Baby Girl

Roger and I tried to make our baby hospital stays as enjoyable as possible. We made sure to bring favorite TV shows and movies to watch. We watched seasons of Seinfeld non stop for two days, which was so fun. We ordered special food. We enjoyed special snuggling time with our newest little blessing. In an odd way, our two days in the hospital were like a mini vacation. Time to rest, connect with each other and with our new baby. I was so excited to get home to the boys but I did enjoy a little time away. :)

Sweet Roger found it amusing to rate my pain up on the white board.

She's a girl!

One ounce smaller than big brother Rowan at birth. Cora was 20 inches long which is an entire inch taller than both of her brothers.

Cora has extremely long arms and toes.

She has the same hair do as both of the boys did at birth. Bald on top and lots of dark hair in the back.

So far, Cora has been an absolute angel. She reminds me of Cruz as a baby. She rarely cries. She wakes up at night, eats, and goes right back to sleep. I can only hope and pray that she stays that way as she gets a bit bigger. 

Tomorrow I'll try to post some pictures of Rowan and Cruz meeting her for the first time.

Happy Saturday!

She's Here!

Our sweet baby girl is here! 

Cora Grace Baum

September 25, 2012 at 5:49 pm

7 lbs 1 oz and 20 inches long

She is a bundle of sweetness. So far she is an angel baby. Her brothers and daddy are absolutely smitten with her and it melts my heart. I can't get enough of her sweet little face either. 

Here's the story of her birth:

We arrived at the hospital on September 25th around 2:00 pm. Four painful pokes and three blown veins later, a nurse was finally able to get my IV in. I had tested positive for Group B Strep so I needed to have IV penicillin. They like for you to have it at least four hours before the baby is born to prevent the risk of baby becoming infected. Up until this point I wasn't having any contractions but was 3-4 cm dilated.

At 3:30 the nurse started a low dose of pitocin. At 4:30 she broke my water. I was still at 4cm. At 5:00 I asked for the epidural. The pain wasn't that bad yet but was definitely getting worse. Thankfully he was in my room by 5:10. The epidural was completed by 5:20. The anesthesiologist asked if it was helping the pain and it was, however, I was still feeling a lot of painful pressure. The nurse checked me again and I was 10 cm.  She was shocked. The anesthesiologist hurried out and my doctor was called. The next half hour was super intense and painful. I had to wait to push until my doctor arrived but thankfully she was there by 5:40 and after three contractions worth of pushing, Miss Cora arrived at 5:49. I couldn't believe how fast everything went... a total of 2 hours and 20 minutes. Cora is absolutely perfect and healthy. We feel so incredibly blessed.

I have so many pictures to share and I will get them up soon. Thank you all for your prayers for us and our new baby girl.

My Boys

in their v-neck shirts. Could they be any cuter?

A Day in the Life...

We had a slightly less busy day today. Tomorrow and Thursday are packed full of school functions, church functions, doctor's appointments, lessons, etc. I thought that since today was a bit more low key, I'd take some time to document our activities each hour on the hour.

7:00 am: breakfast: waffles, strawberries, yogurt

8:00 am: Cruz is dropped off at school and Rowan is buckling himself into his car seat. Rowan can do both of his buckles by himself and Cruz is responsible for doing his top buckle. I always double check their seats but it is definitely nice to have their help.

9:00 am: cleaning the bathrooms

10:00 am: outlet mall shopping with a bonus new pair of sunglasses.

11:00 am: Cruz comes home from school. For some reason, having his stuffed monkey waiting for him in the car helps prevent the "post school exhaustion meltdown."

12:00 pm: Boys are in their rooms, I'm eating ice cream and watching Friends

1:00 pm: Rowan's laundry isn't gonna fold itself, unfortunately

2:00 pm: Rowan's done with quiet time and having a little calculator time on his ipod touch.

3:00 pm: Bouncing like a crazy boy.

4:00 pm: Making lunches for tomorrow. (On Wed, I have Bible Study that gets out a bit later than pre-school so Rowan gets to stay for lunch and an extra recess at school. I pack Cruz a lunch to eat in the car after Bible Study. When we get home, everyone is ready for quiet time!)

5:00 pm: spaghetti. loved by all

6:00 pm: bathtime... no photo. oops. :) I actually left for my book club so Rog is on duty. :) Hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into our day. I wouldn't trade my job for the world. These photos don't show the fighting, time outs, spills and other various facets to our day, however, they remind me how blessed I am to stay home and raise my kids. I'm thankful for a relaxing day today.

A Little Backyard Fun

We've had a "cold front" the past few days complete with rain. It has been amazing for this pregnant girl! Today was about 80 so the boys and I spent the afternoon in the backyard.

I love how much the boys enjoy playing together now that they are bigger. They entertained themselves for quite some time playing catch, squirt guns and making up games.

Clothes are highly over rated around here... at least for the boys. Playing in the yard in our undies is perfectly acceptable.

Eventually, of course, the pool called their names...

... and splashing, kicking and diving ensued.

I think our upper 90 degree temps are coming back tomorrow. At least we made the most of our few days of "fall."

Rainy Friday

Cruz and I enjoyed a rainy morning on the couch today. We snuggled and watched Mickey Mouse. We snuck in a trip to Target too. Cruz was thrilled to use the umbrella. Its the little things. Can't believe this little boy is going to be a big brother in a few weeks. Happy Full Term to Miss Cora too.... or as Rowan says, "Cora's done baking now... she can come out!" Have a super weekend.

Coloring with Rowan

This morning at Wal Mart I spotted a display of $1 giant coloring books. I told Rowan that he could pick one out. I'm not sure who was more excited though. I love to color! :)

Of course Batman was the book of choice.

During back to school shopping when boxes of crayons were a quarter, I picked up a couple of extra. There's nothing quite like a new coloring book and new sharp crayons... to me at least. I'm not sure Rowan really cared. :)

Rowan actually likes to do the mazes, word searches and other puzzle activities in coloring books. We did all of those first before he would actually let us color a page.

I'm cherishing my time alone with my Rowan (and sweet Cooper) on Cruz's preschool mornings.

Roger and I were talking about the fact that we have been a family of four for longer than we've been anything else. We were married for 2 years before Rowan was born and we were a family of three for 20 months before Cruz was born. We've been a family of four for 2 years and 5 months and we've kind of gotten used to it. We are so excited to be adding our fifth little member but we know its going to be quite a change for everyone. Roger and I both grew up in families of four too so its kind of all we know. Only 3ish weeks to go!!!