Welcome to the world Ren

A little bit about Ren's birth story...

Sunday, May 19th was Ren's due date.  I went through the entire day like normal feeling as if he would never come.  That night though I started having contractions and we almost went to the hospital but decided to wait because they had tapered off to almost nothing.  In the morning Josh was planning on going in to work but around 6:00am I realized I hadn't felt him move in a couple hours.  We called the on-call doctor and she wanted us to come in just to check on him.  We headed to the hospital for some monitoring.  By the time we got there he started moving some and everything checked out fine but my contractions started back.  The doctor said I would just end up back in the hospital later in the day so I was admitted and all the fun and waiting began...

Our last picture together before we became a family of three

Josh and my mom were with me the whole time while the entire family spent the day sitting around in the waiting room.  They're a patient bunch!
Right when the contractions started getting really tough I had my epidural and boy did that make a world of a difference!!  I had the best nurse in the whole world.  She helped me get through most of the pushing until the doctor came in.  Everything happened so fast that it's kind of a blur now.  I do remember the point where I just knew Ren was about to be born because I couldn't not push any more.  My mom grabbed the camera as soon as he was born and took way more pictures than anyone would want to look through on a blog.

And then they weighed him...
Nobody (including myself) could believe that he was going to be a 10lb baby!  Even the nurses and doctor were shocked at how much he weighed.  The entire time we were at the hospital the nurses referred to him as "the two month old."

Looking back on Ren's birth day I really feel like I had a great experience.  Everything went pretty smoothly from my standpoint.  I ended up pushing for about an hour and a half...which in my mind went by quickly but according to J and my mom it was a long hour and a half.

We love our little Ren!!

Introducing...

Joshua Warren Parks Jr.

"Ren"

May 20th, 2013

6:28 pm

10.3 lbs

21 inches

Senior prom

Last weekend was BG's senior prom.  I was looking forward to meeting up with all the prom-goers and their parents to take pictures of BG and all her friends at the Riverfront Park.  Sadly though I came down with a 24 hour stomach bug and couldn't make it.  The only pictures I have are the ones that my mom texted to me.

Last minute touch ups

 BG and her date

One of her best friends

Baby Shower

Some great friends from church threw a baby shower for me.  We are so blessed to have great friends who put the whole thing together and who gave us such sweet gifts.

The decorations were absolutely adorable!  I really loved the personalized onesies that matched the invitations.

I love this one because J's nickname for our little guy is "Baby Dragon"

I even had two really great helpers that didn't make me open any presents alone.  I'm not sure what I would have done without them.

Little Lily was the youngest guest in attendance.  She likes to let my practice holding tiny babies.

Thank you so much to everyone who came!!

34 weeks

How far along:  34 weeks
Total weight gained/lost:  Still weigh a lot.
Maternity clothes:  I continue to buy cute tops here and there but I'm trying to avoid buying anymore pants.  I just can't find it in my to buy pants that I'll only (hopefully) wear for a couple more months.  Besides I have a great friend who let me borrow her maternity clothes.
Stretch marks:  nope  :)
Sleep:  Sleep is getting harder because now we've added some annoying acid reflux issues.
Best moment of the week:  I had my first baby shower on Saturday!
Movement:  Oh, there's a lot of moving going on with him.  
Cravings: Still loving the strawberries, but I really haven't had many cravings lately.
Gender:  Boy
Labor Signs:  nope
Belly button in/out:  Still mostly in.
What I miss: Being able to get out of bed or off the couch with ease.
What I'm looking forward to:  A second baby shower this coming Saturday!

Rainy weather

It's been a little rainy and cool this week for spring break.  Good thing I didn't have any beach plans.

The weather does make for nice reading on the couch days though.  I've finished one book and I'm halfway finished with a second one.  

It's also been a good week to have a lunch date with my favorite man.

Homeowner surprises

When you are a homeowner you never know what is going to happen...
My dad came over this week to help paint the baby's room.  While he was painting I noticed something on the baseboard at the edge of the kitchen.  Thinking it was dirt that the dogs tracked in I was going to just brush it off.  I then realized it was a collection of bugs.  I called my dad in to get rid of them (cause what are dads for if not to kill bugs) but after he wiped them off more showed up...and they were crawling out of small holes in the baseboard!!  After ripping off the baseboard we realized that we were dealing with a SWARM of termites!!!!!!!!!!

(Caution......the following pictures are difficult to look at......)

(I chose not to make this pictures large because the scene is just too disturbing)

I was absolutely freaking out!  Dad sprayed them with Raid and cleaned up the mess and we haven't seen a live one since, but now we have a whole new issue to deal with.  And to think my biggest concern was getting the carpets steam cleaned before the baby comes.