Trip to Nantucket, Rolling Over Constantly & Visit with Steve's Family

Last Thursday Jen and I took Caleb to Nantucket for the day. I went for work, but it was a really easy work day. All I had to do was count the number of passengers coming off and going on to all of our competitor's boats. We took the 8:00 am boat, which I was a little leery of, because usually Caleb goes back to sleep for 2 hours in the morning and I knew he wouldn't be able to do that. I was hoping to feed him around 6:00, but of course he woke up earlier than usual around 4:45, so instead of trying to get him to go back to sleep until 6:00, I just got up and fed him and then put him back to bed until 7:15 when we had to leave. That actually worked out pretty well. I fed Caleb again a little bit on the boat ride over (which is an hour long) and it was actually a little bit of a bumpy ride, which neither Jen or I like. We did ok, though. It was a cool and cloudy day, which actually we enjoyed because it was better than being 90 degrees.

Caleb's first boat ride!

Since Caleb didn't get his usual amount of sleep, he started to get tired close to 10:00. I had him in the stroller, so I just laid the back of the stroller down so he could rest and no joke, he was asleep in about 1 minute, so I was ecstatic, because I didn't know how he was going to do napping. He only slept around 30 minutes, but that was fine with me.

In between counting all of the passengers, we did a little shopping and went to visit the ticket sellers that I work with. Caleb started to get tired again around 12:30, so I laid the stroller back down again, and again, he was asleep in about 1 minute. I really couldn't believe it!! I think it was the combination of just being tired and the cool air and the bumpy movement of the stroller.

The last boat we had to count left at 1:25 and then we took a 3:15 boat home, so we had a good chunk of time and were able to get some lunch. We both got a good sandwich, but it was super expensive on the island. Oh well. We expected that. During lunch, Caleb was just staring at the people at the table next to us (it was pretty close quarters). Luckily, they thought he was pretty cute and kept waving at him.

Dazed!

 

We were a little nervous that the trip home would be rough too, but it was better than the trip over. I fed Caleb on the boat ride back, and he was tired, so he was sleeping while he was eating and pretty much did that the whole ride home, which was great. All in all, it was a good day, I got paid for 8 hours, and I got to spend time and have fun with Jen! And the weather was very fall-like, which was actually a nice change from the heat we've been having.

 

Eating a teething biscuit for the first time!

The boat ride home

 

On Friday, I worked and Caleb went to Grammy's, of course. He didn't sleep for very long for her in the morning, but then he took a nap in the stroller when they went to the mall later that morning. Since he took a nap so early, I had Jen try to get him to take a second nap in the afternoon, and he wouldn't do it. He just will not take two naps for the life of him!! Here are a couple of pictures from Grammy!

 



Sabbath morning we were going to go up to Caroline & Corey's for the day to see Steve's family. On our way, we stopped in Stoneham to see our friends Neil and Tina. Tina has brain cancer and is not doing well, so we really wanted to stop and see them. She wasn't very awake when we were there, so we mostly visited with Neil, but Neil did get her to wake up for a couple of minutes, and although she couldn't talk, she did reach out her hand and touch Caleb, which was very sweet. Here is a picture of Caleb playing on her bed in between her legs.

 

After our visit, we went to Caroline and Corey's church and Caleb fell asleep in the car on the way there, so I stayed in the car with him for a little while and Steve went into church. We had gotten there very late anyway, but by the time Caleb and I went in, church was just getting over. We went to Caroline and Corey's house for the rest of the day and had a good time. We had haystacks for lunch and then we just visited all afternoon. Here are some pictures to document our day!

 

Aunt Caroline tempting Caleb with a book

Having fun reading with Aunt Caroline

He kept wanting to grab the pictures off the page

Trying to pull Great Grandma Gadway's glasses chain

Playing with Uncle Corey

Uncle Corey put that on his head

Showing off his standing up skills

Intrigued by Grandpa's foot

Yes, that actually is in his mouth

Enjoying the teething biscuit again

Getting ready to Skype with Aunt Amy & Uncle Greg

Supper before we left

 

I fed Caleb for bedtime at their house so we could stay later, although I ended up having to go into a different room because he was too distracted with everything else going on. We left around 8:30 and it took Caleb a little while to go to sleep in the car, but he fell asleep around 9:10 and slept the rest of the way home and had no trouble transferring into his crib, which was a good thing.

 

Warning for any men who might be reading this: what I am about to talk about next may be a little TMI, but I want to document it for future reference. Partway through the afternoon on Sabbath my left breast really started to hurt and felt like it does when it is really full, but Caleb had just eaten. I fed him off that one again and it still felt the same way, so I realized something was wrong. It also really hurt when I touched it, so I figured I had developed mastitis because earlier in the week it had been cracked and I know that's one way to develop mastitis. Anyway, it was very hard to sleep on Saturday night and I actually had to get up at 3:00 in the morning and pump to relieve some of the pain. Then Caleb was up pretty early and so I was exhausted. Normally I get up and work on Sunday morning, but I was so tired and didn't feel good from the infection, so I actually went back to sleep when Caleb did and slept another couple of hours, which ended up being very helpful. I also had a low-grade fever (99.8) and just basically didn't feel good. I called my doctor that morning and she prescribed an antibiotic and by the next day I was feeling much better.

 

So, Sunday was a different day than usual. Steve went to help David and Yully move into their new house, so he wasn't around to take care of Caleb. I ended up only working about 4 hours and figured if I couldn't make up the rest throughout the rest of the week, I could always take a 1/2 sick day if I needed to. After I fed Caleb again, he was showing signs of being tired around 11:00, which is not his normal nap time, so I figured I would put him in his crib and see if he would fall asleep. Sure enough, he fell asleep and ended up sleeping close to 2 hours, which was crazy. Of course, he then wouldn't take a nap later in the afternoon, but oh well. I can always get him to take a little snooze while nursing if he won't take a nap, so that is usually my fall-back plan. My dad had been gone last week on a business trip, so he hadn't seen Caleb in awhile, so when I went out to get my prescription, Caleb and I stopped by the office to see my parents and so Caleb could show off his rolling over skills. Grampy was very excited to see him!

 

 

Steve was gone all day and got back around 5:00 and then we met my family and Jen's parents who are visiting for the week at the Thai restaurant for supper. Jen's mom really loved Caleb and held him for quite awhile. At the end, while she was holding him, he leaned over and was playing with Jen's dad's hair and it was pretty funny.

 

 

 Monday morning this is the picture I got when I got Caleb up from his crib the second time. He is such a cutie!

 



I tried to give Caleb pieces of a banana on Monday and it didn't go too well, as usual. I'm just not sure what to do to get this kid to eat real food!! I will just keep trying and eventually it will click, just like the rolling over just clicked one day.

Looks like he wants it, but he just wanted to play with the banana and the plate

Speaking of the rolling over, that is all Caleb wants to do now. He rolls over in his crib, sometimes even when he is swaddled. Every time he is on the floor, he is rolling back and forth, and he is just all over the place! It is so ironic how I tried for so long to get him to roll over, "practicing" with him, and he wouldn't do it. Then it just clicked one day and he is crazy! I think he might start crawling soon, but I might be wrong. I heard Westin is now crawling, so maybe he will teach Caleb in Nova Scotia! Maybe he can teach Caleb to eat food too!! I think we will be working on those 2 things in Nova Scotia!

Monday morning we went out to do our last Nova Scotia grocery shopping. I used the shopping cart cover I had gotten from Alison for the first time. Not because of germs, because I am really not a germ-phobe at all, but because of the padding. It was really nice actually, and I think I will definitely use it on longer shopping trips.

 

I put Caleb down for his nap a little later than usual and he ended up sleeping for just under 2 hours, so I was ecstatic!! It is amazing how much better my attitude is when he takes a good nap! I get so frustrated when he only sleeps 30 minutes! Monday night when Caleb had his bath, he sat up in the big tub for the first time. He has loved his little baby tub, but just recently he has been wanting to sit up, so good-bye baby tub! He is a big boy now!

 

 

Tuesday was laundry day to get ready for Nova Scotia. We also took a quick trip to the Centerville library to get a couple of things. Again, I kept Caleb awake a little longer than usual and put him down for his nap late. We had a little struggle to actually fall asleep. The problem I am having right now is that I am not swaddling Caleb at night but I am still swaddling him in the morning and at nap time. The morning is fine because he is pretty tired, but at nap time, he is such a wiggle worm now that he keeps getting out of his swaddle. I tried to just leave him out of the swaddle for his nap, but he was over every square inch of his crib, so after awhile, I re-swaddled him and he did go to sleep and ended up sleeping 2 hours and 15 minutes! I was so happy because that is 3 days in a row that he has taken really good naps!!

 

Tuesday afternoon I started doing a lot of packing for Nova Scotia. While I was packing in my room, Caleb was rolling around on the bed and here are a couple of cute pictures.

 

 

Another cute thing this week is Caleb has really started noticing the dogs. He reaches out his hand to touch them when they get close and lets them lick him. He also likes to watch them and see what they are doing. He is definitely a very curious baby, but I think that's pretty normal!

 

 

Yesterday Caleb went to Grammy's house and they had a good day. Grammy got a lot of good pictures of Caleb playing with some new toys. He didn't sleep very long at her house in the morning, but ended up taking 2 (yes, 2!) naps both in his car seat during the day.

 

This is probably why he didn't sleep very long - he wiggled out of his swaddle

 

Wendy at the office who really loves Caleb's visits!



 



Caleb also went to Rad and Jen's house for an hour while my mom did a little work and Jen text me this picture of her mom and Caleb and said her mom really enjoyed him!

Last night we continued to get ready for Nova Scotia and Steve has pretty much packed the car. This morning I had a couple hours of work to do to make my goal for the week (didn't have to use any sick time like I was thinking) and then the rest of the day has been spent doing odds and ends to get ready to go. I just have a couple more things to do, like pack a cooler at the last minute, and then we are ready! We are leaving at Caleb's bedtime tonight and picking up Aunt Melanie in Braintree and then we are off! I am praying we have a good trip because we have never done such a long trip with Caleb before. It usually takes us about 13 hours, but I imagine it will be longer than that this year. So, needless to say, there will be no blog post next week. In 2 weeks, I will do a Nova Scotia summary. I am so excited to go and spend time with my cousins and have Caleb spend time with his cousins as well. We will miss the ones that can't be there a lot, but it will still be fun to spend time with everyone who is there. I will close with a couple of pictures!

Before he decided he wanted to be in the big tub

Love the expression, even though he's blinking

Still loves the Johnny jump-up

Uh-oh! Almost time for child locks!

I gave him a sippy cup of water for the first time and he didn't completely reject it, but was more interested in playing with it and banging it against the walker.

Clapping after bath time!