cleaning

Our room is a mess. I seem to be able to keep the living room clean. And the kitchen is clean. I mean, I have plenty of time. This kid sleeps a ton. But our room is the biggest mess. Clean clothes piled everywhere. It's hard to walk.

It took me a few days to figure out why I couldn't get to cleaning our room. Duh. Graham sleeps in the cradle in our room. He wakes up, I feed him, we burp him, we change him, we ooh and aah at him for a few minutes, we swaddle him, and we put him back down for another nap. Then we repeat. Over and over and over. All day and all night.

So it occurred to me--put him down for a nap in his own room! So today Graham is taking his first snooze in the big boy crib. Do you think he has enough space?


Time to go clean my room...

PS--We still haven't carved our pumpkins. Christian promises me we're doing it today. And we need to come up with Halloween costumes, because we're planning to venture out to our church's "Trunk or Treat" tonight. Graham will be making his debut as a dragon. I could dress up as a frazzled new mother, but I'd rather look nice since I spend all day in pajamas. What should we be?

Post-blog edit: I didn't clean our room. Here's how it went:

Christian: Let's watch 30 Rock.
Molly: No, I need to clean our room.
Christian: Let's clean it after we watch 30 Rock.
Molly: No, I want it clean now. The baby will be awake by the time we're done watching 30 Rock.
Christian: Okay, then I'll clean it on my own later.
Molly: Deal.

And that's how Christian ended up cleaning our room while I took a nap after we watched 30 Rock. I sure worked that deal, didn't I?

business in the front, party in the back

I know I'm supposed to love everything about my baby, but, seriously, the mullet has got to go.


In other news, we're going to carve pumpkins today! I've been wanting to carve pumpkins since September. It's about time. I love Halloween!

In other other news, I did my hair and makeup today. I didn't even used to do my hair before the baby was born. In other words, I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go. Anyone want to come over and play with me?

happy baby, happy mommy and daddy

Things are going great. Even Graham thinks so.

introducing baby Graham...

As some of you noticed, I never got around to posting about Josh and Christian's clothing company, because our baby finally arrived!

We're so excited to introduce you all to Graham!

Graham made his way into the world on Thursday night at 10:12pm. 8lbs,11oz. 20 inches. He is perfect!





Here's the story for those of you who are interested...

My water broke at about 1:00am on Thursday morning just minutes after Christian told the baby in my belly that he needed to come out already.

At 4:30am we went to the hospital with weak and irregular contractions so they could monitor me for infection. Unfortunately, things didn't progress at all and I was hooked up to pitocin at 10:30am. I was pretty bummed about having to go on pitocin since I knew it would probably mess with my plan to try for a natural birth, but I got over it pretty quickly. I roll with the punches.

I spent the next 5 hours managing contractions just fine, chatting with Christian and my mom, and trying to sleep. Around 3:30pm, everything changed. The contractions hit hard and I couldn't seem to manage my relaxation anymore. I was not in a good place. Breathing was hard. I threw up. I was a mess.

When things became unbearable, the doctor came in to do an internal exam. Christian thought they had good news for us but it turns out the doctor and assistant were just excited because they loved how cute my polka-dotted toenails were! Ha! Christian confessed later that he was pretty pissed that I was in such a bad place and they were oo-ing and ah-ing about my toes. I'm pretty sure I remember being flattered and saying "Thanks!" between contractions.

I was only 3 centimeters dilated--the same as a week before. They said a normal labor would progress about a centimeter an hour, meaning a possible 7 more hours, so I gladly opted for an epidural. I would have loved to have gone natural, but it just wasn't happening and that was just fine with me. Not trying to prove anything here.

Getting the epidural took about an hour, because my veins weren't cooperating and they couldn't get enough fluids in me. Once the epidural was in and enough blankets were piled on me to stop the shaking, I was fully dilated within an hour and a half. What a relief.

My contractions pretty much stopped (weren't showing up on the monitor), so pushing was a guessing game, but it was the best part of the whole labor. I couldn't feel any pain, Christian was really excited (making me extra motivated), and I opted to have my mom stay in the room, which was really special!

I knew I was having a baby, but I didn't fully wrap my brain around it until they put Graham on my chest. I couldn't believe my body had made that perfect little person. It was surreal. I was just so excited and couldn't stop smiling. I could definitely do that again.

It took 21 hours total, but for probably 19 of those hours, I was in a great mood. Overall it was an amazing experience.

Welcome, Graham! We love you!

more stamps...

I've run out of things to do...

And then I remembered that I can carve stamps! I didn't put the most time into designing these, but they gave me something fun to do.





But these are the stamps I'm really proud of. Christian and our friend Josh have a clothing company--Discrepancy Clothing Company (stay tuned--if I haven't had my baby by tomorrow, I'll post all about it). I had a great time making some stamps for him. I think they turned out great!

what do you do...

...when your baby is past due?

You drink a bottle of bourbon with your sister.


Just kidding. We made vanilla extract.

running

I have a lot of energy today. This morning I went on a walk on the Steven's Creek Trail with Denise and Trinity. Trinity and I are in a race to have our babies. My due date is 4 days before hers, but I think she'll have her baby first.

While on our walk, I ran a bit (okay, only about 10 feet when I was fake-racing Denise in a stroller-pushing contest), did some lunges (slowed me down too much), and did some jumping jacks (actually not too bad--I should do more of those).

The results? Nada. But I felt like I could have walked forever. Out to the blue bridge and back wasn't enough. I wanted to go and go and go. I wanted to run. I wanted to pull out an 8-miler on a foggy cold morning.

Oh, to dream. After our 1.5-mile walk, my day went on as usual--feeling like someone had kicked me in the crotch. Gotta love those relaxin hormones that mess with your entire "undercarriage." Oh, the joys of pregnancy.

So here we are sitting in our living room sorting clothes. I'm going through all my pre-pregnancy clothes to see what I want to keep (and to motivate myself a little). "Oh, I remember those shorts! I used to wear those when I was super skinny!"

And then I got to my running clothes. I pulled out a pair of my Nike Tempo shorts and I hugged them. Really--I hugged them. I imagined meeting up with friends on a cold morning wearing my tempo shorts--back when my thighs didn't rub together when I'd walk.

Those were the days.

I think I'll hug my shorts one more time and put them in the "to wear in the near future" pile. Here I come, shorts. Here I come...

rough-housing

Christian can't wait to have a little boy. Here is proof from Charlie's birthday party:







Oh, and the belly pictures have been updated. I'm 3 days from the 40-week mark. I'm sooo ready for this baby to be out.

...put her in a pumkin shell...

Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater
Had a wife and couldn't keep her
Put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well

in the middle of the night

I never thought I'd be one of those people who get up and do things in the middle of the night. Ever. It's 3:30am and I'm sitting in the living room. Sleeping was frustrating--went to bed around 11 and have gotten up 6 times already. 6 times. What's the point of getting back in bed? I decided to make myself some toast. Maybe if I could break things up a bit, I could sleep for more than 30-45 minutes at a time. But then I ate the toast and it kind of made me feel sick. Can I go into labor now? Please? I mean, I'm already awake...

So since I'm awake, let me tell you about my birthday!

* Christian made me french toast. To be honest, all I really wanted was for him to make me breakfast or take me out to breakfast. That means he succeeded at giving me a great birthday within minutes of me waking up. Not bad!

* Richard gave me the children's book Everyone Poops. I think that book is hilarious. Won't be potty training our kid for a while, but still fun to have it!


* Went on a walk around the park with Christian. I love going on walks.

* Made myself a to-do list so that I wouldn't sit on the couch all day long.

* Took a nap. So nice.

* Went to Ikea to get a better-fitting mattress for the crib. Decided halfway through the store that I needed another nap.

* Came home and took another nap. So much for the to-do list.

* Christian gave me some cute earrings from Therapy! I think I'd be happy to receive just about anything from that store.

* Watched the squirrels eat the pumpkin seeds.


* Enjoyed a visit from the lovely Julia, who is in town to run the Nike Women's Half. (Jealous!)

* Went to dinner at Dancy Sushi with Christian. Mmmmmmm. I love that place.

* Received lots of wonderful "Happy Birthday" phone calls and lots of "Happy Birthday" texts and a ridiculous number of "Happy Birthday" Facebook posts--that site is out of control!

* Ate a ring pop so that my tongue (and teeth, and lips) would match my outfit.


* Went to bed by 11 in hopes of getting a great night's sleep. It was a good try...

Happy Birthday to me!! I love birthdays.

stormy weather brings zombie

A few days ago our beloved hermit crab, Herbie, bit the dust.

Or at least we thought he did...

I went to check on him in his favorite hiding spot (as we often do since he can sit in one place for weeks at a time), and saw that his body was hanging halfway out of his shell. Legs can hang out, but not body. Their bodies really are quite disgusting. He was dead. I was sad (and a bit grossed out).

I called Christian over and, feeling very guilty, admitted that Herbie must have died from dehydration. The empty water dish made me feel like a very very bad pet parent.

And then to prove that we are indeed horrible pet owners, we let his poor crumbled body sit in the tank for days. Who wants to clean out a dead hermit crab anyway? Like I said--gross.

