Thursday, May 31, 2012

Pictures from the Earliest Days


Minutes after delivery. Silas missed the memo to smile.
The next day...perhaps we look a little less exhausted.
Ready to go home.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Silas Ryan Montgomery

Born 5/13/12 at 9:13pm. 7lbs 8.2oz. 18.5" long.


I'll post more about him later but it's not so easy to find time to blog anymore! Between diaper changes and feedings, my free time goes to napping! :)

Friday, May 11, 2012

39 weeks: Almost there...

Look at me getting these pictures up in a timely manner!

Yesterday (the day we took these pictures) was the first day my wedding rings didn't fit! Ahhh! They fit (kind of) today. Stupid swelling for no good reason. Except it was hot. 



Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Elk in our backyard...kind of

Last night I wanted to get out of the house so we went for a little drive. We drove about 10 minutes west into the foothills just to explore an area we hadn't yet and we found the most beautiful landscape and trails that we didn't know existed so close to our house! The best part was when we came across these guys:


Stopping for a drink at the puddle.


Two bull elk were just hanging out on the side of the road. They were shedding like crazy and their antlers were covered in velvet. They didn't care at all about cars or people taking pictures. I love it!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

38 weeks: Babies for everyone!

We are getting more and more impatient for this baby to be here. He'll be here soon enough I suppose...then we can stop calling him Lil Monty and start calling him by his actual name :) We have had many guesses for what SRM stands for...some are very interesting and some are pretty good. Some are correct. We've had many pleas from people to "just tell them" because "they won't tell anyone". That's right, you won't tell anyone - because we won't tell you. :) All in good time.

Friday night we had a cookout with friends at a local park. I THINK being pregnant is in fact contagious here because almost all the girls that were there are in fact with child. We decided to take some pictures. We lined up, of course, in order of due date.

There is Kara (September), Carolyn (September), Margo (August), Rachael (July), and me (today please!).

Kara and Carolyn still look pretty normal :)

Here are the "usual" picture update pictures. It was hot that day, if you can't tell by my glow.


Wednesday, May 2, 2012

37 weeks: Full Term Baby!

As of Thursday April 29th, Lil Monty is full term! 37 weeks marks the "official" full term marker but it is ideal to go to 40 weeks still. We are getting more and more impatient to have this baby - although I keep reminding myself that once he's here, we can't put him back - so we need to just revel in our independence a little longer.

I'm ready to not be pregnant. Perhaps I'll miss it once it's over but I think that's unlikely. I don't think I'll be one of those who just "loves to be pregnant". There are some sweet moments when he's moving around and stuff but those moments are quickly un-romanticized when he kicks me in a way that hurts, stomps on my bladder, gives me heartburn, and (long term) disallows me to move or sit-up easily. What was it like to get out of bed without hurting or straining? I can hardly remember.

At the last doctor's appointment, I got a good report. They measured my amniotic fluid again and it was higher than it's been since they started measuring it. Lil Monty's bladder was full at first so they told me to dance around the room and get him to pee it out to increase my measurable fluid. It worked! They also checked to see if I'm dilated at all - I'm just barely starting to dilate so we'll see what happens this week. 

In other baby news, my friend Laura (who I met on my mission trip to Daytona in 2005 and yes we are still friends!) just had her baby yesterday. She lives in Florida but we've kept up during our pregnancies since she was due about 3 weeks before me. That's been fun.

This weekend was very busy with building our new firepit! I wasn't a ton of help because I can't really do much in the way of lifting heavy stone but I served as foreman and did some work on the gravel. We got most of the stone from Ryan's uncle who wasn't using it so this project actually cost us very little out of pocket.


After hosing it down

We caught Grover sleeping in the funniest way the other night. Thought this picture was worth sharing. Even after we woke him up for a bit, he kept his foot in his mouth - I guess it was really comfortable.


Yesterday Grover cut his foot somewhere in the backyard and if you've ever experienced a dog with a cut foot pad, you know it bleeds and bleeds and bleeds and then bleeds. I've had to play doctor and bandage it. Grover is a great patient - lets me bandage it without anyone holding him and then doesn't really mess with the bandage once it's on. I'm very glad about that!

