2 Months Old!

SuperTanner is 2 months old!  We're so glad that he is finally feeling better!  Tanner loves to lay in his crib watch his mobile or to lay on his mat and watch the lights and music.  It's so cute to watch him get excited and kick his arms and legs when we turn them on.  He is is 10 1/2 pounds and in the 20th percentile.  I think that makes him my biggest baby.  The dr is impressed with how well he's grown considering how sick he was!  

If you look at previous pictures, you'll see that these are some of the first ones where he is not looking to his right side.  When I took him to the dr when he first got sick, she noticed that his head was looking a little lopsided and referred me to a physical therapist.  It turns out that he has torticollis.  Basically it means that he has tight neck muscles and isn't able to turn his head.  We had noticed that he ALWAYS looked to the right, but never really gave it much thought.  But apparently he was this way in the womb and that's what caused this.  

We went to his first physical therapy appointment in March.  His therapist's name is Lisa and she is very sweet.  She took measurements of his head in two different directions.  The difference in the measurements was 15 mm, which is considered severe.  Our goal is to get that measurement down under 10 mm, at least, by 6 months of age.  Helmets are not an option until they are 6 months old, so we have a good 4 months to get his head back into shape!  The therapist taught us some exercises and stretches to do at home-- just simple things like helping him look to his left, and bending his left ear to his left shoulder.  We also have to increase the amount of tummy time we do.  After just the first few days, we noticed a difference!  Tanner was laying in bed with me and Brent one morning just a few days later and we saw him turning his head back and forth looking around the room!  Before he would just move his eyes as far to the side as he could to look left.  We were so happy and proud of him!!  It's like a whole new world opened up for him!  

We started out going to physical therapy once a week, but now we go every other week.  He's doing great looking both ways when he's laying on his back.  We still need to work on looking to his left when he's being held and also on his tummy.  Last time we went to physical therapy, she measured his head again.  The difference between the sides was down to 11 mm!  He's making such great progress and I'm hoping that we can avoid having to wear a helmet this summer!

6 weeks

6 weeks old and sick as a dog.  Poor little baby!!  Just before he turned 6 weeks Tanner started coughing and was horribly congested.  I decided to take him into the doctor and it turned out to be RSV.  In one way we were lucky because he never developed a fever.  If he had, it would have meant automatic hospitalization for someone his age.  Plus tests galore to find out what was wrong, probably including a spinal tap.  (We did that when Kirstie was a baby and don't want to do it ever again!)  So since we had a diagnosis early, we could avoid all those tests.  That was the good news.  The bad news: since he was so young there really was nothing we could do for him.  The poor little boy was so miserable.  He would have horribly scary coughing fits that seemed to go on forever.  In actuality they were only 3-5 minutes, but it seemed like eternity.  I learned that babies do not know how to breathe through their mouths, so when he was so congested and couldn't breathe through his nose, it was pretty scary.  The first few days I took him to the doctor in the morning and then again in the evening for the pediatrician to check him out before she went home for the night.  (Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE our pediatrician?)  He would get all the snot suctioned out each time we went in.  The dr also gave us a "prescription" to take him to a respiratory therapist up at Alta View Hospital to have his nose suctioned out any time, any day.  Unfortunately we had to do this many times.  Poor little Tanner started flinching every time someone came anywhere near his nose!  Nights were the worst.  He couldn't lay flat because he would become too congested, wouldn't be able to breathe and would have a coughing fit.  If he slept in his swing or bouncer too long, he'd slide down too far into his blanket and his face would be covered.  So, we slept in bed with us, propped up on the boppy pillow.  Needless to say, no one got much sleep.  His coughing fits were also always worse at night.  I'm still amazed that he never threw up or anything while coughing.  

After being sick for 12 days, he finally started to feel better.  We went a couple of days without having to see the respiratory therapist.  Then it all started again.  First a few coughs, then the congestion, and then it hit hard again.  We got another "prescription" from the dr for more nose-sucking sessions.  A couple of the therapists began to recognize us when we came.  Finally after more than 3 weeks of battling this darn RSV, he finally got better.  

Although as I write this almost 6 weeks later, this poor boy is once again congested.  But I think he might have allergies or something.  He sneezes like crazy, is congested-- mostly at night, and is always rubbing is nose and eyes like they are bothering him.  Hopefully this doesn't last long.

Changes

There have been a lot of changes in our family lately.  It all started last fall with the kids moving downstairs.  Then of course, our sweet Tanner joined our family.  The same weekend that Tanner was born, Brent gave his 2 week notice to his boss.  He had been looking for a new job for a long time--casually looking for a couple of years, even.  He had worked at Alpine Fire for 13 years and things had gone downhill.  His boss had let money go to his head.  There were promises of raises that never came.  You never knew what kind of mood the boss would be in each day.  One little mess up and he might threaten to fire you.  And don't even ask to take time off-- not even to have a baby!  He told Brent he could have 2 days off when I had Tanner, but he wasn't sure he could give him anymore.  Yet the boss was gone on vacation constantly.  So an opportunity came to switch jobs.  He heard that a company called Delta Fire was hiring.  He made some phone calls and the next thing you know, he had a new job making more money than this last, insurance offered after working for a few months, a brand new work truck, and a better boss.  He started his new job the beginning of February and so far everything seems great.  His boss is very impressed with his work.  He's been entrusted to many things right from the start, including being the foreman of his crew.  I love that he isn't working in Park City anymore.  Since we keep his work truck at home instead of at the shop, Brent is home around 4:00 each day, which is wonderful-- especially on days when I teach piano.  The kids, especially Ian, think having this work truck at home is just the coolest thing ever.  Ian tells all his friends about the truck.  They both love to play in it, try on his hard hat and pretend to be construction workers.  

Ian-- future foreman

She doesn't look quite as tough as Ian with that girly stance of hers!

Valentine's Day

I can't remember a lot of about Valentine's Day.  This is why I need to stay up-to-date with my blogging!!  I know that I made breakfast for Brent that morning.  I wrote a cute little poem about him staying in bed and that I would bring him breakfast and hung it on our bedroom door so he's see it when he woke up.  I was in the kitchen making smoothies, bacon, and chocolate chocolate chip pancakes (seriously yummy!) when Brent comes walking in.  He didn't even see the note that I wrote!  So we all sat at the table together for breakfast. 

Later that night, Brent and I got together with some friends for dinner and games.  While we were there I realized that we didn't even give the kids their valentines!  We totally forgot to do it!  So the next day after church we gave them their valentines and a little box of chocolates.  Ian, ever the picky eater, wouldn't eat the chocolates.  Kirstie was happy to do that for him.  She loved the chocolate box so much that she wouldn't let us throw it away.  (It had a picture of a cheerleader on it.)  Tanner was just content to be there.

My 3 Valentines!

After dinner we had our traditional fondue night with brownies, marshmallows, pretzels, bananas, and strawberries.  We are until we were sick and the kids mouths were covered in chocolate!

Misc.

Superstar Tanner!!

His umbilical cord took a long time to fall off (maybe 3+ weeks?)  So he was almost a month old before we gave him a bath in the bathtub.  I think he looks so much like Kirstie did at this age.  Look at those scrawny arms!

He can never just rest by himself!

Kirstie

Kirstie loves to draw and write stories.  Being an author and illustrator is on her long list of things she wants to do when she grows up.  She decided that our kitchen wall needed to be devoted to her artwork.  And yes, she is wearing about 5 tutus and skirts in this picture!

Each month her school hosts a  Spirit Night at various local restaurants.  Part of the proceeds that night go to the school.  Last month spirit night was at Chick-Fil-A.  Kirstie begged to go because they were having a drawing to win lunch with the principal.  So Brent took the kids, ate some food, and entered her in the drawing.  The next day she very nonchalantly tells us that she won the drawing.  She was so casual about it, after wanting it so badly, that we weren't sure if we should believe her.  But sure enough, a note was sent home saying that she was invited to have lunch with the principal on Valentine's Day.  (Which was also Beach Day at school-- talk about trying to cram everything into one day!)  She was also able to invite a friend so she invited Abbie, a new girl in our ward.  I was the crazy mom who went over to school and took a picture of them.

One Month

Unfortunately, I'm behind on blogging.  I wanted to stay on top of things so that I would remember details, but life got in the way.  So, 6 weeks later I'm finally posting his one month old pictures.  I really don't remember much about what he was doing at this point.  I think he had started smiling.  He's very tolerant of his brother and sister constantly wanting to be around him, hold him, touch him, kiss him, give him squishy faces, fight over who gets to sit by him, stand by him when I change him, and just love him the most!