Cast #2

Yesterday me, Riley and Nanny headed back up to Walnut Creek for our second appointment with Dr. Hoffinger. I must say I really like Dr. Hoffinger and his whole staff and am really happy with our decision to use him so far. We got there about 20 minutes early to have Riley's casts removed and then to give her a few minutes to stretch before going back into her casts. On a side note, the receptionist already knows Marc very well because she made a comment to me about him not being there for first cast removal.

Riley did great as usual, she really amazes me. She looked at me the whole time they were sawing off her casts and then started crying once they were done, I think she realized she was hungry. They let me weigh her there and she is up to 5lbs 3oz, which I guess is good especially since we have stopped supplementing her feedings with formula. She was so cute when they took the casts off, she went to kick and move her legs during her meltdown and realized she could, the look on her face was like "Hot damn, I'm free." So she got to squirm and wiggle for 15 minutes until Dr. Hoffinger came in and examined her again and did the next manipulation. He told me her feet were pretty stiff so he expected about 5 more castings, which made me a little sad because I know how much she loves to move her legs around but better do it right then rush her perfect little feet! We gave her a bottle like we did last time and she did great. Again, the appointment went so much quicker than I expected them to and Dr. Hoffinger continues to be great with Riley. Next week I fly solo to her appointment, hopefully it will go as smoothly as the last two have when I've had Marc and my parents with me.

After Riley's appointment Nanny, Riley and I headed to downtown Walnut Creek to drop off the pump we have been renting from the hospital and then to lunch followed by a little shopping. It was a girl's day out!

Riley waiting to get her casts off:

I'm free!

Close Up of Her feet after the first cast came off:

I Miss My Daddy!

Today was Daddy's first day back at work (he's been off for 5 weeks!) and Riley missed him terribly so we sent him these pictures that we took today...

We also had our 2 week newborn check up today and Riley did great! She weighed in at 5lbs 10.5oz (we figure about 8oz is casts) so she is growing quite nicely! The doctor said she could tell by her face that she was filling out. I can tell by her fingers that she is growing, they are plumping up and getting bigger, my itty bitty fingers are disappearing! We go back in 2 weeks for her 1 month checkup - I can't believe her 1 month checkup is right around the corner and it's right after her due date!

Treatment Begins

As all of you know, our Riley was born with bilateral clubfeet, something we've known about since our 21 week ultrasound. It's funny because we were devastated when we got the diagnosis but after she was born we didn't really care. We've said from time to time in the last two weeks how it sucks she has to go through this because everything else about her is perfect but this is just the way it is. We were debating whether or not to share Riley's clubfoot journey on the blog or not but we decided to share it, after all Riley's clubfoot is just one part of her that makes her the lovable little girl that she is. And also down the road we want her to see how brave and strong she was throughout the treatment and also the transfermation that occured with her feet.

Friday we went for our first appointment with the orthopedic surgeon. Normally I get worked up about appointments like that, always worrying what else they are going to find or if we picked the right Doctor, etc. So yesterday we headed up to Walnut Creek to the Children's Hospital satellite office for our first appointment with Dr. Hoffinger. (On a side note we met with 3 doctors total and liked him the best so I was confident in our decision.) He examined Riley - checked her hips, knees, back etc and then asked us if we wanted to start treatment that day. We of course said heck yeah, we were a little worried he wouldn't want to cast her since she was so small but he said since it didn't look like she would be hospitalized again it was ok to start. So we went into the casting room and they started treatment. Both Marc and I were shocked at how simple the procedure was and how quickly he was able to manipulate her foot slightly and apply the casts. He started out casting her left foot after manipulating it towards normal position. Riley cried a bit, most likely because she had flashbacks to the hospital and them pricking her heel multiple times. When it came to doing her upper leg we gave her a bottle and she sucked away while the Dr and his casting assistant finished her left leg and went on to the right. After the bottle was done she was so much in food coma that I don't think she knew what happened. I was so proud of her, she was such a brave little girl and so far the casts don't seem to bother her, I think they bother mommy and daddy more because we know how much she likes to kick her legs around and since the casts go up to her thigh she can only move at the hips. I will say diaper changes have become slightly easier since she no longer can hook her feet together and trap the diaper. She also lifts her legs above her head during diaper changes which helps the whole process. So these cast stay on a week and we go back next Friday for another cast and he will have a better idea how long the castings will take.

