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Side Effects May Include Facial Disfigurement and Humiliation

If you know me well, you know that I am all too familiar with the hospitals and emergency rooms. Let me preface this story by telling you that I went to the urgent care center yesterday because I thought I had strep throat. My tonsils felt huge and I was just absolutely sure that I had it. Also, Sara was diagnosed with it earlier in the week so that confirmed my suspicions. About an hour after I got home from the urgent care center, my face, neck and shoulders began to stiffen up. I had no control over my mouth and my tongue and I could barely talk. So off we went to the emergency room. On the way there, I was crying and Sara and Anna were crying because they were scared too. It was horrible! When we got to the doctor, the situation got increasingly worse. The doctor asked me what meds I had been taking and it turned out that the medicine Reglan (which I was taking to help increase my milk supply) had triggered something to occur neurologically. They called it Extra Pyramidal Symptoms. This meant that my brain was controlling the muscles in my face, neck and shoulders to stiffen. I literally had no control over what was going on with me. As soon as I told the doctor that I was taking Reglan he knew exactly what to do. He filled my IV with Benadryl and not 2 minutes later, I was absolutely fine. It was the weirdest and strangest experience of my life. So now, I obviously have an allergic reaction to reglan and will never take that again.

This whole thing just made me think about how powerful medication can be. They can save your life, but in a second they can change your life, too. I am happy to report that my face will not be disfigured. David is happy that he won't have a gimp wife for the rest of his life. He told me that everyone was staring at me. To which I responded, "Well, no duh! I'd be staring at me too!" My sister Dana called me a medical nightmare. I'm beginning to think that's true with all the stuff that's happened to me within the last year! So weird. I'm glad that is over.

Christmas Firsts

Well, Christmas came and went with much anticipation and excitement. Christmas Eve and the next day were filled with lots of laughs. My parents came in town and spent Christmas with Kerri and I. On Christmas Eve, we went to church and then had dinner at Ted's Montana Grill. Yum! Afterwards, we went back to our house where Sara and Anna got to open presents from the Grandparents and Aunts (Kerri and Dana). While they were opening presents, my lovely niece Hadley decides to have the stinkiest diaper of all time! I am not kidding when I say that the smell took up the entire house and lingered for about an hour. I thought my Dad was going to have a heart attack from laughing so hard about it. Who would think that something so dreadful could come out of someone so cute?! It reminded me that one day, I too, will have to deal with those nasty diapers. Anyway, we continued our Christmas Eve celebration and then the Peech family and my parents went back to Kerri's house. David and I tucked the girls and Noah in and then we got to play Santa. I had so much fun putting their presents under the tree! It really is more enjoyable to give gifts to others....especially to kids. The next morning, we all woke up and tore through our presents. Noah slept through most of it. I think he enjoyed getting his crib mobile because he loves to stare at it right before he goes to sleep. Sara and Anna raked in the goods and David and I enjoyed watching their excitiement. David got some good stuff and the kids got me GUITAR HERO! I've been wanting this game for a long time so I was super pumped to open up this present! After we tore through the presents, we took Sara and Anna to their Mom's. David, Noah and I headed to Kerri's house for a nice Christmas brunch and more presents. I brought Guitar Hero over and we pretty much rocked out for the rest of the day! Even my Mom played it. I think she wants it now, too!

It was such a nice Christmas season filled with many first with our new boy! I look forward to making more and more memories over the years! I hope you all had a great Christmas and will have a Happy New Year!

Our tree with all the presents. I think it looks so pretty!




The Peech Family on Chirstmas Eve . Adrian, stinky Hadley and Kerri! :)

Noah with his future wife, Brie, on Christmas Eve. They're even matching!! (I swear Tami and I had no idea that they had similar pants! It just proves that they're meant to be!)

The Littlest Santa with Daddy


The Littlest Santa with Momma



All the kids watiting to open presents


Sara opening her snappy new boots

Anna opening her new video camera

Noah and his new crib mobile

Noah hanging out with Gramps

David, Adrian, Kerri and Dad "Cheers" to Christmas

Kerri and I rockin' out to Guitar Hero. Notice our "groupie" in the background snoring away!

Jude is playing some serious metal!

Even Gus got in on the action of opening presents

I just wanted to post this pic just for grins. The hat alone is hilarious enough, but the mad/angry face makes it priceless!

The Littlest...

Ever since Noah was born, David would call Noah, "The Littlest _________" (fill in the blank). David would pick Noah up and make him act like he was walking across the floor. If we were at church, Noah became "The Littlest Worshipper." At night when we tuck the girls in, he's known as "The Littlest Tucker." And if David was fixing something to do with plumbing, Noah would be, "The Littlest Plumber." So on Christmas Ever, our littlest man did not disappoint when he became, "The Littlest Santa Clause."

The Littlest Tucker

The Littlest Santa

The Littlest Santa in action

Date Night

While David and Anna had a date night at the movies, Noah and I got to have our first date night. We got to go to the Michael W. Smith Christmas concert with my sister Kerri and niece Hadley. It was a great concert and made it feel like Christmas.


As I listened to the music, I found myself thinking about Mary and about what she went through to have Jesus. What humilty she went through! What pain she went through knowing that one day she'd have to watch her Son selflessly give up His life for people like you and me. Though I didn't quite go through what she went through, I was humbled with the thought that I had my own son. And though I know that Noah doesn't have to give up his life, I wonder what things he will go through over the years. No matter what comes his way, my hope for him is that his life will always glorify the sacrifce that Jesus made for him.


As Christmas approaches, I hope you, too, will think about Mary and Joseph and the journey they made to the manger to welcome our Saviour into this world. Most importantly though, I hope that you will remember Jesus and how he died on the cross 33 years after his birth, to save us from our sins to give you and I eternal life.

1st Date night with Mom. He was very polite and had great manners! Best date I've ever had!!!

Aunt Meanie with Hadley! Hadley danced to the music and Kerri chased her around!

Nice to Meet You

While in the Hospital, a ton of people came by to meet Noah. Thank you for all of you that checked on us, made us meals, brought gifts and just spent time with us. It means the world to us. I am thankful that Noah will have a "family" outside of ours to turn to. Your kindness is a overwhelming. I wish I had pictures of Noah meeting you for the first time. But, I guess we have plenty of time to get those pics in the future.

I know others have visited or called....you are not forgotten. I appreciate all of my friends and family that have continuously called or sent cards from Texas, Chicago and Kentucky. You guys keep me going and your efforts have not gone unoticed! One of these days I'll get back to calling or writing! Thanks for being patient with me!

Thanks Grammy

Dear Grammy,

I know you had to go back to Gramps in Texas, but I already miss you. I miss you rocking me to sleep when my parents got tired of hearing me cry. I miss fun trips to the mountains with you. I miss listening to silly songs in the car. But most importantly, I just miss you Grammy.

Thanks for helping out my Mom and Dad when I came home from the hospital. I'm sorry if you were bored while we all slept. We were all very tired. I promise that I'll try my hardest to be awake when you come back for Christmas. Thanks for making my parents dinner and driving them everywhere. It's nice to know that you took really good care of my Mom while she recovered from the C Section.

Anyway, thanks again for all your help. I know it meant the world to my parents! I can't wait to see you and Gramps in a few weeks!

Love,

Noah

My first trip to Estes Park with Grammy, Momma and Daddy

It was really cold when we went. I had to get bundled up in this ridiculous hat!

Noah In Action

Boy Genius

We have a genius/athlete on our hands and we couldn't be more excited about it! Last night, David and I were watching TV in our bed with Noah laying down in between us. I decided to put him on his tummy for a little bit to see how he would handle it. So there he is, just laying there and the next thing I know, the boy stinkin' rolled over!!! I said, "DAVID! Did you see that????" David said, "He just rolled over because he's going down hill." So, I put him back on his belly and he did it AGAIN! At this point I was super pumped. David was still skeptical. He told me to lay him on the floor and see what happens on a flat surface. I did just that and Noah immediately rolled over. Now I was exstatic!! I said, "Oh my gosh! He's an athlete and he's gonna get a scholarship!!" By now, David was convinced we had a genius on our hands and began to research when the most babies start rolling over and found that it usually happens between 3 and 5 months. However, our boy did it at 18 DAYS. Can you believe it? Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I put him on the floor this morning and he rolled over twice. And the best part about this morning was that not only did he roll over, but he rolled over to the left AND to the right!

This is just so exciting! I'm going to try to get a video of this momentous event and I'll post it soon!

It's Natural

When I was pregnant and wondered what Noah would look like, one of my hopes was that he would end up with David's hair. Well, he did end up with a lot of hair. And, I think it's mostly like David's. But, when I imagined what it would look like, I didn't imagine it to be a mohawk from the start. Believe me folks, we do not intentionally fix his hair this way. It just simply transforms into a mohawk all on its own. I am at a loss as to how to fix it. I mean, is it ok to put hair gel or hairspray in your 12-day-olds hair? So, I guess I have to live with the mohawk for now....I don't know what else to do with it!

Week One

So far, we survived our first week with Noah. We've been enjoying every second with him....even when he's sucking the energy right out of us! This parenting stuff is definitely a HUGE adjustment. For me, the biggest adjustment has been lack of sleep. I realize that every new parent goes through this. I just wasn't expecting to be this tired. I keep asking my mom if it's this normal to feel this tired. She thought that I'm probably more tired than normal since I'm recovering from kidney stones, surgey and lack of sleep from the hospital. I now realize that sleep is a luxury! Anyway, here is a recap from our week of firsts.

1. First trip to the doctor.
2. First trip to PF Changs. David and I went to PF Changs to celebrate when we found out we were pregnant. We went there again for our last date night before he was born. And then we went again when Noah turned 1 week old.
3. First trip to Babies 'R Us. Noah is an excellent shopper and didn't make a peep the enitre time!
4. First all nighter trying to calm the boy down. Noah has quite powerful lungs and we're starting to think he has a bit of a temper if he doesn't get what he wants right away.
5. David was the first to get sprayed by Noah while changing his diaper. He then proceeded to get both his Grammy's and then me.
6. First bath. He didn't seem to enjoy this very much because he was cold.
7. First ride in the swing. Thankfully, he LOVES his swing.
8. First trip to Target. Again he was an excellent shopper.

That's the gist of our week. Of course there was a lot of eating and a lot of sleeping mixed in with all that stuff. It turns out that our boy is quite the eater and a master sleeper. He won't wake up for anything! When his is awake, he looks completely different because we're not used to seeing his eyes! We're hoping that will change here pretty soon. Until then, we'll just keep enjoying our sleepy guy.

We are truly blessed.

Well it's been amazing and crazy since we first welcomed our son Noah into this world. They day after he was born we got a call from our good friends the Max's and Curt said "warm up the bed next to you we are on our way in" (Tami and Jenny have the same Dr. and therefore they also delivered at Rose). The daughter they were expecting decided to make an early entrance to make sure she wasn't upstaged by little Noah (She was due mid Dec).
Later on Thursday evening we welcomed Brienne Megan Max into our little group. She is adorable and weighed in at 6lbs 2oz. Her mom Tami who underwent emergency c-section made it through just fine and everyone was healthy. Curt, Tami, Adrina and Brienne ended up getting a room just down the hall from us. It was great to spend our next two days at the hospital with friends there the whole time. Curt and Adrina and I would go and get breakfast in the mornings and we'd visit each other throughout the day. Many other friends and family gathered and visited and enjoyed getting a two for one on visiting both the Max's and us.

We finally got out of there on Saturday evening after a long day and much dreading by me while waiting for Noah's circumcision. The fear and dreading did not disappoint as that was a TERRIBLE moment in my young fragile son's life. Oh man, seeing Jenny's intestines in the OR during the c-section was almost better than what my little man went through that late afternoon. But anyway I digress.

Sara, Anna, Noah, Jenny and I made our way home together Saturday around 5pm. We were so relieved to get home and Jenny's mom who's here helping us out with the transition of having a new little one. That night Judy made the most delicious dinner standing rib roast. It was an amazing dinner and really made it so wonderful being home. Also Jenny's sister Kerri and her husband Adrian and there cute little daughter Hadley joined in on the fun that evening.

Since then we've just been trying to catch up on sleep (which isn't going to happen anytime soon) and visiting with friends.

Noah had his first Dr's appointment this morning and he is doing great. He is in the 50th percentile for both weight and head size and in the 75th percentile for height. I'm hoping he out grows me someday! :)

Noah meets his new friend Brienne only a couple hours after she was born.


Curt holding Noah and I'm holding Brienne


The proud Mama Tami with her little peanut.


Maybe he'll be a DJ. Mr boombastic...


Waaaaaaah... Take me home!


His first Sunday. Yes I'll be brainwashing him to be a Vikings fan! :)


Noah is not pleased with how Mom combed hair.


This is how he sleeps. Which is pretty much all he does.

Introducing Noah Robert Coleman

Breaking news:

Team Coleman trades "Willis" for Noah Coleman and a player to be named later. Coach Coleman commented that the move was necessary to "upgrade to a player with instant impact potential." Coleman expects several weeks of non-sleep, uh, intensive training following the acquisition . . ." (reported by R. Rogers)



He's Here! Team Coleman has added a teammate and we are soooooo excited about it. Yesterday ended up being quite the whirlwind, but I'll compress it here. After making a ton of progress yesterday Jenny's body kind of stopped making progress and the little man didn't want to make his way down there. After waiting and really feeling like we exhausted our options as far as him coming out naturally we opted for a c-section. Both Jenny and I were running through a gambit of emotion but from the time we opted to go c-section to the time we first laid eyes on him was pretty brief.
I won't go into detail on what all goes on in that O.R. but it's NUTS! Anyhow Noah finally made his way out of the sun roof right at 2:30pm. I can't really express the emotions I went through at that time but once I knew he was ok and that Jenny was going to be ok the one emotion would be pure JOY.
After cutting the chord, Noah and I were whisked away from the O.R. to the nursery to get his weight and all. The tough part about that was having to leave Jenny in that room all alone with all those doctors, that was brutal but she agreed that I should go with him.
On our way to the nursery we saw the family members who were waiting and we were able to pause briefly to introduce Noah to his big sisters Sara, Anna grandmothers Judy and Pam and her aunt Kerri.
After that came the weigh in 8lbs 6oz height (I don't like the term length, this is a person not a fish) 21".
After spending about 30-40 minutes with him in the nursery I was finally able to go and see Jenny in recovery and she was doing well there, she was really wanting to see the baby since she'd just seen him briefly in the O.R. when I held him up for her. After much waiting for both Jenny and Noah to get out of recovery they were finally united. By the time they really met there was a bunch of family here and Jenny said she felt like she was at the zoo with all the camera's etc. Anyway it's been great, he's eating like a champ and everything here is well.

We are so grateful to God for entrusting us with this little one and we endeavor to take care of him the best we can.

Showing off his guns.


Within the first 5 minutes of him popping out of the sun roof.


The weigh in.


Right after his first bath. All clean.


After his spa treatment.


What I did for for an hour or so while waiting for both of them to recover.


Jenny finally gets to meet and hold Noah.


After waiting all day Sara finally gets to hold her new brother, she was so excited!


Anna was super pumped up. They had to learn a lot of patience waiting to meet him.


Grams is very proud.


My mom.... Bring back memories mom?


Our team.

Countdown update

It's just before 10am here and amazingly enough we are expecting to meet our son much sooner than we thought last night. Her body really took off with contractions last night which was brutal for her but the positive is that instead of spending all day today working on getting this guy to come out. We are hoping to see him sometime this early afternoon. But as always that's touch and go. Stay tuned I'll do my best to keep things up to date. Here are some pre baby pictures.






This one is before the contractions kicked in.


Gotta get some rest.



This is going to be a wild one.



THE WAITING GAME CREW


TXT'ing to keep family in the loop.


The big sisters are ready to meet their brother!



Kerri is ready also.

STAY TUNED.............