Josh's New Job

Josh started his new job last Monday! He now works for Primary Children's Hospital in their IT department. It is such a blessing because it will be a steady job and will allow us to get cheap insurance for our family. I don't think you can get better insurance pricing than working for IHC! And this job provides opportunities for Josh to move up, instead of just being stuck as a "peon." Definitely awesome! :D

Hunter Update

I have been very bad and haven't updated this in weeks. Here's what's up...

Hunter is doing well. His head is rounding out nicely and hasn't been to physical therapy in a month. He is going to go back in March though, just to make sure he is still on track.

He is laughing a lot now and thinks that almost everything is hilarious, especially when you scare him or play peek-a-boo. He's also gurgling like Chewbacca, which is hilarious. Sometimes when he laughs, he adds that in too! Very entertaining!

A couple of weeks ago, he ended up with RSV. That was not fun. Thankfully, it wasn't bad enough that he had to be hospitalized but it was pretty scary. He ended up sleeping in the bed with me for a few nights (with Josh on the futon - such a good daddy!) and he slept in his swing next to me for a few nights as well. He ended up only eating half of what he usually eats, which was bad and we could tell he was losing some weight. He ended up being sick for about 2 weeks. I hope that we never have to deal with that illness ever again!

First Laugh

About a week and a half ago, Hunter started to laugh! The first time he laughed, I was trying to clean out his nose with one of those bulb sucker things. I went to stick it up his nose and told him that I was going to "get his boogers," and he sort of giggled. I wasn't sure if it was one of his little grunts or something, so I didn't tell Josh about it.

The next day, I was changing his diaper and tickled him around the neck. Apparently he is ticklish, so he laughed again! This time, it was unmistakeably a laugh and I realized that the little "grunt" the day before was definitely a laugh. I called Josh into the room and tickled him around the neck again and he started giggling so much! It was so adorable!

Physical Therapy pt. 2

Hunter had physical therapy last week and it looks like everything is going great! They measured his head and the week before, there was a 12mm difference between the flat side of his head and the other side. Just a week later, it was only 10mm! So the exercises we are doing with him are working! I was glad to hear that he wouldn't need to wear a helmet to round out his head because the physical therapy was helping! Hooray! :D

First Christmas

I have been very naughty and haven't posted for a couple of weeks, so I thought I better post something!

Hunter had a great Christmas. He got tons of clothes and new toys from his grandparents, aunts and uncles. Josh wouldn't really let me buy anything for him because he said that he would get a lot of stuff from everyone else, which was true. However, he did let me buy him something that was more of a present for me and Josh... we bought him a baby monitor! He had been sleeping in his bassinet in our room until the night of Christmas and since he got a monitor that day, he slept in his crib for the first time that night! He woke up a couple of times scared because he didn't know where he was at but all in all, he was totally fine in his own room.

Now, about 2 weeks later, he loves sleeping in his room. He has a little aquarium toy that is attached to his crib that plays music and moves. There is a button on the front of it that turns it on and he likes to kick the button in the middle of the night. It's funny, at 6 AM, I'll hear light music over the monitor and have to run in and turn it off before it wakes him up (he's kicked it in his sleep a couple of times...) :P

Hip Ultrasound

I took Hunter today to have an ultrasound done on his hips. Apparently when a baby is breech, their hips have a chance of not developing correctly. So his pediatrician, as well as the physical therapist, suggested that we have the ultrasound done. The physical therapist even said that Torticollis (the problem with his neck) and problems with infant's hips go hand in hand... weird.

He was so good during the ultrasound... he just sat there and put his little fist in his mouth while the doctor messed with his hips and rubbed that weird gel everywhere. He only cried once during the whole thing but the rest of the time, he just looked at the nurse and the doctor and cooed at them. He even stared at the ultrasound monitor screen to see what was going on.

The doctor said that everything looked great and that his hips were fine. So we are on our way to a healthy little boy! We just need to round out that head now... :P

Physical Therapy

Hunter went to the physical therapist on Monday. She informed me on the details of his condition, Torticollis. Basically, one side of his neck muscles are tight and the other is weak, so it makes his head turn to one side. Since he has been laying on just the one side of his head the past two months, it has made the right side of his head flat...

The physical therapist gave me a bunch of exercises that we need to do to try to strengthen the weak side of his neck and loosen up the tight side. In doing this, we will hopefully straighten out his neck and round out his little head.

He has to go back every week for the next three weeks to see how his progress is going and learn more exercises. But he was really good for the therapist and let her do whatever she wanted to his little neck. He was even smiling and cooing at her! What a good boy!

Great News!

Hunter went to the Neurologist on Thursday to look at his sacral dimple. Originally, we thought that he would need to have an MRI done on it to see if anything weird was going on. When the doctor looked at it, he almost laughed! He said that it was nothing to worry about and that it would get smaller and smaller over time and would just disappear! I asked if we would need to do the MRI still and he said absolutely not. What a relief!

While we were there, I figured that we should have the doctor look at a little lump I found on the side of his neck. He said that the lump would also disappear and was nothing to worry about as well. I thought that it was better to ask than assume it was okay...

Well, one specialist down, one to go... Hunter has an appointment with a physical therapist on Monday to try to fix the flat side of his head. I guess the condition he has is called Torticollis... So I'll let you know how that goes!

Blessing

Hunter was blessed today by Josh. A bunch of our family and friends were able to make it out to the event and it was so great. Hunter was pretty good while he was being blessed... until everyone in the circle started rocking him. He didn't like that so much, so he started to cry (most people didn't hear him, unless they were right next to him, but his mom knows his cry :P ). Josh had to keep himself from laughing, so he had to cut the blessing short. But Josh still did a great job with the short amount of time that Hunter gave him!

Afterwards, we had everyone come over to our house for some breakfast (our church starts at 9 AM... with sacrament first) and it was really yummy! We took lots of pictures to document the special day... and here are some of them!

What a cute little smile!

Four generations of Nielson boys!

Our little family

The blessing circle...

Look at those big eyes!

Hunter's 2 month appointment

Hunter had his 2 month doctor appointment a couple of days ago. He weighs 10 lbs 5 oz! He's filling out nicely!

I completely forgot that they had to give him shots at this appointment, so that was an unpleasant surprise. They let me give him some Tylenol about 15 minutes before the shots, so I think that helped. They gave him one in each thigh and then some vaccine by mouth. He spit out most of the mouth vaccine and when the lady poked his first leg, he took this deep breath to work up for a big cry. His little face turned red and then purple and then he let out a sad cry. Thankfully the nurse poked him right after another, so he didn't have to have that surprise twice.

He fell right asleep as soon as I put him in his car seat and didn't wake up for like 2 hours. When he woke up, he was not happy. He would cry every time I tried to put him down. He was completely fine when I held him, so I guess he just needed some comforting.

I am not looking forward to his next appointment because I think he gets more shots. Poor little guy!