We have a 6 month old!

Boy oh boy has it been a crazy week! We left last Wednesday to head up to No. VA for my good friends wedding. I was in it, so we needed to be up there early for the festivities!

Thursday Riley had a play date with 2 little boys from my message board. They're twins and about 9-10 days older than her.

Saturday was the wedding... it was very beautiful! It was kinda nice having some baby-free time Friday/Saturday. Riley has decided she will at least tolerate the sippy cup. But it comes out fast and she gets frustrated. So we have to take our time. She'll somewhat take the "breastflow" bottles. Better than any of the others we tried! Poor thing has horrible allergies, though. So at the wedding she was so snotty!Please ignore Ryan's lack of smile... he refuses to smile normally for pictures

Yesterday was the big day! Riley turned 6 months old!! I can hardly believe she is getting so old! She is still dealing with allergy issues... so the dr told us to try benadryl. If it works, then we can give her zyrtec. Part of me was hoping it was a cold because the thought of already having to give her a daily medicine makes me a little bit sad. But I'd rather her not have a snot crusted face every day. It really takes away from the cuteness.

The nurses all had to come and see her... they thought she was so cute with her little hairbow and sippy cup!

Now... for the stats... ready for it? She is quite the heifer these days! (please note the sarcasm)... 13lbs 4.6oz and 24.25 inches. She is in the 10th %ile for both. She's just a wee little thing! We've got the go ahead to start little finger foods whenever she gets that pincher ability. We'll see!

I'm 6 months old!
What did you say, Mom? I'm HOW old!?
I guess I am the cutest 6 month old!

Caption this picture

it's from Sunday and it might be my new favorite... cracks me up!
Leave a comment with what you think the caption should be...

Last week and some fun in the sun!

So last week it was so beautiful! It was sunny AND warm! Hallelujah - I needed to get out of this house! I like being able to play outside and go for walks! I am in a much better mood on the days I get outside.

Soaking up the rays

Look mom! I can sit by myself! (She decided to play with my pants when I snapped the picture)

Oh hi!

She was so excited to be outside that she puked!

We had a great weekend! Pretty relaxing... woo hoo! Riley is really starting to sit on her own. I love it. She moved to the older kids room at church because she is too active in the little room. By older kids... I mean the 6-7+ months. Most of those kids are already crawling... but I think she did better in there yesterday than she was doing in the baby baby room! They didn't say anything about her fussing, which is TERRIFIC! This week will be loads of fun... Wednesday night, we head north again. My good friend, Katy, is getting married. I have the privilege of being a bridesmaid in the wedding... this will be the first wedding that Riley gets to attend!

Birth Story part 2

So, I had finally decided to tell Ryan to call work and tell them he was coming in late. Mind you, I was still telling him he needed things wrapped up by lunch or at least that afternoon. Then I showered and KNEW he wasn't going to work, but didn't want to scare poor Ryan. I got out of the shower and called the on-call dr to see what he said. He told me to go to the appt, but take my bags with me. CRAP! This was for real! I rushed to finish packing my bag!

Oh yes... I called my mom around 7 a.m. to let her know that I thought labor was coming. I wanted her to have a chance to be ready to leave at any moment. I asked her to call my sister, too. HA! She didn't really believe me and went on to work w/o packing. SUCKER!

So, on the way to the dr, the pains are coming every... oh 3 minutes. I was being brought to tears during the contractions, but was laughing in between. I check in at the front desk and didn't tell them what was going on. However, while we were waiting, I went to the bathroom because I didn't want anyone in the waiting room to see me crying. That scared one of the nurses! She was knocking and knocking and telling me, "DON'T PUSH!" Ding dong. I just was in too much pain to let anyone see! I got in to the see the dr... she checked me and said, "oh my!! You're 4 cms already and 100% effaced. I'm hoping you have your bags and someone to drive you. I'm calling the hospital... go straight there!"

Off we went. A quick stop at CVS to get some chapstick since I forgot my keychain w/ it in my race out the door!

From here on out... I'll give you a timeline!

10:30 - arrive and check in. Nurse was taking her time. I started asking for the Epi right then.
In our room... monitors hooked up. Yep, pretty sure I'm in real labor.
11:00 - still asking for the epi... I was SUPER nauseated. FINALLY puked. Woo! Felt TONS better!
11:30 - Start asking for SOMETHING, anything to take the pain away. I was bawling during each contraction. Ryan laughed at me - which did NOT help! Ryan was so great at letting me just hold on to him through each contraction. He was making sure my family was in the know for everything. He was calling all grandparents and letting them know that Riley was going to make her appearance soon! He constantly updated me on what was going on w/ my family that was driving down - they were waiting on Mandie's drs appt to be over!

Before the stadol...

12:00 - Stadol given. HEAVEN. I called the people I worked for to let them know I wouldn't be there the next day. haha. Called a couple of friends. Nurse checked me - 6-7 cm's already!

After stadol...

1:00 - FINALLY given my epidural! Checked at 1:15 - 7-8 cm's! My family is now making the mad dash and we're all praying they make it here on time. But not really worried... first baby, surely I would have to push forever.

After the epidural... my little brother visiting!

2:00 - Completely dilated! CRAP! My family wasn't there... I couldn't push! I asked if I could just relax for a bit longer and watch Baby Story until I HAD to push.

3:00... nurse comes in and suggests a few practice pushes. I told her to wait a second... let's see where my sister and parents were. Good! They were only 15 minutes away... I agreed to a few practice pushes. 15 minutes later, I pushed... shocked the nurse! This baby was going to come WAY faster than she'd thought! My brother was in the waiting room and told my parents where to go. When they came in, it was chaos! Lots of nurses... the room was being flipped! It was baby time! My dad and brother left the room...

3 pushes later at 3:44 p.m. on October 22nd... Riley Elizabeth arrived! 6lbs 9oz and 19.5 inches! She was a peanut!

Long time coming...

So... since Riley is coming up on 6 months old, I figured that I should tell you all the story of when Riley arrived. Some stuff is a little bit fuzzy now, but usually Ryan remembers and will correct me.

Let's start with the Friday before... I go to the chiropractor and let him know that there is still no change. 39 weeks and no sign of labor any time soon. He adjusts my back and then goes on to do something else to open up my spine to help the epidural, just in case. However - he was CLEARLY not convinced that I would go in to labor soon, either, since he set up my next 3 appts for the next week. I went to work that afternoon and felt fine. That evening, Ryan and I took Jack & Benjamin to Vinny's. The waitress was shocked that I was due in just 6 days.

(Friday night after work and taking the boys to dinner... 39 weeks 1 day)

Saturday comes... Ryan and I went to Target to get a few random things. We decided that since my due date was that week, we should probably get all the loose ends tied up since it wouldn't be long until Riley arrived! Pam called that afternoon to see if we could babysit the boys... but we already had plans. Still feeling good. Did TONS of cleaning (not that you could tell because for some reason my house is more of a disaster after we go on a cleaning raid) and rearranged random nonsense. Why I didn't see this as a sign, I'm not sure.

Sunday morning... little bit of spotting. I was nervous at first, but also relieved. Finally... FINALLY something was happening! We head to church where I got of the, "You're STILL here?" and "You look ready to be done!" "No baby yet?" questions/comments. Yes ding dongs... I'm 9 months pregnant. I have this belly that reaches my knees, I'm huge. I was tempted to answer with responses such as, "Actually, she was born this week and wasn't really all that cute, so I put her back in to keep cooking. Hoping she comes out a bit cuter!" Seriously - never ask a pregnant woman those things. She's already well aware of them.

That afternoon our friend, Andy, calls us up and says that there are some cars he wants to go check out, did we want to go? YES! YES, I do! I was ready to walk around - maybe this kid would get the hint that in 4 days, it was eviction day. I just wanted to give her a friendly warning to start packing her bags. We went to 5 car lots and walked around - luckily they were all closed, so we got to walk a ton w/o being harassed. I talked to my mom for a while on the phone... asked if she wanted me to call when we were leaving for the hospital, got to the hospital, or after I was admitted. We joked that we both knew it wouldn't be necessary. We were all convinced that I'd be induced at 42 weeks. When we got home, I felt the urge to clean out our night stands and do ALL of the laundry in the house. Um hello nesting! I talked to my friend Amy at about 5:00 p.m. and told her that I kept getting these weird feelings and joked that maybe they were contractions, but probably not. I would CERTAINLY know if I was having contractions. Around 11 p.m., Ryan headed to bed. I played online and chatted w/ some friends on IM and on the message board. Around 2 a.m., I headed to bed.

I was just uncomfortable. I would doze for about 5 minutes and just kept waking up in discomfort. Nothing I could pinpoint, but it sucked. At 4 a.m., I'd already watched several shows and turned on a movie... I decided I'd get a nice hot bath to see if that would help. Well, while I was soaking in there I noticed something. This discomfort was coming and going... and there seemed to be a trend. Those weird feelings were still happening. I laid there thinking, "ok well I remember reading that if you think you're having contractions... get a hot bath. If they go away, not labor. If they keep coming, start timing them." So after a while, I got out and started timing them. Oh crap. They were lasting at least 1 minute and were about 4 - 5 minutes apart. Well there we go. I was in labor and didn't know it. I still wasn't convinced... but thought, "Well... I have all of this laundry going, I HAVE to finish it!" So instead of trying to get some sleep - I went on a rampage trying to finish it. Mind you... I didn't tell Ryan any of this. When he woke up at 7, he was confused as to why I was up. I told him that I thought that it was going to happen soon... so whatever big stuff he had at work, he needed to wrap up that afternoon. We went back and forth and I finally had him almost convinced that I'd be FINE to drive myself to my 40 week dr's appt that morning. And then the contractions got worse. I told him to be done by lunch... I finally conceded and said, "Fine. Call work and tell them you're coming to my appt, but you'll be in afterwards." (This was after my shower where the pain was bringing tears to my eyes - I didn't DARE tell him that!)

To be continued (time for the bedtime routine)...

Dear Riley. GO TO SLEEP.

I can hear that little girl in her bed playing. She fell asleep in the car and I guess she is under the impression that her 5 minute power nap is enough. Um. NO... that is NOT enough. Oh wait... after 30 minutes of talking/whining/laughing I think there is silence. That's my girl!

On Tuesday, we took Riley to LU's baseball game. It's fitting... her first LU football game was at 5 days old and her first LU baseball game was when she was 5 months (and some change) old. Here are a few of the shots... the ones in her carseat, she was watching Ryan make goofy faces!

On our way back to Lynchburg, Riley fell asleep while she was reading her book.

Hey, there's Dad. He's pretty funny.

Oh Dad! You crack me up! (while shoving her entire fist into her mouth!)Yea, I'm cool. What's it to ya?

So, what are we lookin' for Uncle Stephen?

Pray for Nate and Tricia!

http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/

Go check out that website to see what amazing miracles God is performing right now! Tricia needs your prayers right now... as do the dr's that are placing these new lungs in her body! Pray for peace for Nathan as I'm sure it'll be an insane few hrs during the surgery. I cannot imagine... but his faith has been obvious over the past few months that I have read about their journey. Pray for baby Gwyneth. She is too young to know what is going on right now... which is good! Just pray that she gets fatter so that she can get the heck out of the NICU!

And go register to be an organ donor!