Thanksgiving has come and gone. We have so much for which to be thankful. I say this every year, but it means even more this year. Caleb continues to amaze us with his developmental growth spurts. He is now sitting up by himself for quite a long time - until something gets his attention and he leans for it...then he topples. He is rolling over and over and over...but still gets mad about it when he's tired. About a week ago, I was hanging up laundry in his room and he rolled himself against the bedroom door. He hadn't figured out how to roll the other way yet, so he was stuck. I showed him how to go back to his left and he's been "on a roll" since then. He has started yelling just to hear his own voice. It's usually something along the lines of "yayaya" or "wawawa", but he'll occasionally throw in a /b/, /m/, /d/ or /p/.
On the other hand...our little easy-going newborn has turned into an infant with an opinion. Don't get me wrong - Caleb is still happy-go-lucky most of the time, but when he wants (or doesn't want) something to happen, he is quite vocal about it. This is particularly true when it comes to having his face cleaned or being put down to play when he wants to be held. We've seen a lot of this the past 2 days. I blame it on his daddy's genetics, but I'm sure he blames it on mine. We can both be opinionated in our own right, I guess - we've never been accused of being wishy-washy that I know of.
November was a fun and very busy month. I'm so busy at work right now that I don't even want to see a computer when I get home. That's why I haven't been posting much. Rudy's after-hours work has decreased a lot now that marching season is over. (Yeah!!!) On November 19th, we attended the wedding of Rebecca Villines and Sean Franklin. Rebecca is Rudy's first cousin, so we got to see lots of family there. Our family from Texas (Larry/Ana, Alexander, Anthony, Mary, Jimmy/Sandy) came in for the wedding. Uncle Terry from Ft. Smith came in too. None of them had met Caleb, so we were extra excited about seeing them.
We spent Thanksgiving in Springfield, Tennessee, at Doug and Lisa's house. Ken, Dennis and Kathy were there too. Caleb got to meet more aunts and uncles! We had a fun time visiting with them. The only low part of the weekend was the Hogs' loss to LSU. Oh, well - the SEC championship game is this weekend, so we have 2 more games to enjoy (hopefully). We had a wonderful dinner on Friday at Doug's restaurant - The Depot - and really enjoyed our time with family. The trip was short and sweet and Caleb did pretty well overall. He got a little fussy in the car - it was a long way! I was able to climb in the backseat with him and entertain him most of the way. On the way back, we actually had to stop for a few minutes just to give him some time outside of the carseat. He was so tired of being restrained! I can't say that I blame him!
We made it home yesterday safe and sound. Last night was pretty low-key, just unpacking and doing laundry. Today, we put up the Christmas tree and the stockings. Rudy went to Target and Babies R Us to get baby-proofing gear. Since Caleb is on the verge of being mobile, we have to start thinking about the stairs, cabinets and outlets more and more. I'm hoping he waits until after Christmas to start crawling so that the tree is safe!
This week starts the official countdown to Christmas. I love that December is a short work month, but that just means that we have 4 weeks of work to do in just 3 weeks' time! At least I have all my shopping done...
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Drool Drool Everywhere!
We had an awesome weekend! Rudy was home all weekend and we took full advantage of having some family time together. Friday night was very low-key. On Saturday, we went to the Sears Portrait Studio for Caleb's 6 month portraits. They turned out really great - I can't wait to get them back! Saturday night, we enjoyed the Razorbacks' win over South Carolina with about 50 other Arkansas fans at Ozzie's. Caleb was a real trooper throughout the whole thing - even though it was a late night for him. He barely fussed and thoroughly enjoyed watching all of the people and playing with Jerry, Sherry and Rebecca.
On Sunday, we went to church and took Caleb to our church nursery for the first time. When we picked him up, the nursery worker was telling someone else what a happy-go-lucky guy Caleb was. When we got to the door, we just told her we were there to pick up Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky. She said that she was amazed at how good he was the whole time. He must have really had a good time. We certainly enjoyed being able to pay attention in the worship service. After church, we went out to lunch and then came home and cleaned like the Maid Brigade! The house had been abandoned for a few weeks and was in need of a good cleaning in a bad way. Rudy got cracked up when he vacuumed, because Caleb was so intrigued by the vacuum cleaner!
We had a real "breakthrough" on Saturday. Caleb's first tooth literally broke-through his gum! His tiny little tooth is on the bottom and in the front of his mouth. That could very possibly explain all of the nasty congestion and diarrhea that we fought all last week. It definitely explains the ridiculous amount of drool that we are dealing with. Poor Caleb just drools continuously! All of his toys are wet after he plays with them and he just can't keep a dry shirt.
Another big development this weekend was our realization that Caleb can now hold his own bottle. Now, instead of putting his bottle in his mouth ourselves, we hold it out in front of him and reaches for it. He puts it in his own mouth and then holds it himself. He can control it for most of the feeding, but toward the end, he starts to have trouble tipping it up high enough to get the rest. Regardless, it's a big accomplishment for him (and us)!
Tomorrow is Caleb's 6 month well-baby check-up. I'll try to post tomorrow night to give an update.
On Sunday, we went to church and took Caleb to our church nursery for the first time. When we picked him up, the nursery worker was telling someone else what a happy-go-lucky guy Caleb was. When we got to the door, we just told her we were there to pick up Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky. She said that she was amazed at how good he was the whole time. He must have really had a good time. We certainly enjoyed being able to pay attention in the worship service. After church, we went out to lunch and then came home and cleaned like the Maid Brigade! The house had been abandoned for a few weeks and was in need of a good cleaning in a bad way. Rudy got cracked up when he vacuumed, because Caleb was so intrigued by the vacuum cleaner!
We had a real "breakthrough" on Saturday. Caleb's first tooth literally broke-through his gum! His tiny little tooth is on the bottom and in the front of his mouth. That could very possibly explain all of the nasty congestion and diarrhea that we fought all last week. It definitely explains the ridiculous amount of drool that we are dealing with. Poor Caleb just drools continuously! All of his toys are wet after he plays with them and he just can't keep a dry shirt.
Another big development this weekend was our realization that Caleb can now hold his own bottle. Now, instead of putting his bottle in his mouth ourselves, we hold it out in front of him and reaches for it. He puts it in his own mouth and then holds it himself. He can control it for most of the feeding, but toward the end, he starts to have trouble tipping it up high enough to get the rest. Regardless, it's a big accomplishment for him (and us)!
Tomorrow is Caleb's 6 month well-baby check-up. I'll try to post tomorrow night to give an update.
Thursday, November 2, 2006
A Visit to the ER, 1st Halloween and 6 Months Old
Since I last posted, we've had lots of excitement around our house! My mom came in to town for the weekend before my birthday. She enjoyed spending time with Caleb while I went to a wedding shower and Rudy and I went to my 30th birthday party on Saturday. My party was a lot of fun! There were 13 of us there and we laughed and carried on as if we were at a 21st birthday party, instead of a 30th.
Last Thursday (10/26), when I picked Caleb up from Carrie's, she told me that he had been having some nasty diapers and she was on the verge of calling me to pick him up but didn't because it was the end of the day. We decided that it was probably from all of the sinus drainage he's been having and didn't really worry about it too much. His stomach was fine that night so we sent him back to Carrie's the next day. He was still congested, but seemed okay other than that.
That Friday (10/27), Jenny and I left for Las Vegas. We went to celebrate our birthdays with a Jimmy Buffett concert and a whole lot of fun! Halloween weekend in Vegas is like nothing I've ever seen! The concert was awesome and we had a great time. Our travel was horrible, but Saturday made it all worth it. PLUS - our Cardinals won the World Series while we were there. That was so awesome!
Back to Caleb... I called Rudy when I got to Vegas to check in and he said that Caleb was sicker than he had been the day before. We decided that he should take Caleb to the urgent care to get him checked out and maybe get some sort of medicine to help him. When they got to urgent care, Caleb threw up all over Rudy. I have to give it to Rudy, though - he handled it well. He took care of that baby above all else, even though he had a huge marching contest the next day. As planned, Jerry and Rebecca came to get Caleb, because they were scheduled to keep him Saturday night. Rudy passed along the doctor's instructions for them to follow. I felt so completely helpless. I was miles and miles away and couldn't do anything for my sick baby or my exhausted husband. I had full belief that they would be okay without me, but told Rudy and Jerry to call me if anything changed or if they needed me to hop the next plane home. Caleb continued to have diarrhea for the rest of the weekend. When I finally got home at 2:00 Monday morning, I walked in the door and heard Caleb screaming. I got to the top of the stairs and found Rudy changing yet another nasty diaper. I told Rudy to go to bed and I took over right then and there. It was a long night. I stayed home with him on Monday and he seemed to be feeling so much better, so he went back to daycare on Tuesday. He wasn't just right on Tuesday, but it wasn't awful, so we continued to think it was either congestion or maybe even the green beans that he was eating that was causing the diarrhea. Carrie agreed that it likely wasn't contagious, so she agreed that we should keep bringing him the rest of the week. She did say that she was a little concerned because he hadn't eaten much that day and he hadn't had any wet diapers. That worried me too, but he wasn't showing any other signs of dehydration, so we just decided to keep an eye on him.
