New Home

Our apartment has a very large living/dining room. This dining set was inherited from my grandparents. I just put new upholstery on the chairs. That is my favorite decorating activity, because it is so easy and cheap, but gives a brand new look to furniture. I spent $8 on fabric and used my dad's staple gun to do the chairs. Maybe Ryan will let me get curtains to brighten up the windows. Hint, hint, honey. No, that's not a cat statue. It is Kit Kat, in the flesh. (or, in the fur, whichever you prefer.)
Finally, I have a red wall. I tried to convince Ryan at our previous two houses to let me paint the living room red. However, he didn't agree since he knew we might be selling the houses soon. The management here will give you two accent walls of a color of your choosing. We choose "Moss Mist" for the wall in our bedroom. It is a soothing, romantic color just right for our bedroom.
We have a nice fire place, and my cactus has survived the trip from Ohio. It thrived getting the evening sun on my parents' Western facing back patio this summer. It doubled in volume. (As all of you math people know, that is not the same as doubling in height...)

So, we are open for visitors. Come one, come all... Only people we know, please. None of you strangers just happening upon this blog on the web.

There is a complimentary gourmet coffee bar in the office of the complex. So, guess where Molly and I end up for our morning walk??? We are meeting people here already. The neighbors next door have a three year old boy and are expecting a baby. The wife stays home during the day. We met another neighbor at NTB today. Because they are doing construction here, I ended up with a nail embedded in my tire. The kind repairman at NTB fixed it for free. He even had to reinstall the tire b/c we had put the spare on. After talking with him we discovered that he lives in the building just across the street from us. After I returned home, Ryan noticed that I was still missing my hubcap. I called NTB, and our new friend said that he had my hubcap and would return it after work tonight.

Molly and Family

This is Molly sleeping in her swing today. She only likes her swing if it is on the highest speed! Notice the UNC onesie from Grandpa Kelly.
This is Molly McIntyre, Molly's first American Girl doll. Molly's great grandma Kelly sent the doll to us.

This is Molly with her great Grandma Ritter. Grandma has Alzheimer's, but she quickly remembered how to hold a baby.
These are Molly's second cousins Ally, Brady, and Nolan.

Ryan and I have been looking for an apartment. We decided on one today. It is a two bedroom, and the complex has a lot of amenities, including a free YMCA membership. It is located in a nice part of Fort Worth and is right next to the Trinity trail, so there are a lot of cyclists and runners in the area. We are really excited about that! The apartment we are going to get is going to get brand new carpet, which will be great, especially when Molly starts crawling. It will be fun to live in the city. While my parents will be about 40 minutes away, we'll be closer to a lot of shopping, friends, and activities. Most importantly, Ryan's drive to work will be 10 minutes instead of 35! We will move in on October 26.

Sleeping Schedule and Surgery

I had to have a little outpatient surgery last week. As I tell people, "They left a little something in there when Molly was born." No, it wasn't a metal medical instrument, latex glove, or anything like that. That would be a good story. It was about a 1 pound piece of the amniotic sac. So, I had to have a D&C. I told Ryan not to take the day off of work because he's had to miss so much school already, and I know how hard it is to have a sub. Besides it wasn't that invasive of a procedure. So, my parents took care of Molly at the hospital while I was there.

It was a long day. We were there from 9am to 5pm. I opted to have a spinal anesthesia instead of general anesthesia so that medicine would not get into my breast milk. The procedure was quick and successful. (The worst part of the entire day was not having the spinal administered, but the first two botched attempts at inserting the IV needle. I was dehydrated from breastfeeding on top of the mandatory fasting period. So, it made my veins very tiny and constricted.) Then, they wheeled me into recovery. There I was, completely coherent, but numb from the belly down. Everyone else in recovery had had general anesthesia, and they were in various stages of consciousness and were emitting various decibel levels of snores!

I asked how long I had to be there. The nurse told me several hours until I regained feeling in my legs. I asked if my family could come see me. She told me no, that people in recovery weren't usually able to talk to anyone. I asked if I could at least have some magazines. She decided that I might just drive everyone crazy due to my boredom. So, she got me transferred pretty quickly to Stage 3 Recovery, a wonderful place with TVs, families visiting, alert patients, lunch trays, and a nice selection of beverages. I was reunited with my parents and Molly there. My parents did a great job of taking care of Molly. She was pretty cooperative!

Molly is still being a pretty good baby. We aren't trying to keep her on a tight schedule, however, we try to get her to sleep after she's been awake 1-2 hours. Dr. Weissbluth in his book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child advises that babies get overtired after being awake 2 hours. It seems to be pretty accurate with Molly. She has a couple of fussy periods each day: after she's been up a short time in the morning and then for a few hours in the evening. We've learned that the fussiness indicates that she needs to sleep, but is having difficulty falling asleep.
We are so thankful that she's an easy baby. I'm also thankful that I've been able to shower every morning since she's been born!