the many faces

happy talan:thinking talan:
grumpy talan:
sleepy talan:
sleeping talan:

bath time

talan got a bath today:





everybody has those embarrassing nude bath photos:


the finished product:

we're home

so i have to say that so far, talan is the only person in this family that is taking this "year of the illness and injury" seriously. he's what caused us to use up our high deductible, and now he's making sure we get all the free medical attention that we can get before the year ends.
as you may or may not recall, i took talan in last week to the dr. due to a cold. i was told to watch him closely but that everything was fine for the time being. so sunday evening everything was normal. talan still had his smokers cough, but everyone that has come down with this cold has it. so i wasn't too concerned. i fed him at about 10:30 and put him to bed with no problem. at about 3am, he woke up. i found it a little odd that he woke up that early when he had just had 6 ounces at 10:30...but i fixed a bottle anyway. i went into his room and picked him up. i started to feed him, but the whole time, his eyes were closed. he only took about an ounce or two and seemed to be sleeping. so i put him in his crib. he immediately started screaming. i picked him up. eyes closed, and quiet. i put him down. he screamed. this went on for quite some time. i was annoyed, tired and getting more and more frustrated with him. i finally held him long enough that when i put him down, he stayed quiet. i finally got back to bed 40 minutes later.
at around 5:30am, he woke up again. dave went in to get him this time. same thing happened. his eyes stayed closed the whole time, but every time dave put him down, he screamed. dave finally brought him into bed with us just so we could get a little more sleep before we all had to get up. even laying next to us, with our arms around him, he still screamed. dave held him and lost more sleep, until he finally put him in his swing. morning time came and it was more of the same. he wouldn't eat and screamed every time i put him down. i called the dr. to make an appointment as i just knew something wasn't right. i packed 2 bottles thinking we'd be gone for an hour or 2 between the dr. and picking hayden up at school. haha.
the dr. overheard his cough from the hallway and saw our name on the chart and came right in. she said he sounded like a 90 year old smoker. she gave him a breathing treatment and told us to go downstairs for a chest x-ray. he didn't like either. of course, while getting the breathing treatment he finally decided he wanted to eat. so i start to feed him when we were waiting for the x-ray. they call us in 1/2 way through the bottle. they then proceed to stick him into a little tube where i had to hold his arms way up in the air while the rest of him was inside of this tube. i just pictured them shooting him up through the air to the next bank teller. he screamed the whole time.
so we go back upstairs and they check his oxygen levels while reviewing the x-ray. the levels were low and there was a spot on the x-ray that indicated either pneumonia or just some mucus that needed to be broken up. because of his age, the decided to just send him to the er downstairs and then have us admitted to the hospital in southfield. we were in the er for awhile getting oxygen and antibiotics and then the ambulance guys came to take us for a ride. my first one. it was nice being conscious for it. talan slept the whole time.
so basically, we stayed in the hospital overnite while they watched him and gave him antibiotics. he did really well. he lost his iv twice so they had to put it back in, which he liked even less than being put in the bank teller tube. after it fell out the second time, they just decided to give him the medicine orally. he would have slept great through the nite, but the nurses decided to come in and wake us up every 2 1/2 hours. then i'd have to feed him, and try to get him back to sleep again. real nice. come in while he's sleeping, wake him up and leave me to put it all back together again. what do they care?! they have to stay awake all nite anyway.
this morning the dr. came in just before 8am and told us that they would release us that morning since his levels had stayed up and he hadn't even needed oxygen the whole time we were there. basically, they weren't doing anything for him that i couldn't do for him at home. so they gave me a prescription, got us our paperwork, and sent us home with instructions to see our dr. in 2 days.
the smokers cough is still there, but other than that, he's great. he really is a great baby. he basically slept the whole time in the hopsital, and when he wasn't sleeping he was still as content as ever. we are sure are enjoying this change of pace.
here are some pictures of our fun day yesterday. way to milk the system talan!

all hooked up:
talan and his "lobster claw" that was supposed to hold the iv in. which didn't:
as if the lobster claw wasn't embarassing enough, they put him in a PINK gown. the gown said "SOOOOOO big." so i guess talan was just playing along:
talan awake:
talan sleeping:

what a difference 6 weeks make. 6 weeks ago, he was in the same bassinet. when we put him in it yesterday, i couldn't believe how much bigger he looked.

6 weeks later and we're in the same place

6 weeks ago we were at providence southfield after i had just given birth to talan. we are back there again. talan came down with a cold last week...the same one hayden had and dave as well. i guess 1/2 the world has this cold right now. anyway, long story short as i have to get back to the hospital....i took talan to the dr. this morning and they sent us for a chest x-ray. looked like he might have pneumonia so they sent us to the er and then the admitted us and took us by ambulance to providence southfield.
no real big deal. should just be able to fix him up with antibiotics. i ran home so i could grab something to eat for the first time today and pack my bag as we'll be there "a day or 2."
as we learned last time, there is no internet access there so i'll have to update you after we are released. with super sad pictures of a baby hooked up to iv's. but know things are fine and i plan on them staying that way. just have to take extra precautions in a baby this little.
so. i'm off.

the events of today. and a picture

so last nite, talan decided to jump on the sick bandwagon. just as hayden was well enough to go back to school. dave has been feeling a little sick as well. i'm the only person around here (so far) that hasn't been sick. talan started getting a bunch of junk in his eye and then he became really congested. so congested that he couldn't sleep. so we were up every couple of hours trying to suck the boogers and snot out of his nose. he really didn't even eat when he'd wake up. that's how sick he was! hayden was born in the winter and he was NEVER sick as an infant. so this was a little different for us. i figured it was just a cold as he basically had the congestion, cough and junk eye, but since our deductible has been met, i figured might as well take a free trip to the dr. just to make sure.
just as i thought, it's just a cold. but a cold in an infant is one of the saddest things in the world. and there isn't a thing you can do about it. we're supposed to keep a close eye on him as a cold in an infant can go from nothing to something major very quickly. hopefully this won't last too long, cuz waking up every other hour is not a pleasant thing.
right now, talan is weighing in at 10 pounds 6 ounces. looks like we're gonna have another sumo wrestler on our hands.

it's been awhile. so here's a bunch

it appears as though dave has finally got our camera working with our home computer. so now i'll be able to post pictures more frequently. you've all been patiently waiting, so i downloaded some extras for you.

sleep is good:
jenn, rainah, jessica and talan. talan is only interested in the things hanging from the ceiling:
talan smiles. and has been for a couple of weeks now. i didn't think it happened this early. i either don't know much or he's gifted. i swear though, it's not just gas:
papa and talan. or toenail or turtle boy as he likes to call him:
jessica and talan on the eve of her departure to haiti for 4-6 months:
hayden insisted on taking his shirt off and laying on the "cozy" blanket since talan got to:
sleep again. we love sleep:
another picture that looks just like a picture we already have of hayden:
see, another smile. not gas:
and here's a smirk:

1 month

talan turned 1 month the other day. man, it goes fast. i put him on an old baby scale that we have and it appears that he's about 10 pounds. yeah, he likes to eat. here he is on may 9th, grandma's birthday and his 1 month:

update with no pictures

i planned on posting awhile ago. with photos. but dave's laptop totally crapped out, to a point that we thought we lost all of the photos on it. which would mean ALL of our talan photos. i think that the IT guy at his work has recovered them, thankfully. man, i hate computers. but anyway, the computer is still being worked on so i have no pictures to post today.
i took talan to the dr. for his 2 week check up last tuesday. the dr. walked in and said "now THAT is a weight gain!" after taking him in 4 days after birth he was 7 pounds 2 ounces. only 1 ounce away from his birth weight. a week and a half later he weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces. he cries because he's hungry, i try to hold him off since he just ate 1 1/2 hours ago, he cries harder, i feed him, he's happy and he grows. who knows what he weighs now, a week later! we take him back in at 2 months.
he has become a bit fussier than he had been. it seems he's gotten a fussy time at nite, like most babies do. usually around 9 or 10 before his last bottle. i recently read several things that said colic usually starts at around 3 weeks. so every time he cries a part of me panics. i CANNOT go through that again! but so far, it seems ok. just typical baby crying stuff.
he's still really strong. when we put him on his stomach he lifts his head for quite awhile and then has even lifted his entire lower half and held it there.
hayden is still really sweet with him. when talan cries, hayden runs right over to shove a binky in his mouth. he'll pat him and say, "it's ok, talan." then he yells "mom...i think talan is hungry!"
so things are going well. i'm pretty much used to the schedule already and it's not too difficult. i don't feel that we are losing tons of sleep, although, i'm still tired quite often. but then again, i've always loved my naps.
so. once i get that computer back, i'll post some more pictures of 'ol fatso.