Before and After

We were admiring our lillies the other day and rememberd about a year ago that we took a picture of me in front of them for one of our weekly belly shots.  Here's a fun little Before and After.  :)

My Name is Brody, And I Like to Dance!

A little clip of Brody, breakin' it down in the car seat.  Sorry it's sideways, I can't figure out how to get it the right direction on here.

And another clip of him dancing at home.  It's kinda dark, but you get the idea.  I had mentioned in his 9 Month post that he started dancing whenever he hears music or hears us sing.  Jeff is in the background singing "B-Man".

Imitation Brody

The other night while eating dinner at my mom's, Brody started imitating his first sound.  My mom coughed and then Brody did too.  And we all thought it was so funny, he just kept on doing it.  Here's a little clip of that.  (that's my mom coughing in the background).

A Weekend I Won't Forget

I had a lot of weird ideas for the title of this post.  Such as...

Strep by Strep, oooh Baby!
Holy Snot Buckets!

Crazy Town

Beside Myself

One for the Record Book

You Learn A Lot About Yourself...

Anyway, this post is about one sick baby, one stressed out momma, and one event filled weekend.  So, I had last Thursday and Friday off from work.  Pam was off for her daughters wedding in Florida, so I took the days off to stay home with Brody.  Thursday was great and Brody and I prepared for what was supposed to be a SUPER FUN weekend for us.  You see, my bestest friend in the whole world, Krista, and her husband Joel, and their little girl Kiera, were all coming from San Diego to stay with us for the weekend, while my sister Rachel and Todd (who came in from Ankeny) watched the kiddos Saturday night so we 'rents could attend another friends wedding reception.  Well, Thursday night, Brody was not quite himself.  I didn't think much of it, but he was up a few times crying in the night.  Thought maybe some teeth were coming in.  No big deal.  But some time during the day on Friday, he started getting a massive runny nose and was drooling everywhere.  Again...thought it was just maybe teeth and no big deal.  The Kelly family got to our house Friday afternoon and we all played together and visited.  I haven't seen them in about 2 years so I was SO looking forward to visiting lots and catching up on everything.  Well, this story is getting to be longer than it needs to be, but basically Friday evening Brody started running a high fever.  I can't remember exactly, but throughout the night, it ranged from 100 to 102.5 or so.  I started giving him some baby Tylenol (the generic brand since Tylenol was recalled), but it wasn't really breaking his fever.  It would bring it down some, but never less than 99.5 or so.  And Brody was up crying A LOT that night.  He wouldn't sleep except for while laying on  my chest.  Brody hasn't been that needy or clingy since I was home on Maternity leave with him.  Jeff and I called the on-call doctor from our Ped's office around 4:00 AM that night.  She basically said since he wasn't acting lethargic or anything, that we could wait to bring him in to the office in the morning.  So after a pretty much sleepless night, that's what we did.  As a side note, I was supposed to be doing my first "real" photo shoot for a friend of my sisters that morning in a town about a half an hour away.  Aunt Rachel was coming over to watch Brody while I went and did the shoot.  But, I sadly (devastatingly) had to cancel since Brody was so ill.  :(  (Mary, if you are reading this...once again, I am SO sorry).  So, Rachel came to the doctor's office with me while I left Krista and Kiera at my house alone.  And the award for World's Worst Host goes to me.  Anyway, ends up, Brody had Strep.  Dun dun DUUUUN!  Poor guy. No wonder he had such a high fever and felt so miserable.  We got him on the antibiotics and I really thought things would start to turn around.  Surely he wouldn't have another bad night like the one before.  Ummm...WRONG.  I think I'll just let the following photos of him from Saturday afternoon/evening speak for themselves...(these were taken on my phone, btw).

At the doctors office Saturday morning.

Trying to sleep on momma. 

Poor guy couldn't breath through his incredibly runny nose.

I'm so tired, momma, and I hurt everywhere!

Why do I feel so awful momma?  Help me feel better!

Finally asleep for a short bit...snot dripping out his nose and all. 

You know when they say a sick baby is just as hard on mom as it is on baby?  I think this is true.  Brody was completely miserable on Saturday.  He couldn't breath through his nose, his fever wouldn't break, I'm sure he ached all over, and there was so much going on at our house that he had a hard time falling asleep.  Not to mention he would just cry and cry if I tried to put him down.  He wanted to be held all day and only sleep on my chest. 

So, I learned a lot about myself that day.  After finally deciding not to go with Krista and Joel to the wedding reception, and having a good couple of cries (a.k.a., melt downs) with Brody, I realized I may not handle stress as well as I once thought.  Jeff asked me a couple of times why I was crying and I couldn't quite explain it.  I honestly didn't feel like myself this weekend.  And that just made me cranky and sad.  It could have been the complete exhaustion from 2 sleepless nights in a row (and soon to be 3), the fact that I couldn't do anything I wanted to do that weekend, the feeling of being the most horrible host to Krista and her family, the worry that I was subjecting all these people gross Strep germs, the horrid July heat, the incredibly sick baby, or the fact that I couldn't do anything to help him.  Or how about a combination of all of that?  Can I get an Amen?! 

So, I'd like to take a moment to apologize to everyone. 

Todd...I'm sorry for the complete chaos at my house and all the driving back and forth you had to do last weekend. 

Rachel...I'm sorry for all the plans that fell through, and that you ended up getting sick with Strep too. 

Krista, Joel, and Kiera...I'm sorry that you didn't get a cozy germ-free home to crash in, and I'm sorry that we didn't get to visit the way we should have. 

Jeff...I'm sorry that I was not myself this weekend and that I was basically an emotional wreck. 

And Brody...I'm sorry you felt so terrible and got so sick.  And I'm sorry that I couldn't do anything to help you.  And I'm also sorry you didn't get to make a very good first impression on your future wife.  :( 

But can I also say some thank you's? 

Todd...thank you for driving all this way to hang out and help Rachel with watching the babes. 

Rae...thank you for just being there for me all weekend...there are too many things you did for me to list, but just know that I thank you for every.single.one. of them. 

Kelly's...Thank you for being such amazing guests.  Kiera is the CUTEST little thing ever, and I'm so glad I got to finally meet her.  You guys should be very proud of that smart little cookie.  Thank you for traveling all this way to see us, and thank you for being you.  You guys are generous and thoughtful and handled this stressed out, horrible hostess very well! 

Jeff...thank you for putting up with me, and thank you for all your help with Brody's sleepless nights.  Brobo...what can I say?  Thank you for being a champ, buddy.

 

Ok, this post is far too long...sorry if you're already a snoozin' through it.  But it was a VERY emotional weekend for me (to say the least) and one I wanted to document and remember.  Saturday night was actually the worst part of the whole weekend, and Brody woke up SCREAMING, I mean hysterically screaming, around 10:30.  There was not anything we could do to get him to stop crying and basically hyperventilating.  He screamed for almost an hour when I finally decided to take him to the E.R.  And of course my social little bug put aside his misery for 30 minutes once I stepped foot in the hospital doors and decided to cuddle with me and smile at everyone while we were there.  The doctors thought I was nuts, and maybe I was.  But I didn't know what else to do.  Things got a lot better after we got home and things are great now.  But...it was definitely a weekend I wont forget!

I sadly hardly took any pictures this weekend.  Only 6 to be exact. And they were all of Miss Kiera eating macaroni.  ;) 

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE baby feet?

Fourth of July

I know it's a bit belated, but the fourth of July weekend was filled with so many fun things, I just had to do a post!



Owen celebrating the holiday and waving his flags!

 Friday, we packed up and headed to the Chicago area for my cousin Tiffany's wedding.  See more photos from the actual wedding here, but here are some other shots of the rest of us that day...

Todd, Ryan, Jeff, Owen, and Brody stayed home for this wedding since it was an adults-only reception. Can't take Ryan, Todd, or Jeff anywhere, I swear!  :)

Two of my beautiful sissies!



Some randoms of the whole gang.



