Handsome and chubby

Can you guess which one is which?


PS How bout them cheeks in the first pic?

Scratch

Monday, while taking a nap at Grammie Q's house Donovan scratched himself on his nose. Tom told me about it when I called home that night from work to see how Donovan was doing. I asked him how big the scratch was and Tom said, and I quote,"About the size of three pennies stacked on top of each other." Seriously? Must be a new unit of measurement, that penny width.

Almost fits

This is the "Newborn" hat that Donovan was wearing in one of our pictures of him from his first full day of life. Back then it was way to big for him, now it is just a little too big. A couple more months and the "newborn" size should fit just right.

Nudie

Nothing to see here, just a naked boy in a bouncer. (well, he did have a diaper on)

Silly Pun-kin

We leave Donovan alone with Auntie Jenna for a few hours and this is what we come home to find on the camera. Apparently someone was amusing herself.

Pun-kin head

For christmas I got a bunch of baby stuff from my cousin Joshua (actually I think it was more his mom but technically it was from him). One of the things that we got was this pumpkin hat that we could not wait to put on him when October came along. Well I ran across it the other day and realized there is no way that hat is going to fit Donovan's fat head in October. So we put it on, almost ripped the seams and took some pictures while we had the chance. It's really freaking cute, so hopefully we will get to use it more for our next baby.

3 months old

Happy 3 month (13 weeks exactly) birthday Donovan! Man am I obsessed with you! Donovan is such a joy! I love him so much and miss him even more when I am not around him, which seems to be a lot lately as I went back to work last week. He is getting to be such a mature young man. As I type this he is sitting facing the computer, leaning against my body and enthusiastically chewing on his hands. I mentioned in his 2 month update that he had found his hands. Well this month he has decided that chewing on them is his favorite thing to do. It is so nice too because it keeps him occupied and happy for a good amount of time and a happy baby leads to a happy mommy. (see pic of Donovan cheering on the cardinals and eating his hand).


Overall he is a much easier baby now than he has been in the past. He has decided that in addition to the play mat, he enjoys the jumper, bumbo and now even the swing! This is extra exciting because he used to LOATH the swing and now he likes to swing in it and even take naps in it sometimes. Now that he likes those other things, it makes happy time that much better with all the variety. The past 2 days when I have had him all by myself during the day he was only crabby about 5 minutes total for both days because when he crabs we have so many other options of things to try. Something cute that he has started doing in the past week is sticking his tongue out a lot. I joke that his tongue is too big for his mouth because he doesn't just stick it out a little, he sticks it out all the way down to his chin, which is so funny. He also likes to lick your shoulder or shirt when you are holding him upright, so we often find ourselves with wet shirts after holding him now. I guess this is the beginning of the oral phase. (see tongue montage)




As far as the sleeping goes... I am pleased to report it is getting better! Donovan usually goes to sleep somewhere in the 8-9 o'clock hour and we are putting him in his crib now every night as of this past thursday. Thurs is significant because it was my first 11am-11pm shift back at work and my mom was in town so I think she was the push we needed to actually go for it and put him in the crib at night. That way Tom does not have to sleep with him since he isn't as comfortable with it as I am. The first night (and second night for that matter) was a doosy, with him only sleeping for an hour or so at a time. However sun and mon nights he went over three hours in the crib before he woke up for his first feeding, and last night he went four and a half hours! Hopefully he will just keep increasing his time until we get to sleeping overnight. The bad part about the crib though, is that he doesn't sleep as well in it so after the first feeding, it is just short bursts of sleeping in there with lots of waking up to feed and/or soothe him back to sleep. Everything takes time though so it will come. As far as naps go, we put him down in the crib about half the time, the other half we hold him or put him in the swing. If I am tired and trying to get a nap in too then it works best for now if we nap together as he will sleep longer if he is with me. Eventually though it will all be in his crib. His naps are pretty short these days, he usually only naps for about 20-40 minutes and then for one nap a day goes anywhere from 1-2 hours. Saturday he must have been wiped out as he napped in his crib for 2 and a half hours, at which point Tom woke him up so he wouldn't spoil his night sleeping. We do have a long way to go, but I am happy with where we are and the progress we have made with the whole situation this far.

Donovan still loves his baths and naked time. I changed his diaper and outfit (he peed on it) monday outside while we were watching Tom play softball and I am pretty sure it was Donovan's favorite moment ever. The wind hitting his naked booty was a dream come true for him. Hopefully in the next month we will take a try at swimming. I would like for him to be sitting up a little better before we go so I am going to wait a few more weeks but then we are going to try it out since I think he would really love it. As far as the poop thing goes (I know you may not care but this is for my record too) Donovan is taking pitty on us and only pooping a few times a day at most, and even skips days on a regular basis. It seems stupid but it is nice because I don't worry about diaper rash and changing him right away since it isn't all the time anymore.

On a sad note, I did go back to work last week. I am handling it pretty well but as I sit here and type this, I have tears in my eyes at the thought of having to go back to work tomorrow and not see him for 13 hours. We are so blessed that Tom's mom is able to watch him so I know I am incredibly lucky, I just wish I never had to leave him. It does make me more thankful for every second I do have with him though. Before last week, when Tom would come home I would be like "You get to change the next diaper" or "Could you hold him a little while?". Now I never want to give him up or even let Tom take that next diaper change. Of course it also helps that he lets me put him down now during the day while he plays so I do get to do things I couldn't before. I just love him more and more every second and I can't imagine a cooler kid. I know he is only 3 months old but I just love his personality and he cracks me up daily and makes me melt with the smiles he gives me. His expressions are just too funny, I just hope that one day he can understand just how much joy he brings us on a daily basis.

Our sweet baby. Is there a sweeter face?

Big smile!

Hoodie

Does this mean he is in a gang?

The many faces of Donovan

In his jumper, taken by Grandma B.

What rainy Sundays are good for

Favorite thing to do on a Sunday: Hang out with my daddy in our jammies.

Second favorite thing to do on a Sunday: Eat my hand. Yummy.

Fourth of July

For the holiday we decided last minute to have some people over for a get-together. We grilled and had people bring side dishes and then had some smores for dessert. It was a blast! We had 4 babies in attendance and about 20 friends/family over spread out throughout the whole day. Here are some of the pictures I managed to take when not visiting, cooking or watching fireworks.

All the little ones in attendance. From L to R: Donovan (10 1/2 weeks), Landon (14 1/2 weeks), Claire (7 months), Ian (10 weeks)

The kiddos and the entertainers/adults.

Claire was a little too quick and managed to snag this beer before the adult drinking it could open it. Turns out, beer in a can is a fun and cheap toy for a 7 month old. It kept her occupied for a long time!

Cold beer cans can become a good teething toy as well.

Watch out, this one is starting early!

The activity was all too much for Landon. We all felt like doing this at the end of the night!

July 3rd-Best day ever!

Friday both Tom and his friend John had the day off so we decided to go down to his house in South City and hang out with John, his wife Emily and their son Ian, who is 3 days younger than Donovan. It was a beautiful day and we took full advantage of it! We packed up the boys and walked down to a deli and started the day off with some lunch on the patio of the deli. In a shocking turn of events, both Donovan and Ian slept in their strollers and allowed all of us adults to eat, get this, AT THE SAME TIME! A rarity around these parts. After that we walked to the park and spent a couple hours hanging out and talking on some blankets, while the husbands played catch. Donovan and Ian really liked being outside in the shade and spent a lot of time looking at the trees and kicking around. After that we walked to Ted Drews and got some dessert, again both bambinos slept while we ate, it was amazing! We trekked it back to John and Emily's after that as we were very pooped, packed up and headed home. It was such the perfect day! Then that night we hung out with the neighbors and their kids in our neighbor's driveway and watched the firework display that our neighborhood puts on, which was awesome! By the end of the night we were so exhausted but in the best way! Donovan was so well behaved all day and wasn't that fussy, and we got lots of exercise and enjoyed a beautiful St Louis day with good friends. It does not get much better than that!

Trying out the shades in the car on the way to our playdate.

Ian and Donovan hanging out on the blanket in the park.

Best buds checking out those trees together.

Ian playing with his caterpillar.

Donovan in a trance, checking out the trees.

Ian and his mommy (Emily).

John playing catch.

Tom following through with a throw.

Donovan and his biggest fan (me).

Giving my little man some love.

Happy Donovan!

July 2nd- Worst day of my life

Let me begin this post by saying everyone is ok, especially Donovan who was the unfortunate recipient of a bad mommy decision. July 2nd I was at home, and decided to run a few errands with Donovan. I strapped him tightly (which is key) to his car seat, gathered all the stuff I needed to bring with us and out the garage door we went to my car. Well I had too much stuff in my hands, including Donovan in the car seat, so I could not shut the door to the house. Since it was hot I did not want to put Donovan in the car but I needed to set him down so I could grab the door. I don't know why I thought this was a good idea but I thought, "I'll just set him on the hood of my car and then shut the door quickly and we'll go." So I set him on the hood, waited a second to make sure he did not slide down (and he did not), and turned around to shut the door. Not one second later as I was turning back from shutting the door I heard the worst sound in my life of the car seat hitting the ground. Then I saw Donovan's car seat upside-down on the ground. It was the most terrifying and sickening thing I have ever seen, a sight that I cannot get out of my head to this day and probably will never forget. I immediately flipped him over, terrified of what I was going to find. He looked perfectly fine and was just looking at me like "Hey, what'd you do?" He wasn't crying but I was sure he was really hurt so I began feeling all over his head and face, trying to find if I could feel anything broken. Of course this was all with shaky hands and through eyes full of tears but I could not find anything that looked abnormal. At this point he started fussing, which I think was due to me poking and prodding him and the fact that he was sleeping before I put him in the car seat so he was still tired but I was terrified it meant something was hurt. So I called the Dr's office to see what I should do and of course they were closed for lunch for 20 more minutes. Well I decided that nothing was so wrong that we needed to go to the ER right away so we would wait the 20 min until the office was open again. In the meantime I continued to cry uncontrollably and Donovan settled in for a nap. So as soon as the office was open I called and left a message for the nurse line, telling them what happened. At this point Donovan woke up and was smiling at cooing at me like nothing happened at all. About 5 min later the nurse from the Dr's office called me back and after I explained what happened to her and told her how I thought he had a red mark above his left eyebrow she told me I should take him to the ER to get him checked out just to be safe. The nurse was so sweet and reassuring, even telling me that her son had fallen off the bed when he was with her husband but at that point nothing made me feel better. I think she was more concerned for me since I was crying so hard, she said "Are you going to be ok to take him to the hospital?" So after assuring her I would be fine I hung up and threw everything together and got me and Donovan in the car. I called Tom, told him what had happened and asked him to meet me at the ER for some moral support which he of course agreed to do.

I was really impressed with the ER, they walked us back to a room as soon as we got there and the nurse was with us in the first 5 minutes. Overall we were there for 2 1/2 hours and Donovan showed no signs of being hurt the entire time we were there, in fact he was better behaved there then he usually is at home. After examining him, taking his vitals, and watching to see how he tolerated eating we were given a clean bill of health from the Nurse practitioner and allowed to go home. The NP decided he didn't need to take any X-rays or anything as he had no bumps or bruises and sent us home with some signs to look for in case he had a head injury that we just couldn't see. I felt good about going home because he was acting normally so I pretty much knew he was going to be fine.

He has been fine ever since so it turned out that this was just more of an emotional injury for mom than anything else. Thank God he is ok. We are so lucky that nothing bad happened to him because I know just how easily it could have gone the other way. After thinking about the fall and looking at the car seat, we think it slid off and fell on its side before rolling over upside down. That and the fact that he was so tightly fastened into the seat is probably what saved him from serious injury. It is 3 days after the fall now and I still feel sick just thinking about it. Every time I pray at night I start crying again because I feel like I got a second chance with Donovan. I think God was just like "Ellen, you are getting too lax with things, you need to be a little more careful." I am taking that lesson to heart. One trip to the ER is one too many. From now on Tom and I will be placing Donovan in the car seat when it is planted firmly on the ground. This was a life lesson that I had to learn the hard way, even though it could have been a lot worse. We are so blessed to have a happy and healthy baby. Thank God.

I'm ready for dinner mom

My boys