My name is Mary Roach and my husband, Jamie and I live in Burlington, NJ along with our daughter, Harley-7 months, and bun-in-the-oven. I also have a step daughter (who doesn't like the step part of that) who lives in Harrisburg and comes down every other weekend. I saw this website in a magazine and thought it might be nice for our daily or most likely weekly goings on to be somewhere for our friends and family to see if we don't see them all the time, especially since Harley has updates almost daily!
Jamie and I were married May 28th, 2004 and six months later moved into our first home. A few days later, not even all the boxes were unpacked, we found out the news of our first pregnancy. Shocked and excited we told everyone a little while later.
Harley's pregnancy went off without a hitch. I walked everyday to and from the train station and got lots of excercise. I didn't show until the end of the fifth month and only gained a total of around twenty pounds. She was born August 22nd, two days before her due date. I was induced and got the world's most wonderful drug, an epidural. I pushed for twenty nine minutes and our baby girl was born. We did not know what she was (not because of choice, she wouldn't show us anything in the ultrasound) so the actual moment the doctor said "Its a girl!" was an amazing time. I had thought for sure that she was a boy. Good thing we had a girl's name ready to go.
Her big sister, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends of the family all rushed in to see her for the first time. Good thing they all fit, there were lots of people that wanted to give her lots of love. The first couple of months were a big blur as any parent knows. But we did take lots of pictures for me to look back on.
Just as we were settling into our new and-a-baby-makes-three life (don't get me wrong we have Syd every other weekend but that isn't anything like taking care of something 24 hours 7 days ya know?) and up comes Christmas! My favorite time of year! So we have a nice get together at our house for the Ehrgott's on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning comes and we have breakfast with the Roach side of the family and the day goes wonderfully. Harley had a beautiful first Christmas. The next day we find out we forgot to open one present. The kind that comes in a EPT pregnancy test box! Haha... we planned on having them close together but my hormones hadn't even returned from Never Never Land yet! So now I'm in the race for the closest set of Irish twins in my family with my mother and sister. Yeah, I know, we're fertile people! The closest is a year and four days. I don't think I'm going to win but we'll see.
So here we are in March, halfway through our fifth month, and almost halfway through this pregnancy. Hopefully, I'll be able to catch my breath next time. Who am I kidding? I'm gonna have a newborn and a one year old! I won't be able to catch my breath for a long time haha. I just went to the doctor's for this baby last week and scheduled an ultrasound for April 20th. I also heard the heartbeat which is always an amazing sound. Maybe we'll be able to see what the sex is this time.
Harley is a very beautiful baby. She's always happy and smiling, except the day after shots, and now reaches for you when you pick her up. She is seven months and can sit by herself and plays. She's eating some table food and loves veggies and meat. She has her two bottom teeth that look so darn cute when she smiles it'll make anyone smile. She says hi and waves at people but no ma or da yet. Of course, you put in all the effort and come last. Better get used to it right? She just started to take baths in the big tub and has soooo much fun in there. The first time she went in, there were all of these bubbles and she was smiling away until she looked down and saw that she no longer had a bottom part of her body! She let out a big wail until I pushed the bubbles aside so she could see the rest of herself. Now her favorite game is picking up the bubbles and trying to hold onto the running water. She still hasn't figured out why her hand keeps going through it! Her Christening is on April 30th and I'm very excited about it. I've found a dress I would like to order for her. We're going to have a party for her at our house afterwards. It'll be nice to see everyone from both sides of the family. Some haven't even met Harley yet! The invitations are going out tomorrow afternoon so I gotta get on the house and start making it pretty. Hopefully, it will be nice out and we can set chairs and tables up outside. The garden should look great around that time.
Sydney is getting so big. She is almost five foot tall and is just so beautiful. You can see so much of Jamie in her. She really is just one sweet girl. She recently got the lead in Alice in Wonderland for her school play and is studying her script hard. She is also playing softball again this year and is the pitcher! She practices every other Saturday morning, when she's not with us, for three hours. She is doing better with school. She was having a hard time with some of her classes but they are all back on track with A's and B's. She misses everyone down here dearly and enjoys her time here, spending most of it on the computer or phone with Amanda, her cousin! Uh-oh sounds like the teens are creeping up on us! We are in the middle of finishing her "beach theme" room up. She helped paint her dresser and antique her handles to it this past weekend. What we didn't finish I'm going to get done this weekend because her friend is going to come down with her next time. She is extremely excited about it and I have to make sure we have some fun stuff planned. We also have our family picture planned for the next time she's down so it will be a busy busy one.
Jamie has stopped working for Resilient Plus and started working for himself. He's doing well and is hoping to soon get his own work van. I am too so I can have the car back :).
I guess that's all right now - hope that gives a good look into our lives and what's going on with us. Bye!