my guess would be that those are the 1st/oldest leaves and they do fall off. Does the inner tip and leaves pushing out still look good? roxanne

Now that I've actually had a proper look and stopped panicking, the leaves that dropped and the yellowing ones are the bottom leaves, so yes the oldest... Thank you for helping this idiot!

That is the fun, learning, so we all are dumb until we find answers. Finding answers is never dumb, waiting until a plant dies because we do not ask not that might be considered dumb.