No Internet!!!

I know I haven't posted anything in a long time and that's because our internet went out at our house!  So I stopped by the daycare to check on everything we have online and I just wanted to put something on here so everyone knows I haven't stopped posting...but it will be a few days before I'm able to get back on here again.  So bear with me because I have so much to post!  :)

Bye Bye Boobies

Last Monday was the last time I nursed Korbyn.  She's still getting breast milk because I'm pumping but no more boob time.  From day one I never felt like I got the hang of breastfeeding, and I know it takes some time for any mom to get comfortable with it, but I never felt any improvement.  I would get frustrated because I never knew how much she was getting so I never knew if she stopped nursing because she was just tired and fell asleep or was she really full?  And it was still so painful for me.  I know it's not supposed to be painful at all which means she just may have never learned to latch on properly, but how in the world am I supposed to know what to look for and how to correct it if she was?!  Yes, I could have gone to a lactation consultant and tried to have it all figured out but who has the time or money for it...not me! 

Last Monday I got a clogged milk duct, ouch.  I was reading on the internet on some ways to help clear it and I had been toying with the idea of giving up breastfeeding for a while and just pump and give formula.  And I came across a lactation consultant's website and I was reading her page and she was so adamant about breastfeeding (of course she should be), but it was like she was yelling at moms who didn't strictly breastfeed and they were depriving their children of bonding and nourishment...of course I started crying because I just felt so lost.  I immediately felt extremely guilty for even having thought about stopping nursing and giving her formula.  So I kept researching on ways to get rid of a clogged milk duct, then it hit me.  This is my baby.  If I want to stop nursing her I can, and I shouldn't feel guilty about it.  Why should I dread having to feed my baby?  I'm in pain, she never seems satisfied, I don't know how much she is getting, I'm never sure if she's really full or not and the list goes on!  So right then and there I decided that I was going to continue to pump and feed her breastmilk along with formula and our lives have been so much easier since.  It is amazing how little I'm stressed out now.  I've decided that I'm just going to alternate every feeding between formula and breastmilk.  Now I know that if she doesn't finish her bottle and she dozes off, that she's probably going to wake up and be hungry.  I feel like a light switch has been turned on for the both of us.

So of course I then started thinking about the added expense of formula, but I think I have a plan :)  I'm starting work back in January and the daycare is on the State Food Program.  We are required to offer parents of infants our brand of formula (Parent's Choice), and they can choose to use ours or provide their own.  So I figured if she is on formula during the day at daycare then I'll still give her the breastmilk in the evening at home leaving us with minimal costs towards formula!  We went out and bought a container of the same kind of formula that the daycare uses and thankfully she likes it and even spits up significantly less than the Similac and Enfamil, how that happened I have no idea!  So our new feeding ritual is working wonderfully right now, and I hope it continues to!

Crib

Look where she's sleeping!!!  And yes, I'm still too nervous for her to sleep without that thing that prevents her from rolling because she can and WILL roll to her side when she starts kicking and can't get back.  From day one she has slept in her swing about 3 feet away from our bed, this wasn't our original plan.  We wanted her to start off in her crib from the beginning but that first night we put her in it we just couldn't leave her.  She was completely fine, we weren't.  She was swaddled in a blanket and sound asleep but I was so nervous that I wouldn't be able to hear her if something were to happen.  Well, it started getting to the point where she wouldn't stay asleep in her swing without the swinging motion on, the "wave" noises on and she had better be completely asleep or she would wake up the minute you put her in it and Colton and I were having to tip toe around and whisper in our room whenever she was in there, remember we didn't get the infant who can sleep through anything :)  I knew we were digging ourselves into a huge hole if we kept this up.  So Monday I decided it was time to start putting her in her crib every time she went to sleep.  I knew it wasn't going to be easy but I told myself that I better get her used to it before I go back to work and in the long run it will benefit her and us.  So needless to say, Monday was a struggle.  I started her off on her first nap and she hasn't been in her swing since!  She was very persistent but so was mommy, and mommy will ALWAYS win...HA!  I almost wanted to give up a couple of times because she just was not having it, and I think she's too young to let her cry it out still.  I tried turning on a cd that I bought before she was even born to help calm her, I did that a couple of times and it seemed to help but then I started thinking every time she goes to sleep she's going to want that cd playing and she'll never learn to calm herself down!  So that plan was out the window.  So I just made sure that she was calm and almost asleep and then I would lay her down and that was it.  She has put herself to sleep in it a couple times already but she's not quite there yet, but we're working on it!

First little scare

This past Friday was a rough day.  She was wanting to eat every hour and then she would only eat for like 10 minutes at a time and she was really fussy.  My aunt had told me at her baptism that when they do that that usually means they're going through a growth spurt and that's their way of telling your body to produce more milk, makes complete sense.  So of course she's eating more, which means she's pooping more...A LOT more.  I'm not kidding, every time I would put a clean diaper on her 5 minutes later she would need a new one.  Then because she was eating so often I never even put my nursing pads back in my bra the entire day and made for some really sore ninnies :)  All of that was rough, but since I knew what was going on with her it made it easier to handle.  About 4 p.m. she had yet another dirty diaper and when I looked at it I noticed it had blood in it.  It was mixed in with her stool so I know it wasn't discharge and it looked like mucous.  So needless to say that freaked me out a little.  I didn't want to worry too much so I waited to see if she had another one like it.  Sure enough at 5 p.m. she had another poop and it looked just like the previous one.  That's when I got that nasty gut feeling that something might really be wrong.  So I started pulling ALL of her diapers out of the trash from the entire day to double check that other ones didn't have blood in them and I just missed it, thankfully those were the only two.  When Colton got home I showed him her diaper and asked him if it looked like blood (because again, I didn't want to start freaking out so I wanted to make sure it actually WAS blood).  He said that ya that it's definitely blood.  At this point I just wanted someone to tell me if I can finally start freaking out!  I just needed someone to tell me either "yes, this is something you need to get checked out NOW" or "keep an eye on it and if it gets any worse go get it checked."  I immediately checked her temperature (normal) and called the ped. office.  Of course they're closed for Thanksgiving and the answering service said to call the after hours number on the card.  I called the number and it said to call your ped. office because it wasn't officially "after hours" yet (it was like 4:30)...are you kidding me!?  So I call the nurse advice line and finally talk to someone.  I made sure to let her know that my concern is the blood in her diaper, not her strange eating and pooping habits today.  So she asks me all sorts of questions and the lady doesn't even sound concerned nor is she telling me whether or not I need to go to the ER (our only option at this point) to get it checked, she just keeps explaining reasons for why she may be wanting to eat and why she may be pooping so much.  I wanted to yell at her "I don't care why you think she's eating so much today, just tell me if I can wait until tomorrow or should we come in tonight!!!!"  She finally lets me talk to the on-call dr.  Thankfully he didn't sound concerned at all and just said that if she starts running a fever or has other symptoms (he read off a long list) to bring her into the ER but right now we could wait until tomorrow to have her checked out.  After talking to him I felt better but still had this nasty feeling because nobody had told me any possibilities of why there was blood in her diaper.  Earlier I had called my mom while waiting for the nurse to call me back and just basically asked her if we should go ahead get it checked tonight.  She said to wait and see what the nurse had to say.  My sister-in-law had picked up her kids at my mom's house and my mom told her about it so she called me as soon as she could.  She told me don't take her into the ER and not to worry.  She said that her kids would do that and that it would pass and it's nothing to worry about.  She explained to me a couple of things that it could be and that was the biggest relief I've felt in a long time.  Even though I was still worried, it helped so much to know that someone else had gone through this and knew what to expect.  Sure enough she never had another bloody diaper, I'm so glad she called me!

Baby blues

 This is how Korbyn likes to sleep!  I'm sure tons of newborns sleep like this, but it's funny because this is how Colton and I both like to sleep.  We both like to sprawl out.  Needless to say a queen size bed for the two of us is WAY too small.  She is also a really light sleeper, which I think she gets from me (she has to get something from me!).  Colton can ONLY fall asleep in a bed or on a couch, for some reason he can't go to sleep like in a car or something but once he's asleep, he's out.  An earthquake could be taking place outside and he wouldn't even know it if he was asleep.  Whenever she wakes up at night to eat, he never hears either one of us get up.  I'm just the opposite.  I can pretty much fall asleep anywhere I need to, but wake at the tiniest noise, which makes it easy to hear her first little hunger noises at night :)

We just came back from the Beisert thanksgiving.  Her head is finally getting big enough to support the crochet headbands.  This is actually the first one that she has worn, but of course it didn't last long because it kept falling off.  Colton said she looked like a turkey with that big bow on her head...I think it's ADORABLE!

So I definitely had, still kind of have, a case of the baby blues.  Whoever said that having a newborn is the happiest time in your life must be the most annoying person in the world!  This has been the most stressful and hardest time of my entire life.  I definitely find myself not wanting to deal with it all on some days, I'm not talking scary suicidal thoughts or anything like that, just wanting someone to come over and take care of her while I leave for an entire day.  Trust me, I love her more than words can describe, and I know a lot of feeling like this has to do with my hormones and it will get easier with time.  In fact, I can already tell a difference.  It was SO hard that first full week being home, and honestly I think it had to do with people coming to visit.  I enjoyed every second of every visitor that we had, and I know Colton did because he would ask for people to come over, it was so nice to have adult conversations with all of our guests.  But looking back it was really hard for Colton and I to get adjusted and I'm sure it was hard for her too with people coming and going those first few days.  Now that we seem to be back in our normal routine, we all seem to be doing a lot better.  We're still trying to figure each other out, but with each day it gets much easier :)

Baptism

This past Sunday we had Korbyn baptized!  It turns out she was able to wear my dress, which was really special.  When my mom came over about a week before to try it on her it SWALLOWED her, but the rascal is filling out fast and wouldn't you know after my mom spent who knows how long on making a whole new dress for her it turned out to fit her perfectly the day before!  I told my mom I felt awful that she made her a dress and she wasn't going to wear it, but she said that she would rather her be able to wear mine...thanks mom :)  Amazingly she was awake from the time we put her in the car to go to church up until the sermon!  The only time she made a peep was when pastor poured the water on her head, she did NOT like that at all.

Pediatrician

Check out those juicy lips!  She looks like a little boy to me in this picture.

Korbyn had her two week check up today and she weighed 7 lbs. 1 oz. or 6 oz., I can't remember and I can't find the sticker that they gave her with it written on it right now.  And apparently she shrunk!  They first measured her at 19.5" and I said "whoa...what?" so she measured her again and she was 20" I said "that's weird because in the hospital she was 20.5" she said they see babies shrink all the time for their first official appointment!  She said the way they measure them in the hospital isn't always accurate because they just make a mark where there head is and then measure the length.  In the ped. office I actually had to hold her head straight against a "wall" and then the nurse stretched her out straight and took the measurement, so really I think they're much more accurate.  But oh well, she's still 20.5" in my book :) 

I LOVE her pediatrician!!!  I was really nervous because this is the first time that we saw her.  She is really down to earth and talks to you like she has known you forever.  Thankfully my mom was able to come with me to help me out :)  I asked her dr. of course how long we should wait before really taking her out and about.  She answered with the standard 6-8 weeks.  She said of course if you have to go to the store for something by all means you can go, just go on a Tuesday at 9 a.m. not on a Saturday afternoon and keep people away from her face, which I kinda figured that already.  Then I asked her about her baptism this Sunday.  She made a face and was kind of hesitant to answer (I knew what she wanted to tell us).  So I said, "do we need to tell people not to hold her?" and she said "I really would."  AGHHHH!  How are we supposed to tell people not to get close to her and they can't hold her at her baptism?!  She said there's just so much that she can catch right now and that if she does happen to catch even the tiniest fever there's NOTHING they can do about it.  Yes, they can take really extreme measures if it comes down to it, but why on earth would I want to risk it?  Then she made a really good point.  Sometimes people are carrying a sickness and they don't even know it yet because they have no symptoms but it can still be passed to another person.  Trust me, I am not the paranoid, germaphobe type...but the thought of something happening to my baby just because we careless would absolutely kill me.  Do we risk hurting everybody's feelings by not letting them hold her or do we risk Korbyn catching something that she may not be able to get over...well of course I'm willing to hurt someone's feelings over the health of my baby.  It's not like someone coming over for a visit where I know only one person will hold her and I can make sure they wash their hands and stay out of her face.  But at something like a baptism if I let one person hold her, then before we know it she'll be handled by 50 different people and exposed to who knows what!  So I don't know what we're going to do yet, I wish she could wear a t-shirt that said "If you love me you won't touch me"  :)  The next baby will definitely NOT be a winter baby...it's too stressful!!!!

Cousins

Sunday we went to Memaw and Papaw Doug's to take family pictures with Doug's family.  Mark, Jana, Avery and Addy were able to come down and this was the first time they've met Korbyn.  The girls were so excited to see her, it was so sweet!  Amazingly Memaw was able to catch Korbyn smiling when Avery was holding her!!!  I can't even catch it!  For the pictures we took one huge group picture, then were able to take immediate family pictures as well.  I can't wait to see them!

It's really depressing trying to find something to wear for things like this.  Everyone wore jeans and any kind of white shirt.  I thought to myself that I could just wear the button down shirt I wore for our engagement pictures...HA!  I could get it on, but it wasn't pretty.  And of course I'm still in maternity pants, I think my hips doubled in size!  I know it hasn't even been two weeks yet and everything will slowly get back to (or close to) normal with time, but UGH!!!  I told Colton I could make some extra money this holiday season by playing Santa Claus with my bowl full of jelly!  Oh the joys of motherhood :)

I finally got her birth announcement in the paper.  It has to be in by Tuesday before noon and when did I send them the email?  12:01.  I finished feeding her around 10 a.m. this morning and played with the idea that I could get her dressed and get a picture in plenty of time.  OMG!  It took an hour to get a picture of the little fart.  She was fine and then everytime I would set her down her hands would either go straight up to her face or she would start fussing and it was super hard to accomplish this task by myself.  These were just a few of the ones I actually took.  I love the second one but when I would try to take that paci out of her mouth she would start flipping out so I chose the first one for her announcement.  I would have loved to have one with her eyes open but no such luck.  I also thought about waiting another week hoping she would fill out this outfit a little better.  Jennifer's mom, Nancy gave her the camo onesie and I added the pants because without them it was so obvious that it was too big for her.  I even thought about getting some clothespins to make it fit better lol!  But I think I did a pretty good job of tucking everything back right before I would take the picture.  I can't wait until she starts fitting in more of her clothes!

Getting easier

Overall I'm starting to realize that she is a great baby. I decided as soon as I found out we were pregnant that I wanted her to be on a schedule. This is just from my personal experience with all the babysitting jobs I've had. It was so much easier on me when I knew and the kids knew what to expect at certain times of the day. When I lived in Austin I got this great babysitting job for a really nice family. I was almost like their nanny because I was there almost everyday caring for their new infant (and I also had their toddler in my class at the daycare I worked at). But I remember that she was on a schedule and it made my time there so enjoyable and to me it made for a very happy baby because I knew at what time I could get other household chores done because I knew exactly when she was going to wake up and exactly when she would be hungry etc. Well with Korbyn I didn't expect to really put her on any schedule until she was about a month or so, but with all this jaundice scare the dr.s told me to feed her as often as I can because the more she poops the faster it will all clear up. So I did. I would set my alarm for every 3 hours and feed her whether she was asleep or not, and of course this created an unintentional schedule for the both of us.  I now feed her every 4 hours, not 3.  But it is becoming easier every day because she will eat, poop, be awake for about 30-45 minutes then sleep until her next feeding and so on.  And I still wake her up for her feedings now just so we can stick to this schedule, but for some reason the rascal needs no waking for her 3 a.m. feeding :)

Breastfeeding is much more difficult than I ever thought possible.  But that too is also getting easier every day.  I'd like to put some milk back just for when we go somewhere and when I go back to work so I'm going to try to breastfeed her during the day then her last feeding before bed we have been giving her a formula bottle.  I told Colton I kind of feel guilty for giving her formula every day.  But it really works for us because this way Colton gets to feed her in the evenings, I get to pump in place of a feeding so I can put some milk back, and she seems to be really satisfied by the formula.  So it's a win win all the way around. 

 Daddy and Korbyn watching football on the first day home.

 This was the first time Colton fed her, he was nervous...but did a great job :)

 This was when she was 5 days old and you can definitely tell she is jaundice, the picture really doesn't do justice as to how yellow she looked though.

After we came back from the dr. on Wednesday, she's saying "yay!  No more heel pricks!" :)

Rough couple of days

While in the hospital Korbyn's bilirubin level was a 9 (her jaundice level).  We were discharged on Saturday and they told us they wanted us to come back Sunday to have her blood drawn.  So Sunday we head back to the hospital, have her blood drawn, I cry (of course), and then wait around for the results.  I told them I wanted to wait for the results instead of driving an hour back home and then have the possibility of having to turn back around if they were going to admit her.  They said her level was at a 13.  The levels are weird because the higher the number is the more jaundice they are, but their numbers are allowed to get a little higher with each day of life.  They wanted us to come do a weight check at the pediatrician's office on Monday already and they said since her level went up to go ahead and head back to the hospital after her weight check to have her blood drawn again.  So Monday she weighed 6 lbs. 13 oz. and her level was at a high 15.  They said they'll admit her and do phototherapy once her level reaches a 20.  So of course they don't like the 15 and say that we need to come back on Wednesday for another weight check and to have her level checked AGAIN!  By all means we don't mind driving an hour to the dr. and an hour back everyday for almost 4 days in a row for our baby, but Colton and I were just getting frustrated because we felt helpless and then they kept telling us that jaundice peaks at the 4th and 5th day of life...well then have us come on THOSE days, not every day in between! 

After we had her blood drawn at the hospital I told Colton I want to run by Once Upon A Child because the girl literally had 2 pairs of pants and 4 onesies that actually fit her!  And by this time we had already exhausted half of her wardrobe!  So Colton waited in the truck with Korbyn while I went in and grabbed all the "newborn" onesies I could find, I actually only walked out of there with 2 pairs of pants and 5 onesies, but it has helped so much.  She is much smaller than I anticipated.  Right before I went in the store my mom called and was updating me on a man that she works with.  He recently had a very simple surgery and somehow his esophagus was scratched when they took the breathing tube out, then he got an infection and they put him in a coma (there are more details this is just what I could remember).  My mom was telling me that they just found out that his brain was showing no activity and that now they're just waiting.  I personally don't know this man, but just the fact that he woke up after surgery, everything was fine, they were talking about going home in a couple of days, then all of a sudden everything changes.  While on the phone with her I just start thinking about Korbyn.  I know it's just jaundice but untreated babies with high levels can have permanent brain damage, and I know she wasn't even close to having extreme high levels, but I started tearing up thinking of what COULD happen.  Then of course I start thinking about it more and more and I just hand Colton the phone and tell him to tell her that I'll have to call her back and I lose it.  I start bawling uncontrollably.  Then in a few minutes I was fine and I explain to Colton why I was crying and I then figured that a lot of it was due to my crazy hormones!  So Wednesday when we go back to have her blood drawn her weight was 6 lbs. 13 oz. and they just used this probe thing in the ped. office that showed a 13 so they didn't make us go hospital to have her blood drawn and they said they next time they'll need to see her is at her 2 week check up...YAY!

We decided that Colton should probably head back to work since he doesn't have that many vacation days, so he went back Thursday.  So Thursday was the first day home by myself with her...it was rough.  She was a little fussy, all I wanted to do was close my eyes, I had a slight headache that turned into a migraine about 3 o'clock and Colton called and said he had to work late and wouldn't be home until about 7:30!  On any other day it probably would have been fine, but I felt like my world was crashing down all around me and there was nothing I could do about it.  My head was hurting so bad that I was in tears when Colton made it home.  Thankfully my mom brought us dinner and with the use of an ice pack (thanks Cynthia!) my headache eventually tapered off just in time for another feeding! 

Korbyn's arrival



Wow, as much as I hate posting this picture (I look awful!) it's our first family photo :)  There's so much to write about I don't even know where to begin.  I guess I'll start from the beginning.

We left our house Wednesday evening and ate dinner in Bryan before heading to the hospital. I for some reason ordered spicy buffalo tenders then realized that probably wasn’t the best choice, but they were SO good. We get to the hospital around 8 p.m. and check in and they get us to our (brand new) room and our nurse comes in and gets me hooked up to all the monitors and puts in my IV and lets us know kind of what the plan is. She inserted the pill into my cervix and said that she’ll be checking throughout the night how I’m progressing and will be inserting a new one every 3-4 hours. So at about 11 p.m. Colton and I turned off the lights and tried to get some sleep. Surprisingly we both slept pretty well. So throughout the night and early morning the nurse is coming in and checking on me and around 3 or so (all the times are estimates because I really can’t remember all the specifics) she keeps moving the monitor that keeps track of my contractions. She said that I’ve been contracting all night, haven’t I felt them? Then she put her hand on my belly and said, you’re having one right now, don’t you feel it? I kind of paused and said, I’m trying too. She laughed and said, you shouldn’t have to “try” to feel them. I really had no idea what contractions felt like.

