Big Brother Cole

Okay, so we were sooo worried about how Cole was going to handle having a new baby brother. He's use to getting a lot attention so I thought for sure that he was going to be so jealous and have such a hard time. We really tried to build up the excitement for him. We talked a lot about "His Baby" Blake. So when Nick dropped him off at the neighbors house and told him that he would get to meet baby Blake the next day, he was pretty excited!

Cole meeting Blake for the first time.

Giving Blake his first kisses.

Cole was so cute with Blake in the hospital. He was so happy to see him and was so gentle with him. Since coming home, Cole has been completely OBSESSED with his little brother. We hear a lot of "I need to see the baby." " I need to touch the baby." "Nice baby mommy." He always wants to give Blake little pats on the face, little hugs and little kisses. He will run run run all over the house and then creep up to Blake and give him a little pat on the face and take off running again. Anytime anyone is holding Blake, Cole has to be right there to see the baby.

Holding hands, Cole thought it was so funny that Blake could grasp his hand.

Helping feed the baby. Cole sat so still and fed Blake an entire bottle.

Giving Blake a little kiss.

And a little hug.

Cole leaned in for a hug and Blake thought his chin felt like something good to munch on.

Just a little story to show just how attached Cole is to his new baby brother...

The other day I saw him grab a package of Starbursts and run upstairs. Nick ran up to his bedroom to take it away and found Cole hiding in his bed. As soon as Nick took the candy away Cole started SCREAMING. He was sooo mad and came stomping downstairs. I noticed that he was making his way over to Blake, who was on the couch, and I got up because I was worried he might take his anger out on the baby. Man, was I wrong. Cole came downstairs bawling and went straight over to his brother and laid his little head down on him for a hug. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen!! I went over there and asked if he was sad and he said "Yeah, make me feel better...." I just think it is so sweet that Blake has become such a person of love and comfort to Cole already. I'll be sure to remind of him of this during the years that he whines about his annoying little brother... hehe!!!

Some photos from the hospital.

Here are some photos from our hospital stay...

Me and Cole enjoying some dinner.

Daddy and his two buddies.

Grandpa and Blake

Grandma and Grandpa got stuck changing the first poopy diaper.

First head "bonk".

Mommy and Blake ready to go home

My big baby!

Blake and his little buddy from Cole.

Coming tomorrow, some photos of Blake and Cole. P.S. Cole is completely obsessed with his new baby brother!!

The Birth of Blake Edmund Parker

He's here!!!! And I am finally getting a chance to blog a little, thanks to a great daddy whose willing to feed him at 3 in the morning while I blog :)

So here's how it all went down:

For over a week now I have been having Braxton Hicks every 15 min on and off throughout the day and night. They never hurt, just a tightening feeling. Well, on Monday the 17th, these contactions started happening every 5 min consistently. There was still no pain though so I wasn't too concerned.

Around 1 PM, the contractions started to hurt a little. More like gas cramps than actual contractions but they became a lot less regular. Luckily Nick had come home from work to bring me lunch and so he decided to just do some work from home... just in case...

Around 8 PM I started to worry that I was going to have to make a trip to the hospital that night. The contractions still weren't bad enough that I thought I needed to go in right then BUT they were getting slightly worse and more regular. Because Blake had been breech at one point, my dr. wanted me to go to the hospital early in the labor to make sure he was head down. Finally I decided that I would make arrangements for Cole to spend the night with a neighbor so that we could go to the hospital and if I did go into labor, my parents could just pick him up in the morning.

Around 11 PM we dropped Cole off and headed to the hospital. By this point I was having pretty bad contractions every 5 minutes and it was a VERY miserable car ride!!

We arrived at the hospital around 11:20 and the nurse started checking to see what position Blake was in. When I got there she asked me what my pain level was, I told her it was about a 7 on a scale of 1-10. She asked me what my pain tolerance was, like when I would definitely need a epidural. I told her probably a 8 or 9 out of 10. While checking me she told me that I had lied and that I definitely had a higher pain tolerance and that I would understand once she told me how dilated I was. She confirmed that Blake was head down and then informed me that I was at 7 cm, almost 8 cm!!! YIKES!!! She said that my water sack was "bulging" and that if it had broken at home, Nick would have been delivering our baby in the car on the way to the hospital.

Okay, at this point I am FREAKING out that they weren't going to get the epidural in before the birth. It took awhile because my blood pressure was high (probably due to the whole freaking out thing.) so they needed to do some blood tests before the epidural. Finally the dr came in and I got my epidural. I was sooo relieved!

Me chilling after getting the Epi.

Me and Nick excited to meet our baby boy!

It was 1 AM when I got the epidural and by 5 AM I was still at an 8. My water hadn't broken yet but the dr. wanted to try and let it break on it's own. The baby wasn't showing any signs of stress so they weren't in any hurry. We were a little sick of waiting but overall everything was pretty chill.

Then at 5:35 AM my water broke and things go intense REALLY fast. Around 5:50 I was at 10 cm and was having strong urges to push. The dr hadn't been called in yet but the nurse went ahead and had me do a "test" push. Her and Nick held my legs and after just one little push she immediately told me to stop pushing. Nick said "Whoa! Was that the head?!?" and sure enough it was. They went ahead and called my dr at that point and for the next 20 min I had to resist the urge to push. This was probably definitely the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. For some reason the epidural had really worn off (despite pushing the button for more meds) and I was feeling a lot of the pain from the contractions. Not to mention I felt like I was going to explode if I didn't start pushing soon! They were having me doing special breathing and I was breathing so fast that my face started to go numb. LOL! At 6:18 am I was just getting to the point that I was going to tell them that I couldn't hold it anymore and that baby was coming NOW when the doctor came walking through the door. He grabbed my leg and told me to give a big push and out came that baby. That's right, one push and he came flying out, LOL!! Good thing too because I was definitely had all feeling "down there".

Blake was sooooo perfect. He gave a little cry right away and then quieted down as soon as they laid him on me. The first thought that went through my head was "Oh my gosh! He's a redhead!!!" I was so shocked, I thought for sure that we would never have a red headed baby. I have to admit that I am totally in love with his hair and I really hope that it never changes!

Blake Edmund Parker

8 lbs. 6 oz. 20 1/4 inches long

May 18th, 2010 at 6:18 AM

My little red head!

So happy to have him out!

The proud daddy!

Our sweet baby boy!!

And that's how Blake Parker made his way into this world! I have lots of more pictures to post but since I am literally falling asleep at the keyboard right now, they are going to have to wait!!! Thank you to Becky Johnson and my parents for helping out with Cole, I don't know what I would have done with out you guys!!! :)

P.S. Please excuse all my typos and bad grammar! I am drugged up and tired so things are little fuzzy now! ;)

Blake's Nursery!

So I have finally finished the nursery!! Yay!!

Our budget was pretty small plus we are renting so I didn't go all out with painting the walls or anything but I still think it turned out pretty cute. Luckily I already had all the furniture and some bins and stuff leftover from Cole so it didn't end up costing me much.

I went back and forth on a theme but finally settled on dinosaurs after seeing these ADORABLE digital scrapbook dinos by Jacque Larsen!

I made the wall hangings first and had them printed out. I got some 12x12 frames on etsy for $6 each which was amazing! I found a Pottery Barn GC from 3 years ago in some of our storage boxes so I was able to get a crib skirt from there. I printed out one of the dinos and used iron on to make the crib skirt. We don't use a crib bumper so other than a crib skirt, I just picked up some cheap sheets from Babies'R'Us. I searched EVERYWHERE for a light blue valance but ended up having to settle for a darker blue one. I ironed dinos onto that too. I found some super cute plush dinos online and ordered a few of those for some finishing touches!

Here's the end result...

The wall prints:

From the doorway:

The crib w/ the prints. We will be putting the rail back on before the baby is born ;)

Close up of crib:

Changing table:

Okay, Baby Blake... we're ready for you!!! Your big brother is waiting to play with you!! Don't worry, I'll make sure he puts some pants on first! HA!

Week 14 (?) of P365

Still no baby... okay okay, I know that I am still weeks away from my due date but I am still hoping! LOL!! Here are our latest pics, I missed some days but I'm not too stressed about it!

Cole brought his little stepping stool in from the bathroom to use as a chair in his bedroom.

My parents were in town for a baseball game so they stopped by the house. Cole enjoyed showing grandma his basketball skills.

Another nice day so we went out back to blow some bubbles. Cole always wants to blow them himself but he doesn't quite get it yet!

I asked him for his "nice" smile and this is what I got. He looks so sweet!

Cole is obsessed with taking pictures. I let him use out Olympus because it is shock proof and water proof. His fingers end up in most of the shots but oh well, it's a start!

This is what happens when Cole skips his nap. He ends up falling asleep at 6 PM while watching cartoons.

Daddy brought us home Hot Dog on a Stick. Cole loves corndogs! He was too busy watching TV to look at the camera!


Cole decided to color all over our carpet! Thanks kid!

37 weeks and HUGE!! I am so much bigger this pregnancy!! I'm hoping it's mainly fluid and not a big baby!!

Cole loves running upstairs, yelling "Try to get me mommy!" and hiding in our closet! Silly kid!

That's all for now. Hopefully I will get better at this!! I am working on the nursery right now and should have pics soon. The theme is "dinosaurs" and I was inspired by this scrapbook kit...