In Bed

One good thing about working part time is that I enjoy my time at home with William SO much more! This morning, we were lazy and decided to hang out in bed.

No morning rush.

No traffic.

No students to teach.

Just this cutie pie!

Dear William - Two Months

Dear William,

Today, you are two months old.

If I had to sum up this past month in one word, it would be:

Poop.

You are either pooping, trying to poop, thinking about trying to poop, or just plain gassy. Poop is the bane of your existence, your nemesis. It makes you so fussy and angry! We all had a rough couple of weeks until your father thought to harness the power of the internet. Now we know better ways to feed you so that you can digest easier. Victory! You're a much happier poop-er now.

This month marks the first time we've been on our own, without the help of our families. It's nice to be just the three of us and figure out a routine. On the other hand, there are a lot fewer helping hands around here. The house is messier. The kitchen isn't always clean when we go to bed. I've taken fewer showers. The living room is more cluttered.

Really, it's all your fault: your needs trump anything and everything else. The floors need to be swept? The dog needs to go out? Gotta pee? Too bad! You come first! But I can't resent you, my beautiful, beautiful trump card.

You're a bit more particular about your sleep these days. You especially love to be bounced and swayed to be put to sleep. BUT! It must be while I'm standing up. If I try to bounce you to sleep while I'm sitting on the couch, you become quite incensed. I can almost hear you say: "YOU'RE NOT DOING IT RIGHT, MOM!" One notable exception to this pattern was that one night when your dad put you to sleep by playing classic rock on the guitar and belting out the tunes. That was pretty awesome.

Oh, and this month you've started squealing..... spontaneous, loud, delightful little squeals that are usually paired with a smile! They come at the most random times, and I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but we take it to mean that you love us back.

Maternity Leave

We've been extremely blessed to have had William in June: both my husband and I have been off all summer since I'm a teacher and he's a grad student! But now with back-to-school looming (I start Friday and the kids start Monday!), I have a few thoughts on going back to work. 

First, this:

via

Shocking, isn't it? I mean, c'mon... Pakistan?!? 

My school district doesn't give any paid maternity leave. If you want to stay home with your baby, you'd better have a lot of sick days and personal days stored up. So I'm grateful that I had 2 months to stay at home, worry free. 

That said, my husband and I want to avoid daycare at all cost (and we have no family around to watch the baby). Max can work from home three days a week, and I'll be taking an "intermittent maternity leave" the other two days a week. I have some sick/personal days in my bank, but not enough to cover the whole year. But I think the pay cut will be worth it, though!

You know how some mamas are really excited to go back to work? I think I understand that. But I don't feel that way.... maybe if my job involved actual adult interaction instead of managing a class of second graders. Right now it just seems ridiculous to me to leave my baby to go take care of some other people's babies!

So in a way, I'm blessed that I'll only have to go in three days a week (I'll be planning for a long term sub for the other two days). I have some worries - mainly about pumping and messing with my milk supply - but I hope everything will work out!

Do any of you working mamas have tips about pumping? I'd be grateful to hear your advice!

Aquarium Adventure

Last week, when we had Max's side of the family in town, we all decided to be adventurous and go to the Dallas Aquarium.  And I do mean adventurous - it's hard to get our act together to take baby anywhere, let alone somewhere as exciting as the aquarium!

William was a trooper! (And I've never needed to carry a purse so big before!)

Everyone's saying hi to the monkeys.

Looking at the sting rays - and Max refuses to smile for a picture ;)

William got tired of the stroller. This is my view of him in his sling!

After the aquarium, we ate a very late lunch at the Spaghetti Warehouse. I would have taken pictures, but I was too busy stuffing my face with pasta alfredo!

All in all, it was worth the hassle to get out there and do something fun! I need to schedule more adventures soon!

Around

I'm using my camera more than I ever have before these days! I recently dressed William in some actual clothes instead of the usual onesies - then I was like: "Quick, take a picture before he grows out of it or pees/poops/spits up on it!!"

Anyways, we're doing lots of lazy hanging out around here. Thought I'd share some links I'm sure you'll enjoy as much as I did:

- I'm dying to make these chickpea salad wraps!

- Which profession drinks the most coffee? Is yours on here?

- DIY: Spray painted color block shoes

- What a great way to preserve summer memories! Map Cork Board with Shell Pushpins

- I loved this article from an up-and-coming daddy blogger: Achieving Happy

First Play Date

Last week, William and I had our first play date. I was beyond excited to see my friend Jackie, who gave birth to baby Clark the day before I had Will!

Clark is half Chinese and half Vietnamese. Will is 1/8 Chinese. I don't think you can tell that William has a lick of Chinese in him. What do you think?

Jackie and I had a sqeal-fest when we put the babies down and they linked arms. I'm sure it was a total accident as they have zero body awareness, but still. Cuteness!

