Wee Rose's First Home Photo Shoot

I'm no professional and all I have is a decent Cannon Point and Shoot camera, but I think I sometimes can get pretty decent shots. She's not even a week old in these pictures and I'm happy she co-operated so well with all the outfit changes.

This last one is the picture we used in her birth announcements we sent to all our family and friends. I just love that she's sticking her tongue out.

It's amazing what just a basket, some pieces of fleece and a few desk lamps can do to improve a picture. I also used Picnik for all my post processing. It was crucial to get the proper white balance.

Wee Rose is Here!

So finally I'll show off pictures of Wee Rose's arrival and her birth story.

On July 13th at 6am we arrived at the hospital to be induced. Things took awhile to get rolling and we were both anxious along with fairly bored.  We spent much of the morning watching the news about George Steinbrenner (Owners of the NY Yankees) passing away at the main part of the hospital across the street. The women's hospital wing is separate from the general hospital.

At a bit past 11am my Dr. came in and broke my water. He warned that he had surgeries scheduled all morning but worst case he'd call the office for another Dr. to come by. At this point I was still 2-3cm dilated. Right before 1pm he came to check again because he was about to go into another surgery and I was 5cm. The reason for the induction is how fast my first labor was so he called the office and put them on notice. About 15 minutes later I started having a lot of pressure and let the nurses know. Go figure I was 10 cm at that point. They call the other Dr. to hurry in, he arrives in a rush, we say quick hellos and with only 2 and a half pushes Wee Rose arrived at 1:28pm.  She weighed 8lb 5oz and was 20.5 inches in length. It seems I have a tendency to make Drs have to run. I did it with Lil' R and now again.

We were at the hospital for the 2 days and boy was I bored. I had my laptop so I spent a lot of time surfing the web and watching day time tv. 

Once we were home it's been a mix of loads of things to do and little sleep. I knocked a lot off my to do lists which I'm very proud of. I got almost all the things I wanted done during my maternity leave finished and a few more. I also got to spend some great time with the family. Now I'm back at work though and Hubby is fully on duty at home. He's doing great though, just as I knew he would. 

My plan next is to update on some of the specific things I've accomplished since Wee Rose was born and some of my up coming plans.

Completed Nursery

For eons there I was seeming to be making a hundred things for the nursery. Well I completed it before Wee Rose (we've upgraded from Baby Bean #2) arrived.

Items made in picture: crib bumper, crib skirt, items on mobile, plushie name on wall, stuffed animal hammock, light switch cover.

You can see the curtains to the far right that I made, they are lined with black out material. The glider I recovered is now in this corner. By far one of the best investments we made for her room. I am loving having that in there.

The custom light switch cover from fabric and some liberal use of ModPodge.

I love how Wee Rose's room came out. I wish we'd been able to do as much for Lil' R when he came home but I think we're making up for it in his big boy room. I did a light switch cover in Spiderman for him also but I don't have a picture of it yet.

Overall I'm very proud of what I did. In some things I feel the quality of what I sewed could have been better. In many ways that is because my sewing machine needs to be serviced and is causing me problems right now. I did learn a lot of new things along the way though.

Oh boy how much has happened!

I think for everyone's sanity including mine I'll be making multiple posts in very short succession to encompass all that has occurred since my last update. A quick synopsis is:

• The baby is here
• I already took my maternity leave and am back at work
• Lil' R seems to be adjusting pretty well
• I've knocked a load of things off my to do lists
• I still have a bunch on them though! (but what else is new)
• I've started planning a side business

And I have plenty of pictures of the new little one. So stay tuned in for more detailed posts on what I've been up to. This has reminded me I need to add to my to do list to take some pictures of projects I've recently finished.

Weekend Update

First the surprise shower was great and there were a few true surprises about it. There were a few people there that I had no idea would come and a few I was surprised to not see. The girls even did a small raffle and a few other prizes. We now have some cash for pizza to cover the first night home with Baby Bean #2. We also got to spend some time with a few friends that we don't see nearly enough, the wife being one of the organizers of the shower. I was so happy to have something done.

Other than that the 2 last major things are done for the babies room. I finished the curtains and we finished painting the closet doors. They should be good to be reinstalled today by Hubby. Maybe he'll surprise me and get her room vacuumed too. Now that'd be nice. Then just a few last little details and voila! Yeah, I finally feel ready for her to arrive. Late last evening the nesting bug hit me full force too. I've heard that can come on right before labor happens. I really hope so. I'll be full term tomorrow so we're all ready. :)

Ruining Surprises

Oh my am I a flood of emotions right now. I'm exhausted from the OT I'm putting in at work that is causing me to be up at 6:30 every morning and on top of that I can't seem to get a decent night of quality sleep. I've so been hoping for 1 last good night before Baby Bean #2 arrives, just 1 more please? Is that so much to ask? But that combined with general life stress and the hormones is making my head a mess right now. I feel like I'm on a freakin' roller coaster.

Example is tomorrow is the day of my "surprise" shower. The surprise is now cause only Hubby knows that I figured it out. I think Hubby was a bit too excited over it and that's why he let comments regarding this weekend drop a bit too often. Add on top of that a few odd questions from a friend, along with some overheard comments and I had it figured out (including the day) 3 weeks ago. Though for confirmation it took my hormones taking over. When I asked Hubby the first thing he did was deny anything of course, trying to keep the surprise, and then I started crying cause I thought I'd gotten my hopes up over nothing. He cracked at that point, understandably.

Fast forward to today and I'm a mix of excited & anxious while part of me still thinks it's all a hoax and nothing will happen. I mean if it's a surprise they could just cancel it last minute and I'd never know right? I'm expecting the worst I swear and because that's how I'm thinking I may honestly be surprised tomorrow when whatever they're exactly planning gets pulled off.

Yeah I'm definitely sick of being Pregnant

First off, general update. 36 weeks along now and as of yesterday 2 cm dialated so we're in the home stretch now!

In other news I've officially just become pissed at the world and really have no patience for anything. This is probably the result of lack of sleep coupled with being extremely uncomfortable. My Dr. says my ankles still exist so the swelling isn't That bad, but I beg to differ.

So the morning rant is on "friends" who regularly say sh*t to facebook status updates along the line of "if you need any help just ask" but yet can't respond back to e-mails to have a normal conversation. Yeah, this goes back to that friend I was trying to reconnect with months back. The person who I considered my closest friend for awhile and I was very hurt by the dwindling of that relationship. Months of utter BS have occurred. Early on I made multiple direct offers to invite her to come over, be it with the kids to hang out, for dinner etc. I even said specific days and/or weekends. She lives 5 minutes away too so the drive isn't an issue.

Now we're at a point where I've given up on e-mail conversations because I send one and they go back and forth 2 times or so but always leave off on mine having been the last. 2 weeks ago I recieve one from her! Oh wow! and Irespond right away (which happened to be early in the morning after she sent it) but I've never heard back. The only communication are some quick comments on status updates.

Honestly I thought I was over this but it seems that I'm not. Part of me wants to just blow up in an e-mail going WTF! and lay down exactly how I feel. Another part of me wants to delete her from everything and just move on. I don't know. I've never gone through these emotions really regarding a friendship. It's just driving me batty and I know the damn hormones aren't helping.