Happy Birthday Tessa Bear!

Eight years ago I had one child and was about to have another. Our first girl! I was tired. Scratch that, exhausted, cranky, achey, and in general done being pregnant. I love my little Tessa Riley, but man was her pregnancy a tough one! Her birth wasn't a ton better. Not horrific, or traumatizing, thank God. Just not......well, not.
This is what Eric and I were doing on the night before Tessa was born. Hey don't judge me! I swear we were at Eric's bosses tacky Christmas party. Really. As exciting as it was answer "tomorrow" when people asked when the baby was coming, I was bone tired and really wanted to be asleep. Not at a party watching everyone else have cocktails. The food was good though.

There wasn't as large a crowd for Tessa as for Daden. Partly because the maternity wing at Kaiser Sunnyside Hospital was undergoing renovations (which would be complete a few months after Tessa was born, awesome huh?) and our room was TINY. Seriously the tiniest delivery room ever. I am not claustrophobic by any stretch, but I felt it in that room. It's hard to be uncomfortable and cramped all at the same time.
Also because Eric's parents were now at their house with 2 year old Daden. Here he is right here:

Just look at that face! Don't you just want to pinch those cheeks?

My parents, my sisters, Ashley, and Eric made up my audience this time.
I also had an OB for the first (and last!) time. It wasn't my choice, I had a bunch of preterm labor issues with her and they made me see an OB. Don't get me wrong, he was a nice enough guy. But he was of the "I've been delivering babies for 40 years and I know how to do this better then you" mentality. He may have broken my water when I was only three cm, (ouch btw) but I do have to give him credit he managed to get Tess out without any tears or an episiotomy. I heard later there was mineral oil and stretching involved, but all I remember is that it hurt like hell even through my epidural. I actually looked at Eric and cried that I couldn't do it. Bless his soul he looked right in my eyes and said "yes you can". I love that man.
(I'm crying now remembering this. Stupid pregnancy hormones!)

Anyway here we are waiting.

Who remembers the flip phone? I think she's texting...

See how tiny? Not cool.

Here we are it's go time! I got my epidural at 5 PM, when I was 5.5 CM dilated. At 5:40 I demanded that the nurses check me again I felt so much pressure. They didn't want to because they just had forty min ago. Tessa was born at 5:54. Take that nurses.

Tessa was born! Look at these three! They are so freaking excited, I love them.

Here she is. All 6 lbs 4 oz and 20 inches of her. Look at those cheeks!! Man oh man did she scream. It should have been an omen....

I kid. (Not really)

This picture is making me cry right now.

And just like that we were a family of four. AWESOME.

I have to say, though the food was abysmal, my recovery from Tessa's birth was nothing short of miraculous. SO much different then with Daden. I didn't have the whole passing urine problem. Probably because I made the nurses leave the catheter in until the next morning. I had zero desire to repeat that first night with Daden. I even did better and let Tess sleep in the bassinet for a little while. Hey a gal needs to be able to hold her coffee. Though I did spend copious amounts of time staring into her perfect little face. 

By the next morning I was up and about in my tiny little recovery room. I had let Eric go home to sleep, no sense in both of us losing sleep in that tiny hospital room. Besides if I let him out of the hospital he can bring me starbucks on the way back in! I'm a thinker. Eric was shocked to see how alert and chipper I was the next morning and I admit I totally felt a difference. 

Fast forward eight years and here we are

Happy birthday my sweet love. Always my baby girl, I have treasured every moment of watching you grow and change into this beautiful young lady. (Yes even the moments when you are being naughtier than I ever imagined possible) I am proud of you, and I am proud to be your mother. 

Someday you will be a mother yourself and you will understand the fierce love that means being a mother. The kind that allows you to keep on loving even when you come in from pulling weeds and your daughter and her friend are sitting on top of the kitchen table with bath towels trying to mop up the paint and water they spilled EVERYWHERE. 

In hindsight, I really should have taken a picture of that.........

Ten years ago today

Didn't I cover how times flies in the last post? Maybe I did. Well it bears repeating because today my oldest son turns 10! That's right people, he's a whole decade old. I am not a decade older....but somehow he's 10. Something weird in the time space continuum, you'd have to be a Time Lord to understand...

Today's post is dedicated to his birth. 

My first birth. It was awesome. 

It was quick, six total hours of labor, 30 min of pushing. 

It was fun! 

You will see in the pictures how many people were there to support me, and no I do not have a shred of modesty left. Lets break it down:

Eric was there, of course

My mom

My dad

Eric's mom

Eric's grandma

Eric's dad, though he waited in the lobby

Danielle

Alexa

Ashley

Jennifer

Kellyn

1 midwife

3 nurses 

and a partridge in a pear tree!

