New Moms

My wonderful friend sent this to me from a site she found. I'm totally stealing it to share with everyone!

We are sitting at lunch one day when my daughter casually mentions that she and her husband are thinking of 'starting a family.'
'Do you think I should have a baby?' "It will change your life,' I say,keeping my tone neutral. 'I know,' she says, 'no more sleeping in on weekends, no more spontaneous vacations.'
But that is not what I meant at all.
I look at my daughter, trying to decide what to tell her. I want her to know what she will never learn in childbirth classes.
I want to tell her that the physical wounds of child bearing will heal, but becoming a mother will leave her with an emotional wound so raw that she will forever be vulnerable.
I consider warning her that she will never again read a newspaper without asking, 'What if that had been MY child?' That every plane crash, every house fire will haunt her. That when she sees pictures of starving children, she will wonder if anything could be worse than watching your child die.
I look at her manicured nails and stylish suit and think that no matter how sophisticated she is, becoming a mother will reduce her to the primitive level of a bear protecting her cub.
That an urgent call of 'Mom!' will cause her to drop a soufflé or her best crystal without a moments hesitation.
I feel that I should warn her that no matter how many years she has invested in her career, she will be professionally derailed by motherhood.
She might arrange for child-care, but one day she will be going into an important business meeting and she will think of her baby's sweet smell. She will have to use every ounce of discipline to keep from running home, just to make sure her baby is alright.
I want my daughter to know that every day decisions will no longer be routine. That a five year old boy's desire to go to the men's room rather than the women's at McDonald's will become a major dilemma. That right there, in the midst of clattering trays and screaming children, issues of independence and gender identity will be weighed against the prospect that a child molester may be lurking in that rest-room.
However decisive she may be at the office, she will second-guess herself constantly as a mother.
Looking at my daughter, I want to assure her that eventually she will shed the pounds of pregnancy, but she will never feel the same about herself.
That her life, now so important, will be of less value to her once she has a child.
That she would give herself up in a moment to save her offspring, but will also begin to hope for more years, not to accomplish her own dreams, but to watch her child accomplish theirs.
I want her to know that a cesarean scar or shiny stretch marks will become badges of honor. My daughter's relationship with her husband will change, but not in the way she thinks.
I wish she could understand how much more you can love a man who carefully bathes the baby or who never hesitates to feed, change or play with his child. I think she should know that she will fall in love with him again for reasons she would now find very unromantic.
I wish my daughter could sense the bond she will feel with women throughout history who have tried to stop war, prejudice and drunk driving.
I want to describe to my daughter the exhilaration of seeing your child learn to ride a bike. I want to capture for her the belly laugh of a baby who is touching the soft fur of a dog or cat for the first time. I want her to taste the joy that is so real it actually hurts.
My daughter's quizzical look makes me realize that tears have formed in my eyes. 'You'll never regret it,' I finally say. Then I reached across the table, squeezed my daughter's hand and offered a silent prayer for her, and for me, and for all the mere mortal women who stumble their way into this most wonderful of callings.

Lazy Afternoon

Anna has really discovered her play mat and has taken to it with obvious delight. It has tons of toys that hang down to just the right level for her to bat at. It also has a mirror that Anna can check her hair in ( Well....not quite!) and a music box that she just loves. She kicks her feet almost in time to the music. So far she still hates tummy time on the mat but I think that will come along in time. For a kid that doesn't sleep anyway but on her stomach she sure doesn't like to play that way. She has been playing for a full 30 minutes this afternoon and Matt said she did 30 minutes this morning as well. That's a lot of play-time for a 3 month old!
Yesterday she played so hard she fell alseep right on the mat in the middle of a swing at one of the toys!
This is the one where Anna fell alseep right in the middle of playing!

She was squealing with laughter in this one!!

I was hiding the camera behind one of her toys so that when she would smile real big I could grab it without her giving me the 'I'm terrified of that gray thing in your hand' look!

Year in Review

So this is my year in a few short sentences per month.

January - I could not stop crying because it seemed like everyone, and I mean everyone, I ran into was pregnant. We had been trying to get pregnant since May '08 and I was so disappointed.

February - We finally found out the greatest news. I was pregnant and we could expect the baby in October.

March - We told our parents the good news and got to share with our friends and extended family how incredibly happy we were.

April - Matt and I both turned 25 and I tried my best to have a quarter-life crisis but just couldn't come up with anything good. We also moved out of the house in Augusta and moved in with Matt's parents so that he would be close to his new job.

May - I was just barely starting to show and had to start answering the same questions over and over every day. "When are you due?" "Do you know what you're having/are you going to find out?" (I heard these same questions for the rest of the summer!)

June - Our 5th wedding anniversary! It was a blast and we got to find out that we were having a baby girl. Most exciting day of the summer.

July - We moved, AGAIN, to our house in Cheney and tried to get things pretty well set up for the baby. I know, way early, but it was so much fun.

