Good Morning...or maybe afternoon? What is today?

Since that momentus day on Sept 29, 2009, I haven't been able to keep up with the days, to save my life - they all sort of melt into each other. Did you know the other day I found out it was NOVEMBER?!?!! And now someone told me the movie, "New Moon" was coming out today and I was like, Oh no, that doesn't come out till the 20th! Note to self: Never seemed so assured of yourself unless you have a clue! November 20th???? That means Thanksgiving is like 1-2-3-4-like next week! Which, by the way, I'm very excited about because I GET TO GO HOME TO VIRGINIA!!! That means Gabe gets to meet his whole other side of the family! Granted, at this point, Gabe is kind of take it or leave it, but I am very excited and his other grandparents are very excited!

I had some new pictures for you but here's my deal. This is what I've been up to a lot lately.....



...and this is what Sam has been doing a lot lately....



So there you have it folks. All that to say, besides the fact that my life is a perfect tragedy, Sam is out hunting again today and took the camera with the new pictures on it, with him!*

Congratulations to my mom! She has finished her rounds of radiation with flying colors! Now she is busy preparing her house for all the Thanksgiving festivities. My aunt and uncle are coming up from Florida tonight or tomorrow and they are off to parties and festivities. Then on Tuesday, Sam and I fly in with the Gabe-meister. We land in DC and stay there with extended family till Thursday, when my brother and sister-in-law arrive from FL! Can't wait to see everyone and I'm so glad that mom has finished her radiation and had a little time to rest up in preparation for everything!

Gabe-man: He's doing great, besides the fact that he just spent the last 30 minutes crying himself to sleep. I put him down sleeping like a baby and 10 minutes later, he woke up crying, it was a tired cry and I was fighting myself for going in there to check on him or pick him up and snuggle that adorable little man, but everytime I couldn't take it any longer, I'd head in that direction, he would stop crying and act as if he was sleeping.... Then I'd come back and get settled in - all over again, for 30 minutes!! But I haven't heard him for the last 15 minutes, so I think he's finally sleeping! He's starting to smile more! That sure is fun! Whenever I have things to do and people to see, he doesn't seem to make that too easy! I think he likes getting uninterrupted sleep! Imagine that! Anyway, among my new pictures to post are some smiley ones of him, so keep in touch - they will be arriving shortly - as soon as Sam gets home from earlier mentioned hunting! :)

And me: I'm getting stronger and stronger by the minute. In fact, Sam and I went on a walk yesterday and I climbed a huge hill with the little Gabe man attached to me via Moby wrap. It was really quite nice! Speaking of our walk yesterday, well, maybe I'll wait for my camera for that story.

I was complaining to Sam the other day that I've lost all my funny-ness. I'm pretty sure that my stories revolved around the crazy things he does and now I spend a lot more of my time feeding the baby, changing diapers, laundry, dishes and straightening the house.... There really is nothing funny in that. And although our walk yesterday didn't turn out too funny - still, another crazy adventure!!! Tune in next time...

Well, folks, the little guy just woke up again... I'll have to check on him and get him calmed down - actually he stopped again... But I should go - it's getting close to tax time, so I need to get my paperwork in order! Until next time,

Concentrating on my blessings in the Tundra,

Love, Sarah

*My life may not be accurately pictured here. Some facts may have been exaggerated to illustrate a point. Some pictures could have been brought in from archives, but alas, some are current! I still have the best husband ever even if he has been gone the last 15 weekends in a row for whatever reason! ;)

Ok.

Turns out my mind is mush. I thought I downloaded my frozen pond pictures before I deleted them. Evidently, I didn't. So disregard my previous note on banner picture. Until I get a good family picture, you'll have to endure pictures of the cutest little guy in the world! :)

It's about time...

I'm posting some pictures that may not be appropriate for the faint of heart, but they were so cool, I couldn't pass it up!

First of all - the little guy, Gabe, just reached his 6 week mark on Tuesday! I heard someone once say that it DOES get easier and frankly, I had my doubts. But it's true, well, I don't know about easier, but better, definitely better! The last few days he's been such a joy, waking up happy and smiley and then eating perfectly and then going back down for a nap. We definitely have had our days, but overall, it's so much more enjoyable.

I wanted to share this pictures - for my Aussie cousins - here's little Gabe, the Kangaroo!



Here are some we took at about a month....











Here are some from way back when - 6 weeks ago!











Ok, well, this is what we have right now. Now that Gabriel is getting some personality, and not just sleeping, eating, etc., we'll get tons more photo's and video!!! He is going to be visiting his Grandma and Grandpa in VA and tons of aunts and uncles and cousins in about a week and a half - so that will be tons of fun!!! Stay tuned...

Oh and one more thing - the new picture on my blog banner - I just had to show you - that was in October sometime. I haven't started keeping track of dates yet, but I wanted to show you how we really do live in the Tundra - even if yesterday was 60 degrees!

Keeping it real in the Tundra,

Love, Sarah

Giveaway Winners!

I'm sorry it's taken so long to get back to you - all of you - my faithful followers! I feel like I have been hiding under a rock - Erik, thank you for pointing that out!

Today I figured out who was going to win Sam's print by guessing Gabe's birthday... It's between two people - Wes and Aleycia and the winner is..... Aleycia!!!!! Thanks to a helpful patron of Boneshaker Coffee - Aleycia, you are the winner. I will get in touch with you to let you know what prints we have available!

Well, the little man, Gabriel is nearly 6 weeks old - they told me it would get better and it has. I never thought the time would come when I wouldn't mind going out in public just in case he woke up! But right now, I'm sitting in a coffee shop typing along with the little man sleeping at my side! Sam is off deer hunting and won't be back till tomorrow. That has certainly been an adjustment. I used to get to spend so much time with my best friend, Sam... Now I get to hang out at home with Sam's little man - Gabe! And that is fun, but an adjustment. Gabe has started smiling a lot today, especially and that certainly makes life more fun! :) But I continue to ask for your prayers - for all the adjustments!

We head home to VA in a couple weeks - pretty excited about that. Even though I've been home all this time, I need a vacation! Can't wait to introduce the addition to the rest of the family - especially his grandma and grandpa and aunts and uncles!!!!

Trying to think of what else has been going on lately - mostly just making the bed and doing dishes and laundry on a more regular basis - and that's not too funny... I did take a load of junk to Salvation Army yesterday and opened the hatch of the van only to have all of it come pouring out on my toe and end up breaking most everything in there!!! So luckily there was a dumpster right by the door. Mission accomplished either way - so that's not that funny of a story - I guess you had to be there! I find that most of my funny stories revolve around Sam and I haven't been able to hang out with him much lately, so I'm fresh out. We haven't even had a Sabbath in weeks, it feels like. I hope we get to take some time off this Sunday since nice weather has touched down in the Tundra - seriously - it's 68 degrees right now, maybe even 70!!!

I was going to post some pictures, but I'm getting ready to go on a walk and don't have time. But for any of you that are on Facebook, I did post some there. For those of you NOT on facebook, I will try to get them posted here soon!!! I hope I haven't lost all of you! We will be getting internet soon and I'll be back in business.

So, to you, all my family and friends - thanks for hanging in there with me! I will be back soon, I promise, with video and pictures of Gabriel's "Early Days!" I didn't even post those on Facebook!

Well, gotta run and enjoy the last minute warm weather in the Tundra,

Love, Sarah

The Big Debut!

Well, not that big, because I don't have any pictures right now! I need internet at home and basically to get my poop in a group! Turns out the library won't let you upload photo's to their computers! :P Go figure!!!

SO..... GABRIEL NEALE COLEMAN!!!!!!!!!!! Weighing in at 8 lbs. 2 oz. 21 inches long of pure adorable sweetness! Seriously, he's the sweetest, cutest, most adorable, most delicious, most perfect baby in the whole entire world - everyone tells me, so I must not be prejudice! :) (At least, they'd better tell me that if they know what's good for them! HA)

We went in to be induced last Tuesday morning at 2am. I was 0 dilated, will try not to go into all the gory details, but anyway, here goes.... I was given the prolactyn(?) gel and the contractions started a little more than I had already been experiencing. The whole while, I'd planned on going naturally, then during that time of NO SLEEP, I was figuring out how to get pain medicine REALLY fast! In fact the nurse came up to me to ask me what my pain plan was and I told her I didn't have one, but I was figuring one out really fast! :) So by 8am, the Dr. came in to break my water, I was about a 1 dilation - holy cow - 9 more to go?!?!? Kill me now! So then by noon, I was about at a 3 and begging for an epidural! We had an amazing labor and delivery nurse - seriously, I couldn't have asked for someone better, she basically camped out in my room! She got an anesthesiologist in there for the epidural with contractions coming about every 5 minutes at like a pain level 0-10? well, I'd say about a 55! The epidural was a rough go. You have to be so still and he couldn't get it. I guess Sam said I get poked about 10 times. He even nearly passed out! Finally it took around 1:15 and I fell asleep immediately - this is after about 2 days of not sleeping! At 1:45, I was awakened to put an internal contraction monitor in and the nurse decided to check and I was immediately at a 10!!! Holy Cow! All it took was a half an hour rest! Go figure, having babies wasn't quite as hard as I thought! ....Or so I thought! So it's time to push - Sam, got your camera??? The time is here!!! I was ready - couldn't feel a thing - amazing!!! So I started pushing at 2. and pushing....and pushing... and pushing.... and pushing... At 3:30, the Dr. came in and said that the baby's head was stuck and turned in the wrong direction and they couldn't even get in there far enough to get him turned around. She suggested a C-section. I was devastated. This was NOT turning out AT ALL how I'd planned. But I'm flexible. I told her I'd like to keep pushing for another half an hour... She agreed and let me go. I went for another 45 minutes and the little guy didn't even budge! So now, it was off to prepare for a C-section... The little guy - Gabe - was born at 5:05pm and he was just beautiful! Sam followed him right away to get cleaned up and got to spend the first good hour with his son, holding him and loving him...It was so special for him!! I was recovering... and having a hard go of it! Turns out, to make a long story short, I'd lost a lot of blood and continued to do so all during recovery. My hemoglobin plummeted down to a 6.7 and is only now starting to climb. It's a long road, I've noticed. Sure that was only a week ago - but seriously!!! It's so hard to "take it easy!" But when I look at little Gabe and see his precious bright eyes looking around and stopping to focus on my face as I feed him, or his dad's voice as he loves on him and talks to him - it's all worth it!

So all that to say - please continue to pray for us! We brought Gabe home on Friday and have been learning all about him since! He's already changing so much, getting bigger, more alert (don't know how that's possible!) and he's just beautiful! I can't wait to introduce him to my mom and dad, his namesake - Neale, in November! I've been feeling extremely tired and like I said, having a hard time taking it easy - I feel like I should be able to do all the things from before! I've been way more emotional than I like. In fact, it's a good thing I'm sharing this via internet, or else you'd have to pick through the sobbing tears to figure out what I'm trying to say - and I'm at the library!!! Sad, isn't it?!

On a side note, which should be more fore front than side note, my husband is seriously perhaps the most amazing man in the world. Now I realize that I've made some pretty big calls all during this post, but it's my blog, I'm allowed to! But seriously, I can't even explain to you how well he takes care of me and little Gabriel and our home and everything! He's still got his art show coming up in a few weeks, which is a BIG deal and he's got a lot of things to do for that, but he's just so amazing! There is no way I could do it without him! So just a plug for most amazing husbands in the world - if you've got one, stop right now and run to him and give him a big kiss and tell him he's the most amazing man in the world! 2nd only to Sam Coleman! I plan on doing this as soon as I see my man!

Well, we've been home for three nights so far and we've had two "off" nights and one "on" night. I'm praying that tonight is an "on" night! We've been spending our days figuring out what we did wrong yesterday and changing our actions so that it doesn't happen tomorrow! I have a feeling I'm going to be spending the rest of my life in this particular state! I have learned that nuks are evil - even if you only use them for 1 hour. I've figured out that just because babies are super cute when they sleep - don't let them do it for as long as they want! I've learned that even though newborns don't have teeth - they can still bite! Ouch!!! I've learned that you want to keep the hospital id bracelet's on for a couple days after coming home, just to make sure that your precious gift wasn't switched at the door for an alien child! I've learned that having a lactation consultant for a good friend is indespensible! Three cheers for St. Aleycia Gerlach! There are a lot more things that I've learned, but it turns out the library is about to close and I need to go now. I was just informed there is an hour time limit per day on the machine and I'm getting an evil look!!! Will check in later!

Feeling overwhelmed in the Tundra,

Love, Sarah

Alright - time is up!

I cannot continue the Giveaway contest, because #1 - we are heading in to the hospital tonight/tom. morning. And the Dr. said tomorrow is the big day! So once we actually see the whites of little Coleman's eyes, I will check the entries and see who picked the correct day and do a drawing with those particular people and I'll be contacting you with the choice of your prize!!! I'm still praying that there is a possibility of those of you who chose today - contractions started last night. I don't know if they are the "real" ones or the Braxton Hicks kind, but either way - I hope that when I go in tonight, things will have progressed far beyond what they expect and we'll have baby out sooner than ever! Keep praying!!! I did have some pictures I was going to post for you today, but Sam took my camera out duck hunting this morning and so I don't have it with me. So stay tuned for lots of posts!!! I still haven't finished the nursery, so I didn't want to post those pictures yet, but hopefully we'll be able to get that done pretty soon. I wanted our chalk board to up to welcome the new guy, but alas, not done. Too busy. But we will get it up, one of these days, I promise! :)

Other than that, my mom started her radiation. Please keep her in your prayers. I think it's going well so far, today is her third day into it!

And on another note! Sam has decided to postpone school until next semester! So we are very excited about that and Sam has a few weeks to focus on his paintings and get those ready to go for his big show. A load was really taken off when he made that decision and so yay!!!

Other than that, I guess we are all as ready as we can get for Baby Coleman to arrive. Will be posting stories, pictures and news asap - make sure to tune in!!!!

Getting ready for a new little man in the Tundra,

Love, Sarah

Thursday Morning!

Good Morning Folks,

Just wanted to stop by and say so far, no baby. Things are progressing, but slowly at this point. Everyone has been giving me pointers on how to make the baby come sooner, but frankly, I think he got wind of life OUTSIDE with the womb with Mom and Dad and he's decided he might like to stay INSIDE for a bit longer! :)

I did want to show you a couple senior pictures - now, just remember, these are straight out of the camera, but they were just too good not to share... I'll be working on editing them here pretty soon, so keep in touch for more!!!

Before.....ahhhh, what a cutie patootie!


and after..........hahahahahahahahahahahaha



I'm sorry, I couldn't resist! He totally fell in by accident! I love it!!!

Hope that brought a smile to your face like it did mine!

Waiting for a baby in the Tundra,

Sarah