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!

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!