Bit through his lip.......

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 Noah has taught the younger two all those lovely boy things ....  every little boy learns somewhere.   Those things every mother wants to prolong as long as possible......

............ using the finger guns ...... or any other straight object that can be imagined into one...

..................... mimicing the moves of all those stupid shows on TV that teach little kids it's cool to go up to someone and kick them, punch them.... and put them into a choke hold .......

Teaching an Autistic child the "choke hold" thing ...... it's not cool....  they tend to think it's funny to choke anyone ... including the cat and dog .......

Oye ....

Anyway ....... Gremlin Kaedyn and Gremlin Nathan were horsing around in the bedroom.  Kaedyn was on the phone with Nana at the time, and my mom said that Kaedyn had some maniacal laughter...... and then........ Nathan starts screaming.....  Kaedyn told Nana something about Nathan trying to tickle him........

Regardless..... Nathan came out to me ..... with his poor little face all bloody.  At first I thought he might have bit his lip or something....... but I didn't know....

HE BIT THROUGH HIS LIP .....

 So I took him to the ER right away ... just incase it needed stitched or they could glue it...

 (below) Pushing his tongue against it...

 (above) Watching Toy Story and having to have the speaker right by him....  (below) ... being wrapped up like a taco so they could clean it out and glue it ...

 Cleaning it out .......

 Gluing it.......

 All fixed ...  bandaid on his face.... heehee...

 They gave him some antibiotics and he's doing well now.   This happened yesterday (the 18th of December) and here he is today .... (the 19th)

Nathan's I.E.P....

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 Nathan's I.E.P. meeting went well.  He has made some progress ...  his vocab has improved a little but his speech therapist.  They said that he's interacting with the other kids a little bit ... however, he still prefers to play alone or with Kaedyn.  However, there is some interest there.  They said he loves to sit in the reading corner and just read.   They have noticed his sensory issues coming into play but not as often as they were at the beginning of the school year.  Over all - he's doing very well.   He has his issues, but he's an amazing kid - and they ALWAYS miss him when he isn't there.

I was super excited when they handed me his communication book!!  We're not having an easy time using it...  it's HUGE and it's a little hard to follow :(   But I'm excited...

I have to say that his most ABSOLUTE FAVORITE thing to do is to sit in the swing....

 He and Kaedyn play very well together :)

And here he is in his favorite reading spot :)

iPad and Autism

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So I'm working on a presentation for my Multimedia class.   It's entitled: "A Day in the Life of a Technology Savvy Autistic Child."  It's basically just some pictures of Nathan watching TV, playing on the computer, playing on my cell phone.... watching the sewing machine... etc.  At the end, I added this video.

It's from 60 Minutes - about less then two weeks ago...


It's one of the things we're fundraising for.  The communication device, that makes sentences, would be AMAZING.  The sooner he gets it - the better.  We're also raising funds to get the conference this coming summer in Illinois.  Families affected by Russell Silver Syndrome and the leading experts are all going to be there, not to mention getting an appointment with THE leading expert on RSS to get medical advice on how to help him.

There is also an article here: How iPods & iPads Help Autistic Students

This is the App we want to get him.....  ProLoQuo2Go

Preemie Remembrance....

November 17 - Prematurity Awareness Day ....

As many of you know, who read my blog regularly, I have had two premature babies.

Noah Alexander - born weighting 1lb 12.2 oz ...... 13 3/4 inches long.......... born at 33 weeks, the size of a 24 weeker ...

 Noah was on a vent for the first 40 hours of his life, then proving all the doctors who said he wouldn't live wrong...... he was off of it!! 

 With Beanie Baby HOPE ... Noah at his lowest weight - 1lb 11oz at 3 days old... 

 His itty bitty foot in my hand ....  

Nathan Patrick - born weighting 3lbs 4oz .... 15 3/4 inches long ........ born at 36 weeks, the size of a 31 weeker ... 

 Nathan was constantly under the bili lights ....... I called him my sunbather ...  and he was tube fed because he couldn't get nippling a bottle  ... thanks to his sub-mucus cleft palate ... 

 The picture below is of Calahan and Noah looking in on Nathan through his bed...  the NICU actually loved this picture - stole it from me (ha ha ha) and asked if they could use it in future publications to talk about how siblings are integrated in the NICU ... of course I said yes!!

I am the Mommy to TWO Preemies!  Two babies with medical issues.  Two babies who game too early and too small.  I've been in the NICU twice, and I've brought home two babies who were under five pounds. 

Before having a preemie - you are so naive ...  you know there is a world out there of babies who are too small, you know some of them don't make it ... you know it exists but it's the whole IT WON'T HAPPEN TO ME mentality....

It does happen ...

Then you become way to familiar with all the things that can go wrong ...  brain bleeds, feeding issues, A's & B's...  temperature holding issues, sensory issues, tube feeding, PIC lines, leads and daily weigh ins... not to mention the world of breathing tubes, oxygen... and RSV ...

It's not an easy world to enter into once.... let alone twice. 

Educate yourself....  you never know if it could happen to you, or someone you love.......

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HIVES!!

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Kaedyn is my mini-me........ I mean, let's face it, the kid looks just like me.  ::: Looks around cautiously :::  He acts just like me too .... shhhhhhhhhhhh .....  but one thing I really HOPED he wouldn't be like me with was allergies.  I'm allergic to EVERYTHING ....... and I'm not even kidding when I say that.  Molds ... yep! Pollen, you betcha! Animals, of course!  Soaps & stuff... of course!!  Medicines ... sure, there are a few.  Foods ... name a fruit, I'm probably allergic to it.  I thought it was fruits AND veggies, but it's mostly just fruits.  What aren't I allergic to? 

Well, Kaedyn has been having small hives here and there through the summer, benedryl has become a nightly staple between his itching (oddly it seems to help when he's really itchy with his eczema) ... and his hives.   I thought the hives were just an environmental thing... but last night, he was COVERED in LARGE hives and small ones.  They were all over his back, his butt, his legs, his arms... I don't know when he got them but boy did he get them!!

Here are some pictures I took before Dennis took him into urgent care to document the case so we can get him some allergy testing.  There are 4 pictures, the lighter ones are the normal ones, and then the identical ones below them are with contrast to make the hives pop out a little better........

This scares me.  I have sooooooo many allergies, it's hard to know what he's allergic to.  Especially since he didn't eat anything out of the ordinary yesterday that I know of - other then candy corn, but he had some of that last year.  Dennis has anaphylaxis when it comes to lobster and other shell fish, to the point where he needs an epi pen.

Then I gave him the prednisone and benadryl this morning, and gave him a bowl of cereal ... next thing I know, he's throwing up.  Then he didn't eat anymore.  So I really think maybe his throat was affected too. 

I called to try to talk to the Doc this morning.  Sadly she didn't have anything available today, so I am talking to the DR tomorrow morning, first thing, and I'm going to get him in for allergy testing ASAP ...

Noah Gets His Hearing Aid

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We went to Seattle because it was time to get Noah's hearing aid...   Here he is getting his hearing aid programed ...

 One of the things he got, Audo the Otter has two hearing aids...

 Noah getting his hearing aid programed ...

 Audo's foot, his box he carries around for his hearing aid and a book he got...

 Bag of goodies...

 Noah and his hearing aid

 "Hearing Aid Care Kit - Ages 5 to 10"

 Little better picture of his hearing aid on ...

 Holding Max ...

 He did really well that day.  He was so excited to get it.  I thought transitioning to it would be a breeze!  We went through the training on how to take care of it, how to clean it, how to change the battery and how to turn it on and off, how to adjust the volume and how to put it in.  We got out to the van, thought he'd just take in all the new sounds - hearing in stereo ... but he took it off with in 5 minutes.  It was to much for his audio sensory issues...

Over the next few days, he was only able to wear it for short periods of time... but by the end of the week he wore it all day - YAY!

Kaedyn's 2nd Oral Surgery

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Took younger boys in for their dental check up, and much to our dismay, Kaedyn's 2 year molars that had broke through after his first oral surgery were needing repair and caps.

When we got to the hospital we took a minute to watch the fountain ... 

 My handsome guy ....

 He was NOT happy about getting undressed and the hospital clothes on...

 He was kicking and screaming and fighting me, taking OFF the gown as soon as I put it on and I could NOT get the pants on him AT ALL ...... It was a rough day...

 And me threatening him and telling him I was going to take pictures and put them on Facebook/my blog... didn't phase him...  

But I did manage to get him to relax, only to have him flip out anytime anyone walked into the room ...

 But we cuddled ...

 THEN they gave him the good drugs ......

 Why is it my kids get these drugs and they think playing with their tongue is the funniest thing in the world?

 Then they got him ready to go off ...  he insisted on taking his baby

I didn't get any pictures after, my arms were to full of baby and I was by myself.  Kaedyn does not wake up well from anesthesia, he's very combative ...  and then when we got to the point to go home, he started throwing up.  So yeah, I was pretty busy ...  but surgery went well, they got his teeth fixed and the caps on, replaced another cap and they didn't have to do a baby root canal on the tooth that was the worst, so YAY...

But he wasn't feeling well for about 24 hours or so .... :(  He crawled into bed with us overnight and slept late