Jonathan & Holly

I have two more weeks to go before returning to my full time job at Joseph J. Peters Institute. I’m nervous for this newest transition from full time mom to full time child therapist and part time mom. Thankfully, it does not seem like we will have any trouble finding people to watch our little one for the first couple of weeks while Jon finishes up his school semester. So many friends have volunteered to take a day watching Caleb and my mom is wanting, willing and able to come for a few days to hang out with the boy. Also, my lovely neighbor Agnes told us about a friend of hers, Hazel, who watches babies and kids in her home. Apparently Agnes trusts her to the utmost with her grandchildren who love Hazel. We’ll keep her in mind if and when we might need a more full time, permanent child care situation.

Yesterday Caleb drank from a bottle for the first time (pumping is a crazy experience!). Jon gave it to him while i sat opposite them and pouted on the couch. I can’t believe how overwhelming these feelings of loving him and wanting to be near him are. I’ve always liked kids but never knew this kind of feeling of love and attachment for them. It seems like went that child is your own it’s a whole new ballgame of feelings and experience. Anyway, so yes, the bottle feeding when well for the most part. Caleb took the bottle from Jon the first time and drank about 1 oz. but then wasn’t interested anymore. The second time he tried later in the afternoon, he didn’t want it at all so I nursed him instead. We’ll keep trying and giving him little bits at a time to get him more and more comfortable with drinking to fulfill his hunger needs with the bottle.

I’ve also started a baby journal for Caleb which I hope Jon and I will motivate one another to be diligent about completing monthly. I’ve never been one to follow through with journaling, though i’ve always wanted to be that disciplined of a person. Hopefully the anticipation that Caleb will love something like this when he gets older will be motivation enough for the both of us. It is fun to write down the story of his birth, jot down little firsts and special things he would never know about if Jon or I didn’t tell him about. For instance, yesterday while walking home from visiting the Snook family, he was in the carrier and was hungry so he found his thumb and sucked on it for a full 15 minutes to soothe himself until we got home where i could feed him. and the day before he cried his first real tears…so sad!

here’s some newer pictures of caleb. He’s now 6 weeks old, going on 7. He weighed in at 14 lbs 7 oz. last thursday at my 6 week check up with my midwives!