Here are some pictures of the nursery. It's pretty much finished with the exception of the wall over the crib - we'll be putting Lil Monty's name there but we have to wait lest someone sees the room and learns his name! :)
Lil Monty's name will go above the crib there.

Changing station and dresser

Grover wants that giraffe.

View from the glider.

And finally (this post is too long...), the picture update.


Basketball baby! Geez...

Not as scary from the front :)
The End!

I'll be 38 weeks tomorrow. Two weeks to 40! Holy cow.

Monday, April 23, 2012

36 weeks: Moths and Consignment

This week we had our last baby class! It feels good to be done with those and now we are just waiting eagerly for Lil Monty to get here so we can use everything we learned (or realize how little we learned).

We went to another consignment sale in Denver on Wednesday night. We got to go before the general public because we are first time parents. We scored a Pack-n-Play and a stroller that the car seat can snap into. I also got a Moby wrap! All were great deals so we are pretty excited! At the sale the week before, we got a swing, bouncer, Boppy, front carrier, and a couple books. Things are really starting to get baby-fied around here.

The weather has been great. No contest that Colorado has better weather than North Carolina. All the stories are actually true.

However, as of last night, there seems to be a moth epidemic sweeping the house. Not sure where they all came from all of a sudden but last night there were a ton flying around the garage and I've had to deal with three in the house today. Perhaps yesterday was Emerge-From-Your-Cocoon Day. Thankfully Lil Monty was content to stay in his.

Speaking of Lil Monty, he has begun his descent so to speak. At least I think so...I can't speak from experience but when he moves, I feel it much lower in my pelvis and my poor little bladder is more squished than normal. I haven't experienced the other signs they say to look for (easier breathing, hungrier, visibly carrying lower) but if he's not knocking at the door to come out then I'm not sure what he's doing.

In other baby news, our friends Carolyn and Brock went for their gender appointment today and they are having a boy too! Lil Monty and Lil Homsher will be best friends...because we will make them. They'll also be competing for Rachael and Steve's baby girl's affection. May the best man win.

Picture update:





Monday, April 16, 2012

35 weeks

This week was busy busy busy. On Friday, Ryan took off work so we could drive down to this big consignment sale in Castle Rock. It was kind of a bust as far as variety of things to choose from but we did score a great swing and bouncer thingy for Lil Monty. There is another one in Denver on Wednesday night so we are going to go check that one out too and hopefully come home with more!

Saturday was Rachael's baby shower. I think it went really well! We played some fun games and people laughed a lot so that's always a good sign. While I was busy doing that, Ryan was busy fishing with his dad and then helped his grandpa put up a fence. Ryan's day was much more tiring than mine :) but I'm pregnant so I win.

Picture update:





Friday, April 6, 2012

34 weeks: Showers and Car Seat Fun

At our last doctor's appointment (Monday), we were told that Lil Monty is growing in the 40th percentile range which is, quote, "perfect". He measured at almost 5 pounds (4 pounds, 13 ounces to be exact) and about 17 inches long. His head, of course, is measuring about 3 weeks bigger than the rest of his body. Oh hooray for that. But at least he's growing and seems to be thriving! :) He's starting to invade my rib space.

I'll be having another shower this weekend! A group of ladies who know Ryan from his childhood decided they wanted to throw me a shower even though they don't know me. Very sweet :)

I'm also hosting a baby shower for my friend Rachael next Saturday. I'm having a lot of fun with it. I've never done anything like this before so I'm kind of clueless about how to host a baby shower and I've only ever been to my own showers....but I think it will be great! Rachael is having a girl so it should be a nice and dainty and pretty shower.

I went today to get the car seat inspected by the fire station so that we know we installed it correctly. Way too many rules about car seats these days but the fireman said we probably know more about installing car seats than the people who inspect them at the hospital. So I'm not quite as worried about them telling us we did it wrong and then not letting us bring Lil Monty home.

Picture update:



Tuesday, April 3, 2012

33 weeks: 7 more weeks to go!

This week we had our consultation at the hospital where we tell them what we do and do not want for labor and delivery. We also filled out a lot of preliminary paperwork so that when we are admitted to the hospital, we don't have to worry about all that logistical stuff while we are trying to have a baby! They even gave us the form for Lil Monty's birth certificate so we can have everything pre-filled there as well.

I've been very happy with the hospital so far. 

Picture Update:



Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Colorado Wildfire

Some of you may have heard about this wildfire. On Monday evening we were on our way to Ryan's softball game and the whole sky was filled with a pink cloud of smoke. As we got closer to the foothills, we could see where it was coming from and it was CRAZY! As of this morning, it's still 0% contained which is also nuts. Supposedly it started from a controlled burn from a week ago. We had extremely high winds Monday which caused the fire to get out of control. Here are some pictures from the softball field:



And here is a fun picture. We were told at our class from Saturday to make sure Ryan knew how to operate the car seat before the baby is born. Mr. Crab was our stand-in baby and Ryan mastered it - even with the added challenge of having 6 limbs to work with instead of 4.


Monday, March 26, 2012

Week 32: 4 weeks to full term!

Friday I went to the doctor and got my first B-minus report. Apparently I'm still dehydrated from that stomach bug so my amniotic fluid is on the "low end of normal". I've been ordered to up my water intake by about 30% which is NOT exciting because I'm already drinking more than any human should have to drink. BUT, for Lil Monty, I shall persevere. I'm up to like 130 ounces a day now which is a gallon!

The other news from that appointment is that Lil Monty is now upside down (which is normal). He's preparing for landing I suppose. The midwife couldn't tell how he was positioned just based on palpation alone so she suggested we do an ultrasound. There were two areas she thought COULD be the head - one turned out to be his butt. Rock hard already, way to go! Of course, HOORAY, we love ultrasounds (and it was excellent timing because this is how she discovered I was low on the amniotic fluid). Sure enough he's on his head. We were also told that Lil Monty has an attitude based on how he responded to the midwife palpating him and moving him all around - she said she likes babies with attitudes because that means they are healthy enough to get mad when disturbed. We'll see how cute that attitude is in a few months...

Friday night we watched NC State lose to Kansas. Dumb. But then Kansas beat Carolina Sunday! 

We also went to our childbirth prep class on Saturday. It was from 9am-3:30pm so it was LONG but informative. We learned a lot and I'm glad we went but I could have done without the videos - both animated and real life. I was much better off not knowing exactly what happens to your body when a baby comes out. Just let me experience it without having that visual in my head...please and thank you.

We also toured the hospital and it's so nice! We learned that for women who want to go natural, they give priority for the rooms with jacuzzis. Even the rooms without jacuzzis are nice though and all the rooms are private from labor and delivery to recovery. The hospital seems very clean and updated and they have a snazzy system in place so they don't mix up babies. Mom gets a bracelet, Dad gets a bracelet, and baby gets two bracelets. If mom and baby are separated, the bracelets sing when they are reunited. If it's a mismatch, an alarm goes off. Also, if you get too close to someone else's baby the alarm will sound. I asked if it's possible for the baby never to even leave the room if he doesn't need special treatment and the teacher said most definitely. They are big on keeping mom and baby together as much as possible which is nice.

Today I went to jury duty. I got out of my last summons because I live in a different county than the summons was for. Within 2 weeks, I had a new summons for the county I do live in and that day was today. I was only there from 7:30-10:00 just waiting in the room. Two groups of jurors were called out over the course of several hours. Then, they came to inform the rest of us that our services were not needed and we could go home. Hooray! And I get $0.50/mile driven today from the government because I'm a homemaker :) which is good because I had to drive about 40 miles round trip.

Afterward, I stopped into this cloth diaper store that was near the courthouse. I LOVE this brand of cloth diapers...of course, I love them in theory because I haven't used it yet, but they are pretty sweet as far as cloth diapers go.

Picture Update - In theory, Lil Monty is almost 4 pounds and about 17 inches long. I can tell he's running out of room in there because his movements are more fluid (less room to pack a punch or a kick) and I can palpate him anytime now. I know right where his butt is for sure! :)



And last but not least, Ryan found this website called the Baby Morpher which is supposed to spit out what your baby will look like. You upload a picture of each parent and it works it's magic. Brace yourself and choose to love Lil Monty anyway if he looks like this.

This was attempt #1. I always thought we'd have to adopt in order to have a multi-ethnic family. The Baby Morpher must know otherwise.


So I tried again. This one is not quite as scary...

We'll see! Only about 7 more weeks!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Week 31: Shopped till we dropped

Well after last week's excitement, what is there to say?

Aftershocks
Ryan and I suffered from the residual effects of our illness all week. Friday was probably the first day we both felt somewhat normal. I've pretty much gained my weight back and Ryan is catching up slowly. Lil Monty is still doing great - I don't think he had a clue anything was even wrong. In fact, he's really getting comfortable in there I think - his new thing is to prop his feet up on my hip bone or stick them into my side. I usually find his little feet and shove him (lovingly of course....) back over and then he defiantly comes back. We engage in this little battle for a few minutes at a time until he finally finds a spot that isn't completely uncomfortable for me.

MK No More
In other news, I shipped my Mary Kay inventory back! Oh the glory and the relief! Now we wait to see how much (or little...) the company pays me for what I sent back. Hooray for being done!

Shopping Frenzy
In more other news, on Saturday Ryan and I went to our favorite second hand store (Once Upon a Child) because they were having a crazy St. Patrick's Day Sale. The sale was from 9:30-12:00, all clothing 0-9months was $1.00. So we bought like 30 some items including some serious steals like a Polo brand pullover, a great windbreaker type coat, and all sorts of items that even at the second hand store were marked at $6, $7, even $10 and we got them for $1!! We saved over $140 had we bought them not on sale and who knows how much we saved from buying them new.

The store was nuts. It's what I imagine Black Friday sales being like. We got there around 9:00 just in case there was a line. And there was. Fortunately, we were like 3rd in line, but by the time the store opened the line was very long and then the madness inside was just that: madness. We devised a system to just grab any clothes we thought MIGHT be cute and then we'd go find a corner somewhere and sift through them to determine what was actually cute or not. We probably had 100 outfits to sift through and narrowed it down to 33. Then, it was time to pay. The line for the cash register was looped around the store and out the door. Took us more than an hour just waiting in line to pay. I must say though, it was worth it.

Then we went to downtown Littleton because a little shop that sells cloth diapers was having a sale. So I bought a few more diapers (we're up to 7 now which should get us through the first 8 hours :) ) and then we finally went home!

Picture Update:


Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Week 30: Hollywood Diet

Week 30 was full of excitement - both good, bad, and very ugly.

The good:

My friend Rachael hosted a baby shower for me on Saturday and that was so fun! I only know like 6 people in Colorado and there were 5 people there so that's pretty good turnout! :) It was so cutely decorated and the food was delicious - not to mention we got more presents for Lil Monty including three more cloth diapers! It's amazing how excited I get about cloth diapers...until they have poop in them I will remain excited about them.

Softball started for the spring last Monday. Ryan and Brock are back at it with their team, "Young Guns", which consists of all boys fresh out of high school except for Ryan and Brock. It was cold in the cheering section that night but they won their game. They had another game last night but we had to miss it (more on that later).

The bad:

Well, this isn't BAD, but we took Grover to get the vaccinations he's due for last Sunday. We took him down to the cheap mobile clinic that comes to PETCO. He got two shots for less than $30 - not too shabby. Grover, of course, was a champion getting his shots. However:

1. The lady ahead of us had a cat. Said cat did not want her shots. Said cat was screaming bloody murder, getting everyone riled up and tense and also left at least one of the technicians bleeding pretty good. I'm pretty sure that cat never got it's shots. Pure evil.

2. Grover developed a case of happy tail right before his shots. Happy tail is the ridiculous condition of a profusely bleeding tail because it has been wagged too much and hit against something to break the skin. It took us a few minutes to figure out who was bleeding and from where. By the time we discovered it, the floor looked like it had been mopped with blood and Ryan's jeans were massacred.

Oh well. Don't have to do that again for a year! :)

The ugly:

Oh boy. So. Saturday evening Ryan and I were both complaining of mild GI discomfort. We were watching a movie when I really started to feel ill and decided to quit watching the movie and go lay down. Within minutes, I was in the bathroom and stayed there. Within hours, Ryan was too. We were both seriously sick with an unbelievably violent stomach bug that left us sleeping on the bathroom floor all night (good thing we have two bathrooms!). We both said it was the sickest we can ever remember being. Twice I was close to going to the ER (because of Lil Monty) but the doctor on call that night was very good about calling back and gave me specific things to look for before deeming it necessary to go to the ER. I guess the biggest danger with this virus (which the doctor said a ton of people are calling in about, so it must be going around) is dehydration. Dehydration often leads to preterm labor and since I couldn't keep anything down, even water, for any length of time I was certainly dehydrated.

We made it through the night. We were still miserable Sunday, semi-miserable Monday, and still pretty fatigued today. There's really no way to describe it that gives it justice. The misery was unbelievable. If you want details, I'll give them to you but I'll spare the blog. From what we can tell, it was the Norovirus. This graphic drawing sums it up pretty well.


Ryan lost 6 pounds, I lost 5. We're calling it the Hollywood Diet.

Ok picture update.

I know in two days I'll be 31 weeks but here's week 30 for now.





Thursday, March 8, 2012

A little about our anniversary

For those who were wondering:

For our anniversary a couple of weeks ago, Ryan took me to the JaJa Bistro in downtown Littleton. Cute, quaint, romantic little French restaurant that is actually in a little house with just 20 tables or so.

Ryan had done lots of research and learned that they only take reservations in the first hour of operation (they open at 11am on Saturday) so since we wanted dinner instead of lunch, we made sure to get there at 5pm before the rush. We excitedly walk in and the following unfolded:

French man: "Do you have a reservation?"
Us: **confused** No?
French man: "Oh we're booked solid through 7:00 unless you have a reservation."
Us: **looking as though he's just punched our puppy in the face** "But....we were told....no reservations...."
French man: "Yeah we get that a lot. A lot of people are confused about the reservation policy."

So then we didn't know what to do. Do we wait two hours to come back and MAYBE get a table later or do we postpone? We ended up mulling over what to do at a little espresso shop down the way and decided to go back, get reservations for the NEXT week, and just get pizza at a great place downtown. So, off we went, way overdressed for the pizza place but it was delicious.

We also learned that it was 5280 Restaurant Week which means at nice restaurants like Jaja, you eat for two for $52.80 which is also why they (and lots of other nice places) were booked solid that night.

Ok so we went back last Saturday and enjoyed our reserved table this time.

As the waitress was going over the appetizer list, I found myself nearly in tears because it all sounded weird and gross or unsafe for pregnant people (like escargot and pate). She was nice enough to have the chef just make me a salad and I was satisfied. The entree food was good. I got a seafood soup (more on that in a second) and Ryan got an eggplant and chicken dish. Now, when I say seafood soup, are you envisioning a kind of chowder? Well I was. Apparently French people like to take a vegetable base and stuff as many mussels and clams (in their shells) as they can into the bowl. There was also grouper and shrimp. It was a mountain of sea creatures basting in a giant bowl. Tasted good...but it was odd.

Looked similar to this, but without the giant squid/shrimp hybrid on top.
I also enjoyed a French soda. It was delicious.

This is actual footage from dinner.
So we are glad we went because we needed to know what the JaJa was all about. Now that we know, we do not feel the need to return.

The End.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Week 29: 11 weeks to go...YIKES!

29 weeks sounds nice. 11 weeks to go sounds CRAZY! That is not much time before this baby is here.

So I just did a workout tape and I'm pooped. Translation: my comedic genius has been depleted along with my energy so this post, by nature, must be short and to the point. :)

Here is the picture update. Lil Monty is growing and becoming more active. I can only imagine what the next 11 weeks have in store...



Saturday, February 25, 2012

Week 28: Happy Anniversary to Us! :)

This week, we celebrated our 3 year anniversary. Yes, a plague on all your houses who forgot...but I forgive you. We haven't actually celebrated yet - we are going out to a nice dinner tonight since our actual anniversary was on Tuesday and it's just more fun to go out when Ryan hasn't been busting his butt all day at work beforehand and doesn't have to get up at 4:30am the next morning. I don't know where we are going yet but I think I know we are going somewhere in downtown Littleton which is the cutest downtown I've ever seen in my life. Very sweet date spot.

We got a little more snow this week. About 6 inches or so. Of course, it's all going to melt today I'm sure since we are sunny and in the 50s. Can't say the same for our north-facing neighbors...they'll have snow in their yards until July.

Some ladies from church are going to be coming over a week from today for a "Couponing Class". People are always asking me how I do it so I'm having them over to teach them. Haha. Take that Southern Savers lady! I still maintain my coupon blog and hope to make at least $1.00 from it this month :). Also, interesting factoid for all your coupon skeptics out there, according to my calculations I saved over $2600 in 2011 from couponing and strategic sale-finding. Are you a believer now?

We got a big bag of hand-me-down toys from one of Ryan's customers. We picked through it all and (although it was hard to say no to the bright pink and purple rolling horse) we chose a Tonka truck, a lego-esque type thing where you build bridges and it has a track for cars, and this super annoying mail box that talks and sings when you put "mail" in or put the flag up, among other things. We're thinking Lil Monty won't know the difference if we just go ahead and take those batteries right out. Aside from it's so-irritating-you-want-to-stick-a-Qtip-too-far-into-your-ear-too-many-times songs, it's a cute little toy. We were amused by it for at least 10 minutes last night discovering all it's little tricks.

I also had another doctor's appointment yesterday. Went well. No news. We are now on a schedule to go every two weeks until maybe week 36?? and then we'll go every week until Lil Monty decides to join the party outside of my body. As usual, we heard his heartbeat. I think she said it was around 136bpm so it's getting slower which I guess is normal and my midwife is very pleased with our progress.

Here are the pictures. And yes, I know I look like I belong in Santa's workshop with my choice of outfit colors. I was tired and I didn't feel like changing! Even though I look like I just rolled out of bed, I believe I was about to get into it.


Monday, February 20, 2012

Week 27: Third Trimester Fun

I'm officially in my third trimester and my belly is getting bigger. Starting to be a challenge to sit up from lying down...have to roll over and push myself up with my hands.

Lil Monty is super active and getting bigger all the time. Yesterday he was moving in such a way that it actually tickled. He's constantly rolling around if he's not kicking me but I have yet to have any discomfort from it. All in good time I'm sure...

I've been pretty dedicated lately to getting rid of my Mary Kay inventory...it has been nice to see it go away. For those of you who don't know, I'm getting out of Mary Kay (hooray!) and the company has a policy where they will buy back any inventory at 90% of what you paid for it. So, for the past couple of months I've been working to get as much sold as possible so I have less to ship back (and less to lose 10% on) in March. If you want any, get it now. It's all 50% off. To see what I have left to pick from, go to this blog that I created just for listing inventory.

I've also been working on figuring out baby classes and stuff. Before it's all said and done I'll be attending a cloth diapering class, a baby food making class, a breastfeeding class, a childbirth prep class, a practical baby care class, a pre-admission consultation at the hospital where I tell them what I do and do not want to happen on that day, and we are going to trek down to a huge consignment sale in April to try to get some good last minute deals. I also have another baby shower on March 10th which I'm super excited about. AND I'll be hosting a baby shower some time in April. Busy busy for the home stretch...

This week's pictures: