A day of firsts...

Caleb had his first "weigh-in" at his pediatricians. My mom, sister and I dressed him up for the occasion. Allison said that we were just going to have to take the clothes off when we got to the doctor and that it was a little silly to dress him up so much. But we did it anyways. Based on his visit today, Caleb now weighs 7 pounds-2 ounces.

Caleb in his doctor going “Winnie the Pooh” outfit…

The happy family…


Caleb also had his first bath at home today. It wasn't really planned, but after he spit up on the changing pad while his diaper was being changed and then got all the “used food” in his hair, we thought it was time.

Of course we documented it for everyone’s enjoyment!

Allison washing Caleb in the bathroom sink…


Me combing Caleb’s hair…parting it just like mine!


Caleb all clean, hair combed and nasty umbilical cord (he still has his hospital ankle bracelet on)…

Sleep...what's that!?

Last night was HORRIBLE! Caleb was in his cradle by the side of our bed and I casually mentioned to Allison that I hope I am not like those parents who go over and wake the baby up because they are sleeping too quietly. Moments after I said those words the clouds gathered over our bedroom, streaks of lightening flashed across the ceiling heralding the doom that was to be our night. Allison tried to feed Caleb, we tried to burp Caleb, we changed him, we swaddled him, we un-swaddled him, we changed his clothes, we rocked, we walked, we giggled, we swayed, we caressed, we prayed to God above that Caleb would PLEASE go to sleep!

Everyone had warned me that our lives would change. Well I thought they were saying that we would have more change…meaning coins, money, cabbage, moolah. I had no idea that what it really meant was that we would never ever be able to reach REM sleep and that we would end up going crazy from exhaustion and would want to scream and cry along with the baby!? Thanks everyone for being so forthcoming with the impending doom that would be our lives after we had a kid.

Finally, after wrestling with our perfect son from 9:00pm to 2:30am, and seriously only being able to sleep for 10 minutes, I took Caleb into the living room to try to sleep sitting up (He was having issues with laying down). Thank goodness my mother woke up around that time (might have had something to do with me kicking her in the head so she would wake up and rescue us). The next morning my mother said that Caleb slept fine. She just held him in the comfy chair and she and he slept until Allison took him to feed. I hope and pray that tonight goes better than last night.

Caleb is home...

We brought Caleb and Mommy home from the hospital today. It was strange having him home and in his baby bed...now what do we do?!

Below are a few pictures of the hospital exodus and Caleb in his new habitat.

Caleb in his carrier...without "gloves"

Caleb in his carrier...with "gloves"

The new mom, the new baby, and the new grandma leaving the hospital...

Caleb in the car for the first time...

Caleb in his crib...HOME AT LAST!

Hospital Photographs...

We got a link to the pictures that were taken by the AMH photographer. Click here and hopefully it will take you right to the most perfect baby in the entire world.

Enjoy...

Caleb's Video Debut

Fun time at the hospital...

Hospital Fun...Day 2

We had a pretty good night last night. I slept on a semi-uncomfortable "bed" and Allison of course slept on the hospital bed and baby Caleb slept in the nursery! Caleb would make an appearance every 3 hours or so to get a little food. I only woke up once around 3:00am...Duty calls. Thankfully Allison knew not to wake me up more than that since I had such a rough time during the labor. That pushing exhausted me.

We filled out all the birth-certificate, social security stuff and we even had his picture made "professionally". We ordered two of the poses that turned out pretty good. I will post the website and pictures when they are ready. Thankfully our friend, Ludie, gave us a bag full of baby stuff so we used a 'Winnie the Pooh' toy as a prop in the pictures. It wasn't until that moment that we realized that we didn't bring much of anything for the baby when we came to the hospital. Oh well...we will know what to bring for the next one.

My glorious tax deduction...

My handsome son has finally arrived into the world. As stated in the previous blog entry our first trip to the hospital started at 4:30 am. Our second stay at the hospital started at 1:30 pm. We hurried to the hospital with severe contractions every 5 minutes and were devastated to find out we were only at a “2” and had thinned 80%. Our triage nurse told us to start walking…literally. We walked the halls of the Labor and Delivery area for an hour and then got checked again. An amazing thing happened next…we were sent home for a second time. Allison commented that she would just have this baby at home.
We ate a little McDonald’s drive-through at 4:30pm and hurried home to suffer and labor duet style. Who needs an audience of nurses to survive pain and agony?! Not us!!! We started timing the contractions at 5:57 pm…they looked a little like this:

557, 559, 604, 612, 622, 628, 624, 629, 643, 649, 655, 703, 710, 717, 725, 732, 740, 749, 757, 803, 812, 819, 824, 836, 846, 853, 901, 908, 919, 927, 935, 943, 948, 953, 1000, 1006, 1013, 1025, 1029, 1036, 1041, 1045, 1051, 1058, 1105, 1110, 1114, 1119, 1121, 1126, 1130, 1132, 1134, 1136, 1142…

At 11:42 we decided that we didn’t really need any pride and were okay with being sent home again, we just had to go to the hospital to get some relief. Once we got there the nurse said we were a “4 – 5”. I almost kissed the woman! She said we were most definitely a “keeper” and would get a room right away.

To make a long blog entry longer…Allison got her epidural at 2:00, her water broken at 2:30, they started Pitocin at 2:45 to speed up the contraction and at 5:20 she was ready to push. Allison started pushing and the miracle occurred at 6:51am on December 28th.

Caleb Aaron came into the world weighing 7-lb 12-oz, 20 inches long and with a full head of hair. I’m not sure if the weight is entirely accurate since he started peeing when he was on the scale!

Below are a few pictures to enjoy. The “goods” have been blurred to protect the innocent!

Finally in our room

Allison…“I can’t believe you are taking my picture”

Allison and I before the great “push”

Allison right after the birth

Clean up…clean up…everybody clean up…

“What are you people doing?!”

“Mommy look at me…”

Caleb’s first weigh in

My beautiful bride

Our first family portrait

Grandpa and Grandson

Grandma and Grandson

Aunt and Nephew

Uncle and Nephew

Aunt, Nephew (Caleb), Uncle and Cousin

Mother and Son

Father and Son

Did you know there were two?!!

Did you know that there were two "4:30's"!?! I did not until today. I had no idea that there was a 4:30 AM until we walked into the AMH Labor & Delivery Triage this morning. My realization about the other "4:30" actually started yesterday when Allison had her second prostaglandin treatment. The prostaglandin is supposed to make the cervix more agreeable to the birthing process. I snapped a few pictures while we were there.

Forgive the quality...they were from my cell-phone.



Well when Allison woke me up this morning at 3:00 I thought maybe that the house was on fire or worse there was something wrong with our TV, but no...she was JUST having contractions...AGAIN. The prostaglandin evidently did what it was supposed to do. We continued to time the contractions and decided that it would be a good idea to go to the hospital. We spent about two hours in the hospital this morning with Allison hooked up to all sorts of monitors. Her contractions are steady, but she is not dilated very much. After they gave her a shot of pain medication, they sent us home to labor there. The nurse that was taking care of her thinks we will probably come back to the hospital soon...she thinks we are in early labor.

It sure would be nice if we went back today...I think I am ready to meet our son. I'll keep you posted.

Merry Christmas...even if it was with the in-laws...

We had a very merry Christmas Eve and Christmas. We went over to Allison's dad house last night and had a lovely "Christmas" on Christmas Eve. We ate way too much and had a lovely time.

Allison with a few of Baby Caleb's Christmas presents...

Me and my nephew (Jacob) and two nieces (Laureli & Elaina)...

The Family...


On Christmas day we had another gathering at our house. Our tiny house was full of family and fun.

The food from Boston Market was perfect. We spent, at most, an hour preparing the food for 10 people. Even with our horrible ovens, the food came out just right. I gorged myself on the ham, mashed potatoes and mac & cheese. I still haven't even tried the desserts yet...I'm just waiting to digest.

