Who says football is just for boys?

Here is the newest addition to the nursery...

We may be having a little baby girl, but that doesn't mean that its ever too early to start pushing a little Husker pride!

Hope that everyone is having a good weekend. The sun is shining here but its still a little on the chilly side. We're anxiously awaiting another warm up this coming week. I have appointments on Monday (OB) and Thursday (Cardio), so check back for updates!

I swear I'm not bitter!

Eight weeks ago Matt and I got our first glimps of Little Miss Ritchie on ultrasound. She was a totally wiggle worm with either her hands or her feet up in front of her face practically the whole time and wouldn't let us get a good shot of her. So, for the past eight weeks I have been looking forward to today...ultrasound #2. I've had many conversations with her over the past week explaining to her the importance of cooperation and listening to your mother. Well she didn't really get much opportunity to cooperate today...

My whole appointment lasted a whoppin' 10 minutes and my sonographer either has a terrible personality or was having one of those "I don't want to be at work" kind of days. I asked about the baby's position (her random movements have me totally confused). Response? A short and sweet "Well, her head is down." After that there was a series of clicks of the mouse as she measured her arms, legs, belly and head (all in total silence), followed by a quick "Well, I'm finished. I'll be back with Dr. Wahl."

After the doctor came in and looked us over, I mentioned that we hadn't really gotten any good pictures the last time. With the same "enthusiastic" personality, the sonographer managed to spend about 30 more seconds trying to get some shots. What did I walk away with??? A picture that once again reassures us that she is indeed a girl, a picture of her spine (every mothers dream picture) and something that she tells me are her lips. BOOOO! Next time I will request to not have her!

All whining aside, it doesn't really matter if I got pictures or not. Everything is looking good and thats what is important! They estimate that she's about 2 lb. 11 oz. (right on track). Her head and belly measure perfect and she's got some skinny little thighs at about the 5th percentile. We'll go back in 6 weeks for one last look! I have my general OB appointment next Monday and a cardiologist appointment next Thursday.

I had originally planned on sharing some pictures from today, but since thats a no go, I'll supplement with some others. Last week Matt did the CUTEST little paintings of our puppies to put in the nursery. Once pictures of nursery wall #2, you will see how everything fits together!

Miss Maybe

Cartoon Maybe

Miss Stella

Cartoon Stella

A work in progress

Matt and I have managed to keep ourselves pretty busy lately getting the nursery ready for our little girlie. We decided to keep things pretty gender neutral and also decided that we didn't want to paint any walls. SOOO, to add a little color we got creative. I saw a picture on a design website and instantly loved it...very colorful, very eclectic looking and a good project for us to put our creative minds together to create. I was going to wait and post pictures when the room was finished, but am just too excited not to share it now. We've only finished one wall but I am totally in love with it!

We collected random letters (with a little help) over time and then got creative coming up with ways to refinish them. While I did contribute, I will give a majority of the credit to Matt. He had some awesome ideas and put a lot of hard work into things. A big Nebraska "N" made the cut without argument, but I did have to draw the line when there was mention of a Packers "G"! Now we just need a couple of bins to slide into the little shelving unit and it will be complete. Next up....wall #2!

28 weeks

It has been almost a month since we took our last round of pictures so I figured that I better get some new ones out for those of you who don't get to see me much. I'll be 28 weeks later this week and am definitely starting to feel the effects of this rapidly growing little girlie! Putting on socks has become an interesting process, I can't slouch without feeling like I'm squishing something I shouldn't be, and I will never turn down a helping hand to get my butt off of the couch! Also, I'm pretty sure that my stomach is now located somewhere under my ribcage. Does that mean that it will be up by my neck by the time this is all over with!?!? Honestly though, I have been feeling great. I feel like I've sailed through things so far and have my fingers crossed that it continues this way.

For some reason I was instructed by my photographer to give a big thumbs up--it seems to be a signature Matt Ritchie pose.

What a difference a day makes

Yesterday at this time I had just gotten home from work where I had been sitting in the parking lot, sobbing to my mom on the phone (after which I called my sister and sobbed some more while trying to drive myself home.) Yes, I know that this probably wasn't the safest decision I have ever made, but its done and over with. :) Now its 24 hours later, and while I still wish that Boston would have been an option for us, it wasn't. There is nothing that we can do about that, and no use dwelling over it. PLAIN AND SIMPLE. Now we just have to pick up where we left off and start making plans for the next few months. I can't believe how quickly time is going and how soon it is going to be that we get to meet our precious little girl...Who now has a name, by the way! When people ask me what it is, I like to tell them that we are naming her after Matt's sister.................................Kristen! I personally think that Kristen Ritchie has a nice ring to it.

Anyway, I thought that I would TRY to give you all a simplified explanation of Little Miss Ritchie's condition...

Pulmonary atresia (PA): PA is when the pulmonary valve that lets blood flow from the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs has not formed properly or is closed. Sometimes it is due to a tissue membrane that forms over the valve. If this would have been the case, we may have been candidates for the in-utero procedure. My understanding is that they would have poked a hole through this membrane and then ballooned the valve open. In our situation, they cannot identify the pulmonary valve, meaning that they don't really have anything to go in and open up. This is the plain and simple reason why Boston was a no go.

Hypoplastic right heart syndrome (HRHS): The problem above can lead to an underdeveloped right ventricle, which is the pumping chamber in the heart that send oxygen-poor blood to the lungs. Right now, our little girl's ventricle was described to us as "mild to moderately hypoplastic." What that means prognostically, we're not sure yet.

So that's where we stand right now. Unfortunately its hard to get good answers to our questions as they really won't know the full extent of things until after she is born. We were told that they would perform a heart cath after birth that will give them more information as to what is all going on. I called Dr. Sami's office this afternoon and am waiting to hear back as to when they want me back for another visit. I'm 27 weeks tomorrow so I would assume that we'll need to start talking about when and where this little monkey is going to be born and be put in touch with our future surgical team.

Next known doctors appointment is March 15 with the perinatologist. We have another ultrasound so hopefully we'll get some good pictures!

No Boston...

Not really up for typing but wanted to fill in everyone who has been waiting for some word from us. We got the call from Boston and it wasn't what we wanted to hear. There will be no Boston or in-utero procedure for the Ritchie family. I'll give details of "why not" a little later once things have had time to sink in.

As much as we said "we aren't going to get our hopes up..." we did...at least I did anyway! We'll be ok, though. As I'm typing this I have a little one kick boxing away in there. It makes it kind of hard to be too down in the dumps. I think that she's trying to tell me she's a fighter through and through!

Waiting Waiting Waiting

So I called Boston again today this afternoon (never hurts to nudge a little!). I talked with a nurse practitioner that works with Dr. Tworetzky. Apparently he was looking at our most recent echo as we spoke. She said that if we didn't hear from her by the end of the day, to expect a call sometime tomorrow morning. Since its already after 5 there and I haven't heard anything, I'm guessing that we'll just have to sit tight until morning. Lots of prayers until then!

Other than that, all is well here. The little one is more and more active every day...especially when there is chocolate involved. Matt FINALLY got to feel and see a kick on Sunday so that was pretty exciting. Not much else new!