Week 40...Week 41....

Well, here it is.  Week 40 and nada.  Nada (Not a?) single indication that CJ will be joining us anytime soon.  Last week I grounded her for shoving her feet into my rib cage.  I didn't really think she would take it so litterally.  JD and I are in for a wild ride I have a feeling.  With her daddy's disposition to be late and my stubborness...I hate to think what that means for us.  I have a feeling we will need all the prayers we can get!

Final prego pic!

Other than CJ being stubborn and late, my doc said everything looked good so far.  Good strong heartbeat and all my medical stuff is right where it should be.  Just no baby.

**So the above two paragraphs were written a few weeks ago and as usual I either got distracted or lazy.**

Cora's Birth Story

As most of you probably know, Cora finally decided to grace us with her long awaited presence.  Eleven days ago I had my final prenatal appointment and later that night I was admitted to the hospital.  I began having extremely random contractions around 7 pm, around 11 pm they were a lot closer together but still quite random and beginning to be a bit more painful as well.  JD finally convinced me that we should go to the hospital, I didn't think I was ready and thought they would send me home since my contractions weren't regular.  My mom had flown in to ATL the Tuesday before my due date in anticipation of Cora's arrival, since she was in town, she, JD and I all piled in the Jeep and headed north.  We got to the hospital a little before midnight and before I knew it I was in a hospital gown in a L&D room.  Even though I was only dilated to a 1 they decided to keep me since my contractions were so painful.  Tuesday morning around 10 am I was dilated a bit more but still not where I should be.  The docs were kind enough to give me an IV full of pain meds (yay!) (YAY!!!) to help ease the contraction pains.  I'm not sure what exactly what the pain meds were (Morphine) but they were good.  They made me a bit loopy at first and then just helped me relax.

Later that day around 2 pm the good docs decided I had progressed enough to give me an epidural.  Now, at the beginning of my pregnancy I watched a video of a lady getting an epidural, it terrified me.  The needle seemed to last forever and the chick getting the shot wouldn't stop saying 'ow, ow, ow' in a rather high pitched voice.  Needless to say, I was dreading the epidural.  Turns out it wasn't that bad and the IV in the hand hurt a heck of a lot worse.  JD on the other hand didn't care for me getting an epidural.  He later confessed that watching me get the shot made him a little light headed.  The hardest part for me was trying to to bend over enough for the doc to get the needle in the right spot, after all I still had a big ole baby in my belly and bending over was not an easy feat to accomplish.  Ah, the wonderfulness of the epidural.  And even though it didn't effect me how I thought it would, it still got the job done.  Around 8 pm Tuesday night my midwife finally thought I had progressed enough to start  pushing.  And push I did. I pushed for an 1 1/2 hours before Cora finally let go of her inherited stubbornness (from her mommy) and made her appearance.  Cora Jacqueline Davis was born at 10:01 pm, weighing in at 6 lbs 6 oz and 18 1/2" long.  And even though JD and I both were not blessed with any hair when we were born, she was fortunate enough to have a tiny little bit of hair.

Cora's first picture

Relaxing after a hard day

Unfortunately, she tried her best to come out face up (which is apparently not good).  In the process of trying to get her turned around she swallowed a large amount of meconium.  The NICU team let me hold her briefly before they took her away.  She spent 2 hours in a transitional unit having her stomach and lungs cleaned with a tube.  JD was able to watch and said it was horrible.  I finally was released from my L&D room and made it just in time to see to see Cora get her first bath.  She was not a fan.  About an hour later she was brought down to our room all cozy and cute looking in her little hospital bassinet and with a clean bill of health.  Thursday we all were officially released from the hospital and free to go home.  Such an amazing feeling.  I thank God everyday for her being healthy.

Daddy & Cora

Meeting the big sis

Nice and cozy

Life with Cora

We have been home just a little over a week.  I was lucky enough to have the rest of my family drive in from Oklahoma on Saturday.  It was great to have my dad, brother, and niece all here to spend Christmas with.  We also had Sofie that following weekend, so we had a full house!  Cora adjusted just fine to life outside the hospital (and my warm innards) and was never without a warm body to hold her (especially her maemae).  Christmas was absolutely wonderful.  The girls loved playing with each other and JD and I were happy they had this opportunity since they live so far away from each other.  Blake and Addy had to head back to the Sooner state on Christmas day, but my father and mother were able to stick around a few more days.

Big Cousin Addy and Big Sister Sofie

MaeMae and Uppa with the grandkids (yep, all girls!)

Lovin' the park!

Already helping out

Sofie got her own Jeep for Christmas

My mom and I spent our free time reupholstering a recliner for the nursery.  My dad worked on moving some interior doors around for us.  All much needed and appreciated.

Chair deconstructed

Fabric choice

Almost done!

Cora is your typical newborn.  Eat.  Sleep.  And yes, poop.  She does throw in the occasional goofy grin and looks super cute right after she eats when she is all relaxed.  I call it MilkDrunk.  She can sleep through almost anything.  We've been letting her catch her z's during the day in the living room.  That means sleeping through dogs barking at every little thing (or squirrel  that goes by, JD's need to have the TV volume up super loud, and my dad's sneezing fits.  I've been asked how it feels to be a mom now, and it feels quite normal and I couldn't imagine life with out her.  I can't wait to see how Cora turns out and who she takes after most.

Merry Christmas!

Monkey! (Thanks Cousin Shana!)

Milk Drunk 

Hear No Evil

Speak No Evil

         Sorry, no See No Evil pic.....

Finally!

Week 39 - It's a waiting game now

I'm sure you get tired of reading this first thing, but jeez what a busy week!  Of course, I'm beginning to think this isn't being called busy anymore, but just called life.  And I know with the arrival of lil' miss CJ things will definitely be busy.

We still have a lot to do around the house, some projects are mostly done, done, and not even close to being done.  The yellow bathroom curtains are still as they were last week.  Although, I did buy the backing to them this week.  One step at a time.  The chair in the nursery hasn't changed one bit either....I did say I had done some things (a whole day off to reupholster the chair and only got shopping done???  hmm).  We have french doors that lead into our master bathroom from our bedroom....not very private with the doors being mostly glass and all.  So JD and I decided we needed to add something to the doors.  Off to Lowe's!  And yes, we should buy stock in Lowe's after all the money and time we spend there.  Back to the doors, we ended up buying a window film that has a bubbly texture to it, next step, actually putting it on the doors.  That was my true weekend project.

Before

During

After

Ok, so confession time....the doors aren't actually done. I have one more row of windows to do, but I swear I'll do it this weekend!  But that's not all we did.  JD and I put some much needed shelving in our linen closet and we put up our Christmas tree and put up lights outside.

Merry Christmas!

We also met a few of our neighbors.  Have we mentioned that we absolutely love our neighborhood?  We went to a tree lighting party a few houses down over the weekend with one set of neighbors, and then this week two other sets of neighbors came by our house to welcome us to the hood.  And one even brought cookies!!!!  Yep, I would have to say I have my sweet tooth back.  Good thing I'll lose about 10 lbs automatically once this kiddo pops out.  Every night JD takes the dogs for a walk, a couple of nights ago I went with him and the pups.  When we got back home we heard the weirdest noise, sounded like a cat fight, except with birds, and monkeys, and cats, and who knows what else.  Then it hit us, duh, we live directly across from the zoo.  The monkeys were excited about something that's for sure.

CJ's nursery still isn't quite finished yet (even with the exception of the chair).  I did get a few goodies in the mail this week from my mother.  She made me a cradle sheet and a changing pad cover.  Love them!

Changing pad and cover, thanks mom!

All thanks to my mother!  Blanket, cradle sheet, and cradle.

Organized chaos....

A few prego stats for ya:

How far along? 39 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: 24 lbs so far!
Maternity clothes? pants - absolutely, shirts, some yes and some no
Stretch marks? none so far!
Sleep: Me - really good....JD - not so good (he blames my new habit of snoring....)
Best moment this week: getting my hair cut (who know's when I'll be able to do that again)
Miss Anything?  sleeping on my stomach, being able to touch my toes
Movement:  TONS! CJ definitely takes after her father in that area
Food cravings: nada /lots of sweets for JD
Anything making you queasy or sick: nada
Have you started to show yet:  hahahahahaha, now that's funny
Gender: According to the doc, 'appears female'
Labor Signs:  Braxton Hicks contractions all day today
Belly Button in or out? Hm, neither one really, it's flat and stretched out (Even though Brooke doesn't want to admit it, it's an OUTIE!) 
Wedding rings on or off? Still on!
Happy or Moody most of the time: Um, I'd say happy, but my husband might have a diff answer
Looking forward to: Meeting this little child of mine and not being prego any more!
Crying:  YES

NEXT WEEK IS WEEK 40!!!!!!!!

Week 38: 2 More Weeks!!!

We finally have our house back, yay!  The painters and carpenters have come and gone, and we have a somewhat clean house, ok, maybe not clean, but we are headed in the right direction.  We've been working on a few projects, some are done, some are halfway done, and a lot are still thoughts in our heads.

First Pinterest Project: Painted Ikea dresser

Project done! Sofie's favorite color

Future bathroom curtains, now just gotta make 'em!

We finally have a stove! Now just need to paint

JD and I are relaxing on the sofa watching the Saints vs Falcons game (RISE UP!).  And so that means that you probably won't see any red marks in this blog tonight due to JD's obsession with the Falcons (I'm doing the proofreading later, but yes, if this was during game time you'd be exactly right).  But, I don't blame him, tonight's game is a big one.  Cora is making her presence known too.  She has been non-stop all day today.  Not sure if that means she's anxious to join us or what (Very cool.  Cora is super active).

Cora's nursery is slowly getting there.  It's painted (pics in last week's post), there's a cradle, lots of clothes, a bookcase being used as a changing table, and a chair that needs an upholstery job.  There are curtains that my mother made random other items.  

My weekend project:  reupholstering that chair!

So for now it's just a waiting game.  My co-workers are terrified they are going to have to drive me to the hospital, and I do have a couple of different designated drivers picked out for the 'just in case'.  Hopefully it won't come to that.  JD and I finally have our hospital bags packed and ready to go.....but the car seat, well, it's still in the box....probably not a good thing.

38 weeks and counting!

Week 37: FULL TERM!! Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, another busy week.  For some reason I don't think it's gonna slow down anytime in the future.  We've gone from a messy, unorganized house to a messy unorganized painted house (well, almost, it's still in the process).

This week marks full term for little CJ.  She can now be born safe and sound.  I had another prenatal appointment yesterday and so far everything is still on track.  CJ's got a strong little heartbeat and is super active.  Her head is still down where it should be (aka sitting on my bladder).  JD and I are hoping that she might make her appearance a bit sooner than she is supposed to, but only if she is healthy.  This past couple of weeks things have finally started to get a little tough for me.  Turning over in bed is now the equivalent of an 8 point turn around, slip on shoes are my best friends (no laces to tie!), and socks, well, they are about to become optional.  Guess I took for granted the whole reaching down to my feet thing.  Well, if the doctors are right, 3 more weeks from today 'till I can tie my own shoes again.  We have been working feverishly on CJ's room.  Before getting it painted this past week, JD and I put up board and batten which was surprisingly easy.  There is still a ton to do, put in what little furniture we have and organize all her goodies.

First board for the board and batten

Board and batten done!  Now ready for the paint

Yay!! Painting done!!  

Just a few more minor details to go....

 Our house has been a total wreck since last Friday.  We've had painters and carpenters all up in here doing their business.  We decided to have the nursery, master bedroom, master bathroom, Sofie's room, the living room and the hallway downstairs all painted.  We also had them put up some dentil moulding in the living room.  Wow, it looks so much better.  Things are still not quite done yet, but hopefully next week they will finish with the touch-ups and move on to their next project.  Oh, and yeah, one more thing, we finally have a stove!!  Below a few before and almost-after's.

nice and boring.....

gray walls, and yes that is a yellow ceiling.....still not sure about that one, but at least it's not boring!

another boring before...and yes messy

just a little crown moulding and gray paint, makes a huge difference, now time to clean!

So, as you can see things have been anything but slow for us.  We are slowly, ok, very slowly, getting organized in our new house.  Still tons to do, but I guess we've got the time.

Hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving!

Week 35 & 36 - IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! House Stories!

Wow, I started this blog over a week ago and it's just crazy how much has happened since then.  I'm not even sure where exactly to start.

Last week was my 31st birthday.  Nothing big, actually nothing even small happened.  JD had to work late, so I spent the evening with our electrician.  Ok, hold your horses, the only sparks that flew were from him hooking up our dryer and some GFCI outlets, not the most exciting thing in the world.  But we do now have a bit better electrical system and I can do laundry, yay! (I don't think I've ever been more excited about having a dryer).

My folks came into town on Friday, with a truck full of furniture.  Another big YAY!  They brought us a yellow sofa I acquired from my brother, a cradle for CJ, a couple of bookcases, and soon to be bathroom vanity (another brother find).

Future bathroom vanity?

Love it! The boxes are to keep the dogs off!

Needs a little tweaking, but for being 33 years old, not bad!

My mother also brought her embroidery machine to make some goodies for a few friends and for CJ.  Dad came with his chainsaw and dreams of clearing out our jungle of a backyard.  According to our neighbors, the previous owner never even set foot in the backyard, which explains a lot.  But really, who has a two car garage in the city and NEVER uses it??? CA-RAZY!  I know JD will be getting plenty of use out of it (now I can leave the top off the Jeep!).

Cleaning up the jungle

But before my folks rolled into the big city with goodies and help galore, JD and I spent the first week in our new house meeting with a variety of contractors, painters, plumbers, and other handy type folks.  We had our HVAC system serviced, vents cleaned, ceiling fans and lights installed, electrical updates, and since ZERO of the 4 toilets worked, we had those replaced too.

