Reframing the Gimmies

This blog really spoke to me today.  In many ways, Eric and I have been contemplating our upbringings and what we intend to pass on to our children. 

Rage Against the Minivan - Let’s bring the holidays down a notch

Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny were a big deal in our house.  My parents did a great job of hiding presents at Christmas, covering all of their tracks, and convincing us they had nothing to do with them.  Easter was just as fun... Easter egg hunts with real hard-boiled and blown eggs we decorated the night before.  Easter baskets from the Easter Bunny with a book, some candy, maybe a Pez dispenser and a few more home-decorated eggs.  Dad telling us every Easter that he caught the Easter Bunny and we were going to have rabbit stew for lunch (followed by shrieks of dismay from the four girls and laughs from the two older boys).

Holidays like St. Patrick's Day got us some more attention to our outfit that day and a shamrock-shaped note in our lunch box.  Valentine's Day was a box of last-years' clearance Valentines and MAYBE a Jolly Rancher scotch-taped to it if it was a big year.

Quote:

All of them woke up and came into our room like it was Christmas morning.

Did a leprechaun visit?
Can we search for him?
Did he leave a pot of gold?
Let’s go find the gold coins!
I bet he left chocolate!

So. Many. Expectations.

This actually brought me back to Christmas, and what our church Jacob's Well does for the Advent season.  The Advent Conspiracy website explains the concept pretty well.  Don't overspend beyond your limits, and spend on gifts that matter and will be appreciated and remembered.  Focus on Christ's coming during Advent rather than stressing over gifts you can't afford.  Giving more to those around us of our time and presence, not just presents.  Giving from the financial excess of our lives to those truly in need - in our case, the Pokot region of Kenya.  

I've been wondering how to bring our children into this alternative way of thinking about Christmas with all of the pressures of our society.  And I remembered this.

In the month leading up to Christmas 2011, I bought a huge set of Thomas train die-cast toys and tracks from a mom in our church for $10.  She was apologetic because they were so well worn.  My son, however, was about 1 1/2 years old and was thrilled.  He had no idea they weren't brand new and didn't care.  He's playing with them right now.  They are still his favorite toys.  And my friend's son had chosen those toys to sell "in hope of Christmas booty."

So I have a proposition.  Advent 2013, I'm thinking about hosting a "Toy Exchange."  Very similar to a clothing exchange... bring toys chosen by our children to pass on, spread them out in a room like a garage sale sorted by age, and everyone gets a fair opportunity to chose.  Extra toys get donated.  In my mind, this has several advantages.

1.  Children get to participate in dealing with the reality of excess in our culture by choosing toys to pass along- we don't need more toys... but it's really nice to have "new to us" toys!

2.  Some toys are barely used before they are outgrown and never touched again.  This is especially true at young ages - but I'd love to hear input from parents with older kids on this one!

3.  No dealing with all the excess packaging on Christmas morning.  This has bothered me for a long time.  Not only are we spending on things we really don't need or sometimes even want, we also end up with garbage bags full of trash of twist ties, styrofoam padding, plastic packaging, cardboard, and wrapping paper to go to the landfill.  Something about this just has me imagining Jesus scratching his head.

Now, let me be clear... there's nothing wrong with new toys!  But perhaps we can be a bit wiser with our financial, environmental, and time resources this Advent season.

So, who's with me?  November 2013.  I'm already excited.  

Upon reading this, Eric started singing Derek Webb's "Rich Young Ruler"  Enjoy!

Life at home

I've got to be honest. I'm really enjoying being at home, but some days it's really tough. Abby cries a lot, although we're working with a few remedies that have seemed to be helping. Caleb has his ups and downs, I just need to remember that he is 2... and just turned 2! It's easy to have too high of expectations for him. But most days, we have fun! We go on outings, we go to the park, we work in the house together.
He loves to help with laundry... He helps match socks ("Same one!"), he uses the laundry pile as a beanbag ("me fall on the laundry! Big pile right there!"), and uses the laundry basket as a boat in the ocean (aka hardwood floors) and as a bed.
He loves to paint with our homemade watercolors. (cornstarch, water, food coloring).
He loves to help make food, especially biscuits. ("me wear apron!")
He loves to dig and scoop ("me dig that right now!")
He loves garage sales ("Garage sale! Me see toys and people!").
He loves his baby sister ("Baby Abby super happy now!")
He loves his car bed and really loves his binkie. ("me have it the binkie!")
He loves the trampoline. ("me jump on the 'camp-o-leen'!")
He loves his trains.
He loves to watch TV or my iPhone... especially Shawn the train, cars 2, sesame street, & Thomas train videos.
He loves to go on walks.
He loves playing with his cousins Mo-mo and Na-na.
He loves seeing his friend Quinn, especially at the zoo.
He loves eating, all the time.
He loves Bible school.
He loves his new friend/babysitter Genesis.
He loves to talk about anything and everything... All the time.

We are settling into some sort of rhythm, but we are not there yet. We're still experimenting with late afternoon meltdowns, Mama's patience, and balancing rest and keeping up with all the other things that demand attention.

Here's some pictures of Caleb & Abby for your enjoyment!

2 weeks old

2 weeks into parenting two children...  and it's like we've always had both of them. It's hard to imagine life without Abby now that she has become part of our family.

We're so thankful for Grandma Cindy coming to help the first week and Grandma Sue coming this past week.  That has allowed me to recover more fully from labor and delivery and also allowed Eric to go back to work sooner than we had planned.  Tomorrow will be my first day on my own with both kids...  wish me luck!  I'm feeling pretty good and am ready to take on the challenge of being an at-home-mom with two kiddos!  :)

We celebrated Caleb's 2nd birthday yesterday.  Here's a few pictures from the party.  He did great and it was good for him to be the center of attention for a little while after the adjustment to sharing attention with his new little sister.  Thomas and Cars were the themes, and he hasn't stopped talking about it yet.  :)

Abigail Dawn Swanson

Abigail Dawn Swanson was born on Sunday, July 1st at 12:00 PM at 1 week overdue. 9 lbs, 9 oz, 21 inches long. We’re all doing great! Caleb is excited about his new baby sister Abby and enjoying some time with Grandma Cindy while we recuperate in the hospital. We're hoping to be able to go home this evening if everything continues to look good for recovery.

We're so thankful for a great birth team - for our roommate Sara's support, for our midwife & nurse's experience and knowledge, for Mark and Sarah taking Caleb during the night and day, and for a great hospital to give birth in just in case of complications.

And for those of you interested in the birth story, here's some more details below the pictures.  If you're not interested, that's ok too.  :)

 


******************************************************************

Stephanie started feeling contractions at about 8PM on Saturday night.  This had been happening all week, so it wasn't surprising but was a little more intense than earlier in the week.  We started timing them around 10 PM and decided to go to bed to see what would happen.  Stephanie woke up Eric at 1AM to tell him that this was different and we needed to pay attention.  By 2:30AM, Mark was at our house to watch Caleb (Thanks Mark!!) and we headed to the hospital to get checked out.

When we arrived, Stephanie was already dilated to 5cm and progressing quickly.  This was GREAT news for us because with Caleb she hadn't dilated past a 4 naturally before having to be on Pitocin.  We got checked in and got to see our midwife, Katie, right away.  Sara (our roommate) came and joined us at the hospital and we continued with natural labor for several hours and continued to dilate but baby's head didn't move down.  Katie suggested that we break the water to make things progress more quickly sometime around 9AM, which we decided to go ahead and proceed with.  After that things got a little easier right away, then much more intense as we moved from "Active" labor into "Transitional" labor.  Sara and Eric were incredible birth partners in their emotional encouragement and physical support (Eric spent much of the day supporting Stephanie's weight in different laboring positions).

At around 10 AM Stephanie was checked and the baby had not only not descended, she had turned her head sideways and probably wasn't going to progress very quickly. At this point we decided that an epidural was needed, and good thing!  As soon as the epidural kicked in and Stephanie was able to relax between contractions, things started progressing much more quickly.  We had the same anesthesiologist as we had with Caleb.  He did a great job balancing pain management with necessary feeling - too often epidurals end up taking away all of the feeling so it is difficult to know which muscles to push with.  Within 30 minutes, it was time to push.

Katie and the nurse (Pam) did an incredible job with the delivery.  5 other babies were born yesterday on the floor, one only 20 minutes after Abigail.  After a challenging and a little scary bit of time where she was stuck and turning blue, Katie was able to deliver her successfully with no trauma to baby or mom.  Also incredibly, they still allowed her to be immediately placed on Stephanie's chest to regain her color naturally and start crying, which she did very quickly.

 She's big, healthy, and we love her!  :)

40 weeks tomorrow

Well, here we are! Our midwife thought the baby would be born sometime between last Monday and Thursday, but alas, here we are and I am still pregnant.

We are enjoying every day that the baby isn't here yet as "stolen" time with Caleb - only one child who sleeps very well, is a lot of fun, and is growing and learning so much every day!  He surprised us this week with a few new talents - singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," made a joke of his own with a play on words and thought it was hilarious, and has developed full sentences on his own such as "Mama please (insert item)"   and saying "thank you" and "excuse me" without prompting.

He's also doing great on his potty training!  He is in underpants all the time (including sleeping time) and accidents are few and far between - maybe only about once per week.  This is good news for mama as we were not interested in having 2 children in diapers!  :)  We're hoping he won't regress after baby sister is born, but are ready and willing to tackle whatever kinds of interesting dynamics adding a new little one to the family will bring.  Caleb is VERY excited to have a new baby sister.  He talks about her often, pointing at mama's big belly, the swing, the crib, the high chair, the car seat, or anything else that is for baby sister and says "baby sister!"

June 2012

Here's hoping to the baby in the next few days...  but if not...  she'll be here by July 8th at the latest!

A new chapter

We're almost there!  8 more days until my due date.  I've got bets on the 19th, 20th, and of course those who are less friendly who want me to have a July 4th baby.  ;)

Thursday was my last day of work at General Mills. It was a great day, complete with lunch with some great coworkers, cake with my department, and several people dropped by to say bye that were really encouraging.  I'm sad to leave it, a bit scared of the ambiguity of this new adventure, relieved to let go of the stress associated with the job, and thankful for the 3 1/2 years that I had there working with some great people.  I learned more in the past 3 years than I expected - in my technical/manufacturing knowledge and skills, time management, people management, working with difficult people, multi-tasking...I could list out a million things.  I'm really glad we were able to make it work for both of us to continue working even after Caleb was born.  It has been a difficult 2 years with managing parenting, working, and school, but Eric and I have grown so much closer as a result of it.

Now onto the new adventure of being a stay-at-home mom.  We decided that I need a "vacation" between jobs, so Caleb and I will not be working on cleaning, dishes, house projects, laundry, etc. any more than absolutely necessary in the next few days.  We are going to have fun hanging out, waiting for baby girl to come!  Everybody needs vacation time.  In fact, stay at home moms almost never get vacation time away from children and home responsibilities, so I am embracing this next week or so until baby girl comes to enjoy having just 1 adorable child, catch up on sleep, and do whatever it is we feel like doing.  :)

In baby news, at the doctor last week they said baby is currently around 8 to 8 1/2 lbs and long.  If she comes 2 days past my due date like Caleb did, that would put her right about 9 to 9 1/2 lbs.  Tested negative for gestational diabetes this time again, so I guess I just grow big babies.  That's thanks to Eric.  Grrr.  Thankfully, Caleb's delivery was pretty smooth so we'll trust that will be the case again.

We'll keep you posted when we go to the hospital!

