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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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Posted in Update, grayson, health | No Comments »

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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Ten Week Update

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

Well, we just put G down for bed. He is getting close to sleeping nine hours every night and BM and I aren’t able to sleep past 6a. Truth be told, we prefer to be up and moving by around 5:15a, but sometimes we have to get some sleep.

So, today was G’s two month doctor visit. Everything looked great according to the doctors. G weighed in at 13lbs 13oz. He was 25 inches long and his head was 41cm around (he has a big head like his daddy :) The funny thing was that both the nurse and the substitute doctor (ours wasn’t available today) told us how great Grayson was doing since he was in the 75th percentile for all three measurements - the implication was that Grayson was doing better than 75% of the babies his age. The truth is, those numbers aren’t a grade or score, they are just a measure to show how our child compares in growth to other children. A child that is in the 25th percentile isn’t worse off than a child in the 75th percentile. Not to mention, if all my years of school serve me well, having a score of 75 is actually not all that great (a C I think).

Now, if we were talking baseball players, someone batting 750 would be making all the money his ball club could pay him (oh, that raises another question…why aren’t there any women pro baseball players?). However, you probably wouldn’t want an auto body repair shop to fix only 75% of your car after an accident. Oh, how I digress. Needless to say, his appointment went well and he is down for the night. Time for us to take care of a few more things before our sleepy time begins.

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SIDS and Bacteria?

Friday, May 30th, 2008

Some new research done in the UK shows a possible relationship between bacterial infections in infants and SIDS. The bacteria in question are Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Staphylococcus Aureus is the most common cause of staph infection. Escherichia coli (aka E. coli) is one nasty beast that I cannot imagine what it would be like for an infant to have to deal with.

While the research doesn’t show causation, it does appear to show a possible relationship between the bacteria and SIDS. Of course, as always, many more studies will have to be done before this becomes part of the common SIDS theory. In the meantime, it certainly will keep BM and I on our toes as it relates to possible sources of those bacteria for Baby G.

FDA Warning

Saturday, May 24th, 2008

According to a warning issues by the FDA, mothers should not use Mommy’s Bliss Nipple Cream which is marketed by MOM Enterprises of San Rafael, CA. Apparently, the company has stopped selling the cream. The potentially harmful ingredients are chlorphenesin and phenoxyethanol. Believe me, we will be checking our other products around the house to see if these ingredients exist in any of them.

This follows on the heals of a September 2007 warning from the FDA against MOM Enterprises about Baby’s Bliss Gripe Water.

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