Introducing.... Tanner Loel Cahoon

Ok... So it has been almost 2 weeks now, but I'm sure most of you know what it's like to have a newborn in the house! Haha! You don't get much done! Any way... Tanner Loel Cahoon was born on Monday, May 14, 2012 at 6:05am! He weighed 7lb 6oz and was 20 inches long! He is perfect in every way and we are SO IN LOVE with this little tiny man! We actually had a pretty great experience... all in all... and the labor was pretty easy. Our original plan was to have him naturally at the Hollistic Birthing Center at St. Johns Medical Center and have a Water Birth. Well, he hadn't come by his due date and my parents were flying out here for a week, so we decided to have them induce me. I had been having some pretty strong, painful contractions for a few weeks, but mostly the last 4 or 5 days before he was born. In fact, we thought I was in labor the friday before. I was having contractions, but as soon as I laid down, they went away. Any way, we checked into the hospital at 6:00pm Sunday, May 13th (Mother's Day - what a great way to spend the evening!!!!) and they had the Pitocin going by 7:00pm. The contractions started coming pretty strong and fast after that. I don't think we realized until we were already going, that because we had induced, we had given up our chance for the Water Birth. I had to be hooked up to the IV and the Fetal Heart Monitor the whole time... and with all that and the room we were in, it didn't turn out the way we had planned and practiced for. About 1:00am I decided that I was bummed about all of that and I was in a lot of pain and I really wanted to enjoy the whole experience, so I decided to get the epidural. It was started about 1:45am and kicked in about 20 minutes later. The nurse stayed in the room for a while, getting us settled and told us to get some sleep cause it was probably going to be a long night. She left the room around 2:30 and she hadn't been gone for just a few minutes when my water broke! Haha! We called her back in and she didn't believe me! She checked me and had another nurse check me too, and they weren't sure if my water really had broken. But I was almost fully dialated and completely thinned out. Within the next hour, the contractions got really strong and I really had the urge to push. So, around 4:00am they called my midwife. (yes, because she wasn't there. She had told us she would be there Monday morning to check on us, because it was our first and she really didn't think it would go fast! But she had been calling the hospital all night checking in on me!) She told the nurses to not have me push and she was on her way. Sadly, it took over an hour, closer to an hour and 15 minutes for her to get there. Every time the nurses would check me, they would say, "Oh my! His head is right there! Don't push!" Yeah, not an easy thing to do! So, my midwife got there and we got things going about 5:30am and our sweet little guy was born at 6:05am! They brought in a big mirror, so I got to watch him being born! It was such a neat experience! As Tanner came out, the cord was wrapped pretty tightly around his neck, so they cut the cord and rushed him away pretty quickly. They put him on oxygen and suctioned him out and it took several minutes for them to get him to cry. Tom stayed with him while they worked on me. The midwife seemed to be working pretty hard to get the placenta delivered and after about 10 minutes it came... and then I started going down hill! I lost a lot of blood and my blood pressure bottomed out. They had to put me on oxygen and start a second IV. It was kind of a scary morning for us! But, around 8:00 everything had calmed down and I was finally able to hold my sweet little guy! It was so cute to watch him... from the moment he got into his daddy's arms, he was awake and alert and concentrating so hard on his daddy's face! The look on his little face was like "Oh! This is the voice I've been hearing for so long!" It was the cutest thing ever! We ended up staying in the hospital until Wednesday afternoon and I was so ready to come home! Tanner had to have his blood drawn every day to test his Bilirubin and luckily his number kept coming down! I also had to have my blood drawn every day and they were debating whether or not I needed a blood transfusion. Luckily, I didn't! My parents came in Tuesday afternoon and they stayed for a whole week! It was so nice to have them here! Tanner got some great "Homma" and "Bompa" time and we loved spending time with them! Tom and my dad did a lot of projects around the house and my mom was such a blessing to have around! Tanner and I are both healthy and doing well! And Tom and I are LOVING being parents! This is something we have wanted and waited for for SOOOOOO long and every step along the way to getting Tanner here was a miracle and a blessing! I feel that we were inspired with every decision we made along the way, even up to and during the labor... with decided to induce and have the epidural (because of everything that happened) and we are so grateful for all those promptings from the Spirit! Enjoy the pictures!!!

Check out his "cone head"! He was in the birth canal, ready to come, for a long time and his poor little head was pretty cone shaped!

Right after he got cleaned up! He was bright-eyed for several hours after he was born!

He just stared at his Daddy for hours! And it was so fun the watch Tom! He is such a "Proud Daddy"!

I had to wait about 2 hours to even hold my little man, but what a sweet moment that was!

Our first picture together (before all my drama started!)

Tanner loves to cuddle with Daddy!

Sleeping in Daddy's arms!

1 day old! And the first day he met Grandpa & Grandma Carter!

2 days old! Getting ready to leave the hospital!

All ready to go home!

His first car ride wore him right out! (He actually really likes the car, which we are very grateful for!)

1 week old! Just chilling in his diaper!

He looks so tiny in this bouncer chair!

Daddy helped him with some tummy time, which he didn't enjoy very much!

Cool dude in his cute outfit from Aunt Mallori and Aunt Nana!

Just looking handsome!

"Homma & Bompa" Carter, just before they left for the airport. We sure miss them!

Daddy and Mommy and Baby Tanner!!! We couldn't be more happy or feel more blessed!!

Baby Tanner in 3D!

