picking a name

ok, so we are totally behind on our glee watching and last night finished up almost all of season 1.  we still have the finale to go, but we are almost caught up so we can watch what's currently on.

with that said, i felt the need (very silly, i'm sure) to clear the air and let the blogosphere know that we did not choose baby beth's name because of an episode of a tv show.  there, i said it :)  apparently, the pregnant cheerleader (quinn) is going to name her baby beth?  i'm not sure if she actually does because, like i said, we haven't watched the finale. 

anyway, frivolity aside, just wanted to make that clear :)

kate is at her very first playdate as we speak.  i wasn't sure how she would do since she left our house to go play at someone else's house without me.  when i asked her if she wanted to go this morning, she was all over the idea.  but when i made it clear that mommy would be staying home with baby beth while she went - she kind of fell apart for a minute.  so i wondered if she'd be ready.  by the time her friend and his mom showed up, however, she was beyond excited and rearing to go.  she told me, "okay mommy, go in the house now!" over and over, followed by a lot of "bye bye, mommy!"s.  i was so glad to see her be so confident without me.  she teaches me new things by the day.

announcement

first appointment

beth, meet dr. johnson and his staff of nurses that are going to prick you and give you bandaids every time you see them for the next few years...

i took little beth to her first doctor's appointment this afternoon.  kate was so good for me so it made my first official outing with 2 kids alone a success.  you took both kids by yourself?  "what, like it's hard?"  (i'm not that obnoxious nor confident, i just like legally blonde).

beth's stats:
7lbs 1oz (3oz over her birth weight!  what a good eater!)
20 1/4 inches (i can't believe she's already grown almost 2 full inches!  crazy)
i was bummed to realize the nurse didn't tell me the percentiles for weight/height.  oh well.  

poor little thing had to get her second round of PKU testing done today (darn 2 week appointment).  watching your kids get shots ... well it's not that sad for me.  i don't like watching my kids in pain, don't get me wrong.  but kate was so resilient with immunizations that her screaming didn't last longer than about 3 seconds.  but the PKU draw is very different.  oh boy.  it's hard to hold your baby while she is screaming bloody murder because they pricked her with some kind of razory-blade thing, and then proceed to squeeze blood out of her heel - enough blood to soak like 7 or 8 circles on this paper card.  not fun.  but she survived and calmed down once we got her pacifier and got the car rolling.

almost 2 weeks

has it really been almost 2 weeks?  there is something decidedly unfair about how slowly the last 2 weeks of pregnancy go and how quickly the first 2 weeks of baby's life go.  very unfair.  but on the other side of pregnancy, you don't really care or think too much about those final days... so it all works out in the end i suppose.  

we are making the adjustment (so far anyway) to having 2 girls and are even remembering how to do that whole newborn part.  beth is such a good baby.  my only wish is that she would stay awake longer than 5 minutes at a time to eat.  she definitely inherited her father's narcoleptic tendencies.  but i can't complain when this little lady offers me 4 hours of sleep at a stretch during the night.  just like big sister did.   what good babies i have!  (remember my so far disclaimer).

kate is seeming to love having a baby sister.  anytime beth makes a noise, grunt, or sneeze, kate yells out, "mama!  i hear my baby sister!"  she is very excited about having baby beth here and loves to hold her, kiss her, and give beth her little baby doll.  kate's favorite thing about her baby sister is seeing her eyes open.  i think it makes her day.  it's quite a rare sight these days, so i'm sure the novelty will wear off once beth spends more time awake during the day.

the girls

so here's a quick rundown of how little beth arrived.  it should be a quick story because it didn't take more than 2 hours from the moment i checked in until we had her in our arms.  

we got to the hospital at 6:15am, i got monitored and prepped, and we were in the OR by 7:30.  i got my spinal block, which worked incredibly fast (a shot in the back just like an epidural - by the time i unrolled my back and started to swing my legs around on the bed, i realized i couldn't move my legs... a little bit of heaven right there).  obviously i wasn't in any kind of pain, but being numb made me all warm and sleepy - it was dreamy.  so we had to wait a few minutes for my doctor to arrive, but by 7:45 things were underway.  several minutes in, i could feel pain.  ouch.  not like crazy, i feel you cutting my flesh kind of pain, but way more sensation than what i should have been feeling (and definitely not the "pressure" you feel with a c-section).  the worst part was that i figured if i can feel this, how much worse is it going to get?  once they moved from the area they were working on (with said pain) it subsided and i didn't feel anything else.  i also had a mini panic/anxiety attack for a few minutes and was incredibly hot, so much so that mr. anesthesiology had to fan my face with his neon yellow clipboard.  but it was a bit helpful, and then the hot flash/attack went as quickly as it came.  

at 8:03am i heard the magical sound of my tiny baby screaming - it brought instant tears to my eyes and a whole lot of gratitude to my heart that she was healthy and here.  i find it interesting that, even though she came via surgery and not the birth canal, i could still instantly feel the moment she left my body.  not because i could feel pressure or tugging when they pulled her out, but i could feel from one moment to the next that she was inside and a part of me, and then she was gone.  for me, there is something slightly bittersweet about giving birth (and i felt this way with kate, too).  that baby is inside you and with you always, all the time.  they are your little buddy or your pal or your partner.  and then they are on their own.  but having them here always trumps that little sentiment pretty quickly :)    

love those wrinkly legs!

 

this is the outfit i made for little beth to wear coming home from the hospital.  we looked a few times for something special she could wear home, but never found anything very cute.  i guessed she would be fairly close to kate's size (based on my size) and anything preemie was for boys (maybe there are more tiny girls born?  probably)  so i found a shirt online and tried my best to copy it - it worked out pretty well.  i was worried the pants would be way too small (seriously, after washing them they looked like doll pants) but they were a perfect fit!  she'll be grown out of it in no time :)

i love her juicy lips

and not to leave kate out - here's one last shot of her playing with woody and jessie.  she adores these two.  it's very cute.  here's the latest thing i can share about miss kate.  her new thing lately is to tell us "and mama, don't talk to me!"  for awhile, i would just say, "okay!" with as much attitude as she was dishing.  my mom quickly observed that whenever she would say this to any of us, it really translated to "mama, i'm going to do something naughty that i know you don't want me to do, so don't pay attention to me right now and don't tell me not to do it."  for example, she was getting into my mom's toiletry bag and pulled out her brush, but not before saying "mama, don't talk to me."  i realized she was going back to the bag to see what else she could find and didn't want me to stop her.  what a crazy kid - she's too cute :)

Beth, part 2

Erin and Beth came home from the hospital tonight.  Erin is having another superhuman recovery from her C-section.  Here is a big batch of photos from the first day in the hospital.  Now that Beth is home, I need to get some shots of her in the uber cute outfit that Erin made for her to come home in.

Let's do this.

Erin has beautiful eyes.

Beth let out a cry almost immediately.  She had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck twice, and we are grateful that there were no complications.

poor little girl, what a hairline.

Great Grandma Carson

Our first visitors were Great Grandma and Grandpa Carson

Great Grandpa Carson  (to Beth)

Kate was excited, and took to Beth better than we thought she would.

precious

Me and my girls.

Mommy's girls.

Can a kid get any cuter?

Kate got a Woody doll "from Beth," just for being such an awesome big sister.

Beth is quite the sleeper so far.  I could hardly get a shot with her eyes open.  Kate was wide awake from day 1.

There are those eyes again.

what a little Munchkin.

aww

She is tiny.  It's crazy that Kate was a half pound smaller.

Grandpa and Grandma Colton came and brought our niece, Karli.

Grandma loves her grandkids.  (Again with the poor hairline).

Beth

Beth Colton
6 lbs. 14 oz. 18.5"

Baby and mom are happy and healthy.  Check back for more photos and a re-cap.
She looks a lot like her big sister... look at the similarity:  http://thecoltons.blogspot.com/2008/02/kates-colton.html

delaying the inevitable

housework, that is.  i have been bitten by a possible nesting bug, but it sure hasn't been one of cleaning up around here or scrubbing floors and baseboards.  i have been having too much fun with my 2 friends, elna and white.

scavenged internet photos, my apologies...

i have sort of rediscovered how much fun it is to sew for miss kate.  i get these crazy spurts of sewing inspiration a couple of times a year maybe - it so happens that right now is one of them.  so everything else can wait...

here are some things i've whipped up for her (and i can actually say whipped up because sewing for someone so small means it literally takes like 20-30 minutes TOPS to make one of these projects, start to finish (cutting included!)  how can you argue with that?  

pajamas - love her thumbs up!

tunic with a bow on the collar (kind of hard to see)

boatneck stripes (love this shirt - i want one)

this started as a pajama project, but weston liked it as a t-shirt too much

pink 3/4 sleeve mock turtleneck

and i had some blue so i made another...

seriously easy, ladies.  i made this blue shirt while i was making dinner last night - you'd be surprised.  oh and speaking of dinner, i made it twice (count it - twice!) this week.  and we had enough leftovers last night to freeze for 2 meals in the coming weeks.  lovely.

just don't come over - my house is atrocious!

to C or not to C?

i am, of course, talking about c-sections here.  i have known all along with this pregnancy that the likelihood of having a 2nd c-section was high.  i just don't think my body knows how to go into labor.  i know our bodies were built to do this very thing, but i don't have much confidence in mine.  it's a bit of a bummer, but i have completely come to terms with it and i'm okay with having babies via surgery.  especially if i get to recover as seamlessly as i did the first time. 

that being said, i am scheduled to meet this little lady sometime tuesday (september 7th) morning.  yay!  i can't even believe this pregnancy is over - the first time around feels like 2 years worth of waiting.  this time has simply flown by.  so, for anyone counting, that means i have 5 more days to go.

here is a photo i took this afternoon of myself.  my husband will gasp when he sees it because of the amateurish awfulness of the photo - i mean, i couldn't even bring myself to clean the mirror first!  but i have asked him several times now to take some photos of me and he has yet to do it.  i have often wondered if it was his very kind way of saying, "honey, you really just shouldn't be photographed right now," you know, without having to say things like that :)

either way (and i have a very sweet husband, in case anyone is worried now), here is a shot of me at 39 weeks and ready to go!