Mr. Caden Russell Lee

Bias or not, this little man is the most precious thing ever!!! We are so in love with our little guy and feel overwhelmingly blessed with our little family of three.

Born at 10:53 p.m. August 17, 2012

6 lbs and 9 oz. 

19 inches long

Adorable

After two epidurals (1st one didn't work) and a little scare of an emergency c-section our little guy was finally here-and a week early! God sure does have his own plans and knows what's best-if only I had more patience in the waiting. I could have sworn we were going to have to wait until a week past our due date to meet him. So thankful and blessed, it's really even hard to describe the feeling. 

All for now, but had to share our exciting news and handsome little guy:)

Change of Plans

7 Days Make that up to 14....

Someone is being ornery...hmm, wonder where he gets that from. Must be his daddy:)

After our appointment yesterday we found out that nothing has changed /progressed and the doctor said our little man is heads down but posterior-his head is facing my abdomen and causing some lovely discomfort. Got some good and awkward 'rocking' moves to work on to try to get him to turn the right way. Hopefully that'll do the trick!

Next Thursday I go in for a sonogram before my appointment to find out a little more about how big he's expected to be, his position, ect., which will give the doctor more insight as to what decision and options he'll give us for induction or c-section for the following week.

Some of the rocking yesterday I did really did seem to relieve some of the back pain which was a bonus. Once we have the appointments and I can get a grasp on where we're at, let it set in, shed a few tears if I need to (anyone at this stage would be a bit discouraged...just saying) then I'm fine. It's just nice to get in there-you wouldn't think a week is that long of a wait, and it does seem to go by really fast, but it's just nice to know where we're at.

And where we're at right now is most likely along the lines of waiting a bit longer than we thought. You never know, but looks like we need to soak up the 'single' time while we have it a bit more! Cannot wait to meet our little guy, but definitely need to be thankful for the time we have just us as well.

Okay, to switch it up a bit and add some fun, look what my beloved McyD's BBQ sauce presented to me a few weeks ago (my mom thought this was mold. Sick-no.)

The feeling is mutual my friend.

Now, onto rocking the weekend and every-darn-day-before-he-gets-here away! :)

Sweet and Simple

This past weekend was just that for us-sweet and simple. Definitely trying to milk our 'single' time that we have before Caden's arrival.

Friday Gary's parents and brother came over with some dinner and hung out for a bit, after that-I can't even really remember exactly what we did, obviously not much since that's the case!

Saturday we got to sleep in, and I sure did wake up hungry for some Chick-fil-a and needed to make a return at Target...lucky me the new Chick-fil-a that just opened is right down from the Target we go to. Bonus!! We ended up picking up some of the yummy food (my bff disagrees, silly her, that could be a blog in itself!) and taking it over to Gary's brother, wife, and girls and got some much needed time in with them. Later that night we headed to church followed by a date night with dinner at Kobe's Steakhouse and an evening at home playing some old school video games. Jealous? I know you are.... :) We wanted to see the new movie The Campaign, but the times were way later than when we'd be done with dinner, so that'll just have to wait and be a rental like most of them are.

Sunday we got to sleep in again (milking this for sure), and had a relaxing, easy day with a fun BBQ at Gary's parents in the afternoon and a movie night to follow.

Told you-sweet and simple and much needed. We keep telling ourselves since we're keeping our schedule pretty basic that we need to remember to keep it that way even if we get bored. We're used to being more on the go, and we do love it that way, but knowing the amount of change that is just around the corner-we think it's a good time to hit the brakes and get in as much simple, restful, together time we can. So cheers to that-and more so to hopefully meeting our little guy soon! 9 Days!! Not that I'm counting....(or crossing my fingers it's not longer...)

There's Beauty in the Breakdown

Amen to that. No one loves to admit to a breakdown, and mine wasn't crazy, just a good long cry in my husbands arms. So needed and overdue. I had been more than putting it off. Especially this week (and yes, it's only Wednesday) I felt like I had put such a guard up and have felt so nasty and negative. I just needed to let go.

These early contractions have been happening off and on since 34 weeks. Now talk about confusing, and mentally/physically draining. A college friend got married this last Saturday, and her sister-in-law is due a week before me and has been having early contractions as well. It was so nice to vent and swap stories.

I've had so much support throughout this pregnancy and especially now, and it is very much appreciated. But it was nice to have someone, even if it was a short visit and a new acquaintance, to be on the same page with.

Looking forward to our appointment tomorrow to see if any further progress has happened (I sure feel like it!), but really having to try to ground myself with the reminder of my actual due date-and the possibility of adding a week onto that. If I don't do that I think I'll lose my mind. (May have partially lost some of it already...)

This is what I also need to continue to remember. I've been sending up an ample amount of prayers the last few weeks. I've even recently sent up a few selfish ones, which I really try to avoid. I always remind myself, God has a plan and he never gives us more than we can handle. But yeah, I snuck in a few 'PLEASE!!!!' prayers...desperate times call for desperate measures. And not that this is really a desperate time, but amidst the discomfort it feels like it.

All in all, after a good cry, nice walk with Gary, thankfully I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Why must we always try to be strong, bottle it up, and hold it all in as if no one else can help or bear the burden? Definitely something I need to work on.

What we came home to...

Cute right? These two are the best of buds. This picture was taken just shortly after we got Max, almost 2 years ago, but it's the best I could find. So again, cute, right? Looks can be deceiving people. As Gary would say, and did many times last night, MJ's stock dropped drastically last night.

A college friend of mine got married and just as we got home it started to pour down rain. This always reminds of us a super fun and spontaneous date we had while we were dating. We both lived at home, and after having an evening of games with my family, mid-downpour we embraced the ongoing storm and went to Granite City for dinner. Seems simple, but it was just us in the restaurant and it was the best.

So, naturally we are happy and laughing...until we open the door and got HIT with the worst.smell.ever. Max was in his kennel and MJ was out, and our first thought was holy crap has she been farting?! This big girl is deadly, so it crossed our mind. Gary thought there was some food left out or something in the trash-I said no, because I knew there wasn't and this was not the smell of food.

As he gathers the trash and takes it out anyway I start to search the house. Living room, check. Kennel, check. Our bedroom and bathroom, check. Sweet-ready-and-clean-for-any-day-arrival-of-our-first-baby room...Gaarrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

Holy shit. Literally. (Hence the lack of pictures in this blog-for your sake and ours. No one needs to relive this.)

Our guess is MJ either got chocolate from the previous nights bbq or the dumb amount of wood she ate got to her. Either way, it was absolutely disgusting. Gag worthy, almost more, very, very close to being more. Needless to say Gary wasn't too happy. He couldn't even 'stand to see her'. You try hiding a 75 lb golden retriever. Not that easy. Plus, it's still raining so just keeping her outside wasn't an option.

After many choice words, cleaning, and a whole lot of Frebrezing  it was taken care of. We had just purchased a carpet cleaner this week-bonus. We've gotten our monies worth out of that beaut already. To be on the safe side we had to put the gates up and keep MJ in the kitchen tile area for the rest of the night. Good thing too-because come 3:00 a.m., shocker I was awake trying to get comfortable, I could not shake that smell. And unfortunately it wasn't a dream or in my mind. The kitchen had taken a hit. And ungodly hit.

I let Sleepy McSleeperson sleep through this for his sake and MJs while I cleaned up the mess. I truly did feel bad for our big sis-she was obviously not feeling well. But being up from 3:00-4:00 a.m., holding my breath that much, being this far pregnant on the floor cleaning, girlfriend had to spend the rest of the night outside. Also-by this point I was very hungry-for McDonalds french fries. I'm still surprised I got myself to fall back asleep and didn't get some. But it was just too early.

Gary had the goal to 'Clean the shit out of this carpet. Literally.' He also noted I need to add x's into that phrase and the above one because 'this is a PG-13 blog'. Whoops. So this morning we got some good and much needed carpet and tile cleaning done, hopefully this is just a story of the past and MJ can rebuild her stock once again.

Whhhhaaattttt.....

The difference one pair of bottoms to another can make became very apparent to me this last week. I had Gary take my 9 months picture earlier this week before I headed off to work. At work if I'm not in a comfy maternity dress you can find me in the below black maternity capris. They aren't the most flattering pair, and I knew that, but I never had actually seen a picture of myself in them...until now. Man, oh man, does my bum look twice the size and saggy in them!!

Bad:

 Good:

Obviously had to retake these later with my shorts on. I mean, come on, I feel big and 'different' enough no matter what anyone does or doesn't say-and those capris aren't helping!! I had to show Gary and my sister the before and after to prove it to them-once they gave out some laughs I knew it wasn't just my imagination!

This also does not mean I won't be wearing those capris the rest of my pregnancy...I just won't be photographed in them anymore:) Cheers to being 37 weeks and to the waiting game! Have I mentioned I'm not totally patient sometimes?? This feels like one of those trying times...