February

Let's start with February...

February 1st Bryson turned 4m old.
He was wearing 6-9m clothes already.
He was still VERY blond. His eyes were still VERY blue.
February was difficult...

February 1st Bryson's very best friend Aidan Christopher was born at 28w4d due to incompetent umbilical cord. Sweet little Aidan fought the fight of fights for 8 days. He was so tough. But on February 9th, his mama and dada let him go home to the Lord. He was so ill and just wasn't making any progress despite all the medical treatments. On February 12th, we made the 6 hour drive to Indianapolis for sweet Aidan's funeral. It was so sad...I'm not going to go into great detail here to protect the privacy of Aidan's mom & dad. But let me just say, Aidan had the BIGGEST feet of any baby I've seen and he had the sweetest little nose. It was just a tiny little button nose :-)

Sweet Aidan, we think of you ever day. Bryson loves his gift from you--Goodnight Moon--and we read it each night before we go to bed.
We love you little Angel.

That's all for now...

I've been a HORRIBLE Blogger

I decided to start this up again...again. I really wanted to document Bryson's first year of life here, but in all honesty, I just don't have the time to blog daily like i'd hoped.

He turned 9m old yesterday...9m. He has officially been out as long as he was in. That's kind of a weird milestone for me.

Let's see...9 months old...
he'd crawling
pulling up
eating finger foods--by himself
FINALLY holding his own bottles
Has 4 teeth--2 top, 2 bottom
NOT sleeping through the night anymore
Says "mom" although it doesn't "mean" anything yet

He is such a good baby. He makes me so happy every day. I can't believe I am the mama of a 9 month old.

A lot has happened over the past...7 months...I need to blog about things from the past. But today, let's just start there. Baby steps, baby steps.

Alright, said 9m old is having a moment, so I must close already...I promise, I'll be back :-)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas :-)

Here's a sneaky peak of our Christmas pictures and Bryson's 2m pictures! He did a GREAT job and so did Nikki at JCPenny! I'll tell ya, I couldn't be happier with these pictures. There are LOTS more, but I'm only going to post a few. Please comment and leave your email if you'd like to view the rest. I can link you the website and access code.
















The same afternoon that we had pictures, we also had Bryson's 2m appt. EW! I hate taking him in for vaccines. It makes me sooo sad to see him in pain. And I think it doesn't help b/c I have to hold him down for it. BUT, I also know that it's important that he get these shots so he doesn't get sick. That's what I keep telling myself at least. I can't believe that my little chunker weighs 12lbs 13oz and is 23.5in long! He's a growing boy for sure! The pedi said everything is looking great. He was also glad to hear that the Zantac was helping his reflux significantly and is pretty sure that he's going to grow out of it eventually. Boy wouldn't that be nice!!! We don't go back to the dr. until 4m unless he is sick. So here's hoping we don't have to go back before then!

I also worked this past weekend w/o any tears at all. That first week back was SO difficult and I cried a LOT. Now, it's not bad and I"m back into my routine. I also know that it's good for Dave to spend time with Bryson just the two of them so that helps a lot :-) Oh, and we had another first this weekend! Saturday night Bryson stayed the night with Grandma & Grandpa while Dave and I went to his Christmas party at Fox & The Hound. We had a great time and so did Bryson. I was surprised I made it the whole night and didn't go pick him up when we left at 10:30 but it was just so nice to get a long uninterrupted sleep. We didn't wake up until 9:30 on Sunday! It was awesome!

Well, I'm going to finish putting up some decorations for Christmas and start getting stuff together to go to mom's this afternoon. We're baking Christmas cookies :-) YUMMMY!

Back to work

So I started back to work on Saturday night...It was horrible. I cried really really really hard for about 3 hours before I left and for the first two hours of my shift. Then I was okay.

I think part of my issue with going back was everything was unfamiliar. My hospital closed and they built a BRAND NEW state of the art hospital in it's place. Well, I went on BR and maternity leave before the "big move" so I never got my orientation/training in there. So leaving Bryson on Saturday was hard enough and then to couple it with going to an unfamiliar environment didn't help things a bit. Then of course...who decides to show her UGLY face Saturday while I'm working in my nice crispy white scrubs...yes, Aunt Flo (AF for short). I kid you not, I think I'm slowly bleeding to death. At least I don't have cramps :)

Sunday night at work went better--I still cried though--but certainly not for the 1st two hours of my shift. This time it only lasted until a total of 30 minutes. Then I was fine for the rest of the evening. Although in hindsight, I think a lot of my issues were hormonal b/c of AF coming along.

Monday was tough though. I got home at 7:45am, changed and was on "baby duty" all day long by myself. Yes folks, that means I woke up at 3pm on Sunday afternoon and didn't get to sleep until 10:30pm on Monday night. I was EXHAUSTED when David got home from work. I fell asleep almost immediately after he took the baby out of my arms. Unfortunately my plans to "nap" while Bryson napped were spoiled by the fact that Bryson chose not to nap at all--unless of course it was in my arms. Yeah--that needs to stop--at least on Mondays.

