Cavan sure is getting chatty lately! Here is a video we took of him with our little kodak camera about a week or so ago. He’s also started getting really grabby and likes to shove his fists into his mouth and gnaw on them.
Cavan is fitting into a lot of his 3 month clothing now, and as a result he’s wearing these brown corduroy overalls we bought him. Because they’re one of the few pairs of pants he has, he wears them quite a bit and we’ve noticed a trend… people “awww” at him a lot more. As it is he gets a lot of smiles from passersby, but I guess the overalls just push the smiles over the edge because a lot more people are stopping us to aww at him, and many point him out to whoever they’re with. We took a few pictures of him, I think they’re adorable - Daddy needs to get them online (or give Mommy access to the photos!)
Today we were in the bookstore and Cavan was being stalked throughout the store by a little boy who kept running up to the stoller and trying to steal his pacifier. The kid must have only been a year or so old, and I suspect the Binkie fairy may have recently stolen his binkies, because he made a beeline straight for the pacifier on several occasions (and almost got it!) It was pretty funny, luckily the kid’s Dad was fast enough to keep him from getting Cavan’s binkie!
Cavan had his 2 month check up today, even though he’s a bit older than 2 months. He’s almost 24 inches long and a bit over 14 pounds, which puts him 75th percentile for his height and 90th percentile for his weight. So, it’s official - he’s a big baby, but he’s also chubby!
He also got his first set of shots, so he’s feeling a little cruddy today. The doctor said it should all pass within 48 hours though, but until then he’ll feel a little icky and might get a fever.
I also took a video of Cavan cooing to the camera, and got some nice pictures of him smiling. I just need to convince Shannon to get them up here for all to see!
Cavan is now a few days over 2 months old. He must look a bit older though (perhaps because he’s a big boy) because every time someone asks how old he is their immediate response is “Oh my god, how big was he when he was born!?” He’s following the curve for height and weight perfectly though, so at least we’re not just growing a porker - he’s just big all around!
Smiling and “talking” to us and his toys is pretty common now, and he still loves to watch TV. We don’t have baby videos because we really aren’t big advocates of letting kids watch TV all the time, but when he’s sitting with us he watches what we’re watching very intently. We watch Hell’s Kitchen and I worry that his first words will be “Bollocks Mommy!” Sadly, he even resembles Gordon Ramsay when he’s fussing - it’s the wrinkling of the face and the turning colors, I think.
We had to buy Cavan a chair, it’s sort of like a exersaucer or jumperoo, but it’s stationary and has a round table that spins and circles the whole chair with toys. He gets really angry and frustrated when he can’t sit up and look around, so we figured it would be a good solution to having him sitting in our laps all the time. He can’t sit up on his own yet (that’s a 4-8 month thing), but that doesn’t stop him from letting us know that we must hold him upright and let him survey his kingdom. I’ll have Shannon take some pictures eventually.
For the past couple nights Cavan has been sleeping from about 11 to 4:30 or 5am, I think we’re extremely lucky. After his 5am feeding, he’ll lay back down and sleep until about 8am, which is excellent. We’ll be transitioning him to his crib over the next few weeks - hopefully that will go well. He’s been sleeping in his bassinet, and hasn’t spent more than one or two full nights in his crib. The transition will start as soon as I’m feeling a little better, right now we’re just lucky to have a night when I can help with more than just sitting and holding him. For the last month it’s been gall bladder pains, very powerful pain medication, surgery, more pain medication, stomach flu, and whatever the next few days brings. I feel pretty useless, but I’m doing as much as I can. Pain I can push through, but being sick/exhausted from medication on top of it is just too much.
