Valentine's Day photo shoot

It's always interesting when you try to do a photo shoot with a newborn baby. Valentine's Day was no exception. I decided to take some photos and videos of Jacob in the morning on Valentine's Day. Jacob is a pretty good sport, especially considering I take a million pictures (and keep them all, much to David's dismay). I used our bed as a backdrop because of the white pillows. In order to get these keepers...

We started with these...

And did I mention these pictures were in the morning? And we were on our bed? That meant David was sleeping next to us, so we were quiet...

And then we took some videos. In order to get this great video of Jacob talking...

This was our first attempt...

Makes me laugh everytime! Hope everyone had a very happy Valentine's day! We sure did!

He's here!

As you all know, we got a wonderful surprise on Thanksgiving - Mr. Jacob! We certainly didn't expect him to make his arrival on the 24th, but he had other plans. And we are so glad he is finally here! He's already one month old and we can't imagine life without him.

Now that we've had a little time to adjust to our new life and start to figure this little man out, I finally have some time to recap how he came into this world while he naps (and while his dad naps too!). So, here goes...

David and I were planning to spend our Thanksgiving/David's birthday weekend with a yummy birthday dinner, Thanksgiving dinner, relaxation and possibly go see a couple of movies. We got to have the yummy birthday dinner and that's about it!

On Wednesday the 23rd, we had a doctor appointment. At 1:30 p.m. that day, I was only 1-2 cm dilated and 60% effaced. We made plans to go back the next Tuesday so that the doctor could move some things along to get labor started. I told myself - no problem, I'll have a baby next week. That gives me a little more time to get some things done. But, Jacob had other plans...

In addition to the doc appointment, I spent all day making David a German chocolate cake from scratch (can we say nesting!?) and made teriyaki chicken in the crockpot for his birthday. We also heard from our good friends who were in town, so they came by to say hello. Around 11:30 p.m., I headed to bed. David came to bed about midnight and was reading in bed when I woke up at 1:30 a.m. with contractions. However, I was sure that I wasn't having contractions, but rather indigestion. I was wrong. It felt like cramps, and we started to time them with our nifty contraction app on the iPhone (yes, there's an app for that. Turns out, I slept through a lot of the contractions and by the time I woke up, they were already two minutes apart (they suggest you go to the hospital when they are five minutes apart). So, we called the doctor. She said it could be indigestion or contractions. She suggested taking some medicine and trying to get some sleep to see if they go away. They didn't. So, we decided to go to a 24 hour pharmacy to get some medicine. We threw in our hospital bags on the off chance I was in labor. When we got to the pharmacy (which was closed, by the way), I told David they were getting worse. So, we called the doctor back as we sat in the parking lot. After much debate, we decided it was time to head to the hospital. I didn't want to go and get sent home, but luckily David didn't listen to me. On our way to the hospital, we called Meredith to tell her to make plans to get to Austin.

After all of this, it was about 3:30 a.m. when we got to the hospital. It turns out I was 3 cm dilated and 100% effaced. I was officially in labor! We lucked out and got the last room in the labor and delivery wing, and got checked in. David and I did a couple of laps in the labor and delivery wing and used our breathing techniques. At 7 a.m., we had a nurse shift change, and about that time, I decided it was time for the epidural (I was also 5 cm dilated). They had to call the on-call OBGYN and the anesthesiologist, and it took about an hour to get them to the hospital and about another 30 minutes to get things going. Once I had the epidural, the doctor came in around 9 a.m. She checked me out (I was about 8 cm dilated) and said, "here's what we are going to do. I'm going to break your water, you and your husband are going to take a power nap and then we are going to push." And, that's pretty much what happened. Poor David was able to get a little bit of sleep (since he hadn't been asleep at all), but I pretty much just "rested my eyes." About 11:10 a.m., we started to push, and Jacob was born at 11:25 a.m! He weighed 7 lbs. 15 oz., and was 20 1/2 in. long.

Unfortunately, Meredith missed the birth (she calculates that her plane was landing about the time he was born), but she was the first one to meet him and find out his name! David's parents were also able to fly in on Thursday to meet him. My parents came the next weekend to spend time with their new grandson.

