Our little man is here! Surprise!

Chaz Christopher was born February 7, 2009 at 10:01AM, 5 weeks and 2 days early!

He is just a little guy at 4lbs 9oz and 17inches long.

Our little champ is still in the NICU but we are hoping not for much longer. He is maintaining his temp. perfectly and breathing on his own. The pedi would like to see him eat 30 cc's every 3 hours. He can usually take about 20 on his own and then tires out. Whatever is left of the 30 is then tube fed to him. As soon has he is able to take the full 30 on his own he should be good to come home.

Keep our little guy in your thoughts and prayers. We can't wait till he gets to come home with his mommy and daddy!

He truly is perfect in every way! Brett and I are both so in love it is unbelievable.

I will try to post a birth story soon and update with more info and pictures. Thanks for every ones support!

Take time to hug the ones you love.

I want to share a little story but I must warn that I may ramble a bit. :)

Saturday was just a regular day. I worked in the salon and went to hang out with my mom for a bit until Brett got off work. Brett had been in a bit of an "off" mood that day. I tried to just brush it off and not take it personal, everyone has their down days.

Well getting to the point... Brett and I ended up fighting over something stupid while I was still at my moms and he was on his way home. I didn't feel like going home and dealing with it right then, I figured I would stay a bit longer at my moms and give us both time to cool down. Brett gets home to find that he has no way in the house, he had forgot his garage door opener. He calls and asks me to come let him in. At this point neither one of us had done any sort of cooling off yet, haha. As I am driving home I get a text from Brett saying "Never mind I am just going to stay at my moms." This of course hits a nerve and I am sure I replied with something a bit snarky.

I figure that I will still just go home and go to bed early and hopefully everything will be better in the morning. As I am passing Bretts mothers house (it is on the way) I realized that his truck wasn't in the drive way at the same time that I noticed hundreds (or so it seemed) flashing lights at the busy intersection a few blocks down. I look at the time of the last text message I received and Brett should have been to his moms by now, with lots of time to spare and would have been coming through that very intersection. Of course I panic! As I approach the accident I can see that 2 cars are completely flipped over and another is up on the curb, the police have the entire intersection blocked off and I can't clearly make out what kind of cars they are, but one of the ones flipped over is def. blue..... our truck is BLUE!

I immediately dial Bretts number only for it to ring and ring and finally go to his voicemail. At this point I am a blubbering mess. I could not get home fast enough, as I am driving I am looking at every single car I pass hoping to God that I see Brett. No Brett and no call back!

Finally as I am turning up our street my phone rings and I have never been more excited to see "My Hero" (yes, that is his name in my phone haha) show up on that screen. I answer with a screaming, crying "where are you?!" As I pulled into our drive way I noticed that he was just pulling on to our street, he had gone to the store down the road. I jumped out of my car at the same time he jumped out of his truck, he knew something was wrong at this point but wasn't sure what. Can I just say that I have NEVER hugged Brett so tight in my life!!!

You may be asking "Rachel, what was the point of this story other than you and Brett fight like little children?" Well to this I say.... Don't take anything for granted! Fighting with the ones you love, especially over something stupid is a complete waste of time. You should be making the most of every second you have with that person because you never know when that person will be taken from you! I cannot imagine living with myself knowing that the last conversation I had with Brett didn't even end with an "I love you!"

Well that's it, story time is over. :) I told you I was going to ramble on haha.

PS. We have an appointment to see the babe tomorrow. Yay! I will be sure to update with pictures if we get any good ones. Also I have my GD test, blah. Wish me luck.

Stubborn little guy... just like his daddy!

We had our target u/s today and we were expecting to get a good look at our little buddy but he was not having it. From what we could see everything looks great. According to the Dr. Chaz is measuring a bit big and she wouldn't be surprised if I went a bit earlier than March 16th. She was very surprised at how low he was hanging out but isn't concerned because my cervix seems to be long and closed up. We were able to get an ok face shot with the 3D but not what I was expecting. He was doing everything in his power to prevent us from getting a good look at his cute face.

^If you look closely you can somewhat make out his little face. I think is going to have my little nose but for sure Bretts lips and cheeks. Too cute!

We didn't get a picture but it was so cute in the middle of the u/s he flexed his arm and gave us a great look at his BIG MUSCLES!

Belly pictures!

^ 22 weeks

^24 weeks

Late update. (Baby and Pumpkin carving)

I really am I horrible blogger. ::shrugs:: hey, at least I can admit that I have a problem.

When I left you last I had an appointment the following day. Well, that was well over a week ago haha but here is the update.

Everything looks GREAT. We got some more definate "boy" shots. Yay for our little man. Too bad that and his tush is the only thing he felt like showing off. We didn't get any good shots of him, just his junk... what a little perv. :P

He has been a bouncing bean ever since. Before I would think I felt him move every once in a while but wasn't sure. He has since made it very well known that he is in there and doesn't plan on going anywhere any time soon.

Brett has been getting a bit jealous at the fact that I can feel Chaz kick and he can't, but then again who wouldn't.... I giggle and grin every time I feel him. Brett just never seems to be around when Chaz wants to play "kick mommy".

Well that all changed last night! I had been home sick all day and Chaz refused to let me rest, he wanted to play ALL DAY! I knew that Bretts chance had come so as soon as we got snuggled into bed I told him "Just put your hand on my belly you HAVE to feel something." After about ten times of me going "did you feel that?" with no success Chaz gave us both a big wack! Brett looked at me with HUGE eyes and asked "was that it?" Just so that there was no confusion Chaz gave us one more thump! Brett was over the moon. He kept poking my belly trying to get Chaz to do it again, but it was a lost cause. He was done for the night!

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Here are some late pictures of Brett and I carving pumpkins for Halloween. Brett had to work late on Halloween so my mom came over and we passed out candy. I was a bit disappointed since we didn't get too many trick-or-treaters, the ones we did get were mostly obnoxious teenagers. :( All in all it was a pretty lame Halloween but thats ok next year should be a blast with Chaz!

Here is our attempt at a family picture! Turbo isn't too cooperative when it comes to taking photos but he was loving the fact that he got to be up on the counter. Aren't the pumpkins I painted for the babes soo cute!?

Belly picture time!

Here are some belly pics. I have gone from taking them every 4 weeks to every 2 because this boy is growing like crazy! I love it.

^ 18 weeks. Don't mind the creepy look on my face. I was mid-sentence when my mom snapped the picture.

Here I am at 20 weeks. You may not be able to tell but there is a big difference. If I get brave I may do a bare belly shot soon. Then you can REALLY tell the difference.

Tomorrow is our next appointment. I can't wait to see our little guy! :) Wish us luck.

Today is our Sweetbabys due date.

I love my son with everything that I have. I couldn't imagine life without him growing inside of me right now. I know that if it wasn't for the loss of our Sweetbaby that THIS baby wouldn't be growing inside of me but I still woke up in tears today. As I laid in Bretts arms crying I thought to myself "how can I be crying when I should be happy that our son is nice and safe in my belly" and just now I came across the answer.... because Sweetbaby was MY baby. Because I loved that baby, because I had big plans for that baby and that baby was taken from me!

It is so hard to think how different life would be if I had never lost Sweetbaby. Instead of sitting here writing in my blog I could be out trying every tactic in the book in getting labor started, I could be screaming with labor pains ... hell I could even be holding my Sweetbaby, smothering him/her in kisses. I have accepted that I am not doing any of those thing but it still hurts.

I am so thankful for my wonderful husband, my loving family (especially my AMAZING mom) and all of my great friends (even you nesties). Without all of their support I would not be as strong as I am. I couldn't make it through a single day without knowing you are all rooting for me.

I want my Sweetbaby in Heaven to know that:

I think about you everyday!
I will NEVER forget you.
I thank you for the short months of pure joy that you gave me.
I will make you proud in raising your brother Chaz.
We will be together again in Heaven one day.
I apologize if there was ever a second that you suffered while you were with me.
That I do not blame you or myself for your loss.
You will forever be missed.
Most of all .... Your mommy loves you and always will. As well as your daddy and the rest of your family.

I know my Sweetbaby is in Heaven watching over me and his/her family. I know that he/she wants us to be happy. I know that Sweetbaby told God to send Chaz to me (there is no other explanation as to how my due date is the day before our Sweetbaby went to heaven) and that is what gets me through every day.

I love you Sweetbaby!

Denver and our Anniversary!

When Brett and I got home Friday evening I told him I had an early anniversary gift for him and handed him a home made card I made with the tickets inside.

At first he seemed really confused and just stared at them forever then looked up and at me and said "umm, what are these babe?" I went on to tell him that we were going to Denver for the weekend to see his Bucs play the Broncos. I think he was in shock for a bit and then came the excitement.

This was our first road trip together and I must say it wasn't too bad. We hooked up the navigation system and off we went. It was about a 7 hour drive with all the stops we made, one being a stop at Taco Time to get his dad 2 dozen meat burritos. Yup, that's right... I guess there isn't a Taco Time in Denver and his dad loves the meat burritos from there so we stopped in Green River and picked up 2 dozen per his request. :)

Once we got into town we took his dad his burritos, obviously and joined him, his wife and her daughter for dinner at a hole in the wall steak place that actually ended up being pretty good, I was impressed. Then it was off to bed since GAME DAY was the following day.

When we woke up Brett insisted I go buy a red shirt since I forgot my Bucs t-shirt (yes, I know a Dallas fan owning a Bucs shirt..crazy isn't it). Once we got to the the stadium it was unreal. It truly is an experience of a lifetime. The energy was INSANE. We tailgated for awhile and then made our way through the crowds to the field.

Here are some pictures of Brett and I and his Dad outside Invescofield.

The second we stepped into the stadium Brett was in some sort of trance. For the first 15 minutes of being in our seat he just sat, stared and would throw in a "wow" every once in a while. I let him sit and enjoy his excitement while I melted, it was too damn hot for this pregnant lady! I eventually said screw the red shirt and sat in my white tank with my shoes off and jeans rolled up to my knees... hawt I know!

Sadly, Bretts Bucs lost 13-16 :( he seems to think that means we will need to make another trip to see them win some time soon. To me this means we should just go see the Cowboys since I know they wouldn't disappoint me! :)

That evening we met up with my little brother, his girlfriend Micaela and my nephew Cruz. I haven't seen my brother in over a year and this was the first time meeting Cruz. It was so great to see my little brat. Cruz was too cute to belong to my brother ;) he was such a blast. I didn't even want to eat dinner I just wanted to play with him all night. I am so glad I finally got to meet him and I plan on being in his life alot more than I have been, as well as my brother.

Here are some pictures of the happy family.

Isn't he such a cutie?

The next day we spent a few more hours in Denver. Went to our favorite Chai/Bagel place out there, walked around the mall and headed out. The drive was alot harder back because we left later and had to drive in the dark. Just because it was hard sure in heck doesn't mean it was boring. Have you ever heard two adults sing nursery rhymes... not to children but themselves? Well you would have had a hoot in the car with us, we sang every single one as well as played "I spy" for a good hour or two. It felt good to just goof off and be with eachother. That honestly was the best car ride of my life.

The next day Tuesday October 7th was our 1 year anniversary. Yay for us! We exchanged gifts. I got him a new pen for work with his name ingraved in it as well as a awesome business card holder. I got the most amazing bracelet ever. Here is the stock photo of it. There is two of my favorite pictures of Brett and I in the picture slots as well as our most recent u/s picture and an empty slot to put a picture of Chaz when he arrives. The stones in my bracelet are a diamond and an aquamarine (Bretts and Chazs birthstones) It is amazing! We then went to a family fun center near by and played some mini golf and arcade games. That night we went to Olive Garden and ate way too much food and went home and wrote each other letters about the last year. All in all it was a great anniversary and I couldn't imagine spending it with anyone else. I can't wait until our 2 year!