I'm Feeling Blessed

Everything has been going really, really smoothly. First of all, Payden and the girls have adjusted well. They LOVE holding him. Payden is always asking, "Can I hold it?" We're still working on the fact that it is a he. The moment he starts making a peep one or all of the girls go to him to rock him or give him his pacifier. In fact, we're working on waiting until he's actually upset and not just making a noise before they intervene. I hope he learns to enjoy having 4 moms because . . . that's what he's got. They really do just absolutely love him, and we've not had any major adjustment issues so far.

Then there's Declan. He is the calmest baby I've ever had, and the easiest to understand. There's not been a cry that I haven't understood, and, in all honesty, he doesn't cry very much. With my girls, I would try to burp them in the middle of their feedings, which is recommended. After a bit, I always gave it up because they would get so upset, and I just felt like it wasn't worth it. Not Declan. I feed him. Put him on my shoulder to burp him, and he just calmly sits there. Then when I lay him back down again, he starts eating again. There's no crying, no fussing, nothing. He just calmly goes through it all.

With his sleep I feel really blessed. I discovered on the second day home how to get him to sleep well. All I do is swaddle him really tightly and then lay him in his carrier. He sleeps soooooooo well that way. At night time I do the same thing with the swaddling and laying in the carrier, and so far he only wakes me up 1 or 2 times a night. It is so nice. I usually feed him and put him down for the night around 10 or 11. Most nights he'll wake up again between 2/3 and then again between 5/6. Occasionally he'll sleep until about 4/5 and then when he does wake up again the alarm's going off for us to get up. I'm in complete shock (and waiting for it to end) because I've NEVER had a child who's done so well so early on. I've never had a problem with them having a hard time sleeping during the night, but rather they'd wake me up 3-4 times during the night to eat. I definitely feel like I deserve a nice, calm baby after my strong-willed, dramatic, more-demanding girls. Anyways, I hope things will continue to go well. I won't bet on it, but I'm definitely enjoying the good moments for now!!

This is how Declan sleeps . . .





Unless his dad is home and wants to nap, too. I'm just glad that Declan seems to be taking after his dad . . . a good sleeper.



I thought these next 2 pictures were just too cute.





I realized in one of my previous posts that I hadn't snapped a shot of Shelby holding Declan since the hospital. She looks so sweet in this picture.



This is in an outfit Nana bought for him.



Finally, I don't think he's a full-blown redhead, but in the next 2 pictures you can definitely see some red in there.