Someday Three

Catch up again! Month 16 to 17, up to 24 weeks.

2009-09-22T19:50:00.004-04:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/taritchie

updated photos

I do have to catch up on the blog and I have posted the current photos. I will update with a belly pic soon. I feel really bad that I haven't taken as many picture being the last child I was always a little upset at my parents for not having more photos of me as as kid. So I feel bad that I don't have more belly pics of this baby. Of course I also think that I am not as "pregnant" looking this time around. This baby is low and small right now.

We have had a follow up appointment for Evan's tube and his surgery and everything is healing just wonderfully. The next follow up will be in November and December for both appointment.

Our big news lately is that we put in an offer on a house and after much negotiating...our first offer was put in on May 28th! They finally accepted. It is a great little ranch house with 3 bedrooms and two baths. We have much updating to do so more blogging on this. We close on the 29th of September. So pictures to follow.

We have done many fun things we have visited Great Grandmother at her new assisted living home. They had a great end of summer picnic with lobster and mussels and hamburgers and all you can eat hood ice cream treats for dessert. Our next visit to Grandmother's was to celebrate her 87th birthday with a great breakfast and then a wonderful ice cream cake.

On Sept 9th, Ken and I got to visit baby Ritchie through an ultrasound. The baby is doing great and I told Ken that I thought it was in breach position before the appointment and we did confirm. So far the kid loves being in breach position as I am now 24 weeks and we still are in the same position. As for the little one it is a night owl. Just when I am ready to settle down for the day the baby wakes up and begins kicking. This was so different than Evan. Evan was very good at keeping my schedule and was up during the day and then asleep at night. Oh! we still don't know gender.

Ken has been really busy working on all of the house stuff, with the mortgage, insurance, utilities and home inspection all that stuff we haven't begun the process of picking a boy's name yet.

Evan lately has been vocalizing more and more. He had a break through and began saying "momma" again and give belly button and any word with a "b" in it. We are now teaching him to say "Boo" so when we say "Happy Halloween" he says "Boo" as trick or treat is just to hard a this age.

Funny story: Ken and I were out shopping and Evan pointed to my belly and said "baby" and I said "Yes" then he looked over at Ken and pointed to his belly and said "Baby" at that point Ken said "o.k. cut it out it is a belly button from now on!" priceless.

Work has been pretty busy we just got finished with our rounds of layoffs and I was lucky enough not to be laid off. I think it worked in our department's favor when we had several people leave that were not replaced. As for the future it appears a little uncertain if our sales don't increase.

Cravings: chocolate milk, popcorn, root beer

Pounds gained to date: 12

The great surgery.

2009-07-24T12:50:00.004-04:00

Since Evan was born we knew that he was going to need to have a surgery for his hypospadius repair. We met that doctor last August and his surgery date was scheduled for March. Then the doctor cancelled this date. After that they sent us to another physician we did not mesh well and we were supposed to have surgery in May. That was cancelled. Finally, we headed for surgery on Tuesday.

The night before Leslie, Hermie, and Manette came over and visited for a few hours. The whole time I kept giving Evan a snack as we knew that he was not going to have food after midnight. We put him to bed around 8:15 pm. This is about an hour later than we usually do but we didn't want to have him get up at 5:30 a.m. and want to eat. He did get up at 12:15 that night and I gave him a little apple juice as we could only give him clear fluids. This was a huge treat as he doesn't drink really anything but milk or water. It must come from my WW days because I feel that most juices are a waste of calories.

Tuesday morning Evan woke up just fine and we started to get him ready for the hospital. We were supposed to be there at 6:30 a.m. but got there more at 6:45. Once at the hospital we got checked in and they took us back to the "surgery factory" there was about 12 bays all full of kids going for surgery. Evan was good and managed to take a ball from check in that he played with all the way into the O.R. We got him all settled in his surgery p.j.'s and he had a good time playing with the anesthesia mask. Ken and I had talked about me taking him back to the O.R. and when they asked I quickly volunteered. Our urologist checked in with us. He gave Evan another look over before the surgery and then we waited for the ENT to finish with his prior patient and I got donned into my scrub clothes and I picked up my cherub with the basketball. I did tell them that I was pregnant just to make sure that I passed out or something at least they would know.

The longest walk. Evan was holding onto his ball as we went into the O.R. we sat him on the hospital bed and there were about 6 other people all around. They were playing with Evan and then they put the mask. I held his hands down and he fought and fought and fought the anesthesia. He wasn't happy but did not cry. Finally, I could see that his eyes were going a little glassy and he was going under...but my little fighter kept on kicking until he was all the way out.

I was given instructions that if I cried it would be more upsetting for Evan so somehow I mustered all my strength and did not make one tiny peep. My insides were aching and I have never had my heart feel as bad as it did but my front to him was calm and reassuring. Even now as I am writing I am holding back the tears.

Ken and I then headed over for the first surgery to finish which were the ear tubes. It took only about 30 minutes from beginning to end. Then the next surgery began. This surgery took about 2.5 hours. During the middle of the surgery a nurse from the O.R. called and let us know that things were going just fine and that he was doing well. It is funny to get the call because here you are waiting knowing how long it takes but getting the call when it is too early is really scary. Even before I took the call the waiting room attendant said everything was fine.

At about 11:30 they took Ken and I into the room to talk with the doctor and his nurse. He said that it went well and if he had a text book open with pictures of how to do the surgery it would have followed the text book exactly! Our doctor said that he most likely would be fine to go home but since his complications rate is one of the lowest in the country he would be staying the night. In a flurry we were given a ton of instructions and medicines that he would need to have.

The whole time Ken was on a hunger strike. It was really cute that Ken refused to eat because Evan wasn't eating and he didn't think it was fair. As for me I ate the whole time as I knew that if I didn't I would wretch up the nothing in my stomach. I was able to convince Ken to drink water as Evan was getting an I.V. and therefore was staying hydrated. Around noon they took us back to recovery. Much like the pre-op area the recovery had a ton of bays with a bunch of kids coming out of anesthesia. Evan was just fine sleeping in his crib. He slowly stirred and Ken picked him up and tried to give him a bottle...Of course no one told me that I would need to bring a sippy cup for him! I wasn't even thinking of that I just figured they would have something for him. Evan wasn't a big fan of the bottle but did enjoy sitting with Ken and then drifted back to sleep. If he cried I don't remember and he didn't come out of anesthesia like most kids that were there. Most of the kids screamed and screamed. This reminded me of when I got my tonsils out at age 16 and I woke up from anesthesia screaming my self.

After Evan drifted off to sleep Ken put him back in the crib and he headed down for a quick bite to eat at the cafeteria. (If anyone has seen Ken eat he can manage to eat a sandwich in less than a minute) I stayed with my little guy. It was really hard because he wanted to sleep on his belly and with the surgery they really wanted him to stay on his back.

By around 1pm we were up in our room. Evan had woken up and he was ready for more juice. We found it really difficult at first because Evan was up so high in the crib and we had to stand next to him and keep him on his back and not trying to stand up in the crib. Finally, the nurse said they don't really care if someone sat in the crib with him so I spent most of the day sitting in the crib with Evan. I really wished I had my camera but I think Ken didn't want to be reminded in the future that Evan was sick so I didn't wage that battle with him.

My parents came up for a visit and Evan was able to eat some dinner. My mom and dad did really well and I think Evan had a good time seeing some new faces. Ken stayed with us till about 8:30 p.m. Getting Evan to take all of his meds was an adventure as he has figured out how to blow raspberries and spill out all the meds that he took. We were able to get some pain meds and a little valium to take the edge off and he drifted to sleep.

Staying overnight in the hospital when you are not a patient is the worst. As a patient you most likely are getting pain meds and really don't care that it is midnight or 4am but when you are sleeping on a pull out couch and you don't have pain meds and it is midnight or 4am it is pretty bad. It was cry all night for the other kid's on the floor. The night nurse told me that most of the parents just ignored the kids and in some cases couldn't stay the night with the child. Evan was really good with getting his vitals checked and changing diapers in the middle of the night.

Ugh! The diapers. Evan has a double diaper. One for the bottom layer with a hole in the middle for his parts and catheter to come out. The second diaper is to hold the urine from the catheter. We were lucky enough to have one of the pca's help make a few diapers till we got home. More on that later.

The resident woke me up at about 6 am doing rounds to check on Evan. The bad part is that I was totally asleep and secondly, so was Evan. He took his 2 minutes to check him and moved on. Of course Evan wouldn't go back to sleep. The good news was that as soon as he finished his IV antibiotics he could leave which was around 10:00 a.m. Ken went to work that morning and came to the hospital and picked us up. Ken dropped off all of the rx's and Evan and I headed home. Evan went down for a nap and I did too.

The rest of the week Evan and I stayed in the house. We did have a regular pediatric well visit. So I did take him. He gained a pound in 3 weeks and is 26lbs and 10 ozs. (but all beefy baby) and his height is at 32 inches!

Pounds gained for me---still only ranging from 4-5pounds.
Cravings: hot chocolate.

Belly pics-- the first one has been taken. I just haven't figured out how to get the pictures out of the camera as we changed to a new card and our old card reader isn't working. Ken figured it out but of course didn't tell me. But at least I took the picture.

Blog catch up again! - 15 months & 15 weeks.

2009-07-24T12:25:00.004-04:00

I will once again try to catch up.

The weekend of fourth of July we rested and relaxed. We visited my sister and Evan enjoyed a dip in the pool. We had him all decked out in his swim shirt and hat and then in his swim toy that also had a cover over it. Now if we could just get him to keep on the sunglasses instead of eating them it would be great.

That Monday I went for my next prenatal appointment. They adjusted my due date by one day and now my due date is 1/13/2010 but I like the change. Evan was born on an odd day so it seems to sync up with his date an this baby. I am feeling good and have been keeping the morning sickness at bay. I usually only throw up about once a week now and mostly that is from severe temperature changes...going from warm shower to air conditioning. The heartbeat was just great and my weight gain was good at only 5 pounds gained total.

The following week I am sure that we did something fun and exciting but can't really remember. I know that we did go down to the Hartford Carousel and take a twirl. Evan can do about 4 rides without getting fidgety after that we are done.

We headed up north the next weekend and went up to Worcester. But before that Evan had his first big wipe out. I was in the bathroom with a bout of morning sickness and Ken was watching Evan push a box when he tripped and scratched his left cheek by his eye. Ken was besides himself and kept calling me and I kept on saying " almost done be right there" So we watched him to make sure his before was consistent and we felt he was good. After the morning drama finished we headed up to Worcester. Ken trimmed the hedges on Courtland street and Evan and I walked to the local park. I still love my stroller.

After Ken was done he picked us up from the park and we headed up to Nana and Grandpa's to get changed and then head over to visit Allison and Dori for dinner. Evan was trooper through all this and was really good in the restaurant. The waiter was cute and kept on going in and out of the other room and smiling and Evan just loved it. Evan was also very gentle with Madison (dori's 9 month old little girl) she is a peanut compared to Evan. (will send link to latest pics at end)

Saturday night we travelled back down and Sunday we decided to take Evan out to the carousel. We stumbled along the Hartford Jazz festival and we were able to get some carnie food! I love carnie food! I had a fresh squeezed lemonade and rather poor tasting fried dough. I think I might have to make my own at home...although I most likely will just put a little oil and bake them to avoid all that mess and bad food.

On Monday I had my last day at work before Evan's surgery. I was busy trying to catch up and make sure my desk was not that bad. At the end of the day I headed over to the Audiology department for a hearing test for Evan before he got his tubes.

We had some suspicions that Evan sometimes heard us and then sometimes didn't the hearing test confirmed that his hearing was pretty flat but not too bad. I am going to post a whole blog dedicated to his surgery.

Pounds gained: 5 (only a little belly now) ---belly pics to be posted soon.
Baby Ritchie#2 - gender unknown - 15 weeks old.
Evan - 15 months old

It happened on January 13:

1610 – Galileo Galilei discovers Ganymede, 4th moon of Jupiter.
1733 – James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrive in Charleston, South Carolina.
1942 – Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.
1968 – Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom Prison
1993 – Space Shuttle program: Endeavour heads for space for the third time as STS-54 launches from the Kennedy Space Center.

Someday Four! Happy 40th birthday Ken.

2009-06-26T14:25:00.006-04:00

It is true we are expecting baby number two! We found out on May 5th and Ken went through several stages of grief, denial, anger, and finally acceptance.

We are currently on week 11 and due on 1/14/2010. It is great two of my friends are also due within a few weeks of my date.

On Saturday, June 20th we stopped by my parents house with Evan decked out in his Big Brother t-shirt. My mom didn't realize till we told her to read and she read it about 3 times and then it finally clicked. She was really excited and glad to hear the good news.

That night we got all packed up and Granpa Ritchie, Nana, and Granana all came down to pick us up in the minivan for our big family trip to Ocean City, MD. We decided to leave at night as we did not want to travel with the little guy all day. So at 10:30 p.m. we began the process of packing up the car. We were able to get all the stuff in the car. We also brought out our big brother shirt again. It was very funny. Pop picked up Evan and read "Big 12 --the number on the little baseball -brother. My father in-law thought we were selected for the show the big brother! Lucky my MIL figured it out before my FIL. Everyone was very excited to hear the big news.

Our trip down was uneventful. We had to stop several times to go to the bathroom. Evan was pretty good. He would wake up when we stopped but would fall back to sleep pretty quick.

We got down to Ocean City around 5:30 a.m. we found a breakfast place and then we visited the boardwalk and walked around till we got into our condo unit at 9:00 a.m.

Once in the condo we got settled and took a nap with Evan.

On Monday, we headed out to the beach. It was a bit overcast but like my husband says" if we spend 5 minutes on the beach then it counts as a beach day.

Tuesday, we got up and did our usual early morning walk on the boardwalk. That afternoon we headed out to do some outlet shopping. We managed to pick up a fleece jacket for Evan for 99 cents! We also took a drive to Assateague and saw some of the wild horses.

Wednesday, my sister in law and brother in law and his family all arrived at the condo. We were able to once again put on the big brother shirt this time my SIL Christine did not get it at first too. Then my SIL Shirley immediately got it. It was great to see everyone and my niece and nephews...and the newest niece Caitlyn who is the cutest thing.

Thursay we loaded two cars and headed over to Assateague again and saw a bunch of horses on the beach and we even saw the forest ranger's crabbing and pulling out some fish and some crabs too! After that we headed out to the beach. Evan stayed behind for a nap so I got a little relaxing time not worrying about my chunk a monk.

Today, we woke up early and wished Ken a Happy 4oth birthday and rented bikes and rode the boardwalk. It was a fun ride. Ken had a seat on the back of the bike and Evan was on his bike and we rode for about an hour which turned out to be around 3 miles. Then when we got back Uncle Kevin made us pancakes and we headed off to the beach. I was able to get a couple of hours in the sun and managed to body surf a few waves.

We are now off to dinner. It looks like we could be pounding crab again.

Weight Watchers --on hold
weight gained - 5 pounds - ugh all that hard work.

Bad Bad Blogger! May 3-June 21st.

2009-06-26T13:52:00.005-04:00

Yes, I am a bad bad blogger.

Let's try to get everyone up to date.

On May 3rd Nana, Granana and Granpa, and grandmother, all came down to visit and take Evan on his first carousel ride for the summer! We have family pass that my in-laws gave us for Evan's birthday and we took him out for the first time this season. Evan was pretty much in shock the whole time wondering what was going on. He had his little fists up in the air and he was really scared for the first couple of rides. Everyone would wave as we soared by and he would have the delayed wave and we would be past by the time he would wave. It took about 4 rides for him to crack a smile!

The following week we celebrated mother's day at my sister's house. Her pool was open so we sat by and just dunked our feet in. It was a bit to cold to even think about sleeping.

The next week we headed to Susie's house for our b.m.x. girls weekend. We met up with Mel, and Allison and I brought down Nanny Ken and Evan. Ken was under strict orders that this was girl's weekend and he came down to watch Evan. We headed down on a Friday afternoon and then picked up Mel at Laguardia,on friday we went out to dinner and just hung out. On Saturday we did more catching up and playing with Evan. We then headed into NYC. We had dinner in times square and then headed out to a club and had drinks and our nails done! It is a really cool bar and we danced and had a great time. Ken, Evan, and I all stayed in the city...which was a good thing because the rest of the girls took the 5:40 a.m. train! That is about 20 minutes before Evan gets up. We had such a great time and it was good to see everyone and for them to see Evan.

The weekend of the 22nd we celebrated my 34th birthday. This year it was an ongoing birthday celebration. Most people forgot the day and wished me belated birthday. On the 23rd we headed to my sister's to celebrate my other sister's birthday as she is 10 years and 1 day older than I am.

For the next 3 weekends I am pretty sure we stayed at home and did some errand running around.

Evan has been having so many ear infections that we finally took him to the ENT. After much discussing on what is the best option. We decided to get tubes put in Evan's ears. We will put them in on the same day that he goes for the hypospadius repair. The ENT doctor will coordinate with our surgeon so he will either get the tubes before or after his surgery. The ENT wanted us to put them in earlier but we just didn't want to take the risk of an additional anesthesia.

Evan is such a walker now. He started walking on April 28th and it was with a little hesitation because he thought his crawling was much faster. But he then realized he is much faster walking. He is now pretty good at walking and is looking a bit less like frankenstein.

I posted some pics of his birthday and some random photos. I changed my camera card but for soem reason the card reader wasn't working so will have to post them soon.

Half my size! Happy Birthday Big Boy!

2009-04-26T19:28:00.004-04:00

Yes, last month I promised to post more but the time has gotten away from me again.

Let's catch up again!

Evan's First Birthday rolled around on April 19, with a party of 16 people all jammed into the kitchen and the living room. He had a great day. Of course I have posted a few pic to facebook but as we were singing "Happy Birthday" our camera card filled up. But we have several people that did take pictures so I should be getting those soon to post.

For the first time Evan was able to get his first taste of the world famous...Ok...so Worcester famous Widoff's 7 layer cake. 7 layers of yellow cake and chocolate frosting! It is one of my favorites and He enjoyed eating it. He was too cute picking up the cake and eating it and rocking back and forth like he had his own song in his head just rocking way and just loving it!

Last month Evan's surgery was cancelled long story but we have a different doctor and a date set for May 20th. The one thing that I am not fond of is that the new surgeon does not keep him overnight for observation. One thing that is comforting is that we are only 8 minutes away from the hospital and I won't hesitate to take him over if we necessary.

This week we wen to Evan's 1 year appointment. We opted to split the MMR and got him the measles vaccination this time. At his next appt we will get the mumps or rubella ...both are one back order. Drum roll please... here are Evan's 1 year stats.
31 inches.. I am 62 inches! and 24.5 pounds. What a big boy! just 5 weeks ago he was 28.5 inches and 22.5 pounds.
I feel so bad as we we bought shoes for him last month at size four and after the doctor appointment we had him resized and he was a five and a half! No wonder why the caregivers could not get his shoes on and he wouldn't keep them on!

This weekened was gorgeous so I took Evan out for a weigh in at WW--still at goal. and we then ran some errands and then he enjoyed a great walk in our awesome stroller. Evan and I took a 2 hour walk at our favorite park which is where I labored and just spent so many days on maternity leave. Evan was great he just kicked back and took a nap while I strolled. I did of course cover his legs with sunblock because they stick out a bit. I did not wear sunblock and got a good burn on my nose. It is great to finally be able to get out and get some fresh air and Evan loves to be strolled.

Today, we headed to Manette's baptism it was another great day. We had fun hanging out with all the babies...four of them ranging from 6 weeks to Evan being the oldest at 1 year and my sister's new puppy. Evan had fun racing the puppy around the house and even got the upper hand when he was able to grab the puppies leash.

This week is supposed to be great. I am hoping we can swing around the park again before it cools to more spring like weather. It is always a little difficult going out during the week as Evan still likes to go to bed at around 6:45 so getting him fed and ready for bed when we get home at 5pm is usually our priority.

Well off to write thank you notes from Evan's birthday.

Half my size! Happy Birthday Big Boy!

2009-04-26T19:28:00.001-04:00

Catch up! Month 10 - and our first tooth!

2009-03-19T19:48:00.003-04:00

So trying to get caught up on one month in one blog setting. I know I am sorry about that.

So weekend of February 28 and March 1. Auntie Chris comes down to visit for a little fun.

We hang out at the condo and I try to make my own yogurt. It took me about 6 hours using a double boiler on the stove. It actually tasted just like yogurt but I wanted less tart which means less heat and less cooking time. I don't think I have the time or patience to try again. BUT! I can make yogurt...and that to my long list of talents.

Granpa & Elaine also came down that Saturday to visit. We headed out for Dinner to Ethopian. I love Ethiopian Ken eats it because he is a good person. He doesn't like the idea of people eating off of one large plate. I love the bread too!

Auntie Chris decided to do some house viewing with us that Sunday it was good times. We took her through our potential lists of houses and the list of houses we lost. Still nothing that we like so far!

On March 6, 2009 I awoke to find a brand new shiny white tooth on the bottom right side of Evan's mouth. He doesn't seem to notice it to much and just keeps on gumming everything he eats.

That weekend we visited Leslie and Hermie and baby Manette. This was Evan and Ken's first visit with the baby. She is such a cutie and a little peanut! Evan loves Leslie's dog Muzzy. Evan just gets so excited to be around him and also to travel between the coffee table and the couch.

Evan's favorite toy now is his shopping cart --I have him getting ready for our first NYC girls weekend shopping trip. Evan pushes the cart and randomly picks up items off the floor and tosses them into the cart and then moves onto the next. One day Ken saw him pick up his whale book and try to shove it in the cart and move on. Ken said it was priceless seeing him trying to shove the oversized book into the cart.

On the weekend of the 14th we headed up to my in-laws. Ken had to do a drive by and do some banking. We always say "hello" to Mr. Polar Bear when we go by the Polar factory. Evan is usually still sleeping so he never really gets to see it but Ken and I always say"Evan there is Mr. Polar bear" http://www.polarbev.com/ABOUTPOLAR/History/tabid/120/Default.aspx here is a link to the history of Polar with a picture at the bottom but he looks much nicer today.

We went to our favorite little Korean place and ate to much but we had a great time. Evan enjoyed being able to roam free around Nana and Granpa's house and had a nice visit with Granana. On Sunday we made our way back home. Picking up some nice Land Of Lakes cheese as it was on sale at the white hen!

As we get ready for Evan's surgery on the 24th we have been meticulous about watching any signs of illness so when on Tuesday night he began to cry in his sleep I thought it was a little bump in the tough love sleep. On Wednesday we had another night of crying and by Today he had a little runny nose. So off to the doctor today. Yup! Ear infection #4. The good thing is that we can get all of his meds in before surgery and no fever so he can go into daycare on Friday!

If he is has a cough or gets a fever then off to the doctor on Monday. We still don't know the time of his surgery but we will get the call on Monday to let us know.

I have Monday off and plan on taking little dude into work for a visit.

I think that gets us up to his 11 month birthday today. My babylove is just one month shy of his first birthday.

Here are the link to the pictures. not that many added lately.
http://picasaweb.google.com/taritchie

Back to sickness - 9 months 3 weeks.

2009-02-16T10:02:00.002-05:00

This weekend we didn't do much . We actually looked for houses again on Saturday and Sunday. Little dude was not feeling well again and I was hoping we could get him to his doctor's visit for his ear check and bascially have another sick visit.

We started to look in Mass. again for houses I just don't seem to find a neighborhood that I really like. The lots are to small and everything for sale seems to be on a main road.

On Monday I went back to work and then Evan was too sick to go to work so I worked from home a luxury that I can do but my bosses hate it. I took him in and another double ear infection this time the left being better than the last time and the right being worse this time. His temp was pretty high and he just was not himself. Ken took off Wednesday and Thursday to be with him.

On Thursday morning at 6:30 a.m. we got the call that my niece Leslie had her baby. I managed to go up in the evening to visit her. Ken kept Evan at home because he was sick and I hosed down with anti-bacterial products so I could get a chance to hold her. She is a cute little thing only 6 lbs 12 oz and 19 inches long. It is interesting to be a Great Aunt. I feel too young to be one but since my niece is closing in my age then my sister it makes sense.

Friday I stayed home with Evan he now developed a cough so I brought him back in. After changing his meds to a stronger antibiotic and checking his lungs he has bronchilitis. His ears and fever were not that much better either. He also has a raging diaper rash that the doctor wants us to wash him in the tub then blow dry him after every diaper change! The things we do for our kid.

Because I am such a nut and I thought the cough was worse I decided we should go back on Saturday. It actually seems to be better and by Sunday his temp was getting better.

