Mommy and Sweet Pea

Baby Henry! Also known as Cupcake, Sugar, Hank, and Big Boy (so far). Born 2:19 AM January 8, at home (in the bathroom!), with a great team of support. 9 pounds 3 ounces, 21 inches, with a 14.5 inch head. We are getting good rest thanks to Henry's amazing sleeping abilities and the help of my wonderful mother.

I got out the sewing machine today, a friend came over, and we made a couple of things. She made Christmas stockings for next year, and I made a cashmere baby sleep sack and a little taggie toy for the unborn baby. I would have been able to get more accomplished, except I had to do some creative patching together on the baby sleep sack since I had less fabric left than I thought I did, and it took three tries to get the taggie pinned together correctly. I'd like to make another, bigger taggie that's more blanket-sized rather than toy, now that I know how to do it for sure. The taggies: (monkeys one made by me, flowers by my husband) Good directions for a taggie blanket can be found here   Sleep sack - may be a little short in length and I may still cuff the sleeves and add an applique design on the front: Good directions for wool baby sleep sacks can be found here And one last thing I whipped up at Stella's request - a dress for her baby doll, made out of a hand...

Written around 10:00PM January 1 Here I am, sitting at the computer using a contraction timer, hoping these mild contractions are the start of labor. I am only 39 weeks pregnant (tomorrow) and have been through this with my doula clients many times before. I KNOW that there is no reason to set my hopes or expectations on having my baby on a particular day. I KNOW that the best time for my baby to be born is when my body goes into labor naturally. And yet.... I can't help but hope that it's tonight. Or tomorrow. Or within a couple of days at least. Sweet Pea was born on her due date, during the first week that I stayed home from work. I had just in the previous few days gotten everything done that I had wanted to do before the birth, and started some very mild natural labor encouragement techniques. I knew that first babies were often late, and was not overly anxious for her birth. So, when my water broke at 1:00 AM on her due date I was pleasantly surprised, and excited. Ev...

We just got home from the hospital, with our baby still inside me. We are probably one of the few families happy to leave labor and delivery without the baby being born yet. The reason I am so happy is that the baby was in a breech position (head up, more dangerous to deliver, usually lead to a cesarean) and we had a successful procedure to turn the baby head down! It was not painful, didn't take very long, and baby and I are both doing great! Husband is napping on the couch, while I am actually full of energy right now. The procedure, called an external cephalic version, generally has a 50-70% success rate, but I had lots of factors in my favor including the fact that this is my second baby and I have plenty of amniotic fluid. We found out on Wednesday of this week that the baby was breech, went in to a clinic for an ultrasound to confirm and do an anatomical scan to make sure a version would be safe on Thursday, and went in to the hospital for the version today. In between, w...

Christmas morning excitement! Playing with sidewalk chalk on Christmas day. Decorating the tree a few weeks ago. And still pregnant - due in just 2 weeks!

After Stella's bath tonight, Joe picks her up and I come over and give her a kiss. She says, "I love you guys" and hugs us, one, then the other, then both together, again and again. These are the things I want to remember forever.

First half of the post, written a week ago I really wanted to LOVE being pregnant. I wanted to feel "better than I've ever felt," full of life, and beautiful. Well, I'm not as miserable as some, but a lot of things about being pregnant are difficult for me. There have been times I have felt inadequate because of this. Like, why can't I take better care of myself so that I feel more healthy and rested more of the time? But it is just plain hard. I am still awake after midnight tonight because of awful heartburn/reflux. I have eaten tons of papaya enzyme pills, just drank a glass of milk, and have remained upright ever since I put Sweet Pea to bed, but am still having painful burps, that I know will become unbearable if I lay down before the acid subsides. This has been a rough week for sleep, and I was so tired last night after work that all I could do was put away a few dishes before settling down on the couch for the rest of the evening. I went to bed early an...