BRAINS!!!!!

My little Mischief is still her wonderfully sweet self.  Affectionate, playful, adorable, wild and wondering.  And 6.  Oh my - what a difference her 6 is from Drama's 6.  She is just a different kid than Drama was at this age and so when we started noticing that she didn't always seem to hear us when we spoke to her - we weren't too worried.

Our first thought was that she just had the attention span of . .well. . .a 6 year old.  And we encouraged her to "pay attention" and assumed as she grew up, she'd learn to pay attention to people around her and it wasn't a big deal.

Then I wondered if she had a hearing problem. . .but at her 6 year well check in September, her hearing came back just fine and I went back to dismissing her inattention to being 6.

However. . .it wasn't getting better.  It was getting worse.  No matter how many times we told her to pay attention, she just . . .missed things that we were saying to her.  Over Christmas Holidays we noticed something else, when having a direct conversation with her - sometimes she would miss a sentence or two, blink her eyes and then ask "What?". . .or she would be talking and just stop, blink her eyes and start talking again - often about something totally unrelated.

Off to Google we flew and then to her pediatrician to see if we were right. . .The internet and the pediatrician agreed - it sounded like our little Mischief was having Absence Seizures.

Absence Seizures are just what they sound like - small seizures where the person goes "absent" for a few seconds and then resumes behavior as normal.  There is no flailing or jerking of the limbs, and the person doesn't lose consciousness.  They just kind of "blank out" for a few seconds. They are most common in children (girls specifically) and manifest generally around ages 5-7. They can have hundreds of them a day and are more frequent when tired or ill.

SO.  Our pediatrician sent us for an EEG and referred us to a pediatric neurologist.  Mischief thought the EEG was kind of fun.  We teased her that they were going to hook her up to machines to turn her into a zombie.  She was very brave and at the end of the EEG when they woke her up (she had to sleep for part of the test), she turned to F and held out her arms and said "BRAINS!!!!"

The neurologist confirmed that the EEG showed the presence of Absence Seizures.  He sent us home with some daily medication and referred us for some additional tests. The first was an MRI of the brain - slightly freaky to go home from radiology with a CD with 300 pictures of your child's brain - to make sure there wasn't anything abnormal in the brain causing the seizures.  The second, a sleep study to make sure she is getting good quality sleep - because being overly tired will make her seizures more frequent.  And finally - he sent us home with reassurance:  For most children - if the seizures manifest before age 9, they outgrow them during puberty and do not continue to have seizures into adulthood.

So - we started the medication and it definitely makes a difference.  The seizures aren't gone completely. . .but they are much fewer and far between.  And Mischief. . .took all of this like a champ.  She wasted little time fretting about the seizures, takes her medicine without complaint (for the most part. . .she says it tastes gross), and occasionally cuts her eyes with a sneaky smile, holds out her arms towards us, stalks our direction while calling out for our BRAINS.

Birth of a Rebel

So - I've never written a birth story of any of my kids.  But as this is most likely my last chance (3 was our magic number for kiddos) and since I realized as I got close to my due date that I couldn't REALLY remember much about the girl's births - I decided I wanted to write this one down - to remember years from now.

Drama Queen came into this world on her own timeframe (10 days past my due date. .. which was 2 weeks past my original due date. . .it may have been the longest pregnancy in the history of the world).  But when she decided to come - she came in a hurry.  I remember my first contraction hitting at 10:30 am on Saturday September 15, 2001.  I was sitting in the living room, eating a bowl of dry fruit loops and staring at the baby swing and I thought "ouch. that kind of hurt a bit."  When the next contraction came a whopping 3 minutes later, I thought it couldn't be real labor b/c those contractions were too close together at the onset.  I was wrong.  By the time I decided they were real and drove to the hospital 5 minutes from our house. . .they were less than 2 minutes apart and I was 5 cm along.  Drama arrived at 4:45 after 3 whole pushes and no epidural.

Mischief arrived by induction 2 weeks BEFORE her due date - dictated  by two factors:  1 - she was measuring small and the doctors worried she wasn't thriving in the womb and needed to get out and 2 - based on my super fast labor with Drama, the doctors (and F and I as well) worried that if I went into labor on my own, I wouldn't make it to the hospital (that was now an hour drive away if we didn't hit traffic).  I remember thinking that the induction wasn't much worse than regular labor - but I couldn't remember how to breathe through the contractions this time and ended up hyperventilating a bit and having to have oxygen. But again - once she decided to come, she showed up fast - 3 pushes,  no epidural, about 5.5 hours of labor on August 12, 2005.

The Rebel was also an induction - although I certainly didn't want that again. I wanted the idea of a totally natural labor - of being able to walk, use a birthing ball, the massaging shower.  However, Rebel was also measuring small and while the doctor and midwife weren't too worried, they were keeping close tabs on him as well.  Additionally - we have been dealing with some small medical drama with Mischief as well (more on that later) and decided that scheduling the induction so we could schedule the rest of what we needed to schedule for Mischief - was the best thing for our whole family.

So - on the morning of Feb 20, 2012 - F and I walked into the hospital at 6 am to start the induction.  The original plan was to just break my water and see if that would kick start things - without pitocin - but for some reason (I'm still not totally sure?  Cervix position maybe?) the doctor changed her mind and I got pitocin and my water broken at 7:30 am.   Before they even started that - they noticed I was having contractions about 2 min apart - but they weren't strong enough to be uncomfortable.  The pitocin did its magic and things progressed along - I managed to remember to breathe this time as the contractions got stronger and closer together.  I remember being uncomfortably hot the entire time. . .I had the nurses turn the AC to something below "arctic", had ice packs on my neck and a fan blowing on me.  My entourage sat huddled under coats and blankets staring at me like I was crazy. The contractions stayed between 2 and 3 min apart for the duration of my labor and I remember thinking that I would love to take a 5 min break to be able to catch my breath.  Of course, that didn't happen, and by the time 12:15 rolled around, my peaceful "hummmmmmmmm" through the contraction was much more of a moan and a whimper.  At 12:15 I was 8 cm, fully effaced, he had finally dropped to a zero position and I was DONE. DONE. DONE.  I couldn't catch my breath between my contractions (now 1 min apart or less) and I remember thinking I wasn't going to have any energy to push.  I asked for the epidural.

My nurses were awesome - springing into action and within minutes had me sitting up on the side of the bed, the anesthesiologist in the room, and my midwife notified.  However, some piece of paperwork had been misplaced and they told me to lay back down for a min while they found it - I managed to get  back on my side before telling them I had to push - they checked and I was right - 10 cm, 100% and a plus 2 station.  My midwife walked into the room just in time to have someone tie on her gown and catch the guy as he came out.  I remember pushing once and them telling me the head was out and to stop pushing.  She wanted me to "ease" him the rest of the way out.  I told her I had NO IDEA how to do that.  At that moment, I just wanted him out.  I panted through the next contraction and he was out.   I took him just as he was - gross and screaming his head off - and held him close to me.   My perfect little Rebel. 6 lbs, 6 oz, 19" long - born at 12:35 pm on 2/20/12.