I'm sure I'm on the list to be nominated for an award for World's Worst Blogger, in the category of "Plenty of Free Time Yet Still No Blog Updates". I officially apologize and have every intention of doing better at keeping this thing updated. But that's the thing about an "INTENTION", I'm not legally obligated to actually follow through, so there's a very good chance I won't. (Insert Evil Laugh for finding the system's loophole) Now as far as this update, grab a coke, it's sure to be lengthy.
I'm almost positive that you aren't going to be able to tell in the picture above what secret I've been keeping. (I'm pregnant)
"WHAAAAAAAT?!?! AGAIN ALREADY?!?!"
Yeah yeah yeah... Again already. Save it cuz I've heard it all already. Yes, we know what causes those things. Yes, we know what birth control is- we were married for 2 years before I had kids so yeah, I know how to use it. No, I'm not planning on having another kid next year again, this one was a total shocker anyway.
One theory as to why we are going to be blessed with "Irish Twins" is that a lot of thoughts had been circulating about the length of my pregnancy with Declan, along the lines of ladies being jealous of my stretch-mark-less belly, and my lack of having to push anything more than 2 lbs out of my body. Well, all I have to say to you individuals is, Touche to your power of thought. Haha that makes me sound really bitter, which I'm totally not. We are very, very excited about this baby. And I'm happy to inform all the ill-wishers (who I am fairly sure I invented in my head) that there are still no stretch marks, so suck it. Haha!
This time around, I started out only cautiously optimistic that I'd have a normal pregnancy. So far, as the title implies, I'm beating my previous record by 4 weeks. Yaaay! It's been a pretty bumpy road for us trying to keep this kiddo inside longer. I've had a Dr.'s appointment every single week since I was about 20 weeks, and one every 2 weeks before that. I'm 31 1/2 weeks right now, so that consists of me seeing A LOT of the inside of exam rooms. The basic diagnosis for me is an incompetent cervix, which was still not caught in time to be taken care of this time around. The incompetent cervix is really just part of it though. I have given a Self-Diagnosis which I like to call a BHU, or Baby Hating Uterus. When Declan was born, he was in like the 10th percentile for his gestational age. This baby is in the 11th. The theory given for this is that my body produces bad placenta, and it doesn't produce enough nutrients for the babies to distribute them evenly throughout their developing bodies. I have also been sent up to U of U Hospital this time around for my amniotic fluid levels being low. Clearly these babies are right to try and get out of there as soon as they can! It's not a fetus-friendly environment in there! I only had to spend a day in the hospital for my fluid levels though, so I'm home now. That was actually over Christmas that I got sent up there, so poor Declan had to spend his very first Christmas morning in the OB-GYN Emergency room at U of U. Fortunately, he doesn't care at all.
I had yet another ultrasound yesterday, which revealed some rather annoying news. My cervix doesn't look like it's gonna hold out much longer, so I'll most likely be having ANOTHER preemie. I am "actively" trying to prove them all wrong and stay pregnant longer, but I guess it's not really up to me. When I say I'm "actively" trying to prove them wrong, I mean I am as INACTIVE as I possibly can be. The more I lay flat, the better chance I have of staying pregnant longer. Yep, bed rest again! I'm becoming such a pro at it! I can tell you how I feel about almost every commercial on TV at this point. Luckily, I have Declan to keep me from going TOTALLY insane. Okay, that is not true, this kid makes me CRAZY, but in the best way possible.
He is hilariously entertaining and I spend all day laughing at the weird things he does. He is so dang clever, too! When he was first born, all the experts in the NICU said he would take about 2 years to catch up developmentally. He's 11 months old right now and can do almost everything that any other 11 month old baby can. He can crawl, climb, walk along furniture, say mama and dada- among a lot of other baby chatter, pull funny faces, "sing", feed himself finger foods, and sleep through the night- most nights anyway. Occasionally, I have to get up and make him a bottle in the middle of the night.
This picture makes it look like he is crying, but that's just him "Going Nuts". He clenches his jaw to the point that his whole body tenses up and he shakes his head back and forth. It's so funny, and most of the time we can get him to do it just by saying "Go Nuts!". Sometimes he doesn't care to do it, and other times, you can just catch him "Going Nuts" at his toys or off in a corner somewhere.
The other night we were just sitting around at home and Declan was going about his usual business of destroying my front room with all of his toys when all of a sudden we spied him on a rather adventurous climb. This kid has never climbed stairs in his life but he somehow managed to climb up that little blue chair onto that ottoman. He sat up there so proud of himself! He has not attempted the climb since or before then, so he must have just wanted to prove to himself that he could make the daring ascent just once. He's even been at Mike and Denise's since then and not even cared to go up their two steps into the kitchen. What a weird little butthead!
He absolutely LOVES sitting up on the top of the couch like this. A lot of the time there's not even anything up there for him to play with and he's still content. Lately, he enjoys banging his head on the wall behind him.
I'm pretty sure that's a tube of Lanacane he's chewing on here... Cuz we're good parents... Like I said, he prefers non-toy items the very most.
Heater vents: another current obsession of Declan's. He loves to put his face over the vents when the air is blowing out of them, and to bang on them when they're not blowing.
Curtiss and I are parents to the world's smallest moocher. Okay, I'm sure a lot of parents feel that way, but it's still so funny how he can totally reject food that is meant for him and the next second act ravenously hungry at the sight of our food. Doesn't he make that spaghetti look delicious? Chef Boyardee would be lucky to have him as their spokes-baby!
Chef Boyardee better watch out, though, because Pampers might just snatch him up before they can get to him! Don't you think this kiddo could have a career as a diaper model? Ha!
So this is basically how our life has been lately. We've been incredibly busy doing nothing whatsoever. It's been crazy, sometimes boring, and super hilarious around here. Oh, and before you all strangle me, I suppose you would like me to tell you if I'm having a boy or a girl this time around... Take a wild guess!
This picture makes it look like he is crying, but that's just him "Going Nuts". He clenches his jaw to the point that his whole body tenses up and he shakes his head back and forth. It's so funny, and most of the time we can get him to do it just by saying "Go Nuts!". Sometimes he doesn't care to do it, and other times, you can just catch him "Going Nuts" at his toys or off in a corner somewhere.
He absolutely LOVES sitting up on the top of the couch like this. A lot of the time there's not even anything up there for him to play with and he's still content. Lately, he enjoys banging his head on the wall behind him. 
Heater vents: another current obsession of Declan's. He loves to put his face over the vents when the air is blowing out of them, and to bang on them when they're not blowing. 
I would go as far to say that as much as I love shoes is as much as I hate throwing useful things away. For example, a few years ago, I had bought a pair of shoes from one of my favorite places in the world, Payless. Cute shoes+ low prices= happy Maggie! They were a really cute, shiny, black stiletto that cost me like $12 bucks or so. I wore them to work one day, and then when I came home, knowing that we had a naughty puppy at the time, put them in my closet so they weren't sitting out for him to chew up. He got to them anyway, and the shoes that had literally been seen in public on my feet one time were pretty much ruined. He didn't shred them or anything, he just dented the crap out of the surface of the shoes. And then a couple months later, the dumb dog had to go and die so I can't even properly resent him for it! In my mourning state, I spent like $50 on a leather repair kit trying to salvage the shoes, but they were never the same as before "the incident". This is what the poor, darling pair of shoes had become. 
I could never quite bring myself to throw them away. I knew in my heart I'd be able to resurrect them somehow. So into a box they went, awaiting the same fate as Walt Disney's body allegedly awaits: to be brought back to life by some miraculous new discovery. Then suddenly, the other day it hit me: I could paint them back to life! I got out the shoes, and some acrylic paint and mixed it with some fabric medium so that the paint becomes more pliable and less prone to cracking off whatever surface to which it's applied. 
I applied a few more coats to get it even. In between coats of paint, you'll also want to sand down any spots where the paint seems extra thick. It's a lot easier to keep on top of it between coats than it is to fix it all when it's done, so if it seems tedious or annoying, just think of all the money you're saving making your own custom design shoes instead of buying them!
That's a MUCH nicer shade of brown, isn't it? The look I was trying to create was brown and pink zebra stripes. As it happens, I do not own any shades of pink acrylic paint, due to me not needing to craft with such a girly color (I suppose I should add in the "yet" clause. I haven't needed it yet. WINK WINK!). This being so, I had to create my own shade of pink using two other colors, Berry Wine Red, and Antique Ivory. Yeah, I'm sure you noticed that the color brown I used was called Coffee Bean, so I've got Berry Wine and Coffee Bean paint going on the same shoe. Don't tell my bishop! Haha! 
Paint and sand, paint and sand.... My next ingenious thought was to use a stencil. As I have zero zebra stencils lying around, I went online and googled an image of zebra stripes and cut them out. I then proceeded to strategically paint the stripes with a stencil. 
At least for a little while... :)
Not too bad for a pair of $12, originally black, puppy chewed shoes, right? Especially when you consider that I looked all over the Internet trying to find a pair of shoes like these to copy, and I could only come up with the same ol', same ol' black and white zebra stripe shoes, and most of them cost well over $100! The pair that I modeled the stripes from were on sale for $150, marked down from $280. Yeah, let me hop right in my Ferrari and drive over to buy those...
They look like they're conspiring against everyone. I think Declan's the brains of the operation. He's been around a little longer so he knows the deal. He's giving Owen the scoop and you can see Owen is taking it all in. You know what they're doing tonight? Same thing they do every night. Tryyy to take over THE WOOORRRLLD!! Or maybe just pooping their pants.As for the family pictures I mentioned, all of the ones with the entire family are still on a DVD on their way in the mail to Denise, so I don't have them yet. We did manage to snap a few of Declan with his first cousins while the photographer was busy with some other groups around the garden where we were taking the pictures. I'll go ahead and post all of them, so that by seeing every single one, you can get the general idea of what it would look like if all seven kids were looking in the same direction for even a split second.
Good job Declan for maintaining a sober composure throughout! He never once succumbed to the peer pressure that was constantly brewing around him to not look at the camera and play around with any of his cousins. Even when Mikah looked like he was about to attack him, he held his ground and stayed photo-ready.
We snuck him home Thursday afternoon, and told as few people as possible that we were going. None of our parents even knew. This was halfway because Declan coming home is a freakin' good surprise for them, and halfway because if we told everyone he was coming home and then we really didn't get to, that's a lot of back-explaining that we didn't want to have to deal with. So, sorry if you weren't in on the Sneakret! I think Declan caught on to us though, because when we finally got home, I was feeding him and he had another episode on me. I'm not really sure how long you're supposed to wait to see if they recover on their own before you step in and stimulate them, but I didn't really want to wait and see IF he decided to breathe on his own. Everything is okay with him still, but he's done that to us two or three times now. The way the medical field categorizes the episodes is, it's considered a Grade Zero if he recovers on his own, Grade 1 if you have to stimulate him, Grade 2 takes a little more stimulation, Grade 3's and 4's require you to actually breathe for him and so on... I'm pretty sure he's only had Grade 1's at home so far, but I'd still put them as like Grade 24 on the scary-scale. 
He's currently on a very low flow of oxygen as well as being hooked up to a monitor that tells us what his blood oxygen level is as well as his heart rate. He's supposed to be at 85% or higher oxygen saturation, and if it drops below, the monitor makes the most "pleasant", shrill series of beeps you can possibly imagine. It's sort of nice, because then we don't have to sit and stare at him and wonder if he's breathing or not, but unfortunately, it's not 100% accurate, and if he wiggles and bumps the probe, it will make the alarm go off. Lovely! And of course, he's not one of those corpse babies, so he moves quite a bit, and the alarm goes off every few minutes all night! LOVE IT! Declan himself is a very mellow baby; he rarely cries at all, he just lounges around all day not really requiring a ton of attention, except diapers and feeding every once in awhile. He sleeps all night, except when I have to wake him up to feed and change him. I'd be the luckiest mom ever, getting a ton of rest with my newborn baby, if it weren't for the freakin monitor going off all the time!
We get to do all the fun parent things like change thousands of very poopy diapers, give the smelly little guy baths, and feed/burp/get spit up on. Add getting woke up by the monitor every 5 minutes at night and we're living the dream life now, haha!
Thanks to Grandma Sheron for the cute bassinet, to Alicia and Andy for the little hooded towel, and everyone else for all your support and gifts! I'll be sure to post lots of pictures of him using all of the stuff you've all given us. Aunt Sophie, I owe you big time for all the things you made for his nursery! I'll post the pictures soon!
