We Proudly Welcome....

 

David Gage Pody

Arrived via C-section at  
12:18 p.m. on 
August 24th, 2012

Weighing in at 9 pounds, 7 ounces; 21 inches long!

Mommy & baby are doing great!

We will be in the hospital until Monday and pictures will be posted very soon!

Thank you so much for your sweet prayers!

HERE WE GO!

The induction process has began as of 8:00 tonight! Send your sweet prayers our way! 

We will meet our baby boy tomorrow!

Home Tour- Guest Bathroom

We started our home tour in the foyer and I want to thank you all SO much for your sweet comments, they made me smile! We have put a lot into this home and it meant the world to me to read each comment!:)
If you missed our foyer, check it out here...

Welcome back!!!

Today I am going to show you all our guest bathroom/powder room (whatever you want to call it;)!
You take the first left from the foyer and enter a hallway. The first door to your left you will find the guest bathroom/powder room.

Right across from the powder room you will find the "Butler's pantry" (that is how our plans refer to it).

OBVIOUSLY, we do not have a butler, haha, but it's a large pantry and SO glad we have the second pantry for storage of cleaning supplies, diapers, and larger items! 

We also have our electronics hooked up so everything is linked to the same electronic thing in the pantry (WHATEVER, I don't know how to explain it!haha) 

All I know is I do not have cords hanging around my family room, which makes me a happy girl;)

Where items were purchased:

• Candle holders- Kirkland's
• Candles- Hobby Lobby
• Table- Kirkland's
• P picture- Kirkland's
• Tissue Holder- Homegoods
• Oil Dispensers- Bed, Bath, & Beyond
• I bought the copper sink from Vintage Tub & Bath online. It was a much better price than most places I could find.
• Mirror- I think Homegoods, possibly Kirkland's.

Everything in this room is actually decor from our old house, but I thought it matched pretty good so I actually saved money and stuck with it:)

Items left to complete:

I honestly haven't thought much about this room. I will possibly get some kind of patterned window treatments. There is always awesome decor ideas on Pinterest, so we will see. :)

If you have any questions on paint colors, granite color, etc. feel free to ask because I have it in my "house building bag" and will be glad to share. :)

Baby Update...

As you know, yesterday was our first day back to school. Honestly, I never thought we would make it BUT we did! I am glad though because my sweet sub and I were able to meet our kiddos and spend the day learning with us. We had a great first day, the day went very smoothly, especially for the dreaded first day. I woke up that morning feeling pretty good, by the afternoons my feet are the size of Texas and I start resembling a penguin when I walk, it just hurts! It really is a funny sight...

After school, I had my 4:00 appointment. My sister met me there and we giggle as I waddle to the elevators! She thinks it is hysterical to watch my misery!;) We went back to get the normal weight/blood pressure check and my blood pressure was UP AGAIN! My results came back with protein in my urine, so BACK to Labor & Delivery we go for more monitoring!

Little man had not been moving a lot that day, but usually when I am walking and busy he isn't as active. When they put on the monitors he started having his very own dance party in there. He can not stand when they put the straps around my belly.... he goes CRAZY! After about an hour of monitoring, he looked perfect, thank God, and my blood work came back normal. After a discussion with the doctor, we were sent home. 

We are scheduled to go back Thursday morning, which going in the morning will allow me to see my doctor. I am sure a plan will be made this time, fingers crossed. By the way, we still had NO progress... he is still snug as a bug in there.

My doctor was not thrilled with me trying to go back to work in the first place and the blood pressure/protein scare again... Lee and I decided it would be best for me to stay home, rest, and take care of our little man as well as mommy... just not worth the risk. 

I will definitely update when we have a plan... maybe we will have a miracle and he will decide to come on his own! Anything is possible, right?! :)

Have a BLESSED Tuesday!

His & Her Link-Up!

  I have been seeing these cute link-ups and figured out they are hosted by Love, the Grows and thought it would be fun to include the hubby in a post.... here we go!

Your house is on fire. What five items do you grab before you leave?

