Newborn Photos

We took Caleb this morning for some newborn photos.  I went loaded with an arsenal of photos I had seen online (thanks Pinterest!) that I wanted to try and recreate, and I'm really pleased with the results!  If you'd like to see them all, you can access the album here: https://viewimages.jcpportraits.com/sharealbum/sharealbumlist?rndId=AwQBAgdEWg==&uId=AwgJBwVAWQ==
or, here are some of my favorites:

I always hoped with Brie to get those amazing "sleeping baby" photos, but she just was not cooperative (she was not a sleepy baby...she's still not a sleepy toddler either...here's hoping Caleb continues to be my good sleeper, so I'll at least have one kid who sleeps :)!).  Caleb was awesome, he was awake for the first few, then I swaddled him while the photographer got some things set up and he crashed and stayed asleep for the final portion of the shoot.  Yay!  He's such a wonderful baby!

One Week...

 It's really hard to believe that on Thursday our little man was one week old!  Time flies!  Today was my due date and he's now 9 days old, which is just really crazy.  According to our scale at home, he's already up five ounces over his birth weight--go Caleb!  He's a great little eater, so I'm not really that surprised :).  He still spends almost all of his time sleeping, but he's starting to have short little periods of being awake and we're enjoying that.  He's rarely fussy, and even when he is it's nothing like it was when Brie had her fussy moments.  We LOVE Brie, of course, but she really wasn't the best baby and was quite colicky and didn't sleep well, even from the beginning.  So, we're kind of enjoying this change of pace with the little man and how well he sleeps and how content he usually is. 

Because Caleb is most likely our last baby, I'm appreciating the little things even more so than I did with Brie.  His little smiles as he falls asleep, the funny little faces he makes (he has a REALLY good pout for a newborn), and even being woken up every two-three hours during the night for feeding sessions.  I know this is just a season in our lives, and it's the last time we'll have this particular kind of season, so I'm trying my best to treasure it, no matter how sleep deprived I may be :). 

We're so truly blessed to have two happy, healthy kiddos and it is such a joy to watch Brie as a big sister and to watch how our new normal as a family of four is unfolding.

 The cheetah photo shoots begin :)!  One Week Old--October 10, 2013

 Kisses for baby brother.  Brie loves to give Caleb kisses and help me burp him!

Proud big sister!  For the most part, Brie is adjusting to her new role as big sister and non-only-child quite well.  She has her moments (don't we all?), but overall she has done great and you can tell she really loves her baby brother! 

Siblings

Every so often when I'm feeding or holding sweet little Caleb, I look down and it's like I'm transported back in time two years and I'm looking down at my sweet little Brielle.  There is no denying these two are siblings:

Growing up, strangers often mistook me and my older brother as twins, because we looked so much alike.  I'm wondering if the same may happen to Brie and Caleb some day?

We are adjusting to life as a family of four relatively well, considering the lack of sleep from having a newborn in the house.  Caleb is the best baby, I had no idea babies could be this easy (since Brie wasn't exactly as "easy" baby).  I really hope his current temperament and sweetness continue!  He is a great eater, is content for the short amount of time he stays awake, and sleeps very, very well.  I actually have to wake him for every feeding right now because he'd just keep on sleeping.  Thankfully he wakes up well and does like to eat!

Brie is loving her big sister role.  She is a great helper and especially loves helping me burp Caleb.  She is very gentle with him and loves to give him kisses.  She calls him baby Caleb, never just Caleb, which is pretty adorable.

I'm recovering fairly well, after a little scare early Monday morning.  I woke to feed Caleb and noticed my bleeding had increased, which my doctor had warned me to watch out for.  We called a friend (who thankfully answered her phone at 3:30am!) and she came right over to watch Brie while Justin, Caleb and I headed up to the hospital.  Thankfully all the tests showed that everything was ok, I was bleeding only because of the extra trauma my insides endured after the birth.  I got some meds and everything seems a-ok now.  I go see my doctor tomorrow to double check everything.

More pictures from our first days at home:

BH2!

We are so pleased to introduce our son, Caleb Dean :)!!!

 Caleb arrived at 1:14pm on Thursday October 3, 2013.  He weighs 6lbs 4oz and is 18.5 in. long.  Our lil peanut!  He is a wonderful baby so far and is already feeding like a champ.  We are so blessed and feel our family is now complete!!

Meeting Caleb for the first time :)

Brie was able to come up to the hospital today to meet her baby brother and she seemed to think he was A-OK.  It will be interesting to see her reaction when the three of us come home this afternoon.  Caleb's birth, much like Brie's, was very quick and relatively easy.  However, after Caleb was born the doctor discovered that part of my placenta had grown into my uterine wall.  This required him to manipulate and strip the placenta from my uterus, resulting in a lot of bleeding.  Thankfully the team of nurses and my doctor were very aggressive and quick acting and were able to use a balloon and packing to stop the bleeding.  We had to spend the whole first night in labor and delivery so that my doctor could monitor me very closely.  They were checking on either me or Caleb almost every hour, so I only got about an hour of sleep the whole night, but adrenaline and the rush of having a sweet new baby kept me going.  

We were finally transferred to post-partum just before lunch on Friday.  During that process I became very nauseous so they gave me some IV meds that got rid of the nauseousness, but caused me to be extremely drowsy.  This resulted in a nice little nap for me, and bonding time for daddy and Caleb :).  The rest of today has been relatively quiet with just regular little checkups for me and Caleb, feeding times, and cat naps here and there.  We are definitely looking forward to heading home tomorrow and starting out our life as a family of four!!