Rhymes With Orange

Week 2...and a day

Motherhood is amazing. I'm not gonna lie; it has it's hellish moments. Like when you find yourself standing in the kitchen at 11:30pm with a gassy, screaming infant who has been nursing for over an hour already and nothing else will make him happy, you've got breast milk dripped all down your shirt, you need a shower desperately and the only thing you've consumed in the last six hours are two whole wheat poptarts and about a gallon of water. And you look around thinking dear God, what was I thinking? Why am I doing this again? And then the screaming baby lets out a really loud fart, sighs deeply, smiles at you and falls asleep snuggled under your chin, and you think, "Oh yeah, that's why." =)

Everything I never knew I needed.

A more detailed post will come later today (hopefully. I may be writing it one handed though. I think Danny is hitting a growth spurt.) He has his two week check up in a few hours, so I'll post the details. Also some beautiful new pictures =)

One Week

So I've lost 31 pounds this week. I'm within 2 pounds of my prepregnancy weight. Please don't hate me though, I started at 210, and my belly is hanging 5 inches from where it should be. Plus I smell like cottage cheese, so we're even.

Danny has changed so much this week. His hair is starting to show some reddish blond like mine. His eyes are still blue, but are slowly getting lighter like Mike's. He is the most peaceful baby too. Noise puts this child to sleep. Vacuum? No problem. Noisy restaurant? Sleeping like an angel. The Blue Angels' putting on an hour long show directly over our apartment? Out cold. God is incredible.

My brain is pretty fried right now, so instead of trying to write real content, here are some pictures of Daniel. Because we all know that's what you're really here for ;)

I swear I didn't eat his toes...much.

Daniel Leland Watrous is finally home! He looks just like his daddy, has a head full of dark hair, big blue eyes and has become a perminant fixture on my chest.

I wound up having a c-section because of how big he was which wasn't what I had planned, but after two hours of pushing and not making even an inch of progress we decided to go ahead with the surgery before something went wrong. After they delievered him, the doctors all agreed that it had been the best choice because there was no way his head was going to fit.

So we are home, and we are healthy. He is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, and I cannot stop sniffing his head. It smells that good.

Thanks for all the well wishes! Happy Mother's Day!

My very best knitting project ever (Psalms 139:13)

3 Strikes and you're out!

Howdi folks, mr RWO here to give ya'll some updates. I'm leaving the big post for the normal RWO to do since this is her blog and ya'll come to hear her, not me!

Daniel Leland was born today at around 5:38PM CST. He weighs 8 lbs 3 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. He also has a full head of hair on him... enough that they were able to part his hair for his pictures :)  he ended up having to be C-sectioned but thats ok as mom and baby are perfectly fine. She gave a great try and after 2 hours of pushing the decision was made to bring him out another way since he was so big (did I mention his head is ginormous?)

Anyway, This is Mr. RWO signing off. Next post will have pictures and stories and all the good fun stuff!

Thanks again for all yours prayers and words of encouragement!

Inside wants out.

Nobody panic! I have a diaper bag! Also, there is room in the crib for an infant. I think we're ready. Which is good because...

The diaper bag? SOOOOO cute! I luv it.

Okay Little Mister Orange, we are ready for you. Time to be born!

Please?

Contest! W00t!

Mom is on the road right now, making her way down here as fast as she (legally) can. She asked that I post this for her just in case it disappears from her blog (Bad PTK blog! Bad!) Now I'm off to attend to some very important cereal-related business. Also chocolate milk. Possible together.

It was raining and cold when I left Northern Michigan. It got progressively warmer as I got souther, but the rain kept on coming. I’m in Mount Vernon, Illinois right now, a nice town toward the southwest end of the state, at a nice hotel with wifi and free breakfast. I laid down 646 miles today, some of it at 55mph (it feels like a crawl!) and at 65 through the great state of Illinois, which incidently, doesn’t believe in speed or any sort of road markings or signage except right outside of the larger towns and cities. I hadn’t a clue where I was most of the time.

Tomorrow I’ve got about 550 miles left. I’m getting 27.6 miles per gallon, and gas has been $3.68/gallon in every state I’ve been in so far.

I brought along 5 hibernating projects, 2 current projects, 5 different types of wool roving/batts, three spindles and my Louet S10. Lou is a pretty good traveler for a non-folding wheel.

And after this, a baby.

So that’s where the contest comes in. You know the drill. Email me (sgrougan at gtlakes dot com), put BABY! in the subject line, and give me your best guess as to: date, time, weight, length. (Gender guessing is unnecessary…it’s a boy. I’ve seen the ultrasound.) Here are two big hints: 1. Her ‘due’ date is May 15th. 2. She’s measuring 41cm already. Got that? Closest to actual will be rewarded with yarn. Or roving, if it pleases. Or perhaps both, because you’re going to have to wait until I get home for your prizes to be awarded (patience is a virtue, right?) If you happen to be a really good guesser and get more than one correct, you’ll be doubly rewarded.

I’m going to have Katy post this on her blog also, as we’re now well familiar with my disappearing posts…

Let the guessing commence!

:::off to sleep away the miles:::

Two weeks notice

Little Mister Orange has two weeks to vacate my body. My doctor doesn't want me going more than 3 or 4 days past my due date because my body is starting to show a lot of wear & tear, and she's getting a little concerned. Since I wanna be induced about as much as Amy Winehouse wants to go to rehab (No no no), mom and I are really going to push it once she arrives here on Sunday.

Anybody know a good way to bring on labor?

Perhaps I should empty the crib while I'm at it?

Yesterday, my OB/GYN announced that my seven+ pound child could possibly make his appearance before my appointment next week. I went into panic mode because, hello? I'm having a baby, and I STILL haven't bought baby socks! Or a diaper bag. Or crib bedding. Or a baby monitor. Or a Boppy Pillow. Or anything that would amuse an infant like a swing, bouncy seat or mobile. Apparently my nesting instinct has been replaced by the much stronger Sit On The Couch And Eat A Whole Box Of Honey Bunches of Oats instinct.

I do however have a small stack of wonderfully organized to-do lists. They even have bullet points and numbers! (The road to H-E-double hockey sticks: I'm paper mache-ing it with my meticulously detailed lists.)

Last night, I spent two hours driving around looking for a diaper bag which I never did find because EVERYTHING IS PINK. But! I have baby socks. We still need to get everything else, but it's okay because we have baby socks. Which I am totally tempted to wear on my nose.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have an important meeting with a cereal box. Mmmmm.

And they called it, the Rebel.

I have something new and shiny. No, it's not a baby. It's a...

It's my really early birthday/mother's day/I can't believe you just had my baby/anniversary/Christmas/valentine's day/arbor day gift from Mike. He'd been planning on getting me a new camera for my birthday, but since I really won't have time to sit around and read manuals and books on digital photography once Baby O arrives, he decided to get it for a me a little early =) I loooooooooove it. I would probably sleep with it if I weren't so terribly protective of it. *Pets her camera*

It takes amazing pictures. Once you figure out how to use all of the features. I'm still learning, but I'm slowly getting better =) I haven't take any pictures off of it, so I don't have anything to post right now, but that's my goal for tomorrow. My other goal is to not go into labor because my mom may disown me. More on that later.

This post is pretty rambly because I really don't know how to express how much I appreciate Mike. A camera may not seem like a romantic gift to some, but to me it is. More so than flowers or jewelry. He knew I'd wanted this for a long time. It's so sweet and so unexpected, and it's left me quite speechless and giggly. I have an amazing husband. I love you baby.

Almost 37 weeks

Hurry up and cook little guy!