One Month Celebration

It was a big day yesterday as Ryan celebrated the end of month #1. It also means that, according to Chinese tradition, Carol's recovery period is complete. We're heading up to San Francisco this afternoon to take Carol's aunt to China Town and Carol will join the girls to celebrate Dea's bachelorette party for a few hours this evening. Let the good times roll...

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Ryan's Grandpa (what he calls him is still tbd) Douglas had a birthday today. Sounds like there was a little get together at Sarah's house to celebrate. Big Happy Birthday Gramps from Ryan, Carol and me.

Quick update on the little guy: today Carol and her aunt took him in to see the Doctor. He got a clean bill of health. The gas, the occasional heavy breathing, the dirty diapers...it's all normal!

Here's a gratuitous picture of Ryan in a sweatsuit hanging out on the couch. The socks over the pants were Carol's idea. Very handsome.

Guest Feeder

Carol's friend Kathy (now Mrs. Steele) dropped by for dinner last night. It was great to catch up and hear about life in San Francisco.

Boys and Bears

Did you know that the term "Teddy Bear" was based on a cartoon depiction of Theodore Roosevelt refusing to shoot a leashed bear? My brother Mike always had a bear. His name was Ted. He used to take him everywhere. I remember having a Winnie the Pooh bear when I was younger, but the attachment wasn't as strong. Our friend Fion used to have an old, ratty comfort blanket that he affectionately, if not creatively, called "Blankety." That one's a little harder to explain...
It's too soon to say what Ryan will become attached to (I'm still hoping Smurfs make a comeback!), but so far he's received a lot of stuffed bears and other animals from friends and family. Here are a few pictures of him wearing his "I Love DC" outfit hanging with his pals.

Thunder Down Under

This was a funny moment. Ryan's had a restless couple of nights, but slept most of the day today. His metabolism is certainly moving quickly. I have to say, I really didn't realize how gassy babies can be. Because Carol's an avid researcher these days (and a loyal reader of this blog), here's a site that's 100% focused on baby gas.

Pacifying the Baby and the Parents

Not long ago I was amazed at how much information there was available on the topic of weddings. Then it was pregnancy. We'll now we're now in a tsunami of baby do's and don'ts and there doesn't seem to be an end in site for this one...

This week we decided to introduce the pacifier. Ryan's become increasingly fussy at bedtime, so this was was actually a pretty easy decision that didn't require much research (although I did find this article to be quite useful on the topic).

Not surprisingly, he took to the pacifier right away and so far he hasn't become too dependent on it. After a couple of hours of trying to soothe him on a Saturday morning, however, I'm not sure I can say the same for myself.
Here are a few more pictures of Ryan at 3 weeks.
Playtime:














Happy Mom:














Post-Bath Meltdown:














Taking His Vitamins:














And a Few More:

A Pampered Baby

Yesterday, I was cleaning Ryan's privates (sorry, I couldn't resist) as Carol was breastfeeding. The Doctor recommended a little "air time" to help with a slight rash down there and I found myself trying to create a gentle breeze to cool the area. I wondered if my Dad ever did that for me. It's pretty funny to even consider!

After work yesterday I filed Ryan's fingernails. Here's the picture:
This morning I changed a massively full diaper, took Ryan for a walk around the block (actually, so far I've taken 3 walks and it's 7am), and fed him so Carol could get a little bit of sleep after a long night.

Is this a pampered baby or what? Fortunately somebody sent me this informative article called, "Top 10 Things a New Dad Shouldn't Do." It's pretty funny (except for #7 of course). Actually, a more appropriate article might be this one, "10 Tips for New Dads."

They say that three weeks is another milestone. Ryan's a bit fussy right now, but he's certainly well looked after. My next post will be on the introduction of the pacifier. I think we may have discovered a solution...

I May Have Created a Monster

After having a lot of difficulty getting Ryan down last night, he bounced back today with a little help from "The Baby Hawk Carrier." He loves it. A gift from cousin Jo and Dave, for Ryan it's like being back in the womb. For me it's a bit like having one!

The trouble is that by the end of the day the Baby Hawk became essential in getting him to fall asleep. We'll see how it goes tonight. Hopefully I won't have to cruise the mean streets of Menlo Park in the wee hours. I may have created a monster...

Alert...For Now

Quick video of Ryan after a feed and before his next nap.

Action Shots

At 2 weeks, the pictures tend to be mostly of a sleeping baby. Well, here are a few of the more animated shots from the last couple of days.












This is his first real attempt at "tummy time." He seems to like it.












He's not a big fan of having his diaper changed, but we're getting pretty good at it.

Ryan Passes His Test

Carol took Ryan in for a 2 week check up with the pediatrician on Wednesday. He was a little bit under his birth weight so the doctor wanted him to check in today with the hospital's new mom club for a breast feeding consultation and weigh in. After a big feed, he topped 8lbs for the first time and passed with flying colors. Mom was relieved and Ryan celebrated by sleeping all the way home.

Speaking of sleeping, here's a quick video of Ryan at rest. This weekend I'll get the new video camera going and get some better footage.

Happy Birthday

Two friends of Ryan celebrated 29th birthday's today (okay, one is actually 30, but the other has assured me that she's once again 29).

Aunt Helen was over for dinner last night and Carol managed to trick her in to baking her own cake. It was pretty funny. She asked Helen to help her bake a cake for some of the nurses at the hospital. Then she excused herself from dinner and tried to quickly put icing and candles on it for a birthday surprise. Well, the surprise may not of worked but the cake was great.
Happy birthday Helen!
























Today is also Melissa Kreisa's birthday, Ryan's first hospital visitor. Happy birthday Melissa!

Now Taking Requests

Ryan's blog readers are now sending in requests. I got an email from one of his biggest fans this morning (hi Mom!) asking for, "more pics of Ryan unbundled please and eyes open....if you can catch him that way."













After explaining that our house is quite cool and that Carol isn't a big fan of the flash in his eyes, I managed to take few shots that I think you'll like. Ryan seemed fine with it, although he did burp up on Carol's favorite Alliente jean shirt right before I took one of the pictures. Fortunately she has many of them.












I even added one of these as my new Facebook profile picture. It seems to be the thing to do these days.

Keep the requests coming!

Farmers Market with the Kreisa's

We checked out the Palo Alto Farmer's Market today to load up on organic fruits and vegetables. John, Melissa, and Nicolas Kreisa (my God son) met us there. The Kreisa's have been a great support to Carol and me over the last few months and they're really excited about Ryan. John has actually written a couple of blog posts about their visit to see us in the hospital. You can check them out here and here.

Sorry for not writing more, but most things are done in 2-3 hour sleep window increments around here. Ryan's also been a bit fussy (and gassy) this weekend, so we've been trying to catch up on sleep whenever we can.

He's sleeping on the couch now (see the picture on the left) so I thought I'd post a few pictures from today.

Visit from the Doctor

Dr. Philip Smeed dropped by to see Ryan today.

Carol Gets Some Fresh Air

Carol strapped Ryan in and went around the block this afternoon. It was short but refreshing. Otherwise, ESP (Eat, Sleep, Poo) continues. We're hoping to get out this weekend and tour around the Bay Area with Carol's aunt.

Ryan at 1 Week

Ryan was born 1 week ago and it feels like we may be starting to settle into a routine. Of course Carol is spending most of her waking hours feeding the little guy, but this afternoon she actually managed to get out of the house for the first time to go to the store with Guma (her aunt).

This is the first time I've been on my own with Ryan so I figured I'd write a quick blog post and share some more pictures. He's sleeping.

The next step is to move to video, but at this point there's not much more to see than sleeping, feeding, burping, and changing diapers.

Stay tuned...