Kaleb: Big Brother

We've had a week of life with Evelyn now and it is going well. Kaleb gets on well with her which is great. 

He can sometimes be over-exuberant without meaning to, but is getting better at interacting with her. Early on we would put her on his lap with one of us holding her underneath, but switched over to putting her on a pillow and putting the pillow on his lap so she is more stable. 

Often when he holds his new sister, Kaleb can appear very protective of her. Sometimes when she cries and we try to comfort her on his lap he will say "no" and push our hands away. One of the first times he held her, when we started to move her away he grabber her leg and arm and puller her towards him (this was one reason why we switched to having her on a pillow). 

Kaleb likes to point out the different parts of Evelyn's face - he can point out his eyes, ears, nose and mouth on his face and likes point at her face too. We keep on telling him to be gentle when he does this so he doesn't poke her too hard.  

He is very affectionate with his little sister too. He likes to give her little kisses on the head when she is on his lap or when he is getting ready for bed. He comes over to her Moses basket or pram when she is sleeping in it and points at her saying "bay" (translation: "baby"). 

Evelyn

Three days before her due date, Liz gave birth to Evelyn, our daughter. 

Arriving early did mean that Liz and Evelyn aren't going to share a birthday (she was due on Liz's birthday). 

Pre-Birth
We found out Liz was pregnant later than we did with Kaleb; the first scan we had was around 14 weeks, so when we had the second scan at the usual time along in the pregnancy, it seemed a lot closer to the previous scan. 

As we've had Kaleb to look after as well, we have been a lot busier than previously, so it seemed to go by quicker. 

When it came to the point where Liz was full term, it was almost a surprise in a sense that I didn't realise how close it was, even though I knew it was coming soon. I think I worried less than around the same time with Kaleb, probably because I had a much better idea of what was coming. 

Labour and Birth
On the Thursday evening beforehand, Liz had been complaining about her back hurting, and we had a broken nights sleep because of it. She continued with her Friday as usual and when we were getting ready for bed Friday evening, her back started hurting a lot again. Calling up the hospital, they confirmed that she was in early labour, so we started preparing getting there. My Dad was in London and heading back in order to come and drive to our house, and my Mum also drove up. 

When they both got there, Liz was around the point where the contractions were close enough that we should be going in, so we went to the hospital with Dad and left Mum with Kaleb (who had been asleep but seemed to have woken up to see what was going on). 

When we got there, we initially were put in a room on the delivery unit as the midwife led unit was full at the time. Liz was checked and was on the borderline of being sent home, but as it was awkward for us to get there they let us stay. My Dad had fallen asleep on one of the chairs in the waiting room (it was 2:30 AM) so we had to wake him up to let him know he could leave, and as we would be staying he could go to his house to sleep. 

Liz had been given some standard painkillers after she had been there for a little while. I had a 10 minute doze in one of the chairs while we were waiting. Liz requested some more help with the pain as it got worse, and was informed that we could move to the midwife led unit as there was now space there. Upon getting there, Liz was allowed to use the Gas and Air so was pleased for both being in the midwife led unit (which is nicer than the delivery ward) and also having Gas and Air to help with the pain. 

In the midwife led unit, labour progressed a little faster than we expected. Liz had wanted to be in the water a little bit if possible, but there wasn't anyone around to run the birthing pool that early. There was a bath in the room we were in, but we attempted to rest a little and by the time the shifts were changing and we had new midwives Liz was too far into labour to go get the pool ready. 

Right at the end the midwives were concerned about the amount of blood they saw after the waters breaking so pressed a special button and about five people suddenly appeared to help out. At 8:28 AM the baby was born and given to Liz, then we all had a cuddle before checking the gender (it's a girl). 

Post-Birth
After the birth, all three of us had a bit of a cuddle. I had a cuddle with Evelyn while Liz had a check from the Midwives. Evelyn also had a check and her Vitamin K injection. 

As everything was fine we were left in the room for a bit while one of the midwives completed the necessary paperwork for us. We made some calls to family members to tell everyone (even waking my Dad up again in the process). We had discussed some names beforehand and had decided upon Evelyn for a girl. 

A little after midday, someone came round with some food for Liz and we were told that we should be able to leave in a couple of hours; I let Dad know so he could get ready to come up to pick us up (after first picking up the car seat from our house). 

Liz had a shower and got dressed and gave Evelyn a feed while Dad was on his way, and we were home by 6 in the evening, which was a great improvement compared to when Liz had to stay a couple of days after Kaleb was born. 

At Home
We arrived home and showed Kaleb the new arrival,  including a little toy gift that the baby had got for him. My Mum had also had a similar thought and gave Kaleb a soft toy to give to the baby (he dropped it in her car seat), and then she also gave him some flowers to give to Liz (although he also dropped them in her car seat). 

Liz was very pleased to not have to stay in hospital for a couple of days, so we have gone out a couple of times already. We had a wander around Luton to get a couple of bits of clothes for both Kaleb and Evelyn (we didn't have much in the way of baby girl clothes), in addition to usual trips out of going to the shops and taking Kaleb to playgroup/nursery. 

My Mum has stayed with us for a couple of nights, mainly helping to look after Kaleb which has been a great help so we can focus on getting Evelyn sorted, and Kaleb gets to have extra activities done with his Nan, so he's happy. We'll have Liz's Mum visiting soon too. Liz's birthday was only a couple of days after Evelyn was born, so we have a mixture of cards on display (birthday cards, new baby cards and big brother cards for Kaleb so he doesn't feel left out). We have also had a lot of family come to visit, and I'm sure we will see more soon. 

Kaleb seems to have gotten used to Evelyn quite quickly. He strokes her head (usually) gently and likes to try and hold her on his lap sometimes. We've had to guide him away from trying to poke her in the face and towards being more gentle a couple of times, but on the whole he has been really good with her. He is a very protective big brother, once when she was on his lap and got upset, when we tried to comfort her he said "no" and pushed our hands away. Another time at nursery he was standing next to her (being held by me) and one of his nursery friends came over to have a look at the new baby, but Kaleb pushed him away and said "no" again. When she's sleeping on someone, he has occasionally gone "shhh" to other adults while she is sleeping (this is usually followed by him shouting near her, but it is a good start). 

We had the Midwife visit earlier and while it is expected that a new baby will lose some of their birth weight, Evelyn's weight has stayed the same since she was born (3330 g). 

It has been a big change bringing Evelyn into our lives. We have to get used to handling a small baby again which was a little weird at first but I think I'm getting used to it again. Like Kaleb, she is a content little baby - she feeds well and sleeps a lot, but only really cries when she wants something (usually feeding). I'm looking forward to the time ahead, it is going to be a lot of fun spending time with my growing family. 

Busy run up to the new baby

It's now less than 10 days till the due date and it seems to have come around very quickly. Time has sped along the last two months and we've recently been in a big rush to get everything ready.

Something me and Liz have always tried to do (since completing uni at least) is have a roast dinner on a Sunday. We used to growing up and why I can't remember our exact reasons for starting it outside nostalgia, it has been something we've strived to do, and something we carried on doing when we moved to Flitwick.

Cooking a Sunday roast earlier today came with the realization of how busy we have been recently as the last roast dinner we cooked in the oven was on Christmas day.

Since then we've had a mixture of birthdays and visits and haven't been in to cook, or were busy tidying so did something quicker instead. Not to say we've been without Sunday dinners of course; we've had many cooked for us by a number of relatives :-)

January

We have had a very busy January this year. Starting off in Lincoln for a week to spend time with Liz's Mum, then the weekend after we got back we had Gemma's birthday, then another round of Birthdays the weekend after that. Last weekend me and Liz were a little under the weather but managed to sort out a couple of bits on our list of things to do before the baby is born while my Dad looked after Kaleb. 

Speaking of the new baby, Liz is full term in less than two weeks (i.e. if it was born it would not be premature). That came around a lot sooner than I thought - I think this time round we found out Liz was pregnant later than we did with Kaleb, so there has been less time (slightly) for us to get ready. The baby is also due two months earlier than when Kaleb was born, so I suspect that part of me might still be remembering how far along Kaleb was around this time in the year and not adjusting correctly for the difference in due dates. 

The main thing we need to get sorted is the spare room so the new baby will have somewhere to sleep. Luckily we have made a lot of progress inasmuch that we can walk into the room as opposed to just being able to get into the doorway before needing to climb over stuff, as was the case a couple of months ago. 

Sorting the spare room is a priority, but luckily doesn't need to be completely finished by the time the baby is born as it will have a couple of months in our room in the Moses basket first. 

I think it is slowly starting to hit me how close it is to there a new baby around, so hopefully I'll be able to focus on getting the house sorted for the arrival. I just need to find some more spare time to do it all in...

Kids

I've enjoyed myself immensely since becoming a father. It's great watching Kaleb grow and learn. He seems great at figuring out how things work. Enjoying it so much that we're going to have another little one in March.

Having gotten used to chasing Kaleb around as he runs around the house, it will be interesting to be able to put his sibling down somewhere and for them to not move anywhere.

We wonder if Kaleb picked up on it as he has occasionally rested his head and blown rasberries on Liz's tummy as though he knows a little person is in there. He doesn't do it to anyone else, but I don't in new if I'm reading too much into it.

once we found out and had the first scan, it was later on than we initially thought, so the second scan came about a lot sooner than before.

It'll be interesting if it is born on it's due date, as that is Liz's birthday...

It is all very exciting :-D 

Transitions

The biggest transition I've gone through recently is going from not being a parent, to becoming a dad. Pretty big transition. Kaleb is only 9 months and he has been through many more bigger transitions than my one.

Aside from the obvious huge one of living inside Liz to becoming his own entity, he has had a number of major changes in his life - drinking only milk to also eating solid food, not being able to move to learning to roll over and then crawl along the floor are quite massive changes to go through. Having no teeth to having some pop out your gums is probably the most painful transition I've seen him go through.

Learning all these new things aren't all major changes, some are small on their own, but together indicate a big change. Earlier today Kaleb was having fun crawling round his room. He's still doing his "commando" style crawling instead of the conventional style and for a while has been able to go from sitting to laying on his front to crawl. Today, however he went from crawling to pushing himself up so he was sitting again. Before he could only transition the one way, but now it turns out he can do both. A fairly small change, but part of the bigger, and still ongoing transition of starting still to moving about on his own.

One thing I am glad about is that I don't see being a dad transitioning away from being interesting any time soon

Baby show, one year on

Last weekend, Liz, Kaleb and myself went to the baby show at the Excel center in London. I had been to this one before with Liz while she was pregnant with Kaleb, so this was the first time for Kaleb to come along too.

We went with a similar set up to the last baby show, me carrying Kaleb in a cloth wrap, him facing outwards so he could see where we were going. We brought a big rucksack too so wouldn't hurt our hands carrying too many carrier bags.

We went on a Sunday this time, so have now gone to a baby show on each of the days of the week it is on. We got the train from Flitwick, noticing one benefit of a Sunday trip to the Friday one was the ticket prices being half the Friday fair...

Into London and a couple of tube rides later, we arrive, discovering due to train announcements that there is a beauty convention and a comic convention happening at the same time.

Starting our first walk round the stalls, we learnt from our last trip that while marking down which stalls to go back to at the end so we're not carrying round a lot of bags all day, we should use the map in the guide and not the map that becomes part of a competition entry, so we don't risk not having the map when we want to use it (again).

We marked down a couple of places and then Liz entered a raffle, winning a fairly decent prize which was lucky of her. We signed up to some child development research from a uni that was there, and continued making places.

First round done, we got some lunch and reviewed our stall markings, putting extra stars next to the ones to go to first. Liz went to feed Kaleb, so I had a quick wander on my own, finding something else to look at later.

We did the second round, picking up what we wanted pretty quickly. Some reusable face wipes, gates for the stairs and kitchen door, swim towel, and a cape style towel with a hood and felt spikes down the back so the wearer looks like a dragon. Hopefuly Kaleb will like that when he is old enough to wear it.

Liz was starting to struggle with the bag getting heavy (she came down with the flu the next day which might explain it), so we got our final purchase that I spotted earlier - a cheap stroller. One benefit of the Sunday seemed to be extra discounts on the special show prices. We wanted to get a spare pushchair that folded up a lot smaller and was easier to travel with, and I had found one that looked alright and was quite cheap, so we brought it and asked one of the stall assistants to help up unpack it as we couldn't take it boxed, so Kaleb got a ride home in it.

I think he liked it, and enjoyed the day overall as he was a little tired on the train home...

Nine months on

Just at the end of February, Kaleb turned nine months. He's still happy sitting on his own, and seems to have settled on a commando style crawl as a preferred method of getting around by himself.

His feeding is getting on well; he even stated letting us feed him for a change (he has always wanted to feed himself), although that is mostly for yogurts which he can't pick up with his fingers all that well...

He started going to nursery so Liz can go to work one day during the week and enjoys himself there. We went through all the clothes for the next size up people have brought him and it looks like we have most things we're going to need which is handy. It's currently in a pile in his room ready to replace his current clothes when they start getting small, but as some are still fine now, it'll likely be a gradual replace when things get small.

Liz got him weighed the other week too, a good 8kg, and apparently  about as tall as a one year old so he had to sit on the scales instead on laying as he was too tall.

Recently we went to the baby show again to get more Kaleb related items, notably some items to Kaleb-proof the house, now that he is more mobile...

7 months of growth

Kaleb turns 8 months at the end of January. I'm sitting here wondering where the time had gone already...

My last Kaleb related post was back when he was 3 months old, and a lot has changed since then. He soon learned to roll over and hold things in his hands. Rolling over meant that he was no longer going to always stay where you put him, and it was exciting to see him being able to pick something up to interact with it.

At 6 months we started weaning him - waiting till then meant we didn't have to mess around with mushing things up quite so much and could give him solid food straight away. We did have him practicing dinner time beforehand by letting him play with a plastic spoon while we were eating, but he seems happier to just grab food with him hands directly. We've attempted to spoon feed him a few times, but he mostly prefers feeding himself.

We found out early on that he seems to like bread sticks. I think he was starting to teethe and having something he could crunch a little bit with his gums might have helped him. They're also a good shape for him to be able to hold onto. We've tried out a range of different things for him, even cooking a couple of meals that we know he can eat so he can be eating the same as us, usually changing one or two minor bits to make it more Kaleb friendly.

Speaking of teething, I discovered on Xmas eve that two little bottom teeth had poked out (he bit me...), which has changed his eating minorly; if we give him a grape he can now split it open before spitting it out, and he crunches up some food a little faster now.

Most recently he has been able to sit up on his own, which I see as a pretty big step. I found this out while he was having a bath and though it took a couple of wobbly days he can now usually sit up unaided and not always topple over if he reaches to grab something nearby.

Sitting on his own has shown that he is starting to practice to shuffle around on his bum, giving him more ways to get around. This way is a lot slower than his previous method of rolling over to cover a distance, and rotating on the spot to aim himself, but I think he likes sitting up for the time being.

He's not been crawling properly yet, mainly just rolling around, but I have seen him move along on his stomach like a little army commando crawl, so he might just sick with those. I guess only time will tell...

We have been playing peekaboo by hiding his face with a thin cloth - he finds it hilarious when it gets pulled away. So much so that he taught himself to grab it and pull it down himself.

It's crazy to think that he'll be a year old in a couple of months, I can't wait to find out what he will be able to do then!

Christmas 2012

A lot of the last month or so had been spent preparing for Kaleb's first Christmas. We were having the grandparents over so had a lot to get ready.

The holiday I had taken off work in December had been split in two; a few days at the start and the rest at the end of the month. We started off by going to London for a photoshoot that we had organised at the Baby Show. There was a bit of an issue getting there as the trains were in chaos, but we made it eventually. Kaleb was wonderful for the whole session, even after the longer than expected journey. The photos are great and we're glad we got them.

Baby Show (this time with added baby)

I took most of a week off work recently, and instead of resting like most people do when they have time off, I was busier than usual. One of the events keeping me busy was going to the Baby Show in London.  Me and Liz had been to the Baby Show earlier in the year, however Liz was "carrying" Kaleb that time as it was before he was born, and this time he came with us (and I did most of the carrying,). 

M13

I actually got to do a M13 draft the other week. We took Kaleb along to Hemel with us, to see everyone again and when we were about to start drafting, Kaleb had almost finished feeding, so we waiting so Liz cold join in too - she hadn't the last time we went with Kaleb.

As he was still awake, I conduced the draft with him on my lap, with seemed to go well, he just sat there chewing his hand as he often does. My first pick was the new Liliana planeswalker, which I took quite happily and went to get as many other black cards as I could. I had a choice between Cower in Fear and the black ring fourth pick, taking the ring, which I think was the right choice.

I hadn't finalised on a second colour in the first pack, but stared to move into green.

I built the deck fairly quickly, it had a pretty low curve but some nice finishers. Kaleb had started to get fractious by this point so my first round opponent kindly sleeved and shuffled my deck.

