16 weeks along.

What we do in cold weather!

My aunt (who lives in much warmer weather) recently asked what we do in the cold weather as far as bundling up and getting into the car. This is our morning routine every morning. 10 minutes before we leave, I start the car and back out of the garage so it can warm up. (well, I intend to leave 10 minutes after I do this, but it's usually 15 minutes) I spend that next 10-15 minutes brushing my teeth, and then getting both Rylan and I dressed for the cold. He will usually put his boots on okay, because he likes the sound it makes as he marches around the kitchen. His coat, hat, and mittens, are a different story. I've found a trick though, if I get my hat, coat, and mittens on first, he is much more likely to want his on too. If not, I wrestle him and I always win! After he's bundled up, he's fine. Out the door we go to the warm car. Even though the car has been warming up for 10 minutes with heaters blaring, it's still plenty cold in there, so no, we don't get undressed at all in the car. I crank up my seat heater and off we go. It only takes a few minutes to get to daycare, so Rylan is all bundled up for less than 10 minutes. If it's especially cold and the car hasn't warmed up quite as long, we also have a double layered fleece blanket in the car that Rylan loves to have wrapped around him. I'm sure the kid gets hot sometimes, but you would never know it. He loves having that blanket on him! Like I said, this is our morning routine, but also the routine for going pretty much anywhere. If it's in the 20's and the trip is short, we might skip the mittens and only use the hood instead of the hat. So, there you have it Jennifer!

Bath Time!

Last week, Nick was giving Rylan a bath and this is what I found in the tub later that night.



Nick had been complaining that we only have one set of bath letters, so he used a "K" and a "9" to make another "R". I thought it was pretty cute!

This past weekend when my parents were here, my mom was giving Rylan a bath and he didn't want to get out, but he was getting cold. So mom put a towel in there to wrap him in and she just kept getting it wet to warm it up. They played for over an hour, he was in heaven!!!!

What a long weekend!

So you know that I have been battling a nasty cold this past week and I took Thursday off from work because I felt so crappy. I felt better and went to work on Friday, but then Saturday I felt like crap again. My parents were on their way up to spend the weekend with us because our daycare had today (MLK Jr. day) off and they were going to watch Rylan today. Well Saturday morning, Rylan was kinda crabby and just not himself and then around 10am, he threw up all over me. Other than newborn spit up, he's never thrown up like that before! He was much better after that, so I figured something he ate just didn't agree with him. When he woke up from his nap, he had diarrhea everywhere. But he was still acting normal, so I figure his stomach bug was working it's way out. He continued to have diarrhea, but was eating fine and drinking lots of fluids, so my main concern was his buns, he's so sensitive and I didn't want him to get a rash. So we kept an eye out for everytime he pooped and changed him right away. His butt was starting to get red, so I was worried that he would poop during the night and he would sit in it. He was sleeping when I went into his room to check him and set out extra sheets and jammies in case he needed a change during the night when all of a sudden, he starts throwing up in his crib. It was everywhere, I didn't really know what to do, so I took his jammies off in his bed and carried him to the bathroom. Thank goodness my mom was there, because like I said, he'd never thrown up before so I was glad that she helped me out. We got him cleaned up, the sheets changed in his crib, and he was back sleeping. After that, I decided to sleep in his room to make sure he was okay. I ended up changing 2 diapers during the night and 4 sets of sheets from him throwing up even more. Sometime after Rylan has thrown up again, I begged God to take his sickness and give it to me instead. There's nothing worse than seeing your baby sick and you can't do anything but clean them up and comfort them! We both ended up sleeping pretty well from 5-7:30, so that was good, but I hadn't gotten much sleep during the night. He seemed much better on Sunday, but with my cold and lack of sleep, I was still feeling pretty crappy. I was able to get a few naps in with Nick, my parents, and my brother here to help out, so that was good, but then my stomach started to churn. By 6:30pm, I was throwing up every 20 minutes. And it was violent throwing up too. I can't remember the last time when I was that sick. By 10:30pm, it had tapered to only every hour, but that continued through the whole night. 7:30am was the last time I threw up and I have been on the couch all day. Again, thank goodness my parents and my brother were here because I was worthless today. They took care of everything, cooking, cleaning, all of Rylan's needs, it was wonderful! I can't say enough how much I appreciated them being here. I really hope none of them get sick from us! I love you guys! The good news is, I'm feeling better and I had a little chicken soup for dinner. I will not be going to work tomorrow though either, I'm too weak. I don't have much energy and all the muscles in my neck and chest hurt from throwing up, but I think I'm on the road to recovery! So for now, I'm working up the energy to drive to school tonight to get stuff ready for a sub. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not complaining about any of this because I asked God for it and I believe he heard and answered my prayer. Rylan has not had any diarrhea all day and is back to his normal self. That's all I want!

I hope they don't fight over this!

This past weekend, we were cleaning out some closets and I took Rylan's baby bouncer out. He couldn't stay out of it! I'm sorry I don't have pictures to compare of him in it as an infant! (I put all the old pictures on our external hard drive and took them off my computer. I love my Mac, but apparently there have been some problems with this first generation macbook and I don't want to lose anything if it crashes.) Anyhow, so here's my long legged little sweetie pretending to be a baby again!

I felt it this morning!

The first baby movement! I'm home sick today, so I've just been lying in bed or on the couch all day. This morning while just lying there, I felt the little flutter! I've had enough gas to know that this wasn't gas. I felt it 3 times, but nothing since then! It's just so exciting, it becomes so much more real when you actually feel the little bean move! (Actually it's almost the size of a grapefruit by now) I didn't feel movement with Rylan until 18-22 weeks, but they say you feel it sooner with subsequent children because the muscles are more relaxed. However, I wasn't expecting to feel it this soon! It's just so awesome! Whenever I think about it, it makes me feel slightly less crappy today. I'm battling a nasty cold, the one that Rylan had last weekend, and Nick had earlier this week. I'm glad neither of them got it this bad, but I hate being sick. I read that you seem to get more sick when you're pregnant because the body's immune system has lowered itself so you don't "fight off" the baby. I guess that makes sense, I just hate being sick. Plus, being pregnant, you can't take the medicine to help with the symptoms, so you just suck it up. As nice as it is to stay home a day, sometimes it's much harder to prepare for a sub than to just go. Oh well.
One thing I have been doing today is looking at girly crib bedding. Wow, there is a lot of cute stuff! I would love to buy all that pink girly stuff, but in my heart, I'm thinking it's a boy. I know it will be much cheaper if it's a boy, but obviously it would be so much fun to have one of each. I guess we will find out (hopefully) on February 15 when we have our 20 week ultrasound. If we know, you will know, so stay updated on that day. I will try to post the news as soon as I can! Above all, we're just counting our blessings that everything is going well and the baby is healthy as can be!

Another Congratulations!

My college roommate and very dear friend, Tara, and her husband Darin became first time parents to a little boy last night! I haven't seen pictures yet, but I know he's just adorable and perfect! Congratulations to the new parents! We can't wait to meet the little guy! (I will wait until I get the okay from them to post his name and stats.)