Meet Baby Franklin

After a very LONG labor process at the hospital, our sweet baby boy is finally here!! To make a long, very emotionally draining story short......

We went to the hospital on Saturday, June 2nd for induction. I was warned the induction may take a while (since my cervix wasn't ripe yet,) but NOTHING prepared me for my labor experience. I was admitted and settled into my room by 9am on Saturday morning when my doctors started me on some medication to prepare my body for labor. By Saturday night, I was starting to feel some contractions so they stopped the medication in hopes my body would take it from there. By 2am Sunday morning, the contractions had completely stopped, so back to medication it was. By Sunday afternoon, contractions were back and getting stronger by the hour, but eventually, those stopped as well. By Monday morning they turned to another method of cervical dilation and by 8pm Monday night, I was finally dilated to 3cm, which is where I needed to be to start pitocin. By midnight, I was given my epidural and pitocin and my doctor broke my water. They started the pitocin slowly but after a few increases in strength, the baby was not tolerating it, so they had to stop the pitocin for a couple of hours. Early Tuesday morning, I was dilated to 4cm when they re-started the pitocin. By Tuesday afternoon at 1pm, I was still at 4cm after hours of labor. By this point, I was completely emotionally and physically drained after being at the hospital for 3 full days already, so I made the decision to proceed with the c-section. My doctor agreed that this was a good route as she said she would've probably called it within a couple more hours anyway. By 2:15pm, I was being wheeled down the hall to the OR and at 2:54pm, I finally received the BEST gift in the entire world! Holding my baby boy in my arms for the first time made every second of those past 76 hours worth it. It was love at first site!

(Sorry for the graphic photo...but here he comes!!)

Franklin Jon Cornatzer
Born June 5, 2012 at 2:54pm
7 pounds, 6 ounces - 20 inches long
Here are some photos that were taken at the hospital before we left!
We were discharged from the hospital on Thursday afternoon and it felt so nice to get home. After an emotional adjustment period and difficult recovery process, we're now settled into a routine.

Our other 3 babies have adjusted quite well. When we arrived home, they were mainly excited to see me and didn't pay too much interest to the baby. They've settled into a new routine right along with the rest of us. They like to sniff the baby a lot, but for the most part, aren't really phased by him. They love him already!

2 Weeks & Counting......

It's been quite busy around here the past month trying to get ready for the big day! Fatigue and body aches have certainly set in, which makes it extremely difficult for me to get the littlest tasks completed. My decrease in stamina has been one of hardest adjustments in my 3rd trimester. I used to be able to run errands for hours, now, a trip to the grocery store and our regular dog walks completely wear me out. The past couple of days, my ankles and feet have started to swell. It worried me quite a bit because I know fluid retention can increase blood pressure, but I've been drinking lots of water and my blood pressure yesterday was perfectly fine at my doctor's appointment. Doc said it was 100% normal to have this swelling and will probably get a bit worse over the next couple of weeks as baby get's bigger. Sleeping is getting more and more uncomfortable, but luckily I can function pretty darn well off little sleep! Plus - Garrett's dad and step mom gave us a new king size tempurpedic mattress this weekend, which is HEAVEN! We've always had a queen, so it's quite a nice upgrade!

As I mentioned above, my doctor appointments have been going well, and everything still looks great. At 36 weeks, I had another growth ultrasound and they measured him at 6.6 pounds (79th percentile.) This can be off by 20%, but needless to say, they are no longer worried that the medial umbilical cord insertion has prohibited growth in anyway. Looks like we'll have a big, healthy baby boy!!

After my baby shower, I was completely overwhelmed with the amount of work there was to get done. This is just one photo of what the room looked like when I brought everything home. My amazing family and friends certainly spoiled me with love!! Thankfully, a couple weeks later, my awesome mom came over and helped me make a huge amount of progress in the room (on her birthday might I add - thanks Momma!!) Now, I just have little things left to do and we'll be all set.

And this is a picture of Casey who doesn't understand why she cannot have these stuffed animals. Let's just say, she's never been good at sharing toys and these have been tormenting her for weeks!

A few weeks ago, Garrett and I attended our birth prep & newborn care class. I already knew a lot of the information from books that I've read, etc., but overall, it was still pretty informative. During the second day, we did diaper changes, swaddling, and more! Here is the VERY FIRST diaper change for Garrett. He's a pro already!!

I went back and forth for weeks on whether or not I wanted to have maternity photos done. I certainly didn't want to hire a photographer when I already have the camera equipment, so I recruited my sister to operate the camera for me (she did a great job!) In the end, I'm glad we have these for memories.

