Three weeks old

Calvin is now 3 weeks old. And he is an awesome son and brother. We had a doctor well visit last Friday for his 2-week checkup. He weighed in at 10 lb 12 oz and is 21.25 inches in length. The kid is growing...which is no surprise given how well he eats. Although he spits up all the time, like ALL the time, he apparently is getting enough food and is growing. He spits up so much Ellie and I have taken to changing the words to he song "He's a Bit of a Fixer-Upper" from frozen with the new lyrics, "he's a bit of a spitter-upper!"

Calvin got a giant tiger from his Grandparentals Van. He also got a little tiger from his Aunt Susie. We have named both Hobbes. He was a little frightened at first, but then he realized they were pretty cool.

We started tummy time  with him. He is pretty strong and will hold his head up and has some control. However, tummy time is not a favorite for him. However, if Ellie gets on the floor with him it seems to calm him down and he enjoys it more.

The stub of his belly button fell off last week. And so now we have transitioned to gDiapers, just like we did with Ellie. They are hybrid diapers (could use a cloth or a disposable liner in them) and are much cuter and better for him and the environment than disposables.

Bathtime is not a favorite event for him. He doesn't like being cold...so that throws a bit of a wrench into the whole bath experience. We try and make it go as fast as we can, but he still cries the whole time. However, he got a personalized towel as a gift which is really cute and soft and that seemed to have calmed him down (or the towel was just warm and it made him much happier).

Calvin has really taken interest and a liking to his sister. Although his eye sight isn't that great yet, he will track her voice and noise around a room. When she talks or sings to him it seems to calm him down. Some mornings I will find her reading to Calvin to keep him calm while I'm getting ready or getting breakfast for her. Its a win-win situation for me. She practices reading and he is quiet and calm! Its awesome.

Yesterday Nick and Cal celebrated Opening Day by watching the Cubs on TV. Well Nick watched...Cal just started at his dad and listened to the Cubs announcers. Although the Cubs lost in extra innings (Calvin seemed to take it personal by fussing and being very upset) both looked very handsome in their Cubs gear.

All things considered Calvin is an awesome kid. He is fussy when he's gassy or spitting up. But he will sleep (and let me sleep) 3-4 hours in a stretch at night. He's a great eater and pretty chill. We have a great relationship and he doesn't mind going out with me to go shopping, take Ellie to school, playdates for Ellie, out for coffee or lunch, walks, and other times when we get out of the house. He has a similar disposition to Ellie at this age when she was pretty chill and we could hang out and go out in public and do normal people things. We are very lucky to have such a chill kid who has predictable fussiness and we know how to calm him down.

Calvin's Labor and Delivery...a summary

Just as I did with Ellie I'm going to document my labor and delivery with Calvin. It'll be a summary just for the record.

We knew Calvin was going to be a big baby. At my 35 week appointment the doctor did an ultrasound and Numero Due/Chaos was measuring pretty big. His head and torso were the size of an average 40 week baby (while his legs were at 36 week gestational average age). His weight was estimated at over 7 pounds, at 35 weeks! My uterus was also measuring large which was a combination of a large baby and a lot of fluid. The pregnancy was smooth, no complications short of some back pain. But with a baby that was on the larger side of average my doctor didn't want me to go too far past 39 weeks pregnant.

I was ready to go at 38 weeks. I was done being pregnant. I had an appointment at 38 weeks and my doctor said I was 2.5 cm dilated. So I figured I would have the baby before I reached 39 weeks. My mom came down that week as there were signs that the baby was coming soon. We ate spicy food, we walked, we tried some special salad dressing from a restaurant in the Valley that supposedly for decades has been encouraging very pregnant women to go into labor...but nothing worked. Chaos was comfortable and didn't want to come out. I had another appointment during my 38th week and it was decided that if I didn't have the baby by the start of my 39th week, I would be induced. My doctor and I discussed that due to his size, inducing labor at 39 weeks would reduce the odds of complications which may require a C-Section. Of course, the start of the 39th week was March 10, also known as Grandma Pam's 64th birthday (which we celebrated early with her). We were all rooting for the baby to come so I wouldn't have to be induced. But no, Chaos was too comfortable and so induction it was.

