Thursday, January 31, 2008

Does it matter if they're snug?

My jeans? Sure, they're a bit tighter than I remember, but they're on.

Today? I am not wearing elastic pants. HOO-RAH!

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Of Barfing and Boots


Last Friday was a girls' day out. We were going first to a lunch with a bunch of other women from the church so we got baby all dressed in her cutest little outfit with sweet pink boots, ("What are these things on my feet?! I love them! I must have closets full of them!") and packed snugly into her car seat when--

She barfed all over herself. All over her cutest little outfit. All over the car seat. Fortunately, the fabulous little bitty boots were spared.





We got her out, I changed her into a cute, (but not quite as cute) outfit as the first while daddy cleaned out the car seat.

The lunch was lovely and she behaved so very well. Afterwards we did a little shopping for a couple necessities, (basically I shopped and she napped, we'll teach her the art of shopping soon enough) and then stopped at a friends' who loaned us the mayawrap.

For her first big outing she had a great time and didn't fuss at all.



Saturday night was her first time at church and she did wonderfully. It was a long evening as we had to go in early with Dad for the band rehearsal. She was super good and put up well with all the oohing and ahhing and being passed around. I decided Saturday would be the best service to take her to as there aren't quite as many people to worry about quite as many germs.

I wasn't sure how she would do with the loud music, but as I held her in the back of the room and sang at the top of my lungs, she fell right asleep! Apparently, it wasn't all that different from what she had already heard for nine months, just more clear.

For me it was a great night as I was able to sing in one of the classrooms again. It felt so great to sing and dance and enjoy worship with the kids again. Plus, I need the exercise!

Sewing Party!!

A comment was made to my last post that I need to have a sewing party to make some grocery bags. That was supposed to happen back in November or December but I kept putting it off until it never came about.

Well, my friends, it is time to get sewing! Now that I have made several of these bags myself, it will be super easy for me to direct others in making their own.

Friday, February 22nd. 6-9 pm. There will be snacks and drinks. Bring your own machine and bring half a yard each of two fabrics that you love and coordinating threads. If you want to make more than one bag, bring more fabric!

RSVP by emailing me at sewverysweet@gmail.com and I'll make sure I have enough tables and power outlets for everyone!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Of Walking and Eating

The weather today was such that it was absolutely nice enough to go out for a walk. We bundled up, hooked on the back/front pack and headed down the sidewalk to our neighborhood grocery.

The signs in the windows proclaim that all products are 50% off. The employees don't even know if the store is remodeling, being bought out, or going out of business. They just know that there isn't much left to buy. We stocked up on a few bathroom items, dry goods and snacks, loaded them into my handy-dandy home made grocery bags and walked back home.

As an aside, everyone should have some of these bags. They are so much sturdier than the plastic ones, hold way more and won't destroy the environment! I'm thinking about carrying them in my Etsy shop. I found this Christmas I could whip one out in less than an hour. They're super cute and will last a very long time.

Back to our outing.

Here I have a confession to make. After we got home and dropped off the groceries I went back out. For lunch. At McDonald's. I know, I know!! But I was SO craving fries, a chicken sandwich and a sprite that I couldn't help it! Plus, it's only around the corner and I was so hungry. I promise to eat something super healthy for dinner. Also, I will be drinking tons of water to wash it all out. Though I can't necessarily say I regret my decision. It was quite yummy.

Now baby is napping in her cozy mayawrap sling and I have some housework to do. For any of you baby-fans, pictures of our sweet little pooper will be forthcoming.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

First Time for Everything



First tubby. She loved it right up until the very end at which point I think she was overwhelmed. Peed in the water and then pooed on her towel while getting dried off. Kind of defeated the whole purpose.

I know it's just a fluke, but...

Last night the baby slept for 6 hours straight. She then ate and proceeded to sleep for 3 1/2 more hours.

I know this isn't at all something I can count on as a regular occurrence, but it certainly was lovely. If we could only get her to do this on a Saturday night before having to get up for Sunday services, it would be perfect, no?

Monday, January 21, 2008

Sleeping with a case of the Grumpies

The nights have been going well. But her days? Well, yesterday at least she was awake all day long. And angry. I have a feeling something wasn't right inside the tummy. Finally last night there was a good explosion and she was much happier. Today she seems to be a bit sleepier. Sometimes.

Today is "learning to eat" day. Her two-week doctor's appointment showed that she gained plenty of weight over the last week so we know she's been getting enough, now I just want to teach her to eat more, um, naturally. Patience, lots of advice from friends and La Leche and lots of snuggle time and I'm hoping we'll make some progress today.

Last night we had friends bring us dinner. People always ask what we'd like and on Sunday when they asked, Andy had answered jokingly, "filet mignon and creme brulee." Well, that's what we had for dinner last night!

Fabulous juicy steaks, lobster tail, green beans & mashed potatoes with creme brulee ice cream for dessert! We have gotten so many amazing dinners and have been so blessed by people taking care of us it's been fantastic.

I seem to have a hard time remembering what day it is. I usually have to look at the date on my watch or the calendar several times a day. Yesterday we got out of the house and did a little shopping and also picked up a glider that a friend gave to us. We have already decided that rocking makes such a difference in the night feedings. She goes back to sleep much easier.

Also!? Our pack & play has a music & vibrating element to it for soothing that I discovered also fits perfectly on the bassinet. Randall officially has a snooze button now. At least at night.






In grownup news, our kitchen is at a standstill. Our tiler has several other jobs ahead of us so the back splash is just bare drywall and leftover chunks of old tile. Maybe for Valentine's my kitchen will get finished? Ah well, it's amazing what you get used to.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Time?

We've been working on the baby sleep scheduling thing. Trying to teach her when she should want to eat, when to sleep, etc. Last night we tried to let her cry for a bit before she fell asleep and I lasted about a minute with that. How is she ever going to learn if I'm such a wuss?!

We have been trying to put her down in different places so that she doesn't get too used to one specific spot and should better be able to sleep wherever. It's rather overwhelming all the things you need to teach them already!

The last three days she has completely skipped her midday nap. Noon to three she is wiiide awake. Silly baby. The nap after that is usually only about a half hour, but she doesn't fuss through it. Today she has fussed all over the place. One would think that she would be ready for nighttime by evening, but no such luck.

It's so crazy how every day is so completely different!!


In other news, she has a real belly button now! I noticed last night after a change that she had a smudge of blood on her belly and freaked out until I saw that sitting in the middle of her chest was her shriveled little walnut!




Despite all the feeding and changing and attempts to soothe to sleep, I am getting a lot of reading in. Making her food for 20 minutes at a go provides ample book time and I am taking advantage of it as best I can.

Yesterday I finished Cause Celeb, a novel by Helen Fielding who wrote Bridget Jones' Diary. She has a very interesting sense of humor and is easy to read while not being flaky at all.




Right now I am in the midst of East of Eden by John Steinbeck. An old classic that immediately drew me in. It's a long one, but has been fantastic so far.




Time to sign off. Food needs to be made for baby and she seems to need to go for a walk. This lack of napping seems to also make her a bit grumpy.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Week 1

First of all, to answer your questions:

Randall was born on 1/08/08, weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and delivered at 8:08 pm. I'm not even joking. The birth certificate says 8:05, but my watch said 8:08 so I'm sticking with it.

My husband was there to cut the cord after they plopped her right up on me. He was so proud of himself for not minding the blood & guts!


Oh, and for the kind comment of how well I looked after pushing? That picture was the next day. We didn't have any mom pictures immediately following the delivery. Andy knows better than that!

Here's a question for those other moms out there: How long did you hold your baby after delivering? Did you get to hold baby while they cleaned everything up, or did they do the work all of to the side?

The reason I ask is because I have a theory about how well a baby breast feeds in relation to how long you were able to snuggle right away.

We made the decision on Sunday night to pump & bottle feed as she wasn't doing well latching on and just simply wasn't getting enough to eat. Honestly, this works fabulously and I'm happy that she's getting plenty, I can make enough for her and she'll be healthy and content.

But I have to admit, it makes me feel like a failure for not being able to sufficiently breastfeed. For not being decisive enough when they asked where they should clean her. I wasn't lucid enough to have a good answer and said, "I don't know," at which point they popped her over into the warmer. A little decision like that is to cost us so much frustration and emotions.

I'm hoping that we'll be able to transition her over eventually. Even just trying a little bit every day.

What I love about being a Mama? The snuggling, the kissable cheeks, the sweet fuzzy hair, the tiny toes and fingers and cuteness. Plus? Can you see that pouty little lip?

What I don't love so far? The ridiculous, nonsensical, meaningless crying. And I don't mean the baby. I seriously cried for about two hours last night. Doing the dishes, picking up the house, reading my book.

I know it's typical and I know it will get better, but boy is it annoying!! Today was completely different. Whether it was getting a little more sleep at a stretch or waking up to sunshine, today has been tear-free on my part.

It's impossible to believe she is a week old already. It feels like it has been a month and it feels like it has been just a couple days.

Friday, January 11, 2008

The Good, the Bad and the um...Messy

It wasn't anything like the movies. After the insane walking situation on Sunday I spent most of Monday on the couch recovering. By mid-afternoon I was able to get around pretty well.

That evening I started having more regular contractions and watched my cell phone to time them. We watched a movie late and had some cereal. I climbed into bed around 2:30 and then realized I probably should go to the bathroom.

Could it be any more perfect that my water broke at exactly that time!? My thought was, "Hmmm, it sounds like I'm peeing, but I don't think I am."

Since it was "time" I took a nice long shower, made the bed and finished packing our luggage. Around 3:15 or so I went downstairs as Andy was still working in the studio.

"Hey," he says. "I though you went to bed?"

"Nah, took a shower instead."

"What's up?"

"Well, we should probably go to the hospital now."

Surprised look on face.

"Really?"

"Yep."

I think he wanted to rush around and just leave, but I tried to still take our time as my contractions weren't yet all that close together, but I knew since my water had broken, they wouldn't send me home.

Check in and triage were easy and we were taken up to our fabulous corner suite. We couldn't have asked for a better atmosphere for our delivery.

By 10:30 I was more than ready for the epidural. Not able to breath through the contractions any more and with Andy telling me he would ask for it if I didn't, they brought in the anesthesiologist.

My only thought after getting it all in was that it was way easier than getting the yellow fever shot I had last summer! Andy however didn't take it as well as I did.

He always finds medical procedures highly interesting and he made the mistake of looking over my shoulder as the catheter was being fed into my spine. At which point he needed both of the nurses to help him sit down on the couch!

As soon as the drugs took effect and I was sufficiently numb, we were both able to get some sleep. The best part was that everything progressed quickly while I was sleeping and by four it was time to really get to work.

Unfortunately, that's about the time when I started noticing the epidural was wearing off. I hit the button a couple times but by 5:30 I could tell that it wasn't going to be a very fun ride. The anesthesiologist decided that since the bag of medicine was almost out and it was supposed to take two hours to wear off she wouldn't give me any more. I tried to object, but to no avail. Needless to say, four plus hours of pushing without drugs is not something I want to repeat any time soon.

Hooray for those of you who choose the au naturale route, but believe me I would never be able to make that choice!

The doctor suggested we try using the vacuum to get her out and I was all for anything that would help. Merely two contractions later she popped her little body into the world.

I hear the doctor say, "If I knew that would help so much, I would have tried it an hour ago." Really, shouldn't this have been an internal monologue-type of comment? It was not something I was happy to hear by any means!

Oh, and the one thing they don't tell you that hurts the worst? The doctor getting the placenta out. I did plenty of moaning and crying during the pushing, but that was when I did the yelling.

An hour of stitches later and I was more than done. Guiltily, I didn't even want to hold or snuggle the baby. I was pretty much useless and non responsive for several hours.

They brought me food right away but by then I was not only too exhausted to eat, I was too far past hungry to want any.

The postnatal room we were going to didn't have a shower so I had to get one before we were taken down. Finally refreshed, but even more tired, I told the nurse I needed to rest before getting back in bed. She said she wanted to try to get me back anyway.

I tried to tell her I wasn't ready.

She didn't believe me until I passed out on the floor.

I finally ate, we made it up to our room and settled in and it was time to rest.

Five days later (has it really been that long?) we are still figuring out a baby schedule. Ice packs and motrin are still my best friends and my husband has been amazing.

Sweet Randall has lost most of the swelling in her face and is starting to get some true features. She makes tons of hysterical faces and silly noises and every day we are better learning what we are doing. Sleep is obviously caught whenever possible; I think I might go take a nap right now...