32 Weeks

We're getting closer & closer to meeting our little man! I'm now 32 weeks along and have started my twice a week appointments. Each Monday I have an ultrasound to check fluid around baby & his growth progress (because of my placenta issue) and a NST (baby stress test.) Then on Thursdays I have a second NST of the week. For the NST they hook up monitors to my belly to track the baby's heart rate and monitor whether or not I'm having contractions. They're looking for his heart rate to increase for at least 15 beats and then come back down to base line. They'd ideally like to see this happen 2 or 3 times before I come off the machine. The appointments took FOREVER last week because once he started moving around, it was difficult to track his heart rate (since he still has room to move.) Both my nurse and doctor said that by 34 or so weeks, he won't have as much room in there, therefore making it easier to get heart rate reads on him. All-in-all, the doctor said everything looks great. His ultrasound last Monday measured him at 4.3 pounds (69th percentile.) He was 2.8 pounds (54th percentile) at my 28 week ultrasound - so he's definitely growing! Doctor says everything is going well!

31 Week Ultrasound


NST Machine


This weekend we put some finishing touches on the nursery. After weeks of looking, I ended up buying wall decals from Etsy and decided on a monkey theme.





These 3 little ones love hanging out in their brother's room! Many people have been asking me what the doggies are going to do when the baby comes. I'm sure there will be some adjusting, but to help with the transition, I've started spending time in the nursery each day, so they get used to being in there more. I think they like it - they look pretty happy :)


RLC had baths today, so of course we had to take photos :) Pretty cute if you ask me!


One more photo that I just couldn't resist posting. Garrett and I went to our favorite fro-yo place (Elements in Puyallup) on Friday night. In my opinion, Garrett picks the most awkward, disgusting mix of flavors & toppings imaginable, but to him - it was the BEST THING EVER!! It was a little melted when I took the photo, but you get the idea.

Included in his bowl-
Fro-yo flavors: chocolate, cake batter, wildberry & tart
Toppings: chocolate chips, skittles, junior mints, sour worms, walnuts, caramel sauce & chocolate sauce!

30 Week Update

The nursery is getting closer and closer to being finished! Last weekend my parents brought over the dressers that they've been storing in their garage for a few months. Below are a few pics of the progress....we obviously still have things to do, but it's getting there. Next on the list.....DECOR (the fun part!) Some things are on order and I should be getting them this week. Hopefully I'll be able to update you next weekend with some pics!!



I'm currently in my 30th week and starting to actually "feel" pregnant. After getting over a week-long nasty cold, I'm now struggling with lower back pain (mainly right hip.) I'm sure this will only get worse from here, but I'm thankful I haven't had to deal with this the whole time (as some women do.) I haven't seen my massage therapist in a couple of weeks (since I was sick,) so I'm hoping my appointment tomorrow evening will give me some relief - she works wonders :-)

Besides the aches, pains & cold, my pregnancy is going very well. At my appointment this past week, my doctor told me my blood pressure, weight gain, and measurements couldn't be any better - so I feel good about that. My uterus grew 3 inches in 2 weeks, so I'm thinking baby had a bit of a growth spurt recently (which probably explains the sudden onset of pain.) I have another growth ultrasound next week, so we'll see how much he weighs now!

On another note..today was a busy day. To make a long story short, one of the houses in back of us (to the left of the green belt,) just sold to new owners. They cleaned up their backyard near our fence line which used to be filled with sticker bushes. Yeah, they weren't the most attractive things on earth, but they've provided us backyard privacy for the past 4 years. So after they tore all the bushes down we now look directly into their back door and have the pleasure of looking at an old rusty shed and dog kennel that is not at all pretty. We had a large maple tree in the corner, but unfortunately it only provides us privacy a few months out of the year when it has it's leaves.

I started doing research on privacy trees. I wanted something that already had height and was fast growing. I found that the Leyland Cypress was a good choice, but to buy these at least 7 or 8 feet to start with , it would have been hundreds of dollars. Fortunately I decided to look on Craigslist and I lucked out. Someone was offering 6 Leyland Cypress tress (10 feet tall already,) and 2 cedars (8 feet tall) for FREE. All we had to do was dig them up. So this morning, Garrett and my dad went and picked them and got them planted in the yard. I feel completely worthless because I can't do any of the physical work right now, but I'm one lucky girl to have such awesome men in my life willing to do things to make me happy! Although the trees do not provide complete privacy yet, it instantly shielded a lot of their yard and gave us back some privacy.

Here they are :)

Garrett borrowed his dad's truck to haul the trees. I think the portion sticking out of the truck was actually longer than the portion in the truck. It looked a bit funny and totally Clack Griswold!


Here's the attempt to transplant the maple that we removed from the area where the new trees were planted. We didn't want to get rid of the tree unless we had too, so we tried to transplant it into another area of our yard. The roots were very large, so Garrett and my dad had to chop some of them. I think my dad's exact words were "I would've never tried to move a tree that f*cking big!" Haha!! We'll see if it works out :)


The babies had quite the fun outside today as well. Especially when we were using the fish fertilizer for the transplants. They were certainly interested in the smell. Casey keeps trying to dig holes, so it will be interesting getting her to stop that habit :)