Steeler's Game

Reed participated in his very first football season Steeler's game with his dad last night. He had to sport one of his new outfits in support. Notice that he has the outfit, plus Steeler socks and a mini Terrible Towel. He also has a bib that goes with it all. The kid will have no choice for his future team I think...

As soon as I get a minute I will upload pictures from our latest adventure to Boston and Maine and tell you about the trip.

Cheers~

wedding cake, hot air balloons, basements, and primanti's

Been super busy sense my last post, sorry! So here's the haps in the past couple of weeks. I'm going to work in chronological order cause I don't work in "no particular order".

Greer and Andrew got married! It was a great wedding, beautiful setting, beautiful people, fun time. The food was really good and the setting was great. Here are some pictures of the wedding.

Greer walking down the aisle with her dad.


Greer and Andrew getting married!

Rob with his funny hat, his wife Britta is in the pink dress.

Marit and Bill - they got married just 13 days later!


The boys - John, Andrew, Rob, Neil, and Fogg

I went back to work, which has been fine. The first week was stressful and sad but now I'm getting into the swing of things again. I started planning (my job for those of you who don't know) for the Ski and Paddle areas of our company. It should be fun to work with new areas!

I saw this one morning when I pulled into the parking lot, I drove right underneath it.


We used a rainy Saturday to finish up the big basement clean up of 2009. I started this project when I was maternity leave but needed Fogg's help with the remaining part of it as it was mostly tools and what have you. Fogg got some shelving to put up and we affectionately call it the "warehouse" now. I organized everything and totally love it. Here are a few pictures of it.




Next, we went to Pittsburgh last weekend for a couple of different reasons. First, we got asked to our niece's godparents when she got baptized. It was also Gabby's 5th birthday party that weekend. Fogg's brother Dale and his wife Georgette and Gabby have never met Reed so we wanted to bring him out to meet them as well. It was a busy, fun filled weekend and Reed's first plane rides. It went fairly well on the way out there, a little more rough on the way back, I think he was tired and just wanted to be home, much like his parents. We went to see the six superbowl trophies as well, which was very exciting for Fogg.

Smiling on his first plane ride!

Gabby holding "her baby Reed" as she called him.

We went to my favorite Pittsburgh location - Primanti's! Had me a sandwich and a half, fried zucchini, and poppers. Here is Dale and Mike with their kids playing.

The six Superbowl trophies...

Gabby right before she got baptized.

And finally, some fun Reed pictures from the last month.

First Steeler's game with dad. We got some outfits while in Pittsburgh, so next game, he'll be in black and gold.

So we chug along in life so next is our trip to Maine. We are flying direct in and out of Boston (thankfully, we had layovers going out and back to Pittsiburgh). We will spend a week driving up to Maine and visiting Fogg's extended family. I'd say the next vacation should be on the beach with not so much family... :) Anyway, we get to introduce Reed to Fogg's grandma and aunts and uncle's and great aunt. We will have a big family BBQ and some other fun things on the list. Little Reed is going to be quite the traveler in his first year of life! That's what happens when you get born into our little family I guess! Then my parents will be in Utah when we get back so you'll be sure to be treated to a million new Reed pics from my dad the photog.

Cheers~

what's up?

Hello there. It's been a while since I last posted. Because I have pretty much nothing of value to share with you today, I'll just give you the latest events in our lives. When I was in college, and just adjusting to being away from my parents, I would go into my friend Tasha's room down the hall and tell her about the next days events. I always did this with my parents for two reasons - one, I could verbally plan out my next day and two, it gave my parents an idea of where I would be and when for safety reasons. So I couldn't really get to bed without doing this exercise. So Tasha would graciously listen while I would account for the next days activities. So you all get to go through a similar process with me now.

If you didn't know, we have a rental home in Layton (which used to be our first house and instead of selling it a year ago when we moved, we just rent it). Well, our great renters turned out to be not so great when they decided not to pay their rent for July and move out. We didn't evict them because they already decided to move out at the end of the contract, but when their July rent payment bounced, they never bothered to pay us again. I'm learning to not be so angry about it, but it's hard when I've been at the house almost every day for the past week doing work on it. It's hard to use the last week of my maternity leave working - for free. But the house looks good, trash in the backyard is gone, weeds pulled and killed, branches disposed of, paint touched up, carpet cleaned, house cleaned. And we are lucky to have a new contract signed tomorrow! I've been busting my butt on Monday and Wednesday (and about to head over there today) to finish up painting and weed pulling.

I work for rewards, even if the reward is just a lunch out (which I reward myself with when I'm at the house working on it). But I'm rewarding myself for all this work over the past week and with pushing out a baby and learning to take care of it, by going to Cirque Du Soleil tomorrow night! I'm so excited! I've seen at least three, maybe more, can't remember, and know it'll be a great show. I also know that Fogg is going to like it, more than a musical I'm sure. We got a sitter, so we get to enjoy some time with friends at dinner and a show!

Going back to work on Monday, stressing about childcare a little bit. I had a dream about it last night. I'm not so nervous about being back at work or even being away from Reed, I'm just worried how he is going to do and nervous for the people watching him, that he will be easy for them. I've got a temporary child care option set up for the next few weeks but I am feeling like I'm burdening other people with my child. I'm going to have to get over that I guess. That's my only heart pull right now, not for me or my child but for the people watching him. I hate asking people to watch him, so I try to utilize people who have offered instead. I can't wait till my full time lady starts in October, I won't feel so bad about it all.

Lots of friends getting married or having babies. Let's see if I can remember them all...
Candace and Andy got married in April
Crystal and Andy got married in June
Taylor and Mary got married August 1st
Greer and Andrew got marred August 2nd
Michelle and Beau are getting married next week
Marit and Bill are getting married in two weeks

Mardi and Ryan had a baby girl in May - Brinnley
Amy and Pete had a baby girl in June - Jane
Hud and Jennifer are having a baby girl any day now - Pruitt
Stacy and Geoff had a baby boy in June - Wyatt
Marit and Bill are having a baby girl in January - Hazel
Sarah and Jared had a baby girl on Monday - Ava
Nikki and Paul had a baby boy in March - Luke
and many more babies to come and I'm sure I missed some...

We are heading to Pittsburgh on August 21st to attend my neice's baptism. We were asked to be Gabby's Godparents and we are so excited to be there. This will also be the first time that Reed will meet his Aunt Georgette and Uncle Dale and cousin Gabby. We are excited to have the whole Fogg clan together. We'll have to take a nice family photo all dressed up for the ceremony. We are also going to Maine via Boston from September 2-9th. We are really excited for this trip as well, we are going to Boston to see some of Fogg's cousins and then we are driving up to Maine to visit Fogg's extended family, his Grandma Ivy and Aunt Sa. Unfortunately Uncle Bill passed away about a month ago and we weren't able to make it up for the funeral so we are going to visit Sa so she can also meet Reed. Plus we love going to Belfast and Bar Harbor and Acadia and Bangor. I'm worried about the two plane rides and that Reed will be good. I'm so hypersensitive about babies crying in public so I'm afraid that I'm going to be that parent with the crying baby. Pray for easy flights for us!

Reed is just growing away and being an awesome baby. He is starting to talk and smile a lot. He's got a great schedule now. He wakes up at 6ish, feeds, goes back to sleep, sometimes just talks to himself for awhile. Then he eats at 9, then plays for an hour or so then takes a nap till 12 when he eats again. He will usually be awake till he eats again at 3. Then he takes a nice long afternoon nap from 3-6. Then eats at 6 and will hang out with dad until he eats again at 9, then a bath and in bed by 10ish. Then he sleeps until he gets up the next morning. He's so flexible now that I can go do just about anything or change a feeding time by an hour or so and he does just fine. He's started to suck his thumb more. He's got tiny little hand and feet so it's funny to see him try to get any satisfaction from sucking his thumb, but he does it anyway. He's getting to be so much fun, holding his head up more and being more interactive.

I had a skin biopsy on Tuesday to confirm my Carnitine diagnosis. I'll get the results in six weeks about that. They also did a blood test to check my levels, which I should get back soon and a blood test to measure my liver and kidney function. I also need to go get an echocardiogram to see if my heart is functioning well. The doctors are a little confused as to why I've never showed any signs of this disfuction but still testing low. Until we know more, I have to continue taking my fishy pills - 9 a day, and Reed has to continue getting 2 ML a day until he gets on his own food to get the vitamin.

Well, that might be all for now. Here are some pictures to satisfy any need to see Reed (if you don't get to). And on with my day now...

Reed on his activity mat, he grabs the side of the arch and shakes it so the bird swings and he just stares at that bird.

Reed and London, I just couldn't resist taking this, I'm sick I know it.

This is Reed and his sock monkey to measure him, at 10 weeks.

Reed holding his first contribution to his college fund from Papa and Grandma Fogg. He has a shirt that says "Party Animal" on it - appropriate huh?

Cute little smile, love this kid!

in the jungle

...the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. Ok, I mean my baby sleeps tonight. Well, he sleeps every night for a week!

I took Reed to his two month doctors appointment on Monday (where he weighed in at 13 pounds 3 ounces!) and the pediatrician asked me if he was sleeping through the night. I told him that Reed has been waking up just once in the night, sometime between 2:30 and 4am. I then asked Dr. Pruitt how I can get him to sleep through the night. His response: let him cry. So I spent the rest of the day prepping myself for letting him cry when he woke up that night. Side note, he told me I could have caffeine so I promptly went out and got me a fountain coke, which I haven't had for a year and it was glorious. Ok, so I go to bed that night ready to not jump out of bed when Reed cries. I get up at about 2:30 when I woke up thirsty. I got me a drink of water, knowing that I might just fall asleep and Reed will start crying in just a few minutes. So I dose off and when Reed cries a minute later, I look at the clock and it isn't a minute later, it's 5:45am! Sweet! The very night I was going to force him to make it through the night without a feeding, he decides to do it himself!

I cross my fingers for Tuesday night and low and behold, he makes it to 6am. Thursday morning, he didn't wake up till 6:30! It has now been a whole week and every single night, he sleeps all the way through the night. It's crazy how rested I feel! And I get to only do 6 feedings a day, which is also awesome.

My kid continues to be totally awesome! Pictures soon!

UT-arded

I'm not sure that I'm qualified to call something Utarded because I'm not from Utah, but I figure that 10 years living here gives me the liberty to call out a Utard. Now, if you are not from Utah, you may not know what "Utarded" means. It is a term to describe popular "stupid" things such as trucks that are jacked up so high, you need a ladder to get in, cutting off people in traffic, or hairstyles that are truly unique to Utah (see my friend Amy's blog about Bumpits).

So I'm driving home this afternoon and driving up I-84, through Weber Canyon. Right now Weber Canyon is down to two lanes, all traffic is directed to the south side of the road, with barriers in between the lanes. We fondly call it "the gauntlet" due to the tight conditions of the road. So anyway, as I'm approaching the on ramp for the highway, this car jumps from the left lane to the right lane to get on. It's a Subaru (also a Utarded thing, everyone's got one) and it's got a Utah license plate. It is packed full of stuff, you could not possibly see out of the back window. And then it's got so much stuff on top of it, it's comical. Clearly, they are going to a water activity, they've got water noodles in the back. That's about the only thing I could identify because it was so jam packed.

Anyway, we get on 84 and this Subaru gets behind a semi-truck, I'm following "Utard". U is so close to the truck, I'm pretty sure they could not see more than than the door to open the back of the truck. I'm also pretty sure that the truck driver had no idea that the U was even there cause it was so close. So as we drive up the canyon, U is following so close and has got so much crap on it, I'm starting to laugh out loud. So I take out my camera and decide to take a picture. Making sure that I'm not going to get caught, I look in my rearview mirror and the dude behind me is so close I can see his face! So I've got Utarded all around me! So I took the picture anyway and here it is:



There you go - story for the day. Sorry I've been lagging on the blogging, I don't just want to write about Reed (though I could), and feel like I should not make people stupider for reading my blog and I should have something meaningful to say. Not sure if the explanation of Utards is meaningful but it was comical, wasn't it? If you are in a Reed story fix, here you go:

After I got home from the Utarded experience above, I fed Reed. As I'm feeding him, he has a nice "juicy" fill of the diaper. So I finish feeding him and he proceeds to puke so much, it completely covers my shirt and I am forced to change my shirt. As I'm processing the puke, he fills the diaper again and I'm pretty sure it's going to blow out the diaper. So I carry him upstairs holding his feet and head out in front of me. I go change my shirt then go to change him. As I get the diaper off, he pees all over the wall (my pee protector hadn't gotten there in time!) and then poops AGAIN! Now it's all over the changing table cover and pretty much all over him. So I finally get this all cleaned up and put him in the crib so I can change the cover. I go to pick him up and put him over my shoulder where he proceeds to puke all over my BACK! So I put him down again and go change my shirt, again, and try to clean my back off (which I can't really reach). I pick him up again and bring him downstairs where he pukes on me, again (on my knee this time). So I officially smell like a "mom". Oh well. The life of me - poop, puke, pee, poop, puke, puke. Aren't you jealous?

Carnitine

Yeah, I didn't know what it was either. It's a vitamin. Here is my story about carnitine.

When you have a baby (after the year 1996), they do a routine screening, formerly called PKU, now called Newborn Screening test. Before 1996, it was the responsibility of the doctors and hospitals to do these tests and they didn't always get done. So the state took over these tests, making it a requirement for every baby born in a hospital, your tax dollars used to run the tests. So when Reed was born, they did this test, a heel stick and sent it off to the state. Right before his 2 week appointment, the results were sent to my pediatrician, telling him that one of the results came back abnormal. The grouping of diseases that it tested abnormal for has something to do with the mother so both Reed and I went and got blood and urine tests. About a week later, those also came back abnormal (low for both of us) and we were referred to specialists down at Primary Children's to figure out what was going on.

We tested low for a vitamin called Carnitine. It is primarly found in meats but can be found in many other things as well. There was a few reasons why we both tested low for this vitamin. I'm a vegetarian and it could have well been because I wasn't consuming enough of the vitamin, and because Reed gets all of his nutrition from me, he would also not be getting enough. The other reason he would be low is because I had a disease called Primary Carnitine Deficiency (also called Carnitine Transporter Deficiency). This means that I was consuming enough of the vitamin but my cells weren't knowing what to do with it and I was just peeing it out, therefore he would also not get it. The third reason he would be low is because he also had the disease.

Carnitine is important because it is used in the cells to convert fat and amino acids into energy. When you don't use or get enough carnitine, the muscles are affected, primarily the cardiac muscle. In other words, the heart is affected first. The first symptom is sudden death, other symptoms include cardiac events, mostly an enlarged heart, and the liver and kidneys may sustain damage. I was told that 1 in 40,000 people have this disease, most of them not knowing they even have it (as there are no physical manisfestation). I was also told that 9 in 10 people that test low for carnitine don't actually have the disease, they have something else wrong, like low consumption.

So after consulting with the doctors, we were both put on a carnitine supplement for 2 weeks. Reed is to take 5 ML a day and I was to take 3 grams (3000 ML). If I had the disease but he didn't then my tests would still be low but his would be normal. If he also had the disease, then we would both be low. If it was because I was a vegetarian and not consuming enough, then we would both be extremely high.

And the results are.... I have the disease but luckily Reed does not. His tests came back with him having way too high and we reduced his supplement to 2 ML a day and may go down to 1 ML if it is still too much. Again, because he doesn't get nutrition other than from me and my body is disposing of it, he will need it. When he gets formula and food, he will no longer need to take the supplement because he will be getting it from that. I, however, will have to take the supplement the rest of my life.

The supplement is in the form of 9 pills a day that are big and smell like fish. Fogg and I have named the pills "fishies". Hopefully I will not need to take that much forever, but I will have to take some the rest of my life. To give you perspective, normal range in the body is 34-68 ML, my test after taking 3000 ML a day was 24 ML, the initial test I had 7 ML. So in order for my body to retain just 24, I have to take 3000. The doctors told me that I have to stay above 20 to stay out of the danger zone. I go back at the beggining of August to have further testing on my heart, liver and kidneys to make sure that there isn't any damage so far.

Being a vegetarian had NOTHING to do with this disease for me. I've probably had it my whole life. If I hadn't have had Reed, they wouldn't have found this unless I had a health problem (which could have been either a heart problem or death!). So here is to my little boy who could have saved my life! Here is him smiling for me this morning:

So that's the story for the day, more another time...

Fourth of July

We had a great Fourth of July! We got up early and went to Huntsville for a picnic breakfast. Then we headed up to my parents place to show my in-laws the cabin. Then back home for some hang out time. In the evening we had great friends come over for a BBQ. Lots of Reed's friends came to visit.

Mardi with Brinnley, me with Reed, Amy with Jane, and Bree with Carden

More later....