Happy Day!

Happy Birthday Grandma Wheeler!

We Love You!

I did it MY WAY!

I think "My Way" may be Baby B's theme song. He is similar to his brother, I mean he is a boy......he has eczema.....he has eyes. He is similar in the fact that he gets ear infections and he will also have a urological surgery BUT he has do things just a little differently from J. Here is how he is different.

Ear infections, J had a few ear infections in the 2 years of his life, he would wake up in the middle of the night or from a nap SCREAMING and we would realize that he had a SCORCHING fever. It didn't take long for us to recognize that when these two things happened, J had an ear infection. But baby B is different. He whines and fusses and wants to be held, if you don't hold him in time he will Scream bloody murder but with proper attention he will eventually calm down. He gets a low grade fever 99.6, maybe 100.1. Then his right eardrum bursts and gross stuff comes out, this all happens within a couple of hours. SUPER FAST! This happened the first week of January, then 6 weeks later, then 13 days after that. Poor Kid. I spent 2 hours waiting at the Kids Care yesterday for the doctor to tell me what I already knew, that his right eardrum had burst, this time he got antibiotics AND antibiotic ear drops. I was told to take him in to see his pediatrician in 10-15 days, but I am going to call the pediatrician and ask if I should take B to an ENT in 10-15 days instead. (I have a feeling baby B inherited his tendency towards burst eardrums from me, and because of that I would just like to say, I LOVE YOU MOMMY! Thank you for loving me and taking care of me when I was so little.) I feel so bad for my Baby B and I want to hold him and make him feel better all the time.

Now- and Update about how Baby B is different from J Surgically! I know you have all be waiting with baited breath to find out how our trip to the Urologist went. Well, Dr Cartwright remembered us. He actually walked in with both Baby B and J's charts and after the Hello's and other pleasantries he said "So you are the family that caused all the excitement a couple of years ago" and I said Yes. It was a very quick very nice visit with the doctor. He took a look at Baby B and explained to me that B has Megameatus which is the least severe type of hypospadias. (I then quipped that I am getting better at making little boy parts, the doctor chuckled and told me "Yes, Yes you are!") He said that we will most likely want to have it fixed and that it could be fixed surgically. He explained that the Meatus is the name of the opening of the Urethra, I didn't know that. Then he told me something I did know, Mega means Big. The main problem with Megameatus is this, think of a garden hose, when you turn on the water a nice stream comes out of the end of your garden hose, BUT if you put your thumb over the end of the hose and turn the opening from a circle to more of a wide slit suddenly you have a fan like spray......this spray is most likely what will happen when Baby B urinates. SO, for their Mother's sanity, most boys with Megameatus have surgery prior to being potty trained. Ta Da! I think I explained that pretty well! I questioned whether the fact that he has been circumcised would be a problem and Dr. Cartwright assured me that he could easily reform the meatus without the need for extra tissue- Hooray! He also told me that the circumcision was a little uneven and he would correct that too. I hadn't noticed anything but I am not a urologist. Then Dr. Cartwright asked me if I planned on having Baby B tested for Von Willebrand's and I said no....I mean Yes, of course, I assured him that we would have that taken care of long before the surgery so that we could take the appropriate action to prevent the type of "Excitement" we all experienced with J. The Doctor appreciated that.

So, Baby B will most likely get tubes in his ears this year, and then have the Urological surgery next January. I feel pretty comfortable with this, we didn't expect it so we didn't prepare for it financially, but everything will work out.

Primary Children's Medical Center

See these sweet babies?

Both of them have been to Primary Children's. J has been seen by Dermatologists, Urologists and Hematologists. He has been a surgical patient and spent a couple of days in the Rapid Treatment Unit there at the hospital. Baby B just had his first visit at the Urology office at the hospital, next January he will have his surgery and because we know of the possibility of him having a blood disorder just like his brother, prior to that surgery we will take him to the Hematology department to have him tested.

