How old??!

 ** Once again I started writing this about a month ago and just finishing it now!**


                      "oh my gosh, how old is he??"
I was never real excited about explaining how old our child is based on weeks as it seemed silly and reminded me of junior high where relationships lasted for a few weeks if you were lucky.  I decided I would go rogue and stick to just months.  But then he turned 8 weeks old... does that mean he's 2 months?  What about months with 5 weeks?? And there was a Leap Year in there so now I don't even know how old my kid is!  From now on it's "he's almost..." or "he just turned..." which seems to be working well for now.  By the way I'm going to be 1,716 week old this summer!



       



          
            "Just wait until your second one!"
Betsy and I have admittedly birthed a Wonder Child.  He has been sleeping a good 7-8 hours straight every night since he was 6 weeks old and he only cries when he's hungry or he's swimming in his pants.  He likes when we take him places, will sleep anywhere at any time, and even the doctor says he's a champ.  Betsy called the pediatric nurse line after he slept for 9 hours straight one time to see if that was normal- the nurse asked if she was bragging.  So, I guess we'll be prepared for Hell Child #2 but for now we have a great little roommate!

What else have we been up to?  Grandma and Grandpa Engler came to town for a week to meet Caleb and visit some family and friends.  We started their trip off with a little shower for Caleb in the old neighborhood and ended with back to back brunch/dinner parties with both sides of the family.  It's always good to see everyone and proud Grandma and Grandpa got to show off a little!  We also got Caleb baptized in the Catholic church the week after Easter and so Angie (Godmother and Betsy's sister) and Ben (Godfather and Angie's Husband) came into town with their two kids to be a part of it all.  Caleb slept through the whole service but the rest of us had a great time!

Betsy went back to work last week, so we've been taking advantage of our nights and weekends as you can imagine.  We have a changing daycare schedule for the next few months so Caleb will spend the first two weeks at Grandma and Grandpa Shellum's, then the summer with Deb, a local daycare lady, then end up for the long term at Jane's house down the road.  I think we've both contemplated being stay at home parents, so if anyone knows of a way to make a lot of money while spending all of your time at home with your child... let us know!  Also, I'm on drop off duty which means I'm late to work every day...   

 

   

Three down!

** I started writing this last week- apparently I've been distracted. **


"Parenting: living life three hours at a time."

That has been our theme song for the last two weeks.  It seems like everything we do revolves around when Caleb ate last and when he's going to need to eat again.  The little bugger spends most of the day sleeping but like clockwork he's up at the 3 hour mark ready for a bottle.  We've been sharing feeding/changing duty during the night so with a little planning and timing it right we've been getting a solid 6 hours of sleep with a few zombie moments during the middle of the night.  Not bad!

I wasn't real sure what it would be like when this kid showed up.  I think subconsciously I segmented my emotion/anxiety into parts: the drive to the hospital, the birth, and THEN what to do when we had to take him home.  The drive there was fine (except I got yelled at for every bump I hit thanks City of Mound for the shit roads!), the birthing process was actually very cool, and the drive home was good.  Then we walked into our house that used to be our sanctuary and BAM!  Oh you want to sleep in today?  Sorry you got this kid!  Oh you want to go binge watch Netflix episodes?  Sorry gotta feed this baby.  Want to go on a quick bike ride together?  Nope! Little Human here!   It's all about the baby now.

 
What have we been doing the last few weeks?

1. We spend countless hours a day listening to music, drinking coffee, and playing cribbage while Caleb sits around taking it all in.  Mornings have been our favorite since he's normally awake and the coffee is the hottest.
2.  We had to get the stink off us so we took a few hours and went to Target to get some supplies and then over to our friends Matt and Katie to see their new baby Izzy.  Matt and I smoked small cigars and sipped on bourbon to cement our bond as new daddies while the girls were inside talking about leaking boobs and peeing when they sneeze (I'm just assuming..).  It was great!
3.  A lot of diaper changing and bottle washing and swaddling and picture taking.  By the way- the books don't tell you how many of the same picture you're going to take those first few weeks.  We both have about 1,000 pictures of him sitting in his little rocker either sleeping or half sleeping.

 

I took two weeks off work so have now been back a full week.  There were a few moments where I contemplated quitting my job and becoming a stay at home Dad but then I got really stir crazy sitting at home.  Maybe not the job for me.  I did do some fun arts and crafts while on Paternity leave though.  I built a DIY video rail (see video below), brewed some beer, and started fermenting hot peppers to make my own hot sauce.  Amazing what you can accomplish in a few weeks and an endless supply of coffee!  It was also a great coincidence for Betsy that new seasons of House of Cards and Fuller House came out the same weekend Caleb was born.  And March Madness!

What else...?  Betsy is an awesome Mommy!  Did I mention that already??  She has been a champ over these last few weeks and has been loving every minute of it.  I fall more in love with her every time I see her sitting in the rocking chair reading our son a book, or how excited she is to give him a bath and pick out his outfits.  She's had a smile on her face for the last month straight (although it's hard to see in the pitch black at 3am) and she's so nervous about being a good mom that she doesn't realize how good she already is.   It's amazing how powerful and cool and scary this whole 'starting a family' thing is but I would rather do it with no one else!

I'm late for an appointment with Dr. Poopy Diaper, MD.  Until next time...

The First Few Days

Welp, we've officially mastered parenthood!  Just kidding, we're freaking out over here.  The "oh shit he's ours for real" moment has officially arrived.  I think we've done a fine job so far and we're learning a lot, but this is a real game changer guys.

I'm off work (or at least not at the office..) for two weeks so my lack of anything better to do means more pictures and blog updates for everyone!  That and we've already taken a few hundred pictures and need to do something with them.  Did I tell you about my new camera lens?!  Betsy let me buy a very nice lens for my camera so I could "better document our child's upbringing" which is true, but it's also a major upgrade to my photography equipment.  I am in fact my fathers son, so top o' the line it is!  Here is a link if you'd like to check it out or buy one for your own husband (http://kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/24-105mm.htm).  Thanks wifey!

Back to Caleb.  He's apparently a very calm and collected baby so we've been sticking to the feed, change, sleep routine with success.  And what are Betsy and I doing to keep busy?  Basically we just sit there and stare at him most of the time.  He doesn't do much but it's the most oddly satisfying thing to sit there and look at this little person we just created.  We've also had a few visitors come over which has been nice.  Our friend Katie who is pregnant with a baby girl and due later this month stopped by to get all the juicy details of the experience.  I thought it would be funny to freak her out with some "creative license" on the experience but I remembered you don't joke with a pregnant woman.  Turns out her husband is sufficiently freaked out without my intervention and immediately made her pack a hospital bag when they found out Caleb was born a week early.  Fun stuff.

Some major milestones so far:
1. I went outside today for the first time since Monday!
2. Betsy had a beer yesterday!  First one in 9 months but said it's a bit weird getting back on the wagon.
3. I got peed on already.  Apparently 3 day's is all it takes.
4. Tomorrow is our first family adventure out of the house.  1 week checkup here we come!
5. Caleb successfully pooped his diaper by the time I could take the dirty one off and put on a new one.

Picture time! (with my new lens of course)
 

Less than an hour old little man

At the Weigh In.

First bath!

    

    

Welcome to the world!

On Saturday night, February 27th, 2016, our life changed FOREVER.  Let me explain...

9 months ago we found out we were having a baby.  We were trying, but it was a big surprise and good to know that our 'plumbing' worked.  Doctors appointments were made and we started talking about names - we were off to the races.  Until we realized we didn't have a clue what we were in for and weren't ready in the least!  We also realized we needed to remodel our bathroom since it was right next to our soon to be nursery and I knew it was now or never.  So I completely remodeled our upstairs bathroom in 2 months with a wife that was 25 weeks pregnant.  Not my greatest idea ever but January 1st (my self imposed deadline) and we were back in business and on to bigger things.

Since the soon to be nursery doubled as my work area for the remodel we ended up getting new carpet, trim, paint, and took out some junk closet doors.  Betsy and her mom were ready to move in the crib and changing table and went to work on filling the room with all the things our little guy was going to need.  We knew we were having a boy but decided on a neutral tone for the room because you never know what the future will bring.  We took a few weekends to get the room ready and decided we needed a special touch.  Enter artists at work.  My friend Brandon and I created some stencil artwork and projected it onto the wall and that was that -nursery complete.  We were ready for a baby... or so we thought.

Pregnant Betsy and the wall

We woke up on Saturday morning as normal, had some coffee, listened to music, and then Betsy's water broke.  Apparently that means you're about to have a baby, so we packed the car and headed to the Maple Grove Hospital's Birthing Unit.  We had taken a tour a few weeks earlier, on a Saturday, at the exact same time, so the drive there went well.  We arrived about 1pm.  They checked us into a room and after an hour and a half of contractions 3 minutes apart the nurses came in (apparently 3 pm is shift change so they had to do rounds before coming to see us).  Betsy got a quick lesson on how painful labor contractions are and around 4pm her friend Captain Epidural came to the rescue.  This is her right after it kicked in- a major difference from before let me tell you!

I'll spare you all the details, but at 6:50pm Caleb Mackenzie Engler was born covered in white stuff and crying like a banshee!  I have never been so amazed and scared and excited and nervous and proud and relieved and happy.  100% the most powerful moment of our lives.  We just made a human!

Family Selfie!

For the next two days it was doctors and nurses and weird poop stuff and "sleep" and just coming to grips with what just happened.  Those books don't prepare you for the anxiety of constantly making sure your newborn child is still breathing.  And everyone tells you to "sleep when the baby sleeps"- bullshit... that's the scariest part!  So we trudged through the first few days the best we knew how.

Caleb was the poster child of health and is 'very symmetrical' which we're told is a good thing.  He weighed 6 pounds 14 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.  And a full head of hair to boot!  He got a few shots, a bath, and got a 'circ' which is terrible that they give it a nickname because you just cut my child's penis!  Aside from that we were taking a healthy little boy home.     

Caleb's first bath

 I'm never going to judge someone driving super slow down the freeway ever again.  We loaded the little bugger up on Monday afternoon and made the pilgrimage back to Mound slowly (but safely stop tailgating me you asshole!).   Crazy how they just let you leave with the kid like that and don't even question if you're fit to do so.  Let the games begin! 

He seems content so that's good!

With so much family living out of state we thought this would be a great way to share our experiences and pictures with everyone, not to mention serve as a diary of our attempt at parenting.  We hope you enjoy it!  We already love Caleb more than I think we either thought possible and we are excited to share this adventure with you.

Love,
Betsy, Mick, and Caleb.