First Thanksgiving

We had a big Thanksgiving at my Aunt Laura's house in Weston. In attendance was my mom, Grandmother, aunt, uncle, 5 cousins, 2 sisters, and significant others. A big crowd! And, unfortunately, a cranky Caiden.

A quick summary of the day:

Caiden hung out while his Mom and Dad got some work done around the house

Then we went to the Keery's where the guys played football

The gals played with the baby

Everyone ate a lot of food

Caiden watched the meal from a swing

He also got to spend time with his Gigi (Great Grandma)

And then Caiden slept for 8 hours in a row for the first time! What a great Thanksgiving!

Caiden Update

The move has seriously slowed down the blogging, sorry! Hopefully I'll be back on track now that we're getting settled (and have internet again!)

At Caiden's one month checkup, he weighed in at 11lbs 5oz and measured 21.75 inches. That put him at around the 80th percentile for weight, 50th percentile for length. I can't remember his head circumference, I'll try to get that next time! Once again the doctor seemed amused but impressed by Caiden's weight gain. I asked if it was too much (over 2 lbs since his 2 week appointment, geez!), but the doctor said no- he is "thriving". And when he heard that Caiden scarfs down his daily vitamin drops, the doctor was shocked. He said he never hears that. Usually parents can't get their babies to eat those drops, or the baby spits it up, or cries a lot. Not our baby... he laps that stuff up like it's candy. He loves to eat!

Caiden has become much more animated over the past week. As long as he is well rested and fed, it's pretty easy to get him to smile and chat. He is getting good at vowel sounds- lots of oooohs.

He still likes his wiggle time, and doesn't like to be hot or cold. He seems to get overwhelmed by crowds pretty easily. After a week or so where he would only sleep 2.5-4 hours at a time, Caiden has had two awesome nights. Last night, he slept from 10pm to 6am!! Wow. Now, I just need to learn how to sleep through the night again ;)

...And New Beginnings

We've moved! It's been a stressful process, but we're finally getting settled into our (awesome) new house in Acton. It really feels like home. We had new carpets put in upstairs, a new fridge brought in, new locks on the doors, and new paint in the master bedroom will be coming shortly.

Caiden is enjoying his new toys, which we are finally able to use. They've been in storage at Nana Nan's house until now.

He loves looking at himself in the mirror:

He even smiles and chats with himself:

The bouncy chair is pretty fun too:

End of an Era...

After 5 years in the city for me, 6 for Dan, we're moving out! I'll miss walking into Harvard Square and running on the river. I took a few pictures during our last walks on the river.

In Harvard Square:

On Memorial Drive, shut down for walking/running/cycling/skating on Sunday mornings:

Along the river path:

During the last few days on Arden street, Grandpa Jack and Grandma Madeline came to visit:

And Grandpa Hank and Grandma Judy came, thanks for the cute new outfit:

One Month Old

Unbelievable how fast time goes. Caiden is one month old today. We'll get his one month stats at his doctors appointment next week, but here is the rundown from us.

Personality: Caiden is generally an easy going baby, although recently he has had some cranky days. He can usually entertain himself pretty well, in fact sometimes when he is fussy the solution is to put him down and let him shake it out (wiggle time...).

Sleep: Caiden has been doing well in this department over the last week. He frequently will get a 5-6 hour stretch (pretty good for this age!!), followed by another 2-3 hours. Unfortunately, it can take a while after he eats for him to fall back asleep. And try as I might to move it earlier, his bedtime seems to be stuck at 10pm for now. And he is usually awake for the day between 7 and 8am. Naps are still all over the place, no schedule there. Some days he only takes a few cat naps but others it will seem like he has been sleeping all day.

Food: When he's awake, Caiden will eat just about every 2 hours. I am trying to stretch that out, but since he doesn't eat much at night I think it's okay that he is eating frequently.

Activity:  He is not a fan of tummy time, but we still try to get it in as much as possible. His neck strength is improving, this morning during a little tummy time he held his head steady at 90 degrees for a few seconds. He can focus on faces, and starting yesterday he will smile in response to a smile (with a lot of coaxing) . He also smiles quite a bit randomly, especially as he is falling asleep. He has rolled over once, stomach to back. We tried to get him to do it again so we could get it on camera, but no dice (he did get close though).

Size: We don't know an accurate weight, but using our scale it looks like he is in the 11 pound range. He's a big boy! Much bigger than most of the babies in our Mom's group, even though they are older! He doesn't fit in newborn clothes or diapers anymore, and even some of the 0-3 month clothes look like spandex on this little guy. I've started using some of the 3-6 month clothes already.

Well, it's 10am here and Caiden is already on his 3rd outfit of the day. Looks like it will be a laundry day...

Fun Friday

On Friday Caiden and I made the trip to Sharon to visit Grace and Ian. They moved from Somerville to Sharon a few weeks ago and are loving their new suburban life. Makes me excited for our move out to suburbia... one week to go!

Ian investigates the "bee" (baby)

Ian checks out his old car seat:

Grace and I took our boys out for a walk:

Later on Friday Dan and I got to go out for a date night! Yup, Margaret and Doug babysat for us while we went out to celebrate our 2 year anniversary a few days early. Thanks guys! We went to the Wine Cellar, a hole in the wall fondue place. Very nostalgic, we used to go there so often the owner knew us. But it has been years! And tonight we are going to Boston Triathlon Team's year end banquet while Nana Nan babysits. We are lucky to have so many willing babysitters around here!

