Good sleep!

After his 10:00 p.m. feeding Cole went until 4:00 a.m. before waking up! He took a while to get back to bed, but after I did get him down he went until 8:20. I think my body actually got to the R.E.M. stage of sleep. I felt good this morning. Swank Kids

Knowledge

Tonight we were on an after-dinner walk around the neighborhood. Makaila was picking up sticks and leaves and stepping on all the large rocks. Chad told her some rocks near her were called lava rocks. Makaila said to him, "You know everything." We thought we needed to document this moment because soon she may change her opinion.Swank Kids

Caterpillar Day

Makaila asked to do a craft for this past Friday. I decided to take advantage of Grammy being a teacher and told her she could plan a craft for Makaila. Grammy decided they would read The Hungry Caterpillar, do the new Hungry Caterpillar puzzle (she had just given Makaila) and make a Hungry Caterpillar craft. I decided to add in calling it "Caterpillar Day" and making a Caterpillar Sandwich for lunch.Swank Kids

Cole's Health

Last week we received some bad news. The results from Cole's 2-week old health screen showed increased adrenal levels. This means the possibility of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH). We just heard the news last Thursday. Of course we had no idea what that really meant, so we went to the internet to learn some info. The good thing about the internet is you find things out quickly, the bad thing is you also see the worst case senario. It was quite scary reading about the severe form of CAH. It was really hard to thing about this newborn sleeping quietly in your arms and think there could be anything wrong with him.

After talking with some people in the medical field, we know he can't have the severe form of the disease. If he did they would have sent us to the hospital immediately because it is life-threatening. Even with the mild form means meds every day for the rest of his life. It can mean early puberty, difficulty responding to stress, and being more susceptible to illness. There is also the possibility of his hormone levels just being temporarily high (since he was close to being a premie and slightly low weight) and when retested they can be normal. We were referred to a pediatric endocrinologist and will see her on Friday. So, at this point we are just waiting and praying that when retested everything comes out normal. If he does have the mild form of the disease, we'll have to learn about it and how to take care of it then. Swank Kids

The "WHY's" have it

Makaila has suddenly started into the round of "why?" questions in response to anything she doesn't like. I thought we didn't hit this stage until age 4 or 5, but she's there. And it is definitely a little harder to deal with when I can't seem to get more than 5 1/2 hours of sleep no matter what time I go to bed. This morning was one of those why mornings. And since I was tired I wanted to strangle her. This morning we we at Target by 8:45 since we were already up and I needed to get out of the house.

This afternoon she spent some time at her friend Mattie's house. I was thrilled to see her this evening and didn't even mind reading the same Berentain Bear book we've read at least once a day since Aunt Jamie gave it to her. It is amazing what a little sleep and alone time can do!Swank Kids

Sleeping

We're still working on teaching Cole the difference between day and night. He is still a very sleepy baby (as expected), but many times he will go back to sleep easier in the day than at night. Last night wasn't the best as he ate at 10pm, midnight, 3am and then didn't go back to sleep until 4:30am. But the good thing was that he then slept until 7:15 so it worked out pretty good for us getting up for church. Today was his second visit to church and he slept through the service and just woke up at the very end.

He had his second bath today and doesn't like all the changing clothes and being cold during the process. I was faster this time, but maybe because we weren't trying to take pictures while bathing. He also doesn't care much for having his diaper changed and occasionally will remind me he is a boy by peeing everywhere if I'm not ready. Swank Kids

Water broke!

Today is Cole's due date and he is three weeks old. He surprised us to say the least. My water broke on the morning of Friday, 8/18/06 which was 2 weeks before my scheduled repeat c-section. We didn't have a single thing packed. Chad did not even think being in labor was possibility when I called him that day at work. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off because it was incredibly hard for me to concentrate on what needed to go in my bag. After Chad trying to rush me out of the house and me making him stop to water plants and take some this is the big day pictures we finally left for the hospital. They called us on the way to see where we were. I didn't think to change my pad before going, so as I'm waiting for the elevator I realize it looks like I wet my pants! I was embarassed until another pregnant woman riding up the elevator with me asked me when I was due. I was able to tell her, "I'm having my baby today." She let me off the elevator first.

We arrived at 11:30 and at 2:04 Cole Layton Swank was born. Chad shook nervously the whole surgery until they we heard him cry. We had known his name, but I had stuck the baby name book in my bag in case it was a girl since we still hadn't agreed. Cole was born at 36 weeks and 6 days. He was 5 lb, 10 oz. He was 17 3/4 inches long. He was small, but a perfectly healthy little boy. After he was wrapped in a blanket they brought him over and let Chad hold him and stay by me the entire time they sewed me up.Swank Kids