Jonathan is HERE!

Per last blog, we saw the perinatalogist on Monday. She was quite surprised to see us. I guess it was just assumed that we were going to be induced on Monday morning. The specialist did the ultrasound and said that the baby was small, but he looked healthy. She still recommended that we went ahead in the next day or so to be induced. She thought that it would be safer for the baby and for myself. She was concerned that I was on blood thinners and wanted a more controlled delivery. Brent and I agreed and went back to the base to be induced. We hung out in L&D for awhile and then they sent us home until my blood thinner was out of my system. We returned to L&D at about 5:30pm and they started the IV and drew labs. Dylan went to a friend's house for the evening and we started this wonderful journey. At 8pm they started the Pitocin. I was not looking forward to that part...but it wasn't too bad...at first. I talked to anesthesia about getting an epidural and they told me that I had to wait and earn it. I was up for the challenge. Every half hour the nurse turned the Pitocin up. By 11pm, I was having contractions every 1-2min and I was hurting pretty bad. I was afraid that I was being a wimp and that it was too early to ask for an epidural...but I did it. The nurse went and got anesthesia and she checked me. I was really disappointed when she said I was only at about 4cm. Anesthesia started an epidural that was in a vascular space and had to take it back out. They started another one and it worked everywhere except in a small circle on the right. It was now 12midnight. Anesthesia told me to roll onto my right side to try to bask the nerve to try to cover the area. I rolled onto my side and my water broke. I was so glad that they weren't going to have to do it. Brent went and told the nurse...she checked and confirmed. She told me to call her if I felt any pressure. Five minutes later I sent Brent to tell her that I had pressure. The nurse came in rolling her eyes. She checked me and told me not to push...I was crowning. She ran and got the doctor. I pushed a few times and Jonathan was born at 1230am. He is perfect. He had some slight problems with low blood sugar, but he is fine now. We know that all of the prayers have showered this little man and kept him in God's hands. Jonathan was 5lbs 12oz and 18inches long. He is so tiny as you can see by the pics. Dylan is the proudest BIG Brother that has ever lived. He was telling the nurses how to hold his brother. They took Jonathan to the nursery to do an assessment and hearing test and Dylan was pacing in the room. Brent asked him what was wrong and he said, "it just isn't right, one of us should be with my brother...have you even SEEN the room where they took him?" When Brent took Dylan home for the night, Dylan said, "it is just not right not having Jonathan with us here...we need him with us". He is starting to wonder if Brent and I know what we are doing. I assured him that we have done this once before and we think we did an OK job. Ha ha. Well, all of the tests they have run so far have come back good. He is doing wonderful. I am feeling OK. Jonathan has his days and nights confused...so I am super tired...but we will figure it out. We got to come home this evening and we are so happy. We go tomorrow to pick up my dad and grandma....then they leave on Monday and my mom gets in on Tues. We are going to have company for the next few months. We are thanking God for a wonderfully healthy, beautiful little man. If you are wondering...I will be calling now and trying to get my surgery scheduled for about 2 months from now. I have my silver lining to this story already...but please keep the prayers coming...you have all gotten us this far. Well, I am getting my shift for sleep. I will try to post more often since I will be home for the next few weeks. Thank you again for all of your prayers and gifts. I will be getting the thank you notes out soon. Our love and prayers go out to all of you also. We pray that God blesses you as much as he has blessed us. Love, Crystal, Brent, Dylan, Jonathan, and Shadow

Baby Shower

So we made it to the baby shower. As some as you know...we may be having the baby earlier than expected. The last appt the doctor found out that the baby is not growing properly and there may be something wrong with the umbilical cord. Brent and I am going to go to see a Perinatologist on Monday (tomorrow) to get a second opinion before we allow them to induce me tomorrow afternoon or sometime shortly there after. Thank you for all of your prayers. Keep them coming. It may be a long road ahead of us with the appt and the birth. We pray that the baby is healthy whenever he comes into this world. Anyways...we did make it to the babyshower. It was a great time. We had a good turnout with great friends and we got a lot of really great things. I am going to keep this short. Tomorrow is going to be a really long day and I still have to pack a bag just in case. I have included some pics of the baby shower, the boyz rooms and future razorback shirt that I had from when I was pregnant with Dylan. Please once again...keep the prayers coming. We will let you all know as soon as we know something. Hope all is well with you all. Love, Crystal and the Boyz

School has Started..YA HOO

Hey everyone. So not a lot has been going on...but here is where we are. The baby and I have made it farther than Dylan and I did. We are now 36weeks and 4 days today! I have been feeling quite a bit more tired...but otherwise pretty good. I am still working full time...although everyone at work treats me with white gloves and baby's me wayyyyyy too much. The baby has dropped quite a bit...but I still hope and think we have a while to go. Next weekend is my baby shower thrown by a girl at work that I am friends with. She has threatened me that I have to wait until that is over to have this baby. I hope he doesn't try to get me into trouble. HA HA.
So this week has been pretty good. Brent is still on First Shirt duty..even though they said he would be done on Wed. They are now saying that this coming Friday is the last day. I sure hope so. He took Thurs and Friday off to site his gun and go hunting for deer. He didn't get anything...but he is also staying close to town...just in case. I think he just needed a break from work and such. Dylan started 3rd grade on Thurs. WOW! Where did the time go? He really seems to like his teacher...she told him to wait a few weeks until he decided. HA HA. I am not very happy that they have 28 students in the class. They have cut the budget so bad here. I guess education is not very important in California. But Dylan's teacher seems to have things under control and we just have to hope and pray that he will get what he needs out of this year!
My favorite thing that we did this week was to go and get family pics done with the baby bump. I wished we would have done it a bit sooner. My face and ankles/feet have really swollen in the past week or two...but I am just glad that we got it done. It was such a beautiful experience and I have to admit...I cried a bit when I saw the pics...but then again...the photographer and one of the other girls there also teared up a bit too! I posted the pics that we had to chose from...Grandparents...we have some in frames coming to you all with the extras in a book. Don't try to download off of here please. We also have a CD and we can get reprints or more prints ordered very easy if we need/want. Siblings...we have some coming for you also...whether you want them or not. HA HA. Anyways...hope you all enjoy them. I am so excited to take the baby back to these people when he comes to have more. They did such a fantastic job! The photographer has already started planning the next pics. Anyways...I best get going. Hope you enjoy the pics and I pray that you all are just as happy and blessed as we feel right now! Love to all

Getting Closer

I know it has been a bit of time since I have blogged AGAIN! Sorry. Things are just going so well. I have been working and so has Brent. Dylan is enjoying his summer at the Youth Center. He has gone on two movie field trips, two hiking field trips for his "ology" club that his is in. That is a club about pretty much the outdoors...so you know he LOVES it. They went to Mt Diablo and to a Rock Center where they had fossils and rocks and such. Then he has gone to a museum and he is going to another one next week. They have really kept him busy. He starts back to school I believe on Aug 20th. We have been staying busy getting the room set up for guests and the baby. We have gotten the baby's crib set and stroller/carseat combo. The girls at work are throwing me a baby shower on the 29th of Aug. They keep telling me that I better not have the baby before that...ha ha. The weather has been just wonderful. It has rarely hit 100 degrees this summer, which makes it nice for me to be able to get out and have some fun. We spent all of the 4th of July running around. We went to the parade in the morning, then over to the fair, then home for a nap, then to the Demolition Derby. Dylan LOVED that. I have always liked to go and Brent and I wanted to share that with him. He was screaming....he couldn't believe that they were actually hitting each other on purpose! It was so cool to watch him watch that! Then we made it to Suisun City to the Harbor just in time for fireworks. It was a really nice family day! Since then we have gone to see Frank and Lynette, we went to Santa Cruz to ride the steam train at Roaring Camp thru the Redwood Forest and then off to the boardwalk for dinner and games. We have been shopping quite a bit when Brent has to stay close...or I sleep a lot on the weekends to catch up from the busy weeks! This past Friday we went to Redwood City to sit with Frank's family while Tina, his mom, had open heart surgery. She did wonderfully and is on the road to recovery. Thank you to all of you who prayed for her...I know it helped! Well I guess that is it...pretty much. The baby is getting bigger...as am I. We are really excited to see him and hold him. The doctors say that everything is going very well. I will have an appt this Wed. to check on the baby and myself...but I suspect it will be just as quick as the last visit was. This little man is in no hurry to come into this world...I think he thinks he will just take up permanent residence...ha ha. Oh well...all in good time. Best get going. Hope all is well with everyone. Hugs to you and yours!

Summer Pics and Happenings

Hey Everyone,
I know it has been a lot longer this time. We are just so busy with work and trying to get out and have fun that I haven't had much time to do this. Sorry for the overload of pics to look at. This is about 2 months of us out wondering around California checking out cool places to visit with you all when you come to visit!
The first of the pics is from Sutter Mill. This is the first place that Gold was discovered in California sparking the "Gold Rush". We went to gold pan and looked around for a while. It was really neat. The next day we decided to go to San Francisco to the Zoo. It was wonderful! It was sooooo cool and the animals were all out! There are some pics of when my wonderful husband finally got the recognition that we all feel he deserves by getting Senior Non-commissioned Officer of the Year! The next pics are when we went to visit Frank and Lynnett and got to go to a Portuguese bull fight. Dylan got hit in the butt by the baby bull and it was soooo funny. He got right back up and went back out. The bull got him again later! That was probably the last time we will see them before their baby is born. Lynnett is due one month before me! Next is Brent getting his Father's Day gifts and then our awesome day at the NASCAR race! Brent got us tickets for free from Big O Tires to sit in their private box with other military families. They gave us money to get souvenirs, catered breakfast and lunch and we saw Tom and Katie! It was the most fantastic day. We got to go to the pits and everything! Finally we went to Bodega Bay last weekend because it was so hot here in the valley. We thought it would be cool. We had a wonderful day...but got FRIED! We stopped on the way home at a winery that had animals and was a beautiful spot.
Not much happening here. Dylan is enjoying being out of school for the summer. Brent is at work most of the time, but has been trading weekends with the other Fist Shirt so that we can take some family time. I still love my job. We have been really busy and I have helping out in the GI Clinic with sedations until they get more nurses! The baby is growing as you can tell by the pictures. I feel HUGE!!! I have a doctor's appt this coming Tues in Oncology and Wednesday in OB/GYN. I am sure all is well. I have been feeling much better...just really tired. The baby is not a fan of letting me sleep at night and I can't wait to get my bladder back! The baby moves all over the place and Dylan giggles when his brother kicks him! He probably won't find it funny in a few months when his brother is here! Well this has been long enough. Thank you to all in OH that prayed for our Niece Presley. She came thru her surgery just wonderfully and back to her spit fire ways! I hope all is well with everyone. Once again...I will try to post more often.....
All of our love to all of you!

Almost 6 months!!!!

Hey All,
Sorry it's been so long again. There is so much to tell you about. Let's see. We took a trip about 1.5 hour away a few weekends ago to go to the Bass Pro Shop. It was really neat. Then we went to Dixon May Fair. It is the closest we can find to a county fair around here. It was so hot that we didn't last too long. I did get some yummy fair food and Dylan played some games. Because he still had his cast on...he was not allowed to ride the rides, but he wasn't too upset! I guess that was Mother's Day we did the Fair. Then we have been up in Napa a lot lately. It is cooler up there and so beautiful this time of year. I have some pics of the fair, a winery in Napa, Dylan at his open house at school, Bass Pro Shop, and Dylan putting his little brother's bed together (which was his bed too!). The last really cool thing was that we went and got one of those 3D/4D Ultrasounds done! It was really neat and they gave us a website that you all can go and look at the pics that we got! We also get to go back at 30 weeks and get more pics done. They also gave us a disk with the entire US on it in motion! Dylan got to hear the heartbeat for the first time and see his little brother move around! If you get a chance, go see the website...it is http://babypeeks.net/user/ccook . I have also attached some pics here so that you can get a sneak peak! It is so awsome! Anyways...for anyone who cares...we have finally gotten a registry started at Baby's R Us. You can look into it if you would like. Anyways, let me get going. Hopefully everyone had a great, relaxing, and safe Holiday weekend. Let us not forget all of those who have given their lives for our freedom and those in harms way now. We pray for all of our Brothers and Sisters in the Services and for their families! Take care and God Bless

CAST IS OFF!!!!!

Hey all,
Sorry so long again...but finally good news! Dylan got his cast off today! Brent looked at the films and it is healing! We have to take it easy...but he can finally take a shower without a bag over his arm, go in the sprinkler with the neighbor kids, go on rides at the park and so on. We get out summer fun back! Now let us pray that Dylan can keep safe and not break anything else for a very long time! I have pics from mother's day, the Dixon May Fair and some other things that I will post soon. Hope all is going well for all of you. We see the OB/GYN doc tomorrow and I will update with pics and more info later this week. Love to all.