ONE month!

So our little man was ONE month old yesterday. It is hard to believe that a month ago I was still in the hospital recovering. Caden at ONE month is:

• Wearing newborn clothes, and a very few 0-3 months (his little rear makes this process difficult)
• Wearing cloth diapers 100% of the time as of last week (Newborn GMD prefolds under Thirsties Duos size 1 covers during the day and BumGenius 3.0 on the very tightest and smallest settings at nighttime)

• Eating and nursing really well (though we are still having production issues with breastfeeding) - nurses for about 20-30 minutes at each feeding and then takes a 2 ounce bottle. He is eating about 2.5 ounces at each feeding every 3-4 hours and weighs 8 pounds, 13 ounces - where as at birth he was only 7 pounds, 5 ounces.
• Sleeping amazingly, especially at nighttime. All he needs is to have a full belly and be swaddled with his paci and he'll happily go down for 3-4 hours at a time. Typically we go to bed around 10pm and get up around 10am (recently, I've been getting up after the 7am feeding and using the baby monitor to take advantage of those 3 hours of productivity to shower, straighten up, and get things done - so that when he is up we can play and get out and about!)
• Loving cuddle time with mommy and daddy
• Slightly unsure about Chloe - but will allow her to get really close and give kisses, which Chloe loves to do! (I'm fairly certain Chloe thinks that Caden is her "puppy").
• Truly an overall happy baby with a really great demeanor. We are so blessed.

Our one month old

Best friends forever... Mamas and our babies...

Caden (3 weeks) and Rylan (3 months) - Best friends already.

Caden and I had the pleasure of having Kortney, who has been one of my best friend's since 7th grade, and her son Rylan come over to hang out last Friday. Kort and I were pregnant together and are now getting to experience the joys (and stresses) of being new mama's together! We had such an amazing time, talking and venting and sharing and subjecting our boys to photo after photo! This one is my favorite. I know there will be MANY more of these in the future. :)

My first Halloween

Favorite shot in the PRECIOUS outfit "Aunt" Heather and "Uncle" Matt got for me. I LOVE it.

Our adventure into... Cloth diapering

A look inside of our diapering world - the top drawer of our changing table

From L-R (back row) you have an extra pail liner in yellow, 6 Bum Genius 3.0s, Flip inserts, and newborn GMD prefolds. (front row) You have our burp cloths, a few disposables just in case, and then the Thirsties and Flip covers.

So this is a strange thing to show you - I know. But for me, it gives me a little bit of sanity in this crazy new world of parenting AND it gives me a little bit of pride in the fact that we've FINALLY done it. With tomorrow being four weeks into this new role as parents, we have started cloth diapering.

For those of you that I talked to through my pregnancy, you know that I got the notion that this was something I wanted to do from several of my mommy friends who have manage to do this successfully. Namely, Nichole at niclupton who was a friend of mine in college and Sarah, our associate minister's daughter. They made it look and sound SO easy - and the prints are so cute... so I started checking into it. Add to that all of the money that you can save all while making the world a little greener - and I was in!

Our stash consists of 24 green mountain Cloth-eez prefolds in size newborn and 24 in size small, 3 Thirsties Duo Wraps (with 3 more on the way - because they are the only ones that are fitting little man at the moment, as he lives up to his name with the tiniest little rear end around), 4 Flip covers with inserts, 7 BumGenius 3.0 All in one diapers (that will fit him until he is 35 pounds - at which point he better be potty trained!), and 2-3 other random AIO diapers that we have gotten from Kelly's closet which is wear we buy most of our diapering things.

We are trying out different things to see what works for us... but are currently using prefolds and covers during the day and the AIO diapers at nighttime because they keep him drier. His diaper rash and redness has already gone away, and it seems to be agreeing with his little bottom. Overall - so far - I am loving it.

Christopher comes home tomorrow (he has been at a Music Educator's conference) so he hasn't gotten to experience this adventure yet - so I'll keep you updated on how that goes! I will also post pictures of his cute little rear end in the fun prints sometime in the future - you can bet on it. (Little man's rear end - not Christopher's - in case you were confused!)

Wow - what a ride!

Our gorgeous little man. Caden Joshua - born October 12th

So... my high hopes of posting once a week have been taken over by the reality of the difficulty of the last stages of pregnancy and the first few weeks of being a mommy! Man! What a wild ride it has been. Now, as we're sitting here and Caden is 3 weeks and 1 day old - I will share with you a few of my reflections on what these 3 weeks have been like.

1. The last few weeks of being pregnant were the most difficult. I was incredibly blessed to have a really easy pregnancy (and to those of you who mocked me for this, my labor was not all that difficult - but I will save that story for another day). The last few weeks though - MAN - I felt HUGE. All forms of movement were difficult and at times almost unbearable. I didn't lose my stamina though. With a few more naps and swollen feet we kept on truckin' and doing the things we do (including late night football games and most noteably Melinda's wedding weekend - which turned out to be the day before I went into labor - talk about working up until the end! Haha).

Sweet Melinda, looking gorgeous on her wedding day.

2. Melinda's wedding weekend was crazy - but tons of fun. It was such an overwhelming experience to be a part of hers and Johnny's special day. To get to watch them and see how in love they are was really neat. It was also really emotional for Christopher and I to both be in a wedding where we were standing in the same spot we stood for our wedding a little over two years ago. I'm not going to lie - I got teary a time or two. She was GORGEOUS. It was also incredible to get to see some friends that we don't see often. We spent the weekend with Matt & Claire and Laura & Joshua - which was WONDERFUL. We are truly blessed with amazing friends.

Laura and Me at Melinda's wedding
(Chris says we look like sisters - I miss this girl like you wouldn't believe!)

3. So - a lot of you know - Caden was supposed to be born October 30th. Christopher was certain that this date was not accurate and that he would come early - but neither of us were quite prepared for my water to break early in the morning of the 11th! Wowza! I mean, we weren't even packed (which is probably a shock to those of you that know what a planner I am!) So here we are - at 2am on Monday morning- packing the bag with the list that our lamaze leader gave to us. It is quite remarkable that we came anywhere close to getting the things we needed. Though my water broke - my body wasn't quite ready to labor yet - so I wound up on pitocin for 12 hours - then they stopped it (and let me shower and eat which was AMAZING) - then I went back on it at 3pm on Monday afternoon. I was on it until 10pm Monday night when my body finally decided to start cooperating and beginning to labor - by 2am Tuesday morning (24 hours after my water broke) my body began to enter the hard labor phase. At 5am when Dr. Harraghy checked me - I felt certain that we had made SIGNIFICANT progress - however, was disappointed to learn that I was still only ONE CENTIMETER dialiated. What?!?!? At that point - 29 hours into this process - we made the decision to have a C-section which everyone was still doing well. Once that decision was made - we rushed off and the little man entered the world about an hour later.

4. C-sections are no joke - especially if you weren't planning on having one. There is this buzz all around you where everyone is doing like 30 different things all at the same time. It was somewhat scary and certainly overwhelming - but in the end - it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The worst part was that with all of the craziness in surgery prep Christopher could not be with me, and after being spoiled by having his unending support during the first 29 hours of labor, not having him there was tough. (Seriously - he was incredible - I could - and probably will - do a whole post on this at another time). And like all new moms will tell you, once our little man was here, all of the craziness and the difficulty of everything was forgotten, and having him here safe and healthy and gorgeous was all that mattered.



5. Okay. I have a confession. I started this post THREE days ago. I have left it open for THREE days in hopes that I will be able to finish it - but clearly, that hasn't happened. Instead, for now, I am just going to share with you what we have so far, and come back another day to continue to fill you in. Alas, I guess this is the life of a mommy of a newborn! :)

Sooo... thanks for visiting, and for caring about what is going on in our corner of the world. And most likely, if you're here, thanks for the love and support you've given our new little family during this crazy and exciting time. We're lucky to have you.