2 months and bye bye baby

Declan is officially 2 months old. We had his appointment yesterday and he's a cow! :-) 

He's 14.2 lbs and 24.5 inches long, 90th percentile for both! Wow! 

(Hat is made by my mom, click here for her etsy site!) 

Some new things Doozer can do...

He rolls over. Yep, you heard me. He.Rolls.Over. and this started when he was 6 WEEKS OLD! 

Yes, it's only the end of the roll over, but trust me, he did it all by himself. He has done it about 8 times now. The doctor didn't even believe me until he laid on his tummy and held himself up so well. 

He is constantly smiling. 

He talks like a champ. 

He's following us and objects around the room. 

He recognizes me and Derek. 

The boy sleeps 8-9 hours a time at night! This has been a 4 day thing now, so I'll call it official. 

And here are some more pictures of my favorite baby boy...

Happy 2 month birthday, Declan! 

         

And now, I must ready myself to go back to work in the morning. My first day after 9 weeks off. I will miss my boys. But at least it's only 9 work days until summer! 

Dear Declan,

Yesterday I excitedly told your grandma, and bragged on-line, that you put yourself to sleep all by yourself for your morning nap. 

The picture I used to brag. :o)

I posted my excitement and thought to myself, What a relief! He can fall asleep all by himself.

Today, your daddy and I gave you a bath, then I dried you up and got you all comfy in your pajamas, just like every night. I got the pillow and snuggled you into me to nurse you to sleep, just like every night. You finished eating, and snuggled your head into me, but instead of falling asleep, you just stared at me, your cute little eyes open to mine and a half smile on your sleepy face.  I snuggled you in closer and patted your sweet little bottom. 

As I rocked you, I could tell you were not going to fall asleep, you were fighting it tonight, rocking your head back and forth. I'm sure if you were a big boy in a big bed, you would have been tossing and turning. I don't think you were uncomfortable, but you definitely were not going to fall asleep any time soon at this rate. 

I tried it, just to see if you'd do it again and at night! I put you in your bassinet with the white noise playing on your giraffe. Staring at you from above, even though your eyes were wide open, I knew you were going to fall asleep... again, all by yourself! I even left the room, and before I knew it, you were sleeping, you didn't even need me in the room! 

...What a big boy I thought.  I'm such a lucky mom! 

9:00 and my baby boy is asleep. All by himself, he didn't even need me! ...he didn't need me. He didn't need me? My baby boy didn't need my help to fall asleep. 

I wanted to badly to go in there and wake you up so I could put you to sleep myself. I didn't do it, and I won't. You're 5 1/2 weeks old, and I'm already starting to miss you because you're getting so big!

I know you'll need me to snuggle you to sleep again, maybe even tomorrow? But today, I'll take in this first moment as a mommy when my big boy takes a step toward independence. And maybe I'll cry, but it's because I just love you so much... and even though I'm jealous of that noise making giraffe today, I know be thankful for the giraffe again, maybe even tomorrow. 

Love, 

Mommy

Phew! It's been a month!

I can't believe it's been a month since Declan's arrival! It seems long and short. 

To start, I have to write about the day we came home from the hospital.... or actually the morning before we left the hospital. 

Derek woke up the morning we were to be discharged and said his tongue was numb and his cheek felt weird. I figured, we're at the hospital, let's ask the nurse about it. By the time we saw her, he actually felt like the left side of his face was paralyzed. He had eaten almonds for the first time in a really long time, so we thought maybe it was a food allergy. I asked the nurse what she thought and she joked that maybe he had a stroke. HA?!?! ...so not funny! So he looked it up on Dr. Google and found that he probably had Bells Palsy, which is paralysis on one side of the face, probably caused from a sinus infection that pinched a nerve. 

Well, we still had to go home, so we packed up all of our stuff from everyone and left. (You can see the side of Derek's face is not smiling.)

Declan's coat was a little too big on him... his arms and legs barely made it into the sleeves and leg part! 

That night, Derek's parents came over to drop dinner off for us, and we were all worried about his face, so he ended up going to the Emergency Room. Six hours later, it was confirmed that he had Bells Palsy and he came home with an eye patch, eye drops, and a sore arm from a steroid shot. So our first night home with our baby was very stressful and I was a complete mess, trying to hide the fact that I was crying in front of my lovely mother in law who stayed with me the whole time, and eventually my parents also came over. At that point, I had gotten about 10 hours of sleep since Declan had been born 3 days earlier. So you can imagine how brain dead I was beginning to be. 

His paternity leave turned into disability and he is STILL off work a month later. His face is still paralyzed! It couldn't have been better timing because we are both home with our beautiful son. He's still off for another week and a half as of now. 

Anyway, our little one is not so little any more. Here are some pictures from when he was first home, though. 

Soco is never far from Declan. She's got someone new to protect. 

He is now a month old and we couldn't love him more. He's such an easy going baby and cries mostly only when he needs something. At night, he's sleeping from 10:00-4:00ish. 

We had his one month check up, and he weighed 11.2 lbs and was 23 inches long! He's as big as a 2 month old. The doctor said he doesn't need to eat for a month, haha. 

Here are some more pictures, because that's the most fun part! 

This first picture is Derek when he was born, it's hard to believe how much Declan looks like Derek! 

Such good head control at 4 weeks! 

He's smiling now! On purpose! 

I'm always covered in cuties these days

Don't mind my Dolly Parton impression here.. this is just super cute, I had to share! 

And his one month growth progression: