The past few months . . .

Ok, I know it's been a really long time since I've posted. So, I will try to give you the quick summary of the past few months . . .

Isabella continues to be seizure-free. She is still on 2 anti-seizure meds, and has not had a seizure since early March when she was in the hospital. She continues to keep us on our toes, being quite the active two-year-old. She loves being outside and can't get enough of the pool (another little fish, just like her sister!). She also likes to color and play dress-up with Emma. Isabella started going to preschool two half days a week, and she is always talking about her teachers Miss Shelly (Shel-Shel she calls her) and Miss Susan. Her favorite preschool activity is the playground time.


Emma - once our 4lb 9 oz baby - is now in kindergarten!! She is going to a school where she attends 2 days a week, and then we homeschool her the other three days. Emma is adjusting to kindergarten and is missing Pre-K . . . she misses "all the toys from pre-k and thinks there are too many books" in kindergarten. Her favorite subject so far seems to be social studies where she is learning about different people in the community. And, she loves the poems and songs she is learning. Emma did great in swim lessons this summer, and participated on the neighborhood swim team. She really enjoyed all the people watching her swim across the pool!! She also attended Safety Town camp, Mermaids and Tropical Princess camp, and gymnastics. She will be starting back to ballet and tap in the fall.

Tom and I celebrated our 11-year anniversary in May by running our first 5k together. It was a fun experience and a totally different way to celebrate our anniversary. Can't believe it's been 11 years!! Anyways, I've done a few 5k's since December now. The most important one to us that I did was the one where I ran for the Epilepsy Foundation of GA and ran in honor of Isabella. We traveled north to visit Tom's brother's family in July, and then spent some time with my mom. The girls and I actually stayed at my mom's for almost two weeks. It was so fun and relaxing. We went to several festivals, visited the local amusement park, and played at Nana's. The time went by way too fast.

That's a quick summary of the past few months. I hope to stay on top of our blog updates a little better!

Summer Bow Giveaway

Visit www.sarabethbows.blogspot.com and enter to win the Great Summer Fun Bow Giveaway. The pictures shows one of three possible sets that you could win. They are so cute! We are always looking for great bows for the girls, and we were referred to this site by a friend of ours. I highly recommend checking it out. Her bows are beautiful and so is her story. And, she does giveaways quite often. Anyways, stop by her blog, check out her bows, and be sure to enter the bow giveaway. (Be sure to read all the entry rules. There are several ways to enter.)

6 Weeks Seizure-Free!

We've continued to stay busy at our house since coming home from the hospital with Isabella. A few days after we got home, Emma got the flu . . . and shared it with Mommy!! Thankfully Isabella and Tom avoided it with some preventative meds. Emma also got the stomach bug, which lingered for several days. Thankfully the rest of us avoided that one. Now, Emma is dealing with either allergies or a spring cold. Isabella went to the dr last week to get checked for a possible urinary tract infection. The initial test was positive, so she was put on an antibiotic, but a few days later we were called with the results from the more extensive test and it turns out there is no infection. So, we have to talk to the neurologist again to see if her symptoms are in any way related to the anti-seizure meds.


and, speaking of her anti-seizure meds, Isabella has been seizure free for 6 weeks now!! We are so thankful, and we continue to pray that the new meds she is on will continue to keep the seizures away. she has been doing really well on the new meds, so we are so pleased about that. We have slowly increased the dose on one of the meds per her neurologist's instructions. As long as she continues to stay seizure-free, she will go back to the neurologist in early June.


After so many crazy weeks, we were able to enjoy a fun weekend together as a family celebrating Easter. here are a few pictures from our weekend for you to enjoy!

Isabella's Hospital Stay

it's been a crazy couple of weeks. tom was out of the country, my mom had just arrived on a weds afternoon to help while he was away. we had put the girls to bed and were sitting on the couch looking at pictures and starting to watch "American Idol". I thought I should go up and check on isabella. i went in to the room to find her having a seizure - a big one. i gave her the "emergency" med we have for her, but she wasn't coming out of the seizure, so i called the neurologist. he sent us to the children's er. i was so thankful my mom was here since it was 10:30p. i grabbed a few things quickly and took isabella to the er. by the time we arrived at the er, she was acting more like herself again. the drs checked her out, put an iv in, and we waited for a room to be admitted to. around 3:30a, we were taken to her room. the nurse asked us more questions, got us settled in the room, and informed me that the lab would be coming around 4 (which by this time was in about 10 minutes) to draw blood. the nurse also let me know that isabella would go for an mri at 6a!. the lab tech came at 4:15a, drew blood, and left. isabella fell asleep not long after that. i fell asleep sitting in the chair next to her bed sometime after 5. at 6, they came to take isabella to radiology for her mri.