Last night, for date night, we went to Baby Waves and had a 3D Ultrasound done! It was so fun and we got a lot of great pictures of him! And we found out that he is still a boy! The ultrasound tech kept shaking my belly to get him to move around a little bit and when we were watching the DVD last night, you could totally tell when she was shaking him! SHAKEN BABY SYNDROME! HaHaHa!
We are getting so excited for this little man to get here! We are 32 weeks, so not much longer! We can't wait!

Giving us a cute little smile!

Check out those chubby cheeks! Don't you just want to squeeze them!

He did not like being shaken! I had to throw in one of his sad/mad faces!

This one makes his nose look HUGE and misshapen... but it was a good view straight on of his little face!

Ohio Baby Shower

Our really good friend here in Ohio, Rosemary, planned and threw us a baby shower here, too! She and Tom were working really hard together to keep it a secret... but I ended up finding out! It turned out so fun! Ro and her mom did so much work to throw it together and everyone really enjoyed it! Ro is quite the "party thrower" so I know I shouldn't have been surprised by how much work she had done! She made a really yummy lunch and planned some really fun games! Not that Tanner wasn't already spoiled... he got some more really cute stuff!

These are the invitations she sent out! Aren't they so cute! (She knew we really liked monkeys!)

Rosemary made a cute Diaper Cake

and an adorable Diaper 3 Wheeler! She is so creative!

Opening all the fun gifts that Tanner got! People, again, were so generous! He got a lot of really cute stuff!

Most of the friends that came to the shower!

All the yummy food! We had soup, Chicken Sandwiches and Strawberry Preztel jello, and some yummy punch!

Rosemary even planned some games to involve "Daddy"! We played a game where Tom had answered some questions before everyone got there and later, everyone else was asked the same questions to see "How Well They Knew Daddy"! And she put together a "Daddy Tool Belt" with all the essential things for a new daddy! Super cute idea!

We also played a fun game where we all had a string necklace on, with one safety pin. We weren't allowed to say the word "Baby" and if someone caught us, they took our pin away! Whoever ended up with the most safety pins at the end, won a prize! (of course that was Tom!)

We really had such a fun time at this shower! We have great friends here in Ohio!

Carter Baby Shower

Ok, so I got the pictures from the Baby Shower that my family threw for us while we were in Utah, quite a while ago... I've just been a slacker about updating this blog! Anyway, here goes! This shower was the day after the one Tom's family threw for us and it was so much fun! So many of my family and friends were there and once again... Tanner got SPOILED! We had a yummy lunch, my sister in law, Ashlee, made a whole bunch of cute cookies and cupcakes and my sister JoDee planned some really fun games for everyone to play! And the big snow storm held off, until almost everyone had left and was hopefully home!

These are just some of the people that came to the shower and you can kind of see the cute decorations and the food spread!

My sisters Savana and JoDee, my cousin Kate and my Grandma Mecham!

My Grandma Carter and my aunt Sue! (and part of my good friend, Crystal Howe!)

Tom and I playing one of the two games that JoDee planned for the party. She melted different kinds of candy bars and put them in little diapers, and you had to smell it and guess what candy bar it was! Kind of grossed me out but it was a really fun game!

The second game... she had several different baby items in little brown paper bags and we had to touch and feel them and guess what they were! It was kind of hard!

Opening gifts! We got so many cute things and lot's of money and gift cards! We had to borrow an extra suitcase from my parents just to get all Tanner's gifts back to Ohio!

Some of the cute stuff Aunt Mallori and Aunt Savana gave him!

I put this picture on because it's a good one of my sister in law, Ashlee, standing on the side in the grey sweater! Doesn't she have such a cute bump! She is due with a little girl 2 weeks after us! (and my Mom is sitting next to Ashlee, in the pink shirt!)

And here, Tom is modeling one of the cute hooded bath towels that JoDee made for us! They turned out so cute! (I've since had fun making several more!!!)

Cahoon Baby Shower

A few weeks ago, we were able to go home to Utah for a week and both of our families threw us a baby shower! It was so fun and our sweet little Tanner got SPOILED!
Here are some pictures of the Baby Shower that Tom's family threw for us. The decorations were so cute, the games were fun and we just had a great time!!!

We drank out of cute Mason Jars, decorated all cute!

Yummy flavored waters and a green Slush!

Cute Mustache cupcakes

Green fudge, blue cake pops, and cupcakes

The kitchen all decorated!

More decorations and game prizes!

Sign on the front door!

More decorations!

Tom's sister, Christy and her son Drake!

Tom's sister, Sally!

Tom's sister in law, Cindy and her mom DyAnne!

Tom's mom, Kathy and his niece Reagan!

Kathy's friend Nada and her daughter Katy!

My mom, nephew Brody, and sisters JoDee, Savana, and Mallori!

Me!

Tom and my dad were hanging out downstairs with the rest of the "boys"! It was such a fun night! We each had to use our "mustache" if we wanted to say anything that had to do with "baby" or "Tanner"! If you got caught without your mustache, you were out of the game. We also played a fun candy bar game, a baby food game, kind of an "I Spy" game and then everyone had to cut a piece of yarn the length they thought I was around the belly! I'm sad to say that my mom's string was nearly as long as I am tall!!! lol! It was pretty funny!!!

We really had a great time! As soon as I get pictures from the shower my family had for us, I'll post them!

We are so excited for this sweet baby boy to come into our lives! We are down to just over 11 weeks left!!!