Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Ben Loves Singing

My first YouTube upload from my phone (or ever really...). Ignore my awful singing. In fact turn the volume off. The point is Ben loves it when I sing to him. I didn't want to subject you to the second verse, but that's when he begins to coo along.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Interpretive Dancin' Jackson

The other weekend, Jenny came into town to teach Jackson how to show his belly at dinner. We were treated by her family to a brunch at Georgia's Farm to Market on Dairy-Ashford and I-10, which had some live music. Jackson alternated between being fascinated with the music to sticking his fingers in his ears, but this interpretive dance definitely shows the music is moving him in a unique way.


This was the tail-end of a solid few minutes of his dancing. Is this the work of nature or is there something going on at the Montessori daycare?

Little Piggies

Ben is growing up very quickly, so to illustrate his growth, here's a close-up of his feet.

Jackson Makes Room

Tonight at dinner... (you need sound for this)
False alarm.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Zube Park and the Crazy Sprinkler

We have been wanting to take Jackson to Zube Park since he likes trains so much. At the park, there are mini-functioning trains you can ride once a month for free. There is also an area with tiny train tracks for little steam trains and other traditional park stuff. Grandma and Granddad MacGregor met up with us so they could see their grandsons after their long road trip to California (where they saw some of their other grandsons). Hopefully they will have some good pictures of us on the train ride.
Something about a grown man in overalls on a tiny train is entertaining.

Jackson was a good boy while we waited our turn.

This is what the trains look like.

Steam engine.

"Grumpy." Really, he was only grumpy half the time.

Mini-train. The train cars about about 8 inches tall and powered by steam.

Jackson wanted the pink train conductor's hat. At first we suggested the blue instead, but he
wouldn't budge and we didn't want to push gender roles on him.

Mini-train again.

Since Jackson had blackberry face, Rob took him outside to
try out his new crazy sprinkler.

He clung to this basketball (his current favorite sport) most of the time he played.


The sprinkler was a hit!

Totally crazy sprinkler = fun for Jackson and a watered yard for us. Win win.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Ben - 2 mo/12 weeks


Surprise surprise. We're late writing a 2 month post for Benjamin. Now he's over 12 weeks old, so this will be a combo post.

Ben did well at his 2 mo appointment. Here are his stats:

Height - 24.5 inches (88.81%)
Weight - 12 lbs 9 oz (60%)
Head - 16.14 inches (66.46%)

He's skinny for his length, but the doctor thought he looked great. He had his 2 mo shots and did well.

Ben-
You've finally hit the stage where you're not really a newborn anymore. You're alert, active, and quite the charmer. You are full of smiles unless Mommy takes out her camera. You can hold a coo-versation for an extended period of time now. You've also gone from the baby that insists on being held all the time to one that's happy on a blanket staring at your stuffed animals or swinging at hanging toys. You have great use of your hands for your age and you recently started kicking. Your personality is coming out more and more every day. Just like your Mommy, you are pretty patient to a point. When you want/need something you'll deal with it for pretty long. But, when you're done waiting...you are done waiting. You let everyone know it. But, you are also a sweet, happy, cuddly little boy.

Your brother loves you so much! Although it's very cute, sometimes it's a little much. This morning, while Mommy was nursing you, Jackson insisted on climbing into a non-existent space between her and the arm of the couch and wanted to hold you. Since he was about to leave for school Mommy indulged him and he was happy as could be with you in his lap. He kept saying, toes. Apparently he really likes your toys - but who wouldn't?

To start with, here is a picture that compares Jackson and Ben at the same age. Then, there are some pictures of Ben. Mommy only had a minute and you didn't feel like smiling, so she will have to take a few more later.










Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Jackson's 2 Year Well Check

Jackson does not like doctors or nurses. When we were at the hospital with Ben, Jackson came to visit. When a doctor or nurse would want into the room he would grab the closest parent and clutch on to them for dear life whimpering. When Ben had his 2 mo appointment with Dr. Gonzalez I warned him that Jackson was still anti-doctor.

We started off with Jackson wanting to touch EVERYTHING in the waiting room. Blah. He even put his mouth on one of the fun house mirrors. After that he was not allowed to leave my lap. When it was our turn, he would not get on the scale. Not a good start. Finally the nurse said we could do it in the room and use the baby scale. She did a great job with him and was able to get him to cooperate for everything. Whew! Dr. Gonzalez wasn't quite as lucky since Jackson did not want to open his mouth and did not want anything near his ears. He must still remember all those ear infections! He also had one shot (Mommy was wrong. I thought he didn't have any more until 4 yr old.) and did really well with it. He's scared of a stethoscope, but not a shot. Go figure.

Here are his stats:
Weight - 31 lbs 12.8 oz (87.13%)
Height - 3 feet .5 inches (92.3%)
Head - 20.47 inches (99%)

He didn't quite gain two pounds over the past year. Crazy that he gained so little weight and is still in the 87%.
All in all the doctor didn't see any issues and thought he looked great. His next well check is in 6 mo.

Jackson's 2 Year Photos

We started Jackson's 2nd Year Photos, but haven't had a chance to finish yet. Here are some of them from the first location/outfit. It was fun and colorful! This was his first time to have candy, too.















My Little Gets Down



 

Two weeks and two days after two years

We finally finished Jackson's 2 year post. It's here, since we saved it on his actual birthday to finish later. If you don't want to read all of the sappy stuff, you can scroll down for pictures from his two years.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

And On That Farm There Was...

Jackson's bedtime routine includes some singing. Usually Daddy sings with Jackson after Mommy reads to him. Tonight, Mommy was singing with Jackson. When he sings Old MacDonald he always beings with sheep and he will throw out random people and things. Usually his teachers from school are on the farm and they usually say, "Sit down, please." It's always his favorite people that are on the farm. Tonight Jackson was on the farm. As we were singing I was curious as to what Jackson was going to say, since it's usually what the person does or says the most.
Jackson said, "I love dada."

Very sweet...

Our Baby?

Inspired by Rory I decided to morph us to see what our child is supposed to look like. Not quite Jackson or Ben and boy does that kid have some interesting hair!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

You Did What With my Breastmilk?

I received a call from Texas Children's on Tuesday. The person started by asking me how Ben was doing. I thought, how sweet. They are giving us a call to follow-up and make sure Ben is doing well. Then, she revealed her true reason for calling.

While we were in the hospital and Ben wasn't eating well, I was pumping to make sure that I maintained my milk supply. Apparently, when we were discharged they failed to give us all of my expressed milk. Then, they fed it to another baby. It may not seem like a huge deal (other than the gross factor), but it could be potentially deadly for the infant if I had certain medical issues. While I know that I am clean and do not have hepatitis, HIV, etc, I can only image how freaked out the other mother. She is sitting there wondering if her child was exposed to something that can kill him/her because someone at the hospital wasn't careful and didn't check a label.

This whole incident has reaffirmed my concern with the new Texas Children's Hospital location. Poor Ben has been there twice (once for jaundice) and we had major anxiety during the first visit not feeling that everyone was trained and as well prepared as they should have been.

This visit was a little better, as far as we know. Of course there were random things that annoyed us like the lady wanting to turn all the lights on in the middle of the night to check Ben's blood pressure or the fact they made us move rooms at 2am so they could work on the A/C. Really? You can't schedule that when the room isn't in use. There are plenty of open rooms. Now that we know about the milk mix, up, it leaves me hoping that they gave Ben the correct medicine in his IV each time and didn't do anything else that could jeopardize his health. It's bad enough worrying about your baby when he's in the hospital, but adding the worry of whether or not the people taking care of your baby are competent is even worse.

Oh yes, I also had to spend 2 hours of my day (and gas money) driving back to Texas Children's, registering, and having blood work done. Of course, I would want another mother to do it for me so I wouldn't worry, but it was extremely inconvenient to do that with a 2 mo old who just got out of the hospital.

Follow-Up

Ben's fever went away on Saturday night. The culture did not show any bacteria growth at 48 hours and by late afternoon on Sunday, Ben was no longer dehydrated. We were released late Sunday afternoon and were able to take Ben home. Jackson was so happy to have his brother back! He didn't want to leave his side!

Friday, May 6, 2011

Visitors

Ben just had a visit from some Girl Scouts (Brownies?). They made Build-a-Bears and are handing them out to patients. So cute and sweet. 

Here are the girls who were picked to give Ben his animal.

Here's Ben with his new friend.

Poor Baby Ben

Yesterday, Thursday, May 5, Ben was not acting normal. He was extremely fussy even when held. Usually, if he's being held, he's happy. He was also shaking his head some, so I thought he had an ear infection. Last check-up we were told to watch his ears because they were red. We were able to get the doctor to squeeze him in, but his ears looked great. There was no sign of any infection, just a fussy fussy baby with a horrible rash. No fever either. The doctor guessed it was a virus and we just had to deal with a fussy baby for a few days, but warned us to call if he got a fever since he just turned 2 mo old. The guideline is ER for 100.4 or higher at his age.

That night around 11pm he seemed very hot. We took his temperature and it was nearly 103. He was still very fussy, especially if he was moved the slightest bit, his eyes were red, and his rash was still awful looking. We called the doctor and were told we had to take him in.

After a lot of waiting he had some blood work done and a urine test. They did the blood work first, which meant an IV in his tiny little vein. It took a couple of tries and was difficult to watch. After that they inserted a catheter to get a urine sample. Since he was so upset during the IV episode, he had just gone to the bathroom and they were not able to collect enough to process it. At this point the doctor suggested a better way to collect it (basically taping a bag on him to collect the urine) that was much less painful. They gave him some fluids because of his high fever and to get him to urinate.

Most of the blood work looked okay, only two things were a little off. The ER doctor (who was one of the best I've ever met) said something wasn't quite right and based on all of his symptoms she really wanted to test him for meningitis. Although I really didn't want him to have a spinal tap, I also knew he was displaying many of the symptoms. Ben did much better than I expected and only cried briefly. It only took about 2-3 minutes.  When the results were in, we were fully expecting her to say he was fine and we could go home, but had to watch the fever. Instead she explained how his white blood cell count was high in the fluid which could mean a virus or bacterial infection and he had to be admitted. She didn't know it was meningitis and wouldn't for 2 days, but in the meantime we had to stay and she was going to start antibiotics in his iv twice every six hours.

Basically 9 out of 10 times, it's the viral form (or another virus) but in someone his age, they give everyone the antibiotics so that 1 out of 10 kid doesn't die. By the time you get the results, it's too late to start them.

Overall Ben is very miserable and it's sad to watch. When he's asleep he's pretty peaceful.


When he's awake - he's not. It's so hard to see him like this.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

2nd Birthday - Take 5

Jackson has been celebrating his birthday since Saturday. It was actually on Monday, but since it was getting late when we got home from dinner last night, we left the birthday unfinished. We proceeded to celebrate, but still haven't finished. Here are some pictures from tonight's celebration.

Jackson LOVES cupcakes. He's been talking about this one all day. Check out him opening his mouth wide in anticipation of stuffing the cupcake in.


 His big gift from us was this picnic table.

Jackson -1, Cupcake - 0, Time: 1 min 38 secs

Sunglasses on kids must be one of the cutest things ever. It's even cuter than hands in pockets.

Grandma and Granddad MacGregor left Jackson's gift for him before leaving for California. Although it hasn't been opened yet, we have had trouble getting him away from the picture ever since he opened it. When he saw what it was (Sand/Water table) he basically dove on top of it.


Getting him into the bath (which he normally loves) was quite the fight because he didn't want to leave his toy.

I think tomorrow we might actually wrap up his birthday. He has just a few more gifts left from a few people.