Christmas and swaddling

We had an eventful first Christmas with Calan! Of course he had no idea that that day was any different from the next, but he got to see a lot of family and raked in the gifts!

On another note, we're trying to wean Calan off of being swaddled. He is now able to get out of the "miracle blanket" which is sort of like a baby straight jacket if you ask me. So, it's no small feat to escape this thing. We use the miracle blanket at night and he sleeps for 10 - 11 hours at a time. We use the Kiddopoatomaus wraps for his naps and he generally naps for 45 minutes about 4 times a day. Since he is regularly able to escape both of these contraptions, we decided to try and let him sleep "unswaddled" on Christmas night. We were at the Goodwins house for Christmas dinner and Calan's schedule was all over the place because he skipped a nap and was overtired. Regardless, we still wanted to try to let him sleep unswaddled. When we were preparing to leave the Goodwins house (about 20 minutes away from our house), we put Calan in a sleep sack with his pajamas underneath, so that we could just transfer him from the car seat when we got home. That worked out okay and he slept in his bed for about 30 minutes before crying. Neils got up and checked on him...he was not awake, but he was crying. Neils put his hand on him and replaced his pacifier and left him again. He was okay for about 20 - 30 minutes. Then it happened again. He repeated this process 12 times in 4 hours.....so we ended up swaddling him at around midnight and he slept until 6 am.

We are too scared to try again at this point, as we are leaving for Dallas on Thursday and know that he'll have enough trouble sleeping in a new place. But, when I went to him this morning, the little Houdini had gotten out of the miracle blanket again.

Does anyone out there have any tips on weaning him off being swaddled? We think the reason he keeps waking up is because his little arms get to going and he hits himself in the face. If anyone has any words of wisdom, we are all ears! I am just so scared he's going to start waking up every 30 minutes if we unswaddle him again. I am also nervous about making too many changes at once in his life, as I am starting to work out of the house 3 days a week beginning on 1/12 when I have to fly to Las Vegas for a tradeshow and won't return until late 1/14. So he will have our nanny watching him during the day and won't see me until Friday morning. So, not only will I be gone during the day, but he won't see me for 2 nights either. :( I am clearly really upset about this. Any help is appreciated!

Christmas with my family

We had Christmas with my family (my mom, Erin and Jason) yesterday at our house, as Erin and Jason are flying to Dallas today for Christmas week. Calan by far has the most gifts under the tree....too bad he was sleeping when a couple of them got opened. How wrong of us!! Here are some pics of my little man!!

4 Month Dr's Visit

Calan had his 4 month well baby visit on Wednesday and he is indeed doing well! His official stats are:

Weight: 15 lbs 14.5 oz (50 - 75%)
Height: 25.5 inches (50 - 75%)
Head: 16.5 cm (35%)

The Dr. asked us to wait until he is 6 months old to feed him solids and that is fine by me for now. I don't think he's quite ready for them yet. He is teething, but the Dr. didn't notice any teeth that are immeidately about to pop through, so maybe we have another month or so before that too.

In other news, my very dear friend, Marion, and her husband Jason are expecting a little boy in May! They had their 20 week ultrasound yesterday and the baby is healthy!!!! They are thrilled, as am I. I could hardly sit still yesterday waiting for the news. Their little angel, Addison, passed in March after 22 days of battling CDH. So hearing the news that this is a healthy baby is the best Christmas gift they could ever hope to receive.

We are in Christmas mode here as well and our trip to Texas for New Year's is now less than 2 weeks away! I can't wait for Grandad and GranDale to see how much Calan has grown! I also can't wait to see my best friend, Shannon, and her baby girl, Abby. Please pray that the flight/travels go well with a 4 1/2 month old. I am praying for okay sleep during the trip and that we all stay illness free.

