We Are Thankful

Noah could quite possibly take first place for not sleeping through the night. I'm still up about every two hours and then it takes an hour or more to put him back to sleep each time. We've exhausted just about every technique suggested, and nothing works on Noah. We keep hoping that one night he'll magically outgrow his need to wake up so often, as he winning the sleep war.

Chris and I think that Noah is starting to expand his vocal noises more, still no words, although we still swear at times he tries to mimic mamma and hi, but we really aren't super sure. But at least he is acquiring different sounds so we are still hopeful one day he'll be able to talk up a storm.

I took Noah to Sears to get an outfit for his special meeting with Santa, and they had a coupon that day for free pictures. I inquired thinking that either the offer would be too good to be true, or Noah wouldn't be able to handle such an event. When I asked about it the lady was so very sweet and said they'd make any accommodations necessary for Noah. So I booked us an appointment the following day. They gave us our own private room for pictures, his own personal baby wipe sanitizing pack to wipe milk reside and his mouth bubbles, and they used hand sanitizer when they had to touch him in any way. They were going to try to get Noah to sit with the help of a sitting block, but she quickly realized he was going to simply arch right out of it. Noah doesn't sit at all, even with leaning up against something. He either arches out of sitting or falls over on either side. I mentioned Noah wasn't meeting milestones, and the picture lady was so sweet and said milestones were over-rated anyways, and that when you have your first baby you want them to get there quickly because you're excited, but then when you have your second baby you don't want them to meet milestones so fast because that means they are growing up too fast. It was nice of her to say such things, as there are times when the fact Noah can't do much does tug at my heart.

It's amazing how happy Noah was throughout the whole session, pretty much all smiles. I think the pictures turned out really well. In pictures you can't tell Noah has any difficulties, he looks just like any other baby. We could tell in his individual photos that he couldn't sit up (as his daddy was holding him under the blanket) and he was leaning a bit, and you can kind of tell with the way he holds his hands if you look closely that other babies don't position themselves like that.

I still keep holding onto the hope that the brain does amazing things. I read everyday amazing stories about how the brain can find ways to recovery. Hopefully as Noah grows bigger his muscles will get stronger and he'll find a way to do everything that any other child can do. He is thinking and understanding and that in itself is something they said he would never do.

We hope that Noah's update finds you all doing wonderfully this Thanksgiving Holiday. We send our best wishes, love and thanks to all that have helped us throughout the year. Our dear friends Bill and Marge who fed us scrumptious salmon and turkey and prayed for our family when times were the roughest, JoLynn and the Blue Canyon for making us a meal when we had the hardest time finding ways to eat through our pain, Claire who made us a meal and filled our freezer with meat, the love of my mother who must have paced and walked a million miles in my kitchen to soothe a distraught baby and always finds ways to continue to give of herself, the beautiful mothers I've met along the way, Lindsey, Pam, Susan, Alicia and their special needs children, my sweet dear friends Heather and Joey for hosting a benefit in Noah's name to help us with our medical bills and all that attended and gave from their hearts and donated to the silent auction, Pam and There with Care for their support, groceries and diapers for many months, all of you that sent Noah care packages, clothing and toys, Noah's therapists who cheerlead him on every week, Julie, Beth and Nikki, all of you that I wish to have the pleasure to meet someday that have left messages and filled Noah's guestbook with love, blessings and prayers. We will forever and always be thankful for each and everyone of you who come to Caringbridge to read Noah's story. We need all of you and are so thankful that God sent us such a team of wonderful people. God Bless you all.

Love,
Stacy, Chris & Noah