CAZ :)

What a blessing this sweet baby is.. oh, how we adore him. Although he took almost 42 weeks to show himself, he was well worth the wait. Wednesday the 23rd, Andrew and I went to the hospital at 6:30 pm for my induction. Unfortunately, I wasn't showing signs of progression, so the the doctor gave me cervadil and said he'd check me in 12 hours. We never made it to the 12 hr checking :P I started having contractions around 1:30 am, but I thought they were "nothing" and told myself not to be a baby. At 4:30am, as I lay awake in bed, I decided to call the nurse & see if she could drug me up. She said she'd give me something to "take the edge off" and help me sleep. I slept for 2 hours, and boy was that a blessing. I woke up at 6:30 & was in a great deal of pain. Around 6:45 I woke Andrew up & called the nurse back in. Time felt to be moving sooo slowly. I HURT. Finally the nurse came in, checked me, and said it was time to get the doctor.. I was ready to push. I sure as heck wasn't.. I wanted DRUGS & I wanted them now. No such luck. I pushed for roughly 20 minutes & Colten Anthony Zimmerman was born at 7:22am. He was so much bigger than we all thought he'd be.. 9lbs 5 ozs! 22 1/2 inches long! And beautiful :) I fell in love instantly; although, it happened SO fast that it was a bit shocking.

Andrew was perfect throughout it all. He held my hand & basically didn't say a word. He did laugh at me a few times, because I said some ridiculous thing during those 20 minutes of what I thought was going to be the death of me :) Colty looves his daddy & it's evident that Andrew loves him just as much. He miiiight still be in shock though.

Since Colten's birth, we have been busy! My recovery has been perfect, so we've been out an about. We left the hospital saturday morning, stopping by Andrew's parents on the way home. I took a nice nap, we headed to my parent's for a photo shoot, and then we went to wally world.

On Sunday we went for Colten's very first walk.. well, not including our walk around the 6th floor of the hospital. He liked the stroller other than the huge bumps we hit constantly on Harrington's wonderful sidewalks.

Finally, we ended our long weekend by going to our church's annual Memorial Day Picnic. It was a great time with delicious food, fun activities, and wonderful friends.

(First trip to the pediatrician.. this little piggy is already back to his birth weight) Thank you to all of our family and friends who have been so helpful & loving as we welcomed our new love into this world. Andrew and I are blessed beyond words.

---> 40 weeks

Here is the journey of my pregnancy through pictures.. let's hope my next blog will be about Colten's arrival! :)

12 weeks :)

20 weeks- I seriously thought I was HUGE.

25 weeks.

26 weeks.

27..

28 weeks.

30 weeks.. getting big!

31

32

33..

35.. erased 36-38 off of my phone last night- thought I sent them to my email. Oops!

39

40! We're hoping there's not a week 41 to photograph next week. This little boy is a little too comfy in there.. :)

Proud minivan almost-mom!

Say goodbye to my beautiful, yet money-stealing Edge...

...and say hello to THIS :)

Light green 2006 Toyota Sienna XLE. You have to admit, for a minivan she is a beauty. I'm already excited about how much space we have in the van! Now bring on the baby!

THE car & THE bike ride

My wonderful, beautiful (always has something wrong with it) Edge has been in the shop for 2 weeks now. We knew it was going to be a while to fix the airbags in the car, so the Ford dealership gave me one of their cars to drive for free for the time being. AWESOME! I AM grateful to be putting thousands of miles on a car that's not mine without any cost & I'm grateful that this car has such great gas mileage; however, take a look at what I've been driving. A Lime green Ford Fiesta hatchback.

People really do stare at me while I'm driving by. I noticed it terribly for the first few days that I had the car. I even heard people in the car next to me at a stop light talking about how terrible my car was! Sometimes now that I've had it for such a long time, I forget why heads are turning as I drive by & I think I'm hot stuff ;)

37.5 weeks! He's really sticking out in this outfit! :) On to the bike ride.. from hell. Being 8 1/2 months pregnant and all, normally I realize I can't quite do everything that I used to & I hold back a little. Well, Saturday night I REALLY wanted to go for a bikeride. I've been wanting to go on one for weeks, but had convinced myself it wasn't practical until Saturday. Andrew wasn't home. We live on the 3rd floor. A thunderstorm was predicted to hit any minute. The sky LOOKED clear, so I thought I was safe. I carried my bike down the stairs with a bag of trash, took the trash to the dumpster, and hopped on my bike. Huh, not as comfortable as I remember. Wait, was I really out of breath after pedaling 10 feet? Couldn't be! I used to ride my bike for miles and miles without any problem at all, surely I could ride a mile or two with this belly? Not really. I had to put the bike in its easiest settings--so I was pedaling 100 times just to move 3 inches. Each time I pedaled, my thighs hit my belly & it was quite uncomfortable. I was determined to AT LEAST ride around the school next to our complex. As I was about 1/3 of the way done, a boy yelled out to me sarcastically, "I hope you enjoy your bike ride!!!". As I hit the half way point, the rain started coming.. and I mean realllllly coming. I thought I might die right there on the sidewalk, if not, at least I'd go into labor? About 15 minutes later, I got back to our complex, somehow managed to carry my bike back upstairs, and sat down completely winded vouching to NEVER do that again. Yikes. Sometimes I'm dumb :)

Nerd

For some of you who don't know my husband very well, you may not have the slightest idea that he is 100% nerd. This man loves video games, computers, technology, and of course, Star Wars. I'm mostly ok with him being a nerd :) Although I hate video games, he never plays when I'm awake, so I can't really complain. Last week a new Star Wars edition Xbox 360 came out for a whopping $450. Little did I know that my love had enough rewards points/trade ins to pay for $410 of it. So, look at the newest addition to our home.
It even makes R2-D2 sounds & comes with a Star Wars game for the Kinect!
What wife wouldn't want this glamorous device in her living room?? :P

Andrew

I love you eventhough your dresser is piled sky high with papers, reciepts & junk.
I love you eventhough I have to force you to get your hair cut.
I love you eventhough you hog the bed at night.
I love you eventhough it takes me 20 minutes to get you out of bed each morning.
I love you eventhough you love playing video games.
I love you eventhough you work 700 hours each week.
I love you eventhough you let animals lick your hands and face (gag).
I love you eventhough you're a hairy beast.
I love you eventhough you bring home ALL of your tupperware containers from lunch the week after you used them & throw them into the perfectly clean/empty sink that I just spent a great deal of time cleaning :P
I love you eventhough you wake me by scratching your feet at night.
I love you eventhough organization is not one of your talents (& you do have many).

I love you because you make me dinner if you ever beat me home from work.
I love you because you know we belong to the true church.
I love you because you lay in bed with me every night as I fall asleep- even when you're not going to bed yet.
I love you because you are rarely grouchy.
I love you because you work so hard & are so dedicated to work.
I love you because you're gentle.
I love you because you would kiss & cuddle me all day if you could.
I love you because you always ask me if there's anything you can do for me.
I love you because you listen to me when I talk, even if I'm complaining.
I love you because you are incredibly loyal.
I love you because you are kind and respectful to everyone you meet.
I love you because you are the best husband I could ever ask for.


Happy 24th birthday, sweetie. You're the best.

32

So, this is what I'm doing these days... I look for real pregnant now! Everyone says I'm "huge" now since it took me so long to look preggers. I feel giant, but I know my belly still has a lot of growing to do. Colten needs to gain about 4 pounds still!

Reading up on labor & delivery and reading LOTS of romance novels.. about 2-3 a week.

I'm stilllll sleeping on my stomach. I know, it's crazy, but I am 100% comfortable & the doctors said Colten is fine in there :)

I've been babysitting a ton. This little baby girl is my favey fave! LOVE spending time with her!

"Hiking" with the hubs. We walked the 2.3m trail around Killen's Pond this week. It was about 70 degrees outside & we had a great time! He miiiight have backed into a tree on our way out though :X Yikes!
Yes, I'm still rollerblading! I might not being doing tricks like this girl since balancing on both skates is so hard as it is, but I still love going out for a good rollerblade :)
& lastly, I'm still teaching my 2 & 3-year-old rugrats. I got some really cute pictures of them this week when the FFA visited and also at our St. Patrick's Day celebrations, but I'm not going to post them on here. I have 6 weeks left of work- I can't believe it!! Time is flying..