New Pics!

So things are going great around the Coffey front. Tess last weekend was a little jaundiced but has come out of that all on her own, so thankfully no bili lights for her like poor Judd had!

She has already gained her birth weight back and 1/2 oz. She goes on Thursday to her two week check up and Raymond goes at the same time for his LONG OVERDUE 4 year old checkup. I go week after next for my two week post partum checkup. She is beginning to get on an eating schedule which is allowing me to finally catch some Zzzzzs. I have been desperatly trying to get my house in order because I start back to work with the daycare kids on Monday and my house was kind of like a tornado hit it. Plus Tony's dad and his wife will be coming to visit this upcoming weekend, so I have to clean for that too. The boys haven't gotten to see Grandpa Jerry in a long time, so that will be a nice treat for them.

I am also proud to announce that I finally got up the nerve to weigh myself for the first time today since having her and I am very excited to share that I have lost 20 lbs in 11 days and am only 3 lbs. away from my pre-pregnancy weight!!! So Monday I am starting my weightwatchers.com again, and am so excited to be so close to losing the most weight that I have lost since I got pregnant with Owen over 6 years ago!

Anyways, nothing else new. So I guess I will share a couple of photos from this week. Hope everyone else is doing well. Also the blue sweater you see Tess in was made by my good friend Dani! Thanks again Dani, it is beautiful and I love it!! She too will be having her new baby any day now along with two other of my friends are due any day now. It must be baby season!

Introducing.....Tess Virgina Coffey!

I would like to formally introduce Tess Virginia Coffey to the family! She is beautiful and wonderful and all that I had imagined!

It all started on Tuesday the 12th, when I went to my doctors appt. My midwife, Jenda (who I LOVE LOVE LOVE!) checked me and said that she thought that I was in early labor because I was dilated 3 cm, which the week before I was still only 1. So she hooked me up to the monitors to watch contractions and decided to send me on up to the hospital to get me going. She was on call that night too and she knew how much I wanted only her to deliver Tess and no one else.

So I rushed home and in a whirlwind got everything packed and organized, had my mom calling daycare parents to pick up their kids and Tony and I headed up to the hospital. Around 3:30 Jenda came in and broke my water - we were hoping to avoid pitocin this time and hoped that breaking my water would just bring on contractions naturally (which it did over time). After getting me all checked in she had Tony and I walk the halls for awhile while contractions started.
After a few hours of labor I was not feeling very good and after having 3 natural births before, was not coping with the contractions very well and think she was positioned weird, so as soon as I was 5 cm, I opted for the epidural this time. Which was a great end result. I got the epidural and within about an hour to hour and half had gone from 5cm to 7cm and then an hour later had gone from 7cm to 10 and was ready to push. Pushing only took about 10 minutes and it was nice to have just relaxed those last few hours and get excited for her to come. Then all of a sudden she was here!!!

She weighed 8lbs. 11 oz and was 20 1/4 inches long and was born at 11:39pm on the 12th of Jan. She is my biggest baby which is funny since she's the only girl. I guess God figures she needs to be able to stand up for herself against her three big brothers!

At first I thought she looked EXACTLY like Raymond in the face, but with Owen's long fingers and feet, and Judd's body (long torso and short legs). Every day that passes however I think that she looks less like Raymond and has gotten much more feminine features. I think she's beautiful and 5 days later has still stolen the hearts of my boys and Tony and me.

The last couple of days she has had to go to the doctor to get her jaundice level checked because it was slightly elevated, but today's results showed that it leveled out some so hopefully she will be in the clear and not have to have the lights like Judd did - those were obnoxious and I hated them.

My mom was here the last two weeks and left yesterday to head home and we appreciate everything she did to help us, whether it be feed us, clean up after us, help go crazy with daycare kids, or my own kids, we are very thankful for her presence during the whole time period. Also I am thankful that she and Tony's mom have been in the delivery room for all of the births of their grandchildren (minus Owen's birth for Holly).

Today is the first day it has been me and my 4 hooligans and so far so good. Granted I haven't attempted to get anything done, I've just been sitting around with them and doing the bare minimum, but have to start somewhere. Tomorrow the boys don't have school, so I am going to try and get up and get motivated and moving and get some stuff done to see how we do. This week it is just me and my kids and then I have my daycare reopen next week the 25th, so that might be a stressful week. Otherwise all is well and I want to thank everyone for their good thoughts and well wishes for my beautiful family! I have put a ton of pictures on here in order from me arriving at the hospital to her yesterday. So enjoy!

Still waiting....

I have been desperate to have Tess over the last couple weeks and have been repeatedly disappointed. I completely understand that I have NO control over when she comes, but I am so done being pregnant that I am anxious to have her here. I'm tired of waddling around, not being able to bend over, can't see my feet or tie shoes, not being able to turn over in bed, indigestion, constipation, and feeling HUGE all the time. Because of this desperation to be done being pregnant, I feel rest assured with my decision that Tess is most definitely the final chapter in our growing little family! Phew.

At 36 weeks I was so excited to find that I was already 1 cm dilated and 75 % effaced, because that is the earliest of all pregnancies that I have actually dilated. The depressing news is as of Wednesday this last week (my 39 week apt.) I am still 1 cm dilated and 75 % effaced. Boooooooo. So my midwife has decided that she definitely does NOT want me to go over my due date, but thinks it will be ok to go up to my due date, so we have scheduled an induction on my due date, Friday Jan. 15, with hopes that she would still make her arrival on her own before then. I'm feeling doubtful about that now and expect that I will have to go through with the induction on Friday. I am upset about that for a couple of reasons. I have had to be induced with all three of the boys because they just don't want to come out on their own, and I was really hoping to experience laboring at home as much as possible before going to the hospital. Also, I wanted to try to avoid patocin (not sure if this is spelled right - the inducing drug) because it is awful and causes contractions to be more painful, and I don't do epidural or other drugs, so I have the baby all natural even with the extra pain...which I'm not looking forward to this time around. :(

Plus I am a little annoyed that she hasn't come yet because I really wanted her to come before the boys had to go back to school from Christmas break so I wouldn't have to deal with finding rides, etc. for them while I am at the hospital or in labor. Now if I last until Friday there is a chance that Tony's mom can't be there for the birth because she teaches college nursing and her students come back this week and Friday is her busiest day and she is very upset that she might miss it.

So again, I know I have NO control over the situation I was just hoping that she'd be the one to come just a little earlier than her due date and to come all on her own. I know I still have a few days before Friday, but I am feeling a little more resigned to the fact that she just won't come on her own.

So say a prayer for us as we bring little Tess into the world within the next 5 days for sure. I will keep everyone posted. Please pray for an "easy" labor for me and a healthy delivery for her and me. (and that she comes before Friday so I can do this one on my own without the drugs causing contractions for me!)

Happy 2010!

Not much has been going on around here since Christmas. In fact I've only left the house two times in two weeks. Once Christmas Eve to go to Tony's mom's house and then not again until New Years Eve for my morning Dr. appt.

We've pretty much been living in a huge mess in our house with me lacking the motivation to put Christmas toys and gifts away...I will however have you know that the Sunday after Christmas I had all my decorations put away and my tree out in the front yard. One less hassle to deal with when Tess comes...

New Years Eve we spent quietly at home. I volunteered to watch one of my baby daycare kids overnight so she celebrated with us too. We really didn't do much. We made way more junk snack food then we needed, but heartily enjoyed. We also played the Wii for about 4 hours straight!!! The boys are Wii'd out for awhile, which is fine because once school starts this next week they have to go back to Friday nights being video game nights anyways. I don't let them play them anytime they want. Judd crashed at about 10pm and the other two made it til' midnight! Two minutes after midnight however they were asleep on the couch (as was Tony). I can't blame Tony though cause he had to get up at 4am to go to work the next morning.

Friday came and I had no daycare kids so being Super lazy I didn't bother to get showered or dressed or clean even one dish in the sink that was overflowing from dirty dishes. Their was a huge disgusting mess all over the house. Instead I took a nap with the boys and lazed around all day, mopeing about how Tess is not coming yet!

Today I made up for it though. I got up at 7, took a shower, fed the boys, gave them a bath, did 4 loads of laundry, folded them and put them away, washed sheets and remade beds, cleaned and vacuumed the basement and steps, did 2 loads of dishes in the dishwasher, made the boys lunch, cleaned up their room and my room and all in time to go to Sesame Street Live tonight with the free tickets a daycare parent gave me from their work.

So maybe I am nesting, who knows, or maybe I feel guilty about being SOOOOO lazy yesterday, but nonetheless even though there is a ton more organizing/cleaning left to do, I feel good about my accomplishments of the day and feel like I can let my mom come to my house tomorrow to stay for awhile without being too embarrassed about the shambles of my house. :) I'm confident that once Tess comes out, I will be my motivated, hyper-active cleaning and organizing machine, so that keeps me positive. Happy New Years to all!

The boys and Tony sledding for the first time with their new sled from Santa. If you can't tell the snow was knee deep on Tony.

Me at 38 weeks with Tess. I know I look huge, but as a reminder I always carry my kids straight out front. I don't think she'll be any bigger than the boys were and they were all right around 8lbs. even.