Then the storm hit. Blustery winds. Rain for hours. True spooky October weather.

I looked over at Herbie's tank this morning and his shell had been moved. "Christian--did you move Herbie's shell?" Negative. Did Richard do it? Hmmmm.

So I carefully picked up the shell. Turned it over slowly. AND THERE WAS HERBIE! Alive and well.

Turns out our dead hermit crab was just molting. In our defense, he never molts above the sand--only when he's completely buried. And this time he was fully exposed. {Um, good thing we didn't throw him away!}

So was he molting? Or did he come back from the dead?

Beware of zombie hermit crabs...

Do zombies get really thirsty? He hasn't left the water dish for an hour.

no baby yet... but we have pumpkins!

I have 8 days until my "due" date. Which pretty much means I'll be having a baby some time in the next 2 1/2 weeks--guaranteed. That sounds lovely.

On Friday, my wonderful friend Holley spent the day with me while accompanying her husband on a work trip. She was nice enough to go on a big long walk at Rancho San Antonio (I had no idea how much I missed that place) and then help me with the baby's room. Thank you, Holley!! I had a ton of fun! I want to go back to Rancho again today and walk more...

We put together the crib with a little (a LOT) of help from Christian. (Notice the cute quilt? Ashley made it for me!!)


We hung a shelf I had painted orange (thanks for the spray paint, Amy!), a framed picture (that was, in reality, a cute gift bag from my mom that I cut and put in a frame), and a super cute wall hook I found at Cost Plus.

{Helloooooo chipmunk cheeks! Let's hope those go away quickly...}


The room is looking so cute!

After I returned Holley to her hubbie, I finished working on the throw pillows for the bed in the baby's room. I've discovered that pillow covers are the easiest things to make in the whole wide world. Someone warn my husband--we might end up with a million pillows all over our house.



The red pillow is made of dish towels, the teal pillow from a bath towel, and the orange pillow from cloth napkins. What can I say? Cost plus had all the right colors and I couldn't resist. Oh, and the orange pillow shows my first ever attempt at pin tucks. They are actually quite easy.

But enough of that. Let's talk pumpkins! Yesterday we joined Amy, Ivan, and their boys in Half Moon Bay for some pumpkin patch fun! Then we met up with Ashley and Jose for more pumpkin patching, yummy bread from Pescadero, and dinner! It was a long day and my body was TIRED after almost 5 hours of walking around. Despite the long walk on Friday and all the walking on Saturday, this baby hasn't budged. I guess I'll go on a long walk today, too. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy! (Sorry I only have one with Ashley--by the time they arrived I had put my camera in the car and my legs were too tired to walk back and get it...)

vacation

Today Christian started talking about getting a better computer. Bleh. The last thing I want to think about is buying another computer. Our laptop works just fine. Sure, it could use more memory. It's getting old. But it works and that's good enough for me.

So I decided to change the subject and talk about our next vacation. I'd much rather spend money on travel than on a computer. Just think about the amazing vacation we could have gone on with the money we spent on our cars this year. Kind of depressing.

Let's take a look back at our wonderful vacations together.

Mexico for our Honeymoon - June 2004


Hawaii for the Honolulu Marathon - December 2004


Belize with my family - November 2006


Brazil - December 2006


Hawaii for Deirdre and Mike's wedding - July 2008


We obviously won't be going anywhere for a little while, but where should we go next? Fiji? Thailand? Guatemala? Costa Rica? Bora Bora? :) Any recommendations? We'll need to start saving our money now...

Where would you go?

peter, peter, pumpkin eater

I know I should stop him. I really should. But I just can't wait to get a picture of him inside the pumpkin. And trust me--once he has made a big enough hole, he will go all the way in and eat the seeds--sending them strewn all over my patio. Annoying yet super cute. I'm a sucker for squirrels.

{Sorry about the poor-quality photo. I had to take it in stealth mode through the dirty screen so as to not disturb him.}

on sleeping and sewing

I love to sleep and am quite good at it, but it's no fun anymore.

Waking up all night long really stinks. For example: Last night I went to bed at midnight. Woke up at 1:30 to go pee. Then 2:30. Then 3:00. Then 4:10. Then 5:20. Then 5:40 (alarm to be sure Richard was up for seminary). I realized I'm not getting up due to a full bladder anymore. I get braxton hicks contractions all night long. They wake me up, which makes me realize my back and ribs hurt, so I get up to go pee mainly to give my body a break from whatever position I was in.

Wake up, roll over, get up, pee, go back to bed on the opposite side. Repeat in a half hour.

