More Sleep... And Hair Loss?

So, Cayden is doing really well (knock on wood) with his sleeping at night. He's sleeping 'through night' for about three days. Sleeping 'through night' means sleeping 6 straight hours, not necessarily from when you put them to bed till morning. I'm feeling good now that I'm getting some sleep. He's sleeping from 9 till about 4:30. Life is good.

*****

Had anyone told me before I got pregnant about all the negative side effects AFTER the baby is actually here, I may have not panicked when things happened. Everyone tells you when you're pregnant that your hair grows and gets thicker, your nails grow and that you'll just have this 'glow'. Sounds fantastic. No one told me that once the baby is here those wonderful things fade and sometimes very quickly. When in the shower and you're washing your hair and you end up pulling a fist full of hair with it, you'll probably panic. When you brush your hair and it's full of your hair and you still have a fist full of hair when fingering through it, you'll probably panic. When you wake up in the morning with hair all over your pillow, you'll start to wonder what in the world is going on. Yes, its that wonderful thickness of your hair going away. Why can't we just keep it that way? When you're giving your baby a bath and you notice that you have a nail that needs clipped once you're done. You try to wait but your nail has other plans. You start drying baby off and off rips your nail with the towel. Ouch. Not necessarily a thing to panic about, but still not nice. And finally, the 'glow'. What I always like to refer to as the 'I've been sick all morning' glow. Yeah, that fades quickly too.. For me it fades to the wonderful world of teenage acne once again. Ew. I hope this all fades as quickly as my wonderful hair, nails and glow faded.

Water... It's Feel Good Juice

I wish drinking water would make me feel this good!

England v. USA

You know, the hardest thing about living in a foreign country and being married to someone that is a different nationality is times like tonight. England is playing the USA in football. I have Mike routing for England and getting Ryan to route for England, and then there is me. I have observed a Euro quarter/semi/final and the World Cup final. The atmosphere here makes it very easy to route for England. So, that's what I've done. I will be completely honest. Football was a sport I used to ~loathe~ until I moved here. I have since gotten really into it, and enjoy supporting England. Tonight, I'm having a little bit of an inner battle. I love supporting England, yet I feel an obligation to support the US because that's where I'm from. Oh what to do. What. To. Do.

Okay I made up my mind. England it is. GO ENGLAND!

6 weeks old!

Where has the time gone? Even though this has been a roller coaster ride of screaming and wanting to feed constantly and the days seeming to drag at the time, the time really has flown by. I can't believe my baby is only two weeks away from his first innoculations. He's only two weeks away from being two months old. He's only two weeks away from some new major milestones. Even though he's only been a part of our family for six weeks. It feels like he's been a part of our family forever, and I'm so happy he is our son. :)

You know those people who hold babies and say they're glad to hand them back? Well, I'm glad I don't have to hand my babies back. :)

Mundane

I feel really bad when life is just passing me by and I'm not doing anything to document it. To be honest, the last few days have had things that happened but they weren't anything to write down to try to remember. I feel life is exciting yet so mundane sometimes. During my pregnancies I documented everytime I felt something or knew something new. After I had Ryan I even documented how I was feeling and how things went with his weight issues and all. With Cayden, it's been different. I ~want~ to document about those things, I just haven't had the time. 70% of the day is full of Cayden crying. Even when he's trying to eat. It's awful. Another 10% is when he is quiet, yet Ryan doesn't know any different since Cayden has cried non-stop since he was born, and goes over to do something to him to make him cry since he thinks that's what baby's are supposed to do. 15% is when Cayden is sleeping. And the other 5% is when I can do something with both the boys because they're both being quiet enough that I can. I'm lucky if I get an hour at night to myself to update my family on what's happening and going on, let alone update my own records. I really need to though, before I forget what happened and when. I have them jotted down on paper, but the minor details (everyone knows I like to be detailed in what I write) might slip away and be forgotten. All the stuff I document is going to be printed out and put into a book for part of my boys graduation gifts. To show them all they have accomplished and acheived over their lives. I really need to get cracking, wouldn't you say?

Santa Ryan!

So tonight in the bath Ryan kept saying "beard, mammy, santa!" he had his back turned when he was saying it, so I said for him to turn around and this is what he looked like! He kept telling me he was Santa because he had a beard. Silly boy.

Ryan Brought Me "Flowers"

Ryan and Mike went to play football on the market tonight. When they came home, Ryan came running into the bathroom, where I was giving Cayden a bath, and said "here you are, mammy". I looked at him and his face was just so proud. I took them, said thank you and gave him a hug and a kiss. He ran off to tell daddy that mammy loved her flowers. Here is a photo of my "flowers".


Now they may look like just ~weeds~ to anybody else, but to a three year old they are flowers for mammy. And mammy loved them. :)

Go Super Dan!

One of Mike's gym acquaintances, Dan Sowerby is going to be on the TV show Gladiators tonight! I was pretty surprised someone from such a small town made it on a TV show like that. I remember watching it as a kid thinking the people were amazing athletes, but never in a million years did I think I would know (or anyone that I know would know) anyone going on the show! Good luck 'Super Dan'!

**Update**
Dan came in second. It was so close. He was ahead by points throughout the entire show, and once they got to the final competition he got an 11 second head start because he was so ahead on points. He lost his footing stepping onto the platform after using the arm bike and because he fell, he was given a 15 second penalty which is when his opponent took the lead. Dan got a second chance to catch up once his opponent fell back down the inclined conveyor belt, but again, he lost his footing and fell too. His opponent got back up the incline with no problems while Dan was waiting his turn after getting another time penalty. It's a shame he didn't win, but he gave it his best!

Too funny

I was taking pictures of the boys today and took three in a row of Cayden. They were probably 2 minutes apart, but when looking at the photos one after the other, I couldn't help but laugh at how they turned out.

Please excuse the red-eye. I'm too lazy to fix it just now.

It's haircut day!

Ryan Before:

Ryan After:

For some reason he wanted to keep tilting his head backwards, but you can still tell he got a hair cut. I'll update when he will let me take a decent photo.

Tonight has been the easiest by far

So tonight when putting the boys to bed, I found it substantially easier than it has been over the last four, nearly five, weeks. No having to put Ryan back in bed every five minutes. No hearing "mammy!" being shouted from his bedroom. Cayden has also stayed down for longer than 15 minutes before waking. I have no way of knowing ~why~ it was easier, I just found it to be that way. I will keep my fingers crossed that this happens more often and that this is the start of me finally finding my routine with the boys. Only took me 4.6 weeks... That's long enough I think.

Walk a Little Slower Mammy

When Ryan was a baby, I attended a breastfeeding support group. They gave all the women attending this group the poem below, along with a stamp of their child's footprints.

Footprints
Walk a little slower mammy," said a child so small.
"I'm following in your footsteps and I don't want to fall.
Sometimes your steps are very fast,
Sometimes they're hard to see;
So walk a little slower, Mammy,
For you are leading me.
Someday when I'm all grown up,
You're what I want to be;
Then I will have a little child
Who'll want to follow me.
And I would want to lead just right,
And know that I was true;
So, walk a little slower, Mammy,
For I must follow you."
- Author Unknown

4 weeks 1 day old

We got our first smile from Cayden today! He's just over four weeks old and he'll be a month old tomorrow. It is so crazy how fast time goes, even when you're exhausted and frustrated at times. Even though he's only been here for a month, I couldn't imagine our lives without him.



On another note. Ryan is absolutely smitten with his baby brother. Every time he gets to hold him or sit by him or sit with me an 'play' with him his face just lights up. Even though Cayden wasn't smiling yet in this photo (taken a few days ago) you can see the excitement and joy in Ryan's face. I can't wait until Cayden is older and they can play together.

October 15 is the date...

We now have flights to the US for when we move!

This move is getting more and more expensive by the day. I'll just be glad when the entire process is over and we can relax and start enjoying life again.

The Style and Fashion Sense of a Three Year Old.

As a parent, you pick and choose your battles. If your child wants to watch tv wearing sunglasses, you let them, simply because you want to avoid a meltdown. We have numerous meltdowns a day over tiny things - so I chose to pick my battles when it came to Ryan coming out of his bedroom wearing this. Thank goodness we didn't need to go anywhere, so I let him wear it to avoid yet another tantrum. When I told him it didn't match he said "yes, it does. Fishies and water match". Okay then, sunshine.







Then there is this... He kept nudging me when I was reading an article, calling himself "Shrek". I looked at him and this is what I saw. He loves to have his picture taken so that's why he has such a silly proud grin.

Cars, Cars, Cars and more Cars!

Ryan's birthday is coming up next month. He is getting really excited about it, which in turn makes me excited because it's the first year that he really *knows* what is going on. He keeps asking for a Disney Pixar CARS themed birthday, and I'm happy to oblige. The only bad thing, is that he goes on and on about it ALL day long! "Mammy, I want Lightning McQueen cake for my birthday", "Mammy, I want Dinoco blue Mcqueen for my birthday", "Mammy, I want Mater AT my birthday".... Well, I can do the first two but not so sure about the third. Any suggestions? LOL! It's going to be a great day but its also going to be a little sad, as its going to be his last birthday celebrated while we live here. We'll more than likely come to visit on his birthday in a few years but we won't live here. Nice, fun, exciting and a little sad all rolled into one.

Cinco De Mayo is a Holiday in England?

It is this year. The first Monday of every May is considered a "bank holiday" in this country. All the shops are shut, all the banks are shut, pretty much the entire country closes down (especially if you live in a small town like we do). We're pretty lucky here, we get at least 8 days a year that most businesses are closed. And, if you work for a big corporation like Mike does, you get 2 weeks off at Christmas too. I wish the US would adopt some of the 'ways of life' from England. Wouldn't that be nice.

Brotherly love.

Aww.

Ryan is SO much fun!

Everyone that comes across Ryan absolutely loves him. We went to the wedding of some close friends of ours today, and at the reception, Ryan was pretty close the star of the party. He was dancing, and blowing bubbles and just having a great time. Everyone was all smiles when they were watching him. We had three people offer to take him home for the night because they think he is that much fun!

Mike's friend, Gary, told me tonight that he feels for me when Cayden gets older. I asked him why, and he said "look at Ryan... Having TWO of them to run after? You'll be knackered!" ha! Very nicely put, thanks Gary. You can look after Ryan ANYTIME!

Our Family Has Grown By Two Feet!

Cayden Rhys Fullerton was born on April 14, 2008 at 4:26pm, weighing a whopping 9lb 3oz and was 21.5 inches long!

Ryan absolutely *LOVES* his baby brother. He is wanting to be such a great help too. He helps me get diapers, wipes, blankets, toys, etc. Anything I need he wants to get it for me.

My birth stories are posted here(Ryan) and here(Cayden) for anyone interested. They are very detailed, so if you're not into that type of thing - you may want to give it a miss.