Little helper

Helping Dad with his homework!

Wiggle Time

There are definitely times that Caiden needs some snuggling, but I've realized that there are other times that he needs to be able to stretch out. I call it wiggle time... I put him down and he just wiggles around!!

Ahhh... sleep!

Wow, last night Caiden was a rock star sleeper! We're not getting ahead of ourselves and assuming this is a permanent change, but it's nice to know he has the ability to sleep well! He went down at 10pm (that is huge!!), stayed down until 2am (5 hours, considering the time change), ate, then went back down until 7:15. Wow! There are a few factors that may have contributed to this awesome night: a new swaddling tool, turning the monitor off, and a little patience.

Yesterday my friends Casey and Jess came to meet Caiden, and they brought a swaddler. We've been swaddling Caiden regularly, but this was a much better device with velcro and all. I gave him a 8:30pm feeding in his bedroom with the lights off, and kept him in that dark room until he got sleepy. It took awhile and was pretty boring for me, but he finally started to fall asleep. I wrapped him in the new swaddler wrap and put him in the crib. He was in and out of sleep for a while, but he passed out for good about 10pm.

I left the monitor off, thanks to advice from Grace. He is just such a loud sleeper that it keeps me up, not to mention that I've probably been jumping the gun and getting him before he is really awake. So without the monitor, I could only hear him when he cried. We'll be trying these techniques again tonight... and hopefully the daylight savings change will work in our favor.

Some photos from the past few days:

Out for a walk on Saturday

Funny faces

Dressed in blue and green for an SGR (Sunday Group Run) at Trish's house this morning.

Hanging in his little tracksuit!

Third time is the charm

Well, we've tried 3 different methods of baths and I think we have a winner. We've tried two different plastic tubs filled up at the sink, and then we tried this mesh bath thing that sits in the real tub. Caiden screamed and cried with the plastic tubs, but he loved the mesh thing. He just hung out happy as a clam while we bathed him! I think it helped that he was eased into the water- we put him into the mesh thing while the tub was filling up, and the gradual submersion seemed to work. It might also have been the time of day- this bath was an evening one when he was pretty awake. The tub baths were in the afternoon when he was sleepy.

Testing the thing out for size

Hey, this isn't so bad!!

Getting clean!

Just your typical Friday

Hanging out in the morning

Getting ready for a walk

Hanging with Dad at the end of the day!

3 weeks!!

I really can't believe how fast time is flying by!! This little man is 3 weeks old!

He is still working on sleep. There is no definite pattern, but he usually has wide awake time at night, not falling asleep until after 1am. At that point, he often get a good 3-3.5 hour chunk followed by a quick snack and another 2 hours. He has lots of sleepy time during the day, although every day is different. He has become a super eater, feedings are finally relatively quick and painless. Phew, what a relief! The acne is still in full force, covering most of his scalp and his cheeks. Every day it's different- healing in some places but sprouting new pimples in others.

On Monday I took him to the first of 6 new mom's group sessions at Isis Maternity. There are 10 of us with new babies. Even though he is the second youngest, I am pretty sure Caiden is one of the biggest babies in the class! I felt lucky though, as several babies cried through the entire 2 hour class and lunch afterwards. Caiden definitely has his fussy moments, but he *usually* will settle down easily with a little comforting (or food). Hopefully I didn't just jinx it... knocking on wood!

 Here he is modeling the Northface fleece that my coworkers got him. I always wear a black Northface jacket at the office (I'm usually cold), so they got him one to match! It will fit him well this winter and spring.

"Why are you wet?" This is a joke Dan and I have. We frequently find ourselves asking Caiden this question. He's either puked on himself, covered himself with milk, or leaked pee or poo out of his diaper. A few days ago I had a "why are you wet" moment with him, only to realize it was poo that had made it out of the top of the diaper and soaked his back. I went to change him, and he puked on the changing table and then peed before I could fasten up the fresh diaper. Sigh. I am continuously covered with one of these fluids!

Nana Nan came over for Caiden's first submersion bath yesterday. He did not like it one bit!! I had waken him up from a nap for the bath though, I'm hoping he was just tired and will enjoy the next one.

Snuggle time

When Dan gets home from work, we usually have a little family snuggle time. We thought it was cute that last night Caiden took a little snooze hugging Dan. Note the drool mark on Dan's shirt.

Hanging out

Just hanging out at home!

Happy Halloween!!

We had some fun BTT Halloween plans for Sunday, but since Caiden didn't fall asleep until 3am the night before, we chose to sleep in instead. But, we got to dress him up in his little cat Halloween outfit for his Aunt Elizabeth's 31st birthday dinner.

Skyping to Great Grandma Ruth and Great Aunt Ellen in Pennsylvania

Hanging with Nana Nan

Happy Halloween Dad!!

Little Belly Button!

On Saturday morning Caiden's umbilical cord fell off!! It's still a little goopy, but soon we can give him a real bath!! I hope he'll love it!