Camden Turns 3!!

In January our little Cammer turned 3!

This was a a pretty big birthday for him because when you turn 3 you graduate from the early intervention program.

The Friday before his birthday he said goodbye to his amazing occupational and speech therapists, Ms. Karen and Ms. Allie. I definitely shed some tears saying goodbye to these wonderful women. Ms Allie especially had a huge impact on his life. She gave him his first words, and opened the door to communication for him. She taught him to say "Mama," and "Yes!" and "help!" Those words did not come easy, she worked with him for months, but the first time he said them we jumped for joy. She truly loved him, and he knew it. 

 With the early intervention program behind him, Cam's next step was to continue his therapy through the school district, so on his birthday, he started his first day of preschool!

Bus driver Ron came to our house to pick him up. He'd never gone anywhere without mama or daddy, so it was pretty hard loading him on that bus and waving goodbye!

I was so nervous that I actually followed the bus to the school so I could greet him when he got off. He was all smiles! Ron said he was singing the whole time!

His teacher Mrs. Juergens helped him off the bus and took him into his classroom.

I got a sneak peak before the kids got there and it looked like a a great place for learning. His class was the special education class, so there were only 6 kids and 3 teachers. He also would still have sessions with a speech and occupational therapists each day. 

After school his teacher called me to say he had a great first day! I couldn't be happier for our birthday boy. 

When he got home he took a nap, and then he woke up and discovered his birthday decorations which he was pretty excited about. He kept shouting, "IT'S THOMAS!!"

When Daddy came home from work we played pin the whistle on Thomas.

Then we had birthday cake and ice cream

It was a simple celebration but perfect for Cam. He doesn't like big crowds or lots of noise so a cozy family party was just how he likes it. 

Besides, his cake had a Thomas the Train on top…What more could he ask for? :)

Everyone should have a big sissy like mine...(by Cam Rigg)

When I wake up, if mommy is too slow to come get me out of my crib, my big sissy jumps in to play with me so I'm not sad.

My big sissy taught me the secret to staying warm on a cold day, cuddles by the heating vent. 

My big sissy lets me drape myself all over her when we watch TV together, she doesn't even mind when I suck my stinky thumb. 

My big sissy pushes me around in my car when Mommy's too busy doing laundry. She also helps me break the code on the iPad so I can play games even when I'm not supposed to. 

My big sissy lets me ride in her pink car and makes it go extra fast because I love going fast!

My big sissy is my bestest friend. 

Everyone should have a big sissy like mine. 

Cam turns 2!! (and his 2 year old update)

Back in January our big Cammer turned 2!! 

We invited my sister and our cute neighbors to join us for a low key fiesta in his honor.

Cam was mostly just happy that we invited uncle Kevin since that meant lots of being thrown up in the air and swung around like a monkey. (Which is why all the kids love Uncle Kev :)

 I made Cafe Rio chicken with all the fixings

 Taber was so excited he made a Cafe Rio Mountain instead of a burrito. 

Cam was lovin' the beans and chips, 2 of his favorites. 

The highlight of the night was when we brought out his cake!!

 The low light was when we lit the candles. 

He was not happy about his food being on fire and had that concerned look on his face until the girls blew out the candles.  Luckily he was all smiles again after that :)

CAM AT 2 YEARS OLD

At his 2 year old check up Cam was in the 85th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height, so he's a pretty solid kid! He wears 2T pants and 3T shirts because his little belly won't fit in 2T :)

He loves puzzles, numbers, and letters more than anything! 

 This is his favorite morning activity, puzzles with sissy. 

Mommy cuts his hair (with no training and a wimpy beard clipper, so sometimes it comes out pretty sketchy!) On Sundays we do a faux hawk which has earned him the affectionate nickname of "Rhino" from one of the families at church who adores him. 

 He's receiving early intervention therapy twice a week from his wonderful Speech therapist, Miss Ali, and his occupational therapists, Miss Karen. 

 He gets to do lots of fun sensory things with his OT

 He also works on his core, to help with his extremely low muscle tone.

And we're trying to strengthen his arms, with the goal of him being able to wheelbarrow walk eventually.

His fine motor skills are amazing, but he still gets to practice those too to keep them sharp.

 He works hard, but he plays hard too!

In May he'll be increasing his speech to twice a week and scaling back on the OT. 

He can sign almost 40 words: (color, cookie, cracker, apple, milk, train, car, airplane, blanket, all done, water, open, no, yes, brush teeth, wash hands, eat, Daddy, Mommy, bath, up, down, hat, shoes, socks, dog, cat, bird, please, more, help, cereal, hot, cold, hurt, play, ball and sorry)

And can say about 10, (not counting his numbers and letters which he can approximate pretty well!) When he wakes up in the morning I usually hear him on the monitor singing, "A-B-D-D-E-EH-CHEE-A-I-Yay-K-EH-Oh-Eh-Oh-P!!" (his version of the alphabet) Either that or he's counting. :)

He loves music and will dance to just about anything. He also likes to lead the music in church along with the chorister.

His favorite comfort items are his blanket and his thumb.

