post placement visit 1

We had to go get Josh's windshield replaced on Friday.  Before we dropped it off, we had some time so we stopped at WCS to see if Carol was there so she could see little b.  She was gone though - she was with her son who just had his wisdom teeth out.  The lady working was named Kristy so she talked with us and said she'd let Carol know she missed seeing us!  I asked if she would also ask her about our first post-placement visit because I thought they were at 2, 4, and 6 months and I wanted to know when it would be.  Kristy said it's actually usually 1, 3 and 5 month visits so everything is ready for Court at 6 months and didn't know we hadn't had a visit.  So she would call Carol.

We dropped off the suburban and while we were doing that Kristy called back and said Carol told her that if we could do it then, Kristy could do our visit at the office.  So back we went!  That was nice of them to do it yesterday for us.  We just had to tell her how much he weighs now, about his dr appts, his favorite toys (his swing, and the blue monkey on his play gym are his all time favorites right now!), how the adjustment has been, etc.  She told us that any time Carol forwards our birthmom an emailed picture that I sent for Carol to forward, or our set of pictures we sent last month, she will call Carol and let her know she got the picture and will discuss each one one by one.  :)  She said our birthmom gets very excited every time she gets pictures and it
makes her very happy that little b is where he is.  So that's good.  :)  Our next post placement visit will be here at home.

funny monkey

Little b loves this monkey on his play gym. This monkey gets a ton of conversation and smiles out of the little guy. Wonder why the monkey is so special in the mind of an infant! We love watching the interaction.

be still, my heart

I had a "I just had a heart attack but I'm proud of you for helping!" moment today.  Josh was at practice and little b was sleeping in the swing, so I got in the shower (one less thing to do in the morning, that way...).  B was watching cartoons.  He has always come and got me if little b starts crying while I'm in the shower.

I got out of the shower and things were quiet so I thought little b was still sleeping.  I got my robe on and came out to the living room, and to my surprise, the baby was no longer in the swing.  B had him in the boppy on B's lap, feeding little b a bottle, with a burp cloth slung over B's shoulder!  He was so proud of himself!  Apparently the baby woke up crying so B got a bottle that I had put in the fridge a short time before that, got the baby out of the swing (that's where the heart attack comes in), situated them on the couch with the boppy on B's lap, and fed him.  And not only that, burped him.  Twice.

The kid was MEANT to be a big brother!!!!  (But I told him that next time, a grownup needs to pick the baby up, just in case he wiggles all of a sudden and B accidentally drops him.  B agreed.  Phew!)

reflux

Little b earned a trip to the doctor this week.  He was getting harder and harder to feed - he would squirm, kick his legs, growl at the bottle.... at first it was just when he needed to burp, but as the days went by it got worse and worse.  To the point where he was crying while he ate, and projectile vomiting all over.  We'd go through multiple outfits a day, and a burp cloth could only be used once because it was so soaked.  I'm actually quite surprised at his weight because while I know he's not throwing up his whole bottle, it sure as heck seemed like it!

Stat check since we're talking about weight: He was 10 lbs, 10 oz when he was at the dr. He gained 7 oz in 6 days.  Holy moly.

I started suspecting acid reflux, and after a quick conference with some friends who have children that had it as babies, I called the doctor.  I wrote down everything I was concerned about, and he agreed with me.  So we started him on Zantac.  That stuff is NASTY.  Oh my goodness, I don't blame him when he was spitting it back out!  I brought it back to the pharmacy and they added flavor, but it didn't help.  So we've been adding it to his bottles.

I *think*, after 48 hours of being on the meds (twice daily), he is feeling better!  We've had almost two days now without any crying while he eats!  And his burps are back to normal.  And he's managed to keep on the same outfit, for two days in a row now!  (Not the same outfit both days - two different ones - but they've lasted a whole day. :)  )

I'm so glad the little guy feels better! It was so so so sad to see his little lip stick out and his eyes meet mine with tears in them!  :(

shower

This is me and my two boys right before we left for the baby shower our friends threw for us.  I'm the luckiest mommy in the world.  Look at those two.  How in the world did I get lucky enough to be the mommy of TWO perfect, beautiful children?

lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!

We've seen our fair share of animals in the past couple weeks! As I mentioned in the last post, we took the boys camping with my aunt and uncle.  Since we had to cancel our trip to Yellowstone becasue of the birth of little b, they called and asked us if we'd like to go with them in August and stay in their camper.  B was soooooo excited he could hardly stand it.  We had a great time!  B loved every single thing about the trip.  Camping in the pop-up camper, seeing the huge waterfalls, looking at the gyesers, and seeing the animals we saw.  The first one we saw was a bear, believe it or not!  It was right across the river from us.  We also saw hundreds of bufffalo, an animal that was either a very large coyote or a small-ish wolf, a cow elk that walked right past our picnic table at the campsite and down to the lake...  B cried when we left to come home. :)

We also got to see more animals this past weekend, on our annual trek to Denver to do school shopping.  We spent the morning at the Denver Zoo.  J's brother and his wife happened to be coming the same day, so we got to eat lunch with them and their kids!  What a fun surprise!  B absolutely loved the zoo.  Little b slept through it. :)  (These pictures were taken off B's camera - he took them himself!)



We got home just in time for Josh to begin football practice bright and early Monday morning.  We start in-service stuff next week and then the week after begins actual school!  And I will be the mother of a kindergartener! 

one month

My baby turned one month old yesterday.  How in the world did that happen?!  And what a big month he had.  He spent a week with us at grandma and grandpa's house with his aunts, uncles, and cousins...  my sister and her youngest came to our house to visit, my mom came to visit, we went to Casper to stay overnight and introduce him to the game of basketball (one of J's players was playing in the state All Star game for the South team), we had a steady stream of visitors at home, and we went CAMPING in Yellowstone for a weekend!  (another blog post on that topic.)

Stats:
Length / Weight: Unsure of length, but he was 10 pounds, 3 oz when I took him to the clinic to be weighed yesterday.  Holy moly, since he was 10 days old, we totally missed the 8 and 9 pound ranges!

Eating: Fantastic eater.  We were having to stop him at 3 oz because of bad spit up, but in the past few days he has just not been satisfied with that, so we are giving him 4 oz.  He sucks that down within 20-30 minutes and it only takes that long because we have to constantly stop and burp him.  He gets sooo sad when we take the botte away from him to burp!

Sleeping: Little b is a pretty good sleeper!  He's usually awake for a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours in the evening, and sleeps for the better part of the day.  At night, he'll eat about 10:30 and then only wake up once during the night, waking for the day any time between 5-6:00.

Wearing: 0-3 month, as newborn is getting quite small.  Had to move him to size 1 diapers last weekend.

Miscellaneous: Still isn't totally consistent in smiling but when he does, it melts my heart!  We have a big canvas print of J, B, and I from when B was 3 years old above our couch.  Little b loves to stare at it and has smiled at it, too.  He also LOVES to be swaddled to sleep and when he can't settle down, we put the swaddle me blanket on and he is instantly calm.  His pacifier - he could take it or leave it.  That's kind of nice! He loves taking baths. He doesn't cry and actually gets some coos out during them! He also loves to be in his swing!