Apple Blossom Studio

5 weeks

2009-07-19T21:44:00.002-05:00

5 weeks already, I can't believe how time flies!! It is so odd to go from pregnancy where time goes slower than ever to having a newborn where time goes way way too fast. Hannah's one month appointent went pretty well. She is up to 8lb 4oz, 22.5 in. The Dr. still thinks she's not gaining enough...sent us to the ENT to have her tongue tie clipped, and I think she's feeding more efficiently now, we'll go in for another weight check sometime this week. Our Dr. makes such a big deal about wanting her to gain on ounce a day, but the book that he gave me says 1/2oz-1oz a day, so I really think she's doing just fine.

On Friday we had a "welcome baby" party...I am telling you, we got SO much clothing, I think we're set for a while...Hannah's closet is SO packed...and that's just with the new stuff...we have boxes and boxes of hand-me-downs. I have discovered that style-wise my favorite brand of baby clothing is the Jumping Beans stuff...and I'm not sure where to even buy it! I just love all the embroidery and aplique on it...so adorable!

This is my home-made Moby Wrap AKA "the only way I ever get things done." We wore it to the grocery store this week, and Hannah didn't make a peep the whole time, usually she's wailing by the time we finish, it was great. We also use it do do the dishes and laundry and such...maybe tomorrow we'll even mow the lawn.

Since I'm not scrapbooking yet I just want to blog about a few things that I want to remember. While Hannah is eating Jason likes to put the nursing pad on her head like a yarmukle and call her "Jewish Baby." He he he. When she has the hiccups he calls her "hiccuppotamus." :)

4 weeks

2009-07-12T21:40:00.002-05:00

Four weeks already!
Time is flying around here...and Hannah just gets cuter and cuter. We have her one month appointment on Tuesday, which I am nervous about, cause she's still skinny, and probably has not gained enough weight, and the Dr. will probably want us to supplement with formula again. It's crazy how different brands of baby clothing fit so differently...right now we mainly wear Carter's stuff(and plain old onesies), cause it seems to be made for long skinny babies, where other brands seem to fit chubby babies.

Hannah has been practicing her crawling, she just has a big baby head! I think we need to practice the push-ups for some arm strength, and we'll be good to go.

Hannah's cousins Timmy and Marissa brought her these little purple sunglasses when they visited, she seems to think they're pretty ok...all I know is that she is way too cute in them.

3 weeks

2009-07-04T22:13:00.004-05:00

We've had a pretty good 3-week birthday. We got to stay in bed until 11 this morning, Hannah had a big poop, and she got a bath today! She still doesn't like the actual bath part, but likes getting her hair washed. Her favorite things are bright colors and ceiling fans. She doesn't seem to mind wearing mittens on her little hands...but usually one of them falls off, so we joke about her only wearing one as a Michael Jackson tribute. I've clipped her fingernails twice...but even when they're short, they're still sharp, and she scratches her little face, so I try to keep the mittens on her.

We're getting better at going out...this week we went to the Dr, the post office, the grocery store, Target, out to lunch with Daddy, Joann's Fabrics, and she does pretty well. Before I had a baby I always thought I would feel awkward about nursing in public....it's really not that big of a deal, I'm finding out...if the baby is hungry...you feed her, and that's that.

At the Dr. this week Hannah was up to 7lbs 12oz...not quite her birthweight yet, but at least it's headed in the right direction, and her bilirubin is still down, so we'll see the Dr. again for her one month checkup.

She's a pretty good sleeper at night, usually sleeping for 3-4 hour stretches, so I'm not TOO exhausted most of the time, but I also end up taking at least one nap during the day. Speaking of...it's probably time to head in that direction!

The new stamps have been added.

2009-07-03T17:37:00.003-05:00

Jason got the day off work (after meeting with a client this morning) and so I promptly put him to work for me. :) The new mini-sets are up in the shop now, happy purchasing!

2 weeks:

2009-06-28T16:41:00.005-05:00

It's been a crazy couple of weeks...and Daddy goes back to work at the office tomorrow, we will be lonely ladies. It seems that we have been keeping busy with doctors and hospitals and visitors and eating and sleeping...with not much spare time. Hannah had some jaundice, so we spent a night at the children's hospital in the hot box, and she's been off and on the biliblanket...but now is finally OFF! We had some issues because Hannah just doesn't seem to poop much, but the gastro doctor said she's just fine and that breastfed babies sometimes go several days without pooping.

I think the hardest thing we've had to deal with is that while we were in the hospital with jaundice, Hannah was only bottle-fed...she had my pumped breastmilk plus we supplemented with formula, and when we were finally done, she had a hard time going back to breastfeeding. It took a day or two to get back into the swing of things, but I was really scared at first that the Dr. had ruined my baby and that she might only want a bottle after that.

Overall, having a newborn is much more time-consuming than I had imagined...I only get to shower about every other day...and I don't do much laundry or any dishes...basically we just sleep and eat, it's kinda nuts.

She's so funny to me...I could watch her all day long...if I didn't need sleep, she's just so darn cute I can't help but to just stare at her for hours on end. :) So far I like being a mommy...other than feeling like I have no time to accomplish anything! It's just hard not to worry what your house looks like when you have people visiting all the time!

And this is what she looks like...

2009-06-15T19:12:00.002-05:00

Our little sweetie...isn't she precious?!

A birth Story for your reading pleasure....

2009-06-13T17:48:00.003-05:00

Most of the pictures I have of me with Hannah are of us nursing for the whole first hour while I was being stitched up...so you get the Daddy instead, he did so good!

Craziness...
So...I took the castor oil at about 3:30 yesterday...and it definitely went to work on my insides...but I fully expected to need a few more doses over the weekend. We went to bed at around 11:30, which is late for us...but hey, it was a Friday night, and we're crazy party animals! I woke up around midnight with more cramping....I thought it was just the oil doing its thing, and spent about half an hour on the toilet....and felt awful...spent the next half hour in the shower. The shower helped a lot..for a while...so I did a little bit of blog and message board reading until I felt awful again, and spent more time on the toilet...followed by another shower, by this time I was in a lot of pain. Partway through the shower I kinda started thinking, "you know, this is REALLY painful...what if I'm actually having contractions??!"

After my shower, about 3am I got back online...REALLY starting to feel the contractions at this point, and went to one of those contraction timer websites. I was pretty sure that I was in labor now, and the contractions seemed to be 2-3 minutes apart and lasting about a minute each. The pain started to get to the pint where I has to get on my knees and sway my hips back and forth...so at 3:30 I woke Jason up saying "I think we need to go to the hospital!" I just didn't think I would be able to take the car ride if I waited any longer.

We packed things up and got to the hospital at about 4AM. They checked my cervix right away and I was 8cm dialated. I labored another hour waiting for the Dr. to arrive...it was REALLY painful, but since I wanted SO badly to have a natural birth instead of Monday's induction, I just kept telling myself, "This is what I wanted, I get to do it the way that I wanted!" and any thought of pain meds stayed far from my mind. I just felt so blessed that I was getting to do it the way that I wanted to. :)

At 5AM the Dr. arrived, and she checked me again, I was at 10cm. She broke by water and I got to start pushing. The pushing part was really intense for me...for whatever reason I just couldn't wrap my head around the idea that I was pushing a human being out of my body, it felt really crazy. At 5:38 that baby came out! She was so so beautiful...she wasn't cheesy at all...just all slippery and bloody and beautiful! I was just so so excited she was here!! I got to hold her for a while, and when the cord stopped pulsing, they clamped it and Jason got to cut it.

The worst part was that since everything did go SO fast, my body didn't have proper time to adjust and all my woman parts were torn apart. I has to lay there being sewed back together for an entire hour. :( BUT Hannah was awesome and latched right on and nursed the whole time. :)

Jason was SO good through all of this! As a guy that can't even handle an episode of CSI, I was totally impressed by his ability to watch oll of this gross bloody stuff! He can probably tell you all the yucky details that I missed.

We'll have a baby by Monday.

2009-06-12T21:07:00.002-05:00

I wish I could be more excited about it, but I was really hoping to avoid induction. I'm REALLY excited about having our baby...but mourning the loss of the birth experience I really wanted.

Last night I was awake for several hours just thinking of all the things I could say to my Dr. to talk my way out of an induction. I didn't really think I would even have to use them TODAY, usually I just have to do my NST on Fridays, and see the Dr. on Tuesdays.

The NST went well...but the Dr. wanted to check my cervix after it was done. So, I'm now 4cm dialated, 80% effaced...so I've made a little progress since last being checked. Then she started talking induction. :( She had told me last time we talked about induction that we could wait until week 41...this time she said she told me that cause she really didn't think we would have to worry about going past my due date. :( That was actually the part I was most upset about...I wish she hadn't led me on like that.

Basically, she said I could refuse the induction, but she really did think it was for the best, and she was quite insistent about it. She said because of all the extra fluid, and becuase they don't know WHY I have so much, she thinks it's safer to induce...that basically nothing would be hurt by a 40 week induction, but she felt there were significant risks in going longer.

Even though I don't think that an induction is best for baby because of the domino effect of interventions...I don't want to refuse something that might be best for my baby becuase of my stubborn pride. Sigh.

So, I guess that's why my appointment was BEFORE lunch today, instead of after like the rest of them had been(so that I could have lunch with my Sweetie afterward)...I was really upset, but went to my Sweetie's work and we went out for lunch and discussed everything. He said he would take off work early and call Coral, our Bradley instructor, for some advice.

On my way home I picked up a bottle of castor oil...I had decided weeks ago that if I needed to dodge an induction, I would drink the oil...ugh. (BTW...it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be!)

So, this weekend will be spent taking the castor oil and staying close to the bathroom, and hopefully jumpstarting some labor!

That was a little long...sorry!

39 Weeks

2009-06-09T21:35:00.004-05:00

So much to share this week! This is me at 39 weeks...still feeling good! (although I wouldn't mind if this baby would show up!) Today was my original due date before going to the Dr. and having the ultrasound done at 8 weeks.

We had an ultrasound this morning to check Hannah's growth, she's doing good...all of her measurements are right on, and they think she's about 8pounds 8ounces right now. Had my regular weekly appointment in the afternoon...my Dr. wasn't there, she was delivering, so I saw one of the other Drs...who seemed to want to talk me into an induction the whole time, so I kinda ignored him and told him Dr. Douglas already said I could go to 41 weeks, and that was that.

This is the artwork that I picked for the nursery, I think they're wonderful! Check out Rebecca's stuff at print*pattern*paper...I want to get the alphabet poster next, I think it would look great in Hannah's nursery!

I got the wall cards in German, just to be a little different...and I would love for Hannah to be interested in learning German and interested in knowing about Austria.

And the new stamps came in today! Yay! After grocery shopping, dishes, laundry, and all that good stuff I got to work packaging up the new stamps to send off to the design team girls...and if Hannah decides to stay put a while longer, maybe we'll get the new stamps added to the store this weekend! :)

Something very cool:

2009-06-07T19:36:00.004-05:00

I feel like all I blog about these days is pregnancy and the nursery. Well, today I have something different to share, something very cool:

I came acctoss this Etsy shop today, and fell in love with the beautiful rings and bracelets...at really reasonable prices!! (that bracelet up there is my vary favorite!) and I was even more impressed when I read the shop description:

WELCOME TO MY STORE Based out of Phoebus, Virginia, 2nd generation silver jewelry maker, Carl really knows how to use a fork and spoon. Not just in the utilitarian way, but he can take a piece of flatware and turn it into a piece of jewelry fit for any time of day. Pendants, rings and bracelets have been very much a part of Carl's life since the early 70's when his father had a spoon ring store. The sales from this jewelry is used to fund his short -term mission trip each year (GO) and help support missioniaries around the world (SEND). Romans 10:15 "And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Mission Statement *The calling of GO OR SEND JEWELRY is to provide resources for the advancement of the Gospel. *GO OR SEND JEWELRY provides funding to missionaries to ensure they can complete their calling. * GO OR SEND JEWELRY is Jewelry with a local and Global mission.

I love that the proceeds are used to fund the Gospel mission, so cool.

38 weeks:

2009-06-02T20:25:00.003-05:00

Here I am at 38 weeks...not the greatest picture, oh well. At my appointment today the Dr. said that since I'm "favorable" (heh) she could go ahead and induce on my due date. I told her I would rather wait, but she's only giving me until 41 weeks, but really thinks I'll go before then anyway...we'll see. Otherwise all is well in baby land!

Friday night I finished my final baby room sewing project, the crib skirt....I'm pretty happy with it.

And Saturday we put up the new tiny ceiling fan in the nursery, it's pretty cute.

So, I'm officially READY for Hannah to arrive! ...as ready as I'm going to be anyway. What would be really nice is a place to scrapbook, because I'm pretty sure that by the time we get the office fixed and set-up, I'll be way too behind on Hannah's scrapbook to ever properly catch up. I'll just have to remember that I don't need to scrapbook EVERY single photo that I ever take of her, and that there's nothing wrong with simple. (If I even remember how to scarpbook by then!)

New nursery banner and NEW STAMPS! :)

2009-05-29T19:55:00.003-05:00

I worked on one of my sewing projects today...this adorable banner with some more Heather Bailey fabric. I was looking at banners on Etsy the other night and found some really cute ones...but then I thought..."those would be super simple to make!" so I made one with the HB fabric I wanted to use for something in the nursery anyway.

And I got the samples of my new stamps today!! :) These are the ones that were supposed to be out by the end of last year...5 or 6 MONTHS ago...and then Big Mac died. I don't back stuff up properly. :( Jason recovered the hard drive in January or February and got me my files, but we were a little busy in Jan/Feb with the house search, so now that things have calmed down, we have new stamps!!! (before things get extremely busy with the new baby.) So, keep your eyes out for them to be added to the store sometime in a few weeks.

Hannah's room so far:

2009-05-27T12:12:00.002-05:00

I've been waiting for so long to do the nursery...I got to work on it some on Monday, so here it is so far...I still have a few sewing projects, and I have to decide on the artwork for the walls...and I have to re-upholster the cair, but it will do for now:

Since the room has linoleum floors, pretty much the easiest thing to do was buy a 6x9 area carpet that covers most of the floor...we can decide on a more permanent flooring choice later. :)

The crib looks pretty bare right now...I hope to make the crib skirt this week...but I don't really want bumpers for now...we'll see if she starts moving around and getting limbs stuck between slats, but as I understand, when babies are little bumpers are pretty much just a SIDS risk.

Because my feet are swolen...

2009-05-22T12:26:00.002-05:00

I'm taking a little break in the recliner to eat lunch and share a sewing project before going for my NST.

One of the ladies Jason works with handed us down a bunch of baby clothes and other things, one of those things being a bouncy chair....and since Tweety and Sylvester are not exacly my style, a make-over was definitely in order.
I spent less than $5 on this Heather Bailey fabric, and everything else I already had in my sewing stash (extra fabric for the backing, the batting, the thread)...or I used from the old cover (the clippies.)

I think it turned out pretty well, now all I need is a baby to put in it! :)

36 weeks

2009-05-19T20:30:00.003-05:00

Today was a little crazy!

I had an appointment to meet my new regular Dr. this morning, and she was wonderful, I'm really glad I'm switching...my old Dr. was kind of odd and would look at the floor the whole time she talked to you, and I would always go home not quite sure what the woman was saying.

Then I had lunch with my Sweetie before going to my 36 week OB appointment. I do my NSTs twice a week...and the nurse always calls Hannah her over-achiever, cause she always does exactly what she's supposed to...not so today. Hannah moved around and practiced her dancing ALL morning, and then after having lunch and emptying my bladder she settled in for a little nap....and didn't want to do anything! Usually we're on the monitor for 20-25 minutes TOPS and I get to go home. Since Hannah wouldn't cooperate the Dr. had to do an ultrasound to make sure she was practicing her breathing and to watch her move around a few times. She aslo did my GBS swab...and since I had my pants off anyway, she checked to see how things were progressing...for the last time before my due date. She was surprised to find that I was 3cm dialated and 80% effaced, and said that even though it didn't mean I would go right away...she would be around all weekend except Saturday morning when she was getting her hair cut. :) We'll see...I still think Hannah should hold out for at least Sunday when she will officially be full-term. (but I AM getting a little anxious for her to be here...even though I feel like there's still so much to get done!)

Since this all took so much longer than it was supposed to, I was late for my hair appointment, I called on my way over there, and they were wonderful enough to reschedule me for an hour later. One of the wonderful ladies Jason works with got me a gift certificate for a shampoo, cut, and style, I was so grateful...as it's been almost a YEAR since it was last cut. The girl who cut it was named Jenna, and she cuts hair a lot like Jenny does, so it was nice.

When I got out of there I found that my car had a flat tire. :( It's the first time I've ever had one. I called Jason and left him a message saying that I had a flat tire and would try to change it...he called me back a couple of minutes later and said that he would get there as soon as he could and NOT to change it. (I didn't really want to anyway, all I could picture was me trying to change a flat tire and my water breaking or something wonderful like that!) He he he. Well, turns out a nice man that lived right there saw me stranded with a flat and helped me out, and it's a good thing he did...cause my silly wheel was STUCK on there...he had to pound it off with a sledge hammer it was so stuck. So he changed the whole thing for me...I didn't have any cash on me, but I made sure to write down his name and address to send him a thank-you. By this time Jason had just made it to Kenosha and met me at Culvers for some food before we drove back to Oak Creek to drop my car off at our favorite Meineke and then he drove me home. Quite the day, huh?

So my picture up there is taken in Hannah's room, I put the first coat of paint on her walls yesterday, and will do the second tomorrow, I'm so excited, I am very happy with the color...when I just saw it on the paint chip I was afraid it would be too light, but I think it's perfect!

That's all for now, I think. Heh...my brain is a little fried, I didn't get a nap today!

Church Baby Shower.

2009-05-18T12:43:00.002-05:00

I forgot to take my 36 week picture yesterday with all the excitement of the baby shower. I'll take one on Tuesday after my Dr. appointment and HAIRCUT! :)

The shower was a lot of fun...lots of talking to people...and meeting people I didn't even know...the church we go to is not huge...but it's pretty big, and we usually sit in the same general area every week, so we don't know all that many people. Hannah has so many things now...I need to get to work on her room so that we have a place to put it all!

I also updated our house blog with part one of our kitchen re-do, if you want to see what we've been up to around here. :)

35 Weeks

2009-05-13T23:38:00.003-05:00

I don't really like this picture(taken on mother's day)...but that's ok, I expect the pictures to get less flattering until I have a REALLY cute baby to show you. At my 34 week appointment I was having much pain, turned out to be a yeast infection...the Dr. checked me and said I was dialated 1cm and 50% effaced...and at my 35 week appointment she said that any time Hannah wants to come is fine with her...although I would prefer her to wait a while longer! (I have started to have a few random contractions, so that's fun.)

I'm doing non-stress tests twice a week now because of the extra fluid...and Hannah always does really well...and she's getting so much stronger lately! She goes crazy when I play the little hand-help electronic yahtzee game...can't figure out if she loves it or hates it. :) There's so much to get done before she's here...but...overall, I'm pretty ready....I think about 37 weeks would be ok with me, but so would 40.

34 weeks

2009-05-04T08:50:00.003-05:00

Here is 34 weeks....at my appointment I had not gained any more weight! :) Jason is convinced this is not a good thing, but I don't mind it.

After announcing to him yesterday that I thought I had lost my mucus plug (if you don't know what that is, you probably don't want to!)....he dug through a box of papers until he found our birthing class info to make sure that I wasn't going into labor. he he he He decided that since I had lost my plug, was starting to lose weight, and was nesting, labor could start at any minute.

I told him that I would get a new plug, that I was not LOSING weight...merely not gaining, and that I was not nesting because I felt like it, but nesting because we are moving!!

Heh....but then decided that I should go buy our carseat just in case she does decide to come early, heh. Since I've been planning on her coming late, when faced with a possibility of an early baby I get a little nervous!

Happy Anniversary Rachel and Jono! :)

2009-05-03T21:54:00.003-05:00

:) May year #2 be even better than the first!

I found a couple bottles of your wedding bubbles while packing up to move and decided to keep them for a couple more weeks so that we could blow them on your first anniversary. :) We love you lots and lots!

I'm totally going to...

2009-04-29T17:04:00.003-05:00

do this in Hannah's room when she has a sibling to share it with.....since her closet is pretty deep, and kids' clothes don't really need a whole closet, we can just add an armoire for their clothes, and build a bed "into" the wall, I'm excited. Also...I like run-on sentences.

Fun Canopy....

2009-04-22T03:02:00.005-05:00

I kinda want to make one of these for Miss Banana's room....to go around her crib...since I'm obviously not going to spend the remainder of my nursery budget on buying one! I'm just afraid with how small Hannah's room is that it might be a tad overpowering...the room is about 8ftx9ft.

32 week photo

2009-04-19T22:06:00.003-05:00

Aparently blogger only has problems with me posting house photos over here...hmmm. Here I am (or we are, I should say) at 32 weeks. I think the growing is slowing a little...what do you think....do I look much bigger than a few weeks ago?

You can see the pictures and the tour...

2009-04-17T19:31:00.003-05:00

here.

Since this blog is hosted *not* by blogger...it gives me troubles often, and since I've been trying a couple of days to post the house pictures I decided to make a new blog for all the house stuff. So you can go over there to see our little storefront house and its various improvement projects. :)

I see how it is......

2009-04-16T16:05:00.003-05:00

blogger hates me.

maybe next time.

Will blogger even let me post?

2009-04-16T15:43:00.001-05:00

I just got all my before pictures ready to post...and now blogger won't even upload them...we'll see if they let me post this at all.