Rose

Here’s her story: I went to bed big bellied and achy-backed on Sunday night like usual. Monday “morning” between 1:30 and 3am, I woke up a zillion times and I couldn’t figure out why until nearly 3am, when I felt that crampy superpain seize me by the womb. I thought, “maybe it’s a contraction!” So I got up and sat in my chair to see if more came. They did, and suddenly they were 4 minutes apart and rather intense. At 4:30 am I woke up Jeff, and he took care of details like calling his sister Steph to come babysit Jay. (She’s awesome like that and came right over)

We got to the hospital lobby at 5am, where I realized just HOW far into labor I was already (ahem, when it gets intense, I puke). SO they wheeled me back to a room and somehow I changed into the gorgeous hospital gown before collapsing onto the bed. The nurse checked and guessed that I was around 7cm dilated already! Holy cow. I laid there dealing with labor for a while, and the rest is kind of a painful blur (sans pain medication—I’m all naturale, people). Basically, we got to the hospital at 5am, and I was holding Rose by 7:19am. Whirlwind! [For those of you who are interested in the gory details, they broke my water at 7am, and I dilated those last 2 cm in less than 10 minutes flat, and 2 pushes later Rose was crying!]

As long and unpleasant as this pregnancy was, I’m glad the last laborious part was quick (unless you count the week before Rose’s birthday, when I had 2-4 contractions per hour for 7 days straight! That makes it sound a whole lot longer…) My first thought when Rose was OUT was: IT’S OVER! And I was so relieved. I can’t really describe it. RELIEF. I am not prone to postpartum depression—more like postpartum euphoria!!! Now I get to enjoy the reward from that long 9 months: a Rose!

The token post-birth picture. It has everything: haystack hair, pallid, emotional mother, hospital logo-stamped gown, unbathed baby.

Proud Daddy. I can tell he was proud because he called Rose “cutie,” even though he says that newborns aren’t cute. Except ours, I guess!

Jay and Steph visited later that morning. Jay is already willing to share with his new sister—he tried to feed her a Cheerio! I noticed just in the nick of time, and intercepted it.

Ready to go home!!

To infinity, and beyond!

We played dress up this morning. I’m in baby girl heaven!!

Jay now has a big bed and a roommate! My Mom brought my old bed for Jay to sleep on. It seems huge for him!

Grama Meri! (my Mom) She is here right now and helping SO much! 1000 loads of laundry, doing dishes, cooking dinners, playing with Jay, etc etc etc. I love my Mommy.

We had a photo-fest this morning, and Jay loved it!

 

Jay likes to look at his sister saying “baby! baby! baby!” He also is very generous, and right after this picture was taken, he tossed Piglet onto Rose’s head.

Escaped from the burrito!

Love.

She’s Here!!!!

Rose Meri White: born February 7th, 2011 @ 7:19am. 7 lbs 2 oz, 20 inches. Now we’re all home and happy (and tired)! More about Rose later when I can think straight…

4 is my lucky number!

Jay’s Last Waltz

Jay won’t be an only child for much longer! Just for fun, here are some pictures of his “last waltz” before Rose makes her appearance.

I gave Jay and Jeff hair cuts this week. Jay didn’t even cry during his hair cut! I think that’s a first! I let him touch the buzzing clippers while it was on, and I think that helped his confidence. Poor Jeff-I cut a bald notch in his sideburn with the clippers, so he took over and just buzzed his whole head.

Basketball boy!

Getting ready for bed. I’m so used to having Jay help me out while I dress him (he puts his hand into the arm hole, etc.) that I wonder if it’ll be hard to remember how to dress a floppy little newborn again!

Making bread with Mama! Jay LOVES bread, and he also loves: helping me make it, eating little bits of bread dough, getting out the bread pans for me, and trying to measure the ingredients. A few weeks ago, he figured out that he could dump the toys out of his toy box, turn it over, and use it as a stool. Smart boy, but MAN he can reach way too much now!

Jay likes to pack his ABC blocks into this shoebox lid. I love seeing the look of concentration on his face while he works.

It doesn’t take much to get Jay smiling! He likes to be goofy (I wonder who he got that from?)

Hopefully the next post will be all about ROSE!!!

GoodBYE, January!

January has been such a LONG month! I’m glad today is the last day in January. It’s amazing how much longer days and nights seem when: 1. you’re nearly 9 months pregnant, 2.  you get up a few times a night from hunger, hip aches and bathroom trips. I know I will like getting up during the night a WHOLE lot more when I get to take care of a cute little baby instead of my big,  achy belly!  [Currently it’s 4:45 am and I’m awake for a PBJ and chocolate milk]

And now, a few little pictures:

 
Our little DUDE—2 “thumbs” up!

Much to Jay’s joy (and mine), Jeff’s work hours are a TON more forgiving now that he teaches at the community college! He teaches 2 sections of a computer skills class, Monday-Thursday, and he’s usually only gone from 11:30-3pm (at most). Fridays he usually gets a substitute teaching job during normal school hours. We’re lucky and blessed to have so much time together and still be able to live off of that very…sma—I mean—modest—income! Jay adores having Dada around to play with—their favorite game right now is building towers out of blocks: Jeff builds as fast as he can, and Jay tries to demolish it as fast as he can. Looks like Daddy won this round! It’s great having Jeff around so much right now because I can’t be as fun as Jay would like—crawling around on the floor to play is just not in the cards with my…condition!

So this is one of the things Jay likes to do with his big, boring Mama these days—he climbs up into the recliner and says “wee! weeee!” and I make room for him, cover up in a blanket, and we rock. Weeeehawww! Jay likes it. I have to take breaks though or else I get seasick—Jay likes to rock FAST!

We keep our house at 65 degrees. Not freezing, but it feels nice to snuggle up with a blanket when you’re sitting on the couch (or on the recliner, in my case). Jeff and I both usually have a blanket draped over ourselves when we’re lounging. Jay has noticed this, and often he carries his 2 blankets around the house. It’s motivation for me to keep our floors nice `n clean because he drops those blankets everywhere!

Pardon the purpleyness of this picture—Jeff is still figuring out the ins and outs of his camera. ONE WEEK TO GO, PEOPLE! (hopefully it’s not longer…)

Responsibility—bring it on!

The sweet ladies in our ward had a baby shower for Rose this week! I came home with an enormous pile of the cutest pink clothes ever! I’m in girly heaven. All I want to do is admire the row of tiny dresses hanging in the closet and dream about life WITH a sweet little baby girl and life withOUT a big stomach!

But alas, there is another weighty responsibility to take up some of my daydream time: I became the Grandview Ward Primary president today! I received the call last week, and it was made official today. My honest first thought was a panicky “Who, ME? Seriously?” I’ve never been president of anything EVER! No clubs, no young women class, nada. Although I still have no idea how to do this job, I feel much better about it now than I did one week ago. Our ward is very supportive, and now that I’ve been set apart, everything seems much less scary and much more do-able. To me, the biggest vote of confidence is the call itself, because I know where it came from. If He thinks I can do it, then I guess I can!!!

Whew.

Well, I don’t have any cute pictures to post this time, but the pictures I do have are of things I’m excited about… so that’s my excuse for posting the boring pictures! Some people are worried about being dull or pointless with their blogs. While I want to keep mine as entertaining and well-written as I can, its main purpose is to update family and friends on our little life. And as you know, sometimes life is boring, and sometimes it’s not! 

The other day I just HAD to see what the crib will look like when Rose comes. So I sewed a super-long tube of pink flannel and crammed our blue crib bumper into it. Voila, boy crib bumper becomes girl crib bumper! I also sewed Rose a blanket with roses on it—it’s in the crib too.

Would you believe me if I told you that this is less than half of the clothes Rose has been given?

The rolly kitchen island-turned baby changing table. It is actually quite perfect—we loved using it with Jay! See all that PINK in those plastic drawers? I moved Jay’s clothes to the closet and put Rose’s clothes by the changing table. It’s still surprising to see PINK peeking out of those drawers. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

The kid closet. It’s TINY, but I constructed some shelves and drawers. Ugly? yes. Budget-friendly? (a.k.a. free) yes. And I can just close the closet door and keep it hidden. It’ll look better when we get a few more big Huggies boxes in there so it all… “matches.”

Are you tired of these inanimate Jay-less pictures yet? Rose is already doing her sisterly duty and HOGGING the hanging space in the closet! 2 people in our ward gave us boxes of hand-me-down girl clothes, and those plus the shower gifts have given Rose a grand total of 14 dresses!!! I don’t know if I’ve owned 14 dresses in my whole life put together! Luckily there is a variety of sizes, so she should hopefully be able to wear them all before growing out of them!

OK, here’s proof that there are some people in this house too. Jay loves playing with Daddy! Jay is getting so tall and smart. It’s great fun to watch him play and try new things. I never know what he’s going to come up with next. I had to dig out the next set of sizes from his clothes box this week. (yay for more friendly hand-me-downs!) Jay can wear some 2 year old clothes now! I guess he’s only 4 months from being 2, but still—my baby is growing up!

That’s the end of the new stuff. I promise, things will get a lot more exciting around here in about a week or two…

Home sweet home, dude!

Do you hear those angels singing? This is my glorious, luxurious, heavenly new recliner! It just came a few days ago, and the only reason I haven’t shared my joy sooner is because I have been too, um, “busy,” reclining! It’s a Christmas gift from my parents. Technically it belongs to Jeff too, of course, but he gives his large, achy wife priority seating. What a great guy. We found this beauty for 50% off at Fred Meyer (it’s this giant everythingstore that I had never even been to before). A random lady walked by us when I was testing recliners elsewhere, and recommended Fred Meyer. Thank you, stranger!!

Now Jay has a little chair, I have a big chair, and Jeff has a couch. We’re like Goldilocks and three bears!

Here’s what our front room looks like now (we found that rug for $20 at Lowes!). Now it feels a lot homier in there—it was pretty bare before.

This is the view I have from my recliner. My talented sister made us that cool WHITE families are forever sign for Christmas. It’s a nice addition. [Just avert your eyes from the peanut butter jar full of Nerf balls and the bag of clothes for Goodwill on the fireplace]

Enough with the boring HOUSE pictures! Jay got a pair of sunglasses in his stocking this Christmas, and he is now quite the dude:

I love how he thinks he’s giving us the thumbs up with his pointer fingers! I also love how he travels—zero or 60, nothing in between…

…that’s definitely NOT how I get around these days! (3 weeks to go!)

till next time, people!

Love You!

This week Jay has been learning how to say “love you.” I got a video at naptime today! It melts my mommy heart.

4 Weeks to GO!!

This is a Shaina-post with a little Rose accent. Yes, I’m writing about my belly again. I can’t help it—it’s almost over! Rose seems to have settled down lower onto my bladder in the past week: I can’t cross my legs comfortably any more. And she’s making my tummy look like a torpedo!!

Even though there are 4 weeks till the due date (Feb 6th), in one week she’ll count as full-term, so I’m hoping she comes then. I used some carefully stashed coupons and got a load of newborn sized diapers and other useful supplies yesterday. I packed a few things to take to the hospital. Hopefully all of these preparations don’t jinx anything, because I’m so-o-o-o ready for this 9 month ordeal to be OVER, and for the FUN to start!

Ahem. and now, presenting …[swallow pride]…the magnificent torpedobelly! This is the only shirt left that is still 100% tug-free and comfy in my large condition, unless you count those XL t-shirts. Too bad I can’t wear these awesome pants to church!

Jeff thinks the front view is funny.

Sleepy time

Before I go to bed each night, I usually peek in at Jay. I have no idea how he was sleeping through this one. Blanket on head, head on floor.

Ow. Faceplant. hee hee hee—don’t’ worry, I eventually put him back on his mattress!

Happy New Year!

On New Year’s Eve, Jeff was the only one in our house to say hello to 2011. Jay was in bed by 7pm, and I went to bed at 9:30pm. I felt bad abandoning my husband so early, but Rose and I were exhausted. Part of the magic of the third trimester is it FEELS like I stayed up till midnight, even though I didn’t. That’s got to count for something!

For the past few weeks, we’ve been trying to get a good family picture. I’ll let YOU be the judge of whether or not we succeeded:

Last week we took pictures after church, before lunch. Bad plan. Jay wasn’t in the mood.

We used the sweet camera remote that I gave Jeff for Christmas.

“We want lunch!” but if you look closely, there are crumbs on my belly so it appears that I had a snack before these pictures.

And we tried again today, but before church this time. Too bad we don’t know how to pose.

The best we could do, unless you count the next one…

Make it end!!! One of these years we’ll go to a studio and get a cute, stylish family photo. Maybe.

This week I had another ultrasound to check on Rose. It was the first one Jeff has ever been to!  I was expecting it to be a lot easier to see everything since Rose is so much more developed now than she was 7 weeks ago, but it was even harder! She was too big for us to see much of her at once, so we had no idea what we were looking at most of the time. This picture is her profile (nose pointing up).

 

This was one week ago, at 34 weeks (6 weeks to go). I didn’t take a belly picture today, but now there are only 5 weeks left!!!! The real question is what to do till then…