Our Sweet Surprise--Welcome Christopher Cole!!!

To make a long story kinda short, to our surprise, Christopher Cole arrived 5 weeks early on 1-26-08 at 2:09 pm. He weighed 5 lbs 8 oz and measured 19 1/2 inches long. Thankfully he is doing GREAT!! He actually assessed at 38 weeks maturity from his nursing/physician exams. So whether he was really 38 weeks or 35 weeks we will never know. But what I do know is the power of prayer and the fact that he is doing better than he should be. Thank you Lord for working your miracles!


Details of the saga: My water broke at Lowe's, but I was not sure if it broke or if I was just peeing on myself ever so often. Glad we went home and decided to call labor and delivery. We didn't have a bag packed nor know where the list of what to pack was when they told us to come on in. We thought we had 5 more weeks to do that!! Little unprepared! Glad we made it to the birthing class last weekend! Um.....epidurals are wonderful!! Natural I now think is definitely doable if your labor is under 10 hours and if contractions are actually a minute. I was having lots of 2-4 min contractions instead of the 60-90 sec. ones, so I don't feel the least bit bad about giving in. Enough gab--here are pics from the hospital:

Before Epidural ...

After Epidural!! Much Better!

18 1/2 hours later here comes Cole!!

Dr. Collins was wonderful!! He really helped me out during delivery. I think I would not be recovering as well had I not had such a great doctor and nurses.


Proud Crying Parents!!!

Look what I get to take home!!! I couldn't believe he was really here!!

How cute is he??

Proud Daddy!!

I have more pics to post and more to write about, but it is time to feed this little man again. We are so in love with him. It's amazing the emotions you feel that you didn't realize were inside of you....

What a Shower!!!

I had my first baby shower today, and what a shower!! Everything was sooooo cute!!!! The cake was AMAZING to say the least! Three layers, all with a different filling, and each layer matched a section of my baby bedding!!! Even with a frog! Cute, cute, cute! There was also a chocolate fountain with all the dippings and really really good almond tea! I had sooo much fun! Thank you everyone who came to the shower and made this day so very special for me! I can't wait to read all the diaper messages in the wee hours of the morning when I'm trying to change this kid's diaper half asleep......I wonder how many I'll accidently put on backwards......as a blond, you know it's bound to happen!!!

Here is a hostess picture. Thank you Brooke, Megan, Betsy, Andrea, and Angela! The shower was so much fun and cute cute cute!!!

Check out this cake!! Top layer cookies & cream, middle bavarian, and bottom layer raspberry filling! And yes, it tastes as good as it looks. We have plenty left over, so Bible Study Girls, come hungry for cake Tuesday night!!

Lots of family came to the shower! Yea! I love Chris' family. They are all wonderful. And don't we make a cute group? But what is up with his family always making me stand in front for pictures?? J/K I'm getting soooo big!!!

Friends Megan and Kari (middle). Kari came all the way down from OKC for the shower! I was excited to see her! We miss her so much! Soon we'll have to run a marathon all together again.

Here's all the Bible Study girls together. We are missing a few including Beth who is giving birth to her son, Noah, tomorrow! Can't believe she was so sweet to stop by for a while. I hope she went home and took a good nap! Thanks girls! I am so blessed to have a group of friends like you! You all are amazing, and I thank God for you every day! Alright, enough before I cry again.....plus I have a billion thank you cards to write for all the wonderful gifts! Thank you again everyone!!!!

Oh, and my butt and thighs are saying thank you for the jogging stroller in particular, hostesses + Hannah, Chandra, and Amanda. They are looking forward to shrinking soon! :)

Hunger Pains

So baby Cole must be doing a lot of growing right now, because I can't seem to keep enough food in my body!!! Last night at 8:45 pm I was famished! Granted, I hadn't eated dinner yet, so I treated myself to a nice Bagel Sandwich. Not even wheat. Who eats a bagel sandwich at 8:45pm when they go to bed at 10? That's just praying that your thighs are bigger when you wake up!! Anyways, I did it, and was stuffed!

Oh, but to no avail! 3am Wake up Call!! I woke up and was starving this morning at 3am!!! I'm like, "No one eats at 3am, I can't get up and eat! That's insane!" So I tried to go back to sleep....for an hour! Finally, I got up at 4am to get a snack so my stomach would quit growling and I could sleep. Gees...are you KIDDING ME? I could almost hear my butt making oinking noises at me as I climbed back in bed. By the way, starving again at 7am....I hope this ends soon, or my 25 lbs of wt gain is going to turn into 50 lbs fast!!! No one laugh when my kid comes out a sumo wrestler....

Speaking of kids coming out, my friend since preschool, Amy, had her twin girls on Friday, 1-11-08.

This pic is of me, Amy, Jennifer, and Rebecca visiting Amy in the hospital.

These are some of my very best friends from HS and still are now.

Also, friends Megan and Drew Proctor had their little one on Sunday 1-13-08!!

Welcome to the world, Pierson Andrew Proctor!! You are so cute!!

(IM)patiently Waiting For the End of Pregnancy

So I had pretty much decided that there were less than 5 positives to being pregnant:

1.) The obvious--it results in a (hopefully sweet) child in the end;
2.) People expect you to be fat, so you can go ahead and have dessert;
3.) In bad weather, my husband has been more than happy to chauffeur me to the front doors of several stores to run errands which would NEVER happen otherwise. He also doesn't leave me in the dust when we are walking "together" which is SO NICE! (It's a Pregler thing)
4.) Feeling the baby move is awesome!; and
5.) ......well, I have yet to think of the 5th......

But I have come to realize (after a trip to the hospital from a marginal placental tear and a shot to stop some mild contractions) that I am blessed to be pregnant still and shame on me! So even though my cellulite has increased 5 fold and I can't tie my shoes by myself, I am choosing to focus on the positives as I count down the next 7 weeks to painful labor and official motherhood!


Pregnancy Pics:

14 Weeks in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

Too bad this baby's parents were convicts...(22 Weeks)

My sister-in-law, Tara, and I at Thanksgiving. She was 28 weeks and I was 26 weeks.

I'm claiming that these pics were AFTER dinner!!!

26 Weeks Still

PICTURES FROM CHRISTMAS

Michelle Boyd (33 Weeks) and Me (31 Weeks)

Girls in our Christmas PJ's--I can't believe they made me stand in FRONT!

Payten, cover Aunt J.J.'s Tummy!