Our newest little gentleman, Jude Weldon, was born September 24 at 9:24AM-- yes, for those that love good even numbers that is 9:24 on 9.24. At 8.6lbs and 21in, he has been our biggest baby and just as loud as his brothers when they were born. With Ryder, I was in labor for 24hrs before a c-section was needed due to failure to progress and his heart rate dropping. As soon as I found out I was pregnant with Jude, we scheduled a c-section knowing we didn't want to add any more risk than necessary. With my history, I'm just happy to have a healthy baby in my arms at the end- no matter how he's born. Not to mention, knowing the date ahead of time makes it a lot easier to plan for out of town family to take care of our older two. Here are some pictures of our little guy over the last 10 days.
It's safe to say the big brothers are pretty obsessed with him. They ran into our room so excited to give him their presents. They wanted to jump right up on the bed and give him his paci. They ask to hold him all the time and can't get enough of "baby dude".
I remembered to bring my real camera to the hospital this time around AND remembered to actually take some pictures. Here's our sweet boy at just one day old.
And then some pictures I was able to take anytime my phone was in arm's reach.
Our first night home.
Watching golf with daddy.
And while the older brothers were in South Carolina, we met some family for lunch.
As always, we love when our big boys come home and I think the feeling is mutual.
Our sweet, soon-to-be middle baby boy turned two and a half the same day Finn turned four, so I didn't want to let too much time go by before posting this. Ryder. Rydee. Rydee Bear. Tiny tubs. You are our sweet, funny, free-dancing, pancake-loving baby boy. The way you smile with all of your teeth and your eyes get really big when you're excited about something might be one of my favorite things ever. You definitely have more of an introverted personality like me, but you are absolutely obsessed with your big brother who brings out your high energy spunk.
You love to play outside, but are also the first to come in on your own when you're too hot or sweaty or hungry (also from me). You love playing with "choo choo's", kicking balls, doing puzzles, coloring, looking at books and watching Mickey Mouse or Daniel Tiger.
Within the past 6 months, we started using your light-up clock which has been a life-saver for all of us. Before it, you would consistently wake up by 5:30 everyday. With it, you now sleep until 7:15 (it's a miracle). You're our little creature of habit (also mommy) and eat a "wogurt cup" every morning and usually ask for strawberry. But breakfast is also still your favorite meal so you usually end up eating yogurt, a waffle, cereal or anything else you see mommy or daddy eat. I'm pretty positive you could eat a dozen doughnuts if we let you. You came close at Finn's birthday party and the result was not good. Along with doughnuts, you've never met a muffin, cupcake, cookie or bread you didn't like (also mommy). You typically eat lunch and really only tolerate dinner unless it's noodles or hot dogs.
You love going to church and playing in your Waumba Land class and are always eager to show us the craft you made. You're not in school yet, but every time we drop brother off, you ask if we're going to "my cass" next, so I'm pretty sure you would love it if we sent you. I do love our mornings together while brother is as school, because I get to watch you try and decide what you want to play without big brother telling you what we're doing next. You're also pretty easy to tote around and run with errands too.
You love story time at the library and music class a church nearby. You loved going to the pool this summer and really love the animals at the zoo. As soon as mama is able to walk again and the temp drops below 90, we will certainly be back.
You love airplanes, diggers, trains and the trash truck. You love going to the "pay-gowand" (playground). You love when daddy does something silly with loud noises and usually ask to "tye agin" (try again). You are just smitten with Finn and call him "bubber". You both can fight all day long, but when it comes to trying to separate you two, you refuse to play in another room away from him. You are each other's best friend and it's so fun to watch your little interactions where you both say something and then bust out laughing- usually something I don't even understand.
You do seem to have your mommy's patience and can get easily frustrated when something or someone isn't doing what you want. This usually brings out some hitting or yelling and while, not appropriate at all, it's pretty hard to keep from laughing to see so much aggression come out of something so small.
You are our tiny little guy at just 26lbs, but pack a whole lot of energy and fun into a tiny little frame. We just love you to pieces, Ryder boy and it is such a joy to be your mommy and daddy!
This post is really to wrap up our summer before our newest little man arrives and I go back to blogging about once a year. Kidding. Sort of. Someone did mention to me the other day that I hadn't posted a recipe recently and one reason is lack of time, but the other is that there really is not much involved with heating up Trader Joe's vegetable fried rice...But really this summer has been about trying soak up our first summer in our new home/neighborhood. We didn't take any trips or do anything super exciting, but our days were mostly filled with playground trips, zoo visits, playing in the pool and a very pregnant mama trying to survive with a two and a three year old.
So anyway, here is a look at what we've been up to as we finished out the summer...
We had ice cream sundaes in the driveway for National Ice Cream Day.
We celebrated our friend, Ryan's birthday with a pool party at his house. Complete with cupcakes.
Thank goodness for cute church crafts, because mama was not feeling crafty much at all this summer.
We took some trips to the mall when it got too hot to do anything outside.
And obviously Target.
We ate a lot of pancakes.
And tagged along with mommy to the doctor's office.
And got doughnuts as a reward for being so good at said doctor's appointments.
