Round two with DDH

Last week we had Vivian's hips checked for DDH.  The same condition Cecilia had.  The pediatrician recommended we get our future babies screened just in case.  Well unfortunately Vivian also has it.  The real benefit of catching it early though is she won't have to do the cast.  As I mentioned before, if found early enough they can do a harness instead of the cast.  Additionally it may only be for a month and then just during sleep for another month after that.  I was surprised to hear the doctor say that, but they grow so much at this age, and there isn't a bunch of stuff between the ball and socket that a month may be enough.  Given our experience with Cecilia being in a cast for three months we are really counting our blessings with this one.  We can take it off for baths and diaper changes and give her an hour of play time a day.  We can take it off and wash it, and we can still see and hold our squishy baby, granted she isn't quite as squishy with it on.  All things we couldn't do with Cecilia.  But if this is the bad gene I pass on to my children, I'll take it, as it is completely fixable.

Katie's favorite dessert

Mmm.  Fruit desserts are her favorite.  This one especially.  A fake blueberry cheesecake that takes no time to whip up.  Love summer!

Vivian's favorite sleeping position

This is Vivian's favorite sleeping position. Arms straight up. It has been pretty much since she was born. She doesn't like to be swaddled. She loves to stretch out. No wonder she felt so cramped inside.

Earrings

Cecilia came to me today and said she had earrings in. This is what she meant by that. She has also said "gummy balls" for gum balls and "sprinklers" for sprinkles recently. Sometimes they are just too cute to correct. Like when she says "goobies" for boobies.

Update

Vivian is 5 weeks old now. Time flies. We are all adjusting well. Cecilia has been really good with her and loves to talk baby talk to her and get right up in her face. It is like she thinks she is blind and deaf. I keep telling her to talk normal but she doesn't get it. Oh well, she loves her, that is what matters.  I think Cecilia adjusting so well has helped all of us adjust quickly. We are a family of four now.  Sleep is pretty good. Vivian is usually up until about midnight but then sleeps for a couple of hours and eats and goes back down for another couple hours. Shaun is nice enough to let me sleep in an hour or two and gets up with Cecilia. One exciting piece of news is Vivian started smiling last week. It sure melts your heart when you see that for the first time. She has such a cute smile. Each day she smiles more and more and it gets easier and easier to get her to do it.  Of course she smiles at mom the most.  This girl is smart, she knows where the food comes from.  We were able to catch it in a picture yesterday. It is fleeting, no time to get the perfect picture so they are a bit blurry, but you can still see the adorable smile.

Introducing Vivian Hazel Ritchie

Let me just start by saying I have worked on this post three times and all or part of my changes were not saved. That is some of the reason why it has taken so long to write.

We want to introduce you to the newest member of our family, Vivian Hazel Ritchie. She was born on June 2nd at 2:42 pm. She weighed 8 pounds 15 ounces (yeah, almost 9lbs, big girl). Everyone is doing well and we are so happy to have her in our family. I was initially worried she was going to be our stubborn child because she wouldn't come on her own. I had a doctors appointment on Wednesday and the doctor was surprised she hadn't come yet. He told me to come back Friday if I hadn't had her yet. Well Friday came and no baby, even after lots of walks. The doctor was surprised to see me. He told me he slept in his scrubs expecting me to call and knowing he wouldn't have much time to get to the hospital. In fact throughout this whole experience he kept making comments about how fast the labor would be and I didn't really take him seriously.  Anyway we (I) decided to to wait one more day to see if she would come on her own and if not we would have my water broken. I woke up Saturday thinking what a stubborn kid she was. She just wouldn't come on her own!  So we went in hoping breaking my water would give her a nudge and kick start labor. Boy did it ever!  Vivian was born an hour after labor started. It was fast and intense.  It felt like one long contraction.  It was good I wanted to have a natural labor because there wasn't time to get an epidural.  About the time I would have wanted one the nurse was getting the room ready and calling the doctor to hurry and come deliver the baby.  A few minutes later she was born.  It was then that I changed my mind, this child isn't stubborn, she just knew I didn't want to have her in the car on the way to the hospital so she waited until I was already there before she got the show going.  Here are a few pictures.

Mom, dad, and Vivian leaving the hospital

First bath

Big sister combing Vivian's hair

Big sister loves to hold and talk to Vivian

Superwoman!

Mike and Shannon Ritchie Open House

In April we had an open house for Shaun's brother Mike and his wife.  They got married in January in Washington DC but there was lots of friends and family that couldn't make it so they had an open house here.  Shaun and I coordinated the event which we hosted at our house.  The weather cooperated so we were able to have it outside.  I think everyone had a nice time, I know we did!


The happy couple!


Centerpieces we made for the open house.  A friend gave me the idea for hot air balloon centerpieces and I just had to do them.  Don't you think they look good?


Big hot air balloon decorations lining the driveway to guide people to the open house.

Mike just before he released one of the giant balloons.  It was quite fun to watch the balloon disappear into the sky and see who could watch it the longest.  I think Shannon's sister won.  Surprisingly we never saw it pop, it just kept rising and rising and rising until you couldn't see it anymore.


The Italian soda bar was quite a hit.  Next party you plan you should have one of these.

The dessert table.  We gave out the "R" sugar cookies as a favor.  They were pretty tasty!  We also had several hors d'oeuvres that were really yummy but I didn't get a picture of them.  Happy wedding Mike and Shannon!