Single Mom...

Jason is gone. Again. Blah! He left Sunday night and will come home on Monday - 8 nights with out him.
So far so good as far as my mental stability. The last time he left I sobbed every.single.night. I am sure that had a lot to do with my hormones leveling back out from delivery. But holy cow is this single mom gig HARD. And I have SO much help from my family. And it is still HARD! So God bless all you single moms and dads out there. Hats off to you.
On top of Jason being gone poor Coop-a-loop is sick. He has had a fever, cough, stuffy/runny nose. He has been on amoxicillin since Friday and seems to be getting better. Poor little dude - every time he sees me coming at him with a tissue he starts thrashing his head back and forth. I think I have scarred him for life in the nose wiping department.
I have misplaced my battery charger to my Nikon so I have not been taking many photos. I need to just order a new one as it has not showed itself like I had hoped. I NEED to get some new photos of Coop up - he is just the cutest!

We made it 6 months!

Dear Cooper,

Today you are six months old and unfortunately we spent the morning at the Dr.'s office. You can't seems to get over this cold which has gotten worse and calls for a round of antibiotics. So far in your short life you have had the pleasure of Tamiflu, Tylenol and Amoxicillin...I am so sorry little man. You continue to amaze me everyday and your non-stop smile melts my heart. You are now rolling over from your back to your tummy. You LOVE to eat your toes. Bath time is so much fun and you can't help yourself from splashing as much as possible. You love your kitty - you smile and giggle at him, however, he doesn't really love you! You are starting to be more aware of other people and you make a heartbreaking frown which turns into tears when you are not sure of someone. This causes heartache to the "someones" as you have done this to you aunt, cousins, Grandma Cindy & Pop Pop! You took your first shower with Daddy and you loved the feel of the water spraying on your little arms and legs. You sit up all by yourself and love your new view of the world. I can't get enough of our mornings together. When you wake up at 7:00am after sleeping ALL NIGHT(!) I walk in to your room to get you and you always have a big smile for me. Once you have a clean diaper we head into my room and we cuddled back up into my bed and you eat your breakfast bottle. After eating we just play and chat for a little while. It is our special time together. You love , love, love your Daddy and during your day when you stop what you are doing and stare at him and a big smile makes its way across your face. You are just so incredibly delightful! I can't wait to see what the next six months has in store for us. You mean the world to me my baby boy!

Love-

Mommy

Wow - six months! I have to admit that there was a time that I wasn't sure if we would make it to six month. I never posted about our birth story or some of the events once we got home. It wasn't a walk in the park, however, I am sure it wasn't as bad as some. Here is a recap:

Contractions started at 5:00pm Tuesday August 18th. Of course I didn't know they were contractions so once I left work I enjoyed a manicure, a bowl of Mexican Gumbo from Qdoba and a quick stop by Office Depot before heading to the park to watch Jason play softball. After the softball game I was sitting in the parking lot with the team and decided I should go home. Contractions were continuing but still I was not convinced they were contractions because they didn't hurt. Once I got home I started timing these "feelings" and noticed a pattern. Que the phone call to Jason to come home. Once he was home he was timing the now said contractions on his i touch. We made the phone call to the Dr. around 10:00pm and we left for the hospital at 12:20am. During 10:00pm and 12:20am I was terrified and crying - to me this was a pretty scary thing that was about to take place! Once we arrived at the hospital they checked me out and confirmed that I was 4 cen dilated. We got settled into our room and if I heard that I had to relax once I heard it 5,000 times. I waited as long as I could before getting an epidural (wasn't that long!) however right before the epidural Dr. was ready to stick me in my spine she got paged away on an emergency. This left me sitting upright on the side of the bed, breathing through contractions until she got back 30 minuted later. Ugh! Epidural was fabulous (once I got it) and of course slowed down labor. Dr. ordered me Pitocin and broke my water. I started pushing around 9:30am or 10:00am. Pushed and Pushed and Pushed. Pushed for THREE hours. The nurse had me on my side pushing. Then my other side pushing. Then she decided I should get on my hands and knees and push. SERIOUSLY!?! My legs were completely numb. But I did as I was told and had to ask my sister to keep putting my leg back on the bed under me because it kept slipping off and I could not move it. While this was going on I was blessed with an upset tummy and began vomiting. Oh joy. Finally the Dr. came in and I continued to push for him. Then came the news I did not want to hear. We needed to use the vacuum. I remember looking at Jason and he just looked at me. Crap! So the Dr. tried the vacuum - not to pull Cooper out but to rotate him. Apparently he was facing my side and he needed to be facing my back. Vacuum didn't work. So then came more news we did not want to hear. C-Section. Once again I looked at Jason and he looked at me. Crap! However, I was so tired that I really didn't care what they did to me at that point. So I was wheeled away, shaking uncontrollably to the OR. Surgery went off without a hitch (except for my body shaking and me trying to vomit into a dish the size of a small sub sandwich). I remember Jason asking me if I heard him (Cooper crying) and I had to force myself to listen. I was so exhausted I could barely comprehend what was going on around me. But then I heard him and I looked at Jason and all was right with the world. Poor Cooper had a black eye because he had been stuck up against my pelvic bone. But he entered the world at 1:27pm and he was healthy. Thank GOD!

