So I had a Dr. appointment recently and baby looks good. I am now about 34 weeks and  she is over 5lbs so far and expected to be about 8lb!!! Cervix is still “closed for service”, but her head has dropped quite a bit and I feel like she is going to fall out sometimes! Nursery is almost finished and clothes are washed. I am anxious to get her out now, but at the same time I’m trying to enjoy being pregnant for these last few weeks because everyone says you miss it when they’re born (hmmm…I don’t know about that =) ).  

We’ve posting some pictures of the baby nursery. Check them out here. Enjoy!

Ok, so here’s the contest:

We need a baby name and we want your help. Your part is easy. Simply post a comment with a name, be as creative as you want. If you have a special reason behind that name, put that in there too. Have fun!

Thank you (in advanced). 

(We will let the winner know around July 25th. If you want to know earlier pray she comes out a couple weeks early)

=) PS We get to find out Baby Ritz’s gender on March 5! Newest update…this past week I started to feel the baby move (just flutters, but baby none the less)! He/She especially likes to be awake at night (probably because I work the nightshift) and seems to enjoy the right side of my belly where I feel my uterine ligaments stretching! 

Today we had our 15 week doctor’s appointment to see how Baby Ritz is doing. I was a little nervous since I’ve had some issues with my heart, I’ve been sick and I’ve fallen twice on the ice!  But, our worries eased after we once again heard the heart beat (155 beats per minute), which Dr. says is nice and strong. My uterus is also growing nicely (along with my need to buy bigger pants!), but…it means baby is doing good and growing appropriately. In only four more weeks we get to find out Baby Ritz’s hidden identity (boy or girl?) and get to see how much he/she has grown since our 8 week ultrasound picture. We simply can’t wait and are counting down the days! Will it be blue or pink? Let us know your guesses! 

December 11, 2007. What a memorably beautiful day! We had our first ultrasound of Baby Ritz and heard their heart beat for the first time! It was the most wonderful sound I’d ever heard. 161 beats of music to our ears! God never felt so real as he did in that moment. We stared in amazement and I immediately began to cry with joy. We had just seen our little one for the very first time and now eagerly look forward to the next “photo shoot”! Since it was Christmas time and my creative husband was feeling festive, he decided to give our baby a Santa hat for fun. We liked it so much, it even became our Christmas card.

On November 14, 2007 Patrick and I’s lives changed forever. It was a typical day for me, but I was experiencing a little cough and decided to run to the store to buy some cough drops. As I passed by the pregnancy tests, I decided to pick one up just for the heck of it, although I had doubts that I would really be pregnant this month, after all, we weren’t “actively trying”, but on the other hand, we weren’t “actively preventing”. We just felt comfortable in the knowing that “God opens and closes the womb as he pleases”, as one of our friends puts it. So I figured I’d take the test in a couple of days. But by the time I got home, I had thought more about it and the curiosity was killing me. I knew it was four days early to really know for sure, but I thought “I’m just going to take the test now”. And so, I began the ceremonial ritual of peeing on the stick. As I eagerly watched the the line turn color, I assumed it would be as other tests had been in the past, just a line. But this time, something was different, another line very faintly appeared behind it making a plus sign! I stared at the stick for a very long time not believing what I saw. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. I wanted to tell the world. But, the problem was it was 2:30 in the afternoon and Patrick wouldn’t be home from work until at least 5:30. I had to wait 3 hours!!!! But, I did manage to wait until he got home and then surprised him with a gift box. (I didn’t know how to tell him). When he opened the box , all it had was a pacifier in it. He looked at it and then looked at me and paused for a moment until it clicked ” you’re pregnant?” and I nodded. We were very excited and went out that night to celebrate over dinner. Just as a side note, I ended up taking 5 more pregnancy tests that were all positive, just to “make sure”. Patrick said we wouldn’t be able to afford a baby if I kept buying tests so I agreed to stop after 5.