07.13.05

Hi son.
It is Saturday July 30, 2005. You are going to be born in two days. I know this because I am scheduled to have a C-Section on Monday. So you will be born on your due date. I chose to have a C-Section because the doctor estimates that you are about 8 and a half pounds. He said if I wait for you to come out on your own you could be around 9 or 10 pounds. Holy Cow. You are going to be born around 4:30PM on Monday August 1st, 2005. We have decided to change your name. It is now going to be Brandon Cooper Gabriel Mateo. Cooper comes from dads friend Kenneth Cooper. He died when I first met your dad. Gabriel comes from Grandpa Kirks mom. Her name is Gabie and her fathers name is Gabriel. Kirk asked me to name you that because your due date is also your great grandma Gabies birthday. I am so nervous to know that you are going to be here in two days. I am ecstatic to meet you but I am terrified of the surgery. Every one is so excited to see you. Dad is going out of his mind and Grandma and Grandpa Weakland are over the moon. They are going to take the day off work just to meet you. You feel so big. I will be shocked if you weigh less then 7.5 pounds. I sure hope that I am a good mother. I am so afraid I might mess something up. I hope you like me. I got to see you in a sonogram last week. You looked like dad. But who knows maybe you won’t. In the picture I swear you have dads nose. I saw you blink also and I think my heart melted right at that moment. Okay well I think the next time I write to you, you will be here. I hope you enjoy my letters. I love you Brandon.
Mommy

05.26.05

Hello Son.
It is Thursday May 26th 2005. I’m just a little over 30 weeks pregnant now. Your room is all ready for you to move in. I washed and folded all of your little tiny clothes already. I can’t believe how teeny you are going to be. I seem to get full so much easier now. I ate lunch today at 12:00 and its 8:12 at night and I’m still too full to eat dinner. You have started to get the hiccups about twice a day and at least once at night. They drive me nutty. Imagine me sitting next to you poking you every five seconds in the arm. You wouldn’t like it very much. The only thing that keeps me from going completely crazy is knowing that is supposed to be healthy for you it means you are learning to breath. I have started playing you music that I hope you like. Some of the songs I play you are Lynard Skynards “Simple Man,” Sade’s “By your Side,” and U2’s “ The Sweetest Thing.” I think you like it you don’t kick me when you listen which I assume means you like it. Although I have heard that you can hold very still when you are unhappy. Your little bag is all packed for the hospital and I hope I remembered everything. I’m not really afraid of labor at this point because I am so excited to meet you. Your dad is getting really excited to meet you also. We both talk and wonder about what you will look like. Will you be tan like dad or bright white like mom? Dad is really excited to come home at night after work and hold you. I can’t wait to see the two of you together. I think it is going to make my heart melt. I love it when you kick and move now because I can see it outside of my belly. It is funny because it looks like an alien is inside of my belly like you would see in a movie. Dad thinks it is scary when you do a big move or he sees my belly bounce. It is funny that you move around all day until someone other then me touches my belly. Sometimes you move for dad but not often. In fact at night when you really get going and I can feel your elbows, knees, arms, legs, toes and your nose I have to ask your dad to put his hand on my belly so you will stop moving long enough for me to go to sleep. I think you still like it when I eat frozen yogurt and you are really developing a taste for Mexican food. Everything is a lot spicier to me now so I can’t enjoy some of my favorite foods anymore. Sometimes it is so hot it almost makes me cry. I hope you are like your dad and you can handle spicy foods. I have gone 30 weeks so far with out eating any meat. Then suddenly I woke up this morning and I couldn’t get the thought of ribs and hot dogs out of my mind. I just don’t know what I’m going to do. Maybe I can make a veggie hot dog and that will curve the craving. I’m pretty excited for you to hurry up and be here. We saw some babies in the hospital nursery the other day and I can’t believe how little and red you are going to be. I don’t even know you and I already love you. I think dad feels the same way. His only concern is that you are healthy. Dad has asthma and he is hoping you don’t have that. Mom had to go get a test done this weekend to find out if I have gestational diabetes. I really don’t want to take it because I have to drink a giant glass of sugary soda and then sit for an hour and wait for them to poke me with a needle. However if I don’t hurry up and take it I won’t be able to receive any medicine in the hospital. Okay Brandon I am done babbling to you for tonight. I can’t wait to meet you. I hope you recognize me. I also hope you keep kicking me right up until the day you are born.
Love Mommie

04.02.05

It’s Saturday April 2, 2005 and I’m sitting here writing to you so I can put this in your scrapbook. Our cat Meister is running around like a crazy cat trying to play fetch with me right now. I am a day away from being twenty-two weeks along in this pregnancy and I am finally starting to feel good. I spent the first three months of this pregnancy vomiting over half of the meals I consumed. Your dad was convinced that since I was getting so sick you were for sure going to be a boy. Your dad said right away he hoped you were a boy but I wasn’t sure yet what I wanted. I think I figured it out about a week before we found out what you were. I was driving up the road one day in March and I saw a little boy about 5 years old standing outside in his Spiderman Halloween costume. That got me thinking and I realized that I didn’t want to spend the next ten years having to make princess dresses for Halloween. I waited until about four o’clock in the morning to wake up your father and ask him what he was for Halloween. His answer was a baseball player, a baseball player, Robin, a baseball player. Immediately I got excited at the idea of dressing you and your dad up as baseball players for Halloween. I started to dream of Batmans, Spidermans, Cowboys and Indians and I just knew you were a boy. The day we found out you were a boy both of us were so happy. We couldn’t wait to start decorating your bedroom. I have been able to feel you move for about a month now and it is very weird. Sometimes I can tell you are defiantly kicking me. Other times it feels like you are just splashing around in there as though you were in a swimming pool. When we went in for your sonogram we were able to see you move around inside me. The lady doing the sonogram was pushing the equipment into my belly was near your head and we could see you getting frustrated that she was pushing the equipment on your head. So you started trying to jump up and head butt the area that was pushing you. We could even see you start stomping up and down. It was so cute. Sometimes when I feel you move I wonder if it is something I ate or drank making you move. I don’t eat spicy food so I wonder if you will like it. I can’t wait to find out what you are going to looks like. I have been dreaming about you and I can’t wait to find out if you look like how I dreamed you. One of my favorite things about waiting for you to come is buying you little clothes. I get really excited about the little tiny socks. I think dad is the most excited about getting to teach you how to play baseball.