2 wk bday

happy 2 week birthday to my cute little baby. i feel like she's already grown so much (we find out exactly how much tues when we take her back for a check-up). she makes funny little faces and noises and although she sleeps a lot, i love the moments when her eyes are wide open and you know she's just thinking "what the f is going on?!"

dee dee (grandma on daddy's side) is in town from south africa so i've had a little time to myself today - grocery store trip, made copious amounts of ice tea and pasta salad, updating this here blog! i really should be working..i'll get to that later. we also had a breakfast outing this week (mmm my new craving is all things breakfast related) and a lunch outing tomorrow. taking her out is not as hard as i thought it would be, once i get the hang of slings i'll be good to go. my main worry now is boob leakage. i ventured out to work on tues evening and immediately leaked through my shirt. i had to rush in my office and put on a jacket before my boss caught me. embarrassing. but otherwise - i think i am getting a handle on this whole baby thing. i'm trying to keep up with pumping so we have plenty stocked up for my return to work (and to combat leakage). and let me just mention that pumping is by far the weirdest. weird looking, feels weird, just WEIRD.

i'm wearing almost normal jeans already - although i wish i still needed to wear maternity jeans. those things are so comfortable! i say almost normal b/c they still have a bit of stretch in the waist. but i've lost a lost of my belly and can't wait to start wearing real clothes again. my fingers are still too swollen to wear my rings, which makes me very sad. and i'm nervous to try on my shoes in case my feet grew. but overall, things are starting to get back to our new normal.

and now i need to figure out how i'm going to make her a pillow with all the princess fabric i bought. new project that i am almost feeling the urge to make! almost. i still love hanging out in bed all day with my daughter, watching court tv and buffy.

and she's out!

Merit Alice was born Aug 14, 2009 at 10:16 in the morning after mom's 10 hour "what the hell is happening to me?!" labor. i thought i might describe it, as most people ask how it went. I'm not sure everyone actually wants to know, so if not, skip this post! (blair)
i had absolutely no warning. in my mind everyone's labor starts out slow so you can "do life" as our birthing teacher told us. i mean, people work until their water breaks right? so when i started feeling like i had cramps, i thought maybe by saturday she would come. at midnite, i went to bed. but the cramps kept coming HARD every 15 min or so. i would sleep in between moans. jack was passed out the entire nite. by 3/4am I called nancy to give her a heads up b/c by now they were maybe 5 minutes apart and excruciating. like the worst menstrual cramps ever. and there was the mucous plug....gross. so now i am moaning, bleeding, screaming, cursing, and clawing jack as he sleeps. he would wake up every third contraction or so to pet me and remind me to breathe (b/c i def stopped doing that a lot). by 7:30 i thought i was going to die and just wanted nancy to come over (actually i just wanted to get in the birth tub which i'm not allowed to do until she got here). she had an appt at 8 - and damn it if that bitch wasnt 20 min late! (and i know who you are b/c you make our appts late every friday!) so that made nancy late getting over here. meanwhile i'm thinking "i completely understand drugs. if i was at the hospital i would be begging for someone to punch me and knock me out". and i'm screaming. scaring jack, scaring the dog, probably scaring merit enough that she's rethinking coming out of this crazy woman's uterus. i thought the screaming would help, but it didnt. nancy instructed me to walk around which i tried. i got as far as my bedroom door before another contraction would come. then i'd have to bend over the bed and yell. (i ended up really hurting my throat by the end of it all). FINALLY nancy arrived but wouldnt let me in the tub b/c it was too hot. so i waited while jack changed the water, nancy checked me - 9cm! almost ready to push! i have to admit, if she had gotten there earlier and i was at 5 or even 7 i think it would have really screwed with me and i wouldnt have been able to do as much as i did. so once i get in the tub, its basically time to push. fantastic. the contractions seemed to slow a little bit in the water (or were way less intense) and i was able to sleep - actually sleep between pushes. after the most painful pushing i've ever done (imagine not pooping for over a month and being extremely constipated and then forcing it out. yeah. exactly.) she tumbled out into the water - with her "veil" (my water never really broke so the amniotic sac was still around her) and with her extra long cord wrapped around her neck, shoulders, each arm and chest. it was pretty freaking incredible. i kept trying to sneak counts at her fingers and toes - but they're all there with no extras. and she has all this dark hair - which i love b/c i had black hair when i was born. she's totally cute. and teeny tiny.
and i'm sore. sooo sore. but like everyone says - its totally worth it. although i def won't be doing THAT for quite awhile.
and me being the fantastic geneticist that i am forgot to get her genetic screening done at the dr.'s on monday, so we're venturing out by ourselves tomorrow. everything is going well. i love being at home with her and we're both slowly getting the hang of breastfeeding. she actually slept for 4 hours straight last nite. i have to admit, i loved being pregnant but i am loving this even more.

getting birth ready...

Today kate and maryann came over for my blessing way. a blessing way is basically a shower for the mom-to-be, but more of a celebration of her giving birth. usually its really crunchy and spiritual with people braiding her hair and singing kumbaya. but since i am so not like that (and thankfully neither are kate or maryann), it was just a nice afternoon. they cleaned out the birthtub and brought it inside, got the nursery ready (more than i ever could), and basically made the house birth ready. we realized the living room is too bright to labor in and began putting curtains and sheets over the windows. they decided i needed positive things to focus on, and put up pictures around the house (including a lovely flower that looks like a vagina, right over the bed-ahh soothing). maryann drew an incredible family portrait of me, jack and the new baby that i absolutely love! we made beaded anklets and henna'd my feet. so it was maybe a little crunchy and kumbaya. but fun. and much needed!
(the bears were out! so exciting - i haven't seen them in years)
Saturday we took our niece maillie out for her birthday. mcdonalds (never plan to actually eat at a mcd's. thats all i have to say about that), maymont. we walked there and back and all over the park, with maillie taking pictures of every animal we saw. i was quite proud of myself considering i am 9 mo pregnant and haven't done anything physical in those 9 mos. and i wasn't even hurting the next day! totally surprising to me. although i did sleep really really well.(trolls - jack and maillie)

so it looks like baby is still cooking and won't be making her entrance anytime soon. in fact, it seems as those nancy doesn't expect her at least until next week, if not the week after. although i learned that the baby's developing endocrine system triggers the onset of labor and therefore labor won't begin until the baby is mature enough. so she still has a little growing to do and will come when she's good and ready! which is ok with me. although i have to admit, i'm getting a little burnt out on the preparing for birth reading, videos, etc. i think i'll switch to some good fiction (aka harry potter, stephen king - you know, classics!) and then get back into some baby books by the end of the week.

and tonite i get my indian food!!

baby mode

so i said i wasn't nesting and yet... i've since made banana bread, PICKLES (with cukes from my garden!), tomato sauce, jambalaya, au gratin potatoes (from scratch, not a box)...its nice to want to cook again since i haven't wanted to in 9 months. i've also cleaned the house - including all the windows, we've hung some pictures, i've done a crap load of laundry.... so yea, if thats nesting i'm totally doing it. although in my head its more a matter of need - this needs to get done before the baby or it won't ever get done. so call it what you will.
i'm getting scolded on all sides for not being in "baby mode" and working too much. which is funny b/c, yes i've been at work and finishing up one last experiment (done tomorrow!!), but if i don't get it done, its all i'll think about. the writing can wait, the lab work cannot. but i swear that i am done friday. good luck getting me back in after that! and then its all about some baby time. so lets hope i dont go into labor saturday so i can enjoy baby mode. and one last trip to the pool....
i've been meaning to post this for awhile but the baby room is almost done (the damn crib and its missing pieces is killing me!) but here is a pic of the curtains jenny made:
they go so well and the pink lining turns the whole room a deep pink when the light shines through. its pretty cool. and yet, not as girly as one might think! we also finally got a co-sleeper that fits our room and her laundry is ready to go. bring this baby on! and when she comes, please bring me this as well: (icebox cake courtesy martha stewart)
any day now....