Midweek Update

Well, we've made it this far in the week. My mom has been a huge help (even when I've been not so pleasant from lack of sleep and hormone roller coaster). Another plus is that our Sunday School class has been bringing dinner every night so I have not had to worry about dinner or lunch (leftovers, anyone?). Thanks to our Covenant friends for their generosity and helpfulness! Tomorrow I think I may have my mom come around lunchtime to see if I can figure out the whole "take a shower and get ready while living with a newborn" thing. I am planning on putting him in his bouncy seat in the bathroom and shutting the door to keep the dogs out. If anyone has any better ideas (especially for if he is awake or wakes up during the process), let me know.

I realized that our parents have shared this blogsite with some of their friends and that it would only be fitting to post some pictures of Caleb with his grandparents. Frank and Joan arrived the Friday before Caleb was born and were able to stay until the following Wednesday. Hopefully they will make it to Tulsa for part of the holidays. My parents are only 15 minutes away but are doing a good job of respecting our attempt to figure out this whole parenting thing and give us some "family time".

Last night was a pretty fussy night. Not only did Caleb decide he wanted to be wide awake from 8:00 on, he was fussing most of the time. Earlier this week, I watched Oprah when she had a guest who had interpreted a baby language based on different crying sounds. From this, I surmised that Caleb must be having intestinal issues so we burped and rocked and soothed to very little avail. He finally passed out around 10:30 but only slept in hour and 1/2 stretches. We've been spoiled so far with several 4+ hour sleeping periods. His fussiness continued today and my mom mentioned she thought he might feel a little hot. We've taken his underarm temp at least 10 times (new parent alarmists, I know) and he seems to be OK. We actually have a 10 second rectal thermometer but I can't bring myself to do that to the poor little guy. If he continues the "fussies" tomorrow, I will call the doctor.

On the plus side, I did get a really cute picture in his Christmas bib from his second cousin Julia. My cousin Tiffany had her baby on November 2nd, a girl they named Julia Nicole. (By the way, really cute birth announcements TT!) They will be headed this way for Christmas next weekend and I can't wait to take all sorts of pictures of the two of them together. You'll notice in the picture that his cord has not fallen off yet. I know they say it can be as long as two weeks until it falls off but I am ready for it to be gone. It is hard to clean around when we bathe him and hard to maneuver diapers around too.


We also had a fun visit from George and Ethel White, our longtime family friends who are FINALLY moving back to Broken Arrow next Spring. They are in town for Christmas and stopped by to meet Mr. Caleb. I was remiss in not getting a picture of them together so I don't have one to post here. Ethel gave Caleb a fun book called "The Sweet Smell of Christmas" - a scratch and sniff book that she advised us not to scratch until next year when he could really appreciate it. It was so fun to see you guys and hopefully Zach and Missy will be able to meet Caleb when they're in town too.

OK, off to get a few household things accomplished. Happy Friday (almost) to everyone!