Brayden has 5 months under his belt now

So much has happened that it’s hard to summarize it all in a single post. From the joy of a first holiday to the scares of a first ER visit, we defiantly didn’t have a bland month.

Let’s start at the beginning, because that’s a very good place to start. With the fourth month behind us, we were ready to begin planning for the first major holiday, Halloween. It seems that like most things, everyone likes to get cute clothes, but like most things, it’s a one-time wearing and done. We went into the holiday with 4 outfits already for Brayden. But the issue with having things already is that it doesn’t feel like a cohesive unit. So we of course had to get a fifth, which blended with the family.



So the week leading up to Halloween, Brayden got to be a pumpkin, skeleton, Dalmatian, and cat. All were cute, but the pumpkin was the top winner as with the cute little hat and bright colors, he captured everyone’s hearts with a smile.

Before we could get to the Halloween day however, we got the biggest scare of our lives. Brayden had been dealing with a cough over the past week or so, and it was getting a bit worse, or at least not getting better. So we decided to schedule a checkup with the dr to just play it safe. We even contemplated canceling the day of, as the cough seemed to be dying down a bit. No one wants to the parent that is always forcing their kid to the Dr for the slightest sniffle. But it turns out we were super lucky to go in as the dr immediately looked at Brayden and said he was having issues breathing and took an oxygen count that was in the low 80's where the ideal is 99 or 100.


If that wasn't scary enough, Kristy had to be at the appointment alone, as John was at work. They gave Brayden a treatment of oxygen and medication via a mask and despite fighting it, was supposed to help. After two treatments there was a slight increase, but not enough to be comfortable, so Kristy was told to call John and let him know he needed to join her immediately.


Shortly before John arrived the dr's office called 911 for an ambulance and it arrived shortly after john did. Before they knew it Brayden, Mom, and Dad were all taken via an Ambulance to children’s hospital as they were more equipped to deal with infant patients. It was the first ambulance ride for all of us and at least we were able to all rides instead of someone having to follow via car. Luckily after arriving and getting checked in, we were released within a few hours with a boy who was doing much better and a prescription for a nebulizer. The nebulizer treatments were easier said than done as you can imagine how much a baby likes to have things strapped to his face, let alone a grumpy sick baby who already doesn’t feel very good.


We began our new routine just in time for Halloween. Despite being too young for candy, we were not going to miss getting to trick or treat on his first Halloween. We bundled him up and got him in the stroller and begin the journey to hit the various important houses. We stopped at John’s parents, Kristy's cousin Kelly’s, Kristy's parents, and lastly John's sister’s house. Each place was excited to see our cuddly little lion and was more focused on spending time talking with us then the other treat or treaters. The following weekend we had our Halloween party, and got to show Brayden the joy of bringing a party into your house. It was also a great excuse to clean the house, as it’s funny how easy it gets dirty these days.


Beyond the experiences of the month, we also begin some firsts, one of the most exciting of which was the first foods. I say exciting as it is a milestone, but it is still even to this day a milestone that is a challenge to truly cross. To say he didn't like solids, would be like saying winter is cold. Both are true, but neither do justice to the true feeling. We tried various methods to feed Brayden, but most were met with dislike. From eating in the bumbo on the kitchen floor to eating in the bathtub. He is willing to put the spoon in his mouth once, but once he gets that taste or texture, he won’t be fooled again. It’s impressive how he can contort his body to avoid that spoon, but he always finds a way. In the end i think we are getting progress, but who knew it would be this hard. The trick has been mixing a few sips of bottle with a spoonful of orange stuff. He seems to like most squash and sweet potatoes. I say like most, but i guess hate least would work too.

Another first this month was getting truly sick. I'm not talking about the hospital visit, but instead about the whole family getting the flu. Kristy had come down with a bug on a Saturday evening, and by midnight of that same night, Brayden was hit with it as well. As a parent, there is nothing that makes you feel as helpless as your 5 month old crying out in pain and throwing up, because he doesn’t know what is going on in his body, but nothing you can do to help. At least when they are older kids, you can help them to the bathroom, they can use the toilet, have a sip of water to wash out their mouth, or tell you its coming. John slept on the couch outside braydens room that night and was up every hour and a half or so just to check on him and make sure he was doing okay. That lasted until John came down with it the following afternoon, and luckily Brayden was doing better by that point.

The biggest development on his movement this month has been his ability to sit up. It went from a propping up and sort of collapsing over to him sitting up straighter then most of us do for long periods of time and playing independently as he sat looking around. He has also begun to think about crawling. He will get on all fours and rock back and forth, but isn’t quite ready yet to begin moving. I'm sure he is just taking pity on his parents who already feel like he is growing up to fast.

The Fourth Month

Rolling over has become so easy, that he does it everywhere. He tries to roll over to get out of his car seat, yeah, that always works out well with the straps. He rolls over during diaper changes, that one’s a blast. He even rolls over at times when he is taking a bottle. Now to be fair, he is also able to roll over in his crib, which means that before when he would wake himself by flipping over, he just flips right back and goes to bed. It helps with the daycare naps as well because they only put him on his back, and he can now get into his comphy position and hit some zzz's before the next activity.





Braydens forth month was filled with trips and excursions as we did everything we could to show him the world, or at least a few Wisconsin highlights. We went to the elegant farmer and got to go apple picking and find the baby’s first pumpkin. He did remarkably well with the long lines, and it helped that Kristy was able to use the baby Bjorn to carry him so he was just able to look around and see lots of people. He is such a people watcher. He got his first hay ride and helped mom pick some apples that could be made into baby food. When we got to the pumpkin patch, we had to find the perfect Brayden size pumpkin. Needless to say, there are not a ton of tiny pumpkins, they call those gourds. But if history has shown anything, we don’t give up easily. We ended up fining the perfect pumpkin and got a few pictures with Brayden in the pumpkin patch.






Another excursion we took was to holy hill, to see the changing colors. We made the brilliant move of walking the trails, and at each split, choose a random path to go on without looking at a trail map. Needless to say the first mile was awesome, but the next three were a little long, only to leave us miles from the car and the trail just ended. Brayden was doing excellent during the entire trip as he was in a backpack carrier on John's back and loved to see the outside and all the leaves. We found a fellow hiker who directed us down a few roads and a mile latter we finally found the parking lot. I promise that is an experience we won’t forget.

One of the biggest transitions this month was switching Brayden from soy formula to regular formula. He has been on soy formula since about 1 month old, and to begin that switch back, it was the first step to introducing solid foods. It was done over a week and a half and in stages of half soy and half new, but the transition proved to be easier than expected. He was able to start taking the basic formula and has not looked back.

We also got to experience our first trip without Brayden, which was probably one of the hardest things imaginable. John's work was sending him to Vegas, and offered to have Kristy come along if we paid for her airfare. It was something that we couldn't pass up, and Kristy's parents were more than excited to take Brayden for the week. It was however quickly apparent that Vegas is not our scene, the drinking, gambling, etc., and we looked most to our nightly Skype sessions with the boy. It was hard to accept, but it was quickly realized that we would rather spend a night doing anything with our boy, then a night of doing anything else, without him. I guess that is what being a parent is all about.