Happy Birthday, Ryan!!

We figured out very quickly that Ryan likes to give me a run for my money, keep me on my toes.  He loves giving me a story to tell.  I should not have been surprised that we ended up in the ER 3 hours into his 1st birthday party!  Before the trip to the hospital, it was a great day... so lets start with that.

The day started with Mike and I going in to wake up Ryan and sing happy birthday.  He just sat in his crib looking at us like we were nuts.  We quickly got up and dressed and ready and headed over to my parents house to get ready for the party. 

The party was at my parent's and started at 12.  We went with the construction truck theme which was a lot of fun to do.  I'll talk about all of the details of the party and the theme in the next blog post.   Ryan has lots of people that love him, so it was a very crowded party.  My family and Mike's family were there, Pop Pop, Nan, some of my  aunts, uncles, and cousins, and LOTS of Ryan's new friends. It was a bit crowded and overwhelming with all of the people, but it was great to see so many people who wanted to come and celebrate with us.

It was pretty much your typical 1st birthday party.  We had a kids room full of babies (I think it was 10 babies under 2 years old), we all ate lunch, we opened presents, and we had cake.  This is where things got interesting! 

Ryan LOVED the cake.  He couldn't get enough of it.  He was smashing his hands and face in it, eating as much as he could, and just taking it all in.  He really had fun doing the first birthday smash cake thing.  I noticed he was rubbing his face so I let my mom do the cake cutting for everyone else and I took Ryan upstairs to get him washed off and changed.  As soon as we got upstairs I noticed he was breaking into a horrible rash (or at least that's what I thought).  I got nervous and called my mom up to take a look.  By time she got upstairs, Ryan was completely broken out in hives.  His face, neck, arms, and hands were all covered in huge, red, swollen hives.  Ryan was hysterically crying and scratching his face until he was bleeding.  As the hives started to spread down his body and all over his chest, I started to panic.  My Aunt Diane is a nurse and my Uncle Scot is a paramedic, and they both thought the best thing to do was to get him to the emergency room just in case it got worse and started to restrict his breathing.  So Mike, Ryan and I jumped in the car and got him to the hospital... leaving our 40 guests behind.  At that moment, I didn't care.  We just needed to get him help and quickly.  Now the joke is that Ryan really knows how to end a party.

Ryan sobbed the whole way to the hospital.  It was not his normal cry, but a very miserable, uncomfortable cry.  The one positive is that when you walk into the Emergency Room with a screaming, red, blotchy baby, the nurses pay attention to you.  We got help very quickly.  The nurses got him back to see the doctor pretty much right away.  In the hospital, like 5 different people had to come up and ask us questions.  When they would ask what happened and I would say he had a reaction to the birthday cake, they would ask whose birthday cake he was eating.  When I explained that it was his own first birthday cake, they were shocked.  Apparently they never had a patient break out into severe hives eating their own special birthday cake before! 

The doctor gave him a shot of Benadryll pretty quickly and the hives slowly started to go away.  At this point Ryan was totally exhausted and falling asleep in my arms, but we had to stay for observation to make sure he didn't have a reaction to the meds and to make sure the hives were truly going away.  We weren't there long when we were discharged.  I kept thinking that some mom was just a few floors up, having her first baby, just like I was exactly one year before.  By time we got back to the party, the party was over and cleaned up.  The rest of the day, Ryan was pretty cranky and groggy.  Even though he wasn't himself, the hives were almost all gone. 

I went through the whole spectrum of emotions yesterday.  I was excited for my baby's birthday, scared about the rash, panicked about the spreading hives, relieved when they started going away, worried that it would get worse, sad that Ryan had to go through that pain/discomfort, and disappointed that the party I planned and worked so hard on had to end in that way.  By the end of the day I was exhausted.  The next step is to see the pediatrician on Tuesday and then go to an allergist after that to see what was really going on.

So it wasn't the birthday I had planned for Ryan, and we had some unexpected drama, but I think overall it was a good day.  Most of the party was a success and in the end Ryan was feeling better so everything turned out okay.  One thing I know for sure, we will NEVER forget Ryan's first birthday!

12 Month Update:

-He is just about to switch to 18 month clothes
- Weight:       22lbs      Percentage:      25-50%
- Just starting to transition from 12 to 18 month clothes and size 3 to 4 diapers
-Ryan is full out walking now.  He will still crawl if he needs to get somewhere very quickly, but otherwise its all walking.
-He gives the best kisses, waves to the cats, plays by himself, reads his books, "talks" on the phone, digs through his toy box, and overall he is much more of a boy than a baby!
-He is talking much more.  Not real words, but strings syllables together that sounds like sentences.  When I ask him questions, he replies to me.  Even though it doesn't make sense, he is definitely answer my question.
-He can identify things.  If I ask him to get his book, he can walk over to his books and bring me one back.  If I was were is Dad, he will point to a picture of Mike.  This is crazy to me, because it really makes him seem so much more grown up.
-We are going to start transitioning off of formula bottles (not sure what we will give him instead just yet) and I am trying to give him more regular food and less baby food. 
-There is probably so much more, but that's all I can come up with right now. 

I probably won't be doing monthly updates anymore... I'll just update as exciting things happen.  Right now I feel like Ryan changes every single day but I am really LOVING  this age.