For each of my kids, I’ve made little notes on the new things that they were able to do at what age, usually in a notebook. Then, when it came time to scrap a page for their baby books, there were all the little bits of info I needed, all ready to go! Because goodness knows—there’s no way I’m going to be able to remember this stuff without some help! Ha! And this time, I’ve decided that I want to try to do this on my blog (since I’m less likely to lose it this way). Fun!

So, here’s a snapshot of Miss Penny-Pensters from the other day:

As you can see here, she has a little bunny friend. He’s close to being about as big as she is!

And she likes him already! See?

Chomp! He’s delicious.

Penny Notes:

• On the day she was born, I noticed two things about Penny. First, he was already looking for her thumb! If you could help her to find her hand and get it near her mouth, she would slurp all over it (and it’s a really noisy event, too). We have a feeling that she’s going to be a happy little thumbsucker. I can just see her now at two with pigtails in her hair, sucking on her thumb all day long. The other thing was that she really wanted to hold her head up on her own! She loves to look at our faces when we hold her and she’ll take a peek over our shoulders to check out the world around her when she’s being burped. She’s ready to go, this one!
• Penny is very cuddly–very cuddly. She has such a sweet disposition and she’ll just lay on you and rest their peacefully with you while you hold her. She also seems to prefer sitting upright to laying in your arms, so she just clings to us and rests on our shoulders. We like to call her our little spider monkey. That’s also because at first, she also seemed to be so small, like a tiny little monkey. I put her in onesies that Joshua and Katie have worn at the same age and they were huge on her. But not anymore—now she’s jumped up in weight and is wearing 3m. and some 6m. clothing. Joshua also had a huge growth spurt like this at one month.
• Penny has been a really good sleeper… to the point that sometimes it’s just impossible to keep the girl awake! I’ll go to burp her for less than a minute and she’ll have fallen asleep already. It’s only been in the last week that she’s had any “playtime” at all. And she’ll only want to be awake for about 15 minutes before she starts yawning and fussing. Thankfully, she’s also been sleeping well at night. For the last two weeks, she’s had one 5 hour stretch during the night. Yay! I don’t think Joshua did that until he was 12 months old? (That was rough…)
• Penny loves to look at our faces. When anyone comes to talk to her, she’ll look at them and make these little kissy faces with her lips. So cute! She was opening and closing her month one day and Joshua said to her “What, Penny? What do you want to say?” LOL! She’ll also track with you. If you go to leave the room, she’ll try to follow you with her eyes and even move her head to watch you go.
• She can be a little cranky too (but that’s mostly when she has a dirty diaper or a stubborn burp). Once you pick her up, she stops crying and is peaceful once again.

And what do Katie and Joshua think of her? They adore her!

They always want to kiss and pet her or hold her if we’re willing. Honestly, they don’t get to see her much during the day because she’s so darn sleepy! So it’s a treat for them to spend time with their sister.

(Love the “Say Cheese” grin here.)

In other news, Katie is getting ready to lose her first tooth! I’m excited! Actually, we might need to help her along with that a little. Her two new bottom teeth have decided to take the easy route and they are already coming in behind her baby teeth. I believe dentists call it “Shark’s Teeth.” Not looking forward to having to do anything that might be painful to help those teeth out. Eek! I heard a good thing to try is some Orajel and a little wiggling to help the tooth along.

Now, for my next post… I hope to get my camera and collect all the lovely presents people have been sending me so I can take snapshots, post them and properly thank you all! Just waiting for a sunny day and a little time to do it—on the same day! LOL!

We called the midwives to let them know that things were getting started and then we tried to lay back down and get some rest… but that didn’t last for too long. We couldn’t help but talk about baby names and other things, but at least we tried to rest. Sometime around 3:30 or 4:00 a.m., I started to feel a lot more uncomfortable, so I asked Travis to start filling up the AquaDoula tub for me. He had a little trouble with things at first (couldn’t figure out how to get the spigot to work with the hose), so I tried filling up the bathtub to float in there for a bit.

