he lives his life on pins and needles

Today is our third anniversary. 

Generally this is the day when it's expected I write a sappy post about undying love and adoration, but I'm taking a new route this year. I'm going to talk about the biggest thing I learned about Christopher this year: he doesn't like finding my sewing pins and needles on the floor.

I can't imagine why.

I don't leave them around on purpose. They make their own way out of the container and onto the floor. Nine times out of ten Christopher is the one to find them. The suspense of never knowing where a pin will show up next really adds a special suspense to our relationship.

Happy anniversary, Christopher. I hope you're always the one to find my misplaced sewing items.

one month Annabelle

It's my one month post and I'll look away if I want to.

Taken today at exactly 1:40, the time I was born. 

Vital statistics: 8.1 lbs, 21'' long. I'm still rocking the newborn diapers and mostly wearing newborn clothes.
Best friend: Mr.Lion. He gets all my love.

My sleeping habits: At night I usually sleep for about 5-7 hours, wake up to eat, than sleep for 2-3 more hours. I am a very noisy sleeper which doesn't annoy my dad but sometimes bothers my mom. Occasionally she blames her lack of sleep on me and the big D-a-d. One night Dad was snoring and I was grunting and groaning so loud Mama couldn't get any sleep for hours. She was so happy in the morning! 

I answer to: Sesame, Annabelle, Anna, AB, and Squishy. My mom's also been known to call me Addison and Ava for reasons I do not understand. I really have very little idea what my name is.

I picked my first flower this week. Mom was so proud.

I enjoy/am mildly amused at: Mealtime, music, walks around the neighborhood, baths, when Daddy sings to me because he gets the words wrong, my new swing from Oma.

Editorial comments: Somehow the baby has gone from the size of a sesame seed to a little person who has started to smile. If at any point time decides to slow down you won't hear any complaints from me.

Easter with my peeps

she does not appreciate my sense of humor

Yesterday I told Annabelle I had a joke for her.

"I'll listen but don't promise I'll be impressed."

 "Maybe Katie's baby will be a little girl born on Sunday and she'll be an Easter chick." 

"I am not amused."

"My diaper is showing. I am so embarrassed.
I can't believe you're allowing me to be seen in a such a state of indecency.
To add insult to injury it's a Mickey Mouse diaper. The least you could have done is put me in one of those fancy peacock feather diapers you're so proud of. Mother? Are you even listening or are you still laughing at that joke?"

it's already been a big week and it's only Monday

Yesterday we took Annabelle to church for the first time. 

I put her in her homecoming dress because it's so adorable and I want to get every wear out of it that I can. I didn't realize her headband was too tight until it came off while nursing and I saw a little red indentation on her head. Mother of the year over here putting fashion before comfort. 

By some Sunday miracle we arrived 15 minutes early. The first time we went anywhere with the baby was to a doctors appointment the day after we got home from the hospital and we arrived no less than 38 minutes late. I was so humiliated and have been trying to redeem us ever since. She slept through Sunday school and hiccuped and sneezed through the entire service. She's always so delicate! 

We've suddenly become popular with the ladies at church. I always like to see/hold people's babies and am always annoyed saddened when they don't immediately hand the baby over for me to hold. I know others might feel the same way which is why I've been become surprisingly quick to hand my baby over to clean and responsible humans. Not to mention that most people said I'd never let anyone else hold Sesame and I'm out to prove them wrong.

As if one big event wasn't enough for the week, today was the first day Annabelle and I were home all day without Christopher. Looks like she's tired of spending the whole day alone with me already.

She's already not listening to my instructions

Today was Annabelle's two week check up.

HOW IS SHE TWO WEEKS OLD?!?!?!?!?!

She doesn't seem too affected by her mother's current sorrow.

Christopher had the privilege of holding the baby while I had the privilege of filling out all the paperwork. Annabelle had the privilege of snoozing.

I had never filled out paperwork as someone's mother and it just about did me in. I kept answering the questions as if I was the patient. It would ask a question about parents and I would answer as if I was talking about my parents. I JUST realized I said some of her grandparents had cancer when in fact they have not. Mine have. She's destined for a life of confusion with me as her mother.

After I finished the seven double-sided pages of paperwork I read Fit Pregnancy magazine. I didn't read Fit Pregnancy when I was pregnant so it's only logical I would begin now. At least I was learning things for next time. 

Don't be fooled by the serenity in these photos. The screaming rivaled her screaming at bath time which is saying something. I'd be screaming too if I had to lay naked on a table while a stranger took my temperature in the most awkward place possible.

Tragic news update: she's growing VERY RAPIDLY and it make me so sad I could cry. She was 5lbs. 14oz when she came home from the hospital twelve days ago and now she's 6lbs. 11oz. She's 1 1/4'' taller. I TOLD HER NOT TO GROW UP. 

If you need me I'll be in the corner with a pile of tissues and four boxes of chocolate. 

after Annabelle's arrival

Allow me to give you a brief rundown of what's been going on since we left the hospital:

I change the baby

I feed the baby

I change the baby again because she lets everyone know when she's messy

I go downstairs to get breakfast/lunch

I hear the baby cry

I change the baby

I feed the baby

I change the baby

Wash, rinse, repeat

But enough about me and the fact that I seldom eat breakfast before 11 o'clock. I sleep in four hour stretches at night so I can't complain too much. On to the pictures!

The paparazzi was out in full force at the hospital.

Grandma and Carol just happened to be visiting Nashville the weekend the baby was born.
I'm so glad Grandma got to meet her!

Oh look! Photographic proof that there are three people in this family.

She held my hand the entire way home from the hospital.

She's counting the number of pictures we took of her in the same exact position.
Clearly, she's a child prodigy.

Girlfriend is very delicate and ladylike at all times.

I'm good at making people.

Ignore how I look and focus on the baby in the sweatshirt.

This is a game called Find the Baby.
She's so little she doesn't fit in most of the clothes I already had. A mom I babysit for gave us a bunch of preemie and newborn clothes from her baby girl. I showed each outfit to Sesame as I took it out of the box but she wasn't too interested. 

Please see the above remark about my people making skilz.
Fun fact: she was crying when I took this picture. She didn't get cute crier genes from me.

Annabelle's Arrival

I wasn't going to write a whole birth story because they usually creep me out with all the unnecessary details. If you have to start a story with a disclaimer of "If you'd rather not hear about my_________" than consider me gone.

But I need somewhere to put these pictures so here you go. I apologize in advance for the length. Brevity has never been a strong character trait.

We were scheduled to go to the hospital at 8:30 Friday morning for the procedure (external cephalic version for those who like medical terminology) to turn the still-breech baby. I know. You probably thought I rushed to the hospital last minute. I like to keep a little mystery and surprise around here. My ribs hurt terribly the night before so I was only able to get about two hours sleep. I was so bright-eye and bushy tailed in the morning!

They got us settled in and while the nurse was getting my iv ready Christopher asked her the weirdest thing she's heard in the delivery room. That question lead to a whole discussion on placenta encapsulation. So that was very pleasant.

Greg the anesthesiologist came in to prepare me for the epidural. Under normal circumstances I would have wanted to avoid an epidural but they don't like trying to turn the baby without the patient having one. People. Speaking from experience, NEVER EVER have that procedure done without pain medication. You will thank you later. I liked Greg despite the fact that when the nurse couldn't get the iv needle in he said he'd help even though "I don't know how to use this kind of needle." So reassuring.

(Here is where I skip the unpleasant/boring parts of the story.)

(And the part where I threw up.)

(That probably falls under unpleasant.)

A few hours after we arrived the doctors all crowded around to attempt the flip. They pushed on my stomach VERY hard and succeeded in turning the baby into the right position. Everyone rejoiced too soon because the baby immediately flipped back to it's favorite room in Hotel Womb. The doctor said we could try again or go straight to a csection. I said they could try again since everyone was already there and it wouldn't do any harm, but the baby refused to cooperate. 

They wheeled me off to the operating room and while I'd like to say I was perfectly calm, I was not. One of the medicines left me shaking like a very small leaf in a tornado and it WOULD NOT stop. The shaking made me more nervous which made the shaking worse which made the nerves worse, etc. etc. etc. I couldn't stop crying.

When Christopher came into the room he looked like this. His outfit was way cooler than mine.

The csection was my first surgery so the fact that not only were they going to be cutting me open but also removing a person from inside me made me nervous. Christopher held my hand and Greg the anesthesiologist alternated between manning the drugs and putting his face 5'' from mine and asking if I was ok. A few minutes after they started I began to feel something on my stomach. I said I could feel them pushing and was told I would be able to feel some pressure. It started getting worse and worse until (and you know this is serious because I'm breaking out the caps and I never do that) I COULD FEEL THEM DOING THE SURGERY. I may never recover from the trauma. It was awful. I tried pulling away because HELLO, PAIN but didn't want to move too much and mess anything up. I didn't occur to me I couldn't move thanks to the epidural.

They opened a little window in the curtain so I could see Annabelle being born, but beyond knowing she was a girl and hearing her cry I didn't think too much about her. I was much more concerned with my present issues. They gave me more medicine and things got a little loopy. I do remember Christopher telling me she was a girl. Every since I can remember I wanted my husband to be the one who told me the gender of our babies so for everything that didn't go as I would have like, I'm so glad that did. I remember telling Christopher he could go see the baby and asking if she had hair. I think I remember him bringing her over to say hi but I couldn't focus on her. I was too busy crying from pain. I continued to cry for what seemed like hours. I wasn't even interested in holding her, I was so upset and in pain.

 

I really wanted as many pictures as possible from the day but trying to take pictures while delivering a baby is like trying to photograph your own wedding. It's very difficult. I didn't know until hours later that the doctor and Christopher had gotten some and they're really special to me.

Shortly after the baby was born I made it clear to anyone who would listen that I don't want to have another baby for a very long time. For now I am perfectly content with my one little munchkin.

Girlfriend in her going home outfit. The lion was not part of the original ensemble.

And my one big munchkin.



(Prepare to be bombarded with 7,000 Sesame pictures over the next few days. I'd say I'm sorry but I'm not. Rest assured I have no plans of turning into a mom blog where you can read diaper ointment reviews.)