Happy Halloween

1 Month

Happy 1 Month Birthday, Casey! This marks the first of many monthly posts that will occur on this blog for our little guy.

We can't believe one month has gone by. Casey is doing well. He is taking formula and breast milk and drinks anywhere from 2-5 oz at a time. Wide range, I know, but it definitely depends on the day. We had to switch him to soy formula because our pediatrician thinks he might be lactose intolerant. The jury is still out.

Sleep is very inconsistent and we are hoping that Casey follows in the footsteps of his little sister and sleeps through the night be the end of this next month. But we are not holding our breath.

Casey probably weighs about 11-11 1/2 pounds. He is out of newborn clothes and into 3 month clothes in pretty much every brand and now wears size 1 diapers as well.

He is beginning to focus with his eyes more on people and objects, and as you can see from the previous post, we think we've gotten a couple of smiles out of him.

Happy 1 Month, Cheeks! We love you :)

PS- Check out the sidebar for the comparison between Chloe and Casey... dramatic!

Smiling?

So I know that babies are not supposed to be able to smile until they are 6-8 weeks old, right? But I swear in the last few days Casey's been smiling at me when I coo at him or squeeze his cheeks or do other classic making-baby-smile things.

So, I've been trying to catch it on film to prove it, but it's been hard.

Here's a shot right before he smiled...


...and here's right after he smiled... it kind of turned into a smirk.

Oh yeah, and he's 4 weeks old.

What do you think? Is he smiling?

3 weeks

Casey here. I was 3 weeks old yesterday and we went to the doctor for an official weigh in... 10 lbs 8 oz... needless to say, Mommy packed away the "newborn" size clothes for good this morning. It was good while it lasted. Happy Saturday!

Casey's Story

Ok, so in my defense, this blog post was started on October 6... that's over 2 weeks ago.

So... let's go back to Friday, September 30. It was a chilly morning. There was a wind advisory, if you remember correctly. Dan and I got up at 4:00 am to get ready to go to the hospital. Donna was here to stay with Chloe and we were all set to go.

Here was the last picture of the baby belly before we left.


All ready to go... we had to be at the hospital by 5:15 am!


Once we got there, things got really busy getting me prepped for the C-section. An IV was hooked up, they drew blood and they got me all set. Here I am all set to go (ignore the unflattering photo, but this is for Casey's scrapbook!).


Dan got into his scrubs and got ready to go as well. He looks good, doesn't he?


Here we are in our last photo as 1-child-parents. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into...


Instead of getting a spinal in the operating room, they decided to give me an epidural in our room before we left. I was surprise the anesthesiologist did that, but he said that the side effects of the anesthesia would be less with an epidural. So, I got my epidural and was wheeled in the operating room. Dan had to wait outside until they were ready to go!

As I began to feel numb they brought Dan in and we were ready to go! I remember with Chloe how fast everything happened, but Casey took longer than Chloe. This may be TMI, but they cut in the exact same spot as before and it took awhile to go through the scar tissue.

The actual surgery was also more unpleasant for me. There was no nausea (yay!), but I was getting lightheaded (probably from fasting) and since they were pushing all of my organs up, I was having chest pains.

Finally, after what seemed like FOREVER, my doctor said, "He's got a really big head... it's a good thing we did a C-section."


And here he is! 9 lbs 7 oz of screaming glory. He cried right away, unlike his big sister who freaked me out a bit.

He was born at 7:45 am.

Daddy got to cut the chord.


Dan almost immediately nicknamed him "Cheeks." You can see why...


All his vitals checked out.


Along with being nicely filled out, he was 21 inches long and had a head circumference of 37 centimeters... in my drug-induced state, I foolishly questioned whether "it was 37 inches or centimeters." Oops. Yes, I know that the circumference of my newborn's head is not 3 FEET. Duh.


Then I got to meet him, although I couldn't hold him by myself yet.


So, he had some good Daddy snuggle time.


And showed off his lungs again!


The day went very smoothly and we LOVE the staff at Elmbrook.


Happy Birthday, Casey... be it 3 weeks late or not :)

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Mommy here. Just writing a short post to wish Daddy a HAPPY BIRTHDAY from me and the kids.

Daddy enjoyed a doughnut breakfast picnic this morning.


As you can see, Chloe enjoyed it too.


And Casey enjoyed some milk for breakfast. Is this what we call a "food coma?"


Happy Birthday to "the best Daddy in the whole world." (Chloe's own words)

1 week/2 weeks

Casey here. We are a little behind with blogging so we'll catch you up from when I turned 1 week old (last Friday) and when I turned 2 weeks old (today).

Here's my 1 week picture. I got to got to the doctor for the first time too. Here are my stats:

Height: 21.5 inches (98 percentile)
Weight: 9 lbs (90 percentile)
Head: 37 cm (95 percentile)

Needless to say, I'm a big boy.


Then here's a two week shot from today in the same outfit. Mommy and Daddy said they already see me looking different. What do you think?

Sisterly Love

Ok, I admit the the first time I saw these I cried. Beautiful. A million thanks to Melissa Schuett, again.

Beast Mode: GO BREWERS!

Chloe here. If you haven't seen it, when the Brewers do something exciting, they go into "Beast Mode." Since the Brewers have a really big game today, we, the Simek kids, thought we'd get into "Beast Mode" and support the Crew.

Here is Prince Fielder in "Beast Mode."

My brother Casey getting into the action.



And me... I'm a scary beast! Or at least my hair is scary...

And a gratuitous picture of the little man in his first Packers outfit. Go Pack Go!

1 Week Old

Our little snuggler is already 1 week old! These pictures were taken when he was 4 days old, by none other than the beautiful and talented Melissa Schuett. Consider them a preview... more to come!

Meet Casey

Casey here. So it's my first blog post and I wanted to introduce myself. I've been home for over a day now and things are going well. I basically just eat, sleep and poop, but it seems like a friendly place to be. My big sister is a bit crazy, though.

So here I am during my "quiet awake" mode looking at Mommy.


She was trying to explain to me what a camera is. She said I'd be seeing lots of these.


She also told me I was wearing my monkey jammies that Chloe Jo picked out... she said we'd seeing lots of these too.


Here's your first video for those of you that haven't met me in person yet. As you can see, I'm a pretty chill guy.

Stop on by and introduce yourself so I can know who reads this blog!

Cheeks

Your Daily Dose of CJ

Football and Little Brothers

Just a quick update on Day 3... much more to come. Enjoy Chloe with her little brother!