Where am I? Why am I here?

Hi. Remember me? I sure as hell hardly remember you, ol' blog. What have you been doing while I have been away?

Nothing?

You're lazy.

I have been raising a wonderful little girl. She's sleeping 10 hours a night and growing like a weed. She smiles and laughs and grabs for toys and daddy's face. She doesn't fuss much and when she does, she's fairly easy to calm down.

I've been doing quite a bit of reading. I've been sucked (har-dee-har-har) into Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter books. I'm on book 6, and there are about 16 books. I'm averaging one book every 2 days. I'll be done in no time.

I'm starting to cook almost every night. We plan our meals for two weeks out and actually make them happen! I bake on Sundays, meaning that we have fresh whole wheat bread at our house currently. There will be more goodies and experimentations as the weeks fly by. I hope to post about some of them.

Along with the current cooking, I'm going to begin exploring some vegan recipes. No, we're not going all vegan in this household, and I have a freezer full of meat to prove it. (Sorry, Liz.) I am looking for new ways to incorporate veggies into our meals. Vegan cooking tends to be more creative, so I'm looking into it.

Spring is here, so I'm starting to plant, and as per usual, failing at it. I'm hoping to buy fruits and veggies while they are in season this year and do some canning and freezing. I want to make my own baby food for Harper and I'd like to use the most flavorful fruits and veggies if possible... even if that means freezing. The flavor is still better than the shipped in stuff. (And I'll be supporting local farmers!)

I'm generally looking into making my life and home greener and more efficient. I'm using earth-friendly cleaners, still using the cloth diapers (and loving them!) and trying to consume less. It's a small start, but I hope to grow with it.

You see, Blog, while you've just been sitting here, I've been playing housewife and doing a fairly good job at it. I have big plans for the remainder of the year and I hope to be able to come here to talk about them. Will you be here, Blog?

Of course you will, lazy ass.

I swear I'm still alive!

I have a 2 month old now. She's 12lbs and cute as can be!

In other news, I need your opinions. I'm currently interested in one of 3 cases for my new cell phone. I'm getting a Samsung Blackjack II, which just happens to be the same size as an iPhone. This means that there are many more cute sleeves out there for me to choose from.

These are the three that I like best. All are from Etsy.com because I like to support crafters and buy handmade!

1. Cherry Blossoms from Janine King Designs.
Thoughts: I love the elegant and simple design of this one. Zipper closure, padded and has a clip for all my clipping needs.

2. Baby Duckles' Rock N Roll Part II
Thoughts: The main perk of this one, besides being kick ass green, is that it has a pocket that I could possibly use for my bluetooth headset. My only concern is magnetic closure - what?

3. Jasmine Flora from Oh My Guiles!
Thoughts: Cute fabric, padded, soft interior to prevent scratching and a clip. Doesn't close like the Janine King one - is just a sleeve.

Your opinions - I wants them.

On a side note - as my daughter is getting into some sort of routine, I hope to be appearing here more often. :)

Pay attention to the post time...

As you can probably see - It's approximately 3am as I'm writing this. My daughter from the time she was born, didn't want to sleep anywhere but in my arms. This trend has continued, and I believe that at this point, it's only 75% her doing. I have to admit that there is a part of me that loves having this tiny person snuggled into my chest each night.

But tonight is different. Tonight, I'm not tired. I've been up since I fed her at 1:30am, watching 30Rock on the Netflix streaming video. I've watched the clock and wondered when she's going to get hungry again. I'm sure it will be about 10 minutes after I finally fall asleep.

In the first week or so that she was home, she had her days and nights reversed. We have this straightened out, but I think it's me who has my days and nights reversed at this point.

I'm giving her (and myself) until she's a month old to continue with the current sleeping arrangement. After that, I will be trying to train her to sleep on her own in the cradle or the pack n play. I really think this is going to be just as difficult for me as it is for her. Every noise she makes, I want to check on her. Every time she hasn't made any noises for a while, I want to check on her. I'm sure you can see where this can be a problem.

I'm learning that being a parent is confusing at the very least. On one hand, I want nothing more for her to sleep on her own, but at the same time, I want to hold her every second of every day. Even if it isn't the best thing for either one of us.

It's amazing how much you can love something. This love started before she was even born. We knew we loved our daughter unbelievably. Now that she's here - well, you don't know how much you're willing to sacrifice yourself, or what you believed you were, for another person. The hours I've lost in sleep and time to breastfeeding, diapers, and comforting my daughter are nothing. Ask anyone if they want to be woken up every 2 hours (or every hour during a growth spurt) and have their body mangled and tugged on - I'd be willing to bet it's not high on their priority list. Ask a parent if they want that, and they don't seem to mind. At least I know I don't. It's an adjustment, but it's not impossible.