Thank you for all of your sweet comments and prayers for us. It is going to be quite a challenge and adventure to be sure!

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Randall Gabrielle


A birth story will be coming, but at the moment I'm more occupied with resting and teaching the baby to eat!

Monday, January 07, 2008

Not a Wise Choice

So that lovely walk I took yesterday? Apparently not a good idea. Don't the doctors all say to walk walk walk walk walk?

What they don't say is that if you do, your hips will rebel against you and you will not be able to walk at all. I hardly made it home.

My streak of sleeping through the night? Broken due to aching legs. I have to climb the stairs one at a time because it hurts too much to lift my left leg high enough to step.

Tonight is better than this morning was. I traded the ice pack with the heating pad and back again a few times. Another long soak in a very hot tub.

But I'm staying on the couch for a while.

It's D-day plus two and there seems to be no new progress. We'll see what the doctor has to say tomorrow. This little wiggle worm needs to see the light of day!

Sunday, January 06, 2008

What to do...

For Christmas, we had received a gift card to Outback and that sounded fabulous so last night we went out. We decided to go to one (we have three in town) that was nearby a theatre so as not to have to drive too much. The first one we went to had an 80 minutes wait time. I don't believe I have ever heard of that length of time before!

So off we went to the next one which was only 45 so we took the pager and went for a walk through the stores nearby.

After a lovely dinner we sped off to the theatre. With only a few minutes to spare and while hearing that our show had been sold out we snuck in and were still able to find great seats. Which ended up being right in the middle of the aisle of course, so I had to ration my drink accordingly.

Juno was a very fun date night movie. I laughed, I cried...

Today we slept in and finished the second season of Rome. Tonight we're going to a different church across town. We never get to visit other churches since we work at one, so it will be nice to just enjoy a service rather than analyzing how it is going.

Maybe take a walk through the park? Finish a few more home errands? I feel as though I don't know at all how to pace my time. The days could be stretching out in front of me with nothing to do or I could be heading off to the hospital at any moment.

It is such a strange feeling. But I'll be sure to stay updated. Probably posting more than I have in weeks...gotta keep occupied, right?

Saturday, January 05, 2008

D-Day?

G'mornin. Nothing new here. No babies running about just yet. Course, my husband says he expects to go into the hospital right after dinner tonight. Might as well just call ahead and reserve a room, he says.

I've been keeping as busy as possible...lots of random jobs that I have always said I should do someday. Today on the agenda is cleaning out the fish tank and the front hall closet as well as getting a bunch of stuff ready for Salvation Army to pick up on Monday. Some call it nesting, I just call it "doing stuff."

Tonight we're planning a date night with dinner & a movie. We've also been watching the first two seasons of Rome. Along with which I watched Ben Hur the other day.

It is so strange not having to go to work. All of my work has been prepared for my replacements for the next many weeks.

I do find that "letting go" is much harder than I thought it would be. There have been weeks here and there that I have had someone else fill in for me but this is a really long stretch. What if they don't need me anymore? What if my replacements do a better job than I can do? What if? That "you're not good enough" monster is peeking his head around the corner.

The nursery is finally finished. I had someone who was going to do a mural for us, but it didn't seem to work out. Despite that, I think it is cozy and just right.






I actually think it is a little cramped in some spots, but what can you do with an old house and tiny bedrooms?












We have been excessively blessed with all the gifts we have been given. Hand-made blankets & quilts, all of the furniture, clothes and everything. Even most of the items we bought have been with gift cards or gifts of money.







This little girl is going to be well-loved. At least we're really crossing our fingers that it's going to be a girl...otherwise he is going to love pink.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

That's Just Swell

I am a pretty big drinker. Of water, that is. I hold fast to the "drink half of your body weight in ounces" rule. When I'm sick, I usually try to at least double that.

The past couple days I have really noticed that I need to step up my water intake. I know swelling is a very common pregnancy affliction, but I had happily avoided it completely until now.

Hubby has been good about rubbing my feet when they need it, but I just hate this feeling of fat feet. It's so uncomfortable.

I'm on my second 36 oz bottle of water already today in addition to a large glass of oj. Proper planning will ensure that I get in at least two more full bottles and other juices before the end of the day. We'll see if that makes a difference.