5 Months & First Big Boy Meal

Ryder Dylan is 5 months old!  Today he enjoyed his first non-bottle "meal"... a lovely bowl of sloshy, mushy rice cereal.  It was messy but adorable.  See video evidence below.

(Video "narrated" by: Mommy, Auntie Sammie and Ro)

My little prankster (re: sleep)

Ryder loves to stare at Blake.  If Blake enters Ryder's line of sight, Ryder is immediately enthralled.  Sometimes Ryder smiles at Blake and sometimes he just stares intently.  Either way, Ryder doesn't pay this same kind of attention to anyone else.  Blake, in a half-joking way, always says things like "Stop staring at me, you little creeper," "Stop creeping on me," "Quit giving me the evil eye," etc. etc.  In other words, Blake thinks Ryder is casting some kind of hex on him with his blinkless, ever-lasting stares.

 I always admonish Blake (jokingly) and tell him that Ryder is only looking at him lovingly and that he is just a baby and babies don't have ulterior motives.

Well, I'm starting to think that I was wrong.  Ryder is a total prankster and I'm now convinced that he gets great enjoyment out of F'ing with me. 

I should probably cut to the chase.  That whole sleeping through the night thing that I blogged about a few weeks ago... yeah, not so much.  Ryder was merely toying with my brain (and my sleep patterns).  He slept through the night for two weeks and then BAM, it was over.  He resumed his down at 7:30 p.m. and up at 4 or 4:30 a.m. schedule.  Little booger. 

Once he started waking during the night again, I didn't revert back to feeding him since he had already shown me that he doesn't need a night feed.  Instead, I'd go to his room, re-insert his paci, give him a few belly rubs, and re-start his sound machine.  In response, he'd settle back down for a grand total of 10 or 15 minutes before hollering again.  At that point, I'd curse under my breath, roll over and instruct Blake to "go get the baby."  Blake would shuffle to the nursery in a half-roused state and fetch Ryder.  Once we put Ryder in our bed with us, he would snuggle in like a little angel and sleep until it was time to get him ready for school (7:00 a.m.). 

Bed-sharing is something I swore I'd never do.  I feared that Blake would roll over him or shove him off the bed or that he'd somehow wiggle under the covers and suffocate.  Furthermore, I swore I'd never bed-share for fear that I'd somehow end up with a 25 pound toddler sleeping in my bed a couple years down the road.  (Do toddlers weigh 25 pounds?  I have no clue).  But it's amazing what you'll do when it comes to sleep deprivation and the possibility of a few extra hours of un-interrupted sleep.  Desperate times call for desperate measures. 

Once or twice a week, Ryder will toss in a blissful all-nighter and sleep soundly in his crib until a normal morning hour.  In fact, last night he happened to sleep in his crib from 8:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m. and I never heard a peep from him.  This all brings me to one conclusion: my child is messing with my mind.  Perhaps he doesn't want me to get too comfortable with one stable routine, so he throws me an occasional bone by randomly (and seldomly) sleeping through the night.  Or perhaps he is messing with me purely for entertainment purposes.  Or... maybe I'm becoming paranoid and delusional as a result of my unpredictable sleep schedule.  Yes, yes- that must be it.

One thing is for sure, Ryder doesn't seem any worse for the wear:

Months 1 - 4 in review...

Ryder at birth:
-5 lbs, 13 oz.
-18 in.
-Ginormous head.

Ryder weighed approximately 4 lbs, 13 oz. in these photos.  Less than 48 hours later, he was down to 4 lbs, 8 oz. 

 As you can tell from the above pictures, Ryder's newborn "photo shoot" did not go well.  The pictures were taken when Ryder was 4 days old.  Now I know that the poor booger was probably hungry out of his mind and feeling like absolute crap due to dehydration.  At the time, I thought he was merely having an average newborn tantrum.  Needless to say, the "photo shoot" lasted about 3 minutes and only resulted in these two pictures.


Ryder at 1 month old:
-7 lbs, 7 oz. (5th % for weight)
-20.25 in. (5th % for height)
-Ginormous head... __% (will have to look back at records and fill this in later)

Ryder at 2 months old:
-9 lbs, 14 oz. (10th % for weight)
- 22 1/4 in. (20th % for height)
-Ginormous head... 75 %  (15 3/4 in.)

Ryder at 3 months old:
-11 lbs, 11 oz. (not given a percentile since it was not a regular check-up)

Game Over.

Ryder at 4 months old:
-12 lbs, 7.5 oz. (5th % for weight)
-24 in. (10th % for height)
-Ginormous head... 53 % (16.5 in.)

Sidenote: As another indicator of Ryder's small size, he wore size "newborn" diapers until he was approximately 8 weeks old. He wore size "newborn" clothes until he was 11 weeks old. The newborn clothes were huge on him at first, but we never bought "premie" sizes since I knew he'd eventually grow into the newborn stuff. At four months old, Ryder is still wearing size 0-3 clothes and size 1 diapers. But what Ryder lacks in size, he makes up for ten-fold in cuteness!  Obviously.

Ryder's First...

Today (Easter Sunday, as a matter of fact) I finally heard Ryder giggle for the very first time!  I was tickling his feet and making obscenely silly noises/faces while doing so.  Apparently I succeeded in making a big enough fool of myself.  Either that or I have a very ticklish kiddo on my hands.  Either way, Ryder finally laughed.  Luckily, daddy and cousin Whitney were both there to witness the milestone.  Blake ran for the video camera, and while we were able to capture a second giggle on video, it wasn't nearly as good as the first one.

Now I know why parents make ridiculous fools of themselves by jumping around, making absurd faces and noices, wildly gesticulating in their kids' faces, and generally acting like jackasses.  The end result is worth it.  There is nothing like a baby giggle. 

If I can ever figure out how to post a video that has been taken on a camcorder (rather than an iphone), I'll post the evidence.  Until then, you'll just have to take my word for it.

Ryder's First Road Trip

This past weekend, my mom, Blake and I took Ryder to meet his Great Grandma (my mom's mom) in Galveston, Texas.  It is normally a 5 hour car ride, but I wasn't sure how long it would take with a baby in tow.  I was pretty nervous that we'd be confined in a car with a screaming baby and that we'd have to make a lot of extra stops.  My concerns were unfounded.  Ryder was a perfect angel.  He slept the entire ride to Galveston except for when we stopped for dinner in Fairfield.  Per tradition, we ate at Sam's Restaurant and enjoyed a buffet dinner.  Ryder took his bottle like a champ and then hung out with us while we ate.  Once we were back on the road, he dozed off again and stayed asleep until we arrived at the San Luis Hotel.  The return car ride was equally perfect.  We stopped at Dairy Queen (again in Fairfield) so that we could feed Ryder and enjoy a little ice cream treat before continuing onto the last leg of the trip.  Ryder did wake up for the last 45 minutes of our return drive, but my mom (who was sitting in the back seat) managed to keep him entertained until we got home.

Ryder loved meeting his Great Grandma (and I believe the feeling was mutual).  We also enjoyed getting to visit with Uncle Arnold and Uncle Neil.  We went to lunch and dinner with them on Saturday.  Blake and I also stole away for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon to walk the shops at the Strand.  My mom stayed with Ryder at Great Grandma's house. 

All in all, it was a really nice weekend.  The weather was beautiful and Blake and I both agree that March is the perfect month to visit Galveston.  No more summer visits for us... Galveston summers are unpleasantly sticky and hot.  Next time we visit, Ryder will be old enough to sport some swim trunks and check out the beach!

Ryder and Great Grandma

Four generations: me, Great Grandma, Ryder and Grandma "Ro"

Great Uncle Arnold with a less-than-pleased Ryder