T-Minus 3 weeks & 2 days

Not that I'm actually counting down...  but really, it's getting close!  I went to our midwife today and she is guessing baby girl to be in the 9-10 lb range at birth.  According to her, "Not enormous, but probably big."

Caleb is getting very excited to have a baby sister.  He regularly comes up to me and pats my belly, says "Baby!" and tells me that she is going to come out and sleep in the crib in his room.

We are getting ready for baby girl, as much as we can be, and are excited for this new transition in our family.  Besides adding another member to our family, we also made the decision a few months ago that I would be staying home with our children after this baby comes and General Mills has been very supportive of that decision.  I have 6 more days at work - two weeks on my part-time schedule.  My last day will be June 14th.

It's been a very busy several months between Eric's classes & work, my work, and family events - in March we traveled to Chicago to visit my Grandma and Grandpa (who has Alzheimers) and Eric presented for his research project at the Structures Congress in downtown Chicago, in April my Grandma on the other side passed away and my cousin got married, and in May we visited Eric's family and Grandma!  All this in the midst of 3 major project startups between March - May for my job as well as wrapping up everything I've been working on for 3 1/2 years at the plant.  Whew!

We are getting ready to close this chapter and see what this new season of our lives will bring.  Two children and one career + school is significantly different than 1 child and 2 careers + school!  We have no delusions of the ease of being a stay-at-home mom or balancing finances on 1 income, but we are definitely excited about the possibilities of the additional home time that we will gain with the change.

Here are some pictures from our family photo shoot a few weeks ago.

Maternity 5-2012 Photo Shoot

We'll keep updating here over the next few weeks through when the baby comes!

And in other news, Amanda & Spencer had their baby last night!  Whoohoo another baby boy in the family - grandbaby #9 for my parents.  And the oldest one isn't even 4 years old yet.  Wow.   :)

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays!

What a great holiday season this is. It's so nice to have some time off after a crazy year.

Christmas for Caleb started early this year, with early gift exchanges with Auntie Sarah and Uncle Mark before they left on their big trip to the Phillipines. Caleb has definitely been having cousin withdrawal... every time he sees a picture of one of them he goes nuts.

Caleb and I met Aunt Amanda, Uncle Spencer, and Cousin Will in Ames to do a trade-off with Grandma Cindy before Christmas. It's always fun to see Will and watch the two of them interact. It's too bad we aren't closer, but they really do love playing together. Caleb did great on his 4-day adventure with Grandma and Grandpa, although he was really excited to see us when we picked him up. Skype and Apple's Facetime are both great for visiting with family when visiting isn't an option. We're so thankful for the technology advances that make the world a little smaller.

We spent the Christmas holiday up in the Quad Cities with Eric's family, which was great! It was so wonderful to see Great-Grandma Sally and the rest of the family. Grant made it back from Japan and we enjoyed seeing him. It was a restful visit - which isn't always the case with a lot of people under one roof (as I'm sure you all know) - and for that we were thankful!

It's fun looking back at pictures from the last year and to see how much Caleb has changed. From 5 months old to 17 months old, he seems like a completely different little boy. And to think that this time next year Caleb will not only be 2 1/2, but will also be a big brother! It's hard to think of Caleb as the big anything, but we have no doubt that he will enjoy the role of oldest child and seasoned veteran.

Family Photo Shoot Pictures:

https://plus.google.com/photos/116317704957344582919/albums/5663797886524058337

Here's some more pictures from this fall. Enjoy!

https://plus.google.com/photos/106477809142921264380/albums/5692024390168109009?authkey=CPTRmrPby4mCbQ

We hope your holidays continue to be enjoyable and that you all here in the midwest continue to enjoy this ridiculously mild weather!

All our love,

Stephanie, Eric, and Caleb

1 Year Old

We are happy to announce... about two weeks late... that Caleb, Eric, and I all survived our first year as parents and child! It's been a good year. To think back that this time last year, we were just figuring out what it meant to take care of a baby, to live on less sleep, and to shoulder the responsibility of having a child totally dependent on us. It's amazing.