I also had a prenatal appointment last week, and everything is looking good.  The doc wasn't sure CJ was in the right position, so she gave me a quick little peak on the sonogram.  CJ is exactly where she is supposed to be, head down, ready to go.  Which explains the feet in my ribs every day.  But what's even crazier is that at the end of this week, I'll be considered full term.  That's right, CJ could be born soon.  Let's just hope her nursery is finished for her arrival.  Speaking of which, I believe JD and I will be attacking that issue tonight.  As of right now, it's a mess, which pretty much explains our entire house.

Back to the fixing and organizing.

Weeks 33 & 34: FINALLY! (This is a long one folks...)

Well, well, well, hasn't this just been the most exhausting 2 weeks.  Dentist appointments, prenatal appointments, Halloween, birthday parties, moving, the list just keeps going.

But, first and foremost WE ARE NO LONGER LIVING LIKE GYPSIES!  After 7 long months we finally have a house.  We feel like we just experienced the most difficult labor ever.  But as with all labors, it was deffinately (haha  definitely) worth it and not without an extra little uh-oh thrown in.  We were supposed to close on our dream house this past Friday.  We were on notice all day long and got a call to be at the closing attorney's office at 3 pm on Friday.  We went, we waited, and we left....with no keys....So, closing was then pushed back to Monday at 3 pm.  We went, we waited, we started late, and it lasted for over 3 hours, and we left with no keys again...but, this time, we had the title.  The house was officially ours!!!  Our lender, our realtor, and our closing attorney all said it was a pure miracle that we were able to buy this house.  We said THANK YOU JESUS.  Even though we left without the official keys, we had a copy that was given to us a few days prior during our final walk through, good thing we held on to them. 

*sigh* our dream home

The lady that was living in the house still had a few things (she still had a ****load of things) she had to remove (even though she had a good 7 months (to) move out.....and I thought I was a procrastinator (you are)).  Monday after closing we went to the house and she was there getting all of her stuff out and we were cleaning out the trash.  We had cleaners come on Tuesday to do a deep cleaning of the house, and boy did it need it!  Wednesday was move day.  The lease was up at our apartment that day as well, so we were doubly (I don't think doubly is a word, so I'm not sure how to spell it) busy.  The morning started out nice and brisk and early, ok not too early, we didn't have to meet the movers till 9 am.  We had two storage units packed to the brim with tons of stuff, opening those units was like Christmas morning.

This was the one with the least amount of stuff !

We have no idea how we ever managed to fit that much stuff into our tiny 2 bedroom 1 bath house.  And even now, our house is full.  Amazing.  Not only was Wednesday move in day, but it was also fix what needed to be fixed day.  Since this house was a short sale, the previous owner didn't exactly take care of the house and let a LOT of things fall into disrepair.  We had plumbers, HVAC people, roofers, and a variety of others out fixing and giving quotes all day long.  We are excited to say that we now have hot water, heat, toilets that work (all 4 were non-working), non-leaky sink, and a fridge.  We are still waiting on a dishwasher, range, washer and dryer.  But, hey, who needs to cook or do laundry??

So other than house stuff we have still had a few things going on.  Last week I had another prental (parental) appointment, and everything is good to go.  In only 2 weeks time I will be considered full term (36 weeks)!!  I just hope to have CJ's room done by then.  We are slowly but surely getting all things baby together.  Last week we finally bought a stroller, I ordered some diapers (we are going to try our hand at cloth...I'm sure that will be interesting), got a few gifts in the mail (Thanks Alison!, and even found a few other bargains at a few garage sales (I am not above hunting for a good bargain, especially if CJ only uses something once or twice). 

JD's pick!

This past Monday we also visited another daycare.  We liked the first one better, but have a couple more to go see.  I guess if none of those work out, I'll be calling a nanny...aka MOM.  Last Saturday we took Sofie to a Halloween Lantern Parade in our neighborhood.  There were tons of people, kids, and pets all dressed up carrying homemade lanterns and dancing to a marching band that was leading the way through the park.  Sofie love every minute of it!

The only still picture I could get of her!

Other noteworthy baby news.  Two of my best friends both gave birth last week.  Congrats to Mo & Justin and Alison and Drake on their new little girls!!!  (I'm pretty sure it was the full moon!)  We also took Sofie to a one-year-old Jace's birthday party, she had a great time and even got to push the birthday boy around in one of his new toys.  Oh, and prego brain here completely forgot about the awesome baby shower we had.  A big thanks to Gretchen and Katrina for putting that together for us!

Well that's it for this week.  We'll see if I can manage to get the next post out on schedule.

33 Weeks

34 Weeks