4 Months Old

Oh my, I cannot believe my little baby is 4 months old today. Thinking about these past 4 months brings a wave of emotions to the forefront of my mind. The scared, anxiety, sleep deprived first time mom of a 1 month old occasionaly still visits, but it's mostly the hurried, gotta get things done while Calan's taking a nap mom that's here now. My little boy is such a sweet soul and I love it when he awakes from his nap or in the morning, as he (usually) has a great big grin on his face. Calan is definitely his father's son in the looks department, but he's a mixed bag on the personality front. Stubborn like Neils (okay, me too), headstrong like me, definitely likes to be the center of attention (me again) and an all around cute, smiley, mostly happy baby (a lot of Neils in there). I love my little boy oh so much and am both looking forward to and dreading returning to the travel portion of my job in January. I have been working from home since Nov. 2nd, so it will be a transition to be out of the house 3 days a week. We are lucky to have family (Aunt Abbe and Grandma Sidne) look after Calan 2 days a week and have found a wonderful nanny for another day and a half. Maybe the nanny (over 25 years of experience caring for infants) will be able to get Calan to nap longer in his crib!! :) I will post pics and his 4 month stats later after he wakes from his 1st afternoon nap.

Brrrrrrrrrrrr...It's Cold!

It has been really cold here and we've even had some snow on the hills. Calan and I ventured out in the cold this morning for my stroller strides baby bootcamp class. Calan had his regular clothes on underneath his little snow suit. He was so cute!

Cutie!

I thought these were too cute to not post!

Chatty Calan

Finally caught some of his chatting on video....he will go on and on w/his sounds...but this is a good snipet! He's gonna be a talker!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This has been a whirlwind holiday weekend! Of course, Calan had many visitors and admirers....so much so that it has thrown off his whole sleep schedule! We're trying to get him back on track, but he is showing his personality more and more and let me tell you - he is very headstrong! Big surprise since Mommy and Daddy are too. He is very much fighting his naps now, so I have to put him in his swing and let him rock for about 20 minutes before falling asleep. Then I turn the swing off so he's not getting used to the motion while he sleeps. Last night he woke up at 3 AM and was very fussy. This is new, as he usually sleeps until around 5 AM for his "breakfast". Neils and I took turns and after 3 different times of getting up and pacifying him, he slept for another hour. We'll get it straight somehow and I know this will be a distant memory soon, but boy is it frustrating...especially since he was sleeping so well!

Regardless of all this, we had a nice Turkey Weekend with both of our families. Here are some pics of our fun:

Abbe, Me and Gam Gam (my mom) winetasting

The cutie!

Grandpa and Calan

I'm sleepy....

Calan and his Great Grandmother Ruth (Neils' grandmother)

I'm getting smushed!

Family photo in the garden

Abigail Elizabeth Guggenheim

My dear friend of 20+ years, Shannon and her husband Matt, welcomed their beautiful baby girl, Abby, into this world on Friday!!! I am so happy for their family and can"t wait to meet her, hopefully in January! Check her out:

http://babyguggenheim.blogspot.com/

3 months

Calan celebrated his 3 month birthday yesterday by having a special treat of being home with daddy, as it was Veteren's day and he had the day off! We began the day by weighing and measuring my big boy! I bought a baby scale, so we put it to use yesterday. His stats are:

Weight - 13 lbs 7 oz
Length - 24 3/4 inches

Rolling little man

He's been rolling over for about a month now, but I finally caught it on film!

10 Weeks Old

Calan was 10 weeks old yesterday and I can't believe how quickly the time is passing by. I am both thrilled and heartbroken to see him grow so fast. I guess only a parent could understand that. We are about to have some big changes in our lives - 1) we bought a house in Petaluma and are moving there this Saturday and 2) I will go back to work on 11/2. Again, I am so excited and a little sad about each of these events. Moving to our own home that is twice the size of our apartment will be wonderful, but I will also miss the city and our proximity to so many unique landmarks - Golden Gate Park, the Pacific Ocean and just the city itself. BUT I am so grateful to have more room to spread out, as it has been getting pretty tight in here! I am also excited to return to work, but am so sad to be away from Calan. I know I will adjust and I'm so happy that I am able to spend the first 3 months of his life here with him every day.

Calan had his 2 month Dr's appt last week and he is doing very well! He weighed 11 lbs 6 oz and measured 23 inches long. He is definitely getting chubbier as time goes by, but still not a rolly polly like I thought he'd be! He also had to get 4 shots and I have never seen a face so red or heard a cry so shrill. Needless to say he did not care for the shots and I felt helpless seeing him get so upset. I thought I was going to break down and cry as well, but luckily my mom was there to help me and we made it through. After the appt, he was tired pretty much the rest of the day, so he just slept.

That same day, we signed our loan documents and closed on our new house, so it was quite hectic. On Saturday, Neils and I left Calan with my sister, Erin and her fiance, Jason so we could get some work done before we move in. The house looked kind of like a circus with red, yellow and turquoise paint on the interior, so we had a lot of painting to do. We spent most of Saturday taping off the downstairs and only got to primer 2 walls. We were freaking out about how we were going to get this all done in a week, especially since we weren't doing a great job of painting with the vaulted ceilings and nooks and crannies.....so, we hired painters! My father-in-law has a good friend that is a GC and he and his crew are working on the house all this week! Thank God!!! I am so excited to see the results when they are done.

Below are some pics of Calan from the past week, as well as some photos of Sidne (mother-in-law) and I from the Nike Women's 1/2 Marathon this past Sunday! It was Sidne's first time to walk the event and my 4th time running it. I was not able to train fully for the event (since I was pregnant/recovering), but I still finished it feeling mostly okay :) Next up: Avenue of the Giants 1/2 Marathon in May!

Blaine, Sidne and Abbe at the finish lineSally and I waiting to cheer Sidne in at the finish line

Calan on the boppy

Sticking his tongue out at Aunt Erin

Looking like a big boy in his Bumbo

Growing Boy

Our little Calan is getting so big! He has rolled over a few times now, well catapulted himself, really. But yesterday, he actually rolled...not catapulted from anger! He smiles and laughs and makes me so happy! He is also VERY long now and I am anxious to see what they measure him at next week at his 2 month Dr's appointment. We have been going to a class called Stroller Strides, which is basically a boot camp with babies. It's fun and a good workout!

Here are some pics of my big boy:

1 Month Checkup

We went for Calan's 1 month checkup with the pedatrician yesterday and all was good! He is up to 9 lbs 4 oz and measured 21 1/2 inches. He looks pretty slim still, as he keeps growing longer and longer. He also got a shot, which he didn't really care for, but all in all he did very well.

We have been getting into a more regular routine with Calan. He eats about 7 times a day at this point. After his "breakfast" at around 7 am, he is very alert and ready to "play". I have put him on the activity mat since the first week, but he hasn't really interacted with the toys until now. Also, he has had really good head control since the first week and recently, during tummy time, he catapulted himself from his tummy to his back and moved all the way to the end of the mat! What a strong little lad. :) I really enjoy these times when he is alert and active! At night, however, he likes to fuss quite a bit. Hopefully, that will wear off soon.

My little baby doll

It's been a whirlwind of days since Calan was born. I love this little boy SO MUCH and even get excited to see him when he wakes in the early pre-dawn hours of the the morning. I call him my little baby doll. I know he won't want me to call him that when he gets older, so I get it in while I can!

Things have settled down since the first couple of weeks. I was planning to exclusively breastfeed Calan, but I never got enough milk. We switched to exclusively formula feeding Calan at 2 1/2 weeks, due to his weight loss. I will back up for a bit though - I hadn't gotten my milk in by 1 week after he was born, so I went to a lactation consultant at the hospital. She watched me feed him, weighed him before and after I fed him and made a whole laundry list of things for me to do to increase my milk production. I followed all of her suggestions, but after another week and a half, I was still only getting 1/4 to 1/2 an ounce of milk when I pumped every 3 hours. Since it was not working, I spoke to the lactation consultant again and she said that she didn't think I would get any more milk and was totally supportive of me switching him to formula only. So, we did. Since then he has flourished and as of 1 1/2 weeks ago, he was up to 8 lbs! We go back on Tuesday for his 1 month checkup, so I'll post his updated stats then.

Once we got past all of that, things have been much better. I felt so much guilt about not breastfeeding, but I really tried everything I could, so I finally had to get over it. Mother's guilt is no joke! I feel so bad for ever making my mom feel bad about anything! I now know that she already felt bad about a million things I won't even remember.

Enough rambling....here are some new pics of my little love!

Baby Calan is here!

Calan Kenneth Goodwin arrived on Tuesday in the wee hours of the morning at 3:47 am. He weighed 7 lbs 10 oz (far less than the anticipated 9 lbs the OB thought) and was 18 1/2 in long. We were in the hospital until Thursday at noon. Our first night at home was pretty rough, as Calan only wanted to sleep when being held. I was also running on about 5 hours of sleep since his birth on Tuesday, so it made for a much harder time. Luckily, my mom came to help out on Friday and stayed through the night. The second night was much better and we actually got about 4 hours of sleep, which seems like a lot now.

I am so happy to have our beautiful baby here with us and I'm also still feeling a little weird that I'm not pregnant anymore. It's no secret that I did not have any easy pregnancy, especially the last 10 weeks with being at home alone on bedrest and then just anticipating the arrival of Calan. I complained constantly about the lonliness of being at home and my uncomfortableness, but now I feel so conflicted about one day being a pregnant lady and the next not. I guess when you do something for almost 10 months and have a drastic change you are bound to feel weird. I know these feelings are temporary and to be expected with a new mother, but it's definitely a learning curve of steep proportions.

Enough of my ramblings....here are some pics of our beautiful baby boy!

38 Weeks

I am 38 weeks tomorrow and I just had my weekly OB appt. I am now dilated to 4 cm and the OB stripped my membranes, which may help me along quicker. He also noted that the baby is large, his estimate was around 9 lbs....pray for me! I really hope this baby comes soon so that I'm not trying to birth a 10 lber. I don't have an updated pic, but my belly is VERY large. I have quit gaining weight, so how is that he is still growing?!!!

Just Waiting....

I am now almost 37 weeks along and just waiting for the little guy to make his move! I went to the OB last Wednesday and found out that I was dilated to 2 cm/50% effaced. The OB is comfortable with me having the baby any day now, as he is larger than average, so I have been walking, doing squats, etc. Yesterday I felt some contractions erratically throughout the day, but nothing regular. Today has been less eventful :( I am trying to get this boy moving, but I guess he wants to come in his own time.

In other news, we are continuing to look for a home in Petaluma. We have been outbid on 2 properties and our bid was countered on a 3rd property, but we decided not to make a counter offer. It is very frustrating to be a buyer or seller (I assume) in this current real estate market, but we'll keep looking and hopefully find the right house soon.

I go to the OB again tomorrow, so we'll see if I have made any further progress!

35 Weeks

I am now at 35 weeks and officially off bed rest!!!! As soon as the OB told me that, I promptly took the stairs instead of the elevator (she is on the 8th floor)! We are definitely ready for the little guy to make his apperance. My sister, mom and friend Nina threw a baby shower for us on Sunday so now we have almost everything we need....except a bigger house! Speaking of that, we have been looking very seriously for a home in Petaluma (about 40 mins north of San Francisco) for almost a month now. We have put offers on 3 homes, but been outbid twice and countered once (they want too much for it in this market), so we are continuing to look and hoping that the house for us will come along soon! Who knew a little bitty baby required so much space? :) I have included some pics from my shower below....as you can see he is definitely growing in there!

Father's Day, Baby Shower and more

We had an eventful weekend this past Saturday and Sunday! On Saturday, a friend of Neils' mom threw me a baby shower in Santa Rosa for some of his parents friends. Peggy has a beautiful home and the shower was so much fun! It was really nice to get out of the house and be out in the sun. Meanwhile, Neils treated his dad to a round of golf for Father's Day. All in all, it was a great day! I have posted a couple of pics from the shower below so you can see how big I've gotten. I can't imagine getting any bigger - how can there be any more room????!!!!!! My ribs and lungs beg for your mercy Mr. Baby!!

On Sunday, we celebrated Father's Day by taking another baby class. This time the subject was Newborn Parenting - a 5 hour class about changing diapers, car seats, bathing, soothing the baby, etc. It was good information, but uncomfortable for me to sit in a classroom type chair for that long!

