{April 12, 2013}

My baby boy's birthday.

What a special day. 

We checked into the hospital the night before (April 11th) at 8:00 but by the time they got me all hooked up it was about 10:00 pm. That was a long, sleepless night. How could I sleep?? Never mind that I was super uncomfortable and the nurse came in every 10 minutes to adjust the monitors that the baby kept kicking off my tummy, but I was going to meet my son the next day and could have exploded from excitement and nervousness. 

To make a long story short, once morning came I started progressing pretty quickly. The doctor manually broke my water (strangest. feeling. ever.), I immediately requested my epidural and after only one extremely painful contraction the drugs kicked in and I was feeling gooood. Thank heavens for modern day medicine!!

After 7 1/2 hours of "active labor", and 2 hours of pushing (yikes!) I heard the beautiful cries of my precious baby boy. 

{{Beau Nicholas Anderson}}

April 12, 2013
3:27 pm

8 lbs. 7 oz. -- 21 1/2 inches

♥

 Joy, relief, excitement, peace, beauty, spiritual, pride, love, pure happiness. There are not enough words to describe that moment. It's an absolute miracle. A little piece of heaven right there in that hospital room.

Our first family photo.

Proud Daddy

Our wonderful doctor-- Dr. Zwiesler. We love him! 

Just kickin' it with Dad.

Head over heels in love.

Ready to go home!

  >>>A HUGE thanks to my wonderful Mom for taking 10 days from her busy life to come be with me. I'm so glad she got to be there for the birth of my son and that he got to meet her on his very first day of life. I am so blessed to have her as my mom.<<<

Beau LOVES his Grandma Lisa

"Um, Grandma? Did you see how strong I am?"

Needless to say, Nick and I are beyond obsessed with this precious babe. Our world quickly started to revolve around him and we realized that our lives and hearts would never be the same.

Thank you for joining our family Beau Nicholas Anderson.

We love you with all of our hearts.

♥

Pregnancy.

Tonight I go in to the hospital to be induced. I can't believe it's finally happening...literally, I can't believe it. I feel like I'm walking around in a daze and I'm never going to meet my baby. I can't wrap my head around having a child by tomorrow night but I can day dream about not being pregnant anymore. 

What an amazing, hard, life changing, exciting, emotional, fun, sweet, chubby, swollen, thrilling, rewarding experience this has been. Everyone told me that the first pregnancy drags on and that these would be the longest 9 months of my life. Sure, April seemed like a life time away when I found out I was pregnant in August but the time has actually flown by! I just took it day by day and tried to enjoy every stage of pregnancy...even that yucky first trimester. 

I must admit that these last two months have been hard. I saw an amazing ultrasound of my baby at 33 weeks and ever since then the time has dragged. >>You tell me, could you sit and wait patiently for another two months if you saw that this was the beautiful face of the baby growing inside your tummy??<<

I didn't think so. Already 5 1/2 pounds and looking oh so yummy with his double chin and dimple. Mm! 

Once I got over the fact that I had to wait so much longer, the super uncomfortable stage of pregnancy kicked in. I had heard all about it and seen my sisters in law go through it but I just never understood. All I'm going to say about that is I can't wait for the day (2 days!!) until I can roll over in bed without grunting and getting short of breath, until no heartburn, until my ankles don't look like they have elephantitis, until I can leave my house wearing something other than the slippers that my dear friend, Destiny, so graciously let me borrow (okay fine, I stole them), and until I can go out in public without getting a million stares and questions about my pregnancy! ((Side note: WHY do strangers think that since I'm pregnant I want to talk to them all about my pregnancy and hear their life story?! At first I didn't mind that much... but when I'm waddling around Wal-Mart swollen, 9 months pregnant, and trying not to make eye contact with anyone, it really isn't fun to hear "Oh wow, you're going to pop!"))

I'm starting to sound negative and that's not how I feel at all. I truly have loved being pregnant. There is no greater feeling in the world than feeling your sweet baby kick and move around inside your body. It's just indescribable. What a special gift that we, as women, have to grow, feel, and give life to a child. Such a blessing!

12 weeks

15 weeks

17 weeks

19 weeks

21 weeks-- I had to show Nick my growing belly over Facetime for a month. He couldn't believe his eyes.

25 weeks-- that shirt hid my belly pretty well.

28 weeks

31 weeks

32 weeks

37 weeks

38 weeks-- Easter Sunday

So here we go! After months of excitement, preparation and lots of growing, stretching, and swelling tonight is finally the night!! We can't wait to finally meet our precious baby boy! ♥ 

Life in Spokane

{{Clearly, we must be keeping ourselves busy since I have neglected this poor blog once again. Sorry about that.}}

Most of our time is spent at school (Nick), hanging out with our friends, or getting things ready for the baby. Pretty simple life and we love it.

Right after we got back from winter break Nick was able to go the Gonzaga vs. St. Mary's game with his guys friends. Unfortunately, the wives couldn't get tickets. Bummer. This year the Bulldogs got all the way up to #1 in the rankings! We were so sad to see them get eliminated right before the sweet 16 but it was sure fun to be #1 while it lasted. Go Zags!

Free shirts at the game!

Destiny and I were watching the game at home and spotted the boys on ESPN! We were super excited about it.

As I mentioned before, whenever Nick and I get a day off from his school/studying we are getting things ready for the baby. After shopping shopping and more shopping, drilling holes in walls, rearranging furniture, figuring out insurance, registering at the hospital, installing the car seat into the car, and a lot more that I'm forgetting... we are finally ready for this little angel to get here!

Daddy doing what daddy's do. Love that handy man.

Baby's room is finally done! Our new favorite place to hang out.

Baby dumbbell aka rattle. Nick's idea of an essential for his son.

Hospital bag packed and ready for action.

My girlfriends have been helping me get ready for this baby too!... 

Mani/pedi with Destiny and Alyssa. Mandatory for giving birth.

And the funnest TRIPLE baby shower thrown by the funnest friends. 

Alyssa (baby girl due April 6), Callie (baby girl due June 16) and Me (baby boy due April 15)

>>There are babies/pregnancies galore up here in Spokane!<< All the law school wives are either pregnant, about to pop (me and Alyssa), or just had a baby. There must be something in the water. It is so much fun to all be going through the same stage of life together and always so exciting to see who will be next!

Friends = Family up here. We really have the greatest group of friends. There is always something to do or someone to hang out with and everyone gets a long...it's always so much fun to get everyone together.

My new favorite restaurant--Frank's Diner. In a cute, old, train car and has the best breakfast food EVER. I'm obsessed.

Alyssa, Brady, Chase, Destiny, Baby Paige, Nick, Me, Josh, and Kelsie. We took up the whole restaurant, it's fine.

We are loving life up here (especially since the snow has finally gone away!) and we feel so blessed. Great school, best friends and a precious baby boy coming any day. What more could we ask for?