Here’s Andy and Caleb jamming out before bath time.

Here is one of our dear friends meeting Caleb for the first time. You can always count on Eric to make an entertaining video.

I don’t feel like writing. So here’s a cute picture. Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!!

I am happy to report that sleep training has been going really well!

I think a mistake I have been making is trying to put him down as soon as he showed any sign of being tired. As soon as he would yawn or stare off into space for even a second, I would scoop him up and try to rock him to sleep. This would be about an hour after his last nap. Now, I wait at least an hour and a half to look for tired signs. He hasn’t been any more fussy and has been going down much quicker.

I also started using white noise as many people suggested. This also helps him go to sleep faster. After only a few days of using it, he’s already associating it with sleep. As soon as I turn it on, he relaxes; almost like he’s expecting sleep to overcome him. The white noise along with rocking in the rocking chair has been the proven method to get him to sleep at every nap and bed time. I also got him a “lovie” (pictured) to help him associate with sleep even more. I let him hold it while I rock him to sleep; the goal being him going to sleep without needing me or Andy.

The biggest achievement so far: he slept for an hour… in his crib!! My secret? Sneaky swaddling. As soon as he’s fast asleep, I put him down with a blanket already underneath him. Then I wrap it up like a swaddle and he’s set! He really loves it. A few times he’s woken up while I was swaddling him and he just yawned and went right back to sleep. That never happens anywhere else.

Also noted in the picture, it’s clear that Caleb has found a use for his hands. I think I can confidently say he will be a finger-sucker. He does this all the time to soothe himself. When I put him down and he starts crying, he immediately curls up into a little ball and sucks on his fingers. It’s kind of cute, actually. And it works like a charm. Give him a few minutes alone with his fingers and he’s ready to play.

Caleb has started sitting up while we support him, but yesterday morning, He sat up only with the help of the boppy. And the motivation for this tremendous milestone? A basketball game (sigh). He was so proud of himself too.

This Golden Oldie takes place the day after Caleb’s debut. Andy’s grandparents came to visit the little guy for the first time in the hospital (which would make them his great grandparents). Andy’s mom and sister were also hanging out with us. You can hear Andy say something to Grandpa about the Cardinals game that was playing in the background (at that point they were doing pretty bad). I must have been on some kind of pain medication based on the dumb look I have on my face.

I’m going to start another series (because I’m realizing this will be a long process) on getting Caleb into good sleep habits. While it may put many of you to sleep (no pun intended) to read these, It will help organize my thoughts and hopefully get some feedback from those more experienced.

Until now, Caleb has been an adequate sleeper. In the beginning, he slept in his Pack ‘n Play in our room at night and took naps wherever he passed out; usual stuff for a newborn. It was a little too tiring for me though. Our night routine went something like this: Caleb wakes/makes cute little hungry noises, Andy gets him out of the PnP, and changes his diaper while I get up, set up my mountain of supportive pillows, Andy hands him to me who feeds him and holds him until he falls back to sleep, I put him back to bed, throw the mountain of pillows to the floor, and return to bed. After about a month and a half of this, I started bringing him to bed with me out of utter exhaustion. It worked out wonderfully. So now we’re happily co-sleeping. We get plenty of rest and I get to wake up next to a stretching, smiley baby. It can’t get any better than that.

Since nights are going great, my only problem now is naptimes. Since the beginning, Caleb has never really had a good daytime schedule. Basically, he would get tired after an hour of being awake (which is normal for his age). But getting him to sleep was an entire workout. I would have to either dance with him, or wear him in a baby carrier (which is what I am doing as I write this). This did wonders for loosing the baby weight but is tiring me out rather quickly. And if he fell asleep in the wrap, I would be stuck wearing him for the entire length of the nap.

Don’t get me wrong, I really love spending that special time putting him down and when he does nap all snuggled up next to me in the wrap, my heart just melts. But recently, he’s been taking shorter naps and has been harder to get down. He’s reaching the age where he can soothe himself to sleep with proper training. I really want him to be able to fall asleep on his own without the constant motion. I’ve titled this post “Reality Check” because I’ve kind of avoided telling myself there could be another way to put him down and now, I feel that it’s time for a change. I am definitely not one to practice the “cry-it-out” method, but am willing to try some sort of training; even if it has to involve a few tears. I figure every developmental period in his life will involve some sort of difficulty. I can’t mislead myself into thinking this is any different.

