*December* (Yes I know it's February)

Here are the first few weeks of our little man's life. These were also the hardest weeks of our lives. Not going to sugar coat it. He did not sleep at night. Not only did he not sleep but he wanted to scream a lot. The practical thing to do would be to sleep during the day while he was sleeping. But I couldn't help but stare at his precious little face and take a million too many pictures of him while he was not crying. So this caused me to become a walking zombie. And at night I was just a plain crazy person.

Thankfully, he figured it out. I woke up panicked one morning at 4 am realizing that he has been asleep for 6 whole hours and has not woken up to eat. I did what everyone tells you that you are going to do. I got down by his swing and just stared at him for 5 minutes straight watching his chest rise up and down. He was breathing and he has been breathing ever since.

Tucker's first smile :)

His converse shoes that Minnie made for him

Tucker's BFF Asa

Then there were three

Cousins first Christmas

No matter how sleep deprived you are, nothing can warm your heart more than that precious face. :)

I'm Back...

I am absolutely THRILLED to say that our little bubby Tucker Hill is now blessing us with his presence in our lives. :) He was born on December 8th which makes him not quite a month old yet. He is absolutely precious and we can't get enough of him. You would think I would post a picture of him right here and I was actually going to until I realized I am on my work laptop where there are no pictures of him to post. I am committing to becoming better at blogging (esp. since my sister pretty much said my blog was an epic fail) so there will be pictures soon.

Labor. Really tough. I blame it on my sister. I witnessed her go through a pain free, laughing out loud, watching a basketball game labor with BOTH sons. Obviously she had an epidural and obviously I was totally sold on having THAT. In fact, throughout my pregnancy that was the one thing I did in fact know for sure about. Anytime a doctor asked about my birth plan....the only thing I would say was "epidural."

Nathan and I get to the hospital about 2:30 in the morning. This is after I sat in bed for a little while trying to convince myself that maybe just maybe these were contractions that I was feeling. By the time I got there I was at a 5. I politely asked for my epidural and they politely said that a "few" things needed to happen first such as paper work, lab results, delivery room availability, anesthesiologist to wake up....before I could get it. Okay...thinking I guess I can handle this pain a little while longer.

Then things got painful. And I mean everything you just learned in birthing class over the past two months and breathing exercises that we were supposed to be practicing just in case you decided not to go the epidural route....allll goes out the window. I found that my only coping mechanism was to grab the hospital bed rails with both hands and quit breathing in hopes that maybe I would pass out and not have to deal with the pain anymore. Poor Nathan was amazing, but at that point I would just start shaking my head every time he went into the "hee-hee-hoos."

So the nurse decides to check me again. I saw the look of shock and somewhat panic on her face as she said "umm...you're at a 10." For some reason I progressed crazy fast and the anesthesiologist was still no where to be found.

I DID finally get my epidural. I barely made it and by the grace of God I was able to relax and enjoy giving birth to my son. It's almost humorous now looking back at how I just thought you would go in and they would give you an epidural immediately upon request. You would laugh and take pictures....maybe even apply some makeup and fix your hair so you can be one of those girls who everyone says "wow...you look great giving birth!"

And to all my friends who are planning on the natural birth, you will be great! I am not great at pain. Everyone knows this about me. I had no intention of feeling a muscle cramp throughout labor and delivery. When God said that child birth was going to be painful for women, He was not messing around. But he also says that He will not give us anything that we cannot handle. And that's just great.

So that is the process of Tucker making his grand entrance. Nothing can prepare you for that moment when you first see him, touch him, hear him...something literally transforms inside of you and nothing else matters but this little being that you have become so close to over the past 10 months.

I am excited to start blogging again and sharing our stories as we are trying to figure out mommy and daddy hood. And next time....there will be pictures. :)