Updates

Well, yes I know many of you are laughing in secret that I haven't kept up on blogging, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I haven't kept up on much of anything. After a week of systematically nursing, bottle-feeding, and then pumping in order to bring in my milk and fatten my baby - I am finally getting a little bit of a break. Yesterday we went to Charlotte's two week visit and the doc gave permission to just nurse and forget about all of the other stuff. He thinks her weight is just fine. So, Charlotte and I can now enjoy some time that's not spent obsessing about eating. In fact, we even went to Meijer and Kohl's today! There was only one moment where she started to scream while I was checking out at Meijer. I thought "What do I do now?!" Luckily, she stopped as soon as I scooted her hat up off her eyes.

Thankfully, I had the help of my mom and Brian last week for bottle feeding. But I like the feeling of being able to do this stuff on my own. I feel like a stronger woman when I'm independent.

I'll leave you with a pic of babycakes at 10 days.

My sister

E-mail from my older sister Chris, entitled "Don't do what I did".

"Okay, here is the Bad Mom of the year award. Yesterday I had let Cayman (their dog) in and had gotten her a treat. Amos was still sitting in his high chair after having a snack. I fed the dog treat to Amos, who had his mouth wide open. When I turned to look at him again I saw he had something strange in his hand I finally realized what I had done. Luckily he did not eat it. Cayman was probably wondering why he was getting the treat and not her! And I am the one trying to keep him out of her food bowl."

Yummy!

Picture perfect

Charlotte had her first photo shoot last night, her newborn photos. When I look at newborn photos online, they look so easy. The babies are always peacefully sleeping, whether they're resting in daddy's arms, on a blanket, or even in a fruit bowl. Well, I tell you my baby was having none of that. I don't think I've ever heard her cry so much. I couldn't blame her because she was obviously hungry and three diaper changes, heated blankets, or pacifiers wouldn't soothe that baby.
But after all that - you would never know how fussy she was because our photographer did an awesome job. Her name is Christy Pacanowski and I would highly recommend her. She already got a short video clip back to me with some of the best pics - had me in tears.



Kim - it's going to make you cry too!

As promised...

I have more photos of Charlotte. For these who didn't see Bri's post, he has a great Flickr slideshow there of the birth (sparing gory details).

Here she is sporting Daddy's Action-Squad logo. I gave that onesie to him for Father's Day last year.



Charlotte and Grandma K. My parents drove out for a visit on Tuesday. My dad was even brave enough to hold her.



Brian's parents have been out a couple of times and I'm sorry to say all of their pics must be on Bri's iPhone. I'll get some of them tonight to post and share. They're coming out for a visit and to return Maggie. I can't wait to see Maggie and Charlotte together. I predict a lot of butt sniffing.

Here's Charlotte as soon after we brought her home. She was definitely well-bundled to protect her from the "Saskatchewan Screamer". (Sam Champion says that's worse than an Alberta Clipper.)



And my favorite photo from today - 3 days old. She is such a little lady already. And that Pooh hat is enough to melt your heart.

Home sweet home

We were discharged tonight and are now gearing up for a long night. I've tried to nap, but have too much new mom anxiety to turn off my mind. I should get time to post some pics tomorrow.

Our little angel was born at 10:44, 8lb 5 oz. She's very healthy! We're all very tired so off to bed.

Things got indescribably painful there for a while, so I decided not to be the "hero" and the epidural is now in. With no more pain, my body is letting things progress much better now. I'm 5 cm and station 1. My legs feel like they fell off, but hey, I'm loving life again!

Alright, he broke my water (meconium stained). I expect pain to come soon so this should be the last of my posts for a bit.

2 cm and contractions every 3 minutes. Waiting on the doc's next orders. No real pain yet, just enough to keep me from napping. Thanks for all the prayers!

Labor update

I've been at the hospital since 7 for my scheduled induction. Cervix was still closed so I received my first dose of Cytotech at 8. I am having pretty frequent contractions, so hopefully my cervix just needs a little nudge in the right direction. I've heard of anal-retentive....I guess I'm cervical-retentive. Ridiculous.
BTW, I am knitting.

My thrilling day...

Another weekend without a baby. Another weekend spent twiddling my thumbs.
Today I baked lemon squares. I ordered new bedding from Macy's online sale. I found a pattern for a neck warmer so that I can knit up my freshly spun yarn. Brian and I rearranged the living room in anticipation of our two reclining chairs being delivered this afternoon. We were so excited when the chairs arrived, but then proceeded to argue about the best position for each chair. We have not yet come to an agreement and I'm not sure we will. If only the baby was here so she could take a side.

Kickin' Chicken Salad at Logan's

If you haven't had one, you should. That was my lunch today, brought to me by a pharmaceutical rep. It was yummy. I rounded off the lunch with a chocolate chip cookie from Panera. Life can't get much better.

40 weeks (and some knitting content!)

This is the last photo I think I can bear to post. I weigh close to 50# more than I did in April and I can see it in this photo. But, it's definitely worth it.



Today is my due date, but little C will not be here today as confirmed by my check-up today. So, instead I will be making meatloaf, spinning some gorgeous pink Merino wool, getting my hair cut, and some Junior League errands. I feel good today, so I'm going to make the best of it. January 6th seems like a boring date for a birthday anyway.

Now that I have a photo, I also wanted to share my secret knitted Christmas gift for Brian. This is my first double-knit project, a scarf from "Son of Stitch n' Bitch." Both sides of the scarf are knit simultaneously. It features the Brooklyn Bridge in day on one side and night on the reverse. It's made from a silk-wool blend, which is already pilling, so he'll have to wear it with care.

Piss and moan

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, Greek for "to manifest" or "to show." Charlotte is doing neither of these so far. I'll admit, pregnancy has been good to me, even great to me. But these last few weeks have really been fairly unenjoyable. Every day I find a new cluster of spider veins on my legs. l wake up at night not only to pee, but to try to position myself so that gravity will pull Charlotte out from under my rib cage. In fact, my stomach is so large now that when I sit, the belly takes an uphill climb from my ribs. I haven't had any crampy contractions, but I do get these intermittent needle-like pains shooting through the nether-region.
So, needless to say, I'd be thrilled to have this baby and start feeling normal again. I've tried all of the old wives' tales other than castor oil. I can't bring myself to drink castor oil, especially because though it won't promise labor, it will promise some lovely GI distress. Brian took me to walk laps around our dinky Holland mall yesterday. That's a nice place to walk because there are hardly any stores worth shopping at. We walked until we were bored, then shopped for (even more) groceries. I think I have enough in my pantry now to take me through the winter.
And as far as finding things to occupy my time, I cleaned out my craft closet and found boxes of half completed photo albums and all of my keepsakes from our wedding. I made an album for my sister's wedding (she was married 6 years ago now). I scrapbooked all of our wedding stuff, including invitations, shower games, sentimental cards and so forth. I've designed our birth announcements and picked up what I need to make them. Today, I got a natural high off working the deals/coupons at Walgreen's (spent $30 and saved over $35). And on top of that, I cleaned all of the hair out of the floor grate in the bathroom! I bet all of you without any free time on your hands are just hating me right now.

Happy 2009!

Today was quite the lazy day for us. We celebrated New Year's Eve in Rockford - dinner at Red's with a group of friends. But my tired body made sure we were home by midnight to watch the ball drop. Today I started my Central Park Hoodie. I'm about 8" in to the back, but I'm worried I made too small of a size. Of course, it's hard to tell by holding it up to my (currently) disproportionate stomach.

Maggie slept most of the day except for a visit to the dog park and her weekly bath. Here she is warming up after her bath. Brian said this was her "Yoda" look.



Back to work for one day and then relaxing for another weekend. I'm getting a bit of cabin fever, so if anyone has any entertaining ideas for me and Brian, please let me know!