We have been busy as usual this month, but are thoroughly enjoying the beautiful weather! It has been a fickle month for us, ranging from gloomy, rainy 60s to hot, humid, sticky, sunny mid-80s, so it has been nice to have warmer, nicer temps to enjoy, followed by days to recuperate while hanging out inside.
Highlights include:
- Getting Cashel moved into his new room and our beds switched around.
- A family vacation to the Wisconsin Dells.
- Ryan's 2 month checkup.
- Finishing planting season for Mark.
- Softball season began on Tuesday nights for Mark.
- A fun memorial day weekend at home hosting two dinners, and catching up with Mark's sister and her family.
- Another fun afternoon in Sheldon with Becky and Joseph.
- A day trip just me and Ryan to see my Mom and Sister in Iowa.
- An afternoon in Mankato to celebrate cousin Cole's High School graduation.
- I started back to work, and Ryan started daycare ::sniff sniff::
Yeah, you read the stats above correctly: Ryan Charles is now
over 17lbs and is 25.5 inches long...at THREE months. I mean, I might be off a few ounces or tenths of an inch, but overall, he's a BIG boy!
Ryan is really starting to interact with us more, and although he still naps a fair amount, he's awake a lot more. And as long as you are paying attention to him and interacting with him, he's smiling and talking to you. He started the month still sleeping a TON, although we'd have days where he didn't want to nap much unless I happened to be holding him, and even then, he'd startle awake after about 45 minutes (the duration of one infant sleep cycle). The biggest change these days is that he actually has defined naps now instead of just being awake occasionally and sleeping most of the time. Granted, he's down to about
4 solid naps during the day now, though, and a couple catnaps if it's not too crazy as well, so it does still seem like he's asleep the majority of the day.
We started the month with a 10pm bedtime, however by the middle of the month, he had moved bedtime up to 9pm, and after we started daycare on the 6th, bedtime gradually moved up to about
8:15/8:30pm bedtime. Now our little guy isn't quite as fussy in the evenings, as we're on a better schedule.
He has been sleeping at night in his crib for the past 2+ weeks, which has been awesome! Along with this big change came another one: Ryan currently
sleeps through the night! He has a solid
8+ hour stretch each night, and I wake him at 6:15 to eat after I get ready for work. It works out great, as it gives me lots of time in the morning to get things in order.
He likes to
sleep sideways in his crib, which cracks me up. I put him lengthwise in his crib, and without fail each morning he ends up turning sideways. The kid is going to run out of room really soon, I have a feeling. He sleeps like this too - all stretched out on his back - so I may have to put the breathable crib bumper up to keep his feet from going through the crib slats.
We are using up the
size 2 diapers and will be ordering size 3 diapers next. He just recently switched to
9 month clothes as his size 6 stuff was getting a bit snug. (Cue the waterworks here - size 9 clothes just seem like big kid stuff!) The crazy part to me is not that he's in size 6-9/9 month clothes, but rather that he fills them out pretty perfectly right now, so....give him another growth spurt, and we're talking 9-12/12 month clothes!
As far as awake time, it's getting much longer these days. He's usually
up for between 60-90 minutes at a time anymore. While I was still on maternity leave, he'd go down after that 5am feeding until around 9am, and then if I let him, he'd sleep another hour or two, and then he'd be up for a couple hours and then back down for a couple hours. However, starting daycare has switched things up considerably. I'll have to do a "schedule" post sometime, as typing it all out would probably be boring and monotonous for a monthly post.
Ryan seems to have inherited great skin, and we're SO very thankful to not be dealing with eczema or a milk allergy like we did with big brother Kendrick. He hardly even got what one could refer to as cradle cap (he does have a very slight patch on his scalp), and he had baby acne for all of like 2 days when he was 2 months.
Ryan still really likes his pat-a-cake, piggies and itsy bitsy spider. I picked up a cute book at Hallmark called "Pat-a-Cake", and he seems to react more when I read him that one than any other one. He also likes this "Look Look" book we got from the Imagination Library when Cashel was a baby. I think it's boring as all get out, but I think it might be the black and white contrast - all of my boys have loved that book as babies. He has really become more interested in toys as well, and loves to kick around on his mat. He rolls sideways a lot, but hasn't quite gotten the hang of rolling over. I have a feeling he'll be doing that before long.
While on maternity leave, I could tell a huge difference between his week days and weekends. He would get pretty overwhelmed by the activity around the house on the weekends, as it's usually pretty quiet when it's just myself and him. Of course, his poor weeks got thrown into the mix once he started daycare on the 6th, so we've been adjusting the past 5 days. Really, though, he has done an amazing job adjusting to daycare, although I can tell he's more weary by the day's end. He hasn't followed suit with big brothers, though, with the typical conking out by 5pm and sleeping all night the first few days. I suppose already being used to sleeping in a crib, and thus napping better during the days makes a difference there.
My absolute favorite part of this month has been the
giggles :) We have to work pretty hard for them, and they're usually fairly short-lived, but it just makes me swoon :) Baby giggles can cure just about any sort of rough day, or at least they make it all not seem so crazy for a short few moments :)
Ryan is also beginning to have
better control over his hands and if you don't find them in his mouth, he is reaching for your finger or a toy or book.
