Time Warp

I apologize for being so bad at updates. I have been in some weird time warp since Jackson was born. Maybe it's the sleepless nights! Here is a little of what we've been up to.

Dan, one of the Quad members is getting married. He's marrying another Quad guy's younger sister. They are perfect together! Bryan went to Indianapolis for Dan's bachelor party a couple weekends ago. While it was tough for me to be home alone with Jackson, I was so happy Bryan was able to go. They guys had a great time.

They went to a couple bars

and played golf

and stayed in this house. It is another Vacation Rental By Owner deal that Jeremy found. It's all fixed up on the inside.

See?

All the Quad members.

I was also a mean momma recently and made Jackson take some pictures. He loved it as evidence by this first picture. We were just having too much fun. He hated it less once I gave him his paci. I think his hair looks red in these pictures.

I sure do love this little guy that never sleeps!

YESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

That took a long time. I finally figured out how to change my template back and then I created a new blog header. I loved some of the headers I was seeing on other people's blogs and I wanted one too. There are people who can design them for you but of course it costs money. We have Photoshop Elements so I figured I could probably figure out how to do it myself. It took a while and some guidance from Bryan who has done a litte design from his days in Journalism. Now I feel like we can get on to the blogging again.

Ooops!

Well I started messing with the template of my blog and messed it up. Bear with me while I get it figured out. It may look quite different for a while.

One Month

Jackson is one month old today! I don't know which set of pictures I prefer yet but once I decide, the other months will just be the one style.

Jackson, you:

• weigh 9 pounds and are 21.5 inches long. That's the 35th percentile for height and weight.
• are sleeping in three hour stretches during the night. You wake up for a bottle and then go back to bed.
• like to look at the black and white pictures next to your changing table. You stare at the lion during diaper changes.
• fall asleep on every walk and on most car rides.
• scream the loudest when you're hungry. You eat about 3 ounces every couple of hours.
• smiled at mommy for the first time today!
• sometimes don't know how tired you are. You cry really loudly until we can get you to sleep.
• have some crazy hair. It is most fun right after a bath. Mommy likes to do funny things to your hair.
• are loved like crazy!

Muddy Buddy Weekend

Lee, Lea, and Steven came to visit us last weekend! They arrived on Friday night and we went to dinner at Giordano's. Saturday we just hung around the house mostly but we did make a trip out to Meatheads, a yummy burger place, and to the park. We had an early morning that we needed to be rested for. Steven and Jackson met but Steven was more pleased with the situation than Jackson.
Bryan couldn't believe how big he had gotten already. It's crazy that he was ever as small as Jackson. Steven is such a smiley, happy baby!

We walked to the park for a bit and Steven enjoyed the swing while the daddies shot some baskets.

Jackson just hung out in his stroller.

Sunday morning we had to be at the race site at 5:30 to register and pick up the race packets. It was an hour away in Gilberts, IL so that meant a 4:30am departure time. In order to get all of us ready, I was up at 3:00am. It was really foggy and there were giant mosquitos everywhere.

Here are the guys before the race.

We hung out in the car as much as possible to keep the babies away from the mosquitos. Here is Jackson in his sling ready to go watch Daddy cross the finish line.

Mommas and babies ready to go

This is what the boys looked like as they crossed the finish line. The race is a six mile course that alternates running and biking. One person starts running while the other person bikes. The biker gets to the first stopping point, leaves the bike and completes an obstacle. Then the biker takes off running and when the runner catches up, he takes the bike to the next obstacle, and that continues for the whole race. The whole race is through muddy fields so the terrain is quite difficult. Right before the finish line, the partners meet up and army crawl through a mudpit toward the finish line. This is what they looked like right after they crossed.

Muddy and tired!

I can't believe Bryan allowed himself to get this muddy. He does not like to be dirty but you can tell from the people behind him that he was in good company.

The boys hosed off and changed clothes and we went to Pomegranate Cafe for a delicious breakfast. Lea and Lee had to head back to Columbus that afternoon so we snapped a few more pics before they left. Here are daddies and babies.

and mommies and babies.

Lea and I decided we should do Muddy Buddy next year so the guys are in charge of watching the boys or finding alternate care so they can race again too. Anyone wanna come watch some babies next year????

My Sweet Boy

It's not possible to be more in love with this little man. This was his first bath. He didn't care for it too much and he really wasn't happy when it was time to be dried off. After we got him all swaddled, daddy read Goodnight Moon and he went to bed...for a couple hours.

I love the crease he gets on his nose when he cries.

I took these pictures yesterday during a little bit of tummy time. He just looked too cute in his shorts.

I love my sweet boy!

PICU Detour

After being at home for several hours on Sunday and lots and lots and lots of tears, I knew something was wrong. Jackson was absolutely inconsolable. He was screaming so much that he was hoarse, his mouth was really dry, and he had a temperature. We called our pediatricians (who are absolutely amazing) and Dr. Kovar called us back within two minutes. Because Jackson's fever was 101 degrees, he told us to go to the ER. I felt better on the way there knowing that we were going to get some help but when the doctor told me we would be there for a couple days, I lost it. I was already a mess but then they said they had to do a spinal tap, place a catheter to get a urine sample, and place an IV. I went to the waiting room and bawled. It was so hard hearing my baby cry like that. They had to do three different sticks to get this IV started.
Comfortable in Daddy's arms.

The first night was really rough. He was not feeling well still and had a really hard time sleeping. I was trying to exclusively breastfeed but it was clear that he was really hungry and I wasn't able to get him what he needed yet. He weighed 6lbs, 14ozs at birth and was down to 6lbs, 1oz by Sunday night. Bryan and I decided that he needed some formula to supplement. He sucked down the formula like it was going out of style. Bryan and I were up all night with him and we all three cried!

Part of the fun of the ICU is all the monitors. Luckily he didn't have to be hooked up to too many but he did have one on his foot that kept moving and setting off the alarms. Socks were needed to hold it in place but they only had pink. Usually babies as small as he is are in the NICU but since we left and came back, we were in the Pediatric ICU. They were very capable of taking care of him but were not set up for babies so small.

Once he started to feel better he was pretty comfortable in his hospital crib. He was either here or in our arms for a couple of days while we waiting for his antibiotics to be giving and to get results back from all the tests they ran. On Monday morning I went home and slept for several hours and when I returned, the news was that there was some bacteria in his urine. They thought he had a kidney or bladder infection. They did an ultrasound on both organs to check for abnormalities but it all looked fine. After another culture, it was determined that there was no infection in his urine. Our pediatrician said that the bacteria probably came from his skin at the circumcision site when they placed the catheter. Because it was still so sore, they didn't want to scrub it with alcohol like they usually do and some bacteria was picked up in the process.

I thought this was funny. His hair is over his ears and he already needs a hair cut!

The final diagnosis was that he probably got some type of virus while he was in the hospital the first time. In case it was an infection, the 48 hours of antibiotics should have taken care of it and he was sent home with 7 more days of meds. We are so happy to be back home with our sweet baby where we can continue to fall in love with him. Thank you God for a healthy boy!