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]

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 :) ]

11 weeks old...

Hey, here's an interesting fact -- Deacon is 11 weeks old today, on 1/11/11.  That's pretty cool, right?  Anyways, it's so hard to believe that this much time has passed...he's growing so much and really entertaining us.  :)

He smiles on demand now -- he will almost always smile at me or Jeff when we play with him or talk to him.  He really likes it when folks talk to him and will seemingly try to talk back.  His gurgling and cooing is SO.cute.

[7 weeks]

[8 weeks]

[9 weeks]

We get to see a lot of that laughing and "talking" in the morning -- he seems the happiest then.  Typically, I try to get him up by 7am to eat, if he's not already awake.  Then he spends some time with Daddy in our bed while I get a shower, have my coffee, start laundry, etc.  He generally eats every 3 hours after that with good awake time and naps in between. 

[happy guy in his crib, 9 weeks]

He LOVES the swing that we borrowed from our good friends, the Olds'.  That is our "go-to" -- if he's fussy, we can usually put him in that and he's good to go.  :)  He falls asleep in it most of the time and will sleep really good.

We also have a bouncy seat that he'll sit in for a little while -- after some time passes, he gets tired of that.  I do try to put him on his tummy for a little bit but he usually gets tired of that real quick.  If he's gonna be on his tummy, it has to be right after he's eaten.  If we wait too long, he's starting to fade into sleepiness and then he has NO patience for being on his tummy.

[9.5 weeks]

His 2 month check up at the pediatrician's office was Dec 30.  He weighed in at 11 lbs, 13 oz!  That's in the 63rd percentile for weight so he's pretty average.  His length measured at 22 1/4 inches which puts him in the 54th percentile.  Again, average.  I'm just fine with that.  :)

He had to have a couple of vaccines at this appt. *frowny face*  He got one stick and one oral vaccine and did fine with both.  He only cried for a couple of seconds after the stick in his leg and then was just fine.  Mommy had a harder time with it than Deacon did.  :)  Yeah, he didn't have any kind of side effects or anything for the rest of the day, either.  He's my tough little guy.

[my little guy's bandaid, 9 weeks]

I went back to work last week. *extreme frowny face*  My heart's desire since I was a little girl has been to stay home with my kids, just like my mom did for us.  I desperately wanted that to work out but it just isn't our reality right now.  However, God did the next best thing for me -- He worked it out so that 1) I'm able to work from home Thursdays & Fridays and 2) a good friend, who is a wonderful mommy to her 2 young boys, is able to keep Deacon for us in her home Mon-Wed while I'm in the office.

The transition back to work went SO much better than I could've ever hoped for!  I actually have not cried once since going back to work (though, I've gotten slightly emotional just once) and Deacon has done fantastically at Krystal's house.  I was so busy while at the office last week that I didn't have time to be sad (though I thought about Deacon a lot :) and then being home with him Thursday & Friday was great.  AND I was able to get everything done for work.  Best of both worlds!

We really couldn't ask for more from Krystal -- she used to teach before she made the decision to stay home with her boys so she's wonderful with kids, no matter their age.  And she says she's already grown to love Deacon just like one of her own.  :)  She gives us a "report card" each day when I pick up Deacon so we can see what he's been up to throughout the day.  What a sweet momento if I have to be away from him!

It's really just the perfect scenario -- I know that my God worked all that out.  It helps this Mommy's heart.

[10 weeks]

[10.5 weeks]

[11 weeks]

Deacon's 1st Christmas...

We celebrated Deacon's first Christmas at my Mom & Dad's house in Lexington.  It was there that my brother, sister-in-law and niece finally got to meet him, as well as my grandparents, Deacon's great-grandparents.

Our 4-hour trip to my parents' house went well -- we stopped 2 hours in to feed the kid and change his diaper. He did good with that.  When we weren't stopped, he pretty much snoozed the whole way.

Deacon did great away from home -- my parents set up a pack-n-play in my Dad's office and he slept just fine in there at night.  For naps, he slept wherever we were.  My mom was stocked with diapers & wipes so we didn't have to bring any with us.  We packed enough clothes that we didn't have to do laundry so that was good.  I wasn't sure how I was going to do with the whole packing-for-a-baby thing but I guess it turned out okay.  :)

Even only 2 months in, Deacon seems to be a pretty laid back kid so he really just rolled with whatever came down the pike over the weekend.  So grateful for that -- he gets that from his Daddy and that's what I prayed & prayed for!  :)

It was a special weekend and the numerous photos that were taken tell the story pretty well:

[my jolly boy says, "Merry Christmas!"]

[Deacon & his Grammy, my mom]

[Deacon & his great-grandmother, my Gram]

[Deacon & his great-grandfather, my Buppa]

[Cora Beth meeting her cousin for the first time...]

[...and she loves him :) ]

[Deacon with his Aunt Brandi]

[helping Aunt Lindsay give out the presents]

[stopping to check on Deacon :) ]

[Cora Beth's fave gift -- a HANDMADE-by-my-Buppa rocking horse]

[all the kiddos]

[such a sweet little helper :) ]

[cousins]

[it was a white Christmas with 3-4 inches of snow!]

[my brother, his girl and their snowman :) ]

[2 months old]

**For more photos of our weekend, click here.**