IT'S A BOY!

Haha. Tricked you. I don't know what's in my belly, but I know what's finally out of my sister's belly! After 60 1/2 hours of labor and finally going in for a c-section, Cooper Joseph Driscoll came into this world! I'm too impatient to wait for my sister to update her blog (oh, and she's kind of still in the hospital and dang tired), so I'm updating mine to tell everyone I'm an aunt for the 5th time. Tyler, Emily, Trey, Ryan, and now baby Cooper. All nephews and one niece.

Fun times.

Cooper Joseph Driscoll
January 23, 2009
9:32 am
8 pounds, 1 ounce
22 inches long

More updates...

Wow. Two days in a row. Can you believe it? I almost can't.

Today was the first day in a long time that I was going to be able to fall asleep after kissing my husband goodbye at 4:30 in the morning. Lately I have been wide awake after that kiss and lie in bed wishing I could go to sleep. Then, around 6:00 or so, I crash and sleep in until 8:00 and end up not getting much done. I was fading back into my slumber when the bedroom door opened and Brody told me his ipod was stolen out of the truck. SUCKY! He figures he must have scared whoever it was away by starting the truck from inside because they didn't get much more than a few things. There was a lot of time and money put into that ipod, though, so he is not a happy camper...

Speaking of unhappy campers, I'm pretty sure that's what my sister is after being in labor since 9:00 Tuesday night! Poor thing must be exhausted. It's just after six now, so she's been in labor for over 57 hours. My mom got there yesterday and has been with her ever since. She went in to the hospital for the fourth time and finally got an epidural last night. Then I got a text that said, "I love epidurals! :o)" Around five this morning she got another one. Cooper has now missed our dad's birthday and is going to have his own. For everyone's sake, that baby just needs to get here NOW!

The last update is in response to some of the very quick comments that were posted from my post yesterday. I thought I made it clear how stubborn I was going to be on the whole finding out/not finding out the gender issue. I don't want to find out! I just wanted to know what everyone else thought. (Isn't that just what people want to hear? Tell me your opinion, but I'm going to do just what I want to do. Oh well. My family is used to that.)

I think Brody has finally accepted that we will find out if he have a son or a daughter when the baby joins us in this world. I haven't told anyone exactly when my next appointment is. Not even my husband. Not that I want him to miss the ultrasound - that's too exciting and he was there for the other two so it's not like I'm trying to keep him from experiences all the joys of the pregnancy (which is only fair since he's definitely dealth with the joys of pregnancy that are pretty much the complete opposite of joy). But I have some questions I need to ask about my appointment before I tell him.

So the verdict is no. We're not finding out. It's not like we have a lot of space for the baby anyway and he's barely gonna have a spot in the spare bedroom. If he's lucky. He doesn't get his own special baby room yet. Haha. (Saying HE is not a slip of the tongue - I just call the baby a he all the time, but we really don't know if it's got two legs or three yet.) We'll just be glad to finally have a little baby and I pray it doesn't take as long as it's taking my nephew to get here!

Belly Updates...

Just for fun I decided I would put a picture of my sister and I side by side (that was a pain in the BUTT since I don't understand html codes) to show our baby bumps at the same time. These are our 16 week pictures, mine from January 12, 2009, and hers from August 7, 2008. I am 18 weeks today and need to get another picture soon. Lindsay is obviously much bigger right now and back at the hospital for the THIRD time after being in labor for a day and a half. She is only dilated to 1 cm and she and Chris are pretty darn tired.

We (our family) kept teasing her yesterday and telling her that she should just wait until our Dad's birthday (which is today - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!) so Cooper and his Grandpa would have the same birthday, but we weren't actually serious! Now we're hoping she'd just hurry up and have that baby today for her sake and for the fun of them having the same birthday.

My mom is in the car, driving up to help Lindsay this weekend and see her newest grandbaby. I talked to her early this morning and she said she'd rather Lindsay hurry and have the baby and not wait for her to actually get all the way up to Quincy. Mom was the same way with Lindsay - contractions very close together for a long time, but not dilating. Poor Lindsay. And poor Chris. In about 5 months or less I will know how they are feeling.

I am so excited to go see her next month and hold that cute, little baby boy while she takes lots of naps so she can feel more rested. I am also excited to see their new house. My baby bump will definitely be bigger by the time I go in four weeks and Lindsay is excited to rub my Buddha belly.

I swear it just popped out even more the other day! It's so weird. I just stand sideways in front of the mirror and look at my funny shaped body and smile. Some people say I'm not showing at all. They are all crazy! I may be small at this point, but I'm pretty sure that ever since puberty, my boobs have ALWAYS stuck out farther than my belly. Promise. Now, it's the opposite. Even at my fattest, I don't think I've ever been this big around!

Hopefully Cooper will join us in this world today and Lindsay can get some rest. I'm so excited and have to refrain from calling her every five seconds to see how she's doing. That's the last thing she needs right now and I trust Chris to do his job and take care of her.

It's official - I look funny!

1/4/08 - 15 1/2 weeks
(And I'm standing up as straight as possible
and thinking about trying to suck it in!)

I am no longer trying to suck my stomach in. It's just too hard to do - even just thinking about it makes me tired. For the longest time (well, duh, not too long since I'm only three months along) I just felt like I was getting thicker and, at the same time, also tried to convince myself that it was just wishful thinking. Of course, as my sister is about two weeks from her due and tired of being big and pregnant, I also try to remind myself that I need to be patient in waiting for a cute prego belly. I gave up long ago on the weekly photos like Lindsay did, cuz, quite frankly, I did not start off with as nice a stomach as she did, so this is my first official belly picture and maybe I'll do them more than once every three months.