Santa

Well, Tyler had his first visit with Santa at the mall last night. There was no talking going on...mainly screaming! :-) Poor kid, we've probably scarred him for life. Santa even had me sit down next to him on a stool with Tyler on my lap so they could talk and Tyler would only peek at him. It was pretty cute once he calmed down though. Santa asked him if he liked trucks and trains and even gave Tyler a little coloring book. Of course, Tyler wouldn't take it from him but when I did he took it from me! It was fun! (for mom and dad anyway!)

After we saw Santa we had dinner and then went to the live nativity at the church down the road from us. There were guards that met us at the entrance of the path and an inn and innkeeper that said, "No room in the inn." There were shepards and sheep and goats after that. The next stop was the manger scene with Mary and Joseph and (fake) baby. There was a camel near Mary and Joseph. (can you rent camels?!) Ty wasn't too thrilled about the camel...he wanted to pet it with his mitten on but when we took it off he wanted nothing to do with it!

The three of us had a great night and I'm glad to finally spend some time with my family!

Update

I completely forgot to update about Tyler's doctor results.

His temp was down the next day already and there was no growth in his petree (sp?) dish, so no infections. That was a great relief to find out but still a little unsettling since we will never know what caused it.

Temps

This post isn't about the weather....though after the day we had yesterday, I'd much rather be talking about the cold temps and snow we got!

Tyler woke up at 3 am on Tuesday morning screaming/crying bloody murder so I rushed in to check on him. (Which I normally don't do since most of the time when he wakes he settles himself back to sleep, but he usually doesn't scream either.) When I went into his room he was still laying down so I knew something was wrong. As soon as I picked him up I could feel that he had a temp so we went back into our bedroom to wake daddy up for a little help since I didn't know what to do. We took his temp and it was 102.something. So I had Josh take Tyler (who was still upset) while I got out my trusty "What to Expect..." book to see what to do with a fever. This is the first time he's had one like this so I, of course, didn't know what to do. We ended up taking his pj's off and trying to give him some water but he didn't want it. And he didn't want his medicine either...that was a battle, which it normally isn't. After finally getting him some medicine I sat down on the rocker with him and he cuddled right up to me. We used one of his light blankets to cover him up and I sent Josh back to bed. Tyler and I both fell asleep rocking so we just stayed there all night instead of trying to put him back down and get him all upset again. We woke up at 6 am when Josh got up and fell right back asleep. We didn't get up until after 10 am!

Unfortunately, when I took his temp again it was 103.7 so I called the nurse. I took him in since he didn't have any other symptoms of a cold or infection that we could see so I wanted to have him checked out. It was a rough visit. After seeing the doctor we had to have a bag put over his "twig and berries" so they could collect some urine to see if he had a urinary tract infection. Then we had to go get some blood drawn, which was horrible. Since he doesn't sit still and is pretty strong they didn't get any blood from either of his arms. They finally ended up pricking his finger and then getting the blood out that way. I felt SO bad and so did the girls taking his blood, but it had to be done. Before we left I checked his diaper and there was just enough urine in his little bag that we could take it off.

I got a call from the nurse around 3:00 and she said there was a trace of blood in his urine so they are doing another test on it. I have to call back this afternoon to find out if anything is "growing" in his petree (sp?) dish. Until then we just have to push fluids. I just took his temp a little while ago and it was 99.something so at least it is going down.

Fat Lip **Updated**

Tyler and I didn't have the best start to our day!
He was playing in the living room with his toys and he tripped and fell right on his sippy cup. :-( It bled a lot right away and we were both pretty scared. First I took him into the bathroom to get a look and clean him up, but that was a bad idea when he looked in the mirror and saw the blood running down his face. (DUH!) So I grabbed a washcloth, took him in the kitchen and put him on the counter next to the sink. I basically just hugged him until he stopped crying and tried to wipe up the blood. He wouldn't (and still won't) let me look at it or put cold on it. I've just been giving him cold water to drink. I hope his teeth are ok! Poor little man...

**No tooth damage, the whole inside of his lip from the middle all the way to the corner is black and blue inside. But he's eating and playing and is happy so that's good! It's still puffy though and I think he looks like one of the Simpsons!**

I'm still here!

I have no idea if anyone checks this anymore, but here is a pic of our family from June, 2007. Tyler is now 16 months and full of engery! He's eating everything, walking, running, you name it! He's also done wearing his helmet...he graduated September 28th after wearing the helmet for 8 months when we thought it was going to be 3 or 4! Needless to say, we were relieved. There has been many bumps and bruises since but now he can be a normal little boy!

So hello again to everyone...I am hoping to keep this up-to-date again!

Here's that little tooth!

Just a quick post for now...here is a silly picture of Tyler's first little tooth! As Auntie Brooke said, good thing there were no bats in the cave! :-)

(4-12-07)

Bad Luck!

