Falling more in love...

Nope, not posting nearly as often as I should. I really do want to remember all of this, but I can just sit for HOURS looking at this little man! And some part of me knows that he's not really responding the way I think he is, but he seems to react really well to me.

SO! Updates! Last Friday was his one month checkup, and the boy already weighs nine and a half pounds! Yowzer! I've actually been worried that he's eating too much, because his little tummy seems to get so gigantic after he eats and he dirties ever so many diapers. But the doc said it's not possible for him to eat too much right now, so I'm trying not to be too neurotic.

We also had the dubious pleasure of introducing Caleb to the joy of car shopping. Two lo-o-ong days of shopping culminated in getting Jonathan a nice Hyundai.

Then yesterday he and I went to get his picture taken ~ such drama. He was cooing, smiling, Mr. Happy-go-lucky man while we were waiting, then screamed to bring the roof down once he was positioned for the picture. I actually had to LEAVE the studio to calm him down. By the time we were ready again, someone else was there, so we had to wait again. During the wait, he was the sweetest little bug you'd ever hope to see. Again, when it was our turn, he demonstrated the capacity of his lungs. The photographer was impressed with the sheer volume. Finally, we got a halfway decent picture of the kid. Not smiling, but not wailing either. I'm really excited. That was kind of a rite of passage!

Jonathan and I got our phone bill yesterday. GOOD NIGHT! I had gone over on minutes only one month before, and swore I would never do it again. However, I hadn't counted on the overwhelming desire to tell everyone about every little detail of Caleb's birth and day to day existence! I don't want to put down in writing how much the phone bill was, but will say that the amount would have been a pretty decent down payment on Caleb's college tuition. Oy!

Quickies: I realized that I didn't have any pictures posted of the cradle and changing table Grandpa Gene made for the bubba. Stay tuned. Waiting on the guru to format them!

The puppies are getting along VERY well with Caleb. We've slowly allowed them to get closer to him now that they're getting more accustomed to his presence. When Caleb and I are having tummy time, the dogs get up close and personal. Nonny Jo certainly seems to adore him, while Auggie is a little more hesitant. It makes me so happy to see them starting to accept him as a member of the Fashbaugh pack.

Decorating for Christmas was quite a trip with a baby in the picture. Actually, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would ~ next year will be better, I bet. This year, it was a lot of crying, and took about four times as long because one of us was always trying to calm him down. I'm still trying to clean up the mess three days later! Who cares! Time with my son is more important than a neat house or well-decorated living room!

Oops, the little prince calls. I'll do better about writing. Have you seen all the pictures? The videos are incredible as well. Jonathan is doing such an amazing job with the website! I'm awfully happy to have a record of the boy's life so far!

'Twas the night before...

...his 22nd day on earth, and all through the Fashbaugh house rang the howls and yowls of Caleb Zakai wanting more! More to eat, more mommy and more daddy. Yes, after my stand for never letting him want for anything, on Tuesday night, I let the boy cry himself to sleep. And even though it nearly broke my heart, I got a stretch of almost an hour and a half of sleep, which comforted my bruised heart like you wouldn't believe.

Actually, there is a lot going on in the ever-changing effort to keep a balance in Caleb's happiness and his mom and dad's sanity. There's a wider gap than you would imagine! The other big attempt right now has been to figure out why he cries every time we lay him down. The first thought was gas, of course - the bane of babies - but with over a week's worth of Mylicon in him, there was no change. Next came the idea that he was just so attached that he didn't want to be separated from his parents. Oh, so sweet! But it doesn't work for me, because I can't sleep in the stupid chair in his nursery.

Finally, Jonathan had the brilliant idea that he was eating too much. The problem with not feeding a baby out of a bottle is that you can't be sure how much he's actually eating. So since the little man's belly distended and he issued hair raising screams ensuing every time we tried to put him in a prone position, I figured Jonathan might be right. So even though I promised myself that I wouldn't limit what he ate, I figured that a little structure would be better than allowing him to cause himself pain with every feeding. So now, Caleb and I are working out how long he actually needs to eat to ease the hunger pangs without overdoing it. We're still hammering out the details, but guess what? On top of the crying himself to sleep, this change has helped him sleep at night! Tuesday night, our first attempt, he slept three stretches of an hour and a half, and a couple stretches of an hour.

Then last night, he slept two hours the first stretch down, and then two and a half hours, and then a couple shorter stretches. I tell you what, sleep does a world of difference in a body! Not only am I finding the energy to study, but I did some DDR this morning, and Caleb and I are having a peaceful morning looking at the falling snow.

I'm trying to decide how to proceed with the snow. We were supposed to walk to the store today. I don't want to coddle the little man, but I also don't want to expose him to more ickiness than I have to. Ah well, it may let up later this afternoon.

One more thing! Jonathan is doing some tremendous work on a new website - his vision for missionary work on the internet. I highly recommend that you check it out! www.givenlife.com

So many firsts!

