The Growing Caldwell Family

It's hard to say for sure  how big your baby will be , but the average newborn weighs about 7 1/2 pounds ( a small pumpkin ) and is about 20 inches long. The biggest part of your baby's body is his head, but his still-pliable skull will give it the flexibility necessary to squeeze through the birth canal. Many parents are surprised by how long and sharp their newborn's nails are from the get-go.  Clipping them right away  (ask a nurse for help) can prevent your baby from scratching his face.  Somehow I am anticipating that Chubby weighs more than 7 1/2 pounds!

We went into the weekend hoping that Chubby might want to come a few days early.  We have pretty much everything in place for him and feel as ready as we will ever be.  Clearly, he didn't share the idea. We had a good day Saturday, but I could tell that Sarah Graves didn't feel quite like herself (a little more clingy and lethargic than usual) and she took a nap for over four hours!  Then, she woke during the night on Saturday night crying that her ear hurt.  We got her some Motrin and I laid down with her until she got back to sleep and she slept quite late on Sunday. Not knowing what the week would hold, I wanted to get her looked at by the pediatrician, but we didn't want to miss her last Little Gym class either.  We hurried to her pediatrician who has hours on Sunday, but they are by appointment only.  So, we headed to a minute clinic in hopes of getting in and out before gym class.  They were super-speedy and really nice to her.  She had ...

 I have some really sweet co-workers who got together and gave us a Baby Sprinkle on Friday afternoon.  I had never heard of a sprinkle before, but it is a small shower for a mom who has already had one or more babies and only needs small things like clothes.  My co-workers gave us a shower for Sarah Graves and I felt bad to have another full out shower, but a sprinkle seemed like a nice way to celebrate Chubby's much anticipated arrival!  Ms. Algia just adores Sarah Graves and was a big part of putting this sprinkle together.  Sarah Graves refers to her as Ms. Gia.  They played the game where everyone takes a piece of string and tries to guess how much is needed to go around me.  My director, Joe, came the closest because he made his very short and was the only one who didn't go over!  Here are some of the members of my team, the Organizational Effectiveness team.    Sarah Graves was just precious throughout the eve...

Yesterday was my 39 week check-up. Chubby and I are both doing fine. He is head down with his head getting low. He is on his side, but he can still rotate during labor. Having his back against my belly would be the easiest for labor, but this can work. I was a little disappointed to learn that because I am now 35 they want to do more testing at 40 weeks before letting me go past my due date. It is one of those statistical things that after 35 the lifespan of the placenta gets shorter. They aren't exactly sure at what age, so they picked 35 to be on the safe side. In order to reduce risk, they recommend ultrasound and being on the monitor to ensure baby is doing well. It isn't that I don't want to know Chubby is doing well, my concern is that this could be the start of interventions that take me away from the birth I want. Ultrasounds are notoriously wrong at identifying a baby's weight and I am concerned it may suggest Chubby is big and they will want to ind...

My boss decided that since they had their backyard all ready for a party, they would host another!   This time they put out what has to be a kid's greatest dream!  A bounce house with water spraying on it connected to a water slide.  The kids had a ball playing on this.  I wasn't sure what our big girl would think because all the other kids were a bit older than her.  After watching them for a minute, she told me she wanted to do it and she was off!  The slide would dump her under water, but she didn't care!  She popped back up and would slowly paddle her way to the side to go again.  I love her adventurous spirit! She had a great time checking out their son's toys and then did what is the most embarrassing thing!  We had gotten her changed into her regular clothes and she was sitting on their sofa when she had a huge pee pee accident.  She soaked her training pants, her shorts, and of course, their sofa!  They were s...

We have known since before we were married that Aaron wanted to name a boy Charles after his granddaddy. I like debating names, so I kept throwing out possibilities, but he was set. We did agree that we will call him Charlie. The middle name was harder. We had several good family names in the running and have debated them over and over. We finally decided on Matthew for the middle name after Aaron's dad. It also happens that Aaron's great grandfather was Charles Matthew. His official name will be Charles Matthew Caldwell, but I'm afraid he may always be Chubby to us! Let the monogramming begin!

Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds,  a mini watermelon . (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath. Chubby has slowed his movements down, but he still finds time in the day to kick and squirm a bit.  Gone are the days of rapid tumbling around.  I feel like he has moved a little lower, but a lot of people look at me and say he is still high.  Knowing that he may not really drop until well into labor, I try not to be too concerned with it.   As we get closer to the end I get more and more excited to see this baby's face and share him with his family.  There is a lot of anticipation right now, but we are staying pretty relaxed knowing that babies come when they are ready.