Side by Side

I'm SO sorry I didn't post right after and give y'all an update. Everything is good with Griffin now! When we went for his two month appointment last Tuesday, they retook his blood and his counts were all back up to normal. Whew!

My friend, Lindsey, asked me to post pictures of Brendan and Griffin side by side so y'all could see if they look alike. Everyone tells me they think they look just alike and Griffin looks just like Tim. Now, Brendan is more of a mix of us, but he definitely looked like Tim when he was little. Brendan was already chunkier than Griffin at this point, though (Brendan was 12 pounds 15 ounces at his two month, Griffin was 11 pounds 9 ounces).

 

I can't get the above ones to go side by side. You probably already know but Brendan is on the top and Griffin is on the bottom with the hat.

At Griffin's two month, he was 24 1/4 inches long (97th percentile), 11 pounds 9 ounces (50th percentile) and 15 1/2 inch head circumference (50th percentile). Long baby, just like Brendan! It will be interesting to see if he chunks up or if he stays lean.

He finally started smiling right before we left the hospital! We had been waiting and waiting. He still doesn't smile as easily as Brendan does so I'm not able to get a lot of pictures with him smiling like I was with Brendan. Hopefully that will change. Here's one really cute one I got on my phone:

Hope y'all have a good weekend! I'll try to post next week since this wasn't much of a post. I'm also considering making the blog public again because a lot of people are having trouble logging on to read it....I'll talk more about that later, too. 

Hospital Stay

I intended on posting last week but Griffin was in the hospital Monday-Friday :( It was actually a similar situation to what happened to Brendan when he was around Griffin's age. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can read the post here

Anyway, on Sunday we went to Waco to see family for the day. Griffin seemed kind of fussy the whole day but I didn't think much of it. On our way home, I was sitting in the back seat with the kids and Griffin would be asleep and he would scream out in his sleep like he was in pain. I thought maybe he had gas. When we got home and tried to put him down for the night, he kept screaming out and wouldn't settle down. At about 1:00 AM, I thought he felt warm so I decided to take his temperature. It was 101.8. About 30 minutes later, I took it again and it was 101.4. We decided to give him a little bit of Tylenol. I slept with him on my chest and woke up about 3:00 AM and thought he felt really warm. I thought maybe he was just hot from sleeping on me and didn't take his temperature. At 5:00 AM, I thought he definitely felt much too warm for it just to have been from me, so I took his temperature again. It was 103.1 :( I decided I needed to call the pediatrician's nurse line because I didn't know what to do. She told me I needed to take him to Cook Children's Hospital ER to get checked out.

We got to the ER and, of course, they said they needed to do a spinal tap because he was so young and didn't have any other symptoms besides a fever and a rash they discovered once I got there. He had to have blood and urine drawn and the spinal tap. His white count was low so they decided to admit us to the hospital and to watch the blood, spinal and urine cultures to see if anything grew in them. Something did grow in the urine and blood cultures so we had to stay and wait to see what it was to see if he possibly had a bacterial infection. In the meantime, they did a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia and an ultrasound of his kidneys to check for a urinary tract infection. Both of those came back fine. He continued to run a 103 fever, even after getting medicine and anytime I would touch him he would scream and cry like it hurt :(

The cultures were supposed to be identified on Wednesday, but of course they didn't grow out like they expected and we had to wait until Thursday. The pediatrician on staff told us he thought it was probably a viral infection, not bacterial, and that there was a 5% chance the bacteria that was growing could be a contaminant (which is what happened to Brendan). We found out on Wednesday that it was NOT the common skin contaminant of Staph something or other (whatever to common staph is that we all have on our skin, which is what Brendan's was, so we thought it was less likely that it was going to be a contaminant and we would have to stay in the hospital at least a week.

Well, we found out Thursday morning that it WAS a contaminant, but not something that they could identify where it came from. What was in his urine was also a contaminant. So, there is a FIVE percent chance of it being a contaminant and I've had TWO kids get cultures with contaminants!!! Pretty ridiculous odds, huh?

But, they wanted to keep us another day in the hospital because Griffin had still been running a fever and still had a bad rash on his body. The pediatrician had an infectious diseases doctor come look at Griffin as well. If he didn't get a fever all day Thursday, we would likely get to go home Friday. The ID doctor agreed she thought it was a viral infection of some sort. He didn't get a fever all day Thursday and his white count had gone up in the blood they took Friday morning. We were able to go home on Friday but one of Griffin's levels was still very low (I can't remember the name of the level but it is something in your bone marrow that indicates infection). They like it to be 1500 at least and his was only 270. We are going to our pediatrician tomorrow and he has to have blood drawn again to make sure the number went up. I'm not sure if we will have to be re-admitted or what if it doesn't.

