Update on Noah... and the Birthmark...

First off, if you read my other blog A Page In My Book ... then you've already seen these photos... but I figured I would share them here too.

Noah, my cantankerous youngin ... recently went shopping on his laptop...

He was buying all sorts of toys that he wanted ....

ALL SORTS ... that he HAS to have!

I told him to keep wishing - ha ha ha...

Anyway - his total kept getting bigger and bigger... this was just one total, before he was done... um... yeah... not gonna happen...

So if you haven't read the NOTES ON NOAH - please do so, otherwise you may not understand the rest of this.

So we took him to the DR on Friday, just his regular Ped - and just like I thought, it was an instant referral to the dermatologist. He warned me that he would most likely want to remove it and do a biopsy (which is automatic when they remove anything from the skin) ...

I have to wait until Tuesday to get the date for that, but hopefully they can get him in realitively soon. Last time I went, it was well over a month of a wait - cuz they book up. (rolling eyes) ... one can only hope they make acceptions for situations like this, and have time slots set aside for this type of issue, but I doubt it.

So step one is done... and step two, waiting.

May 14th - 24th - entry 22

This post covers from May 14 to May 24 - Nathan's Daily Diary entry 22

It has been a long long time since I updated Nathan’s DD … it’s been a combo of being so busy with him and not having the time to write, to being so far behind. I have to start writing it through the day, or sit down and write it at the end of the day – it’s the only way it’s going to get done on a daily basis again. So NOW I get to try to cover the last 10 days in one entry (oh how fun!) …

I know that the 14^th through…. I’m not sure when, maybe the 20^th? … we were having medication issues. I’m not sure if it’s the combo or what but he has been acting as though he’s had a constant headache again – and so we sorta drew back on his migraine prevention meds – and then picked it back up. There were a couple days we only gave him one dose and then did two and sorta left it there. He really seems to do best on only 2 doses of the meds instead of 3 – and it seemed to start about the time we started the thyroid meds … which by the way, about a week ago, Dennis decided to just try to put the half a pill in his mouth – without crushing it. Nathan chewed it a tad but he kept it in his mouth (had started to reject the frosting) … and so we’ve just been doing that and he has been doing GREAT like that!!

So he’s taking his pill by mouth – whole, and is doing best on 2 doses of the migraine prevention meds – so we are leaving him there and will be talking to his neurologist about it – I have to call tomorrow (the 26^th) to get it re-filled, we’re running out.

He is currently on my lap with my typing around him – it’s a good thing I am an expert typer!! He has a pen and is writing ALL OVER my calendar! LOL… good thing it’s the end of the month… ha ha

So I had talked about his weights and how AMAZING his weight gain has been over the last month – but I couldn’t find his growth chart from the nurse (cuz it’s always the same scale, and pretty consistent.) So she came on the 15^th and I wrote down his weights for the last year so you can understand better just how amazing this is!!

They are as follows:

April 19, 2007 – he was born at 3lbs 4oz and was 15 3/4 inches …

A year of weights though the age of one…

May 6, 2008 – 12 lbs 3 1/2 oz (no height)

June 5, 2008 – 12 lbs 11 1/2 oz and 26 1/4 inches …. A weight gain of 8 oz – that’s about 2 oz a week …

June 26, 2008 – 12 lbs 15oz … 3 oz in 21 days .. so about an ounce a week

August 1, 2008 – 13 lbs 3oz ….. 5 oz in about 5 weeks, again about an ounce a week

Nathan becomes a big brother on 9-9-08

September 15, 2008 – 13lbs 10 1/2 oz …. 7 1/2 oz in about 6 weeks, so a little over an ounce a week

October 14, 2008 – 13lbs 14 oz and 27 1/4 inches … about 3 1/2 oz in 4 weeks – a little less then an ounce a week

December 8, 2008 - 14 lbs 2oz …. 5 ounces in almost 8 weeks, a little more then half an ounce a week (if I remember correctly, he had been sick during this time, this is about the time his migraines started, he wasn’t eating well, and he was grouchy as all get out … and had a strep infection on his bottom.)

