It's a Boy!

Well, we officially added a new member to our growing family! We have finally adopted our long awaited friend, Gizmo. For those of you who don't know, here is the story. My mom works with blind woman who has a seeing eye dog named Gizmo. About a year ago it was decided by Jan, my mother's friend, and the seeing eye dog people that Gizmo was ready to retire from his 5+ years of service. Jan asked me and Robin if we wanted to adopt Gizmo and give him a good home to spend his golden years in. Gizmo is the best dog and we gladly accepted! We did not have our Jack at this time and we thought we would be a one dog home. After a tradgic accident involving Jan's new dog, we found ourselves a year later still with no Gizmo. We had really given up hope that we would ever even get Gizmo, until last week. Jan called and let know the time had come and she needed to get Gizmo into his forever home.
So, that brings us to today. Robin and I picked up our newest family member this afternoon at Jan's new apartment. I have to say, it was one of the saddest things I have done in quite some time. Gizmo hasn't just been Jan's pet for the past 5 years, he has been her constant companion and best friend. Most importantly, he has been her eyes and has kept her from danger. Gizmo was Jan's roomate and friend when she went through her divorce a few years ago. Needless to say, Jan was very upset when we picked him up today. Robin and I were both crying and hugging Jan. I don't know how you can ever give up your pet, but in Jan's case she had to, she needs to get ready for her new, younger guide dog. Please pray for Jan over the next few weeks, she is really going to have a hard time adjusting to life without Gizmo.
Gizmo and Jack have spent a weekend together before but we were still nervous about their meeting. Gizmo is a lot older than Jack, he is 9 years old, Jack is barely one. Everyone who knows Jack knows that he has neverending energy. This is a little overwhelming for Gizmo, but I have to say, they LOVE each other! They have started back where they left off and I believe they are going to be best buddies! Jack is SO happy! I am posting some pics of the new brothers.

Gizmo on the left, Jack on the right

Soccer Mom in the making

Matt and I got a more family appropriate car this weekend. After considering lots of different options, we ended up getting a new Honda CR-V. It's a pretty cute little guy and I am getting used to driving it. I have been pretty much an anti-SUV girl for quite some time now, my tree hugging nature always held me back, but this little crossover utility vehicle can keep my Green side happy. It gets 20-27 miles per gallon, which I am pretty sure is better gas mileage than my Jetta. I was also pretty sad to not get another VW, but we really couldn't find anything there that kept both of us and our wallet happy. This is not my car but a picture of one I found online. This is pretty much what it looks like. I really wanted a black or dark blue one but this one is an '08 and they were very willing to make us a deal on it, we just couldn't resist. I will try to post a pic of our car and a 28 week belly pic this week.


I have been off of work this week after a weekend of having some high blood pressure issues. Dr. Norwood gave me a clean bill of health today and told me to not stress so much about it. I think he thinks that was a lot of the problem! My BP has been a lot better since Sunday and I just had a trace amount of protein in my urine. My ankles, hands and face are not swollen and I have felt great, so I am going to rest as much as I can and get back to work on Friday night. I just hope I can take it easy at work from now on. I am now starting to go to see him every two week and he feels sure we can keep a close enough eye on the BP with my more frequent visits. I was hoping I wouldn't have to go on bedrest or anything crazy like that! I have stuff to do! I have showers coming up and I am throwing two showers for friends as well! Anything to keep Cora healthy though, if that means bedrest, then I will go on bedrest! I'm just praying and keeping my fingers crossed to continue a normal, healthy pregnancy. It's going by so quickly! I think I'm really going to miss it!

Things are moving along

Jack loves to help out.

We are making progress on Cora's room. Today we get our new carpet put in and I CAN NOT WAIT! We have been without carpet since before Christmas and I am looking forward to getting life somewhat back to normal around here. This is a boring pic but it's where we are at now. We are going to get the chair rail up later this week. Also, some of our furniture for the baby was damaged when it was getting loaded into our truck at Babies R Us, so we will have to wait a little longer to get another armoire in.
We celebrated our friend Adrian's 30th birthday party on Sunday night at Joe T. Garcia's in Ft. Worth where the food is always great!!! I actually had on make up and some cute new maternity clothes, so I took a 27 week belly pic before we went to dinner. Cora is getting bigger and bigger!

A toast to Adrian.

27 weeks

Getting bigger

Well, there's not much new going on here at the Stogner House. We went to Oklahoma this weekend to go to Matt's sister, Stefani's baby shower. It was a really quick trip but it was nice to get to spend some time with Matt's family. Stefani got a lot of great stuff for baby Alex, who is due February 23. We think Stefani will probably deliver before then, we are just hoping she can hold him in just a little bit longer.

We (mainly Matt) have gotten started on getting Cora's nursery together. We will get the new carpet in the house on Monday the 19th. We will pick up the furniture on Wednesday. Hopefully we will have the painting done by Wednesday as well. Then we will really have things going, I can start washing her clothes and getting everything put up!

As far as our health goes, I passed my glucose challenge, so no diabetes for me! I was so happy! Matt and I also start our birthing classes the first Monday night in February. I am really looking forward to the classes. I think Matt is looking forward to them too, but I know he is worried about having to watch videos of births!

That's it for now. Here are some pics of us getting the nursery together. We are getting the primer on for the chair rail that Matt is going to put up. We are going to paint the lower part red and the upper part off white. I will post a pic of our bedding too. I think it's going to be very cute when we get it all together. Please don't pay attention to the way we look. We just got in from Oklahoma when we did this. My belly is a lot bigger than the last post. I am 26 weeks and 1 day preggo here.

Jack was helping us out.















Baby Cora's bedding. I hope the paint and furniture look good with it.

Cora Update

Well, everyone will be happy to hear that my sonogram on Friday went really well! The sonographer told me a little bit while she did it on Friday that really calmed my nerves. I didn't want to make any official announcements though until after I saw Dr. Norwood on Monday. He was please with the results. Her right kidney was a dilated a little more from 3mm to 4mm, but her left kidney decreased in dilation from 3mm to 2mm. The numbers are now pretty insignificant and it looks like I don't even need to have anymore sonos! I believe he was mainly looking for a marked increase in the dilation. Say, from 3mm to 5 or 6mm. My fluid level was prefect and she is definately growing and moving around like crazy in there. They estimated her weight at 1 lb. and 12 oz.! Pretty big girl! She was measuring almost a week bigger than she is...I knew it would start happening sooner or later! Everything else was normal, her heart looked great and she still has all of her bowel where it is supposed to be (I guess the NICU nurse in me came out when I asked her to look at her bowel to make sure). The only disappointing thing was that she was positioned just perfectly that we could not see her face (at all!) and we really couldn't see her girl anatomy. The sonographer told me she was very happy we weren't doing a sex determination with this sono because she really couldn't be 100%. She did assure me she could still see some bits of girly bits. We didn't even take a picture home. We are planning on getting a 3D/4D sono done in about a month. This is purely for entertainment purposes and we will paying out of pocket. But I will be getting it done at Dr. Norwood's office and I really like the sonographer there, she is so sweet. I hope Cora cooperates! Hopefully I will be able to post some really cute pictures after that scan!

In other news, we purchased all of Cora's furniture this weekend! I was at Babies 'R Us with my mom and sister when I saw a set that I really liked. It was 20% off and I thought it was a very good deal for the amount of stuff we were getting. I called Matt, sent him some pics with my cell and he gave me the green light to buy! We should get it all in next week. We will have the new carpet laid the week after that and then we will officially begin to get the nursery together. For those of you who do not know, our house flooded a few weeks ago and we are still waiting on getting the new carpet in, right now we have some carpet and a lot of concrete for flooring, it's just lovely! I will attach a pic of the furniture. As soon as we have the nursery done I will post a pic of that too.

6 Months Preggo

Here I am at 24 weeks+6 days pregnant. Forgive my appearance, I just got up from taking a nap and I was in serious need of some make up. I will post pics from my sonogram tomorrow.















Me and Matt...Cora needs to know how her Dad really is!

Happy New Year!

2009 is going to be great. I feel like I have a lot to look forward to. Another year with my husband and family, most importantly, the arrival of our newest family member. In addition to my friends Melissa, Stephanie and Teri all having babies within a few weeks of Cora, we also have a little nephew on the way. It's going to be so much fun!!

Christmas was fun. We spent the day at my cousins Abby and Nathan's beautiful old house in Ft. Worth. I got a lot of cool stuff. I got the sweetest necklace from Matt and Mom and Dad got us a camcorder.

I have my next sonogram tomorrow but I don't have my doctor's appointment until Monday when Dr. Norwood will be back in town. I will be 25 weeks on Saturday, so this visit will include my Glucose Challenge along with going over the results of the sonogram. I am nervous about the Glucose Challenge. I really hope I pass and that I don't have Gestational Diabetes. I am sure I will be fine, but I have gained 30 lbs(!!!), so we will see what the good doctor says!

I am bringing my camera to the sono tomorrow and I have made a New Year's resolution to start taking more pictures during the pregnancy. Stay tuned!! Everyone can see my extra pounds! :)