Diagnosis: Stereotypy

Video of a longer movement episode taken yesterday:

The video is not sped up, although it looks like it huh? He's got some major ants in his pants!

Noah's pediatrician sent us to Oakland Children's Hospital, to have an EEG brain wave scan done to ensure his episodes are not epileptic. Even before the scan, the neurologist watched the videos I had taken of him and said he was confident they were not seizures. He said that he has complex motor stereotypy (which is not pronounced at all like you would expect lol) They are tic like movements that are intended to self sooth, and he is probably not even aware of them. Even though they look scary/weird, they are completely harmless and he is expected to outgrow them. This is exactly what we needed to hear to stop worrying so we were happy campers leaving!
Noah was such a good kiddo, he didn't fuss or complain about having to be in the crib cage for hours. He did let us know he did NOT enjoy getting the wires taped on or taken off but who would?!

Before the helmet head:



Pretty impressive helmet made of gauze and tape, huh? You can see the snake of wires coming from the back of his head like a pony tail. Noah was a big fan of their phone and the nurse's stethoscope (they let him take one home, so nice!).

Even though the neurologist made me feel a little silly, I still feel positive that having him seen was the right thing to do. The nurses and attending doctors were all wonderful, but I definitely left feeling grateful that our stay was so short. I am very thankful that our adorable, sweet little man is healthy. A little quirky, but healthy.

*I found videos on youtube of other children with complex motor stereotypies which made me feel so much better. Some were far more severe than Noah's, but yet they are healthy kiddos. It was definitely comforting to read.

Outdoor Fun

Since the weather has finally improved we were able to get outside for a bit today. Noah loved playing with his "new" ride on toy. Another benefit of having a Grandma who does daycare, you can borrow fun toys!

He just needs to work on his entrance a bit! ;)

Yummy Banana!

Noah chowed down on half a banana this morning! He even took a chunk out of the peel before I got it out of the way in time LOL silly boy!

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Still waiting for the neurologist to give us an appointment.

I took this video today, he only does the movements briefly, in the middle of the video. Often they are much bigger and more obvious. You can also see his head nod/shake. At the end of the video a siren begins, it snaps him out of it. I'm very anxious for the neurologist to confirm for us that this is something relatively harmless and that he will grow out of it.

Transitions

Whoops, it's been a long time since I've updated Noah's blog. A lot has prevented me from having free time lately. James went back to work, which was a big adjustment for us. We loved having Daddy home for the last 6 weeks! I had a birthday, last year in my twenties, yikes!
We're still working on getting Noah to sleep through the night consistently. It seems as though he had nightmares a few nights, he woke up very upset a few times this week. We need to break some bad sleep habits that we've allowed to continue, when Noah wakes up we go in and give him a bottle, rock him back to sleep. We are realizing he needs to learn to put himself back to sleep on his own. We had a few rough nights transitioning to this but hopefully that's behind us now.

Most significantly, we've recently discovered that Noah may have a seizure disorder.
Over the last few weeks, James and I had noticed that Noah would fling his arms to the side, and then bring them back quickly to his lap or chin. He also seems to quickly shake or nod his head to the side slightly. At first we only saw it at night, while he was tired in his crib. Initially I just thought it was something quirky he was doing but it became apparent that he doesn't do it intentionally. I'm not even sure if he is aware of it. Noah's eyes always remain open when I see him doing them, and hopefully it doesn't progress to anything else. If we didn't have the video monitor I don't think we would even be aware of it. But because he has been doing it more frequently - he had "movement" episodes before his nap on Wednesday, the first time I've seen it during the day, I called his pediatrician. He seems to think that the movements are technically seizures, in which his arm muscles are extending and contracting. He explained that we could call them tics, or spasms, but those are still seizures, only minor and not affecting the whole body. The Dr. referred us to a neurologist, which I'm waiting to hear back from to make an appointment, hopefully early next week. He explained they would do an EEG to look at his brain activity, and discuss a plan for going forward. Fingers crossed it's just a tired twitch he will outgrow, just something quirky to look back and laugh about our special and wonderful Noah. :)

Spring is in the air!

