Week 2

This second week was a mixture of being pretty darn busy followed by some nice, snuggly, peaceful times as well.

The weekend felt a little crazy, as Ryan and I are pretty accustomed to our quiet, lazy days at home. Having big brothers around all weekend long upped the noise level significantly :) We kept busy coloring Easter eggs, visiting the library and going to see the Easter Bunny at HyVee.

Our friends the Grabers brought some pizza up on Saturday evening and we enjoyed catching up with them a bit while the boys played together.

Sunday was our first time at church all together, and let's just say that by the time it was over, I was sweating profusely and we were all exhausted: It's a lot of work keeping up with our busy big boys as well as carting around all the gear necessary for our littlest guy.

Monday was a pleasant change of pace, as we were finally able to rest up a bit more and relax without all the noise and ruckus that comes with big brothers :)

I took Ryan into work on Tuesday to meet some of my co-workers, and while I did a horrible job of remembering to take pictures of everyone, this little guy was a champ and slept pretty much the entire time!

We went straight from Toro to River City Eatery, where I had lunch with Mark's Aunt Chris and enjoyed catching up with her!

We've kept the same basic schedule with sleeping and getting ready in the mornings (Me 10pm-12:30am-2am-5am, then up to help boys get out the door until around 7, then a nap from 7-8:30/9am, then up for the day). The extra nap really helps, and I'm hoping we can keep that one in place for a while to come, although I know my sleepy days are coming to an end with this little guy :)

We had some nice help with a meal this week from one of the ladies from church, and are looking forward to using a gift card to River City this week from one of our sweet co-worker friends :)

The nursery was a big project for me towards the middle of the week, and it is getting closer to being done! We have one wall left to finish painting, but it had to be patched before I could finish. Mark plans to finish that over nap time tomorrow, then it's just wait to dry and sand it. It's so cozy in there, and it's becoming my favorite room in the house :)

Yesterday was unexpected, as we ended up down in Worthington after an unexpected call from the dentist office saying we could get in earlier than planned for Cashel and Kendrick's appointments, so we finally got to introduce Ryan to Great Grandma Vi!

With Easter weekend under way, I'm sure we'll have our fair share of adventures for next week's update, including meeting Grandma Ruth and a big chunk of his cousins and Aunts and Uncles down at the farm in Iowa!

How is Baby Doing?

We've seen a tiny bit more of Ryan's little peepers this week, but overall, he still sleeps a vast majority of the day. He has been giving me a few longer (3-5 hour) stretches in the night, which I am very thankful for, but we still have had as many nights of that as we've had 2 hour chunks, so we're not officially on the uptick just yet in the sleep department.

Ryan eats like a champ and is growing great as well. In fact, I feel like he's beginning to become quite the little chunk! It'll be interesting to see how he's doing at his 3 week checkup in early April, but I have a feeling he's very well past his birth weight at this point. He grew out of newborn clothes within about 5 days and is now very solidly into 0-3 month clothes. We also switched into size 1 diapers, although I feel like we're barely going to make it out of the ones we already bought before we'll be switching to size 2 ones.

Ryan is doing better with napping in the swing or the rock 'n play sleeper if I need to set him down, although the vast majority of his naps are still resting in mama's arms or on my chest. I'm having mixed feelings about trying to transition him to not just sleeping on me or with me: I know it's probably for the best as far as transitioning down the road, but he's my last baby, and I really want to store up all those snuggles :)

One thing I forgot to mention in my last update is the peeling skin. Ryan's skin has been peeling all over his body since birth. I've never had that with the other boys before, so this was new to me! I guess it's pretty common with "over-ripe" babies, or at least that's what the nurse said at the hospital. We've been trying to stick with only doing a bath every 4 or so days and putting Vanicream on afterwards to help let his natural oils absorb that more quickly. It's mostly just on his hands and feet at this point.

How is Mama Doing?

I'm slowly beginning to come around physically this week. That first week was really a doozy, and although this week started out similar, by the end of the week I've regained some of my energy and strength, although not fully by any means. I'm looking forward to a nicer week ahead so that I can get outside more and get walking!

I'm down 6lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight at this point, although earlier in the week I was down 8lbs, so I know I'm going to have to cut back and reign in the sweets ;) I've still got what I consider a fairly significant belly, but it probably looks about as big as it was before I got pregnant in the first place.

Truthfully, the weekends are really exhausting for me. I love having my family together, but the energy level of big brothers compared to little Ryan takes a little adjusting to. My Monday mornings I have just been crashing pretty hard, and it takes a while to get moving.

How is Daddy Doing?

Mark has recovered from his cold from last week and is back to the normal swing of things between work and what not. Although he isn't a big newborn person, he really does great with Ryan! He likes to make silly noises to catch "Ry Guy"'s attention. "Ry Guy" is a nickname Mark has given our little man, and Ryan seems to open his eyes more for Daddy than the rest of us. They like to snuggle while I'm working on supper and then again in the evenings when Mommy gets time to shower or what not.

He's pretty darn proud of his three little boys, and talks pretty regularly about all the fun adventures they'll have together. I'm surprised he hasn't already filed for Ryan's lifetime hunting license, but I suppose I'll give it another week ;)

How are Big Brothers Doing?

The boys are both still doing really very well with the adjustment to having Ryan in the family, and Mama is still holding my breath that it will continue to be that way. They have eased up a bit with how often they want to see or hold him, but they still want to include him in everything.

They have both been very tender and gentle with him overall, and they both like to hold his little hands. We are switching off each night between who gets Mommy and Ryan for bedtime and who gets Daddy, and it's fun to see the boys light up when it's their turn to have Ryan in their bed for the bedtime routine :)

Kendrick has apparently had a slightly more aggressive streak at daycare since Ryan was born, which caught me a bit off guard, considering he is SO loving and gentle with his baby brother. We're really hoping it's short-lived and he'll settle down soon.

Overall...

We're slowly adjusting to everything at our house right now, and hoping that it's not just a fluke these first couple weeks with how mild-mannered this little guy is. Time will tell, of course, when he begins to wake up over the next 2-3 weeks, and then we'll see. It's definitely taking us all a few steps backward, as we've made this big leap from diapers and bottles and crying to big kid underpants and open cups and full sentences until this point. It's taking a little getting used to to remember to pack things in the diaper bag like wipes and binkies and extra outfits, and there have been more than one time where I've found myself with a diaper but without wipes or being gone for multiple hours without a binky, and I've been fortunate that we haven't had a blow out or meltdown at those times!