On the road...

Baby Cole had a very special and busy 4th week of life. We ventured out of our little bubble in Charlotte and drove to Hilton Head Island for a few days {to visit my family} and then to Atlanta {to visit Peter's family}. Our little boy did awesome in the car. He slept the entire time, only waking for 1 feeding per trip! 

We loved visiting our families and introducing baby Cole to his cousins and a few of my childhood friends. We also loved the extra sleep we got while in Hilton Head. My mother wanted to do his middle of the night feedings every night. It was SO nice to get a straight 6 hours of sleep! Thanks Nona! :)

1 month old! 

First trip to the beach. Can't wait for baby Cole to actually play in the sand next year! 

Nona and Pap with their first grand son!

Then off to Atlanta....

Nana and Paw Paw with the boy cousins!

Bradyn {4 1/2 months}, Adalyn {almost 2 yrs.}, Cole {1 month}

3 generations of Babb men! Love!

We finally took some "newborn" pics of our sweet baby boy...4 weeks later! Here's a sneak peek of some of the shots. More to come!

Punkin had his 1 month well visit check-up this week. He did great! Our pediatrician is SO sweet and caring, we really like him! Baby Cole has grown so much, we are so proud of him! :)

 I'll leave you with this funny pic...

2 weeks and a photo dump

It's been the best 2 weeks of our lives. We just love our baby boy more and more each day! It's fun getting to know his small little personality. I absolutely love when he wakes up and needs to eat. It's our special little time together. And the hubs gets all of the time in between! :) He loves spending time with his boy! It's so sweet to see!

Here's Baby Cole at 2 weeks. Isn't he just precious?!

Love this face! 

First bath at home.

First time with activity mat and a friend's sweet kisses. {Riley}

Half smile...I know, it's just gas...

First walk {5 days old}.

Family of THREE! 

All I ever do is kiss, kiss, kiss this sweet face!

Second walk at 11 days old {with Nana}.

1 week

1 week....1 week...1 week already! WOW! Seems like just yesterday we were heading to the hospital, in disbelief of what was about to happen. I know moms say this, but it's so true- You can never ever explain how much a mama can love her baby(ies). I feel like I'd do ANYTHING for my little boy and I want to protect him all the time! Petey and I both just love staring at our sweet angel boy and love hugging and kissing him even more! 

Cole Ethan Babb is just the most precious, sweet boy ever! He has been so laid back and easy thus far, we are really spoiled! Our sweet boy was so tiny when he was born, people were a little worried and said they'd be watching his weight closely. Well, Cole beat all odds and actually GAINED 2 ounces in the hospital! And then another 4 ounces in the first two days he was home! His pediatrician was so proud of him and so are we!! :)

He loves bath time, skin-to-skin time with daddy, and being swddled and snuggled by mommy! He is eating every 2-3 hours during the day and sleeps for one good 5-6 hour stretch at night! Which is awesome!! His pediatrician told us to start letting him sleep as long as he wants at night since he's gaining weight so well!

Sweet baby Cole has some really cute nuances already. He loves to stretch, stretch, stretch! He stretches out his legs and arms, flailing them about all the time. He sneezes in twos and has hiccups about twice a day {just like when he was in the womb}. When he yawns, he yawns SO long and SO big and shakes his entire body at the end. He loves to grunt all the time! We have yet to hear him cry very much {knock on wood...} we are hoping it stays that way! :)

We love you more than words can say baby Cole!

39 weeks and a delivery

August 16th...39 weeks pregnant...just an ordinary day...or so I thought...

{Last preggo picture taken}

The day began with taking hubs to work, heading to the gym, babysitting for one of my friends, making dinner, picking hubs up from work, etc. I decided to relax by taking a nice warm bath and reading for a good hour. We went to bed fairly late {as usual} and I was asleep by midnight. Around 1am I felt a very sharp pinch and then a slow flow of liquid. I sat up immediately and told Petey that I thought my water broke. To which he replied, "Are you sure you didn't just pee yourself?!" Haha! Yes, definitely sure! I proceeded to gush for about 30 minutes before I decided to call the off hours nurse line and they told me to come in within the hour. 

So, if I was going to deliver this baby tonight, I better feel/look good while doing so! Thus, I showered, did my hair, put make-up on, made sure our bags had everything they needed, swept and mopped the floors then I woke Petey up and said it was time to go! By this time it was 3:30am and I began feeling my contractions. About 4-5 minutes apart, lasting less than a minute. We arrived to the hospital at 4am and checked into a triage room where they hooked me up to the monitors to begin tracking my contractions and baby Cole's heartbeat. 

When we arrived to the hospital I was only 1cm dilated...this was going to be a loooooong night! By 6am we were rolled into our L&D room and I was about 3 1/2 cm by now. Contractions were still going steady as before but feeling a bit more intense. By 9am my OB came to visit me. I was so happy she was on call that weekend! I was still at 3 1/2 cm dilated, so we decided to start pitocin. As my contractions progressed, I decided not to suffer through them anymore and get my epidural....ahhhh, relief! :)

For the next few hours, Petey and I tried to get some rest. But, unfortunately, I couldn't sleep. I was too excited! People were in and out the whole time monitoring my progress and the baby's heart rate. We were both doing well. Until I began feeling more and more pain. I had to start focusing and breathing through my contractions. My nurse didn't like how much pain I was in since I shouldn't have been feeling much of anything so she decided to call the anesthesiologist to give me another shot.

Well the anesthesiologist was tied up with two other women in front of me so I had to wait. Before he came my nurse checked me again and I was 10 cm and it was time to push! Eeek, no more pain meds!

After 2 1/2 long hours of pushing our we got to meet our sweet boy! 

Cole Ethan Babb
Born on Friday, August 17th @ 4:29pm
5 lbs. 9 oz. 19.5 inches

Love my little boy! :)

fully cooked!

Baby Babb is fully cooked...full term, that is! So excited to be so close! I've been having mixed emotions about these last few weeks. I want to meet Cole so badly that I've been hoping he's early. But then again, I've been reminded over and over to just enjoy these last few {quiet} moments! :)

So, that's what I've been doing! Making sure to take naps daily, spend quality time with baby daddy, and hanging out with girlfriends as much as possible. 

Happy 37 weeks baby cole! 

catching up and some nursery cuteness...

Ok, so a little over a month has gone by with no new post. Oops!

 One of my friends mentioned the fact that I haven't updated in a while. So, here goes a month of updates!

34 weeks {July 13th}! Wow! I am definitely feeling large and in charge! There is no denying there's a big growing baby in there! These days, my favorite thing is when baby Cole gets the hiccups! He gets them at least twice every day. It's so fun and I can't wait to see him with his cute hiccups in person in just a few short weeks!

Maternity shoot at 35 weeks. We had the pleasure of hanging out with our good friends Todd and Dianne Personett as they captured this fun time in our lives. They are the sweetest husband and wife photography duo. Check out the entire photo shoot here.

Cutest diaper cake I've ever seen! Homemade with love by one of my sweet friends and co-workers! I hated to take this apart, but glad that hubs captured the cuteness before it was demolished. 

One of the first things that I did in the nursery was to order this monogram from Etsy and paint this stripe on the largest wall. I absolutely love how it turned out! 

I have placed these cute chevron plaques on one of the other walls. I found four wooden plaques in the garage (no idea where they came from)! Decided to paint them white, tape them off in a chevron pattern and paint them my favorite colors to coordinate with my nursery theme. Printed some gender reveal pictures to transform them into picture frames.

On the top ledge of the book shelves, I decided to add a personalized picture frame I made out of scrapbook paper of his name and a canvas with a scripture painted on it.

 

Ahhhhh! Just love this rug, found on Overstock.com. I pinned this rug on one of my Pinterest boards months ago and hubs found it for a great price. I was so excited when it finally arrived and now I can add all of the other items to complete this room!

I am really into yard sales these days. I look forward to friday nights when I can search the internet to find yard sales around my area. Saturday mornings involve a 6:30am wake-up call, coffee in hand, and a map of my morning route- in search of great deals! My first time out was a success! Baby items galore! I found these cute clothes and this Combi bouncer {found here for $69} ALL for just 10 bucks! 

First onesie that mama has embellished for sweet baby boy! Don't look too closely, it's a little jacked up around the edges. Haha!

Love this freebie! I saw this ladder at my sweet friend, Emily Knotts' house {check her out here} and told her I had been looking for something like that for the nursery. She was very excited to give it to baby cole as a baby gift! All I did was add a little water to some white paint and did a quick brush over the entire ladder to give it a shabby chic look! Perfect place for all of baby Babb's blankies!

I learned how to sew an envelope cover {so easy!} and have been going crazy with covering pillows!

Best gift ever! My BFF Jessica {check her out here} came over today and gave me this handmade crib mobile in my favorite pattern...you guessed it. CHEVRON! :) I absolutely love it and it completes the room perfectly!

Baby Cole is so blessed to have his Nana and her amazing sewing skills. Here is his "couture" nursery bedding! hehe! Isn't it beautiful?!

This was a fun project! I found this inexpensive lamp at Target and gave it a nice face lift with some CHEAP {$2.00} fabric from Ikea.

The swivel/glider that I found on SALE at Buy Buy Baby! I am guilty of sitting here for a few moments every night, looking around and imagining what life will be like with our little boy! :)

I heart organization and baby clothes!! Why not combine the two?! Found these baby clothes Size-It Organizers. Love!

Cutest night light ever! Put this on the changing table for some extra low lighting during night-time changes.

The finished product. Done. Done. Done. And ready for baby Cole!

 And the bags are packed....