Noah's Circle of Trust, Surgery Update, and Doc Appt's

I just wanted to update you all on Noah's frenulectomy procedure... it went great and he was only fussy for that morning. By mid-afternoon, you would have never even known that he had surgery. The next morning, he was wiggling his tongue around and seeing what all he could do with it! Dr. Long told us that Noah's was literally stitched down into his mouth it was so bad. He did need 2 stitches but the surgery lasted, at the most, 10 minutes. One thing I've noticed, is that he eats better now and doesn't get choked so much.

Saturday, during the Bama game, my dad taught Noah how to rub noses and Noah had a blast performing his new "trick"... he would smush his nose to ours and just hold it there while we rub back and forth, he did this over and over and over... and got the biggest kick out of it! Also, during the past couple of weeks, he has pulled up to standing a few times on his own! He has been doing it with the tiniest bit of assistance but a couple of times now, I've seen him do it by himself. For some reason, he will only do it at my parents house, on their ottoman and their coffee table. I guess those two pieces of furniture are the right height for him. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before he begins doing it more consistently.

Also, Noah, my child who won't even let other family members hold him (outside his tight inner circle of me, Jamie, mom, dad, and Lindsay) has decided that its OK for other people to hold him! It all started with Derrick (Lindsay's boyfriend) trying really hard to become buddies with him... Derrick's been working on him for awhile and will carry him and play with him to win over his affection. Well a couple of weeks ago, Noah decided that Derrick was allowed into the circle and now they're buddies. Well, with this, he's decided to branch out some and is holding his arms up (to be picked up) by anyone and everyone! We were at the hospital doing his pre-op stuff on Thursday and he had the anesthesiologist and the nurse carrying him up and down the hall and then at my grandmother's house on Sunday, he was letting all my aunts and uncles hold him... which is a first! He normally cries when they try to take him for one of us. I'm giving all the credit to the crawling, I think it's allowing him to become more independent and more trusting of others! (Thank goodness!!!)

Jamie, Noah, and I headed down to Birmingham yesterday because Noah had 2 doctor's appointments at Children's. The first one, on Monday, was with the Geneticist, Dr. Robbin. He told us that their are really only 2 more blood tests that he recommended because we've tested everything else that is applicable to Noah's situation. Noah's head is a little above average (around 95%) for his age (which we've always been told is normal in kids that have had craniosynostosis). These two tests are for syndromes that involve large heads and developmental delays. They are P-Ten and Sotos Syndrome and it'll take about 6 - 8 weeks to get the results. If they come back negative, then we won't go back to the Geneticist for 2 years b/c there's nothing else for them to test at this time. Then today, we had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Davis, the Orthopedic Rehabilitation doc and the Physical Therapist, Andrea. They were so pleased to hear about his crawling and beginning to pull up. But nothing new to report with them. After that appointment, we went to the lab so they could draw the blood for the genetics tests and then we hit the road to head home. We actually don't have to go back to Children's until November, for a recheck on Noah's incision site from the cranio. surgery that he had almost 2 years ago.