OUR SAD GOOD-BYE

Look at that cute smile.

Ben preparing to leave for his third tour in Iraq.

On Monday September 24, 2007, just 1 year after returning home, Ben left again for Iraq. This will be his third tour. We had a wonderful weekend but a very sad Monday. Our last weekend as a family of four we spent in Ohio at Dustin's parents' house. Dustin is a good friend who also left with Ben on Monday. We had a great time just being a family. We all got to visit with some good friends and relax before the craziness started. Here are some pictures of our good-bye with daddy.

Here are the three amigos; Dustin, Derek, and Ben. They have grown to be great friends and over the next 15 months they will learn more about each other and their families. They will be working together and spending lots of time with each other.

Riley had one final ride on daddy's shoulders while we were waiting/visiting with everyone who was leaving on Monday.

Brenden too had to have his small talk with daddy. Brenden was talking and smiling at daddy the whole day. Then just before this picture was taken daddy (Ben) was telling Brenden about growing up and playing with his sister. It was cute and sad all at once.Here is the final hug that the kids gave to daddy. It was so sad. I was strong all day until this picture was taken. To see Ben smile and put on a strong face was hard for me. I broke down. I knew it would not be easy but this was a lot harder then it was the past two times. I guess it will get easier once time goes by and we get back on a regular schedule.

WE LOVE YOU DADDY!! HUGS AND KISSES!!!

Growing too fast

Here is Riley on her new bike that Grandma and Grandpa Ringman bought her while they were here. She loves to ride her. She is now on a mission to buy a helmet so we can ride down our street and on post on the trails. Riley is very good at riding her bike and is very brave. Thank you again Grandma and Grandpa.

Brenden is growing up too fast too. He is now 8lbs. 8oz. and 22 inches long. He is filling out his 0-3 months clothes now. He still looks really small next to his little buddy Reese.

Here we are sleeping in our swing. He is filling out up his bouncy and swing too.

Relaxing at the house

Now that we are home we have had some time to just relax. Here are a couple of pictures of the kids relaxing in Mommy and Daddy's bedroom.

The Many Adventures of Brenden

Well now that its just the four us again. The adventures of Brenden began. Saturday after everyone headed back home, Brenden had a play date with his buddy Reese. Reese is just 3 days younger. We all went to Nashville to the mall. While we were there Brenden and Daddy and Reese and his Daddy went to Build-A-Bear to build a "Daddy Bear" with the guys voice in them to have while they are gone to work for 15 months. They did a nice job. During our trip I noticed that Brenden slept a lot and was only awake to eat. I did not think to much about because of the busy week had had with Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins.

Brenden with his "Daddy Bear"

Riley and Brenden's "Daddy Bear"

Then on Sunday Brenden's one month birthday I noticed that Brenden felt warm to the touch. I took his temp and it was 100.7. So off to the ER we went. The place was super busy. Most of the chairs were full and there were lots of people just standing around and waiting. I knew we would to there for most of the evening. We arrived around 4:15pm and waited for about an hour to see the nurse. Once we saw the nurse we were taken right back to talk to the doctor. Brenden's temp was now a 101.7. We waited for a little while and the doctor came to talk to me. He told the test he wanted to run and what would be happening. First he had a blood drawn. Then they went in and took a urine sample and that was all sent to the lab. Once that was done he head to x-ray to have a picture taken of Brenden's chest. Then we return to the ER and the doctor comes in to do a spinal tap on Brenden. A spinal tap is when the doctor draws spinal fluid from the base of the spin. This was painful for me to watch. Not only did I know the pain that this caused but the doctor was unsuccessful the first time and had to repeat the procedure. Still coming up empty handed. So he called for Dr. Rowe to come and try. Once she came I found out that we would not be going home Sunday night. Then she tried the spinal tap too. She tried and was unseccussful not just once but twice. I guess it was important that they get this because she tried again and on her third try and Brenden's five they got what they wanted. After being poked in the back 5 times we had to try and get an IV started. This too took many tries by a couple of different nurses before "Grandma" nurse came and had one seccussful go at his little arm. So then it was up to the fourth floor we went. This is were we stayed for the next 48 hours. We had lots of different test ran and everything came back negitive and Brenden went 24 hours without a fever. So the doctor sent us home today 11 September and we will go tomorrow to see Dr. Henry to be re-evaluated. Here is what the past 48 hours looked like for Brenden and I.

Trying to sleep

Finely asleep

Ringman Family Visit

The first time in two years Bill and Angela were able to have their whole family together in one place. Michael, Andi and the kids surprised Angela the Saturday after they arrived. It was nice to have us all together again. The last time this happened was when Riley was the size/age of Abigail. I am going to get you.

The hugs that never stopped.

Then came the kisses. Kissing cousins. Austin and Riley played well together the whole week they were together. She started missing everyone as soon as they left the drive way.

"Where are ME?"

Here is Riley's newest hiding spot. She has learned that she can fit into the kitchen cupboards and close the door. While she is hiding from all of us, she is screaming, "WHERE ARE ME?" and.....

..... As you open up the cupboard door she yells at you, "HERE ME AM?" She loves to play and hide. She also hides inside our closets. She is not afraid of the dark either.

TWO WEEKS OLD

Brenden is two weeks old today. This morning we went to our first doctor's appointment. It went well. We have a healthy baby boy. Not that we did not know this already. We are back to our birth weight of 7-14 and we are still 21 inches long. He is eating well and often. Sometimes I feel like that is all I do is feed the boy. He is alert when he is awake and he loves his BIG sister. He laughs when he sees her and follows her around when she is talking. Over all both children are doing well.

SIBLING'S LOVE

Brenden enjoying his floor time. We played with our new toys

and our piano. Brenden would flow the lights as they danced across the piano.

Riley enjoyed playing with Brenden and showed him how the piano worked. When she thought that he was done playing she decided that he needed to go into his swing. So as I picked up the toys Riley took it upon herself to pick Brenden up and carry him the two steps to his swing. She did a nice job holding him and carrying him but I let her know that she had to wait for mommy to help her the next time she wanted to carry her brother. She was just helping me.

FAMILY TIME

THE RINGMAN'S

Ben, Angie, Riley, and Brenden

This is Riley playing at the Brad Paisley concert that was

here the Monday before Brenden was born.

She is holding a glow stick ball in front of her face.

Here is Brad Paisley singing. We were not real close to the stage

but this is what we could see. We also heard Kelly Pickler and Taylor Swift.

We all had a great time.

CALLING ALL FRIENDS

Riley grabbed her phone and started to call everyone she knew when her little brother came home. Notice that we are watching Nascar.

TOO CUTE!!!!!

Here is BIG sister Riley with her little brother Brenden. She wanted to share her ice cream with him the first day he was home. She is always going up to him and shaking his hand and saying, "Nice to meet you Brenden." She has made the adjustment to having a baby around.

This morning Riley told her dad to go and take a shower and that she would watch Brenden. She just sat there watching him. No, Ben did not leave the two of them alone but I thought it was cute that she wanted to care for her brother like mom and dad do. Brenden enjoys having his sister around. He laughs and smiles all the time when he hears her voice or sees her face. They have a bond already.

PICTURES !!!!!!!

BIG SISTER WAITING TO SEE

HER LITTLE BROTHER.

Mommy and Brenden waiting to go home.

BRENDEN GEORGE RINGMAN

Well the wait is over and Brenden George was born Thursday 9 August 2007 at 6:37 pm. The day was long and full of waiting. Planning a delivery sounds like fun but it not. It's full of waiting and being pushed back due to too many natural active labors. Once we made it to the hospital and was put into a labor room I was in labor and having contractions about every 2-3 mintues. When the doctor came in to tell me it would be in the next half hour, she told me "If we don't get you back there soon you will have this baby naturally." My contractions patterns were better then those women who came in in active labor. I guess either way Brenden was going to be born on the 9 August. Here are soon ALONG WAITED pictures of the little guy.

BRENDEN GEORGE - 7lbs. 14oz - 21 inches

THE WAIT IS ALMOST OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well with just hours to go before Brenden George is here, I am running around unable to be completely prepared for what is about to happen. Knowing the date is almost worse then letting things happen on their own. I have not been able to sleep for the past week and that is only going to get worse once a new little baby is in the house. I have been feeling things or so I think I have then I think its all in my head. When you want something sooooooo bad your mind will tell you anything. But tomorrow 9 August we will have our second baby. The time is pending based on the number women in natural labor. The nurse who took my blood today said that last month there were 216 babies born at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital. I asked about this month but she had not looked at the books to know. I will have to find out tomorrow how many have been born up to the time Brenden cames. Life at the hospital has been crazy and busy for everyone.



My mom and dad made down on Monday and will be here to help care for Riley while mommy and daddy are at the hospital with Brenden. She has been wonderful and knows that something is going to be different after tomorrow. I am not sure if she is completeley ready either. Only time will tell. I will post pictures and information as soon as I am home and able to get to the computer. I know everyone wants to see what the little guy will look like but the internet only goes so far here.



On this final note I want to let you all know what I think Brenden will weigh and how long he will be. Brenden George Ringman - 7lbs. 8oz. 21.75 inches long. He will have lots of hair and look like his mommy.

PLAYING IN OUR "BABY" SUIT

Riley loves to wear her "baby" suit and play in the livingroom like its her "BIG" swimming pool. She also enjoys sunbathing in the doorway. Here are a few pictures of her in her baby suit.

Beautiful Butterflies!!!!

Here is a picture of the most beautiful butterfly that anyone will ever see. I know that it looks like it has two heads but those faces are pieceless. This was taken at the Toledo Zoo. We walked through the butterfly house and saw many butterflies the same color has this one in the picture. When we walked out and around the building Riley stood in this frame and asked to have her picture taken. This was a surprise because she did not like to have her picture taken at all that day. Our day at the zoo was wonderful.

Family Picture

This is the last family picture of us as a family of 3. We will be a family of four in just a few days. This picture was taken on 7-7-07. We were going to a friend's wedding, thats the only way I can get Ben to dress up. We had a great time.

Swimming with Daddy

Here are a couple of pictures of Riley and Ben in our BIG pool. We went shopping for a couple of things that we needed to get for Brenden and Ben found this pool. I think he was more excited about it then Riley was. We came home and he put it up right away and went swimming. He had to really talk Riley into going but she loves to go swimming now.

WE MADE IT BACK!!!!!

After learning that it would cost more to fix laptop one we decided to go and get a new one. So today we went out shopping and found one that is wonderful. We will still see about talking to Dell and what we can do with the other computer but for now we will have a computer to update everyone. With just a little over a week until Brenden's birthday I thought it would be nice to have some pictures of him on the web page when he arrives.


We are looking forward to all the company that will be here to visit with The Ringman's. I also have a few pictures that I would like to share with everyone. Let me get things ready and my camera set up on this computer and I will post some new pictures.


I will be going to the doctor on Thursday for my last appointment before D-Day. Last week we meet the doctor that will be preforming my c-section and she is wonderful. She is also the head of Labor and Delivery. She too said that I made a good choice about a repeat c-section because my hips are not large enough to delivery children naturally. And once again she informed me that I would have a large baby this time around too. Brenden is in the head down position but he had not dropped yet. So we will she what is said in a couple of days when we return for our 38 week appointment.

4 weeks to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With just four weeks to go until Brenden's arrival. I would like to know what you all think he will weigh and how long he will be. But before you go and through out some number let me give a little bit of information.

Riley - 6lbs. 14 oz and 21.5 inches Before she was born I was told that she was going to be an 8 lb. baby because my belly was measuring bigger then what it should have at the time.

My doctor said that Brenden will be a least a pound bigger then Riley because once again I am measuring bigger then I should be at this time. Now Ben was unusually small for a full term baby weighing in at 5lbs. and I was an average baby weighing in at 7lbs. 14oz. So with this information I would like to know what you all think this "little" guy will weigh. Since we already now his birthday we will be guessing on his weight and height. You may even guess how much hair he will have and who he will look like. Riley looked just like daddy at birth but is now a little cutie and looking like her mommy.

