In Hindsight.....

To begin, I wanted to say that my brother and his family came to visit us.  When they initially asked, I hadn't really realized I'd have a newborn at that time.  I had just kind of assumed I was going to be pregnant forever.  So I said yeah, October would be great.  And it actually is great.  They arrived with their 5 children, who are fairly close in age to mine, so everyone has had a wonderful time playing together.  

I wanted Grandpa to see how much his grandchildren are enjoying their tree fort.  The swing is very popular and has needed to be re-tied several times.  Check out Delaney's chocolaty face!  Sorry it is blurry.

Aaron had a very good time raking leaves into that orange bucket and hauling them up to the tree fort and then dumping them over the rail.  Delaney got a bit of a leaf shower, but she wasn't going to give up her swing!

Since we had fun company and Monday was a holiday, we wanted to all go somewhere fun together.  I wanted to go too.  Andy and Kera decided the Zoo would be good.  I knew the Zoo involved a bit of walking, but I thought I would be up to the task.  It also seemed like a good idea to drive to the Pentagon and park there (since it was a holiday and we could).  Then we could see the September 11 Pentagon Memorial and take the Metro from there. So we did that.  However, getting 4 adults and 10 children up, ready and out the door was a lengthy process.  

Oh, and it was quite a bit colder than expected.  I really would have made Marian wear long pants if I'd known.  She was so cold here!  Look at her unhappy face!  I finally dug through the car and found a poncho in the emergency kit there and she wore it all day and loved it.

Look!  Documentation of Rylee's first outing and her first trip to the Pentagon Memorial!  And yes, that is my son in the background, sliding down the bench.  I was embarrassed. 

After that we took the Metro to the Zoo.  And yep, there was a lot of walking!  I had not anticipated the trouble of going with 10 children and 4 adults!  I had anticipated that Rylee would need to eat, I just hadn't planned on her pooping through her outfit!  Aack!  I had only a long sleeve onesie in the diaper bag.  So on that 55 degree day I had an infant wearing a long sleeve onesie- no pants, no socks!  I did have her in my front pack and she was swaddled in a blanket and my jacket was buttoned over her.  She was content to ride there, but she did not want to be in the stroller.  She was happy to be carried, but screamed violently if put in the stroller.  So she was fine!

Here we have Marian in her poncho, and Callie having a meltdown.  I think she wanted to walk, but she had a hard time walking with us and had been banished to the stroller.

Joshua was cross because he wanted to be home before 4pm.  He had some grand plan involving the tree fort and the neighbor boy that he wanted to enact then.  I had thought we would be home by 4, but at this time it was clear we would not be.  The Zoo is very poorly constructed, and you cannot get anywhere directly and you have to backtrack a lot.  And some people wanted to see certain things and so it just took a lot longer than any of us expected.  There was also construction going on and the Elephants were closed.  I had wanted to see them.
The kids liked getting their pictures taken at all the little statues.  And we had to stop for snacks frequently.  We packed a bunch, but somehow, it is never enough!

Marian, still in her poncho.  You can see she's pushed up her sleeves, but she would not take off her poncho!  She thought the turtles (tortoises?) were very cool.
Here are my 3 oldest and Andy's 3 oldest in front of the Zoo on the way out.  We did stop by 5 Guys on the way home to grab dinner, but we left the house at 10 that morning and it was 6pm when we got home.  I was so exhausted!  In hindsight, something less strenuous would have been better to try on a first outing.   I didn't anticipate quite so much walking and I didn't think I would spend ALL day on my feet with a baby strapped to my front.  My back ached and my feet were sore!  Rylee slept fairly well last night- just a bit of alertness from 12-2 in the morning.  Other than that, I got good sleep.  

Baby Update

For those of you who are tired of baby news, skip this post!  My life is now consumed by Rylee, so I have little else to blog about.  I probably ought to blog about how fantastic Dan has been, but he hates it when I blog about him.  So I'll just say, he has been a fabulous help and I'm so sad he had to go back to work today!  And, back to the new focal point of my life....

Rylee had her 2 week check up this week.  She weighs in at 8 pounds, 10 ounces.  That's 8 ounces more than she weighed at birth.  She also grew a half an inch and is now 20 1/2 inches long.  She is still erratic in her eating and sleeping.  The doctor suggested just letting her eat when she asked, and to not assume she was rooting because she was gassy.  Surprisingly, that seems to have helped.  She now eats whenever she wants, which could be 30 minutes, an hour or 3 hours between meals. (Its terrible on my milk supply consistency!)  Fortunately, she has done better at night.... mostly!  We visited the chiropractor yesterday and she slept the best ever last night.  That means she slept 3 hours at a stretch- twice!  And she just woke up to eat and she promptly went back to sleep.  Please, please let this continue!

And here is my bright-eyed beauty!  She's getting so doggone cute!  She looks a bit like all my other kids.  I think more Marian here.

Here I think she looks like Delaney as a baby.  Rylee actually likes to lie on her back and observe the world.  Now that her eyes are opening more and she's more interested in the world, its kind of fun.

The pediatrician seems to think she's going to keep the blue eyes, and maybe have blond hair.  She has pretty light hair with red highlights in it, so we'll see what she ends up with!

And next, we have a lesson in children.  This is what happens when you are trying to get dinner ready and tell your 8 year old son to keep the baby safe (from Delaney!) and entertained.  He gets the camera and entertains himself as well as the baby:

Here we have Rylee in sunglasses.  Joshua thought he was so clever with this!

Callie thought it was a hoot to have Rylee "kissing" her puppy.

And Joshua and Marian thought this was hysterical.  Rylee on the phone!  Hee hee ha ha.  They laughed hard enough I had to come and see what they were doing.  And I confiscated the camera.

Life Happens

I am not a baby person.  Sure, they are adorable and all that, but they cry too much and poop too much and don't cooperate with too much.  I think part of my attitude comes from the fact that out of all my children, only one has been an ideal baby.  Only one slept sweetly in her car seat like other people's infants.  Only one of my babies slept well at night and didn't cry incessantly.  Only she was never colicky, never cried for no apparent reason.  She was the only one who slept through the night before she was one.  Yes, that was Delaney.  And now....  now, I have another of my traditional babies.

Rylee wants to be held continually.  She does not want me to be horizontal when I hold her in the middle of the night, thus ruling out the possibility of  any sleeping by me. She only "sleeps" for short bursts and when put down she wakes immediately, and wants to be held again.  I get 10 minutes at a time to do stuff requiring 2 hands.  Everything else must be accomplished with a baby under one arm.  She cries because she has to burp frequently and she seems very uncomfortable.  I don't know why its mostly at night, since she can sleep very sweetly all afternoon.  I won't complain about that because it coordinates with Delaney's nap so I also get a nap!   

Still, nights are not a lot of fun for me.  I went to bed at 8 last night.  Was up less than an hour later.  Rylee ate and then slept from 9:30 to 11:30.   Then she was up till after 1am- crying pitifully, burping, and spitting up.  Such fun.  She fell asleep around 1am and slept till 4.  Then she cried and spit up and cried and fussed till 7.  I got to sleep another 90 minutes before she was up and ravenous.  Sigh.  Occasionally I win the nightime lottery and get more than an average of 6 total hours of sleep.  6 total is my goal for functionality.  Much less than that and I'm not going to do well.  We've been close the last few nights.

Here's the little darling now.  So cute, so precious.  This is the face I see for a few hours each day as she sleeps peacefully.  This is not the face I see at night.  

Cute yawning face.  So adorable.  These are the faces that keep me from eating my young.

Rylee is not as bad as Callie was as a baby.  And I know this won't last forever.  I know some of you are thinking I should just put her down and let her cry.  I don't do that.  I feel that these are little babies.  Their big spirits just recently left Heavenly Father and got stuffed into this tiny, unresponsive body.  They don't know how to operate their little body, all they know is when they are uncomfortable.  Even if I can't fix it, there is no way I'm letting her suffer alone.  If she's unhappy, she's at least unhappy in arms that love her.  So no, I'm not going to just let her cry.  Well, not until I've reached my limit and I'm contemplating eating her.  Then I know to put her down and walk away for a while.

Right now I do have to hold her most of the day.  She hasn't slept much in the last few mornings.  This makes it hard to get up and on with my day.  Dan has his paternity leave right now, and he'll be home through the end of the week.  Then I'm on my own!  Today Dan wanted to go on a long bike ride to try out a new path. He's been fantastic, and he deserved a break from the house, so he was gone from 9am to 1pm today.  Rylee was not cooperative.  I spent the morning in my PJs, unshowered, with a baby under my arm.  Every time I thought she might be down to sleep, she wasn't.

Finally, I thought she might be happy for a bit and I wrapped her in her blanket, set her in the vibrating bouncy seat in the bathroom and took a shower.  Rylee was content.  When I got out, it was Delaney who was the problem!

Yep, this kid.  She had gone outside to play, which she is NOT suppose to do while I'm in the shower.  I'm still not sure how she got the door open.  I'm even less sure on how she managed to get her bike half way into the house.  She was crying that her bike was stuck and she wanted it inside.  I got dressed and went downstairs.  Delaney was still upset about her bike being stuck in the doorway.  I said no bikes in the house.  That led to a complete meltdown and soon I had Delaney in hysterics over the bike, and Rylee howling that she was starving and must be fed right now.  I'm not sure I'm ready for Dan to go back to work.

General Conference

I like General Conference.  I love that we get to hear from the prophet and leaders of the church and there is always lots of great stuff to hear.  Usually I make the whole family attend the first Sunday session and Dan and I usually try to get to one alone.  The rest we enjoy watching from the comfort of home, where we can multi-task and not have to keep children quiet- we can just send them away!

This year, with having a crusty-eyed new baby, I wasn't sure we'd make it to church.  Then we learned that it would not be broadcast to our chapel- only to the stake center.  I hate going to the stake center, so that ended any thought of hauling the family out to view Conference in a church setting.  

I do like to go to the church.  I feel like I skipped Sunday if we don't go. I will admit that it is a bit distracting to watch from home.  I feel like I can get more out of it at home, simply because I don't have to worry about what the kids are doing so much.  They were good about staying quiet today, and I got to watch both sessions.  I always enjoy President Monson's comments and I thought the themes today were especially pertinent to me- mostly the listening to the Holy Ghost parts!  Yes, something I certainly need to work on.

I was trying to feel the Spirit as I watched conference, but I'm going to tell you right now, that for part of this afternoon session, I had a really hard time focusing on Conference and keeping a properly sober mindset.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

Yes, she spent a good 20 minutes wearing Callie's underpants like a ninja!

Who Loves Rylee?

Before we proceed to the meat of this post, I wanted to talk about something totally not baby.  I wanted to share something about Joshua.  He has decided he wants to play the violin!  I am actually really happy about this. My friend Shelly moved away.  How is this related, you ask?  Well, in addition to being my friend, she was also Joshua's piano teacher.  In an excellent twist of convenience, Shelly would pick Joshua up from school, take him to her house, teach his lesson and then let him stay to play with her son for a bit.  And then she'd drive him home.  I know!  It doesn't get any better than that!  

I was looking for a new piano teacher after she left and I was not enthusiastic about having to drive Joshua (and therefore everyone else!) to a lesson.  And I was less enthusiastic when I realized how much more expensive it would be as well.  So when Joshua came home from school with an interest in the violin, I was delighted.  Much cheaper than piano, plus, no work required of me!   What's not to love?!

Joshua brought home the violin on Monday and every spare moment has been spent with it.  He has practiced it twice every day, polished it, examined it, checked the bow, rosined the bow.... he is quite excited about this violin thing!   He even managed to move the chin rest to the other side, because he is left handed.  I hope the enthusiasm continues.

And now onto our regularly scheduled stuff....

Joshua loves his sister.  He is not as effervescent as his sisters about it though. His is a big-brotherly love.  He's not really interested in the day to day aspects of caring for a new sister, but when he says prayers...... it melts my heart to hear his pray for baby Rylee with such sincerity and care. 

This one could care less.  I think this is the only time she has held her sister.  Marian is not that maternal.  She thinks its all interesting, in an academic way, but the crying, the pooping, the spitting up.... not a lot of fun there for her.  So she's content to just observe when she feels like it.

Callie LOVES her sister.  Callie asks at least 20 times a day if she can hold her.  I say yes more often now, because Callie only holds her for 30 seconds, and then she's done.  Of course, she asks to hold her again 5 minutes later.   Callie loves being a big sister again.  She wants to be a helper and to do whatever she can for baby Rylee. Its very sweet.  Occasionally annoying, but very sweet!

Delaney also loves having a new baby.  I don't think she quite understands that Rylee is not the same as a doll.  And I don't think Delaney quite understands that she is not a baby herself.  She wants to climb into the swing and bouncy seat and car seat herself.  She also wants to help me carry baby, and old baby.  It is cute, mostly.

Daddy loves his new baby.  He does not like his picture taken, but he does love his little girl.  He hands her right back when she cries, but when she is content, he is happy to hold her.

As for me, I love my baby too.  She is so cute and sweet.  Right now she's a bit crusty and gross though.  She has gunky eyes and she's been spitting up a lot the last day, so she's a little on the icky side.  I keep hoping that this is as bad as its going to get and she's not going to get the crud we've been fighting all week.  I think all the kids are healthy today, maybe some residual coughing, but the runny noses and sore throats seem to be over.  I'm crossing my fingers that Rylee doesn't get sick.