"Whats in a name" and Merry Christmas!!!

I forgot in the last blog to talk about her name. Many people have asked us about Trinity Carolina's name and inspiration etc.. behind it. First off we have very different tastes in names which we knew before we became pregnant. A few years ago while at a church function we met a visitor with a 10 year old daughter named Trinity. I immediately loved the name and told Jason that we should name our daughter that, if he liked it. Such a common name for me and with good memories as I went to Trinity school and Trinity Church in Alabama. Once we became pregnant and found out it was a girl we both agreed on Trinity. We also had been thinking of special middle names. We decided that she is a special little girl and wanted her middle name to honor a very special man. Grandpa Gates first name is Carroll and he is a wonderful man who has touched our lives. Her middle name is a rendition of his name. Carolina will always have a piece of her Great Grandpa touching her life and we pray she has his kind heart!!!

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve. We went to our neighbors family dinner with seafood and fun. We came home and had a wonderful night because Trinity put herself on a nice sleep schedule that allowed us to get sleep in 3 hour increments!! We woke up very refreshed and enjoyed opening our stockings. Next Jason made eggs benedict for our brunch (my favorite).. he did it very well... complete with an olive and paprika on top (the way it was made for me growing up). Trinity went down for a nap and we opened up wonderful Christmas presents from family and friends and feel very blessed!!! We ended the night with a walk around the block, watching the sunset in 75 degree weather.

Welcome Trinity

On Monday 12/13/2010 the Doctor advised us that he would induce us the afternoon of the 14th. Very excited about meeting our new bundle we spent the next hours doing things to prepare. We went into the hospital around 1pm and I was immediately put on pitocin to induce contractions. The Dr. came in at 5pm and saw that I was reading a magazine and had not gotten an epidural he stated "well that is not real labor if she is reading a magazine we need to up that pitocin." Shortly after I indeed asked for my epidural. God bless the inventor of that whole procedure. I slept for about 2 hours as did Jason.
No reason to traumatize anyone... 19 hours later with 3 straight hours of pushing the Dr. came in and stated well... what do you think about getting her out in one contraction... "YES PLEASE!!" Two contractions later she was here. On 12/15/2010, at 8:58am, Trinity Carolina blessed us with her presence at 9lbs 2oz and 20 inches long.

They could not regulate my blood pressure after birth so we were not released the next day. We were ready to leave on Friday but Trinity looked a bit jaundice so she got the blue light special. On Saturday we were told both her and I met the requirements and could now go home. Saturday night we got home around 7pm and feel blessed.

We had wonderful Doctors and nurses and are grateful for all the prayers through this journey. We know that you will continue to pray for our family and Trinity. We will keep this blog going as our journey continues.. so keep looking back for updates and pictures.

Operation "get baby out" is under way

Sorry for sideways pictures... I rotated them and I can't rotate them back. I'm not using my computer for this so I'm a bit special. Please turn head to view them. hahahaha

We had a fun weekend. On Friday night we got our real Christmas tree for the living room (a noble fur). We had fun decorating it and listening to Christmas music. Now we have two trees to enjoy. The little fake one is dedicated to the baby this year. It has all bright colored fun ornaments on it and all the "baby first christmas ornaments" people have given us and we bought one.

On Saturday it was Jasons work Christmas party at the bowling lane (a.k.a mission bowl baby out). It was a lot of fun with good food/people and bowling (however baby was not bowled out so unsuccessful).

Sunday we spent around the house and decided to walk around the desert museum (a.k.a walk baby out... also unsuccessful). We ended Sunday with some spicy mexican food (yes yes.. mission ..burn baby out with spicy food.. and I do not recommend that.. if the baby is stubborn only you will pay for this one).

Monday we had our Dr. appointment. I didn't do much all day before that and yet my feet still were swollen enough that the Dr. realized its uncomfortable to walk around with feet two times the appropriate size. So we had some fun tests run which were cool b/c we could hear the baby heartbeat the whole hour. Tests all came back just fine. The baby is doing great and I am fine as well!!! So to alleviate the swelling... I will be hanging out at home... a.k.a mission bedrest so my feet aren't so swollen when I go into labor I can't walk to the car... :) :) haha-- I suppose this will be good sleeping and reading time for me!!

Anyway.. all is well and according to what the Dr. says... everything progressing and baby should come by Christmas (if she is left to do her thing) If Dr. intervenes she will be here by her due date!!! Either way we are eager and excited.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. We were both off from work for at least 4 days (I still have monday off :) .... On Thanksgiving we had a wonderful grits casserole breakfast and biscuits to start the day. We were able to relax at home/watching the parade and being thankful for the many gifts and blessings we have received this year. We have wonderful friends and family and are blessed with a healthy little girl who is still cooking away. We went to our neighbors house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was awesome as usual...... and I was requested to bring red velvet cupcakes so made it very easy for me!!! We had a wonderful time and ate way too much!!!!

This weekend instead of shopping out in the craziness we opted to hang out at home and decorate the house. We watched the Iron Bowl and the Michigan game...... and ate leftovers. We have our tiny fake tree up (this one I got last year when I was by myself...) we have dedicated this one as our baby tree. It has fun baby ornaments on it and is tiny enough to make it cute just for her. Next weekend we will get our real tree. Jason worked hard and put up outside lights (my favorite). The outside lights are the big bulb colored lights.... they look kind of white in the picture.

We also took the time to go out just us... we figured the time is drawing near that we won't be going out as a twosome very often so we should take advantage of it. Only 19 days until her due date... we are very excited!!!

