Our first neurology appointment!

Hi All!

Today was our first neurology appointment since being in the NICU at Children's Hospital. It went great. The doctors cannot believe how good sweet Baby O is doing! The first thing they said was "You're really fooling everyone, aren't you little buddy?" :)

All of his reflexes are great, and he is doing everything a baby his age (almost 1 month!) should be doing. His head/neck strength is great, his overall tone is good, and those little legs are getting quite strong! You would never know that such a traumatic event has even happened to him - he is so happy and full of life!

They did not schedule an MRI today because they want him to be a little stronger so that when they sedate him for it, nothing will go wrong. So I think we will be having his next one in 3 months or so. With how good he is looking, there is hope that the bleeding has absorbed and that the tissue underneath isn't completely devastated. We will remain hopeful for the best outcome, but will not lose sight of the truth. What has happened to him is considered "devastating." He has clotting AND bleeding in his brain, and they can only assume at this point that the bleeding has stopped. We know that the MRI could show worse results than the doctors predicted, and we have to be ready for both scenarios no matter what.

We are starting a new medicine tomorrow, Trileptal, and will be weaning him off of the Phenobarbital eventually as it can cause developmental delays and we don't want anything standing in the way of his progress. He will take more seizures over the next few days with the introduction of the medicine, which is one of the worst parts. They are so quick yet so terribly sad to watch him go through. It breaks our hearts all over again each time he takes one, but we know that we have to be there to comfort him afterwards.

He's currently laying next to me kicking and talking up a storm! He's taking 4-5 oz each feeding and is now sleeping in 4 hour stretches. He's recently discovered how to suck on his fingers and we've recently discovered that he LOVES having his forehead rubbed and he also loves his back side patted as he falls asleep.

For those of you who want to know how Owen & I how are doing... our answer is GREAT! All we can hope for is to have the chance to do everything within our power to help him - emotionally and physically. We cannot wait to start all of his different therapies with the developmental team next week!