Welcome Cooper Alexander!

Conversation with Grayson

I walk into the living room and this is what I hear.....

Grayson: Hey Mommy, I'm screwin....

Me (doing a double take at my son): You are?

Grayson: Yes!............................................ When I get big I'm going to be real good at screwin!

Me (trying my best not to laugh): I bet you will be.


Now to clarify what was going on, Grayson was helping his daddy put batteries in Coopers bouncy seat. He was using the screwdriver trying to unscrew the screws. He was so serious about being a good "screwer" that I could hardly keep a straight face.

Preparing for Cooper

Cooper is arriving tomorrow morning! Yes, this is a week ahead of schedule but apparently he and my body thinks he needs to come on. Sunday I had another gallbladder attack...this one the worst yet! I was at a baby shower (not for me) of all places. Thankfully it was at my cousins house so I was curled up in her bed when I wasn't in the bathroom. Two of my other cousins decided they needed to call the dr and he told me to go on to the hospital. Turns out that was a good idea as the gallbladder attack triggered contractions. So, I got a nice overnight stay at the hospital so they could do an ultrasound on my gallbladder Mon. morning. The only thing it showed was Cooper kicking my gallbladder. Wednesday I went and saw my dr. and I didn't even have to bring up moving my c-section date. I had my gameplan ready to beg and everything :-) Today has been very busy. We had pregnancy pictures planned for tomorrow but fortunately our photographer was able to move them to today. Hopefully, she will have a sneak peak available soon.

So here I am the night before #3 is to arrive. The other two kids are at Nana's and Papaw's for the next couple of days. I need to be in bed asleep instead of blogging but you know how that goes. In a few days I will post some pics of the newest member of our family. So now to bed with everything running through my mind. Surely I have everything packed :-)

An update....

We have a big girl! Reagan slept in her big girl panties the whole night and no one was flooded out of the bed! The only reason I let her sleep in them was to keep her from making a stinky in a pull up. Yes we have #2 issues and she only wants to do it in her pull up. Looks like I can hide the few left overs we have and go undies from this point out. Keep your fingers crossed this works.

I'm officially on maternity leave now. The doctor wanted me to start a week earlier than I had planned. I'm not complaining too loudly as I was to the point I wasn't able to do what I needed to be doing in the classroom. I already miss my class!! They were so sweet and good. When you have a class that was as good as mine you don't want to leave them.

Cooper is scheduled to come in 2 weeks. Yes, I only have 2 weeks to pick up any last minute items needed, clean my house from top to bottom (or at least make it presentable), run any errands I need to do for me, and finish Easter bunny stuff. Plus, I want to take each of the kids on a date without the other....not sure what we will do so if you have any suggestions let me know. I'm already tired thinking of it.

Progress

Progress was made tonight in Coopers room. Mark and Samson carried his bed downstairs, moved the rocking chair, and armoire into the room. Reagan and I emptied some gift bags and dusted. The only downside is that after the furniture was moved in I figured out that Reagan's old changing table is 4 inches too big to fit. So, now I'm trying to see if I rearrange I can make it fit. Oh well! Now to get the bedding on the bed, curtains finished and to find pictures to hang we will be finished!

Cooper

So, we have chosen Cooper as the baby's name. Of course, the kids and I are still calling him Sharkey...it's a hard habit to break :-) We're still working on a middle name, so if you have any suggestions that start with A be sure to let us know. I went back to the Dr. yesterday. I now know what is calling the rash, but the stomach issues are not related. The rash is some LONG name I can't remember but the abbreviations are PUPPP. From what the doctor said and the research I have read it only occurs to 1% of pregnant women. Most of these are first time pregnancies, pregnant with multiples, etc. None of which apply to my situation. Pretty much what this means is that I'm not reacting well to the male DNA of Cooper....Marks contribution :-) It should go away after the pregnancy. The rash can leave scars, but I'm hoping not. Right now the Dr. is treating it with steroids. I don't know if I will take these for the rest of the pregnancy or just for now. Back to the stomach issues the Dr. wouldn't commit to a diagnosis but the look on his face when I asked if it was gallbladder lead me to believe that is his line of thinking. Due to the rash and stomach issues I bypassed going to the Dr. every 2 weeks and now have to go every week.

March 25th can't get here soon enough :-)

Baby Sharkey

Ok, so I have done a horrible job keeping my new years resolution. I'm not in denial so I can admit it. Let me try to catch you up on what's been going on in our world.

First of all baby Sharkey. Yes I am 32 weeks pregnant with a boy and he still doesn't have a name. Poor #3 is already neglected. I think Mark and I have narrowed it down and may actually have one selected but I'm not ready to commit just yet. Anyway, back to the name Sharkey. In October we took a trip to the beach. Somehow on that trip Grayson decided he wanted to name the baby Sharkey Fish Stallings and it has stuck. I think that is part of the reason we have been so slow on picking a name. We have called him Sharkey for so long it seems as if he has a name. Mark's cousin, Samson, painted the nursery yesterday so now I'm ready for the boys to move the furniture in there and start getting it ready. The bedding came in last week. Grayson is disappointed because he had picked out one that was polka dots with animals. The one I went with is polka dots but no animals. I told him he could help me pick out animal pictures to put on the walls. We'll see what we end up with :-) On Friday we took the kids to see an ultrasound with us. Grayson was very excited...Reagan not so much. Grayson really thought it was funny that Sharkey kept showing us his weenie. We really didn't get a good look at his face. His hands and his feet were in front of his face. I guess it will have to be a surprise who he looks like.

The pregnancy has been pretty uneventful until the past month. I have a HORRIBLE itchy rash on my forearms and belly and it's not getting any better. In addition to that every 5-7 days I have had some major stomach issues...to the point I have to miss work. I won't go into details but I bet you can guess. Not fun anytime, but especially when you have a huge belly. Last week the Dr. took about 1/2 my blood to run some tests so I'm hoping when I go back tomorrow he has some answers. I'm tired of itching and making bathroom visits. Keep your fingers crossed that I find out some answers.

I'm going to go for now. I will post again soon and give you more updates about what's been going on and hopefully some pictures!