Baby Caleb

Again, hard to believe little Caleb is now 2 1/2 months old. I'm officially off maternity leave and trying to readjust. Caleb is starting to develop his little personality, during the week of Christmas he started laughing and smiling. Mommy also found out that he is ticklish under his arms. He's now sleeping about 4-5 hrs during the night which is soooooo nice. Dr Bean ok'd us to go ahead and give him cereal before bed so that it would help him sleep. I've never loved baby rice so much before. At first I joked that he was like a little clock. He was awake every 3 hrs on the button.

Caleb also weighed in at 13 lbs 2 oz during his 2 month check-up. A whopping 5 lb gain. He seems like such a happy little guy.

During his 2 month check-up we were told that we should go see a specialist. We (the dr and us) had noticed during his 2 week checkup that he had a small ridge in the middle of his forehead. We had hoped that over a course of time it would start to expand and balance out. Dr Bean rechecked it and referred us to Dr Faizi Siddiqi at PCMC. Upon meeting Dr Siddiqi, we had it confirmed that Caleb's metopic region (his forehead) had fused together prematurely. As he would grow, his skull would not be able to expand as his brain grew. If he did not have surgery he could possible have developmental delays, brain pressure that could cause seizures and problems with his sight and sinus. The condition is called Metopic Craniosynotosis. Since Caleb is so small, he is able to undergo a newer endoscopic procedure that will allow the doctors to cut the bone and release the two plates so that his skull can then grow normally. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaCcRugag80) With this new procedure, he will have a smaller amount of surgery time (2hrs), a smaller amount of blood lose and a shorter time in the hospital. If we wait, the surgery will be much more difficult and would require a longer surgery time, a night in ICU and a week in the hospital. It is scary but after meeting the doctors and researching the procedure, we are feeling more confident. Caleb will be having his surgery this Friday January 8th. We won't know the time until the night before. Caleb will also be wearing a little helmet after surgery to help his skull form correctly and to help protect his surgery area. He'll need to wear the helmet for about a year. We held a family fast yesterday and have given him a few blessings. Now we just wait, pray and have faith that everything will be just fine.

Here are a couple pics of my cutie pa-tootie. I was even able to get a few of his cute little smile.