Some Pictures

I love looking at newborn photos. We had some taken, now I just have to wait. However, since I want to better my photography skills, I decided to try my hand at taking some of my own photos. Yeah, not as easy as the professionals make it look!

 Headband from Celeste and Company on Etsy

R2D2's Birth Story

Once I reached 36 weeks gestation I was ready for our babe to make her appearance.  That being said, I didn’t expect her to come any time soon, in fact Joe and I were expecting her to go past the due date.  R2D2 was born on a Tuesday morning.  I was pulled for back up to do an overnight shift Sunday into Monday. During that shift I joked I’d love if working overnight induced labor, especially since I was now 37 weeks.  Little did I know…

Since I worked Sunday into Monday, I had Monday off to recover.  I mostly slept, worked on some thank you’s, and relaxed.  By dinnertime I didn’t quite feel right, but more that I thought I was just tired.

Around 10pm Monday night I started having some period-like cramps.  I was able to still read my book and ultimately fall asleep.  However, around 2am Tuesday morning I woke up.  Initially I thought I just had to pee, but after I peed, I started having severe cramps.  I also noticed my underwear was much more wet than usual.  The cramps continued.  I tried multiple positions, walking around, and ultimately, nothing I did made the cramps go away.  In the mean time, I needed to change my undies again, but still no large gush of fluid.   Being a first time Mom, I was worried I was in false labor, so I started googling, “what does labor feel like.”  Yes, I know I’m odd.  By that time it was around 2:30 am and I decided to start timing my contractions.  They were about 60 seconds long every 4-6 minutes.  That’s when I realized this was real.  I needed to go to the hospital.  Joe worked until 3am that night, so since it was so close to 3am, I figured I’d just wait until Joe arrived home.

Joe walked through the door and was a little surprised to see the bedroom light on, but not so much since I’m up multiple times using the restroom anyway.  He sees me and says something like, “what’s wrong?  Are you ok?”  Through a contraction I grunt, “I think we need to go to the hospital.” I wish I could describe his face.  It was a combination of excitement, fear, and “oh crap, this is happening.”

Joe and I arrived at the hospital round 4:45 am and patiently waited to be triaged.  Ultimately at around 5:30am the nurse confirmed my water had broken and I was about 3cm dilated.  Joe and I were having a baby!

I went into labor thinking I’d try without an epidural.  When I learned I was only 3cm and knew the pain I was already having, I quickly changed my mind.  Around 7am the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural.  Right as the anesthesiologist was about to put the needle into my back, Joe’s phone went off with a salsa-like ringtone.  Next thing you know, the nurse and anesthesiologist are dancing around the room.  It was quite the comic relief.

I am so happy I received the epidural.  I could still feel my contractions, but it was more of a pressure instead of pain.  I could start talking again and distract myself!  I was using so much energy to deal with the pain, I didn’t have any left to talk with Joe.  I was worried I’d lose all feeling in my legs with the epidural, but that was definitely not the case.  I could still feel pressure and I could still move my legs.  It was just the right amount of relief.

Once 8:30 am came around, my pelvic pressure was increasing exponentially.  The nurse checked me again and I was 9.5 cm!  Wow, we’re almost ready to start pushing!  Ultimately I started pushing around 9:30 am and she was born just after 11am.  Pushing was the hardest part.  Unfortunately she was face up (instead of face down) and ultimately I suffered a first degree tear.

I tried skin to skin, but my pediatric instinct took over with drying and stimulating her.  Once I asked for a third dry blanket, the nurse decided to take her over to the baby bed.  She didn’t let out a big wail of a cry, so I was getting nervous, but she was fine. I looked over at the baby bed and she’s all wide-eyed looking around.  Once I saw her looking around, I could finally relax.  Knowing our baby was safe, I didn’t even think about delivering my placenta.

Overall I had a very nice labor.  I’m glad I labored at home a little bit and although my water broke at home, we didn’t have a mess to clean up.  Pushing was hard because the baby’s head was face up instead of face down, but we did it!  I was surprised at how sore I was the next day though.  My back and upper body ached!  Joe and the nurse helped hold my legs, or else I think my legs would have ached too.

*She's about 10 days old in this photo.

Pre pregnancy jeans!

I have a little muffin top, but I still buttoned them! I'm 12 days post partum. The tummy skin is still really loose and since I'm just chilling at home today, I'm going back to elastic, but it's refreshing to know my body is shrinking back. I started doing some very light exercising and it feels do good to be able to take deep breaths again.

R2D2's Nursery

Let's see if I can squeeze in one more post before R2D2's next feed. If you haven't picked up on it yet, I think I'm going to keep calling our bundle of joy R2D2 on the blog. For those wondering her name, sorry. I will say, hubby and I absolutely love it!

Joe and I hope to have at least one more child. Although we found out R2D2's gender ahead of time, I didn't want to make the nursery married to only one gender. We kept the walls neutral and I decided to play with the bedding colors to make it feminine. Pink is the default go to color for girls, but I much prefer purple, so that's what we used. I bet she's going to hate purple by the time she grows up.

This post is mostly going to be picture overload. I posted about her crib skirt, quilt, and mobile separately. We purchased her tree decal from Walldecals001 on Etsy.

 Well, first Dad helped finish up the nursery.  We didn't have everything hung by the time she arrived.

 Yes, that's R2D2 asleep in the crib.  She looks lost, doesn't she?

My First Quilt

I really wanted to make R2D2's bedding for her nursery. I ended up making her crib skirt and a quilt.

I have another quilt I still have to baste and bind, which maybe I'll get to before I go back to work. I have fabric to make curtains too, we'll see when those happen as well.

I started making the quilt above, inspired by Happy Quilting Time, but I became discouraged when my seams didn't match and I haven't decided how I want to baste it. So, I went to a more simple linear quilt.

I used a tutorial for the linear quilt from Momfetti

R2D2's Butterfly Mobile

Being a new mom, my posts are probably going to get shorter. Over the past several months I've been working on R2D2's nursery. Fortunately it came together prior to her delivery. When I heard about pottery barn's butterfly chandelier, I knew I wanted one for her nursery. This isn't a tutorial, but I'll include links that inspired my ultimate design.

Ultimately I used a butterfly punch, which is very helpful. I also sewed the strands using a sewing machine and invisible thread. The most tedious part was tying the strands onto the wires.

Project inspired by:
God Bless Our Nest
Project Nursery

She's Here!!!

Our bundle of joy arrived morning of Tuesday July, 17th. I was 37 wks and 3 days. I was always hoping she'd go early, but didn't bank on it.

I'm hesitant to share the name and all yet for safety, still deciding.

Eventually when I have a real computer I'll type up her birth story.

We're so in love!

Steak Marinade and Kabobs

A couple of months ago I found a steak marinade recipe on  All Recipes  and really enjoyed it!  Thus, I decided to make some kabobs using the same recipe for July 4th.  Hubby didn't try the kabobs, but he liked the marinade when I used it on a piece of steak.  My family really enjoyed the kabobs, so that's always fun!  I loved how the veggies turned out.  Towards the end we covered the kabobs with foil on top and added some water to almost steam the veggies since the steak was finished cooking.

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Mix olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, and garlic in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

36 Weeks!

Yes, it seems my blog has turned into only pregnancy stuff. I apologize. Truth of the matter is, life changes, and thus my thoughts change as well. As we get closer and closer to our due date, I'm more ready to meet our little one. Being a pediatrician, having a micro-premie was always a concern of mine. Now that I know she has a good amount of weight and development on her, I'm more ready to meet her. We've been asked, "so are you ready?" Well, ready in what sense? Are we ready to be first time parents? Of course not. No one is ever fully ready for that. Is her nursery all set up? Not to my standards as I still have some DIY projects I want to finish, but she has a crib and we have diapers, so yes, we can be ready. Yesterday we installed her car seat and I've been slowly working on packing a hospital bag. I like to plan, but I also deal with things as they come. Honestly, I'm not really stressed about bringing her home. We'll make due no matter what.

I was hoping I dropped a little, but looking at this picture, I don't think so yet...