Creek Allen Coleman

O Lord, my God

When I in awesome wonder

Consider all the works Thy hands have made...

Then sings my soul, My Savior God to Thee

How Great Thou Art,

 How GREAT Thou Art!!

Bringing Home Baby Part 3

  And here is our third Bringing Home Baby story....

September 28, 2011 - This was my original due date.  However, at our first ultrasound appointment they said, "Hmmm, he's measuring about 5 days further along, so we are going to move you up to the 23rd."  Little did I know, this would be the major storyline of this pregnancy!

September 23, 2011 - The new due date for Mr. Creek Allen Coleman.

A few weeks prior...I start having the usual Braxton Hicks contractions, which are totally annoying and completely pointless.  Why, oh, why must they exist?!?!  Oh, well.

August 30, 2011 - My doctor sent me for another ultrasound because he has continually measured bigger and bigger than he was "supposed" to measure.  At this point, I was 36 weeks and 4 days and he was measuring between 38 and 39 weeks!  I'd had other ultrasounds up to this point because of his size, but Dr. R wanted to them more regularly here at the end.

September 13, 2011 - He's measuring in at 8 lbs 13 oz...give or a take a pound....so anywhere from 8 - 10 lbs and I am still 10 days from my due date.  AHHH!!  She checks me, though, and I am dilated to 3. Yippee!! She thinks d day will be in the next day or two.  I obviously get excited and a little anxious.  The plan is that if I don't go into labor by Monday, the 19th, I will be induced at 4 am...yes, 4 in the AM!  We develop a plan for that night while my mother in law hops the train in Tennessee to head on down.  I spend the next 2 days stopping at every twitch and kick thinking, "Is this it? Was that a slight contraction?"  I'd been having real contractions, off and on, for about a week now but they never regulated.

By Thursday evening, I feel defeated and disappointed because I really did not want to be induced and the doctor was so sure he would have been born by now.  On Friday, I go to Hobby Lobby to walk around and get out of the house and find a few crafty projects to work on over the weekend...I am so not a crafty person, but these were simple things that I knew I could do and wanted to do (I made a canvas art piece of 3 John 4 and finally did Creek's name for his wall...easy. as. pie.)  I am continually getting more and more anxious about being induced as the weekend wears on.  I have some pretty intense contractions over the weekend, time them for a few hours, only to have them disappear into thin air.  Oh, well...maybe they were doing SOMETHING to encourage him along.

September 19, 2011 - here's the good part :)  I get up at 2:50 in the morning to shower and finish packing my bag.  I couldn't decide how "ready" to get for the day.  I didn't want to roll into the hospital with bed head, but what was the point in getting all dressed up only to get super sweaty and exhausted looking during labor.  I decided to get as ready as I could at 3 am, though, because I actually had the opportunity to get ready for my baby.  We got to the hospital and they had everything ready for me.  I took my time, praying and trying to will my body into laboring on its own or my water to break or something and giving myself as much extra time as I could.  It took me 25 minutes to get into my fancy hospital gown and I called for the nurses.  I asked them if there was any way we could just break my water and not do the pitocin (it was the pitocin I was scared of, tell you why in a minute).  They checked me and I was a 3.5, so they said that sounded like a reasonable request and called Dr. R to see what she had to say.  Dr. R said I had one hour to start contractions on my own and then we would do the absolutely lowest pitocin level we could and see if that worked.  I was okay with that.  An hour later, contractions started.  Yay!!  Thirty minutes later, contractions stopped.  Boo.  We started pitocin.  I was scared of the pitocin because I had this vision of my body being jolted into labor and I did not want to use extreme force to send me into labor.  Thankfully, it was not like that.

Contractions started back up, but they were all over the place!!  A super strong one, a small one, a medium one...5 minutes apart, 15 minutes apart, 9 minutes apart...come on!  So every 30 minutes they upped the pitocin a smidge.  At 7:30 Dr. R arrived and checked me and I was a 4...I'd gone up a half centimeter after an hour and a half on the pitocin.  She broke my water and I just knew things would really get going and they wouldn't have to up it anymore.  At 9:30, I was STILL a 4 and contractions were STILL all over the place.  They were uncomfortable, but not bad.  I went ahead and got my epidural because I thought, "Why wait?".

And then....about 11:30 I felt this twinge on my right side.  And by 12 I could feel every part of every contraction because my epidural had worn off.  I called for the nurse and she said she'd have to see how close I was to delivery before she could ask anesthesiology to redose me...not what I wanted to hear!! I was an 8 so she said she could call them.  It took him HALF AN HOUR to get up there and said he'd heard I was "uncomfortable".  Yeah, that's exactly how I'd describe it, doc. He gave me a small dose and cheerfully said, "Let's see what this does." Seemingly hours (only minutes) later, I said, "Not working!" So he gave me a little more and said that should do it and started trying to have a conversation with me to take my mind off the pain...I won't even go into how absurd that was.  In the meantime (is that one word or two...mean time/meantime?), Jacob got me a bed pan because it was all they had and I was sure I was going to vomit because of the pain.  I didn't vomit, but I was sweating bullets, so he started fanning me...with the bed pan.  Whatever works, right? Again, I scream, "PAIN!" and he gives me another small dose.  During this dose, I scream, "PAIN and PRESSURE!  I WANNA PUSH!" 

And now it gets exciting...The nurse checks me quickly, runs to the door and says, "Get Roskos, now!!"  Apparently, I was ready to deliver.  At this point, just in the nick of time, the pain subsided.  Praise you Lord, for answering prayers just in time!  Dr. R came in and we got all set up.  It was at this point that I totally surprised everyone, including myself, and I about freaked Jacob out - I wish I could've taken a picture of the look on his face!! I asked the nurse if it was too late for the mirror...I suddenly realized that this was my last time doing this and I wanted to see it.  But I won't tell you about it :) 

A few good pushes later and I was holding my son, Creek Allen Coleman.  I remember trying to think of words to describe how I felt and I couldn't come up with anything...because there is nothing to describe how amazing it is to hold your child, your baby, your amazingly undeserved gift from God for the very first time.  How humbling for God to allow me to be a mother to now my third child and for Him to trust Jacob and I with another of His beautiful creations.

The Highlights...

  So, here's some highlights from the past few days.  They don't really get a whole post of their own, but I definitely want to have them written down.  I'll talk about some of them more in depth later on!

   "Should I fix my hair for this?  What about makeup?"  These were my thoughts at 3 am when I was getting ready to go to the hospital to be induced.  I had no idea if I should "get ready" or just walk in there looking like I rolled out of bed.  I decided that since I had the opportunity to look halfway decent to meet my little man, I'd get as dressed up as I could and hope it would last through delivery!

   The genius anesthesiologist who commented that I looked "uncomfortable"...at 8+ centimeters dilated and an epidural that had worn off.  Seriously?!?!  I think that only females - who have had been through labor and delivery - should be allowed to give epidurals because they are the ONLY ones who can truly sympathize with this fierce pain and they would never stop for a latte on their way to you!  (No, mine didn't really stop for a latte, but you know what I mean :) )

   My nurse when I finally got to my post-delivery room kept looking at me kind of funny.  Then she said, "I just have to ask...have you had "work" or are those your real pregnancy boobs?"  Um...okay.  And, yes, they're real...

   When Lynnsie met Creek for the first time at the hospital, she said "I like him.  And I like your rooooom, Mommy!".  So glad she liked my room :)

   I have never seen Anna Beth smile so big as she did when she first saw Creek!

   Anna Beth wanted to hold Creek so bad at the hospital, but we there were too many people around so we told her she had to wait until we got him home.  So she would wait and if she thought the person holding him wasn't paying attention, she would reach over to try to pick him up! So sweet !

  Lynnsie: "This is my brutter. I love her."  Gotta love toddlers and their pronouns :)

  When Lynnsie held Creek for the first time, he stretched his arms and accidentally hit her arm. She said,  "Uh..her..her...him...her...he..her hit me!!"  She was so confused as to what to call "him"!!

  Mrs. Nora was the sweet lady from the kitchen who would ask me every day, "You eatin' lunch/suppa wit me taday?"  I would tell her yes and she'd smile and tell me what she was having.  She had the best smile and she always made me smile.  For lunch right before we were discharged, she put the best piece of 4 layer chocolate cake on my plate.  Yummy!!

  There was this black-haired lady who was absolutely in love with Creek....even though she was there to visit her new grandson.  She was all about him...his cuteness, his name, EVERYTHING!  She would see us in the hall and just say, "OH - there's Creek! I just love Creek!"  We almost missed the elevator leaving the hospital Wednesday morning because she was telling all three of us bye!

  I will never forget the look on Jacob's face when I asked for the mirror...yes, THAT mirror!!

  Creek's nickname in the hospital was "The Toddler Baby" because he was so big.  One lady came up and gave me a hug when she found out I was his mommy and said, "I told myself that if I saw that beautiful baby's mommy I'd hug her neck and say good job!"... and so she did :)

  Today, I asked Jacob what he was thinking.  He said, "We have 3 kids."  And just looked at me with a precious, happy, satisfied smile.

Pitter Patter Art Giveaway

Hey, guys! Check out my blogroll and click on Pitter Patter Art.  She creates amazing, custom made art pieces, clothes, key fobs...and LOTS of other stuff.  All of the proceeds go to bring their precious son home from Ethiopia.  Each month, she creates a beautiful piece and gives it away on the date that their paperwork was completed and they officially began the "wait".  This is their 10 month giveaway...check it out!!

It's All Fun and Games...

  Earlier this week I wrote about our morning trip to the beach in Waveland, MS (which, I have since found out that was a very popular beach to play on by my friend's family when she was a child!).  What I can't believe I forgot to write about in that post was feeding the sea gulls!  Let's just blame it on the "pregnancy brain", okay?
  The girls loved feeding the sea gulls.  You know how it goes, though - you feed one and they all come to start munching and mooching off of whatever you're throwing at them.  The girls would throw little pieces of bread as far as they could....about 3 feet...and Jacob would throw some farther out so they would come eat it.  We fed the sea gulls on a couple of different occasions that morning.  It really was pretty watching them all fly around and some would even catch the bread midair!
  We were having so much fun feeding them and watching the girls feed them, when we hear this squealy-shrieky sound from the 4 year old kid playing about 10 yards away.  We look over just as he says, "Mommy, what IS that?" and holds out his arm.
  Oops...
 
  It's all fun and games until somebody gets pooped on!

Toes in the Water, Toes in the Sand

We wanted to have one last special, family outing before Creek gets here and, since we don't know exactly when that will be, we decided yesterday was a good day.  Originally, we were going to go to the zoo - but apparently the zoo is closed on Monday's, so we decided to go to the beach instead.  Now, this is not a Gulf Shores or Panama City kind of beach...it is a Waveland, MS kind of beach.  No, you've never heard of it.  It may not have waves, but it does have sand, ocean water, hermit crabs, and sea gulls.

The hermit crabs were the highlight.  Jacob helped them dig this hole and they put them down in there and waited for them to wake up...only every time they started to move one of the girls would grab it and back in the shell they would go!

Have you ever built a sand fish instead of a sand castle?  My girls have.

Daddy and his girls watching the sea gulls go by.

 

The Perfect L & D

  I keep finding myself daydreaming about what it's going to be like when Creek finally decides to make his arrival in this world.  Here's the perfect labor and deliver that I've been dreaming about:

Option 1: This is my second September baby.  Do you know what September means when you live in the south?  It means football...especially, for me, college football.  Which team? The Tennessee Vols.  Lynnsie was born in the wee hours of the morning on Tennessee's season opener in 2009.  I watched their first game of the season with my new baby girl and my dad in my hospital room.  Well, it's September again and we've got a big game on Saturday.  It'd be nice to wake up Saturday morning to some contractions that would quickly progress, we'd get the kids dropped off at a friend's house and head to the hospital.  He'd be born in plenty of time that he'd be back in my arms, in a tiny little Tennessee t-shirt, and ready for kick-off.  But I'm not going to make him hold out if he wants to come earlier this week :)

Option 2: Sunday, September 18.  Yes, that's just one day after Option 1, but September 18 is my Nana's birthday.  I think it would be simply amazing for my son and my Nana to share their special day.  I really don't think she would mind, either.

So, there you have it - if I could have it my way.  Of course, God is the only one who knows when Creek will arrive and I know that no matter when, or how, he comes into this world, that God is in control of it all and it will be far more perfect than anything I could dream about.

Lynnsie's TWO!!!!!

  Wow.  Two whole years!  She still seems so tiny.  She's always been in the average to lower percentile in everything, but she's just always seemed so tiny! Especially her little mouth...she has these big brown eyes and cute, chubby cheeks - and that is part of the reason why her mouth looks so tiny.  Jacob and I think it's also because she talks so much and so clearly.  She's been talking for months...I don't just mean a few words, I mean full sentences - in a conversation.  Is this a sign of things to come?
  Today is Labor Day - for America, not me (I don't think!) - and Jacob has to work all day - so we decided last week that we would celebrate Lynnsie's birthday on Sunday, Sept. 4.  However, Tropical Storm Lee decided to show up and throw us for a loop.  Some early maps kept showing that it was going to be the worst for us on Sunday, so on Saturday morning, we decided to go ahead and celebrate.  We went out during a break from the rain - which started back up as we were loading up - and, since it was Tennessee's Season Opener...we were wearing our ORANGE!! 



Lunch at "Donald's"...Lynnsie's favorite are the french fries and she eats a few nuggets just to make it a meal.

Presents, presents, presents!! She got a new pink dress, a Ladybug blanket and matching pillow for her bed, and a Sit and Spin.

She's 2!!

So, so tiny....

...and getting so, so big.

  Today, her birthday, we spent mostly indoors....thanks to the remnants of TS Lee!!  But, we did have a special popcorn and cartoons lunch.  And, yes, she's still in her pajamas per her request.  I mean, who argues with the Birthday Girl, right?! 

  We ended the day by singing Happy Birthday to her during our bedtime prayers and thanking God for giving her to us.  Happy Birthday, Sweet Lynnsie!

Tennessee Lessons in Life

  Some very important things I want to teach my children...

  Rocky Top, you'll always be, home sweet home, to me!

Good 'Ole Rocky, Top, whoa!

Rocky Top, Tennessee! Rocky Top, Tennessee!

Go Big Orange!

It's GREAT to be a Tennessee Vol!

V-O-L-S, V-O-L-S, V-O-L-S,  Go, Vols, Go!!

Touchdown Tennessee!!

All about the power "T"

The true color of orange

The name Peyton Manning

It's football time in Tennessee!!

First Day

Today was Anna Beth's first day of preschool for this year.  She is in Miss Jodi's 3 Year Old class at our church's preschool.  Just like most other mommies and daddies, we did the first day pictures:

She's got her new shirt on and her backpack is ready!

Here's a look at the complete first day outfit...a beautiful teal shirt with pink, purple, and yellow butterfly designs, a denim skirt, and the hot pink croc-ish shoes that she has been waiting ALL summer to wear.

She's checking out her new monogramming on her new lunch box.



Ready to head out the door...

...but not without one more picture.  She's thinking, "Mommy, stop taking my picture, already!"

Lynnsie had fun getting her picture made, too.

She insisted on taking her backpack, too!

Here's to a GREAT preschool year!!