Mamma learned to Rock.

Dear Wyatt,

You are two months old today! It has gone too quickly and you have already changed so much. My guess is that you weigh between 10 and 12 lbs now. People ask me all the time if you are a good baby and of course I say yes. Though I have nothing to compare you to, I really believe you are. You nurse with intention and don't fall asleep or dawdle throughout your meals. Though you are very noisy you don't cry often (just fuss now and then when you want some attention or your pacifier). You've started sleeping 4-5 hours at a time at night which is wonderful! When you do wake up you nurse and then go back to sleep rather quickly. My favorite time is when you wake up at 6 to eat and then get in bed with me till I have to wake up at 7. You get very calm and are able to fall asleep much quicker when you are near me. I love it so much.

The other night you were having a hard time falling asleep. I remembered what your Mimi did to make you fall asleep and began rocking you in my arms and patting your back. You calmed down and fell asleep. This was the first time I thought to do this. It was such a funny revelation, because I couldn't believe I hadn't thought to try this before. Every day I'm learning more and more how to be your mamma.

I finally designed your birth announcements. I wanted them to be special and for the longest time had no idea what I wanted to do. Then it came to me. I had little pictures of you printed and placed inside glassine envelopes that state your name, birthdate, weight and length. And I got stamps that have O Henry on them. :)

I hope you like your new jean jacket. I got it on ebay. You are starting to grow out of your first set of clothes so I've been surfing ebay in search of 3-6 months pieces. You look so much like your daddy in this picture. Your hair looks just like his and you definitely have his coloring. Lucky boy! Speaking of your daddy...he is crazy about you! Though he can't wait till you are old enough to "do stuff" he is soaking up these early days too. He is getting lots of kisses in while he can and does a great job caring for you while I work in the mornings from 8-12.

Wyatt, I love you more than you can imagine. Keep eating and sleeping and playing and growing! I hope to see your smile soon!

Love,
Mamma

coast guard, wyatt, and back to work.

first off pictures.

on tim's birthday, the 14th, tim and i left wyatt with mimi for our first trip alone to san antonio since wyatt was born. tim had a meeting with the coast guard recruiting office to sign some paper work and raise his right arm while repeating an oath to serve and protect our country. it is the coast guard reserves which means he will be reporting to a base in corpus christi once a month with the possibility of being activated should it become necessary. wy and i are so proud of tim and his passion for serving our country. we plan to do our part by holding down the fort at home and kissing him goodbye with a smile when duty calls.

maternity leave has officially ended for me. i returned to work this past monday for an 8-12 work week. though i had lofty plans for my month off i merely accomplished the cleaning out of a junk drawer.  i find myself missing wyatt during our brief time apart, but at the same time its a good break from each other and i feel refreshed and ready to return to being a mom when my work day ends. if wyatt gets a good nap in the afternoon i can even manage to put in some hours from home as well. managing life with wyatt in the picture is quite an adjustment. things like cooking dinner become complicated when wyatt wakes up and decides he wants his right in the middle of my preparations. sometimes it actually feels like i'm having to choose between feeding my hungry husband or my wailing child.

wyatt and i have enjoyed some good walks lately. i'm currently in the worst shape of my life.i'm hoping to put an end to that soon when the doctor gives the ok to start running. once a week wyatt and i walk with our friends katie and sally. sally is two months older than wyatt. katie and i have wanted babies for quite some time before we both got pregnant two months apart with our little answered prayer babies. our last walk included lattes at vaudville, a basement french coffee bar and lunch cafe that makes you forget you are in little ol' german fred.

and as the weather gets cooler, i've been looking into some warmer clothes for wyatt. here's our wishlist.

baby makes 3

katie, i do apologize for my lack of a 38 week photo. allow me to make up for it with my 39 week photo.

my birth story.
Saturday the 25th, dull contractions started up every 10 minutes or so. didn't think much of them. Sunday at 3pm painful but manageable contractions began waking me up every ten minutes or so. i called my mom and she came and sat with me all morning, feeding me watermelon and reading to me from her household medical books. tim was at work. around lunch or so she left and rach came and helped me count the length of the contractions and the time between them. when they got to be about a minute in length and five minutes apart i called tim. for whatever reason we were both hesitant to believe true labor had begun. tim decided to swing into the women's pavilion and explain my symptoms. they said i needed to come in and get checked. i figured they would send me home so i didn't even grab my partially packed hospital bag. i think i was in disbelief this was actually about to happen.

well, they hooked me up to some monitors, checked my dilation and i was at 3-4 cm. I WAS IN LABOR! and they wanted me to stay. i started to cry. tim started to laugh (male equivalent of crying). time flew by and around 6pm my water broke. immediately, the nurse checked my dilation followed by a nervous sounding call for her director. baby was breech! emergency c section was in order. i began to cry, this time unhappy tears. after receiving confirmation from my doctor, who arrived only minutes after the discovery was made, that a c section was our only option, i was rushed into a cold bright operating room and delivery began. i'll save you the details of the traumatic situation of super painful contractions combined with 5 or so people prepping you while sitting mostly uncovered, realizing your birthing experience was to be nothing like you had anticipated. once the spinal kicked in and my body was paralyzed from toe to upper chest, my eye lids got heavy and i laid (layed?) and waited to hear the sound of my baby crying. then...there it was, wyatt henry made his grand entrance. he was promptly wrapped up and delivered to my side of the sheet and our heads were side by side.

i now know the secret to childbirth. as traumatic, uncomfortable, painful, and intense the experience was, i look back on it all with only the happiest of memories.

nursing.
wyatt nursed the night he was born but the next day it didn't go so well. luckily, HCM has an amazing lactation consultant that could come when summoned to help Wyatt and i learn the art of breast feeding. the first couple of days at home, were extremely frustrating and we worried as the missed feedings began to stack up. on day three, my milk came in with a furry. i was extremely tight and uncomfortable and wyatt couldn't latch on anymore. i called vanya (lactation consultant) and she suggested we rent an electric double pump and pump five minutes before feedings. we wasted no time in following instructions only to find wyatt still couldn't latch on. that evening after i had gone off to rest and have a good pout tim showed his true colors as a smart capable daddy and husband. he read my mom's breastfeeding books and learned about engorgement. when i woke up he had a plan. we would sit me down, get me relaxed and then as he put it "pump the hell out of me." after that wyatt had no problem latching on. now, wyatt and mamma are a professional nursing duo.

life with wyatt.
since we brought wyatt home last tuesday evening, we've lived the life of luxury...well during the day at least. mimi (mom) has spent countless hours at our place rearranging flower arrangements, cleaning, doing laundry, making muffins, cutting up watermelon, and making us meals. nana (tim's mom) has done her share of meal making as well. i received orders from the doctor to spend the next two weeks resting, taking care of myself and baby; no cooking, driving, climbing stairs, cleaning etc. so i've spent my days watching old movies, chugging water, eating snacks, nursing, and doing endless loads of baby laundry. nights have been rough, but i'm slowly coming to except the fact that night's will be sleepless for awhile. fortunately tim is a hands on dad and has no doubt changed as many diapers and swaddled as many times as i have. he even participated in nursing at first, holding wyatt's little hand as he struggled to get latched on. i don't think i could have picked a better man to father my children. :)

lastly, wyatt has made me very emotional. i hold my dear little son, and realize that each stage of his life will go so fast, and he is only mine for a time. i find myself sobbing every time i think about this. the other day i heard about "lullaby for wyatt", a song sheryl crow wrote for her son wyatt. tim found it on youtube and played it for me. i fell apart. she put to words exactly what i had been feeling. listen to it here.

ps notice the mr. chair in my pumping station? that's a post all it's own...

38 weeks, 5 years, and an extreme case of nesting...

as of today i am 2 weeks from my due date. there seems to be no signs that labor is around the corner. in fact, i'm finding it difficult to believe it will actually happen. today i learned at my doctor's appointment that it wouldn't be uncommon for women to deliver at 42 weeks, but most get impatient and induce before they reach that point. i'm willing to wait if that does happen...but not patiently. i'm ready to meet this little bobo.

i'm ready to meet sailor too, but things aren't looking good in Uganda at the moment. the government is encouraging domestic adoptions and strongly discouraging international adoptions. in fact, the sanyu babies home actually stopped international adoptions of their babies and is only allowing older children and special needs children to be adopted internationally. but, we have to wait anyway. God seems to really be working miracles in the growing of our family and i'm excited to see what he has planned for us. maybe sailor is an older child. :)

tim and i celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on saturday the 18th. i think it was my favorite anniversary yet. tim was really sweet and made it extra special. he made me a fancy breakfast, both sweet and savory and got me some gorgeous coxcomb. then he treated to me to an afternoon/evening in san antonio and dinner at a il sogno. we don't always do anniversary gifts, but this year i got a fancy brother sewing machine. tim thought number 5 was a landmark anniversary year. i'm looking forward to learning how to use the machine over my maternity leave. am i wrong to think i'll have the free time?

