Baby's First Christmas

Here is the video we took of Tristan and his gifts! The sun was really bright coming in the window, next time we'll be sure to move the camera out of the sun.





Baby's First Christmas from Holly Riley on Vimeo.


And here is a video from back in the day, a month ago, when I was trying to figure out my Moby Wrap to carry Tristan in for Travis' ironman race.  No I'm not naked, I pulled the straps down from my tank top.


Tristan's first try in the Moby Wrap from Holly Riley on Vimeo.

Some pics of our beautiful baby boy!

Pulmonologist visit

Hola a todos -

Our visit to the pediatric pulmonologist went well.  Tristan has stridor and laryngomalacia.  (I made a link there, so you can read up on it).  Basically, laryngomalacia results in partial airway obstruction and causes the high-pitched squeaking noise when Tristan breathes in.  So what do we do?  We give it time.  The doctor said that Tristan will most likely outgrow this by his first birthday or by the latest, his second birthday.  He said it is harmless and won't develop into any further problems.  It is very common in infants and it is not hereditary or caused by something the mother did wrong - it is a congenital (present at birth) defect of the larynx.  The only problem is that it is aggravated by crying and I tell Tristan that, but I don't think he gets it just yet :)  The doctor told us to add 1/2 teaspoon - 1 tsp of rice cereal to his feedings to thicken the formula.  He said that will help to strengthen the muscles around there.  We have a follow-up appointment in 4 weeks and the doctor will assess if he needs to insert a tube in Tristan's nose and look down his respiratory tract.  The good thing to note is that Tristan does not have a long wheezing sound, which means he doesn't have a severe case of stridor.  So please keep Tristan and his health in your prayers!!

We hope everyone has a good weekend - we are going to try and catch up on some sleep and get the apartment organized :s 

5 weeks, etc.

It’s been a while, sorry!  Tristan was 5 weeks old yesterday! Last week we were at the ER Monday late into the night – Tristan cried for over 2 hours straight and would not calm down. After his temperature was 100.0 and I called the pediatrician, we ended up going in, primarily for his rapid breathing, gasping and gagging. So we found out our little guy probably has a problem with his respiratory tract. We have an appointment with a pediatric pulmonologist tomorrow.


Other than that, it’s been a rough last several days. Tristan will have a good day and then he’ll have a few bad days where he just cries and cries and screams (and yes, I’ve tried everything under the sun to calm him down, promise). I’ve missed quite a few phone calls :(

But Travis and I did go to his super cool holiday party on Saturday night! It was a black-tie event, a private carnival for the Go Daddy employees on Chase field (where the diamondbacks play) and Travis even won me a stuffed animal, so anyway, it was awesome and it was a great date night! We played lots of carnival games, ate some carnival food and Travis kicked my butt on the wii. We left Tristan with a baby-sitter for 4 ½ hours and he did very well. I woke him up before we left and fed him a bit and he ended up sleeping 4 hours, so the sitter didn’t have to do too much, which is good since he was only 4 months old and we didn’t know the sitter, only that she’s 20 years old and majoring in early childhood development. She was recommended by our church and we really liked her. Luckily, we probably won’t need a sitter until Tristan’s a little bit older, so that’s good.

Travis and I are getting more and more adjusted to our newest family member, but it definitely has its challenges. Yesterday Tristan cried and screamed a lot during the day and early evening he had been crying and screaming in my ear for over 20 minutes and I lost it and started crying too. He then of course stopped crying at me and I think he even gave me a “what’s your problem” look, but I might have made that up, and then he started crying again, so I handed the baby off to Travis when he finally got home (30 minutes late) and I went and locked myself in the closet and cried for a while longer. It’s hard not to take the crying and screaming personally. I know that all babies cry between 1 – 5 hours a day, but it’s hard sometimes when you hear how “wonderful” other babies are. Travis told me that people just block out the bad stuff and I remembered that everything always seems like it was much better whenever you reflect on it, or at least you don’t remember how it was at the time. I need to stop stressing about it and get rid of my type A/over-achiever/perfectionist attitude when I take something on, which includes taking on motherhood. After all, Tristan is just a baby, every baby is different and all he can do is cry to communicate. In summary, don’t compare yourself to others and don’t compare your baby (babies) to other babies.

I’ve been running and lifting weights every other day, just between 2 and 2 ½ mile runs and today I did a yoga video. Travis has the trainer all set up in the living room and he’s been biking and doing his exercises.

We’re excited to have G & G Riley come down in a week and a half! Tristan’s already grown a ton since my last post; he was 9 lbs 2 oz at his 5 week appointment. He is a super cute baby and he definitely loves to stay awake and be active. He kicks off his blankets and anything you put on him, doesn’t really like to be swaddled at all anymore, always tries to push up, crawl up and stand up whenever you hold him and he ends up on the opposite side of his crib all twisted and in a different position. When he starts crawling and walking, boy oh boy, I can only imagine. Next pregnancy (NOT even thinking about it, although Travis did say Tristan needs a playmate, umm… Travis needs to stay home with Tristan for a week and then maybe he won’t be talking about playmates) Back to what I was writing, next pregnancy, I am sitting on the couch for 9 months instead of walking around and working out so much ;)

I’ll update after the pulmonologist visit tomorrow.