A couple of Fridays ago, Braden’s teachers called us because he may have eaten a peanut or something else that was in the same container. When Brian arrived, Braden seemed shaken up, but only because the teachers were so closely monitoring him.

When we got home, Braden’s eyes puffed up slightly, and the doctor’s office said to give him some Benedryl (the first sip he puked up, but he swallowed the second sip just fine) and to monitor him. Fortunately, he didn’t have any trouble breathing, and he seemed in better and better spirits as the day progressed.

We think that Braden didn’t actually eat a peanut but maybe a raisin or whatever else was in that container. In the meantime, we got another refill of his EpiPen.

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Braden no longer drinks his soy milk. This just occurred over the past week or so. He won’t tell us why he doesn’t like it anymore. He has proven he would rather be extremely thirsty than to drink even one drop of milk.

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Braden is getting better and better at potty training. At home, he’ll often head to his potty to pee (sitting down) without our prompting. He still won’t poop in the potty, though.

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Carson smiles so much more easily than Braden ever did. When we smile at Carson, he’ll often smile back. He’s also discovered his thumb, and he’s able to calm himself down by sucking on it (Braden never did this).

Journal allergies, potty training

Brian called Kristin the other day, and Braden answered the phone! At first, Brian just heard some background noise, then he finally heard Braden make some noise.

Brian: Braden? This is daddy.

Braden: Hi daddy.

Brian: Where’s mommy?

Braden: Upstairs changing Carson’s diaper.

Brian: Braden, please give mommy the phone.

Braden: No.

Brian: Braden, tell mommy that daddy’s on the phone.

Braden. Okay. (Walks to the bottom of the staircase and yells:) Mommy, daddy’s on the phone! (Proceeds to climb stairs and hand Kristin the phone).

As far as we know, this is Braden’s first real phone conversation. Even more amazing, he was just playing with the phone and knew how to answer it.

Journal new skills

Braden turned three two Fridays ago (Feb. 3). We submitted his photo to Ch. 3 News (our CBS affiliate), and he liked seeing himself on TV.

We had a birthday lunch planned, but Brian had a bug and was sick all day. Braden had the bug first; he came into our room Monday night covered in vomit. On Tuesday, he seemed fine, but he vomited when he got to school, so Brian took him home.

Kristin was then sick on Wednesday and Thursday. Fortunately, Carson avoided being sick!

Anyways, we rescheduled Braden’s birthday lunch for the following Sunday at the Nitty Gritty. It was nice to have both sides of the family there. Braden loved his presents.

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We bought the book “Bringing up Bebe,” which is about French parenting. While we’ve only gotten through the first three chapters, we’ve already implemented the “pause” technique. Instead of rushing over to Carson every time he makes a noise at night, we wait to see if he’ll fall back asleep.

Indeed, the majority of the time he falls back asleep. The book says that parents are the ones screwing up the sleep cycle for their newborns by tending to them too often. Babies need to learn to fall back asleep on their own. In most cases, Carson just has gas/poop.

Currently, Carson only wakes up once per night for feeding; previously, he got up 3-4 times a night!

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Braden is very clever. Before, when he needed to reach something, he would pull a chair over. Now, to reach things even higher (like his animal crackers), he’ll use a broom.

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At Braden’s allergy appointment a few weeks ago, the doctor said that Braden’s dairy allergy is subsiding. Currently, we’re giving him just a little bit of real milk or even cheese each day. So far, he hasn’t had a negative reaction. We’re hoping to keep desensitizing him (as opposed to building up his tolerance).

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We had portraits taken of both Braden and Carson a couple weeks ago. Braden did surprisingly well; Carson had a few shots with his eyes open. We’ll order some soon!

Journal allergies, birthday, photos, sick, sleep

Braden stayed at Brian’s mom’s house on Wednesday night, which helped our transition to home life with Carson. With improved nursing comes improved sleep for Carson, which is good. We almost feel he’s a bit easier at night than Braden was at this age.

What could make it better is if Carson didn’t sleep so much during the day. The worst is that he takes a long nap in the evening, which makes it hard for him to go to sleep at a decent time. Right now, Brian stays up with him until he finally goes to bed, which could be 11 or midnight.

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It’s funny, we think Braden looks bigger now, especially in comparison to Carson. For example, Braden’s face looks bigger (fatter?), if that’s possible.

He is getting more acclimated to having Carson around. Sometimes he’ll come up to his little brother to touch his head or leg. Braden usually refers to him as “the baby.”

We’ve been doing our best not to make Braden feel jealous or left out. In fact, we ask him to be our big helper.

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Carson poops a lot! As in, he’ll poop after EVERY feeding. It’s funny, we had to almost overfeed Braden when he was first born to get him to poop out his bilirubin (and get rid of his mild jaundice). Carson has absolutely no problem with his bowels, apparently.

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We gave Carson his first (sponge) bath last night. Just like his brother, he cried the entire time. We’re sure there will be a day when he loves baths, just like Braden.

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We’re unable to get Braden to go get a haircut (isn’t that a problem for when he’s a teenager?). We’ve resorted to cutting his hair ourselves–Kristin trimmed the back of his head last night, much to Braden’s anger. We’re going to wait until he’s asleep next time.

Journal bath, haircut, home

Kristin’s doctor finally came around 12:30 p.m. and said it was okay for us to go home (yay!). Brian had picked up Braden from preschool and was at home to pack some more clothes when he heard the news from Kristin.

It was actually a fast-paced discharge, as our nurse had to do it before the shift change. We got the photographer to come take professional photos (www.serendipityphotostudio.com, code is carsonlee), our nurse contacted our pediatrician and we packed. We didn’t get as many parting “gifts” this time around, but Brian was able to secure a couple bottles of formula.

We got home around 3:30 p.m. We decided it would be best to have Braden sleep at Brian’s mom’s house for the night, just so we could get better acclimated.

Unfortunately, Carson slept most of the evening, which we figured would lead to a long night again. Marcie stopped by to visit us around 7:15 p.m.

Journal home

Well, we got about 3.5 hours of sleep last night. At 1 a.m., we asked for some formula, because Carson is insatiable (sounds like his brother). That helped a lot.

We suspected we were in for a long night, as he slept from about 6-9 p.m. We watched three episodes of “Mad Men” during that time. Brian ordered dinner from Falbo Bros. Pizza.

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Our pediatrician came in this morning and confirmed what his colleague said yesterday: Carson is a healthy baby. We’ll need to have a follow-up appointment two days after we’re discharged from the hospital.

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As of 10:30 a.m., we’re still waiting for Kristin’s doctor to get here and let us know if we can go home today. She was supposed to be here between 8-9 a.m., so we’re wondering if she had to do a delivery.

Journal hospital, pediatrician, sleep

Wait, Carson WAS born yesterday! Cut him some slack! Hahahaha.

Journal birth, joke

The parade has begun. Carson woke up every two hours or less last night, so we didn’t get that much sleep. Plus, he has pooped six times in his first 24 hours!

Thus, we were pretty tired this morning with the morning shift nurse came (she’s awesome), followed by the staff who assists with the birth certificate, followed by the pediatrician, followed by Kristin’s doctor’s colleague, followed by the janitorial staff, followed by the lab tech to draw blood.

Wowsa! Can we get any privacy here? At least we’re prepared for this onslaught after Braden’s birth.

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Kristin took a nice, relaxing shower this morning, then took a couple of walks around the hallway. She is feeling much better and has regained her appetite.

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The nurse is currently performing a hearing test on Carson, but the computer is acting up. So, she’ll have to come back later.

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Brian’s mom visited and brought lunch from Famous Dave’s. Mmmm!

Journal hospital, visitors

Poor Braden. We still don’t think he gets it yet. When he got to the hospital, it took us a long time to convince him to come inside the hospital room. Once he finally came inside, he refused to acknowledge Kristin and Carson.

We gave him gifts that we told him were from Carson, but that didn’t help. We even tried to give Braden his digital camera, but he wouldn’t even take photos of Carson. Eventually, after more than an hour, he at least was willing to touch Carson on the head and nose.

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Like with Braden, Brian had the pleasure of changing Carson’s first poopy diaper. At 5 p.m., Carson woke up and seemed hungry. Brian opened up his diaper to find the black tar that newborns have for poop. Brian also remembered to stand perpendicular to Carson, which was a good thing, since Carson also peed.

Carson had two more poopy diapers later at night. This is stunning, since it took Braden a while to poop. Plus, where did this come from?

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Our first nurse was young and very nice, but we think she is still a little too green. She made several mistakes and was somewhat forgetful. We think the nurse that replaced her was a bit stunned by what her predecessor did (or didn’t do).

Our favorite one so far is the third shift nurse, though sadly, we’ll see her the least.

The nice thing this year is we don’t have a constant stream of people (residents, interns, etc.) coming in like we did last year. That was super annoying, and it didn’t allow us to sleep ever.

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Good night at 1:40 a.m.

Journal diapers, hospital

We are pleased to welcome Carson Zhi Lee, born at 8:27 a.m., weighing 8  lbs. 3 oz. and having a length of 19.5 in.

Kristin was a trooper as always and is recovering now. We posted a photo on Facebook and were happily surprised by the immense number of comments we’ve had already.

Our families came around 11:30 a.m., and we took a ton of photos.

Journal birth, hospital