Five Months!

Yet another month has come and gone and I clearly cannot keep up (hence the late post)!

Dempsey has had quite the exciting month for such a little man! He is looking really big but has only gained about one pound since his 4 month appointment, but he fits in 9 month pajamas! He is still able to wear a lot of his 3 month clothes but also fits into 6 month ones. He has long legs which is why he needs to wear such a large size in pjs!

He went on his first vacation/road trip to Durango. For anyone that doesn't know, that's where Finn and I went to college and lived for five years. It was really nice to go back, but soooo different being "grown ups" with a child, rather than young college kids. We went and saw our old house and went to all of our favorite restaurants plus hung out with awesome friends and stayed with one of my best friends and her super cool husband (thank you Jess and Cody!!). It was a nice trip but definitely hard to mess with the little man's routine. Napping and sleeping were a bit rough on all of us and Dempsey had his first true diaper blowout and boy was it a mess!

He went to his first (and second) wedding which brought with it his first (and second) bow tie and suspenders wearing experience.The first wedding was in Durango which was the reason for our road trip/vacation. It was great to see our good friends Josh and Sarah (finally) get married! We have known them for nearly 8 years, which is how long they have been dating! The second wedding was in Estes Park and it was a beautiful day even with the rain delay. Luckily Dempsey is so cute that he even makes me and Finn look good in pictures! ;)

We have successfully weaned him from his swaddle. He rolls all over the place at night and during naps and we often hear him hitting his head/knees/elbows on the sides of his crib. He doesn't roll over as much during the day and often acts as if he is unable to roll from his tummy to his back, yet I know that he does it during his naps and throughout the night so I'm sure it is only a matter of time before he starts rolling, or crawling I suppose! Since he is no longer swaddled that also means that he is napping in his CRIB! This is a huge deal for us since he used to do all of his napping in his swing and sometimes also needed a little help from his favorite Pandora station to fall asleep. He now only has one swinging session a day, first thing in the morning while I pump and then takes his morning nap in there. I also turn the swing off as soon as he falls asleep so that he is not in "moving sleep." We have him on more of a schedule for naps and bedtime, which includes a pretty early bedtime - between 6:30 and 7:00.

His nighttime sleep habits still have Finn and I scratching our heads. Most nights he wakes every 2-3 hours (I know, it's exhausting). But, on the plus side, he typically just eats and then falls right back asleep. Occasionally he will not go back to sleep and will do a lot of screaming and crying and nothing seems to help. Luckily we have only had a few of those evenings, but man are they tough. Then there are the nights that we really cherish; those are the ones where he sleeps for 6-7 hour stretches at a time (like he did before he was 3 months old). I hope that those nights increase because I think everyone is much happier when he does sleep for those long stretches of time!

One of the reasons why we think he doesn't always sleep so great is that he is definitely teething. He not only likes to put everything in his mouth and drool a lot, but he likes to rub his gums on just about anything he can and he spends more than 90% of the time he is awake with his hands/fingers/toes shoved into his mouth. He likes all of his teething toys which is good and we give him some homeopathic chamomile drops to help him with any discomfort. 

He has discovered that he has a lot of new voices - including an ear piercing, but adorable, squeal. He also likes to bow bubbles at us - although he is quickly outgrowing that activity (way too old and advanced for that!). He likes to practice this, particularly on days when he is not teething as much. 

He likes his dogs, a lot. He will reach out to them when they walk near him and he likes to grab their faces or fur to say "hello." He also enjoys smiling and laughing at Oakleigh, especially when we are playing ball with her. He also still enjoys watching the chickens walk around. He continues to love being outside and is definitely a nature lover!

Until next month...when he will be a half a year old! Oh my word!!

Wordless Wednesday

Top Ten Tuesday

Four Months

Wow! This month brought a lot of changes for Mr. Dempsey! Get ready, cause this post is fairly long!


He is an expert roller - from back to front that is. He has rolled from front to back a few times, but lately he is on a back to front kick. We can't wait for him to figure out how to master the front to back roll as well as he has the back to front because he gets super frustrated when he is "stuck" on his stomach, and he can roll at night and when he gets stuck, he screams! So the kiddo needs to learn to love laying on his stomach or learn how to roll right back where he came from! :)

He LOVES sucking on his arm, wrist, hand, fingers. No, seriously, he has given himself more hickeys than I've had my entire life (sorry about that Mom and Dad!). He is so happy to just suck away. He also enjoys other people's hands, fingers, shoulders, etc for his sucking pleasure. He also has started to do this hilarious thing when he sucks and he "bites" down and shakes his head back and forth like he is eating some corn on the cob or has watched Oakleigh shake around a toy/bone/cardboard box one too many times. He has a pretty powerful little chomp too! I am glad he doesn't have any teeth yet!

He has mastered the tricky art of getting out of a straight jacket Miracle Blanket! He is like the Houdini of babies I'm telling ya! He can get out of that thing in less than a minute if he really wants to! He has also been able to, while fully swaddled, rolled from his back to his front! That is a frightening thought; he can't be stuck face down with his arms pinned down and his feet in a pouch. Oy vey! So, we tried to wean him from the swaddle, and since he is so content with sucking on his limbs we figured it would be great because he could self soothe. Boy, were we wrong. It seems to be a real hit or miss type of thing. We have tried a receiving blanket swaddle, no swaddle, loose swaddle...nothing seems to work to great. Some nights he would sleep pretty good and others he was up every hour or two. I literally have no idea how people can handle babies who don't sleep for more than a two hour stretch for months on end. I was exhausted, Finn was exhausted, Dempsey was exhausted! I miss the days of 5 or more hour stretches of sleep. We have started a new bedtime routine to help give him new cues that it is time to go to sleep. And, we are going to try a sleep sack this month and see how that goes. Wish us luck!