Hangin' out at Harrison's pub after the ceremony before the reception.  Free drinks = Fun times!  :)

Actin' crazy back at the hotel before the shuttle took us to the reception.
 Love hanging out with my family!

Saturday was pretty low key.  We had a BBQ at my parents house for dinner and the plan was for everyone to head to the River Bandits game, but Brody had a fever so I just took him home while the others played.

Sunday everyone headed to my sister Mary's house in Muscatine for a fun day of hanging out, a surprise mini baby shower for Chuck and Randi, some more BBQ, and campfire fun!

My cutie pie little nephew, Owen, playing in Kinnick's bed. :)

The boys played kick ball and everyone else hung out and watched. 

Jeff had a pretty awesome biff out there too.  I didn't catch it on camera, but I assure you it was

hilarious!



Baby Shower for Baby Betts!



Monday was pretty quiet.  Rachel and Todd headed back to Ankeny, and I headed over with Brody to my mom's house for dinner.  Later that evening I drove out with my brother Chuck and his wife Randi, to a park in downtown Davenport to snap some pregnancy photos for  them.  Which you can see here.

Later that night (and the next night too) we had some fun with Sparklers!  I learned how to do this with my camera and Jeff and I did some one night and Chuck and Randi and I did some the next night.  Here's a little collage I made...

That about sums up our Fourth of July holiday weekend.  It was so much fun and I'm sad it's over...especially the visiting with family part.  It was so great to spend time with everybody.  Love you guys!  Can't wait till we're all together again!  And with a new addition next time!  ;)

Don't Laugh...

Seriously.  Don't. 
http://www.jlpetersenphotography.blogspot.com/
(there are three posts...go to the bottom of the page to read my intro post)

9 Months

Brody is 9 Months Old!

(sorry for the godawful color/picture quality of this months photo.  this was probably my least favorite monthly photo shoot to date.  see below for more details).

Here is what he is up to these days:

-Wearing mostly 12 month clothing, with the exception of some 9 month size shorts.  Still in size 3 diapers.

- He is crawling all over the place and can now move around on all fours, although he seems to prefer his army crawl.

- He sits up on his own with ease and we frequently find him sitting in his crib playing with his doggy stuffed animal when he wakes up in the morning and from naps.

- He learned how to pull himself up using the ottoman that houses all his toys.  He tries pulling up on other things (random furniture and our legs), but he still hasn't quite mastered that yet.



This is my newest most favoritest (that's a word...look it up) photo of him.
I love that I didn't do a lot of editing to it either, with the exception of
some cheetos face removal...he's just THAT cute.  :)



- He also grabs for your hands to pull himself up but still can't stand on his own.  We think his head is too big and that makes him too wobbly.  :)

- He is eating all kinds of food and loves to try new things.  Such as green beans, bananas, watermelon, cheese, noodles, cooked carrots, yogurt, ground beef, and all his favorite random Gerber foods like puffs, crunchies (which we call cheetos), yogurt bites, dried fruits, and baby cookies.  He so far seems to like everything and eats like a champ. 

- He is now only getting 3 bottles a day...one in the morning when he wakes up, one after his morning nap, and the last right before bed.  He eats two meals (lunch and dinner), with a small snack after his afternoon nap.

- He takes 2 naps a day, one around 8:30 AM and another around 1:30 PM.  He generally sleeps for 1.5 to 2 hours each time.

- He babbles and screams and squeals and squawks, but still no actual words.  He said dada a few times but really doesn't say it much anymore.  He doesn't seem interested in repeating any words we say even when we try to get him to, either.

- He started making silly little noises with his mouth by using his toungue and teeth.  I can't even explain it, but it's Cuuuuute!

- He loves his little stuffed doggy that Pam got him when he was born.  But also likes pretty much any toy.  And he loves to roll a ball back and forth with us.

- He simply LOVES Gus.  I don't think I posted about this, but I'm an awful dog momma and Gus went to live with my parents for a while.  He is just happier over there and I'll leave it at that.  However, Gus has been back home with us more recently and Brody just thinks he is hilarious.  They like to play together and Brody will almost always giggle at him.  It's very cute to see Gus playing with his little brother so well.

-Brody still sleeps very well and for approximately 11 hours a night - from 7:30PM to 6:30AM.

- When Brody started sitting on his own (getting up from laying down), we decided to drop the mattress in his crib.  This milestone made me a little sad for some reason...he's growing up so fast!

- We also finally put in the big car seat and stopped using his carrier.  He had looooong outgrown that thing so this was way overdue on our part, but it's all good and he's much safer now. 

- He has two more teeth!  On his 8 Month post he had just recently gotten his front top two teeth, but he now also has the two on either side of those too!  6 teeth!  Sheesh!

- I think Brody had his first temper tantrum with me the other day.  I don't know if that's really what I would call it but I can't think of what else it would be called.  I had set him down on the floor to play after his afternoon nap.  I turned around to go get him a snack ready from the kitchen and he starting crying.  Bottom lip out, face all scrunched up, turning red, tears in his eyes, full-on CRY.  He has not ever done this before.  I know some other moms probably want to throw things at my face for saying that, but he has honestly not ever cried like that before.  Since I know that is not his normal behavior, and I know he was perfectly fine...maybe just a little hungry...I let him cry for a bit while I continued to prepare his snack all the while talking and smiling at him like nothing was even happening.  I'm sure I have no idea what I'm in for once he gets a bit older and starts having more temper tantrums, but I figure it's best to not react to that behavior from the get-go, to help him understand that acting that way is not going to make me react any differently.  Is that absurd to think my 9 month old might actually understand this??  All you moms of older children can laugh in my face now if you want...I can take it. 

- On a lighter note, one of my favorite new Brody things this month is that I started noticing a few days ago that whenever I play music, or one of his musical toys turns on, or even sometimes when I sing to him, he will stop what he is doing and look at the musical source and start rocking side to side.  He is DANCING!  I think it's especially cute.  Before Jeff and I started dating we used to dance together at the bars.  And we still continue to dance together (at weddings and even at home).  I also used to dance around the house when I was pregnant too.  And danced A LOT with him when he was a little baby.  Heck, we even still dance together at home sometimes.  Plus Jeff and I like to goofy-dance in front of Brody a lot to try and get him to laugh.  So I think it's so cute that he has taken a liking to dance as well.  Or at least that's what I am going to tell myself.  :)

_________________

Well, as a side note, Brody (as I'm sure most 9 month olds are) is into EVERYTHING.  These monthly photo shoots are getting extremely difficult for me to pull off anymore.  He just doesn't want to lay still for even a second.  This is what he would rather do instead...



Found your toes, Mommy!




Oooh tape!  This is new. It's crinkly and sticky and different!




I think I'll pull it off.




Working hard at destroying my makeshift "set".



 Another reason this shoot was disappointing for me was because this was the first time in 9 months that I wasn't able to do his picture on his actual monthly birthday.  :(  Tear.  I don't know why that matters because it's not like anyone but me would even know, but it just disappoints me.  I didn't have anyone home with me on Tuesday, but I attempted to do his picture anyway.  The four photos above show just what I was dealing with, and I decided it's just too dang hard for me to do these on my own. So, I tried again on Wednesday at my mom's house with the help of my mom and sister, but I still wasn't crazy about the results.  Ugh.  Here are some others from that session that were sorta cute...

Not too bad, but they are all a bit overexposed and it's really difficult to fix an overexposed photo.  Boo.

My camera has been on Fiiiyah lately (use your Arnold impression to say that...it's hilarious)and I've been one busy little amateur photog.  I'm hoping to get a Fourth of July post out on here soon with all the fun things we did over the long weekend!  But, I've been thinking about starting a separate photography blog....anyone have any opinions on that?  I kinda hope some day in the future I might be able to become a photographer and I was thinking it would be nice to have a separate site I can direct possible clients to for examples of my work.  Is this dumb?  I'm kinda embarrassed to even say any of this...