Leah 6 Month Stats

At 6 months old, Leah is:

-Sitting unassisted for short period of time, much longer in the boppy
-Loves her jumperoo
-Still a horrendous sleeper
-Starting to clap
-Loves her hands and feet
-No rolling really, somewhat concerned but babies do skip steps, she might go fright from sitting to crawling (we will re-evaluate this at 9mo)
-Eating baby food at lunch and dinner (only every few days due to severe constipation issues, even with non constipating foods)
-NO teeth

15lb14oz - 30th percentile
25" - 15th percentile
Head circumference is 17" - down to 75th percentile from the 90th

Safe to say she is slowing down a bit, and growing into her head :)

Brooke 4yr Stats

At 4 Brooke is:


31lbs-17th percentile
39"-not sure what percentile

When she was born she was in the 20th percentile at 7lb, 5oz.  At a year she was 18lbs, 6oz.  At 2yrs she was 25lbs.  I need to get a hold of her records so I can compare her stats with Brandon.  Anyway, neither are going to be really big kids.  Doc says genetics and her current height have her being approx 5'3" as an adult. 

She is enrolled in pre-school 3 days a week and joins Mommy and Brandon in Music class one day a week.  She sleeps through the night.  She has pretty much given up her nap.  Some days she is sent off to rest time, some days she falls asleep and others she stays awake the whole time.

She complains that she doesn't like school, but says she likes her teacher and is always happy when I pick her up.  She gets up and gets dressed happily in the morning until I mention "school"....then the whining, complaining, and doing everything as slow as possible starts.  She even tried to pretend to throw up the other day so she didn't have to go to school.  Not very promising starting that behavior in pre-school.  She is going to be a fun teenager!

Both her tubes (2nd set, 10/10) have fallen out, hoping her eustachian tubes have matured enough to ward off any more ear infections.  Speech, hearing, motorskills and everything else is on track. 

Brandon 2yr Stats

At 2 Brandon is:

24lbs-7th percentile
33"-22nd percentile

When he was born he was in the 20th percentile.  At a year he was in 13th percentile for weight (20lbs) and 14th (28") for height.

His vocabulary, at a guess is anywhere from 50-100 words and is speaking in sentences for the most part.  I am not even attempting potty training until late this summer at the earliest.  He has 3 of his 4 second year molars and is sleeping through the night in a twin bed.

Brandon's ear tubes are on their way out, almost completely sitting in the ear canal instead of in the ear drum.  Hopefully we won't have to have a second set.  They were only put in, in May 2010, so they didn't get us all the way through this winter but we are keeping our fingers crossed.

He is a picky eater when you put food on his plate, but will eat whatever we are eating is we allow him to sit on our laps and eat (horrible habit to start)  oh well.  He eats tons of fruit, but the only vegetable he will touch is broccoli (raw or cooked).  He prefers breakfast foods (bagels, pancakes, toast).

He is obsessed with everyones drink, most times having a meltdown because we won't let him have our glasses full of whatever we are drinking.

He still loves trucks.  He is taking a few mommy and me classes, we go to music class, gym classes and a local class called Giggletime at the library.

Ear Confections

In other words...ear infections...

Unfortunately it is that time of the year.  Both kids and myself have had our first colds in the month of November.  Someone has been sick in our house, pretty much the whole month of November.  First Brooke, then Brandon and then myself.

Ear tubes have been our savior, but only when they are working.  Brandon's cold was so bad that I have been nervous that his tubes might be getting clogged and not be doing anything to prevent fluid build up and infections.

Today was our 6 month follow up from his surgery and thankfully his ears look great!  Both tubes are still in (hope they make it through this winter) and there is no build up in his ear.

The doc was very nice and he actually looked in Brooke's ears too, without charging me a co-pay for each kid....rare these days.   He has done 2 tube surgeries on Brooke, so she is a patient of his.  Her left ear tube is gone, and the right ear had so much wax he couldn't even see if it was still there or not.  Her ear surgery was a year ago in October, so I am hoping we don't run into more infections with her. I was hoping her would get us through this winter too.  Looks like she made it through this past cold without one, so I am hoping for the best.

