well baby check

Brecken got his shots finally yesterday afternoon. He's up to 14 lbs, 7 oz. (10th percentile), 26.5 inches long (30th percentile), and his head was 43 cm. (50th percentile). Josh and I found a small lump in B's belly a couple weeks ago but didn't think much of it- but Jake felt it yesterday and called it something I can't remember, but basically it's a malformation of one of the stomach muscles, which he will most likely grow out of and it's nothing to worry about.

B LOVED playing with the paper on the exam table because it made tons and tons of noise! But he did not love his shots. He had a bath last night and when Josh took the band-aid off his leg, there was a lot of blood on it- so that one must have hurt an awful lot!! I gave him ibuprofen before bed though and not again, and he hasn't been whiny or anything, so that's good.

While in Chicago, B had peach baby food for dinner one night. A couple hours later, he was laying on our hotel bed and vomited like I've never seen a baby vomit before. It was not spit up, it was full out vomit. He puked about as much as a 4 year old would and it was very scary- he was choking on it since he was laying on his back, and thank the Lord we hadn't all gone to bed yet so we were awake for the whole thing. I had to scoop him up and turn him over and Josh was hitting his back to get it all out. It was so scary. We had to call the front desk and ask to get a whole new change of linens since it was all over the comforter, sheets, and pillowcases! So yesterday we asked about the peaches and Jake said not to give him any again until he's 2. He said the vomiting and diarrhea he had that night also, makes him think B's allergic to peaches so to wait until he's 2 again to try again.

We're getting quite the blizzard here- the interstate is all closed and so is the road from Saratoga to the interstate. Hopefully they won't close between Saratoga and Encampment, I don't want to get stuck here tonight!!!

something you don't see very often anymore

So I went to our local gas station today to buy a newspaper and saw something you don't see very often anymore: a guy standing outside the gas station, talking on the pay phone. I haven't seen that in years, now that almost everyone has a cell phone. I don't even know how much a call on a pay phone costs anymore!

We had a good trip to Chicago. Brecken did a great job traveling. He was asleep for his first airplane take-off so his ears were fine. He woke up later and liked looking at everything, including the thing in the seat pockets about what to do in case of emergency. He liked to "read" that. He was not asleep for landing, so his ears bothered him and he cried, but that was the only time. On the way home, he got to ride in his car seat because the plane wasn't full. He thought take-off was pretty fun- the plane started shaking and going fast and he grabbed his car seat and grinned. Then the pressure hit him and he didn't like that anymore!

My grandma's new assisted living place is very nice. She still gets a view of Lake Michigan, which was very important to her. And, her new apartment is 2 rooms instead of one like her old place, so her bed can be in a different room. It's actually two apartments, converted into one. It's very nice. We had lunch with her in her dining room the first day. I wasn't impressed with the food but Grandma was so as long as she's happy, that's all that counts. :) She had a wonderful time showing Brecken off to anyone who would look, which was most everyone!

Back to school tomorrow... It'll be a long haul until school gets out. We don't have any days off between now and then. And Josh was telling his mom what all we have to do every single weekend from now until then, and we're jam packed! Every weekend is booked with something or other! Hopefully that will make the time go fast.

a visit to the doctor

Brecken had his 6-month check-up yesterday. We get to the clinic and they said, "Your appointment was last week!" I said, "No, you specificallytold me the 14th!" She said, "Well if you come back tomorrow, we can probably squeeze you in." She wasn't going to let me see anyone, even after I told her I was pretty sure Brecken had an ear infection. So in walks Josh and goes, "We can't even see Dr. Noton today?" All of a sudden, the story changed and she goes, "I'll see what I can do." There was NOBODY in the waiting room and no cars in the parking lot, so it's not like they were busy. So we saw Dr. Noton. She checked Brecken's ears first, after I told her he hates laying down and he's been rubbing his right ear for the past couple days. Sure enough, I was right, he has an ear infection!! It's just a mild one though, so she didn't put him on antibiotics, intead she gave him a pretty heavy duty decongestant prescription. (Heavy duty price too- our share was $33!!) She's pretty sure it will clear up when his cold goes away, that's why she didn't give him antibiotics. I called my sister to tell her now that Ryan doesn't get ear infections now, he passed them on to Brecken. :) Anyway, since he's sick, she couldn't give him shots. We have to come back when B is well. I was going to take him next week when we get back from Chicago but Trish, a PA, is the only one in the office that week and I refuse to see her. She's an idiot. So we'll go on the 28th, when we can see Jake. They did weigh B though, and he gained almost another pound. He's up to14 pounds, 2 oz. Still in the 3-5th percentile. We measured him when we got home and he's 26.5 inches, and that's the 50-75th percentile. He's a long skinny guy. :) I looked up in my baby book how much I weighed at 6 months, and from what I can tell on the dot on the chart, he and I weigh about the exact same! I was about 2 inches shorter at that age though! I gave B his medicine at 7:00 and he ate and went to bed about 8:00. He wouldn't lay in his crib again, so I put him in his car seat in the crib and he fell right asleep. The medicine says it might make him sleepy, and I guess it does because he didn't wake up again until 4:00 to eat! Then I had to wake him up at 6:30 to get him dressed. The bottle says to give it to him every 6 hours as needed, and I only gave it to him the one time, so maybe it just made him feel enough better to relax and finally get a good night's rest! I told Josh this morning it was the best $33 I ever spent. :) So hopefully, he'll have a better day at Dana's today- he had a miserable day yesterday. Dana almost called me in the afternoon to come get him because he couldn't quit crying. I gave him medicine at 7:00 this morning so hopefully that will help a bit. He was still pretty stuffy, but I hope his ears feel better! He was smiling and laughing this morning so hopefully that's a good sign.

sick again!

So Sunday night, Brecken went to bed at 8:00. At 10:00 when Josh and I went to bed, Brecken had a cold. Somewhere between those two hours, it crept up on him! It was the strangest thing. The poor boy, he had a stuffy nose and couldn't breathe well, and a raw sounding voice. He didn't sleep any worse than usual, but when he did wake up, he'd cry in almost a panic because he couldn't breathe like he usually does.

Last night, he didn't sleep. I'm pretty sure he didn't sleep at ALL, because I don't remember sleeping any. I'm pretty sure I was up all night long- in fact, I lost count of how many times I got out of bed. I don't know why I bothered going back to bed at all. The poor kid just wouldn't sleep. And doesn't it figure- this morning he FINALLY fell into a good sleep, but at 6:00 a.m.!! How frustrating. I let him sleep until 6:45, then had to wake him up so he could eat before we left for Encampment. I didn't get him dressed though, I kept him in his jammies and threw his clothes into the diaper bag. I let the babysitter know that Josh could come get him if she needed him to but so far it seems to be going OK up there.

Josh's school had baby piglets born- the FFA is raising pigs and they had piglets a couple weeks ago. It was so nice outside yesterday, we took Brecken to see them. He loves the dogs and the cat so we thought he might love piggies, too. Only, he was NOT in the mood. The FFA teacher picked one up and it squealed and Brecken totally lost it. He cried SOOOO hard and wouldn't stop. So we took him home. We'll try again in a couple days, when he's feeling better. His ears must have been sensitive to sound last night because after we got home he was sitting on Josh's lap and Josh sneezed. Brecken cried and cried again. Granted, Josh's sneezes are NOT quiet, but Brecken's never had a problem with it before! Poor kid.

Brecken has his 6 month appointment tomorrow! That's right, he turned 6 months old on Sunday. MAN, time flies. I know I keep saying that, but really. I never expected it to go so fast! I saw a tiny little baby in the mall on Saturday and couldn't believe that mine was ever that small. Brecken no longer lays on his belly when you put him that way- he flips over right away. YAY!! I'm thinking it won't be TOO long before he figures out how to move. You can see it in his eyes, he really wants to run around with the kids at daycare but just doesn't quite know how yet. Once he does, we better watch out- this kid will be a mover!!

rolling

Brecken rolled over from his front to his belly yesterday, even though nobody saw it. I was in the kitchen and Josh put Brecken on his belly in the living room. He then turned to the couch to grab the remote control and when he turned around again, Brecken was on his back! He must not do it for an audience, because he has not done it again! But with that "trick" yesterday, that means he has now accomplished rolling both ways.

He is also spitting like a pro. Flabby lips and all. He thinks it is absolutely hilarious, of course, and it is, except for when he has something besides spit in his mouth! He gets funnier and funnier as the days go by. Yesterday morning, Josh was watching the news and not Brecken while he was in his jumperoo. So Brecken would do his fake cough until Josh looked over, and Brecken would just grin and laugh at him. As soon as Josh looked away again, the fake cough came back. What a goof.

We're off to Casper tomorrow to meet my family. My cousin's basketball team was playing at State Basketball this week, but got beat yesterday and today so they will not be playing tomorrow, like we all hoped. We'll all still get together for the day, however. My mom and dad have a wonderful GPS navigation system that talks to you and we are borrowing it when we go to Chicago next week. We will get it from them tomorrow and see if it navigates us back home. :)

a new trick

Brecken has discovered a new trick. He is now aware of when he has a bunch of slobber in his mouth and if he is laying on his back, he gargles it. If he's upright, he blows raspberries. He thinks he's pretty funny. What IS funny though is when he has cereal in his mouth and blows- the fact that he's blowing it out isn't funny, but his precious little face after he does it is hysterical. He blows the cereal out, then looks at you with the "MOM! Did you see that?!" look on his face and grins his beautiful little grin. Tonight while feeding him I had a coughing spell and he had a mouth full of cereal, so he coughed after I was done. Don't know if it was on purpose or not, but all his cereal dribbled out onto his chin. He belly laughed for probably a good minute about that one. It was too funny for me NOT to laugh, so I laughed right along with him. What a goofy boy we have!

Brecken got to come with me to work for a little while this morning. We had a late start day so teachers could have meetings. Our daycare lady always has all her relative's kids at her house on late start days, and I knew there'd be upwards of 10 kids over there until school started at 9:30. They get pretty wild, as any kid does when they are in elementary school, so I brought B to our meeting this morning and he did great! He even stared very seriously at my principal and listened to every word he said. I had to smile about that because he was better behaved than some of our teachers were. :) I dropped B off at 9:15 just as all the kids were leaving for school. Then it was just him, his little friend that is turing one year old next week, and our daycare lady's 2 year old. Much more sane. :)

spring! (or close to it)

It's been so nice out the past couple days. Yesterday wasn't really that warm, but it was 40 and the sun was out, so Brecken and I went for his first walk around Saratoga. He'd been on walks before in Gillette when we went to visit my parents, but not in Saratoga because it's been so dang cold. Yesterday I bundled him up and we walked all the way to the post office (halfway across town) to get the mail. It felt good to get out!

sleep

If you were/are lucky enough to have a baby that sleeps through the night, thank your lucky stars and don't take it for granted. Unfortunately, I am not one of those lucky ones. Brecken is turning 6 months old on Sunday (already! Yikes, where does the time go?!) and has slept through the night 2 times in his whole life. And before I get any emails saying that I just need to let him cry and he'll learn to put himself to sleep, I am not a believer in the "cry it out" method. Babies cry for a reason and I will not let him lay there and cry himself until the point of utter exhaustion. I know that he is not just crying so that I will come in and play with him. If he was doing that, he'd open his eyes, see me, and smile. He does not do that. He cries until he is fed. And it's not out of habit because sometimes he'll go 5 hours, and sometimes he'll go 2. He's just HUNGRY. I thought I might be running low on milk- so we gave him bottles for a few nights to see if he'd eat more and sleep longer. Nope, not the case. He just needs to eat. And frankly, I'm a bit tired of people assuming he's sleeping through the night and then telling me, "Oh, well my baby was sleeping 10 hours a night at 3 weeks, so I wonder what is wrong with yours." NOTHING IS WRONG WITH HIM. He will sleep through the night when he's ready to. I think I'm doing pretty good for not having slept through the night myself since last April. (that's when my bladder shrunk to the size of a dime.) It's OK- 25 years down the line when my kids are all gone, I'll be missing them and missing the time we spent together in the middle of the night. That's what I keep telling myself at 2:00 a.m. when I'm dead tired and my boy is starving. :)

Josh went to Denver for the weekend for a coaching clinic. B and I had a nice relaxing weekend- didn't change out of our jammies until noon, played, practiced rolling over, just hung out. I was glad to have Josh back last night though. He goes to a science camp in April, for a whole week. That will be interesting.

I just checked the temperature outside and it says 50 degrees! YAY!! I've been waiting and waiting for some warm weather.

surgery

My nephew Ryan has to have tubes put in his ears. He's had almost as many ear infections as he is months old- and is constantly on antibiotics. They saw a pediatric ear, nose, and throat doctor from Ft. Collins today and are going down next week to get tubes put in Ryan's ears. He might possibly be getting his adnoids out too. The poor kid has had a stuffy nose practically since he was born, so maybe that would help clear his poor little nose up!

I was thinking in the shower this morning, "I'm glad our baby was born healthy." Then I remembered the $100,000 in hospital bills we accumulated when Brecken was born. :) So I then changed my thought to, "So after Brecken finally got out of the hospital, I'm glad he's stayed healthy." :)

I stocked up on teething tablets and toys that vibrate when bitten this weekend. The poor little guy won't quit whining. I'm sure it's because of his teeth that we can't see yet but I'm sure we will soon. He's been sleeping like crap lately, too. Hopefully tonight with some teething tablets right before bed, he will sleep a little better.

I have gotten the planners from the hospital in the mail. I just haven't gotten around to mailing them out. I will hopefully get to it this week. I have an elementary school program tomorrow night and after that, hopefully my life will slow down a little!

a day full of basketball

We sure had a day full of basketball- Josh's jr. high girls' tournament was today, in Saratoga this year. His B team was invited this year, and played Encampment first. The B team lost. :( Their next game was against Wamsutter for 5th and 6th place and won! So they ended up 5th place. That's pretty good for a bunch of 6th graders and some 7th graders! I sure felt bad for Wamsutter- they only have 5 tiny girls, and one of them is a 5th grader even. And one of their players kept fouling out of every game because she apparently thought the game was football and kept tackling girls.

Josh's A team played Encampment since Encampment won the first game and Josh's team had a bye, and Encampment surprised everyone by winning! Josh's team was bummed. But in the 3rd and 4th place game, they played Hanna and won, so they ended up in 3rd place.

Busy day for Brecken- Jeff and his girlfriend came over last night, and Craig and Lennie came over this morning. With all that and all the games, he didn't take a nap at all today. 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there, but that is worthless. So this evening after we got home, he was crying uncontrollably- he was just so tired and couldn't settle down. Josh and I ended up having to take him for a ride in the pickup and drove 40 miles to get him to sleep and stay that way. Poor guy. Then we got home and he woke up 10 minutes later of course. I fed him some more and he was smiling so we hung out in the living room for a while, then he got cranky so I fed him some cereal, put his jammies on, and put him to bed. He's been asleep for an hour now, so hopefully he'll stay that way for a long time! :)

poor baby. (or should I say babies?)

My baby boy is sick. :( He finally got the cold that is going around. His friend Ryan had to go home from daycare early yesterday because of it- he had a high fever to go with it. Brecken doesn't have a fever, but his nose is so full, and he's coughing really badly, and his eyes are watering, and he's throwing up every once in a while. He slept OK until about 5:00 this morning and then he couldn't breathe very well on his back anymore. I called the clinic and I'm going to take him in at 4:00 this afternoon. Better safe than sorry, especially since RSV is going around our town.

My other baby, Josh, is hurting too. He slipped on the ice this morning while going out to start the cars. He caught himself, but twisted his knee. He wasn't as lucky when he got to school- he fell on the ice there too, and went down. His biology book hit his eye, so he's going to tell everyone that I gave him a black eye for Valentine's Day. He also cut his hand, but he said it doesn't need stitches. So he's at school miserable, with a twisted knee, a cut hand, a black eye, and a headache.

Maybe someday I'll get over MY cold and I can take care of my boys!

The BIG news for the day though, is that Brecken rolled over last night!! He was laying on the couch and Josh was working with him on rolling, and he did it, twice! From back to front even! Our babysitter told me this morning that yesterday, he had been trying really hard, and he finally succeeded last night. What a big week- starting to belly laugh, turning 5 months old, and rolling over!

5 months old already.

I can't believe Brecken turned 5 months old on Sunday! MAN, time flies. I took him to get weighed yesterday afternoon and he gained exactly a pound in exactly a month. He is now 13 pounds, 4 ounces. He has surpassed his cousin Ryan by a lot now- my sister didn't have a weight for Ryan at 5 months but at 6 months, Ryan was 13 pounds, 1 ounce. Soon, we'll be passing on clothes to Ryan and not the other way around. :)

This is Josh's last week of basketball. I can't say my feelings are hurt, it will be nice to have him home before 5:30 every day. It seems like he has lots of meetings for his ambulance service, his fire service, etc. So when he gets home at 5:30 and has a meeting like last night, from 6:30-9:00, it seems we never get to see him! So I will be kind of glad that basketball concludes this weekend with their tournament.

laughing

Brecken's been laughing a little for a couple months now, but this weekend he started REALLY laughing. It's not just a "ha!" with a smile anymore, it's all out giggling and it is so, so funny. Yesterday was the first time he's ever done it. He was in his jumperoo and I had his feet, making him go up and down. He was laughing pretty hard at that. Tonight, we got back from Laramie and he was pretty tired and grouchy, but when I laid him on his changing table to get his jammies on, he started smiling. (He loves his changing table for some reason!) I told him "You were a good boy today!" and for some reason, that hit his funny bone because he started laughing so hard he ran out of breath. I was laughing pretty hard too. What a great sound to hear- your little boy laughing for real, and laughing so hard that he runs out of breath. :)

mobile

Brecken has the Symphony in Motion mobile over his crib and he LOVES it. It plays for 15 minutes and you have a choice of Beethoven, Bach, or Mozart. There are fun little animals with polka dots and lines that move around and he will just stare and stare, and even laugh at it. The first one we had broke in November. The music still played but the animals wouldn't move around. We know the lady that owns the store my mom bought it at, so she was nice enough to exchange it for us. Today, the mobile quit again. The music still plays, but the animals don't move. I'm so sad. I changed the batteries twice and it still won't work. I'm completely bummed- Brecken LOVES that mobile and now it won't move around. I wonder if the lady at the store in Gillette will exchange it for us again. :(

calendars

If you want a calendar, let me know! Email us at jks@communicomm.com I heard back from the hospital and this is what the lady said:

Hi Kara,
Your family's photo is one of my favorites of the entire calendar! I hope Brecken is doing well. :)
I would be happy to send you as many calendars as you would like (free of charge) we appreciate you being willing to let us photograph you during such an emotional time in your life! It really comes thru in the photo and I think you can be proud of the fact that many people will be affected by that photo and (hopefully) take action with their elected officials because of it.
Just let me know how many you'd like and where to send them!
Take care,
Julie Snyder
Advocacy Coordinator
The Children's Hospital Denver
(303) 861-6253


So let me know ASAP and I'll send in an order. I think I'll get one for Dr. Keeler and for Dr. DeHart, who helped us so much in Laramie when Brecken was born.

the picture

Here are a few pictures of what went into Denver Childrens' planner. I took a picture of the November postcard we are on, a close-up of the picture they used (but my camera's flash made Josh's face look shiny...) and the inside front cover. No word back from the hospital to see if I can buy more of those, but our email server just upgraded and I think it's eating some of my emails. I'll have to try again this weekend.

We got it, we got it!

Some of you may remember way back when Brecken was born, a photographer came around Denver Children's and took our very first family picture, for a calendar the hospital was putting together. He took the picture, we signed the release and gave him Brecken's information, and they said they'd mail us a calendar when it was published. We never got it. We thought either a) they ended up not printing it, or b) our picture didn't make it in there so they didn't mail us one.

Today, we got the calendar in the mail! It's like a planner- it has monthly calendars in it and then each month comes with two postcards that are already filled out, to mail to senators and people like that, in support of child advocacy. On the front of each postcard is a picture of a child from the hospital. We made it in the calendar twice! Once in the front cover (a big picture!) and then we are on a postcard for November, too! I'm so excited! It's going in my cedar chest so we can keep it for always, but I emailed the hospital to see if we could buy some more, since I know some other people will want one too. (Grandmas especially!) Hopefully they will email back and say how to buy some! If so, I'll post the information on here so anyone else that wants to buy one can do so.

Just had to share! I'm pretty excited about it!! Brecken looks so different now. The picture was taken when he was five days old and still in the NICU- his face and eyes were swollen because he had just gotten his CPAP out. He's still beautiful though!

strange question of the day...

I got asked after school today if Brecken was my GRANDSON. It was a kindergartener, and kindergarteners have no concept of age, but this girl would ask me every day before B was born if I was having a baby, and then when I came back to school, she asked every single day for three weeks if I'd bring my baby to school... So you'd think she would remember he was my baby, and not my grandson!!

Brecken stayed in Saratoga today because Dana had a dentist appointment. (That's why Brecken was at school this afternoon- Deb coaches basketball in Encampment so she brings Brecken to me on the days she watches him.) Deborah and Jake both went to BYU and don't like Wyoming, so I made sure Brecken wore his Cowboy onesie, hat, and the sweats I bought him at the bookstore. :) I saw Jake at the store tonight and he said Brecken was fussy all day until Jake put a BYU shirt on him and then he settled down. I said, "Yeah, right." :)

Josh's basketball teams went to Rawlins this afternoon. They're playing an A, a B, and a C game so he won't be back until 8 or after. So it's just me, a tired Brecken, the cat, and two annoying dogs for a while tonight.

I think Brecken is catching up to Ryan....

The first picture was taken the first time Brecken and Ryan met, on September 23 when we got transfered back to Laramie's hospital after being in Denver. The second picture was taken this past weekend, on January 20. I think pretty soon Brecken will be bigger. :)

weekend with the cousin

We haven't seen Kristen and David and Ryan since Thanksgiving, so we figured a visit was due. Kristen and David just moved into a new house too, so we wanted to see it. We packed up the car and headed over to Laramie on Friday night. The dogs came with us since their new house has a fenced yard for them to play in. The dogs loved it, since they found a sack of garbage buried under the snow- in it was a pair of old underwear (gross), a phone book, a pop can, and a DOG TOY! They thought that was pretty neat.

The babies had fun looking at each other. Ryan would reach over and touch Brecken and Brecken would grab Ryan's hand, it was pretty cute to see them play together. And Brecken was totally interested in watching Ryan play with toys, since Brecken hasn't quite figured out what to do with them yet. He might know now, since he just stared and stared at Ryan playing. It was almost as if his brain was saying, "OH! That's what you're supposed to do with those! You put them in your mouth!" :)

We also got new phones this weekend. We were on Union Wireless, which sucks. They are really expensive- we shared 900 minutes a month and spent $110 for it. Absolutely ridiculous. Verizon didn't have service here when we moved to Saratoga, so there went our great plan and the IN network! HOWEVER, just a few weeks ago, Verizon put a tower up outside of town! Hip, hip, HOORAY! So we went to the Verizon store in Laramie and got back on their plans. Those of you that need our new phone numbers, an email with them will be coming shortly.

More snow today, glad we came home when we did. In fact, our EMTs were called out to help Rawlins and Hanna with a "multiple car wreck" on I-80 last night. Josh went to see if they neede more help since he wasn't on call last night about midnight, but wasn't needed so he came home. That's a scary stretch of interstate- glad we weren't on it. We're under a snow advisory today.