Tuesday afternoon, we put Caleb in his lion Halloween costume and went to the Sheltons for a quick visit. On the way there, we heard the unmistakable sound of a baby diaper blow-out. By the time we got to the Sheltons, the pants of Caleb's Halloween costume were soaking wet and we had to just take them off of him. The poor thing was a legless lion for the rest of the evening! The crazy thing is that he never acted like he felt bad. He was laughing and smiling through the whole thing! When we got home, Caleb refused a bottle and refused Pedialyte. He still hadn't had a wet diaper, so I got worried. I called Monica for advice and she suggested that I call the pediatrician's exchange. I did and the nurse that I talked to said that we needed to take him to the ER to get his fluids checked. After one more nasty diaper, we packed up his diaper bag and headed out the door at 9:00.
When we got to the ER, Rudy and I got upset because all of the nurses kept talking about how fat/chubby/roly-poly, etc Caleb is. They were saying how it was going to be hard to draw his blood and how they sure hoped they didn't have to start an IV on him, because it was going to be so hard to do. We were sitting there with a sick baby and all they could do was talk about how fat they thought he was. We know he's a big boy, but it was completely unnecessary for them to do that. (By the way, he weighed 20 lbs, 12 oz. when we were there.) We talked to the doctors and nurses and then they tried to take his blood. They really did have a hard time finding a vein and Caleb screamed like I've never seen him scream before. It completely broke my heart. I had to walk away a couple of times. It was just too hard to see him in that kind of pain and not be able to do anything at all about it. Once they finished, Caleb fell sound asleep in my arms. He was exhausted. The doctor came back pretty quickly and said that Caleb was not dehydrated. Thank Heavens!!!!! He said that we just needed to keep a very close eye on him and that it was likely that the diarrhea was being caused by a stomach flu which would be very contagious. At that point, I decided I would stay home with him on Wednesday for certain. On the way home, I called my mom and she offered to come stay with him so that I wouldn't have to miss work, but that wasn't necessary.
Caleb and I stayed home on Wednesday and we both slept most of the day. He didn't have anymore diarrhea and he started to gradually eat again. Last night, he had made it 24 hours without diarrhea, so we called Carrie to tell her that he would be back at her house today. He had a great day today and a great night tonight. Hopefully, this means he's on the mend! I did elevate the head of his bed last night and we put a vaporizer in his room to help with his congestion. Hopefully, he'll be able the shake that nastiness soon.
On a much happier note, Caleb is into full-force babbling these days. It started on Sunday. His favorite thing to do is, "dadadadadada!" He likes to play with his volume when he does it too, so he'll go from whispering to yelling and back again. It is hilarious! He also loves it when Rudy bounces him up and down in front of the couch or bed when Dewey is up there. He laughs hysterically at that. I made him laugh tonight by hiding behind Rudy's back and scaring him by playing peek-a-boo. It's been a few days since we've heard that glorious laughter, so it was a wonderful night!
Caleb is six months old today and he continues to melt us and make us laugh every single day. He is the greatest Earthly joy of our lives.
Last Thursday (10/26), when I picked Caleb up from Carrie's, she told me that he had been having some nasty diapers and she was on the verge of calling me to pick him up but didn't because it was the end of the day. We decided that it was probably from all of the sinus drainage he's been having and didn't really worry about it too much. His stomach was fine that night so we sent him back to Carrie's the next day. He was still congested, but seemed okay other than that.
That Friday (10/27), Jenny and I left for Las Vegas. We went to celebrate our birthdays with a Jimmy Buffett concert and a whole lot of fun! Halloween weekend in Vegas is like nothing I've ever seen! The concert was awesome and we had a great time. Our travel was horrible, but Saturday made it all worth it. PLUS - our Cardinals won the World Series while we were there. That was so awesome!
