Monday, March 22, 2010

Jack: 2 Months


Dear Jack,
I can hardly believe you have been in our world for 2 months. The truth is, you are our world now, and it couldn’t be any better. We just saw the pediatrician and you have literally doubled in size since December 28th. You weighed in at a whopping 12 pounds 2 ounces which is a lovely jump from your birthweight - makes me kind of proud that you are able to pack on the pounds. When it is time for you to eat and we are getting ready in our chair, you make the cutest “huh huh huh” noise – your Daddy thinks it is hilarious – you have done this from day one and I love it. I love that special time we spend together, just you and me. Feeling your sweet little pudgy fingers tickling my side, or death-gripping whatever you can get your hands on. Sometimes when you are mid-gulp you will look up at me, lock eyes (love) and you get this big goofy smile on your face, kind like saying “hey thanks, Mom” and then you proceed to dribble all over the place. I will gladly take that smile and being covered in breast milk any day.

Speaking of smiles, yours are ridiculous! The mornings are your most smiley time and I wish Daddy could be there to see it more often. You have been smiling with a purpose for a few weeks now and it makes us fall deeper and deeper in love each time, if that is even possible. Hearing you coo, shout & psudo-giggle is the highlight of my day. I would like to think we have little conversations but just having you acknowledge me is a dream. You used to hate having your diaper changed, but the changing table has now turned into your podium, the place where you tell the world hello with “ah-gooo-s” and coos.


We successfully had our first overnight trip to Nashville (where you were a total angel-child and spent the day shopping with us.) You went to your first restaurant, did a great job eating in the dressing room at Baby Gap (slightly awkward, I’ve heard this gets easier) and everyone thought you were the most handsome baby. I totally agree. This is also where you started sleeping for much, much longer than usual (I’m not complaining). You slept for 6 hours in our hotel. SIX HOURS. I couldn’t believe it, and yes I did check several times to make sure you were still breathing. I’m pretty sure it has everything to do with you, and not my obsessing over Babywise, 12 Hours by 12 Weeks, or the Baby Whisperer. Although those books were helpful (stressful?) you just slept longer simply because you were ready to. I don’t know how long this trend will last but we are savoring it for now. As you change and grow I promise not to hold it against you if you need me again before 3 a.m.

We also went on our first epic road trip, which will be the LAST epic road trip for a very long time. Possibly until you are 3 and totally potty trained. I call this trip “epic” because although we were only driving 338 miles, it took us nearly 12 hours. Twelve hours of “this can’t be right…” as we drove in the pitch black through southern Alabama, a.k.a. Themiddleofnowhere. Stopping to feed you was a challenge because, well… there wasn’t anywhere to stop. You were a total trooper and even though you were breastfed in some seriously questionable gas station parking lots, we had a great weekend seeing your Aunt Mindy marry her sweet Ben. Actually I had a great weekend showing you off, but your Dad was bored out of his mind. Sorry Daddy.

In only 8 very short weeks you have brought so much joy to our lives. I never knew my heart could love this much. When you nuzzle my neck and I feel your drooly, steamy breath, my heart melts away. You are our little prince and we couldn’t be more blessed.

We love love love you Jack, Monster, Booger, Buddy, Peanut, Bean.


p.s. Please forgive your Mommy for not writing a 1 month letter - I will fully admit that I did not have the mental stability or capacity.

Friday, March 19, 2010

MIA Mommy

I know there are only about 5 people actually reading my little blog... but maybe, just maybe, you are wondering where I have been for the last 10 months. Let's have a quick recap:

We found out we were expecting! Pregnancy was a total cakewalk until 27 weeks. I will spare you the boring details, but baby & I were in the hospital for a few days and then put on bed rest. Oh and did I mention I got gestational diabetes? I'm super active & (almost) a health nut, and somehow got "the diabetes" as they say here in the South. Major bummer, but totally managable - I'm now a pro at giving insulin shots. However, I did almost pass out in Baby Gap from low blood sugar, which was totally embarassing. (Did you know that when your sugar is crazy low you start sweating like a dirty frat boy? I speak the truth and it ain't pretty.)

Bed rest was uber boring, but I was able to catch up on the best of daytime television and do some serious online shopping for the Bean. If anyone reading this is ever put on bed rest, I highly recommend you hand over the credit cards to your husband. Trust me on this one. Somehow I also managed to translate "bed rest" into "craft time" in which I started (and actually completed) about 100 projects for the nursery. (Posts coming soon.)

And then around at 30 weeks I started blowing up into a giant marshmallow with curly hair. Like so grossly swollen that my fat fingers couldn't even hold a pencil... So swollen that my knees would barely bend. My lower limbs were unrecognizable. I grew an extra chin. All photographic evidence of my pregnancy from that point on has been destroyed. This is one of the last bump photos I have before I inflated (sorry for the bad iPhone quality):


And then at 36 weeks I hosted Christmas at our home. Stupid. So stupid. If you are preggers during the holidays (or, your know, on bed rest...) DO NOT offer or be talked into hosting anything. Take my word for it.

On December 21, just as our families were arriving in town, I ended up back in the hospital for baby to be monitored. Enter skyrocketing blood pressure, and say hello to pre-eclampsia!

December 24th they sent me home with strict instructions to sit on my butt, do absolutely nothing and check my BP throughout the day.

December 26th my doctor called and wanted me to come back to the hospital after she reviewed my case with the perinatologist. She didn't say the word "induction" over the phonek, but you better believe I took time to shave my legs before we left, just in case. If I would have been smarter, I would have eaten everything in our fridge. I had no idea that I would not eat anything for 48 very long hours.

And then on December 28th at 1:48 a.m. our lives were changed forever, made better, and we met our little bundle of love. Meet Jack:


We are probably a little biased, but he really is the sweetest, sleepiest, most handsome little man.


I never knew that my heart could swell with so so so much love. Hopefully the Internet will forgive me for being gone for so long - I think Jack is a pretty good excuse. And yes, you can expect to see a lot more of him around here.

Baby Jack photos by the very talented Carrie Prewitt.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Makes my heart go pitter-patter...

If you know me, you know about my (somewhat sick) obsession with all things letterpress. Imagine my delight when I saw this little gem on Paper Source's website today... and then imagine my DOUBLE delight when I read about the giveaway at one of my favorite blogs, iDiY! I would tell you to enter the giveaway also, but then that would decrease my chances of being the big winner...

So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Winning this beauty would make being on bed rest so much more enjoyable...!!!


And husband, if you are reading this and I happen not to win, you can add it to the Christmas list. Pretty please?

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Le Bean

Ok, ok I know I've been a bad blogger lately. I haven't even been keeping up with my Google Reader and now I have approximately 1900-ish unread posts - Yikes! But I assure you I have a good excuse. I really really goooood excuse...

I have spent most of my time staring into the toilet bowl (or running towards it), because Husband and I are expecting!!! Words cannot even describe how we are feeling! Excitement is a total understatement! I am 14 weeks along making our due date January 14th. The nausea and vomiting were pretty ferocious for a few weeks but it really does seem to be getting astronomically better each day - praise my sweet Lord! And why they call it "morning sickness" I'm not sure because letmetellyou I was sick all day. All day, and without warning. We snuck into Husband's clinic last night to see if we could peek at "the Bean" via ultrasound and see any boy or girl parts... We did see our little ninja moving around and rubbing it's eyes - but that was about it. Below is a photo of how I told Husband our big news...


Anyway - I have a few exciting projects to post about so stay tuned! If you have any baby resources, please start sharing! Meanwhile I will try to stop barfing unexpectedly.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Mini-update...

Hello lovelies! Life has been moving a million miles per minute lately (which is a good thing) and soon I will have a few moments to breathe... and finally blog about all of the exciting things happening in my world. In the meantime, I'll hold you over with the latest goodies from my geeky brain. Here is a baby shower invitation I created for one of my most favorite ladies. My friend Heather and I will be hosting her shower in a couple of weeks and it's going to be filled with some super adorable details - so stay tuned! Oh, and while the ladies are ogle-ing over all things baby, the boys will get to have party of their own - and their own invite.




Thursday, April 30, 2009

teeny tiny ziplocs

I just got off the phone with my bestie and she shared a wonderful little gem with me: Postcards from Yo Mama. If you have yet to discover this blog, go read it. Now. Hilarity will follow. This one is probably my favorite so far - an email sent by someone's loving mother:

"Backstory: I got a prescription for the same anxiety meds my mom is on but I can’t afford to buy them right now. She sent some with my dad when he vi
sited… without him knowing.

There is a big green tub full of your stuff that dad is bringing. When you open it there will be the fox fur coat on top. Inside the pocket is that medication. I put it into one of those teeny tiny ziplocs that extra bottons come in on new clothes. I taped it inside that pocket so it wouldn’t fly out. Please put somewhere safe so kitties don’t get it, since it’s not in a bottle, and dad doesn’t see it. i don’t need a lecture.Maybe you can take that coat out to hang in your room and remove it there. Anway, use sparingly as I don’t know when i can get a new prescription. (Hopefully soon with dad home from work!) I think i put 10 there . Remember, they are 1 mg so you only need 1/2. You shouldn’t take it unless you can get at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep because they are in your system for a while and you will feel groggy next day. You really should try benadryl first.Love, mommy"

And just because I don't believe in posting without a photo of some kind (minus the self-loathing one from Monday) I am currently crushing on these badboys by Gerard Yosca, found via Charm & Chain. Oh how I drool...

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Moooore babies...

I've been geeking over some baby announcements for a few days and I wanted to post the first round. Because I have no life and all of my pilates clients have canceled or disappeared this week, I have had plenty of free time to become an offical master of Illustrator's beloved Pen too. And have also been gifted a mean case of carpal tunnel. Dawn's family chooses an animal to represent all of kiddos, so if you were wondering about the cute little lion, our Davis is going to be king of the jungle. (And no, the babies in the photos are not little Davis - he hasn't arrived yet and he's going to be way cuter than these little fellas anyway.) Dawn & Randall, enjoy!

Davis 1:

Davis 2:
Davis 3:

Davis 4:

Davis 5: