Great Landings

It has been a while since the last Caden update, and since today is his 90th day with us I figured it was a good day to put something up. All and all everyone is doing fantastic! Caden is getting bigger and bigger everyday. At his last doctors appointment they said he was in the 97% for height and weight! They also told us to start planning on getting a different car seat since he will outgrow his current one very soon. Right now he eats eight ounces every four hours which is a lot for three months. But he usually only eats four times a day since he has become a RockStar sleeper at night! He usually goes to bed around 9:30 at night, and doesn’t get up to eat again until 8:00AM the next morning and we are all loving that! He is very talkative and smiley, and likes to hang out with his Mom and Dad. It is fun to watch him discover and learn new stuff. Recently he has discovered television and seems to enjoy watching cartoons. Hard to say if it beats his current favorites of ceiling fans and windows, but it is up there. He also seems to really like going to the grocery store. Typically he will sleep in the car, but as soon as we get into the store he is wide eyed and checking everything out.

As I am sure you can guess I have been taking about a million pictures a day of this kid. I have been able to stick to my Caden – 365 plan, taking and posting a picture of him every day. It is crazy to see how much he has changed in just 90 short days. It will be fun to see all 365 when I’m done. If you haven’t been checking you can find them via the link at the top of the page marked Caden – 365. I have also been uploading a ton of them to the Greatlandings Photo Site. So far I have just been adding a couple pretty much every day to the Caden Christopher Carlson album. But since we are approaching 600 photos in there I may have to start another one soon! I have also put a few on Facebook, but they are just a couple off the photo site.

Well that is about it. We could not be happier with our little man and can’t beleive it has been 90 days already. I’m very excited for the next 90 days, and the 90 days after that, and the 90 days after that, etc. Happy 90 day birthday Caden!

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I wanted to do a “One Month Old” update for everyone, but as it has been pretty typical in my life right now I am running about a week behind. So instead of one month, we have a five week update. But to be honest, I think five weeks is way better then a one month update. If for no other reason it is a cool 20% increase in weeks! Think of it as a raise, or one of them buy four get one free deals. Same goes for the flood of pictures I have been adding to the Caden Christopher Carlson album on the Greatlandings photo site, consider them my gift to you for visiting the site. Anyway, on with the good stuff.

Erin, Caden, and I have been home for just over a month now and it has been an experience to say the least. The adjustment from life without a baby, to one with has been insane! Gone are the days of playing XBox, going out to lunch, and taking a shower whenever you want. They have been replaced with every three hour feedings, a never ending stream of dirty diapers, and having everything I own covered in baby vomit. In other words it has been both the most exhausting and amazing five weeks of my life.

Caden seems to be adjusting to life in the outside world well. When we left the hospital he weighed 8 lbs, 1 oz. At his one week appointment he was up to 8 lbs, 10 oz. And just last week at his one month appointment he was up to a whopping 11 lbs, 2 oz! That is a 30% increase in just three weeks time! Of course all of this weight gain makes sense seeing as instead of eating 3-4 ounces of food like a normal one month old, he likes to eat 5-6 ounces. That is as much as a 6 month old would normally eat! Needless to say, he is taking after his Daddy in the eating department. But the doctor says it is fine, and there is no such thing as feeding him too much at this stage. While I know he is still a little baby, I can’t help but to feel like he is growing way to fast. We have had him for only five weeks and I already find my self missing when he was a “little” baby.

Other then that he is doing good although we are all still getting used to things. He loves to be held and snuggled with, can hold his head up really well for his age, and has the most kissable lips I have ever seen. He has had a touch of acid reflux which I have been told is very common in babies. So he has medicine for that and we are hoping it helps him sleep a little better. As of right now he will go from a dead sleep to screaming, scrunching up, stretching out, in about three seconds flat. Totally heartbreaking to not be able to do anything to help him. But like I said, he has his new medicine and things seem to be getting better.

As for Erin and I we too are doing good as well. Erin goes back to work next week and I have no doubt it will be extremely difficult for her to leave her little man all day. We have tried to get into some sort of system the past few weeks, but it has been hard. We take turns getting up in the middle of the night, and by morning we are both usually delirious with exhaustion. But it is getting better, Caden is sleeping longer, and we have had no shortage of advice from friends and family on how to do things. I think before long we will have a schedule and a system that works for us and we can hopefully get back to real life again. Right now it feels like we have been locked up for weeks with nothing but baby stuff going on. Although we did have a great Memorial Day down at the lake last weekend.

