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!

Ryan's Birth Story

The Days Leading Up

39 Weeks

The eve before my 39 week date, I was feeling really "off". I can't say there was any one thing I can put my finger on, but Ryan absolutely had dropped significantly, and my pelvis was just on fire. I was so exhausted and sore and weary that I ended up taking my Epsom salt bath a full 2 and a half hour early that night, and then just barely made it down to help put Kendrick down to bed, where I passed out at 9pm with him. Mark woke me up at 10:30 and I hobbled upstairs to finish getting ready for bed (washing my face, brushing my teeth and filling my water bottle). I couldn't get back to bed for another couple hours, just sitting up and thinking about anything and everything, but aside from some sporadic Braxton Hicks contractions, there wasn't much going on...until about 11:30pm. All of a sudden, it was like Ryan had a Mt. Dew or something, because he was going NUTS! I've never had that much activity for that long a time with any of my kids. He flipped to "Sunny side up" (a.k.a. posterior) and was just stretching out all of his limbs for over an hour. I couldn't for the life of me sleep, and after such a strange night, I was a little freaked out about him having flipped like that. He finally settled down after about 90 minutes and I got this random long stretch of sleep from about 1am to 5am with Kendrick in his bed, since Mark had been snoring.

The next day...

The next morning I woke up and got ready for work, and once again, the insane pelvic pressure that continued off and on all day. I still wasn't feeling myself, and having an extremely busy day at work was probably a good AND bad thing: Good in that it made the day go quickly, but bad in that I was on my feet a LOT, and the pelvic pressure and pain came and went all day long, so it was uncomfortable. By the day's end, I just had this gut feeling that this was going to be the day. Earlier in the morning while sipping on a vanilla latte, I had a single pretty uncomfortable back contraction that lasted about 5 seconds, and the rest of the day felt just a super dull pain in my lower back. That evening I went for a little walk with the boys, then barely could make it through browning some hamburger for supper and had to have Mark finish throwing together the casserole and getting it in the oven. We had supper around 6:30, then plopped the boys in the tub, and I suddenly felt like I REALLY had to go to the bathroom IMMEDIATELY. I ran downstairs and proceeded to pretty much clear my body out. After weeks of trying to keep up on constipation, I had been seeing continually softer stools that day, and this was the "final hoorah" as far as that was concerned. So far, I hadn't ever experienced any of these well-known signs of labor, but you can bet that after the strange last couple days, I was a little on edge at that point. And, of course, heading into bedtime Friday evening, it left me feeling a little uneasy about how the night would go. I was beginning to feel a little crampy after that and tried to lay low the rest of the evening, fully aware that the night might grow very long. I was feeling pretty positive that Friday night, a full week before my due date, would be the night I'd begin labor. And then...absolutely nothing. That night, I slept fantastic. For the rest of the week I had zero symptoms and slept pretty good.

40 Weeks (a.k.a. The Day Before Baby)

I didn't think I would have gotten to this point with this pregnancy, and I had been in tears most of Thursday afternoon in full realization that this baby was just not coming. I kept trying to give myself pep talks, but I was just frustrated. I had been having mild cramping on and off for a couple days, but nothing significant, nothing that kept me from doing anything, and nothing even remotely close together. I went to my appointment to check my cervix at 11am and found out that I was 2.5cm dilated but not at all effaced. I would say that overall that left me at least a little encouraged. Dr. Taber did a membrane sweep (a.k.a roughing up my cervix) and sent me home. Any cramping I had before was gone completely, though, so I felt even a little more discouraged.

40 Weeks 1 Day

I woke up at 1:58am to a very mild contraction that lasted only a few seconds. I didn't think too much of it, but got up, went to the restroom, and then came back to bed. Fifteen minutes later I had another very mild contraction, and then it started picking up from there. I had another one about 15 minutes apart, then they jumped to 11 minutes for about an hour, and then 8 minutes for another hour.

I labored in bed until about 5:45am before I got up and started moving around, at which point the contractions were closer to 3 minutes apart and they were getting intense enough to have to sit down to get through them. I texted Pam and let her know to start thinking about heading this way to watch the boys, then called the hospital to let them know I'd likely be coming in within the next hour or two. I then woke up Mark and let him know he should probably start getting ready. Kendrick woke up around 6:30am, and the contractions had been slowing down a tinge to more like 4-5 minutes apart, but were gaining intensity. I got some really sweet snuggles in with him before it got a little more crazy, then sent him with Mark to get changed and dressed for the day. I got myself dressed and ready to go, packed a few last-minute things, and then Pam and Jess arrived around 7am. Cashel woke up, and we told him that baby was on his way, gave him hugs and kisses, got him some clothes ready and then we made our way in. I called the hospital along the way to let them know that we were on our way. The nurse later said she was a little nervous that we were going to make it on time :) I told her it was my 3rd baby and I knew what "urgent" felt like, and this wasn't it.

We got there, but then I had to send Mark back home to get MY hospital bag, since I had forgotten to throw it in the car :) The nurses were out with a wheelchair looking for me just a few minutes later and were surprised that with the contractions being so closes I was still walking, but I had just a couple contractions on the way back to the delivery room to get checked in. Mark arrived after a little bit, after I had gotten into my gown and had gotten hooked up to the monitors. The nurse checked, and I was already at 6cm and about 70% effaced, but still at station -3, to my surprise! I mean, the contractions had really picked up, so pain-wise, it wasn't shocking, but the contractions were slowing to about 4 minutes apart. I was a little discouraged, though, to realize he was still so high. Nurse Jackie assured me, though, that with subsequent pregnancies, the babies go down more quickly towards the end.

We had about 45 minutes worth of check-in questions to answer beforehand, but the contractions were getting really intense, and were only about 2 minutes apart at that point. I was beginning to be extremely uncomfortable. Mark really was encouraging me to get into the whirlpool tub, but at that point, the contractions were so intense that I was pretty sure I'd be delivering in the tub before the water filled. I asked to be checked again before we considered it, and found I was fully effaced (for the most part, with just a slight anterior lip) and at 8cm, at which point I opted to stay in the bed. From there, it got extremely intense. Prior to 8cm, I was just breathing through the contractions with the occasional "ouch!" or "oh man, that hurts!", but at this point, most of my contractions were filled with either grunts or yelling, and the occasional deep breathing. I had to start bracing myself to get through the contractions (my arms are extremely sore postpartum as a result), but was extremely thankful that they weren't completely on top of each other as they had been in previous pregnancies. I had about 45 seconds inbetween each one, which gave me a little downtime, thankfully. I was so relieved to see my doctor arrive, and he got dressed quickly, just in time for a few of the last contractions before pushing. I don't even recall what time it was, but probably about 8:40am. The contractions completely knocked me off my senses, and I wasn't sure I was going to make it through, but I didn't have any other choice. It was so ridiculously awful, and I was screaming bloody murder through each one, to the point Mark was in tears just watching me. He would hold my hand, not sure what else to do. It took me a contraction or two to remember how to push, but when I did, I felt like I was never going to get him out, and I was trying hard not to freak out. I had a slight anterior lip, but beyond that, I was complete and ready to go, so I just kept pushing, even after the contractions were over, and on the 3rd contraction, Ryan Charles was born, after probably about 5 minutes of pushing.

He looked so tiny to me, and I couldn't believe he was even 9lbs (my guess was 8lbs 15oz), but all the nurses and Mark were sure he was darn close to 10lbs. It was a good solid hour before they got the actual measurements (10lbs 3oz to my surprise!) but I got a good solid 20 minutes with him while I delivered the placenta, my doctor removed a few really large blood clots, and I got stitched up.

I had a second degree tear toward my rectum (as is the trend with my babies, apparently), which didn't shock me, considering Ryan had a 14 inch head, but this was the first birth where I also tore the opposite direction just a smidge, and I recall during delivery how much that hurt. I swear I don't recall the anesthesia needles hurting so dang bad, but considering I didn't feel the stitches going in, they were apparently very effective.

I was given a shot of pitocin after delivery to help shrink my uterus more quickly, as I had been losing large blood clots during and shortly after delivery. I would guess I probably lost about 15-20 golf-ball sized clots that first day, and this continued for a day and a half after delivery, and whoa man was I exhausted. I guess the blood clots are common when you can't get up and move around as much, which was absolutely the case the last week of my pregnancy, since I had sprained my ankle and was limping significantly. I was very very weak, almost passing out the first day when I tried to get up to go to the bathroom, but it was so peaceful just sitting in my recovery/post-partum room with Mark and Ryan, nursing most of the afternoon with him.

I'm still a little shaken up from the delivery, truth be told. I had dreamed of an unmedicated birth because the recovery with Kendrick, although unexpected, was a breeze. However, I wasn't out to be any sort of "hero". We just ran out of time to even make meds an option. The pain was so excruciating this time, that I'm pretty sure I scared the sweet little nurse-in-training who was observing the delivery from ever having children of her own. My doctor was concerned that I was alright, as he had been at my previous two deliveries and hadn't ever heard me scream so loud or violently. I've been extremely weak since being home, but now at about 3 and a half days postpartum, I am so thankful that the bleeding has significantly lessened and I'm beginning to regain strength. I'm sure in a few more days I'll be back to feeling more myself, but for now, lots of fluids, lots of downtime, and lots of short little naps. Ryan is such a gift from God, and I can't imagine another little one fitting more perfectly into our family :)

I am so thankful that this chapter in my life is closed and that I no longer have to experience the pain of childbirth again. I praise the Lord that it went as smoothly as it did, and that sweet little Ryan is here now with us :)