Tuesday, November 18, 2008

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!

Monday, November 10, 2008

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!





Thursday, November 6, 2008

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!)