What's my name again??

It's come to my attention just how many nicknames I have for my little Cole.. The two we use the most are Colebug and (little) Peanut. And then there's Little Man, Stinkbug, Chunky Monkey, Munchkin, Butterball, Drooly-Julie and Smiley Cyrus :P

Not just another day at the park....

On Friday we went into Rittenhouse Square, one of our favorite spots in Philly. This time we didn't just sit at the park. We decided to give Rouge a try. Rouge is a parisian restaurant, with sidewalk seating overlooking Rittenhouse Park. We had an amazing meal for lunch.


The best part of the meal was hands down their Day Boat Sea Scallops. These scallops are pan seared to golden deliciousness, served with what they called a red wine and golden raisin reduction. Yummmmmm.



Truffle Parmesan Frites...these were amazing! Tall crispy pomme frites (fries) cooked in delicious truffle oil (which is mushroom..), topped with parmesan shavings.

This is what being a mom is all about...

Cole and I had a deep bonding moment last night that almost put tears in my eyes. I was cradling him toward me and he was staring into my face. He was playing with my cheeks, lip, and nose. And never once did he break his gaze. He was utterly fascinated by momma :)

Uh, what is this Mom?

First try at rice cereal this weekend... Cole wasn't exactly sure what to make of it... and as I had expected he ended up wearing most of it ;-) He fooled me into thinking he had swallowed it a few times by holding it in his mouth a little while and then he would errupt, spewing it all over, laughing and spraying me in the process. haha.

Look who's five months already!

And this is his newest trick..

Time warp to 5 months...and a very belated birth story...

Okay, yeah so I found it harder than i thought to find the time to update my blog. I give kudos to the new mommies who can find time to update blogs, Facebook, Twitter...

I guess I owe everyone a birth story but I'm gonna keep this short and sweet as possible. Basically I went into labor on my own on Sat, Dec 12th, four days past my due date. It was very irregular and it took forever for contractions to get down to 5 mins apart. Finally, by the end of the day it was time to head to the hospital and I wasn't in too much pain. After I was brought to triage, things really started to slow down, they called it latent labor. I was beyond bummed and my doctor checked me a few times and i hadn't made much progress beyond a centimer dialation. Finally, the doctor decided to just admit me b/c he was worried that if he sent me home I'd just be right back in no time b/c contractions were definitely happening. So they admitted me and checked me in the morning..only to find that I hadn't progressed and the contractions had really spaced out...

The decision was made to induce me on Sunday morning since I was going to be induced two days later anyway b/c of being on a pre-eclampysia watch. So my doctor got the Pitocin going and then things were rollin. I will spare you the details of how loud I was screaming as the contractions started getting very intense but let's just say I wanted to murder my doctor for making me wait a while for my epidural. If I could have gotten my past-due preggo self out of that bed I would have nailed him in the twigs n berries :P

So fast forward many hours later and I made it to 8cm and the epi was wearing off. I got set up with a new one and was starting to feel good when the doctor told me that Cole's heartrate was getting a little too high. They had me roll on my side..when that didn't help..they told me I would prob need to have a c-section. And then the next thing I knew his heartrate spiked over 200 and they were shoving consent forms at me for an emergency c-section and making me drink something in a dixie cup. And then they were wheeling me at lightspeed to the ER room. In hindsight, it was probably a good thing that I had just been given an epidural..it kept me from feeling any panic at the situation. It felt like an eternity on the table before I heard his cries..

Long story short, baby Cole Brennan made his debut at 10:23pm on Sunday, Dec 13th, five days past his due date. He was a healthy 9lbs, 11oz, 20 inches.. so I think I lucked out in this deal...could you imagine pushing THAT out? ;-)

Ok, so to catch everyone up here's a few pics of Cole in his first few weeks and month's one, two, three and four. And I'll just continue posting a few times a month to keep everyone updated on Cole's progress and for some pic spam :)

First week at home:


Second week:


Third week:


First Month:


Second Month


Third Month:


Fourth Month: