1 month

Sam is 4 weeks old today! I can't believe that we've had a baby that long.  It still seems like a surprise when I walk into the room and see him sleeping there.

Then again, considering all the quality time I've spent taking care of him instead of just wasting that time by sleeping it seems like he's been with us forever!

Live and learn

No one really told the ear doctor and I how intense it is to have a new born baby. Or maybe people tried to tell us what it was like, but we didn't really get it. Because, to tell you the truth, it's really hard to describe just what it's like to have a new baby. I don't think I could totally capture how hard/awesome/totally engrossing the experience has been.

Last night I was at a breaking point. I sat on my bed at 9 pm, nursing my little baby while tears streamed down my face. The very thought of attempting another night of feeding him ever hour and a half literally broke my spirit.


My husband and in-laws rose to the challenge. I seriously don't know how people do this on their own...I have an amazing army ready to help lift me up when I think I can't do it.

I pumped a bottle of milk, moved his bassinet out of our room and my mother-in-law enabled the ear doctor and i to sleep straight from 1:30 am until 6 am.

It was glorious.  I woke up happier than I've been in the last 2 weeks.


I now know the perfect way to help a new mom...and I really wish I'd had this kind of perspective when I went out to "help" my little sister after she'd had her babies. I could have been so much better had I just known what to do!

What I give to my son

I always think it's really hard to tell which features come from which parent on a newborn. Maybe I don't have the eye for it or something, but I can never definitively say, "oh, he has your nose" or "those are mom's eyes"

But with my baby there is one feature that he most definitely go from me. His adorable, smushed up ear.

Observe, my ear:

His ear:

Case closed.

Little no name

I can't tell you how excited I am about my son's dimples. They're perfect. Here's my favorite photo of him so far. SO thrilled I caught those little babies. 

Post baby tip

I hope this isn't too much information for everyone, but it has been one of the bigger post-baby worries for me, so I thought I'd share.

I had to have a c-section in order to welcome this little man to the world. As a result I wasn't up and walking around much right after he entered the world. Also, I was on a clear liquid diet. Result? No poo. 

Everyday I was in the hospital people asked me about my poo.  I started to stress out about it. The doctor told me to drink some Maalox, but she didn't know that Maalox is the absolute only medicine I can't stand. 

Probably because one Christmas eve my mom had me drink some in an attempt to prevent the inevitable yearly festive barf-extravaganza. Backfire...the chalky taste of the stuff was too much and I puked it all over the floor of my grandma's basement bathroom.

I really tried to drink the stuff in the hospital thinking that now, as an adult woman who had just attempted to go through labor, I could handle it. No dice. I got through half of a tiny bottle and had to stop for fear of puking and ripping the staples in my belly. 

So they let me leave the hospital without having a movement...which I was both happy and scared about. First day home, no action. Second day...no action. I was starting to get really nervous. My wonderful father-in-law went to the grocery store and picked me up these little beauties.

Let me tell you...they are magic little things. 

Get some...you won't be sorry.

work out

My sister's first baby, Charlotte had a strange neck problem when she was a baby. She favored pulling her head only to one side and as a result it hurt her a little to hold it the other way. She had to go to physical therapy with her infant where the doctor told her to do tummy time.

Charlotte HATED tummy time.


My sister is younger than me, so my whole life I've been doing things first and she had the privilege of learning from my experience. Well, me having this baby has totally reversed our roles and I'm loving being the one who isn't blazing the trail!

I know what to watch for and the importance of tummy time...which is why this happened this morning:

He's here!

No name yet, but he's totally here.  And pretty much the best baby in the world.

Ridiculously good looking

A few weeks ago we found out that Tamara Murphy, and awesome Denver-based photographer was offering a screaming deal on some mini photo sessions. We figured it might be the last time to capture my pregnant girth in all it's glory so we took advantage. 

I am so SO happy with how they turned out! 

PS...no baby this weekend. Hopefully something will happen this week since my due date is THURSDAY!!!!!!

check that off the list!

Good news! We decided on a pediatrician! We met 3 different doctors in 3 very different practices and the one we went to last night was BY FAR our favorite. Yeah, it's a little bit of a drive across town to get there and it's really popular so it might be harder to schedule well baby appointments but that's OK. We loved the doctor we met.