Nursing is going just fine, and pumping at work is also not posing issues so far, thankfully. He is a super efficient eater, which means 10-15 minutes tops, and pumping isn't nearly as big a disruption to my work days as it once was.
TMI: The kid never poops, though (seriously - maybe 1-2 times a week?) so he's just growing like crazy and SUPER chunky. He's well over 17lbs at this point, but we won't have an official measurement until his 4 month checkup.
Well, the fantasy is over now, and it is back to work! I always have bittersweet feelings about this time period and the adjustment both for myself and my babies. Maternity leave feels somewhat like someone just pushed "pause" on life for a bit, and it's really a sweet time. I really miss my co-workers and it's always so great to see them again, but man do I miss my baby snuggles. The big, ugly tears came on our last day of maternity leave, but just a few silent ones that first morning back. It helps that he has had a great adjustment to daycare, and it makes me feel so much better knowing that he is there with his big brothers every day. Sorta like the wolf pack there haha
This has been, by FAR, my most productive maternity leave, but at the same time, I feel like it has been my favorite because I really, truly took advantage of the snuggles at every awake (and many asleep) moments. I felt so very present with him each and every day. Ryan has been such an easy, chill baby that I was, once again, getting pretty solid sleep from early on, so I didn't need to nap as much as I did with previous maternity leaves. I'd like to think that some of that is from this being my third time around and I'm doing something right, but it's probably just the baby and his temperament. Granted, I've always said that considering I was such a compliant child, I think out of three, I deserve one of my own ;)
I don't feel like I've got any regrets at all from maternity leave and the way I've spent my time. I've had enough rest to recover quickly, and I've knocked off some pretty impressive projects along the way. We feel more settled into our home as a family of five with all the bedrooms are finished and settled into, and it's nice to have a kitchen that (when it's clean) is a little more enjoyable of a space. We still have some projects ahead, but nothing on the scale of what I accomplished on maternity leave.
I knew I was going to need this time to get my house in order before the chaos of going back to work and learning to function when I don't have 9 hours in a day with just a baby at home to get the housework, laundry and dishes all done. It certainly helps, but it's not going to stay that way forever.
We haven't gotten out for as many walks, as this month has been much cooler and wetter than I ever anticipated. We had two cold, rainy weeks, which left planting season getting a super late start. Of course, this was followed by it being BEASTLY hot, so in general, it just hasn't been ideal.
I wouldn't say I'm tired in general, but I do feel weary of the toddler and preschooler age that the older two are at right now. It's extremely difficult to stand up and be a mean person day in and day out, since I'm not that kind of person at heart. Parenting isn't an easy feat, especially with two extremely strong-willed kiddos. They challenge me daily, and then just as I finally snap, they turn around and act all charming and make me feel like a total jerk. They've got me figured out, I guess. It's a good thing they're cute and sweet
some of the time.
Mark has been busy, busy, busy! He has been at the farm a fair amount this month off and on (especially on weekends) FINALLY having finished planting just this past Saturday, and also has started softball in Worthington on Tuesdays.
He has been spending more and more time with Ryan as he's getting bigger and a little less wobbly and a little less dependent on just Mama. That's not to say he's wildly in love with everyone else, but he seems to be pretty okay with Mommy, Daddy, Cashel and Kendrick, and he also likes Jody now.
They love to "talk" a lot, which is really cute :)
He really loves this Daddy gig, even if at times it gets really frustrating to try to be the enforcer so much.
I think he would echo my sentiments about being weary of being the "bad guy" pretty much all the time. We're tired of being harsh, and we're tired of yelling, and it's really hard to be consistent all the time. It's hard to balance enforcing the rules and not being a complete jerk all the time. But oh do we ever love those boys!
A part of me wants to say this month was better, because overall, it kinda was. But really, with Mark being so busy and gone a lot, it still hasn't quite been our "normal" yet. It's really tough to split my attention 3 ways without leaving someone out - especially when it's just me a lot of the time. I am beyond grateful that Ryan still sleeps a good chunk of the days, because it'd be significantly harder if he didn't. I'd say that considering the circumstances, the boys have actually done pretty well this past month - certainly better than last month!
They're paying less attention to Ryan overall, even if they still like to get up in his face a lot and are having a hard time waiting for him to be old enough to get all the things done.
Cashel's favorite thing is to get him to smile, and he gets SUPER excited when he does. We still have to keep our eye on him when we aren't holding Ryan, as we've caught him many a time trying to pick him up, or crawling in his crib with him. We know he'd never purposely do anything to hurt Ryan, but he definitely over-estimates his strength and abilities.
Kendrick really kinda freaks out when Ryan cries and we have been trying to teach him to NOT cover Ryan's mouth when he does cry. He has been a little more clingy lately, and we're trying to decide if it's due to his final molars continuing to come up, or if it's sharing Mama's attention, or a good combination of both. He can be super kind and gentle and a helper, but then just snap and walk over and shove someone, so we're trying to work through that. It's going to be a delicate balance with him, as he's the famed "middle child", who apparently always gets the shaft. He's our little sunshine for sure, we'd just like to see more sunshine and fewer stormy days!
