He's HERE!

So Sunday I felt pretty HUGE and was the first day I was uncomfortable. I thought, "Man, Cole you can come any day now because you feel so big!" My parents were back from their vacation so I said to him, "Okay, you can come now!" I guess I have a very obedient child because Sunday night my water broke. I was a little unsure if that was it but as the morning went on it got worse so that by the time I got to the doctor's office there was no question about it. I awoke at 5:00AM with contractions that were about 10 minutes apart as well. When I got up they slowed down again so I didn't know what was going on - if this was false labor or what - but then when the water kept leaking so I called the doctor. After seeing them, they wanted me to go straight to the hospital and get on pitosin (sp???) Well, Rick had to finish things up at work and mom was the only one at her store and I didn't want to go to the hospital by myself. So headed to mom's store to wait for her replacement and then we'd go together. Right when I got to the store contractions started and were pretty frequent. By the time we got to the hospital they were regular and we didn't need any medication at all. The contractions were moving things along pretty quickly as well. I was 4cm dilated at the doctor's office and was 6cm by the time we got to the hospital. After a couple of hours, when they were getting really bad one nurse said I was 9.5cm dilated. I thought, "Okay, I can get through this without medicine." But after a few contractions where I was totally unprepared and when they would come right on top of each other I started doubting. Then a second nurse checked me and said I was only 8cm. That was SOOOO discouraging. After another hour or so I begged for the epidural. Then life was GREAT!! Thank you, thank you, thank you for modern medicine! I seriously was losing all strength and wasn't recouperating it in between the contractions. Even though the epidural slowed things down it was much needed and I haven't had any side effects. By the time we got to the major pushing with the doctor there I had so much feeling back and basically felt it all so I got the best of both worlds!

So in summary, Baby Cole Frederick Poling was born Monday, October 20th at 6:45PM weighing only 5 lbs 8 oz - so I didn't even have that on the scale for votes - congrats to anyone that guessed between 6 and 6.5lbs as you were the closest! He was 18.75 inches long. He is just SO tiny. I can't imagine pushing out one any bigger though! You mom's that do it are my heroes! He is just swimming in his little newborn clothes so I think we'll have to pick up some preemie outfits.

He's healthy but struggles keeping his temperature up. He's always borderline at 97.6 degrees - just enough for them not to put him back in the warmer. They said since my water broke early the babies tend to swallow more fluid than normal so all night he was spitting it up. Poor guy!

He is a good eater though - just like his dad! He has really long feet and we have no idea where he got those since Rick and I both have small feet. He has his mommy's forehead wrinkle which was very evident when first born but has now smoothed out. And he has the biggest, most observant eyes! Right now he is way too curious to fall asleep easily. He wants to know everything that is going on. We were tip-toeing around this morning so he would fall back asleep but we can't keep that up! We'll spoil him for now though.

Rick is the cutest daddy ever. He loves watching little Cole. It's so precious!! I, oddly enough, can't believe he's actually here! 2 1/2 weeks early but am so glad he is because I was getting anxious with every passing day. And obviously I think he's the most beautiful baby!! I'm doing well and try to sleep when I can. We plan on leaving the hospital around noon on Wednesday. I'll try to keep the blog posted with pictures. My sister-in-law Jefra took lots of pictures last night and has a few of them on her blog. Check them out. (Warning: he still looks like yoda since it was right after birth!) I'll post some of ours from today when I get the cord for the camera. Love to all!

San Antonio ALS Walk 2008

We attended our third ALS walk to support Kimmie's Ladybugs this year. Who knew that two days later we'd be having a baby! It was so great to see Kim again. If you don't know what ALS is it is also called Lou Gherig's disease. It's horrible and so hard to see the ones you love lose their physical abilities. They've made quite a few advances but we're still far from curing or even preventing it. Hopefully one day...

Latest Word

The latest from the doc - still dilated 3cm, 50% effaced and the baby has dropped quite a bit but still has more to go. Basically, her take on the situation is if I were to start contracting, Cole would be here pretty soon. Last Friday I cramped and had Braxton-Hicks (aka. false labor) all day. After that it was back to normal. We'll see what happens this week.

FYI: The picture was taken last Saturday - 36 1/2 weeks along. Now only three weeks to go! Speaking of last Saturday - it was awesome. Rick was away on business on my birthday so he treated me to an entire day of being with me and doing what I wanted on Saturday. It was seriously one of the best days - ever! It's not very common for us to get that much time together without worrying about being somewhere else or having to do something else. Thank you Love!!

4 Weeks and Counting...

So with only 4 weeks left, the docs start giving me the stats. Today's appointment went swimmingly - just like all the rest. I actually saw the nurse practitioner, Brittany, today. She asked me if I knew how big the baby was and how much I was dilated. Well, I haven't been told any of that. She said that was because I had a great pregnancy so far so the doctor really hasn't worried about any of it and therefore, didn't say anything! I've put on 26 pounds total weight so far. She estimated that little Cole is about 5 1/2 pounds which means if she's right that he'll be somewhere between 6 and 7 pounds depending on when he comes and how accurate she was. So now that we have a guestimate - how about we guess the delivery date and the weight - see the survey to the right and add your guesses to comments as well!

I'm already 3 centimeters dilated which doesn't mean much at this point because he hasn't dropped and I haven't felt a single contraction. We're still expecting an on-time delivery but as Brittany said, "You can deliver any day now - we're just waiting!". Eek! I would be ecstatic if he came early, but not THIS early! Besides, my parents are going on vacation tomorrow and Mom says baby Cole will already be on her bad side if he comes while she is away. Don't worry Mom! He's content doing turns and stretching a whole lot in my belly! Oh, I thought with all of his movement he had turned around and was in the breach position, but he is still head down. Good boy! I don't want to worry about that.

I'll have another appointment next Thursday so stay tuned!

Baby Shower

Yesterday we had the baby shower for our upcoming little one - Cole Frederick Poling. My sister-in-law Jefra with the help of my sister-in-law Beverly and my mom hosted it at my mother's house. Here are the hostesses:
I was expecting dark skies, wind and rain due to hurricane Ike but it turned out to be a gorgeous day and the storm went right past us without a drop. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love from friends and family. I know everyone is as excited as we are for this little guy to get here. Now that we have the nursery almost set up and a closet full of clothes for him as well as other necessities, I'm afraid I'm going to get awfully anxious for him to get here but we still have a little over 7 weeks to go - or longer if he decides to cook a bit more!

People keep asking for pictures of the belly and I wish I could say I have some but to be honest I haven't pulled out the camera in a long time. There are a few pictures from the shower - which Amy Jones photographed for us - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! (Because otherwise we probably wouldn't have had any pictures.) A few weeks ago while my sister Kylene and her husband Jeff were here we had Rees family pictures taken and I'm just waiting for the proofs online so you'll get good shots of the tummy. But for the meantime here are some highlight pics from the shower. I'll try to remember to take the camera out more.

I had another doctor's appointment on Thursday of this past week and everything is still going great. I know I blogged before about how I wasn't putting on weight but let me assure you that is not a problem any longer (as you can tell from the pictures)! It's odd to be able to count how many appointments I have left. Two more in the next four weeks and then once a week until he decides to show his little head!

Howdy!

It's been a while since I posted anything so I thought I'd post a quick hello picture with a small update.

Hi!

There isn't much news. I had another doctor appointment last week and everything is going just fine! Rick was in Los Angeles for a week and just returned at 2am Wednesday morning. That was a LONG time to be away. We had gone to a Round Rock Express baseball game the weekend prior to his departure. We enjoyed hot dogs and other ball park food but the team was playing stinky!

Temporary Wallpaper...

So I am so excited about this news I had to post it. Perhaps it's been around for a while but I just found out there is temporary wallpaper. Sherwin Williams sells "EasyChange". I love the texture of wallpaper but I hate how awful it is to change. I have been hesitant to do anything to change the walls from their basic taupe color for the nursery but temporary wallpaper might just be the answer! They have designs that are textured which are great for any living area. I loved these. The stripes are great under a chair railing for the nursery!

Amtrak America

Rick and I decided when we planned our vacation that we wanted to take the train home. It's an experience we have both wanted to try. While we worried that a 36 hour trip would not be fun, we did it anyway. And it was great! It was relaxing and worth it.

We had a little roomette with two chairs facing each other that convert into a bed with a pull-down bunk for a second bed. All the meals are included in the price of the ticket. You share a bathroom and shower with about 8 other roomettes. You can purchase a room with a private bath but we were both satisfied with the space in a roomette and though the setup was better.

We rode from Grand Rapids to Chicago (a four hour ride). We had a 3 hour layover in Chicago so we locked up our suitcases at Union Station and headed outside to explore a little of the city. We were in the financial district so much of the area was dead and much to our dismay, many of the restaurants were closed, but we finally found a little Italian place. The remainder of the trip was on one train headed all the way to Austin.

We played a couple of games of scrabble, listened to music, watched movies and slept. It was great. The food on board was actually pretty good too! We both think the train is a great option if you have young children. If you can't afford flights, it's definitely cheaper and they have room to runaround - unlike when you drive.

White Sandy Beaches

After Wednesday's rain, Thursday was a little cool, but Friday was HOT! So we headed across Lake Hamlin to the white sandy beaches that run along Lake Michigan. It was so relaxing to be there. Plus I got some great photos. It was a nice way to end the week. We all headed to our homes that evening after packing up.

Rick looking very Top Gun

Cousin Bill with Callie Ann

Dad Poling - trying to have fun in the sun

Dad with Kelsey walking up the sand dunes.

Cathy and Bill with Callie Ann

Callie Ann

Another Callie

Cousin Bill - I love this picture!

Yvonne - look at that background!

Cathy - looking like a 40's pinup

More Callie - I couldn't help it - She was being too cute!

And Kelsey in up to her neck (standing up) in sand!

For lots more cute and frame-worthy pictures go here: www.polingpublishings.shutterfly.com
Or for Cathy's Pictures try this link to Snapfish

Bocce Ball Tournament

We held the 2nd Annual Bocce Ball Tournament. Names were drawn to form teams of 2. Rick and I had never played before so it was really fun to learn. The games were sometimes very intense and so fun to watch. The Mighty Maestros did pretty well actually - it was a grueling battle, but thanks to Kyle's long pea shots, they overcame and eventually won the tournament.

The fans:

And the regulation standard measuring to see which ball is closer!

Rick's Team: Ella Funk

Kristina's Team: The Mighty Maestros

Me - attempting to match Kyle's long pea shot. (It didn't work. Haha!)