Will's fist doctor visit

Last Tuesday we took Will to his 2-week doctor's appointment. It was quite the adventure for the little guy as he hasn't really done much other than sleep, eat, get his diaper changed, and lie around. He has continued to impress us with how calm and good-natured he is. I'm sure there are going to be plenty of circumstances in the future where he and his sister will have us pulling our hair out, but I must say that Katherine and I both are amazed and appreciative of what a calm baby he is. Especially given all the things we've had to deal with in the past three weeks.

Given how good of a baby and now toddler Lyla has been, we were expecting (and our friends were secretly wishing) that Will would be more difficult. If anything, he's better than even Lyla was. I'm not sure why we're so lucky, we definitely don't deserve it but we also not complaining. It's just one more thing on a long list of wonderful attributes of our beautiful children.

Here are the pictures from the visit to the doctor's.

Getting ready to go... Will sure doesn't like being put in his carseat.
LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!! LET ME... (tuck him in with a fuzzy blanket) ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ..............

He awakens in a strange place... hmm, this can't be good.

Hey, Beardy! What's going on? Where am I? Where's Lyla?

What the deuce?!?! That thing is freezing! Where are my clothes?

Oh, mom's finger! Excellent, I'll use this to call Lyla. She's come rescue me!

Seriously, Bearded Guy. What the heck is going on here. p.s. Do you have your tickets?... To the GUN SHOW? POW POW!!

Okay, that wasn't so bad. I got my shirt and socks back. I guess we'll go home soon, nothing else is going to happen to me.... wait, why does that guy have a needle?

Ow. That really hurt. Do you not see how scrawny my legs are? Why would you give me a shot in one? And I don't even get a Snoopy band-aid. What the heck!

Mom, you and the Bearded Guy better take me back to Lyla. I'm so over this place.

According to the measurements, Will has already grown an inch and a half and gained about a pound and a half. Surprise, surprise he's going to be tall. Who knew?

We are home

After a tenuous Monday-night and Tuesday, with Katherine's recovering seeming to run into some minor (and not uncommon) complications, Wednesday turned the corner and Katherine's body sprinted to the finish line, recovering well enough that they let us go home at the usual time. So the morning was spent reviewing instructions from nurses (e.g. cover the front when changing a diaper or you could get an unpleasant surprise), packing up our things (we brought a bunch of things to the hospital and received a bunch of things at the hospital... like a baby), and waiting for Patient Transport to wheel Katherine and Will out to the car.

That last part took a long time... not sure if "Patient" refers to who is being transported or a recommended state of being while you wait for them to arrive. They came, they wheeled her out, we loaded the car, we started driving, Will started crying, we made it home. Hurray!!!

Waiting...

On our way out!!

Home!!!


Our time at home has been great so far. The first night home with Lyla we were up all night trying to get her to sleep. So our expectations were pretty low. And we were pleasantly surprised. Katherine slept on the couch, I slept on the air mattress and Will slept in his cradle which I had set up in the living room. We'll probably do the same set up tonight while Katherine is still recovering (it's difficult for her to sit up on her own in our bed). Today we sat around, playing with Lyla and taking care of will. I tried to get back to work... it took me seven hours to write one email (granted I had to look up a lot of the information I was communicating in the email, but frequent interruptions to change diapers, tend to Lyla, help Katherine, etc. didn't help).

Katherine's mom has been here since Sunday taking care of Lyla and she's staying for awhile. Having her here has been great, a huge help. Katherine's dad is coming up tonight to meet his grandson and stay a few days.

Hopefully, Katherine will be back to normal soon, save the mandated restrictions like not lifting more than the weight of Will in the car seat. I know that Lyla wants to get back to climbing all over her and it's hard to keep an eye on Lyla so she doesn't kamikaze right toward Katherine before Katherine is well enough to handle it.

If you're in Grand Rapids and want to visit, call and let us know. We're thinking that we'll be up for visitors starting tomorrow. I know Will can't wait to meet all of you!

Here's more photos:

In my exhausted state, I totally poored my cup of water on Lyla while she was sitting on my lap right before bed. She forgave me, then proceed to prance around sans clothes for about 10 minutes before she went night-night.

Goofing off with dad!

Yay! Family! I am the luckiest man in the world!

The kid sleeps a lot!

Time to head home... we think

So I'm a little self-conscious about the fact that I haven't been posting as much as I did when we were here with Lyla (we really were here with Lyla, on the other end of the floor, in fact if you turned the building 180 degrees, we'd end up in the exact same spot we were in fro Dec. 4 through 7, 2007). I love will and don't want him to feel neglected because of second-child syndrome (I'm especially sensitive to it because I'm a second-child). That being said there are a few things that Have kept me from posting pictures and blurbs:

1. Lyla - she still needs attention, and though Grandma is here and doing a great job with her, I still have been taking time out of each day to spend with her. Yesterday, she and I went down to the GR Children's Museum for an hour or so so Katherine and her mom could spend time together. We had a blast, riding around on little carts, pretending to drive a car, throwing balls around, making music, brushing teeth, grocery shopping, looking in mirrors, and climbing on things. It was a lot of fun but it wore both of us out. Lyla passed out in her stroller as we were walking back. It was cute.

The other thing we've done while she's been here has been to walk around the hallways. The first day she walked around for about 30 minutes holding my hand. She kept walking up to different doors and knocking on them. It was cute. Yesterday she took the stroller and pushed it around the hall a whole bunch. She kept trying to go into different offices, it was funny.

We also walked over to the nursery to look at the babies. When she arrived yesterday, Will was in there recovering from his circumcision. We walked up to the window and I pointed him out to her and she got this big smile on her face. Then she kept asking to look at all the different babies but kept coming back to Will. I think she recognizes him, which is awesome. Anyway.

2. Katherine - this recovery has been a little more difficult than last time so we had to invest more time in making sure Katherine was getting what she needs. Fortunately she's feeling much better and we're on target to leave today, assuming the final checks go okay.

3. Internet access - this time I can't get on the network from our room so I'm sitting out in the hallway right now. Makes it harder to post.

Anyway, despite all the distractions, it has been great getting to know Will the past few days. He's such a content and strong baby. He sleeps, then he eats, then he sleeps again. But starting yesterday, and more so today, he's becoming more alert, looking around, spending time with his eyes open. He's so beautiful. I love it.

We're excited to get home and to get started on this new phase of our life. But until then, here are a bunch of pictures I've taken over the past two days.





I love the way she smiles when she sees him.

Our friends the Schalks are geniuses (well, Julie is) and they brought a present for Lyla. It's a duck.

Will pics

Pictures from our adventures last night/this morning.

Post pushing, pre surgery picture. Kate is such a trooper.

The doors outside the operating room. Seems like only 15 months ago I was waiting anxiously outside these doors. (Looks like they've added some awesome decals to the doors in the last year.)

The boy emerges!!

Ooh, he does not like it out here.

Tending the umbilical cord.

Katherine and Will meet for the first time. Katherine was so much more aware this time around, the anesthesiologist did a great job.

7lbs 11 oz, what a big boy.

Mother and son. Katherine is such a great mother, it was awesome to see her love for Will come pouring out of her.

All cleaned up.

Tiny foot.
More pictures and videos later. I love my family.

Lyla's words

We were at the doctor last week for Lyla's 15 month check up. During the examination, Dr. Wallace was asking us questions to gauge Lyla's development levels for areas like motor control, growth, socializing, and learning. One of the questions he asked us was "Does she know at least four words?" Katherine and I both looked at each other and we both were like, "Uh, yeah."

Here's a list of as many words I can think of that Lyla can say:

1. Turtle - her first word
2. Mama
3. Dada
4. Please
5. Thank you
6. No
7. Yes
8. Nose
9. Eyes
10. Ears
11. Couch
12. Wall
13. Door
14. Outside
15. Upstairs
16. Downstairs
17. Achoo
18. Blocks
19. Ball
20. Knock knock
21. Juice
22. O's (Cheerieos)
23. Cereal
24. Nana (Banana)
25. Yogurt
26. Open
27. Closed
28. Up
29. Down
30. Roar
31. Boom
32. Wheee (when I swing her around)
33. Star
34. Toes
35. Elbow
36. Button
37. Belly
38. Baby
39. Heel
40. Arm
41. Coat
42. Hat
43. Hot
44. No no (Danger)
45. Mouth
46. Teeth
47. Cheek
48. Hair
49. Shirt
50. Socks
51. Shoes
52. O (in response to pointing to a letter and asking her what it is)
53. All done
54. Bottle
55. Papifer (pacifier)
56. Bear
57. Off
58. On
59. Yum yum
60. Blueberry
61. Strawberry
62. Apple
63. Melon
64. Cracker
65. Beard
66. Mmm
67. Mem-mim (medicine)
68. Hand
69. Night night
70. Spoon
71. El-la-ant (Elephant)
    
72. I-no (Rhino)
73. Squirrel
74. Um (when you ask her a question)
75. Brrrr (when it's cold)
76. Duck
77. This
78. That
79. Dude
80. Really
81. Ready
82. Blue
83. Book
84. Toot
85. Burp
86. Uh oh
87. Hi
88. Buh bye
89. Home
90. Beep
91. Brother
92. Bottom
93. Amen
94. Jejeh (Jesus)
95. Ring
96. Again (her way of requesting that we do something again... like read a book, or swing her upside down)
97. Help
98. Ta-Da!
99. Sonny (the name of Grandma's bird)
100. Bird
     

Words she uses signs for:

1. Please
2. Thank you
   
3. Hungry
4. All done
5. Sleepy
   
6. Butterfly
7. Cat
8. Fish
9. Frog
10. I love you (blowing kisses)
    

Animal noises:

1. Rawr - bear
2. Rawr - lion
3. Rawr - tiger
4. Ooo ooo ooo - monkey
5. Eeeee eee - dolphin
6. Eeeee eee - mouse
   
7. Sssss - snake
8. Wah wah - duck
9. Heh heh heh (panting noise) - dog
10. Peep - chick
11. Bwap bwap - chicken
12. Mmmoo - cow
13. Kneee - horse
14. Hapiow (while sticking her tongue in and out) - frog
    

The names of her friends that she can say:

1. Abbie
2. Josh
3. Liam
4. Ian
5. Anna (the famous Aunt Anna)
   
6. Matthew (the super cool Uncle Matthew)
   
7. Luke
8. Sadie
9. Meggie
10. Ellie
    
11. Grace

There are others, I'm sure. And most of what she says is either "please," "up," or "no." She's so cute.

It's a boy!!

Or at least it will be sometime around March 17, 2009. For all y'all (that's southern for "those of you") who didn't know, Katherine's pregnant!! Again!! I know!! I can hardly believe it either!! Especially because Lyla and her little brother are only going to be 15 months apart in age. Next year is going to be CRAZY!!

Anyway, yesterday we went in for the ultrasound and the baby looks real healthy. We also found out the child's gender (we like to know the gender. I respect those who wait to find out a lot but Katherine and I both really enjoy knowing). During the ultrasound the little guy was being shy but the tech was able to get pretty good confirmation that he's a he. I personally hadn't spent much time before the ultrasound speculating about the gender, mainly because I didn't want to expose myself to the possibility of being excited. And also because I remember the rush of emotion when we found out Lyla was a girl and just the onslaught of anticipated future Daddy/Daughter experiences that came flooding in.

And yesterday the same thing happened. We saw that he's a boy and immediately I started thinking about my little man and playing catch and wrestling and teaching him to work on stuff and teaching him to be respectful and polite and chivalrous. It was (and continues to be great). Another thing I'm excited about is that he's the first boy among Katherine and my siblings. He has an older sister and two older girl cousins. Man are they going to terrorize him. It will be so much fun.
We've already received a number of suggestions for names from our family. Fortunately we have a lot of great names among the males in both our families. Right now the working name is "Michael Jeff-Jeff Stephen IsTheBest David Robot Awesome Dude 3000 Ring". Katherine and I are going to keep the real name to ourselves (probably) until he's born (like we did with Lyla), but think that might be easier said than done this time.

Anyway, we're super excited and it was so great to see him on the ultrasound. He's so cute. I can't wait to meet him.

How big is Lyla?

So big.


Little Girl turned nine months old last week and has grown into a super-cute, super-sweet, super-fun little kid. She's pulling herself up on anything she can reach, she's fast crawling all over the house, she's playing games like "How Big is Lyla?" (when she feels like it), and so many other new and fun things. One of my favorites is her fake laugh she started doing this week. Whenever people are around and are laughing, she'll start fake laughing, mimicking the noise she's hearing. It's definitely different than her real laugh, I'll try and take a video of it so you can see what I'm talking about.


Today we're going to the doctor's for Lyla's 9-month check up. Hopefully she doesn't have to have any shots today because she cut a tooth yesterday (she has the front four, top teeth all coming in right now) and somehow teething and shots does not seem like a pleasant combination.




UPDATE: Lyla is 29.5 inches tall and weighs 18 lbs 12.5 oz. Go Ring Family genes!!!! Fortunately for everyone involved, she's all up to date on immunizations and didn't have to get shots. Also .325 sounds good.

Thank you and an update.

Wanted to thank all of you who have been praying for my dad's health. Quick update, he visited with his oncologist yesterday and found out that none of the cancerous spots in his lungs had grown at all. In addition, the spot in his chest lymph-node (which had alerted him to the cancer in the first place by swelling) is now completely gone. So things are going well. Please continue to remember Mike/Dad/Grandpa Ring in your prayers!

The tradition in the Ring family is to call the paternal grandfather "Grandpa Ring." I did it. My dad did it. I think his dad did it. Anyway, there is a long and distinguished line of Grandpa Rings and my dad fits the mold quite nicely. Something tells me though, if Lyla ends up calling him something other than Grandpa Ring, he'll like that just as well.

Here's a video of Lyla dancing a celebratory jig (and otherwise ignoring my efforts to rile her up) after hearing of Grandpa Ring's good news.

Genetics... or, Lyla's 4 month doctor's appointment

Pausing quickly from our Dallas Trip series, I wanted to let everyone know that Lyla had her 4 month doctor's visit yesterday. Once again she was very good through the whole appointment. She got four shots this time with out any incidents (mainly because I suggested up front that they let me hold her legs instead of the nurse trying to hold them while administering the shots). Once again she cried and then calmed down quickly. We really are fortunate.

Unfortunately for you readers out there in the interweb, we didn't take any pictures of this visit. Maybe it's because she's getting older, or maybe it's because these experiences aren't "new," or maybe it's because I'm taking on average 400 photos a month and don't know how I'm going to keep track of them all (as an aside for those readers who are interested in technology, I went to upload the newest photos into a Facebook album and was surprised to discover that the FB application only recognizes the first 1000 files in a folder. I couldn't access Lyla Katherine Ring 1001.jpg through Lyla Katherine Ring 1536.jpg or what ever it is. To upload the new photos I would have had to move them to a new folder, so I abandoned the project for now. Sorry Facebook friends! I'll figure it out soon, I promise. Anyway, I how quickly we reach the limitations of new technology. End aside.)

What I do have for you is a replica of the charts the doctor showed us of Lyla's measurements compared to national averages. First her weight: 14 lbs 10 oz. Which is in the 75th percentile. Slightly above average, she's developing normally as you can see from this chart of percentile ranges and her weights at birth, 2 mos., and 4 mos. (a special thanks to the internet for its plethora of baby-related websites):


Now, the reason I titled this post "Genetics" is you can very clearly see from the length chart which parent Lyla gets her height from (as well as her complexion, hair, explosive bowels, and eye color -- thank goodness that Katherine's cute face is genetically dominant). Measuring in at 27 inches at four months old, from Grand Rapids, Michigan... as you can see she's off the charts. There isn't even a percentile for her to be in. It's her first 100%; my tall daughter. Place your bets now for what height she ends up at...

Good work baby.

Last week wrap-up: SHOTS!!!

We got way behind on posting last week so prepare yourself for some machine gun posts!!

First up, Lyla finally had her 2 month immunizations last Wednesday. Last Wednesday she was 11 weeks old, so why did they wait that long to give her the shots? Well, the state of Michigan uses months instead of weeks as its unit of measure for spacing out the immunization schedule. Originally, Lyla was scheduled to have on Jan. 29th (or so), well into her 8th week of life. We found out when we got to the doctor that Michigan would not recognize the immunizations if they were given before the 2 month mark (Feb. 4th). Craziness!!! So we had to reschedule and they pushed it way out just to be safe.

So we went in and they gave her six vaccinations (1 oral and 5 injections). Baby drank the oral quite well, then we pinned her down for the shots. Neither Katherine nor I really enjoyed this process but understand the necessity of limiting her movement in order to gain access to the legs (where the injections are given) and to minimize her thrashing (once the injections are given). The two nurses lined up, one with three shots for the left leg and the other with two shot for the right leg (shots are given simultaneously in each leg to minimize the duration of discomfort).

We get ready for the first shot, the nurse counts down: 3... 2... 1... INJECTION. Baby starts, yells, pulls a leg free and starts to cry. In the process of pulling the leg free, the right leg needle came out before the nurse finished injecting, so now it's three shots in the right leg as well as the left. The great (or one of the great) things about Lyla is she's pretty mellow. After the shot, she cried for about 10 seconds, then calmed right down, even smiling at mommy and daddy (high tolerance for pain!!! yes!!! woo-hoo!!! every parents' dream!!!)

Daddy repositions so he's now in charge of holding the legs down, mommy is holding both hands. The count down: 3... 2... 1... INJECTION. Baby starts, yells, cries, shots are given no problem, baby calms down after about 10 seconds. Smiles again.

Injection sequence number 3 - The count down: 3... 2... 1... INJECTION. Baby starts, yells, cries, shots are given no problem, baby calms down, but it takes a little bit longer, about 20 seconds. this time. Smiles again. All done. Good baby.

As you can see, they gave her nifty Snoopy band-aids. After the injects, daddy, er I mean, I got my blood drawn (one of the benefits of going to a family practice is being able to coordinate medical visits). I neither cried not wrenched my arm free, I also have a lot of practice getting blood work (one of the benefits of having chronic illnesses). I got a Looney Tunes band-aid (sorry, no picture).

Lyla's 2 month doctor's appointment.

We took Lyla for her two month doctor's appointment last Friday (as she had turned eight weeks old the previous Tuesday). It snowed three to five inches during the day so it wasn't the easiest trip out; we even witnessed a car spin out on the ice in front of us on the way there. The appointment went well, Lyla is developing normally and is a healthy little baby. She got officially measured and was 23.75 inches long and weighed 11 lbs 8 oz. The also measured the circumference of her head but I forget what it was. Again the height and head size were 90th+ percentile and weight was ~50th percentile. Tall and skinny; all the nurses said that she'll be grateful for inheriting Dad's build when she's older.

She was supposed to get six vaccinations this visit but apparently there was a mix up with the scheduling. In Michigan, the 2-month visit only "counts" if it happens after the two month mark, not the eight week mark (Lyla was born Dec. 4th, so the appointment had to be Feb 4th or later to be state recognized). Any shots before the 4th wouldn't have counted as far as state records are concerned. So we didn't get any shots this visit (Lyla said she was ready for them whenever, bring it on), and the shots are now scheduled for Feb 18th (60 days after her two week visit, go figure).

Overall, Lyla was very good. She isn't shy about stripping down to her diaper and likes looking at the lights and colors of the examination room. Here's the pictures:

In the waiting room:

Mom and baby before the doctor came in:

Happy times:

Sad times: