All moved in! + More news on Raine!

Finally writing again! We are all moved into the house! YAY! I can't even begin to say how happy I am that the move is over. It was VERY stressful on Ian & I. We have a lot of the house put together with a few things to do still. My familys been really great in helping me out since I'm so pregnant. I was feeling really bad for awhile last week & this week. I woke up to really swollen legs and feet and was worried about my blood pressure, but after getting it checked it was fine (actually a bit low). We went to the doctor the other day and after a cervical check we found out I am efaced and my cervix is really soft (his head is right there). Meaning it most likely won't be too long! I've had horrible cramping on and off, some contractions. The doctor said the cramping is most likely due to him being so low in the birth canal and pushing on everything around it. Its gotten to be miserable at times because the cramping makes me very nauseous. My appetite has decreased dramatically. I knew he must have dropped because his hiccups felt like they were in my butt, haha!

We are changing Raine's name a bit, actually just adding to it! To honor my grandparents and Mom, we are adding her maiden name as a second middle name. So the full name is Raine Chayton Howdershelt Coy. The last name still being just Coy. Its a way for both of our families to be honored. This way his name is still Raine Coy, and theres no hyphenation needed since its a middle name and not a last name. I can't believe he will be here soon!

I put up a new belly picture (finally) and below are some pics of our room. I will put up others of the house soon as well. We are still working on the nursery but hope to have it done soon.

Thats all for now! I think thats all the typing I have the energy for.. haha.

Almost moved!

Today was moving day #3, and it was originally planned to be the last day - but we won't be finished until tommorow. We have about a truck load left, and we have to move the cats over, and then we will be done! DONE! No more apartment! I hate this apartment. I am so excited to be in the house. AND all of the painting is done in the new house! (We have a couple of touch ups to do but thats it!). This means all we have to do is focus on unpacking and setting things up the way we want! It also means I get to put Raine's furniture together finally! We are going to Ikea at the end of the week to get the things I previously posted about, and we have to go on a shopping trip for some more small things we need for the house and thats it. I am beyond excited that the hardest part is over! I haven't been able to do much in the way of moving since I'm pregnant, so Ian & our good friend/Raines Godfather Christian has been helping us out. I did a lot of packing in boxes though. My mom got a new vanity/sink for the bathroom that will be installed this week, and we are getting the new washer and dryer as well. We have made one of the rooms at the house a closet, yep an entire room a closet! We have racks for the clothes and are getting some other organizers for it to set it up like a giant walk in closet. We really need that because all 3 of us (Myself, Ian & Raine) all have a ton of clothing. We had walk in closets at the apartment but they weren't even good enough. Raines stuff alone takes up an enormous closet. So this should be perfect. We may not have internet for a little while at the house because we haven't gotten it set up yet. We are trying to make a wise decision as we hate the company we have internet/TV through at the apartment.

Thats it for now.. boring I know, but wanted to let people know I may not be updating until we get internet, could be a couple days.. could be a week. However, I'll still be checking my myspace and email from time to time at another location :)

34 Week Appt

We had our 34 week appointment on Monday! It was pretty short and simple. The doctor measured my belly and I'm measuring perfectly average, so Raine should be perfectly average sized as well most likely. We heard his heartbeat again, it stayed steady at 145 which is where it usually is. Everything looks great, so we will be going back on Sept. 8th for another appointment. I am feeling decent though tired. The stress of moving has gotten to me so I am glad that we will be done with moving come Sunday. I will feel a thousand times better being in the new house and being able to finally nest and get things perfect before Raine is here. It will be amazing to finally set up his furniture and nursery!

My mom, stepdad, sister, etc have been helping us so much with the new place! Since we've been very busy at the apartment packing and since Ian has been working a lot and we have been short on time (I can pack, but the amount I can physically do is limited) they have been finishing getting the house ready for us. Friends of my Mom's who do home improvement work came and patched some of the places in the drywall that were needing some TLC, my Mom & Stepdad cleaned the basement out for us and the entire house so that it would be ready. My Mom & Sister have been finishing priming and painting the remaining rooms. They painted both the kitchen and dining room today. All that is left is one more coat on the dining room (because its a dark color - "Merlot") and to paint the ceiling in our room light grey. We owe them tons of praise for all they have done. My family continues to be amazing in every way in helping us be prepared for Raine. My grandparents are also buying us a brand new very nice washer and dryer, which is totally sweet of them.


I can't believe Raine will be here in a month or so! Its crazy! We only have the bookcase and a couple of wall shelves left to get for the nursery and we have decided to get a different chair instead of using the rocking chair. We are going up to Woodbridge next week or weekend to get them. Heres a picture of the chair & bookcase, only $130 for the chair and $60 for the bookcase, gotta love Ikea!:

I am beyond excited about the coming weeks! I finally will be able to do everything I've been wanting to do! It sounds silly but things like washing his bottles and putting them away, organizing his things, etc excite me! Haha. I think being in a new enviorment with the new house will be good for us as well.

Thats all for now -- I need to update my belly photo, I will do that soon! :)

34 Weeks!

Things have been going great lately! We are making a TON of progress on the new house, so far we have the babys room painted, our room painted, the living room painted, & the kitchen and dining room are ready to be painted! We've been down there quite a bit and its been tiring, but we've had a ton of help from my Mom who is awesome at things like this. I'm really excited to be getting out of the apartment and into the house. We do have some challenges - though the house is a good size the rooms are small, and that makes things a little more difficult because my bedroom furniture set is so big. We're working around it though. We ended up choosing/painting the following rooms like this:


Raine's room - light blue

Our room - medium shade of gray

Living room - tan

Dining room - merlot

Kitchen - sage green

We chose the living room, dining room and kitchen colors from the Olympic paint company's "wine country" line. The paint is low VOC and no odor so I can be around it. We have been picking up things here and there for the house, new lamps/lamp shades, a new bed set, etc. We still need a slipcover for the couch which we will get this week. We don't need much for Raine's room, my moms ordering the rug and lamps, and we are going to pick up either a bookcase or shelves for the room depending on space. Raine's room is small and has huge windows which make the space for furniture minimal, but we will find a way to make it happen. Theres a chair at Ikea that I love for his room because its modern.. will probably be getting that.

Tommorow is my next OB appointment, not sure what they will be doing but its most likely a normal checkup. Everythings great with the pregnancy to my knowledge, have been feeling very tired but otherwise normal.

Thats all for now, boring blog I know!

Another update! 32 Weeks!

Well, we ended up at the hospital AGAIN last night! I was having back pain so bad I couldn't function, so I called the doctor on call and she advised me to come back in, because they didnt check to see if my cervix was closed/not dilated before (doesn't sound right, eh?). So we dragged our butts back in (thanks to Ian for being a trooper). We went straight to Labor & Delivery and I was hooked up to monitors again. Once again, no contractions and hes doing great. They checked my cervix and it is still closed, so all is good there too. Because back pain can indicate kidney problems they sent me for an ultrasound of my kidneys and bladder. All looked good there too. We saw his hairy head again near my bladder! Its still looking like the cause of the pain is that I'm very small framed and all of the weight I've gained is in my belly, so its causing tremendous strain on the middle of my back. She perscribed me pain pills which are helping. I'm still going in this week for a follow-up, they explained to me that even though things look good now it could change very quickly, and being that I'm 32 weeks there is always the possibility he could come before we expect him to.

On to the GREAT NEWS!....

We got the keys to our new house! Professional cleaners are coming to clean things up, then we are going to start painting! Ian gets off at 2 tommorow, so we are going to go over there to make final decisions on colors. We know we are painting the living room dark red because our furniture is all black/dark expresso and we have a ton of asian art and buddha statues, Raine's room light blue (color matched to his bedding), and our room grey because our furniture is leather/chrome/black. We are mainly concerned with the main floor, so the only thing left on that floor is the kitchen which we haven't decided on a color for. The house is definitely an older house, so its difficult to mix my modern taste with the structure/style. But we will make it work somehow. I'm not sure if we will do the rooms upstairs now or later. I think Ian wants to go ahead and do it all now.. but we still have everything to move. Even though we have so much to do, knowing that we can get started is the best feeling ever.

I'm not sure if I blogged about it before, but we are set on his middle name, Chayton. :) Finally, right?

31 Weeks, Baby Shower, Moving, Hospital Trip, OH MY!

I will NOT slack on my blog again! I am horrible at this, I know! I have so much to update that I don't know where to start. Okay, lets start at the baby shower held on July 27th!

It was FABULOUS. We had an awesome turn out and were extremely blessed with everything we recieved. We have the big items we need thanks to my mom, dad/stepmom, and other family and we have more than enough clothes, accessories, etc. I feel so blessed that everyone was sweet enough to be so generous. I owe a huge, HUGE thank you to my mom especially. She is so amazing to have put together such a beautiful shower for me and Ian. Not only that but she bought all the furniture I just "had" to have including the entire Dwell Studio line - crib, changing table/dresser, bedding etc + a rediculous amount of clothing and other things for the baby. My sister, aunt, grandmaw and stepdad were a great help as well with putting everything together for the shower! The food was amazing, we did some fun games including measuring my belly, and some of the other classics, had door prizes, etc. Raine is such a lucky baby! Below are some photos taken before the shower and photos of some of the small things we recieved - not pictured are the big items because most are in previous posts on the blog.

The cake <3

Ian with his dad to be ribbon on!

I can't believe its now August 8, and I'm over 31 weeks pregnant! Raine is so active, he keeps me up all night at times, he always is up at 4am and kicking. Often I'll have to switch what side I'm laying on because hes knocking/kicking the side of my stomach thats resting on the bed and it feels very strange! I am so thankful he is active and healthy though.

We have some big news, we are MOVING! We didn't think we would be but it turns out we are! There is a house available next door to my mom (literally next door). We toured it and decided to move in. Its a cute house, older but has been redone. There are 4 bedrooms (small bedrooms, but still 4 of them), 2 stories as well as a basement. Two of the bedrooms are upstairs, 2 are on the main level along with a large living room and the kitchen. It has decent hardwood floors, and in general seems like not such a bad place to be. We have to paint before we move in - basically we will be completely moved into the house by September 1st. We are getting started painting right away and have already picked out the colors (well I won't obviously be doing much painting, but my Mom and everyone is being very gracious in helping). I wasn't sold on the house when I looked at it, because its not as modern as I would have liked.. but the location being as it is will be perfect since my mom will be watching Raine while we are working and of course I want to have her close by. Its also very close to my sister and her family's house and my grandparents house - and they are getting up in age so I want them to be able to see and spend time with Raine. Ian also really wanted to move into a house because I think the apartment drives him nuts. With the amount of animals we have the apartment really just doesn't work even though its large for an apartment. We have a nice yard at the new house, its just all around better for our situation. I am SO excited to be able to start on the nursery! It has driven me crazy not being able to start. I actually got impatient one night before we had seen the house and decided to move in, and hung some of Raine's clothes up in the closet, now I'll have to take them all back down! hahaha. Oh well. Heres a picture of (some) his clothes.

And here is a picture of the over 5 foot tall wired, stuffed giraffeI bought him, yeah I know, I'm crazy. But his room is going to be a zoo theme! This thing is my height!

Last but definitely not least, we ended up at the labor and delivery floor at the hospital last night/this morning. For the last few days I've been having some fluid leaking but passed it off as watery cervical mucus. Then I started having very bad back pain and a ton of pressure in my cervix/lower abdomen. I'm famous for putting things off concerning my health but I decided to go in and have it checked just in case something was going on. So we went in, they hooked me up to a fetal heart monitor and monitored for contractions for a couple of hours. No contractions! His heart rate was pretty stable around 138-145. He was moving so much that the heart rate monitor would lose track of him for a few seconds, typical Raine behavior! Hes always such a little booger when being monitored or looked at! They checked me for amniotic fluid leaking but didn't see any evidence of it - so what I'm leaking is probably normal leakage that happens later in the pregnancy. They checked my blood pressure and urine which both looked good as well. They also did a short ultrasound to see if he had enough fluid around him, the fluid looks great! We learned a suprising bit of news when the tech was doing the ultrasound - he has a significant amount of hair on his head! That was very unexpected, she said its hard to see hair on ultrasounds so he probably has a good amount. Monkey baby! Hahaha! He looked very cramped in there, poor thing! I am so glad everything is okay though, and I'm glad I went in instead of worrying and not knowing. I am going to follow up with the doctor soon and keep an eye on the back pain. The pain could be being caused obviously by all the extra strain on my back with me being a small girl and having a lot of weight in my belly. I haven't gained any weight anywhere but my belly, so I'm grateful for that. My weight gain is still half of where it should be, but since I'm eating healthy and hes measuring perfectly for his age there isn't much cause for concern. I can't believe its less than 2 months until my due date! I could very well have this baby in a month, less, more, AAH! Its so uncertain! I just want him to wait till at least 37 weeks.. so hes considered full term (and so his nursery is ready! LOL). My main concern of course is his health. I love my little Rainey so much already!

There is likely to be many more updates since so much is going on. I'll post photos of the new place once we get the painting and everything done. :)

More baby shower stuff!

First off, I am so flattered by how many people have RSVPed, I am so blessed! My only wish is that Ian's family members could be here, but with them being so far away the most important thing is that they come when hes born/about to be born instead! Yesterday was great (besides the fact one of my teeth is majorly screwed up and it hurts REALLY bad, going to make an appointment and get some antibiotics - have pain killers that I'm allowed to take already, but it still hurts really bad). My mom and I went out and got some more stuff for the shower. We got some really awesome truffles to include in favor bags, and some other things. Basically everything is done, we still have to shop for prizes, but other than that just a few finishing details. I'm glad my mom is including me in the shower process.. she cares about everything being the way I want it to be, which is amazing. The highlight of the day was definitely going to professional cake shop (Cakes Galore) to order/design/pick flavors for the shower cake. We are very excited about the cake! It is 2 tiered, like a wedding cake, the large bottom tier will be light yellow with baby blue polka dots, the smaller top tier will be baby blue with pale light yellow polka dots. In front of the bottom tier is a sign that says "Welcome Raine", and on the top of the cake will be a fabric ribbon and a duckie. I wanted it to be VERY simple, as I don't care for over-the-top cakes. I think it should turn out lovely! Speaking of food some of the things we are serving are Swedish meatballs, Mandarin salad, Puffs stuffed with chicken salad, mini ham sandwiches, the classics like pasta and potatoe salad, fresh fruit, etc. Yum! My mom is THE ABSOLUTE BEST MOTHER EVER PERIOD! Its undisputed. Shes amazing! She always pulls things together flawlessly, and puts so much thought and love into it. I'm so thankful to have her, I hope to someday be half the mom she is to me to Raine. She is truly my hero, and by far the most beautiful person inside and out in the universe. After the pregnancy is over, I am planning on getting portrait tattoos of both my mom and my grandmother. I will most likely have to travel to get it done the way I want them to be, theres a couple of out of state artists I have in mind. I have saved space on my arms for the portraits. Of course I'll get something for Raine as well, most likely get his name right away after hes born then get something else to add to it later.

Wow that was a lot of babble, I have a habit of doing that lately! I've got more to write, but I'm going to wait till this evening and make another entry. Its 7am, so I'm going to go lay down a bit longer.