11 months...

Oh, my word.  One month to go before my baby boy turns a year old.  I can't hardly take it...

We had to lower Deacon's crib mattress at the beginning of this month -- he started to like standing up in his crib and that was just not okay with me.  He was too much in danger of leaning too far over so we dropped the mattress down a couple levels.

We continued to try new foods like broccoli & carrots with cheese, lasagna and apples w/oatmeal (all baby food) and Deacon is not too big a fan.  About a week before he turned 11 mos, we started trying to give him some table food from our dinner -- baked spaghetti, french toast w/bacon, real sweet potatoes, baked beans and peaches...he does pretty well with it all.  My fear of him choking is fading.  :\  We've also begun to introduce whole milk as my supply of breastmilk continues to wane.  As it stands right now, this is what his feeding schedule looks like:

an 8 oz bottle first thing in the morning (whole milk, breastmilk, formula or combo of the 3)

some rice cereal and yogurt for a mid-morning snack or "breakfast"

an 8 oz bottle for lunch

some goldfish, cheerios or puffs and water for snack

dinner with "the fam" (table food from whatever we're eating)

an 8 oz bottle before bed

Since we're talking about his feeding schedule, I'll just mention here that I stopped nursing Deacon at the end of this month.  I had planned to try to nurse through his 1st year and I think we probably would've made it (I had gotten down to just nursing him first thing in the morning by this month) but I went away for a weekend retreat the end of Sept/first of Oct and rather than take the pump with me just for that one feeding, I thought it was time to just be done altogether.  He did great, of course.  He's so easy-going.  :)  I had a little trouble for about 6-7 days with pain & discomfort but within about 10 days I was done with all of that.

[if I'm working on loading or unloading the dishwasher,

he's right there, with his "Dr. Seuss hair"...]

Of course, he's crawling everywhere now.  I mentioned in my last post that he'd finally begun to pull up on everything and was crawling intermittently.  Well, he's really been doing great, getting more fluid and taking less time to get where he's going.  He will crawl right up to me or Jeff where we're standing, grab a hold of our pant legs and stand right up.  It's so endearing -- I just love it!

3 months...

So.  We've had this precious child of ours for 3 months now.  I can't for the LIFE of me figure out where the time has gone.  I have this terrible fear that I'm going to turn around tomorrow and see him graduating high school...

[11 weeks]

It's been quite a journey so far, this parenting thing, and we're loving every minute of it!  Deacon has moved up to size 1-2 diapers now and we're still using all the diapers that our friends/family bought for us (the only ones we've had to buy so far were a few packs of newborn diapers because we didn't get so many of those).  What a blessing to have a closet full of diapers!

Jeff and I have gone out a couple Friday nights and left Deacon with friends.  He always does well with other people.  Everyone says he's such a good baby.  Yes, he has his moments (mostly between the hours of 6 and 7pm) but if he's going to be really good, I'd rather it be for someone else.  :)  That's what my mom always said about us, and I think she would tell you that we DID act better for other folks than we did at home.

[12 weeks]

Right around 12.5 weeks, we gave Deacon a bath in his infant tub but we left the newborn netting out for the first time.  He really liked having more of his body in the water and even went to splashing Jeff a little bit.  :)  He really does well with his baths and we are so thankful for that!

[12.5 weeks, in the tub without the netting]

[12.5 weeks, all dressed up for church]

We took Deacon to the pediatrician's office the day after he turned 3 months for some more vaccines.  It wasn't a scheduled appt but we needed to go back because at his 2 month appt, they were out of a couple of the vaccines he needed.  So our tough little guy got 2 sticks, one in each leg.  Once again, he was so brave.  He didn't even flinch for one of them and for the other one, he only cried for a couple of seconds.  It amazes me.  He did get a little fussy later on in the afternoon -- I could tell that his legs were hurting him because every time he moved, he would whine a little bit.  We gave him a little Tylenol and he took a nice long nap after that.  Good as new when he woke up.

[3 mos, the day of more shots :( See his bandaids?]

We are still so, so in love with this precious child of ours and enjoying all the ways he's growing and changing.  His little personality is just beginning to emerge and we can't wait to see how it develops in the coming months.

[3 mos, love my precious boy :) ]

7 weeks already!

Deacon is now 7 weeks old.  He's growing so fast and changing so much, though I can still see my little newborn munchkin when I look at him.  :)

We are enjoying him so much. We take random photos of him ALL the time, we love and kiss on him ALL the time, we talk to him and try to make him smile (we've both been able to do that a time or two by now and it just thrills us to no end -- I wish you could've seen Jeff's face the first time he was able to make him smile. :).

He's growing so much, gaining weight as he should and feeling heavier each time we pick him up.  We think he's probably up to 11 lbs by now.  He's filling out his clothes and has actually grown out of his short-sleeve newborn size onesies (at 5 weeks ). He's also in size 1 diapers now. Not that the newborn diapers don't fit anymore, but more so that they don't hold what he fills them with. If you know what I mean. *eyebrows raised* Yeah.

