evil strikes...

...in the form of the flu. and yes, the dr. said he THINKS it's the swine flu since it was tested as type A. and this is all happening to our poor lil graham. i took him to the dr. thursday morning because he ran up to a 104 fever all night and was just not acting like he usually does and you can certainly tell by the above picture. graham is usually going 90 to nothing til he crashes in bed and does NOT sit still so we knew something wasn't right.

by the time we got to the dr, his fever was already down to around 100 so i thought it may have just been a little bug but then doc said he wanted to do the flu test. i was thinking to myself, you have GOT to be kidding me. no WAY it's the flu. no way on earth. so off to the lab we went for the good ol nasal swab...that came back positive. so off we went to walgreens for tamiflu which worked REALLY fast. by thursday evening, graham was getting back to his old self...attitude and all. but then saturday morning i found him covered from head to toe in a horrible rash. called the doctor and they said he is having an allergic reaction but we can't stop the tamiflu. we just have to give him benedryl 30 minutes before the tamiflu. so here's hoping for a super speedy recovery and that chad and i don't get it.

thank you for all of your prayers!! please don't stop!

One Year Stats

taking my lil spitfire to the doctor is no longer an easy task anymore. gone are the days of him just laying there. not rolling. not crawling. not walking. not getting into anything. just laying there, being a good lil graham. i pretty much had to fight my son to be still for Dr. M. he did NOT want mommy to hold him. he wanted to get down on the floor, naked and barefoot and play. and with all of the stuff going on with the H1N1 flu, i certainly did NOT want to put him down. but after being punched in the jaw (not on purpose, of course. not MY child), and getting whacked in the nose, i finally gave in and just put his feisty lil butt down so he could walk to the toy area. oh, no worries. i gave that child a good scrub down with my Wet Ones when all was said and done.

• Weight: 24 lbs and 11 oz. 75th percentile
• Height: 30.5 inches 75th percentile
• Head Cir: 18 1/4 inches 50th percentile

Poor thing had to get FIVE shots. none combined. he was not the least bit happy about it whatsoever. can't say that I blame him. i would have screamed my head off too. they gave him his flu shot too. now it's time for mommy and daddy to get theirs.

Graham's eczema has gotten a lot worse so she finally prescribed a steroid cream.

These are the one year happenings:

• has 4 teeth. two front bottom and two front top

• is drinking whole milk 3 times a day...all in sippy cups. NO MORE BOTTLES!!! YAY!! Well, i am guilty of sometimes letting him have a night bottle. because really, it's the only time that he will let me hold him and cuddle him without a knock down, drag out fight.

• is only eating solid foods. pretty much eating anything that we eat.

• is now walking.

• is wearing a wide range of clothing sizes, from 12 to 24 months. just depends on the brand of clothing. he can still wear 6-9 month polos from The Children's Place. he is wearing a size 6 in his shoes. but again, totally depends on the brand. his New Balance's are size 6 but he has a size 5 from Old Navy that are wayyyy too big. Shopping for graham is so hard because I never know what size to get.

• still sleeping all night long...in his crib of course. he goes down at 7:30pm and is up at 6:30am. ON.THE.DOT. sometimes i want to put him in bed with us but it's a lost cause. he just wants to play when i try to do that. when graham is at school, he only naps once after lunch. when he is at home with me, he takes two naps. one in the morning around 10am and another around 2pm.

• he really doesn't have any favorite toys. he just plays with whatever. I think it's great that he doesn't have just one thing that he is attached to...makes it easier if it were to get lost, etc.

• he says "dada", "mama", "cat". he talks a lot in baby language. one day it will become something that we understand.

that's all that i can think of for now.

slapping sick in the face

...ahem...ummmm...hmmm....i mean, sick slapping graham and me in the face. hard.

last week, graham had some pretty serious dirty diapers and i just chalked it up to him drinking whole milk and eating new stuff. and then thursday morning when i walked in to wake him up, what i saw made me scream, "OH. MY....CHAD!!!!!!!! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!!!!" I normally don't say that. it's usually 'oh my goodness' or 'oh my word'. but i was FREAKING OUT. Graham had thrown up ALL in his crib. EVERYWHERE. big HUGE chunks. E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E. and my screaming and hollering scared the poor thing to death. apparently it had happened in the middle of the night because by the time we woke him, it was all dried and crusty. i couldn't believe graham never cried. but he acted like he was fine. and i never thought anything more of it because the night before he did eat quite a bit of food. and so I just figured he had a super full belly. so we got everything in the washer and cleaned up and proceeded with our day.

then i got a phone call around 2pm that graham had a 101.7 fever and i needed to go and get him. i decided to take him to the dr. because with the diarrhea, vomiting and fever, i didn't want to take any chances. and dr. said "stomach virus." and there wasn't anything we could do but put him on a strict diet of ONLY clear fluids for a 24 hrs and then gradually work up to solids and milk again. but NO MILK for 5 to 7 days. so graham and i went home and laid on the couch. he was so pitiful. usually he is all over the place and wants to play. not today. all he wanted to do was lay on my chest. so he did. and i loved on him and held him and took total advantage of him wanting mommy. he hardly ever lets me hold him like that so i was taking every single bit of it in. and then around 5pm, it hit me. and it hit me like a tornado!! I pretty much stayed on the toilet all night with a trash can in front of me as well (sorry TMI). I was so weak and couldn't even move. it was absolutely horrible. i seriously thought i was going to die. i tried drinking lots of water, gatorade and pedialyte but as soon as I was ingesting it, i was throwing it up just as quick. i could not get hydrated at all. so finally around midnight, chad called his mom to stay with graham while he took me to the er. i hate going to the dr and certainly didn't want to go to the er but i couldn't take it anymore. i was so weak that I couldn't even open my eyes or keep my head up. i knew it was time to go. we waited for about an hour before we finally got in and they hooked me up to an IV (THANK YOU GOD!!! it was my savior!!) that administered fluids and they also put some phenegran and pain meds in there as well. it made me so thirsty so i drank a ton of water and then passed out for 2 hours. they finally let me go around 3am. i wish i could have stayed. being in the er hooked up to the iv was the best that i felt.

when we got home from the er, i pretty much stayed in bed until monday morning. i wasn't vomiting anymore but still had diarrhea and was still so weak. i didn't even get on the computer and get on Facebook or read any blogs...i've got to be super sick to not get on the computer. ha! i'm so thankful that we had Chad's mom to stay with me and to help with graham Friday. My mom came from texarkana friday afternoon and stayed with us until chad got off of work Saturday evening.

thankfully, graham's fever went down and he was so much better. and thankfully, it's now thursday and i feel 100% better.

that is something i hope none of us ever have to go through again. i wouldn't even wish that on my worst enemy...if i had one.

a sigh of relief

i just got a call from graham's dr. (well, the nurse NOT the doctor) with the radiology report and it is confirmed. Graham has retractile testes. Which is a lot better than having undescended testes from what I have read. Retractile (hypermobile) testes are descended testes that easily move back and forth between the scrotum and the abdomen. Retractile testes do not lead to cancer or other complications. The testes usually stop retracting by puberty and do not require surgery or other treatment. Undescended testes do require surgery because they don't come down at all and need to be manually pulled down through surgery.

Okay, all of this testes talk is just way too much for me. ha!

but WHEW. I feel so much better.

Thank you again for all of your prayers!

Ultrasound Update

Monday Graham had his 930am ultrasound at AR Children's Hospital. Both of his "boys" are definitely there and getting great blood flow. YAY!!! that was his pedi's main concern (she could only find one). They won't stay dropped though. And that can be a problem.

The ultrasound tech told us to call his pediatrician's office on Wednesday and they will have the report and can tell us what to do from there. So, I called his pedi's office on Wednesday. twice. never heard from them. called Thursday. twice. never heard from them. called Friday and left another message. waited two hours. got frustrated. so I finally called the appointment line and pretty much was in tears because I was so DANG frustrated that no one would call me back. and there was nothing that she could do. so she told me to call the nurses line AGAIN and leave another message. Every single time that I called, I was so nice. Well, the last time I wasn't. well. I was. I was just VERY STERN about them calling me back. So FINALLYYYYYYY. two hours later I got a call back from the nurse. only to be told that they didn't have the report and that the system at ACH was down and she would call me back later in the afternoon. 4:30pm rolls around and she finally called me back. to tell me that they still didn't have the report (even though I called ACH on Wed and they told me that the pedi office had it) and that she will have to call me on Tuesday but if it was something urgent, then they would call me before then. Don't you just love doctor's offices???? So that's what we know. I have a feeling that she is going to tell me what she always tells me though.

"Let's just wait to see if they drop by the time he is a year old and if they haven't, we will get Graham to a urologist."

Keep on praying for Graham!! We really appreciate all of the care and concern from all of our friends and family. It means the world!!

G did so well at his appointment so he got some watermelon when we got home! He was definitely a fan...not so much a fan of Kiwi though. It was quite tart for his liking.

Poor Poor Pitiful Baby

Doesn't he just look terrible??? It absolutely kills me to see him look so bad and I know he feels just as bad as he looks too. But he still keeps a smile on his face (for the most part...certainly NOT while we were at the dr).

This morning, I had my thyroid checkup and my levels are still four points higher than they should be which explains why I've been feeling ick lately. So she upped my dosage of the Synthroid. I'm a little frustrated about that though because I JUST got my refill so I have over a hundred 75 mg pills that will go to waste but hopefully upping my dosage will make me feel a lot better. Think I can return the pills for a refund?!?! :) I hate wasting money as much as I hate wasting paper. well, money is paper. you know what i mean.

This afternoon, I took Graham to the dr. to figure out what in the world is going on with him. He has Sinusitis (sinus infection). So I guess he is going to take after his daddy and nana after all. :( He was NOT happy while we were in the room waiting for the dr. He doesn't like to be held for very long at all anymore. All he wants to do is get on the floor and crawl around and play. And well, I should have just let him get on the floor to crawl around but I just couldn't make myself do it. So I held him. And he fought me. and gave me a good whack in the eye and lip. and then kicked me really hard. he was an absolutely JOY today. ha! I'm just glad that we finally know what is wrong. He is on a 10 day antibiotic and she told me to also give him Zyrtec in the morning and Benedryl at night like I have been doing. I really hope the amoxicillian knocks the sinus infection out FAST!

he also has eczema on his face. his former pediatrician told me that it was nothing and it's normal and common. Our new one that we saw today said that it WAS eczema and for us to treat it with either vaseline or 1% hydrocortizone cream.

I finally got a picture of Graham's two bottom teeth too!! I can't believe that he held still long enough for a picture!!

alrighty. i'm out of here to check on mr. cranky pants. he's passed out in his doorway jumper. picture coming soon.

Ultrasound Appointment

Graham has an appointment at Arkansas Children's Hospital on Monday, June 22, 2009 at 9:30am. Please keep Graham in your thoughts and prayers. Mommy, Daddy, and Mimi are nervous wrecks but we are putting everything in God's hands and we know that He will take care of us.

Our first....

...ear infection. :( The last two nights, Graham has been up all night long screaming bloody murder. I thought that it might be his teeth because he still doesn't have any yet and thought that it might be time...I also thought it was his teeth because he had a fever and a slight diaper rash (several friends and family members have told me these are tell tell signs). But then last night he screamed his head off again and cried and cried and cried. Graham hardly EVER cries and he ALWAYS sleeps all night. Plus he started to refuse his bottle...BIG SIGN THAT SOMETHING IS WRONG. The beast NEVER refuses food. I thought that it may be an ear infection since he only cries when he is laying down flat. and so I called Dr. O'Neill this morning and took him in and sure enough. left ear infection. We have him on a 10 day round of antibiotics. I sure hope this doesn't become a trend. I don't want him to have to get tubes. No fun. Other than screaming at night, he has been fine though. Just as happy as he always is and playing and laughing and smiling. Please pray that Graham will have some relief and will fight this infection soon and that we will all get some sleep around here.

By the way, here are his stats:

23 pounds
28.5 inches

he is a BEAST, i tell ya, a BEAST!!!

6 month stats

Yesterday, our lil man turned 6 months old and oh how the time flies. I know I probably say that all of the time but seriously. it does. and i want it to stop. It's all happening just way too fast! I have been trying so hard to write things down that he is doing and I frustrate myself so much because I feel like I am not doing enough to remember and capture everything. With the way my memory is these days, I am so afraid that his babyhood is going to be lost if I don't keep a memento or something of EVERYTHING. i'm whack. ha! does anyone else feel this way or am I the only crazy one?

I took Graham to Dr. this morning for his 6 month vaccinations.

Stats:

Weight: 18.14 lbs - 75th percentile

Length: 26 7/8 inches - 75th percentile

Head Circum.: 43.1 - 40th percentile

He did great with his shots. he just screamed very briefly and then was over it. Dr. said that everything looked great and he is growing and developing as he should and no worries! It was a pretty short visit. :) And I love having the first appointment because we were in and out in no time! 9am appointments it will be from now on! but let me tell you, it was no easy task keeping him still on that table. that boy is a force to be reckoned with for sure. he was all over the place. ha! He was putting on quite the show. I wish I had my camera with me so I could show what the white paper that lines the bed looked like when we left.

Graham loves rolling over from him back to his tummy now. We cannot get him to stay on his back. but when he is on his tummy and gets tired, he won't roll back over to his back. he refuses. he wants mommy and daddy to do it for him. silly boy. spoiled rotten. he is really interested in his toys now. he loves playing with everything and is grabbing at anything and everything. his favorite toy right now though is his walker. he even turns himself around in it. he isn't quite doing one foot in front of the other very well though. right now, he just kinda pushes himself off with both of his feet similar to how a kangaroo hops. he notices now when chad or I leave the room. he will try to follow us with his head and darn near breaks his neck trying to turn to see us. we are still trying to get him weaned from his swaddle blanket at night. Last night, we put him to bed around 9pm without being swaddled and he did great til around 2am. He kept whining in his sleep and wouldn't stop for an hour. so we decided to swaddle him and he didn't wake up or make a peep until 8am this morning...and that is only because I woke him up to get him fed and ready for the doctor.

I love these Paul Frank PJ's that I bought Graham at Dillard's. It says "Chicks Dig Scars" and has little band-aids all over. So cute!

Tuesday night, Chad had a piece of individually wrapped cheese and he gave it to Graham to play with before he ate it. Graham took it and waved it all around and had a field day with it and did NOT want to give it back to daddy. So, Chad finally got it back and unwrapped it and put it to his mouth while Graham was watching Chad's every move. So I told Chad to give it back to Graham and see if he would mimic him. And he sure did. As soon as Graham got it back, it went straight to his mouth. What a ham! I love it! and no, he did not take a bite of it. ha! We grabbed it back before we let him do that! None of that til he is a year old.

So much else is going on in our lives that I don't even know where to start. So I apologize now because this will probably be a LONGGGGG post instead of me making a lot of small posts. I'm kinda in a hurry to get this posted since I have to see my OB at 1:45pm for my 6 month post operation check up for my c-section. I hope that is all that it is. eeeeeeick.

Chad has been really stressed at his job because his union is in contract negotiations with AT&T and they are all afraid that they are going to have to go on strike pretty soon...and strike could last a min. of 4 days and there is no telling how long it could go on. AT&T wants them to pay 80% of their insurance premium and right now we don't have to pay ANYTHING which is sooooo nice! If we were all on my insurance with the state, it would cost us almost 500.00 a month!! Please pray that it won't come to this. Also, Chad gets a raise every 6 months and AT&T wants to take that away from them as well. There are so many issues that's being discussed right now and nothing that is great. Please pray for us. I don't know what we would do if the union went on strike. So, we have been really stressed out about that.

My job is going pretty good. Since the Legislature is in session, we stay quite busy going through all of the TONS of Bills that are being drafted to give us more General Improvement Funds which means more grants that we have to administer and more work...hope they plan to give his more pay! :) Also, it's my conference planning time and that keeps me EXTREMELY busy!

I have been sick for the past week and am FINALLY getting over it. I took the day off yesterday because I just felt terrible but I stayed drugged up so I feel a lot better today. And GRAHAM IS GETTING BETTER TOO!!! I better knock on wood. He still has a little bitty tiny cough and a little bit of a runny nose but generally he is doing so well!!

Here is Graham in Daddy's Rugby Helmet.

Graham LOVES this book!! This is a fun book that the Kelly's got Graham and it teaches him out to spell his first and last name...well, in his case, middle and last name. :)
I got the proofs back of Graham's spring pictures at school and OH.MY.GOOD.NESS. They are sooooo adorable!!! I tried to scan them but they didn't turn out so good so I am just going to buy the CD from the photographers so I can make as many copies as I can. It seems to be the cheapest way to go because the individual packages are so expensive and I can't mix up the poses. and I want copies of EVERY pose! Am I a proud mommy or what?? I have been terrible at not printing all of these THOUSANDS of pictures I have of him though. I will get on Walmart.com and start uploading and then I get so overwhelmed and stop. But family, I will get on that soon, I promise! I know you all want new pics of Graham..

The "Daycare Curse"

That is what Dr. O diagnosed Graham with on Monday.

This past weekend Graham and I went to Texarkana to welcome Uncle Steven home. On Sunday, Graham was so hot and fussy so I took his temperature and it was 102. I started freakin out because in all of the material that I read, it says if they have a fever of 101 or above to take them to the dr. and of course it's Sunday, no doctor and only ER's are open. and I'm in Texarkana. Texarkana is my HOME but not really MY HOME. if that makes any sense. I've lived in Little Rock for almost 6 years now and to me, it's just home now. So I felt so out of my element and I was just so discombobulated and didn't know what to do. So I gave him Tylenol and Mimi and Poppi gave Graham a bath to soak in and his temp ended up dropping and he took a good nap so I decided to just go ahead and come back to Little Rock and see how he was doing when I got home.

by the time we arrived in Little Rock (around 430pm), g was doing fine. he was happy but still had a fever and it wouldn't go below 101. so i called the emergency after hours line and the nurse told me to just give him Tylenol and to keep monitoring his temp. and to take him to his pediatrician in the morning but if he starts breathing fast to take him to the ER.

So, i put graham in bed with me and we put daddy on the couch. graham didn't sleep well at all. plus his temp spiked all night long and at one point was almost 103 and he cried and whined and then would laugh, smile and play...everything but sleeping. so the next morning, i took his temp again and it was 100 so I went ahead and sent him to school and I went to work for a bit and made graham a drs appt.

We went to see Dr. O at 11:10am and after assessing Graham (no ear infections, no pneumonia, no bronchitis and NOT teething and again, NO RSV) he told me that Graham has the "daycare curse" and there is really nothing that can be done about it and i shouldn't be too concerned with it no matter how terrible he sounds when he is breathing, coughing, hacking, etc. He told me to be concerned about his cold/congestion/respiratory infection IF he starts breathing fast as in 40-60 breaths/minute or isn't eating or gaining weight. If those two things are to occur, then we have a problem that should be addressed. Also, concerning his fever, the dr said if it's a one or two day fever, no problem. Just give him Tylenol. If it gets to be 3 days or more, then that needs to be addressed as well.

I also asked him about Graham's spitting up and sometimes it's even PROJECTILE...like straight out of The Exorcist and it seriously freaks me out. he said that some babies are just spitters and it could be because he is on straight formula now. and again, nothing to worry too much about unless he's not gaining weight. but he went ahead and put graham on Reglan and Zantec and for me to try it out for a week and if there isn't any improvement, to stop the medications and maybe I could try switching his formula to ones that are for babies that spit up.

So that is where we are at now. Dr. O did make me feel a lil more comforted about g's cold stuff. maybe now I won't freak out so much when he's rattling and wheezing. I just hate it. I hate my baby being sick and there's nothing to do about it.

G's fever kept jumping up and down all day Monday and Tuesday but by Tuesday evening all was fine. He stayed in between 98 and 99. and is still as happy as can be! The only time he seemed really pitiful was when we were in Texarkana. I think it may have just been really hot in Mimi & Poppi's sunroom (really the only place we all hangout at in the house now that they have it finished) with all of the windows and sky lights and then the heaters were on as well. So that could have made his fever spike even MORE.

Please still keep him in your prayers.

I can't wait for Spring to get here.

4 Month Stats

I took Graham to the doctor today as a sick visit because he's been coughing really terribly bad again and he's been losing his appetite as well (if you know my child, you know that he NEVER refuses to eat and he ALWAYS finishes his bottles and ready for more) so we knew something had to be wrong. Chad took the day off so we saw Dr. at 9:30am. She noticed that when she listened to his chest, he was wheezing quite a bit and that he was really having to work to breathe. So she ordered another RSV test (just click on "test" to take you to a previous post about his first test...I'm in the process of learning the tricks to blogging!)

and thankfully that test turned out to be negative but she did determine that his respiratory infection is back and with the wheezing, she prescribed an inhaler to use for breathing treatments.

We were supposed to see her again next week for his 4 month vaccinations but thankfully she let us do all of that in this visit. So here are his stats at 4 months:

Weight - 17lbs and in the 90th percentile

Height - 26 1/8 inches and also in the 90th percentile

To be clear on the 90th percentile, if he was measured up to 100 babies his age, he would be bigger than 90 of them. So she said that was GREAT and probably a lot of that contributed to me breastfeeding him (which I am in the process of weaning and I'm not sure I am happy about it).

I can certainly see the benefits of breastfeeding him and I love knowing that he is getting all of the nutrients he needs but with work, it's getting harder and harder to pump 3 times while I am there. I don't want to stop though. It makes me sad because I feel like I am taking away something from him that has been benefiting him so greatly. So I don't really know what to do. I have already been pumping less and have noticed that I am not producing a lot of milk like I used to produce. Again, this makes me very sad but I just need to get over it. I've breastfed him during the most crucial time and he is thriving very well so I just need to give myself a good smack and get over it. ha! I'm really stressed out about this and I told Chad today that I really should go talk to a therapist. ha!

Dr. also said that we could start giving him rice cereal from a spoon so we will begin working on solids in the next week or so.

By the way, our Christmas Tree isn't dead after all.

All I had to do was change the fuses and waaaaa laaaaa...we will have Christmas next year, people! :)

Respiratory Infection

The past two nights Graham has woken up coughing up a lung or two and it would go on for minutes...It scared Chad and I to death because it sounds terrible! Like he is choking! So I took him to see Dr. today. After an hour and a half in the waiting area surrounded by a ton of coughing, puking, aching kids, we finally were able to get back to the room. First of all, they took Graham's weight and you are not going to believe it. 15.8 lbs!!!! My friend Amy said her lil girl was 14 lbs at 4 months. Graham is still two weeks away from 4 months. WOW! Dr. A listened to Graham's chest and she said it sounded really good so she decided to take a swab of his nose to test him for RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus) and 15 minutes later we had great news!! NO RSV!!! But she did say that he had a mild respiratory infection and for us to put a humidifier by his bed (which we already have) and to elevate his mattress w/books to help the drainage and to rub Baby Vicks on him (we do this as well). So that's all we can do. Nothing we can give him. I just wish I could take his cough away from him. He gets so exhausted after one of his spells.


Please pray for Graham's health. Especially since he is at daycare and they just put 8 new babies in his room. So there is a total of 18 babies in one room. That means lots of sickness and colds. These are the times I wish I was a stay at home mom. Just so I can keep him healthy and free from frequent colds.


On Tuesday, Chad, Graham and myself were all ICED in so we cleaned out the fireplace and built a fire. I am so glad we have a woodburning fireplace and not a gas. I grew up with a woodburning and it's just so comforting for me. I love it!


Also, our Christmas tree died on us and we are so sad. No lights for Christmas. :( That's the downfall of having a prelit tree. If one goes out, they are all out. And I certainly do not have the patience to go through every single light to find out which one it is. I'll just go buy a new tree after Christmas. We need one anyway. I've had ours for five years now. Ready for an upgrade! :)


Chad's 30th birthday is tomorrow (Thursday). I wanted to throw him a party or at least get some people together for dinner. But he wanted nothing of the such. He does NOT want to celebrate whatsoever. I did get him floor seats to the AC/DC concert! He is so excited about that!


Friday, Graham and I leave for Texarkana. We are celebrating Christmas with my step-dads family and also getting together to see Shana, my brothers' ex-wife. She hasn't met Graham yet since she lives in Savannah so she is dying to get her hands on him. I can't wait to see her! She may not be married to my brother anymore but she will ALWAYS be my sister no matter what. She's the best!


Here are some pictures that I took of Graham on Monday. Enjoy!

He's really not happy with me at all! HA!

Graham's first fever

Monday afternoon around 3pm I received a phone call from Graham's daycare that he had a 101.4 fever and I had to come and pick him up. No mother wants to get that phone call...especially when it's the first time. So after I get off of the phone with CDC, I am in a state of panic and am so scatterbrained wondering WHAT SHOULD I DO? So I immediately call his pediatrician and Dr. A was out of the office but Dr. O was in so I made an appt to bring Graham in. I like Dr. O too so I was glad that I was able to see another doctor that I had talked to before. Dr. O was the on call doctor when I had Graham at Baptist so he saw Graham his third and forth day in the hospital. He was also the dr. that we talked with about his jaundice and who put him on phototherapy. So I rush to the daycare and my poor baby just looked pitiful...Ms. Karen was feeding him when I got there and he just looked up at me with the saddest, most pitiful eyes.
:( Ms. Tracey told me that Graham also had diahrea 3 times throughout the day and that his booty irritation turned into a pretty bad diaper rash. Triple whammy. Poor Poor thing.

