A Few Updates

When Ryder woke up on Friday his eyes were swollen and he was acting like he didn't feel very good, so I decided to call the doctor and take him in. She assured me that it was just clogged tear ducts - nothing to worry about, I just have to massage them often to try to clear them out. While we were there, Ryder got weighed....are you ready....10 POUNDS 10 OUNCES! That's over a pound in just a week and a half (he finally caught up to my birthweight!). He must've been wore out because when we got home he laid on Daddy's lap and fell right asleep.

Also, both nights this weekend Ryder has gone to sleep at 9:30 and not woke up until 5:00! I can't believe it, but I'm so happy! It has been nice for both of us to get some much needed rest. Hopefully he'll stay on this schedule, pretty please?!

Playtime

Yaya bought Ryder a new toy, since he loves to kick his feet and move his arms now, she got him an activity gym to play with. I was so excited all day to come home and play! I tried to take pictures of my boy in action, but of course every time I went to snap a picture he would look at me instead of the toy. Oh well, he's still cute :)

Alright, no more pictures mom!

One Word Wednesday

*Expressions*

Sleeping Through the Night?

Not yet! I wish! The night before my first day back at work, Ryder surprised me and skipped his midnight feeding. When he woke up and the clock said 3:00 am, I was shocked! He picked the perfect night to decide to go a few extra hours without eating, Mommy was very happy about that long stretch of sleep. It has been about 13 nights since then and 11 of those he has done the same thing, bottle around 9 or 10 then sleep until 3. That schedule is nice because I have to wake Alan up at 3 anyway, so I feed Ryder, we go back to sleep for a few hours, then I wake back up at 5:30 to get ready for work, feed him again at 6, then we're out the door by 6:30. I love that I get to feed him two bottles in the morning, it's nice to spend a little QT with him before we have to rush out the door, but whenever he decides to skip the 3am feeding I won't be too upset to get the extra sleep.

Last night was one of the two nights that he went off schedule and decided to be up and hungry about every hour. As I sit here drinking my 3rd cup of coffee, still yawning, I'm hoping he's just going through a growth spurt and that we'll be back on our schedule in no time! Please God, have mercy on me, it's only Tuesday!

The shirt says it all, if I would just rock him all night long, he would sleep great!!!

Happy Father's Day!

If there's one thing that I've learned about the Marsh men, it's that the apples really don't fall far from the trees! From looks to personality to demeanor...even down to thoughts and simple movements, they just have so much in common. Alan and his Dad have a great relationship, and I'm positive that will follow suit with Ryder. If I had to guess some of the best life lessons that Alan learned from his Dad over the years they would be: Nothing in life is free, you work for the things you want/need. You must have respect to get respect. You can always find a little bit of humor in any situation. And best of all, sometimes the worst punishment comes from the simple statement "Just wait until your Father gets home!" Again, I expect all of this to be passed on to Ryder. Thank you Poppy for being such a great Father to Alan and Grandfather to Ryder! Poppy has been given the nickname "Swipe" by his friends, they seem to think that anything Ryder wants can be given to him with just a swipe of Poppy's credit card (there has even been talk of how much Ryder needs a Harley Davidson "TOYSTER"...the boy can't even walk yet!) I look forward to all the fun things Poppy, Alan, and Ryder will get themselves into in the coming years.


Happy VERY FIRST Father's Day Alan! Thank you for giving me a beautiful son (if I didn't give birth to him, you would think I didn't have much to do with it at all!) We love you so much. One day Ryder will read this post and realize how lucky he is to have such great men in his life!
Some of my favorite pictures of Alan with Ryder:

Evidence of how many diapers we changed the first week!!

Happy Birthday Uncle Tim!!

Recently my oldest brother Tim who is in the Navy was relocated from Pax River to Hawaii. I'm sure they are soaking up the sun and loving life...but we miss them LOTS. We are so thankful for the three years that we did get to spend with Tim, Ashley, and Trinity though, and Ryder coming early made it possible for them to be here for his birth! Today is Tim's birthday, so we wanted to send some Hawaiin love from us to you! (Please make note of the hawaiin shorts that I put your nephew in at 9:00 lastnight to make this possible!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE TIM!! Here, he wants to tell you himself (sorry about the camera angle, oops!):

Three Months Old!!

Oh my, that's a quarter of a year! Our little man is growing up so fast *sniff*sniff*! We'll start with the photo session (he was all smiles for this one!):

And of course, his 3 month stats:

• He is 23 inches long now (almost 2 feet tall!) - Not sure about weight, but guessing 10 pounds!
• He now goes a 5 hour stretch without eating at night, and 3-4 hours during the day.
• He gets rice added to every bottle to help with his silent reflux, which seems to be working (I even took him off of the meds this week).
• His kidney's have shown great improvement (please no surgery, keep praying!), and his daily antibiotic was switched to Bactrum.
• He's getting a little baldspot on the left side of his head, but no other hair has fallen out.
• He makes a lot more noises now and kicks his legs and moves his arms like crazy.
• The muscles he needs to hold his head up and to roll over are getting stronger. He hasn't mastered either yet, but he's working on it!
• He smiles so much now and even has started to make a noise with it like he wants to laugh. On the flipside, he learned how to push his bottom lip out to make the cutest sad face ever!
• His hand-eye coordination is developing, he can even rub his right eye with his right hand when he's sleepy. I'm pretty sure he's going to be right handed!
• He goes to a babysitter every day now and is adjusting wonderfully to that!

It's so fun to watch him grow. He's changing all the time, right before our eyes. I can't wait to see what Month Four will bring!

One Word Wednesday

I've seen this post done on other people's blogs called Wordless Wednesday. I've never been good at NOT talking, so if I could just get one word in there, I'll be happy :) Welcome to ONE WORD WEDNESDAY (feel free to join in fellow bloggers!):

*Friendship*

Meet the Marsh's

I probably should've started the whole blog with this post, but I was way too excited and wanted to start posting pictures of Ryder right away. So let me back track and introduce you to my Royal Family.

The King of our Castle

Alan is a laid back, easy going guy who is into anything that is manly! He likes to hunt, ride his Harley, watch UFC, lift weights, go 4-wheeling...pretty much all the things that guys love. He does have a soft spot though and it lies with his family. He takes pride in being a Marsh and would never do anything to jeopardize that name. I love and appreciate him for being my support system, for being our protector, and for being a wonderful Daddy.

The Queen B

That's me :) I'm pretty much the exact opposite of Alan: he's quiet - I'm loud, he's laid back - I'm outgoing, he's calm - i'm high strung...somehow this is the perfect balance and we make it work. I'm not big on going out, I'd much rather be at home and have family or friends over to hang out. I'm a reality tv addict - I guess the lack of drama in my life leaves plenty of room for me to enjoy watching it in others! I'm a strong-minded, passionate person...my newest obsession being my son (as if you couldn't tell). I strive to be the best Mommy & Wife that I can be.

Our Little Princess

Beasley is our 4 year old Amstaff. We got her the day after Alan's mom (whose nickname was Beasley) passed away. She was only 3 pounds and had to be fed from a bottle. She required all of our attention, which really helped get us through the worst time of our lives. Her and Alan have an unbreakable bond and she is the definition of a Daddy's girl! She now weighs 90 pounds, but still finds it acceptable to jump into Daddy's recliner and sit on his lap. She is full of energy, full of spirit, full of life....and probably full of sticks & strings & plastic because she eats everything in sight. She is capable of driving us crazy, but we love her, she was our first "child" and will have a place in our hearts forever!

Our Sweet Prince

Bentley aka Bubba is our 1.5 year old American Bulldog/Amstaff. You guessed it...he's a Momma's Boy! Alan bought him for me as a Christmas present and his baby blue eyes stole my heart. He's the complete opposite of Beasley (sound familiar?) and would be happy & content just laying on the couch, snuggling all day. He's 100 pounds of love & awkwardness. We should've named him Stewart because if he could talk this is what we think he would say "Look What I Can Do!" Although he's bigger, stronger, and faster than Beasley, he will not cross her or do anything to make her mad. He has a submissive, sweet temperament mixed with a little bit of mischief, hard-headedness and charm...the typical Marsh man!

My Knight in Shining Armor

Welcome to the family baby boy! Ryder just joined this Marsh crew but somehow I don't think any of us remember life before him. He came into our world, stirred it all up, and took his stand right at the center of our lives. When he cries, the 4 of us as a family, go running to see what he needs. When it is bath time, the 4 of us pile in the bathroom so that no one is left out of this huge event. And when he's sleeping, we all periodically go check on him to make sure he's still breathing! He's a great baby, very calm and content. He's growing and learning new things every day. I'm so glad that God picked us to be his family...I think we're perfect for eachother!

Daycare

Today was Ryder's very first day at daycare. It was interesting trying to get both of us ready and out of the house so early in the morning, but I think we did pretty good! We got to Aunt Vickie's and she was up drinking her coffee and already had 3 kids there. I went over there yesterday with a huge box filled with everything he could possibly need during the day (and more she said!) So this morning, all I had to do was drop him off.......and leave :( I knew he was in good hands though, so it wasn't too rough. I missed him so much today, of course, everyone says it will get easier. I went and visited for lunch. He woke up right when I walked in the door, so I rocked him back to sleep, then headed back for work. When I got back to pick him up, Aunt Vickie was holding him and "telling him secrets". I felt very good about our first day at daycare. As long as I know he's getting love from someone, I guess it doesn't always have to be from Mommy!
Hanging out in the playpen
Big hugs when we got home!

Back to Work!

Today was my first day back to work...it was rough but I made it through! Yaya took off work so that she could come watch him today & tomorrow to help me transition a little easier. That worked out great because it was hard enough getting myself up and ready this morning, I'm glad I didn't have to get him packed and ready to go too. I got choked up on the way to work, but once I got there everyone cheered me up. They decorated my desk with balloons, streamers, confetti, and a big box of tissues! Oh and of course, a pile of work because they didn't want me to get bored! How thoughtful ;-) I can see it's going to take a while to get my brain to start functioning again...I've been stuck in baby mode for 12 weeks now. I was so excited to go home and visit with Ryder during my lunch break, then it was back to work to finish the day. I had a meeting with my boss in the afternoon and ended up getting a promotion and a raise! Needless to say my first day back at work was bitter sweet. I hated leaving Ryder but then I got great career news...it brought me back to reality that I'm where I need to be to help support my family and make a better life for Ryder. Of course, the day was documented with pictures:

Saying goodbye in the morning...so sad!

My desk at work...all decorated!

Visiting Ryder during lunch!

Yaya spending the day with Ryder!

12 Weeks, Come & Gone

Throughout the entire life of this blog, one thing that I mention over and over is how fast time goes. Here I am again, upset about the fact that TWELVE whole weeks have come and gone just like that. You know what that means...back to work on Thursday! I wish that I could continue to spend every second with Ryder, talking to him, playing with him, watching him grow. Unfortunately, that's not an option for me. I'm so sad. I'm sure every mom goes through this when the time comes and she has to return to work, I just never thought it would be so hard. I'm going to miss him so much during the day, but I'll look forward to coming home to his sweet face after work. Wish me luck.........this sucks!

During my twelve weeks of maternity leave, we've gotten to do lots of fun stuff together. One of my favorite things we've done is spend time with my sister-in-law and nieces. They love their baby cousin so much and are so good with him.

We have also enjoyed our Friday visits from Aunt Megan...

And we love being able to go for walks in the stroller (especially when Daddy & the dogs can join us!)

And tummy time is always fun too!

But most of all, we have just enjoyed bonding and getting to know eachother. I'm very greatful for the past twelve weeks and can't think of any better way to have spent them than with my beautiful son!