I won the first match and lost the next two,all the time having some very close games. I won a couple by casting Sign in Blood targeting an opponent at two life :-)

In all, I had a fun time,and it was great to see everyone again. The set is fun to play,and even has some hidden complexity for a core set. I once cast Rise from the grave on my green "Serra Spider", and started getting the bonus from the black ring because it was also black now.

The land of nod

One of the common themes or memes about having kids is the lack of sleep parents get. Another is how horrible it is to change nappies (it isn't), but that's another topic.

I get the feeling that, if this child induced lack of sleep is as bad as is made out, we have been very lucky with Kaleb not keeping us up too often. I think the worst we've had is a few nights where he woke up in the middle thereof and didn't sleep again for an hour or so, but that is rare in comparison to a 'usual' night.

Within the last month, he started to only wake once after midnight for a feed before the morning. For a while, this was sleeping through till 5, but a couple of nights he woke at 2 instead (before having a long sleep, past 5).

The timing of this one walk in the night seemed to spend on when his last evening feed was, so we started aiming to ensure he had a fairly late feed, a bit after 11, which would usually last him till 5.

For the last three nights, however, he has had his late feed as usual, but slept through till the next morning, waking around the time I get up for work. This has given us a solid six or seven hours sleep through he night, which we are pretty grateful for. Here's us hoping he continues to let us have some sleep too for the future to come :-)

Time and time again

I've mused about time and our perception of it a couple of times on this blog before. Sometimes thinking it for a by quickly without really noticing it, and maybe about how I felt I had a bit of spare time and not much to fill it with.

Luckily, the latter is no longer a problem. Between moving and looking after Kaleb, my hands have been pretty full. My only complaint here is that unboxing stuff seems to be taking ages, and I would rather be playing with Kaleb, which is a lot of fun.

My other observation, that time seems to pass by quickly, has also changed somewhat. While Kaleb has only been here about 2 and a half months, it feels longer. And the time spent together doesn't seem to zoom by quite so much, which I am happy about :-)

Injections

As Kaleb turned two months, we took him along to the doctors to get his injections. He had two at the hospital, the first being a Vitamin K injection just after he was born (the first time he cried actually), and the second time was a BCG injection (he didn't cry that time). So going into the doctors, his reaction could go either way. 

And the little one said...

Kaleb will be 7 weeks tomorrow, and its surprising how fast he's growing. Grew out of newborn clothes a few weeks back, and we can see him taking up more and more room in his Moses basket. Yet when I hold him he still seems tiny, so he's now growing too fast yet.

Developmental wise, he had a further advancement the other day. I had got back from work, send put him face down on his playmat for some "tummy time". After a bit of a wriggle, he managed to turn himself over! Laying there on his back, looking around. Liz was having an excited squee, and I tried to get a video of him doing it again, but he didn't seem up for a repaying performance.

He did the reverse later on. Sort of. I lifted his legs up to put a new nappy on and he flipped himself over onto his front. I kind of helped with that one though...

Four weeks

Kaleb is four weeks old today. The time has gone by somewhat quickly, but as I'm awake more, the days have seemed longer (I've mused about perception of time on this blog before). 


It's been a fun time. I get some times to spend with Kaleb when Liz is busy doing something and he's not asleep. At the moment, he's mostly just look around, but its nice to spend some time together. Occasionally he tries to focus on me when I'm facing him; he'll move his eyes or head around to follow if I move my head :-)

Kaleb

Bang on his due date, Liz gave birth to Kaleb, our son. 

I'm almost at the end of my paternity leave now, so thought I would write about the whole experience of the last two weeks, and the new arrival in my life. I've already done a couple of small updates on Google+ and Facebook, but nothing as substantial as this post (as with before the birth, I add more to an opt-in list on Google+, so let me know if you want to be on it to hear more updates, I think it defaults to emails if you're not on Google+). 

One week to go

After all this time, there is only one week left until I'll have some pretty big changes in my life (surprisingly caused by something so little). Well, it could be a week, it could be less, it could be more (but not too much more), but soon we'll have a little baby in our lives to care for and raise. 


I'm really looking forward to it. 

One month to go

Today, we only have one month until the baby is due. It might come earlier, or later, but there is only about one month for us to wait. 


As much as I'd love to get started on being a Dad now, I know I still have a little but longer to wait. I should be good at that, I've been doing it for the last 8 months...