best buds

Before there was Tyler, we had our first baby...Daisy. Some of our friends have asked how Daisy is handling the new addition to the family. The answer is, suprisingly well. She seems to ignore Tyler's crying and Tyler seems to ignore Daisy's barking at delivery men. At first Daisy was really curious about all the new smells, but she seems to be settling in with the new program and still loves to be in Tyler's room. She likes to follow me into his room during middle-of-the-night feedings and sleep at my feet. Here is a photo of the best buds cuddling.


Daisy better enjoy it now while Tyler doesn't pull her ears or ignore her in favor of his new buddy Simon (born 12/21/06 to Stacie and Zach).

bath time

Some things don't change. The nurses in the hospital mentioned that Tyler liked the bath they gave him the day he was born. Apparently most babies scream. Well, Tyler is proving to be a water baby. He still loves bath time (as long as we keep him toasty warm). We can't wait until the summer when we can take him swimming.

christmas!

The Campbell Family spent their first Christmas together in our home. What a glorious morning! We slept in, then I made french toast for breakfast, and then mommy, daddy and Tyler opened our gifts to each other (well, Tyler slept and we opened his gifts for him). My favorite gift was a new camera to take lots of baby photos and Alex got a Bose Soundock for his iPod. And to complete our annual ornament tradition, we purchased a 3-D silver baby bootie with Tyler's name and birthdate engraved on it. Trying not to sound hopelessly sappy, it was the most spiritually and emotionally fulfilling Christmas ever.


In the afternoon my brothers and mom came over. My mom had just received her fourth chemo treatment a few days earlier and was not feeling great. So we kept the festivities low key with appetizer-style food, a couple of movies and lots of baby watching. We had much to be thankful for this holiday: a new baby, my mom responding well to treatment and Dylan getting Christmas day off so I got to enjoy the extra time with him.

santa

On December 23, we celebrated an early Christmas with my dad and Jeanne at their house in Annapolis. Tyler was fussy most of the evening. Do you think it was the outfit?

Nice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nice. . . . . . . . . . . . . Naughty!

favorites

Tyler's: his swing, eating, mom and dad's pinky finger in his mouth, trying to move things with his hands, car and stroller rides, ear tickles, anything the resembles a nipple like our noses, ceiling fans, his hands and arms near his head.

Megan's: Tyler's smile, when he falls asleep on my chest, when he stares into my eyes for minutes, his nose, his blue eyes, giving him baths, that I can recognize his cry, his curiosity, his soft hair, his sweet demeanor, the little noises he makes when he eats, that he's our son.

first christmas tree

Alex and I took Tyler with us to pick out our Christmas tree, the first live one for our family. We dressed Tyler in his snuggly fleece jumpsuit and even put shoes on his feet to keep him warm despite the mild December weekend. I toted him around in the Baby Bjorn while Alex held up trees. We found the perfect one for our house and loaded it on top of the Pilot.

While at the tree farm I overheard an eight- or nine-year-old boy telling his mom how cute our baby was. As we were leaving he came up to us to tell us personally, "That is a cute baby." As if we didn't already know that! :)

heavyweight on the go

Tyler weighed in at 9 pounds and 6 ounces today. That is a 21 ounce increase in one week!! We were told that one ounce a day would be a good increase -- Tyler tripled that. The doctor didn't even bother to give him a physical assessment once she heard of his weight gain.

And finally, we were given the green light to let this boy sleep, rather than waking him every 2-3 hours to feed him. We're so relieved that we have the potential to get more than a handful of hours of sleep at a time. YEAH!!

His large weight increase shows in his face mostly. His chubby cheeks and pudgy fingers have returned, which we only saw for a few days following his birth. And he finally has a belly and some meat on his thighs.

And this big boy loves to be in motion. His favorite activity, other than hanging out in mom or dad's arms, is to sit in his swing. He cranes his neck up to watch the circling animals overhead. He's lulled to sleep by the motion every time. He also loves sitting in his carseat, whether being carried or driven. Snooze time!

more Tyler photos

Tyler pictures

more of me to love

At the doctor's office this morning, Tyler weighed in at 8 pounds, 1 ounce -- the first time that he's been above 8 pounds since the day he was born. It is a three-ounce gain in two days, which is excellent. We have another appointment next week and if he can show a continual gain we don't have to go back for several weeks. But we can already see the plumpness returning to his face and fingers. He can now fit in a few of his newborn sleepers, in addition to his 0-3 month onesies. But nearly all other clothes, especially pants and socks, are much too large at this point.

Tyler is changing almost every day. He's starting to really focus in on objects, especially peoples' faces. His eyes are still the dark blue/grey as the day he was born, but now a lighter blue ring is appearing around his pupils. It seems to be getting wider, but slowly. His hair is lightening. It was a medium brown, but is now a golden light brown. And his eyelashes are blonde. His neck and arms are so strong for such a little guy. He likes to crane his neck up to see who is holding him and his arms are always going. He sleeps with at least one arm near his ear or up behind his head. He's so laid back and has a really sweet disposition. What a good baby!!

all smiles

I've seen Tyler smile but it always seemed to be an accident previously. This morning during some mommy-and-me playtime, I tickled Tyler's cheek and I got a great big grin! I was able to get him to repeat his glorious smile several times. What a cutie!!

up

Tyler was weighed today at his latest doctor appointment. He's up to 7 pounds, 14 ounces! Our goal is one ounce per day. Usually babies are back to their birth weight (8 pounds, 4 ounces in Tyler's case) at two weeks, so we still have some work to do. But he's healthy, happy and cute as can be!

home from the hospital (again)

Tyler's Nov. 27 doctor appointment was not as good as we had expected. He was still 7 lbs. 8 oz., which means that he didn't gain any weight over the weekend. The doctor was concerned (but not alarmingly so) and ordered us to feed Tyler every two hours and return to see her on Nov. 30.

By this time Alex had returned to work and I was taking Tyler to the doctor alone. Not a pleasant visit. When our visit showed that Tyler had actually LOST 2 oz., the pediatrician sent us directly to the emergency room. I was so upset my face looked like a giant tomato, even the whites of my eyes had turned as red as my skin.

Alex rushed to meet us in the emergency room and we spent most of the day and part of the evening there before we were admitted to the hospital. They ran a battery of blood tests to rule out infections and metabolic diseases.

Someone told me that when you become a parent, your heart no longer resides within your chest, but with your child. I can now understand what that means. I've never known pain like that which I felt as several nurses labored to extract blood from our 2-week old baby. His body is so small that they had great difficulty finding adequate veins and had to stab him repeatedly in their search.

I had been concerned about a persistent gooby eye issue that Tyler had developed this past week. The pediatrician assured me that it was just a clogged tear duct and not to worry. However, during our stay the discharge became green showing that it was infected. So in addition to the continuous poking, prodding and blood drawing, Tyler also had to have antibiotic ointment squeezed into his eyelid.

We spent the next three days (discharged the afternoon of Dec. 3) weighing Tyler before and after feeds, weighing his diapers to measure his output and supplementing his breast milk feeds with formula. Sleeping camping-style on a loveseat and a sleeping bag on the floor of Tyler's room proved to be very uncomfortable and added to the stress.

The bright side was that all of Tyler's blood work came back normal and I was able to spend some extensive time with a lactation consultant. She reassured me that both baby and I have the breastfeeding thing down.

So the end result of our hospital stay and "observation" is that we proved that Tyler can gain weight with the proper caloric intake. With no clear or obvious reason for his "failure to thrive," we've made some minor adjustments to his feeding schedule and procedure and will have to monitor him closely.