Well its been a while since I've had enough to say that it didn't fit on twitter, but this has just gotten me so angry that I had to share with everybody. I have been the commisioner of our fantasy football league for 6 years now. For that entire time we have used www.fanball.com to run the league. Although a few other team owners have had some minor complaints over the years I have found fanball to provide the best features for the money paid.
However this year the website has become an NBC Sports website instead of independent(at least it was never branded as anybody else's before), and everything has fallen apart. The site has become extremely annoying to navigate, which if that was the only problem I'd be ok with it. More importantly they took away at least 5 key features that I used on a regular basis. And most important of all is that they have all of the scoring messed up.
I had been kind of annoyed up until the scoring got messed up, but really I pay them $70 a year to manage our league. At a minimum I would expect that when I pay somebody to manage a fantasy league of any kind that the website provides accurate rosters/free agent lists and accurate scoring of the games. Why should I pay somebody $70 a year if I have to manually maintain the data in Excel spreadsheets.
So what drove me to writing this blog: customer service. Just absolutely terrible. I have sent several emails into their ticketing system and have yet to get a response from them. Even a response saying "hey sorry about that we'll take a look" would be better than the silence that I have heard from them this year.
And I'm not alone, I spent some time last night digging through the websites forums and discovered post after post of users complaining that the basic functionality of scoring, and in many cases rosters were broken in their leagues. Every one of these post is accompanied by a note saying that they have filed many tickets with fanball only to hear complete silence in return.
I am on the verge of being forced to spend $200 on a midseason league on cbssports.com. If any one of the free websites supported our scoring system I would have moved the league there after all of the problems in week 1. But since there is much effort put into drafting a fantasy team changing the leagues scoring/roster rules midseaon is just not an option. If $70 was worth the effort I'd seriously be considering contacting a lawyer right about now, because I would consider this year a serious breach of contract, as I, along with every other fanball user, has paid for services that are not being provided. Seeing as how I'm nowhere near knowledgeable in law I probably using the wrong terminology, but you get my point.
For those of you in the league that are interested below is the latest ticket that I have sent to fanball, and hopefully I get some sort of response from that one.
Dear Fanball,
In League ID xxxx we have lost all of our stats from from weeks 1 and 2. This is very disappointing for a few reasons, first and foremost because of the fact that there is no win/loss record from week 1 & 2 it shows every game as a tie. Secondly our total points on the year are messed up and as we have rules based on points leaders throughout the season this is very difficult to maintain. Thirdly when looking to free agents we need to use different resource to determine what players have done up till now because of there are no stats.
I payed your company $69.95 to provide this information to me and my league on a daily basis. Seeing as how the first 4 weeks of the season have been totally wrong I expect to receive a refund for a quarter of the cost of the league($17.49) as the first quarter of our season has been abysmal. If "nice" features are not working that is annoying, but I can understand it. In this case I do not feel Fanball has provided even the most basic service of tracking our scores correctly this year. Without tracking of the scoring a fantasy football website is absolutely useless. If this problem does not get resolved by the start of the 5th week of the season I expect Fanball to pay for my league to be set up on a website that can provide the services that I paid Fanball to provide.
Thank you,
Jason Burich
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Bath Time
A couple weeks ago we decided that it was time to move the boys out of the baby bath that sat on our bathroom sink and into the real bathtub. Both boys always enjoyed their baths;. Alex much more so then Kevin. Kevin was happy in the baby bath tub, but Alex got crazy. Alex would get so excited and splash around so much that you practically didn't need to empty out the bath tub when he was done because the water was all over the counter top and floor.
The first time that we did this did not go well at all. Jamie decided that she would try to be super supermom ( had to add an extra super because she is actually a supermom with all that she has to do ) and put the boys in the tub together while I was at work. Lets just say that did not go well. Kevin screamed like he was dieing. He just clung right to the edge of the tub standing up and refusing to sit down or let go of Jamie. Alex was his usual crazy self in the water. He just crawled around everywhere and couldn't be controlled. I'm pretty sure after that first time Jamie was tempted to just bath them in the baby bath forever.
The next bath day we waited until I got home from work. We thought with two of us there we could just go ahead and do them together. Boy was that still a mistake. Alex was still being crazy splashy, and Kevin was still terrified of the water. We have a glass door on our shower, so even though we were both there I couldn't do anything to help, because there wasn't enough room to get in. Jamie just washed Kevin and got him out as fast as possible and let me get Alex.
So for the next few bath times we got smart about it. Jamie would take one and then when she was done I'd grab the other. I'm not really sure who is harder to bathe at this point. Kevin screams, but at least he just standing in one spot crying so its much less work to keep him in one place to bathe.
