Merry Christmas!!

Aiden will be celebrating his first Christmas this year!

This year has brought some exciting changes to the Barger house. Eric and I started the year expecting a February baby boy Barger, but on January 23, 2009, Aiden Reece Barger was born. He is just an awesome little boy, and we have loved every minute of getting to know him and watch him grow. Over the year, he has learned to sit up, crawl, eat solid foods, stand up, cruise, smile, laugh, clap, wave and yell. The yelling has most recently entertained all the people in the grocery store, especially when he rides in the cart like it is a bucking bronco. He has seven teeth that all came in between months nine and ten. He has adorable chubby little cheeks that are rosy red this winter. Eric and I would say that Aiden is 110% little boy. He is fearless, which sometimes leads to bumps, bruises, and most recently a fat lip. He's a little adventurer; he loves to explore the house - under the coffee table, the closet, the kitchen cabinets, the basement - no place is too intimidating for this little guy. He makes us laugh with all the funny things he does, faces he makes, and sounds he makes. It is quite amazing to watch this little boy grow! We look forward to all the adventures 2010 will bring.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Remember the reason for the season. Luke 2:1-20

Peek-a-boo

We got a new washer a few weeks ago. The box has become a permanent fixture in our living room as Aiden's clubhouse. Here's Aiden peeking out the window.

Aiden is 10 Months Old

Well, the blog hasn't been updated for a while, but little Aiden sure has been busy! Aiden now has six teeth with two more on the way! He has learned to crawl from one end of the house to the other at the speed of light, and he has steadily improved his balance as he cruises around the furniture. He constantly does funny little things that make us laugh.

Aiden was Yoda for Halloween. He wasn't too crazy about the costume, but he did allow Mommy and Daddy to take a few pictures. Mommy and Daddy even dressed up too.

Aiden is 9 Months Old!

Since we haven't posted in a while, here's what Aiden's been doing. Aiden continues to grow and has started exploring the house now. He loves to stand and pull up and walk with our help. He has one bottom tooth and at least one on the way. He babbles a lot. "Da Da" still continues to be his favorite word. His little tummy troubles have been improving since his 8th month. He is on solids foods - three meals a day with fruits, veggies, and cereals. Aiden is so much fun! He loves to play and laugh. It won't be long before he is terrorizing the neighborhood.

We went for Aiden's 9 month appointment this week. He weighs 21 pounds, 1.5 ounces (62%). Our little guy is now 27.5 inches long (that's getting close to half of Mommy's height).

At the end of September, we went to Hilton Head. Daddy had a convention there, and Monmmy and Aiden just had to go with him. :) Aiden loved swinging on the playground.

Aiden also loved dipping his feet in the ocean and playing in the sand. Long strolls on the beach usually put him to sleep for a good long nap in the shade of the beach umbrella. We drove at night so the little guy slept nearly the entire trip both going and coming.

This is the life!

My 6 Month Stats

Mommy took me for my 6 month checkup ay the end of July. Drum roll please.... I weigh 18 lbs and 12.5 ounces (71 percentile), and my height is 26.25 inches (42 percentile). So you can tell that Mommy and Daddy are feeding me well. I am now eating oatmeal in addition to my rice cereal. Mommy has started making my baby food (only green veggies so far), and I may start those in a few weeks. She plans to make carrots this weekend. My favorite activities these days are bouncing and trying to crawl. I am getting close. I just need to learn how to move my arms and hold my head up. Right now, I drag my face, but it generally gets me where I want to go. :) My favorite toy is little bug that crinkles when I squeeze it. I am babbling a lot these days. I can say words that sounds like "hey" and "da da".

Daddy and Me

Hooray! I'm six months old!

I'm a big boy now!

Yum, Rice Cereal!

Hiccups!

Celebrating Father's Day with Daddy

Aiden Playing

Aiden's First Meal

Watch Aiden have his first spoon fed meal. Click here to watch the short video. Nothing hits the spot like rice cereal!

Aiden Update

What a blessing! We got great news from the cardiologist Friday. Aiden's condition has not progressed in the last two months. This means no surgery, no balloons, etc., and we don't go back for 6 months. If no progression again, then the check-ups will be stretched to every year. The GI doctor is very happy with Aiden's growth, and still insists that most babies grow out of these GI issues. So, for now, we just keep doing what we're doing. Aiden is such an awesome little boy! He was such a good boy on Friday, even though we spent most of the day at Children's Hospital for his appointments. He was probably relieved that these appointments came with no shots!

Thanks to everyone for your prayers!

Why Can't I Find the Disney Channel?

Today's Headline

We finally caught up with Aiden Barger during his photo shoot today. He said, "Of course, I do all of my own stunts." Yes, that's right. Aiden rolled over from his side to his tummy today! Just after Mommy told the doctor yesterday that he was so close but couldn't do it without help yet. He's growing up so fast!

4 Month Doctor Visit

Aiden had his four month doctor visit today and the numbers are in.

Weight: 16 lb. 4 oz. (74% percentile)

Length: 24.75 in. (43% percentile)

Head Circumference: 44 cm (88% percentile)

At two months Aiden was in the 62% for weight, 16% percentile for
length, and 63% for head circumference. Aiden is growing like a weed
and is a big baby. He looks like a big kid next to children twice his
age. HIs cousin sisters may have something to worry about a few years
earlier than expected if he continues this growth route.

As far as how is Aiden doing; Aiden is the same. The only noticeable
improvement in his health that we can tell is his acid reflux isn't so
bad that he claws at his throat or grunts constantly. However, the
spit up and choking are the same and he sleeps on a 30 degree incline.
Kelly can tell everyone about the Nap Nanny but I can say that it is a
bed designed to hold the baby at 30 degrees and lets us get 8 hours of
sleep at night. Over 3 months to get to that point of not having to
hold him at night and finding that bed was the key. Thanks Tom and
Charlotte!!!!!

Aiden has cardiologist and gastroenterologist appointments soon and we will hopefully know more about his heart. If his kicking and babbling are any indicator, we are fine.

Just Thinking About What I'll Do When Mommy Isn't Looking

Just us guys

I Finally Caught My Feet Today

Aiden sleeping where he can get it

All Smiles

Daddy and Son

Below is daddy at 2 months.

Baby Aiden at 3 months in the same clothes. It was a BIG STRETCH to make them work.

Our little Jedi Knight.

April 1, 2009

Today we received the results to Aidens gastric belly emptying test. Aiden has a slight problem with his stomach not emptying fast enough. We were instructed not to lay him down flat while he is awake or sleeping. Poor mommy holds Aiden nearly 24/7 night and day to make sure he feels good.

Below is a picture of Kelly and Aiden having a good time in the lazy boy. Aiden is not picture shy at all.

Zantac has arrived

Aiden and mommy went back to the GI doctor for visit number two. It is a good thing that daddy is not a doctor because the results of the previous upper GI barium x-ray were not normal. The results showed that Aiden has acid reflux. Not exactly startling news to us or the doctor but it was confirmed.

Mommy told the doctor that Axid was NOT WORKING and she wanted Zantac. Mommy got Zantac. Aiden has not taken it yet so we don't know if it will work or not but it can't be any worse than Axid.

Aiden has another test scheduled for next week for a gastric emptying test. No x-ray, but they do a scan and track how quickly his stomach will empty after they feed him a bottle with nuclear stuff that will light up. This is because we cannot lay him down without him getting very stuffy (congested sounding in the nose) and will regurgitate his food after two hours. The doctor wants to rule out the possibility of the fluid making its way back up the esophagus and down into the lungs. That is VERY dangerous and extremely scary to be told the end result of that. So for the time being, mommy still will hold him 24/7 vertical just as we have done since birth.

Friday Update

We made it to Children's at 9:30 am and waited. I said wait because Aiden could not eat past 6 am that morning and he took his bottle at 5 am. It ended up being 10:22 am before we got to give him a bottle.

An upper GI barium x-ray. No fun, but better than the barium enema I am sure. They strapped him to a board with his arms above his head and proceeded to feed him barium chalk junk. They called it sugar water but we are not stupid. We watched on the screen him swallowing and it making it all the way to his stomach. Very neat, but I could live without having gone through it and I know for a FACT Kelly didn't like this test one bit. It was hard to watch.

We don't know anything and probably will not until Monday. Kelly and I did not see anything that would seem to be cause for any concern but we are not doctors. We did have to call the doctor on Friday night to tell them we were going back to #4 or #5, I may have lost count of the formulas at this point, because Similac Alumentum was horrible. Aiden has never spit up like that in his life! Fussy, gassy, uncomfortable, constant spit up that could be measured in ounces, horrible. We are back on Similac Sensitive with Rice cereal because that seemed to be the best of all the ones we have used.

I believe the medicine he is taking in conjunction with his Axid is working. It coats the stomach so he doesn't feel the reflux go up and down at all while the Axid trys to calm it down. Big help so far but we are still not there by a long shot.

Back to Children's

Aiden gets to drink some special fluid and get an x-ray tomorrow at Children's. *Sigh* Poor guy just has not had one day of peace. Neither has mommy.

Reflux, what a mess.

We did make it to the GI doctor at Children's today. A very special thanks to Wendy. We believe we are on the correct path to alleviating the reflux and getting to sleep, without holding Aiden vertical all night.

We have a new formula, #5, and more medicine.

Aiden weight 10 lb. 13.5 oz.

Reflux...

Another trip to the doctor on the weekend meant another formula and an extra medicine for reflux. The formula made things much worse but the jury is still out on the medicine. Aiden is now on Axid in the morning and Prevacid at night. Unfortunately, this is not enough. He has to sleep elevated a very steep angle.

Kelly and Aiden went back to the doctor today and we now have an appointment with a specialist at Children's Hospital in gastroenterologist in a few weeks. Kelly just reminded me that we have seen a cardiologist, urologist, and now a gastroenterologist. I think we are running out of 'ologist.

The reflux is bad. It is safe to say that he has not had a peaceful sleep on his back since he was born. It is safer to say that he has not slept but a handful of times on his back since he was born. And the most safest thing to say, Mommy has had almost no sleep while daddy sneaks it in with naps and when nana stays with us to help out.

Aiden is now 21" long, 10lb 3.5 oz and growing like a weed. He is taking a full 5 oz. bottle and we cut him off at that. H would gobble up 6 oz with no problems but the eating too much makes things much worse.

The appointment.

The doctor appointment with the cardiologist at Children's Hospital was today. Kelly did not get to go because she has caught the flu. Her mom has come down to help with Aiden at home and take care of Kelly. Daddy and mimi (Eric's mom) went to the doctor.

After another echocardiogram and various other small test, the doctor informed us that Aiden has a mild obstruction of the pulmonary valve. Simply put, it is not opening and closing allowing proper flow like one would like to see. Since it is a mild case, both before and now,
we have a followup appointment in three months. If nothing worsens, nothing gets done and there is nothing to worry about. Since it has not changed between newborn and one month, everyone is hopeful that it will stay that way.

Very good news indeed! The murmur is still present but very low in sound. Also good news and I assume that one follows the other in this case although I didn't ask at the time.

We are one half ounce from having a ten pound baby boy 21 inches long!

Weight update - We are growing

Nothing too big to see here but Aiden had another doctors appointment today and he weighed in at 8 lb. 12.5 oz. That is two ounces shy of a one pound weight gain in 6 days. The doctor was impressed or in a state of disbelief. The growth spurt continues.

The 2.5 week check up.

Aiden went in for his 3 week check up, early (2/10/09), and we were glad to hear that he now weighs 7 lb 14.5 oz. He gained more than 14 oz in 7 days. Great news! However, he is still very low in his national percentile rankings (all less than 33%). He may be small but at least he is not out of proportion in any direction he grows. This makes him look good. :-) Aiden grew 0.75" in the same 7 day period. A growth spurt! 

What makes this 2.5 week checkup so funny is it was on the day he was allegedly due. Kinda weird sitting in the doctors office with a human being that was not supposed to arrive until that day.

---

We received lots of advice when everyone found out we were having a baby. Breast feed (and watch your child become President), let them cry it out, you will find out now, I told you so, etc. We can only say one thing about having a child. Your life will never be the same again.

Congratulations to the Morton's! Please reference the above paragraph. :-)

That's not sweat!

It's pee! We realized today that Aiden wasn't making sweat while taking naps on his daddys belly. It was pee!

We figured this out after watching the first NHRA race of the season today. Aiden is going to be a drag racer. He drank and slept through the boring parts and wet his pants so he wouldn't have to get up to miss anything.

He is disappointed Ashley Force got married but daddy has told him there are plenty of fish at the track.

Two weeks and one day. We have a belly button.

Two weeks and one day after Aiden showed up on his schedule, we have a belly button. Sometime between 4:30 am and 8 am this morning the dried chord fell off. We keep excellent records so it was easy to determine the period. Lula Belle and Princess Jonesy, we are not keeping it. We are throwing it away in the trash can.

It has been a few days.

It has been a while since we have made a post. Daddy is back at work, for the most part and mommy is keeping me all day long. Unfortunately, I was having problems holding my food down. It turns out that after another trip to the doctor, I have acid reflux problems and I have to take medicine. Without my medicine, my food comes back up every time I am laid flat. Daddy also had to elevate my bed in addition to the medicine. 

Then, I started giving more problems with my number 2 habits. I am starting one teaspoon of dark Karo syrup tonight to help that out as well. Fun, fun! The doctor did tell me that I weighed seven pounds. I should be back to my birthweight by Friday.

Besides this, we have been trying to rest as much as possible since I have allowed my mommy and daddy to have any since I was born. I think they believe I am some sort of showoff. Lucky for them, I have chosen not to be a cry baby.

Super Bowl XLIII

Aiden fell asleep after throwing a fit when the Steelers won. Blah!

Foot prints from hospital

Big feet.

I'm one week old

We were at doctor's offices all day today. We are all very tired and am glad to have a weekend to rest. The doctor changed Aiden's formula so that he may have a better time digesting his food. Currently, he is having very long nights and this means that mommy and daddy are sharing those with him. We hope switching to "Enphamil Gentle Ease LIPIL" will cure our issues so we can finally get some sleep through the night.

The doctor also feels that the jaundice will be gone before we know it. Aiden's color gets better and better every day. 

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Mimi and Papaw came over tonight to visit me. Mimi got to feed and burp me. Before mommy and daddy could tell Mimi to not feed more than 45 mL, Mimi showed everyone an empty bottle (60 mL). After they left and I was laid down to sleep, I spit up. Ouch! Mommy and daddy are going to have to do a better job of monitoring that or they may get fired.

Mimi burping me

At the doctor today.

Medical Update

Yesterday went good. We headed back to the hospital to get blood taken for his jaundice test. His jaundice is dropping and the doctor is pleased enough to stop testing him for it at this time even though he is above the lower limit.

We have an appointment with the cardiologist at Children's Hospital for late February. Dr. Sharma is the one that read the ECHO and wanted a followup visit. That day can't come soon enough for mommy and daddy. We are feeling better about the diagnosis since we believe it not to be an immediate need. Hopefully, the heart condition will just have to be monitored and watched as he grows but we will know more in a month.

Other news

I had a great time last night. Mommy and daddy pulled a surprise and allowed my cousins to come over early. Even Aunt Heather was allowed to hold me. What a treat! Lulabelle and Princess Jonsey were both very excited to see me for the first time. I have pictures below to prove it. They told daddy he was spelling their nicknames wrong and set him down to tell him just how to spell them. Jonsey wanted "Princess" in front of her nickname.

Pictures from last night.

Princess Jonsey getting the bed ready

Aunt Heather holding me (Princess Jonsey, Aunt Heather, Lulabelle, and Mimi)

Princess Jonsey holding me.

Lulabelle holding me with Princess Jonsey being funny.

Uncle Wesley feeding me

Guess what. Another appointment.

The first pediatrician visit went well. We did receive the report from the Cardiologist at Children's through our pediatrician. The report was brief and detailed the findings. We have a followup visit with the cardiologist and we are going to leave it at that for now. We have not received an appointment time yet but we guess we will have an appointment scheduled by tomorrow. But there seems to be no rush on getting him there so we are viewing this as a good sign. They seem to think this is more a function of Aiden being nearly three weeks early. At least that keeps coming up in every conversation we have even though we didn't feel that was a big deal. Evidently, we were wrong. We do have to go back to the hospital and pediatrician tomorrow for another test regarding his jaundice. It is going the wrong way and we can't seem to stop it. Hopefully tomorrow it will show a sign of going backwards.

You can see Aiden taking it easy in his bassinet he is borrowing from his cousins Jonathan and Victoria. He slept like a champ in it! Aiden also wanted to say "Happy Birthday" to Victoria since their birthdays are very close.

Mommy feeding Aiden tonight. Where does he get that dark complexion?

Mimi and Papaw looking in the car at Aiden. None of Eric's family is allowed within breathing distance of me until Friday because Aunt Heather contaminated everyone with a nasty virus (the hospital even quarantined her). I have not met my cousins Lula Bell and Jonsey yet and I can't wait to have them hold me. It will be like having two more mom's that want to change my diaper and tell me what I am doing wrong.

About to be examined.

Just waiting for the Doctor to come in.

At first Doctor Appointment

Children's Update

We have went to Children's Hospital. We were there bright and early this morning. We hope the cardiologist reads our test data before our 3 pm appointment in a hour or so. I will post back more information after the visit.

Day 4

This will be short, be forewarned. We want to thank everyone for the prayers, phone calls. offers of help (even getting the groceries), and emails. We should have something posted up by 6 pm tomorrow night.

Children's had a miscue and sent their technician home early and we missed being seen. We have to be back at Children's at 8 am. They are going to run the Echo and other test(s) before we head to our pediatrician's office at 3 pm. The doctor this morning said he thinks it may be PDA instead of VSD. Either way, it is getting harder to hear and for that, we are very grateful.

Kelly's mom is here (grandma) and they are taking care of the baby while daddy goes to bed because daddy is a sleep deprived nervous wreck. Mommy is somehow going around the house getting things ready for little Aiden. Daddy and grandma said "slow down" but mommies are mommies. 

Mommy is doing better but that is very relative to the night where daddy was about to loose it looking at both of them and thinking which one will kill him faster. :-) After seeing thee day old Aiden roll himself over on his side in the crib, daddy is thinking Aiden, but it will be a long, slow and painful process starting in about 16 years. Mommy enjoys it too much to actually let me get off the hook.

To Lulu Bell and Jonesy, Aiden has laid claim to the orange bedroom unless you make a comment on here. He has left a poopy diaper in it too! Baby Aiden can't wait to see you both, he wants to meet his cousins and share cow lick stories.

January 26 - Waiting for the discharge notice (notice Mimi's quilt)

Aidens first bottle. Breast feeding didn't go so well for us.

Auntie Kendra being cautious before approaching nephew Aiden. 

Daddy and Aiden hanging out