Dougie is Smarter than the Puppies

We knew the day would come, but we had been lulled into a bit of a sense of false security. With four dogs, we've gotten used to making things hard to access. Our methods have been contingent on a slightly lower problem solving ability. For example, we have one dog who thinks he can hide under my desk which is open on all 4 sides. As you can see, we didn't have to have solutions that were that brilliant. Up until now, those solutions have worked just fine to keep Dougie out of things as well. That was, until today.

Like all babies, Dougie has discovered the wonder that is our kitchen cupboards and is continually getting into them. We are working on getting child locks on them all but until then, I placed chairs up against the doors to stop him from opening them. Today, he learned that he could just move the chair.

That chair used to be up against the cupboard


Now those plastic bags are nice and accessible


Let the mess ensue


But wait, there's more. His talents aren't limited to accessing the bag cupboard. He can get Tupperware and baby food items


And even food itself


Looks like we'll have to get those cupboard locks installed this weekend.

Finger Feeding

It's about time we had some positive things going on in this blog. So, it is my pleasure to announce that Dougie officially finger fed for the first time tonight. I had placed some Puffs on his tray and given him a few. Then, I worked on my dinner. I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and when I turned to look at him, he was putting the Puffs in his mouth. I'm so excited for him. He missed his mouth a few times but for the most part, it was a very successful meal. We're going to try some sort of different food tomorrow.

You can't see it, but there is a Puff in those fingers


Playing with PlayDoh containers


Throwing it is the most fun


In other news, we don't have any results yet though we're waiting for scheduling to call us to book the 48 hour EEG.

Dougie's MRI

Dougie went in for his MRI today. Because you have to remain completely still for an MRI, they sedate children Dougie's age. We arrive at the pediatric imaging center right at noon. They checked Dougie in quickly and we were called back. Dougie played in the back for a few minutes while they finished up with the previous patient and then they called us into the MRI room. We lay Dougie on the table and the anesthesiologist put a mask on him. He started to cry almost immediately. I think he just knew something was up and apparently, it smelled a bit. In about 30 seconds, Dougie was asleep. I left the room.

While they had Dougie under, they took more blood. Judging by the vials I saw them leave with, it's for the best that he slept through that. Then they started the MRI. The entire process took about 45 minutes.

They say it's common that children wake from anesthesia "irritable". Dougie was no exception to this rule. He cried loudly as soon as they woke him up. The doctor handed him to me and he continued to scream. They put us in a recovery room on the other side of the imaging center and apparently, people could still hear him screaming. It went on for 10-15 minutes solid and then in little bursts after that for the next hour or so. Once he got over that, he was fine. He did refuse to nap for the rest of the day but that was also to be expected. He's completely back to his normal self now.

Unfortunately, no news beyond that. I called the neurologists office twice today but no one called us back. I'm going to call tomorrow and be a bit more insistent that someone return our call. Hopefully by that time, they can also give us the MRI results. We'd really like to know if we need to go back in for another EEG though because Scott will need to make arrangements to get home and I'll need to make arrangements for the dogs.

Call from the Neurologist

The neurologist called today. She was reviewing the results and wanted some help finding the spasm. She was surprised Dougie didn't have more. She did say that the results she had seen so far were mostly normal. I asked if that was a positive sign and she said that it was too early to tell but didn't want us to get too excited about it. So, still no news there.

The one thing she did say was that we had to continue monitoring Dougie's episodes through the weekend. If they continue, she wants us to get another EEG done but this time a 48 hour one. We're not excited about the prospect of that. I'm still hopeful that one spasm will show her enough.

More Medical Updates

Sorry for the lack of update yesterday. The day proved to be pure insanity.

We had the neurologist appointment at 9am. She was very nice and spent over to an hour with us. She said Dougie was one of the most alert babies she had seen at this age. Our video wasn't a lot of help to her but she was very impressed with our log of his episodes. She wasn't able to give me any definite indicate as to what the problem was but she did list off a couple of options. As expected, she ordered tests. What wasn't expected was that the test was yesterday afternoon.

