Fight for Preemies

Today, November 17, is the March of Dimes "Fight for Preemies" day. Support the March of Dimes and help us find ways to prevent premature birth. Premature births have increased 31% since 1981 -- why???!?!?!?!

Our Sophie Arielle was born at 32 weeks, 5 days. We're so very lucky and blessed that she spent a mere 22 days in the hospital, and nearly four years later, she's a happy and healthy little girl.



So many other families aren't that lucky. Many preemies spend a lot longer in the NICU, and have lifelong health concerns as a result of premature birth. And sadly, many preemies never come home.

Support the March of Dimes, for Sophie and for all babies born before their time.

Sophie says the funniest things

This morning, lying in bed with us, Sophie says:

"I'm Doctor Sophie Rzeszut."

Then she paused for a moment, before adding:

"dot com."

Mac + cheese = YUMMY!!!

Sophie @ the Apple Store

This warms my heart...

Desktop Sophie!

At work with Daddy, sharing a blueberry muffin...

Swinging!

My girls...

Sleepy baby!

So cute!!

R & S after Race for the Cure!!

Coooooool Sophie!!

Sophie plugs our podcast!

Grandpa & Sophie!!!

Cutie 'newbie'

Sleeping beauty by the pool in Orange Beach

Hanging with Miss Sophie....

Sophie and I are at work this morning....I know, last place we want to be on a Saturday!! But I had some server stuff to do (hard drive upgrades) and that has to be done during non-work hours.

Raya had to go to temple this morning, so I decided to bring Sophie with me and that way, R and I can get our work stuff for the weekend done simultaneously!!

Sophie's been very well-behaved with me this AM, and kept me entertained. Hard drive upgrading requires a lot of sitting around watching files copy, so I'm glad to have her here!

And, we've been playing with Apple's PhotoBooth application, as evidenced by the photos at right. Doesn't Sophie look cool as a pop art painting? Or as a comic book character???

Lots more new Sophie pictures, as of last night, are online at sophie.rzeszut.com !!

Girl's Got Rhythm...

Sophie turned three months old last weekend, and she's getting bigger and stronger and happier all the time!!! She's sleeping more on her own at night -- about four or five hours in her bassinet by herself last night!!

She started preschool at the LJCC last week. It's hard for R and I to leave her, but she did very well and the teachers love her!! (How could they not??)

My new Treo 700p should be in tomorrow or Wednesday. New technology is cool!!

I'm heading to Vegas the week of July 17th for some Apple Server Training, and so Raya and Sophie are going to spend the week in Florida visiting Bubbe and Zayde -- with a day trip to Orlando to see Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Kevin, and maybe even Uncle Patrick!

Work is busy for both of us, and the summer is flying by....I'll try and keep this blog a little more up to date!!

Oh, and yes -- we did order the AC/DC dress at above left for Sophie -- from RockinBabySling.com !!!!

Sophie on a server rack!!

Having lunch @ Panera!!

Sophie's first trip to Uncle Bruce's house!!

Sleepy Sophie!

Sophie's coming home!

Hi Sophie!!

So tiny.

Sophie Arielle 3/17/06

Sophie Arielle Rzeszut, 3/17/06

My daughter. Wow. My daughter.

Journal of a Pregnancy, Part 7

I got out of the habit of posting baby stuff in here (obviously!!). But things are progressing nicely. We told everyone that we were expecting around the end of October, beginning of November.

In December, we found out that it's a little girl growing inside Raya's belly!! :) We've picked "Sophie" for her name, but we're still working on a middle name. We'd like to do something to honor the memory of Cyndie Culpeper, whose Hebrew name was Levanah Ariel. We found out we were pregnant the week Cyndie passed away.

The nursery is done as of last weekend, and Mom & Dad are coming into town today, Alan and Bootsie on Saturday, for Raya's shower on Sunday.

Baby baby baby baby!! :)

Around 32 hours after I made this entry, on March 17 at 11:03 PM, Sophie Arielle Rzeszut made her early and VERY surprising entry into this world!! Listen to JIA Episode 32 for the whole story...

Journal of a Pregnancy, Part 6

Everything still going according to plan. Raya's parents and David managed not to spill the beans during Rosh Hashanah!! David's back this week for Yom Kippur, we'll see if the secret stays a secret!!!

So far, I don't think anyone's the wiser. We've done pretty well to keep anyone's nosy questions away!! Just a few more weeks 'til the news can break, now!

Had our ultrasound on 9/28, pretty amazing to see that there was, in fact, a little lifeform inside Raya's belly. Couldn't hear the heartbeat, though we could see the "flutter" on the ultrasound. Our baby was roughly 1.6 cm from "head to tail" at that point, roughly the size of a lima bean. So we started referring to him/her as "Lima" for the next couple of weeks. :D

Now though, according to the books, he/she is more the size of a walnut. So we've switched to "Wally" instead....

Journal of a Pregnancy, Part 5

Haven't updated this in a couple weeks. Raya's been feeling fair-to-middling, not great. It's hard on her because she can't tell people at work, so she kind of has to "fake it" and pretend she's feeling fine. She'll be much happier when we can tell everyone!!

Two Friday nights ago, Rebecca and Jason announced that she's pregnant at services. It was the Rick Recht service, so there were lots of people there. She's only a couple weeks ahead of Raya, due in April. Obviously, we're not telling people this early!!

We've got our first ultrasound and first appointment with Dr. Davis this Wednesday. I think it will seem even more real to both of us then!!

Journal of a Pregnancy, Part 4

A quick week, not much baby-related stuff happening, though of course it's first and foremost on our minds most of the time!!

Since we're not telling our friends yet, an interesting problem is developing. Raya of course can't drink alcohol for the next eight months. But for the next two months, none of our friends will know this. So, Raya's having to be non-obvious with her non-drinking!!! So far, it's working fairly well. We had dinner with Bruce at La Paz last weekend, and R was able to order a "virgin" margarita while Bruce was away from the table.

Last weekend, we went over to Bruce's, and brought Malibu and coke, supposedly for Raya. But, oops, we forgot to put the Malibu in her drink each time. How silly of us!! :)

Not sure if we'll be able to pull it off or not. We're pretty clever, though...

Journal of a Pregnancy, Part 3

Told the parents today. Everyone is thrilled and happy for us, of course. It was kind of a comedy of errors trying to get a hold of Raya's parents...her mom was gone all morning, dad was at home, and we didn't want to tell them separately.

So, she's on the phone with both of them now. We talked to my parents earlier this morning, and Kevin called a little while ago. I also left a voicemail message for Patrick.

My mom said today she thinks one of my grandma's sisters was a twin. How scary is that!! I didn't think we had any in the family. Gulp.

Journal of a Pregnancy, Part 2

Of course, we talked about nothing but pregnancy stuff last night after work. We plan to tell our parents tomorrow (Saturday), so this is the last day that it'll be a super-duper top secret!!

We talked a little bit about godparents last night, and also about names -- both English and Hebrew. We'd both independently had the thought about using one of Cyndie Culpeper's Hebrew names, since her funeral was the day before we learned Raya was pregnant.

Weird way that the "weeks" of pregnancy are counted. Because they count week one starting with the day Raya's last menstrual cycle started, this is technically "week 4," and week 5 starts on Sunday. This is weird, because of course we know that we didn't conceive until mid-way through her cycle, 2-3 weeks ago. So during "week 1" and "week 2" of this pregnancy, she absolutely wasn't even pregnant!!! Very strange method of counting, and it seems illogical to me.

Journal of a Pregnancy, Part 1

We're pregnant!!! Nearly 13 years TO THE DAY of our first kiss.

It's unbelievable. Had the doctor's appointment at Kirklin today with a very nice nurse and nurse practioner. The nurse herself is just pregnant, ~8 weeks along, so she and Raya were able to bond a little bit. She was like, "Yes, I'm pregnant. (pause) ...and so are you!!!' :)

Raya had taken a home pregnancy test yesterday and the day before, both positive. So I was pretty well convinced she was pregnant. She didn't want to get her hopes up though, and I think the enormity of it didn't hit us until it was confirmed.

We of course will not be telling anyone yet, save for our parents and brothers. So I'm writing this now, and will keep it secret while I record some thoughts for the next three months or so, when I'll continue it publicly on the blog.

May 8, 2006, is our due date. Wow.