Merry Christmas to all!  We visited "Mamie" a week before Christmas and Riess LOVES her Christmas lights.  Riess had a wonderful Christmas this year.  Santa came to visit and she stayed up ALL night since she was so excited.  She slept late, as did mom and dad to catch up.  I think it will probably be the last Christmas that we sleep late ... EVER!  I can't wait until the real fun begins in the coming years when she can really enjoy the season.  

But today -- Christmas Day -- Riess has been asleep ALL DAY LONG.  That probably doesn't mean good things for tonight.  I return to work tomorrow, so Chris is on "daddy duty" tonight and all of next week too!  

But Chris and I agree that Riess was by far our best Christmas gift this year.  We feel so very blessed to have our beautiful baby girl this year.  And equally as blessed... my good friends Courtney and Brooke!  Riess met Paisley (Brooke's daughter) and Addison (Courtney's) in Owensboro.... Paisley and Riess spent some time together...

On Dec.15th, Addison was born and all three girls are finally here!  What a very Merry Christmas!!!!!

Newborn pictures!

We had our first real "photo session" with a wonderful photographer, Melanie Mauer, a few weeks ago.  (I would totally recommend her, by the way... wonderful!) 

I thought I would share our pictures from the session... you can see them at: 

www.melaniemauer.com/riess

The slide show will only be available for a week or so since they are only our proofs, but I hope you have a chance to check them out.  We think they turned out very well!  Enjoy!  More of my pics are on the way.

A LOT to give thanks for...

We made the trip to Owensboro for the week of Thanksgiving.  It was a wonderful time to see friends and family and share baby Riess with everyone.  We certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year!!!

I was MOST thankful for the help I got while at home!  My mom ("Mamie") fed Riess for her 2am feeding the first two nights so Chris and I got to sleep a full 6 hours!!!  It was wonderful to catch up on our sleep.  And I think mom enjoyed her time with Riess in her room.

Riess also met Paisley for the first time -- she's Brooke's new daughter.. born Nov.18.  She was 8 lbs, 14 ounces so she is already much bigger than Riess.  What a cutie!

  "Paisley and Riess"

Now there's only one of us left to go!  Courtney is due Dec.18!

  

Riess is getting bigger, though!  She had a doctor's appointment this week and she is now 8 lbs, 1 ounce.  She is 20 inches long.  That means she is only in the 10th percentile for weight and height.  The doctor says that's completely normal given her ...ahem, genes.... that would be from the 5-footer, mom.  She can curse me later.  She's just a petite little thing like momma!

I also took on the task of taking some pictures of Riess for our Christmas card.  What a hoot that was!  I took nearly 100 pictures.... about 3 of them are usable!  I have a whole new respect for those people who take pictures of babies for a living.  It certainly is not easy.  Here are a few of my favorites...

Hilarious!!!!!

                 

But there were a few good ones....  AWWWWWW!

First bath, more visitors and a SMILE!

We had our first REAL bath this week.  I'm sorry to say, it wasn't a pleasant experience for Riess!  We had done a few sponge baths before her umbilical cord "stump" fell off, but this was the real thing.  I will say she likes to have her hair washed.  She was calm for that part, at least.  But the whole naked/cold/water thing doesn't fly well with her!

             

And we had more fun visitors this week!  Aunt Mae and Aunt Paddy came to visit us.  They have nicknamed Riess "Buttercup" as in Reese's Peanut Buttercups!  I love it!  As of this week, her pet name will be buttercup.  How cute -- I could just eat her up!!

                

Riess is very good with visitors... she sleeps through the visits, usually.  All Mabeth and Paddy wanted was to see her pretty little eyes, but she didn't even give them a peek at those peepers!  

  They aren't COMPLETELY brown yet, but I think they are well on their way to looking like mom's!  They are very dark!  They say we won't know the real color until she's about 6 months old.

Yes, she sleeps through most of the day, except to eat.  But the night... that's a different story. She has been up throughout the night for the past few nights.  I'm talking screaming at the top of her lungs for hours.  Usually between the hours of 1am and 8am.  Perfect, right?

And I didn't realize how tired I really was until I saw this picture:

 Yes - mom, dad and Riess are not sleeping much these days.  Last night was a better night, thank goodness.  She slept between her feedings until around 5am, at least.  It's hard since Chris is now back to work... he isn't here to take over some of those middle-of-the-night crying spells!  I'm pulling out all of the tricks tonight, though.  I went out today and bought a special sleeping "wedge" that will supposedly help and some baby gas drops (that's her main problem at night - her gassiness hurting her little belly).  I'm also feeding her more often at night before she goes to bed and trying to keep her up awhile longer at night.  She's slowly getting the hang of it.

The crying is frustrating, especially with no sleep on my end.  But the sleepless nights are all well worth it when I see something like this... her precious SMILE!

I know it's likely just gas or a coincidence at this age... but it sure looks like she's smiling right at me!!!!  What a cutie!

One week old!

Well, believe it or not... Riess is already a week old.  Almost two weeks old now!  It really feels like she has been here forever!  It's already hard to imagine what life was like before she arrived!
 

She is a hungry hungry hippo!  She's eating very well and growing like a weed!  

               Check out those feet!!!

It feels like I'm feeding her constantly.  I'm looking forward to the end of this week, when I'll finally be able to pump into a bottle to let Chris share with those feedings!

Right now, Chris has been a big help with changing and getting up with her at night when she doesn't have to eat.  He especially likes taking little cat naps with her on his chest.  He's very good at that!

   She likes it too!!!  

She doesn't discriminate... she loves sleeping on Mamie's chest too!  

                             

What an eventful first week!  She watched the election returns Nov.4th...

     Well, she wasn't that interested...

                        

This weekend, we had our first stroller ride!  Mom, Dad, Riess and Guinness all walked on a beautiful Saturday!

And she cheered on the Cats during the UK football game ... she was decked out in her UK hat!

  TOUCHDOWN, WILDCATS!

She's HERE!

Riess has arrived!

7 pounds, 11 ounces

19.5 inches... and PERFECT!

By now, most everyone has heard the story.  I apologize for being late posting to the blog, but it has been one crazy week, as you can imagine!

First of all, as I had predicted, my water broke while Chris was out of town.  Around 11pm Tuesday night, Oct.28, I woke up to a little trickle and rushed to the bathroom.  I wasn't really sure what it was at first, but I soon figured it out that wasn't it!  I called Chris in GREEN BAY.  Luckily, we had a plan in place.  Our great friends Chris and Jennifer Mayer were "on call" while Chris was away.  Chris Mayer was soon at my front door to take me to the hospital!

One 8 hour drive in a rental car by Chris and 18 hours in the hospital bed by me and we had our little girl.  Jane Riess arrived at 5:55pm Wednesday, Oct.29th.

       

We left the hospital on Halloween!  What a special treat for us this holiday!  We'll never forget this one!

 Here's Riess in her first car ride!

  Then we were home!  We have been back at home for a full week now and things are just calming down enough for me to get on the computer and post some pictures!  We have been very fortunate to have family staying with us and helping.  Tonight, in fact, will be our first night "on our own!"  So far so good....

  Is this the sweetest thing you've ever seen, or WHAT?!  We are thrilled she is here!!!  Stay tuned for more pictures!!  (I promise not so long between photos!)

Last trip to Owensboro!

I struggled a lot with whether or not to make the trip back to Owensboro for Courtney's baby shower this Sunday.  I am officially "full term" now, so I'm not sure I should be driving alone in a car for two hours at this point or not.  

But, I decided to do it and I'm glad I did.  Yes, I'm already back in Louisville safe and sound with no signs of labor, so don't worry.

My mom said if anything happens, "I can get you back to Louisville in two hours... no problem!"  All I could think about when she said that was this story I did a few weeks ago about a grandmother delivering her grandson in a car because she couldn't get her daughter to the hospital in time!!  

I'm sure my mom could do it, but there's just something about being in a hospital with the doctor and all.........

Anyway, Courtney's shower was wonderful and I'm glad I made it since I was one of the hostesses!  She seemed to enjoy it and Addison got lots of fun gifts.

It was the last trip I'll make to Owensboro before Riess arrives!  So we had to get one last "belly" picture with all three of us girls who are expecting...

Me, Courtney and Brooke are all expecting little girls by the end of the year!  I'm due in 18 days, believe it or not!!  Brooke is due a week after me.  Courtney is due Dec.18.  I can't wait to get our little girls together for the holidays!  How fun!

I have another doctor's appointment tomorrow, so we might hear something exciting then!  I'll keep you posted.

I love watermelon!

Okay, so remember that time I posted the image from thenestbaby.com -- that my baby was the size of a papaya?  Well, check out the fruit she is this week: a watermelon.  And I can tell you, it sure feels like I am carrying around a watermelon! And if you look at the picture of me below, it looks like I have a watermelon under my skin too!  (or maybe something even bigger?!)

Just wanted to share....

She's almost here!

We spent this weekend getting ready for Riess!  EVERYONE has been asking about the nursery and it is certainly getting there.  We worked on it all weekend and I worked on it on both my days off this week.  It is no small task, and there is still a lot to do!  

           

Chris worked hard on putting our infant swing together.  Riess will LOVE it! What a great daddy.

She continues to swing around in my belly!  Here's my latest belly picture.

           

So.... TADA!  Here's the nursery!  I tried to get pics from every angle.

                

          

And, like I said, Guinness thinks this is HIS room.  He loves the comfy rug and can consistently be found lounging in there when I'm not even in there.  I'm sure he's thinking, "finally!  my own room!"  I just hope he's a big brother who likes to share!

                        

We're still waiting on our window treatments to come in and a few odds and ends here and there, but I absolutely LOVE it!  I hope Riess does too!  

By the way, my doctor's appointment yesterday went really well.  I met with the nurse practitioner (Dr. Buck was delivering a baby, he's not out of town ... I made sure to ask!)  She said I am still not dilated, but very "thinned out."  She said Riess' head is right there, ready to go.  And she said it looks like since I'm so thinned out, when I do start dilating, it should go fairly quickly.  So that's good news.  

By the way, she estimates Riess is already at the 7 pound mark... and expects her to be at least 8 pounds by the time I deliver!!!!  BIG GIRL on the way!  

I'll keep you posted!