Riley's first Yom Kippur

Over the past 2 days, we (like all other Jews), have spent hours and hours in shul for Yom Kippur.  Our time was a little more exciting this year, however, as we have our new baby boy to show off!

 

Riley wore his fanciest clothes for Kol Nidre - dress jeans and a button down shirt.  We didn't really think it was necessary to invest in a 2 week old sized sport coat.  Everyone was really excited to meet him and he did a great job sleeping during services.

The next morning, we got a little bit of a slower start.  We had morning snuggle time with Mama and then got ready to go back to shul.  It took a little longer to get ready but we got there in plenty of time to show off our baby again to a new slew of excited onlookers.  Riley was passed down the row and everyone in the family had a chance to hold him during services.  At the end, all the kids were invited on the bima for Havdallah and I brought Riley up to get a glow stick and sing for his first Havdallah.  Again, he was a hit!

Chris had a long day working at shul and at the end of the day, another snuggle session was called, this time for Daddy.  Repenting is hard work, especially for a baby!

Getting into a schedule

Now that everyone has gone back home, we are starting to work our way into some sort of schedule.  We miss taking group walks with our entourage but are looking forward to setting up a semblance of normalcy now that days are just us.

One of the normal activities we get to look forward to now are bath time!  Until now, Riley has just been taking sponge baths but last night, we had our very first real bath.  It was a little traumatic at first but once we used the water cup, he actually seemed to like it.  I think it made him feel like he was back in the womb.

After our bath, it was time to get ready for bed.  We snuggled in our new robe (compliments of Grammy and Grandy), read some stories and got tucked in for the night.

We are looking forward to setting a schedule that leads to more sleep hours at night!

Baby survey winner...

 

The results are in! 

 

Amy Robinson is the winner of the baby survey!  She got the gender, birthday, weight and time of day correct.  2 other people got 4 categories correct but Amy was the closest in her guesses.  I guess her motherly intuition is already kicking in and she knows her baby facts. 

 

Congrats Amy!  I will let you know your prize when you get to Chicago! 

He's here!

As I'm sure you all know, our baby boy was born yesterday!

Riley Aiden Herman was born on Sunday, September 9 at 3:40 am.  He was a perfect 7 pounds, 11 ounces and 20 inches long and luckily don't take hours and hours to arrive.  My water broke at 5 pm at Barnes & Noble and less than 12 hours later, our son was born!   

Everything has been going smoothly at the hospital and we are so lucky to have such a huge slew of visitors!  We get to take Riley home in the morning and are looking forward to starting our new lives as a family!

Reasons Taties wants the baby to come

As if everyone isn't excited enough, I am now getting email requests for the baby to be born soon!  Stacey (Tadies) sent me an email today listing the reasons why she is ready for Blueberry to be born - here is her list:

· I want to hold BB
· I want to dress it in littly bitty clothes
· I want to read Dr. Seuss books that I’m too old to read on my own
· I want a reason to take naps
· I want to push around the awesome green stroller (gender neutral, or course)
· I want to find out the name
· I want to use those tiny nail clippers
· I want to blend BB its own homemade baby food
· I want to give it my really fun presents that I’ve had ready for months
· I want Chris to use his diaper changing tongs and laugh at him when it doesn’t work
· I want to see if the Bowser and Baby class did anything for the dogs
· I want to have a new generation in the family
· I want to buy it toys like rope bones and kongs…oh…I mean like fabric books and balls

Now that Daddy is in town, we are doing all we can over here - today's activity was a lot of walking.  Tomorrow, we are going to the park to try the swings and the slide!   

Due date

Well, today is September 6th - the date we have been counting down to for months and months - our due date!  And as of 9pm, we still do not have a baby.

We went to the doctor today for another check-up and they only had good things to say.  They took measurements and said that I am still at 1 cm and 50% effaced but that Blueberry could still come at any minute of any day.

We had another ultrasound too to make sure that everything on the inside was still looking good and as these measurements were taken, they gave us an approximate weight for the baby.  A few months ago, the baby was going to be in the 7 pound range - last month, the baby was going to be about 8 pounds - as of today's estimation, Blueberry will be 9 pounds, 4 ounces!  OUCH!  They keep telling me that since I'm tall, it should all still be ok, but I don't think height really matters much when the width seems like the bigger obstacle.  It seems like I need to be built like a double-wide to be able to fit this baby.  They also kept reminding me that the weight was just an approximation and has a range of +/- 22 ounces (almost 1.5 pounds) so this baby could really be anywhere from 8-10.5 pounds.  Keep your fingers crossed that we aim to the lower end.

During the ultrasound, we got to see the babys face from the front for the first time.  Usually its just a profile shot but since things are getting pretty tight in there, the face was pointing out and we were able to catch a glimpse of the baby at a new angle.  The tech pointed out the eyes, the nose, the chin and I am pretty sure I saw a mustache.  At first, it looked like a Mexican mustache and then later it looked like Colonel Sanders...  lets hope that it was just the shadows playing tricks!

We have another appointment set for Monday afternoon that we can start taking bets on if we will make it to then or not.  The doctor also said that either way, I will have a baby in 10 days, either with natural labor or induction.  Until then, I will keep eating spicy food, taking walks and start playing on the swings!

Sitting and waiting

If we have a baby girl, what are the chances that she will look like me? 
If we have a baby boy, how much do we think he will look like Chris?

So now we sit and wait.  We were trying to figure out yesterday if I was having Braxton-Hicks contractions and the end result was - maybe?

The general concensus between Chris and Mommy is that my belly has started to drop.  Nothing significant and super obvious but maybe the baby is starting to work its way down and getting ready for birth time.

We have an appointment tomorrow afternoon where they will check to see how I'm progressing and how everything else is looking.  I'll keep everyone posted on what they say, if we make it to the appointment!  Stay tuned!

Labor Day was not labor day

Well, it turns out that Labor Day was not our actual labor day - which is ok cause we still have a few days until the actual due date.  Of course, it could be any day now so we are just sitting here waiting.

Mommy got here last night and according to Daddy, "now we have an "Official" representative...NOW you can deliver...or you can wait for this weekend and I'll be there too!"  No promises of delivering when it is most convenient but I'll see what I can do.  We had a fun time last night where the baby was kicking and Mommy/Bibi got to feel a lot of movement!

The scary part is playing this waiting game.  I kind of know what to expect but not knowing when it will all start is what worries me the most.  All of a sudden, I can have a contraction or my water can break and then there is no turning back... not like there really is right now anyways!

Chris is ready for Blueberry to make its appearance and keeps poking around my belly and saying "come on out - I want to play"!  He is also practicing his snuggling techniques and Sheffield is happy to be the baby stand-in for the time being.

Babys "first" game

Its officially football season!  This morning we watched the Buckeye's season opener and as the band played the alma mater, I pulled on my jersey to see if it would fit.  It did - but just barely!  The baby cheered at the right times and stayed awake for the whole game.  Within the next few weeks, the baby will actually be able to see the game, not just hear it!