We are still a little bit in shock about how quickly he came, but I'm not complaining! He was ready to make his debut and wanted to share a birthday with his daddy. Jacob has been a model baby, and has a very good temperament. He loves to eat, sleep and poop, which are all good! David and I have been soaking in every moment!

It's the Final Countdown!

I'm officially 39 weeks, and one week from today is Baby Fluty's due date. But, the question remains...when will he actually make his appearance? David and I jump back and forth from "we're ready for him to be here" to "let's enjoy our last few days (or weeks?!) as a couple." Either way, whenever he decides to make his appearance, we're ready!

For fun, here's a picture of me at 8 weeks and then at 39 weeks. No one said he was going to be a small baby!

Baby Fluty's new digs

The nursery is (almost) complete! I'm so excited with the way it turned out, and can't wait for Baby Fluty to get here to introduce him to his new room. Yes, I know he won't care about his room for a while (if ever), but being a "girl", I had to make sure it was perfect for him!

I put up a "sneak peek" of the nursery before it was complete - you can view the blog entry here. Now, to unveil the (slightly) finished product:

Just a few of my favorite things:
1. The color palette. I love these colors, and the best part is, no one else will have them! My mom and I found them at Hancock Fabric, and my mom made everything!! A big shout out to her - it looks amazing.

Used to make the bulletin board (see picture of changing table below)

Used to make the bumper pads & crib skirt.

Used to make the valence & side table.

 2. The ABCs of Transportation print. I found it on etsy.com and I love it.

3. Incorporating David and I into the nursery. A lot of the decorations are from our childhood or represent us in some way. On the bookcases, we've got David's 7 month handprint, his picture from when he was a "donut spokesbaby" (can we say foreshadowing?!? Donuts are my life!), childhood rattles and books, and his ExpressJet hat. We also put my "little sluggers" hat on there, as well as my orange teddy bears. The propeller was David's grandfather's, and it fits perfectly with the transportation theme. In the crib are childhood stuffed animals from both of us. 

4. The glider! And, everything that goes with the glider. But, mainly the glider. It's about the most comfortable chair I've ever sat in. Which is good considering we're going to be using it a lot! Also, note the baby blanket made especially for Baby Fluty by one of my co-workers. :)

5. His library. My friend Amy had the greatest idea - instead of a card at my shower, she asked everyone to bring a book for him. It filled up his shelves in no time! Can't wait to start reading to him.

6. His Bathroom. Okay, technically, it's not a part of the nursery, but it's cute anyway, so I wanted to share! 

What's still missing:
1. Take a look at the picture of the glider. No, I did not frame a picture of a bouquet of flowers for his nursery. It's going to his birth announcement, which I also found on etsy. Here's the link (and no, it's not a hint for his name...gotta keep you guessing!).

2. His name above the crib. This is about the hardest thing to keep under wraps. I bought the letters for his name a while ago and have decided to paint them blue, to match the blue in the room. I usually bounce ideas and thoughts off of my mom, but I couldn't with this because she doesn't know the name. I think she'll be pretty excited to see how I did on my own (although she would have loved a sneak peek of his name!).

3. BABY FLUTY! We're expecting his arrival any day now, and we can't wait to bring him home!

My 1st Pinterest Recipe!

I've recently become addicted to Pinterest. And because I'm 39 weeks pregnant and all I want to do is eat, I've been "pinning" a lot of recipes. I couldn't wait to try a recipe for crescent cinnamon rolls:

Source: janedeereblog.com via Courtney on Pinterest

I had a coupon at Costco for crescent rolls (and everyone knows how I love to buy in bulk - we now have 5 cans of crescent rolls residing in our fridge), so I figured this was the perfect time to try it. They turned out so yummy and were so simple to make. Here's my pictures (please note, they aren't as pretty as the pic from Pinterest, but still just as yummy I'm sure):

Happy Halloween!

(I think Charlotte will be glad there will be a baby to dress up next year instead of her! But, she's a good sport!)

I've been nesting...

Yesterday, I was in "Suzy Homemaker" mode. I prepped all of our meals for this week (including crock pot Chicken and Dumplings for our Halloween dinner) and made cookies!

We won't talk about the fact that the cookies are hard as a rock and I'm fairly certain one of us will break a tooth...better luck next time! :)