Smiling, Ver 1.0 - Mar 16

Remember I said Chloe has been smiling more lately? Well, this is a first attempt to catch a photo of what I'm calling a "real" smile..where she is looking at us and her entire face lights up...where you really feel like she is happy to see you. =)



There will be better photos, but this is what I got tonight after just a few minutes of trying. She is also making all sorts of cute little noises. people ask us if she is "cooing" yet I guess the answer is yes but she seems to have her own little language. It's funny, one of our favorite things that she does is when she sneezes..she sneezes like 4-6 times in a row and most of the time its like "ACHOO, ACHOO, ACHOO, ACHOO, Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!" and it's the cutest darn thing. We have been unsuccessful in timing a video of it..but we will get it and I will post it when we do!

Happy 9 Week Birthday, Chloe! - Mar 12

9 weeks. Time now is just flying by. I really don't know what happened to this week...it's like it somehow slipped away. I feel like I was just sitting here trying to think of something to write about her being 8 weeks old. I started trying to go to Costco on Sunday and we just finally went tonight. Crazy! The picture above is from our little handheld video monitor thing. Our pediatrician told us that it might be a good idea to start slowly getting Chloe used to sleeping in her crib so we started putting her down for a nap or two during the day. Our house isn't that big but when she does end up sleeping in her own room, sight and sound will be required if we even get a minute of sleep lol. =) Speaking of sleep, we actually had 2 nights this week where Chloe slept what some might call "through the night". We have not had any repeat performances since those two yet, but she is definitely getting into a better/deeper sleep when she is sleeping so that's still good news.

So today we have our follow up appointment with the dermatologist to see what they have to say about the hemangioma. To me it did increase in size since our last visit, but it seems to have hit a plateau in the last few weeks. Hopefully. We'll see what they have to say.

So because I'm not entirely sure what happened to the week, here are some pictures that were randomly taken throughout. She really is getting big now! She's starting to fit into a lot more outfits..which means she is no longer fitting into several also. That's awesome and sad all at once lol. Here's one of her new outfits that fits...lol.



car seat portrait


And she has been smiling since she was 3 days old (as captured on video several weeks ago) but recently she has been smiling a lot more. It's so cute but unfortunately not very repeatable yet so it's difficult to catch a picture. She smiles when she's falling asleep and with certain things we do like kissing her cheek. She makes such good eye contact now it really is neat to see her and have it feel like she's actually smiling AT us. =)

Have a great weekend!
B+H+C

Happy 8 Week Birthday, Chloe! - Mar 5

Two months? Really?? The DMV called to remind us that Chloe's drivers test is 15 years and 10 months from now. Scary. Anyway, our day of excitement really was yesterday so instead of rambling on like I normally might, I'll just post a few favorites from this week and sign off! If you missed yesterday, keep scrolling =) C-ya~



I made Heather take this picture like 10 times lol

This looks like a mug shot or something =p

Shots And Shopping - Mar 4

So, I totally called it. Today was Chloe's 2 month check up appointment and afterwards...Babies R Us. More on that later. We saw a different pediatrician today because our regular was on vacation this week. Chloe was weighed and measured: 9 pounds 6.5 ounces and 21 and 3/4 inches long! She's growing like a weed lol. What's amazing to me is that some babies are actually born this size. She's still our little bean. =)

With measurements, come shots. It wasn't as dramatic as it could have been, but believe me when I tell you...I have never seen Chloe's face turn so red as when they were giving her the shots. It was like she was so freaked out that she couldn't even cry...and then she wailed. The greatest feeling was being able to pick her up right after which immediately calmed her down. I thought for sure we were going to have to leave the office with her screaming but she was a total champ. I guess I'm the big needle wuss in the family. I almost passed out once having blood drawn for a physical.


Love that shot.

So after the doctor we decided it was finally time to go out to lunch. It was the first time we got to go to a restaurant and sit down and eat in months. We both have been craving Fudruckers so that was the logical choice. Afterwards we did in fact end up at Babies R Us to exchange one thing and to pick up some Tylenol drops for infants (since they warned us that a possible side effect of the shot(s) include fever). I think we own at least one thing from every isle in that store, so there is little else at this point that we even need, lol.


Tonight, Chloe is very tired and noticeably uncomfortable. We're hoping she sleeps hard tonight and bounces back tomorrow. Today was fun despite the needles. We got to venture out as a family and we survived. Can't wait to do it again. =)

Happy 7 Week Birthday, Chloe! - Feb 26

Dude, where does the time go?? 7 weeks ago we were in the hospital going through a whirl wind of emotions trying to wrap our brains around what just happened...and what would come next. 7 weeks later, here we are. A small milestone for us(as far as milestones go), we are about to move out of the "newborn" size diapers that we have been using since the beginning. At first, we had to fold over the front part to make it fit and now, she can barely fit in them. Crazy.

So after 7 weeks some things have gotten easier, and some haven't. We are still trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. We have managed to get some decent stretches of sleep at night so that definitely makes things easier overall. We have our next pediatrician appointment next Thursday so we'll find out her weight/height/etc then to see how well she's progressing. She'll also get a series of shots so we should be able to start venturing out more together if we want. They have told us until now to avoid highly populated places (such as Target, BabiesRus) you know, the places I'm sure we'll end up on Thursday after the appointment lol.
So here are a few pictures that were taken..TODAY! 7 weeks. Heather bought a little dress I guess she had her eye on so today seemed like a good day to try it on. =)

Seeing Double - Feb 26

So I think it's safe to say that whenever a baby is born, people immediately wonder "who does she/he look like?" In our case, we had a mixed bag of responses. I always thought she must look like a mix of Heather and I because there really didn't seem to be any totally distinguishing features that went one way or the other. Heathers mom would occasionally remark how from certain angles Chloe really reminded her of Heather when she was a baby. She ended up digging out the above picture from the archives which is actually a picture of Heather when she was (about) Chloe's age. I couldn't believe it! HILARIOUS! All this time and she's actually a dead ringer for her mom.

I took the liberty of doing a side by side with a picture I just posted a few posts down. The photo (mine, of Chloe) was taken BEFORE I ever knew or saw the above picture of Heather. Prepare to trip out...



Crazy, right? =)

What Are You Looking At? - Feb 24

Thought this was an interesting look..she looks irritated lol. She still loves her daddy, though. Her bib says so it must be true. =)
So tonight we gave Chloe another bath which we have done on numerous occasions in the past but tonight was quite different. For the first time in almost 7 weeks, she didn't scream bloody murder from start to finish lol. It is such a better feeling to give her a bath when you don't feel like something you are doing is causing her extreme discomfort. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come(knock on wood).

We actually love giving her baths despite her only recently seeming to enjoy it. She seems much more at ease when she sleeps after having a bath.
Anyway, I snapped a few pics tonight I thought I would share of a clean and content little miss Chloe. Happy Wednesday.







B+H+C

The Eye Doctor - Feb 23

So on Tuesday we had an appointment with a pediatric opthamologist to have a baseline vision check done on Chloe. This of course is all related to the hemangioma due to the fact that it is on her lower eyelid. If the hemangioma may (or may not)cause pressure on her eye. If that were the case there is the possibility of it creating an astigmatism in that eye. Obviously, they don't want that to happen.

We got the referral from our pediatrician and when they told us the name of the doctor I was pretty sure I had heard that name before. His name is Gordon Smith and he was my eye doctor when I was a kid. How funny is that? =) Hopefully, little Chloe will get her mothers eyes and skip wearing glasses as a child. I don't mind them now, but as a kid they were the WORST lol.

So, as of now everything looks great and we will be back in 4 months to have another check up. Probably the most interesting part of the visit came from the answer to a question that my mom asks all the time: How far can she see right now?? His answer? All the way across the room and clearly..or about 20/50 He said what has been published in all the books has been regurgitated forever and they are hard pressed to admit the answer is actually different than they originally thought. Strange but interesting. He also said the problem is babies are only able to focus on one thing at a time, so if they hear something else their eyes may wander and give you a blank look but that's only because they are now entirely focused on what they can hear.

Anyway, another interesting day and something else to add to our ongoing list of things we never knew before.

B+H+C

Happy 6 Week Birthday, Chloe! - Feb 19

Well, we made it this far and we can hardly believe it. Chloe is changing so much it's really unbelievable. She continues to be more alert, she's gaining weight and generally looking different every time we look at her. =) We are very fortunate to be in the position where we are both home and able spend so much time with her in these important early weeks.

