New Photos!

cheese...

Tummy time in front of the mirror...

Who's that good looking baby?

Twice as cute...

We have mirror and tummy time every night. These are just a few pics from them.

Another update

So we got the test results back from Luca's urine and he does have a urinary tract infection. (Most likely caused by his hydronephrosis... the kidney issue he was born with.) His doctor wants him to get another test done to make sure he doesn't have reflux, which is where the urine goes from the kidneys to bladder and then back to the kidneys. So he will go to Children's in two weeks to have a VCUG. Basically they will drain his bladder (another catheter for my poor baby) and then fill it with this liquid that they can see via xray. Then they take xrays of his bladder and watch the movement of the fluid to see if it's going both ways. It's a small procedure and he stays awake throughout it. Although I don't know if I can watch him get another catheter... it is horrible to watch.

He is also going on daily antibiotics to hopefully prevent another infection. He was up last night from 7pm to 2am screaming. We had gotten dressed at 2am to take him to the ER b/c we have never seen him so upset. Then just before we got out of the house, he pooed and felt better. The antiobiotics he's on are really doign a number on his tummy. He has his 5 month check up tomorrow, so we will update again then.

ER visit

Luca had his first trip to the emergency room on Friday night. I came home and he just seemed out of it and daycare had told Amauri he was really really fussy all day. His eyes were really glossy and I finally took his temp after dinner and it was 101.9. This isn't really high for an infant but because of his kidney condition the doctor had told us if he ever reached 101 to get him to a hospital asap. So packed him in the car and drove him to the ER. After getting checked by the nurses and stripped down to cool off, we got put in a room and waited for the doctor. He didn't think Luca had anything wrong (basically the worry is a urinary tract infection) but he was going to test his urine to be safe.

My poor little baby had a catheter put up his you-know-what in order to get the urine sample. The nurse was learning and so it took like 4 minutes! I have never seen Luca so red in the face and upset. I almost started crying with him. Turns out he didn't actually have an infection but has many clumps of white blood cells which I guess is not good. So the doctor is treating it aggressively like an infection. Luca got a shot of antibiotics there and will be on them for the next 14 days.

His fever finally stopped yesterday and has been relatively ok since then. We have his 5 month appointment on Wednesday so will update you all again then. And I promise to put some photos up sometime this year.

update

Ok so long time no blog... sorry. Work is hectic and I'm too tired at night. So since my last blog, Luca got his first cold and then gave it to us. I swear it put us on our death bed. I don't know what kind of germs he had but they were leathal to us. We are all better now though, which is nice. He has discovered his feet and tries desparetly to get them into his mouth. It is the cutest thing to watch. He hasn't figured out how to grab them yet (he's not really into using his arms or hands) so he just brings them up with his tummy muscles, opens his mouth and hopes his foot will fall in. We do lots of tummy time every night on the floor in front of a mirror. He hasn't really tried to roll over yet, shows no interest in it, but he does love the mirror. He will be 5 months next week which is crazy to think about! As soon as he hits 6 months we'll start him in swimming lessons. He's already been in a pool and loves it!

more photos... luca with the family

Brazil photos!

Brazil

Oh where do I begin. Luca and I got back on Tuesday from Brazil. We had a wonderful time there despite the fact that the weather was mostly cloudy and rainy. I think it rained more in the two weeks we were there than it did in the 6 months I lived there. We rented an apartment on the beach with Amauri's grandparents, mother, step-father and sisters. The family absolutely loves Luca (who doesn't) and had a great time fussing over him. Luca didn't do as well as we expected. He just seemed to be out of sorts for the whole time. The flights made him extremely gassy and he wouldn't sleep. He was happy when awake but was hell to put down.

He reverted back to waking up all night long and wanting to feed. So being that we wanted at least some sleep on our vaca we gave in and he slept in our bed and ate whenever he wanted to.

New Year's was fun... we spent it on the beach with thousands of other people. Luca slept quietly in the stroller while tons and tons of fireworks went off about 20 feet from him. He woke up after and we got some really cute pics.

Unfortunately, I left both cameras in Brazil so I can't post photos until Amauri gets back next week.

The trip home with Luca went better than I thought, or I should say I handled it better than I thought. We had a horrible 6 hour layover in Atlanta where Luca lost his frickin mind and screamed as though I was killing him. The entire airport just kept staring at me. Luckily there were two nice women who offered to help as I am sure I looked a complete mess. I hadn't slept, my tank top was so streched out from him pulling it that my bra was popping out everywhere, I had bags under my eyes, my hair was supposed to be in a ponytail but Luca had pulled half of it out and I smelled like puke.

I can truly say I will never travel that far with a baby this young again. But it was worth it as Luca got to spend time with is aunts, grandparents and great grandparents.

Since we've been back he is also out of sync. He only ate 2 ounces yesterday from 5am until 4pm! He just wouldn't take a bottle. My poor mom and sister in law had a heck of a day. I am hoping today he does better.

I will post photos as soon as possible.