So after much discussion last night, Andy and I have decided it’s time to start transitioning him to a nap time schedule. Sadly, Caleb’s crib has been used as a toy box for the past three months so he is not in the least bit used to it. We’ve got some tweaking to do in his room, like setting up a white noise device and probably washing the now dusty sheets. But we’ve started introducing him to his new bed. Last night, Andy laid him in it while he played some guitar. We also have this little seahorse that glows and plays soothing bedtime lullabies. Caleb loved his crib, or at least all the new toys and daddy’s singing. He didn’t get the least bit sleepy though, and by 2 hours post-bedtime, we gave up and I took him to bed with me. But it was a start; at least he didn’t scream his face off.

Today was another story. I spent a good three hours rocking him to drowsiness and putting him in his crib only for him to wake up and start fussing. I would then pick him back up (because there was no way he was going to sleep like that) and rock him back to sleep. Needless to say, he didn’t get a morning nap at all and has turned into Mr. Cranky-face today. Now do you see how this is going to be a long process? I bought a couple of “get your kid to sleep” books in hopes of revealing some secret I have not already read/heard about. I’ll see what I can glean from them. I pray that he doesn’t start teething in the midst of this. I don’t think I can handle two challenges right now. Wish us luck. We’ll keep you posted.

P.S. For those of you still awake after reading this… join the club, haha.

This Golden Oldie was taken the same night as the previous one. A little background: when Toby was a puppy, I was a Dog Whisperer fanatic. Whenever I watched the show, Toby would be engrossed with the dogs on the TV. Whenever I said “look at the puppy” he would go to the TV, wagging his tail, looking for the dogs. It was cute - at the time. But over the course of a few months, our dog began to get increasingly excited when he saw dogs on TV. Now, we can’t even watch the Dog Whisperer anymore and have to cover his eyes when a dog appears on the TV for even a instant. If he sees one, he flips out. It’s not like he’s aggressive toward others animals in real life, I think he just feels like his territory is being encroached upon by the TV dogs.

The night we got the camera, Andy thought it would be fun to hook up the camera to the TV so Toby could see himself. This, of course, led to Toby barking at himself who, in turn, barked back.Thats me egging him on in the background. It was hilarious watching him rile himself up; it made for great television.

Thanks to February, this last month has come and gone way too fast. Caleb looks so much older now than a month ago. I think it’s due to his expanding array of facial expressions. He weighs a little over 13 pounds and is all smiles and giggles. When we were in the hospital, the staff had to put on these yellow face masks. Caleb thought they were the funniest thing. He would crack the biggest smile when anyone with a yellow mask examined him. He will smile at just about anyone; In fact, I’ve even caught him smiling at people on TV. He loves interacting with his world so much that we are constantly battling to get him to sleep. If he had the choice, he would stay up 24/7. At least he’s in a good mood most of the time.

We have a couple of ways to get him down pretty consistently. He loves watching his daddy play guitar. I usually rock him while Andy plays all kinds of made-up lullabies. As soon as he starts playing, Caleb instantly relaxes and just stares at his Daddy. It’s just about the cutest thing ever. If that fails, then I will put him in his carrier and vacuum. There’s something about the combination of the sound of the vacuum and my rocking back and forth that lulls him to sleep almost instantly. It’s kind of nice to get some cleaning done at the same time.

I’ve realized that we have taken many videos and just left them on our camera. Instead of leaving them on there or our computer, I’m going to post one of them every now and then. Granted, they aren’t that old since we got the camera just a few months shy of Caleb’s birth but nonetheless, they sure are fun to watch.

In an attempt to stay somewhat organized, I’m going to go through them in chronological order. This Golden Oldie was taken around 30 something weeks I think. Not too interesting, just Andy trying to figure out the camera while my pregnant self tried to entertain him. The original video is much longer and much less interesting, filled with a disobedient Toby and embarrassing remarks from myself. Only 19 seconds were worth salvaging.

It turns out Caleb’s sickness was more than just a cold. Friday night, We were trying to put him to bed when he began getting very upset. The crying caused him to cough which caused him to start throwing up. When he threw up, he got even more upset - a vicious cycle. He was coughing so much that he started choking and gagging. After a long time of this, he started having trouble breathing. We had to keep thumping his back and change positions in order to keep him breathing okay. At this point, Andy and I decided to bring him to the ER but I was way to scared to have him in a carseat while he was having such a hard time. We had no choice but to call 911. When the paramedics got there, he was still struggling and vomiting. They decided to bring us in to the ER. They had me get on the gurney while I held Caleb. It’s funny because that was my first ride in an ambulance and it wasn’t even for me.

When we got there, he had calmed down a bit (I’m sure out of exhaustion) and they led us to the waiting room where we sat for a few hours before we got a bed. Andy’s dad met us there and waited with us which, I believe, preserved much of our sanity. Through all of this, Caleb was sleeping peacfully and making us second guess our decision to come in. When we got a room, the ER doctor decided to test for RSV. I would never wish this test on anyone. They basically pushed a small tube up his nose and down into his throat to suck out a sample of mucus. The poor guy was woken out of a deep sleep and started screaming and coughing. After another hour of waiting, the doctor came back in to tell us he tested positive for RSV (Human respiratory syncytial virus). At this point, we were so glad we made the decision to come to the hospital.

By 2 am, we were admitted to the pediatric ward and told that we would probably be there at least until the evening of the next day. Since RSV is a virus, they could only monitor Caleb. If he got worse, they said they could suck out the mucus and put him on oxygen if needed. They hooked him up to a monitor that showed his heartrate and O2 levels and told us that if anything started beeping, to call them. Caleb slept in an animal cage of a crib while we slept (or should I say stared at the monitor) cuddled up with the hospital’s finest camel hair blankets and buckwheat pillows. That night, he had a few more vomiting/coughing fits but nothing to the extent of earlier that evening.

Because Caleb had a contagious virus, we were basically quarantined to our room. He was not allowed to leave and anyone coming in had to wash their hands and put on aprons gloves and a mask. The lack of sleep and sick baby coupled with being grounded to our little room resulted in a very long and stressful day. Fortunately, his bpm was normal and his O2 levels were consistently at or close to 100%. The only real problem we ran into was his vomiting. After eating, he would get extremely agitated and throw up his entire meal. The doctor explained to us that the excess mucus he was producing was aggravating his reflux. He would gag on the mucus and throw up his meal. We treated it by letting him eat just a little but frequently, burping him a lot and keeping him elevated. We stuck to that, and his reflux improved dramatically.

Since he was doing so well, they decided to discharge us around 5pm. We got lots of information on RSV and reflux to take home with orders to follow up with our pediatrician in the next couple of days. As soon as we got home, we all took a nap. It was wonderful. I think Caleb was even more relieved to finally be home because he took a super long nap and slept so peacfully that night. I was relieved too and cuddled with him all night, thanking God that my little boy was going to be fine.

Andy and Caleb are sick with upper respiratory junk. Andy caught it from some people at work about a week ago (apparently, all but two people in his office got it). He stayed home for a few days to get better but ended up passing it along to the baby. I was hoping my super-human immune system gene would pass on to Caleb but I’m afraid he missed it. So now I have two sick boys to care for. We thought for a few days the baby wouldn’t get it, but much to our dismay he woke up one morning coughing and congested. Boo. He’s already been to the doctor and there’s really nothing we can do but just let it run its course. I just keep the snot sucker on hand at all times and try to keep him elevated. I feel so bad for the little guy and in my guilt, will hardly put him down. He’s been literally attached to me for the past three days. Thank goodness for wraps. Both patients are in good spirits and we had a nice relaxing few days when Andy was home (except for all the coughs, sneezes and tissues scattered around the house).

Thanks to my wicked fast camera-acquiring skills, we were able to capture Caleb’s first real laugh on camera. Enjoy!

Make sure to click the HD button to enjoy this video to the fullest

What a little bookworm.