Well, after my migraine on Monday I ended up with another one on Tuesday. Yuck! It was no where near as bad though, so that was good. Then on Wednesday I was bending over to pick up Tyler's laundry and my back went out. I ended up in the ER that night and I'm still laid up! Could be for another week! This is so frustrating...I guess I'll never do laundry again cuz it's too dangerous! :-)

It's in!

Tyler's first tooth is poking through! It's the first one in the middle on the bottom right. When we got up on Friday morning daddy was changing Tyler and he kept saying, "I see a toofer!" It was so cool...very exciting! It's still not completely out yet, but it's getting there. He's been a very fussy boy and doesn't seem to want the cold wash cloth or teething ring to chew on. He'll chew on his link-a-doo's and that's about it! Oh, and our fingers, of course!

On a different note, I had to call in sick to work last night. (In case I haven't mentioned it before, I'm working at Shopko Sunday through Wednesday, 6-10pm to get out and make a little cash.) My mom, Tyler and I went shopping for a baby shower gift and on the way home I got really nauseous. A few minutes later a migraine hit. Thank goodness mom was able to stay with Tyler so I could lay down. I slept from about 3:00 until 5:00. I felt better in the evening as far as the nausea, but still had a headache. Josh and I ate our dinner outside since it was so nice out. We took Tyler's exersaucer out and he played in that. It was fun and I miss dinner with my boys when I'm working!! It's tough, that's for sure.

After we ate Josh was carrying Tyler around the yard and they found a piece of a newspaper. Rather than picking it up, Josh was kicking it as they walked toward the house. Tyler was laughing and laughing and laughing!! So we had to get the video camera out and catch that on tape! :-)

Fussiness

So things have been busy at our house!

Tyler has started scooting...it's crazy! He's doing what we call the Army crawl. You know, on the belly using his forearms to pull himself forward. It's dang cute. Along with that comes frustration of getting tired, getting stuck in the corner, etc. Quite humorous to watch, really. It's great to come to his rescue when he's frustrated and he looks up at me and puts one arm up like he's saying, "HELP!" :-) Talk about an awesome feeling to be needed like that. It's just amazing. As far as baby-proofing...we need to get to that. So far it's been fine because we have a sunken living room so that confines him...for now! I know some day he will figure out the step but until then, there's nothing in there that will harm him.

And his little toofers are coming in...I SWEAR IT! Ok, so last week I was grocery shopping with Tyler and I could have sworn I saw a tooth in his mouth and I got all excited and all these people were listening and smiling and it was so cool! THEN...when we got home I stuck my finger in his mouth. NOTHING! It must have been a shiny spit bubble or something! I was a little disappointed! Well this week has been very rough. He's been crabbing all the time and constantly wants his mommy or daddy or anyone who's around. He's also figured out that HEY - I don't HAVE to open my mouth! Urgh...what a little character! So today it took him crying for me to be able to finally stick my finger in his mouth. Now...I'm dang sure I felt something poke me when I ran my fingers over his bottom gums! I'll bet there is something there very soon. This is all so exciting!

Sledding!

Some pics from Tyler's first time sledding! It finally got warm enough to play outside a little bit...he got this sled from G & G B. for Christmas and it's the first time he got to use it! We all had a blast!

Plagiocephaly

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I have posted. I haven't written about Tyler's plagiocephaly yet on our blog and I really need to. I want to keep everyone up to date as to what is going on, so here's a long one!

Some time around Tyler’s two month check up the doctor noticed a flat spot on the back of his head on the right side and that he was strongly favoring that side. We decided at that appointment we would try “repositioning”, meaning we would do physical therapy with him and do things to help him look to his left instead of his right. I mean, he still looked to his left, but not nearly as much as the right. Sometimes if there was something to his left he would turn just about all the way around to his right so he didn’t have to turn left.

At the four month check up and after our efforts there was no change in the flat spot but his dexterity imporoved greatly to his neck. And now there was a noticeable amount of difference between the symmetry of his ears. They started to become very uneven since the flat spot was pushing his right ear forward. The doctor said it was plagiocephaly, and that it could be corrected with a helmet. Since we already did the repositioning for two months and it didn’t help we decided that we would start the process of getting Tyler a corrective helmet.

We had an appointment at the end of December to see a neurosurgeon to be sure it wasn’t neurological and he checked out just fine. After that we were sent to Gary, the only orthodist in north-central Wisconsin that does the helmets. He took measurements and said that Tyler was in the severe range of plagio and recommended we do the helmet. His ears measured almost an inch difference!

Tyler had an appointment February 2nd to have the molding made. They put a netting over his head and then put big pieces of paper mache like stuff over it. They cut a hole where his nose and mouth are and made some markings where his ears and the middle of his forehead are. Gary had to sit him up to do the back and Tyler woke up a bit but they got it all done. We got to pick from a few designs for the outside of the helmet and chose a blue background with cars, trucks, tractors and that kind of "boy" stuff on it.

