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: