What a week...

I seriously love this kid. Let's forget for a second that he's super adorable, that he sleeps like a rock, and that he's only peed on me twice (Justin's winning, in case you wondered...he's been hit five times). All that aside, he's just awesome.

It's been quite a week as we've tried to adjust to having a new little one and a toddler to deal with. Seventeen months, one day, 23 hours and 40 minutes is a long time...unless you're Abby and that's the amount of time you've had all to yourself with your parents. Going from only child to big sister is a process, not an event. She's great with her new little brother, and very attuned to all his little coos and cries. Every time she hears Caleb make a noise she has to go check on him, and her preferred method of trying to settle him down is to pile as many stuffed animals as possible on top of him in an effort to muffle the sound. It's not until she starts piling legos and refrigerator magnets on him that we really have to watch her. The lack of one-on-one attention, combined with an early onset of the Terrible Twos, is definitely making her more difficult to deal with now, but I'm confident we'll get into our groove soon. Thankfully she's young enough that she really won't remember a time when she was an only child.

Caleb is suffering from Fourth Trimester Syndrome, which our pediatrician laughingly explained is a problem some babies have when they think they're still in the womb and all they want to do is sleep and be cuddled. (Although I'm having a little bit of trouble with seeing "your baby sleeps too much" as a problem...) This is most noticeable when it comes to feeding time. Caleb simply will not wake up to eat. Period. Under the supervision of our doctor, we have a few approved baby torture methods that we've employed to try to get him awake enough to eat for more than 2 minutes, including dipping his legs in cold water, flicking the bottom of his feet, tucking cold wipes under his armpits and stripping him down to his diaper to keep him from getting too warm and cozy. Cruel, I know, but not nearly as cruel as letting him starve. Feedings take, on average, no less than an hour, and usually result in about 15-20 minutes of actual eating. This is mildly tolerable during the day, but infuriating at night when I would love to be back in bed instead of coaxing a sleeping baby awake to feed him. Thankfully, he's only eating every four hours at night, so I'm getting a good three hour nap in between feedings during the twilight hours. However frustrating it may be, whatever we're doing seems to be working. He was back up past his birth weight at 5 days old, weighing in at a hefty 8 pounds, 2 ounces.

We are overwhelmed with Caleb's cuteness and already plotting ways to style this mop of thick dark hair he surprised us with. Stay tuned for a faux hawk or some cool spikes to make their debut soon. When he is awake, he's very alert and we can really appreciate the gorgeous deep blue eyes he has. He's started tracking things (like his crib mobile) with his eyes and is proving to be a very strong little boy with an astounding amount of neck control for such a little baby. He's already got some very boyish traits, including the world's stinkiest newborn farts and poos (I thought breastfed babies weren't supposed to stink?), sweaty underarms and rumbling little belches.

Every time I look at (or get a whiff of...) this precious little one I'm reminded of God's faithfulness to us in bringing us our son. What started off as a pregnancy with a lot of uncertainties has turned into a great testimony of God's grace and healing. To those who prayed with and for us and for little Caleb, we cannot say thank you enough.

Did I mention he's awesome?