One Month Old!

It is hard to believe that Cooper turned one month old on Monday, November 9th. It seems as though he was just born yesterday. All of my friends that told me that the time flies once you have a baby were not exaggerating! Cooper has grown and changed so much over the past month. He gets more and more adorable by the day.=)

Ryan was able to be home for the majority of the first month which has been wonderful. Both of us have absolutely loved spending time with Cooper. We both agree that we could just sit and stare at him all day. Cooper came home weighing 9 pounds, 4 ounces and at his last "weigh-in" on November 5th he was up to 10 pounds, 3 ounces! He is definitely chugging down the milk!

Over the last month Cooper has changed in many ways. He does still love to sleep, but is alert for longer periods of time each day. He can pull his head up and he loves to kick his legs and wave his arms. He can even scoot himself in a circle in his bassinet. I will place him one way and when I come back he will have rotated himself halfway around the other direction!

Cooper will focus on a person or object and just stare at it. When I feed him he just stares at me the entire time (until he falls asleep that is), which just melts my heart. I told Ryan that I fell in love with Cooper for the first time when they placed him in my arms at the hospital and he looked up at me with those big blue eyes. Aah, just too cute!

Cooper has discovered the rotating mobile on his swing and loves to watch it move. He also really likes to stare at the little orange jingly puppy that hangs on his car seat. He is completely mesmerized by it.

Over the past few days he has started to "talk" more and make more noises. I am convinced that he smiled at me for the first time over the weekend, but since Ryan didn't see it he assures me it was gas. I fully believe it was a smile, but either way when he does start to smile it will be the most beautiful smile ever! =)

Ryan and I took Cooper on his first big outing last week. We decided to introduce him to the great outdoors and visited Lithia Springs Park which is just a few minutes from our house. It was a beautiful day and we showed him the pretty trees and crystal clear springs. He was asleep the whole time, but we took lots of pictures and video of the things he missed to one day show him.

It will be exciting to see how Cooper grows and changes over the next month. I wish I could keep him from growing up so fast, but I am striving to cherish each and every day that I have with him. I will post some current pictures of him soon.

Cooper Addison Bretsch has Arrived!

I am thrilled to announce the arrival of Cooper Addison Bretsch, born on Friday, October 9th at 1:13 p.m. He weighed in at a whopping 9 pounds, 4 ounces and was 21 3/4 inches long. Ryan and I are very excited about our new little guy.

Cooper's due date was October 8th and by that date it appeared that he was in no hurry to be born. At my doctor's appointment on the 7th we decided to go ahead and induce labor on the 9th rather than waiting another week or two for me to go into labor because the doctor thought that Cooper might be about 8 pounds and we didn't really want him to be too big when he was born.

So I went into the hospital on Thursday evening (the 8th) so they could give me a drug called Cervadil to help soften my cervix. I was to be given a drug called Pitocin Friday morning to induce labor. The Cervadil definitely did it's job and by the wee hours of Friday morning I was having some serious contractions. At 1:00 a.m. they gave me an epidural (which to me is the world's greatest drug!) and I was able to get a good night's rest. My labor moved along pretty quickly and Cooper was born at 1:13 p.m.

Everyone was astonished at Cooper's size when he was born, especially us and the doctor. So much for 8 pounds. It's a good thing we didn't wait another week! The delivery went pretty smoothly, although I did lose quite a bit of blood which made my iron level very low and left me pretty weak afterwards. Cooper also swallowed some meconium and blood during delivery which left him pretty lethargic as well.

In fact, Cooper had to spend a couple of days in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) because he started to vomit the blood he had swallowed. He was also put on an IV because he became dehydrated and needed fluids. That was a pretty scary time for us, but he is doing wonderfully now and is getting bigger by the day.

We fell in love with Cooper from the start and have been enjoying every minute with him. He is a wonderful baby and you can't help but melt when he looks at you with his big blue eyes. His grandparents have been spoiling him rotten along with all of our friends.

I have included some pictures from the past several weeks. Cooper will be one month old on November 9th. It is unbelievable how fast the time has gone by. As of last week, he was 9 pounds, 11 ounces! He has gotten a clean bill of health at all of his doctor's appointments (Yay!) and loves to eat and sleep. Ryan and I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful baby and we are continuously thanking God for His awesome gift.

 

More Baby Shower Pics

Here are some pictures from my baby shower at school on September 25th.

Baby Shower Pics

These are pictures from my shower on September 12th.

Cooper's current place of residence, but we hope he'll be setting up camp in his crib soon!

These are my wonderful family members that helped me celebrate. Left to right: me, my mom, my cousin Kim, my aunts Patty and Roma Lee and my cousin Cindy.

This is Cooper's new little chair and his new little friend, who's name also happens to be Cooper!

Cooper will love his new books!

Me and my awesome friend Sherry.

My wonderful mom.

ESPN is not just for Daddy's!


Cooper's new snuggly bear. I may have to fight him for it!

Me and my fantastic friend Kimber.

Rub the belly for good luck! My wonderful friends (l to r) Jeni, Leanne, Christy and Carrie that helped to make my shower such a success.

An adorable outfit from Cooper's grandma and grandpa Bretsch.

Christy, Leanne, Carrie and I posing with the beautiful cake. Leanne's friend made it and she does such an amazing job. It was even a S'mores cake. Yummy!

An up close shot of the incredible cake. If you look closely you can see little Cooper napping at the top in the little red tent.


It has been a while since I have updated the blog. It is amazing how quickly time gets away from you. I am posting some pictures from my recent baby showers. My awesome friends Carrie, Christy and Leanne hosted my first baby shower for friends and family on September 12th. We had a blast and Carrie, Christy and Leanne did such an amazing job with everything. Cooper's room has an outdoor, camping theme so the shower revolved around that idea. Everything was so adorable! And everyone was so generous. I had a great time and I know little Cooper will love every one of his gifts. When I got home I made Ryan sit in the chair as I showed him every one of the gifts. It was like Christmas for little Cooper!

The second shower I had was given by my wonderful co-workers at school. They too had a camping theme and everything was really nice. All of my friends and fellow teachers were very generous and we had a great time. Again, I made Ryan sit down as I displayed all of the wonderful gifts Cooper received. This shower took place on September 25th.

Ryan's co-workers even threw him a surprise baby shower at work too! They had a potluck lunch and showered him with all kinds of wonderful gifts. Ryan really enjoyed the surprise and was touched by their generosity. This time it was my turn to sit in the chair as Ryan showed me all of the neat things he had received for Cooper. =)

Week 35- The Final Countdown

Wow- it is hard to believe that I am already at the 35 week mark. I only have about a month to go until we get to meet little Cooper. It is still amazing to me how fast the past 9 months have flown by.

A lot of things have changed since the last time I wrote. My summer was officially over on August 17th and the new school year is now in full swing. I had the daunting task of changing classrooms this year and was a bit overwhelmed. Thanks to the help of my wonderful parents, friends and school custodians, I was able to get completely moved in. I was not used to not being able to lift things and really do as much as I would have liked to, so without their help I never would have been able to accomplish the monumental task of unpacking. Just ask my dad!

I really enjoyed the summer and getting to relax and just enjoy getting ready for Cooper. It was also nice to go back to school and get to see my fellow coworkers again and catch up with them. I have gotten many very sweet comments from my coworkers about my ever expanding belly. Thankfully it seems I am all baby. I really haven't seemed to gain weight anywhere else. Over the past few weeks my belly has just seemed to grow at an alarming rate. The maternity clothes I bought a few months ago that I thought were big enough to last me to the end are beginning to get a bit snug. Who knew.

The students at school are not used to seeing me pregnant so the comments I have received from them have been priceless. I had one little girl point to my stomach and ask,"What's that?" to which I told her that it was a baby. She got all excited and said, "A baby! I can't wait to see that!" Another little girl told me she hoped I was old enough to have a baby. (I'm still trying to figure that comment out.) Other kids just kind of stare at me and I even have a few in one of our special ed classes that start chanting "Baby" everytime they see me. Kids are too funny.

On another note, I went in today for my last ultrasound. They have been continuously checking the location of my placenta (which is too low) to see if it has moved to a higher location so that I can have a regular delivery instead of a C-section. At my last visit on August 4th it still had not moved completely away from my cervix. Amazingly enough, today the doctor felt that it had moved enough (we're speaking centimeters here) that he felt completely comfortable with letting me have a regular delivery. I have to say I was very surprised, but also very happy. I have had mixed feelings about the whole C-section versus regular delivery. I left it in God's hands, but do feel relieved that things seem to be as they should.

The ultrasound was incredible of course. It is always so amazing to see the baby up close. Cooper is up to about 6 pounds already! That puts him in the 69th percentile for weight so he is a bit of a chunker. He should gain about a half pound a week over the remaining duration of my pregnancy so he will probably be around 8 pounds at birth.

I will post the pictures from today's ultrasound and my previous one on August 4th as soon as I am able. You can really tell a difference in how he has filled out since my earlier visits. His face has really gotten chubby. Today, I could even see the hair on his head and of course, he stuck his tongue out at me. He is absolutely adorable (not that I am biased or anything!) and Ryan and I are looking forward to meeting the little guy that keeps poking me with his feet.=)

Week 31- Getting the Nursery Ready

Wow, it seems as though the summer and my pregnancy have just flown by. I have only about 9 weeks left to go before welcoming little Cooper into the family. We have been working hard to get his room ready. First Ryan and I had to clean out the room that will be the nursery. It had pretty much been our collect-all room. I just finished painting last night. THe room turned out incredible. Our awesome friends Christy and Leanne (and Leanne's little boy Alex) helped us paint the room and Christy's husband Greg installed the new light fixture. The room would never have been finished without their help.

I have included some pictures from the fun. Today (Monday) new carpet is being installed in most of the upstairs. We are very excited about having nice new carpet instead of the old stained 20 year old carpet. I think Cooper will really like it too. =)

Leanne, Alex and I are enjoying painting. Alex and I are well protected from the fumes of the paint. And we even look ready to perform surgery.


Getting ready to paint.


Still getting the paint ready.


Leanne painting the "Scotland Isle" wall. The room actually has 3 different greens in it. This one being the darkest.


Leanne's son Alex was so excited to help paint. This was his very first time painting. And of course he had to make sure he was properly attired!


I think the paint fumes were getting to Christy and Leanne by this point!


Christy working on the finishing touches of her wall.


Greg working on the new light fixture while we paint around him.


This is a shot of Ryan's wall. He did this wall himself and I think it turned out really cool. I think Cooper will have the neatest room in the whole house!


I will post some pictures of the completed room, new carpet and all, soon. Our next task is to get the furniture for the room and assemble it. I'm sure which will end up being more time consuming- assembling the crib or painting the room.

Week 28- 2/3 of the Way Through!

As of Thursday I will officially be 28 weeks pregnant and into my 3rd trimester. It is hard to believe how the time has flown by. I am trying to enjoy every moment since I may never get this opportunity again. I want to remember what it feels like to have a new little life growing in your stomach. It is amazing and scary at the same time. Cooper is kicking up a storm (I think he's doing some kind of prenatal acrobatics)as I write this and I always want to remember what that feels like. It is such an amazing gift from God and I can't think Him enough for this opportunity and experience. (I may have to remind myself of that gratitude during labor!)

The past couple of weeks have been good. I have been scouring the internet researching all of the baby items we will need. My sister was nice enough to create a list of all the things she recommends, including brands and just good motherly advice. Now I just have to get Ryan to agree to the things I've picked out. =) We have picked out our bedding for the nursery and I am very excited about it. It is called "Enchanted Forest" and is really cute. We had decided to do the nursery in a camping theme but I was having a hard time finding exactly what I wanted. So after much research I found this set. It has an adorable forest theme with lots of cute little animals like foxes, deer and owls. We are going to paint the room two shades of green. I am posting a picture of the bedding set.


A couple of weeks ago I had to take the glucose test to see if I had gestational diabetes. The good news is that my test came back normal and I do not have gestational diabetes. The bad news is that the test taking experience was not that enjoyable. It sounded so simple: go to the lab, drink 10 ounces of a glucose drink (it looked and tasted just like the orange Kool-Aid they used to serve at McDonalds), wait an hour and then have a quick blood test. It proved not to be.

I admit I have a hangup with needles. I hate them. Amazing coming from a person that had to stick herself with needles daily for what seemed an eternity, but I digress. I have had my blood drawn many, many times and have always handled it very well. I simply tell the phlobotomist that I can't watch and that they need to talk to me about something else as they take my blood. Always works...usually.

After drinking my drink I waited an hour, no problem so far. I went back to have my blood drawn and was still o.k. That is until the lady says to me, "Your veins are rolling and I can't get the needle in." Oh my goodness, those are not the words to say to me! At that point, I was starting to feel a little nervous, but hoped she'd be done soon. I ask her to try the other arm, which she does. Suddenly, I start to feel a bit spacy, things are going dark, I'm very clammy and everything sounds like it's in a tunnel. I tell the woman that I don't feel so good and am clearly starting to pass out. Then I suddenly felt the urge to puke. Not good.

The very patient phlebotomist asks me if I am going to be sick and I say yep. She got the trash can to me just in time. She calmly stood holding the trash can while I upchucked the entire bottle of orange drink and my Cheerios from breakfast to boot. I was so embarrassed and horrified! I was perfectly fine once I emptied my stomach. Apparently, fainting and vomiting are side effects of the glucose drink. I guess I was the lucky one to get to experience those side effects.

Thanks for reading my rather long and disgusting tale. The moral of the story is: don't tell someone afraid of needles that their veins are rolling, just lie instead! =)

Weeks 24-25- Vacation

I am officially on summer break and am enjoying not having to get up before the sun everyday. Ryan and I recently returned from two and a half weeks in Boston and Maine. We had an incredible time. I admit I was a little nervous about how I would handle flying and traveling while pregnant, but am happy to say that I had no difficulties at all.

Ryan spent the first week (in Boston) attending a course at Harvard while I hung out with our friends that we were staying with, Jeff and Clarissa. It was great to get to relax and just enjoy the time with Ryan and friends. Maine was also a lot of fun. We stayed with some more friends up there (Russ and Krisztina) and just enjoyed the beautiful scenery and wildlife. Our first night there we spied a doe and her fawn on the front lawn through the window . It was so neat to see them roaming through the yard. We also saw some other cool animals we don't usually see here in Florida- a woodchuck, a chipmunk and even a fox. I also am fully convinced I saw a bear on one of our drives, but couldn't convince Ryan. I'm still waiting to see a moose. Maybe on our next trip.

I have definitely crossed the line into "she's definitely pregnant" territory. It is now clearly obvious that I am with child. I successfully made it through the school year before switching completely to maternity clothes. And I have to say they are of course much more comfortable. I was having to get very creative with my existing clothes to make them fit. My mom and I did a little clothes shopping before I left for vacation. We found some great clothes at JCPenney's and I really like my "new wardrobe".

I am not too big yet, but I have definitely noticed that it is getting harder to do things like bend over (although I am happy to say I can still see my feet!) and get comfortable in bed or on the couch. The baby also really enjoys doing somersaults in my tummy. Thankfully he hasn't kicked anything too vital yet, but I always get a kick out of watching my stomach move up and down.


I am posting my latest belly shot. This photo was taken in Maine along a beautiful cliff walk by the ocean. I am twenty-five weeks pregnant in this photo.

More Pics! Ultrasound #2- 25 weeks and 5 days

I had my latest ultrasound on June 30th and have included some of the pictures from that visit. Normally you only have two ultrasounds, one early on in your pregnancy and another at around 19-20 weeks. At my last ultrasound in May they discovered I have something called placenta previa. This is where your placenta is too low and is covering either all or part of your cervix. The placenta should be much higher, no where near your cervix. It is not an uncommon thing and hopefully will become a non-issue as my pregnancy develops. I have read that of all the women that have this problem at their 1st ultrasound (in their 2nd trimester) that only about 10% still have it at the next ultrasound.

Thankfully, my placenta is only covering a small portion of my cervix. Unfortunately, at the latest ultrasound my placenta had not migrated up to where it needs to be and is still too low. Since it is only covering a portion of my cervix the doctor says that there is still a good chance for it to move up as my belly gets bigger. So the good news is that I get to have another ultrasound in about a month. Ultimately, if my placenta does not move then I will have to have a C-section since the placenta cannot be delivered before the baby.

Ryan and I really enjoy the ultrasounds (aside from drinking the 32 oz. of water ahead of time). It is so incredible to see the baby up close and watch him move. At both ultrasounds the baby has been very active and seems to enjoy putting his arm up by his head. I will be interested to see if he likes to relax with his arm above his head after he's born as well.

Enjoy the pictures! I will send out another update soon!

This a snapshot of the baby's leg and foot. Doesn't that look like the leg of a champion athlete?!

O.k., you may have to look closely at this one, but the long horizontal white bar is the baby's leg bone and below it are his "little boy parts". The baby's first naked picture!

A profile shot. You can see the baby's face pretty clearly and I believe that's his elbow above his head.

A profile shot. You can see his nose and open mouth.

You may have to study this one for a while, but this is a horizontal view of the baby's face. The top of his face is to the left and his chin is on the right. You can make out the 2 dark spots of his eyes, then his nose is below that and then his mouth.

Finally Some Pictures! Ultrasound #1- 18 weeks and 4 days

This is a profile shot. You can see the baby's arm above waving hello.
Another profile shot. The baby is just relaxing with his arm above his head.
Another profile shot. You can see his nose and mouth.
This is a shot of his face. His forehead is to the right and then you see his eyes to the left.
I like to call this my alien picture! It is another shot of the baby's face, where you can clearly see his two eyes.


Here are some pictures from the first ultrasound I had done on May 11th. I finally took the time to sit down and figure out how to work my scanner. I hope you enjoy the pictures and can decipher what everything is!

Week 19- A First Look at Our Baby

Wow, this has been an amazing week. Ryan and I were able to see baby Bretsch on Monday and it was the most incredible thing. I am thrilled to announce that we are having a boy! We were able to see the baby for the first time since my week 7 ultrasound and wow, what a difference.

Our appointment was set for 3:00 Monday afternoon, but due to a mistake at the doctor's office we almost had to reschedule. My doctor has two offices. I made the ultrasound appointment last week at the office on Bearss for the office on Bruce B Downs. When Ryan and I showed up Monday we were told that the sonogram tech hadn't worked on Monday afternoons at the Bruce B Downs office in months and that this mistake happened all the time. We were told to reschedule for next week. As you can imagine, Ryan and I were very much looking forward to this visit and were very upset, not so much because of the mistake, but because it apparently happened quite often and the doctor's office hadn't bothered to fix it in 4 months! This was a huge day for us!

Ryan told them that he expected them to find a way to keep our appointment. The doctor's office called the sonogram tech and she was able to set up an appointment for us down the road at an imaging center. It turned out that she had a friend that worked there, who also happened to be a friend of ours. She agreed to do the ultrasound for us. So, it actually worked out to our advantage because we were able to have a friend give us our first views of our baby.

We have some incredible pictures of the baby that I will post on here as soon as I can. They are just so cool to look at. It is always amazing to me how the ultrasound tech can tell you exactly what everything is- a leg, the kidneys, etc. It is so amazing to know that this little person is living inside of you. We were able to see him move around- wave his little arms, scratch his head, even stick his tongue out! (Ryan's comment at that was, "Yep, he's a Bretsch!")

Ryan also got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. He really enjoyed that. Our friend told us that the baby looked great and even weighs 10 ounces. We can't wait to meet our little guy and get to see him up close!

Week 17- Some More Pictures to Share

I am officially seventeen weeks and 5 days along in my pregnancy. It is always amazing to me how quickly the time is flying by. I went to the doctor today for my monthly check-up. Everything looked great. I got to hear the baby's heartbeat, which is always my favorite part. The rate was 140 beats per minute which she said was good and strong.

Ryan and I are going back on Monday for my ultrasound. It will be the first time we've gotten to see the baby since the 7 week ultrasound. Plus, we'll get to find out if we're having a boy or a girl. I am so excited! I can't wait, but yet I can because I don't want this whole experience to fly by. I am really trying to savor every moment, good and bad, in case I never get this opportunity again. But it will be so awesome to really say "he" or "she". Plus it will be so incredible to see what the baby looks like. Please pray though that everything goes well and that the baby is healthy and everything looks perfect.

I have included a few more pictures of my belly to share. They may not be very exciting for all of you, but I have to say it is neat for Ryan and I to see the changes. The first picture is from week 15, the second from week 16 and the last from week 17. I have definitely noticed a change over the past couple of weeks and am not sure how much longer I can squeeze into my regular clothes.

Don't forget to add your vote to my poll. I'm curious to see what everyone thinks the baby will be. I will let you all know on Monday. Plus, I will post the latest pictures of the baby as soon as I can.