Poor Sick Baby

You never want your little one to be sick but boy do we have a sick one this weekend. Yesterday when Barry went to pick up James at daycare he was told that James had woken up from his nap with a very "raspy" cough. Well, we weren't to overly concerned until he spiked a low grade temperature last night out of the blue. So, I called our trusty afterhours on-call nurse. When she called me back she heard our little man cough, and then she said "Oh honey that sounds like croupe." Of course my first thought was oh know...we'll have to go to the ER. Luckily, we didn't have to go to Children's. She told us one of us would have to sleep in the room with him and gave us all the necessary precautions and procedures to use if he had trouble.

Since Barry didn't have to work today he slept in James's room...needless to say it was a long night. We were up at midnight together. Barry was up at 2:30 A.M., and we were all up again at 4:30 A.M. At 4:30 A.M., we ended up putting him in the steamed up bathroom to breathe in the moist steam and then it was off to the front porch at 5:00 A.M. to breathe in the cold morning air. It helped tremendously. James was then very playful. So, we let him play for about 30 minutes and then he took a power nap and was raring to go about 6:00 A.M. When I got to school this morning, I called the pediatrician and they made him an appointment for this morning. Barry took him in to see Dr. Harsh. It didn't take much for Dr. Harsh to make a definite diagnosis of croupe. He told Barry that it wasn't very severe, and James would only need a steroid shot. We have avoided the breathing treatments so far. James has slept off and on through out the day. He hasn't eaten a whole lot of food, but he did drink his normal amount of formula.

Barry is going to sleep in there again tonight with our little man. Hopefully, he will do okay tonight. He is contagious until he stays fever free for 24 hours. Which will be difficult to tell, since he is also teething at this point too. They say this can take 3-4 days up to 7 days to get over. We will just keep a watchful eye on him and continue to pray.

We hope this finds you well. We will keep you posted on James. Have a great weekend.

It's been a whole month!!

Sorry...it's been a whole month! So, I have uploaded lots of pictures from the last month and more. James is growing like a weed. He is crawling, pulling up and walking along things. We have had to block him into the living room. Otherwise, we find him under the computer desk playing in the computer paper. He has the two bottom front teeth but nothing on top yet. He is majorly teething right now...we are just waiting for the top to start breaking through.

We have just finished a week of unplugged in conjunction with our church. We enjoyed the time with no electronics. We cheated a little during the week. We agreed to watch the news and check email for 15 minutes a day. It didn't help that I was off for 4 out of the 5 days, because it snowed here on Monday into Tuesday.

Here are the pictures....enjoy!!

James in his Steelers jersey! He enjoys watching the games with his daddy. Go Steelers!

James and his puppy dog under the Christmas tree



James all smiles before going to church

James taking a bath in the big tub with his flashing ducks.

This is my favorite picture! James was fascinated by the lights on the tree.

Here James is with Laura. James was baby Jesus and Laura was Mary in the church impromptu Christmas skit about how quiet Christmas wasn't...it was a really cute skit. He slept through this entire skit.

James in front of the tree on the night we celebrated Christmas with the Carvers.

James opening his present from the Suiters on Christmas Eve. I'm not quite sure why he is just in a diaper...I don't remember that part. I'm venturing to say that he probably spit up all over his clothes.

James's first Christmas! He enjoyed opening Christmas presents. We enjoyed watching him smile.

James opening presents at Uncle Arthur and Aunt Gwen's house.

James likes to pull up on stuff now. Here he is standing all by himself...notice the boxes we use to baricade him into the living room.

James's first snow. He doesn't really like snow. Can you tell by his face? He was okay until he touched it. Then he tried to crawl to me and did a face plant into the snow that made things even worse. Oh well! Maybe next year he will enjoy it more.

Well, I guess that is the latest from here. Sorry it has been so long. Hopefully, I will get better at this time thing. I couldn't believe how long it had been when I looked at it today. Hope you have enjoyed the pictures. We will blog again soon...at least that is the plan.

First Christmas

James celebrated his first Christmas today. It was a great day.

We started our Christmas celebrations on Tuesday night with the Carvers. James enjoyed opening presents and playing with them. He got a Little Tikes remote control that speaks 3 languages (now maybe he'll leave the real one alone) and a phone. He also came home from daycare on Tuesday with a 3 foot tall stocking filled with presents from Ms. Lesleigh and Ms. Crystal. He got a soft football, mittens, boo-boo pack, courdoroy overalls with a firetruck on them, and pajamas.

Yesterday for Christmas Eve, we spent the day at home after running an errand to the store for some additional dinner supplies. We celebrated Christmas Eve in the O'Brien traditional way. I cooked spaghetti and meatballs using my mom's recipe. We enjoyed our evening with the Grangers, the O'Briens, and the Suiters. James enjoyed his gift from the Suiters...it was a Leap Frog Leaps. We haven't figured it out yet. All we have figured out is it works using our DVD player. Barry was able to get the batteries in it, but we will have to read the directions to figure out the rest of it.

