Whitt's 1st Month (way too many pictures)

Whitt's first month has gone by so quickly.  I've taken lots of pictures, so bear with me.

Adeline wants to hold her baby brother all the time.

My aunt got a stork put in our yard when Adeline was born, so we've carried on the tradition with Annabel and Whitt.

Sleepy baby yawns are the cutest!

Whitt's first sponge bath at home.  He was not a fan.

And his first stroll around the block.  He loved it.

Adeline had her AWANA Cubbies ceremony the week after we brought Whitt home.  My mom took her.

And we had our first outing with all three.  I love filling up my mommy van.

I know I look mad in this pic, but that's just my resting face.  I didn't know the photo was being taken.  Dr. Froman is checking him out.  He had a bit of trouble gaining weight after he was born, but he's on track now.

Napping with Happy.

Trying to get rid of some jaundice.

Love these three rings!

I love an open-mouthed sleeping baby.

My Mother's Day photo.  Full arms, full heart!

I love this little outfit his Tiny made for him.  That onesie is already too small.  I can barely snap it in the stride.

We had a week of really cold weather and I was trying not to turn the heat on.

He's got so much loose skin on his head.  It cracks me up.

I ventured out to bible study with all three the first week I was by myself.  It was a successful trip!

He's got some long, skinny legs.

He is so loved by his sisters.

We've been taking a walk every evening.  He loves the ergo carrier.

They love to show him his toys.

We went strawberry-picking one Saturday morning.

Happy Memorial Day!

He rolled over from tummy to back twice one day, but hasn't done it again since.

I pumped and we gave him his first bottle the other night.  He drank it like he's been doing it all his life, just like his sisters.  I hope this means he's going to be as good an eater as they are.

Whitt is not a happy camper in the evenings, thanks to the lovely "witching hour", but he does like being outdoors.  We picked up Braum's the other night and picnicked in the backyard.

We made it to church, finally.  Yay!  Jon said, "that's Whitt's smiling face."

Sweet stretches...

He'll take a paci most of the time, but sometimes that doesn't even do the trick.  It's a blessing, though, because neither of my girls ever liked it.

And today he is ONE MONTH old!  Wow!

He nurses every 2.5-3 hours throughout the day, except for in the evenings I try to do cluster feeds every 1.5-2 hours with a bottle I've pumped that day thrown in as well.  I really try to bulk him up before bed.  :)  He's started only waking up once in the night, usually around 2:30 or 3am.  I put him to bed around 8, so that's about 6 hours he goes without eating at night.  However, he's not super consistent with that yet, but it is happening more often than not. 

He slept in my arms in our bed for the first two weeks, then one night he just would not quit crying and go back to sleep.  I put him in the little rock & play sleeper thing in his room and he went right to sleep.  He's been sleeping there ever since.  I put him in his room because Jon and I sleep with the ceiling fan on and I was afraid he'd get too hot, plus he makes a lot of noises when he sleeps.  I do miss snuggling him all night, though.  

I would not classify him as a "happy baby."  He really only likes to eat and sleep.  He's not happy awake for more than about 10 minutes at this point. 

I swear I got a real smile out of him the other day, though.  He made a funny face and I laughed and he looked right at me and smiled back.  It seemed legit to me.  

Now that his umbilical cord has fallen off and he can be submerged in the bathwater, he really enjoys his baths.

He liked the car for about 3 weeks, but now hates it.  I really got my hopes up that I'd have one newborn that didn't scream every time we went somewhere, however it doesn't seem like that's going to be the case.  His sisters cried every car trip until we faced them forward, so looking forward to a year of this.  Oh my!

He's wearing 3-6 month clothes and size 1 diapers.  

He's not a spitter-upper, but he does get the hiccups a lot.

I rock him to sleep.  It makes my life easier right now and I love that time with him so very much.  He also likes to be swaddled and have his sound machine on for maximum sleeping comfort.

He went to the doctor today and he weighed 9lbs 7oz and was 22.25" long.  He's a healthy, growing boy!  Thank you, Lord, for this blessing!

Whittington Ellis Richey is born!

So, here's the story...  The Thursday after Easter (April 24) I started having some pretty intense and painful contractions.  Jon came home from work and took me to the clinic to be checked.  My doctor was out of town so I saw someone else.  He said I wasn't dilated and sent me home.  Jon took off the next day so I could rest and I spent most of the weekend lying around and trying to stay hydrated.  The contractions eased up a little, but all the following week I continued to feel pretty horrible.  I'd have painful contractions that would wake me up at night and I barely slept all that week.  On top of all that, the girls had dance recital practices nearly every day that week.  It was exhausting so I was mostly contributing my discomfort to that.  I went back and forth on thinking I was about to go into labor or thinking I was just tired from chasing around two active little girls.

On Saturday, May 3, the girls had their final dress rehearsal for dance from 9:30-noon.  During that time, my contractions were getting consistently stronger, but I tried to just ignore them.  When I got home, I ate lunch, laid down on the couch and starting timing them.  They were around 4-5 minutes apart.  My parents and Jon's mom were on their way into town for the dance recital that was going to be on Sunday.  As I was lying on the couch, timing my contractions and becoming more and more uncomfortable, I made up my mind to go into labor & delivery when our parents arrived.  I thought it was the perfect time to go since our parents would be here to stay home with the girls and I knew my doctor was on call that day.

Within 30 minutes of my parents arriving, Jon and I were headed to the hospital.  However, since it was still two weeks before I was supposed to be having him, I was in denial that it would actually happen that day.  We didn't take anything but my purse and camera with us.  We sat in labor & delivery for three hours being monitored and routinely checked by the nurses.  I wasn't dilating at all, but my contractions were getting closer together and stronger.  I was in pretty severe pain.  Finally my doctor came by, looked at all my charts and said, "let's do this!"  I was so relieved.  At that point I was telling Jon that we were NOT leaving there without a baby.  I was miserable!  My doctor also said, "I can't send you home having contractions like this.  You're likely to bust open your old c-section incisions."  Talk about scary!  Within an hour we were in the OR, bringing little Whitt Ellis into this world.  As my doctor was cutting me open, she said, "I'm glad we did this today.  Things are pretty thinned out down here."  Meaning, I guess, that my old incisions were stretched to the max.  Whit was born kicking and screaming and off he and Jon went to the nursery.  A few minutes later, the nursery called in to the OR to tell us his weight.  Eight pounds and three ounces!  My doctor said, "Now I'm really glad we did this today.  If we'd waited until the 15th he'd have been over 9 pounds!"  Boy, was I glad, too!

He was born May 3, 2014 at 5:58pm.  He weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces and was 20.75" long!  My biggest baby and at 37.6 weeks.

The only little hiccup we had, was Whitt's blood sugar was a little low at birth.  That turned out to be a bit of a blessing because I got to hold him and nurse him as soon as I got out of recovery, before he'd even had his bath since they were concerned about getting his blood sugar back up.  They checked it several times over the next 12 hours and it was higher each time, so no worries there.

I'm so glad that his grandparents (minus Big T) happened to be in town when he chose to arrive.

I love this door-hanger a lady at my hometown church made for me.

The girls were excited about their Bitty Baby big sister gifts.

The next day the girls and their grandparents were there bright and early.

Jon's quiet time turned into nap time.  Nobody ever gets any sleep in the hospital.

That night the girls had their dance recital.  I hated to miss, but I'll get a dvd and I'm glad everyone else could still go.

Shannon came to the hospital to keep me company while everyone was at the recital.  She thought Whitt was cold so she bundled him all up.

I had little gifts for the girls to give them after their recital.  I was afraid they'd start expecting a present every night after the two previous evenings.  

The dancers brought pizza and cookie cakes back to the hospital after the recital for us all to enjoy.

And the next day we got to go home!  When we left the hospital, his weight was down to 7lb 12oz, which is pretty normal.

We were so excited to bring our little man home to the world of princesses and dress-up.  He is going to rock our world and we can't wait for all the "boy" he'll bring to the mix.