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!