so, it makes since i'd get an extreme case of nesting during this time in my life. i mean, i like rearranging and de-cluttering my house anyway. if anyone has ever been in my car in the last 5 years they'd think i was a hoarder. its been a very dirty unkept catch all for things i didn't want in my house but didn't know what to do with. tim used to actually throw trash on the floor board thinking i wouldn't care? notice? :/ well, new baby is a good time for a fresh start. especially since i needed to make room for a car seat and didn't want the child pummeled by flying debris if i ever had to come to a quick stop. so i emptied out my car and actually had it detailed. i've also been tackling some creative projects which i hadn't done in a while. baby won't have his own room but he will have his own nook at the end of our hallway. i had fun making him a little clothes rod to hang his tiny onsies for easy access over his changing table. i also enlisted the help of my friend katie who knows a thing or two about upholstering to help me make a headboard for our bed. i say help, but in the end i sat and kept her company while she did all the work. it turned out amazing!!! materials probably cost right at or under $100 bucks and i think it rivals store bought versions that can cost up to $1500. :) next project is creating a wooden panel to paste this awesome screen-printed wallpaper (rach and i scored for half price) onto. i want to make a tall vertical piece of artwork to hang in between one of the narrow wall spaces i have in between my windows. rach is going to craft a headboard with her piece.

and i'll sign off with this very interesting interpretation of me as a pregnant lady by tim bobo.

late spring Tim planted some flower seeds and wouldn't tell me what they would become. i got one hint—they started with a "C". chrysanthemum? cosmos? calla lilly? i looked frequently for some clue as they began to emerge from the ground and one day, there they were—the smallest hint of coxcomb buds. apparently i can expect them in several warm shades of pink, yellow, and orange. how exciting! 

we finally finished our kitchen island we'd been planning since we built the house 4 years ago. during construction tim and i bought the butcher block top at ikea with plans to build a metal base with casters to provide a bit more counter space. about a month ago, tim welded the base, we had it powder coated a flat white, attached the top, gave it some casters and now i wonder how i lived without it. 

what else is new? tim signed up for the coast guard reserves. this means 3 weeks of training in new jersey after the baby is born and then one corpus christi or houston weekend trip a month with the possibility of being activated for up to six months. we'll miss him, but its something he's pretty passionate about. 

baby continues to grow at the proper rate. i'm feeling fewer kicks these days and more just bumping around and hiccups as he gets bigger and his space smaller. i've come to realize the awful temptation of buying baby clothes. they are so cute and so affordable and places like zara and amazon have free shipping. :o

i turned 26 on friday the 13th. mom and rach made what i am pretty sure is the best cake i've ever eaten. well done you two! mom, pops, rach, tim and i had dinner at comfort pizza and then explored the amazing little town of comfort. i had no idea it was so cool! rach gave me a handmade basket from africa and my parents gave me an awesome house plant. saturday, mom and i found the perfect white pot for it at dodd's nursery for just $19. 

just 7.5 weeks to go till we meet baby boy bobo. i've already taken a breast feeding class and in a couple of weeks tim and i have a childbirth class followed by a newborn care class. we are also currently working to update our homestudy so we can keep the adoption of sailor going. its quite the exciting times for us. :)

growing and juicing

there's a lot more growing around here than just my tummy. our peaches and plums are starting to ripen and pears will be ready soon. from the garden we've harvested one yellow pepper, jalepenos, onions, potatoes, tons of kale and basil. lemons, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, cantaloupes, and green beans should be ready soon. of course we've never had much success with the melons. what to do with all this produce (besides share of course)? juice it!

i'll admit, when my mom and then sister and then brother got juicers i thought it was neat but figured i'd never have the time or patience to hop on that kick. that's not to say i didn't indulge in my mom's and sister's healthful concoctions when given the opportunity. during our trip to grand cayman tim and i found a delightful little juice bar and he insisted we grab a cup. tim was not a fan and i ended up drinking both of ours. i figured that was the end of our juicing adventurers, and then out of no where tim decided to borrow rachel's juicer. tim has been juicing the last couple of days and its been quite a bit easier than i had figured—especially when we can juice so much of what we grow instead of buying it at the store. we've juiced kale, peaches, grapefruit, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, lemon, apple, and spinach. its an amazing way to get your daily does of vegetables and served over ice its down right delicious. will we be getting a juicer? we'll see.

