School!

I spent the week setting up my classroom.  My class this year seems great... I'm quite optimistic!  I only have 24 kids (I can't believe I'm saying "only"!) and when I met them at our open house they were very cute and sweet.  

August had his own open house as well.  He liked his teachers, especially one of them.  He's going to be surrounded by girls all day.  There's only one other boy.  Girls are good, so that's good.

After the open house, Rob and August came and helped me in my classroom, so I'm sharing a picture of that today.  The room will look a lot better once there is kid art hanging up!

Now I'm off to enjoy my last 4 days with my boys before school starts.

Last Day

Today is my last day home with August.  Next week, Rob will stay home with him while I set up my classroom at school.  Then, right after Labor Day, it's off to daycare!  I hope he does well.  

Mirrors are funny

August thinks that baby in the mirror is very funny.  He has a new best friend!

This Week

So what has happened this week in the Casteel house?  Well... for the first time in my life, I was stung by a bee!  I must have swooped it up with my sandal, because it stung me under my big toe.  All of my life I've been petrified of bees.  And I was always so proud to say I hadn't been stung.  That era is over!  It was really no big deal and after a few minutes it didn't even hurt anymore.  Weird.

Enough about me!  August is getting better at napping without a swaddle.  He still has a little bit of a hard time with it, but I think that's mostly because he has a little bit of a cold and isn't feeling so great.  At night, he's completely done with the swaddle!  The transition was super easy.  He's wearing sleep sacks at night now, which helps.  The only problem is that he enjoys pulling on his pacifier, so he pulls it out and swings it around in the air and tries to put it back in his mouth but he can't so he chews on the edges instead.  The whole process doesn't really help him sleep!  It's really cute, though.

Our garden is growing like crazy!  We have several tomatoes ready and have had several zucchinis so far.  Our corn should be ready by the end of the weekend, probably.  Same with our lettuce.  It's exciting!  This has been the best garden year yet.

Rob is taking off work in a week when I go back to school.  Hopefully it will go well.  I know Rob has been looking forward to it.  It will be a good bonding time for my boys.  Right now August is all about mommy.  When Rob holds August, August looks at me.  If anyone else holds him, he cries (August, not Rob).  I hope he gets over that soon!

5 months!

August turned 5 months old on Saturday!  He also got another shot today and was very brave.  He loves the nurse who gives the shots (her name is Cricket and he has a shirt with a cricket on it, so they have a special bond).  After his shots he invited all of his stuffed animal friends over for a meeting.

Right now Rob is whispering to August.  August thinks it's SOOO funny when people whisper to him.  It's good quiet fun!

Gotta love a smiling baby!

Here's August giggling a little.  This isn't his full blown laugh... hopefully I'll get that on video soon!

All caught up!

Whew!  Now you're all up to date on August's happenings.  Here are some pictures from this week.  In just a couple of days he'll be 5 months!  I can't believe how fast time is going by!  He's so big already and can do so much.  

Beach!

We took our first family trip to the beach in July.  It was a beautiful day... blue skies... cool breeze.  And the sound of the ocean put August to sleep.  All day.  He managed to catch a glimpse of the beach, but was mostly just awake when we ate lunch at a restaurant.  Then he managed to sleep all the way home.  Hopefully next time he'll spend more time awake!  I just kept worrying about August getting a sunburn.  Luckily, we successfully sunscreened him and covered him up all day.

The fourth month

August keeps getting to be more and more fun!  He really started laughing and smiling all the time in the 4th month.  He's a very mellow baby... he is sweet and gentle all the time.  He's always giving these little shy smiles.  August's favorite place in the whole world is his changing table.  On it, he kicks and laughs and thinks it's the best!  He LOVES to make Rob and I laugh all the time.

More 3rd month pictures

What a cutie!  We went to Buckman Elementary school on nice days and played in the grass there.

The third month

August became a little smiler in the 3rd month!  He started getting more and more fun personality (and more hair, too!)  By this time, Rob and I were feeling more comfortable with parenthood and having more fun with it.  August was sleeping pretty well at night and started napping in his crib.  We even moved his bassinet to his own room at night.  August started cooing and making cute sounds this month, too.

Feeding was still a challenge.  I went to an acupuncturist to try to help with my milk supply but mid-month decided to be done with all of these appointments!  It was much more pleasant to just work things out on our own.

The second month

The second month, August was showing more and more personality.  He's the king of facial expressions!  We started having more visitors the 2nd month, too.  Sharon (my sister) visited, as well as Peggy (my stepmom) and Melissa (my stepsister).  August also started smiling and started sleeping better at night.  Feeding was still a challenge... we spent more time with the lactation consultant, plus visits the pediatric chiropractor for craniosacral therapy and a visit to the feeding clinic.  Appointments were getting very tiring!

The first month

Bringing August home was fantastic.  It took us a few days to transition to normal life.  The first 2 nights were spent in the living room with the bassinet in the middle of the room, Rob on the floor and me on the couch!  I'm not sure why... it just seemed right.  Then we moved into our room, thank goodness.  The biggest challenge was feeding.  Things don't always work out how you expect.  August lost over a pound the first week, so we had to work very hard to make sure he got enough food.  We got to know our lactation consultants very well and spent a lot of time with them!

August slept a lot and spent a lot of time in our arms.  As you can see, he loves being swaddled!

August's arrival

Here's my labor story if you're interested....

On March 8th at around 4:00 AM, my water broke.  A week early!  Since I didn't have any contractions, we took our time getting to the hospital and finally arrived around 7:30 or 8:00 AM.  Although I knew that this was it, I don't think I really grasped the fact that I wasn't going to be sent home and that I was about to give birth.  It all happened pretty slowly.  For hours, we just sat around in our hospital room (which was really nice, with a great view of the NW hills).  The doctor wanted to induce me, which we weren't too thrilled about.  I had very strong opinions about being induced and wanted a natural birth, but you don't always get what you hope for.  So after waiting quite a while and having only minor contractions, the doctor started me on pitocin at I think around 5:00 PM.  All evening and into the night the contractions got stronger, but weren't progressing as fast as I would have liked.  At 8:00 the next morning, I was disappointed to find out that I still was only at about 3 cm.  And I was exhausted because I didn't get a wink of sleep!  

At about 10:00 AM the nurses told me that I would probably be looking at evening before even pushing.  The thought of continuing with ever-intensifying contractions and no sleep made me ask for an epidural.  I didn't want one, but I couldn't imagine continuing for 8 more hours like that!  BUT, the doctor and the anaesthesiologist were unavailable for the next hour, so I had to wait.  By the time they were available, I had progressed far enough along that I figured I could make it without, so I decided against it.  And I'm glad I did... I was pushing within the next half hour!  At 1:44 PM, August Xander Casteel was born.  He was long and skinny, 8 lbs. 1 oz. and 21-1/2 inches long.  Hooray!

Here he is.

 

Catching up

This blog is mostly to keep you updated on our little guy, August.  So to get started, I'll give you the story from the beginning... or at least near the beginning.

August was due on March 15th.  Rob and I were, of course, super excited about having him.  We didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, so there were many surprises in store for us.

Here's me pregnant.  I think I was in my 38th week.  Pretty big, right?

I had an easy pregnancy.  I was even comfortable the whole time and pretty happy.  No complaints!

Welcome to our blog!

Hi!  You've found our little website.  We're going to post updates on our family happenings and our fun adventures here.  Enjoy!