Blog 11: Finally.. the Finish Line is in Sight!

6 days to go!!!

As most of you probably read in my previous blog I have struggled some with my health in the last month and am still having some issues with my bladder and kidneys. Because of how my little man is positioned on my bladder I just can’t seem to empty it all the way which has been causing me to get infection after infection! My doctor decided to put me on an antibiotic that will help with this, but unfortunately I have to take it every day til I deliver so instead of paying for refills on this prescription drug without really knowing how many more days I’ll need it my doctor decided to schedule an induction for April 25th. It is so nice to have a worst case scenario day in mind and has actually helped me get super motivated to attack the TO DO list I posted last blog. Lets go ahead and take a look at that TO DO list so I can assess what I actually have gotten done since I last posted:

1.Take down glass shower doors in Lucy and Baby Co’s Bathroom.
2. Install car seat bases
3. Re-pack hospital bag(since I had to kind of use it last week)
a. Pick up travel size toiletries because my hospital does not provide conditioner or bar soap!
b. Bring a real blanket!
4. Clean out vehicles (this is like half done)
5. Spray/kill dandelions.
6. Pick up correct diaper genie refills (No longer being sold so a new diaper genie has been purchased)
7. Wash up baby toys
8. Dust all the blinds in the house
9. Order and hang wedding pictures and Lucy’s 4 year shots

I think I am doing pretty good! The shower doors are something I will have to have help with for sure and the ordering of pictures will require a lot of sitting in front of the computer which I will hopefully have time for this weekend.. we’ll see.

So other than the serious TO DO list progress I have to tell you all about April 9th… I welcomed the Molly Maids into my home and something amazing happened and they left it sparkly, clean and fresh! Anyone who has ever thought about doing this should really have it done.. even if it is just once. It feels so good to have a clean home and to have it all done at once! None of that cleaning the upstairs and by the time I get the downstairs done the upstairs needs it again! Having them take the burden of scrubbing my house from top to bottom allowed me to spend my weekend free of cleaning and I even painted two pictures and decorated the empty wall in Baby Co’s room.

My house is still very clean and all I have to do is maintain which is soo much easier now!

Since this is probably my last pre-labor blog I wanted to share one more set of letters to Baby Co. I hope you all enjoy and hopefully my next blog will be to tell you about a short/easy labor!!

4/17/2012

Hey buddy, I am sitting here now with a lot going on. Mom went to a doctors appointment today and found out that you are going to come to see us next week! we can't hardly wait. I have something special for this letter. Your sister Lucy wants to tell you some things before you finally see her.

Dear Baby Brother
I love you! So please develop. I love you sweetie pie. I gave you a toy box today. You will love it. What is your favorite color? Do you want to go to Mexico with us next year? I want to take you to Mexico so you will have a chance to go there. You will love it. I swam with dolphins and you and mommy and me can do it again! Your room is awesome. It has blue diamonds. Real blue diamonds. We just did it like that for you. I want to teach you how to dance, how to swim, how to share and I love you and can't wait to see you and hug you and kiss you and teach you stuffs. See you soon! Love you baby brother!
Lucy


As you can see, we are all excited to see you. Mom is in your room right now getting things ready for you. She said she will write you tomorrow.
You have no idea how much you mean to me already...I absolutely love you and know that when i finally...FINALLY see you, that you will make me the proudest dad in the whole wide world! Love you son.
Dad


4/18/2012

Hi Buddy! In less than 1 week I will be able to hold you in my arms and say that to you! I am really not sure if this pregnancy has gone by fast or slow… I think right now it feels slow because you could be here any day and I am so excited to see you! You are quite the wiggly little worm and even though you are running out of room in my tummy you are always moving and kicking (you especially like to do this when I am trying to go to bed!). I will miss those little kicks and jabs, but am so ready to finally have you! Dad, Lucy and I are so excited to have you in our family and know you are going to fit in with us perfectly. We have been doing a ton of last minute stuff to get ready for you and even have your car seat in the car ready to go! It was so funny watching your Dad put it in.. he had just gotten out of the shower and put on clean clothes when he came out to the garage to help me... by the time he got both of your car seat bases installed in the two cars he was super frustrated, had a cut hand and was sweating like crazy! After he finished though he was so proud of himself for getting them in correctly and then we started talking about having you sitting back there in your car seat and I could tell how excited he was. I can’t wait to be able to take you places and show you things and just watch you grow up. You aren’t even born yet and I already can’t imagine life without you. I love you so much and will always do anything for you, remember this especially when you get older and know you can always come to Dad or me with anything you need or want to talk about. Nothing you say or do could ever change our love for you and we’ll always be there for you.
I love you! See you soon!

Love Always and Forever,
Mom


As you can tell Baby Co will soon be coming home to a house full of excited people! I can't wait to share his name and his sweet little face with the world!

Til Then,
Lexi

Blog 10: Are We There Yet???

Only 24 days until my due date!

When trying to get pregnant a woman can get pretty obsessed and as I described in my first blog I was a looney tune about wanting to get pregnant. Well, my desire to become pregnant had me peeing on a stick at the earliest possible time to have it confirmed that I was in fact pregnant. Due to my desire to know I found out I was pregnant at like 4 weeks and now that I am 37 weeks I feel like I have been pregnant FOREVER!

After I found out that I was pregnant it seemed like everyone around me was finding out they were also pregnant and everywhere I went I saw prego bellies and every time I logged into Facebook someone else was making their big announcement! It was super exciting and I loved the thought of all these babies being born all around the same time as my baby.. One problem with all this is that now all these people have their babies out and mine is still in and I am feeling like all these mommas are flaunting their babies like “ha-ha, mine is out!”! Even one of my fish gave birth this week and I swear every time I walk into Baby Co’s room she is mocking me!

Other than our new addition of two baby mollie fish, nothing too exciting has been going on especially with my pregnancy which I suppose is a good thing. Baby Co is a moving machine, my belly button has officially popped, and I have one swollen leg, but other than that things are pretty low key.

Swollen Leg ^^^^

The nursery is pretty much done and by pretty much I mean it is ready for a baby, but not totally decorated because I can’t quite decide what I want to put on one of the walls. I still need to get a few things and get his toys all washed up, but know I will still have time to do that kind of stuff after he is born since he won’t really be playing with his toys for a while. Fortunately, my to do list is pretty small, but unfortunately it is mostly stuff I can’t really do myself so unless I can recruit a little assistance it’ll have to go undone for now. Here is my list so far:

1. Take down glass shower doors in Lucy and Baby Co’s Bathroom.
2. Install car seat bases
3. Re-pack hospital bag(since I had to kind of use it last week)
a. Pick up travel size toiletries because my hospital does not provide conditioner or bar soap!
b. Bring a real blanket!
4. Clean out vehicles
5. Spray/kill dandelions.
6. Pick up correct diaper genie refills
7. Wash up baby toys
8. Dust all the blinds in the house
9. Order and hang wedding pictures and Lucy’s 4 year shots
So as you can see some of my list is stuff that actually needs to get done and some of it is stuff that can wait.. I just have random stuff I want done and am feeling like there is no good time to work on it..

As I mentioned before my pregnancy has been pretty relaxed, but my health otherwise has been a little iffy and last week I had a bit of a scare.. On Monday I came home from work feeling pretty crappy so I went to bed kind of early and ended up waking up around midnight with a fever of over 103! I took some Tylonel and went back to bed and was up several more times throughout the night just feeling awful. Tuesday was spent pretty much in bed and my fever continued to climb. I called my doctor who ran through a list of symptoms: “Does your back hurt?” Yes, but it always hurts(I’m pregnant!). “Are you peeing more frequently?” Yes, but I always have to pee(I’m pregnant!). “Are you having contractions?” No. “Are you leaking any fluid?” No. “Well, make sure you are keeping on top of the Tylonel for your fever and drink a lot of water and let me know if you don’t get to feeling better.” On Tuesday night I went to bed still feeling awful, my fever spiked to 103.7 and I woke up every single hour to pee. I woke up on Wednesday feeling even worse and called my doctor again to let her know I was getting worse. I was told I should be seen by a primary doctor so I got in to someone in town and after some testing it revealed I had a bladder infection and I was put on an antibiotic. I know the antibiotic wasn’t a miracle drug, but I just couldn’t believe that just a tiny little UTI was causing such high fevers and body aches. The next day I felt worse so I called my OBGYN and told her what the other doctor found out and told her that I felt worse. She ended up having me go into the hospital to get treatment for a kidney infection. I only had to stay one night, and felt tons better after getting medication through the IV and being pumped full of fluids! It was crazy how fast the kidney infection worsened and when you are pregnant it is so easy to miss the symptoms because it is normal to have some back pain and to have to pee all the time! I am just glad I stayed on top of my doctors and trusted myself that I knew something was wrong. Even though most people don’t study the human body as extensively as a doctor no one can know how you are feeling better than you and doctors only know what they are being told so the lesson I learned in all this is to speak up! (even though I felt like one of those annoying patients that called every other minute).. Had I not called back on Thursday to talk to my OB again I would probably still be at home, sick in bed, and waiting for my antibiotics to work.

On a lighter note I decided I should get some updated pictures of the nursery up so you could all see how adorable it is turning out! Any suggestions for the empty wall over the changing table would be appreciated too! Finding stuff to decorate a little boys room is so much harder than doing a girls and since we ended up kind of doing a golf theme it has made it even harder!

Blank spot in wall is to hide Baby Co's name and the fishtank houses the new baby mollies!

Well, it is almost baby time and I can’t wait! Cary is pretty darn excited too and after seeing what a mess he was trying pack stuff for the last hospital trip I know I need to get us just a little more organized I told him the baby wasn’t coming out when we went last time, but that we should bring our stuff just in case and he was in a whirl, packing things up and talking about how surreal everything was.. it was so cute listening to his excited voice talking about the chance he could have his little Tiger on his lap this weekend watching the Masters! I told him not to get himself too excited and sure enough we came home without a baby from our last hospital trip! Hopefully the next one will be the real deal and we will soon be welcoming our little guy home! Even though I still have a few things on my list to be done, our hearts are ready and our home is ready to have our sweet little man finally join it! Heck, maybe our fish giving birth is a positive omen and I’ll be next!!

Thinking baby thoughts!
-Lexi

Blog 9: Catching Up...

…time to take a breather and reflect on the last several weeks.

It has been way too long since I’ve blogged and even though a lot has happened I am having a hard time thinking of what to type.

January was a busy month in the Cochran house and it is hard to believe we are now in February! We started the month off with Lucy’s birthday! She is now 4 and I am starting to become one of those parents that talk about how their kid has grown up too fast! She has always been on the petite side, but this year at her check-up the growth chart considered her tall for her age! I also got to go in for a checkup at the beginning of the month and again towards the end and my little guy is doing great! We are getting pretty darn excited as his due date gets closer and closer!

We are officially in preparation mode for Baby Co and kicked it off with a fresh coat of paint! The nursery design was inspired by a lot of googling and a compilation of different rooms Cary and I liked and my own personal touch! We are still waiting on most of Co’s furniture to come in, but the walls being painted and the crib all put together makes imagining my little bundle of joy finally being here even easier! Once the layout and decorating is complete I will update the photos, but this is how it looks so far!

Along with painting and crib building we have been stocking up on baby gear and going through Lucy’s old stuff to see what needs replaced. Thanks to a little mouse friend that must have been living in our garage last winter the seatbelt on my running stroller and regular stroller look like someone cut them with a pair of scissors! That was not a nice surprise, but the trade in sale at Babies R Us certainly was! We took both of the junky/worn out strollers in and received two 25% coupons toward new stuff! We haven’t picked anything out yet so if anyone has suggestions on a nice running stroller I’d appreciate the input!

Like I mentioned before January was a very busy month and we stayed on the go with work, family events, birthdays, Lucy’s gymnastics, and doctor and dentist appointments! All of this came to a screeching halt towards the end of the month when I got struck with the Influenza bug and a respiratory infection. Somehow I slipped through the cracks this winter and missed out on my flu shot because of having bad colds every time I went to see my OB Doctor.. Of course a missed flu shot for me means I will get the flu and it hit me double hard with also being pregnant! I spent several days in bed with a high fever, terrible cough (so terrible that I ended up getting bruised ribs!), and a stuffed nose.. It was awful, but after a round of antibiotics and a lot of rest I got myself back up and running just in time to go on vacation!

Cary, Lucy, Carl & Cindy(Cary’s parents) and myself left last Saturday for a Baby Moon in Mexico! We stayed just south of Cancun at The Barcelo resort in Riviera Maya. It was so nice to escape together before Baby Co gets here and makes travelling a little more difficult for a couple years! We had an awesome time and the resort we stayed at was so kid friendly! Lucy was nonstop swimming in the pools and going down water slides! She even made a friend named Mikayla that she plans to keep in touch with through letters!

Each day they met up at the water slides, played til they were so tired they had to take nap breaks only to meet up again in the evenings for the kid disco!

During the middle of the week we ventured off the resort to a natural aquatic park called Xel Ha. It was very cool! We saw tons of different kinds of fish, a family of manatees, and Lucy and Cary even got to ride a dolphin!

They had a ton of stuff to do there otherwise like a lazy river to float down, zip lining, cliff jumping, rope walking and other nature activities like hiking etc. I definitely recommend checking it out if you are ever in that part of Mexico! Otherwise we ate a lot of delicious food and Lucy and I drank our weight in Virgin Strawberry Daiquiris and Pina Coladas (or as Lucy called them “kiddie cocktails”)! We had so much fun, but were ready to come home by the end of the trip.

Saturday we made our way home while Omaha and the surrounding area got hit with a big snow storm! Luckily it didn’t affect our travel plans much and my parents acted like Super Heroes that day and went and dug our vehicle out of the snow and picked us up so we wouldn’t have to deal with the snowy car lot and then we came home to an already cleared driveway and sidewalk and a fresh gallon of milk in the fridge (thanks again Dad and Mom!)! Yesterday was a day of laundry and getting things back in order to start the week!

Baby Co is definitely growing and my popping tummy is the proof! I can see that I’m getting more round and his kicks are getting so much stronger! Cary and him are already playing games together and enjoy pushing on me back and forth! Cary gives a little nudge and Co gives a big kick right back where Cary had pushed! It is so cute to see how Cary’s eyes light up when he can feel Baby Co respond! I know those two are going to be such good buddies and can tell Cary is already bonding really well with him!

The next blog will not be so long overdue that way I can keep it more about Co and less about random stuff! I am now almost 29 weeks pregnant and know the rest of my pregnancy will be over before I know it! I think this week I will try to start nesting! Is this something that can be forced? I really need to get going on it and will soon be ridding myself of excess stuff like shoes, clothes and purses so let me know if you are in need!! Cary and I already decided we are going to do a major de-clutter! I even have some furniture that needs to go (bookshelves, dressers, etc) so message me if you are interested or are looking for anything particular! I think it is time for me to wrap this up and get in some relaxation before bedtime, night!

-Lexi