About a month ago, we got back from Cullen’s first beach trip. We had a blast!
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We attempted feeding Cullen oatmeal for the second time tonight. It went a lot better than our first attempt, but Cullen is still very unsure about the whole thing.
I just wanted to share a few pictures of Cullen’s first Easter.
The Easter Bunny brought Cullen a stuffed bunny, Sophie Giraffe and one of her friends, an Easter bib, and The Velveteen Rabbit. As you can see, he was trilled.
His adorable Easter outfit was a pink oxford shirt, chinos, a seersucker blazer, and the tiniest bowtie ever. He looked pretty darn cute.
Cullen and his Uncle Travis matched. Look at these handsome men!
We were able to sneak in a family photo once the sun came out. Cullen did not want to cooperate. I think he was ready to get out of those clothes.
After lunch, Cullen ‘found’ his first Easter egg with a dollar in it.
After a busy day, Cullen did some snuggling with his Uncle. Look at that face! Melts my heart!
Cullen got to experience his first snow today. I don’t think he really cared, but it gave me an excuse to bundle him up and take some pictures. Enjoy!
I am sure that Cullen will enjoy next year’s snow much more. Can’t wait to build snowmen with this little man!
This is only four weeks late, but I wanted to share Cullen’s birth story with everyone.
On Wednesday, January 16th, I had my 39 week doctor’s appointment. Since I had been measuring 1 1/2 to 2 weeks ahead, they wanted to do a growth ultrasound to see just how big Cullen might be. Before the ultrasound tech even said anything, I knew he must have been measuring really big, because she had to keep zooming out to get an accurate head and stomach measurement. Sure enough, they estimated that he weighed about 9 lbs 15 oz. I was carrying a 10 lb baby! No wonder I looked so huge!
After the ultrasound, Corey and I met with the doctor to see how I was progressing. At 39 weeks 3 days, Cullen had not really dropped, and I had not dilated at all. This boy was obviously not in a hurry to get out. And he was already almost 10 lbs and growing every day.
After talking with Dr. H, Corey and I decided that the best thing would be to go ahead and schedule a c-section. We discussed with the doctor that most likely, Cullen was not going to come on his own…he was just too big to even start making his way out. I was probably not going to go into labor on my own anytime soon, and the risks of me trying to birth such a large baby naturally were just not worth it. We scheduled the c-section for 9:00 the next morning. Leave it to me to plan the birth of my child.
After leaving the doctor’s office, we called our families and I called work to let them know I would not be coming back in for a while. Then I went home to pack what we needed for the hospital. (Yes, I waited until the last minute. Of course.) When Corey got home, we went out to get dinner for the last time as a family of two.
Thursday morning, we got up early, loaded up the car, and headed to the hospital. We were only about 5 minutes late (that’s pretty good for us), but my parents beat us there. After laughing about that, I checked in and headed to the room to get prepped for surgery. I put on that lovely hospital gown, crawled in the bed, and then the nurses hooked me up to about every machine imaginable. Corey and our families hung out in the room with us while nurses monitored me, the anesthesiologist introduced himself and went over the drugs I would get, and Dr. H came by to check on me.
At about 8:45, Corey donned his lovely blue scrubs, and they wheeled me down to the operating room. Let me tell you, they keep those rooms cold. That was probably my least favorite part of the whole experience. Despite my constant shivering, I got on the table and the anesthesiologist got to work numbing me up from the waist down. Once I got over the fact that no matter how hard I tried, I could not get my brain to tell my toes to wiggle, I was okay with not being able to feel anything.
Just after 9:00, they were about to start. I had to quickly let them know that I could see the reflection of my stomach in the overhead light. Thank goodness they could move the light; I did not want to see what they were doing down there. Corey on the other hand wanted to watch the whole thing. I was surprised that he was able to watch them cut me open like that. ( I guess all those medical dramas we watch helped.)
At 9:19 I heard our son’s first little noise. It wasn’t so much of a cry…he just seemed a little annoyed that someone moved him when he was so cozy. Corey grabbed the camera and followed the nurses to capture Cullen’s first moments as they weighed him and inked up his little feet.
After the ultrasound, Corey and I met with the doctor to see how I was progressing. At 39 weeks 3 days, Cullen had not really dropped, and I had not dilated at all. This boy was obviously not in a hurry to get out. And he was already almost 10 lbs and growing every day.
After talking with Dr. H, Corey and I decided that the best thing would be to go ahead and schedule a c-section. We discussed with the doctor that most likely, Cullen was not going to come on his own…he was just too big to even start making his way out. I was probably not going to go into labor on my own anytime soon, and the risks of me trying to birth such a large baby naturally were just not worth it. We scheduled the c-section for 9:00 the next morning. Leave it to me to plan the birth of my child.
After leaving the doctor’s office, we called our families and I called work to let them know I would not be coming back in for a while. Then I went home to pack what we needed for the hospital. (Yes, I waited until the last minute. Of course.) When Corey got home, we went out to get dinner for the last time as a family of two.
Thursday morning, we got up early, loaded up the car, and headed to the hospital. We were only about 5 minutes late (that’s pretty good for us), but my parents beat us there. After laughing about that, I checked in and headed to the room to get prepped for surgery. I put on that lovely hospital gown, crawled in the bed, and then the nurses hooked me up to about every machine imaginable. Corey and our families hung out in the room with us while nurses monitored me, the anesthesiologist introduced himself and went over the drugs I would get, and Dr. H came by to check on me.
At about 8:45, Corey donned his lovely blue scrubs, and they wheeled me down to the operating room. Let me tell you, they keep those rooms cold. That was probably my least favorite part of the whole experience. Despite my constant shivering, I got on the table and the anesthesiologist got to work numbing me up from the waist down. Once I got over the fact that no matter how hard I tried, I could not get my brain to tell my toes to wiggle, I was okay with not being able to feel anything.
Just after 9:00, they were about to start. I had to quickly let them know that I could see the reflection of my stomach in the overhead light. Thank goodness they could move the light; I did not want to see what they were doing down there. Corey on the other hand wanted to watch the whole thing. I was surprised that he was able to watch them cut me open like that. ( I guess all those medical dramas we watch helped.)
At 9:19 I heard our son’s first little noise. It wasn’t so much of a cry…he just seemed a little annoyed that someone moved him when he was so cozy. Corey grabbed the camera and followed the nurses to capture Cullen’s first moments as they weighed him and inked up his little feet.
A few minutes later, Corey brought Cullen over to me and laid him on my shoulder. I immediately loved that little boy more than I could have ever imagined. I wanted so badly to wrap my arms around him and never let go. But I had to settle for kissing his sweet little head as Corey held him close.
Cullen Todd was born on Thursday, January 17th at 9:19 am. He weighed 9 lbs 5 oz and was 21 inches long.
After Dr. H sewed me back up, we went back to our Mom and Baby room. Our families met us in the hall on the way and got a glimpse of the newest family member.
We stayed in the hospital until Sunday. We had a wonderful experience while we were there. Cullen’s birth went great, and I was already recovering well. There is really not anything I would change about Cullen’s birth. I am a little sad that I didn’t get to experience a traditional labor and delivery, but more than anything I am happy that our son made his entrance to this world happy and healthy.
And because I can’t help myself, here are a few more pictures from our stay in the hospital.
About a week before Cullen’s due date, we finally finished the nursery! It’s about time!
I love this room!
On December 1st, Corey and I had some maternity photos taken by the amazing Liz Davison at Yellow Umbrella Photography. I think she did a great job capturing our personalities and how excited we are about our little boy! Here are just a few of the pictures:
Cullen Todd
Todd is Corey’s middle name, so we knew we wanted to use that for our little one’s middle name if he was a boy. Turns out he is! 🙂
Cullen is a name I heard during a Clemson football game. It was the quarterback’s name a couple of years ago, and I really liked the name, so Corey and I added it to our future kids name list.
We were set on a middle name for both a boy and a girl, from the moment we found out we were pregnant, but we could not seem to agree on a first name for either one. We made a short list of girl and boy names and decided to leave it at that until we knew which one Little Sprout was. We continued to discuss names, but mostly boy names since I really felt we were having a boy. Corey was stuck on Cullen, and I kept coming up with alternative choices. Each one Corey shot down.
Then this past week we found out Baby M is definitely a boy. Corey immediate said Cullen should be his name. I liked it (of course…I mentioned it first), but I wanted to think it over some more before we made a final decision. I started looking at the meaning of Cullen and Todd. According to most baby name websites, Cullen means ‘handsome’ and Todd means ‘fox’. Our son’s name would mean ‘handsome fox’. That sealed it for Corey. I agreed, and it was decided.
I can’t wait to meet our little Cullen!
CHEESEBURGER!!!
And it was delicious! As silly as it sounds, I missed cheeseburgers so much!
I think my eating habits are finally getting back to normal. I am so happy that I can pretty much eat anything again!
Happy 4th everyone!!!
I thought I was really good at keeping secrets, but not telling anyone about our little sprout is killing me!
I told Corey on Mother’s Day that I was pregnant, but we decided to wait a week to tell our families. This has been one long week!
Our families have been pressuring us to have kids since we got married. (That is three years of “When are you going to make us grandparents?” and “I want a nephew!”) Except from my mom. She told us we had to wait until she graduated and got a job. Sorry mom.
We had dinner with our families on Mother’s Day, and trying to keep my mouth shut all night just about killed me. The entire dinner conversation centered on trying to convince us to go ahead and have a baby already. We heard things like
“There should be three moms at this table.”
and…
“We would babysit all the time.”
and…
“I need to get a mini van to carry around all my future grand babies.”
Little did they know one was already on the way. 😉
Our families have been pressuring us to have kids since we got married. (That is three years of “When are you going to make us grandparents?” and “I want a nephew!”) Except from my mom. She told us we had to wait until she graduated and got a job. Sorry mom.
We had dinner with our families on Mother’s Day, and trying to keep my mouth shut all night just about killed me. The entire dinner conversation centered on trying to convince us to go ahead and have a baby already. We heard things like
“There should be three moms at this table.”
and…
“We would babysit all the time.”
and…
“I need to get a mini van to carry around all my future grand babies.”
Little did they know one was already on the way. 😉
Do you know how hard it is to keep a secret this big when you talk to your mom every day? And when every time you see your bother he not-so-subtly hints that he wants a niece or nephew? I am so glad the wait is almost over. We are finally going to tell our families tomorrow!