I'm sure I seem like I'm rambling or that I'm on some parenting soapbox, but it's not my intention. (C'mon! It's 3am for Christ's sake!) It's just me getting what I'm thinking down somewhere. I can't talk to anyone about it right now, because Harper is resting peacefully on my chest and Rob is lying in bed...snoring.

I'm just going to continue to get as comfortable as I can in my recliner and watch more 30Rock in hopes of drifting off to sleep. I'm sure someone will get hungry in about an hour anyhow.

Thanks for listening.

Little hands, little feet... little baby!

We've been home for a little over a week and Harper is 11 days old. Having her in our everyday life has been an adjustment, but a welcome one. We're adjusting to our new sleep schedules or lack there of. Harper seems to only want to sleep when she's on one of our chests. This is apparently a common issue, and should resolve itself with a little intervention from us.

Thanks to everyone who sent well wishes and words of encouragement. The 2 days of labor were difficult, to say the least. While I wasn't in a ton of pain for the majority of the time, it still isn't an experience that I would recommend or wish upon anyone.

The c-section and the recovery from that hasn't been all that bad, actually. The worst part has been the sleeping situation. But we'll get better at it.

Rob heads back to work tomorrow. That's when the true test begins.

Cautionary Whale

Just consider this the "before" picture. Here I am, 40 weeks pregnant and trying to make Harper appear via Wii Bowling. She moved around like mad when I would sit between frames. I really thought it might work!

I had no idea how round I was until Rob took these pics. We've been taking periodic pictures of my stomach to track the growth, but this is the first time I actually appear to have a basketball under my shirt.

For those of you who don't know: Unless something amazing happens in the next 16 hours, I'll be heading to the hospital bright and early tomorrow morning (like 5:30AM early...) for an induction. If I'm being honest, I have to say that I'm not 100% happy about this outcome. It's rather nerve wracking to schedule the date that your life is going to change completely. I'd rather be surprised about the time I'm going into labor.

This also means that I'm trying my best to stay busy today and get everything done that I want to get done before Harper arrives. Otherwise, I'd be pacing the hallway while my nerves took over completely.


One thing I've worked on today are these cloth wipes! Cute, aren't they? Rob and I plan on using cloth diapers 99.9% of the time with Harper, so it only makes sense to use cloth wipes as well!

The wipes are pink on one side and this fun grey pattern on the other. I used flannel and decided to make them 2-ply. My hope is to get good at this and be able to set up an Etsy shop and sell a few.

My friend Bek loaned me her serger to complete them. I have to say that I have no idea how I lived without a serger before now. These only took about 45 minutes to complete. So easy! I'm going to be looking into purchasing one for myself and my mom to share.



This will probably be my last blog post for a while. (Not that I've been posting a ton lately, anyhow...) I'm sure that I'll be spending plenty of time getting used to having a 3rd family member and answering her every whim. It's a strange thought that tomorrow, I become a mom. I suppose it's strange for anyone who knows exactly what day their life will begin to change.

Harper will hopefully arrive tomorrow, January 9th. This is providing I don't labor all day and she's born after midnight, making her birthday the 10th. There's a good chance that we'll be coming home with her on Friday, Jan 11th. Happy Birthday to Me!

I'm going to try to post more over at Lammle Lounge to update everyone on how she's doing. Check that site often for updates!

Lizzle! Lookle here!

I just picked up the book, Raising Baby Green by Alan Greene and I thought it might be something that you'd be interested in. The title is rather misleading. While yes, it touches on having a green pregnancy, childbirth, and child products - it's mostly a great resource for greening up ones home.

Anyhow - I found a copy at Barnes & Noble. Check it out if you're interested! :)

37.5 weeks

Today starts my maternity leave. It's awesome. I'm not going to lie. The only thing that could possibly make it better was if I was being paid for it.

I'm 37.5 weeks pregnant. I had an appointment on Friday and found out that I'm a little over 1cm dilated. This basically means that my body is progressing towards labor.

After coming home, and throughout the weekend this and this happened. (Do not click if you're squeamish. It can be gross for you non-breeding types.) Sunday, I started to feel a few pains in my lower abdomen. Today, I've felt some on and off throughout the day. I called my Dr.'s office to talk to a nurse and she said it sounds like contractions and chances are good that Harper will make an appearance before Christmas. I'm excited, but at the same time wish there was a way to know for sure that it was the real thing. (Besides the whole water breaking thing - which only happens to about 1/3 of women before labor.)

Anyhow... that's my update for the day. Exciting, eh? I'll keep everyone posted as things progress and hopefully - I'll be sharing pictures of my daughter before the end of the year!

Currently, I'm starting my quest for a diaper bag. I really like this one, but don't know if I'm going to like it as much in person. If anyone has any diaper bag suggestions - I'm all ears!

If I don't get a chance to blog again before Christmas, I hope everyone has a safe and warm holiday!!!