Yep, I figured as much...

Fluke. 10:30-5:00.... dang. Oh well.

*UPDATE*

Last night (Friday) he went down around 11. I woke up at 7:30 and Nate still had his eyes closed but asked if I had Gabe. I realized I didn't and started panicking that he was dead or something! All those SIDS people have turned me into a paranoid... I jumped out of bed and he was still sleeping peacefully!! 11-7:30! Thats how long Nate and I sleep! I couldn't believe it. Ok I promise no more sleeping posts... for anyone that's not Nate or me, it's just not that interesting.

Did that really just happen??

This morning, my eyes drifted open... I looked at the clock, 6:30. My eyes started to shut again but flew open at a realization: I was awake for the very first time.

Gabriel slept through the night!

11-6:30. Seven and a half hours! Mommy and daddy gave each other a big hug and whispered a Hurray!

This was a fluke right?? It doesn't just happen over night does it? I mean, he only wakes up once or twice which isn't bad at all but to go from that to sleeping through the night? Must be a fluke...right?

Oh for One Thing to Go Smoothly......

So Nathan here making a rare posting.  Life is taking a rather exciting turn for our Allen clan.  First of all, we finally made our Baby announcements!  I have tried uploading the announcement a few times, but it keeps having errors, so I guess start checking your mail box in a week or two.Gabe continues to be a lot of fun, although he is figuring out we jump when he starts screaming, so that has increased.  That and he is getting bigger by the day make for interesting days.  I will call home during work to see how things are going, and I can usually hear Gabe squack before Rachel even has time to say hello.  But dang he's cute.

Our big news is that we're moving again!  No firm dates or times yet, but it looks like this little family will be heading north to Flagstaff, AZ.  The U of A is going through some pretty severe budget cuts and restructuring, so my program is being eli

minated.  I have been told by my councilor that I can transfer into the Business School's program for Marketing, which will

 result in higher tuition and 2 more years of school, or I can transfer to Northern Arizona University, pay less tuition and graduate in 1 year.  Since it is getting to be summer time in Tucson again (meaning 100 degree days are right around the corner), Flagstaff (average summer temp in the high 70-low 80's) is pretty attractive.  I've been accepted into the communications school, given high priority status, and am well on my way to starting up 

there in August.  The only hitch now is finding work up there, which is moving rather slowly.  I'm trying to stay with the company, but opportunities are a bit less frequent then they are in a larger place like Tucson.  But we're keeping our fingers crossed!

So thats all for me, but I know what needs to be on the blog, so I'll just get to that, here are more pictures of Gabe!

       Gabe's Blessing Outfit

Our favorite picture of Gabe

Standard Church attire

It may not look it, but he is already getting so much bigger!

Something to tide you over....

My family was here for spring break.... lots of good pictures, just not a lot of time to post them :)

Other great news

- Yesterday, our benevolent managers gave us a brand new stove!! It replaced the most horrendous, cream colored 1970's stove you've ever seen. This one has a light on the inside, a glass door, working burners, a clock on it, and digital buttons! Yeah for putting in maintenance requests!!

-Gabriels cord came off today! It was actually pretty gross looking but that meant that I could give him a proper bath! He actually really liked it until he had to get out into the cold air.

I put a towel down in the water for him to lay on

Clean and happy baby!

Ode To A Caring Spouse

Yesterday was a bad day.

It was the first time in the past 2 weeks and 2 days that I have felt overwhelmed with this whole motherhood thing. Gabe and I had been in the car for a while and it was a warm day. The A/C needs to be charged in our car and the sun was on him the whole time. He was screaming and crying when we finally got home. I had to run to the bathroom or I was going to wet my pants, so I took the car seat right into the bathroom with me. (Mothers- how do you juggle bathroom time with baby?? I find myself taking a shower when he's napping and having the monitor volume on high and I think I usually hold it in until Nate gets home from work!) He kept screaming so I'm trying to rock his car seat with my foot but he's not buying it. And there is a ring of sweat around his headrest now. So I finish up, pull him out to comfort him but realize I can't wash my hands while holding him so I lay him down on our bed and run to wash my hands. He freaked out. I've never heard him scream like that before! I wash my hands and finally get him semi calmed down. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time Nate got home. He cried during dinner so I didn't get to eat very much. He cried during the movie we were watching. Nate could tell I had had just about enough so my husband, who for as long as I have known him swore up and down he would NEVER change a diaper, jumped up and changed one very poopy diaper. Knowing Gabriels diapers, I was so shocked that he said it wasn't as bad as he had thought it would be. That little act of changing a diaper really meant a lot to one frazzled mom. Nate is a really tender dad and loves to hold Gabe and calm him down. This morning before running to work he said "I wish he was awake so I could hold him before I leave..." I'm so appreciative of all the things Nate does for us. 

We love you daddy!

Gabriel

Leaving the hospital

Grandma and Gabe

My favorite picture

First "bath"- he hated it

Thank heaven for little boys

My sleeping boys

Quick Update

Hi everyone! Gabe's down for a nap so I thought I'd do a very nutshell version of "The Birth".

We went in Tuesday the 3rd for a NST (Non Stress Test). Apparently whenever I had a contraction his heartbeat would drop, so they sent me over to the Women's Center. They hooked me up at triage, sat there for a while, then they sent me back to my room. My body wasn't quite ready yet so they gave me medication to move that process along. They gave that to me at 4pm and then I had to have another dose at 8pm. After that, contractions started coming pretty hard and non stop one on top of the others. Finally at midnight, they gave me pitocin to induce me. The contractions were even worse then but still no progress at all! Finally at 2:30, after about 5 hours of hard nonstop contractions, I had an epidural and was able to sleep. I woke up at 4:30 to nurses and doctors in my room hooking me up to things, giving me shots of this and that. What a wake up call! It was very unnerving. I was being hooked up to a fetal monitoring system, an oxygen mask and was getting a shot to stop my contractions. At one point, I was hooked up to 6 different things! My doctor explained that my contractions were stressing the baby. Every contraction, his heart would drop from 160 to about 80. Emergency C section! Very scary. They cut me open and pulled him out and found that the cord was wrapped around his neck. He was born Wednesday the 4th at 6:02 am after I had been up for almost 24 hours!

Not a very pleasant experience but I'm so glad he's here and he is the sweetest baby!! More pictures to come!

TA-DA!!!!

Just a quick post, putting some pictures up.  First off though: Gabriel Drew Allen, born at 6:02 am on March 4th, 2009.  He was 8 lbs, 20 1/2 inches.  Mother and baby are resting well.

The Zoo and other happenings

My friend Amanda is moving to another town pretty soon and she informed me that if we were to stay friends, I would have to get a zoo membership. :) Tuesdays are Nate's days off and he hadn't been to the zoo in Tucson since he was 12. So we tagged along with Amanda and her cute little girls with the intentions of 1)getting out of the house, 2)letting Nate relive his childhood and 3)buying a zoo pass to keep our friendship in tact. We are now Tucson Zoo members people!

Amanda's girls: Nora asleep and Lillian with her shades

Lillian calls the giraffe Melman from Madagascar

Nate and Lillian telling the llama to wake up. "Wake up mama!"

Amanda and Lillian enjoying In and Out afterwards

She was doing elephant tusks

This is the coolest frog fountain. I really wanted to see some little kid get it in the face!

So I know that it seems we took a lot of pictures of Lillian... and we did. :) Don't worry parents of America, when we get our own kid we'll stop taking so many pictures of yours.

In other news, we had a doctors appointment on Tuesday and nothing has changed on the progression front so they scheduled us to be induced and the earliest they could get me in was the next Tuesday, March 3. For some reason this really upset me that he is going to miss the month of February all together and would now be a March baby. Nothing against the month of March at all, it's just that they told me February and it should have been February! So fine, he was going to be born March 3. But then they call me the next day and say that I have been bumped. Do they have an induction waiting list that and can you jump said waiting list? How do I become a Induction VIP and jump to the head of the line? How do they know ahead of time that there will be no room for me?? So they bumped me to Thursday the 5th. In the words of Amanda, "Do they know?? Do they know that's two days later??" Grr... my frustration. Today is February 28. If he doesn't come within the next 6 hours, he will be in a completely different month! 6 hours buddy! Come on!