Hiho, hiho, it's off to work we go!

After the most wonderful ten weeks of my life, it is time for me to go back to work :P Luckily, I will be doing something I love, working with kids (teaching). I was fortunate enough to find a job at a montessori school. And here's the best part . . . Christian will be going with me! Of course he will be in the infant room, not in my classroom, but I will still be able to drop in on him. And, I'll have an hour for lunch so I'll get to hang out with my little buddy in the middle of the day and nurse him. Please pray for us, that the Lord will bless our family in this endeavor. I am excited about the opportunity, and I hope that it will be a beneficial experience for Christian. We start next Wednesday, the day after Christmas.

I'm Two Months Old Now

Christian is two months now. He went to the pediatrician this week and received immunizations. He was really brave. He only cried for about 15 seconds, and then he fell a sleep! Our little guy is in the 75 percentile for height and weight; he's 23.75" and 13.5 lbs. Christian can lift his head and chest up to a 90 degree angle. He rolls over from his back to his tummy and his tummy to his back. He bats at hanging toys and babbles and coos. He has changed so much in these two short months. It's amazing!

Pap's 51st birthday was yesterday, so of course we went to visit him. We baked a carrot cake from scratch. Also, we've really gotten into the holiday spirit around here. Daddy hung our Christmas lights, and we put up all the decorations and the Christmas tree.

Thankful to be so blessed!

My apologies, I haven't blogged in a while. We've been pretty busy the last few weeks. So, please forgive me if this sounds a little disjointed. We had a tupperware party to attend, a teacher job fair, doctor's appointements, Grandma Julie's birthday, etc. I can hardly fine time to write. As far as Christian's status, we couldn't ask for a better baby. He is so easy going and sweet. He rarely gets fussy unless he's hungry. Christian was able to meet his uncle Steve, Chris' step brother last week. That was neat! We had a wonderful thanksgiving. We were in Acworth at my dad's, and had an awesome thanksgiving feast. We played Racko. Chris won four times in a row :P and we also played Scrabble ( I won!) Hope to write again sooner rather than later!

November! Already? Really?!

Wow, I can't believe it's already time for the holidays again! We had a blast Halloween night. We went to my dad's in Acworth fot the festivities. The weather was great. Christian wore his pumpkin outfit and later his pea pod costume. Thanks, Grandpa and Sarah! We just hung out with the family. Chris got into the spirit and dressed up with my dad, two big kids, and we all passed out candy together. We saw the cutest kids. My favorite was Bella in her bumble bee costume, age 4. She told us, "Halla Happyween!" So adorable!

Poor Christian! It's been getting colder at night here so I was bundling him up. Come to find out, I gave the poor child heat rash! Ahh, I feel so awful. I was trying to do the right thing. Since we know what is going on the rash is going away. I remember a friend of mine telling me how humbling an experience motherhood is. Now I know she's right! Christian sees the pediatrician on Monday for his check up. Our little guy is one month old!

Happy Halloween!

We love our little pumpkin! He's three weeks today. Time seems to be flying by. He'll be one before we know it! :'( Today we went to the pumpkin patch and picked out a few pumpkins. Christian's cuteness scored him a free, little pumpkin "for his nursery" the nice lady said. We also picked up some fresh tomatos, and Chris bought himself some hot boiled peanuts. Ah, fall is in the air! It's nice to watch the leaves turning. We're getting some much needed rain now. Though, hopefully it'll dry up for the trick or treaters next week!

Daddy is 34 and Christian is two weeks!

This past weekend we celebrated Chris' 34th birthday! We kept it simple with dinner and cake at my dad, Pap's house. Christian is two weeks old today! I've gotten used to his feeding schedule, and now it feels like he's always been here. Last Wednesday his umbilical cord fell off and we went to the pediatrician. He is seeing the wonderfully awesome Dr. Saade at West Cobb Pediatrics. He said Christian is in excellent condition. He has gained back the weight he lost in the hospital and then some. He is up to 8 lbs and 12 oz, but he has shrunk a half an inch! This is because his head has rounded out. He lost the cone head from labor. Christian will go back to the doctor in a couple of weeks when he is one month. We gave him his first tub bath on Saturday. He didn't like it at first, but suprisingly after a while he seemed to really enjoy it. He also wore his first pair of shoes that day. Too cute!

What a blessing!

Christian is amazing! There are no words to explain how much we care for him. We find ourselves more and more in love with him every day, and he seems to get more beautiful all of the time . We think he has a good mix of both of our features. He has Chris' ears, chin, and lips, and we think he may have my nose and eyes. I call him my baby monkey because he has long feet, toes, and fingers, and fuzzy little hairs around his ears. He is already very active for a newborn. He lifts up his head and looks around on his own. He also moves his arms and legs a lot. He definately loves to eat!

Our family is adjusting well, especially Christian's four legged brother and sister. Chris caught Missy standing back from his swing on her two hind legs to check him out. So cute! Toby is also doing well. They've both been very mellow and mindful of Christian. As far as Mommy and Daddy goes, I'm starting to feel like myself again, and Chris has gotten back to the grindstone. We've had lots of visitors over the past few days, so it's been busy. But, we've been fortunate enough to have had such generous, helpful, and thoughtful friends and family. Some have picked up things they knew we needed and others have brought us delicious prepared meals. Thank you all so much!

Meet Christian

Christian was born on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 1:25 pm. He was delivered at Cobb Hospital by midwife Lois Hersey and received by nurse Patti Forrester. Mommy labored from Monday evening to Tuesday morning when she was thankfully, given an epidural. She had to push only for twenty minutes and was assisted by an episiotomy and a vacuum. Christian's head was stuck in the birth canal and his heart rate dropped while she pushed. This happened because the cord was wrapped around his neck. However, he was born a hearty healthy little guy, weighing 8 pounds and 8.1 ounces and 21 and a half inches long. If you'ld like to see his hopsital picutres click on the link to the right and type in the password NICULA. More pictures to come soon!

Oh boy! Here he comes!

We went to the doctor today, and I was finally dilated. But just to a one, nine centimeters left to go. Dr.Thompson stripped my membranes to aid in bringing on the contractions. If I don't go into labor on my own this weekend, they are going to admit me to the hospital Monday, October 1st at 6:30pm. Then Patti, one of my best friends and labor and delivery nurse shown above, will put me on an I.V. and start the cervidil. Cervadil will help my cervix efface, and the next morning if necessary I'll start the pitocin. Please pray for us to have a safe and speedy delivery!

Counting Down the Days

Chris took this picture of me today. We thought we should document the uber big belly before Christian decides to come out! We also went to the doctor for a routine check up. Not much changed. Christian is measuring 40 weeks. He hasn't dropped and I haven't dialated. We have another visit next Thursday. The doctor wants to talk about induction then.

We finally did Christian's name wall in his room. We went to Hobby Lobby and bought the letters inexpensively. I painted them here at the house along with alternating colors of background circles. We're really happy with the results. It's even cuter in person because you can see the dimension and cast shadows of the letters.

I apologize if you tried the links on our page earlier and they didn't work. I fixed the links, so you may want to try again now. I also added a link to Lauren's brother Bruce's private Island Hatchet Caye. It's really cool. Check it out!

Pregnancy Session 8.25.07

My awesome and very talented girlfriend, Jessica Hall, did a photography session with us at the studio where she works. If you're interested in using her, her contact information can be found on her website. I've set up a link to it on your right as well as the pictures from our pregnancy session.

Our Baby Shower

We had an awesome baby shower! Patti and Mary Grace Forrester, my step mother Julie, and Jennifer Conner hosted the shower at Jennifer's fabulous new house. The food was awesome, especially the artichoke dip and chocolate fondue! The cake and flowers were adorable, and it was amazing seeing almost all of my friends together in one place. We played a couple of fun games. One were we guessed the baby food in the jar and another were we guessed which chocolate candy bar was melted into which diaper. Yuk!

Chris, such a wonderful involved daddy already, was there filming and helping me open up presents. We received a lot of great gifts. Some of the more unique gifts included a maternity shirt from Laura with Buddah on the front. His big belly went right over my big belly, our navels nearly aligning! We also received an awesome travel system from my mom and nursery bedding from Julile and my dad. Patti, Jason, and Mary Grace gave us a gorgeous Moses basket set with an embroidered blanket and matching burp cloths. My friend Jessica gave us a photography session with her that we used to take pregnancy pictures recently. We received many more wonderful things for Christian that we appreciate all so much!

Christian's Nursery

Chris and I, in true procrastinator fashion, are still almost finished with the nursery. However, we are quite happy with it the way it is. At first I wanted to do a fool proof design. I thought we could paint it a robin's egg blue on the top half, divide the room with a chair rail, and then paint a pattern of stripes on the bottom in blues, tans, and white. Luckily, Chris talked me out of being safe, and we chose a much more whimsical design.

Together, we went to The School Box and Chris found a really neat children's book Five Little Ducks. We loved the illustrations in the book, so we used them as inspiration for the room. We bought the book and a couple of boxes of chalk too. Then we went to Home Depot and bought a blue and a green gallon of paint. Chris painted the entire background for the nursery the blue sky, surface water, and underwater. I was relieved because I was really apprehensive about making the water look natural. Not to mention, I couldn't be in and around the paint fumes. He really did an awesome job! A few days after the paint dried and the fumes dissipated, I came in and started sketching on the walls in chalk. Little by little, I painted over the sketches. Chris painted a book shelf that I had for a while. Julie, my step mom, gave it to me to use when I was in college. It was turqouise green, and I painted it tan with dark brown zebra stripes. I had used it as an entertainment center and later stored all of my shoes on it. By painting it white we were able to repurpose it as a storage unit in Christian's room. I went to Target and got a great deal on the different colored storage boxes for the shelf. It has really turned out to be great!

The crib in the room is absolutely beautiful, dark cherry wood in a sleigh style. It was given to us second hand by a friend. We found the changing table online at craigslist.com along with the cosleeper that will be put into our room. The cosleeper is shown there in this picture to the left under the window. We ordered the red and white gingham drapes from target.com, and Dad and Julie gave us the nursery bedding from Pottery Barn at our baby shower.

The only things left that we want to do are a little more painting and putting up some crown molding. We'ld also like to put Christian's name up in the room above the storage unit and buy a rocker glider to put in the corner. Otherwise, the only thing that is missing is him!