Welcome baby girl Ripp!

You wait 9 or 10 months, going through a ton of pregnancy-related trials and tribulations, but there does finally come a day when the joyful product is realized. That day was today for us, as we went in to Howard County Hospital to be induced (at 39 weeks, 1 day gestation). We arrived at 6AM, and after about 11 hours of waitful preparation and relatively quick labor, we welcomed a new baby girl to our family. No, she does not yet have a name (in the proud M&M tradition of waiting till after we meet our kids).
She weighed 8 lbs, 12 ounces, and was 21 3/4 inches long. She pinked up pretty quickly (Apgars of 9 and 10 out of 10), shouted just long enough to open up her tiny lungs to full early capacity, and then settled down, all swaddled up, in her parents' arms.

We got to know her for an hour before giving mom and baby some separate time to rest up. Since baby was born at 5:08PM, a happily-received dinner soon arrived in Maggie's room, and there was much rejoicing.

More pix and news to follow!

Change of plans! Welcome Tyler Knight!

Mags and I went to see a good movie "Letters to Juliet" last night (thanks Mom and Dad Mac for watching the kids!), and Maggie's contractions were picking up. We weren't getting our hopes up too much though (we've never yet had a baby without being induced).

At home for 3 hours, Maggie couldn't sleep for the contractions getting worse, and we knew at 2AM that we needed to get to the hospital. We rushed to Saint Mary's like crazy people, got a room quite quickly, and then we monopolized our nurse for the next 1.5 hours, because Maggie had to hold back from pushing and just having the baby (so the hospital could have some chance of getting a doctor there)!

At 3:10AM the waters burst, and fortunately an OB GYN got there right then; Tyler Knight Ripplinger was born 10 minutes later, nice and healthy.

He weighed 10 lbs 15 oz, and 24 inches long (that's not a typo). There was no time for an epidural or anything, but it went so smoothly it wasn't a problem. He may have been 1.5 weeks overdue (by ultrasound, anyway), so that could explain the spontaneous labor!

Anyway, we're so excited and grateful for things going well. We had his name pretty much picked out a week ago; it just felt right and continued to feel right after we met him. His siblings are excited to meet him in a few hours! Thanks to everyone out there for your love and support!

I'm Blue Dabba De Dabba Di...

I had fun trying to make a pink and blue cake. I made a white cake from scratch, separated batter for food coloring, [I also added some flavor: lemon extract for the pink one, and almond extract for the blue one :) ] baked, cooled, cut, and re-assembled. I happen to have some left-over cream cheese frosting; there was just enough to cover the top. So Matt and I both closed our eyes while he spun it, and I reached out to place the knife/spatula. The first time, the cakes split apart (because Matt spun too fast), and the knife was barely touching both halves. I made Matt do it again more slowly this time. I cut the cake and ta da! It's blue! [no fingers were harmed in the cutting of this cake]

Half an hour later, we're at the ultrasound with all the kiddos, and what do you know? The tech says it's a boy! He seems to have all his working parts. Everything looks good. And from her calculations of the size of the baby, his new due date is June 15th! Yea! The technician tried to get his profile, but he wasn't cooperating. She also tried the 3D camera, but managed to get only a cute ear out of her efforts [top picture on the right]. The kids are already picking out names: Jack is a popular one with Adam and Kaitlyn. Adam also mentioned David and Ben. We told them we would consider the names. So cute. We made sure to tell them that their prayers (Adam's) have finally been answered. We are being blessed :) And we are so thrilled to be adding another boy to our family!

The Fellowship of the Ripps

We're moving to Washington D.C.! Sometime in June next year, we'll be heading east to live there for a year. Matt got a fellowship at George Washington University. So we'll get to be pretty close geographically to [cousin] Kyle and Amy for a few months and also [sister] Jen and Todd! :) Yea! Matt had three offers, two in D.C. and one in Iowa. We looked at all the pros and cons, made a choice, prayed, and decided Monday that GWU is it. Now, the fun part...getting rid of stuff and packing!