If you could say a prayer that he gets through this stomach bug quickly and without having any seizures, it would be much appreciated.
But like I said....Other than this current bout of sickness, Eddy has been doing great the past several weeks! He took his first steps and we got word (finally!) from the genetics department at Buffalo Children's that the Dravet Syndrome test was negative! Basically that means that Eddy's seizures are not caused by a gene and this is such great news because now we don't have to worry as much about future children! We are extremely relieved, especially since it took three months for us to get the results back! (They ran out of Eddy's saliva and he had to give them more saliva and then they had to re-send the saliva to the lab in...wherever it was...and then they had to finish testing the genes that they couldn't test without more saliva...)
Our attempt at a family Christmas picture by the tree
Eddy has been working hard and improving physically. He really really wants to walk, and he has been trying to for the past few weeks (so far, the record is 11 steps according to my husband); but his body isn't really ready yet. He skipped that whole, really important step where you learn to balance by standing without holding onto something for awhile. Yeah, Eddy has stood on his own for maybe a second, and then he started trying to take steps. And when he realized how fun it was to "walk," he kept trying to do it. Thank goodness for his helmet because he has fallen so many times (and he has face-planted so many times, which unfortunately the helmet does not protect...but at least his platelet count was 352 right before Christmas, so we don't have to worry about internal bleeding. :) ) He gets right back up, and tries walking again. That kid is one of the most determined kids on the planet. He's also one of the least careful. He doesn't really have that sense of, "Oh, I just did this and hurt myself, so maybe I shouldn't do it again." He'll do it again. And again. And again. But at least he's persistent. And with persistence he will get places. He might just get there slowly and with a lot of bumps and bruises. :)
Eddy just woke up after 50 minutes asleep and I had to rock him back to sleep...This happens almost every time he naps, although 50 minutes is longer than usual that he'll stay asleep. It's normally anywhere from 20-40 minutes. He'll be half asleep and obviously still tired, but he'll start climbing. He knows that if he starts climbing, mommy will come running (literally) into get him, because he has a tendency of falling backwards like a log and hitting his head on his crib if mommy doesn't come running immediately to him. I'm not sure if he climbs in his sleep or if he's just half asleep, but I'll pick him up, take him to the recliner rocking chair in his room, and rock him for about 20 minutes and put him back down in his crib. I don't know why he does it, if it's because he wants me to rock him, or if he legit has a sleep-climbing problem (like sleep walking). Does anyone else have a toddler that does this? It's frustrating because I did the whole sleep-training thing for 3 weeks straight when Eddy was 5 months old (I did the Baby Whisperer's Pick up/Put down method where you pick them up when they cry and put them down when they stop. I wanted to kill myself for 3 weeks but I finally got him sleeping on his own and I didn't have to rock him to sleep...He actually turned into quite the amazing sleeper for a few short months until his seizures started.) Then, when he started having seizures, I started consistently rocking him to sleep (because he'd have seizures either when he was falling asleep or when he was waking up so I didn't want him to fall asleep on his own.) So now, basically, I've created a monster. Eddy is not a good sleeper. But he has it in him because about once a week, he'll sleep for 9 hours straight. The rest of the time, though, mommy and daddy are spending an awful lot of time rocking him to sleep in his room.
I'm not a fan of the cry-it-out method (I know a lot of my friends did it and it worked for them...but it's just not me...especially now with Eddy's epilepsy)..I used to let Eddy whine a little bit and a lot of the time he'd put himself back to sleep, but now with the video monitor and the climbing, I RUN every time he wakes up (because 9 times out of 10 he goes from being asleep to climbing in 2 seconds...very strange kid we have. :) ) So does anyone have any suggestions/thoughts that we can do so that Eddy doesn't rely on us rocking him back to sleep every time he wakes up? (Again, I know he CAN self-soothe because on those nights where he sleeps for 9 hours, he'll wake up a few times and toss and turn but put himself back to sleep.) Any thoughts would be appreciated. :)
So it's only a week into January, but I already hate tax season. Ed, my husband, is a CPA (he actually has his own firm), and he is extremely busy from January to May. It's hard taking care of Eddy all day on my own when he's healthy, but when he's sick one day feels like about three. Eddy is quite the high-maintenance kid. He's always on the move and always needs to be entertained. I can't wait for my babysitter/helper Lindsay to come back to St. Bonaventure to help out again. She comes over a few times a week for an hour or two to watch Eddy so I can shower, get some housework done, go grocery shopping, etc. I didn't fully appreciate how amazing this help was until she went home for Christmas break (I miss you Lindsay!! When do you come back???? :) )
Although I'm very very happy and thankful that Eddy has been seizure-free for five weeks and is progressing physically, I've been getting pretty worried lately about his development in terms of communication. I've heard a lot of people say that when babies are focused on one area (physical progress), the other areas tend not to see much improvement, and I'm hoping this is true. Eddy stopped babbling like he was doing for awhile there (he replaced it with raspberries and screaming), and he isn't clapping anymore. He does love giving kisses, and I found that he will kiss things I instruct him to (i.e. "Eddy, kiss the hippo's eyes," "Kiss mommy's nose, etc.), so I do think he understands things, but he doesn't point, or wave, and the only thing he signs for is "video" and "phone" (He's quite the technological little kid.) I know that 18 months is when they say you should be concerned about a lack of imitation in terms of signs of autism, and he'll be 18 months in just a few weeks. I wish I could just enjoy him where he's at and appreciate the improvements he's making, but it's really hard not to worry.
Well, that about sums up the past month. I'm very excited about a new year, and I'm optimistic that 2013 will be much better than 2012! Thanks for all of your prayers, as always. <3