At 6:00am on March 10, 2014 Nick and I went to the hospital. Before leaving for the hospital I wrote a note to Ellie to put in her lunchbox saying that her brother was going to be born soon and letting her know that we loved her. It took a while for us to get registered into the hospital and set up in a room on the Labor and Delivery area of the hospital. But by 8:30 we were set up in a hospital room, the IV was started, I was hooked up to monitors, and they started the Pitocin to begin labor. At around 10:00am my doctor stopped by and saw that things were moving. I hadn't felt a contraction that was painful yet, but based on the outputs from the monitors things were going. Nick and I basically sat around watching morning news shows waiting for things to get started.

At 11:30am my doctor came by again. Things were moving and I was dilating more but I hadn't had a painful contraction yet. So the doctor broke my water. The nurse (being very prudent) set up the room for the birth getting everything ready and setting up.

As I had with Ellie my intention was to have a natural childbirth. I have a well known strong phobia of needles and the thought of an epidural was more stressful to me than the pains of labor and delivery would be...having been through it once before. I had been very fortunate with Ellie that the labor and delivery was very short, especially for a larger first baby. So I knew that with this second child, even though he was big, I could do the labor and delivery without any pain medicine. My nurse said that less than 10% of women at the hospital, probably closer to 5% actually do labor and delivery without pain medicine. That made me a little nervous, because it meant that the nurses weren't used to helping women labor without pain medicine whereas in Boston I had a midwife and nurses who were experienced. However, Nick and I had been through this before and I figured it would all be well.

Around 12:45pm my doctor came back to check on me. He said I was at 6 cm. It was at this point that I started to feel the contractions and they were getting a little painful. Nothing too bad, but definitely noticeable. At 12:55pm I texted Grandma Pam to tell her that things were moving.

Within about 15 minutes the contractions were very painful and I knew we were getting really close to pushing. I told the nurse that I was ready to push and she and Nick both kinda looked at me like I was crazy. But she indulged me and checked and within a nanosecond she told me that yes I was ready, she would call the doctor and I needed to breath through the contractions. I asked when the doctor would be there because I was ready, and she said he was still in the hospital so it would be very soon.

And it was. My doctor came running in with some additional nurses. I was focusing on breathing and getting through the contractions but I overheard the doctor ask the nurse, "do I have time for..." but before he could finish the sentence my nurse sternly said, "no, she's ready". And yes, yes I was ready.

It felt like I didn't push for very long at all. And true to what I remembered, pushing during the contractions was a relief to just enduring the contractions. Everything happened really fast and my memory is pretty fuzzy of what happened. Although I do remember at one point a nurse told Nick to sit down because he was feeling faint and she held my knee for a while. In my mind it felt like I pushed through 2 or 3 contractions before I was told the head was out.

So I felt my first real painful contraction at 12:45pm and Calvin was born at 1:41pm. Yeah, things happened really fast. And I didn't need any pain medicine. As fast as it was the birth was pretty smooth (besides Nick almost passing out) and Calvin was given an Apgar score of 8-9 (which means he looked really good and was healthy at birth). They asked Nick if he wanted to cut the cord and he initially said no. However, I reminded him that he had cut Ellie's cord and what he does for one child he has to do for the other and so he cut Calvin's cord as well.

All things considered both of my pregnancies and labor and delivery of both Ellie and Calvin were relatively easy and not that painful (recovery on the other hand is a different story, you don't birth a 8lb 12oz kid and a 9lb 12oz kid and not have to deal with some recovery). I know I am in a very small club where labor and delivery is rapid and not that bad and I am very fortunate for that. I'm most happy to have two healthy children.

Baby's Day Out

Yesterday, as a family, we spent the majority of the day outside of the house. That meant packing lots of baby gear, bundling up Calvin, and mentally preparing ourselves. In the morning we headed out to get Ellie a haircut, however the stylist had a family emergency and cancelled...but we didn't learn of the cancellation till we were at the haircut place. So, with the car parked and everyone out we decided to make the most of where we were and we spent time at a toy store keeping Ellie entertained and then found a restaurant for lunch.

Which meant Cal went to his first restaurant yesterday!


















Then we came home for a few minutes. Packed up everything again and headed out to the zoo. We had arranged to meet Ellies friends and their families at the zoo as a little play date. I think during this trip to the zoo we saw the least amount of animals ever because the girls just wanted to hang out.












I kept Cal in the carrier the whole time, but we brought the stroller too, which Nick pushed around all afternoon. Calvin was very great at the zoo. He slept the majority of the time and was very cooperative when it was time to feed him while the girls were playing at the playground. Cal and I definitely have gotten into a groove and we feel totally comfortable going outside the house even though he's not even 2 weeks old.



















Then because we like to press our luck, we headed straight to In-and-Out after the zoo for dinner. Cal was awake for the majority of dinner but was very patient and didn't fuss.
























It was a long, tiring, and fun day for all. And very successful for our first real adventure outside the house as a family of four.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Calvin's Official Due Date

Today is Calvin's official due date. Yes I was due on St. Patrick's Day and secretly hoped my whole pregnancy that he wouldn't be born on his due date. And he has been a member of our family for one whole week already and so much has already happened. In that week we have all gotten to know each other pretty quickly.

For example:
Calvin's likes - eating and sleeping
Calvin's dislikes - being cold (especially during diaper changes) and that feeling just before you burp

Last week Calvin made his TV debut. Nick's coworkers at KTLA spent a few seconds of TV time and gave Cal his introduction to the world. It was very nice of KTLA to do that and we all are very appreciative of their kind words. Of course, when you live in LA and your dad is in the business...getting on the number one morning news show in Los Angeles when you are less than 24 hours old is normal (no, not really). You can check out Cal's TV debut on YouTube here:

6 am show (Nick's normal show): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE3MLlxzguo


7/8 am show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAxBwSkOSe8

Today was Nick's first day back at work which he said went relatively smoothly (I guarantee he got more sleep last night than I did) despite the 4.4M earthquake that hit LA during his show. Grandma Pam also went home today so we are on our own as a family of four.

Last week Cal had his first doctor's visit. Everything went very smoothly and the doctor was very happy with his growth and development. Calvin was only 4 oz under his birth weight.

We have also given Cal a couple of bathes, which he didn't really enjoy so much (that whole being cold thing is a major dislike he has). Ellie has enjoyed being involved with the bathes and watching Cal. He is spending more and more time awake lately so we have gotten to see his eyes more.

We also spent some time outside as a family. Both taking walks (Cal really seemed to enjoy his walk today) and having lunch outside this weekend. Nick grilled out and we all enjoyed lunch in our backyard, including Calvin who was pretty chill about the whole thing, pretty much sleeping the whole time (one of his favorite likes).

Ellie really has taken to her brother. She really loves him and thinks he is totally adorable. She does think he can be kinda boring. But she does want to be involved with diaper changes, picking out clothes for him, his bathes, and almost everything we do for him. She has complained that he takes up too much of my time but we have talked about it and she understands that as he gets older he won't need as much direct attention from mommy, but for now...he is very young and needs lots of attention. Of course, she also is very observant regarding when it is time to change Cal's diaper.

Introducing Calvin Van Harrer

We are so excited to announce the birth of our son, Calvin Van Harrer. He arrived at 1:41pm on March 10, 2014. Grandma Pam and Calvin share a birthday!! He weighed in at a very sturdy 9 lbs 12.6 oz and was 20.5" long.

We are all home now and recovering well. Ellie is a terrific big sister and an amazing helper. She truly loves her baby brother.

Here are just a few of the tons of photos we have taken since becoming a family of four.

The past few days have been a whirlwind as we get to know Cal and learn to be a family of four. But really, Ellie has been an amazing big sister. It has been quite a lot of fun and its only the beginning.