Ahem -- but going back to the smiling thing...he really started smiling "on demand", if you will, around 5 weeks old.  The smiles were sparse but we saw them when we'd talk to him, etc.  Then the next week, at about 6 weeks, he really started smiling and sort of laughing/gurgling at me when I would put him on the changing table to change his diaper.  He seems to be his happiest in the mornings after he's eaten and it just melts my ever-lovin' heart to see him smile and laugh at me.  He's cute anyway, but when he breaks into those grins -- YA'LL.  He.is.DANG.cute.  :)

We had a parent/child dedication on Sunday, Dec 12, at our church and we participated as a family in that special ceremony.  They called us up on stage with about 10 other families (5 of which were friends of ours :) and gave us a sweet dedication certificate and a little New Testament Bible for Deacon.  Then our children's pastor gave a charge to the parents and read from Deuteronomy --

You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land... 11:18-21 (ESV)

Amen.

He prayed for all the parents, that God would give them wisdom and knowledge to raise their children in all His ways and that their chidlren would never remember a day that they didn't love the Lord.

Amen, I said.

Deacon did wonderfully through the ceremony, sleeping mostly through the whole thing.  That was just fine with us.  :)  And he looked adorable in his little vest and corduroy pants with his little shoes & socks!  Our sweet friend, Stephanie took photos for us so we'd have them to remember this special day in the life of our little family.  Thanks so much, Steph!

We got our first family Christmas card mailed out just a few days ago.  We had a friend in our neighborhood come up and take some family photos for us.  I was going to try to set the self-timer on our camera just like I usually do for our Christmas card photo, but with an infant, you kinda just need to snap away in hopes that one of them will look okay.  My brilliant husband pointed that out to me.  Duh.

Anyways, Alissa did a great job getting some good shots for us.  She is due with her first child, a girl, in April, so she enjoyed holding Deacon after the "photoshoot".  Thanks, Alissa!

Here's what we ended up with:

As I stated above, we take random photos of Deacon ALL the time so here are some sweet shots for you to enjoy:

[5.5 weeks]

[Daddy already has safety glasses for his boy]

[we caught another smile!]

[6 weeks]

[love his facial expressions...]

[this is the photo we used at the parent/child dedication]

[Daddy is so good at giving him a bath]

[6.5 weeks]

[7 weeks]

Deacon -- week 3...

Hey, I'm catching up a little bit!  :)

Just wanted to post some of the things that happened during Deacon's 3rd week of life -- these obviously aren't really exciting but they're things that I want to remember nonetheless.  So let me proceed with the randomness:

At 15 days old, we took Deacon to Jacksonville with us since Jeff had his annual HR meeting at work to discuss next year's changes with insurance, flex spending, etc.  I usually try to go with him to that meeting because it's always a good thing for me to hear what's happening at the same time.  I have been on Jeff's insurance for about the last 8 or 9 years (which has been SO nice through a couple of job changes :), so the HR meeting is beneficial for me to be there for.  Deacon did great through the meeting -- slept the whole time.  :)

He seems to like car rides for the most part.  As long as he's not really hungry, he will usually fall asleep.  The thing we're dealing with right now is his little head falling forward -- mommy hates to see that!

[16 days old]

On day 17, we rode into Wilmington with Deacon so I could get a haircut.  While I was doing that, Jeff took Deacon down to Wilmington Maternal to show him off.  Everyone there loved him, of course!  I'm sure it's really neat for them to get to see the babies after following their mommies with ultrasound for all that time.

[17 days old, his first smile caught on camera!]

I got Deacon's birth announcement out by the time he was 17 days old -- pretty proud of myself for that. :) I actually designed the announcement before Deacon arrived because I knew that if I didn't, the chances of me getting these out before he was 3 or 4 months old were probably pretty slim. I mailed out announcements to out-of-town family & friends, etc. and then we handed out a lot of them to our Connect Groups (aka Sunday School classes) that Sunday (at 19 days).

[18 days old, our little Deacon burrito]

[18 days old, sound asleep...]

[19 days old, still so small]

Jeff went back to work when Deacon was 20 days old.  Boo.  :(  He didn't want to go, and we didn't want him to go, but he did.  It was so nice to have him with us for 3 weeks.  I know that that is RARE for a daddy to be able to stay out of work for that long when his wife has a baby so I'm so grateful for that time.  He was such a big help and truly, I don't think I could have survived those weeks without his TLC for me and Deacon.

[20 days old]

We went to Deacon's 2 week well-check at the pediatrician's office at 20 days (yeah, a little late, I know).  He had gained almost an entire pound from his last appt, up to 7 lbs 13 oz, and had grown an inch, up to 20 1/4 inches.  Dr. Vinson said he was doing really well.

After his appt, I took Deacon down to see the ladies at the office and they "oohed & aahed" over him, of course.  :)  Everyone came out of their offices to hover around him.  Lucky Carol got to hold him.  :)  She said that Deacon told her she could be his "nana".  Well, he doesn't have a "nana" -- just a Grandma Sherry & a Grammy, so I guess Carol can fill the role of "nana".  :)

[21 days old, one of Deacon's fave things to do...]

At 21 days old (3 weeks), we gave Deacon his first bath in his infant tub.  And he liked it!  He just sat there in the warm water and let me wash him up.  I was so proud of him for not screaming his head off.  We used the bedtime bath & lotion since it was later in the evening and oh, man!  He smelled so yummy.  :)

[21 days old, his first bath in his infant tub]