Birthday Business

Today is Lily's first birthday and I thought I would share her birth story. We went to my parent's for chili on January 22nd and watched the Giants beat the 49ers for the NFC championship. By the end of the game I felt kind of weird and told Chris I wanted to go home. We cuddled on the sofa here watching tv and I started noticing I was having contractions about 10 minutes apart. I urged Chris to go to bed and sleep some because I thought this might be the real deal.

I laid on the sofa, I did the dishes, I straightened my hair, I tossed and turned trying to watch some ridiculous infomercial and eventually texted my mom that I was having contractions and really uncomfortable. She told me a few positions that would help, but I spent most of the night half sobbing half deep breathing with my forearms leaned against the wall. Around 7 I called the OB's office and told the nurse that my contractions were now about 5-7 minutes apart and I was really uncomfortable. She told me to go ahead and go into Labor and Delivery to get checked out, but it sounded promising and to make sure I brought my bags.

I waited around a little more, trying to make the morning as relaxing as possible. At 7:30 I "woke" Chris up (I have doubts he slept at all that night) and told him what the nurse said. He asked if we needed to bring our bags and I said "oh, the nurse said to. They'll probably send me home though." He raised an eyebrow but didn't even question my blatant panic ridden denial. What a smart man. We got in the car, texted our parents and best friends and walked in. They asked me about my contractions and put me in a bed immediately. I was 6 cm dilated. They broke my water and gave me an epidural, then my contractions slowed down so they gave me some Pitocin and they picked back up.

I took a nap for an hour or so and begged for ice chips. At around 2:30 I started pushing and Lily Danielle was born at 4:07 pm. She weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces and she was 20.5 inches long. As soon as they laid her on my chest, I burst into tears. I was so relieved that she was here, safe, and perfect that I just couldn't stop it. I kissed her all over her tiny face and handed her to Chris. I fell in love with him all over as I watched him rock her, gently wiping her face with the receiving blanket.

 

 

 

Happy birthday, Liliford. Boogerbutt. LDJ. It's been the best 12 months of my life.

 

Nice To Meetcha!

After posting and referencing things that I probably should fill you in on, I realized I had never done a real "intro" post. So here's a random list of things about me:

 

One: Let's start with my looks, since I recently realized that since I've never posted a picture of myself you don't know me from Adam. (Eve?)

One and a half: I'm tall. I'm 5'10. It's weird.

Two: I work part time in a grocery store. It's the only job I've ever had.

 

Three: I bake. A lot. I bake when I'm having a good day and I do it to brighten up a bad day. I think measuring and all that recipe reading takes the perfect amount of concentration to get your mind off whatever's bothering you. Seriously, make 4 dozen cookies next time you're mad and tell me your day isn't better.

 

Four: I have an about-to-turn-one-year-old daughter. I don't believe in all that 11 months business. I ain't about that life.

 

Five: I have four Star Wars shirts. Five if you count the one with Elvis shaking hands with Darth Vader.

Six: I love Will Ferrell. And if you don't think he's a fucking sketch comedy genius, we can't be friends.

Seven: I watch a LOT of tv. It's borderline pathetic. On average, we record The Biggest Loser, New Girl, Criminal Minds, CSI, Bones, Parks & Rec, The Office, Guys With Kids, Big Bang Theory, Hoarders, Saturday Night Live, and The Walking Dead. Wow, that's really sad.

Eight: My lucky number is 23.

 

Nine: I have run out of things you should know. Well, I've actually grown tired of talking about myself. Anyway, hopefully you learned something!

Snippets & Sound Bites

While watching The Walking Dead last night Chris hit me with this loving romance:

Chris: I don't think I'd have trouble shooting someone I knew in the face if I knew they were a zombie.

 Me: You could shoot zombie me in the face?

Chris: Well, no. I couldn't shoot you.

Isn't he the sweetest?

Saturday Food For Thought

Kitchen Porn

I adore this kitchen. I love it's face off. I love the backsplash and the countertops together and I think I could possibly pull this off. I was really doubtful that all the white would work in our space but I think it would balance the dark floors I'm hoping to put in. Anyway, here's some kitchen porn for you.

 

 

 

 

[Source]

Cats Are Assholes

I still love them though. Even if they are tiny sociopaths. I can't imagine not having Prudence around.

The real reason cats are assholes is that I can't get Lily to say Mama for the life of me. She now says Dada, doggy, hi and kitty. No mama. She calls me Dada and I say "no, Mama" and pat my chest. She laughs and says "Dada." in a spiteful way. Earlier today she was calling mananana so I figured that was as good as I was getting for the day. Then the cat walked in and she said "oh! Kitty!" and unraveled herself from a hug to go chase her.

 

 

And the kicker? Prudence doesn't even like the baby.

Keepin' It Real

My house is usually a mess. Okay, it's always a mess. We're kids still, with a kid. We don't even pick up our own toys, much less Lily's on a daily basis. I'm not saying there's food rotting in our kitchen or anything (that I know of) but I don't usually pick up the dirty pans from dinner until the next morning. (This is in hopes that Chris will do it instead though. He never does.) My living room frequently looks like this:

 

So while I am going to do my best to be a better blogger and stage my pictures a little, just know that I'm probably cropping out a pile of magazines or shoving some toys to the side. And I'm okay with that.

Saturday Food For Thought

[Source]

Saturday Food For Thought

My Little Beaver

Just a week or two ago Lily popped through all four of her top teeth at the same time. You can imagine my horror when I went into her room to pick her up from a nap this morning and she had done this:

I know I shouldn't be surprised. Every baby does it, it seems. I just didn't expect it to happen for a while longer. So I raided my fabric drawer and grabbed this fabric that I found at Walmart in their remnant bin and threw together a tutorial.

I measured the crib and realized my fabric wasn't long enough to cover the entire side lengthwise, so I cut six 5-inch wide 18 inch long pieces of fabric, then laid them right sides together.

Then I just sewed a straight line right down one side and opened it up.

I laid the third piece down just like in step one, right sides together, and sewed another line.

Repeat to make two strips and pin them right sides together.

(and please pardon my terrible phone camera pictures)

Then I cut eight 6.5 inch strips of ribbon and sandwiched them between the two pieces of fabric at each seam.

Sew a straight line down the long sides, stopping to sandwich in your ribbon ties.

Turn it right side out.

Then just fold it over your crib railing and tie your ribbons. If I could do it over again I would have put maybe two more sets of ties on there, but overall I'm happy with it. In all, it took me about 40 minutes to do, it was totally free, and my precious crib is safe(er) from my half beaver half chipmunk child.

 Note: yes, I am aware that bumpers on cribs are not recommended and neither are blankets. You raise your kids and I'll raise mine.

New Years Resolutions

I love resolutions. I make resolutions all year long. There is one hitch in my getalong, though- I hate keeping them. I suck at keeping them. I really am just lazy. There isn't any excuse but that. So this year I made a plan to maybe be a little better by making them pretty simple. This year I have 12 goals:

One I want to make progress towards paying off all my debt. I want to go into our marriage with little to no debt carried month to month.

Two start running. 

Three is to get a tattoo.

Four is to run the trolley run with my mom.

Five I want to have my wedding dress bought by May.

Six will be finishing the color run with a good time.

Seven try something new.

Eight take an online class. or two.

Nine get married!

Ten I will join the bone marrow donor registry.

Eleven get my driver's license.

Twelve be a better blogger, mom and wife.