He actually hates all the meds that we have to give him now and he also refuses to eat anything. I have tried just about everything to feed him. He must think that I am trying to shove meds his way again. The doctor said to push fluids and eating is no big deal. He will get an appetite when he starts feeling better. And at 22 pounds he is not going to miss a pound or two!

Which now leads me into the fact that I have a some sort of illness that I got from Evan. I have this whole upper respiratory thing that is just killing me. I have a cough too but not quite in my chest yet. I am off to the doctor at 1:45 today just to get it check out.

For Valentine's day we didn't really celebrate Evan got Ken and reese's heart and Ken and I didn't even exchange gifts. We did keep our Valentine's day Indian food tradition and headed out to the buffet for a champagne lunch--I of course feeling so bad had the ginger ale instead and since Ken doesn't like champagne it was a total waste.

Teeth: 0
weight watchers weigh in : 2.6 pounds lost! -- my lowest since Ken and I were married!

Visiting time again! 9 Month week 2

2009-02-04T09:41:00.003-05:00

This weekend we laid low due to Evan's illness we just ran errands and hung out. I headed back to work with a full week.

On Wednesday I worked from home since we had a good pile of snow. Ken took Evan to school but had to pick him up early as they closed early. 4:30pm (that is when Ken usually picks him up anyway.

I think I have the blog time line all screwed up again. So I am just going to continue till I think we are up to date. And yes, if I blogged every week I wouldn't get all screwed up.

We still are house hunting...we found a house we liked and this time waited before putitng in a bid and now it is under deposit...and not us! Back to the drawing board. I am so frustrated with Ken and this whole house hunting that I am going to lose it soon.

Ken is still thinking the market is going to go down even further and he is also worried about his job. In some respects I understand both positions but when I have to haul Evan and groceries up the stairs and have no room to store anything it gets old fast.

Evan and I visited my mom for her birthday on Saturday. Ken got the house ready for the in-law visitng later that afternoon.

Evan loves going to my mom's house he loves the cats and getting into everything as her house is actually baby proofed better than mine! Evan kept trying to run after the cats --my mom has 4 of them so they all would look into the living room see Evan all excited and smiling at them and walking towards them and they would all take off upstairs. Evan can now pull himself up on just about everything and can even move from one thing to the next... ugh walking is coming...but still no teeth.

My in-laws arrived on Saturday afternoon we just hung out at home till about dinner time and then headed to City Steam for dinner. We hadn't been there in a few years. They are famous for their beer one kind is called the "naughty nurse" Ken and I shared our meals and it was pretty good. We kept Evan in his stroller where one of the waiters actually said" wow! that is the hummer of strollers" yes, after months of picking out and trying strollers we really like our stroller. Evan was good at the restaurant despite it being around 7pm and he really wanted to go to sleep. By the time we got up the hill from the restaurant he was asleep and didn't even get up when we took him out of his snow suit and then into his pj's.

On Sunday, we just were hanging out. We decided to go to Trader Joe's and get some fun food for superbowl. We bought a ton of food and good stuff. Then things took a turn for the worse.

I started to have some lady issues. I mean to the point where I called Melanie and asked her " Is this normal?" rather than going to the ER I called my doctor where she left the decision up to me. It is amazing how I would have waited till Monday and never consider bothering a doctor on the weekend but when you add in that you have a kid and you need to be there for him it changes your perspective.

So I toughed it out all night being uncomfortable. Evan must have known and was up crying for a bit that night and I just nursed him to sleep. Not helping the tough love but I think we needed each other.

For some reason I thought I could go to work and just leave and head to the doctor's office. So I went to work and called the doctor for an appt. 10: 15. I basically had to leave work just after I got there. So I had my appt at 10:15 with the midwife. She examined me and said this doesn't look so good I want you to go for an u/s. Off to the u/s where the tech said " this doesn't look so good" then the midwife says... let's talk to the doctor. She says " I know you have had 2 exams but I need to see for myself" "ugh this doesn't look good" So with 3 it doesn't look good. I was told that I need a d &c and she was scheduling it for 1:00 p.m. It is now 11:30 a.m.! Ken was called and literally had to race out of work. He grabbed little dude as if we had some complications no one else has a car seat to take him. In the meantime I ran home to change into comfortable surgery clothes and get Evan a bottle ready and some toys.

The surgery was fine and I am feeling so much better. The staff was awesome and I they made sure I was more than comfortable and also took great care of Ken and Evan. I took Mon, Tues, and wed (today off) I am feeling so much better now. My tests came back and I had anemia so no wonder why I had been feeling bad for a few days.

(sorry if some of you are reading this for the first time. but it all happened so quick and I am fine)

Now we are current with the blog.

Things that I need to start thinking about. Evan's first birthday. I wanted to do it at the Hartford Carousel but they don't open till May 2nd. I might just do a small family party on his b-day and schedule the birthday party on the 2nd or the 3rd. any comments? I am sure Melanie would like me invading yet again another of her anniversary celebrations.

Another Ear Infection 9 months 1 week.

2009-02-04T09:37:00.003-05:00

Yes, On Monday Evan's temperature went up to 102 so I called the peditrician and Ken and I took the little dude to the doctor.

It turns out that he had a double ear infection with another round of antibiotics. He really didn't like them the first time but now he welcomes the yummy pink stuff.

On Tuesday I stayed home with him and we went for his 9 month check up! I can't believe him. Little dude has thinned a bit and is 22 pounds and 28.5 inches long. He has dropped a little on the height charts but he is still above average.

For the rest of the week I was in an insurance training class that always makes me think that we need to get our wills, POA, living wills and all that estate planning stuff taken care of.

Leslie's Shower - 9 months

2009-02-04T09:33:00.002-05:00

This week we had Leslie's baby shower. It was such a great time. It was at the gym of my sister's church and Evan could finally get some serious crawling time. I usually don't like him to crawl on "dirty" places but the floor was well taken care of and I just let him go for it.

Leslie got a bunch of really great items and she should have everything she should need for when the baby arrives. Having herself ready for a baby I don't think you could ever be ready.

We rested on Sunday as Evan was a little off on Saturday. I had Monday off so I we just kept an eye on him.

Pictures posted on picasso webalbums.

Tough Love Therapy - 8 months 3 weeks.

2009-01-13T20:23:00.003-05:00

We started a long week of sleep of tough love therapy. I actually wish I had done it the previous week as I had worked only Monday and Tuesday and had the rest of the week off.

Back to the sleep drama. By the third night. Evan had slept the whole night! I told Ken that this was great but we had to be prepared for him to have some set backs.

The rest of the week Evan did cry about once a night but he did not cry as long and not as hard.

I don't think that I talked about our new realtor. Yes, after 6 months with our old realtor we had to switch because we both felt it would be better if we didn't work together anymore. If you would like to have the full story you can post a comment and I can tell you the whole story.

Armed with a new list of MLS listing we packed up to look at a house. We liked the house but we don't want to seem to eager so we are just putting it on the back burner. After seeing one house with the realtor we scouted out 7 more houses to do a drive by. It still confirmed the fact that we liked the first house that we saw. I will keep you posted.

On Sunday we headed over to my sister's house to help with the boo boo bunnies for Leslie's shower. We had not seen my sister since before Christmas. It was great we had pizza and just hung out and we also celebrated Hermie's birthday. And Evan just loved getting kisses from Leslie's dog Muzzy. He just was so excited to watch him run around.

Evan is pretty proficient at crawling and pulls himself up to his knees. He still hasn't pulled up to his feet yet ...only if we help him. I think the lack of coffee table hinders him and when he pulls up on the couch he just gets excited at the softness of the couch and decides that he wants to nurse it.

Weight Watchers has been going o.k. it has gone up and down a few pounds but I am still about 2 pounds under goal.

Happy New Year! 8 Months 2 weeks.

2009-01-13T20:02:00.008-05:00

Happy New Year!

We rang in the new year quietly. Evan went to bed as usual and Ken and I watched some t.v. I did manage to stay up till 11:50 pm and then Ken woke me up to say "Happy New Year" We had really bad street noise with the fireworks going off downtown and then our neighbors deciding to set off fireworks at 1:30 a.m. and then Little Dude woke up because of all of the noise.

Up until this point Evan had been getting up at most once or twice a night. Now it has crept up till 3 times a night. At this point he does eat but not like he is super hungry. I mean at this point he eats 4 small meals a day. Getting up to eat is still pretty tough.

For New Year's day we headed to our friend's house Rob and Aileen for a visit. We hadn't seen them since before the little dude was born. Evan enjoyed crawling all over there house and playing with their little dog Maui.

So Friday night he went down at 6:45pm he got up at 11:30, 1:00 am, 4:00 am, 7:00 am. That is when I pulled out my Healthy Sleep Habits Healthy Child book and started to look up if this is a growth spurt, sleep regresion, or just plain insanity.

Well as he is now 8.5 months he should be sleeping through the night. So after a tough night on Friday we decided to "tough love" him and not get up and go to him when he cried. So we put him down on Saturday night at 6:45 pm (usual time). To get me through this I decided to sleep in our spare bed in our bedroom. (long story but we never got rid of the old bed that we bought when I was pg and now it is what we call our guest bed but it is in our bedroom) This bed is farther from the door. With the fan turned on in our room and the door shut. I tried to get prepared for the emotional evening. At around 11ish I hear a faint cry...it gets a little louder it fades in and out. I ignore and put the pillow over my head and give a little cry. Then I must have dosed off and I hear this loud blood curdling scream. I get up and run into Evan's room thinking. I am the worst mom! Ken heard the baby and got to him before I did! As it turns out Ken couldn't stand the crying and went in to comfort him. We specifically said that we would support each other and he couldn't handle it. But I did not nurse him or hold him. We stepped out and just tried again. He eventually fell asleep till 2:30 and then round #2 started. I am not sure what time he cried till but he slept till 7:00 am.

Sunday, the inlaws came over. I decided to make dinner for them. I got two really nice all natural roasting chickens from whole foods. I made one chicken for the adults and the second one for Evan for baby food. I still am trying to make most of his food and supplement with baby food. I send baby food to day care because it is easier for them and I think they already think I am a weird hippy mom that still is pumping. By the way I only pump one bottle now and then he gets the rest as formula.

Back to sleep therapy. Lather that nightw e kept to our schedule and put him back down to bed and he only got up 1x and cried and it was not for long at all.

Yeah little dude.

Merry Christmas! 8 Months 1 week

2008-12-31T21:33:00.004-05:00

This week I had to work on Monday and Tuesday. On Christmas Eve I ran some errands in the morning, last minute gifts and stocking stuffers. I picked up little dude at day care and I headed over to my parents house to celebrate the holiday. Ken was let out of work early so we all went over together.

Evan did not get an afternoon nap but he hung in there while we opened presents. We gave my parents the picture of the grandkids and she could not stop crying. It really made me enjoy the holiday because this one small thing of getting the grand kids together gave her such joy.

Ken and I had our first family christmas fall out (sort of) Ken comes from a family that you open all your gifts on Christmas Day regardless of who they are from. In my family we can open presents from aunts, uncles, etc on Christmas eve. So of course my tradition one out. How were we supposed to go home with all those presents and not let Evan try to open them and let them see him look at them. This year Evan found the most interesting present was the tissue paper.

We received beautiful clothes and a buzz light year car!

On Christmas day we opened gifts from Aunt Karyn, Evan got 3 books and he loves looking at the pictures and turning the pages. We gave Evan a wood bead puzzle maze. (I call it the wire and bead thing that you see in the doctor's office) He loves the toy. After opening presents we headed up to Granpa and Nana's for another round of gifts and a christmas feast. Evan was once again spoiled with presents and love. We drove back down that evening as Evan had missed his afternoon nap both days he faded fast on the car ride home.

On Friday we headed out to see if there were an after Christmas deals but we really didn't find anything we were interested.

We visited a very pregnant Leslie on Sunday. Evan had a great time getting kisses from her dog Muzzy. He sat there and just giggled and laughed when Muzzy tried to jump on him and give him a big wet dog kiss.

Our hunt for a house is still going on. We still haven't seen much that we even like that we put an offer into. It is very tough because we are outgrowing our little condo every day. Our living room is now set up as a playroom and we have the playard that we move all around where it is needed.

Confession...I am obsessed with facebook. I find myself instead of blogging just hunting around on facebook. Now granted I have met two friends that I have been looking for and talked on the phone with another one so I guess it is somewhat useful.

Evan now claps his hands and sits up on his own. It is amazing. It is one of those things we or rather I spent hours saying "da da da" and then one day just looks at me and then claps his hands! It is weird I never had him sit on my lap and try to clap his hands he just started to clap his hand and now he just says "da da da" On Saturday Evan finally mastered sitting up on his own. He just realized if he sits back from a crawl and pushes his hands on the floor that he can sit up.

He is learning and growing so much everday that I am amazed.

Have you seen the Pamper commercial? the one with them playing silent night? Well for some reason they play it at night and the little babies are all sleeping I have to sneak into Evan's room and watch him sleep. I must get up and look at him. Then I kiss him about a hundred times. I am such a nut!

Speaking of sleeping. Evan is going through something. He wakes up at 10:00 ish and just cries. I usually have just gotten to sleep or I am still awake. I nurse him and then change him and put him back down. He wakes again at 2ish and wants to eat. He hasn't gotten up this much since before I went back to work.

I am hoping the whole sleeping thing is a growth spurt or his brain is going haywire because he is learning so much new stuff. I am wondering if it could be related to teething too. Yes, Evan has absolutely not one tooth yet.

Let it snow! Happy 8th month Birthday!

2008-12-21T12:16:00.001-05:00

On Friday it was Evan's 8th month birthday! Just thinking about him being 8 months old is really frightening as time has passed so quickly.

We set up the gate around him. He is starting to crawl everywhere and I just don't have anything child proofed yet. The playard is big enough and he doesn't seem to mind that he is in the "cage." When Ken and I get in there with Evan to play we call it the "cage match."

It started to snow around 12:30pm and it did not let up till about Saturday at 1:00p.m. all in all we got 10 inches of snow.

I set up our little christmas tree in the window and just enjoyed the snow. Being stuck in the house all day gave me the briliant idea to cook up a storm.

I made turkey soup, and christmas cookies, I cut up a wonderful pineapple that I had bought a couple of days ago.

Ken won't let me take Evan out in the snow even for a second to snap a picture of him because he is sick but maybe I can persuad him. He has got to get a picture in the snow with his first christmas hat!

With the impending snow Ken was able to sneak out of work early. He brought home a couple of movies and our new stroller! I love the new stroller! I took it to the mall and we did all of our Christmas shopping with the exception of one gift. It is really easy to collapse it as you just pull the handle and it folds nicely. It is not as heavy as I thought it would be. It weighs around the same as Evan.

Evan has been getting up twice a night since he has had the ear infection. He gets up around 10:30 or 11:00 then sometimes gets up at 2:00 a.m. or at 5:00 a.m. I really would like to let him cry it out but figure that he wouldn't get up for a reason so I just nurse him back to sleep. He still cries a little at being put back to bed but it last for less than 2 minutes.

We are in the middle of our second storm Brooke (and Brooke if you are reading it must make you happy to be in Texas while a storm is dumping snow on New England it is just giving us a reminder on how much you miss being back home) I think we have gotten at least 3 inches at this point I don't think I want to put Evan in the snow as we might lose him!

Ken and I wrapped all of our Christmas gifts. Except that I forgot my parents gift in the other room and will have to get it done after Evan takes his afternoon nap. It is amazing how much stuff you try to cram into doing in the space of nap time.

This week should be an easy work week as I am working Monday and working only 6 hours on Tuesday and then off to the following Monday. I got the hose because of my maternity leave and have to work the 29th and 30th. It should not be very busy for these 4 days. Ken has from the 25th to the 5th off from work. Going to work those two days are going to be tough.

We are going to have my niece Bella stay over one night while she is on vacation and it should be great fun!

My first crawl! -- 7 months 3 weeks.

2008-12-18T15:49:00.003-05:00

On Saturday, Evan treated us with getting up at 6 am and then wanting to go back to sleep and we managed to sleep till 7:30 a.m. I then had to get up and run a few quick errands. I of course wanted to pick up a little Christmas tree for Evan. All of our Christmas stuff is in storage (my inlaws can't wait to get back there space above there garage) A week ago I saw this awesome little tree at whole foods. It had lights and ornaments and everything. Because family was visiting I thought it would be fun to get it and decorate with Evan. I also of course had to get a wax because I was starting to get a una-brow! While I was running errands Ken was taking care of Evan and doing all of his chores that he did not do earlier in the week to get ready for his family.

After running errands I headed over to the airport to pick up my SIL Christine. She had flown up from Baltimore to visit for the weekend. She also was carrying a delicate package our Christmas Crabcakes! It has become a little hassle to bring them on the plane. Originally they told her she can take the foam ice packs on the plane and then another TSA agent said she couldn't after many debates every time she flies she has learned to carry them with the foam ice packs take them out before leaving the car at the airport. Then she goes through security and of course they scrutinize the crab cakes --secretly I think they want to confiscate the cakes for themselves! she takes her ziploc bags and then asks a vendor after security to fill with ice. After eating them I realize that it is worth all the trouble that she goes through.

If you ever want to order here is the best crab cakes on this earth.

http://www.faidleyscrabcakes.com/

About an hour after Chris arrived Granpa, Nana, Grandmother, and Granana all arrived to our condo in Granana's new toyota corolla -- this is the car that Ken helped her buy earlier this month. They were very excited to come to our house with heat and electricity. On Thursday they were hit with the ice storm and still did not have power. They arrived with all there electronics that needed to be charged, batteries, lights, cell phones, not an open outlet was to be found! We had a great time eating crab cake and enjoying a cheesecake that one of my business associates gave me. We all had fun decorating the little tree and spending time with each other.

And best of all Evan on 12/13/2008 crawled forward on his hands and knees to Christine for the first time ever!

Now of course we are not prepared for little dude to be crawling so now anytime we put him down we have to watch him all the time.

On Sunday we headed out to get or holiday pictures and technically Evan's 9 month photos a month early. After wracking my brain as to what to get my parents I thought what could be nicer than a picture of all 6 grand kids. It was not any easy task coordinating my sister's and brother's schedule but I was finally pick a day. My thought process was that this would be the last year that we could do it. Leslie is pregnant with her first baby and just thought that doing it next year with Leslie being a mom would be weird. We really got some great shots and I will be posting photos soon to the picasso web albums.

After the pictures we headed to the cheescake factory for lunch. We had a great time but Evan was pushed to his max after missing his morning nap and afternoon nap. He also has been still feeing his cold that is getting a little more cough and more nasal congestion.

It was time to send off Auntie Chris back home. We also snuck in a quick view of a house that we thought we might be interested in but turns out it was better in pictures then in person.

The last Tuesday before Christmas is our commission close. That means it is our last pay cycle for our agents. It is the most stressful time of the year and we usually work late the Monday night or Tuesday night. So after sending off the family I worked till 8pm on Monday night. It is always a great feeling when you leave work on that Tuesday the stress seems to melt away. Because of my maternity leave I had to take some additional days off.

I took Thursday off to take Evan to the doctor. He has been coughing and just not himself for the past few days. I also got a note from daycare that he was coughing all day and that was my sign that I needed to take him in. I brought him in to the doctor's office and he saw Tyler the nurse. I really like his nurse. Tyler gives him hugs and kisses and just likes being around him. After listening to his chest he took a look into his ears and low and behold Evan has his first ear infection. I feel really bad as he is such a good boy I had no idea besides the cough and runny nose that he had anything wrong with his ears. So off to get him a Rx. I also had my office christmas pot luck changed to Thursday because of the impending snow. (writing on Thursday so will update with the snow) We had our yankee swap and I ended up getting my gift back. Which I was not happy as I loaded up some VHS exercise videos and a 56k modem and some other random stuff that I didn't want around my house. I took it as a sign and ended up throwing out the stuff as the rules state I had to bring it home.

Well the little dude is crying...time to give him some momma love!

Holiday Season! 7 month week #2

2008-12-18T09:11:00.005-05:00

We started our holiday season this week.

I had my first holiday party for work on Wednesday night. We went to Champions in Tower Square in Springfield. It was great just to be out and visiting with co-workers. Our field offices came in for a visit and it was nice to catch up with them in person.

Evan was at home with daddy. Ken had to feed, wash, and put to bed Evan. It was probably the longest and the most he has had to do for Evan. I actually was home by 7:30 p.m. so it was not the whole night. I think Ken believes that me nursing Evan is so magical thing that only I can do it and when he takes care of him he doesn't have mum mum as I like to call it.

The rest of the week was just getting the house ready for relatives coming in on Saturday.

Ken and I always share the domestic duties so I cleaned the bathroom on Friday while he ran errands. I can't remember what he was doing but involved going to Home Depot and a few other places. So needless to say that he had a ton of work to do on Saturday for his domestic duties.

Evan has picked up a little cough and runny nose. It has been nothing major with no fever just been using saline drops and the hummidifier. He still seems his jolly self.

Birth Announcement - Month 7, Week #1

2008-12-07T21:53:00.002-05:00

Yes! No, not the arrival of Baby Ritchie #2. I actually got all of Evan's birth announcements finally mailed out. I had to include a 6 month update because we have been so busy and I should have gotten them out before I went back to work but time seemed to pass by so quickly.

After getting the birth announcement's out this week we spent the week just relaxing. It was a pretty hectic thanksgiving week so we looked forward just to hang out with the little guy.

Wednesday, Evan had the 2nd half of his 6 month shots. He did have a mild reaction with a really red lump and it still is pretty big and red at this time.

Ken's company holiday party was on Friday and I was lucky enough to have one of my dresses that I had in my closet still fit. (I forgot the camera so I didn't get any pics of us all dressed up) My sister Cindy came over to watch the little guy. I gave her the name of Evan's doctor and told her if it was a big Emergency to go to the hospital just down the street if it was only a slight emergency then head to the Children's hospital across town. The party was great and the d.j. was horrible. I sort of made the mistake thinking that " baby got back" would get the party started but it only cleared the dance floor. I still danced like a fool to the music! and No! I didn't have any cocktails. Ken thought it was really funny. We stayed for desert and then headed home. We called my sister to let her know that we would be on our way home and from that time till we got home the little dude woke up! When I got home he was sitting with my sister drinking out of a bottle. I was able to nurse him back to sleep but he is a sneaky little dude. The whole time he was smiling and cooing at my sister. I had to break out the "I mean business" you need to go back to bed face.

On Saturday I had to work a half day. I was able to do it from home so when Evan got up at 6:00 a.m. I fed him and then logged onto the computer. After that we headed out for some errands. We ran a bunch of errands and since we don't have a stroller yet I pouched the little dude.

Sunday we headed out to see Santa! This time knowing that we were going to be in line for a long time we took the old car seat and put it in my car empty and then used the snap and go stroller with the old car seat and used that since we still don't have a stroller. On most of the websites they do say that the new 2009 is coming out in the first week of December. Where are you my stroller? Evan was an angel waiting for Santa. I ran around the mall getting gifts while Ken waited in line with him. When it was time to see Santa, Evan sat right down with him and he grabbed his coat and then grabbed his beard. It was priceless. At this mall they actually take about 4-5 different photos so you can pick the best one. We got the photos and are in the process of getting them put together on Shutterfly. (they offer you a flash card and a $25 gift card to shutterfly) I promise not to send them out next August!

I had to weigh in for WW and I am still 3.5 pounds under goal! I am not exactly happy that they changed the program and got rid of my core but I think I will still follow it to a degree as it was very easy and successful for me.

Happy Thanksgiving. Month #7

2008-12-07T13:34:00.005-05:00

This week we gathered at my sister, Donna's house for Thanksgiving.

I had a really busy week trying to get everything ready. On Wednesday I ran around like a crazy person after work. I had my sort of High School Reunion - 15 years ugh! We went to Real Art Ways in Hartford and invited the class of '92, 93, '94 and '95 and basically anyone else who wanted to go that graduated from WHS. I went to Marshall's earlier in the day to find a top to wear as most of my stuff is nursing friendly and wanted to buy something that I could go out and wear a regular bra. Ken offered to stay home with the baby so I had a night out by myself. After doing a grab and go at Marshall's to a couple of tops I headed to Whole Foods and had to buy the yams for t-day. After going to the grocery store I realized that I needed a good touch up on the brows before going to the reunion. So I headed out to get a wax. Of course, I get home and Evan needs to be fed and I had to make dinner. I tried on all 3 of my new tops and changed my mind on each of them and went with a top that I had hanging in my closet.

The reunion was fun. All the guys were a little chunkier and little less hair but for the most part have not changed that much. The women looked great after most of them had at least one or more babies! I of course brought pictures of my little man!

On T-day we got up early and I cooked the yams and prepared my orange honey butter. We packed our bags and headed out for the day for family fun. Evan had a great time playing with his cousins. He had a great t-day meal of pears and yams. Hermie and Leslie arrived in time for desert. Leslie is looking great at 26 weeks pregant with her little girl.

Evan's First Black Friday! Ken and I decided that we would go out to a few stores when Evan woke up. It could be at 4:30 am or it could be at 6am we just weren't sure. Evan got up at 5:00 and we fed him and packed him up in his pajamas and headed out. We went to BRU and got the diapers and wipes and few other things that were on sale. Yes, I did buy the canned baby food. It is organic and we use it in a pinch when I just don't feel like carrying around a cooler with frozen homemade food.

Ken went into TRU and bought Evan and himself a millenium falcon. Evan is not even close to being able to use it and Ken bought one for himself so that he can keep it wrapped up and we can drag it with us everywhere. Evan fell asleep after BRU and we both stayed out in the car while Ken did the rest of the shopping.

Later that day we packed up and headed to Granpa and Nana's house for an overnight visit. We had a great time. We enjoyed playing with the pop beads and swinging on the jumping swing that hangs from the log rafters. On Saturday, Ken got Granana's old car ready for a person who was interested in buying it. I also got Ken to vacuum my car as I had not had it done in a couple of months. I have a nice picture of a deer that was just walking through the front yard. I updated with pictures from thanksgiving.

On Sunday I connected with my good friend from high school Amy along with another friend Kathy. They both had babies. Two little girls one was 4.5 months and 9 weeks and then another of Amy's friend that had a baby that was 1 week older than Evan. I also met up with my best friend from High school Sarah that just got married. Evan was good with all the kids and he was his laid back self as usual.

Updated pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/taritchie

Sick! Sick! Sick! 7 month

2008-12-07T12:04:00.004-05:00

This week we were really sick! I just didn't get better over the weekend. Evan was so good and just toughed it out and did not catch my cold.

I gave in to the inevitable and went to the Dr. to see if it had progressed into an infection that he could give me something.

After a quick assessment he didn't really give a name to it but gave me a rx for amoxocillin because I am still nursing. I really hated taking it because I already had to take rx for the uti at birth, rx for mastitis and now for the cold. Poor Evan is going to have no digestive flora after being dosed 3 times with rx in 7 months.

The doctor forced me to stay out till Wednesday which was not the best thing as my desk was full of work. I tried to catch up but it was just near impossible and luckily they distributed my work to a bunch of other underwriters.

By the end of the week I still was not any better. We then headed up to my in-laws to visit for the weekend as we have not seen them in a few weeks since Ken had been going up to work on the roof.

We went up on Saturday afternoon and met Granana Ann to go work out a deal for a new car at the car dealership Ken used to work at. After a brief banter of pricing between Ken and the salesman we locked the deal down and all Ann had to do was wait for the truck to deliver it to the dealership.

On Sunday we head to Hearthstone for Granmother's annual before thanksgiving dinner. We had a great time visiting with grandmother and getting in the holiday spirit by having our pre-thanksgiving meal.

After lunch we headed to Wrentham Outlets which is about a half an hour out of our way but I have been obsessing over using pots an pans with silicone on them and really wanted to get the visions by corning ware so I could cook Evan's food in glass pots and pans. I still use my pans as I got them for a wedding gift and love them but I am trying to limit the use of the silicone for Evan. I know that in about 6 months I am probably going to say "Oh well" and give Evan a lead pipe to gnaw on while he is cutting teeth. Well maybe not that extreme.

We switched the snugride car seat out of my car and switched to the britax decathalon seat for my car. Which means that we still don't have our new stroller so I had to ergo baby carry him and Ken used the snap and go stroller base to put all of our purchases.

Evan was great and loves being in the carrier. If I adjust him we jump up and down and he thinks that I am playing in his jumperoo.

We headed home and Evan as usual slept all the way home. He loves the new car seat he can see all around and I got to say his seat looks like he is in a lazy boy!

Pictures to come soon!

Stroller Quest - 6 months 3 weeks.

2008-11-17T14:45:00.003-05:00

Ken spent his 2nd weekend working on putting a roof on his Step grandmother's house. So it was just me and the little man. I decided to do a little shopping spree at BRU. I started early on Saturday morning and bought Evan new born free sippy cups. I bought orange colored ones and Ken thought they looked to pink. I got that color because Ken likes that color. So I exchanged them for blue and a green one. So much for Ken not worrying about gender roles! We did more shopping and I had some lunch all in all it was fun. I used my new Ergo Baby carrier that Mel got me and I love it. I just put the carrier on and put the little guy on my hip and we head out.

A few months back we received an email about a study that was being run by the physical therapy department of Uconn to see how movement is related to autism. One of the babies that they were looking for were full term babies. On Sunday, the professor came over to our house and set up a video tape and began doing a bunch of tests. It was all involved in him picking up things and playing. Mostly it was just seeing if he was developmentally at the same age level that he should be. He was fine even though technically it wasn't really a test for that it was more for the researchers. Now someone will watch the video of Evan picking up a toy and dropping it a million times and count how many times he does it. They will follow him with another visit at 9 months and test him again. I like the idea that we are putting him in a study so at least we are doing our part to help learn more about autism. I also consider it his volunteering for the year.
Ken and I usually like to volunteer at least one day a year and we both decided that it is important to help people out.

Stoller quest. We spent to many hours working on trying to find a stroller. So this week we headed out to Kumquat a baby store that is in the posh area of CT. So Ken and I get there and I take Evan out of his car seat and throw him in an Uppa baby stroller and start him strolling around the store. I really liked this stroller it had this really neat option to keep his feet up or down and it was light. The bad things about this stroller is that it comes with the pram of which we don't need and it is a two part process to put it away. Our goal is light and easy putting it away. So we try the Phil & Ted's this is another great stroller but it really is meant for two kids so you can tuck the baby under neath the other kid. So we really wanted to look at the mountain buggy made in New Zealand. This stroller is much like the BoB. It has the 3 wheels and is pretty light weight but the tires are really big. Ken and I did have a running race around a rounder with 2 different strollers both had excellent turning. The sales person was a young girl of 20 and it was right before closing and I am sure she thought we were whackos with 2 adults chasing each other with strollers around a rack of clothes. Oh! one thing Ken didn't like about the Phil &Ted's was that it had a button stop on the handle. So if you accidently hit the button it stops the tires which could be a little dangerous if you are walking and just come to an abrupt start. From the very beginning we thought we were going to get the city mini by baby jogger. But I think I said this before that Evan just doesn't fit quite right into it. We really wanted to see the next level up from the mini which is the classic but no stores seem to carry them. I think we have looked at just about every stroller out there. We get home and I get Evan back down to sleep and Ken fires up the computer and finds out that there is a rumor that the citi classic is coming out in a sport model that is 12% lighter than the classic and it will be out the first week of December. If it does not come out before then we have to buy it because Evan can't be in his car seat because first of all he doesn't like being in it and secondly, he is getting to big for it. Plus living on the third floor it is a beast to carry him up in it.

Stroller Quest continues...

Happy Halloween! 6 months 2 weeks.

2008-11-02T08:19:00.004-05:00

This week we attended the wake of one of my co-workers. She had passed from breast cancer after being in remission and having it come back again. Her sister was also my old boss as they both worked at my company. The funeral home was right across the street from where Ken works and around the corner from day care. The viewing line stretched for about a 45 minute wait! She came from a big family and she was well liked. Evan was a trooper after being in daycare and not getting his dinner at the usual time he behaved like an angel. He played quietly in his stroller and when we went up to the viewing and give our condolences Evan looked over at her husband and just gave him the sweetest smile. Her husband responded that he really needed that. Then he went to brush Evan's cheek and Evan of course tried to eat his finger!

On Halloween day I took a half day. I headed down to pick Evan up and then bring him back to work so people could see him and visit him. I hadn't been to work with him in about 3 months. Everyone was so shocked at how big he is! Evan dressed up as a dragon! He was so cute! He only lasted about 5 minutes in the costume. Enough for me to get a picture with mom and cousins.

This weekend I am a single mom! Ken had to go up to MA to help his dad put on a new roof for his step grandmother. I took the little guy out to weigh in for the month at WW and then ran errands and then had to get to some much needed attention to the laundry.

As Evan is now growing out of his car seat we ordered two new car seats. What a hard time it is I have to find the best in crash safety but then find one that is not immiting toxic chemicals. We ended up with the Britax Decathalon. It is just like the roundabout but has a little more cushion.

I also started to list some of his stuff that we don't use on Craigslist. I sold his Boppy Swing as he was able to stick his foot out and stop the swing and then push off on it making it swing faster than it should.

Our next sale will be his snug ride car seat and car seat stroller. We just are in a big debate over car strollers as we want something light but sturdy and easy to fold up. So far we like the baby jogger city mini but I think the storage bin underneath is to small and there is not a huge amount of support for him so he sits a little funny because his legs aren't long enough for the stroller yet. I guess we will figure it out this week.

Enough with the shots already! 6 months 1 week

2008-11-02T08:10:00.002-05:00

Here are Evan's stats: 27.5 inches long and 21 pounds! What a big boy! He had his last shot of pediarex and then his flu shot.

The little guy is thriving. He is where he is supposed to be developmental and he is off the charts for height and weight. I am finding his 9 month old clothes are starting to fit a little tighter and glad that I started to buy 12 month old winter clothes.

We started to crawl this week a sort of backwards crawl assisted by his activity mat and anything he can grab to get him along. The good thing is on the wood floors he is like my own dust mop and he does a nice job keeping the floors debris free. Oh! O.k. I am just teasing on that one!

We introduced yellow squash this week and a new multigrain cereal. He is not a big fan of the squash but seems to be o.k. with the cereal.

I also started to make his butternut squash and yams to eat. I am trying to stay local or buy organic. It has been pretty easy making the food right now and I just get excited to see what he is going to do.

So the question is now with cereal and veggies ...Does he sleep through the night? No the little guy still goes to sleep about 6:45 pm wakes up at Midnight and then back to sleep till 5am. I don't mind to much the 5 am but I wish he could make it at least to 5:45 so that I would just get up take a shower and then get him ready for the day and wake him up and feed him.

This week I made lifetime. actually 3 pounds under lifetime at WW. So now I go for free. I want to say that it was really difficult but nursing made it so much easier.

My next big hurdle is to get back to the gym. I would like to do that before I stop nursing so I can lose more weight to eventually gain it back when I stop nursing.

Happy 1/2 Birthday - 6 months

2008-11-02T07:52:00.003-05:00

On Sunday we head north to visit family. Ken's sister made the cross country trip from Seattle to Massachusetts.

We spent the entire day visiting the family and having fun. We ended the summer season with one last trip to Kimball's for ice cream. As this was there last day to be open till spring I finally got Ken to agree to get Chocolate peanut butter cup ice cream. For some reason he doesn't like it so when we have been going this summer we usually end up getting something else. (the ice is so huge you have to share!)

We made the trip back down to CT. What a busy weekend we had. I am still giving Evan cereal and he is enjoying eating. Or he enjoys just spitting it out on his bib.

For the rest of the week we just got ready for the upcoming family visit. I have been doing a little work from home as my case load has been huge due to impending year end and the end of our sales season.

On Thursday we met up with Karyn and Bob to enjoy a nice dinner at Agave one of our favorite Mexican places downtown. Evan was his usual happy self and spent most of the time smiling at the waitresses. He is such a ham.

We picked Karyn and Bob up earlier on Friday and headed to Cracker Barrell for breakfast. After that we decided to look at a house that just came on the market. So we drove around the circle but wasn't really impressed. A woman was out front and so we pulled in the driveway and asked her it would be o.k. if we could see the yard. Well it turns out the owner was 95 and passed away and she took care of him and immediately got the keys so we could take a look around. We immediately loved the yard and the big extra garage in the backyard with a 3 season room. The house is on 1.3 acres. The house itself is very small and one of the bedrooms of the 3 is really more of a dining room. It also needed some updating in the kitchen, bathroom, and the basement. The garage in the basement was one where one person pulls in and then the other pulls behind and you couldn't even get a mini van because the ceiling is to low.

So regardless we put an offer into the house. Of course we got rejected and they didn't even coutner our offer. The house is still on the market and we still have not countered our own offer as our offer could have been countered but they chose not to.

After looking at the house we headed down to Lyman Orchards for apple picking. The farm has been in the Lyman family for 8 generations! We ate apple cider donuts and cider and picked some beautiful apples.

On Saturday we had Granpa, Nana, Great Grandmother, Grannana, and Karyn and Bob over for a visit. We had lunch at a new Thai restaurant that just opened downtown. We then headed to the Hartford Carousel for Evan's first ride. I can't say he loved it or not but we took the pictures and had a good time.

Pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/taritchie

We also acknowledged Evan's 6 month birthday. I can't believe time goes by so fast.

We recovered on Sunday by just relaxing and running errands after the whirlwind family visit.

Why do you make that face? Month #5 - week 3

2008-10-09T20:10:00.005-04:00

We had a typical week of working and then coming home.

On Thursday, 10-9-2008 or 10-9-8, Evan ate his first spoonful of cereal. He made the worst face ever! Of course we have it on video and took a picture as posted above (and if not it will be soon) I am hoping that he is a little more satisified. He seemed to think it was the weirdest thing to put in his mouth. I only gave him about 10 spoonfuls--very small amount on the spoon. It also could have been that he was sitting in his high chair for the first time soon.

I also found out that daycare has been giving him 3 more ounces of milk a day. Of course they went through my freezer stash at school and now I am left with only about 3 days worth of milk at home and now need to make up for the extra that they give him at school.

On Saturday I had a really busy day! I had to run down to WW get weighed in, quickly run to the grocery store and pick up flowers, and then get my brows waxed because it was getting a little scary.

I picked up the flowers for my sister who at the same time I was running errands she was running the hartford half marathon. From above you can see my super geeky support of her. She was in the red hat! I saw her coming around the corner (we were about 1/4 mile from the finish line) and she was just crying. I felt so bad. I then grabbed my sign and went running with her to almost the finish line! (I wasn't sure if I could cross with her...I hate to have her disqualified for me being an idiot) So I got to the end and gave her a big hug and she was just weeping and saying how tired she was! I later found out that she was crying because she saw me and she was about to give up but pushed through because Ken, Evan and I were all cheering for her. (and two adopted fans as they were waiting for there runners for the marathon and decided to stay and cheer her on.) I love watching the marathon. Ken equates it to watching parades he is not a big fan. I lost my voice from yelling at the runners. Here are a few of my phrases: "Head for the arch you are almost there you can do it!) --finish line is under a historic arch. If wearing any color "go big red, you go pink, representing the tie dye!" If they have a name I scream there name. If a person is really running out of steam I scream even louder with support! I love it! I think it is such an accomplishment. I also cheered on Team Cook a mom that had a triple stroller and had 2, two year olds and a 4 year old and finished the race! My sister said that she had some help getting them up the big hill but way to go for her to find a way to spend time with her kids and do something that she loves.

After visiting with my sister and enjoying the beautiful warm day downtown. We walked around and then we headed home. We celebrated Leslie and Mike's first anniversary by having dinner at my sister's house. We kept it local and brought cannolis from Mozzicato's a Hartford Italian bakery. My sister had the wedding cake but 1 year old cake did not sound appealing to me.

Month 5 - Week #2 -- Back up again?

2008-09-30T21:17:00.006-04:00

I am sure by now you really are tired of hearing about Lefty and even righty. Where are all the Evan stories? Well I will just finish. Lefty is somewhat back to normal but I still need to work at night to pump the 15 ounces that I need to make up what Evan eats.

People keep telling me to feed him rice cereal and I agree we are pretty close to him being ready. I did buy some organic brown rice cereal I am going to start him out with that first. I like the idea of brown rice so he doesn't even ever have any white rice and start him out eating healthy.

Evan is a rolling over maniac. He rolled over for the first time on 7/18/2008 but now he just does it without even knowing it. This is particularly tough when he does it in the middle of the night and starts to cry. From what I can tell he just happens to do it and realizes he can't get back over. I go in and fix him and it usually helps.

This week I worked from home one night. I just needed to get some work stuff cleaned up. I felt so much better getting it done. We are still in our big selling season and I am hoping that we don't have to work a Saturday.

I did make some lactation cookies. Now these cookies are just supposed to help with production and does not mean that boys can't eat them. I got the recipe from epicurious.com

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/printerfriendly/LACTATION-COOKIES-1252680

I changed up the recipe a bit and used DHA -Omega 3 organic eggs, I also used earth balance-buttery blend -not really butter by definition as it has no dairy but just as tasty.

I figured the size of my cookies make them about 3 points each. I also added the whole bag of chips instead of a cup.

We still haven't figured out what Evan will be for Halloween. Any suggestions are appreciated.

As for Evan he is growing so fast that he has outgrown all of his 6 month clothes and is pretty close to be getting out of his 9 month clothes.

For the past month we have been without TV we got back from vacation to a Dish TV that wasn't working. This was particularly worrisome as I like to know the weather before dressing Evan. We survived and I realized that I didn't mind not having tv all this time.

Because I made so many I brought them into work. I just told everyone that they were Oatmeal chocolate chip. Everyone seem to like them. I also like the idea of hiding good food in food.

This weekend we went to Worcester for Ken to work on his shed so that he can put the snow blower and lawn mower so the tenants can mow and snow removal --they requested and it helps us not having to make a 120 mile round trip in the winter.

I took the time to try to find some clothes for Evan he is growing out of his 9 month clothes. I bought a couple of shirts and still need to find pants for him.

Evan is going to be a dragon or a dinosaur for Halloween we still haven't figured out which one we like better. I am leaning towards the dragon.

Still maintaining at WW it is still pretty easy. I am guessing once I stop nursing it will be harder to keep the weight down.

5 months old week #1 --Production is down!

2008-09-30T21:10:00.004-04:00

I decided to change the format. I can never really remember if I am ahead or behind. So as of 9/19/2008, Evan is 5 months old so Ithought I would just do 4 weeks of each month so it is easier. It is weird how things change...all they way up to 12 weeks you say weeks then after that it is like a transition where when people asked I would say 3.5 months and so on.

So by Monday I am back to work and not feeling the best. I called the doctor's office and the nurse called in an antibiotic. I was really not very keen on taking anything so I waited till Wednesday till I felt worse before I took it.

By this time my production has gone from pumping 15 ounces at work--what Evan eats at daycare down to about 10 ounces or less. I have about a week of freezer stash but am worried about poor left and now righty.

I started to do research and here is what I have done so far to keep production up. drinking mother's milk tea,--hate it and it tastes like licorice-gross, pumping after nursing, nursing often, warm baths, drinking non-alcoholic beer, eating oatmeal. eating protein at every meal.

The antibiotics helped and as of Saturday my production was not getting any better.

At least I am still 2 pounds under goal for WW.

House??? Week #23

2008-09-30T20:54:00.003-04:00

So we didn't get the house... It went to an offer lower than ours but it was a cash offer. We were very disappointed I think mostly because we wanted to get out of here before the little guy started to crawl.

We will still keep on looking and hopefully something will turn up.

We had a regular week of work and then headed North to visit Nana and Granpa to go to a shower for my friend Dori who is due on 11/2/08.

I left Granpa and Ken to take care of the little guy while I visited at the shower. It was a great time I felt a little weird not having Evan with me. Another friend had brought her baby, Thomas, he was 8 months old and just beautiful. I do have to say that Evan was a tad bit smaller than him.

I also started to develop a clogged duct. I had pumped at Dori's but I just had a feeling that lefty was sort of sad. By the time I got back to Pop's I was feeling pretty fatigued and tired. I started the warm compress on lefty.

I was feeling bad and so we decided to head back down to Hartford. I took a warm bath and started to read about clogged ducts. Turns out that I need to just nurse as much as I can and then warm compresses, warm baths, and pump after nursing.

By Sunday I was in a bad way. Lefty was pretty miserable, red, hot, and sore. Evan was amazing! I felt like I had a really bad case of the flu so I just stayed in bed all day. Evan just had this intuition that he was to stick by my side and be with me. When I napped he napped next to me. (I am typically not a co-sleeper but I was desperate to feel better)

By Sunday night I was feeling a little better and put Evan down to sleep in his own bed. When he got up to eat at night I would take him into the spare bed and we would nurse/sleep the rest of the night.

Goal Achieved - Week #22

2008-09-30T20:44:00.002-04:00

Yes that is right! I smashed my weight watchers goal. I had to lose 4 pounds from all the weight gain from vacation and I was 2.2 pounds under my goal.

Evan had his 2nd round of four month old shots. He was a trooper as always and cried for a little while but then I nursed him and he was just fine. We didn't do a weigh in this time but we still think he is holding steady at around 20lbs.

This week we looked at a house just coincidently where my boss lives. It was a great house, the back was a little hilly but it had a great view of a farm and many people in the area owned horses.

We put our bid in... the house was bank owned and was in fairly bad condition. We put in our offer and then just waited. With it being a bank owned property and the selling realtor not being the most involved we waited to hear any news.

On Saturday we headed out to Leslie's house for a picnic. I will not go into the "cracker" incident but let me tell you...don't let your child be left alone while he is teething. someone might mistake him as being hungry and try to feed him a ritz cracker. Evan survived and threw up most of it.

Sunday we just hung around the house and just relaxed. It was great just to have time to sit around and do nothing.

Hanna Who? -Week #21

2008-09-14T12:19:00.002-04:00

On Saturday of our vacation Hanna greeted us with rain, wind, and more rain. Ken and I thought it would be a great time to visit Chincoteague... the place were the ponies are brought over and sold at the fair.

We packed up the car for the day and headed over. It took us a good hour with rain and wind to make it over. I keep thinking that the bridges are going to flood and we are going to get stuck. I have visions of being rescued and people asking us " why did you go out in a hurricane?" Our response. "we didn't think it was going to be that bad?" But we made it there and back.

For dinner we met Pop, Nana, Chris, and Ernie for dinner and to pound some crab. I love to eat crab. I have trouble getting it out of the shell. It took me about an hour to eat 3 crab and I must have missed most of the meat. Ken finally gave up on me and started to help me with the crabs... of course that was all in the plan. I don't know why I am not good at it. I eat lobster enough but this little crab wins everytime.

On Sunday we headed out for a morning walk on the boardwalk. More Thrasher's french fries, and Kohr's frozen custard. We walked the whole length of the boardwalk and then took the tram back. The surf was really high and we could see real surfers catching the waves. We then all decided to head out into the surf. Ken watched the little guy so I finally got some fun time in the ocean. Pop used Ken's boogie board and cruised the waves. We then got cleaned up and ready for another night of pounding crab. I opted out and went lazy and got the crab cakes-- not as good as faidley's but tasty.

After dinner we made our trip back home. We left at 8pm and Ken did all the driving as Evan was up 5 times the night before and I was just tired. We got home at 1:45 with one 5 minute rest stop.

Confessions to the scale. I had 2 pounds gained so I had to get focused to lose those 2 gained and another too. This week was a typical week. I worked and was supposed to have a dental appt but they called and had an earlier appt and in Hartford where they have a new office. My new dental place is open 7 days a week and has appts till Midnight. I like that they have a flexible schedule and they did a nice job.

Pounds lost 2.

Maryland Vacation - Week #20

2008-09-14T11:55:00.002-04:00

As Saturday arrived we woke up at 9am for having a little one. Evan got up and just went with the flow of being in a new state. We got up dressed and headed out to the WW for a weigh in. I kept on thinking light thoughts and hoping my Krispy Kreme indulgence from the night before would take me over the edge. But alas, I lost 0 and was pretty happy with that. They have the best WW meeting leader. She is funny and energetic and tells it like it is...so if you are in Baltimore it is the Reistertown Rd WW in Pikesville at 10am. Joann is her name and she has been doing the meeting for the past two years because I weighed in at that meeting in May of 2006 too.

After that we headed to the farmer's market this is known as the "little one" it is a nice small market with plenty of booths. We bought fresh salad greens, fresh cheese, and my favorite concord grapes. I just can't get enough of those grapes. I would say strawberries are my favorite and concord grapes are next. After that Evan went down for a nap and we headed out for Thai food. I love being in the Baltimore D.C. area. I also decided that I was throwing WW out the window this week and doing no holds barred eating.

For dinner we had the best crab cakes EVER! Faidley's are the best... I know you might think not but we have tried them all and they are the best. If you don't believe me then take a look at their story and awards and order some NOW! http://www.faidleyscrabcakes.com/index.html

Because I love farmer's market so much we went to the bigger farmer's market in downtown Baltimore. We ate hot freshly made mini donuts, bought some beautiful apples, I ate all the concord grapes so I got some local black grapes that were just as good, corn, a melon that the farmer gave us a canteloupe just in case this one is "disgusting" per his words. --it was just fine, it tasted like a mild canteloupe.

