Declan is 1 week old!

On his first day of life, Declan did so well. By the time they brought him to me from the nursery, he was acting like a full term baby. Lots of the nurses asked me, "are you sure they didn't miscalculate the dates?" But they didn't - we are absolutely positive he was 36 weeks! He's just my little overachiever!

One of my great fears through the pregnancy was that I wouldn't be able to breastfeed. I was so relieved that he is a natural! He latched on immediately and perfectly, ate for long periods of time, and stayed on a pretty good schedule!

We were so excited (and overwhelmed!) to have a lot of visitors at the hospital the day after Declan was born - somewhere around 30 visitors!!!
Some of the people that came to visit:

{Aunt Courtney}

{Susan and Dave}

{My friend from school, Rachael}

{Uncle Mike}

We stayed 2 nights at the hospital, which was wonderful. The nurses were so great, and I was a little sad to be leaving the hospital!

{Leaving the hospital - we were only a little tired!!}

When we left the hospital, Declan weighed 6 lb, 13 oz.

He was starting to look a little orange, so the pediatrician checked his bilirubin - it was 9. If it had been 13, they would have kept him for the night and put the lights on him.

When we got home, the dogs were so excited to see us. We have a video of their introduction to Declan, and it's pretty funny. Surprisingly, they are doing great with him!

At home, we did a lot of sleeping any time we could. And a lot of learning to be parents.


Our first outing was on Thursday, when we went to our photographer, Lisa Mac's studio. She did such a great job, and I can't wait to see more!

We celebrated our favorite holiday - St. Patrick's Day!

We sat outside a lot, because it was beautiful, and the sun helped lower his bilirubin.

Unfortunately, the sun didn't help enough, though. By the time we went to see the pediatrician on Friday, Declan was a carrot. They checked his bilirubin - it was 19!!! We weren't too happy about that!

So the doctor had some bili-lights sent to our house, and our little boy had to be hooked up to lights 22 out of 24 hours a day for 3 days!


This was so hard for me, because we couldn't walk around with him, it was more difficult to hold him, and breastfeeding was a little more challenging with all of those cords and wires! We were also so worried that he was going to have to go back to the hospital if the lights didn't work!

So that was how we spent his 1 week birthday - hooked up to bili-lights! :(

At his 1 week checkup, Declan weighed 6 lb, 12 oz (down an ounce from when we left the hospital) and he was 19.5 inches long (down an inch from when we left the hospital). We were shocked to hear that he had lost an inch - but the nurse reminded us that he was born with a big old cone-head, and that had shrunk down!

The first week now feels like a blur. It went by soo fast, and we were so tired, all of the details just run together!!

Being a mom is super hard, but so rewarding! I just love him so much!