Around 5 a.m. the nurse asks how I’m feeling and I tell her that the contractions are just kind of making me uncomfortable where I can’t sleep as well. She said I can have some pain medication through my IV that will only last a few hours if I want. I decided to take some so I could get some much needed rest. It was wonderful! I still could feel the contractions but the medicine just made you feel like you were drunk so even though I could feel them, I didn’t really care and I slept so good after that. I honestly don’t know what time we woke up, but they started my pitocin around 9 a.m. and from then on it became a waiting game.

My parents and Doug and Loranne were there all day, thank goodness, it was so nice to have support and just someone to talk with to help pass the time. So as the time goes by I can definitely feel my contractions getting stronger and more frequent. My dr. comes in I think around 11:30-12 and checks me and I was only at like a 2 or 3 and she said she is going to break my water. Well by this time I’m contracting pretty good and of course while she has that little tool inside of me trying to break my water I have a huge contraction and try my best to hold still. Well this b**** of a nurse (not my normal one) came in for a little while to help out and while I’m contracting and the dr. is trying to break my water says “oh honey it doesn’t hurt that bad, it just feels like an exam.” What the heck kind of exam have you gotten!?!? I could have punched her for saying that to me. So my dr. tells me that since my contractions are already intense and frequent she would suggest I get my epidural now because usually after the water breaks they only get worse. So I go to the bathroom one more time and of course as soon as I get up out of bed my water comes gushing out on the floor! I just stand there like, “uh, can someone toss me a towel?” I have to wheel my IV with me every time I go to the bathroom and I can just remember having a contraction so bad that I thought I was going to break the stand because I was gripping it so hard. By the time I come out of the bathroom the anesthesiologist walks in and gets everything going for the epidural. St. Joseph’s is a teaching hospital and Colton and I agreed that we would let any students be able to come in and observe while we were there. So the anesthesiologist brings along one girl to observe, and from what Colton tells me her eyes got huge when he got that big needle out and she didn’t look very well. So while I’m gripping the pillow that I’m leaned over in tears from another contraction I don’t notice anything that the anesthesiologist is doing, literally didn’t feel a thing! I thought it was really funny though because as my contraction passed I heard him say “…(a name) are you OK?” and I answered with an exhausted “ya” well come to find out he was asking the intern if she was ok because apparently she looked like she was about to pass out! But ya, the pregnant lady in a crap load of pain is just fine thanks for asking!

So after my epidural things pretty much seemed to take FOREVER to progress, but the good news is I was progressing, just very slowly. I can’t remember exactly what time it was but I can remember feeling a lot of pressure down in my pelvic area every time I would contract. So much that I asked the nurse if it was normal and she said it was probably the baby moving farther down into the birth canal but that it shouldn’t be painful, but it was. So she upped my epidural but it never changed anything, in fact I could feel the pressure get more intense with every contraction. So she kept giving me more, but nothing. It had to be around 7:30 or 8 when my epidural was actually running low (it’s in a little plastic container that’s regulated by the IV machine). Colton noticed it and walked to the nurse’s station and told them that it was running low. Of course they knew to keep an eye on it. Well when it went empty and starting beeping Colton was headed for the door to tell them to get in there and put a new one in, now! Thanks babe.

Around 8:30 p.m. the nurse says it’s time to start pushing. So I push through each contraction like it was nothing, in fact I’m chit chatting in between each one. I don’t know what time it was but I remember Colton telling me he could see her head and it seemed like after that someone flipped a switch and I felt EVERYTHING. By this time the dr. comes in and is suiting up and I’m screaming and flailing my arms because I’m in SO much pain. I’m continuing to push and of course I could feel her head start to come out and the nurse tells me to stop pushing and wait for the doctor, I yell (at least it felt like I was yelling) “I can’t stop, I need to push!!!” So the dr. finally gets down there and immediately tells one of the nurses to get some local anesthetic because she can tell I’m in tremendous pain. I can actually feel her give me the shot down there and then she gives me an episiotomy. At this point I just want it to stop, I can remember saying “just get her out of me!” I never imagined I could feel so much physical pain. So little miss Korbyn finally arrives at 9:28 p.m. weighing in at 7 lbs. 9 oz. and 20.5” unfortunately we only got to hold her and be with her for a few minutes because they said they didn’t like the way she was breathing so they took her to the nursery right away and we got to see her again around 11 p.m.

The nurse brought her in and amazingly she latched on and started nursing, thank goodness. The next day the dr. comes in and checks on me and explains that I have stitches and that occasionally the epidural doesn’t work everywhere on everybody. She says that my epidural covered the contractions but everything else it didn’t really work. Well that explains everything! That’s why it was so uncomfortable feeling her move down into the birth canal and that’s why I felt everything giving birth to her. So basically I gave a natural birth, just couldn’t feel the contractions. Really, when I think about it, it almost gives me the chills about how painful it was. I know TONS of women give birth naturally, but going into it thinking I wasn’t going to feel a thing and then having to go through that was awful! Not saying the end result was awful, and I know eventually I’ll forget about it completely, but I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty horrifying. Even my mom, who was in the delivery room with us, said she could tell it was like all of a sudden I was at a point where I couldn’t take it anymore.

We were so ready to go home the minute we were moved into the post partum room. We just wanted to go home with our new baby girl! Of course we had to stay all day Friday and were discharged Saturday around 11:30. I’m about to have to feed her, but I’ll definitely be posting more about our new baby :)

Fresh from the oven :)  This is the only time she looks like me, she is definitely Colton's daughter.

Cousin Hannah came to visit.

She really doesn't even look like this anymore, she's changed so much!



We both got a picture right before we left for home!  I don't know what she was doing when I was holding her lol!  We also had the hospital take some really good pictures.  You can view them on http://www.our365.com/ and search under "Abigail Coates" or "St. Joseph Regional Health Center."  They did an amazing job!

One more update!

Today is the big day!  Well, technically not quite yet but it's the day leading up to the big day!  I told Colton it feels like we're five years old and it's Christmas Eve.  It seems like it's NEVER going to get here but we're so excited because we're not quite sure what we're going to get.  I feel like I'm going crazy trying to get the house in order, and I know that it won't matter if I don't get everything done and I probably should be resting but it will feel so good to walk into a clean, orderly home with Korbyn for the first time.  Last night when Colton got home from work he was telling me that everybody that he talks to has been telling him stuff like "oh man, this is your last night of peace and quiet" or "get your sleep now" and that they were asking him if he was nervous.  He told me he's anxious and excited but he's not nervous because he has an exceptional wife who will probably take care of the baby and everything else and still get up to make him breakfast in the morning...AWWWW!  I don't think he told anybody else that, but still...he made it sound so non-chalant that it really meant a lot to me that he just thinks that way.  But then I started thinking, "wait, is it good that he already thinks that I'll just 'handle' everything?!"  Oh well, we'll fight about it when we get to that bridge :)

I still haven't felt any contractions (at least I don't think so),  but apparently I've been having some if my cervix has changed, right?  I don't know.  I'm really anxious to see if I've changed any when we go in tonight.  We're supposed to call around 6 to see if we should still head in around 8.  My dr. said since we live an hour away it would be best to just call labor and delivery to make sure there is a bed available just in case 10 moms came in and took all the rooms, so there is a possibility that we could go in later.  But our plan is that Colton will get off as soon as he can today (he said it's looking like it won't be until 5), come home and get ready call the hospital then head out around 6, grab something to eat then go to the hospital.  People have been asking me too if I'm nervous, I keep telling them not really nervous just so anxious!  But honestly, if I sit here and think about it I can make myself REALLY nervous, maybe that's why I'm keeping myself so busy :)  This will probably be the last post until after she's born, so hopefully next time there will be a big picture of Korbyn!

Still on schedule

I had a dr. appointment yesterday and we're still on schedule to go in on the 3rd!  She checked me and said I was dialated to a 1 and that she could feel her head!  She said I have a really long cervix and that compared to last time, I'm not thinning out as much as she thought I was, but it was good that I made some cervical change.  Then she kind of sat back and was thinking about what to do.  Because at my last appointment she said depending on how things were looking at this one, we might decide to hold off another week (my official due date is Nov. 3rd, which I thought it was the 8th, oh well) or continue to stay with the 3rd and 4th as the induction date.  I didn't say anything but in my head I was yelling "PLEASE DON'T HOLD IT OFF ANOTHER WEEK!" then thankfully she said we're going to keep it on the 3rd.  She said I could still go at any time on my own (doubt it) and that usually with first time moms she likes for them to go on their own, but she said since we live an hour away and I've already made some change she would feel more comfortable inducing on the 4th.  It's so weird to think that in 6 days she'll be here!

I've been trying to keep the parents at the daycare updated so they know when I'm planning on being out and a few of them are actually surprised to see me still working, they're really surprised that I haven't taken maternity leave yet.  Not my husband.  When I called Colton and told him that we're for sure scheduled for the 3rd I mentioned that Friday (today) would probably be my last day and I'll take Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off to get everything at home ready and rest up.  He said "What!?  You're not going to work until Wednesday?"  I told him "gosh...I guess if you think I should I will, I just want to make sure everything is ready for her."  That boy is crazy!  He's gonna work me to death!  Physically I have no reason for not working except that I am just exhausted ALL the time, my main reason for taking a MEASLY 3 days off is just to prepare.  He of course is working until Wednesday evening, he'll probably get home an hour before we have to leave for the hospital!  He also thinks I'm being ridiculous for keeping our bag in my car.  I told him I don't want to have to worry about forgetting everything if for some reason we have to rush out the door.  I told him just to leave me alone and let me do it for my own peace of mind :)

Dr.

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update...there isn't one!  Well at least nothing really exciting.  She said my group b strep came back negative, yay!  So I won't be needing antibiotics during delivery.  She checked my cervix and she said it's definitely softening and "ripening" but it's still closed, so I haven't dialted at all yet.  But she said that doesn't mean anything and I could still go into labor at any time.  She said we'll see how I've progressed by next week to see if we're keeping the 3rd on the calendar or if we want to push it back.  I will get on my knees and beg her not to push it back if i haven't progressed!  I've already gotten in the mindset that she'll be here in 12 days or less and I really don't want to wait any longer!  I'm kind of hoping that I'll go into labor on my own though, just to experience it all :)

When I stepped on the scale at the dr.'s office I think it said that I gained like 8 pounds in one week!  The dr. said it looks like all fluid and she's not concerned, whew!  I have to say, I can definitely tell I'm carrying around more weight, whether it's just fluid or not.  Colton and I went to the mall to get Cara and Nathan a wedding gift (they're getting married today!) and all we did was walk through Sears and Macy's and I was exhausted.  And yes, I was dressed comfortably and had on tennis shoes, but that still didn't help.  By this time my whole lower body was just aching, from my hips to my toes, I was so ready to lay down in bed!  We went to go eat before heading home and I went to the bathroom and came back and was literally winded.  Colton looked at me and kind of laughed and said "long walk?"  At first I didn't know what he was talking about then I realized that I was breathing pretty heavily and could hardly catch my breath!  I started laughing and told him "o hush, you have no idea!" 

Korbyn's Room

Her room is finally ready!  It feels so good to have everything we need (I think!) for her now.  Sunday afternoon I think the nesting instinct kicked in for myself AND Colton.  We were cleaning like crazy!  Cleaning all the air vents, the ceiling fans, washing our couch pillows and pretty much anything else that we could fit in the washer.  Luckily he was there to help me, it seemed like we got so much done.  Sometimes I enjoy cleaning like that, cleaning things that normally don't get cleaned, but then I almost kind of loathe doing it becuase I know it won't stay like that forever :(  If only! 

Yesterday I had lunch with my mom and she said "you know, this Friday is a full moon."  She said that it always seems that women who are near the end of their pregnancy tend to have their babies on a full moon.  Well that got me really excited because I have a dr.'s appointment this Friday!  I told Colton I want to have our bags with us ready to go...just in case.  But like I said before, I'll probably go until the last minute and they'll have to induce me anyway.

Ok, I finally have one physical complaint.  The heels of my feet are killing me!  My heels get very cracked very quick.  I don't know if it's because I walk around either barefoot or in flip flops all the time or what, but I can go get a pedicure and they can make my heels nice and soft and the next day they will literally look like they did when I went in.  Well the past couple of days I've noticed they HURT, and bad!  I find myself walking on the balls of my feet just so not to walk on my heels.  I asked Colton to look at them last night (cuz I can't really get a good angle looking at my feet anymore) and I pointed to where it was hurting and he said that where I would point there would be a literal crack in my foot where he could see the skin underneath!  So after my shower last night I put some really good moisturizer on them and slept with socks on.  I have no idea why they're doing that, I just wish it wasn't right now!  It's probably from all the extra weight they're having to carry around :)

Dr.

Korbyn will be here on the 4th, if not before then! I had a dr. appointment this past Friday and I thought for sure she was going to check my cervix this time, I was so excited. Come to find out she didn't think it was necessary at this point yet! She said we're only going to do the group b strep test to see if I'll need antibiotics when I deliver and that if she really wants me to be checked she will, but she said since I'll be back in a week why go through the discomfort if I didn't have to...which I guess I agree with but now I'm kicking myself because even though I know nothing has progressed down there, you still never know! She took me by complete surprise when she came in and said she put down an induction date on the calendar, I was like "whoa! Already?" but I don't know what I was thinking, I'm already 37 weeks! I guess I kept telling myself we had plenty of time still. It feels like I've been pregnant for so long that it almost seems like this is how my body is supposed to be! I can't believe she's almost here. She then asked how I felt and if anything has changed and I told her "I have to be honest, I thought I would be MUCH more miserable at this point, but I can't lie, I STILL feel great!"  Am I exhausted at the end of the day?  Sure.  Am I ready to have my body back?  Absolutely.  But really, I expected much worse.  And who knows, I might be speaking too soon and my misery is just around the corner!  Then she felt her and said she's definitely head down and ready to go and that she feels like a good size, definitely not too big.  So now it really feels like a waiting game.  I'm glad that we have a definite date on the calendar but I told Colton I've got a strong feeling that we need to be ready before then...just in case :)  I have had at least five people tell me in the past week that I won't make it to November, we'll just have to wait and see!

So of course we decided that it's close enough to put the carseats in the vehicles.  I have to say I feel kind of silly riding around with an empty carseat in my car, but I'm glad we put them in already.  It took us reading the instruction manual and at least 20 minutes to put it in!  I've put in dozens of carseats but I guess we wanted to make sure this one was in perfectly.  Colton was actually the pickier one in this case.  He would put it in, wiggle it around and take it back out and put it back in a little tighter each time...trust me, this carseat isn't going anywhere.  Now we just have to finish packing our bag and we're good to go.  I have another appointment this Friday and thankfully Colton will be able to come with me, this is actually only his second time to go.  He could have gone to all of them with me but we decided that it would be nice if he could take some time off with me after she's born, so he's planning on taking that whole next week off to stay home and help out.  It will be great because that will literally be the first vacation time that he will be taking in two years!  Although I don't know how much of a "vacation" he'll get, but it sure will be nice for his sake.  The poor thing works so hard and he only gets Thanksgiving and Christmas off the entire year, so I know he's excited to finally take some days off. 

We finally have her room all ready to go!  I'll try and post some pictures of it this week.  Wish us luck!  :)

Baby class and first anniversary

All day Saturday Colton and I had our "Prepared Child Birth Class" in College Station.  We walk in the classroom and thankfully Brook and Timmy were there!  For those of you who don't know they used to be our neighbors and she is due only two weeks after I am so it was SO nice to see familiar faces and to have someone to talk to and discuss the class with.  I was super excited to take the class just because as a first timer I still had so many unanswered questions and had that feeling that I still don't even know all the right questions to ask.  But this class and the instructor were amazing.  We really did learn so much and Colton keeps joking that we don't even need to go to the hospital for delivery that he's now an expert and can deliver her at home by himself, I don't think so.  There were 11 couples including us, so it was a fairly large class.  My favorite part of the entire class was when we all had to get in a circle on the ground and practice breathing and relaxation techniques, just because I LOVE being massaged and this time Colton had to do it and couldn't weasle himself out of it!  She then told us that we're going to practice breathing and pushing (without actually pushing).  That was hard and we didn't even push!  The dads were behind us for support and we had to hold our knees and curl over our bellies and practice holding our breath for 10 seconds then exhaling for like 2 seconds and then doing it all over again three times, I honestly can't imagine having to do it for real.  Apparently I wasn't holding my legs wide enough and the instructor's helper came over and pushed my legs down and apart more and she said "I like to remember that the same way they got in there is the same way they're gonna come out!"  Alrighty...thanks for the tip stranger, Colton and I just laughed!  We then all went over to the hospital and they gave us a tour of the entire labor and delivery floor, it was awesome.  St. Joseph's recently redid that entire floor and is still opening up a brand new section of rooms on the weekend of the 24th so we may possibly get a brand new room which is really exciting!  We of course got to walk by the nursery and there was one set of twins and another little baby being rolled in right when we were walking out...SO ADORABLE!  After the class I was thinking about how much we were actually able to take away from it and so glad that we took it, and then I was thinking about some of the other couples who obviously needed this class!  One couple actually asked while we were on the tour of the hospital if they needed to bring a carseat after the baby was born!!!  Colton of course thought these people were out of their mind but I had to remind him that some people really have NEVER been around any babies their entire lives, it's all completely new to them.  We are by no means baby experts but thank goodness we have been around babies enough where we still feel comfortable bringing another life into this scary world!

Sunday was our first anniversary, yay!  This year has flown by, granted I've been pregnant for the majority of it but it has been a great year.

Colton surprised me by sending flowers to work on Friday, they are so beautiful!  They remind me a lot of the flowers we used in our wedding.  Doug and Loranne thankfully were able to watch Rocky and Pixie for us Saturday, they probably would have been fine but I feel so much better when they're around people during the day and not always left by themselves, and we were gone for over 12 hours and I didn't want them to be miserable.  And even better, they kept them the rest of the evening for us.  It was really nice to just come home and relax together without dogs in both of our faces, although we both missed them terribly it was great.  I told Colton that I feel like we dropped the kids off at the babysitters and have a quiet night at home to ourselves!  So the next day we went to church and then had lunch at Doug and Loranne's and picked up our babies.  That evening we went out to Fedor.  Wednesday was my dad's birthday so my mom invited us all out (Mike, Lois their kids, Cody, Katie their kids and us) to just hang out and spend the afternoon together.  We fished, talked and roasted hot dogs and made smores and just had a great time all around.  We brought Rocky and Pixie with us (hey, they're our babies) and my dad keeps cattle out there and as soon as they saw Rocky they all ran up to us and were just watching every move he made, the little calves were even following him around!  I guess they thought he was one of them!  Overall it was a very busy, very tiring, but very nice weekend :)

Dr.

This past Thursday I had a dr. appointment.  Nothing new or exciting AT ALL!  I had to see a different dr this time because my regular dr was going to be out on our usual scheduled time.  When the nurse put me in the room she gave me a sheet and told me to go ahead and get undressed because she will examine my cervix, I was like "yay!  Finally."  Well the dr comes in and is like "Sorry, I don't know why the nurse told you to change, you won't be examined until your next appointment."  Ugh!  Whatever.  They measure and listen to her heartbeat and she said she sounds really strong.  I asked her if I needed to be watching for anything and she said "nope, everything looks great and you've been very lucky so far.  You're doing just fine."  I'm really glad to hear that every time, because I think I have been very fortunate so far, but COME ON ALREADY!  I definitely have had enough.  My feet are always swollen, from the minute I wake up to the minute I lay down, it is getting almost impossible for me to get in and out of bed or off of the comfy couch, it IS impossible for me to get socks and tennis shoes on, and of course I always have to pee!  I have truly enjoyed being pregnant but I am definitely counting down the rest of my five weeks!

Bow hunting

This past weekend was the opening for bow season and of course Colton was excited as ever to go.  He really wanted me to go with him because he got a new pop up blind where you can sit like 20 yards away from the deer and it's really exciting to watch them that close.  I was excited to go of course because I've never bow hunted, my dad and my brother's have and Colton just recently got into it and I grew up rifle hunting but never with a bow so I wanted to see how it was done.  I WAS NOT however excited about getting up that early on a Saturday.  Colton told my dad about a week ago that I was going with him and my dad was like "nah, you don't want her to go she'll just be noisy and she'll want to leave early."  He jokingly told Colton that a way for him to get me to not want to go was to rub some skunk urine all over him and Colton said "I really don't think that would bother her" and my dad said "ya, you're probably right."

My dad was the one I always went hunting with since I was like 6 or 7 and yes, for a kid that young it's hard to keep quiet and still for hours at a time so it was probably more of a hassle for him to take me, but I always had fun and then when my dad bought me my own rifle I would go by myself or with Colton.  So needless to say hunting and killing a deer is nothing new to me.  Well this experience was WAY different.  We get into the blind about 6:15 a.m. and the feeder went off about 6:45, and at about 7 a doe walks out and I told him to shoot her and then a few minutes later her baby walks out and we both just look at each other and shake our heads.  Well a few minutes go by and sometimes I think mine and Colton's brains are hardwired together because almost at the same time we agree that the baby is almost as big as the doe and it will be completely fine by itself.  I know this sounds brutal and cold-hearted but we were both raised that we shoot deer to feed our family.  God put every animal on this earth for a purpose and a deer's purpose is to feed us, just like a cow!  So about 7:30 Colton draws back and shoots her, I wish I could erase the next 45 minutes out of my head forever.  It was AWFUL.  I'm used to hunting with a rifle where when you shoot them they instantly go down and die.  Well he shot too high and got her in the spine and she went down and started kicking around on the ground, at this time I turn my head and cover my eyes and beg him to shoot her again to put her out of her misery.  Let me remind you that we are only 10 yards away from her.  So she CRAWLS into the brush right in front of us and we can hear her kicking around and I just start crying!  I felt like an idiot but I think it was just the shock of the entire situation.  Yes, I'm used to seeing animals die for a purpose but I absolutely don't like to see or hear an animal suffer.  Colton starts laughing at me and hugs me and tells me that with a bow that's almost always normal, that they usually run off first and then go off and die and you then have to track them, he said "sorry, they usually don't do that!" (we didn't know he shot her too high at this point).  Well 45 minutes go by and we can STILL hear her!  We didn't get out right away because my dad was hunting in an oats patch about 100 yards behind us and we didn't want to disturb him.  So we kept watching for when he got down to finally get out and then Colton finally went and put her out of her misery.  I told him I probably wouldn't mind going again now that I know what to expect, but my first bow hunting experience is one that I will unfortunately never forget.

Mommy marks

Yes, I now have stretch marks.  I don't like to call them that though, it just sounds so ugly, so they're my "mommy marks."  The other night I had just gotten out of the shower and I was looking at them in the mirror and it just really hit me like a ton of bricks that these are going to be with me for the rest of my life and it seems like I get a new one everyday and my body will never be the same again.  It just overwhelmed me so I plopped into bed with Colton and just started crying!  He had NO idea what was going on, poor thing.  So I told him why I was upset and of course he didn't really know how to comfort me so I just told him to hold me and don't say anything!  After a while he was like "babe, it will be totally worth it and I don't care that you have them."  Which did make me feel a little better, but it still is just really upsetting.  And I have no idea why I'm acting like this!  This is really unlike me to care so much about some stretch marks, sorry, mommy marks, but I think it's just the fact that I'm changing and I can't do anything about it.  Oh man, I wonder what I'll go through when I have a mid-life crisis!

Tomorrow I have a dr.'s appointment so I'll be posting how that goes.  Monday will be the start of my 35th week already!  And no, we still don't have everything we need to be ready for her.  I did start packing her a little bag and slowly getting things ready for what I'll need to be taking to the hospital.  Her carseat actually just arrived yesterday and is still in the box!  And we don't have a few other essentials yet either.  I told Colton that we should have kept it a secret as to what gender we were having because I've noticed that when people are preparing for a boy or they never find out what they're having they seem to get a lot more of the essential things they need for the baby, but when people have girls they get a lot of cute clothes and stuff like that.  Not that we don't appreciate everything that everyone has given her (trust me, we appreciate every little thing VERY much!), just an observation :)

One night last week I was trying to get stuff in her room organized and put away and Colton came in and we sat down and just started talking about all things baby and he said "what if it's a boy?"  I looked around the room at her yellow walls, her pink curtains, her floral bedding and said "I would probably cry."  Not that I would be disappointed if it was a boy, but we would literally have to start ALL OVER!  Of course this little comment brought on another strange dream.  I dreamt that we had just brought her home and we were changing her first diaper and I look down and she has a penis!!!  We had already gotten her ears pierced and everything, so I was like "oh no, we have to take her earings out."  Like that would really be my first concern!  Please oh please let it be a girl in there.

Dr. and baby shower

Friday I had a dr's appointment and everything went good...except I gained 5 pounds in two weeks!!!  When I stepped on the scale I almost had a heart attack just because it was such a big jump in a short time period.  When the dr came in I was asking her if I need to be changing my diet or need to be doing anything different, she just kind of laughed (I'm sure she thought I was overreacting) and said "you just look a little more puffy than usual so it's probably just water weight and you're doing fine, you're still in a very normal weight gain range.  You're just in the stage of your pregnancy where you're gonna get puffy!"  She also said that she can't put me on bed rest because there is nothing medically wrong with me and I've had such a normal pregnancy, but that when I get home I do NOTHING.  She said I know it's going to be hard because you're going to want to be cleaning and washing and putting things away, but don't!  You get home, you put your feet up and that's it.  Sorry babe, dr's orders!  Ya right.  I'm sure they tell all pregnant women that hoping to just slow them down a little bit, it's impossible to come home and do nothing, sorry.  I'm starting my 33rd week this week and I measured at 34 cm, right on target!  I asked her if she was able to tell how big she actually was, she felt around a little bit but said she couldn't really get a good estimate, maybe in a couple weeks when she's a little bigger.  Colton and I have our "baby class" comin up on the 9th, I'm super excited about it, I'm not really sure why because I'll probably just get more freaked out about the whole thing afterward!

I had another baby shower this past Saturday, it turned out SO nice.  We had a really great turnout and we got some much needed stuff.



Nice little profile picture, my butt looks just as big as my belly!  And yes, my hair is red.  I went to get a haircut after my dr appointment on Friday and was tired of having to highlight it and keep up with the expense so I was going to get it dyed back to my natural color and just leave it alone (for a while anyway!), well there was so much blonde on my hair that they had to put a filler on it so the brown wouldn't just wash right off after they put it on.  She warned me that it will be a red color after she rinses it because I have natural red undertones (which I've known forever, and my mom has them too) and she was putting them back in.  After she rinsed it and was drying it to get it ready for the brown color, I told her that i kind of liked the red!  I NEVER thought I would want red hair, but I think I was just ready for a change overall.  My body is changing, and growing, more and more everyday and i really just needed a pick me up I guess.  I love it!  Colton was completely shocked when he walked in the door, but don't let him fool you, he loves it too :)  Honestly I'm pretty sure it's just a phase, like I said I just needed a pick me up and I always feel better after doing something different to my hair...I don't know why, I guess that's kind of weird.  My dad HATES it, but then again he hated it when I went back to my natural hair color a couple years ago (which is a fairly dark brown color), he likes it when I have it highlighted blonde.  My mom said she just wants me to leave my hair alone lol!  I guess I do change my hair a lot, but it's just hair!  I consider it an accessory I guess that I can change up and I can always put back!  Who knows, the next time you see me I might be hot pink!

