Brody at 1 month

I was playing around with the camera & Brody during Sydney's nap one afternoon. The result is below. I'd really like to take a class on photography & learn how to use Photoshop, so maybe I'll take advantage of my time off work & see if I can find a summer class. I haven't Photoshopped any of these, its just the raw stuff. I barely have time to get this blog up, let alone edit pictures ahead of time!

Brody didn't like the swing the first week or two, but it gets a lot of use these days as long as he's in the swinging position & not the rocking position.

This is the only bath picture that didn't have his twig & berries in the shot. He loves baths & being naked afterwards. This is when he does most of his coo-ing.Big Sister & Baby Brother

Brody Parade:

5 days1 month
At Brody's 1 month check up, here were his stats:

• 10 lbs 8 oz (up from 7 lbs 2.8 oz on 5/28), 75th%
• 22 1/4 in long, 75th%
• 15 in head circumference, 50th%

I was surprised to learn that his head was only in the 50th percentile, since that was always Sydney's largest measurement. But, it totally makes sense since it took me an hour & 45 min to push her out & only 15 min to push him out!

I described Brody's episodes to the doc & he thought it sounded like reflux, especially how he arches his back & holds his breath. He doesn't typically prescribe meds for reflux unless the baby is having trouble gaining weight (which he's definitely not), but since he got all "squirrly" on us & had to be checked out he gave us an Rx. I was hopeful we were past the episodes, & if not that the meds would help ensure that. Much to my dismay, we're not (read the end of the post).

A common site in our house. He usually falls asleep while being burped & I don't want to give him up afterwards.

Brody's first big walk outside in the double stroller.

Tummy time on the play mat I call this the baby gym. I have the ladybug & the duck hanging just right for him to hit them while kicking & swinging his limbs around. He gets all excited when the music starts & the light show mesmerizes him. When it stops, he starts kicking & swinging again.
The ladybug is by far his favorite (or he's extremely preferential to his right side, but its pretty early for that to emerge). He got ahold of it here & managed to get a leg into his mouth. He wasn't really sure what to do with it after that, so he swung & the music light show started again.

Prayer request:

Brody had another chocking episode yesterday. I was home by myself & Sydney was napping. I held him for a while after feeding him, and then laid him down for his nap propped on the couch next to me. I got up for a second, and it must have been just long enough for him to spit up a considerable amount. I heard a weird noise, turned back to look at him and saw that his nose & mouth were full & his eyes were bulging. I picked him up, flipped him over, and started what has come to be my normal ritual of fixes. He would cry & gasp for air from his mouth, but when he tried to breath from his nose he couldn't because it was totally full of spit up, or whatever mucusy stuff comes up when these episodes happen. This went on for the better part of 30 minutes, gradually getting better & better each time he screamed & tried to breathe. He never went more than 5 seconds without taking a breath, so I assured myself that he was okay since the docs have said 15-20 seconds is okay for an infant. Still, its awful to see him struggling so bad. Now Jeff and I are a little nervous about laying him down to sleep, so we slept last night with his bouncy chair in our bed & he was propped up on his side in the sleep positioner. This seems really high maintenance, and I'm totally in to low-maintenance babies, but this is the only solution we were comfortable with enough to go to sleep ourselves. Besides being a little cramped in bed, the night went fine & was the same as normal as far as his waking up.

I'm sure he'll outgrow this, but we've been keeping him by one of our sides, or in our arms, at all times. Please keep our little man in your prayers so we can avoid any more of these horrific episodes & all get a good nights sleep.

Catching up

On May 22nd, the day before I was induced, we went to lunch with my maternal grandparents, who live in Durango. Sydney was not into sitting at the table & entertaining herself. Instead she played photographer & took pictures of us at the table. Here is Brody belly up to my lunch.Mommy, smile! This is what I look like if you're 3 feet tall.

Instead of saying "take my picture", Sydney says "Take a 'cheese' of me!"
This was another "Take a 'cheese' of me" moment at home.
Aunt Deb came down for a visit as well. She & Brody had some good bonding time.

Sydney trying on Brody's clothes.
Sydney falling asleep at lunch.
Since Brody & I can't get out & go to the big pool yet, I've improvised & we have a little let up on the deck for Sydney. Its kinda like being at the beach; a little water to wade in & a little sand to play in. Silly girl playing with the cup on her foot...
and dunking her hat in the water. She was so excited about the pool that she got in while the tap water was still running from the hose. COLD! In our house, the little corner of your mouth where your cheek begins is called the "Punum", don't ask me why. Jeff has taught Syd this & here he is pointing to his punum & asking for a kiss.

One of Syd's big sister gifts was a waterpaint set. She loves it!
Brody really enjoys bath time. I've given him most of his baths while Jeff is at work, so I'm too nervous to take pictures of him while he's in the water, so I decided to try to take some picts while I was drying him off afterwards. Its hard to take a picture of a baby while you're holding them at the same time!
Sydney has thoroughly enjoyed reacquainting herself with the baby toys she once enjoyed. I'm not sure what the weight limit is on the bouncy chair, but it held all 32 lbs of her!

I've been getting on to Jeff because there are hardly any pictures of Brody & I together. Maybe this is because I'm spending 1/2 my life feeding him right now! Here is a little proof that I do spend time with my snuggly boy.
This is the view of his sweet face that I spend most of my day admiring.
Sydney had quit the binkie by now, but Brody will still take one when he's gassy or tired. He spits it out just as he's falling asleep, just like Syd did. Here he is showing off his head control by finding the binkie all by himself....funny face! My kids together in the wagon. Jeff wasn't home yet & Sydney really wanted to play outside & take a walk. We didn't have a double stroller yet, so this carseat in the wagon was my brainchild. Sydney loves to touch Brody's face & give him lots of kisses.

Brody's skinny little chicken legs. I'm sure they'll be chubby enough soon. He was 9 lbs 8 oz dressed on June 12th (his actual due date). They say they gain 2 1/2 lbs the last month of pregnancy, so my guess is that he would have had another 1-2 lbs to go, plus the 8oz he lost after birth. I'm thinking that I'm lucky he was early, or else Brody could have been a 9+ pounder! I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had a 10 lb baby, he was so low he would have just fallen out before he got that big! Sydney being cute in her PJ's. She loves this little chair, which was actually purchased for VBS decorating but I think I'm going to keep it instead of turn in the receipt.

Sydney "holding" Brody.

Jackson, who has a new baby brother as well, came over for a playdate & PBJ sandwiches.
This was the only picture we took on Father's Day. We had dinner at Outback. Sydney has on hospital gloves (I'll explain in a minute).

So, the drama is that Brody has given us 2 good scares. Since he's totally fine, I'll give you the quick version. Two Sundays ago I decided to go ahead & start giving him infant vitamins (our ped recommends it for everyone). The preface to this story is that Sydney hated Polyvisol & threw it up nearly every single time we gave it to her. So, instead of giving him a full dose, I thought I'd just put the empty dropper in his mouth & see how he reacted to the taste. He immediately started to gag & proceeded by not breathing for at least 8-10 seconds. Then he gagged, gasped, and didn't breath again for longer than I was comfortable with. At this point I've got him flipped over & I'm swatting his back like they taught us in infant CPR. I calmly call Jeff into the room, I'm still not confident that he's breathing well, if much at all, so I have him call 911. Brody's little body was all tense, his head was thrown back, and to me it seemed like he was struggling to get air. As the ambulance pulled into our drive way, he got a little mucus bubble out & his body relaxed and his breathing returned to normal. What seemed like 10 minutes to me, was probably more like 3-5, but still long enough to FREAK Jeff and me out! We chucked this up to an isolated event & decided he didn't ever have to take his vitamins if he didn't want to.

Then, on Saturday afternoon, he did it again...only no vitamins this time, he just spit up & then the same episode followed. Since I didn't want to wait until I was sure he wasn't going to breathe, I did the same methods & Jeff called the EMTs. Brody was still pretty worked up by the time they got into the house, but he was crying a little more regularly then so we all knew he could breath enough to get by. Once he returned to normal, they recommended that we not wait till Monday to see our doc, but that either they or we take him to the ER to be seen today. So to the ER we went. 6 hours later we saw the doc & were transferred to Children's Mercy to be observed for the night. He didn't have any episodes there, so they had to rely on our parental observations of the incidents. Doc was pretty sure it wasn't a seizure. They did an EKG & a chest xray, all came back fine & normal. However, they did confirm that he is a VERY gassy baby & could see his swollen bowels on film. What a wonderful Father's Day gift for Jeff, assurance that his son is healthy & normal. We left with the assumption that he had aspirated some of his own spitup & his body's reaction to the reflux & the pain was to hold his breath. Its totally normal for an infant to stop breathing for 15 solid seconds, however I challenge you to hold your 15 day old who turns purple & doesn't breath for 15 seconds repeatedly and not call 911!

Well, that did seem like the long version instead of the short one, didn't it.

Brody had his first bottle Tuesday night. Technically it was his 2nd bottle. He was not breathing well enough after birth to nurse until he was 15 hours old, so at hour 12 they had to give him some formula to bring his blood sugar back up. But, this is the first one we're counting. He loved it right away, sucked down 4 oz, and fell right to sleep. What a good baby!