I have a post surgery appointment today with Dr. Hack and Slash. I’m doing pretty well, yesterday I had some stomach issues (stomach flu?) but today it seems all worked out and I’m back to just being sore. I’m hoping to be back at 100% soon - I’m so sick of being sick. The 6 holes in my stomach where they inserted the scope have healed pretty well, they only bleed a little on occasion (nothing a band-aid can’t handle), the larger incision (about 2 inches long) is still not healing all that great, but that’s to be expected because that’s the one where the blood was pouring out of after surgery, and that’s also where I have the most pain. I suspect it’s because the doctor wasn’t exactly treating me as a human that had to recover when he was looking for the clip, more like a piece of slab meat. Either way, I hope to be better soon. I’ve been applying to jobs like mad, and hopefully I’ll find something soon, even something temporary - I don’t care as long as it’s a paycheck.
Cavan has an appointment Monday for his 2 month check-up. I’ll post the results of that afterward. He’s upwards of 13 pounds now, we know that - we’re not sure how long he is though.
Today was an absolutely beautiful day today in Michigan. At one point, it was bright, sunny, and over sixty degrees. A veritable heat wave. Becky was feeling pretty well so we took Cavan out for a walk at the Fenner Nature Center and then at the Harris Nature Center. Cavan enjoyed the time outside and so did we. It seems like it has been a long winter and it is nice that spring is finally here. I hope we have more days like this soon.
I went in for surgery Tuesday morning at 6am. It was supposed to be pretty routine, in and out and home the same day. It didn’t happen that way though. At 7:30am I went back to be operated on and honestly expected to be home around noon. Instead, around noon the doctor went to the waiting room to tell Shannon there were complications. Dr. Hack and Slash had lost a clip inside of me, and in his bumbling around to find it he managed to knick my liver and cause it to bleed. He finally got smart and called in someone who was better with the scope to find the clip and around 3pm I woke up in recovery with more holes than I should have had punched into me, and being told that I had to be admitted overnight for observation.
That night I had 3 episodes where I got out of bed to go to the bathroom and on my way back I had bloody liquid pouring out of the holes in my stomach and severe pain (during the worst episode I actually saw stars and was shaking and in tears). The nurses gave me pain medication and replaced my bandages. I was told that I couldn’t be discharged until I was only on oral pain medications (not through the IV), and when I could walk around without bleeding, being dizzy, or being nauseous, and when I could eat regular food. Shannon was at home with Cavan (he sent my sister who had come out to watch Cavan while I was in surgery home) and I wanted to be home, so I worked on my little checklist to get discharged. Noon the next day, I was outta there!
I’m very sore, they had to punch more holes in me than normal while trying to find the clip. I can’t fill my lungs all the way yet (it pushes on the sore area and causes severe pain), but as long as I take my vicodin on schedule I can get around okay. Shannon keeps getting on me about doing too much, but I’m feeling pretty good considering. I can hold Cavan and that’s the biggest thing. I just have to remember to take my pain medication, last night I took a nap on the sofa and my meds wore off - I managed to get myself stuck and Shannon had to roll me off the couch. No fun!
Of course, now that I can’t get around very well the weather has turned into bright sunny springtime weather. I’d love to get outside and take Cavan for a walk, but that’ll have to wait a few days while I recover from Dr. Hack and Slash’s mistakes.
Cavan is smiling a lot now, he’s all out giggly on occasion. He especially loves to smile at Daddy. His face lights up when Daddy walks into the room and he was definitely happy to see him when he came back from the hospital. My sister took good care of him but mister fussykins gave her a run for her money that’s for sure. Luckily Auntie Amy has lots of practice and managed to stay sane while we were at the hospital. Cavan doesn’t like to be set down for a single minute. We’ve been trying to break him of needing to be held all the time, he got into the habit when he was having his tummy issues and we held him to soothe him. They say you can’t spoil a baby - they obviously haven’t met Cavan. He’s very alert and isn’t happy to sit in one place, he’s going to be a handful when he learns to crawl! He loves looking outside and sits over our shoulders with his face plastered against the window watching the parking lot for as long as we’ll hold him there. He pushes up with his arms and gets some good back and neck muscle exercise in, so I guess it’s good for him - even if it does probably contribute to spoiling the boy!