5 Months Old

Sweet Baby Cade,

Today you are 5 months old.  I feel like I say this every month, but I cannot believe it!  This is the first "month birthday" that makes you sound like a big boy.  Two months, 3 months, 4 months all sounded like an itty bitty baby, but 5 months sounds like a big ole' baby!  :)  And a big ole' baby you are! 

Here is more about you at 5 months:

• You weigh 18 pounds (according to our bathroom scale).
• You wear 9-12 month clothing and size 3 diapers. 
• You eat three 5 ounce bottles and nurse 4 times a day.  You also eat about two tablespoons of rice cereal each evening.  You are still eating breastmilk only.  No formula just yet. 
• You go to bed around 8:00 each night.  You're still a good sleeper, though you've become somewhat inconsistent.  You will sleep anywhere from 4.5 - 8 hours a night.  Average is about 7 hours straight, wake up to nurse and then back down for about 3 more hours.  You still spend most of your sleep time in your basinet.   
• You are taking about three naps a day. 
• You're still a very happy baby and very rarely cry, but you will get a little fussy a few times a day - usually when you're sleepy or when we try to lay with you in the bed or on the couch.  You don't really like to cuddle. 
• You smile a lot!  You will smile at anyone that talks to you.  You have a beautiful smile.  Strangers comment on it all the time - they say your smile lights up a room, and it does!  :)
• You can raise your head and shoulders up during tummy time.
• You have rolled over a few times, but you don't do it frequently or on purpose just yet. 
• You can sit up for a few seconds, but topple over fairly quickly. 
• You love to jump! 
• Some days you are very vocal and will all out scream while "talking" to us.  Other days you're pretty quiet. 
• You love to play airplane with Mommy!  You also love whem Mommy sings to you.  Your favorite song is Old McDonald...or our version, Old McCaden.  :)  You will stop fussing and smile at me with big eyes when I sing it. 
• You're very good with your hands!  You can pick up just about anything you want and you reach for everything!  And everything you pick up goes right in your mouth. 
• You are a super smart, incredibly adorable, overwhelmingly lovable baby and you make us so happy!  We love you! 

Miss Lauryn

Today I went to visit my friend Deborah and her daughter Lauryn at Children's Healthcare.  Lauryn had a bone marrow transplant a little over a week ago in an effort to cure her sickle cell anemia.  She was in my class a couple of years ago and her brother, CJ, is in my class now.  CJ is her donor.  I was a little nervous before my visit.  A children's hospital is something I had only seen in movies until today and I wasn't fully prepared for the feelings that surfaced while I was there.  Thankfully, Lauryn was all smiles and in great spirits!  We painted a picture together for Cade.  She paints every day and is collecting pieces that she paints with her visitors.  She plans to give them to everyone once she leaves the hospital. 

Lauryn has been through so much in the past few weeks including chemo and many other medicines that, I'm sure, are making her feel just awful.  However, she continues to smile so bright and is a joy to be around.  Her positivity despite all that is going on in her young life is inexplicable and truly amazing.  She is such an inspiration and kind of makes me feel silly for allowing myself to get stressed about about little things that are completely unimportant.  I am looking forward to my next visit!

Tourist in His Own Town

I was off last week for Spring Break.  Having the whole week to spend with Cade was so awesome and made me even more excited for summer.  Todd decided to take a couple days off too so we could go to Kentucky for a visit.  While we were there, Todd made an effort to show me all that Horse Cave has to offer!  J  I have to admit, I was impressed!  There are all kinds of touristy things to do.  We visited Mammoth Cave.  Todd has long bragged that this is the longest cave in the world and I couldn’t wait to see what all the talk was about.  It was definitely pretty impressive!  I can’t wait to take Cade back in a few years.  We also rode a sky lift to Guntown Mountain which is set up like an old Western movie complete with people in costumes and cowboy showdowns!  We found a little tourist shop with delicious fudge and spent an easy $30 on fudge over the weekend.  It was well worth it!  We were there for Easter and went to the sunrise service at Todd’s church before leaving that afternoon.  Todd has promised that next time we’re there we can zipline and go on the Alpine Slide which is a huge slide that goes down a mountain (sort of) on a sleigh of sorts.  Looks fun!  It’s in writing now Todd so you have to take me!  J 

All Kinds of New Tricks

Guess who rolled over!  Baby Cade, that's who!  We were on the floor at Grandma Vickie's house doing tummy time when all of the sudden... he just rolled right over!  He had a big audience too.  We all clapped and made a big fuss...probably scared him right out of wanting to try it again.  Haha!  He hasn't rolled over again since then, but I'm sure it won't be long before we see his latest trick once more. 

We also started giving Cade rice cereal this past Monday.  I had decided that I was going to wait until he was 6 months old because I have read that it's best to wait and also I just didn't feel ready, BUT I've been noticing that he has seemed hungrier than usual.  He also showed all the signs of being ready to start solids - can hold his head steady, can sit with support, opened his mouth when an empty spoon came towards it, etc. so I decided to jump in.  I'm so glad I did.  Cade LOVED the cereal!  After the first bite he was very eager to continue eating it and once we were done, he kind of cried out of frustration - seeming like he wanted more.  We were afraid to give him too much since we've just started, but I definitely think we made the right decision.

He's also started grabbing his feet with his hands.  Today I caught him trying to put his foot in his mouth!  Unfortunately, the camera was downstairs so I didn't get a picture of this one.  :(

I know Cade has many more tricks up his sleeve just waiting to emerge.  We can't wait!

Oh and in case I look back and wonder when all this newness occurred - Cade is four months and two weeks old.  :)

Happy Anniversary!

This week Todd and I celebrated our first anniversary.  We decided to make a nice dinner and stay at home with Cade.  Todd spoiled me with delicious chocolates, a new pair of shoes and the sweetest card ever. 

We are so blessed to have each other and couldn't be more happy that our first year of marriage brought with it the perfect addition to our family.  I've always heard that the first year is the hardest.  I don't know if there's any truth to that, but we both agreed that it wasn't hard at all!  Maybe that's because we had 7 years of practice before getting married. :) 

On another note, I went through ALL of the pictures on our camera to find one...just ONE picture of Todd and me to put on this blog and I couldn't.  Cade is the star of every single picture we've taken in the last few months.  This can't be healthy, can it? 

It's a Mystery

So something's up with Baby Cade.  He's turning into a regular baby.  One who cries unconsolably and throws fits over...well, I don't know what he's throwing fits over.  I'm kind of freaking out a little.  For the past three days, Cade has had at least one complete melt down - crying, red faced, kicking legs...the whole shabang.  I even broke down and threw my own fit with him today.  Mostly because I have no idea what's going on.  I know this is normal for most babies, but Cade was an exception when it came to overall behavior - he never cried, much less had a complete meltdown.  Until this past Saturday that is.  So what's the culprit?  It remains a mystery.  One that I can't wait to solve.  So far, here are my leads:

• Cade had vaccinations on Thursday.  Maybe these threw him off???
• I'm on an antibiotic.  Perhaps this is causing him some tummy discomfort?
• Unfortunately, his new normal is day care during the week.  Maybe his world has been turned upside down because he's at home with me this week as opposed to day care with Ms. Debbie???
• He's going through a growth spurt and is hungry and I've missed his hunger cues. 
• And my number one theory - He's not getting enough sleep.  I have an uneasy feeling that he's been sleeping in a swing at day care.  I'm afraid he's become reliant on it to fall asleep.  Unfortunately, our home schedule is all off since I've gone back to work.  His eating, playing, sleeping rotation used to run like clockwork.  That hasn't been the case since I've been back to work.  If I can catch him right when he gets sleepy, I can rock him and he'll fall to sleep.  BUT if I miss the ten minute window when he first gets sleepy, he gets too worked up, can't get to sleep and you know what hits the fan. 

And one more piece of interesting information for my clue book - Cade is making strange sounds.  I know, it's weird, right?  He used to be very vocal and would all out scream and squeal with happiness throughout the day.  Now he's not opening his mouth and is making closed-mouth noises and puttering his lips.  Is his vocabulary growing?  Or is all of this related to the crying?  Teeth are not coming in that I can tell.  I checked thoroughly. 

Maybe I'll crack the code.  Maybe I won't.  Either way, I hope this will pass very soon.  Poor Baby Cade!  And poor Mommy too!  :)

Game Day

Cade Update:

You weigh 16 lbs., 5 oz. (75th %tile)
You are 26.25 inches long (91st %tile)
Your head circumference is in the 93rd %tile.

I knew you were tall, but I didn't think your head was that big!  :)

Today Cade had a fussy day.  He's never really fussed so much in one day.  He never broke into full-blown crying for more than a few seconds at a time, but he just seemed a little off.  Hats off to all moms of fussy babies!  We couldn't really figure out what was wrong.  He woke up more than usual last night and did not nap well today so I think he was just tired.  And I'm on an antibiotic for a sinus infection and I'm wondering if it might be affecting him in some way...maybe upsetting his tummy???  We were out and about for most of the day.  We went to The Avenues to do a little shopping and to Doc Greens for lunch.  He did great while we were out, but just couldn't mellow out at home. We made it back in time to watch Louisville in the Final Four.  Todd was pumped, to say the least.  :)  Unfortunately, they lost, but we had fun watching the game anyhow.  Hopefully a little extra rest tonight will be just what the doctor ordered for Baby Cade and he'll be back to his happy, smiley self tomorrow.