Trip to the Zoo!

The day after Mother's Day, my first day of track out, the kids and I went to the Ashboro Zoo with our friends. So we packed up Christy's van the night before and headed out at 8:00 Monday morning. Taking a 4 year old, 2 year old, 1 year old, and 4 month old to the zoo was definitely an adventure but so much fun and worth it! 

On our way!

After a 2 and a half hour drive with our excited kiddos, we arrived!

The elephant statues at the entrance.

We are here!

Ready!

From here the adventure began. Christy and I were unaware of the amount of walking that would await us inside and we definitely earned our workout star for the day by pushing our double strollers up and down the hills through all of the trails. We were very appreciative of our husbands who are always willing to push the strollers. :)  Thankfully it was a beautiful, cool day! 

The kids were not too amused with the animals at this point because the animals were still sleeping and not moving enough to catch their attention. Thankfully the zoo has a geyser to be like the one in Yellowstone because that was the hit! They wanted to stay and just watch the geyser erupt and not move on. After lunch we rode the carousel. Claira-lynn LOVED riding the carousel! Claira-lynn had so much fun she said "WEE" the whole time it was moving. :)  We were able to ride it again later since she loved it so much the first time. Claira-lynn  also really enjoyed looking at the gorillas. There were some baby gorillas with the moms and she kept yelling "Baby!" She enjoyed watching the baby gorilla crawl on his mommy and walk in the grass.  The other animals didn't really seem to amuse her very much. I think it was because they were not right up close and a lot of the animals were still napping. The rest of the pictures are some snapshots from the remainder of the trip. All in all, I think the kids had a good time and enjoyed seeing some of the animals. It was a long, but good day. :) Enjoy!

Amazed by the water.

Claira-lynn follows Logan everywhere.

This little boy decided to pull himself up.

Bee Hive

Sweet little boy.

Little girl looking at bees.

Other favorite thing: the carousel. 

Dinosaurs!

One of the gorilla babies.

All worn out. 

Boy was still awake though! 

Helicopter!

Last picture at the zoo!

Catching Up Part II: Brother is Born!

December 14 seemed like any other Friday. Get up, go to work, teach, and come home. But this particular Friday was especially stressful for me at work and just wasn't a good day. Student attitudes were in full swing and two students accidentally ran into my belly at the end of the day. I came home, told Carey how I had a horrible day and I just wanted to go out to eat. So we got Claira-lynn ready and we went to Over the Falls to eat a hamburger. On our way to dinner I remember feeling some stronger Braxton Hicks contractions than I was used to, so I mentioned them to Carey. 

What I came home to. :)

They came and went and didn't seem to bother me too much so we just kept on with our meal. My mom was on her way with my sister from Florida so they could be here to help with the arrival of baby boy whenever he decided to make his debut. They were planning on stopping and staying the night in Savannah and driving the rest of the way on Saturday morning since we were still 10 days out from the due date. Contractions continued to get stronger and started to get my attention more through dinner so I called mom and told her she needed to drive through the night just in case. 

Claira-lynn and I at dinner.

We got home and I knew I needed to lay down and sleep just in case this was really happening. Carey got Claira-lynn ready for bed, I told her goodnight, and we went to bed. I could not go to sleep. The contractions were strong enough that it was uncomfortable. I came in the living room and told Carey I thought this was happening. He tried to help me relax so I could sleep some because we thought I was still a good ways off and needed the rest. Around 8:30 I messaged our friend upstairs, Christy, who was going to keep Claira-lynn for us, to let her know that it was time. Carey took Claira-lynn upstairs to her while I called the doctor on call to let them know what was happening. Dr. Madison was on call and decided we should come in to see where we were. Carey came back, I told him, and he said "OK. Let's go!" (With an excited smile of course.) He got our bags and off we went! 

We got to the hospital around 9:30 and went to the Triage Department of Labor and Delivery where we were monitored and evaluated to see if it really was time. By this time my contractions were really strong and I was not comfortable at all. When Dr. Madison checked, I was only 3 cm and my water had not broken. Since they don't admit until you are 4 cm, we decided to wait it out to see if we had progressed any in an hour. So we waited. They said I could walk if I wanted to since that usually helps the process along, but I was at the point I was having trouble walking with my contractions so I did not want to. After about 30 minutes, I decided to try because I hadn't progressed any. Carey helped me get out of the bed but as soon as I stood up I got sick and was in a lot of pain with my contractions. The nurse laid me back down and said she was going to prepare me to be admitted because she was sure that we were having a baby tonight. 

We got moved to a room, blood work taken, and as soon as our results came in I received an epidural. Once it started working, Carey and I both were able to relax and get some sleep. And that is exactly what we did. Unlike with Claira-lynn, my contractions did not stop with the epidural.  Thankfully they kept coming and I kept progressing. Carey and I slept most of the night, making sure we got in as much sleep as possible. Around 5:00 in the morning, the nurse came in and woke me up because she wanted to check me again. She said that my baby's heart rate looked like he was telling us it was time to push. She checked me and I was 9 cm, but my water had still not broken. The nurse called Dr. Madison in to make a decision on what to do. 

Dr. Madison decided to break my water, put in a heart rate monitor for baby, and go from there. She broke my water and then tried to put in the heart rate monitor. As soon as she got it in, I told her I felt like it was time to push. Sure enough I had progressed the final cm and it was time. Yes. This all happened in like 10-15 minutes. Dr. Madison and the nurse started getting everything ready as fast as they could so we could push. In the hustle, they said "Dad, time to wake up and have a baby!" Carey jumped up from his chair and said "Let's go!" 

As soon as he was by my side, we started pushing. One contraction, 3 pushes, Dr. Madison looks at me and says, "Bobbi-sue, I need you to get your baby out on this next contraction or I will have to suck him out. He is not liking these contractions. And sucking him out would not be good for you or your baby." What do you do when your doctor tells you that?!?! Well, I wanted to freak out, but there was no time for that. I had to get my baby out. So that is what we did. Next contraction came and with the 3 pushes, he was out. For a total of less than 10 minutes of pushing. 

Dr. Madison immediately put him on my belly which was so beautiful. We did not get that with Claira-lynn because she came out not breathing. Fifth was looking around, but not breathing. So after giving him a few seconds, special teams was called in. Another thing a mother wants to hear. What seemed like a second later, a group of people came calmly rushing in and took Fifth off of my belly. At this point we were just sitting and waiting to hear his cry. We could hear him trying, but it was like he couldn't. They ended up sucking fluid out of him and then we were able to hear his sweet little cry. And then our little boy was here. Carey Douglas Wilson V "Fifth" was here. 

December 15, 2012 at 5:27 am 7 pounds and 21 inches long

Meeting her brother for the first time.

Checking out brother

Excited Sister

Big Eyes

Next on Catching Up Series, Christmas!

Playing Catch Up Part I: Thanksgiving

So I am not very good at this blogging thing, which is obvious since I haven't posted again in over 6 months. But I want to do this to record the events happening and for our friends and family that live away from us. (My mom got on to me the other day for not updating.) ;) I am not going to go back over the last 9 months in one long blog post, but rather in a series. 

Thanksgiving was different this year for our family. Previous years we have traveled to Carey's grandparents' house in Asheville, NC spending Thanksgiving with them. This year we were unable to travel because we were awaiting the arrival of our sweet boy! So instead, we hosted Thanksgiving here in Wake Forest. Carey's parents usually meet us in Asheville but decided to come spend the holiday with us and we had a wonderful time! Between photo shoots, shopping, cooking, and eating, we had an enjoyable Thanksgiving with family. 

Playing with PawPaw

Grandmama and PawPaw

Thanksgiving Meal 2012

35 Weeks

Sweet girl

"Where's your brother?"

Kisses for Daddy

Update Part 2 - Pictures!