Like Father, Like Son

As you can see, the Twins game isn't nearly as exciting tonight. Both Ryan and Dad seemed to be more interested in Z's than K's as they enjoy the new recliner. Ryan had another good night last night and we had a good day with Adam returning to school. My mom came again which allowed me to take a great nap after lunch and we enjoyed the beautiful weather outside with a short walk in the stroller. It was great to get some fresh air, but it looks like it might be the last time in a long time as temperatures are expected to plummet.

Ryan's "first" of today was that he moved his head from one side to the other during "tummy time". He doesn't mind it for a few minutes and we'll continue to have him spend some time on his tummy during his "awake" time. We enjoyed an amazing Roast Beef and Mashed Potatoes meal tonight, courtesy of a lady from church, complete with fresh homemade pesto on baguette and topped off with carrot cupcakes. We are truly blessed with wonderful friends, family and church community who are all helping us through this transition. Tomorrow will be my first day home by myself without my mom coming, but I am hoping for a great day. I'm prepared for my night feedings tonight with "So You Think You Can Dance" and "Glee" on tape (since it was on at the same time as the Twins game tonight). I hope I won't be up long enough to finish both, but chances are good!

We are loving every minute with our sweet baby boy!

Twins Win!

Ryan (and I) had a much better night last night. He only woke up three times to eat and Adam got up with him two other times to change/rock him. What a blessing! I spent a good part of the day sorting through clothes. We received several bags of clothes from another Jr. High football coach and his wife and we've received lots of gifts. I sorted them into sizes and sewed a line of black thread into each tag to mark them. Someone told me that many second hand stores don't accept clothing that has writing on the tag, so I'm trying to just hand-sew in a mark that I can easily remove if I decide to consign the clothes sometime down the road. I think we have PLENTY of clothes...this picture is when I was about 3/4 done sewing and doesn't show any of the clothes we are borrowing from my nephew.

After Adam's football game tonight, he came home in time to watch the 12-inning Twins game. He was SO happy they pulled it out over the Tigers and are Division Champs! Ryan also enjoyed the baseball game with Dad.

And the Sleepless Nights Begin....

Saturday night's great schedule of eating, then falling right back to sleep did not repeat itself on Sunday night. I slept from about 10:30-12, but then was up pretty much straight until 6. Little dude just likes to fall asleep while eating, but then wakes up as soon as he is put down in his crib. I caught some sleep in the morning between 6 and 10 with only one interruption to eat. It was nice to have Adam home from school today and he had some fun play time on the floor with Ryan (and Nika) this morning.

After lunch my mom came up to help out for the afternoon. She did laundry, cleaned my washer and dryer, and cleaned out my entire refrigerator. Wow! Can't say I even remember the last time that was cleaned! I sure appreciated the help today since the lack of sleep combined with some lingering pain (and, I suspect slightly over-doing it yesterday) left me a little out of commission. Adam had football practice in the rain this afternoon and then we had a few visits from friends. Ryan was a pretty sleepy boy this afternoon, but was awake a little bit to interact with Grandma Boote.

He faked me out by pretending he was going to sleep at 8:45, but as you can see, he is still awake and chillin' while watching the Vikings game tonight.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

Ryan had a great first night at home and his eating/sleeping schedule cooperated nicely with our first trip out of the house, to the 11:00 service at church. Everyone loved meeting him and he slept through the service like a champ!

In the morning, we tracked Auntie Abbie and Uncle Wade online as they ran the MTC Marathon in the Twin Cities. They did great and finished in 4:04. We are so proud of them!

We had a fun afternoon visiting with Grandpa and Grandma Boone and watched the Twins win their last regularly scheduled game in the Metrodome. Uncle Wade and Grandpa Boote were at the game and the "Farewell to the Dome" activities. Adam and I both have fond memories of watching the Twins play in the Metrodome. Adam thinks the "best" memory is when we watched the 16-inning game vs. the Tigers this past summer. I said "it's a memory all right". One day I'm sure we'll tell Ryan about how the Twins used to play in the Dome and how we took him to the game that lasted 2 days (July 3 & 4) when I was 7 months pregnant.

