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.

busy day for Josh.

So no relaxing for Josh today: The pager went off this morning around 10, I think, for a guy that possibly had a heart attack. He works at the nursing home and that's where they got called to. Josh went, because he didn't think there was anyone signed up to be on-call, but there was, so he got to come home and didn't have to go to Rawlins.

Then at noon, he went snowmobiling with Dr. Jake for a couple hours. He had just gotten home and walked in the door, didn't even take his coat off, and the pager went off AGAIN, this time for the fire dept. to respond to somewhere a block away from us for a possible gas leak. He just drove over there and met the fire chief, and found someone who had accidentally run over the line. So they blocked traffic and waited for a fire truck to show up, and they called the gas guy who came and shut it off. So no big deal.

Then, we sat down to dinner, and the pager went off AGAIN, for Search and Rescue to go up above Encampment to find some missing snowmobilers. He's still out there. I hate when he goes out on S&R because I always feel like he's going to get lost too! But he promised never to go anywhere by himself. And if he were the one lost, I'd sure want everyone out there looking for him, so I'm glad he goes, but I breathe a lot better when he comes home!!

So, in one day, he's been on 3 different calls, for all 3 different departments he works for! Not very often that that happens!! And the weird thing is, that's twice in a row now where he's gone snowmobiling during the day and that night, he gets called out to find lost snowmobilers. Strange.

4 months old!

Brecken went in for his four month check up yesterday. He's doing well! His head is in the 50th percentile, he is now 25 inches long (50th percentile) and 12 pounds, 4 ounces! (10th percentile). Everything else checked out perfectly. And each time we go to Dr. Jake, he hears less and less of Brecken's murmer, so that's awesome.

We got more snow again in the past couple days. It started snowing Thursday night. By the time I got to school on Friday, there was 13 inches of snow in Encampment. By the time I left to come home, Encampment had another 6-8 inches! I drove an average of 35 mph on the highway home. The roads were terrible. We got a lot in Saratoga too, but not as much as Encampment. I bet Saratoga got another 12 inches though. The snow is now level with our front porch again. Our neighbor brought home a tractor/plow from work last night and was nice enough to plow our driveway for us. Then he plowed our roads because the plows hadn't been out yet. Pretty sad when you have to plow your own roads. The plows here are terrible. They don't get around to plowing until it's been on the ground for about 24 hours. A bit ridiculous, in my opinion.

Josh was supposed to go to a science conference in Casper yesterday and today but it was cancelled due to the weather. His jr. high basketball games got cancelled today also. He just got called out on an ambulance call though, so hopefully he'll get to enjoy this afternoon by snuggling up on the couch with a warm blanket- it is 3 degrees below zero outside right now!

food

It seems that our little guy sure likes food. He's been eating cereal since Saturday night and gobbles it right up. Tonight, he was LUNGING for the spoon. He wouldn't keep his head back and wait for Josh to bring the spoon to him, he had to go to the spoon. At one point, Josh was being "slow" getting more cereal on the spoon so Brecken put his head down and started licking it off the high chair tray. I couldn't stop laughing. What a goof! Then we put his jammies on and he had his drink of milk, and fell asleep while nursing. Until I put him in his crib, then he woke up to smile at me for a while. I kissed him goodnight and told him to sleep well, and left and he fell asleep all by himself. He's really good about that- he doesn't cry when I put him down and tell him goodnight. Just falls asleep.

Brecken goes for his shots on Friday, so we'll see how much he's grown!

We had quite the ground blizzard storm this weekend. We could hardly see across the street Monday morning because the wind was blowing so hard, it was blowing all the snow we have on the ground already all around in the air. It was gusting to probably about 70 mph- and the wind was steady at 40-50. Here's how strong it was: Our neighbor has a snowmobile trailer with two snowmobiles on it sitting on the edge of the street in front of his house. Monday morning, the front end of the trailer was pointed at a 45 degree angle TOWARD his house instead of parallel to it. And on the way to Encampment, one of the ranches has a HUGE log archway over the road to the ranch. The logs are giant. The wind blew it over Sunday night. There were logs laying all over the entrance to the ranch and nobody could get in or out.

That's some serious wind.

sitting up

Brecken really is wanting to sit up lately. If we recline him back, he'll throw his head forward and grunt to try to sit up all the way. And he must have strong stomach muscles because he's succeeded a couple times! He would've thrown himself out of the carseat the other day if he hadn't have been strapped in!

We got more snow last night. I was on my way up the hill on the street where our babysitter lives, and her husband (who teaches with me) stopped me to tell me there was ice on his walkway to the house. That was very nice of him to tell me that, but since they don't plow the streets in town and he was on the "good" part of the street, I had to be in the snowy part and got stuck while stopped. Clint (the teacher/husband) tried to push me out but it didn't work. So he loaded up Brecken and myself and brought us up to his house, then brought me to school while I left the car stuck on the side of the road. He took my car keys and took a couple of his boys in 1st hour to go get my car unstuck. That was super nice of him. He felt bad for getting me stuck but I told him I'd rather get stuck than slip on the ice with Brecken!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Welcome to the year 2007! 2006 was an amazing year, I can't wait to see what 2007 brings.

We had a great Christmas vacation. We started off with a snowmobile trip on the 22nd, our first official day of break. Josh and I had great fun until we got completely stuck in four feet of powder. Thank goodness some big strong men came to help Josh get us both out- I wasn't going to be able to lift much! Brecken stayed at Josh's secretary's house for the day and did a great job.

The 23rd we went to Lingle for Christmas Eve celebrations with Craig's side of the family. We had a great time. We went to church on the 24th, then had lunch with everyone and presents. We left there about 4:30 and headed up to Gillette for Christmas. My grandma, aunt, uncle, and two cousins came over too. We had a great time and had a lot of fun. We got wonderful gifts that totally filled up our van- we weren't sure we'd make it home with all of them! We celebrated my dad's birthday on the 28th and then headed back to Lingle on the 29th for Christmas with just the Sandlian family. More wonderful stuff to shove into our van! We had a good time though. On the 30th, we were able to take Brecken to meet his great-great Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Earl (my grandma's brother and his wife) for the first time. We also got to help Josh's great aunt Lois and great uncle Bob celebrate at their 50th anniversary party.

Brecken changed a lot over the break! He's now able to reach for things, yet not consistently. But he'll get there. Two weeks ago, he had no idea he had hands, and is now grabbing his baby keys or linkadoos. His new favorite thing to chew on is his hands. He LOVES sticking his fist (or both, if he can manage) into his mouth and chomping away. He's a drool monster because of it. He also had his first true giggle on Christmas Eve. And he graduated to size 2 diapers. He's sitting up with just a little bit of support from us on his waist, and loves to stand. he's got very strong neck and leg muscles. He's getting so big!

Hope you all had a great Christmas! Happy New Year!

PS- Dodi, I stole the picture of us off your website. Hope you don't mind. :)

gross, gross, gross

So the Encampment Elementary School went caroling to the Senior Center after lunch today. Since I'm in charge of all the carols, I went along. Everything was fine until about day 7 of the 12 Days of Christmas and one of my 2nd graders puked right in front of me. GROSS, GROSS, GROSS. I felt so bad for the kid. But all I could think of was when I was in 1st grade, we did a musical, "A Walk with Mr. Peeps". I was on the "stage" and the other kids were on the risers singing, and I hear this girl go, "UGH! HE PUKED ON ME!" Sure enough, the boy on the risers behind the girl threw up all over her hair, the back of her dress, everything. That's about all I remember of that program, and I don't even remember who the boy and girl were, but 20 years later, that yell of disgust still sticks with me!

the dumbest question I've ever heard!

So I was at the post office today, waiting in line to buy stamps so I could mail my Christmas cards. The lady in front of me was trying to mail something and the post office lady was trying to figure out how to ship it. She asked her supervisor and the supervisor said, "Where is it going to?" The lady mailing it said, "South Korea." The supervisor then said, "Is that in the United States?"

You've got to be kidding me! I almost died right then and there.

another new baby!

Last week on Dec. 13th, Josh's cousin Summer had a baby girl. Welcome to the world, Anna Rachelle!

christmas in cheyenne

We had a nice Christmas this weekend in Cheyenne. We went over Saturday morning after dropping the dogs off at the kennel- we went down through CO to get to Laramie though. It had started snowing pretty hard and I do NOT trust those truckers on I-80 in the snow. We went up to Riverside (Encampment), and took that highway down towards Walden, CO, and up through Woods Landing to Laramie that way. Josh goes that way quite often on the ambulance. It was a really pretty drive through the mountains.

Brecken got some fun presents- Karlee helped him open every single one of them. She helped hand out presents but couldn't read any of the names so Jeff would tell her who to bring it to. But she got to Brecken's, and she goes, "THIS ONE IS FOR BRECKEN!!" We asked how she knew that, and she goes, "Because my mommy wrapped it." :) Trevor had Brecken's name this year. He gave Brecken some polar fleece slippers and a fleece blanket with a puppy on it and if you push the puppy's head, it squeaks like dog toys!! Then from Craig and Lennie, he got a set of 3 emergency vehicle toys- an ambulance, a tow truck, and something else, I can't remember. From Josh's Aunt Barbara and Uncle Keith, he got a foam book about cows (all the kids got one) and a Glo Worm that not only lights up but plays lullabies too. Then from Josh's Aunt Bev and Uncle David, he got tiny little tiny Croc shoes! They're so cute. Brecken's are navy blue. Trevor's are blue swirled, and Parker's are camo colored. Brecken's are too big, he'll have to grow into them.

Saturday night our hotel had a swimming pool so the kids went swimming with Joel and Jeff and Josh. Annie gave me a swim diaper to put on Brecken but Brecken did not like swimming. It was too cold. So I took him out and wrapped him in a towel and he fell asleep watching the kids play in the pool. I had a severe migraine so Josh and I and Brecken went back to the room and fell asleep while the others went back to Brady and Stacey's and played cards. Don't know what time they got home- it was plenty after midnight, that's for sure.

Sunday morning we got up and it was snowing. In an hour, it snowed several inches. We went and had breakfast with everyone and then tried to leave town, but didn't make it far. We knew I-80 was closed from Laramie to Walcott Jct., but we weren't going to go that way anyway- we were going on the same highway we came over on Saturday. But one mile down the interstate in Cheyenne still, we came across a bad wreck. So we went back to Brady and Stacey's. After a while, we went to the nursing home where Josh's Great Aunt Lucile is recovering from a broken leg. She hadn't met Brecken yet so we took him up there for a little bit. Then we came back and checked the roads again. All of a sudden, it stopped snowing in Cheyenne so we went for it- had to go slow but we made it. On I-80 about 15 or so miles from Cheyenne, there was an overturned semi blocking all the lanes going West, but we were all routed down an off ramp to a semi parking lot, where there was a frontage road. Most everyone took the frontage road and went around the wreck and back onto the interstate. Then we were able to make it to Laramie and over highway 230. Sure was a pretty drive, and driving 30 miles an hour gave me lots of time to look at things! We saw several deer, and even a yearling MOOSE! He was running on the road right smack next to us!! I tried to get a picture but it didn't turn out. We killed a big huge rabbit, too. :( Ran right over it. There were several rabbits out last night.

Got home at 7:00- took 4 hours to get home from Cheyenne. Jeff was driving behind us and stayed the night at our house- called in for a sub for today. He figured if it took that long for a normally-driven 2 hour trip, he didn't want to drive the rest of the way to Lyman. He wouldn't have gotten there until early this morning, I bet. Plus, I-80 opened up again and he would've had to fight all those impatient truckers. I hate those truckers. Always in a hurry.

We didn't make it home in time to get the dogs but I called the kennel when we got to Laramie and the nice lady told me "the kids will be just fine until tomorrow!" Josh went to get them this morning during his prep hour. She said we weren't the only ones that weren't making it back to pick up their dogs yesterday. Several people must have gotten stuck.

This morning it was 0 degrees with NO WIND on my way to work, but really heavy fog. I could only drive 40 to get to Encampment. We prolly have 16 inches of snow here- I can't remember the last time I saw so much snow in 2 days. I took my ruler outside this morning and right outside my classroom, there is 20 inches of snow! Holy moly!

So thanks, everyone for the great gifts! We enjoyed our weekend but were glad to get home.

josh's birthday

Yesterday was Josh's 28th birthday. He's an old man. :)

We had an early out from school yesterday for a funeral yesterday afternoon- a longtime rancher whose kids go to SHS (well one of them does- the younger one goes to a boarding school back East.) died of cancer last week. He was also our state representative. The funeral was at SHS yesterday afternoon so Enc. and Saratoga got out of school at 1:30 so people could go to the funeral. Josh started JH girls' basketball yesterday afternoon at 1:30 at the middle school gym. So I got Brecken from Dana's and brought him to see basketball for a little bit- he actually liked it! He was really watching the girls go up and down the court. He thought that was pretty neat.
Then last night we went to the Saratoga Inn for dinner. Brecken wasn't having any of that. He cried most of the evening- I'm glad we were the only people in the restaurant. (We went at 5:00 since Josh went on-call at 6:00.) So one of us was walking around trying to calm him down while the other one ate. Wasn't exactly the ideal birthday dinner, but it was OK. :) Josh got a free dessert so we took it to go. :)

This morning Brecken kept waking up after 3:30- his nose was stuffed up and he didn't feel good again. The same cold is being passed back and forth between the kids at Dana's. Hopefully over Christmas everyone can get healthy again. Brecken slept in his swing while I got ready for work, and was sleeping pretty good, so I put some clothes in his diaper bag and took him to Dana's in his jammies. I'll put the humidifier in his room tonight to see if that might help him. Poor guy. :(

if you're bored....

Try this site: http://dontshootyoureyeout.com

3 months old

I seriously cannot believe that 3 months ago today, we were in the hospital with a newborn.

Brecken is 3 months old today so I swung by the clinic this afternoon to see how much he weighs and how long he is. He is 11 pounds exactly (up 14 ounces from a month ago) and has gained a half inch- he's now 23.5 inches long. According to percentile charts, he's slipped in the weight percentile. He's only in the 5-10th percentile for weight, but in the 50th-75th percentile for length. I guess we have a tall skinny guy on our hands.

He's been pretty crabby today, don't know why. Deb said he didn't ever take a good nap today, so maybe he'll sleep good tonight?!?! :)

i'm a master!

Holy moly, it's been a long time since I posted. Sorry about that!

I had my graduation on Friday night. I got my Master's diploma several months ago, but went through the graduation ceremony Friday night in Laramie. I got hooded, but you have to give those back with your gowns, and that makes me sad. I really wanted to keep that hood- I worked long and hard for it! :) My friends Erin and Kris also graduated, so that was fun to see them again. It was also the first time they got to see Brecken!

Anyway, graduation was LONG. Longer than my undergrad one, where there were 3 times as many people graduating! They had lots of speeches this time. Only one of them was good. It was the University President- he was funny. The others were just really boring. One seemed like he was just promoting the war (that was the dean of A&S), and the other was some retiring professor that talked about Earth Day. VERY BORING. AND, they had the Snow Dance from the Nutcracker in the middle of graduation since they had just finished putting that on, the weekend before. It was nice, but I've never been to a graduation with a ballet in the middle!! Brecken did a great job through it all. We went to dinner afterwards with Craig and Lennie and Kristen, David, and Ryan, and Brecken got one heck of an acid attack so I didn't get to eat with everyone- I was walking around trying to calm him down. Finally he went to sleep, slept until we got home (didn't stay overnight), ate when we got home and went back to sleep until 7:15 yesterday morning! Granted, we didn't get home until 12:30, but he slept for a good 6 1/2 hours!

Brecken has new Christmas jammies, and he wore them for the first time last night. I hope he still fits into them for Christmas- they aren't any too big, that's for sure! He woke up in the happiest mood this morning. I was singing Christmas carols to him and he was grinning and laughing and trying to sing along. His favorite this morning was "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"- I think it was because of his jammies:

baby's first Christmas

We got our Christmas tree set up tonight. Brecken has 3 Baby's First Christmas ornaments so far. One from Josh and I, and two from my mom and dad. I put them up next to the two Baby's First Christmas 1979 ornaments that I had from my first Christmas. It's kind of a neat collection.

Brecken has not slept well for the past 4 nights because of his cold. I am completely exhausted. It is now 8:45, he's in bed (HOPEFULLY for a long time. But now that I said that, he'll be crying in 10 minutes, I bet!!) and I'm on my way right now. Even if he gets up in a little while, at least I'll have had a LITTLE bit of sleep. I have some serious sleep catching-up to do this weekend.

i'm a real choir teacher now!

This is my second year of teaching choir. I've been in choirs all my life, but never had taught them by myself until last year, my first in Encampment. This year, I had a freshman boy try out for the Wyoming All-State Choir. He has a wonderful voice and I was really hoping he'd make it. Today, the results were posted, and he made it! I feel like a real choir teacher now that I can get choir students into All-State! :) I always had some make it while I was in Torrington teaching band, but those were band students. This is my first choir student to make it. Hooray for Tyler! I didn't get the results until after school today, and Tyler was already gone for the day, so I get to tell him tomorrow morning. He's going to be so excited.

my poor, sick baby. :(

Brecken is sick. :( Friday night/Saturday morning, he was up at 1, 2, 3, 5, 5:45, and 7:00. He ate each time, but he didn't seem himself. He was sneezing and coughing and sounded like he had lots of boogers. We loaded him up to go to Loveland and furniture shop, and he did alright all day... A little fussier than normal, but not bad. I figured he was super tired from not sleeping well.

Well, last night, he went to bed at 10 and was up again at 11:30 and was just crying, crying, crying. A really raw sounding cry. He was super stuffed up. I tried to suck the boogers out with the bulb syringe and he wanted nothing to do with that. He ate some, but couldn't hardly breathe. I would put him back in his crib and he'd cry and cry and choke- the drainage from his nose was choking him in his throat. The only way he would sleep was on my chest, since he was on his belly. Josh listened to his lungs with his stethescope and thought they sounded a bit wheezy, so he called Dr. Noton, who was the doctor on call last night. He knew she was still up because the ambulance was called out about a half hour before that and they took the person to the clinic first. Listening to all the symptoms, she thinks it might be a little case of RSV. She said to let him sleep however he wanted (which for the most part was on one of our chests and sometimes he'd be OK sleeping on his side next to us) and to keep an eye on it last night and if it got worse, to call her again. He didn't get worse though. Thank goodness. He was still really stuffy and coughing and sneezing but it didn't get worse. He was up crying for a lot of the night though. Poor guy, just didn't feel good.

Dr. Noton called us at 7:00 this morning to check on Brecken- that was really nice of her. She said she was going to call in a prescription for him to the pharmacy in Rawlins since our pharmacy isn't open on weekends. Josh went to get it. She said it would dry him out and get the gunk out. Josh has been suctioning a lot of gunk from his mouth and his nose both this morning.

So, hopefully this is the worst of it and after getting some medicine he'll begin to feel better. I'm glad tomorrow's babysitter is a nurse whose husband is our PA, so she can keep an eye on it for us too. And hopefully tonight he'll sleep better because after 2 nights of no sleep, I'm a little beat. :)

so scary

I just about had a heart attack this morning while bringing Brecken to the baby-sitter's. When we get there, I always unlock all the doors so I can open the sliding door on the van when I get to Brecken's side. I leave the car running so it's still warm when I get back in. Well, this morning, I hit the unlock, or so I thought. I got out, shut my door, turned around and saw that my door was LOCKED. I freaked. I didn't know what I was going to do with Brecken locked in the car. In my panic, I grabbed the sliding door on my side of the van and pulled it- and it opened. I've never been so relieved. I have no idea how my door got locked and all the other doors got unlocked, when the doors lock automatically when you start driving. I don't care- I was just relieved that Brecken wasn't locked in the van!!

Phew.

best birthday present ever

My little boy gave me the best birthday present ever- he slept for 6 hours and 15 minutes last night. He was in bed by 10:00 and I didn't have to get up again until this morning at 4:15. What a great gift. :)

new baby!

November 22, 2006: Welcome, Julia Sarah!

first day of daycare

Well, I'm back at work now. I was excited to get back to school, but not excited to leave Brecken at daycare. The lady he's with today is awesome, so that's not a problem, but I'm missing him a lot!! There were tears this morning when Josh took Brecken with him on his way to work. Josh and Brecken were fine, it was me with the tears. :) I can't wait until 4:00 this afternoon when I go to pick him up! Hopefully he did OK today so Deborah doesn't change her mind about watching him! :) He might be a bit cranky today- he does not like formula, and that's what he's having to eat during the days when I'm not there now. Hopefully he aquires the taste quickly so he'll eat and not cry all day long from being hungry. I guess if he's hungry, he'll eat, huh?

Josh went to get the dogs from the kennel this morning during his prep time. Dumb Hogan, so exited, he sat in the car seat base all the way home instead of on the seat. That couldn't have been comfortable!! Both Birdie and Hogan were very glad to see Josh, he said.

We had a good time in Gillette last week. We got lots of Christmas shopping done, we only have a few things left. We were hoping to find a couch we like in Rapid City at the Ashley Furniture store, and have it ordered and sent to the Laramie store so we could go pick it up. (Joel and Annie bought our other set- it's too big to fit in our living room and the loveseat was hanging out in Brecken's room.) Apparently, Ashley Furniture doesn't allow that. Each store is "independently owned", so you have to order it from the store you want to pick it up at. Dumb, beings how they all come from the same Ashley warehouse anyway! So instead, we might go to American Furniture Warehouse this weekend and do some looking around. Right now, the living room looks like we just moved in- it sure is empty! We have two recliners in it, that's it. It'll be good to get a couch again!

hip, hip, hooray!

We're going to Grandma and Gramps' today! I'm pretty excited. We haven't been to my mom and dad's house since the end of summer. It'll be Brecken's first really long trip- both in car time and in overnight time. I'm trying to remember to pack everything we might need! Babies have a lot of stuff.

My sister and David and Ryan will be there tomorrow afternoon. Thursday, we'll eat ourselves silly. Friday, we are going to meet my grandma and my aunt, uncle, and cousins in Buffalo. My grandma has only seen Brecken once and my aunt and uncle haven't met him at all yet! Saturday, we're going SHOPPING in Rapid City. We have a ton of Christmas gifts to get- and haven't really started yet! Yikes.

Sunday will be pretty special- we're having Brecken baptized in my church. He gets to wear his dressy outfit and everything. I'll make sure to post pictures!

Today is also a bit sad- it's my last day at home with Brecken. :( I have to go back to work on Monday. I'm looking forward to getting back, I miss the kids, but I'll miss Brecken too. It'll get easier, I'm sure. And it will make the evening time I have with him that much more special.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!

Brecken says...

GO BRONCOS!!!

owie

Boy, did Brecken have an acid attack last night. He was eating pretty well until I started hearing it come back up his throat and then he'd cry and cry and cry. Then eat and suck like he hadn't eaten in a week (my book said babies will do that to try to wash down the burning), crying while he ate, and then couldn't stand it anymore and cried and cried. It was a painful cry. :( He finally calmed himself down when Josh came to get him from me to give me a break. I felt so bad. So his next meal was a bottle of the special formula. He was able to get down 2 oz. of that (I'm not sure he was STARVING, just needed a snack) and did much better. So maybe we'll have to do a bottle or two a day and see if that helps him. I feel so bad for him. :(

a possible precentile correction

So my sister looked up how much my nephew weighed at 2 months, and he was exactly the same as Brecken. Only she was told that was in the 17th percentile, not the 30th. Hers is probably more accurate- our doctor coaches football with Josh and they got to talking yesterday, so Jake probably wasn't paying that close of attention to the percentile chart. :)

No word on Baby Bailey yet. COME ON, LITTLE BABY! I can't wait to see if you are a girl like they think you might be, because I'm ready to buy some pink!! :)

2 month check-up

Brecken had his 2 month check-up today! The past few days, I've wondered if he had Acid Reflux. He's been crying while eating, I can hear fluid come up his throat and he chokes, swallows it, and then cries, and he's been throwing up a bit more. I mentioned it to Dr. Jake this morning and I was right- Brecken has a bit of reflux. Jake said the crying while eating is a good sign of it. He said we could give Brecken a little bit of water between feedings to soothe the burning and to kind of weight the milk down so it doesn't come back up. He also said when we switch to formula feeding (which he'll be fed formula during the day when at the babysitter's when I go back to work) to have him on Enfamil AR, which is NOT the kind we just bought at Sam's. Figures. :) The grocery store here has it so I bought a can because Jake said to try it out before I go back to work to make sure it'll agree with Brecken's stomach. It's a little heavier of a formula so it won't come back up so easily.

However, that's the only thing "wrong" with Brecken- he's healthy as a horse otherwise! He grew a TON from a month ago. He's not up to 10 lbs, 2 oz!! He grew almost 3 pounds in a month!! He's in the 30th percentile for that now. He's just under 23 inches long, which is almost 3 inches of growth from a month ago, and is in the 50th percentile for that. His noggin grew a bunch too- it's now in the 75th percentile when it was only in the 25th percentile a month ago. :)

He did NOT like his shots, but didn't cry too long. Josh was able to meet us at the doctor because it was during his prep time, so he held Brecken during the shots. I'm glad I didn't have to. :( Brecken fell asleep in the car afterward though, so that's good. It figures, however, because Brecken was in the happiest mood this morning and then we had to go ruin it with shots. This morning, he was just grinning all over the place at that mobile my mom got him. He was having a great time with it.

hmmm...

Not too much new to post. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Josh's cousin's baby, due any day now! We thought the baby would be born by now, but no news as of yet. Come on, baby Bailey!! We're waiting to see what you look like finally!

I finally caught him!

So far, only Josh and I have had the wonderful opportunity to see Brecken smile. Well, here's for the rest of you- I finally caught a smile with my camera! The picture is a tad bit blurry, but you get the idea.

that seals the deal.

Josh is the official bath person. Tonight he gave Brecken a bath and he just laid in the water looking around, not even wimpering. He had a great time. I'm happy being the gal that puts lotion on and puts him in his jammies afterwards if it means I won't have to hear him scream so bad like he did that one time. :)

Adventures in Babysitting Part II

We have a babysitter for all days of the week now. Phew. The pharmicist gave Josh the number of the lady she uses, in Encampment. She's just starting a daycare. Turns out, it's the mom of 3 of my students and her husband is our Ag teacher at school. Her 2 youngest kids are pretty wild, (actually, her 2 middle kids- she has a 2 year old also.) but she's a nice lady and comes to conferences and IEPs and stuff like that. The pharmacist said she really likes Dana and her baby is happy when she goes to pick him up and everything. So I'll be bringing Brecken out to Encampment with me 3 days a week and he'll stay here in town with Deborah 2 days a week. Big relief to finally have someone to watch him!!

feeling refreshed

Brecken slept for 6 hours straight last night! I was amazed. He ate about 10:20 last night and was in bed by 10:45, and didn't wake up to eat again until a little after 4:30 this morning. Hooray! A good 6 hours of sleep for me- I haven't had that since probably my 2nd trimester of being pregnant! I had forgotten what it felt like.

beautiful...

Didn't I tell you Stacey takes beautiful pictures? Here's just a few of my favorite...

WOW!

Josh and I went to Denver yesterday to see the Broadway show, The Lion King. WOW. If you've never seen it and ever get the chance to, you need to go! It was absolutely amazing. We lucked out too, because the only tickets available when I bought them way back in July (!) were in row 7 of the lower level. Talk about great seats!!!

We dropped Brecken off at my sister and her husband's house on our way to Denver. Kristen and David babysat for us for the day and when we left last night, Kristen said she really doesn't want twins. Two babies was a little harder than one. :) It was hard on me, too- that was the first real time I've left him! :(

The bad mommy award of the day goes to...

I feel like a horrible mommy. Brecken needed a bath today, so I gave him one while Josh was at work. Brecken doesn't normally like baths, but today was terrible. Josh usually gives him the bath, and he will continue to, after today! I got Brecken all ready and put him in our baby tub. I know the water wasn't too hot, or too cold, but Brecken screamed like I've never heard him scream before. He arched his back like the water was scalding. I about died. I took him out right away and wrapped him tight in a towel, and we had a sponge bath instead. I put him back in to wash his hair and rinse off the soap and he screamed and cried until he was hoarse, even though he was only in there a total of maybe 30 seconds. I took him back out and wrapped him up again and took him to his room and rocked him in the glider. He calmed down but I felt absolutely horrible. I think Josh will be the primary bath giver from now on. :(

Brecken went to his first Halloween party last night. Encampment School puts on a carnival each year (the kindergarten teacher told me it's been going on for at least 34 years...) for all the kids. It's a fundraiser for each class, 7-12, along with student council. All the kids come in costumes, so Brecken went as a skeleton. They don't make tiny little costumes for babies, so this 0-3 month one had to work. It was just a little big. :)

Adventures in Babysitting

So I'm starting to panic a little about finding a babysitter for Brecken when I go back to work. We have a lady that is going to watch him 2 days a week but she doesn't want to do any more than that since she still has an 18 month old at home and a 3 year old at home also, that only goes to preschool 2 days a week. So we're still looking for someone to watch Brecken the other 3 days. Josh had talked to a lady he knows this summer that said she might do it, and to call her this fall. Well, we found out last week that she dropped her youngest child off at the home of a family we know, and then never came back to get him. Her husband had to come pick him up, and told the family that his wife left him again, for another guy. Then a few days later, the lady called her husband and begged her way back home.

Needless to say, we won't be calling her.

Last night, our neighbor's grown daughter told Josh she'd babysit. Josh did NOT say "great!" because this is the lady who always brings her own kids to our neighbor's house and screams cuss words at them all day long.

Won't be using her, either.

Ugh. Who knew it would be so hard to find a babysitter! There aren't any daycare centers here in Saratoga, so that's not an option. We have one month until I go back, hopefully something will turn up!!

Lions and tigers and bears, oh MICE!!!!

A couple weeks ago while my parents were here, I was sitting in one of our chairs in the living room and a mouse ran across the ottoman right in front of me. I HATE mice. And we couldn't catch the darn thing. My cat, who is extremely lazy, caught smell of it that evening, but couldn't catch it either. The cheeky little mouse ran up the curtains right beside my cat and walked across the curtain rod. By the time we got up to get rid of it, it vanished. We've caught sight of it a few times in the past couple weeks, but haven't been able to catch it with the mouse poison or the mouse traps yet. It's a tricky little thing, and Charlie has no interest in coming out of my bedroom during the day unless it's to eat. :) HOWEVER, last night I heard a noise and I looked over, and that darn thing was taking a candy corn out of the bowl of candy corns sitting next to the chair. I was in the leather chair with Brecken. It ran back down the table. Josh pulled the couch out, and saw it go underneath the fireplace. (There's about a 6 inch gap under the fireplace and cracks that go somewhere, out to the garage, I'm assuming.) So I watched the fireplace while he ran to his friend Jared's up the street to get some plywood and he drilled the plywood into the bricks and then caulked around it. Hopefully that took care of the problem. We knew it was back there somewhere and set mouse traps and poison, and when Josh checked the trap a few nights ago, it had shut, but no mouse inside, so he had to re-set it. Stupid mouse. Hopefully it is GONE!!! It gives me the heebie jeebies.

Houston, we have a smile!

I could tell that Brecken has been trying to smile for the past few days, so I've been watching carefully. Last night, Josh got the first smile! Then the second, third and fourth! How many smiles have I gotten? NONE. We must have a daddy's boy on our hands. Either that or Josh is funny looking. :) Brecken is 6 weeks old today, and I wondered how far "behind" he'd be in milestones like smiling, since he was a preemie. My nephew Ryan smiled a week and a half earlier than Brecken did, so Brecken's not doing too bad!! Way to go, Buddy!

We had another extremely busy week last week. Josh's mom and dad came for a couple days and as soon as they left, Josh's brother, sister-in-law and their two kids came to visit. They'd actually been here all week hunting, but staying with Annie's cousin. They spent the later part of the week at our house. Now, with no company, it's time to get back into our routine.

busy week

We had a busy week last week, that's why this hasn't been updated in a while. Wednesday, Brecken turned one month old! That was celebrated by taking a trip to the doctor for his one month check up. Brecken wasn't excited by that because he had to get naked. :) He's gained a pound since being released from the hospital! Yay! He's up to 7 pounds, 5 1/4 ounces. He's also just over 20 inches long. Small in the percentiles though, which we expect for a preemie. His head is in the 25th percentile, his length in the 20th percentile, and his weight in the 10th percentile. Dr. Jake wasn't concerned though, since he was so early. As long as he keeps growing, he's good. The rest of his check up was great. Everything looked perfect, including his ears (thank goodness since Josh had so many problems with his ears as a baby) and his chest tube incision. It is still very noticable and will probably have it for the rest of his life, but Dr. Jake said it should fade sometime.

Thursday, my mom and dad came to visit. My dad hasn't seen Brecken since he was still in the NICU and my mom hasn't seen him since he was still in the Infant Care Center. My sister and Ryan came over for the afternoon too, because we had a baby shower at my school. My friend Deb threw it for me. It was supposed to be in September, but plans had to change. :) We got lots of great gifts from my staff and we sure appreciate everyone's kindness!

Friday, Josh's team went to Pine Bluffs to play football. They lost, so they won't be going to any playoff games. :( My mom and I spent Friday re-arranging my kitchen and dining room and getting a good cleaning in.

Yesterday we all went to Casper where Brecken got to meet his Great-grandma (my mom's mom) and his great aunt and uncle, Leona and Kent. We went up there for the State Marching competition. It was held outside this year and the weather was beautiful. We got home last night.

Well, that's the update for here. We're just being lazy today, watching football on TV and catching up on some sleep.

Kara

due date

I forgot to mention earlier that today is Brecken's due date! And instead of having a baby, we have a 4 week old at home. He's 4 weeks old today. He was exactly 4 weeks early. Man, how our lives have changed in the past 4 weeks!

first day trip

We went to Cheyenne on Saturday, just to hang out. There wasn't anything to do at home, so we decided to get out and have some fun. We had some coupons for the Sears Portrait Studio so we got some pictures of Brecken taken. He was awake the whole time which really surprised me, he's usually asleep all morning! My sister and her husband and 3.5 month old came over too and got pictures taken as well. Then we all had lunch at Red Lobster, where Josh's cousin Kevin joined us. Then we did some shopping in the afternoon, then came home. Brecken did great. Soon, we'll have to get back to Cheyenne for Josh's cousin's wife to get some pictures of Brecken. Stacey does the most beautiful pictures- I can't wait.

Also Saturday night, Brecken got the hang of nursing! I don't know why he got it all of a sudden, but he did. He's slowly getting better- but it's hard work and he falls asleep after not too long. But that's OK- baby steps. We have to build up his stamina for nursing just like we did weeks ago with his bottle. So he's taking most of his food still from his bottle, but we'll get there. Slowly. :) I know he can do it though. I remember back to Children's where he was only eating 10 ml's of milk from his bottle and it would take FOREVER for him to get it down, and most of the time it had to go down his feeding tube because after about 4 ml's or so, he was just so, so tired. Now he's sometimes eating 100 ml's in one sitting and scarfing it down! What a trooper he is. I'm so proud of him and his accomplishments, and I tell him that every day.

This morning, in the middle of the night actually, while feeding Brecken, I started thinking about those little babies that are probably still in Denver. I think about them a lot and wonder how they are doing. Little Joseph, with the cleft palate (did I spell that even close to correctly?) and the shortened lower jaw who had surgery to lengthen the jaw a couple days before we left for Laramie again, I wonder if he's breathing better. The poor guy couldn't breathe and it would make him panic and then he REALLY couldn't breathe, poor baby. And little Karson across the hallway who was born at 28 weeks, I wonder if his mommy got to transfer him back closer to home like she was hoping to. And little Sam down the hallway, who was also born at 36 weeks and had Down Syndrome, I wonder how he's doing. His mommy is a biology teacher so she and Josh had quite the conversation. I wonder if he's home yet. And baby Gia, whose little cubical had exploded with pink things. I never did find out why she was there. And I will never, ever forget the mommy and daddy of the little baby born the first Wednesday we were in Denver, who was taken off life support 4 days later on Saturday. His station was next to ours in the NICU. His blood was being taken out of him and run through an ECMO machine, to put oxygen back in the blood or something like that, because his heart couldn't do it for him. That poor mommy and daddy, what a hard decision to take your 4 day old off life support. I thank God for my little boy's health. He was certainly sick, but by FAR one of the healthiest babies there. Thank the Lord.

My little man is waking up and is ready to eat- better get to it. It could take a while. :)

Kara

recognize this baby?

Here he is, Brecken Levi, on the hospital website! We didn't get the picture taken like all the other babies when he was born, since Brecken left in an airplane. So we had it taken when we left the second time. :)

http://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/babypage_view.asp?URLID=3Z3A7M5B0F

We went to Josh's game against Hanna this afternoon but it started pouring rain so we had to leave. :( Saratoga was ahead 28-6 with 9 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, so I'm assuming we might win.

If anyone is interested in how much a trip to Denver Children's Hospital costs, we got the grand total in the mail today. Not as much as I thought it might be, but enough to take your breath away still! $54,648.33. About $5400/day on average. It didn't break it down into how much his IV was, chest tube, diapers, etc. It just gave us a grand total. Yikes. Thank God for insurance.

hungry, hungry hippo

We've had a hungry, hungry hippo lately! Last night, Brecken at 65 at 8:30, 60 at 10:00, 90 at 12:30 a.m., 80 at 4:00 a.m., 60 at 7:00 a.m., and 70 at 10:00 a.m. And now he's squirming again at 11:30, I thought I might get lunch in before he does, but it's not looking that way! Glad he's hungry. It'll be interesting to see what he weighs when he goes in for his one-month shots. He'll be one month old next week already- man, time flies.

While I'm here, I just want to thank everyone that has sent gifts for Brecken. I really am writing thank you notes, it's just taking a bit of time. (But I AM halfway through the list!!) You WILL get one though!

first real bath

Brecken had his first real bath Sunday night and hated every minute of it, as you can see by the picture. The only part he didn't scream through was getting wrapped up in his towel at the end. :) He doesn't even like getting his face wiped- he screamed at me for that yesterday, too! I told him we can't go out in public meeting people with a messy face! (We were on our way to my school to help my sub out with some things after school yesterday.)

He slept for 4 1/2 hours this morning before I made him wake up to eat. He last ate at 5:00 a.m., and I woke him up at 9:30. He must have been sleepy! He's been sleeping pretty good (KNOCK ON WOOD), only waking up when he's hungry at night. He's awake a little more in the day, looking around at things. The dogs are still in love with him and love sticking their noses in the slats of the cradle and then growling at us- like they want him to come out and play! Charlie spends most of her time sleeping, so I'm not sure what she thinks of him still.

we should buy stock in Pampers.

Brecken hasn't even been home a week and we already had to empty the diaper genie. MAN, that kid goes through diapers like there's no tomorrow. The fortifier packets are all gone though, so maybe drinking regular milk will help with that problem. And his belly button FINALLY fell off last night, (now we can give him a real bath!!) so maybe he won't leak through his diapers so much anymore because now we can pull them up all the way. That will help with the wet jammie problem. :) He's been getting on his own schedule to eat since sometimes he's STARVING after 2 hours instead of 3 hours. I'm not going to make him wait an hour just to keep him on schedule, that would be mean! He's also eating a lot more now- he can eat 70 ml's instead of 60 sometimes. Last night he ate 70 at 9:00 p.m., 70 at 11:30 p.m., 60 at 1:45 a.m., and 70 at 6:00 a.m., I believe. He's hungry sometimes after 2 hours, sometimes after 4 hours. I guess it all averages out to 3 hours. :)

The dogs were so excited to get home on Friday. They've been really good with Brecken, too. Birdie likes to kiss Brecken on the head and Hogan likes to know what's going on, but after that, they leave him alone. They've only gotten up once with me to feed him in the night, too. When they came in on Friday, Brecken was in the cradle in the living room. They both could smell a new smell right away, and figured out it was in the cradle. They stuck their noses through the slats- it was pretty cute. Then Hogan discovered he could put his head over the cradle and see the baby up close. They haven't bothered him though- they've been really good with him!

Josh's team lost on Friday. :( They played Burns and lost 28-6 or something like that. Now Burns HAS to beat Southeast and Saratoga has to beat Pine Bluffs if they want to be in the playoffs. That's the only way it will happen now. Josh is pretty nervous. I just became a Burns fan so they'll beat Southeast. :)

Being home sure is nice!! We've already been on a couple outings- one to see Josh at school during lunch, and last night we went to the head coach's house for dinner with the other coaches and their families.

Nights are getting better too. We have to work on our swaddling technique- if Brecken gets his hands out of the blanket he will wake up. That happened several times the first two nights home. Last night we must have done a better job because he only woke up to eat. We also have to work on our diaper technique. The first night, Brecken peed through 3 sets of jammies and 4 blankets. The second night he peed through 2 jammies and 2 blankets. Last night, he got to wear the same set of jammies and the same blanket all night long, so we must have done a better job at securing those diapers! :)

This afternoon we're going to Brecken's first football game- Saratoga vs. Burns. Josh's mom is coming this afternoon, his brother Jeff is coming this evening, and Josh's dad is coming on Sunday. Jeff has never met Brecken so it'll be exciting! I'm also super excited for Lennie to bring my dogs back to me. I miss them! It's so quiet in the house without them!