This week we will have our final baby class, interview a Pediatrician and go for my last ultrasound!! Hopefully everything will go as expected and Mr. Baby will not try to arrive early! I have a good feeling that he will stay put for at least a few more weeks.....we really need to get to 36 weeks, so that's 1 more month.

Update

We went to get another ultrasound today to check my cervical length and it HAS NOT changed!!! This is exactly what we were hoping for! I guess the bed rest is good for something. I am now at 30 weeks, so the Dr. ordered 6 more weeks of bed rest. I go back in 2 more weeks for another check and hopefully we'll have the same results. We also got to see how large the baby is and he is at approx. 3 lbs 10 oz., which is good. Big, but not too big!

We were supposed to go to Lake Tahoe this weekend with our friends Ernest and Ozzie (who are in from Houston), Justin, Ryan, Erin, Jason and Amy, but doctor's orders prevented us from going :( They will have a good time regardless, but we sure wish we could go!

Bed Rest

Neils and I went in for a 28th week ultrasound today and got some good and not so good news. Good news - baby Goodwin is growing and weighs approx. 3 lbs! He looks good! Not so good news - my cervix is shortening, which is something that happens toward the end of the pregnancy when you are about to go into labor. What this means is that I have been put on bed rest for the next 6 weeks. Hopefully, this will keep the baby boy at bay. I will know more after I see my doctor on Monday so stay tuned.

Belly Picture

After much prodding by friends and family, I finally had Neils take a picture of me so everyone could see how I'm progressing. Until this week I still had people telling me I didn't look pregnant. Well, there's no hiding it now! I am at 25 weeks and we have 3 more weeks until our next ultrasound. I am excited to see a better picture of our little boy. He is moving around pretty regularly and that always makes me feel happy!

Me at 25 weeks

In other news, we will be visiting Texas in 2 weeks and I can't wait! Neils will actually get to participate in the annual Polka Fest that happens every Memorial Day weekend in Ennis (my hometown). We will also fly down to Houston to see some friends who are so sweet to throw us a baby shower while we are there. I am so excited to see my dad and Dale, my grandparents and all my old friends from R&C and college! I am secretly hoping that it's hot, but for Neils sake I will pray that it's not over 90 degrees.

Baby G is a......

We found out yesterday at the 19th week ultrasound that the baby is a normally progressing BOY! This will be quite an experience since it's been all girls for me growing up (even the pets). Neils and I are so excited and now I finally feel like we can begin to plan for the baby's arrival. We have some time left until the due date of August 20th, but the weeks have been flying by so I have a feeling August will be here before we know it.

On another note, my dad and I ran the Emerald 12k across the bay on 3/15. It was fun, but rainy and during the duration of the race I began to realize that I am just not quite the same physically as I was before being pregnant. But, my dad stuck with me (just like I stuck with him at the SA RNR 1/2 marathon in Nov) and we made it, rain and all!

Prayers for The Acords

Sadness filled my heart yesterday when I learned little Addison Acord passed away at noon. She was in this world for a mere 3 weeks, but she touched the hearts of so many before she even arrived. Please say a prayer for her parents and my dear friends, Marion and Jason. You can view thier blog via the below link.

http://virginiaaddisonacord.blogspot.com/

Delayed News

It has now been 2 months since I've blogged....bad me. But, I do have a good excuse. Or many of them. Our biggest news is that we're expecting a baby this August! We found out in early December and I am now 15 weeks along. We are so excited to expand our family! The one person who is possibly more excited is my mother....she has told every person that she has come into contact with - friend, stranger, what have you. She will be really excited in 3 weeks when we get to find out the sex of the baby!!!

Also, my friend Marion delivered her baby last Tuesday night here at UCSF. This is the baby I mentioned in my previous blog. Marion and Jason's baby girl, Addison, is in the NICU at UCSF and her stats are up and down daily. As soon as she is stable for a few days, they will have to operate on her. Please keep their family in your prayers.

Ultrasound of Baby Goodwin at 13 weeks