4 months

Declan had his 4 month appt today. We waited 45 minutes past our 4:00 appt time!! I know it's totally "normal" for a Dr. to be running late, you hear about it all the time, but with Kaiser, we've never had that problem. Dec was due to eat at 5, and had totally missed his nap, so the extra wait was not fun. We didn't get out of the appt till 5:30 cause we had many questions to ask, we were meeting with a new pediatrician, and then the nurse took almost 10 minutes after the appt to come in and give him his shots! Poor little guy was so tired and hungry, with the shots, he probably thought we were torturing him! But he actually recovered well from the shots, and I fed him in the car right afterwards. (PS. That was a new experience! I'm just glad I was comfortable enough to breastfeed in the car! It's getting better! Yeah!) It was a good appt though, we really like our new pediatrician, and depending on how the next appt goes, time wise, we'll probably stick with her. I feel like I can talk to this Dr., unlike the last one that didn't make me feel like she was really listening to me. Anyway, good new Dr.!

So what does everyone want to know? How much does Declan weigh?! Well, I'll get to that. :)

So I talked to her about his spit-up. Basically she's not troubled by it at this point. She says we could give him smaller feedings more frequently through-out the day, but then he wouldn't nap well and things are going good right now, I don't want to mess with it! Besides, he's growing and not upset by spitting-up, it's just inconvenient to do so much laundry! :)

And I talked to her about his pooping. Totally normal. Keep giving him gas drops. If he seems more constipated, give him a little apple juice. No need to change my diet.....YEAH!!!!!!!!! I was really worried about that. I have a freezer FULL of stored milk and I DID NOT want to throw it away. I'm so proud of myself for making that much, I would cry if I couldn't use it.

Let's see, anything else? Nope, that's everything! He's perfect still! Catch up with you next time!

HA! Like I would forget to share the good stuff!! So, his head is 17 in....that's the 75th to 90th percentile! "Heed! Pants! Now!" "He's gonna cry himself to sleep tonight on his huge pilla!" :) He is 26in tall....that's the 50th to 75th percentile. Is anyone else noticing a slight shift in proportions? :) And the weight...........................14lbs 8oz!! CHUNK-A-LUNK!!!! But, that's still 50th percentile, so I guess he's not that big. But he's big to me! I just have to get him to sit on his own so I don't have to carry him in that car seat anymore! I'm done with that weight training!

Alright, there is the latest. I don't know why I built up the weight thing, probably cause I was so excited to know that I figured everyone else was. Thank you for humoring me! Until next time....here's another picture of D, in honor of his Great-Grandma Sugar's 84th birthday today!

I love you GG Sugar! Happy Birthday!!

And the rest.....

Here's the rest of the most current pictures:

I love these pj's, but he looks like a jailbird!

He sleeps like daddy....

Again, Dad being silly...

Oh, the funny things you can do with burp cloths!

I watched my niece Hope the other day, look how he's almost as big as her! He's 4 months, and she's 14 months, she's so dainty! :)

Do you think she'd notice if I pick her nose?!

And the staring contests begin.

He looks SOOOOOOOOOOO much like his cousin Luke in this picture!

He's not too happy about his "popped" collar.

Being tickled and laughing

Oh so exhausting to be tickled!

There really is a lot more, but those are more for individual blogs. Hope these made you smile! :)

Pictures.....

I've been saying how big D is getting, and so here are the pictures to prove it. Starting from where I last left off....

6 Weeks:

Dad being silly with D at bath time

7 weeks:

A series of sleepy D...

8 Weeks:

Fun time with Papa

9 weeks:

D loves his wrist rattles!

...or is he just humoring mom?

10 Weeks:

Playing with Nana

We have a thumb-sucker on our hands...

11 Weeks:

Mommy wasn't paying attention....

She put my pj's on backwards!

I can stand!! (as long as my Grandma and Great-Grandma help!)

Really mother?

12 Weeks:

At Heather and Mike's Wedding

13 Weeks:

I can sit on my own.......ish!

Do you think his eyes will be blue? :)

I love my rattle, it's yummy!

3 Months:

Getting his hand and foot imprints! Can't wait to get them for real!

So there's up to 3 months. He will be 4 months on Sat, so I will post pics for this past month next....or sometime.....eventually! I hope you're not bored of D yet....cause there is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more to come!

Singing and Frowns, Otters and Smiles

Apparently, Declan was not enjoying Daddy's singing.....

But he LOVES his otter!

What's going on with Declan lately?

It's time for another Declan update! He's getting SOOOOO big! He doesn't have a checkup for another couple weeks so we don't know his exact weight, but when we try it ourselves on our scale it seems to be about 13-14 pounds! Chunker! It should be interesting to see what percentile he's in now. He looks really tall to me too. I can't wait for the 15th!

Fun stuff: *He still likes to play "stand-up", his legs are SO STRONG!! Now if only he liked tummy-time too, then his arms would get stronger. Oh well! *He is a full on giggler! The first night he laughed, I wasn't sure I heard him right, but Trevor was tickling him and he just loved it! That has to be one of the best sounds in the world, hearing your child laugh! *He's really figuring out his voice right now, too, and all the different sounds he can make. This last week he's been talking really softly when he's going to sleep or in the swing....anytime he's awake but there's not much going on....it's quite cute. *He's squealing, too, when he's happy. *He LOVES himself. The biggest smiles are saved for his "best friend Declan" which is of course the mirror. *He gives lots of smiles to everyone, he's a really happy baby! Baby Daddy and I are constantly praising God for giving us such a happy baby! *He doesn't cry all that much, mainly when we're feeding him a bottle and we stop to burp him halfway through.....he does NOT like that! And sometimes he doesn't like being put to bed, but for the most part he can be pretty easy to put down for a nap. *Dare I say it.....he still sleeps through the night! His bedtime is about 9, we get him up for a final bottle at 10:30, and put him straight to bed and he sleeps till 7:30 (or later if I have a hard time getting up...) *He has discovered his hands, and really likes to study them a lot. He will grip things placed in his hands, and sometimes even reach for them. He'll put his hands in his mouth a lot, especially if he is gripping something! *Just today, he started gripping his feet!

He really is an easy, happy baby! I'm not exaggerating......mostly! :) He probably cries more than I let on, but he whines more than he cries! Don't get me wrong, there are some bad stuff too.....


Not so fun stuff: *He spits up. A lot. A LOT! I'm serious, if he wasn't growing and was more upset, I would think something is wrong. But he's never upset when he pukes, and he is getting bigger. I guess it could be reflux, or maybe an underdeveloped esophagus, but again, it doesn't bother him. And I can't track easily what I eat because he takes pumped milk so often. He has good days and bad days....hopefully he'll grow out of it! *He seems congested a lot, and he sneezes more than I'd like. I just keep using the bulb syringe and that helps. *He had a horrible cough a month or so ago, it sounded worse than it was, but still no fun. *He hardly poops these days, but I guess that's normal. When he does poop......WATCH OUT! *Sometimes, he is hard to put down.......but that's more because he's so cute we don't want to! :)

We are all doing good. T and I still get tired a lot, but that's pretty standard with parenthood I hear. For those who want to know, my boobs are doing fine at the moment........I'll let you know how it goes when he gets teeth......not looking forward to it. He's this close to being too big for the bassinet, so he'll start sleeping in the pack-n-play soon. I wish we had a crib for him, and his own room.......hopefully soon.


We do love him so much, he fixes everything, you really can't be upset when you're holding him, he's the best thing in the world! I've been asked a lot if I like being a mommy....I like being Declan's mommy. God is good, he gave us the best son ever.......and then he gave us Declan which is the next best thing!

I don't need a nanny.....

I need a dishwasher! Well, I just need someone to clean all the bottles and pump stuff. Since I work, I pump at least 3 times a day, and when it's a work day I pump 5 times! So, to cut down on cleaning, I have 4 sets of pumping sheilds.......don't feel like you need to know what that means, I didn't have a clue until I had to....just focus on my plight! :) We also have 6 bottles and sometimes Dec can use 5 in a day. So this is what the clean up looks like at the end of the day....

Before washing...

Drying

In the beginning, before I had all the extra pumping sets, I would be cleaning throughout the day! At least now I save it all for the end of the day. You may ask "why don't we use the dishwasher?" 1. Our dishwasher sucks. 2. It would take a lot longer, and use waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more water. 3. The water would be too hot and the PBA in the bottles would....um....activate? Uh....anyway, it's not good. Hand washing it is.


Now about these bottles........first off let me explain something. I don't like to try things out for myself. If someone tells me to use something because they liked it, that's what I'll get. A lot of people gave me their opinions on bottles, but the first was my sister-in-law Dawn. She said to get Dr. Brown's bottles, they help reduce gas, spit-up, and colic. We checked them out and decided to get them....we loved the idea of no gas, spit-up, or colic! And we never had a clolicky baby! And he has never really had painful gas! And he doesn't spit..........well, he does do that. A lot. A LOT! Just ask my lucky friends! :) The one thing I really regret though about getting these bottle is this: there are SOOOO many parts to ONE bottle! A normal bottle has just the bottle, nipple, and cap. Dr. Brown's bottles have bottle, nipple, cap, vent reservoirs, and vent inserts. So really, they are good bottles....they are just a pain in the butt to clean!! And I'm too lazy to try something else! So instead I'll complain. I'm good at that. And then you all have something to read! Hope it was worth it. :)

A Bumbo update

It's been almost 2 months since the first try at the Bumbo. D's had many more tries in it, and he gets better in it every time, as you can see here:




Please don't mind my narration, I apparently was a little slow that day. :)