Update on Madison

We were finally able to pick Maddy up today around 6pm. She was happy to see us and glad to be back in my arms. I have never been happier to see her.

The tests confirmed that her liver is failing. At this point there's nothing the vets can do that we can't, so she's home with us taking a load of medicines to slow the progression and treat her symptoms.

She's definitely not herself- she's still very lethargic and barely eating, although she was kind of peppy on our (very short) walk and even huffed and puffed at some dogs across the street. It's hard to say whether this is because of the treatments at the animal hospital or because of her condition. The vet said that the steriods she is on should give her some energy and make her feel better once they kick in so hopefully she'll be more like her usual self in a few days, at least for a little while. In the meantime, we're happy sitting together on the sofa.

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, texts, and emails. They are greatly appreciated and I'll respond to each of them soon. As you can imagine this is a tough time in our household. Please keep thinking and praying for Madison...

Pray for Madison

After a few days of lethargy and an uncharacteristicly absent appetite, in addition to a swollen belly, our sweet girl is in the animal hospital. We took Madison to the vet this morning and had to admit her to the animal hospital for what the doctors think is chronic liver failure. As you can imagine, it's affecting her entire body, including her blood clotting, white blood cells, and blood glucose. She's been so brave and hardly shown how sick she is, despite all of these problems. The doctors said that even the best case scenario isn't good, but we're hopeful. She's just 8 years old and has a lot of life in her. Please send our sweet Madison some positive thoughts and prayers.

Bath Time!

Chase is starting to really like the bath. He has a new-found love of kicking and waving his arms in order to move his toys (and make them rattle, ring, or jangle), but he's still pretty timid about splashing in the tub. He smiles a lot, but mostly sits straight-armed with leg kicks here and there. Here are some (editted) bath pics...

Not wanting to be left out, Mueller joins us in the bathroom

After bath time, Chase dries off and gets in some tummy time...



Phew, that was exhausting!

Bubbles!

2 month Dr's appointment

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The first half of this post was written while Chase was asleep when we got home from the Doctor. Then he woke up]

Today Chase had his 2-month old Dr's appointment. The first time we took him to the doctor (at 6 days old), there was a 2 month old there and I remember thinking how big he was and telling Chase that "one day you'll be there." I can't believe how quickly that day came!

We'd been looking forward to this appointment for a while since we've noticed how much Chase has grown and wanted to find out the official numbers. Well, we were NOT disappointed. Chase gained a whopping 3 lbs 1 oz in 32 days! He's up to 11 lbs, 13oz putting him around the 50th percentile (up from the 25th percentile at 1 month). He's also grown another inch and measures 23 inches long. I could not be prouder.

I've also been dreading this appointment because he got his first round of shots. He was also cranky when the doctor was examining him (he was hungry- the appointment was not timed well with his feeding schedule), so we feared the worst. But our litle guy was a champ, got the shots quickly, and only cried for a few seconds (before we stuck a pacifier in his mouth). He stopped crying quickly, nursed for a few minutes, and then fell asleep. And I didn't cry at all!

[What follows is from AFTER Chase woke up]

These shots are miserable! Chase woke up from his nap and bawled for about 30 minutes! We could not do anything to soothe him- sushing, rocking, pacifier- nothing worked! It was frustrating and heartbreaking. I frantically called the Dr's office to find out what we could give him to make him feel better(generic baby Tylenol- my mom was right). We finally got him calm enough to nurse and that calmed him down even more. He ate and fell asleep on my shoulder. We literally were afraid to move him but traded off on holding him, with hysterics during any movement. After a few hours, he was calm enough to lay on the bed and we gave him a tiny bit of medicine. He nursed again and is now asleep.

Hopefully tomorrow he will return to this:














Feel better, sweet boy!

Bryan & Abby Get Married (A baby's point of view)

On Saturday, we celebrated the wedding of our good friends Bryan and Abby who went to college with Stephen. It brought a lot of friends to DC, as well as Grammy and Grampy, who provided a ton of help and made it possible for us to stay at the wedding later than 10:30pm- our first couple of hours out together since Chase was born.

Stephen was a groomsman, so after the rehearsal on Friday, all three of us went to the rehearsal dinner. The good news is that Chase was very well-behaved and enjoyed meeting everyone without any tears. The bad news is that we were so busy talking to everyone and taking care of Chase that we didn't take any pics. Oh well.