He has started to pay attention to the dogs, a lot. He thinks they are funny most of the time. He had the funniest, dumbfounded expression the other day when Gus was snoring near him; very much a "what the heck is that!?!?!" type of look. I told him I feel the same way! Oakleigh is still very fascinated by him and likes to be wherever he (and the rest of the family) is. Dempsey likes to smile at her and gets big grins when she kisses him. He also has started to notice and watch the chickens when we take him outside. His eyes wide and head moving from side to side while they walk and squawk around him. He also likes to spend time outside, a lot. He prefers the outdoors to most activities (except maybe bath time).

He has also started to grab at things. Not everything, and not all the time, but he does enjoy holding onto his burp cloth and some of his stuffed animals. He doesn't play with his toys on his activity mat as much as he used to because he is so busy sucking on his arms to grab at and play with those. He also likes looking at himself in mirrors. He is adorable, so who can blame him!?

He is a smiley little kid. He definitely recognizes people now. He knows the grandparents and aunts pretty darn well these days and gives them all cute grins when they say hello. But, he saves special smiles for mom and dad, I'm sure of it. He has also started to laugh! Oh dear god, this is seriously the most ridiculously cute thing in the whole world. It is hard to not cry when he laughs because it is so stinkin' adorable! I got to overhear and watch Dempsey and Finn after their bedtime story last week and it was pretty heart melty. Yep, that's what I said, heart melty. Hopefully we'll catch him giggling on video one of these days and post it on here.

Dempsey went on his first hike! Which also meant is was our first time having the dogs in the car at the same time as Dempsey! I bought a little mesh barrier to go between the cargo area and the back seat just to give the dogs a boundary and it works great and is so much better than those clunky metal ones. We went to Loveland Pass and Finn carried him in the baby Bjorn. Of course for our first hike of the season and our first hike with a baby strapped onto us, we chose to start at an elevation of 11,990 feet with a steep incline. Yep, that was smart. We felt like we were in such great shape....hahaha. It was a nice day but the clouds rolled in while we were hiking and we even got snowed on, in June! We hiked for more than an hour and had an awesome time. Dempsey fell asleep on our way back down and was a champ - people said he must have really strong longs to hike at such an elevation! :) We of course documented the trip with lots of pictures and Finn collected a small bouquet of wild flowers for Dempsey's baby book.

He finally got to meet his Great Grandma Marge Kast! This was a huge deal! We had been waiting for this day for almost 4 months! Due to health problems, etc. she had to postpone her trip until the end of June. Thank goodness nothing strange came up this time otherwise Finn, Dempsey and I would have been taking our first plane ride, to Chicago! It was so awesome to get to see all four generations together. Grandma got to spend lots of time playing with, holding, feeding and staring at Dempsey! We did the usual family tradition of a meal at My Brother's Bar and enjoyed lots of family time for the few days she was here.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day, Finny! 

Who could have imagined that when we met more than 14 years ago that one day we'd be celebrating your First Father's Day together!? You would, that's who! 

You've told me time and time again that you always knew I was the one for you and the one you wanted to be the mother of your children. You have never doubted, not even for a single moment, that I would be the one to make you a proud father.

Our road to parenthood wasn't one for the story lines of "16 and Pregnant" (thank goodness!) and it wasn't the easiest task we've taken on.  From the day we heard the words "fertility treatments" until the day I showed you the positive pregnancy test, it was a long and emotional roller coaster. We had many laughs and plenty of tears. But, it was one of the most rewarding journeys I have ever been on with you!

One year ago today on Father's Day, we were too nervous to pee on a stick. I didn't want to have to tell you, again, that you were not going to be a father (yet). We had the family over and I spent much of the day with the dream of you getting to celebrate this special day as a father next year. The following day we found out that we were in fact pregnant and we were both so nervous and excited that we couldn't fall back asleep (and it was only 5am)! Our lives were instantly changed when that little white stick said "pregnant" or had two blurry lines, whichever way you prefer to remember it! ;)

Fast forward nine months to March 2, 2012. The day that you became a dad. Although really, I am convinced that you were born to be a dad. We welcomed Dempsey Mason Ruehrdanz into the world at 8:58 pm, he weighed 7lbs, 10oz, and was 20 1/4" long. He was beautiful in every way. He was happy and healthy. You received the most excited dad, EVER, award from our doctor and your emotional reaction to the arrival of our son was so touching I don't think there was a dry eye in the place. Your scream, laugh, cry, ecstatic-ness was so amazing to see. You didn't want to let him leave your arms. You were in love, more in love than you had ever been in love before. You had a son. You made him. You couldn't have been more proud. 

From that day on you had shifted from Finn, a best friend, a son, a soccer player, a coach, a fanatic, a son-in-law, a brother, and so many other things to DAD. You didn't lose any other part of yourself, but it was as if that one final piece of being a dad made your life so much more complete. You took to the role with such ease and grace, it was as if it was always meant to be (which of course it was). 

You are the world's greatest dad to Dempsey. You have given him nothing but 200% of everything you have to offer since the day you two met. You are an expert diaper changing, swaddling, shushing, rocking, bouncing, entertaining, baby-wearing, smile-inducing dad. Dempsey is the luckiest boy on the planet to have you as his Dad. I cannot wait to watch the two of you grow up together. I know that you will be the best of friends and you will be so proud of one another. And I know that one day he will exclaim "Dad, you are the best!" Because, hunny, you really are the best.

I'm so blessed to have you as my best friend. My husband. My soul mate. The father to my children. My everything. 

I love you more today than I did the day before and that gets truer everyday.

Today, my lover, it is all about you. Here's to wishing you the Happiest First Father's Day Ever!!

Wordless Wednesday