The Girls Are Back in Town

We are FINALLY back home, after what seems like a lifetime away. Livers and I got in around 5 yesterday, and though I was frustrated that the house was not up to my standards of cleanliness, it felt great to be home. I'd only been home for 10 hours since the 11th, and that was long enough to drop off my husband's luggage from Ohio, sleep six hours, and pack up to leave again at 9:45 the next morning.

I must say, traveling with a 20 month old can be rough. It can be especially so when you are stuck in an airport for two hours because of a hurricane grounding your plane IN OHIO. Who knew they got hurricanes up there. Overall Livers did great on her trips. She was very rambuctious and active, but that's no different than normal. I know that things could have been MUCH worse. (We've ALL been on planes or in cars with crying children who don't know when to quit.) There were relatively few meltdowns, and she was taken by the sights and sounds of the world around her.

It was very different going to the beach in the middle of September. I'm used to it being hot and humid the entire time, and there were times when it was actually, get this,...cold. Storms blew though Tuesday which left it around 80 and pretty windy the rest of the trip. It was fall-like! I'll probably get around to posting some pictures from the beach later this weekend.

Livers and the Local Color

For now, I've got to start tackling my huge get-back-in-my-routine to-do list, which is includes but is not limited to:

• Lots of laundry
• Cleaning a scuzzy bathroom
• Dishes
• Unpacking
• Dusting
• Grocery shopping
• Clothes shopping for Livers (she's getting too big for her summertime britches)
• Buying new batting my mom's dog destroyed while my husband dog-sat him
• Sorting out the baby toys from Livers' stash because she's growing up
• General straightening
• Finishing the diaper bag I had started before leaving for vacations
• Getting around to various craft projects I had in mind
• Reading Nights in Rodanthe before going on a girls' night out to see it Friday

At least the last few are fun for me. This in mind, I'm off to be productive. Hope that everyone had a great time while I was gone.

P.S. Only two days till fall! I'm trembling with excitement, even more so since it actually feels like fall here!

Coming soon to a backyard year you!

(Don't You) Forget About Me

Just a quick post:

I'll be MIA (intenet connection dependent) until the 19th. I'm currently in the great state of Ohio for my brother-in-law's wedding, and the day after coming back Livers and I will be taking a trip to the beautiful (and thankfully, hurricane-free) Carolina coast.

If I'm able to update (and hopefully I will be) my blog and read/comment on your blogs, then I will. I'll at the very least be reading some of your blogs in my absence. (Thank God for internet phones!)

Until later, have a wonderful week!

P.S. Thanks, Tiaras & Tantrums! I'll be sharing the love when I get a chance!

A Sad Day

Why?

You might think me a wee bit of an idiot for being upset over this, but I packed away Livers' (real) high chair today. We're officially into the booster/high chair thing (you know, the combo that attaches to a regular kitchen chair), and I could cry. Packing away her high chair is like saying good bye to my little baby. She's starting to turn into a bona fide, albeit very short, little person. She can talk well (even in primitive sentences). She carries herself like an adult. She's starting to feed herself like an adult (eating like one, eh, not so much). She dances, she sings, she has opinions (God, does she have opinions), she displays and is starting to understand emotions in others. She's growing up.

She still does have enough baby in her for me to hold onto (for now). She's little. She doesn't have much hair (though it's growing fast. As long as she looks bald she'll feel like a baby to me.) She still has a little chunk on her thighs, though they're slowly whittling down to being skinny kid legs. She still has a cute little baby laugh, though every day I hear it evolving into a little girl laugh (which is adorable, actually).

I should try to see the positives in the situation, like having more floor and counter space in my kitchen. But all I can see is my little baby girl slowly becoming a tiny little lady, and it makes me sad...

Spreading the Love, a Little .JPEG for Your Blog at a Time

Before going on vacation a bagillion years ago, Tiaras and Tantrums was kind enough to bestow a blog award on me: the Arte Y Pico Award.

Then, a week or so ago, Ms. T & T awarded me with another award, the Blogging Friends Forever Award.

And then (I promise I'm not trying to sound arrogant with all my awards), Maternal Mirth presented me with the honor of her brand new Mirth-y Muffin Award.

I greatly appreciate these awards, and am glowing from the honor. Now I want to share the love that you've shared with me.

Now, I know you're supposed to follow special "rules" when give these awards, but I don't want to do that. Not because I'm such a rebel, but because I don't want to just give an award to give an award. I want to pass on the love because I really enjoy the other person's blog. So here are my award recipients, in alphabetical order. Feel free to follow my "rules" lead or make your own up. It's your call.

• AFRo - All of the above. Because she's cool like that.
• Artsy Momma - Arte Y Pico. Your outlook on life and devotion to craftiness are something I really admire.
• Hippie Family Just Hanging Around - All of the above. I could see us being friends IRL if we didn't live half a country away.
• Maternal Mirth - All of the above. Yes, I realize I'm giving you your own award. But your blog IS yummy. I think the same thing I said for Hippie Family goes for you, M & M.
• Ravings of a Mad Housewife - All of the above. The way you put it all out there and intentionally try not to gloss over the negative side of mommyhood makes me happy. It's nice to know that it's not all sunshine and moonbeams for everyone.
  
• Tiaras and Tantrums - All of the above. If you ever need a friend to go to China with, give me a ring! :)

What's My Name?

Livers has learned my name. I don't know if she necessarily understands that Mommy = Lindsay, but she definitely knows that someone by that name resides in this house. How do I know this? Because she will randomly yell out, at the top of her lungs, "LINDSAY!!" In fact, right now, between singing the first two lines of Simon & Garfunkel's "Cecilia" ("you're breakin' my heart") and babbling incomprehensibly, she is calling it out. I guess she's picked it up from her daddy.

As long as she still calls me "Mama," we'll be cool.

Weekend Craftiness

Few things make me happier than getting the chance to be crafty and make something with my own hands. It relieves stress, helps me to focus and take my mind off of things, and gives me a sense of pride and accomplishment that what was created was done by ME. Even better is when the fruits of my labor are for someone that I love.

This weekend I began a project that I had wanted to work on for awhile: I made Livers a homemade stuffed animal.

When I was pregnant with Livers I struggled for awhile over the whole "nursery theme." I always knew what color scheme I wanted to use: blue, red, and lime green. I wanted something bold and atypical, even if it was for a girl. At first I wanted to go with something "oceany," and I always wanted to try and make my own artwork, but when I realized that I was too tired and had pregnant-brain, I scrapped the idea of doing something original. That's when I came upon the world's cutest children's book: Rainbow Rob. It's about a penguin, named Rob, who doesn't like that he's boring black and white. He looks up at a rainbow one day and is inspired to chose a different color for himself. After much research, he realizes that there's nothing wrong with how he looks, and he accepts himself for who he is.

Touching, right?

I wasn't so much sold on the concept as the fact that it was bright, had rainbows and penguins, and was cute as a button. So I themed my nursery after the book, drawing my bold colors from it and even making homemade canvas paintings from characters in the book. I was very pleased with how it turned out, and Livers loves it and the book.

Paintings I made in Livers' nursery

I had wanted for awhile to make a stuffed animal Rainbow Rob for Livers. I had done a little work in the past with felt, and I knew that it was pretty easy to work with. (Not to mention very cheap to buy.) So this weekend I finally sat down and cut out my patterns and began working on the stuffed animal. I must say, there is something very cathartic about sewing. To some people it is mind-numbing, but to me it is relaxing. One thing that was really nice was that I actually could get some of the sewing done with Livers around. She would climb on my lap a bit, but mostly she was just curious about what I was doing. She even could tell me who I was making, which must mean something!

Finally, this afternoon, I sewed my last stitch into Rob's felt. There are a few mistakes, such as his head being a little too pointy and him being a little less rotund that I would have liked, but I'm overall pleased with how it turned out, especially considering this is my first attempt at making felt stuffed animals. Rob's almost too cute to give to Livers, particularly since I'm worried he'll be destroyed.

So, without further adieu, I give you my "masterpiece" ;)




I really enjoy doing things like this, and am really getting into sewing. I have more projects in my head than I (and our bank account) know what to do with. I think that if my handiwork gets decent enough I might try my hand at selling things on Etsy. If any of you know anything about how that works, let me know!

My Labor Day Story...and What a Labor It Was!

We take a break from our regularly scheduled blogging to participate in a meme at Rocks in My Dryer. (Link below; blogger's acting moronic.)

My last preggo pictures. Taken before my (next to last) preggo meal at Golden Corral.

* * * * *

Here is my Labor Day story, circa January 2, 2007, for my little Livers:

How long was I in labor?
I was in labor for around 13-14 hours, give or take.

How did I know I was in labor?
When the nurse put the Pitocin drip into my IV for my induction and told me I'd start feeling contractions in around 20 minutes. She didn't lie. They started out nice enough, and I said to myself, "This is easy, I can handle this."

Before I started to understand what "labor" really meant. Note to self: Wear make-up and do a better hair job next time you have a kid. You may feel like crap, but at least you look pretty.

Where did you deliver?
At a hospital forty-five minutes from home. Good thing I was induced. I can't imagine having to have driven that while in labor. My husband would've died.

Drugs?
Oh yes. I have a pretty low threshold for pain. My contractions went from, "This is easy, I can handle this," to "Get me the f*****g epidural!" in about an hour. (I didn't say this out loud. I did in my head.) I was barely three centimeters dilated at this point. Before the epidural the doctor tried to break my water. I thought he was trying to kill me, or at the very least assault me. It was absolutely HORRIBLE.

I was fine for awhile after I was given my epidural, but then they had to periodically roll me from one side to the other to "drain the meds", because I would be numb on one side but could feel the contractions on the other. At one point my blood pressure must have dropped pretty low from the epidural, because I got incredibly nauseous, and they had to do a quick bolus bag to stabilize me. My mom later told me that she had never seen me so white and pale. Also not fun, by the time I actually reached 10 centimeters and was starting to push I had horrible back labor, which medicine would not have helped (believe me, I asked numerous times for something to take that away), AND my epidural had worn off (though my legs were still numb). I could've killed someone.

Me resting, when the epidural ACTUALLY was working.

C-Section?
Yes. I had never planned to have one, but it became obvious that I was going to need one. Why? Little Livers had chosen to make her grand entrance sunny-side up. In the last moments of my epidural's life the doctor tried to flip her face down. Let me tell you, that was an uncomfortable situation, even with pain killers. Nothing like a doctor shoving his entire hand into your uterus, grabbing your baby, and trying to turn her while you try to sit still. Even worse, I think he was still wearing his bomber jacket. Every time he came to check me (and to break my water) he just rolled up his sleeves. Dude, just take it off, because it's weird.

Anyway, he wasn't able to turn her so I had to try and push her out. The nurse got a bed sheet and knotted it, and she told me to grab on and pull while pushing. It was very obnoxious, because I was in a lot of pain and very tired, and she was acting like a complete bulldog.

Livers' never used warming table.

I tried really hard to push Livers out. I had the numerous busted blood vessels in my face to prove it. After around 45-minutes to an hour the doctor came in to check my progress, and he said that my cervix had swollen and was making it difficult for the already difficult baby to get through. He said it would likely be three more hours of this, and there was no guarantee that I would be able to push her out, so my mom stepped up to the plate and requested the C-Section on my behalf. I'll love her forever for this. I still had to wait in agony for thirty minutes to get the OR ready, and I was elated (between contractions) to get this over with. They told my husband to wait outside the OR until they got me ready and someone would fetch him, but they never got to. They gave me two spinals, but neither of them took, so they ended up putting me under general anesthesia. They never told me it was coming; just put a claustrophobic mask on my face and told me to take some oxygen. Next thing I remember I'm in recovery and groggily asking my husband questions about our new little girl.

Pictures of Livers taken while I was in recovery.

Who delivered?
The doctor did. He would periodically pop in throughout the day to check my progress. (See bomber-jacket reference.) The nurses did the vast majority of the work (aside from the C-section). I had around four or five throughout the ordeal. Amusingly the same nurse who had checked me in that morning was the one making me push that evening. I had been there long enough to catch her on her next shift. I didn't like her the second time. Most nurses at the hospital were awesome and very kind and helpful. One's name was Channa, which drove me crazy, because I was so hungry and her name was part of an Indian food dish that I thought was yummy.

Want more stories of guts and glory? Drop on over to Rocks in My Dryer and play along!