5 Weeks Old!

The past month has been so busy, but I don't feel like I've really done anything! The only thing I did was start to run again and bought a pair of non-maternity jeans (exciting!) Kaden, on the other hand, has been very busy. Very busy eating!!! He is a BIG fan of food and is not picky about how he gets it. He will take any type of food in any type of bottle- as long as it goes in his belly he wants it. And when he decides he wants food, he wants it five seconds ago...he definitely has some of his Great-Grandpa Van's blood in him (or maybe he just hasn't learned patience yet).

He has been growing like a weed and no longer fits into newborn clothes. Thankfully he still fits into the 0-3 month clothes, but I think he is going to be in the 3-6 month size before he ever turns 3 months old. He has been practicing talking and for the past couple of weeks works really hard to make little noises. Last week, he smiled at me for the first time, too. When my Dad, his Grandpa, visited this past weekend Kaden smiled and talked to him a little bit. Then last night all of a sudden he started talking up a storm and smiling at his Daddy! All day today he has been doing the same thing! It seems as if he has woken up a bit and can interact with us. It's so cool and I get so excited whenever he talks to me. I am sure I look like an idiot trying to get him to keep talking and smiling. I'll do anything to get a big grin out of that boy.

Sunday night we had another amazing thing happen...Kaden slept for 5 hours...in a row!!! He didn't repeat that miracle on Monday night, but Sunday night was pure bliss :-)

3 weeks old- he can wiggle out of a swaddle already

4 weeks old- grinning for Momma














Tummy time on his surf board














Lady Belle kind of likes him














1 month old!



















Visiting with Grandpa- Lady Belle doesn't understand why he isn't playing with her














Having a chat














USMC!! Wearing the uniform from Great-Aunt Robing in honor of Great-Grandpa Van

New Pics

These are the last of the pics that my sister took before she left this week. I have big shoes to fill as far as picture taking goes, but I will take as many as I can before she comes back in October. We also have a visit from Rob's Mom and sister coming up, too, so there will be lots of pics of that.

Kaden smiles a lot in his sleep, a big goofy grin. I know that technically he isn't smiling because he wants to right now and it is probably gas, but it is so incredibly cute & he does it every time he falls asleep...I like to pretend that he's smiling because he's just so happy!

Goofy grin!


















A nice wink to go with the goofy grin













Aunt Lori













Gramma













Playtime on the floor, chatting with Momma

To Eat or Not to Eat...

The biggest challenge we faced was breastfeeding. I really wanted to nurse my baby, but we learned that the two conditions that made it so impossible to get pregnant also delay the milk from coming in. So baby was trying and trying and just getting frustrated from being so hungry and not getting enough to fill his little belly. The nurses kept telling us to just do it and we had to teach him what to do, but he seemed to know what to do and I was convinced he wasn’t getting what he needed. The lactation consultant kept reassuring me to keep trying, that I was doing what I was supposed to do if I wanted to nurse and it would take practice for both of us. This wreaked havoc on my emotions which were already overwhelmed with all the hormones. The night before we were discharged the baby’s weight was down to 7 pounds 1 ounce. But we made it home safely along with 3 of the ready to eat bottles of Enfamil that a nurse gave us in case we gave up on nursing.

That afternoon, we saw a drop of blood in Kaden’s diaper. A little bit later, we saw another drop in his diaper. Obviously on our first night home I was freaked out and we called the pediatrician. The pediatrician looked at the discharge records and saw that the baby was not weighed the date of discharge but the night before. He thought with the weight loss he already had that he was actually more like 6 pounds 15 ounces at discharge. This with the blood indicated dehydration- the baby wasn’t getting enough to eat since I had no milk yet! He told me to supplement with formula overnight and see if that helped. We had an appointment with them already for the next morning, so he wanted to see how he did overnight. If the blood increased or continued, we were instructed to go directly to the emergency room. Amazingly, we gave the baby a bottle and he gulped the whole thing down in record time. He was starving! We continued to try to nurse and followed up with a bottle of formula. His doctor’s appointment on Saturday showed his weight to be 7 pounds 1 ounce, by Monday’s appointment he was up to 7 pounds 5 ounces, and at his appointment on Thursday, August 28 he was up over his birth weight to 7 pounds 13 ounces. Thankfully my body started to work, but we will probably have to continue supplementing with formula to fulfill his appetite. I’m just incredibly relieved to finally be able to give him what he needs, even if it isn’t quite how I had planned.

The moral of the story- listen to your instincts. Even if you are an overwhelmed new mother, your gut instinct is not always the result of hormones. God made us with instincts to help us survive and without them, your baby may not get what he needs to survive.

He loves his swing!

Watching his first UCLA football game with Daddy

No more stump- just a big boy belly button. He's already changing so fast!