Baby's first food

We started giving Luke purees about a week ago, and he loooooooooves food!!  We have only given him oatmeal, butternut squash, green beans, and sweet potatoes so far, but he is obsessed with it all and gets sad when it's gone!  Perry really likes to feed him for us, which is sweet, but also slightly annoying. ;) 

It's fun to see him get so excited for new foods!

Luke is 6 months!

Luke Robert is SIX whole months!  Happy half birthday, Bubba!

Height:  27.75 in. (89%)

Weight:  16 lbs. 7 oz. (28%)

Oops, I never posted when he turned 5 months...second child problems/mom fail!  So we'll just go ahead and recap the last couple of months ;)

In the last 2 months, he's had a few firsts:

- First laughs!  This happened right after he turned 4 months.

- First real sicknesses:  He had bronchiolitis back in December, and a worse case again in January (see previous post).  Poor guy!

- First plane ride!  We went to Milwaukee after Christmas.

- First teeth!!  He got his two bottom teeth at around 5.5 months!  They're so cute.  However, teething hits this baby pretty hard!  He was in a lot of pain and couldn't sleep, even with Tylenol.  Perry was never bothered when she got teeth, so we were a little surprised by this.

Luke has remained a pretty happy, smiley, and content baby!  When he's awake at least ;)  His sleeping has regressed since getting sick the first time back in December.  He wakes up several times a night and has a hard time going back to sleep.  We often end up holding him to sleep for a few hours.  He starts his day around 6:45-7, and he goes to sleep around 7:30.  He is eating 5 times a day (about every 3 hours) and taking 3 naps a day.

He is finally rolling over both ways, although he still picks and chooses when he wants to.  He's not very into it.  He's more into practicing sitting up, "standing" in his joovy walker, or being held. :)  He has found his feet this month and is finding his voice more and more!

A few of Luke's LOVES include:

- His sister!  Perry is his favorite person.  He will just stare at her and smile.

- Being thrown up in the air!  This makes him laugh more than anything else.

- TV.  This one is embarrassing, but when Perry is watching Daniel Tiger, he can't keep his eyes off. 

- Tylenol.  This one is funny too, but when we have given him Tylenol, he loves it so much. 

- Chewing on everything!

- BATHTIME!  He always calms down in the bath.  We have recently started doing bathtime for Luke and Perry together, and he loves sitting there watching his sister.

- Bottles.  Nursing is still going well, but he loooooooves his bottles.

These are just a few random pictures of our sweet Luke from the last couple months:

We love you so much, Lukey!  You are the sweetest baby boy in the world!!

Luke's baptism

Our precious Luke Robert was baptized yesterday at The Journey at MDUMC!

My parents, John's mom, Thomas, Rebecca, Brittany, Chris, and the Sciba kids were all there to witness it.  After the service, everyone came to our house to celebrate Luke, as well as my mom and Chris's birthdays!!  It was a special day for our family!

We are grateful to God for trusting us to raise Luke!  We look forward in expectant hope to when little Luke's heart is changed and made complete by accepting Jesus's love!  Happy baptism, sweet boy!

Bronchiolitis

Our precious Luke has had a rough couple of weeks!  We noticed he was getting sick a couple of weeks ago, but we thought it was just a cold.  After a couple of days, we took him to the pediatrician because his breathing seemed fast and wheezy, and he hadn't been eating much or wetting many diapers.  The doctor confirmed he had bronchiolitis again (he had a mild case back in December).  She just prescribed the usual stuff - breathing treatments, humidifier, saline drops, and nose suctioning.  Well, by that evening he had gotten worse, and we were really worried about him.  We ended up taking him to Texas Children's Urgent Care, and from there we were sent to the ER, and then admitted to the hospital.  Luke wasn't getting enough oxygen, was dehydrated, and severely congested.  We spent two nights in the hospital.  Luke was on oxygen and IV fluids and was getting deep suctioned (basically torture) about every 3-4 hours.  He was  definitely improving.  He was eating well (which we realize now was because of the deep suctioning), wetting diapers, and breathing well off of the oxygen, so they sent us home. 

The day after coming home, he developed a really, really bad cough that kept him up all night long, and it didn't improve for a few days.  He also spiked a fever one night and was not eating well at all.  We decided to take him back to urgent care, fully expecting for them to do a deep suction and send us home.  While there, they were monitoring his oxygen levels.  He was not able to maintain an acceptable level of oxygen and was breathing fast, so they sent us to the ER.  While in the ER, they performed a chest x-ray that revealed pneumonia in a couple of areas of his lungs.  We were admitted to the hospital for the second time in a week.  They put Luke on oxygen and IV fluids again, and this time, he was getting antibiotics to treat the pneumonia.  They think he could have caught a second virus or bacterial infection from being in the hospital the first time (but it could just be a continuation of the first virus).  After less than 24 hours on the antibiotics, he was like a different baby!  His eating was improving, and he was thriving without oxygen or fluids.  His cough had improved as well, and he didn't need much suctioning.  So they sent us home again. 

Since we got home 5 nights ago, he has continued to improve each day!  His cough is almost completely gone, he is happy and active when he's awake, his congestion has improved, and his appetite improves each day (slowly but surely).  

Being in the hospital, seeing Luke hooked up to so many machines, was one of the most emotional experiences I've ever had.  We are so thankful for family who stepped up to help us in so many ways, mainly by dropping everything to be with Perry.  We are just SO incredibly thankful to God for healing our baby boy!!!  Now, if you need us, we aren't leaving our house until April. ;)

Big Girl Bed...Big Girl Panties

January has been a big month in the Lodde household!  Perry is potty trained AND sleeps in her big girl bed!!!  These were both pretty major milestones that, if I'm being honest, I was dreading.  They seemed so daunting, and the pessimistic part of me just assumed they would both be complete failures.  I was so wrong!  

She did SO well with potty training.  She definitely still has accidents (and has only gone #2 on the potty one time because we promised her ice cream), but she picked up on it very quickly!  We, for the most part, can trust her to tell us when she has to go.  When she filled up her potty chart with stickers, we took her for ice cream. :)  We also told her she would get to pick a new toy, but she has forgotten about that part...shhhh.

Likewise, Perry adjusted so well to her big girl bed!  She has been sleeping in it for almost 2 weeks, and she has not tried to get out once!!!  We told her she can do whatever she wants in her bed, but she has ONE rule, she cannot get out.  Somehow it worked (at least so far)!  I forgot to take pictures of her on her first night, so this is her second night.

We are so proud of our big girl!!!