Ryan month by month

I can't believe this, but in 12 weeks, I'm going to have a one year old.  Oh my goodness.  Last year at this time, I was 22 weeks pregnant.  My belly looked like this:

I had just started to feel Little Erbse kick often during the day and I felt flutters most of the night.  Mostly, we were just so excited.

Fast forward one year, and we have a 9 month old, who is getting into everything.  He makes me smile more times a day than I thought possible. He makes me see the world in a completely different way.  But most importantly, every day, I feel such an amazing love every time I look into those huge blue eyes, see his little "old man hair," nom on those little toes, or hold him close.  I cannot believe that we're rounding out Ryan's first year!

I decided in order to prepare for Ryan's first birthday, and to ease my "I'm a bad mom, because I didn't do monthly blog posts about Little Pea," mind, I'm going to post monthly updates weekly.  This week kicks off the whole shebang, with the final post falling nicely, on Ryan's birthday.  I'm pretty excited about this.  And pretty sure that I'll spend at least half of all post writing experiences teary-eyed.  But, putting Ryan's first year into a 12 week span will make everything seem just how the past year has been for me- ridiculously fast.

Please join me in looking back and celebrating our wonderful Ryan, our Little Erbse.

December 2, 2011.  Welcome to the world, Ryan Charles!  You took us all by surprise, and stole our hearts, and from this day forward, our world would never be the same!

It wasn't necessarily the most ideal start for a baby, but Ryan's first 10 days were spent in the hospital.  We got to know each other under the flourescent lights and cuddled together in a plastic lawn chair.  We learned that you liked to sleep, liked to cuddle, and liked to cry when you were not sleeping or cuddling.  We all went through the food battle.  Mommy cried a lot, and Daddy went a little crazy driving back and forth from home to the hospital a few times a day.  It didn't matter, but it all mattered.  Our world revolved around hoping for more food, hoping for weight gain, and hoping to go home.  All of a sudden, on the 12th, we found ourselves being moved, because Ryan's bed was needed for "sicker" babies.  Mommy's heart must have floated away that day.  And just when things looked like they were finally starting to improve, the same day, Mommy sat surrounded by doctors and nurses with the news that we were indeed, going home.

December 14, was the second most amazing day of our lives, Ryan.  It was the day that we all left the hospital as a family, Mommy, Daddy, and Erbse.  It was Ryan's first breath of fresh air, first time in a car seat, first time in a car, and first walk through the front door of the house that Mommy and Daddy had been living in for one week.  Mommy cried, as she thought about how many times our little boy would walk through the front door, and of course, our house all of a sudden became home.

The rest of the month flew by.  Ryan quickly became a part of our family.  Ryan's first month home was full of discovery, cuddling, and very little sleep for Mommy and Daddy.

Aunt Mandy came to help Mommy for a few days, for which Mommy will be forever grateful!  She was Ryan's first houseguest.  Ryan enjoyed the extra Aunt Mandy snuggles.  Uncle Doug and Aunt Mandy stopped by on January 1st, for another cuddle.

We celebrated Ryan's first Christmas pretty quietly, with lots of pictures with the tree, and a hat that Ryan absolutely hated wearing.

Ryan's first month rounded out by his first New Year's celebration.  New Year's Eve is something really special in Germany, with the sky alight with fireworks.  Of course, Ryan rang in the New Year sound asleep, but when you're four weeks old, it was really a new year for Ryan!