Caleb is 1 Month Old!

What a month it has been! We survived by the skin of our teeth. We were thankful to have so much help this month. Never could we have imagined the hurdles we were going to encounter.

As soon as you arrived and you let out your first cry I noticed you were tongue-tied like your sister. I kind of prepared myself for nursing being a challenge. When we met with the pediatrician and lactation consultant both confirmed you were tongue-tied so we didn't wait long to schedule an appointment for the clipping procedure. Thankfully the appointment was scheduled just a couple days after you were born. Nursing definitely wasn't going well and it was really painful. You would get very frustrated and cry a lot. You had a follow up appointment at the pediatric office and your weight had dropped. No real worries since you hadn't had the procedure yet. When you had the procedure I thought things would be better. You had a weight check scheduled to make sure you were on the up. Nursing still seemed to be a struggle and you didn't seem happy at all with it. Weigh in day had arrived and you had dropped even lower. This was a real concern since we should've seen progress after the procedure was complete. At that point I called the lactation consultant and they said to pump, bottle and nurse until he got back to his birth weight. When I started on this path I felt like I completely sabotaged nursing. You were pretty much only wanting the bottle and nursing was becoming even more of a struggle. I met with a consultant and as she watched you nurse she agreed. You were angry and as of now it would be better to give you and me a break from nursing until you got a little bigger. So I pumped and bottle fed for the next three weeks and it was exhausting.

On top of the nursing challenges we were bombarded with all the winter viruses. We all had really bad colds which even you picked up at only 2 weeks old. It was really sad to hear you congested. You had such a hard time breathing since at this age you only know how to breath through your nose. Luke got tonsillitis then pneumonia and then the flu and Kate may have had the flu or just some virus that gives you a fever for a couple of days. It was really hard to get your brother and sister to understand they couldn't hold or touch you during this long week. They love you so much. It was sweet to see how understanding Luke was about it.

We made it through these hard weeks and then all of a sudden one day we tried nursing again and you took to it! This past week you have been exclusively nursing and I have just begun to stop pumping. This has been a huge answer to prayer. We have been surrounded by friends and family that have encouraged and provided help during this time and we are so very thankful!

Here are some things we love about you!

• You are very easy going
• You don't mind the chaos and loud noise that a family of 5 brings.
• You have tons of fuzzy chick hair. Kate likes to touch it and twirl it.
• Your brother and sister love you so much. They are so sweet and concerned for you.
• When you cry they want to know what's wrong and ask for us to check on you and make sure you're okay. They also always come to the conclusion that you're crying because you're hungry. 
• You look a lot like your Daddy. You have his exact hairline
• You have long fingers and toes.
• We enjoy holding you and smelling you. You smell so good!:)
• We had you in our room for the first three weeks. I did a lot of skin on skin since I wasn't able to nurse. Although I didn't get much sleep I enjoyed holding you close to me. You were so warm and cozy. 
• The last week of this month we put you in your crib for bedtime and some naps. You did great transitioning and kept the same sleep patterns.
• You sleep 4 hour stretches at night. Sometimes you'll get to 5 hours.
• We discovered we can't leave Katelyn unattended with you. I found her trying to shove play food in your mouth. You poor baby! 
• Luke and Kate love to hold you. They even got to feed you a bottle a couple times. 
• You are very strong. You hold your head up well and you have a good grip!
• You were not a fan of diaper changes for the first couple weeks. You would SCREAM! We figured out it was because you didn't like to be cold so we set up a little space heater at your changing station and you didn't make a peep.
• You aren't a huge fan of baths, again, it relates to being cold and you do not like being cold.
• You love to be swaddled. Just like Luke, you like for the blanket to cover your face. We leave an air-pocket of course!
• You love to be warm. If we bundle you, you'll sleep for hours. 

Here is our 1 month photo session. We love you handsome little guy!!