For emphasis

Mariana has this interesting little way of adding emphasis in her speech. She does not use the word "very." Instead, she repeats the word needing emphasis over and over in this cute little 2 year old way. Some examples...

(about her sister) "Baby Gloria will grow biiiig and biiiig and biiig."

(about the jarred ladybug they caught yesterday and accidentally left out all night)
The ladybug in the jar is coooold and coooold and cold."

What a cutie!

The secret

of baby #3. So how come those of you out there with 3+ kids didn't tell me how incredibly enjoyable the third baby is?!? I have been enjoying Gloria in her baby-ness SO much more than I remember with the other two! Of course, that may have something to do with the fact that baby #1 screamed for about 20 out of every 24 hours until about 2 or 3 months of age. I remember telling a very disappointed hubby that I wasn't sure if I could "do this" again! Ha! Maybe I was too worried I would do something wrong with #2 that would start her screaming too. Either way, I used to just wish I could skip to about 4 months...past the swaddling, constant diaper changes even in the middle of the night, multiple night-waking phase. But this time something is different...I am really enjoying it! Don't get me wrong, I have my tired, cranky, wish-I-could-sleep-more-than-2-consecutive-hours kind of moments, but I still just relish in her innocence and sweetness so much that it takes the loathing of it all away! I think if more people knew how wonderful baby #3 is, fewer would stop at 2! She makes me really want another one! Good job, Gloria! :-) What a sweet little "gift from God" as big sister Allia calls her!

Some fun pics...

The evening shift

Like father, like daughter?

Did somebody make a poopy or what?


Allia just loves having a baby in the house...she is already planning for "the next one"!

My pretty ballerina

Here is my sweet Allia (she is such a blinker!!!) before her first ballet class. She loved it! Tia Becky (a very experienced dancer!) is teaching a six week beginner class in our neighborhood clubhouse for Allia and 5 of her friends. A whole group of us wanted our girls to have the experience but weren't ready for the studio stuff...a whole year of pricey lessons plus recital, costumes, etc. So this is just great! She looks so grown up! *sniffle*

2 weeks

I can hardly believe it has been two weeks (as of yesterday) with our little Gloria already! She is such a blessing to us! And quite an eater...she weighed 8lbs 10oz today at her Dr. appointment...that is 1lb 2oz more than the day we left the hospital! Way to go, girl!


Gloria with Tia Becky and Lito

A Child of God

Our little Gloria was baptized yesterday. It was a beautiful celebration complete with family and friends. The moment after the priest poured the baptismal waters over Gloria's head, our Allia said, "Now she is a child of God." It was so sweet! We are so happy for our yummy-smelling baby girl!



When the Lord comes may she go out to meet him with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom!

Happy, Healthy baby

Yay! We went for Gloria's follow-up with the cardiologist, and after an EKG, Echo, and much listening and prodding, they have determined she has a perfect, healthy little newborn heart. We don't really know why her heartrate was low the day after birth, but whatever the reason, it has corrected itself. She has a normal newborn heartrate now and is gaining weight very well...she weighed in at 8lbs 2oz today...3 1/2 oz more than her birth weight and she is not even 2 weeks yet! Yay baby Gloria! Praise God for a healthy baby and a smooth morning of crazy Dr. stuff! She slept through the whole Echo which was almost a miracle itself!

Baby moments

Here is our little baby burrito. All of our babies have slept better all swaddled up like this.



Here are our 3 girls all ready for the last mass of the Christmas Season. They all behaved so well...it was wonderful. And we sang "Angels We Have Heard on High" with the beautiful Gloria in the refrain. The whole family enjoyed it. Mariana tried to keep singing it even when the song was over. :-)

Her Story

For those who are interested, here is how our sweet baby Gloria's birth came about:

She made us wait a little just like her predecessor, Mariana...they were both 3 days past their due date. As we were going to bed Saturday night and saying our prayers together (about 10:15pm), Austin prayed earnestly that she might be born that night. No sooner did he finish the sentence, and I started having a strong contraction. He fell asleep, but I never did. About half an hour later I got up to get things ready. The contractions became so frequent (2 min apart) that I decided to wake him up to load the car and go. Mariana came only an hour after we arrived at the hospital, and I didn't want this one born in the car! We packed up and arrived at the hospital around midnight. I was dilated to 6cm. We labored there for a couple of hours. At our arrival we found out that a very pro-abortion doctor was on call for our regular doc We requested another Dr. but were denied, so she came up to talk with us before the birth. She was very nice and asked if we could just agree to take good care of mom and baby and not worry about the rest. So we did. Sweet little Gloria came an hour or so after at 2:39am. It was a quick birth with only a few pushes for her to be born...and that was a blessing because it turned out she had her cord around her neck and leg! She shaped up quickly though and nurses great!

As we were preparing to take our precious bundle home Monday at lunchtime (we don't like to stay in the hospital long), we found out she had a very low resting heart rate (70's!)all morning and couldn't come home. So I had to be undischarged to stay with her and we ended up there another night with an EKG and frequent monitoring. She looks and acts fine, and the Pediatric Cardiologist seems to think all is well. We will see him for a follow-up next week. They seem to think it is just some imbalance in her system that has to work itself out. We thought she was too laid back! She really is the perfect little baby so far. I had forgotten how incredibly sweet newborns are. We are just loving her in all of her sweetness!

She was also very considerate and gave her big sisters a great gift upon her arrival home. Here is Mariana enjoying it...

Welcome

Gloria Mary Thérèse
Sunday January 6, 2008 at 2:39am
7 lbs. 14.5 oz. and 20.75 inches













Sorry it took me so long to post. Things have been a little crazy, but hopefully I can fill in more details soon!

A sweet invitation

(During one of our Riddle family dance sessions...we play loud music and dance all over the living room like crazy people...)

Mariana (to Manah): Will you please dance me?

Manah: How could I resist that?

*side note: These dance sessions are the reason my husband and children won the crazy dance contest at our national night out celebration a few months ago. I however, reserve this for the privacy of our living room, so don't expect to witness anything crazy!

Holding out

Well, we had our 40 week appointment today...you know, the one you hope you don't actually have to go to! Baby is still doing great enjoying her own private world in there. They did a quick ultrasound and 20 minutes of fetal monitoring just to make sure all is well. I am having tons of contractions but they don't seem to bother her a bit! I am almost 3cm now, so hopefully when she does come it will be quick. But for now, we are still just waiting...