Parker 4 Months

Parker turned 4 months on Jan. 20. He had his check up on Jan. 21. He weighed 15 pounds and 12 ounces. He was 27 1/4 inches long. Head circumference was 43 cm. He had to get 2 shots, one in each leg. He didn't even flinch on the first shot, but that second one got him. But he only cried a little. He's a tough, little fella. He's such a happy baby. Even the doctor said, "He's really laid back." I have to admit, having two kids has been easier than I thought it would be.

At four months old, Parker can eat baby food, grab for everything, and somewhat sit up. He'll sleep all night 2 or 3 days in a row, then wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning, 2 or 3 days in a row. But he's such a good baby, we really don't mind. He loves to watch his big brother. He literally smiles all the time. You just have to make eye contact with him and he lights up!



Phil had to pick up Parker early on Monday from daycare. He was running a fever that got up to 101.6. Phil took him to the ACC. Luckily, the flu culture came back negative. He was very congested and had a cough that sounded like a seal. They prescribed an antibiotic and a steroid. He is much better now, still has a litte bit of a deep cough. He stayed home with Phil yesterday, but went back to daycare today. He's his usual smiling self.

RSV

We took Mason to the doctor on Thursday due to a fever he had been running since Wednesday evening. They tested him for the flu and RSV/bronchitis. The doctor says RSV takes about 5 days to complete it's course. He is feeling much better today. No fever, but still has a really bad cough.

He just got over an ear infection during the Thanksgiving weekend. I guess the cold weather brings all the respiratory illnesses back out.

The FLU Hits Home

Mason woke up about 1:00 a.m. Friday morning with a fever. He ran a fever all day Friday and all day Saturday. I took him to the pediatric clinic Saturday morning, they tested for flu since it's been going around and sure enough it came back positive for Influenza A, (the doctor said that's what they are calling the swine flu). He's been prescibed TamiFlu twice a day for 5 days. I had a bad feeling that when he still had the fever on Saturday morning, that it was a good chance he had the flu. He's doing fine, even with a runny nose, ecspecially when he sneezes. I think the TamiFlu must make him sleepy because for the past 3 days, we've done pretty much nothing, but sit in the recliner. I stayed home today for precaution reasons. He should be fine now since he's been fever free for over 24 hours, but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to get it and spread it at work. Hopefully tomorrow he'll be able to go to daycare and I'll be able to go to work. Phil and I are washing our hands and using Germ-X like crazy.

We've all heard the "bad" stuff about this flu, so please keep Mason in your prayers.

Strep

Mason got sick a couple of times at daycare yesterday. They called for us to come pick him up. Phil was at work, but luckily he was able to take off the rest of his shift to get Mason and take him home. (I get an occurrence in my file if I have to leave work unexpected.) He got sick a few more times after they got home, so we made an appointment to see the doctor. I had them test for Strep, because his teacher said they had a child on Friday to get sick and test positive for it. Even though his throat isn't red, he tested positive for it as well. They gave him some medicine to stop the vomiting, and it worked. She also prescribed antibiotics. One good thing from this, the doctor said his ears looked great.

Also, since Mason's head has measured above the 95th percentile since he was a few months old, this doctor ordered him to have an ultrasound of his head. He will have this done tomorrow at 1:00 just as a precaution to make sure he doesn't have any extra fluid up there. She said since he walks, runs, and talks with no obvious struggle, then he's probably fine, but just in case. So, please keep Mason in your prayers.

Continue to keep GranNanny, (my mom) in your prayers. She is still in pain most of the time. She will be having an injection in her hip on Monday, but the doctor is not sure this will help.

Sleepy Head!

Phil and Mason took a nap on Sunday, while I cleaned up the kitchen. Both of them are so cute when they sleep.

We had our first night of VBS at church. We pack a lot of activities into 2 and a half hours of class. Needless to say, we will be busy and tired all week, but it's worth it.

Mason's rash is all gone now. It was pretty much gone Sunday morning, so he was back at daycare today. We think he might have had Fifth Disease. You never really know what kind of illnesses are out there until you have a child.

Fourwheeling Fun

This past Sunday, Mason and I spent the day at GranNanny's and Pap-Paw's since Phil was at work. We were pulling Uncle Dakota around in the little wagon. Mason just leaned back on me and enjoyed the ride.







Taking a big step.

Tractor time with Pap-Paw.

Meet Zip. I got her when I was 14, I'm now 24. When Phil and I got married she stayed with mom and dad.


On Monday, I got a call from Hospit-tots to pick up Mason due to him running a 101 fever. I took him to the doctor Tuesday, his temperature was up to 103 even though I had given him Motrin. The doc was unable to find anything wrong, and advised it was more than likely a virus that would have to run it's course. Much to my surprise, the doctor did not prescribe antibiotics. Long story short, I was out of work Tues. and Wed. with Mason since he couldn't go to daycare running a fever. I truly believe his fever was caused by his teething. He also has a lot of congestion, and I do mean a lot. The doctor said once warm weather gets here and stays his runny nose and congestion should go away permanently. Hope she's right.

Although he hasn't been feeling very good this week, he's still learning everything he can. He can say "bath" and "ball" now. He'll try to throw the ball but he pretty much just hands it to me. You can ask him, "Where's the light?" and he'll look up to the ceiling and point. Something I think is so cute, I'll tell Mason, "Let's go change your diaper," and he'll lead me straight to the changing table in his room and wait for me to pick him up.

Have a great weekend!

Mason Loves Being Outdoors

Mason started Hospi-Tots last Monday. It's a daycare for kids of the hospital employees. After everything that happened with Mason's babysitter, Ella Mae, and after turning one, we thought starting daycare would be good for him. He had a really good week, both of his teachers/caregivers bragged on him. One of them even said, " if they were all as good as him, we wouldn't have any problems." I beamed with pride. When I dropped him off in the mornings he would go to the other kids and not even worry about mommy, but when I came to pick him up he was ready for me. Everything was going good until Friday, when I get a call from Hospi-Tots around 10:00 saying that Mason was running a 101 temperature. I picked him up and headed to the pediatric clinic. By then he was running a 102.5 temp. The nurse gave him some Mortin. The doctor came in, said one of his ears looked a little red, but nothing serious. She did check him for the flu, but it came back negative. Needless to say she gave us more antibiotics, and sent us on our way. By the time we left, Mason's temp. had come down, he didn't even feel warm anymore. I swear he's been on so much antibiotics I don't even know if it's helping him or not. I don't even think the pediatric doctor's look to see what happened on the last visit, they just automatically give a prescription for antibiotics.

Even though Mason was still under the weather Saturday with a runny nose and congestion, we managed to make it to Austin's 2nd birthday party.




Austin got the cutest wagon, and took some others for a ride. You can see Mason just wasn't himself, otherwise I think he would've really enjoyed this ride.


Sunday after church, we were all tired, and thought it was a perfect afternoon to take a nap. After napping, Mason was up and about, feeling a little better. In the picture below, I had laid this banana on the stool after giving Mason a couple of bites. I was fixing supper with my back turned to him, and noticed he had gotten quiet. I then turned around and seen him sitting in the floor feeding himself the banana. He's a sneaky little fella.




Today, I stayed home with Mason, because he was still so congested in his nose. I wanted to make an appt. with the ear, nose and throat doctor to have him check Mason's ears. To my surprise, he said Mason's ears looked great, and that Mason probably just has a little sinus. He also said his ears could be popping and that could be causing him to be cranky. We got back home from the doctor, had some lunch and Mason took a two hour nap. When he awoke, daddy was home and we decided to spend some time outside.

Walking around.

Here Chickie, Chickie, Chickie. I was trying to teach him to call in the chickens.

Cousin Adin was at Nana's and joined us for a little bit.

Once Adin and Nana went back to the house, he tried to go with them.

Helping daddy.

Smile!


Mason seemed to feel a lot better this afternoon, but was still clingy and whiny. He's also cutting his two, top teeth, which I'm sure is adding to the problem. Hopefully, once he gets completely over this round, he'll be on the road to "recovery." We sure thought once he got the tubes put in he was good to go, but apparently not. Please add Mason to your prayers, that he can get over all this mess and have a full month without being sick.

On good news:

Mason is learning so much these days, and everything Phil and I do he will try to mimic. If I try to tinkle him, he'll try to tinkle me. If I dance, he dances, which by the way he's pretty good at. You can ask him, "where's your belly?" and he knows exactly where it it. He can sometimes point out my eyes, when asked, "where's my eyes?" When he sees one of his play cows he'll say, "moo." Of course his favorite word his, "dog." He says it with such excitement when he sees the dogs. We're hoping that he'll start to pick up on all kinds of things now that he's at daycare, because they do art, read books, play ball, dance to music, play outside, and lots of other things.

If Mason's seems well in the morning I'll be taking him to daycare. I so hope he feels better.

Have a great week. You better enjoy Tuesday, because after that it starts getting cool again. Come on Spring!

We've Been Sick Again

Let me start with Thursday. I went to the doctor and found out I had a sinus infection. It was a first for me. They gave me a steroid shot and antibiotics. I also was told to buy some Mucinex for nasal/sinus congestion. Oh, how I felt so much better the next day.

The picture below was taken of Mason on Thursday evening, after Nana and I made it safely home in the snow. If you look closely you can see that his eyes were pretty swollen. It was heartbreaking to look at him. Phil kept him Friday, with Nana watching him for a couple hours of the day. We thought if we kept him at home and didn't get him out in the cold, he would get better. Well, I should've went with my instinct and had Phil bring him to the pediatric clinic. But I didn't do that until 8:30 Saturday morning. His eyes looked better then, but there was a lot of gooey stuff coming out of them. The doctor said his ears were a "mess", so that's what was causing his eyes to swell. She prescribed antibiotics for the infection in both ears and some eye drops for the conjunctivitis (pink eye). To go along with that, he ran a fever most of Saturday and developed a croup like cough.
Around 2:30 on Saturday, Mason's breathing changed, it's like it was an effort for him to breath. Phil was at work so I called Nana to come over and see what she thought. She also felt the same way. We loaded Mason up and took him to the ACC to be checked out. They bumped him ahead of a couple of people. Nurse checked his temp. and it was 100.3, (not bad) she checked his oxygen and it was fine. Then the doctor came in and watched Mason's ribs as he breathed. He listened to his chest and back, said everything sounded fine. He felt like because Mason was congested in his nose that was causing him to breath like he was. We left feeling much better knowing he was okay as far as his breathing goes. Needless to say Mason and I slept in the recliner all night long. He actually slept pretty good.
Sunday you could tell Mason felt a little better. We didn't to church since pink eye can be very contagious. He seemed to get even better throughout the day, except for the cough.
Today, I was dressed and ready to go to work, but really didn't want to get Mason out in the weather. I just want him to get 100% better. Finally, I made up my mind I would stay home and give him one more day. Also, Phil was off today, but laid on the couch all day, because he was not feeling good at all. He had aching muscles and a headache. Mason and I played most of the morning, then we all took a nap, then played some more. (Being home today, has really made me want to stay home permanently, but we want a house someday, so I guess I'll have to keep contributing to our house fund.)


This picture really doesn't show how bad his eyes were, but you can see they were puffy.


I took a few of him Sunday playing with the humidifier. He would stand up beside, smack it with his wooden spoon, and bounce beside it.

He saw me with the camera.

By the way, Phil is feeling much better tonight. I think Mason will be okay enough to go to the babysitter tomorrow. Maybe we're all on our way to being 100% for Christmas.

Have a great week.

P.S. Mason can now walk down the length of the couch and back, while holding on of course. He can actually stand for a 3 or 4 seconds by himself when you let go of his hands, then he sits down. So, I think it might be another month before he might take some steps without holding onto anything.

Not Feeling So Well...

The past few days have been a little rough for Mason. I guess it started Sunday night. It's the usual runny/stuffy nose, and fever that comes and goes. This has caused some sleepless nights due to the fact, he CAN'T BREATH. His little nose is just terrible. Phil and I wish there was something more we could do for him, but all we have is the humidifier and a steam vaporizer. I've also used saline spray for infants, but I really can't tell if that's helping or not. Last night has been the worst. He only slept in his bed for about an hour before waking up. He and I slept in the recliner, while he tossed and turned trying to get comfortable. He would doze off for about 20 minutes at a time, then start all over again with the tossing and turning. At one point I had to get up to visit the restroom and I knew he was not going to like me sitting him down. But you got to go you got to go, right? I sat him down on the living room floor and dashed to the bathroom, he cried and cried, then I heard silence. When I came back he was asleep on the floor. I let him be and slept on the couch. He stayed there for 2 1/2 hours before waking up this morning at 5:00. It's nights like this that really make me feel like a mother, to care for my child when he's sick. Although I have to admit, I still get a little frustrated when I'm so sleepy, but I have to remind myself, "Brandie, he's not doing this on purpose."

He still plays and acts like he feels good for the most part, but you can look at his eyes and tell he's not 100%.

He has a 9 month checkup on Friday at 3:30. (He turned 9 mths on Wednesday.)
I know he has to get a flu shot on this visit, but I don't think he has to get any other shots. If he still has this sinus stuff going on, the doctor may give us Amoxicyllin again. (Spelling ?)

Surprisingly, I have not taken any pictures this week. (I don't know what's wrong with me.) I do plan on trying to set up something to do some Christmas pictures of Mason. I have to do a make- shift studio, with a white bed sheet and duct tape or pins to hang the sheet up for a backdrop. You'd be surprised how the final result comes out.

I would like to request prayers for Mason, so that he may get back to his normal self.

Hopefully, I will pick up my camera this weekend and take some pictures of our little guy.

I guess everybody is busy making plans for Thanksgiving next week. I still can't believe the holiday season is already upon us. Have a fun and safe weekend.

Mason's First Halloween

Despite Mason not feeling so well, he put up a good front.

Since Tuesday evening Mason has had a runny/stuffy nose and a bad cough. We took him to the doctor this morning and got some antibiotics. The doctor said not to take him trick or treating but we had been looking forward to this all week, so we just took him to his grandparents and great grandparents. He did better than I thought he would with getting in and out of the car and not feeling to good.

Mason weighed 22.5 lbs and 30 inches long.

Our handsome Frankenstein.



Enjoying some of his candy, a sucker.

Uncle Dakota and Mason.

Mason could even pick out his own candy.

Halloween has come and gone. We just hope Mason gets to feeling better.

Have a good weekend.