Happy Fourth of July

We celebrate our nations birthday with the welcome arrival of Ryan's grandpa - Mr. John Britt!  Mr. B arrived in the afternoon and we all enjoyed a cookout, fireworks and a great comeback from the Colorado Rockies.  Ryan only had two hot dogs and stuck with Michelob Ultra to keep looking trim.  Surprisingly she put away about a sixer, however I personally think Peg snaked a few of Ryan's brews.

First Doctor Visit and Visitors

They haven't called to tell us to bring her back, so we are working closely with Peg to determine how to care for this beautiful baby girl. So far so good - only one rough night (Thursday)

She is opening her eyes now and again, but mostly just sleeping and eating (what a life!)

We had our first visitors on Thursday - Mark and Nicole were the first to see our little bundle of joy. They also brought along some great gifts to make life easier when feeding and pacifying Ryan! Thank you Mark and Nicole.

We also had our first Doctor visit - all is well. She has lost some weight, but that is mostly due to the strict workout regiment. Ryan is handling the machine weights well, but still struggles with the heavy free weights...all in due time :-).

Thank you to everyone for the calls, well wishes, gifts and prayers.

SHE is here!

We proudly welcomed the most beautiful and wonderful baby girl ever seen Sunday evening, June 29th, at 10:46pm. Ryan Elizabeth Stiff joined us after 11 hours of labor and a few Phase 10 card games. She was a whopping 8 lbs, 15 ounces and 21 inches long. She had a full head of dark hair and was the spitting image of her dad - no paternity lawsuits in this family. We got home from the hospital yesterday and 24 hours into our life at home, she fits in like she has always been here. Our first night was relatively calm and dare we say, pleasant. A HUGE, HUGE, HUGE thank you to my mom who has been our savior. A former nurse, she puts us at ease with any baby questions and she is a fabulous cook and all around "what can I get for you" help. Thanks to all of you for your kind phone calls, flowers, wishes, emails, visits, etc.....

Naturally, the one thing we really need at this time, our camera, is on the verge of dying --- in the midst of the excitement Sunday night, we 'donated' our camera charger to whomever cleans up at the hospital. One of dad's duties today is to go out and find a new life-line for the world to see our precious Ryan. Here are a few pics though from yesterday - please enjoy!

The waiting game...

This will be short and sweet as there is not much else to report - at my 39 week appointment yesterday I was pleased to hear that things are progressing quite well. All the usual stats were very good (blood pressure, baby's heartbeat, etc...) and I am now 80% effaced and 2-3 centimeters dilated. I had sensed that little Stiffler had dropped even lower as the sense of carrying around a bowling ball between my legs had intensified and the doctor confirmed this - she said he/she was extremely low. I'm still not sure what any of this really means - are we talking hours? days? another week or two? Who knows. So now we wait. Although we will definitely keep up the walks in the park and trips to the gym in hopes to keep things moving along.

Friday fun - a pic of Jack and my sister.

*Also, a special hello to my cousin Ann! We love hearing from you! Thanks for all of your comments!

My how far we've come....

I thought I'd do a side-by-side comparison of baby Stiffler at 22 weeks vs. 38.5 weeks.

Not hard to figure out which is which, is it?

PS - I fried the baby yesterday while up in Breckenridge for the Stiff family reunion. I don't know what's scarier, having a sun burndt belly or the fact that in order to acheive a red glow, I had to sport a bikini while at the pool. I'm really hoping that delivery is a few days off (at the least) for fear that they will take one look at my little sunburn and call child protective services on me for harming my child. Yes, I had on sunscreen. Yes, we weren't out there too long. Yes, it was far more cloudy than it was sunny (it even rained a bit!). However my belly hasn't seen too much sunlight in quite some time. I suppose I should have known better.

Another doctor appointment Thursday so we'll chat again then.....

37.5 weeks - let's discuss the stats

We had another weekly doctor's appointment today - just as I had gotten finished telling the doctor that I am not one of those women who are in misery and trying every trick in the book to dislodge the little guy/gal early, I was told that I might want to think about finishing up any loose ends at work. What??? Work-wise, I want at least another week or two so I can cruise into my maternity leave feeling that all loose ends have been taken care of, any earlier would put a kink in my master plan. Not to mention buying us more time for Grant to grasp the concept that we will have a living, human being in our care - literally his one goal... "don't kill the kid". Anyway, out of curiosity I asked the doctor to give me a progress report since I had been feeling a lot more crampy the last few days while out walking or at the gym. She said that I am now 70% effaced and 1 centimeter dilated and she could feel the baby's head nice and low. Which would explain why my waddle has become more pronounced - quite an attractive strut to say the least. Thankfully I've read all my books and talked to friends so I know not to get too worked up about the percentages/numbers but I suppose it was a good kick in the rear to start getting my work in order. So we'll see, I still think lil' Stiffler will obey my request and wait until his/her due date. However, if this baby is anything like it's mother, he/she will disobey all parental requests and do as it pleases.

Large and in charge at 37.5 weeks:

Grants reaction to the news that this is all real & happening and not just a dream:

Car Seats and Baby Kicks

So as we get closer to our due date, we're trying to finish the last of our 'to-do' items as well as keeping each other from hyperventilating. Last night was project Car Seat Installation. However, it's not really much of a 'project' when you know that if you completely screw it up, our hospital offers free installation with the purchase of a new baby. So what started out as a family bonding experience, quickly turned to a 'just buckle the damn base in and let the hospital sort out the rest, let's go get ice cream'. One Cold Stone Creamery vanilla with oreo treat later, and we had a fairly successful car seat installation. Just don't attempt to actually buckle in a live human being, we can't guarantee that with one sudden stop the car seat won't be up front with the driver. Here's dad-to-be tackling the car seat itself and the handy dandy baby mirror.
Before:

After:

For those of you who aren't grossed out by big, bare bellies - I tried to capture the craziness that can sometimes be my stomach these days. Perhaps it was the ice cream. A little video of Baby Stiff putting on a show.
*I realized afterwards that I probably should have either narrated the video or turned off the TV, instead this lovely moment is accompanied by a Holiday Inn commercial.

Bonus Photo ---- could Jack (7 months) be any cuter??? (or more flexible?)