So merry, so blessed

Wow, where to start?! I’m sad I didn’t blog in November. I really want to blog at least once/month. There seems like so much to update since October!

Rya started not eating much all of a sudden for about 2 weeks maybe. On the worst day, the sitter texted me to give me a heads up that Rya had only had 2 oz all day! She only ate 5 oz at home that morning so she ate 7 oz until 5:00 that night when she finally ate some more for the sitter before going home. That’s when I decided to take her to the doctor to rule out anything. She wasn’t sleeping well the week before that and we just couldn’t figure out the deal, because before then she was sleeping pretty well where we only maybe had to get up with her once overnight and it was just to give her the pacifier and she’d go back to sleep until 6:30 or 6:45.

So I took Rya to the doctor, for what’s only been my second non-scheduled checkup appointment! ;) Doc ruled out an ear infection, and he said Rya was a very healthy 5 month old. She started eating better after that, and then a week or two later, we found a tooth! I don’t know if that had anything to do with it or not, but we wonder. Rya has her first bottom tooth coming in.

Rya could have been waking up abnormally overnight because her room started getting very cold. I won’t say how cold, because it was too cold, ;) but at that time she was also still swaddled, wearing layers & wrapped in 4 blankets! We have since bought a heater that has a thermostat so shuts off when the room gets to a certain temperature, and stopped swaddling Rya. She loves not being swaddled, and did very well not being swaddled from the very first night. We decided it was time to stop swaddling her one, because the sitter hasn’t been swaddling her at naptime for a month or two before then, and two, she was at our mercy to get her pacifier to help her get back to sleep when she woke up overnight; we didn’t think it was right to let her cry if she didn’t have her hands free to help soothe herself back to sleep. Now, she does a pretty good job getting herself back to sleep if she wakes up overnight. This last week, so week number two of not being swaddled, she slept through the night without even making a noise =YAY! We’ve been able to get Rya to bed between 8:30 & 9 (I’m always trying to get her to bed by 8:30, but for some reason, daddy isn’t good at getting her to bed that early!) and she gets up around 6:45. She slept this well every night Sun-Friday, except Wed. night and that was because she had her six-month checkup and shots. Sat. night she woke up a lot, but we were in Olin and it was a late night with little naps all day at Jesse’s mom’s family’s Christmas gathering. So we’re sleeping better, and I’m pretty excited about it! Rya is napping a bit better too, but still won’t sleep 2.5-3 hours in the afternoon like she does at the sitter’s. But I’m ok with it now. We usually get an hour to an hour & a half in the morning, and then an hour & a half in the afternoon of naptime out of Rya at home. She still takes a half hour catnap in the early evenings most nights.

Our baby girl weighed 16.12 lbs. and was 26 1/4” tall at her 6 month checkup. So she’s in the 75th percentile for height and weight, I believe the doctor said. She was in the 90th or 95th for weight, but now she’s moving around more. She rolls, and rolls...and rolls! Why learn to crawl when she can just roll where she wants to go. =] She gets fussy when she gets stuck somewhere and can’t keep rolling! Rya can’t quite sit herself up yet, but will sit and play if you sit her up, and she loves to stand on your lap but she can’t stand on her own yet. In the last week, Rya has started getting on her knees and rocking, about ready to crawl. She will rock back and forth on her shoulders to somewhat "army crawl" when she wants something in front of her. It's so cute! She didn’t usually move much in her crib, but now she is rolling and playing in her crib- sometimes she'll wake up around and babble to herself for a little bit before she fusses to get out, and when we go in to get her, she is diagonal in a corner of her crib, looking up at ua like “what?” :) It's cute, but I’m not looking forward to her moving so much in bed, especially when she can stand and potentially crawl out of bed! Rya is also babbling a lot not and we love the sounds she makes!



Rya has now started eating some peas, and started rice cereal two times/day at about 5.5 months. She's doing really well with it, and seems to like the peas. The doctor recommends adding meats at 8 months, and then finger foods at 9 months. So that’s our plan. I know so many babies started eating cereal at 4 months and foods at 6 months, and I’m not sure why our pediatrician recommends it all so much later, but I was ok with not having to buy food for so long! :) I did finally stop pumping about 2 weeks ago. I got down to pumping only two times/day for two weeks, then I went one week pumping only once/day, and finally stopped. It’s quite a sense of freedom, after 6 months attached to the machine, to be able to put the pump in the closet for a couple years! I can sleep in now, until whenever Rya wakes up, woo hoo!

I’m really going to try to get back to working out now, and hope to get on the elliptical as many nights and weekends as possible. I’m also hoping one of these days Jillian Michaels will be able to kick my butt back into shape! :D I did start playing on a basketball team I played on two years ago through the DSM Rec League, and even get to play right down the street from home in Ankeny. We just play one game Wed. nights, and after my first game, I wasn’t as sore as I expected. That was encouraging. I might be back in shape for the Simpson alumni game; the game that I played in every year since graduating until last year when I was pregnant! ;)

We finally got professional pictures taken of Rya and our family...six months later. We went to Target, and took forever picking out pictures to order! They turned out really well, and we look forward to more milestone pictures of Rya in the future.



Well, that’s all I can think of for updates. We had a wonderful first Thanksgiving and first Christmas as a family of 3. Hope everyone had a merry Christmas and has a happy New Year!

Hooray for an update!

I'm able to update again so soon b/c Rya is actually napping! Yay! I stayed home this weekend while Jesse went to the farm- football lost their first playoff game so the season is over for the Little Cyclones. I think being home and napping in her crib rather than somewhere away from home is important to getting Rya to nap on the weekends. She slept 9-10:30 this morning, with a little fussing around 9:35 for a couple minutes. Then, I got her down for her afternoon nap at 1 and she's still sleeping at 2:30. I'm hoping she'll sleep for at least another hour. She sleeps until 4 most days at the sitter's. So, I've been able to eat lunch & relax, watch football, upload pictures, and blog. I have laundry and dusting to do, but that can be done tomorrow. =] We went to the grocery store in between naps, and I'm just a happy girl right now! Maybe the more suprising thing for me today was that I didn't even have to rock Rya to get her down for her nap. She was wide awake, cooing to herself when I left her in her crib, and she went to sleep. I didn't swaddle her for her naps today, since Eski (daycare provider) doesn't swaddle Rya anymore, and that may also be the key, in addition to actually being home this weekend. She can soothe herself, and is able to move. We may try not swaddling her at night now too. Hopefully, that will result in even better sleep overnight. Last night Rya went to bed about 9:10 and slept until 6:30 this morning, with a little noise at 5:40. It felt good to be able to sleep in until 6:30 this morning! I laid down for an hour this morning when she napped, but didn't really sleep. But I feel good right now!

What else? I know I owe some pictures so here they are-








I bought a little fairy costume for Rya for Halloween so we'll get pictures of that this weekend. Until next time...enjoy the beautiful fall weather. Thanks to Starbucks, I know there are only 57 days until Christmas!


P.S. as I was uploading pictures Rya woke up at 2:45, fussed a little & went back to sleep for about 8 minutes and then woke up again for about 5 mins, went back to sleep for about 5 mins and then woke up again for good. So, she was in her crib for 2:15. I'll take that as a good start. =]

Such a big girl!

Rya is now 4.5 months old and at her 4 month appointment she weighed 15 lbs and was 25 3/4 in. Pretty sure the doctor said she's in the 98th percentile for both! She's such a big girl.

I feel like there is so much to update, and I've been meaning to blog for so many weeks. The longer I go without posting, the more there is to update about...ah... =)

We are still trying to get a good bedtime for Rya. We've been moving back the time we put her to bed and are now getting her down between 9:15-9:45. She was able to sleep until 6 or 6:30 for a while and then all of a sudden the last couple weeks she's been all over the place for wake up times. Sometimes she woke up at 4:15, sometimes 5:30, sometimes 6:10. She never seemed hungry, and couple times we could let her cry back to sleep, a couple times we had to pick her up to get her back to sleep, but I stressed a lot about what to do. I'm so afraid to do something that will cause a bad habit. I'm nervous we're going to do something, or not do something, that will make times harder as she gets older instead of easier. So it's been a hard couple of weeks for me, to say the least. Thursday night though, we got Rya to bed at 9:10 and she slept until 6:40! And Wed. night we got Rya to bed at 9:40 and she slept until 6:20. Last night was the last regular season football game for daddy, but a coach's wife kept Rya with her at her house b/c it was kind of cold. I was nervous about finally getting her to sleep earlier and she sleeping later in the morning and then her getting thrown off with a very late Friday night, but she did well sleeping last night. Naptime on the weekends for me are another story!

Rya does so well sleeping at daycare- she sleeps 9-10:15 & 1-4 every day for the sitter. I try to follow the same routine on the weekends as best I can, and Rya just will not sleep like that for me! :( I may get 30 minutes out of her in the morning, and maybe an hour or two in the afternoon after fighting with her to go down and then if she falls asleep it's not until an hour or two after we started naptime at 1. We have been traveling to the farm a lot the last few weekends though, so I think that may be part of it. If we could just be home more often, I think we could maybe get her to nap better. Once football season is over, I think we will be home more, but while Jesse is gone all weekend for football I prefer to be around family so we either go to the farm when Jesse does get a break from football work to then work on the farm, and go to an Iowa game without me :( or Rya and I go to my parents'. And of course the grandparents are ok with Rya not napping and spending time in their arms. :)

With all that said, I think Rya is starting to teethe! She puts her fingers in her mouth all the time now, and not only sucks but knaws on them. I've felt around but don't feel any teeth yet. She does get rosy cheeks, a runny nose, and a random diaper rash sometimes, and I've read that those are symptoms of teething. And she drools a lot. So I wonder if that has something to do with her sleeping shake up.

The pediatrician said we'll wait until 6 months before starting solids, so Rya is still eating breastmilk and a bottle of formula before bed. I've still been pumping at least 4 times/day, but it's wearing me out! Not only is it zapping me of energy, but it stresses me out all the work it takes to pump and then wash all the bottles and accessories. I just never feel like I have time to relax, at all. So, I'm starting to pump less in order to eventually stop in a month or two. Rya hasn't even finished August's milk in the freezer, so I think I have enough to get her through 6 months. That's the plan right now. Eventually I hope to be able to workout again.

My mom & dad think Rya looks more and more like me. Everyone else says she looks so much like Jesse. :) She's a good mix of us I guess. Whatever the case, we think she's sooo adorable! We just want to gobble her up! She's starting to learn to laugh a little, and she just recently started rolling over from her back to her tummy. She found her feet and now pulls them up every time she's on her back. Jesse and I still look at her so often and think it's surreal we have a baby. We love her so much!

Rya was baptized Sept. 25th in the church Jesse & I were married, and where Jesse was baptized. It was a very nice service. She wore a white dress with orange and teal that my grandma made her.

That's all I can think of to update right now. Sorry no pictures, but I'm not on my computer with them. Next time, whenever that is, I'll get pictures posted. We've got some cute ones! ;)

Oh, we're excited for Rya to have TWO new cousins to play with come March- Rya's godparents uncle Nate and aunt Jess are having twins! =)

3 months!

Rya is now 3 months old! She's smiling and cooing all the time and we just love it. She's doing well at daycare. Still spitting up, some days worse than others, but she's not in pain when she does. She's sleeping better too. We had to start putting her to bed later than we were before, because she wasn't sleeping past 5, sometimes 4 am. Now we put her to bed around 10:30 and she'll sleep until 5:45 or 6, sometimes 6:40! I'm trying to figure out when we'll be able to put her to bed around 9:30 and still have her sleep until 6 or later. I think we'll wait until after she's 4 months at least. I'm really excited about the fact that she'll go down for bed awake and sleep the rest of the night. She's starting to do be that way for naps now too. She's napping now, for 2.5 hours, and is why I'm finally able to update my blog. :)

Work is still going well. It's getting busier, and I start traveling to high schools (to recruit students to Simpson) next week, through October, but I only have to stay overnight out of town once or twice so that's good.

Rya has made it to 3 of daddy's football games, and only had to leave early for one! It'll be fun to take her to basketball games this winter.

I think that catches us up to current. I really hope to blog more often, but it's more difficult than I had imagined to do so. :) Until next time...happy fall!

The time came...

...to go back to work, and take Rya to Eski, the babysitter. After 10 weeks being home with baby Rya, I went back to work Wed. Aug. 17th. Prior to going back to work, I really couldn't fathom how we would get into a routine. That seems so silly to me now! :) We have somewhat of a routine now, but it all depends on when Rya wakes up in the morning. Sometimes she's waking up at 4, sometimes she's waking up 5:30 or 5. We just can't get her to sleep even a half hour later until 6. However, Saturday mornings she sleeps longer, but she doesn't get to bed until 11:30 on Friday night because of football games- we made it to both the first two games. We only made it to halftime the first game in Ames, and then Rya had a meltdown; she got overstimulated. The second game was a lot better, but we didn't make it to the game until the second quarter because she needed to eat again before we left home. But she made it to the end of the game without fussing, so it was a success. Then, she slept until 7 Saturday morning! I was excited about that!

Back to our routine- Jesse gets up with her if she wakes up before 5 because he can go back to sleep, and I wouldn't be able to by the time she got done eating, back to sleep and I got done pumping. I get up at 5 and pump and then get mostly ready quick, then get Rya ready. Then I finish getting myself ready to leave and we head to daycare around 7:20. I pick Rya up at 5:30 and then usually have to feed her, then I make something to eat, wash bottles and pump accessories, and make lunches. Jesse usually gets home about 8 so then he helps out. I feel bad because I don't feel like I have time to hold and play with Rya when we get home, but daddy gives her playtime. Jesse feeds Rya one last time and then he puts her to bed around 9:30. Then we try to go to bed shortly after that, especially since we don't know for sure yet what time she's going to wake up in the morning.

Work is going well, but this is kind of the calm before the storm. I'm able to pump 3 times at work right now, but once it gets busier here in the next couple of weeks, and when I start traveling, I'm not sure how much I'll be able to keep up with it. I'm a little concerned with having to make calls to students at night for work. I may need a sitter once or twice during the week to get my work done, but hopefully as Rya gets older she'll be able to play and sit by herself for longer periods of time that will allow me to work.

I think Rya really likes daycare. The sitter is working on getting Rya to nap in the crib and to take naps regularly. I wasn't able to figure out how to get Rya to do either of those, which I hate; makes me feel like a bad mom.

To fill you in since the last post (I've really been meaning to update the blog for the last 2 or 3 weeks!) - Rya got her 2 month vaccinations and did really well. She cried when she got the shots, but then once I picked her up she was fine. She slept a lot the rest of the day, and after waking up from her first nap she really cried and screamed from the pain, but once she ate and took some Tylenol she was fine the rest of the day. Rya weighed 12 lbs 6 oz and was 23.5 in long. She was 7 lbs 14 oz and 21 in when she was born. Now she is in the 90th percentile for weight and 75th percentile in height at 2 months. She's just getting so big. She is cooing and smiling more now, and it's adorable! I love it!

Even though she's gained so much weight, Rya is still somewhat slow when it comes to eating (she's still getting breastmilk so far. We only give her formula for her last feeding before bed). We went to the level 2 nipples and that has helped a little. Eski feels Rya has some tummy troubles that causes her to be fussier some days, and she is certain that Rya has acid reflux. We've been giving Rya medicine for the reflux and although it doesn't stop the spit up (boy is Rya a spitter!), it has eliminated the pain from the spit up. I can't wait until she grows out of this.

Well, I think that is all to update for now. Here are a few pictures-

Wow, 6 weeks

Well, Rya actually turned 7 weeks old this past Wed. so I'm a little behind as I've been meaning to post since she was 6 weeks old! She turned 1 month old July 8th.



We've experienced a lot of firsts that I can tell you about. We took another trip to the farm when she was about 4 weeks old and we made it to about 15 minutes from the farm before Rya started crying and needed to eat. So, we had to pull over in Mechanicsville and I breastfed her in the car. She had also blown out her diaper, so bad that she was all wet, so halfway through feeding her we decided we needed to change her diaper. There wasn't enough room in the car so we got out and put her on the trunk! :) It was about 90 degrees out, mind you, so I was a bit frantic, but we were in the shade. Then I proceeded to finish feeding in the car, only to then have to change her again; she's a gassy baby! Finally we got on the road again and made it to the farm for a Von Behren reunion.

Another first was changing her diaper in a public restroom- those changing tables really aren't that easy to maneuver. And, breastfeeding her in the backseat of the car in a parking lot! At least in Mechanicsville we were on the side of the road. ;)

We made a trip to Ottumwa to visit family and she did well until the end of the visit. At that time she had a meltdown, so bad so that my grandma thought I'd have a nervous breakdown! But at least Rya got to meet more family.

We've gone back to the farm for a whole week for Rya's first extended stay with grandma and grandpa, and Jesse and I left her with them for a few hours two nights so we could enjoy Jason Aldean and Lady Antebellum at the Jones County Fair! They said she did ok with them, and they really do enjoy spending time with her. I enjoyed all the help I got with Rya since I feel like all I do is feed her, change her, pump, wash bottles and pump accessories, and sleep! :)



On the breastfeeding front- I am no longer putting her to breast as of last Wed. because she just won't latch for more than a few minutes if that long. She got fussy back around 3 weeks I think it was, but I kept trying, only to end up having to give her a bottle & pump anyway, and it was too time consuming, not to mention stressful on me. We've fed her my breastmilk by bottle, but I have been wanting to try another time to see if she outgrew her fussiness or something. :) I tried one more time this morning and she didn't want to have anything to do with it! So, I'm officially done breastfeeding and will continue to pump and feed her breastmilk for as long as my supply will allow. I'm a little sad it didn't work out, but I did try for 6 weeks, and I'm still able to give her my milk so I'm glad for that.

As far as feedings go, Rya is quite squirmy when she eats and she takes a long time to finish her bottle. A lot of times she has gas & needs to poop when she eats so it distracts her. We can hear it though, when she feels better! I hope she starts eating better in a couple weeks before I go back to work because if not, I don't know how I'll get ready in the morning and to work on time! She seems hungry a lot too, so I've been supplementing 2 oz of formula after she finishes a 4 oz bottle of breastmilk if she is still hungry. I don't think it's really made a difference much as far as filling her up until the next feeding, because she still wants to eat again 2 hours later instead of 3 most of the times.



I'm still a little stressed I guess, about being a mom. Rya is so inconsistent still- some days she will sleep all day without being put to sleep, some days she'll sleep if I put her to sleep for a nap, and some days she won't nap at all! Then for bed, some nights she'll go down easy and not cry and sleep 5-6 hours and other nights she'll fight bedtime for an hour, cry 10+ minutes and finally fall asleep. Luckily, most nights she will sleep 5-6 hours and not get up before 4. I really need her to sleep until 6 when I go back to work, and every once in a while she'll sleep until then. Because she's so inconsistent I can't figure out how it'll all work when I go back to work. It's one thing to be tired when I'm home all day with her, but it's another when I'm driving to and from work and trying to focus on work all day. So I'm nervous about that. I really don't want to worry and just want to go with things, but that's easier said than done. So that's how I'm doing! 2 nights ago I went on my first run outside since last fall- almost 2 miles. Although it was short, and slow, it felt good. I'm not sore so that's good. I look forward to more runs, but not sure how often I'll get to with football starting, me going back to work, and Rya not on any schedule.

It sure was nice to have Jesse home so much during my maternity leave; I can't imagine how I'd handle a baby if he wasn't, but he started football camp today, and practice starts on Monday so he will be pretty busy and getting home later from now on. We'll have to see how that goes, but Rya and I will miss daddy time!



I'll be heading back to work on Wed. Aug. 17th and Rya will go to the in-home daycare we've arranged here in Ankeny. I'm looking forward to going back to work and hopefully getting Rya into more of a routine, but I know I will miss my little baby girl. She will be 2 months old Aug. 8th and has her 2 month doctor appointment on the 9th where she'll get her vaccinations. That's about all to update as of now. I'll try to post again soon.

The fun has begun!

Oh where to start! It's been a while since I've last posted because it's been really hard getting used to Rya! We're both still trying to figure everything out. Rya will be 3 weeks old tomorrow. I'll try to catch you up-

My last post on Tues. the 7th turns out to have been while in labor! We ended up going to the hospital around 1 am because my "cramps" had gotten really bad, and remained about 3 minutes apart the whole night. I called my doctor and he said they were contractions, even though I didn't know because they were so low and not in my abdomen (I had called a Mercy nurse 2 different times and neither nurse thought they were contractions!), and he said to go to the hospital. So I woke Jesse up and told him we needed to go to the hospital. By the time we got checked into our room and I told the nurse what I'd been experiencing she said, "yep, those are contractions." She checked me and I was 7 centimeteres dilated! Remember, just the afternoon before, around 4 pm I was not dilated at all yet!

I said I wanted an epidural; by this time I was almost crying through the contractions, and was squeezing Jesse's hand very hard. =] 2 hours later I was able to get the epidural. By 4:55 am I was 10 centimeters and started pushing, breaking my water with the first push. There was a little meconium in the water so the nurse had to call the NICU to have a nurse available to clean Rya out before she took her first breath. That made Jesse and I a little nervous but the nurse assured us it was ok. I continued to push for a total of 3 hours, and was feeling pretty good. =] In between pushes I was texting and emailing people, as was Jesse, and the nurse had to tell us to take a break to push. She said, "a few years ago we didn't have to take breaks from texting to push!" :) After the 3 hours of pushing the doctor finally said Rya was still too high to help pull her out, but too low that if she got stuck any lower we'd have an emergency, so we needed to do a c-section to deliver Rya. Again, that made us a little nervous but the doctor was very nice and reassured us it'll be ok, he'll stay on duty and do the surgery, and we weren't in any hurry. This was around 9 am and by 9:29 Rya was born, on her due date! The doctor said only 4% of babies are born on their due date!

Jesse watched the whole surgery; he said the worse part was the laser used to make the first cut. I could feel tugging and pushing, but it wasn't painful after the increase in my epidural. Rya had the cord around her neck, although it wasn't tight the doctor said and said it's pretty common to see that. She was also a little crooked apparently, and that's why she wouldn't come down any lower with pushing.

As soon as Rya made her first cry, I cried. Jesse was with her while they cleaned her up, and he was also very emotional. I was surprised by the emotion that came over me; I just didn't know how I'd react. Jesse brought her over to me and then he went with Rya and the nurses to the nursery while I went to recovery. By this time, I had been shaking so long that I was pretty sore; my neck really hurt. I was in recovery for a couple hours and then taken to my post-partum room. Jesse and I were reunited with our sweet baby girl then. I got to see lots of video and pictures of Rya in the nursery (my parents were both there also- my dad came to the hospital around 2 am and my mom drove back from vacationing in Okoboji and got to the hospital aroudn 6).

We stayed in the hospital 3 days. I recovered well from the c-section, with Jesse's help. We did send Rya to the nursery at night and she was brought in to feed around every 3 hours. All was well in the hospital, but the first night home was rough! She cried a lot, and would not go to sleep until after 1 am! We've had good days/nights and bad days/nights since. We're still trying to get consistent, and it's really hard! Some days she'll sleep and eat all day, some days she won't go to sleep. She seems to be eating well- at her first check up after 2 weeks she weighed 8lbs 1oz. She weighed 7lbs 14oz when she was born, and was 7lbs 9oz when we left the hospital. She'll sleep pretty well overnight, once we can get her to sleep. I told Jesse this morning that if we could just get her to sleep sooner, I think she may sleep through the night, because she'll eat at 10:30 (for example) and not wake up to eat again until 3 or 4, depending on when we can actually get her to sleep. Sadly, usually she will fight us/sleep until midnight or 1am. I get sleep then overnight as she'll sleep a good 3-4 hours at a time. During the day I struggle to nap, on the days Rya will nap, because I have things I want to get done, and my mind is racing. I'm not used to sleeping during the day. It's especially hard when it's nice and sunny outside!

