Here's a pic minus one FF gal

I snagged this off of Chrissy's baby website. It's a pic of Ab, me, and Chrissy. Jax wasn't in town yet, so we'll have to get together again soon to take a pic of us all! Isn't Chrissy a hottie pregnant?! You probably couldn't even tell if I didn't mention it! We are at the St. Louis Zoo. We had tons of fun despite the downpour and all enjoyed looking at the animals with soggy feet! My favorite was the polar bears!

1st Birthday

I can't believe that Pres is 1 today! The year has gone by slowly in some ways, but when I look at Pres, he seems to be changing so quickly that I can't keep up! Happy 1st Birthday my beautiful baby boy! We love you so much!

We had a wonderful celebration with my family for his birthday. Pres had a great time playing with everyone!

One year ago today...

One year ago today, I went in for one of the three weekly visits I had to put up with in addition to being put on bedrest (not too much bedrest going on if I have to travewl 45 min each way to see the doc's!). This one was my weekly ultrasound where they would measure Pres' growth to make sure my heart medication wasn't slowing anything down. Pete always came with me to these visits because we were forever hearing bad news about his stomach growth, my high heart rate...and so on. These high risk OB's need some serious work on what they share and what they don't share. If any of them are reading...NEVER TELL A HORMONAL PREGNANT WOMAN WHAT YOU THINK COULD GO WRONG!!!!!
















I was scheduled with my favorite ultrasound tech (yes, I knew them all by name as I had one weekly for 4 months!) so I was excited. She was the one who in the middle of one of the my first scary ultrasound burst out with "Who has the funky feet?!" It was so funny because we could see the baby's feet, and that they were Pete's! I remember sitting there laughing and being so thankful that this wonderful woman helped us laugh through this terrible time! She started off her normal upbeat self, but then got VERY quiet. Her facial expressions changed and she had what I learned to call "the look" one her face and quickly recorded something and took it to the doctor. I really didn't think too much at the time because each week felt like I was receiving doomsday news. Pete didn't seem too concerned either as he was used to office doom and gloom himself. In fact, I remember him complaining about how much he didn't want to go back to work that day. Little did he know, he was about to get his wish! She came back in quietly and preceded to finish the ultrasound. I was beginning to get a little concerned, but then again this usually meant that I would have to go into yet another room and have a vaginal ultrasound (not too much fun, nope nothing nice to say about that!). This too was starting to become normal to me, so I just shrugged it off and enjoyed the view of my son on the screen. After the ultrasound, we were ushered into the sitting area where we would get a briefing from the doctor about where we were at with the baby. This one started off the same as most. The doctor asking me how I was feeling and how the medication was effecting me. Nothing suspicious there. He then asked if I was ready to have the baby. I answered yes, I mean who wouldn't in my place. Bedrest; heart problems; stress of something going wrong; high risk OB and regular OB; cardiologist. Pregnancy was a big amusement park for me. NOT! He then chatted with Pete about the Army for a minute or two (Pete had come from his unit and was in his uniform), and then just transitioned from that to, "you need to go to the hospital ASAP, don't worry, we are just concerned about the fact that you've lost most of your amniotic fluid."




That statement through me for a loop. We were prepared for all kinds of horrible things, but that had not even been a concern at all. Pete and I just looked at each other like we needed confirmation of what we had just heard. From what we knew, they wanted me to hold out as long as possible in order to give Pres more time to grow, now they are telling me three weeks early that it's time to go?! Right then and there I sent Chrissy a text. She has a way of making me feel better and once I tell her something, I know it's real. After that, everything seemed to be moving very fast. I wasn't expecting this, so I didn't have any of my things with me. Pete and I decided to both head home (against doc orders!) and get ready. I hate to be rushed, and I wasn't going to go into the hospital without the things I wanted with me. I arrived home and got ready. I made sure I had my release form from the cardiologist and Pete and I headed to the hospital.


We arrived and got a stern talking to from the nurse about not getting there faster. Oh, well, I wanted to change and shower and get myself ready to have my son on my own. I had a wonderful nurse who was used to high risk deliveries. She came right in and took charge. I had to have an epideral right away in order to keep my heart rate down. I wasn't too happy with this, but in this, I had no choice. It was this or a C-section. The epideral was painful and ended up being what is called a drip tap. It was extremely painful and paralyzed me on the whole left side of my body. They gave me something else to help with that pain and then enduced me. Pres wasn't ready to come out and decided to make me stay in the hospital a couple of days. The whole day and night were awful. I was uncomfortable, hooked up all around for my heart and Pres' heart, and had a constant beep in my ear when the machine said my heart rate was dangerous. I finally told the night nurse to turn it off, or I was going to turn it off myself! The next day I had a new nurse who was terrified of me being high risk. It really annoyed Pete, and I think he was glad when we got back the other nurse. My parents came up with me and my sweet dad stayed with me the whole time. I had no concept of time as I was just focusing on breathing steady and keeping my heart rate as low as possible. Something that night, I started to feel very wrong. I couldn't focus and felt sick to my stomach. I tried to tell Pete that I felt sick, but couldn't seem to get my mouth to work. Needless to say, I began to get sick and the next thing I know, there are people running in and out, crash carts being brought in and a lot of chaous. Sometime in the midst of this, my mom was called to the room. She was my second choice if someone had to choose if it would be me or the baby. I guess Pete had told the doctor that he just couldn't choose. I have all of these flashes of teary faces and worried expressions. Strangly, I felt like it was going to be okay. I tried to focus and do what I needed to do. I have no idea how long any of this was, I was in heart failure and really was out of it. I know when Pres came out only because at that same moment, I heard my doctor pause in complete amazement that my heart rate was compltely normal. I went from 234 to 75 in a matter of seconds and had no problems. It was amazing. I know that my heavenly Father was taking care of me in that moment. Thinking about it now brings tears to my eyes. I can still picture the faces of my mom and husband and I never want to see that fear in thier eyes again.

Pres had some circulation issues and they took him right away to be worked on. I didn't get to see him, but made Pete promise not to leave him until they placed him in my arms. I stayed in the birthing room being taken care of for some minor complications, and was soon on my way to a private room. Pete came in to see me for a couple of minutes and brought me some video of Pres from his cell phone (yeah technology!) I was able to clean up and anxiously await the arrival of my son!!!! They brought Pres in and were able to give me the good news that he would have no complications from his ordeal either!!! After months and months of worrying, Pete and I were blessed with a healthy baby boy.

St. Louis here I come!

Tomorrow I leave for St. Louis! I am excited and a little sad at the same time. It will be the first time I have ever been away from Pres. I'm looking forward to some much needed "me" time, but I am going to miss that little booger more than anything! Please keep Pete in your prayers as he is going to be alone with Pres for the first time (I see lots of candy, tv, and other things I don't really approve of!). Luckily, Pete will have my mom to help him during the day so hopefully she can give Pres the much needed structure he needs during the day.

To the wonderful Challans family: I am on my way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to see you all and my wonderful FF gals!

1st Disney Trip

We had a great time at Disney. We stayed at the military resort called Shades of Green. It is right on the Magic Kingdom property and is a really nice hotel. The standard room that we stayed in was 400 sq ft! It was huge. We had a balcony that overlooked the golf course, two queen beds, a pullout couch and a dining room table! The shower had enough water pressure and for some reason, that always makes or breaks my hotel stays! There is nothing worse than not being able to quickly rinse out your shampoo!

We arrived on Friday afternoon, unpacked our stuff, and headed for the Magic Kingdom. The whole parking thing at Disney is quite the task with a child; you have to park, unload, then pack everything up again to get on a tram, unload again, head to a monorail, reload yet again, then finally unload once you get off the monorail and finally arrive at the actual park. This process took us a good hour and we were staying IN the Magic Kingdom!!!! For newbie parents such as ourselves, it was a bit overwhelming. Pres loved everything about it though. He thought the tram was the greatest thing since sliced bread until we got on the monorail, and then that was his favorite. He clapped and squealed his way through all of our fumbling and bumbling! During all of this riding in small enclosed places, Pete and I noticed something funny/annoying about Pres. For some reason, he has to be the loudest kid in the room. We have found ourselves to be those people with the child who taps you and screams at you to pay attention to them. Luckily for us, most people are obliging and happily give him a "hello" and a wave.

We accidentally scheduled our trip during Gay Days at Disney. There were lots and lots of offensive red shirts with dirty sayings on them. They were not too friendly to us heteros and gave us the feeling as if we were intruding on their territory. There were quite a few times where I was appalled at watching a GROWN MAN push a child out of the way to get to a cartoon character. Shame on them all. We managed to avoid a lot of the madness by going to the opposite park as the "red shirts" were going to and managed to have a very fun trip.

