Arrival of Matthew Ryan White

Born: 1:00AM on August 2nd, 2009

Weight: 7 pounds

Length: 20 inches

Thank you to everyone for all your sweet thoughts, comments and prayers! We have been blessed with a wonderful sweet baby boy! Ryan has already been a great Daddy and a wonderful coach during my labor!

In Labor YEA!

Water broke at 4:15am and doc said we could come in at 10am, so we slept did a few things around the house and then came into MJH. In mild labor now so, we cannot wait to meet our baby Matthew :) Pictures will hopefully come by at least sometime tomorrow. Could not ask for better nurse or Doc :)

38 weeks & 5 days - Only 9 Days Left!

It is official, we are in the homestretch with only 9 days left. Matthew, when will you come and meet us and see you new room and home??? I wake up every day wondering will this be the day I can meet Matthew and see what he looks like? Well as you can see from a couple pictures below, my belly just keeps sticking out. It really is huge now! As much as I know I will miss being pregnant and him moving around in me, I know I cannot wait to meet him and eventually have my body back. Any guesses of dates, weight etc are welcome.

I know it has been a while since I have posted, but we have not been doing much since we have been hanging around the house awaiting his arrival. I have packed for the hospital and we are just trying to keep the house as clean as possible since we are not sure what will happen next ;) We have run a few errands here and there getting some last minute items needed for him.

I did have a very nice shower put on from my work. We did get some great things from my fabulous co-workers! We have truly been blessed with such wonderful people in our lives. We did get the pack'nplay, jumperoo, a couple outfits, a great book for him, the wonderful Clore handmade rocker for Matthew along with a very nice bib from Alice. Alice made it with Matthew's name on it. Thank you all at Investure!

Pics of Matthew's Nursery!

Last night, we had our tour of Martha Jefferson Hospital Labor and Delivery area. It was nice to see where we will be going and staying for a couple nights. It was a private tour by our friend and neighbor, Suzie, who is a Labor and Delivery Nurse there, hopefully she will be working whenever I have to go in. After the tour, Ryan and I went to a nice dinner at the Melting Pot, thanks to my mom. This was probably our last nice dinner alone before Matthew arrives. We enjoyed ourselves forsure!

This past weekend Friday night Ry and I took it easy and went to bed early. Saturday we went our separate ways. Ry washed the cars and ran some errands while I got my first and probably last Manicure and Pedicure while pregnant with Matthew, thanks to mom, for the pampering funds :) I also went to hear a talk on working moms, part-time moms vs stay-at-home moms; all very interesting. Then came home finished up some laundry and got ready for our photo shoot which we were all in. My good friend Bernie from college is trying to build her portfolio, so she took some pretty amazing maternity pictures; Abby and Ryan were able to get into a few as well! I am happy and lucky to be able to have a friend do something so special for me! I enjoyed it and liked the pictures more than I thought. I am glad I did it and happy to know Matthew can see what his mom looked like one day while pregnant with him. Below is a slideshow of a few of the great shots she got of us.

Sunday, we slept in went to Five Guys with Abby on the Downtown Mall and then took Abby to a park to walk around a very nice paved trail. She enjoyed it and was pooped by the end. It was a nice walk for us and good for Ryan to get out for a bit too especially since his surgery. Then we went to evening church service. We had a pretty nice relaxing weekend overall.

We are coming down to 37 weeks this week with a doc's appointment on Friday, so we will keep you all posted! Oh and how could I forget this week the car-seat was installed in my car along with a few other miscellaneous items. We are super excited!

The even better news is Bernie will be back down when Matthew arrives to get some great newborn shots too!

36 Weeks Today!

Yea, we are 36 Weeks today :) I had my Dr's appointment today and he said I am about 30% effaced and no dilation. So he is moving down, but not down far enough yet. His heart beat is good and everything looks healthy! I am measuring 37cm at 36 weeks, so just 1 cm over, which is not to be concerned. I cannot wait till next weeks appointment hoping for more progression of course. Our next appointment will be next Friday, so hopefully more stats to come :) stay tuned....

This picture was taken on Tuesday at 35 weeks and 5 days. Matthew is getting bigger :)

Oh and how could I forget...

Abby visited Poppie's house for the weekend we were at our shower/in the ER. She seemed to enjoy herself as you can see from the photos :)

The first week home after Ryan's surgery...

Edible Arrangement From Ryan's Co-Workers at VAF

On Tuesday, I went into work a little late to try and make sure Ryan was comfortable before I had to leave him. Work did let me leave early that day, so Tuesday, I did come home and helped care for him the rest of the day. He was still in pain the rest of the week. To this day it still hurts him a bit to sneeze, cough and laugh. Since the incision is in his lower abdomen, that affects a lot of his muscles. He is doing much better at getting up and down. Wednesday, the 1st I did work a full day and then Thursday we did get to get out early for the holiday weekend. So all in all I didn't have to leave him for too long.

Ryan's Incision with the 5 staples still in

Thursday night was the first time Ryan actually got out of the house. We went to BabiesRus to pick up our dresser, yes, Ryan only came along for the ride as I think he was getting frustrated about being coupted up. That trip did ware him out as he was tired after that. Thank you to his friends Derik and Andy who picked the dresser up and brought it up to Matthew's room and took it out of the box and placed it where we wanted it in his room. They were a huge help and I know Ryan felt bad and helpless . But we would rather Ryan stay low and be safe so he can recover fully before Matthew arrives.

Abby Looking after Ryan while I am at work.

After the dresser Thursday we just stayed in and Ryan relaxed, while I worked some more on Matthews room most of the weekend and did some laudry. Friday on our day off we slept in, ran some errands and got a few needed things for Matthew plus of course made a Sam's trip. We saw a couple of friends and then came home to cook dinner. Saturday we slept in again; trying to enjoy that as much as possible. We did a few things around the house and then went to Walnut Creek Park to try their beach area off the lake. It is a county park which was very nice. We were impressed and would go back again. Then we headed home showered up and went to a cookout with friends. The food was great, so we ended up having a nice 4th of July. We came home early to Abby and Abby didnt seem to mind the noise of the fireworks which was great. I finished folding all of Matthew's clothes and putting them in their right spot. Each day this week we keep getting a couple more things in for Matthew. We are a month away now and we are so looking forward to his arrival. Sunday the 5th was pretty gloomy so we stayed in, relaxed, napped and did a couple other things, like finishing our thank yous from last weekend.

Now, this finally brings us to today. We are now back in our work routine again. Ryan still has to take it easy so no working out for a while, but it has been nice to have him home and by my side. I enjoyed every moment (even though he was somewhat disabled) with him! I love the time we spend together even when we run errands. He really is such a good hubby and I cannot imagine a better one!

The ER Visit...

Wow, where to begin... We are a little behind as after my last entry we ended up in the ER for Ryan ended up having Appendicitis.

Back to Friday the 26th, Ryan and I left town around 4:30ish and drove down to NC with Abby. At that moment he was telling me his stomach was somewhat achy, but he said he had had the pain before. So of course I said can you please at least be happy and put on a smiley face because we are going to visit your friends for our last shower and last weekend away before Matthew arrives. Well of course I thought it was just a random ache he gets every now and then and thought he was being a baby about it. I knew it was bad and something worse when he couldn't sleep on Friday night. He still insisted that he would get over it and no need to go to the doc. We got him some Alieve and Motrin, which helped the pain a bit, but after our shower on Saturday evening it just continued to get worse. I knew it was getting even worse when he wasn't himself and wouldn't socialize friends; that was not the Ryan I knew and we had to do something about it. He said he just needed to sleep and we could leave early Sunday AM to go to a prompt care in Richmond. Well he couldn't fall asleep again so I insisted we take him to the ER in Henderson, NC. This was the closest hospital to where we were. Funny cause Ryan knew where the hospital was for me just in case, something were to happen for me or Matthew to need to go there. Little did he know he would end up there for two nights. So we arrived in the ER and they took us back pretty much right away. Did many tests and it wasnt until 4am that they said it looks like you will be staying with us, at that time, they finally gave Ryan some meds to releive the pain until he had to go into surgery. At that time is when they told us he did have acute appendicitis from the CT scans. He ended up having surgery around 12:30ish on Sunday and then we had to stay Sunday night. The Hodges were all wonderful to us and very helpful. They brought our bags to us and food to me. Needless to say it was a very long weekend and difficult to sleep in a hospital espcially the first night when all I had was a chair. We ended up not getting home till Monday the 29th in the afternoon. It was nice to be home. I cared for Ryan and tried to be a good nurse. All in all the shower Ryan's friends put on for Matthew was fabulous! Other than Ryan's ER visit which we could not help we could not have asked for a better shower on the lake! A big THANK YOU to all who were able to make it. We always love being at the lake and hopefully next time we see you all we will all be healthy and happy and have a wonderful happy and healthy baby boy, Matthew, with us!