Week 6 round 2

We got to see our second bundle of joy at 6 weeks. He or she looks just like Luke did at this age. There's a huge amount of relief and joy that goes along with the first appointment and ultrasound. We started sharing the news with a few more people which is good because the tiredness, irritability, and food aversions have set in this week. People know something's wrong with me if I'm not drinking my normal 8-10 cups of coffee everyday.

We already knew this baby was going to be as incredible as the rest of the Ryder family so I'm sure he/she is on the inside wearing their costume for Halloween too.  I'm not sure if it was the pregnancy or chasing a two year old through the neighborhood but all the superpowers in the world couldn't give me enough energy to keep up.

Sharing the News

I had thoughts of doing some sort of Pinterest inspired cute way of sharing the news of #2 (I promise we won't always call you #2.  I'll think of something better real soon). But, the excitement and urgency I felt to share with our family and the exhaustion that was already kicking in made me settle on putting Luke in a hand me down t-shirt that said Big Brother and sending picture to them.  It took a while for them to notice.  We face timed Steve's parents and I sent the picture to my mom.  I then had to call my mom and tell her to zoom in on the picture.  Then I had to tell her how to zoom in.  Then I just told her.  Despite the lack of creativity, and some people making it more complicated than it needed to be, the excitement from everyone was still just as good.  We told them on a night when we were carving pumpkins.  We even carved an extra one for our newest little pumpkin (see no more #2).

I wanted to tell everyone but we held off for a little while and only told our family and closest friends.  My 1st appointment wasn't for a few more weeks and we wanted to wait until after that to share with more people.  Fortunately, I have a lot of close friends :)

We went as the Incredibles for Halloween knowing we had the 4th incredible Ryder  in tow.

Catch up Time

It's been way too long since I've had a chance to play catch up on the blog.  I've contemplated doing several blogs about events but I think I'll just do a quick blurb for each month.  That's only if I remember.  Lack of sleep has definitely impacted me.

November -
Luke turned a whole month old.  Luke's Mom Mom and Pappa Picks came to visit and we were able to introduce the bottle to him which was such a huge help for me because I got to play catch up a bit on my sleep. We were so glad to have them come visit and meet Luke.  Mom Mom helped tremendously with Luke while Steve and his dad played demolition in our back yard.  The weather was beautiful and stayed that way for most of the month which was great because one of the only things that kept me sane was getting out of the house for daily walks with Luke. 
The end of the month we very lamely celebrated my 30th birthday by going out to dinner and a movie.  I had bigger plans but I was way too tired so I canceled.  I decided to revisit turning 30 later.  This was our first evening away from Luke which was a big deal.  I only called my mom once to check on him.  Thanksgiving was also celebrated and Luke got to meet a lot of my extended family for the first time.  This was also our first car ride over 2-3 miles with him.
November also meant immunizations which did not go as well. A few hours after his shots he just started crying non stop.  This was the 1st time Steve or I heard screams from him and it broke our hearts.  We were both tearing up because there was nothing we could really do.  Of course being mother of the year that I am, I didn't have any Tylenol on hand so I drove to the store just as fast as my little Sentra would take me to get some medicine for my baby.  He finally almed down about an hour after the medicine.  I am not looking forward to the next set of shots.  Our little Turkey grew so much this month.  He was 8lbs at his check-up and finally got out of his NB diapers and clothes in mid November.

December
Christmas time!  Luke and I spent many days at home listening to Christmas music and shopping online.  This flu season was pretty bad and even though I got my vaccine while pregnant, I didn't want to risk getting him out so we stayed in a good bit.  I did get stir crazy a few times and made some early morning trips to Target and the mall.
Steve and I said we weren't really going to do a lot for Christmas since he was too tiny to remember it but we ended up getting him a good bit of stuff and of course his grand parents did too.  Fortunately most of what he got was books which he'll be able to use for a long time.  Steve and I love reading to him and he seems to enjoy it too.
One of my gifts to Steve for Christmas was tickets to the Saints game.  Once again we were able to get my mom to babysit for the day which would now be our longest time away from Luke.  We had a blast in New Orleans with Janice and Brad.  What wasn't fun was finding a place to pump every few hours.  By the end of the day I was really missing him and was glad to get back. Luke did fine spending the day away from me which made me feel a little better that I would be sending him to daycare in a few short weeks.

Wow these months went by pretty fast and do seem to run together.  I'm going to stop at December for now. I loved spending time with Luke during these months and watching him grow and do new things almost daily.  One of my favorite times was waking up to have a cup of coffee with Steve before he went to work while Luke just cuddled on my chest.  This time did teach me that staying at home is not the route for me.  I dreaded leaving Luke but needed an outlet and a reason to put on something besides sweat pants. In an ideal world I would be able to bring him to work with me with a sitter to help out while I got things done.  

Baby Ryder #2 Week 4

 

After a busy, fun, exciting two years with Luke, we decided it was about time to expand our family.  I feel since I documented my pregnancy with him, it's only fair that I do it for #2.  I'm just getting a little later start. 

We found out we were expecting our family to grow shortly after Luke's 2nd birthday.  We made the decision to start trying a month or two before then.  One night we were watching our friends' son Frank who is 6mo. younger than Luke.  We had a lot of fun watching them play together.  After Frank went home, Steve and I were sitting on the couch and he looked at me and said, "I think I'm ready for #2."  I responded that I thought we already made that decision a while back.  He said I know but today made me really ready.  It was fun with two kids.  Exhausting but fun.

These are some pictures of our fun play date.

Let me back up to earlier that day.  I'm very aware of my body and when something is off or different.  Steve, Luke, and I went for a run that morning and I was barely hanging on trying to maintain a 9-10min. pace.  I know that I'm capable of a sub 7min pace and even on a day when I'm sub par, I can do 8.5min pace easily.  Something was off and I told Steve I must be getting sick.  Especially since I had not done much exercise the week before due to being out of town.  Throughout the day, I just didn't feel right.  I told Steve I've only felt this way when I had the flu or when I was pregnant.  He told me to wait another week before a test.  (I may have taken a lot of tests out of excitement and hope with Luke)

That night, I woke up around 2am to go to the bathroom and then again around 5:30.  Once again, I know that's not normal for me so with that second trip, I decided to grab the pregnancy test I had.  Within seconds, the little plus sign showed up.  It was faint but it was there.  I was so excited I jumped on Steve and laid it next to him.  Steve does not get excited about anything before 7am, not even a complete life changing event.  I think it took us both a little while for it to finally sink in but we are excited about our new addition and hopefully have a little better idea of what we're getting ourselves into this time.

Celebrations

The last few weeks have been full of celebrations. We celebrated Halloween, Luke's 1 month birthday, Dash's birthday, the big 3-0 for me and Thanksgiving. Ok, so we didn't really do much for most of these occasions but we did at least acknowledge them.

For Halloween we and others from our Sunday School class gathered at the Yowell's to hand out candy to the trick or treaters. Pretty much this was an excuse to dress up all the new babies and socialize. Luke went as a football and I put on my Brees jersey. Unfortunately, Steve had to work late so he didn't make it. I didn't get any good shots but here is our little football and his new friend Emma Kate.

Halloween Morning

We celebrated birthdays during the month of November.  The 4th was Luke's 1 month.  I'm not sure if that calls for a celebration but we're pretty happy we survived a whole month with no tragedies.  It's amazing how much he has grown too!

Dash's 4 year birthday is sometime in October since we adopted him the day before my birthday when he was 6weeks old.  Poor Dash has gotten the shaft lately with Luke around. We're not so crazy that we throw birthday parties for our dog but we do try to get him a special treat every year.  This year we forgot so we had to snag two turkey legs from Thanksgiving to give to him as a belated present.  I don't think he minded.

I celebrated my 30th this year.  How in the world did I get so old? It's crazy to say I'm 30! I think what makes me feel old though is my lack of sleep. I must say I'm pretty pleased with my life so far.  As my mother in law pointed out - I've accomplished a lot by 30 I finished college and have a masters degree, I have a great job, own a home and have a baby. I've experienced a lot in my 30 years.  I've had my ups and downs but they've taught me a lot and made me the person I am. I don't think I would want anything to be different. I did have big plans to go out for my birthday for celebratory drinks but I got lame (I prefer to say tame) at the last minute and ended up going out to eat dinner at 6pm with some friends and went to see a movie with Steve. It was just what I needed.

Morning birthday snuggles with my favorite little guy

Flowers from Luke and Steve

Trying to see if we really do look alike

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days.  It's a lazy day of hanging out with family and eating.  We traveled to Picayune to have Thanksgiving at my cousin's house this year.  It was Luke's first time to meet several people. We also got some family shots of us while at my mom's house.

All dressed up to meet the family

Somebody had too much turkey!

Luke eating his Thanksgiving meal

I love this face.

 

 

 

 

Getting post meal cuddles with his Nana

One of the best parts of these past few weeks was a visit from MomMom and Pappa Picks.  It was Luke's first time to meet them.  They loved seeing him and Steve and I loved the extra help.  It's hard having family so far away but it makes the time with them great.

getting know his Pappa Picks

Besides meeting his other grandparents there have been more firsts lately:

1st bath

Our 1st fire in our home

Our first night out without Luke

Play date

1st trip to the Polls

 
Looking at all these pictures makes me realize how much Luke has already grown! This has been a long post but just because I think he's so cute and I have million and three pictures of him, here are a few more.