Welcome to the world, Cole!!

Thursday night, about 12 hours before my scheduled induction, I started having (more) regular contractions. There have been a couple times over the last few weeks that I had contractions regular enough to make me think I was in the very early stages of labor, only to have them stop after a few hours. So I was reluctant and unsure of what to expect, but kept track of what my body was doing anyway. After several hours of the same, we decided to head to the hospital, because we knew we had to be there before 7am the next day anyway. We were there and all checked in by about 1:30am. I was dilated to 2cm and contractions were about 7 minutes apart and still mild. I labored through the night while trying to sleep a little here and there. Over the next 4 hours there wasn't much change, so they started me on the pitocin right at 7am. By 9am, contractions were 2-3 minutes apart, I was dilated to 3cm and it was at that time that my doctor broke my water. By 10am I was at 4cm and contractions were already very painful and less than 2 minutes apart. I had just had an epidural, but it was doing some funny things, so my anesthesiologist had been in and out several times between 10:00 and 11:00 to help do what he could to get it adjusted to help me through the pain. I was checked again just before 11:30 and was at 6cm, then about 10 minutes later I told the nurse she should check me again, that I needed to push. Yes, I went from 6cm to 10cm in less than 10 minutes! They called my doctor who took about 10 minutes to get there longest, most painful and intense 10 minutes of my life! I pushed through 2 contractions, and he came! I remember feeling so eager to get him out so we could finally know if he was a boy or a girl. It was so exciting and emotional to hear them yell, "It's a little boy!" Eric knew he was a boy, and I think deep down I knew he was too, but it was a relief to finally hear it and know for sure! He definitely kept us waiting, but he was completely worth the wait!

There he is! First picture outside of the womb!

Meeting my new baby boy.

Precious baby. He looks like Ella just after birth.

Happy parents!

Carter and Ella meet Cole for the first time about 20 minutes after he was born.

Gotta make a silly face. Look how alert Cole is!

First pictures as a family of 5

Excited girl!

Meeting Nana

Each of the kids got to hold him for the first time right away.

With Grandma

Grandpa and all the boys

Heading into the nursery for his first bath

Not loving it...

Checking him out through the window.

Cole in the background

Beautiful boy

He's so happy to have a brother

and so is she!

Very interested in diaper changes... this is the first one they got to watch.

Happy Birthday Cole!

Sweet sleeping boy

Getting ready to go home!

3 deep in the backseat.... going home!!

Ella taking pictures of Cole right when we got home, such a little Mommy already!!

Stormie meets Cole :)

Enjoying loving on their brother

And a few pictures just lounging around on Sunday.....

Sweet brothers

Love this!! He will just lay there with him and look at him and talk to him, so sweet!

And a few of my favorite picture that Cindy & John took....

So that's it for us at the hospital and just getting home. We've taken a lot of pictures in the week that we've been home while trying to get back to normal life. I hope to be able to go through those and post them soon.

It's a BOY!!

We are so pleased to say that we FINALLY have our sweet baby BOY here with us! 

Cole Ryan Beckman 

11:54am on Friday, September 26, 2014

6 pounds, 14 ounces & 20 inches long

We are all over the moon in love with him! He's pretty perfect! :)

I plan on posting birth story and birthday pictures soon.... stay tuned!!

Dinosaurs at the Heard

With no impending baby action to keep us all occupied, our weekend was looking pretty bleak, so we decided to take the kids to see the dinosaurs at the Heard Museum on Saturday morning. They were excited to go, and had a great time!

We started the trail from the end, which may have been a mistake considering the first dinosaur we saw was a T-Rex. It moved and made noise, and it pretty much freaked Ella out to the point of tears. Even Carter wouldn't get too close. Probably would have been smarter to start small and work up to that, but oh well! HA!

Eric was the only one brave enough to walk up to him at first....

 Oh, the terror!!

 OK! Moving right along to something a little more approachable.....

 Still not feeling it and staying in her stroller.

 Liking them a little more now, but still in the stroller.

 It took these "baby ones" at the end of the trail (really, the beginning) to get her excited. Yep, we definitely should have started there.

 Back at the T-Rex and Carter decided to pose for a picture.

 They had a cute little village of wooden buildings set up, and the kids loved playing in each of them.

We spent quite a bit of time at the inside portion of the museum before heading out to lunch. It was a fun family day to keep my mind of baby, while still keeping me WALKING! Not sure how many more hours/days this baby is going to keep us all waiting, but we're all anxious and ready!!

Still Waiting on Baby

Yep, he/she is still in there cooking! We're still keeping busy, although I feel at any moment I'm going to pop! We're ready for you baby, come on!!

 Ella is loving her gymnastics, and getting better by the week! She has improved on so many skills since she started doing them independent of me! I love to watch her, especially becasue of how much fun she has! 

Doing her butterfly and touching her nose to her toes!

  Coach Bethany helping with a backward roll

A quiet moment after bath time one evening. The kids activity of choice lately is coloring or artwork of some kind. They love it!

 Happy girl after her first day of school

 Enjoying an after dinner treat.

Mine and Ella's last trip to the pool for a while. Our pool is open a few more weeks, but I just don't see us getting down there with the cooler temps and, oh yeah, with a newborn! Ha!

 

This boy is TIRED at the end of each day. He told me after his shower, "Mommy, I just want to rest in your bed for a while."

 Silly girl.

 Loving on baby Ariel

 Eric took Carter to the LA Tech vs. UNT game last week. Sounds like they had a great time!

Ella enjoying some delicious Bonnie Ruth's cake..... a yummy birthday treat to go along with a delicious birthday lunch with my mom.

I'm desperate to have this baby, so we started walking the neighborhood a lot last week. The cooler temps over the weekend were a nice change! 

Cuties in their hoodies!

Another day of perfect weather for Carter's soccer game on Saturday. Overcast and 70 degrees at 3:30 PM.... AWESOME!

These two had fun pulling each other in the wagon on another walk on Sunday (hence the Cowboy jerseys)

I wasn't sure if Ella would be able to do it, but she pulled her brother in that wagon, and RAN! 

Ella got creative while painting with watercolors one afternoon. Not sure if she was painting or doing her make-up? Nice!!

My birthday was on Friday and we all took it pretty easy. We enjoyed a casual dinner at a good local spot and birthday cake at home later that night. I was hoping for a late night gift of going into labor and delivering on the 13th, but that didn't happen. Oh well, the cool weather was good enough! 

I sure hope this is my final post before baby comes! Any minute now would be great!!