The days leading up to Tyler's birth

The countdown to Tyler's birth seemed endless, but now, looking back I can honestly say that the last 9 months passed by in the blink of an eye. In fact, I am almost sad in a way not to be pregnant anymore. I loved being pregnant and in the anticipation and excitement leading up to Tyler's birth I did not take a step back to just enjoy the last days of pregnancy and feeling little Tyler move in my tummy. Now, don't get me wrong - I am happy, elated, and overjoyed that Tyler is finally here!

My last week at work was rather busy so that made the week pass very quickly. In fact, when Doug showed up at my office to pick me up for our Friday doctor's appointment at 2:45 I was still working. I literally worked up to the very last minute!

The doctor's appointment was pretty uneventful, other than having to wait for an hour to see the doctor since he had been running back and forth to Labor and Delivery. After doing a quick check to make sure that the amniotic fluid level was ok, Dr. Mac said he would see us on Monday.

So, the weekend before Tyler's birth was another special occasion, Doug's 36th birthday. Friday night we had a couple of friends over to celebrate with pizza and birthday cake. It was such a nice way to catch up with friends without the hoopla of a big party. I love throwing parties but I always end up feeling like I didn't get to spend time with someone. With 4 couples total (including us) and a handful of children, it was a nice balance and it didn't feel overwhelming for me being 9 months pregnant! Saturday we celebrated with my parents by going out for calzone and Sunday we celebrated with Doug's parents at their house with steak and lobster - yum!

So, Sunday night after dinner with Doug's parents we left Andrew with his Peepaw and Mom Mom and headed home to finish packing for the hospital and tidying up the house. Thankfully, there wasn't too much left to do since we had taken care of most of this during the afternoon, which meant we got to relax on the couch and clear out our Tivo. Doug's top priority was finishing the Daytona 500 which he had been watching all afternoon but was not able to finish before dinner (note: to avoid commercials Douglas always watches the races about an hour behind schedule so that he can fast forward through them. This means if you ever call Douglas on race day, never reveal any race facts because he may not have seen it yet - even if the race is over!). He was particularly pleased with the outcome of the race because his favorite driver, the #29 Pennzoil Chevrolet driven by Kevin Harvick pulled a huge upset and beat Mark Martin by less than a bumper. Needless to say, Doug had a great weekend between his birthday and the Daytona 500 win.

So, after staying up far too late, it was off to bed with the alarm set for 3:00 a.m. I fell straight to sleep (big surprise, right?) and the next thing I knew the alarm was going off and it was time to go have a baby!