On Saturday, Chase was SILENT during the ceremony and spent most of the time checking out the beautiful stained glass windows and sleeping.


Afterwards, we fed and changed Chase before cocktail hour- I ALMOST caught a smile while Grammy was dressing him:




We took some family pictures:



Chase was SO well-behaved. He just took it all in. He even saved his few tears for times when the music was playing. Chase watched the bride and groom dance:


And then Chase got down on the dance floor..

With the bride:

And the groom

With Marie & Paul


Chase just took it all in


He slept in (we all did!) and recovered pretty well on Sunday. The best part of Sunday was that we got to hang out with Godfather Timmy and Lauren:


As you can see, Chase was exhausted from all of the festivities. We all had a great time- Congrats to Bryan & Abby!

Chase at 2 months!

Our baby boy is 2 months today and he is growing like a weed! He is fully out of newborn clothes and has even outgrown some 0-3 (although others are huge on him). He seems to be getting longer and longer and is putting on some fat rolls (hooray!). He is beginning to interact with the world around him. At 2 months Chase:

-Smiles and laughs back at people. He is the most responsive to us, but will smile and laugh at family and friends. His happiest time is in the early morning. (Hence the lack of smile pictures)

-Coos and makes baby talk. His favorite people to talk to are us, but sometimes he will chat with other people. Then again, we ask him the most questions.

-Smiles, laughs, and coos at his gym including his colored musical lights and the baby in the mirror. Sometimes he is fussy with us, but when we put him down on his gym, he's as happy as could be. Apparently we are not nearly as fun.



-He's holding his head up on his own. Not always, of course, but when we're hold him he can hold his head for 30 seconds. He also lifts his chest and head when he's on his stomach...but it depends. He doesn't like to be on the floor and is hesitant to lift his head when he's on the ground for tummy time. But if he's laying on the sofa, bed, or one of our stomach's on his tummy, he'll lift his head and look all over the place. Maybe we need more interesting things at floor level. You'd think that Mueller would be something to look at, but apparently not!

-His legs are getting strong and he's pushing off to move himself. He'll push himself upright off your leg when you're holding him and uses his legs to move himself around the pack n play by pushing off the side. He probably does not know what he's doing, but his strength is impressive.

-When he gets excited, he moves his arms and legs. Sometimes he is flailing all of his limbs because he is so excited.


-He can follow his parents around the room with his eyes. This is aided by our love of bright colors. Mommy is often in hot pink.

-He's sleeping for a 5-7 hour stretch every night. Usually it's 9pm-3am, and then he'll go back to sleep for 2-3 hours.

He's also been a great traveler. Chase has been to all the way up to Massachusetts. He's been to the beach. Chase has been out to dinner numerous times. This past weekend he even went to a rehearsal dinner, a wedding ceremony, and a wedding reception and he was a complete ANGEL during all of them (see upcoming post).

But enough talk, here are some pictures.
Growing so long!


Trying to get a smile

Chase does New Jersey

One of the stops on our northeastern tour was New Jersey. We actually wound up spending more time than we had anticipated and even had our first family vacation.

First, we went to see Chase's great-grandparents. He hung out with Stephen's Grandpa:


And Grandma


But he slept almost the whole time! Finally, when we were about to leave, he woke up for one quick picture with grandma


We took Chase to the beach, which was quite an undertaking. First, we needed sun protection, but Nonnie relayed a story of someone's infant getting 3rd degree burns while in a baby cabana. So Chase got double protection of his cabana and an umbrella:
(and an extra blanket not shown in this picture). This also meant that I took him out to the beach in the Ergo carrier and kept his entire body inside it and in my shadow while we got set up. In other words, Stephen set everything up. And there was a lot of stuff to set up. He even had his gym for entertainment

We looked like typical new parents and caught many seasoned vets with older kids smiling at our efforts.

But even with all this effort, much of the trip looked like this


We finally got him to sleep


Since getting to the beach was such an undertaking, not to mention worrisome because of the fear of Chase getting burned, mostly we just relaxed. Chase hung out with his daddy:


And did laundry with Mommy


Got dressed up in beach apparel


And napped with Mommy


And on her


Chase also met his Aunt Rita, Uncle Jimmy, and Cousin Cory, although unforunately the camera never made it out...next time!

What a great trip!