Shiny and New to Me

I actually am posting, like I promised :) I forgot to mention that we also got to visit my friend Lindsey and her new baby, Caroline, when we were on our way back to Fort Worth from Houston last weekend. I believe I've mentioned before that I went and visited Lindsey in the hospital a few weeks ago. It was great to get to see them again and hold a tiny baby. Makes me miss having one!

Here is the cool new toy Brendan got from Nana/Brian/Shannon. (that's where I got the blog post from...it's shiny and new to him!) It is a Little Tykes bench and the activity table on the top has buttons you push that make either music or piano key noises. It also has a mirror, a cylinder filled with balls that you can rotate to make noise and two spinning toys. The opposite side of it (the activity part flips over) is a dry erase board, which will be super fun when Brendan gets a little older. He really likes it and it's very cute to see him sitting on the bench!
Happy boy with his new toy

Obviously this isn't the best picture I've ever taken, but I put it on here to remind me to tell you that Brendan has started "jumping" in his jumper finally! I put jumping in quotations because he actually does more of a little jig with his feet, but he is doing something instead of just spinning around. Tim calls it his "Lord of the Dance" move. I have a cute video...just have to figure out how to get it off my camera (I really need to watch the CD that came with it).

Brendan's Poppee and Maggie got him some new shoes. His very first pair of Nikes! Aren't they adorable!? They are a little big because I told them a bigger size than he wears now so he would have some room to grow in them.

The most hilarious part, though, is how they looked on him whenever I took a picture. I'm sure the angle of the picture greatly exaggerates it, but I was falling over laughing at how huge they look on him. I also think he looks very grown up and old in this picture.

Just a cute one to throw in the mix!

I also stand now, in case you didn't know. I might fall over sometimes, but I'm still learning. I don't do it on my own, but I'm pretty good at it when mommy or daddy stands me up.

Aren't I most adorable in my overalls?

Did you say I'm cute? Well, duh.

Brendan also started sitting on his own like a big boy in the tub. He was getting too big for his bath seat and we still have trouble with the duck being slippery, so I just got a bath mat and tried him in the tub. He seems to really like it.

We finally hung his swing up on the front porch and he LOVES it. Yesterday, he actually started crying when I took him out of it. Today he almost fell asleep in it.

Not much happened last week. Thursday, I went with a friend to see Eat, Pray, Love and for dinner at Gloria's in Colleyville. I really liked the movie and I didn't think I was going to. It was nice to have some girl talk and a little time away. Thanks, Tim! We spent the whole weekend in Fort Worth just hanging out and mostly at home. It was a nice relaxing weekend. This week, I have a quarter of a tank of gas that I am trying to make last until Friday so we are spending lots of time at home and trying to think of things to keep us occupied. I had a change of plans and instead of leaving on Thursday, I'll be staying in town and my Nanny and Papa will be coming here on Saturday to spend the night with us and see Brendan.

Hope y'all have a great week!

Finally

I'm finally posting!! Sorry for the long break without any weekly/picture posts. I've been busy and tired and just haven't found the time. I'm going to try to make up for it by doing TWO posts today and showing you lots of cute pictures. I'll start with what we did weekend before this past one and that week before that.

We started out the week with Tim's birthday. He turned 28 this year and it was his first birthday as a daddy :) We went and ate at BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse (if you haven't been there and you happen to have one in your area, GO to it! It's soooo good). We got some avocado eggrolls and shared a deep dish pizza and then came home for cake and presents.

Daddy and Brendan on the big day
Tim requested a cookie cake for his birthday this year. It's kind of hard to tell with the candle,s but it's a poker cake with cards and poker chips on it. The candles would NOT blow it. It took forever haha

The day Brendan had to go to our pediatrician for his tummy issues, they called me back and told me to bring him in right after I put him down for a nap. I went in to get him and found this...Oh, and this is just with the flash on my camera, I have one I took right before this without the flash and it's pitch black. I couldn't believe how bright the flash made it! This is the first time he's ever slept snuggled with his teddy. Too cute :)

On Friday, we left in the morning and went to Beaumont to visit Tim's mom (Brendan's Nana) and dad and stepmom (Brendan's Poppee and Maggie). We got to eat some good Mexican food and Brendan got to spend some quality time with his grandparents. It was a nice trip! Saturday, we drove to Houston along with Tim's mom to spend the night with his brother, Brian, sister-in-law, Shannon, and nieces, Kate and Carolyn. Kate's 5th birthday was the day after Tim's and her party was going to be on Sunday. Unforunately, it wasn't going to be until later in the day and since we had such a long drive we weren't going to be able to be there for the actual party. So, we went down the day before to celebrate with her and hang out.

Kate showing Brendan how to work her cool keyboard.

Brendan showing off his skills - Kate was very excited about how well she taught him :)

Kate helping Brendan sing along to the music.

By the way, Brendan just loved Kate. Everytime he would see her he would smile and she would make him laugh. It was very cute. She asked us why he kept smiling at her and we said "because he likes you." And she responded "I think he's always smiling at me because I'm so beautiful." I think that was it, too!

More of Brendan's Captain Adorable pajamas. He was showing us how he could fly with his cape on the back of them.

Brendan with Nana before we had to leave.

Nana has a fun new dog named Kirby and Brendan was really chatting it up with him in his cage. There was a birthday balloon nearby so we had to take the opportunity to hook it on Brendan's wrist for a little photo op.

Hey, Kirby, what are you doing in there? Come out! (Right after this, he started leaning wayyyy forward holding onto the bars and going to the bathroom, complete with grunts. It was pretty hilarious)

I'll have some pictures from this past week and weekend later today. We had a great time visiting Nana, Poppee, Maggie, Brian, Shannon, Kate, and Carolyn and hope we get to see them again real soon! I also have some cute pictures of Brendan playing with a cool new toy he got courtesy of Nana, Brian and Shannon. He gets some of Kate and Carolyn's old toys when they are done with them but they are good as new to him!

Hope y'all had a great weekend! I promise not to take as long to post anymore!

The Appointment

Warning, this is probably going to be a LONG post!

We had our appointment with the Nurse Practitioner at the Gastroenterologist yesterday afternoon. Prior to this, like I said, Brendan had not been on any solids since Monday and had only had the hypoallergenic formula. His poop had become totally watery diarrhea (sorry, gross, I know) because of only being on that formula and so it was hard to tell if it was still black or not but I thought it looked more brown by yesterday morning. Anyway, we went to the appointment at 3:00 and I really did not like the NP at all. She pretty much totally got on my nerves. She came to the conclusion (after talking with us for less than 5 minutes) that he FOR SURE has a milk protein allergy and will need to stay on the hypoallergenic formula and avoid all dairy products in solids. She did say most babies outgrow this allergy by the age of 1 and there was no reason to think he couldn't be started on regular milk at age 1.

She said she did not believe at all that he had a bleeding ulcer because that is very rare in babies. This was one thing I actually agreed with her on because, when I tried googling it this past weekend, I couldn't find any information on ulcers in babies. However, after thinking about what our pediatrician said, I think that he was actually saying he thought the lining of Brendan's stomach got irritated and caused a bleed, rather than that he actually had an ulcer. I'm not sure if he just used the wrong word or if he was just trying to explain it to us.

Here is why she annoyed me and I am uncomfortable with her diagnosis.

1. She had no prior medical history of Brendan whatsoever. She didn't even know how much he weighed prior to them weighing him at this appointment. She told me he has had this allergy his entire life. I don't believe that's true and here's why:

• I told her he had a lot of gas when he was little, which she said was a sign of this milk protein allergy. But, I tried eliminating dairy from my diet whenever I was breastfeeding and it didn't make a difference. Our pediatrician said babies often just have to work out their systems because they've never had food, etc before when they are born and just have to get everything worked out. Sure enough, Brendan's gas decreased dramatically, pretty much becoming non-existent, after a few months and he had no gas when he was on the sensitive formula. His gas only returned when I put him on the Earth's Best Organic formula which was full lactose.
• He's never had a black stool in his life until we started the Earth's Best, signaling to me that the problem didn't start until then. When I put him back on the Sensitive, he went back to normal for awhile and then the blood came back. To me, that means that the Earth's Best was irritating him, it got a little better whenever I switched him back, but the irritation was still there so he had bleeding.
• She said the blood in his stool was caused from constipation. This was AFTER I told her that, prior to only being on formula this week, he pooped about 3 times a day. When she said he was constipated, I said "he was constipated when he pooped 3 times per day?!" and she just said "yes." I'm sorry, it seems a little strange to me that he could be constipated when he was going three times per day and a lot of babies don't even go ONE time per day and aren't considered constipated.
• I don't know if I've mentioned it here before, but Brendan is a bigggg grunter whenever he poops. This started right before we started him on solids. I asked the pediatrician about it and he said if I didn't notice it only occuring whenever I ate something specific (this is when I was still pumping and giving him breastmilk) or notice it with a specific solid whenever he was eating solids, that that might just be the way he goes. He said some babies are just like that and it's not abnormal. So Tim told the NP at the appointment yesterday about Brendan grunting when he goes. Her response was "yes, that's because he's constipated because of the allergy" (by the way, not to be gross again, but his poops are very, very rarely hard or small pebbles like he is constipated. They are usually a very normal consistency). Well, she gave us the go-ahead to give him solids again as long as he didn't have any dairy. So, last night, Tim gave him carrots, sweet potatoes, and a plum/cherry purree for dinner - all of which I made myself so I know that they have no dairy whatsoever in them. This morning, after Brendan gets up, he's sitting on the floor playing and what does he do? He starts grunting when he's pooping (Oh, and his poop wasn't hard at all, it was totally soft). Hmmm...so he still grunts when he's not having any dairy and hasn't had any for the past five or 6 days? Strange....

Ok, I realize it probably sounds like I am being snotty and that I am possibly ungrateful for the fact that he has a minor allergy rather than an ulcer. That is not the case AT ALL. I am extremely happy that, if something is wrong, it is just an allergy and he doesn't have some terrible medical condition or a bleeding ulcer in his tummy. But, if he doesn't actually have an allergy at all and just had an irritation that will get better (or might even already be better) and he doesn't have to be on special formula until he turns 1 and doesn't have to completely avoid dairy until he turns 1, I would rather go ahead and know that. It doesn't help the situation for me when I feel like the NP just latched onto that conclusion that he has an allergy and wouldn't listen to any of Brendan's history that might tend to point to the fact that that might not be the case. She didn't even act like it was a possibility that he could have just had an irritation.

I do realize she likely has more experience in the area of digestion than my pediatrician but he knows a heck of a lot more about Brendan's history than she does. So, I think what we decided to do is go back to our doctor in about a week or a week and a half, bring a dirty diaper for him to test for blood (she said the diaper I brought from earlier in the day yesterday wasn't fresh enough and she just stuck her finger up Brendan's bottom then rubbed her finger on a card that apparently came back negative for blood....which didn't seem as accurate as testing an actual diaper and which my pediatrician told me last week wasn't as accurate as testing a dirty diaper) and, if it comes back negative, talk to him about my hesitation with her diagnosis and talk to him about possibly introducing the sensitive formula again and seeing if Brendan has a reaction to it. I by no means want to cause Brendan any pain but re-introducing the sensitive to really see if he had an allergy was my pediatrician's first recommendation when we went to him last Friday - get the irritation healed and then try reintroducing the sensitive and, if he has a problem, we will know he has an allergy.

If he has an allergy, it's no big deal and we will go back to the hypoallergenic formula and avoid any dairy in his diet until we try it when he's 1. But, like I said above, if he doesn't have an allergy, I think it would be better to go ahead and figure that out so he can start having dairy (like cheese and yogurt) slowly and then adjusting to regular milk won't be as big of a leap when he turns 1. Oh, and because of the fact he was irritated by the full lactose formula, I do admit he probably has a sensitivity to lactose. But, if it's just a sensitivity, that's what the sensitive formula is for.

Ok, if you're still with me after ALL that, I'd love to hear your opinions. If you think I'm being totally unreasonable, by all means, tell me! I'm not going to be offended because I realize I'm not wanting him to have this allergy so I may not be reacting appropriately. Sorry it took me so long to give y'all an update and sorry I haven't done a fun weekly post this week, but I promise, promise, promise I will this weekend!

Prayer Request

I will do a weekly post tonight or tomorrow at the latest. For now, so that my weekly post isn't the length of a novel, I wanted to do a separate "prayer request" post.