L: Wallet, phone, Bible, Camden (he loves him;), and my truck

N: Purse, camera, computer (for pics), Bible, & of course, CAMDEN;)

If you could be/had to be the main character of any movie, who would you be? 

L: Johnny Cash in Walk the Line or Wyatt in Tombstone

N: Something Cameron Daiz plays is... (I'm not a huge movie person)

What physical feature do you love most about yourself?
L: I am not going to say his first answer.... but second was his height. 

N: I hate questions like this... I am going with my eyes.

Tell us why your name is your name. And if you don't have (or know) an answer, make one up. 

L: David is a family name that runs down my father's side... Lee my mom just liked. 

N: I'm pretty sure mom just liked Natalie... Renae is after my mom's mom, her name is Rena. 

What is the greatest place you've ever traveled to? 

L: Hawaii

N: Hawaii

Are you a morning person or a night person? 

L: Morning... (when his feet hit the floor he doesn't stop all day long and he crashes at night)
N: Honestly, I really do not have a hard time waking up and I go to bed at a decent time every night. I guess I am both!

Who is someone you wish you were closer to? 

L: My grandad.
N: My graggie (dad's mom)

What quality do you have that you hope your kids inherit? 

L: Work ethic.

N: Organizational skills;) 

What's your favorite memory with your childhood best friend? 

L: Riding dirt bikes.

N: Running up my friend's phone bill by calling Mrs. Cleo the psychic to predict our future love life... (Nina bug;)

 
If you had to move out of the country where would you move to?  

L: Australia
N: Australia (He really didn't know I chose that;)

What a cute idea... go link-up HERE:)

Sweet Dreams!

39 Week Bumpdate...

......and WE ARE STILL HERE!

By we, I mean Little Man is STILL cooking!

and this mommy is MiSeRaBlE!

Do not get me wrong, I have absolutely LOVED being pregnant and would do it a million times over to welcome our baby boy but ladies.... I AM SO READY! The past week has been ROUGH, and walking is quite hysterical.

Here we are at 39 weeks and 4 days!
We will be 40 weeks Tuesday....

Last week was an adventurous week to say the least. School started back for teachers, so my days were filled with training for a new math program we are adopting, meetings, and working in my classroom. We had a blood pressure scare Monday evening and spent the night in the hospital. My blood pressure has ran in the high 50s, low 60s (bottom #) my entire pregnancy. On Monday, thankfully I ran into my friend Jessica's grandmother's to check it and the bottom number was running in the high 90s. I rushed home and laid on my couch for 45 minutes and checked again and it was still in the 90s. I had a headache, blurry vision, waves of nausea, and my ankles had doubled in size so everything pointed to preclampsia. Something else that scared me was Gage was moving like never before, which I know it is a good thing he was moving, but it was not normal so it made me nervous. Nothing has gone even slightly wrong during my pregnancy, so this momma was pretty scared. 

Once I got to the hospital they ran tests and monitored me. My blood pressure went back down but they found a little protein in my urine so they wanted to monitor me all night. We got checked out the next morning, by my best friend, Erica (who will be my nurse btw;) We left the hospital about 7:15 and I was determined to make it to my last day of AMSTI training to avoid having to make it up. Yes, the hubs dropped me off at the school and I was there until 4:30 that afternoon. They had given me a phenergan for nausea, so I was pretty out of it, but it gave my girls something to laugh about so I'll take it. :) They also stayed on me about taking my blood pressure every 2 hours and kept track of it.... Love my girls! 

Here is daddy staying at the hospital on his COMFY disgusting bed! 

I made him put it as close as he could to my bed as possible! :)

 I went back to the doctor on Monday and NOTHING had changed.... NOTHING, NADDA, ZERO! I go back tomorrow after school and we will discuss further plans. My doctor does not like going more than a week past your due date, due to weakening of the placenta, so I'm thinking we will be scheduling an induction. PRAY we have a little progress though! 

I know this is a long post and I apologize I went missing last week...things should be back to normal this week. Pray for these next few days meeting my sweet kiddos goes well and smoothly. I will update you all tomorrow after my appointment!

Hope you had a BLESSED weekend!!

Home Tour: Foyer

I am FINALLY ready to do our home tour I said a would do a year ago!

I plan to do a room a week, most likely on Wednesday or Thursday each week, with the exception of this week.... :)

Welcome to Our Home!

We will begin in the foyer.... HERE WE GO!!

Building a home and decorating from scratch is a pretty stressful experience (poor pitiful me, I know;). But do not get me wrong, it was so much fun, just A LOT of decisions that we sometimes had to make on the spot. A lot of times the builder gives you a few options to choose from but we were blessed to have Lee's uncle build our home (who is amazing) and we could choose ANYTHING we wanted! Which is wonderful, but like I said, it was sometimes difficult to make a final decision with endless options.  There are decisions as simple as choosing a door knob to make, but you want it to be perfect so you put a lot of thought into that silly door knob! :)

Hope you enjoy and as always, any questions feel free to ask! 

I will try to cover as much detail as possible:)

Notice a little lion tail in the bottom right corner... it was all I could to keep him out of the pictures! He knows he's just too cute.... Little stinker :)

Notice the over sized platform. In the original plans, that was a closet & there was not a window. I wanted the outside of the house to be even with a window on each side of the door (imagine that) so we changed it. It actually is a neat little area. I plan to do a coat rack or something unique in that area. (Ideas always welcome;)

We chose a size larger on the columns than you see in most houses. It was honestly an accident, but I'm so glad I made that mistake now...

This is taken from our catwalk.

We wanted a catwalk where you could look over the banister at the foyer on one side and you can see the family room looking over the other side.

Sources:

• Mirrored table- Pier One
• Lamps- Pier One
• Flower/basket under table- also Pier One
• Lanterns/and candles- Hobby Lobby (50% off, of course;)
• Rug- Homegoods

Projects still to complete in this room:

• Coat rack on the platform/something unique in the other corner
• Possibly one day I will do a large collage of pictures going up the stairs... OR maybe when we have 3 munchkins I can do 3 large canvases going up the stairs. (ANYWAY, something will eventually be done though) A few inspirations via PINTEREST (of course;):

Obviously it wouldn't be straight, but something similar to this...

OR

Large canvases similar to these.... LOVE...

 Hope you enjoyed!
I have paint colors and all that good stuff if anyone is interested... I didn't want to bore you with all that unless you need it!:)

Next week, we will tour the powder room!

HAVE A BLESSED Friday!

38 Week Bumpdate!

 38 Weeks!!

How Far Along?38 Weeks & 2 days today
 Size of Baby P? 19 1/2 inches long!
This week's major developments:

Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs about 6.8 pounds and she's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.
Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)
(from www.babycenter.com)

Maternity Clothes? Of course!

 Weight Gain? 2 pounds this week! I think that pound I lost got excited last week and I ate a little too much this week! :) I measured my belly two days ago and we are now at 44 inches around! I have officially gained 20 inches in my belly! AHHHH!!!

 Stretch Marks/belly button?Still hanging in there and belly button still flat...

Gender?DAVID "GAGE" PODY! 

Sleep?Still struggling but I have started getting up, going to family room, watching HGTV & reading some blogs... :) Makes it easier than just staring at the ceiling! It is definitely harder to get comfortable because it takes a lot of energy to roll from side to side.

Food Cravings?

 I cannot get enough of these yummies! 

Every time I eat them I at least have to have 5 heated up for 11 seconds and if I have six it takes 12 seconds! Of course, a big glass of milk to finish it off is required! Delicious! (Yay, for sharing my very FIRST "recipe" on my blog...haha;)

What I Miss?I'm just ready for him to be here!!!!! Looking forward to going "back-to-school" shopping when I shed the weight! Sounds crazy, but I have been feeling better this week than I have the past 2 weeks, full of energy... guess that's good because I think little man is feeling pretty good in there too! ;)

What I am loving? Having everything done! I am now trying to get some blog posts ready considering things are about to change around here!
Movement? He has really been working, but not hard enough obviously!

Best Moment(s) of the Week and other random updates?

• Meeting the pediatricians Monday night. The doctor I was seriously considering ended up doing the presentation! Lee liked her too, so I think we have made our final decision! 
• Enjoying my clean house and freshly planted flowers!
• Getting my hair done was AMAZING!!
• Classroom officially complete as well!
• We went to the doctor today, and nothing, nadda, he is still enjoying baking!! Looks like it's just he and mommy for a while longer!  I go back to the doctor next Wednesday... we will see then! My doctor said she does not like going longer than a week after due date. At least I know I will meet him within 3 weeks... you will find me jogging  walking around the neighborhood tonight! :)

Anxiously awaiting our buddy's arrival!

Hope you are having a BLESSED Thursday!

Hospital Bags 101

I am aware that I went overboard packing for the hospital, but I wanted to do a post to help out other mommys!

These two bags are strictly little man's necessities! :)

For Mommy....

• 3 gowns
• X-LARGE undies ;)
• 2 nursing bras
• disposable nursing pads/Medella tender care cream
• nursing cover
• nursing pillow/boppy 
• Robe
• socks/house shoes/flip flops for bathroom (I'm weird about my bare feet on strange floors;)
• Coming home dress to match the boys
• Of course, cosmetics... I went ahead and bought extra to have already packed and ready to go! Don't forget chapstick;)
• Of course, it all has to color coordinate along with your hospital bags!haha Only in my OCD world;)

Fits me perfectly....

For Daddy...

Idea: I bought Lee a basket of hospital goodies for Father's Day which included some of these items.

• 2 pair of pajamas (short outift & pant outfit)
• Outfit for the day we will be there all day 
• socks/flip flops 
• Coming home outfit to match his boy

For baby....

This is where I think I went a little overboard because the hospital probably has some of these items but oh well!

• I packed him a couple of newborn and premie outfits. I packed premie because everything is still so huge even on "big babies" when they are first born. 
• Socks
• 2 bibs and 2 burp cloths
• a couple of his aden & anias swaddling blankets
• nail file and clippers
• tube of Vaseline and a couple of alcohol wipes (hospital has these items I'm sure, mommy will too though)
• 2  pacifiers and a couple of bottles (just in case)
•  Coming home outfit/shoes/socks/coming home blanket
• I also packed a diaper bag for on the way home with just a few necessities like diapers, wipes, pacies, etc. (Considering we live 15 minutes from the hospital, that was probably one of those things that was too much;) 
• His lovey from his Aunt Lynie;)
• 3 hats with his name monogrammed on them

Other:

• Video camera 
• Nikon camera
• All chargers/ cell phone chargers
• Laptop & charger
• pillows for me and daddy
• a couple of blankets
• snacks 
• towels/wash cloths 
• This is weird.... but a rug for when I step out of the shower... Again, you know I'm weird about these feet!haha 
• Wreath for door! 

I don't think I forgot anything on MY list, but let me know if I have missed something you used at the hospital! Help always welcome:)

A Weekend Full of Nesting!

 Saturday morning, my mom, mother-in-law, Lee, and I spent the morning DEEP CLEANING! 

It feels fabulous to have a spotless home! 

Now, we are more than ready for our little bambino's arrival!

Momma, hard at work!

Daddy was instructed to dust the platform and he kinda got stuck! 

(He's scared of heights too;)

Mom and I even gave a wreath, I already had, a little facelift!

After eating lunch, we headed to get some new flowers! One of my favorite things to do!

It was WAY too hot for this momma so daddy gladly planted them while I gave strict sweet directions from the window! ;)

 I think it turned out great! 

I went on a little photo shoot with my new camera... the lens was a little foggy from this wonderful Alabama humidity, but I'm learning!!

We definitely had a productive weekend!

I have a busy week ahead filled with  finalizing a pediatrician tomorrow night at Meet the Doctors night, getting my hair done, working in my classroom, attending a new teacher luncheon, and possibly birthing a child (NO BIG DEAL!;)

Hope you had a BLESSED weekend!