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!