first tooth!

What did I JUST say about Deacon reaching milestones way too quickly for this mama??  Well, he's done it again!  Deacon has his first tooth!  It popped out yesterday -- at exactly 4.5 months old.

This boy's tough, ya'll.  Aside from the ridiculous drooling and chewing on everything in sight, he never showed signs that he was teething.  He was never overly fussy, never had a fever that we knew about.  He just popped that tooth out like it was nothing.  I hope the rest will be like that.  :)

So he wouldn't let me get a photo of the actual tooth (which you can feel more than see, though there is a specific white tooth in there to see on the bottom) but this is pretty representative:

[4.5 mos]

sleeping through the night!

I don't want to jinx anything but *whispering* Deacon has been sleeping through the night for a week now!  Well, that's not completely accurate.  Here's how it really went down:

Last Monday night (Feb 28), he slept for 8 hours.  I fed him at 10-10:30pm and put him down to sleep.  He woke up around 1:30am which is a little early for him to eat again (I had typically been feeding him between 2-3am) so I decided to just wait and see what he would do.  He fussed for about 5 min and then went back to sleep.  I fully expected him to wake back up an hour or so later (at which time I would've probably fed him) but he never woke up until 6:15am!

The next night (Mar 1), he woke up a couple of times -- once at 1:30am-ish and then at 4:30am.  Both times, he just fussed for a few minutes and then went back to sleep.  He woke at 6am that morning.

On night/day 3, he woke up 3 times!  Oh Lord...is this going to be a pattern??  He did sleep until 7am that morning, but he was very fitful during the night.

Over the next couple of nights he was sleeping through, but still waking up a couple of times to fuss for a little bit.  I wasn't counting it a success yet.  Sleeping through the night was just a technicality at this point.  It just meant he wasn't eating during the night, really.

But then Sunday night (Mar 6), he slept all the way through the night without waking up one time!  SUCCESS!  And the next night...same thing!  He slept completely through the night, waking only when I went to get him up for his first feeding of the day around 6:45am-ish.

Last night, he did wake up once or twice but I think that's mostly because he's picked up another cold (dang nursery at church) and he's doing a lot of coughing.  I think it really woke him up and he just got aggravated.  Poor little buddy.

But for all intents and purposes, my child is (finally) sleeping through the night.  And we're happy about that.  :)

[4 mos]

4 months...

Truly, I don't intend to let a month get by before I post -- it just seems to take so much of my time to raise a child.  :)  So here we are at 4 months.  Whew.  We've had some exciting things happening the last month...

The biggest news was that Deacon's cousin, Bear Andersen McAfee, was born on February 2.  My brother & sister-in-law's 2nd child.  Cora Beth is now a big sister and a great one at that.  :)  Bear was born an entire month early (Brandi's due date was actually Mar 2) at 6 lbs 2 oz but he's done wonderfully with the exception of a recent case of RSV.  But he's on the upswing.  We got to meet little Bear a few weeks after he was born.  What a cutie!

[Deacon, 16.5 weeks, Bear, 3.5 weeks]

At the beginning of February, Deacon got his 2nd cold and this one was nastier than the first one he had at a month old.  He had some chest congestion and coughing with this one and oh, how I hated to hear my sweet boy coughing!  It took a good 3 weeks or so to get rid of that thing but not before me and Jeff caught it.  :(  We are all well now, though, praise the Lord! 

[14 weeks]

Also, at the beginning of February was the Super Bowl, of course.  Deacon's first Super Bowl.  He slept through the first half and was oblivious during the 2nd.  :)  He was pulling for the Steelers:

[14.5 weeks]

Deacon went to his first birthday party on February 12 (when we got the invitation in the mail, addressed to Deacon, I thought it was precious!) -- one of the sons of the lady who keeps Deacon, Brayden, was turning 3.  Deacon lasted for about an hour before I think all the commotion and noise got to him.  It was a fun time.

[Deacon w/Brayden & Bryceon, 15.5 weeks]

Deacon has really been changing and doing new things this past month.  It hurts this mommy's heart to know that he's growing up (so fast) but that is how it should be and it does excite me to see new things from him.  He's really been chewing on EVERYTHING.  If he can get it to his mouth, it's going in there.  And it's coming out with TONS of drool on it.  :)  We can't feel any tooth buds (and I'm praying it stays that way for a little longer) so we're not sure if he's teething or not.  Just chewing on everything.

[14.5 weeks]

And talking.  My LORD, this child has A LOT to say!  And it is so.stinkin.cute when he does!  I love to hear him making all kinds of noises.  Most of the time he's really happy when he's talking so he smiles a lot and kinda giggles a little bit.  He just recently started this high-pitched thing which I hope will not last too long.  It is cute and it's okay around the house, but it can get kinda loud.  I don't want to have a child that everyone is kinda like, "Oh, that's cute...okay, not so much anymore."  :)

[15 weeks]

Right around the 4 month mark, I took Deacon for his 4 month well-check at the pediatrician.  He got a couple more vaccines (one oral and one needle) and took them like a champ, just like in the past.  Such a brave little guy.  :)  He now weighs 13 lbs 13 oz and has grown almost 2 inches in the past 2 months.

Also around 4 months, we went for a walk as a family and put Deacon in the stroller without the carseat.  In the regular seat.  He sat like a big boy with no trouble.  I think he enjoyed looking around at everything. 

We also tried putting him in the "johnny jump-up" for the first time.  He's still kind of little for it, we have to prop him up in the front so he doesn't lean forward so much.  And he doesn't really know what to do in it yet, but it buys us a little bit of time, if you know what I mean.  :)

[4 mos]

I gotta tell you, Daddy is the one that put him in the jump-up and in the stroller like that.  Mommy would've put him in the carseat to take him on a walk in the stroller.  Jeff is so good about trying new things with him.  I think I just want to keep him little for as long as possible -- he's reaching new milestones entirely too fast for me.

[4 mos]