Happy 1/2 Birthday!

The time has flown by and I can not believe Nolan is 6 months old today! We have so much to be thankful for, but we reflect today on how thankful we are for Nolan's health.  We had an appointment on Friday with Nolan's neurologist and went through all of the genetic test details at length.  As we suspected, Nolan will have a 50% chance of passing this exact condition onto his children.  There is a small, very small 1-2% chance of him passing on a more severe form of epilepsy onto his kids.  Because of this very, very small chance of a more severe form of epilepsy, Jeff and I have decided to have ourselves tested to see either one of us is a carrier.  After a lengthy discussion with his neurologist the chance of this happening to Nolan by a fluke mutation is much more likely than Jeff and I passing it onto him.  What a crazy, exciting, stressful, bumpy first 6 months of life.... We can not wait to see what the upcoming months, years, and decades have in store!  We are crazy in love with this sweet boy!

First Food

Nolan has recently started becoming interested in food.  He has such interest in watching us eat as well as touching food that we decided it was time to feed him!  I had researched baby food makers a while back and after reviewing and talking with other moms I decided on the BeabaPro.  It was so easy to use!!  Butternut squash is what I decided to make first and little Nolan loved it!

 After 3 months of waiting not so patiently we finally have a diagnosis of Nolan's seizures.  He has been seizure free for almost 3 months now, but we did have genetic testing done which confirmed Benign Infantile Familial Epilepsy.  This is great news!  This is a condition that has no other neurological effects and that all outgrow by 12-18 months.  We meet with Nolan's neurologist on Monday to discuss specifics on a tapering schedule for his medications as well as advisement for Jeff and I moving forward.  Because the disorder is familial Jeff and I will have to decide whether to test ourselves or not.  Because of the lack of history on either of our family trees, it is more likely that Jeff and I mutated this gene to pass onto Nolan; a fluke happening.  But, in the event Jeff and I are carriers, there would be a 50% chance of our future children to also have the same disorder.  At this time Jeff and I are breathing a sigh of relief and praising God for a miracle baby.  We are blessed to know that this "phase" in Nolan's life will soon pass!  God is good!

Summertime!

I need to start blogging more often because I have way to much to post about today! Lately, Nolan is changing in appearance, activity, and personality every time we turn around!  He has been enjoying the swimming pool this summer and loves to watch the water and pool toys float about.

He is becoming quite playful and is so cute to watch when we gets excited!  The little laughs and squeals get me every time.  Mornings are still my favorite time of the day with Nolan so I cherish my weekends to stay in bed a little longer with him! Afternoons are a close second- Nolan and I get to just hang out and play together.  So fun!

 Nolan must have some muscle hiding in his thighs and loves to practice standing up.  Today was the first time he stood unassisted while holding on to his exersaucer!  We are still working on sitting up without help.  He is getting close and will hopefully have it mastered soon.

We visited Dad one afternoon at work this past week.  It was a special outing and a nice break for Jeff! Nolan is sure taking after his daddy, and it is so neat to watch him light up when he hears Jeff's voice.

Nolan is now wanting to touch anything he can get his hands on.  He brings everything up towards his mouth and we are looking forward to introducing him to some foods within the next few weeks.  He absolutely loves to help me in the kitchen.  When Nolan gets excited he moves his arms and legs and groans- so cute! It takes me twice as long to get anything done with this little helper attached!  He is at such a fun stage right now!

We had a great fourth of July with Nolan.  He did great watching fireworks and fell asleep toward the end of the show.  Romi took this great picture for us!  I love our cute little family!