Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving with the Cain’s and Nana. Charlie was good and let us almost finish eating our turkey and dressing before demanding his Thanksgiving lunch. He is growing so fast and changing so much every day. He’s cooing, smiling, and laughing all the time. I thought I loved it when he was a tiny newborn, but this new stage is so much fun to interact with him.

I’ve put a video and a picture below. The video is from a couple days ago when he was flirting with me from his lamb swing. The picture is from this morning and makes me look like a liar above because my normally happy baby is crying and red in the face during our family portrait at the Christmas tree lot. It’s a shame, too, because it’s hard to get Travis and I both smiling at the same time with our eyes open in a picture.

We’re looking forward to enjoying the holidays and my last month off before work. We started decorating the house and shopping for Christmas presents last week because it is taking me much longer this year to find the time. Hopefully we’ll have everything wrapped up by next weekend and we’ll get to really enjoy three weeks before Christmas in a festive home.

We hope to get to see lots of you over the next month.

Charlie Says Hey!

Can you say Fat and Happy??

These were hilarious to me – taken this afternoon after tummytime.

Charlie had a rough morning – he got ousted from all of his usual lounging around the house because the cleaning ladies arrived at 9:00 am. It has kept him awake for much of the morning, including trips with Mom and Dad to Kinkos, Target, and his grandparents’ house (this was a pit stop for feeding since we didn’t want to go home and interrupt the cleaning). (Side note – if anything is out of place there, Travis did it, not me or Charlie). Anyways, we’re back home, freshly bathed and dressed (Charlie that is, not his mama), and now crashed out on the boppy while I check my email.

We’re also busy packing for our big trip to Atlanta. I’m not sure there will be anything left in Charlie’s room and closet once I’m done because as I go item by item I am convinced I need it all (or I might). What if he all of a sudden decides he hates the bouncy seat and only wants to be placed on the Baby Einstein mat. I need them both!!! I’m going to be prepared. Dad, don’t worry when you see us tomorrow – we aren’t really moving in – it will just look like it. We’re looking forward to going to Atlanta and seeing so many of our favorite people – Charlie is going to remind me to take lots of pictures with everyone and post them on the website (particularly his Aunt Erin who has now seen him twice but I’ve neglected to take a photo yet because I get so busy talking to her).

In other news, Charlie has had his first babysitters in the past week. Nana kept him this past weekend for Travis and I to go to dinner at PF Changs and to see Couples Retreat at the movie theatre. We had fun, but we did spend the entire time before the movie started scrolling through the pictures we have on our phones of Charlie. Then, last night, our friends Jason & Kristen were lifesavers and came to stay with Charlie for an hour at the last minute when we found out mine and Travis’s schedules were going to overlap. What schedules you ask?? Well, I’ve officially gone back to Bikini Boot Camp for the past two days and it is wonderful. I feel good getting out in the fresh air (or rain in the case of last night) and getting some exercise.

Okay, I’ve rambled enough. I’ve put more pictures from the past couple weeks on facebook if ya’ll are interested. Better post to come after our trip to Atlanta.

Little Victories

In the spirit of being honest about this new adventure, we had a horrible time at the 11:00 feeding last night. It ended up with me crying, Travis at his wits end because he couldn’t figure out how to help, and Charlie having a full-on meltdown because he was too impatient to latch on to me for more than 15 seconds. Our options were to let the child starve with only having eaten half of his usual amount (which he wasn’t really going to let us do – he was screaming at us), or I could do the unthinkable (all the baby websites say not to) and go finish up his feeding with a bottle. I just happened to have 2 random ounces of milk that I had pumped yesterday. I opted for the bottle.

Then, we decided that we should let Daddy get some sleep (since he is the one working right now), so Charlie and I moved to the nursery and the guestroom. I went to the guestroom because I didn’t trust the monitors for Charlie’s first night in his crib and nursery. I got him swaddled up and the mobile turned on, and went to my bedroom. I looked at the clock – it had taken an hour and 45 minutes to get him fed and down (It was 12:45 am). I calculated that I had anywhere from an hour and an hour and a half of sleep before he would wake up to eat again so I quickly put myself to bed. When I woke up to Charlie’s crying, I reached for the clock and discovered it was….wait for it….4:45 am – he had slept a full 4 hours (which meant I had as well) since I put him down and gone 6 hours between the beginning of one feeding to the next. He also had no problem latching on and eating at 4:45 or again at 7:30 when he woke up again.

I do realize this is a fluke and may not happen on any type of regular basis for another month or two…but I’m riding on the high of 6 full hours of sleep last night! And, I think we’ve officially moved him in to his nursery full-time and me to the guestroom for a couple days until I feel comfortable.

Okay, we’re off to play on our Baby Einstein activity mat – it provided about 20 minutes of entertainment yesterday.

One Month Old Update

It’s amazing how much of a distinct little person Charlie has become in the past month. Here are some of my observations on his likes/dislikes.

He loves to eat – it’s his favorite past time (as you can tell by those big cheeks), and Travis even thinks he dreams about it in his sleep from the way his mouth moves and he smiles in his sleep.

He gets so mad if he can’t latch on right away and get the milk. He pitches a full on tantrum if it takes more than 2 seconds to get adjusted. He also does this crazy head shake as he’s attaching on – like he’s attacking it with gusto.

He hates a wet diaper – doesn’t really mind a poopy one (which I think would be much worse), but demands (read screams) to have his diaper changed as soon as he has wet it. The websites and books say you use 8-12 diapers per day. That is not the case in the Cain household. One day I used 3 diapers in 30 minutes (he wanted one because he was wet, I wanted to change him because he pooped, and the third one because in my haste to get him out of the poopy one I didn’t let him finish). I would say we average about 15 diapers a day. It’s a good thing we’re breastfeeding because I think we’d be broke if we were trying to afford formula AND all these diapers.

Charlie’s favorite place to lay is on your chest where he gets a full-body snuggle and can hear your heartbeat. He also really likes taking daytime naps snuggled up next to me while I read or catch up on Tivo – he snuggles up against my leg. Sometimes I can sneak out of the bed and do a few things around our bedroom, but he cannot be disturbed to be picked up and put in his crib or the bassinet. He’s no dummy and you can’t get one over on him – he only accepts being placed in the bassinet when it’s night time.

I really love it when he sneezes and coughs – he looks so pitiful and sweet at the same time.

He gets the hiccups all he time. He sounds like a little toy top popping.

He has gotten used to his baths in the infant tub, but he doesn’t squeal with delight or smile – just stares at me with that concerned face until the whole ordeal is over and he can relax that we didn’t drop him in the water.

He loves the fans – they don’t even have to be running – just get him adjusted so that he can look at them – he appreciates the fact that we have one in almost every room.

He loves his vibrating seat, and loves it even more when his daddy pushes on it and makes it bounces a little bit. He still likes his lamb swing too and usually naps in it between the early morning feeding when he’s awake and Mama desparately needs to get one more set of sleep.

He likes to go for walks and car rides – by that I mean that he goes to sleep immediately and misses most of the excitement and surroundings.

I stay up with him throughout the night and we hang out, but he also really like that time around 6:30 every morning when he and Travis go lay on the couch and give me some uninterrupted sleep. He also likes to hang out in Travis’ office with him while I do some things around the house (this is usually when he’s in the vibrating seat and getting rocked by Trav).

He’s really starting to hold his head up, but he doesn’t like it. He really hates tummy time that only involves the floor and not laying on someone else, and is not afraid to let us know.

He does this crazy stretching a lot now and really contorts his body – it’s pretty hilarious – I need to get a video of it soon.

We are having a lot of fun, and hopefully it doesn’t make us bad parents that we laugh at him a lot (even some of his tantrums and cries are funny). We can’t wait to see what he does this next month.

I’ll leave you with some photos taken this past weekend for the GA/FL game and Halloween (which Charlie hated with a passion).

can you tell he hated it?