We then waited for Ernie to come back from his kayaking trip so we could head down to Silver Spring, MD for a family favorite Dim Sum! I can't get enough of dim sum. We stuffed ourselves full of dumplings and then headed back home.

On Monday we got all of our stuff ready to go to make the trip to the beach. By this time the cats at Christine's house were a little frazzled by the house guests. Although one kitty did come out and spend some time with us and took a quick smell of Evan.

Speaking of the little dude. I think he was off his game on vacation because he just kept on getting up 3 and 4 times a night and his typical waking up at home is once a night.

We travel at night. We are nomads. Or we finally found out the reason why our parents travelled at night...because babies sleep at night!

In true Ritchie fashion we figured out how to play Trivial Pursuit in the car. Ernie and Chris were at home and we talked to them on our cell phone. Chris rolled for us and asked us the question and Ernie rolled for their team and asked the question. We had a great 1.5 hour game while we were driving to the beach. Ken and I came out victorious 4 pie pieces to 0. We did get really easy questions though. and I am a good guesser if I don't know the answer.

At the beach. On Tuesday we get ready to go to Assateague which is the national seashore. Ken packs the car. Unpacks the car. I bjorn Evan and we head out. It is not very sunny and the waves are pretty high. Just as Ken comes back from his 2nd trip Evan and I get bombarded by little bugs you can't see. They are eating both of us and then little flies and horse flys. By the way we did see a whole pack of horses on the beach. http://www.assateagueisland.com/ for more information.

With an exasperated look Ken picks up all the stuff we just put onto the beach and we head to Ocean City board walk to walk around.

If you need your baby to sleep try the board walk and a stroller. Everytime we walked the board walk he was out to sleep. The rhythm from the boards and the gentle rocking sent him over the edge every time.

We spent the rest of the week at the beach or at the board walk enjoying our time.

On Friday, Pop and Nana flew into Baltimore to get ready to come over to Ocean City on Saturday.

Pounds lost...or is that gained...not sure.

"What a big boy!...Mamma Mia...what a big boy!" -Week 19

2008-09-04T14:13:00.005-04:00

This week was a busy week with Evan having 2 doctor's appt. The first we headed to Childrens Medical Center (CMDC) in Hartford. I am so glad that we have a children's hospital so close to us it is nice that if anything happens we are close to medical attention. Evan met with the pediatric urologist. Evan was born with a minor hypospadius meaning that his urethra was not properly formed and his hole is slightly lower on his penis. We knew that he would need surgery for it as soon as he was born and was advised that we could not circumcise him because they would need the foreskin in the future. We waited in the waiting room for our appt and I couldn't help but to cry. All the children there were sick with something. I just get on thinking how our little guy has such a huge issue to us but compared to the struggle that other families are going through with their children we are blessed.

The doctor was a typical surgeon, he was short to the point and was in an almost rush to get us out of there. We watched a video of what a hypospadius is and how to treat. It turns out that at 11 weeks gestation this problem occurs. It could be based on family having the problem, fertility drugs, and maternal age. From all that we have we fall into zero of these categories so our defect is spontaneous.

We talked for a few minutes and the doctor examined Evan and based on his hole not being large enough to urinate properly we need to do the surgery. In some cases fertility and potty training issues can be of concern with a more drastic form of hypospadius. So the surgery is going to take 2.5 hours and Evan will be in the hospital for 23 hours. My guess is the 23 hours is because if it were 24 he would need to be officially admitted for insurance purposes and now he is still in outpatient surgery.

On Wednesday we headed out for our 4 month check up. The medical assistant picked him up and put him on the table and said ...In her italian accent... "Evan, you big boy! Momma Mia...such a big boy" She said this everytime she took a measurement. So here are the details at 4 months he is 18lbs 12 ozs. 26.5 inches long. He is growing just nicely. The nurse came in and was asking us if he is meeting his developmental objectives and if he was grabbing things and just as he said that Evan started to grab his stethoscope and pull it out of his ears... developmental objective met! The nurse also commenting on his six pack abs. That is because all Evan wants to do right now is grab his toes and roll over or try to eat them.

Later that day we headed out for my get ready to go to the beach bikini wax. My sister has a great salon and a big comfy room to have the waxing done so Ken being the supportive spouse decides to come with me and brings Evan along. Well wouldn't you know it if dinner times hit for Evan in the middle of the wax! So here I am nursing him while the waxer is waxing and since I can't help to hold my skin taunt Ken is helping the waxer. All of it was very casual like...hey we do this everyday but the spectacle from the outside must have been funny. Me lying on my back, Evan on top of me nursing, My lower half being waxed, and Ken helping!

The big drive... Friday we picked up the rental car and loaded it up with all the stuff. We like to use a rental car because my car is lacking air conditioning...we are trying to keep the car till spring next year. Ken also likes to drive different cars to see if we like them. This time we picked up a Toyota Solara. I found this car very enjoyable with plenty of space and easy to drive. We got packed and headed out at 6:30 pm. Fred ...our name for our GPS system said we would be there at 11:30--with no stops. Our first stop was to Boston Market for a little to go dinner. Then we had to go to the Krispy Kreme to get donuts as this is the only one in the state and by chance we drove by it. So much for WW this week. With food and snacks on board we headed down the road. Evan slept most of the ride. On the NJ turnpike we stopped at 10 where Ken took over driving. I had the traffic through the GW in NYC but Ken was happy to not drive through that. We arrived at Chris' house in Baltimore at 12:40 not bad for the stops. We set up the pack and play and put him to bed.

Weight Lost this week: 0

Week #18 Back to the Hunt

2008-09-04T14:01:00.002-04:00

So this week we started our house hunting again. We looked at a house that was within our price range and decided to put in a bid. The house was small but had a great back yard and was on a quiet street. The owner had passed away --in a nursing home and the estate was being handled by the neice. They countered with a reduction of $2k of asking price...and they were asking to much in the first place. Then they wanted us to increase our deposit to 5k within 5 days. We did not counter offer and they did get another offer and from the MLS listing it is under contract. Because it is a buyer's market we don't want to get in a bidding war with anyone on a place.

We also found out that most MLS listing's incorrectly list the taxes for the houses. Most show either half year taxes or are not calculating the mill rate correctly. We just wait and see now.

Back to the little guy. We had a great time visiting with Pop, Nana, and Granana. They visited us and took a look at the house we put a bid on. We then went out for Chinese food and had an ice cream. I guess with all this eating this is why I am 1/2 pound of being within goal.

I love farmer's markets. Hartford has a really bad one but we headed out on Saturday to pick up fruits for a fruit salad for Bella's 8th birthday celebration.

We packed up the fruit and headed down to my sister's for a day of fun and sun. It was great to hang out with everyone and just enjoy the few last days of the summer. And I can finally announce that my niece is pregnant. She was far enough along and just told my parents that they are going to be expecting a great granchild. Everyone is excited about this baby and can't wait till we find out gender! Which is funny because with Ken and I we always were good without finding out but the anticipation of finding out for someone else is funny.

Evan is doing great and is cooing and gurgling all the time. He loves to stick out his tongue and blow raspberries.

We got a virus and not the Computer type -Week #17

2008-08-17T11:32:00.003-04:00

So on Sunday I noticed that Evan had a stuffy nose. No anything to bad just had a hard time nursing at night. He sounded like Darth Vader...kinda funny because that was on Ken's top ten names for Evan. So I called the pediatrician on Monday..."what can we do?" Saline drops in nose, bulby things, picking boogies out-- a thank you to Brooke again for Boogey Wipes that smell nice and make the boogies wet enough to swipe them out. By the way, Evan doesn't care that he gets his nose bulbed he tries to eat it...and he tries to eat the saline drops too.

Fastforward to Wednesday night, Evan gives me the rub of his eyes at 6pm that says " Hey mom, I want to play but I am tired but if you keep playing with me I will stay awake." So I started to get him ready for bed. By 6:20, he was asleep for the night. So I think o.k. he can go down this early. He will get up earlier to eat but that is fine. I head to bed early because I know he is going to get up early which may lead to another night feeding. Well...at 11:30 pm he wakes up really crying... I mean like the first night he came home from the hospital and was miserable. I try to nurse to calm he doesn't really care... He seems warm. Ken and I break out our temporal lobe thermometer. I take the temp. 96.1??? doesn't make sense. A big thanks to Ken as he got up and helped even though really all Evan wanted to do was comfort eat but couldn't breathe well enough to do it. We decided that thermometer sucks and we need to return it because it doesn't work. The long walk Evan felt better when walking so I walked him around our little condo. He just cried and cried. I would get him back to sleep and try to lay him down and wham he would get up again. At around 3:30 a.m. I got him settled enough and pulled him into bed with us.

Thursday morning he still felt warm...so I decide to use the digital under his arm. 100.5 ugh. Now we have to do a temp in a really uncomfortable place and not the back of a VW bug. So I get everything ready. Check the internet to make sure I know how to do it. Ken gets ready and holds Evan down...and we wait... temp 102.1, I call work and use a personal day. I wait and I call the doctor. Come in at 11:00 and have him checked.

I get him to the dr's office. He still is the lovable guy...happy but just a bit off from himself. We get there and of course we have to wait. I did see a new mom that needed a pep talk. She was by herself and was beyond sleep depravation. Another mom and I and even a dad tell her it will get better. I also wrote down the miracle blanket -she was not swaddling she said that the baby was houidini --funny that is what I said about Evan and the happiest baby on the block video. and told her to buy them when she got home.

The doctor was sweet. We hadn't met her yet and of course 2 minutes before she walks in Evan wants to eat. I was able to top him off till the exam was over. VIRUS. can't do anything. keep with the drops, hummidifier, and bulby. Oh! and she says" You are going to have a rough weekend" Yeah! Way to comfort me!

So Ken stayed home with Evan on Friday. He thought it was easy. Of course it was easy, he was sick! He just slept more and ate more and wanted love all day. And Ken didn't do laundry, clean the house, make dinner, or anything else that I typically do. He didn't do tummy time, story time, and just being silly fun baby things.

Ken had to go up to Worcester all weekend to work on the kitchen floor and to put in a new stove and refridge. Evan is doing much better and has just been sleeping with the hummidifier, drops, and bulby thing. He still has a low grade temp but is fighting through it. I am going to send him to school on Monday. I don't think he will have an issue.

Do I think he got the virus from day care. I am not sure but I call it "daycare kennel cough".

We will see how he does this week.

Summer time fun --week #16

2008-08-08T20:57:00.003-04:00

This week we headed to Nurturing conncections this is a support group for families with new babies. They have quarterly meetings. Usually they have different talks. This time it was face painting an urban dance group and pizza. We stayed for most of the program and left afterwards. I think it is more focused for people who live in Hartford that have at risk children. The program does have different talks with guest speakers. If something really interests me I will go otherwise we most likely will pass on the next event.

Ken said to me this week " We really need to find a house." I think this was because he was frustarted at having gone up and down the stairs about 5 times doing different things. I know he feels bad that I have to load Evan up into the Bjorn to get him up and down the stairs too. I am the searcher. I know the neighborhoods that we are looking for and I usually mapquest first. It is amazing how you can weed out a house but just looking at the aerial image of a house. Is it on a corner, busy street, near a cemmatary.---ken's phobia. He doesn't want anyone deciding to "wake up" and knock on the door in the middle of the night. So we looked at a few houses and still haven't found anything that totally fits our criteria. Our criteria: 1. lower taxes. 2. fixer upper- but not to the point of abandonment 3. not near a cemmatary. 4. In a neighborhood, not on a main road or a road that is in a neighborhood that everyone passes by to get to their house.
5. No raised ranch This is his ideal. Colonial, built after 1960, on a cul de sac, .75 acres, taxes around $3500, good school system, and priced at around $150k. Unless we move out of CT or move to TN or something like this is not happening around here.

Needless to say no houses found. We just won't pay for someone else's mistake by paying to much for their house in the boom and them being stupid and getting an interest only or an ARM mortgage. OH! and they put no money down and they have no equity.

Saturday Night Nana and Grandpa came for a visit. I decided to cook scallops on a bed of greens with green beans. It turned out really well. I was really surprised. I always tend to over cook scallops but you just have to follow the time and flip them. We enjoyed dessert at AC Peterson's which used to be like a Friendly's chain store but now they have only one store left. They make their own hot fudge and whipped cream. Not as big a portion as Kimball's but homemade fudge and whipped cream make a huge difference.

Pool time on Sunday. We packed up and headed down to my sister Donna's house for summer fun in the pool. She had her staff party from work so many people were around having fun. Evan was good and just enjoyed being out in the fresh air. We didn't take him swimming this time as the pool was filled with kids and I get nervous with him in the pool.

It was a good week and we had great fun.

WW loss: 1.4 pounds.

Same old routine --Week #15

2008-08-08T20:46:00.003-04:00

Well I managed being back to work the first full week. As today is Friday I am pretty tired but determined to get my blog back on track and up to date.

Here is what my days are like:
I get up, get me and Evan ready. work, Ken does pick ups and drops offs for daycare. I get to work. pump at 10:00 am --usually takes 25 minutes, work till 1:15 and then grab lunch and then pump. and back to my desk around 2pm. then go home. I get home, feed Evan, sometimes run errands, if not, make dinner, eat dinner, play with evan, clean him up, feed him and try to put him down before 8pm. then I clean bottles, pump parts. I open and go through mail, remember what I forgot to do yesterday. Try to clean a room so my house is not trashed and usually go to bed at around 10pm sit in bed stressing about work, life, etc. wake up at 2:45 a.m. because I have to potty and Evan hasn't gotten up yet so I listen for him on the monitor for a good 15-20 minutes. and then usually he wakes up and is hungry---funny though he usually doesn't cry to eat just a whimper. go back to sleep and wake up at 6 am and start the whole thing over again.

It is a little boring but when I get to play with him and he smiles back at me it is amazing!

On Thursday Evan came home in a different outfit. No not his back up outfit that I keep at daycare. I mean an outfit that we don't own! I asked Ken what happened to his outfit and he said what do you mean. I said that is not the outfit he went to school in. He looked at me and didn't seem to mind and then I said...It is not even an outfit that we own. I have no idea where or what happened but on his caregiver sheet it said that he had 3 b.m.'s in one day. I am guessing that is what happened to his outfit. Today his outfit from yesterday appeared and was clean.

Evan usually b.m.'s 2 days a week. That is normal for him. One of which is usually at daycare. It is pretty nice only to have to change it once. Although last week he made a mess in his swing when he had a blowout. I love him. He just smiles and hangs out in a poopy diaper.

Speaking of I love him. My over the wall cube mate is going to go mad as I say about 100 times a day. I love him. and he just thinks I am a weirdo. I say things to his picture like " I am going to kiss you on the lips. I love you."

Weigh in is tomorrow so we will see if back to work is helping me get back to my goal of losing 10 more pounds.

East Coast Meets West Coast -Week #14

2008-08-08T20:16:00.002-04:00

On Saturday, the Ritchie clan, Evan, Christine, Ken, and I headed up to Harvard, MA to meet up with the rest of the Ritchie clan where the East Coast cousins meets the West Coast cousins. It was great to hang out with Emily and Dillon. We blew bubbles outside and then gathered for a great clam bake. I do have to admit that I ate at least 4 bowls of steamers and enjoyed the locally grown corn on the cob. We followed up with a family tradition of hot fudge sundaes at Kimball's farm.

We had to depart a little early and head down to drop Chris off at the airport. She sat in back with Evan and he enjoyed having a friend in the back seat as I sit in the front most of the time. She played with him and he smiled and talked back to her as best he could do right now.

The baby reunion took place on Sunday we met at our doula/birth teacher's house to meet up with the two other couples that were in our class. Of course, Erin and Dave we had been spending time with them since our class ended. We met with Gene and his new daughter Katelyn. His wife was working so we were not able to meet with her. It was a good time comparing our birth stories and what it is like to be a new family.

On Monday Evan was supposed to start day care for a full day so I got him all ready and dropped him off. But I found out that the school had no power and had to pick him up a few hours later. I did lose 5 bags of breast milk that thawed in their freezer. It was sad to see them go as it is hard work making them. This was just fine because this gave us an opportunity to meet up with Erin and Evie for our last outing before they left for Montana forever! We went to Evergreen walk a local shopping area and walked around and just chatted and enjoyed spending time out.

Tuesday I put Evan in daycare fulltime as I was started work full time the next day. I dropped him off and went home. Erin, Dave, and Evie came over to visit before heading out to the airport where we spent some time before they left for Montana. I am going to miss them so much. Erin and I spent so much time comparing our babies and what stages they were going through. Our adventures out and the joys of breastfeeding in public.

Ugh! On Wednesday I started back to work. It was tough. I got up early to make sure things ran smoothly and that we all were ready. I of course put a kink into the plan when I cut Evan's finger when I was cutting his nails. So the bleeding stopped and I put him into the car seat. By the time I got him to daycare blood was everywhere...Evan was happy and didn't care. Arlene the owner of the day care helped Ken and I to put a band aid on his finger. It still kept on coming off and bleeding. Then Evan got a little annoyed so I had to come in with the rescue boob to get him to relax so we could get the bandaid on and to stay on. All this is going on and I decide to wear white pants and hope that no blood gets on me. I managed to survive and headed into work.

It was a good first day. I have a new boss and he has 5 kids and he understands. I at first was nervous about pumping at work but was ok that first week. I find that I pump once in the morning and then once in the afternoon and I pump enough for Evan's 3 bottles that he gets at daycare. I usually take some work down with me and if I don't I either eat lunch or read a book. I have a feeling I am going to be spending more time eating lunch or working while pumping.

By the way Evan doesn't seem to care if he gets a bottle or me. He just loves to eat!

I am getting back on track with WW and weighed in and lost 1.4 pounds. So I am about 3 pounds away from pre-pregnancy goal.

I have a ton of pictures stuck in my camera and promise to get them out.

Picture time and Auntie Chris --- Week #13

2008-08-08T19:59:00.004-04:00

This week Evan started daycare part time. I dropped him off on Monday and I was so upset. I like the daycare and I know he will be fine but giving my baby to someone I had met only a few times was just more than I could handle.

Everyone at daycare knew it was his first day so they were very supportive all the care providers were so nice and kept on encouraging me that it was going to be all right. As for Evan he really didn't notice a difference when I passed him over to his primary care giver Nihkia he just sort of looked at me and then back at her and then me and that is when he noticed that much like me she has a large bosom and proceeded to find comfort in her holding him.

I went shopping that first day. I spent a good amount of money on new clothes for work and new shoes. It was amazing how fast time had past and I had to picked him up.

For the rest of the week I dropped him off and picked him up. I did things like get my oil changed, more shopping.

That Thursday we went to get pictures of Evan. I posted on my webalbums. I went a little overboard on getting pictures done but he was so good and sat in any pose that they put them in that I bought the whole lot. It was pricey but he is my baby love and they were his first pictures.

Thursday night we went to the airport and picked up Auntie Chris. We hadn't seen her for a visit since the middle of May. Evan was very excited to see her and he showed her his new smile and how he laughs and just is a happy little man.

Friday we spent the day with Chris and Ken took the day off of work. We went to Stew Leonard's this is an IKEA like grocery store that has all this really good homemade food and they have free samples of stuff like ahi tuna fish and sweet potato chips, and they have their own local CT milk that I drank a ton of when I was pregnant. I will put the Stew Leonard video at the bottom.
We did see Stew Leonard Jr. --stew sr. has passed. He was walking around the store and just talking to people. Ken introduced Evan as his newest customer. It was really sweet.

Weight watchers has been slow eating all the free samples.

Here is the video about the milk.

Library time Week #12

2008-07-17T11:13:00.005-04:00

This week we spent time walking around the city of Hartford. We went go to the park and also walk around downtown.

We also spent time at the library. The library is downtown and the parking garage is on a hill so it is difficult to manuever Evan in and out of the car. A very nice old man offered to help but he had a cane so I said that I could manage myself. I later saw him on the elevator and I he told me a story of when he was little and how his dad would take him to the library. I sometimes forgot how much I love going to the library. It is a place where you can learn anything you want just look it up and find it. And what a wonderful gift it is to read.

The reason why I went to the library was to pick up a video and books on baby signing. I was lucky enough to find a nice librarian that helped me find a video series about signing. She was very nice and was glad that I was taking the initiative to teach my child. I think being an inner city librarian has hardened her a bit.

The series we found was Signing Time it is a show on PBS that I had seen before and didn't realize they had it on DVD. I picked up the first 3 volumes but only made it through the first two. The first video was simple enough and by the end Ken and I ...o.k. and Evan watching from his playmate as he is a nut for the t.v. right now. So we learned a few signs. The next night we watched the 2nd video and it was more signs and we picked up a few more but need to watch again to really get them down.

Weight watchers is going well. I am back to being 5 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight.

Don't be agitating my dot -- Week 11

2008-07-17T10:54:00.002-04:00

So this week we got settled back into our routine from our visit. Evan's sleeping has changed a bit and he seems to be getting up in the middle of the night to nurse. I am wondering if it is because we now have the pacifier or that we are no longer swaddling him or it could be that we have been trying to get him down to sleep between 9 and 10 instead of 10 to 11. Whatever it is I hope it will get better before I go back to work.

We had a quiet week last week. We went to Evan's next round of shots. He is such a good boy. He didn't flinch at the first needle and we were all in schock and of course the next needle came and he screamed a bit but I had the comfort boob ready for him and he was fine within seconds. It is funny though everytime we are at the doctor and Evan is upset and I go and nurse him the doctor's all say, "Well we know what makes him happy." Sometimes that is great that I can calm him down with nursing and sometimes it feels like such a burden. Ken has been amazing through all of this. I look back in time and think how he encouraged me at week 3 to just hang on because at 6 weeks it is going to get better and that came and went and it did get better and just the other day he said "you are doing so great, you are halfway through!"

On Saturday we had a birthday/graduation party for Michael my nephew. His birthday was actually in December but it is no fun to have a 21st b-day party in the winter so they combined it with his college graduation. Evan took his first dip in the pool. The water temperature was 87 degrees and it was wonderful. Ken took the baby in the water while I took pictures. I will post them soon. I even ventured into the water even though I was by no means bathing suit ready but it was good to get in the water. The water temperature reminded me of our trip to Puerto Rico when I was just 7 weeks pregnant. After a long journey and feeling so tired and lousy it was great to just walk straight into the ocean. Evan loved the water and fussed for a second. I am wondering if he is having early flashbacks to that warm ocean water and that is why he was so comfortable in it... or I am just a weird nut. More likely the latter.

The party was great and we had such a good time. Evan was taking a nap and people just wanted to look at him so Ken and I started to say Don't be agitating my dot. Which is from an old Nextel commerical.

So it was pretty funny that we call Evan or Dot. I think it is pretty cute.

As for WW I am hanging on I have lost 11 pounds and still am chugging along to lose 5 more pounds before I go back to work but I am guessing I am going to be just shy of it.

Tick! Tick! Tick! - Week 10

2008-07-01T12:53:00.006-04:00

Yes, Evan had his first tick. We are not sure where he picked it up from. I noticed it when we were doing tummy time that it was right on top of his hair. I freaked out and tried to call Ken but he was in meetings and then I called the pediatrician. The nurse said that it most likely was not a lyme disease tick and we should just pull it out. So I waited for Ken to get home and prepared the tools, tweezers and alcohol. So I held Evan steady and Ken pulled it out. We saved it in a ziploc bag just in case. We are watching him for the next 7 to 10 days for any signs that he is getting an infection. He didn't cry or make a fuss.

So we caved in and bought Evan a pacifier. We bought an all natural pacifier from http://ecopiggy.com/ I have heard that some babies won't take pacifiers but Evan is such a trooper and it took him about 3 minutes to figure out how to use it. We are only going to use it when he is fussy. We did try it one night and he took it like a champ and settled down and I pulled it out after he fell asleep.

The other natural baby toy site that I really like is http://www.thesoftlanding.com/ it is PVC and pthalates free and BPA free materials.

I am trying to get my grove back into getting ready to go back to work. I am going to work on putting a few meals on ice so when I go back I can pull something out. I have tried recently but usually just put the leftovers in the fridge and eat the next day for lunch. And eating leftovers is huge for me as I really don't like them. Everyone says it tastes better the next day but for me I think it loses all the greatness it had when it was cooked fresh. I really wanted to make a nice meat chili and use my food processor to mash up the beans for more protein. Ken and I both are not bean fans but I am really into trying to hide food in food.

That leads me into my journey into the library and making baby food. I can't wait to try as many different foods as I can...of course introducing them for a few days and then trying over and over again. One book said that if you can introduce plain yogurt into your kids diet then they will eat it in the future plain. That is great because right now I am hiding yogurt in frozen mangos... let mangos thaw a bit and then add the yogurt and use a wand blender and you have this ice cream sort of thick mango shake. I used berries and bananas too but mangos are my favorite.

This week I got my hair chopped off. I have posted on the web albums. I really like it. It is a little maintenance because I do have to blow dry it to make it look just right but at least I know have a style instead of a ponytail or pulling it behind my ears.

On Wednesday Evan and I travelled down to my friend Amy's parents house were we visited before she left back to North Carolina we had a great time. I have a few good pictures of Amy and Evan and her new dog Lola.

Thursday we visited my parents and had a good time spending time with my mom and dad. We left for our fourth of July trip up to Maine on Thursday night. It was a good trip. Evan was good all the way up with a couple of stops for dirty diapers. I had a couple of bottles prepared and just pumped after he took a bottle to keep my production up.

We arrived in Maine at about 11:45 pm. Evan was all off his schedule so he got back up at 2:30 am. and then up at 6:30. We had a great breakfast made by my Uncle Karl of waffles. Definately not WW or Core. We headed out to visit Ken's friend from work at his lake house. He was about 30 minutes from my relatives. Surprisingly, it took us to go up to Maine to see him. We took a tour of the lake with Evan all bundled up in a life jacket. He fussed when he was in the bright sun but halfway through the ride he settled in for a good nap. I piled on California baby sunblock because he is so young that is what the pediatrician recommended as it is very natural and organic.

Saturday we headed to Big G's deli for b-fast. I took a picture of the food as it was way to much for us to eat...once again, not very WW or Core. We then went to the New Balance outlet in Skowhegan and my Auntie Jodi picked up Evan's first pair of sneakers. He needs a few more weeks to grow into but they are so cute! After that I headed for a dip in their pool and it was not very cold. For dinner we headed to the red barn diner it was a great place for fried seafood. It reminded me Ronnie's in Auburn. I had the seafood stew and a seafood basket...Ken and I shared and it was great. We followed it up with a homemade ice cream sundae.

For Sunday we headed to Belfast. It is a cute ocean city by the sea. We walked up and down the shops and did some shopping. We bought Evan this really cute wood truck that is a log hauler he is going to love it.

On Monday we made our way down to Connecticut. We stopped at Freeport to the LL Bean store. Ken picked up a pair of pants. I was unsuccessful in my shopping venture even though all the pants at the outlet were on sale for $9.99. We then headed to Kittery and stopped for a diaper change and went to the Eddie bauer outlet. Ken picked up shorts. I also did not find anything that I wanted. We made our way home and arrived safe and sound.

Evan's fabulous locks seem to be thinning and he is losing it. The pediatrician said that it was going to stay but it seems now that he is shedding his hair. I don't mind that it is falling out but sometimes it doesn't look as fabulous as it did before.

Pounds lost on WW: 1 (before all the Maine food)

Happy Birthday Daddy! -Week #9

2008-06-30T09:50:00.003-04:00

I have updated some pics of Evan at this first birthday party.
http://picasaweb.google.com/taritchie

We had a great time. Evan rode his first panda bear and we had fun visiting with Andrea and LyLy two friends from work.

We celebrated Ken's birthday on Thursday. Evan and I made cupcakes and a cake and brought it to Ken's work. Evan was being fussy so I put him in the bjorn while I was making it and he ended up with chocolate frosting on his outfit. We went to the East West Grill a Thai Laotian restaurant to celebrate we had a great day.

I think I was supposed to update on Father's day. We made Ken a 12 inch plate from the clay pen-- a decorate your own pottery place. I put Evan's feet on them and decorated with stars and a dragonfly. It said Happy First Father's Day with the date. I thought of the idea when I was sitting in my dr's office nursing Evan. --long story the doctor was on call and I decided to wait and Evan got hungry and it was a quiet place with a couch to nurse. Back to father's day story...my doctor had all of his kids father's day art work hanging in his office and I thought Ken would love that. Ken had been trying to guess and thought he was getting a mug but was glad when he saw the plate.

I lost 2 pounds this week on WW. That takes me a total of 7 pounds in 3 weeks. If I could lose another pound this week then 8 pounds in a month is good for me.

Evan is growing so much last week I cleaned out all of the 0-3 stuff and some of the 3-6 stuff doesn't fit. I have to be so quick to put him in an outfit before he grows out of it.

We did pick him up a cute bathing suit as my nephew's graduation party is coming up and we will be taking him swimming. We asked the nurse if it was o.k. as I have read conflicting articles about pools and babies along with sunscreen. We picked up the california baby sunscreen that is expensive but it is all natural.

This weekend we drove up on Friday and mowed the Worcester grass and then stayed at Granpa's and Nana's for the weekend. We were supposed to see the fireworks on Saturday night but all of us were tired and it was a bit overcast so we decided not to go. Nana was able to give Evan a bath. It was great to have someone else get the experience of bath time. He was a bit fussy for a bit but all together I think that Nana gets two thumbs up for bathing!

My friend Amy came up to visit as she is now living in North Carolina. She brought her cute little dog named Lola. Evan was not a big fan when the dog barked and he started to cry but otherwise he was good. We are planning a another visit with Amy before she heads back home.

Nicknames for Evan:
Baby Love
Our little Cherub
Prof or Baron Von Fussy Pants
Sir Poops a Lot

Ouch! -Week 8

2008-06-30T09:36:00.003-04:00

This week we had our typically week of walks and play dates and just hanging out.

We did go to the doctor for our 8 week check up and Evan is doing just great. He is 25 inches and 14.5 pounds. We also started his first round of vaccinations. It was a tough decision to make on what we should give and when to give it. This time he had one shot of 4 vaccinations. When he got the vaccination he cried for a bit but then I just latched him on and the crying ended. Imagine how we could solve world pain and suffering with a little warm boob juice!

Evan is growing so fast and learning so much he is hitting all of his developmental goals and loves to smile and coo. I do tummy time twice a day and sit him on his back and he hits and kicks the characters that are hanging down and loves it.

As for Ken and I we are enjoying being parents. Ken is enjoying just having the little guy around and often changes most of the dirty diapers when he gets home from work.

I am getting used to being a mom. Here is some of the list of things that prove that I have done that still says I am a new mom.

1. Don't mind sleeping with poop on my pj's --and really not sure how it got there
2. Putting my nursing bra on inside out and taking a good 5 minutes to figure out that it is not broken.
3. Wear you underwear inside out and not realize it till your husband tells you at 8pm at night.
4. The next day wearing your underwear inside out and not realizing it till 3pm.
5. Having spit up on you shirt and just cleaning up instead of changing the whole outfit.
6. Not getting a shower till 5pm at night and can't remember when the last bath I took.
7. You shave only 1 leg. Not sure why or how you missed the 2nd.

As for weight watchers I am still struggling. I really am trying to stay on the core plan but being at home is so much temptation. Evan and I do get a good walk in 3 times a week but I can't believe I am writing this...I am glad to go back to work where they have a really awesome salad bar and my gym is located there too. Speaking of going back to work. I am schedule to go back on July 30. I am looking forward to people interaction but my guess is that we are behind and overtime is going to be required. I just am not sure how I am going to fit that in and still see my little one. I guess I will figure it out.

pounds lost this week: 1

I Can Smile Now! -- week #7

2008-06-16T14:42:00.005-04:00

Last week we travelled to Worcester to visit Great Grandmother, Granpa, and Nana both Nana and Granpa were fresh off of there trip on the Grand Luxe train (formerly the American Orient Express) We went to Bagel and friends for Breakfast and had a tough time because it was so hot that Evan was extremely fussy and cranky. We had to cut the visit short because he was just so hot and fussy. I actually felt for the first time how bad people feel when there kid has a break down in a restaurant and parent's are helpless as to how to make it better.

Monday and Tuesday it was so hot that we stayed indoors. My car's air conditioner works when it wants too so it is difficult to venture out in the hot weather. Wednesday I had my first weigh in at WW. I lost 4 pounds! I am on the core plan and it is so easy to do without having to count points and try to figure out weights of everything.

Erin and I took the babies out to West Hartford Center again and we went shopping for father's day gifts. We ended up finding something but since it is still in process I will post what it is later.

Our Fridays we typically have lunch with Ken and then visit my parents. This week we did this but then went to a wake for my mom's best friend Betty who passed away after a long struggle with cancer.

Saturday we had our first overnight adventure heading up to Harvard, MA to visit Granpa and Nana. We went to Kimball's for ice cream and this was Evan's first trip. I am sure he enjoyed the ice cream later. Allison and Mac and Dori met us there and saw Evan for the first time. He was on his best behavior and only fussed a little bit. It was great to see Dori holding Evan getting ready to be a mom and see her baby girl bump. Allison was trying to incorporate Evan into her fitness routine. Mac showed his talent as the baby whisperer and settled Evan down right away. If I could borrow him in the afternoons when Evan is fussiest that would be great. Allison and Mac look like they are ready to be parents.

Evan was in our room for the first time and we listened to all his little noises that he makes all night. We then realized that it is much better for all of us if he is in another room where we all can sleep.

For Father's day we celebrated by heading down to Tweed's for various seafood dishes. Evan gave Ken a little golden book titled: Daddy, I love you. Ken read it to Evan while holding him.

Evan is amazing! He is such a big guy we have our 2 month check up this week and I am guessing that he is over 14 pounds. Which means that I need to start researching strollers and car seats because he is out of his car seat at 22lbs! Evan smiles all the time especially when he hears different words. He likes "asparagus" and "macaroni" so far. We spend our afternoons on the activity mat where he does tummy time and lays on his back and kicks at the little characters that are hanging. For the past week he has been increasing his time awake and his cooing. After dinner we hang out and Ken and I just talk to him and listen to him.

Pounds lost: 4

Eruption of Mt. Evan! - Week # 5 and 6

2008-06-03T14:13:00.005-04:00

This week we had a very busy time. We went to my sister's house for a Sunday BBQ. She was already for Evan with the pack and play all set up. We had a great time and Donna was able to feed Evan a bottle. Leslie was mesmerized as since Evan had a bottle I had to pump to keep up my supply. She watched me the whole time amazed at the pumping machine and my boobs!

On Monday we headed to visit Great Grandmother and have a Memorial day lunch. We had a great time visiting and walked around the beautiful courtyard. It was great to see all the flowers in bloom and to spend time with GMR. After we headed to Worcester to mow the lawn. We took a few pictures with the lily of the valleys as they are my 2nd favorite flower as noted prior lilacs are my favorite.

We had a great visit with my mom and she is feeling much better and just enjoying having Evan around.

Evan is cooing and smiling all the time now. I feel bad that he is so awake and alert during the day and we have so much fun but Ken misses so much of that time as he gets fussy in early evening and we just try to get him down to sleep.

Speaking of sleep Evan's sleep schedule is usually from 10 pm to 6 a.m. I know I should be blessed that he is such a good sleeper at a young age but I worry about him all the time and I get about 6 or 7 hours of sleep while I listen to see if he is still breathing at night.

I started Weight Watchers this week. I am hoping to lose 20 pounds by Christmas. I am doing the core plan as it is just picking from a list of foods. It makes it so much easier to do than trying to measure and figure out points.

Evan and I take adventures out during the day to the mall and West Hartford Center and walking in the park. I really want to walk from our house to the park but get a little worried if Evan has a fussy time and I am a half a mile walk away from home and people will see a crazy new mom running home with a kid in her stroller.

Speaking of strollers we love our little stroller that latches his car seat into the stroller. It is light weight and is small and I can really get it in and out of the car easily. I can also maneuver it around places much better than the bigger stroller. We are now in the process of looking for a bigger stroller. With Evan being such a big baby I think we are going to forego the matching stroller that is bigger and can handle his current car seat. The jogger strollers with the three wheels look really good but will have to do more research... which means Ken will start stopping people on the street and ask them what they like about their strollers etc.

The eruption of Mt. Evan.
Two days ago I got up and fed Evan at about 5:45 am. He finished eating and as I was getting him up to change him and he erupted in vomit. I mean he upchucked about 7 inches. He threw up on me and the pillow and all over himself. He was really soaked his whole head was soaked and he had vomit in his ears. I tried to call Ken but he was in the bedroom with the A.C. on at full blast. I finally get myself cleaned up enough and get Ken. So at 6:15 a.m. we are getting the tub out to clean him up as he was that dirty. Me being the new mom is checking to see if he has a fever. I have him up on the changing table and he is just looking at me and smiling like nothing happened. what a way to start the day.

Just wanted to get the blog up to date. I will try to be more timely and will keep updating the pictures on the album.

Bottle Time! End of Week #4

2008-05-23T15:52:00.002-04:00

I have updated pictures on Picasso on Evan #2 folder.
http://picasaweb.google.com/taritchie

So it has been a pretty good week. Evan is sleeping at least 5 or more hours a night. Usually he is in bed at 10 or 11pm and then gets up 5 hours after that and his longest has been 7 hours. The problem is that my body is usually ready for Evan before he is ready to get up. But lately my production is adjusting. I am still worried about being able to have a small frozen supply if I am sick or want to have a drink.

We had Granpa and Nana and Granana and Grandmother down on Sunday for a visit. We met them at Rein's deli. We can't wait to get his picture taken with his first half sour pickle. It will be most likely in at least 5-6 months. We had a great visit and just before they went home we went out for ice cream!

On Monday, we had Evan's one month doctor's appointment. He is doing great and weighs 12lbs 3 ozs and 23 inches long. He is in the 95th percentile. The doctor said we can start doing some belly time as he needs to build up his arms and chest to lift up his head. We had done some belly time before but not an effort to do it everday. We also went to Ken's old job and went to see an Apache helicopter upclose. Ken's company made parts for the helicopter.

Auntie Chris came back for a 3 day visit on Tuesday. I had a much needed break and an extra set of hands and it was great. We went to Indian food for lunch, did some shopping at BRU, had the car seat checked in the car ...it was not put in exactly as it should be and needed some minor adjustments. So future parents to be...make the appointment and have your car seat installed properly. It will give you a huge peace of mind.

The biggest news of the week is that we got the o.k. to introduce Evan to the bottle. So I got the bottle ready and left the room and Ken and Chris fed the bottle to Evan. He is our little eater and didn't really mind that it was a bottle and that it was not me that was feeding him. We have given him a bottle a day and I have been pumping at that feeding so I won't lose my production.

I celebrated my 33rd Birthday this week and don't feel like my thirties, I still feel like I am in my twenties! My sister in law Karyn, sent me to get a pedicure for my birthday so I left Evan with Chris and a bottle and left for my first adventure out of the house without Evan. It was a good and bad feeling. This is the first time that I was out of the house without him. As much as I wanted to call a hundred times I checked in once.

Today, we had a play date with Erin and Evie, our dates don't actually include Evan or Evie playing together but for Erin and I it is a great time for us to compare the things that are happening to us and our babies. We compare what their poop looks like and the noises they make and what they like and don't like.

Tonight, we our heading to my niece Bella's first dance recital. She is excited to dance as she was in gymnastics last year and wanted to do dance this year. After that we will head to my sister's house to celebrate my birthday and my sister Cindy's birthday as we have a 1 day and 10 years difference in age.

For the upcoming Memorial weekend we are going to visit my parents, go to a picnic at my sister's and visit Grandmother and Granana at hearthstone.

As for my weight loss I think I have stopped the dramatic weight loss and have 11 pounds to lose to get to my pre-pregnancy weight. I am hoping to lose that by the end of the summer and to be at my goal weight which is a total of 18 pounds by Christmas.

Out and about Week #4

2008-05-14T17:49:00.003-04:00

This week was a slow week. We still are adjusting to Evan and his schedule. Ken and I have had a chance to get a couple of adventures in though. We all headed up to Massachusetts on Saturday up to Courtland Street. The furnace was not working in one of the apartments and Ken went up to see if it was a thermostat. Ken did find the problem with the furnace but since he didn't want to work on a gas furnace he hired a repairman to fix it. We then headed over to Tony and Mary's they just bought a huge new house in Holden, MA. They have a great lab named Maggie and she was getting used to having a crying baby in the house and Evan was getting used to being sniffed by a dog. For Mother's day we headed out to go to Denny's with Erin and Dave and celebrate our first mother's day together. As the weather was gorgeous out we went to Elizabeth Park and took a walk. The tulips were in bloom and so were the lilacs- my favorite. I have updated evan's album with pictures from Mother's day. Evan and I had our first play date with Erin and Evie. We went to West Hartford Center and walked around and had lunch and went to the papaya patch- a eco baby friendly store. We finished the adventure off by eating a nice piece of cheesecake from the cheesecake factory. Erin and I agreed that we will start watching our calories starting at 6 weeks!

Sleeping has been an adventure with Evan. He usually sleeps from about 7 pm to 10:30 and then feeds till about 11:00 and finally gets settled for sleep around midnight. He then sleeps usually 4 to 5 hours. I then feed him and put him back down where he wakes up about 3 hours later and goes back to sleep till 9 or 10 a.m. I usually sleep till that time too. Of course sleep is not what I am doing I am lightly napping worried abut hearing every little thing. We have Evan in his crib at night and most naps during the day. It is emotionally hard for me because I slept the first couple of weeks with him right by my side where I could look down and make sure he is breathing.--new mother paranoia. The first night I had the monitor on 2 out of 10. I didn't sleep a wink because I heard all the little noises he makes. The second night was much better as I dropped the monitor down to 1 and I am getting used to him being just down the hall.

I am healing really well from the surgery and I still have a little swollen area on my belly and I still feel pretty numb around my incision. Speaking of swollen, I did manage to get into my pre-weight watchers sized shorts. I did have to suck it in to button but at least I know I have two pairs of shorts that fit and a couple of outfits that will fit. My weight is actually less than my weight watchers starting weight last year...not by many pounds but still lower. I am not going to get back on the weight watchers program till 6 weeks.

This week I am going to head into Ken's work to go to lunch and visit Ken at work. I am also going to visit my Mom as she has been sick since Evan has been born and is finally up to having visitors.

Evan is going through his 3 week growth spurt and has been literally feeding non-stop. I have had to stop 3 times to feed him since I started writing.

So till next time...I am off the feed the little one.
Next week, 1 month dr's appt, and I think the introduction of the bottle to supplement feedings.

The beginning of many firsts - Week #3

2008-05-05T09:56:00.003-04:00

So setting up a distribution list to send out pictures is still giving me trouble on gmail. I don't know if I am just not doing it right or just my mind is so slow from lack of sleep that I am just not getting it.

Evan has his good days and bad days still with fussing at night. I can get him to go down about 12:30 and he is up at 4:30. In the week past he was going down at 11:30 and sleeping till 4:30 so not sure what the shift change is from. He is a good sleeper during the day and usually is down for 2.5 to 3 hours. I will gently wake him if he is going past 3 because if we miss a feeding it just makes the rest of the day difficult.

I got up early on Saturday and fed Evan and as I put him back down in his bassinet I noticed his little umbilical cord has fallen off and landed on the living room floor. I just started to cry a little as my last remnant of our connection together in the womb was now sitting unceremounously on our living room floor. I picked it up and saved it for Ken to look at once he got up. As Ken was changing him I asked him if he noticed anything different and Ken said nope that is my baby. I guess it is different for him.

On Saturday, we had our first play date with Erin and Dave, There daughter is only 9 hours older than Evan but compared to our big boy she is a daintly little girl. It was great to be around a new mom who is going through all of the same things that I am. We both are running on empty tanks but loving it.

Laurel, Steve, and Tyler also came to visit on Saturday and we had fun playing with toys and visiting.

Our next first was on Sunday as the nub had fallen off we put Evan in his first bath and he enjoyed it much better than the sponge baths. He looked all snug sitting in the warm tub. It was a little easier washing him but Ken and I were both a little apprehensive as this was our first time.

Pop and Nana came down for a visit once again preparing some dishes so that we are eating properly. We also went to the Chengdu for a chinese lunch on Sunday. This was Evan's first adventure out to a restaurant. He was really good and fussed a little but since Ken eats really fast he was done with lunch and took over.

This week should be a slow week and my goal is to get more naps this week. I am now going down for a nap after his 7:30 a.m. feeding with him and will take an afternoon nap with him too.

Ken is now back to work full days this week. I think he may take a couple of half days so my week is not so long. With not being able to drive yet it makes a long day in the house by myself.

Fun facts.
April 19 - Auctioneer's Day, World Cow Chip Day, National Hanging Out Day
Astrological sign: Aries

Pounds lost: 33
Pounds to go pre-pregnancy: 12
goal: 19 pounds

Diapers, Feedings, and Sleeping - week #2

2008-05-02T10:48:00.003-04:00

Evan had another sleepless night on Sunday. We still haven't figured out why we can't get out the gas. I sent a post to my girls on my chat board that suggested to pitch his bassinet a bit and then swaddle him and not eat any gassy foods.

We went to see my mom on Monday as she had been so sick with her COPD that she could not make it to the hospital or up to the house. She was really glad to see Evan and was able to spend some time with him. I think it made her feel much better.

Wednesday, I had two co-workers come over for a visit. It was great to see them as being in the house most days is getting a little tough to handle.

The rest of my week involved sleeping, eating, and changing diapers, as for Evan he slept, had some play time, ate and got his diaper changed.

I am healing really well but find that going up and down the 3 flights of stairs still bothers my incision along with coughing and sneezing. I am hoping that my tape starts to fall of my incision soon as I am really ready to be recovered but my body is telling me otherwise.

Evan comes home - week #1

2008-05-02T10:30:00.004-04:00

After recooperating in the hospital till Wednesday, April, 23, we headed home to begin our life together. My Sister in law offered to stay an extra day and I am so thankful as I didn't realize how hard it was going to be with a new little one at home.

Our first night we encountoured our first issue with Evan having gas and not knowing how to calm him down. Christine actually rocked him for several hours in the night and I called the nurse line at the hospital to see if we could do anything. I unsure of what to do tried to feed him which he didn't really want and sat for a few hours and just cried.

The next night it did get a little better and with Chris gone I was on my own. At this point I kept waking him up to feed him every two to three hours. Ken has been amazing and been basically spoiling me by getting me anything I need or want.

On Friday, we headed for Evan's first doctor's appointment. I was of course was late getting ready and putting everything I needed. I forgot to bring a blanket for Evan as I didn't know they were going to strip him down naked...not sure why I didn't realize this before. He got his PKU test and CF test. He is not much of a bleeder so after the first poke the doctor had to actually slice his little foot open to get more blood out. I was really good and didn't cry and Evan was good too and only cried a little. Evan was 9lbs 12 ozs so no need to go back for a week check up as his weight was perfect. The doctor also said not to wake him up to feed him at night. He is a big boy and can sleep on his own.

Saturday, we had more visitors with my niece's Leslie & Bella, and friend Jaimie and her daughter. The visit was nice and it is great to have some people in the house. We also brought Evan to Elizabeth Park to get him some sun as he was a little jaundiced. Going down the stairs was tough and even walking to get to a bunch to sit was not much fun. My ob/gyn called to check in on us and gave me a gold star for taking Evan to the park and told me not to go up and down the stairs anymore as I still need to heal.

We had more visitors on Sunday, my in-laws came down to help out by doing a ton of little odds and ends around the house. Evan went to bed at 6:00 a.m. that day and I was dragging and managed to get a few naps. We still hadn't figured out how to get the gas out of him as traditional burping on the shoulder and hunching him over was not working. My FIL is the best burper ever! He managed to get a bunch of burps out of the little one.

Ken had been working on getting Evan on the grid by getting his birth certificate and social security card and passport card. --we decided on the passport card as it is much cheaper and you can use it for canada and mexico and the caribbean --if you are on a cruise. So it looks like our vacations will be cruising or mexico or canada for the next 5 years.

Ken wanted us to go up with him to Montreal for a business trip before I go back to work and I am just worried that a 5 hour car ride is going to mess up a schedule and get him all off track if we do that. So we are still in the process of deciding if we are going to go up with him.

Someday Three Achieved. - Our Birth Story

2008-05-01T09:37:00.003-04:00

***Ken is still in the process of reviewing but at least wanted to get our birth story out there.

See some updated laboring pictures at

http://picasaweb.google.com/taritchie

Evan Donald Ritchie
Born: April 19, 2008
Time: 5:39 a.m.
Length: 21 inches
Weight: 9lbs 14 oz

A Typical Day – Wednesday, April 16.

On Wednesday, April 16, I had a typical day. I relaxed, but did not do too much. I cleaned out the refrigerator and did a couple of loads of laundry but nothing that I would say was the “nesting” experience.

