6 Months, 1week, 4 days...Free Baby!!!
          That's how old my punkin' is. What a crazy 6 months it has been! Even though I've been trying to get on here to update the blog, each time the opportunity arises it's either sleep or blog and sleep has been the winner. The big difference since I last got on here is the fact that Bricen no longer has to wear the monitor when he is awake! He only has to wear it when he is asleep or in his car seat. He's a free baby!! Just one more small step to getting completely healthy.
          He has been tolerating feeds well. We saw Riley GI and they increased meds and added other meds. I'm not sure about the new med, but we will give it a try and go from there. GI discussed the possibility of switching out the G-tube or Mickey button and going to a GJ tube if he continues to vomit and not gain weight. I said okay, but not yet. I don't feel like we are there yet. Hopefully we don't get there. If we switched to a GJ he would get feeds in the Jejunum instead of upper part of the stomach with the purpose of decreasing the reflux.  Another surgery. And the less you use the stomach the more the motility of the stomach would decrease. Nah, not yet, no thanks. In the meantime we are still doing thickened baby foods with a dropper. I don't know when they will do another swallow study. I'm going to ask when we go back to speech therapy. We are going to follow up with Cardiology for his PDA and ASD in the heart. It's one of those things that every other Dr we went to would be shocked we aren't already following up with Cardio, but we kept forgetting to get the referral to start follow up. So, add another Dr. to the mix. That's okay though.
          I think that's all we have to update in the medical world. We have a sleep study May 9th. This will be our first overnight sleep study because he is a big boy now! :) Thankfully we aren't going to try to make this baby sleep from 9am-1pm anymore. Already dreading the sleep study. :( Already praying that he sleeps really well and for good results. The last sleep study we were told the results over the phone. I posted about how much better they were and the AHI number being zero in a couple positions. When we went for our follow up appointment a couple weeks ago the NP went over AHI numbers from that same study and gave me different numbers. This amazes me. Another prime example of the frustration that goes along with having a chronically ill child/family member. So, which of the three of us had the wrong numbers? Was not me. I write that stuff down when I talk to them on the phone. Regardless, they were still better.

 He is still a little too big for this but it was fun trying!

We definitely have to buckle him in at all times now. :)

This lasted about ten minutes. :0)

This is Bricen in Daddy's recliner. I think he likes it.

Bricen is a snuggler!

This was after a bath. He gets so worn out from bath time that he literally falls asleep before you can get him dressed sometimes. Instead of fighting to get him dresses, this time I just put a diaper on him and covered him up. He looks like such a little man. Haha

          In other news, he is rolling over now. He has done it about ten times. I think he would be doing great if it wasn't for his button being uncomfortable when he is laying on it. His development is still on target for his preemie age but he has a bit to catch up to his actual age. He is 11 lbs, 3 oz  and 24in long.
          Bricen got to meet his cousin, Mason for the first time. It was super cute, to say the least.

Uncle Seth, Bricen, Mason and Daddy. I do believe they were watching something about monster trucks.

          As I reflect on the last six months I think I might remember myself saying that I wouldn't change a thing. Well, that's a fib. I would. If we could go back and have a healthy little guy (same punkin', just healthy) and him not have to go through the testing and hospital stays, I would totalllly do that. Any parent that would say different would be "fibbing" as well. I am overwhelmed with the gratitude towards others for their help and for the blessings that God has sent our way the last six months and he continues to do so. Oh so often I'm reminded that the "God of the good times is still God in the bad times."  Bricen amazes and thrills me daily and I am looking forward to each day we have coming. I am so lucky God chose me to be this little guy's Mom! Happy 6mo Pumkin'!

We got Bricen's 6 mo pictures back. I love them all! I'm not going to put a bunch in the blog because they are hanging alllll over my house. I think we have plenty of copies. :0) 

I had to post this one, it is one of Marty and I's favorites. It is classic Bricen and shows his personality.

                We love you Bricen Lane Reed!

