Floating but no crawling...

Well, as of yet, Ryan is not crawling around... but he is floating. :) For the last week Ryan has begun taking swim (floating) lessons as a safety precaution against drowning and, although he isn't happy about them, he is doing really well. A link to the YouTube video can be found here.

Anyway, things in the Spence family are crazy as always. We visited Grandma Russell at MD Anderson over Spring Break where she was recuperating from surgery. She came through it with flying colors and the hardest part of the whole thing was seeing her grandbabies without being able to pick them up. But she is home now and is on the road to recovery. We'll get to see her again on Easter and she can help Ryan and Tygan hunt for Easter eggs.

Mommy and Daddy got a break this past weekend as Aunt Rita and Uncle Preston volunteered to keep Ryan overnight Saturday night. (Thank you to both of them). We got to go out and have dinner with Steve and his new girlfriend, Alicia, and hang out with friends who we haven't had a chance to visit with in awhile. Although we had a great night out, and we definitely needed it, the first thing we both thought when we opened our eyes was "Let's go get our baby." But it was fun while it lasted.

Ryan still only has two teeth but at the rate he is drooling, I expect a few more to poke through any day now. Hopefully he'll be up crawling soon although then we'll have to get a baby gate and begin baby-proofing everything.

We're getting into the busy season now with Michael starting baseball this week and my indoor and outdoor soccer games, not to mention Ryan's swim lessons everyday and my work events in the Spring, so we'll be busy but we'd still love to hear from our friends and try to find time to get together for dinners or something.

Hope everyone enjoys the pictures and I'll try to get more pics and journal entries up here more often. (But let's be realistic - once a month is probably my best attempt.)

We have teeth!

Ryan is getting so big. Everytime I look at pictures I can't believe how much he's grown. Even since Christmas he seems to have grown and matured. While we were in Corpus two weeks ago my Aunt Elva was holding him and she yelled "Ouch! He bit me!" I told her to quit being a baby as it was just gums, although he did like to chomp down with his gums pretty hard, and she told me that it wasn't just gums - there was a tooth there. I ran to the bathroom to wash my hands and when I got back, sure enough, there was a sharp point of a tooth poking through. Surprisingly he didn't act like he was in too much pain when it came in but he's been drooling for the past three months. Anyhow, in the last two weeks, his other front bottom tooth has started to come in so he now has two bottom front teeth that are visible and very sharp.

He's also sitting up by himself now. Occasionally he teeters over but by and large he's sitting up and playing with his toys. So I decided it was time to stop bathing him like a little baby and I went to WalMart and got him a big boy ducky bathtub. As you can see from the pictures, he really enjoyed his bathtub and now loves to splash mommy when she's bathing him. Last night after I finished bathing him I just refilled the tub with clean warm water so he could play for another 15 minutes and I don't think he was ready to get out even then. He's so cute!

And... he started saying "Da-da" a few weeks ago, right around when his first tooth came in. It was a big weekend for us. He now calls everything Da-da, but Michael still gets excited when he hears it. He just lays around saying "da-da-da-da-da" but it's cute. Now if we could only get him to say Mama. Oh well, maybe next month.

Christmas 2009

Well, our first Christmas with the little guy was a good one, but he spent part of the holiday sick. He got RSV from someone at daycare and that was difficult for a little while because it's always hard when he's sick since he can't tell us what hurts. But he's doing much better now and we've FINALLY got him back on schedule I think.

He was completely spoiled at Christmas by Grandma and Grandpa Russell. He got so many toys that Michael and I were happy we have a suburban to bring them all home in. We're still trying to make sure that he uses all the toys he had (although some of them won't be used until he gets a little older). He also got some cute clothes from Uncle Brian and Aunt Dawn for Christmas which was very good since he's growing like a weed and we were worried about having enough clothes he could fit into. It's no longer a problem as he now has more clothes than either Michael or myself (regardless of what Michael says about my wardrobe). He also got a cute pair of dental scrubs and soft blanket monogramed with his name on them from Grandpa and Grandma Spence. All in all, the kid took in a good haul and we took many pictures to document it so he can look back and remember it since he won't remember.

He also got baptized on Dec. 21 at the Round Rock First United Methodist Church and we had lots of family and friends in attendance. Ryan was so cute in his baptism outfit and I was very proud of him for not crying, even when the pastor dropped water on his head. He was so funny and had the congregation laughing when the pastor picked him up to display him to the audience, he started flapping his arms and his legs were doing a jumping motion. The pastor had to hold onto him tightly to keep him still. :)

Anyway, we made it through our first Christmas and it was as wonderful as we anticipated. I know next year's will be even more fun as he will be able to help open his many presents. We are truly blessed to have such a treasure in our lives and I thank God everyday for every moment we get with our smiling angel. Even his day care teacher just told me today that we are lucky to have such a good and happy baby - and we are aware. Michael and I both are excited about the idea of another child, but we both are worried that after having such an angel boy that our next one will be a terror! :)

Well, I hope this gets everyone up to date on our very busy lives but we don't want to lose touch with all our friends just because our lives revolve around a 2-foot human. :) So if we haven't seen you in a while, give us a shout and we'll try to do dinner or something.

Blog at you later.

New pics of Ryan

Well, it's been a while since we've blogged. I know, we're not good at it, but once Ryan got here it became much more difficult - not sure why that is. :) Anyway, things are going well. He's still great and is the cutest baby ever (in our own humble opinion anyway). So I wanted to put up his first two professional school pictures! He is currently at a daycare here in Austin and they have a Professional come once a year just like in school and take pictures. Of course the pictures were too cute to not buy some of them. The teachers said he did so good that he got a lot more proofs to look through than other babies. I guess that's the benefit to taking them early to get photos done and having Grandma "Pamarazzi" - he's totally used to the flash and he sees the camera and automatically starts smiling.

He is a really sweet baby and smiles a lot and has been laughing up a storm. He's really easy going and loves to be in his swing, bouncer and jumper. He doesn't jump as much as his cousin Nathan but he likes to stand there and sway sometimes. :)

Also, he rolled over for the first time by himself last night. He was on the couch and rolled from his back to his stomach. He's just getting so big, I can't even believe it. We're already buying Christmas presents for him and I can't wait for his first Christmas! Anyway, here you go. Hope you enjoy them.

All the babies are here!

Again, I'm a little behind the times, but I wanted to announce the arrival of Tygan Reef Schneider (my sister's, Tiffany's, son). He came last Sunday, July 6 in the afternoon and he weighed the exact same as Ryan - 7 lbs, 14 ounces. He also looks a lot like his older cousin (Ryan) - so much so that Michael and I were pretty stunned when we saw him in the hospital nursery. They have the same round face and little nose. Michael and I were lucky enough to be in Portland over the July 4th weekend when Tiffany went into labor so we got to meet our nephew on the day he was born.

Ryan is still doing well. I'm anxious to see what his weight is at our next doctor's appt. which is still a few weeks away - hopefully he's gained quite a bit. He's still wearing newborn size clothes and I can't wait until he fits in 0-3 months because he has so many cute clothes in that size. He's growing though, and we've begun to notice that he looks at us more and follows us with his eyes. Also, he does a great impersonation of Maggie from The Simpsons with his pacifier - he makes the same sucking sound as her and his pacifier moves up and down like hers. When he really gets on it, it's hard to pull it out of his mouth.

He also had his first real smile the other day. He's had the corners of his mouth curl up before but he was sleeping and dreaming I guess because he opened his mouth so wide you could see teeth if he had any and he actually made a laughing sound. So we're counting it as his first smile.

But even on the worst days, when he's been a little fussy and cries more than usual, motherhood is still amazing and I caught myself thinking again about our next one - hopefully a little girl. But we'll definitely wait until this one stops running us ragged through the night. :)

'Til next time...

Two down, one to go

First off, sorry to everyone keeping up with this blog b/c it has taken me longer to update it than I imagined. Having a newborn in the house takes up quite a bit of time - I definitely underestimated the amount of time and energy needed. But, the laundry is up to date and the dishes are washed and the house looks somewhat clean so I thought I would sit down and give a short update on how we're doing here at Casa de Spence.

Well, we made our longest roadtrip since Ryan got here on Thursday, June 26 when we drove to College Station to meet Ryan's new little cousin - Nathan Scott Spence. Michael's brother Brian and his wife Dawn welcomed their new son into the world on June 26 at around 4 a.m. He was 5 pounds, 13 ounces and in great health. Both mom and baby are doing great and they actually got to go home on Friday. It was amazing how the boys (Ryan and Nathan) didn't really have the same features and yet they still looked somewhat alike.

So now we have two babies here and we're only waiting on one - my sister Tiffany is due July 9 and is ready to give birth any day now. We're hoping she has the baby this coming week so we can go down for the July 4th weekend and see the newest baby.

Anyway, we have been settling in with Ryan. I'm doing much better and have been off my pain medication since Monday. I can walk and get in and out of bed pretty easily without any pain. I still can't jog (which I realized when I tried to run from the living room to Ryan's room) and I can't do any ab work, but other than that I'm doing really well.

Ryan is doing good as well. He has his days and nights mixed up so Michael and I trade off spending time feeding him and rocking him in the middle of the night but it's not too bad. He usually sleeps for around 4 hours at a time so if we're lucky enough to get him to bed early enough, he may only wake up once during the night for a feeding. We've tried to get him on a schedule but it's fairly impossible to do with a newborn that sleeps between 16-20 hours a day. We had read a book which has a system called EASY - Eat, Activity, Sleep and You, but it's hard to keep him awake for activity after he eats. He's usually exhausted after taking a bottle and at this age, it's hard to find an activity that he can see, but we're still working on it.

But parenthood is amazing. Even though Ryan can spend an hour crying and I feel like I'm ready to pull my hair out, I can look at him sleeping in my arms and he's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen and it was all worth it. Although I was so ready to be done with the pregnancy, I told Michael the other day that every time I look at Ryan's beautiful face I'm ready to do it all over again. We can't wait to give Ryan a little sister.

Well, it's time for Ryan's feeding so I better go. Talk to everyone later!

Photos of Nathan Spence

Birth Story

Well, sorry we didn't keep up with the blog as well as we planned, but the WiFi in the hospital was on the fritz so Michael couldn't update the blog or post pictures. So we're just now getting our birth story up. Here goes:

Well, we had planned to have the C-section on Monday, June 16 at noon so my mom and dad came up Sunday night to go with us to the hospital on Monday morning at 10 a.m. and I started having contractions Sunday night while we were at dinner at Red Lobster but didn't think much of it as I've been having contractions for the past two months. Then we went home and played with dad's new Wii (his Father's Day and birthday present). While playing Wii, my contractions continued to get harder, but were not on set intervals. They continued to get worse and hurt enough that I couldn't sleep but were still not regular. After watching tv from 4 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. I finally went and woke Michael up and told him that I was in so much pain that I couldn't handle it anymore. He started packing the suburban and timing the contractions which were now coming every 3 minutes.

By the time we got to the hospital (and waiting through 8 a.m. traffic on Mopac) and the nurses finally checked me, as they were moving very slowly because I don't think they believed Michael and I that I was in labor as we are newbies at this, I was already 8-9 centimeters dilated! They quickly got me to the Operating Room (OR) in about 30 minutes, although it felt like it took forever to me because I couldn't get the spinal block until I got in the OR, and Ryan was born at 10 a.m. on the dot. He was 7 lbs, 14 oz at birth and was 19 1/4 inches long with a 14 1/4 inch head! His head measured on the large scale and his weight and length was normal. After seeing his head measurement I'm very happy that we had a C-section.

Well, in my life I have never been a patient in the hospital for stitches, broken bones or anything else, so this was easily the worst pain I've ever been in, but it's hard since I can't compare it to anything else. But I can say that based on the pain I was in getting to 9 centimeters, and knowing that it would only have begun to hurt even more pushing a baby out, I think a C-section is definitely the most humane way to have a baby. And of course, the babies are so beautiful with a perfectly round head. :) Ryan is gorgeous and that's not just a proud mommy talking, the nurses and everyone else said so too.

We've been home since Thursday, June 19 and every day is an adventure as we are learning more about babies and get more organized. We'll try to update often with info and pictures of Ryan. Below is a link to our Picasa photo album (you don't need to sign up to view the pictures) and you can see pictures of Ryan's first days.

Thank you to everyone who came to visit us at the hospital and sent flowers. We'll get around to talking to everyone once we catch up on sleep.

Pictures

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