Life With Ryland

It's so hard to believe that Ryland is already over a month old. Most days it is seems like he has forever been a part of our family because of what a good baby he is.  He truly is a mellow baby; crying only when he is hungry, and occasionally for a gassy tummy or if he's tired.

We were all very curious how our family dynamics would change once Ryland arrived, and truth be told, not much has changed.   Sophia is an AMAZING big sister.  So much better than I thought she would be.  I was truly worried about how she would handle the change, being that she had our 100% undivieded attention for the past 3 years.  But she is great.  She LOVES her brother so much more than I could ever think, and it really goes to show me what her capacity for love is.  She runs to us 1st thing each morning when she hears Ryland and me awake.  And she asks, every morning, if she can give him his "1st kiss"   :)    How sweet is that?    And she loves to be there when I get him dressed.  She doesn't care so much for helping to pick out his clothes each day, but loves to pick out what socks he wears.  So funny!

I was worried about my capacity to love two children.  I know that sounds crazy, but I just couldn't imagine loving another child as much as I loved Sophia.  But I do.  And there is absolutely no way to describe how your heart grows.   It just does.

And I know that Matthew might not admit it right away, but he was worried about how having a new baby would interfere with his work towards his Master's degree.  And it has been more of a challenge, there's no denying that, but he has been amazing at balancing life as hubby, daddy & student.

Not to say that every second has been blissfully perfect.  There is definetely a transition that has taken place.  And sometimes I find myself slipping into my expectations of the ways that things "should" be going, instead of being understanding of the ways that things actually are;  We have a 3 year old, she is going to slip up and have tantrums, she is going to push our buttons a little more than she used to.  And we have an infant.   We won't always get to eat our dinner together, or eat while it is hot.  We won't always get to do bath-time as a family anymore, we have 2 baths to coordinate now.  But a quick look around gives me a reality check, and I see how blessed we truly are to have our amazing kids, a great partnership in our marriage, and a fantastic family.

Below are  some pictures that have captured our life in the last month!

 Addie's 1st Birthday Party was while they were here!   She was so cute & LOVED her giant cupcake!  :)

 We enjoyed an amazing month of cuddles while Tita & Addie were visiting for February.  

 Ryland met Auntie Al!   :)  And they loved to cuddle together!

 Sleepy Ryland

 Matthew & Sophia had a Daddy Daughter Date!   It was the cutest thing ever.   He took her to see Disney on Ice.  She insisted that she wear her princess dress & got all dressed up!   I honestly think I fell in love with Matthew all over again this day.   What other grown man looks forward to Disney on Ice and has a good time while he is there?  He is such a good Daddy!

 After-work cuddles on Valentines Day

 

Sleepy Boy Again

 (I don't know why it won't let me turn this picture...)

Anyway...It's the cousins on our last night before they had to go home :(

 Mommy & Ryland

1 Month Already!

(Again unsure why I can't turn the picture...)

But Uncle made it!   And Ryland loved his cuddles with Uncle too!

Introducing Ryland Joseph Taylor

 

Ryland Joseph Taylor
Born 2/6/13
10:11 am
7lbs and 10oz

 Proud Daddy, 1st night in the hospital

Cuddled up

Sleepy Daddy, Night 2 in the hospital

Mommy giving Ryland lots of love

  Big Sister Sophia loving on her brother

Birth Story:

We were scheduled for an induction for Tuesday morning. I was told to call the Labor and Delivery floor at 630am. I got up early (after a restless and anxious night) and called right away.  We were told all beds were full, and to call back later, closer to 11am.  Finding it hard to rest, I double checked the hospital bag, made sure that Sophia's overnight bag was packed for the night with Grandma and Grandpa.  And tried to busy myself to pass the time.  We called at 11am and were told the same thing.  That all the beds were full and to try again at 4:30pm.  At this point, my nerves were going crazy.  Matthew was getting anxious and frustrated and wanted to know if we were ever going to get into the hospital.  So we decided to rest as much as possible, not knowing what kind of evening or night lay ahead of us.  Called back at 4:30 and were told that they would call us when the next bed opened.  And if we hadn't heard from them by 7pm, call again.  So we waited.   And we called again at 7.  By this point, the nurse at the desk knew me by name and was probably getting quite irritated.  So again, we tried to pass some time.  Grandma Sue came and picked up Sophia and Matthew and I decided to grab some dinner.   I think my phone was glued to my hand in the event that we got a call at any second.  At this point, Matthew and I were both worried that we'd be facing another night at home and then going through the same thing on Wednesday, and we didn't want Matthew exhausting all of his sick leave before Ryland even arrived.  So I called the nurse.  Again.   :)     This time I explained that we were trying to plan the next day and I asked if my husband should plan on going to work, or not?  The nurse explained that 3 beds had opened up and that they were waiting on their one housekeeper to come clean them.  She assured me I would be the next phone call.  And we were!   At  12:45AM (Wednesday morning) the hospital called and said they were ready for us!  Finally!!!

 Once we got settled into our room, and began answering all the health questions for our nurse, my OB came by and started my pitocin drip (the medicine used via IV to jump-start contractions). By this time it was about 2:30am...(since he'd been delivering babies). So once the pitocin started I immediately started having regular contractions every 3 mins. The weird part was they were measuring SO big on the monitors and I was hardly feeling much. But I wasn't going to complain.  Matthew and I were able to rest most of the early morning. 

 By 630am, there was a nurse shift change, so my midnight  nurse came in to do the last of her charts and I noticed that my contractions were almost gone...like they just stopped. So I mentioned it to her before she left. She just looked at me and was like "oh honey, that's because you are not in labor." And left.  I was pretty confused, as I had been having regular contractions from 2:30 to 6:30.  I felt frustrated that we'd been sitting there for nearly 6 hours and for her to tell me that the contractions on the monitor meant nothing.  (It IS possible for a woman to have contractions and not feel them, and if I know this, then the nurse should know this too...)

 At this point, though there was NOTHING going on, we decided to call our moms and my sister and tell them to head on down.  If we were just going to sit around, we might as well all wait together.  They all arrived about the same time, and we were all anxious to see if things might pick up after breaking my water.

  Not long after that my new nurse, Cathy came in and introduced herself.  She said she'd just been up at the desk reviewing my action from the night and she's noticed that my contractions have almost stopped. (Thankfully, someone who was attentive to what was going on!)  She had already called Dr. Nordeen and he was on his way over to break my water.  Around 8:20am Dr. Nordeen arrived and he broke my water.  He did an internal check and tells me I've progressed from  3cm (when I was admitted) the night before to 5.5cm.  (Again, proving that my painless contractions were indeed labor, thank you very much!)   Immediately the contractions picked up and became very painful.  Though looking at them on the monitor looked otherwise.  They were about 1/2 the size but 5x the pain.  After about an hour I asked for some pain meds, but didnt feel ready enough for the epidural. Cathy gave me fentenol and it helped to take the edge off, but not really take away the pain. I endured through more contractions for about an hour more, just trying to relax my body through each one.  The pain was so intense it flowed all the way down my thighs and took my breath away each time.  After about an hour of this, I decided it was epidural time. The contractions kept coming as we waited for the anesthesiologist.   (And here's where things get crazy!)

The anesthesiologist finally came, and asked mom, Carly, Sue and Matthew to leave the room. I looked at him and told him I needed Matthew to stay.  So they had him move across the room from me, but facing me.  My nurse got me my pillow and asked me to sit up as the anthestisiologist set up his sanitized area on my bed. The SECOND I sat up my contractions multiplied by 100, stopping only for a second in between each one, and I felt a huge amount of pressure " fall." I looked at Matthew with panic and pain and didn't know what to do... I started crying so hard and looked at Matthew, shaking and said, "I need to push NOW".   (Which is a totally weird sensation, I had never experienced this with Sophia's birth bc I had gotten the epidural early and my body was numbed.)  

 At this point, the anthestisiologist, got all huffy with me telling me that he had already set up his sterile area and if I touched it, he'd have to start all over...blah, blah, blah...my nurse runs to the end of the bed pulls my legs up and runs back to the door, all the while I am shaking and screaming at Matthew that I am scared, and that I don't want to do it this way, and I can't stop my body from pushing. I push two times and try to stop (even though you CAN'T really stop it...). as I'm trying to stop my pushing because I dont really know what I'm supposed to be doing, I can hear a group of nurses run in and one says, "Oh! Call the Dr, but he's not going to make it." The nurses surround my bed, I let my body do what it needs.  I push once, and Ryland's head comes out, I push again and his body comes out! It was amazing and shocking and unbelievable all at once. Matthew was amazing letting me grab his arm and squeeze him so hard all the while telling me I could do it. And that's how Ryland arrived, Dr. free...! 

 

Even writing this all out, I am in shock at how it all happened.  Our shocking little guy has our hearts already!

10 Days and Waiting...

We only have 10 days until our due date!   We are so incredibly excited to meet our Little Guy, we're all on pins and needles.  Sophia talks endlessly about being a big sister and what that will mean.  And she's so silly about it too.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about how that transition will go, but as Matthew reminds me, "We're not the first family to have a 2nd child.  We'll get through it."  I know he's right.  One part of me is sad to lose the special "only child" bond we have with her, while the other part is SO excited to see how she grows as a big sister. 

Part of the reason that we've been so bad about our Blog updates this year is because we've been busy getting ready for Ryland's arrival.  And in true Taylor form, we created a giant project.  One that wouldn't have been too bad, had we done something to the office when we first moved in to our house.  But we didn't.   We knew that the only purpose for that room was going to be an office for quite some time, so we didn't waste any time or money of changing it.  Until now.

And what a list of changes it has gone through.  The office was cleaned up and moved into a corner of our room (which is fine, being that our room is very large).  The poop-brown baseboards, door frame, closet door frames, and window sill all had to be replaced and painted.  The neutral color walls were not the neutral color we wanted now.  And the ceiling fan had to be replaced.   And none of the things on THIS list had to do with the nursery theme.  SO...for the past 2 months Matthew and his parents have been BUSY in that room!  So busy. 

I'm not going to bore you with all of the details, just provide you with a snapshot timeline of the events that took place from beginning to end of our Little Guy's Nursery.  And we LOVE the way it turned out.

 

 

 It looks like he's being lazy here...but let me tell you something we learned about painting stripes...You tape, you paint your under cover (tan wall color for us), you let it dry, you paint some more (the grey primer since we chose a dark red), and let it dry, you paint some more (1st coat of red) and let it dry, you paint the last coat (again more red) and let it dry...you see all that

 "let it dry" time...and that is JUST for the red...we still had blue to do...!  

 HONESTLY!   A very time consuming project....!

 Dad finished the dresser well before the time the stripes were finished.  So here is the finished project, ready and waiting for us!   LOVE this dresser!

 Old Fashioned Pennants to make a window valance 

 Dad cut and installed our baseboards!  Here's the finished touch after I puttied up the nail holes and filled in the corners.  (This was about all I was allowed to do, being that I had been restricted to "low activity"...thanks a lot blood pressure...)

 

 Oh I forgot!   I got the crafty projects too!  Valance is almost done!

and I got to touch the paint!   Getting the letters to match the wall!

 Yep, we're both perfectionists...Matthew's just extreme about it...some call it OCD???!!!

But I wouldn't have it any other way, because nothing turns out less than perfect when he's involved!

 Crib Assembly...somehow this looks familiar???  Yep!  Sophia's old crib, 2nd time around!

 We had tons of fun shopping for this room!  Ebay was a big hit for all of the old baseballs.  Who would have thought that getting old baseballs would be a difficult thing???

 Thanks to Hobby Lobby, we were able to find all of the vintage signage for the walls.  Date-Night turned shopping spree was a big success!

 Close up of the dresser/changing table in Ryland's room.  

So now we wait.   My due date is technically 10 days away.  (And as Matthew doesn't let me forget, that means I only have 10 days left in my 20's!!!)  BUT we're taking, and trying, all of the self-induction ideas we come across!   So far, nothing has proven successful.  I have my 39 week apt tomorrow and we're hoping that I've made enough progress for him to tell us it's Baby Time!  But we're also not holding our breath.   Just pray with us that Ryland makes his appearance sooner, rather than later, and that he is a healthy, happy little guy.  

We can't wait to introduce him to all of our family and friends who are anxiously awaiting his arrival as well!  Check back often for updates!   (We'll do our best this year!!!)



(and if you want email updates to tell you when we finish a new post, on the right-hand side of this page, there is a place for you to sign up for updates...1) enter your email, 2) check your email for the confirmation that you want to be added to our update list, and 3) you're all set!)

Happy 3rd Birthday to You

Dear Sophia,

Today you turn three years old.  Three.  I used to scoff at parents who got teary eyed when they would talk about their child turning another year older.  But now I am that mom.  It actually makes me a little heart-broken to know that you are getting older.   But at the same time, you are becoming your own person.

You continue to amaze your father and I everyday.  You are a bright and funny little girl.  You love your cuddle time with both Daddy and I; which melts our hearts completely.  You speak so clearly and communicate in actual conversations that sometimes we forget that we are talking to a toddler.  You tell us stories about your adventures at preschool.  You have stories memorized so you know when we are rushing bedtime along (and you don't let us get away with it!).

You are trying your best to be an independent little thing.  And it just makes us feel like we are already nearing the days when you don't need us as much.  This is what breaks your Momma's heart.  The little girl who needed her Mommy and Daddy for everything is suddenly becoming her own person.  One who can do things herself, which is only going to continue as you grow.

This has been such a big year for you.  And just like I told you last year, I may not have documented it all in your baby book or on here, but here are some things that we want to remember about you at 3 years old:

**You started preschool this year.  And you love it.  Everyday you come home with a new project, a new story about the fun things you did.  And you talk about your two friends Sky (though you pronounce it Ky) and Maddison.  Maddison taught you the song "On a Pontoon" by Little Big Town and it is hilarious to listen to you sing this song.   (We joke about how this is the song you come home singing after attending a Christian Preschool...)

**You got a big girl bed this year.  We knew that at some point we'd need the crib and thought we had better transition you to your own bed before the need arose.  And you have done so well in your big twin-sized bed.  You have recently decided that after we are done with our story, prayers and bedtime songs that it still isn't time for bed.  So you lay in bed with your stuffed animals and sing to them.  Or we awake to a big pile of books in your bed.   We love that your independence is carrying over at this time.  You are so self sufficient that you entertain yourself quietly until you fall asleep.  (Though I really, really miss the days of cuddling you to sleep, and the challenge of getting you into bed without waking you up.)

**You are potty-trained!  It took quite some time for you to fully commit.  But like all things in your world, you were waiting until you were ready.  We gave it several shots this year, and each time you let us know that it was not time yet.  So we'd go back to the pull-ups (a bank-breaker!) and keep working with you.  Then it almost seemed like overnight you decided we were there.  We would come home from preschool, take the pullup off, and put on big girl panties.  Both Grandma Sue and Mae-Mae got you the cutest panties to choose from each time, and you were very thoughtful in which pair you were going to wear that afternoon.  But we made it!   And you've been so successful with it that most times, I don't even grab your backpack for those "just in case" moments...

**You became a cousin this year!   Tita and Uncle had your first cousin, Addison just a few short weeks after your birthday.  And you LOVE her.  "Baby Addison" is the first real baby that you had much contact with.  You are great with her.  You absolutely love to hold her (with assistance), hold her hand, or sit next to her.   Now that she is more mobile you have a harder time understanding that she can move and not sit on your lap as easily, but you are still interested in playing with her, showing her how to play with your toys, and read books to her.  Which really makes us excited for the upcoming change this year because...

**You are going to be a Big Sister!  You absolutely love to talk about "Baby Ryland Joseph" and all the things we are doing in preparation for his arrival in a few short weeks.  Sometimes your pronouns still get confused and you refer to him as "her" or "she" but we are pretty certain that you understand you'll have a brother.  And you genuinely seem excited about having a baby around.

**But we're not going to pretend that every second of our time with you is perfect.  You are three!  And sometimes that brings challenges to our lives that we really have to work through.   It seems like you are so grown up with your amazing communication and your need for independence that we forget that you really are still a toddler.  Tantrums happen.  You tell us "no".  You have started talking-back to us.  And sometimes you plain just don't listen.  And even though this article had your Daddy and I laughing until I had tears streaming down my face, we still love you.  SO MUCH. 

We are constantly amazed by how much you can seem to change and grow in just a few days time.  We absolutely love being your parents and feel so blessed that God has given you to us.  We know that the challenges we experience now are making you the person you are, and are forming us into the parents that we need to be for you.  It's a balancing act that we are still teetering on, and just when we think we've got you figured out, you teach us something new. 

I found this quote tonight, and I think it sums up pretty clearly what you do to our lives:

"While we try to teach our children all about life.  Often, it's our children who teach us what life is all about." ~Angela Schwindt

We Love you Forever Sophia,
Mommy and Daddy 

And we're starting fresh...

So I tried to do updates for each month, but as I finished one, another month passed and I kept falling more and more behind...so we're just going to start from here!
(BUT PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR THE UPDATES I DID COMPLETE!!!)

We've been so busy these days getting everything squared away for our Little Guy!   He will be here in about 5 weeks.   I know, it's been almost 9 months since I last posted and I haven't shared hardly anything with this pregnancy...but we are on pins and needles waiting his arrival.

We've had SO much help getting his room ready, and we are so thankful for our family and all of their hard work.  So here is a preview of the work so far...still far from complete, but it's getting there!   Thanks to Pinterest we've got tons of ideas of things that we'd like to do, or try...but as we're finding out, some of them will just have to wait!

We took this spare room/office and we're converting into the new nursery.

(By the way, Sophia loves listening to her Daddy's favorite band Linkin Park, so that's what's happening here!  Notice the smile on her Daddy's face?!?)

 Empty Room, ready for stripes!  (Tan walls already painted)

 More Measuring...

 Taping 1/2 way complete (for the red...)

 Red before tape is taken off

 And...Red complete...now onto the blue!

 Red and Blue!   LOVE how they turned out!

 Another shot with the window

While Whit and Sue have been so helpful IN the room, my dad has been super busy out in his garage building us this beautiful dresser!   Here's a picture of some of the progress (actually at this stage it's almost done!)

   And the completed project!   It's hard to tell from far away, but the handles are actually baseball bats, a mit and a baseball.   LOVE the way it turned out and can not wait to have it in the room!

Here's a close-up of the handles on the dresser

A collage of the progress thus far.    More pictures to come!

And my mom has been busy too!   My doctor has had me on a higher watch the past week due to higher blood pressure and has told me to take it easy and stay off my feet.   So mom, doing what she does best, cooked us meals.  Tons of meals.   Two days of cooking and our freezer is stocked.

We are seriously very loved to have so many family members watching over us and helping with every step along the way.

THANK YOU TO BOTH OF OUR FAMILIES!!!!