Baby

I remember when Ryder was a baby I couldnt wait for him to start eating baby food. It was like a countdown for me. Once the three month mark hit I was like "only two more weeks until he can eat sweet potatoes!" WHAT. 

I feel like I was constantly thinking of the next stage with Ryder and wishing his first two years away. When will he start crawling? When will he start walking? When will he be able to hold his own bottle? When will he sleep through the night? When will he potty train? When will he really start talking? Hurry up and grow up.

 Even now it's hard for me to not have that mentality with him. When its your first child it doesnt matter if they are 5 months old or 5 years old, for that first born for the rest of their lives you are a "first time mom". I am a first time mom of a five year old. I have NO FREAKING CLUE when this annoying "silly" stage will end (God, please can it be soon?). I have no idea when he will start getting better about eating, or when he will learn to tie his shoes (now I guess?? I dont know. Should I be working on that? All of his shoes are slip on or velcro though, sooooo......). I don't have any past experience to tell me when phases and stages will end, what to be firm on and what to just let slide under the rug--it's no big deal, it'll pass. I am blindly going about raising an elementary aged son and just hoping and praying I am not making too many mistakes. It sucks not being able to see the other side of the coin. 

But I can see the other side of the coin with Finn. I know all too well that babies eating solid food isn't as exciting as I thought it would be. Remember how their crap used to not really have that bad of a smell? HA! Kiss those days goodbye. Solid food brings out a stench that will make you cry. Solids can stay away for quite some time with Mr. Finn.

When will he walk? When will he crawl?! HA again! One of the stages in life I have the most pity for with parents is the 12 month mark. The kid is either almost or fully mobile, but has no concept of boundaries. Watching parents chase after overly adventurous one year olds, or attempt to make them sit in their laps in waiting rooms for any extended amount of time makes my stomach hurt. And I know that is going to be me again. AHH!

So, please Finn, don't grow up. Stay little. Keep the little dimples in your hands,  keep curling up like a little roly poly when I pick you up, keep wearing your size one diapers and stay small enough to bathe in the sink. 

I have seen the other side of this coin. Twice. And I have wished away these little baby moments mostly with Ryder, and some with Lucy. But I really just want to enjoy and soak up every single ounce of baby goat noises Finn is churning out. 

He is so awesome. 

Light Hearted--but long!

Here is a random list of things. 

 

-If you didnt know, I would describe myself as a mild shopaholic. Buying things gives me such a thrill, and apparently, I have passed this trait onto my daughter. Awesome. My mom isn't much of a shopper, so I can't really go anywhere and "do some damage" shopping with her. But oh, my mini me(er-mini George if we are going by looks) will be my partner in crime. The only problem is--Lucy is VERY girly. The stuff she likes sometimes makes me gag at the froofrooness of it.

 

Exhibit A:

 

See this? WHAT IS THIS? I like the outfit, its cute--minus the tutu shirt. I love a tutu skirt any day on Lu, when evened out with a graphic T. A little girly, a little tomboy.....thats kind of how I dress I guess. I'll rock an awesome long frilly skirt...with converse. I can't have too much prissiness going on. I need balance. But this girl has something different in mind. And I am learning to embrace it. Since you can do practically everything on Facebook these days I have taken to shopping it up at these little boutiques for her. I show her the pictures and she tells me what she likes. Such is the case with this outfit above. So, if your newsfeed gets crowded with outfits I am buying, well, Lu and I apologize :/

-I feel like this tidbit should get it's own post, but since I feel like I don't write as much as I would like to I had better mention it now before it gets lost in my brain and forgotten. My son, Ryder Owen, has the gentlest & kindest heart I have ever seen. Last Saturday was a busy day for us. Ryder's soccer game was at 9 am, then we had two birthday parties right after it. On the way home from the last party I had to drag Lucy out of CHOM screaming. She did NOT want to leave. Part of that was because she loves Willow, part of it was because she was tired, and part of it was because she is Lucy. The end. So she was crying and screaming the whole way home. Now, what would I have done if this was my younger sibling acting a fool? Probably would have looked at Chad(my brother) with hate filled eyes and yelled at my mom to make him be quiet. Yep, I know thats what I would have done. But, Ryder teaches me everyday how to be kind. Ryder holds Lucy's hand and starts singing Jesus Loves me to her. That song has calmed her down from even the worst tantrums and crying fits since she was a baby, and still works oddly enough. Lucy stopped crying completely and Ryder just sang the song over and over to her until we got home. I wish I could say he got his kind unselfish heart from me, but that award goes to my husband. George has the same spirit and I am so grateful that Ryder has this wonderful trait.

 

 

-Today, "Mr. Finn" is one month old. One of the lactation ladies referred to him as Mr. Finn once, and I've always just thought that was funny. He looks like a Mr. Finn. Haha.

For the first week or two we were comparing him to how Lucy was as a baby--which was a freaking DREAM. A dream, people. She NEVER cried. EVER. should I use all caps again? Do you get the point? Even when she was hungry she would just make these little noises, they were never full blown cries. And that's how Finn was, for the first week or two. But he has since shown his true colors, and does become quite the fuss at night. I mean, not too terrible, it just takes a little work for him to calm down for the night.

Right now he is a hoss and drinking 4.5-5 oz every 3.5-4 hours. I know, get ready for the biscuit arms and legs to appear. I pump every 7 hours and get about 9-10 oz every time I pump, so I get enough for 2 feedings before I have to pump again. It's working out great for us, I heart the pump! I only breastfed Ryder for about 3 weeks, I was 22 and had no clue what all BFing entailed and just wasn't mentally prepared for it. I BF Lucy for 6 months, and the only reason I stopped with her was because I got the flu and just could not breastfeed or pump for like 2 days. And since BF is a supply and demand deal the supply went away since the demand went away. I tried and tried and tried to get my supply back once I was well again but it just wasn't happening. Hoping to make it a year with Finn :)

-As for the adults in the Edmondson crew-well, we are contemplating buying a mini van. Oh the horror! I can't handle it. George is all for it, and talks about mini vans and their awesomeness all the time. I, on the other hand, have my eye on the prize....A YukonXL. Yep. I need it. Its way cooler than a van and hello, has the same amount of room....but they are like super expensive. I have been looking around and even the used 5 yr old models are like $36,000. WHOA!! So, alas, it looks like I will be dorking it up with a mini van soon. Just promise not to laugh and me and know that I will regain my cool card when these kids are grown, because I will own a Jeep Wrangler.

Party of Five

So here we are almost four weeks in to being a family of five, and I know you all are dying to know how its going...haha.

Well, get ready, because Im not going to sugar coat it.

Right now, it's really hard.

I've had about 101 people tell me "I heard that once you have your third it's a piece of cake" or  "having the second child is hard, the third and fourth are easy"

I guess there is some truth to these statements, Finn is easy. It's keeping the other two happy and the house running as normal that's hard.

Let me be transparent here: For the first week and a half after we got home, I UGLY CRIED almost every day. Like to the point that my eyes were swollen. 

When we got home from the hospital we were on on own. Thank God George was off for two weeks to help me since I had the C-section. But, there was no help. Im not trying to throw our parents under the bus right now, because they did help with the kids while we were in the hospital, and have since been helpful....but those first two weeks were awful. We couldnt go anywhere so both kids were going crazy being trapped in the house. 

I felt overwhelmed. Even though I've done this twice before it was so hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and as the days inched closer and closer to George going back to work I was having serious anxiety.

Then, we get the phone call from the school's voicemail system.

The week that Im dreading, the week George goes back to work, is Ryder's Spring Break. George and I answered both of our phones at the same time and were staring at each other while listening to the message. When it was over I hung up the phone and proceeded to cry for about 10 years. 

I didn't have this written in my calendar, I hadn't known about it. I had been wondering if TCS was going to have spring break since I saw everybody and their brother posting about SB on Facebook. But I guess I was in an after baby haze and didnt really question it any further. 

Thankfully, our moms helped with the kids, and I was only really at home alone with all three of them one day that week. They were life savers. 

Lets fast forward to this week...

I was so pumped Sunday night and on into Monday because I was ready to get back to normal life. I was cleared to drive and my staples were out. Ryder was back at school this week and we could sink back into our regular routine. Monday was awesome.

But when I picked Ryder up from school he complained about his belly hurting...while holding a huge cup of Easter candy he got at school. Oh, well, there's the culprit. I made him stop the candy, and we ate lunch. I didn't hear anymore complaining for the rest of the day. Then that night we ate at Chipotle. On the way home he said his throat hurt and then that he might throw up. He went straight to bed when we got home, and didnt get up until about 3 am when he got sick, everywhere. 

So, he has been home the rest of this week with a sore throat. I took him to the doctor yesterday and was told that it was probably a viral infection and the strep test was negative. So rest, rest, rest is what will make him feel better. Although I think he will be able to return to school tomorrow.He has been very upset about not being able to see his friends :( 

Next week. Next week is our week, people. Hopefully we will all be well, the weather will be pretty and we can attempt to get back to life. 

Right after we came home from the hospital I told George a couple of times to let me know when he was ready to schedule his vasectomy. In those first couple of days I couldn't imagine doing this again. Going through the surgery again, going through the pent up kids, again. But sometimes there will be moments when I know in my heart that we aren't done. I know Finn won't be the last Edmondson baby I hold. 

It has been and still is super hard right now. When George gets home from work we are both worn out and say to each other its not going to be like this forever, it WILL get better. Things WILL even out. 

Anyway, Im not even sure if this made sense....but it was good for me to write this out!