He was a natural...
           We had a few "first" these last couple weeks. My favorite? Bricen slow danced with his mom for the first time. He was a natural. ;0) In the past, with his upset tummy and having to feed for an hr, then stay still a half hour we just weren't moving him around a lot. But with the Prevacid we've been able to move while feeding and do things like slow dance. He is such a sweet baby.
          We also have went on a few walks. I think we had done this prior to the last post and I forgot to post pictures. The first was was just the two of us and we made it about twenty minutes until he decided he had "walked" enough. It was a little different that just me deciding to go for a walk. We loaded up the suction, the monitor and a diaper bag. My first thought was...these canopies on these strollers are a joke. They barely block any sun! I'm going to give my baby a sunburn. My second thought, when we tried walking again later that evening, was now I'm going to have a kid with bug bites all over him. And my third thought (After talking to Ali, who assured me that Bricen is not going to get sun poisoning from being out in the Spring sun for an hour, in the shade half the time.) was why didn't I buy a stroller that the handle went both way? Who would have known this stroller buying would be a bigger deal than I thought. First time mom. We did take a walk later in the week that Marty had to come pick us up during. It was just too windy. At first we walked away from the wind but...that only works for so long. The wind was taking his breathe away, even when I picked him up and put him on my shoulder. We will get this walk thing figured out, eventually. :o)

This is how one of our walks started.

And this is how it ended. Thank Goodness we weren't all by ourselves this walk. In his defense, it was time to eat and I think he was trying to tell us about it.

Almost looks guilty, huh. :)

          We also went to Wal Mart for the first time. Yes, that's right, I'm blogging about my son's first trip to Wal Mart. I know it seems weird to blog about that, but consider how many people are able to just sit their infant seat in a cart and do their shopping. I've said I don't want to take anything for granted with this little fella and by George that includes Wal Mart trips. Haha. We took reinforcements in the form of my cousin and my niece. We took the stroller because all the equipment just fits so nice in it. Now that I think about it, I guess that's a little weird. Oh well. He did great! And I had a lot to get. He did fall asleep and his apnea alarm went off and he had to be stimulated to get his breathing kicked back in. The monitor alarms are loud but even louder in the middle of Wal Mart. Ha My thoughts on this are...Thank God for modern technology! In true form, we took a couple pictures.  

          Bricen got his pictures taken on Thursday. On the days leading up to getting his pictures taken we were busy trying on outfits and deciding what he should wear. Mostly, we were figuring out if any of the clothes in his closet fit well enough to have a picture taken in them. Here are some pictures. He was less than thrilled to be trying stuff on at times.

In the end we decided they were all too big and we were going to have to do some shopping. :) We can't wait to get his pictures back. His behavior during pictures (does a 6mo old really have "behavior")...well he did ok. He was not a happy camper at the end, that's for sure and he was distracted by the camera so we didn't get too many big smiles, but we are still looking forward to seeing them.

We are still teething but not as bad. He wants nothing to do with teething rings. He prefers this stuffed octopus we have named "Ollie" or he prefers "Peanut."

I love this picture! He has started to love looking at pictures in the books.

I have no special reason for this picture. I just love how round his little face is looking. :)

This is very poor picture quality. I promise to look for my camera and start taking pictures with it. But it's a very important picture! It's Bricen's first Triaminos game. In our family, you must know Triaminos, Euchre and Catchphrase. These are the staples at family gatherings. (Along with corn hole and other games, but these are the must.)

          Yay! Aunt Jodi finally got to hold Bricen!! Christopher was okay with his picture being taken but Corey was not about to have it. Haha. I think he might be hiding behind Christopher in this picture.

          We are so blessed to have a loving, supportive family. And we are blessed that Dereck was lucky enough to convince Tiff to marry him because she fits right in. ;) We love Spring Break! We loved having family that are either teachers or students that have been on Spring Break this week. We have really enjoyed getting to spend the extra time with them.

          I must end with this and ask for prayers. Bricen has started spitting up/projectile vomiting again. This makes me so sad, especially because he has started gaining wt like they want him to,  Long story short, I'm hoping we can decrease the volume on the feeds and it goes away. Maybe we will just increase a little slower. On a good note, he was 10lbs 15 oz. We should have an 11lb baby before we know it!