"Baby Libby, you are soooo cute"

Those were the first words big sister Abby said to her new little sister. An indicator of her approval that we all share. Libby is such an amazing little baby - we all love her so much.

Elizabeth Anne
8.8 lbs 21 inches
10-18-08

The big day!

So, its been a crazy week - Jen and I both got a stomach virus Wednesday. We were mostly better by Friday, but then Gammy caught it Friday afternoon. Abby was going to stay with Gammy and Papa for the weekend while Libby was born, but Uncle Clint and Aunt Sarah were able to come watch her instead. So, lasr minute crisis averted, we're at the hospital now. Jen's somewhat relaxing and watching a movie in between contractions, and we're just waiting for Libby to come!

10-18-08

We had a dr appt today and Dr Thorne made us a date for getting induced!! We are cheking in Sat morning at 7:30 - which is better than the 6am we had to be there last time!

So, anyway, for the past week all i've been telling myself is that I just needed to make it through till the shower and then i'd be ok with whatever happened. Since God is trying to gear us up for 2 kids, I think he was showing me this weekend a glimpse of what is to come. Chris got home Friday afternoon with a bad head cold he'd had all week in S. Dakota. Then we all go to bed and abby wakes me up at 2am with what i can hear on the monitor is choking - it was vomit - all over. So, we all get up, change everything in site, watch an episode of MMCH to see if it's going to happen again, and the by 3am lay down with her, only to not sleep because she is having a very fitful sleep, then getting back up and throwing up again. After the initial empting of the contents of her stomach, the rest was just all the drainage from her cold she's had all week, so i didn't think she had a stomach virus. Anyway, when we got up on Sat I had officially slept for 3 hours TOTAL - which, if you know me, is about 10 less than i need in a night. So, my inlaws come down for the baby shower - very sweet of them to support us and the shower was very nice - and then we hang out for a while, abby crashes, curt, brandy and cj head home, then clint and sarah go over to callaway with us to take 37 week pictures. Here are some of them, i think they turned out well. thanks sarah and abby says she wants to go back to the ocean!

On a final note, sat night was even worse because abby started running a fever, then woke up vomiting again at 3 am, stayed up 3 hours, then slept for a while. she was really acting sick this time and was spiking 104 degree temps, so we took her to pediatrics after hours where we found out she has a raging ear infection. no stomach bug, no strep. all in all i think we got off pretty lucky. The funny thing was that before we left for PAO, i looked at chris and said "we haven't slept, eaten or showered today. we look REALLY rough and we feel even rougher, but as bad as this is, I know it's going to get so much worse in a week and that makes me want to cry". Anyway, we laughed because as chris says, "the only thing we have left is humor". we are glad abby is on her way to being 100% and that we'll see libby in 5 days!!

update on baby libby

We had our 36 week appt on tues with an ultrasound to see how big Libby is. She currently weighs in at 6.8 lbs and things are already progressing...so Dr Thorne said he gives it 2-3 weeks. For me, that means the day after chris gets back from South Dakota it is ON!! I freaked out slightly though and came home, finished the blessing gown slip, started on the gown (kimberly erin, can you explain to me why the slip is currently 4 inches longer than the dress and what i can do about it short of taking the bodice off and cutting off 5 inches??), washed all her clothes, packed her bag for the hospital, and couldn't sleep that night. Yesterday chris had to go to Dothan for work and wouldn't you know it, i totally thought i was in labor. i went back to dr thorne wednesday with my bags packed and he said i was not in labor, nothing had changed and the contractions had to get A LOT stronger and a LOT more regular. I feel stupid because i never felt contractions with abby, even when i was in labor...and when i asked dr thorne, he said "now, you are asking a guy what it feels like". he is funny - i love him. Anyway, chris got into a panic about missing the whole thing and came home early from dothan. i was really glad to have him home, even though he is leaving again for a week on monday. dr thorne said he doesn't think the baby will come before chris gets back, let's hope not!!

• this weekend is going to be a lot of rest, my mom is coming over to help get the house clean, and they are going to be helping out a lot while chris is gone next week since it's really hard for me to get abby in and out of the car and in and out of the tub.

• next weekend is libby's shower that my good friend shiloh is throwing for us...i feel bad having a shower for the second baby, but it does seem important to make this baby feel welcome too. plus, it's a supper sign up so that will be very nice and helpful to have. all of this makes me appreciate even more my family and friends and the people that love and care about us. we need others and sometimes asking for help is the hardest thing.

• the next weekend is the family halloween party on friday, sat is ricker fall fun, and sunday is logan's baptism. if i even make it to that weekend, guess which one is the only one i am now allowed to go to:-( i am so sad that abby is missing out on all the fun fall things this year - we were going to have a good time at Washington Farms with abby's cousin CJ and the rest of the ricker clan. we bought a pumpkin for her to carve and we'll take her to a pumpkin patch down the road, but that might be the extent of her fall activities till halloween. speaking of, abby LOVES halloween. mainly because she knows there's going to be candy involved. it's really fun this year because she understands so much of what's happening.
• the next weekend is fall fun at callaway and then the next weekend is HALLOWEEN!! Abby is going to be.....some sort of random princess ballerina fairy complete with all of the accouterments that you would expect from such a put together made up costume. i bet she'll be cute though AND have the world's most out of control tutu, made by yours truly:-)

sorry for the rambling, just wanted to give an update and we are all still pretty sleep deprived.