Ryker's 1st

An ENTIRE YEAR has completely flown by! 

I can't believe that little Ryker is already a year old. Where did that year go? I think being in school made it go by so fast. 

We had a lot of fun for Ryker's birthday. We started the festivities by getting his pictures taken and allowing him to engorge himself with a sugar filled cupcake. He loved every minute of it.

True Blue Aggies!

We then had a great party for him where a bunch of his friends came to play.

 

Grandma Hoffer wouldn't like this picture too much...

We then traveled to Colorado to visit Richard, Sara, Briley and Ali.

Sara and Ryker's birthdays are on the same day! They got to celebrate together

We stayed at the Breckinridge Resort. WAY NICE.

Papa and Ryker taking a nap while the ladies go shopping

Ryker LOVES his cousin Ali. He followed her everywhere she went

By Ryker's first birthday, he was walking, signing "milk," saying "mama" and "dada" and giving big open mouthed kisses.

We love him SO MUCH.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYKER

Photo Book

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FrIeNdS!

I have so many wonderful friends. Since school let out for the holidays, I've had the opportunity to spend some time with them! They love Ryker and I love them!

Ashley came to visit us yesterday from Oklahoma! I was so happy. I can't believe it's been so long since I've seen her... well I guess just a semester but it definitely feels longer than that. And she'll be gone for SO long. Anyway, she got to see Ryker and it was fun to catch up. I love my Shlee! We are going to miss our daughter Brittany! We were her "parents" while she was here at USU because hers were so far away. I loved going to concerts and hearing her awesome solos - she's the best bass clarinet player this side-da-Mississippi! I really have had a lot of fun with Brittany these last few years. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do without her. :'-( This was at her going-away-party and it was great but we bawled our faces off.
This is currently my favorite couple on the planet. Whitney and Nate are two of the greatest people I know and now they're dating! I helped them with their christmas gifts to each other. Whitney made Nate a quilt and Nate made Whitney a scrapbook! Both were Amaaazing. Nate is actually extremely crafty and creative. He pretty much did the whole thing without me. What a stud.

The Life and Times of Ryker

So here's the stats on our son:
Ryker is such a good baby. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful child. But don't get me wrong, I'm not getting used to it - I know the day will come when one nap is all you'll get in the day instead of dropping in and out of sleep all day long.

He is SO strong! I'm sure every mother thinks that their baby is a fast learner and I do too! Ryker was holding his head up pretty much the day he came out of the womb - I never really have had to worry about it. He is also using his legs to stand and jump when you hold him under the arms. he loves moving around and using his arms and legs.

What a man! No fear in the face of DANGER! haha. (that's the dog's name)

He LOVES being naked. My best friend Ashley claims that he gets this from me. :-)
Ryker is already smiling! I can't believe it. I think he gave me his first smile like... oh 2 weeks ago but yesterday he gave me a HUGE smile when I was laughing with another one of my friends, Tiauna. I haven't quite captured this on camera yet but I am bound and determined!

At night he sleeps... okay. I guess I can't complain but when school comes around I hope he sleeps more. I've heard of how draining it is to not get sleep but what I've heard doesn't compare to how it feels. I had one full week of school after he was born and it was not fun at all. It made me very nervous for next semester when I'll be taking boards. But I can't do anything about it except keep working hard and deal with it when it comes.

I feel bad because I know that I haven't been able to enjoy Ryker as much as I could. It feels like school is still the thing that I think of most often - sadly. I hope this doesn't make me a bad mother. I just know that my sister Jodi LOVES holding and playing with her new baby Colby. She wants to spend every second with him because he is her last. I wish I could do that with Ryker. Just hold him and love him all day long! I'm sure someday he'll understand and I only have ONE semester left!
This is Colby - isn't he ADORABLE?! Ah! I have SO many cute nieces and nephews it's insane. I really don't know how my kids are going to keep up. Colby loves Ryker already. He gave him a nice big kiss - true, Ryker doesn't look too thrilled, frightened even but I'm sure they'll be best of friends.
I think Ryker has been a little spoiled lately. Being the holidays, we spend a lot of time with family and everyone wants to hold him so he doesn't really get put down at all. Well now he's hooked! He never wants to be put down.

Papa Nana Cousin Hannah - She's growing up so fast! Such a beautiful young woman.And even Uncle Paul can't help showing his absolute love for our Star Trek Star
I love my son. He is such a blessing to us and I wouldn't ask for a different child! haha.

BaBy RyKeR!

He's here! And what a handsome little tyke he is too!

Let me just say that I would go back and go through labor with Ryker any day! I know, I'm completely retarded but it was such a good experience and I loved every minute of it.

I've had a call for pictures of little Ryker so here they are!

1 Day old!


4 Days Old

Look at those hands and feet! HUGE!

I love Ryker so much!

Out of my womb and into my heart!

Ryker Vaughn Hoffer is finally here!

He was born Monday, November 8th at 2:26 pm.

6 lb 13 oz, 19 inches long.

I woke up monday morning at 2:00 am soaking wet. I was so convinced of the fact that I was going to be pregnant for the rest of my life that I didn't even think that my water had broke! I didn't wake up Nate either because I just didn't want to bother him for no reason! But after I went to the bathroom and realized that I couldn't possibly be peeing for that long I decided I should start to take things seriously. Nate woke up and got all excited (of course) and I called the hospital to let them know we'd be coming. I also wasn't sure that it was legit because I wasn't having any contractions. They told me to come in because the baby would need to be delivered within 12 hours of my water breaking. Nate went around the house gathering the things from my checklist that we prepared one family home evening while I called my mom who was at my cousin mindy's house in Salt Lake. I'm sure Mindy wasn't super crazy about me calling her cell phone at 3:00 am but what do ya do? I had to have my mom there!

Nice socks huh?

We got to the hospital at 3:00 am and after going to the wrong floor, we settled into our room. I started having little contractions so Nate and I walked around the Delivery floor for a while. My mom showed up around 4:30 and walked with us. I bounced on the exercise ball while we watched Bill Cosby "Himself." I was laughing so hard it was almost embarrassing.

My first nurse was awesome. She helped us a lot with different methods that would make a natural birth more bearable. We tried to sleep a little and watched Harry Potter but I was just excited to have Ryker here. 

After a few hours, nothing was really happening with my contractions so they put me on a low dose of pitocin to make them more regular... That's when I started to feel them. 

Nathan started coaching me through the contractions with breathing techniques that we learned from Helen, our Lamaz teacher. He was AWESOME at this. It made it so much easier to get through the contractions. I felt that I was in complete control and that they weren't unbearable - Just uncomfortable. 

She kept increasing the dose of pitocin and when my contractions started really hitting me, she put me on a great drug called Fentanyl. It didn't take away the pain, it just made me not care that I was in pain. In fact, in between contractions I would look and Nate and say, "Nate, I love you SO much. You're SO handsome." And then I would look at my mom and say, "Mom, Thank you for being here, You are the best!"

By this time, they had me in the bed because they wanted to be monitoring Ryker's heart beat. It was harder to get through the contractions just lying there but I never did feel that they were too painful. We just breathed through them and my nurse kept saying how awesome I was at getting through them. Sadly, she had to go into surgery about 2 hours before Ryker was born. Our next nurse was SO nice but she came in and said that she had only been there for 2 weeks and she'd never seen a natural birth before... This is where Nate took over. 

He did all of the coaching and motivating. He was a trooper! My mom kept a wet washcloth on my forehead and that felt very nice. I was just so pampered! 

Unfortunately, Dr. Kirkman was away on a family emergency and was not able to be there for my delivery. Instead, we had Dr. Blackett. She was great but I just didn't know her. She told me the day after that not many people actually make it through without an epidural and before she came in, she didn't think I was going to make it. 

I loved not having an epidural because I felt that I was in complete control. my body told me when I was having a contraction and I started to push. I only pushed for about 30 minutes and Ryker was born. Nathan got to cut the cord and they set Ryker on my lap for maybe... 10 seconds and then whisked him away to the heating table. He was completely white. Nathan was by his side the whole time as the respiratory therapist was giving Ryker oxygen because he wasn't quite breathing well enough. 

Nate wouldn't leave Ryker's side. Ryker was breathing funny when he came out so he was white as a ghost.

The nurse helped me off the bed, change and into a wheelchair. She said it was nice to have someone who could do it all herself - Because I didn't have an epidural I was standing and cleaning myself off.

First family photo.

I didn't get to see Ryker again for a while because they took him to the NICU but they fixed him all up and when I did get to hold him, it was pure bliss. 

This was my view of Ryker pretty much the first time I got to hold him.  He stared at me... and I stared back.