39 Weeks Down, 1 Week To Go :)

We have officially 1 week to go :) That's 7 days people! I remember when we first started blogging about our pregnancy...and here we are, 7 days (more or less) away from being parents :)

So much has been going on this week, so bare with me and this long blog.

On Friday, Josh has his regular season basketball game, and it was in Rochester. My mom was pretty mad at me for driving there by myself...but I felt really good and had a gut feeling I'd be okay driving! I made it there safely (got lost, but my dad helped me out via a phone call-thanks Dad!). When I arrived Josh's game was almost over, but I got to see his prime coaching in action.

At one point the Roch. coach called a time out, but the ball was in the air - so of course, any good coach (like Josh) would freak out...which he did (can't call a time out when nobody has possession of the ball). I was really pulling for him to get a technical, because he never has and I would love to see one :) But the game was too close, so again, he used his good coaching skills and chose NOT to put his team down!

My friend, Brittney, took a picture with me that night and posted on facebook, so I just had to post it on our blog! This is a shirt that one of the high school students made for me! He is the boys basketball manager...I love it :)


Our school has some "polls" going on about what our baby is going to be (Male=M, Female=F), the due date, and the weight! I took pictures of it, because I thought it was so neat! We were going to have money involved, but figured it was against policy, so instead...Josh and I will buy a treat for the winner :)



On Monday afternoon, Josh and I headed into our Dr.'s appointment! I'm FINALLY starting to retain water...my fingers are officially swelling :( And occasionally my feet (not my whole foot, just by my heels)...but I've gone 39 weeks without swelling, so I guess it's okay. I did chop my hair off to help with the swollen face (it's more slimming)!

Our baby is measuring 40 weeks, and the Dr. "guessed" our baby was 8 pounds...HOLY CATS! But I also know he was just rubbing my stomach when he suggested that size, so he could be totally off. I was born at 7 lbs. 2 ounces and Josh was 7 lbs. 10.5 ounces...so we'll see!

He was "checking" me out and said "OOOHHH!" really excited. He then said, "I can feel the babies head!" I of course quickly asked, "Is there any hair?!" Yeah Cori - the Dr. can tell! It's like that time Heidi told me she was pregnant (first time being an aunt), and I said, "YEAH! I"m going to be an aunt, or an uncle!" Seriously...the things I can say sometimes!


We are dilated to 1 cm!! To get to 10, you must start at 1 :) 1 week, 1 cm, 1 baby...I'm liking the number :) How about 1 more day until we have this baby already! The bad news is you can be dilated to 1 cm for a VERY long time. Good news-we will for sure have a baby Tuesday, March 23rd. That is the exact marking for 1 week over-due, and our Dr. will not let us go beyond that. So 14 days or less...how about WAY LESS!!!

So we were SO EXCITED when we left the hospital (I was pretty much freaking out) that we went to Albert Lea to celebrate with a delicious Green Mill dinner :) Yes we have been eating out a lot, but we're going on a lot of dates now, because once this baby comes, all of our date nights turn to sleeping (only when baby sleeps - in 30 min. increments) and changing poopy diapers and restless nights!


As stated before, I have taken up a new hobby (well, I used to do this, but just picked it up again)...sewing :) I have sewn SO MANY things in the past few days...and I love it!
Last night I was sewing the sides of a receiving blanket, and low and behold-the needle on the machine broke. Right when it snapped, I just happened to be sliding the fabric through-not under the needle, but near it. The needle ricochet off and went through my left middle finger nail and through my skin. I was like "HOLY CRAP...I have a needle in my finger!" I told Josh we needed to go to ER, but I probably should have prefaced it with - I'm not in labor!So we got to the ER...they did an X-Ray, because they wanted to see 1. if it was in my bone, and 2. how big the needle was. It took FOREVER to get it out. I sat there and had the Dr. picking pieces of my SKIN off with a tweezers...pretty sure I could have done that! But after about 30 min. of "picking" and not getting the needle, they numbed my finger and made a cut! At one point he said, "Scalp-o"! haha I felt like a patient on Grey's Anatomy :) But needless to say, the needle came out :) FINALLY!

