Noah's Story
Chapter One: Welcome to the World!
02/26/17 8:54am 7lbs 9.9oz 19.5in
Noah was born the morning of February 26, 2017. He was about 3 weeks early, and other than being a little jaundice and having enlarged tooth buds on his gums, the pregnancy and delivery were pretty routine.
1st Ultrasound (08/23/16)
2nd Ultrasound (10/24/16)
Welcome Noah!
1 day old (02/27/17)
2 days old (02/28/17)
Time to go home!
The next few months were pretty uneventful, with the exception of a visit to the Craniofacial department at Dartmouth to look at Noah's mouth. Nobody really knew what was going on with the bumps/cysts on his gums, and he was having difficulty breastfeeding, but the doctors decided to wait until he was a little older before doing any imaging/xrays. They wanted to see how things developed a little more before subjecting him to any radiation. Speech & Feeding were involved as part of the Craniofacial team, but aside from the nursing hurdles, everything seemed to be just fine.
03/07/17
03/25/17
03/27/17
04/12/17
04/13/17
04/23/17
04/23/17
05/03/17
05/05/17
05/06/17
05/21/17
05/30/17
We started noticing that Noah’s face was looking a little funny when he cried. We called the local clinic for advice – they thought it sounded like some sort of Bells Palsy and suggested we call the Hospital to talk with a licensed Pediatrician, since they only have general practice Family Doctors at the clinic. We called Springfield Hospital and setup an appointment with a Pediatrician the next day.
We took Noah to see a Pediatrician at Springfield Hospital. The doctor said it looked like some kind of Bells Palsy and he’d give us a referral to see Neurology at Dartmouth. Later that day, our Visiting Nurse from Neighborhood Connections came at her regularly scheduled time, and we updated her with his symptoms. She looked him over and was concerned that we didn't have any solid answers. She also pointed out a few other physical signs she was concerned about, including that his eyes would "flutter" sporadically - she called it nystagmus. She thought on it overnight and Friday morning, she spoke with someone at Dartmouth - they both agreed that Noah should be brought to their ER to escalate his care and get answers.