Whenever I was still breastfeeding/pumping, if we ever supplemented with formula, I gave Brendan a Sensitive formula (Similac Sensitive or Up & Up Sensitive (which is the Target brand)). I did this because he had a lot of gas issues as a baby and a lot of things say babies have trouble digesting milk protiens so the sensitive formula helps with that. Anyway, when I stopped pumping, we originally continued giving him the Sensitive formula. I decided I wanted to switch him to an organic formula because I was under the impression that they used a different process than regular formulas to add DHA/ARA into the formula. By the way, thats a WHOLE other post that I plan on doing. *Stepping off my soap box* So, we switched him to Earth's Best Organic formula, which is not a sensitive formula. I figured that he wasn't having the gas issues anymore because his gas had decreased dramatically and I talked with the doctor about how to gradually introduce the regular formula.

After trying the Earth's Best for a few weeks, I noticed that Brendan's gas had come back with a vengance. He wasn't seeming like he was necessarily uncomfortable, but he had A LOT of gas. Then, I found out that the process Earth's Best uses to put the DHA in the formula is the exact same as non-organic formulas. Also, while he was on the Earth's Best, his poop turned completely black. I had read before and learned during a class when I was pregnant that formula-fed babies often have black stool because of all the iron in the formula. I figured that the regular formula had more iron in it and that's why his poop turned black on the regular formula when it wasn't like that on the sensitive. But, Tim was uncomfortable with his poop being black all the time because he felt like we wouldn't know if something ended up being wrong with Brendan (like internal bleeding, which can manifest itself as black poop). Because of these things, I decided to switch him back to the Sensitive formula.

When we switched back to the Sensitive, his poop initially went back to the way it was before the Earth's Best (which, in case you really wanted to know, is brown and/or the color of whatever solids he ate that day). Then, it all the sudden turned black again. Oh, and I'm not talking sort of black. I'm talking black as night, the color of tar, the blackest thing you can think of black. We felt like something might be wrong because he hadn't had black poop since switching back to Sensitive and he had been really fussy that week, which isn't usualy for him, so I called the doctor. The nurse called me and told me to go ahead and come in just in case, though it probably would turn out to be nothing. When I originally went in last Thursday, they didn't tell me I needed to bring a poopy diaper with me and Brendan hadn't pooped on the way over there. They have to have a dirty diaper because the way they test for blood is to test the actual poop. They ended up just telling me to go home and bring a dirty diaper back on Friday.

When he woke up Friday morning, he had pooped sometime over the course of the night. It wasn't nearly as black as it had been earlier in the week and the day before, but I went ahead and saved it and then decided to wait a couple hours to see if he would go again. When he hadn't gone again, I called and asked if I could bring in the diaper from overnight and they said 'yes.' I brought him in, they tested it for blood, and it came back positive.

The doctor had me go over the whole process of switching formulas and about how fussy Brendan had been. For the first time the night before, he had actually had a lot of trouble sleeping and kept pulling his legs up underneath him and putting his arms on his tummy like it was hurting. I told the doctor all this and he said he believed that the regular formula had irritated Brendan's stomach and caused a bleeding ulcer. He knew the bleeding had to be in his upper intestines or stomach because if it was in his lower intestines, it would have come out the color of blood instead of black. He told me to try two different hypoallergenic formulas (Almenium and Nutramigen), figure out which one Brendan liked and give him that for two weeks instead of the Sensitive formula. In addition, he told us to stay away from cheese and yogurt for the next two weeks and he prescribed us Prevacid to help neutralize Brendan's stomach acid and allow the ulcer to heal. He also told me to make an appointment with a Gastroenterologist (sp?) for Brendan but that he felt there was only a 10% chance we would make it to that appointment because it usually takes awhile to get in and he thought the measures we were taking over the next two weeks would solve the problem. If the black stool went away in the next two weeks, then we would try going back on the sensitive formula. If nothing happened, his stomach just got irritated and we healed it and everything is fine. If the black stool returned, then we would know he had a milk protein allergy and we would have to take measures to watch what he eats.

Of course, Brendan wouldn't drink either one of the hypoallergenic formulas unless I put juice in them. So, I called the doctor (before I figured out he would drink it with juice) and they said to use soy formula. I looked online and found out that a lot of kids that have milk protein allergies also have soy allergies. Also, I was worried that the soy wouldn't be as effective in solving the problem since the doctor hadn't recommended it in the first place. In addition, Brendan has been having trouble sleeping and doing the same stuff like his stomach hurts since Thursday night. Because of that, I went ahead and called the doctor again this morning and asked about the soy being as effective, told them he would drink the hypoallergenic only with juice, and told them about his sleeping problems. They also called and asked me about how he was eating (which, he hasn't been eating as much since this happened) and I told them about that. They called me back and told me it would actually be better to give him the hypoallergenic formula with some juice instead of the soy and they also told me to take him off of ALL solids, except I can give him rice cereal.

I was able to get him an appointment with the Nurse Practitioner at the Gastroenterologist THIS Thursday at 3:00 so we aren't having to wait as long as we thought.

Anyway, after all this, I just wanted to ask that y'all say a little prayer that everything is okay and we figure out exactly what the problem is, get it fixed, and that it is not too serious. Oh, and that he doesn't have a whole lot of trouble not being able to have any solids because this kid LOVES food and loves his solids.

Hope y'all had a great weekend!

The Return of a Name

Now that only certain people can read the blog, I can finally start calling "Toots" by his real name! Brendan turned 7 months old on Friday! I did his measurements on Wednesday and he weighed 22 pounds, was 28.5 inches long, and his head was 18.5 inches. That's right about 95th percentile for weight and height and it's off the chart for head size...haha, baby has a big head!

Here are his seven month pictures...

Daddy making Brendan laugh when we got home from visiting CiCi, Peepaw, and Nanny in Boerne this weekend.

This is the most bittersweet story about these geese. The river in Boerne is right next to a busy street and the ducks/geese often cross the street at the risk of getting run over by cars. There is a restaurant and bar across the street from the rive that is called Dodging Duck because of this predicament :) The momma duck in this picture (I believe she's in the back) built her nest in the yard area in front of the Dodging Duck. The owners of it were worried the mom and babies would end up getting run over if they were constantly crossing back and forth from the river to their nest. So, they built a fence around the nest and put a baby pool in the fence for the momma and babies to use until the babies got big enough to stay across the street. The daddy duck would cross the street everyday to visit the mom and babies but he wouldn't stay within the fence. One day, he got run over while crossing the street. A local vet took him to his office and tried to nurse him back to health. It looked like he was going to make it, but he had a spinal cord injury and ended up taking a turn for the worse and they had to put him to sleep. Right after he got hit, a new "daddy" duck stepped in and started visiting the mom and the babies. Now that they are back across the street in the river, he has stuck with them and they are a little family! I know it's such a sad story that the real daddy got run over, but I thought it was so sweet that a new daddy stepped in.

Brendan took his first trip to feed the ducks. He sat and watched while we threw bread at them.

Family picture to commemorate the first trip to the river with Brendan.

Watching the ducks

Brendan and his CiCi

New shirt CiCi bought him. I think it's hilarious :)

Swinging on the back porch in Boerne. It was sunny outside so we were trying to cover his face using Daddy's hat. His PJs say "Captain Adorable" and they have a little cape attached to the back of them!!! (Pink swing because of the other grandkid. We have a blue and red one at our house but we just found a place to hang it yesterday, so we'll be doing that this week)

Last week, Brendan woke up from a nap and this is what his hair looked like:

Playing in his cool alien PJs

Spikey hair

Haha this picture cracks me up...I think he looks so cute, but kind of cracked out at the same time ;)

Last week, we also had our first playdate at our house with our playgroup. We had 8 moms and kids come. Five of them were right around Brendan's age (3 boys and 2 girls) and three of them were a little older (17 months, 21 months and 22 months). It turned out really great and I met two new people who I hadn't known before. We are going to one of their houses tomorrow for a swimming playdate. It's really great to meet people with kids around the age of Brendan and have other moms to chat with.

Friday morning, we left for Boerne (outside of San Antonio). When we got there, Tim went and played golf with my stepdad and my mom, Nanny, Brendan and I went and did some shopping. We celebrated Tim's birthday a little early on Friday night. Saturday, Tim and I went and spent part of the day on our own while they kept Brendan. Sunday, we headed back. There was some unexpected traffic so it ended up taking longer than normal.

