I'm a year old now! I'm super-huge! Dr. Thomas says my weight is average, and healthy for my height, but my height is taller than average! :) I had to get five shots at my check-up AND they had to draw blood to do something called a CBC. I thought it went ABC. They need to work on their alphabet. Anyway, I'm a little slow to eat real food, so I'm still eating a lot of mooshy baby food, but boy do I love to chow down on some Kix cereal. Sometimes I throw it too. Mommy and Daddy got me this huge play yard like my Uncle Finn used to have, and they put these stiff foam mats underneath so that if I fall, I won't really hurt myself. Speaking of falling, I'm trying really hard to walk on my own, but just don't seem to have the motivation. If Mommy holds out her fingers, I'll walk her all the way from the living room down the hallway to her and Daddy's bedroom at the end of the hall. Then I make her pick me up and put me on the bed so I can bounce. I'm too big for my bouncy seat now. :-(

Oh! Mommy and Daddy got married! I looked really handsome in my teeny suit, red shirt, black necktie, and hand-crafted Robin symbol. I had little black shoes that matched Daddy's too. My hair was a bit scruffy though. Mommy fixed that a few weeks later when she finally gave me a haircut. Daddy was SO happy! After the wedding, I went home with Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw, my great-grandparents. I stayed with them until Monday, then I went to stay with Nana Allen, my grandmother! I had so much fun visiting and playing, but I was very happy to see Mommy and Daddy on Saturday.

That's when Mommy threw me a 1st Birthday Party! Lots of yummy foods that I wouldn't eat :-P. I DID, however, get my own 'Happy 1st Birthday Drake!' cake. Mommy put me in my highchair, only wearing a diaper, and she put the little me cake on the tray. I wasn't sure what to do with it at first, and cautiously touched it with a finger. Mommy got impatient, stuck her finger in the frosting, then stuck her finger in my mouth. YUMMY!!!! Cake became my favorite thing, and I started smooshing it up and grabbing fistfuls of cake and frosting to shove in my mouth. I was TOTALLY covered in cake and frosting. When I was done, Mommy got dressed in a plastic bag, I guess to stay clean, and put me in the bathtub to hose me down. It was SO much fun.


Baby Stats:

Height: 30" (2 1/2 feet tall!)
Weight: 24 lb. 4 oz.

Wow, I really need to update my icon.  Tomorrow I will be 8 months old!  Getting close to that year mark!  Mommy is stressing about the wedding and all kinds of stuff.   I'm growing like crazy!  I've learned to roll over both ways, I can sit up (as long as you sit me down first), and I even gabble at you!  I'm eating all kinds of baby food now, too.  I've gotten so big, that a lot of Mommy's favorite outfits for me don't fit anymore.  I like the Wiggles, but my favorite movie is The Adventures of Milo and Otis.  See?

  I have a bouncy seat that Mommy bought for me, and I love it very much!  I also have a new game for you all to play!  Can you find me in this next picture?

Good luck!



Did you see me?  Yes I got into that spot all by myself!  Still working on the whole forward motion thing though.


Baby Stats:

Height: Currently unknown
Weight: ~22.5 lbs

I am now 4 months old!  I went to Dr. Thomas' office yesterday for more shots.  Starting to get suspicious when Daddy takes me somewhere and Mommy's not with us. j/k  No, Daddy is awesome.  After the check-up, we ran some errands, and then went to the Aquarium. Mommy was there!  She was working, but got to play with me a little anyway.  I saw so many fish and animals!  When Mommy's shift was over, we had dinner over at Manuel's Tavern.  I was kinda fussy because I was TIRED and hungry!  My feeding time of 6pm couldn't get here fast enough!  Finally, we got home, and I took a nap.  All in all, it was a nifty day.  Today I might see Aunt Nicole at the Agnes Scott track!  She likes to run.

Baby Stats!
Height:  25"
Weight:  15.5 lbs
Head Circumference: 42cm

Dr. Thomas said that size-wise, I'm an incredibly average baby.  Right in the middle of all the size ranges for Height, Weight, and Head size!

So, I have a cold.  It's a virus and an upper respiratory infection.  *sigh*  Mommy took me to Dr. Thomas' office on Friday to get it looked at.  She stripped me down for the scale and I didn't cry at all!  Aside from the gobs of snot that ooze from my little nose and a hacking baby cough, I'm doing great!  I smile and I laugh!  I roll over sometimes too, as long as I'm not too tired.  I cooed at Nana Allen on the phone the other day for a good minute or two!  Hopefully Mommy will put up more pictures on Facebook, and then post the link here.  Oh!  Aunt Nicole came to see me last Tuesday!  I'm now on a feeding schedule too.  I eat 4-6 oz. of formula every three hours.  Sometimes I get unhappy about waiting, but the routine is good for me.  Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw also came to visit me on Tuesday!  Maw-Maw took lots of pictures, and brought me some clothes.  My favorite right now is the super-soft set of blue fuzzy footie pajamas with the dinosaurs on them!  Mommy likes to snuggle me a LOT when I'm wearing those. 


Weight: 14lb. 8oz.
Height: +24in.  Will be more exact on 2/20

Soooo....3 days away from 12 weeks old!!!  Almost done with the thrush, but I did pick up a sinus infection from Mommy and Daddy.  I'm getting better though.  I smile a lot now, and giggled for Mommy and Daddy!

Stats:
Height: 24"
Weight: 12 lbs 10 oz

I have a new userpic! See?  I'm one month old there.  ^_^

So yesterday was my one month checkup!  Aside from still having Thrush, I'm doing great!  However, Mommy was having trouble producing enough milk for me, no matter what she did, so I'm on Similac Advance with Early Shield now.  Nom nom nom.  I don't have to go back to the doctor's office for a month!  Not til the day after Christmas! Hooray!

Baby Stats:

Weight:  7 lb. 14 oz. OMG! (I gained 19 oz. in 10 days!  Making up for when my appetite was kinda low when I was sick)
Height:  21"! (That's 3.5" growth since I was born!)

Oh!  Check out my scrapbook for pictures of me at bathtime!

So, after being told that I looked great on Friday, I was able to come home and stay there 'til Wednesday.  So yesterday, we tromped back to the Doctor's office.  I look great!  Mastitis is gone, that medicine is done, and even though the thrush is gone, I'll still be on that medicine until the bottle is empty.  That's okay though--it's cherry-flavored.  ^_^  Mommy has set out my many layers of clothes and blankets for Ryam and Jeanelle's wedding today!  She wants to make extra-sure that I'll be warm.  Anyway, I don't have to go back to the doctor 'til my one month checkup!  Yay!!!!....oh wait....that's a week from Friday...darn.  Sooner than I thought.  

Baby Stats:

Weight: 6 lb. 11oz.

So Mommy and I get home from picking up groceries and my new medicine, when Dr. Thomas' office calls.  It seems that Dr. Thomas has received a copy of my blood cultures, and wants me to come back in today to be looked at again and possibly change my antibiotics.  So, Mommy doesn't even bother getting me out of the car seat.  Off we go to Starbucks to wait on Daddy's shift to be over, and then off to the Dr.'s Office. 

Once again, I must suffer the indignity of being stripped naked, and placed on a cold scale.  We waited a long time (it was a busy afternoon in the office), so Daddy and I took a nap.  Finally, Dr. Thomas came in and told us what we already knew about the blood cultures.  When he found out about the topical ointment that Mommy hadn't even had the chance to USE, he said it wouldn't do any good and we could just throw it away.  Mommy was getting pretty frustrated with all these medications at this point.  He prescribed a new antibiotic that the blood cultures showed the infection WOULD be receptive to.  Unfortunately, one of the side-effects of this drug is that it can increase my levels of unbound biliruben (the chemical or enzyme whatever thingie that causes Jaundice in babies).  So, not only does Mommy have to watch my coloring like a hawk, we have to go BACK to Dr. Thomas' office tomorrow so he can look at me again before the weekend, and check my coloring. 

Baby Stats:

Weight: Same as yesterday at 6lb. 8oz.!

So had my follow-up with Dr. Thomas.  Chest looks good right now, but the inside of my mouth is all white!  It turns out that in babies as small and young as I am, antibiotics can often cause Thrush--a yeast infection in the mouth.  This is nothing serious, but it does mean that Mommy has to throw away ALL of my old pacifiers and bottle nipples, and buy new ones.  I also am now on a new oral medication for the Thrush, as well as a prescription butt cream for the little bit of yeast infection that has come out on the skin down there (because of the Thrush).  

I'm really getting tired of the Dr.'s office. 

We finally got home, and Mommy got a call from Dr. Weinkle, the pediatrician who drained the abcess in my chest.  He said that the blood cultures had come back, and that my infection was resistant to the Cleocin that I was taking.  So he said to stop taking that, and he prescribed a topical ointment for Mommy to pick up from Walgreen's in the morning.  At least I don't have to go back to the doctor's office for a week.

So today I went back to Dr. Thomas' office.  After seeing my chest, he asked Mommy if it looked like it had "majorly" improved after three days of antibiotics, and she said no.  He then called the pediatric surgeon about trying to drain this red puffy spot that now protruded to about the size of my nose.  The surgeon said to send us over to the ER at Scottish Rite, and he'd take a look at me.  So, off we went, BACK to the hospital.  *sigh*  

While there, I was weighed again, had vitals taken, and the doctor agreed we needed to drain it, if we could.  They put this topical numbing agent on the lump, then came back about half an hour later with a scalpel to poke a hole in it.  It actually looked like it was already trying to form a head, so they poked the teeny hole there.  SOOOO much pus came out.  Mommy looked pretty green.  The doctor and the nurse said I was a very good boy.  Now my chest is properly flat!  I still need to be on my antibiotics to finish taking care of the infection, but at least I'm now back to normal, and shouldn't have to go back to the hospital.  Yay!  I follow up with Dr. Thomas again on Wednesday.

Baby Stats:

Weight:  6 lb. 4 oz.  (Hooray!  Up past birth weight!)
Belly Button:  Completed!  It's an innie!

Well, on Friday I went back to Dr. Thomas' office.  Mommy had noticed that I had what looked like a big bug bite or something next to my left nipple. It was red, raised, and warm to the touch, so Dr. Cho (the other pediatrician at Dr. Thomas' office) told Mommy to take me across the street to the emergency room at Scottish Rite.  Just as we were leaving to go there, I threw up all over myself.  T_T  I was NOT a happy baby.  

Daddy got off of work and met us in the Emergency Room.  We were seen to rather quickly, which was a nice change from last Friday.  The doctor who looked at me there declared that I had a tissue infection in my left breast tissue, aka Mastitis.  This was kinda weird to hear, given that Mastitis is something nursing mothers have to watch out for...in THEMSELVES.  Mommy doesn't have one.  Because I'm so little, they said that they wanted to admit me to the hospital for IV antibiotics, and if it didn't get better in 48 hours, they'd have the general surgeon come and look at me, and make a decision about trying to drain the lump.  All three of us were scared.  Mommy and Daddy didn't know they could stay with me up there, so they both cried a lot, especially when it came time for the techs to put the IV in my little bitty hand.  We finally got moved up to a room, and there were places for Mommy and Daddy to sleep!  They could stay with me!  The nurses were all really cool and super-nice.  I hated whenever they had to take my bloodpressure though.  The next two days were very similar.  Mostly I ate, slept, peed, pooed, and received antibiotics in my IV every six hours.  The nurses adored me.  They talked Mommy into trying to go out with Daddy to get some air for a while, which meant they got to take me to the Nurse's Station and cuddle me.

After two days, my infection was showing some noticible improvement.  Still red, but the red area has shrunk some.  I still don't have a fever, and my input and output has been great, so we've managed to keep the infection localized.  They pediatrician there said that I'm doing well enough to go home!  I still have to be on oral antibiotics every six hours for eight days, and I'm following up with Dr. Thomas today in a couple hours. 

Baby Stats:

Weight: 6lb. 1oz.


Aunt Nicole!  Come visit me!!!  Mommy told me lots about you!

Today I went with Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma Margueritte (not sure what to call her yet) to Dr. Thomas' office for my first doctor's appointment!  Dr. Thomas was Mommy's pediatrician too!  I slept in my stroller while Mommy did all the paperwork.  Then the nurse took us to a room, and I had to get all naked and cold to be weighed.  I didn't like that very much.  Then Dr. Thomas came in.  He's silly!  He said I looked great. He's very happy that I'm eating from Mommy.  

Baby Stats 10/27:

Weight: 5 lb. 14 oz. (Yay! I'm gaining weight!)
Length:  18.5 inches (Oooh! I'm getting taller too!)
Circumcision:  Healed
Umbilicus:  Still attached

Nana Allen came over today to help out Mommy!  She brought lots and lots of food, and more baby-care stuff for me!  She also held me, and loved me, and oh!  She trimmed my long fingernails for Mommy!  Finally she had to go, which was sad, but I was also really hungry so Mommy fed me, and I felt better.  Later on, Nana Sandy and Papaw came over to visit for a bit, but after eating some more, I got really fussy.  Nana Sandy and Papaw left, and Mommy and Daddy couldn't figure out why I was crying.  They tried just about everything.  In the end I cried for about 4-5 hours.  So at 1 AM, Mommy was on the phone with the doctor to ask what to do.  Both she and Daddy were scared at that point.  It wasn't a big deal, but I just couldn't get them to understand me. *sigh*  Crying is such a cumbersome way of communicating.  The doctor said that since I was still so new, they should bring me to the emergency room at Scottish Rite to get checked out, just in case.  Since it was cold outside, Mommy and Daddy bundled me up a lot...and I stopped crying.  I had TRIED to tell them I was cold, but that was the one thing they didn't think of.  For safety's sake though, they still took me down there.  They pricked my heel again to check my Jaundice levels, and put this weird yellow stuff in my eyes to make sure I hadn't scratched my corneas.  I was also really hungry.  Unfortunately, with all my crying, I hadn't wanted to eat before, and that's also when Mommy's milk came in, so she was too big for me to eat from.   Mommy was really upset.  After about four hours at the hospital, they said I'd done fine on all the tests and we could go home.  Mommy managed to pump some, and Daddy gave it to me in a bottle.  After that I ate fine from Mommy, with no problems.  Mostly though, we all just went to sleep.  We were SUPER tired.

Emergency Room Stats:

Weight:  5 lbs. 9 oz.
Length:  Supposedly Unchanged
Jaundice Levels:  Low

Today we went home!  I have a furry big sister named Faye the Cat.  She came over and sniffed me in my new car seat, and then wandered about her business.  Maybe she'll play with me when I'm bigger.  I've astounded Daddy with my copious amounts of poo.  Well, meconium really. 

So, here are my leaving the hospital stats:

Weight: 5 lbs. 12.5 oz.
Length:  Unchanged
Color:  Good
Jaundice Levels: Low (Yay!)
Circumcised:  Yeah...ow...
Hearing Test:  Pass!

Tonight I meet my cousin Kayla.  She's older than me by 7 1/2 months, so she's much bigger right now than I am.  She'll be lots of fun when I'm bigger.  She LOVES to play. ^_^

I was just born!  My name is Drake Robin Tindale, born to Chad Douglas Tindale and Megan Christine Luckett!

Here are my birth stats!

Hospital:  Wellstar Kennestone Hospital
Date:  Oct. 21st, 2008
Time:  1:33pm
Length:  17.5 inches
Weight:  6 lbs. 2 oz.
APGAR score:  8

I'm a teensy baby with a cleft chin like my Daddy, and big eyes like my Mommy.  My arms are really strong!  Daddy says I'm going to be a superhero.  Daddy cut the umbilical cord.  Mommy hid under the blanket when he did that, because it can get kinda messy.  After they got me all cleaned up, they handed me to Mommy, and I got my first meal!  It took a couple tries, but I'm sure we'll get the hang of it soon.