The Arrival

to recall the events properly this will be a collaborative update by myself and dave.

first and foremost, the love that was born that day for our son could not be imagined until we touched, smelled, kissed and held the little rakes!

with us being proud new parents please excuse us while we boast about our boy!

ok so here we go...... if you've already heard the story than u can just skip to the pics, but i thought i would share with everyone the emotional roller coaster we went through in the days leading up to delivery. so after being late one week the doctors gave us an inducing date for the 16th of nov. so after starting the calling @ 730am and being told to reschedule @ 430pm for the following monday, we got a call @ 530pm to come on in to start the inducing procedure. so at that point the roller coaster had started...

so after what seemed like 48 hrs of labor(actually 8 or 9) you can see what great spirits mel was in. so if a picture is worth a thousand words, let me give the short version..."i have more cables hooked up to me than a d@#$ing kiss concert can we please get this baby out". the only thing to come from the inducing process was pain and a baby who was having a hard time dealing with the added stress.

so after a night of frustrating labor and 0 dilation, the doctor came in to speak to myself and mel about the concerns he was having about the stress the baby was going through due to a low heart rate from the contractions and inducting process. so for the overall health of deuce (david james II), with the advice of our good doctor we agreed the best course of action was a c-section. this is a picture of myself scrubbed out for the procedure, boy this outfit was very tight through the crotchital region.

15 minutes later our son is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the doctor and nurses are cleaning him up for his tuff mommy!

this is the earliest photo of the rakes' 3...smiles and cries!

deuce's first change of clothes and daddy's too! talk about being thrown into the fire, but i guess there's no other way to learn!

i think i was a little drugged and dad was a little emotional and deuce ... well as u can tell was a little upset about leaving his comfy little home! still a great moment in the recovery room! (from what i remember)

a big sigh of relief after surviving his 1st bath!

aunt kelly putting the magic touch on deuce and putting him to sleep! i cant express in words how thankful i was (and dave) for kelly being there! she was my emotional crutch and thank goodness because there were a lot of emotions flying around the days she was here!

a. marla (now known as grandmar) took her turn in relishing in deuce's cuteness! and no im not biased at all!

here are some more pics of deuce's 1st week at home

deuce ready for his 1st card ride home (from the hospital)

deuce chillin on grandmar's shoulder

our 1st thanksgiving. we spent it with the fishers' at krista and robie's.

yet another 1st ~ shopping!

deuce after his 1st bath at home. im showing the after pics bc i figured no1 really wanted to see the bath in action!

deuce doing a little chilln in the sun while napping. i guess he's taking after his mamma!

deuce's 1st meeting with santa even though he has no idea. he slept through the whole ordeal

and last but not least bronco~ he is adjusting nicely. of course he is curious and a little jealous but other than that i think he is already protective of the little guy. here he is checking up on him while deuce was napping.

all in all it has been a fabulous week. we are elated with joy and couldnt picture it any different!

until next time, luv

mel, dave and deuce!

Week 41 ~ still prego!

so here we are in week 41 and yes im still prego! how sad! i was put on bed rest at the beginning of last week for high blood pressure and here ive been every since. diane made it up safely on monday and now the 3 of us (dave, diane and me) are just waiting anxiously. i try not to think about it from day to day but how can i not. im reminded of it constantly. like when i get out of bed, off the couch or try to shave my legs. IM STILL PREGO! we are trying to do things to pass the time but there's only so much u can do when ur supposed to be on bed rest. so we have strolled the mall, target, wal-mart, bed bath and beyond.....and so on. dave is really loving life!

dave n i went on (wat we figured would be) are last date as a couple for a while last friday. we went and had a little spicey mexican food. (thinking that might speed things along) didn't work!

this past saturday (11-10-07) dave celebrated the marine corp bday so diane n i thought we would help a little with the celebration.

notice i am so done with taking pictures of the belly. this is supposed to be my delivery day but instead im sitting at that same mexican resturaunt hoping for some more spicey food majic!

and for bronco he has no idea his life is about to be turned upside down...all he knows is that there are 2 more hands here to pet him and 2 more legs to take him out to potty!

last but not least ~ a plus of being up here for the fall/winter is u actually get to enjoy the changing of the seasons. the trees have started to turn and they (in my mind) are gorgeous. and i know we dont quite get the turning of the leaves in texas, so i thought i would share a few pictures of them that we took at the park where we take bronco to play.

ok well i guess that's all for now... we will keep every1 updated as soon as the little guy decides to make an appearance!

luv mel n dave