4 Weeks

Do you want to eat him, too, or is it just me?

This "little" (I'll use the term loosely since Paul thinks he's around 12 pounds... yikes!) guy melts my heart. At 2 o'clock in the morning, he'll be sucking down a bottle and I still just look at him and smile. Paul and I still fake-argue about who gets to feed him.

Things Caleb loves:

• Snuggling (good thing since he doesn't have much of a choice) and being held.
• His carseat.
• To grab our fingers and hands while we feed him.

Things Caleb tolerates:

• The dogs barking.
• Tummy time and reading books.
• Bath time for the first few minutes. After the first few minutes, it falls down to the "doesn't like much" list.

Things Caleb doesn't like much:

• Not having control over his hands yet. When his pacifier falls out of his mouth, this is abundantly clear.

Crying: I read something the other day about newborns crying, on average, 2-3 hours per day. I am happy to report he is not average. He rarely cries, and when he does, I know he needs something (food, new diaper, sleep).

Eating: He's eating 3-4 ounces of formula every 3-4 hours right now. We tried breastmilk last week but he got very fussy and gassy. We're going to try again today with some Mylicon and hope for better results. It's important to us that he gets the health benefits of the milk, but if he doesn't tolerate it well, we won't force it. I'm not ready to give up. We'll mix 50/50 milk/formula today and if that's still too much, we'll try 25/75. I'm crossing my fingers. The goal is for him to have the best nutrition and immune system possible.

Sleeping: He is sleeping pretty well at night. For the most part, we can wake up, feed him, change him, and put him back down. Sometimes he'll want to fall asleep in Paul's arms and Paul's ok with that. I'm not big on co-sleeping (for Caleb's own safety...) but if we need another hour or two in the morning around 6 or 7 a.m. we'll put him in bed between us.

That's the summary. If I write more, I'd only be gushing so I'll stop here :)

17 Days and a link to pictures!

There is nothing super special about hitting the 17 day mark... other than I have the time and motivation to write this post :) The last couple of weeks have been a blur... lots to learn on everyone's part. I'm enjoying every minute I can and honestly, and obviously, the only part I'm not super keen about is the nighttime feeding and changing. Not sure anyone likes running on low energy/low sleep but I won't complain because in the whole scheme of things, it's not even a blip on the radar.

He is so stinkin' cute and many people have asked to see pics so we've uploaded some to Photobucket. Click here to see the pics; enter the album password: calebian

So much more I could say, but I'm going to go stare at a sleeping baby. Loving this.

Caleb Ian

... is perfect. I know better than to say it aloud, but I do anyway. He has 10 perfect fingers and 10 perfect toes. His little lips are perfect, as are his little dried apricot-looking ears. The boy is completely edible.

Behavior and personality... mellow, chill and only cries (sometimes more like "whimpers") if he needs to be fed or changed, or needs some sleepytime. He liked to be swaddled for the first days, but he's over that now. Now he likes to stretchhhhhhhh as far and long as he can... then curls back up like my hair on a humid day. He is quite GQ... strikes a pose at every chance he gets and I stalk him like paparazzi on Lindsay Lohan.

He likes just about everything. Bouncer seat, big thumbs up. Bassinet? mmmmmmmmmmm. Swing? Sweeeeeeet (said like a stoner). He also pays careful attention when I play the crazy singing stuffed lion that his Auntie Rone got him, and the prayer bear from Auntie Cheryl we play at every diaper change. We're building our routine.

There are a few things he doesn't like, for instance, when you take more than 11 seconds to make a bottle and give it to him. Or cold wipes on his warm little butt. Or when his mommy freaks out because she can't see him moving or breathing (in a 2 second assessment) so she pokes him until he gets a grumpy face or squirms.

There are also some things that, surprisingly to us, don't bother him... yet. Like when the dogs go bat-shit-crazy-nuts and bark like rabid beasts when someone knocks at the door. Or when Coco (the Yorkie) decides she wants to explore him and gets in his face. (just a side note: we guard those situations carefully because frankly I can see her becoming jealous and trying to suffocate him and then saying "what? I sat on his face because I thought he was cold!") Or when we throw him on our shoulders to whack the bubbles out. He's cool like that.

So with this post, our surrogacy journey is complete. We are still in awe that we've come this far... from meeting T to having Caleb in our arms: 359 days. Unbelievable in the best way possible!!!!!!

And on that note, here are pics from his first 10 days:

Just minutes after he was born - still under the warmer. He had bruising on his face from coming out so fast and appeared kind of blue for the first few days. Our own Smurf!

Happy parents - and stupid crying eyes. Emotions were HIGH and sleep was LOW. Not the picture I would have imagined in my head (because I had lots of sleep and makeup on in my head's pic!) but it's what we have and it captures the moment perfectly.

It was a tiring trip for him into the world so we understood that he didn't want to play immediately.

Mr. Alert on Day 2

The "going home from hospital" attire. We had a 12 hour trip home... not for sissy babies!

Nana and Papa also left at the same time so we were very lucky to have the trailer for rest stops along the way home. Caleb found Nana's shoulder irresistible for naptime.



Holy. Moly. Coco is finally BIG compared to something (or someone). She met Caleb up close and personal. He didn't even notice.



Starr's reaction to the baby? "Meh. I've seen these little things before and I have no interest unless I can eat his poopy diaper at some point in the future."

Too cool... and serious.

Caleb has a cousin who's only 16 days older... and much smaller. We had them on the changing pad together and couldn't tell if Parker was trying to kiss him or eat him.

Bath time!! (Well, sponge bath time until
the umbilical cord falls off.)

Just one of many cutie pics

We were gonna do a DNA test to make sure he's ours (kidding, kidding), but after this move, I think we can all agree. He's our baby for sure!!

Couldn't help but think he was tucking his second chin under so he wouldn't look fat in the picture...

And our restful baby... at this very moment.. in the swing loving life. We are ALL loving life!!!