La Sophia

Let me introduce you to Sophia:

It was love at first sight....there is no denying it my child has a thing for her new giraffe, Sophia. I don't know if it is the spots or squeak but we now always have Sophia wherever we go. Mainly Sophia stays in Rachel's mouth however she occasionally dances a number or two.

I must thank my friend, Ashley for this wonderful gift that I child ADORES!!!!!!!

I just ask you please do not ask Rachel whether she loves Sophia more than her parents because I do not think I could handle the answer.

Happy Half Birthday Rachel!!!

My baby is 6 months old. WOW! I cannot believe time is going by so fast! I've seen a lot of other people do this so I thought I would as well. Here are 6 interesting facts about Rachel since she is 6 months old.

1. Rachel is swaddled every night before bed. She has been sleeping through the night since about 7 weeks and we attribute this to swaddling. She is rapidly growing out of her blanket that we swaddle in and I have NO idea what I'm going to be do when that happens.

2. Rachel LOVES to eat! She will eat anything we give her especially at supper time! You cannot feed her fast enough and trust me she will let you know if you're not feeding her fast enough.

3. She loves a bath. She recently graduated from the baby tub to her duck tub. She enjoys splashing around in her tub and will do so for as long as you let her.

4. Blowing raspberries is her specialty these days.

5. Rachel loves animals. Especially big dogs.....please note that she is only around dogs that we know. She enjoys grabbing our cat, Moses, and we are currently working on "sweet pats" instead of grabbing and pulling kitty's hair.

6. She will grab at any necklace. This could be very bad for us down the road......

I LOVE YOU RACHEL!!!!! You have blessed me more you than you could ever know!

Office Etiquette

At work I must admit I'm very luckily to have my own office. I do realize that some people work in cubicles and honestly I do not think I could survive working in a cubicle. Our office building mainly consists of a long hall with offices of either side of the hallway. Mine is located at the end of such hall and conveniently located across from the break room which is right next door to the two bathrooms on our floor. Maybe a cubicle wouldn't be so bad after all.

Being across from the break room does have its moments. All the advantages seem to escape me at the present time, though. I am thinking about making list of appropriate things that can be microwaved and taping it to the door. The top two would be fish (given) and popcorn. The funny thing about popcorn is that it is a lose/lose situation. First off if you are one of the only two people in the office that can pop popcorn appropriately it smells heavenly. There's nothing worse than smelling something that you cannot have. It messes with my emotions and makes my tummy rumble! On the flip side to that (which is most likely the case) you burn the popcorn thus making my office smell for the rest of the day like burned popcorn. More likely than not the perpetrator in this crime either works on a different floor and far away from the smell it does not effect them.

The moral of this story.......Just don't pop popcorn at work and everyone will be happy.

I will not take on the issues I have with the bathroom at this time. Thank you for listening!

Please Forgive Me.......

For I have been a complete slacker when it comes to the blog. So, here's an update however with no pictures but I will try to do that tomorrow (no promises though).

It was brought to my attention today by a beloved coworker that I no longer have shingles and need to update the blog. My precious little Girl is here and has been for 3 months.....that's right THREE MONTHS!!!! Where did the time go? Last night I had to move her up to size 2 diapers. She really could have moved up a couple of weeks ago...B claims I was in denial about it (he was right).
Since so much has happened since the last time I blogged I have struggles with where to begin.....do i start a fresh or do i try to go back and cover all the time that has passed....decisions, decisions.....I guess I will share my birthing story just for the shear fact that I enjoy reading other people's birthing stories so here goes....

Before I get to that point I must admit I had a few bumps in the road. My blood pressure was giving me a fit..so much so that they gave me a date of induction for Feb. 1st at my 33 week appointment. Once I started going to the doctor every week my blood pressure decided to go up every week too. The doctor wanted to put me on bed rest at 36 weeks but I begged him for half days and he agreed. He also told me not to even look at a saltine (no sodium for me). Finally after upping my medicine three times it finally leveled off.

Jan 31st came. We called the hospital at 3pm and they told us to report to the birthing center at 5pm. B and I went and ate at Mellow Mushroom (I threw the no sodium out the window since this was essentially my "last supper"). When we got to the hospital the stated they were full and for us to wait in the lobby. Luckily we only have to wait 30 minutes for a room to open up. They gave me cervadil hoping that my cervix would open up during the night and gave me an ambien. Needless to say I didn't sleep but B slept like a baby.

The next morning the doctor came in at 8AM stating she was there to break my water. Once she checked me she stated that I still had not dilated at all and it looked as though we would be hitting our head against the wall if we waited for Rachel to come on her own. She asked the nurse about the OR for a C-Section and she said it was open and she could have me ready in 30 minutes. WHOA! WHAT?!?! I was a bit nervous but at the same time ready. Luckily both my parents and B's parents were already there. They wheeled me into the OR gave me a spinal (which i did not feel) and prepped for Rach's arrival. The spinal was a very odd feeling..they told me it would feel like a lot of pressure bearing down on me and I would feel like i could not breath but I would continue to breath the whole time. They were exactly right! It was an odd feeling and I kinda freaked out but the nurse was there the whole time at my head talking me through it. Once they got me prepped B came in and all my nerves went away. I felt nothing except what felt like someone pushing on my legs and the next thing I knew Rachel was born. I'm hear to tell ya there is nothing like hearing your own little baby cry for the first time.
Rachel was born less than an hour after the doctor came in that morning. I was amazing! C-sections are not for everybody but it was definitely for me! I did not experience much pain and had no complications afterwards!

More to come......

Of all things......

Well....time is flying and is less than 2 1/2 months "Baby Rachel" will be here! Ready or not! Here's a quick update of my life at the Catoe Cabana.

THE Shingles.......I have THE Shingles.......SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?! Who gets THE shingles??? Especially when they are with child???? Apparently Me!
About two weeks ago I notice a rash on my ever growing belly. I talked to my mom about it and her reply was "Oh I had that too! Just mix water and cornstarch together and put that on it and it will go away." Has anyone ever really tried to mix cornstarch with water??? For those of you who have not...it makes a glue like consistency. Let me just tell you after two tries of this B had entirely too much fun getting it everywhere I just decided I would wait until my dr. appointment the following week. So, off to the doctor I go! Everything is looking good and then I show the doctor my rash and he immediately says it's THE Shingles. I think to myself this man has lost his mind as he states he is going to send me to a dermatologist for confirmation.
So, the next day I head to the dermatologist. The doctor takes one looks at my belly immediately states that its THE shingles and proceeds to bring in 3 other doctors just to take a look at it. Guess what...they say its THE shingles too! After they assure me they can treat this without it effecting the child i begin to wonder how in the world I got the "old people's disease"? I am currently waiting for an answer.

I end with a conversation i had with a co-worker this morning:

Me: Good Morning!

Co-Worker: Hey!!! WOW...look at your belly! It's growing. It looks like you ate a whole bird of the holidays!

ME: (smiles) HAHAHA! (Thinking to myself- "lady if you do not get out of my face I'm going to shoot you the bird and its not turkey)!!!!!!

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!

Run Bambi Run!!!!!!!!

Okay, so this happened a while ago and I went back and forth about whether or not to post about it.......I've finally decided to post because I now think it's funny! Hope you enjoy!

I feel assured that most people who really know me know that I am not a hunter. I have never been a hunter nor do I ever want to be a hunter.
The only thing I usually hunt for is sweets. My husband does not hunt however, if he did that would be fine. Also, if he were to be the hunting type and shoot something and wanted it stuffed I would be more than willing to hang it in a "man cave". That being said....

A couple of weeks ago on a Thursday my phone signaled that I had a new text message. YAY! I love getting texts...I looked at my phone and it was a picture text (even better).
So, I open the text and what do my wondering eyes see but a dead deer in the back of a pick up truck, blood dripping out of his mouth and all in the bed of the truck (sorry to be so graphic BUT it was essential).
WHY?????? Needless to say that my brother in law shot Bambi's father (who is apparently a 9 point- whatever that means) and my sister in law was so proud that she had to send the picture to me. OH JOY!
Now, please do not misunderstand me...if someone put that picture on facebook I would totally be fine with that. It would be my option to look at the dead carcass if I wanted to. It is not okay to send me this picture when you usually send me pictures of my beautiful niece and nephew. What was she thinking?!?!?!?!?
That is all I have to say about the horrible picture text I received that morning!

HAPPY HUNTING!

Just Call me Buddah!

Greetings All! Well we are officially 25 weeks down and Lord knows how many to go. Things are going great! Baby Catoe is growing and growing so you know what that means (my belly is growing as well). People are really funny when it comes to a pregnant belly. I have broken it down into the following categories:

1. Belly Rubbers: Obviously most people do fall into this group. Apparently there is an unwritten rule somewhere that states it is okay to go and rub strangers bellies. I am unsure if they think that a genie is going to come out of my belly but I can assure you that I am not going to grant them 3 wishes.

2. Belly Pokers: They just prefer not to rub but poke. I don't know if they are scared of the belly of what. But it is almost as if they believe your ever expansive belly is not real. Then of course by poking the belly it will deflate.

3. Belly Talkers- Some people feel the need to talk to the belly sometimes. Not to say that I do not talk to the belly myself but I do find it humorous when I walk down the hall and people stop me just to talk to my belly (not me the belly). I am sure Baby Catoe will be anxious to meet each of these individuals once she is born.

4. Belly Stares- Most men usually fall into this group. I guess if you really think about it I'm not sure if they are staring at the belly or the boobs (probably both). It's crazy that you can be talking to someone and how often their eyes drift down to the belly. I usually ignore the urge to begin snapping my fingers beside my face to attract their attention back to my face.

Just thought I would share with you my thoughts. I truthfully do not mind when people rub, poke, talk or stare at my belly. I have a feeling that Baby Catoe is enjoying the attention! However, if I do not know you please do keep your distance.