Thursday, December 23, 2010

Alexis Update

Well, I must say, I am a horrible blogger. Sorry. (possiby a new years resolution?)
So much has happened in the past 5 months...
Alexis Alexis Alexis. She is definitly an amazing little girl that we adore. She has been so fun and I cherish (atleast try to) every moment with her. I cannot picture a happy life without this girl. Seriously, can't get over how much I love her.
Right now she thinks she wants to learn to crawl. She sticks her butt in the air and pushes off with her legs. The first time she did this I started to cry. But then two minutes later I put toys in front of her to motivate her... such a confusing emotion. It's sad that she's growing up, but it's so exciting and fun too. She is definitly mobile though. She rolls and can spin around on her belly.
We're attempting rice cereal... but not successful. She doesn't seem ready, she has no interest, so I try not to push it. Her daddy loves to share his food with her though. She does ok with that, so maybe she just hates rice cereal? I don't blame her... :)

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Precious baby girl Alexis Lily Richards was born on July 13th at 9:17 PM. She weighed 8 pounds and 4 oz. She is healthy, happy, and beautiful!!




















Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The baby belly

First appointment-

13 Weeks

2nd Appointment-
18 weeks

Ultrasound-
20 WeeksMost Recent Doctors Appointment-

22 Weeks









Growing... Plants


GROWING... plants.



Ok, I'm growing too, but I talk a lot about the pregnancy and I'm trying to add a little more variety to this blog. But really... the baby is the most important and always on my mind! Can't help it!



We are very excited to have a garden plot this year! Last year we moved in to late in the season to get one started, but we've been talking about a garden plot since last summer. Daybreak, as we all know is a very different little community. Todd and I love it, but here is one difference. Most of the homes don't have very big yards. The whole reason behind that is to have "community yards". Which is really nice for us because we are in a town house and even if we were somewhere else we probably wouldn't have much yard. Anyway, there are a lot of parks and open spaces in daybreak. Another thing they have are community gardens. Community gardens are cute little plots of.. well dirt... where you can grow whatever you want! So yesterday we were able to pick our plot, which we got right by our neighbors. We were so excited we went to home depot and picked up some gardening essentials. Also we started some seeds of plants we hope will soon be apart of our garden.



Among our seeds are cucumbers, LEMON cucumbers (I'm very excited for these!), tomatoes, pumpkins, peas, beans, basil, rosemary, and I think thats it....Well, I'm not MASTER gardener :) but hopefully they will turn out okay!



I did make sure Todd understood I wouldn't be of much help with this garden and it is mainly his thing. I figure I won't be up to gardening when I'm 8 months pregnant or probably not for awhile when I have a brand new baby.



So really a lot of the credit for this garden needs to go to Todd. He did compare it to the nursery rhyme of the Little Red Hen, which he compared himself and the people who didn't help, like the cow (which he compared to me!). Yeah... I've given him a lot of grief for calling me a cow! I don't think he intentionally meant it that way, but I still like to tease him.

THINK PINK

It's a girl!
If you haven't caught on from all the "she's" and "hers"
I never blogged about this and it is a big deal, very worth a blog entry. On March 2, we had our 20 week ultrasound where we were able to find out we are having a little girl! Todd really thought it was going to be a boy. I knew from the very beginning it'd be a girl. I'm glad I was right though. :) We did have a bet on it... if it was a boy Todd was going to get Assassins Creed 2 (video game) and if it was a girl I'd get a new nano ipod. I had the much better end of the deal I will admit that... But guess what. Todd has the game now and I don't have an ipod! So really, he lost but still got the prize. I could've got the ipod, but I never really cared about it. I just wanted to make a bet with Todd because I knew I was right about it being a girl. So the satisfaction of being right and the fact that I get a cute little girl was plenty enough! And it was me who bought the game for Todd. I wanted to surprise him with something because he'd worked a lot that week.

The ultrasound was so cool! It was about a half hour appointment of just looking at the baby! I know I could do that for much longer. They checked everything, like the 4 chambers the heart, the diaphragm, correct number of bones in the legs, etc. Don't worry, I counted the number of fingers of toes! Anyway, everything looks great! She is a health little girl! She measured 1 day off from her due date, so basically perfect. :)
We got a video from the ultrasound and if you come over to our house, guarantee Todd will make you watch it! I think he's very proud of his little healthy girl. One really cute moment from the ultrasound I loved wasn't caught on the video unfortunately. The technician had just stopped recording and was looking at the profile again and you could see the baby sucking on her thumb! But not just one hand, she kept switching between right and left. It was adorable! It was really crazy to see her on the screen moving and also feel it.

Even though we know its a girl now, I haven't been able to get the room ready. I'm having a hard time finding a crib setting I love. There are a lot of cute ones out there, but not any that have jumped out at me. I don't exactly know what I'm looking for and I know I'm putting way too much thought into it. Anyway, if you see an adorable crib setting, let me know! I am on the look out.

I will post the ultrasound pictures soon! I haven't been able to get them scanned in yet, but I promise they will come soon.

Funny Pregnancy Moments

I always feared pregnancy. I figured it'd be the most miserable thing that ever happened to me. I know I'm in my "good time" right now, the easy 2nd trimester, maybe I shouldn't speak too soon about how much I love being pregnant, but I truely do! For now anyway.


There have been lots of fun moments with being pregnant and really I just can't get over the fact that I love my baby so much already and get to know her before anyone else.

Todd tells me all the time that I smell like a baby. He's convinced I secretely rub baby lotion all over myself, but really,I don't own any! yet anyway.


My first impression of maternity pants was that I won't ever wear them because they are hideous. But after buying the right sizes I've come around a lot. They're actually pretty comfortable. I started wearing them as soon as they'd stay up... well, they still sag sometimes, but I think thats just maternity pants. I've discovered the store kid to kid. Ok, well I always knew about it, I remember getting dragged there with my mom and sisters and them always loving that store and personally thinking it smelled like old clothes... but I now have grown to appreciate it. I feel like its a little bit of a treasure hunt, you have to go often to find the really great stuff. But its so cheap and I love that. So far I have only bought maternity clothes for me there and I love buying capris for $7 instead of $30 (what those ridiculous maternity stores would want).


My hair is getting longer! My hair usually takes forever to grow out, but with the new help of the prenatal vitamins, its growing! Suprisingly I haven't used the pregnancy excuse of "eating for two." I honestly feel like I have a more balanced diet now. I eat smaller meals with snacks throughout the day. This is one shocker for me, I always thought being pregnant would be great because you can eat whenever and whatever you wanted to without guilt, but maybe its helping me be healthier instead.Plus, I now eat breakfast which I think is really important. I've learned to love cereal. Never really was a cereal person before, but now it always sounds good. Wouldn't mind a bowl of froot loops right now actually. I should try and eat healthier cereals.... but lucky charms, froot loops, and cinnamon toast crunch are all just so yummy!


I appreciate a good nights sleep. I know they will be something I'm giving up for quite a long time, so now when I do sleep good all night I'm in heaven! Unfortunately, they are already getting fewer and fewer. I have a hard time staying comfortable.


My belly is cute. Yesterday was a "wow" moment for me when I was taking a picture of our plants (blog of those to come) and I was taking the picture directly down and my belly was showing up in the screen! It made me laugh, I don't realize how big that belly really is getting. I also underestimate my size now. I will try and squeeze through things and I just don't fit in beween things like I used to!



This is the picture of the belly from looking down. It gets dirty too... I forgot to mention that. It seems to get stuff on it with out me noticing. :)

I love love love feeling the baby move. Luckily for me, she moves a lot! I know I annoy Todd a little bit because I am constantly making him feel the belly. But it's adorable and cool! I usually feel her moving the most after I eat, but sometimes its just random. I still talk to the ultrasound picture and not the baby... I need to break the habit and realize that I can talk to baby anytime because she's always with me, but whenever I am looking at the ultrasound picture on the fridge I say Hi. :)


Richards Rules. I think the fact that we will be parents has in some way sunk in for us. Out of no where we both have started making "Richards Rules." They're more fun and to tease each other, but here are a few "Richard's Rules":

1- If you finish the kool aid you are responsible for making a new batch.

2- If one person takes the trash out, the other is to reline the garbage can immediately! This is one I don't really follow cuz its more of a roll my eyes at Todd thing then anything else. I think he has a fear that if the garbage can is lined the second the old bag is removed it will never happen. I dont' know if he's just not used to living with only adults still, but I won't throw garbabge in a can not lined... He makes a big deal of it.

3- Bedroom door has to be shut at night when we go to bed! This is mine, I hate having the door open when we sleep.


Well I know we have more "Richards Rules" but I can't think of them right now!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Being Prego

Well, its time to make the blog announcement.... We're pregnant!
We are very excited and even though it wasn't expected, we couldn't be any happier!
So far everything is going really well. We had our first appointment on Jan 13th with Dr. Gravale at the new IHC in Murray.
I will never forget what it was like when they put the little wand thing on my belly and wah la-- baby! I was starting to wonder if I really was even pregnant... so it was a good feeling to see the proof, there is a baby in there! And of course the heart beat. When we very first found out we were pregnant it was more scary and confusing then anything the first day, but by day 2 I was reading about what the baby looks like/how developed it was and I read that this week the baby's heart was beating. My baby has a heart! I started crying and from the moment I haven't been scared or confused, just totally in love with this baby.
Anyway, doctor said everything looks great... did call my baby stubborn (it didn't want to move to give us a better picture) which just made me realize I will be a very protective mother since that made me a little mad. The first thing said about my baby is that its stubborn! :)

Trying to resist, but yes there are already a few outfits for the baby. I've bought girl and boy outfits, there are so many babies coming this summer I figure they will work for someone.
Which brings another point. Baby will have two (second?) cousins, two of todd's uncles are having babies. And my cousin Holly is having a baby in August. So that will be the babies... 2nd cousin. right? If anything this baby has some confusing relatives (as in how they are related).
Baby will have 11 cousins, 3 grandmas, 3 grandpas, 5 great grandmas, 3 great grandpas, and 2 great great grandmas. And not to forget all the aunts, uncles, great aunts, great uncles, and all the other relatives. This baby will be very loved!

Well still fitting in my clothes, but they are feeling tight.
I have found a few benefits in being pregnant:
1- people are so nice to you! At the doctors office everyone just wants to talk to you and know all about you. thats never happened before... especially at a doctors office.... can you imagine? Why are you here today? Cough? rash? Lets talk about that! :) But seriously nurses, other patients, doctors, they are all very nice to you.
2- There's all of a sudden this excuse for being forgetful! And people excuse me automatically BECAUSE I'M PREGNANT. I don't want this to end, its all of a sudden acceptable to be forgetful. I just don't want to ruin it and tell me people, no I was forgetful before.
3- I can go to bed early! I am such a bed bug... its not my fault I grew up in a bread man household where we all went to bed by nine. I grew up this way and can't break free of it. I like to go to bed early! So now, I really don't even try to stay up late. We've had company over and if its late, I will excuse myself and go to bed! :)
4- I've learned to relax. I used to never be able to just lay in bed for no reason and watch my tv shows. Now I can! I don't know if its the fact that I know I will lose this opportunity for good soon or if my bodies just more tired, but I've been a little lazy. Right now is a good example. There are dirty dishes down stairs, but nope I'm watching my One Tree Hill. I'm on season 3 by the way, soon to be on 4.
5- I love to be able to think about having a precious little baby that is part me and part Todd. I'm very excited to meet little Alexis or Cohen and to just cuddle this little baby and smother it in kisses!

Can't wait until July 18th to meet you little baby!