I think back on my transition to motherhood, and it is a pretty unbelievable change. On July 16th, I started maternity leave with no real concept of what that meant. Sure, as all first-time moms do, I had an idea. Diapers and crib set up in the new room, carseat in the backseat of my car, 9 month maternity clothes prepared to give way for nursing tank tops and 6 month maternity clothes while my body would make the slow transition back to normal. Sleepless nights because of discomfort would give way for sleepless nights with a hungry baby. And of course the childbirthing classes to prepare me for the average 12 hours of labor that on average happen 3 days after the due date for first-time moms.

These things were true, absolutely. But I definitely wasn't prepared for the disconnectedness of seeing Caleb for the first time, the disbelief that Eric and I were responsible for this new life. And then only a week later, laying on the couch never wanting to let go and let this little boy grow up.

The changes in me I didn't forsee... Starting with being terrified I was going to forget him asleep in the car in the 100F heat of late July while on an errand I was used to doing by myself; then my heart skipping a beat when I walk away from the grocery cart for a second and realizing he's with dad for the afternoon. Starting with worrying I'm not going to wake up when he needs me; now leaving on fans and no baby monitor, because my mind can sift through his nighttime noises without ever really waking up. How being away from Caleb for a day at work is just enough to make me want to hold him and play all evening and ignore all other activities. How leaving him for my first day back to work from maternity leave was so hard I wanted to quit and never go back.

I wasn't prepared for the change in Eric and my relationship, how having children makes you look at each other differently, how you spend more time looking at your baby than at each other. I wasn't prepared for my body changes, the toll that pregnancy takes and the continued toll of nursing for 11 months. I wasn't prepared for the stress of working, even part-time, and juggling daycare, church activities, Eric's activities, grocery shopping, food, laundry, cleaning (that one took a huge backseat), and trying to maintain healthy relationships - with both old friends who don't have children and new friends who do.

All of these things are the transitions of parenthood. I am so thankful for those who have made this past year easier, who have been understanding, supportive (with meals, childcare, love, emotional support, smiles, grace, understanding, and advice). Mark & Sarah, all of our corpus group, Jeff & Maria, Leslie T, Charity M, Kelli A, Sara G, both sets of Grandparents, Amanda Fontana, Aunt Nancy, Juli H, Joe & Michelle, Nathan & Jenilee, just to name a few. You have all made the past year easier in some way or another, and we are grateful to you and your friendship.

Here are some pics from Caleb's first year birthday party to celebrate the year. Here's to moving forward - older, wiser, and seeing more and more how blessed we are!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100226088369060.2543411.16903682&l=78173b0ce7&type=1

Summer!

It's summertime! Today was definitely summer. Not exactly sure where the 93 degrees came from today! Yikes! Caleb, Eric, and I enjoyed the new kiddie pool in the driveway and are looking forward to many more days to come in it out in the sun.

It's been so long since we've posted! It's been a very busy few months for us... probably the busiest of our lives. Eric's been trucking along with his master's degree and research work, along with having a lot demanded of him at work. My work has been pretty busy with project installations, requiring much more than the 3-day schedule that I am supposed to be working. It got even busier when my coworker left the company suddenly for a job closer to family. Caleb has been at a new daycare since the middle of April, and that has also had it's fair share of adjustments.

We are so thankful for summer! Eric isn't taking any classes this summer and his work has been a bit less demanding of overtime. My job has finally slipped back into the 3-day schedule it's supposed to be, and things are starting to look a lot better with Caleb's childcare situation. We have found ourselves breathing a lot easier in the last two weeks and are so thankful! We even had time for a date a couple of days ago with Caleb's first official 13-year-old babysitter. He did great and so did she!

Caleb started crawling on April 2, and is really close to walking now. He pulls up on anything and turns everything into a push toy - chairs, the stroller, Grandma Sally's walker, a box sitting on the floor, etc. He's started to say some words - he will say "mo, mo" while making the sign language for "more." He says "Mama" and "DaDa" as well as "Papa" and it seems like he might be saying "ball" and "doggie" sometimes, but those aren't very consistent. He is starting to be really fun - waving to say hello and goodbye, claps when he is excited, and is generally quite a flirt.

