sniderkin

Cavan had another visitor earlier this week!  He met my friend Jolene, though he slept the whole time she was here.  Jolene brought him an outfit and some books, and he LOVES the baby farm animals book.  I have to admit, the book is pretty awesome, it has baby animals and then you pull down a tab and it animates into the grown up farm animal.  We read it this morning and Cavan smiled and his eyes got really big when I pulled the tab down.  So, if you have kids, find a copy of that book - they’ll love it!  Thanks Jolene!

We’ve also discovered a way to keep Cavan occupied so we can get some things done.  We lay him on the floor facing out the sliding glass door (or put his bouncer there) and he’ll sit for 30 minutes without fussing and just look outside.  30 minutes might not seem like a lot, but given how fussy he’s been lately that’s like a miracle to us!  He even tolerated tummy time for a whole 2 minutes while he was there - another miracle!  Speaking of tummy time, while doing tummy time Cavan can now lift himself about an inch, enough to turn his head and look around.

Shannon seems to have caught a bug.  He’s been feeling pretty cruddy lately, hopefully it’ll pass without moving to Cavan and me.  Meanwhile, I’ve got my own issues.  My test results came back and it turns out I need to have surgery to remove my misbehaving gall bladder.  I’m not sure when I have to go in yet, but my doctor wants to do it asap and I’m not arguing - the pain is terrible.  Luckily she prescribed me a medicine that controls the spasms so I haven’t had to deal with the pain for the last few days.

I’m not too worried about the surgery, I expect I’ll be up and around quickly.  As I told Shannon and my doctor - after the gall bladder pain, I probably won’t even notice the surgery.  Not to mention that I have a high pain tolerance (did you know redheads are genetically prone to a higher pain tolerance?  Shannon read that somewhere…), confirmed by the fact that my doctor couldn’t believe I hadn’t ended up in the ER during one of the episodes.  That’s not to say I didn’t consider going, I just figured they wouldn’t be able to do anything - plus, they’re so slow the episode would likely pass before I even saw a doctor.

I’ve been trying to squeeze job searching in between fussy times with Cavan.  I’ve now got 6 or 7 places I want to apply to, but I need to rework my resume for each one and write a cover letter for each.  Normally this would be an easy task, but typing with a baby in your lap is difficult, and concentrating with a baby fussing is even more difficult!  I hope to get that done today though when Cavan goes down for his nap.

As for routine, Cavan seems to be getting into a pretty good schedule.  He eats at 11pm or midnight, wakes at 3am for feeding and changing, goes back to sleep, and wakes again around 7am for feeding and changing.  He’s a morning person just like mommy, so after he wakes at 7am he’s alert and happy.  We sit and read a story and watch the news together every morning, when it gets warmer we’ll go sit on the patio and listen to the birds in the mornings.  He does take after Daddy too though - he’s very hard to wake up.  When he wakes up on his own it’s a 10 minute process of stretching, making noises, and fighting off sleep.  Just like Daddy!  The Sandman is pretty hard on both of them.  What a strange combination though, to have such a hard time waking up - but then to be a morning person and be so alert once he does manage to fight off the Sandman!

Cavan’s appointment today went really well.  He’s in the 75th percentile for height and weight.  He’s 22.5 inches long (two inches longer than when he was born) and 11 pounds 6 ounces (3 pounds 3 ounces more than when he was born).  He’s growing really well, and the doctor said he has excellent head control - meaning he can hold his head up and look around really well.   He even managed to refrain from peeing on the nurse this time, I know it must have been hard for him since he loves to pee on people (especially mommy!)

Cavan gave us his first smile, though it wasn’t as gummy as a full out laugh would be. He smiled at Shannon Sunday (3/9/08) and then later that evening he smiled at me when I was making noises at him. He also gave me a smile yesterday (3/15/08) when I was talking to him. They’re infrequent, but definitely smiles and they make the fussiness we’re going through right now a little more tolerable.

Cavan also had his first walk outside on Friday (3/14/08). We took him to campus because it was an absolutely beautiful day, he really seemed to enjoy it. We took some nice pictures, which Shannon will put up soon.

[EDIT: Here are a few of the photos.  He really enjoyed looking around as we were walking around downtown and campus, but by the time we reached the river to stop for a while he was fast asleep. - Shannon]

In other news, I’ve been having issues lately. I’m pretty sure it’s my gall bladder (my sister had to have hers removed and the symptoms sound the same), but my doctor ordered a bunch of tests. Hopefully we’ll know what’s going on later this week. I feel fine most of the day, but then I get pain in my right side under my ribs that makes me think I’m going to die (seriously the worst pain I have ever felt in my life). It’ll last for a few hours and then usually disappear, but during those hours I can not move and the pain is so bad I’m usually vomiting and shaking. I’ve been taking vicodin for the pain, but it does very little. Hopefully we’ll figure out what it is this week, the pain always comes at night so sleep hasn’t been easy. I can’t take too many more episodes of this pain - imagine being eaten alive by something with very dull teeth and you’ll get an idea of how bad it is.

I need to get Cavan’s birth announcements made and mailed out. It’s taking awhile, but they will go out! He was 10.8 pounds last time we weighed him, and tomorrow he has another appointment so we’ll see how he’s grown and I’ll post an update then.

Cavan is growing well and getting bigger.  He is spending a lot more time awake during the day… and thankfully a little more asleep at night. Here are a couple more photos of him at five weeks old… chubby cheeks and all.

Cavan is now one month old.  Here’s what we’re seeing:

Cavan vocalizes a lot more, and is getting a wider range in the noises he makes.  He sleeps about 2-3 hours at a time.  He wakes up to eat (and when he’s hungry we have to be careful not to get too close to his mouth or we’ll lose a finger).  He hates being wet, but doesn’t mind sitting in a poopy diaper.  He loves bath time, but could do without the whole “getting out of the bath” part.  He’s getting better with his hands, but still can’t quite control them - he gets really mad when his thumb refuses to go into his mouth. Tummy time isn’t his favorite, and he will lift up and push with his legs to try to move.  He still doesn’t have enough strength in his arms to get up on hands and knees though.  He uses his legs to travel through his crib on his back, that’s a very recent thing.  He also likes to lay on Mommy’s tummy and will use his legs to push his way up under my chin.

We’re going to have trouble when he starts to crawl.  Already he gets restless and squirms around trying to turn to look at different things - he doesn’t like to hold still.  He will probably think his name is Squirmy McSquirmikins for the first year of his life.

Storytime is going a bit better.  He has been slowly paying more attention to the stories and today was the first day he listened all the way through one of the fairy tales I read to him.

Bedtime is still an ordeal and we’re not getting much sleep, but it has been gradually getting better so we have high hopes that someday we will get to sleep through the night. Until then, Shannon and I take shifts.

Cavan has gone on several adventures.  He has gone out to lunch with great grandma Snider and his great aunt Patti and uncle Kevin.  He went to have pie and coffee with our friend Padma.  He has been to the mall twice, once to walk around and test the stroller, and once to have Mommy’s computer looked at because it wouldn’t start (of course it started when the tech looked at it).  We’ve also been to the grocery store several times, and to the laundry-mat.  Overall he does pretty well out and about, he mostly just sleeps but when he’s awake he likes to observe the new lights and sounds.

Cavan has been growing so much, we’ll post new pictures soon.  He’s just over 10 pounds now, and his wild hair is showing no signs of being tamed.  It’s interesting to see how much he has changed over just one month, we can’t wait to see what this next month holds!