Brendan was exhausted and was asleep by 7:00 PM. He woke up this morning for a minute at 5:30 AM then we heard him at 6:45 AM and thought he was ready to get up for the day. He ended up falling back asleep and slept until 8:15! He never sleeps that late. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it last week, but he's sleeping on his tummy exclusively now. He actually seems to sleep even better on his stomach, which is funny since he hated being on it so much before he started rolling. He is starting to bring his legs up underneath him when he's on his stomach, so I think he's getting on the road to crawling. I'm actually really excited about that!

Tim's birthday is Wednesday. I can't wait for him to get his gifts! I'll post a picture after he opens. It will be his first birthday as a dad :)

That's all I can think of right now...Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Welcome!

Thanks for accepting your invitation to read my blog now that it's private! I'll be doing a weekly post later today, so check back!

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Last Post

This will be my last post on the public blog. Please remember, if you want to keep reading come Sunday, you need to e-mail me your e-mail address at throneofthornes@gmail.com. I have family and of course anyone whose already e-mailed me, but other than that, I'm not even counting on all my followers wanting to read and, even if you are a follower, that doesn't mean I have access to your e-mail address to sign you up. I will be sending out the invites Sunday night. If you haven't gotten anything by Monday morning, then I didn't have your e-mail address and you need to e-mail me.

Last week, my friend Lindsey from law school had her baby, C. She is ADORABLE! I was so excited to get to drive down to Waco for about an hour to see them at the hospital and meet her. Can't wait to watch her grow up. Also, my friend Morgan (we've been friends since 3rd grade) had triplets on Thursday! Two boys and a girl and they're all doing wonderfully. We also had a fun weekend. Saturday, we got together with our friends Stephanie and Ross and went to Joe T. Garcia's. Stephanie was in law school with me and was my PC Partner. She and Ross live in Dallas but we have a hard time finding a chance to get together, so it was great to see them! Toots got a little cranky by the end of the dinner because we went kind of late, had to wait to get seated, and had to wait awhile for our food, but he was fine once he got home and in his bath. Sunday, we went to Waco to bring my dad and stepmom's dog back to them (we had been keeping her while they were on vacation). We had a nice visit with them. Tomorrow, I'm hosting my first playdate at our house. As of right now, there will be 8 moms and their kids, but most of the time, people end up cancelling at the last minute, so it might not end up being quite that many. I'm really excited about it!

I'm leaving you with lots of pictures....

Playing this afternoon after his nap. Toots has been taking AWESOME naps the past couple days (yesterday he took a 3 hour and 20 minute nap! Today he took a 2 hour nap and a 1.5 hour nap - he never takes two long naps!) and he's also been sleeping later the past few days - he usually doesn't wake up until after 7 now whereas before he was waking up around 6 but we didn't get him out of bed until 7. He got some cool mesh basketball shorts from Carter's so he could be like his daddy....Doesn't he look so grown up?!
Kind of blurry, but I thought this picture was sweet. His hair sticks up like that all.the.time. Even though I brush it when it's wet to try to make it lay down.

Happy boy! He loves chewing and sucking on this starfish.

Cute new PJs I got him last week at Carter's. These are 12 month size and I'm pretty sure they won't fit him in a month!

Picture of how he was sleeping the other night....He's started sleeping on his stomach, and he was sleeping face down! Very scary for me, but just as I decided I should go in there, he turned his head to the side. Crazy baby
The remote is his most favorite thing to play with (other than my keys) and especially to chew on
Just thought he looked sweet in this picture. This is the only smocked bubble outfit he has because his daddy doesn't like them. Doesn't he look like a doll, though?

That's about all, folks! I want to thank all of you for keeping up with us on this blog. I really hope that you will e-mail me and continue reading. Going private does add one step of having to log in to read the blog, but you can tell it to "remember" you and you will very, very rarely have to log in (it usually makes me log in to blogs I read that are private only if I have signed out of my account or maybe every couple months otherwise). If you decide not to keep reading, thanks for having kept up with us so far and we wish you the best! For those of you that are going to keep reading, see you on Monday for a new post!