The First Two Months-- Overview

Ryan,
You are a second child.  And unfortunately, your mom has gotten lazy at keeping a blog or journal or diary for you.  But, I promise I will get better.  For now, some pics!

Ryan's Birthday! August 1st, 2012

Happy Birthday Ryan!  Today is your day, and I want to walk you through your birth story.

Wednesday morning, August 1^st, at approximately 12AM I woke up to an unexpected gush—my water broke.  I woke dad up and called the doctor.  We took our time, and were not in panic (as you may see in all the movies) because my contractions really hadn’t started to get intense yet.

The on-call doctor told me that I needed to go ahead and come in to the hospital, just to keep me monitored.  So dad and I finished packing our bags, and Bryce stayed with grammy while we went to the hospital.

We arrived about 1am, where all the nurses got me checked in and set up in bed.  I chose not to have an epidural at this point because I was only 4 cm dilated and my contractions were manageable.  The nurses told us to get comfortable and sleep until morning if at all possible, but they would keep me hooked up to the machine to monitor your heartbeat and the frequency and intensity of my contractions.  Sleeping proved to be a challenge as we were both pretty wound up from the excitement of seeing you soon!  So, we did what we do best—we turned on the TV, and were entertained most of the night by watching the Summer Olympics, which had just started 3 days prior. 

By 3am, dad was able to get about 3 hours of sleep, while I stayed awake and worked through my contractions with you as many were pretty intense, but thankfully they were only coming every 10 -12 minutes.

By 6:30am, the night nurse came back in and recommended that I take a shower and get up for a bit before the doc and day nurses came to start pitocin and provide an epidural.  So after the shower, my contractions were definitely increasing in intensity and frequency, and thank goodness the day nurse came when she did as she was able to get the anestiologist to provide me with a much needed epidural and pain relief by 8am. 

The epidural is a weird feeling—it’s kind of a dull pain and it’s necessary to be hunched over so that the physician can find the exact right spot in your back.  This is hard to do because (1) my belly is huge at this point and (2) you have to sit like that through contractions and that’s a tough feet.  Dad was really into this and loves watching this procedure, as he did with Bryce too, so much so that the physician had to tell him to sit down!  They didn’t want him to faint, so he had to sit.

After the epidural, I was feeling much better—evident by how chatty I was for the rest of the morning and day.  I could still feel the intensity of the contractions, but the pain relief was fantastic.  I could still move my legs (Bryce I couldn’t move anything below my waist), but was nearly totally pain free.

Around 10:45am, I really hadn’t progressed past a 6cm, and at this point when the nurse checked to see how dilated I was she realized that my water had not completely broken.  The nurse had previously said that I would have you by 3pm, but little did we know that when the physician broke the rest of my water I would be ready to start pushing by noon.

So I was fully dilated to 10cm by noon and around 12:15pm, I started pushing with you.  It was no big deal.  I would push real hard, and then rest.  This was just  completely different experience than Bryce.  By about 12:35, the nurse ran to get the physician as you were right on the verge of coming out.  The next contraction, your head came out, and the doc had to cut the cord that was loosely wrapped around your neck (which blood went flying, almost on to daddy).  The following push you came all the way out.  It was really kind of neat because I could see everything in the reflection of the physcian’s glasses.  I saw the whole thing and can just remember you coming out. 

When you came out, you were pretty quite, eyes closed, but just whiney.  You had this little whiney sound about you, and you never really cried.  I don’t think we ever heard your real lungs until well after we arrived home from the hospital.  You came out a lot bigger than I thought you would too--  6lbs, 9oz.; 19.25 inches.  You were so perfect!

Catching Up

Wow, it's been over a year since I've posted anything, and I'm thinking, that in an effort to remember certain moments, it's a good idea to start posting again. (I think.)

Anyhow, baby Bryce is now 17 months, and among other things, he is our little angel. Here are just a few things he has been up to over the last several months:

• Sledding for the first time in Colorado for Christmas 2011-- so much fun
• Loving loving loving bed time (who knew) He loves to give mom and dad a kiss and go up the stairs himself to his room to put himself to bed. Of course, we put him in his crib and all, but sleeping is his thing
• Speaking of sleeping he usually goes to bed around 7:30 and now wakes up around 6:30ish
• He loves books. He can't get enough of them, he wants to read all the time (and we feel a little bit of guilt because this is all he wants to do)
• When he's not reading he's practicing his soccer, basketball, and baseball skills
• Speaking-- he's got a good solid vocabulary for a 17-month old boy. His latest words are 'mine', 'no', and 'bye' (with an accompanying blow me a kiss

Of course I can list everything, but at least it's a start. Most exciting, he'll be expecting a baby brother on or around August 6th. It's very exciting times in the Reedy household.

6-Month Pics

Sean, Bryce and I have found a wonderful photographer in the Malvern, PA area. Mary Parnell took our newborn photos, and two weeks ago, she took baby Bryce 6-month photos. If you want to see some sweet pics go to this link below:

http://mparnell.photobiz.com/cart/

Type in my email: kreedy@me.com

Password: Reedy

The link may eventually become unavailable-- However, you can always check out Mary's blog that has a pic or two of baby Bryce.

http://picklepussphoto.blogspot.com/

He's so handsome :)

Walking to Mommy

Baby Bryce is trying to walk. It's going to be a few months before that happens though!

(He still needs to learn to roll over...)

Hats

Baby Bryce can finally fit into his baseball hat he got from our awesome neighbors. It's a Mets hat. His first one. And definitely not his last.

They look so much alike in these pics.

Ah yes...the next new thing

And, this morning started out with a bang. No less than three outfit changes BEFORE we even got to daycare. Sigh...exhaustion.

Somehow Sean manages to be out of town on mornings like these. :)

Anyhow, my pity party is over and I am happy to report that Sean and I have learned something new about our sweet baby. Drum roll... We know the exact moment when he is making 'poopies' as Sean would like to call it. Although gross, it's pretty comical. Some serious grunting, followed by straightening/hyperextending the legs, and it's over. Today, even his little face turned red. I laugh.

Also, here is a link to my photographers blog. She is great, and took the 6-month photos last week. Bryce is on her blog, and I'll post the link to look at the pics when I have them. In the meantime, here's a sneak peak!

http://picklepussphoto.blogspot.com/

TCU Horn Frog

Let me start off by saying this. I love my TCU Horn Frogs, but my loyalty is to my SMU Mustangs. I am a Mustang through and through, but, I did get my MBA from across the pond.

Two wonderful TCU people, Linda Smith and Garry Bruton, the Director of Administration and Professor sent me a onesie. It's sooo cute, I had to put it on Brycie. He looks like a super stud. It's pretty cold here (still) so we had to wear an undershirt and jeans with his styling Uggs (that now fit him).

Mommy, I'm standing!!!

Notice the hornfrog fingers.

Standing on the counter!

Yay, TCU Neeley School of Business!

Everyday

Everyday.

Everyday is a new adventure. It seems like every single day Bryce does something new. If you just blink, you miss out.

Last week, he learned how to hold his sippy cup and drink it all by himself. We don't have enough sippy cups, so he still gets a bottle sometimes, but at least half the time he uses his sippy cup all on his own. And, he's got the bottle holding down too. Funny.

This week he has learned to take his binky and put it in his mouth himself. And let me just say that Sean and I are learning that we need to not give this to him unless he absolutely needs it. (Much easier said than done because remember, he is at school 8 hours a day, so who knows what goes on there...)

Sean and I are trying to give it to him only at bed time now. I should video tape this because it is absolutely amazing that this little binky has become his soothing mechanism. When he's tired, he'll be cranky, rub his eyes, and get all ancey if you are holding him. As soon as you give him that binky, he is out in about 5 seconds. And I am not exaggerating on this one-- just ask Sean.

Maybe next week he'll be feeding himself too. Then maybe he'll change his own diaper? (I can only wish).

6 months

Bryce's half birthday was over a week ago, but, I thought I would wait for the official check up before posting any thing of significance.

Our big boy was 17lbs, 11 oz, which puts him in the 55% range for weight. He was over 23 inches for height, which puts him in the 70th percentile! Can you believe that!?! He might actually be tall! How cool would that be!?! Well hey, I'll even take average!!!

Anyhow, here are some things he's up to:

• Sleeping: 10 - 11 hours at night. He usually goes to bed at 7:30 - 8pm, and is out until I have to wake him up around 6:30am - 7am. He then typically sleeps around 3 to 4 hours during the day.
• We are on lots more 'solid' food. He eats oatmeal and bananas together in the morning, and then 3 more meals during the day. The ladies at daycare get excited when they see more food in his bowl. But we space it out appropriately.
• He's drinking less and less milk...breast milk, that is. No formula-- yet. Thank goodness he's drinking less. As of this week, I've officially cut one pumping session-- so I only pump four times per day now. (I actually never breast feed him, he only gets breast milk...I can't even remember the last time I breast fed him.) Anyhow, he drinks about 26-28 ounces per day spaced out into 5 sessions.
• The mix of bottles and sippy cups. We have started sippy cups during his morning meal and during his dinner meal, but we keep with the bottle for school.
• Bryce loves to stand. Loves loves loves it. He could stand all day. In fact he'll stand while just holding on to the couch. I'll just hold his hand and he'll stand. We even started practicing to walk, because he's acting like he wants to take steps.
• As much as he loves to stand, he HATES tummy time. No, he loathes tummy time. So, there's no initiating rolling over by himself yet. But we anticipate that coming soon.
• He seems more alert every day, just soaking up the world around him. So much fun!

That's it for now! We have official 6-month pics this weekend, so that should be lots of fun!!!