Tag Archives: Ronan

Snow Much Fun.

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We had so much fun taking Ronan outside to play in the snow!  I pretty much love all of these pictures… even the two that have me in them (wearing a TERRIBLE hat.)

Some pictures are over exposed, but I’m working on it.  I love my camera.

“Oww-siiiiiiiiiide.”

Um… what is this stuff?

Ronan and Pops taking a stroll.

Dad showing Ronan how to make a snowball.

“BAAAAAAAAA!”  (Ball!)

Brock says, “Do your Facebook face!”

Hah, I love this face.

Nom.

The family picture I have been dreaming of.

Oh, this boy.  I love him so.

Christmas Passed.

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We had a lovely Christmas, all around.

I didn’t take enough pictures… I spent far too much time enjoying the day.  I just wanted to share a few of the good ones that I DID take.

Our tree and gifts, with Ronan’s new Balance Bike

Ronan enjoying play time outside and Grandmom and Granddads.

Dad taking the hill full speed with Ronan, the car, Ed out back and Flint in the lead!

Two bikes for two boys… the night before Christmas.

Heh.  (Hi Brady!)

And I had to throw in a handsome picture of my wonderful husband.  Cause I can.  And cause I love him.

Thud. Scream.

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Last night, we all slept great.

The night before, however, is a different story. I woke up around 4am and was laying in bed trying to fall back asleep. I heard Ronan stirring in bed, not fully awake but not sleeping either. I turned on the video monitor so I could see what he was up to.

I watched as he tossed and turned. He constantly rearranged the blankets and tried to get comfortable. He sat up and laid down, then sat up again. He drank some water.

Then he did the strangest thing. He stood up and pulled the blankets all the way over his head, like a ghost. And then he just stood there. For minutes. I was entirely perplexed and couldn’t figure out if this was awake behavior or sleeping. I watched as he stumbled forward and caught himself on the side of the crib. I thought to myself, “that was close. Could have been bad!”

He stood there for another minute, and then he started jumping.

JUMPING.

I watched as if in slow motion as he pitched forward and had no idea where he was falling. I watched as he failed to catch himself a second time. I watched as his head smashed into the railing with a resounding thud.

I was up before the first scream came out. I snapped off the monitor (Brock was still sleeping) and ran out of the room. I heard the first painful cry as I was just steps away from the door and knew… the longer the break between the injury and the scream, the worse it was going to be.

Brock yelled after me, “What’s going on?” I called back, “He fell and hurt himself.”

I got into the room and my sobbing boy was still under the covers. He was crying so hard he wouldn’t let me pick him up. He wrung his hands and screamed over and over. I couldn’t see a welt or a knot and had no idea where he was hurt. He finally let me pick him up just as Brock came into the room. He immediately put his arms out for his dad, and then back for me again. In pain, he didn’t know what to do or what he wanted.

We walked downstairs talking calmly, trying to work him down. He, still crying, demanded to be put down and then became very upset when his feet hit the floor. I poured him a cup of milk and he drank it between gasps and sniffles. The worst of the storm was over… but we were all wide awake.

I turned on “Dispicable Me,” our new favorite movie, and we sat as a family on the couch. By 7am, we were all ready to go back to bed. As I went to bring Ronan back to his room, I finally noticed the welt… right between the eyes.

No wonder it hurt so badly.

My poor kid. It was an awful start to the day, and I hope he’s learned a little lesson. No more jumping in bed! Especially with a blanket over your head!

Anyway. Today we are headed up to Mooresville for Christmas with the family… so there may or may not be a Christmas Day post. As it is… Merry Christmas Eve!

Words.

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I have been meaning to compile a list of Ronan’s words… mostly for posterity, but also to see them all written down.

I will write the word as it is intended, and then how he actually says it.

Words:

Dada – “Dah DA”

Mama – Was “Buh buh” until this week, now “Muh MA”

Woof woof – “Wooh wooh”

Hello – “AaOH”

Who is it – “Hoooisit?”

Up – “UH!” (While pointing up.)

Down – “DOW!” (While pointing down.)

Ball – “Bah!”

Darla – “DARLA!” (Always said excitedly… from Finding Nemo.)

No – “Na na na na na.”

All Done – “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH done.”

Hot – “Haw!”

Go – “Go!”

Do – “Do”

That – “Daat”

See – “See”

Door – “Doo-r” (He makes it a two syllable word somehow.)

Words I have heard one or two times, and never again:

Banana – “Ba Na NA”

Cracker – “Cracker”

Wow – “Wow”

Outside – “OWWWWWWWWWW siiiiiiiide”

Cheese – “Cheee”

And also, a list of signs we know and use mostly correctly:

Please

Thank You

Eat

Drink

Milk

All Done

Banana

More

Poop/Potty

Dirty

Hurt

Hot

Cold

Bath

Ronan is 22 months old.

Head Down!

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I seriously have about 10 blog topics running through my head at all times.  I’m usually experiencing a situation and thinking to myself, “How would I write about this?”

Only to find that I sit down to write, and there is nothing there.  Yeah, I know… get a notebook already!  I wish I could just blog the moment an idea comes.  But whatever.  I’ll settle for this.

Baby girl turned head down Saturday night.  I was so busy at work, I honestly didn’t notice until I got home and crashed into bed.  She did her usual “mommy’s trying to fall asleep” mambo, and all the kicks were in all the right places.  I literally felt anxiety and stress leave my body in that moment.  I can’t even begin to say how worked up her being breech got me, as silly as that is.  I tell my patients ALL THE TIME not to worry, and that babies can turn head down as last-minute as an hour before delivery.  I had even already discussed the possibility of a breech vaginal delivery with my midwife, so it wasn’t as though I had a golden ticket to a c-section.  I just… couldn’t stop thinking.  And worrying.  And hoping.

Every single night when I went to bed, I would dream that she had turned down again, and every single morning when I woke up I would wait for those first kicks only to be disappointed.  Now that she’s turned?  I find I don’t have anything I can complain about!

Ronan has been having more sleep troubles again.  He hasn’t fallen asleep before 11pm yet this week.  We keep going back and forth between growing pains, teething, and him feeling unsettled because his home life has entirely changed – dad is home all day now!  My lovely friend, Stephany, pointed out to me something that I had entirely forgotten; when children are going through a big developmental leap, they tend to have trouble sleeping.  The moment she said this, it was like a window opened up in my brain.  D’oh!  I should have thought of that.  So keep your eyes open for updates.

Also?  I made an amazing cloth diaper purchase the other day.  I can’t wait to get them in the mail!  We are still using Flips on Ronan with much success, and want to start baby girl out in something more fitted until she’s big enough for one-size diapers.  I only got 12, and I know that’s aiming a little low as far as laundry is concerned, so I’m going to buy a dozen prefolds as well.  Time to move up (or down?) in the cloth diapering world!

I am 30 weeks pregnant and Ronan is 21 months old.

Blog Already!

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Ok, here goes.  I have opened my laptop, and I haven’t gone to any page except this one.

Why, you ask?  Because my laptop is only good for about 20 minutes at a time now, and I get stuck reading blogs, on twitter, or playing on Facebook and then a blog doesn’t get written.  I think I’ll just do a list style wrap up of what’s been going on.

Brock quit his job two weeks ago.  Yesterday was his last day.  He is now staying at home with Ronan and I full time.  It may not be the smartest decision we’ve ever made financially, but when it comes to our family it was absolutely the best choice.  The level of pure ‘happiness’ in our house has never been higher, and it’s wonderful.

I am 29 weeks pregnant.  A stretch of complications has made everyone worried that our little girl may not stay put until her due date, but we’ve taken steps to try to ensure things will be okay.  I didn’t want to blog about this because I didn’t want my mom to say “I told you so,” and try to convince me that I shouldn’t have any  more kids.  However, I haven’t had any real contractions in several days, and taking things easy seems to really be working well for me.

In other pregnancy news, baby girl turned breech the other day.  I KNOW this for a fact, because I love feeling little baby kicks across my bladder… however, I do NOT love feeling little baby kicks directly to my bladder and *ahem* rectum *cough*.  I have had very few moments this pregnancy where I haven’t felt excited and lucky to be pregnant, but getting a good swift kick to the pooper really makes you think twice about carrying a kid inside of you.

And LASTLY in pregnancy news!  I haven’t blogged much about this either… when we were pregnant with Ronan, we didn’t tell anyone what we were going to name him.  Mostly because we didn’t know yet, but we didn’t want to deal with all of the outside commentary on the name we had picked.  This time around, we decided on a name that we both loved early in the process and for some reason became willing to share it with others.  Even though we LOVED the name, we didn’t say it was “her” name because we both feel that it’s important to meet our baby before we pick her name forever.  Despite this, people have constantly been asking me how “baby Ruby” is doing… and while it’s entirely sweet, I want to make sure everyone knows – we may not name her that.  Please do not be offended or upset if we end up bringing home a baby named something entirely different.

To be completely honest, the fact that people are already calling her Ruby makes me want to change the name… just because.  Please don’t take it personally, or even feel like you need to apologize if you are guilty of doing this!  It’s my own particular neuroses, and I’m sure I’ll get over it.  Just be willing to wait and see what her name is when we get there!

Ronan?  Ronan is a constant challenge and joy.  He’s full of energy and fun now that he’s finally feeling better – or as my mom would say, he’s full of piss and vinegar.  He wants to go, go, go and being inside due to the cold weather is not his favorite thing.  Because of the contraction action, as I’ve been calling it, I have been less willing and less able to get up and go every time Ronan asks, and that frustrates him.  His latest habit is growling like some sort of animal and trying to bite me.  In all fairness, the first time he did it, it scared the crap out of me and I screamed… and then laughed.  So to him it’s the most awesome game ever.

I guess I’ll wrap this up now.  11 weeks to go, but we’d settle for 8.  Ronan turns two on February 23rd.  There are 23 more days until Christmas, and this year is flying by ENTIRELY too fast.

Something To Look At.

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I have been terrible about leaving pictures on my camera lately.

This is just a small sampling of the pictures I have taken in the last few weeks.

Ronan playing with his airplane.

I love this picture.  The perspective, the bokeh, the TOES.  It just gets me.

Hehehe.

Just a few repairs.


My heart.

And for those interested:  I got to go out for a girl’s night Friday night.

I got dolled up for the first time in AGES, and I decided to take some pictures to prove it happened.

That was 25 weeks and 5 days pregnant!


ARRRRGH.

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My poor kid is sick again.

This time it’s cough, green snotty nose and fever.

I will be calling the pediatrician as soon as they open at 8:00.  (Yeah, time change?  Fuck you.)

I feel like we have been cooped up in the house for weeks.  I feel like we can’t go anywhere, because he might get someone else sick… or worse, get another germ.

We continually have to find alternative arrangements for childcare, because I can’t miss work and I don’t want Ronan handing off his nastiness.  No one ever really explains to you how stressful it will be to find someone to care for your kid if you don’t have family around to help.

I don’t even know what else to write.  Ronan coughs himself awake all night, and it makes me want to cry.  I feel so helpless and useless.  And I’m terrified of catching it myself.

I hope he gets better soon.  I’m ready to not have to deal with this for a few days.  Or weeks.

Sleep Again.

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I’ve been tweeting and talking about this for ages, time to write a blog.

Our Sleep Saga has been well documented.  For the last several months, Ronan has been an EXCELLENT sleeper.
Here is what we were working with.

We put Ronan to bed on sleepy cues.  When he slows down or gets glossy eyed, it’s time for bed.  That means making sure that dinner, bath and pajamas are done well before he may be ready.  Once we get into those things, he perks back up and is wide awake again.

Ronan would routinely go to bed at 5:30pm and sleep in until at least 7am.  Every. Single. Night.  His wakeups would be few and brief, wherein he would put himself back to sleep with no help from us.

After our trip to Canada in July, that was CATASTROPHIC as far as sleep was concerned, the 2 hour time difference helped us to push his bed time back a little.  We had been wanting him to go to bed a little later, not because there was anything wrong with his sleep, but because we would have a little more freedom in the evenings if he wasn’t in bed before 6pm.

We started putting him to bed between 7:30 and 8pm, and it seemed to be fine.  He was sleeping well, and not getting up until between 8 and 9 in the morning.

Suddenly and yet gradually, nothing has been working.  No bed time seems to be the right time, and nothing helps him fall to sleep.  I think it started when he was carrying his low grade fever that was and is still unexplained, but he would go to bed at a normal bed time… and stay awake.  Wide awake in his crib.  Not crying, not upset, not wanting to get out… just unsettled.  He would toss and turn and talk to himself for HOURS.  Yes, hours.  Brock and I would go in every 30 minutes or so to check on him, ask him if he needed anything, and also to check for poops. (See Poop Dilemma)  He was calm, quiet, and tired, but unable to fall asleep.

The following few weeks have included every single possible test in the book.  Earlier bedtime?  Check.  Later bedtime?  Check.  Shorter nap?  Check.  Longer nap?  Check.  More activity before bed?  Yup, we’ve done that.

As it stands, Ronan went to bed at 6:30 last night.  He fell asleep immediately, and didn’t move… for an hour.  At 7:30, he woke up and started rolling around in his bed.  Playing, talking, tossing… anything but sleeping.  He continued on that way until nearly 10:30.

We are at a loss.  Still hoping this is just a phase.  Still wondering if there is something different we should try.  Ronan takes a 2 hour nap every day, that sometimes stretches out to a three hour nap.  He doesn’t fuss or cry at bed time (usually!) and he always seems happy to be in his bed.  He just… doesn’t seem to be able to fall asleep.

I wish I knew what to do to help.