Cade Michael - 1 Month (+1 Day)

This last month has been pretty interesting to say the least. Everyone in the family is madly in love with Cade. He's cute as can be and we're happy to have him in our family.

Cade Micheal - 1 Month

Having said that, I have a motherly confession...he's hard to like sometimes. I know that sounds awful and it's not something I'm supposed to say but speaking with other mothers, it's a totally natural feeling. You see, Cade can get pretty fussy and stay that way for long periods of time.....better known as colicky. When you haven't slept in months (yeah, I know it's only been 1 with him but I didn't sleep much the last few months of pregnancy either) and you hear incessant screaming that none of your efforts seems to sooth, your nerves get pretty frayed. When your temper is short, you sometimes aren't too happy with the little being constantly screaming at you. Cade already knows how to play me though. After a particularly rough day at the end of last week, I made the confession to Mike that I didn't like Cade very much. Of course, the next day, he was an absolute angel and was a great cuddler. Made me like him a lot again. What a crafty little fellow already!

In just one month of life, Cade has already changed a lot. Physically, he's grown a ridiculous amount. I'm going to try to avoid comparing him to Dylan too much since I'm sure that won't be appreciated in the future, but it's impossible not to in some ways since Dylan's been my only up close baby experience up to this point. For weight gain these two boys have been night and day. With Dylan, I had lots of breast feeding issues and he was only 10 ounces over his birth weight at 1 month - 7 pounds 14 ounces. By comparison, Cade was 8 pounds 5 ounces at birth and at his 4 week check up today measured 10 pounds 3 ounces on the scales. Wow!

Here are his 1 month stats from his wellness visit today:
Length - 22 inches - 79%
Head Circumference - 15.25 inches - 94% (Wow)
Weight - 10 pounds 3 ounces - 58%

Here are some other physical observations\achievements:
Even though it's ridiculously early for these things and probably a fluke - we witnessed him roll both from his stomach to his back and back to side this week.
He likes to kick and flail his arms about.
Sometimes, when all other methods fail us to sooth him, we lay him down. Sometimes he likes it so giving him "alone time" has become one of our first go to's when we need him to chill out.

Developmentally, we're seeing signs of the aging as well. While he cries quite a lot, he's also beginning to talk in other ways. Cooing and sqwaking. Sometimes I have to go look at him to make sure his noises aren't unhappy ones. What can I say, we're still learning a lot about him. He's been smiling lots in his sleep, as most babies do, but today he smiled at his Daddy while his head was being pet. It will be nice when the smiling starts happening more and the screaming starts happening less.

While it's been amazing to have Cade in our family this last month, it's been a trying month for us all in other ways. My first week home from the hospital was really rough due to pain from my episiotomy. Almost 3 weeks ago, Dylan had conjunctivitis (pink eye) which was likely viral since he broke out in hives a few days later and lasted for 10 plus days. Then we thought Cade had conjunctivitis and took him in but it was a blocked tear duct. The next day was Cade's 2 week check up. 3 visits to the pediatrician in 4 days wasn't ideal. The next week, Mike was fighting a cold and then got conjunctivitis himself. Last weekend, Dylan got a stomach bug. This week, I've been feeling lousy (fatigues and achy) and (of course) got conjunctivitis too. Individually, none of these things was horribly traumatic, but all together it's been really tiring and frustrating to deal with so many ailments in such a short time. In total, we've collectively accumulated 6 doctors visits in the last 2 and a half weeks. 4 too many (since 2 were Cade's wellness visits). We're shooting for no more until Cade's 2 month check up.

Enjoy these photos from the last couple of weeks!

Ear Hair - One of Cade's Quirks
He's Like A Little Old Man 

Cade with his cousin Emily.

She likes him a lot!

She likes both of our boys a lot.
(The feeling is mutual.)

Dylan "playing" with Oliver
I'm happy he'll have a brother to play with in a year or so.
I don't think Oliver appreciates the playing as much as Cade likely will.

My Boys + Waffles = Excellent Morning