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. :)

I'm a Rockstar

At least, that's what it says on the shirt. (I love that shirt, by the way- it's SO comfy!! It's my new favorite day-off shirt).

This is from last weekend; Joe and I met Jer and Trish in Toledo for dinner at Tony Packo's for some yummy coney dogs and fried pickles. I especially love how the photo of Trish and I looks like we are on some random ghetto side street in Toledo..... wait, we actually were. It was a pretty sketchy neighborhood, but the food made it worth it.

no update

Had another appointment today: no baby update. He's still in there, and doesn't want to come out. No big suprise there.
I have one last appointment next Monday, and then they'll schedule to induce after that.
Can time go any slowwwwwweeerrrrrrrrrrr??????????????


In the mean time, here's a picture of Joe and I from the Halloween party last weekend.

Recommended Reading

Joe's 8th grade accelerated languate arts class had an assignment to write a short story. After writing them, they created a blog for the class and they each put their stories on the blog. Here's the address, if you want to check it out. It's pretty entertaining, to see the different writing styles, from student to student, especially the difference between the boys' topics and the girls' topics!

www.acceleratedlanguagearts.blogspot.com

Nothing New.

Not much to blog about, just checking in. Week 38 of pregnancy.....nothing to report. Have a killer rash, called PUPPP which apparantly I'm in the lucky 1% of pregnant women who get it. It's harmless, but itchy like you can't imagine!! Luckily for me, it seems to be fading away. It was on my stomach, arms and legs and feet, but now it's just from my knees to my feet, so it's definitely improving.
The doctor said it usually doesn't go away until after the baby is born, but for some reason, it's getting better, thank goodness. I don't think I could take two more weeks of itching!

We went to a Halloween party last weekend, and I have some pictures from it, but they aren't uploading right now, so I can't share them. Joe was a viking, I was a ghost. It turned into a karaoke party and it was definitely a ton of laughs!

Nothing else to report. I'll try to put pictures on here soon, hopefully it will work.

fun stuff

I copied this from Kara's blog. We had a really good laugh over these at work yesterday! Here's my answers- I want to see yours!! =)

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME:
(first pet & current car) -
Rainbow Ion

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME:
(fav. ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Twist Oreo

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME:
(first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
L-Lav

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME:
(favorite color, favorite animal)
Black Monkey

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME:
(middle name, city where you were born)
Dianne Springfield

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME:
(the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
LavLo

7. SUPERHERO NAME:
(2nd favorite color, "the", favorite drink)
Blue the Coffee (??)

8. NASCAR NAME:
(the first names of your grandfathers - paternal, maternal)
Richard Thomas

9. STRIPPER NAME :
(the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy)
Happy Milk Dud

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME:
(mother’s & father’s middle names )
Ann Richard

October 1

Yay!It's October! That means it's almost November, which means almost baby time.
I had another baby shower yesterday, got more great things, had some more great cake (they got me a devil's food cake AND and ice cream cake- YUM.) Of course, I have pictures, and of course, I haven't loaded them onto the computer yet...
One of the gifts I got was baby scrapbook supplies and a onesie that reads "Son of a Scrapbooker!" too cute!!
Anyway, I'll eventually get around to posting some of those pictures on here.

In other news, the fall primetime TV lineup has started- finally- and my DVR is on overload. My reviews:
The Hills- (OK, it's been on for a while, but I still love it) Heidi's new nose is a little too stuck up in the air, and she is quite stupid if she doesn't realize why she can't keep a friend around.... poor Elodie.

Grey's Anatomy- I'm not loving the new "Lexi" character. She's just as whiney as Meredith!! And Izzy is retarded for saving roadkill...what a dumb story line. I'm mad at George: he's probably going to leave his wife for Izzy, which sucks, because I really like his wife. But I'm sure she'll get together with someone better...McSteamy, perhaps?

Desperate Housewives- Last year, I thought DH was lacking, and I was way more into Grey's. But if this week is a preview for the season, I think I'll be enjoying the Housewives more than the doctors.

Bones- Glad they brought back what's-his-name (the kid who went to Iraq at the end of the season) and it seems like this year will be as good as last year. Getting a little tired of the Brennen/Booth 'will they or won't they' crap, but otherwise, i'm glad they're back.

House- stupid move, firing all of his team. I'm a little mad at them so I'm watching, but not happy about it. It better get better or i'll find another show to tape in that time slot.

New shows I've started to watch: Private Practice (it's just OK so far), Rules of Engagement (cute), & Back to You (probably isnt' going to hold my attention very long).

I'm also hooked on Dawson's Creek reruns lately. I'm re-living the Capeside drama, and actually catching in on a couple seasons I missed while I was in college. Good stuff.
And I can't wait for Jon & Kate plus 8 (the cable series of the couple w/ twins and sextuplets) to start again. She's so mean but I love watching it.

Oh, and I'm hooked on Dancing with the Stars this year also. I'm rooting for Jennie Garth and the Cheetah Girl.

And I watched Two and a Half Men for the first time ever last week. Why didn't anyone tell me how funny they are? I might have to start watching that one also.

I know, this is a lot of TV, and I'm a junkie, but I figure I'll have plenty of couch time this fall, so I may as well have good tv to watch, right?

baby shower photos

Thanks to my personal event photographer (thanks, Amy!!), here's some photos from the shower.


Grandma Davis' booties!














the grandma's: Kathy (Joe's mom) and mom; Aunt Nancy, Grandma Davis, Sonoma, Ann, Holli and Telanei, Kara and her mom, Deb














my new handmade vera bradley-inspired diaper bag















aunts becky, jenni, and nancy
















me and trish

So we're down to about 6 weeks to go until baby time. Now might be a good time to think about a name for baby-boy-LaValley: so far, nothing. We spent the evening browsing name lists online, and pretty much nothing has jumped out at us. We have a list of names we like, but none we love.

My shower was last weekend, and it was great, got a lot of fabulous gifts, lots of people came, good food, good cake, good times. I'll put some pictures on here eventually.
I've been not able to update this as much as I'd like lately; apparantly, if you don't update your virus protection for a year and half (like I did...well, didn't do...on my work computer) you'll mess up your computer and not be able to use the internet, or any other program on it.
So I can only update when I get my hands on the laptop, which isn't that often. Apparently Joe taking graduate courses is more important than me blogging. Who knew?

9.11.07

Random thoughts for today:

~ I was watching the headlines scroll across the bottom of the weather channel earlier, and it said "Americans celebrate the 6th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks".
Is celebrate really the right word? I'm thinking NO.

On to less political thoughts:

~ Speaking of weather channel, it's supposed to be in the 70's all week. I think fall is finally just about here, and I'm pretty happy about that.

~ Ten hour work days are getting kind of silly on my feet these days.

~ 32 weeks and counting. Are we sure that Davis girls never have babies early?

~ I failed my sugar test and barely passed the second round of it. So no more cake, candy, cookies for me. (Except baby shower cake, right??)

~ Baby shower #1 is this Sunday. Yay!

~ Wiffle ball weekend was last weekend. The guys did, uh, great....well, at least they had a lot of fun! (Hopefully Kyle's team did a little better than Joe's?)

And some photos of our trip up north: We spent Friday in Paradise, Michigan at Tahquamenon Falls, wandered around/shopped Saturday morning in Mackinaw City, then went to a wedding Saturday evening. It was gorgeous up there!

Joe and I at the Lower Falls
















The Upper Falls
















The bridge, by night. Fun to look at, not so much fun to drive over.















Jer and Trish at the wedding
















Joe and Jer and an owl

Today's Etiquette Lesson

The following is a list of things NOT to say to a pregnant woman, especially one who is holding scissors, and has 10 more weeks to go:

1. "WOW. You are going to have a BIG baby!"

2. "You must be due any day now?!"

3. "Are you sure you aren't having twins? Really? Are you SURE? I mean, did the doctor check for twins? They did? And they're sure there's only one? There's not another one hiding in there???"

Creative Title Goes Here.

I'm back, the lazy blogger that I am. I took a break from life in general the past couple of weeks, due to the ridiculous heat. Any time I wasn't at work, I was here at home, sitting not on the bird couch, but standing in front of the one window air conditioner we have in the living room. Good times.
It's cooled down to a balmy 85-ish now though, so I can go out in the world again. (Keep in mind however, 85 doesn't sound that bad, but that's about 105 in pregnant-degrees!!)
This past weekend was great- Joe ran in a 5K race in Flint, MI with his running group from Switzerland. (Well,actually, they're mostly from Michigan and Ohio, but they met in Switzerland.) I was excited to get to go with him and meet these people who I have heard so many great stories about! And yes, they were as nice and fun as Joe said they were.
The race went well, Joe ran it in 29-ish minutes ( i forget the actual down-to-the-second time). The weather was awesome, in the 70's and cloudy, so it wasn't too hot. It rained on and off, but not enough to keep us from having a good time. I stayed on the sides and watched everyone else run. Obviously. I mean, really, when have I ever been known to run anywhere, with the exception of through the mall on a good sale day, such as the day after Thanksgiving?!
They do have a 5K walk, however, and I think I'd probably do that next year. I think I may have actually done it this year, because I'm pretty certain that we parked a good 4 miles away from the starting line....I'm definitely not the speed-walker I was this time last year. This baby really slows me down.

Speaking of the baby, I'm up to 30 weeks now (and I"m sure, at least as many pounds gained!) I learned last week that one of the doctors in the practice left the office, so now 3 doctors are handling the patients for 4. I'm sure that will make for a nice long wait at my appointment tomorrow. I have one more ultrasound, tomorrow morning. I'll try to remember to not be lazy and scan in those pictures!

The next few days are work, work, and then more work. Joe's back into football full-swing, and getting a great tan from it, I have to say! I'm a little jealous of that.
We're headed up to the UP (that's Upper Peninsula, for those of you not familiar with Michigan-speak.) for a wedding, so I'll blog when we get back. Have a great holiday weekend!
This is a photo of Joe and his running club (minus the two people from New York and Florida). I tried to load more pictures, but blogger is being difficult tonight, so we'll have to settle for just one.

this week in photos

It's fair week in Urbana, and we live just blocks from the fairgrounds, so the air smells like cow poo, my 'short-cut' to work is off limits this week (I usually take the road by the fairgrounds to bypass all the stoplights) and I can hear the announcements in the grandstand in my backyard. Sunday night I got to enjoy a Phil Dirt and the Dozers concert. I know no one knows who they are, but here, they are celebrities. They're basically an oldies (50's and 60's) cover band. Last night was some lame contest about 4H girl of the year or something like that.
Tonight, for my listening pleasure, I get to enjoy the Oak Ridge Boys.

But enough about that. Onto the BIG news in town.......

MCDONALDS IS OPEN TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh yes. They tore down the old McD's at the beginning of summer to give our town a new fancy-pants Mickey-D's, complete with not one, but TWO drive thru speakers! (Yet, only one pick up window...now, do we really think the intellectuals of U-town are going to be able to figure THAT one out? Doubtful.) I took this photo at a stoplight this morning, but it doesn't really do justice to just how busy it was there. (Yes, the light was red when I stuck my head and camera out the window, mom.)




















Onto other photos now.


Me, 27 weeks pregnant. Joe requested this one...he's been gone so long I think he's forgotten what I look like. I'm just going to say that me and the August heat are not getting along very well right now. It's not so bad at night but the other 18 hours of the day that I'm awake are not so good. I find myself wandering around Target, Kroger, the mall -really anywhere that is air conditioned- to pass the time and not have a heat stroke.
OK, really it's not that bad, I'm just spoiled and I don't like to sweat. And I'm really starting to miss my ankle bones.





















This is Junior Special-Agent Tarquin's (the kid's got a lot of nicknames!) room, so far. There's a few minor details missing, such as a crib and changing table, but hey, who really needs those?





















And some photos from Lake Erie last weekend. Grandma on the jet ski, Carsyn in the sand, and Peyton...I'm pretty sure she's in the process of throwing sand in Marcus' face. I hope I spelled all of those kids' names right.

25 weeks?

I've lost count at how many weeks pregnant I am. Isn't that bad? I am signed up on a website that e-mails me "what's happening at __ weeks" updates, so that usually reminds me how far along i am. But those come on Tuesday, and since it's Monday I can only guess. I think I'm 25 weeks. I'll know tomorrow. Thank goodness for technology! hahaha
Here's a picture of me and Trish (my sister-in-law) at a wedding this past weekend. Notice I'm not wearing a dress. It's not fun trying on big muu-muus, so I'm sticking w/ pants or skirts from here on out.
Trish is also pregnant, also having a boy (she just had her ultrasound today) and is due 6 weeks behind me. Hmm....which would make this her 20 week ultrasound, which would maybe make me at 26 weeks????
Another cool fact, Joe's friend Aaron's (they've been friends since kindergarten and Aaron and I went to college together) wife is also pregnant and due 4 days before me (Hey Sara, how pregnant are we??) and she's also having a boy. I think we've got a junior wiffle ball team on our hands.

Happy Birthday to Me

Here's a photo re-cap of my past week, celebrating turning 29.

Last night, at the Japanese Steakhouse, with the family.
















































Last weekend, a birthday party for myself and Katie. Her birthday is July 6, so we usually do a joint birthday thing with our friends. This year,we went to the Mexican restaurant to celebrate.

























And finally, our re-painted, redecorated bedroom. I love IKEA!!!

hi.

I'm here, if anyone is even still reading my blog. I am a lazy lazy blogger, and I have no excuse for it. Well, our laptop isn't completely internet-ready yet, but that's not a very good excuse, is it? And I have about 300 pictures to choose from to post on here, but along with being a lazy blogger, I'm a lazy photo-transferrer and they're all still on my camera, and not on a computer. I'm just lazy, that's all there is too it. But let's blame the baby, OK? :)

We've been busy the last couple weeks...Joe painted the baby's room- it's a light gray with white trim- and it looked so good, it made our own room look pretty crappy, so we emptied out our room and repainted that....and then we got a new bedframe and some nightstands and just re-did the whole bedroom. It looks so much better now. I would say I'd post a picture of it, but we know that won't happen this week, right?

Also, our bathroom is torn up this week, getting new flooring in and patching a hole in the window/wall, which got there from a leaky window. It's more of just a patch job, until next summer when we have more time and we (Joe) can re-do the whole bathroom.

Other than that I've just been trying to stay semi-cool. We don't have air conditioning, so basically I sit in front of a fan most of the time I'm at home. I spent this afternoon out at mom and dad's in the pool, which is a huge improvement over my hot house.

The highlight of my last week was when we were in Michigan, and we got to spend a day at my own personal Disney World.....IKEA!!!!! I love it there. Of course we had dinner in the Ikea Cafe' and we stayed until closing time. (That's where we bought the bedroom furniture, etc.)

This weekend Lisa's coming home (yay!) and the family's going to the Japanese Steakhouse for dinner on Saturday for my birthday. I can't wait. And Rylee loves it as much as we all do...she thinks she's at Emeril's and yells "BAM!" to the grill chef. It's hilarious. Maybe I'll take pictures. Maybe you'll see them.