Archive for July, 2008

Stones Update

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

Just wanted to let everyone know that the kidney stone that sent BM and I rushing to the ER finally passed earlier this week.  We know she has a second stone still in her kidney that could “attack” at any time.  The passed stone has been sent off to the lab in hopes they can tell us what caused the stone to develop in the first place.  Thank you all for your thoughts and kind words.

On another note, we weighed G this morning and he was up to 16.5lbs.  Also, he has begun to giggle a very little bit.  When we play with him he becomes very coy and a little shy which makes him so cute.  Basically, he will start to smile real big or giggle a few giggles and then turn his head away from us to kind of hide his face.  Then he will turn his head back real slow looking out of the corner of his eyes and start to giggle again.

He has still been sleeping great.  He still does about 11 hours a night which puts him waking up about 7a each morning.  That is just in time for me to feed him and then head to the office.  During the day, he has three naps which usually give him an additional four to five hours of sleep a day.  Oh, how nice it would be to be able to sleep sixteen hours :)

Speaking of sleeping, we have transitioned G away from the swaddle for his naps.  He now sleeps clothed in the crib with nothing but a comfort blanket.  He loves to chew that thing.  At night, we put him down with the lower half of his body swaddled and the upper half free.  Next week, we will try to let him sleep through the night without any swaddle at all.  This is about the time our books and guides tell us he should begin sleeping without a swaddle as it allows him time alone in the crib to work on rolling over.

He has been doing a good job on his rolling over.  He can’t turn himself completely over and once over he cannot turn himself back.  But, when on his back, he can bring his knees to his chest and then twist his body such that he ends up on his side.  He usually does this when he is on the play mat and wants to see the other baby living in the mirror.  He loves to look at that other baby and will play just as coy with him as he does with us.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

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Being Stoned is Painful

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

This past Tuesday morning, I received a frantic call from BM in tears telling me to come home from the office.  She told me Grayson was OK but did not stay on the line long enough to tell me what was actually going on.  I rushed home and found her doubled over on the floor.  Gman, thank goodness, was down for a nap so BM didn’t have to tend to him while dealing with her pain.

She told me she had severe abdominal pain and could hardly move.  Just as I was getting BM loaded in the car, Gmom arrived to spend her normal day with G.  I told her briefly what was going on and then I rushed BM to the hospital.  They moved her through triage very fast and got her a room in the back.  They jacked in an IV and pumped in some pain meds.  Within three minutes of the pain medicine going in, BM was able to stay still and communicate what had happened.

She described it as a light-switch that turned on the pain instantly in such a way that it felt like someone had jabbed a skewer into her abdomen just above her left hip.  The doctor, who was a super guy, very quickly diagnosed this as a kidney stone.  He latter would tell us that he can pretty much diagnose a kidney stone from across the room.  Who knew?

They kept her for several hours while the various medicines took effect.  After a CT scan, the doctor confirmed his diagnosis and gave us the good and bad news.  “The good news is that you have a stone that is very near passing into your bladder.  The bad news is that you have another stone in your kidney that could come out anytime.  Could be tomorrow or it could be next year.”

The doctor told us that meat was the likely culprit but BM and I hardly eat meat.  After we were home and could spend some time on the internet, we found there are other known possible causes.  These include vegetables that are high in oxalate such as okra, beets, and spinach - all of which we eat more than the average bear.  Another possible cause of these world ending rocks is bladder infection.  Well, we know BM had a bladder infection that lasted a couple of weeks in the midst of giving birth to G, so we are guessing that is the likely culprit.  Neither of us wants to give up our veggies, but to avoid the kind of pain BM had, I guess I would eat a car if I had to.

The stone hasn’t passed yet.  It has moved into a spot that obviously is less constrictive as BM knows it is there, but it is just a slight annoyance rather than being so painful as before.  After the stone passes, we will take it to the lab where they can tell us if this was a stone caused by infection or by calcium oxalate.

Because of the medicine the the ER gave BM, we stopped giving G any new breast milk for about 36 hours.  Fortunately, we had a small store of breast milk that kept us from having to change G’s diet too much.

Right now, we are in a holding pattern.  Grayson is back in his regular diet and we know the stone too shall pass - hopefully soon and without pain.

In the end, the ER doctor told us that a kidney stone is the second most painful thing he sees in the ER.  The first is some kind of brain seizure that feels like lighting is going off inside the patient’s head.  Glad we didn’t have to deal with that symptom.

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Last Weekend Photos

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

G is growing fast.  BM weighed him this morning and G is moving into the heavy weight division.  He is 16lbs.  He is really showing more of his personality we think.  He is all smiles when it comes time to play - especially as we roll him over and back from his stomach to his belly.  He is growing more alert and now turns his head pretty fast to follow action or look at something that grabs his attention.

With all that has gone on in the last week, I haven’t had a chance to post any of the photos we took last week.  Thought you would enjoy them.

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Headshot

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

BM needed a headshot for a project in her office.  I think she looks so good, she needs to be published :)

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Florida Trip Update

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

My brother and I are back from our quick trip to Florida to attend our grandmother’s funeral.  Of course it was sad, but being able to see family and friends that we haven’t seen in many many years was wonderful.  I know my grandmother would have loved having everyone together in one spot for a day or two.

A few people emailed to ask about G and BM.  They both stayed in town because BM and I felt that it probably wasn’t wise for us to expose G to that much stimulation right now while we have his routine working so well.  Not to mention the travel time would likely have been doubled had we taken him with us.  There will be plenty of time for him to meet those folks in the future.

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Goodbye Gram!

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

Sorry for being slow to update the blog this week.  Late this past Friday night, my grandmother died a peaceful death at her home in Florida.  Today, my brother and I are driving down the highway to attend her memorial service tomorrow morning.  The past couple of days have been pretty busy with us trying to get things in order for us to make this trip without leaving too many people hanging on our projects.  But. alas, what are you going to do.

It has been a year or so since I saw my grandmother in person, but we talked on the phone regularly.  She lived a very full and rich life but the last twenty years were made more difficult due to the progression of her rheumatoid arthritis.  While it was difficult to see her live through the pain that seemed to envelope her entire body, she handled it like a trooper.

As was the case when my grandmother died several months ago, the hardest part for me is knowing that Gram will not have a chance to meet baby G.  But, through the stories the family will tell for many years to come, we can ensure that G gets to know his Great Grandmothers at least a little.

Below are a few pictures I took of Gram over the years.

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Weekend Photo Update

Sunday, July 6th, 2008

Below are a few pics we took this weekend.  It is almost time to head back to work.  These holiday weekends just aren’t long enough :)

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Happy Independence Day

Saturday, July 5th, 2008

Some friends of ours had us and a few others over for some holiday food and fun.  G hung out in the shade by the pool, while his parents took their not-so-tan selves and hung out in the pool awhile.  Hope you had a great 4th.

 

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I wonder what color eyes Gman will have?

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Some times when I am playing with G I find myself wondering what color eyes he will have when he is older.  Well last night I did like I always do when I have a question, I asked Mr. Google.  He is so handy.

I found out that the reason all babies are born with blue eyes is that they have not yet started to produce the dark brown eye pigment melanin when they are born.  As a result, their eyes will remain blue until they start to produce melanin some time between 6 months and a year.  At that time, the more permanent color of their eyes will set in.  I also found a cool eye color predictor. Just plug in some information about the color of your relatives’ eyes and presto…out comes a prediction about your baby’s eye color.

G has a 75% chance of having green eyes and a 25% chance of having blue eyes.

Here is the link if you want to try it out.  The predictor program is very simple and the page also has some good basic information about the whole eye color thing I alluded to above.

http://museum.thetech.org/ugenetics/eyeCalc/eyecalculator.html

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