18 months 27 days

Last night it was 3:30, when I went to bed, and this morning, I first woke up at 6 and got up, thinking it was 8, then again at 7, thinking it was 8, until it was actually 8 and I got up to make their food. We fed them, dressed and cleaned them. At 9 am Christine arrived after a long 10 days without her. She went downstairs with Tammy and Emmy, and I took Sammy down to join them, and then went back to bed. I had asked her to get their food ready for 11:15, as I needed to leave with Sammy at noon. And Sammy needed to stay awake all morning again.

I set my alarm for 11:30, got dressed, and made myself a sandwich, while Christine and Randy were feeding the little ones. I then put Emmy to bed for his nap, while Christine went downstairs with Tammy for a few minutes, until he was asleep. I asked her to bring her upstairs, just before I left with Sammy at noon.

Sammy was tired as well, but he needed to stay awake. We had three subways to take to get to the hospital, which is a little cumbersome. Today it was a good thing that Sammy doesn't sleep in the stroller. We got to the hospital pretty early, and went inside the container in front of the entrance, where they check everyone. They just instituted that you have to get tested before coming, and so I did that yesterday and had it on my phone. However, I didn't need it. He said I would not need it for Sammy's weekly physiotherapy sessions either. The media had said you needed a test to enter a hospital, so I got a test. Oh well.

We went inside and were sent to a waiting area, where there were quite a few people. I was hoping they would not make Sammy wait long, as he was already so tired, and thankfully we didn't. A nice lady took us to a little room, where she put a cap full of electrodes onto Sammy's head. So far he was fine with that. But then she started injecting gel into the cap, and he did not like that at all and started screaming. It took her a long time to get enough gel into it, and he screamed the whole time. He was also very tired.

Before the sleep EEG started, they first got a stroboscopic light they put right in front of his face, and flashes of light hit his face at different speeds. He was still screeming at the top of his lung, and I could do nothing to calm him down in this position. When it ended, I held him to my chest to comfort him.

The lady explained to me that he needed to sleep on his back for the EEG, as there was a camera pointed at us to film his face. I told her that Sammy NEVER sleeps on his back, but always on his belly and always has. She told me to turn him over once he was asleep.

She left and I was holding Sammy the way he falls asleep on me, lying on my chest. I was still calming him down from having screamed for so long. His breething started to slow, and I tried to slowly turn him, only to wake him up again. He started crying, and so I put him back on my chest. It took a while before I succeeded in turning him onto his back. He then lay on my lap, sleeping peacefully. But he never sleeps long on his back, the rare times he falls asleep in the stroller. After about 15 minutes he already woke up, even though he was so very tired. I put him back on my chest, where he was resting, but not falling asleep again. The lady finally returned and said they had enough data. She removed the cap with the electrodes and told us to return to the waiting room until we'd be called. Nearly two hours had passed.

Little did I know that we'd wait another 90 minutes in the waiting room. That's a LONG time, when you have a tired baby you try to keep happy! I gave him some food at first, and we took pictures. You can see the marks from the cap; they remained a long time on his skin. They had these boards to play with on the wall all over the place, and so I took him to them so he could play a little. It's definitely easier with the other two, when they run around, rather than having to carry Sammy the whole time. I really could not put him down, except for on the stroller. I was tired took , and even an 8 kilo baby gets heavy after a while. He was doing pretty well, considering how tired he was, and we were having fun.

One time Sammy was called in to be measured. I had to take all of his clothes off and put him on the scale. He was screaming. He was only 7.9 kilos and has barely gained weight in the last few months, so that's concerning. Then she measured his length, while he was screaming. He was 72.5 centimeters. Then she measured the circumference of his head. So far we know all this stuff. But then she wanted to measure his blood pressure. She put the thing on his arm, with him being all tense and screaming. It was on for a while, but she could not get a reading because of him being so upset, so she took it off. I dressed him again, and we returned to the waiting room.

I needed a bathroom and was wondering how to do that, as I could not leave Sammy alone in the waiting room. So I pushed the stroller into the bathroom. Thankfully no one was in there, so I pushed it in front of the open stall, so he could see me. That's where it's a lot easier with Tammy or Emmy, as I can take them with me and put them on their feet.

Back in the waiting room we continued waiting to be finally called in to see the doctor and discuss the results with her. She explained how the EEG was routine because of his brain damage and the risk of him having seizures. She started looking at the results and said, "Everything is perfectly alright. I'm glad you won't be needing my services." Praise God! I know all your prayers are making a difference! And that was the end of the meeting. She gave me a printout and sent us home.

We had been there for over 3 hours, when I put his coat on, and we finally left the hospital. Sammy was really tired, but as usual not sleeping in the stroller. It was nearly 5 pm when we got home.

I was really tired, but I needed to go straight to work getting their dinner ready. Randy came up with the other two, who were hungry, and I gave them bread with cream cheese as I was getting everything ready. They got a lot of stuff of shelves and out of drawers, as it took a while to get their food ready - too long obviously. Finally they went into their chairs and ate by themselves, while I grated an apple and a pear. I'm not even sure that's even still necessary. They had eaten most of their food, ate their soup once I sat down with them to feed them, and we took the leftovers to the bathtub, where they finished them. Then Sammy came out first, I put him to bed, and then we got the other two ready, and I put them to bed. I was surprised when Sammy was really active at first, considering how tired he was. He had turned around and crawled to the other end of the bed. I put him back into position, and he soon fell asleep. Emmy also fell asleep quickly. Only Tammy needed me to come for a little while, so she could fall asleep. I was very tired myself, ready for a nap. But once I left Tammy's bedside, it was time to put the dishes into the dishwasher and get some food myself. It always takes a while to make my salad.

After eating, I started doing office work. As it was approaching midnight, I went upstairs to clean the dining room, the high chairs and the kitchen. A little physical labor actually rejuvenates. Tammy was the first to start crying to get milk tonight, and a little later it was Sammy and Emmy. I actually don't mind the cleaning and love to see it all clean, when I'm done.

I went back to the office to write this update, and now I'm gonna do some more office work, even though I won't be able to sleep tomorrow morning and should probably go to bed.