Caleb Samuel: 1-2 Months

Oh Caleb. The kids call you Bae Boo, your dad has started calling you Baby-C, and I tend to address you as My Caleb-love. Regardless of what you're called, the one thing that is clear is that you are soooo loved. 

Stats: 

Weight - 13 lbs 2.5 oz (69%)

Length - 24.5 in (96%)

Head Circ. - 40.6 cm (88%)

Wearing size 3-6 months clothes like a champ. Size 2 diapers. He obviously weighs a lot (Lydia and Austin were both about 11 lbs at 2 month), but he's not actually a chubby baby. He's just lonngggg. He's tall and so his body has to pack on the pounds to keep up! Most of his hair fell out on the top/front of his head, but it's growing back in nicely. Also, I don't remember this about my other kids - but I've watched his eyelashes grow from basically nothing to these soft feathery lashes and I love them. 

--Of all of the things to remember about this month is really just how much you are adored in this family. Your siblings LOVE you. Like love love love you. From the time they wake up in the morning, to the time we tuck them in to bed they just want to hug and kiss and hold and be by you. Austin is a little more aggressive than Lydia, but never maliciously, usually it's that he's trying to forcibly turn your head so he can kiss you better. They both want to lay right by you and they just love you so much. If you're crying, they do whatever they can to cheer you up and have gotten really good at covering you with a blanket and getting you to suck on your pacifier. 

 --I can't even count how many of the pictures taken this month were of Austin loving on/trying to kiss/smothering Caleb. 

--This baby is SUCH a good sleeper! I almost hesitate to write anything about it for fear of jinxing it, but honestly, this must be documented. He takes great naps, both on the go in his carseat and at home in his bed. He almost never ever cries when I put him down for a nap, and when he wakes he just starts rustling around in his bed for me to come in and get him. He catches quick naps while we're out or between activities, but he also will sleep for 2-4 hours in his bed. It's a.maz.ing. 

But more than naps, this baby is an incredible night sleeper. At one month, he was consistently going to bed at about 10, waking up at 2:30, then waking up and 4:30 and 6:30. So I'd get a good four hour stretch, then two hours, and two hours. Then bedtime started creeping up. Now he goes to sleep about 8:45-9:00ish. And THEN, (I don't know exactly when, but pretty soon after six weeks) he started dropping that 2:30 feeding. You guys. Do you know what it feels like to have a 2 month old baby and to sleep for 6 hours at night? It feels amazing. It's incredible. And in the past week, he actually went one of the night all the way from 9 pm to his 6:30 feeding. Like, THE WHOLE NIGHT. (I usually refrain from using all caps, but I feel like this warrants it.)  

We all know that sleep is a big deal. But honestly, I think the number one reason I'm feeling so great (and have been from basically day one) is that I'm actually getting sleep at night and it's incredible. I know you're not supposed to have favorite children, but if you're going to sleep through the night so early on - you're really putting yourself in the running for the top spot! (I'm joking, obviously, except for I kind of think that Caleb is the best baby ever.) 

(I have almost no pictures of him actually sleeping, which is so funny because I feel like those are all the pictures I have of my others. Like, they didn't sleep - so when they were asleep it was a novelty and had to be documented. But Caleb is such a good sleeper, that most of his pictures are when he is awake (Actually - the vast majority of pictures I have of him are of him in my arms. Because he's SO cute that anytime I'm holding him I just want to take a thousand pictures of him.) 

 -Again, let's just take a moment of pure joy for how well little Caleb-love sleeps. 

(......) *sigh of happiness*

(Now let's cross our fingers that talking about it doesn't ruin anything.)  

 -He's a trooper and is pretty content to just come along for the ride wherever we go. Every MWF, we drop Lydia off at Preschool at 9:00 and at least one of those days we end up at the grocery store (more often lately, because we've had a bunch of random things come up and I've not been as good about planning ahead). Caleb just sleeps through it! Although, it makes fitting my groceries a little tight. We also have taken him out in the stroller a few times. I have a baby wrap, that I love, but he's so content to sleep in his carseat/stroller, that I haven't used it as much. 

--He's started cooing and gurgling and it's darling. He was an incredibly quiet newborn, because he didn't cry much at all, but also didn't make many other noises. I didn't realize how quiet he was until he started cooing and it's wonderful. He's such a sweet sweet baby, and I'd be content to just listen to him coo at me all day long. 

-David was working lonnnng hours until the end of April. He'd usually come home after the kids were in bed and Caleb and were just hanging out. It's never fun to have David working so much, but it's been sweet to have so much uninterrupted time with just David and Caleb before Baby-C was ready to go to sleep. David is such an incredible dad and he loves Caleb so much, you can just see it anytime they are together. It melts my heart to watch David come home, say hi to me, and bend down to kiss Caleb's head and ask him how his day was. We're lucky to have David as the Dad around here. Now that he's not working as much, we're all happy to be spending even more time with him.

--I don't like tummy time. But at his 2 month appointment, Dr. Foster (whom I love!) mentioned that the back right part of his head is looking a little flat and that it's pushing that side of his forhead forward. He recommended that I try to get him to lay on his left side. He said that if it doesn't clear up by about 6 months they'd want to put him in a helmet. So tummy time it is, I suppose. *sigh*  

-Baby smiles! Oh, my mama-heart. He's had these sweet little smiles from almost the very beginning, but just recently he's started giving this huuuuge smiles. His whole face lights up and he starts smiling, then if he sees that your watching him smile, his smile gets even bigger until it's a full-open-mouth-grin. His smiles are big, and frequent, and awarded for the most minor things, but they are incredibly difficult to catch on the camera. I wish I had a real picture of his biggest smile, but even just seeing these pictures, I want to smile myself. He's such a happy baby. 

-He doesn't like to be left alone. He's happy to lay in his bouncer, or even on the floor while I'm working on something (like the laundry or making dinner), but if I leave the room - he'll start crying. I come back in and say "Ohh, Caleb-love, did you think that I left you? I didn't leave you... I just had to (insert task in the other room). I'm here now." And he calms down and smiles his big smile at me. 

-Did I mention that these kids love each other? They really really do. Austin frequently asks me to put "Bae-boo" in his bed during our bedtime routine. And you know that if Caleb is in there, Lydia will want to be in there, too.  

Also, Bathtime is a family affair. I try to wash Caleb in the bath, then let the kids get in, then let them play with him for a minute, then pull him out so they can take their bath. But it's hard to hold them off and most of Caleb's baths consist of getting splashed by the older two. (In all honesty, I don't bathe Caleb very often. But when I do, you know that it's going to be a party all around!)  

--At about six weeks I noticed that his 0-3 month clothes were starting to feel a little snug, and quickly after that I realized that they were legitimately too small and that we were going to have to move up to a bigger size! (In the area of my planner that I use to record things I want to blog about, I have written "size 3 month clothes fit perfectly - starting to get small - moved up to 3-6 month clothes". It just happened so quickly. Some of these things that Caleb was wearing this month and has now grown out of, Austin was wearing at 3 and 4 months old. As I said above, it's more that he's just really long than anything else, but every single inch of him is darling. 

 (I had 5 outfits that were 0-3 months that we'd been given that he didn't even wear once! They still had the tags and everything, so I took them back and exchanged them for 3-6 month clothes and they fit him perfectly. Ha.)

 -Same story as with the clothes above. He was in size 1 diapers, and size 2 diapers at night, but then all the sudden his size 1 diapers were tiny and he had to move to size 2 diapers always!  I ended up taking a package of size one diapers back and exchanging them for size three. 

-I  have a picture of all three of my kids at this age with their heads hanging to the side of this swing. (Our swing must be unbalanced/crooked.) At least this time around, when the swing runs out of batteries, I have two lovely little kids who are more than happy to push the swing for me.  

A few other details: 

-He takes his pacifier really, really well. 

-He's pretty good in the car, but doesn't like it when you stop moving. (The stoplight by our house before you can get on the freeway is the worst. He's not snuggled in/sleepy enough to be happy while stopped and he cries every time. But as soon as you start moving again he calms right down.) 

-He likes to get his diaper changed. If he's even a little fussy, I'll lay him down and change his diaper (or if it doesn't need changed, I'll just unbutton his clothes and pretend to change him) and he calms right down. Then he's usually happy to just lay on the floor for 5-10 minutes afterwards, too. 

More pictures that I love: 

 

(While he's in the swing he looks up at the little mirror and smiles and coos and it's darling.) 

Caleb brings so much happiness to our family. My heart just swells up with love for him. I can honestly say that I'm enjoying the newborn stage more than I ever have before (it's the sleep thing, it makes such a huge difference). Our adjustment has gone so well (I had been worried that it would be so difficult) and I'm just so happy to have this little guy in our lives. 

We love you Baby-C. You're exactly what our family needed and we're so lucky we get to be with you and watch you grow. Happy 2 months!