Quite a bit has happened in my 2+ week absence from the blog! Let me sum it up for you super fast-
Aunt Kendra and Uncle Lu got married!!!! Uncle Lu was already a part of our family, but now it's nice that Sweetish Baby has one last name to use for gift giving purposes for the Blays! :)
Here are some pictures of the beautiful day. I didn't get many- I was 5 days postpartum and the kids needed to be kept out of the pool, but they did have a photographer there so I can't wait to see those pictures. Kendra was absolutely STUNNING!
You saw two little girls hunting lizards a few pictures up- Ada took one home and named it "Lizzie"- it's in the water bottle in her hands in this picture.
We stopped at Pet Smart on the way home from the wedding and got a cage, water bowl, and food (crickets and worms) for Lizzie. Here's Ada with her new pet. So creepy.
And Ada went on her 1st slumber party! At her BFF Olivia's (and my BFF Caitlin's) house. The girls had a blast, and stayed up until almost midnight giggling in bed after a fun crazy evening of playing baking and dancing! :)
It's a boy! And he's here! Tate Anders Dowell was born at 2:23 on March 4, 2013. Weighing in at 9lbs 1oz and 21 in long- he's absolutely perfect! We are madly in love.
Here's the long overdue post about his arrival. :)
I went into labor Sunday night- the contractions I'd been having on and off for WEEKS (yes weeks, I'd been swearing I was going into labor and then Tate would move, causing my labor to stall)- finally turned into the real deal. The contractions were officially painful (no longer just "strong pressure")- but not consistent enough to go into the hospital just yet. I managed to get some sleep and woke up about 4:30 the next morning. They were getting more consistent- and went from 15 min apart to 10 min apart to 7 min apart within about 45 min (do the math- that is a FAST progression!) Steve got here just in time for them to be 3 minutes apart and us to make the 30 minute drive to Katy.
I stayed surprisingly calm throughout it all- no crying, screaming, or puking (unlike Dax's labor!). I got my epidural about 8 cm (because I was so scared to push out what could be a 10 lb baby with no drugs!)- Tate was in fact in a weird position at 8 cm, they had me get into a weirder position to correct it, and he popped out literally 6 minutes later!
Not to brag or anything (ok, I'm bragging), but the nurses said they wish they'd had a video camera to film everything and post to YouTube as the most graceful labor and delivery ever.
Thank you, thank you very much! ;)
This is me about to have a contraction right as Casey snapped the picture-
Let's try again-
IT'S A BOY!
Most beautiful head and face ever.
9lb 1.3oz
So alert
He grabbed Casey's finger and inspected it at 3 minutes old...
Back in mommy's arms- where he's stayed for the last 13 days!
Grams and Papa!
Some daddy snuggle time
He didn't sleep much that first night- he was so into learning all about this new place!
MiMi brought Ada and Dax the next day- Dax is topless in these pictures because he immediately barged in, picked up my cup of (cooled) coffee, and dumped it all over himself. Woops!
"Now YOU kiss Tate, Dax!"
Mommy's tired and Ada's unsure-
MiMi!
MorMor!
In his "Just Born" monthly onesie sticker!
Favorite activity at 43 hours old: yawning.
Getting ready to go home!!!
Loading up in the car-
What is this thing!?
Love him!
MiMi kept the kids for an extra 2 days after we left the hospital- and it was so wonderful to extend the new baby bubble for a little while longer.
I missed my older crazies so much though, and was so happy to see them!
This is right when they got home-
And a few videos of my sweet boy and family the first couple days of his life:
Hanging at the hospital in the middle of the night-
I am 39 weeks pregnant, and it is March. I never thought I'd make it to either of those milestones before having a baby! I'm miserable, most of you know that. I've been in early labor for weeks and I am so ready to be in so much pain that I'm puking so I know it's finally the real deal!
I've been walking like crazy to try to get this party started. Casey and I took the kids to the Galleria today to do some SERIOUS mall walking. I mean, if you're going to mall walk until your water breaks (it never did), best make the trek to the Mall Walking Mecca, right!?! These pictures were just something hilarious we did to document this ridiculous activity! (Casey kept swearing he wasn't getting a picture, so I stood there and "stretched" for about 5 minutes!)
My water never broke, but a BIG bonus was nearly running into my married-lady-crush KLIFF KINGSBURY!!!!!!!!!!!! He was walking past us with a blonde and I could've reached out and grabbed him! Casey tried his darnedest to convince me to go get a picture with him, but I was far too chicken. (Yes, me. Chicken.) I KNOW Kliff heard us whisper-shouting:
"OMG! Is that? It is! That's Kliff Kingsbury! Should we get a picture!? Yes, totally! Hurry, he's walking off! No, I can't- I'm not wearing make up. Who cares! Let's go meet him! Ok! No, I can't. Ok. No. Ok. No, wait. I can't. He's with a girl! OMG, KLIFF KINGSBURY! It's ok, no picture- he left A&M for Tech."
So no picture- which I regret, but oh well! Here are some pictures of a pregnant lady stretching at the Galleria entrance before mall walking!! :)
