Caden is Two Months Old

Oh goodness, I seriously can't believe how quickly time is passing. This little boy is the absolute light of our lives and I can't imagine life without him now. It's a lot harder to get things done, but there's nothing I'd rather do than snuggle and play the day away with him.

At two months old, Cade:

Likes: Bathtime - seriously loves it. He instantly calms down and has started splashing his legs. His favorite part is still getting his head scrubbed at the end. It's been his favorite since the day he was born.
Eating: that boy will eat and eat and eat. Then he'll spit it back up and eat some more. He nurses like a champ.
Snuggling: he doesn't like to get put down. That makes it a real challenge to work or get ready or do the dishes, so I try and fit in as much as I can when he takes his (one) nap each day.
Talking: he has found his voice and he makes the biggest smiles when you talk to him and does his best to contribute to the conversation.

Doesn't like:
Getting his diaper changed
Getting dressed after bathtime
Getting put down

He's doing (mildly) better with tummy time, but we need to do it more often.
I'll update his height and weight after his 2 month app this week.

Last night at dinner Jeff and I had the realization at the exact same moment that we finally feel refreshed and like normally functioning adults again. I'm pretty sure this is directly correlated to the fact that he has had 2 nights of really good sleep - Saturday, he had 6 hrs and then 3 hrs, and last night he had 7 hrs and then 2 hrs.

Mom moments:
I discovered (I think) the key to getting him to sleep for a good while at night. Feed him really well, and then I bring him into our bed and let him rest for 20 minutes while I get ready for bed. Then nurse him side-lying until he is good and out, and he won't wake when he gets transferred to his crib. These are the sweetest moments for me - and I'm always super tempted to just let him sleep with us all night but I've got a fear that I'll crush him or something.

He came with to our company Christmas party and did so good! He slept most of the time and then smiled at my mom the rest of it.

Caden is one month old

Holy cow, how did this month go by? I swear it was just yesterday I brought home my sweet, jaundiced, tired little baby and was completely overwhelmed and second guessing my every move.

I still feel like a newb, but am slowly starting to get to know his needs and little personality. For instance:

He likes to wake up real slow in the mornings. He'll grunt the hours away in his cradle, but around 6:30 he'd like to eat a little and be patted to sleep on your chest. Then at 7:30 he wants to eat a little more, and then he'll sleep for another hour or two. Mostly he just wants to snuggle. And that's totally okay.

A binky is not a suitable substitute for a boob.

He doesn't sleep well with his arms swaddled at night. He wants them up near his head, so we just swaddle the rest of him.

Chances are, if he's just woken up and you try to change him, a projectile liquid from one or more orifices is just waiting to cover you *and* him. It's best to give him a couple minutes to wake up fully.

He does best with tummy time about an hour after he's eaten.

He coos at night when he nurses.

He sneezes just like his dad - 5-7 times in a row.

He's a grunter.


Mom Moments:

1) His circumcision was the most awful, awful, awful. I could hear him screaming from the waiting room. When I was finally allowed to go get him, he looked up at me with the saddest, most betrayed face. I will never forget that look and oh, it hurt my heart.

2) I took him to the doctor because I was convinced they messed up on his circ. Turns out they didn't.

3) He peed right into my eyeball one night.

4) My favorite thing EVER is how he looks up and just stares into my eyes when he nurses. I swear I can see right into his soul and it's the sweetest, most innocent, most genuine little soul ever.

5) I'll be honest and admit that I didn't feel an immediate bond with him after he was born. I went right into hyper-aware, am I doing any of this right? mode, but by week one I tell you my heart could just burst.

Now, before the photo dump, let me just tell you I don't have adequate words to describe what being a mom has done to me. I adore everything about my little baby Cade and can't imagine my life without him. I'm exhausted, my house is not nearly as clean as it was a month ago, and I haven't bothered to put on makeup today, but I love, love, love being his mom. I feel like it's my calling.

Already, thoughts of  "when can we have another one? will we have to do IVF? How many times can we do this?" have started filling my head and heart. I can't imagine doing this just once and I feel an assurance that we'll get to do it again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One week old and adorable as can be.

 

 

3 weeks old

Caden's Birth Story

I have loved reading other people's birth stories throughout this pregnancy so I thought I would share ours. Also, I wanted to document it for my own benefit because it was such a whirlwind.

On Tuesday Oct 18, I started contracting in the evening. Contractions weren't anything new for me since I'd been having Braxton Hicks pretty frequently since 20 weeks, but these ones were persisting a little more and definitely hurt a bit. I didn't say anything to Jeff because I figured it was either false labor or I was becoming a wimp from all the Braxton Hicks.

We went to bed around 11:30, but I got back up and went to the living room since I was having contractions averaging every 4 minutes and they were starting to be pretty uncomfortable. After an hour and a half, they'd tapered off enough that I decided they were false labor and went to bed. However, I was woken up an hour and a half later by more painful contractions coming consistently every 8 minutes - then every 6-8 minutes. I asked my mom around 7 if she thought it was the real deal and she suggested calling labor and delivery. They told me to call back when I couldn't talk through them, but then decided to have us come in and get checked since I was also leaking pink fluid.

I woke Jeff up and told him I needed him to cancel work for the day and go to the hospital with me. We took 45 minutes getting everything together and eating breakfast, then by 9:00 we were in triage having contractions every 5 minutes, dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced. They said they were going to check in an hour and if things hadn't progressed we would go - but first they wanted to check and see if my water had broken. The first test came back positive, but they thought it might be a false positive so ordered a lab test. Half an hour later, the nurse walked in and said, "You're ruptured! Let's get you admitted."

Turns out my water had broken on Monday. Oops.

An hour later, I'd been hooked up to pitocin and was dilating quickly - a half hour after that I'd had my epidural and was at a 5, and then by 1:00 pm was at an 8. 20 minutes later I was feeling like I needed to push but for some reason waited for another 15 minutes to call the nurse.  I knew I needed to call sooner, but was in denial that this was the finish line and was scared out of my mind. When I couldn't take it anymore and had started shaking uncontrollably I told Jeff we needed to get somebody in there.

As an aside, the epidural was probably the worst part for me. Holding still through contractions was rough, and then when she put the catheter in I felt it hit a nerve that sent a jolt of pain through my leg, but it was super short-lived. It took about 20-30 mins for it to take total. effect, I could feel the contractions wrapping around my back on the right side for a while but once it numbed that side it was pretty amazing.

When the nurse came in, she checked and said, "Oh! You are complete."

She got the room ready and we did a practice push that was very effective - she told me he had hair.
"Another push like that, and I'll call the doctor."

The next one was just like that - two more contractions and she told me I had to stop which was extremely uncomfortable. Thanks to the epidural it wasn't painful, but my body was so uncomfortable and anxious to get the baby out that I had to concentrate really hard through contractions to *not* push, which meant not relaxing, which stressed me out. She kept texting our doctor and then finally called and said, "You need to get in here NOW."

He ran over from the office, threw scrubs on over his clothes and with the next contraction, I pushed and his head came out- then the next push his shoulder came out. "Wait! Dad wants to catch!" The nurse yelled. Jeff had just enough time to throw on some gloves and with the final push Caden was in Jeff's arms. I think I pushed through five contractions total for about 20 minutes - and that time includes the contractions I wasn't allowed to push through. Right before the last push I got an episiotomy and he slid out really easily after that.

The moments after that are a blur - he came out screaming and they laid him on my stomach until Jeff cut the cord. The assessed him and his apgars came in at 8 and 10 - I got to hold him and help clean him for a few minutes before they took him to get wiped off and weighed. For being 3 weeks early, he was a good size - 7 lbs 6 oz which is exactly what I weighed, and he was born at 2:20 in the afternoon which is within minutes of the time Jeff was born. He was 18.5 inches long.

I cried a lot - so relieved that he was there, so happy to finally meet him, and completely overwhelmed with the whirlwind experience of the day. Neither of us thought we'd be admitted, and even more than that I never would have imagined that 4.5 hours after admission we'd be holding our baby.

Meeting him was a little different than I'd imagined - there was definitely a rush of "Oh! That's my baby!" and at the same time, "Is this really my baby?"

We were discharged the next day, but had to go back to get bilirubin levels checked three times. They're finally going down and the doctor has said he is healthy and doesn't require anymore testing!


Jeff was AMAZING through the whole thing. He didn't get grossed out over anything - which is amazing because as a female, I find a lot of things about giving birth gross. He watched them administer the epidural, and watched through pushing updating all the way since I'd requested they not have the mirror. He was so supportive and has been THE cutest daddy to Caden. I always knew he'd be a great dad but he holds Caden as often as he can and has made sure to help with EVERYTHING - if I get up in the middle of the night, he helps change the diapers.

We are so grateful for this sweet little boy of ours and are slowly adjusting to being a family of three.

Preparing for a Baby and other fun things.

Anybody who knows me well knows that I'm a planner. Being prepared is a big deal to me. I'm not particularly flexible so sometimes life's surprises throw me for a big one.

Now, despite the several years it has taken us to get remotely close to parenthood, I've never felt as under-prepared for anything as I do for bringing home a baby. We have to keep it alive and raise it. Me and the hubs had a nice, deep conversation about the latter part of that last night.

ANYWAYS, since I have absolutely zero idea how to prepare mentally, emotionally, or otherwise beyond physically for this, we've done a few things to be as ready as we can think to be before baby makes his arrival.

We have:
- gotten a 2nd car. It looks like this. We were worried about only having one car, and that car being gone most days since Jeff doesn't work close enough for me to drop him off and pick him up every day. He wanted (needed, really, since he's got some hobbies that tear up the Pathfinder but that's another story for another day) a truck but settled on a sedan and has found that he really enjoys a) the gas mileage and b) the actual ride itself. So, score.

 

- Everything washed, ready, set up, and installed. The crib was done weeks ago. The carseat base? That's been in my car for a few weeks too. Clothes are washed and sorted, room is as ready as it will probably be - though there are a few cosmetic touches I've wanted to add that we haven't gotten around to yet. I didn't want to spend a lot of money decorating a room that he would never remember or appreciate, so almost everything in there has been either gifted or DIY'd. 

 The rocking chair was gifted by my sister, the bunny and white blanket were knitted by my mom, the giraffe and elephant pictures were knockoffs of really cute prints I found on Etsy at $9.00/each (which were not being sold at the moment) - so I copied them as best I could and bought the frames for $3.50 each, the quilt I sewed ($35) and don't look at the seams, please, and the mobile is also a knockoff of an Etsy item that sells for $80 that my mom and I made for $23. Jeff's going to make a bookshelf to hang over the lamp on the left side of the room and that will be about it. I would have loved to have a Moroccan pouf and a rug, but again - it's not something he'll remember and I would much rather have the $$ to spoil him with when he gets here.

- have 9 days of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners in the freezer. Here's a few of the recipes we used for dinners:

- Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapeno Popper chicken

- Chicken Parmesan

-  Sloppy Joes

- Skinny Lasagna Rolls 

A few others are recipes I've tweaked to our family's taste over the years - crockpot chicken philly sandwiches, crockpot chicken fajitas (also good over salad), and baked chicken flautas.  One thing that was (halfheartedly) on my mind as I prepped these was that I wanted to be able to start dropping weight, so I  tried to make the meals something that Jeff could eat traditionally, and that I could tweak a little so it wasn't so carb heavy for me.

For breakfasts, I made a box of buttermilk pancakes and froze them, made several fruit/veggie smoothie packs, and also these muffins. There's nothing healthy about these muffins, but they are one of my FAVORITE things to eat. Kind of a "welcome home, sorry your lady bits are tore up" gift to myself.

This week will be 36 weeks, so he can come relatively soon after that and if I'm being honest, come 37 weeks I'll be doing everything I can to help him come a little early. 

We are SO excited to meet this baby boy of ours. He's our biggest dream come true.

31 Weeks Pregnant

Holy smokes. At this rate, only 2 more updates until we have a sweet little baby boy! I can't even believe it.

At 31 weeks, I can't fit really any of my pre-pregnancy clothes. I was hanging on to some shirts but even my loose, baggy plain t's have been pushed to their limits. This means that not only do I spend my life in Jeff's gym shorts, I also live in his t-shirts too. I can't get over how attractive pregnancy has made me.

I have a feeling that he will come a little early. I started having frequent Braxton Hicks contractions at 19 weeks, and while some days are a lot worse than others, I still have several a day and sometimes 7-8 an hour. I'd worry more but my doc has always brushed it off when I bring it up and since he hasn't come yet, we're probably fine. I hope. In any case, I've been taking it really easy this whole pregnancy especially since I've noticed that walking around and even easy working out makes them worse. So I'm a little chunkier than I'd like to be and that part has been hard, but it's 110% worth it for this little baby of ours.

We finally decided on a (first name) - he will be Caden, called Cade. We haven't settled on a middle name as of yet. He might not have one. I don't know.

MISS ANYTHING: Being able to bend over and do a good job shaving my legs. TMI? Too bad.

FOOD CRAVINGS: Diet coke. As per usual, I can *always* go for a good taco.

ANYTHING MAKE YOU QUEASY: Nope.

WEIGHT GAIN: I can't even talk about it.

STRETCH MARKS: Still none yet. I'm hoping this champ skin of mine holds on for the long haul.

HAPPY OR MOODY: Happy with a side of moody. I'm still in awe of the fact that there is a tiny human growing in my belly. Moody sometimes because I haven't slept much in 3 weeks and that's getting the best of me.

SYMPTOMS: So this is weird, but I've noticed all my joints are getting loose. In the morning, my fingers are so sore and loose that they try to dislocate even for simple, easy things like pulling on a pair of pants. It's crazy weird. I've started noticing all kinds of random aches and pains that I'm sure are par for the course. #thingstheydon'ttellyouaboutpregnancy

AND A NEW ONE: Weird and/or inappropriate comments made by friends, family, and strangers. I'm a pretty hard person to offend, so honestly pretty much all of this has just cracked me up. You always hear about the weird things people say to pregnant folks and it's actually true.

From a stranger old lady: "How much weight have you gained?" The worst part was I actually answered with the correct number. Not that she was able to compare it with what I looked like before hand. Because, like I said... she was a stranger.

From the cashier at the grocery store: "How much longer til you're due?" "2 months." "Yeah... you look like you're about done.

  LOOKING FORWARD TO: Making our final haul of baby items next week! Carseat, etc. It'll be so weird to have our nursery completely set up and (for the most part) all the baby supplies (we think) we need ready to go.

(Almost) 27 weeks with Baby Boy G

Tomorrow makes 27 weeks with baby boy! I'm conflicted on whether or not it's 3rd trimester as some sources say it's 27 weeks and others say 28, but for sanity reasons I'm going to go ahead and believe that 27 weeks is TOTALLY 3rd trimester.

So there's my belly. It's finally popped and I've definitely gained plenty of weight. I've indulged a little too much and have made a goal to avoid ice cream for the next 13 weeks.

My mom has been making our little boy the CUTEST things - the most recent is this Utes sweater and hat that will be super appropriate as he'll be here right smack in the middle of football season :).

MISS ANYTHING: Having more clothes to wear, haha. I haven't wanted to spend a lot on maternity items because I'm pretty sure I'll need new clothes after the baby comes, too.

FOOD CRAVINGS: Not really. I'm kind of off Mexican as spicy food gives me heartburn now. Last night I was up til 2:00 trying not to refund my dinner, and it wasn't even spicy.

ANYTHING MAKE YOU QUEASY: Nope. Not even a little.

WEIGHT GAIN: 25 lbs. WUT.

STRETCH MARKS: Not yet!

HAPPY OR MOODY: Pretty happy. I love feeling this little guy moving around throughout the day and getting to know his personality. 

SYMPTOMS: Heatburn, weightgain, insomnia, and that's about it. I've had a really easy pregnancy. Still a few Braxton Hicks here and there, but nothing like a few weeks ago.

 

  LOOKING FORWARD TO: The 30 week mark! It's all starting to feel real and I'm a little overwhelmed at how much is left to do. We've got a lot of shopping we're planning on doing coming up, and I think it will be so fun to have more baby items scattered throughout the house.

It's a....

BOY!

We are so thrilled to finally know what we are having and it has increased our level of excitement 100%.

On Tuesday we went in for our anatomy scan and our office does that in two parts - the ultrasound tech takes pictures and measurements, does not discuss them with you, but does tell you the gender. We were probably in there for about 30 minutes and our ultrasound tech kept referring to baby as "he" though she hadn't told us what he was. I finally asked, "So.... we're having a boy?!" She said "Oh! That's just what I call every baby. Let's take a look. Sure enough... it's *definitely* a boy! She came back to it a little while later and said, "Yeah, so there's his hands, grabbing it.. .they start early... it's definitely a little boy!"

We had made a bet on the way into the office on what it would be: I bet boy, I've thought boy since I saw the embryo and Jeff said girl. I'm proud to put that down on my tally sheet 'cause I've just had great luck betting things over the last couple weeks.

We went out to dinner to celebrate and then when we got home, my paranoia took over and I started googling "ultrasound abnormalities" and trying to figure out if there was anything that looked amiss. I didn't know it but in the other room, Jeff was doing the same thing! We sat down and Jeff said that according to his limited infant development training, he didn't see anything that would indicate a reason for concern - the heart was formed properly and had the correct number of chambers, the kidneys looked good, the bone structure (which is more his speed) all looked good. So we took a deep breath and then started discussing names. We've got a shortlist that includes 3 so far and I'm sure we'll add a couple before we make a final decision.

On Thursday, we went back for our recap and the doctor reviewed the measurements. He said we have a perfectly healthy baby who's measuring well and weight is good, and he didn't see anything that worried him or would necessitate a follow up or in-depth scan so we were THRILLED.

Ultrasound pictures of our little boy cover our fridge and it's so cute to see Jeff walk into the kitchen and flip through them. He's already so proud and he's not even here yet. He'll say things like, "Look at his perfect little feet!" Melt my heart. Watching my husband growing into a daddy is the most awesome thing and he's already shifted seriously into that role.