"Sleeping Like a Baby"

Why do people say that? When hearing that, one would think a deep, sound, long sleep - very restful. However, sleeping like a baby is quite the opposite - at least sleeping like my baby! I try to take the advice, "sleep when the baby sleeps" but this guy is pretty unpredictable. As soon as I get him to sleep and transfer him to the bassinet, he's awake again. Sometimes it's time to eat again or he's poo'd himself, or he just feels like being held and looking around. It's a game of elimination to figure out which it is! Once that need/want is satisfied, he's ready for another snooze. It's also hard to predict how long these little snooze-fests will last - sometimes 20 minutes, sometimes 2 hours. (We are lucky in that he pretty consistently sleeps for 4 hour stretches at night - only waking up to eat and then going back to sleep.) I cannot "sleep like baby". I need long stretches, sleeping in, deep sleep - not half sleeping and waking up at every grunt or sigh. I know, I know...this is just part of being a mom and it isn't anything that every other mother hasn't dealt with before. I just don't understand the phrase "sleeping like baby" because their sleep schedule is quite erratic! Sleeping like my baby is not a positive thing for me!

We go from this...

 ...to this...

...in about 15 seconds flat.


 Maybe if I got myself an adult-size car seat I would be able to sleep better because Davis certainly loves his! He seriously could probably sleep for 24 hours in that thing! (Ok, that's a bit of a stretch, but it sure makes going out to lunch or running errands much easier!)

2 Week Update

Our little munchkin is in his second week of life...Monday will be 3 weeks! I can't believe it - it has gone by so fast! I think a lot of that is attributed to the fact that we were in the hospital for five days dealing with his jaundice. Those five days all ran together and felt like one extremely long day. I'm so glad that is all behind us - aside from a little bit of yellow left in his little eyeballs, but the pediatrician isn't concerned.

In the past two weeks we've had a lot of developments! He already seems like such a different baby than the day he was born - or even the day we brought him home. In order to remember some of these hectic, early days, I'm going to use this blog!

All about Davis - 2 weeks:

Likes: EATING, sleeping on chests, riding in the Mamaroo (or his "spaceship" as Andrew calls it), looking at himself in the mirror on his penguin during tummy time, pats on the back, and perfecting his Blue Steel face (as seen here)

Dislikes: waking up and not having a bottle ready immediately, being naked, diaper changes, Huggies wipes (ugh - first diaper rash!)

Other News: Davis is up to 9 lbs 12 oz (as of 4 days ago) - that's a whole pound over his birth weight. The pediatrician said he's definitely a healthy boy, as they usually give newborns 2 weeks to get back to their birth weight and he's already back to it and added another whole pound on top of it! He's also in the 78th percentile for height and weight. His pediatrician also commented on his extremely long fingers/toes and big feet - said he was going to take after his daddy.

Latest Claim to Fame: During tummy time, Davis lifted and turned his head a record FOUR times back and forth - and quite gracefully I might add! He also has a lot more control lifting his head while on our chests - even on the way down. So pretty much I'm saying he's going to be walking in like three days because he's sooooo advanced. (LOL - just kidding - I told myself I wouldn't be one of "those moms"...but I also said I wouldn't be frumpy and we all know how that's going!)

Frumpy Moms Club

So...it's happened. I have officially joined the Frumpy Moms Club - or the FMC. Throughout my whole pregnancy (and even before getting pregnant) I swore that I would never be a part of this shameful club. It seemed as if as soon as a woman gave birth, all style and effort to look good went out the window. I didn't get it - how hard is it to look presentable?! Well, well, well...not only have I joined the FMC, I could probably be the president. My name is Erin and I am a frumpy mom.

As of today, my baby is two weeks old. In those two weeks, I have been out of my pajamas exactly five times. Two of those times were just to go to the pediatrician and I wore a maxi dress, which, let's be honest, is a glorified nightgown. I have straightened my hair once and dried it twice. Make-up twice as well. I do, however, shower everyday, so I feel pretty good about that!

I suppose my point is that it's so easy to pass judgement and make of list of things you'll "never do" before you are actually in that particular situation. I'm really hoping to pull out of my frump-slump soon, but it's not looking good. I'm honestly jealous of Davis' clothes - if I could wear  zip-up footed sleepers and onesies all day I totally would!

I need to do some serious pampering or else buy my little man this:

Birds & Bees Tees

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day today, Andrew and I did a mini photo shoot with our little lucky charm! Here's one of my favorite pics from the "session".

Happy St. Patrick's Day from our family to yours!

Mash-up

A question that I'm sure is on most pregnant women's mind constantly is "What is my baby going to look like?" Actually, I thought about this looooong before I was pregnant - kind of like how we all plan our weddings long before we ever meet "the one". You know you do/did it - don't play coy with me. Anyway...I got to thinking about this tonight and I remembered our wedding slideshow. In the slideshow, we had lots of pictures of both of us growing up and I decided to watch it and let my imagination run wild!

At first I was pretty happy about the possible outcome. Here we are at about 1-2 years old:

How cute was he?!

Splashing in the puddles on my first birthday! Rumor has it, this was the only time I was in a good mood that entire day - oops! :)

Doing a mash-up of those two kids could produce a little cutie, so that had me excited! Then I got to these...

Oh dear Lord! This is a scary sight...however, I think it proves we were meant for each other! :)

*** I started this post a few weeks before I had sweet Davis, so it made more sense then. However, my laptop crashed mid-post and I wasn't able to finish or get my pictures off of my computer until today. Lucky for us, we got this little cutie pie!

Welcome to the World, Davis!

Fact: Fewer than 5 percent of babies are born on their actual due date.
Fact: My baby was! :)

I have been MIA from the blogging world for about a week or so...completely due to the fact that my little bundle of preciousness decided it was time to come out! Sunday, March 4, I posted about all the little tricks I had tried and complained about this boy not wanting to come meet us...little did I know that just a few hours later, I would be heading to the hospital. He's a punctual little guy and was simply patiently waiting until his due date - the day we had been counting down to for the past 9 months!

It all started Monday morning, March 5, at about 6:30 in the morning. I was feeling a little crampy, but thought that maybe I had just been sleeping in a weird position. I got up to use the restroom and thought I'd waited just a little too long and had possibly "leaked" a little on myself. Oops. Let's be honest - it happened once or twice during the pregnancy. So I got back in bed and tried to sleep; however, the cramps were continuing but weren't unbearable. About this time, Andrew woke up for work and I told him I thought I was having contractions but wasn't sure. He suggested to start timing them and they were about 8 minutes apart. We continued to hang around the house - me in bed, him getting ready for work. I was tracking the "cramps" on my phone and giving Andrew updates. After about an hour, they were consistently 4 minutes apart - with some erratic ones coming in 2 minutes apart. I definitely didn't want to be the "little girl who cried labor" so I called the nurse. Our conversation went like this:

Me: "I think I might be in labor."
Nurse: "If you think you're in labor, go to the hospital."
Me: "But I'm not really sure..."
Nurse: "Did your water break?"
Me: "Maybe..or I may just be tinkling on myself."
Nurse: "You need to go to the hospital."

(She probably thought I was a real peach...)

So off we went to the hospital at 8:00am. As I got out of the car, there was no doubt that my water had broken, so I waddled on to check-in. Pretty quickly, I was seen by the triage nurse and within an hour, I was moved to a labor room.

Immediately, I informed anyone that would listen that I wanted an epidural. I did have that thought of "this isn't so bad...I could probably go all natural" for a split second. Good thing I remembered great advice/warnings from friends that I would get this thought and to not give in to it - get the epi! Thank goodness for friends because by the time I got the epidural, I was 6cm dilated and really starting to get uncomfortable. In comes the anesthesiologist - 15 minutes later, I was feeling fabulous! Two hours later, I was 10 cm dilated and 100% effaced. They let me "labor down" on my own for about 45 minutes since I was feeling no pain at all. At about 2:45pm, the nurse said it was time to push...

* The scary part of this whole experience happened right before this - the doctor and about 4 nurses came rushing in, slapped an oxygen mask on my face, told me to focus on breathing, and proceeded to tell me that the baby's heart rate was dropping too low during big contractions and started discussing "options" of possibly using the vacuum extractor or c-section. Yikes.

Thank the Lord that none of that was necessary. It was time to push and the doctor felt confident all would be fine....45 minutes later Davis Charles showed his beautiful face at 3:31pm. Immediately, they placed him on my chest, Andrew cut the umbilical cord, and then we just sat there staring at him, then each other. All we both could say was "look at him" - and that's exactly what we did for what seemed like hours. It was the most amazing moment in both of our lives (I'll speak for Andrew). I have never felt more love for any two things in the entire world - at that moment, my two men made my life complete!

**Side note: As a whole, my labor was wonderful! I would use the term "easy peasy" but I don't want to jinx myself for any future pregnancies. My nurse did comment that I had a really great epidural and said she wished all deliveries were as easy as mine. I smiled, laughed, and carried on conversations with the doctor and nurses through the whole thing. When all was said and done, I would have to say that peeling the tape off of my back (due to the epidural) was the most painful part of the delivery. I know, I'm extremely lucky and blessed!

D-Day Looming...

To steal the phrase from my MIL, "tomorrow is D-Day - Davis' Due Date"! Maybe he'll be one of the few babies actually born on their due dates, but I'm not thinking so. Needless to say, I have not been feeling baby-ish at all. I'm hoping it will all sneak up on me tonight or tomorrow morning but I'm preparing for the worst...a stubborn baby. (I know I'm being dramatic - it's definitely not the worst thing that could be happening) However, I've been working hard to get things moving along - testing out all of these crazy old wives' tales. For example, I've heard that you should start a new project because as soon as you do, the baby will come and interrupt your plans....well, I started redecorating the guest bathroom a few days ago and will be putting the finishing touches (a few more accessories) on it tomorrow because Andrew hung my shelves up today. So that was unsuccessful. I went to the doctor on Wednesday and she "did her thing" to try to help things along...lots of discomfort and hours of cramping...4 days later - nothing. Unsuccessful. Taking the advice from some new mommy friends, I've been doing squats everyday. Maybe successful in toning up this rear, but as far as baby time goes...unsuccessful.

Most recently, my friend Heather came over this morning and we went on a nice brisk walk. Even met another pregnant lady on our trip - she's due in  5 weeks and I swear, if she has her baby before me, I will lose my mind. The walk did nothing but give me a cramp in my calf because I'm incredibly out of shape. When I got home, my husband proceeded to make fun of me about only being gone 20 minutes and it being the most exercise I've had in quite a while. Jerk. :) Another "trick" I decided to try was eating a whole pineapple...

It's been about 2 hours since I completed this feat and nada. Next up on the list (and one that I'm actually kind of looking forward to) is coming at the request of my dad. According to his favorite radio station, this is a sure-fire way to induce labor.

Kraft macaroni and cheese (must be the blue box!) and A1 Steak Sauce. The instructions are quite specific. The mac-and-cheese must be picked up and bought by my baby daddy. He also must make it and serve it to me...I'm liking this already. I can put as much or as little A1 on it as I want to, but the more the better! This will be happening Tuesday because it also "won't work" until after your due date passes. We shall see.

Also, in the past week, I've had hot wings, fajitas, and Chinese food - all of which are supposed to help....good thing eating is one of my favorite hobbies! On the schedule for tomorrow...D-Day...pedicures with my MIL. Let's all cross our fingers and hope for the best!

DIY: Scrapbook Paper Mobile

I am so happy to announce that the nursery is almost complete! With the delivery (from my brother, SIL, and niece) of the reupholstered glider cushions last weekend, that leaves only some artwork to hang and it will be done and ready for Davis! (Maybe that's what he's waiting for...me to finish the nursery before he decides to come out...??) My oh-so-fabulous (and extremely talented) sister-in-law used some seersucker fabric I bought to reupholster the cushions on a pretty dingy glider. (Special thanks to my mom for repainting it for me - man, I seem really helpless!) I absolutely love the new glider and think it fits perfectly with the nursery decor!

It's hard to take a great picture of seersucker fabric (especially on my phone) but it's navy & white.

Originally, my only plan for the wall that the crib is on is the missing artwork. I have a friend who is a great artist and is painting a 3-canvas picture of a whale. *Think cute Vineyard Vines whale, not anatomically correct whale* Now that I think about it, I'm surrounded by some pretty artsy & crafty people and it's really working out to my advantage! Anyway...he is putting the finishing touches on that and I can't wait to get it up and see the whole room come together!

So, the other day I was perusing Pinterest (as I spend most of my days doing) and I came across this adorable DIY Paint Swatch Chandelier from Hey Gorgeous - The Blog. Immediately I fell in love and had the sudden urge to try to make it! The only problem, I couldn't think of anywhere to put it...what does one do with a paper chandelier?? I decided, instead, to make a mobile to hang over Davis' crib! I hadn't originally planned on getting a mobile (mostly because I didn't see one that I loved), so when I saw this I thought "why not?!" 

Now, I am way too much of a chicken to "borrow" that many paint swatches from Lowe's or Home Depot. I thought I could use scrapbook cardstock instead. Also, I didn't have a circle-shaped large punch and didn't feel like cutting out hundreds of them by hand. I did, however, have a tag-shaped punch from our wedding, so I decided to give that a whirl.

Here's how I did it:

1) I chose a bunch of cardstock (that I already had) and punched out a whole bunch of tags. Keeping them separated into piles was a huge help when trying to choose which pattern/color would come next in line.

2) Then I took this lamp shade (given to me by my mom) and cut the fabric away from the metal. Now, a little recommendation if anyone gets the urge to try this: make sure your lamp shade has vertical metal "sticks" to connect the top and bottom rings. Mine did not and I had to tie mine together...getting them the same length so it would hang evenly proved quite difficult - in fact, it's still not perfectly even. Oh well.

3) The smaller ring will hang on the bottom, so I decided how long I wanted those strands to be. (I chose 4 tags long - really scientific units of measurement here!) Then I used thread and tape to attach them - leaving a little space in between so they could rotate. I made enough to go around and tied them on to the small ring.

4) This is where I had to attach the small ring to the large ring using string - making sure the smaller ring hung the lowest. I repeated step 3 using 6 tags per strand - these I attached to the large ring using tape because I didn't want there to be a space between the ring and the tag. 

5) Once I had gone all the way around the large ring, I tied 3 pieces of string to each "side" and brought them together to join as one in the center. (Again, I had to do this step because my small and large rings weren't originally attached with metal. Otherwise, you could just tie string to where the light bulb would be held in place.)

6) My helpful and super tall husband used a step stool to hang it up over the crib! 

There she is!! By no means is it perfect, but I made it! That's not something everyone can say about their mobile. :) The best part? It cost me exactly $0...4 hours, yes, but not a single dollar. Gotta love that!

*Be sure to check out the Hey Gorgeous tutorial - her ombre chandelier is wonderful and she has a lot of other super cute DIY projects!