Once the tub was filled up, I hopped right in. But the hot water quickly ran out and the water was a bit chilly feeling at 85 degrees. The AquaDoula has a built-in heater, but it’s designed to keep the water warm, not heat the water up. So later we tried adding some hot water Travis had boiled on the stove (which is what you’re supposed to do at a home birth, right? “Boil the water!” LOL!) and then a second round of hot water from the tap helped a great deal and the tub felt great after that.

At about 5:30 a.m. the midwives arrived. They did an exam to check my progress and I was at 7 cm already. I was very happy because I remembered things progressing rather slowly with Katie and Joshua’s births. I was going to be disappointed if I was only at 4 cm when I already felt this bad. But then, as it turns out—I got stuck at 7 cm. for a long, long time. The midwives estimated that I was stuck at 7 for 7 hours! The other thing that we were more concerned about was that the baby hadn’t descended yet either. She was happily floating up high. So, they recommended I try a few things, like walking up and down the stairs and strolling around the house. I made one miserable trip down the stairs to the kitchen, having a contraction every few steps. I just headed back upstairs again. They suggested I try to sit on the birthing stool they had brought along or on the toilet, but both squatting positions hurt like heck! Then they suggested, even though it sounded counter-productive, to try laying on my back (because of the way that the baby seemed to be falling forward—we were hoping that it would help her fall back into place).

So, I tried all these various things for about an hour, but I just felt tired, worn out and I was starting to dread the coming of each contraction. I kept eying up the tub because I just wanted to crawl back in. But water is known to slow down your contractions, too and we didn’t want that. They were concerned that my cervix was already a little swollen. They said I could transfer to a hospital if I felt like that was what I wanted to do, but we all knew that I would end up with a c-section if I did that. So, I said that if they felt like it wasn’t an emergency situation yet, I’d like to get back in the tub and just see what happens. They also gave me a little Blue Cohosh to see if that would help speed things up.

I think I floated in the tub for about two hours after that, gradually feeling stronger and stronger contractions. Sometime around 12:30 p.m. my in-laws arrived at the house, which we were so thankful for. My mother-in-law had driven all through the night from Pennsylvania, made a stop in Ohio to pick up my father-in-law who was camping out on their property and made it to the house just in time. We were grateful that someone could be here to be with the kids to comfort them if needed. Up until this point, they had been blissfully watching movie after movie in Katie’s room (and I think they really liked the treat!).

So, sometime after this, the midwives asked me if I felt like I could eat anything, like some yogurt, and I said I’d try. I hadn’t had anything to eat for hours, but I didn’t feel hungry. Well, it was a challenge to get two bites down. But then around this time I started to feel ready to push! And then I got my second wind. I remember saying to Travis “Wow! I’m going to do this!” and feeling excited that things were now going so well. And I also remember saying “Gee, I could have TWO bites of yogurt now!” Ha!

It wasn’t my initial plan to have a water birth. I had pictured myself laboring in the tub and getting out on dry land when it came time to push. Well, after the experience of walking around the house and trying to squat and such, I wasn’t up for that kind of fun anymore. I didn’t know how long I would be pushing for and I was very happy now to stay in the tub. It didn’t make the pain go away, but it really did help me relax more in between contractions—I wasn’t “afraid” of them when I was in there. I had even been able to lay my head back and fall asleep between contractions in the tub (we were both so tired at this point from not having slept). Plus, it was so easy, being weightless, to move around and change positions… and I also wasn’t tiring out any of my muscles. So, I changed my mind about having a water birth and asked if that was okay with the midwives, too. They said sure and we turned up the heater and got ready!

They say that I only pushed for nine minutes… it felt like longer to me! But I was probably counting from the time I felt like pushing and they were probably counting the actual time spent pushing. Either way, it wasn’t that long or that painful. It did get rough there right at the end but I kept thinking how quickly it would be over and the baby would be out like magic—pop! And then I heard the midwife say “I see the eyes, the ears, the nose…” and with each facial feature she mentioned, I felt SO much better. It just took one more push after that and then I brought our beautiful baby up from the water into my arms!

I looked at her little face and then I looked down to see if she was a boy or a girl. What I saw confused me for a second and I actually said “Oh, you’re a boy!” because her belly button was stretched out all the way and looked to me at first like “little boy parts.” But then I thought “Wait, why is the umbilical cord connected to there?!” LOL! So I looked again and moved the cord out of the way and saw that she was a GIRL! Hooray! Just what I was hoping for.

After this, we climbed out of the tub and moved over to the bed. They wrapped her up in blankets to keep her warm and I held her for a good, long time. She was even able to nurse right way. I had forgotten how cute babies can be when trying to get the hang of nursing! She made me laugh. Travis asked if we really did want to name her “Penny” after all. We were thinking at first of Penelope Jane, but Travis suggested Penelope Joy, which we thought would fit better with Katherine Grace and Joshua Felix (which means “happy”). I think I said “Can’t I just call her Pumpkin?” Ha ha! So, Penelope Joy it was…

She turned out to weigh 9 lbs. and 4 oz.—my biggest baby to date, although she did NOT look like it. Katie had been 7 lbs. and 13 oz. and Joshua 8 lbs. and 11 oz. Penny topped them both! But she was a little shorter at 20 inches. Katie was 21 in. and Joshua was 21 3/4 in. But thankfully, pushing her out was not the hardest part—it was dealing with all those darn contractions! Ugh!

So, now that it’s all over, I’ve been asking myself if I’d do it all over again. At first I was thinking “No way! Sign me up for another epidural!” But after thinking over all the little things that made it so nice to deliver at home, I think I can safely say that if I had a tub, I’d go for it again seeing as I’ve had very normal pregnancies and very healthy babies. The biggest benefit—no one pushed me into doing anything I didn’t want to do! I didn’t have to fight with any doctors or hospital staff to let things progress naturally, like I felt that they should. I didn’t have to fight with anyone about what I wanted to have done (or not have done) to the baby. No one (but the baby—LOL!) woke us up at night to check on us. We were able to sleep in our own bed, eat whatever we liked and just do things at our own pace! Probably the biggest drawback was that there was a lot of things to clean up and Travis was exhausted, but aside from that, everything was just lovely and relaxed. I’m so very happy with how things turned out.

And that’s my story.

Ah, homemade birthday cake! There’s nothing like it. Isn’t this just a work of art?!

Joshua would have liked to have a “Monkey George” cake (thanks to an issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine where he saw a Curious George cake that a talented mom made for her son) but obviously, as you can see, we just don’t have those sorts of talents… ha! Nor could we find a shop that still carried Curious George cakes or decorations! So, we did the next best thing. We made him an official Cake Wrecks cake! Only a truly geeky family would go to such lengths… (hee hee!)

At least it was delicious. Confetti cake with Lemon icing. Yum! The birthday boy approved:

Here’s a cute family photo that we took the day after Penny was born:

Ignore Joshua… he was whining to Grandmom about his water cup for some reason. Everyone else in the photo looks happy, though. LOL! I can’t believe there are so many of us now…

So, Penny sleeps a lot. Can you tell? So far every picture of her on the web has been like this:

Here is a rare snapshot of her when she was awake:

Precious little snook-ems. The kids love her! They kind wish she’d be awake more, too:

(Actually, I think she was awake in this picture. The look on Katie’s face though was too much. I could resist a good joke.)

And last but not least… and anonymous present came for Penny:

Aren’t these adorable?! But the one bad thing about Etsy—the shop owners don’t always think to provide a note to say who the gift is from! So, anyone want to claim these? LOL! They are super-sweet. I just love them!

Now… to work on writing up that birth story!

Little Penny was born at home at 1:09 p.m. on Wednesday, June 17th. She weighed (believe it or not) 9 lbs. 4 oz. and she was 20 inches long. She was my biggest baby so far! Katie was 7 lbs. 13 oz. and Joshua was 8 lbs 11 oz. And Penny is the first one to come anywhere near her due date—just two days after I turned 40 weeks. She really surprised us! We expected that she would take her sweet time, but here she is! And she’s just as precious as can be…

More later, when this tired Mommy has had more sleep.

I had been to only one other market like this before and that was the Reading Terminal Market in Philly (they just don’t have this sort of cool thing in Florida!). I actually liked the North Market better in a few ways. Here’s a view from up above:

It had a nice atmosphere… but sadly it didn’t really seem like much of a place to shop for goods as much as an awesome place to get lunch. A nice place to go when you’re craving sushi, Greek or Indian food, but not really so much of a “Market.”

Travis took a great snapshot with me and the kids—one that I’m actually willing to share!

I think this is my all time favorite “Pregnant Nicole” picture. Yay! Wish my hair was still red and not “Bleached Strawberry” though. I haven’t really wanted to dye it again while I’m pregnant… but I digress.

Looks like every 1st and 3rd Sunday they have a few additional arts & crafts vendors outside of the North Market. There were people selling handmade soaps (which smelled lovely!), hand-made/hand-sewn cards, baby slings (made from Heather Bailey fabrics—yay!), knitted baby hats and these cute little headband/wrap things. I was almost jealous… I wanted to run home, yank out my sewing machine and start up an Etsy shop full of the same fun stuff. I just love handmade funky things! I wish I had more time in my day for making some…

Being downtown, especially in the Victorian Village/Short North area on a lovely Summer’s day, made me once again get the itch to move a.s.a.p. The sunshine, the little gardens, the sweet sounding tweetie birds in the trees, the people out walking and running and biking, and then just knowing I was a few blocks from lots of different shops, restaurants and parks?! So delightful! I came home and started Googling around for rental info. LOL! A friend pointed me to a great site (for any fellow Columbus-ites reading along). It’s actually two sites for the Columbus area: Suburban Rentals and Metro Rentals. Great great site! Found a few good looking places within our price range! Let’s hope the market looks as good in about 4-6 months (saying a prayer now…).

And finally: my due date is now 7 days away. Or 21 days away (which seems more likely for me!). But a girl can hope and dream, right? Right.

I’m so honored to have been asked to be their Featured Designer. It was a last minute opportunity that popped up and I was able to accept (I stepped in to help another designer who’s been having some serious real life issues… and I really hope she’s okay! I haven’t heard what’s up, but I’m guessing it’s serious…).

I shared this on the Paperie blog. Here’s a little peek at what I created for the Gold Members this month (click to see the whole preview at DST):

I really hope that people like it! It came together so fast that I feel really nervous about it. I kept going back to look at the preview again and again—LOL! I just like to feel settled in my own mind that what I’ve made is the best thing that I can make before I release it to the world—and this kit was just a whirlwind. WHOOSH!

In other news…

It’s getting to be baby crunch time! My official estimated due date is only 13 days away now. I do feel like every day I’m a little more ready. Walking is not fun anymore. It’s a little like “waddle, ow, waddle, ow, waddle.” So, I’m guessing the baby’s down a little lower than before. And the contractions feel less like a mild Braxton-Hicks and more like “We’re getting warmed up for the real stuff now!” They are super far apart though—please, no one get excited yet. I might loose my temper if you do. Ha! Yes, add increased irritability to the list, too. Ooo! I’m sure the kids just love hanging out with Mommy these days. I’m a barrel of fun! Whee!

The good news—I think all my baby-prep stuff is done! I had a list of things to do and things to get and I think we’ve about got it all now. Yay! So, that’s a weight off my mind.

Now, if we could just have mild 65-70 degree days with a cool breeze and no humidity in the air, I’d be one happy camper! (It’s 10:00 p.m. and I’m still too warm—wah!) But Summer is here… sigh.

Okay, signing off before I get more whiny!

In a case like this, it’s a handy thing to know how to knit:

I’ve had this yarn for a little while now. It’s a silky feeling bamboo (isn’t that cool?). I wanted to make baby booties/baby socks out of it but I found that I never had a pattern I liked and the time to knit in the same place at the same time. I’d either find a book at the library and have no time or inclination to knit… or have no pattern and the itch to cast on.

My original goal was to try to learn how to knit socks two at a time, but I do not think tiny baby socks are the ideal first project for that technique. Plus, my circulars are not long enough or flexible enough. So, I’m saving my cool pattern book for another day… like the day I finally get back to working on Travis’ wooly socks? Poor Travis has been waiting very patiently and only making a small handful of snarky remarks. It’s been about a year and a half since we went shopping for the yarn for his socks… ::whistle::

So, anyway—last night I cast on for a baby hat (and promptly frogged the thing twice; which I think makes for a grand total of four times that this yarn has been cast on and ripped back). The first time I cut back 16 stitches. The second time I realized I need to both cut back another 16 stitches and do a rib pattern instead because it wasn’t very pretty in stockinette (and it was still huge!). I’m thinking the fifth time is the charm. LOL!

And today is the perfect day to knit, too. It’s calm, quiet, overcast and there’s some cool music on the radio. Feels like an easy Saturday morning. Love that feeling…

In the cuteness department, I received this e-mail in my inbox this morning:

I like how Travis’ icon is looking over at mine (trying to get fresh with me, even?).

On a side note, what on earth are you supposed to do with a wool and copper anniversary?! LOL!

But that’s also from the back… (just not 10 miles away, Jessica!)

You think I’ve scarred my husband for life? Now, with this third pregnancy, he just knows better than to ever try to snap a photo from the front. Ha!

Well… in all honesty, I do complain a lot about bad looking “very fat” pregnant momma photos. ::blush::

Notice my hair is “not at all” bright red anymore? Sigh… I’m looking forward to a postpartum pampering session (hair cut, hair dye; feeling pretty again–ah!).

Joshua got a big kick out of the 4-wheeler:

He kept climbing up and down, pretending to “vroom.” I love this crazy face I captured in action…

My father-in-law is planting a huge garden out here and Katie loved helping (and playing in the dirt).

My mother-in-law picked up kites for the kids… and guess who had a great time playing with them? Travis!

And I just sat around in the Spring sunshine, soaking up the rays and enjoying the day (since I’m in my 9th month and I have a great excuse to be lazy now—hee hee!). Oh, and here’s a picture to prove that I was there, too (I’m on the left). Looks like my MIL and I have the same taste in clothes—we’re dressed alike. Ha!

It’s such a beautiful place! I can’t wait until the day comes when they can live out there (instead of 7 hours away in PA). I sure do miss everyone…

I got an amazing present in the mail today…

I had seen this beautiful nursing cover on Etsy (from The Pink Knot) and I was talking about it on Twitter when some of my Sunshine-y girlfriends saw it and said to me “Oh, thanks! Because some people are still looking for a birthday present for you…”

Well, today it arrived! I was so giddy and excited, I almost had to lie down for a minute to rest. Women who are 35 weeks pregnant really should not bounce around their house like I did… whew! Thank you, girls! I am so delighted to have this beautiful little cover. My favorite thing about it, besides the pretty colors and the brown bow, is the soft, soft material that it’s lined with on the inside. Just like a cuddly blanket. I can’t wait to wrap the baby up in this… ah!

Oh, and speaking of wrapping up, I did go back to Etsy and order this blanket (because I could resist no longer!) with some of my birthday money: Oink Oink Flannel Receiving Blanket

Etsy is so amazing and fun. I love buying things on Etsy for others, feeling like I’m supporting other “work-at-home” moms instead of Target or Wal-Mart. We have a tradition of buying baby gifts for our creative team members and designers at the Digichick and I have to tell you—that’s one of the best parts of my job! I love shopping and I love babies. Ooo! So much fun when you put them together…

Okay, it’s bath time for the kiddos! Until next time…