August and September - The longest months of my life!!!! The air-conditioning kept going out at work and I was already so hot alllllllll the time that this was honestly the most uncomfortable I have ever been in my life.

October - My daughter arrived and proved that the best things are worth waiting for. She came into the world just perfect and is my super little angel.

November - The first holiday with my new baby. She slept right through it, but it was fun to know we had the new addition to the family.

December - Anna's first Christmas and it was FANTASTIC!! Of course she didn't know what was going on but again, it was so much fun with her here and picking out cute little presents for her. Both of our families went crazy over her and just showed us over and over how much they all love her. Well, that's my wrap up and what a wonderful year it has been. I have to go back to work on the 25th this month and the thought of it makes me sick. I know I won't be gone all that long from her but any amount of time that is not with my baby is just heartbreaking. I'm absolutely certain I will hate every minute away from her.

Already One Month

My perfect daughter is already a month old! Where, oh where did that time go?!?! I just blinked and now she is smiling at me and learning to lift her head off of my shoulder. We went to the doctor on Monday this week and she has gained one pound, 6 ounces since our last visit. Anna is up to 9 pounds, 12 ounces and 22 inches long. Everyone says she still looks little but she seems huge to me. Way too big to be my newborn. I put her in a very cute onsie and pants yesterday to go shopping and the outfit was almost too small for her!! This is the same outfit that I put her in to go to the doctor for the first time just last month! She is starting to fill out some of the 3 month outfits that I have for her and leave behind her newborn stuff. While I am estatic that she is healthy and growing at a normal pace, I am sad that she will very soon want to pull away from me and start to explore things. I know I'm getting ahead of myself and she will need me for many more years to come, but how quickly are those years going to go by? I would swear to myself that it was just yesterday I was jumping up and down and hugging Matt so tight I think he thought I was trying to strangle him because we had just found out I was pregnant. And now I have this amazing little work of living art and she is sprouting up before my very eyes.
How on earth do mothers deal with this???

My Beautiful Anna

My newborn is all of 5 days old and is absolutely perfect. I had a wonderful pregnancy and probably complained way more than I should have.
We went to the hospital Monday night to check in and I was really thinking that they would induce me at that time. But no! They just hooked me up to five different machines just to monitor me and the baby and left me to try and sleep in a strange room. Poor Matt had to try to sleep on this little pull out couch with those awful hospital pillows. Then the doctor comes in at 4:30 a.m. and gives me the medicine to start my contractions. Then throughout the day I met more nurses than I could keep track of. They were all super great and I wish I could have gotten to know them all better.

Then at 3 p.m. Melissa (my nurse at the time) told me I was finally ready to push. My doctor barely got there in time to catch Anna on her way out! She was born at 3:32 p.m. and I don't think I have stopped smiling since. I love her so much and am super happy with my little family.

Anna's very first picture ever!! She's beautiful :-)

Daddy and Daughter in the hospital room.

I have the adoring new mother look on! I think it's funny.

I LOVE FALL!!

I was driving home from work today and I saw some trees that have already changed from green to gold. I LOVE it!!!! I think it is the most beautiful season and I look forward to it all summer long. Here is my top five reasons for why Fall is the best:

1. We have had our windows open and the a/c off for the last 4 days because I don't have allergies in the fall.

2. I can wear jeans without getting hot. This is on the list because I HATE shorts and almost refuse to wear them during the summer.

3. The colors are amazing and different on almost a daily basis.

4. Stores put out Halloween candy at the end of August. Bigger bags for less, there is nothing better!

5. September is the start of my decorating season. From Sep. to April I have decorations that I have been collecting for years and years that I love to put out.

Baby Projects

So I've gone a little crazy on the baby room projects. It's only because I am soooooooooo excited. I have come to realize that the baby is not going to care about all of this for a very long time, so really the nursery is for me. Oh well, I think it is super cute.

I should have done a better close up because there is no way to see the cute little honey bees that made me fall in love with this fabric. The yellow goes so well with the green walls and I added pink lace at the bottom to really give it a girly feel. Now I just need to finish the set for the South windows.

I wanted to find some really cute, classic pooh wall-hangings, but everything was either the modern pooh or way too expensive. So I bought some 8X10 painting canvas and traced these pictures onto them. By no means do they look professional but they turned out pretty good.

This is one of those things that Anna is not going to care about. I took the left-over lace from the bottom of the curtains and hot glued it to this plain white lamp shade.

I need to finish this project but I like the way it is turning out. It's the biggest item I've tried to knit and so far so good. It looks blue but the colors are actually purple, silver, yellow and blue. I might add pink if I get around to it. I've been working on this project the longest, since about the week after we found out we were having a baby.

This was a plain white bear cutout that I painted pink and stenciled on. If I could write straight it would really help!! The Anna turned out way crooked but Matt says it just adds charm. He's sweet:)

Maybe I should cool it after I get all of these done. I just love having something to do!