So sweet

This little guy is such a sweetheart! He's now just over 2 weeks old. His brothers adore him. Carter still calls him Nathan. Tanner asks to hold him all the time. After holding him for about 30 seconds, he says he is done. Braeden has been sick and hasn't been able to hold him much. For some reason Braeden really wants to be able to carry him around.

I am doing really well as long as I sleep okay. For the most part Coleman is sleeping pretty good--he usually gives us at least one 4 hour stretch every night. But, he spoiled me and gave me a 7 hour stretch once. Hopefully I can work him into a routine where that happens more often. I do so much better with a good nights sleep. I've never been the type of person that could get by with little sleep.

I took these pictures on Cole's one week birthday. I can't wait to go and get pictures done with all the boys and individual ones of the babe!

Coleman meets his bros

X-Small, Small, Medium, and Large


The boys were so excited to see Coleman! Tanner got to be the first to hold him since he's never held a baby before. And, I don't think anything could have stopped him. He was so excited. He had a hard time letting the others get a turn.

Coleman

We've been home now for about 48 hours and things are going pretty good. Fortunately Jeff has been off work. We are definitely busy trying to take care of our little guys.

I know there are some who want details of the whole thing. So, here's a little timeline of events. Sorry to bore those of you that could care less with the details.

Saturday night we put the kids to bed and Jeff and I were watching t.v. I was having contractions, but nothing to strong or regular. I didn't think much of it. I fell asleep watching t.v. like I do most nights lately. I got too uncomfortable on the couch, so I told Jeff I was going to head to bed. That was probably around 10:45. I went upstairs got ready for bed then got in bed. I was having a hard time getting comfortable--nothing unusual for someone that is 9 months pregnant. So, I was rearranging all my many pillows so I could turn over on the other side. Then, I noticed that a little fluid was coming out (this was about 11:15). I wondered if it could be my water breaking. I thought that I'd better head for the bathroom just in case. As I started to lean forward to get out of bed, it became very apparent that it was indeed my water breaking. I quietly called down to Jeff as I didn't want to wake the boys. It took me calling for him a few time for him to hear me. He came up and I told him that I my water had broken and that I wasn't kidding. I was worried he wouldn't take me seriously since I had been joking around with him so much about me going into labor.

So, we called my mom to come stay with the boys and we got ready to go to the hospital. We got to the hospital a little after midnight. The whole way to the hospital we were laughing about how jealous Jim and Pam (for all you Office fans) would be that we were getting to the hospital just after midnight. Obviously since we were laughing and joking around, I wasn't really in any pain. I just felt mild contractions. We got to the hospital and got checked in. They checked me and I was at a 2, but my cervix was still far back. I was pretty much at the same place I had been 5 days earlier at my doctor's appointment. I tried to get comfortable and wait for stuff to happen. The contractions were becoming more regular, but still not very painful. At 2:45, we had a scary moment when Coleman's heart rate dropped really low. The nurses came rushing in to insert an internal heart rate monitor (screws into baby's head--sad I know) and give me a shot to relax my uterus. So, yes that pretty much put a halt to the contractions. They put an oxygen mask on me which I had to have for the rest of my labor and delivery. That's also nothing really new to me as all of my little guys seems to get pretty stressed out through labor. It is still very scary though. I was only at a 3 at this point. At about 3:45 my contractions hadn't started back up, so they started me on pitosin. That's nothing new to me as I've been induced with the other three. Anyways, I gradually started to make some progress. I was still at a 3 a little after 7 a.m. Then around 8:30 I was at a 6. The doctor came to check me a little before 10 a.m. and I was complete. Ready to start pushing. I had to push for a little while to help him drop a little more--he was still up a little high. He was born at 10:36! They were a little worried that he might have a hard time after delivery due to his heart rate dropping so much during labor--and he was having some arythmia. They had a team of people ready in case he had problems. Fortunately he came out looking and sounding wonderful.

Anyways, that's the jist of it. After spending a little time with him, I felt like he was definitely a Coleman. That named just seemed to fit...good thing because we didn't have a lot of other options that we could both agree on. His middle name is Curtis which is after my grandpa who passed away when I was in high school. Carter refuses to call him Coleman...he insists on calling him "Nathan" or "Nate". It's pretty funny. Our good friends and old next door neighbors have a little guy named Nathan. When I was pregnant, Carter always said he wanted to name him Nathan (except a few times he wanted to name him James or a silly made-up word). So, Carter told his pre-school teacher that his new baby's name was Nathan. If he wants to hold Coleman or wonders where he is, he refers to him as Nathan. We think it's pretty funny, but we're curious how long it will last!

Here are the pictures as promised. Isn't he cute? Okay, enough of the bragging. We really do love this little guy a lot.

Happy to be home.

Just letting you all know that we got home from the hospital late yesterday afternoon. It feels great to be home. I couldn't wait to leave the hospital so we could let our boys finally meet their baby brother. They all love him to pieces! We'll post pictures soon.

He's here!

Baby boy #4 has arrived. Coleman Curtis was born around 10:30 this morning. He weighed 7 lbs. 6 oz. He's a cute little guy. We are all doing well. I'll post pictures and more details later, but just wanted to share our good news.

As requested...

Entryway: Here's the view right when you walk in our front door. The living room is on the left and an office in on the right. You can see straight back to the family room. You can't see the kitchen from the entry way, but it's just to the right of the family room. We purposely wanted a floor plan where the kitchen is not visible from the front entry way.


Here's the living room.Kitchen: the door way to the left of the oven is to a little mudroom which leads to the garage. So, there's easy/close access for me when unloading groceries. Dining area. Our family is outgrowing this little table. We'll need a bigger one soon.

Here's the family room. We spend a lot of time in here too. It's nice having it right off the kitchen. We have always wanted a great room. We definitely spend the majority of our time in this room and the kitchen.


We've had a lot of requests to post pictures of the house. Here are a few. I haven't taken any pictures of bedrooms yet. I guess those will come later. We feel like we're very settled in and are enjoying the benefits of a new home. Every other house we've moved into has had big to do lists right from the start. It's was a little overwhelming. So, it was nice to move in and have it the way we like it from the start. The real work begins for us here in a few weeks when we start putting in our yard. We are having fun coming up with ideas. The mud is beginning to really bug us, so it will be nice to get a yard in. The boys don't seem to mind the mud. We are just soooo glad we decided to put a utility sink in our garage.

We'll have to post a few more pictures later. But this is the basics of the main floor and living areas.

39 down 1 to go

One week until my due date and no baby yet. Hopefully any day now. We're hoping to bring our laptop to the hospital. So, watch here for updates! I go to the doctor on Tuesday.

This little guy...

He's two--what can I say. Tanner is such a crazy little guy. For some reason he woke up in the middle of the night last night and didn't want to go back to sleep. Not a good thing for his very pregnant/tired mom.

This little guy loves to go potty on the toilet -- at least when it's convenient for him. And, oddly enough he loves getting his hair cut. So, for some random reason, I thought I'd share those pictures. Okay, maybe I'm just showing off how cute I think my little man is. It wouldn't be a blog without a little bragging--right? He has no idea that he's going to be a big brother soon. He's just such a mama's boy and so demanding at times. I'm not sure how he's going to handle things when the baby comes. I am hoping for the best. Even though this little guy has his moments, he is such a cuddle bug and says and does the cutest things ever. He loves to say "I wuv you" and blow kisses. He gets so excited when Jeff gets home--he says over and over again..."daddy home, daddy home...". He loves to call and talk to my mom on the phone. He'll bring me the phone and say "call Nana". He went for a follow-up appointment to the plastic surgeon today. He has another surgery scheduled for May 17th. I hope he does as well with this one as he did with his last one. Poor little guy. It's sometimes sad the situations and children I observe as I'm there in the waiting room. Some of these little kids look like they have it pretty rough. It's kind of heart breaking. We realize that even though it's hard for us to see Tanner have to go through these surgeries, we know it could be so much worse. We're grateful that he has dealt with the two surgeries he has already had so well. I can't remember if I have mentioned that when they biopsied the part of the mole they removed last time, it was found to be non-cancerous. So, we are extra lucky that that was not a problem.

By the way, I went to the doctor yesterday. The doctor said I was a 1 or a 2. I told him that a 2 sounds way better to me, so we decided on that. My cervix is still "unfavorable" though. So, I am hoping things change by my next OB appointment on Tuesday. This Friday, I go to the hospital for my weekly non-stress test and ultrasound. So far amniotic fluid has been great. We'll see how it is this week, it has always dropped in the last 2 weeks. So, you never know. But, I think it will probably be fine. I am hoping not to have to be induced this time like I have with the other three. It'd be interesting to see what it would be like to randomly have to head to the hospital to have a baby. We'll see though.

We'll keep you posted with any significant baby news!