In summary I can tell you with 110% certainty that there is nothing more awesome then having a baby. I never doubted it when people told me things like “your life will never be the same“, but usually when they said that it was in reference to the things I would have to give up. How I wouldn’t be able to do this or that or how I needed to do XZY before the baby got here because after “things will all be different“. Well they were right, it is different and my life will never be the same. But what no one really said is how I wouldn’t care. Anything I have to change, give up, or adjust because of him I will. And I wont be disappointed for one single second. Because at the end of the day nothing can ever come close to being as amazing as my baby boy.

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Just wanted to give y’all an update and point out a new little feature/project I am trying to pull off. The project is called “Caden – 365″ and the idea is to post one photo a day, for the next 365 days, of my little boy Caden. You can read more on the new page I made for the project by clicking the link on the top, or right HERE.

I also wanted to mention that I have been adding more photos of Caden to the Photo Site. I have just been putting them into the album I already made called Caden Christopher Carlson. Seeing as I am sure I will have nothing short of a billion pictures of him (before June) I may have to come up with a different solution. But for now that is where you can find them.

Lastly I have been getting a lot of folks asking how we are doing and the answer is AWESOME! Of course there is some adjusting going on for everyone, but Erin, Caden, and I are doing great. Caden is two weeks old today and it feels like a lifetime ago that we were in the hospital with him. He is getting bigger and more handsome every day. Erin is also getting back to her normal self as well. The best news is that her worst symptom from pregnancy was the unbelievable swelling in her legs and feet is finally getting back to normal. All and all we are one big happy family!

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Well here we are, the final edition of Baby Watch. I already put up one quick post announcing the arrival of our little baby boy Caden, but I wanted to come back and put up one more post with some of the highlights of the past few days, and some final thoughts. I know I promised this would be up sooner but you will just have to trust me when I say the past few days have been hectic to say the least.

As scheduled Erin and I checked into the hospital last Wednesday to prepare for her induction on Thursday morning. Having just been there the week prior we were experts on the whole hospital deal. They gave Erin some medicine to get her ready for the next day and we got the last full night of sleep for the week. On Thursday morning they started the medicine Pitocin that would kick start Erin’s labor. They also put a monitor on her that measured the contractions and the babies heartbeat. Over the next several hours her contractions begin to get stronger and closer together. She got her epidural after things started to get really painful for her and then we waited, and waited, and waited. Then around 8:00 PM the doctors said it was time to start pushing!

Having been to the education class and having seen the scary videos they show you, I figured I was as prepared as anyone for what was about to happen. Boy was I wrong! Over the course of the next two hours I experienced just about every emotion you can. It started with excitement about what was going to happen, slid over to fear over what could happen, and ended with pure joy over what did happen. The two hours that Erin spent pushing the baby out were the proudest I have ever been of her. Never once did she scream, cry, or call me names. She had a job to do and was nothing but strong, focused, and determined. I have often told people over the past nine months that “we” were having a baby. I can tell you here and now “we” didn’t do anything, Erin had a baby and I am just happy I was allowed to hold her hand when she needed it.

At 9:56PM Erin made her final push and baby Caden was born. It was the moment Erin and I had been anticipating for so long and it was AMAZING! It must have been because it was my wife, my baby, our family, but this was nothing gross and scary looking like the videos from class. This was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. The doctor placed Caden on Erin’s belly and I told her it was a boy. I got to cut the umbilical cord and the nurses moved the baby to another area to clean him up, while the doctor cleaned Erin up. And that was it, we had a perfect little baby boy!

Erin, Caden, and I spent the next two nights in hospital visiting with everyone and getting used to our new little boy. On the day we were supposed to go home they told us that Caden needed one more night in the hospital under some special lights because he was just a little bit Jondus. Luckily the hospital was nice enough to let us stay in our room another night so we could continue to feed him on a regular basis and visit with him whenever we wanted. Then on Sunday afternoon we brought our little bundle of joy home and it has been awesome. Everyone said our lives would change, and they have. Anything that was important to be before has just been knocked down a peg if not forgotten about completely. All I want to do is hold my little boy and love on him, and that is just what I plan to do.

