TEAM COREN: 2012

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas 2012

I can't believe Christmas is already over! There is always such a build up to it and it seems to go by so quickly. We actually have one more celebration left, but we had quite the run last weekend! Earlier in the month we celebrated with Bill's family (my step dad) but unfortunately I did not get a single picture. Then last weekend we had the Schmidgall Christmas on Saturday with Cory's parents and brothers (and their families)....9 grandkids makes for a fun party! It's a tradition to have cheese and dessert fondue so we of course ate a ton. Sunday we had our own little family Christmas, but I did not cook as we were still full from the night before. It was just nice to be able to have our own celebration as a family of 4. Kane got to open his presents after his nap and he helped Landry open hers. She obviously didn't show interest in the gifts, but just enjoys watching whatever her brother is doing. Monday we traveled to Des Moines and spent Christmas Eve at my mom's house and had the annual steak and crab legs and opened gifts that night and then spent Christmas day at my dad's and had a taco feast (fish and regular tacos). We are definitely well fed over the holidays! Now it's time to get back into the workout routine! It was fun this year to see Kane's reactions to his gifts, but the kids were definitely spoiled! They must have been good...

Here are some pictures of our wonderful and hectic holiday! (and a few random extras toward the end)

Schmidgall Christmas...excited about his Jake and the Neverland Pirates toys

Best Buddies (cousin Lola) on the Ipads

New Cars Flip Flops! (he's obsessed with these!)

My very own microwave. (our family Christmas)

Showing Landry one of her gifts.

Her very first vanity...she's obviously thrilled.

Our two sweet babies!!!

Perfect little gift

BIG cheesy grin

Another Christmas outfit?!?!

Another Jake and the Neverland Pirates toy (my mom's house)

Probably the cutest moment ever!

Personalized chairs!

Another set of Christmas jammies

A cornhead (my dad's house)

Of course I will look adorable in this dress!

He apparently climbed out of the pack n play to get
Grandpa Don's volleyball, shoes and hat, climbed back in and then took a nap with them!

I can still fit in the Bumbo

Crazy hat hair

It's so tough being a baby!

Smiley girl!

Just hanging out!

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

2 months old!

It is hard to believe that our little girl is already 2 months old! The time has gone by so fast and I go back to work in less than a month! I'm trying not to think about that yet though. It has definitely been an experience getting used to having 2 kids around, but it has been fun. Kane has been doing great with Landry and is already protective of her. We'll see how that changes once she starts getting mobile and into his stuff. I can now see how the 2nd child sometimes feels like they get short changed as I feel like I haven't taken very many pictures and videos of Landry as we did with Kane. Truthfully I don't always think of grabbing the camera because we are either interacting with her or chasing after him, but I'm trying to catch all of the fun little moments as best as I can!

I took Landry to her 2 month checkup today and she is doing well and is a healthy little girl. She did not enjoy the shots and I hated being the bad guy that had to hold her legs down. Talk about traumatizing! I made Cory do it with Kane so I didn't have to watch! She recovered though and took a good nap this afternoon so hopefully she's good to go for tonight. Speaking of that, she has been doing very well at night for us. For the past couple of weeks now, she has been going anywhere from 6-9 hrs between feedings, so technically she is sleeping though the night! Let's hope it stays that way and she turns out to be as good of a sleeper as her big brother. She started smiling a few weeks ago and she is usually full of them right away in the mornings. She loves to watch her brother run around the living room and has started smiling at him as well. I forgot how much fun it is to see all these little changes when they are so small. It all happens so fast too!

Kane has been doing great in daycare and is getting to be such a big boy! We haven't quite tackled potty training yet, but he has not acted interested in it at all. He has been helpful around the house when we ask him to get us things for Landry and he loves to "pet" and kiss her head. He has been good about not getting into the presents under the Christmas tree after being told not to a couple of times, but I'm sure he's just itching to tear into them. He's probably hoping that he's getting an iPad since he is obsessed with mine. It is crazy how easily a 2 year old picks up on how to use something like that!

We are looking forward to celebrating Christmas this year and seeing family but to also celebrate as our own little family of 4. I am hoping for at least a little bit of snow just to make it feel a little bit more like Christmas, but since we bought a snowblower this year, that probably won't happen! Anyway, I hope I am not forgetting anything and I hope to keep updating this thing monthly. Enjoy some pictures that I did manage to take and we hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Wasn't too thrilled about tummy time yet

Forgot to add this one last time

Starting to smile

Goofy smile

He LOVES his baby sister

Quit taking pictures!

Had fun finger painting

I can still fit in here right?

After Daddy's 1st 5K

Good morning!

Grocery shopping is tiring!

This isn't so bad...

Cousin Lola!
LOVE this picture!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

We are now a family of 4....3 weeks late!

Sorry folks, this post is a little late! We haven't been busy with anything at all! ;) Little Miss Landry is now 3 weeks old (tomorrow). I can't believe how fast the time is going already! She seems to change every day! We are still getting used to the routine of having a newborn again along with chasing our wild 2 year old around. Kane has adjusted very well to having his baby sister around. He wasn't so sure about her the first couple of days in the hospital, but that's not the best setting anyway since I was in bed and connected to monitors. He likes to talk to her when she's awake and tries to share his cars with her. It is really fun seeing him try to interact with her. I can only imagine what it will be like down the road once she becomes mobile and tries to play with his toys!

Cory went back to work this week after having 2 weeks off and we've been having lots of help from both Grandmas the past 2 weeks. It has been very nice! We are dealing with the sleep deprivation a little better this time around since we've been through it once before and Landry seems to follow a similar schedule that Kane did at this age. She's a pretty content baby, but will definitely let us know when she's not happy (hungry, wet, gassy). She has been a very good eater and impressed the nurses and Dr at her checkup. She was born at 6lbs 11oz and was back up to her birth weight by 4 days old and at 12 days old was already up to 7lbs 14oz! She is starting to have more alert times, but still likes to sleep. We can't wait to watch this little girl grow and we are thrilled that she has an awesome big brother to help take care of her!

Now I'm sure everyone is oh so curious about how my labor went. I was scheduled to be induced at 39 weeks but a couple of days before my Dr wanted me to see a cardiologist as it showed on my non-stress test that my heart rate was very low. Dr had me do an EKG which showed that my heart also had an irregular pattern. The only option we had was going to see a cardiologist in Des Moines the day before I was to be induced. Talk about stressful! I was just ready to have the baby! The cardiologist looked at my past records (I went through all of the same testing 2 years ago after having Kane!) and he said I was still OK to be induced but that my heard definitely does have an irregular rhythm which causes my low heart rate. At the hospital it was running in the upper 30s/lower 40s! But since I do not show any symptoms like passing out, dizziness, etc there is nothing that needs to be done at this time. We were not given the go ahead for the induction until 4:30pm Thursday afternoon and my induction was scheduled for 6am the next day! Needless to say we already had a tiring day before "labor" day.

So bright and early on Friday we went to the hospital, got checked into our room and Dr induced me at 7:15am. I started contractions at 7:30 and they came on quickly and got strong pretty fast. I asked for an epidural around 8am and got it around 8:30 when my water broke. I was comfortable for a while, but I was progressing so quickly that the epidural didn't really have time to help me for pushing (it got me through the contractions). At 9am the nurses called Dr to the room, I started pushing at 9:15 and Landry was here at 9:29am! We definitely didn't expect everything to happen that quickly!

Alright, enough about all of that! Hopefully I can keep up with this blog while I'm off but I have a feeling this maternity leave is going to just fly by! But for now, here are some pictures of our most recent happenings!