What I have been up to the last month

I am 3 months old today. I weigh 12.6 pounds and I am growing like a weed. I smile all the time, scream and shout with the best of them and even giggled a little today. I can sit up in the Bumbo and hold myself up in a baby pushup position. I prefer to sit up rather than lie down and if you try to lie me down, I just might try to get up (but that is really tiring, so just don't put me down, okay?) I roll from my belly to my back and have rolled back to belly a few times when I was on an incline. I love my big brother, Brady and can't wait to get up and do the things that he does. Mama thinks I am going to be a climber because I already tried to escape from the Bumbo. I don't like napping unless I am lying on mama's chest so I usually end up going to bed for the night by 4:30 or 5:00. Mama says that my personality is a lot like my brother Brady's, no easy babies for her!

Brady is 2!

How did this happen? Where did the last 2 years go. My baby is a more of a boy than a baby these days. He loves to just run around, and around, and around. He talks all of the time, but probably about 50% of the conversations that he starts have to do with trains in some way. He loves Thomas the train, GeoTrax and watching real trains on the Rural Farm Network (it's amazing what you find when you do a search for trains on your TV Guide). When we see a train in person, you can practically feel his little heart beating so fast it could jump out his chest.

He got his first haircut the day before his birthday. Everyone was so scared that he would lose his curls, but we didn't cut too much off and there are still plenty of curls to drive the little old ladies mad (we live near a retirement city and he always gets compliments on his hair from the little old ladies).

He loves his baby sister and gets very concerned when she is crying. We are getting ready to move him to his big boy room soon. It will be Thomas the train for now, but we are not going to go too crazy with that theme, so he can change it when he is ready to. For his birthday we had a family over for cake and ice cream. Auntie Alisa made the coolest cake ever. For some reason he gets so serious when we try to take his picture lately, so we don't have too many pictures of him smiling.

Waiting to get his haircut

Posing with his cake (which he loved by the way - he had to show everyone that came over by saying "see" and he even ran into the table and bumped his head :( because he was so excited to show a new guest)

Going to the doctor

Rylan had her first appointment with Dr. H today. She weighs 11 pounds, 9.5 ounces and is 23 inches long. That puts her in the 75th percentile for both height and weight for breastfed baby girls. We have a couple of minor issues to deal with, but nothing too major. We should be going back to the ENT doctor within a few days to get her frenulum clipped (she is tongue tied). I am hoping this will help her feed a little better when she is tired and cranky. SShe got 3 shots and the rotavirus vaccine. This little girl gets so angry and this was no exception!

While we were waiting for the doctor I took a few pictures. It took Dr. H a while to get there because a little boy had a 7 minute seizure today in her office and so she was running behind. Scary! It didn't bother me, gave me a little more time to hang out just mama and her smilin' Rylan.

The Dieder Family Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas. Having little ones really makes you see the magic of the season through their little eyes and gives you a new appreciation. Everything is that much more fun...gingerbread houses, The Polar Express, Twas the Night Before Christmas. And it makes me appreciate having family close by to celebrate it all with. I do wish my family was nearby too, but from what I understand they had a great Christmas all together at Ashley's house.

It was our first Christmas in our new home, so it was only fitting that we had Christmas Eve at our house. Gramma, Pops, Granny Goose, Uncle Troy, and Aunties Alisa and Alicia came over to celebrate with us. We had dinner, made gingerbread cookies, read the night before Christmas, and left cookies and milk out for Santa. Here are some pictures from that evening:

Christmas Day we woke up and opened our stockings and presents from Santa. Brady was so excited to see that Santa had eaten the cookies we left out for him. Then we headed over to Gramma and Pops' house to open up the presents from the family. Rylan got the most adorable outfits and Brady got some awesome toys. In fact the next morning the first thing he said when he woke up was "toys?" After present opening and brunch most of us took a Christmas nap. Then we went over to Aunt Kathy's house and celebrated with Ryan's family. There were 7 kids age 5 and under and Brady loved playing with his cousins. We all had so much fun and Brady is so excited about his toys.

What I have been up to the last month

I am two months old today. I weigh about 11 pounds, 6 ounces. I am getting ready to celebrate my first Christmas. To prepare, my family and I went to the railroad museum where my big brother Brady got to meet Santa Claus. I was too busy eating to meet him, gotta beef up! I can roll from my side onto my stomach. I have also learned how to kick things and swat at things with my hands, so I love my playmat with animals that hang down over me. I could sit in there for hours! I have my first doctor's appointment with Dr. H on Monday. I keep hearing about shots in a hush hush tone, I wonder what that is all about? Here are some pictures of me from my 2 month photo shoot and with my big brother Brady. I think that I am growing on him:

My Crazy Napper

As any parent of a toddler will tell you, nap time is sacred. It is a couple of hours during the day to catch your breath and relax after your child has worn you out. As a result, a toddler giving up their nap is a time for mourning. Even if dropping the nap results in an earlier bedtime, it is still hard to cope with 12+hours straight hours of chasing a toddler around. Especially if you have a 2 month old to entertain, feed and get to sleep as well. As he told Gramma yesterday, Brady thinks that he is "all done" going "moi moi" during the day. And I thought so too for a couple of weeks. And then in the last 2 weeks 1 of 3 things has happened:

Scenario 1) He doesn't nap and he falls asleep in his highchair at 6:15 PM. Wakes up at 6:30 AM.

Scenario 2) He finally goes down for a nap after 3:30 (only with Gramma and Pops-Tom, not us) and ends up staying up way too late or waking up in the middle of the night. OR

Scenario 3) He won't nap when we try to put him down, but eventually he will fall asleep in some random place at 3:30. Now as those of you who know him personally, Brady does not sleep anywhere but designated sleeping areas (someone's arms or a crib) or in the carseat. Up until he was 16 months old he never fell asleep in his highchair. So imagine my surprise when within the last few days I encountered this:

and this:

I think this means that giving up his nap was more of a rebellion against having to share mommy with a little sister than it was a natural thing he was ready for. And now our schedule is so messed up. I am not too worried though, I suspect that when I go back to work his dad will have everyone on a schedule in no time.

Santa and Trains...oh my!

Brady loves the train museum. So when I found out that Santa was going to be riding the steam train at the museum, I figured we had to go. So we dressed the children up in their Christmas outfits and headed down there with Auntie Alisa, April, Brooklin, and Gary. Brady loved riding the trains (his second time) but he wasn't too pleased with the jolly fat man in the red suit. Maybe next year when he figures out that Santa Claus is the one that brings him the presents maybe he will tolerate him a little more.

What I have been up to the last month...

I am one month old today. Mommy guesses that I way around 9.6 pounds! I was gaining weight so well at my 5 day appointment that Dr. Baker said I didn't need to see her again until I was 2 months old. I am already changing. I don't sleep all the time like I did at first, instead I spend most of the afternoon crying because my belly hurts so much. But when I am not crying I am smiling up a storm. Mostly at my daddy, he is so funny. He was the first person that I smiled at.

My family just moved into a new house. I have my own room and when I get to be a little older there is a playroom that I will share with my brother Brady. I also met my future sister-in-law Makayla at her birthday. Happy 2nd birthday Makayla! She had a bounce house that looked like so much fun. I can't wait to jump in there with the big kids.

I found out that I will be getting a baby boy cousin in April. Auntie Alicia and Uncle Troy are going to name him Levi. We are going to grow up around the corner from each other, isn't that neat? Here are some pictures of me over the last month. Mommy had this cute "1" sticker that she was going to use to take pictures of me on my first month birthday (she also has 2-12) but I was too busy crying all day to pose for pictures. So those will be posted shortly. In the meantime here are some pictures of me over the last month.

Her First Bath

Even though her umbilical cord fell off last week, Rylan just got her first real bath. Mainly because she sleeps ALL.THE.TIME. With the exception with a few good alert hours in the morning, she isn't awake long enough to bathe. So finally I motivated myself to give her a bath yesterday. She did great, I can tell she is going to be a little water baby like Brady very soon. She only cried when she got cold. And the best part was at the end when I got to smell that clean baby smell. Love it! Here are a few pictures of the milestone (try to ignore the boyish accessories):

After her bath (sleeping as usual) with her clean fuzzy hair. So cute!

Our New Home

I have been waiting to post this because I didn't want to jinx it, but I think that it is really going to happen so here goes...we bought a house. It is around the corner from Alicia and Troy which is great. The cousins will be able to grow up together. It is a huge house, so we have a lot of furniture to acquire and decorating to do. But that is part of the fun of homeownership, right?

The homebuying process can be somewhat frustrating if you are in the foreclosure market - it is so competitive right now. But on the same day that I gave birth to Rylan we got the call that we officially had the house. The news couldn't come at any better time, with 2 kids in our apartment we are running out of room for all of the toys and various baby equipment that accompanies children. We should be moving in about 2 weeks from now.

There are a bunch of pictures in this album, but if you flip through them you will be able to see a bunch of the house:

http://picasaweb.google.com/alicia.dieder/0102#

Halloween 2009

Today was a big day for the Dieder Family. Rylan celebrated her first Halloween and Brady endured his first time trick-or-treating. I knew that there would be no costumes small enough for Rylan so she had a Halloween themed outfit. Brady was a train conductor but we couldn't get him to wear the bandana around his neck and he wouldn't keep the hat on. Hopefully next year he will be a little more cooperative. He has been having a little trouble adjusting to his life as a big brother so I think that helped contribute to his anxiety over dressing up and visiting stranger's houses.



We had a fun day hanging out at Auntie Alicia and Uncle Troy's house. After watching Alicia carve her pumpkin, we decided it was time to attempt to get dressed up and head out. We stopped at one house but Brady got scared and we had to turn around before they answered the door. At the next house he allowed Auntie Lissee to carry him to the door, but cried while he was getting his first treat. The only house that he willingly visited was Troy and Alicia's house. It was also a lot of fun walking past our new house knowing that in a year from now we will be passing out candy there, not just walking around that neighborhood.



Here is a link to a few pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/alicia.dieder/Halloween2009#

Rylan Alani

Rylan Alani Diederichs arrived at 4:40 AM on Friday October 23, 2009. She weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces and measured 20 1/2 inches long. I arrived at the hospital around 12:50 AM that morning with contractions that were spaced about 4-6 minutes apart (in the car) and somewhat painful but not unbearable. When I arrived, it was kind of obvious that Labor & Delivery were not thrilled to have another patient there. After hours (past 8 PM) they had received 2 sets of triplets and 5 other women in labor. But I was scheduled for an induction on Sunday morning anyway and knew my doctor would probably keep me there even if the nurses didn't think I was 100% ready.

I was right. I wasn't totally ready but my doctor told the nurse to have me walk around for an hour and then admit for a 5:00 induction. Walking around for that hour I thought to myself that she had said they were going to induce me at 5:00 which mean I was not in labor. But it sure felt like I was in labor. The contractions were about 4 minutes apart and were hurting. After the hour was up (around 2:45) I asked for the epidural but the nurse warned me that I had to be at least 3 cm to get it. Turns out I was 5! Labor was in full swing. I got the epidural and luckily the nurse called my doctor to tell him that I was progressing very quickly. By 4:30 I was ready to push but had to wait a few minutes for the doctor to get there. He came in around 4:35, I pushed for about 5 minutes and out Rylan came!

It was so different this time around, not nearly as many people in the room. And the best part is that my epidural worked. After it was through I thought to myself that I could easily do this again. Which was the exact opposite of what I thought after Brady was born. Not to mention it was much easier on Rylan. I was so surprised when they handed me the baby right after she was born that I really didn't know what to do. I just didn't expect that at all.

Here is a link to a photo album with more pictures of her

http://picasaweb.google.com/alicia.dieder/0103#

Gro Baby Cloth Diapers

As most of those close to me know, Ryan and I switched to cloth diapers a few months ago. With a new baby on the way, we are always looking at expanding our "CD Stash" (cloth diaper supply). One of the hardest parts of using cloth diapers is trying to get our family and friends to use cloth when they watch him. As easy as I think cloth diapers are, not everyone is sold. So at this point in time, we need to make sure we always keep disposable diapers on hand.

Hopefully I have found a solution to this problem, the Gro Baby diaper with Biodegradable Soaker Pads. Basically it is a cloth diaper with a disposable insert. And the best part about it is that the insert is completely biodegradeable and compostable. So basically I can still maintain my goal of being better to the environment and I don't have to make my lovely babysitters deal with the messiness of cloth.

I am going to be able to try these for free through a blog giveaway that they are doing right now and will let you know how it goes!

You can check them out at the link the below and see what I am talking about in the picture below:

http://www.thenaturalbabyco.com/gro-baby-biodegradable-soaker-pads-p-745.html

It's been a while...

I have no good excuse for slacking. But now that I am on Maternity Leave, I will try to be better. (Right, cause when I have 2 kids I will have so much more time than I did before). We will see how it goes. For now, here are some recent pictures:

So serious

Roni and Brady going in for "some sugar." They both came out with knots on their heads, sitting on their butts.

I gave Brady a horrible haircut.

Brady and me

37 weeks pregnant

Is Ryan going to be the family photographer?

When Ryan tells Brady to "Smile" or "Pose" for the camera this is what he gets:

When I tell Brady to "Smile" or "Pose" for the camera, this is what I get:

This is the only time I get pictures where he is not crying for the camera: