Elf Yourself

I've created our family's Elf Yourself dance available until January 15th. Click here to watch!

New pictures

As promised, here are a few pictures from Drake's first Thanksgiving, with his great-grandma Pate,his cousin Matt, and his 4 month "birthday".

Quick post

I don't have a lot of time, but I wanted to give a quick update, since some big things have happened since my last post!
On November 25 Drake celebrated his 4 month birthday, the most amazing thing is that exactly a year ago on that very date,we found out that I was pregnant with him! It's crazy how fast it all goes.
Drake also just celebrated his first Thanksgiving. We traveled up to Oklahoma to spend the holiday with my family. Drake met a ton of cousins and was able to visit his 95 year old great-grandma Pate again.
We took Drake for his 4 month check up last Monday and he is a big boy! He weighed 18 lbs 4 1/2 ounces and was 26 inches long. He's above the 90th percentile in pretty much everything and is doing great. We started him on rice cereal a few weeks ago and he really seems to like it.


I will post later with some 4 month and Thanksgiving pictures.

Our big night out!

After almost 4 months, David and I finally went out for a date night with Betsy and Jared. We went to dinner at Razoo's (Scott and Mair joined us) and the 6 of us split a fishbowl- it is what can only be described as fancy trash can punch (if there is such a thing). Then, Betsy, Jared, and I headed to watch the Last Comic Standing tour at Bass Hall.
We were able to meet our favorite comic-Marcus. He was hilarious!
I only called to check on Drake 3 times, which I'm pretty proud of.

Drake's new friends

A few weeks ago, Drake went on his 2nd road trip-up to Tulsa, OK to visit his Mimo and Dado. While in Tulsa, we also went by our friend Mel and Sean's to see them, Sarah, and new baby Sanders. Sanders is absolutely adorable!
On Tuesday, we went up to Medical City (we were just there 4 months ago!) to see Miss Caroline Cahill, who is Daniel and Jennifer's new daughter. Caroline is just gorgeous and reminds me a lot of her older brother Alex.
Seeing Drake next to these little ones makes it even harder to believe that Drake was that tiny just 4 months ago.

He's growing up!

The weekend before last, we put together Drake's high chair in preparation for his first solid meal (rice cereal if all goes well at his 4 month appointment). I think he enjoyed his new view of the kitchen!
Drake's new thing-besides spitting and blowing bubbles-is trying to stand on our laps every time that we hold him, so we also put together his exersaucer so that he can "stand" up on his own. You can tell by the pictures he wasn't sure what to think of this new toy at first, but he's since really started to enjoy it.
Our living room is shrinking!!
I attached a few other cute pictures...
I couldn't resist :)

Drake's First Halloween

One of the greatest things about having a new baby is that you are constantly
celebrating firsts. Drake recently celebrated his first Halloween and given that there are very few "cool" costumes for babies 0-9 months, he was a pumpkin (or a carrot-if you ask my mom). We were very lucky that Drake actually fit into his costume, because as most of you that have met him know...he's a big boy!

Drake's 3 month pictures

Here are a few pictures from the weekend...as you can see by the 2nd picture-he partied way too hard. :)

3 months old!

Drake will be 3 months old tomorrow and I can't believe it. It really does seem like yesterday that we were counting down the days until his arrival. He has changed so much during these past few months-he has developed his own little routine, he sleeps through the night,and he has this wonderful little laid back personality. It is incredible how you can come to know, and to love someone so much in such a short amount of time. I look forward to every moment and every milestone.

Since I won't have any new pictures to post until after the weekend I decided to include the link to Drake's newborn slide show (click here)
I can't believe how much he's changed!

Drake loves us!

I'm really trying to make an effort to take pictures more often because all of Drake's grandparents live out of town and also because he keeps growing out of his clothes! I have to take pictures of him in some of these cute outfits because if we don't have another boy, we won't use them again. Betsy, Jared, and William bought Drake this super cute onsie and I had to get a picture of it before he outgrows it too.
I also am realizing that there are hardly any pictures of Drake with David and I so I'm going to take more family pics-although we know that everyone really just wants to see Drake :)

Drake can dance :)

Our weekends are much different than they used to be.

A Smile Finally Caught on Camera!

For the past 4 weeks, Drake has been successful in avoiding smiling for the camera...UNTIL TODAY! I finally got a picture of him with his big goofy grin this morning. So CUTE!!

Matthew Shawn Parker

As promised, here are a few pictures of Drake's new cousin Matt, and Drake with cousin (who's more like an aunt to him), Kadi.

Big Week!

Last week was a big week for Drake, he has 2 new cousins!

My cousin Kadi and her husband Shawn, had Matthew Shawn Parker (who made his appearance 5 weeks early) was born on September 27th, he weighed 6 lbs, 7oz and was 19 1/2 inches long...big preemie!

Then, only a few days later on October 1st, David's cousin Craig and his wife Marice had their 2nd baby, a little boy Jay Craig Wasemiller. Jay weighed 7lbs 2 oz and was 19 inches long. From what Marice says, his big sister Morgan loves him.

Both families are doing great and are enjoying their little boys!

The picture above is of Craig, Marice, Morgan, and baby Jay Wasemiller. I will post a pic of the Parker family soon!

He's 2 months old today!

David took Drake this morning for his 2 month appointment. He weighed 13.8 lbs and was 23 5/8 inches long. He's in the 90th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height (these percentages were flipped out our last appointment), so he's becoming a little butterball! Dr. Hayes said that he's as big as some of the 4 month olds that she sees :) David said that the shots went okay, Drake screamed for a minute, but then seemed to be doing okay. The doctor said that later today he would have one reaction or another...screaming or sleeping. I'm leaving work early to go take care of him, so here's hoping for the sleeping.

It's about time for...

Drake to start sleeping in his crib. Lately he has been smashing his face up against the inside of his bassinet while he's sleeping, and although he can breathe, it scares me to death that he's going to smother himself! I'm just not used to him being so mobile! It looks like after he's over this cold, that he will be moving into his own room. I'm sure that he's ready for it, I'm just not sure that I am :( I like having him next to the bed so I can check on him whenever I want. I just can't believe that my little baby is growing up so quickly!

This week...

It's going to be a tough week. Drake has his first cold and will be getting his 2 month shots on Thursday. Luckily his dad is taking him for his appointment so I don't have to watch him get his shots. I just can't handle it! I'm taking the afternoon off to be with him in case he has a meltdown. I hope that he does well, because David and I have heard several horror stories from our friends.
Time has flown by! I can't believe that he will be 2 months old on the 25th. It seems like just yesterday that we were bringing him home from the hospital. I see why everyone says that they grow up too quickly. He has changed so much over the past 2 months and he's developing quite a personality. His new thing is his "sad face". See the example above when he wanted out of his bouncy seat...it cracks me up! I can already tell you that he's going to be spoiled rotten!!

More Drake pics

It's been too long!

Okay, it's been way too long since I've updated the blog, but I promise that I will be better about it. Today is my first day back at work. These past 6 weeks have really flown by.

Drake is an amazing little guy. He's getting so chubby! He started smiling this past weekend and it is incredibly adorable. He went on his first road trip up to Oklahoma to see his Pops, Grams, and Uncle Cole and he was also able to meet his Great-Grandma Pate.

Here's a video of him bouncing along with his Grams (Kari).

Maggie loves Drake!

Just wanted to post this cute pic of Drake and his big doggie sister Maggie. She's super protective of him and always wants to know where he is. Rudie likes him too, but doesn't pay too much attention to him.

More updates to come soon!

2 week appointment

Drake had his 2 week appointment today and everything is wonderful! He's now 8 lbs 5.8 oz and 21 3/4 inches long, so he's tall and skinny. His cord came off at the doctor's office (and was stuck to my shirt..ewww!!), so soon we'll be able to give him a real bath. He christened the doctor's office by peeing all over the scale and the exam room. He's definitely a boy :).

Mom and Larry went home today, so David and I are officially on our own.

Here are some pictures from Drake's newborn photo shoot.

He's Here!!

Drake Mason Wasemiller was born 10 days early on Friday July 25th at 12:09 am weighing 7 lbs 5 oz and measuring 21 inches long. He is gorgeous and looks just like his daddy!



































Drake's birth story: July 24th started off like any other day during the end of my pregnancy-I was exhausted, huge, and my back was killing me. The only difference was that today would be the day that I would go into labor. I was in my 38th week (38 weeks and 3 days pregnant to be exact) and I knew that something was a little different-I could hardly walk (well waddle because I hadn't been "walking" in weeks). I thought to myself "I'm not going to be able to work much longer if it's going to be like this".
I went home for lunch to eat with my mom and by that time my back was feeling progressively worse, I went back to work thinking that I might have to come home a little early.
At around 1:00 pm, the pain in my back was coming and going in sort of a pattern, so I realized that I was having back contractions. By about 2:00 pm, the contractions started to get worse so I called Mom to come and get me. By the time I got to the house-I was in terrible pain. Mom was timing my contractions, they were coming every 3 minutes and lasting 30 seconds. Since I had never done this before I was in total denial that I was in labor and I was completely against calling the hospital for fear that I would get there and they would just send me home. But, after about 30 more minutes of horrific back pain and of my mom begging me to, I agreed to call the doctor. Dr. McClintock was out of town so I called to speak to one of her partners, Dr. Ryder-who had just seen me on Tuesday-and of course she was already out of the office. They connected me with yet another doctor in the practice, Dr. Ruk. He was great on the phone and told me that he would tell the hospital that I was coming in. He made me feel better by telling me that if I wasn't in labor they would just send me home, but if I was-I would be meeting my baby soon! I called David and told him to hurry home that I thought this might be it. After what seemed like forever, he finally arrived-and proceeded to pack his bag. Next time I know that packing David's bag is just as important as packing mine and the baby's, ours had been packed for weeks and were already loaded in the car ready to go. He finally got everything together and we were on our way.
The drive to Medical City Hospital was miserable. By this time it was 4:30 pm, which is the beginning of rush hour in Dallas. The "quickest" routes were totally backed up-so we took the back roads. It only took about 30 minutes to get there, but it seemed like hours. I was experiencing terrible back labor and just wanted some relief FAST.
We finally arrived and were taken to a room, where I changed into a gown and was hooked up to monitors to see if I was in "active" labor and if they would let me stay. At this point my contractions were coming every 1 1/2 to 2 minutes and I vowed to myself that if they didn't keep me and administer pain medicine ASAP that I might kill someone. The nurse checked me, I was 3.5-4 cm and she told me that she would be surprised if they sent me home. She called Dr. Ruk and he agreed to let me stay, which meant that I would be getting an epidural soon-yay! I asked the nurse the ETA on the epi and she told me that it would only be about 20 minutes. 25 minutes later, the hero of the day, Dr. Hart came in and gave me the epidural-complete with a "happy button" for a shot of medicine whenever I started to feel anything. The epidural was amazing. I have a whole new respect for those women who are brave enough to attempt childbirth without it!
Neither Dr. Ryder or Dr. Ruk were on call that night, so yet another doctor from Dr. McClintock's practice-Dr Campbell came in to let me know that she would be my delivering doctor. She was really great and practiced under my doctor at her internship in Florida. My new l & d nurse Brandi was incredible and used to be my doctor's practice nurse, so at least Dr. McClintock was there in spirit!
At 7 pm my nurse came in to check me and I was at a 7. So in the beginning things were moving along very quickly, but when they came back at 10 pm, I had only progressed a little more to an 8.5. At this point they decided to break my water and administer pitocin to get things moving again. I am lucky that I had an epidural because I can tell you that pitocin is super strong, after they gave it to me, there was a small area on the front of my stomach where I started to feel contractions. I pushed my happy button about 10 times and it finally went away. Lucky for me, I pushed the happy button at the right time, because when they checked me at 11:30, I was at a 10 and ready to start pushing.
This was the part that I was most afraid of about labor. I had only been given a 10% chance to deliver naturally because of a narrow pelvis-so I thought that all of my effort would just end up in a c-section. At this point we also knew that Drake was face up, so they let me know that even 2nd time mothers usually push for 2 hours with babies that are positioned this way. It looked like I was in for a lot of work.
Pushing was much harder than I expected. I thought that my head was going to explode, or that I might give myself a brain aneurysm. After a few pushes, I knew that I absolutely wouldn't and couldn't push for long, and my determination turned me into a great pusher. I started pushing at 11:55 pm and at 12:09 am after only 14 minutes of pushing, Drake Mason Wasemiller was born!
Seeing him across the delivery room was the most surreal moment that I have ever experienced. David was the first one to hold him and then my mom. I was shaking uncontrollably from the labor and the medication, so it was about 20 minutes before I trusted myself with him. When I held him for the first time, I knew that he was meant to be ours. He truly is a miracle and we are so blessed to have him in our lives.