2 months old

Today we went to the doctor for Caleb's two month check up. He now weights 12 lbs 9.5 oz and is 23 1/4 inches long. That puts him in the 50th percentile for weight and the 95th percentile for height. Which is interesting since his parents were never considered tall. So does this mean the little man will be taller than his parents? We'll have to wait to find out. The poor little man had to get 4 shots today. He screamed so loud, I'm sure the whole place heard him.

The little man had a busy Christmas season, so lets recap. He attended the hanging of the greens at church, where he slept like a champ. He was the only guy at a Christmas cookie decorating party, where he slept through the whole thing until I woke him up to eat before the 30 minute drive home. He was awake for the first time at church, followed by an evening of fabulous music at our church's Christmas program. This was the first time he did not sleep through everything, not sure what that means. He attended a drop in Christmas party, which was around his bedtime so he did not enjoy having anyone but mom or dad hold him, and we left the party earlier than we would have had he not been with us. He spent the night at the Ritz. Yep we are spoiling him at an early age (actually it was my Christmas/Anniversary present, they were having a special). He spent two nights at Grandma's house. He spent the day at Grammy's house. He went out to a restraunt and hosted a Christmas party at his house. He was the only boy at at a wedding shower. And tomorrow he is going shopping with mom and Grammy.

Yep he was busy, and overall was a wonderful baby. I have to say that each week it gets better and better.

We are evidently really bad at taking pictures with our camera, so we have no pictures from any of our festivities. But we hope to have some soon. So here are some older pictures that I never got around to posting. Enjoy

Striking a pose in the sweater vest (from early December)

I promise his eyes are blue, but for some reason they look brown here.

This is from Thanksgiving, but one of only a few family pics.

I think this is from before Thanksgiving

he has a voice

Caleb has started talking, ok so it is more like gurgling/cooing but it is the first time he has made noise without crying. It's so exciting.

Friday was the first day I left Caleb with Chris for a whole night. I went to a choir and orchestra concert for school. It was nice to see some of my students but I missed the little man. I'm glad that I'm not returning to work right now. I still have 8 weeks of maternity leave. I can't imagine how big C is going to be then or what all he is going to be doing. He seems to be growing and changing weekly. I was staring at him this morning thinking about how much he has changed since Thanksgiving.

Saturday night I put the little man down for the night at 8 ish. Lately he sleeps for about 4 hours the first segment of the night, so I was expecting him to wake up between 12 and 1 am. Then after that first segment of the night we will wake up after two or three hours, until around 7 am when he is awake for the day. Well Saturday night/sunday morning I woke up at 2 not to the typical noise or the little man crying but to the painful feeling of needing to feed him. I layed there for a minute in shock that it was 2 am and he was still asleep and that I was awake without having to be. I never imagined that when he finally sleeps longer hours I would wake up before him. Oh well. The little man woke up at 3 am. I'm not convinced that this is normal behavior yet but I did appreciate it and am working towards repeating this.

The other day after my one month post baby check up, I stopped by a second hand baby store. They had tons of stuff. I was looking for a jacket for the little man. He currently has three jackets in size 3 - 6 months which are just too big, and since it has gotten colder i figured he needed a jacket. while there I also purchased two sweater vests. They were too cute to pass up. So on sunday I decided Caleb would wear his collared shirt and sweater vest to church. I got him all dressed and went down stairs to get breakfast. Chris came down and I smiled from ear to ear because they were both wearing sweater vests. I love it when Chris and I match, but he hates it. We matched once at a wedding (the Jackson wedding) and he has never let us match since then, he hated it when people noticed and commented. It didn't help that the only people who commented were guys. So of course I have been wanting Chris and Caleb to match. I had to take a few pictures because I didn't know if it would happen again.

the two guys, mathcing. Aww, check out the little man's smirk.

He's starting to get a lot more personalty.

My friend Eleanor stopped by on her one day in town between moving from LA to DC. I know a crazy move that she is making for the third time I believe. Well I couldn't resist taking a photo of the two of them looking oh so Christmasy.

Pictures

No real thoughts or reflections today, but I thought you might enjoy some more pictures.

Aunt Tonya and the little man hangin out

A close up (notice the sad zit that showed up for a few days)

check out the adorable dinosaur outfit loaned to us from a friend

the little man was exhausted on Thanksgiving, he was so excited he didn't take a nap all day and after much fussing crashed for a few hours. I was so happy he was finally sleeping I was afraid to move.

My guys. I found a cute used clothing store and bought the little man a jacket.

Adorable!

1 month old today

Wow can't believe Caleb is one month old already and at the same time I very much believe it. Yeah still working on sleep, however I will say he did pretty well the last two nights sleeping in 3 hour increments. I'm an analytical person, so the frustrating thing about figuring out this sleep thing, is that there is not an obvious cause and effect and there is no distinguishable pattern. We are however now working on establishing a routine which if for no other reason helps me feel like I'm working toward a goal. It also appears to be working.

The highlight of my day these days is typically my walk around the neighborhood. During my walks I have lots of time to ponder and reflect on the day. As such I have come up with some random thoughts:

1. Just because you didn't have stretch marks when you were pregnant does not mean you will not get them. They can appear after the baby is born. I like to call my stretch marks purple flames.

2. I think I will always be more sensitive then I was before Caleb was born.

3. People are not very tactful when giving advise, see number 2 above. I know that they are not trying to say that I'm a bad mom when they give advice but it feels like it.

4. Mom instincts have not set in yet. I love my son and desire to shower him with love and care, but I don't currently love staying at home taking care of an infant that doesn't interact with me. As of right now I think I'm more of a toddler and above person. I like older kids, which is why I teach high school.

5. I've decided that parenting is like factoring you guess what is wrong or needs to be done and you check to see if it worked, repeating this process until you get it right. The more you do it the better you get at guessing, which shortens the process, until you come to a problem you have never seen before like a leading coefficient. After a few of these new problems you get the hang of it until you come to a totally new problem like x^3 + 8. I'm curious if any of you guys remember how to factor this one? You would have learned it in Algebra 2

looking cute in his dinosaur pj's

he's started sting out his tongue

one of only 3 pictures of me and the little man, note i'm looking a lot like a mom (no effort for my looks)

Max and the little man cuddling

the little man not so happy to not be held, notice the red face it's a barometer for his mood also note max is not phased

daddy and the little man after his first bath ( the pic is old i just forgot to post it)

one of my favs

Sleep oh how I desire you

Sleep, the beloved word that Chris and I crave. We aren't doing so great at this right now. I finally decided I need to read a few books to get some help, but haven't been able to finish any. Because well when do I have time. Some days he naps and some days he doesn't. It seems like he is so tired that he just can't go to sleep. And so far at night it takes way to long to get him to sleep. He will be calm and appear to be dozing off, then we put him down and with in 30 minutes he is wide awake again. So the cycle starts all over again. It seems that if we hold him for 20 to 30 minutes then when we put him down he will sleep for an 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Which at 3 in the morning is not what i want to be doing.

So today I am trying to establish a routine. To make sure he naps during the day, but not for too long and that he eats enough during the day that he can sleep at night. I know that nothing will be perfect in one day but yet the ration side of my brain is not communicating well with the rest of my brain. And, I am having trouble with following through on my intentions because every day seems to be different. And yes I know that he is almost a month old which is not old enough to expect much "normalcy". But I find that I desire it. I would like for a few days in a row to be the same and for him to only wake up once at night. Oh that would be so nice.

Must Have More! (posted by Mardis)

Life is full of potentially addictive activities and substances...some are utterly detrimental while others are quite harmless.

One of my favorite addictions when used in modest porportions is the bubblewrap page. Click on the bubbles below to pop them. (You're welcome.)

One of the lesser known addictions, however, is the intoxicating personhood of our new son (pictured below), but it appears that only grandmothers are yet known to be susceptible. It is indeterminate at this point if this substance is harmful for its users, but we have identified one of the latest side effects: technically it is known as "Repeatedly Re-Repetitive Speech." By way of example, one of the latest instances of this side effect goes something like this:

"There he is! Yes, there he is! I found you! There you are! I see you!"
(Re-repeat until loss of consciousness.)

Again, the long term effects of this addiction is unknown, but we'll be sure to keep you up-to-date with any future determinations in this regard.

Pictured below: Paternal Grandmother

Pictured below: Maternal Grandmother

Updates at Work (posted by Mardis)

So while I'm off at work doing "work" things, Mikki is faithfully tending to our little one. Occasionally, she'll send me picture messages of their happenings which is the highlight of my day:

Out for a walk

Taking a nap

At the grocery store

Wide awake!

Up close and personal

2 weeks old

Okay, not much time to write, since Caleb doesn't seem to enjoy chillin by himself. He wants to be held or bounced at all times. Which is a bit exhausting.

Breastfeeding is going much better, as are my emotions. They seem to be less crazy these days, but I still tear up for no good reason.

Notice his adorable tie. Thanks Martha. We got all dressed up for our first family outing to the end of season volleyball banquet.

My two boys. Max is actually on the couch also, at Chris' feet.

He looks so serious

One week of being a mom

What an eventful week. We learned everything we could about birth to prepare ourselves for the big day, which was super helpful. Now we are trying to learn everything we can about being parents (for now focusing on babies).

One of our biggest hurdles this week has been breastfeeding. We learned a ton about the benefits of breast feeding and we were excited to be a part of that. However the actual breastfeeding did not come so easily. The first few days seemed so easy, turns out I wasn't feeding him enough. So one day he was starving and crying and very upset, which made me very upset and after an hour or so of this we called the La Leche League. The lady helped us get through the morning. Then we went to the paediatrician and got help from an ex-nun turned breast feeding expert. She taught us more about how often to feed, and how to feed and when to feed, etc. After a day or two we were back to frustration of not latching on, therefore not feeding. So we saw a lactation consultant at Kennestone Hospital and it seems we are finally getting the hang of this.

The most surprising thing this week, has been how emotional I am. Some days I just want to cry for no apparent reason, other days the reason is clear. For example, this morning we had Caleb circumsized. I am glad I watched but at the same time, that was too much for me. Caleb was such a strong little man, it was mom that was crying.

So here are some pictures from this week.

We had a water birth ( I highly recommend it to anyone wanting a natural birth)

On our way home

My two men

Finally getting the hang of this. Look how thick my hair is, when is it going to start falling out?

Chris and Max chillin, while Caleb is eating

Max is still getting lots of attention, as he is our first child

Linda holding Caleb, check out Koko Mardis

Bill and Caleb

Tonya (c's sister) and Caleb who is blissfully sleeping

No, that's not santa that's my dad.

My mom, ecstatic to be a grandma

Max trying to share his toy with Caleb. Max always greets Caleb when we return (only two trips outside of the house so far)

The little man himself

And while I have your attention, I have to brag on some amazing girls I know. Last night the Pope volleyball team won the state championship. I managed to get out of he house to go and see them play. They played so well. This is Pope's first state title. It is an honor to be a part of this sports program. Click here to read the entire article.

Caleb has arrived!

Caleb Christopher arrived this afternoon at 1:51 pm...he weighs 8 lbs 10 oz, and measures 20 3/4 inches. Below are pictures of our latest addition to our Mardis family. Both he and Mom are doing well and resting from the big day.