When my alarm went off at 6:15, I turned it off only to realized it wasn't my alarm, but a phone call from my friend Kerri! Why would Kerri be calling from Chicago at 6:15am? She must be calling me to tell me she is having her baby! I immediately called back only to realize that I'm the one about to have a baby--Kerri had Alana way back in August. So I quickly hung up a bit embarrassed realizing her kids must have called me by accident. Too late--she saw the missed a call from me and called me right away thinking I must have had my baby!

And that's how I found myself chit-chatting with Kerri at 6:30am. It was wonderful. And now I'm awake. Sleeping sucks. Talking to friends on the phone is way more fun. I'm going to need a nap in about an hour...

Enough complaining. On to more exciting things.

You know what doesn't suck? Having time to sew! We put the bed in the baby's room on risers in order to create more storage, so I made an extra-long bed skirt to hide the junk. Turned out great, especially since I took measurements once, never double checked them, and proceeded to cut and sew until it was finished. I was sure glad it fit.



Then I found some old fabric that Deirdre gave me and decided to cover some of our throw pillows. What I thought was more of a subtle gold turned out to look very bright yellow in comparison to our red and gold couches. Hmmmm. To keep or not to keep. That is the question.


And of course I had to make something for the baby. So I rummaged through the fabric from Deirdre and made a cute little star pillow. I think it turned out great! (Note: I did not make the giraffe.)


Breakfast time? Sounds great to me.

baby shower

I should really be in bed asleep, but since Christian, Richard, and I are sitting here watching our recorded shows, I figure I'll be productive and post about my baby shower!

Tonight my wonderful friends from church threw me a baby shower! I really am blessed with so many wonderful friends. April, Julie, and Nicole threw me a wonderful shower and Katie was great enough to host it at her house! Yummy food and lots of fun friends. It doesn't get much better than that. I wish I could hang out with them more often.

And the decorations were the cutest things in the world. I'll let you see for yourself.




Thank you so much, ladies!! It was wonderful!

autumn thoughts

1. It's October! I LOVE October! Have I mentioned that before? Happy Birthday to me in 2 weeks! And Happy Birthday to my little baby sometime in the next 3 weeks! I was actually a little worried that if our baby came early he'd be a September baby. Not that that's a problem, but for the last 8 months I've been mentally prepared for an October baby, and since I'm an October baby as well, I was kind of hooked on the idea. So today I can breath a sigh of relief. We made it to October. Phew!


2. We spent this past weekend in Loomis for Quincee's baptism. What a great baptism! She was so excited. (I forgot to take pictures...) And of course we stayed an extra day. Can't resist hanging out at Ian and Kitty's. Kitty and I also had a onesie printing party. Think we printed enough?


3. Oh, and their cat had kittens if anyone is looking for an adorable addition to their family. Really--the kittens are so cute. I would take 2 of them if I could have animals in our apartment.


4. Our room is clean and the cradle is ready for the baby. Isn't it adorable? We won't actually leave it at the foot of the bed (inconvenient and our comforter would slide off the bed and cover the baby--no good), but it looks really cute there for now.


5. Both our cars are in the shop today. We're so used to it. But this time we're trying out new mechanics (yeah--each car is at a different mechanic). Let's hope they are good and that our cars don't need repairs again for a while. Or ever--we've paid our dues. Not counting whatever crazy repairs the mechanics will do today and tomorrow, we have spent over $4,000 in car repairs and maintenance this year alone. That averages out to $400 per month. In other words, we could have been making payments on a new car. Bleh. I hate cars. I can't wait 'til I can ride a bike again.

6. This weekend we're going to the San Benito County Fair! Christian and I went on our first date to those fairgrounds (but for the rodeo--romantic, huh?). I'm excited to see all the animals. The pigs, the cows, the rabbits. I'm even excited for the smell. I just don't want to run into anyone I know. Is it bad that I want to avoid small talk at any cost?


7. I have made it 37 1/2 weeks (over 8 1/2 months) without any strangers touching my belly. (Note: It does not bother me one bit when people I know touch my belly. Touch away, friends. I find my belly fascinating, too.) But it's so weird that people think it's okay to touch strangers' bellies. This morning some lady at the mechanic told me that I had to use Baby Signs and that I had to have my first two within 2 years of each other and that I had to be taking Lamaze classes. I didn't even start the conversation. But I quickly peeled myself away from it. People are so ready to tell me what I have to do with this baby. Strange.

8. I'm posting my weekly belly pictures even though they aren't finished. Christian sent back his ex-work PC and Picassa doesn't work on our mac, so I'm without software to edit the photos and add words.