Ryan and I are new parents! It’s crazy to think that it’s already been a whole month since Declan was born… but at the same time, it has also been a long month haha. First, let’s start with his birth. We knew we were going to have a scheduled c-section after we found out he was breech and had a failed version appointment to try and flip him. We had originally scheduled surgery for 7/3 however when the hospital called, they informed us that they had no availability on 7/3 and had instead scheduled us for 7/5 – Ryan’s birthday! He said he was absolutely okay with sharing a birthday so for his 32nd birthday present he got a beautiful baby boy! The entire procedure was SO fast and it was kind of hard to believe that one second we were picking out songs to play in the OR and the next second, we had a baby boy in our arms. We spent 3 days, 2 nights in the hospital and things actually went relatively smoothly. Declan did have to get his blood drawn a lot since his blood type and mine were incompatible so they had to check his bilirubin levels to be sure his jaundice was resolving on its own – which thankfully it did. The hardest part was when we finally got home.

I honestly had no clue how hard it would be. Everyone talks about the sleepless nights and walking around in a fog, feeling like your life isn’t even your life anymore – but in all honesty, it always seemed like a somewhat over-exaggerated joke. Videos of people with this zombie look on their face rocking their baby to sleep and then realizing their baby wasn’t even in their arms, they were in the bassinet. Or I would hear about it from people who were way past that stage and just seemed so happy and ‘normal’ that you think to yourself “well it couldn’t be THAT bad since literally everyone gets through it”. I was not prepared.

But I also don’t think you ever can REALLY be prepared. It’s just something you can’t fully comprehend until you’ve been in the thick of it yourself and it’s your baby waking up every 2 hours. I think it has also been a little more difficult for me and Ryan because recovering from a c-section meant I needed a lot of extra help those first couple of weeks. I needed Ryan to hand Declan to me for nighttime feeds and do all the nighttime diaper changes. I am also someone who is not accustomed to getting so little sleep so that was a rough adjustment.

After a month of working through all the struggles of sleep, learning how to breastfeed without it being painful, slowly getting my mobility back, and adjusting to the ‘doing nothing, but overwhelmed’ feeling I can say we are getting through it. And despite it all, I just love Declan so stinkin’ much! He has the sweetest little face, I love his tiny little lips, his cute little fingers and when he makes eye contact with those big eyes. He has the softest cheeks that I just want to kiss all the time and I love watching him sleep when I hold him. Finn is also obsessed and wants to play with him so badly!

I’m a little late, writing this only a week before he’s two months old, but here are a few highlights from our first month with our sweet boy:

•He only fits in his newborn sized clothes
•He loves to have his hands in his face
•Finn loves to bring Declan socks
•We learned that the blue spot on his foot is a birthmark called a Mongolian Spot
•He does not like to be swaddled and is constantly breaking free
•We can’t tell what color his eyes will be since they are mostly just dark grey
•He has the funniest little horseshoe of hair that makes him look like a little old man
•His hair looks like a strawberry blonde or auburn color
•He does well in the carseat!
•He was born with very peely skin so we slowly worked at getting all the excess skin off
•We learned that he has a mild case of cradle cap so we will be working on clearing that up
•Declan absolutely hated his first bath, but his second bath went great!
•He has the scrunchiest little froggy legs from being breech for so long
•He is a big fan of contact naps and for the most part will only sleep being held (even at night)