Welcome Charlie

Charles Jay Hooper (Charlie) was born on 3/22/07 weighing 7lbs 8oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. We had what has been described as a "hard and fast labour." Contractions started at 3:00am on Thursday. By the time we were admitted at 8am I was dilated to 8cm and received an epidural. By 11am I was 10cm and ready to push, but little Charlie never "dropped" into the birth canal after 5 hours of pitocin and intermittent pushing. Charlie was born at 6:02pm by C-Section. Chad and I are both home and learning the ropes of new parenthood. A big THANK YOU to our friends, family and co-works for being so supportive and for welcoming Charlie into the world. He has many friends that I can't wait for him to meet. We hope to start having visitors at the end of the week (3/30/07), give us a call if you would like to stop by.

Any day now...

I should pop any day now... But this child hasn't budged and I swear I will end up with an April Baby! I refuse to post any pictures of me incredibly pregnant. My face is as rounds as a melon! Chad and I were joking last night about ways to bring on labor. Forget spicy food, or marthon walking, our favorites are jumping on a trampoline, or using a plunger!

The best part - The Nursery

The best part about the last trimester of pregnancy has to be putting the nursery together. Above is a picture of the crib and the bedding. Chad and I went to Dallas yesterday to pick it up and Mike and Mary helped Chad put it together in the newly painted guest bedroom/nursery. I still have little things to do in there like hang the quilt and pictures, fix the curtain tie-backs and general nesting things, but I still have some time. I am sure it will be perfect when it's all done. I'l post more pictures when it is complete.

Belly shot

A few people have requested pictures of me fat. Gee thanks. I decided to put this one belly shot from Christmas Eve 2006 up on the site. I was 27 weeks or a little more then 6 months along. The suit jacket I wore over the shell hid my fat nicely ;)

Sonogram

We had the "big" sonogram today and found out that we are having a boy! We haven't come up with names yet, but we have 19 more weeks to hash that out. We have decided not to publicize the name until after the baby arrives. That way no one can make funny faces or comments and try to talk us out of a name we've committed to. Let's just call him Harry Potter for now.