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!!!!!!!!
 
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