Week without Grandma

Well, Grandma and Granddad are gone, as I mentioned previously, but we've gotten along pretty well. Kathleen got here on Tuesday and is staying until tomorrow, so I've had some help the middle part of this week. I had my postpartum visit with my OB and my followup with my internist on Tuesday and Wednesday, and those appointments went pretty well. Caroline and I also got a chance to follow up with my lactation consultant, and I got to see that she is gaining weight and getting a much better intake of milk, since her frenectomy. In fact, Christina, the LC, is thinking about using Caroline as a case study for a conference in May that she is presenting out about the difference before and after her frenulum was clipped. So, she may be a celebrity yet. Now that she's starting to fill out a little, I've gotten to dip into some of the different adorable outfits that I've had waiting for her. Here are a couple of my favorites from the week:

We're really looking forward to Mark and Hanna's visit this weekend! The boys are especially. It's always a good time!

We Love Grandma!

Grandma (my mom) has stayed with us for 2 1/2 weeks - and she has been a god-send (and she leaves tomorrow :( ). She has kept me sane, cared for the baby when I was unable, loved on and spoiled the boys, supported Scott, helped the house and laundry stay under control, chauffered me to various places when I was not allowed to drive, bought the kids some spring clothes, took some night feedings so that we could get some desperately needed sleep, filed Caroline's talons and helped bathe her, planned a "Mud Day" with the boys, and NEVER complained once. She is a saint. And Granddad (my dad) is a saint for sharing her so long with us. He never complained to me about it, even though it was unexpectedly longer than it was supposed to be, and he went a long time without his wife. We will certainly have an adjustment to make when they leave tomorrow, but we're much better prepared for the future than we were a week ago - what a difference a week makes! We can't wait to see them again soon.

Dress Up Time!

We got Caroline dolled up in her first dress today - and she stayed awake the whole time and even smiled at me twice (although she was on the way to dreamland, so it was more of a fluke!). Here are some pictures of her in pretty bows and dresses.

Weekend at Home

Well, our weekend is almost over, and Caroline is 1 1/2 weeks old already! She's still a great night time sleeper, and pretty sweet all the way around. My blood pressure is still bad, and the anxiety isn't great either, but I'm hoping this week will bring relief for both. Here are some pictures from our weekend, including the much-anticipated visit from Kelley and Matt. Tomorrow is her first pediatrician visit, so we'll be praying for a rave review from Dr. Mac!

At Home and Prayers

Well, we are two days into being home, and Caroline herself is doing great. She is eating well, sleeping well, pooping well, all of the things that a baby is supposed to do. The boys are loving having her here. Last night was the first night that she had a little bit of fussiness, but we are SURE it's because she's been taking in a little bit of my blood when nursing, as she doesn't quite have her latch down, but we're working on that. Her tummy was pretty upset last night and she wanted all of us to know that. Other than that little bump in the road, she is a pretty easy baby....so far. We feel so blessed to have her in our family and in our lives.

I have been struggling though, with my "normal" post partum issues. Normal as in, I've had some degree of post partum blood pressure struggles and severe anxiety with all three babies. As far as the blood pressure, this one has been the worst. The numbers that I got on my monitor at home yesterday are higher than the ones that got me readmitted to the hospital last time. I called my internist, and he told me to take another round of my medication and he would see me today - I don't think that he was as alarmed as I was, and he's the professional, so I trust him. The numbers are down a bit today, which is encouraging, so we'll see what the dr. says. I'm SO hoping to avoid rehospitalization. UPDATE: Just got back from the doctor, and he wants to give the upped dosage of medication another day, so he sent me home with a monitor that stays on my arm and takes my pressure at different times, and then I'll go back tomorrow and re-evaluate. If that doesn't work, he wants to put me on a diuretic, but then I would have to stop breastfeeding, and I DON'T want that. So please pray for me that the medicine will kick in, and that my anxiety would stay at bay for the sake of my whole family. Mom just felt like she couldn't leave me yesterday, as planned, and so now she's here for the long haul (this week and all of next week). I love her for so many reasons, but she's so sacrificial with her time and energy, and that is something I admire so much.

We did decide to get out a bit yesterday, hoping to improve my mood and maybe my blood pressure (didn't work, but it was fun). We took them all to the park, and the boys flew a kite and rode bikes, while Caroline and I hung out and watched. Here are a couple of pictures from this first part of the week:

She's Here!

Caroline Laura Cummings was born today on Thursday, March 5th, at 1:11 pm. She was 7 lbs, 10 oz, and 19 inches long. She has dark brown wavy hair and blue eyes. She is doing great, and I am too. Thanks for all of your prayers! We'll post more pictures later.

Last Pregnant Pose - 40 weeks!

Being my last pregnancy (right?), I did feel an itch to preserve the memory of my largesse for my children to see, and for Scott and I to reminisce about, because after all, I have always loved being pregnant, and I'm going to miss it! But, this belly is one for the books - not necessarily because of its size, but its weird pointy shape.....kind of gives me the creeps - but nevertheless, I needed to freeze the picture for posterity. I did do everyone the kindness of keeping it under wraps, but here it is, in all of its blue and white toile glory.......

Last Nursery Shots before Arrival Day

Here are the last pictures that I will post of her nursery, I promise - but we added the nightstand, the bookcase, the mobile, the window hardware (the panel is still on back order!), and the mobile. Jake put in a little bit of elbow grease too - I told him that it would be fun for him to tell Caroline that he helped put it together. Ben helped set up her swing today, and while we were getting all the pieces out, he told me totally out of the blue "Mommy, I will NOT smack Caroline, because that would be so sad, and would make her so sad." I said, "No, you wouldn't do that, Ben, because you're just so sweet." He responded "well, I appreciate it".

Additional Pictures of the Nursery - Wall Decor Up!

Here are the pictures of the rest of the nursery with the wall decor up - we made her wall letters ourselves, and then we put up a mirror (laced with pink ribbon), the flower wall pegs, and the little white ledge. I will be hanging up her quilt with quilt clips, but I don't have them yet. The only thing left missing in her room is a bookcase and/or small little bedside table to have near the glider. The glider doesn't go in the room at all, but I couldn't justify replacing it when it's fairly new to begin with and so comfortable, so room snobs - just deal!

Her infamous wall letters!

Her dresser with its legs finally!

Her crib in its final resting place.

The glider with the mirror

The wall ledge with the flower pegs

Nursery Decorating

Well, we spent several weekends gutting the old nursery (aka Ben's room) and girlifying it for Caroline. I wish we could replace the hideous carpet, but we've dealt with it for 7 years, and I don't think that's going to change any time soon. We painted the room Behr's Lemon Pound Cake and it turned out a little brighter and citrusier than I had expected, but it is growing on me and will be just fine. We painted the trim around the window, doors and floorboards a pure white (it was sort of a blah-cream). We put together the crib and the dresser arrived just in time (I supervised the putting together of the crib - I should give Scott the manual labor credit). I washed a bunch of baby clothes (three full loads of 0-6 mo little girl clothes!), and put them away in the dresser, and we began the process of accessorizing the room. We still have several major things to do - hang a mirror, hang wall letters that will be hung from ribbon over the dresser, install a white ledge, change out the wall outlets and switches to stark white ones, and change out ceiling fans as we have a pure white one in the boys' room and the one in here currently is a honey wood (which will work perfectly in THEIR room). We also need one more piece of storage - probably like a short 2 shelf bookcase or a little nightstand to set between the crib and the glider that I can plug in the monitor and adorable little pink CD player/radio that Kelley and her parents gifted me with. Here's some pictures of our progress. Speaking of progress, none made in the month-away arrival of Caroline. I had my 35 week appt last week and I'm still measuring right on track, although I did manage to gain a whole 3 lbs in 2 weeks....which was discouraging to me, but still under my starting weight when I got pregnant to begin with. My blood pressure and ankle swelling were a little above average, but not bad or worrisome, and totally explainable as it was the end of a LONG day of work. She still doesn't want me doing weekly appts so I'll have one last two week break - go to my 37 week appt, and do weekly ones from there. March will be here before we know it!

Her bed with her polka dot/striped/toile bedding from PBK (I finally found all the pieces!)

The glider where we will spend a lot of nights in - with the Boppy!

One of the diaper caddys, currently filled with burp cloths and pacifiers

The other diaper caddy filled with socks and hair accessories.

The dresser - it is so huge, and so wonderful!

Happy 7th Birthday, Jake!

Jake is 7 today, and is really enjoying his birthday weekend. First he had a party with his class at school on Friday, complete with a chocolate cake and a little Cha-Cha slide dancing at the end of the party, courtesy of Mrs. Fayle's DDR CD. He was really tickled that the whole class decided to indulge in a little dancing for his party. On Friday night, Grandma and Granddad came into town and all day Saturday were birthday festivities. First we had lunch with the four of us, Grandma and Granddad, and Donna and Corey. We cooked out hot dogs, burgers, made yummy bean dip and had fruit and chips, and then Chocolate Chip Cookie cake for dessert. Then he opened presents, and he loved ALL of them. He made it a goal to play with ALL of them before the end of the day. Matt and Kelley got here from Austin around 4:00pm, and he got to open another present (from them and Mark and Hanna), and then we went to his choice for dinner: Denny's (?). We came home and played Hit or Miss, and then after a long day, he was ready for bed. Today, we have church and then we're picking up his 3 closest friends for a little afternoon celebration - first stop is McDonalds for lunch, then the movie theatre to see "Hotel for Dogs" and then ice cream cake and presents at our house. Finally then the birthday will be over. But he made it last a whole weekend. I'll post birthday party pictures later!

My C-section has been rescheduled and then rescheduled again, so officially now, the date is set for 12:30pm on March 5th (one day before my due date), but the dr. office feels pretty confident that there will be cancellations between now and then, and I'll get moved back to the first half of the week. I hope so - I've never been pregnant for one day short of 40 weeks. That would be a record, and not one that I really want to achieve with the large babies I seem to have (although my dr. thinks that she will not be as big as the boys were - maybe somewhere in the 8lb - 8.5 lb range). Only time will tell!

33 Weeks

Hello everyone! I thought I would make a little appearance on the blog to share the latest and greatest about Miss Caroline, as I had a big, important ultrasound today. First and foremost, she looks great - she's very healthy - her head and abdomen measure exactly where they should be for 33 weeks (they measure just a little big, but not hugely big like Jake and Ben did!). She has perfect toes, a perfect nose, beautiful lips, LOTS of hair, and chubby cheeks. They estimated that she is about 4lbs, 14 oz, and is in about the 60% percentile for height and weight. She's not head down or breech but rather transverse, which means her head is on the left and her rear is on the right. She sucked her thumb during part of the sonogram and yawned once too. What really blew us away were the images that we were able to see of her using a 4D machine. We can see that she looks remarkably like a Scott and Carrie Cummings baby - a little more like Jake than like Ben, but favors either given a certain angle. She has a nose like Jake's, that turns up at the end, and luscious lips like Jake and Ben (and I) have. It brought tears to my eyes, and that doesn't happen very often. We are so excited to meet her, and we know that we will, barring any surprises, on Tuesday, March 3. My blood pressure was great, my blood sugars were great, and I managed to lose 2 more lbs (?). I am being very brave, but for posterity's sake, I have decided to take the dreaded belly pic - I will only take one more - the day before she's born. It'll be fun to compare. Ignore the nasty stretch marks. And then I'm also posting the ultrasound pictures from today that I scanned.

27-28 weeks

Well, I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks - but between Thanksgiving, my birthday, and a little trip to NYC - I haven't had time! But I'm happy to report that I'm having a huge surge of energy which served me very well in NYC, as I was happy to go, go, go as long as I wanted without any real sense of handicap or need to slow down. That was wonderful - that cold weather always does me good. I was at Ben's Christmas program tonight for school (his class sang "This Little Light of Mine" and "Frosty the Snowman") and several women commented that I looked so glowy and good. I did have to confess that the glowy look was more due to the windburn from the harsh NYC wind than my hormones, but it was still nice to hear a compliment! We had a great Thanksgiving and I had a fun birthday (32 - almost in my mid-thirties already!). I went to Dr. Laden on December 2, which I was complaining about - right after Thanksgiving and birthday festivities and before my trip. But it turned out not to be so bad. She's already reduced the number of times I have to test my blood from 4 times a day to 2 times a day - so that was welcome news. I did gain 2 pounds, but I expected that, and I'm still at -4 pounds for the whole pregnancy. She also gave me the great news that my hemoglobin A1C levels were lower at my 24 week blood test, than they were at my 8 week blood test, which is rare in pregnancy to lower, especially from someone who is known to be gestationally diabetic. I was proud of myself in NYC - I ate pretty reasonably - only treated myself to pizza one time and dessert one time - everything else was pretty much salads or sandwiches. Plus I got a ton of exercise walking the streets of Times Square! Here are a few pictures from the last two weeks:

Ben and I at church together after his school Christmas program

The NYC ladies in front of Rock Center Cafe

Me posing with the Muppet I made for Jake at FAO Schwarz

The boys and I on my birthday morning

My three guys swinging in the backyard of my parents' house during Thanksgiving.

25 weeks!

This last week I had my 24 week checkup and now we're to 25 weeks. Still no weight gain - which is fine, considering my fighting beginning weight was PLENTY large to begin with! I've been trying to be really faithful to a lower carb diet, which is probably what I attribute to a negative weight gain. Miss Caroline is moving around a whole lot, and Jake and Ben are finally able to feel her wiggling and bumping around. Her bedding came in from Pottery Barn Kids - I'm still not totally sold on it, but it is cute. It's mostly white and pink - the crib sheets are white with pink toile, the bumper is white with pink polka dots on one side, and pink stripes on the other side. The quilt is a two tone voile (which is really lightweight). The collection is called Isabelle, and it was on clearance at PBK. We've decided to move Ben into Jake's room and have both beds and dressers in there, and sharing a closet, but then move bookshelves and some toys into the guest bedroom so that they won't be quite as cramped. That way, the "baby" room can stay the baby room, and we'll still have a dedicated guest room when family and friends come into town. I'm crossing my fingers that the boys will be able to sleep in the same room - that hasn't always been successful, but has gotten better in recent months for things like camping, hotel stays, etc.
At my last dr. appt, Dr. Laden did indicate that she would not be making me take the 1 or 3 hour gestational diabetes tests, as it is fairly safe to assume that I would have it again. She did order the Hemoglobin A1C blood test, which gives doctors an indicator of what my blood sugars have averaged over the previous 3 months. She told me to begin testing my blood sugars 4x per day (yikes!!), and keeping a log of it for a week, and then to fax her the log after a week, and that, coupled with my score on the blood test, would determine for her how to proceed. Well, my blood test results came back "Great" in her words, and since I've bought the food I need to stay faithful to my diet, my blood sugar readings have been outstanding, so I'm hoping that she'll at least decrease the number of times per day that I have to test. Four holes in my hand per day gets old, believe me! This faithfulness to the diet should also keep my weight in check, so that will be good too.

That's all the baby news for now! I'm thinking that I'm going to start posting some belly pictures next time. I never have done that, and since this is most likely my last pregnancy, I do want some documentation of me pregnant - we've noticed in the past that we have neglected to photograph me pregnant. I have two pictures of my pregnancy with Jake, a few with Ben, and very few with Caroline, so I've got to seize the day....and soon - only two more weeks 'til my third trimester.

His Loss, His Gain

Jake lost his 2nd tooth in one month - so his grand total is 2 lost teeth now - both on the bottom front row! He is very proud because this one, he intentionally pulled it (the first one was lost in the middle of an apple bobbing contest). He was very brave and was determined to pull it before bedtime because it was just going to drive him crazy. It was very cute to watch!

Halloween and Football

We had a great Saturday last week - Scott and I took off for Austin, sans children (who were being watched by the ever gracious Donna, and our favorite babysitter, Maggie). Our mission: to attend the UT/OK State football game at DKR Memorial Stadium. We LOVED the peaceful car ride to Austin, where we could talk without being interrupted. We got great parking at the Seminary, and walked over to the Alumni Center where I got to see a couple of old friends before heading over to the stadium. The game was great - our seats were fine, and the football was better, even the Band was great. Afterwards, we each picked up food from our favorite places, me - DoubleDaves, Scott - the Wendy's Baconator, and we made our way back to Conroe (we left Conroe at 10:30am and got back to Conroe at 10:15 pm). It was a full day - but the boys had a great time with their keepers, and we got a whole date day!

Kim and I (both at 21 weeks - my 3rd pregnancy and her TWIN pregnancy)

Caroline's first UT football game

This week is Halloween, and the boys are both in high gear. Jake has decided to recycle last year's UT football costume, that barely got used, as he ran home screaming from a scary zombie adult who freaked him out big time. Ben chose to be Donald Duck this year, and is cute as a button. His preschool class had a little party today and they all dressed in their outfits. He just loved all of the attention his puffy little duck outfit got him. He's at a fun age for Halloween this year.

Jake and his friend Colton at our church's Fall Festival

Ben's Tuesday preschool class in costumes

Donald Duck in jeans!

It's a....

GIRL!

We found out last Tuesday that we are having a daughter! Jake and Ben will have a sister, and they are both getting more and more excited about it. At first, they were a little disappointed not to have another wrestling buddy, but Ben announces about his baby sister at every opportunity.

Everything appears to be happy and healthy! So stay tuned!

Long Overdue Update

Well, it's been almost two years since I last blogged. I can't believe that I let it get away from me for THAT LONG! I mean, I've always been a procrastinator, but this one takes the cake! Anyway, as you can see by my blog title, and the counter on the side, we're having one more baby, due at the beginning of March, and this Tuesday, October 14th (which also happens to be Scott's 32nd birthday), we will get to see a bigger, better picture of the baby, and hopefully find out whether it's a sister or a brother for Ben and Jake. Both boys would like a boy, so they can name him Dude. Hopefully they'll be amenable to a sister named Caroline, or a brother named something a little more traditional than Dude (in other words, we don't have a boy name yet!). So stay tuned for Tuesday's news - hopefully everything will be healthy and bouncing - which I'm more and more confident about as this week has definitely been a turning point week with regards to the amount of moving and shaking going on down there! My mom will be here and she's excited to see the baby, and if we need girl clothes after all, she's prepared to do some shopping immediately following the appointment!

Who Let Me Do This To My Child?

Who conspired to let the hair get THIS BAD? Granted, this picture is about 9-10 months old - but really. I just happened upon this picture in my pictures folder, and was horrified to discover my precious baby had a bouffant!

I'm just so mortified - if I saw a baby like this in public, I would there was something wrong with him....or his parents.