The weekend before there was you!

Cooper, you have now joined the Linley clan...and boy are we blessed beyond words to have you in our lives!! You are an amazing little guy and I can't wait to post all about you and spend some time reflecting on the last week and a half of wonderful days spent getting to know each other!  

However, I started this post prior to going to the hospital.  And I didn't get around to posting it...something about late night Taco Bell giving me heartburn...turned nausea...turned total melt down about my impending surgery...and the post fell to the wayside.  But...I wanted to capture the weekend anyway because it was wonderful...even if it ended on a rough note for me. It was still a most important weekend in our lives worthy of noting!  Don't mind the picture quality...most were captured via cell phone!

Thursday I woke up and enjoyed a very relaxing morning with Owen.  It was our last morning as Momma and Owen.  We watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, played, danced and sang songs. We enjoyed one last jaunt in the car, with a stop for chocolate milk and a car wash...then it was home for lunch and a nap!  We also stopped at Target and I found some very fun things for us to play with...one of which was one of those plastic microphones that echoes...he LOVES this toy!!

Thursday evening your Dadda and I took off for a much needed evening to decompress our brains.  We went to the Mills Mall to pick up a couple essentials on my list, had dinner at the food court and then went and saw Harry Potter the Deathly Hallows Part 2 on IMAX 3D.  We were like two kids back in highschool...It was good.  It was sad.  And I think my sister-in-law said it best...it was the end of an era!

With Owen in his big boy bed all the time now (sniff sniff) we were able to prep Cooper's Crib for him.  I LOVE IT!!

Cooper sent his first text message to Dadda telling him hello and I captured one last shot of the belly :)

The rest of our weekend wasn't captured with a camera.  It was simply a smattering of time spent together, cinnamon roll breakfasts, finalizing of to-do's and lots and lots of laughter!!  Just how I hoped it would go :)  It was a great close to our chapter as the Linley 3...and a wonderful way to begin preparing for another amazing adventure as the Linley 4!

Big Brother Lovin'

Cooper Ayden Linley

I wanted to take a few minutes to upload some of our first shots of the latest Linley to join the world!

Welcome to the World Cooper Ayden Linley :)  

7lbs*11oz*19 inches long born August 1 at 10:20am!

And every square inch is newborn perfection!!!

We are blessed and everyone is doing well.  So far in the last 24 hours or so, Cooper has proved to be quite the little sleeper.  In a very stark contrast to his brother, we have actually fed him a few bottles that he wasn't screaming for...which is so strange!!  

I'll be back with more soon!

Our Final Checkup and some other tidbits...

Friday brought me a morning full of doctor/hospital visits.  Both were a good prep for Monday's big event!!

I had my weekly appointment with Dr. Talsky at 9:30am.  It was a really quick appointment and I was in and out in no time!  I learned that I'm measuring 39 to 40 weeks.  Dr. T believes that Cooper will be 8 to 8.5 lbs by this week.  His heartbeat and my blood pressure and everything else were looking awesome...and my only real change to report is just being more tired and hungry as my body tries to keep up with an ever growing Cooper!!  We were told that everything was looking great for a Monday c-section and I couldn't be happier that everything was able to continue on just as scheduled!!

After I left there I headed to Saint Anthony's for some pre-op testing and paperwork.  I answered lots of questions.  There was a blood typing test and then I sat down to talk about the procedure and what to expect.  I will admit it's totally different hearing about a surgery in full detail vs having it done at 12 in the morning!

So here is what I know about tomorrow:

**Though the nurse was nice, they threatened me within an inch of my life if I remove the blood typing band they put on my wrist.  I actually had to sign a waver for it, stating if it was removed or destroyed, then I would have to have it done again and would be billed accordingly.  Apparently somewhere along the way, people stopped understanding how important it was to following the instructions regarding this!

**Because of this band being on my wrist, in order to shower I have to wrap the whole thing in a rubber glove and put a rubber band around it.  It's been interesting to say the least!

**My surgery is now moved to 9:30...yay!!  So my fears of a 12:30 surgery are calmed!!

**I have to be at the hospital at 7:30am.  I am already emotional at the thought of dropping Owen off at Grandpa Mike's and Grandma Stacey's.  UGH.

**I cannot have anything to eat or drink after midnight tonight (Sunday).

**I also learned that most of the prep for the surgery is done in the pre-op room and I cannot have anyone with me. Jer doesn't get to come back until they have me all ready and are about to begin!  So I have to walk back to get my epidural and everything else by myself.  Last time I had my epidural I had Jer's hand to hold...so I'm significantly more nervous about that part of it now.

**They nurse I spoke with about what to expect told me that I probably will not get up and walk until the next day.  I may or may not get up and sit in a chair that evening after.

**I'm currently not finishing packing my hospital bag because it's so final...I know it's all coming, but boy does that final zip of the bag make it truly official for me!

**I realize there is a lot of nervous talk in the sentences above...but if I were honest...that's what I'm feeling.  Time to contemplate surgery has definitely been something I knew would eventually start getting to me and luckily I've been able to relax myself about it until today.

**I'm also realizing that this time tomorrow, I will have held my newest baby boy and seen his face and kissed his cheeks for the first time...in 9 whole months of knowing we were having him.

**That fact in and of itself puts a serious skip in my step...and calms my fears like nothing else can.  Tomorrow I get to know he's finally here, safe, sound and health.  My first job as his mother is over and the real fun can begin!!!

I'm hanging onto my seat and enjoying the last bit of time this afternoon with my boys!!

Stay tuned...

Working on the Boys Room - Three Horn Lamp

Our last and final project was to assemble this fun lamp Jeremy found online!

All I will say is that there were about a million pieces.  And the directions, though there were lots of pictures and I'm a visual person, had ZERO written instructions.  I spent half the time attempting to assemble and half the time un-assembling and re-doing per Jeremy's instructions.  I believe at one point there may have been a curse word or two that escaped my lips...along with frustration over him becoming an engineer and being smarter than me.  I wasn't feeling particular adult-like during this event!  

We did though...finally get it all together :)

Photos of instructions...and the mess of pieces!

You understand my frustration here??  UGH!

There were 3 main steps.  Step 1 complete...the Head

Step 2...the legs and tail

Step 3 assemble all together with mid-section.

The lamp in its final resting place :)  It gives a fun touch to the room and makes a wonderful reading lamp at bedtime!!

Bubbles!!

We love bath time with Owen...and he loves it too :)

Working on the Boys Room - Dino Canvases

Another project for the boys room was an idea to put up some canvases.  A long time ago I had purchased these for Owen's nursery with full intentions of putting some kind of favorite storybook lines/quote on them.  While I still would one day love to make that a reality, the idea came together for these so much better than we ever expected!

We started with 3 16x20 white canvases. I bought mine at Michaels.

We used my Cricut and a Dinosaur Tracks cartridge to cut out the silhouettes and tag shapes below the names.  I knew we wanted to pick a few cute dinos and also wanted to like the meaning of their names.  So we picked our favorite three, researched to make sure the names matched up with their meanings and got to work.

Using different patterned scrapbook paper we cut the dinosaur shapes and circular tags out.  We chose to use a solid coordinating cardstock for the lettering and border strips.  We used the George cartridge to cut out the letters.

All 3 ready for gluing.

We placed the shapes and words using scrapbooking adhesive.  Once they were glued down, we coated them with Modge Podge to seal the canvases and keep everything in place.

After one coat of Modge Podge.

In their final destination above the crib!  Another project we loved doing and love having in the boys room!!