8 Months

Well, due to Reed getting sick the day I planned to take his 8 month pictures, I haven't been able to post. Needless, to say these pictures were taken 2 weeks late, but thankfully I had already jotted down his milestones on the 9th. It is amazing how much as changed since then. It is almost funny reading some of what I wrote, now knowing what he learned the following 2 weeks.

At 8 months Reed is.....

• Rolling over and over to get places and get what he wants. Still not crawling, mainly because he hates being on his stomach.
• Still no teeth
• Babbling so much more and only he knows what he is talking about
• Finally saying Da-da again at least every once in a while. He had stopped saying it for over a month.
• Said Ma-ma for the first time on November 13th, he says it all the time now...it is the BEST!!
• Much more aware of what is going on....if he sees something he wants you can't try to hide it from him, he will try to go where you put it
• Tried green beans, asparagus, carrots and squash for the first time. He liked everything except for asparagus. He hated it! I keep trying but he has hated it every time so far.
• Eating 5 bottles a day at 7, 11, 2, 5 and 8ish. He has yogurt after his morning bottle and solid foods, normally 2 to 3 cubes, after his 11 and 5 bottles.
• Loves mum mums and puffs. Doing great get puffs in his mouth.
• This is a funny fact about Reed.....he loves playing with toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes. Josh's Mom works at a dentist office so we had a baby toothbrush that Reed as always loved chewing on and now he has three different brushes he chews on. He started liking toothpaste tubes when he would hang out in the bathroom with us while we were getting ready. We handed him one to play with one time and now he goes crazy to get them when he sees the toothpaste tube.


• Loves anything shiny, like silver measuring spoons or my mom's watch
• Reed will run over you in his walker. He is so fast! He now knows how to run and then coast and bang into things.
• He can jump to the moon in his jumperoo. He goes crazy in it.
• Gives five when you ask for one and stick out your hand.
• Loves tapping and banging on hard surfaces
• Started giving hugs
• Waved bye-bye to my Mom on November 17th but hasn't really done it that well again. He really thinks about it though when he sees us doing and saying it

• Still taking 3 naps a day, but I think he may be transitioning to only 2 naps.
• Still doesn't liked to be rocked. We just lay him down when he gets tired and he gets himself to sleep. Normally doesn't make a peep, sometimes he will talk himself to sleep.
• Still going to bed around 8 and sleeping great. Lately he has been sleeping past 7, usually around 7:20, but yesterday (12/8) it was 7:50
• Not waking up at all during the night, no more paci runs
• Wearing 6-9 month clothes, but they are just fitting, we will be moving up sizes soon
• Wearing size 2-3 diapers
• Will play in the floor for 30 minutes or more just playing with his toys by himself.

We decided to capture a crib picture with the crib lowered all the way down. This will be a good way to measure his growth.

This is our attempt to capture some pictures of Reed in front of his Christmas tree. We gave him the letter to try to distract from the tree.

It didn't last long....

He got it!

We never got a good picture with the whole tree, but here it is.

More first....some good & some not!

I will start with the not so good! Unfortunately, Reed got sick for the first time and it wasn't just a little stomach bug or snotty nose. He got RSV! On December 11th, which was a Friday, Reed woke up with a little cough, nothing to be worried about at all. Then on Saturday we went to Kaleb's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. He coughed a few times that day, enough that it made us wonder and I called the doctor's office just to see what they thought. Of course they said if he wasn't running fever to just watch him over the weekend and bring him in Monday if he got worse. By Sunday night we had decided that we would take him to the doctor just to be on the safe side. In the middle of the night Sunday the cough had gotten a lot worse and by Monday morning he was wheezing a little. Monday morning I had my mom meet me at the doctor's office and the doctor did confirm that Reed was wheezing, but he said it wasn't to bad and in the upper part of his lungs. He also said that Reed's ears looked perfect and clear. I was so relieved because that was my biggest fear that he had an ear infection. The doctor had us give him a breathing treatment in the office, which was my worst experience so far as a parent. I had to hold a mask, like an oxygen mask, over Reed's face for about 8 minutes. He screamed and kicked the whole time. The doctor sent us home with an inhaler to do as needed and that was it. Well all day Monday Reed was very lethargic and then through out the night his cough was horrible. Every time he coughed it sounded like he was going to throw up. On Tuesday morning I didn't know what to do but I went on to work and left Reed with my Mom again. I called to check on Reed through out the day and each time it sounded like he was getting worse. I also called the doctor's office 3 times on Tuesday each time hoping to get a different nurse that would confirm my concerns that we should bring him back in, but each time they just said if he isn't running fever he should be fine. The nurses also kept saying that sometimes the inhalers and breathing treatments make the cough worse because they break up all the mucus in their chest and make them cough more. Around 2:30 on Tuesday Reed was feeling so bad that I came home to check on him and shortly after coming home he got a low grade fever. My Mom and I just sat there and stared at him and didn't know what to do. He was struggling to breath and only able to drink PediLight because milk was to thick for him to drink and still be able to breath. We just didn't know what to do for him! My Mom thankfully is a home health nurse and had a pulse ox machine in her car, of course it is for adults but she hooked it up to Reed's big toe and the machine read his pulse ox at 93. Of course, I didn't know what that meant and Mom wasn't sure if it was reading right and she didn't know what was bad for infants, but she said 93 for an adult is not great. Finally at 4:15, we decided that we had to take him back to the doctor. I was prepared for them to just look at me like I was a crazy over protective, first time mother, but I had to do it. I just knew something wasn't right, even though I had been reassured by 3 nurses not to worry.



So we are able to make a 5 pm appointment. We get there and a very sweet, petite female doctor walks in, barely looks at Reed and says, "He has RSV!" What?? How, could he have gone from having a minor cough to RSV in 24 hours. The doctor the day before and all 3 nurses NEVER even mentioned a concern of RSV. Every mother would have remembered those 3 letters getting mentioned! She of course had the test ran just to confirm and it was positive. She looked at me and said you did the right thing by bringing him in. Thank goodness we did! Next, she looked at his ears and said both of them were infected. At this point I was freaking out, what the heck is happening to my baby. Then, she has the nurse check his pulse ox and it is 93. So my Mom's machine was right and the nurse says, "Oh that is not good!" Great, now I am scared to death. The doctor comes back in and let us know that he is a VERY sick little boy. She tells us that she doesn't feel he needs to be admitted to the hospital at this time, but he is very close to needing to be. Yikes, this is worse than I ever imagined! We did another breathing treatment in the office and this time Reed just laid there. He was feeling so bad he couldn't fight! We had to purchase a breathing machine so we could continue doing breathing treatments every 2-3 hours during the night. The doctor told us to watch him very closely through the night and if felt he was getting worse at all to take him to Children's. She said she wanted to see him back in the morning to make sure he was doing better. Tuesday night was very scary but a little better than I expected. We sat Reed in his carseat to sleep in our room. We was able to breath a lot easier sitting up. Every 2 1/2 hours during the night Reed woke up having coughing fits. At these times we would get up and do a breathing treatment on him while he slept. He never really woke up or cried during the night he was just coughing so hard it scared us to death. By morning Reed was breathing a little easier but definitely not acting like himself. We took him back to the doctor and the doctor said he still sounded awful but he could tell that he was on the upside of things and that the breathing treatments were helping. He told us to do them every 4 hours until Sunday. Reed still wasn't able or wanting to drink much milk but we did get about 2 out of his 5 bottles down him on Wednesday. Slowly, day by day Reed got to feeling better. We elevated his bed and he was able to sleep in his bed. By Saturday he was taking all 5 of his bottles again but still no solid foods.


The cough continued the week of Christmas. On Christmas Eve morning, he woke up crying and was wheezing pretty bad again. We had to do another breathing treatment and he slept sitting up in our bed that morning. The same thing happen Christmas morning and for the next two days. We decided this past Monday to take him back to the doctor again just to make sure he was really getting better. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't turning into pneumonia and have his ears checked out. He had been pulling on them a little more than normal. The doctor said that he sounded great and that his ears were looking much better just a little fluid left.



Through all this horrible sickness Reed as been a little trooper! He seriously has not cried and fussed hardly at all. After a couple of days of being very lethargic he has been back to normal as far as personality is concerned. He still is not eating much. Since the 15th he has only finished his morning yogurt once or twice and he has only had 3 or 4 whole jars of food at one sitting. We are used to him eating yogurt for breakfast and then 3 or 4 cubes (1 1/2 to 2 jars) of food for lunch and the same for dinner. The only real change has been that Reed has decided that he likes to be rocked/held while he goes to sleep now. He got use to being held while he was sick and now he doesn't like to just be laid down for naps and bedtime. Part of this is also contributed to Reed being able to sit up from a laying position now (more on that later). Anyway, for now I am eating it up! There is nothing like rocking my baby to sleep. He is just so sweet when he is sleepy. He just cuddles with his blanket and usually falls right to sleep, most of the time just a little bouncy on the couch and he is out.

This is a picture of Reed on Wednesday night (not even at his worst) getting a breathing treatment. He quickly learned that they made him feel better so he would just lay there and breath them in.....so sad. Can you see how gray his eyes are? He just looked sick just to look at him!

Well, now on to the other first I alluded to in the title. Reed has had more first in the last two weeks than any other two weeks his whole life. The first one being his firth tooth! When we went to the doctor the first time, on December 14th the doctor put the tongue depressor in Reed's mouth to look down his throat and he said, "I see your little tooth poking through!" I screamed in the doctor's face, "You do!" I know he thought I was crazy. Sure enough I stuck my finger in his mouth (probably not the best idea in front of a doctor, but I didn't think about it until it was too late) and felt a little razor sharp point. We did our best to capture a few pictures once Reed started feeling better. For the last few days we have been noticing his other front tooth right under the gums and today I am pretty sure I felt a second sharp point. He doesn't like us to try to feel, but I am almost positive I did. So Reed has 2 teeth to ring in the new year with!

Can you see the little white speck?

I mentioned that Reed is sitting up from a laying position. This has been a gradual first. I took these pictures on December 5th of Reed pulling on his bumpers trying to sit up and got himself over on his stomach for the first time in his bed.







Then Josh's Mom sent me this picture on December 7th, saying, "Look Mom I sat up by myself after my nap!"

Then two days later my Mom took pictures of him sitting up, hutch over with his head on his knees sleeping. Saturday morning before we left for Kaleb's birthday party we lower the crib to the middle level and then that night he pulled up and was leaning half out of the crib reaching for his Christmas tree in his room. Needless to say we had to lower his crib to the floor that night at 9 pm so we could put him to bed. Then the next week while Reed was sick he perfected the sitting up in the crib and on the floor (no more crunches, like on his 7 month post). We took this picture before the crib got lowered to the floor. We should have known better than to think he wouldn't pull up like this at bedtime. Reed is starting to pull up on things that aren't far above him but he still can't pull up on higher things.

Next 1st, (I told you, Reed has been VERY busy lately) Reed started clapping on Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve afternoon we were just hanging out with Amy and Branden they were both home for the holidays and ended up at our house, probably to see Reed more than us, but anyway we were just having a lazy afternoon. Amy was watching Reed play on the floor from the couch and I was walking through the house as I looked over and saw Reed clap his hands together. Amy had said, "Yeah" and Reed just started clapping. Amy didn't realize that he hadn't clapped before until I started saying did he just clap! From that point forward he clapped non-stop all day! I must say it is the most precious thing EVER!! All day on Christmas he would do one little thing and then stop and clap. Now all we have to say is yeah and he starts clapping. I love it!!

This is Reed clapping in Josh's lap before the Christmas Eve church services started! Look at those little chubby hands!

Big claps!

Finally, Reed is crawling!!! This also has been very gradual, but has of today, Reed is crawling more than sitting still! Josh and I know that our whole world as parents is about to change! For some time now Reed has been leaning forward trying to figure out how to get his knees underneath him. He as always hated being on his stomach so as soon as he would get in somewhat of a crawling position he would turn over.

This is a picture of him leaning forward. This was taken on November 29th, so it has been a while in the making!

Right before Christmas Reed started pushing up and getting on his knees but then he couldn't figure out to move forward. He would kind of hopped and rocked forward. He would only try fora few seconds and then he would quite and sit up. On December 17th and 18th he started taking 2 or 3 steps forward and that continued until this past Sunday, December 28th as Josh and I watched him crawl across the living room, but he was still not moving around much. He would still mostly only take a few steps and quite. I got a call from my Mom on Tuesday freaking out because she didn't realize he was moving so much more since Christmas. He had crawled to the kitchen after her. Josh's Mom said he was moving around a lot yesterday and I was home today and he was ALL over the place. I sat him in his room and left him and within less than a minute he was all the way to me in the kitchen across the tile even. I got lots of video, but not any pictures. So on the last day of 2009 Reed officially became a crawler!

This is what Reed would do when he tried to move forward. His leg always went out to the side and he would just sit up.

Here he is rocking on his knees. These pictures were taken on December 23rd.

Our little boy is growing up to fast! He has changed so much in the last couple of weeks. He is becoming a little boy to quick. On top of all the mobility he is babbling up a storm. He added bye-bye this week. He says Da-da and Ma-ma all the time and now he has started with the "b" sounds.

All I can say is we love him to pieces!! It gets better every day!! He is the joy of our life!

Kaleb's 2nd Birthday Party

On December 12th we had a great time at Chuck E Cheese celebrating Kaleb's birthday. It was fun to see Reed enjoy all the action and get to partake in a little fun riding some of the kiddy rides with his friend Owen.

Reed at the party table, wishing he could have some pizza instead of his baby food!

Kaleb blowing out his candles on his Thomas the Train cake. Such a big boy!

Reed taking Chuck E Cheese for a ride!

Owen's turn

Reed and Owen on a big truck together! Watch out Owen, Reed has a lead foot like his daddy!

How cute are these 2?!?!

Of course all the parents had to play a little ski ball and Jeff wanted to brag on his high score! Notice Josh's score to the left and Kyle's score to the right.

We all had a great time together! Thanks Burn's family for such a fun day!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving celebrating with our familes. We have so much to be thankful for this year. We capture several family pictures I wanted to share.

Josh, Reed and I getting ready to eat an amazing Thanksgiving dinner made by Josh's Mom. Of course Reed just settled for Mum Mums.

The whole Baker clan

Just the 3 of us

Fun with Aunt Amy & Uncle Branden

Reed with Gigi and Popa

7 Months

Well, over two weeks late as usual but I have been thinking about this post non-stop all month. I had plans to take Reed's 7 months pictures a day early after church on the 8th. We had him dressed up in the cutest outfit (hopefully we will get pictures in it for his 8th month pictures), but Reed fell asleep on the way home and we left him in his carseat to sleep, 2 hours later he finally woke up and he was so sweaty and hot that we had to take change him as soon as he woke up. So I ended up taking these pictures the next Sunday after church on the 15th and here it is the 29th and I am finally getting them posted.

Reed just gets sweeter and cuter every day. He is just pure joy and so much fun! His little personality shines through more and more every day. He is constantly doing something that makes us smile and laugh at him.

Such a big boy!

Reed does this move all the time, usually with a little grunt. He hasn't figured out how to get sat back up from a laying position, so after several tries like this we come to the rescue and help him up. It still makes me laugh every time I see him do it.

It is getter much harder to change Reed's diaper, this is usually what happens as soon as we lay him down.

The smile that melts my heart!

Serious face!

Laughing face, blowing bubbles!

And the photo shoot is over. Reed did not want to sit still. I was lucky to get the pictures I did!

At 7 months Reed is....

