Still a Big Guy!

Brian had his 9 month appointment with Dr. Price, the pediatrician today! No concerns, and as we already knew, Brian is still a big guy! He weighs 23 lbs 5.5 oz (85th) percentile, is 31 inches long (above the 95th percentile) and his head is measuring in the 80th percentile. So, he has slimmed down a bit (his weight was in the 95th percentile), and his head has evened out so it doesn't measure so huge anymore! And, he's really tall :) Brian also got one shot today, and he whimpered a little, but I kept telling him he was fine, and pretty quickly, he was. He even gave the nurse a smile before she left the room. So now we get to start 3rd food which include chunks of veggies and (ew!) meat!

Last night we went to JC Penney's for his 9 month photo shoot. He behaved really well except that he kept trying to escape! It was much easier to take his picture when he wasn't so mobile. I can't wait to share the photos. We get them on the 6th! As always it was SO hard to choose!

Oh, and P.S.-Johnny's is NOT closing! They reported on the news Tuesday that 25% of the space will remain a toy store and the other 75% will be an expansion of Totter's Otterville. The castle is closing though :( Our niece, Renie, was part of the news report as she happened to be playing there that day. Our little star!!

Play date

Brian had a play date with Annie and Alex today! The kids had fun, and so did the Mommies :) Here are the pictures!

9 Months Old!

Brian is 9 months old today! It's hard to believe how quickly he's grown-especially in the past few weeks. Here is the link to the 8 month photo album on Snapfish.

8 Month Pictures

We see the pediatrician on Thursday, so I will post his new stats then :)

Fort Brian

Brian has a new favorite place to play! Under the chaise lounge. He also thinks it's fun to try and climb his new "fort."

Pulling Up and Big Boy Toys!

Brian met another milestone this weekend! He's pulling up on his own :) It's crazy how quickly he's been developing new skills. Two weeks ago he had to roll everywhere and now he's crawling around like a crazy person, transitioning from crawling to sitting and sitting to crawling like it's his job, and STANDING on his own! I keep hearing from everyone...it won't be long until he's walking. How did my baby get to be such a big boy?

Also, since he'll be 9 months this coming week, we got out the 9 month old toys over the weekend. Most of them are cars or trucks- some mode of transportation that he can ride! He's been having a blast.



Of course with these new skills comes all sorts of tumbles and bumps along the way. We are trying to have a healthy attitude about it and let him learn from mistakes without letting him come away from every play session looking like he's been beaten up!

Physical Therapy

Brian has made quite a bit of progress with his torticollis! Today, Elizabeth, the PT, was extremely impressed with both his turning radius and the improvement he's showing with the head tilt. He is able to turn fully in all positions now, although he still wants to bring his shoulder forward a bit when he's sitting up. And, his tilt rarely even surfaces except when he's tired. This is especially impressive given his new skill (crawling) because typically kids who have this issue, revert to titling when they are learning something new.

She dropped him down to 2 sets of stretches a day (down from 5) and we just have to keep working on his tilt exercises as much as possible until our next session in 2 weeks. Elizabeth said that if he's still looking this good next time, we will start meeting every 4 weeks!!

On a side note, Elizabeth taught Brian to go from a crawling position to a sitting position in about 10 minutes today. She wanted him to learn this skill because it forces him to use his neck muscles to keep his head up while transitioning. I was amazed that he picked it up so fast. He is getting so mobile! His crawling has gotten faster and a bit more agile, and he's getting braver with it. He's attempting longer distances, and trying like crazy to pull up on things when he reaches them. I know I will probably hate it in a few weeks when I can't keep up with him, but it's so awesome to see him movin' and groovin'!

Last Bit of "Fun"

Since the Day 1 of the helmet, we have decorated it with stickers to make it look at little bit more fun. Shawn had a great idea that we had not gotten around to using yet, so today I decided to go for since soon the helmet will be no more. Observe...



Unfortunately, the fur kind of sheds, so we had to take it off, but it was fun while it lasted. Also, it turns out that Brian is doing much better without the helmet than we suspected (this means he's doing a good job of protecting his own head), we I'm guessing we will have him weaned faster than we originally planned!

The Best News

I can't even find the words to describe how great the news was today at the Plagiocephaly Clinic. We walked out feeling like a million bucks. A far cry from how we felt last week.

Bottom line-Brian does NOT need surgery. In fact, Dawn, the PA, said that had she seen Shawn prior to today (his forehead in particular), she would have never even recommended the CT scan. The CT scan showed a very mild synostosis of the metopic suture. This means the ridge on Brian's forehead was caused because the metopic suture fused a little early-just like his Dad's. There is no indication of any type of ICP (intra-cranial pressure), nor did the PA or surgeon feel there would be in the future. The left part of Brian's forehead that looked a bit narrow last week, has already come back out, likely due to the helmet being refitted last Wednesday.

AND...Brian will be helmet free before the end of the month! In all of the "excitement" last week, Dawn failed to mention that his head measurements are now within normal range, meaning that he can be successfully weaned from the helmet. Dr. Gordon, the surgeon, confirmed this. This is incredibly lucky as the average time a child is in a helmet is 3 months, so we are on the early side by a whole month! Brian must have had quite a growth spurt over the last month, and since he was in the helmet, his head grew in all of the right places. To wean him, we will start by reducing the number of hours he wears it by 2 each day until we are down to 0. So, today he will wear it for 21, rather than the normal 23 and so on. This is to help him get used to the idea that his crash helmet won't be protecting his head any longer. If my calculations are correct, he will be out of it officially by March 28th.

So, the luck of the Irish was indeed with the Borchardt's today. THANK YOU does not seem like a strong enough phrase to adequately express our gratitude for the thoughts, prayers, kind words and actions of our family and friends this past week. We hope you all know how grateful we are and how much we love you.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Our Weekend

We thought it would be a good idea to stay busy this weekend, so we took our wonderful friends and family up on their offers to help us do just that. On Friday we enjoyed a wonderful Fish Fry at St. Paul. I had crab cakes! We spent time with the Klaenes, Schep, Melissa and the beautiful Addison Rose. Brian is very much looking forward to his play date with Addison this coming Friday!






Then on Saturday we enjoyed an awesome lasagna dinner at the Parker's house. Brian very much enjoyed their Boston Terrier-Emmie Lou. He just loves animals!




On Sunday we headed to SPX for church, and then went down to Johnny's Toy Store in Latonia. They're closing, which is really sad considering they have been such a cornerstone in this area for such a long time. Brian got several new toys-for now, for Easter and for his Birthday. Shawn got called into work after that, so Mom came over to get me and Brian. We hung out over there for most of the evening. Here is a cute picture of Brian looking out the kitchen window at Pappy. Shawn's classic comment of the night (he finally joined us for dinner), "Brian's really going to love the zoo!"

After dinner we headed home and Auntie L came over for awhile. She finally got see Brian crawl! I just realized that this is probably news to most of you! BRIAN IS CRAWLING! He did for the first time on Tuesday of last week, which is why there was no post about it. He's getting better and better at it, but he still prefers to roll if he can :)

The Molding Cap

I meant to post these pictures on Tuesday after our Plagiocephaly appointment, but didn't for obvious reasons. I think you can really see some improvement in his head shape! Remember, we are about 1/3 of the way through the helmet time, so it's not perfect, but I think it's looking much better. Also, look at all that hair!


Before (January)



After (Early March)

CT Scan

We're back from the CT Scan. Brian did very well and he's resting now. He's still pretty sleepy from the medicine. He woke up this morning and 6:30 and was a bit confused and upset by the fact that he couldn't nurse, but once we got him in the bathtub, he was all smiles (the kid LOVES the water).

He waited much more patiently than both of his parents in the waiting room-watching the fish and people that were there. He was happy and calm while the nurse took his vitals and took the sleepy medicine without any trouble. He was pretty tired from rising so early, so it knocked him out in about 5 minutes.

Once they were sure he was sleeping, we went into the CT scan room and I had to put him on the moving table with his head positioned so that he wouldn't move around. They swaddled him and put all of the protective gear over Brian, and us, and then did the scan. We joked that if he were awake he would have been having a fit over being swaddled. This is not a child that likes to be restricted in any way!

After the scan they put him in a hospital crib in the recovery room and we waited a little over an hour for him to wake up. He didn't wake up on his own, so the nurse came and stirred him (it didn't take much). Then he nursed, we changed his diaper and they sent us on our way. We were there for a little over 3 hours.

I asked them to be sure to send the results to our pediatrician's office tomorrow since they are open and that gives us a bit of a chance that we might find out a little information tomorrow or Monday. Hopefully this will happen. Otherwise we'll be on pins and needles until our appointment on Tuesday! Keep those prayers coming :)

Many blessings

Today Brian and I headed out to St. Patrick's to get a blessing from Father Jeff before the CT Scan tomorrow. Godmother Lauren met us out there. Father Jeff is the single most wonderful priest on the face of the planet. Just being in contact with him over email helped me to feel better about all that we are going through, so I knew being in his presence would help even more.

When we arrived, we went into the church and Jeff got out the Holy Chrism. He suggested that we do the blessing downstairs in the preschool room so that all of the 3 and 4 year olds could pray over Brian. Last year I remember praying the rosary at school everyday of Lent and the joy I got from hearing the Kindergartners trying to pray the many, many Hail Marys required of them. So, I jumped at this chance. The kids were so cute. Father Jeff explained to them that Brian has to go to the hospital, so he wanted them to do a good deed and pray for him. The teachers told the kids to fold their hands and we recited The Our Father, one of the two prayers they know by heart. I just loved hearing their little voices! After, Father Jeff said a blessing over Brian and anointed his head. Then, we all recited The Hail Mary, the other prayer the preschoolers know.

After thanking the kids and their teachers (and explaining a little bit more to the teachers about the situation), we headed back upstairs. Father Jeff took Brian over to a picture of Jesus and explained that it wasn't him that had blessed Brian, it was Jesus. He told Brian that Jesus was going to watch over him during all of this, and always.

Father Jeff, in his wonderful way, could sense my anxiety and decided he needed to anoint me as well. He also asked if I would like to receive Communion. Not one to turn down any assistance, I immediately said yes ! He blessed both me and Lauren, and we both received Communion. After, he said the communal blessing over all of us and told Brian that the entire community of St. Patrick's would be keeping him in their prayers.

As we left the church, Jeff pointed out the prayer of St. Patrick which is hand painted around the molding of the church walls. He said St. Patrick wrote it when he was a teenager, but believed it was what helped him during his persecution in Ireland. Jeff said he wanted it to wrap around the church as a reminder that God wraps all of his children in his arms and protects them. This is the prayer:

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

Please say a quick prayer to Saint Patrick when you're thinking of Brian over the next few days. We find out the results of the CT Scan on St. Patrick's Day, so it can't hurt :)

Prayers, Please

I'm not even sure how to start this one. I'm sure reading this, you're going to feel just as blind-sided as I did sitting in the Plagiocephaly Clinic hearing it today. We went in for his midway check up for the molding cap and I honestly thought it was going to be just a routine check where they would tell me similar things to what I heard last week at the Brace Shop. That could not have been farther from the truth. While Dawn, the Physician's Assistant, did say there has been improvement in the shape of Brian's head where it used to be flat, she was much less concerned with that than with the newly "narrow" portion of his left front forehead. She noticed today that the ridge in his forehead is longer and goes further back on the top of his head than she had originally noted. So, she brought in a surgeon to consult on his case.

This surgeon, Dr. Gordon, felt it was necessary to order a CT Scan of Brian's head. This scan will take place on Friday at Children's Main. Basically Brian's frontal sutures fused early forming the ridge. If they have fused all the way he will need surgery to correct this. The reasoning is that when this happens, the child's brain can swell due to not having enough room to grow and this causes cognitive issues down the line.

The surgeon and PA tried to reassure me that it's not likely that he will need surgery. They said his head having stayed at the same percentile (95th) all these months, bodes well for him. Also, Shawn has the ridge, so they said it's likely genetic. The surgeon said about 1 in every 20 kids they send for a scan, come back needing surgery. You've probably already guessed from my tone that I'm not at all reassured by this information. I'm a wreck.

For the scan Brian has to be sedated. He cannot eat anything 6 hours before the scan and cannot nurse 4 hours before. Remember he's teething so this part will be a real blast for all involved. He can have clear liquids up until 2 hours before, but it's scheduled for 8:30, so that's not likely to happen. I plan to wake him up and nurse him at 4a.m. just to make sure he gets something to eat before all of this.

So, again, the CT scan is on Friday morning and we go back to the Plagiocephaly Clinic on Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day, to find out the results. I'm hoping for the Luck of the Irish to be with us on this one. Some prayers would be nice too. Thanks in advance for those. We'll keep you posted.

Look What Brian Can Do...

Brian has been amazing us lately with all of his new skills, tricks and developments, so I wanted to share them with all of you! First of all today I found something fun in Brian's mouth. Finally, two teeth :) After months of chewing on everything he can get his mouth on and puddles on puddles of drool, his two bottom incisors are coming through. I noticed them in the carpool line at St. Agnes today. I always get in the backseat and get him out of his car seat while we wait for the boys to get out of school and today the sunlight hit his mouth just right so that I could see them. I (stupidly) stuck my finger in there for confirmation and sure enough he bit me!

Most of his other new skills have to do with his new found mobility. He's still not crawling, although I don't think we've got far to go, but he rolls everywhere! We find him under the couch several times a day. He's trying so hard to crawl that he's gone from a tummy time hater, to a baby who spends most of his time on his belly, or his hands and knees, or his hands and tip toes.
His newest skill is that he can transition from sitting to a crawling position without wiping out (more often than not). And I can't forget to mention that he's also trying like crazy to pull up. Most mom's will relate not ever being allowed to go to the bathroom alone and I'm no exception. Brian's favorite place to attempt pulling up is the toilet! He usually sneaks at least a try or two while I wash my hands. Crazy kid!

Brian has also become much more vocal recently (if that were possible). He's definitely saying "ma" although he's not directing it at anyone in particular, and in the past couple of days, I've even been hearing "dah" (long a, not short) which is close to "da," but closer to "ma" still. We've been hearing a whole slew of blends lately...ga, ow, aw. And one of his favorite things to do is stick his fingers in his mouth and run them back and forth like a crazy person while making all sorts of sounds. It's kind of like when people are trying to sound like an Indian and they smack their mouth with their hand, except his hands go in his mouth so there's a lot more spit involved!

Meal time has turned into quite an adventure with Brian lately. I must thank Josh for reminding Brian how fun it is to razz. Every since he and Jen visited a few weeks ago, Brian has been razzing like it's his job. Unfortunately this doesn't stop when it comes time to eat. Ask Nana about the carrot incident at Kenwood. She'll confirm that most of the carrots did not end up in Brian's belly! Try the bib, on me, on Nana, on the table, etc. Fun times!

Finally, Brian's hair is suddenly growing like crazy. He's all Shawn except for his hair. He definitely has my hair! It's sort of strawberry blond and definitely has my frizz. We were worried that the helmet would stunt his hair growth, or maybe even give him a bald spot, but so far that doesn't seem to be the case. Speaking of the helmet, we have an appointment with the Plagiocephaly Clinic at Children's Main tomorrow. They will be evaluating the progress he's made with the helmet thus far. I will post a new blog after the appointment with some pictures I took of his head shape before the helmet and some that I took today. I think you'll notice a huge improvement!

Change Your Clock, Change Your Battery

This weekend we set our clocks forward for the beginning of day light savings time. I hate loosing an hour of sleep, but I love the extra daylight at the end of the day! I'm also hoping that the extra hours of dark in the morning will help Brian Thomas learn that sometimes it's okay to sleep past 7:30!

We changed out the smoke alarm batteries as well today, since you're supposed to do that along with the time change. One of the alarms went off when Shawn put the new battery in and Ruben came running for his mommy! Even though Ruben's afraid of Brian, I guess the fear of the scary noise outweighed his fear of the scary 8 month old today. Here's a picture of the way Shawn found us when he had finished changing out the batteries.

Excellent News!

Brian and I had two appointments today. The first was PT. Elizabeth, the physical therapist, continued to praise me and Brian for his improvements. He is holding his head level most of the time now. We still need to work on full turns to the left when he's sitting and pushing up on his arms, and we will continue to do the stretches that we've been doing since PT began.

The second appointment was at the Brace Shop. Brian's helmet has been sliding around on his head a lot, so he needed to have a piece of foam added to the inside to keep it in place. Greg, the orthotist went ahead and measured his head since we were supposed to do that next week. Brian's head had a 10 mm difference on the diagonals when he was first measured before the helmet. He now has a 7 mm difference, which is about a 30% improvement! They also have some way of measuring the flat area, which I don't really understand. However, his head was showing a 6% flatness before the helmet. Now it's at 2%! So, as much as I hate the helmet, at least it's working! Yay :)

Jail

Brian has become so mobile lately that we decided it was best to go ahead and lower his crib. I just know if we hadn't he'd have been climbing or jumping out when I least expected it. I'm still not convinced that won't happen eventually, but at least for now, I feel a bit more secure. I didn't realize how different the crib would look once lowered. My poor baby looks like he's in a jail cell! He doesn't seem to mind a bit; and he very much enjoys being able to stand up in his newly lowered crib and chew on the side of it.

Happy 1st Birthday Jade!

Brian's cousin Jade turns 1 tomorrow and we celebrated this milestone today with a party! Jade enjoyed the cake, presents and play ing with her cousins. They even formed a band! Here are a few pictures.

Welcome Itz!

We welcomed a new member of the Aydt family this weekend. Technically, he's been around for a few weeks, but we just met him! Itz Aydt came to visit. He's such a cutie that I just had to share a picture of Brian's new "cousin." Thankfully, this gets Jon out of naming his first human child Itz!