This morning Barry and I woke up to a quiet house. Sir James slept until 8:45 A.M., so much for being up early for Santa. We ate breakfast and then opened presents. James really got a hang of the present opening if I ripped a piece of the paper for him. He even tried to eat the wrapping paper. Of course, we spoiled him rotten. Our house looks like a toy store exploded in it. He got lots of toys from Santa, clothes from mommy & daddy, as well as Grandma & Grandpa and Uncle Sean & Aunt Mara, two new sippy cups for his juice to go in, new pacifiers, a book, and a new Baby Einstein DVD. James did a lot of sleeping today. We think he is growing. This afternoon we went over to Uncle Arthur and Aunt Gwen's house to have Christmas with them. We enjoyed dinner with them and then opened presents. James got two new toys from The O'Brien clan. He really enjoyed playing with them. We enjoyed seeing Egan and Quinlin open their gifts. Egan really has a grasp on this Santa phenomenon. After opening presents the boys all played for a little while. Arthur and Barry say that Quinlin and James had a crawling contest. They claim it was a tie. Neither one of them has gotten the true grasp on crawling yet, but they're working on it.

We hope this finds you all well. I will try to get pictures uploaded tomorrow or Saturday. We filled an entire memory card and then some in the last week or so. We also hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to a New Year!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!

It's been almost a month...lots of changes

Wow, it has been almost a month since I updated you all on our happenings. We have taken an 8 hour car ride with our munchkin and prepared for Christmas since the last update. I will try to sum it all up and share some new pictures of James and our family.

James at 6 months--Go Steelers!!

Our family--Christmas 2008

This is James in front of the Christmas tree. He does a wonderful job sitting up on his own. He is even trying to pull himself up on things. He is attempting the crawling thing too. He scoots backwards real well. He has ended up under the Christmas tree and now doesn't like the tree all that much. He enjoys looking at the lights, but he is not fond of the branches and ornaments. However, tonight he discovered the presents under the tree and tried to open "Uncle" Sam's present. Barry had to move him 2 or 3 times away from the present. Resulting in a major fit from the 6 month old in our house.



James had to be in on the tree decorating action. We tried to put him in his exersaucer while we did the decorating. He would scream everytime I went around the tree to hang an ornament in the back, and Barry would go between the garage and the living room.

We spent Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania with Barry's parents. It was a great trip. Although, 8 hours in the car with an infant can be exhausting. James was a trooper. He slept most of the trip to and from Grandma and Grandpa's house. On the way up he got extremely fussy somewhere in West Virginia, and I had to ride in the backseat with him the rest of the way to Pennsylvania. On the way home he did okay until we got close to the Tennessee line, and then I had to sit with him until we stopped at Uncle Kevin and Aunt Wendy's for dinner. After that he was fine.

James wrestling with Grandpa

James with Amelia and Tyler--I guess they're second cousins...I think that's how it works!

James has done remarkably well on vegetables. The only vegetable he cannot have is carrots. Go figure the one vegetable his daddy will eat. Anyway, he had a major reaction to the carrots the first time he ate them, so Dr. Harsh doesn't want him to have anymore for a couple of months. He loved the rest of them. We are now venturing into the fruit realm. We have started this week with bananas. He seems to really like them. He will get applesauce next week, and then Dr. Harsh says he can have juice. He has already had juice thanks to daycare...but that's a long story and a complaint about the state of Tennessee that I will have to share another day.

Mr. Independent--feeding himself

We visited his favorite pediatrician, Dr. Harsh, on Tuesday. James is now in the 90th percentile for height, 60th percentile for weight, and 50th percentile for head circumfrance. Dr. Harsh was very pleased with James's development so far. He weighed in at 17 lbs. 13 oz. and was 27 3/4 inches long. He got two shots and his rotavirus oral vaccine while we were there. He still isn't real pleased with the sweet blonde haired nurse, Pam. Oh well! Maybe some day he will be.

James has gotten his first tooth. It is all the way through and very sharp. It hurts when he bites on you now. He is still not a happy little boy in the evenings...I think this is when his gums bother him the most. Daddy does the Orajel thing real well though and grape Tylenol is our best friend at times to ease the pain.

We are preparing for our first Christmas. I am wrapping presents and trying to get all the Christmas cards out in the mail. We hope this finds you all well. Hopefully, I will keep the blog updated better from here on out. Barry says I'm addicted to facebook and neglecting the blog. Maybe so, but I have been able to reconnect with some old friends from years ago through facebook. Oh well! I will try. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sick Munchkin

So much has happened since our last post. James has been to see the pediatrician 3 times...yes I said three times. We started off with a cold that seems to be still hanging around after 2 weeks. Now, he has a really bad cough. They are treating him for croupe, but say he doesn't necessarily have croupe. They say his cough sounds like croupe, but he doesn't cough all that much at night...mostly during the day. So, he is on a steroid for 10 days. I hope it helps.

We have taken him completely off of his zantac. We switched his formula to Enfamil Lipil AR. It is specially formulated for babies with frequent spit up. It has made a tremendous difference. He only spits up little bits and not on a regular basis.

We have started real foods. He really liked sweet potatoes and chowed them down like nobody's business. I tried to give him carrots yesterday to no avail. He had a reaction to the carrots. Within one hour he had a small but growing rash on his cheeks and was screaming like nobody's business. The only way to console him was to rock in the recliner and if you tried to put him down when he fell asleep he would wake up screaming. I was extremely happy to see Barry return home from his hunting trip after enduring this for three hours straight. So, we will wait a week and try it again. He is still pretty miserable, since we think the carrots and their reaction have caused constipation in our poor little bambino.

We are about to make our first 8 hour car ride to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. We are also anticipating James enjoying his first experience with snow. Grandma is prepared to make a snowman with James when we arrive. Hopefully, there will still be snow on the ground. We are excited for Barry's family to meet the new addition and get to spend time with him. We are also looking forward to visiting with friends while up in Western PA. I will be sure to post plenty of pictures when we return. Until then we hope everyone enjoys a wonderful Thanksgiving and we'll see you in December.

Pictures and More

Okay, so I've been promising pictures, and Megan has held me to it. The first set of pictures are from Door 2 Door at the church on Halloween. With Adam's reflective tape some of them are really dark. I'm hoping when we actually print them, we can lighten them up a little.

"Uncle" Adam, "Aunt" Megan, and James

"Uncle" Adam and James as twins at Door 2 Door.

"Uncle" Adam kissing on his favorite Hooker--James.

Our family!

This weekend Barry and I went with the Children's Ministry Team on a retreat to Smoky Mountain Christian Camp. We had a great time. It ended up being a very small group of us at camp. We had a campfire on Friday night in which we were all scared by a huge black dog. When you are sitting around a campfire and it is very dark and all you hear is "thump, thump, thump" through the woods....it is scary. It turned out the dog was very friendly, but when Adam says 15 minutes earlier "Oh we might see a bear up here." Your mind tends to wander with noises like that coming through the woods. On Saturday, we went out in the canoes on the pond/lake. The pictures are from our canoing adventure...yes, I braved it and got in a canoe. There had to be a lot of trust there that noone would flip the canoe I was in. I still almost ended up in the pond/lake trying to get out of the canoe, but as Barry says I'm not real graceful.

Ginger and I in the canoe. All I would do is hold the paddle. I was scared to death to move.

Barry and Ronnie in their canoe. They went fishing while out on their canoe. Ronnie got something. Barry only had a few nibbles.



Adam and Megan in their canoe.

Megan and I...Adam took this one, because we don't have long enough arms to take a self-portrait.

This was scary. Megan, Adam and I in one canoe. Everytime Megan moved the canoe moved with her. So if she leaned to one side that was the way the canoe moved. Then Ronnie told us he was gonna flip us over. The water was really cold. He was nice and didn't flip us.

Hope you all have enjoyed the pictures. We are adjusting to Barry being off and getting things accomplished around the house with our busy schedules. James is cutting that same tooth and is absolutely miserable right now. Oh well! Nighttime seems to be worse for him. Hopefully he will get that tooth the rest of the way through soon. Have a great week!

Halloween Update and More

James had a great Halloween. It was fun to dress him up in his costume and take him to the church for all our friends to see him.

He also got to wear his costume to daycare. They had a halloween party, since he can't eat candy they bought him a cute pair of jammies, a sippy cup, and a pumpkin toboggan. It was really thoughtful...almost made me cry. We are so happy that we found this daycare. A lot of people questioned us about putting him in an inhome daycare, because of the fear that their aren't a lot of people around to monitor what is going on. They have 3 stars from the state department. They can have 15 kids, but they chose to only have 5 kids. He is just flourishing. They love him so much which is great. It doesn't bother me to leave him at daycare now. I know he is safe and well taken care of.

Back to halloween!!

I was away for Thursday night with my students, so I was super excited to see James when Barry brought him to school to get me. It made me smile to see him at the end of the hallway being gaggahed over by all the teachers, because he looked so cute in his fireman costume. We brought him home and got him ready for his First Halloween Door 2 Door Alternative at the church. I don't really feel comfortable letting James ever trick or treat door to door in our neighborhood like I used to when I was a kid. Then again I lived in military housing...so it was definitely safe. In this day and age, it is hard to know what is safe and what isn't. So, for now James will probably never get to trick or treat the old fashion way. He will, of course, get to attend the church alternative and maybe visit our friends houses. James slept through a portion of his first halloween at church with tons of noise going on around him. He did get to go Door 2 Door and collect candy for his daddy to eat. Each of our Sunday school rooms was decorated in a different theme with games and lots of candy. Our favorite room was the one done by Pete and his family....it was a camping room. You had to cross the stones, find 3 animals in the campsite, and cross a bridge before you could get your candy. They even made the adults do it. We took a wonderful picture of James with his favorite babysitters..."Uncle" Adam and "Aunt" Megan. We got a great picture of James and his twin, "Uncle" Adam. I will try to download pictures tomorrow and get them on here. At the moment, I don't even know where the camera is...go figure!!

Well, I guess that's all from here for today. We are watching the election results...wondering who our next president will be. I was shocked when I didn't have to wait in line today to vote....walked right in, took care of my address change, and voted in 15 minutes. Have a great night!!