So, of course a very important hike that Lars and I did back in September of 2007 was Marcellina Mountain where we got engaged at the top.

We can only assume that Bjorn understands he will need to be a hearty hiker to roll in this family so he is starting his regiment of practicing for elevation gain early…We usually just let him crawl around on our pretty baby-proof first floor (there’s no escaping the allure of the TV and DVD player no matter how hard we try).  Anyway, yesterday morning we went looking for Chubs and found him mid-flight up the stairs–precariously getting from one step to the next.

Who Me?

About to Summit.

So, they say that most climbing accidents don’t happen on the ascent–they happen on the descent.  Because climbers are so tired and not as focused or, in Bjorn’s case, just don’t know how the eff to get back down without going face first.  We’ll have to work on this.

Not too long after I wrote my last post about how we had to schedule a doctor’s appointment for Bjorn due to the wheezing he was experiencing, the ER called and said that a radiologist had found in the x-ray something that would indicate a foreign object was trapped in his lung. We would later discover that they thought they saw a pocket of air in the lung which would indicate that something was blocking air-flow. Regardless, they told us not to have Bjorn eat or drink anything for the next hour while the pediatric surgeon (!!!) reviewed the x-ray and that they would call us back.

In hindsight, I should have asked more questions but I think I just wasn’t really processing correctly what the nurse was telling me. Surgeon?! Are they going to cut my little baby up? Luckily, we were able to get in touch with our pediatrician who pulled up the x-rays and told us that they were probably just trying to do a bronchoscopy (sp?) where they would have had to put Bjorn under general anesthesia and search his longs and then, if they found something, pluck it out. STILL–a scary procedure.

One visit to the ER and five hours later, Bjorn does not need a procedure. The surgeon and attending concurred that Bjorn was wheezing on the exhale rather than the inhale which did not indicate a foreign object. What it does indicate and a word we’ve been hearing a lot more frequently in our multiple doctor’s visits is “asthma”. Bjorn was sent home with a tiny inhaler and a spacer and a face mask and we have to do breathing treatments with him now twice a day. We went to see a pediatric asthma specialist on Saturday morning and were told if wheezing were to occur again (Bjorn has wheezed before in the winter months) that he would need to become a regular asthma patient. So….that’s where we stand now! We have a follow-up appointment with our regular pediatrician next week and hopefully Bjorn will be breathing pretty again, soon. If he has asthma–well, we’ll just cross that road when we get there–but I know we have great resources in the Ann Arbor area to help him if he does.

We almost made it to the one year mark without every having taken Bjorn to the ER.  Alas, this statistic is no longer on the table as we made our way through the sliding glass doors of the UM Pediatric ER late last night to get my little Bjorn Monster checked out.

It felt a little weird to be going to the ER.  He was actually in a great mood!  He was smiling and alert and cuddly and kind of babbling to himself–all signs of a happy little guy.  However, we had had a pesky wheeze all evening and it seemed to be getting worse and worse and was accompanied by a wet-sounding cough.  Happy little Bjorn was obviously getting pneumonia or on the verge of a massive asthma attack in my mind.  So, we checked with the on-call nurse if she told us wheezing in infants is a one-way ticket to the ER if we felt like we needed to go….so we bundled up (actually we stripped down–its friggin HOT here) and made the trek across town.

(Side note–what do people who live in rural areas DO when their little guys are wheezing!?!  I mean, if its an hour plus trip to the ER it would be a lot harder decision to go, right?  Or maybe its not and you just do it!  Either way, I’m happy we live a five minute drive from a top tier hospital).

We checked in, got triaged, and Bjorn started putting the charms on pretty much everyone with a pulse.  He was dancing and singing and so happy.  Other triaged patients with probably much more severe claims probably thought we came to the ER just to mock them–he was THAT happy there.  He likes to stand on his two little feet and rock side to side and smile and laugh.  He especially likes to do this for nurses.  What an attention seeker!

Our resident checked us out and determined that we were hearing a pretty strong wheeze in Bjorn’s chest–but it was only in one location so they figured he might have swallowed something that was obstructing his airway passage.  (Additional side note–our resident was obviously amazing because he was from UCLA and I wanted to give him the UC secret handshake but since I am pretty sure that doesn’t exist I just kept my mouth shut).   He ordered a chest x-ray to see if they could see a foreign object and so then, we waited some more.

While waiting–no fewer than four doctors or nurses came into our room and said “I hear there is a cute dancing baby in here!”. I should have taken a picture, too–because right before we came to the ER, Bjorn had had a bath.  And I just towel dried his hair.  Which was sticking straight up in random odd places.  He looked punk rock.

The chest x-ray was traumatic.  For me, that is.  They strapped Bjorn into this little seat and took both his arms and strapped them straight up into the air and put a frigging  CHIN STRAP on him.  He literally was stuck in the “put your hands in the air where I can see them” position nearly naked with a CHIN STRAP on.  Oy vey.

Radiologist couldn’t find anything so the resident thought we might try a nebulizer with a spacer (?)…but by this time Bjorn was asleep on our chests and when he checked him for the wheezing it was completely gone (this was at around 11:45pm).  He was just sleeping peacefully–waiting to do his tiny dance again.   We were released with orders to call the doctor tomorrow (today) if the wheezing comes back (which it has) and if he gets a fever (which he does–low grade!).  Sounds like it will be another fun day of doctor’s visits and Bjorn doing his thang.

So, how long do we let Bjorn go without taking a bath before Lars and I are technically considered bad parents? 2 Days? 3? How about 6? Because I think that’s what day we were on when I finally caved and put him in the tub today. A good scrub-down with some baby wash and he’s good as new! Every night this past week its been one reason or another as to why we shouldn’t wash him. He are some of them:

• He’s going to daycare tomorrow, where he will inevitably just sit in a pile of mud and eat sand all day long.
• Why give him a bath now when he’s just going to eat a graham cracker later and get crumbs of graham cracker goodness stuck all over his face, hair, god knows where else?
• My back hurts
• I think the baby pool counts as a bath?
• My back still hurts

Anyway–it was a major accomplishment today to get him into the tub.  He friggin LOVES bathtime so I don’t know why I don’t just let him get in the tub more often.  Oh yeah, I know–because it is SO BORING.  I mean, its okay if you have a good book to read.  Also Bjorn tries to stand now, regardless of the imminent doom he faces from trying to stand on a slick porcelain surface with limited agility.  So that, too, is a challenge.  I really should keep my little man more clean, though. New Year’s Resolution?

Things are good in Ann Arbor.  We’ve really been enjoying our new home and especially its proximity to downtown.  This weekend I woke up on a beautiful Saturday morning and Bjorn and I headed down to get a cup of coffee at Sweetwaters.  Then we headed over towards Zingerman’s where I picked up some pecan cranberry bread (umm so good!).  Lastly, we strolled through the Farmer’s market where blueberries were in full swing as were bouquets of beautiful flowers.  We picked out a bouquet of orange butterfly flower with some baby’s breath.  Back home at 9:30am and I felt rejuvenated and full of life’s bounty and all that poetic wholesome nonsense.  But truly, I felt so thankful that our community offers us the opportunity to have these wonderful niches of time.  Saturday mornings at the farmers market with my sweet baby boy are just special times.

Michigan summers create for beautiful flowers.  I’ve included some photos of Bjorn in our backyard among the hydrangeas that are just so fantastic to look at.

My little wild thing...tamed by the hydrangeas

"Not sure why dad put me here to take my photo...."

Mommy needs to remember to put her hair in a pony tail the next time she decides to give Wild Thing a piggy back ride. He is a big fan of using hair as "reigns"--piggy back ride not required.