Some of Cael's Firsts

Cael's 1st Trip To Church

First Time In The Swing - He didn't really care for it!

First Day To Really Be Alert For Longer Than A Few Minutes

Cael has been such an easy baby so far. He basically eats and sleeps as most babies do. He typically only wakes up once throughout the night unless he's got a dirty diaper. He doesn't really care for his baths as of yet, but we'll keep working to develop his love of water (like his big bro - Gavin). Today was the first day he really stayed awake. He has started grasping onto our fingers and I think he's starting to recognize us. He's already had his first bottle (Matt and I attended our friends' bachelorette and bachelor's parties on Friday night so Nana got to babysit). He was a pro! We are excited for Cael to celebrate his first Christmas with all of our family in a few days. He will get to meet his Uncle Curt, Aunt Amanda, Cousin Jackson, Uncle Doug, Aunt Wendy, and cousins Lucas, Bailey, Micah, and Ruth Ann for the first time. We are so excited! Pictures to follow :)

Have A Very Merry Christmas!

Cael's Birthday

I know several of you have been waiting for the details of Cael’s birth, so here it goes. I awoke on Tuesday night to take my nightly 3:00 am bath. For the last several weeks, I’ve been waking up at night because my back has been hurting so I soak in the bath and then head back to bed. Just like every night prior, I took a bath, but the back pains would not go away. I walked around the basement for 10 minutes, hoping that the back pains were just Braxton Hicks contractions and that they would go away. No such luck, I headed back to bed, turned the heat pad on high and tossed and turned for the next few hours. I got up at 5:30, knowing that my mom was getting ready to leave for work, and went and took a bath in her Jacuzzi tub. I thought maybe the jets would take away the pains in my back, they didn’t. I went back to bed and turned on a back massager and laid there until it was time to get up for work. I headed into work, calling my mom almost in tears from the pain, and decided when I got to work I would call Dr. Litherland to see if I could come in and get checked out. When I got to school, I called the doctor’s office and the nurse blew me off – until I told her that the back pains had made me sick that morning. She said she would talk to the doctor and give me a call back. She called back within a few minutes and said that Dr. Litherland wanted me to head on to the hospital. I met Matt at St. John’s around 9:30 and got checked into triage where they do several assessments to see if you’re in labor. When they checked me, I was having contractions, dilated at a 3 to 4, and 100% effaced. Needless, to say I was not getting to go home from the hospital. We had to wait in triage for a few hours because there were so many women who were in labor already and all the rooms were full. I finally got in to a room around 1 and got going on the IV. It took the nurses 5 attempts to get an IV in my arm. After the IV was in, I was quickly given an epidural and they broke my water. All this was done by 4 pm. I waited around, watched TLC, and ate popsicles until my heart’s content. Around 7:30, my nurse kicked everyone out and we did some practice pushes. After 2 sets of pushes, I had to stop and wait for the doctor. I also had to put an oxygen mask on because Cael’s heart rate was going down a little. At 8:00, Dr. Litherland arrived and I started pushing. By 8:06, Cael was born. He weighed 6 lbs 14 oz and was 21 ½ inches long. He had long, thick black hair and was very cute. Unfortunately, Cael came out with his hand up by his face and I had to have several stitches. But I am healing quite nicely and we’re all doing great.