As mentioned in the previous entry...I did get a picture of the aftermath of the Christmas present opening.

Our poor little living room...

Allison with the Christmas Wii...

Allison with the Christmas Wii Fit...

Bridget and Brianna...see the violence inherent in the system...

Christmas Eve...Catering, Contractions and more...

Allison woke up this morning at 4:00 having some semi-painful contractions. She took a shower to try and get relief and then we (Allison’s mother and I) sat in the living room with Allison bracing ourselves against the devastating rippling wave of destruction caused by the contracting uterus. After the contractions subsided, and after waking up Allison’s sister (oops…sorry Bridget), we went back to bed for a few hours more of beauty sleep. I was exhausted from the three hours of contractions that I had to endure!

Allison with Benji...during the great contraction stand off...


After the beauty sleep, Allison’s mom and I ventured out into the wild and took a field trip to get Christmas dinner...the best decision in the entire universe was to have the thing “catered”. Boston Market is the best. We will have Spiral Sliced Ham, Macaroni & Cheese, Spinach Artichoke Dip and Sesame Crackers, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potato Casserole, Hot Cinnamon Apples, Gravy, Cornbread, Apple Gallette, Pumpkin Pie and Pecan Pie. I’ll tell you how it warms up tomorrow.


I’ve also included a picture of the overflowing Christmas tree. I’ll hopefully post pictures of the aftermath tomorrow.

Sports Work...

Thank goodness I have friends who like all this sport work stuff. I always teased my friend Rollin that if Allison and I had a son, Rollin would have to teach him to play baseball.

Rollin and his wife Sarah bought Caleb the perfect gift.

Caleb's first baseball stuff..

Final Steps...

Today we checked off a few more of the final items on the baby birthing list. We put the baby seat in the car and Allison packed her bag for the hospital. Hopefully the baby and Allison's cervix will get the hint and start preparing for the birth as well. :-)

The baby car seat...all we need is a baby...


Packing the bag...


More bag packing...


All done...just waiting on the baby...

Playing with fire...

I bought this house in November 2004 and the home inspector said that before I used the fireplaces I should get the chimneys swept. It only took four years to get the things cleaned! This weekend we made our first fire in our living room fireplace. Still haven't made one in the other fireplace; maybe we will do that in another four years!?

Of course I have pictures of our first fire. I tried to get Allison to sit by the fire and take her picture. She made some excuse about being 9 months pregnant, so I didn't press the issue.

Documenting Growth (38 Weeks)

THIRTY-EIGHT WEEKS! If the good Lord could create the world in 6 days, why can't Allison deliver one little bitty baby boy in 38 weeks? It is like she isn't even trying. Doesn't she know that we could miss the tax deduction for this year!?

Seriously...look at my lovely bride...the mother of my child...she is the picture of beauty, health and girth.

Enjoy our 38 Week picture...

All this shopping...and still no Blu-Ray

Well...we went shopping today and guess what...we DIDN'T buy a Blu-Ray! Instead we bought things for the BABY! I guess I should realize that it will never be all about me ever again. When the baby comes, people will just push me aside and run to hold the baby. I know everyone will think, "WOW...that is a good looking father," but really they will focus on how cute the baby is. I know that the majority of our friends will want to put me on a pedestal for how well I handled the pregnancy and how hard I worked during labor, but really that small triumph will be trumped by the new baby who gets all the attention. Really...I am okay with it. I can accept it. I can live with being an afterthought.

The non Blu-Ray purchases...

Little Somethings...

We got some of the coolest gifts for Caleb this Friday. Our friends, Jim & Erica gave us a gift bag with some of the neatest things for the baby. They were from Little Somethings (Erica's business). They gave us a personalized diaper caddy, changing pad, burp cloth, and matty blanket.

Lions and Tigers and....

Bears...ok...it is just one bear, but he has a hat! Allison's co-worker Lori gave Caleb the little bear and she even knitted the little hat herself.

The bear...


The bear wearing Caleb's hat...