Jayna's Birthday and A Fun Weekend (LONG)

MY LITTLE GIRL IS 4 ALREADY!!

Jayna is 4!! I cannot believe it! Time flies. It is so bittersweet having your child get another year older. I am excited to see her growing up and becoming her own little person, but at the same time I'm scared that my baby is growing up so fast! Only other moms can understand where I'm coming from!

4 CANDLES ON BLUES CLUES CUPCAKES!

We had an AWESOME birthday party for her on March 21st. Daddy and Uncle Robbi put on a "Blue's Clues" show for her...and they went all out! It was so cute! They played blues clues to find out where we were going to go for her party (which was Chuck E. Cheese's). I got it all on video and also took some still shots, but nothing compares to the real thing! I hope that Jayna never forgets it! Here are some pics of the show:

A CLUE A CLUE!!

"WHERE SHOULD WE GO, BLUE?"

UNCLE ROBBI WAS A GREAT BLUE

HANDY DANDY NOTEBOOK

THE KIDS LOVED IT!! O AND THERE'S ME IN THE BACKGROUND

"MAIL TIME!"

JAYN DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS UNCLE ROBBI!!!

All the Ritter family was there, along with the neighbors Felicia, Vince and kids, and my Dad ("Candy Grandpa") and my brother Jason. It was such a blast! Jayna got an enormous amount of gifts. I don't know where I"m going to put them all! I'm going to have to get rid of some of her old ones. Its actually kind of hard to do because most of them she still plays with. She's always been really good about playing with all of her toys. But something's gotta give haha. Especially since in a few months she'll be sharing a room with little Sissy.

SOME OF THE GUESTS

READING HER "MAIL (IT'S NOT A CARD ITS MAIL MOMMY) AND OPENING HER PRESENTS

RENAISSANCE

On March 22nd we went to the Renaissance Festival. It started out "iffy" but ended up being a lot of fun! Carmen, Stephen and the girls, Robbi, Brittany, Britt's mom,and Titus, Jason's parents, and our crew all went together. We started off going to a couple of shows, which were honestly a little lame. The first one was a firewhip one, and that's all he did...crack a whip. He did light it on fire at one point but that's about it. I guess I'm not too easy to entertain..haha. When that show was about over, we went to get those famous Turkey Legs that everyone talks about. They were good! Jayna ate an incredible amount! I couldn't believe it!! She absolutely loved them

SONJA WASN'T TOO HAPPY AT THE SHOW

The next show was a bird show, which was interesting because of the different birds that were there (eagles, vultures, etc), but again, not too thrilling. Xander and Sonja were not very entertained either. It was kind of frustrating. We tried going to a sword swallower's performance, and those 2 would not have it. At that point I was ready to go home...and it was only like 1 o'clock. Luckily, things got a lot better. W.e took the kids to the petting zoo, and then went to get a drink. On the way to get a drink, Xander fell asleep...thank goodness! He was so grumpy.
From that point, things got a lot more fun. We went through a story-book museum, then went to the jousting tournament. Unfortunately we had to park the sroller for that and so Xander woke up. he was pretty grumpy for most of the tournament. Finally I gave him some ice to crunch on and he perked up some.
Next, we took Jayna rock climbing. She has been dying to do that. I was a little nervous because Jayna was by far the youngest one in line. I thought maybe she'd back down once they hooked her up. Myah (her older cousin who is 7) went right before her. Jayna was determined and took off climbing right away. You could hear people in the crowd commenting on the tiny girl who was climbing so well. Daddy and I were so proud...especially Daddy. He was grinning from ear to ear. She got about half way up (15 feet or so) when she couldn't quite reach the next rock comfortably. The guy tried to pull on the rope to help her to reach it, and it freaked her out. She started bawling. They quickly helped her down, and she calmed down really fast. They gave her the $5 back and told her it was HER money, not ours, and she should buy some yummy chocolate. That made her really happy. We are so proud of our brave girl.

SHE WAS READY TO CLIMB!!

LOOK AT HER GO!!

Jayna bought chocolate covered strawberries and we went to catch up with the rest of our family. They were watching another show. A guy with a big unicycle was on. Robbi got called on stage, which was exciting! It ended up being a super cool show. The guy juggled with Robbi over a pile of guys (high stress for Robbi haha!) and then got up on his super tall unicycle and juggled torches that Robbi lit. It was really fun to watch someone we knew up there, and I think it really made Robbi's day too.

ROBBI'S 15 MINUTES OF FAME

Next we took Jayna on a jousting ride that had a horse on a cable and swung from one side to another. A guy jumps on at the end of the ride to slow it down (all the rides are manual). Jayna loved that ride! When the guy jumped on her horse, she said "hi, my name is Jayna (she's not shy at all)". The guy was tickled pink and said "hi, Jayna...I'm Jake". It was so cute.

JAYNA AND JAKE

We did a little bit of window shopping to kill time before the final jousting tournament. There is a lot of shops! I had no idea! The final jousting tournament was fun! We got ice cream and sat down with the rest of the family. Jayna and Xander were yelling and cheering away. Our leader, "Jet" was really loud and fun.

The rest of our family went home after that (5pm), but we decided to stay until closing time (6pm) so that we could leave and go get dinner and then have the kids fall asleep on the way home. We went to a few more shops and decided to buy the kids a souvenir each. Jayna got a princess wand and a big flower to pin in her hair. Xander got a sword. It was so cute when we got it for him. He thought we just handed it to him to play with, and he was all ready to put it back. We had to really talk him into taking it away from the shop. He was so excited when he finally understood it was now HIS sword. It was precious. We didn't get Sonja anything...there just wasn't anything for babies really.

We went on 2 final rides to finish off our day. The first one was a huge slide- it was really fast and Jayna didn't want to go on it again..haha! There were teenagers coming off of that slide scared, so I was pretty proud of my girl for even going on it the first time. The final ride was a huge (like 20 feet tall huge) rocking horse. I took Jayna and Xander on it. It was manually rocked by 2 teenagers that seemed exhausted!! I felt kind of bad making them rock us, but my kids really wanted to go on that thing all day. It was actually a little scary for me! But I'm afraid of heights!

CLIMBING THE HUGE HORSE..YIKES

IT WAS FUN!!

By the end of that ride it was about 6 o'clock, so we headed out. We stopped at the Jack in the Box in Apache Junction on the way out. Because of the Festival, they were out of French Fries, chicken, and milk shakes. It was kind of a bummer! We got egg rolls and mozzerella sticks instead of the fries, but they charged us extra...dumb!! After dinner we headed home. The kids fell asleep on the way and that concluded our eventful weekend!

WHAT A DAY!!!!!

All in all it was such a great weekend! One I will never forget!

Sonja is 1 month

My baby is a month old today...wow that went fast! I haven't written in the blog about anything happy for a long time...I'm overdue!

Sonja is such a sweet and precious little girl. She is a lot more easy going than the other 2 were at her age (knock on wood), and seems perfectly content watching her family from a distant or cuddling up close. She has amazing big blue eyes and the prettiest little complexion. Yes, I am in love :). Her big sister absolutely loves to help dress her, feed her, change her diaper, and hold her. Big brother wants to help too, but he hasn't quite learned what "gentle" means yet. Still, he helps give her a binkie and attempts to rock her to sleep. Sibling love is such an awesome gift.

Sonja's first real smiles started today. She just woke up for the day, and I was holding her talking to her when all of a sudden she breaks out in a big toothless wide grin. I thought maybe it was gas, but then she smiled again...and again. I had Daddy come downstairs to look, and she smiled at him too! It was so amazing! I have been waiting for an interactive moment with her for a long time!!It is so rewarding when it finally happens!

A week ago, Sonja rolled from her tummy to her back- she was on the couch though so it was easier. On the floor she can almost roll, but her little arm gets in the way. She is also holding her head steady. The other day I was on the phone and Sonja was crying. Jayna, trying to be a big sister, went to pick her up. I kind of freaked out, but realized that Jayna did a pretty good job and Sonja held up her head just fine. I still let Jayna know that she definitely cannot do that again, but it was a pretty cute moment. Jayna is totally my little helper. She wants to do anything she can to be a "big girl". I love it! I can't believe she turns 4 in a few days. Time flies WAY too fast!

Xander calls his sisters "sisis" and "baby sisis". He always wants to do what big sissy does, he really looks up to her. It is so cute. And he loves to try to take care of baby sissy, but it's kind of dangerous! haha.

Sonja Jordyn, I love you so much. I am so happy that you are hear and safe and healthy. I am excited to watch you and Jayna and Xander grow up together.

Wednesday Update

Sonja isn't getting well quite as fast as we had hoped. It looks like we will very likely be here thru Friday. The nurses have been deep suctioning her, which really helps because she is just too little to be able to cough up the phlem by herself. They have also done a breathing treatment, which didn't really seem to make any difference.

We are just waiting this thing out...she doesn't seem a whole lot better, but at least she's not getting worse

Praying For Sonja

Our poor little baby is in the hospital at 2 weeks old. She has RSV and Pneumonia. She caught the RSV from Jayna and Xander, but it is just going around like crazy this time of year. I am here at the hospital with her now. Jason took the night shift, bless him, and I am taking the day shift. It is so horrible to watch your child go through anything, much less a newborn having to spend days in the hospital. We have awesome family and friend support, and lots of prayers going up for her.

I took all of the kids to the doctor Monday morning because they have all been sick, and the baby was starting to cough and that worried me. I had their Auntie Carmen come and help me because bringing 3 kids under 4 to anything is insanity (haha). The PA was the one who saw the kids. She started with Jayna- she has 2 ear infections and was given steroids to help with lung inflammation. Xander was next- he has 1 ear infection, was also put on the steroids, and also a breathing machine. He's pretty sick, I am so sad I can't be there with him now. Last she looked at Sonja. With how young she is and the fact that the PA thought she heard some wheazing in her lungs, they sent us straight to the hospital. That was totally unexpected for me. Sonja just barely started coughing Thursday evening, so I just assumed they would put her on antibiotics and send her home like everyone else. The kids went home with Carmen and I headed to the ER.

5 hours and numerous tests went by. Blood, urine, and spinal fluid (horrible) tests were conducted. An x-ray was also taken, and a snot test for RSV. The x-ray and the snot test revealed that she has RSV as well as pneumonia, and the spinal test told us that she had bacterial pnuemonia (vs. viral). We finally were given a room at 6pm... almost 6 hours after we arrived here. And here we are, having Sonja hooked up on antibiotics and monitors. It really is heartbreaking. I just pray that everything goes smoothly and she heals extra fast. I want to bring her home and get home to my other babies.

Last night I brought the older 2 kids' medicines to them. They are with aunt carmen and grandma and grandpa. I was relieved because they wanted to stay there, they didn't even cry to come with me. I am so thankful that they love it at grandmas house. It would be so hard if they were in an unfamiliar place.

Anyways, that is all the information I have for now. I am sitting here with Sonja trying to have a Lord of the Rings marathon, for lack of absolutely anything else to do! I have never seen them before, so I may as well.

****The pediatrician just came in. Said she is "safe"- meaning nothing is life threatening, and that all of the other tests came back negative. So were are soley dealing with the RSV and pneumonia. Thank goodness.

Birth Story

SONJA JORDYN RITTER is here!! Here is her wonderful birth story!





I went in to the hospital on February 15th at midnight to be induced. On Wednesday the 12th I went into the ER because my water had broken. Turns out it was only a pocket of my water, and I was no longer leaking it and there was enough left to send me home. I was bummed! They did have me follow up with the doctor the following day, and my doctor advised that we go ahead and set up the inducement as soon as the hospital had an empty bed. I agreed! I was worried for her health and was really getting anxious.





They started my pitocin at 2am on Feb 16th, but kept it really low for the first 5 hours. The doctor came in at 7:30am and broke my water, and then they upped the dose. Jason was in there the entire time with me. We watched a couple of movies and just hung out. Jason's mom Crystal came in around 9am to join us. Gary, my mom, and Carmen were also in and out. The labor pains really started to get going around noon or so. I started kind of zoning everyone else out and really focusing on breathing through them. It was nice though to have people around talking to keep my mind off of what was going on in between pains.





It was really slow progress. My cervix was posterior, and was stuck that way, so basically every contraction was just pushing against the cervix wall, not the opening. So I wasn't dialating very well at all. It was so frustrating! Especially when my doctor said that if it wasn't posterior I would have probably already had her [by noon]. The nurse had me get on all fours in attempt to encourage the cervix forward. It somewhat worked, but things were still altogether slow.

I finally decided to have an epidural around 3p.m. I was going to go natural, but with my cervix being posterior and nothing happening, I was running out of steam. I opted for the "walking epidural", which allowed me to still feel the contractions and the birth, but take the "edge" off of it. The contractions were actually still pretty painful with the epidural, but it definitely helped.

After I had my epidural, the doctor came and tried to pull my cervix forward. Since I was numbed, he was able to do it without making me pass out from pain. It worked! I started to progress much faster!!Sonja's heartbeat kept going way down with the contractons near the end, so they kept having me change positions in an attempt to help her out. I was so stressed out for her. I kept praying and praying that everything would be o.k. I was starting to worry that between my posterior cervix and the heartbeat dropping, I'd end up with a c-section. But, when they had me sit straight up, her heartbeat stayed stable! I was so relieved! I am so thankful to God that he kept her safe.

At 5:20, they brought the doctor in to have me push. The birth was amazing!! Jason, Crystal, and Car men were present in the room. My doctor, Bradley Folkestad, is the absolute best doctor ever. He is such a nice guy, and when it came to the birth, I was totally confident in him to take care of us. And he did! As with my other 2, it only took 3 pushes. She arrived at 5:40 p.m. Big, beautiful, and perfect.

Daddy got to cut the cord, just like with Jayna and Xander. This was the first time I actually got to see it though. The other times whatever position they had me in made it hard to see, but with this one I was able to see it all! It was so wonderful!


What a joyous moment it was the first time I held my new daughter. I was so excited to meet her, and so thankful that she out safe and sound. She weighed in at 8 lbs 2 oz (my doctor was right about her being big...just think if I would have waited a week for her due date!), and 19 3/4 inches long. Her head was 13.5 inches. She had a nice lusty cry right from the get go. The nurse gave her an Agpar score of 10, which is the highest you can give. She said it was the first one she has given all year, and will very likely be the last. She is amazingly healthy!! I am so lucky. So, so thankful that God has blessed us so much

Daddy is a pro now at being in the birth room, but nothing can ever totally prepare a father for the awe of watching your new baby being born. He enjoyed this birth so much because he knew what was happening the whole time. We were both so excited the whole time...the scene was amazing and we were able to bond so much during this birth. I will cherish the birth of our youngest for the rest of my life.

Jayna and Xander were thrilled to meet their new sister. At first I thought Xander was jealous of her, but come to find out, he was just upset because we weren't letting him hold her! They are so cute with "baby". My nest is full, and I am so content with my beautiful, perfect family.

DR Appt

Today was another DR appt. I cancelled my induction tomorrow for a variety of reasons. The most important one is that I have been feeling under the weather. The Dr prescribed me some antibiotics to kick whatever is coming on, so hopefully I'll be in good shape by the time she comes. The other reason is, the more I think about it, the more I really just want to go into labor by myself. We were going to induce because my back was in extreme pain (slipped disc) and they had thought I was strep-B positive- as it turns out, my back has totally healed up (knock on wood!!) and my test ended up being negative. A third reason is that Jason's first football game is tonight and I really didn't want him to miss it, but if we were going to induce tomorrow (I'd have to go in at 11pm tonight) I wanted him home. So all in all it really works out. I feel fine with waiting another week or even two. Although I don't think my Dr will let me go past my due date (Feb 20th). So 10 days at the most. That really doesn't feel that far away at all. In fact, tomorrow sounds WAY too soon! I have never been like that with a pregnancy before! I'm always DYING for them to come out! But I feel really good physically, and I know that this is my absolute last pregnancy, so I'm kind of enjoying it. I enjoy being able to lay there at night and bond with baby Sonja as she moves and kicks inside of my belly. It's so precious.

Anyways, the Dr said that I am already a couple centimeters dialated and 70% soft, so it could really happen anytime. He says he wouldn't be surprised if I didn't even last until my appt next Tuesday, but I definitely know better than to get excited over those kind of comments. I've heard way too often the dr tell someone I know that they will go into labor in the next couple days, just to have it turn into weeks. The last two pregnancies, my cervix was hard and thick right up until the day I went into labor, so this is definitely a new one for me. I'm sure your body starts preparing earlier and earlier with each baby, because it starts to get the hang of it or something.

I can't wait to meet you Sonja, your birth story will be treasured in all of our hearts for the rest of our lives! :)

February 4th, 2009

I don't have any pictures of it (can you believe that!!??) but Jason and I had an awesome 3rd anniversary. We arranged to have the kids watched from noon-9:30pm...almost 10 hours to ourselves! They stayed with Carmen until 2, then Grandma watched them, and Robbi and Brittany picked them up and brought them home.

The first thing we did was got some food (I was STARVING, like usual haha) and went to get our car washed in and out. We never put the money into having someone else wash our car, and it felt so good to not have to work for a clean car! After that, we went to get some ice cream and then watched a matinee.

We watched a movie called "Taken". It was a really good movie, but kind of emotional considering the main plot is a daughter being taken and the dad chasing after her. Those kind of movies are so hard to watch when you have babies! But it was a good movie!

Next we headed to the Arizona Center, which is where Jason proposed. We walked a few blocks of downtown, stopped for dinner at a place called Uno (we had pizza, and it was really good!), and then walked to "the place". He proposed at such a cool spot...on the stairs leading down to waterfalls and paths to flower gardens. It reminds me that he INDEED has a little streak of romance in him (hahahaha!!)...now if we could just get that out of him a little more often!!

We spent a little time reminiscing, and then headed towards our side of town. We watched a movie at the Silver Cinemas (Transporter 3, TERRIBLE movie!! ), and then went home. Yes, we are old (actually I think our proper excuse is we are very pregnant and parents.). All in all it was a very memorable day.

I look forward to many more anniversaries in the future! I can't believe it's already been 3 years. I guess that's not very long, but every year feels like a great accomplishment! We work hard all year keeping our marriage and family healthy, and it is a great feeling being able to celebrate :)