Luke Allen Coming Home

Luke Allen certainly made his grand entrance into this world a little earlier than expected. Because he was premature, the doctors wanted to be extra cautious and make sure everything was OK before sending him home. Needless to say Baby Luke extended his stay with his awesome nurses until late Sunday afternoon. The reason for his extended stay was because the doctors wanted to see him either maintain or gain his weight and they noticed a touch of jaundice which is usually normal for premature babies. (I think he just enjoyed his nurses and wanted to get all their loving before coming home to a house full of hugs and kisses!) During Luke Allen's extended stay I was fortunate to get a room that is provided for mothers who are breastfeeding called the baby/mama room. This room is free of charge and by what the nurses say is very rarely available. Although I was blessed to be able to stay along with Luke Allen and go down every three hours to bond with and feed him throughout the night, I remember pouting inside when the doctor broke the news that they wanted to keep him a little longer. I wanted Luke Allen home with Me, Bobby, and Landon. All that pouting did not get me anywhere but to the room where Luke Allen was staying. In this single room there were 2-3 nurses and about 15 very small babies. As I looked at each baby I noticed that several of them had been there for months and still weighed less than what Luke Allen did when he was born. Over half were still hooked up to some sort of machine and wires for monitoring. Wow what an eye opener this was for me. God was showing me through these small miracles what all I should be thankful for. I had a healthy baby boy and concerned doctors who would not just release my child until they knew for sure that he was OK to go home with his family. I love the way God works sometimes!PS. Please pray for each of those small miracles and parents in the Convalescent Nursery at Pitt Memorial Hospital. I know that God has his hand and warm embrace around each of them. Landon was asleep when we first came home with Luke Allen. This picture is right after he woke up. He wanted some of Aunt Casey's loving too!
Proud Mommy getting ready to carry Luke Allen into the house for the first time

Luke Allen's first experience in his car seat. The nurses have to make sure that you have are carrying your little one home safe and sound.
I just don't know what to think about this!!

Baby Luke Allen is here

Well it has been over a month that I have had time to post on my blog and I will have to say that I have really missed sitting down and sharing our lives with my friends and family. Well I am back and I will have to say that I would have never thought that my next post would be shouting that Baby Luke Allen had come into this world!!! As most of you know Luke Allen was not due until April 11th. He surprised our family with an early arrival on March 10th. He weighed 6.9lbs and was 19 inches long. (pretty good size for a 32 day early baby...don't think I could have handled him at 40 weeks) So a lot of you know the story of how Luke Allen came into this world but for those of you who do not I thought I would share. So I guess I should start with the night before Luke Allen was born. I was attending an all associate meeting with the company that I work for (US Cellular) at the Hilton in Greenville and our leadership team felt that we needed to start the night off on the right foot by doing a little dancing. I was not sure of what my part would be in this dance because all we were told was to follow the lead. Ironically we would be dancing to a song called "I gotta feeling that tonight is gonna be a good night!" Check out the youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfl1TjFfGaY that we were following (by the way I did not dance as hard as these people did..I promise) So after all of the excitement at work I went home and got into bed. Shortly after falling asleep I was awaken by a constant leak of my water. I thought to myself at 2 am, "this can't be lil' Luke Allen already coming into this world." I got up and walked around still trying to figure out if what I was experiencing was what I thought it was before waking my husband. When I came to the conclusion that surely Luke Allen was coming I woke Bobby up and called the doctor. Because I was not in any pain the doctor told me to meet her at the doctors office at 8 am so that she could check to make sure I was leaking amnionic fluids before going to the hospital and she advised to call back if anything changed. Well in a couple of hours things changed tremendously. The no pain turned into consistent contractions about every 2 minutes so needless to say I gathered my things (you know that I did not have my bag packed) kissed Landon and me and Bobby headed to the hospital around 6 am. As soon as I arrived to the hospital Bobby got me checked in and they took me back through triage to ask some crazy questions and to place these things on my belly to monitor Luke's heart rate. After answering the 100 question survey for the nurse, she wheeled me on to my room where Luke Allen would be born in a matter of about 4 pushes. At this point I was too far along to receive any type of IV with pain medication or an epidural so all I had for pain relief was to get Luke Allen out as fast as possible. I would have to say it is amazing how hard you can push when that is your only option for pain relief!! Luke Allen cooperated and came on out to meet his Mommy and Daddy at 7:09 am. His Daddy cut the umbilical cord and Luke was shortly in my arms. Looking into his eyes it brought back memories of when Landon came into this world. He had some similarities but at first he didn't look exactly like his big brother to me. He had some uniqueness about him of course, but definitely looked like his Daddy. Everyday I am so amazed at God's creations and plans for our lives. Little Luke Allen was not planned (by us) but was planned by our Almighty God. Both of my children are miracles that can only be explained by God Almighty and I am so blessed to have the family that I do!!

The whole family right after Baby Luke was born. Landon has been the best Big Brother that I could have ever imagined!!

Are you serious! I am not quite ready for the real world yet!

Luke Allen has his Daddy's eyes.

Keep me warm, I am supposed to still be in the belly!

Mommy and Luke right after Luke Allen was cleaned up and weighed

Mommy, Daddy, and Luke Allen posing for a family shot

Connor is 1!

I can hardly even remember a year ago when Connor was born! Time has flown by so fast and Connor has grown by leaps and bounds since he came out of his mommy's belly! Today we celebrated Connor's 1st birthday with friends and family at the Kessler house. It was a beautiful day to have a party. The kids had a blast playing outside and upstairs with Peyton and Connor's toys. It was so great to see all of my family, friends, and their kids. Connor attempting to try his birthday cupcake after his Mom takes him out of his high chair. Connor can't stand to be confined to one place for too long and especially with 40 people looking at him!
What is this candle and cupcake here for?

I love this shirt that my mom had made for Connor. It was adorable on him!

How old are you? How old are you? ONE!!!