Fact Friday 11/14/13

Oh, hey! I'm back already. :)

L tends to go to bed a little earlier on Thursday nights after a long week of daycare and playing with her grandmas. And I currently have Fridays off, meaning I'm not running around like a mad woman Thursday nights making sure bottles are made, clothes are picked out, alarms are set, etc. It's quite nice actually! And I'm going to miss this terribly come January.

Anyhoo. Here's a little recap of what's been going on lately.

1. L's a little holy baby now. We held her baptism this past Sunday and it went better than I could have ever anticipated. Girlfriend hardly slept all day and was so content. She did so well in the church and I just loved how the ceremony went.

2. Confession: L never put her costume on, on Halloween. BUT, she rocked it the weekend before at a family party, and the day before at my work's Halloween party. Our little spaghetti and meatballs!

And I can't leave out my nephew, JR. How adorable is this family costume?!!

3. We pulled the trigger and ordered new wall-to-wall carpet for our family room. It's overdue. And is a real priority now that L spends so much time in there. We don't even know if there's a pad under the current carpet. It's terrible. We decided to stick with carpet since it's the only room in the house with carpet, and it will be nice and cozy as a certain someone becomes mobile.

Pictures like this make me cringe. Cannot wait for the new plush carpet!

4. I'm also coming to terms with the fact that the family room is becoming just that, a family room. There is no hiding the baby toys! And I don't even mind. :)

5. I finally had the chance to help out in the ravioli making process this year. It's a long day for all involved so I was happy to help this year. There were thousands of raviolis made. My Nona, Mom, and Aunts are nuts!

6. I joined Rent the Runway PRO. It's a year of shipping and insurance for a one-time fee of $30. Next weekend is my company's holiday party and the following weekend is my 10-year high school reunion. I just couldn't muster up the desire to go dress shopping. Crazy, I know. So this was totally worth it. Shipping & insurance is typically $15/rental so $30 for the whole year is a steal. We have 5 weddings already scheduled from May-Sept next year. Looking forward to renting some fun, new dresses over the next year! This dress is making its way to me next week. Hope it fits!

7. I can't believe L will be 4 months next week! Ah. Here are her 2 & 3 month photos.

 And an extra one I made for fun. Those cheeks! :)

8. And because this girl keeps growing, I've started getting her 6 month wardrobe together. 3 month LS shirts are getting a little too short these days. And we needed a few warm layers. I snagged all this on the Carters site and picked up these 2 (this and this) outfits at Macy's recently. Doing my best to stagger purchases since many 3 month items still fit....but it's a struggle.

9. Before I went back to work we took a trip up to Maine for a long weekend. I really wanted to put a post together with all of the pictures. The leaves were unreal this year! But I'm not holding my breath on that. So, here's a picture I snapped from the Height of Land. Gorgeous, right?

10. I don't know about you, but we woke up to snow here this morning! Yikes. Not ready for that just yet.

What are you up to this weekend?

We'll be relaxing over here! 

Have a fantastic weekend!

She's here!

Sidenote - Sorry for the delay! It happens these days. :)

If you missed Part I, you'll want to read that first (here).

6:00 PM. Mom calls J. It's go time!

J arrives in record time, a bit frazzled for sure, but he's there and he has our hospital bags (Remember when I made asked you to pack a bag and you told me you had plenty of time, you're welcome darling).

7:00 PM. Mom heads home to get some rest (begrudgingly :) ). Who knows how long this will take.

8:00 PM. 6 1/2 cm dilated. And it's epidural time. There's a line-up of 4 emergency c-sections so they give me my epidural now before they're held up for a while and I end up real uncomfortable. Fine by me!

I'm starving but it's clear liquids only. Boo. Italian ice it is! It's been years since I've had one of those and damn it tasted good.

10:00 PM. 8 cm dilated! Omg. They tell us to try to get some sleep, it could still be awhile, but HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SLEEP??! Jay's actually snoring by my side....he's got an awful head cold and I keep asking him if he's ok and how's he's feeling. Pretty sure he wants me to just stop talking but I can't help it. He especially loves how I keep asking him how he's doing when I'm the one IN LABOR. Whoops.

I'm still starving so I test out ginger ale hoping the bubbles will help me feel full. Eh, kinda. And I spend the next couple hours between pinterest, facebook, instagram, etc. A.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. that will distract me.

Sunday, July 20

12:00 AM. 8 cm dilated. Wait, what?! No change. Ughh. Come one Baby C! Mama wants to meet you.

A little motivation!

4:00 AM. 10 cm dilated. Big gulps. Now it's really go time! J texts the moms, they're ready and waiting to meet their new grand baby.

This time goes by in a bit of a blur. I haven't slept in far too long, I'm starving, and I'm just not very strong anymore. J and my nurse are amazing and I don't know what I would have done without them. I keep telling J I'm either going to pass out or puke - labor is no joke.

After an hour or so it's decided I need an episiotomy (fantastic...). J will be doing the honors of announcing Baby's C's gender and cutting the umbilical cord. The delivery team is in place. Ah!!

One last push and the doctor notices that the umbilical cord is wrapped around baby's neck so she makes the quick decision to cut it during delivery.

5:28 AM.  J turns to me, huge grin, and tells me it's a girl. I couldn't believe it (really, I turned to J and asked him if he was serious). I have a daughter! And she's just the most beautiful baby ever.

5:30 AM. (Due to the cord being around her neck she's taken aside for check up almost immediately). No skin to skin as planned. Still waiting for a good lung clearing scream from her....
5:32 AM. And waiting...
5:34 AM. And waiting...She's grunting and doing everything she can to breathe, but she's having a bit of trouble. Baby girl swallowed too much fluid on her way out.

A respiratory team has been called and a NICU doctor is on site. J watches over L while they do everything they can to help her out. I'm exhausted, still need to get cleaned up by the doctor, and my nurse keeps telling me she'll be fine. She just descended too fast and needs a little attention. I feel like I'm in a state of denial and shock. I cannot look at J who's looking at the doctors working on L for nearly 40 minutes.

While we keep being told everything will be fine, we're given less than 5 minutes to meet/hold our girl before they need to cart her off for chest x-rays and further examination in the NICU. Bless my nurse for stealing my camera to snap a few first photos of us.

J goes with the team to the NICU but I cannot get out of bed yet thanks to the epidural. And right now, I need him to be with her. I can't even begin to tell you how strong my husband was during this. I still tear up just thinking about it. He was/is my rock. And I needed that. I needed him to tell me that she'll be fine. 

Apparently it was a bit of a sob fest when he met the moms in the waiting room and told them they had a granddaughter! The fact that he held it together for me is unbelievable. No joke, I'm tearing up typing this. #hormones

7:30 AM. Just me, my incredible husband, and our new baby girl. 

L spent 3 days in the NICU, and 1 night in the Step 2 care nursery before passing her final test and being discharged to come home. While it was definitely not how we imagined her delivery to go, we are beyond thankful to have a healthy, happy baby. We are so grateful for the NICU nurses who cared for our girl, and taught these first-timers a few things. I'm not sure I'll ever forget their names.

We like to think that L just joined the world about 36 hours too soon. For that's how long it took her body to adjust, which was long enough to keep her under the NICU's supervision the whole time and in the hospital a day longer than expected.

Welcome to the world baby girl! We are so blessed to call you ours.

It's Go Time

I'm doing my best to soak up every minute I have left at home before heading back to work Monday. It's going to be quite the adjustment, but we'll do our best.

For this reason, there have been days the laptop stays shut. It's amazing how quickly priorities and routines can change! Sorry blog, you've been bumped down on the list. But, it's really important to me that I document L's birth story before we're in 2015 and she's suddenly crawling, walking, etc. So much happened and I want to remember every detail.

Honestly, I'm still in shock at her arrival before her due date. I seriously did not see it coming! So here goes:

Friday, July 18: I head off to my last day of work before maternity leave! Even though L's due date wasn't until the following Wednesday (which is when my company's maternity leave kicks in), I decided to take paid time off/vacation days Mon/Tues.

On the way to work I stop at my OB's office for our weekly visit/check-in. Not surprised at all to hear we've got no activity at all - 0% dilated, 0% effaced. We make plans for our visit the following week where we'd most likely discuss my options for getting induced. In my head I'm thinking, perfect. I'll have a few days at home to tidy up the mess our kitchen reno has created, get a mani/pedi, float in the pool, etc. Can't wait!

I stay later than planned at work to do my best to close out as many open items as possible before I'm out. I cancel J & my dinner plans in the city, we can go next week!, and finally head home. As a last ditch effort to get a good nights sleep, I take Benadryl before bed.

Which keeps me up alllll night long. Ugh.

Saturday, July 19:

7:00 AM. Exhausted. Freakin A, why did Benadryl have a reverse effect on me.  J's up early to help his parents move before heading out on the boat with my dad. Tucker's been staying with my parents while our kitchen reno occurs so I head down to their house to relax with my mom while the guys are out on the water.

1:00 PM. We head out to grab lunch and my mom asks me if I'd like to split a sandwich at our favorite local place - Cravings. I decide it's probably best if I get my own, I'm pretty hungry (thank god I did this).  So we eat lunch and watch some TV before deciding on naps.

2:30 PM. Hmm, that's odd. I think I just had a Braxton Hicks contraction. And another. And another. What the....?! My mom heads upstairs to take a nap in her room and I do my best to nap on the couch but these cramps keep coming back. I haven't told her yet or messaged J. I decide to time them on one of the pregnancy apps I have first and see what happens. I grab some more water, take a walk around the house/driveway, and continue on in my state of denial.

4:00 PM. Contractions are at most 5 mins apart, but down to 2-3 mins apart at times. And are lasting up to 60 seconds. Omg.

J texts me to let me know he has his phone if I need anything (talk about timing!). I reply ok, have fun. I know I'm just going to get sent home and told it's false labor, right? So I'll just wait it out here instead.

This little voice in the back of my head reminds me of the many times I've read about when to go to the hospital: the 511 rule = 5 mins apart, lasting 1 min, for 1 full hour.

Ok, they're averaging 3-4 mins apart, lasting 1 min, and it's been over an hour. Eff. I call the Dr's office, just in case. And they tell me to head to the hospital. WHAT?!

4:30 PM. Moms sleeping, J and Dad are OUT ON A BOAT! I wake up my mom, tears start flowing and I ask her to take me to the hospital. I'm feeling like such a fool right now because I KNOW they're going to send me home.

We grab iced coffees on the way, priorities, and I finally call J to tell him what's happening. HE DOESN'T ANSWER! Seriously. Not that surprised, he never hears/answers his phone....so I let my mom call my dad. But to tell them we're going to just go see, not to worry yet (they start making their way back to the marina anyways, my dad was great and calmly told J what was happening. J said it was the longest return to dock ever of course).

And I tell her not to make another call. Unless and until they tell me it's go time, let's not get anyone too excited.

5:30 PM. Check-in at the hospital and get hooked up to monitors. My phone dies (of course).

The Dr comes in and checks what's going on. I'm starting to feel embarrased, as I know she's about to tell me we've got no activity yet. Same as yesterday. But she begins to talk and I hear the words 4 cm and you're not going anywhere. If it was physically possible, my jaw would have hit the floor.

6:00 PM. Mom calls J. It's go time!

Another Bathroom Reno

While we have poured many hours, blood, sweat, and tears into our upstairs bathroom renovations (master, guest) over the last year, we have one half bath on our first floor that wasn't feeling any love.

listing photo

It was always on my long mental list to get this room cleaned up a bit. But seeing as it's a completely functional room, it was certainly not a priority. I planned to spruce this room up while out on maternity leave - fresh paint, fixtures, maybe some shelves. 

Lucky for me, we got to hand this one off to the professionals. The water damage in the kitchen meant that the half bath got a new floor and ceiling as well since its located right off of the kitchen. Wait, so someone else will be painting this room on our behalf? Wahoo!

What the contractor took care of:

• Installed a new ceiling and freshly painted it
• Installed our faux wood tile flooring
• Installed new baseboards (after losing a piece of the original)
• Shaved down the door due to the new tile flooring, which incidentally fixed the jamming problem we were having with it.
• Painted the room using a paint color we already had on hand (master bath reno) - Benjamin Moore Baltic Gray

I had picked up a couple shelves at Target a few months back after watching them get so deeply discounted they were practically free - $2.98/shelf. Yes, please! And the shelf styling is thanks to Homegoods, oh and Charmin ultra-soft.

It never ceases to amaze me how a few simple updates can really change a room. Not that I'm calling the tile install simple, but I think the biggest game changer here is the fresh paint. 

So, what's left to do in here?

• Update the light fixture. I think something like this will look great. 
• Updated fixtures - the sink is not going anywhere anytime soon but the faucet, towel holder, and TP holder are all dingy.
• New door knob - battle of the brass doorknobs over here...
• New window shade
• Hang these prints back up (across from the shelves)

I think it's safe to say we are DONE with bathroom renovation projects for a very long time. Phew!

Fun Fact Friday 09.12.14

Two posts in two days, mama must be doing something right! ;)

I'm dedicating this fact Friday post to things in which my only regret is not knowing/purchasing them sooner.

1. Swiffer Sweeper Vac. I'm pretty sure this has been on my mental list of "need" items for over a year now. A friend had told me how great it was for her hardwood floors and dog hair and I tucked that info away. Well, being home everyday and having Tucker as a shadow has led to dog hair literally everywhere! He's spending much more time upstairs than he ever has before and I just couldn't stand all the hair and sweeping anymore. This little vaccuum is seriously amazing. I really wish I had bought this sooner. With only have one room of wall-to-wall carpet in this house, using the swiffer vaccuum for quick clean-ups has been a life-saver.

2. Lazy Girl Hairstyling Hacks. The name of this buzzfeed article says it all. I tried #22 immediately after reading the article and it worked so well! My hair doesn't always stay up in a bun easily but this was so easy and successful. I've also tried #5 and was just as impressed with the results. You know I'm on board with #3 and #2 is next on my list. :)

3. The best way to toast bread - Thank you Courtney for introducing me to this toaster life hack. If you have a toaster, place both slices of bread in the same toaster slot so that the outsides toast but the insides stay soft. We have a toaster oven so while I loved this idea, I never tried it. Until yesterday when a lightbulb went off and I stacked the 2 slices of bread on top of each other. Genius! My sandwich was sooo good with the semi-toasted bread.

4. Pushpins App. After a little bit of googling to find a good list app, I downloaded Pushpin and have zero regrets. It not only allows me to create several grocery lists - regular grocery store, Target, etc. But it looks up all the sales at the grocery stores in my area and lets me add those specific items to my list. AND it lets you link up with other phones! So I keep my grocery store list linked up with J's phone so that he can stop at the store on his way home if needed and he has the list ready to go.

5. Microwave Life Hack. Thank you J for finding this one.We have eaten many re-heated meals since Baby Girl joined the family and using a coffee mug to elevate one dish above the other works so well! Kudos to the kid's mom who thought of this one!

I love that 3 of the 5 are life hacks - I wish I could say I thought of any of these but nope, this brain is fried. I am forever grateful to the geniuses above though!

Have any other good life hacks I should know about??

What are you up to this weekend?
Fact: I haven't done a Fact Friday since the beginning of May. Yikes! I'm going to try to at least get these out each week - it's a nice way to quickly go through a few things on my mind.

J&A are in town this weekend to visit L! She is soo excited to see her Auntie J and meet her Uncle A. Auntie doesn't plan to ever put her down. ;)

Have a fantastic weekend!

Baby Girl

On July 20, 2014 our lives were forever changed by the birth of our baby girl, L. I remember the weekend as if it were yesterday and I hope these memories never fade.

Before I share her whirlwind birth story, I felt I needed to at least introduce you all to her! I've chosen to cover her full name but her nickname is Lucie and I will refer to her as L going forward on the blog.

We are soooo in love with this little lady! 

Pictures for our birth announcements were done by the talented Beth Miga. And I used Etsy for a template (which my brother-in-law was kind enough to then tweak for me). 

She has been such a joy. And it's hard to believe she'll be 8 weeks this coming weekend. Gah, where did the time go?!

