Haircut!!

I decided since I am now a mom, it was time to cut my hair. But I didn't want a typical mommyhaircut so.....here's my new "sassy" mommy haircut!

before

2 months old!

We went in on Tuesday for James' 2 month check up. He weighs 11lb. 13 oz. and is 24 in. long! He's a growing boy!

He is smiling a ton and even laughs now! I LOVE it! He kicks a lot and coos and blows spit bubbles :) I love watching him grow and learn something new every day.

At a little after a month old we had to kick him into his own room. This has been the best thing! He is such a noisy sleeper! At first I worried about the transition to a crib but right away he took to it and actually sleeps a ton better than he did in his bassinet so we're all loving the change.

He is a really great sleeper even from day one (ok, I should say day 2 because, as most parents will attest, we did not sleep at all the first night). At about 6 weeks he started sleeping 6-7 hour stretches and continues to do that to this day (WONDERFUL!). Last night he slept 8 (crossing our fingers for the formation of a habit).

Like I said he has always slept great but we struggled with the self soothing part. We've pretty much got that down now. He used to only be able to fall asleep in our arms and we'd have to wait until he was in a deep sleep to put him down in his bed but now we can pretty much put him down when he's drowsy and he'll fall asleep on his own.

We just love this kid and all that he brings to our family already.

I saw this on the door in the pumping room at work and had to laugh cause it's so true :)

Newborn Pics

We were able to get some professional newborn pictures taken and thought we'd share a few of our favorites. They turned out really well! These were taken when he was 3 weeks old.

1 Month Old

Baby James is a month old! Actually he's a little older than that (5 weeks to be exact). We are so loving being parents!

James is such a good baby! He usually sleeps like a 3 or 4 hour stretch at the beginning of the night and then I'll feed him and he'll go back down for another hour to 2 hours. He really rarely fusses. Last night he slept from 11pm to 5:30am! I had to get up for clinicals anyway at 6 so I kind of consider that sleeping through the night or close enough to it! We were so happy to get that much sleep...it was definitely needed.

He has started smiling at us. I love it! He started this probably around 2 weeks ago but is doing it more and more and he'll kind of coo too.

I have gone back to school/clinicals and it has actually turned out pretty well. I was super nervous about it all. My sister's in Saratoga Springs take turns watching him while I am doing my clinicals and I am so happy he has been good for them so far. School work is definitely a lot harder to juggle but it has made me be more on top of things and not procrastinate.

We are starting to get the hang of things :)

Meet Baby James

James Quentin Cullimore was born April 13, 2011 at 2:54 am. He weighed 8lbs 5oz and was 21 in. long.

Wow was it a rough trip getting him here! This kid did NOT want to come out!

41 weeks pregnant on our way to the hospital: so ready for the baby. Carson is also ready

We were scheduled to be induced Tuesday morning (April 12) but had to go in the night before to prep my cervix and had to stay overnight to do so. We probably only got about an hour of sleep total that night with all the anticipation/nerves and the discomfort of having to sleep in the hospital and not our own beds. They were going to start pitocin Tuesday morning but I actually went into labor on my own about 6am so they held off on it and let my body do it's thing.

Initially I kind of wanted to try the whole natural birth thing but was open to the idea of an epidural...holy cow did that go out the window! haha I wasn't too shocked though. I got to a 4 and wow did it get extremely painful so I quickly opted for the epidural. The Anesthesiologist is my hero :)

After I got the epidural, things sort of slowed down. I got stuck at a 4 for a while and then jumped to a 7 then got stuck there. A few times they said if things don't pick up we might have to do a c-section. Which kind of scared me. They gave me Pitocin which seemed to help a little.

Going into it all, Carson and I thought that for sure he'd be here by late afternoon but the day went along and it didn't seem like that was going to happen. It was funny, we went through I think 4 nurses and the last one was actually the same one that got us checked into our room Monday night. She came in Tuesday night and said, "You guys are still here!? I went home, slept, and am back again and you're still here. Well, I am determined for you to have your baby before I go home again."

Finally by around midnight it was time to push. I pushed for 2 and a half hours. Again during this process they mentioned the possibility of a c-section. Boy did I give it my all while pushing so that I would not have to have a c-section. They tried forceps which did not work and then used a vacuum to assist. Finally after 21 hours of labor he was born! Wow, we did not expect it to take THAT long! We were both exhausted! Poor little James looked a little beat up too :(

kicking back in the nursery

When he came out he didn't really cry at first. He was sort of grunting so the Doctor was a little concerned that he was struggling to breathe. A Respiratory Therapist came in to work with the baby. They were going to send him to the intermediate nursery where he'd have to be on a CPAP that would assist in his breathing. Geez, just what you want to hear. Carson went with the baby to the nursery while they got me all ready to be transported to the mother/baby floor.

By the time we were all settled together in our new room it was 6 am. Two days of no sleep :( Carson came in with the baby and told me he checked out ok. They didn't need to keep him in the intermediate nursery or do the CPAP on him. It was just the trauma of the delivery that must have effected his breathing and they weren't concerned. What a relief!

The baby developed Jaundice Thursday so he had to be under the bili lights for a full 24 hours....that was sad. He did not like it at all. He checked out ok Friday morning though so we were able to go home! So we were in the hospital from Monday night to Friday morning. Yuck! It was so nice to finally get home.

The first night home from the hospital was a hard one with again, no sleep AT ALL! We were seriously just running on adrenaline after that week.

He is now 2 weeks old today and sleeps pretty well, waking up about every 3 hours at night. It is quite an adjustment having him here but we are so grateful that he is here and that he's healthy!

40 weeks

Well, I've hit my 40 week mark and I'm still pregnant :(

Today is the due date and it doesn't look like he'll be making his grand entrance on this date. (No prophet baby for my mom) ;)

At my 39 week appointment the doctor said I was comfortably still a fingertip but he was able to force me into a 1. We had another appointment yesterday and they said I'm still a 1. Boo. But that really doesn't mean much...some people are stuck at a 2 or 3 for weeks...you just never know. The thing that gets me down is that the doctor said his head is still high so to me it seems he's not budging much. We have another appointment tomorrow where they will see if there's any more progression and we will then schedule the induction.

Another thing that has been frustrating is that I've been having false labor. Monday I started having pretty intense contractions and I timed them and they were coming regularly. I even had the lower back pain. I was pretty excited thinking, THIS IS IT!! but...nope. After about two hours, they stopped. Then I woke up in the middle of the night that night with more intense contractions so I thought, maybe this is it?....nope. And then I go to the doctor's thinking I've probably made some good progression and...nope. GEEZ!

I work tonight so maybe being on my feet and bending over tons etc will stir some things up???

Oh well, he'll come when he wants to come so I'll just run on his time. :)

Any Day Now...

I don't have any super recent pics but here's a few from what's been going on in the last month:

34 weeks

36 weeks

a cute diaper cake made for my Target shower

I am currently 39 weeks and VERY ready for little James to get here! Just in the last few days I have grown extremely uncomfortable (some days are worse than others). I also think I've dropped a little. I continue to have lots of contractions and since about 37 weeks they have become more painful but still tolerable. They have never been regular though. I actually have been having lots of contractions from about week 28 so hopefully that means I won't go past my due date and possibly it'll be an easy labor???

The last 3 weeks Dr's appointments they have checked me to see how I've been progressing....not much going on there. I have been a fingertip dilated each time but the effacement part has progressed I was a 30 the first time, second time 50% (last week they were running behind so she only told me how dilated I was). The doctor said for the first time that's kind of how it goes: you usually progress in one area at a time in the first couple weeks so I guess it's all normal. I have an appointment tomorrow (Thurs.) so we'll see how it's going.

My due date is right around finals for both Carson and I so we are busting our bums to get as much done as possible. I think things are going well there. It's sort of nice having school/clinicals to focus on. It helps the time go by faster and helps get my mind off of how uncomfortable I am.

We are crossing our fingers that I don't go into labor before April 1st since our insurance changes on that date (I know, we're really pushing it) :) We will have a significantly lower deductible come April 1st. Earlier this week I didn't think we'd make it...but I'm feeling optimistic about it now. I am REALLY hoping that we won't have to wait much longer after April 1st :)

We do have an induction date of Tuesday April 12 so if all else fails, we will have the baby that day. It's nice to have a date but it seems so far away!!! :)

Getting really anxious to meet the little guy!