This morning I was wicked crabby-honestly not really sure why at all. It could have been the drastic change in my mood the day before (really high and then in a ton of pain)...just being tired, or like my sister thinks - "labor is coming sooner than you think, Cori!"...
Either way...for the first time this entire pregnancy, I can honestly say that today I felt...well, bitchy.

So I sit here drinking root beer and eating thin mint girl scout cookies :) What a combination...Hopefully this is the last "regular" blog before we start posting about McBaby...

We're just a few days away from our baby...
A gender, a name, a weight, size, fingers, toes, hair-no hair, eyes, cute little nose that I'll probably want to eat :) YEAH! Super super excited...

Love to you all,
Cori & Josh XOXOXOXO

38 Weeks down...2 Weeks to go :)

Well, give or take...but we may have only 14 days left :) It's hard to believe that we started out with 9 months and now we have 2 weeks left to go!
I have still been feeling really good; however, I will be honest...we had 9 hours of parent-teacher conferences last night. Not a big deal, I love them...but 9 hours for a 9 1/2 month pregnant woman was a bit too much! I got into bed last night, and poor Josh! I was whining that I was too tired, too uncomfortable, too sore...I think he was jumping for joy when I finally fell asleep! This morning my entire body was just sore...

I'm going in for a massage tonight, so that will help A LOT!

Besides the long day of conferences, I am still feeling GREAT and still sleeping through the night! I don't have any back pains, but I stand on the heels of my feet, so my heels get pretty tired by the end of the day! No swelling either...well, just in my face :( I feel so fat when I look in the mirror.

Our Dr.'s appointments are going really well. We are measuring right where we need to be! McBaby is sitting head down and ready to go! When looking at the pictures, I have definitely dropped! The heart beat is still strong and my stomach is continuing to burst out! I haven't gained any weight these past 3 weeks...which is kind of exciting for me! Considering it was sad seeing the #'s on the scale continue to go up!

No matter what anyone tells a pregnant lady...YES, I know I'm supposed to gain weight, and I know it's healthy...but seeing a number I never thought I would see...it tugs at your emotions a little bit!
This past weekend I started sewing :) I bought my own sewing machine and started making mommy made boppy pillow slip covers and mommy made receiving blankets :)
Here is one of the boppy pillow slip covers I made, and some pictures of Kix all swaddled up in a mommy made receiving blanket :)

Josh and I have everything ready to go :) He's packing his "Daddy Overnight" bag tonight...Wow...it's coming SO FAST!

Can't wait to meet you little one!
Love,
Mommy XOXO

McBaby could arrive any day now...stay tuned :)

37 weeks down...3 to go :)

Josh and I have hit Week 37 without any problems :)

So far I have not had any morning sickness, I haven't swelled up (my fingers are a smidgen bigger and it hurts taking my wedding ring off, so I stopped wearing it). My feet haven't swelled, my back only hurt for a while, but that was due to a cute little foot being lodged in my ribcage, no acne, no major mood swings...

All around, this has been a very easy pregnancy :)


This week brings so many exciting things:

1. I started feeling Braxton Hicks very frequently. Many would say that isn't something to be excited about, but it actually is...it only means that McBaby is that much closer to making his/her grand entrance!

2. I gained ZERO pounds this week :) WHOA WHO!!! I'll tell you in the end what my final weight gain is! I'll just say this - it's more than my sister Heidi gained!

3. McBaby is FULL TERM! That means that if we went into labor TONIGHT, McBaby would have no problems surviving! According to the books, McBaby is just hanging out in there practicing his/her breathing, blinking and even crying! I felt hiccups for the first time too - that was so fun :)

4. Josh and I are all set for the arrival of McBaby! We have the room put together and the essential items we need to get by the first couple weeks. Because we aren't finding out the gender, we still have two big showers AFTER McBaby is born...can't wait to share the fun in those :)
This weeks advice from my weekly email was this:

what you're thinking
"I can't eat, I can't sleep, but I can do a great imitation of a beached whale. Seriously, are we almost done with this?"

