfast. We got back home about 6am and Drake started in on his legos. He worked on those right up until it was time to head to the hospital. He did great for the test. Let her hook him all up with the wires, cooperated for the awake portion of the test, which included heavy breathing (like you just ran a race) for 3 minutes, following commands with his eyes, and having a stobe light on him. Then, she said he could go to sleep, which took him less than 10 minutes to fall asleep. He only had to sleep for about 15-20 minutes and that was it. We were leaving by 10am. Now, we just wait for the results, which could take 3-7 days.

Here is Drake working on his legos this morning:

Hives again...

Hadley has been battling hives off and on for months now. We haven't figured out the culprit but it looks like an allergic reaction to something, we just haven't pinpointed what yet. This time around, they started on Saturday evening with just a few on her trunk and cheeks. Then, Sunday morning they were on her entire body. I had one steroid pill left from the last time, so I gave her that. This morning, they were even worse than yesterday, with a lot of yesterday's hives faded but lots of new ones and she was really itchy! So, I called the doctor again today, thinking they might just call me in another steroid prescription. But, since she had just had them a month ago and they did seem worse this time, they had us come in. The doctor wanted to rule out any autoimmune diseases that can cause your body to react in hives and also do some allergy testing. So, we headed down to the lab. Poor Hadley, she was so cooperative (even though she was crying her head off) while they had a terrible time getting a vein to fill the two tubes of blood they needed. She got rewarded with a milk shake on the way home and promptly crashed on the couch after she drank her milkshake and ate her lunch. We did get a call from the doctor's office this afternoon saying that the initial bloodwork looked fine with no elevated counts, which means we can just look at allergies. So, we wait for the allergy panel to come back and if nothing shows up there, we will get referred to see an allergist who can do more extensive testing. Here are some shots of the hives on Sunday. I should have taken new photos this morning when they had multiplied but I didn't think of it!

8 months!

Grady is already 8 months old and he is changing like crazy. He is pulling up all the time now and is all over the place! He is starting to let go when he is standing but falls down within a couple of seconds when he realizes he's not holding on. He is still very much a mama's boy (to the point of obsession!). He was one tooth in and another peeking up about to come in. He got another haircut recently and looks so cute with his little boy haircut. He still gets lots of comments about his hair everywhere we go and most people think he is older than he is because he's such a chunk. Here's a shot of the little man showing off his standing skills: