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!