Family Pictures

We took a little tript o JC Penneys when Vivienne was just over a week old to have some family pictures taken. One of Kyle's aunts signed us up for the portrait club and gave us a gift card at my baby shower, so we figured we'd make use of it. I'm probably spoiled because I'm used to working with a photographer over going to a studio, but honestly, they're just eh. V is gorgeous, so any monkey could take good pictures of her, but these really aren't very impressive. Oh well. I'm really just grateful to have pictures taken of her now while she's so tiny, because before we know it she'll be all grown up.  *tear*

We hate all the pictures that we're in, but we ordered this one for our parents.

His pictures turned out way better than mine.

She was "kissing" me back. This is one of our favorite games to play with her, but she gets mad pretty quick when she realizes it's not booby rubbing up against her mouth.

Kisses for his sister!

This is my favorite picture of the day. I'm so blessed to have such beautiful babies!

2 weeks....already?

We've had another busy week! Lots of visitors, a few doctor's appointments, and more naps than I can count. Vivienne is still an angel....but an angel who now has her days and nights confused. Honestly, it would be fine with me except that Kyle is back to work now and I can't exactly sleep all day and leave my 3 yr old unattended. So far he's been good about entertaining himself for an hour or two so I can sleep in a little. He gets into the pantry and finds himself some "breakfast" - usually pretzels or peanuts - then turns on his cartoons and plays quietly until I get up. I always feel awful when I roll out of bed around 9 and wonder how long he's been up, but I know if he needed something, he'd come get me. He's not one to suffer in silence.

Vivienne still hasn't grown into most of her newborn clothing and I have to tie a little knot in her headbands to make them small enough for her. She's a tiny little thing. Speaking of headbands, I ordered her a set of 41 - every different color you can imagine - so she'll have a headband to match any outfit! I can't wait for them to come in!!!

I don't really have much else to report. Things are going pretty well. My brain just isn't totally with it. Probably due to lack of sleep the last few days. So here are some new pictures from her 2nd week of life...

This is what we do most of the day.

Please pardon my husband's nudity in every picture - he's against shirt-wearing at home.

I play dress up and stage photo shoots while she takes her afternoon naps.

skinny little arms and legs

This is me 2 weeks after delivery. Definitely not back to my pre-baby self yet, but I wanted to share this so the 1st time mothers-to-be can see that normal people don't walk out of the hospital in their pre-baby size nothing jeans like Heidi Klum. I bought a pair of regular jeans this weekend and had to go up a size bigger than before, but that's still not too bad for only 2 weeks post-partum. I refuse to let myself feel bad about it. My body just grew an entire little person and now it's working hard to feed that person, so I'm focusing on being grateful for that instead of worrying about how jiggly my tummy is right now.

As a side note, look how TINY Vivienne is compared to my boobs! When you see pictures of her by herself, it's hard to tell just how small she is, but wow. I always laugh when I nurse her because my boob is at least 3 times bigger than her little head! She's not intimidated though, she's tears into those things like a vicious little shark!

Vivienne's 1st Week

I can't believe it's already been a week! It's been a whirlwind of a week too, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised by how quickly it's flown by. V had her 1st doctor's appointment (where they pronounced her "perfect"), saw her 1st movie (she joined Team Jasper with Mommy - we could do without Edward and Jacob), and we've had a TON of visitors! I hope time slows down a little over the next 11 weeks, because I am in no hurry to get back to work and be away from my babies!

Last night my angel darling princess girl only woke up ONCE! She went down for the night at 10 after her bath, was up from 3-4am for some boobies and snuggle time with mommy, was back out until around 7, had another booby, then out again until 10:30. Our girl is a sleeper! Let's hope this keeps up!

The only problem we've had - if you can even call it a problem - is that she's so tiny even her newborn clothing is too big! She has probably 6 outfits that actually fit and don't fall off her shoulders or down below her butt. I had the opposite problem with Logan so I definitely wasn't prepared for this. If anything, I thought she'd outgrow the newborn clothing before she even had a chance to wear all of it, now I'm afraid that it will be cold out before she even grows into all the cute summery 0-3 mos stuff we bought her. We're taking her out for her newborn pictures on Tuesday and I think we'll stop by my favorite kids' consignment shop to try to find her some more tiny stuff to hold us over until she puts on a little more weight. I'm so grateful that this is the biggest problem we have. We're so blessed!