Here's picture of my little guy with no tubes or wires!!

we're FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NO MORE HOSPITALS!!!!!!!!!!! BRECKEN GETS TO GO HOME!!!! The pediatrician released him from the hospital this morning. WHOO-HOO! I'm so excited. I haven't gotten very far yet since I don't have my own car here in Laramie. My brother-in-law David is on a business trip this week though, and I have his car to drive around, so we got as far as my sister Kristen's house. (I had my car seat here and used my nephew Ryan's base that is in David's car.) Josh will come get me after work tonight. Then we'll be home for real. YAY!!!!!

I also had my doctor's appointment this afternoon, my 2-week post-c-section check up. I'm within 10 pounds of my original weight, and I'm excited about that! My incision healed great. And the nurse saw Brecken and gasped, then said, "He looks like Josh!!" She couldn't get over how much the little guy looks like his daddy. No mistaking who this kid belongs to! :)

Come on, clock, hurry up! I want to go home!!!

Here he is, my beautiful little boy!!

Nothing TOO too exciting to report today, besides Brecken getting to have visitors. He got to come to a hospital room where they let us stay during the day with us today. That meant his 3 month old cousin Ryan got to visit and they got to meet for the very first time. They had matching football outfits on, it was pretty cute. He also got to meet Josh's Uncle Bryan and Aunt Anne this afternoon. It was nice to have him in our own room. He's off all his monitors and oxygen so we got to pick him up and walk wherever we wanted with him! That is a nice feeling.

His last bottle of the day got eaten all by him too. It took FOREVER but he was a trooper and did it. Daddy was a trooper and got him to finish it too.

Kara

in laramie

Well, here we are in Laramie. Yesterday morning we got Brecken loaded up in the ambulance isolet (he looked so cute in real clothes! An outfit daddy picked out for him.) and got out of Denver about 9:30 or so. We got here just in time for him to eat lunch. Brecken was a great rider- slept the whole time! He was a good eater in Laramie, too- 40 ml at noon, 32 ml at 3:00, 50 ml at 6:00, and Daddy got here just in time to feed him his 9:00 bottle, where he ate 46 ml. He must have a stomach irritation though, he keeps puking. One time was projectile. Gross. I'm wondering if it's the fortifier they put in his milk to give it more calories to gain more weight.

We saw the doctor yesterday too. I asked him why Brecken can't be like the other babies, eating what they can when they're hungry, instead of this 58 ml every 3 hours thing. He said we have to make sure Brecken knows how to eat well enough to gain weight. He's a half ounce away from hitting his birth weight again, so maybe it won't be TOO long before we can finally go home!!

They took his oxygen off yesterday too! Surprised all of us since Laramie is at such a high elevation! But when we left the hospital last night he had been off it for 5, almost 6 hours and was doing great! Hopefully they were able to leave it off overnight.

He also had to have a new feeding tube put down his nose- somehow, the one he had fell out. Hopefully, we won't need that for long either.

It snowed here in Laramie! Good thing Josh was able to make it over for the weekend. His football team won! Against Southeast! The score was 20-8. HOORAY!

Kara

we're moving again!

Brecken ate all 58 ml's of his bottle this morning. Hooray! Then he was scheduled for an echocardiogram (news to us...) to see if the heart murmur they've been hearing is a "real" one or what they call a PPS one, which will go away on it's own. The person that did the echo said it was the PPS one and not a "real" one. So that's good. Of course, it was scheduled during his feeding time so we missed his window of opportunity and he only ate 15 ml's. Frustrating. And that was after we had a visit from the child developmentalist who came to visit, I think our nurse told her to visit with us since we were *heaven forbid* feeding Brecken in bed sometimes to help him stay awake. She then proceeded to stand over Brecken and analyze every movement he made, like after he was unswaddled, he streches, and she said that wasn't stretching, it was "searching for his boundaries". Whatever, lady. After you were all bundled up and you couldn't move, wouldn't you want to stretch, too?

And I'm less than impressed with our nurse today. I pumped some milk at 11:00 this morning and I could not find her again until 1:00. She said the milk was still OK, but I'm not too sure. She did pop in at 12 to give us Brecken's milk for his feeding, but she just put it on the counter and left and with the developmentalist and the echo going on and on, I couldn't give her the milk I pumped. She hasn't been too helpful.

The GOOD news is though, we get to transfer! We're pretty sure we're transfering to Laramie, but it might be Cheyenne. Last I knew, they were checking with Laramie to see if they could handle a baby with oxygen and a feeding tube. I'm pretty sure they can since they were talking about a feeding tube while we were there the first time. While the developmentalist was jabbering at us, I heard the nurse pick up the phone and go get the nurse practitioner because a Dr. DeHart was calling, so I wonder what was said. We haven't heard an update. But I know we get to go, because Josh called our insurance company this morning and asked if we could, and they said, "Sure. We cover up to $1000 for ambulance rides so just tell them where you want to go and we'll get you there!" HOORAY! It would be so much better for us to be in Laramie, because Josh has to go back to work tomorrow. So being in Laramie would be much, much more convienient. I don't know if we'll get to go this afternoon or tomorrow, but it's going to happen! Yay! If we go tomorrow, I'll just ride in the ambulance with Brecken.

The insurance also said they cover 100% of Flight for Life trips, so that is excellent!!

So that's the news for today. I'll keep you posted about moving.

Kara, Josh, and Brecken

another new record!

Almost a full bottle!! Brecken just ate 53 ml's out of 58. (They upped his feedings again and are putting some vitamins in my milk to try to boost his weight a little- he's at 6 lbs 3.5 oz right now.) WHOO-HOO! Another new record! We tried the naked in bed thing again and it seemed to work! He's pooped from it but he stayed awake for about a half our after he was done. He was just sucking on his binkie and looking at us. He spit out his binkie a few times, but one of those times he grabbed it with his hand and put it back in his mouth! Don't know how he managed to do that!

The nurse wasn't going to even tube feed him the rest of his feeding, he only missed out on 5 ml's. I think we'll tube feed him at 6:00 to give him another break (the nurse said he slept right through the noon hour) and try again at 9. If he does this good every other feeding, that's great. Then tomorrow we can start adding more feedings in with his bottle.

I keep forgetting to say that he had his hearing test the other day and passed. That's good. :)

what a trooper.

We decided last night that we want to put in for a transfer back to Laramie since Brecken's only real problem is his eating now. That way, Josh could go back to work and I could stay in Laramie and it's much closer to home and I can stay with my sister. She said she'll go call the people she needs to call and let us know. It will be up to the insurance people, if they think they'll be saving money or not. She said they'll ask her best guess on how long we'll be in the hospital still and she said her BEST guess is one more week. Obviously it's up to Brecken but that's what she's guessing. So if the insurance thinks it's in their best interest, we'll get to transfer. If not, we're stuck here.

Brecken was a trooper this morning. Overnight, not so good on feedings. He only ate 2ml's at 6:00 this morning. But when we fed him at 9:00, he ate 45! WHOO-HOO!! Best ever! He only had to eat 10 in his tube. He's going to get it all in his tube at noon since this morning really tuckered him out. The nurse said he wouldn't do anything probably at noon, so best to give him a rest and try again at 3. Josh and I are going out for lunch outside the hospital, we figured if he's eating through his tube at noon it's a good time to go out. We don't want to miss any awake time if we don't have to, but he'll be sleeping through his noon feeding.

During his 9:00 feeding, he didn't start out so well. He fell asleep after 15 ml's. He had made a mess in his new diaper though, so we undressed him to change his diaper and change his jammies. He ate the rest of that while laying in his bed with only his diaper on. So maybe he needs to be a naked eater to eat so much! :) We'll try it again at 3:00- sure doesn't hurt!

hurry up and wait.

Still a slow day- we switched to the VentAir bottles at lunch to see if that would help. His other nipples seemed to be a little too fast and overwhelming. Plus, when he stopped sucking, it kept going in his mouth and he ended up wearing a lot of milk. These new bottles seem to help him control his intake better. The most he's had on his own though is 25 ml today. That's out of 55. Almost halfway there. Some day, he might realize how to eat the whole thing, since that's what he has to do in order to go home! The hurry up and wait is really trying my patience.

They started the check-out process with us today though. We had to watch 3 videos- one on carseats, one on oxygen at home, and one on CPR. We have to watch them before we go home, and I've seen several sets of parents have to wait around for forever before they go home after being told they get to, just to watch the videos. So I'm glad we got those out of the way. That will save an hour or two on the real check-out day, whenever that will be. We were also told we could get our carseat check done any time- we just have to bring the carseat up, put Brecken in it, and for 30 minutes they make sure his breathing is good and stuff. We didn't want to go out to the car to get that today but we'll bring it in with us tomorrow morning when we get here.

not too much new

We just saw the doctor, not much new from yesterday. He took 30% of his milk orally yesterday. It would've been more but his nurse last night put two of his feedings down his tube and only one with the bottle, and he hate 44 mls with that one! Hooray for the 3:00 a.m. feeding!! His 9:00 one this morning wasn't AS good but still not too bad- he took 27 out of 60 mls. He just gets so worn out from eating. I wish he'd wake up a little so we could be on our way!!

Well, Brecken had a pretty good weekend. He was weaned a lot from oxygen, he's down to 25 ml of oxygen in his nose tubes. As one nurse put it, it's "Barely a whif of air". :) They tried taking him off his oxygen today though and he didn't do that great- his numbers went down pretty low, into the 80%s, so they put him back on the oxygen. So as soon as he can prove he can do alright if he pulls the nose thing off his nose in the night (he's very good at doing that), that's one problem down.

His other problem is still eating. He was doing great at the bottle feeding by Saturday night I think it was, and then we started nursing again. I think we lost ground by doing that, because it was just too much work for him. This morning, I decided I wanted to concentrate on bottle feeding him my milk and getting him going on eating. He hasn't done so great today, he's a lazy eater! He stayed awake for over an hour this morning, a new record, but didn't eat much. When I fed him at lunch, he didn't eat a thing before he fell asleep. They had to put it all down his tube. So be praying hard for the "feeding fairy" to visit- the doctor and nurses keep telling us that it's like the lightbulb goes off in these kids and all of a sudden they start eating like pros. We're really, really hoping his feeding fairy will visit very very soon.

Other than that, he's a healthy little boy. He's got a heart murmer but the doctor today wasn't worried about it, she thinks it's going to disappear on it's own. We'll just keep an eye on it. So as soon as he can be OK without oxygen for an hour, and eat like a champ, we'll be headed home. MAYBE at the end of the week, they are now telling us. Keep your fingers crossed. Four babies got sent home between yesterday and today, so we're hoping it's our turn soon.

Love,
Josh, Kara and Brecken

moved

Lots of moving yesterday! Brecken's x-ray came back perfect- no more air bubble around his chest at all. That's great news! At 5:00, he got moved to the Infant Care Center, where the healthier babies are. We're relieved about that. The nurses here are fantastic. As soon as a beep goes off on a baby's monitor, they are right there finding out what is wrong. He finally got the hang of eating last night about 9:00. We figured out that he will not wake up enough to eat unless we change his diaper and get some cold air moving down there. Then he'll wake up enough to chug his bottle instead of take an hour to get half of it down!

Josh and I also moved yesterday. A room at the Ronald McDonald house opened up so we moved over there. It's right across the street from the hospital. It's lots different than I pictured it, it's much like a hotel. Our room is big, it has 2 double beds, a tv, a nice dresser and mirror, and it's own bathroom. Hooray! No more walking down a long hallway to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night! :) And it's really cheap which is nice, only $15 a day and we get to stay there until Brecken comes home. The sleep room at the hospital was a day-by-day thing, we never knew if we could have it the next night. So the assurance that we have somewhere to stay for sure is nice.

This morning we got to the hospital and the nurse asked if I wanted to start nursing. Of course I did! It's quite a process, we have to change his diaper, then turn off his monitors for a few minutes, then unhook all his tubes, then put him on a scale to see how much he weighed at that moment, then hook everything up, then he can be passed over to me. He latched on right away but doesn't have much interest in eating at this time. He likes snuggling much more. He's a great snuggler. After eating, we're supposed to weigh him again to see how much he ate, but he hasn't eaten enough to ever bother weighing him again. So he gets fed in his tube. I asked why we can't do the rest in his bottle to practice sucking and the nurse said it takes too much energy to nurse and take a bottle and he needs to conserve energy. That makes sense. So his next feeding, we'll do a bottle instead to make sure he can maintain eating that way. It's all my milk so it really doesn't matter how he gets it.

The doctor came to visit him today and he said Brecken is doing great and he hopes we can go home by the middle of next week. Brecken will probably go home on oxygen, but we can deal with that. He has to keep getting his oxygen lowered (which is going really well, he's maintaining 100% oxygen levels in his body and his intake gets turned down every hour!) and prove that he can be OK if he pulls out his oxygen tube from his nose in the middle of the night when we can't notice it, and he has to get his feedings up. Then we can go home. Right now, we're increasing his feedings by 4 ml every 3 hours. His last feeding we were at 17 ml, and we have an ending goal of 40 ml. Hopefully that won't take too long!

The family with the baby next to us in the NICU has a rough day today. They are taking the baby off his life support today. He was born on Wednesday and never got any better. Josh had talked to the dad a little bit. Keep that family in your thoughts since they had such a rough day today. That's any parent's nightmare and I can't imagine having to make that decision.

So that's the update for today- we'll keep you posted in what happens!

Just a quick update for the afternoon, not much has changed. Brecken got fed by Daddy and took about half the bottle, the other half had to be put down his tube. He'll be getting a chest x-ray this afternoon sometime to see how the air bubble around his lung is, and if it's doing alright without that chest tube being in, he'll probably get moved down the hall. Hooray!

We got asked to be in some photographs the hospital is doing for a calendar- we got our first professional family pictures taken. :) I guess Children's is putting together a day planner type calendar and it will have pictures of the kids here in the hospital. So we got our picture taken with Brecken in his bed while we're looking at him. That was pretty neat. We'll get a copy of the calendar mailed to us and of course Brecken's grandmas are wondering where they get to buy their copies.

Other than that, not much new. Brecken's had a stable morning and is sleeping sometimes, awake other times. He's now been held by both parents so we're happy about that.

Later gators,
Josh, Kara, and Brecken

more good news

Things are improving all the time here with Brecken. Last night, we got to feed Brecken his bottle. I did half, Josh did the other half. He was still in his bed because of the chest tube, but it was nice to get to feed him ourselves. The nurse had to turn off his heat on his bed though, since he was so nice and cozy he wouldn't wake up to eat. Once he got a little chillier, he woke up and was awake for a long time! Everyone got to see his eyeballs. What was really special was when I was all alone with him for about 20 minutes, and he just stared and stared at me. We chatted for a long time about how he was going to love going home and meeting his puppies, and seeing his room, and seeing Daddy's football games. He just stared and listened. He loves to hold hands too, so that was fun.

This morning Josh and I got downstairs just in time for the doctor to visit, after a quick chat with the nurse. She said twice overnight, Brecken's heart rate went way down but self-corrected and they don't know why it did it. Hopefully his heart will quit that, because it scares me! Anyway, small world- the doctor is from Gillette and graduated 7 years ahead of me. Crazy that your child's doctor at Denver Children's Hospital went to the same high school as you! Anyway, she came to take the chest tube out. Thank goodness! He's still hooked up to dozens of wires, but I was able to hold him and feed him a bottle. He wasn't interested in the bottle much, he was too busy playing with it with his hands. He wasn't interested overnight either, I guess, because they put a tube down his nose to feed him. We ended up having to go that route for his breakfast. But we got to rock and chit-chat for quite a while this morning. I feel bad for Josh, he still hasn't held him yet. If Brecken didn't have so many wires, I would've traded spaces with him in a heartbeat, but we were afraid to move him with all the wires! So the next time we go up, Josh will get to hold him. We're just taking a quick break for breakfast right now.

The even better news is that Brecken will be moving "down the hall" sometime today. That means he'll be out of the NICU he's in and into the "step down" nursery. If he does great there, we'll be on our way home soon! That is a big sigh of relief!

Thanks again for all your good thoughts being sent our way- they are working and we are thanking each of you from here in Denver.

Love,
Josh, Kara, and Brecken

what a great day!!

WOW, Brecken had a great afternoon! We left him around 10:30 and went outside the hospital for a change. We ran to Target to get some supplies (since we didn't know we'd be spending time in Denver this week!) like shampoo and stuff, then ate lunch outside the hospital with my mom, dad, and Josh's mom. We were pulling into the hospital parking garage and Brecken's nurse called. My heart stopped for a minute, until she said, "He's OK! We just wanted to see when you'd be back to talk to the lactation consultant." WHEW! So I went straight there and oh, my gol. I had to check to make sure I was visiting the right baby! He no longer has his big ol' machine in his nose, his hat was off, he only has a little oxygen tube in his nose, and he was laying on his back again. I hardly recognized him!! The nurse came and told me he was able to breathe pretty good now so they took the big machine off and just put a nose tube in. Because of that, his eye swelling is much less now. They also did not put another chest tube in as planned. They'll see if getting that big machine out of his nose helps any. He hasn't had any pain meds today so that's great too! They did change his IV- his hand was getting sore so they put it in his head. Owie. But he doesn't seem to mind.

They ALSO told me that they were ready to start feedings this afternoon. So I pumped and prayed and what do you know- I got a full feeding for him! I was really hoping that would happen so they didn't have to start his feedings with formula! He's allowed 10 ml every 4 hours. I didn't get to feed him but I did get to change his diaper. The nurse fed him and it took him a while to get the hang of swallowing with a bottle but he finally got his 10 ml down. What a great boy!! I was so excited. As soon as his chest tube comes out, we can hold him and I can feed him myself instead of with a bottle, if he'll take it. Hooray! The nurse was talking like that might happen tomorrow because she was talking about getting Brecken dressed as soon as that tube comes out, too. So be praying that happens sooner than later!

So, a great afternoon! Hopefully tonight and tomorrow will bring more good news!

Love,
Josh, Kara and Brecken

We went to see Brecken before we went to bed last night and had a great nurse. She explained everything to us, kept his blood pressure cuff on his stuffed cow that we brought down for him, and was just really neat.

Brecken had a pretty good day yesterday. They tested him for infection and he didn't have any, so they stopped antibiotics. They were also able to bring his oxygen level that was being given to him down from 38% to 35% when we left. His poor little eyes are super swollen from his nose thing that he has in. It's like the mask that people with sleep apnea have, but it's the tiny baby version. It's really doing a number on his face. But the nurse let me wash his eyes and mouth and change his diaper, so that was super exciting for me. They also put in an OG tube yesterday to let the overflow of oxygen back out of his stomach. He's spending a lot of time laying on his belly to try to get the air bubble out of around his lung.

This morning we went in before breakfast and found he had a pretty good night! His oxygen level being pumped in is now down to 25%!! Hooray! Normal air that we breathe is 21%, so he's almost there! They did another x-ray though and found that the chest tube isn't quite getting all that air out, so they'll either put another tube in this morning, or re-do the one that's already in there. Hopefully if they can get that all cleared up, he'll be on the road to recovery super fast. From the NICU, he'll go to the "Step-down" nursery to see if he can handle everything on his own before coming home. We're very encouraged by the 25% oxygen though, that's great. It's great to know he can keep his breathing pretty good with that little help.

Also today they started a nutrient IV. It will give him vitamins and stuff he needs since he hasn't eaten anything yet in his short little life. He's only been on glucose since he has been born. Hopefully soon my milk will come in and I can get that pumped and they'll feed it to him. They have a nice mommy pumping room for me to use whenever I want and they gave (we'll probably find it in our bill later!) a nice Medela Symphony pump I just hook up to their motors. They are super accomodating here, I really appreciate that! The room Josh and I are staying in is on the 3rd floor. It's just a room with a bed, but that's all we need and it's only $1/day. :) Hopefully soon we can get into the Ronald McDonald house and start staying there for the rest of our duration.

Thanks for your emails, it's nice to hear from people we know and love. It lifts my spirits for sure, as I'm sure it does Josh's as well. Keep them coming and we'll keep this webpage updated as much as possible!!

Love,
Josh, Kara and Brecken

it's a boy!

I'll post a birth story when we get home and things settle down, but I want to use this site right now for info regarding our little guy, Brecken Levi. We are now at Denver Children's Hospital with him, he was flown in the Flight for Life down here from Laramie last night. Josh came with him, which I am grateful for! I got released from the hospital this morning, one day early, so I could be here too. My mom came down from Gillette last night just in time to meet Brecken before he was put on the airplane. So she drove me down today and Josh's mom came also. My dad is on his way and should be here any time.

Brecken will be OK. His official diagnosis is TTN, which means the fluid that is in a baby's lungs while in utero is supposed to be absorbed by the body during the first big cry after birth, and his wasn't. It was stuck in his lungs. He also has immature lungs due to being born early. His breathing was scary in Laramie yesterday- about 130 breaths a minute, they were pumping 60% oxygen in him at all times, (that's too high!) and his chest would really cave in at each breath. I asked if I could hold him for the first time ever before they put him on the plane but he only tolerated being without his oxygen for 10 seconds. So my little boy is 2 days old and I've only held him for 10 seconds. He was under a breathing thing I called his Tupperware bowl, as you saw in a lot of the pictures my sister sent out.

Today however, he is much more calm. He's not grunting all the time to work at breathing, his breathing is down to about 45 breaths a minute which is fabulous, his own oxygen level is in the high 90%s which is also fabulous, and the oxygen they have him on is only 38%. MUCH improved from yesterday. He's also sleeping finally, he's not having to work so hard to breathe so he can sleep. I haven't seen his eyes yet today, in fact! They're about to do some x-rays on him to see how things are. Right now, he has a feeding tube in him because he cannot suck and breathe at the same time. I'm pumping for him, but my milk hasn't come in yet. Hopefully soon. He also has a chest tube since an x-ray this morning showed an air pocket around one of his lungs. They got that deflated and his breathing is SO MUCH BETTER.

Like I said, he's in the Denver Children's Hospital NICU and will be for a week or so. Josh and I are staying here at the hospital for a couple nights and then we'll go from there. Our families are going to find a hotel.

We'll keep in touch through this website- feel free to email us!!! I'd love to hear from everyone.

Love,
Josh, Kara, and Brecken

we have a birth date!

We have an end in sight. We went to the doctor yesterday and ended up scheduling a c-section for Friday, September 29. My placenta hasn't moved any, it's still right on the edge of the cervix. We could try a natural delivery, but then when Dr. Keeler did his cool color image thing, he found a bunch of blood vessels that he bets are covering the cervix, which is dangerous. Put that together with the fact that the baby is breech as breech can be, there's virtually no chance of having a natural birth! Dr. Keeler won't even try to turn the baby, for two reasons: One, with the placenta that low, there is no room for the baby's head down there. Two, if he tried turning the baby, all those blood vessels could rupture which would make it very dangerous for both of us. So, a c-section is the way to go. He wants to deliver about 10 days before my due date to lessen any risk of me going into labor. So Josh and I will go over that Thursday night and have our last quiet meal together and stay in a hotel for our last night as just me and him before we bring something noisy back home with us. :) It will work out nice with the dogs, too. We can drop them off Thurs. afternoon at the kennel and then go pick them up Monday morning. Dr. Keeler said I'd be home by Sunday night.

The baby looks good though- heartbeat was 146, he was moving around a LOT, and his estimated size is still only in the 40th percentile, but he's at about 5 1/2 pounds according to the ultrasound. My belly, however, is measuring two weeks ahead! Dr. Keeler had to measure again to make sure. But yep, it's measuring at 37 weeks and I just hit 35 on Monday!! I also gained 5 more pounds in the past two weeks. Oops. :) I'm up to 155 now- 33 pounds heavier than when I started.

Our dog Hogan is hurt- he has a big gash on his side. He got it yesterday sometime. I think the dogs must have been wrestling and he got caught on something. He whined a little last night, but I think he had bumped it and it hurt. He lets me touch it with a cool paper towel though, and it's not bleeding. But it's about the size of a quarter so Josh is calling the vets in Rawlins today to see if I can bring him in after school because we think it might need stitched up. Poor dog. He's walking fine and acting fine, so I don't think it hurts, unless he accidentally bumps it.

a nice, quiet weekend

Josh went home to Lingle this weekend to play in a tournament with his dad and Uncle Bryan, which he does every year on Labor Day weekend. I decided that riding in the car for that long just didn't sound like any sort of fun for me, at 35 weeks pregnant, so I opted to stay home with the dogs and cat. It's been very relaxing. I got very worn out at school last week, so it's been nice to sleep in, take a nap when I want, etc. I've got a tiny bit of housework done, too. Not nearly enough, but it's a start until Josh can get home to help me. I have a load of baby sheets and stuff in the washer right now, then will start with our adult laundry. I really am wanting this house to be totally cleaned before the baby comes. Hopefully we can get that accomplished. I get super exhausted doing it though. Even this morning, just getting the jammies that are too big for now put into the dresser in the baby's closet, and clearing some things out of the closet to make room for the baby things, wore me out. Phew!

I'm looking extremely lovely today, in Josh's athletic shorts and one of his sweatshirts. They are a lot more comfortable than my own clothes! Too bad I can't go out in public looking like I am. :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend!