RTR!

So..Jon and I always have had the debate over which school Carter is going to attend/cheer for. He says Carter will say, "war eagle" (yucky words!) and I say he will say, "ROLL TIDE ROLL!" I think Carter already knows Mommy is ALWAYS right...check out the pictures!
Rammer Jammer!!!!!!!

BIG boy!

Well, we have a BIG ole boy on our hands!! Carter weighs 17 pounds, 4 oz!! (90th percentile!) He is 24 3/4 inches long (50th percentile!) and definitely TEETHING. They said his little gums were very swollen, but that it could take a few months for that tooth to break. UGH. NOT excited about that part!! He looked in his eyes and believes he will definitely be a blue eyed baby!! He didn't see any brown flecks in them! YAYAYAYAYAY! :)
I love my pediatrician. He is so sweet and always has a fit over Carter. I heard him tell the nurse in the hall, "That Carter is SO cute!" Made my day. Even though I already think he's the cutest thing ever! :) HAHA. :)
Poor baby had to have 3 shots and an oral vaccine. Sweet boy only cried for 2 seconds and then stopped. He was pretty fussy yesterday, so we just cuddled most of the day yesterday.

I don't think I tell Jon just how much I appreciate the sacrifices we have made in order for me to stay home with Carter. I LOVE it. There is NOTHING I have ever waned to do more than be a mommy. There are definitely days that are harder (and YES-I KNOW THEY WILL GET HARDER!), but I wouldn't trade them for anything. So to Jon: Thank you for allowing me to stay home. You don't know how much it means to me! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!

Happy Birthday to me!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!

Jon and I got the BEST news today! We are approved for BUILDING OUR FIRST HOUSE!!!!! It's been a LONG time coming for us to be able to do this! I can't WAIT to start the process! It will probably be the 1st of the year before we will be in *OUR* house, but I have been in this apartment for this long..whats a few more months right?!
It is going to be so fun seeing something of OURS come together. And I can't WAIT to be able to pick out everything!!!
We are moving to Towne Lakes in Madison. We are going tonight to take some pictures of the different lots that are available and when we get back I am going to post them! :) I'll be posting pictures of the progress! :) Such an exciting time for us! This time last year we found out we were preggers, this year we are building our little family a house! SO fun! :)

Carter is getting BIGGER and BIGGER by the day! :) We go for his 4 month appointment tomorrow and I can't wait to see how big he has gotten! I bet he is almost 17 pounds now! Such a BIG boy. :) I love his rolls. I LOVE a chunky baby! :)
He has discovered his feet this week and thats his new favorite toy! He will sit and "talk" to them! It is SO cute. Carter laughed out loud for the first time at my Moms house last week. It was the CUTEST thing ever. He now laughs ALL the time. And SMILES constantly. Don't get me wrong, the boy can pitch a fit, BUT over all he is very chill. Just like his daddy. I always say he has his mommys hot temper. HA. :)

We got to celebrate my Mimi's 97th Birthday on Sunday! How awesome is that?!? I don't have any pictures on this computer. I need to get GRANJAN to email me some. (MOM, if your reading this-SEND me some pictures via EMAIL!) Mimi is doing amazing for 97. She got to see all of her children, grand children and GREAT grandchildren. (even Pat, Kelley and Ryder on Skype!) Over all she had 59 people to wish her a happy birthday! Amazing. I hope I am as spunky as she is when I am that old! :)
We also to see some cousins that we hadn't seen in a while, so it was nice to see them! My Aunt Judy did a wonderful job hosting us all. She was VERY brave to let us all come to her house! :) It was such a perfect day and I think Mimi had a great time! :) (Thanks, Aunt Judy for having us all! SOOOO much fun! We need to do it again soon!)

Short post, but just wanted to share our exciting news! :) I'll post pix as soon as GranJan sends them to me! And Ill update about Carters doctors appointment tomorrow!

4 months?!

I can't believe tomorrow my baby boy will be 4 months old! Where oh where have the last 4 months gone?? They have flown by and it makes me sad! Although, he is getting into the fun stages. He is learning something new every day and I am constantly amazed by him.

He is working really hard on rolling from his back to his tummy. He has been rolling from his tummy to his back since we brought him home from the hospital!! TOTALLY crazy, I know. We can't even do tummy time anymore because he instantly rolls over!

One of my most favorite times with him is when he first wakes up in the morning. He is the SWEETEST thing in the world. He just smiles and "talks" to me. He says "o,o,o" over and over again. It melts my heart. He really is the sweetest thing ever.

This week I decided to try him in his exersaucer. He has GREAT head control, so I figured it was time. He LOVES it. Of course, it only last for about 20 minutes, but I will take it! He loves all the lights and music. Definitely a MUSIC baby!! (Side note: A nap time we HAVE to have Praise Baby music going. It is the ONLY way he will go to sleep. And it has to be Praise Baby! I guess he remembers the Praise and Worship music from being in the womb. Its all I listen to!)

I had to take him to his first sick doctors appointment last Thursday. He was so fussy, wouldn't eat (which is UNLIKE him!) and would wake up them minute we got him to sleep. I figured he had an ear infection. Well, we got to the doctor and he IMMEDIATELY started laughing and smiling. Can we say WASTE of $30?! HA! Oh well, better safe than sorry. YES, he was FINE. Doctor didn't see anything except a little bit of a red throat.

We got the go ahead and start cereal with him when we went to the doctor. However, I will be waiting until our appointment on the 24th to give it to him again. It hurt his little tummy so BAD. The sad thing is, he LOVES it. Can't get enough of it!

At 4 months old, Mr. Carter: You weigh 16 pounds 3 oz. (You have gained 10 pounds in 4 months-GOOD JOB BUDDY!) You LOVE Praise Baby, Get so happy when your daddy comes home from work, smile constantly, LOVE LOVE LOVE the bath tub and of course love being held by your mommy. Love sucking on your thumb or your index and middle finger.

Things you don't like: You hate being seperated from mommy and daddy at night time. (So of course you get your way and sleep with us. HA!) You hate tummy time. (It makes you REALLY mad!) You don't like bottles. (You would rather have the real thing. LOL!) You don't like your pacifier anymore. (which is FINE with me!)

Sweet Carter,
It is so hard to believe that tomorrow will mark the one year date of finding out I was pregnant with YOU and that you will be 4 months old. You are such a sweet and happy baby. You make me the proudest mommy in the world and are the apple of my eye. I love you more than anything sweet baby!

Here are some pictures from yesterday!

My Monkey

S0, I decided to do a little photo shoot with Carter. We call him "Our Little Monkey!" I bought this outfit before I was even MARRIED. :) I just thought it was too cute. It definitely won't fit him at Halloween, so I needed to at least make his picture in it!

WOW, 2 post in a week. Are you proud of me, GranJan?! (OK, so I started on this post a WEEK ago and have YET to finish it!!!)

Carter and I had a fun day out yesterday. Carter got to model for a local store in his cloth diapers. He looked SO cute in his cloths with his little chunky legs and big tummy hanging out! HA. :) I can't wait to see the pictures! Hopefully she will have the pictures up very soon! :)

Carter has really amazed me lately. He has been rolling over from his tummy to his back since we brought him home from the hospital. No one (except GranJan) believed that he was doing it. But, we finally got a video of him doing and he hasn't stopped since. :) When I went for his 2 month check up and told my pediatrician he wasn't a BIT surprised. We can't even do tummy time anymore because he IMMEDIATELY flips over! He has REALLY been trying to roll from his back to his tummy this week. I don't think it will be much longer. He is also doing really incredible in his bumbo seat. He has great head control. I have a feeling he will be sitting up in the next month or so. He thinks he's bigger then his. I *really* need him to slow down and be a BABY. He is growing to fast!!!!

For Moms birthday, we got to spend the week at the beach! It was SO nice to be able to get away. The last time Jon and I were at the beach together was when we got married almost 3 years ago! I can't believe its been 3 years! My parents kept Carter for us and we went and ate at Fish out of Water in Watercolor. The FIRST time we had any time alone since Carter was born. Was so nice to have a nice dinner, but of course all we talked about was our sweet little man and I couldn't wait to get back to him. (I think I am realizing that as much as I like the idea of getting out without him, I just miss him too much! :) Even last saturday Jon kept him while I was going to do some errands and I was home within an hour, picked BOTH of them up, and finished our errands. :) Yes, I am a bit obsessed with my baby boy. ) Anyways, back to the beach....

We spent 7 days in paradise. We were so afraid it was going to rain the whole time because it was 60% chance every day we were there. We had rain the first day but after that it was BEAUTIFUL. I couldn't take Carter to the beach except for one day. It was just too hot and with him not able to wear sunscreen yet, I just didn't want to risk it. Still, it was fun just to get away! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the beach:

By the way, these are in NO sort of order. I hate how blogger uploads pix!

WAY OVER DUE FOR A POST!!!!!!

WELLLLL. I can honestly say I had TOTALLY forgotten about my blog!!! Sit down, this is probably going to be a long post!!

Here is a recap of the past 4 months!!!!!!!!!!

On April 8, I went into the hospital with contractions every 5-7 minutes apart. My doctor had already told me the day before he wouldn't be a BIT surprised to see me before the weekend was over. I called my parents and they made the hour and a half trek to Huntsville. By the time they got here the contractions had stopped, but I was dealing with some pretty high blood pressure. (Which had been high the past few weeks.) My doctor is in a big practice (5 doctors total I think) and wasn't on call that day. They did all the blood work to test me for preeclampsia, but all came back clear. And I was SADLY sent home to be on total bed rest until Carter wanted to come. The nurse said, "I wouldn't be surprised if you were back here at Midnight tonight!" Which made me a little irritated that they were sending me home!

Here I am in the hospital with my new iPad 2! I stood in line for it earlier that morning! Jon gave it to me for my push gift!

My Mom decided to stay with me and help me get the nursery done and she was also afraid I would have him and she would miss it!

Remember how I said I was suppose to be on total bed rest?! Well, if you know me, you know I can't sit still!! :) I did it for the first night and enjoyed being waited on hand and foot, but I wanted that baby OUT! :)

That sunday, April 10, Mom and I decided to go to Bridgestreet for a little shopping and some yogurt. As I walked into the yogurt shop who of all people is sitting there with his family?! Um, yes..MY DOCTOR!! I almost turned and walked out thinking he was going to fuss at me for not being at home in the bed. BUT, to my surprise he didn't even KNOW that I was suppose to be on bed rest and couldn't believe they sent me home! He had said "come see me Monday, if you make it through the night, and we'll talk baby!" I couldn't believe it! I knew at that moment I was going to have Carter on April 11th more than likely.

Here I was the day before he was born. Look HUGE!!!!!

Well, we went home and finished the nursery at about 10 pm. I laid down, but just couldn't get comfortable. My back was KILLING me and I was having TONS of pressure and the contractions were getting stronger and stronger. Jon and I timed them on my new iPad and they were less than 5 minutes apart. Mom was sleeping during all this and had NO idea what was going on. I woke her up around Midnight and said "it was time". I've never seen her move so fast. HA! :)

We got to the hospital and the reality started to set in with me. I was going to GIVE BIRTH that day. I remember being so nervous, but tried not to show it. My nurses were absolutely INCREDIBLE. They walked me through everything they were doing and that calmed me and eased my fears/anxieties. My biggest fear of the whole labor process was: GETTING an IV!!!!! YES, I know, but I had NEVER had one. I had NO idea what to expect and always heard they HURT. But, my nurse was AMAZING and got it on the first try and it didn't hurt AT ALL!!!

Funny side note: They were doing clinicals at my hospital and asked if I minded if a student nurse could come in to observe. As most of you know, I'm pretty shy and modest. Much to everyones surprise I said, "SURE!" Well, little did I know that it would be a 6'6" 250 pound MAN!!!!!! All I could do was LAUGH- JUST my luck! But, he was SO sweet and kept in the background saying "THIS IS NOT WHAT I WANT TO DO!" HAHA! Poor thing..

At about 6 am they started potocine(spell check!) to help with the process. (the D word just grosses me out so I won't say it and you won't read me mention it! HAHA!) At around 8 they told me if I wasn't going natural that they encouraged me to go ahead and get the epidural. I was very nervous about that as well, but didn't even feel a thing!! 9 they checked me and said my water was bulging. We kept waiting and waiting on the doctor. Of course mine wasn't on call that day either-ugh! Finally around 10 the doctor came and broke my water. They started this thing called "wedging". It was the neatest thing. They put pillow all around me on my right side, then 30 minutes later changed it to my left side. They did that until about 12:30 and I knew then I was getting closer. The pain was getting more intense and I got in the "zone" everyone talks about! My sister had just gotten there with my Dad and I was SO glad Natalie could make it. My Mom and Sister went to the waiting room to talk to him and it was then I felt the urge to push. I called the nurse and she came in and checked and said "um, your ready to push where is your mom and sister?!" Jon was going to get them, but luckily Jon's Mom was there and ran and got them for us.

I literally pushed for 10 minutes and out came my beautiful baby boy. Just thinking about it makes me cry. He, Terry Carter Cullen, had FINALLY made his grand entrance. And it was nothing short of amazing and perfect!!! My first questions was: DOES HE HAVE HAIR?! All that heartburn need to count for something...and BOY did he have hair!!!!!!!

He was a PERFECT 6 pounds 13 oz and 20 inches long. So tiny and absolutely beautiful. I'll never forget after they brought him back from the bath, the nurse said, "this baby doesn't have one dimple, he has 2 HUGE dimples!" I was sooooo happy to hear that he got at least ONE thing from his mommy! Everything else is Jon made over!!!!! He is his daddys child! :) We call him little Jon Jr! :)

My life was changed for the better the moment they put him in my arms. Nothing else at that moment seemed to matter. I've never felt happier in my life. The love I felt for him was so unconditional. He was perfect. :)

One thing that was VERY important to me doing was breastfeeding. I had made a promise to myself that I wasn't going to let anyone tell me I couldn't do it. And boy have I stuck by that. Carter was named a breastfeeding champ by the nursery staff. He latched on immediately and we haven't had any problems since. I was so happy to go to a hospital that was for breastfeeding and wouldn't give them formula unless you asked for it.

Fast forward about 5 weeks........

The scariest day of my life. Jon and I had just gone to Wal-Mart and grabbed some Arbys while we were out. He had JUST told me, "Don't call I have a very important meeting with Universal Studios today!" (thats where their annual conference was being held) He left, I put Carter in his vibrating seat and I began to eat my lunch. Almost immediately, I felt a pain in my stomach that was WORSE than child birth. I was literally in agony. I called my Mom screaming on the phone because I didn't know what to do. She told me I HAD to call Jon no matter how important the meeting was. I did, and he didn't answer. I texted him "911" and he was home within 5 minutes. (good thing about living so close to work!) By that time I was in the bath having horrible horrible stomach pains. I called the doctor and was waiting for the nurse to call me back. It literally took them 2 hours before I had to call them BACK. I was hurting so bad and so frustrated. and scared. I didn't know WHAT was wrong with me. They sent me straight to my doctor. He took one look and said, "it's one of 2 things. Gallbladder or appendix." He ruled out appendix because it was on my right side and because I had just eaten. He ordered an ultrasound for the following morning to see what it was for sure.

My amazing Mom came up to go with me and help with Carter. We had to be there at 7 am. I went back alone. The ultrasound tech obviously couldn't say much. At the end of the appointment I asked him if he saw anything. All he said was "I hope your not real attached to that gallbladder!" The next day it was confirmed I needed surgery to have my gallbladder removed. This all happened so fast. The surgery was scheduled for a Monday and I had 4 days before it. I have NEVER been SO SICK before in all my life. I don't wish Gallbladder attacks on my worst enemy. Trying to take care of a newborn and being SO sick was NOT my idea of fun. Again, I am blessed with an amazing Mom who was there through it all. She helped me with Carter and I laid in bed with agony. If you've ever had an attack you know how bad they are! I had a total of 5 attacks and thought I was literally going to die. I kept praying that I could make it until Monday to have the surgery and obviously I did. :) Literally a very simple surgery and I was able to pick up Carter the following day. I am so thankful I will NEVER have another one of those attacks again!!!! :)

The following weeks were very quiet, thankfully!! Carter is growing like a weed! He weighs over 14 pounds at 3 1/2 months old. He is the cutest baby boy in the whole wide world. :) I have started cloth diapering him and absolutely love it. It's not like it use to be. It's totally different and I have become obsessed with it! :) The good thing with clothing too, is that I can use them for all my babies. So its definitely an investment and my doctor told it was the best thing for his little skin. :)

We just got back from the beach with parents. We had a BLAST!! The next post will be pictures from there. I think this one is long enough!!!! Here is a sneak peak and my current favorite picture of him:

I PROMISE to be better about blogging. Now that we have a schedule and I have some down time, I will try and do it once a week...at least!! :)