The Great Minnesota Get Together!

We ventured out to the MN State Fair today! It was SO hot and sunny so we slathered Lucas with sunscreen and I made him wear a very not cute hat that covered his entire head. He did awesome in the Baby Bjorn - slept almost the whole time! We woke him up to feed him and change him and he fell right back asleep. What a champ.

Just as we got to the fair, my dad called us to give us the heads up that the ESPN 1500 radio station was doing their annual 'Baby Walk' where parents bring their babies up to the stage and they approve or reject the baby's name. I made Derek speed walk with me to find the stage they were at and just as they said "that was our last baby..." I ran up to the mic and asked if there was time for just one more. So we got to be on the radio and for the record, Lucas' name was approved! We got this certificate, but since we ran up late, we didn't get to enter the drawings for Twins tickets. Better luck next baby. (please don't read into that comment though.)

Here's Derek with Randy Shaver, our sports anchor idol. (or at least mine).

and Lucas woke up just in time to join the fun...for the ride home.

Lucas and his new BFF....TC Bear on a stick!

Overall, it was fun, hot and tiring!

And PS, we both highly recommend the fried fruit on a stick by the grandstand..yum.

Happy Birthday!

It's his birthday and he can cry if he wants to!

This is a day overdue, but Lucas is officially one month old! He is starting to recognize our voices more, still eats a ton, sleeps about 3 hours at a time, and has been experimenting with new and funny baby noises. He has a high pitched squeal he's tested out a few times and does a lot of grunting anytime we lay him down. He's doing awesome at tummy time, getting better every day at holding his head up and even did an assisted rollover from tummy to back on his big 1 month birthday.

Trip to Jeffers

Lucas met Great Grandma and Grandpa McCloud this week. We tagged along with Kelly and Eric on Monday. He slept the entire way there and back..3 hours each way! We have an excellent traveler on our hands.

Guess who's packing on the pounds?

Well, truth be told, all three of us. But I guess I was referring to Lucas. We tried to weigh him ourselves today and consistently came up with 10.8 lbs. Another week, another pound. I am hoping the rumor I hear from Katie and my mom is true...that at 11 lbs, he'll start sleeping through the night. We did have that once instance of a 6 or 7 hour sleep, but lately it's been 2 hours at a time and let me just tell you that as much as I love spending time with him at 3am...I'd prefer if we could get him to go until 6. We'll see if and when that happens.

He is changing so much everyday and (drumroll) his bump that had me so worried only 1 week ago has now (almost) disappeared. The amazing thing is it happened practically overnight. He woke up Friday morning and Derek and I both noticed it was significantly smaller. At first we thought maybe Lucas was just getting bigger....growing into I guess? But now we are convinced that it is shrinking and shrinking FAST.

We also had our second official babysitting experience. Derek's parents watched Lucas for a few hours when they visited about 2 weeks ago and then on Friday night, my parents watched the kiddo while Derek and I went to the Twins game. We were sitting in our seats about 20 minutes before the game started and I already said how much I missed Lucas and was wondering what he was doing. (a pretty short list of options for a not even 4 week old baby...eating...sleeping...laying.) Luckily, Pops sent me a pic of Lucas passed out in his arms a little later so I knew all was well.

Lucas also had the pleasure of meeting his 4th and final aunt along with his newest uncle! My sister Kelly and her fiance Eric are in town right now from LA. They just got engaged a few weeks ago and we are officially helping them celebrate tomorrow afternoon with a big picnic. It is so great having the ENTIRE McCloud family together. And Lucas has been so great letting his aunts and Mimi and Papa give him bottles while we cart him from one place to the next.

Lucas had his first celebrity sighting this week. We went to the Shoppes at Arbor Lakes with Auntie MayMay and were pleastently surprised to meet Lori and Julia. They have an afternoon radio talkshow that I have faithfully listened to every day for the past 2 years or so in my brutal commutes home. I was starstruck, but Lucas played it pretty cool. Hopefully we can rig up a better pic with them at the State Fair...?

We also had a visit from the Lindstedts last night! They have a somewhat new camera, so naturally we offered Lucas' modeling services up and they did a mini photoshoot.

Kelsey & Dave's Wedding

Lucas made his first wedding appearance this weekend! He also wore his first pair of shoes and had his first bottle...what a day, right? He did so well in the car and at the ceremony...slept through everything. Then was WIDE awake at the entire reception. He was so content to be passed around from person to person and pose for pics. He then rewarded us even more by sleeping the whole 1.5 hour drive home and then sleeping almost 7 hours (?!) last night. I realize this is probably a one time thing, but I have to say I was a very happy girl waking up this morning with a full night's rest.

Here he is with my friend Justina. A nice little family pic.

Lucas' former roommates!

The beautiful bride, Kelsey!

Nurse Justina protecting his little ears from the music.

Good news: Lucas' tests all came back NORMAL today!

Sweet Sixteen!

Lucas is just over 2 weeks old now, so we had our 2 week check-up yesterday to see how he's doing. He has gained 1lb. since last Monday and is now 9lb 6oz and it shows! You'd be surprised what a whole pound can do for someone so small - his little cheeks are not so little anymore and we are getting oh so close to being out of the newborn dipes and into our fully stocked closet of size ones.

I took a video with our flipcam (thanks Aunt Shannon!) of Lucas sleeping to show the nurse practitioner his tremors he has when he's napping. She called in another doctor to check it out and they both recommended we take the video to a neurologist to have a specialist take a look to rule out anything serious like seizures. They were nice enough to call for us so we could get in this week and sure enough, I got a voicemail at 8:00 this morning asking if we could be there by 12:30! The neurologist said he isn't concerned about the tremors and has seen the twitches before. As long as we can wake him up out of them, they are not seizures and we shouldn't worry.

Just to be absolutley sure nothing weird is going on, we also had an EEG done. They stuck about 25 little wires on Lucas' head with some sticky paste while Derek held him. I took a few pics with my phone of the after hairdo he was left with (and we were left to scrub off his tiny head while he screamed!) The wires monitored his brain activity for 30 minutes or so while he slept and we'll get the results soon.

The pediatrician yesterday also had us make an appt. for an ultrasound of his hematoma to make sure there was no fluid anywhere else around his head. We went for that early this morning and the ultasound told us nothing because there was too much fluid to see beneath the hematoma so they suggested a CT scan. We waited for about an hour for them to call our pediatrician to get it approved, but then had to leave to make it to our neurology appointment on time. Thankfully, the neurologist approved the CT scan so we didn't have to wait any longer to get a hold of our own pediatrician and could get it all done in one day. We'll find out those results in the next few days too.

We are crossing our fingers that they find nothing wrong with Lucas. His hematoma is pretty impressive - all the doctors have said as much and they are all surprised that he wasn't vacuumed out - usually that's what causes such a big bump. The neurologist reassured us that it will calcify (harden up) and eventually will go away (his body will absorb it). He had me feel the far outer parts and we could tell that it already is starting, but it could take a few months especially since it's so big. In the meantime, I may make a small investment in some hats! I can't seem to stop myself from 'explaining' his big bump everytime someone stops over or admires him in his carseat. I assume they are staring at it and wondering what's wrong with him. So I apologize in advance if I do that or have done that with anyone! As of now, we are just thankful he has so far been given a clean bill of health. He's eating well, growing quickly and is so content and easy to take care of. We are obviously very anxious to hear the results of the EEG and the CT scan from today, but Derek keeps telling me that we won't worry until they give us something to worry about. I'm very happy Derek is so level headed AND that he was able to to take the day off to come with us to all these appointments. I don't know what I would have done on my own. Especially with trying to feed and change Lucas in some interesting places over the course of 9 hours away from home... parking ramps, waiting areas, etc. It was definitely a 2 person job and I'm so happy he was there with us.

So there's the update! Keep Lucas in your prayers that nothing suspicious shows up in the test results and that his head continues to heal! Thanks!

Dr. Mom

I officially diagnosed Lucas with my awesome google skills. The doctor told me the bump on his head was from his head being down in the birth canal waiting waiting waiting to be pushed out of a very tight space and yours truly was not pushing! So that 'trauma' made fluid/blood collect in between his little skull and the skin and left him with soft bubble of a bump on the left side of his head. Anyway, it is called cephalohematoma and as much as I have cried about his poor little bump in the past 11 days, I'm glad to know that it's harmless and WILL go away....eventually! It might be a couple of months, but it will heal with a little time. I'm also so happy to know that it has nothing to do with his development or brain..it's purely a 'temporary physical sign of trauma at birth.' We can live with that.

Lucas taking a 2 hour snooze on the bride-to-be, Kelsey.

Lucas' cousins came to visit!

One Week Old!

Lucas Ryan from kate h on

Fast learners

I'm sitting here watching a very cute sleepy baby that FINALLY went to sleep and I can't even begin to tell you how much Derek and I have learned in the past 5 days. This little boy is breaking us in fast and furiously.

Today he taught us about the importance of waiting until he is absolutely completely finished before we attempt a diaper change. I'll spare you the details, but it involved a lot of cleaning up and the 3rd load of baby laundry (keep in mind we've only been at home for 3 full days!)

We found out yesterday that he definitely has distance and no warning with his peeing habits. In the past 24 hours, he has peed on the wall, straight up (aka - all over himself), on Mimi, on himself, on Mimi again, and on himself again...oh, and on himself AGAIN. I always assumed people were exaggerating when they said it happens as soon as you take off the diaper, but it's totally true. Although for us, it usually happens just as the new diaper is about to go under. We'll have to perfect our diaper changing techniques pretty quick or we plow through our diaper supply in no time.

We've also come to find out that Lucas likes to have a little bday celebration from about 10 - 1 every night. All he wants to do during the day is sleep sleep sleep and he will sleep through ANYTHING, but then is WIDE awake ready to play and squirm and make all sorts of weird baby noises once Derek and I are ready for bed. Must be his baby sixth sense.

All in all, we are doing well...learning more about little Lucas every day and loving him so much. Even though he pooped 6+ times today.

1st day at home!

Going home! (but not without a stop at Target first.)

Male Bonding Time.

Papa and Mimi with all their grandkids!
Papa and Lucas

Grandma and Grandpa Adamczyk

Finally meeting 'Baby Cousin.'