47 Weeks Old!

47 weeks old!

The countdown begins! Well, it begun a while ago, but now it's just getting closer, and closer. Five weeks and 2 days until Cael's 1st birthday. Say what!?! And the party planning is coming along. I got a big box of supplies on Wednesday that I ordered on Monday. I love everything! And I'm so happy with the Little Man/Mustache theme we picked. 


Currently, I've finished addressing the invites for the PA party, and now I have to finish writing out the invites for the LI party. For the LI party, I ordered matching invitation from the website, and they're the type you have to fill in the information by hand. Honestly, I should have ordered the fancy invites for the LI party, since there will be more guests invited to that party. Reason being, I could show them off to more people. I'm going to have a lot of custom invites left over, and I'm kind of upset over it. I only addressed 8 envelopes for the PA party, and I ordered 20 invites. That's a lot of waste in my opinion, but it's too late now. What's done is done, and I'll just have to deal. The parties are going to be great either way :). 


Cael has started doing "high fives", and giving kisses when I ask for them. But he'll only give kisses to me (most of the time). And they're open mouth kisses, too, so they're extra sloppy. But I don't mind, because I love my hugs and kisses from my Little Man. 


In other news (not related to me), a mom who was supposed to be a September 2011 mom (I may have posted about it back in June 2011) finally got her take-home baby 2 days ago. She delivered her son, A, sleeping at 26 weeks at the end of June. She's struggled with recurrent pregnancy loss due to clotting issues and some other gene mutations. I don't know how to explain the issues, but she's been through a lot. The death of A was the first major loss in our group, and it rocked us to the core. It affected all of us September 2011 moms, and all our hearts broke for her. 


She got to take-home her beautiful miracle baby girl today. I've been hiding my emotions about it, but I'm so happy and choked up over it. The thought that she finally gets to experience the joys of motherhood makes me cry happy tears. I've been following her blog since A passed away, and I can't even begin to imagine the pain, suffering and turmoil she's dealt with over the past couple of years. I'm just so happy for her and her husband. Their daughter is just beautiful, and she deserves all the happiness in the world. (I'm fighting back tears as I write this).

Playing in the mirror!

Wet from the rain pouring out of the
gutter. He loved it!

Snuggles with Mommy

Cousins playing together

Uh-oh! First taste of ice cream sandwich!

46 Weeks Old!

46 weeks old!

Time has just been flying by so fast, that I totally didn't post about this. As of June 30, 2012, it has been 1 year since I've been out of work. At this point in time, I'm one week away from being out of work for 13 months. That is just insane to me. But at the same time, Cael's 1st birthday is coming up shortly as well.

Speaking of birthday's, we just got home a few hours ago from Long Island. It was my best friends' son's 1st birthday party. He is 6 weeks older than Cael, so it was nice to be pregnant at the same time as my best friend. His party theme was "Liam's Circus" with blue and orange colors. It was so cute, and everything came out great. There was tons of food, and the cake was HUGE and delicious. It made me really excited for Cael's party.

Liam is a solid boy. He's 26 pounds and very tall. Makes Cael look very small. It's so cute to see them together though. They played so nicely together, especially at the water table -which you know is Cael's favorite summer toy. It was a short trip to Long Island, but it was wonderful to meet up with old friends again. After 8 years, we all still remained in contact. I love those ladies! It's amazing that we're all getting, or are, married, and having babies. When did we become adults!?

Cael has been walking about the same over the past week. No more than 4 steps at a time before he falls forward. He's been standing by himself a lot more though. You can tell his confidence in himself is getting much better. And, Cael reached another milestone. He got into a standing position all by himself on Saturday! I didn't see the whole thing, because I was looking away for a second, but when I looked back, he was standing, and there was nothing there for him to pull up on. We called Matt over to tell him, and he was amazed as well. He's growing up so fast

Cael and Liam - The duo are on a mission!

It's definite - we're going to have 2 parties for Cael. One on Long Island for the rest of the family and our friends, and one here in PA for our few friends here and Matt's family. We're expecting about 20 or so guests at the party here. My bff said we can have his party at her house. It was such a relief, because I didn't think we were going to be able to have one down there. We can't afford to rent a hall or have it at a restaurant, especially since we're inviting about 55 people, and expecting about 40ish guests to come. I'm so excited that we're having a party there for him. It has nothing to do about gifts, and all to do with our friends and family having the opportunity to celebrate with us. We plan on these parties being a big deal. We don't plan on having huge parties like this for subsequent parties. It'll be a nice party there, because she has a large yard with a play set for the kids. Both parties will be a lot of fun.

Taking bites out of a "wagon wheel"
while on the way home

I received the invitations from VistaPrint on Friday before we left for Long Island. I love the card stock, and the way they came out. They're beautiful. I have to address them this upcoming week, and hopefully get them out ASAP. I'm also going to order the themed plates, cups, napkins, etc tomorrow. I should have them by the end of the week. Then I plan on taking those plates to Party City to try and match the colors to some solid plates and cups, this way we have enough for everyone. We also decided to keep the mustache theme for both parties. I figured I'm going to have left over mustache supplies from the first party, that I might as well get 2 uses out of them if I can. I'm really excited for the parties. My next plans are to talk to bakery's for pricing, and figure out the food for both parties. I'm overwhelmed thinking about it all! But since money is semi-tight, I'm also going to try and do whatever I can myself. It'll add a personal touch.



Cael in a glimpse:

• He loves throwing things, and he gets some far distance. Also, he mostly uses his left hand for this.
• Cael loves pushing his trucks around, and barreling them into things such as walls and other toys.
• Cael has become very chatty! Whenever he's playing, he's always gabbing.
• He is becoming very good at holding big pieces of food, and taking small bites out of it (as opposed to putting the whole thing in his mouth). Such a big boy!

Now here are some pictures from the birthday party we went to:

(Mind you, these pictures didn't come out as well as I wanted, because of the difference in lighting due to shadows in the yard)

Clown nose!

Having fun!

  

"Fish bowls" for prizes 

Favors - Candy and a scented sugar scrub!

The birthday boy's high chair

Spritz cookies made by a friend and myself. They were yummy!

Circus peanuts, and cake pops in the background

Loving watermelon!

Giving kisses!

L & C playing together

45 Weeks Old!

45 weeks old!

Fortunately, Cael and I are feeling much better. But I'll tell you, last week was rough. Cael had (still has) Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease, and I had Coxsackie Virus. Yes, I'm diagnosing Cael and myself, but it's not like I don't know what we were exposed to. After researching HFMD and Coxsackie Virus, and talking to another mom who's baby just got over HFMD, I learned more about it. There's the Coxsackie Virus, which causes fever and sore throat, and then there are variants of Coxsackie, such as HFMD and others. HFMD causes fever, sore throat, and sores and blisters in the mouth, feet and hands. I didn't know that the two were different, which was interesting.

Cael has a mild case of HFMD, because he has only about 20 sores. They're mostly on his legs and genitals, with some on his hands. It definitely could have been way worse for him, so I'm glad it didn't turn out to be a worse case. I only have about 4-5 sores, and they're more like zits. Cael's most recent sore popped up yesterday on his hand, and it actually looks like a blister. It's the worst one, but it doesn't seem to bother him. So yes, he still has sores that are popping up, unfortunately. So even though his fever broke on Thursday, he's still getting sores.

Wednesday. He was so sick :(

So here's the recap of our hellish week. As I wrote in a previous post, Cael's fever started on Tuesday afternoon. But it was Tuesday night into Wednesday morning that was the worst.night.ever. Even worse than the newborn stage. He was burning up all night despite Tylenol and Advil, and he was so uncomfortable. He woke up every 40 minutes (and that's no exaggeration), and spent most of the night in our bed, sleeping on me. He would wake up and cry and scream, and I would need to hold him, or put him on my chest for him to sleep. My heart broke for him, because he was so uncomfortable.

Wednesday was pretty much the same. He had 3 breakdowns where he screamed for an hour strait, and once again, nothing I did helped. He would finally fall asleep on me after an hour, but only sleep for about 45 minutes to an hour, and then wake up crying again. His mouth seemed to be bothering him, because he didn't eat much breakfast, and he didn't want to nurse in the morning at all. He kept poking his fingers into his mouth, although I couldn't see anything. At that point, he didn't have any sores yet.

Laying on Mommy

My fever started on Wednesday, and I felt like crap all day. It was a rough day, because I felt like I was hit by a bus, and I had to take care of Cael. I relied on Advil, which worked amazingly well for me, thankfully. My fever must have broke Thursday morning, because I woke up soaked in my sweat. Like, saturated. It was disgusting, and I felt disgusting. I couldn't wait to take a shower. Thursday was a little better for the both of us. I felt normal again, and Cael was back to playing on the floor with his toys and trucks. His fever broke Wednesday overnight as well.

However, Cael started getting his sores on Wednesday evening. They looked like little pimples or zits. First there was a few on his legs, and then in his genital area. By yesterday, most of them were in his groin area, with a few on his legs, and a couple on his hands. Honestly, he didn't get it bad at all. I would call it a mild case. Even though I ended up with only 2 sores on my lower lip, and one on my hand, I think I had just the Coxsackie virus. From what I read on the CDC website, it's all the Coxsackie virus, but just different variants of it depending on the symptoms that present. Usually adults don't get it, so I'm surprised I got it at all. But once again, it wasn't bad and my symptoms only lasted 2 days or so.

In other news, we picked a theme for Cael's 1st birthday party. It'll be "A Mustache Bash for Our Little Man". I love it! I found "Little Man" plates and party accessories, and ordered customized mustache invitations from Etsy. It's perfect because I always call him my Lil' Man. And he really is such a Little Man, with the faces he makes and his personality. I absolutely love how the invitation came out. I can't wait to send them out.

Cael's 1st Birthday Invitation - I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!

Cael is standing a lot more now by himself. And the funny thing is that we don't think he even realizes he's doing it. He'll be standing at his toy box holding on, and then grab a toy with both hands, letting go of the box, and stand there playing with it. I got a video of him on Thursday standing for 15 seconds by himself. Matt and I watched him in awe, and then when he finally sat down, we clapped and praised him. He gave us the biggest smile.

Along the same lines of standing alone, is taking his first steps. Yes, Cael took 1 step by himself! It happened on Friday night, and Matt got to see it. Granted, it wasn't a steady step, and he fell right into my arms immediately following the step, but it still means he's that much closer to walking. I'm not ready for that! He's already all over the place, and walking will make it so much worse! :) You can see he's starting to get braver and braver with standing by himself, and it'll look like he's going to just let go and start running, but instead, he'll let go, hesitate, and then plop to the ground on his butt. It's only a matter of time. :::sigh::: Now, however, I think he's starting to think it's a game. I'll stand him up in front of me and arms' distance away, and instead of taking a step or trying to step forward, he'll just lean forward, like a trust fall. He knows I will catch him, and he'll giggle while I'm catching him.

He loves walking with this toy

Playing is such hard work!

Helping Daddy type

Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease

After Cael started running a fever today, I'm convinced he's been infected with Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease (aka Coxsackie). While we were camping, the little girl that Cael was playing with, came down with a low-grade fever. My friend said that she's teething and getting her molars, so we both assumed that the fever was from teething. She wasn't really acting any differently, so we figured no big deal.

They mostly played together at the water table that I brought with us. She was chewing on his water toys, but I didn't mind, because I knew she was teething. Well, my mom texted me yesterday to tell me that she has HFMD. I was livid, and immediately looked it up, as I don't really know much about it. I do know, however, that I had it was I was 3 while in Florida, and I had to be hospitalized for a few days. So I got really upset and scared that Cael was exposed to it.

The CDC website said that it's moderately contagious through nasal and mouth/throat mucus and fluids. Wonderful. She was chewing on his toys. Toys that he then played with. I guess the virus stays alive in water and sunlight. The website also says that symptoms can start 3-6 days after exposure, and that it's most contagious during the first week of having it. It's been 4-5 days since he was was initially exposed, and he's started with a fever. After talking to some ladies in my online group whose babies have had HFMD, the blisters and sores on the hands, feet and mouth started after the fever broke. So for right now, it's a wait and see game.

Cael's fever earlier today was on the lower side at 100.9. But this evening, it rose to 103.2 after having Tylenol in him for 2 hours. Currently, I'm watching him toss and turn on the monitor, as if he's uncomfortable. He's been whimpering in his sleep since he went to bed 2 hours ago, and it breaks my heart. I hate seeing my Little Man sick and uncomfortable. I'll update if he starts getting blisters and sores.

44 Weeks Old!

I know I just did a post on Wednesday when Cael turned 10 months old, but I can't ignore another week. I figured I'd do more of an update on how things are going with Cael.

First off, we went camping with my mom and family from Thursday to Saturday. This is the 3rd time I've taken Cael camping, and he gets better each time. He did much better going down to sleep in the PnP, and didn't take a long time to fall asleep, like he did in May when we went camping. He also slept through the night for the most part. The first night, he got up at 4, but that was because my brother set his alarm for 4 to get up and go fishing. It took a little while to get him back to sleep, but he eventually did because I kept him next me to on the couch bed.

Speaking of couch bed, those 2 nights I slept on the couch in the room were the most uncomfortable nights ever. I woke up so sore and stiff, and my sciatica was actually irritated. It's a pretty narrow couch, and I can't put it into a bed because the PnP just fits with the couch as a couch. So Cael took up most of the couch area, and I was hanging off the side - thus the stiffness. It was okay though, because I love the cuddles.

Cael also had fun with a little girl who was there. A long-time camping buddy of mine - we've both camped at that same site since we were tiny - was up, and she had her 18 month old daughter with her. I didn't camp last summer because I was on bed rest, and it was too much of a risk going, so I didn't get to see her daughter. She has grown so much, and I can't believe she is 18 months already. I really does go fast. They both enjoyed playing with Cael's water table, especially since it was hot out. I'm glad he had another baby to play with. He really needs to socialize.

Cael and I had a lot of fun swimming in the river while camping, too. There were parts of the river that were up to my neck, and I had Cael in the deep end too. The river wasn't moving quickly where we were, so we were safe. Actually, it was a separate swimming hole that was up to my neck. Cael had a lot of fun when I would hold onto just his hands, hold him away from me, and dunk him into the water up to his chest. He would kick and kick, and smile. We spent about an hour in the water on Friday, and it was a lot of fun. I'm really happy that he's getting used to being in water, and seeming to enjoy it.

So, over the past week, Cael has learned to do some new things. First off, which I'm excited about, is that he figured out how to blow raspberries. I was shocked the first time he did it, but I think it's oh-so-cute. He makes quite a wet mess though! I'm just happy that he hasn't blown raspberries while eating! That would make quite a mess, and give me anxiety. He also mimics raspberry blowing, so if you blow raspberries at him, he'll blow them back. I think that's really cool, because he's developing so much, and it seems he's starting to understand what's going on around him.

Cael is also becoming more interested in all his toys. I went a bought a storage container to put all his toys in, and to act as a toy box. It's working out really well, because now he can go through all his toys and pull out what he wants. Before, I was keeping them all in the PnP, and taking out what I thought he would want to play with. No he can make the decision on his own. His favorite toys are his trucks. He LOVES to push his trucks around the floor, and spends a lot of alone time playing with them. He loves the CAT 4x4 truck that Matt came home with one day. And when I say around the floor, I mean all over the floor. He crawls while pushing them around. I can see that he now understands what the trucks do, and it's that they roll around. I love watching him explore different things, and figure out how things work.

Finally, the biggest update of all... . . . Cael can say "Dada"!!! He started saying it on Friday while we were camping. I couldn't believe it, and became so excited to hear it. Of course, I want him to say "Mama", but I think it's great that he's saying "Dada", too. Of course, he isn't saying it in the correct context yet, but once he learns that Matt is his "Dada", I'm sure he'll be calling him "Dada". So as of now, his "vocabulary" includes: Bababababa, Blahblahblahblah, Eyeyayaeyayay and now Dadadadada.

Getting breakfast from Aunt Ashley

We love camping!

Getting dirty in the rocks

He's got 6 teeth in there!!

Grandma and Cael