We have progress!

We are VERY happy to report that we have made some progress over the past month controlling Meredith's seizures. Meredith is doing beautifully on her new cocktail and has only had a handful of seizures, all of them associated with illness. She has had only 1 cluster and the rest were singles - which is very unusual for her. Prior to this medicine, if she had one seizure, we could almost guarantee that there would be several more right behind it. We are so happy that we seem to have made a bit of headway since we were starting to feel really discouraged that none of the medications we had tried were working. We think we're on to something!

We have pulled Meredith from daycare and now have her home with us. We found an awesome girl named Katie who is studying for her graduate degree in Severe and Profound Special Needs and she also has experience with children with seizure disorders. So far, she's has been amazing and we are loving coming home to a baby that's already been fed and we can just play until bedtime. Aaaaahhhh....

Meredith has been making some really great strides with development too. She seems notably stronger and has been doing a new maneuver when you hold her where she straightens her legs and arches her back, like she wants to get down. We still have a lot of work to do in the coordination department, but she is showing a real desire to get moving! She is making more deliberate movements with her hands and really playing with toys more. Eye contact has also improved some and over the past week, she has been exceptionally giggly and full of smiles. She must be excited for Christmas!

Next week with meet with our Early Intervention Coordinator and Paula from ECDC (in Frankin), where Meredith will be attending school. It seems impossible that we are already discussing school, but it's likely Meredith will start a program in the Summer. I'm told ECDC will determine how many days/hours of school Meredith qualifies for based on her developmental needs. We hear really wonderful things about ECDC and are excited to learn more. We will need to transition all her therapies to the school system since the day Meredith turns 3, all her Early Intervention services stop. It's hard to imagine our lives without the Early Intervention team at this point. They have been a major part of our support network and provided such great guidance in a whole ton of areas.

The other very exciting thing that happens next week is we leave for San Francisco - yay!!!!! This year, we will be spending Christmas on the west coast. We are very excited to enjoy some warmer weather and spend some quality time with Uncle Matt, Uncle John and the gang.

Happy Holidays to everybody from Meredith and Greg & Laura too!!!!