Already 4 Months Old!

Time for the 4 month picture post! Can't believe it's already been a month since the last post. He's growing so fast!

Dining Table Upcycle

Craigslist is amazing. Can I get an amen? Amen.

Alex and I have moved to a much bigger apartment and we (mostly I) have lots of projects and ideas on how to make it more homey. One of my desires was to have a large dining room table. There was only one problem, dining sets are stinking expensive! $350 for a table from Walmart?? No thank you. So what's a girl to do? All I had was our dinky little kitchen table (see here) which fits four, and nothing else and that fits perfect in our new kitchen. Well, when you're poor you can't be too picky, so we have a lovely large folding table and chairs borrowed from my Mom and Dad. Classy, I know. Hey, I put a tablecloth on it...

So craigslist to the rescue. I scoured craigslist day and night for about a week (literally day and night...). Finally(!) a dining set came up that I could afford. Long story short we got the table and 4 chairs for $25. Woo!

Good news, it's solid maple and seems to be a good builder (Cushman Carpentry). Bad news...it was in rough shape. Just how I like things :)

Here's pictures of the table and chairs when we bought them -

We decided to sand down the top of the table and the seats of the chairs and stain it while painting everything else black (I am really fond of black furniture if you haven't already figured that out yet). This is how far we've gotten so far. I'm loving it!

Still have two chairs to sand and paint and then the bazillion coats of polyurethane to put on everything but with a 3 month old it's a little difficult to find time to do everything.

Little E's Birth Story

Alright folks, it's time. Time to tell you the birth story. 

Honestly, I went into pregnancy rather unwillingly. It wasn't in my plan, I'm not naturally a kid person. So when pregnancy was "sprung" upon me I was terrified. Not of pregnancy, not of labor. I was terrified of the baby. It sounds totally silly now that I think about it, but I was legitimately afraid of not liking my own child. But that's a whole 'nother enchilada. The only reason I say that was to let you know that I wasn't really afraid of labor. 

That being said, I did not particularly enjoy being pregnant (there is a point to all of this...hang with me for a sec). Constant nausea, rhinitis of pregnancy (couldn't breathe through my nose for 7 months), severe hydronephrosis, a dislike of doctors (who were a seemingly constant companion), severe heartburn, swelling...you name it, I had it. Except throwing up. That was good. You can imagine then that by the time 36 weeks rolled around I was ready to get that baby out! ...and then when 37 weeks rolled around I was even more ready! ...and 38, and 39, and 40... By 40 weeks I was pretty much ready for the loony bin. So at 41 weeks when this child still had not come I was on the verge of giving myself a c-section. Seriously. All this time I had felt maybe one contraction. Yeah. Not what I was expecting either.

Finally 10 (long...long...) days AFTER my due date I was induced. That wasn't in the plan either. I was totally and absolutely dead-set on going au naturale. Until I was 10 days overdue, then I was just like "get this thing out by any means necessary!". I still wanted to go as natural as possible (a.k.a. no pain meds) even with the pitocin. I had spent about 5 months of the pregnancy researching natural birthing techniques and watching every Ina May Gaskin youtube video I could find, so I felt prepared. I probably could have birthed the baby on my own with all the research I had done and with as many births I had watched on various blogs and the like, not that I wanted to. When I learned I had to be induced I was fairly discouraged. Most inductions end with epidurals and a high percentage end in c-section which was really, really not in the plan. However, I knew that it was necessary and that no matter what I just wanted a healthy baby in my arms at the end of it. 

The hospital scheduled me for Monday, April 14th at 5:00 a.m. (ew.). We lived a half hour from the hospital so we got up (who am I kidding, I didn't sleep a wink) and headed out the door. If you didn't already know this we were living in northern Wisconsin, so north that the hospital was in the U.P. of Michigan. We had planned on leaving at 4:30 since that would get us to the hospital right on time. So as we stepped out the door promptly at 4:30 in the morning we were not anticipating having 4 inches of slushy snow on the ground. Yes. It snowed. On April 14th. Ugh. After a highly intense trek through the frozen tundra we arrived at the hospital 15 minutes late (it was either that or not at all, and I was getting to that hospital whatever it took!). I was admitted, given my lovely blue gown, hooked up to some monitors and an IV (not my favorite) and sent into the bed to be monitored a little. After a few minutes of observation they told me that I was actually already in labor, with contractions coming 2 minutes apart and lasting for about 50 seconds a contraction. I was very surprised at this news because I wasn't feeling a thing! They hooked me up to the pitocin and started it at the lowest dose to see if I would make any progress before they resorted to breaking my water. 

And so we waited. Alex and I got bored just staring at the contraction monitor so we turned on the TV. After about an hour it started to dawn on me that I was in labor, even though I wasn't feeling anything. So we turned the TV off and stared at the contraction monitor some more. I got up and swayed and walked and sat on the birthing ball for a while. Finally at 8 a.m. they came in to check me and assess whether they would break my water or not. They decided that breaking my water would help things progress and so they broke it. It really helped things progress but I still wasn't feeling anything. Literally nothing. I would look at the monitor to see if I was having a contraction. Somewhere along the way I stopped looking and Alex would just keep me updated. "You're having a contraction now. Oh, it's a good one! Do you feel it?". Nope.

Around 12 p.m. things started to pick up and I was dilated to a 6. The nurse decided to have me try some different positions to see if that would help get things moving even faster. She checked me an hour later and asked me if I felt like I needed to push. Honestly, I didn't know what that meant, but I didn't think I felt like I needed to push. I was finally just starting to feel the contractions, so surely it wasn't time to push, right? She checked me at 1 p.m. and told me I needed to lay in this weird, pretzel position with a towel under my side which really got my contractions going. That was the first time the whole day that I finally felt like maybe I needed some pain meds, but Alex was my constant and kept reminding me that I didn't want them and kept giving me other things to focus on. My best coping mechanism was "horsey lips". Now before you get all weirded out, it just meant that I took a deep breath in and then buzzed my lips on the exhale so it sounded like the sound a horse makes. Ina May Gaskin taught me that one...she's so nice. 

The nurse knew what she was doing because after about half an hour on my side I was really feeling contractions and was dilated to an 8, at which point she asked if I felt like I needed to push again. Still thinking that things were supposed to hurt for a lot longer than this I may have been in denial that it was time to push. I thought I needed to suffer a little longer! Silly me. She told me that she could see the baby's hair and that I needed to push, whether I felt like it or not. 

So I pushed. They tell you not to push through your face, and I really attempted not to. But who are they kidding? There was no conceivable way to not push through my face. I made a blowfish face every push. So embarrassing...but in the moment I could have cared less. All I was focused on was pushing. With every ounce of my being. After an hour the doctor came in to see how I was progressing and decided that I was close enough for him to stay. The rest of the pushing is a bit of a blur, I remember one incredible moment of crowning and then seeing my baby for the first time. The nurses and doctor were in a flurry but I didn't even notice. They handed me that crying bundle of baby and the whole world melted away. My fears of not liking my own baby became laughable. That beautiful, slimy, wiggling, little boy that I was holding in my arms was mine. All mine. That was the moment when I decided that I like labor. I truly enjoyed it. Not because of labor itself, but because of the miracle of childbearing. God has so blessed women with the ability to carry and birth a child. A human being. God made a human being inside of me and designed me so that I could bring that child into the world and care for it. Amazing. Elam Tadd was born at 3:23 p.m. on April 14th, 2014 weighing 8 pounds even and 20 inches long. Alex got to cut the umbilical cord and take some pictures while the nurses got me cleaned up and delivered the placenta. That wasn't a pleasant experience but I was totally distracted by watching the nurses clean E up and weigh and measure him. 

My enjoyment was a little tainted when they told me that I was in need of stitches, but they let me hold E the whole time and I barely felt a thing (unless I thought about it...). Second degree tear with 3 layers of stitches. Yeesh. 

My amazing husband was involved through the whole labor. He never left my side. Holding my hand, giving me ice chips (which I may have been a little difficult about...) and all of the post care such as making sure I had food and water and helping me 'walk' around and get to necessary places. He was my rock, I couldn't have made it without him.

My nurses were also amazing, so knowledgeable and kind. They really cared about Alex and I and E. 

My doctors (I saw three different ones during my pregnancy and hospital stay) were also fantastic. The doctor that delivered E had already delivered 10 babies that weekend, and within a 2 hour span delivered 3 more including E. He was so calm and collected that you would have thought that I was the only one in delivery that day.

I would also like to shamelessly endorse prenatal chiropractic here. I'm not sure if that's what made my labor so easy or not, but I certainly don't want to find out. I went to my chiropractor religiously every week for the last trimester. Not only did it help with all the aches and pains of pregnancy, I am quite convinced that it helped significantly with my labor and recovery.

Group text from Alex: "E was born :-) 8.0 pounds 20 inches mom and baby doing great! Haven't completely decided on the name yet :-)"

I realize that many other women have horrible, painful labors. I'm very thankful that I was not one of them, but I admire them for their striving through labor.  I feel like I had it really easy (except for the second degree tearing and 3 layers of stitches...that wasn't easy). 

So when people ask me if I would do it again, I say "Not for a while, but definitely". I hesitate not because of labor, but because of pregnancy!  

Monthly Pictures - Month 3

So here we are, a month later and a bunch bigger! I decided to capitalize on the sitting up skill E has learned over the past month and pose him in this adorable rocker that used to be my Mom's. We had our first doctor's appointment this month and he was 13 pounds 10 ounces and 24 1/4 inches long. Getting so big!

Little E's Monthly Pictures

So I have to play catch-up on these, since Little E is almost 3 months old already. 

I've been doing monthly pictures for E. Pinterest is a wealth of ideas for monthly pictures. A wealth, I tell you. If you can think of it, it's been done and is pinned on Pinterest. Originally I had thought that I was going to do the onesie sticker idea where you get a giant sticker for each month that you stick on the front of a onesie and then you take a picture with it. I went on the hunt for onesie stickers and decided that I didn't like any of them. Nothing against them, I just couldn't find the one that I wanted for the price that I was willing to pay. 

I still hadn't found something that I really liked even after E was born, and the 1 month mark was approaching fast. I really liked the idea of using a chalkboard, but didn't have a chalkboard and wasn't sure where you could buy one for a decent price. I was talking to my Mom about my predicament and all the different options I was thinking of and explaining to her how I was going to have to search for a cheap chalkboard when she remembered that she had a chalkboard in the attic. The thing that made the chalkboard absolutely perfect was that it was made by my uncle that E is named after. Uncle Tadd died in a diving accident when he was young, and I was never able to meet him, so Alex and I thought we would let his memory live on through E since he was the first boy on my Mom's side since Uncle Tadd. It only made sense that we use his chalkboard. 

Mom and I got a white sheet from Walmart, dug out the chalkboard and voila! 

Monthly pictures = done. 

Eventually I'll make a book out of the pictures with things that stand out in E's development for that month next to the pictures. 

Love it!

Newborn

1 Month

2 Months

(Flint the cat wanted to help point out that E was 2 months old...)

Baby E Has Arrived!

...he arrived 11 weeks ago. Anyone who's had a baby will understand that blogging with a newborn is difficult. The people that do - I give you props. The people that don't - I totally understand...and I am one of you. Not to mention Alex graduating and our big move to another state that happened 3 weeks after he was born! Whew...it was a lot of work. But now we're getting all settled in and Little E is happy and healthy and we're all settling into a day to day routine. Yay!

So Little E is the cutest. Ever. I may be biased, but I'm absolutely positive that he's the cutest. Ever.

Take a look-see for yourself:

4 Days Old.

6 Weeks Old.

8 Weeks Old.

11 Weeks Old.

So. There you go. Cutest baby ever. 

And he's all mine :) 

(In case you're wondering - those are just a tiny fraction of the plethora (literally plethora...I can't even count them all...) of pictures I have taken. It was really hard to decide which pictures to put in this post because they're all so adorable!)

Alex and I are loving being parents. It's not easy, but it's so worth everything. Just one smile and we both totally forget that we hadn't slept very much the night before, or the frustrations of trying to figure out how to keep this mini-human alive when he's crying and we have no idea why. He's a true gift from the Lord and we thank God for him every, single day. 

God is good.

Herringbone Baby Quilt

This post is about my latest project, the Herringbone baby quilt. I spotted the pattern on pinterest (here) and absolutely adored it. However there was no pattern or tutorial or really anything that helped me know how to make it. I've never quilted before, so there was a lot of trial and error involved since I didn't have the pattern but I think the end result was satisfying enough.

I'm so much of a novice quilter that I didn't even know what the right dimensions for a baby quilt were...Google to the rescue! The general consensus for a good sized baby quilt was somewhere around 40x50. I then did a lot of math (not my strongsuit) to try and figure out how many squares I would need and how many yards of fabric I should get...it was a long and complicated process that I'm still not sure I knew what I needed by the end of it. I ended up with 1 yard of Cream cotton (40"x36") and 2.5 yards of Gray cotton (40"x90"). I got a cut of batting that was a yard and a half (40"x54") and two packages of blue double fold bias tape (??? yards).

First I made sure I had enough of the Gray fabric saved for the backing and cut that off of my Gray fabric block (40x50).I cut the Cream and Gray fabrics into 5.5 wide strips by however wide the fabric was (40" I think) and then cut those into 40 (per color) 5.5" squares. Next I halved all of the squares diagonally making triangles. I ended up with 80 triangles of each color. (This got me into a little trouble because apparently my math was a little off and once sewn together the quilt as a whole was about 2" short on every side so I added a 2" gray border). You can figure out your math based on how big you want your quilt...and whatever you do, don't ask me to do your math for you! Anywho...I sewed each triangle to a triangle of the opposite color with a 1/4" seam allowance and then ironed open all of the seams. This gave me 80 bi-colored squares. (I did not have very much Cream fabric leftover, maybe two extra squares - so if you want to buy more of that for insurance you can).

(It gets easier after this...)

I laid out all my squares in the herringbone pattern on my batting and backing that was laid on the floor. Then I started sewing the squares together in rows (from right to left but it really doesn't matter as long as you get strips of squares sewn together and are able to sew them to the next row) Make sure you iron all of your seams open! This was by far the slowest most tedious part for me. (I also had to add my 2" border...because I'm bad at math...).

Once I had all the squares and rows sewn and the borders put on a pinned my batting, backing and top piece all together. And went to work quilting. After I'd gotten a few rows started and was very frustrated because I was having to shove mounds of fabric through my machine which was making for very crooked lines my Grandma told me that I should start from the middle...(good idea Grandma!). She also told me that my batting was really thick...*sigh* learned the hard way I guess...anyway, my method of quilting was to run the edge of my presser foot against the seam and my needle was positioned farthest away from the seam. Something like a 1/4" quilting line on either side of the seam.

My last step was the binding. I found a good tutorial on youtube that I used to know how to do it. I followed the tutorial for the front steps and then hand stitched the backside of the binding so that I could be sure that it was neat. Yes...I learned quilting from the internet. Pathetic I know. If I do any future quilts I promise I will find someone that actually knows what they're doing to tell me how to do things.

This was just one big adventure in quilting for me! I'm sure there are many great quilters out there who will be able to help you better understand how this quilt should be made, so go out and find them! I'll just be over here trying to find someone to tutor me in math again....