At the Drop of a Hat

I really look forward to the weekends so that I can spend a lot of time with Caleb and be more helpful to Mom. I feel like I hardly see him at night during the week and I feel like I don't get to pitch in
as much by soothing him when he is upset, by changing diapers, etc. So the weekends are great because I get to hang out with Caleb and take on my share of the responsibility.

This afternoon, Caleb and I were spending some time together and I had laid him on my lap. He was gurgling, waving his arms around and generally doing well. But as we have learned, his mood can change on a dime. Mom took five pictures of Caleb on my lap. In that time frame, he went from content in the first picture to unhappy in the second picture.

Mom got some more pictures later in the day. We are really amazed at how much personality Caleb already has at just a few days over a month old. He has different expressions and ways of holding his head. This is one of my favorite ways to look at Caleb. He fully extends his neck and you can really see his jaw line. We've been able to spend lots of time together today as a family and have had a really good day.

Sleep Cycles

Speking of falling asleep, Caleb has not established a pattern yet, though he is getting better at sleeping at night. He still prefers his mom over his bassinet, but the last couple of nights he has slept in the bassinet for several hours in a stretch allowing Mom to sleep in the bed for those hours. When Mom is sleeping with Caleb, she normally has him tucked in between her arm and her body. However, this picture shows Caleb's favorit spot to sleep when his Mom is awake.

One Month Old

Well, Caleb turned one month old on May 1 and Dad fell asleep on the job, literally. It would seem that a month of having a baby around is catching up to Dad. I was on the couch reading for our life group Sunday and Mom reminded me not to fall asleep on the couch before I posted. Well, I did exactly that. I woke up at some point after midnight and was too tired to post, so I put it off until today.

We took remarkably few pictures yesterday considering yesterday was a milestone day. This is a good picture to show off, though, because you can sort of see the progress Caleb has made since we got him home. He is really starting to get plump and might deserving a new nickname along the lines of chubbo. He stomach is starting to pooch out and he is starting to really put the baby fat on his legs. His health is good and he has done so well since we brought him home that the jaundice/bilirubin/weight issues are a distant memory and seem like a dream.

It is hard to believe Caleb has been with us for a whole month. Time is already flying by and I am afraid that if I blink, he will graduate from high school tomorrow. But our lives are so much better having him. It is a joy to come home and see him each day. He is already changing and his level of alertness seems to be improving every day. Caleb is a blessing in our lives for which we will always be grateful.

Finding a Routine

Mom and Caleb had an active morning before slipping into a routine afternoon of feeding, changing diapers and sleeping. Mom took Caleb out for a long, vigorous walk. Caleb still does not like the bright mid-day sun very well. After coming home from the walk, Mom gave Caleb a bath. After Caleb's bath, Mom put Caleb in his bouncy seat and tried to take a shower. Caleb was fine right until Mom got in the shower and immediatley started crying. The kid has impeccable timing. This is Caleb in his bouncy seat before the melt down.

Plastic Man

Mom and Dad learned something about Caleb today. Caleb must have been doing Yoga in utero. I've always known babies are flexible, but Mom was mesmerized by the cuteness of Caleb's posture captured in these pictures. In the top picture, that is Caleb's foot between his hand and his mouth. If you look carefully, you can see the toes of his right foot peeking out from behind his left foot. The bottom picture is another view of the same "pose."


In addition to discovering how bendy Caleb is, Mom took Caleb out to drop off some dry cleaning and get an oil change in her car. Apparently, Caleb was a big hit at Jiffy Lube with both staff and customers. Mom also took Caleb out for a walk around the neighborhood this evening.

Snoozing Snugly

As I said yesterday, there are days where we have itchy trigger fingers and take lots of pictures of Caleb. On the other hand, we are starting to get into a bit of a routine and there are days that feel "normal" where we don't take a lot of pictures. We go about our day and nothing extraordinary happens that makes us think to get the camera out. Sometimes it is hard to post on those days because there is little material to choose from.

Today was one of those days. We ate dinner shortly after Dad got home, then the three of us spent some time together on the bed hanging out with Caleb laying in between Mom and Dad while talked to him and admired him. But mostly, Caleb ate tonight. So there were few opportunities to get a good picture of him.

So I decided to take this picture which I snapped just a few minutes ago. I thought I would share this picture with you becuase this is Caleb has been sleeping lately. A LOT! He is cradled in Mom's arm between Mom's body and the couch.

Caleb has a nice bassinet to sleep in which his Grandaddy slept in when he was a baby. The problem is, Caleb rarely sleeps in the bassinet. He wants to be close to Mom and has to be in a very deep sleep before he will go down in the bassinet without protest. I know that this arrangement has been hard on Mom and meant many nights on the couch, but he looks so peaceful when he sleeps snuggled up to her like this.

Paparazzi

Some days, Caleb must feel like he is being chased by the paparazzi with all the flashes going off in his face. There are some days that we take a lot of pictures. Many times, we'll take the same picture numerous times thanks to the magic of digital photography. Other days, we hardly take any pictures at all. I guess depends on our mood that day. Today was one of those days where we took lots of pictures. Of those, we'll probably only keep a few.

This first picture is of Caleb in his bouncy seat. It has an attachment that goes over the bouncy seat and has several jungle animals hanging from it. Caleb sat in his bouncy seat while Mom and Dad ate their dinner. Mom and Dad were surprised because Caleb seemd to be focusing on the animals hanging in front of him. It is exciting to watch him grow and develop and this is a great development. Caleb hasn't seemed to focus on objects other than our faces, so we are glad that he is beginning to look at other things.

Mom decided it would feel good to get out of the house for a little, so Mom and Caleb went with Dad to the grocery store after dinner. Caleb rode around in the Boppy sling while Mom and Dad shopped. Caleb slept most of the time. Even though Caleb seems to be pretty comfortable in the sling, Mom decided he should wear something in case the grocery store was a little cold. Mom put him in one of the shirts made by Mrs. B which I mentioned yesterday. The shirt can be seen in this photo.

We placed Caleb in a Boppy pillow for his last photo shoot of the day. A Boppy pillow can be used to support the baby while he is nursing or he can be placed in the Boppy pillow to keep him from rolling away (see the second picture). I had never heard of this product or manufacturer before Caleb came along...now I know all about them and this blog has become a billboard for their products (maybe I should try advertising on this blog...hmmmm.) Anyway, Boppy's can also used to encourage the baby to lay on their stomach and hold their his head up. Mom decided to place Caleb on his stomach. Although he doesn't hold his head up real well yet, we did get a pretty cute picture out of it.

Earlier in the day, Dad and Caleb hung out while Mom took a nap. Caleb was alert and in a good mood for a while. Dad was holding Caleb's head when Caleb reached up and behind his head to get hold of Dad's finger. Dad had to have a picture of this because it reminded me of the night Caleb was born. My first memory of Caleb will always be standing over him while he was being examined just after he was born. He was laying on the table crying his little lungs out and flailing his arms and legs about. I put my finger next to his hand and it just wrapped around my finger as if he was holding on for dear life.

For the first few minutes after Caleb was born, I was in a daze. Caleb was behind me being examined and Mom was in front of me being cared for by the nurse and the doctor. I could hear Caleb crying, but I knew he was surrounded by medical personnel, so my instinct after all these years was stay near Mom to make sure she was OK. The nurse encouraged me to go be with Caleb and Mom said it would be OK to leave her side. I went back to Caleb and as soon as he grabbed my finger, I snapped into reality and realized that my son was now a part of my world. I will never forget that moment and those feelings as Caleb held onto me looking for comfort in his first few moments in this world and he and I were able to connect for the very first time. This picture brings that moment back to me.

Just a Lazy Saturday

Today was an uneventful day. Mom went out this morning to get a haircut and left Caleb at home with Dad. Mom went out again this afternoon to pick up dinner. Dad is sort of gettig the hang of dealing with Caleb by himself. This evening after dinner, Mom, Dad and Caleb went for a walk around the neighborhood. About halfway around the subdivision, Caleb decided he didn't like being out and he let us know quite vociferously. So Mom and Dad cut the walk short and took Caleb home. Caleb spent the rest of the day either eating or sleeping with Mom.

Earlier this week, I mentioned that we have received some gifts that stand out in our minds more than others. One of the packages at our baby shower came from Mrs. B who will is the Cradle Roll teacher at our church. She has been teaching cradle roll forever and everyone at church swears by her. She loves the babies and it is obvious. When we opened the package it was full of items, many of them handmade. She made a number of shirts as well as other items including the burp cloth shown in this picture. She stitched the word and the characters onto the towel and it is very cute.

I have a feeling Mrs. B will become one of our favorite people. We are looking forward to taking Caleb to her cradle red class. She is a very important member of our congregation and her effort in making the clothes wll always be special to us.

Fabulous Friday

Caleb and Mom both survived their first full week on their own. In fact, both seem to be doing quite well. Caleb visited his pediatrician this morning and the report from the doctor is that he is doing very well. He now weighs 8lb 2 oz which means he has gained over two pounds since we brought him home.
When Mom first got up this morning, she found that Caleb had completely wiggled his legs out of his blanket. Of course, that has nothing to do with the fact that Dad swaddled him at 3:00 AM and was thus half asleep when he swaddled him.

For his appointment with the doctor Mom dressed Caleb in his dinosaur overalls. These are sized "Newborn" and despite the fact that he is gaining weight so quickly right now, the overalls swallow him up and his feet barely stick out the end of the legs.
After the appointment, Mom went in to her office because school was out. Mom left Caleb in his carrier while she did a little bit of work and got some files to bring home. This is the first of what will be many days that Caleb will spend with Mom at work.

After such a busy day, Caleb and Dad spend some time together while Mom eats her dinner.

To close out the day, Mom, Dad and Caleb went to Wall's for some ice cream. For the first time, Caleb got to get out of the car at Wall's. Dad and Caleb sat at a table outside while Mom went in to get the ice cream. Caleb was awake most of the time we were at Walls and seemed pretty content to just hang out in his carrier. Except for rare circumstances, Caleb seems to like his carrier pretty well. We didn't get a picture of Caleb's first visit to Wall's however because the camera did not get into the diaper bag.

Cute as a Bug

We have recieved a lot of nice things to use in our care of Caleb. We are grateful for every act of generosity shown to us and every item we have received. However, some items are just a little more special to us or melt our hearts just a little more than the other items. We received one of those items just this week.

Mom has a really good friend, MB, that went to college with us. Both MB and Mom share the same middle name. During college, they began to have a nickname for each other where they replaced the other person's middle name with the word "bug." Eventually, they began to call each other just "bug" and they still call each other that to this day.

It has been fun to play with their shared nickname and buy each other gifts featuring bugs. It was been especially fun to buy their children bug themed clothes. Earlier this week, we received an oversize package with MB's return address on it. When we opened it, we found a cute blanket with Caleb's name embroidered on it along with a picture of a bug. Of course, Mom fell in love with the blanket and insisted on using it immediately. Here's a picture of Caleb wrapped up in his new blanket.

Mom has generally enjoyed her days at home with Caleb since Dad went back to work. Mom especially likes the moments when Caleb is awake and alert and at peace. The second picture comes from Mom's hang out time with Caleb earlier today. They were laying on the bed and Caleb was in a really good mood looking at Mom and interacting with her. The second picture is taken from Mom's perpspective as she lay next to Caleb today.