January 6, 2009 – 14 lbs 11oz and 27 1/2 inches … 9 oz in 4 weeks … we blame this GREAT gain (which you have to admit, a little over 2 oz a week IS a great gain for him) on Christmas Cookies!!

February 13, 2009 – 15 lbs 3 1/2 oz and 27 3/4 inches … 8 1/2 oz in 5 weeks, almost 2 oz a week … we kept going with the Christmas Cookies (seriously!)

March 17, 2009 – 15 lbs 5 oz and 28 3/4 inches …. 2 oz in 4 1/2 weeks … he gained an inch though and realized his growing had been THERE – but after gaining almost 2 oz a week for the last several weeks, it was a blow to my heart!!

Nathan turns TWO on April 19, 2009

May 15, 2009 – 16lbs 14 oz and 29 3/4 inches …. In 8 weeks he gained 1 lb 9 oz!!! OMG !!! OMG !!! Seriously – I feel like shouting from the roof tops right now! AND another INCH!!! WOWZERS!!! Suddenly since starting all the meds, he’s a GROWING MACHINE!!! It’s a little over 3 ounces a week but STILL … amazing!

So now you can understand a little more why I was so excited about this great weight gain he’s got going on!! I can only HOPE that it continues!!! In the meantime – the same day (May 15) his baby brother was weighted and he was 19lbs and 2 inches shorter… at 8 months. Love that fat healthy baby, but it’s not right that little brother is out-growing big brother! Pretty soon big brother is going to start looking like the little brother. Regardless, I’m proud of both boys!

So now that I’ve really shared that …

Nathan has been having rough nights again. He either has been having a hard time falling asleep, or he’s waking up in the middle of the night… for the last several nights he’s been waking up around 1 or 2 am just CRYING and it’s hard to get him to settle down. I would almost think it was Night Terrors since Calahan had them, but it’s not the same thing. He’s not waking up in blood curdling screams – it’s gradual whining/crying and if you don’t respond he gets up. Dennis thinks he’s having nightmares. Either way, it’s not fun. For any of us. There was one day where he woke up at 4:30 and didn’t fall back to sleep until 6am, JUST as it was time for me to get Cal up for school, and then Noah up, get Cal off on his bus and then Noah off on his bus, in the meantime – Kaedyn woke up and then Nathan woke back up … I mean, seriously – no sleep for Mom that day! Especially considering that I hadn’t gone to bed until 1am the night before.

Eating wise, Nathan is doing well. I won’t go to “great’ yet. He is still picky eating, but he is CONSTANTLY eating. Either he’s snacking or eating off what we’re having, or snacking some more… he even has started to go and get his snack stuff (low enough for him to get) and bringing it to us. He has started to sign EAT more, and a lot more at that… he will sign EAT and then point towards the kitchen. Which is WONDERFUL considering he does not pick up on signing well.

Seriously – his ST can work on signing with him and he’ll humor her. I work on it with him at least once a day, and he looks at me like I just grew another head. As if to say “Please woman, I am above communication, who needs to communicate?” He HAS been picking up more words. Now mind you – they are NOT clear but Dennis and I are recognizing them. He still hums A LOT… but he’s starting. It’s baby steps right? Maybe once we get this next hearing test done, and he fails again like I have no doubt he will, we can get on the route of getting tubes in his ears (again have no doubt that is his next step) … MAYBE just MAYBE we can find out then if it’s just the fluid, or if it’s an actual hearing loss. I *still* say it’s an actual hearing loss, but I realize that the fluid isn’t helping, at all. Noah had massive amounts of fluid in his ears too, and when the ENT removed the fluid and placed the tubes, he said it was like trying to pull nightcrawlers out of the ground his fluid was SO THICK. And Noah was talking at 8 months, they weren’t clear but if I told you what he was saying, you could pick it up. Nathan just doesn’t even really try – or actually – is only NOW just starting to try at the age of 2.

Speaking of that…. I FINALLY finished his Autism paper work, it’s not easy answering questions like that … especially when you don’t know how to answer the speech ones! I mean – when it says “Can SAY Hi and Bye” … what do you put? He doesn’t SAY Hi or Bye, but he vocalizes it … he hums it… he signs it… does that count? I have no idea. I was actually going to call them and ask them, but then I decided I would go with my gut and just put NO cuz he doesn’t SAY them. I don’t know what the right answer was and apparently I’ll find out when we have the clinic evaluation. I mean he CLEARLY has signs of a higher functioning social sort of spectrum disorder, but who knows if he actually does. I was told most likely, they will do the eval on him now, and wait some sort of time period and re-evaluate him because it’s not going to be so cut and dry with him.

I am going to start working on homeschooling him too. I figure, most likely – after Head Start – I’ll be pulling him out of the public school system and homeschooling him. If things continue the way that they are, then I think homeschooling him would probably be best, but figure since I love the Head Start teacher, and he’ll be put in there for about a month after he turns 3 … (Birth to 3 Early Intervention stops AT the age of 3 and they are automatically put into Pre-school in the school systems here – the teacher that Nathan would be going to is the same one that had Noah from the time he was 3 to when he went into Kindergarten. I love her, she’s great!) … I figure I’ll see how that goes, and go from there.

It’s sad (to me) to think he has less then a year of his therapists coming to the house. But I’m sure we’ll be continuing to see them at times.

Anyway … now that he’s starting to feel better and he’s not so clingy since re-adjusting his meds again, I have a little bit more time to sit at the computer and get done what I need to. Provided… not MUCH more time… but enough.

May 14th

His morning QUAD of Meds ... migraine meds, allergy meds (pink), Ibuprofen (orange) and his pill on frosting before we just started to give him the pill ... it still amazes me, looks like so much med compared to a little guy...

Eating his O-R-E-O ... he loves cookies...
We were having lunch and I noticed that he was taking his chicken from his plate, putting them all in his cup holder, and then back on his plate, then repeat. And when he noticed that I was watching him, he would take them and throw them on the floor. Yes he was eating while he was doing it... but .... I've realized he does that A LOT while he eats

May 17th

The day of the Orange Balloon... lol... We got him an orange balloon and tied it to his overalls. We realized (while playing outside that day) that it was GREAT for keeping track of him! He's so little that we just had to look for the orange balloon in the air and know where he was. LOL... we may start doing this everytime we go to the park or something.

May 19th

LOOK!!!! I ACTUALLY GOT A RARE SMILE ON THE CAMERA!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was a horribly hot day (I think it got to 90 that day) and we didn't have the A/C units in the windows or anything, so by that night it was still so hot in the house, Nathan and Noah couldn't sleep. Noah was up in his room until after 1am. And around 11 Nathan woke back up and I ended up bringing him back out in the living room thinking he might be more comfortable in his nappy spot on the couch. Well, he kept throwing himself on the floor. So after the third time of putting him up there only to have him throw himself back down, I gave up, and left him. He was fast asleep on the floor in about 5 minutes - it was cooler down there I guess, and that's what he wanted.

May 20th

Yes his undershirt looks dirty but only cuz he insists on letting his milk seep out of his mouth when he drinks. For example if you sit there and pull his cup out of his mouth cuz it's just hanging there, all this fluid he'll have stored in his mouth without swollowing will just seep out after it... the cup is like a dam. (rolling eyes) ... so I decided I am not changing him 100 times a day because he does this. He does it if we pull it out, he does it when HE pulls it out - he finds it funny to tag the furniture, floor, whatever with milk and play in it.
Here is Nathan waiting to see if his boy Kris won Idol or not - he was cheering him on since early on - everytime Kris would sing he would clap and clap... course he clapped for my boy Danny too but we all know how that turned out! (Third place, grumble grumble)

May 21st

Those two paragraphs were ALL I had left to do, a couple of the bubbles that I couldn't decide HOW to answer and double checking everything (Autism Clinic paperwork)
Doing BUBBLES in the bedroom for over an hour! There is NOTHING like blowing bubbles for an hour.. lol..

My bad attempt to get a picture of all four boys for the The 4 Brothers Ranch Homeschooling Blog... lol...

May 22nd

Trying on his BIG BROTHER'S shoes ... lol... this is just too adorable!