It never even occurred to me that this might be a lot of people. In hindsight my midwife gets an award for delivering a baby with a stadium full of people. Below are some of my favorite pictures from his birth. I left out anything graphic. My dad actually had strict instructions to not photograph anything too gory, but it was his first grandchild, he got a little carried away. Bless him.

Here we go!
For the few weeks proceeding my induction I had been trucking up from our house all the way to OHSU every three days for an NST and AFI. I had been told, that depending on the results of those tests that I needed to be prepared to stay and have a baby. However after two weeks of testing and being sent home sans baby, I was less than convinced that I was ever going to stay and have that baby.
Early on the morning of December 11th Eric and I got up and got ready to head to OHSU for testing, yet again. I was in a less than fantastic mood and skipped breakfast. I also left my hospital bag at home because you know, I was not going to stay and have a baby.
I was wrong.

We were waiting in the lobby for the test results, imagine my surprise when instead of the nurse the midwife popped her head into the waiting room and announced it was baby time! Fortunately my mother was kind enough to stop by my house and get my hospital bag. Knowing that I wouldn't be allowed to eat once labor started I begged my midwife to let me eat before they started pitocin. She laughed and ordered me a grilled cheese and tomato soup from the cafeteria.

Fast forward a few uneventful hours of laboring and an epidural, my entourage has shown up.

The peanut gallery anxiously awaits the report from the midwife. She says its' go time! Can you see the excitement on their faces?

The next two pictures are probably my favorite two pictures ever. Danielle got to help deliver Daden so she is gloved up standing next to my business, Jennifer, Ashley, and Alexa are leaning in so they won't miss a thing.

LOL I laugh every single time I look at these seriously. Daden's head was crowning at this point and their reaction is priceless.

Here he is!!! All 6lbs 3oz and 19.5 inches of him. He was perfect if I do say so myself. And I do, you know cause I'm his mom.

My first look, and my first child. I was absolutely in love. I forgot all about the last six hours and just stared into his tiny perfect face. 

After this they whisked him away and weighed and measured and bathed. Someone brought me a GIANT turkey sandwich and chips which reminded me how hungry I was. It was seriously the best sandwich ever. I didn't know, but while I was eating my midwife has my placenta all stretched out on a tray and was showing the girls all the different parts and explaining how everything worked. I'm a little sorry I missed it! 

After everything calmed down it was time to move to recovery. The nurse brought over a wheelchair to take me to our room. I looked her right in the face and told her I was NOT going to ride in that I would be walking TYVM. She laughed and told me that if I could get out of bed and stand on my own I was welcome to walk. Two things, one it was a good thing I was not holding Daden, and two it was a VERY good thing that Eric was standing next to me. I rode in the wheelchair.

That night I experienced pain worse than labor. I was too swollen to pass urine and it took FOREVER to get the OB to come in and examine me and approve a catheter. I had two very unsympathetic nurses (thanks midnight shift change) and by the time they cathed me I was in so much pain I was sobbing. The mean nurse hooked up the bag wrong and ended up with pee all over her scrubs and my bed. Which did mean I had to get up so she could change the sheets, but I didn't care, mean nurse has pee all over her and my bladder didn't feel like it was ripping in half anymore. They got two liters out of my bladder. 

I held Daden the entire first night. I never once put him in the bassinet. Which I don't recommend by the way. My arm was shaking so bad from muscle fatigue the next morning I could barely hold my coffee! But I couldn't help myself,  I couldn't stop staring at his beautiful tiny face. I look into his face now and see a miniature version of my husband. Down to the dimples, and the "I'm up to no good but you love me anyway" smile. The last ten years have held so much magic, wonder, heartache, and headache, but I wouldn't trade any of it for a moment without him.

Happy birthday little dude. Your mom and dad love you more then you will ever know.

That is until the day when you have your own child.....

Well this is embarrassing.....

Uh, wow.

When I woke up this morning and felt the itch to write a blog post, I had NO idea that it had been two years since my last posting. I thought maybe it had been a year which is bad enough. But TWO years? Awkward........so assuming that after two years I still have readers, I present to you, the first posting of 2013!

This was kind of an uneventful year. Don't get me wrong, uneventful is not a bad thing! While it does make for a smaller, less impressive yearly photo album, it was nice to have a quiet year after last years craziness! I missed a huge opportunity last year not blogging about my sisters wedding. SO many cool photos and happenings there. Alas.
The coolest thing I did this year? Eric and I took our first vacation without our kids since our honeymoon. It was amazing! We spent four beautiful, sunny days in Anaheim California. The main reason for our trip (aside from time alone with each other) was to attend BlizzCon. For those of you who have no idea what that is, it's a convention put on by Blizzard Entertainment to showcase their current games, announce new ones, and host the finals for the world arena tournaments. It. Was. Epic. I was absolutely blown away by the scope of the event and the number of people in attendance. Which came in at around 20,000. Amazing
We watched art presentations, sound demonstrations, pretty darn epic costume contest, and we got to try out the new World of Warcraft expansion; Warlords of Draenor.

After BlizzCon we were so fortunate to meet up with our good friends (and newlyweds!), Danny and Mirna. We spent a fantastic day in Disneyland and California Adventure. I have to say, taking my kids to Disneyland was a wonderful, magical experience that I honestly can't wait to have again. That said, going to Disneyland with just my husband has a magic all it's own. With the added bonus of being able to look at whatever I want in the shops without someone asking for a toy every second :P 

I also learned that Disneyland all decorated for Christmas is my new favorite thing. Sorry mom, your house looks awesome, but Mr Disney out did you on lights!

This is happening. It was a pretty big surprise, not going to lie. And while I am over the moon excited to have another baby, I fully admit to being just a tiny bit apprehensive about where the new baby is going to live. And also how we will afford said baby. However I fully believe that the good Lord provided this baby and he will provide for it's care. Which I am sure involves teaching me to be more frugal!

I am excited to sit back and enjoy this pregnancy. I am not working this time round, and I vow to enjoy every min of growing this little miracle, instead of worrying about throwing up at work. 

I am excited to go into labor on my own! (I hope) Daden, Tessa, and Ryder were all planned inductions. While I had three very successful deliveries, I feel like I missed out a little. I am looking forward to the excitement of "it's time"!

I am excited to nurse longer! I failed each and every time pumping at work for the last three and this time I am determined to nurse longer than three months! I always felt so bad cutting them off while they were still so little.

I am excited to enjoy watching a baby grow without counting down the days until I have to leave it to go back to work.

I am absolutely dying to find out whether it's a boy or girl. DYING.  I am 12 weeks pregnant and 8 more weeks just seems way too long to wait to find out. I have looked up all sorts of at home/old wives tales to find out early. So far the ancient Chinese gender prediction chart says girl. The baking soda test says girl. My gut kinda says boy. 

Can I tell you a secret? I really, really, hope it's a girl. Does that make me a bad mom? :P

Summer's End

Um, where did the summer go?

This weather is messing with my head! It's hard to imagine that school is a mere one week away when the sun is shining, the sky is so blue, an the temp is over 80! But alas, here we are August 27th, the school supplies have been purchased and tucked away in their respective back packs, with dire warning to their owners not to disturb them! Class assignments have been handed out and we are slowly moving bed time back to it's original location of 8PM.

I am still wrapping my brain around the fact that all three of my children will be starting school this September. True Ryder is only starting pre-school, but still! Two days a week for two glorious hours I will be alone :D I am thinking of finding a place to work out during that time. It's WAY past time to whip these flabby arms into shape! OR maybe just a nap.......

I am sad to report that I accomplished almost none of the tasks that I had set myself for the summer. I really can't even remember what most of them where... They must not have been that important LOL. The kids and I did manage to go camping sort of. We spent one night at pine hollow with my parents. And we spent the day at Milo Mciver for family camp. I decided not to stay the two night because it was in the middle of Erics week long trip to DC. I feel guilty about that, but I am just not that brave!

We also made a day trip to the beach with my folks which was a blast!! The kids were amazingly sandy but they had SO much fun! We started at the Tilamook Cheese Factory where we took the tour and had lunch. Then it was on to Rockaway to play in the sand. Ryder threw such a fit when it was time to leave!!

Erin and I got our luau themed birthday! It was SO much fun! Tropical food, tropical drinks, and an awesome cake from Beaverton Bakery thanks to Miss Rachel :D Someday I will go to a real luau.....Erin I am so jealous of your trip to Hawaii you have no idea!

Here is this weekends accomplishment! 3/12 of my quilt blocks finished!! I should tell you that my enitre body hurts. Between hunching over my sewing machine, squatting/kneeling on the floor to measure and cut, my muscles are screaming. (Perhaps this is a sign that I need to engage in more physical activities...like exercise....nah)

Wow blogger! Thanks for posting my photos in reverse order :|

Oh well guess I will blog in reverse order too. Maybe it will start a trend.

All done! Pretty wreath :D I didn't take any "during" photos. I mean the actual construction of the block took maybe and hour. Super easy.

OK so below is my stuff all measured and cut ready for sewing. So far the third block was by far the easiest. I said my photos were backward!

Block three fresh out of the envelope!

My little sewing buddy!

How to make a Christmas Quilt: PART 2

So here we are! All revved up from completing block one, ready to take on block two! Right out of the envelope block two is crazy. Pieces A-U!! You've got to be kidding! Oh well, to work!

Whew! Two hours later, cutting is complete. The new 6 inch wide quilting ruler I picked up at Michaels today is coming in SUPER handy. Money well spent for sure. But now it's time for a break....I should not take breaks. Or maybe I should stay away from the computer during my breaks. I am so pleased with my progress thus far that my ambition takes over my senses yet again and I order this:

http://www.fatquartershop.com/store/stores_app/Browse_Item_Details.asp?sid=60705141558346070&Store_id=499&page_id=23&Item_ID=52376&Parent_Ids=

If anyone reading this is also feeling crazy ambitious feel free to quilt along! I couldn't help myself it's SO cute! Visions of Tessa's room done in pinks, yellows, and strawberries swim through my head and I am sold.

OK, back to work!

This little piece of the block takes me two FULL hours. Damn that was hard! I am feeling less

confident...I am however, so focused on not screwing it up that I forget to take more pictures.

Well there it is! It's a little wonky but I am still proud. Those little squares are as tiny as they look in the picture and they were super hard to keep square. I learned that taking the time to mark the seam allowance with a pencil before sewing makes a world of difference on the tiny stuff. Block three will have to wait till tomorrow. I am wiped! Here's hoping that I can get most of this one done before the new one stars showing up in the mail. I am determined to sew those blocks AS THEY COME!!

How to make a Christmas Quilt: PART 1

So the first step to making your very own Christmas quilt is to have massive delusions of grandeur, and an over confidence in your quilting abilities. It helps if you have never actually made and entire quilt before, well at least not one that was more in depth then squares. That's even better!

One I was searching the Internet for fabric to complete another project when I came across www.thefatquartershop.com. Darn them anyway! They had the most wonderful pictures of this AMAZING Christmas quilt that you could complete one block at a time over the course of the year. It even has a super cute name, The Block of the Month Club! The description promised that only a moderate degree of skill in quilting was required to complete the blocks! I could do that, I have moderate skill! Sold.

I waited and waited and 4-6 weeks later, the materials for the fist block arrived. I held the crisp white envelope in my hands bursting with excitement as I ran for my quilting supplies. (Recently purchased quilting supplies. Like I had that crap laying around before I got this into my head.) I tore open the envelope and squealed we glee at the CUTEST damn Christmas fabric you have ever seen. Plans for a coordinating Christmas tree skirt, which I would also quilt were already forming in my head. At this point Eric is rolling his eyes and sighing. I ignore him and open the instructions. Complicated instructions. Hmmmm I was sure the website had said "moderate degree of skill", oh well. We were packing up to move anyway, like I had time to quilt. I make a promise to myself that I will make this block as soon as we are settled in the new house. I should only have two blocks by then. Easy to catch up! One block per month for twelve months! Easy peasy!

Fast forward to yesterday. I brave the rain and run up to the mail box. Uh oh. There it is, the shiny white envelope containing my latest block of the month. Gingerly I open it and am shocked when I read that it contains block number eleven. Really? Eleven? I run upstairs to my closet and open the drawer where I have been stashing quilt stuff. Uh oh. It's true, I have eleven of the twelve blocks. Guess this means I should get started on number one! So I drag out my quiting ruler and cutting mat. My rotary cutter and my fabric pen. Let's do this! O.o Star Trek TnG marathon on ScyFy!! Yes please! And as Captain Pikard and Commander Riker bravely lead the crew of the SS Enterprise through uncharted space, I lead myself through uncharted quilting space.

First thing is first. Cut out the pieces. Easy! Well not really. If you have ever dodged kids and a dog and a cat while trying to cut out precise 1.5 inch squares with a razor sharp rotary cutter you know what I mean. Two successful missions in the final frontier later and the cutting is done!

In case you are not a Star Trek buff, I mean two hours later. And yes the pieces are labeled. A through freaking P!!!!!

Time to sew these bad boys together! I am less intimidated by this then I should be. Even the tiniest mistake will skew the block turning it into a much larger mistake later. But to my delight the first bit of sewing seems to go smoothly. The construction isn't really THAT hard. But at this point it is 11 o'clock and I am wiped out. Bed time for this trekky.

OK So I skipped a few pictures, but this blog post is getting really long. So here is on part of the block all put together. I don't know how long this took me there was no good TV on so I turned on some music. Thank God for Pandora radio on my iphone! And yes that is a coffee stain on my ironing board.

Almost done! To my great delight this really isn't as complicated as I feared. It is however REALLY hard to keep everything square and straight. REALLY, REALLY hard. So if anyone is reading this as has any great insight as to how to keep thing in line without wanting to punch something that would be awesome. I would like to add now that Eric has popped his head in several time to "check" on my progress. I think he is laughing at me in his man cave....

And there it is!!! OK so it's not perfect. It's uneven at the bottom which I am sure is going to come back and bite me in the ass. But for now I am pretty proud of my accomplishment.

Now on to block two........