Brendan is 34 weeks old tomorrow- 7 ½ months! He became a “pro” sitter about 2 weeks ago. He can’t get to a sitting on his own yet- but when he does he’ll be everywhere!!! He wears 12-18 month clothes and size 3 diapers. He weighed 20 pounds on Oct. 6th. I started Weigh Watchers online at the end of October. Wish me luck!
Head Update: Bren’s pediatrician consulted with a neurosurgeon about his head ultrasound. He agreed it looked fine but wanted him to have an MRI done just to be sure. This is my post to the board about it:
Oct 6
We’re back and exhausted. Funny how a few anxious hours can do that to a person.
Well, the nurses kept telling us conflicting info. Argh- I hate that. But he was finally sedated orally with no contrast drugs- which means no IV!!! I got to feed him the medication (a big ole syringe full of honey looking stuff). He sure didn’t care for it but downed it bravely. Then I rocked him for about 10 minutes and he konked out. Neither of us were allowed to be with him during the MRI but I got to lay him down on the machine. He looked so tiny on the table by that big machine and with his teensy yellow hospital gown on!!! Then we walked back to the waiting room. Both of us were really irritable then and we realized it was the stress of it all. Finally, about 45 minutes later, we were told we could go back to the pediatric “Prep & Hold” room and he was in a child’s hospital bed hooked with a few wires to a monitor. He looked so… sick… lying there in that bed covered in technology and being so still. It was eerie!! He was completely zonked too. While the nurses went on with their business, we held his hand and read his chart- apparently he slept through the whole thing and it went off without a hitch. After about 15 minutes, the nurse brought over a cool, wet cloth and tried to wake him up by wiping his face, arms and belly with it. It took awhile but he finally woke up. He had to drink something before we were allowed to leave, so they gave us a 2 oz sugar water bottle and he downed it in about a minute and yelled for more. So we dressed him and were allowed to leave and were escorted to our car. Bren was extremely cranky all the way home plus another 20 minutes or so. He now sleeps (his breathing is slightly gaspy) in his pack n play right beside me, so I can watch over him.
We took the MRI films with us. They are pretty interesting… in a Halloween sort of way! I scanned the better pictures from the films as best as I could and highlighted the best hemangioma shot I saw:

Timeline:
Sept 30- broccoli & cauliflower baby food
Oct 1- He is scared of the sound aerosol cans make…funny bird!
Oct 4- Trip to Oktoberfest in Fredericksburg, TX. Lots of fresh air. You try cotton candy!
Oct 5- He loves Wendy’s Frosties!
Oct 6- MRI
Oct 7- Learned to turn a “tap light” on and off!
Oct 8- He does not like the sound of pulling packing tape off of the roll!
Oct 11- We meet Jana, Ella & Scott at the zoo. Nico and Mia go too. It rained. Again.
Oct 12- Trip to Waco to see Mimi & Grandpa. They bought him lots of toys including stacking cars and a musical drum.
Oct 13- Darrell and I get a horrible stomach bug.
Oct 16- Brendan gets the bug. Lots of whole-bottle throwing up!! 
Oct 18- Mimicks you smacking your lips!!
Oct 19- We buy a new stroller (Graco Metrolite) because the strap on the other broke. We love it except that the seat is hard to raise when he’s in it.
Oct 20- Happy 7 months, Brenny-Boy!
Oct 24- Brendan sits in a grocery cart with just the regular strap!
Oct 25- Happy Birthday Mommy! You copy daddy and pull your shirt over your head and back.
Oct 28- The corners of 2 bottom teeth show up! Yay!!! First teeth!
Oct 31- Brendan goes trick-or-treating. He was an adorable Tigger.
Nov 1- First Airplane ride!! Bren & I go to Indiana to meet my family. Auntie Tasha just adores him!!!
Nov 4- Bren taps toys on his pacifier to hear them clink.
Nov 6- Bren has his own ice cream cone- orange sherbet. He didn’t care for it at first. We play mini golf.
Nov 7- We return home from trip. He met Grandpa, Uncle Mark, Aunt Tasha, Uncle Dave, Aunt Tammy, my Uncle Phil & Aunt Jo, my cousin Chris and my cousin Rick’s daughter Paige.
Nov 8- We discover that what we thought was the corners of two teeth popping through is one tooth with a notch in it! Strange!
Nov 9- You figured out that you need to spit out your pacifier before you can drink your bottle today. You ate fresh banana pieces.
Nov 10- Cut up canned green beans.
Nov 11- large apple-cinnamon rice cake.
Details:
10/16 First illness
Nothing distresses you more than seeing your baby throw up an entire 8 oz bottle at once! Yuck!! Luckily Darrell and Bren were totally recovered in 36 hours. Mine, sadly, lingered for 2 weeks+. I was just sick enough not to obsess over how my baby was sick. The nurse just told us to bring him in if it didn’t improve in a few days and that it was “going around”. He only had a low fever and the tummy upset.
10/18 Lip popping copycat
Brendan’s coy about it. We’ll try to get him to pop his lips for 10 minutes, then as soon as we turn around he’s doing it! Also, I caught him laughing and doing it in his sleep last night- the lil stinker! He’s gonna be a real clown!
10/27- Pre-trip post:
He said “elf” last night clear as day. I think one of Santa’s elves was peering in the window cuz both DH and I looked at each other and said, “He said ‘elf’!” LOL.
He’s been back to eating 1 stage 2 jar at a time now. He’s been this way for a couple of weeks now- so the growth spurt is over for a bit! He had been eating 1 ½ to 2 jars at a time! Thank goodness- I don’t know if my wallet can handle buying 24 month clothes yet!
We’re going to visit my Dad in Indiana- just me and Bren- on Saturday and we’ll be gone a week. Pray for us as we have to make 3 flights to get there and 3 flights to get home by ourselves. We have to BE at the airport at 4:45 am the day after all the Halloween parties. Yikes! But I am looking forward to seeing my family and introducing Brendan all around.
11/8 Post trip
Brendan is a MARVELOUS flier! He didn’t seem to have any ear trouble and the rumbling made him sleepy. We got bumped off of our flight twice and earned 2 free tickets anywhere in the US except Hawaii for any day in the next year. I am so excited! Of all the family we saw in Indiana- Tasha was the most excited. She just LOVED Brendan and was such a big help to me. My brother Mark turned out to be such a sweet guy too. Similar to Darrell. The night we arrived, they threw a Halloween party. My Dad was a buxom lady with bright pink hair-lol. We spent one afternoon playing miniature golf and had lunch at Panera Bread Co. One night we had White Castle burgers too. We spent an evening with Tammy and Dave also. He put on a movie that started with a big plane crash!! That’s my brother. Brendan had a face rash much of the time we were there. Perhaps it was their detergent or he got too warm on the blow-up plastic mattress. I was totally distraught when I was home to discover that I didn’t get a single picture of my Dad and Brendan together. But it turned out that Tasha did- even though they weren’t very good ones. It was good to see them all again. I wish we lived closer. Darrell had a beautiful Red Rose Cookie bouquet waiting for me. He is so wonderful. So much for my weight watchers though. LOL.
11/8- Just one tooth!
Is it okay for his tooth to have a little notch out of it? That concerns me. He’s been teething and whiny on and off for 2 weeks now. I imagine it hurts him. Baby Motrin and Orajel seem to help.
Brendan is such a joy. He laughs out loud with delight at simple things- like when I duck down beside the bed and then spring up and say “Peekaboo!” Or when I hold him up and tap his forehead against the cords dangling from the ceiling fan. I loooove his laugh! He gets upset sometimes when I leave the room too. He’ll watch me walk down the hall from our bed and as soon as I turn a corner he whines. He still sleeps in the pack n play but I hope to get him into his own crib in the next month. We bought him a toddler outdoor swing also. I hope to buy some chains and get it up soon.

Brendan (6 months) sitting at Oktoberfest. He toppled over and cried immediately after this was taken.

Brendan’s semi-formal 7 month portrait. The car is one of the stacking cars from Grandpa.

Yes, he is IN the pumpkin!!

Here we are in our costumes: Darrell’s a burglar (won 1st place at his work’s party!), I’m a black cat & Brendan is Tigger.

Brendan’s first plane ride!

My Dad and 2 brothers. This is Brendan’s first time meeting my family.

Brendan helps us play miniature golf.