All Better

Just wanted to give everyone an update. Drew is feeling much better!! The vaporizer helped a great deal. I want to send out a huge thank you to my parents for rushing to Tiffany's aid at midnight when she was worried about Drew and I wasn't home. Thank you so much.

First Cold

I guess I should have known not all of my posts would be happy ones. While I was bartending at the Silver Dollar Sunday night I got a phone call from Tiffany. Apparently Drew had developed a very sudden cold and was stuffed up. He stopped breathing for a short while (less than a minute) and turned a terrible shade of red.

He wouldn't cough or inhale, but eventually he did start crying which was a great relief to Tiffany. She called my parents and asked them to come over to help her. Thankfully my parents live less than 3 blocks away and arrived within just a couple minutes. My mom took Drew into the bathroom and turned on the shower at full heat and allowed the room to fill with steam. This loosened his phlegm and he was finally able to breathe with ease.

While my Mom and Dad helped Tiff called the doctor for advice and then called me to let me know what happened. I told my two patrons I was closing immediately and that they had to leave. LOL. I stopped at Walgreen's for a Vaporizer and some Ocean Mist to loosen all of his congestion.

He's doing better now, but it's 3:00 am and he's still not sleeping or comfortable more than about 30 minutes at a time. And now that the blog is fully up to date, all entries should be much more current. Check back for more info daily!

First Smiles

Up until recently Drew is actually quite a boring enterprise. He eats, sleeps, poops, and occasionally cries. He'll study our faces for a long time and the end result is usually a sigh. Not too exciting.

But on Saturday the 12th at around 2:00 am I was feeding Drew a bottle. Afterwards he gave me about 30-45 seconds of amazing smiles. These weren't the smiles we'd seen previously called "gas smiles". These were REAL responses to my smiles and my laughter. It was amazing, and the best thing that we've experienced since his birth.

The next morning when Tiffany fed him he gave her the same session of real smiles with coos and funny little baby noises. And of course Tiffany had her camera ready...

First Bottle

For the first time in his life, Drew got a bottle of breast milk on Wednesday December 10th. It was nice to finally get a chance to feed him myself.

ILL - INI

On Saturday December 6th Drew went to his first ever Fighting Illini sporting event. The Men's basketball team traveled to Chicago to play Georgia at the United Center. It was a cold, windy day but that didn't stop Tiffany's strong desire to get him in his orange & blue Chief gear and down to the city.

We stopped in at Dan B's apartment which I think was near Lakeview. Here Dan B, Jen S, Joe W, Alex & Emily R, and Jen & Eric D got to meet Drew for the very first time. Josh & Linda H were there as well but they had met him after the Northwestern football game in November.

The Illini cruised to a 76-42 victory in front of a rather small contingency of Illini fans (around 11,000). Despite the small crowd it was loud as usual at the UC, but Drew slept right through it. He woke up once or twice for no particular reason.

Here's some pix from the game:

One of many instances where Jen didn't want to let go of Drew

Look who's awake and unknowingly supporting Chief Illiniwek!

Enjoying the game with Daddy

Our first family portrait at an Illini sporting event. One of many to come I'm sure

Great way to kick off December...

I took Monday December 1st off from work to make it an extra long Thanksgiving weekend. On our way to Glenview we stopped in Deerfield to introduce Drew to his Great Grandma (aka: Big Grandma). I found this picture of my Great Grandma, Grandma, Mom, my brothers and me from when we were kids up in Platteville. This picture made me think of that...

Four generations of Butsons meets 4 generations of Solers...

Drew's First Thanksgiving

Drew spent his very first Thanksgiving with his Mommy, Daddy, Gumpa, Nana, Uncle Tony, Aunt Jaclyn, Uncle Jim, Aunt Susan, and his cousins Peyton, Sophia, & Jackson. Phew, that was a mouthful. Everyone had a great time and it was wonderful to have all the little ones together for the holiday.

Andrew is all dressed up with nowhere to go...

Gumpa and Nana with their grandchildren.
Sophia, Andrew, Peyton, & Jackson

Peyton gets to meet Drew for the first time

Jackson is 3 months to the day older than Drew.

And the Christmas season begins...

Jaundice

On the whole, Drew was a very healthy baby boy. The only problem we encountered was his jaundice. The night before Tiffany & I were hoping to take Drew home we discovered that his jaundice levels jumped from 11 to 13. Jaundice is measured on a scale of 1-20. 18+ is dangerous for the baby, 13-17 is causes for concern, and 12 or lower is ok.

Jaundice levels are determined by how much bilirubin is in your blood stream. Drew was born with a large bruise from his shoulder to his elbow since he was stuck in an awkward position before birth. As the red blood cells break down it release bilirubin. Unfortunately a baby's liver is not yet ready to remove the bilirubin from their system.



So they put Drew under these "bili-lights" which help break down the excess bilirubin and he passes it with his poop. They thought by noon he'd be better, but his level actually jumped again to 15. They thought maybe another 12 hours and he'd be ok to go. Unfortunately he was still at 15. But by 6:00am on Tuesday November 11th he was back down to 11 and they let us go home... FINALLY. :)

Andrew Michael Soler is born!

Tiffany & I arrived at Highland Park Hospital at 7:45 am on Thursday November 6th, 2008. Tiffany's doctor told her the day before she couldn't wait any longer, Tiffany had to be induced. By 11:00 Tiffany's water broke. We were so excited to bring our baby into the world.








Unfortunately, midnight came and went and still no baby. Tiffany ended up in 22 hours of EPIDURAL-FREE labor, stuck at 9 cm for the last 8 hours. Andrew was stuck and the cervix wasn't going to expand any more. Around 4:45am on Friday November 7th, our doctor told us Tiffany needed a cesarean and we couldn't wait for a natural birth any longer. I got scrubbed up and they wheeled Tiffany into surgery.








Finally, at 6:01 am Andrew Michael Soler was born into this world. He was born at 8 pounds 11.4 ounces and 20 inches long. Tiffany became my new super hero and I quickly fell in love with Drew. On 11/07/08 we became a family.