At the Magic Kingdom, we enjoyed the It's a Small World ride. It was the favorite of them all for Pres. He danced and screamed at the top of his lungs in delight at the funny little animatronic children dancing and singing in different languages. Thankfully we were on a boat with all families who were delighted at Pres' exuberance! We rode the carousel and did Mickey's Toon Town. All of this took about three hours and we headed back to the hotel exhausted! Pres had a bath and bottle and passed right out! He woke up at 3 am confused and a little scared as to where he was. He was up for about an hour until he finally went back down. I think the excitement and new surroundings were finally catching up to him.

We woke up bright and early on Saturday with the plan of going back to the Magic Kingdom, but soon saw that it was read shirt day there and decided to head to Epcot. Epcot is a BIG favorite of Pete and I and we love to go there during the Food and Wine Festival in autumn. Epcot was a BIG hit! There are tons of slow rides and fun things to do. We started off by going in the big ball ride (I'm a Floridian who's been to Disney more times than I can count and I still can't tell you the name of the silly ride!). Pres loved it and thought the in ride personal tv was the perfect addition to our journey. He pushed all of the buttons and ended up turning off our narration for a bit (not that I mind too much, it's the same narration I've heard since I was in grade school!) After that, we headed to the Nemo exhibit and looked at all of the fish. Aquariums are always a big hit with Pres and it was nice to be in the AC for a while-it was SOOOOOO humid this weekend. This took us to nap time and we headed back to the hotel for a rest and a shower!

In the afternoon we went back to Epcot and hit all of the different countries. France was a big hit with Pres as he loved the friendly French man who did our wine tasting. The young man even got Pres to say "jour". He couldn't say the whole word, but that part alone made me one proud momma!

The countries were a lot of fun and we saw so many things. A quick synopsis of them would be: In Japan- we saw the traditional drums being played; France-we did a great wine tasting and enjoyed the smell of lavender; in China-we had egg rolls; In Italy-I had this great Limoncello Margarita (who knew the Italians made a good margarita!); in Mexico-we enjoyed another slow boat ride and had one happy boy who loved the salsa dancing; last but certainly not least, we stopped by Canada to take a picture in front of the sign. We do this every time we go and think of our friends Ryan and Chrissy (we love you two).

We headed back to the hotel for dinner and a swim in the Mickey shaped pool. The pool was great and Pres loved swimming around with all of the other kids! Pres went down easily and Pete and I enjoyed a nice dinner together in the room.

We woke up Sunday morning exhausted and ready to come home! Home is always so nice when you've been away. There was no cat puke on the floor, so the cats did well while we were gone too!

Here are some pics of our trip!

Better late than never...Memorial Day pics

Here are some pics of our trip to Sea World for Memorial Day. Pres was so good at the park. We weren't too sure how it would go, but he loved all of the different aquariums. We ran in to one of my cousins (my dad has 8 other brothers and sisters and my mom has 10!)so I have about a million cousins. It was nice to see him and his family and introduce them to Pres. It releases me from some of my guilt of avoiding them all like they are the plague...well...some of them are...seriously...YUCK! All of that aside because there is not enough room on my blog to get into that nonsense, we all had a great time and Pres was really fun at the park! He made a little friend and it was so cute watching them squeal at the dolphins together!

Next we are going to tackle Disney. We have a room out there for this coming weekend and are going to see how he does. Wish us luck!




Touching the stingrays. He loved this part and we had to pry him away!
Underwater viewing of the dolphins. I'm not sure who enjoys this part more-Pete or Pres. They were both pretty engrossed!
Pres and his new friend. They were so cute together!
He spent a lot of time taking everything in from his stroller and munching on snacks.
The puffins! He couldn't get enough of these either. He just kept waving at them.

I am SOOO excited!

In two weeks, I will be headed for my first trip since Pres was born. I am a little nervous to be leaving him, but I am super excited to have some time with my girlies!!!! I've been on the phone all afternoon finalizing plans and gifts and all of the fun things that are involved when you get together with your girlfriends. I can't wait to see them. I miss them terribly and when we get together we always have a good time. My friend Abby and I have flights that get in at the same time. This is going to be so much fun as I will do everything in my power to embarrass her at the airport. My plan is to run through the airport screaming her name until I get up to her. She will at first chastise me for making a scene and then give me a big hug while she is bright red from the embarrassment! (I can put this on my blog because she's always super busy and doesn't spend much time on the computer). Chrissy will be picking us up from the airport and I can't wait to give her pregnant self a big hug! It will just be the three of us until the next night when Jax drives from wherever she will be (I can't remember) training for work. Friday night will be a hoot with all of us together plus Chrissy's family. There will be lots of squealing and giggling and we will be like teenagers for a couple of nights. I can't wait!!!!