Ode to Lance and Nursery Reveal

Lance. My husband. He’s a character. He’s a great dad. He’s intense about supporting his losing sport teams (ie: the Twins, the Vikings and ISU). He’s probably the most honest person I know. Lance is kind and patient (especially with strangers - he has a tendency to think his massively pregnant wife and needy three year-old son are a bit needy). He’ll stop by the side of the road and help push a car off to the side, offer to try and diagnose a problem or simply ask if they need a ride somewhere. Sometimes in the evenings he’ll get home late and I’ll ask him if work was busy or if traffic was bad and he’ll tell me that there was a car off to the side of the road with its emergency flashers on and he stopped to see if they needed help. Lance is that Good Samaritan that Jesus talks about in the Bible. 

Above all, Lance is hardworking. He cares about doing a good job. To the point of anal retentiveness. BUT this does ensure that things are done right (rather than the slipshod way I have a tendency to do things). Case in point: both of the baby nurseries. With Lucan’s nursery, Lance begrudgingly put up wainscoting. It turned out fantastic and is a great addition to the room. Except for the one part where Lucan, as an 18 month old, repeatedly tore off the wall during nap time. Lance meticulously cut out all of the pieces and trim work and made a great baby nursery. This time around I requested a wall of stripes. Lance happily complied (I think he was relieved that I didn’t ask for more wainscoting). True to Lance’s nature, he meticulously taped and re-taped and used his level to mark off the stripes. 6 hours, 4 stripes and 1 wall later, he was done. And it was fab. He’s vowed that he will never do stripes again. Ever. Even when I asked really nicely if he thought it would look to cool to do stripes on the opposite wall. Sometimes you have to know when to stop asking for favors :)

 

 

The theme of Gracelyn's nursery is repurposing. Or gray and pink. We repainted the walls gray and did a gray and white stripe accent wall with pink accents.

 

I really tried to repurpose stuff we already had and spend minimal on things that would make the biggest bang. We reused Lucan's crib, the rocking chair and cushion, the end table, the floral shelf, the dried flower window arrangement and the changing table pad.

 I recovered the pillow you see in the rocking chair with a remment I found at Hancock Fabrics. It cost something like $3.50 and took me 15 minutes to sew. The gray knit blanket was a baby shower gift from my small group friends.

 



The dresser/changing table is actually the dresser that goes with Lucan's bedroom set. But because this dresser is bigger and Gracelyn's closet is filled with my clothes (yes, I know) we decided to use this dresser in Gracie's room. The changing table pad is from Target. The pink polka dot curtains are supposed to be blackout curtains. They aren't really. They're from JcPenny. I had fallen in love with some from Pottery Barn Kids (go figure everything from PB kids is fab) but they were more than double than what I spent at JCP. I think I spent a total of like $60 on curtains, which was one of the bigger expenses for Grace's nursery.

 

 

The laundry hamper is from 3 Sprouts, purchased off of Citrus Lane. I guess a partial theme is pink polka dots :) Lance thought it was ridiculous that Grace needed her own laundry basket because Lu already has one and so do we. Am I the only person where everyone had their own dirty clothes hamper? I just imagine everyone's clothes in a heap in the corner without one.

My favorite thing in the nursery, hands down, is her crystal raindrop mobile. It's so pretty and girlie.  For the longest time I was just going to make a simple mobile because I was too cheap to order this one. But my mom really wanted to buy something "fun" for Gracelyn and we both decided this fit the bill. I ordered it from the etsy shop, the Mobile Maven. We ordered it on Black Friday and got a killer discount from being a FB follower. Love, love, love.

Oh this pink elephant. I purchased this elephant probably eight years ago in hopes that someday we would have a daughter. God heard my wish. The shelf was an impulse purchase made at the Container Store pre-budget. This is the first time we've actually used it. The vase is repurposed from IKEA.

I purchased new pink and gray sheets from Target on sale. The crib skirt, which is hard to see, is just a plain white, three tiered skirt also from Target. The sleep sheep is from Lucan's days and was a dollar at a garage sale.

Aren't Lance's stripes pretty and very well done? Yay Lance!
The circle garland I made from pink and gray paint chip samples and a circle punch I borrowed from my boss. I sewed all the circles together with just a long stitch on my sewing machine. Easy- peasy because all I can sew are straight lines.

 

And lastly this is a dried floral arrangement I made back in my 4-H days. Really, all I can take credit for is arranging the flowers as my dad sanded and did the crackle painting of the window. But that's neither here nor there. If you ask most 4-H parents, they would admit to "helping" their kids with their projects.

