Mother in Law craftyness!

My mother in law was lucky enough to spend a few months with us right after Jack was born.

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Pinned up! {bridesmaids}

Ok this may be cheating and since we have been so busy cleaning up and readying the house to see Ive had no time for craftiness this week. Soooooo here is this weeks pin of the week. When I saw the original photo I knew I loved it and I wanted to try it with my next wedding! I like the result. What do you think?

The original

Source: indriindriindrii.tumblr.com via Hilary on Pinterest

Mine

 

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Wordless Wednesday | Two Month Favorites

I havent uploaded a lot of photos of Jack to my blog. This is mainly due to them all being online on facebook. I am doing a 365 project with the little man and its going well ... some days better than others but good all the same. Here are a few of my favorites from last month. If youre interested in the whole set they can be found here: three six(ty) five!

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Missing Momma

It has been nine years since I last talked or saw or hugged my mom. I miss her a lot. I had just entered 10th grade and I was so young. My life has changed so much since then. Its taken me places I would have never imagined. North Carolina for one I never really imagined living. I also never anticipated living in Washington(or ever even wanting to for that matter.) Life without her is hard. Its hard at weddings when I see the brides with their moms and the grooms dancing with their moms. I see all the love they share and I know I'm not going to have that ever again. Sure, I know there are a lot of people that care and love me but its just not the same. Not the same at all. I sure do wish she was still here. I wish Jack could have met her. She would have loved him... I mean really though; who doesnt? It would just be nice to give her a call and talk to her about life. Because life is hard and its always changing. Most people have that in their lives because everyone for the most part has a mom...and its hard when you dont have it. I wish I could talk to her about Jack and ask her questions about my own childhood that I dont know the answer to. I wish I could tell her how much I see of her in Jack. He looks a LOT like my side of the family as much as he looks like Neils. Which is so weird how that is. Anyway, ill stop having a pity party now.

So, do me a favor and call your mom today and tell her how much you love her. Because I know she wants to hear it.

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Pinned Up! {footprints}

So, I have a new love that isnt a little boy named Jack. Its name is Pinterest. Its awesome. I love it. It has so much eye candy its ridiculous. Makes me excited to get into the new house already so I can start doing things to it! So I think I'm going to ACTUALLY start doing things from the site. Thats what its there for right? Ill start with one thing that has stuck out.

Source: sidebysideblog.blogspot.com via Marga on Pinterest

Since little Jack is still a baby I could totally do this! So about a month ago I bought the canvas. I got a HUGE canvas too. Like 24x30 or something. My plan is to have three babies and I think it would be neat to have them all on there. So I bought it with room to grow. I finally got around to painting it grey. Which I notice the original also painted it grey. I picked grey so it would match more things. Anyway, today was the day to try and I think it went pretty well. Here is our take:

ill only show you a little of the canvas.. cause it big. He got a little excited on the right foot.. and I wish we could redo it but whatevs. I guess it adds character. Oh and he D O E S have 5 toes on each foot though it doesnt look it.

See, here's my proof!

We tried his hands too

that there is his baby book. He wasnt having his hands outstretched. Oh well. His feet were lame too. It happens eh?

Funny I chose a blue that was the same color as his diaper for the day.

Anyway, Im excited to see it get better and better..and by better I mean more and more feet!

 If you would like an invitation send me an email at mercer.hilary@gmail.com and let me know you need one!

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Wordless Wednesday | What Chu' Talkin Bout MA?

I love his face.

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Jack: A Birth Story

Yes, it HAS taken me three + months to tell you the story of Jack's birth. Its been interesting getting used to having a baby around. Then we were out of town a lot and I feel like I am just getting settled into life with a baby and a husband that works a lot.

A lot of you have been curious about Jack's birth and why I went a month early and what happened to him in the hospital that caused him to be in the nursery for the first 4 days of his life.

April 11

6:15 am

I woke up and the bed was super wet. My underwear were wet and it was weird. I asked Neil if there was any hanky panky I didnt remember about (yes probably tmi) and he said no. This was at 6am. I didnt think my water had broken because it didnt hurt anywhere. So I figured Id call my OB when their office opened.

9:00 am

I called my ob and the nurse said to put on a pad( which I had already done) and call back in the afternoon and tell her how many Ive changed. Which is a really strange thought and they probably should have just had me come in anyway to check

Day goes by and I run my errands and get things done. Showered. Oh and sleep. I slept a lot.

3:00 pm

I called back to tell the nurse I had changed at least 6 pads in the course of the day! And of course she told me to come in. I get there and sit on the table and water is just dripping from me. It was a little embarassing because when you pee. You can at least keep it in for a while but this was just a steady drip ALL DAY! Anyway, the doctor comes in and looks at me. Before he even does anything down there he says "well I can tell you now just by looking at you, your waters broken" Again, duh. So off to the hospital I go.

5:00 pm

I got all checked in and a few of my pregnant friends joined me since Neil was flying still. It was super nice to have them join me and hang out. Nice to not be alone. Thank you ladies. I really do appreciate it. We heard a lady giving birth and boy did it not sound pleasant. Poor mom. Nothing was happening except an IV (which I REALLLLLLLY didnt want that early.)

7:00pm

Neil is off of work, the ladies go back home. Still nothing.

8:30pm

The doctors put a tic tac sized pill in my vagina in order to make my uterus thinner. At that point I was only 1 cm and 25% effaced. Tiny contractions have started and I have to pee. A lot. I think I got up about 5 times. I'm sure my nurse at that point hated me. The contractions made my fetal monitors move so she kept on having to come back in to check on me and tell me not to move. Not moving was really hard. I know labor was supposed to be hard and all but I just didnt like the fact that I wasnt supposed to move. I really like the idea of a home birth and at that point I was thinking how nice it would have been,

9:00pm 

Neil gets back into the room and the fun really starts.

Neil took that one when I was sleeping a bit..

12:ish am

Im along enough they dont have to give me anymore cytotec but they give me a cocktail of pain meds that for the most part knock me out. 

2:30 am

Another dose of the pain meds but im still not advancing like I should be so they give me pitocin. Which I really didnt want. I didnt want to have a "false labor" I knew pitocin made things 100% worse. But whatevs, its over now. Then the contractions R E A L L Y started to hurt. Like bad. So bad it really made me want the epidural and I was REALLY going to try and not have it. But I couldnt stand the pain. Luckily the pain meds helped me sleep a bit and in between the contractions I could get some rest.

4:00am

They stopped the pitocin because I was around 3/4 cm along.. I forget.

7:55am

They hooked up another bag of fluid and I had to go another 30 minutes without the epidural. I only mention that because it seriously broke my heart. I couldnt imagine A N O T H E R thirty minutes going by with the pain. Poor Neil. 

Somewhere in that time there was an emergency C section keeping the doctor away.

9am

FINALLY they gave me the epidural. My goodness it seemed to take forever to get it too. I was 6cm by the time they gave it to me. Almost too late because of that Csection. Thats when the butt pain started. I had heard that labor feels like a huge poop but you dont know what a huge poop feels like until you do it. The epidural definitely helped with the pain but it was still there. Very uncomfortable indeed.

10:00 am

I started pushing. Ten or so minutes into pushing my friend and awesome photographer Autumn walks in and I introduce her to my vagina. "HI AUTUMN! This is my vagina!" A few minutes later the doctor comes in to check on me and tells me I am ready to have this baby but he has to deliver another baby first and I had to hold it 30 minutes. THIRTY MINUTES. He's joking... I wish. So I continue pushing. And pushing. My butt it really starting to hurt at this point. At one time I was wondering which hole the kid was coming out of! Neil was a trooper and decided to take a gander at the below parts and he said he was glad he did. At some point the doctor AND the nurse left the room and it was just Neil, Autumn and I in the room. So Neil got down there and was cheering me on, something I definitely did NOT expect. It was weird. I knew exactly when I needed to push and when I didnt. I think the epidural guy did a great job. Not too much, not too little. Though, I still think if I hadnt been given pitocin I would have been able to do it all natural. Oh well, maybe next time.The doctor comes back in and tells me I am REALLY ready to have the baby but I needed to wait a few more minutes. At this point, the baby is crowning and already there. So the nurse tells me to "blow out candles" to keep him from coming out. The doctor comes back in and is gloving himself up and I am pushing like there is no tomorrow. I am trying so hard to get that baby out and no jokes. The doctor finishes putting on his second glove and Jack falls out of my vagina. Into the doctors arms of course but still... lucky timing on his part.

10:55 am

Jack Romeo

April 12

5.7lbs

21 inches

The nurses take the kiddo to the side and weigh him and get him cleaned up. During that time the doctor actually does some work and takes out the placenta. Ugh. That was hard too. He had some real issues with it and at one point mentioned forceps. It looked like a roast. Gross. I didnt tear that much but just a little and he sewed me back up. I could feel it and he gave me another shot of numbing ness in my nether regions and then I couldnt feel my feet again. Its an odd feeling not being able to feel your legs.