Here's a close up of her feet prior to casting:

Riley in her casts (the good news is, she fills out her clothes better now!)

Another Day, Another Year Older

Well, my birthday came and went this year and kind of got lost in the excitement of Riley's birth. It was a big year for me, the big 3-0, but that's ok because Riley was the best present I could have asked for. At our 1:30 feeding the morning of my birthday, Marc and Riley gave me their birthday cards plus the new Beyonce CD since Riley and I love "Single Ladies" and "If I Were A Boy." We were still in the hospital so I was a little bummed out but later that morning we were discharged which was the best b-day present. We got home around noon, unpacked a bit and then the three of us took a nap. Later that day Jill came over to meet Riley and we had some sushi and then ice cream cake. Yes, I have been asking Marc for ice cream cake for my birthday for years and this year he finally sprung for it! It was so yummy!


So my big 3-0 may have passed without much notice but it was the first year I didn't really care about my birthday. Before Riley was born I was just excited to get through January so that we could meet her and since she came before my birthday our days have been filled with the joy of having her as our daughter. January 17 was just another day that made me another year older, and I'm ok with that!

My delicious cake!
















Me, Jill, and Riley














My ultimate birthday present:

My Poor Baby!

Thursday we went for our newborn check up at Riley's pediatrician. They did the full exam including checking her billirubens since she was borderline needing treatment when we left John Muir. While we were there we found out she had a really low body temperature and her billiruben's had risen yet again (she was looking very yellow). Our doctor was great and did everything in her power to not have to send Riley to the hospital but it just didn't work so Thursday afternoon they readmitted her to the hospital. This time we used the hospital down the street from our house so Marc could go home and take care of Homer. We were able to get a room with a bed and a pull out bed for Marc so we could both stay with Riley in the hospital. Of course they scared the crap out of us with all of the things that could be wrong with her and so we consented to blood work, a urine screen, and a spinal tap to rule out any infections. It just broke my heart to see her hooked up to all the machines and in the bassinet without us able to hold In the back of our heads we knew she was ok and all of this was most likely driven by the fact that she was premature and was a small baby but we had to make sure. After the first day they put her under the billi lights and by the next morning her levels had dropped. As expected everything checked out normal and we headed home Saturday morning...a perfect start to my birthday.

Riley's Life Begins

Here’s a teaser picture before I get into the story of her arrival:





















For those of you interested in how we picked Riley’s name. We picked the name Riley is after her great-grandmother Rita Grad (Marc’s maternal grandmother) who passed away about six weeks before we found out we were expecting Riley. Madison is after my grandmother, Miriam Albom (who passed away when I was 7) and Marc’s other grandmother Marian Zimmerman (who passed away right when Marc and I met). These were three women who were extremely important to Marc and I and I know Riley will do justice to their names and memories. I can only describe Riley as pure perfection right down to her clubfeet (I’m sure most parents think this about their babies but Marc and I feel so blessed that she is here and healthy after all the scares we had during pregnancy).

So now I will bore you with the story of her arrival (it was quite comical) and her first three days before you get to see more pictures of her. It’s a long blog so brace your self and no cheating and scrolling straight the pictures. Our Sunday started out quite ordinary; we woke up, had some breakfast and got ready for our friend’s Greg and Lyndsay’s son, Xavier’s, first birthday party. I was feeling kind of off all day but didn’t think anything of it since I had just been to the Doctor on Friday and both he and my OB said I could go into labor any minute or I could last the rest of the pregnancy, there was just no way of knowing. I’d also been feeling crummy for the last few weeks of the pregnancy so I just thought it would be a bad day. I noticed my contractions were getting a bit stronger throughout the day but they still weren’t painful or too regular so I just sort of ignored them and we went to the party and celebrated Xavier’s birthday. II even had our friends Jenny and Josh feel my belly during a contraction (their little Jake is due in June and Riley can’t wait to meet her new friend). We got home around 3:00 in the afternoon from the party and I laid down for a while to read and watch TV. I was starting to feel more off but figured I was tired since I hadn’t been sleeping well for about 2 weeks now. At about 5:00 Marc came down and I got up to make some dinner. I cooked up a fabulous meal of fajitas, Mexican rice and refried beans, a true Mexican feast. I also spoke to my brother and at 6:15 sat down to eat dinner. I was about halfway through my taco at 6:30 when I said to Marc, “Oh crap, I either just peed myself or my water just broke.” I had just gone to the bathroom so I was pretty sure I didn’t pee myself but I got up and went to the bathroom and that’s when the flood started.
While I sat on the toilet gushing fluid, Marc called my Dr. who of course was not on call that night and we headed to the hospital after he attempted to clean up dinner (imagine rice and beans dried to the pots and pans) and I got Homer ready, leaking fluid as I did it all. I sat on three towels as we headed to Walnut Creek but the fluid was just a steady flow and I ended up soaking through two of the towels on half hour drive up to the hospital. When we got to John Muir in Walnut Creek at about 7:15, I was soaked, it looked like I had jumped in a kiddy pool, Marc tried to get me a wheel chair as I walked onto the elevator to head up to Labor & Delivery. When we got to Labor and Delivery they were expecting us and they got us right into the room. Marc was sort of like a bull in a China shop, I was so calm but I kept apologizing for leaking water all over, looking back, I am sure they are used to it. I wasn’t really in any pain, just feeling uncomfortable from being soaked, already my stomach was so much smaller. Our room at John Muir in Labor and Delivery was very nice. It had a very large, nice TV (of course Marc and I are excited about this) and a pull out for Marc. I wasn’t in any pain when we got there, just weird losing fluid all the time (in fact this was probably the worst part of the experience), I had no idea there was so much fluid! They took all my vitals, I told them I wanted an epidural eventually, and they asked me some questions. We were there about an hour when my contractions started to get stronger and more painful. I continued to get more and more uncomfortable.


At about 8:00 PM I was 4cm dilated and about 80% effaced with Riley in a -1 position. At about 9PM my contractions were getting really uncomfortable, our labor and delivery nurse was amazing and she came in and told me that they might be doing an emergency C-Section on someone so if I wanted an epidural I might have to wait a little longer. With that in mind at about 9:45 I asked for my epidural. Before 10:15 the anesthesiologist was in our room giving me the epidural. All I can say is an epidural was like heaven, I still felt all the contractions but it was more of an annoyance rather than painful. I have no idea how or why everyone doesn’t get an epidural, after that I didn’t care about or notice anything. At about 11:00 I was feeling awesome and I actually asked the nurse why anyone would ever do this without the epidural. She examined me and I was 9cm and 90% effaced. Things were moving quickly and I still needed to get a dose of antibiotics since my Group B strep test hadn’t come back yet!

My mom arrived around 11:30 after getting a call at 6:30 that my water broke and getting on a plane at 7:30 to Oakland. (She gets the award – we’re convinced she was living at the airport for the past few weeks anticipating the call.) Like geniuses we forgot our camera in the rush so my mom had to swing by the house and get those for us! Who forgets cameras to the birth of their first born! Marc ordered a pizza in to the hospital since he didn’t get dinner and ran into the perinatologist who diagnosed Riley with clubfoot and he stopped in to say hi and said he was around all night and into the morning and wanted to see Riley when she was born. Anyway, at about 1:00 I was examined again and I was 10cm and fully effaced with Riley at a +1 position. The nurse said it was still too early to push since she was only at a +1 so we tried to take a nap before pushing. My contractions were too intense and close together to be successful and at 2:15 she came in to exam me again and had me do a practice push because she could see Riley’s hair. I pushed one more time without the Doctor for real and then she decided Riley was coming quickly so she called the Doctor to come to the hospital. At 2:30 the Doctor arrived and we started pushing. My contractions had gotten much weaker at this point and were spread very far apart so it took about an hour and 4 or 5 pushes before Riley was born. As her head came out the Doctor who delivered her said, “Whoa she looks just like daddy.” And a few seconds later she was out, born with TBS playing in the background. I’m really not surprised she was born at 3:26AM, her awake and active time in the womb was between 3-4 so it was only fitting she was born in this window and with the Fresh Prince of Bel Air playing in the background. I remember seeing her but not hearing her cry and I panicked a bit since I knew she was early. Then I saw her mouth open like she was trying to scream and after a few suctions she was screaming the most beautiful sound. And there she was, it was amazing. I didn’t even think about her clubfeet in those few minutes after her birth. It wasn’t until she was in the warmer and I noticed her pinkies and said to Marc that her pinkies didn’t look too crooked that I realized I never looked to see if she really did have clubfeet. Since she was kicking and flailing about, I caught a glimpse of her feet and saw that they were indeed clubfeet but in those moments I didn’t care (and I still don’t).