So today is a good day--besides slowly bleeding to death--I'm in a good mood and only a little sleepy! PLUS--my new microwave is being installed tonight. Yep, that's right, I'm FINALLY getting my over the range microwave :)

Well, there is a basket of laundry waiting for attention and a certain brown and white puppy dog that is wanting his mommy to pet him. So I must depart...but not before including a recent picture of my beautiful baby boy :)



Bryson hanging out in his Nursery. He is such a big boy!!

REFLUX SUCKS

Let me start by saying that I feel like the worst mom in the world for not picking up on my son's reflux a month ago. After the pedi appointment on Wednesday, I was thinking back and he's had signs for a MONTH. Yes folks, a month. First big mommy FAIL!

I took him in on Wednesday because Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday all he did was SCREAM. Not fuss, not cry, but scream...you know, that scream that says "mommy make it stop." When in fact, I had no idea what was making him do this. I finally resorted to tylenol and he slept like a rock Tuesday night--partly b/c of the Tylenol and the other part because of pure exhaustion I'm sure. The doctor checked his ears, belly, did blood work to look for an elevated white count (which would indeed mean infection) and everything was normal. Then we just started talking about Bryson and his habits and the way he "does" things...and it then hit me like a ton of bricks...my kid has reflux.

So 2 hours later with a $90 bottle of liquid Pepcid in hand, I take my screaming baby home and dose him. I have to say, he slept GREAT Wednesday night--like 10 hours. I thought we were home free. Then yesterday (Thursday) he did nothing but throw up...no not spit up...I mean puke. Full out tongue hanging out, gagging, choking acid coming up puking. It was even running out his nose. At some point he would just open his mouth and it would pour out. As Blair put it, it's like the exorcist, but milk-colored. I cried...I cried really really hard. At one point last evening nothing was coming out but he was choking on the acids in his throat...so for fear that laying him down would kill him, I called the answering service. The doctor on call was fantastic. She made me feel like I was a good mommy for noticing something wasn't right and doing something about it. So, the conclusion was, stop giving him pepcid (sounds like a reaction to it) and call his pedi in the morning.

So finally after the pepcid was out of his system (it had been over 12 hours since he'd had a dose) the kid was SUPER smiley and happy and playing and had no more puking. When I called the doctor this morning, they were SHOCKED. So we are changing medications--hopefully to Zantac--and my fingers are crossed that it works. I just want my baby to be better. I miss those smiles and laughs...

The worst part of all this is, I have to go back to work tomorrow night :( I know David is MORE than capable of taking care of our son, but it just makes me sad that his mommy can't be home to cuddle him. I'm the only one he's wanted since he started feeling icky this week. Oh well, it's only for 2 days and then we have 5 whole days together :)

2 months old

As I sit here and reflect on the past two months, I wonder where my newborn baby went. 2m ago, all Bryson knew how to do was eat, sleep, pee, poop. There was no awake time after his bottle, there was no play time...our life was simply survival of the fittest.
We were waking up to feed him every two hours, sometimes every hour all night long. We were taking advantage of EVERY second we had to clean, wash bottles, EAT, go to the bathroom, shower...everything BUT lay down and take a nap. There were days that we would just look at each other and say "I don't think I can do this much longer without any sleep." But we always did...and we always will. Seeing those big blue eyes look up at you, depending on you for everything instantly makes you forget how tired you are.
Once we got past "survival mode" things became fun. Bryson was awake for about 30 minutes between his bottle and his naps. We started playing patty cake and how big is baby once he could keep his eyes open for a little while. This was also about the time he started sleeping in much longer stretches. I finally felt human again because I could get in some cleaning and a short nap while he was sleeping.
Now we're in the really fun stage...Every single day Bryson is learning something new. He smiles now without you having to "tickle" him; he LOVES to hear music and smiles when you turn it on; he enjoys taking his bath and splashes his feet around while you wash him...I could go on and on. It's so nice that he's awake for 4 or 5 hours during the day. He usually wakes up around 7 and eats then cat naps til 9, plays til around 12:30, has a bottle then sleeps from 1-4 or5 and then is awake until around 9pm when he gets his bath, a bottle, a book, and bed.
Now don't get me wrong, even though things are "fun" now and we're past survival mode, there are still plenty of challenges that we face on a day to day basis. Right now we're struggling with eating. In fact, last night we introduced Rice Cereal (yes 2 months "early") because our poor little baby is just not getting full on formula anymore. Granted, he's only taking a couple spoonfuls right now but at least he's full. We also went against recommendations and are putting him on his belly to sleep. The poor little stinker was sooo tired all the time because he just wasn't sleeping well at night or during the day. One afternoon he fell asleep on his belly during "tummy time" and he slept for almost 6 hours. From that day on, he was a belly sleeper. In fact, he stopped waking up 3 and 4 times during the night after that--if he wakes up, it's only once and around 4am. He is such a big boy...I can't believe we have a 2 month old.
Well, I need a shower and I need to clean this house while the little dear naps (yes, we're napping early today because we chose to be awake all night long!!).
I promise to start updating more regularly...and with LOTS and LOTS of pictures!!


Happy 2month-day Bryson! Mommy and Daddy love you!

Pictures

Just minutes old

Mommy and Bryson

Daddy and Bryson

Getting ready to come home from the hospital