A Pictoral April Update

Adventures in Colorado Springs! We went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on one of our three trips to Colorado Springs. The giraffe exhibit there is so cool! You get to feed the giraffes, and can pet them and everything! I knew the horns on their heads were horns, but for some reason I always imagined they'd feel somewhat squishy, like they were surrounded by fat. Not the case. They were quite horn-y! We went on the last day in the morning, and then drive home to Albuquerque. Both the kids were wiped, and Maya slept a big chunk of the way home, which was heavenly!










Back home! Wyatt being happy in his swing. What a handsome devil!


Having fun with Daddy while waiting for our breakfast at the Church Street Cafe back patio.



Weekend hiking trip to the Bosque! We hit up the Rio Grande Nature Center a couple miles from our house here in Albuquerque. The weather was perfect!

We're Moving to Colorado Springs!

Life this past month has been insane, to say the least! Time for another catch-up on the good ol' blog!

Pete's work wanted to know if he'd be interested in relocating to either Colorado Springs, or Herndon, VA. After getting their ducks in a row, it was decided that Colorado Springs it was! So, three house-hunting trips, two realtors, and a partridge in a pear tree later, we have a house and will be moving on May 16th!

Most of the homes we were looking at had really small kitchens, and were in pretty good neighborhoods. When we saw the home we ended up picking, it was kind of a no-brainer. It was crazy, though, because the next house we looked at was great, too! We were up all night trying to figure out which to choose, doing a points system rating chart, and being generally nervous about making the wrong choice. Well, the universe chose for us, because the other house went under contract. And, I am soooo glad it did! The house we got has 2400 square feet, five bedrooms, three baths, and a ginormous kitchen! It also has an RV pad, and a really cool deck out back. On top of that, it is in the nicest neighborhood I can ever hope to live in!




It's funny, because the neighborhood reminds me a bit of the house I lived in at 9th ave and Northern in Phoenix. I realized that the address there was 8140. The address at the new house is 4180! It was destiny. :)

Pete and I have so many ideas for fixing the place up. We are ripping out all the yucky old carpet, and putting down a combination of carpet and bamboo. we're getting all new appliances, and will most likely change the color of the exterior of the house. Our brains are on overdrive, in a good way!

Free Make-up!

My cousin Molly is doing a give-away on her cute blog, MoreThanHeels.com! I want to win the $25 gift card, so I'm posting here for another chance to win. Plus, her blog has all kinds of nifty, girly tips, recipes, and whatnot so I have no problem passing it along to friends! Check it out!

Newer Wyatt Photos

Kids Sci-Fi Nerdiness

Goodnight Dune! Nerd version of Goodnight Moon. All sci-fi nerds with kids will love it!
http://www.goodnightdune.com/index.html

Also, if anyone has an extra £199.99 laying around, Maya and Wyatt totally need one of these:

Wyatt's First Bath

Wyatt Peter Ristig

After a weeks worth of trying to get this little guy to come out on his own, I finally gave in to modern medicine, and checked in to labor and delivery at the University of New Mexico's Midwifery at 7:30pm on the 17th for induction.

At about 9:30pm, I was given 1/4 of a dose of misoprostol, which is used to soften the cervix. I was only 70% effaced. Once given, they wait 4 hours, check the progress, and if all is well they start the pitocin. All was more than well, though, and after about 2 hours or so I started having good contractions on my own. We opted out of the pitocin, and decide to let things go as they may. I decided to wait on the epidural too, so I wouldn't be stuck strapped to the bed.

I let Pete go to sleep, and I slept in two or three minute intervals between contractions, until they started getting really, really hard. I was just about to call the nurse when a heard a little POP! My water broke and I was a human geyser! (TMI, but what did you expect. This is about birthing a baby!). The contractions got crazy hard after that, and twenty minutes or so later, my epidural was in place. Sweet relief!

We called my good friend, Megan, who was my extra support person/photographer to come back to the hospital at about 5am. At a little after 7:30am I felt like I needed to push. The midwife was called in to check me, and said I was plus two, and could push whenever I was ready. Push I did. I was hoping that this time the pushing would be quicker since I'd already given birth once before. No such luck!

I pushed for nearly an hour-and-a-half, and finally out came Wyatt's head. Problem was, his shoulders were lodged in my birth canal. Yikes! Two nurses grabbed me by the shoulders to hold me down (and slammed my bed back against the wall in the process, not realizing the brakes were off), and the midwife yanked on Wyatt yelling for me to push with everything I had. Out he finally came! He was gray as a ghost for about 5 seconds before belting out the noisiest cry, and almost immediately turning a nice, rosy shade of pink. They plopped him on my chest, and Pete cut the cord.

Wyatt Peter Ristig was born at 8:50am, weighing in at 8 pounds, 10 ounces, and 21.5 inches. What a big boy!