Caleb...part 1

Dear Caleb, if you someday read this, I know that by this point in Joshua's life there were upteen posts and pictures on this site. The fact that it's taken me three weeks to get even one post and a few measley pictures up of you does not mean that we were less excited about your birth or didn't want to share it with everyone...it just means that we were a little busy. And by busy, I mean that if I wasn't feeding you I was feeding your brother. And if I wasn't feeding either of you I was trying to eat. And if I wasn't eating or feeding one of you I was probably changing a diaper. Or maybe it was that I was trying to pay attention during one of Joshua's therapy sessions. Or maybe it was that we were sleeping (but I doubt it!). "Busy" has taken on a whole new meaning.


I was induced on September 7th because I was 40 weeks and in a great deal of pain from a separated pelvis and the strain of carrying, lifting, and moving Joshua daily. Thankfully, my doctor took pity on me and let me be induced. The night before the induction was hard. Really hard. I had a panic attack and cried for hours. I wasn't nervous about the delivery or anything, it was just all those fears about how Josh would react and all that coming back. Then the morning came and it was game day. I was supposed to go in at noon for the induction...and then the phone rang (insert ominous music here...). The coordinator was calling to tell me that they were really swamped and I couldn't come for the induction until 6pm. Oh, that poor coordinator. I burst into tears and went through the whole story of how I have been trying to organize care for my two year old who really needs consistancy and he has therapy schedules to keep and I really wanted to be induced during the day so that he could meet his brother before he went to bed and my husband should really be there to put him to bed (take a breath) and my doctor wanted me induced at noon so she could be the one to delivery my baby and I'm sorry but this is just really stressful for me and there's really no way I can come in and just start the induction (breathe...)? Please? So then I asked her to please call me back if anything changed and she promised she would and hung up. So just as I'm getting used to the fact that maybe this is better and now Ben can be there to put Joshua down for the night and then come to the hospital and when Josh wakes up he'll have a brother...the phone rings again. The coordinator called me back to tell me that she found a bed for me and that I can come at 3pm.


By the time the induction actually got underway it was around 5pm. Pitocin was started, contractions got stronger, they broke my water...Caleb was staying put. He was really high still, hadn't dropped, and apparently didn't want to come down. I swear he would've stayed in there until college if I let him! Finally, at 4:18am on September 8, 2010, Caleb Brian Nodine was born. Weighing in at 7 lbs, 14.75 oz, he was 21 1/4 inches long and perfect. He looked just like Joshua. I immediately asked how big his head was and they told me that it was 33 1/2 cm (Joshua was 33 cm). My heart sank a little and I thought, "oh no...here we go again". Thankfully, our pediatrician saw him later that day and remeasured. When he came back in the room to report his findings, he told us that he had no idea what the nurses were talking about...his head was 50th percentile at 36cm, and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

Joshua came to visit when he woke up that morning and got to meet his little brother.

Josh didn't really seem to care one way or the other about Caleb, but he was awfully happy to be back with daddy!

Caleb had lots of other visitors in the hospital as well. Caleb's great aunt Lisa came to visit...

The entire Nodine side of the family all showed up at once and unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of anyone holding Caleb! I'm so sad I missed those pictures. :( Thankfully, I did get a few pictures of Uncle Brian meeting Caleb. I felt really strongly that I wanted to name our boys after men who were important to us. Their middle names reflect that. Joshua's middle name is after my dad, and Caleb's middle name is after Ben's brother.

After all those visitors, everyone was pretty wiped out. Ben headed home to be with Joshua and Caleb and I hunkered down for our first night together. It all went well and the next day we were released and we headed home with our TWO boys!

So far, Joshua has been amazing with Caleb. He wants to kiss and touch him all the time, but sometimes those kisses and touches are a little rough... but for the most part, Josh loves his little brother and is very gentle!

I have more pictures that I'll post soon (hopefully) of how Caleb has changed and what he's up to...but be patient with me, friends, it might take a while. We're still adjusting, but I think we're going to like this being a family of four thing. :)