I know there will be lots more play dates in our future. It's so nice to connect with someone who's going through all the same things I am!

Bath Time

Little William, you're the one

Who makes bath time so much fun!

I'm so glad that William enjoys bath time! We have more hooded towels than days of the week and my favorite part is getting him out of the water and drying him off :)

Oh, and of course - the sweet, sweet smell of a clean and fresh baby!

Surrounded

I don't know how people have babies without having family around to help out... We've been extremely blessed to have both sets of parents in town to help us, despite the fact that they live several states away! My folks are staying for a month, and my in-laws came for a week at the beginning, and they'll come again in August for a week.

They've been keeping my house in order, and watching the baby while I sneak in a nap here and there. William pays them in cuddles, coos, and general cuteness!

Everyone has to share the baby!! :)

My in-laws, loving on William

Mom helps me with his first bath (I was surprised by the camera - haha!)

My sister visited us for a few days. Don't you just love the blanket she made?

I'm also extremely blessed to have Max home for the summer - he's a grad student and can do most of his work from home!!

New Mama Skills

New skills I've developed as a Mama:

-holding someone with a wobbly head

-eating a meal in 6 minutes flat (although being a teacher gave me practice for this!)

-knowing what's on TV at any given time during the day and night

-making funny faces

-doing things one-handed

-surviving on an hour of sleep at a time

Baby William: A Birth Story

I woke up at 5:20, about an hour before our alarm was set to ring, thinking about the day ahead. My exact thoughts were: "What in the world am I going to do today? I finished my novel yesterday and all of my nursery projects are done!" It occurred to me to that I should maybe get up to pee since I was already awake. In the next second, I wondered why I had already started to pee in bed?!!

And that's how my water broke. Not a big gush like in the movies, but a slow and steady trickle that intensified over the next two hours. The crazy thing is, even though I suspected that my water was breaking, Max and I still did our usual workout in front of the morning news. It wasn't until we had finished that I realized that YES my water was really breaking for sure.

I called my doctor's office and she told me to to meet her at the hospital. The hospital! William wasn't due for another two weeks ... I was quite pleased that I already had my bag packed.

It took us a while to get ourselves over to the hospital. Here we are right before we left the house, the last time it would ever just be the two of us:

They got me all hooked up at the hospital. Our nurse had some trouble putting the IV into my left arm. And by "trouble," I mean that I felt debilitating pain - way worse than the contractions! Thanks to a tip from Max's grandma on the phone, I asked her to re-insert it in my other arm. She tried again (ouch) and it didn't take. They had to get another nurse in there to insert it right. The botched IV left a nice mark on my left wrist.

They gave me Pitocin to "augment" my labor. While I was laboring away with little contractions I hardly felt, Max was on the phone and on the internet with my mom and his parents, arranging for last minute same-day flights. We wanted our family to be in on all the baby action! (My mom arrived in Texas from California later that afternoon, and his parents arrived from Michigan that night.)

Around 11:30, I told the nurse I was ready for the epidural. My contractions were becoming very painful, and I still had the blood-curdling screams from the new mama in the room next door ringing in my ears. I was really hoping for a less traumatic delivery, thankyouverymuch.

The hour in which I got the epidural was the most painful. I just remember leaning forward and gripping Max's hands and trying to breathe calmly while my contractions came every ninety seconds and lasted for about ninety seconds. Once the epidural kicked in, the anesthesiologist became my best friend. In fact, everyone was my best friend!

I especially wanted to hug my nurse when she told me that I had progressed from 3 cm dilated to 8 cm dilated in just one hour!

By 1:45 PM, I was ready to started pushing. My actual doctor came in and said I was 9.5 cm dilated and that she would check on me in one hour.

One hour came and went and my doctor did not come back. My nurse was visibly annoyed. I was running low on patience. Another 30 minutes, and still no doctor. My nurse called her at her office for permission for me to start pushing.

3:30 PM. Time to start pushing - my doctor gave her OK over the phone. It took me about six pushes to get the hang of it (since I technically couldn't feel what I was doing down there). Max stood by my side and coached me the whole two hours I pushed. He gave me ice chips, he encouraged me, he held my oxygen mask in place, and he even held a bag by my face when I felt like throwing up from sheer exhaustion near the end.

During the last half hour of pushing, I thought I was going to pass out. I didn't think I could give it one more push, but somehow I kept going. And I remember the nurse kept saying things like "I've never seen someone push so hard for so long! You're a champion pusher!" And even in my exhausted state, I thought to myself "Whatever! She must say this to all the mommies she works with. How nice of her to lie to me...."

And guess who showed up in the last half hour? My doctor! Well, she was there, but not really THERE. She was quite busy texting and talking on her phone. She checked on things and asked me if I wanted her to use the vacuum. Max and I both said "NO" quite emphatically. Max told me afterwards that she mentioned the vacuum AGAIN in whispered tones to the nurse about five minutes later.

In any case, the threat of the vacuum must have been just the motivation I needed because minutes later, William made his grand entrance. I felt his head, his shoulders, and his body as I pushed him out. He came so fast that the doctor had to scramble to get her smock on and catch him in time!!

They placed our baby on my tummy and the nurse toweled him off. He was such a beautiful sight! I couldn't believe he was actually here. It was the most amazing feeling I've ever had. There really are no words to describe it!

William was born 5:27 PM, just twelve hours after my water broke. He was 7lbs 4oz and 19 inches long. Our little bundle of perfection!

Welcome Home, Baby!

I've been busy with our little bundle of joy! But so lucky with family in town to help at every turn!

We left the hospital on Saturday.

And came home to festive balloons!

I've been doing a LOT of nursing, and yesterday, William had his first bath!

My favorite is relaxing with my little man :)

He's Here! Introducing...

Our son, William Edward:

Born 6/21/2012

7lbs 4oz

19 inches long

Twelve hours of labor and two weeks early! (Hallelujiah and Amen!)

Black hair and dark blue eyes (for now)

We're all exhausted but HAPPY and doing well!

Can't wait to write more about it in detail in the weeks to come. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the fabulous guest posters I have lined up!

(PS: Have you entered the two giveaways yet here and here? Ending soon!)

Just Because I Can

So here's the thing. Do I actually *need* embellished burp cloths? Pretty containers? Cute travel changing pads? No. But do I *want* them? Yes. I just couldn't help myself:

Burp cloth tutorial here.

Haha! Do you think I made enough of them?

I wrapped these plastic containers to hold both reusable and disposable nursing pads. Do you like the water droplet paper I used? It's my own inside joke :)

I made three travel changing pads from this super easy tutorial. They're made from a vinyl tablecloth (so easy to clean!) that cost $3.25 at Big Lots!

I'll be giving this one to a friend!

There's one more sewing project I'll be trying to do before the baby comes (this floor pouf). So far, I've had a lot of fun putting my crafty powers to good use!!

Getting Spoiled

I received a lovely package from Ms. Megan last week! I would have included pictures of the delightful wrapping job, but I tore into too quick (oops!). Here's what was inside:

ADORABLE hoop art! It's going to look fabulous in the nursery!

(She sells her beautiful work here!)

This darling necklace: MERE means "mother" in French. How sweet of her to remember that France is part of my home!!

Lovely note cards from her shop! I just know I'll find lots of uses for these!

Thank you so much Megan!! I truly feel spoiled by my bloggy friends!

The Temporary Nursery

Today, I'm excited to show you our temporary nursery. Why is it temporary? Because we need our actual nursery room to stay a guest room for the first two months or so to accommodate our families. We'll be having a steady stream of family members stay with us from out of state. I'm excited to see everyone (and for all the help!)

Anyways, while I have been busy decorating the walls of the actual nursery (those pictures will come at a later date), we've also been setting up the practical side of things in our master bedroom. It took us my husband the better part of two hours to make everything fit right. Here are some pictures:

Adorable plushies from See Kate Sew

Matching crib sheets and changing pad cover from Land of Nod 

(via a sweet deal at a consignment sale!)

Beautiful blanket my aunt crocheted for Baby

Rocking chair from Costco

True story: when you sit in the rocking chair, you have a perfect view of the bed. Which means when I'm nursing in the middle of the night, I'll be able watch Max resentfully lovingly as he sleeps...

I'm happy with our temporary nursery arrangement and I hope it will end up being as practical and functional as we envision it in our heads! Three more weeks and we'll find out ;)

Baby Bumpdate: 34 Weeks and a Surprise Shower

Friends, I'm trying not to panic that I only have six more weeks to get My Act Together. I can't believe it's already been 34 weeks! Here's the latest:

Last week, I had my first and only baby shower. All of my family and friends are out of state, but thankfully I work with a bunch of awesome coworkers who spoiled me silly! They went to a LOT of trouble to throw a surprise joint baby shower for myself and a coworker! We played some fun games, ate some yummy food, and opened presents. I was so touched by everyone's generosity! Here are the highlights:

How big around is my tummy in TP squares?

(My nice friends guessed low :). My husband said "Two"- he's a smart man!)

We played silly games like "Feed the baby". Everyone sure got into it!

Needless to say, I have a LOT of thank you cards to make!

Baby Bumpdate: 29 Weeks

Time is FLYING BY! Here's the latest:

And I am not even kidding when I say there's lots to do. This weekend, I took pictures of the nursery so I'd have some "before" shots:

I leave the door to that room closed so as not to be overwhelmed :). I figure once we get the full sized bed out of there and get the crib set up, I'll feel a lot better! Right now, I'm just trying to focus on finishing the last six weeks of school without going insane!