So, Dougie and I had about 45 minutes after we left the office to get ourselves packed up and ready for this 12 hour EEG. First, we called Scott. His plan was to get on the first flight he could back home and meet us up at the center. He wouldn't be able to be there at the beginning but with 12 hours of testing, he'd still be a lot of help once he arrived. Next, we packed up jammies, fed the puppies and got ourselves en route to Plano.

The test was done at the Pediatric Sleep Institute. It was a really nice facility. They were running a bit behind but we had been "fit" into the schedule so we were just appreciative to be able to get in so quickly. We managed to get Dougie all hooked up to the monitors and though he didn't appreciate the process, once it was finished, he was fine with his setup. He only pulled at the cords a few times and the head wrap a few times. Scott managed to get there a bit after 4 so he was there for most of the testing.

We waited... and waited... Little Dougie decided that perhaps he wouldn't spasm. You can imagine how impressed we were. Finally, with only an hour to go before the testing finished, he had an episode of 2 small spasms. I've never been so happy to see him do that. With that, we all went to sleep. The center allowed us to stay until morning even though our testing finished around 1:30am. They said it was safer than driving home that late. We were on the road home by 6am to avoid traffic. As you can imagine, we're all a bit tired.

So, now we wait again. We're going to call the neurologist this morning and find out about the MRI. We're also going to see how long it will take to know something. My hope is that we'll hear today but it's certainly possible that we won't hear anything for a little while. In the meantime, we're working hard to get the glue out of Dougie's hair.

Thanks for all the positive thoughts. We all really appreciate it.

Medical Update

Our little Dougie has been having a small medical problem lately. It started innocently enough. In fact, we hardly even noticed it at first. When he would nurse before bed, once in a while, he'd tense up. I thought he was stretching. This went on for a few weeks but I never gave it any thought. Then, last week, he did it while he was eating in his high chair. It caught my attention but I figured it was a one time thing. The next day at the park, he was eating an animal cracker and it happened again. On Friday, I decided it was time to talk to the doctor.

Initially, we sent an e-mail into the doctor's office but as I researched some of the causes of these spasms, we decided to call instead. The nurse made us an appointment for Monday morning but said that if the frequency increased, we should bring Dougie into the hospital. As the evening progressed, the frequency did increase. So, right before Dougie's bedtime, we packed him up and brought him to what we thought the hospital was. Turns out, it was actually an urgent care center. They were very nice there but they couldn't do any of the tests that were necessary to determine what was going on. So, we went back home with no answers.

By Saturday morning, we had decided we were going to bring Dougie to the hospital. He had had several spasm episodes Friday night and there was a dramatic up-shift. The nurses there were nice... the doctor, not so much. He did tells us that it wasn't seizures because Dougie wasn't falling asleep afterward. I happened to know that falling asleep wasn't a requirement for seizures but who was I to argue with him. He had the nerve to ask what else was wrong, like the convulsions our son was having wasn't reason enough to be there. He set us up with a referral for a neurologist and sent us on our way.

We made it through the rest of the weekend and Dougie didn't get any worse, which was good to see. Monday, we went to see the pediatrician. We had a little video of Dougie having some of his episodes so we could just show him instead of trying to explain it. The doctor wanted to do some blood work. There are a variety of things that could cause convulsions that are detectable in a blood test. He had no other ideas as to what could be going on though he did say he didn't think it was seizures. For the record, he also said sleeping wasn't a requirement for seizures but Dougie was too alert for it to be a seizure. By Monday afternoon, we had an appointment schedule with the neurologist for Wednesday morning.

Today, we got the results of the blood work. Everything came back normal. I'm not sure how to take the news. I guess it's good that there aren't any issues with any of Dougie's organs and that his blood is all fine, but it sounded like our best outcomes would have been found in blood work so I was hoping they would fine something. So, now we wait until tomorrow.

The good news in all this is that Dougie feels fine. He has a spasm and then continues with what he was previously doing. He's only gotten upset a few times and those tend to be when he has a lot in a row or the spasm is a bit stronger. We're keeping calm and not Googling anything more.

I'll definitely provide an update after we see the neurologist tomorrow. I don't expect a lot from the appointment other than getting schedule for some tests but I'll update regardless. If you could spare a few positive thoughts for our little guy, we'd all appreciate it.

Goin' Green

Before Dougie was born, I had a lengthy list of things I was never going to do. As time passes, thing are continually falling off the list. The latest list causality is cloth diapering. Yes, you read correctly, our little Dougie now wears cloth diapers. The more amazing part is the we're cleaning them ourselves. We're almost a week in, and so far, so good.

Here is our little Dougie in his first cloth diaper.

Dougie's First Halloween

Happy Halloween!

This year, Dougie was an elephant for Halloween. It was an adorable costume and he didn't seem to mind it too much. The feet were a bit too big and kept falling off and he eventually learned to take the head piece off but he still looked cute. He ended up wearing it three times so we got a lot of use out of it.



I think he looks pretty cute.

Showing Off the Teeth

Dougie's current tooth count is at 4. He can even take bites of things. He was showing them off today so I got a few pictures so you could see his teething progress.

Dougie's First Haircut

On Saturday, we took Dougie for his first haircut. His hair wasn't *that* long but it was hanging over his ears on the side and we wanted to clean him up a bit. We also wanted to get him exposed to the experience now so he's used to it and it won't be a big deal later.

As you can tell, we went to a place that specialized in children's hair cuts. He was pretty happy about it the entire time.

Before the Cut


Cutting


After


And "driving" his cab (you can see the cut a bit better)


And yes, we know the before and after pictures look almost the same. I actually had to sort them by time so I could work out which one was which. :)

Feeding Daddy

Dougie knows how to pick up food using a pincer grasp (using his thumb and index finger) but he hasn't learned to then put it his own mouth. He has learned to put it in our mouths.

We're hoping that this means he'll learn to feed himself soon. That'll make dinners a lot easier.

The Weekend

It's been our first weekend home in a while. It was sure nice to be around. We had a bunch of things to do but we ignored the list most of the weekend. Instead, we did family things around town and relaxed. Everyone seems to have a cold so we all worked on getting over those.

On Saturday, we took Dougie to the Butterfly Flutterby. It's a festival that celebrates the passing of the monarch butterfly through the area as it migrates to Mexico for the winter. It was a lot larger than we expected. All the kids dress up like butterflies so it is very cute. Dougie, of course, dressed up. So we, of course, took pictures.







On Sunday morning, we packed ourselves up and went out to Flower Mound to go to the "good" pumpkin patch. It was certainly worth the drive. It was much more impressive than the local one. There were a lot of activities that were much too old for Dougie but I'm sure he's going to love it in a few years. The best part was that all the activities were free. We spent about an hour there and then came home.

Sssh, don't tell him this is really his second pumpkin patch

Dougie's Blood Update

On Friday, we took Dougie back into the doctor to get his blood checked again. He wanted to be sure that the iron was making enough improvement. On Saturday, they called with the results. His iron levels had jumped 3 points! The doctor told us we had to have a 1 point jump or Dougie would have to go to a specialist. Three points puts him just 0.2 points below a normal range. The doctor was thrilled with his progress, as were we. So, he needs to stay on the iron another month and then we're going to get him checked again. Assuming he's leveled off and in a normal range, then he'll be on iron for at least another month or two and then he can stop it. One more check a month after he stops will be sure that his levels are remaining in the normal range and then we can rest easy. It's still a long road but at least we know that we're going in the right direction.

BC Visit

Since we were out in Alberta, we thought it would be a good idea to take the short flight over to BC to visit Scott's parents as well. We've been wanting to bring Dougie out there to see them so this worked out perfectly.

I arrived a few days before Scott so everyone could have some extra Dougie time. He took full advantage of his time and got to know Grandma and Grandpa better as well as enjoying a bit of play time.

Playing in the tunnel


Playing with Grandpa


Hanging with Grandma


So many new toys


You'd be amazed how much noise he can make with this


Scott got up there a bit late because of a variety of airplane troubles. We were glad he made it though. Dougie enjoying having time with Daddy as well as his parents.





Aunt Judy even came by to meet little Dougie. He warmed up to her quite quickly and sure enjoyed her visit.





We even managed to get a few family pictures.





Our trip back was rather uneventful. It was a long flight and Dougie was up for most of it so that made it somewhat difficult. At one point, one of the flight attendants came and took him for a while. When he came back, he had a present she gave him.



I'm not sure exactly how it happened but everyone seemed to think it was funny that it was his favorite thing to play with.

Dougie started eating better while we were away. We are so excited. One of his top teeth is in and the other is just starting to break the gum now. He still won't take anything off a spoon but he's certainly eating hard foods a lot better. Hopefully, we're turning a corner here and Dougie's eating problems will be in the past.

Canadian Thanksgiving

My sister, Laurie, invited the entire family out to her farm for Canadian Thanksgiving. What a great treat! We decided it would be a wonderful opportunity to see everyone so we packed up the family and headed out to Alberta.

What a fabulous time! Laurie, as usual, out did herself on the food and the hospitality. She was very accommodating of my restricted diet. We spent the first few days hanging out at the farm while Mom and Dad were there and Lesley and Sean came up from Edmonton. By Monday, it was just Laurie's family and Dougie and I left. We toured the area and then headed to Calgary for the last day. I was so glad that Dougie was able to see everyone and meet a few new relatives.

We took a ton of pictures. Here is a small sampling:

Uncle Glen and Dougie


Dougie and Auntie Lou


Playing with Cousin Molly


Uncle Glen, Dougie, Cousin Dale and Grandpa


The whole family at Thanksgiving


Dougie with Grandma and Grandpa


Dougie and Auntie Lesley


Cousin Sean and Dougie


Dougie Dressed for Calgary Weather (thanks Auntie Lou)


Ready for more outside fun


Playing in the leaves with Cousin Molly

Anemic

We got the results of Dougie's anemia test. Unfortunately, it turns out that he has it. The doctor called this morning and said that he had a hemoglobin value of 7.6 g/dL. Normal is 12 and the lowest they would allow is 10. He's considered to have moderate to severe anemia (severe starts at < 6 g/dL). So, he has called in prescription of iron medication that we'll start to try to get his levels back up. We have to go back in 2 weeks to get his blood rechecked to ensure that the drops are making enough difference.

We're obviously concerned about him. Prolonged anemia can have lasting effects on growth and development. Apparently, sometimes, any anemia can have negative effects but the study done that proves that was quite small and I'm trying not to think about it.

Nine Month Check-up

Dougie went to the doctor today for his 9 month visit. He's not as big as last time. In truth, I thought perhaps they had mis-measured him last time so we're not overly concerned about the lack of height growth.

Stats:

• Weight - 18lbs 9oz (10%)
• Height - 28" (36%)
• Head - 18" (60%)

They did a blood test to check for anemia. That is standard at 9 months so there was no particular concern. We had wondered if he was low on iron though so I'm anxious for the test results.

We talked to the doctor about Dougie's eating strikes while he's teething and he said that it was totally normal. That sure was a relief. He said lots of kids do it and they can go on for months. So, though not idea, we're okay there. He said that we should start trying to get Dougie to eat some of the same foods as we are and that hopefully, that will encourage him to eat a little.

The doctor indicated that Dougie has separation anxiety. That's totally normal at his age though he did comment that it peaks at 1 and Dougie is already showing a lot of it. Just something to look forward to. This combined with his newly found stranger awareness makes for some difficult moments though he does seem to warm up to people quite quickly.

We got Dougie's next Hib vaccine and decided to get him a Flu shot as well. The doctor said that at minimum, it will reduce flu symptoms if he does end up getting the flu and likely it should help prevent him from getting it at all. We have to go back in 30 days for a follow up on the flu vaccine otherwise, nothing until he's a year.

It's hard being a baby.