18 Days

Random Thoughts from This Morning:

It's been 18 days... I've been a mom for 18 days! That thought hasn't totally sunk in yet. It's still very surreal. I have this adorable little man in my life who I'm still figuring out. "You're diapers dry... you just ate... I'm holding you... I've stopped singing... why are you still crying?" Ok, that really only happens one time a day - typically around 10pm - but it still pulls on your heart strings... the fact that sometimes he just needs to cry and you just have to let him. Again, we're still figuring it out.

It's been 18 days. How the hell did that happen? My life is built on three hour increments... How have 18 days gone by already?! I keep reminding myself to live in the present moment. To not wish for Cole's next step - for him to roll, to hold his head up, to sleep through the night - but somehow it's all going to be here before I'm ready for it. Our good friend Nicole brought over her 7-month old, Hannah, yesterday... Watching her smile, feed herself, interact with everything around her... I realized that Cole will be there in no time. He'll be motoring through the house and being a little independent person before we know it. I WILL live in the moment.

It's been 18 days and I'm going to stop feeling guilty. I'm not able to breast feed (sorry if that's TMI for some of you) - Ole Bessy is dried up - and that's ok. My beautiful son is now 9 lbs and is remarkable. He's healthy and perfect so I'm going to stop feeling bad.

It's been 18 days and I still can't nap. Maybe I'm not as tired as I think I am but I still haven't been able to nap. I'm just not a good napper. Hopefully this will change over the next 18 days.

It's been 18 days and my marriage has never been better. Even though we're both sleep deprived and smelly... Even though my stomach looks like jello and I'm still wearing pads that resemble diapers (ok, way too TMI)... Even though our night-lives revolve around pizza and rented movies... I can honestly say our marriage, our friendship, our admiration for one another, and our love has never been stronger.

It's been 18 days and I'm head over heels in love. Somehow in between all those foul smelling diapers, screams of frustration, sore nipples, countless doctor visits, and endless bottle cleanings... I've fallen completely in love with Cole.

Just Some Pictures

Thought I would post a few pictures from the weekend... Aunties, Fraunties, and Giraffes... Oh my!

Cole wearing J's new ski goggles

Grandma, Cole and J on Christmas Day

Rogowski ladies and Cole celebrating Christmas

Aunty Jenna and Cole

Naked Baby!

Hanging out with Fraunty Jen

Grandma Pugh trying to put Cole in the adorable backpack from Jenna

He looks so thrilled doesn't he?!

Cole's Second Week and First Christmas!

Where does the time go? Even though we've been on a pretty tight schedule (eat, poop, sleep) the days just seem to fly bye.

Cole has passed his birth weight (8.1) and is doing wonderfully. He's a great sleeper (J and I really love that) but is becoming much more curious when he's awake. He's looks around, reacts to voices and then makes this adorable old man face as he pushes out a poop. Never thought I would think that was cute but I can't get enough of it!

On a personal front, Jason will be starting a new job with Olson-Denali Marketing after the new year. He's very excited and I'm very jealous of the brand new Mac Book Pro he got! He'll be a couple of blocks away from my work so we'll see how car pooling goes. I'm not the most pleasant of drivers in the morning... might get a little tense!

Over the past week Cole has gotten to meet lots of good friends from both near and far. He's been awake for about half of those meetings! Here are some pictures:

Nicole with her daughter Nora and Cole... Future couple alert???

Jordan with Nora and Cole... Kinda scary!

Grandpa Dude and Cole... just chilling

Fraunty Jen... looks pretty natural to me

Leah and Jim stopped over on Christmas Eve morning... So excited for these two and their wedding in September!!!!

Had to throw this one in here :: Our Christmas Eve dinner table

Last but not least... Cole on Christmas Eve. He's the best present we've ever and will ever get!

Jason and I hope all of you reading this have a wonderful Holiday and that you get to spend it with family and friends!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Cole Bridger Rogowski

This post is well past due... Its bound to be spastic but the main point is Cole is here!

Cole Bridger Rogowski was born at 1:57pm on December 13th. Mom and Dad (so fun to say) went into the hospital at 3:30am and after a quick check were admitted. After some VERY painful back labor (the Natural birth plan went out the window when that hit) and a little help from pitocin, I started pushing at noon... Jason was WONDERFUL (actually that barley starts to describe him) through the whole thing but was the BEST labor coach ever. He was right there the entire time and had a good laugh as I kept saying "can't you just pull him out!" - After two hours of hard work, our little man was here! A screaming 8 lb, 21" long baby boy!

The next fews days at the hospital are still a blur but what came next is slightly more fresh. Cole's weight started dropping and his bilirubin started rising... after three trips to the doctor Cole was admitted to Children's Hospital Friday afternoon. I'm not going to go into all the details as it's not fun to relive it but the main thing is we are home, Cole is now eating like a mad-man, and his bilirubin levels are back to normal! We have a follow-up appointment on Tuesday to make sure he is still on the up-and-up so I'll make sure to report back after that.

To all the wonderful friends and family who have been trying to reach us to come meet Cole, this is why we haven't been responding... We wanted to make sure we got him home and back settled... BUT we do appreciate all your emails and texts wanting to come... you will all meet him soon... Promise! :)

So that is that - Both J and I are pretty worn down from the past week so in between the feedings ever three hours we sleep!

Here are some pictures of our little monkey - MANY more to come soon!

Daddy and Cole at the Hospital after

Cole's second time to the Hospital - Children's - wearing his "bili-shades"

Cole's first rave

Cole at home (finally) - Oh so cute!

Future Flatlander!

Cole and his bear from Mary Kay

Watching football with Daddy as I write this...

All About the Attitude

I've decided to change my attitude today.

The past few days I've been pretty much obsessing about having this kid. Over-analyzing every cramp, kick, etc... It's been pretty much consuming my mind. Then I realized that I was being ridiculous. This kid is going to come when he's ready and right now he's pretty content. So I woke-up today and made the decision that I was not going to let the idea of "he could come any minute" consume me. I'm going to focus on all the exciting stuff going on around me (work, J, parties, etc.) and when Los wants to join the party he will.

I'm sure some of you are reading this and thinking "well that's a nice thought Brit but I doubt you're going to be able to do it."

Well, you're somewhat right... obviously I'm writing a post about it so I haven't completely put it from my head. BUT I'm ignoring what my doctor said last Friday and going back to my due date. When someone asks "when are you due?" - I'm going to smile and tell them the date... not say "any day now" or "hopefully soon" -- Nope, I will give them a grin through my swollen cheeks and say "the 20th" (ok, that's a few days early but give me a little credit).

So I hope you all have a good day... and if you need some new pump-up/workout/shake your booty music download Girl Talk's Night Ripper - 'Los is probably getting dizzy from how much I'm shaking in my office to this CD!

Two Weeks and Counting!

How big is baby? Los is about 7 lbs. and is in the 80^th percentile! According to one website he’s the size of a watermelon… on another, a duffle bag. Both seem extremely large when I try to picture it in my stomach so I’m just going to go with “he’s the right size to come out and not kill me”.

Maternity Clothes? I’ve given up on looking cute. Last week I was a real trendsetter: I wore Jason’s sweater to work one day and yoga pants another. Unless there is a client meeting on my calendar don’t expect too much from me!

Sleep: Some nights it’s great (only getting up once to pee) and others it’s awful. Last night happened to be an awful one so there is a lot of glaring and crabbiness exuding from my office.

Movement: Most of the blogs you read will talk about a decrease in movement by this stage since the baby is usually so squished… Well lucky for Los I’m pretty lengthy so he’s still able to move and groove. I actually think this is my favorite stage for movement because you can tell what’s moving across your belly... “Oh, that was his foot” or “I think he just punched my ***”!

Food cravings: I’m trying to reframe “craving” in my mind – this prego weight isn’t going to come off if I’m still eating ice cream and Baby Ruth’s every night!

What I miss: Every little thing that I miss can be summed up into one big thing: I miss my old body. I never thought it was tight enough or strong enough but after being this round… this “waddley”… I’m thinking I was pretty damn perfect!

What I am looking forward to: I’m looking forward to the final piece of this crazy prego-puzzle… ‘LOS! J and I are as ready as we will ever be so bring it on! I’m ready to get my ass kicked in labor, to be sleep deprived from having to feed him every few hours, to get peed on when I attempt to change his diaper… I’m ready to make silly faces for hours on end, to snuggle with his chubby cheeks (I’m just assuming here), to take millions of pictures of every little face he makes… I’m ready to be a mom.

Milestones: This kid is cooked!

Say What?: Hearing the doctor say I was already 3 cm dilated was very cool… but now very annoying. Every night you go to bed hoping to be woken-up by contractions… you wake-up in the morning wondering if you’ll have to leave work early because your water’s going to break… updating a status sheet before you leave work every night in case you don’t make it in the next day… Basically I’m spending WAY too much time thinking this kid is going to come and I blame my stalled cervix.

'Los Update

Just got back from the doctor and thought I would give you a quick update:

'Los is turning out to a little land monster: 80th percentile weighing just under 7 lbs. We had a wonderful ultrasound nurse who let us spy on the little guy - he got annoyed and stuck-out his tongue at us!

As far as when 'Los is going to be here... well, I'm already 3 centimeters dilated (sorry if that's TMI for some of you) so our doctor is confident that he'll be here before Christmas!

To say J and I are excited would be an understatement!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend - careful on the roads all of you in MN

My, How Time Makes the Belly Larger!

I thought before we have our ultrasound tomorrow, and find out how big this kid is, I would take a little trip down memory lane.

First picture was taken on 9.10.10

This one, today... Wow!

Like I said... it's crazy how large a belly can get in three months!

A very special congrats goes out to Kimmy and Eric who are expecting in June!!!!

Holiday Wish Lists

It amazes me what you can do online these days! I was thinking about holiday shopping and how you can pretty much do it all online now... and then I thought about wish lists. How when you were little you would think for weeks about all the things you wanted. With Los I hadn't put much thought into it until a friend sent me this fun site. You get to grab pictures of things you want and make fun collages... just like being back in middle school minus the stacks of magazines and the Elmer's glue!

Best yet, it links up with all your social media pages and will post it for you (media nerd alert)!

So here's my fun, digital collage of all things cozy and sparkley:

Sparkling Winter List by brityr

Side note: All of these things are WAY expensive and not on my actual list... well, maybe the fingernail polish, Twilight movie and Lululemon pants! :)