So Thankful She's Here!

The Lord gave us the most amazing thing to be thankful for this Thanksgiving...our daughter Cora Louise!

I had my first real contraction around 6:30 pm on the 23rd after my 40 week doctor's appointment that afternoon. (Many aspects of Cora's birth are so similar to Wes'...I also went into labor with Wes the evening after my 40 week appointment around 5:00pm. With Wes I was dialated to 2 cm and 70% effaced and with Cora I was 2 cm dialated and 75% effaced). We were having dinner at Grammy's house, so she insisted Wes stay with her that night (I wasn't so sure the labor was the real thing) but agreed and called Mike on my way home. They called in his replacement and he headed home to meet me. He had been up on calls the whole night before and was busy all that day, so he went to bed and I attempted to go to bed. Since sleep wasn't going to happen for me, I sat in Cora's room and labored, while Mike got some sleep. Around 3 am I needed his help since my contractions were getting closer together, plus I needed to get to the hospital earlier this time (no screaming in the car that I needed to push!), so we called my doctor and headed to the hospital at 4:45am on Thanksgiving morning.

We got to the hospital around 5am and were pretty much the only people there. (No big surprise, but Thanksgiving Day is not a popular day to be induced!) I was dialated to 5cm when I got there and they hooked me up so I could get my antibiotics and Mike and I began walking the halls. Laboring in the hospital was different than doing it at home, like we did with Wes, but getting to see how my labor was progressing and how the baby was doing, was very interesting. After I finished the antibiotics, they checked me again and I was at 6 cm and a couple hours later I was at 8. Around 10 am I was still at 8cm, so the on-call doctor, Dr. Lei, suggested she break my water. I was a little leary of the "intervention" so we prayed for the Lord's guidence and after another half hour of contractions that weren't dialating me, I agreed to have my water broken. The first contraction after that and I needed to push. Unfortunately, I was only dialated to 9 3/4 cm (bet you didn't know that was possible) so Dr. Lei wanted me to do a couple of contractions without pushing to get me to 10cm. But I had done that before with Wes (the majority of my "pushing contractions" with him were in the car and I was trying not to deliver my baby on the side of the road) and not pushing when you want to is pretty miserable. But after about four contractions of not pushing I was ready and then it took about five or six contractions to deliver Cora. I do feel like labor this time around was milder, the contractions not so hard or long, but once Cora's head and shoulders were ready to come out, WOW!, that was painful!! Wes' delivery was 4 pushes and out he came, but with Cora I was the cliche woman giving birth, begging (ok, it might have sounded like screaming) for the doctor to "get her out" and begging Michael to "please help me!" (Someone even came on over the intercom to ask if every thing was ok...I don't think Hoag Hospital sees too many drug free births :) But here she is my beautiful baby girl:

7 lbs 5 oz, 20", 12:07 pm

November 24, 2011

Cora's Room

Here's a few pictures of Cora's room. I meant to take pictures of the other half of the room, but I got sidetracked and now the thought of taking more pictures, uploading them, and then blogging them doesn't appeal to me, so here's the one's I have :)

We opted not to paint the walls, so they are still blue and tan, but Grammy and I picked out fabric that had pink and blue and brown in it so it would all tie together. She made the dust ruffle, the crib sheet and recovered the hand-me-down mobile and also the little lamp (which you can't see very well in the pic below).

We got this hand-me-down kitchen from some firefighter friends and I found the pink and brown rug on clearance at Target. Wes is enjoying the kitchen and I think it will be nice to have it in her room so he can be in there playing while I'm nursing, etc. Cora, we can't wait for you to come and check it all out! :)

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Yesterday I decorated the house for Christmas, though I feel like I owe Thanksgiving a huge apology. But I'm glad it's done and since today, Tuesday the 22nd, is my due date, I can't think of too much else I need or would like to do before Cora arrives. Prayer's for a soon delivery would be appreciated! :)

But here are some pictures of our newest Christmas decoration, thanks to Grammy!!

My friend Chrissy has the Pottery Barn advent calendar (below) and I just loved it and thought Wes would enjoy it this year too. I had high hopes of making this with Grammy, but time got away from me and Grammy did the whole thing herself! Luckily for us there are lots of knock off tips for this calendar on the internet and Grammy said she had lots of fun making the pockets and using her embroidery machine. We love it!

Here's some of my favorite pockets:

I love these personalized mittens!

The three Wisemen

Merry Christmas!

And of course our family!

Thank you again Grammy, Wes and Cora will love this, and the fun of an Advent Calendar for so many years!

Back in the Saddle

Look what we had time to make! I promised this kid pumpkin muffins a couple of days before the kitchen remodel started and totally forgot we wouldn't have a stove for 3 weeks! But Cora's staying put, so we decided to bake in our brand new kitchen!

A watched muffin never rises.

Yummm! This is my favorite pumpkin muffin recipe from my friend Sarah's mom. Don't you wish I had time to post it?!

Ok, so I might have had a little extra time the other day, and chose to break in my new granite counter tops. Mike and I have been craving cinnamon rolls, so here we go!

Mike thought it was funny how much flour ended up on my belly, but it just can't be helped three days before my due date!

They turned out pretty good. They weren't Cinnabon, but they satisfied the craving!

A Day Out With Thomas

On November 13th, Mike and Grandpa Al took Wes to see and take a ride on Thomas the Tank Engine at A Day Out with Thomas at the Orange Empire Railway Museum.

Here comes Thomas!

"All Aboard!"

This was Wes' first "real" train ride. Short, but sweet!

Kitchen Comparison

This is sort of a test. My friend Carrie gave me some tips on making collages using Picasa, so I'm trying to figure it out, but running out of time :) Here's the four incarnations of our kitchen since we've owned it.

Friend's Thanksgiving 2011

We had our annual Friend's Thanksgiving Dinner on November 12th (a week earlier than we usually do it, just in case I went into labor early!). This has always been one of my favorite traditions, and it was still a wonderful time despite being 9 months pregnant and the pouring rain! This year we had 16 adults and 17 kids! Wow, I can't believe we are outnumbered!!

The feast! Thanks to Kendra and John for hosting and making a delicious bird and everyone else for their always amazing contributions. (Being without a kitchen hampered my ability to bring anything baked, so I contributed silverware and decaf coffee. Next year I'm going all out!)

This picture makes me think of the old "smoking or non-smoking" choice you used to have at a restaurant. It might be nice every once in a while if there was a kids or no-kids section too!

The kids loved all the play time! Hopefully next year they will be able to run around outside though, I'm sure it would make a huge difference (unless of course we actually follow through on the idea we kick around every year of doing an adults only FTG!)

Friend's Thanksgiving 2010

Friend's Thanksgiving 2009

It's Finished!

Hallelujah!! We are so excited and blessed to have a new kitchen!!

On Monday, the 14th, our kitchen was finished, right on time!

(I'm planning on doing some before and after shots, hopefully I'll have time)

We love everything about it (I especially love the pantry!) and the workmanship. I think we should consider ourselves very blessed to have completed two big construction projects without any major glitches!

And here's the first meal we cooked in our new kitchen...grilled cheese and a can of soup! I literally haven't been to the grocery story in 3 weeks, so this was as gourmet as it was going to get. We just wanted to say "thank you" to everyone who made these projects possible...the Lord for not letting Cora come during construction, our families who fed us and let us hang out at their houses and especially my parents for all they did! We love you!

Kitchen Progress #3

Since I'm behind in my posts, we're actually in the remodel home stretch now and everything is set to be finished on Monday the 14th, which was our deadline. But here are the progress pictures over the last week.

Our granite was delivered and installed last Monday and Tuesday.

