Happy 5 months, Karsen!!

Karsen turns 5 months old today! It was so fun to take his picture this morning and reminisce on how far he has come. I remember that first month that I had to prop him up very strategically to make sure he would be sitting upright. This morning, I had to try and take the picture quick enough because he hardly wanted to sit still! It has been fun watching him grow! As you can see, he loves to play around with his feet. He just "discovered" them a few weeks ago and he is always playing with them.

We also started some oatmeal late last week. At first, he gave the funniest faces because he wasn't quite sure what it was, but last night, he really seemed to take a liking to it. Here are some pictures from his first time eating! Especially in the last picture, it looked like he was about to start crying but he never did. Haha. I think he just didn't know what to expect. 

I am anxious to start feeding him more solid regular foods. He is constantly reaching, and watching us when we eat. 

He also isn't sleeping the greatest. He doesn't take that great of naps during the day, so he is still waking 2-3 times per night. It is exhausting. I still haven't recovered from the overnight stays in the hospital...

Oh well...he is worth it!

MB

Coming up on 5 months!

Karsen will be turning 5 months old NEXT WEEK! Again...where has the time gone?!

We are trying to get back to the old sleeping habits he had before he went through the growth spurt and the sickness that had us in the hospital for a few days. The last two nights he has slept pretty soundly and I attribute that to being able to sleep on his tummy. If he can just roll himself over to his stomach, he can sleep a good solid 6-7 hours before he wakes for a feeding. I feel like I am kind of starting to get a little more sleep these days! Im sure I just jinxed myself...

Because he just got out of the hospital on Sunday, we decided to keep Karsen out of daycare for the beginning part of the week. Monday he stayed home with me and Bruce and Tuesday/Wednesday, he got to spend the day with Grandma! Lucky for Karsen, Grandpa was around for a little while to help out AND Uncle Jim came to visit both days. 

Excited for Game 1 of the World Series!!

Picture with Grandpa before he left town. 

Spending some time in Grandma's exersaucer! 

Before Karsen was born, I spent some time on Pinterest finding some fun crafting ways to display some of the early days of Karsen's life. The following pictures are two things I came up with. Thank you, Pinterest!

I have made one of these before for a friend, so I was super excited to make one for my own child! The 4 smaller openings on the left side still need to be completed, but it is space reserved for the time he was born, and his length and weight at birth. The pictures are some great shots while we were still in the hospital. The whole idea behind the tray was just to commemorate his first few days of life, while in the hospital. 

This shadowbox also shows some memories from the hospital. In this shadowbox I saved the hospital shirt, his stocking hat he wore the whole time, his information card, his footprints and his ID bracelet is also in there. I think it turned out pretty good! And what better way to display some of the memories...otherwise, what else are you supposed to do with all that stuff?!

After Karsen was born, my really good friend Tracy kept talking about a Meet-and-Greet baby shower (which I wrote about here) but one of the parting gifts they gave me included the following items. One thing was a set of blocks. These things are SO COOL because they are just standard 2x2 blocks, which they glued scrapbook paper on and then added his birthdate as well as his name to. They also left a number of the sides blank so I could print off some pictures and attach those. Here is the final product! I have these blocks on the shelf over the changing table and I always like to look at the pictures when changing Karsen!

The next item is pretty cool too. The other hostess, Tracey, bought this chicken wire frame at Joann's and painted the frame portion and then attached the word "Smile" to the top of the frame. Then, she used washi tape to decorate the mini clothes pins so I could then order some pictures and pin them to the chicken wire. LOVED IT!!! I loved it so much that I made one for my parents as a way of saying 'thank you' for all of the times they have come over to babysit so Bruce and I could spend some nights out. Definitely one of the cutest ideas I have seen and will be using it again as gifts in the future. It is such a great way to display pictures and it is so easy to change out the pictures as the child grows. 

It did take me a while to complete all of these projects (I took a day off of school just to stay home and craft) but once I got them done, I felt such accomplishment and I love the different ways to show off some of Karsen's things. 

On a side note, we are really hopeful to FINALLY start solids with Karsen sometime next week. With him being sick, the pediatrician recommended waiting until he turns 5 months. At this point, since we have waited so long, I think we will just go straight to oatmeal, and then have him eat that until closer to 6 months where he will then go straight to finger foods. I'm thinking we will just skip purees. Wowza! Cheers to another big milestone coming up!

MB

The power of PRAYER...an anniversary we will never forget.

I have always believed strongly in the power of prayer. One of the best things I think you can tell someone who is going through a hard time is "I am praying for you." I truly believe that small statement sends such a powerful message and is one of the statements I have heard over the last few days that has kept me strong.

Karsen had a cold earlier in the week and since we have already dealt with a minor cold with him, I didn't think much of it. We just went through the same routine of getting out the cold air humidifier, using the bulb syringe to get any snot out, and we elevated his mattress. Unfortunately, his cold was not going away and he was showing signs of getting worse. Thursday evening he was eating significantly less and Thursday overnight he refused to let me put him down. I held him most of the night as he tried to sleep. As he was sleeping, I noticed he was breathing much faster than normal and things just didn't feel right. I told Bruce that I wanted to wake him at 2a so we could come to Children's Mercy because things just didn't seem right...buuuut I didn't want to be THAT mom who blows things out of proportion. Lesson learned...FOLLOW YOUR GUT!!

Friday morning, as I was getting ready for work, I decided to call Ask-A-Nurse to talk with a nurse about his symptoms. Everything she was saying said "Take him to the ER" so after I got done crying (sheesh...I was a mess) we packed up the car and the kid and headed to Children's Mercy...right in the middle of morning rush hour. Ugh. We sat in the ER for a few hours as Karsen was hooked up to all sorts of probes and leads to monitor his breathing a heart rate. Things were much higher (or lower, O2) than they should be. The ER doc came in and said we would be admitted for the weekend. Cue mom crying again. All I could think was "What did I do wrong?! How could I have prevented this?!"

Friday late morning we were moved up to our inpatient room and started sending texts and making phone calls to people who would need to know our where-abouts. Everyone we talked to said "Sending thoughts and prayers your way" and man that helped me relax and gave me a sense of calm during this storm.

Friday was the worst day. Karsen was not himself. He was still heavy breathing, and only woke up for a few minutes at a time. He hardly ate anything, otherwise he would fuss a little and fall right back to sleep. At this point, the nurses were really watching his Oxygen levels. They were incredibly low on Friday morning, but with the help of a breathing tube thingy, his levels were where they should be. Of course, the goal was for him to breathe on his own without the help of the Oxygen tube. Friday over night, Karsen got some good long stretches of sleep, but he still needed help with his breathing. The oxygen line was on all day Friday and Friday overnight.

We woke up Saturday and the nurses noticed signs of improvement, so they would come in and turn the oxygen off while he was awake. His levels seemed to be good, but still, when he would doze off for a nap, the levels would drop and the nurse would come in to turn on the pump. At least on Saturday, he would spend more time awake and less time fussing. He actually smiled a little for us too! Saturday, mid day, I asked the nurse what our goal was so we could get the heck out of here...she told us "Oxygen free for 12-24 hours." Ugh...as low as he would drop during naps, we were not feeling confident we would be leaving any time soon, and the nurses lead us to believe it would be late late Sunday night or probably Monday before we would be discharged. Suuuuuuperrrr...(sarcasm).

Saturday night, Karsen had some more good sleep and even got a solid 3 hour stretch in from 4a-7a. He even rolled over to his tummy during that time and slept really soundly...so soundly, that I woke at 7a wondering what time it was and had I missed him crying at some point. NOPE! There was my happy baby, partaking in some self-induced tummy time. He was just cooing away in the crib and loving life. Even better was that the nurse came in for shift change and said "I didnt need to turn on the oxygen once last night!" YAHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! What a huge relief! They nurses seemed surprised that he made such a quick improvement and they said "Looks like you are going home today." Music to my ears.

As I sit here still in the hospital room, I hear Karsen "talking" himself to sleep as Bruce rocks him in the rocking chair. In situations like these, I just think "How did I get so lucky?!" Yea it TOTALLY SUCKS that we are even here in the first place, but dang it, this kid is getting back to his normal self, and I have a wonderfully supportive husband who was here with me through it all.

Bruce and I "celebrated" our 4th wedding anniversary on Thursday. Truthfully we tried to go out to dinner Thursday night with Karsen and had to get our food to-go because he just wasn't feeling quite right. Later, I found out that Bruce had a whole evening planned for just the two of us on Friday night. My mom was set up to take Karsen for the night and we would be free to enjoy our evening. HA. The good Lord had other plans and that is ok. We have made it a yearly tradition to order a "cake topper" of the spice cake we had at our wedding. After we got settled in the hospital room, Bruce ran out to pick up the cake and ran home to get other necessities. We still enjoyed the cake...just in a hospital room and not at home. Boo.

