Caleb 1 Month

So I have seen a bunch of my friends do this on blogs and figured it would be a great habit to get into since I know I will type much more about Caleb than I would ever write in his baby book.  Just easier to type and I have terrible handwriting, great scrap booking handwriting but normal writing not so good.

Some of these categories will get a lot more exciting once he gets older but here we go for the big one month, crazy how time flies but how it also feels like Caleb has been in our lives forever!

Weight: He was 9.1 lbs when he was was born, at 2 weeks he was 9.7 lbs and at one month, really more like 5 weeks on how the Dr. appointment fell he weighed 11 lbs, our big growing boy!

Height: 22.3 inches also head size is 15.5 and at two weeks it was 15 and overall he is in the 80th-90th percentile overall.

Eating/Nursing: Nursing for now, Caleb is a wonderful eater and has been ever since he was born.  He loved to eat so much and was so strong that he hurt his momma pretty badly and we had to bottle feed him for a few weeks to give his mom some time to heal.  Since they he has been on a pretty consistent schedule of every three hours during the day and 4-5 at night.  After our 1 month doctor appointment he said we can let him sleep as much as he wants at night, so he has now gone up to a 6 hour stretch at night in between feedings which was awesome.  Hopefully that time will continue to grow as he does :)

Wake Time: Since about 2 weeks of age Caleb has been great with an eat, play, nap schedule.  During his wake time we read books, do tummy time, sing, he loves to look at the pictures on our back wall.  He also loves to look at the light and outside.  After one of his evening feedings we usually have bath time too, which he likes as long as he is in a good mood when we get started.  We try to also take a walk at least once a day if the weather is o.k. so he can have some outside time as well.

Napping:  During the day Caleb is on a pretty good schedule of eating, wake time and then napping for about 1-2 hours.  Sometimes he falls asleep really easily and sometimes he gets quite upset first.  Most of his naps are downstairs on his Boppy Lounger, he is pretty good at sleeping through noise especially the dog barking, kitchen noises etc.  We will start him napping in his crib in the next two weeks or so.  Also, we have determined that he loves sleeping in the swing a little too much and have stopped putting him in it during the day as he then doesn't sleep much at night if he has had too much swing sleeping time during the day!

Night Time Sleep: Around his 10/11pm feeding we start to put him straight to bed after he eats which usually goes pretty well if he has had enough awake time during the day.  He sleeps still in our room at night in the newborn napper in his pack n' play. 

Skills: Since birth he has been holding his head up which is quite amazing!  Since then he has gotten even stronger and holds up his head very well during tummy time.  Also during tummy time he is great at using his legs and often can move around a little bit during tummy time and sometimes uses his legs to push himself forward!  He also has great eye contact and even was told by the pediatrician he had some of the best eye contact at a month he has seen.  He still loves to look over your shoulder at shapes and bright lights but if you talk to him he will follow your voice as you talk and look around when he hears other voices. 

Language: He mainly is just making baby noises at this point with the occasional coo when we talk to him.  Most of the noise he makes is when he is crying :)  More to come on this topic as the months progress!

Fun Facts: Caleb is growing and changing every day it is so amazing.  When he goes to sleep you can watch him smile during his last phase of falling asleep it is very cute and usually the only smile we would see up until this past week.  During the week of April 28th Caleb started to show us his pretty smile every so often.  Even at times that wasn't because of gas or falling asleep.  We are excited to see how this progresses in the coming weeks and to see smiles more often!
Caleb's eyes were very dark blue when he was born and recently they have gotten even lighter blue so we are hoping they stay very blue, we shall see.  He had quite a bit of hair when he was born and seems to have lost some on top but kept most of his hair on the sides and in the back so far. 
Many of the comments we have received are about how adorable he is and how he never looked like a newborn.  Also, people have said how big his hands are and how long his toes are, which in looking at his daddy's baby book people said about him as well!
Clothing size, Caleb is already wearing 3 month clothes and only wore newborn clothes for about a week and a half!
Caleb loves to be swaddled and when he is starting to get tired if we wrap him up tight he calms down after a minute or two and always sleeps so much better and longer if he is wrapped up tight.

Libby checking out Caleb...she is very good with him but doesn't really understand what he is doing here yet and I think she keeps hoping he will leave and her life will go back to normal.  Sorry princess he is here to stay:)

 Some nice tummy time!

 When we don't swaddle him he loves to have his hands up by his face, usually not behind his head but thought this was too cute not to post!

 More tummy time!

 All wrapped up in one of his favorite blankets... 

 This one seems to be a common picture to my posts...haha!

Caleb testing out his chair...Libby watching what is going on from a distance...

 After tummy time a little time on his back checking out his toys...

 Copying Daddy's move...

 1 month picture and onesie to match!!

Stay tuned to watch me grow with monthly pics with my elephant chair!

2nd Week, Family and First Outing

My parents left on Thursday in the morning and about an hour and a half after they left Jared's Mom and Brother arrived!!

Grandma JoJo holding Caleb for the first time!!  Nice picture of him wide awake!

 Uncle Nate and Caleb!  As everyone said when Uncle Nate would hold Caleb it makes him look more like the size of a newborn, we love you Uncle Nate and Caleb is following in your footsteps!

 Daddy and Caleb...

 Caleb's first big outing besides going to the pediatrician was when we went over to Aunt Janie and Uncle Mike's house or to Caleb, Great Aunt Janie and Great Uncle Mike's house.  They had a few people over to meet Caleb for a little Mexican Fiesta.  Also, Jared's cousin Meagan was in town from Ohio as well as the Moore's who are some of the Seaman's good family friends.

Here is a family shot from the day, Caleb was wearing his onesie that said "Hello Ladies" it was quite a hit!

 Here is a picture with the Seaman's and the Moore's or all of each family that was there.  It was great to see them and have them all meet our little man!

 Here is a picture with all the Burke family that was there, lots more Burke family to meet but he was off to a great start this night!

  Caleb awake and happy in his bed in our room! 

  I just can't help but to take so many of these cute pictures while he is sleeping!



First Days at Home for Caleb

Since Caleb was born at 11:01 pm we only stayed in the hospital the night he was born and one night after.  Funny how it works since if he was born exactly one hour later we would have been there one more night...haha!

Sunday we were ready to bring our little man home!  My parents and brother were at our house and Libby of course was excited to get him home as well...well Libby may not have been quite so excited!

Photo in front of our hospital room door :)

First time in the car seat, our nurse the last day was one of the nurses that did our "car seat check" at the hospital a few days before Caleb was born.  When we put him in the car seat for the first time she actually suggested that we move his straps up one level so he never even used the smallest option!  She said she never really recommends that but he was just such a big boy already!

Picture leaving the hospital before Caleb's first car ride, he actually didn't like the car ride much he was getting hungry so he screamed the whole way home which was less than 5 minutes!

Flag and balloons to great us as we brought Caleb home for the first time.  Funny story, as I got out of the car since Tyler was at our house his first question when I got out and looked at me was "Sissy, you have another baby in there?"  Lovely Tyler!

Picture inside the house for the first time!

Jared took Libby out for a walk before we brought Caleb in the house and then he let her in to go "find the baby" this worked well and she has been great with him.  The only time we have trouble is when people are over she gets a little mad that no one is paying attention to her and often licks him :)

Here is a nice picture of Jared, Caleb and Libby.

Proud Daddy with his Son!

Mommy and Son and Daughter :)  Libby in her favorite spot overseeing what is going on and who this strange new little thing is that we brought home!

Daddy and Son nap, no this isn't staged is the funnier part!

Testing out the swing, he always would go in the swing when we would eat dinner during the time when our family was here visiting.

Grandma and Grandpa with Caleb, they were so excited to meet him and spend his first few days with him!

Grandma and Caleb, a little time holding him in his new chair.

Grandpa and Caleb, here he is swaddled up and spends most of his sleeping time like that.

Sleeping on Daddy after he ate...he loves his blanket he got at the hospital and how could you not it is minky on one side and satin on the other.

Another shot of Daddy and Son sleeping together, again not posed :)

I can't help but post these, so cute when he is sleeping...

A shot of Grandma and Uncle Elvis the day they were leaving.  We were so glad to have them all here and missed them as soon as they left! 

First Visitors...

We didn't get a picture of all of our hospital visitors but here are a few pics from Caleb's first 48 hours of life ;)  Did I say it before, I love the hospital we delivered at...haha!  You will probably here me say that many times, every nurse we had was wonderful as was the hospital setting.
First visitors were my parents and my brother or "Uncle Elvis" as he would like Caleb to refer to him as...

 Cousin Ryane comes to visit...

 Caleb during his first "photo shoot" wearing his custom C shirt that I had made for him...FYI for all your sceptics out there we really hadn't decided on a name 100% and I brought another onesie with another initial in case we decided not to got with Caleb :)

 Another shot of Caleb during his photo shoot...

 Our steak and lobster dinner and it was delicious way better than many restaurants we have been too..we were very pleasantly surprised and the chocolate cake was to die for...should not have eaten it but I could not resist!

 Another shot of our boy :)

 Here are a few of the photos that were taken at the hospital by the photographer there...they did a great job :)

 Holding his head up and he wasn't even 24 hours old yet, needless to say he is quite strong!

Some other visitors were our friends John and Alex and their little boy Jace.  They came during Caleb's hearing screen and Jace did such a good job being quite as well during that test.  Alex said a few times to him Jace isn't baby Caleb so cute so then Jace kept saying "Baby Caleb so cute!" So adorable when said by a 2 year old :)

Amber, Barian and their little boy who is also 2 also came by to visit us.  Brody brought some of his great new toys he had gotten at his birthday party earlier that day and was so cute as he would look at baby Caleb.  We were trying to get him used to the idea of having a baby around since he is going to be a big brother in June.  He got some practice about how to react when his parents are holding another baby, I think he will be a great big brother:)

Introducing Caleb Andrew Seaman

So sorry for the delay in this post, it has been an amazing but crazy ride since our little guy was born, from family visiting to some feeding issues which I can blog about later I am super behind in my blogging!  Hope to get one done every day for a few days here to catch up!!

Here is a pic from the night before we went to the hospital, last night before we got to meet the little guy, actually probably just about 24 hours before. This says 40 weeks but it was closer to 41 :)

Caleb's Birth Story:
Caleb's due date was March 20th, prior to this I had no real signs of labor and a fairly easy pregnancy.  It seemed that he was taking up a lot of space in there but not until my doctors appointment two days after his "due date" did the doctor suspect he might be big!  We went into the doctor on Tuesday the 22nd and Caleb still had not "dropped" at all and I had no signs of any labor so he went ahead and did a sonogram just to make sure he was head down.  During that sonogram the doctor determined that he could be as big as 9 lbs and 13oz.  Oh my we all thought, the doctor said that since I was already scheduled to be induced on Friday we would continue with that plan and see how progress went.  The doctor wasn't overly confident that he was actually that big otherwise he said I would have automatically been put into in c-section category.  So then our next fear was we were having a huge baby and what if we were not able to get into the hospital on Friday due to it being very crowded which we had been told all week that it was.
Friday morning at 7:15 we left for the hospital and by 7:45 were all checked in which was wonderful.  First prayer answered!  We delivered him at Baylor Frisco very close to our house which I had heard rave reviews about and they didn't disappoint.  Our whole experience there was excellent including the staff, food etc.
Our first nurse of the day was wonderful and started me on an IV and Pitocin. The doctor stopped by and we had talk with him and nurse that they would watch me all day but that Caleb still had not dropped at all and if that continued to be the case or there were any signs of distress that we would deliver him via c-section as we had thought would be the case.  I have always said I didn't want to just have a c-section but I wanted to make sure no added distress was caused to the baby so whatever was safest was what we needed to do.  So we hung out in the delivery room until about 12/1 with a small bit of progress I think we went from 1 to about 2 or maybe 3cm.  The around this time the doctor came by to say he was going to break my water to see if that helped or sped up the process.  At this point I wasn't in much pain yet but the nurse told me that the anesthesiologist was heading into a complicated c-section so they wanted to come put in my epidural before that.  No medicine had to go in but just in case in the next few hours I needed it and they were not available.  So they came in and put in my epidural line, two doctors.  One who was the normal one and the other who was I believe his boss but mainly would oversee the process.  As he was putting it in they kept saying they were ready for him in the operating room so the other doctor offered to finish taping the epidural to my back so he could get into surgery.  They did a test dose of meds and seemed to be working although it was stronger on one side than the other.  Either way we were ready when we needed the meds. 
About an hour after the doctor broke my water we started to see some progress and then a little more progress and I was starting to feel a lot of pain.  Around that time they started my epidural which seemed to help the pain a lot.  A few more hours passed and I was starting to feel a lot of pain especially on the left side of my body.  Seemed to feel every contraction and it was very painful.  The nurse had the anesthesiologist come back in to check everything and he noticed that my epidural was out...hence the pain I was feeling.  I had bairley moved so ended up blaming it on a bad tape job of the other doctor.  He was very apologetic although by far the epidural wasn't bad at all so I didn't mind having one again as long as it meant it would help in the end!
So after epidural #2 was in place we were back in business, Caleb had dropped a little bit and I had dilated to about 4 cm's.  Around 7 was shift change for the nurses also about the same time I started feeling terrible, I thought I was going to be sick for about a half hour and probably should have gotten sick, I bet it would have made me feel better quicker but I hate that so much I avoided it :)  The new nurse was hopeful that the sickness meant that I had progressed even more so on the next check they found that I was at 9.5 and he had actually dropped.  Something we thought was never going to happen which was awesome!
Here is the last picture opportunity before we started pushing...pic of me and then the rest of the room :)

Since the elight eight basktetball was on that evening at least something was now on tv to watch as well, the first two games were pretty terrible but the second two games turned out to be quite good.  So much more exciting than daytime tv....terrible!  Around 9:15/9:30 my doctor came back and I was starting to feel lots of pressure which was a good sign we were ready to start pushing.  My new night nurse was awesome and I kept telling her I don't want to push a really long time.  She said that she had been doing this for too long and was too old (only 37, not old) to let me push for too long either and would not let me start until the time was right :)
After my doctor came in though he said it was probably time to start pushing, she somewhat dissagreed and took her time getting the room prepped before we actually started.  Around 9:45/10 we actually started pushing.  The doctor finally came in around 10:30 or so as we were getting really close, also at the same time the Ohio State basketball game was on and a good game it was.  The doctor asked if we could spin the bed around so he could watch the game too...needless to say Jared gave him some updates but we didn't move the bed ;)  After about an hour total of pushing and at the very end of the basketball game (11:01pm) Caleb made his debut!  We were so excited to meet him and they weighed and measured him twice to make sure his large size was correct.  9lbs 1oz and 21.5 inches long, he had a fever when he was born due to me having a fever at the end of labor.  Within 10 minutes though that was gone and we had him in our arms!  What an amazing moment and day!! 

My parents had gotten into town earlier that day so after about 2 hours they came to visit Caleb for the first time and brough Jared and I some food, I was so hungry after not eating since 10pm the night before!  We were then sent to our room and our next adventure in being parents had begun! 
Jared was wonderful during the whole process and I could not be more thankful for such a wonderful and caring husband.  Plus, he loves babies and kids which most of you probably know already which is awesome.  We are so thankful to God for such a beautiful, healthy baby boy!!