He's baaack....
          Time to play catch up again. Before we get to pictures and all that I'll start by saying that I love this time of year. Like a kid on Christmas morning, love it. I will admit that when it comes to snow, Christmas lights, Christmas trees and fireworks (wrong season, but still) I am a kid at heart. It's been warm the last couple days and I've seen people out putting up Christmas lights. Yay! I know some folks get worked up about how we haven't had Thanksgiving yet and blah blah. I'm not trying to skip over Thanksgiving by any means, but I have to say stop getting worked up people. Stop getting on facebook and complaining about it. If you don't want to celebrate Christmas yet then don't. But I like to run the two together a little. I just love the season. It does however make me miss the family that has passes away a whole lot. But we keep living, keep going as a way to honor those gone on before us. (I think I heard something similar to this on an episode of One Tree Hill once. lol ) Anyways, I'm excited. :0)
          So, my son had Roseola. It was horrible. But it's over now. And of course it came in the middle of trying a new formula. I mean really, would we expect anything else? We got past that. I will admit, I still have what is probably an almost irrational fear every time Bricen gets sick that things could get bad...really bad. I did the same with this one. I wonder if I'll ever lose that fear that we could still lose him. Maybe this is a norm as a parent. Maybe we are jaded by the last year.

          I am so thankful to say he is back to his baseline and doing great with the new formula. I am afraid to say that because it seems every time I do he starts doing horrible. It's such a roller coaster. He will be doing well and I will be on cloud nine, want to tell it to the world. The very next feed could be horrible. Same way with oral feeds. He did so well last week. It took until day three of our three day feeding trial but he was opening his mouth and going towards the spoon with yogurt! This is a first. And he finished a whole yogurt in a day. And yes, I took a picture for you. :0)

We also tried peanut butter for the first time. No allergies, thank goodness. Peanut butter is a good calorie booster. This was chocolate pudding with pb. He didn't seem to mind it. :0) He also tried ravioli, cream of chicken soup and chicken noodle soup from the blender.

I am kind of in LOVE with this picture. (Even though his ear looks a little weird. Haha)

The fort gets a lot of play time. Marty and I have also noticed it's where he liked to go to do his "business". I caught him in the act. Yes, I even think my son going number 2 is blog worthy.

I had to post this because he loves to hit things. I told him to come on and he was struggling but determined to bring his stick with him. His crawl is the same, despite to green spandex shorts. 

He is doing great with his walking toys. I've noticed he kind of drags the foot that he drags with him when crawling. Gen pediatrician thinks the crawl is no big deal and says you really can't know if he is going to have any affects on his walking until he is walking independently. Therapy thinks it's a bigger deal. We are still working on it. Therapy did bring this tunnel last week. He loved it. Guess we know what Santa needs to bring.

Look at all that hair!

Three and a half teeth now. He does not discriminate when it comes to things to chew on. :0)

My little dare devil. Why not crawl through the window?

I do believe "my little pony" and Bricen are making progress...as long as I'm around to supervise.

Okay, I know this is going to sound stupid but the kid is already growing up on me. There are times that he still likes a good tight cuddle but he's started to like turning the other way when I'm getting him to sleep at night! At least my arm is still getting some cuddle time. haha

We had our first little snow flurry of the year. I was at Riley last year for the first snow fall. I didn't know if Bricen would notice from the door but he sure did. I can't wait until he can go play in it the first time.

Idk when that will be. But don't be surprised if you see pictures of me standing over top of him with a heater attached to an extension cord to keep him warm while he's playing in the snow.

All dressed up for Jesus. :0) And a Sunday morning hug from Bricen to all of you. Because I have to work Thanksgiving this year I was off today. We went to church this morning and had family pictures. The whooole family. All 17 1/2 of us. Can't wait to see them.

          

Roseola...
          That's what the Dr. said Bricen "most likely" has. Idk if it usually affects a baby's GI system but it seems no matter what cold/virus Bricen has it affects his belly. So of course, he's not keeping anything down. So we were doing pedialyte and now we've went back to the old formula. Once he gets completely back to baseline we will try the peptamen again. Tonight seems to be a little better. It has got to be better than the last two. Literally no sleep Sunday or Monday night for me. The little guy was just miserable and has a high fever. He still is at times. But I haven't given Tylenol in a while and he doesn't feel warm. And there you have it.
          I sent an email to family letting them know we would be going back to washing your hands when you come in, asking those that are in school or school teachers to please not wear the same clothes they had worn to work or school to visit Bricen. I know this sounds crazy but he just catches everything there is to catch. This is our third big cold since September. And for him it's not just that he goes through the cold but he doesn't tolerate the feedings. I'm thankful for the family that was nice enough to text back and tell me I'm not crazy for asking this and they totally understood. And we are going  to go back to leaving the house sparingly. A part of me hates this and another part of me is ready for it. Can't get these days back.

There's no place like home...
           After a long day of appointments, there really is no place like home. Even if it's a home that's destroyed because we got up late this morning, it's home. Somehow by the Grace of God Bricen is napping. He fell asleep on the way home and is still asleep. Here's the new plan. A new formula. We are switching from Enfamil Enfacare 24 cal to Peptamin Jr. which is  30 cal formula. I will admit and I shared this with the GI nurtitionist that this makes me nervous. Her response was we can always go back. Oh if it was only that simple. But I do appreciate her words.
          I pray he tolerates the change well. No. I pray he does awesome with the change!!! I mean, if the man can walk on water, I can ask for awesome, right? :0) I was praying for these appointments before we even went. I prayed that God gave me the verbage to paint the picture of our current feeds, his eating habits, throw ups, etc. in a way that would guide these providers to help us takes steps forward. So, even if he does horrible with this, I know God is still in control, taking care of us in ways that we cannot always see. We also have some new things to try from the speech therapy perspective and mouth feeds. Peanut butter (who doesn't like peanut butter), butter, puree ravioli, cream of chicken soup, instant mashed potatoes with vegetables in them and fried, as well as pancakes with vegetables fried, and crackers.  14lbs 9oz today. Not bad considering we are in middle of a feeding trial and not doing so great with it and getting over the virus. She is okay with his weight gain but would like to see an increase in his average daily wt. gain. Yes, yes I would too. :0) Oh, and we switched to a pill for prevacid that can be crushed and put in Gtube. No more calling all our surrounding pharmacies every month looking for someone that has some sodium bicarb left to mix his liquid prevacid because the bicarb is on backorder. Yay. ..............................................................scratch that. CVS just called and said they need a prior auth for insurance to cover. Stinkin' insurance. I have a love hate relationship for insurance companies. They tend to rule the world at times. But I'm so thankful for it at the same time!

Some Randomness...

My niece Brilynn and Bricen. Warms my heart and it's such a funny picture! You can see one of his teeth in this picture. He has three now!

I suppose this is a first child thing, to see your kid climbing in the dishwasher and grab the camera instead of getting upset? Ha

Don't worry. After I took the picture I got him down.

We picked up three day feeding trials this week. We had skipped the last two weeks because Bricen was so sick. I was so excited to get started again. He hasn't done great but he has done better than I thought he would after having two weeks off.

One day we were trying an oral feed and he just wasn't into it. Somewhat out of frustration and somewhat out of desperation I pulled out a sucker and kind of said "Here, try this then." He loved it!!

Holy Cow this thing is good!

Have you tried these mom?

Here, try it!

Sucker, I love you. :0)

I was very impressed that he didn't gag on the sucker and he was putting it all the way in his mouth. And it's even a good thing that he took it and put it in his mouth himself. It's crazy the little things that are taken for granted with a baby without an eating disorder. Hey, we have to stay focused on the good stuff. This day the good stuff was a sucker!

It's bed time. We have an early start tomorrow for GI, speech therapy and occupational therapy.