Caden's 6th Month!!

Caden's sixth month was so full of surprises. He found how mobile he could really be and mommy had fun chasing him around everywhere. It was hard at first because we dont have carpet in our living room or hall so he was slipping and sliding all over the place! To say Caden ate us out of house and home would be an understatement! At Caden's 6 month appointment he had grown almost 3 pounds making him 14p13o! He was getting so chunky and I loved it! Also around his 6 months of age he started experimenting in pulling himself up on things. This is interesting since he fell alllllll the time! I can already tell how much of a little trouble maker this little boy of mine is going to be!!!! At around 6  and a half months I finally stopped nursing. Part of me wanted to keep going until he was a year but then the selfish part of me won and he now drinks a bottle of formula a day. I was sad about it at first but Im ok now. I wish these women would stop having girls with all these adorable clothes and bows because it is giving me baby fever....but only for a second and then I get myself into check hahah. Knowing that no matter how many kids we have they will most likely all be boys! and Im ok with that! Caden is still taking his two naps a day and sleeping through the night! He has been sleeping for two hours at a time during his naps! I think he is going through a growth spurt! We also retired the Bumbo this month. We love our bumbo because he was always so small that it made it easy to feed him! But my big boy is in his high chair now! Well until next time maybe next month he will say momma!!!

Caden's 5th month!

So many things happened in Caden's 5th month! It has been the most fun month for sure! Caden worked so hard on crawling this month! He hasn't quite mastered it yet, but he is almost there! He has been getting on all fours and rocking back and forth. I have heard that is a good sign to crawling so Im waiting for that exciting day! On April 1, 2011 Caden said his first word! It was dada! I was so excited I got a video of it and sent it to his daddy! I was so proud! He is so getting so big and so quickly! I cant even imagine him being 6 months old now, half of a year! It makes me sad but in a way Im happy because he is growing into the age that I love! Last thursday after some extreme support from my sister in law and her sister I finally started sleep training Caden and let me tell you it was the best thing I have ever done! I know in a previous post when he was 4 months I had tried it and it had gone horribly but I didnt feel ready then and that made me weak. I was so beyond ready now. I was ready to have my nights back with my husband and so ready to get a decent night sleep and not have to worry about rolling over Caden in my sleep. Its just been 4 days and he already falls asleep without crying! For all those first time moms who cosleep the best advice I can give you is to sleep-train! Amazing! I believe Caden eyes are going to be brown or hazel. When he was born they were a kinda weird blue gray but Im pretty sure they wont be green like his daddy's :(. And still no teeth. I mean geez the poor kiddos gums are so swollen and white. I just pray that some teeth pop out soon, he is teething so bad and it makes him extremely tempermental. When the baby of the house aint happy, aint Nobody happy! Well we go to his 6 month check up next monday so hopefully more updates then and we will get to see how much he has grown! Until next time!

Caden's Fourth Month

Wowzers we have got a talker on our hands! Caden has found his vocal cords and he is not afraid to use them! Caden giggled for his first time in his 4th month. His daddy was on the ground with him, tickling his belly and he chuckled a few times. It was sooo cute. Then about a week later Corkie, our dog, was doing his usual annoying routine of barking at Luke when he leaves and Caden just bust out laughing. I mean full on rolling on the floor laughing. It was the most beautiful sound ever and I had waited 4 whole months for it! We went to our 4 month pedi appointment and Caden had grew 2 inches and gained 2 pounds. Tall and Lanky just like his daddy :) We started solids in our 4th month. It may be earlier than some people but it was just the right time for us. We had our cereal in the morning, 2 veggies at lunch and 2 veggies at dinner. Of course we still full time nursed during the day. I started working on tues and thurs at my churches daycare with my sister in law Missie and Caden was not fond at first. He wanted his mommy all to himself and he didnt understand why I was giving other children attention. He got used to it though and its good for him to be around other kiddos. We also booked our first family trip to visit my grandparents in Arizona in June. Caden will be almost 9 months by then and we are flying with him. It will be Very interesting to see how our first vacation with a baby goes. Wish us Luck! The other night we tried putting Caden in his crib for the first time. At first I didnt know if I was ready because I'm still so paranoid of Sids and other horrible things happening to him, but I figured it was time to at least try! We feed him dinner, gave him a bath, changed him, nursed him and read him a story. I loved on him and finally put him in his crib. We shut the door and turned on our video monitor and hoped for the best. The best never came. He screamed bloody murder for an hour and twenty mins until he finally fell asleep and I cried right along with him. I wanted so badly to go pick him up but if I did I knew all that crying would be for nothing. We were relieved when he finally went to sleep and we went to bed ourselves. Fifty mins later he was up again screaming. I went in there and got him and brought him to bed with me. We are not ready. At least not for bedtime. I have been working on naps this week and we will go from there. Maybe we will get him in his bed before he is 5. He is totally itching to crawl so maybe I will have that exciting news next! Until next time!

Caden' s Third Month

Caden's 3rd month absolutely flew by. It went so fast I forgot to post about it! By his 3rd month his colic was completely gone! He was working so hard on his hand-eye coordination it was amazing. We were still nursing full time. He got so much better at rolling over and keeping his head up during tummy time even though he hated tummy time and we could not do more than a couple mins at a time! He still seemed so small and fragile at his 3 months. Even though babies aren't as fragile as we make them out to be. We are still bed-sharing and I'm ok with that. It's nice to feel him so close to me so I can make sure he is breathing correctly. They don't tell you how much of a stage 5 clinger you become once you have a baby. Anywho no giggles yet maybe next month!

Caden's 2nd month!

What a difference one month can make! Everything seemed to just fix itself! Caden and I got in a night routine and things went so much smoother. We bathed, changed his diaper, had a really good night feeding and would rock and listen to music and he started sleeping 5-8 hours at night! It was amazing and so nice to get some sleep in. Caden probably started smiling at 2 and a half months. He is such a sweet baby so everything makes him smile. I made sure I made the goofiest faces at him though to really tickle his funny bone. Luke really got a kick out of his goofy wife too. Caden was rolling over from his stomach to his back great by the end of his two months! And he has had excellant head control since the day he was born! It was amazing to see a 1 week old trying to lift his head up!Everyday spent with Caden reminded me how amazing my life really was and how much God has blessed me! Caden was baptised on Dec. 19th and it was such a special day! Even my grandparents were in town and got to spend the special moment with us. Christmas was so special for us because it was Caden's first Christmas. I remember waking up so early because I was so excited. We cooked breakfast and made a fire. We opened Caden's gifts for him and he slept through the whole thing haha. Oh well babies will be babies! Caden also loved to be sung to! I sang everything that came to my mind and even one time while I was trying to shower and Caden was screaming in his bouncer I sang twinkle twinkle the whole time! Another month flew by and more memories made. On to new adventures! Maybe month 3 will bring the giggles!!!

Caden's First Month

Wow were to begin. There were so many nights Luke and I thought to ourselves " What did we get ourselves into?" Now of course we don't know what we would do without our precious little one. I remember that first night in the hospital, geez we didn't get sleep for sure. Between nurse's coming in and out, Caden screaming from being taken out of his nice warm home 3 weeks early and the awful hospital bed, we were misrable! Caden was so small. He was 7 pounds 3 ounces when he was born and he just seemed so fragile and small. Nursing has been a struggle from the very beginning and I know now why formula was invented but we are sticking it out and going strong! As we were leaving the hospital I was so scared. For the last 9 months I had prepared myself for this but when the time actually comes and you go to the hospital without a baby and leave the hospital with a baby its a pretty intense situation. Luke and I took shifts at first with our sleeping. He took the first shift and I had second. Caden slept great during the day and of course was restless at night. He ate all the time! I felt like a human juice box. And when they say you will go threw 6-8 diapers a day they mean it. At about 3 weeks we noticed something strange with Caden's behavior. He was so fussy all day and night from 9-12 EVERY night he screamed and screamed! There was no consoling him. I can't even tell you how many times we loaded him up in the car and drove around the houses in Burk. It was nice in November and December at least since there was plenty of pretty Christmas lights to look at. Eventually we found out from our pedi that Caden had a comman case of colic. Yeah comman alright, it's comman that parents with colicy babies want to jump off a bridge. The first month was for sure the hardest, esp for being a first time mommy. It was such a give give relationship. I gave Caden baths, changed his diaper, feed him, loved on him. Tried to be the best mommy I could be and he was so young at that stage I couldn't even get a smile in! I wish I could remember more about his first month but with being so sleep deprived and shell shocked it all flew by in a flash. All I know is I love him more than anything in this world and I'm so thankful Luke and I are his parents!

