Unbelievably Believable!

The Baylor football season has looked a lot different for us this year. Cara was born the week of the first game, and until this weekend, she had only been to 1/2 of a game (TCU), and I had only been to two halves of two games (TCU and Kansas-Homecoming).

On Saturday, we were scheduled to play Kansas State--oh ya, and they had been ranked the #1 team in the country the week before. Everyone had written off Baylor this season: we'd lost RG3, our defense was the worst in the country and we were struggling to even get 6 wins to be bowl-eligible.

We were in charge of cooking for our tailgate this week, and it was supposed to be a cold 7 p.m. kickoff. I bundled up Cara and myself to tailgate and thought we'd be lucky to make it to halftime before she melted down to go to bed.

 {We ran into Cori & Graham at the tailgate and got to take pics with both kiddos this time!}

 {all bundled up in her bear coat and purple fleecy jammies--I didn't have anything warm enough in green & gold!}

We had fun tailgating, and I put Cara in the moby wrap to go into the game and she fell asleep right around kickoff. At the last game she went to, the noise woke her up after the first touchdown and she never recovered. This time, she did so much better! She was older and a better sleeper, the hood seemed to muffle some of the sound, and she'd been used to sleeping amid distractions at daycare. She woke up once or twice when something particularly loud happened, but I'd shush her and rock and she'd go back to sleep. I spent the whole game moving in some way--swaying my hips if I was standing, rocking side to side if I was sitting. I shushed her a lot, hummed and sang to her to give her some vibrations from my chest, and kept my hands over her hood and ears when it got loud.

{Where's Cara? Sound asleep against mama!}

Everyone around us kept saying what a good baby she was. She slept from 7 p.m. until about 10 football minutes left in the game. I kept thinking she'd wake up and scream and we'd have to go home, but the game was so good and so was she, so we stayed. When she woke up, it was 10:30 and way past her bedtime, so I took her to the nice bathroom under our seats and fed her a bottle and rocked her almost to sleep. The game ended while I was down there, but we went back to our seats to see the crowd rush the field and all the post-game celebrations. Somehow, some way (with Cara as a good luck charm?) Baylor pulled off the upset of a lifetime and beat the #1-ranked Wildcats. It's never happened in our history, and Cara was there for the whole thing! 

 

{with our seat mates and dearest friends, the Hills--and Little Baby Mini Hill under wraps}

 

We snapped a few quick pics, loaded her up in the car and drove home. She fussed for a few minutes in the car, but then passed out. When we got home, I unsnapped her from her carseat and she woke up and grinned so big! She was just so happy! And then as I was swaddling her for bed, she started cooing and talking, so I got out the video camera. I got a really cute video of her showing her excitement over our win. I put her back down at about 11:30, and she fussed for about 5 minutes, then she was silent until 8 a.m. the next morning. Must've really been worn out from all the excitement going on around her!

{so happy the Bears won!}

{It's dark because I didn't want her to wake up any more, but the sounds are so sweet!}

This game was so much fun, and I can't believe it actually happened. We still have a chance to make something of our season, and upsetting a #1 team is the stuff of legends. It may never happen again, so I'm so glad Cara got to experience it with us! We have some sweet memories from this season, and it makes me excited for years of Baylor football to share with our Sweet Pea!