The Name

Declan Herbert Houston...a combination of something new and a family tradition. 

Being a teacher makes naming your baby tricky. There are many great names out there, but a lot of those great names are associated with students, both positively and negatively. Luckily, the name we chose is one that I have yet to see/hear at my school. ;)

Declan is an Irish name meaning "man of prayer." While looking through numerous lists and name your baby books, we saw the name Declan and we both liked it. We bounced back and forth between Declan and another name, but Declan came up most when we would talk names. It ultimately came down to the moment he was born. I asked Trey which name he thought was best and he said Declan. After he was given to me and I thought about both names, I also knew that Declan was right for him. 

Herbert is a German name meaning "famous army." Herbert is also Trey's first name, his dad's first name, and his grandfather's first name. With Trey being the third, we decided to carry on the family name within his middle name. 

Here's some useless Declan trivia for you...

• Elvis Costello's first name is actually Declan.
• Cyndi Lauper's son's name is Declyn.
• It is currently a popular name in the Emerald Isle and rising in popularity in the US.

This Declan is by far the cutest! 

January 13, 2015

With our due date of January 8th approaching, you could imagine that we were getting very anxious to meet our little man (and I was just about done with being pregnant). After speaking with our doctor, we decided to schedule an induction for January 13th unless he decided to make his appearance on his own.

We were told to check in at the hospital on the evening of January 12th to get settled and prepped for the induction. We ended up going to the hospital around noon because I thought my water had broken and I was beginning to feel more consistent contractions. Two hours later they were sending us home saying "see you back at six," so I went home and napped, Trey got a haircut, then we grabbed food and headed back to the hospital. After getting settled, they gave me some medication to prepare me for the pitocin the next morning. 

Around 11:30 that night, the contractions started getting a lot more intense. By 5:30am, I was pretty miserable and wasn't letting Trey sleep anymore. The plan was to get my epidural started, then move on to the pitocin. By the time the epidural was administered, there was no need for pitocin anymore. In fact, I was progressing so quickly that the epidural had a hard time keeping up! Time absolutely flew by and at 10:43am, our sweet boy made his debut!

Declan Herbert Houston weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. He's absolutely perfect and we are so in love!

Naturally, we took about a million pictures in the hospital. Check them out!

The Living Quarters

Putting together the baby's room was so much fun! I didn't stick with a certain theme like sports or jungle animals, just kept certain colors in mind. The majority of the room is navy blue and red, with greens and yellows thrown in. I like a lot of color, so this gives me freedom to add whatever as the years go on. :) Check out his room!

Baby Showers

I have some really great friends! We were lucky enough to have three fantastic showers!

The first shower was hosted by my friends Erika, Christopher, and Sarah. I had several friends and family come out for the afternoon to play games, eat, and decorate onesies. We were given many wonderful things for our baby!

Our second shower was hosted by my friends Julie and Stephanie. I met this group of ladies at Deep Wood Elementary, a school I worked at for only a couple weeks before being moved to another school in the district. I feel very lucky to still have good relationships with these ladies 5 years later! I really liked how these girls have had children within the last five or six years, so they had lots of relevant information and great goodies for us!

Finally, my third grade team hosted a fabulous school shower! We had a lot of fun socializing and eating with our colleagues outside of work. Baby boy was spoiled by my school friends as well. He and I are very lucky to be a part of such a wonderful Blue Jay family!

I was able to snap a couple of pictures at each shower. :)