Going Home

By Saturday we were ready to wrap things up. We had a few visitors, learned how to give Ryan a bath, and ate a steak dinner compliments of the hospital. DH made several trips home with all our swag and by afternoon we were just waiting for Ryan's hearing screening. It was nice to get back into regular clothes and we took one final picture at the hospital before heading home in late afternoon.

Ryan didn't mind the carseat too much on the 2 block ride home and we were all happy to finally be home together.

There was someone else eager to meet the new member of our family. Nika did great, sniffing him out and then pretty much leaving him alone.

After a visit from my cousin, Laura, we settled in for the night. Ryan did great feeding and sleeping tonight and we feel so blessed to be Home Sweet Home!

First Full Day (and it was full)

Friday morning started wonderfully with this precious picture DH snapped in the nursery. Science tells us this cannot be a smile, but our hearts tell us otherwise!

After enjoying the wonderful in-room shower and whirlpool (another huge perk of the rooms), we got our first visitor of the day. My grandpa came and sat with Ryan sleeping in his lap for about an hour and a half. It was a precious time to me and I am so glad he was able to come.

More visitors started trickling in after lunch and by the time school let out there were all kinds of people coming by to say hello-lots of people from school, church, small group, etc. They were all coming by before braving the wet weather for the football games that night! Here are some more pictures from Friday. (Click for a closer view)

After everyone went home, it was time to try to get a good night's rest. For DH, that meant going home to sleep instead of crashing on the pullout couch, and for me, it meant taking 2 pain killers! :) Ryan was brought in a few times during the night but wasn't interested in eating much, so I did get a good night's rest before another big day on Saturday.

Oh Boy!

Thursday started out with not indication it was going to be such a big day. DH went to school as usual and I slept in. After eating lunch together I ran some errands uptown. Arriving home around 1:30 I was a little suspicious of somethings (will not get too graphic here) and after some quick internet research and packing I decided to call the clinic at 2:00. While the doctor was checking me, my water broke so he said, "Yeah, you're not going home."

I called Adam and told him to pick up a few things I had packed and then come on over. As soon as I got settled in the room they hooked up the sensors and we discovered I was having contractions 1.5-3 minutes apart. The good news was I hardly felt them at all! We watched the Twins game and joked around with the nurses while watching the readouts on the machines. DH ran down to the clinic to get a flu shot and made a trip or two home. Not until about 7:00 did I start having any pain, but it was still bearable for a while. I even enjoyed watching The Office at 8:00 and had a few laughs. About 8:20 our friend, Dr. K, came back to check me and since I was at a 7, said I could call for the epidurel if I still wanted it. "Yes, Please!" Well, it was not meant to be because by the time the guy got there, Doc looked up and said "Sorry, too late!" I had gone too fast and we were beyond the point where I could receive the epidural. But, no matter, we labored on and by 9:05pm it was all over! Our beautiful son was born!

We named him Ryan Andrew. (Middle name after DH's brother) He weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz. and was 21" long. (Just about what I had predicted a few days earlier). The big surprise was his full head of dark hair! It is crazy, but cute. Everything checked out great and we are blessed to have a healthy baby boy. God is good! We called our parents, siblings, and grandparents to announce the good news and both our parents were at the hospital by 10:30 to meet their new grandson who stayed alert for a few hours to greet the world!

We can't say enough about the wonderful staff and facilities of Osceola Community Hospital. They have new OB/Delivery rooms and excellent doctors and nurses. It was also super-convenient to be only a few blocks away from home so DH could run home numerous times to get things and let Nika out. I felt well taken care of and appreciated the organized and efficient way everything went (no middle-of-the-night emergency room visits, no major drama). Everyone was super-helpful and I really feel lucky to have had a good delivery experience.