Welcome Baby Cayden

Last Tuesday at my weekly appointment my blood pressure was elevated so I had to go back to the office Thursday morning so that the doctor could check my blood pressure again. I was 38 weeks and 2 days and my blood pressure was higher than it had been on Tuesday so my doctor said there wasn't a question about it and I needed to head across the parking lot to the labor and delivery hall! Jonathan actually talked her into letting me go home with him to drop a car off so that Jes could have a carseat to pick Adalyn up from the sitter. Oh and I needed to grab my hospital bags. We were able to get one last belly picture leaving the house!

I knew that there was a good chance that she could tell me that it was "baby day" but I was still in a bit of shock when she told me. I mean, I was excited to meet my baby, but I also had the August 7th date circled in my calendar and it was crazy to think I would meet him 12 days earlier than that!

I will do another post with more details about the big day, but I hear Mr. Man waking up so I'll just post a few pictures of my sweet baby!!! Cayden was born July 26, 2012 at 8:17pm. He weighed 6lbs 12oz and was 19.5 inches long.

 Adalyn loves her baby brother. She immediately gave him hugs and kisses when she walked into the room and met him. It was so cute! She is still so good with him.

 Our first family of four picture. We are so blessed!

Belly Pics: Week 38

As of today I'm 38 weeks! Only 2 (or less) weeks until we meet our sweet boy!  I had a doctor's appointment today. I'm still at 1 and 50% so no progression from last week, (I was hoping for some sort of progression!!) but my blood pressure was high so I had blood work taken and scheduled for another appointment Thursday morning. It sounds like if my bp is high on Thursday, we will be having a baby this week! My doctor is ultra conservative when it comes to my and my baby's health and I appreciate that.

Crazy to think that this is possibly my last belly picture! I'm trying not to get my hopes up that I'll be meeting my boy in 2 or 3 days, since there is a chance that my bp will be normal and we'll go back to regular weekly appointments. Maybe the stress of the parking issues outside the doctor's office is what did me in:)

I am a bit worried about whether the doctor will induce on Thursday because if so, my parents will miss Cayden's birth. They are flying home from Florida Thursday afternoon and if we can somehow wait until Friday they will be able to get here in time! But of course if the doctor isn't comfortable with waiting until Friday we will go ahead on Thursday and my parents will be a day late. (That's just one more reason it stinks to live away from family!!!) I will have my bags packed and ready just in case...

This is only 10 weeks ago at 28 weeks. My how I have grown!

38 Weeks - I think I have "dropped".

 Let's compare to 38 weeks with Adalyn. 

I think it's funny to see the wall colors in my pictures. My kids rooms are ultra pink and ultra blue. I guess you can say I don't do neutral kids rooms:) We are pretty much finished with Cayden's nursery and have most of the frames filled now. I'm waiting on 2 more prints to go into frames and once that happens I will post pics of the  nursery!! I'm so excited. I absolutely love the room. It's my favorite room in the house right now! I just can't believe we may have a baby sleeping in that room in just days!!!

Sunday Pics

Last Sunday before church Adalyn was being Miss Personality so I had to grab the camera and get a few pictures.

 And just seconds after the giggles she shows a bit of attitude... (what are we in for in the future?!?)

 I just love these curls! Precious.

Belly Pics: Week 37

I am now considered full term!! Wow! This past weekend Jonathan and I worked so hard finishing everything in preparation for Cayden. The nursery is completed! All of the frames on the walls are empty waiting for prints that are being made but other than that everything is finished! As soon as I receive the prints for the frames in the nursery I'm planning on doing a nursery reveal!!  


All laundry is washed, folded and put away. We bought the few items that were mandatory before C arrived, you know like a trash can and changing pad/cover. Things like that. I have C's and my bags packed as much as possible other than last minute items. Jonathan even installed the car seat bases in our cars. That means that Adalyn now is on the opposite side of the car and forward facing (we're close enough to 2 years...). Crazy to feel so "ready". We still have our baby "gear" to get out of the storage closet in the basement and clean up but I've requested that Jonathan leave the pack and play and bouncy seat in the basement until C arrives so I don't have to look at it for the next 3 weeks. 

I even ordered big sis/ lil bro shirts from Etsy. They've been shipped and I can't wait to receive them!! So I think we've taken care of even the little details so I can rest easy for the next 3 (or less) weeks!

Today I had a doctor's appointment. I found out that I'm at 1cm and 50%, but I seem to remember being this far with Adalyn at this point and I still had to get induced with her at 40 weeks. So I'm not getting my hopes up.  My doctor offered to induce me on August 1st, but we ended up scheduling it on my due date, August 7th if Cayden doesn't decide to come first. Since my parents are in Florida for another week I'm hoping he'll hold out until at least then, but after next Thursday I'm going to give him the "all clear" that he's allowed to come meet us!

Here are my belly pictures this week:

 And because it makes me laugh to compare my belly from Adalyn to Cayden, here is Adalyn at 37 weeks:

Seriously. I carried her so low it's crazy to look at!

6 Years Ago Today...

Today marks 6 years since Jonathan and I got married! In one sense I can't remember my life not being a wife and in another sense I don't understand how it's already been 6 years since that very special day!  This year we decided instead of traditional gifts we gave each other a date day spent together. Yesterday we had a relaxing time at a couples massage and then had a delicious brunch together downtown. It was so nice to just enjoy each other! I couldn't help but think that 6 years ago that day I was getting primped and pampered in a different spa with a massage and facial. I would have never guessed that in 6 short years I'd be getting a PRENATAL massage 36.5 weeks pregnant with my SECOND child! Wow. I think that means we're grown ups now.

Jonathan, I'm so thankful for you and your leadership in our household. I thank God that he created you for me! I love you with all my heart! I can't even imagine where we'll be six years from now on our anniversary. I'm excited to see where God takes our family. (Although I'm not excited to be six years older...) :)

You can read my anniversary posts from years 3 here, 4 here and 5 here and also Jonathan's anniversary post from year 4 here.

Belly Pics: Weeks 35 & 36

Tuesday marked 36 weeks. We have less than a month left until we meet our little man!!  I can't wait. I'm beginning to feel prepared for him. Baby laundry is well underway, the nursery is done except for some prints that I'm waiting for for on the walls.  Things are getting crossed off the list!  Now don't get impressed that I'm fully ready ahead of time... I don't have bags packed or the car seat installed yet or even a "coming home" outfit for C. But we are getting closer and I'm feeling less anxiety about not having everything done in time!! Here are my belly pics from the past two weeks.

Week 35

 Week 36

And just for giggles lets compare week 36 with Adalyn to week 36 with Cayden:

Either I had already "dropped" with Adalyn or my belly was just shaped way different. I think the difference between these two pictures is crazy!

Cayden's 3D Picture

So I was prepared to share my 35 and 36 week belly pics today, but last night I had a little 20 month old laying on my chest so I decided that was more important than blogging. So instead of pictures of my enormous self, you get a 3D picture of baby Cayden from Tuesday's ultrasound. This should be our last peek of him before we meet him in person! I love that the ultrasound tech switched over to 3D for us because this was the first time that we got to see his entire face. Last month he covered his little face at the last minute so we only got a picture of half of his face.  It was so precious and clear on the monitor. Of course it doesn't look quite as clear in the printed off picture and then I took an iphone pic of the picture so it's not the best quality but I could still sit and look at it forever. I just can't wait to kiss those cheeks!

 The good news is that he has flipped and is head down. (If he had not flipped by this week they were going to talk about manually flipping him, so I was very relieved that he did it on his own!) Everything looks great according to the doctor. Now we just play the waiting game to see if he'll hold out until his due date like his sister did or if he'll decide to meet us early! I've been in nesting mode like crazy because "what if he comes now??" so I've been doing loads of baby laundry and arranging drawers and the closet. Jonathan got 11 picture frames (empty until we fill them) hung on the walls. We are getting there... I did realize that at this point with Adalyn, we had had our maternity pictures taken, had bags packed and everything perfectly ready. We are nowhere near that point this time around. We still need a bunch of newborn staples from Babies R Us. Hopefully we'll get most of the needed items this weekend so I can breathe again:)

Oh and a little update on Adalyn: For the last 3 nights she will not go down to bed. This might seem normal for a 20 month old, but this is not our daughter. From 5 weeks old, we kiss her put her in her bed and she goes to sleep. Never a fuss. So the last 3 nights she has not just cried. It's been an absolute scream so we've gone in, rocked her to sleep and then put her down but she pops up screaming before we can even reach the top of the stairs. She's also been waking during the night like this. Not her normal wake up of "mama, dada, bubba". It's a full out scream. The only thing I can think is that her 2 year molars are coming in and they are only effecting her at night. Other than a runny nose yesterday her sitter said she was never fussy or whiny at all and took good naps. So between the weird sleep pattern and a runny nose, I'm pretty positive it's her molars. Last night we tried Advil, Orajel and Teething Tablets and she seemingly got no relief. I'm not sure what to do at this point so J and I don't go crazy without sleep. Could there be a worse time for her sleep to get off? I want to snuggle my girl and make her feel better but I don't want to start a bad routine of her falling asleep on mommy or daddy every night just in time for baby brother to come into the picture. Ah. Life with a toddler. There's always something keeping you on your toes! I wish she could tell me what hurts so I know for sure it's her teeth and not something else.  Maybe she's been reading the Honest Toddler blog in her free time and is getting some tips from him/her? (A little ironic that that blog post came out after a night of crying in our house...)

Pinterest Challenge: Nursery Curtains

I was going to wait until the nursery was completely finished to show any pictures of my nursery projects. But then two of my favorite blogs, Bower Power and Young House Love posted a Pinterest Challenge and I just couldn't resist joining in.  Katie, Sherry, Kate and Michelle created these Pinterest challenges in order to stop pinning and start doing. Whenever I see one of their challenges pop up in my browser I think that it would be cool to join in but I never do.  Well, this time I can because this past weekend I made curtains for the nursery from a Pin on Pinterest!

Cayden's bedding is Alligator Madras Plaid from Pottery Barn. It has a plaid bed skirt and bumper and navy and white striped quilt and pillow sham. I wanted to do some bold accessories in the room but didn't know where to start. So I turned to Pinterest. I found a tutorial on painted curtains but didn't think that was for me since I'd prefer to work with fabric than paint. Then I found this picture from Project Nursery and I loved the curtains and decorations.

Source

From that site I went to The Thrifty Abode (whose nursery it was) and found an earlier picture of the nursery curtains with step by step directions on how to make them using white Ikea Rivta curtains, navy bed sheets and Stitch Whitchery to iron on the navy stripes. 

Source

After making Adalyn's curtains from scratch I had sworn off curtain making ever in the future. Of course I could have paid $79 per panel at Pottery Barn Kids for the same look, but that is just crazy talk! Plus I decided this tutorial would be way easier than Adalyn's curtains because I was starting with curtains and just embellishing them instead of creating curtains from nothing.  I got myself to Ikea to pick up some white curtains ($25 for the pair) and then grabbed some navy fabric from a fabric store. I started to cut the fabric into stripes but I drove myself crazy trying to get the fabric just right on my cutting board and I wasn't able to ever get the navy fabric perfectly cut. I finally called it a night and decided I should have just spent the money because it would be worth the anxiety that these curtains were causing me.  I took a breath, called Shannon who's crafty and great with fabric and she agreed to come over the next day. She reminded me that everything in life doesn't have to be perfect.  Who will know if that stripe wasn't exactly perfect? So I crossed my fingers and went ahead and made the cuts. I then used my measuring guide and chalk to mark where to iron the seam allowance in order to make crisp straight horizontal lines. 

(Would you believe I took zero pictures of the process?) 

We laid out the curtains on the floor and pinned on the navy stripes. At that point I was still planning on actually sewing the fabric when Shannon talked me into using the Stitch Witchery to iron on the fabric. I honestly hadn't even thought of that (even though that's what the other blog had used). The only time I've ever used it is on other Ikea curtains since they come with it. So my wonderful hubby ran to the store to pick up some SW and we got our ironing on!  We each took an iron and made great time. We ironed the stripes onto the panel and then flipped the panel over to wrap the extra side inch "seam allowance" onto the back of the panel. We finished one panel and Shannon had to leave, so after dinner my mom took over helping me and we finished the second panel. (No easy task to be bending over a 9 month pregnant belly on the floor but I was determined to get it done!) Of course these were panels from Ikea that came hemmed already but for some reason they were hemmed very poorly (wavy and the two panels were about 1 to 2 inches different  in length). So I hung the curtains up and while they were on the wall I actually hemmed up the curtains to make sure they were the right height. 

I have to say that I really think ironing on the fabric helped me keep my sanity. It worked well and I think it was way less of a hassle than getting giant curtains through my sewing machine. I absolutely think that the curtains make the room! I love how bold they are and how they pull the room together!

Here is a wide view of the room.

I still plan on showing before pictures of our nursery when it was a guest room and also how Jonathan and my dad did the board and batten (another tutorial from a blog I read). Hopefully within the next week there will be decorations on the walls! I feel like the room is really coming together and can't wait to see how the wall hangings complete things. Decorating a boy room without some sort of "theme" is hard work y'all! After the nursery is completely finished I'll give more of a tour of the room!!

Some Summer Pictures

Here are a few random pictures from the past two weeks. It's so hard to catch Adalyn in one spot long enough to take her picture! She's talking up a storm and doing the cutest things (one of which is NOT taking her diaper off in the morning before we come to get her in her crib!) but she's constantly moving which makes videos much easier to get than still pictures! And of course my phone's memory is almost to capacity so I've had to hold off taking videos until we can clear my phone off. 

Adalyn and Jonathan at her last swim lesson. She loves the water!!

 Splash!

 Kick!

 This morning before church I tried to get a picture with A but she was a bit squirmy. This dress is Pottery Barn and I found it at a consignment sale for $2 this spring. It had a tiny monogram on it so I asked my friend to put an applique over the monogram. She put a cute pink and white polka dot crab on it with Adalyn's name under the crab. I think it's precious!

4th of July

Would you believe that we got to Jonathan's family's annual 4th of July party and started to get our annual picture only to find out that our camera was out of batteries? Bad blogger!! Bad mommy!! So I only got just a couple pictures with my phone. Let's take a look down memory lane...

2010 - 5 months pregnant with Adalyn

 2011 - 8 month old Adalyn

 2012 - 9 months pregnant with Cayden and 20 month old Adalyn 

- Think of how our family will grow again in next year's picture!

 Adalyn playing in the little kid blow up pool with Daddy (they had big kid slide too)

 She didn't love the slide, but she was all about splashing in the water and getting everyone soaking wet!

 After pool time, Adalyn and her cousins had some good play time with their daddies. She blended right in with the twins!

 Sleepy baby after a very long day and a very late bedtime. Since it was a weekday we didn't stay in Louisville for fireworks but she did watch the ones on TV when we got home:)