So February 13, 2011 was when we officially found out that we were having a little Acorn 
Although I may not get all the sleep I need anymore, and I wear spit up a lot but it is totally worth it!
And when I come home and see this little face nothing else matters anymore.
Here are my 2 favorite guys in the world! I love them both dearly and I am so blessed to have them!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Whoa . . .things are getting a little crazy this is my 2nd blog in a week! Whoo hoo! I would just like to be very upfront and tell you this blog will feature any Eli pictures or well any pictures at all. Rare I know, but that is just how this one is going to be.
So I am sure that most you have heard or maybe even experienced the internet time wasting sensation that is Pinterest. Well, if you haven't I am not sure if I can actually explain it to you it is truly something that you have to experience for yourself. BUT as I once told a friend I am not entirely certain what it is or the point of it but I am totally hooked!!! Okay, I do know what Pinterest is . . .it is a web-site where you can go out and “pin” different things to boards like recipes, photo ideas, quotes, craft ideas, etc. You can follow others and they can follow you. Basically, it is a good way to share things with everyone on the world wide web. I have been “pinning” since before Eli came. A good friend had told me about the web-site and I put in a request to get an invitation to join. One at about 5am during one of my pregnancy potty breaks/I am to uncomfortable to sleep I discovered I had got my invite and immediately started pinning for about an hour. I told you it was addictive and a MAJOR time killer!
So after all these months of pinning I have finally made one of the recipes I found on Pinterest. Last night I made Cake Batter Pudding Cookies, the actually recipe can be found at this awesome blog <----click here. They did turn out pretty good and were tasty. Nick said they did taste a bit like yellow cake, which I believe was the goal. Sadly, I do not have a picture of them and they were actually some of my better looking cookies. They actually all came out round and relatively the same size! Huge score for me. I owe stroke of cookie shaping to the Small Scoop I recently purchased from Pampered Chef! That thing literally scoops out the perfect size for cookies! I anticipate having pretty cookies from here forward because of it. Now if you want to see a nice picture of the cookies I encourage you to check out the other blog, she took a lovely picture of hers.
I am proud that I finally made something from Pinterest and now look forward to trying more of those recipes I have been frantically pinning. See all that time wasting wasn’t for nothing after all 
So as promised I am bringing you the Christmas blog, and it is not 2 months late. WHOO HOO! Almost 1 month late but hey who is counting. Much like everything else that has happened since we had Eli- I felt like Christmas snuck up and attacked like a rabid bear! I felt like I was literally down to the wire getting everything done. I have vowed to be more organized and put together next year. Despite my organizational chaos we still had a fantastic 1st Christmas with our little man, and that is really all that matters!
Here he is in one of his Christmas outfits, complete with reindeer feet that you can not really see in the pic.
Every year since Nick and I have been married we have taken a family pic in front of our Christmas Tree and this year we were excited to have our newest family member in our pic. This is a tradition I hope to keep going for many years to come.
Ch
Christmas 2011
He wasn’t actually looking at the camera but he was there and that is all we really need!
So what did Oaks 3.0 do for Christmas well let me just tell you in as few words as possible . . .
Christmas Eve
We spent Christmas Eve with the extended Oaks Family where we go to Skype with the Oakses in Italy, have a nice dinner, and open gifts.
With Uncle John
Nicole ready to open her gift
Someone was a sleepy man . . .
We ended the evening back at home with the reading of the CHRISTmas story from a book my sister got Eli for Christmas. It was great and a tradition I plan to keep going next year.
Christmas Morning
Santa came! I am not sure if Eli knew or not but he will next year 
Andy quite upset that this gift was going to be opened and he would not be able to lay on it.
1st Christmas Card- yes I read it to him!
The cutest gift!
Eli and his Iphone Apptivity case- Doesn’t he look excited!
A cute gift from Chris, Megan, Topher, Cannon, and Mela!
Thank you!
Christmas Day
Christmas Day itself was shocked full of activities. Starting with lunch and gifts with my family, visit with my Papaw, and visit with my Mamaw, and the last and final stop a visit to my Aunt Lu’s to see my cousin Amy and her family.
I see Mommy . . .
Visiting with my Great Mamaw
In my cute overall outfit which I promptly peed through forcing Mommy and I both to change clothes.
Is that enough pictures for you?? Honestly I will have to say that is my one regret, not taking enough pictures during the holidays particularly with family. I have resolved to do better next year. All in all, our 1st Christmas as a family was FABULOUS and very special. We were blessed to be able to spend so much time with family.
I know this is a little late but MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of you! Really can’t we celebrate it all year long? It began with the birth . . .
Wow, I did not realize it had been quite that long since I updated my blog. Many of you may have thought that I abandoned it all together after having Eli. Well, I can assure that was never my intent but I did kind of get a little to preoccupied to post 
I have to admit looking at my blog I am feeling a bit of guilt (the Mom guilt never ends). I was loyal and faithful at blogging my pregnancy and have completely laid down on the job of blogging Eli’s life on the outside world.
I guess since I have fallen a bit behind it is hard to know where to start out at this point. I have had so many people say to me in the past “You think time goes by fast now, just wait till you have kids . . .” Well, I know exactly what they are saying. The last 2 months have flown by. I remember when I went back to work a couple of weeks ago I thought “How did it become winter?” Eli has grown and changed so much and so has our life and routine, in a good way of course.
I realized today that I do not have a “formal” Baby Book to capture everything in and it is almost impossible to remember. HOWEVER I am going to attempt to catch you up . . .
Just finished my 1st bath
1 Month Old
My 1st Thanksgiving
My 1st Facetime (seriously would this have been in the Baby Book).
My 1st Smile (Maybe not the very 1st one).
2 Months Old
Our little man weighed 8 lbs and was 21 inches long at his one month check up and weighed 8 lbs 13 oz when I had to take him in for a quick visit 2 weeks ago. So he is still a smaller guy, but the doctor says he is growing at a good rate. We have his 2 month appointment this Wednesday so I am anxious to see how much he has gained. We have another exciting 1st at the Wednesday appointment, the DREADED 1st shoots. I have been told that these will not be that bad and might just be worse on Mommy than Eli. Prayers requested!!
How is Eli’s disposition? I would have to say that we have been blessed to have a pretty easy going happy baby. He mostly just cries if he is hungry or overly tired. He sleeps pretty good at night we usually just have to wake up 1x to feed him. Of course we have had some bad nights like any new parent and I am sure we will have more. Eli just seems to be so happy and curious. He is still an alert little guy, always looking around and taking everything in. He is smiling and cooing now, which just makes me smile all over
Now I know some of you are thinking are you not going to tell us about Eli’s 1st Christmas? The answer is yes I am going to in a separate blog. So stay tuned! AND I promise it will not take me 2 months to post it!
That is right my blog friends Elijah Nicholas has arrived and we could not be happier. Eli came on 10/22/2011 at 1:10am, he weighed 6 lbs and 4 oz and was 19 inches long.
FRESH BABY ELI!
So how did Eli get here? Okay, we all know generally how babies get here but how did my little man enter the world? Well, I am going to share a pared down version of my birth story. I know when I was pregnant that I reached a certain point and reading birth stories just freaked me out so I vowed not to read them anymore and not to write my own. I have now decided to go against that for the purpose of documenting the experience. All that being said if birth stories freak you out stop reading here and pick up a few paragraphs down . . . .
Eli’s World Debut
As most of you know my due date was 10/19/2011 and they day came and went with no baby. I actually had a Dr.’s appt on the 19th and set an induction for 10/24/2011. Praying all along that my sweet Eli would decide to come on his own, and sure enough he did. At about 4am on Friday I felt what I thought was my water breaking but I was not entirely sure. It was not the free flowing river that you always see in the movies or on TV. So I woke Nick up and told him not to panic my water broke and I might be having contractions. I downloaded a contraction timer app on my phone (very useful by the way) and started timing. The contractions appeared to be about 8 minutes apart. So I got in the shower and started gathering up a few things we had not previously packed in anticipation of heading to the hospital. Well, as I was doing all this my contractions spaced out and then just kind of stopped. So we put the breaks on the dash to the hospital and decided to call the Dr’s office and see if I could come in. I called at 8:15 and told them what was going on and they told me to come in immediately. We grabbed our stuff pretty much knowing we would not be back for a few days and headed for the office. They did confirm at the Dr.’s office that my water had indeed broken and they immediately sent me to Labor & Delivery.
Now here honestly come the worst part of my entire labor and delivery experience. The dreaded IV! Yes, that is right the IV was honestly the worst part of the whole thing. As most of you know I have issues with needles and blood so when they came to do the IV and said they were going to get blood at the same time this was a double whammy for me. Add all that to the fact that I was nervous and stressed, well lets just say it was a recipe for disaster. I did not actually go out but those nurses worked really hard to make sure I did not. The 2nd worse thing about this experience was the lack of food I was labor for roughly 21 hours and survived on ice chips alone. I understand the reasoning behind the food thing, but as Nick says it is just torture ,right below waterboarding. So I have my IV and my ice chips and so they started dropping Pitocin, something to jump start my contractions. They did this for a while and then stopped up because I was contracting on my own. While all this was going on I got to meet the Doctor who was on call, who I had naturally never seen before but I think it turned out to be a blessing that he was the one who was there. God always has a plan!
So I had been contracting for a while but it was not really bad so I had held off on the epidural. After talking to the Doctor I decided to go ahead and get it. For anyone considering an epidural BE NOT AFRAID! It was nothing and honestly the most wonderful thing! Ohhh and mine was on a pump so no fear of the “Epidural running out.” (I think this is how they do most of them now). Now my progression was very slow and they decided to drop the Pitocin again and when they did this all of a sudden I had 6 nurses in my room and they are sticking me on oxygen. Scary! As it turns out when they turned the Pitocin back on it caused babies heart rate to drop so they had to stop it quickly. At this point I had a conversation with my Doctor about the progress. He told me that I was progressing and there was really no reason they I could not have this baby on my own without a c-section. I had told him that I really wanted to avoid a c-section if I could, and he felt that as long as I stayed good and baby stayed good we could just wait it out. AND so we did! I was told later on that there was only 1 other doctor that would have been that patient with me, so it truly was a blessing that a Dr. I did not even know was on call.
I started pushing at about midnight and Elijah Nicholas arrived at 1:10am on Saturday, October 22nd. They did have to use the vacuum to help get him out, which caused a bruise on his head that is gone now. He came out with the cord wrapped around his neck 3 times, which they quickly took care of and Nick got to cut the cord. They handed him to me and he was wide eyed and looking around like he wanted to discuss what he and I had just been through.
While I was pushing the only thing I could think was I get to Eli and I get to eat. Seeing Eli was truly a beautiful moment that can not be truly described. Here was this little perfect person who I had loved for 9 months and now I loved even more.
I was also extremely grateful for my mom who made the 3am Waffle House run and brought me back a pecan waffle and bacon. I never knew a waffle could taste that good!
Much love to our family who also waited patiently at the hospital and all the family and friends that sent texts and called to check in on us. We love you all and we want you to know that your love and support is invaluable to us.
We are so glad you are here Eli and love you more than words can express!
Holding our bundle of joy
With a very proud and excited Daddy
Bringing Home Baby
We were released from the hospital at noon on Sunday and we took our precious guy home. We all (including the cats) have been going through an adjustment period but things have been going really well. It is hard to imagine life without him.
The Acorn has arrived
Eli is truly a gift from God and we feel so blessed to have him! Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we work our way through parenthood.
We love you Eli and are so glad you are here!
Dear Eli,
Yesterday, 10/19/2011, was your official due date and we are still anxiously awaiting your arrival. We understand that you may need a little more time and perhaps it is just more comfortable to be “inside.” However, we would like to assure that there are lots of wonderful things here on the outside not mention lots of wonderful people waiting to see you. Your Mama & Daddy are anxious to hold you and see you for the first time. You have Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins, and Close Friends that are very anxious to Welcome you.
We love you already and are ready and waiting!
Love Always,
Mama
What can I really say we have reached week 39 and still have an inside baby. I actually debated on whether to even write this blog since I do not really have a whole lot to report and I did elect NOT to take a picture. For those of you who feel cheated without a picture just take a look at last weeks I look pretty well the same. If I make it to week 40 then I will give you another picture then.
I am officially off work now and have been working my way through the Pre-Eli Arrival checklist. Today I cleaned out the refrigerator, pantry, and the canned food cabinet. Let me just tell you the can food should have been cleaned out about 2 years ago! See I told you this was going to be an exciting blog. I will have to say that I originally planned on working all the way up to the birth , but I am now thankful that I made the decision to go ahead and take some time now.
Speaking of decision that is problem the #1 life lesson I have learned during this pregnancy. People have a lot of varying opinions on everything regarding pregnancy, birth, and child rearing and most have not been hesitate to share them with us (whether solicited or not). As a professed people pleaser it has often been difficult for me to disregard the opinions of others and do truly what is best for me and my growing family. BUT I have finally reached a point where I know that the only way I can be happy is to pray and ask God to guide my decisions. I can not make others happy I can only make me happy! Okay, so that is probably enough of my random pregnant lady confession.
Now for the weekly update:
Week 39
Size Still a WATERMELON this week! Otherwise known as a PERSON! 18.9 to 20.9 inches long and weighing in at 6.2 to 9.0 pounds.
Physical Features & Development:Eli’s brain is still developing rapidly, and his skin has taken on a paler shade thanks to a thicker layer of fat around the blood vessels. He's now able to flex his limbs, and his nails might extend past his fingertips.
Baby Movement: Still plenty of baby movement happening and there is really nothing comfortable about it at this point. It is still sweet, but I have been trying to tell Eli that there is whole lot more room to move around on the outside
What I Miss: I honestly am just tired of being pregnant! Enough said . . .
Cravings: Still wanting some Menchie’s fro-yo, I do not think I actually got any when I wanted it last time. I have also been wanting some wood-fired pizza. Don’t ask me why it has to be wood-fired, it is just what I want. (I blame this on TV commercials).
Overall feelings: Right now I honestly feel at peace, I do feel a little anxious at times. I just hope I can keep this peaceful feeling when it is “Go Time.”
Upcoming Events: Well, next week is our official due date, October 19th. If Eli has not appeared by then we have a Dr.’s appt. Prayers requested from all!
