It's A Boy!

Ethan Buddy Nelson

4/11/11

3:05 a.m.

7 lbs 8 oz

20.6 inches

We are so in love with our newest little man!  It will take you longer to read the birth story than it did for me to push this baby out.  Which was all of 60 seconds.  My contractions started at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday the 10th and continued until 10 p.m. when I decided this was the real thing and we should head to the hospital, after I finished straightening my hair of course.  I knew it was labor when I threw up because the contractions were so intense and every 3-5 minutes lasting about a minute.  My cousin Lisa (a.k.a. Meanie) met us at the front entrance to get Collin since she would be keeping him during our hospital stay.  I got to the check in desk and threw up again then asked for my epidural like every sane pregnant woman does.  I went through triage.  They checked me and I was dilated to a 4 or 5.  I got admitted and they finally got me into a room.  They checked me again after 2 a.m. and I was already to a 7.  The anaesthesiologist came in and I got my epidural, which I almost missed because things were moving so fast.  That would have been bad!  Then a short while later I asked to be checked again because there was so much pressure!  They said I was a 10 and ready to push.  This is where things get CRAZY!  The baby's heart started to drop down to 70.  For most people this means nothing, for doctors this means EVERYBODY GET IN HERE NOW THIS BABY MUST COME OUT IMMEDIATELY!  I pushed 6 times in 60 seconds, the head was out, they grabbed the baby under the arms and pulled him out and laid him on my chest.  He was blue and not moving when they started to rub him down and suck his mouth and nose.  Finally a cry!  Whew!  I could not wrap my mind around what had just happened.  I asked the doctor, "How long did I push" and her response was "One minute... like 60 seconds."  I guess she could tell by my confused look I needed clarification on just how long a minute was.  It was the fastest minute of my life.  Cameron did amazing and stayed calm the whole time.  The staff at Fresno Community was wonderful and took excellent care of us.  I am so glad I delivered there.

Proud Daddy!



Worth waiting 10 months for :)



Exhausted and in love!

We have a blondie on our hands.

Precious!



Ready to go home!

Meeting Little Brother

 

Ethan's first smile was for Collin!



Proud Big Brother

Sweet Memories!

Ethan's First Bedtime Story

My good friend Megan came to the hospital to take pictures for us and she did such a great job!  I will share her photos in the next post!  Thank You Megan!!!

Professing My Love For Garth Brooks!

2 words... Garth Brooks.  I have been in love with Garth since my sophomore year when I found a cd case full of his amazing music on the ground in the locker room on the last day of school.  Sure, I felt bad not turning it in.  But honestly, I knew it would just sit in the school's office all summer long.  And what a tragedy that would be when I could be enjoying THE DANCE driving around in my ford escort with the windows down singing along... Right?!?  I know every word to every song he has ever sung.  I even have his Christmas music, and I don't even like Christmas music.

Well, I don't think it is a coincidence that Garth is performing in Vegas the same year I celebrate my 30th birthday.  I will obviously have to convince Cameron  that the ridiculous ticket prices are worth every penny to see my fantasy come true of watching him LIVE IN CONCERT.  Don't you agree?  I wanted to marry Garth, or at least have him sing at my wedding.  Since neither of those things happened, his concert would be the next best thing.

Let's hope dreams do come true and I get my 30th birthday wish of a fantastic Vegas weekend full of Garth (and Cameron too)!!!   
 

29 more days!

It is serious count down time around here.  There is so much to be done before the baby comes.  I've been trying to be productive and have 1 on 1 time with Collin before we are a family of 4.  Today was a big day for our little guy!  We went to his first movie at the theater to see:



I figured since it has been in the theater for a while it wouldn't be too crowded.  I'm glad we went at 11:40 on a Wednesday because we had the whole theater to ourselves!!!  Collin was excited about the popcorn and treats.  He only got out of his chair a few times to run a few chairs down and back.  He really followed the storyline, which was pretty cute.  At the end of the movie he danced to the credits with the gnomes.  84 minutes is quite a long time for a 2 year old to sit still so overall it was a success!  He is getting to be such a big boy.

   

The Zoo

This weather is amazing!  Collin, my dad and I went to the zoo today.  It could not have been more beautiful outside.  I love getting to be a stay at home mom and have fun spontaneous mornings like today.  I'm so thankful for a hard working husband who makes it all possible.  Life is good!  And this little guy is happy...

Yes, it was nice enough for shorts and t-shirts!  

Party Time!

We celebrated Collin's birthday with a Garbage Truck theme party on Sunday.  Random, I know, but this boy is obsessed with all things garbage.  He waits by the window every Friday morning for the garbage trucks to drive by and dump all the cans.  He yells out "Thank you garbage man for dumping our trash!" every time they pass by.  It is the highlight of his day.  If you ask him when the garbage man comes he smiles and says "Friday!" so it was no surprise when he said he wanted a garbage truck party.  I knew the weather was going to be a little questionable so we had the party indoors at Coney Island Me-N-Eds.  I'm so glad we had it there so someone else could clean up the mess.  Ha!  Being this preggo, I didn't want to spend the following week playing molly maid.

My Mom and my cousin Maura (Mo) frosted 80 cupcakes for this party and I don't have a picture of their amazing work!  It was seriously Cupcake Wars in my kitchen the day before.  I'm hoping my cousin Amie has a picture and if she does, I will post it!

Here are a few pictures from the party.  I was trying to enjoy the night also so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked.  Maybe next year!

Party time!

Auds, Me, Mo & Deeds

Collin loves these fabulous ladies and the feeling is mutual!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Yummy!

Uncle Gooey & Maddi

Uncle Miah, Collin, Me, Auds & Yaya

Presents!

Kendall & Joey

Rod, Kasey & Kailey

Grandma JoJo, Collin & Great Grandma Marilyn



Playing in the arcade



Uncle Josh, Davey & Cameron

Bones & Yaya (sisters)

Collin's cousin Ivy playing in the arcade

Jacob & Amie a.k.a. Bofa (my crafty cousin who made the invites)

Auntie Ashley, Brody & Uncle Josh

Slam Dunk!

*********************************************************



On Collin's actual birthday (the 24th) we went to John's Incredible Pizza just like last year.  My cousin Lisa babysits a few little boys and Collin has so much fun with them.  I'm so glad they were able to come celebrate with us! 

Collin loved these cars!

I know he looks just like Cameron but there is some resemblance this is my kid, right? Right?!?

Sliding Running down the slide!

Brady cheesin' it up.  Love his smile!

Clay on the cars.

Collin & Yaya

Smackin' the alligators!

Got it!

Later that night Grandpa & Grandma JoJo brought over some presents and delicious mini cupcakes that were gone way too fast!

The nicest shark I've ever seen.  How cute is this towel?!?

Happy Birthday to our little guy!  The next big celebration will be my 30th birthday or a new baby, whichever comes first!

Our BABY is 2!!!

So basically, here's what happened. We had this baby, well I had this baby with some help from Cameron. We fell in love with this little bundle immediately.

February 24th 2009

We brought him home and he stole our hearts.

He ate a ton because I love fat babies.



We went to bed and when we woke up, he was 1!



Then we went back to sleep and he turned 2 over night!

 That's about how fast the last 2 years went by!  It feels like just yesterday Collin had this tiny little cry and we were hoping for the sun to come out to cure his jaundice.  Now he is a walking, talking 2 year old.  Why does everything happen so fast?!?


Dear Collin,

You make your dad and I SOOO happy!  You are everything I always wanted and you made my dream of being a mommy come true.  I love all the time we spend together.  You are a great eater and sleeper.  You are very excited to be a big brother, just 46 more days to go!  You love dogs, even though your mean mom will probably never let you have one.  Your favorite part of the day is when dad gets home so you can play with his keys, phone and lunch box.  You always want to ride in daddy's truck.  Playdoh and paint are almost daily activities for us because you love arts and crafts.  You are very friendly and will say "hi, how's it going" to anybody multiple times until they say hi back to you.  Blackberries and pancakes with raisins and peanut butter are on your list of favorite foods.  You are very cuddly and I hope that never changes.  You talk a lot, like multiple words at a time and repeat everything we say.  You know your alphabet and you count to 12, usually forgetting #4.  You love to sing Mary Had a Little Lamb and Rock a Bye Baby.  You know your colors and shapes.  You are obsessed with the garbage man and you even wanted a garbage truck party, which we are having in a few days!  You are fully potty trained and you are very proud of your big boy undies.  You love to read books.  You talk about your grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins almost every day and you love them so much!  You want to go to preschool like your big cousins Hunter and Maddi.  You told dad and I a few weeks ago "I'm growing up" and it is sad but true.  I would like to just freeze this time with you.  We hope you had a wonderful 2nd birthday!  We love you so much and can't wait to see what your future holds!  It is so fun to watch you grow into a little man, I just wish it wasn't happening so fast.

Xoxo,
Mom & Dad

It's A Play-Doh Kind of Day

I see the sun starting to peak out and I'm crossing my fingers the groundhog is right and it will be an early spring.  With it being so cold lately it is very hard to tire out a toddler inside all day.  We try to stay busy with fun arts and crafts like play-doh.  If the groundhog is wrong, we will have more mornings and afternoons like this:

Play-doh mustaches

Play-doh glasses

Play-doh girlfriends

Play-doh goatees

Play-doh smiles

Yes, my son is wearing Christmas pajamas in February.  That's just how we do it here.  Happy Groundhog's Day!

UPDATE : : It is a gorgeous sunny day and we just spent some time at the park.  Yeah!

30 Weeks

The first few months of this pregnancy crawled by so slowly because I was sososo sick.  Now that I am feeling great the time is flying by!  10 more weeks sounds like a long time but it will be here before we know it.  I have my 30 week appointment tomorrow and it is always so exciting to hear the heartbeat and see how this little baby is growing!  At the beginning of the pregnancy I was leaning towards a girl because I felt so different this time around.  Now that I am farther along I am carrying this one just like Collin so I have kinda changed my vote to boy.    

Collin is very excited about his big boy bedroom so we are hoping for an easy transition.  He climbed out of his crib the other day and ran into his new room and said, "I'm a big boy now" and the last 23 months flashed right before my eyes.  I can't believe how big he is getting!  We are waiting for the safety rail to come for his bed so he doesn't fall out at night and nap.  The dresser we ordered had a crack so they are sending us a new one and it should be here any day.  He likes to play in his big boy room and climb on the bed.  We will be needing to establish some ground rules in the new room, I can see:


Like no climbing on the window!

Collin likes to talk to "his baby" and says things like: "I'm your big brother"
"Come out baby"
"Open it" (which means he wants me to lift my shirt so he can see my belly)
"I'm so excited to meet you"
"Be gentle baby" (we've been talking about how baby will be so tiny and fragile and he has to be gentle)
"Big happy family"  (when we are all on the couch together he says this and I have no idea where he got it but we love it!)

He likes to count to his baby and sing Old McDonald EIEIO right into my belly.  He also winds this little music maker and holds it to my bellybutton and it must be right on my bellybutton.  It is precious and hilarious at the same time.  Then he puts the music maker to his belly and says "Collin's baby" as if he is growing a baby.  It always makes me laugh! 

Yesterday the baby was moving so much I put Collin's hand on my belly and told him the baby was kicking.  He took off his socks and put his foot on my belly.  Little kids do the funniest things.  I guess he just wanted to kick the baby back.  Ha!

He has been very patient!  It probably feels like we have been talking about this baby forever and he must wonder when it is really coming.  10 weeks isn't a very good answer for an anxious toddler.