Wow - what a ride!

Our gorgeous little man. Caden Joshua - born October 12th

So... my high hopes of posting once a week have been taken over by the reality of the difficulty of the last stages of pregnancy and the first few weeks of being a mommy! Man! What a wild ride it has been. Now, as we're sitting here and Caden is 3 weeks and 1 day old - I will share with you a few of my reflections on what these 3 weeks have been like.

1. The last few weeks of being pregnant were the most difficult. I was incredibly blessed to have a really easy pregnancy (and to those of you who mocked me for this, my labor was not all that difficult - but I will save that story for another day). The last few weeks though - MAN - I felt HUGE. All forms of movement were difficult and at times almost unbearable. I didn't lose my stamina though. With a few more naps and swollen feet we kept on truckin' and doing the things we do (including late night football games and most noteably Melinda's wedding weekend - which turned out to be the day before I went into labor - talk about working up until the end! Haha).

Sweet Melinda, looking gorgeous on her wedding day.

2. Melinda's wedding weekend was crazy - but tons of fun. It was such an overwhelming experience to be a part of hers and Johnny's special day. To get to watch them and see how in love they are was really neat. It was also really emotional for Christopher and I to both be in a wedding where we were standing in the same spot we stood for our wedding a little over two years ago. I'm not going to lie - I got teary a time or two. She was GORGEOUS. It was also incredible to get to see some friends that we don't see often. We spent the weekend with Matt & Claire and Laura & Joshua - which was WONDERFUL. We are truly blessed with amazing friends.

Laura and Me at Melinda's wedding
(Chris says we look like sisters - I miss this girl like you wouldn't believe!)

3. So - a lot of you know - Caden was supposed to be born October 30th. Christopher was certain that this date was not accurate and that he would come early - but neither of us were quite prepared for my water to break early in the morning of the 11th! Wowza! I mean, we weren't even packed (which is probably a shock to those of you that know what a planner I am!) So here we are - at 2am on Monday morning- packing the bag with the list that our lamaze leader gave to us. It is quite remarkable that we came anywhere close to getting the things we needed. Though my water broke - my body wasn't quite ready to labor yet - so I wound up on pitocin for 12 hours - then they stopped it (and let me shower and eat which was AMAZING) - then I went back on it at 3pm on Monday afternoon. I was on it until 10pm Monday night when my body finally decided to start cooperating and beginning to labor - by 2am Tuesday morning (24 hours after my water broke) my body began to enter the hard labor phase. At 5am when Dr. Harraghy checked me - I felt certain that we had made SIGNIFICANT progress - however, was disappointed to learn that I was still only ONE CENTIMETER dialiated. What?!?!? At that point - 29 hours into this process - we made the decision to have a C-section which everyone was still doing well. Once that decision was made - we rushed off and the little man entered the world about an hour later.

4. C-sections are no joke - especially if you weren't planning on having one. There is this buzz all around you where everyone is doing like 30 different things all at the same time. It was somewhat scary and certainly overwhelming - but in the end - it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The worst part was that with all of the craziness in surgery prep Christopher could not be with me, and after being spoiled by having his unending support during the first 29 hours of labor, not having him there was tough. (Seriously - he was incredible - I could - and probably will - do a whole post on this at another time). And like all new moms will tell you, once our little man was here, all of the craziness and the difficulty of everything was forgotten, and having him here safe and healthy and gorgeous was all that mattered.



5. Okay. I have a confession. I started this post THREE days ago. I have left it open for THREE days in hopes that I will be able to finish it - but clearly, that hasn't happened. Instead, for now, I am just going to share with you what we have so far, and come back another day to continue to fill you in. Alas, I guess this is the life of a mommy of a newborn! :)

Sooo... thanks for visiting, and for caring about what is going on in our corner of the world. And most likely, if you're here, thanks for the love and support you've given our new little family during this crazy and exciting time. We're lucky to have you.