Saturday, January 28, 2006

It's hard to believe

but Brendan is one month old on Sunday the 29th. He's changed a lot over the last 30 or so days. He's basically outgrown the clothes in which we brought him home. He's more responsive to attention. He sleeps more consistently though the night. He produces fewer number 2s.

Below is a report card on how Brendan is doing compared to 'normal'. Click the image to see a bigger version.



Brendan's such an exceptional kid that he could do any of these things, natch. He just chooses not to do some of them for reasons known only to him! We're looking forward to Brendan deciding to smile back at us, though.

We took a few more pictures today, but I can't seem to find the cable to download them from the camera. Once I dig it up I'll post some comparison photos showing him on his birthday and his one month anniversary.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

We couldn't post yesterday

Brendan decided that he needed to be up ALL DAY (and night) so it was a tough to get any blog time. Fortunately Tuesday night was better and he was giving us about 3 hours at a time.

We did get time to snap a couple pictures. So Brendan and I decided to do a little bonding by dressing up in our Red Wings uniforms.



Brendan also wanted to spend some time with his kitties so we put him in the cat condo to pose for a picture. The girls really like Brendan and they tend to get agitated and concerned when he's crying. They don't quite get that his voice is coming through the baby monitor in his room so they're confused sometimes and look around for him when he's crying through the speaker.



Finally, here's a copy of the birth announcement that we sent out. I've been having a lot of fun with Photoshop.



Hope you all are doing well.

Monday, January 23, 2006

We had a nice quiet day

It was a work day so I spent the bulk of it in the office. Brendan and Dana were together most of the day and took a quick trip to the post office so Dana could ship some of the items she sold on half.com.

Brendan was awake all day. Not a lot of napping. Dana's working on getting him to sleep right now, though.

He's spending much more time focusing on faces. He's also doing a really good job at lifting his head when he's getting tummy time. He's a really good boy, and we love him to bits.

Here's a couple pictures.

I propped the little guy up on the couch for a little photo shoot.

Snuggling up with MY SON!

Brendan thinking about his next meal.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Finally a few new pictures


After being gone a couple days it was a little easier to see some changes in him. His face seems to me to be changing shape a little as he adds more weight. He doesn't have the pumpkin head (round and orange) like he used to. His face seems to me to be a little longer. I also noticed that he spends more time focusing on a particular object. He really likes looking in the mirror. He also likes to look at Dana, even when he's not eating. He seems to be responding to touch a little more.

We haven't taken Brendan out for any adventures lately so we don't have any 'action' photos. Now that he's on his way to his 1 month birthday (I can't believe it's been a month) I think we feel a little more comfortable exploring the outside world. We're trying to coordinate a visit with my dad. We may try to go see him in March or have him come out to see us in the Summer when Betsy finishes her semester. We still need to get my mom and Dana's dad out.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Mom and Dad could use a nap

Sorry it's been a couple days since we've had a chance to update you all. It's not because we're any less excited that Brendan is home with us....we're just a little pooped.

Brendan is a wonderful little boy even though he doesn't really have a personality yet. He does react when I tickle his underarms and he seems to like to look at Dana when he's eating.

He has a huge appetite as evidenced by his rapid weight gain. Below are all of the data points we've gotten on the little boy's weight.

12/29.... 8 lb 13 oz
12/31.... 7 lb 15 oz
1/5........ 8 lb 1 oz
1/12...... 8 lb 14 oz
1/18...... 9 lb 10 oz

Over the weekend Brendan threw his first fit. He wasn't hungry and he wasn't tired so he let us know about it by yelling. I tried to take him for a walk, but it rained so we had to come home. Then we tried holding him. Then we tried putting him in his swing. Nothing worked but he finally wore himself out (and us) and took a nap.

We've finished the birth announcements and put them in the mail. Perhaps by the time you are reading this you'll have received yours. We'll wait a couple days and then post it on the site(don't want to ruin the surprise). I've been having a lot of fun Photoshopping the pictures we've been taking. I'm working hard to get pictures printed out for Brendan's grandmas and grandpas so they can fill up the photo albums they got for Christmas.

I'm in Phoenix for a couple days so Dana and Brendan are getting a little one on one time. Day 1 and Dana says all is going well. I told her not to let Brendan do anything important while I'm gone. When I get back I'll post a few new pictures.

Hope you all are doing well!