i want be a interior designer/diy projects + my book review

i want to be an interior designer...it's true. however, i'm not about to print up some business cards and put an ad in the paper. that's way too scary. i'm hoping one day an opportunity will just fall in my lap—perhaps an interior designer i respect will need an assistant, or someone who's taste is compatible with mine will say, "hey, want to help me decorate my home." till that time i'll continue to hone my skills in my own home and occasionally at work. at the latter, i've been given the task of choosing paint colors, carpet, furniture, etc for a new clinic at HCM. the health care world is fraught with hideous interior design. it actual burdens me on a daily basis. i think there is such an opportunity to bring beauty and style into this industry and i'm super excited about being able to make a difference. that being said, fighting those who prefer "ugly" is no easy job, and yet one i face weekly. but, hey, i'm learning to deal with people which is always a good tool for the tool box and luckily my boss is on my side.

now that i have my own office, i can spread out and actually create inspiration boards—something i've wanted to do at work since my first day. here's what i've got going currently. its a sleep lab, hence the bedroom furniture.

as for the casa, i've been itching for some diy projects, the main one being an upholstered headboard. we currently have only a simple bed frame from west elm with no headboard. tim has agreed to be my carpenter and build the wood frame. i watched this how to video and now all that's left to do is order the supplies and pick a fabric. i love the look of this dwell studio styled shot, and while i'm considering the fabric, i'm thinking i'll stick with a basic rectangular shorter headboard. i like these three swatches. the colors will go well with my bedding options and the patterns aren't too busy. 

by the way, this is the best place to buy your upholstery fabric. the prices are less than half of what you'd pay for the same fabric elsewhere (i'm not naming names). any of these prints would be pretty with these pillows from castle and things and dwell studio. 

and moving along to the other side of the loft (our bedroom will be in the loft 3 months or so after the babe is born). have you heard of bemz? they make covers for ikea furniture in loads of cool fabric options. i have my eye on this pretty olive green for our karlstad sofa currently in a strange dark grey (black). it was fine for a time, but now i find it rather boring.  i've got the blue chair, the rug, and i'm hoping to own a lulie wallace painting one day. the coffee table i found here. 

see that little paint swatch? i plan to paint our loft floor a fresh seafoam tinted grey during my maternity leave in september. 

enough about decorating, how about a book review? i read Simplicity Parenting in a couple of days and found it worth every minute of my time. allow me to start off with a few favorite passages. most of these are from the first half because i got lazy and stopped highlighting.

"They (children) feed on the tone we set, the emotional climate we create. They pick up on the ways in which we are nervous and hypervigilant about their safety, and it makes them nervous; so the feelings cycle...The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears."

"The toys that endure, in reality and in our memory, are often the simplest ones. The less they do, the more they can become, in play."

"Rather than providing the newest in an unending list of "must-have" toys, our generous impulses can be harnessed to provide in simpler, more powerful ways. We can provide for our children by safeguarding their time and opportunities for open-ended imaginative play."

"Children feel more grounded to where they live when they can learn to identify some of the common plants, birds, and animals they see in their yards and neighborhoods."

"If you want your child to try a new food (or food group), you need to have them try it at least eight times."

I don't have a quote for it, but one of my favorite sections was about how we talk of others in front of our children. The author isn't a Christian, but he has some sound moral advice none-the-less when he says we should filter our comments by asking our self is it true, kind, and necessary. 

yes, i read a lot of parenting books. a friend overhead me discussing this latest read with my mother the other day and told me not to worry about being a good parent. it will come natural she advised and i should just follow my heart. i'm not exactly certain what that latter statement meant, but let me assure you i'm not fretting about how my kids will turn out. my recent indulgence in the genre springs from my keen interest in my children and developing their palettes, imaginations, minds, and faith. childhood is such a beautiful thing and i myself had a beautiful one. i want to give the same thing to sailor, and baby bobo, and whoever else comes along. today childlike innocence is lost way too early and it breaks my heart. i'm hopeful and optimistic about being a parent. :)