Sunday, February 26, 2012

Our cute little guy!

Our cute little guy!
I love this picture, so I thought I would post it.  As you can see that Ryan's getting chubby--mommy has some good milk!  I love his wrist and neck fat in particular.  And his chubby chubby cheeks that he gets from his mommy :)  He's so cute!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

11 weeks! And what is Daddy doing??

Happy 11 weeks to my favorite little guy!!
Ryan, 11 weeks old!

Ryan, 11 weeks old!

One day this past week, when Ryan was getting fussy (not in full-blown meltdown mode yet), Joe decided to take over and try to soothe him and calm him down.  I walked out of the living room to have a break, and I noticed Ryan wasn't crying anymore after a couple of minutes.  I walked back into the living room and saw this:

Joe's method of soothing Ryan

Ryan had been crying and fussing (not really loudly or in full force, but he was well on his way), and I'm not sure what prompted Joe to try this to soothe him, but it worked!  Maybe Ryan needed a change of scenery? My attempts at this throughout the week haven't been as effective as Joe's :)

So, over the past week, we've still been trying to get Ryan on some kind of routine/schedule after our pediatrician suggested it.  The sleep-eat-play routine has kind of turned into a play-eat-sleep routine and sometimes a sleep-eat-play-eat again routine.  We've had a couple of major meltdowns lately because Ryan doesn't like to take naps during the day and he saves all of his fussiness for the evening hours.  We've had a couple of successes with taking some really good naps this past week (more failures than successes, but I'm trying to be positive here!), but I think he just has too much fun learning the world around him to sleep.  Nevertheless, he's taken some naps, and some as long as two hours.  This is progress, my friends.  Fingers crossed that we have more good naps and less major evening meltdowns over the next week! The more I can keep him in a consistent routine, the better.  On the days that Ryan has taken some decent naps, he hasn't been fussy at all in the evenings (go figure), which means Joe can spend time with a happy baby instead of only trying to soothe him after work. 

Ryan, gazing at Mr. Monkey during Tummy Time
Ryan is also beginning to learn his voice.  We have conversations all day long.  He loves making all kinds of gurgling, cooing, ahhing noises, particularly when he sees himself in the mirror or when he gets really excited about something.  He really likes to talk in the mornings (we have our morning conversations and he tells me all about his dreams and what he wants to do during the day) and when he's on his playmat.  Here's a video of him cooing at himself in the mirror while (somewhat) enjoying tummy time:



Ryan has also discovered his hands.  He loves his hands right now.  They are always always always in his mouth.  Any chance he gets, he shoves them in and starts sucking on them.  As soon as I put him down on his belly for tummy time, he immediately begins sucking his hands instead of pulling his head up.  I also wake up in the middle of the night to him sucking on his hands.  He's not hungry, he just loves his hands.  However, this sometimes keeps him up at night because he'd rather suck on his hands than sleep.  He also sucks his thumb.  It's really cute, but I'm trying not to let him get into that habit.  We've been working on his grasping skills a lot this week.  He likes to hold onto his rattle and sometimes he'll even shake it.  A couple of times, he's batted at some of the objects dangling on his playmat, but he's not very consistent with this.  He's also beginning to drool a whole lot and have lots of spit bubbles. 

Ryan missed his first snowfall--this past Sunday night, it snowed about an inch.  Ryan was asleep for it, and by the time we woke up, there was only a little bit of snow left on the ground.  Hopefully we'll get a substantial snowfall at some point this winter so Ryan can go out in it, but with winter beginning to come to a close, I don't think that's going to happen.  Oh well, I'd much rather take Ryan out to the park once it's warmer anyway. :)  And although we had snow on Sunday night, today we had awesome spring-like weather, so Ryan and I took full advantage of that and went for a long walk.  This was probably the first time he's stayed awake for his entire walk, and he cooed and smiled a lot.  He definitely likes the outdoors!

And now that I have figured out how to upload pictures myself, there should be more pictures with each update.  Yay!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

10 weeks! And a BIG milestone!

Our little boy is 10 weeks old today!  Here's a picture of our big boy!

Ryan, 10 weeks old
It's not the best picture because it was taken on my phone.  Still waiting for many pictures to be uploaded...

So the biggest news from this past week is that Ryan has started rolling over all by himself!!  He rolled over one time the day before he turned 2 months old, but then didn't do it again.  But now, he's rolling over a lot!!  I think it's a strategy to avoid tummy time.  He rolled over when Joe was at the gym Monday afternoon and I was so bummed because Joe had missed the only other time Ryan had rolled over as well.  So, when Joe got home, we tried it again.  Ryan immediately rolled over.  We decided to record any additional attempts, so here is one video of our wonderful, extraordinary, strong, and smart Ryan rolling over at 9 and a half weeks old:

I've made sure every day that Ryan can still roll over, and sure enough, he has the skills!

In other tummy time news, Ryan can obviously now hold himself up at a 45 degree angle all by himself for an extended period of time.  All of that tummy time that I've forced him to do is paying off!  He's beginning to try to reach for things too and if I put an object, like a rattle or something, in front of him, he'll kind of reach out and bat at it.  He's also becoming very skilled in grabbing on to objects.  It's a great distraction during tummy time, for sure.  He's also not as fussy during tummy time--probably because his face isn't smashed into the floor anymore because he can hold his head up now!  

So at our 2 month appointment, I told our doctor that Ryan is not fond of napping.  He'll take these cat naps periodically throughout the day--10 minutes here, sometimes 20 or 30 if we're lucky--but he doesn't really take a longer nap.  The doctor suggested that I try to put Ryan on some kind of schedule or develop some kind of routine for him to encourage napping.  Since the doctor's appointment, we've been trying the sleep-eat-play routine, where Ryan will sleep (sometimes), wake up and eat, and then play for a little bit, before I try to force him to take another nap.  The first two days, it worked!  Ryan woke up in the morning, I fed him, we played for about 2 hours, and then I forced him to take a nap--and he actually slept for about an hour!  So we repeated the sequence and sure enough, those first two days went so smoothly!  And then on Sunday, he refused to nap.  I pulled all the tricks out--putting him in the swing, walking around the house with him, bouncing on the exercise ball, doing wooshies, etc. and nothing worked.  He refused to nap.  He still went to sleep at a relatively normal time though and slept decently well overnight.  And then on Monday, he again refused to sleep, so during his hour of "sleep" time, he just spent that time swinging back and forth in the swing.  The I'm-not-going-to-take-a-nap attitude caught up with him Monday evening.  He had a serious serious meltdown.  He screamed and cried while Joe tried many many tricks to try to soothe him (I was at the gym during most of this meltdown).  Ryan did enjoy having some naked time (as I imagine many boys do), but got really upset after awhile.  Eventually after I got home and after many many more attempts, he finally fell asleep, but it took a LOT of effort (and time!) to get him to doze off!  So, all in all, I'm not sure if this sleep-eat-play schedule is really working out.  I've read online that you shouldn't always nurse a baby to sleep because then they become reliant on nursing in order to fall asleep--and this definitely makes a lot of sense--but that's (of course) the easiest way to get Ryan to sleep.  So, we'll keep trying our routine to see how it works.  We can't give up after only a few bad days.  Things seemed to be somewhat back on schedule (and I say that loosely) on Tuesday.  Wednesday he had another meltdown, but not as badly as Monday.  And then Wednesday night, he slept "backwards"--he had a 3 hr chunk followed by a 4 hr chunk--very rare for him!  Either way, we're still trying out this whole concept of a "routine".  Today we're trying napping in the cosleeper.  It's all trial and error at this point.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Two Months! Two Months!

Ryan turned two months old yesterday!  And he turned 9 weeks old today!  He went to the doctor this morning for his 2 month wellness appointment, so while we were excited to find out how much he's grown, Ryan was not excited about getting his first round of shots.  Poor guy! Anyway, here's his update:

--He weighs 12 lbs 2 oz.  He is a MONSTER!  I was estimating that he was probably about 11lbs, give or take some.  I wasn't expecting to be off by a full pound!  It's clear he doesn't miss many meals. 
--He is 22.2 inches long now.  Joe thinks that the nurse possibly measured him incorrectly, due to our very accurate and precise measurement awhile ago.  I suppose we'll see how much he's grown at his 4 month appointment and then decide if the nurse measured incorrectly.  
--His head circumference is 39.8cm.  He has a nice sized head, nice and round. 

So overall, he is short, fat, with a normal sized head.  Sounds good to me!  But we're still questioning the length.  He doesn't seem like he's only the 25th percentile for height!  He seems like a big baby to me!  Nevertheless, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he didn't get my height genes. 

Ryan before his shots.  See how concerned he looks?
So after the doctor checked Ryan out, looked in his ears, felt his belly, answered my gazillion questions, etc, the nurse came in.  With a tray full of syringes.  And band-aids.  And then Ryan was prepped for his vaccines and had his thighs wiped down with alcohol.  The first vaccine was an oral dose of something.  Ryan didn't like that one at all.  It was a huge oral dose of something that apparently tasted like garbage, because Ryan spit a lot of it out.  Hopefully he didn't spit so much out that it was a waste of a vaccine.  And then, the nurse gave him his three shots.  Yes, three.  And Ryan cried...and then SCREAMED....and then he was ok :) I was fully prepared to start nursing him immediately afterward, but by the time Joe picked him up, and rocked him back and forth like twice, Ryan wasn't crying anymore.  He took them like a champ!  The nurse left the room and Joe and I debated whether or not I should nurse him for comfort, but then ultimately decided to come on home, because Ryan was fine!  No fussiness yet!  No comforting needing!  He slept most of the way home from the doctor and is now enjoying a nice long nap (which is RARE for him).

In other news/updates, Ryan rolled over all by himself on Tuesday!  We were in the middle of doing tummy time, and we practiced how to roll over once.  And then he did it all by himself!  It was awesome!  My guess it was probably because he hated being on his tummy for tummy time, but this just means he's very determined and stubborn, right?  Apparently once was enough because he hasn't done it since, either.  There's that stubbornness again.

All in all, it's been a pretty eventful week!  I am also never again going to talk about how wonderful Ryan has been doing with sleeping at night, because it seems that every time I do, then he resorts back to his old newborn I'm-only-going-to-sleep-for-2-hours-and-be-really-fussy-in-the-middle-of-the-night-so-nobody-else-can-sleep ways for awhile.  That's where we are now.  Again.

I'll upload pictures soon (yeah, yeah, I know, I know).

Sunday, February 5, 2012

8 weeks!

It's been a week and a half since the last post, so I figured it's time for another update.  This time, WITH PICTURES.
Ryan at 2 and a half weeks old!  He's so little here!

Ryan is now 8 weeks old (as of this past Thursday).  EIGHT WEEKS.  It's amazing how different he is from when he was born (obviously), but it's so cool to see how much he has grown, how much he has accomplished, and all of his new things he's learned in such a short amount of time.  I can't believe he's been here for eight weeks--it's definitely been the longest and shortest eight weeks of my life.  Very contradictory, I know, but it's so true.  I hope anyone with a new baby can attest to that thought and that I'm not the only one who feels this way.  

So here are some of the wonderful things that have happened since my last post:
Ryan, asleep at night.  He's 1 month old in this picture.

1.  I suppose the biggest update is, of course, his sleeping habits because that's what he does the most.  Ryan is not a daytime napper.  I don't know what happened there.  I love to nap.  I napped whenever I could when I was pregnant with him.  He doesn't seem to get that he can go to sleep for hours during the day, and it's ok! He likes to take small 15 minute naps, right after feedings.  Or he'll fall asleep in the carseat after going somewhere.  And just when I think "ok, he's definitely out, I'm going to put him in the bassinet/swing/whereever", he wakes up as soon as I move him.  So I guess to let him nap, he has to just lay on the Boppy for about an hour with me?  Or I just keep driving around (because as soon as I pull into the garage, he wakes up)?  Anyway, one day last week, I put Ryan to bed, and I went to sleep.  When I woke up five hours later and realized that he hadn't woken me up, I thought "ok, he's going to wake up any minute and want to eat".  And I waited....and waited....and waited....for two more hours.  And the more time went by, the more panicky I got--why is he still asleep? Why hasn't he woken up?  Is he ok?  Is he still breathing?  Anyway, Ryan ended up sleeping for SEVEN HOURS STRAIGHT.  It would have been WONDERFUL to have slept for those seven hours with him.  It's so funny to think that when he's not sleeping in big chunks, I plead for him to go back to sleep, just for another 30 minutes.  Then when he finally does sleep, I panic and think that something's wrong.  Of course, he hasn't slept that long since that one glorious night (even though I pleaded and prayed for a repeat).  He has started sleeping about 5-6 hours (closer to 5 though) for his first chunk, but is then up every 1.5-3 hours after that.  Hooray for the length of the longer chunk of sleep!

Ryan at the start of Tummy Time on the Boppy. 
2.  Ryan still really really hates tummy time.  See the pictures for evidence of this sentiment.  But he has so much control over his head now!  He can look all around, side to side, and I don't have to support his head so much when I pick him up now.   He's getting so strong!  We read online that tummy time also includes the time spent with Ryan when he is lying on our chests.  He definitely prefers this method of tummy time to the Boppy on the floor option.


Ryan after about two minutes of Tummy Time.  See how happy he is??

3.  He also has started to smile allllllll the time.  He's such a happy baby, especially in the mornings.  He really likes to give lots of morning smiles (it's also usually correlated with his pooping schedule, which he is a pro at doing).  When he wakes up in the morning, he starts cooing and moving his arms and legs and just starts smiling smiling smiling.  It's awesome!  It's definitely a wonderful way to start my day after lots of broken sleep.  It's the best. 

4.  Ryan loves being outside.  We take an afternoon walk almost every day, and he loves to look around at the trees.  He usually doesn't like it when the sunlight laser-beams down into his face, but other than that, he's very content with being outside.  Luckily we've had really great weather lately, so it makes the walk a lot more enjoyable. 


So, as promised, here are some pictures to tide you over until I can find the time to post again.  I know I've been needing to upload these for a long long time.  I also know they are not arranged in a lovely neat manner, but I'm still learning how to use blogspot.  Bear with me.

Ryan's first real bath!  He really did enjoy it!
After Ryan's first bath

Ryan looking super cute in his duck towel
Ryan at about 3 weeks

As you can see, it's clearly bedtime!

A great picture of Levi and Ryan

After another bath.  This is one of my favorite pictures of Ryan.

Getting ready for bed after bathtime

Joe spending some quality time with Ryan