Happy Birthday, Mikey!

Yesterday was Mikey's 35th birthday! This birthday was different than any other... he shared it with his little boy (and of course, me but that's no different than the past few years!) We began the celebration early with dinner at Old Bay Steamer on Sunday. That's a restaurant in Fort Walton Beach that serves delicious steamed seafood. Elaine and Katie also came along. Mikey and I both had crab legs and Grady sat in his own little high chair and enjoyed some bananas. :) We had a great time at Old Bay Steamer.
Yesterday on his actual day, Mikey was surprised when he got to work to find his desk and office area decorated and they even had a cake for him. I spent the afternoon scrambling around to get his birthday gift... a Blackberry Storm that he has been wanting for some time, but it has been a whirlwind actually getting it (long story). Anyways, I got it for him finaly and delivered it to his work so he could study every little detail (you know men and their phones). Grady helped Daddy unwrap the rest of his gifts after work and then after he went to bed, we enjoyed steak, sweet potatoes, and asparagus. For dessert we had some yummy ice cream cake... :) (Back on Weight Watchers today for sure!) Speaking of Weight Watchers, I forgot to post a blog about us joining. We joined a little over a month ago and Mikey has lost 23 pounds! I have only lost 10, but I know men lose faster. Once I get back into my exercise regimine, I hope it comes off faster. It's just not right... women do all the work, have the babies, gain the weight, and the men lose weight just by cutting a few calories! And then they don't understand why we can't do it just like they can. Oh well, I'll stick with it and sooner or later I'll lose it! Grady is getting big... he's got two teeth now and is sitting up on his own (with mama close by in case he has a topple)...

Pics Are Up!

Follow the link from today's earlier post...

He looks like a girl in the flower pictures, I know... don't worry, we won't order those! I love the green chair pictures and the pictures with the hat...

Next time, (9 months), I would like to get some more natural looking pictures... less props and back drops and just some simple portraits...

Hope you like them!

GONE!

My computer crashed on Monday night and everything is gone. For now, anyways. I took it to the computer store and explained the importance of the hundreds of pictures I have of Grady. I never thought to back them up on CDs and now everything is lost. The computer man said he would do everything he could to save them. I should know something by tomorrow... so I have no pictures to post. :(

Grady is doing well... I finally had enough of not sleeping and getting up 5 times a night, so I decided it was time for Grady to "cry it out". I had tried this once before during nap time and it ended up being too detrimental for me! But this time, I was ready. Ever since Grady got sick, his sleeping habits went down the drain. They were never good to begin with, but they got even worse the past few weeks. He was waking up super early in the evening (like 10 o'clock) and not going back down. So I would end up putting him in bed with me in which case he would nurse practically all night, which is uncomfortable for me and neither of us get sleep. So last Friday, I said enough is enough and it's time to "Ferberize"!

He is doing SO WELL at night time. It took three nights of crying (about an hour each time) and after that, he's been sleeping pretty much all night. We are still working out the kinks, but I am so happy to be getting some rest. Many people don't understand that babies aren't just born knowing how to sleep... we have to teach them. I didn't really understand this at first either, and that is how I ended up with a 6 month old with terrible sleep habits. It takes a LOT of discipline and commitment to get a baby to sleep well. Believe me, at 3 am, it seems much easier to get that baby out of bed and soothe him than listen to him cry. But I knew it was best for Grady, first and foremost, to start getting a full night's sleep. He is just too cranky during the day and I was cheating him out of a restful night. And I also knew that I needed to get more than 4-5 hours of sleep at night... it's been 6 months since I've slept well and that starts to wear on a person. Plus, it's summer time, and now is the perfect opportunity to teach Grady to sleep and for me to catch up on lack of sleep!

Now, nap time is a different story. He used to take naps on my shoulder in the rocking chair, or we would nap together in my bed. NOTHING gets done around the house and I was not getting any time to myself. So, we are trying to get him on a nap schedule to, again, make him a happier baby and also give me some sanity! This has been a much more difficult task because Grady does not like to sleep. Yesterday, after all the crying and fighting me was said and done, he ended up napping for a total of 40 minutes ALL day. It is physically and mentally exhausting to get Grady to take a nap. He claws and pinches and pushes against you and fights you tooth and nail! But, he will learn... just right now, he is down in his crib for what is hopefully a long morning nap. We are only 25 minutes in, but that's better than nothing!

Anyway, I am proud of myself for sticking with it because it was long overdue. I wasn't ready to do it a month ago, or even a couple of weeks ago, but now that I am doing it, I am much happier! It also helps to have Katie here to get up with me in the middle of the night and also for advice... since Mikey has to work, I have tried to keep him out of it so he can get some sleep! Let's hope we keep moving in a positive direction...

He had his 6 month pictures made last week. They are not posted yet, but should be any time now. You can check out his pictures here. Go to online viewing, then type in White.

Hopefully my computer will be up and running again soon!

Good Visit

Today at the doctor, Grady's saturated oxygen level had risen to 99, which is GREAT! He is still coughing, but sounds much better and the doctor says it has mostly moved out of his lungs and into his throat. So we keep encouraging him to cough (not that he knows what his crazy parents are saying to him)! He goes back tomorrow morning for what will hopefully be one final visit. We are continuing with his antibiotic, steroid, cough medicine, and breathing treatment.... he looks pitiful when he is taking his breathing treatment...




And on a more exciting note, a tooth is popping through! We can feel the sharpness through his gums and see a white fleck! Yea! I am so excited to see that little smile with a tooth! I am hoping it will be emerged by his six month pictures in ONE WEEK!

He's also been enjoying late afternoon walks with me, Aunt KK, and the three pups!


Thanks for all your well wishes and I will let you know tomorrow how things go! I am pure exhausted from several sleepness (and I do mean SLEEPLESS) nights so I am hitting the pillow early tonight!

Health Update

I just wanted to give everybody a short update while I have a few minutes. Grady has been sick lately, so I took him to the doctor on Friday. After a chest x ray it was determined that he had pneumonia, so he was given an antibiotic and a breathing treatment and was due back for a recheck on Monday. Well, on Monday, there was not much of a change so we did another chest x ray, changed his antibiotic and gave him cough medicine. After the 2nd chest x ray, it showed no more pneumonia so we were confused as to why he is coughing so much. (Our regular doctor has not been there, so we were seeing another doctor.) However this morning, our main doctor was back, so we went back to see her. To make a long story short, our doctor told us the films were misread and he never had pneumonia, but he does have Restrictive Airway Disease, which is a precurser to asthma. It is completely treatable and thankfully does not mean he WILL have asthma later in life if we can treat it now. We were now given a steroid to keep the swelling in his lungs down and we are continuing with the antibiotic and breathing treatment every six hours. Our main goal is to keep his oxygen level up which has been lower than we would like. The doctor says as long as she sees him everyday for the rest of the week, she thinks she can keep him out of the hospital. So, we have another appointment tomorrow morning and we are hoping his oxygen levels will have risen since putting him on the steroid and giving his breathing treatment more frequently.

Needless to say, poor Grady has been through the ringer and has not been sleeping much at all. Putting him down in his crib for a nap is out of the question, so he's been taking "shoulder naps" a few times a day....



Yesterday I felt like I sat in the rocking chair ALL DAY. The past two nights he's been up 7-8 times... last night was the worst because he would only sleep about 20 minutes at a time. However, we both just took a long nap together in my bed and he is happily playing next to me.

So, I don't have lots of pictures today, nor do I have the time to post them, but here is one that I just took... he's getting A LOT of hair!



I will post later about the nice weekend we had with Mikey's Aunt Lorraine and Aunt Janice (from NJ and NY). They came for a visit!