(This is J in the Rapid Treatment Unit)

This Hospital is amazing. They give loving care to their patients and wonderful support to the parents and loved ones of their patients. They treat everyone who needs treatment for childhood ailments, and they do it without regard for the patients ability to pay. Last year they gave over $14,000,000.00 in free care. One of the reasons they can do this is because of the Radiothon and Telethon that raise money each year. Last year's radiothon raised a little less than $450,000, lets make this years even better.

Here is an example of the care we received - after J's surgery his oxygen levels dropped. It SCARED me. It was late, we were not rushed out the door and told our baby would be fine. The nurses paid special attention to not only our little boy but also to us, the frightened parents. We did get to go home a couple hours later than expected, but WE knew our baby was okay and WE had been cared for.

Think about the people and children you love, I am betting that one of more of them has received care from Primary Children's Hospital or another wonderful children's hospital. If you can, give your support, if you can't give, encourage others to give. Share the love and the care.

Donations can be made by calling 801-575-5437 or 1-800-762-7262. The Telethon ends today Feb 25th at 6 pm mountain time.

The Winter Blah's

It happens several times a year, not just during winter time. I call it the Blah's. It is those wonderful times of the year that I really really really don't like to clean. We have been suffering through the Blah's for about a week and a half. I have been trying, half hearted, to work up the desire to clean, but as of yet I have not done it.

I am trying again today. I put the baby down on a blanket in the kitchen, he could use some tummy time. I did the dishes. It took longer than the baby would have liked so after I got the dishwasher chugging away I picked up the baby and sat down with him for a few minutes before nap time. J had been doing his best to undo all my work. While I loaded the dishwasher, he was unloading the clean utensils. It could have been worse I thought so I let him keep playing.

As I sat with the baby, J was in the kitchen, I should have noticed that the clinking of utensils had stopped. Then J came around the corner and presented me with this "Cake".

Yes, a wonderful cake, made from globs of shortening, served up on a Frisbee. I thanked him for his cake and took it from him. Then I quickly swaddled the baby and put him in the crib for a nap. As I brought the first cake into the kitchen I found J making a second one, this time on a blue Frisbee. YEAH! My boy loves to cook!

Now I have to get back to cleaning, I know I will appreciate the beautiful cleanliness once it is done. But for now, I am struggling through the Blah's.

Breakity- Rockity-Run!

This morning we got up bright and early and participated in the Breakity-Rockity-Run, then we ate Green Eggs and Ham. It was fun, Cold, but fun.

Ken had to work, so the boys came down with me and enjoyed a 3.1 mile ride in the stroller while I ran. It is the first time I have run outside since Thanksgiving and I was a little slower than my pace on the treadmill, but I am still pretty proud. I ran the entire 5k, I think that they told me my time was 40 Min and 30 something seconds.
I can't believe that we didn't get any pictures of all of us before or after the run, but here is what we looked like right after we got home.

I really enjoy running, who would have ever thought I would say that, not me! But I do. My next race will be on April 30th. The Hope for Sara 5k which I am going to run twice so that I can get my 10k in (it is my goal to run a 10k in April and I think this race has the best purpose). Come run with me, I am pretty sure I will be pushing the boys during this race as well, but I still have high hopes to increase my speed, by the end of April it should be warm enough to train outside. I have this theory that the first few times you run outside after training on a treadmill, you run a little slower because the ground doesn't force you to keep running at a certain speed like a treadmill does.

Growing Up

Yesterday Baby B was in the swing and J was playing with some of B's toys and reading some books. I asked J if he would give his brother the baby toys so that he could play with them while J read books. I looked over a couple of minutes later and found this. That is right, J figured B would rather read the books. I can't read minds, but I wish I knew the thought that goes along with Baby B's expression. Probably something like this "Um, yeah, give me the monkey!"

Well, Baby B has outgrown his infant carrier, does that mean he is not an infant anymore? Today I switched the carrier for the convertible car seat. J was super excited because the carrier was not in the middle of the car, but the new car seat is, so he can touch and help is brother all he wants....so he thinks.
I explained the rules of "sitting next to brother" several times. 1. don't touch your brothers eyes or put your fingers in his mouth. 2. Don't feed bother. 3. Don't poke brother and make him cry. 4. Don't wake brother up if he is sleeping. "Otay Mom" was the reply. Baby B wasn't so sure that J truly understood the rules, but he was willing to give it a try.
It was about 10 minutes into our drive that I first heard "Baby, Up, Baby! No Sleep!" But Baby B is apparently really good at sleeping through someone yelling at him because this is what I found when we got to our destination.
My boys are growing up and growing big. I love them so much, I haven't figured out how to place baby B's mirror in the car, so for now I can't see him anymore which kind of makes me sad. But time flies and in 6 more months he will flip around and I will get to see his sweet face in the car again.

Sad, Sad, Sad!

I know what you are thinking. "But that baby doesn't look sad!" and it is true. This is a picture that I took last Thursday, we had just returned from the Doctor's office. We had to go to see the doctor because I, yes I, let the baby fall off the changing table and he landed on his head.

He was fine, the doctor said, and as you can see from the picture he was pretty happy that day too. As my friend Kristen said "It looks like he just got on the Happy Train" when she saw this picture.

Well, when Baby B woke up this morning, he had most definitely gotten off the Happy Train. He was fussy and hot. I took his temperature, 100.4. A while later after he wouldn't really eat (and threw up what I did manage to get him to eat) and just wanted to be held and moan I took his temperature again, 100.8. Since it was going up I figured I would give him some medicine in the hopes that it would help with whatever was causing his discomfort. It didn't take long before I had my smiling baby back, but the medicine also didn't stop the fever from continuing to rise.

Early this afternoon I talked him into eating some more. While I was feeding him I noticed that his ear looked a little wet. I felt it, there was definitely ear drainage. So off to the doctor we went. Double ear infection with a burst right eardrum. Poor Baby, same thing happened 6 weeks ago. It came on so fast. Yesterday he showed no signs of fever or discomfort, but he did have a runny nose. But he slept all night, ALL NIGHT! The doctor had checked his ears on Thursday and they were perfectly clear. If it happens again anytime soon our Doctor will refer us to an ENT to get some tubes. He takes after his mother I guess. We all have weaknesses, mine and Baby B's are our ear drums.

Mending Broken Hearts

I have learned a lesson this morning, a few lessons actually, but one lesson in particular really stood out. J wanted to make a cake, I had a package of sugar cookie dough in the fridge and so I asked him if he would rather make "Heart Cookies". He said yes. So we rolled out the dough and cut out 12 hearts. Lesson 1- my stoneware cookie sheet is too small for 12 hearts. Lesson 2, the lesson that I feel blessed to have received from a batch of cookies, is this-

Some of the hearts were broken. As I transferred them from the table to the cookie sheet they were torn, I put them back together as best I could but they still looked pretty funny. I figured they would still taste just as good. I put them in the oven and let them bake. When I took them out of the oven this is what I found. The broken hearts had mended.

At least two of these hearts had GIGANTIC cracks in them. Now they are whole. I am grateful that upon seeing these whole cookies I felt a whispering in my own heart and mind that explained to me that Yes, we all break, all of us, all of our hearts will be broken, some to a much greater degree than others. But our broken hearts can be mended. Through the power of the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ we can be refined and our cracks, our pains, all of our broken pieces can be mended back together and we will discover in the end that we are much stronger, he can and he will make us whole.

So today a batch of cookies taught me how my Savior can mend broken hearts. I wonder what I will learn tomorrow.

Wiggles!

Baby B has been doing this funny little dance fore a couple of weeks now. Usually he only does it when I am changing his clothes.

6 Months!

My sweet Baby B is now 6 months old. He is such a wonderful baby and he does things his way, my two boys are very different from each other but they are similar in that I love them both very much.

Baby B doesn't enjoy tummy time very much.

He rolls from back to front if you can catch him at a time that he is willing to lay on the floor for more than a minute or two.

He is very, very, very friendly, willing to share his smile with EVERYONE.

He has rolls on his rolls.

He, like his brother, has eczema and is now on what we like to call "Cuteness Enhancing Drugs".

He loves to eat, loves to be held, loves to be cuddled and tickled and loves to have conversations.

If you swaddle him, he will sleep.

If he cries in the middle of the night, it is probably because he wiggled so much that the swaddled blankets are now wrapped, exclusively, around his head.

Because his mother is a wimp, baby b still sleeps in the portacrib at night. He has the basement guest room all to himself. Someday soon his mommy will work up the courage to put him into the same room as his brother J at night....pray for his Mommy.

He is starting to get a sleep schedule going too- which I, his Mommy, am very happy with. If we put him down between 6 and 7 pm, he will sleep well until we wake him for a quick feeding before we go to bed. The then returns to sleep and sleeps for the rest of the night (most nights). We top him off because we have found that if we don't feed him before we go to bed, he wakes up on his own at about 3 AM, and his Doctor and I agree that it is better for a happy parent to feed him at 10 PM than a frazzled parent to feed him at 3 AM. He is also starting to take 2 pretty regular daytime naps as well. What a good boy he his.

Some Baby B Stats-

Weight- 21 lbs 5 oz- 96th percentile

Height- 28 1/4 inches- 95th percentile

Head- 17.75 inches- 85th percentile

He is my Big Big Baby. My Gentle Giant.

And here is J at 6 months, they look a little more alike then I thought they did. Well, It probably has to do with the fact the neither of them have much hair at this age, and that they smile a lot.

Deja Vu

Does this look like a boy with a congenital birth defect? If you said Yes, then you are right!

I guess it is not true Deja Vu, but I have been through this before. According to heainfo.org-"Hypospadias is one of thy most common birth anomalies, occurring to some degree in as many as 1 out of every 125 boys (according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)." As simply as possibly, Hypospadias means that the opening of the urethra is in the wrong place. Little J was born with it. He had an incomplete foreskin as well which was a pretty big sign that something was wrong. Baby B didn't show any signs of Hypospadias until after he was circumcised. I took him to see our Pediatrician, Dr. Witt, for his 4 month well child check, it was the first time he had seen him ( I gave the Family Practitioner I saw for my pregnancy a chance with Baby B, I like her and everything I just like our Pediatrician more, so I switched Baby B's care to him). Dr. Witt has been J's pediatrician since he was about 3 months old and he knows what we went through with J, his surgery, bleeding and subsequent Von Willebrands diagnosis. So when I told him I thought Baby B's little boy parts didn't quite look right, he took me seriously and took a look. Sure enough, even though we were told we only had a 10% chance of having another son with Hypospadias.......we did. I am 100% good at making super cute sons, with common birth defects.

So now we get to go see the Urologist up at Primary Children's Hospital. I had no idea what we were in for the last time we took our baby boy there, this time I know the basics and I have even more questions. Questions about the surgery, which is quite routine and normally uses portions of the little boys foreskin to extend the urethra and create an opening in the proper place. But Baby B's surgery will be different, because he has been circumcised......so I don't know what they will do. I am slightly concerned that this will make his surgery less routine, how will they do it? Will they use donor tissue? Another thing I have on my mind is Von Willebrands, I will absolutely 100% get Baby B tested. I can learn from past experience. I don't think any of my children will ever have surgery, or even tooth extraction, without me knowing their Von Willebrands status. I don't want anymore trips to the ER with poor little bleeding babies if I can prevent it.

So, give us a year (we will probably do the surgery in Jan of 2012) and we will have a picture of Baby B similar to this one of J.

I believe in God, I believe he doesn't give us any trials that we can not handle. So I can handle this. Baby B can handle it too. We are going to be fine.