Announcing the Arrival of....

Sydney Elizabeth!!!

Born at home, Tuesday at 12:40pm. The labor was very fast and intense and well worth it!!! I'll write out the birth story another time, but to say it was amazing is an understatement. We're all settling in and enjoying lots of snuggles with our new baby.

Beach Walking

I took these pictures last Friday night and then accidentally broke the camera when I tried to transfer the pictures. Long story short, be sure you're using the corresponding USB port with your camera. Anyway....here are the pics. the boys and I went walking on this little spot in York. We were actually looking for the fabled Steedman Woods, which exist on the internet but not in my GPS. So we settled for this fun romp on the beach instead. It was beautiful and warm and quiet and the perfect way to end a day.

Comforts

The following things are bringing me peace in some small way during the last few weeks of this pregnancy. They are random, as are most things that a pregnant woman wants or needs no matter where she is in her gestation process. ;)

Exhibit A) Knitting

Shocking I know. It really is helping though. I'm currently working on making this simple (aka easy for preggo brained mama) sweater. It's a free pattern and really just a lot of garter stitch and then piecing together. I'm using Lion's Brand Jiffy in El Paso which is proving to be a really beautiful colorway. If this turns out well I think I'll make another in a purple or sage color. It's evidetntly important for this baby to be clothed in those colors a lot, judging by what we have in her wardrobe so far.



Exhibit B) Tacos

Every pregnant woman has cravings and food aversions. It's only natural. The first four months of this pregnancy were absolutely miserable for me thanks to morning sickness. The WORST morning sickness I've had out of all of my pregnancies and really when I was pregnant with Ben I thought I was dying because of the morning sickness I experienced. The bout of it this time made the first trimester with Ben seem like a spa treatment. So, when I was finally able to start eating and keep food down - well it was liberating. NOW, I'm at the end of the pregnancy and though I get hit with some very mild queasiness sometimes, I find myself starving almost 24/7 and I'm always, always hungry for Tacos. I don't know what it is. I'm not a huge fan of them when I'm not pregnant and I didn't have them at all when I was pregnant with either of the boys, but this time around, they are the go-to food. To the point that I have: put off taking a much needed nap to cook tacos; made my children an entirely different dinner so that there would be enough taco shells (soft only please) to satisfy my craving; stopped at the local mexican restaurant after an appointment with my midwife at 11am to get tacos; am looking forward to a trip to the same restaurant chain (just different location) this Friday more than the event that I'm going to before hand that should really be my priority. Some people might say it's a problem...I'm not one of them and neither is my midwife so who cares? I'm getting plenty of protein and I'm not eating processed food. I'm not stopping at Taco Bell people, I either make my own or go here. And I recommend you do the same! Their burritos rock my world also!



Exhibit C) Ice Cubes - Copious amounts of Ice Cubes.


For about a month now I've had this need to chew ice cubes. I have no idea why, I don't know if it's a sign of some illness or underlying nutritional deficiency or proof that I really am losing it. All I know is that it satisfies some odd urge and makes me happy. I can also gurantee that Tim will be out on the porch when I go into labor breaking up ice cubes into smaller pieces that I can crunch happily while getting through contractions.




