So, the past week has been full of lots of fun and not-so-fun things! Read on to find out what my little family has been up to this week!
On Saturday, we went to see my mom. She's leaving to go on a cruise tomorrow and we wanted to say "Hi" before she left. But, everyone at her house was a little preoccupied with their yard sale (including my step-brother Forrest, who saw Max for the first time ever that day) and there were too many bees flying around her front porch, so we didn't really see them for very long before we had to go.
My dad had invited us to dinner at his house later that night, so we went there that evening. Max was being alert a smiley while we were there and he even got some tummy time in.
A picture Michelle and Chainda got of Max smiling!
Brooke, Klay, Grandpa, and Max!
Grandpa Leonard holding Max!
Michelle holding Max!
On Sunday, we unexpectedly got a phone call from my grandma inviting us to lunch at her house. So, we went to visit them and eat that day. Ryan's youngest brother, Josh, left for Idaho that day, too, for school. We didn't get to see him before he left but hope that he is enjoying his time up there and that he has a good semester!
Close up!
Monday was Labor Day. Ryan had the day off so we went to get the car aligned, get an oil change, and get new tires since we're selling it. We went to the Sears Auto Center at Provo Towne Centre Mall. The guy told us it would only take two hours for them to get everything done, so we went to the mall to kill some time. We ran into my mom, Russ, and Quin at the mall just in time for Max to be hungry, so we chatted with them in the food court for a minute. They told us Amanda was working so we stopped in to see her at her store. When we were done at the mall, we went back to see if our car was done, and it definitely wasn't. That two hours wound up taking four and a half hours. I was pretty cranky by the end of the day...
Tuesday, Max rolled twice. I already reported this in my last post and put up a video! But I was very excited about it. I e-mailed the video to Ryan while he was in class and he said he loved it and couldn't stop laughing while he was watching it.
On Wednesday, Max rolled again for me for the fourth time ever! That evening someone knocked on our door. I apparently have visiting teachers... They brought me some candy and Max was such a show off while they were in our doorway--he would not stop smiling. Brat... HaHa, just kidding. I'm not exactly thrilled to have visiting teachers, but I felt too awkward to tell them I don't believe in their church and that I don't consider myself a member anymore, so now I'm not sure what to do when they come over again...
Max getting hungry...
Yesterday Max turned two months old! He is growing up so fast--I can't believe it! To "celebrate," Max had a doctor appointment. Our big boy weighed 12 pounds, 10 ounces (74.45 percentile), was 23.63 inches tall (77.06 percentile), and his head circumference was 15.2 inches (20.8 percentile). Dr. Gibson had to remeasure Max's head circumference because the nurse originally measured 14.75 inches (7.24 percentile), but last time Max measured 14 inches (20.76 percentile) so the doctor thought that something seemed off.
The nurse mentioned that Max seemed to be breathing too hard, so Dr. Gibson checked his lungs and said he seemed just fine. Max breathes hard and raspy a lot of the time, but I think it's more because he gets excited looking around him and seeing new things. His breathing is completely different when he's asleep or not anxiously looking around. He's really calm when he's awake in our room, and I think it's because he's so familiar with it.
I asked the doctor about Max looking to his left all the time and how it's affecting the shape of his head, and he seemed really concerned when he took a look at our baby's misshapen head. He said that not only can his head become permanently misshapen, but if he's favoring the left side it can affect his jaw and cause problems with that later on. He also noticed that when laying flat on his back, Max has some body torsion, where he torques to his left. So we've been instructed to do some neck stretches with Max 4-5 times a day to help correct these problems (which Max HATES--his neck muscles are really tight and he doesn't like being restrained). He is also no longer allowed to sleep on his back--we have to prop him up so he's on an angle facing his right (which we did last night--Max is so funny, though; he tries to look to his left even though he's angled towards his right and his head just flops to the right when he finally relaxes). Dr. Gibson did seem pretty impressed by how strong Max's neck muscles are (just because they're strong does not mean you shouldn't support his head when holding and carrying him). He set Max on his belly and went to raise Max's head, but Max started lifting it before the doctor had a chance. Then Max almost rolled into the wall...
When the doctor looked at Max's genitals, he pointed out that Max may has either a hydrocele or an inguinal hernia. He was really concerned about this, too, and grabbed a second doctor to get a second opinion. They both seemed concerned about it and gave us a referral to see Dr. Earl Downey, a pediatric surgeon. Ryan and I weren't really told much about it, so I did some research online at home and looked up the term in my baby book. Apparently, a hydrocele is extra fluid in the scrotal sac and it can cause the loss of blood flow to the testicles. My book said that usually hydroceles and hernias go away within the first year of life, so I'm not sure why the doctor was as concerned as he was. I guess maybe Max's just looks worse than most. I'm worried about him having to have surgery. I hope that when we see the surgeon he thinks it doesn't look so bad and that it will go away by itself. I tried to make an appointment with Dr. Downey when we left, but I got their voicemail and left a message.
Finally, after all this was done, the doctor left and sent in a nurse to give Max his vaccines... Poor baby boy! First, Max got his rotavirus vaccine. This was an oral vaccine and he didn't seem to mind swallowing it. Next came the shots... He got a hepatitis B vaccine, a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13), and a Diptheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis vaccine (DTaP). The nurse had Ryan and me hold Max's shoulders down while she stabilized his legs. She stuck him in his right leg with one needle. I don't think it hurt him very much, but it definitely surprised him. His eyes went wide and his raspy breathing stopped for a moment. But when the nurse plunged in the meds, Max went bright red and let out one really long, loud scream. During that scream the nurse got the other two shots in his left leg. He cried non-stop after that, and Mommy cried with him. I couldn't put him down until he calmed a little bit, and then we had to dress him. He'd been hungry during the appointment so we gave him a couple ounces to eat before we left, which also helped him calm down a little.
When we got home, Ryan had to go straight to class. I couldn't put Max down. Every time I tried, he just bawled. So I held him all night and had to ask Ryan to bring dinner home. We let Max sleep with us in our room last night, partly because it was such a traumatizing day for him and partly because I wanted to be able to check him for a fever or other complications from the vaccines more easily during the night.
He no longer sits still in the tub. He kicks his legs and moves his arms and gets water all over the place. I think he thinks it's funny... I'm worried about what will come of this as he gets older and realizes what he's doing!
Max in his bathrobe!
All cleaned up before his doctor appointment!
Poor little Max on his way home from the doctor's office...
Today, Max seems to be feeling better. He definitely does not like his neck stretches, but if I let him snuggle with me after we're done, he calms down fast and is much happier.
I called the surgeon's number again today a few times and it went straight to voicemail every time. I left another message, but no one ever did get back to me. So I called our pediatrician's office to see if I had been given the correct number. The receptionist gave me a different number to try, which was disconnected. So I called the pediatrician's office again and they gave me another number. I almost had an appointment set when the receptionist realized I was wanting to make the appointment for the Provo office, so she told me to call the first number I'd been calling. I explained to her that my calls from that office weren't being answered and that my messages were not being returned, so she called someone at their office and found out for me that there is only one person in the Provo office who handles scheduling and that she was on vacation. How stupid is that, right? So she told me I could either schedule with her for the Salt Lake office or I could wait until Monday and hope that the other woman was back from her vacation. So I scheduled to go to Salt Lake. Max's appointment is Tuesday, September 28. I'm not sure if I want to drive that far with Max, but I'm also not sure I want to schedule with the Provo office--they haven't made a good first impression on me... We'll see if the woman in Provo calls me on Monday and if they have any earlier appointments. If they do, I may reschedule...
The nurse stuck him in the right leg first.
Those were long needles! Made the poor little guy bleed...;
Two spots...
One spot...
Thinking about what Mama's saying...
:-D
Look at that smirk... LOL!
He's a cute lil' smiler!
His poor, odd-shaped head!
This is how Max had to sleep all night...
Hope everyone is doing well and has a great weekend!
-Aubrey
P.S. This is the last time I'm signing my name... I don't think Ryan is ever going to post anything on here, so unless a post specifies that someone else is posting, you can just assume it's me. :-P
