Summertime!

Hey everyone-

Just wanted to add some pics (which have been highly requested by everyone) and update everyone on how residency is going...life has been treating us pretty well up in Maineville. I think we are finally settling into a routine and Cooper loves spending all day with his Aunt Megan. She is adventurous enough to take him out and about and loves on him endlessly. We feel really blessed to have her in our life. Cooper is getting bigger by the second and I have added a ton of pics since the last time I posted, so make sure and check them out.

As far as residency goes...my program at B. North is just awesome and I love all of the people I am working with. Ryan is really enjoying the TriHealth OB program and is about to start his most intense rotation in the middle of August. He already has some exciting stories to tell...I have to share at least one on the blog. :) On Friday when he was in clinic, he had to do a cervical check on a pregnant patient and when he was finished and removing the gloves from his hands he shot the vaginal goo onto the upper lip of his chief!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I bet you all can imagine how violet his face became!! :) Luckily, after his chief got cleaned up, she laughed about it, but has proceeded to tell everyone in his program the story and sent out a mass e-mail, so I am sure it will be awhile before Ryan hears the end of it. He's got a few more exciting stories, but you will all have to check in with him to hear the rest because I am not sure they are PG enough to be posted on the blog!

We are missing everyone and hope to hear from you all soon...please check out all the pics of our handsome man. He is really enjoying his new saucer/bouncer combo and goes to town playing in it. He is also talking up a storm and has perfected the art of rolling over. He is getting pretty close to rolling from his back to his belly now too. Please leave some posts and let us know how life is treating everyone!

Love-

Ryan, Katie, and Cooper

Bigger and bigger...

Hey guys-

Thanks for the well wishes with starting orientation. It was certainly an adjustment not being with Cooper all day, but it is such a blessing to come home to his adorable face at night! One more week of orientation and then the real work starts and people will start calling us Doctor!!! Really scary and a bit overwhelming, but I think we are ready for the challenge. Cooper has adjusted like a champ and has enjoyed his time at home with his Grandma Stelzer (Ryan's mom) and his Aunt Megan who is our live-in nanny as of Thursday. :) I hope everyone is doing well and I will do my best to keep updating the blog...especially with pics because he changes so much so quickly. He is rolling over from his belly to his back really easily now and looks like he is ready to crawl any minute (but I hope we have a few more months before he takes off!). Keep us posted on how everyone is doing!

Katie

New House

Hey everyone-
Happy Father's Day to all the dads!! Well, we are officially residents of Maineville, OH now!! We have spent the last week and a half moving in and getting settled in our new home. We absolutely love it...I definitely appreciate being in a newer construction after living in Mobile for the last few years. I am going to upload some more pics of the main floor for everyone to see. Cooper is adjusting really well to our new surroundings. He is now sleeping about 6-8 hours at night which is nice and has been rolling over like a mad man!! He is talking a lot to us with lots of goo's and ga's and is more adorable with each passing second. We miss everyone and if you are ever headed to the Cinci area...call us and come visit! I start orientation tomorrow and Ryan commences on Wednesday, so keep us in your thoughts and prayers...life is about to get infinitely more chaotic! :) We are so blessed!!!
Ryan, Katie, Cooper, and Deacon

Memorial Day in Huntsville

We spent Memorial Day in Huntsville to have some quality time with my family before intern year and the madness commences. It was really great to get to see so much of my family and be in town over my dad's birthday. Cooper is really growing and has started smiling a lot (which you will see some pics of). We stopped by Dr. Roth's office on Friday to show him off and he weighed 9 lb 9 oz!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe how quickly he is growing. We are definitely ready for him to start sleeping through the night....hopefully it won't be too much longer!

On the Ohio front--we have found a house and are closing on it June 6th and can't wait to move in to our new house! It is really exciting and we love it. I promise to post some pictures as soon as we get settled. We both start orientation training in a couple of weeks and "real" work starts July 1. I can't believe it is finally upon us. I hope everyone is doing well and please enjoy the pics of our precious boy. Sorry it has been so long!! :) We love and miss you all...

Ryan, Katie, and Cooper

Kristen and Jessi's Baby Shower

Cooper, Ryan, and I were lucky enough to travel to Huntsville over Memorial Day weekend and Cooper and I went to a baby shower for Kristen and Jessi. It was really great getting to see everyone and catch up with some friends I haven't seen much of since high school. Kristen and Jessi both look amazing and are expecting little boys (Andrew and Luke) before the end of the summer! I can't wait to meet their little ones. Cooper was a big hit at the shower, as would be expected!

My first flight!!

Wow, this was a busy day! After moving all weekend, Ryan, his dad and Alex drove both of the cars up to Cincinnati while Cooper and I stayed back until Tuesday to take a flight. Luckily, Cooper's aunt Ashley let us crash with her for a couple of nights and was willing to drive us to Pensacola to the airport on Tuesday afternoon. Once we got to the airport, the fiasco began!! Of course, I was running a little late getting to the airport and when we were checking in my bag was 8 lbs too heavy, so I had to purge some stuff so I wouldn't have to pay $80!! Once we made it to the gate, it was already time to board and let me say...it is not easy to stow luggage, get seated and buckle your seat belt, get a bottle ready, make sure you have the pacifier and an extra blanket, etc all while holding an infant in a completely booked flight! I felt like one BIG stress ball the entire time!

Before we even took off from Pensacola, Cooper decided he was hungry, so I fed him the ONE bottle I had brought for our flight (not such a great idea to only pump enough milk for one feeding...). After eating, he was a complete angel for the rest of the flight and was sound asleep when we landed in Atlanta. Fortunately, we did not have to de-plane in Atlanta because I tried to awaken him and make him feed (so I wouldn't have to breast feed on the 2nd flight), but he was not hungry and he had a complete melt down while we were waiting in Atlanta. It only took a few minutes to calm him down (thankfully) and he fell back asleep before we took off from Atlanta. For the 2nd leg of the trip I was sitting next to a really nice L&D nurse and she was so wonderful. Cooper was able to nurse pretty inconspicuously, I hope, during the flight and fell asleep while eating, so he was great! I think this whole ordeal was much more stressful for me than it was for him! I must say that once we landed in Dayton I was so relieved to see Ryan and Megan waiting for us!!!!!!!!!! All in all it was a pretty good travel day, but I am very happy that I will not be travelling with Cooper alone anytime in the near future. I certainly underestimated the difficulty of having a little one on a flight without anyone to help...

We are now settled at Ryan's father's house in Cincinnati and have been house hunting the last few days. We are really excited about finding a place to live and hope to have some more news for everyone soon! We miss all of our friends in Mobile already, but we are ecstatic to start a new chapter in our lives...

Katie

Family and Friends

Hey everyone, just wanted to update the blog with pictures of all the amazing family and friends that Cooper was fortunate enough to meet graduation weekend. Life has been unbelievably hectic between graduation, family in town and moving to Cincinnati all in the last week or two. We are now in Cincinnati trying to get settled and ready to start residency in less than 2 months. Enjoy the pictures below, we love you all!

Ryan, Katie and Cooper