Jacks body temperature had dropped a lot because of all of the white stuff all over him.. I forget what its called. Well, its wet and slimey and doesnt keep babies warm. So the nursery took him and bathed him. Then, 2 ish hours later ( way too long if you ask me) he was brought to us and left. He was starting to cry a little so we decided to try and feed him again. Oh yeah, we fed him right after he was popped out and he did an awesome job on the boob. Go him! Well, during that time I noticed that he was a little blue. The nurses said that was normal and not to worry about it because he's just getting used to being out of a belly. Anyway, we feed him this second time and I notice that he's turning purple. I had already buzzed the nurses though. Neil said, "oh he's fine, they said it was normal" and then he looked at him and started freaking out! Because Jack WAS purple. He was still sucking (which was weird) but purple all the same. The nurse came in and patted him very hard on the back and took him to the nursery. There he stayed for the next 3 days. Gosh. How annoying. So, I started pumping since they were giving him fluid in the IV and wasnt that hungry because of it. He turned purple because sometimes babies dont know how to breath and eat at the same time especially when they are preemies. And my boobs were huge. So, my boobs tried to suffocate him in the end.

Overall I couldnt have asked for a better labor. There werent really any complications. I only pushed for 55 minutes. And I ended up with a cute little bundle of awesomeness.. 

I'd do it again.

All but that one photo that Neil took were taken by my good friend Autumn of Reminiscing Moments! You can see her post about it here. CLICK!

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Jack: Three Months Old

Jack is full of smiles.

• He is fitting quite nicely into all of his cloth diapers
• His favorite time of the day is between 8am-noon. He is super happy then. I like it. Makes it worth not being able to go back to sleep.
• He is sleeping in his crib in his own room and he likes it. We do too.
• We dont know how big he is but he sure has grown!
• He loves just laying on a quilt in the middle of the room staring at the ceiling fan.
• Still not using pacifiers much, he doesnt like them. But he does enjoy my boobs. He uses them as pacifiers.. which can be sort of annoying at times.
• He can hold his head up when youre holding him and has been able to for a few weeks now. Such a strong little guy.
• He doesnt like to be awake and in the backseat by himself in the car.. which is great when Neil is driving.. not so much when its just me and him.
• He's already been on a plane and he's been to Florida three separate times! He was an awesome baby on the plane. All the folks at Southwest helped out a super ton!
• Its official the blue eyes are gone. They are now greennnnnishhazel. Hoping they stay that way!

If you want to see his three month photos Autumn took the other day go here! They are awesome!

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Grey Skies + Sunshine Quilt!

Its finished!!! Jack's baby quilt is quilted, bound and being put to good use!

The backing is 3 pillow cases by Alexander Girard I got from a thrift store in Birmingham last May. They retail for like $40 for 2 (RIDICULOUS!) and I got them for like 7 and I still have a ton left over.. since I bought all they had since I didnt have plans for it at the time. The binding is the back of the pillow cases and its like my favorite fabric ever. Just my style.



I used Made- By- Rae storytime square quilt pattern. I really liked it and i think it would be super easy with a charm pack. I still have some Nicey Jane charm packs I need to use..perhaps it will be a future project

Ive been wanting to do a yellow + grey quilt for a while. But... I didnt want to give it away. I got pregnant and voila! BAM! I could keep it and it was gender neutral so it would be for my girl or my boy.

Im just glad its done! Wootie Woot!

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Jack: Two Months Old

Oh Boy! My little boy is growing up so fast on his dad and I. Its nuts how big he is.. and to think women still pop babies out his size. I bow down to any of them that do and I am still thankful for my little 5 pounder. I sure do miss him being so tiny though.

Here are his stats from his 2 month appointment a few days ago:

Weight: 10 lbs. Solid.

Height: 21.5

and his head circumference is 37.

Which puts him in the 15% for weight 8% for height and 4 for head. Poor guy. Im glad he was early but I want to know that hes not so low. I know he isnt and its just because he was born a whole month early but still.. At this appointment he also got his shots and thank the lord Neil was able to take leave this week since the inlaws are in town and he was able to go with me. If theres one thing in life I dont like its needles and seeing them poke my little guy well I just didnt want to do that so Neil took that role. Surprisingly little Jack only squealed a tiny bit and then he was out. For like the rest of the day.

A few things Ive learned this past month:

1. It is possible for a newborn to stay awake from 9am til 11pm. CRAZY! He STILL woke up at 4:30am to get his grub on.
2. Breastfeeding is going awesome still. I am so very thankful he is a good feeder
3. Jack isnt someone you really want to take on a road trip. Hes fine once you get there but once nightfall settles in he isnt a happy camper.
4. Neil and Jack have a special "whooo" language. The other night they had a whole conversation "whoo'ing" at eachother. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever.
5. Jack is becoming WAY more responsive and awake. Its awesome.
6. I dont want his eyes to change colors. But.. they are. I miss the blue already.
7. He has a lot of family and non related family back from in Florida that love him. I already knew this but.. I think after having seen him with everyone its SUPER obvious.
8. Jack likes to see everything. He really liked when I hold his back to me so he can see all 180 degress.
9. His frowny face is still the cutest ever.
10. He likes dances. He has been to two so fat and hasnt been too cranky at all.
11. He DOES get really cranky around 4ish 5 and that time is no fun.

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