Prematurity Awareness Month

November is Prematurity Awareness Month, hence why my blog is turned purple. Remember this little preemie prince?
Many of you already know Ryan’s story about how he came into the world at 28 weeks, 5 days gestation--11 1/2 weeks early. If not, check out my early blog posting here for the beginning and here for his birth story. It’s been 27 ½ months since I unexpectedly gave birth to our precious boy Ryan who weighed 2 lbs. 13oz. but the emotions still get the best of me when I think back to those days leading up to his birth and the 69 days he spent in the NICU. That’s why I want to make everyone I can aware of the March of Dimes and more specifically their efforts to find out what causes prematurity & how it can be stopped. Click hereto find out the facts about prematurity and then on November 17, 2009, join me along with thousands of bloggers from around the world who will blog about prematurity and help spread the word.

Halloween 2009

Ryan had a wonderful time Halloween day. We went to Michael’s for their free kids craft. The kids got to make a felt spider to attach to a magnet picture frame and draw/color the picture that went in the frame. Ryan had fun coloring and I had fun laughing at myself trying to make a spider from pipe cleaners & pompoms. Dean ended up taking over because I was a clutz and dropped the spider and got glue on my shirt! I think it turned out pretty good.

He got a good nap in and we were ready to tackle Trick or Treating. We had practiced getting Ryan to say Trick or Treat and he actually did say it one time but mostly always said “treat”. We met my godson & friend at the mall before going to my parent’s house. Ryan had a fun sticking out his basket and getting the candy. By the time we got to my parent’s house and went around to the houses in their neighborhood (where I grew up by the way), he was getting good at saying “trick treat” and “tank you”. We also, got him to shake his tail..like a fish! I’ll upload a video showing that but in the meantime here’s our little Nemo!


It's so amazing to see how much he's grown over the last 3 Halloween's!
2007

2008

2009

Toddler room theme & the night splint

We've decided on the toddler room theme and it's going to be Thomas the Train! I've probably searched every online store possible and the bedding I liked the best was sold out on the two websites that carried it. Fortunately, we took a trip to Kmart this weekend and happened to find it there so I was excited! This is the set we ended up with:

We know that Ryan LOVES cars..any kind, any brand. From Disney's Pixar Cars to Hot Wheels Cars to the Dollar Store brand but ever since his birthday he has been lovin' trains. I think getting him the train table certainly was part of that but also his willingness to watch Thomas on TV or the DVD's. I think his love for trains will grow even more as he gets older and we wanted his room to reflect that. We will be making the transition Thanksgiving weekend so if anyone has any tips on making it easier, please don't hesitate to let me know! I'm nervous! More so about him not wanting to stay in bed and standing at the door (which we plan to have a gate up at since we have a 2 story house) and crying and then none of us getting any sleep.

Speaking of sleep, we got the night splint last week but have yet to have Ryan wearing it at night. Apparently, his foot needs to get acclimated to it and he needs to wear it off & on during the day until he is wearing it for 4 hours straight without any problems (meaning, no redness or swelling after we take it off). Since he had several things going on Thursday & Friday, we started him wearing it on Saturday until we had errands to run. The splint requires a larger shoe and since he only has to wear it at night, we are not buying a bigger shoe at this point. I imagine by the end of this week, he'll be wearing it at night and hopefully won't be trying to take it off.

Fall Fest

We took Ryan to a Fall Festival at a local farm today. We went last year and he had a good time but of course since he's now a year older and able to do more things, he had an even better time. He loved every minute (well, except for one of the bouncy houses) and having our godson there to run around with him & take him through the inflatables was wonderful. He rode a horse, with a lady leading the horse and daddy walking beside. When they were coming back around to the front I could hear him saying "giddy up". Dean said he was saying that mostly the whole way around.


He got to pick out a kid sized pumpkin and we actually got some good pictures with him looking at the camera. His new thing the last couple weeks is to say "cheeeeese"..even when he's not looking at the camera..it's quite funny though.

They had a petting farm and Ryan got a kick out of chasing the goats & chickens around. We took a hayride around the farm and then my godson took him through the inflatables. I'm not real sure he likes those all too much but he will tolerate a couple. When it came time to go into the house type one that you go inside and jump around in, he wasn't having it. We let my godson bounce for a while and then went over to do other things. We were all worn out by the time we left to go get some lunch and I know Ryan will be sleeping soundly tonight!