I took some pictures of Tyler’s head the day after his molding (Feb 3) to show the “problem” areas so everyone can clearly see what is going on. We’re very lucky that it has only affected his head, forehead and ears. In some kids it actually causes asymmetry in the eyes or cheeks, making one significantly bigger than the other. What has happened with Tyler is he favored his right side so much that when his head was growing it grew more to the right front and even to the left side because there was pressure on that right side where he would lay. Now, with the helmet, the pressure will be on the areas that are already sticking out and as the head grows more it will fill in the spaces left between the flat areas and the helmet.

We picked up Tyler’s helmet on February 21st! We are so blessed to have such a patient and laid back little boy! My mom and dad went along since Josh was at work so Grandpa held him during the appointment. (Probaby a good thing cuz I was nervous and Tyler picks up on that!) Gary brought in the helmet and let Tyler check it out a little bit before he popped it on his head. Tyler didn't care one bit! The helmet itself is cute...the pictures are quite a bit bigger than we expected them to be but it doesn't matter! :-) As long as it's working! We had a schedule to follow for breaking him into it but we didn’t really use it because things went so great! He didn’t seem to mind it one bit so Gary said to just feel our way through the process and if things are going well we can just leave it on him, which is what we did!

His latest appointment was on March 9th and everything is right on track. Gary even said he can see an area on the flat spot that is already starting to pop out!! How awesome!

I guess plagio is getting to be more common now because of all the time babies are spending on their backs due to SIDS. PLEASE educate anyone you know with a little one at home about Plagiocephaly (flat heads!). This is preventable, to an extent. Josh and I had never even heard of this. I read a lot when I was pregnant and never once was it mentioned in a book! We had no idea that his favoring his right side would cause this!

This is cosmetic, not neurological, so having that in our minds makes this a little easier! I almost fell apart the first time I saw him in it. Now, when we take it off for baths or getting dressed he looks weird without it after only two weeks. I did fall apart the first time someone stared at him. Josh and I went for a fish fry with Tyler and this woman was blatantly staring at him. The next thing I knew tears were rolling down my face in the middle of dinner! But that’s the only time (so far!) I’ve really lost it. I told Josh I needed to just get it out of my system! :-)

SO…after a little over two weeks with Tyler’s helmet, he is doing great! I will continue to update his progress!

He did it!

Tyler rolled over from his back to his tummy today!

He's been already doing tummy to back since about Thanksgiving, but he never had an interest in going the other way because he hates his tummy. He's been practicing and getting close for quite a while now and this afternoon he did it! The things a baby will do for his toys! And he even stayed on his tummy for a little bit to play! It was a great moment!

I just finished rolling over to get closer to my keys!

Jackpot! This is just what I wanted! Did I do something special?!

Adventures in Teething

Well, I'm pretty sure that Tyler is teething now but I'm not feeling any teeth poking through yet. His gums are starting to get a little rough, but no little white things! He has been up 2-3 times in the night the last three nights. That's quite a change for us since he's been sleeping through the night since September when he was two months old! :-) We give him Tylenol but he's been coughing and choking on all the extra drool. He's coughed so hard in his sleep that two of the nights he threw up in his bed all over the place. We had to change his sheets, pj's and everything! We have two little pillows under his mattress to elevate his head but it's not seeming to help. He doesn't seem interested in chewing when he wakes up at night either. When Josh got up with him last night he ended up giving him 4 oz of formula and he went back to sleep. Then when I got up at 4:30 with him we gave him 4 more oz. I don't know if we should be doing this cuz I don't want him to become dependant on that and end up waking up cuz he's hungry.

SO...I guess you could say we're still trying to figure out what to do with him in this new stage! :-) Any advice?!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! We had a very relaxing evening out to dinner with grandma and grandpa B. (My parents.) We went to an upscale local restaurant and had a wonderful time. Tyler chilled in his car seat through the appetizer but decided to get squirmy just as our soups came! (Of course!) Daddy held him until the main course came and then Grandma was so awesome to tend to him while we ate...it was the most relaxed I've been able to be when we've had him out to eat! After dinner we came back to our house and enjoyed each others company and some brownies I made yesterday. It was so much fun!

Here's the little man in his Handsome shirt he got from grandma and grandpa B. How cute! And I just love his Bumbo seat...we use it all the time. It's a good thing he's not camera shy, huh?!

Oops! I fell over! Still not sitting up that great by my self. But I'm making progress!!

1st Christmas

Our little man's first Christmas picture! It's incredible how much the meaning of Christmas and family has changed now that Tyler is with us. We had lots of fun helping him open his presents...most of the time he was more interested in the paper. Putting it right into his mouth, of course!