happy anniversary!

Yep, that is right. We celebrated our 2 year anniversary today! By celebrate I mean we both went to work and Rick had church band practice tonight...

But he did leave some beautiful flowers in the kitchen that smell wonderful.

And we rainchecked to go out to the Hardshell and celebrate with some seafood and wine in a month or so, when we are both ready to leave Cooper for a couple hours.

Right now all our energy is focused on Cooper and wouldn't it be terrible if my water broke during oysters and clams?! I mean that would be heartbreaking.

Here are some of my favorite shots from our special day just 2 years ago. 

cooper's nursery.

Don't remember if I mentioned this before but Cooper's furniture had turned into quite the debacle. When it came the first time, it was all damaged like maybe the guy who moved it on the forklift out of the warehouse dropped it? It all had to be sent back but when we tried to reorder it one of the pieces was discontinued, so we had to find a different website to order it from most of which said they couldn't garentee arrival until October! We eventually did find one place that could ship it in a few days but with Cooper's due date approaching quickly, I knew I wouldn't relax until it was done.
Enter my wonderful husband...

As I mentioned we had a doctor's appointment last Tuesday. When I called Rick to tell him I was leaving work and would be to our house shortly to scoop him up for our appointment he asked me to come inside. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time and didn't think much of it.


So after our loooong appointment I got to see what he had been working on. He had gotten the last of Cooper's furniture that morning from fedex and not only assembled it but also put everything away that has been stacked crammed in Cooper's crib.

He did such an awesome job. Most everything was exactly put where I would've put it.

So now, we are still waiting but at least ready. We just need our sweet little baby to complete our perfect nursery! (Oh, and some wall art- which is going to wait until we get out maternity pictures and newborn pictures from our wonderful friend Jessica).

Can't wait for Cooper to come!!

impatience.

The countdown says 11 days.

I really hope we don't have to wait that long. Funny how 11 days seems soooo long when we are going on week 39.

Realistically, we could have to wait 17 more days.

If Cooper decides to skip his due date, my doctor said they wouldn't let him stay more than a week after his due date, so he will definitely be here by August 30th.

Have a mentioned how impatient I am?

false alarm...

So I started having contractions about 1pm... well I think they started earlier but I was at work so it is very hard to keep track.

I left work at 12:45pm for my 1:30pm ultrasound to determine Cooper's size. On the way there my contractions really started to intensify, happening about every 4.5 minutes and lasting about 45 seconds. We did the ultrasound to determine Cooper weighs 7-7.5 pounds.

I had a follow-up and week 38 appointment with my nurse practitioner at 2:00pm and by then my contractions were about the same but seemed a lot more painful. They checked my cervix and there was no change, but due to my contractions they hooked up a monitor to see what was really going on.

After about an hour and a half, they gave me the choice to be admitted to the hospital where they would continue to monitor the contractions (and not let me eat anything!) or go home and wait it out.

We chose to go home and wait it out. We finished getting Cooper's nursery ready and every other hour, Rick would time my contractions.

By about 9pm, my contractions were about 2 minutes apart, lasting over a minute and it was very difficult to do anything during a contraction because of the pain. We monitored them for over an hour and decided this really might be it. I took a shower and ate a little something while Rick packed some last minute things and we called the doctor.

The doctor of course said to come in. So, Rick and I left our house thinking we would be returning with our brand new baby son.

We got settled in the hospital, started to get really nervous and very excited but after about 2 hours of monitoring, my contractions had gone from 2 minutes apart to 7, still no change in my cervix.

The doctor ordered an ambien to knock me out so I could get some sleep and they continued to monitor my contractions throughout the night. They said if I was truly in labor not even the ambien would keep me asleep but I slept through the night (first good nights sleep, I have had maybe the whole pregnancy.)

I woke up groggy and what I remember it to feel like, drunk. This groggy feeling turned into saddness when I realized this was a false alarm.

We got home from the hospital at about 10am and I went to be until 2pm. I am still having contractions but they aren't nearly as intense or regular as last night. So we are back to the waiting game.

I guess this just leaves us a little bit more time to get our home in order. Meanwhile, I will be drinking raspberry leaf tea (said to cause labor) because I am definitely ready to meet my little man.

making a house our home.

Slowly but surely our house is coming along. We have painted all 3 bedrooms, the bathroom, hallway and living room. Next up is to paint the den, including the ugly country brick. I know, I know painting brick is a very controversal topic, one in which I cannot be swayed. There is a time and place for everything. This is just not the time or place for maroon brick. Especially since we plan on using the den as our family room which means I will be looking at it EVERYDAY.

This week Rick is going to drywall the doorway from the kitchen to the nursery. Once that is completed we will be ready to paint the kitchen oyster bisque aka a light yellow!

We are waiting on the rest of our furniture in all 3 bedrooms to get those rooms a little bit organized and still seeking the perfect couch for our living room.

Considering we have only been here a week, we have done A LOT. No thanks to me, though. My swelling has been so bad, I have been trying to stay off my feet as much as possible AND I have a sinus infection that showed up a couple of days ago. So let me rephrase that, Rick and his mom have gotten a LOT done in the week we have been here, both in our house and in our apartment (our keys were due yesterday).

Our long-term to-do list... oh boy is this list long!

• Reface our cabinets. We plan to keep them white to go with our cottage style, but they need new doors and some painting on the interior as well.
• Install stainless steel appliances, including a refrigerator. I really want a fridge that has 2 doors with the freezer as a drawer on the bottom.
• Remove the ugly vintage light in the den. (Check out the pictures). Must be done by an electrician or else it would already be done.
• Landscaping, landscaping and more landscaping. There are some dead bushes that have seen their last day and just need to go. Not to mention our backyard is not completely level. Plus those ugly holly bushes I have been complaining about since our first showing. We do however have a beautiful crepe myrtle in the front yard that blocks the bathroom window, which I LOVE!
• Purchase patio furniture. I would love to have a dining table on the patio so we can eat outside on these nice cool evenings. Especially since Rick plans on grilling every meal possible.
• Rip up that bathroom. Oh boy does it need some love. The tiles are the orginial tiles when the house was built in 1955. They are pink and white and soooo outdated. Everytime I walk in the bathroom I cringe. But hey, just ammunition to keep me excited about DIYing! (Even the ugly bathroom can't shake my optimisim!)
• Add a deck, fire pit, horseshoe pit, etc. -- This is obviously my ambitious husband. But hey, he entertains my ideas like getting rid of doorways, so I will happily entertain his ideas, most of which he can do himself since he is so handy, so doing them cheaply makes it even more feesible.

I am sure this list will lengthen as time goes on. This home definitely needs lots of updating. New coats of paint have done wonders so I am VERY optimistic it can be done and quite honestly we really wanted a house that needed our love!

Slowly but surely we will make this house our home.

Can't wait to make some more headway so I can share some updated pictures. But until then, due to our stolen borrowed internet, you will have to check facebook for pictures of our house since it takes forever to load them on this internet.

In the meantime, I will leave you with my latest belly shot- WOWSERS!! I know, I am about to pop! 37 weeks down, 3 weeks or less to go!!