6 Needles and One Bad Mommy

You know how I'm always so excited to get Declan's new stats at each doctor's appt? And how I take forever to tell you so I can build it up and it's so much fun right?! Well.....I don't want to tell you now. :( This new mommy (yes, I'm still new.....new to having a one year old thankyouverymuch.) made a mistake. And my poor dude paid the price. Ok, now I'm being a bit dramatic about it, but I really do feel bad.....and let down. I LOVE to see how much Declan has grown at each appt, but this one failed me and it's all my fault.

So what did I do? I stopped breastfeeding at his 2:00 feeding and gave him cheese or bananas, Cheerios and water for a snack instead. I stopped breastfeeding at his 11:00 lunch feeding and gave him more vegetables instead. I stopped breastfeeding at his 5:00 dinner feeding and gave him more fruit instead. Do you notice what's missing? MILK!!! I didn't give him milk or formula at any of these feedings. I knew he needed more food, but I thought he just needed more solids. I had a feeling that I was missing something, and I had meant to ask the doctor about it at D's appt. Well, it was addressed before I could ask.....cause Dec only weighs 20 lbs. That's the 10th percentile. He's been at least in the 25th or higher is whole life. He literally lost weight. He was 19 lbs 9.9 oz at 9 months, and then in April when we had the bump, he was 21.6 or something when we weighed him at the doctor. Doh!

So now that he's one, he can have whole milk and believe me, he gets it all day! I'm still breastfeeding in the morning....I'm not sure when that will end, but I am sure my boobs won't be able to keep up with it for too much longer. Then at lunch and dinner, he gets 4 oz of milk along with the solids, and then 6 oz before bed. The doc said he should get 16-20 oz a day of milk, so about 18 should be good yeah? (He'll get the 4 at breakfast when the breastfeeding officially stops.) What a pain this is! Feed your child enough, but watch out for obesity! Man!

In case you're curious, he's 31 inches tall too. I have no idea his percentile's on height and head, we were too busy figuring out his weight issue. He was weighed twice on two different scales just to be sure it wasn't a fluke.

Oh.....the shots.......I truly believe in vaccines and think all children should get them but, REALLY, can there be another way to give them?!? He had one shot in each leg, 2 in his arm (could have been both, but I thought only one sore arm was needed) and then a TB test in the same arm (an un-named family member once had a positive TB test MANY years ago, but to be safe the doc wanted to check D. I've already been back to check the spot on his arm and he's cleared.....of course. :) ) AND THEN he had to have blood drawn.....from the SAME ARM!!! Poor guy! Though he was NOT happy during the shots and the blood draw, he recovered SOOOOOO well and fast! Done crying before we were at the door and smiling and waving by the time we were at the car. And then only a slight fever and soreness on his legs that night. My good boy!! He actually had a harder time taking the band aides off!!

As always, I'll leave you with some fun pictures. I think the real Adventures that my blog name suggests are just beginning! :) They say the first thing to go with aging is your sight. Apparently Declan is already losing his:

Can you find him? :)

"Here I am!"

Sometimes he doesn't like to go to sleep right away for naps, gets a little bored, and sees what he can do/reach from the confines of his crib....

What it's supposed to look like:

(the speakers are boxes that unfold and flatten out)

What I found:

(where did the other speaker go? And the iPod?)

In the crib?! Crazy....wait, where's the iPod??

(it was on the floor....I didn't take a picture...I didn't think I needed to...)

Then and Now, Part 2

What a difference a year and one day make...

3 days old:

1 year and 4 days old:

Beach Day Birthday

For Declan's birthday we went to the beach. Specifically, Little Corona del Mar, where we took D's 9 month pictures, and where I took some yet-to-be-published maternity pictures. It's a PERFECT quiet, little family beach....at least for a middle of the week, not quite summer day. :) Declan was a little wary at first, which is a trait of his I am becoming familiar with. But like with all things, he warmed up to it and loved it! After the beach we went home, Dec had his afternoon nap, and then we headed to dinner with my family. We went to Ruby's and at the end of the meal, they brought Declan a sundae and sang their birthday song! As an adult, this is not my favorite thing to have done to me, but as a mom, with my 1 year old, it was the best!!

For those who might be interested, and curious from previous posts....WE MADE IT TO A YEAR!!! Eh? I have made it incredibly clear that I wanted to breastfeed for a year, and we did! In fact I am still feeding him once a day, in the morning....if you remember, it turns out I was (surprisingly) a little sad about breastfeeding ending, and so I guess I'm dragging it out as long as I can. :) I started the weaning process a couple weeks ago, and had started introducing cow's milk at the same time. I imagine it will be a few more days and then we'll be completely done... :( No really, it will be great. I stopped pumping a couple weeks ago, and that's really what I wanted to be done with!! Woo hoo!

Declan's 12 month appointment is tomorrow, and it's the first shots he's gotten in 6 months, so that won't be fun. But we'll get his new measurements, and that WILL be fun! :) Here, enjoy MANY pictures from the beach day. I personally LOVE as many pictures of Declan as I can look at, so.....you've got a lot to look at here! :)

1 year

Today my son is one. At the exact time of this post, a year prior, Declan James Gill came into this world. Our lives changed, though with many more challenges, completely and utterly for the better. We are a wonderful family of three, and though I hope someday we'll be at least a foursome, I am so incredibly happy with our life and our precious baby boy......who is now a toddler. Wow. That's insane! Here he is, month by month, our sweet darling Declan.

Newborn - 8 days old

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

11 Months

12 Months

11 Months

It pains me that I wasn't able to edit these before I posted them, but thank you slide.com, they look pretty neat like this! (This slideshow takes a few minutes, so if you want to look at them faster just click on "view all images" and you can look at them as fast or as slow as you'd like!)

10 Months

A Series of Fortunate Events...following around Declan James for a day.

Highwaters: This is what happens when you learn to walk super early and your clothes are too big for you! Seriously, I had to hitch up his pants so he wouldn't trip on the cuffs! He looked really cute though!

Harry Potter: Declan crawled over to our movies (which have now been moved) and picked out Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. First he read the back to see if he'd like it, (which he did), then he spent a lot of time figuring out how to get the movie out. And then he gave up. At least he was kind enough to put it back on the shelf! :)

Balancing: It was just fun to put these animals on his head. He started to get the hang of what he had to do and seemed to have A LOT of fun!

Chair Time: Trevor has had this chair in his family for YEARS!! It's still our desk chair, and now it's Declan's hiding place.

Parting shot: He hasn't done this in a while, but for a long time Declan liked to carry this toy around in his mouth. We liked to call him Rover.