David Christopher: March 2006

MARCH 2006

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03/01/06

David is sick!

My poor baby! When we woke up this morning he had a temperature of 101.4 and his diapers smelled REALLLLLY bad, like worse than normal. So my home health nurse called my ped, and they told us to give him two feeds of straight pedialyte, and then on the third feed give him half pedialyte, half formula. They also told us to give him 0.4 cc of infant tylenol every four hours.

So, we've been doing that, and his temp has gone down a little, (99.3 - which is still a little high for him, his temps usually run about 98.0) but he's still sooooo fussy, and his temp rises again every four hours.

So if after his five o clock feed his diapers still smell really bad I have to call the ped back, and they might want me to bring a stool sample, they think he might have some sort of stomach virus.

My poor baby!

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The Chronicles of David

All I wanna do is suck on my hand and look beautiful, got it?

What are you looking at?

WHAT??? Why are you looking at me??

Geez! Some people!

You want me to give you a knuckle sandwich?

That's what I THOUGHT!

OK I think I'm in peace...

yum yum yum yum yum yum

Oh CRAP! Busted!

You wanna fight or what?

OK OK I was just kidding!

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Gift from Jenn Grimm

It's a doll thing that I'm supposed to sleep with a few nights to get my smell on there, then give it to him so he can smell me when he goes to sleep....it's supposed to be calming for babies to smell their mommy.

David's new hobby is licking the couch. I don't know why, but that's what he likes to do. I guess it tastes good? I don't know..but he leaves a wet spot.

Daddy trying to calm a FUSSY baby this morning:

I'm not sure if I need to be concerned about this or not...it looks kinda red to me...I'll ask the home health nurse tomorrow

And, just because I think he's cute:

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03/03/06

David is SEVEN months old today!!!

I can't believe he's that old!!! Only five months till he's ONE. OMG.

He's much better, for those of you who were wondering. It must have been a 24 hour bug or something, because his fever & tummy ache went away the next day.

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Aty came over tonight & got to see David for the first time. He liked her! Here are the pictures (sorry Aty, but I think you look cute!)

Valerie & David - look how little that shirt got on him

Compared to this, which was taken on 11-29

Chillin in his swing

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03/04/06

One Year Ago Today...

I found out I was pregnant. And now, I have a SEVEN month old baby. Weird.

Today David discovered his hands. So cute. I have pictures.

And photobucket now hosts video! So stay tuned for video of David :)

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03/08/06

David tried bananas today!!

And he liked them!!!

No...I didn't take pictures (can you BELIEVE it?)

We were instructed by the doc to give him smashed green bananas with pedialyte when he got diarrhea....so I though wth? I'm gonna let him try them.

So I put a teeny tiny bit on a spoon and let him lick it! And he loved it!!

YAY!!!

And we were PLANNING on going outside today, since it's been so nice. But of course it's cold and windy and looks like it's gonna rain. Mother Nature's a party Pooper.

Valerie called in today. Yuck. That knocked our whole day out of whack. But they sent a replacement at about noon today, so I was still able to go to the Social Security Appointment today.

Turns out we'll only qualify for a partial check because we make too much. But if I go to part time at work I'll be taking about a $1000/mo cut and we can't afford that....but it was worth a shot to be able to spend more time with my little man!!!!

Theres more to update on but David is sitting in my lap and it's hard to type one handed!

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03/09/06

Busy, busy!!!

OK now that I have a little more time on my hands, I'll update, and share the latest pictures.

So ECI came on Wednesday, and they were just raving over how impressed they were with his communication skills, such as turning toward your voice, smiling, etc. They also said that they had very high hopes about getting him off the feeding button within three months. That would be awesome. They told me I should be putting him on his tummy more, but instead of doing it on the couch, I should do it on the floor so he has a firm surface to push up on. They also told me to do more midline games, like patty cake, or itsy bitsy spider to teach him to bring his hands together. And then they showed me different techniques to try & get him to start grabbing for things.

We had a doctor's appointment on Monday, and it went really well. David is up to TWELVE POUNDS, TWELVE OUNCES! Can you believe it?

I had the social security appointment yesterday, and it was long and boring. She said we qualify, but not for the full amount because we make too much money. But if I quit work, we'd take over a $1000 pay cut, and obviously I can't afford that. Even if I went part time, the most I'd be allowed to make a month in order to get the full amount is $300, so we'd still be way short on money. Oh well, it was worth a shot! Maybe I'll figure something out so I have more time with my little man.

Let's see, what else? OH! Today is my one year blogging anniversary. HAHAHA.

So Photobucket hosts video now! I took a couple, just trying it out.

VIDEO ONE

VIDEO TWO

VIDEO THREE

OK, so last week David discovered his hands, and now he sits around all day long with his arms stretched out in front of him like he's practicing to ride a Harley!! It's about the cutest thing I've ever seen :D Here are the pictures:

Daddy & David napping together! (Javier always preached about how we shouldn't nap with David, but the other day I had to go to work, and they were both sleeping, and so I put David next to Javier in case David woke up...and the whole day Javier talked about how nice it was to wake up next to David)

Javier says we should take pictures like these when David becomes a dramatic teenager and complains about us not ever doing anything for him (hee hee)

We played dress up today!!!! These shoes are tooooooooooo big hahahah but SO cute

David doesn't like dress up too much

But then he gets over it!! (Maybe he didn't like the big shoes? These fit him better!!!)

OK....I think that's all I have to update on right now!

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03/11/06

David thinks Daddy is so funny!!!

Starting to get bored

Decided his hands were more entertaining again

So today we got the go ahead to give him as much bottle as he'll take in 10-15 minutes at each feeding. Usually the only bottle he'll take is the 11am one, and he takes that in a couple of minutes, and then gets mad when he's done! So maybe this is the next step in getting rid of his button? We'll see what happens.

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EDIT - Here's some St. Patricks Day pictures I took. There's alot, I know...but I don't have any willpower to decide between them. At least I took out the blurry ones. :)

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03/14/06

David's newest accomplishment!

Sunday night I put David in bed - in the MIDDLE of his crib, on his back. When I went back to check on him a couple of hours later, this is what I found:

That's right. He ROLLED OVER from his back to his side, and was sucking on the crib slats!! He cracks me up!

My little sister, JoAnn is in town with her friend. They plan on moving up here when they graduate from highschool this spring. How exciting! They came up here to find a house or an apartment. I don't think they've had much sucess....but it's been fun having them here. Here's the pictures of JoAnn holding David.

JoAnn and her twin brother, James, were two months premature. :D

Here are the pictures that I finally decided on having printed to mail to family:

Anyways, Valerie called in sick AGAIN today. So there's another crappy day for Javier & I. Especially since today's the last day JoAnn is in town, and I'll have to miss it :(

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03/15/06

Reaching out.....

David reached out for his toy for the first time today. It was pretty exciting.

And YES, my home health nurse called in AGAIN today. But thankfully, they got someone else out here. I slept for TWELVE hours (on and off) last night! Today's the best day EVER!

JoAnn left this morning. I'm excited about her moving up here. I think it'll be fun. I'm still dealing with my reluctance for JoAnn and James to seperate. It's always been JoAnn and James, never JoAnn.......and James. I guess, even though I know they are two COMPLETELY different people, they'll always belong together in my mind. Maybe I can convince James to move up here too :D (just KIDDING, JoAnn, if you read this!)

OK that's enough of my rant. Besides, David is starting to squeak.

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03/20/06

Day to day life

David learned how to pull the breathing treatment mask off of his face!

Daddy had to replace the nasal canula this week, David hated it!

And David has officially outgrown his 0-3 month clothes! Look! They won't even snap anymore!!

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03/21/06

Our Terrible Day

Let me tell you about my day.

I slept until eleven thirty (which was nice - the ONLY good thing about today) and then I woke up because we had a doctor's appointment at twelve thirty. We get to the doctor's appointment and David's only satting 88-89 (should be at least 94) but he's still pink and his lungs sound clear. So about an hour after we get there they send us over to the hospital to get xrays and blood work done. I call work and tell them that I will be late (I thought I was supposed to be there at two) and if they admit us, I will not be there at all. We get to the hospital and wait in an EXTREMELY busy waiting area while they process us for the tests. Then the receptionist tells us to go over to the Xray department, where Mrs. Bitch-who-wears-toooooo-much-perfume rudely informs us that we were in the wrong area and we need to go wait in another extremely busy waiting room while they put the order in. So instead of doing that we go down to the labs (my back is starting to kill me now, having to carry David, his oxygen tank and all of his other supplies) which is about fifty million miles down a series of hallways. We get there and have to wait in a room, then get taken back to have David's blood drawn, then sent back out in to the room (which has now filled up with people) and get taken back again to have more blood drawn. Then they tell us that he should be in the computers now and just to go over to Xrays. So we walk back down the fifty million miles of hospital hallways back to the Xray department and Mrs. Bitch-who-wears-toooooo-much-perfume is ugly to me AGAIN and tells us we have to go to this waiting room. FINE. So we go. Valerie takes David over to a less populated area of the waiting room and feeds him while I sit over closer to the door and listen for them to call my name. While I'm sitting here this old lady is talking to her husband and says "that baby is on oxygen and gets fed through a tube." I'm nearly in tears now, because on top of all the sick people in this stupid room coughing their damn lungs out, all the germs that I can imagine entering my poor baby's body while we are being forced to wait in this room....but then to top it all off people are watching my baby like he's some sort of freak show. I seriously wanted to cry. So I call Dr. Habersong's office and inform them that we have now been at the hospital for nearly TWO hours, waiting in series of waiting rooms, exposing David to GOD-KNOWS-WHAT and we STILL haven't gotten his chest xrays done. I should have done that at the beginning, because she faxed something over and they got us right in. We went to the Xray department one more time, where I give Mrs. Bitch-who-wears-toooooo-much-perfume a look that could kill, and they strap David onto this midevil looking device to hold him down, and strap his arms up over his head, where he scratches his head so hard it draws blood. They didn't get the xray right the first time so they have to strap him in TWICE and do it again. My baby is screaming, I'm nearly in tears.
Then we are released back to the doctor's office where we wait for them to look at the xrays. Turns out their machine is broken and they can't view the xrays, so they give David some sort of steroid and said they will look at the xrays later. They want me to give breathing treatments every three hours tonight, instead of every six, no nippling, and basically observe him until tomorrow. So we go home, and realize that we missed yet another ECI appointment.
On the way to work I realize that I was actually supposed to be at work at one, not at two. And I was already at 13 hours missed before today (we're allowed 12 before a write up, 24 before termination) so who knows what's going to happen to me now. After today I will be at 16 1/2 hours missed. I just hope that I've been here long enough and done my job well enough for them to realize that this is NOT like me. I really can't afford to lose my job right now.

Anyways, today has been hellish to say the least, and it's only 5pm. Let's see what the rest of the day holds.

Oh, and David now weighs 13lbs, 8oz.

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Edit - here are some random pictures:

Today's CRAPPY weather

Dana from ECI came out today to work on David...they call it speech therapy but it's to help him to take a bottle. Her gloves are apparently bubble gum flavored. Even though they are sterile, I still think it's kinda gross that she puts her finger in his mouth. David loves it, though! Weird kid.

David looked SO cute yesterday for our hellish day. Here's what he wore! Pretend like he's smiling...because I can't seem to get him to smile for real when I have the camera in my hand!

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03/24/06

Fun with Breathing Treatments

Last night David finally made it clear to me that I would not be able to use the strap for the mask anymore!! Here's what he figured out how to do:

So finally I decided to give him a toy instead (and this is a big developmental milestone, too, becasue this is the first time he's actually PLAYED with a toy!)

Trying SO hard to Roll over

Here are the videos of him taking the mast off of his face, and then playing with the toy

VIDEO ONE

VIDEO TWO

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03/27/06

They discontinued our apnea monitor!

I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight! I feel so much better knowing that if something DOES happen to him that I will be woken up. Ahh, well, I guess it's a good sign that they think he doesn't need it anymore. I wasn't even warned though! BritKare just came by today & picked it up. Said the Dr. H told them to. I guess since there wasn't ANY activity from the last download, they decided he didn't need it.

Today I got my order from Babies R Us. We got a baby wipe warmer, a toy hammock, a formula pitcher, and a couple of balls for David. YAY! I also got a box from Chrissy with a whole bunch of cute clothes, which we needed since he no longer fits into his 0-3 month clothes anymore! I plan on getting rid of a bunch of stuff in the coming up weeks that we aren't using anymore, such as the swing, the bouncy seat that he doesn't use and a bunch of clothes. Gotta make room for new stuff! It's never ending with a baby, I'm telling you!!

Well, David got babysat for the first time yesterday. I was a nervous WRECK! Meme came over and watched David for me while I went to work and Javier slept. It worked out well, because Javier got a full eight hours of sleep, which meant I got a full eight hours of sleep! I'm considering having Meme do it more often, if she would be willing of course :) *****By the way, let me clarify. I was not nervous because I don't trust my grandma to take care of him...she's an RN and has raised two generations of children. She is fully capable of taking care of David. I really don't know why I was so nervous, to tell you the truth. She did great. Thanks, Meme. :D

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03/28/06

So the nurse practitioner finally called us back...

And even after all that happened last week, she doesn't want to see us until David is NINE months old...

I FREAKED out until I realized that he'll be nine months old in one month :'(

So I guess that's good news...they also put his oxygen back down to 1 liter. Cool.

Random Pictures: