My Baby Boy: Thirteen Weeks

Happy 13 weeks of life, Little Mango!!

Love the way he's crossing his legs!

Rockin' the Puma track suit

Fun Day

I had a sick day from work yesterday....I tell you being preggo really messed up my body and made me become someone who takes off days at work due to illness - that NEVER happened before. In the afternoon I started feeling better but I didn't get back to myself until later last night, however, little man and I still managed to make it a good day.

We made a quick run to get me some drugs, so I bundled him up in his car seat and in his new baseball beanie {thanks Uncle Marc & Aunt Britt!} - and off we went. He obviously loved his new look, just look at the smile on his face!

Rockin' his baseball beanie

After we got home I managed to get some housework done in between my numerous trips to the bathroom and since I didn't want to leave him laying on his back all day or have to carry him in my arms {I needed those free for laundry!} I figured out how to get him set up in his Moby. I tell you this was quite the challenge. I brought up the instructions on how to wrap the Moby online and watched the "how-to" video. Then I practiced putting his stuffed owl in so I could make sure I knew how to do it {now that's what I should've taken pictures of!} and then did the real thing. He must've liked it because after about 10 minutes of flitting around the house -  he fell fast asleep.

Hanging out in his Moby

I woke up this morning feeling 100% better than I did yesterday...boy, am I happy. I fed Cruzer at 7am and then headed to the gym. When I came home, little man and daddy were napping so this is what I came home too...hilarious!

Napping w/ daddy - looks like a real little man
{All we needed was his hand down his pants!}

I let dad get some more rest and got Cruzer ready for the day. Of course he had to sport his Creighton Bluejays shirt {"Put me in coach!"} since his daddy, Nanu and uncles were going to the game and then he helped me get ready for work.

Go Bluejays!

I can't wait until work is done and I'm back home lounging with my two favorite guys.

Little Man's Check-Up

On Monday we had another appointment with the physical therapist for Cruz's Torticollis. I had to work so Nick swung by and picked little man up from day care and we met at the Omaha Physical Therapy Institute's office. Our PT Katie brought us in and did some checks on how Cruz has been responding to the exercises we've been trying to do as often as possible. Over the past couple of weeks, we have definitely seen some improvement in how he keeps his head toward the left when we position it that way and seems to be getting used to his exercises. On Saturday, he had even started moving his head from side to side - which I had never seen before. He still obviously prefers his right, but we are seeing improvement.

To help get him where he needs to be we have a list of exercises & positioning -

• Holding him against our chest and using one hand to move his head so it's looking left. On this one we have to keep our hand there or else he will try to rustle away and move his head back toward the right. This exercise is even more effective when you can bounce him to sleep and then lay back on the couch letting him sleep with his head to the left on your chest.
• The "Football Hold" is when we hold little man horizontally with our right arm between his legs and our hand craddling his body. The left hand is placed on the side of his head  that faces downward (above the ear) and you gently pull up on his head to stretch out the muscle on the left side of his neck.
• Sidelying is where you lay him on a blanket or mat and roll him onto his side. You then prop a blanket or pillow behind him so he doesn't roll backwards - and we generally have to put his mirror or something in front of him so he doesn't get bored. This weekend, he was so comfortable in this pose that he fell asleep for about 20 minutes!

Taking a nap during his exercises

• We also have changed the arm in which we feed him. Prior to meeting with the PT, we both craddled Cruz in our left arm and held the bottle with our right. This caused him to look at us toward the right, so we've flipped that position where his head is cradled in our right arm and we are feeding with our left.
• When he's in his car seat we have started using rolled up washcloths. One goes on the left side of his head keeping it from falling to the side {ear to shoulder}. Another is placed on his right side by hislower back and the other is placed on his left side by his thigh. This is to make sure that when we have the brace by his head, it doesn't cause his body to shift into an uncomfortable position.

During our appointment, Tim our Orthotist came in and took some measurements of Cruz's head. He determined that it's 9mm of variance from where it should be {which explains that when you look down on his head why you can see that his right ear is farther forward than his left} and this puts him into the moderate to severe category. They do not recommend trying cranial remolding until he's four months old and until then we have to continue doing the exercies & positioning as much as possible. We go back to see Katie in three weeks and the following week will go into Tim's office to get a scan on little man's head. If all goes well, the exercises will have fixed it and he will be as good to go. On the other hand, if it's not better and the scan shows the need, we will get Cruz fitted for his cranial remolding helmet. On average he would wear this for four months, 23 hours a day. The only time we would take it off would be to give him a bath. They said the helmet wouldn't bother him at all and since he's so young he wouldn't remember it.

How it works is that it doesn't put any pressure on his head, instead they fit it around the sides of his head that are already where they should be and leave gaps where his head needs to grow into so that over the four months as his head grows, it has no alternative but to grow into the open space in the helmet.

Obviously we hope it doesn't go that route, but if it does you better believe we will get him what he needs. Our biggest concern is that there could be other damage to his sinus cavity, ears, nerves, etc because of this and we want to make sure that everything is righted as soon as possible. I just wish that we would've known to look for this earlier {before his two month check-up} so we could've prevented it from the start.

Just wish us luck and say a little prayer that we can kick this in the next month.



From Snow Storms to Super Bowl

Little man had a very busy weekend. On Friday night we met Tessa, Chris and the kiddos at Pizza King in CB for dinner and then hit up Blaker's basketball game at TJ {Blake is one of two sophomores on Sioux City East's varsity team and a pretty damn good player}. Cruz loved having his auntie Tessa cuddle and play with him for the entire game.

Nick hadn't been feeling great on Friday and it hit him even worse through the night and Saturday morning, so I stayed home from work and took care of our little guy...as much as I had stuff I needed to get done, I can't lie and say I didn't love being snowed in and hanging with Cruzer all day. Speaking of snow, we got dumped on all day Saturday - to the tune of at least 10 inches. While I'm personally not a fan of snow, it was so pretty how it stuck to the trees. We finally were dug out by 7pm so I ran and picked up some groceries for the Super Bowl party the following day. Cruz hadn't really slept but a total of 1 hour throughout the day {we had A LOT of playing to do}, so he zonked out abotu 9pm...and much to our surprise slept in until 6am....nine hours of sleep {click here}!

Getting pumped for the big game

On Sunday we hit up a Super Bowl party at Ross & Morgan's. Everyone was there and Cruz was passed around the entire night getting cuddles from his favorites. He even had time to play with his cousin, Dominic, who loved little man's tummy time mat. We had a great time even though all three of us were big losers on squares, the props bet sheet {how did I not pick that they would show Gisele before Peyton Manning or that Madonna would sing Vogue first?!?} and most of all my guy Tom Terrific lost.

Cruz & Dom

Our happy little Batboy

It was a great weekend where the main item on the agenda was hanging out with our favorite little 12 week old...

My Baby Boy: Twelve Weeks Old

Happy 12 weeks, Little Mango!!

Yep...12 weeks old

Wait...really?

Coming to terms with my age...

Sleep Is An Amazing Thing

Cruz slept nine hours straight last night...I repeat, NINE hours. I could hardly believe it when I woke up at 5am and the little guy was still sleeping. Then I thought maybe Nick had woken up with him and somehow I hadn't heard them. I shook Nick awake, "did you get up with Cruz already?"

His sleepy reply, "no, what time is it? Does he need to get up?"

"No, he's still sleeping. But if you haven't gotten up with him and I know I haven't, that means he's already slept 8 hours straight. Wow, I can't believe it," I said.

"Well don't wake him up now with all your talking." 

To myself: {Thanks, buddy. Obviously I wasn't trying to wake up my sleeping son, I was simply sharing my amazement that he was still asleep and hadn't been up yet during the night.}

I fell back asleep and finally woke up to little man's congested coughs at 6am. I peered over into the pack & play and he was wide-eyed smiling up at me. {Now this is the way a mommy should be woken up every day in my opinion.} I got him up, changed him, sucked the boogs out of his nose and nestled into his chair to feed him. He feel fast asleep and I was feeling so good from all the sleep I had gotten last night, I decided to make a trip to the gym.

Now this was a great morning....

Just A Picture

Our little guy is such a sweetie - we are lucky to have such a calm and good natured baby. Big smiles, few tears and loving looks...that's what helps me bust my butt at work every day and what I look forward to coming home to every night. I love this little guy!