Almost one year...

It's hard for me to believe, but Caleb is going to be one year old next week. Time flies by so much more quickly with the second baby. It flies by no matter what, but I feel like I blinked and it's been a year. He is doing well. He crawls around like a little mad man or "cruises" along the furniture. No steps by himself yet, but I'm sure it won't be long. He says, "Mama," "Dada," "Hi," "Bye," and "Up." He has a head full of curly, brown hair and the cutest little smile. He is super interested in whatever Evan has or is doing. He loves to snuggle more than Evan ever did. He's my little love bug. :-)

6 month stats - a little late

I get busy and forget to post when things actually happen, so I'm a little late on this. Caleb had his six month check-up on February 14th. He was almost 28 inches long (we measured closer to 29 at home) and 19 lbs 5 oz. He is staying right about a pound heavier and an inch longer than Evan, which was their birth difference, too. (Evan was 26.5 inches and 18 lbs 8 oz at his 6 month appointment.) He's been sick this last week with the pukes. I took him Wednesday because he hadn't had a wet diaper all day. They checked him for dehydration. He was a little dehydrated, but not horribly so. They gave him Zofran to stop the vomiting and had me giving Pedialyte to keep him hydrated. He seems better but he's still a bit abnormal. He'll be 7 months old in 2 days. He still isn't completely stable when sitting. He'll sit for a bit and then slowly tip over, but he is always trying to stand up. He stiffens his legs out and won't bend them. Definitely a funny kid.

RSV and bronchiolitis - yuck!

I was bad at keeping up with my blog for Evan, but I am REALLY bad at Caleb's. Seems like I am super busy all the time. Caleb is growing and learning and amazing me everyday. He rolls over both ways and is close to being able to sit up. Hard to believe that he will be six months old in about a week and a half. Time surely flies! Two weeks ago this Friday, I was driving home from visiting my mom in the hospital in Columbus, and Bev called from daycare and said Caleb was running a fever. So I took him to Urgent Care when I got home and saw Dr. S at Gallipolis. He had an ear infection and conjunctivitis (pink eye - yuck!), but he was still his happy and cheerful self. He weighed 19 pounds! Wowzer! Over the weekend, he seemed like he got worse and even started wheezing on Sunday evening. So, Monday morning, I called and made an appointment with Dr. K. He checked him over, did a chest x-ray and a nasal swab, and decided he had bronchiolitis as a complication of RSV. They gave him a breathing treatment while we were there and checked his O2 levels, but they were still pretty good, so they sent us home with instructions for breathing treatments. We trucked along for a few days, and Tony and I took turns staying home with him. On Thursday morning, I had every intention of working and sending him back to daycare, but his breathing was so rough that it scared me. So I called and made another appointment with Dr. K, and Caleb was admitted to the hospital for observation and oxygen. They gave him round the clock breathing treatments, and he spent as much time as possible in an oxygen tent. We had a mostly positive experience with just a few awkward moments with some all-too-familiar nurse aids. And after much confusion and frustration about when he would be released, they finally let us go home late Saturday afternoon. He had a recheck with Dr. K this afternoon, and other than losing a whole pound in the last week and a half, he is doing well. We were told to discontinue breathing treatments and only do them on an as needed basis, much to my relief! Other than that, Caleb is pretty normal. He doesn't sleep well yet, but we are working on that, slowly but surely.

The end of an era...

Back to work for me tomorrow. :( There have been stressful moments, but overall this has been the best nine weeks of my life. I hate to see it end, but at this point in time, staying home is just not in the cards for me. On a positive note, at the end of my maternity leave with Evan, I was a crazy, crying train wreck, and I'm doing pretty well this time. I'm sad, and I won't lie and say there have been NO tears but overall, I'm holding it together. Caleb had his two month check up last Thursday. He weighed 14 lbs 8 oz and was 24 inches long! He's my little chunk! He has also finally started smiling at things including me, and he even giggled a little bit the other day at me.

Colic? Maybe?

We are still just trucking along and getting to know Caleb more every day. He is not the most content baby, although it could be way worse I'm sure. He starts crying every night around 9 p.m. I thought maybe we were dealing with colic, but I'm not sure. I can usually get him settled down with Mylicon and a pacifier. I did switch him to Similac Sensitive because he has so much gas. I'm not sure if it's helping or not but it's the same price, so I'm going to stick with it for a bit.

Nothing much to report other than that.

Birth Story

Caleb's birth story is much shorter and simpler than Evan's, much to my surprise and happiness.

Just like last time, we went in at 7:00 and registered and settled into the birthing room. We did not get the big room with the waiting area this time, but we had already told everyone not to come until we let them know, so it was just Tony and me. My nurses for the day were Christie and Kara.

At 8:05, Dr. H came in and gave me the cytotec to get things started. I was dilated to 2 cm still, so no change from the last appointment. The doctor said he'd be back around lunch to break my water. I had to stay in bed for an hour, and then I started walking the halls, with my IV pole in tow.

They fed me lunch, and at 12:45, Dr. H came in and told me that there were 3 other women who were really close to delivering. So, he was making me wait until they delivered before he would do anything else. I was disappointed to have to wait, but I wanted him to be available for delivery when my turn came.

At 3:10, the nurse came in to start Pitocin and said that he was delivering the third baby and would be right in. While she was hanging the IV bag, he came in and broke my water. It hurts WAY worse than I remember, but maybe I just blocked that out from the last time. He said that I was only dilated to 3 cm, but that the baby's head was really low. They told me to let them know when the pain got to a 4, and they would call for someone from anesthesia.

Contractions started getting pretty close and intense around 4:00, so I asked for the epidural around 4:15. They were there by 4:25. It was the same guy that did it last time, and he either remembered or had it in my chart that I knew Jim's wife who died. It also turned out that he is our neighbor Scott's first cousin. By 4:45, I was feeling pretty numb.

They checked me at 6:30, and I was dilated to 5. I felt like there might be something wrong with my epidural or my catheter because I could feel the catheter. So, they sent the anesthesia guy back to give me more anesthesia. In one way, I wish he hadn't because it made me completely numb but I still got a baby in the end, so I guess it was okay.

At 7:20, as I was preparing myself mentally for the long haul, the nurse came in to check me and said, "Are you ready to have this baby?" I started crying because I thought she was joking, but I was dilated to 10 cm and ready to push! In about 50 minutes, I went from 5 to 10! I couldn't believe it. They called for the doctor and I pushed for about 10-15 minutes (with absolutely no feeling this time) and had a squirming, screaming, somewhat bluish colored baby boy plopped up on my belly. Caleb Anthony was here! He weighed 7 lb 12 oz (exactly one pound heavier than Evan) and was 21.75 inches long (exactly one inch longer than Evan). He is perfect, at least as far as we can see on the outside, and will require no special procedures or treatments.

He's here!

Caleb Anthony is here!  August 3 - 7 lbs. 12 oz. - 21.75 inches long.  More details to follow.

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