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2 months old!

I can't believe Carson is two months old! When I think back on that precious day in the hospital I couldn't have imagined this time would come so quickly. He has made so many milestones in the second month.  The best one is that he perfected his sleep schedule to 8-12 hours a night!!  We don't tell many people this because we realize we are the lucky ones.  :)  He loves to smile and laugh!! My favorite time of the day is when he wakes up cooing in his bed each morning.  When he sees me come over to pick him up he flashes the sweetest, biggest smile ever! It melts my heart over and over again. He still LOVES the swaddle and won't sleep without it.  I realize this may mean some restless nights ahead when I start weaning him of it but right now I still love my little burrito!  So until he shows me that he is ready.... we will swaddle on!  :)


2 Month Stats:


Weight: 12 lbs, 5 oz
Length:
Size clothes: 0-3 month
Size Diaper: size 1
Eating: nursing 6-7x a day
Sleeping: 8-12 hrs every night! :)

1 Month Old!

What a precious month it has been! Everyday I can't believe how blessed we are and what an incredible gift Carson is to us.  So far he has been such a great baby! As expected he eats, sleeps, and poops and has has small amounts of awake time.  Hardly ever cries unless he is hungry or sleepy. Carson is such a great eater and is doing well at developing a schedule (although he still has his days and nights mixed up).  :) I absolutely LOVE breastfeeding and am so blessed that it has worked so well for us. He gets a pumped bottle from daddy on occasions so mommy can catch up on sleep.  Happy 1 month birthday to our precious angel!

1 Month Stats:

Weight: 10 lbs, 4 oz

Length: 22 inches

Size clothes: NB

Size Diaper: NB

Eating: 8x/day

Sleeping: 3-4 hrs at a time

Carson's Birth Announcement

Carson's Newborn Photos

I am so thrilled that just a month ago I stumbled upon the most amazing photographer; Allison Lewis!  Originally I had just planned that she do our birth photography in the hospital but am so glad that she decided to take us on as a client to continue doing photos of Carson throughout his first year.  There's no other way to describe how much these photos of Carson mean to me!

Photo Shoot: October 25, 2011; 12:30 pm; 6 days old

A Perfect Love!

James 1:17  "Every good and perfect gift is from above."

Whoever knew such a gift more perfect? Korey and I have been on cloud 20 but the sleepless nights are definitely beginning to catch up with us.  Regardless, we are loving every precious minute with Carson.  We visited our pediatrician a couple of times this week to get Carson's bilirubin rechecked but now we are all in the clear!  Carson loves to be swaddled during sleep so we are so thankful that the sweet nurse showed us an even better way to swaddle (than what the books teach you);  because we are certainly doing it a million times a day. Korey has been off work and I have absolutely loved having him here with me.  I'm not sure what I am going to do when he goes back! Carson is sleeping in our room in a cradle beside our bed but it looks like we may have to start letting him sleep in his vibrating seat.  He has been having a few reflux issues so the incline chair helps alleviate these problems during his sleep.  We love listening to his sweet sounds!

We came home from the hospital on Friday, October 21st.  We were so excited to finally bring Carson to our home that we had prepared for him!  Surprisingly I wasn't has nervous as I thought I would be. Although we had the best care ever at the hospital, he had already shown me that he was pretty easy going as long as his needs were met.  He eats every 2-3 hours and absolutely LOVES it!  Right now he is taking a while to get through a feeding but I imagine that one day he will become more of an efficient eater. Sometimes I get the feeling he's just hanging out rather than eating.  :)

Each time I look at him I am just overwhelmed! On my wedding day I could never have imagined loving someone else as much as I do Korey and this has been the same experience. We are so humbled and amazed everyday at our sweet boy.  Our God is such an incredible giver of gifts!

We were also so blessed by precious friends and family who provided us with plenty of yummy food to eat and came to visit Carson.  Here are a few more hospital pics that I didn't want to leave out.  :)

My cup runneth over...

Carson James Collins

October 19, 2011

6 lbs, 12 oz

20.5 inches

We already can't imagine life without him or what life was before him!


My Delivery:


It all began with a visit with my OB on Tuesday, October 19.  After a routine test, my doctor felt like my fluid levels had changed so just to be safe she wanted to admit me to be induced even though I had not progressed even the slightest! First of all, I can't tell you how much relief we felt when we heard this!  For months I had been terrified that the day that my water broke or I started having contractions, that it would be at 5 oclock in the afternoon with Korey at work, in a meeting, 280 traffic for him to fight to come get me, and then to get me to the hospital! Thankfully these fears were relieved the second we heard that we needed to be back at the hospital Tuesday night to begin getting prepped to be induced first thing Wednesday morning.  And.... just for fun we took this video Tuesday morning before our appointment.  :)

So, Korey and I went home, finished packing, took the dog and cat to the vet, straightened the house, and then went to eat Mexican! We checked into the hospital at 8pm and settle into our nice little birth suite at St. Vincent's Hospital.


All I can say is that for the past 9 months, my labor, the delivery, the baby....every SINGLE detail had been completely covered in prayer!  I have no doubt that it is the reason that this day was nothing less than perfect!


Tuesday night I was put on meds that were intended to help thin out my cervix.  We relaxed, talked about the coming day, and got our last good night sleep for a while....


The nurse came in early Wednesday morning to see if the meds had done what they were supposed to do.  Nope.  No change. Period.  So they decided to go ahead and put me on petocin to see if maybe the contractions would also help thin me out.  They didn't yet know if I would progress the way that they wanted me too so there was still a possibility that they might have to do a C-section if the meds didn't help this time.  The petocin definetly helped on the contraction end of things.  I was having very regular contractions yet progressing VERY slow.  After I had finally progressed to 1 cm the doctor broke my water and we continued to wait for more progress.  Three hours of intense contractions was about all I could handle when they said that I had progressed enough that I could finally get the epidural.  I honestly don't remember the pain much but I know that it was there. The first few cm went by very slow. Around 11 am I had progressed to 3 cm.  We continued to play the waiting game, while visiting with family, looking at Korey's baby pictures, etc., when the doctor just happened to stop by to let me know that she would be back by in an hour to check me.  I'm not sure what caused her to change her mind but she decided to check me then instead; I had progressed from 3 cm to 10 cm!  Our baby boy was there and ready to enter the world!


The nurses prepped me and then it was pushing time!  40 minutes later our little boy stole our hearts!


To make this day even more perfect, Allison Lewis was there to catch it all on camera! Memories that we will cherish forever!

Carson's Nursery

We still have a few finishing touches to make but the nursery is well on its way to being completed for our sweet baby boy! It's amazing how over the past 3 years I've come up to this room and daydreamed about the day it would become our baby's room!  So blessed that the time is now! I am so pleased at how well it turned out! More pics to come.... as a few other details are complete.

Getting Ready for Carson James

I've been so blessed by precious family and friends who have showered us with gifts for Carson.


My devotional group at CBES gave me the most precious little shower with verses that went along with each gift.  It was such a precious idea and a great reminder of God's amazing blessings and promises in my life!

My precious Kindergarten class gave me a "book" shower!  It was such a sweet day and I can't wait for Carson to enjoy all of the precious books!

My Birmingham shower was given by friends, family, and my sister.  The decorations were the cutest ever with the most precious diaper cake that my friend Claire made.  It's times like this when I truly realize how blessed I am! Carson is going to have the cutest clothes ever!  He is also well stocked with diapers, burp cloths, bibs, and blankets!

My Arab shower was given by some sweet ladies from my mother-in-law's church as well as my sister-in-law.  The food was catered by a friend of the family and was absolutely amazing!

Korey's work also gave us a lunch-time shower at Chuy's! Being a few days from my due date I was very interested to see what effect all that Mexican food would have! :)