On Tuesday, July 27, 2009 at 5:23 p.m., we welcomed Gage Anthony into the world. I was really nervous that last hour waiting at the hospital before they took me back to the OR. All those ‘what ifs’ were going through my head and I was making my self freak out.  But, of course, everything went fine. I got into the OR a few minutes after 5. After some prep, Dr. Raja finally made it in and not even 10 minutes later, Gage was out and they were starting to close me up.

I started crying when they told me his weight. Just all those worries about him being small or having to go to the NICU, I guess. I don’t know why I thought he might be really small because I could tell by how big my tummy got, he was already way bigger than Shaye was. He came out weighing 5lbs 13.2oz and was 18 3/4 inches long. With some big feet and hands too

 

Yesterday, Shaye had her very first day of Kindergarten. Her teacher is Mrs. Ratliff and Shaye really seems to like her. She has a couple of friends that she already knew in her class so I’m happy about that. The only bad thing that I found out yesterday was since she’s now in school and not daycare, there are no naps. That girl was so tired and whiny when I got home from work, I thought I was going to strangle someone. Other than that, she was ok. She told me all about her getting to color an apple, and that it starts with an “A”.  And that she got to play outside 3 times instead of just once. Which is a big deal, of course!

Yesterday was also Gage’s first day of daycare and my first day back to work. I know, I’m sorry I still haven’t posted a blog about his birth but everytime I sat down to start a post, I got distracted or someone needed me so now that I’m back at work, I have time to blog lol. Just don’t let my boss in on that. hehe  He went to the Dr. last week and got a good report. He is (was at the dr appt, anyway) 7lbs 1oz, 20 inches long and 13 in head circumference. I think in weight, length and head he is in the 5th percentile, so he is still low but oh well, he’s healthy so that’s all that matters. He had a good report yesterday which I’m really happy to hear. In the month that he has been with us, I have kind of spoiled him (lol) so I was worried about him crying alot for them. But nope, he ate, slept and pooped for them which is what is expected. It did make me laugh though when I got his daily report, that it took him almost 2 hours to drink 3 oz, so I’m guessing he kept falling asleep. That little fart loves to sleep. More than eating, which is way weird for a boy. lol 

We haven’t heard anything from Dani yet. I’m not sure if she ever got called yesterday because it was kind of hectic at our house, but I’m sure everything went real well. Next Thursday is Dani’s first football game to cheer at, so I’ll make sure to get some pictures of her in her Admirals uniform.

I’m hoping sometime today I’ll finally get you a ‘Gage post’ so everyone can meet the little one. Until then..

All the way back on June 2nd, Shaye baby turned 5 years old. It cracks me up now becuase everytime she tries to do something and I try and help her, she swats me away and states “I’m 5 now, I can do it.”  That seems to be her answer for everything, “Mom, I’m 5. I’m a big girl.” Overall I think she had a pretty good birthday. On the 2nd, we went over to Mom and Jeff’s house and had a ‘birthday supper’. She got to choose everything we ate and got to open a few presents.
 

She finally got her ‘cupcake maker’ that she’s been begging for since Christmas. Plus a couple new dresses because, of course, our little princess could never have enough dresses

On June 17, we were able to have her official birthday party with her friends. I got really mad that day too because even though that I gave the daycare the invites 2 weeks before the party, they decided not to hand them out until THE day of. I know the rule of thumb is to invite the same number of kids that your kid is turning but we had an entire swimming pool just to ourselves, and I wanted Shaye to have one last party with all her daycare friends before she started Kindergarten. Since the invites weren’t handed out, I think we had a total of 6 kids there including Shaye. I guess it all ended up for the best, but I really wish she could of had more friends there.  OH well. Here are a few pics from that party, if you want to see more, click here.

DANI ISN’T MOVING!

I don’t know what changed her mind, but Mandi decided that she didn’t want to uproot her and Dani to Louisiana. I think Dani was really looking forward to the move, just because it was a change, but I know she’s really happy that she’s staying in Texas. She gets to stay on the Nimitz cheerleading squad, but has decided against staying in gymnastics. As of last Thursday, she is officially a 9th grade. Sometimes I can’t believe how fast these girls grow. I may not have been around her birth but I’ve seen Dani change from a little girl to a mature young woman. I’m so proud of her and love that i get to call her my daughter.

It’s hard to believe, but our Shaye baby will be a whole 5 years old tomorrow.  Like I said above, I can’t believe how much they change in such a short time. It just makes me want to hold on to them and let them stay young for a little while longer.

Shaye had an end-of-year Luau party at day care last Thursday. It was tons of fun getting to see her interact with her little friends. I’m sure she’ll miss these guys when she goes to Wink school next year, but I’m glad she had the chance to meet them. Without these little boogers, she wouldn’t be the same person she is today.

Best Movie Winner - Twilight
Best Female Performance - Kristen Stewart, Twilight
Breakthrough Performance Male - Robert Pattinson, Twilight
Best Kiss - Kristen Stewart & Robert Pattinson, Twilight
Best Fight - Robert Pattinson vs. Cam Gigandet, Twilight

I love it so much! It looks like the movie is going to have way better CGI than in Twilight. Maybe they got to fix the whole glittering in the sun thing too. Some are complaining that the wolf looks a little too “Golden Compass-ey” and that it doesn’t look real. From what I see in the trailer it looks pretty good but I can also see where it could get better.

I probably can’t count how many times I’ve watched the trailer but all I can say is OMG, I LOVE IT! hehe.. ok done with my school girl hysteria (for now) –  Tell me, what do you think about the trailer?

 Last Thursday we went to Odessa to see Dani’s end of year gymnastics show off. Personally I think she did great but she told me I better not put this video on the internet. Too bad I didn’t listen to her, huh? [Video Source]

Not that many of you know about this yet, but this summer Dani will no longer be a citizen of Texas. Her & Mandi will be moving to Lafayette, LA at the end of July. She’s already enrolled to attend Lafayette High School and is actually there today to test for GT classes next fall. We were really upset at first, especially Mac, but I think it will be ok. We’ll be missing out on alot of happenings in her life and the same for her in Shaye and Gage’s but it’s not the end of the world, we’ll still get her on holidays and summers, etc. We already have accounts set up on skype, so hopefully we’ll get to talk to her more. Plus in September when Mac’s cousin, Aaron, get’s married, we’re going to drive through Louisiana and pick Dani up. Shaye won’t be coming since it’s her first year in school and we wouldn’t want her to miss but Dani will get to spend some one-on-one time with the baby and get to see alot of family that we haven’t seen in forever. Even though Dani won’t be in Odessa next school year, she was invited to join the Permian varsity high school gymnastics team.

 Shaye baby is doing good. I go to the school tomorrow to register her for kindergarten. She tells me she wants to stay at daycare to be with all her friends and I try to remind her that they are going to ‘big school’ too so they won’t be there but it’s not really sinking into her thick skull her friend, Cameron will get to go to school in Wink with her next year so I think she is really happy about that but she would much rather him go to daycare with her lol.. I’m thinking she doesn’t really like change lol.

We went to the doctor on Tuesday for a regular checkup. From what baby center says, Gage should be around 2.25 lbs and aroun 14.5 inches. And I think that is right around what the doctor said. He told me that we’ll be scheduling the c-section for around 37-38 weeks which will be the last 2 weeks of July. That’s IF I make it that long. Mom told me to quit being pessimistic and that he could very well be a normal size baby carried full-term, but I just can’t help it.  Sorry, that’s just who I am lol.

Jeff’s daughter, Teri, helped us out quite a bit by giving us all of her youngest son’s clothes, a dresser, changing table and swing. It’s helped us out alot but there is still stuff that we need so if you are feeling generous I have a baby registry set up for things we still need.

[Original Post]

I’ve been to the doctor this past week and everything seems to be going fine. I’ll be 24 weeks tomorrow and the further along I get, the more anxious and worried I get. My next sonogram is scheduled for May 1st to make sure baby is growing at the right rate and just to double check that everything is going as good as we think. I think Mac and I have come up with a name. He said that he wants to keep this name ‘for now’ because we could always be like him and Mandi when Dani was born and change it when we meet him. So for now, he is Gage Anthony.

The March for Babies walk was this morning but when I was at the doctor Tuesday, she told me I couldn’t participate. I’m too far along and too high risk so there would be no 5 mile walk for me. I was going to go anyway to hand out water and fruit but when I got home last night, I felt to worn out fromt his past week so I thought today would be a good day just to stay in and rest.

Shaye baby is doing good. She has a big goose-egg on the back of her head because she fell off the couch. I’m not entirely sure if that’s what really happened because it’s a pretty big knot for just rolling off a couch but that’s the story she’s sticking with. I was in my room resting and heard a loud crash come from the living room. It popped up fast and was about the size of a golfball. And purple, man was it purple. It scared the CRAP out of me lol. But there was no concussion just a small headache. She’s doing just fine with it, its gone down quite a bit but still a little purple.  I think I’m going to get her 5 yr old pics taken soon. She hasn’t had any pictures done since last fall and I don’t have a good picture for a birthday invitation. She’s decided this year she wants a swimming party. We rented the pool in Monahans that is smaller than most pools but is more for the littler kids like Shaye. The only thing is they started taking reservations for the pool at 8 am on April 1st. I got ahold of them at 8:15 and they had no weekends left for the summer and none for the week of her birthday. The closest to her birthday I could get was Wednesday, June 17th. So, sorry people who can’t come on Wednesday.

Dani tried out for cheerleading a couple of weeks ago and she got picked. So next year she will be a Admiral Cheerleader at Nimitz She is one of the 2 girls that can tumble that tried out and it weighed greatly in her favor. She showed me the video of her when she came out to tryout, she did a round-off back tuck and the gym just erupted in cheers.  It was great She’s already counting down the days to summer, which should be very busy. She has church camp, cheerleading camp and band camp. Which I don’t know if she’ll be going to band camp this year, but we’ll see. Then in July she will get to go to TwiCon in Dallas and meet some of the cast of Twilight. I’m still pouting about that fact lol. I just found out that Jackson Rathbone, who plays Jasper in the movie, will be there with his band 100 Monkeys. I’ve been following them on myspace and have their first official signed poster and their c.d., Monster de Lux, and of course, I’m incredibly jealous of the fact that I won’t be able to see them lol. So Dani and the rest of the Permian Basin twilight moms that are going better get video or a picture or something hehe..

Mac is finally back at work. It’s been tough lately but he’s back in Colorado getting some hours working in the yard. He leaves on Monday for North Dakota and I think it should be a 3 weeks job and then he’ll go back to Grand Junction and I’m thinking there is another 2 or 3 week job that will be waiting. I’m glad he’s actually getting work but it sucks having him so far away and for such long periods. He’s already told his bosses though that when Gage is born, he is planning on being down here in Texas for a good month. That way he can be here just in case he has to be in the NICU and for when he comes home. Can’t believe how close its getting. It is only April but seriously, if you think about it, it’s not that long.  I’m already ready to get the kid out. I feel like I’m going to be that guy from ‘Space Balls’ that has the alien that pops out of his stomach. Gage is kickin and hittin me all day trying to get comfy and it’s not that comfy for me lol..

There is so much I could probably write about but I probably should stop considering Shaye has come entirely too quiet from the living room so I guess I’ll have to get up and go see what she’s up to. Hopefully the next blog post won’t be so far apart.

I am so excited. Dani and Shaye have been saying it all along that it would be a boy but Mac was very adament about it being a girl. And now that its confirmed to be a boy, he doesn’t know what to do lol.  Here are our sono’s

 (click on the pics to get a bigger shot)

This is the ‘boy parts’ shot. It’s sidways so you’ll have to cock your head a little to the right see it right lol

Full body shot. I don’t know if you can see his hand but he was sucking his thumb, or trying to anyway, throught the whole process.

I also forgot to post about it before but I went to the doctor last week for a regular check up. I’ve only gained 2-3lbs (yeah!) so far and to make sure the baby is growing right and getting the right nutrients, we will be getting a sono every 4 weeks or so. I’m not sure if they think thats the reason why Shaye was so small or what. I know she ran out of room to grow but she still should have been bigger for being 36 weeks. And I never mentioned it to the doctor but I was a full term baby, in fact I think I was a week late, but only came out to barely weighing 5 lbs. Apparently something was up with the umbilical cord and it made it to where I didn’t get all my nutrients and did grow right or as fast.. (or something like that) So maybe there was something up w/ Shaye’s too.. Not sure. The lady doing the sonogram did say the baby looks to be around 11 oz right now which is right where he should be for being 20 weeks.  So thats all good… 

I have more to post about but it will have to wait til later. Just wanted to post the pics and spread the news!