Matthew's Room!

Two posts in one night!! We're on a roll!

So, once we found out we were having a baby we had to decide where to put him. You may recall that Susan had her own office, which was a lovely shade of hot pink. We thought that room would be perfect for Matthew, but probably needed to be a different color. But before we could consider paint colors we had to pick out bedding. (Guys- preparing for a baby is important business and more complicated than you can imagine. Just go along with anything the mommy-to-be wants).

After many trips to fabric stores and several wasted weekends, Susan could not find any baby bedding that she liked. Knowing what she wanted (but unable to describe it to anyone), she turned to the internet. After much searching, she found http://www.polkatotdesigns.com/. Finally, she found what she was looking for!

As you know, Susan is not one to make decisions quickly. So, bedding in hand we turned to wall color. Susan was able to quickly (in a couple of weeks) narrow down the choice to nine colors. Progress!! David was put to work putting up the samples, but unfortunately none of the colors were exactly right. So we made our own! The color chosen, David painted the room. Here is the artist at work:



After the room was painted, it was time for the furniture and accessories. Susan worked hard with the drapes and also chose to add block letters to the wall. We are very happy with how everything turned out! There is a Flip video which most of you might have seen already. (Since this is only our second post we haven't figured out how to post the video yet. If you don't recieve our Flip videos send us an email. You don't know what you are missing!!)

The end result:

Finally, we turn to the closet. Fortunately, our nephew Samuel was kind enough to share his old clothes (Thanks Julie). So, with the hand-me-downs and all of the great clothes we received from everyone, we were able to fill up Matthew's closet pretty well.

This only covers the first three months and does not include any pajamas. I believe Matthew may have more clothes than both of his parents combined.

Next up- arrival???

The Final Countdown

Our first post!!!

We're sorry we haven't been able to keep up with everyone as much as we would have liked. There have been a lot of ups and downs over the last nine months. But we can't express in words the excitement we feel right now. We hope this blog will help us keep everyone updated on the new and exciting times in our lives. So, on to the good stuff-

As you know, Susan is VERY pregnant with Matthew Allen Raff. She is 38 weeks and 2 days at the moment. Here is a picture of the little guy... well, he's actually not that little. At 35 weeks and 2 days, his weight was estimated at 6 pounds 12 ounces!! Susan was also really happy to hear that his head measured at over 38 weeks at the time!!! You can image the looks she gave David after hearing that news!

Matthew is expected some time in the next week, which is several days ahead of his original due date of June 23, 2010.

Here is his picture. You can tell the resemblance to his parents:


We also took picutures of Susan during the pregnancy to see how much she changed. (During the first month Susan gained over 35 pounds of fluid, but we won't show those pictures). Here is Susan in early November 2009:



January 2010:



February 2010:



Susan with the new stroller in February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

Oscar and Charlie were both really excited when they found out that we were having a baby. However, they reacted in slightly different ways. Charlie was very concerned about what a new baby would mean, and Oscar... well Oscar was not as concerned.

We think we have everything ready for Matthew's arrival, but we are sure the parents out there will tell us we have no idea what we are in for. It's sure to be an adventure, but we are looking forward to it. We will try to keep this updated so that everyone can follow along.