4 weeks old

Ryan is 4 weeks old today! It’s a strange feeling because on the one hand it feels as though he has always been here; on the other I can’t believe it has already been 4 weeks. he has been changing a lot, for instance he has gained a lot weight he is now about 10 pounds (he was born at 7 pounds 6 ounces)! Also he has started to focus on things more; you can tell his sight is getting a lot better. He has started grabbing and holding onto things in his reach which is cute unless it is your hair. It is amazing to see the first time he does something, I am with him all the time every day and he is changing so fast even I can see it happening.
Not all the changes have been good... for instance some of his hair has fallen out, now he has old man hair… but I have faith it will grow back. (No worries this isn't actually Ryans head :)

Photo Shoot Pictures

We got the pictures back from the photo shoot! Notice that Ryan is awake in EVERY picture, it was like a 3 hour photo shoot and he couldn't even pretend to be sleeping for any of it.
http://www.pictage.com/487909
We are going to be ordering some of the prints, if you have an opinions on which ones we should get please leave a comment with the photo number you think is best.


On another note.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DON! You might ask what Don got to do on his birthday... Well Ryan wasn't feeling well so Don sat in his PJ's holding Ryan all day. I'm not all that terrible of a wife, I cooked him food and got him gifts! We are going to try and go out on a date just the two of us sometime this week.

Belly Button

Ryan’s little belly button stump fell off so now we can give him a real bath instead of just wetting him down with a washcloth. Don had expressed to me a few days ago that he had this fear that he would accidentally hit the stub and it would pop off and freak him out. You want to know how it came off… Don accidentally hit the stub and it popped off and freaked him out (at 2 in the morning none the less). Apparently Don’s reaction times were a little slow and he didn’t get the clean diaper on in time, so Ryan peed upwards and some of it landed on his stomach, then when Don was cleaning it he hit the stub which came off. Poor Don is probably traumatized now.
I will post pictures of the first bath once I can wake the boys up and get it done this morning!

Out in the world

I went out to lunch today with two friends both of whom had baby boys in the last 2 months. The babies ended up sleeping the whole time in their car-seats and I felt like we were in that new Tostidos commercial where the mothers sit around talking while the babies "play". Anyway, the outing was successful and it felt good to get out and just hang out outside of the house for a while. Hopefully this is the begining of my re-introduction to the world.

biting off more then I can chew

Sometimes I think I can do more then I actually can, I am that girl who is standing on the roof thinking that if she believes in it enough she can fly. So I am taking a summer class, yes I have a 2 week old and I am going to a 3 hour night class 2 times a week. It seemed like a good idea, and in the long run it is because I will be done with law school by the end of the summer. In the short term, actually doing it is another story. It takes about 45 minutes to drive there; the class is 3 hours and then 45 minutes back. There is a 20 page research paper due next week… I have been tired when writing law school papers before but NOTHING compares to this. We have an outline for the paper due today, mine is awful, I’m not entirely sure it makes sense, but it is written and that should count for something.

Sad Realizations

So I was sitting with Ryan and I was thinking "this baby smells." I made Don get up and help me give him a bath (which we have to do by hand because he still has his cord stump). It was a process, Ryan was angry with us he doesn't like being naked wet baby.
So I sit back down and I was like... "how could this baby still smell?"... then I realized it was me! Oh it's a sad day in mommyland.

2 week checkup

We had our 2 week check up for Ryan today. He is 21 inches long which is the 75th percentile, 8.5 pounds which is the 30th percentile and his head circumference is 45th percentile. The doctor says he looks perfect, but we all knew that! Who would have thought that Don and I could produce a baby that would be taller then average?
Ryan would also like to give a shout out to his Auntie Rachel, her birthday is today!

