A week ago today Rylee joined our little family. Where has the time gone?! I had certainly planned to write more about what has been going on; both to share the experience with our families which are so far away, our friends which are close but we don’t get to see much of, and for future reading by the little one herself. But it seems that ANY free time I find all I want to do is SLEEP!
My ladies are doing that right now. Fortunately I have gotten a very restful almost-full night sleep last night and I can devote just a FEW minutes to stick a couple more pictures up and write about what’s going on. And to be honest it’s mostly a lot of sleeping! With some eating and pooping thrown in for good measure. We’re timing things pretty well though so that we’re getting two three- or four-hour chunks of sleep in each night. It’s just all about timing. And going to sleep as soon as she does!
Rylee had her first outing on Monday with a trip to the Doctor. She was really good for a long time, but unfortunately we had to wait for quite a long time and she got pretty fussy. Sticking thermomoters up her bum certainly didn’t help with that. And as soon as we got her diaper off of her and set her on the scale she decided to pee! And it was a hefty one! Apparently she had been saving it up for just that moment. I thought it was the funniest thing in the world. Probably not the first time it had happened on that scale though I’m sure. But her checkup went well. She is gaining weight very quickly and by all signs seems to be a very healthy baby.
Amy is GREAT! She is proving to be a fantastic mother. Rylee loves the sound of her voice. Just bringing Rylee into the room Amy is in and letting Amy talk to her sooths her. And the way she interacts with our child. . . She is so loving and calm and sweet! It’s just beautiful to watch. We have decided to breastfeed Rylee and that seems to be going really well. She is certainly gaining weight thanks to the persistance of my wife! I was a little sad at first that I wouldn’t be able to participate in the feeding ritual. But I got over that real fast. I’m able to help in other ways, burping, changing. We make a team effort out of it and I have a good time. And I certainly don’t envy her the OTHER things that go along with having meal generation tools on my chest!
Sleep. In the beginning I thought I was going to go insane! I felt so sleep deprived; especially in the hospital. I had a terribly uncomfortable chair to try to sleep in (that was too big for the teeny tiny room we were in). It was better once we got home, but I still didn’t do so well at night. I would try to help Amy out when Rylee was fussy or hungry, but mostly I just sat there like a big dumb animal at the end of the bed while Amy fed Rylee. I don’t think I was much help. I’ve been trying to make up for it by making sure the house continues to run smoothly. As much as I can anyway.
We have started venturing out of our bedroom these past couple of days. We pretty much stayed in there at first. I would hit the kitchen now and then to heat something up for dinner which we would eat in bed and promptly go to sleep . . . for a little while. But we’ve been spending more and more time in the rest of our house. We’ve started changing Rylee almost exclusively in her room now and the rocker in there is getting a lot of action as well. She still sleeps in her basinet (a couple feed from the bed) but we’ll often let her take naps in her stroller so we can bring her around the house with us. Mostly so we can sit and stare at her while we eat our sandwitches at the big-person table.
It’s still amazing how much of our time is completely devoted to this bundle of joy. Amy spends so much time every day feeding her. And SO many diapers. We keep a log both of feedings and of diapers and it’s just boggling some time to look down the line and see how much is flowing through this little eating and shitting machine. And of course we want to get some play time in as well. She doesn’t sleep ALL the time after all. We just can’t keep our hands off of her. She is just the cutest little baby I’ve ever seen in the whole world! I’m not just saying that because I’m her papa. Ok, yea maybe I am. But she is!
Today we took another trip. This time she had to give a little more blood. I have no idea what for. I’m sure I was told at some point but I was probably sleep deprived and a little loopy so I forgot. But they said to come here at this time to draw blood so I did. Set the alarm and everything. Gave us two hours to get ready. I figured with Amy’s history of being on time (she’s uh, not often on time) and the time needed to feed, change, cloth, buckle, and change again our little one we would need it. But we were ready in an hour (that never happens) with everyone fed and happy and pretty.
Pretty. Oh my goodness. My little girl is pretty. But so is my wife. My goodness, motherhood sure does suit that woman. She had a glow about her during pregnancy. But in my opinion that’s nothing compared to what she’s showing now. She’s so happy to be a mommy and she always has a beautiful smile on her face. She is a beautiful woman let me tell you. And a great mommy. I sure did luck out with that woman. I sure do hope her nap is going well . . .
That Twitter feed was fun. I’m glad you guys were able to follow along with us. Looking back a few thing got a little messed up. The ENTIRE hospital was a dead zone for my phone. The only way I could get a message out was to write it and then run to the door, shoot it on it’s way, and run back to the room. Sometimes I could get one out on the way to the cafeteria. Obviously I couldn’t spend much time away, my ladies needed me; both before the big pop and after in the teeny tiny cramped room they wedged us in. But in all of that some of the messages didn’t get sent out. And some of them got sent out in the wrong order. But all in all it was fun. Thanks Adam for the suggestion!
Lastly, I’ve taken a lot of video. More video than pictures. If I have time after writing this I’m going to try to trim some of it up, crunch it and post it here. No promises as to when . . . I’ll get to it as soon as I can. And it sounds like it won’t be now . . . Rylee is starting to stir and I need to see that her momma gets to sleep some more!
Thanks all of you for your kind words and gifts. I wish I had more time to talk to all of you. But if you’re reading this and we haven’t had the chance know that it’s not because we don’t want too. We’re just busy eating and sleeping!
Looking for a little more Rylee action? I’ve put together a bit of a video of Rylee’s arrival. Unfortunately, the audio from the camera didn’t come through into my video editor. There are definitely some places where I want to get that in there. But I’m posting the video as-is before I take the time to tweak the audio (not sure when I’ll have more time to do that . . .) so you Rylee fans can enjoy right away. I may go back and do some color correction too, but chances are good that I’ll spend time making more experiences rather than fine-tuning the recording of previous ones.