A day at the park!

Today, I took Eric to Redbud Park in Marlow, OK!!
We walked around the old park and then tried out the slide in the new playground called the Hideout. Eric seemed to enjoy himself on the slide and the walk around the park. He liked the shade best. I overdressed him today. It was warmer than usual, so he was in long sleeves and pants. The temperature here today was 95 degrees. It had been in the 70's.

Here are some cute pictures of our day out.

Here is a picture of Eric sweating more than he has ever sweated before! As you can see, he is thrilled!

Today we also found out that Eric really does love his Baby Einstien DVDs!! At first, he hated them, but we have watched 2 of them, and he gets so excited and kicks and talks to them!! I am so happy!! Now, I don't have to wait on him to go to sleep to get some things done, like catch up on emails, update the blog, wash bottles, brush my teeth, eat lunch, make formula......you get the idea!! :0)

We also played with some toys today! He is holding on to things now!!

Overall, we had a great day today!! Eric has been smiling and laughing (not outloud though) everyday! He is a very happy baby!!

Bumbo Chair

Eric got a new chair yesterday. It is called a Bumbo. It is supposed to help him learn how to sit up and use his back muscles correctly. He is holding his neck up most of the time now, so he can use it for a few minutes at a time. He gets tired quick.

I think he looks kind of like a little hobbit! It is so funny to see such a little guy sitting up! He is the size of a newborn baby at 4 months old! Mom is still calling him Keebs, like the elves that make the cookies in the magic tree!

Our First Play Date!

On Wednesday the 20th, Eric and I went to OKC to see our friends Stephanie and John Mark. We ate at Pei Wei (yum-o!) and went shopping. I know this doesn't sound like much of a play date for the boys, but trust me, they had a blast! Here is a picture of the boys. John Mark was born about 2 months after Eric, but Eric was supposed to be more like 2 weeks older.
John Mark came into this world at a whopping 10 pounds +. He is about 16 pounds now compared to our little dumplin' at 7 pounds 6 ounces! :0)

Here Steph is holding Eric. The boys slept most of the day, which made shopping a blast!! We even got to try some clothes on!

We ended our play date to go to Eric's pediatric nephrologist. That is his kidney doctor at Children's hospital in OKC. Here we are leaving the mall...sniff sniff....to go see the doctor. Pay no attention to the crazy sock legs behind me. They are stranger legs. And yes.. to those of you who may have noticed, I got new blue contacts for fun. I thought I would try to match my family! I was feeling a little left out! :0)

Eric's doctor visit was pretty good. He now weighs 7 pounds 6 ounces and is around 20 inches. His Creatinin level went down from 1.4 to 1.3 (which is good) and his BUN went down from 27 to 14 (also very good). His Para Thyroid Level was slightly elevated at 318 before and we were adjusting with a vitamin D supplement, but we over adjusted and it went down a little too low (not good) so now, we give him less of the Vitamin D supplement. His Iron levels from all the tests were too low for his age (you guessed it, not good), so now we have another new medicine to correct that. They lost his CBC blood draw (really not good). This was extra blood they took to test his hemoglobin levels to see how much blood cells he has. This helps him grow and determines how often we have to give him a shot. Right now, the Epogen shot is given by Mike and myself every Monday and Friday. If they find the blood they drew for the CBC, I will update ya'll on the results.

Eric got his first round of immunizations at the beginning of this month. I know, they are late, I thought the doctor was supposed to tell me when to get them, but apparently, the momma should know. So, they said he only has to wait a month in between and we will be getting round 2 in October before we leave to move to San Antonio. He handled round 1 really well. His legs never swelled or got red and hot. He cried and felt a little icky, but can you blame him?!

We go one more time to see the kidney doctor in OKC right before we move. We also have to see the Endochrinologist again in October. This doctor is is Lawton (off post) and is for growth.

We are also getting a downs syndrome test done. No big alarms, we just noticed they didn't do that test and we have had several nurses ask us if he has it. I thought we might as well find out, but most likely, he does not have it. I just thought I would let ya know, so that when I post those results, there is no shock! :0)

Bad Hair Day!!

Need I say more?!!

New Toy!

On Sunday, Eric's Nana and Papa Joe bought him a new toy!
It is a baby soft gym/tummy time mat/tunnel! He loves it!!
I got some cute pictures of him playing with it.

I got this cute picture of Eric in is favorite place that day too. He loves his swing! It is so cute. He looks up at the fishys and listens to the music. Sometimes, I think he is trying to sing along! He makes lots of noises when he is in his swing!

Tomorrow, we go to the doctor at Children's for his last monthly check up there. We will be moving to San Antonio and will start seeing the nephrologist at Brook Army Medical Center on Fort Sam Houston. I will put the update on here for his visit when we get home.

We also get to have our first "play date" tomorrow! Eric and I are going up to the City early and are meeting Stephanie and John Mark for lunch and shopping. I know, it is more a play date for the mommies, but the boys will get to see each other too! :0) We are so excited! I will put pictures of the play date on here too!

Fun with Eric

We took Eric to Chuck E. Cheese on our vacation to Texas in College Station. We went with his cousins Layton and Aaron and Kaylee Brooke. They had so much fun, and honestly, so did I! The games were so much fun! I thought it would be fun to take a picture with Chuck E. Cheese and Eric, but staying true to himself, Eric screamed the whole time we were taking pictures.
He has such a short fuse...I wonder who he got that from??!! I am sure Eric had fun, he just doesn't like mice!



Eric loves his Nana so much! He is sleeping on his Boppy and holding on for dear life to his Nana's finger. He really likes to sleep while we hold him, so this was his way to compromise! Did I meniton that I think he is too cute!








Eric's Great Aunt Linda cross stiched and sewed him this beautiful blanket! This is the closest he will ever get to it. If he spits up on it, we are all dead meat! He is sitting on his new, soft, blue chair in his nursery! It is green, yellow, and blue and has baby lambs and stars! I am sad that we have to leave it soon to go to San Antonio to live. I wish we could stay here longer!








I tried to pose Eric in his sweet outfit with his shoes! I love it! I put my baby ring on him, shhh don't tell him it is a girl ring! :0)

He wasn't having a good time! He would much rather watch sports on tv!







Whew! Now we are finally caught up to present day! From here on out, the blogs will be of the days activities! We hope you are enjoying our blog!

Baby stuff

Here is Eric all wrapped up in his bath towel! This is the cleanest you will ever see the baby, look close! It doesn't happen often! If he isn't spitting up, he is poopy, if he isn't poopy, he is sweaty! How can someone so little be so icky?! I can't help but love on him anyway! I think he looks like Yoda in this picture!! :0)






Here is the cute little hot head in action! We were trying to pose him while he was doing tummy time. Apparently, he didn't feel very photogenic! I think he is yelling at me! :0) He makes me laugh!







Eric is feeling much better in his shades! He looks so cute! He thinks he is so cool, and his daddy does too! We bought these for our vacation to San Antonio. He loves going outside, so these are perfect for him!

Here is Eric meeting John Mark Rigdon for the first time. We had to go welcome him to the world in Edmond, OK! Eric really does like him, he just isn't used to sharing the limelight! ;0)

John Mark was originally due about 2 weeks after Eric. Because Eric has no patience (much like his mommy), they are really about 2 months apart. I love this picture because it looks like Eric is the sissy and John Mark has his back! It cracks me up every time I look at it!

Just hangin' around

Eric and I like to just hang around the house and read magazines or watch daytime tv. We watch lots of TLC and the Ellen Degeneres Show. Eric likes it when she dances at the beginning.

Here we are catching up on some reading!




This is Eric ready to celebrate the 4th of July! I kept wishing that Eric was going to be out of the hospital by the 4th because it is so much fun and I wanted him to see the pretty fire works. I was so happy when he really was out of the NICU and we got to go to Brandy's house to celebrate! During the fireworks, we found out that Eric's hearing might not be too good. He didn't flinch too much when the great big booms went off. Come to find out, he has little to no hearing in his left ear. He can hear out of his right ear, so not too much action is necessary. We had a fun time on our 4th of July holiday!




Eric is getting to eat with his Aunt Brandy. I took this picture because he has a milk mouth! He is such an icky baby! If he is clean, he spits up and dirties his diapies in no time! He cannot smell good. He is still pretty cute though! ;0)








Here is Eric sleeping in his Pack N Play with his favorite puppy!
He loves his puppy so much that we put it in his bed with him! He is supposed to be his watch dog, but I think he feel asleep on the job! ;0)

Going Home!!

When we got to take Eric home from the hospital, he weighed 4 pounds 7ounces.
He almost doubled his size in 2 months!

I got him ready in his car seat while his daddy went to pull the car up close!

Here we are at mom and dad's house (our house for the next few months). They had a party planned for us! We had balloons and signs up all over the house!! It was so much fun!

We got to bring Eric home on June 29, 2006! It was his homecoming!

Jesse and Lyndsey are his Godparents or "sponsors". Eric is lucky to have them not only as his Uncle and soon to be Aunt ;0), but also as his Godparents! They will be great at it!

Last Days in the NICU!!

Here are some of the things Eric did during his last days at the NICU!

Eric loved it when I held him! I am feeding him in this picture. We took a minute to talk and he smiled at me! They say it is just gas that early, but despite what the professionals say, I don't believe it! I think he really smiled at me! :0)



Eric was playing with Mike one day! He kept reaching up and touching Mike's beard! Eric also has his foot thrown up on his daddy's shoulder! Mike was feeding Eric in this picture too. We took lots of breaks even though we were not supposed to!





Here is a picture to show how small Eric's hands were!
Mike's hand is up next to Eric's. Of course, Eric is sleeping in this one. That is what he did best. They told us that if the baby was sleeping, he was growing. When the baby weighed 4 pounds, we needed him to grow, grow, grow!






Mike was reading a Dr. Suess book to Eric during kangaroo care.
Right when the book got to a funny part, Eric smiled big and I was able to snap a picture in time! It was so neat that he smiled and almost laughed at a funny part in the book!






Here is Eric enjoying his visit with his Uncle Kyle. He came up from Texas to see the baby. Eric has always been full of character!








Kaylee got to sneak in the baby's room again. She was so excited and we had to keep it a secret from her sisters. They would have been so upset that they didn't get to go in too!

I like Eric's hat the best! GO POKES!!






This was the first day that Eric got his tube out of his nose!!!
He kept reaching for it and it wasn't there! They took the feeding tube out a few days before they let us take Eric home!








Mike is feeding Eric a bottle for the first time with no tube backup!
We were in a new room called the sleep in room. We were supposed to sleep in the hospital under nurse supervision and the next day take Eric home! Eric decided not to eat with his bottle and they made us wait another day. He just wasn't ready to say goodbye to his favorite nurses!

Scrub a Dub Dub!

Here are some cute bath time pictures! This one is of Eric getting a sponge bath in his isolette. His body temperature would drop too low if he had one outside of it. He looked right at me and smiled! It was so cute! Mike gave him this bath. That is him in the background!

Eric loves bath time! He has started splashing around now and he only gets mad at us when we wash his hair!

More days in the NICU

Mike and I took a day off every now and then and tried to relax. We went to Mt. Scott and to Medicine Park one day with my family. Here is a picture of us in Medicine Park!

One day we snuck Kaylee, Kristen, and Kendyl in to see Eric. We had to make friends with the lady at the front desk in order for them to come in! The rule was that no kids were allowed in the NICU unless they were siblings of the baby. So, the girls got to come in, the nurse pulled the curtain shut and we were told that if a doctor or parent asked who they were, we had to say they were Eric's sisters! Lucky for us, nobody bothered us!

One day we came in the room and Eric was sleeping. When I lifted the isolette cover, this is what I saw!!