HAHA - That makes me laugh so much...It's so not true at all :) I'm still loving this! I've learned to eat a bowl of cereal before bed and I am good to go the rest of the night :)
Speaking of night - I'm 37 weeks pregnant and STILL sleeping through the night! Poor Josh is lacking in the sleep department though! He's being such a great sport. These past few weeks I've started snoring (the Dr. explained that it's some thinning and totally normal to start doing during pregnancy), and I guess I was really sawing some logs last night...Poor guy got up to sleep in the guest room...he didn't want to wake me in case I wouldn't be able to fall back asleep. What a great husband!


Other news this week:
KAYLA AND MIKE GOT ENGAGED!!!

That's right, Josh's little sister is going to get married :) YEAH! We are so excited for the both of them! They are such a perfect match for each other! McBaby can't wait to meet Aunt Kayla and Uncle Mike :) YEAH :)

I forgot to post the pictures from Valentine's Day as well...kind of dropped the ball on that one! Josh bought these SWEET shirts for us :) We both wore them to school on February 12th! When we were apart, the hearts on our shirt weren't all lit. Only 2.5 was lit. But when we were together-ALL of them would light up! Our students LOVED this...it was a pretty big hit!



Then my Valentine took me to a romantic dinner at the Old Mill in Austin! The food was good, scenery was AMAZING and we were all dressed up for the occasion :) I love you Josh - you are so good to me!

Maternity Photos

On Sunday, Mike O'Halloran came down to Austin to photograph our Maternity Photos :) We have been utilizing Mike's photo skills for some time now (he photographed our wedding)...

We began our session in our home! Mike brought some backdrops and we took tons of pictures! We took pictures in front of our window, the backdrop and even in the nursery! Then we ventured over to Austin High School and took some pictures in the gym :) Oh yes...what kind of pictures would there be without Josh and I in a basketball gym!?!Mike posted a few pictures on his blog (you can become a "Fan" of "O'Halloran Photography" on Facebook!!!!)...Enjoy the couple we were able to see!

We cannot WAIT to see the rest :)
Just another reason why everyone needs to be on Facebook - you get faster updates! Which, by the way, we will be posting pictures of McBaby during our hospital stay! I will not be updating the blog until after we get home. If you read this and want to see pictures...you'll have to join Facebook to see instant pictures :) Our hospital has WiFi!!!

4 MORE WEEKS :)

That is LESS than one hand to count on! I can't believe it...we are getting so close! Think about all the fours in this world: there are four girls in my family, our cats each have four legs, we have four bedrooms in our house, I was 4th runner up at Miss MN, I've been teaching for a TOTAL of 4 years...and now we have 4 weeks left until McBaby arrives :) WOW!!!!

McBaby weighs about 6 pounds now and is full grown in length. I have have pretty much been gaining one pound a week-with a couple extra here and there...

I am STILL sleeping through the night with the 1-2 times getting up to go to the bathroom. Josh is starting to have a lot of dreams which is keeping him up. He had a dream that HE was pregnant and giving birth one night! I liked that one :) I had a dream that we "surprisingly" had twins...that was interesting...Josh has given me the rights to 3 1-hour massages before McBaby arrives! I was smart about it and I split these first two up in to two half hour sessions, and then I go for one hour the next two times :) I went last night for my first half hour and BOY DID THAT FEEL GOOD :)

My back stopped hurting a few weeks ago, which is a HUGE relief; however, when she started massaging my back (I was able to lay on a maternity pillow they have...they specialize in pregnancy massages), I didn't realize just how good it was going to feel! I didn't realize my back was that exhausted already!Then, during my massage, I started to get REALLY REALLY hot...so hot that I thought I would either pass out or throw up! So she turned a fan on and removed one of the blankets-that helped A LOT! But then, I started getting these pains in my lower stomach, and I started thinking "Oh my gosh, is this is...am I going into labor right now?" Josh was in Mankato for basketball, and I was going to meet my girlfriends for dinner and a movie after my massage, so I thought, "Okay, call Steph and Katie...one will get my bag (which I'm still packing) and then they'll be in the delivery room with me until Josh arrives..."


Then the massage was over, I stood up and felt fine! They sure liked the idea though :) Now Katie asks me when the next time Josh has an away game, because she's ready!! Haha-I have such good friends :)

Which by the way, you MUST SEE "Valentine's Day" - Such a good movie :) I'd totally see it again :)
Now I'm trying to compile a list of "things to bring to the hospital"...because we are at this stage of our pregnancy!!!! If you have any tips...email them to me or leave a comment with an idea!

Babies R Us...You stress me out!

Yesterday, Josh and I ventured out to Rochester to do a little "baby shopping". There are some essential things that we still need before McBaby arrives...so we figured it was a good time to go out and get them.

The first thing we wanted was our "Coming Home Outfit" for McBaby...well, that's utterly impossible when the store doesn't carry what we want! We will either be doing some "online" shopping, making our own, or settling for something else...
It's a surprise what we want! Man we keep everything from you guys :)

We got to Babies R Us to buy our stroller/car seat travel system, only...IT WAS NOT THERE! So we talked with the sales ladies, and informed us that "IT WAS NO LONGER AVAILABLE THROUGH BABIES R US"...

Josh could see me just steaming. I kept breathing, but knew that my blood pressure was rising to the max. This stuff was on our registry-why didn't they inform us of this??
Well, your guess is as good as mine.After a lot of searching, they realized that there was some stores that had some of our travel systems still available :) YEAH!
But...they were all in Wisconsin...SHOOT!

Then the Heaven's opened, God smiled down and said, "There is some located on Penn Ave."

BLESSED BE ALMIGHTY! I called my mom and dad immediately to see if they would be willing to pick this up and purchase this for us (check will be in the mail tomorrow to pay you back). Thank goodness they said yes :)


Because everything in the "Graco Deco" is being "discontinued"...it was all on sale...major perk!

So, my mom and dad were going to buy us the pack 'n play...well, in Rochester is was on a HUGE clearance...so we bought that on the spot. Now by subtracting that total from the stroller/car seat total...Josh and I are happy to inform you all that our "Graco Deco Set" is now COMPLETE!

Thank you so much mom and dad for pulling through for Josh and I...yet again!

5 WEEKS REMAINING!!!

Yes - this is correct...we only have 5 more weeks to go until we are a mommy and daddy :) I don't think there is anything more special than this! I mean, you can count the weeks on 1 hand! That's it...1 hand :)

McBaby is growing...full grown in length actually! Or so the books say :)

He/she is gaining about a half pound each week. They say that he/she can gain more-depending on how much he/she has been gained throughout his/her stay in my uterus!

A fun quote from a weekly email I receive:
what you're thinking
"Should I bring my cute bathrobe to the hospital with the matching furry slippers or is that just crazy talk?"

I am going to go with a... so absolutely true! I did go out and buy new hospital Jammies to wear :) Call me crazy-but I'm excited to wear them. I don't like the hospital gowns. They are itchy and thin and gross!

McBaby's nails are continuing to grow, which means he/she will be in need of a manicure right away...oh darn, a spoiled child already :)
Mommy's schedule is starting to wear down now as we get into the final months. I have worked really hard with my internship hours and have successfully completed almost all of them. I'm coming down to my final meetings and finalizing my long term sub plans.

We have a friend that we work with who informed me that I was in her dream last night...
She had a dream that we had a girl and we had her in 2 weeks and 2 days...which would be February 26: 37 weeks pregnant...

I guess it could totally happen, but I'd prefer it not to!

So this is it...the final weeks...get your vote in now on what you think the sex of our baby is :) We are getting SO SUPER EXCITED! YEAH :)

Not so sure about my face here...GROSS!

Josh told me that these pictures show just how pregnant I am...he said that "I'm really starting to look pregnant"... He also informed me last night that he is starting to get used to seeing my big belly...not sure that is something I want him to get used to!

We visited the Women's Special Care Unit recently for our "Private Tour". It was nice to sit down (in the room) and talk with the nurse. We learned all about visiting hours, the first hour after birth, where Josh is going to sleep and all the other fun details! They have a security code now to get in. It's a 4 digit code that we'll be given when we go into labor. Then we can give this code out to family and friends...so be nice to us if you want the number :)

If you can believe it...I think we might be all set! We still have a few odds and ends that we need to buy, but I'm feeling pretty good!

Family Shower for McBaby :)

This past weekend, my AMAZING family hosted a Baby Shower for McBaby! The two of us had a BLAST :)

Sitting on Trygg :) It looked like I was having McBaby! haha

I wasn't feeling very good to start the day, but with plenty of fluids, I was able to keep up! My Aunt Mary hosted the shower at her house (I LOVE her house!) and my three beautiful sisters helped! Yes...you read that correctly...ALL 3 Sisters were in attendance :)

We played some VERY fun games that left us all laughing hysterically!

Game 1: The Price is Right
There were several items that were displayed and everyone had to write down the price of each item (what they thought). Items included: Bottle Brushes, wash clothes, hangers, Johnson & Johnson Travel Size First Aid Kit, etc...

I didn't do so well on this game, but I was really close. My grand total was around $19.00 worth of products, and the real grand total was around $17.00! I was pretty close! My cousin Melanie was playing this game as well...senior in high school! It was hilarious - she put $15.00 down for the set of two bottle brushes! I love you Mel :) Thanks for the good laugh!

Game 2: Popular Baby Names
We had to write down the top 10 most popular boy and girl names! I surprisingly didn't do too bad with this game. I should have done better, considering I have been looking at names constantly - but it was still fun :)

Game 3: DICE GAME!
I love the dice game! If you roll doubles, you get to take a prize from the middle. Trygg was LOVING this game! He was sitting next to me, and whenever he rolled doubles you'd think the kid won the lottery! He was SO excited :) Of course nobody could steal from him! He was so nice and shared with Gma because she didn't roll doubles.

Game 4: Guess my measurements!
Everyone was able to write down how "big" around they thought I was in inches. I thought I was about 36'', but I was wrong...but not too far off! I was 40.75'' around! Not too shabby! I've definitely grown, that's for sure!

We received some pretty amazing gifts :) Thank you all for coming...we had such a fun time! I truly have the most amazing family members! And McBaby was able to celebrate the day with his two Grandma's!!!! My mom and Josh's mom were both in attendance :) YEAH!!!! I love you both so much!

Enjoy the pictures from the day...

Baby Easton...he's getting so big now!

Kayla, Grandma Lynn & Heidi

Kayla - Sorry, had to post it :) & Grandma Lynn

My mom and I :)

Trygg was taking pictures :)

The sweet DQ ice cream cake...it's like our bedding set - Giggles!

Heidi made these blankets and hats for McBaby

Aunt Mary made this cozy tie blanket and matching mittens (different sizes to go along with our growing child!)!!

Grandma Lynn made this BEAUTIFUL blanket...it's SO SOFT!

Only a pageant girl would understand! My mom took a chance on this one...it says "Future Miss America"

MN Twins socks :) I LOVE THEM!

YEAH :) Our diaper bag! Now we just need our stroller & car seat to go with it!
(may have to make a trip to Babies R Us here PRETTY SOON...)

Trygg got us a puppy...you know...since I'm having a puppy :)

Showing Claire Bear the bottle nipples!

Trygg and I playing the Dice Game!

My beautiful cousin Melanie & her Price is Right card...notice the $15.00's! That's for the bottle brushes!

Beauties :) Mel, Britt & Colleen

Heather showing an item for The Price is Right game!Aunt Mary & Cousin Brittany :)

Thank you all for such an amazing baby shower :) I love my family so much!