Back to Caleb... I called Rudy when I got to Vegas to check in and he said that Caleb was sicker than he had been the day before. We decided that he should take Caleb to the urgent care to get him checked out and maybe get some sort of medicine to help him. When they got to urgent care, Caleb threw up all over Rudy. I have to give it to Rudy, though - he handled it well. He took care of that baby above all else, even though he had a huge marching contest the next day. As planned, Jerry and Rebecca came to get Caleb, because they were scheduled to keep him Saturday night. Rudy passed along the doctor's instructions for them to follow. I felt so completely helpless. I was miles and miles away and couldn't do anything for my sick baby or my exhausted husband. I had full belief that they would be okay without me, but told Rudy and Jerry to call me if anything changed or if they needed me to hop the next plane home. Caleb continued to have diarrhea for the rest of the weekend. When I finally got home at 2:00 Monday morning, I walked in the door and heard Caleb screaming. I got to the top of the stairs and found Rudy changing yet another nasty diaper. I told Rudy to go to bed and I took over right then and there. It was a long night. I stayed home with him on Monday and he seemed to be feeling so much better, so he went back to daycare on Tuesday. He wasn't just right on Tuesday, but it wasn't awful, so we continued to think it was either congestion or maybe even the green beans that he was eating that was causing the diarrhea. Carrie agreed that it likely wasn't contagious, so she agreed that we should keep bringing him the rest of the week. She did say that she was a little concerned because he hadn't eaten much that day and he hadn't had any wet diapers. That worried me too, but he wasn't showing any other signs of dehydration, so we just decided to keep an eye on him.
Tuesday afternoon, we put Caleb in his lion Halloween costume and went to the Sheltons for a quick visit. On the way there, we heard the unmistakable sound of a baby diaper blow-out. By the time we got to the Sheltons, the pants of Caleb's Halloween costume were soaking wet and we had to just take them off of him. The poor thing was a legless lion for the rest of the evening! The crazy thing is that he never acted like he felt bad. He was laughing and smiling through the whole thing! When we got home, Caleb refused a bottle and refused Pedialyte. He still hadn't had a wet diaper, so I got worried. I called Monica for advice and she suggested that I call the pediatrician's exchange. I did and the nurse that I talked to said that we needed to take him to the ER to get his fluids checked. After one more nasty diaper, we packed up his diaper bag and headed out the door at 9:00.When we got to the ER, Rudy and I got upset because all of the nurses kept talking about how fat/chubby/roly-poly, etc Caleb is. They were saying how it was going to be hard to draw his blood and how they sure hoped they didn't have to start an IV on him, because it was going to be so hard to do. We were sitting there with a sick baby and all they could do was talk about how fat they thought he was. We know he's a big boy, but it was completely unnecessary for them to do that. (By the way, he weighed 20 lbs, 12 oz. when we were there.) We talked to the doctors and nurses and then they tried to take his blood. They really did have a hard time finding a vein and Caleb screamed like I've never seen him scream before. It completely broke my heart. I had to walk away a couple of times. It was just too hard to see him in that kind of pain and not be able to do anything at all about it. Once they finished, Caleb fell sound asleep in my arms. He was exhausted. The doctor came back pretty quickly and said that Caleb was not dehydrated. Thank Heavens!!!!! He said that we just needed to keep a very close eye on him and that it was likely that the diarrhea was being caused by a stomach flu which would be very contagious. At that point, I decided I would stay home with him on Wednesday for certain. On the way home, I called my mom and she offered to come stay with him so that I wouldn't have to miss work, but that wasn't necessary.
Caleb and I stayed home on Wednesday and we both slept most of the day. He didn't have anymore diarrhea and he started to gradually eat again. Last night, he had made it 24 hours without diarrhea, so we called Carrie to tell her that he would be back at her house today. He had a great day today and a great night tonight. Hopefully, this means he's on the mend! I did elevate the head of his bed last night and we put a vaporizer in his room to help with his congestion. Hopefully, he'll be able the shake that nastiness soon.
On a much happier note, Caleb is into full-force babbling these days. It started on Sunday. His favorite thing to do is, "dadadadadada!" He likes to play with his volume when he does it too, so he'll go from whispering to yelling and back again. It is hilarious! He also loves it when Rudy bounces him up and down in front of the couch or bed when Dewey is up there. He laughs hysterically at that. I made him laugh tonight by hiding behind Rudy's back and scaring him by playing peek-a-boo. It's been a few days since we've heard that glorious laughter, so it was a wonderful night!
Caleb is six months old today and he continues to melt us and make us laugh every single day. He is the greatest Earthly joy of our lives.
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