Carmon Avery Coker

She's finally here!!! I can't believe I'm the mommy of a sweet, beautiful little girl! Here's how it all went down!

I was 39 weeks pregnant and everything had been perfect so far. I left each doctor visit a little more pessimistic each week thinking that this girl wasn't going to come out on her own. Cam had 1 week between his spring semester finals and the beginning of Maymester at FMU.

At my 38 week appointment on Tuesday, I was told that things were favorable for a successful induction and that if I had not gone into labor on my own by 39 weeks, that I would be a good candidate for an induction. When I went to schedule my appointment, they had nothing available

until the following Thursday! That meant, I would have to endure the

whole week, go to the doctor, schedule the induction, and hope that they could do it before Cam had to go back to school!

My cell phone google searches for the past 2 weeks looked a little like this:

"Signs of labor"

"Natural ways to induce labor"

"Foods to induce labor"

"Exercises to start labor"

"What do contractions feel like?"

and a few more that I'm too embarrassed to type here.

I decided to start calling every day so see if they had cancellations for the next week (reschedule dr appointment...FAIL!) in hopes I could see a doctor before Thursday to buy us a few more days. The waiting hours were spent WALKING! Mall walking, walking around the block, walking on the treadmill. Of course the idea of walking this baby out sounded better in theory, than in reality. I was fat and tired! We tried just about every other thing too (short of castor oil...YUCK! and horseback riding...which would have been a good option if we had a horse!)

Here is a yucky Easter pic just so you have an idea of the huge-ness I was experiencing.

I was sleeping horribly and trying to stay in tune with my body for any hopeful signs of labor. Around the weekend I started noticing tightening in my belly. It wasn't really an new feeling. In fact, I had noticed it all along, but just thought it was the baby adjusting herself. Now I was really paying attention, I figured it might be contractions. They weren't painful at all, but it at least gave me hope that things were moving along. This was the most uncomfortable period of the whole pregnancy, I was waking up every hour of the night and started sleeping on the couch so that I didn't disturb Cam or Jac.

Early Wednesday morning, things got painful. I was ecstatic! I tried to lay down, but each contraction woke me up and I walked around until they settled. Finally, around 4 or 5, I got up and started doing some laundry, sweeping, mopping, washing dishes, and anything else I could think of to stay busy.

Cam woke up around 6:30 and I broke the news to him then..."I think we might have a baby today." I was calm and collected, but I knew that things were getting crazy. I had been timing my contractions for a while, and although they weren't really consistent, they were between 7 and 10 minutes apart. We started getting our things together. After Cam showered and I got Jac's bag packed, Cam took him to his mom's house so we could go to the hospital and hope for some good news.

We got to the hospital around 9 am. The nurse told me that I was about 3.5 cm dilated so they would monitor me for a while and check again later. I guess it was around 45 minutes total before they came back. The monitor showed that they were still irregular, but when she checked me again, I was 6.5 cm dilated. I think we were all taken by surprise that things had moved so quickly, but we knew then, the baby would be here sooner than we thought!

By the time we made it up to labor and delivery, it was close to 11. The doctor came in shortly after and broke my water. At about 1:30, I decided it was time to push!

It's GO time! We're about to have ANOTHER baby!!!

At 2:14 PM, Carmon Avery Coker made her debut! She came out crying, Cam cut the cord, the doctor put her right on my chest, and I was in awe. It was officially a girl! I was finally convinced! After they wiped her down and wrapped her up, they gave her to Cam. She had stopped crying and just stared. She was so content!

8 lbs 1 oz and 20 in of BEAUTIFUL!!

We were in the hospital only 24 hours after delivery and we headed home. Carmon has only been in our lives for a month and I can hardly remember life without her.

Big Bro, Jac has adjusted really well. He's really been craving lots of attention, but you can tell he really loves his baby sister. He has a really hard time understanding why she can't swim with him and play with him, but he loves holding her (briefly), kissing her, and helping with her.

Carmon seems to already know she's the second child. She is such an easy baby and very straightforward. When she cries, she's hungry, dirty, or sometimes just wanting to be held. Everything about this kid seems the exact opposite of her brother. Jac really made us work hard when he was a baby and still does! We are so extremely thankful and blessed for both of our kids and their unique personalities!

Now we're one biggER, happy family!

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family." -Anthony Brandt

Bandwagon Blogger???

Alright, all this blog talk lately has got me thinking about hopping back on the bandwagon. I don't intend on this being a lengthy post, but I thought it was about time I updated a little.

The last time I posted, was over 6 months ago I guess. In light of the new year I thought I'd do a little month by month review of 2010 to get caught up.

January: Happy New Year! I gotta be honest, one year ago???? I having a hard time remembering what went on. I do know it was a tough month celebrating the holidays and then having to separate back to our two different states...again!

February: Jac's temper tantrums were in full bloom at this time. We were suffering from recurrent ear infections and separation anxiety. 2 hour long tantrums on a daily basis were the norm. Mommy, Daddy, and Jac were at wit's end. We began meeting with an ENT to schedule tubes.

March: Cam begins terminal leave followed immediately by Jac's surgery. No down time here. We got all of Cam's stuff moved back all by ourselves and fell in love with a cute little house we found online. After one day of house hunting and a few phone calls, we made an offer. 24 hours later, offer accepted, time for paperwork.

April: We closed on the house and moved in. Pretty sure we had everything we owned in the house and unpacked in about 3 days. So excited to have a home of our own! In other news, Cam finally made it his EAS date. Our official exit from the USMC!!! Big sigh of relief!

May: School's out for the summer...for me at least. Cam meets with a VA rep from FMU and finds out he can start school during Maymester. Kinda put a damper on my summer plans, but in hindsight, he had an extremely productive summer!

June: Things are settling down. Cam's still attending summer school and during his brief break, we took a family vacay to see the Packard's in Richmond. Jac's tantrums have finally settled and are now few and far between. Life as the mother of a 2.5 year old is finally starting to cut me some slack!! Cam has a birthday and we agree to expand our family to include a new little furry girl. It would be a few more weeks before we could take her home.

July: Cam's still in school and didn't get to go with me on the church mission trip to VA. (Big sad face!) We celebrated our 4th anniversary in two different states (which was much better than celebrating our 3rd anniversary in two different countries with months to go). Darby joins our family at the perfect time and reminds me what it's like to be a Mama to a newborn baby. We quickly learn that English Bulldog/Boxer mixes DO NOT make good inside dogs.

August: School starts back, much to my dismay and with it I've put on about 20 pounds since January. I'm getting asked on a daily basis if I'm pregnant. Lo and behold, I take a pregnancy test on the the 26th (my birthday) and it comes back positive! What????!!!!!! Are we ready for this again? I just thought I figured this motherhood thing out! Oh yeah, Cam starts his first normal semester (and thanks to Military credits and Summer School, he started out as a Sophomore!).

September: Pregnancy tests every week. I was too scared to call the doctor and find out all of this was false so I lived in doubt and disbelief for a while. I finally scheduled an appointment when I was around 9 weeks and all was confirmed. I still can't believe it!

October: Time for pumpkin shopping and Halloween costumes. I dressed as a marathon runner, Jac was Superman, and Cam got really creative and dressed as a "nasty civilian."

November: I'm really putting on some weight early on and getting ridiculously large! We have a lot to be thankful for this year. New house, the pieces of our family put back together, Jac's ears and tantrums seem to be fixed, and a new little one on the way! False alarm at the doctor's office hoping we would get to find out the sex of the baby and learning that we would have to wait until December for that. We celebrate Jac's third birthday with baseball/Toy Story party at the park on a beautiful fall day and take off on the day after Thanksgiving for some crazy Christmas shopping.

December: We had a blast decorating our house for Christmas (I was so excited about it, that I technically had all my decorations put up before Thanksgiving), and enjoyed our cozy little bungalow with our fake fire and all. Jac was getting super excited about Christmas and so were we. In fact, I listened to Christmas music non-stop (and I don't even like Christmas music). We had lots of opportunities to talk about the Christmas story with Jac and he made lots of connections with it because Mary had a baby in her belly "like Mommy!" We went to the doctor for our anatomy ultrasound and found out that we were going to have a little girl! Jac wasn't super excited, because he had told us all along that it was a girl..no surprise to him. We had a couple of meltdowns because of no-naps and late bedtimes, but Christmas day was a success for all! The best part of it was the late Christmas gift we got...snow cream on the 26th! What a perfect ending to 2010!

So there it is, a year in review: 2010. A little more wordy than I intended, but I can't really describe how awesome it is to be in one place with my family. Life couldn't be sweeter right now! I can't wait to see what all 2011 has in store for us!

OK...so I lied.

The story goes, I was riding in the car and looking for something to do. I thought..."Hey, I remember that blog thing I used to update every now and then. Why don't I give that a go to pass the time?" I added my title and my Droid never would let me type text for the body. Go figure.

Anyhow, here's a quick update of the end of 2009 and halfway through 2010.

Work...SUCKED! For most of the school year at least. My class was a handful, but tolorable. I met some really great people, but by the time May rolled around...I was running on pure steam! Right now, I'm basking in summertime bliss and can't come to terms with the fact that I'll be

back at work next week!! I'm not ready for this!

Home life...we got a new house!!! Cam was getting ready to get out of the USMC around the end of Feb., but we had no real intentions of getting our own place. We kinda thought we'd stay with my parents for a couple of months and start saving some mulah. It's so much fun house hunting though. We started looking around real estate webpages just to get our feet wet and get a good idea of what type of house we would get for our price range. That's when we found this little beauty...

Luckily, there was an open house the next weekend we were coming home so we stopped by. We absolutely loved it! The previous owners had done a ton of work right after moving out and everything was so pretty! (Fresh paint in every room, brand new cabinets, microwave, and range in the kitchen, newly screened-in porch) The next day, we decided that if we wanted this place, we had to get moving. It had only been on the market for a month and had already had an offer that fell through, so we hit the ground running. By mid April, the house was ours and we moved in!

Everything else...Jac has been super-healthy since he had tubes put in his ears in March. He's totally into baseball right now. We play literally ALL DAY! He wakes up and runs to find a bat and he insists on wearing his t-ball helmet in the car. He won't wear a shirt unless it's baseball approved (I think that he has decided that any shirt with numbers or writing on it passes the test.). We're really working on bedtime. During all the moving commotion, Mommy and Daddy were dog tired and it was way to easy to let him sleep in our bed or lay on the couch and fall asleep. We've really been pretty strict about the bedtime routine to attempt to get our angel boy back at night. That's currently a work in progress.

Cam went to FMU in April to meet with the VA rep and get all of his info to start school in the fall. He mentioned that he wished he could start sooner than August. Since FMU is a veteran friendly school, and Cam had all of his stuff together, they let him start in Maymester. He's about to finish up summer II. He has also turned in his paper work to see if he could get some military transfer credits. He just got his letter and now has over 30 hours! That means he is officially a sophomore and if it weren't for the VA rep, he still wouldn't have started his freshman year! So far, he loves it and the little nerd even has a 4.0.

Well, my little baseball boy has awoken from his slumber, so I'm off to cuddle. That's life for now. Stay tuned for some more exciting updates (hopefully before 2011!!) :)

I'm Back!

Coming Home!!!!!

Ok, so a new post is LONG overdue! So much has gone on, and no lie, I can't even muster up the energy to watch The Office lately, so posting has been put on the back-burner.

CAM'S HOME!!!!! He got back into Jacksonville on September 24th. We were told that they would arrive on base sometime late on Wednesday night and we were told to be on base ready to greet our Marines around 1:00 AM Thursday morning.

Forget about the fact that I had spent the entire day Wednesday, trying to move things in to Cam's apartment and waiting on the families to arrive with the furniture. Forget about the fact that as we were hauling things up the stairs (with 3 crazy kids who were up way past their bedtime), I somehow managed to find my way on top of a fire ant bed. I got close to 10 bites on each foot and even though I was super dramatic about it (if you know me at all, you know I'd rather run into an anaconda than a fire ant), I was determined not to let it spoil Cam's homecoming. Forget about the fact that it was 1 in the morning and Jac had still not gone to sleep and was crazy grumpy (I had to literally force him, kicking and screaming, into his carseat)! With all this weighing heavily on my emotions (and my cankles), we headed to the base.

They actually had a pretty cool set-up going on and if I was a night person at all, I might would have been a little more pumped about it. They had a space walk and carnival games set-up for the kids and were serving hot dogs, drinks, and snacks (did I mention it was 1 in the morning...ick!).

At around 2, they came in and gave us the 30 minute warning. We were told the Marines were on base and would be arriving at the Area 1 gym (where we were) in about a half hour. Jac slept through most of the night in his stroller, but woke up to whine every now and then.

At around 5 AM (maybe 6), the buses were finally pulling up to the gym (30 minutes???? Yeah, right!). The Marines began pouring out and reuiniting with their families. I had no clue which bus he was on, there were probably 5 or 6 full buses. I searched for a while before deciding to plant myself in one spot and let Cam find me...he did! When I heard him standing behind me, I whipped around and threw my arms around him. After a few seconds of hugging, I stopped to check his face and see that it really was him and I wasn't groping a stranger. (AWKWARD!) We were good though. :)

The next day, we went out to breakfast with our families and they headed back to Florence with Jac, so we could spend a couple of days alone together. It was awesome!

I have to say that this whole experience has been an emotional roller coaster. Maybe my biggest concern was worrying that Jac wouldn't remember Cam at all. I knew that it wouldn't be long before things would be back to normal with those two, but I was honestly worried how Cam would take it. I knew that throughout the entire deployment, in all their family readiness classes, the always make sure that the Marines with young children understand that more than likely, their kids won't know who they are. I always tried to make sure that we included Cam in everything we did (even if it wasn't physically). Jac has a picture hanging in his room of him with Cam and every night, he "kissed" daddy and told him good-night. SKYPE has been a total blessing. I honestly thing we'd be in a totally different place now if we hadn't had it and I'm certain that it made the whole "No Daddy Adjustment" so much smoother for Jac. It reallly was like having him here with us. Things have really fallen back in to place and so far, it's back to the "new normal."

Speaking of the "new normal," this long distance relationship thing is absolutely killing me. Being apart from my husband for son long has made this suck a lot worse. When we are together, it's hard to focus on anything else, including work. I'm really struggling right now because we can't be together all the time and it drives me crazy having to say good-bye all the time. Sometimes I worry that I made a mistake by coming back to Florence, and have almost conviced myself that I'd feel a lot better back in Jacksonville where even if I had the worse work day in the world, I could come home and spend a quiet evening at home with my cute little family. What's that cliche' quote??? "The grass is always greener....??" That's about right. I'm trying really hard to stay positive, but am finding myself way more frustrated at work that I have been before, and I'm just really tired! The good news is that in about 5 months, I'll have my stay-in-SC husband back home for good! I can't wait!

So anyhow, I've got early morning duty at work this week (I miss the OCS policy of teachers having no non-instructioal duties), and it's got me and Jac pretty ill. I have to be at work at 7AM and I'm still not ready for bed! I better call it quits for now. Thanks for tuning in and I hope I didn't leave you hanging for too long!

I Really Do!

I really want to post a blog update...but I just can't bear to type for more than a minute or two.



Works going OK. I feel like I'm working all the time, yet, I'm not making any progress. I'm beginning to remember what I find so frustrating about this profession.



My morning commute is killer! I take a shower at night so that I can sleep a little later in the morning, but I still have to leave the house by 6:30 to take Jac to Mrs. Gloria's and head to work. Usually I pull into the parking lot shortly after 7:15.

I got to talk to Cam on Skype one final time on last Wed. night (Thur. morning for him). It was a little bit sad, because I knew it would be a few weeks longer before I could see his face again. Even still, I'm so excited! This means that it really is getting close! Even though it was late when we talked, I was a bad Mommy and woke Jac up so that Cam could get one more look at his little boy to last until he gets home. The next morning after we spoke, Cam and the rest of his guys moved out of their "cans" and into a squad bay for holding until their flight out.

I really feel like that God has done some major work in my life during this time. It's been a rough experience and one that I would never want to do again, but I've learned so much! I am planning on posting in a little more detail next time, but since it is late (10...haha), I think I should be going to bed. After all, my little boy is an early-riser, and I would like to feel rested when I start my week at work again. To be continued....

Employed!

So I had a job interview last week and really felt like things went well, although it was only a ten minute interview. I totally felt prepared for anything, but as it turned out, I way over-did it! The principal told me he would be calling whoever he chose for the job on Tuesday of last week. If you didn't get chosen, you would get a letter in the mail in a few days thanking you for your time. So...I didn't get a call on Tuesday and was pretty bummed about it.

You can imagine my surprise when I get a call from the district office this morning informing me that I had been recommended for the job! I thought maybe she was mistaken (and in all honesty, I'm still not positive she wasn't), but even still, she told me that they are writing up my contract and it should be ready in the next day or so! Woo Hoo! What a load off!

Now, I've got a week or two to start collecting supplies (and mooching off of my teacher friends/cousins) and get my classroom ready for school to start on the 17th! I'm getting nervous!

In other news, I almost went into cardiac arrest 2 weeks ago, when Jac fell into my parent's garden pond. Kimberly and I were trying to clean up some glass off of the patio (thanks to another toddler fiasco) when I just so happened to turn around and see Jac floating in the pond. I jumped up and ran like the wind to scoop him out. Poor baby, he was clinging to a rock on the edge of the pool. His head was above the water, but he had gone under because his hair was all wet. He was wearing his brand new tennis shoes that were now drenched and had algea scuff marks on the toe. I pulled him out and took off all of his clothes. He cried for all of 30 seconds and didn't even cough once. I think he may have held his breath when he fell in (thanks YMCA). He's a tough little guy, but it really made me realize how fragile children are. You can't look away from them even for a minute. I'm thinking of investing in a large cage.

Speaking of drowning in the water, Kimberly was in the pool with Penn and Samantha last week. Oddly enough, Jac has decided that he's scared to death of pools of water when adults are near, but makes a mad dash toward the pond and pool when he thinks no one is looking. So, Jac was playing with the outside toys, chasing Kory around, etc. We were so proud of Penn. He went under the water (and held his breath) and went all the way to the bottom (2ft) of the pool and came back up. We were super excited at his amazing feat and cheered like he had just done a backflip. All of a sudden, we saw what he went down to the bottom to get...MY BLACKBERRY!!! Apparently, Jac though it would be pretty fun to see if a cell phone will sink or float (he's the inquisitive type). FYI...they sink. Penn actually saved my phone from the dark abyss that is the bottom of the pool. I ran inside and tore the phone apart, dried it off, and threw it in a ziploc bag with Rice-A-Roni (we had no plain rice) to help draw the moisture out. I left it there overnight. Later, Pack took it apart and vacuumed out some more moisture from the inside. All of our efforts paid off and it's still working, thank goodness. I've been using Cam's phone this past week, because I want to be postive it's going to work for me. Maybe God's trying to teache me not to be so materialistic? Oh how I love my phone!

Things with Cam have been pretty good lately. Their Internet hasn't been going out so much and we've been able to talk and e-mail pretty regularly. Since Saturday was August 1, I can now say that Cam will be home next month. It's been pretty tough without him lately. We just celebrated our anniversary on July 22. Well...maybe celebrated isn't the right word. We'll say....OBSERVED (how romantic...right?). We'll be "celebrating" come September! I sent him a heartfelt care package filled with granola bars, and flavored powder for bottled water (classic), and he sent me a beautiful bouquet of roses and a letter. He found out that most of the people he works with are actually going to get to come home about a month early, but he has to stay behind and help out Aviation Ordinance. I'm getting really excited and we've got lots of stuff planned for when he gets home. Hopefully, I won't be too distracted at my new job! :)

I don't have any idea how many people care about what's going on in my life, or read my blog (if anyone), but if you're one of those troopers, I just want to say thanks. Your friendship, prayers, advise, and support mean so much to me. If nothing else, getting things out there, at least helps me to make sense of things. That was a little random, but it had to be said. :)

I'm gonna hit the sack tonight, before I start typing crazy stuff out of sheer exhaustion. I'll leave you with a pic, I call "Happiness." :)