The rest of braden's photo shoot

Just got the pictures back and wanted to share them with you all!

No Pumpkin Patch....

But a complete pumpkin patch experience. We visited a pumpkin patch near by but not only did we get to pick out pumpkins we went through a corn maze, fed some crazy goats and Riley got her very first pony ride.

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Feeding the feisty goats. I was more scared than riley, they were jumping on us..not cool. I got out of there with Braden asap and left Riley and josh to battle the beasts!

The super fun corn maze

Carving pumpkins at russel and Katie's house

Josh working on his skull pumpkin

And his brother ben working on his pirate ship pumpkin

feeling the guts, forcing riley to, she was not diggin' it

ewwww

She doesn't know what's coming...

Very first pony ride! She was nervous to get on but i forced her and then she LOVED it! She kept saying "giddy-up!"

Week at Loma Linda

Poor, poor Braden. When he was one week old riley got sick. (refer to the urgent care post a few back) Well, a few days after that i got a sore throat and josh followed a couple days after that. We all tried to keep riley away from braden, told her to kiss him on the feet or top of the head, etc but it was basically impossible since she is in love with her brother. I didn't kiss him on the lips at all and was quite sad about this but didn't want him to get my HORRIBLE sore throat.
Friday night (a week after the urgent care fiasco) braden's tummy and back were burning up but his head felt totally normal. I took his temp. (in his arm pit, which you have to then add a degree to get the real temp) and it was 99.4 so i wasn't sure what was going on. The next morning the same thing, super hot tummy and back, normal head, so i called the nurse advise line and she said to call her back if his temp reached 100 degrees, rectally. So a few hours later it did get to 100.3, when i called back she hung up with me and called the on call dr at the redland's ER to see what he would have us do. He told us to bring Braden in to have him evaluated. Josh took Riley to pick out stuff for her b-day cake because we had been talking about it all morning and i felt horrible to have to tell her that it wasnt' going to happen now, so i told them to go ahead and i'd take braden in.
At the er they took his vitals and all was good except his fever so the dr or PA (not sure what she was) told me how much tylenol to give him and sent us on our way, luckily i asked at what point would i need to come back if the fever persisted, she didn't give a straight answer but said they would need to run tests if the fever didn't go away.
By monday my poor little guy still had a fever. I was giving him tylenol every 4 hours and it only dropped it down to 99.9 at the lowest. Monday morning rolls around and i called his pediatrician at 8am, as soon as the office opened and asked what to do. They said to bring him in to be evaluated. I got an appt around noon. His normal dr was booked but we saw another dr that riley used to see (and i swithed because she became a little to "cold" i felt, especially working with kids) but was i glad to have her that day! She sort of has a bold, go getter, attitude and little room to play around. She was furious that they didn't run tests when i had him in the er and said that was unacceptable. She said she knew the director there and was going to call him and let him know that happened and make him take care of it.
She then checked out braden and was verrryy concerned with his fever, being only 3 weeks old, and said it looked like he had double ear infections on top of it. She debated sending him home on antibiotics with a follow up the next day or sending him to be admitted the hospital. She talked to Braden's normal dr and they both decided he needed to be admitted asap. She said to go to Loma Linda ER, she sent me with a note and told me not to sit in the waiting room more than 15 min. SHe told me not to stop anywhere on the way there and said we'd be there at least 48-72 hours.
I get there and of course have to wait, they were SLAMMED. 15 min rolls around and i sheepishly, but with a sick baby in my arms, tell the nurse that i'm not to wait anymore, give her the dr's note and she says"he's only 3 weeks?! yes we will see him next!" They take his vitals and get us into an isolation room in the er. We then stay there the next 24 hours because they didn't have an isolation room on the ped's floor. They brought a crib in for him and i slept on the gurney.
As soon as we are in the room the nurse comes and starts an i.v. in braden-poor guy-and the residents start coming through asking all sorts of questions trying to get to the bottom of his fever. They collect blood, urine, mucous and did a spinal tap. They ended up having to do a 2nd spinal tap the next day because they couldn't get any fluid from the first. Poor braden was hooked up to so many monitors, it was very hard to hold him with out pulling off cords etc. He had the stuffiest nose, gunkiest eyes and just was feeling sick.
They started him on antibiotics in the er and we were moved up to the ped's floor the next day. They were still running all the tests. Riley stayed at my mother in-law's during the day and with josh at home at night. I missed her like crazy.
It's pretty incredible, but i only had one major break-down. It was when i came back in the room after braden's 2nd spinal tap. My phone was dead, i wanted to talk to riley, or call anyone, and he was just laying there limp with exhaustion. I could only imagine the pain he went through (they wouldn't let me stay for the procedure) and i just started bawling looking at my poor innocent baby, with no way to help him.
The first night upstairs josh and his dad came and gave braden a blessing. It was amazing the calm that washed over me and braden even stopped squirming under their hands. (side note:every since the blessing he didnt' have a single fever)
It was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard to be away from riley, Josh would come visit every night so that was great but riley wasn't allowed, it really hurt my heart being away from her. The nurse was able to get me a pump so josh watched him a few hours one night so i could go shower and see riley and then on her b-day My mom in law watched braden and i took riley to the park. That helped but she cried when i had to leave again :(
Upstairs we started to find out after a couple days that one test result was back, he had para influenza virus. A lower respiratory cold virus that would be like any other cold for an adult but b/c of his age was very serious and needed monitoring. they said it was most likely what was going around at our house. We still had to stay at the hospital to keep giving him i.v. anitbiotics and to let the spinal tap culture for a few more days to be absolutely sure nothing else was going on in braden.
On the fifth day they let us go home. I could tell braden was feeling much better, he was awake more, no gunky eyes and just better, you could tell!
SO GLAD to be home. But two great things came out of this, besides braden being healthy again. 1.i had soo much time to bond with him that i wasn't getting/making time for at home. I got to hold him for 5 straight days. and 2.i realized how much i miss and LOVE medicine. I decided i'm going back to get my RN.
I hope we all stay healthy for a long time but am so glad to have such a great hospital near by.

Gloves, gown and mask was the get up because braden was in isolation. Most nurses didn't force this on me. There was NO way i was going to wear that 24 hr./day for 5 days. BUt some nurses did force it, i would where it about 10 min before the mask came off, then another five before the gown, never put the gloves on. Come on, if i was going to be nursing him, holding him kissing him, what's the point? It's not like i was meandering in the cafeteria spreading all the germs. I lived in that room.

Enjoying some cuddle time with my boy.

Passed out from all the tests, poking and prodding

Doing better, new i.v. each day, took up his whole arm

All hooked up, such a sad sight.

Riley's 2nd Birthday!

I can't believe my "baby" is now 2 years old. Josh and i are so proud of her. She is such a smart, cute, sweet and crazy little girl. I don't know what life would be like without her anymore. She truely is loved by Josh, me, and the rest of her enormous family. I can make a list a few miles long of all the things she can do and that we are so proud to show off, but being a mom of two now has completely exhuasted me, i hate to admit, so instead of a super long list i'm going to share just a few things that she's done lately that has impressed and cracked us up!
this morning she came in to wake me up-after letting me sleep in an extra 30 min :) and i sat up in bed to feed braden. She said "don't take a nap mommy" aww-i must sleep too much for her likeing.
I drew a picture of a pumpkin and she kept saying "apple" and i kept politely correcting her and she finally said "say apple mommy" so i did and she said "yes, you are right" haha!
too bad, my brain is fried right now! she says so much funny stuff and i can't think of a darn thing.

Awesome chalk board, dry erase on the opposit side, from my dad and his wife. What a great gift!
Josh made this incredible cake! We asked riley what kind of cake she wanted the day of her party and she came up with a "cinderella cake" somehow, so daddy built one!

My brother absolutely SPOILS riley every chance he gets-past presents: barbie quad and jump and spin horse thing...he really does keep setting the bar higher and higher for himself. This year he got her a BOUNCE HOUSE! ya like the ones people rent out for parties, but smaller. i can just barely fit it in our front entry way, so it's perfect for days i don't want to take it outisde.

This is my brother, the spoiler, Matt, first time holding Braden :)

Close up of the amazing cake!

Urgent care-Fisher Plague-Baby Shower

Urgent Care...makes mom's act crazy!

We had to make these breathing treatments fun right?

She was such a trooper
Keep in mind it was now past midnight...

My little pumpkins

Josh took riley on her first date so i could nap. They grabbed lunch and ate it at the park, Riley loved it!
Baby Shower!From the left: My good good good friend Elizabeth, my best friend from forever, carrie, my mommy and my aunt marilyn

this family shower was so great, pretty much all the family came...THANKS!

Tammy Braden and the momma

Fun games! You had to hold a baby-Serena offered her real baby for us!-talk on the cellphone and gather as many clothespins in one hand as you could without dropping anything

I believe Katie was the winner :)

Great food! My sister in-law (with the help of my other sis in-law and a few others) threw me an incredible fall shower, we had tons of different soups and foods and the cutest decorations! thanks guys Sis in-law CRUSTina...i mean crysting (haha sucker) my mom and dad in-law

CUTEST ever cheese ball pumpkins!

Braden's pumpkins

The delicious cake that matched the invitations perfectly!
Fisher Plague!

Last friday night (oct. 9th) I had to take Riley to urgent care...She had been sick for about 3 days, gettng a fever at morning and night but acting "okay" throughout the day. Friday afternoon rolled around and she woke up from her nap with a cough and pretty congested. After i put her to bed that night, i went in to check on her and she was really struggling to breath. She was still asleep but you could see her lifting her shoulders to get a breath and she sounded very wheezy...this happened back in february of this year too. (we didnt' take her to urgent care that time, we waited it out all night and then took her to the dr's the next day and they called and ambulance and rushed her to the hospital...refer to the older February post) so we learned our lessons. Josh gave riley a blessing and i took her straight to urgent care where they gave her two breathing treatments and oral steriods. They also sent us home with an inhaler to use as needed for her wheezing and a five day round of oral steroids. 3 days after the urgent care trip i took her to the dr's because she still wasn't improving much, he said he think it's asthma :( (my mom and brother have it BAD) and he prescribed QVar inhaler. It's a preventitive med to use twice a day to help her not wheez and get that bad. He's going to re-evaluate in the summer...Well here we are one week later and she is still wheezy and has a horrible cough...mostly bad at nights and when she wakes up from a nap etc. The dr. just called in a perscription for me to go pick up tonight, hopefully it helps (riley informed me yesterday she was "fixing her ear" and today said her ear hurt" poor thing!) OH and to top it off, two days after her urgent care fiasco i woke up in the middle of the night with a HORRIBLE sore throat and 5 days later, i'm just starting to see it maybe start to taper down...josh got it yesterday. We are all trying to keep braden healthy, so far so good :)

Professional pictures of Braden

JEN GAGLIARDI is simply amazing. She did Braden's new born photo's today and has already posted these on her website www.jengagliardi.com (you should all do yourself a favor and check out all the photo shoots she's done recently, she is SO GOOD!) I'm so happy with how they turned out and wanted to share them with you!

So this last one i think is my favorite, or atleast close second to the "stork" picture

Promised Pictures

Just a few picture from the last couple weeks.

Life is good. Braden is awesome, he makes the CUTEST little grunting noises alll the time, he is prety gas-y, so i'm on day 1.5 of cutting out all dairy products (i've cut out chocolate completely for about a week now) and all other problem food, beans, brocolli etc. I want to do this until i see improvement in him, hoping i can see it soon. Then i think i will SLOWLY add dairy back in to see if i can tell what's really causing the gas.

My lil vampire!

I love all the new baby stretching, accompanied by the grunts :)
She LOVES her little brother
She always wants to share her toys with him.

My mom, "grancy" taking a snooz with our lil man

My genious child and her new invention...the bubble wrap sock

Her big girl room with mini update: she sleeps really well at night now, hardly ever fusses to go to bed and never climbs out. Nap time is still a little hard, some days she goes straight down, other days she falls asleep behind the door, but it's SO much better now i can't complain. And she knows she is not allowed out of bed, but is a little confused...when she wakes up from her nap or in the morning she doesn't get down, she calls for us...we are trying to teach her when she is allowed to get down.

The kitchen-her most LOVED toy ever...and it's finally complete. My stepdad found all the pieces and riley spends much of her day "makin' scrambled eggs" which are very "hot" and eating her ice cream "do you want white or pink?" she has fake cones, vanilla and strawberry. its so cute to see her pretending

Her dress up station. She is not too into dressing up yet, she just likes hats, necklaces and high heels

Her "flower light" it's really dim so we use it as her night light when she sleeps

Her bed, on the ground for now, she'll get a frame when we 1.get around to it and 2.when we don't think she'll fall off. And you can kind of see her floor length white drapes, luckily she doesn't play and pull on them!

Her new dresser with her name over it.