Week 3

We started off our third week with a fun-filled day in Humboldt visiting the Ropte farm and introducing little Ryan to a big chunk of our Ropte family there.

We broke him in easy to the Ropte cousins, considering we were missing 8 of them ;)

We got home really late Saturday night, but were up bright and early Sunday morning ready for Easter festivities :)

We had Mark's Dad, Pam and Jess up for lunch and a fun Easter egg hunt for the boys, and the boys were pretty excited about seeing them!

Monday Ryan and I totally crashed. It was a BIG weekend, and we were totally ready for sleepy snuggles and lots of nursing. Even so, we made it out in the afternoon for some grocery shopping and a short walk. We were SO very grateful for our co-worker friend Jodi stopping by with supper for us after such a busy afternoon.

Tuesday was another busy day, with me having a dentist appointment in Worthington at 9:40 and Cashel waking up with an uneasy feeling stomach, so I kept him home from daycare and preschool. We made it home around noon to meet Daddy at home for lunch. Cashel took a nice long afternoon nap while a friend from church stopped over to meet baby Ryan and bring some sweet gifts for our boys :)

I had every intention of going to Mankato on Wednesday, but after the unexpectedly busy week so far, I opted to wait until Thursday instead, which proved to be the right choice for us, especially as Wednesday nights are always a little crazy for us with Mark having basketball at the high school and Cashel going to AWANA. This particular Wednesday night was even busier as we had Cashel's preschool sign up that evening as well.

Thursday started out a little crazy, as I woke up at 6:50am to find Mark wasn't up yet (work starts at 7, and amazingly, he DID make it on time), so I told him to just get to work, and I'd get the boys off to daycare. Ryan and I went to Mankato with a big list of things to pick up after dropping the boys off around 8am. It was a very long day, but we didn't feel too rushed or anything, which was so nice :)

We made it home by 4 just in time for our friends Angie and Emma to swing by to meet Mr. Ryan.

Friday was an extremely productive day for me! I cleaned out two closets, finished 2 months worth of scrap pages in Kendrick's book, discovered (and then decided we should actually USE) a box of Grandma Edith's china we inherited five years ago. I then got that put in the china cupboard and packed up the old dishes we don't often use to donate, moved all our luggage to the shelving in the laundry room, finished prepping 2 walls for paint, and finished painting the nursery. I felt a bit crazed most of the day, but it felt so awesome to get that all done and to not have to worry about it the rest of the weekend! The nursery looks so awesome now :) I'll be doing a post soon on that :)

This particular weekend promises to be pretty low key, thank goodness! We had Mark's Mom over for breakfast this morning and had planned to head to the library, but thought it was open until 2 and it was only open until 1, so we missed it and stopped by the park for a bit.

Tonight we're looking forward to meeting friends for supper in Worthington for a birthday celebration out for Mark's buddy Jed. Other than that, we're just hoping to get some rest and snuggles :)

How is Baby Doing?

Ryan is starting to stay awake a little longer each day, and we're seeing his eyes quite a bit more. Of course, it's exhausting to be awake, so he's still napping the vast majority of the days. I'm beginning to notice patterns, however, and it seems he tends to be awake for 30-45 minutes at a time followed by about an hour long nap during the days.

Ryan tends to cluster feed a lot in the late afternoons and evenings, and he doesn't ever like to be alone in a room, so he's with us all the time, including tucking big brothers in to bed at night. As I mentioned before, he wasn't sleeping well at all at the beginning of the week and through last weekend, but towards the end of the week we were back to those 3 hour stretches at night, which I was grateful for!

He is filling out his 0-3 month clothes very nicely at this point, and he's probably only got another week left in his 0-3 month pjs before he'll be moving up into his roomier 3-6 month ones, as he's starting to kick and stretch out the bottoms of his pjs.

Overall, he continues to be a very mild-mannered baby. He still prefers Mama over everyone else by far, but he's coming around to big brothers more and enjoys his snuggles with Daddy too.

How is Mama Doing?

I absolutely adore this little boy of ours, and I love snuggling with him a good chunk of my days :)

Considering we had such a big, crazy weekend over Easter, Ryan and I's sleep suffered at the beginning of the week, and he was nursing a LOT more during the afternoons and evenings, making getting much accomplished difficult. By the end of the week, we started to get back into a groove of every 3 hours, which was nice. I haven't been up to help get the boys off much as a result of the wonky sleep patterns, so thankfully Mark has been on the ball.

However, I'll be honest: The beginning of this week wiped me out big time! Between the disruptions in sleep and busy schedule, I was pretty shot early on. I so very much welcomed the quieter moments in my days this week, even if they seemed to be few and far between.

I've been struggling to remember to drink my fluids this week too, so that's something I've really got to get on board with. Add to that Ryan going through a growth spurt this week, and most of the week I felt like I was nursing constantly, which was exhausting.

I gained a pound this week, no doubt from all the delicious desserts that have been around the house. I'm still down 5lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight overall, though, so I try to tell myself it's okay. Hoping to focus on eating a little better this week to curtail that :)

How is Daddy Doing?

It's the same old story for Daddy this week: There hasn't been a major change in routine for him. He loves to snuggle with Ryan and make silly noises with him. He usually gets his time with Ryan either right after work if I need some outside time with the older boys, or else after supper or when the boys are off to bed. They like to snuggle together watching TV in the evenings or surfing the internet. They had a nice little nap together late this morning :)

Mark has been in charge of the big brothers in the night, which has proven a little more work lately with Kendrick. Since Ryan has been here, Kendrick has fallen out of bed twice (we just recently pulled his queen size bed away from the wall), has been finishing up those two year molars, and has just generally been up in the night, which isn't normal for him. I know Mark is ready for that to end, but he doesn't dare complain about sleep, considering he still gets to sleep downstairs for the time being ;)

How are Big Brothers Doing?

I know - super cute, right? These boys absolutely adore their baby brother! They are kind and gentle when it comes to him, they love holding him (and his sweet little fingers and toes), are constantly wanting hugs and kisses and all...but...

I think we finally hit the naughty phase of this whole transition towards the end of this week. These two have been into everything and although they tend to not be great at listening to what we ask them to do, lately it has been worse than usual. I found them into the chocolate cake this morning after refusing to eat breakfast (because monkey bread and fruit is apparently not at all toddler friendly).

Kendrick has also been extremely clingy this week, and wants Mama all the time. We're pretty sure it is as a result of teething, considering he has had some pretty acidic diapers lately as well, and he's not quite finished with those darn 2 year molars (although he's VERY close - they're most of the way through). Probably a good chunk of the clinginess is the whole transition as well, though. Both boys have been a little more naughty and whiny as well.

It didn't help that they both had tummy bugs earlier in the week (Cashel even stayed home with me on Tuesday), so that added to their clinginess. We're hoping the transition is short-lived and we're back on track soon!

Overall...

We haven't reached this "what were we THINKING" stage yet with 3, but it's still pretty early yet. I'm sure we'll feel completely in over our heads before long. I know I will be feeling that way before long with planting season coming and having all 3 to myself when the weather is nice and the older boys want to be outside more. If there is anything I've learned from the two kiddos we already have, though, it's that no matter how hard it gets, we'll make it through by God's grace :) We'll get there!