• Sitting up great by himself! The weekend after Reed turned 6 months old was when he really stopped falling to the side when we would sit him up.
• Loves playing in the floor with his toys.
• Loves jumping in his jumperoo and chasing us and the dogs in his walker.
• Still sleeping great. Going to bed around 8 and waking up around 7. Just a side note, that daylight savings time got Reed off track for about 2 weeks. He started waking up about an hour early and I was so worried that his routine was changing. Eventually, he started sleeping 15 to 30 minutes longer and after a couple of weeks he was back to waking up closer to 7. Whoever came up with daylight savings time must not have kids!
• Still eating around 7, 11, 2, 5 and 8. Right at 6 months I stopped nursing Reed at night, due to all the fussiness at bedtime. During the month when I was home during the day I would always try to nurse, but if Reed was fussy I would give him a bottle. Over the weeks we eventually were down to only nursing in the morning. Reed seems much happier drinking bottles and I have just had to face the fact that I need to do what Reed wants and not force him to do what I want. I had 130 ounces of frozen milk, but it didn't last long so by 7 months Reed is on mostly formula.
• Eating solid foods after his 11 and 5 o'clock bottle. The Friday before Reed turned 7 months I also started giving him yogurt for breakfast after his morning bottle and he loves it.
• Started using the high chair this month. We have just been using the bumbo seat, but Reed can now get himself turned over in the seat.
• Still very healthy, we are counting our blessings that Reed hasn't been to sick yet. Unfortunately, two nights after I was sick with a 24 hour bug, we woke up to Reed screaming in the monitor. I ran across the house so fast and looked over the crib to find Reed covered in throw up. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen. He threw up one other time while we were cleaning him up and then that was it. I was feeling horrible because I thought I had gotten my baby sick and was prepared to be up all night with him. He never ran a fever and just cuddled with me all night and literally woke up smiling from ear to ear the next morning. I had read while I was sick to keep nursing and if your baby gets sick it would be a much lighter case. That is what I did and that's exactly what happen, thankfully.
• Still wearing size 2 diapers, but I have bought size 2-3 diapers to start when he runs out of size 2.
• Naps are so great now. When Reed gets tired we just take him and lay him in his bed with his soft fleece blanket and he goes right to sleep. He normally has 3 naps a day, lately it has been 45 to 1 hour nap in the morning a 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap around noon and a 45 to 1 hour nap around 3 to 4. He still does not like to be rocked. It make me sad, but it is so nice just to be able to lay him down. Sometimes at night he will fall asleep drinking his bottle and I will just hold him just to get my cuddle time in.
• Loves blowing raspberries! He said Da-da for a couple of weeks non-stop and now his favorite thing to do is blow bubbles all the time. It is so funny!
• Loves mum-mums! He normally has 1 a day for a snack with his juice.
• Reaching for whoever he wants to go to more and more, so sweet! We are constantly working on bye-bye and clapping.
• Still no teeth. I feel like everyday I am saying any day now. Anytime he is extra fussy or upset we blame it on his teeth. Haha! Josh and I both didn't get our first tooth until we were 9 months old, so maybe he will be a late bloomer like us.
• Still doesn't have much interest in crawling. He HATES being on his stomach! As soon as he gets on his stomach he is rolling to his back.
• He does do a little crawling on his back! He arches his back and pushes with his feet and hops backwards. For the most part you can sit him down and he doesn't go to far yet!
• Still at home with me or his grandmas, we are so lucky!

I also just remembered that I never posted Reed's 6 months stats. We didn't get to go to his 6 month visit until October 20th, because the doctor's office was closed the whole week after he turned 6 months. Anyway, he weighed 18 lbs 2 oz. (55%), he was 26 3/4 in (50%) and his head was 16 1/2 (15%). This visit took forever! The appointment was at 4:00 and we didn't see the doctor until 5:45. Reed did great waiting and did great with his shots, just a few tears. We were bored while we were waiting so we took some pictures with Reed.

Reed with his stats! They always lay him down on the paper and mark his length and measure his head and write it on the paper, so we took a picture.

Reed the next morning before his bath with all 4 of his band-aids on his chubby thighs.

Reed also got his H1N1 shot and he didn't even flinch or cry....such a big boy!

Halloween Day

On Halloween, Reed enjoyed a fun time in Sheridan visiting family and we also went to trunk or treat at my Mom's church. Unfortunately, the 24 virus I had earlier in the week got passed on to Josh. He woke up eary Saturday morning (Halloween day) sick so he didn't get to enjoy the Halloween fun with us. I also had to work Halloween day for physical inventory count at work, so the day started off pretty crazy. Aunt Amy had planned to keep Reed at our house while I worked, but due to Josh getting sick I had to call Mom and Amy at the last minute and ask them to meet me at work to take Reed back to Sheridan with them so we didn't risk anyone else getting sick. Luckily, Mom and Amy were able to watch Reed all day while I worked and as soon as I could leave I headed to Sheridan so we could start the Halloween fun.

The first stop was Mamaw's house. Everyone loved the little elephant named Reed! The costume didn't last long though. By the time Nanny and Aunt Joan got to Mamaw's house we had to start faking the costume for pictures with only the head piece.

Mamaw and Reed

Nanny and Reed

Aunt Joan and Reed

The next stop was truck or treat. Josh's parents were able to meet mom and I there to see the little elephant too. Unfortunately, on the way to the church Reed feel fast asleep and even after letting him sleep for about 30 minutes in the car he was still exhausted from a full day of playing at Mom's house, so it was very hard to get many smiles out of him and we weren't there very long.

Gran and Reed

Papa and Gigi with Reed

Me and my little Elephant

An exhausted elephant ready for bed!