3 weeks old

We had Dave's mom and her husband in town last weekend. Saturday, Dave got up early and made breakfast for them (I don't like breakfast food) and then we took them to the Yellow Daisy Festival. I had never been on a Saturday before, and it is safe to say that I never will again...it was CROWDED!! We had to park all the way down by the Antebellum Plantation...like a mile away, and walk down to the tents. We had a good time though, and everyone seemed to enjoy strolling around and checking out all of the vendors and their crafts. I must say, the people watching was much better on Thursday...I think the locals come out during the week and tourists on the weekend. Dave and I got snow cones, but that was all that we bought for ourselves. We picked up a couple of Christmas gifts for people, but you may be one of them, so I won't say what we got!

Sunday morning, we all got up and went to church. Ryan really enjoys the music part of the worship, but she was fidgety and squeaky during the sermon, so I took her to the nursery and rocked her...I missed the entire sermon so I was a little bummed, but she will be staying at Nana's house on Sunday mornings for a while now until she is bigger, so I won't have to miss many more :)

Sunday was Grandparents Day, so my parents came over as well and we played yard games and Dave grilled ribs on the Big Green Egg. They were so good!! That night, my dad treated us all to frozen custard. We ended up having to make a quick exit, since someone (me) didn't bring a bottle with us and Ryan was fussy and starving apparently. (we were only going to be gone for like 20 minutes!!...lesson learned....ALWAYS take a bottle or 3). Ryan had a pretty bad night that night. She had some gas in her tummy again and she was upset for hours and couldn't fall asleep. I felt so bad for her...there isn't much I can do other than give her gas drops and hope for the best.

Monday morning, Grandma had to head home and Dave got to stay home for the day because he had some doctors appointments to go to. My mom came over with her dogs to hang out, and she kept Ryan while Dave and I took all of the pups on a walk around the neighborhood.

I forgot to mention last week that Ryan's umbilical stump fell off on Thursday, so Monday afternoon she was able to ditch the yucky old sponge bath that she never really liked, and have a REAL bath in her whale tub. She didn't like it....she LOVED it!! She didn't quite know what to think at first. She just kind of sat there and made her ooo face, but she was so calm the whole time and never even made a peep. She just relaxed and soaked it up!

My first bath!!

She had another big milestone on Monday...Dave and I wanted to go to the gym together that evening, so my mom took Ryan home with her. It was Ryan's first trip anywhere without mommy or daddy. We went to the gym for a bit and then had supper at mom's before bringing Ryan back home.

Tuesday, mom came over again to basically hold the baby all day so that I could get some work done. I worked on the computer ALL DAY LONG editing photos, answering emails, and printing. Dave had to work late, so Ryan and I ran some errands with Nana and Papa before meeting up with Daddy at Red Robin for dinner. That night, Ryan had a very good night. She woke up at her usual times to eat (1:00, 4:00, & 7:00), and for the most part, she ate and went right back to bed. This made mommy VERY happy! At her 4:00 am feeding, she was a little more alert and wanted to stay up for about an hour and a half, but I just happened to be wide awake too, so I enjoyed her company!

That sweet "OOO" face!!

Wednesday, mom helped me to run errands all afternoon. We had a pretty quiet evening at home, but Ryan had another bad night. She will get the hang of it all sooner or later! She was just a little fussy and you just have to keep moving with her - walking around, bouncing her, patting her back, singing, talking...I am hoarse from having to talk and sing so much!

I got my very first piece of mail this week! It's my very own Social Security Card!

Thursday, daddy got to stay home from work again, but he had to go to the hospital for surgery. He had some plastic surgery on his face to remove a cyst that came out of no where maybe a year or two ago and has just continued to get bigger. We wanted to go ahead and get it removed before it got any bigger, leaving a bigger scar. Plus, we have met our super high deductible for the year, so it all worked out great! The cyst was no big deal...chances are, if you ever saw him, you probably didn't even notice it. It was just a small bump on his cheek. However, the incision they made was WAY bigger than I thought it was going to be and he had to have real stitches...I was thinking MAYBE a butterfly bandage! I had to go pick him up from the hospital, since he was anesthetized for the surgery. They sent him home with some pain medicine, and he ended up sleeping most of the day. Mom, Ryan and I went to JoAnn fabrics and Target while he was out to just get out of the house. Mom wanted to buy Ryan a toy since she had such a bad night the night before. She got her a remake of one of those old wind up TVs that we all had when we were kids. I think she likes it :)

Daddy's scar...poor daddy :(

Thursday night, Ryan woke up at 1:00 am for her bottle, and she felt like partying....I figured out that she LOVES Keith Whitley, so Keith and I sang every one of his songs 5 or 6 times each while Ryan and I danced all over her room. Ryan had a wardrobe change, and countless diaper changes...she was just WIDE AWAKE!!! She finally dozed off at 4:00, but when I laid her down in her cradle, her eyes POPPED open...how dare I put her down!! I talked to her for a few minutes, which ended up waking up Dave, and he took her from me to try his hand at getting her to fall asleep. They walked around in the kitchen and 8 minutes later she was in her cradle sound asleep...8 MINUTES....whatever...I did all the hard work. haha!

You know, I don't want to ever sound like I am complaining about Ryan and her midnight parties. I really don't mind. Sure, some nights I am worn out and would do just about anything to be able to crawl back under the covers without having to soothe her to sleep for hours...I'm only human. But I just remind myself that she won't be this small for long, and I just want to enjoy this stage in her life as much as I can. I follow another blog of a family that lost their 4 month old son to SIDS last year, and NOTHING will make you cherish each and every split-second with your baby like this mother's words. Her story is gut wrenching and heart breaking, and it really puts everything into perspective. Ryan is just a baby...she doesn't understand that mommy is tired and wants to go to bed! She is awake, and that is all she knows, so I will be awake too and entertain her for as long as she wants :)

Today, Ryan got up at 7:00, ready for breakfast as usual, and she fell right back asleep after her bottle and we both slept until almost 11:00...this is pretty common of she and I. My good friend from college, Zakia, come to see Ryan tonight, so mom came to get the dogs for me. It was SOOO good to see her and to get to catch up. She brought some really cute outfits for Ryan, and we talked for a long time and she asked me a ton of questions about the delivery. She didn't believe me when I told her how easy it was and that I had zero pain! After she had to leave, mom brought the dogs back over and I made dinner for everyone. Ryan caught up on some sleep and gave me and mom a chance to watch an episode of Project Runway On Demand.

You may notice a common theme to our days...Dave has to go to work, and my mom comes over to help with the baby. And what a huge help she is. I am SO thankful that #1: I don't have to work, and #2: I don't have to do this alone. I am so very lucky. I would not be able to get anything done around here if mom didn't come over to entertain Ryan during the day for me.

So that was our week. I am so very excited for this upcoming week...my grandparents are flying down from Illinois to meet Ryan!! It will be Papa's first time on a big commercial airline, so it will be interesting to hear his take on the whole ordeal! I can't wait to see them and neither can Ryan!

I'm 3 weeks old today!!

Have a great week!!

~the Sullivans