Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

Happy 2008! I have many Christmas pictures to share, and hopefully I'll get around to putting some of them on here soon. We're headed to Lima overnight to celebrate the new year with Joe's 7:11 group, then I have tomorrow and Wednesday to rest.....then it's back to work. It's been a great 8 weeks or so off work, but I'm ready to go back. I think.

So everyone, enjoy your New Years Eve, have fun, be safe, watch the ball drop, etc etc. Did you make a resolution?? Last year I resolved to learn to like shrimp, and I think I've done well at it. I still can't eat shrimp coctail, but I do enjoy a nice seasoned grilled shrimp now and then... I know, not a very exciting resolution, but a very attainable one.

This year? Not sure yet, I have 7.5 hours to think of one. I'll let y'all know what I decide on.

I really hope that the Hollywood writers resolve to eh....resolve the writers' strike. I'm really missing my friends at Seattle Grace, on Wisteria Lane, and all the rest, too many to mention. I'm going to have to stoop to watching reality TV, which I'm really not happy about, but I'll do it. If I must. :)

Happy New Year!

I am now going to go enjoy my Cadbury Ornamet, courtesy of Aunt Jenni. =) THANKS!!!

Merry Christmas, Bloggerville!

Holiday Quiz

I love Christmas music a little too much, if that's possible. I know a lot of people complain of constant Christmas music on the radio and in stores this time of year, but I LOVE it. Can't get enough of it. (Our iTunes has 1444 songs in the "holiday" category.) So I was proud of myself for only missing one of the questions in this holiday Christmas Carol Quiz. Apparently there's more to the song 'Jingle Bells' than I realized.
Here's the website:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/carolquiz,0,4932856.triviaquiz

And here's some more photos of our little guy.

Nephew

Trish and Jer named their baby Trey James Lewis LaValley. He was born early Sunday morning, weighs 6 lbs, 8 oz, and is 21 inches long. Trish and Trey are both doing well and will hopefully get to go home soon. We can't wait for Quinn to meet his cousin over Christmas!

More Baby news

My nephew was born today! My sister-in-law, Trish, had her baby boy early this morning. I don't have details on him yet, but for now I'm just glad he's here and everyone is doing well. Trish and I have gone through our pregnancies together and I've been so excited for this little guy to get here- I can't wait to meet him when we go up to Michigan for Christmas!!

Congratulations, Jer and Trish!!!!




p.s...i came back to add to this post:

I just got done reading everyone else's blogs this morning and now I'm sitting here thinking about what a great family I have. Everyone's postings and responses this weekend were so awesome, loving, insightful, faithful, inspiring, and supportive and I'm just glad that I am part of such an amazing family!!!

One Month

Quinn was one month old yesterday. I can't believe it's been a month already! He's really growing... this picture was taken Monday- it's one of my favorite 'newborn' outfits, and it was pretty big on him when we put him in it at the hospital...he;s pretty much outgrown it now, so I had to take a picture of him wearing it one last time. Notice his new trick: he holds his pacifier in his mouth while he sleeps.


















I am going to try to take a picture of him with this same bear every month to show his growth. This is when he was one week old:


















And this was yesterday:

My Big Adventure- almost as exciting as Pee Wee's.

I got to go out in the real world today.

I drove my car for the first time in over a month, which was kind of strange at first...although, I'm still not fully self-sufficient yet; I had to wait for Joe to get home from work so he could put Quinn's carseat in the car (it's still over my lifting limit for another couple of weeks). I drove him (Quinn, not Joe- Joe was at basketball practice) out to mom and dad's and dropped him off (well, mom had to get the carseat out of the car for me!) and off I went.

First stop: salon. Actually, I take that back. My first stop was McDonalds for a coffee. Then I hit the salon. I caught up on the past week's accounting and made a shopping list. Next, beauty supply: I loaded up the cart...and then the sales girl had to load it into my trunk for me. Again, bags of shampoo and developers too heavy to lift.
Then I had free time, so I went to Kohls...I went with the intention of doing some Christmas shopping; instead, I left with 5 new shirts for me and a roll of wrapping paper. So what if I have no gifts to wrap in it! :)
After that, I went to a friend's jewelry party. Again, supposedly to Christmas shop. I did buy one gift, but I walked away with new earrings, watch, and bracelet for ME.

There you have it- my first day out on the town in over a month. It was pretty nice to have a little bit of free time to do some aimless shopping. Thanks, mom and dad, for babysitting! :)

I think this qualifies as a holiday crisis.

I just found out (thanks Jill!) that there is a Christmas version of the Cadbury Egg-- and I'm stuck at home with no way to go get one! No unnecessary driving for me for a while yet (although, I think this qualifies as very necessary)...and even if I could, I can't put Quinn in the Solstice, and the jeep has a flat tire...and the carseat is over my weight lifting restriction anyway.

Joe's got my car; and he's at a basketball game in Toledo, Mom and Dad are in Cincinatti, Lisa and John are too far away to come buy me chocolate, my friends are at work, and it's just too cold to ask Kara to take Rylee out of the house for a $.60 piece of candy.

So here I am, knowing that less than a block from my house is a supply of one of my all-time favorite seasonal candies and I can't get any. Definitely a crisis.

The only thing keeping me from sending my dog with a coin purse and a note pinned to her pumpkin sweater is the fact that there's a new bag of holiday hershey kisses in the kitchen. They're no Cadbury egg, but they'll do in a pinch.....

Snow Day

Well, the snow is here. I was kind of hoping that the super-hot summer meant we'd have a warm-ish winter, but it's not looking so good. This photo is the view out our back window. Notice the large tree branches on the ground, from the wind storm we had 2 days ago...

Joe enjoyed his day off work and finished up some work for his college classes, and now is at a basketball game. Quinn's here, helping me blog and do some online Christmas shopping, then we'll most likely head back to the couch to watch more holiday Lifetime movies.

My gaping flesh wound is pretty much healed up and I feel a lot more alive now. I even went to Target and did some Christmas shopping the other night. I think I may tackle the mall next week.

And now, some photos.



Quinn likes the bird couch as much as I do!
















Just lounging around in his baseball onesie
















Looking around...


































He's sad because we dressed him in this silly shirt.

Do I really need a title? You know this is about Quinn. :)

More baby pictures. I'm so thankful for digital cameras...I probably would have gone through 20 rolls of film by now if it weren't for digital!

Hanging out on Grandma's shoulder

















Holding Grandpa's hand















Quinn's first bath- he didn't like it much.















He was much happier after he was out of the bath, and into his towel.

















Another after-the-bath photo. I think his hair is really starting to grow!



















He's just too precious!














Quinn has a sleep-sheep (sitting on the couch behind him) that makes white noise to put the baby to sleep...it obviously works.

2 weeks old

Quinn is 2 weeks old now and doing great. He's a really good sleeper and doesn't get fussy much, unless it's to let us know he wants to eat. Cissi is doing great with Quinn- she's super protective of him.
I'm healing OK, with the exception of a little setback this weekend. My incision from the c-section got infected and opened itself back up a little, so I had to go in to the hospital Sunday night to get it cleaned out and they sent me home with a mini-pharmacy of painkillers and antibiotics...but i'm doing well, with the help of my at home health care worker and his assistant (dad and mom).
Joe was at a basketball tournament in Kalamazoo, MI, all weekend so he missed the whole hospital trip excitement.

Today, Quinn and I both had doctor appointments; Quinn's 2-week checkup went well. The doctor said he's doing great and he's right on track. The jaundice is gone and he's gaining weight, so all is well.
And my doctor checked my 'gaping flesh wound' (as I like to call it) and she said I'm healing well already and should be all fixed up by the end of the week. (yay!)

Joe's bouncing between work and basketball and college classes and being my chauffer and super-dad (he got up for both feedings and let me sleep right throught them last night!) I'm not sure when -or if- he sleeps....

Here's some new photos of Quinn. He's asleep in most of them: it's what he does best!


Hanging out on the bird couch
















Just being cute, asleep


















His tiny little head fits in my hand :)










I call this his "Sonic the Hedgehog" look


















With Slugger, his build-a-bear from Kara and Lisa. I think he likes him. :)


















I love it when he yawns!

















With Grandma Davis on Thanksgiving

Elf Yourself Again!

I know this went around last Christmas, but it's the new and improved version, and it's still funny!
Copy and paste the link below to see Joe, Rylee, myself, and my Grandma as elves.
Enjoy!


http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9592789409


p.s.- i need to add that I put this on my blog and THEN saw this on Jessica's blog....guess we're on the same holiday wavelength, Jessica! :)

photos and t-shirts

Jennie asked a very important question, which shows how well she knows Joe: How many delivery outfits did he change in to?
Well, since the whole process took two and a half days, it came out to about 7 different outfits, if you include the scrubs he wore in surgery. And yes, he planned ahead which shirts to pack for first baby photos!
He asked me to include this picture, for the 7:11 group, and to mention that this photo is the ONLY day he has worn this tshirt since getting back from Switzerland. :)This was taken in our "hotel" room on Wednesday.



















And a few more photos for your viewing pleasure:



Quinn loves his washcloth from Whitney





















Uncle Jeremy


















Aunt Trish




















Aunt Lisa and Uncle John



















***How do i NOT have a photo of Aunt Kara!?! She spent the whole night w/ me in the hospital Wednesday night. Did I not take a picture?!?! Jeez.....
Kara: send me a picture of you and Quinn!






Me and my babies :)



















Papa Joe

I'm back!

Hey bloggers- we're home. After a 7 night stay at the hospital, we finally came home Friday afternoon. What a long week.
Here's the story. Warning, it's long:

Thursday, Nov 8, I was supposed to be induced. They called and put me off until Friday morning. Then they called Friday morning and put me off until Friday evening (overcrowded birthing center, apparently)

Friday night, started induction.....by 6 pm Saturday, I was no closer to baby-time than I was the night before, so they unhooked everything, told me to get dinner and go to sleep.

Saturday night started a different induction medicine overnight, then on to another one Sunday morning....this time it worked. Pain all morning, pain meds in the afternoon, epidural in the evening-- it worked on the right side. SO, they let me be in half pain for a while, then re-adjusted it...still didnt' work...so a little while longer with pain in the left side, and he came back and re-did the epidural.

By Saturday night, the epidural wore off, (but just on the left side!)
which unfortunately was the same time that the nurse decided I should start to push.
Ugh.
Pain pain pain.

An hour or so later my Dr. finally showed up just before 2:00 Monday morning, and within 5 minutes he said there were too many reasons not to go that route, (Quinn was face up, he was too big for me to push out, etc.) and we'd do a C-section. Yay! I didn't care how they got him out at that point, just as long as we were finished with the whole birth process.

We went straight into surgery and Quinn Thomas James was born on Monday, November 12 at 2:37 a.m., 7 pounds, 11 ounces, 21 inches long.

Recovery from surgery honestly isn't that bad, and it was well worth it, seeing the cutie (or, is it QT?) that we got out of it! He's just awesome and I don't care if I am sleep deprived, it's so great. He's already got such a cool personality and fits right in with joe and I.

Hopefully he fits in with Cissi, too...she's been staying at Casa Del Lehman for the past week and we're taking her home tonight.

Anyway, Quinn is doing well. We stayed until Friday, for surgery recovery, and to watch his jaundice, which today finally seems like it's going down (we had to take him back in yesterday and today for blood tests.)

First night home was hard, didn't get any sleep, then we had to take him back to Springfield for a blood draw early Saturday morning...thankfully, when we got back, Jer and Trish were waiting for us with lunch and babysitting. They took care of Quinn so I could get some much-needed sleep. (THANKS!!!!!) Joe had to spend the afternoon at a basketball tournament, but he did get to sleep all evening and sleep in today. Hopefully it won't be too rough on him going back to work tomorrow morning!
Last night mom came over and did grandma-duty so we could sleep. (THANKS!!!!!)
Then dad drove Quinn and i to yet another blood draw this morning (THANKS!!!!!) Good news, the jaundice seems to be going away, so we shouldn't have to take any more blood tests.

I'm doing well, feeling lots better and less swollen. I couldn't believe the amount of swelling the surgery gave me!! Most of it is gone now, except for my feet and they say that will take a week or so to go down. I go in tomorrow (back to Springfield, yet again) to get my staples out of my incision. Otherwise, no work or driving or lifting (yes, that includes vacuuming and laundry-- too bad!) for 6 weeks. So I am definitely looking forward to the next month and a half, since I'm not allowed to do anything except relax, heal, and hang with Quinn. I love it!

That's enough for now. Here's some photos...
Joe, waiting in the hall before surgery


















Quinn's first photo: Joe took this in the nursery while I was sleeping in the recovery room



















Dr Billing (he's awesome!) with Quinn and Joe.

















Grandma and Grandpa Lehman

















Grandma and Grandpa LaValley























Hangin' out in the Boppy pillow

Due date, come and gone....

Yesterday was d-day and...no baby. But that's OK, because we're scheduled to induce me Friday morning. Yay! So he'll be here by the weekend. I'm so glad. :)

Last night I went to watch Joe's ball game- he's coaching the girls' basketball team at Edison college (in Piqua). I can't remember if I mentioned that already or not. Anyway, the girls won by some insane 50-some points. Go Chargers!! And what's even better, their colors are navy and gold, so all of those Michigan clothes I've been buying for the baby can double-duty as Charger-wear now too. You know it always comes back to fashion.

Other baby news, our friend Sara is being induced today. She went in early this morning, so think happy thoughts and send prayers for a quick delivery her way. (And then send them my way Friday!) =)
Her little boy Tucker should be here soon and I can't wait to hear from them!!

Tuesday Morning

So....I'm on my first official day of maternity leave. It's not nearly as cool to be on leave w/out the baby being here, is it?

Right now, I'm on the bird-couch, watching last night's episode of The Hills- it's Heidi's 21st birthday! Too bad she doesn't have any friends to celebrate with, huh?
And can I say that Audrina is pathetic that she still doesn't know whether she and Justin are dating? Lame. Yet, I still keep watching....


And why is it November 6 and it's apparantly Christmas already?! WalMart is playing holiday music, there's Christmas decorations everywhere, Christmas commercials, etc.
It's out of control. Why must they skip over the turkey every year? It's my favorite!!!
Speaking of turkey, I have the best turkey-day outfit for the baby now (thanks,Kara!!) and can't wait for him to wear it!

My big plan for the day is to go vote. Big school levy on the ballot, must do my part to vote YES. Of course, that means I have to change out of my pajamas, so..... I should get off the couch at some point today I suppose. I am no good at being home with nothing to do. I know I should enjoy it, but really, how much tv and reading can a girl take?
I already stocked up on food, got the baby's room all ready, cleaned up the house, cleaned out my closet, and caught up on laundry.

I'm feeling somewhat hermit-ish, because I'm tired of random strangers asking me when I'm due and all that. I sound mean saying that, I know, but it gets on my nerves for some reason. Probably because it usually ends with "looks like it's going to be a big baby!"
yeah.

Back to the Hills for a sec: Is Justin wearing manpris and boots at the end?!?!?!?

On to other news, John's officially back from Kosovo for good now. Lisa picked him up yesterday and they're getting ready for their move to Columbus next weekend. (And I'm so excited they're moving closer to us!!!!)

That's it for now. Happy voting day. :)

More photos

Here's some more Halloween photos to share. I wish I had baby pictures, but I don't, so these will have to do for now.
I have another appointment in the morning. Let's hope for something-- anything-- of an update!!!


All the teachers (well, most of them) at Joe's school dressed up on Halloween. He was the Viking in the morning, and then came home for lunch and changed into the Slim Jim.

















Cissi in her new pumpkin costume that she LOVES.














Me, with the girls, at the Halloween party













More Halloween party; the guy on the left won the costume contest. Go figure. :)