i watched my baby get put under anesthesia for the second time in less than 4 months. i cried, and was sent back to the room to wait for her. she was back in about 45 minutes. it took her a long time to wake up, but we couldn't be sent back to her regular room until she did. poor thing, was so sleepy. the neurologist came by to see us. he had the results before we went back to our room, and everything was clear again. thank you, God! we were taken back to isabella's room where she slept for several hours. they were planning to set her up for an eeg that afternoon, but she was completely hysterical the two times they tried. i broke down in tears too. i had never seen her like this. we figured out later that she may have been reacting badly to the anesthesia.

so, i could continue to go into detail about the whole crazy time that we were there, but i will try to summarize here as i don't want to leave you with a novel! not this time, at least!!

isabella ended up staying at the hospital for 6 days. she did end up getting set up for the 48-hour eeg again on saturday (we were admitted on weds). the neurologist had almost sent us home friday afternoon, but izzy had a bad night friday night with what we thought were several seizures. the eeg showed that the seizures are still coming from the right side of her brain. she is still diagnosed with complex partial seizures (a form of epilepsy). the neurologist did not feel that this was a setback and that instead, it's just part of the process in figuring out the right medicine, the right dose. isabella was sent home on two new antiseizure meds and a new backup med for any long or cluster of seizures.

we were so thankful to come home and sleep in our own beds with no interruptions of nurses in the room, the doors slamming next to our room. we were so thankful to the nurses who were so helpful and amazing at making us feel comforted during that time. and, we are praying that these new meds keep isabella seizure-free.

The Great White North

we spent about 3 weeks up north visiting nana and aunt jen and our cousins jack, lukas, and sophie. we got to celebrate nana's 70th birthday, play in lots of snow, play with our texas and ohio cousins, and meet our cousin sophie for the first time. it was so fun. here are a few pictures of all the fun we had.

5 years

yesterday was emma's 5th birthday. i can't believe that she is five years old already. i still remember the day she arrived - after 11 weeks of bed rest (8 in the hospital) waking up at 5 am not feeling right. After a few hours when the dr was able to come back to my room, she examined me and i was 5 cm dliated!! She said, "You're having a baby today." i started crying knowing i was only 33 weeks, and tom had left the hospital, and just plain being scared. all turned out fine. emma was born at 3 am, 7 weeks early. she had to stay in nicu for a day and in the special care nursery for 2 weeks. you would never know that she was a preemie when you see her today!

anyways, back to today . . . we had a great celebration for her 5th birthday. emma and mommy went to starbucks for a juice and then headed to sweet & sassy where emma got a mini-makeover. he was made over into a snow princess. later we met pappa and isabella for lunch at red robin. sthey sang "happy birthday" to her and brought her a fruit cup and fruit smoothie (to accommodate our food allergies.) :)after lunch, emma went with pappa to build-a-bear where she made a hello kitty stuffed doll and rode on the carousel. they also visited the disney store, and then they went to the park to "hunt for bears." they headed home for dinner, cake, and presents. emma kept asking, "are there more presents?" hmmm, i think i used to ask the same question at that age!!


we are so thankful to having emma in our lives. she is a light in our lives, and such a joy. she is so sweet, independent, creative, funny, and so loving. yes, i have to admit, the 11 weeks of bed rest were totally worth it!

wired up - day #3 - cps

cps . . .complex partial seizures. we came home this afternoon after two long days at the hospital. when the dr first came to see us this morning, isabella still had not shown any activity. but during lunch, she ended up having one. i almost missed it, but caught her near the end and pressed the buzzer several times to let them know she was having an episode. the dr came in and reviewed the tape and the eeg printout . . . it was a seizure. they are coming from her right temporal lobe, and are complex partial seizures (epilepsy). isabella will stay on her meds for now, and we will go back to the dr in about a month to talk more. we will also continue to pursue some of the holistic/naturopathic options we have also been pursuing. the dr said that about 60% of kids with these types of seizures outgrow them. we are praying she is in the 60%. thank you to everyone for your prayers, support, and encouragement.

here are some pictures of isabella's last day . . . including her rocker look she had after the took off the wires.