Ruby Ann's birth story

On Saturday morning, 10/24, I was woken up around 4:30am by consistent contractions 7-10 minutes apart. We waited to go to the hospital until about 2pm and at that point they were 6 minutes apart. I had only been dilated to 1cm at my last appointment. I got checked and was still at 1cm (Ugh). They had me walk for about an hour, the contractions were getting worse and with my terrible back, it was pretty bad. They checked again - still 1cm (Double Ugh). Contractions were about 3 minutes apart. They were going to send me home, but I really don`t think I would`ve made it, my back was SOOOO bad. I think the nurse felt sorry for me and had me walk again for an hour to see if I would progress. And guess what - 1 1/2cm!!! YAY! They admitted me and got everything set up for my pain relief - the Stadol and the epidural. I didn`t think my back was going to be able to handle much more. This was close to 6pm. The Stadol kicked in and it was wonderful, then the epidural kicked in and it was magical. There`s no other word for it, I couldn`t have done it without it. I felt nothing after that. I was 3cm before long and they broke my water. The next time they checked me around 11pm I was at 6cm. Got a little bit of rest in and then at 2am they checked and I was at 10cm. I started pushing around 2:15 and pushed for a half hour getting baby in place for the doctor. The doctor came in and had me push two more times and out came baby! Since we didn`t know if it was a boy or girl, and we were totally expecting a boy, we were TOTALLY surprised to hear the doctor say that it was a girl! We fell in love instantly and keep falling more in love all the time. She is perfect and even tho I had to carry her an extra 5 days - everyone was right - it was worth it!

Ruby's here!!!

Ruby Ann Russell, the first Russell girl in four generations, was born on October 25th, 2009, at 2:52 am.  She was 7 lbs, 11 oz and 19.5" long.  She shares a birthday with granddad Russell!!!

I'm going to let Holly post the birth story on here but overall, everything with labor and delivery went very well and Ruby was born with no complications (except that the cord was wrapped around her neck for a few seconds when she came out).

Holly and I are currently LOVING just being with our little girl.  Snuggle time is our favorite and there's a lot of it right now.  We're both exhausted (esp. Holly) but it's so worth it.  We're so in love with this little girl.  I told Holly that I had to grow a second heart to contain all the love I have for them both.

I'm posting a couple of pictures on this page.  You can check the rest of them out on our photo site (HERE).  I'll be posting pics by month so scroll down on the page and look for the specific galleries to look at the pics as they're updated.

Wow, has it been that long?

Sorry to those of you who have been frustrated by my not updating this site lately.  Holly's at 37 weeks now!!!  Below is her 35 week pic.  Our bags are packed and the nursery's ready.  We're just waiting for the Bean to decide to pop out!  I'll post pics & details here once we have them!!!

Holly's 17 week pic

We actually wanted to start taking pics each week earlier than this but Holly hasn't been feeling well and we've been busy in the meantime. So here's our first "weekly" pic. More to come!

Much belated update...

I'm honestly not sure how many ppl read this blog since most of our family and friends would probably rather check up on us on Facebook, but there's something a bit more "solid" about this medium. So, I'll update this page but only briefly at this point because if I go into much detail it will take me all morning (which I don't have)!

First...Holly's 15 weeks pregnant with our first child. We're SUPER excited about it and yes, it was planned. It just happened a lot more quickly that we expected! Holly's been doing really well despite her bad back and the inevitable exhaustion that comes with the first trimester. We think she's about through with the exhaustion, tho. We do not yet know what sex the kid is and we're not planning on finding out until he or she pops out. We've decided to call the kid "Bean" for now (this came about after the first ultrasound was taken because our kid was the size of a coffee bean...ummm, coffffeeeeeee....). The names we've chosen are Ruby Ann and Max Slater. And yes, we're aware now of the show, "Max and Ruby," but we found out after we had chosen those names. And we're not backing down!

In other news, Holly and I just got back (last Sat. night) from our "baby-moon" in Costa Rica. It was an awesome trip and we both returned relaxed rather than exhausted. I'm glad to be back at work...Holly, not so much. That's a different story. If you'd like to see more pics from Costa Rica click HERE.

Our trip started with 6 hours of flights and 2.5 hours of driving (with a crazy but really cool driver, Carlos) before we arrived at our "hotel" (it was really a series of small bungalows) at the base of the Arenal volcano (an active one!). While there (for 2 nights) we enjoyed the on-site natural hot springs and swimming in one of their cleaner (non-spring) pools. It was really a relaxing time and we didn't want to leave so soon. We also took a trip down the road to tour some hanging bridges that connected trails through the rain forest/conservatory. It was really amazing and beautiful. Just being in the rain forest was very calming (except for one of the women on our tour who was extremely acrophobic). We didn't get to see any monkeys, sloths, or toucans while there but we did see some cool little (poisonous) red frogs and some Macaws (but only at the lodge where the gift shop was).

After our adventures just outside of Nuevo Arenal, Carlos picked us up again (we were excited about that) and we drove to a local shop that takes tourists on river rafting trips. While on our raft we saw lots of cool birds, a few crocs, and a couple of trees full of howler monkeys. Our guide was REALLY good at imitating and irritating the monkeys into "howling" at us. It was really cool tho I was a bit afraid that they would start throwing poo at us (but they didn't).

After the rafting trip and a quick lunch we had another 2-hour drive to reach our 2nd hotel, El Diria Tamarindo. The hotel is right on the Pacific coast so Holly and I decided to spend most of our days sitting out in the sun, enjoying the sound (and sometimes the feel) of the waves. The hotel was absolutely beautiful inside and out and we were able to completely unwind while there for the last 3 days of our vacation. Check out the pics...not much else to say about this place!

After a long day of traveling on our last day, we arrived back in Baltimore around 11:15 pm and stayed the night with family. It was really nice to sleep a bit and spend a couple of hours with family before heading home again.

All in all, it was a great "last" vacation before Bean comes in October. I'll try to update this blog at least once per month from this point on tho this summer is gearing up to be one of the busiest ones we've ever had.

Family Skiing/Snowboarding

Just now posting pics/vids of our skiing/snowboarding trip this past weekend.  It was a BLAST!  We (Jim, Natalie, Joe, Holly, and I) went to Wisp in MD instead of Snowshoe this year.  Snowshoe is better but Wisp was really cool and it was a lot closer.  Good compromise.  We had a few wipeouts—mine was the most painful from what I could tell (hit a patch of ice, caught my front edge, landed on my right knee, slid about 20 yds) but Joe and Jimmy each had a fall.  I didn't see Joe's, I just heard it.  He said it really didn't count because he was "training." You'll have to ask him about that one.  Later, Jimmy had a "yard sale" where he fell over on a black diamond called "Squirrel Cage" (there are a couple of vids that Holly took from the base of it, unfortunately not of any of us wrecking)  and left his skis about 50 feet up the mountain.  It was quite funny, especially since Jim wasn't hurt at all.  I flew past him before I realized that it was Jimmy that had lost his skis.  I laughed as I sat at the base watching Holly, Natalie, and Joe all helping Jim get his stuff back together so he could get down to the base. Wish we had some vids or pics of that!   The rest of the pics & vids are HERE if you want to check them out.

Snow Day Together!

Holly has off today and I am working at home, so we decided to go to Valley Forge Park to enjoy the snow before the rain takes it away later today.  Man, it was really beautiful there.  But the coolest thing was watching the kids who were sledding down one of the main hills there in the park.  We were debating going to Walmart to buy sleds (I really didn't wanna drive to Walmart to do it, Holly really did).  One of the moms there with her kids offered to loan us a couple of their "sleds" to take a run at the hill.  So Holly and I decided to have a race down the hill.  And I won.  HAHA!  But to be fair, I had a much nicer sled and Holly wiped out on a clump of grass.  But it was a real blast!!!  

These are a couple of pics from the morning.  If you want to see the rest (some better than the others), click HERE.