Busy Weekend!

Before we get into the excitement of the weekend, here are a few pictures that we need to share!
Here is Aunt Kaci and Eli...


and Aunt Karen!


Here is Mr. Eli's first package from the Rath family. It was so exciting to see him get mail, we had to take a picture!




And for the weekend pictures.

We know, we know, many people would think that we are crazy to make the 4 hour drive home, but there were many important people that had yet to meet our little guy!


Here is Eli with grandpaw (Tif''s dad). This is his first grandchild! We won the race by just a few weeks!


Here is Uncle Baff with Eli...he was practicing for his little addition due in just a little over a week.


Saturday afternoon we headed to Canyon to meet Mamaw and Grandy...


Here is Mr. Eli in Chris's great, great-granddad's christening gown. He was born in 1906.


And then to Ruby's to meet some of the cousins!
Here is Morgan holding Eli, Addy, Stetson, Peyton and Peyton's friend, Allison.


Aunt Amber and Eli!


Peyton...


and Miss Addy and Eli...


Sunday morning Papaw Campbell came over to meet his first great-grandchild!


Here are a few pictures from Brad and Alison's shower in White Deer which also happened to be last weekend...They had a wonderful shower! It was a lot of fun and seeing all of the cute baby girl things made us excited to have a little girl too someday....


Here is Memamaw showing off her first grand-baby, soon to be followed by her second...


And Eli, Nanny, Tif and her dad. This is Nanny's 18th great-grandchild...

And finally, Eli with his Aunt Lynda...

Here are Uncle Baff and Aunt Alison...just think, Eli will get to meet his cousin, Emmaelynn in just a few short days!


Here we are, all tuckered out. What a busy weekend!

and just for a good laugh, here is daddy, keeping everyone happy...

1 Week...

I am so lucky to have a hubby who is so talented with a camera. He is simply amazing and captures such beautiful work....I had to post some of the pictures that he has been taking. He might get mad because none of these are really edited, but I love them just the way that they are.

We had our first photo shoot with Eli on his one week birthday...

Picture crazy...

Time for pictures! If you thought that we were picture crazy before...just wait!

Here is the little guy...one day old. Chris thought he had old man toes.


Here is Eli and Aunt Alison...



and Aunt Darcy...


Chris changing his first diaper! There were many, many more to come in the coming days.

Eli's footprints on Chris's scrubs...

Aunt Jess and Eli...

Our first family picture...

Finally home!

The puppies welcoming the little guy home...


Callie trying to get a closer look...

Papaw and Eli...

Memaw and Elijah...

Thank you to everyone for all of the calls and e-mails- sorry if we have not gotten back with you, but know that all of the well-wishes mean so much! We are slowly adjusting to our new life. We are loving these few days that we have with just the three of us before school starts.

Happy and Home...

Hello!
We are so sorry that it has taken us this long to make a post! Unfortunately, the hospital didn't allow access to Blogger, MySpace or Facebook, so our lines of communication were practically cut!

Most of you know that Tif was scheduled to be induced on Monday morning at 7:00am. Of course we tried everything to not be induced...everything. Just ask, and we will tell you all you never wanted to know about how to naturally induce childbirth.

As fate would have it, and many, many prayers hoping to spontaneously go into labor on Sunday night at 2 in the morning, we both were woken by our alarm at 5:00am on Monday to get ready to head to the hospital.

We arrived and Tif was started on Pitocin at 7:00am. We didn't want to have an epidural, so it was a long morning/afternoon of Chris coaching Tif through every contraction. It was an incredible experience for the two of us and our marriage. (On a side note, Chris was just amazing; everything was easier when he was beside me.)

At 4:30pm, Tif was checked and was at a 4. She had been on the highest level of Pitocin for over 7 hours and was really starting to be in pain. So, we decided because the progression was so slow to cave and go for the epidural. Everything went smoothly, and Tif felt great and progressed from a 4 to a 9 in a few short hours. At 6:00, she checked in at a 9, but stalled there until 10:30pm. The doctor tried many different things, but finally determined that our chance of actually making any other progress was slim. The little guy was doing well, but Tif was on oxygen because her normally low blood pressure had plummeted to dangerous levels, decreasing the oxygen level for baby P. Because of the blood pressure concern and the 4 hour stall at a 9.5, a round of practice pushing, and sitting up for over an hour to let gravity help the baby fall, we made the decision to have the C-section with a little convincing from the doctor before Tif's risk of fever and danger to the baby escalated.

Elijah Nelson Pirtle was born on January 12th at 11:16pm.
He was 7lbs, 14 oz and 19 inches.

We think that this picture captures it all- He did not want to come out!

Here is Chris with Eli in the nursery while the doctors were finishing the C-section.

Here is Tif- One of the side effects of the epidural and all of the adrenaline was shaking, so here she is covered in tons of warm blankets just so that she could hold the baby for the first time without dropping him!

Here is Eli's first birthday cake! Because we were just sitting around waiting for him, we had it ready!

Here is the first person to hold the little guy besides us- his Memamaw. She was sure to be at the hospital the next morning at 8:00am to get the first spot in line!

And here he is...Introducing Elijah Nelson Pirtle

Even though our birthing process didn't proceed as we had hoped, we are thrilled to have a beautiful, healthy baby boy with us and we know that in the end, that is all that matters.

We thank God for providing us with this blessing and praise Him for keeping everyone safe.

-4 days...

Still here! No baby!
We went to the doctor yesterday and Tif is dilated to a 1...at least there is a glimmer of hope in the distance. Chris is banking on having the little guy on the 10th, and Tif thinks that it will be on the 8th- that way we can put the little guy in his OU gear when OU wins the National Championship...the game will have to be on even if we are in labor! Oooooh! We could have a party at the hospital...yeah, totally kidding.
If we don't have the little guy by Monday the 12th we will be induced. For now we are trying every trick in the book to naturally induce.
We know that God works in His perfect time. I wish that patience was a better virtue of mine. Please be praying that we go into labor sometime before Monday morning.

-1 days...

So, our due day came and went.
We are still here! Tif is feeling great...still great.
We officially have over 50 frozen dinners prepared, the entire house cleaned and we are caught up on every DVD out that we want to see at the moment.

Just a short update. Thank you for all of the e-mails, text and calls. We will be sure to let everyone know when the action begins, but for now all is calm.

Happy New Year!

Well, we are still waiting for the arrival of our little guy! Tif feels great..maybe a little too great...we are beginning to think that this little guy will never come out!
Even though we are loving these relaxing days full of movies and alone time, we are both very anxious to meet him!

For our New Year's celebration, we decided to head to downtown OKC for their "Opening Night" celebration. It was a great time, even though it was really cold outside. We started out the evening watching a local band, Lemma. They were really pretty good and then we headed out for the raising of the ball...
We were sure to stay close to the fire department just in case we went into labor!



Here we are as they are raising the ball...kind of a weird picture...we weren't still enough!


The firework show...

We wish everyone health and many blessings this year!