In other news, our other little girl, Abbey(our dog), ended up having her surgery to have her gall bladder removed. That in itself was a very traumatic experience and she came home and was recovering well. After a few days home she wasn't eating much and we had to pretty much jam her medication down her throat to get her to take it(and there was a lot of different stuff she was on). On Monday, I came back from the grocery store and the dog came trotting over to me like she normally would, shook her head and fell to the ground. At first I laughed but then she got up and continued to fall. It was like her legs were just giving out on her over and over and it was immediately apparent something was really wrong. We loaded up and went straight to the vet which is luckily only 5 minutes away. We ended up seeing a different vet than we normally would and she started checking Abbey over. To make a long story short, they determined Abbey had a really bad ear infection but the vet told us Abbey had something called "vestibular disease". Basically, vertigo but for dogs. I didn't know what that was so I had to ask but basically her world was spinning and her brain could not tell her legs what to do, so she would fall. Apparently, unrelated to the surgery but not if you ask me.

In doing my research about "vestibular disease" the first web page I found talked about a few other things that can virtually mimic the symptoms of vestibular disease one of which was an overdose of a specific type of antibiotic. Guess what? Abbey was on this antibiotic because of her surgery. The vet does acknowledge the side effects but insists she is on a safe dosage and gives us some MORE pills to put the dog on to help her be less *dizzy*. Eventually, dogs figure out how to walk and function with their world spinning and that's the best they can promise us.

So, we discontinued that antibiotic at my request and guess what? Over the last 3 days we almost have our dog back and her symptoms have almost completely disappeared. Maybe coincidence, maybe not, but draw your own conclusions. It was very scary but thankfully things are very much looking up for her. Our poor little girl.


SOOOOOOOOOO if we could please limit the drama for the next 6 weeks that would be greeeeeaaaaaaat. We've had enough to last a while. Thanks!

So, here are a few more clicks from this past week. Chloe is doing great and quickly growing into (and out of) a lot of her clothes. We had some beautiful weather here this week so we actually got out and used our new stroller a few times to do some laps around the block. That was really fun for us =)


Here's a leftover from an attempted photo shoot


Sleeping peacefully in the swing


Have a great weekend.
B+H+C

Happy Valentines Day! - Feb 14

Chloe Mae from Brian Gross Photography on Vimeo.

I put together a little slideshow of (mostly) images you may have already seen to celebrate our little Chloe's first valentines day! =) The song is available as a free download from http://www.kinagrannis.com/
Happy V day! =)

B+H+C

Happy 5 Week Birthday, Chloe! - Feb 12

So we had our appointment today at Stanford...well not technically "Stanford" but at a children's hospital that is a division of Stanford. Whatever. It was largely uneventful in the sense that they really didn't tell us anything that we didn't already know (in regards to the hemangioma). The doctor (ahem, pediatric dermatologist) let us know that was in fact what we were dealing with and really at this point we had 2 treatment options. We could either do nothing and just wait to see how it progresses over the next month or two...or they could prescribe a cortisone cream of some kind that we could apply that apparently *could* help but there would be know way to know for sure. As with all things medicine it seems, it sometimes helps and sometimes does nothing..but you don't know unless you try.

So, we chose option 2 which was to get the prescription and come back in a month to see where we are. Apparently it will grow for a few months (and there is no way to tell how much)and then it will plateau(stay the same) and then start to regress. The regression can take several years for it to fully subside.
Anyway, that's all there is to that so I guess we're back in the "wait and see" boat.
SOOOO that all took way longer than we expected so here are a few pictures and a video of some things that happened today, lol.

Chloe chillin in the front seat of Daddy's Honda for the first time


A funny snapshot I took without even being able to see the screen on the camera. I don't know where this face came from =)

She also appears to be giving you the bird =p

And finally, a video we were able to capture of one of her "firsts"


B+H+C

Due Date - Feb 11

So, today was February 11th. This would have been Heathers "official" due date according to the doctor. Actually, he seemed to go between saying the 11th and the 12th, but for our purposes, we called it the 11th. This made for a very awkward explanation every time someone asked "so, when are you due?" because we have known since week 20 that the plan was most likely an early delivery..but all along we were encouraged that "nothing is certain" and things may change and she could end up going full term. So when someone would ask, "so, when are you due?" we would just say Feb 11th.

It is still strange to think what might have been different if we had gone until today. Very few babies are born on their actual due date. The world is just full of uncertainties. Actually, there is a guy we went to high school with who's wife was due like 2 weeks before Chloe was. She ended up going something like 9 days past her due date. Their son and Chloe were born exactly a month apart.

Chloe came early, and that in itself came with its own set of risks although we seem to have overcome most if not all of them by now. One thing that has come up that neither of us had ever really heard of was the advent of what we thought was a birth mark. Actually, at first we thought she somehow scratched herself because it was just slightly red by her right eye. So it turns out it was the early stages of something called a "hemangioma" and it has actually gotten quite a bit more visible in the last few weeks. This was confusing to me because she was not born with this but I would come to find out, that's how they work.

Our pediatrician let us know that the best thing to do would be to visit a pediatric dermatologist where they might need to do some sort of treatment on it (which supposedly will help it go away?). Actually, they apparently go away on their own, but it can take like several years and specifically because it is near her eye, the concern is that it could potentially affect her vision. So, the bottom line is, we are going tomorrow to find out more about it. From my research it seems like this is supposedly not all that uncommon.
From a website:
Between 4% and 10% of Caucasian infants have at least one hemangioma.
Hemangiomas are three to five times more common in females (especially fair-skinned girls) than in males, and occur more frequently in Caucasian infants than in Asian infants. They are rare in African-American infants.

So what does this look like? Well:

and to be honest, I had sort of touched it up in previous pictures because I thought it was a scratch or a bruise that would go away quickly. Not the case. So, we'll see tomorrow what or if there is anything they need to do for her.

In other news, our dog is doing better but a lot happened between my last post. Last Friday I took her in to the vet because she has been getting sick. They did some x-rays and didn't find much so they sent us home with some medication to "calm her stomach down". By Saturday morning she still did not eat or drink anything (and also continued to get sick) so right back to the vet we went. over the course of the next few days they ended up finding that her gall bladder was on the verge of bursting and would require surgery to remove it. So that's what they did and she is now at home with us recovering. Who knew something that seemed fairly insignificant would turn into something so serious? Life, is unpredictable as I said before.

I will report back. G'night yall.

B+H+C

This Weeks Featured Guest - Feb 11

So, I got a lot of crap from people for saying that thing about Ali being the only one reading this. It's actually quite interesting to find out who still checks at this point =) but I like to poke fun at Ali specifically because she is my only "follower" ---------------------------------->>>>
So last weekend we had several visitors including some of Heathers' family but I thought Ali might get a kick out of this...being my only follower and all. Actually, Ali's mom said she checks out the blog sometimes too. How do I know this?

Ali's mom came by to drop off some awesome gifts including some fresh Nike swag that in itself deserves it's own photo shoot. Stay tuned for that in the near future..thanks Ali!

-Brian

Happy 4 Week Birthday, Chloe! - Feb 5

No, Chloe did not turn into a dog. If you don't know this is our other "baby", Abbey and she unfortunately decided today would be a good day to get sick =( so we have spent the better part of today making sure she was OK. I eventually had to take her in to the vet because she kept getting sick and we were worried there was something more wrong than we would know about by just looking at her. She's OK now, they gave her some fluids, did some x-rays, and sent us home with a few new pills to give her and hopefully she will get better soon.

I had all these grand plans of doing a photo shoot for Chloe today for her "exactly 1 month" pictures but alas it was not meant to be. I'll have to settle for "sometime this weekend" 1 month pictures lol but I did manage to put together a few to post here in case anyone is interested. Is anyone besides Ali reading this? =)
Anyway, happy 4 weeks in the world, Chloe! I told someone today "she is 4 weeks today but she was 5 weeks early..so she is -1 week now I guess. =p

We did find time tonight to give Chloe a bath and snap a few pictures in her little bathrobe haha!






And apparently the other morning while holding Chloe I fell asleep with her on the bed...holding her hand. I remember her fussing a little and I would hold her hand and she stopped..so apparently it put us both to sleep. We can thank Heather for her quick thinking to snap a picture. I love this.


B+H+C+A

7 Pounds - Feb 1

So we loaded Chloe up in her car seat and headed out for our appointment this morning. Our pediatrician wanted to see us back to weigh Chloe and make sure she was progressing well and since Heather has been nursing her exclusively we all wanted to make sure she was eating enough(gaining weight). 7 pounds! And I'm not talking about that strange Will Smith movie that I haven't seen but heard was pretty good. She gained a little over a pound in a little over a week! Things are going well and now our next appointment will be her 2 month checkup where she is lucky enough to get a fun round of shots. That sucks for her but the good news is we will finally be able to venture out into the world with her to go shopping and all the other fun stuff that happens outside of our house, lol.

So I tell Heather, "you better look through her clothes and start putting her in things that she's likely to grow out of here soon" so what does she find?? This ridiculous t-shirt they give you at the hospital that (thankfully) won't really fit her after today. Cute, but wow, ugly. =)

She also has some baby acne going on which is not something I knew about(ha! imagine that) but we ordered some baby Proactive from an infomercial so that should clear right up. JOKES!

B+H+C