Oh baby...BOY!!!

We all have been anticipating the arrival of Baby Smith for about a week now. I have been in constant communication with Toni the last few days. I’ve checked how she was feeling waiting for the word that it was time. Finally on Thursday evening, she sent me a message. All it said was “April”. I knew right away!! I replied “Toni. Is this it?” I tried to stay calm until she replied saying “This is it!!” I was in disbelief. All this waiting and now the time had come…naturally I might add thank you very much! Thank the Lord baby Smith decided to come before medical invention was ordered. We traded a few more texts and I started crying my eyes out! I messaged my mom who was so thrilled. She wanted any news no matter what time it was. So I went to bed thinking about our wonderful friends and the journey they were about to embark; to give life to a sweet baby, oh what a miracle. I woke in the middle of the night after having a vivid dream that it was a girl! I immediately checked my phone…no news. Darn! So back to sleep I went. On the way to work I messaged Ryan asking how everything was going. I wanted to try to leave them alone as best I could but I was so excited I wanted to call them every 5 minutes! He said Toni had started a pit-drip, she was at a 7 and was doing great. I was so relieved that things had gone well overnight. I was calm all morning…sending Toni my calm vibes…I hope she got some of them! Then about noon, I messaged Kylie who was going to the hospital shortly. She had heard that Toni got an epidural and was at a 9. I thought baby would be here any second. By 4, I hadn’t heard anything and Ryan was not replying (can’t blame him!!). I was getting worried to be honest. Toni had been in labor for 20 hours by that point. Kylie hadn’t made it to the hospital yet so I called Cara to get an update. She answered the phone and I swear sounded like she was crying. She said I have to call you back and hung up. I was freaking out!! Thankfully she called back about 20 seconds later and explained that she, along with everyone else, was sleeping. She scared the crap out of me!! She told me that Toni and Ryan were resting and that she was still at a 9. Sheesh! Was this baby ever coming? About 10 minutes later I got a text from Cara, “Baby is coming!!” I nearly shouted it from the rooftops. Big mistake…about 5 minutes later, “False alarm.” :o( So I had to message my little circle to tell them just kidding! I left work and got home about 6 and started packing for the trip to Tulsa. Sil messaged me at 6:25 asking if I had any news. I told her all the updates I had received the last 22 hours. Little did I know that Toni was on her final pushes! I got a message from Kylie at 6:37…It’s a boy!!! That’s all the info I got until 7…9 pounds 15 ounces…whoa baby! The whole way to Tulsa I was trying to get more info. Was it a c-section, how long is he, how is momma? It was killing me. Finally at 10, Sherry, Ryan’s mom, posted more pictures with all the info I needed; Dylan Tice Smith born on 6/11/10 at 6:34 pm; 9lbs 15oz, 21 ¾” long. I decided that it was too late to go up to see them. I figured both Toni and Ryan were exhausted and they needed some personal time with their new baby. My mom and I put 2 pieces of letter paper together to see how long this baby really was!! Wow, this is a big baby!

The next day we went to Target to buy some gender specific clothes. How fun to finally be able to buy little boy things for Dylan! I bought a cute onesie that read Daddy’s Caddy in Training. Of course it was green…now that I know I can buy blue, here I am buying a bunch of green stuff! I got some cute khaki colored shorts to go with it. There is a dress code on the course no matter what age you are! Dylan has to be fashionably dressed for golfing. I also bought a cute green sleeper…it had little stars on the bottoms of the feet and said Little Dreamer. And I bought some blue mittens and a cute hat, mitten and booty set. It was so fun to shop for him. We went up to the hospital around 3. We walked all over the hospital…the wayfinding machine did not help us find our way very easily. We finally made it to the room. I was so excited. It was just Ryan, Toni, baby Dylan and Toni’s momma Theresa. I was glad we weren’t barging in on a bunch of other visitors. Ryan was holding Dylan in the rocker and Toni was up and about. It was so cute. I gave Toni a huge hug and nearly started crying! Then I went over to see Dylan. He was sleeping and looked so sweet. I gave Toni her presents, one from Amber and the one from Chris and me. It was so fun to talk about her labor while she opened her gifts. Then I washed my hands and got to hold the baby for the first time. I could stare at him for hours!! He had just been circumcised so he was out like a light. He would make different faces if I moved him around too much but it was so cute. Sherry came in a bit later and had I known this was the first time she’d seen him since he was born and that she hadn’t even held him yet I would have given him up much faster!! Ryan’s sister Jennifer and her husband Eddie came in. They are expecting as well…it’s always fun to talk to someone else that is pregnant too. Then Kevin and Nate came up…it was a full house. Then a nurse came in to take Toni’s food order for the next day…then the nursery nurse and floor nurse came in. I ran to Toni and said, we’re outta here!! I gave her a huge hug and said we’d be back the next day.

Sweet Baby Dylan

Daddy's Caddy in Training!

Dylan with his favorite Auntie April <3

Auntie April and Uncle Chris with baby Dylan (just 21 hours old!)

I couldn’t wait to go back and see Dylan. We went up around 3:30 and Ryan said Dylan was feeding so we waited in the car for a little bit. We got to the room after the okay and he was in his nursery crib just looking around. I washed my hands and scooped him up. Toni got me all set up with the boppy and I had Chris take some more pictures. Dylan would cry and I would try to rock him or change his position to make him happy. He finally stared at the wall and seemed pretty content for a while. Then he’d cry again…oh baby, don’t cry with Auntie April…mom and dad will think I’m a bad Aunt!! Toni said he likes to be more on his side so she helped me twist him over. He seemed pretty happy for a while. Then he started crying again. It was so sad but so cute!! I propped him up on my shoulder and patted on his back. He had just eaten so maybe he had some bubbles. It was so fun to “take care” of him for a little bit. I was happy and kind of surprised that Ryan and Toni just let him cry in my arms and let me figure out a new position for Dylan rather than running over to see what was wrong and taking him away from me! Ryan said he has been so sleepy that it was a nice sound to hear! They are going to be such good parents I just know it. I decided that he was in need of a better swaddle so I passed him off. Ryan did a great swaddle and Dylan immediately settled down. See, Auntie April knows how to take care of baby!! I grabbed the camera for more pictures while he was happy. I even got a super cute one of both Ryan and Toni kissing his cheeks. Oh so sweet! We got a group shot of the 6 of us...haha, don’t forget about baby cousin Bright...then headed out the door. Rosemary, Toni’s grandma came in as we were leaving and I told her congrats and she jumped for joy! She is the cutest lady I’ve ever met and I know she is just thrilled with her precious great-grandbaby.

Shy Toe

What a lucky little man!

Yawn!

What a handsome young man you will grow up to be!

Such happy Momma's, Daddy's and Baby(s)

I can’t wait to see Dylan again. Toni and I have so much to talk about and I can’t wait to hear about her labor experience. What a miracle to fall in love with someone and create such a masterpiece together. And the unconditional love that comes with it is inexplicable. It’s just a miracle. I cannot wait to meet Baby Bright and this whole experience has made me even surer than ever that I don’t want to find out what we’re having. It was so fun to get the news that it was a boy! Our big ultrasound is on Tuesday and I can’t wait to see baby Bright again. With all the kicking and rolling that’s been going on, I am hoping we get to see a lot of movement. What a great weekend this has been and I am very much looking forward to this week. I can’t wait.