Picture Perfect

Yeah! I found the time tonight to be able to post some pics! They take us from the day before Ramona was born until yesterday.

Lovin' the leaves...

She didn't cry at all, so they sucked a bunch of fluid out of her lungs...but she still just didn't want to cry. Seriously, not one peep, for the first few hours!

Getting ready to leave the hospital.

I wanted to document my tummy size the day we left the hospital;0

What a fun surprise to come home to!

Miles was coloring with scented markers...and ended up with a mustache of proof that he had smelled each one:)

When we first got this new baby for Miles, he named it "Baby New". Now that Ramona is home, his baby is now "Baby Mona". I promise he's usually more creative:)

She's quite a momma's girl. At this point as a newborn, Miles was already showing signs of needing "down time" w/o being held, and also was happy in almost anyone's arms. Ramona, on the other hand, hates down time, and is already partial to who is holding her.

This cute little face brings me SO much joy!!!

Ramona Street and Miles' Way

Many have asked how we came up with the name Ramona Jean. Well, Ramona is actually named after a street:) When Matt and I were seniors in college, we lived in houses that were about a mile or two away from each other (Giddings and Fuller, for those of you who know GR). Between the two houses, a route which we traversed quite often (!), we crossed a street called "Ramona Street". We loved the name so much then, and said that if we ever had a baby girl that we'd name her Ramona! Our love for the name never left, and we are blessed to now have the opportunity to use the name:) The middle name Jean comes from our two moms, who both share the middle name Jean. Matts mom got her middle name from her Mom, whose middle name is Jean; my mom's middle name is derived from her own Mom's name, Jeanette... so both Great Grandmas are tied into the name Jean as well.

For those of you who have spent time with 2 yr. olds, you probably already figured out the other half of the title:) Starting before Ramona was born, Miles has been sharing his strong opinion of how we can do things better...aka "Miles' way". Usually this just means Miles doing things himself. On the days that I have my normal amount of patience present, it is kind of endearing, and simply a reminder of how much he really is growing up and desiring independence. He is such a big boy! And such a great big brother to Ramona. Here is a video that Matt caught where Miles pulled up a chair and decided to hold Ramonas hand...ignore the brief shot of me (it was the morning after we got home from the hospital and I was trying to figure out how to set up the breast pump:))...If you are wondering why Miles is making weird noises, it is him copying Ramonas hiccups.






Miles has a lot of energy stored from all of the new excitement, and from not having gone outside for a while. We've come up with a lot of creative ways to keep him entertained and keeping busy. Here is a fun video of a game that Matt and Miles like to play...





I'll do another post with some more recent pictures...

Ramona Jean Cooke

Well, it looks like we may have to change the name of the blog! Ramona Jean Cooke was born on Friday, November 12 at 12:43 PM. She was 8 lbs 5 oz and about 20 inches long. Megan, who was planning to have a C-section on Monday, woke up to labor on Friday morning (around 3 AM) and less than 10 hours later we had a new baby girl. Megan had a vaginal birth after C-section (VBAC), which is a little more complicated, but overall the whole labor process went very well.

Here are a few photos of little Ramona with her family!

Welcome to the world, Ramona Jean!

Miles meets Ramona (or his personal nickname for her, Mona) for the first time. He's very interested in her eyes.

Happy mom and new baby!


Big brother Miles and little sister Ramona try sharing already. Hopefully a sign of things to come.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers throughout the pregnancy. We thank God for his care and protection throughout this process.

Impromptu Photo Shoot - 38.5 weeks

So my friend Emily wanted a "straight on" belly shot before this baby came out; after capturing the shot, Matt started getting down with his creative self, and kept taking pictures. Lucky for you, this means a few last belly pics. Pretty sure the next pics will be of the baby, not of the belly:)

As shiny as a bald man's head:)

Here's that straight on one, Em.

Here's where you can see that the individual stretch marks have turned into one big patch. Kind of annoying, kind of gorgeous.



And here's the back-to-back to compare the two pregnancies (both about 38.5 weeks). Ummm, have I really had the same hairstyle for over two years? :)

Miles' Big Boy Room

Without further ado...here are the pictures of Miles' new big boy room. The pictures are taken around the room in sequence, in a counter-clockwise fashion:)

Got the decal from etsy.com, an online store with all things home-made!

Yes, those hooks are dog's behinds. They were at IKEA, and too cute (I think that's the word I'm looking for) to pass up.

Notice the empty shelves. Don't forget that Miles likes to romp around at night instead of go to sleep, so we took everything fun out of there!

Yeah, Miles won't be able to tell time with that clock for at least another six or seven years:)

Now, as for baby news, we had a pretty exciting day yesterday, but at no cause of our own:) I was in for a non-stress-test yesterday, and the lady who was on the other side of the curtain from me (with the same exact due date as us!) needed to have an emergency induction because of sky-rocketing blood pressure. It was so entertaining to overhear the whole ordeal. She was so happy/confused/excited/nervous (first baby)/and even expressed frustration at the fact that she had not yet showered that day:) She had to get wheel-chaired right over to labor and delivery, and needed to make phone calls on the way so that her husband and family would be able to come. Phew! And to think, now they have a new baby:)

As for our baby, he/she is just chillin'. Nothing much has changed since last week, so apparently this baby is content to stay inside as long as possible. The countdown? AT MOST, we'll be at the hospital having a baby in 5 days! Woot!

Thanks for checking in. I'll try to post pictures of the nursery soon. Oh, and you'll probably want to see pictures of the new baby, too:)

A+

Not sure if you could pick up on it in those Halloween pictures, but I have experienced some quick water-weightgain over the last week or so (mostly ankles and face). So much so that they were a little concerned, and did some bloodwork on Monday to check into possible causes. But, everything looks a-ok! We also had our ultrasound yesterday, and the baby looks, in doc's words, "BEAUTIFUL!". We have kept the gestational diabetes in check so well that the baby's growth rate has slowed down considerably. As opposed to being "off the charts" a month ago, baby is now around the 75th percentile! This translates to and "estimated" 7 lbs 9 oz.

As for progress, I am a little over 3cm dilated. For those of you who understand the lingo and/or are interested in such things: baby is positioned at -1 (a measure of how far down the baby has dropped/engaged); I am also continuing to thin and soften, but not shorten that much; at the last 20 minute NST, we recorded 5 strong contractions.

As ironic humor would have it, I am quite convinced that all of this work will be done "in vain", as the c-section date is only a week and a half away! I mean, things could progress a lot more quickly at any time before then, but it would be so "me" to produce a scenario where I do a lot more work than I have to... and end up needing to release the reins to God's/nature's/others' (baby's) plans:) I am still thankful (although sometimes simultaneously perturbed) that this baby has been able to experience all this preparation for his or her nearing transition to the outer world. I'm also hoping that all of these contractions and other progressions are preparing and releasing some good hormones for mommy...does anyone know much about this possibility?

So...what to do for a week and a half? I did a little bit of Christmas shopping today since I probably won't have the time/energy/focus to do so later. There are some projects that I'd like to finish before baby (crafts, etc., and grading papers). I am also supposed to take it easy still, and keep my feet up, in order to reduce the swelling. They said to reduce my sodium, but I don't really like salty food that much so I won't have to work that hard. What will be hard is that I should really only do one "big" thing a day (errand, see a friend, go for a walk). I literally gained about 8 lbs in water weight in one week (at least it better have been water weight! I hadn't been gaining at all for almost 12 weeks before that-due to strict diabetes monitoring! I guess I did have a few Halloween candies, though:))

In closing, if you're wondering what the "A+" title of today's post means, it is what the doctor wrote at the top of our baby's records at our appointment yesterday:) Praise God!

Waiting Game

Wow! We are at 37 weeks already! I am beyond thankful that we have made it to this point. When people ask how I'm doing, there are many different directions I can take when answering this question; however, the fact that we've made it this far, and the newfound ability to stop worrying about pre-term birth, mean that things are overall going extremely well.

Other common questions:

Am I still contracting? Yes. Quite a bit actually:) There are times that I cannot sleep through the contractions, but I'm not usually up for more than an hour. We'll see again on Monday if anything is continuing to progress.

Are we still planning on c-section? We've signed papers to officially "sign up" for trying a VBAC delivery pending two things: if Tuesday's ultrasound shows a reasonably sized baby, and if labor begins before Nov. 15. If we get to the 15th, we will have a c-section at 3:30pm.

How's Miles doing? A little better now that I can get around more again. He's still in a minor funk, but it's hard to interpret why. Can he sense something is going on? Is he too homebound lately? Is he getting his 2-year molars? Are we reading too much into it?:) Days are overall better, though, if he and I can get outside the house for a while.

Are you still trying to "lay low" so as to reduce the contractions? Now that we are at 37 weeks, I feel less need to do so. At one of our doc appts. this week, we were told that "the rules have changed" now that we've gotten this far. Up until now, their instructions were to monitor the timing and frequency of the contractions (more than 6 an hour? drink water, take bath, walk around, time again. take pill [or for the last week, call in] if I still have more than 6 the next hour). Although this led to an unscheduled doc appt. this week, we found that not a whole lot had changed (except the baby dropped a ton!). The new rule is that I don't have to clock the timing or frequency of the contractions, but only need to pay attention to the strength of the contractions. Our midwife stated that unless I have questions or concerns, there is no need to call in unless, "I can't carry a conversation or cook a meal or take a nap" during a contraction. (so I'm pretty much at the same place as any "normal pregnancy" right now) I'm glad to have these clear-cut instructions, and am relieved to no longer have to pay so much attention to the contractions. I've added many things back into my days, and actually left the house to be social this weekend! We had game night last night with the other Resident Directors at Calvin, this morning the women from our church CareGroup went out for breakfast, and tonight we went trick-or-treating around the Calvin Apartments with Miles dressed up as a scarecrow. I may have added too much at once (duh, Megan! ease back in...), as I currently have some pretty swollen ankles and a sore back, but it was SO NICE to feel some normalcy back in life again.

I'm still considered a "high risk" pregnancy, and still have to have non-stress-tests downtown twice a week, but won't have more than 4 of these left! The countdown is on!

Before I post a few pictures from tonight's adventures, I just want to sincerely reiterate how thankful Matt and I have been for all of the support, prayers, questions, and love that you have all surrounded us with. We are blessed by your community, and praise God for the gift.

Drum roll, please. Here are the cute pics:

Like my new haircut? Dad buzzed me!

"Mommy, can I have just one more sucker please?"

twins :}

Miles = a very serious scarecrow. Mommy = pumpkin tummy. Daddy = man in windstorm:)

Happy Reformation Day!