Fun Day with the boys

The beginning of the day


Pete is jealous of Joey's cookie


The before picture


The after picture


Getting Clean


Super cute boys
They needed bottles after all of that excitement
Relaxing
Baby Einstein
Joey pooped after a long day

On the move...

Well its official Alex is crawling. He still goes pretty slow most of the time but he can book it for Pete's toys. Alex still won't put himself to sleep in his crib, he enjoys being on his hands and knees so much he doesn't realize to just lay down, but he will stay asleep if I lay him in his crib after he falls asleep...YEAH for two 1.5 hour naps today. He is talking a lot more and blowing bubbles even when his mouth is dry he trying really hard to make spit to blow more bubbles. We are up to three meals a day and its hard to fit them in with 5 bottles and naps but he is a great eater and sleeper so I am not complaining.

Milestone Catch Up

Weight Gain
Birth - 7lbs 11oz
1 month - 7lbs 9oz
2 months - 10lbs 13oz
4 months - 13lbs 14oz
6 months - 16lbs 14oz

Milestones (I can tell from the pictures )
First smile - March 7, 2008
First Plane Ride - April 15, 2008
Rolls Back to Tummy - May 8, 2008
Found his Feet - May 20, 2008
Sit Supported - May 22, 2008
Rolls Tummy to back - May 28, 2008
First Solid Food - June 19, 2008
Sits up alone - June 25, 2008
Rocks on Hands and Knees - July 5, 2008
Sits in his big boy highchair - July 20, 2008
Does downward dog - July 26, 2008
First swim - July 29, 2008
First Earthquake - July 29, 2008
Crawling (slow but sure) - August 2, 2008
First time in the Ocean - August 3, 2008

The beginning of Life

Sooooo This is going to be a long one!

Birth Story:
Since the day I found out Alex was going to be a boy people told me your gonna have a superbowl baby. A week before my due date both Grandmas and Grandpa Stu came to visit. Everyday for the week my phone never stopped ringing and Stu would walk in every morning and say "No baby yet"...he is lucky to be alive after the 5th day of it =) But my due date came and went and Grandma and Grandpa Richardson were off to Hawaii. So at 2:30am on February 3, 2008 I woke up with pains and knew I was in labor. I got up and started to keep track of the contractions which were 10 min apart exactly. At 8 am Patrick and Grandma Rud got up and my contractions had gotten to about 5-7 min apart. Around 1pm they were 5 min apart for an hour and 45 min (at the military hospital they tell you not to come in until your contractions are 5 min apart for 2 whole hours) as I was preparing my bags to leave they stopped completely...grrrrr! About 30 min later they were back even stronger but still 7 min apart so Mom and I kept track again. This same pattern continued so we decided it would be a while so Annie and Jeremy came over to our "Superbowl Party." After the game I realized I had been standing since 2:30am and was super exhausted but laying down made the contractions unbearable. Finally around 10pm I just couldn't handle the back pain anymore and figured I was 7 or 8 cm. WRONG! When I got to the empty labor and delivery floor they told me that I was going to have go walk around the hospital for 2 hours because I was barely 4 cm....HELL NO, I was tired and discouraged at this point so I decided that I wanted DRUGS!!!!! The doctor on call said that I could get a room instead because the floor was empty and they called the anesthesiologist. By the time she came an hour later I was 8 cm but to tired to go any longer without. YEAH for epidurals =) The doctor told me at 2am that this baby was coming soon so I called Annie to come if she wanted to be in the waiting room when he was born so she rushed there, my sister and Dad surprised me at got there at 3 am Then we WAITED and WAITED and WAITED. It was a funny scene actually, I was wide awake feeling good from the Epidural and Patrick Mom Dad Heather and Annie are all fighting to stay awake. Finally at 6 they let me start pushing, well 3.5 hours later, Patrick counting to ten 1000 times and a panic attack with Mom, the "head" doctor came in and was upset they let me push that long so he told us I had one shot using the vacuum then I was going to have to have a c-section. Well 2 pushes with the vacuum later Alex James Richardson was born at 9:54am February 4, 2008. His hand was by his cheek so he couldn't get over my pelvic bone. All I could think when I saw him was 1. look at those big hands feet and penis (yes I said penis, I have to remember everything remember?) 2. what is wrong with his head (see picture). We asked every doctor for the next 24 hours if they thought his head would go back to normal. Because he had such a rough start they decided to whisked him away for lots of observation but Patrick went to. I was spent and went right to sleep. Patrick got to give him his first bath which I wish I was able to see. After a few hours they took me upstairs to my room...aka closet, which made me want to cry but Patrick sat with me and finally around 6pm they brought baby boy richardson to see me. I was sooo happy so see him and we finally decided between Alex and Kyle for his name. After we told everyone his name was Alex we started wanting to change it but of course we didn't. Since the room was so small and Patrick is so big I was on my own that night with Alex. Lucky for me later that night they moved me to a BIG room =). February 6th we finally went home and decided after a few hours that we HAD to move to our new house two weeks early, so Patrick packed the house and loaded the truck for 2 whole days and moved us into our house. And so Alex's life began =)

A way to remember

Over the last six months silly Ol'Alex has been doing such fun things and now I can't remember what day and exactly how I felt at the time. So I decided I needed to keep track of his milestones so that I would always remember. I have been trying to think of the best way to remember everything that would be ideal for a mom with a soon to be crawling child. I also wanted to make sure that all of our Family and Friends near and far could "see" what I am seeing and feeling. So HELLO 2008, I have decided that a blog would be fun. I promise to capture his milestones and update you on the fun things that he does but I also promise that I won't write long drawn out explanations of our day to day activities(you know you love my stories). Some days will be boring because I do want to remember and P to see when he leaves, what and how much Alex ate, when he went to bed and other day to day stuff so I am going to try to write a line or two at the end of each day. I will try to get Patrick to write a line or two here and there but I am sure we all know how that will work out =)

You can always see our semi updated pictures at: http://alexjrich.shutterfly.com/action/