Introducing Wesley Ray Brooks!

Oh my my my what a week we have had! As I mentioned before, Liz went into the hospital on Friday after she checked her blood pressure at home and found out it was still extremely high. The started her on steroids to get Wes's lungs pumping just in case we had to deliver early...good thing!

Friday night they also started Liz on Magnesium....from here on out it will be referred to as Liz's arch nemesis (okay, okay...I know it most likely prevented her having seizures and what not, but it DID NOT agree with her body). Anyways, back to the story. Friday night we were all very worried about Liz and Wes. Cory stayed the night with her in the hospital and they got all the medications rolling.

Saturday we held Liz's baby shower at Jan's. There will be more details on this later along with pictures and what not. For now, we will say it was very nice. While we were there, Cory, Alice and Carissa were at the hospital keeping Liz company. Alice and Carissa had come into town from Wisconsin Friday night for the baby shower. After the shower, Rhi and Jan both went to see Liz in the hospital. While they were there, Liz's blood pressure got to high and they had to limit her visitors to one at a time as well as have the lights off and no tv. My mom spent the night with her to make sure she was okay, and she had a very difficult night.

Sunday morning she was doing better. Cory, Alice and Carissa came to spend time with her and all was well....until she started coughing. She was just not able to catch her breath. The doctors then let her know that she had developed pulmonary edema due to the magnesium...see what I mean...arch nemesis. They had to take her off the mag, which put her at a much higher risk for siezures. She was having a very hard time breathing so they put her on oxygen and gave her medications to reduce the fluid in her body in order to reduce the pressure around her heart and lungs. By this point, we were all basically yelling "Take him now!!!!!" but they needed to get Liz stable before they could do anything.

Sunday night Jan stayed with Liz and they were both able to get a little sleep. Bright and early Monday morning Boo and I arrived with breakfast. We all really thought it would be the day Wes was born. Alice and Carissa were at the hospital waiting to hear the decision....but we just kept waiting. We needed to meet with a specialist, and it was taking a very long time to collect all of her results for them to make a decision. At around 12:30 Alice and Carissa decided they could not wait any longer to get on the road, and they set out for home.

The specialist came in around 1:30, ran a few quick tests and said this was to serious to wait any longer. Alice and Carissa were in Louisville....the quickly turned around and came back! They wanted to attempt a natural birth, so they started medications to begin that process and promised us we would have a baby on Tuesday!

Cory stayed with Liz Monday night. She had a very hard night. They had given her medicine to take the edge off her contractions (they were about five minutes apart) but she had a bad reaction to it, and was having mild delusions throughout the night.

At 7:30 Tuesday morning they came in and let us know she really had not changed, but they were still going to try the natural birth. About two hours into labor, she was in a great deal of pain. They decided it was time to go ahead and start the epidural. Wow what a change! Liz looked great after it! They thought it would be best for her to get a little rest before things really got going. Boo and I headed home to catch a little sleep ourselves around 10am.

The phone rang at our house at 12:10 telling us to get our tails back to the hospital! During Liz's contractions, Wes's heart beat was dropping way down. They decided it was time to get this done, and called for an emergency c-section (if you asked any of us, we would have told them to do that Monday night....but I guess they have to try!) By the time Boo and I got back to the hospital we just got to kiss her on the head before she was rolled into the OR. The brought Cory an awesome looking surgery outfit, which he quickly put on and ran out the door.

The rest of the family (at this point that included Jan, Tom, Nana, Mom, Alice, Carissa, Boo and me) headed to the nursery to get our first peak at Wesley as they rolled him into the NICU. It felt like the longest 35 minutes ever!! Finally, right at 1pm, Cory and Wes rolled out of the OR...it was just amazing! He was so perfect. He was really tiny, but her looked great!

After that first little glimpse, we had to give the NICU time to get him settled and stable. Liz was in the recovery room, so we grabbed some lunch and talked about how amazing it all was. Before bringing Liz to her room, they brought her, Cory, Jan, Tom and Alice in to see little Wes. We found out that he was 2 pounds 12 ounces and 15 inches long. It was a quick visit because they were closing the unit. After, Liz had to go to her room and rest. We went and got flowers and balloons, then came back for our chance to see Wes.

Cory was able to bring us all in to see him once they had him stable. He really looks so wonderful (as you can see from all the pictures!!) As of today, they already have him off the respirator and just on an oxygen mask type thing. They said he will be off that soon. He will have to spend a few weeks in the NICU. He is a skinny little thing so they are beefing him up with straight fat through his IV!!! They are working on teaching him to eat and breath correctly. With a little luck he should be home by Christmas!!!

My dad giving Liz a kiss

Cory with Wes in the NICU

Liz with her wonderful nurse Anna, who washed her hair for her!

Boo waiting to be let into the NICU to see Wes

Wes has great timing! He was born on National Primie Day! They gave us cake and everything!

Here's Wes!!

Here is one of the first pictures of Wesley Ray Brooks! He is 2 pounds 12 ounces and 15 inches long. I have lots of pictures and a full story to report, but it will have to wait for tomorrow....to tired. I will let you all know that both mommy and baby are doing as well as can be expected! We are all so happy he is here!

Here We are Again....

Our big weekend did not go exactly as planned. Friday afternoon Liz took her blood pressure at home and realized it was to high. We headed out to the doctor, and they quickly made the decision to readmit her. She is on Magnesium on top of her other blood pressure medication to keep her safe, and she is on steroid injections to move along Wes's lung development. Right now Wes is 30 weeks 2 days, and is 2.5 pounds as of Thursday. It is pretty clear that Liz will not being going home again until after Wes has joined us...which is looking to be really soon. The doctors said today that they may take him today or tomorrow. We are just waiting for lab results to know for sure. All of the ZPO's are so worried and are keeping Liz, Cory and Wes in our thoughts and prayers at all times.

Due to Liz's Friday afternoon admittance to the hospital, she was clearly not able to attend her baby shower. We decided it would be better to go ahead and have it. The pictures from that will be up once I get them from my aunt. With all that is going on, it might be a while, but I promise when I have them, I will post them. We also have pictures from the wedding yesterday, so there will be lots of photo's to look forward too!

Sally's visit was wonderful. She got to see the bridesmaids dress (I will post pic's of that eventually....man, I need to get on the picture problem) plus candice got a new black pea coat that...well, lets face it, is perfect in every way and had to be purchased!

Okay, that's it for now. There will be new posts when I have time, but for now I am off to the hospital.

A Big Weekend is Coming

Especially for Little Miss Liz who has now been on the old bedrest for a week! We are having Liz's baby shower this weekend at Aunt Jan's house. It was originally scheduled at Spindletop, but we thought it would be better to do it in a place where Liz can lay on a couch and not put herself into labor. I will have tons of pictures of Liz and all of the ZPO's posted after the big event. It is at eleven thirty and we will be serving brunch....my aunts quiche is a good enough reason for everyone to want to come, not that anyone would think of missing it, what with the rest of us there!!

After the shower the Shepherd sisters are going to Barry D's wedding! This is so exciting! He is getting married to Erin, and then they are off to the Peace Corp...okay, so the idea of joining the Peace Corp doesn't really fit into a ZPO's lifestyle, but it is extremely exciting for them! (on a side note, never in my life have I known someone in the peace corp....I mean, the military, okay, but the peace corp...so the point is, Barry and Erin are joining, and now so are two people I work with! What the heck....this is madness!)

Do you think that is all...oh no. I wouldn't be calling it a big weekend for just that!! We are also having company this weekend! Sally, who is Candice's mom and my future mom in law is coming to town! This is all very exciting!

Everyone remember that next weekend is the release of Harry Potter...we are doing some kind of dinner before the movie....it should be really great. Also, not that any of you would forget, but tomorrow night the OC comes on....oh the glory.

A Night at the Bookstore

This months meeting was held at the cafe inside of Joseph Beth's Bookstore. There was excitement before we even sat down because both Rhiannon and Charing found Christmas presents while they waited for Boo and I to arrive!

Sadly, Liz was of course not able to join us due to her bedrest. She is home and doing well. She is a little bored...okay maybe a lot bored, but she will make it through! Missy also missed the meeting due to a lack of communication of the date, so she had signed up for work. We missed them both very much!

Charing was able to come with Carter, which was great. He is so perfect. He had a slightly hard time with the lights in his eyes, but besides that he was an angle. Charing also had her Nana, Morgan and Zack who were looking through the store while she was at the meeting. Morgan eventually joined us and got to experience her first event with ZPO.

Once we were all at the table and had our hearts melted by Carter, we ordered our food and settled in. It was such a wonderful night. There was talk of weddings, babies, families and much more. We have all been so busy, it was great to just take a little time to catch up and enjoy each other!

After we were done with gossip and food, Boo, Candice and I went on an enjoyable trip to Meyers to get a bunch of junk. Always a good time!

Don't forget that our next meeting is December 10th at Charing's new house, and that it is our Christmas party!

Halloween Pictures are Here!!!!

Our annual Halloween party was a huge success! We had a wonderful turnout and great costumes. Rhiannon and Charing were both unable to attend, and we missed them so much! Rhi was at a nascar race and charing had a ton of family in town for Marty's surprise party(plus, you know....she has a newborn). Five of us were able to go show up in all of our Halloween cuteness. Boo came as salt (with chris accompanying her as pepper), I was Hermione Granger from Harry Potter, Liz was Cheerbear the Carebear, Candice was a Catholic school girl and Missy was a witch.

We had many other guests who came in full get-up. We had a tinkerbell, rainbow bright and Punky Brewster. A nerd(including his NKOTB giant button), a Russian spy, someone from Sling Blade and some other singer from NIN joined us. There was a flight attendant, a Pittsburgh Steeler Fan and a Shell worker....Needless to say we had a variety of outfits.

We also had several guests who, although not in costume, were a welcome addition to the party. Whit, JC, Emilee and Matt stopped by with Ashlyn. Cory came with Liz, but seeing as how he has costume immunity, he did not dress up. A couple of others were there, but I am forgetting who....that is what I get for doing a post a week after an event.

What I do remember is that we had a blast! There was a ton of wonderful food. Liz made this wonderful graveyard pudding...Boo had this pumpkin capcake thing....amazing BLT dip...maybe it is the food that really sticks in my mind after a party. We did a ton of drinking and laughing. Around 1:30am we moved the party to Beaumont Bar and Grill, which extended the fun!

We forgot to announce the winners of the costume party at the actual party, so here are the winners..........Best Girl goes to Mandy for her Homemade Rainbow Bright costume.....Best Boy goes to Nick for his Nerd costume....Best couple goes to Boo and Chris for coming as Salt and Pepper! Here are a few more pic's for everyone to see!

Mandy, Missy and Monica with Darby in her Witch costume

Zay and Patrick

Monica being Monica

Candice, Kara and Stephanie

The Shepherd sisters

Sarah, Liz and Boo being idiots

Emilee, Matt, Boo and Whit with baby Ashlyn

All the girls

Fun times in NASCAR land!

The last two weekends of October. I rhiannon experienced my first NASCAR races. They were awesome. First we went to Martinsville, Virginia where we saw Jimmie Johnson come in third after a mighty battle! The next weekend in Atlanta we saw Mark Martin and the Rousch boys pull off a grand finish with Carl Edwards placing first and Mark finishing third. Jimmie pretty much sucked that day. I was full of sadness for him. The best part about the races is all the atmosphere there, there are huge trailers for each driver, there is food, food, and more food! Additioanlly we got to see four drivers and take their pictures. How awesome. I thought I was addicted to NASCAR before but it is way worse now. I wish everyone could have been there and I am sorry that I missed Halloween but I had a GREAT time!

JJ fighting to win the race off pit road!

Jeff Gordon Wins at Martinsville!

Mark Martin doing pace laps at Martinsville.

Pointing out Jimmie's greatness! What a pass!

Rhi, ready for some truck racing at Atlanta, that's exciting stuff!

Carl Edwards posed for pictures before his big win at Atlanta

Home Sweet Home

I am very excited to report that Liz has been set free from the hospital!! She does have a mild case of preeclampsia, so she is on bedrest until little Wes is here. She will also be going to the doctor twice a week to make sure her blood pressure is okay. They have moved up the expected arrival date for Wes from January 21st to the end of December. We will all be thinking of things to keep Liz entertained while on bedrest!

The meeting tonight is still on for Joseph Beth's. Liz needs her rest, so we are back on with the original plan. I am thinking we will meet at 8:15 and enjoy some coffee and gossip!

Just a note about Halloween....I have not forgotten to post the pictures. Damn Meyers was on a delay with the developing due to the holiday and what not. Then, with Liz going into the hospital, I just have not had a chance to get them picked up. I will have them on here by the end of the weekend!

Sweet Sweet Liz

Our sweet little member Liz, who as we all know is pregnant with Wesley, is in the hospital. She was admitted last night after her routine doctors appointment revealed that she has been walking around with crazy high blood pressure. Poor little non-complaining thing! Basically, she is showing signs of possible preeclampsia, so they admitted her for 24 hours to monitor her and run some tests. We should know more tonight or tomorrow. Liz, we are all thinking about you and loving you and sending only good thoughts your way!

On a totally different note, our November meeting is this Friday November 4th. We are planning on meeting at Joseph Beths around seven. With Liz being in the hospital, these plans may be changing. As soon as I have any update on Liz or the meeting, I will let you all know.