Ryder is one month.

I can't believe the time has come for these portraits to start again. Ryder is wearing the exact onesie Caiden wore for his 1 year portraits. He's still so tiny, smaller than Caiden was at birth. At his last appointment on May 30 he weighed 6lbs 11oz and was 19.75" long. He dropped to 5lbs 7oz after he was born and we've been diligently working on his weight gain ever since. He's a great eater. We had a rough go at first with latching because his mouth was so tiny, but he's really got the hang of it now. He sleeps pretty great at night, only waking up twice, but his days are sporadic and I never know what to expect. Some days he naps for 2 hours at a time with an hour awake in between. Some days he won't nap all morning and then takes a 5 hour nap in the afternoon. Sometimes he's asleep and awake in hour intervals all day. It's tough without a set schedule, but I'm working on being patient, and so is big brother Caiden. He does not like it when I got upstairs to nurse and put the baby down. He's had a very gassy tummy and a bit of reflux. We're combatting it with doTerra oils and it seems to really be helping. He's much more content now. He smiles a lot and I'm convinced he knows exactly who I am. Other people will hold him and when he gets back in my arms he stares into my eyes and smiles at me like he knows I'm his mommy. I love that. His brother loves to smother him with lots of love. He doesn't like the carseat but loves to be moving.
We were so blessed to have family come help for the first three weeks of his life. My mom was here from the day he was born and for 16 days after. The day she left Miles' mom flew in to help for a week. Miles' sister and her family drove up from North Carolina while his mom was here and we loved seeing them. It was so nice having all our visitors here. Caiden was in heaven having so much attention and people to play Lego's with. I honestly didn't even realize just how helpful they were until everyone left and Caiden was constantly begging me to play with him. I think that's been the hardest part for me. I hate not being able to give him all the attention he wants and play every time he asks. He doesn't quite understand that if he's quiet for a few minutes and lets me get Ryder down I can give him my undivided attention. He often whines and cries very loudly, waking the baby and makes the whole process longer than it needs to be. I've been trying to make the most of our one on one time doing the things that he wants to do, but if I never see another Lego again I will be very happy. Sometimes it feels like I'm holding an infant and a toddler and just treading water, but we're starting to get into a rhythm. Hopefully Ryder develops some sort of daytime routine soon, I think we'll all be a lot happier when that happens. But I really don't feel like I can complain. He's such a happy, sweet baby and he lets me sleep a lot at night. We sure love our Ryder William.