henry.

this is henry.  henry is now one week and two days old. it has been quite the week and two days for the rytting family. its amazing how quickly your life can change.  looking back on the last week it seems like some sort of a dream. since he’s arrived he’s completely stolen all our time and attention.  and we wouldn’t have it any other way. we are obsessed, to say the least. we think he’s pretty much the cutest.

as for his arrival story, it was completely unexpected. thursday day (the 10th) I wasn’t feeling quite right. the baby wasn’t moving as much as he normally does and I was having  some major back pain.  I had been having back pain for the last few weeks so I wasn’t too concerned about that. that night the pain was getting worse and I was starting to have feelings similar to cramps. around 1 am we called the dr. just to be safe. he told us to go to labor and delivery just to get checked out and make sure everything was okay with the baby. we drove to the hospital, expecting to be 20 minutes. the nurse checked me and surprise, I was 3 1/2 centimeters dilated and 90 % effaced. we were shocked. apparently I had been in active labor and had no idea. I kept asking, “so I’m not going home tonight…?” over and over. I was two days away from being 36 weeks. we had no bags packed,  very little baby stuff set up at home, hardly anything purchased for that matter. panic.

I don’t remember the exact timing, but things progressed pretty fast. in what seemed like no time at all I was far enough along to have the epidural, which was lovely. my water was broken and things went even faster after that.  the hardest part of labor was how sick I felt. I was throwing up constantly. other than that I feel extremely lucky with the way labor went. contractions felt more like mild cramps and I only pushed for about 30 minutes.  baby boy was born at 11:59 am on Friday, February 11, 2011.  he weighed 6 lbs 7 oz and was 19 inches long.

because he was early,  he is considered “late pre-term”, he couldn’t stay with us for very long. we both (me and the baby) had a fever and he was taken away to the special care nursery. he was put on an iv, antibiotics and oxygen. they started running tests to check for infections. he also was having a hard time maintaining his temperature so they had him under a heat lamp. he was strapped to so many wires and had iv’s in his hands and his heels were bandaged from where they drew blood. it was so heartbreaking to see him like that. it was such a helpless feeling knowing that your baby was so uncomfortable and struggling and not being able to do anything.

the dr. let us know that he would have to stay in special care for a while, 5-10 days. on saturday we named him henry. he didn’t look like a nixon or a william, which was our second choice. henry had come up on our list of options when we first found out it was a boy, but mckay wasn’t too sure about it. but he was a henry. the name just fit.

we were discharged on sunday and left the hospital without him. this was the hardest thing. it was so strange to go home after the hospital and not have our baby. we weren’t really sure what to do with ourselves.  while we were waiting for his blood tests to come back we started working on weaning him off the iv. with every good feeding they were able to lower the amount of fluid from the iv. every 2-3 hours, day and night, we drove from home to the hospital to feed him. luckily we live about 7 minutes from the hospital. this was such a stressful and exhausting time but every time we left for the hospital we were so excited to see our guy. slowly he got better at eating, late pre term babies struggle with eating, and often fall asleep while eating, they also limited us to 30 minute feedings in special care. not knowing if he was getting enough to eat was so stressful and I felt guilt and anxiety constantly. he soon was able to maintain his temperature and no longer needed to be on oxygen. two steps forward. then he developed jaundice and high blood pressure. two steps back.   the jaundice and the blood pressure postponed him leaving the hospital even more. he was put under lights for his jaundice. trying to improve his eating was difficult considering we were dealing with so many tubes and wires, etc. and the lights were making him very agitated. the tests came back clear of infection which was wonderful news. now we had the jaundice and the high blood pressure to worry about. we were told we would be able to take him home tuesday. we took care of all the necessary discharge stuff and were so excited that our baby was healthy enough to finally come home. tuesday morning we got to the hospital early only to have the dr. tell us he still wasn’t ready to go home. we weren’t expecting to hear that. we had the diaper bag, the car seat, all the nurses had sounded so optimistic. we had to leave again without our boy and start another day of back and forth for feedings. wednesday came, and the dr. wanted him to stay under the lights until the afternoon but he was almost certain we would be able to take him home that day. in between feedings we ran errands to make sure we had everything we needed. that afternoon we were finally able to take him home. it was an amazing feeling. our  little family was finally together :).

(newborn clothes fit a little too big)

since bringing him home we have been in heaven. a very sleepy, sleepy heaven… its amazing how one can live on such little sleep. we’ve had dr’s appointments the last few days to check on his billiruben level (jaundice) and to check his weight, he had lost quite a bit while he was in the hospital. 

henry is doing great, we’re working on fattening him up. already he has such a personality. he is so mellow and pleasant. he’ll cry every once in awhile but it never lasts long, it seems like he’s only crying because he thinks he’s supposed to, but he calms down almost instantly. he is incredibly strong. the nurses nicknamed him squirrel because he was so wiggly and he would push himself out of his bed with his skinny little chicken legs.

sorry this is so long, but I don’t have time to write this down anywhere else. being the proud mama that I am I have to share some pictures of our sweet boy. we love him more than we can say.

he did not love his bath.

but loved the warm towel after.

8 weeks and counting….

a few recent noteworthy events for us Ryttings:

{1} Mckay completed 12 Graduate School Applications. yes 12. We probably could have done half that, but we like the idea of having options. Well, hopefully we’ll have options. Our top two choices are Berkeley and University of Washington in Seattle, we just feel like we could adapt to West Coast life pretty easily.

{2} baby and I hit our 32 week mark. cant believe we’ll actually have a sweet baby boy at the end of all this. 8 weeks is going to be here before we know it. speaking of the babe, the last month or so has been filled with almost non stop movement, which is so unbelievable. Its amazing for Mckay to be able to feel so much. so weird to look down and watch my stomach being kicked around. The non-stop kicking and pushing can get a little tiring and uncomfortable at times. We found out that speakers on my belly calms him down for a little bit. little man likes brahms.  at 32 weeks:

I’m feeling ginormous. The tummy is getting in the way of things , especially at work and I’m starting to waddle. 2 more months to go, lets hope I can make it. 

I’m also a little worried that I won’t get through the long list of baby crafts/projects I was hoping to have finished before the mr. got here. Hopefully once I’m done working I’ll be able to get some things done. I did do a few appliqued onesies, so that’s something at least. cant wait till he can actually wear these.

festivities

Well December came and went, much too fast I think, and its time for a little update. Better late than never.  Once again, there aren’t many pictures of our Holidays, we didn’t really feel like hauling the camera around with us, something I would regret  more if I was a lot skinnier and tanner right now.

Our month was a busy one, with both Rytting parents working in the music world we are pretty spoiled with all the Christmas concerts and shows we get to go to. We went to the Utah Valley Symphony Christmas Concert, they played music from Home Alone, which sounded so amazing and festive, among other great Christmas classics.  The Nutcracker, which is always a must. We also  made the trek up to the Cathedral Madeline for the Children’s Choir concert, which was once again, one of our favorites.

Not the best picture of us, we look a little too tired and chubby. Well I do, so ignore that fact and direct your eyes to Mckay’s chest hair. This is just one of the only pictures we got of us during the entire month so I felt like I should use it.

We also made a stop at the Christmas tree at Gateway. Just a little nerd fact for you ( I know this because I married one) but that tree was named “the Brightest Tree in America”.  This didn’t really make sense to us, but, since the tree was only 48 feet tall and used 90,000 lights made it have more lights per branch than any other tree in the country. Compared to the Rockefeller tree which was I think close to 100 feet tall and only used somewhere around a third that many lights, that’s pretty impressive.  also impressive is the fact that the Gateway tree used a lot less power than the most of the other trees that made the top 10.  the end.

Christmas break is also time for my favorite Jacobs tradition, the Salt Lake weekend. We always stay at Little America, which is always decorated so amazing for Christmas.  We shopped at Gateway, saw Tron, ate at Stone Ground and Tucano’s (a pregnant girls paradise), went swimming, watched the Jazz game, and finished the weekend off with the Christmas Brunch with Santa, too perfect.

This is the only good picture from that weekend. didn’t even get one of the entire family : (

With this potentially being our last Christmas break living in Utah we tried to spend as much time with each of our families as possible, and since our families live 20 minutes apart we spent a lot of time driving back and forth. Our break was full of family time, movies, games, puzzles, amazing food, relaxing, shopping. It was heaven.  We seriously got spoiled by both families this Christmas but I have to mention a couple gifts that completely thrilled us. Mckay got a bike trainer so he can ride his road bike in the house during the winter, so great. I got some new lenses for our camera, soooo excited, and just in time for the little man, I have a feeling Im going to be one of those annoying moms that takes pictures of anything and everything their baby is doing. I also got the most dreamy diaper bag:

I just have to say I have had my eye on Petunia Pickle Bottom bags since even before I was ever pregnant. Embarrassing I know, but just imagine how thrilling  it is to finally be the proud owner of one. Its beautiful.

December also meant our last month with our beloved Primary Class. We’re now teaching the 8 year olds, which is a lot less crazy, but we loved and miss our wild little class. We made them some Christmas goodies for their last day with us:

These little pretzel bites were so easy and fun to make and we were surprised that something so simple was oh so addicting. The white ones are Hershey’s Kisses, fudge filled I think, and the others are Rolo’s. You stack mini pretzels (the square window shaped ones work the best) with the chocolate and stick them in a 200 degree oven for 3 1/2 to 4 minutes pull them out and press an M & M into the top. I think I might have to make these every year.

and Melted Snowman Cookies.  I got this idea online. I  only wish I was creative enough to come up with something like this on my own.

Anyways, wonderful, busy, fun month. Next year, Christmas with the babe, I think that might easily top this year.

forgotten goods from the camera

oh goodness it’s been awhile. And I am quite sick of looking at Paul Millsap’s floating head every time I open our blog so the time for an update is past due. I have some catching up to do. Our quiet life has had its busy moments lately, especially with the holidays and I’m sad because I’ve been neglecting our camera lately, so the pictures are few and far between but just for the record:

Our Thanksgiving Break was much enjoyed, and needed. Our week was filled with mountains and mountains of food ( we literally cooked for two days straight), jazz games, family, a killer Rock Band jam session, movies (Tangled was too cute), a little Black Friday shopping, and lots of relaxing.

While I’m catching up there are some pictures from October that I just need to post. I have to pay tribute to our Halloween weekend trip to the Rytting cabin. Halloween weekend at the cabin is becoming a tradition, it was seriously a weekend straight from Heaven.

We got to play in dreamy places like Christmas Meadows, Lilly Lake, and Provo River Falls. It felt more like Christmas break than Halloween weekend, we left the cabin surrounded by snow. We did make sure to celebrate Halloween properly, with a serious pumpkin carving. Mckays pumpkin was quite a thing to behold, he carved some lobster character from Futurama, I cant remember its name. but it was amazing, I wish I had gotten a picture. I was being ambitious, and attempted to carve Mr. Harry James Potter in honor of #7, but quickly ran out of steam and ended up with a picture of Harry, taped to the front. It was a nice thought, anyway. Okay, I feel better now that October and November are taken care of.  We’ll see how I do with December updates.

Go Jazz!

The past two days have been huge for the Jazz, and so I thought I should put this up to celebrate. We love Paul Millsap! I made this in Photoshop to celebrate the Jazz wins!

no more “it” baby.

21 week ultrasound was much anticipated in the Rytting house.  Like I said we were counting down the days.  I for one was super anxious to see if baby was growing great and healthy, and I couldn’t wait to find out what we were having so I could get busy  making lots of little goodies for the babe. Going in to the appointment I was still thinking it was a girl, and it took all of 0.2 seconds for the doctor to tell us it was a BOY!  very, very clearly a boy I might add :) It was amazing seeing our little mister moving around, he was super active! Sweet baby boy also apparently has a big head…thanks to mckay, and is measuring 5 days bigger than average, sounds like we might have a big baby on our hands! The only downside to the ultrasound is the mister was facing away from us so we never got to see a profile. and because people have asked, no, I wasn’t disappointed that it wasn’t a girl, I knew I was going to be so happy with either. In fact when the doctor told us it was a boy the first thought I had was “perfect”.  Adding a little boy to our family is absolutely perfect, and we could not be happier. And if he looks anything like his papa:

he is going to be quite the little heartbreaker.

After the dr. we made a quick trip to baby gap to buy a little outfit. We met my family for dinner and showed them what we bought:

We are all so excited and grateful for our sweet boy and can’t wait for him to make his appearance in March!

We do have a name picked out, we’re pretty set on it, but I am just a little hesitant to completely commit to it. It’s just a little intimidating naming a human, especially since the name we have in mind isn’t exactly traditional.  a little background on the name, Mckay thought of it a couple years ago, and I instantly hated it. It took awhile but it slowly grew on me.  Then we had family members who heard about the name and they loved it, and it was talked about so much that it kind of just became the baby’s name. And now when I think about it it just seems like his name and I cant imagine him being called anything else.  Still, if you know me you know I am terrible at making decisions, especially one as big as this.  So while we have a name basically picked out, we wont be putting it on walls or in frames or on clothes or anything, and we’ll probably just refer to him as baby boy,  I think I’ll have to just wait and see when he gets here. but just because I always want to know what people are naming their kids I’ll fill you in on the name: Nixon Ray. Ray is set in stone, for my sweet grandpa.  We’ll see if Nixon sticks around till march, though I have a feeling it will. Whatever his name ends up being we are so excited for him to get here!

Look what Mckay let me do…

 

16 weeks

20 weeks

7 days and counting till we find out if the babe is a hims or a her!The first trimester I had a feeling baby was a boy, but I’ve changed my mind, don’t know why, but I’m thinking girl now. Honestly I have no idea really. A lady at work stared at the shape of my belly for awhile then said it was a girl. She sounded pretty confident…Mckay thinks she’s full of it. I guess we will see! and you better believe we have a few names a-waiting.

party party

Last week we had a little Halloween party for our sweet little primary class. We love these kids but they are seriously a h.a.n.d.f.u.l.l.  In an attempt to encourage a tiny bit of reverence during class starting in September we brought a “party jar” to church. Throughout September and October they got to fill their jar with candy corns depending on how good they were that day. A full jar meant a Halloween party, but lets be honest there was always going to be a party.  

We had a pizza party to be more specific. The kids got to build their own pizza’s with the few toppings they requested.  We had Vampire Blood-Sauce, Mummy Dandruff-Cheese, Monster Meat-Sausage, ham, pepperoni, Bat Eyes- Olives, and Witches Teeth-Pineapple. too cute :) And Mckay made his famous root beer aka, Witches Brew, bubbling and smoking like it was the real thing.

Eyeball Cupcakes for dessert. fun to make and easy, I thought these looked super gross, but the kids loved them.

We played a couple games. Lots of high pitched squealing, running, screaming, sword/broomstick fighting, a few tears (look at poor Emarie on the couch).  total chaos for an hour and a half.

The game ended with a little scavenger hunt. I wish I had more pictures but they literally are all blurry. They were going non stop. But the scavenger hunt was super fun. We had hidden black cats all over the house and in the yard, each cat had a name of one of the kids on it. On the back was a clue for that kid to read, leading them to the next cat. They loved this.

The hunt led them to a stash of Halloween gift bags each filled with dollar store goodies and some homemade treats. I didn’t want to fill the bags with all candy, so I got Halloween pencils, tattoos, tops, a deck of playing cards (random but fun), etc. These were all found at the dollar store or at Joanne’s for 60% off. good deal. I got the idea for these suckers on ohdeedoh and decided to try it. They were a little time consuming but pretty easy to make, all it took was tissue paper and chenille wire. Lesson learned, Suckers with the wrapper twisted at the stick (like tootsie pops) work and look better than ones that twist at the top, like blow pops.

fun fun. the kids asked on Sunday if we could have a party every month. ha! so glad they had fun but my goodness it will take us months to recover.

Well Hello October!

October is definitely one of my favorite months. We’ve kind of had a lazy/fun October this year. Here are some highlights, sorry, this might be a long one…

We have taken advantage of our nearby canyons and changing leaves and gone on a couple  of drives. These pictures are from earlier in the month. Me and Mckay decided to grab some tasty Mexican at Tarahumara and then head up the Alpine Loop with Cascade Springs being the ultimate destination. Apparently every other Utah County resident had the same idea that day. It was so crowded we decided to skip it and kept driving till we hit a “rough and narrow road”. Understatement of a lifetime. The views were amazing, but they don’t capture the sheer terror that came later in this spontaneous off-roading. It started out like this:

and we crossed a couple of these which was pretty cool, not to mention beautiful.

After these pretty delights things started getting a little treacherous. The road got really rocky, narrow and STEEP.  One side of the road just dropped straight down hundreds of feet. I seriously feared for our lives. I didn’t get pictures of this part, my hands were too busy clutching on to the arm rests. I was slightly traumatized. It was funny later, after I realized we had made it out alive. Silly Mckay, he went back later in the month and drove the road again.  With the dog in the passenger seat instead of me this time.

Highlight two of the month was a busy day for us. We got to play with both families. We went to the BYU game with my family and witnessed one of their few wins this season, it was  so fun to have Chris and JJ down, I wish I had pictures. Earlier in the day we went up to South Fork to take some Rytting family pictures! After an hour or so of awkward posing (the pictures actually turned out amazing) we took these gems…

poor Dad Rytting had just been to the eye doctor.

so funny. This was also the first time I had seen my pregnant self on camera. It was shocking.

This is my family’s dog Toby. He’s unbelievably irritating but ohhhhh so cute.  We were house sitting/ dog sitting for my parents one weekend and decided to take this little man up to Silver Lake. We were all three of us completely worn out after this outing.

Pretty views

Play Date with the Ducks

This is what happens when fishermen leave without saying goodbye.

We think he enjoyed himself.

Hi it's me McKay

So...I'm not really a regular on here, but I got on the other day and noticed that the ESPN widgets were messed up and the music playlist was old and dry. I updated the widgets and got them working again (you're welcome) and took off some of the old music. I started putting music on, and then Emily flipped and said that she wanted to be involved and that everything had to be approved by her, which meant that like two of the songs I had chosen got through. I just did what she said because it's easier than dealing with pregnancy hormones. We did realize we needed to update the music with stuff that we're actually enjoying and listening to these days. We weeded through my picks pretty quickly and added some of hers (at least one of which I despise, I just want you to know) and we'll work on rounding out a full-fledged playlist for you guys.

In other news, I got a new phone! I've been jonesing for an Android phone for about a year now, and I've been looking for one to buy since my iPhone broke in April. I finally settled on the HTC G2. I didn't love the idea of a physical keyboard but I did love everything else about the phone. So I ordered it two weeks ago and got it on the 4th. I've been using it for over a week and a half now and I love it. I'm not obsessed with the physical keyboard still, but it's not as annoying as I thought it would be. I am obsessed with the Swype virtual keyboard. It, along with Google Voice Actions, have changed my life. It has increased my laziness to another level entirely. I haven't dialed a phone number or looked up a contact since I got the phone. I just say "call Lysa Rytting mobile" and it calls my mom. Or I say "navigate to Chipotle" and a few seconds later an enchanting female voice (we're trying to decide what to call her) gives me directions to the nearest burrito heaven. I can say "SMS Calendar. Meeting with Brian on Thursday at 5" and it will automagically add a meeting with Brian on Thursday at 5 to my Google Calendar. For anyone who's considering a smartphone, I'm going to say you have to go the Android route. There is just no comparison between what an Android phone can do and what you can do with any other smartphone. When I do cool stuff with my phone, maybe I'll post it here. Or maybe not, because I'm guessing most of the people that read this couldn't care less about my total nerdiness. Here's a picture of my phone, since we haven't really done pictures lately.



Also, I'm not as fat as I look in some of those pictures. I swear.