ElfYourself!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

4 months... What a Big Boy!

We went for our 4 month checkup yesterday. Connor now weighs 17 pounds, 13 ounces and measures 26.5 inches tall. He is in the 95th percentile for weight, height, and head circumference! Doctor said everything looks really good! We're going to try to start working on introducing some solid foods now, so we're trying rice cereal to start with. He takes it in a bottle just great, but I tried feeding him with a spoon tonight, and he didn't want anything to do with that... made a yucky face and spit it out. You would've thought it tasted horrible. I told him that he can't go through his whole life eating everything out of a bottle... The best foods don't fit in a bottle (as I stood in front of him eating a piece of friendship cake)!

He loves to stick his feet straight up in the air and examine them. Today they were extra pretty with the red and green striped socks!

Hands are so neat, too! If you look closely, he's also spitting here in this picture (like a motorboat), which is a new discovery in the past week.

Look at those big blue eyes... What a handsome man!

He really laughs now... especially when you tickle him!

I can't believe I actually got such good smiling pictures!

He is definitely the (second) light of my life, and he just gets more and more fun every single day that passes. I never imagined being a parent could be so wonderful!

Ho, ho, ho.. Merry Christmas!

Play time is so fun

Connor loves to kick his legs and swing his arms at his toys... I can't believe he is getting so big so fast!

Trick or Treat

"I'm not a moo-cow or a doggie... I'm a horsie!"

Happy Halloween!

One year and counting...

Wow, what a year it's been! Happy Anniversary!

8 weeks

I actually captured a smile on camera today! ...They're coming more and more frequently.

My handsome little man
More sweetness

Back to Reality

Today was my first day back to work after having 8 weeks off. And today was Connor's first day at daycare. It was pretty rough having to leave him at daycare, but I somehow did not cry... came close, though. Probably the medication helped. And I only called once during the day to check on him. I just felt so bad leaving him... he not knowing who he was with and wondering where his Mommy and Daddy were. But I knew he'd be okay, and he probably didn't even know what was going on. I just missed him so much! Time passed by so slowly today at work... the day just drug on and on. I was SO happy to finally get to pick him up and take him home! I guess I'll have to get used to doing this day after day.

6-week checkup

We (well, Connor) went to the doctor today for our 6-week checkup and first round of immunizations. Everything looked good for his checkup. Of course he screamed when he got his shots, but when it was over he handled it all pretty well. He went straight to sleep and slept all afternoon, and besides being a little whiney this evening, he's been just fine.

He weighed in at 11 pounds, 10 ounces, and measured a whopping 24 1/2 inches long. He's gained about 3 1/2 pounds and grown 3 1/2 inches in the last 4 weeks. His weight is right at the 50th percentile, but his height landed in the 95th percentile! Go Connor! We're raising a future NBA player or maybe a linebacker for the NFL. We're counting on you, Connor, so you can support us in our old age and we can retire in style!

Random Thoughts

What I hated most about being pregnant:

• Swollen feet, ankles, and legs. I'm so glad to have pretty feet and ankles again! No more cankleet!
• Not being able to go to the tanning bed. As unhealthy as it is, indoor UV-ray exposure feels so good!
• Not being able to drink a beer/margarita/glass of wine if I want to. I still haven't been able to satisfy this desire yet, but the day is coming very soon!

Other than these things, I really actually enjoyed the whole pregnancy experience. Hopefully the next time is just as enjoyable!

Super Sweet

I think he enjoys bathtime, even though he can't really show it yet.

You can't get any sweeter than that!

First Sunday at Church

(Don't ask me what was going on with my hair!)

One Month

Happy One-Month birthday to Connor!

I can't believe how the time has flown by! And now I only have about 2 1/2 weeks left until I have to go back to work. :( So how is Connor? He's growing like a weed! When we left the hospital (day 3), he weighed 7 lbs., 0 oz. (he weighed 7 lbs., 12 ozs. at birth). At his 2-week doctor visit, he weighed 8 lbs., 1 oz. I'm interested to know what he weighs now... if I had to guess, I'd say probably somewhere around 9 pounds. We'll go to the doctor again at 6 weeks (and get his first immunizations then, too). We're at the point where the newborn-size diapers are almost too small, but the size 1 diapers are still a little big. But when we use up this box of diapers we're on now, we're going to the 1's anyway. He's trying very hard to lift his head up, and he's doing really well at it. He'll be holding it up all on his own very soon. And I'm sure it won't be much longer before we get a real smile from him... He smiles unintentionally sometimes, but I know we're very close to getting a genuine smile (I thought I had one the other day, but I haven't gotten him to repeat it since then so it must have been coincidental). He sleeps really well, and eats on an average of about every 3 hours. If he doesn't go to sleep after eating, he's hungry again after about 2-3 hours, but if he's napping well, he may go 4-5 hours between meals. Granted our schedule is a little whacky at the moment, we really only get up once during our sleep (Jody's and mine) to feed him. For the most part he's a pleasant baby, and even though we have some fussy spells here and there, fussiness really isn't a problem. His little umbilical cord stump finally fell off this past weekend (they said it would take about 2 weeks... HA!). And we took our first trip with him this past weekend to visit my parents (Mimi and Granddaddy) in New Albany. It just so happened to be Grandparents' Day (who knew?), and we took him to church for the first time. So that's where we are at our one-month birthday. Check out the pictures below!

This is me, Connor, and Jody one month ago yesterday. This picture was taken right before we left to go to the hospital on Sunday, August 10.

These last two pictures were taken about a week ago (he looks basically the same today), so you can see what he looks like at one month old!

Our New Arrival

Ok, well it's taken me long enough to post about it...

Connor Joseph was born August 11, 2008 at 6:09 pm by C-section. He was 7 pounds, 12 ounces, and was 21 inches long.





We're so glad he's finally here!

8/8/08... Nope

So much for having a cool birthday date for my baby. Oh well, it doesn't matter that much.... 8/11/08 will be just as special.

Expiration Date

So today's my due date... my pregnancy's expiration date. I'm expired, and still no baby is here yet. Does this mean he'll come out smelling like sour milk?

Lazy Child

Forty weeks of pregnancy, and Connor appears to still be very content hanging out in my uterus! It already seems he may have inherited my "always running late for everything" gene. So needless to say, he's showing NO signs that he's anywhere near ready to move on out of there. We had a doctor visit today, and they hooked me up to the fetal monitor for a little while to make sure he's alright in there. He was being a little lazy (must have been napping), so after a few minutes the doctor came in and had to give him a buzz and wake him up. Just imagine a vibrator being buzzed against your abdomen... it tickles! But that got him moving and the doctor saw what he wanted to see, so the good news is he's doing just fine. So to sum it up: I'm not dilated or effaced at all (got a nice thick cervix going on); he hasn't dropped down into my pelvis (still floating around freely in there); and the fetal monitor showed that I'm not having any contractions yet. Unless something miraculously happens on its own before then, we're scheduled to go in to the hospital Sunday at 7pm for an induction. Jody is really encouraging Connor to come out on his own on Friday, 8/8/08. How awesome would that be if he was born on 8/8/08 and weighed 8 lbs, 8 ozs... I guess it's not too much to hope for the date, but the weight might be pushing our luck!

"No change"

...The two words I didn't want to hear today. I've made it past the baby showers, buying a new house, and moving. So today, I was ready for some kind of change... but nope! A week away from D-day, and still NO change!! I guess that means we'll just keep on waiting....

Still alive and still pregnant

Well, we made it. I'm still alive, and believe it or not still pregnant. We closed on both houses Tuesday afternoon and moved yesterday. And there have been kinks and bumps in the road, but we're here in the house and for the most part, all is good. Still waiting on the refrigerator though. Today is the third day in a row that I've been told by the builder, "it'll be there tomorrow." And tomorrow is the last tomorrow... if it's not here tomorrow he'd better go and physically pick one up himself and bring it and install it, or we'll go and get one ourselves and send him the bill. At least we do still have our old refrigerator, but it's in the garage so it's a pain in the butt to go out to the garage for everything. Plus, the icemaker can't make ice out there because there's not a water connection. So we have no ice. And I accidentally left my diet cokes in the cabinet at the old house... a nice housewarming gift to the young med student guy who bought the house. But some good news.. my new washer and dryer were delivered today! And as soon as we can get the dryer hose hooked up to the vent, I'll be able to use it! I'll fill y'all in on more later, but it's getting late and I'm ready to go to bed asap.

Quick Update

I don't have time to talk much, but I just wanted to give a quick update... Plan C it is! We've come to an agreement on a contract, and we're even getting a refrigerator and a fence out of the deal! So at least I don't have to worry about buying a fridge, but I do have to get a new washer and dryer... yay! I've been waiting for the day to have a reason to buy a new washer and dryer... I was thrilled when our buyers asked to leave the washer and dryer in the house. So anyway, the new house is 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, split plan, and 2003 square feet. Here's a little preview:

This is it! I'm not wild about the colors of the paint (it is painted brick), but it's livable and can easily be changed when it needs new paint eventually. This picture was taken when we made an offer on the house 3 months ago, and the yard has since been sodded and landscaped.

This is the AWESOME laundry room

Master bathtub

Living room fireplace (it's 2-sided so it's also open to the dining room)

View from living room into kitchen

View from dining room into kitchen

Dining room fireplace

Kitchen (picture was taken standing in breakfast area)

Homeless? Maybe, maybe not...

Wow, it has been a HELLUVA week... and it's only Tuesday! We spent all day Saturday house-hunting, and we came up with four choices: Plans A, B, C, and D.

We made an offer on Plan A, a new construction bank repo with awesome square footage in our favorite neighborhood. Since it was bank-owned property, we knew we wouldn't hear a response to our offer until Monday, so we waited (more waiting.. ugh!). All day yesterday, it was back and forth with verbal counter offers, but when it came down to it, they just weren't willing to work with us enough. So, Trustmark bank can go to hell and just keep on sitting on their property for another year. If they think that a repo (being bought as is, with no builder's warranty) can compete with other regular new construction, they deserve to keep it.

So on to Plan B, a new construction house right around the corner from Plan A that is a bit smaller but built nicer, has been on the market for 400 days, and whose builder has since passed away. We thought surely we'd be able to get a deal on this! So last night, we wrote an offer on it. Well as it turns out, the property is in foreclosure proceedings and shouldn't even be listed on the market because the bank can't provide a clean title on the house, and the listing agent didn't even know about it! (But she apologized profusely, and she's now removing the house from MLS listings and taking her sign down.)

Next option... Plan C, a new construction house we've had our eyes on for the last 6 months, and actually tried to work out a "trade" arrangement with the builder 3 months ago. We love the floor plan and it's a great size house, but we've (more like I've) questioned the neighborhood. It's a new subdivision that has only a handful of houses built in it so far, and only one house is occupied (a custom-built). The houses aren't the typical "French Acadian" style homes that are being built everywhere you look - they're more vintage, craftsman style homes, and that's part of what we love, that they're different from the other new construction that's out there. Hopefully other people will love it, too, and the neighborhood will start to catch on more. So we wrote the offer on it this evening, and hopefully we'll actually hear some good news tomorrow! I know this builder is desperate to get rid of his property because he's got 3 houses in there that have been sitting there for a very long time, and his agent has even been in contact with our agent a few times since we tried to make a trade with him, so I know he's been thinking about what we offered 3 months ago. Hopefully he'll jump on our offer this time, especially since he won't be taking on the debt of our house in a trade!

Keep your fingers crossed for us because now I'm not sure there really is a Plan D. If this house doesn't work out, I just don't think it's in the stars for us to move right now. But if it all works out (and I really think it will this time.. I actually have a good feeling about this one) we're planning to close on the houses and move in 2 weeks. And Connor is due 4 weeks from today! Talk about cutting it close!

Sale Pending

FINALLY! We got an offer on our house on Saturday afternoon, countered the offer the same afternoon, and then waited.. waited... very impatiently waited. Then last night at about 9:30 we hear they've countered again, and... OFFER ACCEPTED! Yay! Now we've got to get a move on finding a house, or we will soon be homeless! But the big question is... will we close on the houses and get moved before the baby comes?? Connor, you'd better listen to Mommy right now... we need you to stay in there at least till your due date! Coming early will make things much more complicated, so please get comfortable in there and stay put for 5 more weeks. I'll give you whatever you want when you come out if you'll just do me this one huge favor!

Connor's Room

I decided it's finally time to share a few pictures of Connor's room since we've got it all put together now. There's still plenty to do to organize it, though. I've just kinda put the various little baby things we've gotten in drawers and in the armoire to get them out of the way, and it all needs organizing. And the clothes need washing. And there's still plenty more we need to get. I have a window valance that matches the bedding, but I haven't hung it up yet. I haven't decided if I'm going to even bother with it in this house anyway.... Probably will just leave the curtains up until we move. I also have a diaper stacker that matches the bedding, but I can't figure out where and how to hang it... It's got 2 ties at the top of it, and I don't have a place to which to tie it. Then I've also got some letters that spell out his name that I'm going to paint and hang on the wall... I'm thinking it might be a project for tomorrow to finally get them painted. We'll see if I get to that. Oh yeah, my plan is to paint the walls blue... In the new house. We painted the room a nice, neutral "Belle Grove Buff" for now since we're still trying to sell. My agent would've had a stroke if I'd have painted the blue that I wanted! So anyway, this is where we are as far as getting his room ready. When I get the letters painted and hung on the wall, I'll post an updated picture.

Just Plain Gross

I read this article just now. How do you feel about this? My MIL would never see her grandbaby again!

A little better...

Connor was slightly more cooperative this time around... He started out with his arm in front of his face again, but we finally persuaded him to move it. Then the umbilical cord was preventing a clear view of his face. Then he decided to stretch out his leg and put his foot in his face! But I guess all in all, we got some better pictures than last time. I forgot to mention the other day that he measured to weigh an estimated 3 lbs. 12 ozs.... Almost 4 pounds! Wow!