3 weeks ALREADY?

Really... where does the time go? Where ever it goes, it goes way to fast.
We have enjoyed our very quick three weeks with our new tiny family member. Sawyer is growing like a weed and changing faster than he can grow.
Okay... like recovering from child birth isn't enough. This family has been put to the test. Before we left the hospital I had two shots, the whooping cough vaccination and an MMR shot (because my levels where low for some reason.) Side effects? Yes, I got most of them making me very achy (headaches included with that ache,) tired, and weak. In those same days, Ely came home from school with the belly flu which landed him three days out of school. Sawyer displayed some scary symptoms took so we made a trip to the doctor. Finally, both boys feeling better and (of course) my throat, head, and chest began to hurt. Sure enough I came down with some crazy virus that caused an icky cough. Then Sawyer began to cough and to have some nasty mucus. In the mean time, there goes Philly to the couch with the belly flu. Back on his feet rather quickly and back to work, we all had one weekend pain free!
Come Monday morning I came down with the belly flu. It is NOT easy to take care of yourself when your sick. Put a newborn on top of it and that's just not fair. So here we are at Thursday and guess what?? Ely is home with horrible symptoms again. So with all of this illness and a new baby to care for we are all in need of some R&R.
We have not failed to enjoy every single precious moment though. Here are some clips from our first three weeks together.

Thanksgiving Day-We brought our baby home
Bonding time

First bottle

Visitors
Cousins...Nick, Casey, Emily, and Sarah with Ely, Sawyer, and Amaya
Cousin Chelsea.
Uncle Jimmy.
Uncle Eric.
Our dear friends...
 Lisa....
Darcy...
Michelle and Scout.
Our Baby Bear
Sleepy time

Can all moments be like this?
Loving my boys,
Jen


Welcome to the World Sawyer Milo Richason!

HE is here!!! We have another son! Born at 5:51 a.m. on Tuesday, November 20th, 2012 at Bloomington Hospital.
SAWYER IS BEAUTIFUL!






Naming him
We took our list of boy and girl names with us to the hospital. Picking a name was truly challenging for us. If you can imaging how indecisive Philly is... I'm not to far off myself. He finally received his name when he was close to thirty hours old. Phil told the nurse he had to sleep on it so our baby was not getting a name within his first 24 hours of life. Silly Daddy.
Both his first and middle names seemed to fit who I thought he would be. During my pregnancy I kept telling Philly how peaceful and calm this baby seemed. His movements were smooth and almost gentle. So I wanted to name him Milo. It seemed fitting. Phil then told me that he had a great grandfather named Milo Flanagan
Phil wanted to know the meaning of every name that I brought to his attention. When he asked me what Milo meant, I responded, "Real sweet boy, Big strong man." I busted out laughing to reveal that I had made that meaning up. It really means solider in English and destroyer in Greek.
Sawyer seemed to fit Phil in my eyes. I kept trying to come up with something unusual but not so off the wall that people would stop and say,"What, say that again."
Sawyer means woodworker or lumberjack. That seems so outdoorsy and rouged. A perfect fit for our little man. Anyone who knows Phil well, has seen his none stop ability to go outside and work from the time his feet hit the floor until there is no lighting options left without disturbing the neighbors(hehe). So that is where the two names came from. It was a difficult selection. Phil was leaning toward Ezra which would have been fitting as well. People seem to fit their name though don't you think?

Labor was.... all natural. Without many words, I think this picture gives the perfect idea of how things went. OUCH!
Busted capillaries
Our Labor Story
I had been dilated for over 7 weeks so we knew that we could have a baby any day.
Finally, at 2:43 on Nov. 20th I was awoke by a very painful and sudden thud in my lower stomach (which turned out to be my water breaking) that sent me straight into hard labor.
Contractions were immediately under 4 minutes apart and 45 seconds long. From 2:43 to 3:30 contractions became 1:20 seconds apart and were lasting as long as 3 full minutes. I talked to Dr. Cook  at 3:30am and he said that it could be false labor, if my water had broke it could be hours before delivery, and to use my judgement on when to go to the hospital. So, we prepared to leave for the hospital.
By the time we made it to the car at 4:30, I had a contraction that lasted every bit of 5 minutes and I felt the first need to push. Once we got on the highway (as Philly drove the speed limit, seemed unbelievably relaxed considering that I was holding on to the "Oh crap" handle above the door, with my feet on the dash board, window going up and down, and panting like a dog on a hot summer day) I decided that there was no time to stop to drop Ely off so he was along for the ride.
We arrived at the hospital at 4:59 and I was dilated to an 8. Twenty minutes later (5:20ish) I was at a 10 and ready to have our baby. Sawyer arrived at 5:51 and Philly and I became proud parents of an extremely healthy, perfectly grown, baby boy.
Needless to say, "That was the fastest labor I have ever known of!" 3 hours and 13 minutes of crazy painful labor... and done! Whew. That's the way to do it if you are going natural I guess.
Cleaning up our baby.
Proud big brother Ely, holding his long awaited baby brother for the first time. He has waited years for this one special moment! 
The little family of three together for the first family picture.
We were visited by many people in our two day stay at the hospital.
Aunt Jeanie was the first to arrive.
Uncle Pete...
...and Grandma Jinner were close behind.
Mamaw Diane made it in just in time to comfort her crying grandson along with Papaw Andy who seems to have gotten the quite side of Sawyer.
Uncle Pat (whom is MIA in our hospital pics...how did that happen?) and Aunt Lori made it for a visit.
And big sister Amaya had some alone time with the little guy, just Sawyer, Mommy, and Sis.
Let me brag a little. Amaya came in and held the baby until he got hungry. When she handed him over to me she immediately began cleaning the room. She is truly a gem!
And this proud Papa acted as though this was a walk in the park. He took Sawyer to the Lullaby Lounge Nursery and spent some alone time with baby so that Mommy could sleep. He burped the baby many times. I don't recall changing but one diaper myself. It was all Daddy.
But the funniest moment of all was when Sawyer had his first dirty diaper.
Dr. Moore had came into look our new little one over. When he unfastened his diaper he announced that Sawyer needed his diaper changed. We had our first dirty diaper. This was within the hour after he was born. I couldn't get out of bed yet. So Philly took the responsibility of the first dirty diaper change. He did the right thing and went straight for a clean diaper. As he was heading toward the bathroom I attempted to stop him by saying, " No sweetie they are over there." Philly replied, "No I saw some in here a minute ago." I looked over at Dr. Moore and said, "He is going to come out with...." and sure enough on my word, Philly exited the bathroom with a ginormous "maxi pad" that he was going to try to put on our son!!!
Dr. Moore said, "I don't think that is a diaper." Philly replied, "Oh, well what is it then?" I answered, "A maxi pad." Dr. Moore then directed this new Daddy to the newborn diapers and went ahead and handed Phil some gauze and told him, " We don't use wipes here, we use these." So Philly took the gauze and did what anyone would do... began wiping his babies bottom the best he could only to become discouraged by how sticky and pasty this poo was. I was trying not to laugh because I was so sore and tired but how could I refrain. I finally got the words out, "We need a nurse to help with this." Sawyer finally got his first dirty diaper changed and Phil gave us a great hospital story!
The next morning Dr. Moore came in to talk with us about Sawyer's jaundice level. He asked if everything worked out with the diaper change and Phil answered, "Yeah it did, we almost named him Max." Blahaahaha

I don't know why I love this picture so much but it is so cute to me!


Some sweet moments from our hospital stay.

Going home...Thanksgiving Day 2012



So Thankful for our lil turkey,
Jen and Phil




39 weeks and 3 days

Yesterday we had our 39 week check up and guess what..... not much progress at all!
Surprise! Once again this kid is to comfy in there. Our next apt. isn't until the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Maybe we will have a Thanksgiving turkey!!! Any day would be perfect with me. No wonder mother's can be push overs when it comes to our kidos. We sit around for 9 to 10 months with no control over what the kid is doing in there, waiting on baby month after month (in the end min. after min.), we don't get to choose what it looks like, what day it will be born, if it's a boy or a girl, etc. We truly accept a tremendous amount of stuff about our children before we ever get to hold them in our arms and share them with everyone around us. No wonder some of us struggle to say NO to so much (I should speak for myself, right?)

So, I am off work now and have enjoyed my three very busy days of maternity leave. However, maternity leave with a baby would make more sense. I know a healthy baby is worth the wait and my Mom reminded me of this yesterday but, come on Baby R, you can't stay in there for ever! People want to met you.
With much patients,
Jen

So Unpredictible

Tomorrow is the 7th of Nov. and Philly thought that we would have a baby in our arms but, Baby R seems to be deciding differently. Everything about pregnancy seems to be so unpredictable.
Our doc. apt. today proved that we are once again making slow progress... but progress is being made. So, I guess that means that the baby isn't going to be stuck in my ginormous tummy forever.

I keep wondering if it would like to be a Thanksgiving baby because it sure passed up it's Halloween Birthday opportunity. Maybe it is waiting for us to knock a few more details off of our to do list. The problem with that to do list is that every time we knock something off we add something in it's place. Why?? Because we are a crazy pregnant couple and the baby's daddy has been nesting right along with me for months now. I am on a cooking craze in this nesting phase. I have been preparing freezer meals for weeks now. Some for the oven and some for the crock pot. I'm hoping this will allow us to spend more time as a family and ease the stress from lack of sleep and adjustment to such a big change.

One day very soon we will have a very special Birthday celebration at Bloomington Hospital. Until then, I am going to enjoy hogging my little one all to myself before I have to share with the rest of world.
Love and Laughter,
Jen and Baby

P.S. 2 more votes for Lylah (making the new total 10) and 2 votes for Oliver.

Ugh!

Everyone that we know thought this baby would have been here by now including me. Philly thinks the birth date will be between the 4th and the 7th. The due date is between the 13th and the18th of November and you know that we have had our bags packs since our Sept. apt.
Today's apt proved that we are making slow progress. So when will Baby R be here? When it decides to drop a bit more... just not quite ready yet. Next apt. is set for Tuesday. I think that it is waiting for it's room to be entirely complete. Pick little perfectionist:) It was the biggest under taking in the entire house. We have spent hours in there trying to make it as perfect as possible. I will try to complete a couple projects and post nursery pictures in the next few days.
Hanging in there,
Jen

The Results

The Baby Name Poll was tons of fun! Thanks to all of you who participated. The results of the names chosen for this November baby are....

Girls:
#1 Lylah       8 votes
#2 Annaliese and Aliza tied with 5 votes each.
Claire, Estella &  Atalaya tied with 2 votes each.

Boys:
#1 Sawyer    6 votes
#2 Milo         5 votes
#3 Wyatt and Ezra tied with 3 votes each.
Vincent, Oscar, Jett, and Judd all tied with 2 votes each.

Only days away now if not hours... come on Baby R, Mommy really want to hold you.
We have a doc apt. today at 2 o'clock so I will post updates as soon as we get back home and settled in.
-Jen

Q: Halloween Costum or Total Class Clown?

A: Both

For your entertainment....
(Most Father's worry about the way their daughter are dressed when they leave the house.... we have a slightly different problem.)


Ely was a pregnant mom for Halloween. He is such a clown.
A man at one of the houses that he went up to busted out laughing when he said, "Happy Halloween!!" and Ely responded in a deep boy voice. Hysterical I tell you. Many people did not get it and even thought that he was really a girl. Another lady said, " Oh look, this one is expecting. My mother would have loved that!"
Good one Ely... (or should I say Ellie?) nice sense of humor.

 He even lost a nail and found it in his plate of food.
Challenging to learn to function with those claws.
I asked Ely to pick something up off the floor for me and he, "I am just as pregnant as you are and I have been doing as much as I can for myself."
He has learned from the best;)

Almost there!!!!

I keep telling the baby that if it would make it's big appearance into the world today it would always have super fun birthday parties with costumes and lots of candy. I had contractions all night last night but nothing that took us to the hospital.
Our doc. apt. on Friday was exciting. We are making progress and the Doctor said, "Any day!"
The Doctor also took the time to ask Philly how tall he is. He told her about 6'2 or so. She than turned backed to me and said, "This isn't going to be a small baby, what where you thinking?" I didn't have anything to say because it put fear in my mind. It was good to hear that our health is wonderful!
Baby's heart rate was 126 this time. I am really thinking boy. I thought girl up until our last ultrasound. 50/50 on this one for sure. I am truly ready to find out!!!!!!






Praying for my Halloween baby.
Dear God, please let this baby be under 9lbs. Amen.
Love,
Jen

Baby Name Poll

The time has come around again for Americans to cast their vote in the elections! Philly and I thought it would be great to host our own Poll and view the opinions of anyone who would like to participate in selecting a baby name.
As most of you know, we do not have a name picked out for our baby just yet. We are getting closer to narrowing it down and have came up with several names that we both agree could work for our little one.
Though we want to meet Baby Richason before our final decision, we thought it would be fun to see what everyone else thinks of the names we have one our list. Naming your child is such a big decision. You can't help but have all of these thoughts.... "What will the nickname/shortened name be?, Will kids in school be able to make fun of this name?, Will the child like the name as they get older?, Will the name fit the child?, What is the meaning of the name?, etc."

With all of that said, here is what we need you to do....
#1-Scroll all the way down to the very bottom of this page (the footer.)
#2-Read through our list of girl and boy names.
#3-Then, select your favorite name (click in the circle beside the name you like the most.)
#4-Last, click the submit button at the bottom and you are done.

Very fun, very easy, and hopefully helpful to us. Who knows, this little one may end up with the name you picked.

Thanks for taking the time to participate in our Baby Name Poll.
Happy voting,
Philly, Jen, and Baby R

Huge

That's all I have to say....
34 weeks taken two weeks ago.


Olympic Gold Medalist

Ely has always had a love for swimming. He has swam on his own since he was 18 months. He just jumped in one day and began to doggie paddle. And with the energy he has it's no wonder that he and water are a match made in heaven (and he is an Aquarius for those who are interested.)
Lawrence County Aquatics, held at Bedford North Lawrence High School, is Ely's new passion.
He attended his first meet in Columbus and did a good job for only being a part of the group for less than 2 weeks. Here he is lowering himself into the pool  for the 50 meter back stroke.
And he is off...

He loved competing.
The other day at school his teacher asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Elyjah answered, "An Olympic Gold Medalist." He said that his teacher's reply was something like... that would be a great thing because you will get to be constantly active. 
I am just fine with this Olympian plan of his! Only time will tell. 
So happy to see my boy so happy,
Jen