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: 

Birth Story (Part 2)

Well, I got my epidural around 3:30 am and felt much better almost instantly. It was great. The nurse said it would probably be at least 4 hours until I would start pushing, and I was at 5 cm. I tried really hard to sleep, and probably did for about 45 minutes total. 

The nurse kept coming in the room and checking my contractions, looking worried each time. My contractions were completely gone. They didn't know how much pitocin to use because the monitor was not picking anything up. I knew I was having contractions because I could feel my stomach tighten up and there was still pressure. They finally figured out the cord was not working that connected the monitor to me. When it picked up again, the nurse was shocked at how strong my contractions were. They upped the pitocin a little and let me be for a while. 

They came back about an hour later and I was 7 cm. Things were really moving fast! They started prepping the room for the baby's arrival and it really started feeling real. At this point, it was probably 8:30 or 9:00 am. 

I had to sit up in the bed because my legs were complete logs from the epidural and the baby's heartbeat was going down with each contraction. Brian and Rachel came back up and were in the room visiting for a little while. The doctor came in to check me, and it was about 9:30 at this point. She said I was just about 10 cm and at 10:00, she'd come back and I would start pushing! 

WHAT?! I really had to do this?! 

Derek was about to go to the waiting room to tell everyone, but I wanted him to stay, I was really nervous. Well I suddenly felt super nauseas. I ended up throwing up a million times and as I was puking, I was telling Derek he can leave if he was grossed out. The nurse was laughing at me because I was more concerned about Derek being grossed out than the fact that I couldn't stop puking.  LOL 

9:55 came and the doctor came in. They took my monitors off that measured the contractions and set the bed up for me to start pushing. I couldn't believe what was about to happen. She told me to push when I feel the urge to push. I had no idea how delivery really went. Between contractions, we would talk and joke around. We were laughing about random things and then I'd push again. Derek was awesome and so supportive. It was such an amazing experience. 

At 10:30 am, the baby came out. They put the blanket up on me and let Derek announce, "It's a boy!" 

I immediately started crying and laughing. Derek said, "It's Declan Matthew!" 

They took him away to clean and measure him and Derek stayed by my side the whole time. I could not stop staring at our baby. Then they gave him back to me. 

We had to give him up so he could get his bath and checked out. Then I went to the mother/baby room with Derek. 

And the visitors started. :o)

Brian, my brother, with Declan

Rachel, sister in law

My mom and Decco

Dad and Declan

My mother in law and Declan 

My father in law and Declan

Derek and his new BFF that his parents brought for Dec

Derek's grandma gave these booties to Derek's mom with flowers in them when he was born and gave them to us for Declan's birthday! 

Four Generations

Our house when we got home. My friends are so cute! 

The first growth progression picture

Declan Matthew on his one week birthday