3 Months

Overall...

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:

1. Getting Cashel moved into his new room and our beds switched around.
2. A family vacation to the Wisconsin Dells.
3. Ryan's 2 month checkup.
4. Finishing planting season for Mark.
5. Softball season began on Tuesday nights for Mark.
6. A fun memorial day weekend at home hosting two dinners, and catching up with Mark's sister and her family.
7. Another fun afternoon in Sheldon with Becky and Joseph.
8. A day trip just me and Ryan to see my Mom and Sister in Iowa.
9. An afternoon in Mankato to celebrate cousin Cole's High School graduation.
10. I started back to work, and Ryan started daycare ::sniff sniff::

How Baby is Doing

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.

How Mama is Doing

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.

How Daddy is Doing

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!

How Big Brothers are Doing

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!

Photobomb Time!

It feels like it goes too long in-between updates to not share a few of the sweet pictures I've taken of Mr. Ryan :) So enjoy! And stay tuned for his 3 month update this weekend!

Milestones: First Night in the Crib (May 25)

After spending the first two months (and a few weeks after, really) sleeping in bed with Mama at night, we finally began transitioning to the rock and play sleeper at around 9 weeks, and then this past Tuesday night, we finally decided to just try the crib to see how it would go.

It was a SMASHING success! We have done naps and bed times in the crib the past three nights, and he has slept 7 straight hours at the beginning of the night followed by an additional 3 after being up to eat. He sleeps from 10pm-5am in the crib, then eats and sleeps until between 8-9am. I am so thrilled!

2 Month (9.5 Week) Checkup

Ryan had his 2 month checkup on the 18th, and, as expected, he's once again off the charts and thriving :)

This little chunky dude is now 16lbs 5oz and 24 inches long with a 15.5 inch (39.37cm) head. This puts him off the charts in all areas, as expected.

He had his first set of immunizations, which he took like a champ, and had no side effects from, aside from being perhaps a little cranky that evening, but no fever or long-lasting crankiness.

We'll head back at 4 months, I believe.

2 Months

Overall...

This has been a FUN month for us! Ryan has really started to come alive, just in time for the beautiful weather! We see his eyes significantly more than we did the first month, and while he is still pretty stoic a lot of the time, he smiles at us a lot, which he was only doing while sleeping, likely due to gas that first month.

Highlights this month as a family include:

1. Painting Cashel's new room.
2. Getting our new mini van (2014 Red Town and Country) on April 22nd!
3. A special visit from one of my besties from NWC, Steff, and her hubby Kent on May 7.
4. Starting planting season for Mark.
5. Spending SO MUCH TIME outside in the BEAUTIFUL weather.
6. A day trip to Humboldt to see the Ropte and Vinsand family there.
7. Lots of walks to run errands with Mr. Ryan.
8. Surviving a week of sickness (strep throat and ear infections) for Daddy and the big boys the first week of May.
9. Meeting friends in Sibley, Iowa (Becky and Joseph), LeSueur, Minnesota (Kirsten and Levi) and Mankato, Minnesota (Angie, Emma and Sara).
10. Celebrating the birthdays of two special Grandma's: Great Grandma Vi at the end of April and Grandma Pam at the beginning of May.
11. A couple fun trips to the farm to ride the tractor an 4-wheeler.
12. Celebrating Mother's Day.
13. Getting the new backsplash up in the kitchen.

I certainly haven't gotten around to updating the old family blog with most of these updates, since I've been in project mode these first couple months, but I'll update there once I get those all done...maybe.

We've had our ups and downs this month for sure. Big brothers have really started to fight a lot more both with each other, and just overall being defiant, so we're struggling to not be end up screaming at them the vast majority of the days. They're really trying to test our patience (and every.single.rule.), which is extremely frustrating. I think I tell them every single evening, "I WANT to do fun things with you guys, but you HAVE GOT TO LISTEN!!!" or "YOU'RE RUINING THE FUN TIMES!" or "WHAT DID I JUST TELL YOU?" (which Kendrick then takes great joy in repeating lol) You know - things I'm positive no other parent has ever said in the history of parenthood. ;)

How Baby is Doing

Ryan is SUCH sweet little compliant baby. He is quietly alert a good chunk of the days now, and he loves to flash smiles and is starting to "talk" to us in "goo"s and "coo"s :) He usually has a rough period from 7-9:30/10pm each night, where he's fussy off and on. We flat out KNOW it's because he's tired, but we've yet to get him to actually stay asleep during that time period when trying to put him down by 7 each night, so for now, he ends up fussing from 7-10 (while we get supper put away, put big brothers to bed and then I get a shower and get ready for bed).

