Look-alikes?

So, what do you think? Do they look alike? (Ryan is on the left & Kaeden on the right... ages match approximately)

One Month Old

Kaeden is one month old today. It has been an exciting, exhausting, joyful, trying, new month. Going from one child to two is really a far more difficult transition than zero to one, but we are doing alright. And every time I start to feel discouraged, I just look at these two beautiful faces and remember how incredibly blessed I am. It may not always be easy, but I truly have the best job in the world!

As of yesterday, Kaeden weighed 10 lb with his clothes on. I haven't yet gotten a more accurate one month weight, but I am going to try soon. He is starting to focus on us more and track with his eyes, which is so much fun. It also means that he is more reliably smiling AT us, which is always an amazing feeling.


From the beginning, Kaeden has been less predictable than Ryan was as a newborn, but that isn't much of a surprise since Ryan was definitely not a normal newborn. He sleeps well at night in his crib, but we learned early on that it has to be pitch black in there. He also likes to stay up late and we often find that he is the most wide awake at about 9 pm. I guess he's figured out that he can get Mommy & Daddy's undivided attention after big brother goes to sleep. It's a bit tiring for Mason & I, but he's doing well enough the rest of the night that I don't really mind. Most nights, he'll go one 4-5 hour stretch initially and then 3-4 hours from there, but a couple of nights lately he has gone 6-7 hours, which is amazing! I'm hoping we can start doing that more consistently and maybe I can start catching up on sleep a little bit.



During the day, Kaeden pretty much has to be held or in his swing for naps. He does not like to be put down to sleep, which is funny to me since he sleeps flat on his back all night. He does not like his car seat at all unless it is moving... especially the getting in part. Unlike Ryan, even if he falls asleep in the carrier en route somewhere, he'll often wake up once we get there if we stop moving and then he'll want to be held. He's definitely more fussy in general than Ryan was at this age - he requires a fair amount of holding, bouncing, etc. but no more than an average newborn, I would say. He also loses his mind if his hat happens to fall down over his eyes or if it takes more than 2 minutes to start eating when he wakes up hungry.

Kaeden loves tummy time. Even if he is being very fussy, he'll often calm down if we stick him down on his tummy. He also likes to be on his back, just looking around as long as he is well fed & rested, although he often gets attacked by his big brother in this position. Despite Ryan's many attempts to "play with" Kaeden, I think Kaeden would much rather his big brother just leave him alone. He seems to recognize that Ryan's face means something unpleasant is about to happen. I just hope that changes in time!



Nursing is going alright, although Kaeden is still convinced that eating his hands is a good idea, especially when I'm trying to get him latched on. We finally gave in & gave him a pacifier on Tuesday to try to soothe some of his evening fussy time and he immediately went to town on it! He's hilarious with it, because he'll usually start sucking fairly calmly and as time goes on, he gets more and more intense, as though he is getting frustrated that nothing is actually coming out of it.


As I alluded to earlier, Ryan is a bit rougher with Kaeden than we would like. He has had an interesting transition so far - the first week, he mostly ignored Kaeden... the 2nd & 3rd weeks, he wanted to pay him attention & love on him periodically and would mostly try to be gentle but sometimes fail... this week, he has started intentionally being rough with him - hitting, throwing things at him, etc. At the same time, though, he still wants Kaeden around all the time and wants to give him hugs & kisses and be sweet to him too. It's so hard to find the balance between letting Ryan bond with him & protecting Kaeden because you never know when the sweet might turn sour. Overall, though, it could be so much worse. And I know that Ryan's world has been turned upside down, so we can only expect so much. But God is definitely teaching us some new lessons in patience!

Well, I will leave you with one more photo of my sweet one-month-old. And I hope to fill in my gaps soon with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and more! If only Kaeden would go to sleep before 10 pm...

Sweet smile

... because right now, I don't have time to post more than just a photograph... here's your Kaeden fix :-) Here's to hoping there's more coming soon!

not just for babies...

Making a Fort

Tonight after dinner, I was cleaning up a bit in the kitchen while Ryan played in the living room (Mason was also in there, holding Kaeden). When I stepped in to see what they were doing, Ryan enthusiastically shared with me:

"I'm making a fort with... (long silence, looks around) ...

...nobody."

Welcome to life with a sibling, sweet boy!

Firsts

Not surprisingly, it's been a week full of "firsts" for baby Kaeden. Here's documentation of a few...


First tummy time (11/6):

working hard to lift up my head

First trip to Babies R Us (and first time being pushed by Ryan in the stroller, 11/7):

First walk (11/8):

slept through it

First ride on the train at the museum (11/9):

slept through it, too

First real bath (11/12):

liked it WAY better than the sponge bath; Ryan was quite excited to participate, quick to tell Kaeden "it's okay, baby Kaeden" when he started to fuss, & thought that Kaeden deserved a "big treat" since he did not scream or cry in the bath (something we've been working on with Ryan for over a year now)

One week Portraits

Okay, so I cheated a bit - he's only 6 days old in these pictures, but I wanted to get them while I could when Ryan was at school on Monday morning.

Anyway, as many of you know, I love taking photos of babies and little kids. I have no technical expertise, but it's a hobby that I enjoy nonetheless - and thankfully, my camera is nice enough that the photos tend to turn out pretty decently anyway.

Kaeden's awake time is limited these days, and by the time I got organized and ready to shoot, he was getting kind of cranky. But I did get some sweet sleepy ones. Here are my favorites:

Big Brother

We've been home from the hospital for a week now, and we are starting to get settled back into some semblance of a routine. With grandparents gone and Daddy back at work some of the time, it's time to answer the big question: So... how is big brother Ryan doing with all of this change?

Overall, he is doing quite well. We've definitely seen some behavioral changes - he is more mischievous and a lot slower to listen to our requests than our pre-baby compliant little boy. On the other hand, he is clearly enjoying his baby brother, at least some of the time (the rest of the time, he pretty much just ignores his existence). He wants to help us carry him various places and every day, he asks more and more to hug & kiss & hold Kaeden. In the check-out line at Babies R Us on Sunday, he spontaneously started stroking Kaeden's head, looking at him lovingly. He really is a sweet boy. We also had a little photo shoot on Sunday afternoon to try to capture some photos of our new family. We made a big deal out of Ryan getting to take pictures with Kaeden and printing them out for him to show his friends at preschool on Monday. He was thrilled. So, in case you've been wondering if Ryan likes his baby brother, I'll let you see for yourself:

this moment

Proof that Ryan does like his baby brother some of the time :)

... and an extra little Kaeden fix:

Introducing Kaeden (aka the hospital stay)

Our sweet baby boy was born on Nov. 2 at 3:33 am; 7 lb 2 oz; 21 inches long

less than 30 mins old

meeting his Daddy

proud parents, happy as could be!

dressed in his first outfit

our first family of 4 photo - Ryan wasn't too interested!

my wonderful friend, Janise

content in Daddy's arms

snuggle time with Mommy

cousins (only 6 weeks apart) meet!