When we got called back into the doctor's room, they took Graham's temperature and it was 99.4 which Dr. O said they really didn't consider it a fever until it reaches 100 but he wanted me to give him Tylenol and keep a watch on his temp. About his diahrea, they took a stool sample from his diaper and tested it for Rotovirus. That came back negative, thank goodness. Dr. said he could have a slight stomach bug since it's been going around or it could be from something in my breastmilk from something that I ate. He just told me to keep an eye out on that too. Now finally about his diaper rash...Dr. said that he has seen MUCH MUCH worse (he could tell I was very upset about it and wanted the pain that Graham was feeling to GO AWAY NOW!!) and for me to just wash his bottom with warm water (no wipes at all) and to let it air dry and to use hydrocortizone cream and to also just let him lay around naked for a while. The more air and less moisture on his bottom, the better.

While we were at the Drs office and afterwards as well, Graham was smiling and playful with mommy and didn't act like he felt bad anymore. I think he was just acting that way at daycare so he could come home with mommy. My baby already knows how to play hooky! Sneaky Sneaky lil thing!

2 Month Stats

Yesterday, Chad and I took Graham to see Dr. A (who, by the way, is even more AWESOME than I remembered her to be in the hospital...I HIGHLY recommend her!) for his 2 month wellness checkup and also for 5 vaccinations.

Graham weighs 11lbs and 12 ozs and is 23 1/8 inches long. He is in the 60% percentile for his weight and length. His head circumference measures 38.9 and he's in the 25th percentile. G has a tiny head and I love it! :)

Graham received his DTaP (Diphtheria, Tetanus & Pertussis), Prevnar (Pneumococcal Conjugate), HiB (Haemophilus Influenzea Type b), EIPV (Polio) and Rotavirus Vaccinations. Sounds like a lot, huh? Thankfully 3 of them are combined into one shot so he only had 2 pokes (One in each leg) and the Rotavirus was administered as an oral (swallowed) vaccine and HE LOVED it...He cried when she took it out of his mouth...he wanted MORE! Graham loves it when I give him Mylicon for Gas...guess it's a welcome change from the regular ol' breastmilk and formula. He did really well with the shots too. He cried from the initial poke but shortly after, he was good to go. He forgot all about it. :) Dr. A said that Graham could get a fever and be super fussy but thankfully, neither happened! I've noticed that since Graham started daycare he has been a much happier and calmer baby. Makes for a happier and calmer mommy and daddy too. :) While we were home on maternity leave, he was probably getting extreme cabin fever like his momma.

Dr. A put Graham on Polyvisol which is a multivitamin for infants and toddlers. She said breastfed and formula babies may not get enough iron and Vitamin D so I should give him one dropper daily.

Afterwards, we ate lunch at Jason's Deli and then went to Target to get his multivitamin. Now, this Polyvisol stuff says that it has a fruit flavor but it smells GROSS. I was afraid that Graham wouldn't like it too much and yep, I was right. He swallows it like he is supposed to but his face tells a story of great distaste.

Tomorrow (Friday) we are leaving for Texarkana. Payton Rhodes is the daughter of my best friends, Tabatha and Tal Rhodes, and she is turning 3 years old tomorrow!!! Her birthday party is Saturday. I cannot believe Pay is already 3 years old. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was holding her tiny lil body in my arms. Makes me want to cry! I don't want Graham to grow up that fast! I cannot wait to see all of them. I don't get to see them as much as I used to and I miss them like crazy. Chad is so sad that he won't get to go with us because he misses them too...he will be working on Saturday, as always.

The Yummy vaccine

"NO NO!! I'M NOT DONE!!"

"So very very good...thank you!"

One Month Doctor's Appointment

Before Graham's Dr. Appt in his Arkansas onesie from his "Auntie" Shauntel

Today we went to see Graham's pediatrician for his checkup and also for his 2nd Hepititis B shot. He did really well getting his shot. He screamed for a few seconds and then forgot all about it.


Graham weighs 9lbs and 7oz today and is 21 inches long. He is in the 25th percentile for his length and 50th for his weight. I couldn't believe how much he had gained in ONE MONTH!! But then again, yes I can believe it because all he wants to do is eat. While we were at Mimi's this past weekend, he drank 8 ozs in one meal!!! 4oz of breastmilk and then 4oz of formula...I pumped the 4oz of breastmilk so Mimi could feed him before we left to come back to LR and he drank that so fast and was screaming and crying and STILL hungry so I made him a bottle of formula and he guzzled that down fast too!! It seems he is hungry all of the time and is never satisfied but I know he is getting a lot to eat when I breastfeed cause I can hear him gulping it down so fast. The doctor told me not to be worried about it. He is one of his biggest growth periods and said by our next appt. he should have a fairly normal schedule.

Right now Graham cries when he is not sleeping or eating and the only way I can get him to calm down is to pop a boob out. Goodness. This child is wearing me out! ha!

Graham's next dr appt is Nov. 6th at 1:30pm. He will get two shots at that appt. :(

So...there's been quite a bit going on since I last posted an update. Dad and Cheryl DID get married in Vegas on Friday, September 26th. I'm proud that they didn't chicken out!

Graham's umbilical stump fell off on the 27th of September and he now has a real belly button! YAY!! It's so cute!! Can you believe I actually thought about keeping it?!?! That's so gross!!! Yeah, I thought about it for a nanosecond and then said OH HECK NO!

Graham is so alert now and is so curious about everything and everyone around him. He has the biggest prettiest blue eyes. I just love looking at them! With Chad and I having pretty slanted eyes, we thought FOR SURE Graham would have "Asian" eyes but Nope. Guess that's the white folk in him! ;)

On Sunday, September 28th Chad and I needed to go to the grocery store so bad so we decided to have our first family outing to Walmart! Graham did so well!! He rode in Daddy's front carrier the entire time and just loved it!!

This past Friday, October 3rd, Graham and I went to Texarkana to see Mimi and Poppi for Mimi's birthday. She was so happy to see him! She misses him so much!! It was a nice and relaxing weekend at Mom's! I was so worried about how Graham would do with traveling in the car for 2 hours but he did great! Just slept the entire time. Whew. Thank GOODNESS!!

My Aunt Judy and Uncle Doug will be here Thursday from Alaska! I am soooo excited to see them! It's probably been 5 years or longer since I have seen my Aunt Judy (my dad's sister) so we have a lot of catching up to do!

That's all I have for now but I will leave you with some more pictures of Graham!

Oh, one more thing...I mailed out Graham's birth announcements Saturday so everyone should be getting them soon! If you didn't receive one and would like one, send me your mailing address and I'll send it out!

Graham is 10 days old today!!

Graham taking a nap in our bed

First Bath
He loves his swing!
His first pediatrician appt.

He's already growing up so fast!!! 10 days old!!!!!!! Makes me want to cry! We had his first pediatrician appt today with Dr. R at the LR Pedi Clinic and Graham did so great! Except for having two poopie diapers while we were there. This lil baby poops so stinkin much it's not even funny! All he does is Sleep, Eat and Poop. Dr. R said that he looks great and is doing great! He is back up to his birth weight and then a couple of more oz. He weighs 6lbs. 13ozs. We will go back in a month for his 2nd Hep. B shot.



Everything has been so great with Graham. He is such a good baby! Some nights he will keep us up because he's gassy and will be fussy but for the most part, he sleeps really well at night...he's up every 3 - 4 hours for diaper change and feeding.



Last Wednesday, Graham had his first bath...we were going to wait until Thursday to give it to him...BUT when we were changing his diaper, he decided to pee all over mommy. Chad was in the bedroom helping me change him and it was SOOOOO hilarious! I wish I could have had a video of it. Then Friday, Graham had an explosive poopie diaper that made it out of his diaper and onto mommy's nightgown and boppy pillow. My poor baby! But at least he is pooping good is what the dr. said. ha!



Not much else is going on right now. Last night I fell down the steps that lead down to our laundry room...good thing that I landed on my hiney but now my incision is hurting pretty bad. I hope I didn't tear anything. Guess I will find out Friday when I go to my OB appt. I'll let you all know how it goes!