Ryan is now in size 2 diapers (he has been since the day after the 1 month update) and very solidly into 3-6 month clothes. We don't have his 2 month well child check until next week, but if my scale is right at home, he's up to 16lbs 12oz and although my measuring skills leave something to be desired, he's approximately 24 inches long. I don't even want to talk about how fast he's growing right now. ::sigh::

He's just beginning to stay awake more during the days, and I'd say overall he's probably awake for a good 5 hours a day overall, just in short 30-45 minute chunks. He usually sleeps from 10:30/11pm until around 9am, waking to feed sometimes at 2:30am, but not that often. He always wakes at 4am, and then again around 6:30/7am to eat again. I almost always have a 5 hour chunk of sleep at the beginning of the night, followed by another couple 2-3 hour chunks. Most days I get up when Mark and the boys are heading out the door around 6:30 right after Ryan eats.

I started a couple weeks ago actually letting him start the night in the rock 'n play sleeper, which has been going well! If you recall from his first few week updates, he did NOT like it at all, so we had been going the whole night just co-sleeping. It has been nice to get that first chunk of sleep at night being able to sleep without worrying about him being in bed, and I've found that we both seem to sleep pretty good that way. I'm hoping eventually he'll continue to stretch out that time until around 5:30, and then I'll be able to just have that one 6ish (or more) hour stretch of sleep and call it a night and get some things done around the house before work.

He is just beginning to have some cradle cap, but nothing even remotely severe right now. His baby acne completely cleared up shortly after the last post, thanks to using that Mustela toner type stuff.

When Ryan is awake, we try to do things like read books, play with his toys (which involves me making excited, high-pitched squeal noises and him staring at them blankly) and singing songs. He especially likes pat-a-cake, piggies, and the itsy bitsy spider.

When he's hungry, his cry sounds like he's saying "nah!", and when he's tired, it sounds like he's just yelling at you, like "eh". When he's bored, he sort of makes these babbly noises that don't sound like anything else, but I can't really think of how to write them in text form.

Ryan likes to nap a lot in the mornings, and then the afternoons just depend. Sometimes I can get things done, and sometimes I don't at all, but I like to be holding him when he's awake for the most part. I do try to set him down a few times during the day so that he can get used to entertaining himself a bit, as I know next month when he starts at the daycare, it's not feasible to expect her to hold him all day. He likes to lay on his little mat and check out the animals above, and he's also in love with ceiling fans, just like his brothers were.

How Mama is Doing

I'm really trying to soak in these last few weeks of maternity leave. It is crazy to think that my next update here will be after a full week back at work.

I'm feeling 100% back to my normal self again, which feels good. I need to seriously work on toning up again, however, as I'm finding myself feeling like a weakling when holding and carrying these brutes around all day. I'm anxiously awaiting the day when Ryan is sturdy enough to sit up in a shopping cart so that I can stop carrying the carseat around, as it is getting VERY heavy for me.

I'm thoroughly enjoying these days of maternity leave, both bonding with sweet little Ryan as well as getting lots of things checked off my "to-do" list. I managed to get Cashel's new room painted and decorated and the new backsplash up in the kitchen. My last 3 weeks I will hopefully be able to re-finish the kitchen table top, get some quarter round stained for the kitchen, and the beds all switched around downstairs and the toy room situated down there. Thank goodness I've got such a sweet little content, sleepy little guy to allow me to get so much done while I'm on maternity leave!

Really, though, I'd say probably the vast majority of maternity leave has consisted of me snuggling Ryan, and I know I'm going to miss that like crazy when the time comes to go back to work :( Our mornings are so precious together, snuggling, "talking", watching a little HGTV, drinking coffee, reading, playing with toys, and giving SOOOO many kisses on those adorable little chubby cheeks. I wish there was a way to adequately bottle up these days and feelings and memories, but no picture or video would ever do it justice.

We've been getting out for lots and lots of walks this month too, with the weather finally warming up significantly and the wind not being too much of an issue.

As far as physically and psychologically, having three boys really gives me a run for my money most days. I'm eager for planting to finish up so that we have Mark back to help out on Saturdays, as it's difficult to do much of anything too fun when it's just me and three little boys. I adore them all, but the older two don't listen very well 100% of the time (more like 10% of the time), so it's an actual safety hazard for us to really go anywhere of consequence that is any fun. We need to have at least one person to watch the baby so the other can run after big brothers. Three kids is hard. We're certainly making it, but many, many nights, it feels like we're just hanging by a thread. By the time our heads hit the pillow at the end of the night, we're out like a lightbulb for sure. The two days that I had all three boys by myself during the week after weekend of having them mostly by myself, let's just say I drank a lot of coffee, and there were probably too many tears and too much yelling. I thank the Lord that this isn't the norm, and that the boys aren't usually sick, and that I'm not usually doing this parenting thing on my own.

Oddly enough, I feel like I'm still waiting for the worst of it. I've made it through three weekends mostly on my own during planting season with two extremely poorly behaved boys (which isn't the norm, actually) and haven't pulled a single hair out, hurt anyone, lost anyone or locked myself in the bathroom and broken down crying. I mean, it can't be *that* bad, right? I feel like there will come a day soon where I'll be singing, "Mama said there'd be days like this, there'd be days like this my Mama said..." while downing a whole sleeve of Klondike bars and crying in the corner while the boys run around naked throwing marshmallows all over the living room and using permanent markers all over the walls and furniture.

As far as getting back down to pre-pregnancy size, I've been below that for a while now, but certainly not anywhere near where I was before becoming a Mom for the first time. My goal is really just to be healthy. I have no grand delusions about fitting into the clothes I wore in high school or anything like that. I just want to feel comfortable and it'd be nice if my belly flab from all these babies wouldn't hang over the top of my yoga pants. Ideally, I'd like to lose about 20 more pounds, but I've had that goal for the past 5 years, and I'm not entirely sure I see that changing anytime soon.

This month, I'm looking forward to finishing up all my projects, spending significant amounts of time snuggling, catching up on my digital scrapbooks, and hopefully squeezing in a few more coffee or lunch dates with friends. I'm also hoping to channel more energy somehow to keep up with these guys. We went for a walk to Island Park together last week, and the boys absolutely lit up like I haven't seen them do in a while when I played tag with them. I think I need play tag more and sit on the bench less.

How Daddy is Doing

Mark had a really rough bout of strep throat this month, which was certainly a "low"light for him. Beyond that, he has just been busy, busy, busy. Between work during the week and farming on the weekends, we don't see him a ton, but enough anyways :)

He loves spending time with Ryan, but he still doesn't get to do that nearly as much, since I'm the milk source, and we have a lot of cluster feeding in the evenings. He likes to sit Ryan like a little Buddha on his chest and make lots of faces and noises with him.

He usually gets a good 45 minutes of time with him right after work on Mondays when I take the big boys with me grocery shopping to have a little "Mommy and big boys" time. Ryan certainly feels extremely comfortable with Daddy, though, and Daddy gets LOTS of smiles and baby sounds out of Ryan in the time he does spend with him. It's really sweet seeing them together :)

He spent a good part of the beginning of this month researching mini vans, and we were so happy to have finally brought one home so that he could stop that search. He's busy now getting the Tahoe ready to sell (anyone in the market for a 2004 Tahoe?), having a few minor dents and scratches fixed and then detailing it. Between that and the normal upkeep on the house and outside, he stays pretty busy.

He still mostly gets the boys ready and off to daycare in the morning, so his mornings are always more hectic, and he is still working full time. He will start getting significantly more busy at work in the coming months with more of his products starting up again, which will be right about the time I start back to work.

How Big Brothers are Doing

I love my boys dearly, but this month has been EXTREMELY trying for me with Cashel and Kendrick. As I mentioned at the beginning, they are pressing their limits to the max these days, and I'm so tired of trying so hard to keep the peace. Cashel has begun to be extremely sensitive about everything and anything: If the wind doesn't blow the right way, it's an all out tantrum. And Kendrick is really trying to assert his independence and runs around saying, "I'm the boss" in a growly voice all the time. He has also been hitting for no apparent reason just over the last couple weeks, which is extremely frustrating. He'll just walk up to someone and whack them - especially Cashel. And Cashel seems to have picked up on it as well, so neither of them are innocent in that regard. I'm not really sure what happened to flip this switch with the boys, but it's getting really old. I mean...I was seriously taking this picture of the boys running around having fun at the park in Brewster, and as I was taking it, Cashel does this. ::sigh::

Kendrick had strep a couple weeks ago, and I'm pretty sure Cashel did too. Cashel, however, was treated for an ear infection, not strep, even if it was the same antibiotic. Regardless, between the infections of whatever type and the behavior issues this month, it has been a doozy. Thank goodness for sweet moments like this in the midst of the crazy to reassure me that maybe (maybe?) it was a good idea to have three kids. ;)

Still, they adore Ryan. We have to keep a pretty close eye on him these days, actually, as Cashel has this tendency to walk over and pick him up out of the swing or rock 'n play and carry him around. Also, if I let Cashel hold Ryan, he likes to roll around with him, pull him on top of himself, and lean him back in his arms like we do when we're talking to him.

*knock on wood* He hasn't dropped him yet, but I'm terrified it's going to happen.

Ryan absolutely adores his big brothers too: Cashel especially! Cashel and Daddy always get tons of smiles and "talking" from Ryan.

However, oddly enough (since they love him so much), both boys at one point or another this month have actually expressed their disdain for Ryan. I think maybe part of the behavioral stuff has to do with them adjusting to having a new member in our family and realizing he's not going away. Cashel has needed a LOT of reassurance and snuggle hugs and kisses and cuddles lately, and Kendrick has too (although not nearly as in-your-face).

I think they are enjoying this more awake little Ryan as opposed to the super sleepy, super fragile version from last month. I'm excited to see them interact more when I don't feel the need to shield Ryan from them all the time. I'm exhausted, but these boys really are kinda fun a lot of the time :)