Cold Season

It's that time of the year and little man has his first cold in a really long time.  So long, I can't remember that last one, so I am thankful for that.  Here's to hoping his ear tubes are still in and will get us through another winter sparing us from the dreaded ear infections every few weeks.

18 Month Appointment

Today we had Brandon's 18month well visit. We are a few weeks behind because we had to cancel our original because we made a visit to PA and the office has been slammed with well visits.

22lbs 14oz 11th percentile
31" 11th percentile

The highest Brandon has ever been has been in the 20th percentile, but he has been hovering around the 10th percentile for the past year.

All is well, well except for his little "lets swat at everything" problem. Not sure where he picked it up from but we have been implementing "baby timeouts" when he does this. He gets picked up and moved to another room where i lay him down on he back and walk away leaving him there. Who knows if it is working, but it is what we are doing to send a message that the "swatting" behavior is not a good thing.

He is signing more and trying to talk A LOT more in the past few weeks. He tries to repeat just about everything you ask him to. His favorites words as of late are:

Mama
Dada
No
All Done
Hot
No
Please
Truck
No
Drink
Open
No
Help
Cat
Dog or (dog dog)
No
Duck
Uh huh
Yuck
No
Up
Down
No
Off
On
No
In
Out
Beer
Most family names (Mimi, Doc, Papap, Nana, Popop, Kris, Bob, Nani, Duckie, GG, Steve, Manda, sorry Tracy...to hard still!) The rest of the time he speaks mostly Russian...well that is what is sounds like. He can also point to and say nose, ear, mouth, and eye.

He only signs, more, please, all done, thank you, open, blanket and drink which is no where near what Brooke was signing at this age. She probably knew 30 or more signs. Guess it is another second kids thing. Sorry Brandon.

He has taken a few steps backwards when it comes to eating these days. He used to eat tons of fruit and veggies every day, and now we are struggling to get any fruits and veggies down him. We used to go through BJ's containers of fruits weekly and now all he says to me is....ready for it... "NO". So we have been giving him his multi-vitamin more regularly and been giving him fruit and veggie smoothies. Bolthouse Farms has some good one: Blue Goodness, Green Goodness, and Strawberry Banana are what we are having as "treats". The pedi isn't too concerned so neither am I. I still offer all the fruits and veggies first before I bust out other foods in hope that he will start eating them again soon.

18 months. Wow. I was 4 months pregnant with Brandon when Brooke was this age. Can't even imagine that right now. I can't believe he is 18 months all ready. My little man is growing up.

Ear Tubes Round 1

After ear infections that were not responsible to antibiotics and the past 2, eight weeks apart, that ruptured, today was our day for Brandon's ear tube surgery. I knew what to expect so in that sense it was a little easier than with Brooke, but it still wasn't fun. We had to cut him off of all food and liquids at midnight the night before his surgery (no biggie since he wasn't night nursing anymore). We got him up at about 5:50 and were at the hospital by 6:30AM. He was scheduled for 7:30 and they took him in right on time.

The doctor and the anesthesiologist stopped in before the surgery. Our doctor is great, but you could tell the anesthesiologist didn't work with little kids too much. (A little bit of nervousness set in for me at that point, really the only thing that I don't like about the procedure is that he has to go under) He came up to Brandon and was trying to show him tricks with the stethoscope and telling him to hold is a certain way.....ummm yeah....he is 15 months old....then while he had it on Brandon's back, he told Brandon to take deep breaths and showed him how like he was 5 or something....Eric and I both started cracking up as soon as he left.

It was actually much easier to keep him happy (while he was hungry) before the surgery than I thought. I went into the OR with him while they put him under, glad I was there for him, but he still wasn't a happy camper. I had to put on all the OR gear while looked funny to him and they wanted me to lay him on the table while they put his oxygen saturation thing on his foot. (It would have been much easier if they let me hold him while they tried this because as soon as I laid him down he started kicking his feet). Obviously he didn't like the mask, he fought it, and he cried, but in about 30 seconds he was under.

20 minutes later, with me standing at the door of the waiting room, they called for me. As soon as they opened up the doors to the recovery room I heard his poor little cries :( This is the part that I wasn't looking forward to. I ran right over to him and grabbed him from the nurse who was trying to hold him in the rocking chair. Eyes closed, pushing me away, crying, trying to stand, pretty much all over the place, inconsolable. At that age they just really don't know what is going on. For the first 30 minutes it was like that, then he just wanted to be held and not bothered. I knew it was coming but you feel pretty helpless because there is nothing you can really do to help them, or snap them out of it. Around the 50 minute mark, he started to drink a little and act normal again. He went from sitting still zoned out to drinking a whole juice box, eating a pancake and part of a banana in about 5 minutes. We had him dressed and we were on our way out of the hospital at about 9AM.

We made an attempt to go to music class but he fell asleep in the car on the way there, and I wasn't about to wake him up.

Overall successful, his ears were draining a little (Brooke's never did) but that is normal. Ear drops 3 times a day for the next few days to keep the tubes from clogging and a post op in 2 weeks.

I almost forgot to write this part, our little man must have sensitive skin because he has tape marks on his eye from where they tapes them shut :( (why do they do that anyway) and he has marks all across his chest from the adhesive on the electrodes they put on him...which 2 of them they left on in and I had to soak him in the bathtub to try to loosen them up, which didn't really work so I had to rip them off his little chest :(

Glad it is over.

Eyes Only A Mother Could Love

So all the infection and gunk that caused Brandon's most recent ear infection is also causing issues with his eyes. It was giving him eye boogers on Monday when he was seen for his 15 month well visit, then it cleared up. FOr the past two days it is back and not a pretty site.

These pics are his after nap booger eyes....yum!

Note: 15 month old, eye drops, 3 times a day for 7 day...oh joy

Brandon's ENT Visit

Big freaking surprise....he needs tubes. Poor little guy's right ear that ruptured is still swollen today :( 3 days after it ruptured and 48hours on antibiotics. They also said that they think he has a raelly high pain tollerance which may describe why his ear infections never bother him or present symptoms until it is too late. I just want to get the surgery scheduled so he doesn't have anymore infections.

More on this later...

15 Month Well/Sick Visit

Had Brandon's 15 month visit not been scheduled today, we would have been in the office anyway. I woke up Sunday morning to see that the little guy had ruptured right eardrum. Even with ear infections your ear is not supposed to "leak". When is does you can almost be sure that the eardrum has ruptured to release the pressure, hence all the nasty infected fluid drains out of the ear.

Having been in the doctors only a week before and given the green light I was surprised to see this. No chance in behavior besides the normal crankiness of 4 molars coming through and no fever until the middle of the night on Saturday...the night it ruptured.

SO...a script for Omnicef and off to the ENT on Wednesday and tubes mostly likely will follow. This is the 2nd time without warning that his right eardrum has ruptured and it happens to be the last 2 infections.

Developmentally he is relatively on track, we just don't want to let his speech get behind as a result of his ear problems.

STATS:
22lbs, 3oz 22nd percentile
29inches 9th percentile (He is short, but I am not sure they measured him very accurately)

Dentist

Brooke had her first dentist appointment today! I am really bummed I forgot my camera, but I got some great shots with my cellphone that I will try to upload. I had been talking to Brooke about going for awhile now, so I was pretty sure she would be ok with going and not freak out. She did AWESOME!!!

They had tons of toys to keep her occupied while we waiting (the only negative part...we waited...about 20 minutes, which is a long time for a 3yr old) We had Pappap with us to entertain Brandon (thank goodness).

We saw Dr. Amy at Flanders Pediatric Dentistry. She was super nice and let Brooke play with all of the instruments before she used them. They gave Brooke sunglasses so the light wouldn't hurt her eyes while she was laying down, and a complimentary ride on the chair. I sat with her the whole time, and she did so well they did a cleaning and a flouride treatment.

She chose chocolate toothpaste (yummers!) and marshmallow flouride (even better!) I forget the name they gave the sucker thing....Mr. straw or something like that...the funniest part was the first time she closed her mouth on it, she couldn't quite get it open on her own! It was too cute. After the first few times she "kissed" "Mr. Straw"...she got the hang of it.

All of her teeth look great and we are due back in 6 months, for another date with "Mr. Straw"....and Dr. Amy.

Stats

Brooke:
3yrs 8days
28lbs 23rd Percentile
37inches 40th Percentile

No vaccines for the 3yr visit, much to Brooke's dismay. She actually asked the ped for a shot. Brooke consistently gets the colors red and green wrong, but today we found out there is no possible way for her to be color blind. Myself and Eric would both need to be color blind for her to be, so maybe she just doesn't like red and green. She is not due back until her 4yr year visit. Lets hope we can stay out of their office until then!

Brandon
1yr 1day
20lbs 8oz 13th Percentile
28.5inches 14th Percentile
18inches (head) 31st Percentile

Brandon had two vaccines, no crying, just need to fatten the little guy up. He is fine seeing how Eric and I are not big people, we aren't going to have big kids. The little guy gets to indulge in whole milk and all the butter he wants on his veggies and so forth for the time being.

No MMR today and probably not at his next visit either. I am delaying that one until 18months to 24months. As my ped said, that is an "emotional" topic and they will give it to him when I want him to have it.

The worst part about the appt was that the doc put everything right into his laptop. Well anyone who knows Brandon knows he is a fan of technology was was less than please that he could not have it. He kept reaching, saying ahhh, and crying because I wouldn't give him the doctors laptop. It didn't help that the peds laptop is red.....the same color as ours....Is it rude to ask the doc to leave it outside next time??

11 Months, 15 Days, 7 Hours and 6 Minutes

He has FINALLY figured out how to crawl!!!!

Nursing and Sleep Schedule

I am proud to say that my son Brandon doesn't even know what a bottle is. Brooke on the other hand did, because I had to go back to work, but I pumped every two hours and made sure she had the good stuff all the way up to 1yr, when I weaned her during the day.

Lucky for Brandon, I didn't go back to work. As we are fastly approaching the 1yr mark with Brandon, I am sad and happy to be weaning him at the same time. I am going to miss the cute stuff like the way he looks up at me when he is about to finish and smiles and the closeness that you get when you are nursing, not to mention the free "work out" that I am getting. We need to get things going so we can go for number 3..if you know what I mean....not that I miss not having my monthly visitor. It has been almost 2yrs now, besides right after Brandon was born. Anyway, back to what I was saying

He is only nursing 3 times a day, and once in the middle of the night. Initially I was worried it would be harder to wean him than Brooke because I am at home, but he likes table food so much, that he doesn't really ask for it even when I am giving it to him now. I know he needs it until a year so until then, I am not going to not offer it to him until then.

I am happy to say that Brandon is only up one time a night these days which is such a relief and we aren't' co-sleeping anymore. I co-slept with Brooke until about 14 months when she transitioned to a double bed. The only trouble with the transition was that she liked me to stay in her room until she fell asleep. So far, Brandon is ok falling asleep without me in there, so I am hoping that the transition will be easy for him as well. He is already on a twin bed (hence the not co-sleeping anymore). The bed was just to small, I was waking him up, he was waking me up, it was just plain awful.

For about a month after I moved out of the room I was in there 2 to 4 times a night to nurse him, and all of a sudden it is down to just 1 time a night. He goes to bed anywhere from 7-8:30 and is up at 7:30am. I am so glad he is finally figuring it out on his own. He WAS the most awful sleeping baby there ever was. He has come a long way! I am sure there are people saying he shoudl be sleeping through the night and not be up at all, but I will take what I can get. I'm sure it won't be long before he gives up his last night feeding. So until then, I will take being up one time a night versus 3, 4, 5 or 6. (yes, there were times where he was up 6 times a night nursing.....worse than a newborn!)

3rd Ear Infection

We arrived at my Mom's house in PA on Thursday, followed by a visit to urgent care on Friday the 18th, for little Brandon. Poor little man has the third ear infection since the beginning of November. Yes...That is 3 in two months. Not to mention that he is getting about 2 to 3, maybe 4 teeth, so he has been quite to vocal little guy the past two days. Not very fun to deal with all of this when you aren't in the comforts of your own home, but we are managing. He has been living in the Ergo, and I am passing him off when he lets me, which isn't very often. When I do pass him off, it is usually short lived followed by loud screaming which can be heard in every room in the house.

So back to his 3rd ear infection. It was so much fun dealing with urgent care.....NOT! They obviously don't see pediatric patents very often. After the diagnosis of a left ear infection, 15 minutes later the prescription followed....15 minutes spent doing division, multiplication, and referencing the little book they use to find medicines? Lets just say when i heard her say, "oh wow, they make pediatric infant drops of amoxicillian, lets try that"....the next thought that came into my mind was...."we are so calling our pediatrician as soon as we get into the parking lot". For those of you that are curious.....they don't even make that anymore. Glad to know she was using a book that is current and up to date!

So in between calls to the pediatricians, and calls back, then calls to the pharmacist, the poor boy finally got the correct script. and a dose of meds into his body around 4PM. We left urgent care at 10AM.

So here we are in PA, lets put this lightly (with a pissed off 10 month old) and an almost 3yr old with a cold. Thank goodness for grandparents, relieving me for a few minutes, and here I am updating my blog when I should be chugging a glass of wine.

Well Brooke just found me, so I am done for now..........

Ear Infection - Round 2

Always trust your instinct. I had been debating taking Brandon into the doctor today since last night. I called and made the appointment this morning anyway and I am glad I did. He woke up Friday with green boogers and was very cranky, but seeing how today was only Monday, I thought it was a little premature for an ear infection to develop. If you read my previous post, I suggested I would be at the doc at the end of the week. But, with the holiday coming up, and just my "gut feeling" I took him in and we indeed have our 2nd ear infection for the little guy. Four more in the next 11 months and we will be getting tubes for this little guy too.

I am proud to say I walked out of the office thinking to myself that I knew it. I wish I was wrong and he wasn't on more med and uncomfortable with an ear infection, but I knew it. He was just way too cranky when he was off the Tylenol for it to be just a cold even if it was only day 3 of boogers. Before you have kids you wonder how you will figure all of these things out....but you do...

Brandon 9.5 Months

This post is more for me too look back on when I have the next baby (Eric if you are reading this...yes there will be a #3 despite what you may think)

Since feeding Brandon fingers foods he has pretty much refused anything that heads his way on a spoon. I sometimes can get him to eat yogurt, but that is about it.

When I am eating he actually starts crying and throwing a babytantrum if I don't give him a piece of what I am eating.....

At this point he is already eating:
Blueberries
Pears
Peaches
Peas
Carrots
Mac & Cheese
Noodles
Chicken Nuggets
Grilled Cheese
Stuffing (only because I was eating it and was trying to avoid a meltdown with him)
Cheerios
Puffs
Potatoes (same as the stuffing)
Pancakes

He also has been drinking from a straw cup since about 8.5 months. Water most days, sometimes pear juice if need be.

When it comes to nap time, he has a morning nap, usualy around 30-60 minutes long and and afternoon nap any where from 1 hour to 2.5 hours. Sometimes he needs a quick 20-30 minute nap in the evenings. So he is napping 2 times most days and some days 3 naps.

As far as sleeping is concerned, last night was a good night for Brandon. Went to bed around 9PM, nursed at 12:30ish, 3:30ish, 6, and then was up for good around 6:30. He played in bed until aroudn 7:15, until I finally ahd to get up and get the morning started. Normally he gets up around 7:30, but he is still adjusting to the time change. It has been really hard to get him back to normal since we switched the clocks back.

