Day 77 - 36 weeks, 4 days - Ice...Snow...11 weeks of bed rest today!!!

What an eventful week it has been!  Did any of us HONESLTY think we would actually get 2-3 inches of ice and then 6 inches of snow...in ONE week...and then have FISD call 4 snow days?!!??!!  Only in Texas!!!  =)

Besides the fun weather..hehe...I also made it to 11 weeks of bed rest today.  Yep, that is 77 day of doing nothing but sitting for most of the day, in my house, doing not very much...fuuuuunnn times.  So all of you out there complaining about having to be cooped up in your house for 4 days...soooo not feeling your pain friends =)  Add 73 more days onto it and then we can talk ;-)

Yep...I have made it to 36 weeks, 4 days...11 full weeks of bed rest!  I will be completely honest with you and admit that I never thought I would make it this far.  My doctor even admitted yesterday that SHE did not think I would make it this far!  Once I made it past Thanksgiving, and then Christmas and then into my 32nd week, Joey and I were pretty much set on knowing that Cortlandt would be a January baby.  We were hoping for a late January baby, but a January baby none the less.  Well it is now February 4th and she is still cooking and I am sooooo happy!!!

On Tuesday, Snow Day #1, I was supposed to have my 3 week doctor’s appointment.  Well with 3 inches of pure ice on the ground, it was postponed to Thursday.  So Joey, Liam and I spent the day playing, eating sleet (Liam that is), watching Cars, and putting the furniture back into Cortlandt's room.

On Wednesday, Snow Day #2, Joey had to go back to work and Liam's school was still closed so my bed rest was not quite bed rest.  Liam and Mommy played everything I could think of that would allow me to sit, but still...he is 3 1/2!  Did any of us sit still all day at 3 1/2???

On Thursday, Snow Day #3, my father-in-law came and picked up Liam and me up for my 10:30am doctor’s appointment.  From my house in McKinney to Plano Presby, it normally takes me about 30 min to drive there.  But with 2-3 inches of ice still on the ground it took us a little over 50 min to get there.  I was a little anxious for this appointment seeing as how I was my feet a lot more than normal the day before.  Well as Dr. Watkins put it, I obviously have a "cervix of steal"...HAHA!!!  Soooo true seeing how long it has held up =)  As of yesterday,  I am still only 3 cm dilated but am now 80% effaced.  I made my next appointment for next Wed but Dr. Watkins said she will be shocked if I make it till then.  She is thinking that Miss. C will make her appearance between now and then =)  She also mentioned that she had another patient who was hospitalized about the same time I was for a short cervix too.  She was a few weeks father along then me at the time but she just had to be educed last week at 40 weeks 3 days...talk about a cervix of steel!!!  Sooo really, who knows when this little kiddo will decide to make her appearance.  Dr. Watkins gestimates that Cortlandt is about 5-5 1/4 lbs right now.  So if she come today there will be no NICU =)  LOVE that idea!!!

Well, keep checking for posts and Facebook status updates as we wait on pins and needles for this little lady to come =)

Okay, well I am off to watch Cars for the 6th time in 4 days, eat some french toast and try to convince Liam that he needs to warm up a little more before we brave the elements for a second time today=)

Love and hugs to you all!!!

THANK YOU for all the prayers and good thoughts!  I KNOW there is no way Cortlandt and I would have made it this far without them!!

~Charlotte

Prayers please!!!

Today's post is not for me, but for a friend of mine from my childhood who's little boy could really use your prayers right now.  Her little boy is fighting...has been fighting from the moment he was born.  Keegan survived heart surgery at 1 day of life just to have to have a heart transplant at 7 days old (the youngest and smallest ever done in Texas and probably the whole U.S.).  He has spent more of his 3 years of life in a hospital bed then in his own bed.  Doctor’s can't truly pinpoint what is going on with him and his parents are two of the strongest people I know.  The one constant is that his heart, no matter what other issues his little body has, has been the strongest organ in his body.  This heart that was given to him from another loving family who just lost their son has been the one constant in his 3 years of life.  He needs your prayers because he is sick again with the flu as well as something else that they can't diagnose yet.  He was rushed by ambulance to Children's Medical Center in Dallas this afternoon with his Dad.  Maddie, his Mom, is unable to be with him since she has the flu as well.  I could go on and on about his story, but his Mom does a better job than I could ever do.  PLEASE go to her blog and read about this precious little man.

Miracal of the Heart - Keegan Harrison


Maddie, if by chance you happen to read this, know that you, Gray, Keegan, Audrey and the rest of your family are being lifted up in prayer tonight.  You all are in my prayers each and every night, but I will be saying more for you tonight.  YOU are one of the strongest people I think I have ever known and Keegan is so incredibly lucky to have you as his Mommy!

Thank you friends for all your prayers for Keegan!!!

~Charlotte

Day 70 - 35 weeks, 3 days - Hoping for at least 11 more days...

11 more days...That's all we need for me to hit the wonderful 37 week mark, aka, full term =)  Full term!!!  Can you believe we are even thinking that?  Think back 10 weeks (it will be 10 weeks tomorrow), who would have thought that I would have made it to 35 weeks, let alone talk about making it to 37.  When I was first hospitalized at 25 weeks, 4 days, my doctor was focusing on 32 weeks.  Just make it to 32 weeks.  Well we did that =)  Than it was 35...did that too =)  Now it is 37...love the sound of that.  With all that said, getting there might be a little challenging...

My doctor’s appointment on Tuesday went very, very well and I almost saw a little bit of freedom, I could honestly TASTE it!!!  Sono of cervix looked good, my cervix actually plumped up a bit.  Went from 2.0 cent to 2.3 cent.  Cortlandt looked wonderful as well and was very active and did not want to stay still.  It was at this point that my doctor started saying that she does not see anything wrong with modifying my bed rest a bit.  Letting me do more around the house and probably get out of the house for a quick trip to the store, etc...then she checked to make sure I was still sitting at 1 centimeters dilated.  Well our conversation abruptly ended there when she announced that, "guess what, you’re 3 centimeters dilated...back to bed for you!" =(

So the full on bed rest continues for another week.  I now see her every week, so she said we will re-evaluate where I am next Tues and decided what to do from there.

Seeing as how my body considers bed rest as a "normal" pregnancy, I will make sure my bags will be completely packed and ready to go by next Tuesdays doctor’s appointment.  With Liam, I sat at 3 centimeters for about a week, went in for my next weekly appointment and came home 3 days later with Liam. SOOOO to be on the safe side and to keep my stress level down, you can bet I will have everything ready by next Tuesday even though I hope I won't need it then.

Other than that, it has been a pretty uneventful few days.  Progress is being made in Cortlandt's room =)  The chair rail is painted white and the top part of the walls are pink.  Joey has to work the next two nights and is taking Liam to the farm for the weekend, so he will paint the light tan on the bottom parts next week.  Once that is done we can put all the furniture back and I can finally put Cortlandt's folded clothes away, which will soooo make me happy!

Well this prego is hungry, so off to the kitchen I go to find something for dinner.

Thank again for all the good thoughts and prayers you have blessed Cortlandt and me with other the past 10 weeks.  BELIEVE ME, they have and are still working.

I promise to keep you all posted if anything changes, but for now, aiming for 37 weeks!!!

HUGS!!!

~Charlotte

Day 63 - 34 weeks, 3 days - 2 months + and my ideas for Cortlandt's room...

So last Friday was the 2 month mark.  2 months...8 full weeks of bed rest.  I have gone from 25 weeks, 4 days to 33 weeks, 4 days (as of last Friday that is).  Those weeks have flown by in some ways and just dragged in others.  Being at home has been a true blessing and I am able to help with Liam (get him dressed, watch him take a bath, play with him, all things that can be done sitting) as well as help around the house a bit, as in perfecting my laundry folding skills.  I have also watched a sickening amount of TV and movies, ohhh and Friend episodes and lived on the computer.  Like I said before, some days fly and others drag...The ones that drag leave me way too much time to think, and usually my thinking goes to all the things I can’t help with and do, especially Cortlandt’s room.  Many of you know that it is absolutely KILLING me that I can’t do anything in her room and that the thought of her being born and coming home to a room with just furniture is not sitting well.  Soooo, I thought I would use this post to share all my ideas and wants for her room as well as make me feel like I am accomplishing something in there, even if it is just sharing my ideas with all of you.  So here we go...

