Will Before and After

I haven't really decided how much I'll be sharing on the blog as far as pictures of Will go. I know there are people reading or at least viewing the blog that I don't know, and minimizing his exposure on the internet is how I'm currently leaning.

That being said, I do have to share the finished products of the Before and After photos I was telling you about. The after shots were taken last week when he was a couple days shy of two weeks old. It was difficult to keep his head up but I figured at the rate he's growing I had to take the pictures ASAP. My favorite is the first one, but I really like the "after" picture in the second collage. Also, those booties were snug when I put them on when he was a week old.

There's Someone We'd Like You to Meet

Two Monday's ago we went to the doctor. I was still making progress, but we scheduled an appointment for the following week (the week after my due date) just in case baby decided not to arrive on time. This made me grumpy. Michael was on vacation, and we spent Tuesday hanging around at home then we caught a matinee of Dark Shadows and went to Izzo's for dinner. I had been having contractions all day, but they weren't anything to get excited about. Still kind of grumpy and a lot uncomfortable. I made a mental note that I needed to take a 39 weeks belly photo.

Around 3 in the morning the contractions got stronger and I couldn't sleep through them. I wasn't entirely convinced that this was it. I had had some intense contractions for a few hours the week before and I had gone as far as baking the cookies for the Labor & Delivery nurses. This time I only had enough dough in the freezer for the real deal. I also was determined not to go to the hospital too soon. My body was giving me signs that told me baby boy was intending to meet us so I preheated the oven like any normal woman in labor and got to baking.

Michael got up around 5 and showered and shaved so he could look good for photos, and around six I got up the nerve to call Labor & Delivery to tell them I was pretty sure I was in labor. We got to the hospital around 6:30 and I was very happy to learn that I was past the halfway mark. I did not want to show up and only be like 4 cm. Needless to say I forgot about the belly photo. Luckily my mom wanted to take pictures of me in labor.

We got a room with a super sweet view of the Mississippi River. The ships were a nice distraction for a while, but I was already using my Lamaze breathing pattern for the more intense contractions and a few hours after arriving at the hospital the scene started playing out more like this:

You know, when Dumbledore was begging Harry for water in the sixth movie. Yeah, that was me. Begging my husband to make it stop. It also made me feel better to beg for some kind of medicine to help with the pain even though I knew I didn't want it, but my coach stayed strong and convinced me I could do it. I didn't get angry like you see people do in movies. I might have said the "f" word once or twice, and I did shed a tear of frustration.

They decided to break my water around 11:45. At 12:20 I was telling Michael to get the doctor. It's really incredible the feeling that you have when your body is ready to push. Everything was set up and ready to go at 12:30 and at 12:45 I was holding our baby boy.

We named him William Lafitte. Both are family names. He weighed 7 lbs 13 oz, and he has strawberry blond hair. We'll see if that lasts. I hope it does.

I am in complete awe of what my body accomplished. I am also struggling to put into words how incredible my husband was at getting me through it. His confidence in me and his encouragement were more powerful than any pain medication they could have given me.

We are head over heels for Will. He is the sweetest, snuggliest baby, and I can't get enough of him.

Big brother also approves.

Booties

I made Ysolda's Tiny Shoes for a friend who is having a girl. It was a bit of a complicated pattern, but then again I haven't knitted anything challenging in a while. I think they turned out pretty cute. I hope they stay on baby girl's feet.

Then I had to make my own little bundle of joy some booties. I have always loved this pattern on Ravelry. It probably took me around 6 hours to make these. Super easy pattern. I know the buttons are just plain buttons, but they are old buttons from my grandmother's house. So I think that makes them extra special. Also, I love this yarn. It is super squishy and soft. Even if these turn out just to be good for a couple photos, it'll be worth it. 

38 Weeks

NOTE: I did not have the baby yet. This week we had a couple DIY photo shoots so I can recreate this super cute idea. Again, don't get excited. This is not me.

{via}

At first we did a couple shots with my head chopped off, but then I went inside and straightened my hair and decided to include my face. It can always be cropped out, right? Here is one of the before shots. I'm feeling less nervous and more excited to hold our baby boy. 

I think I've decided to make my own baby book. I bought one from Target but I know there will be blanks that won't apply and it will drive me crazy to have unfilled blanks or not enough room. I found a template online and some fun fonts. I also checked out a New Orleans specific baby book (for $76- ouch) that had some cute ideas like First Trip to the Audubon Zoo and First Snowball. This way I can make the book exactly what I want.

37 Weeks

The doctor says things are moving along just fine.

Here's the belly photo in an all new location - the backyard! Michael put this cute glider together last week.

36 Weeks

Here I am in the nursery. The walls look a little gray at night. Also the globe on the fan makes the light really weird. I need to look into whether or not we can get a globe that fits that is just frosted and not yellow/brown/iridescent. I have time, right? Only four weeks to go.

Yes, I know nothing goes in the crib but the baby. 

Here's the changing table and the most comfortable glider/ recliner in the world. We're probably going to put some fun cube shelves above the chair for knick knacks. The embroidery hoop on the right of the mirror is something I copied from an Etsy seller so I'm not going to put an up close picture on the blog. I mean I wasn't going to pay $65 for something I can easily make for myself for under $10 and customize it however I wanted. I don't understand why everyone in the DIY community is OK with copying stuff from places like Pottery Barn, but copying another DIY'er seems to be looked down on. I'm not selling it. Anyway, you can zoom in if you want to see it. I'm going to embroider his name and birthdate at the top.

The lamp table is going to be painted white eventually.  I started to make a mobile for the crib. It was going to have the pennants on it that you see on the lamp shade. I ended up finding the same IRMI mobile that my mom had for one of my sisters on Etsy. My mom had turned the mobile into Christmas ornaments and I always thought they were so neat. So I skipped making a mobile and used the pennants to jazz up the lamp.

I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow so we'll see if anything is happening yet. I guess the title of this post is misleading. We took the pictures last week. Now I'm 37 weeks and like 4 days or something.

Dd is for Dog

I like the idea of decorating the nursery with fun fabric framed with embroidery hoops. I used some leftover chevron fabric and a westie luggage tag as a template for this project.

35 Weeks

The strangers who have touched my belly count is up to three now. It could have been four but I totally dodged the cashier's reaching hand at Target.

The nursery is almost finished. Just need to paint a lamp table and hang stuff on the walls. Everything has been washed.

Prenatal yoga is keeping me feeling pretty good. I just left a doctor's appointment and there's no progress yet.

Baby Blanket

Here's the only thing I've knitted for baby. I do have a couple other crafty things in the works for wall decor.

32 Weeks

Oh, hi. Yep I'm still pregnant. I know I missed a couple weeks. I don't know why it's so difficult to remember to take a picture of my growing belly. I even try to remember to look cute and wear different outfits on Wednesdays.

Here I am with my sister, my niece, and my mom after we saw The Lion King last weekend. Yeah, I wore a shirt with safari animals on it. I couldn't help it. In "strangers who think your baby is their business" news, an old lady touched my belly in the line for the restroom during intermission. And I thought I was going to get though this with no strangers touching me.

Here are the happy expectant parents on Easter Sunday.

In better "strangers who think your baby is their business" news, the lady who did my pedicure yesterday (I am giving up on trying to do it myself as it's a bit of a challenge) asked if I was having a boy. I told her yes and she said that the Chinese and Vietnamese believe that it's good luck to have a boy on a leap year. So that was the nicest thing a stranger has said about my baby.

29 Weeks

This past weekend was the baby shower. We got a lot of great gifts and I am completely humbled by the love and support of our family and friends as we prepare to welcome a new life into the world. 

My mom and my sisters along with family and friends put together a fabulous spread of delicious treats and decorated with flowers and baby clothes on clotheslines.

Michael was there for the end of the shower after a round of golf. Can you tell it was sunny?

On Monday I had a monthly checkup and the glucose test. The stuff you have to drink isn't so bad but it did make me feel yucky for the rest of the day. Plus I didn't get a whole lot of sleep the night before. Monday night I helped Michael hang up clothes and we put a sheet on the crib mattress even though it still needs to be washed. He even assembled the swing and started organizing the closet. I'm a lucky lady.

We decided to go with the Charley Harper print for the nursery in case you were wondering.

Two fun things strangers have said this week:

• In the elevator at the hospital this lady comments on how small I am for how far along I am. She says, " I wonder what happened?" Um, nothing. The baby is growing just fine.
• Today Michael and I went to Lowe's. After being asked the usual "When are you due" and "What are you having", we get this one: "Are y'all going to get married?"

I'm starting the 30th week today. We spent the rainy day hanging pictures and fixing stuff around the house. The living room is finally ready for its "after" photo. I'll share that with you soon.

28 Weeks

I had some technical difficulties getting my Blogger App on my phone to upload pictures last week. I did take this photo last Wednesday (so that's two Wednesdays ago). I don't really remember what all went down that week. I was probably mostly hot all week and enjoying clothes like this comfy tank and skirt combo.

27 Weeks

Michael walked in our bedroom one night last week to find Theo snuggled in my pregnancy body pillow. This is by far the cutest and most ridiculous thing he's done to date. 

Today I start 28 weeks but I'm sure my belly is the same size it was yesterday, so here's the 27 weeks belly pic.

With the help of my wonderful husband and mother-in-law we painted the nursery. It feels so good to cross this off the list. How do you like the rug I found at World Market? I love it, and so does Theo. 

I am torn between two posters for baby's room. Michael and I love the movie Fantastic Mr. Fox. So it's one option.

The other option is this Charley Harper poster. I really love his work and I think this poster would be really cool and interesting. Lots going on. Which one do you like?

26 Weeks

During the 26th week I had my 27th birthday. I made myself strawberry cupcakes with whipped strawberry icing from Sweetapolita. The cake was phenomenal and the icing indeed tasted like strawberry ice cream. I think next time I would have to go with a plain buttercream for nostalgia's sake. Maybe even the can of white icing from the grocery store. This reminds me of dunking pretzel sticks in the can of white icing at summer camp in Charlottesville. So delicious. I digress. 

I was so excited to use this fun kit my sister gave me for my last birthday.

One of these sparkler candles kept relighting. Here I am daring it to light up again. Come at me, bro.

Yes, I failed to take a belly pic. But at least you get a pic of my cute face, right? Also I guess this post is completely unrelated to baby.

25 Weeks

I asked Michael to take a belly photo while we were eating dinner, but we both forgot. Since I am not feeling up to setting up the tripod you'll have to settle for this myspace style photo. Doesn't the Instagram iPod app make it so much more exciting?

This past week was really busy and I am still feeling tired. I got some advice from a lady with an 8 week old. She told me to get all the sleep I can now. This would be good advice if the amount you sleep was like having rollover minutes. We went on a whirlwind trip to Kentucky for our newest nephew's baptism this past weekend. We left on Saturday and came back on Monday. 

Just in time for Mardi Gras, which I wasn't planning on attending. However, my mom was going to watch the parade in Houma with my sister and my niece so I went with her. I do like to see the parade, especially the marching bands. People watching at parades is spectacular. When the floats started passing I stepped back away from the road to get away from the brouhaha. This apparently made me a target for the drunk fools on the floats. One idiot threw 4 foam footballs at me. So if you go to a parade and really want to catch something, stand back and don't wave your hands. Seems to work like a charm.

Here's the King of the Krewe of Houmas:

Here's a delorean, naturally:

They flew like frisbees, but turned out to be tortillas:

Next year I can use baby as bait for stuffed animals! Maybe even some beads with underwear attached to them if we're lucky.

Pregnancy Perks

There are some awesome things that you can get away with doing (or not doing) when you're expecting. Take for example my dinner this evening. I ordered a side of fried okra with a side of mashed potatoes and pancakes for dessert. Obviously not the healthiest choice, I know. Sometimes you just don't have a lot of options. Anyway, it was delicious.

24 Weeks

Today is technically the end of week 24. It's been quite a busy week and today's the first day I am put together and not looking totally exhausted.

We put the crib together this weekend because the box said to let the company know within 14 days if anything was damaged. Since the office furniture is still in the nursery we assembled the crib in our bedroom and we'll probably have to take it apart to move it. Oh well at least we know that it's in good shape.

I'm still feeling fabulous and baby is boogying away every night when I go to sleep.

Pregnancy Humor

Thanks to my little bro for sharing that with me. We have another ultrasound tomorrow because baby was a little shy last time and the doctor couldn't get one picture of the heart that he needed. So we'll see if he's sprouted a tail and raptor claws.

23 Weeks

I am getting a little tired of the same pose. So we're changing things up this week. We had a routine doctor visit on Monday. Everything is going really well.

It was a fun surprise at the beginning of the week to see that the crib has been purchased, and that it should be here tomorrow! This makes me really want to paint the nursery so we can put the crib together. I bought some no VOC paint from Sherwin Williams with my coupon last weekend. We'll see if we can get the office furniture moved into the guest room. And by "we" of course I don't mean myself.

22 Weeks

I'm feeling fantastic, and baby must be, too, because there is some serious movement going on in there. I actually saw my belly move on Monday.

Now for a tiny bit of ranting.

Man, maternity clothes shopping is the pits. I'm starting to actually need them- pants especially. I managed to find a few good pieces at Motherhood Maternity. The stuff I ordered online from the Gap didn't fit, and I am crossing my fingers that the items I ordered from Old Navy will fit. Old Navy definitely has the cutest selection, and of course it's really affordable. I am not about to drop $100+ on a shirt at A Pea in the Pod that I will be able to wear for three months. Plus, their stuff isn't any cuter than Motherhood Maternity's. Now I am done with this rant. That is unless the Old Navy clothes don't fit.

Like I said in an earlier post, we started our baby registry last weekend. We went to Target since that's kind of the only place in our hometown to buy baby stuff besides Wal-Mart, but there were about five things in-store that we would have registered for. The only point would have been to give people an option other than shopping online, but they would have had to do that anyway. So we scratched Target and went to Babies R Us. The employees were really helpful getting us started and we had a good time talking about baby things and starting our list. I also registered online at Diapers.com. They have a really great selection, and I'm fairly certain that shipping is free on registry items. Um... awesome! I was glad to get registering out of the way. I had been really nervous about knowing/ not knowing what baby will need.

Speaking of baby, if you happen to look at either registry you'll easily figure out that we're having a boy. The gender neutral stuff is yellow and covered in monkeys and frogs and I couldn't help myself anymore when we got to the dino crib sheets. But, I really did mean it when I said I had that paint color picked out before we found out the gender. Can you imagine pinks or purples or coral with that color for a little girl? It would have been fabulous. Not that I'm not super pumped about a little boy. I'm just saying... the blue is awesome.

In other, more exciting news, the yarn for the baby blanket is in! I am waiting on a yarn ball winder so that I can wind the skeins into center pull balls. Here's a look at the colors for the blanket. I am thrilled with how the orange looks!