Scale

So I am not sure what Brandon really weighs....

A week ago for his 9 month well visit, they weighed him and he was 18lbs even.

Today they weighed him to make sure they gave him the correct dosage for his medicine and he weighed 18lbs 14oz....almost 1 pound difference....hmmmm

It was the SAME scale.

Now I know he has been eating a considerable amount of finger foods since his last visit, but I am not sure the amount is worthy of 14oz in a week.

Stumped.....

Brandon's First Ear Infection

Today Brandon was diagnosed with his first ear infection. Needless to say I was not surprised. The extra crankiness, running nose...and runny eyes...yes I said runny eyes. He had so much crap in his sinuses that is started coming out of his eyes. As soon as I saw that last night I called and left the ped. a voice mail. When the doc walked in I said "I am going to be shocked if you tell me he doesn't have an ear infection."

I was right...always trust your instinct! Luckily it was only in one ear, and even though stuff was coming out of his eyes, we caught it early. Ten days of amoxicillin is in order for this little guy. It is way to early to talk about tubes, but if he is like his Daddy and his sister I am guessing February/March we will be in for his first round of tubes. Hopefully I am wrong, but that is my guess.

So we got home and got Brooke down for her nap and I decided to do something fun with him, since he was probably feeling crappy. I was feeling brave today so I decided on some finger painting. I feel bad because at this age Brooke had already done tons of painting....so anyway....today was his first time painting. I'll give you one guess what he tried to do....



Big surprise that he tried to eat a glob of finger paint! Thank goodness for non-toxic art supplies :)

BMT- Bilateral myringotomy

Bilateral myringotomy with insertion of tympanostomy tubes. Fancy way of saying, we are putting tubes in your ears!

While I am glad today is over, it couldn't have gone more perfect. It is almost like Brandon knew something was going on, or that I was stressed because he was about as well behaved as you could ask for from a 9 month old.

As far as Brooke goes, she was AWESOME! Doing this for the second time a 2yrs 9months was 1000 times easier on all of us then when we did it the first time at just over 12 months. Needless to say I had been preparing myself for the worst, and I was ready for it all this morning. As suspected, when she was given the choice of who she wanted to go back with her at the beginning of the surgery she chose Daddy. I was kinda bummed about this but at the same time, I went back last time, so I was glad Eric was able to do it this time. Even though she chose him to go back at the beginning, I made it clear that I wanted to be the one who was there when she woke up. Especially after the way she came of out anesthesia last time...I would definitely need to be there.

So, Eric takes her back and joins me in the surgical waiting room. About 15 minutes later the doctor appeared....she was done...thank god. I couldn't walk fast enough to the recovery area. I just wanted to be there to hold her. As I walked in, I saw her sitting up in the adult size bed talking to the nurse as the nurse tries to make she she doesn't fall over. No screaming or crying or arching or back or anything this time. I couldn't believe it. She looked like all she had done was woken up from a nap.

I was soooo happy that she wasn't upset this time. Last time it broke my heart even though I knew there was nothing I could do about it. It is just awful seeing you baby upset. Back to the story...I was beyond thrilled that she wasn't upset AT ALL. Not even one tear! I guess daddy couldn't have gone in after all. So we sat in the rocking chair for about 15 minutes or so, just her and I rocking back and forth. Since Brandon's arrival I cherish my alone time with Brooke. Even though the circumstances weren't great, I loved sitting there with just her in my arms all snuggled up.

After that it was back up to the pediatric wing to get her to eat something, drink something and take more vitals. We had to hang out for an hour to make sure she was ok, then we were free to go. I am glad it is over, I am glad it went well and hopefully this will be the last time!

Last time we did this, I didn't bring my camera and I regretted it, so here are some pictures from this time.







And one of Brandon just because



Flowers, a bear, and "a fork" from Aunt Tracy, Uncle Bob, Aunt Manda, and Uncle Teve. She loved the bear and got really excited about the "fork" that the little card comes on!