My desire is to create a shabby chic room, full of soft pinks, soft tans, whites and ivories.  The furniture we have had since Liam.  It is a beautiful espresso color...

Crib/toddler bed/full bed.  LOVE those convertible cribs =)

Night stand

Dresser - it has a 1930's-1940's feel to it with the middle of it being rounded out a bit.

The dresser mirror

The knobs that I would like to put on the furniture.  These are from Home Depot and I think it will make the dresser and night stand a little more girlie =)

We also have two corner shelving units that Joey has painted white that we will be using in her room.

Now, onto the fun stuff =) ...

Bedding -

I had a vision in my head of what I wanted my little girl's room to look like.  While I was looking for bedding, I stumbled across Restoration Hardware Baby & Kids and found this picture.  I had no reason to look any longer!

The bedding =)

Close-up of the pillows.  The edges of the ruffle pillow are not hemmed, so it really has that shabby chic look and feel to it.

I would LOVE to get this pillow and have Cortlandt monogrammed on it.  I think it will be a nice addition to the two other pink pillows when they are all in the crib (obviously when Cortlandt is NOT using the crib).

Walls -

Joey installing the chair rail =)

Pale pink for above the chair rail.  I wanted to match the bedding, but be a little lighter.  I also did not want the room to look like it threw up pink.  This was a perfect combination.

Pale tan for below the chair rail.  I'm hoping that once we get two coats on the wall it will be a little darker.  The swatch from Home Depot was darker then this...if not, I might be re-paining the bottom part of her room once she gets here.

This is a wall sticker from PBK, Pottery Barn Kids.  I LOVE it and might try to paint something like it on the wall around the top of the dresser mirror.

Decorations -

My main decorating idea, and the jumping off point for the whole Shabby Chic look, I thought of over the summer.  My sister had a Barbie calendar in her room which had vintage prints of Barbies in beautiful outfits.  I told her that if this kiddo ended up being a girl, I wanted to frame a few of those pictures and hang them in her room.  Well, I found the calendar on Amazon and that's exactly what I'm doing =)

Scan of the back of the calendar with all of the prints.  I can't decide if I want to do all long dresses or two long and two short.  Counting across from L-R, if I do all long I will use numbers 1, 3, 8, & 11.  If I do a combo I will use 1, 4, 5, & 8.

A close up of what they look like =)

The frame -  The pictures are 12inx12in, a hard size of frame to find.  This is the frame I will use.  The prints are too big for me to use the mat and the frame is too big for the pictures, sooo, I will have to have some custom mats made once I can leave the house.

I have had an image or picture in my head of what I wanted the Barbie prints to look like and where I wanted them.  I was doing a search for frames and came upon this picture.  LOVE it when the picture in my head looks so good in person =)  I'm only using 4 prints because I only have 4 frames.  I'm not sure if I want to will stack them in two rows or put them all in one line.  I will have to see once the room comes together more and once they are actually framed.

I LOVE this lamp!!!  This will be how I spend some of the Target gift cards =)

I originally saw this lamp in a Land of Nod catalog over a year ago.  Well it will soon find a home in Cortlandt's room =)  It's absolutely perfect...already distressed and it has little sparrows on it...LOVE IT!!!

Cortlandt received this as a shower gift from a close family friend.  It's a bird bank from PBK.

I have two of these from when Liam was a baby and we are still using them in his room.  Joey's Mom bought two more for Cortlandt's room.  One will hold diapers and the other will hold rolled up blankets.  They are from PBK.

The "My First Anywhere Chair" from PBK.  Liam used his until he could not fit in it anymore and now Cortlandt has one too.  Once I have driving privileges, I will take it to get monogrammed =)



Another PBK purchase.  I have this from Liam, with a sage lining.  I will get the pink gingham lining for Cortlandt.  This was a cute and handy way to keep everything diaper related in one spot.



Liam this large basket in blue with his name on it.  I plan of getting one for Cortlandt as well with her name on it.  Liam's was first used as a hamper and is now his toy basket.  Another soon-to-be PBK purchase.

This has to be the cutest piggy bank I have ever seen.  Cortlandt received this at her shower.  It is from Nordstrom's and it turns out that they will put pretty much anything you want on them in any color.  Soooo going to be a go-to baby shower gift from now on.  Liam wants one and he has informed me that it has to have his name in blue with blue airplanes on it.  Once I can drive I will get him one of his own.

I plan on ordering one of these in pink for Cortlandt.  Those are Liam's 5 month old foot prints =)  The company who made this is called Twelve Timbers.  Some of their banners and other decorations are sold at Lone Star Baby, but this one I ordered from them.  If you order from them, you are able to pick the color background and text you want.

Another Twelve Timbers order.  Lone Star Baby does sell this one in pastel colors.  I ordered Liam's in the dark blue to match the other banner.  I will get Cortlandt's in pink...and it will obviously say "girls" instead of "boys" ;-)

Yet another Twelve Timbers buy from Lone Star Baby.  Cortlandt will have a pink and white one with her initials "CGC".  Oh and for those of you who don't know, Liam's full name is William Joseph Coates III, hens the "WJC".

I LOVE these shelves from BPK!!!  I would love to find some like these and put have Joey put them on one of her walls.  In my opinion you can never have too many shelves.

Curtains -

Curtains are one thing I cannot decide on.  I don't know if I should go with plane white curtains or curtains with a pattern or strip in them.  Here are two that I love, one is a stripe with pink/white/sage and the other is solid white made from the same fabric as the bed skirt and ruffle pillow...

These are the stripe ones from PBK.  They are currently on sale, so I might need to decide fast.  I love that they will give some life to the windows and add a little sage into the.

These are from Restoration Hardware Baby & Kids and match the bedding dust ruffle and pillow.  I would only order the window panels and I would order them in white so they would not blend into the pale pink wall.  I LOVE the shabby chic look of the ruffle and that they match the bedding.

I think this is probably the longest post in history so I will end it here.  PLEASE leave comments about what you think.  Seeing as how the room is a major work-in-progress any thoughts and ideas would be greatly appreciated.

HUGS and love!!!

~Charlotte

Snow in Texas!!!

Well it wouldn’t be a winter in Texas if we didn't have some sort of crazy snow/sleet storm hit.  It seems like over the past 2-3 years we have had some sort of measurable snow hit us each year.  What is even more crazy to me is that Liam thinks snow is a normal thing in Texas.  He remembers playing in the snow last year and making a snowman and was soooo excited to do it again this year.  Not sure if this yearly snow will continue but Liam sure is enjoying it right now.  So here are some snow pictures from Sunday - Tuesday.  Yes, that is a 3 day window of snow pictures because until this snow is gone, my child will more then likely be playing in it until his fingers are about to fall off and his face is the color of a tomato =)

Sunday -

Some of the biggest snowflakes I have ever seen in Texas

Eating snow =)

Helping Daddy make a snowman!

Snowangel time!

Daddy, Liam and their snowman

Mommy, Liam and the snowman.  I promise I was only outside for about 3 minutes total and then I went right back and sat down.

Liam will eventually learn to not trust Daddy all the time =)...

...I missed the big crash of snow but you can still tell how much was dumped on poor Liam.

Bundled up for round 2 in the snow =)

We measured and that was almost 7 inches of snow in the bed of the Gator.

He was so sad that the Gator would not drive ont he snow =(

Eating a chunk of ice...yummm!

To show you how much snow we got in a small amount of time...

11:50 a.m.

5:05 p.m.

Monday -

Snowball fight with Daddy!!!

Yes, I'm cute...

really, really cute!!!

Tuesday -

Liam was beyond excited that he could finaly drive his Gator!

One of my favorite pictures from the past 3 days...



This icicle has survived in our freezer since Monday.  Liam will put his gloves on, grab the icicle and pretend it is his rocket ship or airplane.  He will then sit on the couch and eat it for a while and then put it back in the freezer and put his gloves away...sooo cute!!!  He does this about two times a day so imagine how big it was to start with!!!

Hugs and love from the snow covered land of McKinney!!!

~Charlotte