Done and Ready

The nursery is completely finished. Jason put up the decal we ordered for above her crib and it turned out great (apparently they are a pain to put up). So we are very happy that her room is finished!!!! We also installed her car seat in the vehicle and our "to go" bag is in the car. Now we can finish doing all the little things around the house. It is before thanksgiving.. and yes I am putting up Christmas decorations already!!! I just don't want to have anything done and be too tired to do it if she comes any earlier. Jason is doing great and putting up frames etc.. and helping with all the little/big things around the house. He is waiting until after thanksgiving to put outside lights up on our house. This will be my first Christmas off of work in many many years... and I am looking forward to it!!! Our weather has finally turned cool so the windows are open. I of course have a heater box inside so when its in the 40s at night our window is open and I have a fan on (crazy!!! probably) and my poor husband is covered over his head with blankets. We are very excited and very ready to meet our little girl!!!! 33 days left til her due date...

video

We have had a great weekend!!! Jason put up two tiny shelves, I finished washing some clothes and sheets for the nursery. We watched lots of football and only went to the baby store once for some mattress pads on sale.
The only thing we have left for her room is the wall applique above her crib. That should be here this week and then we are done. We love her room and it's nice to just sit in the rocker and look around.
We go to the doctor for our check up tomorrow and I'm sure all will be good!!!! 40 days left!!!
Hope you enjoyed the video of her room.

Lots of boxes to recycle

We had a great weekend. On Friday night we had a social with goodies for all the soon -to -be church members. The house we went to was incredible and has the most amazing views (its for sale, so we looked it up... just about 600 grand out of our price range). They were awesome hosts and we loved it!!!

Saturday we made a trip to the baby store to pick up items that we had ordered. All of the items we ordered and have shown put together were given to us by family and friends. We just had to order them b/c they don't ship to the house and are not in storage at the store. We feel very blessed by everyone who has celebrated with us. Thank you so much it is all beautiful!! Next will be pictures of our little girl using all of them (we will see which ones she likes the best... i have been told they can be picky :) :) haha)

Jason spent the afternoon putting together the cradle, and baby swing. When a neighbor came home they helped lift the dresser/changer into the house (we decided it would be best if I did not try). At last, we can see our living room/dining room floor. 99% of the baby stuff is put away!!!! We have very little left and her room is ready!!!

On Sunday we officially became members of our church! We had another small reception afterwards with lots of people welcoming the new members class.

I included some photos from this weekend and some things we haven't put up yet!!!

The baby is doing well and growing!!! She takes up my lung space and enjoys giving me heartburn from breathing and drinking water (I have found there is only so many tums a person can physically take). All in all we are great!!! 47 days....... :)

Weekend Fun

Last weekend we had a very swift visit to Michigan. It was great to be able to see family and friends and celebrate our Baby Girl. We had a wonderful shower that Mary and Ginny put together!! When we got home the baby bjorn arrived (Jason's favorite gift). You can see him trying it out with Ziggy the bear.

We arrived back home in time to celebrate our 3 year anniversary. I actually surprised Jason and got him a dual wine cooler which he loves.

This weekend we went to the Baby store and ordered our dresser/changer and the cradle. Hopefully those items will arrive this week sometime and we can pick them up. We dropped Cash off at the groomers while we went out on Saturday. We were called an hour later.... Cash is blacklisted from this groomer.... this is the SECOND place. Everyone says he is a calm sweet dog until you put him in a bathtub or get clippers near him. So we had a frustrated groomer that he nipped at (the last one he donkey kicked in the face) and a relieved dog to go home. He is half groomed and very happy about that. So I bought some dog trimmers and I will practice on him until I'm good at it... and he knows better then to donkey kick me. :) :)

All in all we are glad to be home, de-stress and enjoy our time preparing for the baby.

Birthday Weekend

This weekend we celebrated Jasons birthday (which is monday) but I work on monday b/c i shifted days off for travel this coming weekend. He has the day off and will enjoy playing golf with friends.

We forgot the camera but had a lot of fun at the desert museum walking around in the wonderful 85 degree weather!!!! For dinner I made him my pot roast and decadent chocolate cupcakes (they are awesome I already ate 2 and so did he).

We are starting to hang pictures in the nursery and rearrange to see how we like things.

Our awesome neighbors... Judy made 3 gorgeous blankets and 3 beanie hats for the baby. They are so pretty and so soft!!!! Blessed with awesome neighbors.. they help us with anything and everything :) !!!

We are looking forward to our Michigan trip.. it will be swift and sweet!!! See alot of you very soon!!

Coolest Ultrasound

We had alot of fun today spending time with our little girl. The ultrasound tech was laughing b/c she moved so much. She is head down already so only one good angle to get her face. She LOVES to keep her hands covering her face (playing peak a boo already) and throws her feet up there for some pictures as well. I will put some of our favorite pictures on and you can find her face and nose... and decide if its a foot or hand!!! Oh and of course you can decide who she looks like. We think she looks like a pretty cute baby!!! (also estimated at 2.14lbs.. on track to be 7ish by her birthday)

Crib and Nursery

We had a great weekend. We both needed some rest after the go go go of the last weekend. We bought her mattress (or I should say some gift cards and a coupon bought it). So we put the crib together with the bedding and Jason worked on the Mobil thingy for the bed. Cash was hilarious when we put the music on and he saw mini stuffed animals moving around. His head went from side to side and then he had to go in for a lick.

I couldn't figure out what to do with the cut out space above the closet but finally thought of an idea. I made the ABC blocks from fabric, wood letters and big green square styrofoam. I managed to adhere myself to the old table I was working on. Thankfully I did not work on the kitchen table!!!! The bucket was from my shower and the cute animal magnets on the bucket were off of my diaper cake (I through in flowers for some height). They were put to good use. We ordered our glider/ rocking chair and should have it in the next week or so .. we are blessed by giving family:) :) !!!! Stay tuned for next weekend we are hoping to have updated ultrasound pictures.