I plan to take a monthly photo of her and add a small recap of her current stats. It will be so fun to look back! So here's her 1 month summary:

In between play time, nap time, and feedings posts are definitely taking a bit longer to put together these days! But I'd love to get her birth story written up soon while it's all so fresh in my mind.

I'm an Auntie!

Somehow, it's been nearly 4 months since my nephew was born. 4 months!!?? I'm ashamed I haven't given him any blog time yet. But it was important to make sure my brother and sister in law were comfortable with this, and then yeah life got busy, and right, I had my own baby!

But, without further adieu, I'm so excited to introduce you to this handsome fella - JR. I think it's best I keep it to initials (the internet can be scary yo).

Anyways, I feel so lucky to call this little guy my nephew. From the moment I held him it was true love. He is such a happy little boy with the biggest smile. Getting a baby to smile at you is the best feeling ever! #success

JR was born May 7th - a week before his expected due date. But we all predicted Meg would go into labor early so we were just counting down the days. Getting the text from her saying heading to the hospital nearly sent me into tears at my desk (ok, it did. I definitely teared up at work). We were all soooo excited for them.

Meg went into labor late in the day on the 6th so we knew it would be a long night and couldn't wait to get the message of his birth. Clearly no one slept because when Dan sent out a group message just after 5am with the announcement we were all so quick to respond. JR was born at 4:53 am on the 7th and was just the most beautiful baby boy. He weighed in at 7 lbs 12 oz and was 20.5 inches long. Everything went well. Perfection!!

Over the past few months, we've enjoyed watching JR grow into a laughing, smiling, babbling (and drooling!) little guy. He's got plenty of rolls to eat up and is as healthy as can be. He loves to talk these days which is just the cutest thing ever.

 Look at that adorable face!

His smile is going to break some girls' hearts someday! 

Auntie loves you JR!!

Wedding Season - C&B Tie the Knot!

I'm a few months late on this recap but since I love looking back on these posts, I'm sharing it anyways. This wedding was unbelievable. So many gorgeous details! 

I blogged about Corey's shower here but missed her bachelorette party as it was hosted in Miami and I was nearly 8 months pregnant. I thought it best I sit that one out.

So I just couldn't wait for the wedding. It was my only wedding this year, and as it was for one of my close girlfriends, I knew it was going to be a blast. It was also going to be somewhat of a mini college reunion seeing as the bride and groom were college sweethearts. Like I said, I couldn't wait! 

The Ceremony

The wedding was held at The Glen Island Harbor Club. Check out that view above! The weather was gorgeous, but hot if I remember correctly. So being inside but surrounded by windows was perfect. But what was even better was the love you could feel in that room. It was a beautiful ceremony.

And something happened during C&B's ceremony that I had never experienced before but just loved. The minister (possibly JoP, I can't remember) asked the maid of honor and best man to put their hands over C&B's. And called attention to the fact that they stand up there to support C&B not only today, but throughout their marriage. It was so sweet! And so true. We choose our maid of honor and best man for a reason, they are very important people in our lives who we turn to for guidance at times.

The Reception

Cocktail hour was held on the patio of the venue. Again, look at these views! This venue was so gorgeous. And the amount of food available during cocktail hour was insane! I did my best not to fill up before dinner. :)

There were fresh flowers everywhere. And omg were they gorgeous! 

Mr. & Mrs.!

College roommates. We did a great job color coordinating. ;)

I love how Jackie & Corey have become great friends down in Charlotte!

J&A!

We tried really hard to get a Bentley picture but there were so many of us that it was way too hard to coordinate. It was certainly fun though!

Soo many amazing, and hilarious!, memories with this group over 4 years of college. 

Woah baby belly! :)

After snapping these last few pics we headed out to grab the shuttle back to the hotel. Well, let me tell you - something incredible happened. We walked downstairs to find fresh hot pretzel and italian ice! Omg, the lemon italian ice was amazing. Such a treat!

I was a little nervous about being the only completely sober one at a wedding. I know that sounds ridiculous. But it's true. And I have to say, I had soo much fun! I also impressed many by staying up til the wee hours of the morning. In my eyes, there were very few nights left out with friends for a while. Gotta make the most of them!

Congratulations Corey & Brandon!  

You threw one hell of a party! And we couldn't be happier for you two.