His favorite foods are boiled eggs (I boil a dozen at the beginning of the week because he goes through them so fast!) Lentil soup, black beans, sausage, broccoli dipped in parmesan cheese, chicken nuggets and marshmallows)

His favorite shows are Mickey Mouse clubhouse, Diego and Dora the Explorer.

His favorite toys are cars (He usually has one in each hand)

and his favorite songs are Itsy Bitsy Spider (he literally cracks up laughing every time the rain washes the spider out) Popcorn popping on the apricot tree, and wheels on the bus. 

So that's the update on our big 2 year old! 

We love our handsome little Cam man and are so grateful to have this guy in our family!

Seizures, tests, and a brave little boy.

At the beginning of January Brinley got sick.

 She was out with a high fever for several days.

 I tried to keep the other kids away from her, boiled the toothbrushes, washed all the sheets, sprayed Lysol everywhere and encouraged good hand washing. 

 Despite my best efforts little Cammer got sick too.

On his second night with a fever, Taber was holding him when his body went into a violent seizure.

I can't explain how terrifying it is to watch him go through that. My heart pumps with adrenaline, my fingers and hands shake, I feel like I'm going to fall apart because I can't help him. There is literally nothing we can do until it stops. So we lay him on his side and we pray and we tell him we're here and it's going to be okay, but his eyes are rolled back and his jaw is clenched and his body is shaking so hard. All we can do is keep him from hurting himself and wait for the paramedics to arrive.

After 4 excruciating minutes the seizing stopped, Cam went unconscious just as the paramedics walked in. They tried to wake him up but he was unresponsive. Finally with the help of some needle pokes and smelling salts he came to and started crying. They made 3 unsuccessful attempts at starting an IV and finally gave up and put him in Taber's arms on a stretcher and took him out to the ambulance. I stayed back to get the girls settled before I met them at the hospital.

Our neighbors 2 doors to our left came and stayed with the girls, our neighbors next door drove me and my car to the hospital so I wouldn't have to drive when I was emotional. We have the best neighbors in the world.

When I got to the hospital seeing him on that stretcher tore my heart. I think as parents, if we could, we would trade places with our kids in a heartbeat to protect them from being sick or hurt. Wish I could've done that for him in that moment.

We were in the ER for several hours, doing blood work, getting him stabilized and finding out that it was a double ear infection that had caused the fever that led to his seizure.

Finally they gave us a prescription for antibiotics and told us we could take him home, with instructions to wake up every 3 hours to give him fever medicine and to follow up with a pediatric neurologist.

Back at home the girls had a fun night with our neighbors making frosted blueberry muffins, playing games and reading books. When I left the house, Teya was in her room bawling and praying through tears for her little brother. I didn't have a chance to comfort her (and probably wasn't in a state to do it anyway) So I was so glad when my neighbor texted me this picture to see smiles on hers and Brinley's faces.

We were up most of that night, checking on Cam, giving him medicine, cooling him off in the bath, and  watching him for more seizures. Around 7am we put out some breakfast stuff for the girls, with cups of milk in the fridge, set the TV to their favorite channel, and went to bed.

I think we woke up around 11 am, the cereal had been eaten and the girls had managed to entertain themselves for 4 hours while we slept. So grateful they're at a stage they can do that.

For the next few days while Cam was recovering I put everything else on hold so I could just hold and comfort him. When scary things like this happen it puts your life into laser focus on the things that matter most. The only thing on my "to do" list that week was take care of my family, especially Cam.

In the weeks that followed we went back to the hospital several times, meeting with a pediatric neurologist and doing lots of tests.

Cam had a sleep deprived EEG, which means we had to put him to bed late, wake him up early, and deprive him of his nap before the appointment so he'd fall asleep during the test.

It was hard keeping him awake while we drove to the hospital, but it was worth the effort because he fell asleep like a champ, despite having dozens of wires on his head.

Having Daddy there made everything better.

A week after the EEG he went in for an MRI. Because he's so young they had to put him under general anesthesia so he'd stay still, which meant no food or water for 12 hours. Another tough trial for our little guy but he pushed through it.

It helped that he had his own TV and remote in the pre-procedure room to keep his mind off food.

After lots of tests, lots of doctors appointments, and completely draining our entire health spending account before the first month of the year was even over...We had some good news! :)

Cam's EEG and MRI were normal, his brain is beautiful, and he doesn't have a seizure disorder.

The doctor said until he turns 5 or 6, he has a high probability of having more febrile seizures any time he has a fever, so we will have to be extremely vigilant when he is sick. No leaving him alone in the tub, not even for a minute. No letting him climb up in high places where he could seriously hurt himself if he goes into a seizure, that type of thing. We bought a crazy expensive, but super accurate forehead thermometer so we can easily stay on top of his temp when he has a fever, and we filled our medicine cabinets with a hefty supply of children's Tylenol and Motrin.  We were also given some medicine we can use kind of like an EpiPen, to stop him from seizing if his seizures go longer than 3 minutes.

Having those resources and a better knowledge of how to handle seizures has given me so much more confidence. I know Cam will probably have another seizure in the future, but I also know exactly what to do, and that this won't last forever. I'm so grateful for doctors, medicine, neighbors, prayers, and my brave little boy who keeps on smiling, even through the rough patches.