And then there were four...

Eliot Nathan Traxler was born on 5/26/07 at 9:43am. 7lbs 12.5oz, 20 1/2 inches long. He is beautiful and we are so in love with our little guy!! Thank you so much for your prayers. The surgery went really well and I am healing nicely. So nicely that 52 hours and 10 min later we were all on our way home from the hospital. Our first nite at home was last nite and it went really well. Chloe slept all nite (as always), Eliot slept really well and ate every 3 hours. We all got some good sleep and are doing really well. I am still pretty sore but at least I am 13 lbs lighter. We have tons of photos but I am just starting to put a few up and more to come so enjoy!!

Nate preped and ready to enter the O.R.

I am getting preped to walk down to the O.R.

Here he is...so beautiful. Looks like his daddy, chin cleft and all!!

I look pretty worn out but am very happy to finally met our little man.

Daddy and Eliot...so sweet.

Just About Time

This photo was taken last nite at a local resturant called The Twisted Fork...final meal before little mister is born. After 2 different dry runs to the hospital I actually made it to my scheduled date. It is 5:21am and we are up and getting last minute stuff together and heading off to the hospital to have a baby. We will keep you posted with photos of our new little guy as soon as we can. Please pray for us around 9am...that is my c-section time. Thank you so much for your prayers.


I just thought I would add a cute photo of our girl helping to bathe her baby cousin Aidan last nite...what a good big sis she is going to be!!:)

Almost...

So, we almost had the baby yesterday. I had a doc app in the am and my bp was a little high. Everything else was just fine, but since I had hypertension with Chloe my doc did not want to take any chances. First, he sent me down the hall to the NST (non-stress test) room where they had me & the baby on monitors checking my bp & the baby's heart rate and any contractions I was having. My bp came down, just not enough to satisfy my doc and I was showing that I was having consistant contractions. He sent me directly to the hospital labor & delivery. I called Nate at work & he immediately left to meet me at the hospital. I was so thankful that my Mom was with me (she had been watching Chloe while I was supposed to just have a quick doc app...ha!) Anyways, we drove to the hospital where my mom took care of the Chlo-meister & I was admitted (Nate by my side) to have a 4 hour testing process (glorified NST). While I was there they monitored many different bp's of mine (which started out just barely high & then became completely normal & stayed that way, thankgoodness), they took 2 vials of my blood & tested my platelet count (to see how well I clot) as well as my kidney functions (they were worried about pre-eclampsia with high bp so they test for kidney function to make sure all is in proper working order). They also gave me a physical to see if I was dilating or effacing any, checked my heart & lungs, did an ultrasound to check on my amniotic fluid level & also had me & the baby on the monitors to test for his heart rate & any contractions I was having. All the testing turned out to be normal & fine. I was relieved to hear that, of course. My doc even told me before he sent me to labor & delivery that he thought that they would do all this testing & find out all is fine & send me home, but he wanted me to go regardless. I was still showing consistant contractions 2-3min apart, but they are not strong (I can not even feel them) so they told me if they get stronger or last a longer time to come back. I am dilated to 1 and 50% effaced which is completely normal at this stage in the pregnancy. Nate & I just consider this to be a dry run. Actually, this happened to us with Chloe, a little sooner in that pregnancy though, so we just felt like this was par for the course...10 days to go if I make it to my c-section date.

Happy Mother's Day

Chloe loves to sit at the kitchen table with her play kitchen stuff and pretend she is on the phone, cooking, eating, feeding her babies or me...it is pretty cute (see above photo). She doesn't need a highchair or bib anymore so we have stored that stuff away and will not use the highchair again until the baby starts on solid foods...it is a nice milestone to have hit. I still bring her booster chair to family and friends houses when we go out but it hasn't been necessary there either. During the day she eats at her little table and chairs and for dinner she can sit in a regular chair with us at the kitchen table (we started her out with her sitting on a phone book but that is not necessary anymore either). She can even wash her hands almost all by herself at the kitchen sink. She brings her chair over and stands on it and asks me "wash hands". Her arms are still just a little too short to reach to turn the sink on, but once I turn it on for her & give her a little soap she can wash her hands and dry her hands all by herself. She is very good with a fork and spoon when the meal isn't too messy. I still help her a little with certain stuff, but for the most part she feeds herself & has been doing this for quite some time now.

Chloe with cousin Hope & Hailey on Mother's Day...they were water paint brushing & having so much fun!! I had a wonderful Mother's Day & hope all you mom's out there did, too! 12 days to go until kiddo #2...

Baby Shower

My mom & sister gave me a great baby shower yesterday. We really made out like bandits!! Below are 2 photos of some of the baby shower crew (the party was at my mom's).

Bottom row from left is Beth, me, & my sis, Dianne Top row from left is my Grandma Marge, Karen & Kathy

My mom replaced Beth in this photo

This is just a cute photo of our girl with her side walk chalk drawing on our driveway (daddy helped, too!)

Kids Rooms

The kids rooms are now painted & they turned out great!! We have been meaning to paint Chloe's room since we moved in a year ago but the time got away from us. Now her room is complete and is soooo cute!! The color is called Heavenly Song (a light peachy pink color). This matches her decor now as well as the quilt she will have on her big girl bed (as soon as we transition her over to that which should be happening this summer). Little mister's room has been painted a light beige called Arabian Sands. It also turned out so nice & these wonderful paint jobs are all thanks to my hard worker hero husband!! Unfortunately the photos do not do the paint jobs justice but I posted them just the same.

Chloe's room painted

Chloe's room all decorated

Nate hard at work painting the baby's room

The baby's room is now completely painted

I put some stuff in the baby's room...I will be washing all his clothes and slowly decorating his room as well as getting all the furniture in it in the next week or so. We are on the 3 week count down now...