Then yesterday I got to give the boys baths while Jamie was at work. Without question I knew that I was not going to try and bath them at the same time. Kevin was getting a bit cranky playing so I decided that I would go with him first. Instead of just putting him in the tub this time I decided to let him try on his own, since he likes to crawl into the bathroom and look in the bathtub when there is no water in there. I got him undressed on the bathroom floor and let him crawl over ( well I had to give him a little encouragement to go in that direction once he saw there was water in the tub ). He stood outside the tub for a while and started to get big lip like he might start crying. I just put my arm around him and tried to comfort him a little and it worked; big lip went away without any crying. Then I started splashing a little water up on his hands, and yup you guessed it, big lip came back. With a little comforting I calmed him down while continuing to splash a little water onto his hands. Then he peed all over the outside of the bath tub, and thought that was pretty funny. After a couple minutes I picked him up and put him in the tub. This elicited the biggest of big lips yet. A quick hug though and the big lip slowly started retracting. Little by little I kept splashing water up at him while hugging him and showing him the rubber ducky. After a few more minutes of this he dropped the ducky and sat down to get it. When he did it was like he had an ah ha moment and realized that there really was nothing wrong with the bath tub. For the rest of the bath he happily played with the rubber ducky while I washed him. In the end it took about 20-25 minutes to get him to sit in the tub and then only the usual 5 minutes to wash him up.
Once Kevin was done Alex was real ready to get in the tub. Of course he was happy and it took only the usual 5 minutes of constantly dragging him back to me to wash him up. Even though it was only 5 minutes I think that it might have been more work that Kevin. But even though it was more work I'd rather have a little more work with happy babies.
Hopefully Kevin is ok with baths from now on and maybe we'll get lucky and hyper Alex will calm down a little bit in the bath tub some day.
The first time that we did this did not go well at all. Jamie decided that she would try to be super supermom ( had to add an extra super because she is actually a supermom with all that she has to do ) and put the boys in the tub together while I was at work. Lets just say that did not go well. Kevin screamed like he was dieing. He just clung right to the edge of the tub standing up and refusing to sit down or let go of Jamie. Alex was his usual crazy self in the water. He just crawled around everywhere and couldn't be controlled. I'm pretty sure after that first time Jamie was tempted to just bath them in the baby bath forever.
The next bath day we waited until I got home from work. We thought with two of us there we could just go ahead and do them together. Boy was that still a mistake. Alex was still being crazy splashy, and Kevin was still terrified of the water. We have a glass door on our shower, so even though we were both there I couldn't do anything to help, because there wasn't enough room to get in. Jamie just washed Kevin and got him out as fast as possible and let me get Alex.
So for the next few bath times we got smart about it. Jamie would take one and then when she was done I'd grab the other. I'm not really sure who is harder to bathe at this point. Kevin screams, but at least he just standing in one spot crying so its much less work to keep him in one place to bathe.
Then yesterday I got to give the boys baths while Jamie was at work. Without question I knew that I was not going to try and bath them at the same time. Kevin was getting a bit cranky playing so I decided that I would go with him first. Instead of just putting him in the tub this time I decided to let him try on his own, since he likes to crawl into the bathroom and look in the bathtub when there is no water in there. I got him undressed on the bathroom floor and let him crawl over ( well I had to give him a little encouragement to go in that direction once he saw there was water in the tub ). He stood outside the tub for a while and started to get big lip like he might start crying. I just put my arm around him and tried to comfort him a little and it worked; big lip went away without any crying. Then I started splashing a little water up on his hands, and yup you guessed it, big lip came back. With a little comforting I calmed him down while continuing to splash a little water onto his hands. Then he peed all over the outside of the bath tub, and thought that was pretty funny. After a couple minutes I picked him up and put him in the tub. This elicited the biggest of big lips yet. A quick hug though and the big lip slowly started retracting. Little by little I kept splashing water up at him while hugging him and showing him the rubber ducky. After a few more minutes of this he dropped the ducky and sat down to get it. When he did it was like he had an ah ha moment and realized that there really was nothing wrong with the bath tub. For the rest of the bath he happily played with the rubber ducky while I washed him. In the end it took about 20-25 minutes to get him to sit in the tub and then only the usual 5 minutes to wash him up.
Once Kevin was done Alex was real ready to get in the tub. Of course he was happy and it took only the usual 5 minutes of constantly dragging him back to me to wash him up. Even though it was only 5 minutes I think that it might have been more work that Kevin. But even though it was more work I'd rather have a little more work with happy babies.
Hopefully Kevin is ok with baths from now on and maybe we'll get lucky and hyper Alex will calm down a little bit in the bath tub some day.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Oh No, The Boys are Mobile
Note: This post was actually from 11/22, I must have forgotten to hit Publish.
It was a crazy couple of weeks. About 2 weeks ago Kevin was able to stay sitting up when you sat him up and Alex probably could have, but he was always to excited to try and get any nearby toy. The most that either one of them could move around was to roll. Then one day it must have clicked that rolling could actually move them around the room and that was the start of our two week journey toward mobility.
At first it was really easy. With the new found ability to roll the boys could get to their toys on without needing help from us. Of course like everything new it was more fun to just roll then to play with any toys. They went from just being able to roll over to rolling around the room so fast that we had to scramble to baby proof the living room.( which as you'll see in a little bit we still don't have done )
Alex was rolling around much sooner than Kevin, but at the time that Alex was rolling everywhere Kevin was sitting up really good. Kevin couldn't get himself up, but if you sat him up he stayed up really good. Alex on the other hand knew that he could get to toys so as soon as you sat him up he would purposely go down so that he could get to his toys. He probably could have sat up sooner, if he wanted to.
Soon after Alex had figured out that he could army crawl where he wanted to go. This was really the end of the peace while they were sitting on the floor. Once Alex figured this out he was into everything. As Alex started to army crawl Kevin finally really started his rolling everywhere.
Once day Alex went from a crawling around and just sat right up like it was nothing. It was quite weird because he never really struggled trying to figure out how to do it. For a week or so leading up to the first sit up he was kinda half sitting up holding himself up with is arm. Then he was just up. From that point on he would sit up just to sit up, but once he got up he really didn't like it so he would go down right away again so that he could cruise around the floor.
Once Alex started sitting up it was within a couple of days that he suddenly started real crawling. He's fast. We thought he was getting into stuff rolling & army crawling, but wow, once he started crawling it was amazing how much he tried to get into. When he wasn't real mobile he never tried to get the Playstation or Wii, but once he could move quick he seamed to want to go right for it. So we put the toy bucket in front of the TV so that they couldn't get to the TV.
Shortly after Alex got up real crawling Kevin decided that he was ready to start army crawling. Although he can't move around nearly as well as Alex could when he was army crawling Kevin is able to get going. He still hadn't mastered the art of sitting up. If we sat him up we would need to lay him down when he was ready to crawl around cause he couldn't get himself down. As of now Kevin is still just army crawling around the house, but he is getting around pretty well now.
It was a crazy couple of weeks. About 2 weeks ago Kevin was able to stay sitting up when you sat him up and Alex probably could have, but he was always to excited to try and get any nearby toy. The most that either one of them could move around was to roll. Then one day it must have clicked that rolling could actually move them around the room and that was the start of our two week journey toward mobility.
At first it was really easy. With the new found ability to roll the boys could get to their toys on without needing help from us. Of course like everything new it was more fun to just roll then to play with any toys. They went from just being able to roll over to rolling around the room so fast that we had to scramble to baby proof the living room.( which as you'll see in a little bit we still don't have done )
Alex was rolling around much sooner than Kevin, but at the time that Alex was rolling everywhere Kevin was sitting up really good. Kevin couldn't get himself up, but if you sat him up he stayed up really good. Alex on the other hand knew that he could get to toys so as soon as you sat him up he would purposely go down so that he could get to his toys. He probably could have sat up sooner, if he wanted to.
Soon after Alex had figured out that he could army crawl where he wanted to go. This was really the end of the peace while they were sitting on the floor. Once Alex figured this out he was into everything. As Alex started to army crawl Kevin finally really started his rolling everywhere.
Once day Alex went from a crawling around and just sat right up like it was nothing. It was quite weird because he never really struggled trying to figure out how to do it. For a week or so leading up to the first sit up he was kinda half sitting up holding himself up with is arm. Then he was just up. From that point on he would sit up just to sit up, but once he got up he really didn't like it so he would go down right away again so that he could cruise around the floor.
Once Alex started sitting up it was within a couple of days that he suddenly started real crawling. He's fast. We thought he was getting into stuff rolling & army crawling, but wow, once he started crawling it was amazing how much he tried to get into. When he wasn't real mobile he never tried to get the Playstation or Wii, but once he could move quick he seamed to want to go right for it. So we put the toy bucket in front of the TV so that they couldn't get to the TV.
Shortly after Alex got up real crawling Kevin decided that he was ready to start army crawling. Although he can't move around nearly as well as Alex could when he was army crawling Kevin is able to get going. He still hadn't mastered the art of sitting up. If we sat him up we would need to lay him down when he was ready to crawl around cause he couldn't get himself down. As of now Kevin is still just army crawling around the house, but he is getting around pretty well now.
Monday, October 27, 2008
More than just an average cold
For the last few days Kevin has had a little bit of a cold, the typical runny nose and coughing. Then at the lunch feeding yesterday things got a little bit worse(not terrible just a little bit). When I changed their diapers Kevin's head felt a little warm, and his cheeks looked a little rosy.
Alex ate up the peas like he was starving to death, but Kevin didn't seam to interested in eating. Although not too unusual, Alex always eats like a mad man, peas are one of the few things that Kevin tends to like more than Alex.
Then after eating their food I passed Kevin off to Jamie to give him his bottle. When she felt his head it was even warmer than it was when I changed him. So right away we took his helmet off, which the doctor said to do anytime they run a higher than normal temperature.
Although not real happy about it, Kevin ate most of the bottle. This is pretty average for the boys right now. They rarely eat their bottles good right after eating solids. What was a little odd is that Alex finished his bottle before Kevin.
While Jamie was still finishing up feeding Kevin his bottle I was able to put Alex in his bouncy toy and take Kevin's temperature. His temp was 100.3. So we gave him some Infant Tylenol. The feeding was a little earlier than normal, but both boys were starting to get pretty sleepy so we laid them down early for their afternoon naps.
Alex took his normal nap in the crib, and Kevin laid in our bed with Jamie for a nap. They ended up taking a really good 2.5-3 hour nap. When they got up though you could tell that Kevin did not feel very good. All he wanted to do was lay on us, or if he was on the floor he just wanted to sit and have a toy in front of him. He definitely was not his normal playful self.
We had planned to go out to dinner with my parent for Jamie's birthday last night. When they got to our house Kevin was a little bit more smiley and happy to see Grandma and Papa, but still not his playful self. Grandma was the one that pointed out to us just how raspy his breathing was(well me at least, Jamie might have noticed it earlier but I didn't).
We decided to give it a try and see how he would do going to Buffalo Wild Wings. BWW has some really cool high chairs. The seats just flip over and they become holders for car seats. Now normally the boys would not have had any interest in being in the carseats the whole time we ate. And just like usual Alex started getting cranky about 5 seconds before the waitress brought us our food. So I flipped the seat back up and he was happy the rest of the meal sitting up at the table with us, well maybe not happy but really really interested in trying to devise an evil plot to get our food. Kevin on the other hand just laid in his carseat, and watched all the TVs, for pretty much the whole meal. As we were finishing up eating Kevin started to get a little cranky so Jamie took him out and held him. He just wanted to lay down on Jamie shoulder and when Grandma took him he wasn't very happy and just wanted to be back on Jamie's shoulder.
When we got home he was still pretty raspy. When you put your hand on his back you could feel his chest vibrate as he breathed. And he still felt pretty warm at this point. We were considering taking him down to the emergency room to have him checked out. So we decided to call Prevea's on call nurse first.
The Prevea nurse was super helpful. She walked me through all kinds of questions about how Kevin was doing. After answering all the questions she suggested that we bring Kevin in the bathroom and run the shower for 20 minutes to get some warm mist in him, and that she would call us back in a half hour to see how that went.
When we went to go in the bathroom Jamie noticed that he had a pretty wet diaper, so we decided to change him first. Then while he was all undressed we thought we might as well go ahead and take his temperature again, since he now was feeling really hot to us. His temp was now 103.5, which got us just that much more nervous about it all. But hearing all the stuff about how bad Infant medicine can be we decided to just go sit in the bathroom and see if that helped. Kevin really liked it because it gave him a chance to just lay down on Jamie's shoulder and relax. I sat with him the last few minutes in the bathroom so that Jamie could get out, I figured she must have been really hot by then.
When we got out of the bathroom it did seam like his breathing was at least a little bit less raspy and there was a little bit less vibration in his chest. The nurse called us back shortly after that. She said we really needed to give him the Tylenol for the fever, but that she didn't feel it was something that we would need to go to the emergency room for. She explained how a fever is actually good because it means that the body is fighting off the virus/infection. According to the nurse the big reason we didn't need to go the ER was that he was alert, not having trouble breathing, and generally eating all of his bottles. She did then set up an appointment for early this morning so that we could bring him in to see our normal doctor.
So we went about the nightly routine as best we could. Of course this all had to happen when I had to work last night (we do a production release of our code once every 2-3 months and last night was release night). So Jamie feed Alex while Kevin sat on my lap while I worked. Then we let Alex play a bit while Jamie started feeding Kevin. Luckily the release went really smooth, so I was able to go put Alex to bed when he started getting cranky so that Jamie didn't have to disturb Kevin.
At first Kevin only ate about half of his bottle. When my release was done I sat and rocked him on the chair while Jamie got started on her homework. It took about half an hour for him to calm down and pretty much fall alseep on me. So I laid him down on the couch by Jamie while I took out the garbage, and he didn't much like that. So I got back in as quick as I could so that we could rock on the chair again. After rocking him for a while he still did not calm down. Luckily Jamie does not have a terrible memory like I do, so she suggested trying to feed him. And that was exactly what he wanted. He drank the rest of his bottle, and went to bed in his crib with the normal minute or two of whining then falling right asleep.
Wow was that a long night then. Alex actually went to bed really early. So both boys woke up quite a few times and shuffled around and cried a little. But since they are our awesome little sleepers they got themselves back to sleep pretty quick each time. Of course ever time I heard them wake up it woke me up thinking it was Kevin not feeling good again. And everytime I'd wake up and not hear him crying I would worry about that too. In the end I think Kevin slept much better than I did.
We are taking him to the doctor at 10, so hopefully its something we can just give him a little medicine for becasue I really hate not being able to help him feel better.
Alex ate up the peas like he was starving to death, but Kevin didn't seam to interested in eating. Although not too unusual, Alex always eats like a mad man, peas are one of the few things that Kevin tends to like more than Alex.
Then after eating their food I passed Kevin off to Jamie to give him his bottle. When she felt his head it was even warmer than it was when I changed him. So right away we took his helmet off, which the doctor said to do anytime they run a higher than normal temperature.
Although not real happy about it, Kevin ate most of the bottle. This is pretty average for the boys right now. They rarely eat their bottles good right after eating solids. What was a little odd is that Alex finished his bottle before Kevin.
While Jamie was still finishing up feeding Kevin his bottle I was able to put Alex in his bouncy toy and take Kevin's temperature. His temp was 100.3. So we gave him some Infant Tylenol. The feeding was a little earlier than normal, but both boys were starting to get pretty sleepy so we laid them down early for their afternoon naps.
Alex took his normal nap in the crib, and Kevin laid in our bed with Jamie for a nap. They ended up taking a really good 2.5-3 hour nap. When they got up though you could tell that Kevin did not feel very good. All he wanted to do was lay on us, or if he was on the floor he just wanted to sit and have a toy in front of him. He definitely was not his normal playful self.
We had planned to go out to dinner with my parent for Jamie's birthday last night. When they got to our house Kevin was a little bit more smiley and happy to see Grandma and Papa, but still not his playful self. Grandma was the one that pointed out to us just how raspy his breathing was(well me at least, Jamie might have noticed it earlier but I didn't).
We decided to give it a try and see how he would do going to Buffalo Wild Wings. BWW has some really cool high chairs. The seats just flip over and they become holders for car seats. Now normally the boys would not have had any interest in being in the carseats the whole time we ate. And just like usual Alex started getting cranky about 5 seconds before the waitress brought us our food. So I flipped the seat back up and he was happy the rest of the meal sitting up at the table with us, well maybe not happy but really really interested in trying to devise an evil plot to get our food. Kevin on the other hand just laid in his carseat, and watched all the TVs, for pretty much the whole meal. As we were finishing up eating Kevin started to get a little cranky so Jamie took him out and held him. He just wanted to lay down on Jamie shoulder and when Grandma took him he wasn't very happy and just wanted to be back on Jamie's shoulder.
When we got home he was still pretty raspy. When you put your hand on his back you could feel his chest vibrate as he breathed. And he still felt pretty warm at this point. We were considering taking him down to the emergency room to have him checked out. So we decided to call Prevea's on call nurse first.
The Prevea nurse was super helpful. She walked me through all kinds of questions about how Kevin was doing. After answering all the questions she suggested that we bring Kevin in the bathroom and run the shower for 20 minutes to get some warm mist in him, and that she would call us back in a half hour to see how that went.
When we went to go in the bathroom Jamie noticed that he had a pretty wet diaper, so we decided to change him first. Then while he was all undressed we thought we might as well go ahead and take his temperature again, since he now was feeling really hot to us. His temp was now 103.5, which got us just that much more nervous about it all. But hearing all the stuff about how bad Infant medicine can be we decided to just go sit in the bathroom and see if that helped. Kevin really liked it because it gave him a chance to just lay down on Jamie's shoulder and relax. I sat with him the last few minutes in the bathroom so that Jamie could get out, I figured she must have been really hot by then.
When we got out of the bathroom it did seam like his breathing was at least a little bit less raspy and there was a little bit less vibration in his chest. The nurse called us back shortly after that. She said we really needed to give him the Tylenol for the fever, but that she didn't feel it was something that we would need to go to the emergency room for. She explained how a fever is actually good because it means that the body is fighting off the virus/infection. According to the nurse the big reason we didn't need to go the ER was that he was alert, not having trouble breathing, and generally eating all of his bottles. She did then set up an appointment for early this morning so that we could bring him in to see our normal doctor.
So we went about the nightly routine as best we could. Of course this all had to happen when I had to work last night (we do a production release of our code once every 2-3 months and last night was release night). So Jamie feed Alex while Kevin sat on my lap while I worked. Then we let Alex play a bit while Jamie started feeding Kevin. Luckily the release went really smooth, so I was able to go put Alex to bed when he started getting cranky so that Jamie didn't have to disturb Kevin.
At first Kevin only ate about half of his bottle. When my release was done I sat and rocked him on the chair while Jamie got started on her homework. It took about half an hour for him to calm down and pretty much fall alseep on me. So I laid him down on the couch by Jamie while I took out the garbage, and he didn't much like that. So I got back in as quick as I could so that we could rock on the chair again. After rocking him for a while he still did not calm down. Luckily Jamie does not have a terrible memory like I do, so she suggested trying to feed him. And that was exactly what he wanted. He drank the rest of his bottle, and went to bed in his crib with the normal minute or two of whining then falling right asleep.
Wow was that a long night then. Alex actually went to bed really early. So both boys woke up quite a few times and shuffled around and cried a little. But since they are our awesome little sleepers they got themselves back to sleep pretty quick each time. Of course ever time I heard them wake up it woke me up thinking it was Kevin not feeling good again. And everytime I'd wake up and not hear him crying I would worry about that too. In the end I think Kevin slept much better than I did.
We are taking him to the doctor at 10, so hopefully its something we can just give him a little medicine for becasue I really hate not being able to help him feel better.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Advanced Feeding Techniques
Wow this has been sitting here as a draft for three months. I'd like to first apologize to all of our loyal readers, yes that would be Grandma JoJo and Nana Squirrels. So I'm morphing this post into a trip through the first three months of the boys eating solid foods...
3 Months Old:
No food yet. Kevin sucks down bottles like he has never eaten before. Alex takes his sweet time to eat his bottles. But most of the time they eat full bottles good.
4 Months Old:
We started out by doing Rice Cereal at the night feeding. As anticipated the first couple of feedings were rough while the boys tried to figure out what the heck to do with the food. Both boys cry a lot while trying to feed them, but Kevin a lot more so than Alex. Crying actually makes feeding easier because they are not fighting the spoon while they cry.
4 Months 2 Weeks:
Alex has been eating good for a week or two now. After the first few days with Alex figured out that food was good. By this point he is just inhaling the food. Kevin on the other hand just cries when we try to feed him. He refuses to eat any solid food. We are feeding the boys in the bouncy chairs on the floor in the living room.
4 Months 3 Weeks:
Giving up on Solids for a little while. This was a tough decision. Kevin just cries too much, and is really really against eating food. Thought about keeping Alex going on solids, but we wanted to keep them at the same place.
5 Months 1 Week:
Started on food again. Kevin still isn't too thrilled about eating solids. He still cries a little bit, but not nearly as bad as before. Alex was excited to get some food again. Alex really likes to suck on his fingers while we feed him, which makes it really tough.
5 Months 3 Weeks:
Well apparently Grandma JoJo had the magic touch. Grandma JoJo was here to feed the boys two nights in a row, and ever since then Kevin no longer cries when he eats. We still can't feed Alex fast enough, he just inhales food.
6 Months:
Alex continues to eat good, but he still insists that he needs to stick his fingers in his mouth and makes a mess while eating. Kevin no longer cries at all when we feed him, he sits there and eats good. Not as fast as Alex, but very little mess relatively speaking. Alex will eat anything that you put in front of him. Kevin on the other hand much prefers veggies over fruit. He'll eat most fruit, but he isn't as happy about it as when he eats veggies. The other thing that we have discovered is that the boys much prefer to eat at the table. So now we are feeding them in the bouncy chairs onto the table instead of on the living room floor.
7 Months:
A bit of changing in eating styles. Alex now sits relativly still while you feed him. He still sometimes goes after the spoon or sticks his fingers in his mouth, but not too bad. Kevin now likes to bang at the bowl while we feed him, as well as sticking his fingers in his mouth and grabbing the spoons. Makes feeding him a little difficult. We did now get out the high chair and they seam like sitting up in there while eating. Both of the high chairs we got from people were in need of some serious cleaning, so we only have one cleaned up and ready right now, and hopefully getting the other one ready today. When sitting up in the high chair they seam more calm about eating versus when they are in the bouncy chair.
Last Night:
We went to Red Robin for dinner. To give the boys something to do while we were there we brought some of those little melting baby snacks that looks kinda like star shapped cherrios. Supprisingly the boys did not really like them much. Alex was never able to get any into his mouth, and when Kevin did ( I think Jamie actually got it in his mouth ) he made a pretty unhappy face. The boys started to get a little cranky while we were eating cause they wanted to eat. So we brought along some Chicken dinner baby food. This was the first time we have tried anything other than fruits and veggies. Alex really did not like it at all. He made a disgusted face and simply spit out most of the few spoonfuls I tried to get into him. Kevin did not really like it either, but at least he ate a little bit of it without spitting out too much.
Wow that was a lot of catching up. Hopefully soon I will have enough time to get the other 3 partially written entries done and posted.
3 Months Old:
No food yet. Kevin sucks down bottles like he has never eaten before. Alex takes his sweet time to eat his bottles. But most of the time they eat full bottles good.
4 Months Old:
We started out by doing Rice Cereal at the night feeding. As anticipated the first couple of feedings were rough while the boys tried to figure out what the heck to do with the food. Both boys cry a lot while trying to feed them, but Kevin a lot more so than Alex. Crying actually makes feeding easier because they are not fighting the spoon while they cry.
4 Months 2 Weeks:
Alex has been eating good for a week or two now. After the first few days with Alex figured out that food was good. By this point he is just inhaling the food. Kevin on the other hand just cries when we try to feed him. He refuses to eat any solid food. We are feeding the boys in the bouncy chairs on the floor in the living room.
4 Months 3 Weeks:
Giving up on Solids for a little while. This was a tough decision. Kevin just cries too much, and is really really against eating food. Thought about keeping Alex going on solids, but we wanted to keep them at the same place.
5 Months 1 Week:
Started on food again. Kevin still isn't too thrilled about eating solids. He still cries a little bit, but not nearly as bad as before. Alex was excited to get some food again. Alex really likes to suck on his fingers while we feed him, which makes it really tough.
5 Months 3 Weeks:
Well apparently Grandma JoJo had the magic touch. Grandma JoJo was here to feed the boys two nights in a row, and ever since then Kevin no longer cries when he eats. We still can't feed Alex fast enough, he just inhales food.
6 Months:
Alex continues to eat good, but he still insists that he needs to stick his fingers in his mouth and makes a mess while eating. Kevin no longer cries at all when we feed him, he sits there and eats good. Not as fast as Alex, but very little mess relatively speaking. Alex will eat anything that you put in front of him. Kevin on the other hand much prefers veggies over fruit. He'll eat most fruit, but he isn't as happy about it as when he eats veggies. The other thing that we have discovered is that the boys much prefer to eat at the table. So now we are feeding them in the bouncy chairs onto the table instead of on the living room floor.
7 Months:
A bit of changing in eating styles. Alex now sits relativly still while you feed him. He still sometimes goes after the spoon or sticks his fingers in his mouth, but not too bad. Kevin now likes to bang at the bowl while we feed him, as well as sticking his fingers in his mouth and grabbing the spoons. Makes feeding him a little difficult. We did now get out the high chair and they seam like sitting up in there while eating. Both of the high chairs we got from people were in need of some serious cleaning, so we only have one cleaned up and ready right now, and hopefully getting the other one ready today. When sitting up in the high chair they seam more calm about eating versus when they are in the bouncy chair.
Last Night:
We went to Red Robin for dinner. To give the boys something to do while we were there we brought some of those little melting baby snacks that looks kinda like star shapped cherrios. Supprisingly the boys did not really like them much. Alex was never able to get any into his mouth, and when Kevin did ( I think Jamie actually got it in his mouth ) he made a pretty unhappy face. The boys started to get a little cranky while we were eating cause they wanted to eat. So we brought along some Chicken dinner baby food. This was the first time we have tried anything other than fruits and veggies. Alex really did not like it at all. He made a disgusted face and simply spit out most of the few spoonfuls I tried to get into him. Kevin did not really like it either, but at least he ate a little bit of it without spitting out too much.
Wow that was a lot of catching up. Hopefully soon I will have enough time to get the other 3 partially written entries done and posted.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
A couple of afternoons of just me, the boys, and helmets
So far the boys don't seam too upset about the helmets. They had a pretty cranky day yesterday, but they were cranky all day, even during the times when the helmets were off. I think the crankiness is more from the teething than it is from the helmets. Kevin still is not eating very good On a side note I need to do some more research on this because the feeding schedule we have the boys on does not appear to be anything like the one that came from some company( Gerber or Good Start) . And Alex has gotten really stuff today.
Jamie works noon-4ish Wed-Fri this week. Since we wanted to keep the boys home I am attempting to work from home this week. Yesterday I literally did not have any time while Jamie was at work to get any work done. The only time there wasn't at least one boy crying was during Alex's first feeding, and that was just because Kevin was sleeping and Alex loves food. Since Kevin is not such a big fan of food right now he cries through his feedings.
Today went much better. The boys napped good. Then they played good. Then they ate. The eating still didn't go great, in fact the first feeding was mostly just the food then they refused to eat the bottles. Then the second feeding went pretty well. They actually played in their bouncy toys and on the playmat for quite a while by themselves today. I still had to go and occupy them for a while, but its always fun to get a little alone time with the boys. There was minimal crying but boy when Kevin cries he doesn't just cry he screams.
Tomorrow we are up to 6 hours at a time with the helmets on. That is actually a good thing. The only time the boys really get mad at the helmets is when we have to take them off or put them on. So the less we have to do that the better. Hopefully the next 2.5 months keep going like this.
Jamie works noon-4ish Wed-Fri this week. Since we wanted to keep the boys home I am attempting to work from home this week. Yesterday I literally did not have any time while Jamie was at work to get any work done. The only time there wasn't at least one boy crying was during Alex's first feeding, and that was just because Kevin was sleeping and Alex loves food. Since Kevin is not such a big fan of food right now he cries through his feedings.
Today went much better. The boys napped good. Then they played good. Then they ate. The eating still didn't go great, in fact the first feeding was mostly just the food then they refused to eat the bottles. Then the second feeding went pretty well. They actually played in their bouncy toys and on the playmat for quite a while by themselves today. I still had to go and occupy them for a while, but its always fun to get a little alone time with the boys. There was minimal crying but boy when Kevin cries he doesn't just cry he screams.
Tomorrow we are up to 6 hours at a time with the helmets on. That is actually a good thing. The only time the boys really get mad at the helmets is when we have to take them off or put them on. So the less we have to do that the better. Hopefully the next 2.5 months keep going like this.
Plagiocephaly Helmets
The boys got their helmets on on Tuesday. It was a very long appointment.
The doctor started out by measuring their heads again. This time both boy's heads had a circumference of 435mm. For Kevin this was good. It represented 4mm of growth, which is on the high side, but perfectly good. For Alex though, it was 10mm of growth, and the inside of the helmet was made to be 435mm, which means that the helmet is way small.
The helmets look like a wrestler's helmet, open on the top, circles around the head, obviously not covering the face, and cut outs for the ears. ( ) I'll add pictures of the boys to here very soon. Kevin has a dark blue helmet, and Alex's is light blue. The outside is a hard plastic shell, and the inside is hard Styrofoam.
The doctor spent quite a bit of time on Alex's helmet. When the helmet's come in they are purposely made to cover more of the face, ears, and neck than what they should. The doctor then puts the helmet on and draws some lines on the helmet for where he wants cut out for the face. He then used a grinder to trim down the size of the helmet. Because of how much Alex's head had grown he had to do quite a bit of grinding. Then he had to do some extra grinding on the inside of the helmet, due to the growth. We have to follow up with several appointments where the doctor will grind out the inside of the helmet to allow for growth of the skull. Well because Alex's head grew so much he had to grind out the inside already at delivery. We have a follow up on Monday, and then the doctor is going to rescan Alex's head and possibly make Alex a new helmet.
Kevin's head didn't grow quite as much so it didn't take nearly as long to grind out his helmet. But the one nice thing about the length of time sitting around and waiting was that the boys needed to eat shortly after the appointment started so we got a chance to feed them and let them take a nap.
We were surprised to find out that there is a ramp up period to wearing the helmets. We kinda thought it was just a go and put it on thing. But as it turns out there is a schedule to follow:
Day 1: 1 hour on 1 hour off
Day 2: 2 hour on 1 hour off
Day 3: 4 hour on 1 hour off
Day 4: 6 hour on 1 hour off
Day 5: 6-8 hour on 1 hour off
( not sure exactly why there is such a big range here )
Day 6: 8 hours during the day and then overnight
( this is the first time they have to sleep with the helmets on )
Day 7 on: 23 hours a day
Its kinda nice cause they get to gradually get used to the helmets. Of course Jamie has to work Wed, Thur, Fri this week. We don't want to stick that on my parents so I'm gonna work from home the rest of the week so that I can handle the schedule. At the doctor's office the boys didn't really mind having the helmets on too much, but they really were not big fans of the putting them on and taking them off process.
The bigger, better surprise was the length of time that they are likely going to have to wear the helmets. According to all the research I was doing; typically kids get helmets on around 6-7 months old and wear them for 10-14 months. And if its caught early and the helmets go on around 4-6 months ( the boys are right in that range now ) then the average time that they have to wear the helmets is 4-5 months. Well based on how the boys have grown up until now the doctor estimates that the boys might be able to get the helmets off in 2.5 months. That would mean end of October/beginning of November. Our hope was that they would get them off by Christmas time, but really we were thinking more like early January, so this is way better then we thought. Hopefully the next 2.5 months are just as good.
The doctor started out by measuring their heads again. This time both boy's heads had a circumference of 435mm. For Kevin this was good. It represented 4mm of growth, which is on the high side, but perfectly good. For Alex though, it was 10mm of growth, and the inside of the helmet was made to be 435mm, which means that the helmet is way small.
The helmets look like a wrestler's helmet, open on the top, circles around the head, obviously not covering the face, and cut outs for the ears. ( ) I'll add pictures of the boys to here very soon. Kevin has a dark blue helmet, and Alex's is light blue. The outside is a hard plastic shell, and the inside is hard Styrofoam.
The doctor spent quite a bit of time on Alex's helmet. When the helmet's come in they are purposely made to cover more of the face, ears, and neck than what they should. The doctor then puts the helmet on and draws some lines on the helmet for where he wants cut out for the face. He then used a grinder to trim down the size of the helmet. Because of how much Alex's head had grown he had to do quite a bit of grinding. Then he had to do some extra grinding on the inside of the helmet, due to the growth. We have to follow up with several appointments where the doctor will grind out the inside of the helmet to allow for growth of the skull. Well because Alex's head grew so much he had to grind out the inside already at delivery. We have a follow up on Monday, and then the doctor is going to rescan Alex's head and possibly make Alex a new helmet.
Kevin's head didn't grow quite as much so it didn't take nearly as long to grind out his helmet. But the one nice thing about the length of time sitting around and waiting was that the boys needed to eat shortly after the appointment started so we got a chance to feed them and let them take a nap.
We were surprised to find out that there is a ramp up period to wearing the helmets. We kinda thought it was just a go and put it on thing. But as it turns out there is a schedule to follow:
Day 1: 1 hour on 1 hour off
Day 2: 2 hour on 1 hour off
Day 3: 4 hour on 1 hour off
Day 4: 6 hour on 1 hour off
Day 5: 6-8 hour on 1 hour off
( not sure exactly why there is such a big range here )
Day 6: 8 hours during the day and then overnight
( this is the first time they have to sleep with the helmets on )
Day 7 on: 23 hours a day
Its kinda nice cause they get to gradually get used to the helmets. Of course Jamie has to work Wed, Thur, Fri this week. We don't want to stick that on my parents so I'm gonna work from home the rest of the week so that I can handle the schedule. At the doctor's office the boys didn't really mind having the helmets on too much, but they really were not big fans of the putting them on and taking them off process.
The bigger, better surprise was the length of time that they are likely going to have to wear the helmets. According to all the research I was doing; typically kids get helmets on around 6-7 months old and wear them for 10-14 months. And if its caught early and the helmets go on around 4-6 months ( the boys are right in that range now ) then the average time that they have to wear the helmets is 4-5 months. Well based on how the boys have grown up until now the doctor estimates that the boys might be able to get the helmets off in 2.5 months. That would mean end of October/beginning of November. Our hope was that they would get them off by Christmas time, but really we were thinking more like early January, so this is way better then we thought. Hopefully the next 2.5 months are just as good.
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