September 26th, 2009

It seems like lately I'm always running a few days behind. I totally meant to post this on Sunday, but got wrapped up in other things. So here I am....posting a "One Year Ago Today" message.....One year and two days later!

September 26th, 2009, was a very exciting day in the Ritchie household. The details are still so vivid in my mind. It was a Saturday. Husker game day. They were playing Louisianna-Lafayette at home. It was supposed to be a blow out game and not the caliber of competition that is typically on network television, but it was on pay-per-view. Typically Matt and I would head out to Buffalo Wild Wings, drink a few beers and watch the game with other Husker fans. It was a Saturday....what else did we have to do!? We were a young married couple with essentially no responsibilities other than work and our dogs.

At this point, it had been about 2 months since Matt and I decided that we were ready to start a family and for some reason that morning I felt like I should take a pregnancy test. In my head I knew that it was probably too soon to tell if I was preggo or not, but I took one anyway. I didn't say anything to Matt at first, but when those 2 little pink lines showed up I couldn't contain myself. With my heart ready to explode out of my chest, I walked out to the living room and held up the test. I didn't say a word but he knew. Looking back on it, I'm disappointed that I didn't come up with something more creative, but I was just too excited to think straight!

WE WERE HAVING A BABY!!!!! Holy cow....we were having a baby.

And Nebraska won 55-0.

Interpret this face....

Most might think that this is just an unhappy baby experiencing cereal for the first time. ACTUALLY.... It is a baby with milk/soy protein intolerance trying to tell her Mommy and Daddy that Gerber rice cereal AND oatmeal both have soy in them. AHHHHHHHHH!

I'm guessing this had something to do with our fever the other night and the crabby crabby Friday/Saturday that we had. Never in a million years would this have even crossed my mind as something I needed to check. We've spent the weekend detoxing and she is slowly getting back to her normal self. Looks like I'm going to become a label reader/baby food maker! Whatever it takes to avoid a potential oops!

Ok, so I can't leave you on a "sad baby note"....so here's another picture. Charlotte LOVES her new leg warmers! This was early on in our detox so we weren't getting many smiles, but she still looks pretty stinkin' cute.

Yet another first...

So on my last post, I talked about all of the new and exciting "firsts" that our little Charley Bear is starting to experience. In just the past week we've experienced ponytails, pigtails, cereal, the jumperoo...all very good and exciting. Well, on Wednesday we had another "first," this one not as fun for either Charley OR mom and dad....her very first fever. She's always been a warm baby and wakes up with the back of her head all sweaty, but this time I could tell that it was different. She was HOT. At one point I took a temp of 102.6! Poor thing. Anytime I would try to put something in her mouth (mainly Tylenol) she would spit up and proceed to scream. UGH.

Matt had to go to work at 2 AM, so I let him sleep until I heard his alarm go off; then I pounced on him for reassurance that I didn't need to take her in to the ER. YES...I'm totally a paranoid heart mom. She's been doing so well and something like a fever, something that just happens, heart baby or not, totally freaks me out. Instead of the ER, I resorted to ask-a-nurse. By then, whatever Tylenol she did get was starting to bring her temp down, and she was drifting in and out of sleep. We decided it was best to wait until morning and see how she was doing. She was supposed to have her 4 month well visit the following day, so the timing couldn't have been better.

By morning she was fever free; you could tell that she was a little "off" and totally exhausted. She slept most of the day and I tried to sneak in little bits of formula whenever I could. Dr. Elliott said that her ears looked good and her chest sounded clear, so for now we're just watching her and hoping it was a fluke deal. When I woke her up this morning I got a huge grin, so my guess is that she's on the up swing.

On a better note...Charley is getting SOOOOO BIG! Ok, so not BIG, but BIGGER! Weighing in at just over 11 pounds at her visit yesterday, she officially charted in the 6th percentile! If you remember, just a month ago she was only in the 3rd. She's in the 10% range for height as well. Everyone is very pleased at the progress she's making. We are now doctor free until the end of October when we have to go back for another echo with Dr. Sami.

Hope that everyone has a great weekend. We're camping out at home and getting the Nebraska/SDSU football game on pay-per-view. I've been giving Matt a hard time and telling him that since I'm SDSU facutly now, that I'll probably cheer for them. I've even threatened that Charley is going to wear her SDSU hoodie. Hahaha...NOT A CHANCE! We've all seen how happy she is in her Husker red!

A First time for Everything

What an exciting night at the Ritchie house! Charlotte got to try all sorts of new things!

It all started when I tried to give her a bottle. Usually she eats AT LEAST every 4 hours...most times she makes it to about 3.5 and is looking at me like "Come on lady, I'm hungry." Well, tonight it had been almost 6 hours, but whenever I would offer her a bottle she would turn her head and purse her lips. Where did she learn to be so dang stubborn?!?! Anyway, out of curiosity I busted out a box of rice cereal to see what she would do.

Started out not so bad...more confused than anything...

Hey, this isn't so bad!

Enoughs enough! Not too bad for a first try. We'll give it another try tomorrow!

After giving herself a little time to digest, Charley got to try out her 4 month birthday gift from Mommy and Daddy. It was delivered this afternoon and Daddy had it all set up and ready to go when we got home.

She was so incredibly focused that I couldn't even get her signature smile out of her! Maybe once she's had time to soak it all in.

Haha! Look at those chicken legs! And to think that I told someone today that her thighs were starting to "beef up!" You would never guess it by this picture. Her legs aren't quite long enough so we had to give her a little boost.

She's growing so quickly...Before we know it she's going to be 35 and going on her first date!

Just like Daddy....

Want to see a happy Charley?? All you have to do is park her in front of Saturday football and she'll grin from ear to ear! There's still a couple of hours until game time, but we're all ready to cheer GO BIG RED!

Soooooo BIG!

How could I forget???

Four months and one day is a very important day...

Charley is officially

ELEVEN POUNDS!

Good girl, Charley!!!

4 months (and 1 day)

It may be a day late, but I couldn't NOT post a very special message to our little Charley Bear to wish her the HAPPIEST 4 month birthday! She is growing and changing every day and Matt and I are having so much fun watching her little personality develop. She is such a happy baby and is always ready to flash that beautiful smile of hers.

Happy 4 month birthday, Charley....We love you more than you could ever imagine!