Well, sort of. I took spring/Easter pictures of Noah today. Cutest little bunny around! (Can you guess how long those ears lasted each time James threw them on his head? Yup, 2.5 seconds. Good thing my camera is quick!)

Chores

Never too early to put 'em to work! :)

St. Patrick's Day Stud Muffin

Noah was just TOO stinking cute on St. Patrick's Day in his festive hand me down argyle sweater vest!

He may look innocent but he sure knows how to pester one sweet Chloe dog!

The Busy Board

Noah is a button pusher. He loves light switches and shiny things and he will go out of his way to touch something that looks mechanical. When I saw this 'busy board' concept on Pinterest I knew Noah would love it. After a (not so quick) trip browsing through the aisles of Lowe's and a visit to Papa Ray's garage for scrap wood, Papa was able to put together a very unique toy just for Noah. It has two light switches, two hinges that open and close, a screw with nuts that Noah loves to twist left and right, two spinners, a combination lock and a door stop for sound effects. :) It also has plenty of room for future gizmos and gadgets to be added as we find them.



He really likes it, every time I pull it out for him to play with he makes lots of oohs and ahhs and will play with it for a good chunk of time before I put it away. Then he goes back to his cars that go "brrrrrrrmmmm" :)

Hair cut!

YAY! The hippie hair is gone! I don't know why we waited so long to cut Noah's hair, but I'm so glad we finally had it cut! His hair cut is SO cute. He looks like a 4 year old, but little. :)

Noah LOVES his dog (and yogurt)

Chloe is such a good dog, poor thing will just sit there and let Noah pat her, climb on her, pull her paws, etc. She has never once even growled at him. I guess she thinks it's a fair trade for all the food he drops down to her from his high chair.

In my constant quest to try and find foods that Noah will eat, I grabbed these drinkable yogurt "smoothies." I don't know if he was just extra hungry or if I caught him at the right time or what, but he DOWNED the thing, in seriously like two minutes. He also ate a ton of Kix cereal, half a string cheese and two veggie crackers for his mid morning snack. That's a lot for him. He sure looked cute drinking his yogurt, I think he thought it was awesome that he got to use a straw like a big boy. :)

Tree Swing Fun

Papa Jim put up a tree swing for Noah today! He thought it was way fun :)

Bubble Mower

We put bubbles into Noah's lawn mower today.


Of course he had to check it out for himself and try to figure out how it works.

Bat Boy

Noah had fun at Daddy's game today, he loved being able to run around and get into stuff (like Daddy's bag). It's so cute how the bat is bigger than he is!

Daddy's Hat

Noah was being so cute, putting James' hat on his head and smiling super big. I couldn't catch him looking, but this is cute too. (He's walking away with the hat on backwards) Love that little diaper butt.

Mowing the Lawn

Noah loves his new lawn mower, although we haven't even shown him the awesome bubble blowing feature yet :)

Hi!!!

Noah was in an especially out going mood this morning, I had the camera in hand to take a picture of Connor and he came up to me saying "hi! hi! hi!" with this great grin :)

BUBBLES!

Bed Time Stories

Noah has been more interested in bedtime stories lately, which I LOVE. After reading three tonight he got down off the couch and went over and picked out another one all by himself. He especially loves pointing to any "kitty"(s) or "dog"(s) in the pictures.

(Noah felt the flash was too bright apparently)

Noah the Wizard

James put his T-shirt on Noah today and Noah thought it was hysterical!

He looked like a little wizard running around. Too cute.

'Finger' Painting

I thought I'd let Noah explore finger painting today, at least the cleaner, paint inside a bag version. At first we tried just taping the bag to his highchair but he kept picking up the bag.

So then we taped the bag to a piece of cardboard. He thought the paint was alright...

But he REALLY got a kick out of using the cardboard and paint bag as a dance floor.

He did his signature tap dance jig all over it for a good long time. Ah well, he enjoyed himself. Painting will just have to wait until he's a little older. :)