Baby Girl!

Now this time I'm going to be a little more efficient! Also, I don't know when I'll have time to post next so now is as good as ever. We found out today that our little one is a girl! She was quite the mover so it was hard for the technician to get all his pictures but we are sure it's a girl!  She was healthy and weighing 8 ounces with a bpm of 150.  Also I am 19 weeks at this point and we're in need of an update as to what is going on with little Ritter lady.

This week your baby starts bulking up and packing on the grossly named "brown fat" she'll need to keep warm when she gets evicted from her comfortable uterine home. Other highlights this week:

Good news: Your baby's kidneys are fully functioning and producing urine this week. Bad news: That means there will be lots of diapers in your future. But so far you're safe—at the moment the pee just passes into the amniotic fluid.

Your baby's sensory development is exploding! Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch.

She now weighs about 8½ ounces and measures 6 inches, as long as a turkey (or CBR) sub from Subway on warm, delicious Italian Herbs and Cheese bread (or Honey Oat bread, or Oregano bread or ...)

Okay that is what's going on...now here are a couple pictures for you all! 

19 weeks. (Ignore the bathroom scenery...)

Profile of baby girl!

Colorado!

So here is a glimpse into our week last week while we spent a WONDERFUL week tucked away in the scenic and GORGEOUS Rocky Mountains of Colorado!

On the porch of our home for the week with a beautiful view. 

Colorado sunset  

On the Durango-Silverton Train 

Horseshoe Cove --one of the many gorgeous sites on this trip 

The Aspen Trees just starting to change colors

Needle Mountains 

Another one of the days we went to Mesa Verde to see the Pueblo Indian cave dwellings

 One of the many cave dwellings in Mesa verde

Molas Pass - Elevation 10,899

Molas Pass

Silverton, CO

San Juan Skyway is over 200 miles of scenery and all sorts of elevations. This is at elevations around 11,000 and this is the edge of the road, note the lack of guardrails or trees to stop you.

Telluride, CO

Four Corners

We can't forget the three dogs that loved to visit us each morning and evening. From left to right: Lucy, Sage, and Blueberry AKA "Big B"

That is only a few of my favorite pictures from CO that I thought I'd share with you all. Tomorrow is ultrasound to find out what this baby is! Super excited!!

Week 17

Okay SO I've entered into the 17th week of pregnancy now! Only a couple weeks until we find out what we're having (Lord willing). Here is what is going on with the little Ritter critter this week:

• Baby's weight will increase approx 6 times over the next 4 weeks
• Baby is hard at work honing his sucking and swallowing reflexes—all the better for eating that 2 AM (and 5 AM, and 8 AM ...) meal in a few months! The finger and toenails are beginning to grow from their nail beds, which would explain why he'll need them trimmed almost as soon as he's born!
• Our baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone
• He can move his joints, and his sweat glands are starting to develop
• Our baby weighs nearly 4-5 ounces and is a little over 5 inches long—about the size of a baked potato (load on the butter and sour cream, please).

Also, over the next week Luke and I will be visiting Durango, Colorado for a much wanted vacation ( I would say needed but lets face it vacations are a luxery :) ). We leave tomorrow morning bright and early and I probably shouldn't be updating a blog right now since I have a to do list that is way to long for the amount of time I have. But I'll work on my priorities later.

I also have been slacking on ultrasound pictures so these are from when I was nine almost ten weeks pregnant. ENJOY!

Sixteen Weeks

Okay, so we're (mainly me) at sixteen weeks!  Here's what happening to baby this week!

Your baby is already mugging for the camera as she practices all sorts of facial expressions, such as squinting, yawning and grimacing, which will come in handy when you introduce her to pureed spinach. Check out what else is happening in utero:

Your baby's skin is still translucent and wrinkly, not unlike an old man's, but more fat will soon accumulate under the dermas to plump her out. If you could peer inside right now, you'd be able to see all of her veins under her skin. And speaking of veins, your baby's heart now pumps about 25 quarts of blood per day, and she hasn't even seen Orlando Bloom yet! Also, her eyes are now locked and loaded at their final destination, facing forward rather than to the sides. (Whew!)

Your baby weighs about 3 ounces this week and measures between 4 and 5 inches, about the length of your mascara. 

We find out the sex of baby Ritter on September 28th!  And my almost five year old niece Gracie asks tonight, "Aunt Kelly, when you pray and it's you praying will you pray that it's a girl? Because my daddy prayed for a boy and my mom is having a boy. So if you pray then it'll be a girl because God keeps His promises." 

Anyway here is me at sixteen weeks! I think this shirt made me look bigger than I really am...

Until next time!

Five Lessons From Habakkuk

So I was going through a dresser this week and came across a letter a good friend had written me when I was moving to North Carolina. She had put together five lessons she had learned during major transition in her life and they all surround this verse:

"Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days you would not believe if you were told." Habakkuk 1:5

Lesson One: God has you right where He wants you.  Keep seeking after Him and He will continue guiding you through doors. God has an amazing plan for your life (Jerimiah 29:11-13).

Lesson Two: I don't need to know where He's taking me.  This is a hard lesson to learn and this is where your faith plays a huge role. God is doing something in your life, something so big that if God explained it to you, you would never believe it. So, make plans for the future but realize that God's plans often don't match our plans and are ALWAYS better than the plans we make.

Lesson Three: Take time to appreciate God's work. The beginning of this verse has four commands: Look, observe, be astonished, and wonder. So-- do it! When times are good, be amazed at the goodness of God. When times are bad, still be amazed-- you know that it's during the hard times that God is shaping you to be more like Him (James 1:2-4) You- and your life as God's child- are God's masterpiece; praise the painter.

Lesson Four: Your story has a happy ending. Don't fear the unknown God works things out for those who love Him (Romans 8:28-29). Since He works things out He will provide for you.

Lesson Five: Going home does not mean you failed. God's will is bigger than just one step He leads you to.

{Me talking now} I can read that letter over and over and the lesson never gets old. In any transition of life this rings true. I'm very blessed to have such a wise friend who helped me with this letter and I thought that these lessons should be shared with other believers out there going through transition or hard time. So I hope you are able to use these lessons and apply them to life, I know they helped me tremendously.