Well, today was Caleb's first day at church. I'm not sure if he was unimpressed or just too tired to appreciate it, because he slept through the whole thing! The day will come that I will pray for him to sleep through such occasions, but I guess I felt a little let down that I didn't get to watch his eyes. (They're so beautiful, dontcha know?!)

They did total the car from Jonathan's accident. Now we need to get a new one. They did give us a little more than we expected, though, so we're going to have a bit more to work with than originally anticipated. New car first for the little man.

And we're watching Star Wars. Caleb's daddy and I sang the theme song to him as the opening rolled. I'm certain he thought we were insane, but he put up a good front and allowed us to finish our little tune before bursting into tears. First exposure to Star Wars... he's not watching it, of course. I fear the singing may have put him off. But neither Jonathan or I are watching, either. There's so much going on - laundry, websites, dishes, etc. It's nice to have a familiar movie on in the background.

Grandma and Grandpa Fashbaugh went on their merry way this morning. I don't know when they'll next see their grandson. That's really weird. Life is changing a lot for all of us, I guess. But they sure soaked up a lot of him while they were here! (He's so incredibly soak-uppable!)

We got more great pictures ~ hopefully, Jonathan will have time to get them loaded in the next couple days. Sometimes he's really photogenic, and sometimes you can't get a good picture of him to save your life! Luckily, I don't have to rely on pictures to realize how stinking cute he is! I'm the luckiest mom in the world!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...

Wednesday morning here, all. It's been an...interesting week, to say the least. Grandma Sue has been around to spend time with her beautiful grandson Caleb, and he's definitely enjoyed the attention. Also, the combination of staying awake a little longer during the day and infant Mylicon, he's sleeping a little longer at night. But that's only been the last two nights, so I'm still highly sleep-deprived, but feel confident that I'll catch up soon.

The biggest news has been Jonathan's little oops-ident on Monday. He rear-ended a little car with his CR-V, and had both airbags deploy. I've never had airbags deploy! He's a little battered and bruised - going to the doctor today for some of said aches - and we're still waiting to hear what insurance has to say about the state of the car. However, one grace in the whole thing is that neither of us are panicking. Ordinarily, when something so potentially financially devastating happens, the two of us get worried in our own way, and start getting tense with each other. I think God has just given us the perspective that says, "Hey, there's nothing we can do about it, and in the greater scheme of things, it doesn't matter that much."

Check back with me in a week to see if I'm still so calm!

Anyway, there are new pictures under Caleb's section. He had his first bath on Sunday, and we finally got some pictures online. Isn't he so adorable?! Ugh! I just wanna bite his little toes.

Okay, gotta go do that now. Because I CAN!

Weekend Update...

First, a follow up from Friday. (Alliterative AND informative. You get it all right here, folks!) Serena and Jodi, friends from work, came over that evening. Jodi, whose son Jaxson is just about the cutest little hunk of a man his age, not only brought ANOTHER bag of hand-me-downs, but made a gift of an absolutely gorgeous pair of jeans, shirt and hoodie. Mr. Caleb is going to be one heck of a well-dressed little boy!

Anyway, while they were over, Caleb's diaper became slightly overpowering even for three girls and a daddy who love babies. So Jonathan changed him while I was showing off the nursery, and BLIP! That umbilical cord fell right off. No, we didn't keep it, but I feel like he's less fragile now that I don't have to worry about knocking it all the time!

Then on Saturday morning, we got up and got ready for the visit of Grammy B, Grandma Sue, and GG. GG loved her eighth (?) great grandchild, and couldn't stop saying how beautiful he was. Once again, there may be a slight bias, but I completely agree, so had to make a note of it.

And Grandma Sue was properly awed by his wonderfulness, too. She actually had to compete pretty heavily with Auntie Alisa for holding time with him. Again, there's a lot of familial pride in these ladies, but he is the sweetest thing in the world to hold. This coming from a girl who loves puppies more than just about anything. Yes, he's more precious than any puppy - even Auggie. Even better, Auggie three years ago, when he was the teeny little cuteness that fooled us into buying a male dachshund, even though we really wanted a female.

We meant to get to church this morning, and I was even plotting about who to ask to get a family picture of us on our boy's first trip to Jubilee, but he had a very rough night... which translates to a very rough night for his mom and dad. Oy. So even though I was up and semi-ready, I let Jonathan sleep, and did my best to calm down the squalling force of nature that has taken over my every waking hour. (And made sure that the awake hours are far more frequent than the asleep hours.)

Yeah, I've got a billion things to do around the house, and I swore to myself this would be short! Not doing so good with the brevity thing. However, I just look over to my left where my son is perched on the dining room table in his bouncy chair, and I just want to tell the world about him. But I'll stop now, and plan on writing less more often. (Does that make sense? Because in addition to my gregarious-ness, I often fail in offering coherence. Ah well, blame it on the new mom-hood!)

I KNEW he was eating a lot!

Well, kiddos, Caleb had his second pediatrician appointment this morning, and by golly is he growing! From 7lbs, 3 oz on Monday he's already up to 7lbs, 12 oz! Plus he has a feeding blister on his upper lip from eating so darn much! The feeding blister combined with the gross belly button getting ready to fall off are the only two things that I've really been worried about. (His umbilical cord is hanging on by a teeny tiny tendon-y thing, and it's freaking me out!)

Not too much else is new. Caleb and I went to visit Jonathan at work this afternoon, and everyone seemed fairly impressed with the boy ~ even though he just slept through the whole visit. (He IS cute when he sleeps though!)

I'm obsessed with this little man. No wonder they let me have six weeks off to take care of him: I would be driving my co-workers INSANE not being able to talk about anything else! As it is, I don't think I drive anyone else crazy. Jonathan says he doesn't mind me talking about Caleb non-stop when he comes home from work; the grandparents certainly don't mind; and I haven't been calling anyone else to drive them crazy (I don't think!). My thinking is this: if someone calls me to find out how he's doing, they're just opening the door for me to rave about him! Their fault, not mine!

Grandma Sue is on her way to see him right now! She will arrive tomorrow, and Grandpa Earl will come out next weekend. Great Grandma Ruth is coming up tomorrow to meet him as well. I'm so excited to get him introduced to the whole family! The rest of the Monroes, Sinleys, Johnsons, Garmanes and Fashbaughs will just have to hold onto their horses!

So excited to take him to church! I could always tell he was enjoying praise and worship when he was in my tummy, so I'll be interested to see how he does now. The acoustics at our new building aren't so harsh on little ones. Glad we got moved into the new place before his ears were clear of fluid!

Nothing but good news...

Every night for the last four, I've gone to bed wishing that I'd taken a few minutes to get caught up on everything in this journal so that I'll be able to remember it after this sleep-deprived stage is over. And every morning I wake up thinking, "I'd rather enjoy my time with Caleb Zakai right now and risk forgetting about it than put him down for a single minute more than I have to just to sit at the computer."

I feel my decision is a wise one. But just in case I regret it at any time in the future, I want to get some of these thoughts down so that I'll be able to reconstruct some of these days! (Plus he's asleep and I can't sleep, so it's a good time!)

We took the boy to the hospital again on Saturday and Sunday for additional blood tests, and finally his bilirubin levels (causing the jaundice) were in the acceptable range. So on Monday, he got off the lights, and has been much more active ever since. Especially at night! I got really excited when someone said that the baby's in utero schedule might translate to their outside world schedule, because Caleb never kept me up a single night. However, I think the jaundice may have thrown him. He was sleeping all the time his first week of life, day and night, and it seems that he may have confused the two.

Jonathan had to go back to work yesterday, so on Tuesday night, I took care of him all by myself. He woke up five times between nine and five, and I handled it. But last night, he woke up shortly after we went to bed, and would NOT go back to sleep. He just kept screaming every time I tried to put him down. After saying all my life that I would let a kid scream himself to sleep, I realized in my pregnancy that I didn't want my child to feel abandoned if I did that to him all the time. So obviously, I was torn between my newfound conviction and the fact that I had been feeding, changing his diaper, burping him and trying to put him down for over three hours. Doesn't sound like too long until you factor in a screaming infant that I want to be the happiest person in the world. Not only did the screaming get to me, but the feeling that I should be able to do something to help him started to drive me to distraction.

Finally, I pulled in the big guns. Jonny Fashbaugh.

After Jonathan had no luck with him for close to an hour, we decided to take a step I hadn't wanted to take: put him in his bouncy seat. After which that little man was asleep in minutes. I think he might have acid reflux or something that made it uncomfortable to lay flat.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is this: we're having some "issues," but having a killer time!

He's gotten quite a few visitors, and I took him to meet my coworkers yesterday. He looked a little strange, mainly because of the weird lime green outfit I put him in, and I'm afraid that in my attempt not to be stereotypical first time mom-lady, I may have inadvertently made some disparaging remarks about this small bundle of beauty. You have no idea how it haunted me last night during the long vigil. I wanted to turn back time and take him in there (in all his weird baby acne and color) and shout that the most attractive human in history was amongst us, and why weren't we all fawning the way he deserved?

So screw my not wanting to be a cliche - I'm a new mom and I'm proud of this boy! If you don't think he's the cutest thing in the world, that's your prerogative, just as it's mine to allow my maternal bias to color my judgment!

Oh! His first outing was to La Fogata with Jonathan, G&G Garmane and I. He never woke up. Then he went to the pediatrician on Monday, where he was given a clean bill of health, and then my outing yesterday was our first as Mom and Son Alone. (Both missed the Dad in the equation, but made it through somehow.) We go back to the pedo tomorrow, then we're going to go meet the people at Jonathan's work. I'm really excited about that.

We continue to be a happy and healthy bunch, and I have surely enjoyed having this time with my baby. I don't know how I'm going to be able to leave him to go back to work, but I know that God will give me the grace to deal with that situation when it arises as well. I can't worry about tomorrow or six weeks down the road, because it does me no good. I know that there is a very good plan in place, and I just need to be doing my part in TODAY.

Thanks to everyone who helps me get through all of my todays. I hope to return the blessing in any way I can...