2 months old!

My darling boy is 2 months old today! We just fall more and more in love with him every day! He is pretty darn fabulous and so very entertaining! I wanted to make a list of all the little things that make Blake, Blake.

Blake's little quirks:

- He wants to move SO bad! He is happiest when he is "standing" on someones legs and talking to them. He gets excited A LOT and moves his arm and legs all around.

- He rolled over 2 days before 2 months. I put him down on his tummy and he decided he didn't want to be there any more and just flipped right over. I was so shocked!

- He loves his baths. Especially when I wash his hair. He smiles so big when I pour water over his head. He also scoots down so his mouth is at the water level and tries to lick the water. We of course try to keep him from lapping up the soapy water, but he tries SO hard!

-In addition to licking water, he likes to lick just about anything near his mouth. An arm, his clothing, the water, his burp cloth. Anything he can get his hands on.

-He LOVES his daddy! Whenever Jon holds him Blake will just stare at Jon. It's pretty darn adorable.

-He is such a good baby. He really only complains when he is hungry. He has his daddy's appetite, but as long as we keep him full he is such a happy baby!

-Just this past week he has done a great job of sleeping at night. He's been going down around 7-10 and he'll sleep for 5-6 hours, wakes up to eat, and then will go back down until between 7 and 10 in the morning.

-He'll sleep just about anywhere, but probably sleeps best in his carseat. We have a cover that has been a complete life saver on stormy days, but it also works great for putting him to sleep. If we're out he starts to get fussy, I'll stick the binky in his mouth and cover him up and he goes right to sleep.

-He is a bit dramatic. He rarely gets really upset, but every once in a while he feels the need to complain about how hard life is. He has the funniest little complaining voice and he'll just talk and talk about it.

-He LOVES football. We can lay him down on the floor in front of football and he'll just stay glued to it for forever. It doesn't work with any other TV show, but football captures his attention.

-He is an absolute blast and keeps us laughing all day. We love him so much!

There are many other things that we just love about our little boy, but I'll leave it at that for now.

The Birth Story

Blake is finally here! Here is the long and detailed version of the events:

I was due on Saturday, September 10th and by that point was VERY done being pregnant! However, I woke up on the 10th with no signs whatsoever that labor was even remotely close. My dad was in town so Jon and I went in to Fort Collins to hang out with him. Jon and Dad spent the afternoon golfing while Mom and I ran errands. Unfortunately, the day continued with any excitement. Jon and I headed back home in the evening and I started having braxton hicks contractions pretty regularly. I started to feel hopeful and decided to go get some rest. I woke up Sunday morning disappointed that there was no baby and STILL having contractions. I continued to have them consistently up until Monday night. Tuesday morning I woke up super frustrated. I had signed on to cook this human until the 10th, this was now the 13th and I was SO DONE! Jon dropped me off at Mom's on his way in to work so I could keep myself busy with projects and didn't go crazy during the day. After work he picked me up and we went home to have dinner. While cooking dinner I started to feel a little funny. Jon and I decided to take a quick walk after dinner. We walked for about a half hour and nothing happened so I was sure it wasn't going to be that night. When we got back Jon went out to run some errands before he had to go to his night job. I was washing his uniform while he was out. I bent down to put his uniform in the washing machine and when I stood up I felt a little gush of fluid. Not enough to be sure I hadn't just peed a little. I went up to the bathroom to empty my bladder and change. I continued to leak fluid for the next 15 minutes and at this point I was starting to feel pretty excited. I was tempted to call my mom to tell her my water broke, but I was too scared it was a false alarm. I kept walking up and down the stairs because I noticed I leaked more when I was bouncing a little. I couldn't decide if I should call Jon and tell him to hurry home when my phone rang. It was my mom. I answered with a "how did you know to call me?". "Did you water break!?" she asked. I told her what was going and she got off the phone to put my sisters on alert. I called Jon but he didn't hear his phone so I sent him a text message telling him I thought my water had broken and to have him come home. At this point I had been leaking constantly for about a half hour but wasn't entirely convinced it was my water. So I called my friend Stacie to get her opinion since she had had a similar experience with her water breaking. She told me she thought it was probably my water but to wait it out for a little bit to make sure it didn't stop. While on the phone with Stacie Jon came racing in the door very excited. I got off the phone with Stacie and filled him in on what had been going on. My phone rang again and it was Mom telling me that her and Lizz were showered and heading over. Jon I picked up the house and then when Mom and Lizz got there we hung out for a little while waiting to make sure it really was my water. At about 9:30 after leaking for an hour and half and having non painful contractions every 3 minutes, I decided to call the on call doctor. He told me to go ahead and head over to the hospital. I showered and Jon tried to take a nap.

11:00 PM- We left to head over to the hospital. It was a really weird feeling to walk in to the hospital not really in pain. It was very different than I thought it was going to be. They put me in a triage room and tested to make sure I really was leaking amniotic fluid. The test was positive- I was officially in labor!

11:45 PM- They admitted me and I was moved to labor and delivery. However, I was only dilated to a 1 and 30% effaced.

1:00 AM- They finally got done with all their testing and Jon and I were instructed to try to rest. Mom and Lizz left to go get a little rest. I slept very little off and on while my cute nurse, Cindy, checked my vitals every 2 hours.

5:00 AM- My contractions had gotten slightly stronger, but not strong enough, so they had me get up and walk for a while. The contractions started to get much stronger while walking.

6:15- Mom and Lizz returned to the hospital after a very short night of sleep.

7 AM- My doctor came in to check on me. I was dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced. At least I was finally making progress!

8 AM- Jon and I went for a walk again to try to bring on stronger contractions. Contractions were starting to get to the point that I couldn't walk through them and after getting back to my room I threw up from the pain.

10:15 AM- CeeCee showed up to join the labor party!

10:30 AM- My contractions started to get really painful and I was having a hard time breathing through them

11:15- Courtney showed up to join the labor party!

11:20 AM- I got my epidural and became a much happier person!

1 PM- Dr. Guiroy came back to check on me. I was still only dilated to a 4 so they decided to put me on pitocin to hurry along the process

1:30 PM- My mom and sisters left to grab some lunch

3:15 PM- My mother-in-law arrived to join the labor party!

5:15 PM- They had to put me on oxygen because Blake's heart rate was dropping during contractions

5:45 PM- Nurse Amber checks me and I am dilated to a 7 and 80% effaced

8:00 PM- I started to go into transition and was sure I was going to die. I was shaking and very nauseous and had no idea how I was going to survive this delivery

8:30 PM- I was dilated to a 9 1/2 but still shaking so bad. I hadn't had anything to eat since Tuesday lunch (I was feeling icky and didn't want to eat dinner on Tuesday night) so my nurse, Amber, smuggled me in some apple juice. After that I started to feel much better.

9:20- Dr. Guiroy arrived and I started to push

After about a half hour of pushing I started to feel really defeated. I had no idea how I was going to survive this. They gave me a mirror so I could watch and know when I was pushing correctly. As time progressed, I started to see more and more blood because I was tearing pretty badly from the inside. After about an hour he was so close but couldn't make it out so they ended up cutting me. The next contraction, out came his head. I could feel his head come out and wanted to continue to push to get the rest of them out but Dr. Guiroy had me stop for a minute. My sweet baby boy had the cord wrapped around his neck once and then across his body. She had to turn him quickly and pull him out the rest of the way. He was born at 10:31 on Wednesday, September 14th. I looked down to see my sweet boy and was terrified to see the cord around his neck. He was blue and limp and all I could ask was "Is he ok? Is he ok?" Everyone assured me that he was find they told me they needed to take him straight to the heating lamp. The plan was to have Jon cut the cord, but since we were in a bit of a hurry Dr. Guiroy quickly cut it and handed him off to the nurse. They whisked him away to the heating lamps and I waited to hear the only sound that could make me feel better- his cry. Finally (after what felt like forever but I'm sure was only a few seconds) he started to cry. As soon as he started to cry his skin pinked up really well and he became a very normal looking baby. I sent Jon over to be with him while they stitched me up. It took them over an hour to stitch me after the tearing and about half way through that I was able to hold me sweet baby boy. I was so in love with him already! We passed him around and everyone got their chance to love on him and I was FINALLY able to eat something. At around midnight they moved us into our recovery room and we were left with just our sweet little family. Jon changed Blake's first diaper and we spent very little of the night actually sleeping, and most of it loving on our sweet baby.

We are so glad to finally have him here and are slowly learning how to be his parents! Hopefully he'll forgive us for all the mistakes I am sure we will make. Thank you to everyone for your support and love as we've gone through this crazy adventure!

Easter and Baby Ultrasound

Jon and I really enjoyed our first married Easter. We decided that since it will be our last major holiday before the baby will be here that we were going to go all out and really enjoy some time just the two of us. We got up in the morning and gave each other our Easter baskets in bed.

In my basket (in addition to lots of goodies including a giant diet Dr. Pepper) was a single egg with a poem inside leading me on a treasure hunt around the house to find the rest of my treats. It was really cute and my final treasure was an Ulta gift card. Which may be the greatest thing ever! After the treasure hunt Jon made breakfast while I got ready for church (I love being married!). After church we headed out to Greeley to spend the day with my family. We had a FABULOUS Easter dinner and then the kids did an Easter egg hunt. It was cold and rainy so it really didn't last for very long. But overall, it was a fabulous and low key Easter.

Monday morning was our ultrasound! My 2 older sisters and my Mom came along with us to the ultrasound so it was a blast to have everyone there! I woke up Monday morning with my tummy in knots. I was so nervous about it. And on top of that I had to drink 40 oz of water and hold it, so by the time I got to the ultrasound I had to pee SO bad. Check in was at 9:15 so my poor sisters had to leave Greeley before 8:45. We had the entire day planned out: we were going to find out gender, go out shopping for baby clothes, and then have lunch. Well we got in to the ultrasound and got to see babies little legs and arms and face... and nothing. Baby would NOT show us gender. It looked very squished in there, it's legs were tucked up underneath it. The ultrasound tech took some pictures and measurements and tried multiple times to figure out gender, but baby was just to squished to tell. So finally she let me go relieve my bladder and try again. There was absolutely NO way I was leaving without knowing gender. The day was planned around finding out gender. After peeing we tried again. Immediately we were able to tell... IT'S A BOY! And there is no "Oh, it's probably a boy". I am having a son! Jon was pretty excited. I think he'll really enjoy having a little boy to through around a ball with. We were able to continue with our plans for the day and go out shopping. I found a couple of cute things for my little munchkin. I'm so excited for him to get here, but I guess I should keep cooking him for the next 19 and half weeks.

Day #3: Favorite Food

I'm not sure if I can pick just one food, so I'll break it up in to categories.

Appetizer: I LOVE chiles chips and salsa!

Meal: Honestly, I don't really have one. Right now I crave Mexican food ALL THE TIME, but that could be because I have Jon's kid growing inside of me. I love cooking new meals I've never tried before, especially anything out of "Taste of Home" or that I can make in my crock pot.

Dessert: Although truthfully anything chocolate does the trick, my absolute favorite is French Silk Pie! The best is from Perkins. I've made a few myself, but I haven't found the perfect recipe yet.

Snack: FRUIT!!! At the moment it's apples and grapes. Any kind of berries and pears are also fabulous!

Day #2: Favorite Holiday

I absolutely love Holidays! Holidays means being with family, eating lots of yummy food, and getting to decorate! Whats better than that?

My Favorite Holiday is....

The 4th of July!

I love the 4th of July! It's the perfect time to eat lots of fruit (especially fruit salads!) and spend time outdoors. The last few years it has been our tradition to go up to Estes Park and watch the fire works. That might be another reason that it is my favorite, I love being is Estes Park. We usually walk around the shops all afternoon, eat dinner some place yummy, and then head back to the lake to watch the fireworks! It's fabulous! And I love getting to celebrate being an American! :) Talking about it makes me so excited for this 4th of July!

Here are some of my favorite 4th of July memories:

Trying to stay warm last 4th

Mom and I hanging out July 4th, 2009

Lauren and I riding the slides in Estes 2008

Avery, Lauren, and I at City Park for the 4th, 2007.

See you tomorrow!

30 Day Blogging Challenge

Happy Valentines Day!!!

So, I have decided to star the 30 day blogging challenge. There are 30 questions (one for each day) that I will be answering for the next month. It should be a blast! Feel free to join in with me! Todays subject: Introduction, recent picture, and 15 facts about yourself.

This picture was taken by my Sister-in-Law, Stephanie, heading in to my bachelorette party at PF Changs.

1. I just married my best friend, Jon, September 4th and am LOVING married life!
2. I have a very serious obsession with shoes. Shoe shopping is one of my favorite things to do. I have a tradition that I buy all my nieces and new pair or PINK shoes for their birthday every year!
3. My favorite place to go for the day is Estes Park. I LOVE all the cute shops and being in the mountains and just really everything about it.
4. I have 9 nieces and nephews, all of whom I adore!
5. I recently have developed a passionate love for all kinds of Mexican Food!
6. I work part time at American Eagle and love getting close at a discount! :)
7. I probably eat at least one apple a day, not because I'm trying to keep the doctor away, but because I love them!
8. I am a total wimp and if my husband isn't home when I'm going to bed, I have to leave the bathroom light on.
9. I LOVE to bake, and my Sister-in-Law, Stephanie, is a FABULOUS cook, but when we are together, we can't even manage to make cookies. It's become a bit of a joke.
10. Girls Nights with my sisters is one of my favorite things to do!
11. I rewatch episodes of Reba, Gilmore Girls, and Grey's Anatomy that I have probably seen a 100 times. On the plus side, those are a few of the TV shows I watch that my husband can stand.
12. I would LOVE to have another wedding, not to find a new groom, (I'll keep Jon) but because I had so much fun dancing the night away with my husband, family and friends at my wedding.
13. I LOVE seeing movies at the theater. They are ridiculously expensive (especially when you buy popcorn, coke and candy) but it is one of my favorite things to do on a Saturday.
14. I love love love all things CHOCOLATE!
15. I frequently feel the need to break out in song and dance for no particular reason.

Check back tomorrow for #2 :)