Ken came home from work and we had dinner and settled down on the couch to watch some television. I talked to Christine, my sister in law, as she had called in to check to see if we had any baby yet.

At 7:30 p.m., I had to go to the bathroom and it just didn’t feel right. I thought I was having cramps from diarrhea and was thinking oh good I am getting at the end of my pregnancy - just another discomfort. (I remembered from class that voiding was a sign of your body getting ready for labor, but still didn’t put two and two together.) I told Ken that I thought something might be happening and be on the alert. I started to get contractions and went to the bathroom to find my mucus plug and my bloody show.

As we were still in denial we waited to call our doula till 10 p.m. to let her know that we were in labor. The contractions were coming irregularly but at a pretty good pace of between 10 minutes and 3-4 minutes apart. Ken kept getting worried because my mom’s longest labor was 5 hours and 20 minutes and that was with me. I think he had visions of having the baby in the car on the way over to the hospital.

Erin, my pregnant friend, was also going through labor and chugging along with her contractions too.

The Long Walk – Thursday April 17.

Then at 12:30 a.m., the contractions were getting really close and Ken felt more comfortable having Dale, the doula, come over and help us out. When Dale arrived, she had all of her birthing bag of tricks. I spent some time laboring on the birthing ball with little relief as I had this tremendous pressure in my lower left bottom. Dale helped with getting Ken and I both comfortable as much as you can and at 3:45 a.m. got all of us tucked into bed. At this point I could not lie on my left side because of the pain and had to sleep sitting propped up with pillows.

On Thursday morning I got up around 7:00 a.m., I got up and got back on the birthing ball. I just couldn’t think of getting up at all and wanted to stay on the ball as I was in so much pain. Dale, arrived back at the house at 8:00 a.m., after Dale finished comforting me, Ken took off to get b-fast and mini pads as I had a new development - every time I had a contraction I would pee myself. I am not sure if this was my water breaking or just the baby pushing on my bladder. I ate about half of a Dunkin Donuts egg and cheese croissant sandwich. As Dale knew that I needed to change positions and get off the birth ball we tried many different positions, but I always seemed to be in pain on my lower left bottom. I called a few people to let them know we were in labor as they would be calling in for their daily update and I really couldn’t talk to anyone at this point.

Midmorning, Thursday I decided to get into the tub and labor for a little while. This is when I realized that being discreet about your body was right out of the window. I got into the tub with Dale’s help and we worked on breathing and relaxing and visualizing the baby moving down and out. While I am chugging along Dale gets a call from our birthing friends Erin and Dave. They decided to leave the hospital as Erin was not progressing along so we invited them over to our labor of love house. Erin and Dave arrived with me still in the tub. I talked to Erin for a little while in the tub but it was getting cold and I was ready to get out.

Dale, Erin, and I left the men to go and get some lunch for us and the girls headed to Elizabeth Park for a labor walk. We walked around Elizabeth Park for a good hour. It was gorgeous out. We did our squats and lunges and Erin and I supported each other as we each would have our own contractions at the same time and other times I would take over as she finished her contractions.

After the walk, we had some lunch from Tapas on Ann Street. I had a great Greek salad with chicken. I got settled back on the ball and we watched the first hour of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Erin and Dave left as Erin was going to try to get a good nap in at home before we both got things kicked up even more. Ken, Dale, and I headed back to Elizabeth Park for another laboring walk. The great thing about this park is that it has a restaurant with a bathroom nearby. The bad thing is that it became harder and harder to sit on the toilet as the pain in my left bottom was so severe.

We headed back to the house to labor some more and remembered each time we go out I have to head up and down 3 flights of stairs. No shortcuts for this momma. Dale who has been so patient thinking that this baby would be here soon headed back home to pick her daughter up from Karate class. We stayed in the house for an hour or two and each time I stopped activity my labor would slow down so we decided to change the scenery and go for a walk at Bushnell Park downtown. Once again, Dale, Ken and I are working hard and I am leaning on him and huffing and puffing through the park. Dale said to me “Look the carousel opens up on the 26th of April I bet you can’t wait to bring the baby there.” At this point I was getting tired and just cried because I was so emotional and I finally realized that we would have a baby soon. On the way home, we headed to the Asylum Café to pick up a pizza. I was not feeling pizza and ate some Oat Bran. I am going to call this the Last Supper.

At 10 p.m. on Thursday, we decided that we would go to the hospital just to get checked out. We really had an open mind to find out my progression and then decide if we needed to stay or leave. (we didn’t even bring our camera. Just our suitcase to keep in the car.) Ken drove with Dale following behind us. It takes 7 minutes to get to the hospital and I remember having at least 1 contraction. To answer a question from my earlier blog: Did Ken ask me how to get to the hospital and where to go and what to do? Yes! I had to tell him where to park. I walked from the valet parking to the main lobby and I guess based on my huffing and puffing - a security guard immediately got a wheel chair and brought me straight up to the 6th floor for labor and delivery. I arrived to a nice doctor that was doing his rotation in Labor & Delivery. They got me a wrist band and we advised them we were only getting checked and not staying.

At the hospital- 10 p.m. Thursday

I had been seeing two different docs for my pregnancy. I knew that one of them was on vacation and I told him that I was going to wait for him to get back but sometimes things change. The doctor on call was my other doctor which was awesome to see a familiar face. Dr. C checked me to see my progression and we told her that if I had not been far enough along that we wanted to head home. She checked and I was at 5.5 cm! We decided at this time that at 5.5 it was o.k. to check in. We informed them of our decision for no I.V. or hep lock but after much debate from the staff we allowed them to put in a hep lock with specific instructions that it not be used unless we advised it is o.k. I put on my standard issue hospital clothes for labor and we got assigned our room #630, at the end of the hallway with no other woman around us. Dale decided that since we were here and that she would pull out the couch and catches some sleep as we all thought it would be a matter of hours before the little one would be here and she wanted to be at her best to help.

The longest day- Friday April 18 – Due Date

Ken and I begin our routine of trying to walk and squat in the hallways and during that down time get a little sleep. Ken and I share a great bonding moment as he sleeps in my hospital bed with me and helps soothe and comfort me.

At 7:00 a.m. Dr C comes in to check my progression and to see how I am doing. At this point I believe I am still at 5.5 cm with no progression and my labor has virtually stopped. She advises if I want to go home and labor more at home that if the baby looks good and I look good then we can leave. So they take the hep lock out and we pass the first test, the heartbeat of the baby is good and my blood pressure and temperature are good. I begin thinking of the awesome pedicure that I am going to get when we leave the hospital. Our next exam was an ultrasound to see my fluids levels around the baby. At this time a shift change occurs and I am now working with Dr. B for my care. Dr. B is called in because the fluid around the baby is supposed to be 5 and it is at a 1.2. At this point I begin to cry mostly because I liked the idea of going home and being comfortable and upset that the baby has little fluid. At this point she checks to see if I broke my water. I still had the feeling of peeing every time I had a contraction but did not know if my water broke.

The doctor would like to start Pitocin to get the transactions started regularly and as we had gone so far naturally and all my friends who have had it say it is horrible I decline. During this time I got a new labor and delivery nurse named Sue. She has been an L & D nurse for over 30 years and advised us that at the hospital they like to assign nurses based on if you are going natural, high risk, etc as some nurses excel at certain types of deliveries. Sue was a natural birthing nurse and began to work with us so we did not have to go the Pitocin route. The key thing to note of the ultrasound is that we found out that the baby was transverse and had not fully rotated down into the birth canal and was making dilation difficult and most likely the pain that I had in my bottom that never subsided after a contraction. Sue offered the option of nipple stimulation to get my contractions started. We talked to Dr. B and advised of our plans and how we would like to proceed and she was willing to help us with options. Sue went over to the maternity area and found a pump and since I was in pain and could not handle doing it on a regular basis Ken was taught how to express and watched the clock to change every 5 minutes so that I would not get sore and be able to nurse after delivery. Within minutes the contractions kicked up and we began many different positions in an effort to get this baby to move its head down into the birth canal. I was feeling really uncomfortable.

At 11:30 a.m. a shift change happened where Debbie took over from this time till 11:00 p.m. that night. Debbie had prior worked in NH at a hospital with an extremely low epidural rate and most women had a natural birth. I felt really good that she aligned with our philosophy. Dale worked on every imaginable position to get this head to move and get the labor really going. Ken was a champ throughout and would hold me, rub me, and would say “I love you” and a look that said “You are doing this and I know that you can do this.” At some point at mid afternoon I felt that things have changed and I had pressure in my bottom and had started to shake and throw up. If there was a text book definition of transition into pushing I was classic. I threw up on Dale and even though I was going through all of this I was apologizing profusely. I then decided that my room was now an optional nudist colony and took off my clothes and began squatting on the floor. When I began pushing I got some of the amniotic fluid out so at some point my water broke but not for sure when. I also decided that since it was so tough to be on the toilet to go the bathroom that I would just urinate on those nice pads that the put in front of you.

When things didn’t progress very well I had the idea of going into the tub to relax and see if we could get things going if I was more relaxed. I also thought a change of sceneary would help change things up. I labored in the tub till the heartbeat was a little two high and I was all wrinkled. This immediately sent a bunch of contractions going my way and at this point I could no longer sit down because the pain was too intense.

We all thought that this baby would be born by dinner time and were tired but excited. Dr B came in to check the progress and we were at 8cm with very little cervical lip left. She also gave us some rough news that the babies head did not progress. One option that she did give was to go up my vagina and manually move the head to get it to descend. It would be painful but we could give it a try. Ken then becomes extremely emotional as he knows that I have been through so much and doesn’t want me to be in pain anymore. I am sure that at this point in the process Ken hurt more for me then her trying to move that head. The pain was intense but I was feeling that I was leaving no option closed as we tried to get this baby out. The most reassuring news that we got was that if this is going to have a great pile of hair when we gave birth.

The doctor says that since the tub seemed to work so well the first time then we should try to go back and try again. So back to the tub with various positions trying to get that head to rotate back down. We talk about the options of using pitocin as the doctor says I now have about a 50/50 chance of getting the head moved for a natural delivery. I was beyond having enough of the pain and wanted to give up. But I had an awesome team between Ken and Dale and they encouraged me to get the pitocin for two hours and see if we could get the contractions regular in an effort to move the baby.

Pitocin- 2 hours only!

I decide that I would take the pitocin for 2 hours only. The nurse had to be ready with a glove before the end of the two hours and immediately turn it off and to check me. She agrees that she promised to make sure that we would not go any further. On a side note at some point during this process, Christine, Pop and Elaine had arrived and heard me in the middle of my intense contractions. I had a really great mantra going through all the contractions that I still can say. I also at some point started to contract through A, E, I, O, U. over and over again. So with the I.V. attached and Pitocin going, which were both not in, my birth plan we head off to walk again to get this baby out. A typical contraction would start and I would stop walking, Dale would be behind me rubbing my back and Ken was in front holding my I.V. so I could lean into the IV stand and he could tell me that I was doing great and that he loved me.

In my heart I knew that the baby was not moving down the pain was the same and now when I got a contraction he would push his head off my side and then the feet would come up and kick me and my belly would just shift weirdly like an alien. I am not sure if anyone could see this but physically it felt like this.

After 2 hours I get checked and seem to be at 9 cm but a little lip of cervix. We talk about our options of keeping the pitocin on and I didn’t want to but still wanted to have a vaginal delivery and needed some relief so I got a bit of pain medicine so that I could continue with the labor progression as my goal now was a vaginal delivery. Ken was with Christine when this discussion occurred and really I didn’t remember talking to him about it as he thought we would try to pitocin and if it did not work that we would have the c-section. I really started to get some relief and then my contractions were progressing but the pain meds wore off. Ken and Dale got dinner from Christine and ate outside of the room. I remember being nasty and telling the nurse that I can’t believe I am in pain in here and they are both my support and they are having dinner outside my room and I hadn’t eaten since Oat bran about 28 hours prior. At this point another L & D took over named Sarah to help me in the process. Which means it is now 11:30 p.m., As the baby was sleepy from the meds I couldn’t get another dose and the contractions were to the point that I could not bear it and realized I was going into my third night of not sleeping and felt so bad that I missed my due date which I really wanted this baby to be born on. Once I knew that I could not have any more pain medication I began to ask for an epidural. I told Dale that I promised that I would push and that I would get this baby out but I couldn’t do it on my own. For some reason I thought that if I was going to have the epidural that I was not going to progress and become lazy in the process. I just had no more effort to push on my own without any relief and I knew that the head was not descending. They told me it would be a half an hour for the epidural as he had two other women who were ahead of me. This is when I lost my cool and started to demand the epidural and was crying and that I said I should be before them as I had been going through this forever and I needed relief. My L&D nurse then proceeded out of our room while Dale and Ken consoled me. The L & D nurse went to see if she could get the anesthesiologist to come any quicker. The nurse was able to get the anesthesiologist did come earlier and I did get the epidural. I asked for the lowest dose of epidural as I didn't want to be too numb. I kept asking the nurse if she was sure this was the lowest dose as I could feel absolutely nothing and was concerned. I think around 1:00 a.m. Ken’s sister; Christine had been patiently waiting in the family room for some news. Dale had to leave as she had to pick up her husband at the train station and her kids were going on there 3rd night of being alone. Dale gave Christine a pep talk while I was getting the epidural. Ken at this point needed the support as I had just gotten the epidural and was feeling much better. Ken and I preceded both to take naps. They upped my pitocin again in an effort for a vaginal delivery. Christine stayed with us and just watched our baby’s monitor and hearing that little heart beat that was solid throughout the labor.

Time for the Slice and Dice –Saturday April 19

At 3:00 a.m. I woke up and looked at Christine and she seemed to be concerned and crying. The nurse told me that the heartbeat was too high and that something was wrong. Sarah had asked me when the last time I had urinated was and I told her that I remember going in the tub at around 3:00 p.m. but hadn’t been able to go but a trickle since then. She decided to give me a cathereter and proceeded to get 1.5 liters of urine off of my bladder. Because of the change in the heart rate she had to call the resident to look at the strip of the baby's heartbeat but was confident it was the pressure in my bladder. She also checked on my dilation and felt that I was about 9 cm but the little piece of cervix we thought that I had left was now a ring around the entire cervix and that the baby’s head seemed a little swollen. But it had a great pile of hair. At the alert of the resident this brought out Dr. B that decided we needed to talk about our options. The only option at this point was going to be a c-section. She felt that if we labored anymore that it was more risk than a benefit. I still asked her if we could try another hour that if it would change anything and she felt that it would not. Ken and I agreed for the best of the baby to get the c-section. So I am not sure how this happened as I was a little fuzzy but they were going to do the surgery right away but someone needed an epidural so I told them that they could bump me and give that woman some relief. It turns out that they did 2 more epidurals before sending me to the operating room.

The Surgery – Saturday, April 19

We entered the O.R. at 5:07 a.m. Since it was so quiet they let Christine wait in the room where they put the dads to wait for the mom’s to be prepped. They began surgery and at 5:39 a.m. brought Evan out of me and he began to urinate right out of the womb! Christine could here his cries from the other room and was able to see some of the surgery while peeking through the windows. They did not give out gender and Ken was able to tell me he was a boy. We were supposed to keep the gender a surprise for Chris but one of the O.R. folks had told her it was a boy. I was then put back together and wheeled back to the recovery room. Once again, Chris was allowed to stay with us as no other patients were in recovery and I think since it was so early there rules were more of guidelines at this point. I was checked for bleeding in my uterus and I was bleeding and not stopping. The wanted to give my Cytotec to stop bleeding which is an off label medicine used for pregnant women and I declined and asked if they could use the pitocin instead. I started the pitocin but as the nurse pressed on my belly and I pushed to get out the clots it was clearly evident that I was not stopping bleeding. I did not want to see the clots and nor did Ken but Chris the trooper through all of this watched the whole thing. The resident came in and gave me 2 other options to use to stop bleeding both with bad side effects. One side effect was going to give me hypertension and the other one was really bad diarrhea. At this point I did not want to need a blood transfusion and decided on the Cytotec. After all that I had been through the way they administer this drug is rectally. So after being poked in all areas I had to have them inserted rectally.

Evan was right by my side in the warming bed and at this time they brought him to me and we got skin to skin and at 7:00 a.m. I was able to begin to nurse him.

At 9:00 a.m. I was moved to recovery and was put in a room. Evan began to have some trouble breathing as all the fluid was not out of his lungs and he was taken to the nursery for most of the day. He was a trooper and managed to pull through and by that evening he was visiting friends and family.

Looking back, I feel that we kept to our birth plan as much as we could and Ken and I agree that we did everything we could to avoid the c-section and in the end it really does not matter as he is beautiful and here!

Someday Three Mission Accomplished!

Will post an update soon.

2008-04-28T09:37:00.002-04:00

Still in the process of editing my birth story. I am going to send a private album of Evan pictures as Ken and I do not want to send pictures over the internet. I am working on getting all the pictures into the album.

Evan Donald
Born: Saturday, April 19, 2008
weight: 9lbs 14 oz.
height: 21 inches

Left Sided, Horizontal, and Elevated --Week #39

2008-04-13T18:30:00.005-04:00

So as you might have guessed I had my doctor's appointment and I am now out of work. I spend most of my time on my left side, laying horizontal, with my feet elevated. The baby is doing great and I am feeling very very pregnant at this point! As for when this baby is coming we really don't know at this point. Since going on rest the baby has been much more active. I am guessing that being crunched under my desk at work and a 40 minutes drive each way wasn't much fun. I keep forgetting to ask what the doctor thinks the size might be. I think for my own sanity I prefer not to know. If he thinks it is going to be 9 lbs then I might get a little skeptical about wanting this baby to come out!

This week we didn't do much. I did have two very brief but intersting braxton hicks contractions. Ken was all worried and realized that we didn't talk to the doula about when to call her and so I did talk to the doula and we are to call her when we think we are in labor. Then we will call her to come over to the house or the hospital when we need her. By the way, I took a bath and the contractions went away and have not had anything since then. I also think it was the stress of quitting work and worrying about what was on my desk.

Ken took his last trip to visit one of his vendors in MA on Friday. I was a little worried and tried not to call him. I actually try not to call anyone and usually say "Everything's fine" really quickly before I even let them ask me anything.

This weekend we had dinner with my friend Laurel to celebrate her son Tyler's 3rd birthday. We went to the Outback and had a really good time just visiting. Her son was fascinated by my belly and I gave him a quick couple of looks of my bare belly underneath the booth at the restaurant. He was such a shy little guy and when I offered to have him touch my belly he said "yes," but quickly changed his mind.

Sunday, Leslie, my niece and her husband Michael came over to visit and rub my belly and see the nursery. Leslie spent a good 20-30 minutes of rubbing the little one. The little one of course react by rolling around and having a good time.

My labor induction walk was not as successful as we would have liked and my friend Erin has been going through a tough week of on again off again labor. I have been thinking about her and trying to be supportive but not too intrusive. I hope that she has Bee soon as she is such a trooper. So if your thoughts and prayers could be sent her way that would be great.

Not much going on and have an appt on Tuesday morning again at the doc's office. I might go a little crazy and update the blog and let you know the details. My guess is that since I am close to my due date she might want to see me earlier then 1 week but maybe not.

I figure sometime this week Ken and I will begin our walk to get things moving on the baby front.

p.s. I still have not finished packing for the hospital. I guess I will get to that this week.

Cravings this week: ice cream

Last chance for guessing gender, weight and date.

"My bags are packed I am NOT ready to go" -Week #38

2008-04-06T12:26:00.003-04:00

This week I went to my dr's appt. My blood pressure is low and that is why I have been feeling a little off lately. I get up and feel kind of dizzy. My feet are getting huge and if I don't keep them up then I have bad swelling. The baby is doing great. I refused to get an internal exam which my doctor said is o.k. with not doing it. I just think it would drive me crazy wondering when this baby is coming and it could by today or 3 weeks from now. My doctor did want me to consider stop working. I decided to continue to work as I don't have any signs of Pre-eclampsia and still feel o.k. I am guessing my doctor's appt will be more of his decision on whether I can work rather than mine. He actually said " don't worry that you gained 4 pounds this week it is all that water weight gain with the swelling!" I was so shocked because I didn't even know I had gained those pounds but still not really worried about it as I am in the final stages. My doctor is going on vacation the week of my due date. So all this work we have on our birth plan we may have to discuss with another doctor.

Which leads me to the fact that our kid is going to be so upset if we gave birth during school vacation week and they never have their birthday at school. The good thing is that they will most likely get to take a friend with them for a birthday present on their school break.

The rest of the week I hung out on my left side with my feet up. I have "sleeping" now on my left side with my feet up. I say "sleeping" as it is more napping. Which is another reason why I think I am not going to be working much longer. I feel that when I drive I don't have all my wits about me as I am so tired and that my belly is right in front of the airbag and I am worried about getting into an accident.

Am I nesting? I don't think so but this is what I have cleaned lately: under the kitchen sink, under the bathroom sink, on my list of to do is: clean my car, organize the hallway closet, organize the shelves in the bathroom, get curtains for the nursery.

On Saturday, I headed out to run some errands. I got some nursing bras, which are so comfortable that I decided to stop wearing my normal bras. I got a pedicure and manicure which took over 2 hours and made me feel so good! I did some grocery shopping. Went to Target to pick up a couple of things. Then back home to put up my very swollen feet.

Today, I started to pack my bag for the hospital. Mostly things like pajamas, the baby's clothes, and toiletries. I will wait till we go into labor to pack the rest... which I guess would be an outfit for me to leave the hospital in. Our doula is coming over today. Dale was our birth class teacher and is coming over to see where we live and visit our "labor place." We also are having one of our classmates Erin coming over as her due date is today and we are going for an inducing labor walk or what I like to call the longest mile to get her labor started. We are heading over to Elizabeth Park. I am hoping that some sort of green has popped up so it doesn't look like an empty rose garden.
Here is a picture of what it looks like when it is in bloom.
http://www.elizabethpark.org/rose_garden_image.htm

This week I am getting my hair done and after that I decided it was ok to give birth as I would have my hair and nails done.

The baby has been moving but with less room it is not the same as the weeks past. I am getting excited to find out gender and just to see what the baby looks like and figure out what the little one has been doing in there this whole time.

Well, going to get ready for the visitors. Will keep you posted if anything happens!

Almost Ready -- Week #37

2008-04-01T17:54:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the delay this week!

We had a pretty busy week we began shopping for baby furniture as Ken realized we just needed a place for all the baby stuff.

We ended up finding a great piece of furniture and I took pictures and will include them under the nursery album. I also have close ups of the nursery bedding too.

Our furniture adventure has been going on for the past week and a half. On Saturday we found a piece of furniture we really liked and Ken was able to haggle down a better price at Baby Depot for it. My nephew Michael broke in his week old truck by helping us bring it down from Auburn, MA ...For those of you that know the area it was at the old Fair. The Fair building is no longer there but they still call it The Fair shopping center.

We thanked Michael by offering him dinner and one of the options was Ethiopian so we decided to head out on Saturday night for a Ethiopian dinner. We really enjoyed the food and it was good to have something different.

So I am finally feeling like we are getting ready for this baby. The nursery is all put together. My sister and brother in-law, Bella and Nana and Granpa all came up on Sunday afternoon to help. It was a flurry of onesies and baby clothes being washed and put away. I have the outfit for the baby ready to go for the hospital but have nothing of mine packed yet. I can't thank them all enough for helping me as I was a little overwhelmed as what I had left to do and trying to get it all done.

On Monday we visited with one of the couples from our birth class. We went out to our favorite Indian restaurant. It was great to see them and compare our bellies and all the things that are happening to us. We agreed that the toughest part of being pregnant at this point is the anticipation of when we are going to go into labor and is it really labor or just false labor.

My feet are starting to swell up like balloons I have trouble bending down to put on my shoes so Ken has been helping me. I did go and pick up a pair of flip flops today and I think I am adding that to my wardrobe. I try to keep my feet up at my desk.

My dr's appt is tomorrow so hopefully that will be good.

I still have to work on the birth plan for the baby this week and start to get a list of email addresses so that we can send out a quick email when Baby Ritchie is born.

Cravings: jelly belly beans.
Pounds gained: I stopped weighing myself!

What my feet look like: Shrek's!

Picasso web albums:

http://picasaweb.google.com/taritchie

Happy Easter - Week #36

2008-03-24T18:36:00.003-04:00

So last week was a little less hectic. We had our last baby class on Thursday. A surprise guest was there for our class. Another mother who had come to our class about 2 weeks ago because those in her birth class had their babies joined us with her new 9 day old baby. He was so cute! I was holding him and he got the hiccups. It reminds me of the same feeling that I get inside when the little one has hiccups.

We have been doing last minute things. We ordered Ken's new tires for his car. I had to get a new fuel filter and transmission fluid and all those fun things that need to be done.

Saturday was more errands and running around trying to get things done. I also have been trying to stay on my left side as my feet are still swelling so when I am not out and about I am usually lying on my side.

On Sunday, we celebrated Easter by going to my sister's country club and having lunch with the easter bunny. It was nice to get all dressed up and have a nice meal. I did where my slides as it helps with the cankle feet.

Today, Ken and I went to my dr's appt to talk about my birth plan. The baby is doing great and actually I am measuring at 34 weeks which confirms what I have been feeling all along and the baby's head is now dropping and getting ready for the birth. Ken and I both agree that it seems I might go earlier. Ken says it is because the baby wants to see us! I say that the baby just like Ken and has gotten bored with the surroundings and is ready for something new.

This week we have the carpet in the nursery is getting cleaned and then this weekend we are getting the crib. We still have to get the mattress and all the baby clothes washed and put away. I still need to get my bags and the babies bag ready to go to the hospital. I did pick up another pair of pajamas for the hospital.

Pounds gained: 35
cravings: sour cream and cheddar ruffle chips

Our Birth Plan:
We would like to have the most natural birth experience possible, so we would like to request the following; barring true medical indications we decline:

• IVs and heplocks
• Artificial rupturing of my bag of waters
• Continuous fetal monitoring
• Augmentation of labor including the delivery of the placenta
• Routine vaginal exams
• Clamping of our baby’s umbilical cord before it stops pulsating

At no time do we consent to:
• Cytotec
• Restriction of self-hydration
• Routine episiotomy

Please do not offer us any medication during labor or delivery. It is important to me to allow my body to operate in its natural rhythm and time-table.

It is also physiologically important that our baby’s health is protected by a gentle third stage. Please place our child in Tammy’s arms to nurse and naturally help the release of the placenta while also allowing the cord to cease pulsating in its own time. Please place a blanket over both Tammy and our baby. When the cord has stopped pulsating and you clamp the cord, Ken will cut the cord.

You're feet look like Shrek's Week #35

2008-03-16T08:43:00.005-04:00

Well, the countdown can begin on weeks to go on one hand! I am still pretty shocked, nervous, excited, worried, etc.

This week was a great week after having a busy last weekend we took Monday and Tuesday off just to relax after work.

I had my dr's appt on Thursday. I waited and hour and 15 minutes to spend about 10 minutes with the doctor. He listened to the heartbeat, checked my bp, 90/60!!! and confirmed what I already knew that the bum of our baby is digging into my ribs, and the head is in the downward position. My next appt is to discuss our birthplan. I will post our birth plan next week as I just have to tweak a couple of things. Then we have to work on our baby's birth plan.

Thursday we headed out for Baby Class this week we had a special guest a former student that just had her baby and we got to ask her all the gruesome details.

Saturday we worked on the nursery again. I got a bunch of purging of my clothes and we donated 4 more bags of clothes to the goodwill. We were able to use the space saver bags and vacuum pack all the clothes and fit nicely under the new bed. We will need to get the carpet cleaned and then get the crib and changing table set up.

I still feel that we have so many things to get done. I gave a deadline of 36 weeks when I would like to have the room done but as that date approaches I am hoping we are ready by week 38! I just wanted to give us a couple of weekends where we can just relax.

Oh! and my feet are starting to swell up like a balloon! I have been trying to stay on my left side in order to reduce the swelling and it seems to work as today they are much better than yesterday. Ken said they look like shrek's feet. They aren't even green.

Ken has been working on my car the past couple of weekends just making sure that it is baby ready. He replaced a mass flow sensor, spark plugs, my antenna. All little things just to make sure that the family is safe. I think he likes the idea of being able to figure out what is wrong and fixing it. Of course timing all the activities just to see how long it takes.

So I packed up my wedding dress to give to brides against breast cancer. It fit perfectly in the stroller box. I could have found a better box. I even donated my viel and shoes. Here is the site if you want to check it out. I thought I was going to feel bad about giving it up but I like the idea that someone else is going to fall in love with my dress just like I did.

http://www.makingmemories.org/

Other than that I am feeling really good and I am enjoying this time.

cravings: milk
pounds gained: 32

days to go till due date: 33

The Big Move -- Week #34

2008-03-10T19:07:00.003-04:00

This week was another busy week.

We had a great baby class. We added another couple to our group. She is due this week and the 2 other couples in the other class had their babies. This week we have a guest speaker who just had her 10.5 lb baby all natural! The good thing is the doctor's told her that they thought the baby was between 8-9 pounds! I like the idea of knowing that the baby is going to be smaller rather than bigger.

On Friday, we got the new mattress set up. It it so heavy that Ken and 2 other guys had to take the bed apart and lift up the stairs...remember Ken designed the mattress so that you could break it down into pieces. I love how it feels and my hips don't hurt as much. Ken wants to change the layers to be more firm but we agreed to wait till after the baby is born so I can enjoy the softness.

Saturday we started our day with a cold and rainy day getting ready to get the cargo fan for the Big Move.
****If you are easily grossed out don't read this paragraph*****
While getting ready to get the van I took my vitamins and have been taking liquid Acidophilus...it is supposedly helps to lower your colonization of group b strep so I can pass my test and not have to have iv antibiotics to counter act it. This stuff is gross... and I take the liquid because it absorbs easier than pill form. It is like concentrated plain yogurt. I need to take 2 tblsp worth. Ken is in the kitchen next to me loading the dishwasher. I get the first one down and start dry heaving...then I fill up for the next one... and it is even worse... I try to move Ken out of the way so I can get to the sink and...I projectile vomit across the kitchen. Poor Ken is not sure what to do so he is trying to comfort me as I feel bad for yakking all over the floor. I realize that I am not going to be able to bend over to clean up either. Ken stepped it up and cleaned up enough of it so I could just come in and clean up with the swiffer mop. What a mess!

**************story done********

After that we headed out to get the cargo van. It took Ken a good 3 hours of picking up the boxes and bringing them down the stairs. We have about 85% of the room cleaned out and the rest will be done soon. I just need to purge more of my clothes. Then we drove up to Pop and Elaine's to drop off all the stuff.

We did go out to a new restaurant in Ayer that was enjoyed. I had a really good whoopie pie that had been catching my eye in the dessert case the whole evening!

On Sunday Pop and Ken made the trip above the garage with all the stuff! Then we filled up the van with the baby stuff and headed down south. I took over driving the big van in Charlton. It was great being big momma at the wheel. Ken working off a long "honey do" list then went to Baby's r us to pick up the glider we had on delayed order. He then hauled that and all the baby stuff upstairs.

He even put the glider together. And finally he posted a purse on e-bay that we bought new but never got around to adding it.

The baby has been active lately with trying to put its bum right into my rib cage. If I am sitting and rubbing my right side it is most likely me trying to work the bum out of my side.

Things we have left to do:
Get nursery cleaned
Get carpet in nursery cleaned
Get baby crib and changing table from my sister
Try to find a home for the 15% of stuff that still left in the baby's room
Develop our birth plan and the babies birth plan

Pounds gained: oh something like 30...scared to go on the scale.

Way to go! Week #33

2008-03-04T19:06:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the delay this week. We had family here on Sunday and Ken had a conference call to China last night of which he had to be on the internet and then had to work aftewords.

This week was a regular week just busy with work and running errands. We have something to do most every night.

We did have Chris up from Baltimore on Sunday and she took the belly pics this week and brought some wonderful Maryland crab cakes! So it turned into a big family gathering at the litttle brick condo in Hartford. Grandmother and Granana came down along with Pop and Elaine.

We had a great lunch with the crab cakes and appetizers and fresh asparagus and guacamole! I am looking forward to the spring and summer with all the fresh vegetables.

Baby Ritchie was very cooperative and managed to give a good couple of kicks while Chris had her hand on my belly.

So the little silver Volvo is sick it has been stalling on both Ken and I and he made his way up to Worcester and it stalled about a million times. But then it just started to work again but then when I was driving on the highway it decided to stall again and we dropped it off at the dealership tonight and I will take the bus to work tomorrow. I am sure it is not life threatening.

I finished Mind Over Labor this week and it really is a great book to help you use mental imagery. I am going to use several places to imagine myself than rather be in labor. My places are: On the beach in Hawaii, Aruba, and Puerto Rico, and just being outside in a snowstorm. Just the quiet and peace from that .

Birth class this week we watched a video of Women in Russia giving birth in the black sea. It was very beautiful. Of course you can only birth in the summer time there so they set up a camp and live there till the women are ready to give birth.

This week we are getting ready for our new mattress. Last week we got the bed and I am really excited to get the new mattress as I will most likely will be sleeping on the old bed all by myself! Lately, sleeping is something that I just don't get enough of right now... and I am guessing in the future. Not that this a complaint as I signed up for this!

The little one has been wedging itself right up to my right ribs. Today I was able to feel the bum right through my belly. It is the cutest bottom!

We are in the process of working on getting the spare bedroom stuff moved out of here and then on its way up north. A big thanks to pop and elaine to let us park the stuff there till this summer when we can move it down to Worcester. We might even convince Ken to purge some stuff in a garage sale... we can always hope.

Here is the gender scope: No! I don't know gender, but 3 different people at work think we are having a girl and Daryl the cashier at Stop & Shop thinks we are having a boy.

Total Pounds gained: 30 (I still am amazed that I write this down)
Cravings: Milk

Waddling around week #32

2008-02-22T18:05:00.003-05:00

This week we continued with the girls weekend and did what we do best at these events and we went to Kittery Me shopping. I did get a really cute gneder neutral white fuzzy bear jacket for the little one.

On Tuesday I headed back down to Hartford and enjoyed some quite time getting a pedicure. At this point I can't get my feet rubbed because of the pressure points and going into labor. I don't really think it will put me into labor but better safe than sorry.

Ken took off on Wednesday for Penn. for work it should be his last trip before the little one arrives.

Baby class without Ken is not so fun! We started to talk about our birth plans and the baby's birth plan. I guess we need to come up with a one page list of what is ok and not ok during our birth processs and what is ok and not ok for the little one. I have more work to do on both but Ken and I will need to talk.

I do have homework from class and need to start reading Mind over Labor. Ken has started it so it will be good to discuss when we both finish.

I began working on getting all my thank you notes out from our shower. Which just reminds me that we still need to work on getting the spare bedroom ready. I am guessing this week we are going to do minimal work as Ken is arriving home late on Friday night and I am guessing will want to relax as he has been on the go for the past couple of weeks with travelling.

The baby has been moving more in a pushing way rather than a just moving way. Now it feels like it is just pushing anywhere it can find some space. I have been getting some growing pain and have seen a little growth spurt in my belly.

We had a pretty big snow storm this week and I had to drive to and from work in the weather. The little one doesn't like when I get nervous driving and usually gives me a couple of kicks for sending down the unwanted stress.

I went to the Dr's today and the baby is head down and ready to go. I thought I felt a little uncomfortable "down there" and it is good to know that the little one is just as excited as we are. My bp and weight are both fine and my swelling in my feet has not increased so now I am trying to keep my stress down to make sure that my bp and swelling stay normal. The heartbeat was great to hear.

Things accomplished:

New Mattress should be arriving soon.

New Bed furniture should be arriving soon.

Glider has been ordered and is on delayed pick up at BRU.

4 giant bags of clothes given to the goodwill.

Cravings this week: bananas

Total pounds gained: 27 (not even going to make a comment)

Gender: shh!!! It's still a surprise! To everyone including us!

Girls Weekend and surprise baby shower-Week #31

2008-02-16T12:08:00.007-05:00

So this week was another busy week! On Tuesday we went in a snow storm to see the Business of Being Born, this is the riki lake movie about the birth process. It was really good movie that goes into details of the natural birth process and has a slant against hospitals.

Thursday was birthing class. This week we watched a video of a woman give birth to twins at home. Ken still wants to have an at home birth but I feel more comfortable going to the hospital. We still have to decide our birth plan we do know that we have a secret code word to talk about having drugs. Our code phase is "I need more cowbell" For those of you who don't know it is a skit from SNL with Christopher Walken.

Here is the link to the video Enjoy.
http://webfeedcentral.com/2005/01/21/more-cowbell-video/

Friday we headed up north to spend a girl's weekend just outside of Lowell Mass. We visited with Mel, Joel, Ty & Gage. It was great to see them all as it has been since last May that I had seen them all together.

On Saturday we met up with Allison and Susie for lunch, we went and played some games at Chuck E Cheese and then some shopping and off to a Umass Lowell hockey game. Allison's husband Mac is the coach of the team and Ken is an alumni of Umass Lowell so he enjoyed going to the new arena. Unfortunately, Umass did not win but it was great to be at a live hockey game.
I also purchased my first beer as a pregnant woman! Mel forgot her ID so I had mine so I bought her a beer. Pictures are on the picasso web albums. I did get a few looks as I walked down to my seat holding a beer.

Sunday I was supposed to head to my in-laws for brunch and was surprised by my baby shower. I had so many good friends and family that were there and so many more people had sent their well wishes I was overwhelmed. Of course we still are in the process of cleaning the spare bedroom so most of the stuff will stay at Nana and pop's for now and in the next couple of weeks we will transition the stuff in the spare bedroom north for storage in worcester and then the baby stuff to the nursery.

A special thanks to Mel who took my belly pics this week and for taking pics of the shower.

Belly Button Still Hanging On! - week #30

2008-02-11T19:57:00.000-05:00

So I am actually writing this blog at work in the spare minute I have while I am eating lunch at my desk.

I had my doctor’s appointment on Monday and my dr was very pleased that I had such an in depth birth plan already. He is o.k. with me laboring at home as long as I want and even should be eating something too. He won’t break my water, I don’t need an IV. With that all done I was feeling really good about my birth plan…except not being able to do a water birth. But on Thursday we got the news that my hospital is on probation. So Ken and I haven’t had a discussion about it but he is refusing to go there. My theory is that they are going to give you a better level of care because they are on probation. The probation does not involve the maternity area at all so that is also why I am not as concerned and Hartford Hospital is designated as a baby friendly hospital with the Children’s Hospital next door if anything does happen. Ugh! So many issues.

Work has been crazy! I have been doing my job and going to additional classes during the day for my job and mentoring a new person. (I have been doing my job for only 6 months.)

Things still on our to do list:
Finish cleaning up the spare bedroom – don’t ask any details.
Pick out a glider
Decide on where we are giving birth.
Pick out a bed for our new mattress
Figure out how long my maternity leave will be.

We were planning on going to see the Business of Being Born tomorrow about hospital births. It is coming out on Netflix. We are seeing it at a showing at the Jewish Community Center down the street from us. That is if the weather stays on our side. They are calling for 4 inches of snow tomorrow and possibly ice. So my guess is that they are going to cancel it.

Lately I have been feeling more pregnant, bending over is getting harder, if I don't eat every couple of hours I get raging heartburn, my feet are starting to swell.

Good things is that my wedding band and ring still fit! I am not having any braxton-hicks contractions yet and I still have not had any crazy weird cravings.

Speaking of cravings. I caught Ken the other day having some ice cream and then following it up with pickles spears! Is he having sympathy pregnant cravings! Could be!

This weekend we are heading up to Mass to have a girls and boys impromptu girls weekend. Mel got a great flight for the hubby and the kids to come out and visit! I am looking forward to seeing everyone as I haven't seen her since July and her kids since May. I think we are planning a trip into Boston. I haven't even looked at the weather yet but hopefully it will be nice.

Don't forget to vote for gender, dob, and height and weight.

Chugging along ---Week #29

2008-02-03T18:07:00.000-05:00

This week was a learning week.

Just a short aside from last week. Last Sunday Ken gave into my craving and drove down to NYC and back just so I could have Dim Sum. The day was gorgeous and we found on street parking! We even went to Little Italy to get a cannoli!

On Tuesday we headed to RestOpedic. We visited the factory and picked out what kind of latex mattress we wanted to have made. Ken loved seeing how all the machines worked and picking out what fabric covering he wanted and even adding a zipper. We still are in negotiations with the matress maker as he gave us a quote but seems to have adjusted his numbers several times. I am hoping it gets resolved soon as we both are having a hard time fitting on the full bed together.

Our goal is to move the full into the spare bedroom where the crib will be so that I can sleep for the first couple of weeks in the bedroom then transition out and still have a bed when we have visitor's.

Which leads me into our latest work effort. We spent a good 4 hours working on the spare bedroom. (It took much longer than that but we had to take breaks and get re-motivated!)

We did find about 7 pairs of brand new shorts...last summer he tried to convince me that he didn't have any and I tried to tell him he did but instead he just bought more. So we have to figure out where to store these new found clothes... as we only got about 25% through I know that there is more that we just haven't found them yet.

The good thing is that we found the box that had my extra checks in it! I hadn't written a check since sometime this summer. I was getting ready to re-order but I knew we would find them soon!

We had a great baby class this week. Ken had to put a ping pong ball into a balloon. Then he blew up the balloon and the ping pong got into position closing the hole similiar to a head in the womb. He then had to push the ping pong out of the balloon like contractions...without tearing the balloon. Well....Congrats to Ken as he delivered his ping pong baby, across the room, without one tear. He was the only dad that didn't tear his balloon!

On Saturday we went to Bella's reconcilliation. Although she is not becoming a catholic she attends a catholic school. We celebrated afterwards with cake and a nice lunch. Leslie and I enjoyed playing American Idol on PS2 and unfortunately I didn't make it to the final round! Leslie spent time talking to the baby and rubbing my belly. The baby was very cooperative and was kicking all through church and much of the afternoon enjoying the belly rubs.

I have my dr's appt on Monday where we will talk about my birth plan and most likely me leaving the group so I can give birth at Manchester Memorial Hospital for a waterbirth.

Lately, my left ankle has been swelling to quite the cankly level. I have been putting my feet up and trying to stay on my left side. It helps for most of the time but by evening my ankle is big again. My right seems to be fine and my fingers have not swollen as of yet so I will discuss what else I can do. I am guessing sitting all day at my desk doesn't help and I am going to brave the cold and take a couple of laps at work to see if that helps.

Our adventure this week was going down route 84 the wrong way!!! They closed the highway and we were all just sitting there and someone decided to turn around and go down the breakdown lane the wrong way and up the on ramp it sort of started a ton of people to do it. We debated heavily on whether to do it... how much would the ticket be and the cost of insurance if we were going the wrong way on the interstate... once the group decided to go together we turned around and headed off the highway. The police even directed traffic as we all got off the highway and was on our way... thank you to Fred Garmen for getting us where we needed to go after that... yes, we named our GPS. Turns out we found out it was a high speed chase and one of the suspects had stabbed a police man and was later killed by the police.

Just to make sure to see the updated pics of my belly here is the website for my picasso albums.

http://picasaweb.google.com/taritchie

I will update the post with my dr's appt just so you know what is going on with the little one!

14 + 14 = Week #28

2008-01-23T18:53:00.003-05:00

A flashback, 14 weeks picture + 14 weeks = 28 weeks!

So I sometimes forgot all the things that I want to write but somehow get sidetracked. So I am going to make an attempt to start this blog early in the week and remember everything!

I still can't believe it has been 7 months. I just think about what it was like first finding out and scared to tell Ken. Then taking a vacation and being so worried about the little one and being so naseous and tired. Time has gone by so quickly. It felt like the first trimester was the longest ever! and I just skipped on through the second. I really wish time would sit still especially when the little one is really active and Ken can put his hand on my belly and ask me "what is the little one doing in there?" I keep telling him that this is his kid because it is always in constant motion and that is just like Ken.

By the way if you have been looking at my pics on picasso for some reason Ken keeps on cutting off my belly. He is going to try to do better.

This week I had a day off so I went and got my hair done. I love getting my hair done it is so therapeutic. You get to gossip and vent and it is almost like going to therapy but you walk out looking good!

I attended my 3rd session at Babys R us. You go to 3 seminars and they give you this basket full of treasures! Was it worth the trip to the store and the sessions. Most likey not. We got a cute blanket and some avent bottles which I have to see if they are the plastic contaminates. They did come with these little storage containers that are #5 which is good! remember plastics, 4, 5, 1, 2 all the rest aren't good for you! I did get a bunch of samples of wipes and diapers and have begun to fill up the diaper bag that Nana and Pop Pop gave us. --Since I call Ken's dad, Pop we have been thinking the baby would call him Pop Pop... We most likely are going to keep Grandpa but I like Pop Pop for now.

It still baffles me at 7 months I can have this wee one and it could make it on its own. I am getting nervous about it. I don't even feel comfortable holding other people's little babies and I am going to give birth and they are going to let me out of the hospital with this little one ...no questions asked!

So the pediatrician debate continues. I like my ob/gyn we click on the same philosophy,etc. So I decided to take the baby there. They will only take newborns and first time mom's. So I thought that is good and there office is above a Maggie Moo's and how bad can that be? But I was talking to my boss who also has my personality and she recommended me to the dentist that I have now and I really like and she gave me the name of another pediatrician that is a little closer to home and even our Executive VP in our office takes her kid's there. So what do I do? Do I go with my dr's recommendation after they said they would take the little one OR? do I go with a friend's recommendation who I have already had good experiences with? To be continued...

The baby seems to have a schedule. It gets up when I wake up in the morning. So the alarm will go off and it will wake up and play till the second alarm goes off and then I get out of bed and it settles down till I get to work and have breakfast. It then gives me a couple of good jabs to let me know that it wants lunch and I eat and usually just kicks around till about three in the afternoon. Then it settles down till after dinner and then it kicks around till about 9pm and then is out for the rest of the evening. If I get up a can't fall back to sleep at night it will wake up and keep me awake but for now it is resting at night... I doubt that it will have this schedule once it arrives but I like the predictablitiy of being able to know when I am going to feel B.R.

If I really want the wee one to move and it is not the usual time I usually can lay on my back and for some reason it is not a big fan and usually gives me a couple of kicks to make me move.

Next week's topic of discussion: Waterbirth, Not clamping the cord, IV's. We are having a good time learning about the natural birth process.

Funny Quotes people have said to me:

" What happened? You weren't that big last week?"

"Your belly looks like a round beach ball"

"Are you waddling?"

"I got big dark black nipple hair when I was pregnant I hope that doesn't happen to you!" -- as quoted by the cafeteria lady, while I was getting breakfast, who also makes comments on my nutritional choices."

"Are you having a boy or a girl? Turn around and let me see your butt so I can find out."

"Your belly finally hangs out farther than your breasts."

Welcome Third Trimester! -- Week #27

2008-01-20T14:52:00.000-05:00

This week we headed into the 3rd trimester! Time is going by so fast! I just want to have time slow down a little and enjoy!

We started our baby class this week and I am really glad that we decided to go with the 10 week class rather than going to the hospital for a 4 week or less class. The teacher is very "spiritual" and really makes you feel empowered to make your own decisions about the way you want to birth. I think she is going to try to convince Ken to have an at home birth! I on the other hand would still like to have a water birth at a hospital but still have to talk to my doctor about it . The best part about the class was that Dale was able to help me with a sleeping position so that my hips don't hurt as bad. I managed to sleep for 2 three hour sessions! The good thing about the position is that I can labor in that position once it is time for the little one.

We celebrated our 3rd anniversary by going to a restaurant called Apricot's. It is an old style building that was the end of the line for the Hartford trolley in the 1800's it has a river running right by it and we had a nice time. Ken had tried so hard to go away for the weekend at a place called the White Barn Inn in Kennebunkport, ME but the restaurant is closed in January. --I have always wanted to go there. The second place that I want to go is Randall's Ordinary that is in North Stonington, CT and it is an old farm house and they cook over an open flame with old kettles, etc. but of course they are not open in January either! I love that Ken tried so hard to do something that I wanted but just didn't turn out the way he expected!

On a sadder note we remembered Little Grandma's Birthday and always knew that a time would come when we would celebrate our anniversary and not be able to be with her to celebrate her birthday. She always would say " I will always remember your anniversary." and we would say back "No, grandma we will always remember your birthday." We spent part of the evening just talking about her and how much we miss her. We would bring her noodle kugel from Rein's and she would tell us how much she loved it and if we liked it. I now look back and remember telling her No, but really I don't know if I like noodle kugel or not maybe I should have sat down and had some kugel with her.

We have been doing mattress shopping recently, we have officially outgrown our bed. More like my belly has officially out grown the bed and we just are not as comfortable on being a full. We have been talking about where to put the baby and after much back and forth I think we are going to try to clear out the spare bedroom and put the full bed and the crib in the spare bedroom. I just can't imagine how we can organize all the stuff. I am encouraging Ken to get rid of, sell on craig list, throw away, and give away. As much as I encourage him he still admits that it is hard. He realized he had boxed in Courtland street that have not been used in 7 years and really doesn't miss the stuff but can't part with it!

Total pounds gained: 23 eeck!

Cravings: Dim Sum
Gender: unknown

Double digits here we go! Week 26

2008-01-13T09:52:00.000-05:00

We are now in the double digits of days to go! We passed under 100 days till our due date this week.
This week I passed my 3 hour gluclose test! I passed all four tests that were given. But all good things can't last and as I felt good about my gluclose test but I got a cold! I have been trying to get rest and fluids and just taking it easy. I did work the entire week and some days I thought I was going to need to nap in the middle of the day! --which technically my company allows you to take a nap at the nurse's office, for an hour or two if you are pg on occasion.

I had my dr's appt this week. I got a really cute ultrasound pic of the baby's face. After having so many ultrasounds the baby has decided that it doesn't like them anymore and kicked the ultrasound tech's tool and she had to move it to another spot. I guess the little one thought it might have been play time.

Yes, I say baby because we still don't know gender. We have our theories. Ken thinks girl and I think boy. The reason I think that is because we don't have a name picked out yet. We got to the N's today and will continue till the end. Watch we will end up naming the baby a "Z" name.

My measurements take me 1 week further along than my 26 weeks. They asked me if I was having any contractions and I said not that I am aware of... I can't believe it already asking me if I am having contractions, no baby furniture, just starting baby class this week, no hospital tour yet, no pre-registering at the hospital, just getting daycare situated. ugh! Slacker Mom again here I come!

I did manage to get my bathroom cabinet clean that I said I was going to do last week. I feel this blog is proof that if I write it down then I must get it done because it is sitting in cyber world if I don't.

Ken had a big scare when we went to the Gap looking for a winter coat for me. He saw a woman who is newly pregnant spend $178 on clothes. Nothing on sale. No coupons. She even bought a dress the baby girl is not even going to wear till she is about 2 years old... at full price of $34. I tried to tell Ken that some parents don't mind spending full price for clothes and that we choose not to spend full price. I guess it is another good reason why we should be glad that we don't know gender.

Total Pounds gained: 20
Cravings: Milk and Fatoush Salad
Heartbeat: in the 130's

Happy New Year! Week #25

2008-01-05T14:50:00.000-05:00

Big Fat Failure! So I failed my 1 hour gluclose test and had to get up early on Saturday to go to the lab and take the 3 hour test. 3 hours and 4 needle sticks later I should find out next week if I passed or not. I also have low iron which I knew since the beginning of the pregnancy but my dr decided to put me on a supplement to increase my levels. So I have been trying to be create and get more fiber in my diet!

We visited a total of 10 daycare centers. We found several that we liked but some were out of our price range or out of our travel range. We did find one that we are very happy with that will let us use glass baby bottles and cloth diapers if we decide to use them. It is by Ken's work and we both can easily drop off or pick up.

This week has been spent catching up on my work after being out for 2 weeks.

I have been on my chat board for those due around the same time as me and I am feeling such like the slacker mom again. Just when I thought that I was doing good by getting our birthing class scheduled and day care. Now I feel bad because I haven't got a pediatrician, we don't have a will completed, we don't have the "nursery" done and I haven't pre-registered at the hospital or schedule a tour! Ugh! I guess I can only do one thing at a time.

Last week I talked about flylady.net and have been trying to get organized. I tackled getting all of our paper week filed away and next will be cleaning our cabinet in the bathroom. Ken even started to put together our taxes! My next big clean up will be purging some of my clothes and hopefully I will be donating my wedding dress.

Ken has been enjoying the movements of my belly. His favorite game is to see the baby move and then poke his finger at the same spot. The baby not a big fan of that moves a little and then gives me a poke. Then Ken moves his finger to the same spot and gives me a poke. This goes on for a little while usually until Ken decides he doesn't want to play anymore.

The baby seems more active in the daytime now. It gets up in the morning with me and then tends to nap till I get to work and then hangs out for a bit and then settle down till lunch and is usually quiet till after dinner into the evening.

The search for a boy's name begins. We have started with the letter "A" on Baby Names.com and each day take 1 letter and review the names. We are at "F" with many possibilities but nothing that has made us call off of our search. If we have a girl it will be Rachel Blanche.

Total pounds gained: 18
Cravings: nothing really

Merry Christmas -- Week #24

2007-12-30T15:53:00.000-05:00

So this week we celebrated the holidays. We went to Granpa and Nana's house to have a big Christmas Eve feast. We opened gifts and received some beatiful items for ourselves and baby Ritchie.

Photo credits are given to Grandpa Ritchie as Ken did not want to go outside in the cold!

On Christmas day we went to my sister's and celebrated Christmas day. We got there early and in our p.j.'s and spent the entire day hanging out in front of the fire and eating! Leslie spent most of the afternoon rubbing and "talking" to the little one trying to get the baby to move but it wasn't until Leslie left that the baby disco opened and I felt the movement for the rest of the evening.

Ken is recovering from surgery and as of today he is 85% better.

We began the arduous process of looking for a day care and we have been to 4 different places to look around. Tomorrow we will add two more to the list. The first center we saw was our least favorite and it reminded us of baby prison and we both did not feel good about leaving our little one at this place. So we will continue to look.

I had a check up this week and Ken was able to go with me. We saw the little one again on u/s and we still have decided to keep the gender a secret. I am measuring at 25 weeks at this appt a little bigger then my 24 weeks but the doctor was not worried as my weight gain was fine. I also took my gluclose test. If there is a test that you want to pass in all of your pregnancy this is the big one. If I "fail" this one then I take a 3 hour test with a blood draw at each hour. I don't mind taking the 2nd test but will most likely need to take a half of vacation day to complete. And as I only carried over a couple extra days this year I am trying to conserve my usage of vacation time for something fun.

Lately, I have been trying to get us organized. This is really hard because Ken gets really reluctant to purge things and with the little one on the way we really need to make more room for the little one.

I at least started the purging process at my parents house. I had items dating back to my childhood that finally got the toss. My mom was nice to have it all taken down from the attic so now all I had to do was to go through it. My nephew Dylan was a great help lifting the boxes so all I had to do was decide what was staying and going. I have about 6 more boxes to go and should be finished soon. It feels good just to purge...and why did I keep my high school graduation robe for 14 years?

We don't have any big plans for the New Year's we might go downtown and see the fireworks at 6pm which are the mini fireworks for the kids but depending on how Ken feels we might just hang out at the house.

The website that inspired me to get organized is: http://www.flylady.net/

Cravings: Jolly Ranchers

Total Pounds gained: 16

Best time to feel movements from the little one: mornings and evenings.

Origin of the Diamond as April birthstone:

How certain stones came to be connected to specific months is cloudy. Some speculate the birthstone originates from Biblical times when a priest's breastplate was adorned with twelve different colored gems. Over time, the number twelve became connected to months of the year and to the zodiac. People began wearing a different gem each month as a sort of talisman, believing each stone held certain powers. Gradually, specific gems became attached to specific months and zodiac signs. People then wore the gem associated with their birth month all year long. Fast-forward hundreds of years to 1912 in Kansas City, Missouri. The American National Association of Jewelers created a birthstone list, assigning different stones to each month. The birthstone list was controversial because people thought it was developed purely for commercial purposes. Even so, it is accepted worldwide today as the definitive list of birthstones.

On the inside and out! Week #23

2007-12-22T14:49:00.000-05:00

This has been a busy week. Ken had surgery for his hernia surgery on Thursday. It went just fine but the waitng was the mos difficult part. He first went to recovery where I waited for him to go down to "step down" so I could see him. Well after 1.5 hours I hadn't heard anything even though the doctor said he was ok. Apparently a bed was not ready and that is why he didn't go to the next level. The nurses asked him his pain level and he said "159" they said on a pain scale of 1-10 and he said "159" Then they asked him what his wife's name was and he said he had amnesia and couldn't remember. The nurses were very glad when he went over to step down and even gave them a hard time. I was able to see him and then get him ready to go home. He is now resting and is in more pain than he thought but is in good spirits.

We have the rest of the Christmas Holiday off and it is nice just to relax.

This week I have been feeling even more kicks and taps of the little one. I actually can see my belly move from the outside when the little one gives me a good kick. The little has decided to move off of my right side so I am comfortable again. I did experience the baby deciding to sit horizontally across my belly. It felt like that it decided to move horizontal and then just take a nice long stretch. Of course it was 3:15 in the morning when this happened so I decided to try to lay on my side and see if it would move. In the end the little one switched positions.

I have finished up all of my Christmas shopping and have a few items still to wrap but I feel really good that I am at least done with my shopping.

We celebrated my nephew Michael's birthday by going out to dinner. Ken was a trooper and made it down the 3 flights of stairs and down to the car for the 40 minute drive. We had a great time and enjoyed being with family. My niece Bella kept on kissing my belly and Leslie took a couple of pictures so I will post that on picasso web albums when Leslie sends them my way.

Total pounds gained: 15 (lost a pound somewhere...not complaining)

Food Cravings: none

"April showers bring May flowers"

April was the second month in an early Roman calendar, but became the fourth when the ancient Romans started using January as the first month. The Romans called the month Aprilis. It may come from a word meanting 'to open', or it may come from Aphrodite, the Greek name for the goddess of love.

Countdown to the Holidays. -- Week #22

2007-12-12T17:54:00.000-05:00

This week has been a pretty standard week. I did some wrapping of presents. We had Ken's Christmas party it was so much fun to get all dressed up! I posted more pictures on picasso photo.

The belly picture photo credits is given to Grandpa Ritchie as Ken refused to go out in the snow to take a picture of me. He spent the rest of the day snow blowing out Worcester as most of the neighbors are eldery and need the extra assistance.

I am now able to feel the baby from the outside. I knew this Friday I just didn't feel right in my right side. Ken had gotten up and said my belly looked a little lopsided. So I went to work and someone else said the same thing to me. So I asked a new mom that sits next to me. (2 out of the 3 people that sit around me have been pregnant recently) I asked her about it. So she gave me a quick feel and said " Tammy that is your baby that is leaning toward the right!" So that is how I found out that Baby Ritchie is now resting comfortably on my right side! It can be a little uncomfortable at times and I try to sleep on my left side to move it over but it is staying for good.

We did visit Ann in the hospital and she was able to feel my belly and feel the little toes all cramped on my right side. I think it made her feel a little bit better and it was nice to visit.

Tomorrow is my last day of work for a nice long winter's rest. I am looking forward to tackling a few household projects that I want to get done.

I did get our birthing class scheduled and we will be doing the Bradley Method of Birthing and will start a 10 week class beginning the week of January 14.

Another thing accomplished or at least started is my registry. I just decided to register as Baby's R Us as it is to much work to juggle more than one. If anyone thinks I am missing anything please give me some feed back as it is all new to me.

April

Birthstone: Diamond
Flower: Daisy
Color: Pink, Purple
Meaning: Blissful, Curious, Delicate, Departure, Lasting Pleasures, Playful, and Tenacious

Is that you? Week #21

2007-12-06T17:06:00.000-05:00

So I think we felt the baby kick for the first time. December 5, 2007. I was just hanging out watching a movie with Ken and felt this tap on my belly. So I grabbed Ken's hand and put it where I felt the tap. I felt a little tap and Ken didn't feel it and then another tap and Ken said he felt it. I talked to the Dr and she is pretty sure that it was the little one moving around.*

*Update, I wrote this a little earlier and this is kicking. Well, now I have Ken sleeping next to me kicking away and then the little one kicking on me!!!! Ken has been able to feel most of the movements. They are high up on my belly. I am guessing because of my placenta that I am not feeling all of the movements. I feel most movement in the morning and at night.

I have been getting plenty of gender guesses. Some say "girl" because of the high hearbeat, other's say "boy" because I am carrying low. Someone has a 50/50 chance of getting it right. My last dr's appt the doctor said girl because " the heartbeat sounded intelligent" then he said "well I have a 50 percent chance of being right!"

Our dr's appt this week was great. My u/s was good and I am measuring exactly where I should be.

My theories of prenancy are being destroyed! Last week we went to Bella's Christmas pagent. Intermission...long line at bathroom... what do you do...let the pg woman ahead of you! NO! Not one person let me cut the line! I was waiting and then a handicapped person...running with her cane up in the air jumped in front of me to use the handicapped bathroom. I will have to test this again. I have always let pg women cut the line in front of me in the bathroom! I will have to test my theory again.

I have been reading "Confessions of a Slacker Mom" and I am beginning to feel that way. I haven't started our registry yet. I haven't done research on a pediatrician yet. I haven't signed up for birthing classes yet, and we probably should take an infant cpr class! I am going to spend most of my Christmas vacation trying to get everything done. Oh! and I almost forgot about daycare!

I started some Christmas shopping this week. I still have a ways to go. I will need to get everything done before Ken's surgery on 12/20 because I am just not going to have much help getting stuff up and down the stairs with him recovering.

Pop, Elaine, and Ken worked on painting the living room and dining room at Courtland Street. The new carpet in the bedrooms was installed! It looks great. I will take some pics and post them so you can see the transformation... we still have some clean up left but it looks amazing.

Heartbeat: 150's

Cravings: California Rolls

Total Pounds gained: 12

P.s. Thank you for the great comments!

Status of Baby Ritchie

Your Baby: Your baby weighs over 10 ounces (.28 kg) and is slightly longer than 7 inches (17 cm), which is about the size of a large banana—but what a personality! The rapid growth phase has slowed, but organs and other body systems continue to mature. The swallowing reflex is in full swing and your baby will begin to “drink” amniotic fluid, which helps his digestive system to develop. Your baby’s oil glands are also starting to produce a waxy substance known as the vernix caseosa, which soothes and protects his skin in the amniotic fluid. And the buds for permanent teeth are forming! No smile yet, but that'll happen sooner than you think!

Halfway there! Week 20

2007-12-03T20:42:00.000-05:00

Halfway there!

At 20 weeks we are halfway through this journey.

This week was a good week. I spent a long week working late and had to even go in on Saturday for a half day.

Ken and I headed to my niece Bella's Christmas pageant. It was great to hear all the music and get to sing along.

Sunday we headed north to work on getting Courtland Street ready to rent. After Ken worked on getting the first piece of wallpaper up on the walls, with much frustration, we both looked at it and decided that it didn't really look that great. We didn't like the color and it wasn't going up on the wall easily. So plan B is to paint the walls this upcoming weekend instead of wallpapering.

We had some snow flurries yesterday and this morning woke up to a sheet of ice. Ken was very good to me and cleaned and warmed up my car. He even helped me get to the car safely as the sidewalks were all ice.

So I am starting to get the pregnancy waddle. I think it really happens when I get tired. I try not to walk with the waddle, but it just happens.

I have also started to get heartburn - something that comes and goes after I eat. I just try to stay upright and hope it goes away. I had never had it before, but I am guessing by how it feels that is what it is.

Month that the least amount of babies are born: April.

Here is a fun link to enter gender and weight of what you think Baby Ritchie might be!!!

http://expectnet.com/game.php

What baby Ritchie is doing this week:

Weighing in at about 9 ounces (.25 kg) and measuring over 6 inches (15 cm) long, your baby is aware of all kinds of sounds, from the beating of your heart and growling of your tummy, to songs on the radio and the buzzing of your alarm clock. If you feel a “bounce” in your tummy when you hear a loud noise, it’s because your baby hears it too! This is the start of your baby's active phase. You'll feel every twist, turn, and wiggle. You may also hear your baby’s heartbeat through a stethoscope, and it’s probably faster than you expect—120 to 160 beats per minute.

***Still haven't felt the little one yet but I will soon!

What a surprise! Week 19

2007-11-26T18:39:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week was an eventful week. Ken joined me for our "big" ultrasound where they make sure that everything is fine with the little one. So...we have fingers and toes and a 100% perfect baby! Ken was a little annoyed that we had to wait about 30 minutes for the dr's appointment which makes me a little nervous about what is going to happen during labor. I have a vision of me in labor and him asking me when he thinks this might be done.

We had a great thanksgiving at Ann's house or our future Granana's house. Christine surprised us all by sneaking onto a flight up to NH and then took the 1.5 hour trip down to Massuchsetts.
It was great to show her my belly and make sure she got a good rub of the belly for Karyn who wasn't able to join us. Christine was able to see our ultrasound pictures although some of them she spent turning them left and right and then upside down trying to figure out the details.

On Black Friday we went out for "leftover" shopping the lines weren't too long and we were able to pick up a few of the items that we wanted. I guess you can say this child is born to be a shopper.

The rest of the weekend Ken spent working on Courtland Street trying to get it up and ready to rent out again. I was banished from the house because of the paint fumes. I got a manicure and pedicure and really enjoyed the pampering.

My friend Mel sent me a huge box full of maternity clothes and a few other items. She sent a book on baby names so we can figure out what to name this child if it is a boy. Lastly, she sent a book for expectant father's so Ken can start brushing up on how to be a good dad.

Cravings this week: Milk

Full moon in April: April 20th

Total pounds gained: 9

"You look like you just had a big lunch." Week 18

2007-11-18T09:35:00.000-05:00

"You look like you just had a big lunch." Grandmother says, as I show her my belly. We had just finished telling her that she would be a great grandmother in April. Then she began telling us that she hoped it was a boy as girls are so much harder to raise than boys!

We had a great visit with Grandmother at Hearthstone. We had a great lunch of turkey, mashed potato, and stuffing. Just to get us in the mood for the upcoming Thanksgiving. Grandmother talked about her travels and all the fun times she had travelling the world. She also talked about how she enjoys watching the tree in her courtyard turn a beautiful red.

This week was a funny week of quotes from people. A co-worker said to me, "Finally, Baby Ritchie decides to show itself!" I guess the little one is finally popping through my clothes making a full time visit.

Ken has been struggling with a small cold and has been on strict orders to take cold meds and to get some rest. I have managed not to get his cold but don't feel so lucky in future as we head into the cold season.

I also started to listen to Christmas music on Friday. It is to early to get into the holdiay spirit?
I guess I am starting my first tradition with the the little one. Of course the little one has no choice and can't switch the channel!

This week Ken and I went shopping for maternity clothes. It is amazing! All of the sudden pregnant people aren't short anymore. All the clothes come in regular length and very few petities sizes and even those are long. I did manage to pick up a couple of pairs of pants. Of course I have to get them hemmed! But I love maternity pants. They have this huge panel of cloth that is so comfortable but still looks like you are wearing dress pants. I am going to enjoy this time of comfortable clothes.

I haven't been able to feel Baby Ritchie yet. My placenta is on the front of my uterus so the little one has to kick through that and my belly for me to feel. I hope to feel it soon!

I found this website that predicts eye color. We got 100% blue based on parents and siblings. Here is the link if you would like to tinker:

http://tinyurl.com/6z8hz

This day in History, April 18

1775: American colonial patriot Paul Revere made his famous ride from Lexington to Concord, Massachusetts, warning the American people that the British "redcoats" had landed and will soon arrive

1906: An earthquake, followed by fire, destroys most of San Francisco, killing 3000 people

1934: First Laundromat opens in the United States. Now you can wash your dirty laundry in public

1949: Republic of Ireland created

Cravings this week: none
Total Pounds Gained: 8

Goodbye My Toes! Week #17

2007-11-12T20:15:00.001-05:00

Goodbye my toes! I will see you this spring. Unless I lean over like the Tower of Pisa!

Goodbye my regular clothes...although I still am trying to squeeze into a few tops.

Goodbye to my bike that is in this picture. I won't be able to ride you for awhile!

This week we had a dr's appt and ultrasound. Everything is going well. Your gender is now known to the u/s tech. For us it is still a surprise!

I had my first embarassing moment as a pg woman. I won't be going to Marshall's anytime soon as I was not feeling good and threw up in a shopping bag as I was racing out of the store! I felt much better.

We had a great time this week visiting Nana and Grandpa as they came down to visit us and take us out to dinner at the Trumbull Kitchen. -- your first fine dining experience!

Heartbeat: 167 BPM

Cravings: Indian Food

Holidays on your Due Date:

Newspaper Columnists Day

International Juggler's Day

Pet Owners Independence Day

Pounds gained: 8!

"You're getting so Big!" - week 16

2007-11-03T08:39:00.000-04:00

That is what Ken said on Thursday night. I was at the stove making dinner. He walks over places his hand on my belly and says, "You're getting so Big!" then he walked away. No further discussion, no more comments, just the words.

Halloween was this week. I dressed in all black. I was a bowling ball but since I am not that big I just was a duck pin bowling ball!

This week was a pretty typical week. Today we are getting hit by the remnants of the hurricane Noel. The southeastern part of the state has winds of over 50 mph and rain. In Hartford, no rain, just slight wind.

Upcoming Events:

Dr's appt on Monday

Here are some of your stats based on a due date of April 18, 2008

Zodiac Sign: Aries if born before April 19th, if not then a Taurus

Chinese Year: Year of the Rat

Stars born on your due date:

1976 Melissa Joan Hart (actress)
1968 Christian Slater (actor)
1967 Maria Bello (actress)
1963 Conan O'Brien (comedian,)
1953 Rick Moranis Toronto (actor)
1947 James Woods Warwick RI, (actor)
1947 Cindy Pickett (actress)
1946 Hayley Mills London England, (actress)
1925 Bob Hastings Bkln NY, (actor)

Total Pounds gained: 5.5

Cravings: Chocolate Carnation Instant B-fast, w/Milk.

Week 15 -- With a self portrait!

2007-10-28T15:23:00.001-04:00

So here you are! Week 15, This week Ken was in China for work so I had to take the picture! This is what you look like from my view. Pretty cute!

On Thursday, October 25th we had a great ultrasound. You were rolling all around and even the doctor said you were very photogenic. I did see your legs kick, kick, kicking just like your dad. I can't feel you right now but you are definately having a good time!

So I was looking trying not to see your gender and then all of the sudden I say to the doctor, "Is that what I think it is....because it is HUGE! The doctor said "No that is the umbilical cord" so gender still a surprise!

Cravings: Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches - Strawberry Jam - almost had a small crisis when I thought we were out of jelly but I found another jar. I have to remember to make sure that I have plenty in the house.

Gender: uknown

Weight gained: 5 pounds.

Hours till dad sees my new protruding belly with you in it: 7

Heart beats per minute: 158

Pictures Week 14

2007-10-21T16:01:00.001-04:00

What you we have been doing with you up to Wk 14

2007-10-21T15:33:00.000-04:00

I can't believe this is going to happen to me! It is like a dream after three miscarriages I can't believe it is real.

So let's give all the particulars up till now.

August 14, 2007 -- I found out that I was pregnant! --to scared to tell Ken so I kept it a secret!

August 17, 2007 -- Ken asked me to help him move a bureau to our bedroom. I told him that I couldn't because I was pregnant. I think he was shocked because he just picked up the bureau and moved it himself. and didn't talk about it for a couple of days.

August 18, 2007 -- our first family trip. We went to see fireworks at the Jaffrey, NH fireworks festival. With, Ken, Pop, Elaine, Christine, Tony & Mary

August 31, 2007 -- we saw you for the first time. At 6 weeks 2 days... you looked so small.
and you went clubbing for the first time atLeslie's Bachelorette party!

September 8, 2007 -- we went to San Juan, Puerto Rico -- We stayed right on the beach and the water was warm and wonderful. Ken moved our hotel room after the first night because it was to loud for both of us to sleep!
Things that we did in Puerto Rico:
-went to the only Carribean Rain Forest -- yes it did rain!
-visited the satelite thing that is in the movie Contact--we did that for Ken
-laying on the beach and the pool. -- my kinda fun!

September 11, 2007 -- on our way to Aruba!
--We stayed at the Marriot surf Club
What we did:
-plenty of beach and pool lounging
-a jeep tour to a natural pool in the ocean. -- two things I am not sure how I got Ken to talk me
into. We went on a 4 hour bouncy tour all the while just worrying about you --ken telling me "sorry" because he didn't realize it would be so bouncy
and then over rocks and seaweed to enter a natural pool. It was all wonderful!
-We saw 100 years of broadway -- Ken and I both love the show tunes.
- we won $19 playing penny slots at the Casino -- we used free money from the Casino - not our own money - we don't like the gambling.

September 19, 2007 - 9 weeks 3 day ultrasound. and your heart beating at 156 bpm.

October 11, 2007 - I got pretty worked up today before going to the dr's and had a little morning sickness, 13 weeks, heart beat heard at doctor's office.

October 12, 2007 - Leslie's wedding. and for the first time you decide to pop out and show yourself in my clothes.

So that is pretty much up to date on what you have done so far.

Cravings: Peanut Butter and Jelly -Strawberry Jam!
Pounds Gained: 5
Pants that I can button: NONE.