You might remember that one of my biggest fears when I found out I was pregnant with Jackson was how it was going to impact my relationship with Jared. Thankfully Jackson just fit into our life so naturally, that our relationship only got stronger. I can’t explain the feeling of watching your husband with your child, but it makes you fall in love with them all over again, except this time you fall deeper and harder. When I found out I was pregnant with Rylan I had the same fear. We had such a great routine going on, we were a well-oiled family of 3. I was also convinced that Rylan was going to come out as a terror for a couple of reasons. One, Jackson was a great baby and he is a great toddler, who is lucky enough to have to great kids? Two, the pregnancy was so different, that I was convinced that the baby was going to be very different.
After two nights at the hospital we were more than ready to head home. I was excited to see Jackson and excited to have him meet Rylan. I should have remembered our saying throughout Europe, “The key to life is low expectations.” I had very high expectations for our homecoming. Jackson was supposed to be at our house napping. I had visions of him waking up from his nap and loving the baby and us. Long story short, we ended up getting discharged early, and Jared’s parents were running late, so Jackson wasn’t napping when we got home, he wasn’t even there yet!
None the less, Rylan was welcomed home with a beautiful sign, the same sign I was welcomed home to. My dad worked at Kodak when I was born and had the sign made. It was always a joke that he made my mom and me stand out in front of the sign in the freezing cold, I was born the end of March! My mom altered the sign so that it welcomed us home. Well I am an emotional mess with out post-pregnancy hormones, let’s just say it made me cry.
When Jackson got to the house it close to an hour past his nap time, he didn’t take an am nap, and he was exhausted! Let’s just say the video below was edited so that he doesn’t look like a terror!
After crying again (Jared wasn’t quite sure what to do with me, I wasn’t this emotional after Jackson, I blame it on girl post pregnancy hormones), I decided that we would all start fresh the next day. In the pictures below you will see that he woke up to me feeding Rylan, came right over to us, snuggled on me, kissed Rylan, and snuggled some more. WARNING!?!? I am nursing in the pictures, so if that offends you don’t look, but I had to share how sweet he was snuggling with us.
I am going to use the work “lucky” again, because so far we seem to be very lucky and have great kids. Rylan is a great baby, different from Jackson as a baby, but still great! Since conception Rylan has been saying, “I AM NOT MY BROTHER!!” Jackson was so awake and alert right from the start, he was an aggressive sucker and would nurse for hours if I let him. . .and then there is Rylan. She loves to sleep, waking her to eat can be a struggle, as she doesn’t seem to mind a cold washcloth, the fan blowing on her, gently flicking her feet, tummy time = nap time. . .we figured she would rise and shine if we gave her a bath, no such luck. You will see from the video that she doesn’t seem to mind the water much.
Our biggest fear with her sleeping so much during the day, is that she wouldn’t sleep at night, well not this little lady. I had to wake her every two hours until she was back up to her birth weight. Once she got there, she would wake up about every 4 hours, which really allowed Mama to get some sleep. It was exciting when Rylan opened her eyes, because it doesn’t happen often.
We were lucky to have a week together as our little family of 4 before Jared had to go back to work. I felt a strong need to keep things as normal as possible for Jackson, which meant doing something in-between his naps. We visited the playground, the splash pad, the Jump Club and even did a little shopping. It was great to see him so happy doing those things, but it was also fun doing it with him. When I was pregnant it was hard for me to maneuver some of the things that Jackson wanted to do, but now that I could pass Rylan to Jared, I was able to climb with him on the playground and jump with him at the jump club.
Enjoy the videos . . .
We have transitioned from a family of 3 to a family of 4 with ease. It is as though Rylan has been with us forever, I can’t imagine our life without her! We just keep our fingers crossed hoping that this isn’t the calm before the storm!
Enjoy the photos. . .
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