Rya really didn't like her first 2 baths and cried through them, but she has been very content during the last few. I wish it made her go to sleep better, but it doesn't! Jesse and I give her baths together. Jesse is a huge help because he gets home around 5:30 and then spends time with Rya to give me a little break. He is really good at getting her to sleep at night so he takes her and lets me shower and rest/sleep until she wakes up again. Hopefully Jesse is getting enough sleep after going to bed around midnight/one am and then sleeping the rest of the night until getting up around 8. [We had Rya in a bassinet for the first week & a half, and then put her in her crib. I guess that's one good thing we have going for us- she'll sleep in her own room in her crib already.]

So that's where we are today. Trying to get more consistent, and get to sleep. I am pumping once/day to work on my supply of breastmilk for when I go back to work. At this point I just can't fathom how to get Rya on more of a schedule for when I do go back to work, but I guess we'll deal with that later after she is a bit older. She is, afterall, only 3 weeks old tomorrow.

We made a trip to the farm (to Olin) this past weekend and she slept the whole way, so she did well in the car. She didn't do too bad in the new environment either, but I think I paid for it yesterday, because she was fussy ALL day, crying all the time and not sleeping/napping until 7:15 pm! Yesterday was my first day by myself too. Jesse's mom stayed with us 2-3 days each the first 2 weeks, and my mom came up some days as well. It was such a relief having someone here, so I was a bit nervous on Sunday night to be on my own yesterday. We made it though, although it was very hard! Today so far has been better, but she still fought her nap so bad I had to let her cry a little, then soothe her, put her back down, let her cry again a little, then soothe her again until she finally stayed asleep. Jesse and I have been contemplating when we want to try the "let cry" "philosophy". We've felt she has been too young to just let her cry, but as she is getting older, and still difficult, we've decided to try it a little when there really seems nothing else to do. I have so many books that I've reviewed and tried to match to our situation, but it just overwhelms me. Rya is not a textbook baby, that's for sure, so I'm trying to just go with it rather than worry about if I'm doing something the books say. I know it'll get easier, but that's still weeks away!

So until then, I'll try to keep updates coming as often as possible. Here are some pictures to enjoy-

Photo Card

Clever Cadence Pink Baby Announcements

Shutterfly has cute birth announcements and cards for Easter.

View the entire collection of cards.

Quick update

No pictures tonight, but thought I'd give a quick update since I'm no longer feeling so normal! This might be my last post before Rya arrives! I made it to my doctor appointment this afternoon, and when I asked what the heart rate of the baby was, the doctor said 130 (this is what it was last week too), and he said it sounds like a boy! ;) I said I hope not, but that I haven't washed anything, just in case! It'll sure be kind of sad if we don't have a girl, since we've been calling her Rya and have all girl stuff. But obviously, we just pray for a healthy baby.

Anyway, the doctor informed me I was still not dilated at all. However, as soon as I got home I apparently started dilating, b/c I began to feel a little different, and then started to have what felt like menstrual cramps, down under Rya (who has dropped a ton, even maybe some more today!), as well as started seeing some of "the plug". Within a couple hours the cramps started to also be in my lower back and get a little stronger. I had no idea if this was normal or not, I really didn't think they were contractions b/c I wasn't feeling any tightening in my stomach, and I didn't want to wait it out in case there was something wrong (I haven't read anything about this, nor were we told anything about this in our prenatal class). So, I called the Mercy Nurse, and she confirmed I wasn't having contractions, that I was most likely dilating and will probably have the baby anytime within 24 hours to 3 days! Remember, tomorrow is my due date. =) She said the cramps will probably go away (they haven't yet) , and to start timing once I begin having actual contractions. I am to go to the hospital once I have consistent contractions about 4-5 minutes apart for at least an hour. So we wait some more!

Jesse put together the swing tonight, but not the crib. We're obviously not in any hurry with the crib. =)

I hope I can get some sleep tonight...and that I don't start having strong contractions while at work tomorrow! =)

And we wait...

Still no baby, and no indication of her coming yet! My due date is Wed, so we just wait. I'm still feeling fine, the same as I have been feeling, so I'm ok with her just hanging out inside a few more days! One thing that has gotten uncomfortable though- the random sharp pains I get in my hip flexor area that almost bring me to my knees! They kept me awake a while last night. I don't feel contractions yet though.

I had a doctor appointment last Thurs and still wasn't dilated at that point, but still 75% effaced. The nurse said she'd like to say I wouldn't be in for another appointment, but since this is my first, she expects to see me. So if Rya doesn't make her appearance before tomorrow afternoon, I'll be back at the doctor's office tomorrow. Maybe I'll be at least somewhat dilated.

This blog post was supposed to contain pictures of the finished nursery...yeah, about that...we haven't finished it! We've got the La-Z-Boy, bookcase and the crib, but the crib isn't up yet. We've had a little fiasco with it- I ordered it from Target.com and we received it about a week and a half ago, damaged. There were scratches all over it, and 2 pieces of the wood broken off! So I took it back to Target and ordered the same one from Wal-Mart. I wasn't a huge fan of the color (it had a little more cherry in it than I wanted), and the one at Wal-Mart called it espresso versus cafe espresso at Target, so that's why I ordered it from Wal-Mart this time. I also had it shipped to the store, hoping to avoid getting another damaged product. I also thought I wanted a different one at Babies R Us, but it was out of stock for shipping, so while waiting for that we thought we better get this one at Wal-Mart just in case. Well we just got the crib on Sat. So far, I've decided to just stick with it and forget about the one at Babies R Us, but since we haven't even gotten it out of the box yet, more to come with that! ;) We were going to put it together yesterday, but didn't get to it. I know, the crib maybe should be more of a priority, but we have a bassinet, so we haven't really been in any hurry. :) Hopefully this week we can get it together. Pictures to come!

But, here's a new picture of the baby bump from Sunday, at 39.5 weeks. I don't think I look much different than in my last post at 37.5 weeks, other than maybe Rya has dropped some more. As of last week I've still only gained 26 pounds.




I do plan to continue posting after Rya is born, so stay tuned! Until then, we patiently wait for some action! :)

It's getting closer!

Well, tomorrow is 38 weeks! (This picture is from Monday, so just over 37.5 weeks.) I have a feeling if I go early, it will only be a couple of days early, because I'm still feeling the same- I'm feeling good, relatively speaking. I've gained 26 pounds, my feet are swelling a little bit and are hurting more nights, my bladder sometimes feels like a brick is sitting on it, and I get sharp, shooting pains in my groin muscle area, but other than that, I'm doing fine! :) I can breath at least, as Rya has really dropped. The doctor said her head is down and really low. I had my first check for dilation yesterday. He said my cervix is about 75% thinned, but I'm not dilated at all. And I told Jesse, the funny thing is, I'm ok with not being dilated yet! I'm excited for her, but I can wait another 2 weeks! :)

Rya is still moving quite a bit, and I love it! I haven't seen a clear foot or hand when she pushes out, and her movements feel differently now that she is running out of space. She still gets the hiccups pretty often and I don't like that, more because I feel bad for her, but it's also somewhat uncomfortable for me.

Last Saturday was my last baby shower so Sunday was baby shopping day! We got a lot more nice things, including our car seat/stroller travel system (it's an Encore, Baby Trend system, Columbia style), saftey gates, adorable clothes & dresses, including 3 my grandma made, and a cute winter coat, among other things. Before going shopping, I had to finally go through our gifts and organize Rya's room in order to know what we still need. And by organize I mean put everything in piles by category. =)

This is all her toys...
This is all her bath stuff...

I put her newborn clothes in a pile, her 0-3 & 3 month clothes in a pile, and her 6 month+ clothes in another pile. We have a lot of 0-3 & 3 month clothes!

I'm waiting to wash anything, just in case! My cousin told me this weekend that the margin for error of an ultrasound with a girl is higher. Although I believe we're having a girl because my nurse practitioner said our picture is textbook girl, I'd rather be safe than sorry! ;)

Here is a pile of blankets for Rya, on top of her crib bedding.


Unfortunately, as of now, we don't have the nursery put together. On Sunday we ordered our crib and baby monitor from Target, and bought a La-Z-Boy rocker/recliner and 3-shelf bookcase. So, we are close. I'm hoping this weekend we can get everything put together (we probably won't get the crib for a week or so), and then I'll post pictures. Until then, I'll just be relaxing as much as possible, trying to wrap my mind around the fact that in a couple of weeks, I'll be a mommy and Jesse will be a [great] daddy! :)