Caleb's baptism was May 22, the same day Nadia & Ramona Swanson were dedicated. We were incredibly blessed by the experience. The image of Caleb being marked and brought into the kingdom of God like that is really neat. We talked later about the idea of Jewish 8 day old circumcision and how it's similar to our infant baptism... marking the child for God before he has the opportunity to make a decision for himself. It puts new weight on our responsibility as parents to continue to make those decisions for him while he is still too young to decide for himself, and then to lead him to make those decisions on his own when he is old enough to. We really appreciate our parents more and more as we go through this parenting experience.

We've done some traveling recently. We went to Florida to visit Eric's aunt and uncle in April and had a great time. Caleb was a hit. We also went to a Golding family reunion over Memorial Day. Minus us getting sick on the trip, we had a great time traveling with Amanda & Spencer & William (4 months old). Caleb really enjoyed company also. Again, Caleb was a hit with the family. The same was true this weekend at Eric's cousin's graduation party, especially with his 5-year old second cousin. :)

Here's more pictures!

March to June

And more...

Caleb

Love you all,

Steph, Eric, and Caleb

Spring is here... kindof.

Sorry it's been so long since posting, the last 2 months have been unprecedented craziness for us. Between Eric's work picking up to overtime every week, my work requiring a LOT more time during some pretty difficult projects, and Eric's master's degree work, we've found ourselves in way over our heads. Thankfully, I am getting some time off this week and really enjoying it. Caleb is changing literally every day and we both eat up every minute we get to spend with him.

Caleb is hitting that point when his development is getting a lot more obvious - making the leap from figuring out that he has limbs to using them to do whatever he wants. It's so much fun to watch! He's not quite crawling, but right on the brink. He scoots backwards, sits up, lunges, and kicks a lot. And yet somehow he always ends up with Mina's bones in his hand heading for his mouth or using the computer cord as a whip/lasso.

Speaking of Mina, Caleb and Mina are becoming very good friends. We think he ends up with her bones when we're not looking because she gives them to him. :) She puts up with his grabbing at her paws and using her belly as a drum... and even volunteers for cleaning up after mealtime both under his chair and the leftovers on his cheeks when I'm not looking.

Just this week he has started giggling at seemingly everything - the book I am reading him, pictures of cousins, grandparents, aunts, and uncles on facebook, and even the trees he sees out the window in the car. He's pretty easily entertained and we are thankful for that. His smile is contagious, but it's often hiding behind his very serious demeanor which makes it even more special.

Now that the weather is warming up, we are going on walks outside pretty often and even taking out the jogging stroller occasionally. He is getting so big it's hard to keep him in the carrier, so the stroller is getting a bunch more use! His latest checkup put him at 22lbs 11oz, which is about 94th % Not sure if he's going to stay a giant, but he's sure keeping up for now!

Here's more pictures!

December to March

Almost 6 months

The holidays came and went, and now it's GiGi's 2nd birthday already! Wow. We went to visit Tim & Chandra (Stephanie's brother in Houston) when GiGi was born right after we moved to Kansas City. So much changes in two years!

Here's a picture of Caleb and Mina playing on the floor. They have really started to take a liking to each other!

The holidays were great to see family, but unfortunately we were all sick for most of it. Caleb has been fighting off a cold/cough for a couple of weeks, so we went to the doctor and got some antibiotics to fight it - apparently it's a sinus infection, and potentially even some bronchitis. He's not quite been himself, but thankfully he's a really happy baby, so his upset isn't too bad.

If you didn't get a Christmas letter from us and would like one, send me your contact info. We've had some mishaps with our list, so we know we've missed a few...

Amanda (Stephanie's sister) is due with her baby in just a couple of weeks. So exciting!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season!

Almost 5 months old

It's Christmas time and Caleb got to experience his first snow last night. Pretty exciting for the little guy. We're pretty sure he wants to eat it. Along with everything else he sees...

Speaking of eating it, here is a video of Caleb trying to feed himself rice cereal tonight. He's eating rice cereal every night, and occasionally some other smashed up veggies.

Thanksgiving was a great time with both families. We really enjoyed seeing extended family and getting to show off our little guy. We are continuously reminded of how blessed we are with such a great baby. He is sleeping well and eating really well. He is really mild mannered. It's great.

We had a date yesterday while Aunt Nancy & Uncle Tim watched Caleb. We're pretty sure we're lucky we got him back from Nancy... she may have wanted to keep him. :)

We're looking forward to Caleb's first Christmas with family. This is definitely an exciting time. If you got a Christmas letter from us last year, you should be getting one in the next couple of weeks. If you'd like one, shoot us a message and we'll get you on the list! :)

Love you all!

Steph & Eric

Pictures

Hey all, here's some pictures posted on facebook. I'll get another post up soon...

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=16903682#!/album.php?aid=35793&id=145244855509946

3 months old

Caleb turned 3 months old on Sunday. It's pretty amazing to think that it's been that long since we came home from the hospital, forever changed.

We went up to Iowa State the first weekend in October to visit Aunt Amanda at their new married student housing apartment in Ames. Uncle Spencer was out of town for the weekend doing some coaching training, but we really enjoyed the visit with Amanda, who is looking more and more adorable every time we see her. Her belly is really starting to show now. Baby boy Fontana is due at the beginning of February. So exciting! It'll be grandbaby #5 for the Goldings, and grandson #4. Poor GiGi is getting pretty outnumbered. :)

Caleb is turning into an incredible talker. He lies on his playmat and will sing for hours at a time. His two most common words are "Ahh-Goooo" and "Geeee!" although he's beginning to pick up more every day. As I type this it's "rwoah" and "yah-ooo" Still no sign of wanting to roll over, but we're perfectly fine with that. :)

Here's some more pictures for your viewing pleasure. He's in 6 month and some 9 month clothes already, and not showing any signs of slowing down! He's about 18 lbs now. Seriously, how did we get such a big baby?

Caleb 3 months

2 months

Caleb is two months and 6 days old! He's big and alert, has figured out how to suck his thumb but doesn't have any idea how to avoid punching himself in the face. One thing at a time... :)

Sue Swanson came and stayed with us for a week, that was a huge blessing! She took care of Caleb at night, which involved a couple of nights of being up until at least midnight because he thought it was time to play. We were so blessed to have her here. It helped me get back onto a somewhat regular schedule, which was also aided by the fact that during that week he decided to try to sleep through the night! He's been regularly sleeping through the night since the 2nd week of September (8 weeks old), which has been a huge relief.

Caleb and I took our first airplane trip last week to visit Great-Grandma Bunny and Great-Grandpa Neil. Grandma Cindy and Aunt Lynnea met us there, and we spent the day out in downtown Chicago taking the boat tour and eating a fabulous meal at Red Lobster - all in celebration of Great-Grandma Bunny's 82nd birthday. Or as she claims, 28th birthday.

Last weekend was the K-State - Iowa State football game, and Aunt Amanda and Uncle Spencer came down to visit to go to the game at Arrowhead. Although we got to see the bump, we're all excited to actually meet the next cousin/nephew on the way in February!

Caleb's latest stats... he's setting his own curve on the chart. I really hope our future children aren't quite so big. However, I was holding a girl 4 days younger than him this morning and felt like I could break her. And she's 11 lbs... not tiny, that's for sure.

16 lbs 5.5 oz (average weight for a 5 1/2 month old boy)

26 3/4 in (average length for 7 month old boy)

Here's a few more pictures. Enjoy!

Caleb 2 month pictures

6 weeks old!

Wow, somehow I'm not all that surprised I haven't updated this since we had family in town. But here we go! :)

Caleb is doing very well... he's eating & growing like crazy and working on sleeping pretty well. He's regularly doing 5 hours at night, and recently not needing to eat much when he does wake up to eat. Eric was able to feed him a bottle this weekend, so I got my first night of full sleep since he was born! That was wonderful.

And of course, Mark & Sarah (Eric's brother) have their two-year old and their 3-month old twins, so we're really enjoying spending regular time with them. We took them all on a walk last night - three infants, one toddler, and 4 adults. It's really nice living less than a mile from them. We find we have a lot more in common now that we both have children.

We're adjusting well to being parents and really enjoy it. Caleb adds a whole new dimension to life. He is just now starting to smile socially and makes a lot of "cooing" and grunting type noises. We're pretty sure he's going to be a talker, even now he will be perfectly fine and just makes noise to make noise all the time, even when he's sleeping.

Sue (Eric's mom) will be coming into town this week, so we're planning our first alone date since he was born. Woohoo! ;)

I've posted pictures on facebook, but here's a couple more on Picasa.

Caleb August 2010

Settling in at home - 1 week old!

We came home from the hospital on Monday afternoon and have enjoyed this week with family and taking time to settle in with our new little guy. He's doing really well, eating like a fiend, and becoming more alert every day. He sleeps almost all day and night, but is a little confused about day and night... last night he wanted to be awake from 2 AM - 6AM, then finally passed out and we had to wake him up to eat about 3.5 hours later. :)

He's already in size 1 diapers and doesn't fit any of his newborn clothes. Darn... some of them were really cute. I guess that's the way it works when you have a 10-lb baby, though.

Stephanie's mom was in town this week being an amazing help with cleaning, laundry, and food and Eric's family is in town also, splitting time between Mark & Sarah's and our place.

Eric will be off work next week also and we're open to visitors almost anytime, just give us a call! :)

Caleb 1 Week Pictures

He's HERE!!!

He finally decided to make his appearance yesterday! Caleb James Swanson was born at 7:31 PM at 10 lbs 1 oz and 23 1/2 in long. He is huge. Taking after his father, who was also 10 lbs 1 oz at birth. :)

He has a full head of hair and everyone is doing great, although a little tired after all the excitement. 18 hours of labor and everything went really well, especially given his size.

Pictures are available here on Picasa. Enjoy!

Caleb James - July 2010

*********************************************************************************

And for those of you who would like all the gory details, here's how it all went down:

At about 1:10 Saturday morning, we woke up to Stephanie's water breaking - he had to start the adventure with a bang, that's for sure. We called the midwives, who told us to go in to the hospital to make sure that his vitals and everything were still fine while we waited for contractions to start.

As many of you know, we were wanting to have as few interventions as possible, so we discussed at the hospital how long they would let us wait for contractions to start on their own before inducing labor with Pitocin. They started naturally getting stronger by about 2:30AM, so we were able to be admitted and wait for them to continue without intervention.

At about 10:00AM, Stephanie was only dilated to a 3 and the contractions were slowing down and getting further apart, so we decided to start inducing with Pitocin due to the risk of infection and exhaustion if things didn't progress with the water already broken. We decided to go ahead without an epidural still and see how it went with the Pitocin. At about 3:00PM, we decided to get an epidural when the Pitocin kicked up to 13 mL/hr. It was definitely the right choice - Stephanie was exhausted by this point and unable to rest because of the strength of the contractions and there was only about a minute between when one ended and the other started.

After getting some rest when the epidural finally kicked in around 3:30PM or so, things progressed really well. At about 7:00PM, Stephanie was fully dilated, feeling the urge to push, and a short 30 minutes later Caleb James made his appearance into the world at his enormous size of 10 lbs, 1 oz. We are incredibly excited and should be out of the hospital on Monday morning. Stephanie lost a good amount of blood, so we'll definitely be taking it pretty easy for awhile as we get adjusted to home with our new baby.

Love you all!

Stephanie