The whole experience was very surreal. I’ve been dreading labor and delivery for several months now but the whole experience wasn’t so bad, probably because of my epidural. I imagined a team of Doctors and Nurses in the room but there were only four people in the room besides me and Marc. I imagined chaos and commotion and everything was so calm and relaxed. They called in a pediatrician in addition to the pediatric nurse since Riley was considered premature. They put Riley on my chest for a minute and let us meet each other and then moved her to the warmer to examine her and clean her up and swaddle her, then it was back to my chest. Feeling her pressed up against my chest was the most amazing feeling in the world. After a couple of hours of recovery we were moved to our post partum room. We saw our perinatologist, who predicted her weight exactly to the ounce and he checked out her feet and said hello to her then we were wheeled to our room. All of the nurses and doctors at John Muir were amazing! I highly recommend anyone having a baby in the Bay Area to do it at John Muir, the level of care we got was truly amazing and they were so attentive and so helpful and very compassionate about Riley’s clubfeet. My Doctor came by that morning and a pediatrician came by again to check on Riley. I told my Doctor delivery was way easier then the last month or so of the pregnancy, I’m sure the fact that Riley was not even 5 pounds helped! We both got the ok to go home the next day, Tuesday. All of the doctors and nurses were impressed by how mature Riley was for her gestational age and size, that’s my girl! They said she acts more like a full term, 7 or 8 pound baby. We decided to stay an extra night because I was having trouble nursing Riley, she just gets so tuckered out by sucking so we stayed one more day to get it down. Our room was so tiny that I started to get claustrophobic so the nurses moved us to a room that they usually use for C-Section or sick moms. It was twice as big as our original room.

We were so fortunate to get some visitors too. Jenny and Josh came Monday night to meet Riley and then Lyndsay, Courtney and Xavier came to meet her on Tuesday. Unfortunately, Xavier couldn’t come in because they don’t allow kids under 14 into post partum unless they are siblings but it was so nice to have our friends come and visit and to meet Riley. It was hard to believe that exactly a year prior we were visiting Greg and Lyndsay at the same hospital to meet Xavier for the first time. Riley also got to watch her first IU Basketball game with Mommy on Tuesday, they lost terribly but Riley and I had a good conversation about attending IU like Mommy when she is older.

Wednesday we headed home. We weren’t even out of the parking lot of the hospital when Marc and I got hit by a strong smell; it seems our little Riley pooped in Marc’s new car (definitely Marc’s daughter!) It was pretty funny, Marc said “Riley don’t you know this is a no pooping/farting car.” Suddenly the new car smell was a thing of the past. It was so nice to get home, Marc had a bouquet of roses and my push present – a Movado watch, with a card waiting for me on the table and of course it was wonderful to see my Homer who couldn’t quite believe his momma was in front of him. After I got a few licks from the Homer we brought Riley in to meet him. He didn’t show too much interest in her, he gave her a few licks but was more interested in licking Marc and I. When Riley had her first meltdown poor Homer started to shake, I think he thought he was in trouble or caused the cry. We’ve had a bit of a behavioral issue (think poopy car story) but other than that Homer has been quite the trooper considering the fact that we were both around pretty much all the time for the last 3 weeks and then disappeared and then brought in a strange thing. Wednesday night wasn’t too bad, we put Riley in our room with a sleep positioner in bed so it was easy to comfort her and feed her. She had one meltdown after her last feeding of the night and I picked her up and held her to my chest and she fell asleep right away, sometimes a girl just needs her mommy! As she is coming out of her meltdown she does this adorable thing where she makes her mouth into an O share and coos a few times before she conks out. I almost like the meltdowns because I know those are coming at the end! And it is just too cute!

We feel so fortunate to have such a wonderful little girl, Marc and I look at her in awe that we made something so perfect. She is perfect in everyway and makes all of the bumps along the pregnancy worth every minute. I thought her clubfeet would matter but we hardly notice them and Riley is such a joy. She is so easy to console and she has the most adorable facial expressions. She definitely knows what she likes and doesn’t like and let’s us know about it, I call her my 4lbs of Fury because when she is not happy she lets us know about it. Needless to say we are completely in love with this little girl.


So that’s the story of how Riley decided to enter the world, I can hardly believe that she is finally here but I also have a hard time remembering life before her. It's so weird how I feel I have known her my whole life and yet she is only 5 days old.

As promised here are some pictures of Riley from her first days of life:

Proud Papa!





















Bright Eyes!




















Hands are yummy:





















Daddy's Little Girl:



















Riley Holding Daddy's Hand during their nap:























Eyes Wide Open:


















































Almost got the "O" face from her that I love:






























That's it for now! Sorry for the super long blog this time!

She's Here!

Riley Madison Zimmerman arrived on Monday, January 12 at 3:26 AM. She weighed 4lbs and 14oz and was 17 inches long. She's pure perfection right down to her clubfeet!

More on her arrival and pictures later!

And the Hits Keep Coming

Yesterday Marc and I went in for what we thought was our last ultrasound. Our Dr (the perinatal specialist) basically wanted to see what we chose to do to treat Riley's feet since he's the one who diagnosed us and he likes to find out what his patients choose to do so he can pass along the info to other parents who get the diagnosis. He also said he would measure her and let us know how big he thought she would be if she went to 40 weeks. Our appointment was at 8 and we left at 10:30 if that gives you any indication of how the day went.

Riley was of course head down in my cervix like we expected, we didn't really get to see her face because she is facing my back (which is a good thing for delivery) and we saw bits and pieces of body parts. She gave us the thumbs up as she has done since she started flexing her fingers. We didn't get to see her feet because she was all tucked up and her back was facing my front. We couldn't really see much of the whole her because she's gotten so much bigger she doesn't all fit on the screen. The good news is all of her organs are where they are supposed to be and blood is circulating through her body like it should be. There's still enough amniotic fluid so that wasn't a concern. Now the bad news...she's not big enough. She's basically about 4lbs right now which means 90% of babies at 36 weeks are bigger than her. (Marc thought she was barely 4lbs but I thought I saw the measurements predicting her to be about 4lbs 14oz currently which is almost 5lbs) Either way if she went the full 40 weeks (which she might but at this point since I am 3cm and 70% effaced she probably won't) she wouldn't even break 6lbs for a birth weight (she should be gaining a 1/4 of a pound a week) so the Dr. was worried she might not be tolerating being in utero anymore.

He moved us to another room for a non-stress test (which is enough to stress you out!!!). Basically they hooked me up to heart monitors, then they hooked up a fetal heart monitor for her, and then they put another monitor on me to track my contractions. Essentially they were looking to see varying heart rates and how she was tolerating my contractions. I was contracting quite often but since they are still so mild I didn't feel most of them. They measure contractions on a scale of 0-100 and my strongest was a 35, so nothing too uncomfortable. Riley did fine for the test, of course she was stubborn and kept moving so it was hard to keep the monitor in the right spot to get a consistent read on her heart beat so we were there forever. At the end of the exam the Dr told me right now she looks like a small, healthy baby. I now have to go Tuesdays and Fridays for the rest of the pregnancy for these non-stress tests. So we will know more next week as they monitor her more, I like to think of yesterday as a baseline for her monitoring. As long as she keeps tolerating varying levels of activity and assuming she grows they'll let her stay there until she's ready to come out on her own, if she can't tolerate it in there then they will deliver her early and hope that she does better outside in the nursery. The Dr. did say at 36 weeks were golden as far as development goes, they just want to figure out why she's so small. Tuesday we have another non-stress test (NST) and then Friday we have another NST along with an ultrasound to see if the amniotic fluids are still at a normal level. If she's still not born by Jan. 30 then we go for another ultrasound where they will measure her again to see how much she's grown.

So the hits keep coming! I was really hoping that this time around we would get a good report, since at 27 weeks she was right on schedule in terms of predicted weight. I've also always measured about where I should be when I go to the Dr. except for this week when I was measuring 34cm instead of 36cm but since Riley had dropped into my cervix my Dr. had attributed the smaller measuring to the fact that she was in birthing position. Part of me wants her to be born because I think we will only know what the deal is once she is here (plus I am so uncomfortable) but the other part of me wants her to stay put to ensure she grows and is healthy. All I can do is trust my Dr.s these days and hope for the best, but still I wonder, why us? Why do we get the baby with all the problems? I have done everything right this pregnancy (other than being a excercise slacker), I always take my prenatals, cut out bad foods and still we get stuck with the constantly worrying about one potential problem after another. And why her, she's just an innocent little life. Meanwhile crackheads give birth to perfectly healthy babies. Is this my punishment for wanting her so badly?

Well here are the two pictures we got of her:

Her chin, lips and nose:

I know her hand is in this one for sure, I just can't tell what everything else is, I think her head is in it too (you might need to click on this one to make it bigger, I labeled where her hand is):

Insomnia

So the last few days I have not been able to sleep. Monday night I slept for 4 hours on and off, and Tuesday and Wednesday night I've woken up wide awake at 3:30AM and have not been able to go back to sleep. I've become quite the Nick At Night and TBS loyal watcher this week. This morning I rolled over to tell Marc that it really sucked that I couldn't sleep while I still had a chance, I mean we now know the time is closing in on us until Delivery Day so I was hoping to muster in a few extra hours of sleep. As I was trying to fall back asleep to Saved By the Bell I got really hungry so at 5AM Marc ran out (without waking the dog) and got me some breakfast burritos from McDonald's. They're my favorite and I vow to stop eating them once the baby is born! I know they can't be good for you. So at 5:30AM we sat in bed and chowed down on McDs (which I paid for later), it was definitely one for the books. Lucky Marc got to go back to bed and I got up and came into work.

I've officially been told to work at home until the baby comes so after I go over my project list with my counterpart I will be heading home to carry out my last days/weeks as a mom-to-be from home. Everyone was a little shocked I'm working 3cm dilated but I could be like this for weeks. It's kind of surreal that it's finally so close to meeting our little girl but I must say it will be nice to be in sweats. :) I've realized that I have been having more contractions than I thought. Yesterday I told the Dr sometimes I didn't know if I was having a contraction or the baby was just stretching and it felt like everything was tightening up. She said based on the fact that I am close to 3cm it's safe to assume most of them are contractions unless I feel her actually move. So Braxton-Hicks are a thing of the past and as Marc would say, "this is the real deal." I always expected them to hurt but now that I realize what they are I've realized I have been having contractions, though they are very irregular and spread apart, like 1/2 hour one hour 40 minutes the next and they are pretty short, maybe like 15 seconds. Cross your fingers that a) my water doesn't decide to break at work and b) she decides to come soon...the sit and wait game is very hard for two ubber planners!

Baby Update

Marc and I just went to my OB for my 36 week check-up and all is going well. Sad part is I finally hit my high school weight, yes 8 1/2 months pregnant, I was a heffer. Baby's heartbeat is normal and most importantly her head is down and she's dropped into my pelvis (which explains my 8 trips to the bathroom every night - her head is right on my bladder). I'm 3cm dialated and 70% effaced. My Dr. didn't really give me an estimation of when she could come, it could be days or weeks, just depends. She kind of wants her in for at least another week but didn't seem too concerned since she said I could keep working (darn!). When we left I said "See you next Friday." To which my Dr. replied "Or sooner." The end is near!

We have an ultrasound on Friday so hopefully we will get to see if she is facing backwards or forwards, hopefully backwards, she'll be easier to get out that way!

Happy New Year!

Wow, I can hardly believe it's 2009! 2009 seemed so long ago in June when we found out we were expecting our precious little girl. Time really does fly when you're having fun (or when you have morning sickness!). I remember thinking back in June if I could make it through the summer and to the holidays, 2009 would be here and we would be that much closer to meeting our daughter.

2008 was a year of ups and downs for us, of course our ultimate up was finding out we are expecting our sweet little daughter but it also came with some worries and fears (which thank goodness have been ruled out). We also had to deal with Homer's battle with Congestive Heart Failure and the two times he flirted with death. Marc and I are looking forward to starting 2009 and all the excitement it has to bring to our family...it's going to be a big year for us! Homer is healthy (for now!), in 16 days I hit the big 3-0 and most excitingly in 35 days our little Riley is due. Last night, well early this morning I told Marc that it was weird that in years past, on January 1 I would be excited about my birthday being just two weeks away but this year here I am wishing January to pass quickly so we can meet our daughter (and hoping I don't go into labor on my birthday!). Amazing how parenthood changes you! We've declared 2009 the year of the Riley around here and we can't wait for her to be her and to share our joy with everyone close to us. We are excited to face the challenges and excitement that parenthood has to offer and hold our daughter in our arms.

So Happy New Year to all of our friends and family! We hope 2009 brings much happiness, health, and prosperity for everyone!

Much love,
Allie and Marc (and Homer too!)