Can you see me?

Reed is feeling better and he's acting like his silly self again. (fingers still crossed).

He loves the bath so much that he wants to get in it at all times. Here is how I found him when I stepped back into the bathroom the other morning. I think he's trying to give me a hint?

Amoxicillin toxicillin

So last week we started the work week fresh thinking this will be a better, healthy week. I pick up Reed on Monday after work and I could just see it in him. He wasn't acting like Reed. Big signs followed; he didn't want his dinner that night and he whimpered all through the night in his crib. Tuesday morning brings us a fever and DOUBLE pink eye. My poor poor Reed. Pink eye, yuck! I've never had it and didn't know much about it, but there was no denying that's what it was. As the week progressed, the fever, the sleepless nights and the pink eye continued. Finally on Thursday I took him to the Pediatrician. Low and behold, obvious double pink eye.....and an ear infection! No wonder he wasn't happy!

Reed gets prescribed an antibiotic ointment for his eyes and amoxicillin for his ear. I'd like to point out that this is his second ear infection, he had one in December, and he took amoxicillin then. We gave him his first dose that evening and not even 45 min later we notice bumps all over his belly. Thinking maybe its a reaction to the virus he's fighting, we kind of move on. Friday comes and the bumps are still there. They don't look awful, but they're there. His eyes are still blood red. He looks pathetic. I greet him on Friday evening after he spent the day with his ever so helpful Gpa. I check him out and the bumps are now slowly creeping onto his face and back. I'm so torn as to what to do.....I had googled his symptoms a million times and came to my conclusion that he was having an allergic reaction to amoxicillin, OR could it be from the chicken pox vaccine he had two weeks ago? We wake on Saturday morning and the bumps are minimal....we give him another dose following the instructions.... the pink eye is looking much better, but now the bumps are the main concern. He wakes from a nap on me and his cheeks are covered in a red/flushed rash. I send a picture to his Aunt Katie as she requested and thankfully she is at work and has a Doc look at the picture. Doc confirms that it looks like an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin and to get him to Doc to get a different antibiotic ASAP. Call our Doc and they closed 10 min prior. Off to Righttime we go.

Some 3 hours later we have a new antibiotic. Doc confirmed the reaction (or best guess really) and prescribed us with azithromycin....Reed randomly broke out the bumps while we were there which was good timing I guess. Whats so scary about being allergic to amoxicillin is the reaction can be very serious if we had kept administering. So glad we took him when we did. Gave him his first dose of the new antibiotic on Saturday night and again last night. bumps/rash seems to be gone. Eyes looking like his baby blues again.

Earlobes, eyes, toes, and tails crossed this is all behind us!!!

Merry Happy Everything!

Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, and Happy New Year!

I guess it will be like this every year, right? Needless to say we’ve been full of all kinds of wonderful
celebrations.

Christmas was wonderful. We celebrated at my parent’s house on Christmas Eve where all the grandboys got spoiled and had fun playing and rolling around on the floor with their new toys. We had an array of yummy appetizers that I couldn’t get enough of. Reed’s favorite toy was a piece of tissue paper. :-) We then traveled (across the street) to my grandparents house for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. It’s changed and evolved a bit through the years, but I am so happy that we were able to do it yet again.

On Christmas day Bryan and I woke up with Reed on his very first Christmas! We gave him his gifts and helped him open them. Lena got her stocking and so did we. We spent the morning playing with Reed’s new toys, eating breakfast and enjoying it. We then went over to Bryan’s parents for Christmas dinner and Reed was spoiled again. We ate a delicious dinner and hung out with family while Christmas came to a close. It’s safe to say that Reed’s favorite part of Christmas this year, on his first year, was the Christmas tree. I quickly learned that he knew where and what it was. He also got really excited every time I turned the lights on; he literally lit up and smiled! I have yet to take it down for this very reason. It might still kind of be Christmas in our house. :-) He makes a funny noise when he looks at it, I think it’s his “excited” noise. It sounds like he’s imitating a very strong gust of wind.

Before all that happened, we took our Christmas card photo, below is the winner, and a bunch of others leading up to it. 

Those rolls couldn't make me happier

:)

Christmas at Nana and Papa's

Gasp!! Apparently the Bry-Dad had the camera too long. How dare he put that in his hands!

Smile Reed!

Christmas Morning

Chunky face!!

Lena's stocking (she deserved it, she's had a  rough year!)

Very seriously checking out his new toys

Apparently it wasn't what he asked for

Christmas at Gma and Gpa's

He got a sled!

"Are these all for me?!"

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY REED!

His very first birthday! My boy is one, oh how I could go on... 1? Seriously? For real? Are you kidding me? 1…..wow. Ok, so anyways, his birthday party was awesome. But wait, his actual birthday was on a Friday and Bryan and I took off work to spend it with him. It was celebrated by having breakfast at Chick Fila, Reed of course had a packed breakfast from home. We parked ourselves right in front of the kid play area and Reed enjoyed watching the kids play. He could sit and watch kids for hours. He loves people watching and balloon watching. Is it me or are there balloons everywhere? I’m at the grocery store and I hear his strong gust of wind noise and look up and see the millions of balloons at each register. Ah, how fun. Balloon overload. Although he loves it. We should go to the party store just for the fun of it!

We bought his first gallon of Cow’s milk that day and I gave him a taste! I also let him try a tiny piece of his bday cake, but was saving the rest for his party.

Ok, his party-it was great! All of his friends and family came out and celebrated. We had a house full. Who knew we knew so many kids? He was spoiled silly and even did a birthday dance for us. Shown in previous post; Reed's First Birthday dance. I was very nervous to let him have his first piece of cake, but with everyone assuring me (and laughing at me) that it would be fine, I let him have it, kind of…I stood right next to him if he took a really super big bite. He was actually really slow about it and kind of gentle. He didn’t really get it, enjoyed mushing it in his hands and then when he finally realized what it tasted like he had several bites. I even tried to take it away at one point and he fussed! I gave it back of course. He had such an awesome time, allow the pictures to help tell the story of his first birthday.

We HAD to have the super huge 1 balloon!

Drum roll....... First Birthday cake!

I made a collage of "Reed First Year" in pictures, oh how's he's changed!

Bryan and I toasted the Birthday boy and the amazing crazy year we've had. We thanked everyone for all their awesome support!

And sparkling cider for the kids :-)

Ready to take on the world!!!

Since then Reed has really done a lot of growing up. He thought “I’m 1 now, its time!” He started waving, crawling on his knees, and clapping! Bryan and I have noticed so many new changes in him lately. He is such a toddler these days. It really has me looking back on the past year and wondering where it all went! 

Sneak peek at Reed's First Birthday Party!

Reed dancing at his FIRST Birthday Party!

(Excuse that it's sideways, I'm so bad at this) 

On the day before Reed was born....

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I will catch you up on our Christmas but first I need to reminisce!

 One year ago today, Bryan and I left the house to go to what would be our last appointment at the specialist. I left the house with a hunch that I wouldn’t be returning empty handed. We were leaving our house as Bryan and Holly but we’d be returning to our home as Mommy and Daddy.


After a stressful hour of tests and sonograms, they told me that I needed to be induced and deliver Reed for his health. He wasn’t gaining weight like he should and he also didn’t pass the non-stress test like all the other times. It was time to get him out so he could catch up on the outside. I was beyond upset and scared, I had no idea what was ahead of me. It was a similar day like today, it was cold but I remember the sun being a bit brighter as we drove to the hospital.


 You know how the rest of the story goes if you look back on my birth story. I spent the day with Bryan and family by my side while the Nurses prepared me for birth. All was pretty calm because I wasn't in labor until they induced me around 4:30pm, and then they broke my water around 7:30pm. I had some seriously painful/awesomely incredible contractions for about 8 hours that led me to an epidural around 10pm. Somewhere in the 12:30am hour they checked and Reed was ready!! I pushed for about 10-15 min and there he was in all his screaming glory at 1:10am. My beautiful, perfect, tiny, wrinkled, loud baby boy. Bryan and I spent the next year consumed in his needy love.

Here we are; hours shy of one year later and we have a plump, happy, healthy, silly, giggling red headed blue eyed Reed. He has changed me in more ways than I ever thought possible. I had no idea I could be as strong as he's made me. He's given me patience, courage, persistence and a much bigger as well as softer heart. That's scary for someone who chooses not to watch Country videos because they make her cry. I can hardly watch a sappy commercial or read an eye opening article about parenting without getting watery eyes. 


It's been quite a year for us as we've grown into parenthood and as Reed's grown into his 1 year old self. No one said it would be easy, it is by far the hardest thing and the most amazing thing I've ever done. Thank you Reed and Happy almost birthday to my sweet little dude! I can't wait to celebrate you all day tomorrow and Saturday!

5 days till Christmas, 10 days till the big Birthday!

The first thing I would like to say is that Reed will be ONE in 10 days, yep, in 10 days! Wow. I really can’t believe it. It’s so bittersweet. He will no longer be my little baby (in my mind he will be) but I am so excited for him, so many fun times ahead! I can’t wait to show him the world and all the exciting things we can do as he gets older. His little personality is shining through and it will develop even more as each day passes. Not only will he get to experience his first Christmas in 5 days, but his birthday too. Let the celebrations begin!

On another note, Reed has been consistently sick since before Thanksgiving! I have to say, we have been very lucky in the “sick” department, but I think it’s hitting us all at once now. He had a cold that lasted about 3 weeks and then on a Sunday a few weeks ago I pulled him out of his crib after his nap, and he his face was swollen and covered in hives. I started to panic. I assumed he was having an allergic reaction and didn’t want to wait to see what was next. We’d been giving him egg yolks and he’d been doing great with them for weeks. He’d happily eaten some that morning so it was all I could think of.

Of course it was the weekend, so I took him to Righttime. He was assessed and he had a fever of 103 and an ear infection! Poor guy. We got amoxicillin and he continued to have a fever that went up and down for 3 more days. He was miserable. He was so very congested and covered in snot. He couldn’t breathe out of his nose, so his mouth was constantly open. He couldn’t get much sleep because he was so clogged up. Bryan and I took turns soothing him back to sleep but I think I slept on his floor more that week than I did in my own bed. Sick babies are so sad and pathetic! 

He seemed to get better after about a week of the antibiotics. So he was back to his happy little squealing self again. Then we got hit with another cold... crossing my fingers this one isn’t as bad. So far it seems mild, just snotty.  Although he is getting hives again, all over this time, but sporadic. I read a lot online and asked the Pediatrician the first time; apparently hives can be a sign of a cold/virus. So I guess this is how his little body reacts. They come and go and don’t seem to bother him. I think they bother me more to be honest.

We go to the Pediatrician tomorrow as a follow up on his ear infection, so I’ll ask about the hives again. 

The hives in action. :(

In other news....

Reed as "Super baby bib"

Reed helping Mommy blow out her Birthday candles

Celebrating Christmas at the Nursing home with Great Nanny



Hope you're ready for the holidays! Enjoy them with your families and take time to soak it all in. It's almost Christmas!

I love Teddy!

Reed got a package at the door yesterday, it was a box that housed a Vermont Teddy Bear from his Great Great Aunt Hazel. We brought it in and opened it in front of him. I guess he saw the anticipation in us because he began to get excited. We pulled out this special Teddy Bear who was decked out in Christmas attire. We plopped it down in front of Reed and he began to squeal in excitement! I grabbed my phone and was able to get the tail end of some of it.

 I have a feeling his Birthday and Christmas are going to be fun!