 

This concludes the grand tour of Gracelyn's nursery. Consider yourself toured :)

Gracelyn's Birth Story

Labor and delivery.

If there is one thing you can count on about birthing a baby is that you can’t count on anything (is that an oxymoron?) Seriously, the only thing to expect is the unexpected. With Lucan’s birth, I arrived at the hospital at 10 cm, missing my epidural and pushed for four hours. AWFUL. At my 39 week appointment, my doctor was asking me about Lucan’s delivery and when I relayed that tidbit to him, he put it at the top of my chart as a warning to whichever doctor was on call for this baby. It was a good thing that he did too. But we’ll get there.

Per my SOP, my plan was to work up until the very end. I asked my doctor at my 39 week appointment if he thought I would make it to my due date. His guess was no, but it was a very reluctant no because there’s nothing so inaccurate as a due date. Because I went into labor with Lucan on my due date, I really had zero guesses as to when baby girl would make her arrival which caused all of us much trepidation. There was part of me that hoped I would have her over Thanksgiving while all our family was in town and we wouldn’t have a last minute scramble to find care for Lucan. But of course that wasn’t the case.

I went into work bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Monday morning and worked a normal day. When I went to pickup Lucan from daycare at 4:30 I was starting to have “twinges.” Then at 5:30 pm I called Lance and told him not to dilly-dally around work and to get his butt home. Of course at this point I was finishing up supper and trying to finish packing the last of our stuff to take to the hospital. Lance scurried home and I told him that he needed to text our friends to come and watch Lu. Then I told him that he should call my parents to let them know that they would need to come back to Des Moines tomorrow to pickup Lu from daycare. We finally got a hold of our friends who were going to watch Lucan and scooted off to the hospital. I had a hard time leaving our house in a mess (I really wanted to clean up the supper dishes and change the sheets on the guest bed) but in the midst of contractions I knew better.

My OB had told me that second babies always go faster than the first ones so if I wanted my epidural to not wait around at home like I did last time. Lance called our OB’s office to let them know we were headed into the hospital and to also find out which doctor was on call for the evening. Going to a big practice, I had no idea which doctor would be on call when the time came. I was delighted to find out that it was actually a doctor I had seen before – Dr. McEntaffer. When we arrived at the hospital around 8:45 pm there were three of us who were checking in all at the same time. The nurse asked how far apart my contractions were and said that based on that info I still had awhile. In my head I skeptically commented that we would see. One of the other “women” (she was 18 but I suppose if you’re going to have a baby you get to be a “woman” and not a girl) was fairly frantic. I later found out that she had been into the hospital six other times in false labor and wasn’t actually in labor that night either. I couldn’t help but feel bad for the girl because if she was frantic in false labor, real labor was not going to be good. 

They finally got me settled in a room and finished the check-in process. The nurses have to ask what your highest level of education completed which I remembered from the last time. But this time I had the sense of humor to ask what that had anything to do with having a baby. The nurse had no good answer for me. At this point Dr. McEntaffer arrived, asked me a few questions and then checked me to see how far dilated I was. She had commented that when she was reviewing my chart she had seen Dr. Osborn’s note about me arriving at the hospital dilated to a ten and knew she needed to hustle her buns to the hospital. She was surprised to find I was dilated to seven based on how well I was taking contractions. We talked about my birth plan because Lance had left the camera in the car and had already made one separate trip and inadvertently my birth plan had also gotten left in the car and Lance was not about to make another trip.  I was still on the fence about the epidural because I knew I was capable of having a baby without one and because I knew that my hospital bill would be cheaper without one (Lance later told me that the money reason was not a valid reason to forgo the epidural). The doctor advised me that she thought that if they broke my waters I would go fast enough to not need the epidural. So I bravely went without. Famous last words.

Fast forward an hour and a half. Lance tried to get a cup of coffee. Instead he received a death glare from me and was told he could drink odorless water. After she broke my waters, labor started progressing a lot faster and contractions started hurting more. A lot more. Not enjoyable. Then it came time to push. Pushing sucks. Plain and simple, sucks. I know I’ve heard from other women the act of pushing has been a relief because they feel like they’re finally getting somewhere. Let it be said, I am not one of those women. After two pushes I started panicking. Panicking that I couldn’t do this. Fortunately my doctor swooped in and said that I would not be pushing for four hours with this baby, that I would push four TIMES. She wasn’t quite right, but that was the motivation I needed to meet my daughter. One more push and Gracelyn Elizabeth made her way out into the cold, bright world. APGAR score of nine!

But we’re not quite done yet.

There was quite a bit of bleeding that continued after Gracelyn arrived. To quote my doctor, I was “gushing” blood. A lot of blood. They checked my placenta to make sure it was intact, but they couldn’t pinpoint why I was losing so much blood. So they gave me two shots of something, one in each leg to help stop the bleeding. I also got three bags of pitocin. This was in the midst of being stitched up from my second degree tears. I didn’t remember the stitching hurting so much with Lucan. But it was at this point I used a couple of expletives. But the thing that was the worse: uterine massage. It’s one of the things they do to help decrease bleeding. Don’t be fooled by the word “massage” though. It really just means the nurses are basically punching you in the stomach. It hurts like a bee-otch. And when I say hurts like a bee-othch I mean it. This is coming from the lady who has done two natural childbirths. I was fine with the world until they started my “massages.” Sadly I had almost three hours of being punched after I delivered Gracelyn. Three hours of massage at five minute intervals is no picnic. During the punching period I gripped Lance’s hand for all I was worth. Lance thought I was going to break his fingers.

Finally at 1 AM they released me from the labor and delivery floor and let me go down to the Mom and Baby floor to recover. But my fun wasn’t over. Somehow the nurse thought 1:30 AM would be the perfect time to go through a hospital questionnaire. It wasn’t. Lance was super ticked. He just wanted sleep. We both wanted sleep. I would have thought sleep would have came naturally to my poor exhausted body, but with all of the nights antics sleep would not come. I was awake until 6 AM, tossing and turning and praying in vain for rest. And that is the story of Gracelyn’s entrance into the world!                                                                                                                                                    

First moments in the world.

APGAR 9!

Dr. McEntaffer and us girls

The following photos were taken by my coworker, Crystal Newcomb - check her out at crystalnewcomb.com

38 weeks pregnant. I feel enormous.

I had a woman who was in her mid-sixties say to me “don’t you just love being pregnant?!” I almost slapped her. Because NO ONE is head over heels in love with being pregnant and this is coming from a woman who has had relatively easy pregnancies i.e.: no vomiting.  It is pretty cool to be able to house a human life and be its “person” for nine months. But by the end you just so over it. My body aches after sitting too long, after standing too long and after lying down too long. Basically my body just can’t get comfortable. 

How far along: 38 weeks as of Thursday, Nov 20. I’m getting a little tired of people taking one look at me and going “woah … you must be due any day now.” Yes, I know that my belly is completely torpedo shaped. Let’s talk about the shape of YOUR body. 

Total weight gain: I’m not really certain. It always seems like I gain weight in the first month and then lose a whole bunch and then slowly put some of it back on. I’d put myself somewhere around 10-13 pounds of belly. 

Maternity clothes:  All day, every day. Except for a few pairs of fleece pants and yoga pants. Life is becoming tricky with the incoming cold weather and 75% of my wardrobe being maternity dresses and jeans. I need to have this baby soonish because I’m out of pants that fit me.  And I can only wear my black maternity leggings so many days in a row. It would be nice to have a legit winter coat to wear too… 

Gender:  baby girl named Paco. Paco is really sticking with Lucan. Although we gave him a few name choices the other day and he did like a couple of them. But how can we really trust a three year-old who wants to name his sister Paco? 

Movement: things are getting tight in there. She regularly gets hiccups in the evening and likes to rotate and stretch periodically. It’s always really amazing to feel a butt or an elbow or something pointy sticking out. It’s amazing and it hurts all at the same time. Sometimes it feels like baby girl is standing on my left hip bone. My hips, overall, are always achy. But my lower back hasn’t given me as much trouble this time, so for that we say AMEN. 

Sleep:  Pretty good. I usually have to get up once a night to pee and that’s it. But the last two nights have not been restful. The battery in the smoke alarm in our bedroom started beeping around 2:30 AM and then Lance had a dream he was slam dunking a basketball and woke both of us when he started thrashing wildly and hit our headboard really hard. Last night Lucan was convinced it was thundering out and came in our room at 5 AM (it was just really windy and blowing noisily). At 5 AM he just wanted to chat so Lance finally put him back in his bed so we could get a bit more sleep.

Rolling over and getting out of bed continues to be challenging. I don’t remember feeling like this last time. 

Insomnia has been fairly infrequent. Sometimes I struggle to fall back asleep after I pee which is annoying, but it hasn’t been bad. 

What I miss: being able to walk without my hips feeling achy. Stupid stretching ligaments. Going to the chiropractor has definitely been helping, but I suppose having the baby will be the most helpful thing.  

Cravings: Salad with peas. It’s weird, I know. I ate 2 tuna salad sandwiches last night without batting an eye. But generally, there’s less room for food because there’s less room in the inn overall. I’ve also been craving this drink from Outback Steakhouse called Wallaby Darned. It’s probably been 8 years since I’ve last had one but by golly, they sound amazing right now!

Nursery update: we are like 90% of the way done. Room is painted. Crib is up and sheets are on. Dresser has been relocated from downstairs to the nursery. Curtains are hung. Paint chip garland is hung (but I’m still contemplating some unnecessary revisions). Doo-dads are slowly being added. I’m still in the process of putting away and washing pink clothes and the closet could really use some work as there is NO ROOM presently for any of pink stuff to be put in there. She’ll have to share her brother’s closet.  But we’re really close. Which is good since le bebe could come at any time.

Mommy thoughts: I’m slowly losing my mind. Most of the time I can’t find anything and then I make bets with Lance and he finds things in about twenty seconds. It’s infuriating. Lost things that I haven’t been able to find and Lance finds later on: black yoga pants, gray fleece pants, my phone, paint samples. I truly thought I was losing my mind when I texted a friend and discovered she had a couple of the things I had searched all over for. It was nice to know I wasn’t crazy. Between trying to finish the nursery and organizing three rooms of stuff into two rooms, the house is a disaster. I think the reason I keep losing stuff is because it’s 50% baby brain and 50% utter mess. #notmyfault

We took Lucan to a Big Brother Preparedness class in which he missed the beginning because he threw a fit and had a timeout in the car. I really don’t feel prepared to give birth, at least not like I did last time. I haven’t read any books and I have been really lax about most everything. I keep banking on the fact that because I’ve done this once before, I should be able to navigate my way through it a second time. At least in theory. I finally decided that I’m going to have this baby at the same hospital that we had Lucan mostly because labor and delivery is such a crap shoot that it might be nice to have ONE thing that is familiar. I should really mail in my pre-registration info. But everyone’s bags are finally packed and the car seat has been cleaned and is installed.

There’s no room in our deep freeze for me to do any freezer cooking. For real. We have a gigantic stand-alone freezer and there’s no space to put anything in it. Could be the box of bacon, the side of beef, the massive amount of chicken I bought on sale, the strawberry freezer jam, freezer corn and tomatoes. I’m not sure what we’re going to eat when baby sister makes her appearance – corn and jelly?

Message to baby: Hi little sister! What do you want to be named??

This has been the only picture I've had taken of me at 38 weeks. Because it's taken full-on, you can't really see my total torpedo belly. It's probably better that way. Our wonderful small group threw us a little pink baby shower before small group discussion, complete with pink decor and my FAVORITE Scratch cupcakes!

10 Things to Treat Yourself to in the Third Trimester

1. Mani/pedi. Hello feet?! Haven’t seen you in a while … go treat yourself to a little pampering and get your toes and fingers in tip-top-shape.
2. Flowers. At the end of October I hosted a “Favorite Things Party” and received a lovely bouquet of flowers. They’re not extravagant or huge, but they’re pretty and we all deserve a little more pretty!
3. Take a nap. More than likely you’re tired from all that energy you’re expending on GROWING A LIFE.
4. Read something unrelated to child rearing/baby development. It might be the last time you are able to sit in one spot without falling asleep or have someone interrupt you.
5. Get a new pillow. All sleep related things are good things at this point.
6. Have a “last hurrah” date night with hubby. Date nights become far fewer when you have to contend with finding a babysitter. Lance and I went to one of our favorite restaurants, The Flying Mango, when I was pregnant with Lucan. I have very vivid memories of having water offered to me several times while we were waiting for a table. I must have looked like I was going to have the baby at any moment. This time we went to Centro, one of other Des Moines favorites. But eat at someplace really nice and celebrate life.
7. Give yourself permission not to fanatically clean or marathon cook. In fact, I bought a groupon earlier in the year for house cleaning with the sole intention of using it in my third trimester when I didn’t feel like cleaning the floor on my hands and knees. Update: this ended up being a complete bust. The cleaning company wouldn’t return any of my calls and I ended up getting a groupon refund and still had to clean the house myself. #fail My parents are coming to spend Thanksgiving at our house and my wise friend, Jessica, made me promise that I would not spend hours in front of the stove preparing a Thanksgiving meal. As a result, I’m buying 2/3 of my Thanksgiving meal from Hy-Vee. I’m not allowing myself to feel guilty about this.
8. Attend a prenatal yoga class. All that stretching and “oommm-ing” will be soothing.
9. Drink a mock-tail and pretend it’s the real thing. Even if that just means pouring your Shirley Temple into a cocktail glass and adding an umbrella to it.
10. Take a bath. A long bath. Fill it with essential oils and Epsom salts and just sit. Enjoy the sitting. Then imagine that maybe the next time, the water will be able to cover your belly. I had a friend give me a fizzbanger bath bomb from LUSH and I loved it. Loved, loved, loved it. It made my bath water silky smooth and delicious smelling.

One unofficial thing I love doing now that the nursery is “done” is sit quietly in the rocker and pray and imagine life with this little one. Life, right now, is anything but quiet so the serene quality of the nursery is especially soothing on this anxious mama’s nerves!

Differences between the First and Second Pregnancies

The first time I was pregnant I was just so enamored with the whole process. Everything was new and shiny and so interesting. Needless to say, the second time around, while still magical, has not been nearly so shiny per say. I have the vaguest recollection of things that I’m supposed to be doing and watching for but I’m just so nonplussed compared to being pregnant with Lucan.

1. I have yet to read any pregnancy or newborn books. I’m fairly certain that we still have the two we purchased when I was pregnant the first time but I have no idea where they are. I have fairly low intentions of actually finding and reading them.
2. First pregnancy: I made elaborate pastel sugar cookies to tell all my coworkers the good news. This time? I bought a couple of cupcakes and said “oh and by the way, I’m pregnant.”
3. I think I broke out the maternity pants the second after I saw two pink lines. There’s no point in suffering people – embrace the elastic!
4. No foods are off limits. Cold turkey lunchmeat sandwiches, sure! A California sushi roll, well that sounds tasty! Nor have I limited or altered my caffeine intake – an afternoon soda to get me through the 2pm slump, dear God – YES.
5. My bladder is doing things now that I only encountered post-delivery with Lucan. I’m not sure why but this is NOT OKAY.
6. We’re not doing any pregnancy classes. Not a one. I did sign Lucan up for a big brother’s class, so at least I feel like I’ll get a partial credit.  (On the flip side, we are taking Working Through Behavior Challenges: God’s Way class at a local church)
7. 90% of the things little sister will own, her brother will have owned first. I’m buying a few nursery and bedding things, but we really don’t need much (besides clothes). I hope she likes tractors and construction equipment.
8. We had a huge gender reveal brunch with all of our families with baby #1. This time we had a nice little family dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and had them write the gender of the baby on our cheesecake plates. And then we texted our families. Real special.
9. There is a very likely chance I’m not going to have maternity pictures taken. While I absolutely loved the ones I had taken with Lucan, I know that we need to save our money and apply it elsewhere.
10. I am so much more tired this time around. It’s probably a combination of being older, not having a nap room at work and trying to keep up with a 3 year-old. The first time around my energy levels bounced back after the first trimester but this time around I was well into the second trimester before I felt like I didn’t need my 5:30 pm nap every day.
11. I’m in the third trimester and I cannot, for the life of me, decide which hospital to have little girl. I know. It’s ridiculous. JUST DECIDE KARA!
12. I knew how to pass my blood glucose screen this time around, meaning not eating THREE bags of fruit snacks an hour before my blood draw. Results? Passed with flying colors – bam! Experience wins again!
13. If my iphone didn’t have an app stating which week of my pregnancy I was in, I wouldn’t have a clue. The math is too hard for me to calculate.
14. It’s probably safe to say that I’m not going to write out an elaborate, single spaced birth plan this time around. My birth plan consists of 1) No C-section 2) Okay with drugs and vacuums. This also assumes that I’ve made up my mind as to what hospital to deliver at.
15. With Lucan, I walked twice a day during my breaks and did consistent yoga twice a week. Baby girl, gets sporadic exercise and a few hot yoga sessions. Speaking of which, I need to stop trying to stand on my head. Lance and Erika made me promise.
16. We had a scare with Fifths Disease early on with this baby (thank you toddler germs) and I heavily protested having to get a blood draw as Lu never actually came down with it. Then at my third appointment when they wanted to do another blood draw, I put my foot down. I wasn’t paying the lab fees for a disease that never reared its head. If this had been baby #1 I probably would have elected for extra testing. Ain't no one got the time or patience for that.

While I promise that baby girl will be adored and fawned over in her own right, I like to think that I’m not nearly as crazy this time around compared with my first pregnancy. This is our own sweet special girlie that was knit together and brought into the world to become part of our family.