some pics of Henry...

He's starting to look so much older so we wanted to make sure and get some good pics along the way.  He's full of smiles lately :)

 

WATCHOOTALKIN' BOUT GRANTY?

 

I think he looks like Peter in the above & below pics.

another of Grant's super powers...

Apparently Grant is in possession of poo that causes temporary paralysis but only for Peter.  The other night I was making dinner and doing about 30 other things and Peter noticed that Grant had a certain familiar odor.  Upon checking him he realized he'd blown out and in doing the diaper check Pete ended up with poo on his hands.  (Gross, I know but when you're up to your ears in dirty diapers you get desensitized to it).  So instead of dealing with it Peter yells to me that Grant's blown out --to which I yelled back to go & change him. (Apparently the poo makes your brain unable to function for a few moments as well). He informed me at that time that he couldn't because he'd gotten poo on his hand.  How that meant he couldn't FIX the problem I will never know because I then had 31 things to do.  Apparently in Dad-world this made sense.  Fortunately for all of us the paralysis of the brain and body were short-lived as he came in to check on us once the mess was cleaned up. 

This would be a lot funnier if everyone were around when at least 3x a week Peter sings a little ditty he made up with the lyrics "DAADDYY the WonderDad.. doing things no other Dad's will do!"  This is after I ask him to do something completely ordinary.. throw something away.. put on Grant's socks.. whatever.  We apparently have found the WonderDad's kryptonite.  :)

All about Henry... :)

With all the seizure stuff going on with Grant I feel like we haven't had as much time to just enjoy Henry's baby stages.  It's going by incredibly fast and he's getting bigger and cuter by the minute.  His little smiles came in over Christmas and I forgot how much it warms your heart to have those pure little smiles looking back at you.  He also smiles when Grant talks to him.  He is starting to come out of the pink, squishy, infant stage and is changing looks.  He still looks quite a lot like Grant but he's going to keep that dark dark hair and I think his eyes are looking quite hazel or green.  He's FINALLY got the hang of nursing.  Only took us 7 weeks!  I have to say I'm so glad to be done with all the washing of bottles and pump pieces.  It just added one more thing to my already busy day.  On 1/16/08 he had his 2 month well baby visit with his pediatrician.  He now weighs 10.2 lbs which is in the 25%.  His height is 23" which is in the 50% and his head was 15" which is in the 10%.  He also had 5 shots at that visit which on top of everything else wasn't something I was too excited about.  He ran a bit of a temperature but has seemed to fully recovered.  I'm not sure if Henry is going to have the aversion to sudden noises like his brother did for so long, but it would appear that way.  Peter was emptying the dishwasher the other day and the pans clanking together jarred him awake and set him off as does my sneezing.  It's amazing how you forget all of this stuff the second time around but if possible I think we may have an even more laid back baby than Grant.  The noticeable difference is that Henry is a big snuggler. He likes to be held and would prefer to fall asleep ON someone and if not on someone he wants me within arms reach.  Grant never wanted to be held even as a baby so it was weird going through the "stop baby crying" check list with Henry.. fed? yup.  changed? yup.  burped? yep.  oh.. you just want me to hold you?.. okay.. how long.. oh i see.. forever.  I normally don't mind it but it is harder to get things done.. well that and having 2 kids now adds to the complexity.  Anyway, I wanted to post a little of what's goin on with the little guy so we don't forget what it was like when he was this little.

-misty

the post i didn't want to write...

This past Monday Grant had another seizure.  This one lasted much longer but seemed to be due to a temperature spike.  Peter was at work and I was alone at home with the boys.  About 5 minutes before it happened I noticed him acting a little funny.  Grant is a super active little guy and he just slowed down and seemed a little "off".  He was sitting on his knees and he put his head down on the ground while I had started feeding Henry.  I asked if he was feeling ok and he told me he wanted water.  His water bottle was in his room so I walked him back there and told him to get his water and come out.  I went back to feeding henry in the living room and made a mental note to check his temp when I was done.  After around 5 minutes he hadn't returned and it seemed a little quiet with the exception of a weird noise I'd heard.  I fully expected him to be in his room sitting there reading books like he often does.  I walked back to his room to find him about a step away from where I'd left him but on the ground convulsing.  There's just nothing worse than seeing his normally bright & smiley eyes totally glazed over and unresponsive.  I called 911 and he was still convulsing for quite awhile after they arrived.  At one point he took a deep breath and kind of seemed to come out of it a bit but then continued to tremor.  Peter got home in time to go to the hospital with him again while I stayed home with Henry.  They basically said follow up with the neurologist and they thought it was due to a temperature spike.  His fever was 102.7 when the EMT checked it at our house.  That night we gave him tylenol to keep the fever down but became alarmed when his fever seemed to be pretty high.  A call to the pediatric nurses line had us giving him alternate amounts of motrin and tylenol every 3 hours to keep his fever down.  Throw Henry needing to eat in there and no one got much sleep.  The next evening his temp rose from 99.8 to 103.9 in span of 5 minutes and he started shaking and I was sure he was going to have another seizure.  We took him into Children's Hospital where the doctor found we were going to the neurologist the next day and then seemed to be disinterested in anything other than getting us out the door.  On Thursday we went into the pediatric neurologist and he told us they were more concerned about the first seizure he had with no fever.  If he has another seizure without a fever then he'd be considered epileptic at that point and would have to go on anti-seizure medication.  He said he very well may have more febrile seizures due to temperature spikes and the tremors and things could have been due to chills and just feeling rotten.  He's given us some medication in case Grant would have another seizure lasting more than 4 minutes and said he hopes we don't have to use it and that he never hears from us again.  I fully agree.  We have the Sleep EEG scheduled for the end of the month so we can fully rule out any other issues but I'll be glad to get it all behind us... again.  I don't know how I'll ever be able to sleep without his baby monitor on my nightstand or even take a shower without calling out to him 20 times to make sure he's responsive and ok.  He's already getting annoyed with me asking "Are you alright?" about 50 times a day.  If you didn't know any better you would have no idea that anything was going on with him.  He's been running around like normal except for those bouts of high temps and has even been sent to the naughty corner a fair amount of times for random things.  It's hard to just carry on normally though and with Peter in Japan this entire week I think I've got a rough week ahead of me.  Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

-misty

Christmas past, tubing & lesson learned?

We're back from the holidays and Grant still hasn't worked out that we can't just head over to Grampa and Gramba's house just whenever (though I wish we could).  We had a great time with our family and even got in a couple of movies.  The flights were a bit of a struggle but overall both boys traveled really well.  Grant also got to play outside with Grampa EVERY day we were in Cozad.  There was still plenty of snow around and his little snowsuit and the old sled got plenty of use.  I thought this pic of Grant and Henry was particularly sweet.  Grant has always quite liked his baby brother but out of nowhere he decided on his own that he really wanted to hold him.  We've asked him several times at home if he wanted to do this and he had no interest but one evening at my parents house he blurted out "Grant hold baby" so we of course got out the camera. 

This past weekend we took Grant tubing and he LOVED it.  I really fear he's going to be a little extreme sports dood.  Henry and I had to hang back at the cafe because it was a little too cold for us to be out.  The minimum age they recommend for the tubing was 3 but we thought we'd just take him out there and see how we felt.  After the first run he was on his feet and rearing to go again.  He yelled "WEEEEEEE" all the way down every time on the way down and Pete said that every time at the top of the till he yelled "GO GO GO" until they were off.  After their tubing session ended I went to the car to feed Henry and Peter let Grant hang out and play in the snow.  He was scaling big drifts and hills and having a great time. 

For the past few months we've been lecturing Grant over and over again to not grab things off the kitchen counter.  We're normally pretty good at keeping them clear or keeping things we need towards the back.  This morning I was trying to get a bunch of appts booked for Peter and I and noticed I was getting something accomplished and it was quiet which could only mean Grant was up to no good.  I looked over and he was reclined on the couch with a bottle of hershey's chocolate syrup tipped into his mouth.  I immediately freaked out and hung up on the dentist's office in order to go investigate.  Fortunately, the reason the chocolate syrup was out was so I could throw it out because it was nearly empty and the rest was too thick to get out of the bottle anyway.  So no nightmares of chocolate everywhere.  So AGAIN we had the "don't get things off the counter" lecture and we were on our merry way.  This afternoon I was in the dining room and noticed Grant had made his way to the kitchen and was grabbing the dishwashing soap off the counter.  I watched as he pulled it down and put it to his mouth and then recoiled as he realized that it didn't taste of something yummy and wiped his mouth over and over.  He then quietly replaced the bottle and walked back to the living room.  I'm not sure he learned his lesson completely but I'm sure it made more of an impression than my lectures. :)

Henry is doing great and staying out of trouble.  He's now nursing completely and I think gaining weight.  He'll have his 2month well baby check on Wednesday and I'll do a complete Henry post on his progress then. 

 

-misty