So that brings us to the end of Baby Watch and the start of something new. I don’t plan on any more regular posts, but I doubt this is the last you will hear on the subject of Caden. I hope everyone enjoyed the updates over the past few months as much as I have enjoyed doing them. As Aunt Carol says, this has to be one of the most documented pregnancy and births in history! I have uploaded a bunch of pictures from the first couple of days. You can find them in the Caden Christopher Carlson album on the Greatlandings photo site.

PS – For the record it was my friend Greg who guessed the birth date exactly with Lori coming in a close second. Nice job!

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Just a real quick update to introduce Mr. Caden Christopher Carlson to the world! He was born last night April 29th at 9:56 PM, weighed 8 pounds 5.5 ounces, and was 20 inches long. Both Erin and baby are doing great and should be coming home on Saturday morning.

Sorry this is so short but internet here at the hospital is hard to come by. I promise to make a proper post tomorrow complete with lots of good pictures! Thanks to everyone who has sent us all the nice messages, emails, texts, phone calls, and visited us here at the hospital! Y’all are the best!!

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Hello everyone and welcome to Baby Watch for week #38! This week we have about as big of news as you can get in the world of Baby Watch blogging. During our first amniotic fluid check since last weeks hospital visit we learned that the fluid was at it’s lowest point to date. If you remember from last week normal fluid levels are between 8-18 centimeters and Erin had been hanging out in the borderline category of 6-10 centimeters. This week on Monday’s check the fluid level was 5.4 centimeters and just like the week prior this prompted a chat with Doctor.

During the chat with the doctor he explained that 5.4 centimeters was very low (but above the emergency cut off of 5cm), and that the non-stress test they had also been doing was looking great so the baby appears to be doing just fine. He expressed some concern over Erin’s blood pressure saying that it wasn’t abnormally high, but that over the past several weeks it has been slowly creeping up. He also talked about how our situation may seem very similar to when we met with him a week ago, but that we were now in week #38 and that was hugely positive and made all the difference. It was at this point that Erin shouted out (as she does at almost every chance) “Lets just have this baby already!”. The difference was this time the doctor agreed! He explained the risks and procedures for inducing Erin and said that as long as we were comfortable, he was comfortable with moving things along. We said yes, and they scheduled the induction for this Thursday, April 29th!

Erin and I will go to the hospital on Wednesday night where they give her medicine to help get her ready for the induction. On Thursday morning the doctor will break her water and begin giving her more medicine designed to put her into labor. At that point we will wait and hope that the everything works as it is supposed to. If the labor progresses at a normal pace they will continue to plan and prepare for a normal birth. However the doctor said it is possible that Erin’s body is just not ready, and the induction medicine may not work. If that happens they will switch over to a C-Section and deliver the baby that way.

So there you have it. After months of baby showers, cleaning, painting, putting stuff together, worrying, crying, smiling, and of course baby updates, the day is almost here. Funny to think that I already know our babies birthday and it is not even here yet! I am also very excited to find out the sex of the baby. It has been hard sticking to our plan of not finding out. Hard to shop for clothes, hard to decorate the bedroom, hard to figure out the name, and hard to always be calling it an “it” or just baby. But now that the time is here I am happy we did it this way. Thursday we will all find out together, and that is pretty awesome!

Here is what the baby site has to say for week #38~

Baby’s Growth and Development When You’re 38 Weeks Pregnant

During the 38th week of pregnancy, your baby’s systems and functions continue to increase. These include:

• Your baby’s organ functions refine when you are 38 weeks pregnant.
• His nervous system functions increase.
• His brain helps him refine breathing, improve digestion, regulate his heart rate, and prepare for eating during the 38th week of pregnancy.
• Your baby might pass solid waste, called meconium, prior to delivery. If your water breaks or leaks and it is greenish-brown in color, this might indicate meconium spotting in your amniotic fluid. Call your doctor right away if this happens.
• He has reached what will likely be his birth length.

I have no doubt we will be calling, texting, Facebooking, sending smoke signals, and tapping out Morris code as soon as the baby gets here. But you can also keep an eye out here on the website and I will do my best to put up pictures and information as soon as I can. Next stop… Baby Birthday!

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Hey everyone, and welcome to week #37 of Baby Watch or as I like to call it “dry run” week. First off I have a correction to make from last weeks update. I have been told the new test they are doing twice a week is called a “NON-stress test” rather then “stress test“. Other things I have been told this week include “You better start paying better attention to me” and “if you touch me one more time I will break your finger“. Glad we got that cleared up.

On to our eventful week. On Monday we went into the doctors for the “NON-stress test” (NST) and a ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid (AFI). The NST went just fine. They warp a couple of bands around Erin’s belly and it monitors the babies heartbeat, any contractions Erin might have, and also the movement of the baby. Since our appointment was in the morning the baby was still sleeping and not moving all that much. But as you may have guessed they have a solution for that and it comes in the form of a loud, vibrating contraption they put on Erin’s belly near the babies head and “zap” it. This woke the baby up and in the process almost kicked its feet right through Erin’s lungs. But it worked, and as I said the test went great and everyone was very happy with the results.

Next up was the Amniotic Fluid Index (AFI) check. This is where they use the ultrasound to measure the four pockets of amniotic fluid around the baby. If you remember from last week we had this done during our last ultrasound and they determined the fluid was on the low end of the normal range. Well this time around it was even lower still. The normal range for this test is between 8-18 centimeters. Last week we were at an 9.4 (low end of normal), but this week it was at 6.1. This concerned the doctors enough to send Erin to the hospital to get IV fluids and be monitored. Why the IV fluids you might ask? Well apparently the amniotic fluid is made up primary of urine from the baby. So by pumping Erin full of fluids, the baby gets lots of fluids, and hopefully responds by making lots and lots of urine. Thereby increasing the amount of amniotic fluid.

So Tuesday morning they did another AFI with the ultrasound (see new pictures here) the hospital and found her to be at 8.5. Back into the normal range, but just barely. At that point her doctor decided that one more night in the hospital with the IV fluids was probably the best plan. So we did that and this morning got another AFI check. All the while everyone was expecting the fluid amount to increase just as it had done after the first night. Erin was going to the bathroom every two hours, so the baby must be as well right? Apparently not because her AFI was back down to 6.5. In talking with the doctor they decided that while this is not ideal, there are no other indications that anything is wrong with the baby. As such they were not willing to induce labor or do a C-Section at this time. Had there been other indicators that the baby was in distress, or that Erin was any where near going into labor this could have been a very different baby update. But instead they sent us home and plan to monitor the AFI, baby, and Erin closely through our office visits. They did say however that should the fluid continue to drop (below 5 being the new magic number) they would start making plans to speed things along.

So there we have it. Our dry run at the hospital. While we are both disappointed our little trip didn’t result in anything more positive then a IV and some crappy hospital food, I did learn a few things. First off it takes me exactly14 minutes to drive (at normals speeds) from our front door to he hospital. From there I can make it to and from either of  the two main entrances of the hospital and the birth center with my eyes closed. I know where the cafeteria is, where the ice maker and water is, and most important (according to Erin) where they keep the ice cream. We also have a much better idea of what we should pack and what can probably stay home. The last thing I leaned was that not one single piece of furniture in that place is in any way, shape, or form comfortable. Not sure if this is by design as payback for the Dads but after 48 hours of sitting there, my butt hurts.

Here is what the baby site has to say for week #37~

Baby’s Growth and Development When You’re 37 Weeks Pregnant

• When you’re 37 weeks pregnant, you have a reason to celebrate. Your baby is considered full-term. These are a few changes she experiences:
• Your baby’s weight gain slows considerably, but she’s got just a little more room to grow.
• Essential fat (aka baby fat) will continue to form. This will round her out and help her stay warm after birth.
• If you have an ultrasound during the 3rd trimester, the technician might measure the head, stomach, and femur to estimate your baby’s weight.
• She weighs more than 6 pounds.

Two things that stand out to me in the above. First off “weighs more then 6 pounds“. Yes that is technically correct, but more correct in our case would be “weighs more then 8 pounds“. During our little visit the hospital the ultrasound they did showed the baby at 8 pounds, 4 ounces. WOW! Second they say that 37 weeks is considered “full-term“. Again technically correct, but our doctors office feels very strongly that they need to do everything they can to keep the baby in until 38 weeks. It might not sound like that much, but the further development of the lungs they get in that last week is very important.

So that is it, week #37 in the bag. I have a gut feeling the big show is right around the corner so stay tuned!

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