Have yourself a merry little Christmas

 

This year I was so excited for Gatlin's first Christmas! I wanted to bottle up every minute of the season and just film/photograph every detail! It just had to be perfect. You don't get to redo a first Christmas! Ha!

Christmas Eve morning John's siblings and dad came over to our house for Christmas brunch. I have to say I hope this tradition sticks! I loved it! We weren't rushed to be anywhere else and we go to enjoy each other!

There were three very cute babies!

 

Gatlin was a little tired after opening all the presents!

Before we went to the Candlelight Service at our church, we baked some cookies for the sweet nurses that we had the week before at Muskogee Community Hospital. They were so good to us and we wanted to let them know how much we appreciated them. (We saved a few for Santa ;) ) 

Getting good family pictures is hard! ha! 

After Candlelight we went to my grandparents house to see my dad's side of the family. Then it was time to come home and get ready for Santa! We debated back and forth on whether we would tell Gatlin about Santa. We decided that we would first tell Gatlin about Jesus' birth and explain that Santa brings presents to celebrate His birth. But also that mom and dad give gifts to celebrate Jesus' birthday too! We tried to get Gatlin's reindeer jammies on but the little monkey has a little bit of a bigger head (his dad's fault!) we had to laugh because he is just so darn cute!

Then we read the Christmas story from Luke followed by the Night before Christmas as narrated by Pappy.  

Christmas morning I mad a very "nutritious" breakfast and we opened presents just the 3 of us. 

Then we went to my parent's house in our pajamas and opened presents with them.

Doesn't Gat make a pretty girl?!?

I love the fact that both sides of my family (mom's and dad's sides plus John's dad) come over to my parent's house for Christmas day lunch. I am blessed to have them all together in one place. After we ate lunch and rested for a few hours we went to John's sister Shannon's house for Christmas with Mike and Linda. We also got a family picture with the ENTIRE family!!!  

Papa Mike and Mia got Gatlin the cutest rocking horse that moves and neighs! (Never mind it is for ages 3 and up! ha!) Gatlin liked it until Mia insisted that the cousins share the new toy.  

I just love this picture!!! This is MY horse Kyle!!! I can only imagine how crazy it will be when Gatlin, Lincoln, and Kyle are all sharing toys! 

It was a wonderful Christmas. We are truly blessed for our family. We often complain that we have so many places to be during a short period, but even with a 4 month old it was a blessing to have to many places that we get to go!

Excuses

I have no excuses for not blogging.... but I haven't been blogging because.... being a stay at home mom is so much more work than I had anticipated! Don't get me wrong, I love love love my new job, I just had very high expectations of what I would be able to accomplish while I was home! John had to sit me down and have a little pep talk with me, and I quote, "I don't expect you to re-shingle the roof while I am at work!" Somehow my little big man takes more work that I had remembered from maternity leave!

I finally feel like we are getting into a good flow of things now though. Gatlin had to spend 4 nights in the hospital the week before Christmas and that totally ruined any sense of a schedule that we had working for us. It took a good 2 weeks to establish, that yes, we have to take naps, and yes we have to sleep alone in our own crib.

I also feel like I clean the kitchen no less than 3 times a day.... I am not sure how or why it works that way, but nonetheless I feel like I am constantly cleaning my kitchen! Have I ever mentioned that I am a very gold, type-A, analytical person? Especially when it comes to cleaning!!! I have to clean my house in a certain order. Kitchen, then living room, then the hall bath, nursery, office, then master bath and bathroom. I am not sure why I can't clean out of this order, but I just can't! So needless to say our office and master bedroom and bath remain a disaster!!! I think I may try reversing the order for a while, but then I couldn't stand it if my kitchen and living room weren't clean... So probably won't happen.

In other news. In a few weeks we will have another sweet baby during the day. Our sweet nephew Lincoln will be spending his days with Gatlin and me. I am very excited for when the boys are big enough to actually "play" together. I am not going to lie. I am a little nervous about having two babies, but I think after a few weeks we will get into a good routine! I also know that I would rather him be with me than anyone else (besides his mom!), so I am glad to be able to offer this to Caitlin and Cameron.

Our days are filled with lots of cuddles and laughter and I am such a blessed mom and wife!

Our House: Kitchen

Next up on the home tour is our kitchen. The countertops had just been done when we moved in, so we didn't do much more than paint and update fixtures.

Before:

After:

Our House: Nursery

I have been majorly blocked when it comes to writing a new blog post. I pretty much figured writing about my daily routine (feed, change diaper, play, lather, rinse, repeat) is a little dull so I figured I would give you a tour of the Hasler house as we are getting very very close to completing our renovations. It has only taken us two years to get here! ha!

First up is the Nursery:

Here's the before

Hideous fan

Icky paint colors

Non-functional closet!

NASTY carpet! 

Here's the after:

New organized closet!

Hand-painted canvas

Yes... I took these while Gat was sleeping! And yes he has a mild addiction to mobiles!

We spend lots of time in this comfy chair! 

Picture of Busch Stadium and Gatlin's personal favorite... The Jerry Rice clock!

New doors! 

And gorgeous new floors! 

Gatlin Reid Hasler!

Well we just barely made it to 38 weeks before Mr. Gatlin Reid Hasler came into our lives! It has been a complete whirlwind of two weeks! Here's the recap!

Wednesday July 27th:
We had a regular doctors appointment scheduled for this day. Last week my blood pressure was borderline high so our doctor had us monitor it at home and warned us that if it was not getting any better at our next appointment that we would talk about inducing within the week. We were a little nervous about being induced so we brought our bags and I cleaned the house like a mad woman! Honestly though we figured it would be the end of the week or early the next before we would be induced but we were being prepared, "just in case." They came in and check my blood pressure and decided that my blood pressure was still to high and that we needed to talk about induction. My doctor made a few calls and told us to come back at 4:30 (3 hours later) and check into the hospital. After freaking out a bit we ran across the street to PF Changs and grabbed a quick bite. Then we had a few more minutes to kill so we went and visited Kelli for a last minute pep talk! We checked in at 4:15 and they put us in the room and gave me a gown and told me to get comfortable. They started an iv line and started monitoring the baby. We were just giddy about meeting our little no name baby! They started cervidil around 10 pm and by 1 am I was in full on labor on my own. I was doing pretty good with pain management. Since I had high blood pressure they had me on constant monitoring so moving around was really hard. I spent most contractions just breathing it out and moving as much as I could in bed. John rested on and off when I wasn't begging him to rub my back.

Thursday July 28th:
At 2 am they decided that since I was in active labor on my own that they would not go on with the next round of cervidil. I was really getting excited even though I wasn't progressing that fast. At 7 am my doctor came in and said that my contractions weren't really consistent enough and that she was going to break my water and start pictocin. I made it about an hour after this before I was begging for the epidural! The anesthesiologist bragged that he had pretty much given me the perfect epidural. I had to agree! I could still move my body as I wanted I just couldn't feel anything! I could have gone days with the epidural! Things were progressing nicely! At around 3:30 I was dilated to a 7 but my temperature had spiked to 100.3. Also the baby's heart rate was averaging around 185. They gave me tylenol and told me that they would give me about an hour before they started talking about other options. At 4:30 my doctor came in and my temperature was 101.8 and the baby's heart rate was still high. She said she wasn't comfortable to let me keep going for possibly another 3-4 hours so we were going to do a c-section. Within seconds people were in the room prepping John and I for the OR. Poor John, his biggest question was, "Do I have time to go to the bathroom?" They told him if he hurried! I didn't even really have time to panic. Next thing I knew I was strapped to the table and my doctor was going through the checklist with the 15 staff members in the room. Then John got to come and and I started to cry. I couldn't believe we were about to meet our soon! He leaned down and kissed me and I asked him what are we going to name him??? He smiled and said, "After all you have been through today, we can name him what ever you want!" Gatlin Reid it was!

At 4:47 Gatlin Reid Hasler made his grand entrance into the world kicking and screaming! John's and my eyes immediately meet and filled with tears!  My doctor said, "Wow what a big boy as she was pulling him out." John got to watch them clean him up and I asked what he weighed. They said 8 lbs 10 oz. I was shocked! No wonder I wasn't progressing any faster! He was perfect! I spent the longest 20 minutes of my life being sewn up while John went with Gatlin to the nursery to get cleaned up and ready to officially meet mommy. They wheeled me back into my room and I saw the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. My sweet husband holding my precious son and just smiling and talking to him. It was over! He was here! The next few hours were really rough for us. The meds used during the surgery made me really sick. So I spent the next 3 hours throwing up while John and my dad alternated applying pressure to my incision to keep my stitches from ripping while I vomited. I would not have made it if it wasn't for my mom and mother-in-law holding Gatlin while I barfed! Finally I was able to sit up without throwing up and everyone went home.

Friday July 29- Monday August 1:
The next 4 days were a blur from day to night and in between our guests and the doctors being in and out. We couldn't wait to get home!!! I swear I cried more in these few days than I ever had in my whole life! My hormones were all over the place! Breastfeeding was really rough on us and we were really getting frustrated with each other. Once we made it home we all took a collective sigh of relief and relaxation.

Life at home with Gatlin is amazing. I can't help but sit and stare at him and praise God for his amazing blessing! I know now that I have stood strong through the toughest trial thus far in my life. I know that life is truly fragile. If two years ago God would have blessed us with our first baby making it to term I don't think I would have been as thankful as I am today. I had to learn to trust in God and His perfect timing in order to receive the greatest blessing.  Never will a day go by that I don't thank God for allowing us to have Gatlin. He truly is a blessing and miracle straight from God's hands.

Thank you all for being such great friends and supporting me during the past 2 years. You will never know how much your love and prayers were coveted. Days that I felt I couldn't go on I know it was your prayers lifting me up! Now I feel like one chapter is closing while another is just beginning!

37 Weeks!

We are 37 Weeks!

Let the countdown begin! We went to the doctor on Friday and she said that I was dilated to 1 cm and 70% effaced. While this doesn't get me super excited, I am glad to know SOMETHING is happening! I fully expected her to tell me that my cervix was solid and that I had not started dilating... we will take what we can get! 

The nursery is so close to finished that I can smell it! We just lack finishing the glider and curtains!!! Then I promise to devote a full post just to the nursery. So far I am feeling pretty good. I look ridiculous getting off furniture and my back is hurting like crazy today, but all in all I am just getting excited!

I am super excited that my son (whatever his name may be!!!) will have two new friends in a few months! It's awesome that both Kelli and Megan are both having boys! It does burn me a bit that they both already have names, but I guess that is a good thing!!! I look forward to many romping play dates with these little dudes!