Caden's birth 10-16-2010

I want to start off my blogs with Caden's birth. As many of my close one's know this was not the easiest pregnancy in world and it eventually lead to my induction at 37w5d. Here's how it all went. Keep in mind this is for my memory so I wont leave anything out. It was a friday, Oct.15 2010, I was working at the credit union. I remember it was Friday because I was wearing that awful work shirt that we all had to wear on Fridays. My doc had me coming into the clinic pretty regularly to do routine blood pressure checks. A little background. I had high blood pressure before I got pregnant and all through pregnancy so my dr was worried it would lead to pre-clampsia. I had an appointment that friday to come in on my lunch break and get my blood pressure checked. I remember driving to the clinic trying to calm myself by listening to some music on the radio and drinking a bottle of water. I arrived at the clinic and it was packed. I remember thinking "well crap I'll be late going back to work." I was already super annoyed I was going to have to come in and miss lunch. Heaven forbid a pregnant woman miss a meal. While I was in there I guess they forgot about me because everyone got called on and I was still sitting there in the waiting room until it emptied and I was all there was. Finally they called me back and they took my blood pressure. It was high but for the life of me I can't remember, maybe 150/100. The nurse was freaked so she went to go tell the dr. She came in a few mins later because she forgot to get a urine sample. Well duh! Finally the dr came in and said " Allyssa I am going to do a cervical exam on you today so get undressed and I'll be back in a few" I thought this was very strange since I had just had a dr's appointment that previous weds. and I wasn't dilated or effaced. But I did what I was told. The dr came in, preformed the exam and as he was pulling off his gloves said "Okay we are going to have a baby today your dilated to a 1".........Wow wow wow hold up doc I can't have a baby today. I'm not packed, my house isn't ready. He is only 37 weeks for goodness sake! He then explained to me that they found protein in my urine and with my high blood pressure I had a one way ticket on the pre-clampsia train. Well heck I was worried about my house being cleaned and he laid that one on me! So I got dressed while he went out and called the hospital to see if there was room for me. I was shaking. I called Luke first off and told him he had to get up to hospital right NOW! I remember being so frustrated with him because he wasn't understanding how urgent the sitiuation was. He wanted to go let the dog out to the bathroom! No no no someone else can do that get up here NOW! I then called Patsy my mother in law. I told her what was going on and she didn't for the life of her believe me! My dr laughed at our conversation and I vowed never to joke around with her again because when something serious happened she didn't believe me! I cried all the way to hospital. I was all alone, scared, frustrated. I was having a baby today and I was NOT ready. I couldn't wait for Luke to get to the hospital so I went up the 4th floor and checked in. They changed me into robes and asked a million questions. Finally Luke and his mom showed up. Well nice of you two to join us. Luke was shaking his head. Well whats your problem? I asked. We got stuck in the damn elevator! What? We got stuck in the elevator I was on the phone with your dad and the elevator just stopped! Sure it did ;) They put my i.v. in and started the pitocin. And the dr came in and inserted the foley bulb. A foley bulb is a tube they insert into my vagina and pump it up till it is a ball the size of 4 centimeters. In hopes to dilate my cervix to a 4. Not the most comfortable thing in the world but I was still feeling alright. I was even on Facebook updating everyone on my status! We waited a couple hours and I was finally starting to feel the effects of the medicine. But none of my contractions were showing up the screen. Dang I must be a weeny I remember thinking so they uped my medicine as much as it would go. The dr came back in and removed the foley bulb and I was dilated to a 4 and 50% effaced. WooHoo we were making progress! I remember them then breaking my water and it was the weirdest feeling in the world. I made Luke look but he didn't seemed too grossed out by it. The contractions really started picking up and they wanted to see my contractions so they inserted a tiny little pin into Caden's head because I was having back labor and they couldn't track my contractions with the normal strap that was wrapped around my belly. Well thats nice, so you mean to tell me you pumped me full of medicine thinking I wasn't contracting and I was having back labor all along. Well hell. I was determined to not get the epidural. I kept telling everyone it was because of the effects it had but secretly it was because I was scared of a huge needle stuck in my spine. So they gave me some medicine in my i.v. to "take the edge off" LIARS. It was the worst. It didn't take the edge off and it made me so high I couldn't even think straight! I had a few visitors but I couldn't really remember what was going on. Finally the medicine wore off and I felt a little better but my contractions were so strong and coming every min thanks to them pumping me full of pitocin. The nurse finally came in and told the there was a c-section so if I wanted an epidural to get it now or wait till the anesteologist got done at about 8:30. It was probably about 5. I was still scared so I said no. The hours dragged and the pain got worse and I was finally screaming for that needle! 8:30 eventually turned into like 9:30. I was in so much pain but he was finally here to take the pain away. Everyone had to leave the room. I wasn't even scared anymore I was in so much pain and dilated to a six. He put the epidural in and it didn't even hurt. Nothing compared to back labor! I finally felt better and was already tired and hungry. Good thing I had eaten breakfast that morning.The hours went by and I finally felt that urge to push. "Luke go get someone I think I need to push." Of course no one would listen to me. I was so mad. After sreaming I was ready to push Luke finally went to get the nurse. She checked me I was 10 and fully effaced! I was ready to see my little man! She had me do a couple practice pushes which werent bad. Then they rolled in the huge mirror that I had stated in my birth plan that I wanted to see the birth. Oh no take it back I said it looked awful down there but I finally decided it was something I wanted to see. Luke was just wow'd by it all. Patsy on the other hand looked like she was about to faint. The dr finally showed up and I think it was about 12:30 at night. I started pushing really hard. The hardest I have ever applied to anything in my life! I was pushing so hard that I wasn't breathing correctly and Caden's oxygen was getting cut off! They put the oxygen mask on me and I kept pushing. I remember even throwing up from pushing so hard, which I hear is normal.I pushed a couple more times and I finally saw Caden's head from the mirror. Look at all the hair!!! I pushed and pushed and pushed and finally at 1:15 a.m on Oct. 16, 2010 Caden Palmer was born. I looked over and kissed Luke and he were both smiling and crying.The dr looked at Patsy and said "do you believe her now?" We all laughed with joy! The dr cut the cord and let me hold him for a second but Caden was blue. They took him over to the warmer, got his prints, and whisked him off to the nursery. He wasn't breathing the way he should. Luke looked at me so scared and I told him to follow the baby. Everyone filed out and I was left alone in the room. Alone, scared and babyless. Maybe 30 mins later which seemed like a lifetime they finally wheeled Caden back in and I held him and nursed him for the first time. The greatest moment of my life. I looked at my husband and my pride and joy son and thanked God for all he had given me.

Intro

Welcome all! I'm writing this blog mostly for my memory and for my son Caden to read when he gets older and can understand and appreciate all we did for him, but also I want to share with our friends and family the smiles, laughs, tears, fits, sleepless nights & prayers of Caden' s birth & 1st year! Enjoy!