Logan is a very affectionate big brother. I think he kisses her more than we do, which is really hard to top. Sometimes when he gets really excited, he gets a little rough, so we do have to keep a close eye on him. But he's calmed down a lot over the last few days so we don't have to tell him to back off quite so much.

All in all, things are going really well. We're starting to settle into a little routine now and everyone is getting adjusted to our new addition.

She's here!!!!

I'll post the whole story later, but the short version is, SHE'S HERE! Everything went perfectly. She was born 8/6/10 @ 2:05pm - 6lbs 14oz and 20" long. Vivienne is an angel....a very impatient little angel. Daddy is completely obsessed with her and it's going to be tough to talk him into going back to work this week...or ever. She's spoiled rotten already!

Going home - 8/8/10!

August 6, 2010

Tomorrow. She's finally coming tomorrow! It's so hard to believe. In retrospect, I can say that the last 9 months have flown by but I know that in the moment, each and every day felt painfully long. Today is the very last of those 9 months of long days. For some reason, I decided to work right on up to the very end, so I'm sitting at my desk typing this after having made it clear to everyone in my office that though I may be here physically, mentally she's already in my arms. I spent the last 2 weeks busting my ass and tying up all my loose ends, so I've sat here with nothing to do for the last few days. It's definitely not helping the days pass any faster. At this very moment, it's 10:44am. That means I have exactly 5 hours and 46 minutes left until my maternity leave begins - assuming my brain is functioning well enough to do that calculation correctly. I had to re-do my leave slips 5 or 6 times before I finally got them right, so I'm not putting much faith in my brain right now.

Tonight Logan will be staying with my parents and Kyle is taking me out for our "last meal". I'm not allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight so we're planning on a big dinner at one of our very favorite restaurants. I then intend to eat my leftovers - because I always have leftovers when we eat there- at about 11:30 before I go to bed. I MIGHT decide to bring home a piece of tiramisu to have with my late night meal as well. I've become pretty accustomed to eating 2 breakfasts every day, so not being allowed to eat anything before my 1:30pm c-section is really going to make me grouchy. Super grouchy. That's 2 whole meals that I'll have to skip! It would not be an exaggeration to say that I might actually be dreading that more than the spinal.

Aside from my fear of startving to death before my child is born, we're so ready for this! Vivienne's room is perfect, her laundry has been washed and put away, her carseat is installed, and our bag is packed. The last few days I've tried to write a letter for her to read when she's older, but I just can't find the words. I don't want it to be generic or cliche and that's all I seem to come up with. Hopefully I'll feel more inspired tomorrow night after all our hospital visitors have gone home and it's just the 3 of us enjoying a quiet moment together. I think that's when it will all finally hit us...she's here and our family is truly complete. I can't wait to see her in my husband's arms. That's the moment that he'll find out what it feels like to love someone unconditionally. It's a life changing moment and I'm so grateful to be the one to give him that gift.

So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow - especially around lunch time. As common as c-sections have become, they are still major surgery and I'm a little nervous about it all, even though I made it through the first one perfectly fine. I'll post pictures as soon as I'm able, but it may take me about a week. Climbing up and down stairs is apparently a no-no which means I'll be confined to our 2nd floor while I recover because that's where our only bathroom is. Unfortunately, our computer resides on the 1st floor, so I won't have access until I can manage the stairs, but maybe I can talk my sister into logging in here for me to post some pics. We'll see.

Enjoy your weekend ladies! The next time you see me, I'll be skinnier!  :)

PS. I now have 5 hours and 10 minutes left until maternity leave!

Zulily

I've been on a teensy bit of a spending spree lately and Miss Vivienne's wardrobe is getting so huge that she may only get to wear each outfit once before she moves on to the next size. I really need to ease off, but sitting at my computer all day with little to do and a million great online stores makes it really hard.

Speaking of which, I'm sure most of you have heard of Gilt Group and other similar sites, but you may not be familiar with Zulily yet. It's just like the other members only sites with new sales daily, except with a focus on children's items and maternity. They get some really great brands at super low prices, so if you have a child or need to buy for friends, this is totally the way to go.

I've been drooling over this site for weeks, but have been holding out...until this week. I got V two cardigans and a tee by Baby Creationz which is an infant line that features cute tattoo designs.

Adorable, right? It kind of reminds me of early Ed Hardy stuff before it got really tacky and douchebag-y. I can't wait to see it on her!

Zulily has 5 or so new sales every day, so definitely check them out!

Shop! Shop! Shop!

Baby Bump @ 38 Weeks

My very LAST bump picture!!!

How your baby's growing:

Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs about 6.8 pounds and she's over 19 1/2 inches long. The last bits of vernix caseosa (the white goo keeping baby's skin moist) and lanugo (downy hair) are slowly shedding into your amniotic fluid. Baby's head is about the same circumference as her abdomen, and her head could be covered in an inch or so of hair. She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.

Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)

How far along?  38 Weeks - only 3 more days until she's in my arms!

Weight gain?  I only gained one lb last week. That was really good news.

Maternity clothes?  I have a growing collection of super comfy (non-maternity) jammies to wear during our first few weeks home while I'm still recovering. It will be a nice little break from maternity clothes, though I know I'll have to keep them around for probably a few more months.

Sleep?  Hardly! I'm way too excited. And nervous. And excited. I feel like we're going to Disney World on Friday or something. This is way better....and scarier....than Christmas!

Best moment this week? It was actually kind of a rough week. I'd say the highlight was probably buying a functioning vacuum Sunday so I can get rid of the TWO we have at home that don't work. Pretty sad highlight, right? Hopefully these last few days of pregnancy will go better.

Movement? Feeling movement a lot lower these days. My cervix is getting a lot of action which is pretty unpleasant. Hopefully this means we'll be getting this show on the road sometime soon!

Food cravings?  Gatorade. I currently have over a dozen 32oz jugs in my fridge because every time I go to the grocery store I give into the 10/$10 deal and buy more.

Labor signs?  I'd like to say yes, but it could just be wishful thinking. I had a contraction around 4am that was enough to wake me up, but they aren't all like that. Sometimes it feels like she's flipped head down now, but I can't be sure anymore. All her parts are starting to feel the same to me. There is definitely a lot more action in my lower region now, so that seems promising. I wake up every morning and tell Kyle "Maybe today!"

Belly button in or out?  This turkey is DONE!

What I miss?  Bras with underwire. I don't actually miss wearing them, I just miss how much better my boobs looked in them.

What I am looking forward to?  I can't wait to see the look on my husband's face when he lays eyes on his daughter for the 1st time. I'm hoping I have a camera handy to catch all the emotion. And, of course, touching her, staring at her for hours on end, kissing her....just finally having an outside baby!

Emotions?  Excited, nervous, generally freaking out in every possible way.

Milestones:  She's coming for sure this week! I think that definitely counts as a milestone! This weekend I cleaned out my car, installed her carseat, and washed, folded, and put away all her laundry. Our hospital bag is packed and we are basically ready whenever she is!

This weekend we attended the wedding of the 3rd couple in our happy little triad. Kyle has been friends with Tony and Dave since elementary school. Dave met his wife, Karen, on Match.com and they are the ones who signed Kyle up. We actually got married just 3 months after they did. Then Karen signed Tony up for Match too and he eventually met Diana. Now all the boys are becoming daddies at the same time. For a few weeks, we were even all pregnant together. Karen was 10 weeks ahead of me (you've all met Baby Jackson) and Diana is about 13 weeks behind me. It's pretty crazy how it has all worked out. Anyway, here are a few more pictures from the wedding:

I absolutely LOVE that the bride's daughter is covering her eyes. She also yelled "Ewwww!"

The happy family!

Dave, Karen, and Jackson