Callan James is Here!!

And has been for a while.....

But, life with a newborn and two older kids has left very little time for blogging!

I was scheduled to have Callan on Friday, March 23--but he ended up making his arrival on Monday, March 19!

Here's the story.....(note:  I realize to most this post will be boring, but I'm journaling the birth story so I will remember it.  Feel free to skip to picture is you wish!)

I was scheduled for my last doctor appointment with my OB on Monday morning at 10:15.  When I arrived and they called me back, I did the usual weigh-in (UGH!) and blood pressure reading.  My blood pressure was pretty high so the nurse waited a couple of minutes and took it again.  Still high.  My doctor happened to be standing there at the time and told me to go down to Labor & Delivery to be monitored for a while, but if my BP didn't come down to expect to deliver today.  Fortunately, one of my best friends, Erin, is the charge nurse in L&D and was working that morning.  She got me in and monitored quickly and I was glad she was there since I was at my appointment by myself.

On my way down to L&D, I called Jeff who was at a meeting in Dallas and told him what was going on.  He immediately left his meeting and made his way back to Aledo to pick up the girls from school, get some stuff from the house, and drop our dog off at the kennel.  Also, my family was set in motion--my mom was set to leave her house and make her way to the hospital, and my dad and sister made it up there to sit with me in record time.

Well, it was a nice trial run--and good to know that our family can move quickly if we need to.  :)  After about an hour and a half in triage, my doctor discharged me after my BP stabilized.  She told me to go home and be on bedrest for the rest of the week to keep my BP under control.

Since my dad and sister were already there and I knew I'd be cooped up for the rest of the week, we decided to go get some lunch first.  We went to Luna de Noche (one of my faves!) and I'm glad we did!  I enjoyed the company, of course, but little did I know it would be the last meal I'd eat before Callan came!

After lunch, I went home and got into bed.  Jeff, the girls, and my mom were all at the house and I was monitoring my BP as instructed.  My BP was fine when I was lying down flat, but I had a big headache when I was lying down.  However, it would raise quite a bit when I was just sitting up.

So, I called my friend Erin back at about 5:30 pm since she was still on her shift and asked her what she thought I should do.  She told me that my doctor was standing right next to her and she'd ask her.  My doctor told her to tell me to come on back to the hospital and we'd deliver the baby!

Jeff and I threw our stuff in our bags and made our way back to the hospital.  By the way, this would be a good time to mention that I was delivering at a hospital 60 miles away.  AND, this particular evening there were thunderstorms and tornado watches in the area.  But, we made it there by 7:00 pm and safely.

our last picture as a family of 4!  

My friend, Erin was still there when we checked in and helped get me prepped for my c-section.  She stayed while I got my epidural, which I so appreciated because for some reason this part is so frightening to me!  My dad, brother, sister, Jeff's mom, and Jeff's dad all came to the hospital, too, to welcome Callan.  (Since everything was happening so late in the evening, my mom stayed home with the girls.)

Callan James was born at 9:20 pm and was 7 lbs 7 oz and 20" long.  He was by far our lightest baby!  He had a little bit of difficulty getting his lungs cleared when he was born, and didn't get to spend much time with us that night because they were monitoring him in the nursery.  Fortunately, though, he was able to go to the regular nursery instead of the NICU, even though the NICU doctor was called in for a consult.

Our family that was all there stayed while he was being admitted to the nursery, then they came to give me a hug and then left to get some rest!  Jeff and I tried to get some rest, too, once we got to my hospital room, but adrenaline and the nurses coming in numerous times kept both of us awake all night long!

We finally got to have Callan in the room with us for a long period of time by early morning and we were loving getting to love on him!

By that afternoon, most of my family had come back up to see him.  He also had two very excited big sisters and an anxious Gigi that wanted to meet him for the first time, too.

Jeff brought Landry and Korley up to the hospital to meet Callan and it was such a precious moment--something I'll never forget!  The good thing about waiting a while to have your third, is that your older two are very aware and very excited about the new addition!  :)  They were both so excited to finally meet the little brother they had been talking about for months.  Both of them were so sweet holding him and spending their first few minutes with their brand new brother!  While they were there I changed Callan's diaper and he happened to pee on his own face (um, changing boys diapers is so different than girls)!  Landry and Korley thought this was hilarious and they still tell everyone about it!  I have a feeling he will never get to live this down!  :)

Grammy and Callan

Landry, PawPaw, and Callan

Pop Pop and Callan (by the way, Callan's middle name (James) comes from my dad.  James is my dad's real first name)

Gigi and Callan

Landry, Callan, Uncle Buzzy (Brady), and Korley

Aunt Lulu (Lindsay), me, and Callan

our nieces--Lindsay, Bailey, Adrienne with Callan

Jeff's brother, Scott, with Callan

our sister-in-law, Stacy, with Callan

Jeff's brother, Glenn, sister-in-law, Jonnie, and Callan

my doctor (love her!) and Callan

My friend, Erin, me, and Callan

My friend, Beth, me, and Callan

My friend, Stephanie, her baby, Larsen, me, and Callan

our friends, the Tabors, with Callan

We came home from the hospital on Friday, March 23.  We have loved having our Callan here and now can't imagine life without him!  He is just the sweetest baby and has been fairly low maintenance!  No, I'm not used to getting up in the middle of the night, I probably never will be--but, he's so well worth the lack of sleep!  

We love you so much, Callan James!

Making (a) Room for Baby

We are only six days from meeting the newest addition to the family!  And, we finally have a room for him to occupy once he is here!

This room took a few left turns along the way.  If you look at my "boy" pinterest board (here), my pins were pretty much all over the map.  I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money.  

I bought some bedding a few months ago that was inexpensive and I really liked from Target.  (this)  After it sat in the corner of the room for a couple of months, I was getting to the point where I was needing to start finding accessories for the room that coordinated with the bedding.  

Then, I ran across this nursery that Sabrina Soto did for her sister, and I LOVED the Marimekko fabric print and had to have it.  I ordered it and loved it even more in person, but unfortunately, it didn't look very good with the bedding I already bought.

Fortunately, though, it did look good with the other Dwell Studio for Target bedding (which was used in Sabrina's sister's nursery) and was on major clearance.  

So, out with the old bedding--in with the new bedding.  

One of the reasons I really liked the fabric is because I wanted something to hang over the crib that was a focal point and interesting, but not heavy or dangerous.  I'm always baffled when I see these great nurseries, but they've hung something heavy or impractical over the crib.  I mean, you only have a few short months before the baby can pull up and start pulling things on the wall.  All I did with this fabric was stretch it over a (huge) piece of foamboard.  Then, I used many pieces of Command strips to adhere it to the wall.  

I LOVE Eric Carle's books and I found some Eric Carle flashcards and used four of them to frame in inexpensive Ikea frames to hang over the dresser.  

The Ikea Poang chair is a new addition.  We didn't have a lot of room for a chair/rocker, but I wanted one anyway.  This one fits in the room and is actually very comfortable!

Hopefully, people will still want to come visit us on occasion--so, we had to double the nursery as a guest room.  We moved Korley's daybed/trundle in here for when we have guests (lucky guests....daybed/trundle just screams luxury!!).

Landry and Korley provided the artwork on the big empty wall above the daybed, which I think might be my favorite thing in the room.  I know I'm biased, but they are my favorite artists!  :)  And, they are proud to have been able to contribute something that's displayed in their baby brother's room.  I had their drawings enlarged to 11x14s and framed them in Ikea 19x19 frames.  

Landry's baby elephant and momma

Korley's giraffe

Landry's lion

On the small wall between the bathroom door and closet door, I added two frame ledges at "kid height" to be used as bookshelves, as well as a cheap DIY letter project I did.  I know the scale looks a little off at this point (and it is), but I wanted to leave some wall space in that area for photos, etc for when he is actually here!

That's about it!  Only thing left to do is just add baby!  :)

Daddy/Daughter Dance

The girls' school hosted a daddy/daughter dance on Thursday, Feb. 23.

Jeff proudly escorted Landry and Korley to the dance.  Korley had been excited about it for two weeks--picked out her dress, shoes, hairstyle, etc. days in advance.  Her only request was "no slow dances".  Landry really didn't want to go at all.  Not that she doesn't love her daddy--she does!  She is SUCH a daddy's girl.  But, dances and dressing up are not her thing!  In fact, I had to force strongly encourage her to wear a dress rather than jeans like she wanted to wear!

I'm happy to report that both girls had a blast!  I knew Korley would for sure, but Landry came home saying it was "WAY" more fun than she thought it would be.  Jeff enjoyed himself as well, but said it was basically a "daddy-escort-your-daughter-and-watch-them-play-with-their-friends-dance".  :)

Basketball

Last Saturday wrapped up Landry's basketball season.  This was her first year to play and she did really great for never having played before!  They ended the season with a 6-2 record!  Softball is really the only team sport Landry had participated in until now, but she really enjoyed basketball.  So did I.....one practice a week for an hour and one game a week--my kind of schedule!  AND indoors so no cold and wind!  :)

We're proud of you, Landry!

Korley's Cheer Cat Performance

All of the "Lil' Cheer Cats" from last fall's youth football teams were invited to perform during halftime at the last high school boys' basketball game of the season.  Never wanting to miss a chance to perform for an audience, Korley was naturally excited.

The girls learned the dance last summer during cheer camp, and after a couple of practices before the basketball game were able to pick it back up.

Is there anything cuter than when your child is on the "stage" and finds you in the crowd?!

I might be wrong, but it seems like Korley is turning the right way and everyone else is turning the wrong way.....  :)