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11 months this week.

-sleeping through the night, getting close to walking, has the biggest appetite and surprises me every day with it, loves her wooden puzzles something fierce, waves hello + goodbye, and generally just keeps us all smiling and laughing. such a happy little girl, she is. and a lucky family we are.

so the first birthday party planning begins! my goodness, how in the world can this be?

and crawling.

to answer a few questions:
dorothy bird weighed in at 8lbs, 11oz. she was kind of a hefty little thing. i guess that’s what happens when they hang out in the womb for all that extra time. i had heard that girls were typically smaller than boys, but not this time. henry was a lovely 7 pounder. i think when the nurse called her weight out after the birth, i turned to matt and said something like, "that is ridiculous".

the night she was born was a whirlwind. she arrived at 3:09 on sunday morning, but contractions actually began for me sometime on friday. nothing painful, nothing worth timing, but enough that i remember it as being different, and i was certainly hoping it would amount to something. on saturday, we ended up keeping ourselves really busy around the house (i was doing nutty stuff like wiping down/dusting baseboards and radiators and spraying pollen off the windows of our house while matt and henry did yard work and such). throughout the day, i was having something like a contraction that lasted 20-30 seconds every 20 minutes or so, but by the time 6 pm rolled around, my mom arrived and we started to seriously time them. my mom is amazing with this stuff. she was an absolute miracle person during henry’s birth, counting + coaching me through every contraction- i have told her that she would make an amazing birthing coach. so basically, i drank a ton of water with fresh lime squeezed in it and paced laps around my house while matt and mom sat at the dining room table and made notes on the frequency/length/peak of my contractions.

we finally phoned the hospital around 7:30 and asked if we should head in. the nurse that i spoke to said to just keep doing what we were doing till we were ready to come in, i think we had decided on heading over when the contractions were pretty close- i did not want to labor much at the hospital, staying home where i could walk was much more appealing.
by the time we arrived at the hospital, it was 9:30 and my contractions were pretty much one on top of another. there was a team of like 5 nurses in there just trying to get an iv started for me- which was an absolutely miserable experience. i am an iv wimp, and have only had one in my life before this experience, and i passed out. imagine having screaming contractions and being stabbed like 10 times because your veins keep blowing. nightmare.

i’ll spare the rest of the nitty gritty, but i will say these few things to those of you who are pregnant for the first time, or hoping to be one day:

* move as much as possible through your laboring, and for the love of god, do not let them lay you in bed on your back! it might be a real easy position for the doctor, but gravity is not on your side when you are laying down. if you can work your way through most of it by walking, rocking in the chair, using the yoga ball or the tub, that is ideal.

* having your wits about you is really your best tool for pain management. if you allow yourself to go down the road of "omg, i can’t do this!" and you start to panic, it is hard to get through 2 minutes of a contraction. just try your best to breath (and not hyperventilate) and stay calm. mind over matter!!!

* make sure you know what you want ahead of time- in terms of pain management, drugs, etc- and have someone in there to really speak for you when you can’t quite speak for yourself. otherwise, you might have a real medical event on your hands as opposed to a natural thing that women have been doing for a zillion years. watch the business of being born, and you will get a better idea of what i am talking about here. and i will say this in the same breath- it is also important to remember that you don’t have anything to prove, and you don’t have to go in there dead-set on one thing. it is ok for it to all be too much and to ask for help. don’t feel badly about yourself if this is the case. the most important thing is that you get through it ok and that you give birth to a happy, healthy little pooper dooper.

* having a great nurse means everything. i was very fortunate to receive some amazing, loving care from a nurse who was with us through the entire birth and also the following day. and as fate would have it, her grandparents names were henry and dorothy. i mean, really- what are the chances!? this woman was everything that weekend- and she probably doesn’t even really know it. i told her a few times how amazing she was, and hugged her the following morning after like 1 hour of sleep, but i do plan of fully thanking her with a special letter and gift. i really do feel like i will remember her forever.

* if you are breastfeeding, do not get discouraged!!! don’t be afraid to consult the lactation consultant, and know that for every day you stick with it through that first week or two, you are that much closer to it all being super easy. babies can really latch on with an amazing Super Grip that you feel like might just kill you. but it won’t. and the breast is best, as the saying goes, so do what you can do stick with it- you will be glad you did. you and baby will find a groove, i promise. and the icing on the cake is that you will burn up to 500 calories a day just breastfeeding alone!

* this is sort of minor, but, it helps to remember that HOSPITAL FOOD IS DISGUSTING. try to remember to pack some yummy cereal bars/fruit/good juice/nuts/something that you like to get you through those 2 days at the hospital. i felt bad every time a nurse would come in and collect my tray that still had the entire meal sitting on it. but the weird spongy eggs and mystery meat was just not working for me!!! you would think that a hospital would serve quality foods, but. no.

anyhow, that’s it for freckle’s tips and advice for birthing a child and being in a hospital. if anyone has any other questions (don’t hesitate to be more specific/personal) you can email me directly.

the short of it is, i left with this:

and i came home with this:

i mean! does it get any better than that?

we have been so lucky to have matt home since the week before she was born. what an amazing gift that has been. in my last two weeks of being pregnant, i was becoming increasingly uncomfortable- swelling up like Violet Beauregarde. man, it was rough. the carpel tunnel was (and still is, in fact) killing me. and for anyone who has drifted past that 40 week mark, you know that it can take a real toll on your patience, your energy, your mood, and your general perspective on life and the world around you. and when the lady at lowe’s tells you for the umptienth time that you look like you’re about ready to drop and give birth right there in the check-out aisle, you tell yourself it’s ok when you imagine yourself choking her.

amazingly, it all seems so long ago now. and that funny thing that all women end up saying after birth is the same thing that i find myself saying today. it’s all worth it in the end. every last bit of it. even that excruciatingly difficult time in the delivery room.

so. on may 4th, at 3:09 am, we welcomed dorothy bird mitchell into our world. it was far from easy, at times i actually wanted out- crazy as that sounds- and was ready to back out of all my natural birth wishes. it was absolutely nothing like the straightforward time i had with mister henry. no question, childbirth is the biggest test of will- you have got to dig deep and find every last bit of strength that you’ve got in order to see that baby on the outside. i have spent many moments since in such amazement and even disbelief that i did it. amazing, amazing, amazing. and so funny how you can be there, in the delivery room, in the thick of the most intense contractions you would not wish on your worst enemy- and think to yourself, "i am never getting pregnant again!! this is insane!! i am a-ok with two babies!!!" and when it’s all over, it’s so easy to be so in love and forget all that pain. and even think, "well, maybe again, one day…."

because, again- there’s that whole heart burst thing. and it’s powerful stuff, i tell you.
i’ve got a lot of pictures to share, but i’ll start with one of my favorites from our first day as a family of four.

thank you to everyone who has sent well wishes, and checked in with me for any news or updates. i appreciate you more than you know!!!

xox, jenny

hello, friends. i’m sorry i’ve gone on so long without an update of any kind. it’s been an exceptionally difficult two weeks or so for me around here, and it’s safe to say that the only crying baby in my house right now is me.
i really want to thank you all for the nice wishes, it means a lot to me.

i wish that i could reach out and hug you all. or send you all something nice in the mail. or take you out for a girly lunch. i appreciate you more than you know.

i’ve been stricken with a pretty awful case of THIS. and let me tell you, it sucks. basically, i haven’t had any sleep at night and i am walking around the world like some sort of foggy headed zombie, getting increasingly grouchier as the days go on. sleep deprivation will do that to a person. i could handle waking up for night time feedings, NO PROBLEM, i just can’t take this awful numbness and tingling for one more day. i literally wake up shortly after midnight, and can.not.go.back.to.sleep. at times, i can barely use my hands, my grip is so weakened from the daggone numb tinglies.

anyhow. this is a real lesson in patience for me. i probably should have never gotten myself excited in thinking that she would have been here by now. it doesn’t help much to see that most of my lady friends online are snuggling their new babies. i know i sound like a Super Crank right now. i am really happy to see all these healthy, lovely little things, i really am. i just feel so anxious about my own that i could pop.

oh, and speaking of "pop". a word of advice to those non-pregnant folks out there: it is probably not the greatest choice to use the word "pop" when you are talking to a woman who is 40 weeks pregnant. you know, as in: "you look like you’re ’bout ready to pop!". yeah. i’m just sayin.

while i’m sharing my two cents, may i offer a piece of advice for all you pregnant ladies out there: tell yourself that your baby is due two weeks after the date the doctor gives you, that way when you find yourself at the 40 week mark, you won’t be counting every second and wondering why your baby seems to have lost the directions on how to get out of the womb. just get that later date in your mind and stick with it. you’ll thank me for this, i promise.

in an effort to sort of brighten my world, and occupy my idle time, i made some totes and a small update to the shop. i have these items packaged and ready to ship. should my uterus decide to get in the game in the next day or two (fingers crossed), i have some lovely assistants on hand here to get the packages to the post office.

until next time, i hope you all are well.
xo

so i’ve been thinking, isn’t 40 weeks technically ten months? i dunno. i’m just sayin.

