Declan's Birth Announcement

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Credit goes to my awesome brother-in-law David for the beautiful pictures!

Declan -- 1 Month! (Belated)

Declan turned 1 month old last week!  He had an appointment at the pediatrician the previous Monday and he is 8 lbs, 15 oz (no updated length).  He’s a pretty tiny little peanut by our standards, seeing as Averie outweighed him by a pound at this stage, so we’ll be keeping an eye on that.  I think it may have something to do with my overabundance of milk -- perhaps not as calorie-rich? -- but since he’s gaining just enough, the pediatrician isn’t concerned yet and I’ll keep giving it to him for all those immunities.  He’ll need them considering the number of times Averie has sneezed on him…

His kidneys were slightly dilated on my ultrasounds during the pregnancy so we followed up on those last week.  The left kidney resolved itself and is no longer dilated, but the right one still is.  He had some tests done at Primary Children’s and they found that the right one has an obstruction.   It may work itself out over time but if not, he will have to have surgery in a few months.  The idea of putting an infant under general anesthesia is a little bit terrifying for me, so we are praying it clears up on its own!

As for that “does lightning strike twice?” post awhile back -- well, it seems like it does!  Declan has been consistently sleeping about 7 hours per night since he was about 2 weeks old.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t go to bed until late (we’re talking midnight) -- much like a certain big sister did as a newborn herself -- but once he’s asleep, he’s asleep!  It takes me awhile to fall asleep though so I’d rather have a late bedtime with longer stretches than earlier with more wake-ups anyway.  We’ll just work on getting him to an earlier bedtime, but he fits pretty well into our night owl family :-).

He’s still in newborn clothes and, at his current rate, he’ll be in them for awhile yet, but he’s pushing the limits of the newborn diapers.  

Declan hates tummy time more than Averie ever did but has lifted his head slightly a number of times.  He loves his playmat though and Averie is happy to lay down with him and point out the moving shapes.

Now for some pictures that we've taken over the last month!

2nd day home

 

Not happy!

Hey.  Wake up.

There! I lifted my head. Now leave me alone.

Trying to crawl away? :P

Big sister love

Helping

So peaceful

Who's that?!

Eyes wide open!

She adores him

Finally got him to cooperate holding her hand.  Love their expressions

It's Official

I’m a college graduate.  It only took 8 years and a million dollars in grants and student loans (only a slight exaggeration) but a degree in Business Management is now mine. 

Business Management wasn’t actually my original plan.  That was Accounting.  But Accounting requires a passing grade in Calculus and the semester when I took attempted to take Calculus was the same time when I started experiencing symptoms of what would later be my multiple sclerosis diagnosis (kinda rhyme-y there!), and I dropped the course.  I took all the courses for an accounting degree, EXCEPT that one and, well, I don’t much care, because even though my diploma will say something different, I know I know my stuff.  *Childish Calculus rant*  I hate calculus!  Accounting is truly just arithmetic.  The last time I calculated a trial balance on the ledger, and completed my employer’s quarterly tax filings, I did not need to know how to find the peak velocity of a ball originally thrown at a speed of 37 mph (or something like that) so there!  *End rant*  

It feels good to be done.  It's been a long time coming but having kids and working full-time over those 8 years certainly will drag the process out!  And I was actually done 5 months ago, but I have also earned a degree in Procrastination (I'll leave that one off my resume though), which came in handy when actually applying for graduation :-D. 

Also, did you know Utah Valley University charges you $20 to graduate?  Even if you’re not walking?  You'd think that might be built into the thousands of dollars I already paid them to get here....

How we're doing...

This post is just as the title says -- an update on us!

Chris...

Is loving his new job.  EMC is a much better environment than his previous two jobs and I love that he has a job that he is happy to go to!  Of course we miss each other and he misses the kids, but having a good job makes the time apart a little more bearable :).  They have been incredibly generous with time off since we had Declan and just everything about the company so far is great.  He can really see having a long-term career with them, which he hasn't been able to say about a job in several years!

Meghan...

Waited and waited for the horrible C-section recovery I was warned about but it never came and now at more than three weeks postpartum, I think I’m in the clear.  Just two days after my discharge from the hospital, Chris, the kids and I spent an entire day out and about, running errands, visiting friends, etc.  I was walking around for a good 8 hours and I felt fantastic the entire time.  Can’t say that about my recovery with Averie!  I’m below my pre-pregnancy weight and have been back in all my regular clothes again for a couple weeks. 

Chris and I had originally planned to formula-feed Declan from the start as I will be starting my MS medication soon, but I never struggled with nursing Averie and it seemed like such a waste, so I decided to nurse him for a short time.  And I’m almost producing enough for two babies so in 3 weeks, I’ve already built up a freezer stash of over 300 ounces!  Maybe by the time I stop in a few weeks, I’ll have a whole month’s worth of feedings stored!

Averie...

She insisted on holding him all by herself, and did a great job!

Is a great big sister.  Better than I expected since she does have a speech delay and I worried she wouldn’t understand when I had to put her off to tend to Declan.  Sometimes her help is not always so helpful – like a little over-eagerness to get Declan’s bottle in his mouth, or trying to pick him up herself when he is crying (maybe once his neck is a little stronger!) – but I try to remember that she has good intentions.  Thankfully, we haven’t really had more acting out than we had to begin with, so that’s been nice. 

She has just started receiving therapy from Kids On the Move and she is already imitating sounds!  Based on her evaluation scores, her pediatrician does think speech apraxia is a distinct possibility as the cause of her delay.  If that is the case, we probably have a long road ahead of us, but seeing her already start to take off just makes my heart sing and I’m so glad we finally got everything started.

Declan...

Finally beat his nasty case of jaundice.  We didn’t have to resort to the phototherapy lights with him since leaving the hospital (which is nice because Declan sleeps in our room and those bili beds are BRIGHT!), although we did feed formula-only for a weekend on the advice of the pediatrician and that seems to have flushed out the rest of the bilirubin.  He’s already holding his head up for up to a minute at a time!

He loves to sleep which makes Chris and me happy!  One night, he slept nine hours straight!  That one was a fluke because he hasn’t done it again since, but we are regularly getting 6 to 7 hours in a single stretch now, and he’s almost always asleep for at least part of Averie’s nap so I can sleep too, or at least just rest.  

We are loving life as a family of four!