Exhibit D) Mrs. Meyers Clean Day - Lemon Verbena to be specific

I blame this obsession entirely on my midwife and have told her so. She had the handsoap at the birth center a few months ago when I went to visit and I fell in love. They smell SOOOO freaking good I cannot describe them to anywhere near their true worth. Also, they make a million other products such as dishsoap, multi-purpose cleaner and laundry detergent. After raving about them at said appointment one of my midwives informed me that you can buy them at Target. Godddddammmnn!!! That's far too accesible for me and our bank account. So, on my way home I stopped at the Target near the birth center and bought the dish soap and the hand soap. One in Lavender and one in Lemon Verbena. Since that first purchase, a Target has opened just 5 minutes from our home and we have visited it frequently for many things other than Mrs. Meyers but I end up buying at least one of her products every time we go. The smell of the Lemon Verbena is just beyond comforting to me - I can't figure out why but it's easily my favorite smell in the world right now and I wish that I could infuse it into my entire home some way. Oh, and maybe most importantly it has replaced the need to scrub the sink, tub and other surfaces with Commet. The products are made with essential oils and are Phosphate free so that alone makes it safer than Commet. All of their products also come in other scents like Geranium, Basil and Sweet Pea. Also - while looking up the website to link to it I discovered that they sell baby products online. SHIT!!!! This is NOT good information for me to have. Hmm, wonder if they would donate to a mom about to have a new baby so that she could write about the products on her blog....



Exhibit E) Sleeping Baby Productions Ring Slings

I cannot rave about these Ring Slings enough!!! I first found Jan's site when I was pregnant with Nate (almost four years ago now, yipes!) . My sister in law and I were pregnant together and I was curious about slings and babywearing. My SIL sent me a link to a great section of Jan's site where you can use her patterns to make your own slings. I fell in love with Jan's work and her site and how friendly and accesible things were. I didn't end up buying a sling from her then for financial reasons but wish now that I had. In any case, fast foward a bit and I attend my first La Leche League meeting and after a few more meetings I meet Jan - THE JAN from Jan Andrea On The Web and I'm totally flabergasted that this amazing lady actually lives in my community!
Since that time I've bought four of her slings and two of them expressly for this baby. The latest one came today and is beautiful beyond description and ohhh so comfy. I will post a picture of it when I have a camera that works again (I broke ours accidently on Friday and am awaitng a replacement). I put the sling on tonight and tried in vain to get Nate to let me wear him. He's accutely aware that he's 3 now and does not want to be worn in anything unless he's really feeling the sleepies. I WILL get him in it though at some point, or one of his babies because I don't think I can handle having it in my house, not being worn for another 2-4 weeks when this baby might arrive. It feels like an insult to the sling itself and Jan to just let it hang in the mudroom awaiting use. Anyway, if you are pregnant or have a friend, sister, co-worker who is PLEASE visit Jan's site and purchase a sling for yourself or said person. Her slings are the most comfortable around and her prices are unbeatable. The only negative thing I can think to say is that she has so many fabric choices for the sling and tail accents that you may have a hard time deciding what to buy. :-)

Day By Day

Just a quick update to reassure folks that there is no baby here yet. I've been slacking on writing because there are just too many other things to do right now. Like lanolize soakers, make & freeze large quantities of food, and of course, scrubbing the kitchen sink with Comet. Not to worry though, I'll be sure to post when Baby does arrive. In the meantime I need to distract myself cause I think it's going to be quite a while still!

Escaping The Heat - An Attept

Swimming near the ducks - the highlight of the day for Nate I think. I was not so enthralled with being so close to them.


We found freshwater snails which is what I'm showing Ben here. Though it looks like he's holding my hand through a contraction.


Nate and his floaty; nothing like summer love.


It feels SO much bigger than it looks in this picture. I think I'm hiding half of it on the other side of the lake.

Craft Belly

Evidently my nesting instinct has kicked into high gear. I'm thoroughly obsessed with scrubbing things lately. Really, it's weird! I get great satisfaction from scrubbing the kitchen sink, the bathroom sink and the tub. Like really, I do dishes just to empty the sink so I can break out the Comet and the blue scrubby pad and go to town. What the hell is the deal with that?! It makes me feel good for some reason, but it's also a compulsion, like I HAVE to do it, I NEED to do it. The dumbest thing about it is that it really doesn't help a whole hell of a lot. Especially when you consider that I have an entire apartment (and a good sized one at that) that is in need of cleaning. There's laundry to fold and put away, clutter to get rid of and organize, toys to pick up, curtains to make for the porch. Baby clothes to sort through and wash and put away. None of that interests me in the slightest. I want to scrub damnit! I want to Windex the windows and I want to bleach the floors - which is beyond laughable because we have linoleum from 1960 I think and it's impossible to ever make it look like it's really clean. But that's not going to stop me from trying! I went to Target yesterday and when I came home I victoriously announced to Tim that I had found the carpet cleaning solution for our steam cleaner for $5 and a huge six pack of paper towels for $3!!! This from the chick who has family cloth in the bathroom. Yeah, I suddenly need 6 double rolls of paper towels.

Anyway, the point of this confession is that today I decided to try to change my nesting and put it to a different use. I knew that cleaning the sink would feel good but it's an empty reward really because it just becomes full of dishes within a few hours of being clean and, like I said before, it doesn't really do anything to improve our quality of living or the boys' general happiness or anything. So, today I put the nesting energy to crafty use! I made a pair of pants for the baby here thanks to the pattern from here. It's not a great pattern because they don't give you the measurements for different sizes, but I get around that by just tracing a pair of pants in the size I want and making them a little longer and wider for seams. So far I've made about 4 pairs of pants for the baby and last year I made Nate a pair of pants out of a cute flannel that held up well. They aren't going to be sold anywhere that's for sure, but they look cute and I felt good after I finished and I had something tangible to show for it!

As you can see, the crafting with a belly at almost 33 weeks (tomorrow!) is posing some interesting dilemmas. I can't get as close the sewing machine as I usually like to and my belly now serves as a repository for scrap fabric and thread - just in case I need it you know? All in all, I think this attempt at tricking the nesting, compulsive scrubber in me worked pretty well. I am totally planning on breaking out that carpet cleaner later today though. Everything in moderation right? (except laundry, those piles will be there when this baby goes off to college)



The amazing scrap-catching belly! Covered mostly in blue thread here.



The finished product. I really hope they fit!!!



Close up of the pattern, the elephants were just too cute to resist!



My handy helper, he hands me other pieces of fabric I'm not working with in the off chance that I might want them. He also works shirtless.

Ticker

I'm not sure why I put that little baby in the bubble ticker thing on this blog now that I look at it. It seemed like a great idea at the time. I thought it'd be so much fun to watch the days dwindle by and realize we were getting closer to the big day. Now, I look at it and it says 56 days and i realize that's a little over a month and that's not a lot of time and I kind of start to get sweaty and breathe funny and feel shakey.

Really, we have 8 weeks left as of now. That's two months, and we could even go another 10 weeks if this baby is overdue so there could, potentially be a lot of time left. BUT, in my head we only have about four weeks left. This is totally due to having Nate at 36 weeks (due to pre eclampsia) and it swarms around my thoughts constantly. Even though this pregnancy, our living situation, our care provider, our support network are all vastly different and much better than they were with Nate's I still can't shake that feeling that this baby will come early too. I take my blood pressure everyday and it's never been more than 130 and that was during a massive headache at like 22 weeks. It's consistently low when I take it here at home and at my midwife's office. She's even commented that if she hadn't read the report from my last pregnancy she wouldn't have believed I had/have blood pressure issues. This is incredibly comforting to me. It doesn't gurantee anything of course, my BP with Nate was in the normal range until 36 weeks, but this vote of confidence in things does make me feel better.

So for now, I'm just getting through. A big part of me wants to be done being pregnant. I'm having major back pain lately and it's getting a lot harder for me to walk around - especially first thing in the morning. I'm just reaching that end phase of pregnancy and yes, I'm lusting for that newborn phase and seeing our family complete. BUT, I'm not ready to be there just yet. Do you hear that BP? Stay down! I can take the back pain, the leg cramps, the limited wardrobe, the winded walks up the driveway - I'll happily take all of it to get a healthy baby and have a peaceful, not induced birth. Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, I'm going to stop looking at the ticker. It seems arbitrary now given that it's just counting down to the day that I'm most likely to give birth, and not the day I will. It's no crystal ball.