One Month Old!

Our little Declan celebrated his one month birthday on Sunday.  He's had a very busy month growing, he's gained almost 4 pounds since birth and grew almost 2 inches in length.  Wow!  Here are some photos of him at one month old. 

His favorite activities this month include taking naps, filling diapers, and drinking milk.  He puts up with mom and dad when we bathe him, change him, and trim his fingernails.  He is also very patient with his amateur parents, and is such a good baby with an excellent temperament.  He already is snoring when he sleeps, and loves to grunt and growl when he's awake.  He is always making noise.  

Since I've done such a bad job at blogging this first month, here are some photos that I've taken over the month. 
My sister Julie and her family moved back to the Seattle area from New York, and on their way driving they stopped in Spokane to meet Declan - he was only about a week old at the time.  Here is a photo of my niece and nephew checking out their new cousin.

Here's Declan and Dad hanging out.

Here is me and the little guy hanging out

 Declan with his proud parents. 

A Few Firsts

Over the last few days, Declan had a few firsts that I thought I would share! 

His first bath at home:

He did really well!  Didn't cry... just made some funky faces and squeaked a little bit. 

His first doctor's appointment:

They weighed him, and he's gained 2 ounces since we left the hospital.  They said that was excellent!  So now our little guy weighs in at a whopping 5 pounds 15 ounces.  They checked his heartbeat, his lungs, his skin color, his eyeballs, and Dr Olson said "he's a perfect baby!"  He didn't cry at all at his appointment, and the doctor was very impressed.  But he did pee on the nurse.  :)   

Declan Patrick Murphy is here!

Declan Patrick Murphy was born Friday, April 1st at 9:00 pm.  Here is his story (from my point of view, of course)

I had Friday off of work because we were shut down for a huge company wide core computer conversion.  Shawn had taken the day off as well so that we could spend the day hanging out with each other.  I had a hair appointment at 9:30 in the morning - all week long I kept telling everyone I knew that I was going to have this baby on Friday afternoon because it would be perfect timing.  I'd have my roots covered up from my hair appointment, and I wouldn't have go to work on Monday to miss the system conversion drama.  Perfect, right?

Well I got up and went to my hair appointment.  When I got there at 9:30, I felt kind of a weird gushing feeling like I may have just peed my pants a little.  Not a lot, just a little.  So I went to the bathroom to check the situation out, and I was pretty sure my water had broke but there wasn't a lot of liquid and I felt fine, so I decided to not tell anyone and just stay to get my hair done.  No sense in worrying people, right?? 

The entire time I was getting my hair cut and colored I was feeling gushes of liquid so I started getting a little more nervous.  As soon as the foils were our of my hair I told my hairdresser that I should probably call my doctor because I think my water broke.  She immediately was like, "Uh, what??!?"  So I'm on the phone with the doctor while she's trying to frantically finish cutting my hair.  My doc tells me that it's probably a good idea if I come in to get checked out. 

I arrived at the doctor's office around 12:30 and Shawn met me there.  They said my water had indeed broken, and had me go over to the hospital to get admitted.  We arrived in our hospital room around 1:30 and got my first (yes first) epidural around an hour after that. 

We waited and waited for contractions to come and get stronger, but I still felt pretty good.  I finally started feeling some really painful ones around 5:30 and quickly realized that the epidural wasn't quite taking as much pain away as I felt like it should have been.  I was crying in pain with each contraction and could totally feel my legs - something that I had kept telling the nurses, but I think they thought I was making it up.  The epidural man came back at like 6:30 to redo it.  That was the worst ever because I hate anything needle related, anything spine related, and anything medical related in general.  So having to get TWO epidurals was pretty much my worst case scenario.  I survived it, and they started giving me strong doses of Pitocin to speed up the contractions.

Around 8:30 I called my nurse telling her that I was feeling A LOT of pressure and I thought the baby was trying to come out.  My nurse had checked me about 15 minutes earlier and I was only dilated 4 centimeters, so I think she thought I was making this up as well.  She checked me, and I was at 10 centimeters!  It was time to push!!  Shawn started jumping up and down with excitement, and I almost started to cry out of fear, but there was no turning back now!  I pushed for about 20 minutes, and the had little Declan in my arms.  It was love at first sight, he is so amazing. 

Here are some photos we took at the hospital.

This is Shawn and I waiting around bored after the first epidural

 My first look at my tiny little son

 Declan getting measured and sized up

 Declan's first bath

 Stat sheet.  He was 5 pounds, 13 ounces and 20 inches long.  A long skinny thing!

 His outfit to wear home

 Tiny little preemie diapers a friend brought us in the hospital.  Even the newborn diapers were huge on him!

 Car ride home!

Murphy Family Photo

 His first nap at home!!

Declan is so funny... he doesn't cry - he just squeaks!  We haven't really heard him cry yet, he's such a good baby.  When he's upset or uncomfortable or anything he just does this weird grunting squeaking thing - even right after he was born!  It's so cute, we tried to catch it on video to share with everyone - hopefully I can post the video soon.

37 Weeks and 3 Centimeters

I've made it to 37 weeks!  Well, actually, 37 weeks is tomorrow but I'm going to say I'm basically there.  I had my weekly doctor's appointment this morning, and he said I've progressed to 3 centimeters dilated.  Wahoo!!  I'm hoping with this news of progression that I won't really make it until my due date (that's still 3 weeks away) but I'm also trying to not get my hopes up that he'll come any day now.   

Take a look at the latest photo of the little guy, he looks like he's ready to come out to me!

Baby Shower

Last Saturday my friends Andrea and Leslie threw me an awesome baby shower, and about 25 guests came!  It was a really fun time.  They did such a great job with all of the cute little details.  Here is a photo of the cookie favors that everyone went home with - there were bottle shapes, teddy bears, and little baby buggies.  I love sugar cookies, and these were so tasty and cute!

Here is a photo of the yummy mints my friends made, there were quite a few leftover and I've eaten more than my fair share over the last week.

 Here is a photo of the cake, it was tasty too... but I was so busy chatting that I only ate about one bite of it.

 Here I am showing off the balloons, cake, and my growing bump.

 We played a few games, one where everyone had to guess how big my belly was around by cutting of a piece of string and then measuring it next to the real thing.  I'm making sure everyone has a clear view of the belly, but I don't think anyone under-guessed, there were A LOT of really long strings people had cut. 

 Next we spent time opening gifts. There were so many of them - I feel so loved to have gotten so many useful things.  In one day Shawn and I went from having no clothes or blankets to having enough to make the little guy comfortable.  We are finally feeling ready for our baby to join us!  Here a a few pics of some of the gifts.
This bib was pretty cute since I'll be having a half Irish baby.  But I'm sure he won't be short of getting people to kiss him.

 I think I'll be nose deep into this book (What To Expect During the First Year) for a while.

 My grandma sent over this SUPER cute Mariners outfit.  I'm a huge fan of the team, and can't wait until he can wear this to his first Mariner's game (hopefully this summer). 

Two Centimeters

I went to the doctor today for a normal prenatal check-up (I'm 34 weeks and 6 days).  The doc was doing his normal routine of blood pressure, listening to baby's heartbeat, and answering my prepared list of questions.  Then he checked to see if I was dilated - I am dilated to 2 centimeters!!!  Whoa, where did that come from? 

He let me know that we really need to do our best to make it to at least 36 weeks, so I would need to "take it easy and be real careful" until he sees me next week because he doesn't want me progressing any more.  I'm not exactly sure what he meant about taking it easy and being careful, but Shawn has pretty much banished me to the couch. 

The 2 cm number definitely scared us a little - tonight I'm finishing packing my hospital bag and Shawn is currently installing the car seat.  Now if we could only come up with a name...

Our Little Monkey

Shawn and I bought our first box of diapers this weekend.  I took some out of the box to set out in the baby room and we both couldn't believe how tiny they were!  It was so funny, Shawn started looking for something we could try a diaper on.  Well here is our little guy, peaceful as can be sleeping in his little napper.  I think he takes after his dad...  ;)

February in a Nutshell

Let's see..... what have we been up to in February??  It was a pretty busy month for us with our 1st wedding anniversary, Valentine's Day, Shawn's birthday, a trip to Seattle, and lots of baby stuff in between.  I have almost no photos to show for the entire month, so that's a bummer. 

Our little guy is growing well (so my doctor tells me), and we're right on average pace.  Lately, Junior's favorite activities include dancing on my ribs like Tom Hanks on the big piano in "Big", using my ovaries for punching bags, and getting the hiccups.  He gets the hiccups 2 or 3 times a day! 

Right now I'm at 33 weeks.  My doctor told me that once I'm at 35 weeks they won't stop labor if it happens to start, so that was a really weird wake-up call. 

We've slowly been getting things ready in the baby room as the weeks go by.  We've painted, bought a rocking chair, and Shawn has been working on refinishing the dresser I had in my room as a teen.  We decided that we would stain it darker and add some handles to give it a new look.  Here is the dresser before...

 And here it is after!  I think it turned out really nice, and it is so wonderful to have a handy husband!

The people in my department at work threw me a lunch-time shower the other day.  It's the ongoing topic of conversation at work that Shawn and I haven't picked out a name for our baby (and no, we STILL haven't decided ) and it drives everyone crazy that I refer to him as "fetus".  Well... that's what he is, right???  :)  Anyway, here is the cake they gave me.  It reads, "Can't wait till ya meet us, Fetus".  I laughed and laughed at this clever cake.  Have I mentioned that I work with the best people? 

28 Weeks

Here I am with my growing belly at 28 weeks.  I'm officially into my 3rd and final trimester!  Yay!  I feel like I've been pregnant forever, and am honestly kind of bored with it at this point.  The newness has worn off and now I'm just anxious to hold my little guy. 

We've just barely started to get ready for baby.  We've had 7 months so far, and haven't done or bought anything in those 7 months so it's time to make up for all of that slacking.  Our next several weekends will be spent painting, putting together furniture, and setting things up. 

Overall I've been feeling really good.  But with that said, my back kills me at the end of the day, and I'm really tired of having to pee like every 30 minutes.  Everyone tells me that I look so cute and tiny, but I feel like a beached whale trying to get in and out of bed.

Shawn and I are still undecided on a name - I fear we may be in the delivery room before we actually settle on something.  For now, we just refer to him as "Junior".  I just hope the nickname doesn't stick!

Work Winter Party

This last Saturday my work had it's annual formal winter party at the Coeur d'Alene Resort. Shawn and I went for the evening and had a really good time! Here we are after eating dinner.

 Here I am with my BFF's Leslie and Andrea at the party.  I always have such a good time with these girls - we just laugh and laugh when we are together, and work doesn't feel so much like work!

There was a photo booth at the party this year, and it was a total blast getting to use it.  You could do it as many times as you want, they had fun props, the photos were available to be downloaded, and best of all it was all free!  I love working for such an amazing employer; I feel so blessed.

Here are some of the photos from the photo booth.

Christmas 2010

This year Shawn and I hosted Christmas Eve in our new home.  It was so much fun!  We had a wonderful dinner with turkey and all of the fixings. 

Here is a photo of all of us in front of the tree.  Left to right is; Nate, niece Jessica, brother-in-law Mark, Me, mother-in-law Joan, sister-in-law Colleen, niece Samantha, Ellie, and Shawn.

 After dinner we did a gift exchange

 Here's a cute photo of Shawn and his mom.

 Me and my niece Jessica

 Cousins Ellie and Samantha.  These two are as thick as thieves.

 My niece Jessica and her boyfriend Nate

 Shawn's sister Colleen and her husband Mark

 After gifts we played Wii.  It was so much fun!  First we played Just Dance, and it was such a good time (of course I forgot to get photos of us playing).  We were able to get everyone up and playing - there were a LOT of laughs had by all.

 Here's Ellie and her new coat!

 The three of us in front of the fireplace - it's the last Christmas as the three of us, next year will be four!