May 23rd

GET THAT CAMERA OUT OF MY FACE!!!!!!! Seriously woman!
Going bye-bye to the library and other errands!!!
Nathan's crocky boo-boo.... After our errands we had gotten home, I changed into my PJ's which involved me going into my room and changing, Nathan followed me... something happened and I left the room without making sure Nathan followed me, and then my mom called so we were talking for awhile (not real long) when I realized - I didn't see Nathan. So I asked where he was, and Dennis didn't know... I checked the kitchen, the hallway... Noah's room... now mind you he has this habit of going into rooms and shutting doors behind him - then knocking the door and whining like YOU did it TO him and not him doing it himself, it's a way fro him to get attention. LOL.... so I opened the bathroom door with a sudden fear of hoping no one left the toilet seat up and he jumped in (shivers) but alas, no one in there... wasn't in Noah's room, or his room, both doors were open, so I look at the end of the hall to MY room.... door is shut, I know I didn't close it behind me... so I go down there and open it up, and sure enough, there is Nathan sitting on the floor, but he's playing with a needle nose plyers - doing the whole crocidile thing with them (opening and closing them) ... and as I'm reaching for them to take them away, he catches his leg - OWIE!!!!!!!! Yeah, that hurt.... so it's his Crocky boo-boo...

May 24th

I apparently didn't take any photos yesterday .... bad me. I usually try to get a picture of him every day - regardless. Buuuuut I don't have ANY pictures from yesterday. (or a couple other days ...

I hope every one has a happy Memorial Day today - please remember those service men and women who have served our country and died for our freedome. It's not just a day of BBQ's.

Stay tuned for today's installment of Nathan's Daily Diary (to be posted tonight after he goes to bed)

Notes On Noah... Please Read!

For those of you who are not familiar with Noah's story, my one pound twelve ounce miracle born with a rare genetic disorder, who I was told wouldn't survive pregnancy ... you can find his Pregnancy And Birth Story on this blog, and you can also go to my other blog and read an article I wrote about him called AGAINST THE ODDS which is also featured on the Be Not Afraid Website (to get to it you click on STORIES and then TRISOMIES AND OTHER RARE MOSIACISMS and then on AGAINST THE ODDS it will look like this ... (I removed the writing other then the menu)


Then you should see ....


Anyway ... Noah has had a birth mark on the side of his head since birth... (duh it's a BIRTH mark) he also had port wine stains on his face. Nathan had the port wine stains also. Anyway - I noticed rather recently that the center of his previously flat oval birth mark (about 1 cm by 1 1/2 cm) has risen in the middle ... this is my sad attempts of trying to get it in picture



So being stupid I looked up skin cancer...

Symptoms

Early signs

The most important warning sign for melanoma is any change in size, shape, or color of a mole or other skin growth, such as a birthmark. Watch for changes that occur over a period of weeks to a month. Use the American Cancer Society's ABCD rule to evaluate skin changes, and call your health professional if you have any of the following changes.⁴

• A is for asymmetry. One half of the mole or skin growth doesn't match the other half.
• B is for border irregularity. The edges are ragged, notched, or blurred.
• C is for color. The pigmentation is not uniform. Shades of tan, brown, and black are present. Dashes of red, white, and blue add to the mottled appearance. Changes in color distribution, especially the spread of color from the edge of a mole into the surrounding skin, also are an early sign of melanoma.
• D is for diameter. The mole or skin growth is larger than 6mm or about the size of a pencil eraser. Any growth of a mole should be of concern.

Signs of melanoma in an existing mole include changes in:

• Elevation, such as thickening or raising of a previously flat mole.
• Surface, such as scaling, erosion, oozing, bleeding, or crusting.
• Surrounding skin, such as redness, swelling, or small new patches of color around a larger lesion (satellite pigmentations).
• Sensation, such as itching, tingling, or burning.
• Consistency, such as softening or small pieces that break off easily (friability).

And wasn't happy.

Stupid. I've already made an appointment and all that will happen is he'll be referred to a dermatologist and from there who knows - I know there will be a biopsy in the future which will be the end of Noah's world (because he's terrified of anything DR related). I am really scared. The places we know where his disorder is, one of them is his skin. The philosophy we have to live by, anything can happen at any time with any organ... it's in his skin. I'm scared. I'm trying SO HARD not to think about it.

So I ask you - if you pray, PLEASE pray. If you don't, do whatever you do. Positive thoughts... nothing but good news where this is concerned. It's bad enough one of my best friends is waiting for biopsy results. It's bad enough I went through a leukemia scare with Calahan when he was 2. Now I'm having nightmares that something is going on in my miracle man.

I got too comfortable with everything, I started to only think about it really when he got sick. I started to only have the panic attacks when he got sick. Now - I'm trying not to think about it and I'm trying to be positive. But I can't push away the fear.

Autism linked to Chromosome 17 now?

So in a new article, from a new study, Autism is now (also) being linked to Chromosome 17 now... Here is the article... A Genetic Clue To Why Autism Effects Boys More ... check it out!

I got two awards!!!

I want to thank CandiceR at Mama's Insight for "A Sushi Grade Blog!" award!! You can see it proudly displayed in my menu to the side. It's my very first award over here at this blog!!



I got the same award at my other blog twice, and once over here from Shelley at I’m Still Standing. Thanks so much Shelley!! Again you can see it proudly displayed on the side!!

I have awarded BOTH awards to others, but over at A PAGE IN MY BOOK because all that stuff happens over there, this one is mainly just for the kids. I have 30 more people to award the "One Lovely Blog Award" to - and 15 of them are coming from this blog :) So - stay tuned for that (but you'll be directed over there most likely!)

May 9th - 13th - entry 21

This post covers from May 9th through the 13th... entry 21

Well things have been crazy here at home and I have NOT kept up on Nathan's D.D. as I should. Once you get a week behind, it's hard to remember the details of each day. I went to catch up last Thursday and then life ran away with me again as I tried my best to get ready for a quick thrift sale and take care of the family. Didn't work very well with blogging.

Over all, the whole week was so hard for Nathan. He was very clingy, whiney and just not himself. We figured he had to have another migraine but it wasn't as *bad* as the rest of them have been for him. So basically we just rode it out the best that we could!

Saturday, Sunday & Monday

Nathan had a very rough days. He woke up early and then whined SO MUCH. You could tell he was in pain for most of the day. He got his meds, he got some milk, some breakfast… and he just sorta vegged on the couch most of the morning.

I have come to realize this is NOT the same boy I gave birth to. The boy I gave birth to NEVER stopped moving. Nathan only moves around half the time lately.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Nathan woke up at 4:30 this morning and was up until about 6 when he feel asleep in his highchair right before dinner. We went grocery shopping and he was even whining getting away from the house and usually he loves that.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Nathan woke up immediately letting the house know that he wasn’t a happy lil guy! He had a very rough morning. He couldn’t seem to get comfortable and he didn’t. Katy came for therapy and Nathan wouldn’t work. He clung, he grouched, he let everyone know he just wasn’t going to do it. I had already given him his thyroid, migraine & allergy meds, but I ended up adding ibuprofen when she got here. Since starting the medication for the migraines it’s harder to gage the headaches, we know he is obviously still having them, but we just don’t think they are *as* bad. They seem to be slightly better. Maybe over time the meds will kick in more and more.

We had a very laid back morning and didn’t really do much of anything. He had fruit loops, and milk. He had some grapes. Around 11 it seemed to lift a little and he was better.

Around noon we had to go get Daddy (unplanned and Mom forgot his noon migraine meds). He ended up sleeping in the van. When we got back in our area, we stopped at Walmart. Got home and had some lunch, crackers, cheese & ham. He at the crackers and cheese, not a lot of the ham.

Friends came over and we ended up outside, when it started raining. Nathan wasn’t scared at all and he ended up having a BLAST playing in the rain. So I let him!!!

After we got inside – it was immediately time for a bath. After bath we got on PJ’s and had some snacks. I had milk available to him all day (probably drank 4 cuppies) … he had chicken nuggest for dinner. We had to go get Daddy’s car and then by the time we got home (8pm) he was asleep for the night.