Baby Shower

My amazing girlfriends Erin, Danita and Brandy hosted a WONDERFUL baby shower for Cooper and I at my house.  It was so wonderful having all of my friends over to my house for the first time, and they did such a great job with all of the decorations!  My favorite part was a "wishing tree" where guests wrote their wish for baby Cooper on a slip of paper and placed them on a gorgeous silver tree (that I got to keep!!).  They also put their thumbprints on a picture of a tree as a sort of guestbook, which is now hanging in the nursery.  And let me tell you, those adorable little elephant sugar cookies were absolutely fantastic, and were completely made from scratch (royal icing and everything!) by Danita!  

I feel so blessed to have such great friends that care about me so much!  Enjoy the pictures!

Blessed

It is pretty incredible how much my heart and soul loves this tiny little human being that I miraculously brought in to this world. After being so, so sick from beginning to end of my pregnancy, I never imagined I could be so happy.

I was also blessed to have the easiest labor I could have imagined. This was also a shock, as I assumed it would be horrible. After pregnancy being so hard, labor seemed a breeze and even though this was my first delivery, it went very quickly. My progression was slow at first, only dilating from 1-3 cm over about 6 hours. But then I jumped from 3cm to 8 cm to pushing in about an hour and a half! I had absolutely no pain, thanks to a wonderful epidural, and in four contractions my amazing little boy was laying there on my chest!! I have also had virtually no pain post delivery so my recovery has been very quick.

My husband and I have chosen to not share photos of our boy on the Internet (Facebook, blog, etc). There are just too many pictures of young children out there that end up being scrutinized or words being added to them with vulgar phrases. I don't want my child growing up infamous for that newborn picture of him peeing across the room (which actually happened tonight after bath time...). However, I will share a picture of the birth announcement that we are sending out.

Can't wait to get back to blogging now that I am feeling so much better. I hope you welcome me back, blog world!!

Today!

Today is the day Lil Cooper has decided to join us! My water broke last night and now it's just waiting for the right time to push!!

Can't wait to share my bundle of joy!

Waiting.

Come on, lil Cooper. Mommas ready to meet you!

Books!

One thing I am so excited about is reading with the baby.  I think that it is so important to create good habits early, and I plan on looking at books often!  My dad installed my book shelves recently, and my mom brought me all of my favorite childhood books to start filling them up!

The nursery is really coming together nicely, and I am getting very excited.  Only 6 weeks until my due date!

Week 33

Well Cooper and I have made it to week 33 of this pregnancy! It has certainly been a rough journey, but each day we are closer to d-day! Delivery, that is.

I had a good couple of weeks of no nausea, but unfortunately that has come back. Oh well. I am pretty good at figuring out when I am going to get sick so I have plenty of planning time.

My wonderful husband graduated from firefighter rookie school on October 19th! I am so very proud of him, and am so proud to be a firemans wife.

Also, at the beginning of October my schedule changed and I now work the night shift here at Arkansas Childrens Hospital. I absolutely love my job, and I am so happy on my new shift. Going from working 3-11pm five days a week to only working three days a week from 7pm-7am has been a wonderful change. I plan to continue working after I get back from maternity leave.

Baby Cooper is now around 4 pounds and close to 16 inches long. He is very active, and watching my belly is very reminiscent of a certain scene from the movie Alien.

I almost have the nursery complete. We have bookshelves and lamps and everything is just coming together!! I also have finally started buying some cute outfits, so he's no longer in danger of having to go naked.

And without further ado, here is a picture of my ever expanding belly!!

Week 30

Ten weeks until I get to meet Cooper! Also, next Friday Tim graduates from rookie school and will be a firefighter! I am so proud of him. I know the past eleven weeks have been tough, and he has worked so hard to get to this point. Got a little bit more done in the nursery, the book shelves are up and we have lamp shades! Still need to finish the curtains and the mobile, but then I think the DIY projects will be done! I'll post pictures soon!