And, more importantly, the office is right next to some awesome places to eat.


We may not have our priorities in the right place....


Totally unrelated photos:

My boys looking at each other...

only a week left

1 week until my due date. 1 week.


I have been trying REALLY hard to 1) stay positive 2) not complain and 3) prevent waddling but guys, this last week is no joke. The aches and pains are pretty intense and the will to just push through until the end of the day makes me feel like a marathon runner.

And I've never, not once, even had an inkling that I would like to run a marathon.


One the other hand, I'm really not to the point of total frustration and thinking everyday, "I wish this darn baby would come today!"


I'm somewhere in the middle where I would be totally happy if my belly stopped twisting around like I swallowed a small Chinese contortionist but not really ready for the daunting task of being someone's mom.

last pre-baby project for me

At the end of last week I got another awesome surprise in the mail. An awesome blue sweater knitted by my fantastically talented cousin Hilary. I opened the box and pulled out the beautiful sweater and draped it across my ever-expanding belly and just loved it.

And it got me motivated to put the finishing touches on my own creative endeavor. I also decided to knit a little sweater for our little man. The pattern I chose was not nearly as cute as the one Hilary used, but I like how it turned out.

Except, it looks like the proportion is a bit off. I followed the pattern exactly and it seems like the sleeves are really long and the body is short. Is this just how baby clothes are? Also, I was a bit hesitant about just going through my leftover button jar and using mixed and matched buttons for it, but looking at this picture makes me really happy that I did that.

superhero son

Since friends and family found out we are having a baby I have been totally blown away by the attention, love and PRESENTS people have just randomly sent us in the mail! The generosity has been overwhelming. Yesterday afternoon we got another little surprise in the mail.

An overstuffed cardboard envelope came and I got really excited when I saw the return address was from Sanaz, the new wife of one of my best friends from undergrad, Bryan. Sanaz is pretty much the most amazingly thoughtful, warm, considerate person I've ever met in my life so I was sure this was going to be something really special.

As I ripped open the envelope and pulled out the blue plush fabric I could feel a belly laugh start to ripple from the bottom of my feet out through my grinning face.

A plush, insulated spiderman costume for a baby! How cool is it to send someone something so totally impractical, but AWESOME?

Along with the suit was a note written by my friend Bryan on traditional engineering paper telling me that when he was little he work a spiderman costume anywhere and anytime his mom would let him. So he wanted to get this for us, not just as a halloween costume, but so that he can wear it anytime he wants to feel like a superhero. How great is that?

Something this awesome deserved an honored place in our nursery nook. Hanging on display for everyone to see...right next to his Spokane/carhartt costume...

getting out there

This baby is due in 1 month.

1 MONTH!


I feel an urgent need to cram this month full of every possible thing I can before he gets here. We have shots to get and doctors to see. We need to pick a pediatrician. The True green people are coming to fix our grass so that next year baby feet can get their bearings on nice lush greenery instead of tripping on nasty weeds. I want to call friends and make make sure they know I love them before I potentially drop off the planet for 3 months. We need to figure out the best route to the hospital and it's time to start thinking about what to get everyone for Christmas this year because who knows if I'll have time to think of that when he arrives. There are new people I want to have over for Sunday dinner and old friends that need to know I care. There are mountains of thank you notes to write and shouldn't we think about baby announcements now instead of leaving that to chance later?

But mostly I want to really enjoy this month. October is my favorite month of the whole year.

So I'm really glad I spent half a day last Friday with one of my favorite people and our beloved furry friends.

 We walked and talked and I was totally blown away by the beauty of where I live.

 What also blew me away? How wide and round my 8 month pregnant face has become. Yowsers!

I took this picture of the two of our dogs running toward us at top speed through the most stunning crop of golden leafed trees. Pure joy was radiating off them. It felt like magic and made me excited for a future when our kids are doing the same thing...running at full tilt toward both of us...future moms.

welcome home, new chair

Good news...the new chair came WAY faster than the baby! We picked it up on Saturday and it's basically been filled ever since.

We had to totally rearrange the furniture in the whole room, and I still feel like the furniture really is too big for the space. But I just don't care because it is so warm and cozy in our front room now I may never leave.

Which is a good thing because there is a house in our neighborhood that I feel head over heels in love with 3 years ago when we moved in. And they just listed the house for sale last week! I seriously contemplated making an offer, putting our house on the market, packing up all our stuff and moving 3 blocks while 7.5 months pregnant just so we could live there....


...the ear doctor thinks I am nuts. He's probably right.

Time to celebrate

Recently I made friends with an incredibly talented girl named Emily who just happened to be a graphic designer. At the same time my fantastically amazing friend Molly offered to throw me a baby shower to welcome this little guy to the world.

When two awesome people like this come together, this is the kind of thing that happens:

The front of quite possibly the cutest invitation I've ever seen

And the back.


Seriously, I could not possibly love how these turned out more. What did I do in life to warrant such a totally rad demonstration of affection?

Update

 This weekend was SOOOOOO productive! One of the best parts of my job is that I have every other Friday off. Those off Fridays absolutely save my sanity. I woke up early Friday morning and decided that it was the day to clean up the mammoth weeds that have cropped up in the yard. I put on my favorite yard work shirt (graciously donated from the ear doctor's old wardrobe) and got to work.

After 3 hours of digging, pulling and hauling I decided I needed a quick trip to Home Depot. Just before running out the door I snapped this picture. I wanted my dad to be proud of the scary, dirty, rag tag outfit I decided to wear out in public.

Red face and all! I try to make him proud.

Saturday afternoon we crossed a major milestone off our baby preparation list...we picked out a chair! I have spent the last 4 months scouring the internet for the perfect chair to welcome the arrival of this kid. I wanted something clean lined and modern, but wasn't willing to sacrifice comfort. We don't have an official nursery room, so this chair is going to be part of our main living space so it couldn't be to juvenile. The arm rests had to be at the right height and really soft and cushy. After rocking my niece and 2 nephews to sleep in my sisters big overstuffed chair I knew how necessary this feature would be.

On Saturday we found it...at the LaZBoy store:

And although, this fabric would look fantastic in my mom's house, ours has more cool tones than reds. We decided we needed to make it custom with our own fabric. At first I found this fabric and fell in L-O-V-E:

 

That is...until I realized it would be $1000 more for that fabric. So then we found this much more affordable option:

Wait, you can't really tell the texture on it. Here's a close up:

 And even though I knew we coudln't justify spending $1000 extra I really loved the medallion fabric..don't you?

The ear doctor got a little tired of my hemming and hawing...

But in the end we made the choice and ordered the chair. It'll take 8-10 weeks to get to us so it'll be a race between the chair and the baby who gets here first. I can't tell you how thrilled I am just to have a decision made!

On Sunday we decided to host a little end of summer dinner party for some of our closest friends. I spent an hour or so in the morning clipping flowers from my yard and arranging them into centerpieces for the table. As I sat on the floor and stuck flowers into jars I remembered my mom doing a similar thing. Putting the spoils of all her hard summer yard work into something just beautiful.

It was an awesome night, the food was great, the conversation sparkling and the weather just perfect. 

Making the most of the moment

Last night the ear doctor and I decided the time had come to put together the crib his parents lovingly bought for us. I was excited about this since it kind of seemed like one of those pre-baby "moments" that can really mean a lot. I was also worried that we'd open the box and it was explode with a million tiny little screws and pieces that would take 5 hours to figure out how to assemble.

 That was not the case. There were a total of 5 pieces and 8 bolts to get the thing together. When we first started taking things out of the box Roscoe got really scared. He's terrified of our ladder and anything that remotely resembles it, so the side of the crib was terrifying for him.

We decided to put it together in our front room since there would be more space there for us to work. The thing went together in under 10 minutes.

 However, when we attempted to move it from the front room, through the kitchen and into the "nursery" (AKA mudroom) we were a little shocked to see that the doorway cut in 1923 wasn't big enough to enable to passage of the crib through the room. Oops.

At this point all we had to do was take on of the sides off to get it through the doorway.

 We thought we were home free until we tried to slide it back into place. The crib fits EXACTLY in the back of this room. And I mean EXACTLY in this room. There was no way we could fit it in the room partially built.

So we had to totally dismantle the thing and rebuild it again in place.

And it was about a million degrees in this little room yesterday.

 Once we finally got it put together, it was time to get out the mattress and put on the pad and sheets..

 Put the mattress in place...

 Stepped back...

 and whipped out instagram...

Once it was all set up we stood back and both stood there looking at the empty crib. It's all ready. We're ready. Our son has a place in our home.

Indugling his fantasies

This weekend there was a big BBQ festival in downtown Denver.

Have I mentioned often enough how much the ear doctor loves BBQ? He L-O-V-E-S BBQ. With a smouldering passion that has softened the connective tissues of his heart and allowed the deep smokey flavor to penetrate it, enacting a basic, fundamental chemical change therein.

He reads about BBQ, thinks about BBQ, talks about BBQ, and I'm sure dreams about it, so when we heard they were having a showcase of some of the country's best pit masters in our fair city I knew we'd be going.

Saturday afternoon we found ourselves taking a behind the scenes tour of the smokers and talking to the masters themselves. We learned the tricks to a perfect brisket and ate more meat than two people should be allowed.

We sampled it all and even got me a banana pudding...my favorite part of southern cuisine.


We went to bed that night with satisfied smiles and full stomachs.

And the smell of smoke lingering in my hair only woke me up twice in the night. 

Week 27

How am I feeling?


HOT!

 

and craving sour patch kids like you wouldn't believe!

no hiding it

This morning as I was pumping gas I caught my reflection in the window and though...

...yep, 6 months pregnant for sure...

lucky to see

The place I work is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Every time I walk between buildings I catch my breath and feel so lucky to be surrounded by such amazing vistas. Yesterday as I was driving out of the campus I had to hit my breaks in order to avoid hitting these 4 beautiful guys while they crossed the street in front of me.

I must remind myself to take a breath everyday and enjoy the stunning surroundings around me. It'll help reduce this crazy pregnancy stress that's building up in my soul.

What's in a name

This pregnancy thing can be rough.

But it's also kind of hilarious.

I haven't been flying around my home attempting to make a perfect little nest for our little bird who will arrive in a few months. When I was envisioning my pregnancy, I thought I'd want to buy every cute little outfit I saw. But that hasn't really happened at all. I pictured myself pouring over books trying to get a jump on learning how to be a great mom. But the only thing that prompted me cracking the spine of the Mayo Clinic book we got was the crazy sciatica numbness that ran down my right thigh.


The single item that I have been fixated on and pouring my heart and soul over is the name for this kid. The name.

It has been driving me so crazy that I actually cried myself to sleep one night last week, frantically worried that I would never feel like we found the right name for him. It's shaping up to be the very hardest part of this whole thing.

Harder than the intense fatigue of the first trimester, or the insecure feelings of looking just kind of chubby of the early second.

I'm sure that we'll come up with something we both love in the end, but right now it is all consuming.

5 years of awesomeness

I almost can't believe that I've been married to the ear doctor for 5 years now. 

And at the same time, it feels like he has been a part of my life forever. He's the kindest, funniest, most thoughtful person I've ever met. He is so smart and hardworking and I am SO proud of the work he has chosen to do.

To celebrate our anniversary I really wanted to get out of town. So, 2 weeks ago I went online and found that the cheapest airfare of the day from Denver would land us in Chicago. I'd never been to Chicago before...and I love being in big cities. So I booked the tickets.

My mom, who is awesome, graciously let us use all her stored up Hampton Inn points and got us a hotel right downtown for 5 nights. She's the best!

We ate like kings, walked all around the city and had a great time. Even though we were there for 5 whole days I felt like we barely scratched the surface of all the cool things that city has to offer. We'll be back for sure!

 Getting our tourist on while listening to a Chicago Architecture Foundation tour.

Doughnut Vault...a MUST! Delicious doughnuts. But get there early! They open at 8:30 and by 9:45 are usually sold out!

 

Riding public transit...a huge perk of being in a real city. (no offense, Denver)

 

Me with Apollo 8 at the museum of science and industry. This is approximately the same area of the new vehicle that I'm designing!

 

Obligatory top-of-Sears-Tower shot

 

 I couldn't resist...I love everythingl red-head themed...