Check out this cake!  Colton's Aunt Terri and his mom made it, they did a fabulous job and it was so yummy!

This was one of the games we played, it was so fun!  We had three teams of three, the first person had to change the diaper, the second person had to dress the baby then run it over to the third person who had to put it in a stroller and weave it through a little maze, very creative!



All of the beautiful hostesses :)

And the memaws!

Surprise!

I don't know how many of you know that I work part time, Jennifer and I split the work week, so she worked last Tuesday and we had a half day Wednesday.  She calls me Tuesday evening and asks me if I can come in at 12 instead of our normal 1:00 scheduled time because one of the parents needs to talk to me about her child.  I'm thinking "great, now what!" but I didn't really ask too many questions because we have to deal with that stuff on a daily basis so it wasn't a big deal.  It's about 11:00 on Wednesday and I'm getting ready to go in for work and Colton calls me and asks if I want to go eat lunch around 1, I said that should be fine because I have a meeting with a parent at 12 and I should be done by then.  So I get to work and as soon as i walk in the office the phone rings from the kitchen and our cook says the milk man needs me down there because he has a question for me, so I walk down to the kitchen and I pass the room that has the kid in it that I was supposed to be discussing in a few minutes.  I was thinking, that's weird because if his mom set up a meeting at 12 that means she wouldn't bring in her kid until 12 (that's usually what time they get there on a normal basis).  I asked the teacher "has so and so been here all morning?" she was like "ya...why?"  I just couldn't figure out what was going on, it was all just a little too weird.  I continue down to the kitchen and I see balloons sitting on a table and I'm thinking "oh shoot, I bet it's our cook's birthday and I completely forgot!" and all of a sudden Jennifer says "surprise!"  I'm like "surprise for what?" she says "for you!"  They threw me a surprise baby shower!!!  They made chicken spaghetti (my favorite) had salad, garlic bread, chips and dip, and our cook even made a homemade peach cobbler and they had vanilla ice cream to go with it...they know me too well :)  ALL of the teachers were in on it and even the church office came over to eat with us.  There was no parent meeting and Colton was in on it too, he called and made me think that I was eating at 1 so I wouldn't eat lunch before I came to work.  They all pitched in and got us a really nice cash gift which will be SO helpful.  They're so sneaky! :)

More baby shower

I forgot I had baby shower pictures I could post!

These are all of my aunts (minus aunt Laverne who couldn't make it) who threw me a really nice baby shower.  And of course the memaws and the grandmas :)



My aunt had asked if i could bring some folding chairs I had at home for some extra seating, so after I got ready at the house I threw on some stinky old black flip flops to run back and forth to my car because I had to load the chairs and make a few other trips and I knew if I put on my heels that I was planning on wearing the rest of the afternoon I would probably have tripped and broke my ankle or something.  Of course I get out of my car AT the shower and realize I still have those gross flip flops on!!!  I was so embarressed!  But hey, it's hard to remember to change shoes when you can no longer see your feet!

When I walk in our bathroom Friday after work this is what I found.  It scared the crap out of me when I first saw it.  Colton and Doug went to San Saba last weekend to work on a truck that has been broken down for a while and they stopped by our house so Colt could take a shower and get his stuff before they left since it's on the way.  When I first saw it I was thinking "awww, how sweet!" then I thought "awww man what is that and how am I going to get it off?"  He took my concealer (that is in a lipstick tube) and used it to write with!  It actually came off very easy, probably easier than lipstick would have come off and it's the thought that counts :)

Baby Shower

This past weekend my aunts threw me my first baby shower!  It was really fun just to hear everyone's stories of when they were pregnant (some of them were horror stories) and to see everyone and of course all the cool stuff Korbyn got :)  Now it seems like it's taking even longer for her to get here because I want to dress her up in everything that she got...right now!  My mom got us the curtains for her room and the hostesses got us the glider (still on delivery), which brings us so much closer to having her room finished!  I'll make sure and post pictures when everything is done and put together.

My mom and I went to Austin a couple of weekends ago just to hang out and she wanted to get a gift for Korbyn for the shower.  When we got back she dug my baptism gown out of my old closet along with some of my baby shoes and other things. 

I was so excited because I've never seen these things before!  We are planning on using the same gown to baptize Korbyn in, so that will be really special.  When I showed Colton he said "uh...isn't it a little see through?" :) already worried about what his daughter will be wearing!  It is see through because it's just lace, my mom said I wore some kind of long slip underneath it but she's just not sure where it is right now.  The coat was mine too, it will probably never get cold enough for her to wear it but it's just so darn cute!

So anxious!

Well Monday will be the start of my 32nd week and I am getting sooooo anxious!  It seems like the closer it gets, the longer it takes to get here.  It has been really fun the past couple of weeks to watch my belly because you can see it move so much now.  Like right now she has the hiccups and I can see my entire belly move right along with her!  But she's getting bigger so now we can feel where she is which is amazing.  People keep asking me if I can tell the difference between her hand, leg, head, bottom etc., uh no.  Maybe I'm just not that observant, or maybe my belly is just a lot thicker than most people's lol! 

Last weekend we went to San Saba with my brother, sister-in-law and their three kids.  We had a good time, it was amazing how much cooler it was just three hours north of here!  I don't think it got over 90 all weekend.  Their youngest, Noah who's four, is so funny.  It was the last day we were there and we were cleaning up after breakfast and he walked right by me and he stopped and looked at me for a second then looked up at me with the most serious face and said, "you got a big belly!"  We laughed so hard.  Then we asked him what was in there and he knew there was a baby in there and told him her name and he calls her Tobyn...so cute!  Colton and I were talking on the way back home and I was saying that we only have 9 more weeks until our lives change forever and Colton said, "nah, it won't change that much."  HA!  I honestly don't think it has fully "hit" me yet, and obviously hasn't hit him, and I really don't think it will until we see her and walk in the house with her for the first time :)

Blood Test

Last Friday I went and did my glucose test and they drew blood for that and to test if I was anemic.  I called them yesterday to find out the result, since they hadn't let me know anything yet, and everything came back normal!  She said my glucose score was a 91 and as long as it's below 140 they aren't concerned, and my hematocrit score was a 36.7.  She said it's not a great score, but not bad enough where I need to take a supplement.  I'm so releived these came back normal!  I'm not that great of an eater, health-wise, and if I would have had either one of these it would have made it so difficult to have a more healthy and balanced diet than I'm already trying to get.

I told Colton that it seems like my body LOVES pregnancy.  Before being pregnant I would get moody and over emotional about a lot of things, I would get very frequent and painful headaches and it seems like since I've been pregnant all of those things have gone away and everything has been so easy for me. I told him I guess that means God wants us to have lots of babies :)  Of course I'm starting to get all of the pregnancy pains that come along with it.  I went walking yesterday evening and noticed I am having more and more trouble getting a good deep breath and that if I push down on my belly that it actually helps!  And oh my goodness my hips!  I've always had big hips so I didn't think they would need to stretch a whole lot for a baby, but that is the one thing that is killing me right now.  Not too much longer though...only 9 more weeks!