Eric Christopher Has Arrived!!!!

Our Eric is finally here!!! He was born at 12:21 am on November 3rd!!! He weighed 7 lbs 4 oz. and was 19 in. long!!! It's is now November 7th and we still haven't taken our eyes off of him!!! (and I'm not quite sure we ever will!!!)

Here we are heading to the hospital!!! We didn't know if this was going to be the day since the day before we were told it was false labor and were sent home. Little did we know this time we were right and we'd be headed home with our Eric!

Photos of our very first time holding Eric!!!



He sure did have an exhausting day making his way into the world so he did lots and lots of sleeping on Mommy and Daddy!!!

Later that night so many of our family away from family came to visit him!!! Some couldn't make it, but everyones thought of visiting/visiting meant the world to us!!! I feel I say this every time...but we truly are so thankful for each and everyone of our friends!

He then got a special visit from his Grammie and Grampa!!! He sure did like meeting them for the fist time!!! He already can't wait for their second visit!!!

After that it was back to sleeping!!!

Ok...so Mommy and Daddy are a little new at this. Eric wasn't too happy when he saw the "bring home outfit" Mommy and Daddy chose for him were the size of his body! Oops!!! In our defense they did say 0-3 months. But we have quickly learned newborn is more his size right now! hahaha!!!

Our first family photo! Yes, we will be taking another one of these when Mommy isn't so...how should I say...swollen!

After a very long journey of wanting to start a family...to 38 weeks and 1 day of being pregnant...we finally have our little man home with us!!! It is amazing how much he has already changed our lives!!! There are simply no words to describe just what the feeling is...it's simply indescribable!!! It feels so good to finally say the words...WELCOME HOME ERIC!!!!

It's almost time!!!

Today (October 30th) I am 37 weeks and 5 days!!! I can't believe I took my last belly picture before our Eric arrives! I have so many mixed emotions when I think about that. I have loved, truly loved, being pregnant. Yes, I have had my share of "fun" things happen to my body along the way. The newest being my hands go completely numb when I sleep at night, when I open and close my right hand it tingles all the way up to my elbow, and my feet and ankles have decided to swell...and I mean swell! My shoe size used to be an 8...now...9 1/2! What is that!?!?! However...there was a time when I only dreamed of knowing what it would be like to grow a little one inside you and have that connection with someone you've never met before. And even though it's been 37 weeks and 5 days that I've been pregnant...I still can't believe that I have been blessed enough to get to experience the whole miracle of it all for myself! So at times I have to admit that I do get a little sad that my first pregnancy experience will soon be over.

However, I get such a rush of emotions that I can't explain when I think of what's to come. Meeting Eric for the very first time! Staring at him in complete awe that he is ours! That we, as a married couple, have so much fun together...but we now get to add this beautiful little addition to that relationship! Spending our first days together as a family! Waking up to, not only my husband in the room with me, but our son as well. How crazy is that!?!

We had a checkup on Monday and he is in perfect position and ready to go!!! And I had my treatment yesterday, so if he does decide to go, Mommy is right there ready with him!!!

WE CAN'T WAIT TO MEET YOU ERIC!!!!!!

NY shower for Eric!!!

October 4th 2008! What a perfect day this was! Eric and I got to spend the day with so many people that mean the world to us! We had a shower thrown for us by our NY family!!!

The day started off with a HUGE surprise! I turned the corner and who did I see standing there...Nan, Mama Downs, Auntie, and Keri! They drove all the way from Boston to surprise me. And if you couldn't tell from my, ever so attractive facial expression, I was very surprised to see them! For a second I forgot what state I was in!!!

Not only did my in-laws take the time to drive out and surprise me, but our dear friends Melvin, Cindy, and little Layla, as well as, Jackie (or as I like to call her...J Jones) both drove out just to say hi even though they weren't feeling well!!!!

The first game we played was, "How Big Is Jen's Belly?" It was during this game that the quote of the shower was said...by who other than Ally!
Quote: Jen...I bought THREE extra spools of ribbon just in case we needed them!!!

You'd think that was Liz's guess on how big my stomach was, but no, that's just how far off she was!!!

And the winner is....NAN!!!! I knew I loved you Nan!!! She only had approx. 1/2 inch left over!!!

Surprise number 2!!! Dave showed up! Our dear friend Dave now lives in CA :( He was in town only for the weekend visiting Jess and they still showed to spend time with us!!! We miss you already Dave!!!

Game #2. Ally (and Nick) spent so much time finding songs that had the word "Baby" in them. They then took little snip-it's of that song and compiled a CD for us to play "Name That Tune!" Everyone got to take home a copy of Eric's Baby Shower Mix! I've personally never heard of this game before and had a great time with it!

And the winner is...Karyn!!! I have no idea how she did it! My score: 19! Karyn's score: 31! The girl knows her music!!!

After games we moved onto opening gifts!!! In that big blue box to the left was a Bookshelf! (a gift from the Bruno family!) Ally arranged for everyone to add a book to their gifts to add to Eric's new bookshelf! (I've also never heard of this idea before and ABSOLUTELY love it!!! Thanks so much Ally for putting so much thought into everything you did!!!!)

Eric is so lucky that Mommy and Daddy have the best friends ever!!! They treated him VERY WELL!!! We couldn't be more thankful for each and every gift we received!!! But more importantly for each and every friend that came to celebrate with us!!! (and for those who had prior plans!)

Next was the cake! All I have to say about this is...YUMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!

After cake was a bunch of belly rubbing and having a good time!

As if having the best shower anyone could ask for wasn't enough...we also had some handmade gifts that are too amazing to go without mentioning.

Steph made this awesome Diaper Cake! I was SO torn with this gift. When I got it home I couldn't wait to break it open and play with all the goodies in it...but at the same time...it was so pretty that I just wanted to stare at it!!! How do you solve that problem...take lots of pictures of it. And that I did!!!

Eric also got a cozy hand knit pair of socks made special from Parke! I can not wait to put these on him! I can just picture him in a onesie with his little legs sticking out with these perfect little socks at the end of them!!! Thanks Parke!

And he is SO going to be styling in his new pair of hand knit sneakers!!! These are just too cute!!! Heather was thoughtful enough to take the time to knit these little sneakers for him! And what perfect colors...they will go perfect with his Patriots onesies!!!

And how perfect is this! This was handmade by Gwynne! I spent all day staring at this when we received it. (and still do) I love every part of it! The elephant has so much personality! And I love how it's personalized with his little name sewed on the bottom on it!

And a HUGE thanks to Emily for taking pictures of the entire day!!! Unfortunately she didn't make it into any shots due to the fact that she was behind the camera the entire time...and that's just not right!!! So here's a picture of our dear friend Emily who was kind enough to document Eric's entire shower for him!!! THANKS EM!!!

The Bruno family was nice enough to bring Eric's new bookshelf over one night. I had SO MUCH fun setting it up! Each and everyone of those books came from the amazing people in our lives! Thanks again for putting that together Ally! And to everyone for, not only adding to his book collection, but getting him some of the cutest cloths I have ever seen, carriers for us to hold him in, blankets, play mats, pj's, a bouncy seat, toys, wraps, lotions, hats, gifts certificates...the list goes on and on. And so does my appreciation for it all! THANKS SO MUCH FOR AN AMAZING DAY!!!!

Hiccup!!!

I had another Dr. appointment today to see Eric again! (tomorrow I'll be 34 weeks)

As always, they asked me how I was feeling. I told them great...because I am! It's amazing what taking one day off of work, to do nothing but lay on the couch with my eyes closed for most the day, did for me!

She then asked how his movements have been. Again, I said great! As much as this is the most uncomfortable stage of my pregnancy (ribs always ache)...it's by far my favorite stage of my pregnancy! As sad as it is for Eric...I love the fact that he is running out of room in there. He can no longer hide from me and I love it! Before he would kick and be gone...but now he doesn't have anywhere to be gone to! hehehe! So at just about any point of the day I can feel my stomach and feel where he is at (it's rock solid compared to the rest of my stomach)! It also means that I feel most his movements now. So anytime he does a slight adjustment...so does my stomach! Which can be a lot of fun when you are sitting in a meeting and he start to move around and someone, like Jessica, sees my stomach bounce! It was so much fun seeing her reaction to it! By the way...I'd like to thank you Eric for making Mommy's long meetings WAY more entertaining.

So after I leave the technicians room I have a seat and wait for the Dr. to be ready to see me. As I am sitting there Eric started to twitch, twitch, twitch. At first I started to laugh, but then he started to do his usual rolling around on top of it. To this day I never questioned how he moved, but this was strange. I tried to stay calm figuring I had just seen him 2 min. prior and everything looked perfect. But I couldn't figure out why he would be twitching at the same time as he is rolling around. So the Dr. calls me in and I immediately tell her to look at my stomach. She started to laugh and said "Oh...he has the hiccups!" Sure enough as I was sitting there they started to calm down and so did Eric. She said now is the time that that will start to happen more often. Now that I know what it is I think it's cute (Even though I don't think Eric would agree. He sure was moving around like crazy...almost as if he was trying to get what was happening to him to stop! Poor guy.) As much as it seems he hates them...I can't wait to hear those little hiccups in person!