Airplanes, Basketball and Blessing

I've got some catching up to do . . . so we will start at Caleb's week 10 (December 12-18th)

Monday, Dec 12th I took Caleb to the doctor because he had a skin infection behind his ear. Thanks to athletic training, I knew it was impetigo and needed to be treated with an antibiotic so I scheduled a doctor's appointment for that day. Our pediatrician was busy, so we saw one of the other peds in the office. After she found out our normal ped had suggested we leave Caleb to try to sleep through the night, she was appalled that he had told us that with Caleb still being so young and little! It was a relief to me so I resumed feeding Caleb when he was hungry at night and life got much better. And the impetigo is gone too.

As a result of the 5 nights of letting Caleb cry alone in his crib, he developed a scared look and cry any time I left his sight. I wondered if that was just a part of normal development, but after a week or so (of not leaving him alone to cry through the night) he has not cried like that or worried when I left his sight.

On a happier note, some fun developments and firsts:
He blows spit bubbles all of the time

He frequently tries to fit both fists in his mouth.

I usually lay Caleb on the floor just outside of the shower when I take a shower (because he never takes naps that I can shower during) that way I can see him and he can hear me . . . He can't see me through all of the hard water stains and steam on the glass window. Just this week he has started to look for my voice when I talk to him while I'm in the shower. (Yes, I am aware that I just used the word shower three times in one sentence)

He won't sleep long enough for me to get any cleaning done and doesn't like to be left alone,  so this is Caleb helping me do laundry . . . cleaning takes about 10x as long as it should. 

When we are in a room and I turn off the light, his eyes get really wide

On Friday Caleb flew for the first time and all of the passengers loved him! He did not cry at all. He ate on take off, slept, smiled and ate some more on the descent. We had to fly through Phoenix to get to Salt Lake, but he was great on both flights.  

Caleb got to meet his Adams' grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins for the first time (more pictures to come).

With cousin Caroline

On Saturday Caleb went to his first BYU basketball game. They were playing #6 Baylor, it was a sell-out, we were on the very top row, it was soo loud but other than being startled a few times by Allen's whistling, Caleb seemed to not mind all of the noise and even slept for the last 20 minutes of the game.

Allen is not choking him, he just forgot to move his hand after burping him earlier (he was distracted by a very good basketball game)

Saturday night Allen and I went on our first date without Caleb to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. It was great! Thanks for babysitting Grandma Adams!

 Caleb wasn't used to the Utah cold weather, so we bundled him up for the night. We thought his carseat might be a little less drafty than the floor, so that became his bed again for the week and a half we were in Utah. Luckily he was still breathing when I got up in the morning:

He slid down in the blanket he was swaddled in

And his hat did not stay rolled up above his eyes.

Sunday Caleb was blessed by Allen at our old church in Holladay. It was great to see everyone in that ward; it felt like home! We had family come and it was a beautiful blessing. A funny story to accompany that . . . I knew Caleb would have an explosion all over his white blessing outfit if I put it on too soon. I was right! I was feeding him before his blessing and the outfit he was wearing (and my skirt) got covered in his blow out. I put him in a new onesie that we could put his blessing outfit over when it was closer to show time. We forgot which order the church services went in and as the opening prayer was ending, we realized that it was time for the blessing! His outfit made it on just in time . . . the last snap was snapped as Allen picked him up to carry him in front of the congregation. (The buttons on the back didn't get buttoned, oh well)

Thanks Grandma Abbott for the blessing outfit

Baby's First Christmas

We had a great time in Utah and were pretty busy for almost the whole time we were there. Here are some picture and video snapshots of things we did over Christmas break.

Caleb did not care one bit about any presents or even the wrapping paper, but he sure loved all of the attention he got. He loved being held and played with all of the time and because he was always involved in what was going on all day, he rarely napped and slept very well at night! (Mom appreciated getting a 5-6 straight hours of sleep for three or four nights)

Visiting Great-Grandma Rabbit

Caroline kissing/eating Caleb

Caleb's not too much shorter even though he's 8 months younger, same feet size too!

Caleb loved Great-Grandpa Larry 

They look alike!

Precious!

Great-Aunt Sheryl

Great-Grandma Sunny

Great-Aunt Steph holding Caleb while we all talk to Caleb

The two Perkins' great-grandkids

Chilling with Great-Grandma Abbott

At Danielle and Jon's wedding

Talking to Uncle Dan

Playing with Dad

Hanging with Uncle Sam

Grandma Adams

We are a happy family!

