So...

So....I haven't been blogging b/c Caleb is HERE!!!! I'm pretty sure that everyone who reads this blog already knows this.

As you can imagine, I've not had a ton of time to blog. Things are wonderful, Caleb is great, fantastic, amazing, gorgeous!

The hardest part of everything so far is breastfeeding - not the act itself, but trying to determine whether he's eating enough. He has weird eating schedules and either only nurses in 'snacks' between falling asleep at the boob or eating for hours on end and then seeming like he's absolutely still starving. In those cases, I usually end up giving him a bottle of some breastmilk, which typically satisfies him - thus reinforcing for me that he's not getting enough at the boob when he nurses for so long. The breastfeeding consultant I've met with and who I saw today at a BF support group hates that - and says that the breast always provides exactly as much food as your baby needs. We'll see. For now this is working.

When we first got home we had to supplement with some formula - which I hated to do, but it was b/c he wasn't pooping and they wanted to avoid him getting jaundice. Thankfully, that's been out of the picture pretty much all of this week, I think. Hard to tell - I typically don't know what day it is.

Today we went to our first Breastfeeding support group. That was fun, there were like 5 moms there, all my age and we just talked about managing babies and life, etc. It was nice to be with other moms of babies. Afterwards, Caleb and I went to Whole Foods and had lunch with Ann Marie. That was fun too. Caleb was a good baby and slept while we were at Whole Foods and slept/nursed while we were at the BF group.

I don't have too many pictures right now, but you can see some at Alex's blog. For whatever reason, Alex likes to take pictures of Caleb while I'm nursing him - there's nothing indecent to see in the picture, it's usually just close-ups of Caleb's hands, toes, back, etc. But I've requested that he take some that actually include me in them so that I can post them.

Take care-
Shaleen.

Night of Worship - 2009

Last weekend, our church held its second annual Night of Worship. It was awesome. After the concert they release a Live Album of all of the songs. I think this year was more awesome than last year's concert. All of the songs from the concert are written by the worship pastors across all of our 5 campuses as well as the worship leaders in our high school and middle school ministries - a bunch of really talented people!

This is the also the second year that Alex has been able to document the concert. Here is a photo-music video of Alex's favorites - set to one of the songs. Just a caveat that this is a 'raw' version of a live song - not yet cleaned up for the album.



You can see some of the photos on Alex's blog.

My friend - the author

So our friend, Jeff, wrote a book. How cool is that? Jeff is the high school pastor at my church, Christ Fellowship. Not only are he and his wife some of the all around greatest people that Alex and I know - but now he's an author as well!

This is the promotional video for his book.

Everything is Amazing, Nobody is Happy

This guy might be my hero for today...just for saying it like it is!

Maternity Photos

I want to give a big, BIG thank you to a photographer friend of Alex's - who shall remain anonymous - who took these maternity photos. She and her husband also run a wedding/photo business and we've worked with them at weddings in the past when they've done video and we've done the photos. They are wonderful. They were very excited when they learned we were having a baby and offered to shoot maternity photos - however, she asked that she remain anonymous as this was a gift to us. So sweet.

So here are the photos - they are SO nice. We shot at a couple of locations around Miami's Design District.

The things people say

Every pregnant woman gets TONS of unsolicited advice. Some of it is helpful. We also get TONS of unsolicited statements about what to expect - most of that is NOT helpful. I've learned that the vast majority of people liked to warn me about all the unpleasant things that come with pregnancy.

Fortunately for me, I have had SUCH a smooth pregnancy. Really uneventful with my only lasting and really frustrating symptom being heartburn that is more than anything I ever imagined. If you want gross details, I can give those. The funny thing, is that the unpleasant warnings keep coming. When I tell people that I've had an easy pregnancy, I would say that slightly more than half feel the need to say something like: "Oh, then you're probably going to have a HORRIBLE labor." What am I supposed to say to that? "Oh gee, thanks for that." So silly.

But lately, the advice I've been getting is really fun. Since we are pretty open with telling people that we are praying for Caleb to come at ANY time earlier than our due date, I am getting SO much advice on how to induce labor. Here's what I've got so far:

1. Taking evening primrose oil capsules 4x per day. This one came from a midwife. So I'm on top of that one.

2. Eating eggplant. This one came from Emily. I did try this on Thursday night, I went and got Eggplant Parm for dinner and ate the second half at lunch the next day - so far nothing. But it was VERY delicious, so I may eat it again this week.

3. Go to Brookstone and get a massage in a massage chair. This woman I know told me that this worked for 2 of 3 of her kids. This was actually told to me when I ran into her at the mall - so I did, in fact, go to Brookstone and got an awesome 15 minute massage in an expensive chair. While sitting there I think that this actually may have worked for her. You see, I've learned that there are two pressure points on the body that can induce labor - one in the hand, and one on the inside of the leg just below the calf. That chair spent a solid 10 minutes massaging my calves. So there may have been something to that. The massage was awesome, so I may go to Brookstone again next week - even if I don't go into labor, it was very relaxing.

4. I will know that labor is 'imminent' when my lips start to get weird looking and puffy. Told to me by a friend at church. Again, perhaps may have been true for her, I've read that just before going into labor a lot of women will have a lot of swelling even if they haven't had it throughout the pregnancy. So...I will keep an eye on my lips.

5. Eat: pineapple, spicy food

6. Other practical things - walking, and other physical things to induce labor.

Does anyone have anything else to add???

Also - feel free to start picking dates that I may go into labor. My actual due date is March 15. We are praying for around the 8th.