Being a parent is no joke

It all began with the dreaded 4 month immunizations.  After a great 4 month check up and a fabulous lunch with the girls you I noticed Weyland was very lethargic.  It's not like Weyland to allow me to sit through lunch undisturbed.  So after sitting through lunch and going to a little boutique down the street with Weyland still not fussy or awake I started to worry.  Then I felt his head and he was on fire.  Oh crap!  So I rushed home and checked his temp right away and I thought for a second my thermometer was broken because his temp was getting up to 103.  I kept yanking the thermometer out before it beeped because it was really freaking me out.  Now, 103 is very high for anyone but for a baby it is dangerously high.  Anything over 100.4 for a baby is no bueno.  So we called the pediatrician and after waiting a long 10 minutes without hearing back David and I decided to go ahead and just take him to the hospital.  When we got there they took his temp and we discovered it was 103.9.  Yikes!  They gave him some meds and did a full work up on him.  Blood, urine and even a chest x-ray.  And nothing.  They found nothing.  Which was a relief but then why the fever??  No one knew.  Oh and it only took them 3 times to successfully draw blood, thanks people!  So after his temp dropped to 100 they sent us home.  After a sleepless night for me, Weyland finally woke up at 5am and the fever had come back.  He was at 102.7.  So I gave him some tylenol and back to the ER we went.  We didn't want to risk it.  Again his fever went down so they sent us home.  It was like that for the rest of the day.  Fever went up and then down, up and then down.  Finally I got fed up and called our pediatrician for an appointment.  He evaluated him and looked over all his labs and decided we needed to eliminate the possibility of an appendicitis.  So back to the hospital we went.  First stop, radiology to get an ultrasound.   Which was painless, but pointless because Weyland only poops like once a week (totally normal apparently) and there was so much poop in the way they couldn't see his appendix on the ultrasound.  Ugghh.  Next stop, radiology again, for a CT scan.  This process was much less painless unfortunately.  Doing a CT scan meant that they had to inject him with contrast so they could see his appendix, which meant starting an IV, which meant more poking.  Great.  So we went back to the ER to get an IV started.  More waiting and more screaming.  Luckily it took only one try this time.  After getting the IV and the CT we had to wait an hour before getting any results.  And finally a gazillion hours later the results came back negative, no appendicitis.  Thank god!  So back home we went.  His fever finally broke that night.


Took some pictures after Weyland's temp dropped and he started feeling better.  Had to document this occasion with pictures.

Day One at the ER

Feeling better...or so we though

Day two at the ER

Poor little guy getting his IV day 2.  This was not fun :(

But the question still remains, why the fever?  I blame the immunizations.  There is no other logical explanation.  Of course this happened to me a vaccine skeptic.  In no way would our bodies normally fight off more than one disease at a time.  You don't get measles, the flu and chicken pox all at once.  But when you get immunizations that is essentially what your body is going through, getting exposed to multiple diseases at once.  There has got to be a better system for immunizations.  Why so many all at once?  I know that I need to protect Weyland from harmful diseases that there are no good treatments for, or that are really deadly to babies.  But do I have to allow him to go through what we went through yesterday and the day before to protect him from diseases that statistically he will never get?  I have a lot of contemplating to do before his 6 month immunizations come around.

Four Months!!

Well, Weyland you are four months old!  And let's just say you sure did make your 4 month birthday eventful.  The first day of your 4th month was spent mostly in the hospital.  Check out my next blog for the full story.  Now we will just stick to all the good things about you being 4 months old.  You are getting so big!! I think that has been the most significant change in the past month.  You are now 25 1/4 inches long, and weigh 15.4 lbs.  The second biggest change has been your hair.  You have pretty much lost it all, except for some left on the crown of your head and below your bald spot.  It makes me so sad.  I was so attached to your full head of brown hair.  But not to worry, you have hair growing back in already and surprisingly it is much lighter and has a reddish tint to it.  Your Daddy had strawberry blonde hair when he was little so I guess it's not that surprising.  Your eye color is still in question too.  They are brown but not quite like mine.  There is still hope that they will lighten up like your Daddy's.  There are several things that you have started doing this month, one being putting weight on your legs to stand up.  It's your new favorite thing.  It's like you are rediscovering the world from a different view.   You love it and you are getting pretty good at it.  You have also started to discover your feet, which I love to watch.  You become so concentrated and focused on grabbing and moving your feet around with your hands.  Pretty soon those little toes will be in your mouth all the time.   It's not just your feet you want to grab either, it's everything!  Anything we put in front of you you grab onto and bring it straight to your mouth.  One thing I am not a fan of that you have started doing is watching TV.  It doesn't matter where we are you seem to always find that screen and lock on to it.  You are also rolling over more and more these days.  Still not doing it a ton, but you have successfully rolled from your back to your tummy and then from your tummy to your back.  I feel like it is something that you can do pretty well, you just don't feel like doing it very much.  Which is okay with me.  Take your time Weyland, take your time.  You still LOVE being naked, except we have to be a little more careful with how long we have naked time.  More and more incidents of peeing all over have occurred, including all over Daddy's face.  Haha.  You still like to suck on your thumb/fingers.  And you take your paci more times than not now, mostly at nap time or in the car.   One thing you don't like, the car seat.  The 20-30 nap has translated to the car, so when your 30 minutes are up you start screaming.  Needless to say being in the car with you is loads of fun.  Our biggest accomplishment this month has been successfully transitioning you to the eat, play, sleep routine.  It was not easy, but it has made our lives much easier.  Nap time is still a struggle sometimes and still not in your crib, but it has become a lot easier, thanks to eat, play sleep.  I still rely on your swing for naps and then of course me, especially when I want you to take a longer nap.  And you still will only nap for about 20-30 mins.  But your Mimi did successfully get you to nap on our bed when we were in Lufkin.  Progress!  We are no longer swaddling you at night.  When you were about 3 1/2 months you were wriggling out of it every night, so we decided to eliminate it.  You still wake up once during the night to be fed and then you usually sleep till about 7.  You are still eating like a champ.  But you eat about every 2-3 hours now, giving Mommy much more time to run errands, have lunch dates and get things done around the house.  We are starting rice cereal soon and I am kinda excited about it.  You are still in cloth diapers mostly and in a size 2 in regular diapers.  You are still in mostly 3 month clothes, although a lot of them are pretty sung.  You are becoming more and more animated and starting to develop a little personality.  I'm really excited to watch that personality bloom.

We are starting to get some giggles out of Weyland!  It's my fav!!

Spending some time with mommy in bed

What nap time looks like 

OR    

naked tummy time!  Cutest little butt EVER!!!! 

Gig em Aggies!!

Mimi and Big David

watching the aggies BTHO of Arkansas! 

Rest of the 4 month photo shoot

I must mention that the Cook family suffered a great loss this month.  David lost his Aunt Debra.  We were able to fly down to Lufkin last minute to be with the rest of the Cook family and say our goodbye's to Debra.  She was such a wonderful person and she will be greatly missed.  We love you and miss you Aunt Debra.

Nap time blues

I keep telling myself that nap time is going to get easier, but I am starting to doubt myself.  Every day we battle, Weyland and I.  And most of the time he wins and I give in, pick him up and let him nap on me.  I feel like Weyland is old enough now that we should have some kind of nap time routine in place.  Maybe he is still too young and I am placing too high of expectations on him and myself, I don't know.  This is when I really need the baby version of Cesar Milan (the dog whisperer, love him!)  to come to my house and tell me what I am doing wrong.  Why doesn't that person exist?  So Weyland likes to fall asleep while eating or after eating, like most babies I'm sure, and my dilemma everyday is do I let him fall asleep so at least he gets a nap or do I keep him awake so we can play and then I can put him down for a hypothetical nap.  The beginning of the day I start out strong and he eats, we play and then I try to get him to nap.  But usually he just screams or stays awake in his crib.  I then resort to the swing and he sometimes falls asleep, but for only about 20 to 30 mins.   So the next feeding he is tired because he didn't nap so keeping him awake gets harder and harder.  And the cycle continues.  So my will power gets weaker and weaker.  And I have hardly any strength left to sit in the living room and listen to him cry in his crib or his swing.  In general he fights sleep and has to cry a little bit before falling asleep on his own, but this is prolonged crying that makes my heart ache.  So any advice or words of wisdom from my mommy friends out there?

Our visit to Funky Town!

In august I decided to travel to Fort Worth to see some friends and family.  David wasn't able to take block leave with the rest of his unit so he had to stay in El Paso :(.  So that meant I had to buck up and get on a plane with my little man.  Needless to say I was very nervous to fly with Weyland.  I desperately did not want to be that lady on the plane with the screaming baby.  Weyland generally does best when you are up walking around with him, or if he is laying on the floor.  Both of which you can not do on planes.  So I had some figuring out to do.  Luckily I have some girlfriends that have flown with their babies and I got some great advice from them.  Now looking back I'm not sure why I was so nervous because Weyland did great!  We got to the airport, I saddled Weyland up in the baby bjorn we breezed through security and got to our terminal.  I decided Weyland might be kept happiest if on the floor so I found a spot, spread out a blanket and let Weyland roam.  Well roam he did, because he decided to roll over all on his own for the first time!  I was dumbfounded.  For a while now he has been throwing himself to his side but never committing to roll all the way.  I wanted to yell, "yay weyland!!" but couldn't so I did the next best thing, called his daddy.  He did it a few more times once we got home, but hasn't done it again since.  Hum.  Back to the plane ride... got on the plane, started nursing Weyland and he went right to sleep and slept the whole way.  Whew!  Lucky for me its a short plane ride.  Weyland got to do a ton and meet a lot of friends and family while in Fort Worth, so I think I'll tell the story mostly in pictures.

Shortly after arriving I headed over to my granny's house so Weyland could meet his great granny, Auntie Eugenia, and Auntie Em (sorry Emily, just accept it).  After everyone got a peek at Weyland we hugged and kissed hello and then headed to dinner.  Being home with so much family around definitely had it's perks.  I had lots of Weyland holders at dinner.  Every time we went out I could actually eat at a normal pace and enjoy my meal.  Here is Weyland with his great Granny and his Auntie Em.

The next night Granny, Auntie Em and Aunt Eugenia came over and we had dinner at home.  So everyone got lots of Weyland holding time. (yay for me!)  On a side note, Papa may have some competition.  Aunt Eugenia is a bit of a baby whisperer herself.  She was great at taking Weyland off my hands and somehow putting him to sleep so I could eat.  Thanks Aunt Eugenia!!  

Nana and Aunt Eugenia

Papa aka the baby whisperer numero uno 

Granny and Auntie Em

The next night all of the ladies, and Weyland, had a fabulous dinner at Lili's.  A great little restaurant off Magnolia close to downtown Fort Worth.  It was wonderful.  I was a little nervous taking Weyland to such a nice place, but it worked out great.  We all took turns holding him and then eventually Aunt Eugenia, the baby whisperer numero dos, took him and he fell asleep.  Lucky for me Weyland falling asleep so late in the day, before his bedtime, doesn't seem to affect his sleep all that much.  Sorry no pictures of us at Lili's.  We were having too much fun.  

The next night we had some family friends over for dinner so they could all meet Weyland.  I didn't do a great job of taking pictures this night but I did manage to snap a pic of Peggy and Gary with Weyland.  (does anyone else notice a theme here of me not doing a good job of taking pictures...humm)

Friday I went to Arlington to pick up Emily  She was going to stay the weekend with us. Yay!!  That day we stopped by Casada, the high school where my Dad works, so he could show off his handsome grandson to all his co-workers.  After we got done modeling Weyland and declining offers to let him stay there for the afternoon we headed to lunch.  Weyland is not such a great napper so maybe it was all the modeling or all the car rides but he took a freakishly long nap that afternoon.  Emily and I went to Yuctan Taco Stand for some awesome fish tacos and got to have a looooong relaxing lunch.  It was super busy which means it was super loud so I'm sure that aided in Weyland's long nap.  I can't remember the last time I got to go out for a long relaxing lunch.  Thank you Weyland.   Emily got lots of good Weyland time that weekend.  We spend most of our time at home, hanging out, introducing Weyland to Raffi and Wee Sing, some classics from our childhood.  And we even busted out an old Fisher Price cassette player my mom saved for our Raffi and Wee Sing jam sessions.  

On Sunday one of my great great friends, Allison came all the way from the Woodlands with her sister Kimberly and her precious son Parker to spend the day with us.  Parker is 18 months old and is so much fun!  He was so great with Weyland.  He has recently learned the word baby, so he kept touching Weyland and saying, "baby!"  It was quite amusing.  We went Jason's Deli for lunch on Sunday, an old past time for Allison and I.  We were college roommates all 4 years, well technically 3 1/2. Allison is an over achiever and graduated a semester early.  Jason's Deli was a go to for us, probably because it's cheap and you get free ice cream!  After lunch we had to leave Allison for a bit to go check out Aunt Tiff's new pad.  Which is beautiful by the way.  Can't wait for our first sleep over!! (I didn't get any pictures of Tiff with Weyland this trip :( )  Allison and I spent the rest of our visit swapping mom stories and just catching up.  The next day, we enjoyed our morning and then had an early lunch at Fuzzy's Taco's, a Fort Worth must.  I hate being so far from her!  Hopefully one day we will be much closer.  Here are some pictures I snapped before she left on Monday.   

Love them!

Baby!

I am so fortunate to have several of my good girlfriends, who I grew up with, living in the DFW area still.  So most of them got a chance to come over and meet little Weyland.  On Monday, Rachel was able to take the day off work just to spend the day with us.  How lucky am I?  Or maybe she is the lucky one?  She did get the day off because of me.  Well not me per say, but my adorable child she wanted to meet.  She joined us for lunch on Monday with Allison and her crew and then spent the rest of the day with us at the Smith's casa.  Her mom even got to stop by and meet my little man.  We had a great time catching up and playing with Weyland.  I can't wait until we are closer!!  

That night Lindsey and her hubby Jason stopped by for a bit to meet my little man.  And I was one proud Mama because Weyland was so good!  Night time is usually when Weyland is the most fussy.  He gets a little cranky and is not his usual smiley, happy, serious self.  But he did so great!  The older get gets the better his night time has become.  So Lindsey got to hold him and even feed him.  I'm still working on getting him used to the bottle.  He seems to have the hang of it now, especially if I'm not the one giving him the bottle.  And we also played on his blanket and Weyland entertained Lindsey with his smiles, talking and of course his gas, typical man.  We had lots of fun!!

My last visitor was Ashlea.  It was perfect timing because she just recently moved back to Fort Worth from NYC.  Ashlea came over Tuesday morning and spend the day with us.  We had lots of play time.  We attempted nap time. We went and looked at ourselves in the mirror, which is the funniest thing to watch.  Weyland catches his own gaze in the mirror, study's himself and then grins a big ol grin.  It's priceless!  And Weyland loved Ashlea's dancing skills.  She busted a move for him and he loved it!  Thanks Ash!!

Tuesday night was my last night at home, so the family all met up in Arlington at Olenjack's for our last dinner together.  We had a great dinner but it was hard telling everyone goodbye.  It was so much fun being with all of my family and friends, but I was glad to get back home.  Weyland and I were missing Daddy a ton!  Here are some pictures from my last night with the fam. 

Teamwork!

Baby Whisper numero dos

Love you Granny!