You Know You're in Texas When...

...your babies get their first shots and are now sporting pink and blue camo band-aids on their sweet little thighs!

Jensen: 11 lbs, 8 oz

Charlotte: 9 lbs, 14 oz

Charlotte and Jensen had their two-month appointment yesterday. Honestly, the shots were a piece of cake compared to what Charlotte has been dealing with the past few weeks. First up was Charlotte. She got her shot and shrieked a bit (in typical Charlotte fashion) to show her displeasure. But within a matter of seconds, she was totally fine. Jensen came next and happened to be drinking a bottle at the time (because we know how he hates to miss a meal!). When he got his shot, he kind of looked around a little bit as if to say, "What was that and why did that just happen to me??"  But no tears and no fussing from my brave little man.

I am a bad mommy and can't remember the exact stats, but Jensen was somewhere around 50% for weight and 75% for height, while Charlotte was around 50% for height and 35% for weight...pretty darn impressive when you consider that a month ago, little Charlotte was so small that her weight was not even on the chart at all!

She's OK!

Friday we had our renal sonogram and voiding cysto-urethrogram test done at Cook Children's. The sonogram was not too bad--we undressed little Charlotte and she laid on a warm blanket while the sono tech took a look at her bladder and kidneys. She handled it like a champ, and it brought back memories of the many sonograms I had done just a few months ago! The VCU test was a bit more traumatic. The four techs were taking forever to get everything set up (could they not have done that BEFORE she was lying on the x-ray table??) and once they were finally ready to go, they realized that they would need a smaller catheter. A bunch of geniuses, that group.

They finally got the catheter inserted, and they filled up her bladder and then had her empty it, all while taking several x-rays. Poor Brian was given the job of pinning Charlotte's arms down above her head...not a fun job at all for a concerned dad. She screamed until the part where we were able to give her a bottle (which they hadn't told us ahead of time we'd be able to do...the only reason I knew to bring a bottle was thanks to my friend Whitney, whose little Savannah unfortunately had to have the same procedure--so thanks, Whit!). The procedure seemed like it took forever but was finally over and we all made it out of there alive (but not before one of the techs argued with me about what size diapers Charlotte wore--um, I have changed a few diapers in the past eight weeks, I KNOW what size diapers she wears, thanks). Little Charlotte slept the entire way home and just a few hours later, we got great news...all of the tests came back normal! Such a relief. So it appears that the UTI was just a fluke thing, and it will hopefully be the first and last.

Our next adventure will be Tuesday when Charlotte and Jensen have their two-month checkup and first set of shots...so not looking forward to that!

Two Months!

Today, Charlotte Anne and Jensen Todd turned two months old! We celebrated by (what else?) dressing them up in their special monthly attire and taking endless amounts of pictures.

Charlotte Anne at Two Months:

9 lbs, 8 oz

Look at that beautiful smile! Charlotte has changed a lot this month. She is still so expressive and animated, but she has become much calmer and seems to be learning the art of patience. She loves the sound of her own voice and seems to have so much to say...I can't wait to hear everything she wants to tell us. Charlotte is a happy girl who spends lots of time smiling...but she saves her biggest smiles for her favorite person in the world--her daddy. She LOVES her daddy! My mom and I joke that we have to entertain her, but all Brian has to do is sit and hold her and she will just stare up at him smiling. She is still small (at least compared to her brother!) and has earned the nickname "Peanut." 

Charlotte has had a few adventures this month. She got to come shopping one day with my mom and me, and she got to go to lunch with both her grandmas and a few of their friends. She went to the new sushi place in town that even I have not been to yet...lucky girl! Here is a picture of her on the day she went to lunch...she was sporting a flower in her hair.

And Charlotte is enjoying bath time a little more these days...she has figured out that it's not so scary and it's even a bit relaxing!

Jensen Todd at Two Months:

10 lbs, 8 oz (a week ago...I would guess he's 11 lbs by now!)

Our little chubster...look at those legs! As you can tell, Jensen quite enjoys his meals. When he eats, he resembles a shark going after its prey...it's very entertaining. Jensen continues to be laid back and sweet. He seems to be a mama's boy, which I of course love. He has recently started giving us HUGE open-mouthed smiles (since I am the world's worst photographer, I have yet to capture one on camera) and he has also found his little voice. We have discovered that Jensen loves to be outside, and during fussy times we can calm him down by just stepping into the backyard with him. He's still a total boy--he grunts and toots and pees everywhere! In the evenings, Jensen likes to go with his dad to pick up takeout dinner or chill with dad while he watches the Rangers games on TV. Here are a few pics of our little man:

Future firefighter like his Uncle Todd??

My little burrito.

Being so cute is exhausting!

So we have another month of being parents under our belts. I can't say that it's easy...it's actually nothing short of exhausting. Free time is absolutely a thing of the past. I pretty much look frighteningly bad every day (hey, at least Charlotte and Jensen look cute!).  But I continue to feel completely and totally blessed to have them. I know I am starting to sound like a broken record, but I really do fall deeper and deeper in love with these two every single day.

Seriously?? (Part Two)

Yesterday, Charlotte began running a fever. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but when she and Jensen had strep, the doctor told me to be sure to call if their temp was ever over 100.3, because a fever in babies so small can be dangerous. So of course I immediately called the doctor's office. It was 12:01 and I reached an answering service. All the very helpful lady could tell me was to call back at 1:00 when the doctors were back from lunch. Awesome. I debated taking her to the emergency room, but Brian (who was home from lunch after I called him and told him to HURRY) managed to talk some sense into me and we gave her some Tylenol and waited for 1:00.

When 1:00 rolled around, we were in the parking lot of the doctor's office on the phone with them begging to have a doctor, any doctor, see Charlotte. (Yes, I told them we were in the parking lot. Yes, Charlotte's chart probably now has "Crazy Mom" written in large red letters.) But, they got us in and began to run some tests. First was another strep test. Fortunately that one was negative. Next, they tested for a urinary tract infection. This test involved getting a urine sample--but you can't exactly make a baby pee in a cup, so they had to insert a catheter. Charlotte cried and I barely managed not to.

The results...positive for a UTI. Our poor little baby--those things hurt! I felt terrible for her. And I felt even worse when she had to get two shots of antibiotic, one in each sweet little chubby thigh. Charlotte cried. I cried. Charlotte stopped crying. I kept crying. The doctor began to go over possible reasons why a baby so small would get a UTI, and when he said that one of them is that she may have something structurally wrong with her bladder or kidneys, a light bulb went off in my head and I remembered that I have something structurally wrong that makes me more prone to getting UTIs. So of course I now feel horrible. I was so busy worrying about my kids inheriting my short legs or tendency to over-analyze that I didn't even think about something like that.

So she is now on antibiotics for the second time in her short life and the doctor says that once she's finished with those, the next step is to get her scheduled for an ultrasound to check out her bladder and kidneys. I hate that she has to go through all this and just want to make it all go away for her. For now I am just going to keep hoping that this was a fluke thing and that one of these days we will all be healthy around here.