5 months already !

5 Months Yesterday !!!

I promised myself I would be better at updating this blog at least once a month - but that did not work.  So  as it seems, every three months will have to do.  PHEW - we have had A LOT go on in the last 3 months with our little Declan.  

There are so many things he can do now and he has a little personality, which I like to call "spitfire."

In the last three months we have accomplished *laughing *rolling over * sitting up for longer periods of time * became a stomach sleeper *grabs at everything, and puts everything in mouth *spit bubbles * screeching *finally back to sleeping through the night ( someone should have warned me what a beast sleep regression was ! ) *eating solid foods *already outgrown most of his 6 month clothes

This little boy of ours has a temper, which of course makes Jon and I laugh, he screams when he is hungry, as if we have not fed him in days, and then screams worse when the bottle is empty.  The next obstacle as parents we had to tackle was sleep training.  Our sweet little angel baby went from sleeping 7pm until 7 am at 6 weeks, to waking up 3, 4 and sometimes 5 times a night.  This as you can imagine became exhausting, we were told by the pediatrician that this was more of a regression and comfort issue rather than him being hungry.  So sleep training it was.  What an awful 4 nights.  However, our little sleeper is back to sleeping through the night and even sometimes until 9 am !  Good thing we took care of that nonsense.  

We have really enjoyed our warmer weather and have been able to take Declan to the zoo for the first time, go on countless walks, and even took him to the park a few times !  Our next adventure is our first little weekend getaway to Milwaukee next weekend ( Jon and I LOVE Milwaukee, so we decided that this will be a perfect place to start our first family tradition, which will be spending Easter in Milwaukee every year ! )- I am really excited for the time away with my guys, but nervous if a change of scenery will cause sleep issues again. The following weekend we are taking our first real family vacation to Florida ! I cannot wait to take Declan to the ocean for the first time -- I bet he will be equally as thrilled ;) - Everybody cross your fingers and toes we have a good airplane baby ! 

My next adventure is a small career change from "full time mommy" to "full time mommy and nanny" -- I am super excited that in just a few weeks I am going to start watching my niece's once my sister in law heads back to work after her maternity leave.  I feel honored that they asked me to be the girls babysitter, and am super excited that I will still get to have Declan with me every day!  Declan and I are going to have to learn how to get up and ready in the morning though, no more pajamas until noon - I think this will also be a great opportunity for Declan to be around other people than just myself every day ! 

We are looking forward to all the great things coming in the next few weeks !  

We survived the first two months !

Well now that the holidays are over... I have a minute - or 20 to sit down and reflect on the last 9 weeks of our new life.  We had a lot of firsts in the last few weeks... First Thanksgiving, First Christmas, First New years, First Cold, First sleepover at grandma's, First milk allergy, first smiles, first rollover, first noises, and our first wedding anniversary.  Phew, Im exhausted just thinking about it.

Its amazing how much happiness a new baby can bring into the holidays, and how much planning is needed also.  We really enjoyed our Holidays with Declan, they went by in a flash, and unlike the crazy mom I thought I would be, I only took a handful of pictures.  Its amazing how spoiled he is, the proof is still sitting in stacks all over our living room.  We are going to run out of room in our house in no time at this rate.

Declan has really gotten a little personality, he smiles all of the time, even at the little birds that move above his swing, almost like he thinks " these are the dumbest looking birds in the world." -- We agree with him.  He makes all sorts of noises and music to my ears is now listening to him "talk" to himself in his crib in the morning.  He also has a little milk allergy unfortunately -- we are hoping he will outgrow, but for now we will just keep hating the smell of soy -- and even more hatred towards soy spit up.  ( Yuck ).  We really lucked out with him.  He sleeps from 7:30 at night, until 5 or 6 in the morning, and will go back to bed until 8:30 -- I dont think I could ask for a better sleeping baby... scratch that, I can... I really just want him to take naps during the day, but Mr. Social is afraid he will miss out on something exciting. I try to reassure him that there is nothing exciting about laundry, cleaning, or lifetime movies.

The other big change we have made is that I am no longer returning to work full time.  Instead I am going to work part-time and spend more time home with Declan.  Before I ever even imagined having kids, I always told myself, I would stick a fork in my eye before ever staying home with a baby... Ironically, when you actually have said baby, thinking of going back to work full time caused a lot of tears ( from me, not him ).  I am really excited to be able to see him grow so much his first year -- although, I already missed his first roll over... but excited that Jon was able to see it !

We also survived our first night away from him.  We celebrated our first anniversary, and we got away for the night.  I only texted my mom 3 times, called twice, looked at his picture maybe 15, and woke up every hour debating if I should wake up Jon to go sleep at my moms to be with him. I survived, but have no plans of doing that crazy non-sense for a while.

I am really looking forward to these next few months of no real plans, and we can just sort of relax and make our own plans.  We have been on the go basically every weekend since the baby was born, and Its nice to just have some free weekends to enjoy our family, and try to explain to Declan that mom and dad like to watch tv in bed until 11 on the weekends, and that it would be much appreciated if he would  do the same.  :)