Mother of the Year Already!

Is it too early to start campaigning to be mother of the year? If not, here is my first entry:

Monday night I had fed Collin, but about 20 min later he was making his "hungry faces" again, so we decided to go ahead and offer him a chance to eat more...he was eating away when he started to cough. It scared me, so I started patting on his back, then he spit-up a little, so I sat him up right and put the blanket in front of him in case he spit-up some more. Well, I think that he spit-up everything he had eaten, it was A LOT! I was freaking out, and calling Son to come and help me when I lost my grip on Collin's shoulders (he is a strong little boy!) and he went "SPLAT" face-first into the pile of spit-up!!

I thought he would start crying, but I think he was more surprised than anything else. He just kind of looked at me (with the spit-up dripping all down his face) like "mom, what just happened?"

Just thought I would share with everyone what an awesome job I am doing!

Update

We are now slowly settling into our routine of being a family of 3! Today was my first time alone with Collin for more than a few minutes since Son had to go to work today - and it actually went really well. I don't know why, but I was actually really nervous about being alone with him for that long without a back-up, but we napped, ate breakfast, played, and actually got some chores done before Son got home at around 12:30.

We are forever grateful to my mom who was here with us for 3 weeks & to my dad who was here to help us out Collin's first week too. We are so blessed that they were here to help us through the transition of bringing him home - I don't think I would be nearly as sane now if it wasn't for my mom's coaching during the birth, home cooked meals each night, or breastfeeding advice or my dad's great breakfasts every morning, driving me around before I could drive myself again, and babysitting Collin each morning for me so I could get some much needed sleep after Son left for work!!

My mom left on Friday morning & my dad left yesterday afternoon - both were very difficult for me & of course I balled several times both days. I know that Son & I are exactly where God wants for us to be now in Florida, and we are very happy here, but it is still incredibly difficult to be so far away from family.

Here are some more recent pictures...enjoy!

Next up is a visit from Son's parents tomorrow!! I can't wait for them to meet little Collin - and I am also looking forward to the great Vietnamese food that Me (mom in Vietnamese) is going to make for us!

Welcome baby Collin!

Okay, okay, I know...how have I not had like 5 minutes to add pictures since Thursday. I don't really know either, but all I can say is that the last few days have been amazing. Collin James was born at 1:30am on Thursday morning. He weighed 7lbs and 1oz.

He has quickly become a part of the family & taking care of him is now our favorite thing to do! We absolutely love it! Even last night when we were up for like to billionth time we just looked at each other and laughed and talked about how amazing he is.

Her are a few of the pictures that we have taken over the past few days - longer post later.

Baby Collin in his going home from the hospital outfit - what an angel!

Beau welcomes his little brother home on Friday afternoon.

Praises: Great birth experience - a little tough at the end, but he finally made it! Healthy baby Collin & mommy! God's blessings - I can't imagine why he would trust Son & I with a little angel like Collin, but we are doing our best to be the parent's that He wants us to be.

Prayer Requests: Godly wisdom in being good parents & making decisions. Good test results for Collin's jaundice test this afternoon & his hearing follow-up testing on the 27th.

Julie

Random Thought

Why am I always disappointed when I take off red nail polish and find out that my nails are stained? It should not be a surprise - happens every time!

Oh well, I just painted them pink which hides the stains...

Patiently (or not) Waiting

Today is the DUE DATE!! But still no baby Vuong :(

Over the last week since my mom has been in town we have completed the following "nesting" activities (with Son's help too):

Moved all furniture & cleaned floors

Dusted - everything!

Re-organized and cleaned out pantry & fridge

Bought & hung wall & other decorative items in the house

Weeded front yard flower beds & planted new flowers

Re-organized cabinets in bathrooms & scrubbed every square inch of the bathrooms

Bought new throw pillows for our bedroom

5 million loads of laundry - Son & I have never had so many clean clothes in our lives!

Found laundry basket for baby room & sewed new lining out of matching nursery fabric

Painted, framed & hung wall decorations in baby room

Found & hung mirror in baby room over changing table

Covered nursing stool in baby room

Installed car seat base in both cars

Re-organized baby closet & assembled baby monitor & bath tub

Visited Collin's school so my mom could see where he will be staying

Gone shopping multiple times - at least 1x per day!

The only problem is that we have pretty much cleaned every inch of the house, bought/hung up every type of decorative item that I had been putting off getting for the house, and done anything we could possibly think of in the baby's room...so now that we are officially ready, Collin is still not cooperating.

I am thinking about even resorting to going to work for a little while tomorrow! Seriously - this is getting desperate!!

Here are some pictures of what we have been up to lately...

Our friends Jeff & Rachel stopped by on Easter Sunday! We were hoping that baby Collin would be here for them to meet, but they will be back in town again in May.

Yes, I realize that I look like total crap in this picture - but I had a terrible migrane the night before & only slept from about 8am until noon. I was super upset that I wasn't able to make it to church on Easter Sunday!

Here are Son & Beau relaxing after a hard day of work!

Son & De-de hanging the pictures that we painted for Collin's room - they did the hard work & I just sat on the floor saying "a little to the left, no, to the right".

Car seat installation - Son reading the directions (only because I asked him too - hey, Collin's life may depend on it!) & of course Beau had to help us. Then the finished installation in my car.

I have another doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon - so hopefully we will see more progress then! Big numbers, please!

Julie

Doctor's visit update

We went to the doctor today & found out that I am 1 centimeter dilated...I was hoping for a little more than that, but at least it's progress! My friend Rebecca told me that tomorrow is a full moon, then my mom told me that she had both my sister & I on full moons, so who knows??? I am just so excited that it's incredibly hard waiting!

After the appointment, my mom & I went and got our nails done so that was fun. Then we did a little shopping for Collin - he is going to be one well-dressed little dude!

5 days & Counting!

It has been so nice having my mom aka "Dede" with us over the past few days - she is going to have me & Son totally spoiled by the time she leaves!

We call her Dede (pronounced more like Dee-Dee) because that is going to be her grandmother name - her real name is Debbie, and so she came up with "Dede" for herself & "Jimbo" for my dad (his name is Jim). I think those are about the cutest grandparent names out there - and Son & I have adopted them too. It was a running joke with Son & I before Dede arrived that anytime we would talk about who was going to get up when the baby cried in the middle of the night we would end up with the same response - "Dede"!

**Before you start to think that we are taking advantage of my sweet mother - we don't actually expect her to do this, but if you know my mom then you know how much she loves to help & take care of us. I can just see myself having to race with her at 2am to see who can get to the baby first!

Even in just the 1 full day she has been here, she has already done so much for us. Yesterday when Son got home from work he opened the pantry and said "I don't think we've ever had this much food in our house"! She tidied up the house while I was at work, went to the grocery store, and cooked us a wonderful dinner last night.

I have a doctor's appointment late this afternoon, and then we will find out if they are going to schedule me to be induced next week or what the plan is. After that Dede and I are going to get our nails done. It will be nice to be able to reach my own toes again in a few days or so!

Happy Monday!

I am so excited that is really hard for me to pay attention at work this morning (hence my "time-out" to post on the blog!) My mom is on her way to Florida & will be staying with us for the next several weeks. We are so grateful that she will be here when Collin arrives, and to help us transition into parenthood!

We originally thought that she would be here last night, but due to a problem with her tire she had to stay the night in Tallahassee last night & wait for the Cadillac dealership to open this morning. That was incredibly frustrating to know that she was so close - less than 3 hours away!! They are replacing her tire now & she should be back on the road soon. Yea!

I still have no idea when Collin will decide to arrive, I had convinced myself that he was on the way on Friday...I had been up all night Thursday night with some tightening and a terrible backache, and then on Friday everyone at work told me they thought that he had "dropped" (although since I am so short I am not sure that it would be so obvious - he doesn't have that far to go!). But since then there hasn't been much action - just a few braxton-hicks every now & then. Then, yesterday at church I had 3 different people tell me that I was still carrying really high...so who knows what's really going on??

Happy Monday!

Julie

"My Bags are Packed & I'm Ready to Go" (Almost)

No, I'm not "leaving on a jet plane", but I am getting ready for a life-changing trip...to the hospital!

I had a doctor's appointment Tuesday that really made me realize that Collin will be coming soon! I am still not dilated (sp?) but everything else that needs to happen to start the process has. The doctor also estimated that he weighs approximately 6 1/2 pounds - how cute! I have also started to maybe feel some Braxton Hicks contractions? I'm really not sure at this point since they don't hurt too bad & are not really frequent, but I think there is something going on!

My friend Rachel gave me this idea - and to update this list after the big event to let people know what I couldn't live without, what I really didn't need, and what I wished I had but didn't. So, here is what I have so far...

Here is what I packed in Collin's bag:

4 Outfits (complete with matching hats and booties) - Okay, I know that 4 may be a little overboard since we already know that the hospital will supply clothing for the first few days and since we will only be there for 2 days, but it was really hard to decide on my favorite outfits! Son's favorite is a FSU onesie that he bought - it says "My first FSU T-Shirt" - with a FSU hat and matching booties that our friends Winnie & Alan gave us. I packed the cutest "going home outfit" that my neighbor Frances from TX bought us. It is light blue with smocking at the top.

Receiving Blankets - I picked out a really cute elephant one that my Aunt Becky gave me at Christmas, a matching polka dot one from the same set, and a lamb one from our friend Joy (I just got this one on Sunday since Joy wasn't able to make it to the shower & it was too cute!).

Burp Cloths - Our friend Catherine gave us an adorable giraffe print burp cloth with Collin's initials embroidered on it that I just had to include!

Pacifier - We really haven't decided if we are going to give Collin a pacifier yet (I put "do not offer pacifier" in my Birth Plan), but I wanted to bring one just in case...It is a really cute green mini neo pacifier that my mom gave us - she already had a stocking made up for Collin this year at Christmas, and she had given him about 4 or 5 different types of paci's to try!

Diapers & Wipes - this also might be unnecessary since the hospital provides these also, but it was weird packing the diaper bag without any diapers in it, plus I got the cutest diapers & wipes case that I wanted to pack (am I going a little overboard here?)

Car Seat & Base - okay, this isn't actually "in" the bag, but it's by the back door - close enough

I still haven't finished packing my own bag...most of the stuff that I want to bring I use on a daily basis (toiletries, toothbrush, slippers, etc) so I am not sure how that is going to work if I have to go straight to the hospital & Son has to go home to pick up the bags!! I can just imagine what he would pack - it would probably be pretty funny!

I did go out last week & buy some comfy PJ's from Old Navy & Target. I know that I could just wear the hospital gown like everyone else, but those things are definitely not made for someone my size & I just feel really unattractive in them - I know this will probably be the last thing on my mind once Collin arrives, but is it so wrong to want to look decent in the million pictures that we are going to take at the hospital??

I originally wanted one of the BYOG gowns (http://www.shopbyog.com/) until I found out how much they cost - I don't need to spend $95 on something that I am going to wear once (but they are super cute)! When I finally do get around to packing here is what I plan on bringing:

Julie's Bag (To Be Packed Soon):

Extra Fluffy Pillow

Blanket - probably one of the quilts my grandmother made me & a few smaller throws - I've heard that it can get pretty cold in the hospital

PJ Pants & Tops

Cute "going home" outfit

Slippers

Toiletries

Book

DVD's - probably Fireproof, Disney movies, and an action movie for Son

Camera & Charger

Cell Phone Charger

**Do any of you have more ideas of things that I need to bring?? I am totally clueless here (all I have to go by is a list I got in Lamaze class). I would love some suggestions here on what I need to bring for myself, Son & Collin!! Please leave a comment if you have a suggestion.

Thanks!

Julie

PS - Only 11 more days! I can't wait!