Talking to Uncle Mike

Baby Elf photo shoot

Thanks for the outfit Grandma Adams

We wore our sock monkey pajamas (from the Perkins family) when we went caroling on Christmas Eve.

Big kids playing with the little kids' toys on Christmas Eve

This video is from the week before we went to Utah, but here is Caleb "saying" I love you with Dad.

Caleb felt snow on his face for the first time and shook his head back and forth because he wasn't sure what was going on.

He has started to suck on his bottom lip a lot, which only adds to the drooling problem!

He has also started to stick his tongue out to the right side.

Caleb loves to sing (howl)! Here's a video of him singing/talking with Uncle Dan.

Here is the Adams' family Christmas caroling in the organ room and the brass triplet (instead of quartet).

Two Months Old

Things I forgot about last week:

We got a beautiful, 9 foot, pre-lit Christmas tree from someone we don't even know! Our realtor called us up and said she knew someone who was looking for a home for their Christmas tree and she thought of us.

Allen and I started doing family history work and got so excited as we found pictures of his ancestors' gravestones, names on census records, etc. We have been able to discover so many different relatives and some fun stories about them too! Last Saturday we spent over 6 hours doing it and had to force ourselves to go to bed by 1:30 am, but when I got up to feed Caleb at 3:30 am, I found myself still looking up names and dates to find more family!

And on to this week, week nine:
Last Monday was Caleb's two month appointment and here are his stats:

Height: 23.75" (85%)

Weight: 11 lb 2 oz (34%)

Head circumference: 16.5" (93%)

= long and skinny with a big head

Our adorable Dopey baby

He also had to get vaccinations at his doctor's appointment: three shots and one oral vaccine. He chugged the oral vaccination - he loves anything with sugar (his vitamin D drops and Tylenol are the only other sugary things he's had). He only cried for a few seconds after the shots but for the next couple of hours he would cry if I bumped his thighs while I was holding him. That night, when Allen got home from work, he was holding Caleb and his legs were still sore. Caleb was smiling and he would get excited and start kicking his legs, only to stop and get a confused/pained look on his face like he was wondering what the new sensation was.

BEFORE: Cute baby in a cute outfit

AFTER: Cute baby in a leotard over his sweats
(Oops! Dad changed Caleb and forgot to snap the onesie before putting the pants on)

Earlier this week, I thought I was going to just have to have a stinky kid . . . I was ready to throw in the towel on giving Caleb baths! (haha) He loves, loves, loves baths. He splashes water all over the floor and mirror because he gets so excited when I squeeze water over his head or wash his face with the washcloth. He will happily sit in the bath until the water has gotten so cold that he is shivering. The second I take him out he starts crying. He arches his back and cries for 30+ minutes, unless I feed him to calm him down. At first I thought it was because he was cold, but after buying a space heater, I realized that was not the issue . . . he just wants to be in the bath. He is slowly getting a little bit better so now I guess I won't make him be the stinky kid. : )

Loving bath time! (Thanks rubber ducky for the censoring)

This week we also had a church Christmas party. We were asked to help at the last minute and it was fun! It turned out really well and we got to know some people better. AND, instead of Santa visiting, Rudolph visited!

What a great bishop!

Caleb loves Christmas songs . . . or just any song probably. It's just that recently I've been playing Christmas music and he smiles and laughs whenever I sing and dance (and make faces at him while I'm singing). You can kind of see him enjoying my singing in the pictures below.

He is still as fascinated as ever with his hands! Now he just doesn't go cross-eyed as often when he stares at them. Sometimes he intertwines his fingers. It's funny when he's smiling at us and then he gets excited and starts waving his hands around, then he gets distracted by his hands and stares at them instead of at us.

You can see our new Christmas tree in the background... at least you can see the lights on the tree

Saturday was a very productive day! We helped clean the church in the morning and there were some cute little girls there that watched Caleb for me. They loved it and he was smiling the whole time, even when he was surrounded by 10 kids all touching him (there was a Christmas party going on at the same time we were cleaning the church). That's when I came over and asked them to only touch his toes and not his face and hands. :)
After that, we went to Lowe's to get some supplies . . . then Allen pulled weeds, put new weatherstripping around our door (makes a HUGE difference), swept, mopped, we unpacked more boxes, organized, vacuumed, cleaned our garage out, WHEW! Allen did most of it and I helped between feedings.

