Winnie the Pooh and Brayden Too!

Today Brayden, Nana, Landon, Robin and I went to story time at Barnes and Noble to meet Winnie the Pooh!

Brayden isn’t that too familiar with Winnie the Pooh so Nana had been reading books with him a couple of days earlier to help him have some idea. Then randomly I found a baby Winnie the Pooh doll that I received as a gift when I was pregnant that he LOVED.

We keep telling him that we were going to meet Pooh and would always look at us with a serious face and say “Yeah!” Those of you who know Brayden well know that he can be more of a shy child then an outgoing child, so I was convinced he was going to be terrified of a giant Winnie the Pooh person. Well boy was I wrong!

He took one look at that giant Winnie the Pooh and clawed his way to the front of the crowd just so he could say “hi”. He was so happy to see him and didn’t want to leave his side. I felt so bad for the person dressed up as Winnie the Pooh because he was getting bombarded by tons of little monsters all trying to get a piece of him!

After the exciting meeting it home for lunch and a nap. What a good day for Winnie the Pooh and Brayden too!

- Sue -

Brayden and his baby "Pooh"

Today I found one of my old Cabbage Patch Kids that I saved for Brayden. I am trying to see if he is at all interested in being a big brother yet, or if he even understands what it means to be gentle around a baby. He wasn't so into the Cabbage Patch Kid, but he was really into this baby Winnie the Pooh Bear that I got from a friend when I was pregnant.

He was so sweet with it and even wanted to feed it and put it to bed. So, we will see how he does in the months to come when we try to reinforce the fact that there is a real baby coming!

- Sue -

Parata Systems

Check out our local news! Brett's company was featured and I thought I would share it with everyone.

- Sue -

http://www.myfoxwghp.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=7651509&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

The Many Faces of Brayden

So as you can tell by the pictures below Brayden is feeling much better! He has been the happiest I have seen him in months! I don't know if it is his age, the fact that he is feeling better, or his visit from his Nana, but the kid can't stop smiling.

I was able to capture a ton of smiles over the past couple of days and wanted to share them with you. I am in the process of working with him on smiling in a less-evil way, but for now, this is how he smiles! HA! Enjoy!

- Sue -

First Play Date in Weeks!

Today we invited Brayden's friends over for his first play date in weeks. He was so excited because he was starting to go a little crazy being stuck in the house day after day. Since he has finished his medication and has been feeling better, the doctor suggested we get together with friends first and then take in out and about like normal.

Here are some pictures from his fun time with his best buds! They are all so cute I can't even take it...

- Sue -

* All smiles once we told him who was coming over

* Easton and Bobby hamming it up for the camera
* Easton (Brayden's only given his froggie to this pretty lady...must be love! HA!)
* Playing trains with Landon

* Jumping with Easton

A Day in the Life of Brayden

Below are some pictures from a day in the life of a sick boy named Brayden. As you can tell he is feeling much better. We did lots of activities today because we weren't supposed leave the house, but we did sneak out for some ice cream after dinner. Shhhh, don't tell!

-Sue - 

* Painting with Mommy
* Being silly with Daddy during craft time
* I love to color!

* We told him we were going to get "yum yums", aka ice cream, and Daddy thought it was funny to suddenly say we weren't going anymore.


* Walking around the fountain with Nana
* I love ice cream!!!

* So happy to be out of the house for thte first time in a week!!!
* Brayden being a big boy and getting his breathing treatment

* Not happy about, but still so cooperative

Brayden's Health Update

As most of you know Brayden was hospitalized this week for pneumonia. Those of you who didn’t know here is a recap of our hellish week.

Brett came down with a cold a couple of weeks ago and I didn’t think anything of it when Brayden started to get some symptoms of a cold as well. Brayden started getting cold symptoms last Thursday and by Saturday evening he wasn’t sleeping through the night due to coughing fits and wheezing.

I still just thought he had Brett’s bad cold, but decided to take him to the walk-in sick clinic at his pediatrician’s office on Monday morning. Well, low and behold they told me he had pneumonia! (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/pneumonia/DS00135)

So it was home with some antibiotics and told to keep our activity levels low. By Tuesday afternoon he was much worse with cold chills, sweating and more wheezing. I took him back to the pediatrician’s office and they said that his lungs sounded much worse and he was going to need breathing treatments with a nebulizer every 4-6 hours.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebulizer)

This time it was home with a nebulizer, a prescription for Albuterol, and instructions to keep our activity levels low.

By the time Wednesday came along we were back in the pediatrician’s office because he was requiring the breathing treatments every 2 hours instead of every 4-6 hours. The pediatrician said this was dangerous so we were off to the hospital for a chest x-ray to see what was going on in his little chest.

Once the chest x-ray came back showing nothing interesting, yet he was still requiring the breathing treatments every 2 hours we got a call from our pediatrician saying she was admitting him to the hospital for further testing and monitoring.

Wednesday night was spent in the hospital with more breathing treatments, oxygen treatments, lots of monitoring, and NO sleep. I must say, with all the doctor visits and lack of sleep Brayden has had over the last couple of weeks, he has still been in the best mood and has been such a little trooper. Kids are really resilient.

We were discharged on Thursday afternoon with the diagnosis of Reactive Airway Disease/ RAD (http://www.medhelp.org/forums/RespiratoryDisorders/messages/1052.html). Basically this is asthma brought on by a viral infection.

We were sent home with a prescription for a steroid to decrease the inflammation in his lungs, instructions to do the breathing treatments every 4 hours, and instructions to keep him in the house and away from sick people until the beginning of next week. (His steroid makes him more susceptible to infection…great…)

My mom flew out the moment she got the word he was in the hospital, mostly to help with Brett and I. I have become extremely rundown with all this excitement and my OBGYN is very nervous I will come down with this infection as well. So, my mom was able to come and help me get the rest I need to get back on my feet.

Brayden is doing great and has slowly become accustomed to the breathing treatments. We try to make it fun by watching a movie while we do them, make a big deal when we are finished, and he gets to pick out a special sticker from his sticker book to wear for the rest of the day. He has really been great about all this even though you can tell he doesn’t like it.

We are hoping this will all end once the infection is completely gone and we are keeping our fingers crossed this isn’t the beginning of Brayden telling us he has asthma.

Thanks for all your thoughts and love through this rough time for us! We love you!

- Sue -