The last post shows a picture of my belly and how large I am at 35 weeks. This may help you and it may not.

GOOD LUCK!!

35 WEEKS!!!

Well with just 5 weeks to go to my due date Ben and I have decided to go for a repeat c-section. So with that I will only have 4 weeks to go because Brenden will be born on August 9, 2007. I will go and meet the doctor who will deliever Brenden on August 2 and we will know a time. We have been playing with the idea of a repeat c-section all through this pregnency due to Ben being redeployed to Iraq. We have come to understanding that they will receive orders to be leaving some time in mid to late September. This will allow Ben and Brenden to bond a little before Ben leaves for 15 months. We are looking forward to having a family of four.

"POTTY TRAINING"

Well we have been working hard at getting Riley potty trained before the arrival of her little brother, Brenden. Things went VERY well yesterday at school. She came home in the same clothes that she went to school. But today was a different story, an hour after I dropped her off I received a phone call asking to bring Riley another pair of shoes because she had had wet herself. OK so I guess on accident is not bad but then while we were home she had another accident. I guess she will go when she wants to and then she can be lazy. I am still very proud at her progress. I am just thankful for the fact that I wont have to buy diapers/pull-ups for two children at the same time.

Well I tried to bring up the pictures of the house both inside and out but I unable to at this time. I will keep trying until something works. For now enjoy your weekend.

31 WEEKS TODAY!!

Well I made it to 31 weeks. I will go to my 32 week check up in one week (nest Tuesday). I am going to find out my results from my sugar test. Yep I had to go and take that 3 hour sugar test because the one I took at 28 weeks came back high. I will also have to make that very important decision about having a repeat c-section or a "naormal" delievery. I am not sure what I want to do at this point. I am sure my body will let me know when the time comes and I have to decide. Since I have been home I have been able to work on Brenden's room and get things in order for his arrival. We have a few more things to do and his room will be ready to go. His room has a sports theme. Not only have we been working on the house but we have also been working with Riley on potty training. She is doing great. She lets you know when she has to go and she have been doing both jobs in the toilet too. We are almost ready to use panties all day and night now. Even when she is at school she goes to the bathroom on her own. I am very proud of her. She just decided that she was not going to go potty in her pants anymore and Grandma Ringman helped her get started when we where home visiting. Now using a public bathroom is a challenge for Riley right now. She does not like to go to the bathroom unless its at a house or at school. This may take a few months. I know how she feels because I was the same way for many years. I am sure it will get easier the older she gets.

Well enjoy "hump day" Wednesday and hopefully I can get a few more pictures posted here soon.

HERE ARE A FEW NEW PICTURES!!!!!!

Nana and Riley being silly and smiling BIG

for the camera.

Here is Riley and Jackson (cousin) playing

Ring-around-the-rosie.

Riley had a great time playing with Jackson. They had lots of energy. Watching the two of them play made me smile and laugh. I now know how Riley will be with a little brother of her own to play with and mommy. She loved holding Jackson's hand and pulling him in the wagon while we walked around the zoo. Riley shared her soda with him and made sure that he was doing the right thing. It was lots of fun and brought smiles to everyone's face.

Here is a picture that I found of Riley and her daddy. Riley is just a few weeks old.



As we await the arrival of Brenden Ringman, Riley is getting more and more involved with the pregnancy. She has a Brenden in her belly too. He has been moving a lot in the last few days and it feels as if he is running out of room in there. I know that we still have about 2.5 months left but its starting to feel little he is growing faster then my belly is right now. I am still not as large as I was with little Miss Riley but I think little Mr. Brenden will be bigger too. I go to the doctor on Tuesday for my 28 wk. check up, we will see what it said at the point. I am also hoping to come home soon to visit with the family and attend graduation parties. Tuesday's appointment will tell me if that is possible or not. Keep your fingers crossed that I can still travel that far. Oh and we are planning to have a repeat c-section with Brenden too. I think that it will be easier for everyone if we know what day he will be arriving. Some maybe on Tuesday we will have a delivery date.

We are still working on getting the other computer fixed. I guess we have learned that its not that big of a deal for us to have a computer or not so I am sorry I will try to work on that in the next few weeks.

School is done for the summer and I will have lots of time to work around the house clean up Brenden's room and get things in order for his BIG day.

LIFE GETTING BACK TO NORMAL!!?

Well my surgery went well. The doctor believes that I passed the stone before I went in on Thursday. He could not find the stone once he was up in there. So to help pass anything else that may not have come out then or during surgery he placed a stint in me. It's a long tub that goes from the right kidney to the urinary tract to help keep it open. Yes is sounds painful and it is very uncomfortable. Using the bathroom is a difficult task. Not only am I 26 weeks pregnant and use the bathroom all the time already this nice little tub has me going just about every 30 mins. or so. The first day I was home I thought I had to go all the time and nothing would happen. It's getting better but its still going to be a long time until Monday at 8:15am when I go back to the doctor to have this thing removed. Throughout this whole process the baby (which still does not have a name yet) is doing great. His heart rate is wonderful and the OB doctor who took care of me during surgery was very pleased with his heart rate at this stage of pregnancy. Grandma Ringman came down to help care for Riley while I was unable to pick her up and do all those wonderful mommy things. It was great to have the extra hands and caring heart here to help. Riley loved the company.

Sorry we are still waiting to have the laptop fixed. I will try to post some pictures this weekend from the desktop but I dont know how well it is going to work. I will get some pictures on here soon.

BUSY BUSY BUSY!!!!!

Well its been a roller coaster ride for me and everyone around. I have kidney stones and will be going this Thursday to have them removed. Yes that means surgery. I will stay over night the night before so the OB doctor can monitor me and the baby before, during and after the surgery to make sure there are no changes. Things are still crazy with just moving and being ill with these kidney stones. Riley has handled all of this well so far. We will see what happens in the next couple of days when mommy is not at home again and in the hospital. She has been a great girl. She is still working on her potty training and doing a good job with it. She is letting us all know when she needs to go. Sometimes its in time and other times its a little late but its the idea that matters right now.

We are hoping to get our computer fixed this weekend so we can post some pictures of the belly and Riley. Well we will share more later. Have a great weekend.

COMPUTER PROBLEMS!!!!!!

We are having computer issues at this time. We are going to have to send our computer off to be fixed. The power has been burned up or something like that so there wont be any pictures posted until our computer is fixed. I can leave short quick notes on the computer at school until the end of May when school is finished.

Riley's surgery went well yesterday. She went to day care and things went well. She had some nasty drainage this morning from one ear so we will see how much she has tonight and from this afternoon. I go to my OB appointment on Friday for a regular check-up (24 weeks). I am still waiting to talk to a specialist about my kidneys. I will let you all know when I know more too. Until then things are going well. We are making progress with potty training Riley and getting our new house in order. There is a lot to complete before our little arrives in August. Have a great weekend and I will share more later.

SO MUCH TO TELL!!!!

Well where do I start. There has been a lot of changes here in Tennessee since my last post. Ben and I signed on our new house just before Easter weekend. We went home to spend time with family and friends. Other then being down right cold we had a wonderful time. When we returned home Ben went to the field for the week and I had a doctor's appointment and everything was well at that point. Riley also went to her ENT doctor and they have decided that she will need tubs to help drain the fluid off her ears. That is where we are going this morning. We are going to her pre-op appointment to sent the date and time of the "surgery." This brings me to the end of last week.

Well on Wednesday I went to the ER to see if I had a bladder infection. I noticed that my lower back was sore and that my pee was not pale yellow anymore. They checked me over and sent me home with meds for a UTI (urinary tract infection). It seem to be working well until Friday. I woke and did my daily routine. When I was dropping Riley off at daycare I noticed that my lower back was causing me some serious pain. I thought that it was because I was holding Riley to much so we sat down and it seemed to get better. Well I went on to work and things just got worse. I tried pain meds and that did not help. I left early to go to the OB clinic. They are so over whelmed with pregnant ladies that it took all morning for me to be seen by someone. Then she told me that the pain was being cause by the baby laying on that side and my body changing. Now that might have been a good answer for a first time mom who had no idea what labor pain was but I was not happy. I went home and tried to rest to help relax the pain. Well resting was out of the question I started to get sick from the pain. I could not do much of anything without feeling the pain all over my lower back. I called back and they sent me to Labor and Delivery. There I was seen by an OB doctor who admitted me to the hospital. He was thinking it was kidney stones. If it was not that it was a serious kidney infection. I spent four days in the hospital with an IV and pain meds. During this time you wonder where is Riley I had a girlfriend go and pick her up from daycare and call about getting Ben home from the field. Everything went well. Ben came home and took care of Riley and he moved the whole house with his co-workers. So when I came home I came home to a new house. Well results from being in the hospital are still unclear. I am going to be going to a specialist to see if anything else can be concluded from this experience. I go back to my OB for a scheduled check up on Friday.

Pictures of the house and the family will come soon. We have just had lots on our plate this month.

The Wait is Over!!!!!

We made it to our 20 week ultrasound. You will be happy to know that we will be having a Little Boy come August. We are looking forward to his arrival and choosing a name for him. When we were pregnant with Riley we were not able to agree on a boy's name. I guess we have lots of time to think of a name. We will keep you all posted with names we like. I know you all want to see some images of this new little boy, so here they are.

Here he is!

Side profile with his arms bent and reaching for his toes.

He looks like he is dancing.

Here is a front picture. You can see his face with eyes closed and his

two little hands right under his chin. He seemed to be happy. It

looks like he is smiling.

Here you can see his side profile with his left arm up by his face.

This is a picture of the baby's feet. He had his legs crossed at the ankles.

APPOINTMENTS

Riley went to her 2 year physical and ear check up appointment today. She is growing like a normal two year old. She is 30lbs. and 33 inches tall. We are going to go and see an ENT (ears, nose, throat) doctor with in the next couple of weeks. She is still having lots of fluid behind her eardrums and Dr. Henry does not want this to cause issues for her later. From what he can see she is hearing and her speech development is right on target. We will wait and speak to the ENT doctor and learn more from there. She is very independent and is talking more and more everyday. She loves the fact that she is going to be a BIG sister. She has made the BIG move to the next class at daycare and is in the 2/3 class. Riley is learning more then she needs to know from this class. Some of her learning are not the best but she is learning some great things too.

Next Thrusday March 29 is our well awaited ultrasound. I will have pictures of the growing belly and hopefully of the baby on Thrusday. We did have a scare today. I went the ER with some spotting. I was nervous and scared but I was checked and everything is OK and everything sounded great. The heartbeat was strong and everything is growing ok accoring to the doctor I saw. We will learn more in a week.

17 WEEKS

We have 3 weeks before we go for our ultrasound to learn the sex of our baby. Here a of picture of me and my little belly. Let me know what you think. BOY or GIRL??? Pictures are not my favorite right now and Ben is not good at taking them. Hopefully he will learn one day. This baby acts a lot different then Riley did. First of all "he" is sitting lower and "he" is not as active as Riley. I am also A LOT smaller now then I was at this point with Riley. The only things that I can remember being the same are back pains and my breast beening tender. Other then that everything is very different. But you decided for yourself.

LIFE CHANGING CHOICES

Ben and I have made the choice to go and buy a house. We have found the one we liked and have made an offer. We have also found out that we will be home owners in the next couple of months. We found a house that is three bedrooms, two baths, and a gargage. There are some changes that we are already planning to make to the kitchen and the laundry room doors need to be updated. We look forward to having a place that we can say is ours. It will be nice to be able to paint the kids rooms any color that I want and the rest of the house too. Living under someone else that has not been possible. Lots of changes are going to be happening in the next few months.

At the end of this month we will find out the sex of our unborn child. March 29th at 1:30 centeral time we will be having our ultrasound done. Hopefully this baby will be like Riley and show us. I know that every child is different and it already shows through this pregnancy too. I am not as BIG as I was with Riley and this baby seems to be a night child. This I don't like because Riley and I are both morning people. We will have to change this child to be a morning person too.

Look for more updates on the house and the baby later.