sleep... I think not

Ryan has developed acid reflux to the point where yesterday he didn’t sleep at all during the day. When he did fall asleep he would wake himself up like 10 minutes later with this miserable look on his face. (this made for a very romantic one year anniversary) We went to the pediatrician today and they gave us some medicine but we are going to try and change up his eating schedule before giving it to him to see if we can make it better without it. Don and I have developed a system of sleep, we take turns… hopefully someday Ryan will sleep and we can all sleep at the same time!
The good news is that he is gaining weight well. He is now at 8 pounds 5 ounces (up from 7 pounds 4 ounces right after he came home from the hospital). We have our two week appointment on Friday, we go to the pediatrician as much as I was going to the OB there at the end of the pregnancy.

photoshoot

We had our newborn photo shoot today… it went interestingly. Everyone was peed on; Don was the only one to receive the honor of being pooped on. Ryan was awake the whole time, the photographer waited for him to fall asleep but he would have nothing to do with it, he wanted to know what was going on at all times. The photos will be up in 2 weeks so we can see then if he decided to cooperate for any of the pictures. The good news is he is cute so he can get away with a lot.

First Trip Out

We went out on our first adventure into the real world today. We didn’t go far, just to the Super Wal-Mart down the street, but it was fun to go out into the world. Ryan has decided that the outing was exhausting and since the trip he doesn’t want to wake up, he got up for about 5 minutes to eat and then went back to sleep. Tonight will be interesting considering he decided to sleep all day...

Expectations

The thing about having a baby is you go into it thinking you know what is going to happen. Sure there are some uncertainties but for the most part you think you have some idea of how it is. It isn’t actually like that at all.
At least in the first week the goal is survival, not just of baby but everyone who is staying up all night trying to take care of baby. I caught Don watching an infomercial for temperpedic beds, one of those that lasts a whole 30 minutes… he had no idea it was on. Last night at 8:00pm I was so tired I could barely put food in my mouth, it was already prepared I just had to get it into my mouth and chew.
There are other things like cloth diapers; I am all about cloth diapers. However I have a small baby who doesn’t yet fit into the wraps (I have posted a picture to show how it is working so far).
The thing I was least prepared for was the feeding. I am a big believer in feeding breast milk to a baby; it is by far the healthiest thing for them. Oh my goodness it is not an easy thing. Ryan is a good latcher but he is impatient and wants what he wants right then, none of this working for it business. There are a lot of details I could give in this section but I will leave them out for now, needless to say it is very different then what I imagined.
The good news is that he is an awesome baby, he is content and sweet. How could you not just love him all to pieces? My mom is harassing me because she says I stare at him which makes him wake up. Ok, well I must get back to it.

hanging at home

Back Home

We made it home from the hospital yesterday a little behind schedule. Ryan was a little jaundice which he developed right as we were leaving which delayed us by a bit. They did let us leave with the baby which is a little crazy, but I am sure glad they did. He may be the cutest baby in the whole world, and while I am biased I am sure it is true. He is also really strong, he can lift his head up and look around while on his stomach, it's really strange but it does make it easier to move him around.
We are going to the pediatrician today to make sure everything is A.Ok. We are trying to adjust to a non-schedule which is always an adventure. My mom has moved in for the time being, she likes taking Ryan in the middle of the night, and who is going to argue with that.

Update from the Hospital

Ryan and Mommy!

Below: Uncle David and Ryan

Right after the birth with Doctor Zimmerman (Above)

Daddy!

Here are a few of the details of Ryan’s birth (without going into too much detail). Labor started after my water broke at about 10:00pm. I went straight into hard labor (sometimes with no breaks in between contracts) after about 3 hours of this I gave in and got the epidural which was probably the best decision I have made in my whole life. The total labor time was 13 hours but with the epidural I was able to rest and even sleep at times. Ryan and I are both healing well now, he has started breast feeding and every time he gets a bit better at it. Grandma, Uncle David and Rachel have all been here to visit and get to know Ryan and he seems to love all of them. He isn’t a huge fan of the pediatricians but that has more to do with the temperature taking and the poking and prodding than anything else. Right now daddy and baby are sleeping in the rocking chair as I blog, very cute. We are heading home Sunday.