2 weeks!!

Our sweet little Davin is 2 weeks old now! I can't believe how quickly the past 2 weeks have gone!! It has been so fun to have a little baby again, but I have forgotten just how much work it is and how long it takes to get out of the house when we go anywhere! Oh, and let's not forget how much stuff we have to take with us now - I feel like a brand new parent all over again. :-) But, I'm loving it!

Here are a few fun things about Davin:

- He is so mellow and sweet!! He hardly ever cries!

- He is super smart (I may be a little biased, but you wait and see!!). By day 2 he learned how to hold his binkie in his mouth with his hand and can even put it back in if it falls out. He is also trying to hold his own bottle - so cute!

- He has great head control and tries really hard to sit up. It looks like he is doing mini crunches.

- He LOVES to sleep! Definitely my boy!

- He is wide awake every morning from 1-4 am.

- He LOVES music and sometimes when we sing to him he will sing along - ok, he just makes noise, but I like to think he is singing. :-) On the rare occasion that he is upset over something, he can be easily calmed with a quick song.

- He doesn't tolerate milk (sad) so we had to switch him to soy and he is a much happier baby.

- Davin loves to listen to stories and will stare intently at the person talking to him (if you can catch him awake!!)

- He loves his brothers and is the happiest when they are around. They get more smiles than any of us. His brothers just adore him too!

- He is super ticklish everywhere! His whole body spasms if you touch his back, head, face, stomach, ears, or feet and sometimes it sounds like he giggles a little.

- He is very stubborn! If we don't get him what he wants when he wants it he doesn't get upset, he just makes us wait until he decides to take it. Usually it's his bottle and he will purse his little lips until he decides he is ready. It's so funny!

- Davin has the biggest feet and longest toes of any newborn I have ever seen! His feet don't really fit in any of his newborn clothes (even though the clothes themselves are a little big because he is so small!) and his toes curl around your finger. It's so cute!! Someday he will grow into those feet.

We are so blessed to have this sweet little guy in our family! We love him so much!!

A baby story...

On Thursday, February 11th, I had a doctor's appt which was great because I had been feeling awful. At the appt my blood pressure was 189/104, which is really dangerous for both me and the baby. A few minutes later the doctor came in to let us know that she was sending me straight to the hospital - to have a baby!! She didn't feel like we could wait anymore since my blood pressure was now out of control and I was feeling so bad. Before we left we had an ultrasound to check the baby's size where we found out that he was breach! This kiddo had a habit of doing gymnastics so it wasn't really a surprise that he was breach but I was disappointed because that means a c-section!

At the hospital we talked with the doctor to see about any other options - I was really opposed to a c-section if possible. She said that I could stay the week in the hospital to manage my blood pressure and check eveyday to see if the baby turned, or we could just do the c-section in the morning. Not too thrilled with either of those options! We decided to do the c-section in the morning - then the nurse came in to tell me that if I promised to follow STRICT bedrest then the doctor would send me home and I could be seen in the office each day waiting for the baby to turn so we could induce. YEAH!! If we are going to wait I would rather do it at home. Before we left we had to have another ultrasound to make sure baby is ok - he was doing great, in fact great enough that he flipped over as we were watching. YAHOO!! Now we get to stay and start the induction!

A few minutes later the medications were started and we hoped to quickly get this show on the road. By the next day not too much had happened so the doctor broke my water and started me on Pitocin to make things move faster. I thought for sure this labor would go quickly because Brayden's had, but nope - it seemed to go on forever!

Finally by Saturday I was having hard enough contractions to get the epidural. Not too long after that labor stopped! About this same time the baby was having a hard time too - his heart rate kept dropping and wasn't recovering quickly. The nurse was doing everything she could and finally the only thing that would keep the baby stable was to have me on my back with oxygen on - so I had to stay that way until delivery. The only bad thing about this position is that the epidural wore off, except for my legs, which were completely numb. About 1:40am on Sunday everything was set up and I could start pushing. Then, 3 hard pushes later, at 1:55am, little Davin McKay was born. He is perfect and we couldn't be more thrilled!

Despite being 3 weeks early, Davin is healthy and absolutely fabulous! His brothers adore him and are wrapped around his little fingers. They are all so cute with him! The first morning we were home Brayden was talking to him telling him how much he loved him, and Brayden had tears in his eyes. Then, as he left the room he told Mark that he loves Davin so much that it makes him cry and he didn't know he would love him so much! Tarell wants to spend every minute holding Davin and Landon just loves to sit with Davin no matter what he is doing. It is so cute!!

Special Delivery

Davin McKay Mariano

made his appearance 3 weeks early, on February 13th at 1:55 AM.

The past few days have been exciting, scary, and absolutely wonderful - I will post the details later!

But, for now.....vital stats:

6 lbs 7 oz

19.5 inches long

a head full of dark hair and so HANDSOME!!

Check back soon for the exciting details!