Teething

Ryan is teething. I was in denial for awhile, but now I am sure. We went to our Monday baby group at the library and I brought this red teether that Sarah Cate gave to Ryan. He was chewing on it so much that he drooled all the way down his shirt. I mean he was gnawing. This is not the first time, he has gotten to the point where if something can fit in his mouth it ends up there so he can chew. He has also started to wake up at night again, he was up to 10 hours of sleeping (Don has night duty so this aspect really sucks for him- this morning he was somewhat Zombie like after the red sox game and Ryan waking up 4 times- he looked like he did those first few weeks).


While researching teethers tonight I found out that the frozen teether I have been giving Ryan has been recalled (oops). Here are what we have so far (that are not recalled):

If anyone has any good ideas we could try to help Ryan out let me know!

State Fair!

We went to the 2008 North Carolina State Fair today! Ryan enjoyed seeing all the people and we enjoyed eating all the food.
My favorite moment from the day was when Don took a bite of his fried dough while standing over Sarah Cate, it snowed powdered sugar ALL OVER her... she had it all over her clothes, hair, face etc... Priceless

Sarah Cate and the snuggled up baby, it was a chilly day!

Sarah Cate, Ryan and I hanging out. We were at the fair for about 3.5 hours, by the time we left Ryan was a TIRED baby.

Blue Ribbon pumpkins, they were HUGE. Sarah Cate decided that if we cleaned out one of them we could use them as Ryans crib.


Don and Ryan with their hoodies!
Ryan peeking over S.C.'s shoulder
This picture is for Rachel... it might make her consider coming to visit before the state fair ends next weekend.

Fall is the Season of Change

Life is changing again. It seems that this is the trend for a lot of people right now with the bad economy. Well, I got my bar application in (barely) so that is done (hopefully).

But more importantly Don got a new job!!! He is really, really excited. There is a pay raise which we need desperately (babies are expensive). The company seems really great and a perfect fit for him. He starts in November. I am of course a little scared of change, even though I have been through more then my share of change, you just never know what to expect. I don’t know how much traveling he will have to do, they say there will be traveling when he starts working with new clients, but because of how expensive traveling has gotten, a lot of clients are opting for conference calls instead of face to face meetings. They seem pretty flexible with work schedules and time off, but when you start a new job you have to impress, I know this, and I just hope it isn’t too much. I really like having Don around and I want to see him as much as I can. I will probably be blogging about it when it happens, for now we wait until the new chapter begins.

This weekend we have LOTS planned. One of my favorite people on the planet is coming to visit. Sarah Cate will be here from tonight until Sunday. Tomorrow we are hopefully going to the State Fair (fried candy bars, pickles, cheesecake, Twinkies, dough, and anything else they can fit into the vat of oil), Saturday we are going to try and go to a pumpkin patch to get Ryan’s first pumpkin, then Sunday Ryan and I are going to hang out with Grandma while Don and Uncle David are going to a Carolina Panthers game.

Fall is keeping us busy, I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Gifts & Blog Birthday

Yesterday Uncle David took Ryan shopping. He got him books and movies (and me lunch). Yay for being spoiled, the holidays are approaching I can only imagine that the trend will be continue.
My blog is one year old today, a lot has changed in one year, you can barely see my baby bump October 2007 and now one year later Ryan is already 5 months old!

Lazy Sunday

Ryan has finally gotten to the age where he is really starting to enjoy lazy Sundays. His favorite is when Uncle David comes over to watch football.
Okay we are off to watch some more football and eat more food! How could you not enjoy such a thing (especially when done in PJ's)?

New Pictures! 21 Weeks

Eating Grass

When we go outside to play, Ryan eats grass and dirt with no problem, he doesn't even seem to mind it. When it comes to peas however there are sour faces and gagging.... Apparently in this case he takes after his dad (with the peas- not the dirt)

Adventures in Baby Food

I have started the process of making baby food, So far so good. I researched everything before starting and again as with most things involving babies different people say different things, some of it contradicting. Everyone (except probably Gerber) agrees that making your own baby food is healthier then ready made. When canned baby foods are made, they are cooked at such a high temperature that it kills a lot of nutrients (they need to be able to store them on the shelf for 2 years).
It is also much less expensive then canned foods- I got one organic sweet potato for $1.50 and it made 7 full size portions of baby food (which in the store cost 89 cents each for organic).

For all you none-parents your eyes might glaze over the next part, feel free to stop reading whenever you like.

First step was to get baby food containers. I settled on Baby Cubes because they are BPA free, you can microwave, dish wash and freeze them. They also travel well because they are individual containers.

Then I researched what foods were the best:
- Things like Carrots, beets, broccoli have higher level of nitrates, it seems like for those it is better to buy ready made. Baby food companies make sure to get low nitrate produce and they test all the time (I don’t have this capability so I will leave it up to them).
- You also can’t add salt, spices, citrus, peanut butter, sugar, honey etc. Babies systems are too immature. Better to go straight up- I do puree and breast milk blend so it is easier for him to eat.
- When to introduce foods is important. Babies are continuously developing; you don’t want to give them something too early that their bodies won’t respond well too. From what I have read the best things to start with are: apples, sweet potatoes, pears, peas, bananas and avocados. The first solid to give them is rice cereal- I use organic brown rice cereal- but I can’t make that from scratcdh so I’m not talking about grains here.

- I have also read that babies develop most of their taste for food between 6-12 months, so you need to introduce them to lots of flavors during this time.

Then I got cooking: To keep the nutrients it is best to steam or bake the fruit or veggie. Boiling foods can take away some of the nutrients. (You don’t have to cook avocados or bananas- babies can handle these foods raw).
- I steam mine and put them in a food chopper, it got out all the lumps
- You can add water, formula, and breast milk to make it the right consistency.

Ryan eats 2 servings of solids a day followed by breast milk and the other feedings are just breast milk.

So far I have only made sweet potatoes, but they turned out very well. I am introducing one new food a week to make sure he doesn’t have any allergic reactions- and if he does it will be easily traceable. I think I will do bananas next.

I’ll keep you updated if I come up with any genius baby food purees.

Baby Monitor

When Don and I were buying baby stuff I insisted on the best baby monitor. We got the one that has a motion detector on it; piece of mind is wonderful thing. So there is this little board that goes under the mattress and detects Ryan breathing. When it doesn’t detect breathing in a few seconds it beeps once as a warning (incase you have picked up the baby without turning off the monitor). Last night the dreaded beep sounded- I honestly don’t even remember getting out of bed or getting to his room, I was there in less then a second I am sure of. He had managed to scooch his whole body to the very corner of the crib with his head pressed against the bars and so had moved his whole body off the censor. I moved him over and he was fine. Now 20 minutes later I am wide awake. Yay for the censor working, boo for the misadventure tonight.

7 Years

Don and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary last week (from the time we started dating). I think the true measure of a relationship is how you can deal together when life changes. Since Don and I have been together we have: driven back and forth from MA about 7 times, backpacked for a month through Europe, lived in Wales together, lived in a shoebox size apartment, moved to a new state on a days notice, lived with my mother, dealt with death in the family (on both sides), graduated from college, lived in different states from each other, been together 24 hours a day for months at a time, lived through planning a destination wedding, lived through the hormones of pregnancy, and lived through the first 4 ½ months of Ryan’s life. That is a lot of life together (over ¼ of my life in fact).

I have said it before and I will say it again, I have no idea how single parents do it. Parenting is hard; the biggest challenge is that it is 24/7. I love it, I really do, last night I wanted to wake Ryan up because I missed him (luckily Don stopped me). When you have support you can get a moment for yourself and feel good about yourself so when you come back to your child you are so much better of a parent.

Don tells me almost everyday that he appreciates what I do. He does night duty, which means that while I get to sleep through the night he gets up at least once (sometimes 2x) to feed Ryan. He tells me I look beautiful when I brush my hair and put real clothes on, but more importantly he tells me I am beautiful when I am in sweatpants covered in rice cereal (he even seems to really believe it!). He is loving and calm when I am dramatic and miserable which can kick me out of the mood. He smiles when I walk into the room. So this is my shout out to Don and what a great husband and father he is. I am a much better mother and person because of it.

Celebration!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE DAVID!!!!

And Congratulations to Jess, Roma and Rachel who found out today that they Passed the BAR!!!!!! (I'm sure there are others- these are who I know passed)

Love Affair with the Library

I have had a public library card as long as I remember. I love the fact that I can check out as many books as I want. Even if my eyes are bigger then the speed I read, I don’t have to feel guilty for not getting to read them before they are due because they are free. A few years ago the library set up a website where you can even recheck your books online so no more late fees!
Ryan isn’t in daycare so I feel like he needs more social interaction. While I’m sure he is having fun just hanging out with me ALL DAY LONG, I have been trying to think of things to change it up. Well, the public library comes through again. Monday I went to my first baby class at library. They sing songs, blow bubbles and read books. There were like 30 babies and moms there! What does all this fun cost you might ask… it’s the public library so it’s free!
My love affair with the public library continues!

It wasn’t all good of course (my fault not theirs). I was frumpy mom, I don’t know how I got here, but I have. I showed up in jeans and a t-shirt (not a particularly attractive one at that). The other moms showed up with hair blow dried, makeup on and outfits that match! Who are these women? How do they accomplish such a Herculean feat? All I can hope is to do better next week- mothering is a process and I am still figuring it out.

Video: Loving Food

Short clip of Ryan enjoying his food! He is freaked out of the camera so I don't have a lot of videos, I will try and get better.

Too Early

You know you are in trouble when it is 8:00am and your baby is already taking a nap.

This picture was taken at 7:30am.. they were both ready for a nap.