Sunday I taught 5 year-olds at church, for some reason the lesson I was supposed to teach was about Easter and the Resurrection . . . the kids were as confused as I was that I was teaching about Easter at Christmas-time. Then in the evening we got to visit some family friends (the Garns) who were visiting Houston. It was fun to catch up with them in the "living room" of their motel room. I think they borrowed chairs from nearby rooms to have four chairs to sit in.

Caleb's cute Sunday outfit given to him by Aunt Stephanie - Thanks Steph!

Last but not least . . .  sleep training (that's all that is left, so if that does not interest you, stop reading here)
At Caleb's doctor's appointment, his doctor also suggested we start getting Caleb to sleep through the night (7-8 hours). He said that when Caleb wakes up at night to check on him, give him his pacifier and then leave him to cry. Go back after he finishes crying and make sure he's okay. The doctor said it would only take three nights and Caleb would have figured it out. So Wednesday we started the sleep training . . . and I started to feel like a terrible mother!

Wednesday night: Caleb woke up around 1 am. It broke my heart to go up to his room, have him look at me expecting me to pick him up and hold him, stick a pacifier in his mouth and walk out as he started to cry again. I sat and watched Caleb crying on our video baby monitor all night and cried with him. When he cries, he turns his head back and forth and rubbed a bald spot on the back of his head. I found a patch of hair on the sheets when I got him out of the crib in the morning : (

Thursday night: He woke up at 12:45 and by 2:45 am I caved in and got him out of his crib. I felt terrible letting him cry for two hours! While crying this night, he kept kicking and arching his back. He scooted himself to the top of the crib and must have a stronger right than left leg because he turned himself sideways at the top of the crib.

Friday night: Allen told me to close Caleb's door and our door and turn off the monitor because Caleb was going to cry whether or not I was awake and listening. He fell asleep at 11 pm and I put him in the crib and I went to bed. I set my alarm for 5 am to feed Caleb again if he was awake. Good thing I set my alarm! I could not hear Caleb at all and when I turned on the  monitor at 5, he was sobbing. I don't know how long he had been crying for but based on how much he slept on Saturday, I think he may have been up crying all night long! He had kicked his way up to the top of the crib and with each kick was bumping his head into the crib bars : (

Saturday night: Closed doors again. I woke up at 4 am and Caleb wasn't crying. He would lay in his crib and doze off, his arm would twitch or he'd get the falling sensation and wake himself up. Then he would fuss until he dozed off again.

Sunday night: Closed doors again. I woke up at 3 am, he was crying. I went and comforted him, he settled down for a little while before starting to cry again. He didn't stop until I got him out to feed him at 5:30 am. This morning he had turned a full 180 in his crib.

I don't think this is working. He cries all night and is tired all day. Time to try something else. 

The weeks go marching one by one . . .

Caleb is EIGHT WEEKS OLD! I can't believe he's already so old! But it does feel like it has been much longer than that since I had a full night's sleep.

MILESTONES of Week 8:
Caleb slept in his own room in the crib! (That means we now get to make trips upstairs in the middle of the night to take care of our crying baby)

Our burrito baby - we have to swaddle him tightly to keep him from waking himself up every time he hits himself in the head, which happens every few minutes. 

Caleb burped and tooted at the same time . . . we've got a multi-tasker on our hands : )

He does, in fact, have colic and I'm not just a bad mom who spoiled her baby into needing to be held all of the time. For example, date night at Macaroni Grill (as seen below) Caleb would cry unless held on his stomach with a pacifier in his mouth while swaying back and forth. Note to self, get a babysitter next time.

After getting sick of taking turns standing up with him while the other ate . . .

. . . Allen got to do some bicep curls with Caleb that kept him quiet for five minutes

Stomach is his favorite position to be in when he is upset. Usually you have to be standing up with him on your forearm for him to stop crying, but sometimes any position on his stomach works.

"Talks" to the stickers on the wall above the changing table. A couple of days ago when I took him off of the changing table, he started crying and kept arching his back to try to see the stickers. I put him back on the table and he stopped crying and started cooing at the stickers again. This morning I got a short video of him talking to them.

Example of Caleb arching his back. He's looking for his mom in this picture; he loves me!

He went on his first run with mom and dad - Mom's second run since having Caleb (but he got to stay home with Aunt Lizzi and Uncle Jeremy on that one). 1.25 miles this time + core workout = sore body (it hurts so good)

Beautiful end of November weather (mid-70s and sunny)

Caleb still doesn't like to be left out

Helping Mom and Dad make corn chowder

He just wants to be a part of all of the action

Chillin on Mom's chair

He gets excited and starts kicking his legs, which makes him tip over.

Why would he look at the camera when he can smile at Dad?