So, it was NOT a fun week. I spent the week at the hospital with Griffin. Tim was with Brendan and we also had my mom and stepdad and my dad and stepmom helping with keeping Brendan throughout the week. It was a crazy, exhausting time. Hopefully his counts will have gone up tomorrow and we won't have anything else to worry about. We also were unable to go to his two month appointment Friday because we didn't get out of the hospital in time.

We have his two month appointment tomorrow now, so I will update tomorrow with his two month pictures, some other pictures, and his stats. Say a little prayer for us that everything is back to normal with him!

Finally! One Month!

I finally found the camera cord! Sorry for so much delay! Griffin turned one month old on October 16. We had his one month appointment and he weighed 10 pounds (50th percentile), was 22.75 inches long (95th percentile) and his head was 14.75 inches (50th percentile). Brendan was a quarter inch taller and had a quarter inch bigger head at the same age, so that was pretty comparable. But, he was 12 ounces heavier! That probably had to do with the fact that he ate ALL night and Griffin actually gets some sleep :)

The past 5 days, he has consistently slept 4.5 to 5 hours the first stretch of the night and 3-4 the second. It has been great. We did have to get him on Prevacid this week because he is having bad spit up issues and was really fussy after eating. I think it is already helping.

Tim and I went to see the Rangers in the World Series on Saturday. Of course, it's the one day they lost! But, we still had fun.

Brendan has been LOVING school. He enjoys going so muchand hates when he has to leave. Today he's dressing in his Halloween costume - a firefighter - for their Fall Festival. Last month, he and Tim were playing outside and Shiner was running alongside Brendan and knocked him over. Brendan fell onto some rocks along our fence and busted the back of his head open. He had to get staples in his head :( It was so sad and scary but he was a trooper and did great.

Here's some pictures from the past month:

First Bath. He LOVES his baths! Getting undressed for them...not so much.

Supporting the team :)

Brendan loves to hold Griffin's hand when they are next to eachother or in the car.

Sleepyhead

Hanging out in his mamaRoo swing. This is actually what he sleeps in right now because he loves it so much.

One Month!

Oh man, WHAT is that?!

Hanging out in the bouncer, looking at the animals.

Fall Festival in our neighborhood

Playing with his bath bubble machine

Meeting the cow and seeing the Fort Worth Fire Truck at Chick-Fil-A. He loves both of them!

Brendan's Big Brother present from Griffin.

His head with the staples :(

I'll be better about updating this month, if any of y'all are still reading!

Ugh

If anyone is still reading, now I can't find my camera cord to put pictures on the computer. I WILL find it today and post tonight.

So Sorry!

I am sorry it's been a month since I have posted! Time has just flown by getting used to have two kids instead of just one :)

Tomorrow is Griffin's one month appointment and I can't find my camera right now, so I will post tomorrow with his current stats and with new pictures! I hope everyone has been doing great and I can't wait to update y'all!

He's Here!

I'll write a more detailed story later, but Griffin Dunning Thorne was born yesterday (September 16) at 9:02 AM. He weighed 7 lbs, 6 oz and was 20.5 inches long. He has a good amount of dark hair and is a good eater already :)

The doctor broke my water at 7:15, so it was VERY quick and I had the epidural for about 5 minutes before he was born. Not fun! But he's great and Brendan lovesss him, so far!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow

Looks like Griffin will be making his big arrival TOMORROW! I called the doctor today because he seemed like he had been moving less than normal the past few days. At first, I chalked it up to the fact that maybe I was about to go into labor but since I still wasn't in labor this morning, I decided to call and let them know. Of course, after I called and on my way there, he started moving a lot more! But, anyway, they had me come in for a sonogram and to get checked out just in case.

The sonogram looked good and everything was normal with him. They estimated him at 7 pounds. But, when they took my blood pressure it was high and it's never been high the rest of the pregnancy. The doctor checked me again and I have progressed to 4 cm over the past three days and he said my water was bulging.

Since I felt like he had been moving less lately and, mostly, because of how progressed I was and my high blood pressure, he decided to go ahead and have me check-in to the hospital at 6:00 AM tomorrow (Friday) morning to get induced. Because I am already so far progressed and because of how fast my labor was with Brendan, he thinks we will have the baby by lunchtime :)

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers for everything to go smoothly and quickly. Brendan was born at 38 weeks, 3 days and Griffin will be born at 38 weeks, 1 day.

I'll post updates if I can and post a picture when he's born. Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Still here!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile! Things have been pretty busy around here. 

As of today, I am 37 weeks, 4 days pregnant. Here is my picture from Thursday at exactly 37 weeks:

I have started going to the doctor every week and he has been checking me for progress the last 3 weeks. The last two weeks, I have been 1 cm and about 1.5 cm dilated and 60% effaced last week. I went today, and I am a "good" 3 cm, 80% effaced and baby is at a 0 station! When I was about this same amount with Brendan (3 cm/70% effaced), I went to the doctor on a Monday and went into labor Wednesday morning at 4:00 AM. The doctor said he wouldn't be surprised if I had the baby tomorrow. Of course, I could walk around like this for another week, but if history repeats itself, it will be within the next couple days! Ah! I am starting to get nervous :) 

I got all the weekly cleaning done today so I would know everything was done if I do go into labor. Tim is going to work from home this week so he will be close by if I go into labor during the day. I have a friend lined up to keep Brendan or to pick him up from Mother's Day Out if I go into labor while he's there. My bag is all packed for the hospital and the carseat is installed. I think we are ready. 

In other news, we bought Brendan a pool for the backyard because our neighborhood pool has already closed for the season. The first day, he was less than impressed with the pool and just wanted to play with the water hose. When I tried to take it away so he would actually get in the pool I just spent forever blowing up and filling with water, he freaked out and threw a fit and wouldn't get in it. 

But, of course, after his nap, he was happy to get into it when he had clothes on and a regular diaper rather than the swim diaper I had him in earlier! 

Last weekend, he was more "into" it but still wanted to play with the hose a lot of the time.

This grass needs some water!

I also like to sit and have the water spray onto me...

 He is quite the waterbaby, though, when we are at the big pool and he is at his swim lessons.

Another big thing, Brendan started Mother's Day Out the last week of August! He goes on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM, but had Labor Day off. He absolutely LOVES it. Instead of crying when I drop him off, he happily walks into the classroom without even looking back at me and then throws a fit and cries whenever I pick him up. It makes me feel very loved.

Here he is on the first day before we left.

Getting ready to walk into school with his backpack. He loves his backpack and sometimes even just wears it around the house when it's not a school day. He also happily proclaims "SCHOOL!" whenever I tell him he has school or ask if he wants to go.

Walking in the first day

The next two were taken by his teachers. They have a shutterfly site where they post pictures from the week so the parents can see what the kids are up to. They say he is always happy at school and loves, loves, loves playing outside (big surprise!). Today, when I went to pick him up, he screamed his scream he does when he doesn't want to do something because he didn't want to leave. The teachers go "what was that?! He's never done that before." Yeah, I'm pretty sure he does that at least 4 times a day at home. I'm glad to know he's behaving himself there :)

I was a little worried about him napping because he would be napping on a napmat for the first time and around the 7 other kids in his class. Luckily, he has had no problem whatsoever going to sleep and sleeping the whole 2 hours of naptime. I think they wear him out!

This month, he is learning the number 1 and the color "red." They are doing a theme of Apples and Fall on the Farm so they also sing Old MacDonald and Farmer in the Dell a lot. I also go to music class with him on Wednesdays at school from 9:05 to 9:25 where we do a lot of signing and dancing. He wasn't too sure about it the first time, but last week he really enjoyed it.

I don't have pictures, yet, but four of my friends threw me a surprise "Sprinkle" to celebrate baby Griffin's upcoming arrival on August 27. I was COMPLETELY surprised about it and had a great time. It was at Brio Italian Restaurant in Southlake and there was family and a few local friends there. It was wonderful to spend some time with everyone and eat a delicious lunch. We also got some adorable clothes and the last of our needed necessities for Griffin. I'll post some pictures when I get them.

I guess that's about all! Hope y'all have a great week and I'll keep you updated on Griffin's arrival :)

Mish Mash

I didn't realize how horrible I have been at taking pictures lately! Because of that, there are only a few pictures in this post :( I have to make myself get better or poor Brendan isn't going to have any pictures of his second year of life!

We've been busy getting ready for baby to arrive and enjoying the last part of summer before Brendan starts Mother's Day Out next Monday. He will be going two days a week - Monday and Wednesday - from 9 AM to 2 PM. I'm really excited for him to get to experience it and I think he will also learn a ton.

He has started saying things are "cool" now :) I thought he was saying "two" at first, but then I realized that wasn't it and listened a little harder and said are you saying "cool?" and he repeated it to me the same way. It's very cute. He will bring me his race cars and say "cooool!" or point at things when we are out and say it.

He also loves to say "pool" everytime we pass the pool area in our neighborhood and has become quite the water baby! He finished his first session of swim lessons last week. He can go underwater for 5 to 6 seconds and independently swim that amount of time through the water (independent swimming is more like gliding with no one holding onto him right now). Just in the past week or so, he's finally started kicking his legs. When Tim is giving him a bath at night, he will lie on his stomach in the tub and move his arms and kick his legs while he is swimming :) He starts the second session (Waterbabies 2) tomorrow night with Tim. Tim is doing it with him since I will be having the baby in the middle of the session (did I already mention that in my last post?). His friend/girlfriend, Kinley, is also doing the lessons again with him.

CiCi (my mom) gave him a rocking horse back at Christmas. He was scared of it at first, then he liked being on it for a second, then he liked it but couldn't get on/off by himself. Now, he can get on and off by himself and pull the horse's ears on his own to make it sing or say things. He lovesss riding it and it's very cute when he does.

By the way, he can also say all his grandparent's names now whenever we ask him to :) Some of them are clearer than others, but he attempts to say all of them. He also tries to repeat to us any words we say to him.

He was VERY grumpy when he woke up from his nap last week, even though he slept for 2 hours and 25 minutes. This was the result whenever he was eating his snack:

I've figured out he has to be left alone in his room for a little while whenever he wakes up for the morning or from a nap. He usually immediately gets out of bed when he wakes up and goes to his door, so I always thought he wanted to get out right away but, when I would open the door, he would run away from it and scream/squeal and lie on the ground like he wanted me to leave him alone. Now, I don't even go open the door unless he cries. I just leave him in there and then he is able to open the door when he wants to come out. This usually results in him being much happier. I can move our video monitor camera to the door so I can see what he's doing whenever he's over by the door. The other day after he woke up from a long nap, he spent 20 minutes laying there just sticking his hands under the door or rolling around. This is a picture I took of the monitor:
Silly boy :)

This Thursday, I will be 35 weeks pregnant! That means I will have 35 days until my due date! I have an appointment on Monday, August 29, and he is going to start checking me for progress and I will be going every week from then on for appointments. I have gained 31 pounds as of my appointment last Tuesday. I will surely gain over 35, but I'm hoping not to gain more than about 40 because I immediately lost 30 with Brendan and, if it goes the same with Griffin, that will only give me 10 pounds to lose - which would be much nicer than the 30 I still had to lose with Brendan! I am starting to swell now and am having trouble getting my wedding rings on/off, but my feet haven't really swelled, yet. The doctor said most of what I gain from here on will be water-weight. I am still hoping I won't quite make it to the September 29 due date since I had Brendan 11 days early. Most people I ask in the family seem to think it will be around 2 weeks early. It is SOOO hot that it has just made me very "done" with the pregnancy sooner than I was with Brendan :)

Here's a 34 week belly picture:

Next post, I'll try to remember to do a comparison of being pregnant now vs. being pregnant with Brendan and I'll try to have more pictures! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

19 Months

Hi, everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. Time has just started to get away from me :)

Brendan turned 19 months this past Saturday. He had his 18 month appointment on July 14. He is 99th percentile on height (I believe it was 35 inches), 80th percentile on weight (29.4 pounds) and 92nd percentile on head size (I can't remember this...maybe 19 3/4 inches). His weight has fallen off a little, I think because he's gotten SO picky about eating and seems to hardly want to eat much of anything anymore, but the doctor said he doesn't really expect it to fall off anymore than that because of the way Brendan's body type looks. He thinks he will probably stay a pretty big boy. He is very healthy and on-track in all his milestones.

We've just been hanging out around here, trying to stay a little cool in these horrendous temperatures! I swore I wouldn't complain about the heat after we had such a freezing winter, but being 30+ weeks pregnant in 110 degree temperatures is just terrible. I feel like I am sweating constantly.

The heat has NOT kept Brendan from wanting to go outside. Sometimes, I think he doesn't even notice it. We have still been doing swimming lessons every Monday and plan to sign him up for the Fall/Winter Session that starts in a few weeks. We finish summer and then the fall starts the next week. He can go underwater for 5 seconds now and can "glide" underwater on his own, if he gets a push from me or the teacher. He still won't kick his legs to swim around, but other than that is doing everything he's supposed to. Tim will be doing the next session with him since I will be having Griffin in the middle of it.

This picture is out of order, but we played in a little pool in the backyard the other day. Brendan had lots of fun - mostly with Daddy spraying him with the hose. We've also gone to our neighborhood pool a few times and he loves it this summer. He really likes the splash pad area a lot, which isn't too fun for me because I end up getting a lot wetter than I want to and have to go up and down stairs :) It has some slides he likes to go down. He also likes the baby pool and we have a pool that has two big slides that he really enjoys going down when Tim is with us. I don't attempt that on my own.

We also went to a playdate in mid-July at Nash Farms in Grapevine. It's a historic farm and house that they open every once in awhile for kids to come play at and tour. Brendan's favorite thing was the tables with the old metal toy tractors on them. We spent most of the time there. We also went on a tractor ride around the grounds of the farm and saw a cow.
We took Brendan to see his first movie in July! We saw Winnie the Pooh. He was very scared of the previews, which were extremely loud and, in my opinion, too violent for the movie we were seeing. I think if the movie is rated "G," the movies they preview should be rated "G" as well. I was worried we wouldn't make it through any of the movie with the way he reacted to the previews, but luckily the movie was much quieter. He sat and watched all but about the last 15 minutes and then he just stood in front of us or walked back and forth in front of us and ate snacks. He still doesn't really watch TV except I occasionally put on Dinosaur Train or Super Why on PBS and he enjoys those a lot. His friend, Benjamin, and Ben's parents met us for the movie and we went to lunch at Cheesecake Factory afterwards.
Here are some more pictures of when we played outside in the pool. Like I said, getting sprayed with the hose (and drinking out of it!) were his favorite things.

Brendan has also discovered putting his head in Shiner's big water bucket outside. I try to make sure I put it on top of the grill so he doesn't get into it, but sometimes I forget or I feel bad for Shiner not being able to drink out of it so I keep it down. Pretty gross that he is practically drinking out of the same bucket as the dog, but what can you do? This is what hairdo results whenever he does it:
Hahaha, it cracks me up!

Brendan LOVES his Daddy and wants to be just like him. He tries to walk in his shoes a lot.
And this is what it looks like now if Brendan comes up and puts his arms around my legs and looks up at me:

Speaking of that, I am 32 weeks pregnant as of Thursday. Here is the 32 week belly picture:
Griffin moves a TON throughout the day and also has the hiccups about 3 times per day (I do not like the hiccups!). He weighs about 4 pounds now and is about 16 inches long. We had an ultrasound a few weeks ago and he was 3.2 pounds, which was right at the normal size for the number of weeks I was at the time. His head is very low already so we weren't able to get any good profile pictures of him :( His heartbeat is consistently around 155 bpm when we check it at the doctor. I have gained 26 pounds as of my appointment last Tuesday, which I am very happy with since I know at this point I won't gain anywhere near the 60 I gained with Brendan. It has been another uneventful pregnancy, which is great.

Hope everyone has been doing well and had a great weekend!

Kiawah

Sorry for the long time between posting! Brendan had his 18 month appointment last week and I had my birthday, but I'll save those for another post. From July 2-9 we were in Kiawah, South Carolina with my dad, Nancy, Alex, Emily and Caroline. It was an awesome vacation! I would highly recommend going there if you enjoy the beach and/or golfing.

On the way from the airport in Charleston to Kiawah, we stopped at this place called Angel Oak that was recommended by Nancy. It's this giant 300-400 year old oak tree. I forgot to stick in a picture of the tree itself, but here's a couple of pictures of Brendan with us.

I'm not sure why this is kind of blurry. Of course, Brendan never looks at the camera :)
Fourth of July in Kiawah, playing at the park after watching a little parade.
This picture looks like he is hating the water, but he loved it again just like he did in Destin. The only difference this trip was that he also liked playing in the sand, so he didn't spend quite as much time in the water.
Building a sandcastle with Lolli and Caroline.
Chasing a seagull. Look at the bird, Mommy!
Walking to the water with Daddy and Pops.
Our footprint on each side of Brendan's. Tim on the left, me on the right.
Building sandcastles with Emily and Caroline....Or maybe just knocking their's down...That's what he liked to do the best!
Whenever he was ready to leave the beach, he would either run up the dunes or he would start walking over to the boardwalk that you use to get on the beach. So, it was easy to tell when he was done.
I just think this picture is hilarious. He was spinning around in circles and this was at the end of the spin :)
Lounging in the pool Daddy and Alex dug for him.
Playing in the sand.
Thorne family :) Hard to read the first names.
Family picture on the last day.
We had a really great time and hopefully, we will get to go back again someday because we loved it. Thanks for taking us, Dad and Nancy!

I'll post either tomorrow or at the end of the week. I'm going to Crockett on Wednesday until Friday or Saturday, so if I don't post tomorrow, it will be Sunday. We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and are getting an ultrasound to see how Griffin is growing, so I'll have some ultrasound pictures as well as regular pictures of Brendan and us for the next post :)