A memorable anniversary for sure...but at least my baby boy is feeling better and we have made it through this tough time.

We are so thankful for all of the prayers and thoughts that were sent our way. What a blessing to have such caring friends and family!!!

MB

We no longer have a teenager!!!! 20 weeks!

It is so crazy that Karsen is 20 weeks old! I was looking through some pictures from the early days and I remember thinking "these days are crawling by!" But now that he is 4.5 months old, I am asking myself "where has the time gone?!"

We have had some exciting happenings lately...the most exciting is that Karsen is now rolling over! Front to back and back to front!! It is so funny because after he rolls over that first time, he remembers he can do it and he just rolls back and forth all over the place! I just cant wait until he is crawling because I know he will be all over the place!!! Here are some fun pictures!

We got all of the stuff set up for starting solid foods! We put Karsen in his high chair so he could get a feel for the chair. I think he likes it!

Karsen LOVES the time he spends in the Exersaucer! The chair spins and he is constantly rotating around the toy!

This is the Jellycat book he got from Melodie and Neal and he loves the cracking paper on the inside. He is all about making noise with his toys.

More exersaucer happiness!

I tried propping him up on the Boppy to help him sit up, but he loved stretching over the pillow, instead.

He has finally started batting at the toys hanging from the handle on his carseat.

I took this picture the morning of Game 4 of the ALCS! Karsen KNEW they would win!!

On Saturday, October 11, we made the drive over to Lawrence for the annual tailgate with the Moneymaker clan! We have been invited to join in the tailgate for quite a few years and it was so great to be able to take Karsen and party like a Jayhawk! Below is a picture of C$ (Cyndy Moneymaker) with Karsen (and Rich in the background!) It was so much fun!

In this picture below, Karsen is rocking his sunglasses! The first time we put them on him, weeks ago, he was crying like crazy, but he didnt mind them so much this time! He looks so serious...

And a family picture at the tailgate.

This last picture (below) is right after Karsen rolled over for the first time! He rolled from his back to his tummy! He was so excited (and so was mom!)!!!

We are starting solids this weekend so we are hopeful everything goes smoothly. He stares at us eating constantly, so I think he will enjoy getting some solids in his belly. Let's hope he starts sleeping a little longer too...

MB

4 month sleep regression...fact or fiction?!

Ugh. If this 4 month sleep regression thing is real, I would say Karsen is right in the thick of it! Any research I have read says around 16-19 weeks (Karsen is 18 weeks) infants will go through a sleep regression where they are sleeping more deeply during their REM cycle, but they are much more alert towards the end of REM that they tend to wake up easier throughout the night. Over the last couple of weeks, Karsen has been all over the place with his nighttime sleep. He wasnt the best sleeper to begin with (has always waken at least once per night to eat) but it has gotten worse. Some nights he still only wakes once...and some nights he wakes 3-4 times. Ugh. Depending on the time that he wakes, he usually just wants to be rocked back to sleep...other times, he is hungry and eats everything we give him. It has taken us a few nights to really understand whether he is just wanting to be rocked asleep, or if he is truly hungry. Lately, I have gotten so lazy that I let him make some noise for a few minutes before I get up to go in his room. He certainly isnt crying his head off (if he were then I would be in there in a flash because he does not ever cry that hard during the night) but just making some noise. Usually, if he is just tired, he will put himself back to sleep but if he is hungry, I get up and he eats! I am hopeful this "self soothing" will help prevent us from having to work through any "cry it out" phase in the near future.

On Monday, Karsen turned 4 months old! This time has gone by so fast (I say that in every blog post...repetitive much?!) He had his shots that afternoon and he did a great job with them! So proud of my boy!

This is the outfit Karsen wore to daycare on Monday in honor of Monday Night Football and the Chiefs! Such a cute boy. I love that smile!

Such an exciting week in KC sports! This picture was taken the morning after the Royals won the Wild Card game!! Woot woot!

Karsen has the Royals fever! Let's hope they keep winning!

And we went out for Bruce's birthday and Karsen slept through all of dinner. That gave Bruce and me the chance to eat dinner without taking turns. Thanks for the great birthday gift, Karsen!

And finally, for the Chiefs game on Sunday, Karsen is sporting his long sleeved Chiefs outfit. It is chilly here in KC today so pants and long sleeves were needed!

Have a great weekend!