Ro's Mother's Day Surprise

Lauren (my sis-in-law) came up with a wonderful idea for a gift for my mom for Mother's Day this year.  She suggested that we do a professional photo shoot of Ryder and Elizabeth together, and then surprise my mom with a large, framed print of her two beloved grandkids.  I loved the idea from the start.  I looked forward to the photo shoot for weeks, and my excitement built with each passing day as I imagined the PERFECT, BEAUTIFUL image that we would capture of R and E. 

The day for the photo shoot finally arrived and it was a Disaster.  Not just a disaster... but a Disaster.

Before I go on, I need to preface the story with a disclaimer:

I promise that I'm not a total drama queen, nor am I a chronic pessimist, nor am I a complete alarmist.  I'm a little bit self-conscious about my blog so far because I feel like the majority of my blog entries can be summarized as follows:  PRETERM CONTRACTIONS! PREMATURE BABY! NICU! EMPTY, DEFECTIVE BOOBS! COLIC!  SUCKY MATERNITY LEAVE!  COLIC!  RSV!  MORE COLIC!  OMG!  WTF!  WOE IS ME!

I seriously love my kid and love my life.  In fact, life is quite good.  I'm happy.  Blake is happy.  Ryder is happy.  Even Gaudi is happy.  It just so happens that a Blog is a good place to vent.  Blogging has developed into a form of therapy for me, and it's quite cathartic to re-hash the challenges that I've faced in the last six months.  But that doesn't mean there haven't been a million reasons to smile in the last six months too. 

Okay, I feel better now.  I just didn't want to be add "HORRIBLE, DISASTEROUS PHOTO SHOOT" to my blog summary without defending my character and promising that I'm really not a drama queen.  For this story, I even have witnesses.  Just ask Aaron and Lauren (or Blake).  They were all there and can back me up when I tell you that the photo shoot went just about as poorly as it possibly could have.

We all arrived bright and early at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens on a Sunday morning.  Ryder slept in the car on the way there and woke up soon after our arrival.  Elizabeth and Ryder both looked precious in their color-coordinated, navy and white outfits.  Crazy cute.  As my friend and trusty photographer Gara orchestrated pose #1, Ryder began to cry.  He never stopped.  Ryder cried and/or screamed bloody murder for 99.9% of the hour and a half session.  We walked with him, we "shush-ed" him, we bounced him and we pleaded with him.  Nothing helped.  He was uncharacteristically pissed.  We tried a million poses and Gara desperately tried to catch a non-crying image of Ryder.  Because Gara is a genius, she did capture a few great shots.

Would I be thrilled with the resulting photos under optimal circumstances?  No, probably not.  But am I thrilled with the resulting photos in light of my child's horrendous behavior during the shoot?  Why yes I am.  Gara was so patient and she really did do a wonderful job.  And while Blake and I were off begging and pleading with our son to stop crying, she caught some unbelievably adorable shots of Elizabeth.

In the end, I won't hold anything against Ryder.  He was 5 months old for pete's sake.  I knew going into it that a photo shoot with a 5 month old would be a crap shoot, but I still had high hopes.  Too high of hopes.  Next time we have professional pictures taken of Ryder, I'll truly go in with ZERO expectations.

Here is where I show you photos.  Don't let the cuteness fool you.  I know you'd never guess how bad things were based on the pictures, but again- I have witnesses.  It was bad.

First, the best of the best:



Then, the best of the worst:

(Intentionally zoomed in so that you can see Ryder's classic face)

A "Just Because" Update

I can't believe Baby Boy will be 6 months old in a couple of weeks.  Where has the time gone?  Have the entire (almost) six months flown by?  No.  The first 10 weeks dragged by for obvious reasons.  I felt like I was stuck in a colic-baby time warp where each day was more difficult than the last.  But ever since Ryder started laying off the naughty baby bit, I feel like life has been in "fast forward" mode. 
Ryder is doing great with his rice cereal feedings.  For the past two weeks, I've been feeding him solids once a day (in the evenings before bed).  He now opens his mouth eagerly when he sees the spoon approaching.  He kicks his legs like a maniac while I'm feeding him and likes to make a big mess.  When I give him his night-night bottle after the cereal, he now passes out after just a few ounces.  Before I started the cereal, he would polish off the entire bottle before falling asleep.  It makes sense that he isn't as hungry since he already has cereal in his tummy, but I don't think the reduced intake stems from a full belly.  Rather, I think he exhausts himself from all of the kicking, screeching and excitement during the spoon-feeding and has no energy left to stay awake for his bottle afterwards.

His sleep is still super inconsistent.  He is easy to put down and goes to bed at about 7:00 p.m. every single night.  The remainder of the night is much less predictable.  He sleeps straight through until 6 or 7 a.m. a couple of times a week.  Other nights he still gets up at 4 or 4:30, and I can't get him to go back to sleep in his crib.  On those nights, the little spoiled booger is brought to bed with us and he sleeps wonderfully until mornings.  Still other nights he wakes once, twice or even three times and screams.  I always try to wait a bit to see if he'll fall back to sleep on his own (sometimes he does), but if the crying continues for more than 5 or 10 minutes, I go plug him back up with the paci and pat his bottom.  Usually, I can get him to fall back asleep.  At Ryder's 6 month appointment in a couple of weeks, I'll certainly discuss Ryder's inconsistent sleep habits, but I somehow doubt Dr. Friedman will have any new or magical advice.   I have to remind myself that even when Ryder wakes up at 4 or 4:30, he has slept for 9 hours straight.  So even though I consider 4 a.m. wake-ups to be a "bad night," a nine hour stretch is pretty darn acceptable (or even impressive) for a baby.

We are also working really hard on crib naps.  As my blog readers are well aware, Ryder has NEVER been a good crib napper even though he sleeps beautifully in his crib at night.  Until a few weeks ago, he was taking all of his naps at daycare in the bouncy seat (and even those naps hardly ever exceeded 30 or 45 minutes).  I asked his teachers to try to get him to sleep at least once a day in his crib.  Meanwhile, I've been working hard on the weekends to put him in his crib several times a day to nap.  I think there has been some improvement.  It still sometimes takes 20 minutes of on and off crying (with several visits from me to re-insert paci and give him a pat) for him to finally fall asleep, but once he falls asleep, his naps have started to lengthen.  At first, he'd wake back up screaming after 5 or 10 minutes.  Now, I can usually get AT LEAST 30 minutes from him.  He actually took an hour long crib nap at day care yesterday and an HOUR AND A HALF crib nap at home with my mom this morning.  P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S!

I'm actually pretty excited to start introducing fruits and veggies to Ryder in a couple of weeks.  I think it will be fun to feed him something other than slop mixed with slop (i.e. rice cereal mixed with foul-smelling formula). 

I can't think of anything else of importance for now, and I might as well save some of my ramblings for his six month update.  I'll close with this:  I have one freaking cute kid.