Saturday, January 14, 2006

We went out and about

on Friday the 13th. Dana had a Dr. appointment and she got a clean bill of health. She's very happy to have the green light (so to speak) to drive again. She's been getting a little stir crazy at home.

After her appointment we got to show Brendan off to Dana's co-workers at Nanogen. Unfortunately, he was asleep the whole time. But we promised to bring him back in a couple weeks when he'll be a little more active. Here's a picture of the little man snuggling up with Dana's boss, Pam.



Today, Saturday, was a quieter day. Brendan was being a little fussy so we took him on a short walk and that put him right to sleep. Here he is in his first hot rod!



And here's a picture of Brendan telling me, "Only one more picture, dad!"

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Brendan's two!!!

Two weeks old, that is!

We took Brendan in for his 2 week check up and he got a clean bill of health. He's still a little yellow, but not so much that they needed to draw any blood. They do want him to come back in a week for one more check on his skin color.

The best news is that he's putting on weight. He now weighs 8 lb 14 oz, so he's now bigger than the day he was born which is a really good sign. I'm surprised he's not 14 lb 8 oz with the way that he's eating! He's got a huge appetite and really keeps Dana busy. But the more he eats and the more he poops the better to help with his skin color.

He's also 21.5 inches. The nurse said that doesn't necessarily mean that he's grown an inch and a half. I guess his little bow legs are straightening out.


Here's a picture of Brendan on his way to the doctor.


Here's the little man chillin' in his papasan while we eat.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Brendan had a good day.

Brendan continues to do very well. He spent all day with his Momma and even gave her a chance to catch a little nap. He spent most of the day sitting in his boppy watching Dana and holding her hand. This is what he looked like around lunch time when I came out of the office to check on my family unit.



He napped in his papasan swing while we had dinner (Sesame Garlic Chicken from Dream Dinners ). Afterwards we gave him a little tummy time in the living room.



Shortly after this picture was taken we had the biggest hazardous waste spill to date. I noticed that his diaper needed changing so I tried to get away with changing him right there. As soon as I got him out of his diaper he delivered a number 1 which missed me, but got all over the blanket he was lying on. So we wiped him down and got ready to put his new diaper on when the other shoe dropped. That's right, a lovely number 2 right then and there. After much wiping we got him diapered up and dressed. Lesson learned....no diaper changes without a changing pad.

Hanging out with momma, lots to eat, a nice poop that got dad running around...it was a very good day for Brendan.

Tomorrow Brendan has a Dr. appointment so we'll have some updated measurements to share.


This is a picture taken yesterday of Brendan wearing his new outfit from his cousin Audra. Thanks Aud!!

Monday, January 09, 2006

Everybody's doing fine

Brendan continues to do very well. He still has a big appetite eating about every 2 hours. He still naps quite a bit during the day which leads to restless nights. I had to go back to work today and he was fussing a bit about 2am. Dana did a good job of consoling him so that we could all get back to sleep. Dana's a great mom and she makes it all better for Brendan. After I got done with work I was able to keep Brendan with me for a couple hours so Dana could have a nice nap.

Brendan has a Dr. appointment this week and we'll get a few new measurements on him. Dana also has a follow up Dr. appointment to check her incision. Hopefully she'll get the go ahead to start moving about a little more.

Here's a picture of Brendan getting a little tummy time on the quilt he got from his Grandma Brown. This was taken a couple days ago.



Here's a happy baby getting a little attention from his Momma.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Short update

naked as a jaybird
dressed for a night out


We've spent the last couple days just sort of hanging out getting to know our fabulous new son. He's still a very good boy and never cries just to just occupy himself. He'll grunt and groan when he's hungry, and he'll yell when he gets a diaper change, but that's all part of the package. He spends more and more time awake and looking around exploring his brand new environment.

Dana has been a real trooper. Brendan keeps her busy with feedings and she's pretty exhausted. My job is to keep the house running (scary thought) and changing diapers and trying to entertain him for a couple hours to get Dana a chance to nap. I wish I could do more, but for now, this is just the arrangement.

I started working on the birth announcement and hope that we can get those out next week. We took a bunch more pictures of the little fella to try to incorporate into the announcement.

Speaking of next week, I'm going back to work, but I'll be working from home so I can still help out. After that I'll be heading to Phoenix for a few days. It'll be interesting to see how we're all going to feel about that.

Hope everyone has had as good a start to 2006 as we have!

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Brendan is 1 week old

Today is Brendan's 1 week birthday and today we had a lot of firsts:

First bath at home


First trip to the beach. Doesn't feel like January here with weather is the 70s so we decided to take a trip to the beach.



First party. Our neighbor Patrick celebrated his 40th birthday today and we went to their house for some cake and pool. Brendan slept through the party with kids running around, champagne cork popping and the sounds of the pool table.

What a difference just one week has made in Brendan's appearance
Thursday 12.29.05
Thursday 01.05.06

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Brendan Update 01.04.06

We went to the Dr. yesterday for Brendan's 5 day check up. Weight still 8 lb 1 oz, so he's holding steady. Dr. (who was originally from Detroit..so he liked my Red Wings shirt) said he looked good and that his bilirubin levels were fine so it looks like we might be out of the jaundice woods. We tried to keep Brendan in our room much of the day because it gets more sunlight.

Here's a picture of the little man in his boppy on our bed. You'll notice Sara in the background...she and Samantha keep pretty close tabs on him. It'll be interesting to see how Jackson does. Anyway, his rash is totally gone and he looks less yellow to me.



Our maid was here yesterday and she went right up to him and gave him a kiss. It was sweet, but we'd probably rather folks not kiss him right now. Most of the moms we've run in to when out and about with him tell their little ones to stay away from 'the newborn'. Brendan's much more alert as the days pass. He hasn't napped too much today, but he did give us about 45 minutes so we could go downstairs for some dinner. We had the baby monitor on and he was babbling and gurgling, but no real crying...so he did OK by himself. Here's a picture of him being held by Dana.


He's been pretty good during the night. It's easy for me to say, though, because I'm not usually the answer to his problems. I got up about 4 ish to settle him down a little bit. Spent a little time in the glider shushing him until he went back to sleep. I feel a little guilty that there isn't more that I can do, but for now, eating is about 50% of what he wants to do with his time and Dana has a monopoly on the food supply.

We've started to give him a little supervised tummy time so he can practice moving about and turning his head. While lying on his tummy he was able to pick his head up enough to switch from looking right (at Dana) to looking left (at me!). We thought that was pretty impressive. He also spent a little time in his Papasan swing. He loved it enough that he went to sleep while swinging in it! Yahoo...if we can use that to help keep him happy that'll be a great thing.

Here's a picture of him on his little activity gym thingy.

Monday, January 02, 2006

Meet the Browns

Here we are on our way out of the hospital! Our first family 'portrait'.


Look at how lucky I am...


So we're finally home and our first day was quite an adventure. We went through 2 outfits, a set of sheets and about 5 diapers, just since we got home. Brendan gave me my first splash down! Ya let your guard down for a minute and you can get a big surprise. He did well on his ride home, but got a little impatient waiting for Dana to get a prescription filled, so I had to take him out of his car seat to hold him for a bit. He settled right down.

The cats have been very curious about Brendan. They each took turns giving him a sniff and peeking in to his crib. Sammy spent some time watching over him in his Pack 'N Play.


Dana's been putting her glider to good use. In fact she's in the nursery napping on it right now. She spent too much time fussing around the house and has worn herself out. I've got her on 'nusery arrest' now. Here they are...(notice all the rain on the window in the background).


Brendan is doing well. He had a good visit with his Grandma Leslie yesterday. His weight has started to go up again. He's back to 8 lb 1 oz. He'd dropped to under 8 lb, but they weren't really worried because he was a pretty big baby and had some reserves. But they are happy he's putting weight on now. Dana's done a good job feeding him. His bilirubin levels are still a little high, but not in the jaundice range. We go in tomorrow for a check up. The rash on his face is essentially gone...as evidenced by this picture..which is one of my favorites, so far.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Just one pic today

Brendan's doing fine today. He's got a huge appetite and spends a lot of time breastfeeding. With the amount he's eating we're confident that he'll be able to avoid getting jaundiced. He gave me a nice big poop today which is good (for him) as it'll help eliminate the bilirubin. While I was changing him he tried to give me a splash down...fortunately I was changing him from the side and was able to avoid a catastrophe!

We are going to stay in the hospital tonight just to take full advantage of the medical services available to help Dana recover and to keep an eye on Brendan's bilirubin levels. We could probably go home, but one extra night will be good.

I came home this afternoon and Sara could smell Brendan on me. She was very curious.