This is just a quick note, but I realized that I might have left some people hanging yesterday if they were relying on the blog for updates. But, you know how it goes…your wife is in labor, she is pushing like a maniac, your beautiful baby girl is delivered and you end up loosing all track of time.

That’s right, I am proud to introduce Cora Jean Wells to the world (or at least the people who check our blog)! Both Jodi and Cora are doing well. She is so beautiful. God is amazing and he deserves all the praise. Thank you Jesus for the tremendous gift.

I plan on writing a more detailed story with more picture later today so stayed tuned.

What once was a guest room has now become a Nursery (in only 7 months!).  We have been taking pictures from the begining of the transforamtion.  Since we don’t know if it is a boy or girl we went with a neutral theme.  We spent a lot of weekends working on it and are really happy with the results.  We were really blessed along the way by friends and family to make it all come together.  Thanks to everyone.  Now all we need it Little Dub to arrive.

Well, he can’t really sing or play any instruments, he is entraining though. Anyway, I came home today for the millionth time and walked into a clean kitchen where all the dishes were done and I stopped and thought how great Andy has been serving me over the past 9 months. Listen to this, he wakes up and runs at 5:30 A.M., gets home and spends about 20 minutes in the kitchen cutting fruit and making sandwiches for our lunches, then he does the dishes from dinner the night before AND he usually spends a few minutes online catching up on bills all before he goes to work. Really, how great is Andy? It reminds me of when scripture talks about how men are to love their wives the way Christ loves us in Ephesians 5:25. It says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”  Andy truly “gives himself up” for me everyday. I am blessed.

This past Sunday my friends threw me an amazing baby shower. I was so impressed with how nice it was! It took me a while just to walk around and see all of the Sweet Pea details. There was a sweet pea cake, decorations, green flowers, sweet peas hanging from the ceiling, even real peas scattered around. I took a picture of the tag on one of the gifts everyone took home, it was on a a pea in the pod bath soaps. It says, “A Pea in the Pod, A bundle of Love! Sweet Little Dub a gift from above.” How cute! Even the punch was green. I felt so blessed that they all spent so much time and money putting this together for me. Everyone made great food and I had an especially hard time walking away from Summer’s chocolate covered strawberries! Our friend Jackie planned some crazy games that I’ve never even heard of. One of my favorites, besides “baby tossing,” (long story) was “don’t break the water!” There were plastic babies frozen in ice cubes and you couldn’t break the ice cube but had to get the baby out first. This made for some awkward humor (my favorite) as we were all sucking or rubbing our ice cubes. We got lots of practical gifts like diapers, onesies, and PLENTY of But Paste which I feel  like I need to officially state is NOT for me! I am so thankful for everyones thoughtfulness and generosity. It was a perfect day surrounded by good friends and I was sad to see it end.  Thank you again everyone!

I keep hearing that I should be starting to have contractions, or Braxton Hicks, by this stage in the game. Even at my last doctor appointment on Thursday I was asked if I’ve been noticing them and I couldn’t recall ever feeling anything like what she described. THEN…when I awkwardly rolled out of bed and stood up on my puffy sausage feet for my 4 a.m. bathroom call, I noticed that my entire stomach was abnormally long and rock hard. I definitely noticed it but in the fog of sleepiness didn’t think too much about it. THEN…last night while we were watching a movie on the couch I noticed some minor cramping pain and within a few seconds my stomach become long and rock hard again. I made Andy, and my mom who had come down for dinner, feel how hard it was and we all started smiling. It was so weird and incredibly hard. I’m excited that I can finally say I know what everyone is talking about now instead of just smiling and nodding. The only problem with entering this stage is that the inevitable  birth part is that much more real and close.

Yesterday I woke up with a huge smile knowing that I was having my family/ Port Charlotte Shower back home. I had been looking forward to it for a while and it was finally here. The entire day was great. First, I got to spend some extra time with a great friend who came down from Jacksonville, Kristy & her daughter. Then we arrived at the shower and I was blown away with how much Julie, my sister in-law, and Amanda, my cousin, had done for this shower. Amanda’s house was decked out with the cutest duck decorations, duck cookies, duck cake, duck gift bags, and the food looked amazing. I really enjoyed the banana bread! On top of all the the cute stuff, Julie made a diaper cake complete with ducks which was quiet impressive. There was even a table with white socks and puff paint for people to make custom socks for the baby. Andy really liked the ones kara made that said “Go Eagles.”  Oh, and there was a banner that said, “Congratulations Jodi, we can’t wait to meet Little Dub.” Yeah, a banner, how fun! The room was filled with people I love and I felt so blessed by their presence.  One game we played involved my family and friends lying to me about a diaper pin and I had to guess who was lying, the twist  that everyone got a kick out of was that when I guessed the wrong person I had to stand in the middle of the room and quack like a duck. Thanks again for that Julie!  After the games I got to open gifts and I was truly “showered,” really, I still can’t believe how generous everyone is. We got lots of gifts from our registry which is a HUGE help in getting the things we really need. I don’t know how people prepare for a baby without the help of friends and family. When we pulled in the driveway back home Andy smiled as he looked that the bed of the truck and asked if I had robbed a Babies R Us.  I was so excited to show Andy everything that I spread it all in the nursery (which is almost done, minus windows) and  you could barely see any floor once I was done.  THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE, I loved every minute of it!

Last Sunday I thought I was driving over to my co-small group leader’s house  after church where we had planned to have a brunch for our 9th and 10th grade girls. When I walked in I saw a table with presents, flowers and I was given a corsage. I was so surprised that this was in fact a shower for me. My co-leader, Lisa, was so sweet and hosted a great lunch (including Peach’s chicken salad sandwiches, yumm) and had great games for us. The girls gave me some great gifts and made me feel incredibly special. The best part is that they had all gone shopping the night before and went to a local pizza place to wrap the gifts. I went to the same pizza place with some girl friends that Saturday night about a hour after they all left. Thanks again girls, I loved it!

It is usually rare that Andy and I have NOTHING we need to do and we can sit on the couch and veg out. The past few weeks it has been even more or a rarity. Our weeks are a balancing act between work, church, friends, and chores. Now we have an added commitment in our schedule, Lamaze, which we started  this past Monday night. After a long introduction to the class we were told to lay on the floor and relax, well unfortunately I’m barely comfortable in  my own bed, so getting comfortable and “relaxing” on the floor just wasn’t happening. I couldn’t stop fidgeting and I barely heard what she was asking us to do. Have no fear though, Andy was sprawled out on his back, eyes closed, and breathing deep. So at least one of us will be relaxed when the baby comes. 

In other news, the nursery is about complete. Andy and I put some finial details in this past weekend and now all we need are the new windows that will be installed in about a week. Sometimes I walk into the nursery and look around and walk out smiling in disbelief. I really don’t think this is all going to set in until we drive away from the hospital with a baby in the back seat. 

Physically, I haven’t had too many changes lately. Well, other than the fact that as my belly grows my face seems to swell. I have noticed that my wedding band (I took my wedding ring off a few weeks ago) is now hard to get on and off. I did hurt my left foot about a week ago, not sure how, but it has healed and thankfully walking is less painful. I have  given in to wearing only Crocs or my running shoes to work now. I really don’t care how it looks I’m way more concerned with comfort at this point. One strange thing is that I wake up in the middle of the night not to a full bladder, but to soar hips. They  start to ache in the middle of the night and I have to roll over all the time to relive the pain. I’m not sure if my hips are stretching in preparation for birth or if I’m just laying in a bad position. The baby seems to be healthy and moving all around. I absolutely love having one of God’s miracles move around in my stomach. It is truly incredible and I’m in awe of the whole thing, aches and all! Now all we need is a name for a boy.

Most days I feel the baby move at certain times for a small window of time, today I felt like the baby was moving ALL day. I’m not sure what spurred this hyper activity on but it has been unlike any other day. Not only is the baby moving a lot, but several times it has moved with so much force that it stopped me in my tracks. I wonder how much stronger it will get in the remaining 8 weeks, yikes!