I'll be back with the birth story for Miss Audrey later, but the tl;dr version is: 41+5, induction, epidural, standard delivery. Overall, it was good, and we're doing good.
I yanked this one out of my posts drafts that I hadn't gotten around to. A themed 5 Favorites. I do love me some free printables.
1.
Recipe card
And by 'card,' I mean an entire sheet of paper that goes in a sheet protector in my recipe binder. I love that these are editable pdf's so you can copy/paste and don't even have to wade through rushed handwriting.
This one from DomestiFluff is what I used 5 years ago for my sister's bridal shower cookbook.
I think this one here can actually hold more text on it for those longer recipes.
2.
Notes for the babysitter
You can find all sorts of these all over Pinterest, but I found 3 faves.
The one shown is from here. Another nice one is over here. And lastly, this one. Oh wait, there's also this adorable one that is specifically for infants. So. Many. Options.
3.
Yearly kid's birthday interview
Also an editable pdf, which I started this year at age 3. I'm sure my daughter's answers changed the next day, but I tucked what I got into her baby book anyway.
There's also a blue/green version, and both can be found right here.
For all of Kendra's printables, check out her Pinterest board
5.
Handwriting practice sheets
Full confession: if it weren't for Cora's daycare, I would have never known about this one. But to watch your 3-year-old write her name? Jaw-droppingly awesome.
I never actually 'nested' before my oldest was born. Not because she came too early or anything like that, but I just plain didn't feel like it. We got stuff done because we had to get it done (like putting the crib together), but not because I got any actual 'itch' to do it.
This time around, it's been mostly the same, minus one episode where I decided to vacuum out my car. To be fair, it was filthy.
Now that I'm 5 days overdue, my nesting (or lack thereof) has taken on an interesting form. Digital nesting. It's kind of dumb because I know I can get this kind of stuff done during a midnight nursing session after baby comes, but I want it done NOW.
I have four email addresses. FOUR. (Not including my work one.) Three with gmail, one at Yahoo. They each had their own purpose, although I might be able to phase one out. (But letting go of a primary email address that goes back almost 10 years is HARD. Like, way harder than it should be. That's literally a third of my life kinda hard.) As of 2 days ago, one gmail address had been forwarding to its own Yahoo folder, and the other 2 were just sitting out there not being checked much. I started hating how Yahoo's organization was (and it seems to keep changing), so I've decided to dump them all into one gmail account. Sounded easy enough, but I'm finding out it's a lot harder than I though, thanks to a million security features on gmail's end that I don't always know how to fix.
I'm also trying to fix commenting on this blog and when I comment on other Blogger-hosted blogs. It wasn't playing nice with a Yahoo email address any more, and everything I got was coming from no-reply email addresses and my comments on other blogs were bouncing. What a headache! I might even put CommentLuv on this site and fix some other issues I've neglected to touch.
Once I get the email situation under control, my plan is to back up some pictures to our external hard drive (and probably the cloud as well) and try to get my Documents folder under control. I promise I'm much more organized at work!
And who writes a post almost a week overdue without a bump pic? Notmesaidtheflea.
that face when you realize that you're more pregnant than you have ever been before (40 weeks, 4 days, post-Zumba class)
Have you ever done a big digital cleanup? Or nested in an unconventional way?
Yesterday was my due date, which obviously came and went with no squishy baby to show for it. Normal? Of course.
While I'm not sure if I've technically "nested" (except the day I decided to vacuum out my car perhaps), we have done some stuff to prepare for our newest family member.
1. Getting the nursery ready (even though we won't use it for a few months)
Cora is staying in her room, and our office has turned into a nursery/office for now. We'll get the desk out of there when the need arises.
The empty space in the center bottom is where her name will go!
2. Getting Cora's room decorated
I had been meaning to do this since, um, August, when I repainted her room and decided on a coral and navy blue color scheme. So it was about time, but I knew we would switch some furniture out and rearrange so I let it sit.
I made the 'artwork' with some art canvases covered in fabric. Then I cut shapes out of some other fabric and used fabric glue to attach. Easy project (although my stapler was not very good, and I ended up bringing home my work stapler to finish it. A staple gun is the best option, but the staples in ours were too big and stuck out too far.)
I think I still want to add some navy blue curtains to the window, and then we'll call it mostly done.
3. Buying new pajama pants
When I was pregnant with Cora, I had a short "pregnancy vs. x" series on the blog, with topics like Pregnancy vs. Habitat for Humanity and Pregnancy vs. A Music Festival. Well, this time around, pregnancy didn't stand in my way much. However, if I had to pick something to remember, it would be "Pregnancy vs. Pajama Pants."
I have ripped--the the point of needing to throw out--not just one, but TWO of my favorite pairs of pajama pants. They're the Old Navy lightweight cotton ones that I've had for YEARS, and they were the only pjs that still fit on my expanding bottom. The first pair didn't make it through the second trimester due to my own clumsiness in trying to put them on and stepping my foot right into the crotch part. On Wednesday, my second pair broke (also in the crotch) when I was cleaning up the house and squatting down to pick stuff up. I went to Old Navy on Friday and bought another pair (a size up, ugh). I even tried them on, which I don't recommend to any 40-weeks pregnant lady, like ever.
My newest pair. May they last as long as the old ones.
4. "Practicing" labor
Ugh. We thought I was in labor the day before I was due. Steady contractions all day long, but they were very mild. They never got more intense. I went to work the whole day and timed them with an app on my phone. Everyone was excited for me and was hoping to hear good news soon. My mother-in-law drove up to stay with us, expecting that she would be taking care of Cora while we were at the hospital. But it never progressed to anything more than mild contractions.
I slept a bit, then woke up a bit nauseous on Friday morning (my due date) and decided not to go into work. Then it all just stopped. No more contractions, no more labor. I guess I ended up taking a "mental health day." I was mad. I felt like I was letting everyone down. And I was tired of getting texts from anyone and everyone about 'how was I doing, do you need anything?' (I think a lot of this was due to lack of sleep. Although I still don't want the bothersome texts.) I got hit by the one-two punch of prodromal labor, and I'm not a fan.
5. Looking at pretty nursing-friendly dresses online
Isn't this gorgeous? I still can't figure out if it's my size (it's a one-off listing on Ebay), and I have no desire to jump through the hoops for a return, so I'm refraining. But darnit, it's so pretty.
6. Zumba and cartwheels
I think I've started to become a legend at Zumba, what with showing up the day after my due date for class. But I had so much energy this morning, and probably sweat harder than I had in the past 2 months.
40 weeks, 1 day, after sweating it out at Zumba Toning class!
I also did 2 cartwheels after the Tuesday class (during week 39), and it, uh, kinda hurt. As evidenced in this video:
Well, that's pretty much all the preparations we have made (aside from a half-packed hospital bag). Baby can come out now if she wants!
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