Last Friday I took Hudson and Greta to get their pics taken at Target. Here are a few of what was taken. Too bad we couldn't get Hudson to smile, he usually is a very smily baby. He was really sleepy that day.
I'm just getting around to posting pictures from Hudson's Blessing. We finally blessed him earlier this month. He is such a sweet child and we are so happy he is doing so well.
He looked so handsome in his little suit. I was grateful it still fit, because he was supposed to be blessed in September, but he was in the hospital instead. Luckily I bought big and it fit perfect.
I have to admit I LOVE Halloween. It is always a lot of work, but it is all worth it seeing how happy it makes the kids. I'm not a huge fan of dressing scary. But it sure is fun just dress up. I live for my kids smiles. Nothing is better than seeing them happy, and Halloween is one of those things that brings joy to them.
Luckily this year I only had to sew one costume, Greta's Little Bo Peep (it was quite extensive), plus a stripe on Wyatt's Leo shirt. Thanks to my cousin Sandy for letting us borrow Kaisa's and Blake's costumes. She rocks! Hudson's costume I custom made when Wyatt was a baby.
Look how happy they are.
Kaisa a cute Cowgirl
Blake as a Rodeo Clown
Wyatt as Leo from Little Einsteins. He begged to be this.
Greta as Little Bo Peep. Out little ball of pink.
Hudson as Superman. Because he's "super, super"
Thank goodness for awesome insurance. That is the only way we are able to semi-afford Hudson's doctor bills. Unfortunately our incurance works on a fiscal year, which starts July 1st and ends June 30th. Since he was born in June and his problems started then we have already reached the maximum out of pocket twice. But it could be so much worse (like under the Obama Health Care Plan), so we are grateful to be only having to pay a fraction of the expenses.
Just say no to Obama Care! There are other ways to solve health care problems.
So If you're on Facebook you already know the numbers. But I finally got around to adding up all of Hudson's Doctor bills for the first 2 1/2 months of his life.
And the magic number is . . . . $92,889.09. But since all of the doctors like to charge seperately that number actually will be closer to $95,000. WOW!
That includes his delivery, a total of 2 1/2 weeks spent at Primary Children's Hospital (the two stays added together), almost a week stay at AF Hospital, 4 Emergency Room visits (2 at each hospital, that's the only way to be admitted into Primaries), A whole shlew of tests (including a detail genetic mapping, swallow study, MRI, CT Scan, 3 EEG's, a bunch of spinal taps, too many blood draws to name or count, catheter insertions, feeding tube, a few urine collections, numerous doctors (and medical students =0), and so many other that I can't even think of or want to remember).
(This is his swallow study. I don't know why but I love this picture, its so cute and kind of funny.)
Luckily every test has come back completely normal, except the EEG's that show that he does have seizure activity, bringing us that much closer to the possibility that he will outgrow the seizures by sometime between now and the age of two. At this point we know what he doesn't have, like he doesn't have cerebral palsy, Tay-Sachs disease, musclular dustrophy, myotonic dystrophy, Guillain Barre syndrome, or any degenerative/ regressive diseases, and so many others.
But now we have hypotonia, low muscle tone, to deal with. Thanks to his medications. Why don't they switch his meds you ask? Well they tried to switch him to Keppra when he was at Primaries the second time. As he had increasingly more seizures (as the phenobarb wore off), they kept telling me that the Keppra would kick in. On day three of the Keppra he had an hour long seizure where he stopped breathing for 5 minutes and nearly died (luckily they were able to breathe for him, so no brain damage. THANK HEAVENS!). At that point they finally admitted the Keppra wasn't working. I'll take low muscle tone and sleepiness.
The next step is to have Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapists (Early Intervention) to come to our home and help catch him up developmentally and strength wise. He still struggles to lift his head and with neck muscle control and hasn't rolled over yet. But we are told with help, he will eventually reach his milestones like rolling over, sitting up, walking, etc. He babbles up a storm and talks in his sleep, so we're not really worried with his speech at this point. The sooner we get the help, the faster we can catch him up, and it shouldn't affect him for life (as long as he doesn't end up having any rare disease that we haven't found out yet). We're told with exercise he will start to wake up more and be alert for longer periods of time. We look forward to this. We're still waiting for the call, I'll be bugging them today.
In all he is doing well, he's even gaining weight (he's in the 25 percentile). We have high expectations for him. And he is the sweetest baby you will ever see.
P.S. Just one thing. When you see us, don't keep commenting on his floppiness. That is a huge pet peeve of mine. Call me sensitive on the matter.
My sister Rebecca got married yesterday. What a party! It was nice to see so many old freinds and family I haven't seen in a very long time. More pictures to come.
So Greta LOVES tomatoes. She cannot keep her hands off them. Every time my back is turned she's got the stool over to the counter snitching tomatoes, not that I would stop her. The other kids won't touch them, but Greta gobbles them up like they are candy. She has even turned down candy to eat them instead. Who can blame her though, because home grown tomatoes are delicious.
I don't know if you can tell, but her mouth is full with a tomato.