                                                     *****

sorry it’s been so quiet over here on the ol’ blog. truth is, it is taking pretty much all i’ve got just to get the basic daily stuff done with myself and my family, and maintain the shop. i can’t keep up with emails to save my life, and my house is a bit of a disaster at the moment.

the time is near. and, man am i happy about that. this has been a really long haul. thinking back on it all, it’s pretty wild how different one pregnancy can be from the last. with henry, i had a really straightforward, simple, easy peasy time. i threw up twice. once was totally my fault, as i thought washing down a bowl of spaghetti with a tall glass of orange juice sounded rather tasty. imagine that coming back up. ew. i also worked on my feet all day long until the last two weeks before delivery.

this time, i can’t even tell you how many times i barfed, or how exhausted i was, especially early on. i joke that i slept through the month of september, but if you were around my house at the time, you wouldn’t argue with that statement. and there isn’t a snowball’s chance in haiti that i would be able to work outside the house, on my feet all day long, wimpy as that sounds. my back k-k-k-kills right about now.

i can only hope that one thing will be hold true for both, and that’s the labor. i am definitely anxious about it, definitely nervous, but it is so near that i am also excited, and i am trying to remind myself that i did a darn good job of it the first time. with only about 2 hours of pushing, somehow i managed a natural birth which is what i hope for this time.

we shall see.

without getting into the nitty gritty, i had a check up on monday, and things are moving right along, all signs point to baby, if you know what i mean. she has dropped, and i can finally breathe again, which is a treat.

there is a good chance that i might package up all these orders from part 2 of this big sale and go into a bit of hiding until the big day. so if you don’t hear from me in the next week, think good thoughts! i need all the good juju i can get!!!

lots of love*j

as if a pregnant woman needs anything to look/feel wider!

sheesh!

there’s an upside to my hugeness. i’m down to single digits, folks. have been for a couple weeks now. only a handful of weeks to go.

the cream i bought the other day had a sell by date of after my due date.

this is a good thing.

this little baby in my belly is due to come out sometime in the next 8 weeks or so (for some reason, i am convinced that she will be a little early, maybe that’s just cause i already feel so big), and when i stop to think about that, i realize that i’m both totally ready and totally not. on the one hand, 8 weeks seems like forever to have to wait to finally meet her and hold her, smell her, kiss her, love her. but then, i think about all the things that i feel like we have yet to due, and i feel the need to put on the breaks just a bit.

these questions (and more) swirl around my head on a daily basis now:

when will we make that big ol’ trip to ikea for things like a CRIB?
when will we decide on + purchase that infant car seat so that we can actually take her home?
when will the weather be nice enough so that we can crack the windows and start painting her room?
for the love of god, there are only a handful of weekends left!

if i didn’t know better, i’d say i hadn’t done this once before.
i feel overwhelmed by things like purchasing a car seat. if any of you readers with infants want to weigh in on this and recommend a brand for me, i would be ever so grateful.

i am aware that she isn’t going to know whether her room was filled with a giant welcoming circus upon her arrival just as much as she will be clueless if it remained in its painfully modest state, and that it really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, and that most of this is sort of for me at this point in time. but i also know that once she actually gets here, we aren’t going to have time to do things like make trips to benjamin moore and have paint mixed, and drive around looking for the perfect dresser and i most likely will not have time to sit down and craft up that duvet cover that i want to make for her. i just want to have some peace of mind and get this stuff taken care of now.

in the meantime, i settle my nerves a bit by obsessively nesting what i can. her clothing is washed, hung, and impeccably folded. and sometimes re-folded. (i did this while waiting for henry, too. it usually involves holding little onsies up and saying to anyone nearby, "look! how tiny! how sweet!" and taking in big lung-filled breaths of the baby laundry scent. do i sound crazy yet?)

also. i am nervous about labor, and i’m not really sure why. last time i had pretty much a perfect textbook experience. quick, and relatively easy and i managed to pull it off naturally. perhaps it is the knowing that’s making me a little scared? in this case, surely ignorance must be bliss?

in other news, i spent some time today going through my fabrics, searching for some to use in a quilt or floor mat for the baby’s room. i think that i have made my mind up with the white palate, and little touch of vintage color here and there. overall, i want the room to be simple, and calming to the eye. and i figure when she is older, we can add some fun, bright colors easily- especially with a white backdrop. changing up the curtains, adding toddler toys and such will really brighten up the room when the time comes.
i’ll keep you posted as the nursery progresses.

each wednesday, i volunteer in henry’s classroom. it’s been great fun, and i know henry really appreciates the time that i am there. he is always such a little love bug as soon as i walk in, he can’t seem to resist blowing me kisses or getting up from his seat as soon as he can to come over and give me a squeeze.
and his classmates have become very interested in this baby in my belly, especially as time goes on and the bump grows on… before we found out if it was a sister or a brother for henry, lots of kids were correct in predicting a sister. one girl even said that she could hear the baby girl in there, and she sounded really cute.
it’s a really nice little part of my week, and i hope that i am able to continue to volunteer next year when the little lady is here. (hint, hint, mom. we might need your help with this!)

so that’s about it, folks. hope you guys are pluggin’ through the week ok!