Brinley is now 4 Months Old!

Brinley at our 1st twilight clinic

We didn't start out being 3 months old on the right foot. For the first few days of the month of September Brinley started screaming when it was time to eat. She would take about an ounce of milk and after burping she would have no interest at all in eating. In fact, she would scream and was very hard to console. After calming down again she would take another ounce and the process would start again. This happened for a few days and by day 3 we were at our wits end. So we decided to head to the doctor, the only problem being that it a Sunday and only the twilight clinic was open. We couldn't take seeing our daughter miserable with every feed so we headed in to the clinic. The doctor examined Brinley and took a look in her ears and said that she thought she possibly saw some infection in her ear and to start on antibiotics. However, since I have worked in the health care field I questioned if this was really the best decision. I just didn't want to start antibiotics for a possible infection and then later in life when she really needed the antibiotics, they wouldn't be as effective. So I reviewed the facts with her again (only fussy with feeds, arching her back with feeds, no fever, and no other signs of ear infection) and she talked with her upper level attending doctor and they agreed with me that it was probably just a little reflux and that she should be started on zantac. They said it might take about a week to see any results from the medication, but if she didn't get better then maybe schedule an appointment with the pediatrician.

Up until now, Brinley was not really wanting anything to do with tummy time, so I had to show her a little tough love and make her spend more and more time on her belly even if she didn't like it. We were really wanting to see her finally roll over.

This was right after Brinley rolled over for the very 1st time. I was the only one to witness the event, but a few days later I was actually able to catch it on film.

Brinley at her 2nd twilight clinic visit

We went home and tried this out for about a week. Brinley started to eat slightly better over the next few days and then she started to eat very poorly over the weekend. We really didn't want to go to the clinic on the weekend because we couldn't see our pediatrician, so we decided to keep working with Brinley to see if it was anything we could fix on our own. We tried 2 different bottles and Jennifer even went out and bought hypoallergenic formula to try instead of the breast milk she had been getting since birth because she thought that Brinley could possibly have a milk allergy. However, all of these attempts were a failure. We decided that we would call early Monday morning to see about getting in to see the pediatrician. Brinley decided that Monday morning that she was going to eat again, so we decided to hold off on the doctor's visit. Everything seemed to be going great until 4pm that afternoon when Brinley decided that she wasn't going to eat at all. Being the first time parents we are, we immediately called the doctor's office to see if we could be seen. They said that the first available time slot was for the after hours twilight clinic, so we decided to take it. We had the same resident doctor come in for the inital examination and this time she added even more news to our already hectic thought process when she said "Is her heart murmur something that her pediatrician is just watching?" Well this was a shock for us because out of about 10-15 doctors and nurses that had seen our daughter, not a single one had mentioned a heart murmur. Again being nurses probably made us a bit more scared that the average person and of course my thoughts went to the worst possible scenario. I had recently taken care of three patients who had developed heart murmurs and ended up having to have open heart surgery. The upper level attending came in to exam Brinley and she verified that her problems were probably related to reflux, so we increased the dosage of zantac and she also said that the breast milk would be the best thing for her to eat because she didn't think it was an allergy. The attending slightly calmed our fears by telling us that most children develop a murmur at some time during childhood and that Brinley's didn't sound like one that presently needed to be followed up on. We headed home with even more than we had bargained for, but over the next few weeks we finally got our little eater back. The heart murmur is still being watched by our pediatrician and we even made a deal that if it is still present at her 6 month check up that we will do further diagnostic testing to ensure that nothing needs to be done to correct it. That is enough with our eating problems, now to some of the new and fun things that we did while we were 3 months old!

Aunt Sarah came up to visit with the rest Jennifer's family for a BBQ.

Aunt Amanda also came up for the to visit little Miss Brinley.

Four generations: Great Granddaddy Clayton, MiMi, Jennifer, and Brinley.

We took a little stroll through the arboretum before mommy had to go to work. Brinley has really started to enjoy taking walks in her stroller. We have been trying to take her out every night after it cools off a little.

We would have gotten out for some photos, but Brinley had just fallen asleep. If I have learned nothing else it is to not wake a sleeping baby!

Miss Brinley was a much happier little girl after a couple weeks on the zantac.

I walked out of the room for a few minutes and when I came back this is what I found. I was pretty impressed myself.

Again I say we had a much happier little girl again. This was right after a night time feeding and getting ready for bed. This was also one of her last nights with a swaddle blanket.

A new hobby that Brinley picked up was blowing raspberries and blowing spit bubbles.  She is very amused by all the noises that she can make.

Another hobby that Brinley enjoys is putting her hands, or any object for that matter, in her mouth. Every spare moment of the day Brinley is trying to figure out what things taste like.

Brinley playing with her new favorite toy that was sent to her by Aunt Andrea. It is an elephant teether and crinkle toy. 

Brinley also got a late night visit from Andy Bates.

My beautiful girls sitting out on the back deck. I sure am a lucky guy!

I have also decided that I might have to contact Michael Jordan and see if we could get Brinley a modeling contract to help boost the sale of infant apparel. 

A big investment that we made this month was a new car. We decided to buy a SUV because on our trip to Indianapolis last month we couldn't even fit all the stuff in our car. So, it was time to expand and our new Toyota Highlander has plenty of room for us and all of Brinley's things.

The downside to getting the new car was getting rid of the Chevy Cavalier. Brinley and I were the only ones sad about this transaction. Brinley was sad that she never even got to ride in it and I was sad because the car had been a part of our lives for about 12 years. This was Jennifer's first car, the car we drove off in after our wedding, the vehicle that protected us when a semi veered into our lane and hit us, and many more memories. However, it was time to go!

Since Jennifer and I were both off for the other two summer holidays, we were both scheduled to work Labor Day. We couldn't switch with anybody, so we called up the grandparents. They came up to stay all weekend and watched Brinley that night while we were both at work. She was pretty easy on them because she slept all night long. I didn't know what kind of trouble these 2 were going to get into.

Our happy little girl on her 4 month birthday! At our 4 month check up she weighed in at 12 pounds and 9 ounces (25th percentile) and 23 3/4 inches long (3rd percentile). So it looks like she is going to be on the shorter side like her mother.

Jennifer and I were now both back into the full swing of things at work and taking care of our precious little daughter, but halfway through the first 6 week schedule at work together we knew that something had to change. Since we didn't feel comfortable leaving her at a babysitter we had just been working opposite shifts at the hospital. Not only was it difficult to arrange our schedules, but by doing this it meant that we really only had 1 day a week to spend any time together as a family. So I applied for and was able to get a WEPP position at the hospital. This meant that I only have to work 2 days a week, but end up being paid for 3 (only downfall is that you have to work every weekend). The other catch was that I would have to leave the PICU. This was really hard because I have really enjoyed my time in the PICU and made a lot of great friends while working there. However, I have come to find out that having a child (some one that depends on you) can really change your life and if losing out on my weekends meant having more time with my girls then it was an easy decision. After I made this decision to change jobs, it made Jennifer want to be able to stay home more too. So she informed her boss that she would like to go per diem, which means that after orientation she can work throughout the Children's Hospital but she gets to tell them what days she will work. Overall it has been a pretty busy month and I wouldn't change it for the world. I consider myself a very lucky man to have Jennifer and Brinley in my life. I can't wait to make many more memories with the two of them. Thanks for reading and God Bless!