It doesn't look like much in the truck, but it sure makes a huge difference in the kitchen.

Once the granite was partially installed we started deciding on a paint color. Mike and I always have the hardest time choosing the right paint color and the kitchen was no exception. We tried 11 different shades of blue/gray/silver! In a last ditch effort I went to Home Depot at 6:30pm got the last two samples (thank goodness Home Depot does paint samples!) and we choose one of those, it's called Icy Waterfall :)

The granite is all installed!

And the rest of the week, we saw major changes! They painted the walls, installed the cabinet and drawer fronts, installed and hooked up the faucet (hooray for running water!) and re-installed our appliances.

My glorious pantry! I can't wait to get my food in there!

There is some finish work to be done on Monday and then we should have our house back!

Oh, and this is what happens when you buy slabs of granite and have "extra." You figure you better use it since you paid for it, so you decide to have them build you a new vanity top for your downstairs bathroom, which of course costs extra plus you need to buy a new sink and faucet! But it sure looks nice :)

Size Check

Since Michael was a twelve pound baby (yikes!) my doctor has had us do a size check ultrasound with both Wes and Cora. With Wesley, I had one at 36 and 38 weeks and he was in the very average range (ultimately being born at 7 lbs, 6 oz). Our ultrasound with Cora was at 36 weeks, so I'm a little behind with this post, but it was neat to see her getting so big and it was definitely good news to find out she was average size too, 55th percentile. I'll keep praying she says that way until she's born :)

The ultrasound tech did this one 4D shot which was super cool! And since we didn't have that done with Wes, we've never seen our kid's faces in utero until now.

Your more traditional, scary-looking ultrasound shot.

And of course we asked the tech to double check that she was indeed a girl. It doesn't hurt to be extra sure! So here's a not-so-modest shot proving we are definitely having a girl!

Happiest Place on Earth

Our kitchen cabinets were being painted on Tuesday and Wednesday, and we decided it was best to be out of the house those days so we took a mini vacation to Disneyland! We stayed at my parent's timeshare in Anaheim, which makes staying in a hotel so nice! I didn't take any pictures while we were there, but we had a nice two bedroom with a kitchen (yea!!) and I actually made dinner Tuesday night. Not as nice as being at home, but it felt awesome to cook on a stove (not in a microwave), sit down together to eat (in the dining room), and then wash the dishes in a kitchen sink (not in the bathroom!). And then on Wednesday, we took all the Disneyland gift cards that we've been saving since Wesley turned one and turned them in for some season passes! (Thank you to all our family who gave us gift cards for birthdays and Christmas!) A year of fun at the Happiest Place on Earth, here we come!

This was actually Wes' first trip to Disneyland...he's been all the way to Florida and Disney World, but never to Disneyland in his own back yard.

First stop, the rocket ships.

Then into Fantasy land, where, despite the fact that it wasn't crowded at all, the kiddie rides had some long waits. We opted for a photo in this teacup, and this is as close to the teacup ride as I'm going to get! Ever since giving birth to Wes, my equilibrium has remained off kilter and I get dizzy really easy. Just watching the ride was all I could handle. :)

Then we headed to Toon Town (it was closed when we were in Florida) and stopped first at the Toon Town Fire Station.

He doesn't know his own strength.

Then we went into Mickey's house and Wes' favorite part was checking out all of Mickey's tools.

We went on the Buzz Lightyear ride before heading over to California adventure and you can email yourself the picture they take of you on the ride. I thought that was pretty cool.

With Lightning and Mater (Mater kind of got shafted in this pic!)

And with Mickey!!

The line to see Mickey was kind of long at Disneyland, but we walked right up to him here.

In California Adventure we just went on the Giant Ferris Wheel and got a treat. A Mickey sucker for Wes and a chocolate dipped Mickey ice cream for me. It's so nice to have passes now and not feel pressured to see and do everything in one day! Let us know if you have passes and we can meet up!