The next 12 hours were tough. I could not move without vomiting and I was scared to move due to my incision (the worst thing that has EVER happened to me was when I slammed my own finger in the car door and needed two stitches) - this was pretty new territory for me. Things started to get better until day two when I hit a wall and realized I had not been given my pain medicine (Motrin and a vicoden). I ended up in a pile of tears thanks to the nurse who did not tell me that I had to request my medicine. SERIOUSLY!?!

We left the hospital on Saturday and had a great week. Spent the first part of it with neighbors and family and then Jason's dad and step mom flew in from Phoenix on Thursday. We had a lactation consultant come to the house to help us and breastfeeding was going okay. I seemed to be healing good but was just taking my time and trying not to do too much. Then on Sunday I was hit with the stomach flu. Fever, chills, aches...ugh! I was out for a couple days with that and Jason was feeling like a single dad I am sure.

Fast forward a week and Jason had to leave for work for TWO WEEKS. He got to come home on the weekend but that was the worst two weeks for me and for Jason. Here I was by myself with this tiny baby, not too sure what to do but thinking I had it down. Jason was hundreds of miles away and felt awful for having to go. My mom came over and helped me everyday but I wanted Jason. I sobbed every night for those two weeks. It was the worst feeling.

Then poor Coop got sick with the H1N1 flu. We managed to make it through that, the first day at daycare and a couple colds.

So, as you can see we kinda had a rocky start. Obviously I have no room to complain as at the end of the day Cooper is healthy and I healed up and am just fine. It was just a challenge for me. And like I said - there were times that I thought "I'll never make it six months". But here we are! We have been able to celebrate Cooper's first Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day and Olympics. With everyday that passes I think I could not possibly love him any more and I do. My heart just melts for him. His smiles, his giggles, his coos and even his cries. He is the most amazing little boy I have ever met and I am so honored to be his mommy!

Can't Wait...

Our fear was NOT having a baby...

On Superbowl Sunday we packed Cooper up and headed to our friends house for food, beer and football. There were a lot of gals there that I had meet some time back at a stamping party but had not seen since and it was good to catch up with them. I have more in common with one in particular, Jill, because she is married, thirty something, works at a title company and I am in real estate and we know some of the same people. So Jill and I were talking about work, the market, - yadda-yadda. Then the subject turned to Cooper.

Jill- "How did you know you were ready to have a baby?" she asked. I must have had a perplexed look on my face because she continued. "I only ask because some of my friends just KNEW that they HAD to start trying and some are scared to death with the thought. Were you scared about it? It is such a life changing event."

Me - perplexed look... mind racing. Were we scared? How did we decide that we wanted to try for a baby? How did we know we were ready? It seemed SO long ago that I couldn't remember.

Me (finally an answer) - "You know, we tried for quite awhile for Cooper," I began, "2 1/2 years. He is such a blessing to us. I am sure we were nervous when we first started trying...he is the best thing that has happened to us." I made NO sense whatsoever.

And I couldn't stop thinking about her question.

The more I thought the more the same answer came into my head. We were scared to death that we could not have a baby. We were scared that our life changing event would be going through life without a baby. We were so scared about this that we forgot to be scared about having a baby.

It's funny how different situations effect your outlook. All that I know now is that we are SO over the moon with Cooper. Any sort of scared goes right out the window.

All Things Loved In January...

I have seen on a few blogs where people post there favorite things from the past month and I really like that idea. So I am going to give it a shot. We will see if by April I am still keeping up with it! Hey...I am just creating realistic expectations! So here goes...

1. The book "If you don't have big breasts, put ribbons on your pigtails" by Barbara Corcoran. Love, love, love this easy read. If you are a business gal it is a must get. Besides the great info in the book I LOVE the title!

2. My sister's neighbors homemade ice skating rink (complete with an "Ice Bar"). This is what living in suburbia is ALL about. We rang in the new year at the rink and had a lot of fun. So Norman Rockwellish...How cool!

3. Sophie! Aunt RK & Uncle TRex got Cooper the infamous Sophie for Christmas. The gals on the boards can't stop talking about her and now I know why. Cooper can't get enough of this vintage looking Giraffe. He LOVES to gnaw on her and does so so much that his gums start to squeak against the rubber she is made out of!

4. Mocha Frappuccinos. Caffeine, Sugar, Whipped Cream - enough said!

A couple more "firsts"...

We had a couple of firsts over the past week. On Saturday Cooper had his first trip to the Blue Bonnet. I love Mexican food which of course means I love the Blue Bonnet (one of the BEST Mexican restaurants in Denver)! Jason's office moved recently and he now works only minutes from the "Bonnet". Lucky us - we had to go with him on Saturday to drop off a truck at his office. He gave Cooper and I a tour of his new digs and then gave us a driving tour on the way home. And the last sight to see was how close he was to the Bonnet which, of course, turned into a late lunch/early dinner there.

On Sunday Cooper had his first trip to a bowling alley. We had SO much fun. It was a fund raiser for Shane's baseball team so we had pizza and beer along with friends, family and bowling. I love bowling because it is the only "sport" that I am better than Jason at. We are just slightly competitive! The evening ended up in in a tie - no bragging rights for either one of us. Before we left Abbey and I took some photos in a photo booth with Cooper! It was a great day.

Eating with Aunt RK

Hangin' with Abbey

Hangin' with Shane

First Bowling Trip

Eye Candy...

Quote of the Day...

"Nobody said life would be easy. They just promised it would be worth it".