It's a Girl!

Stella Maria W----

Born March 13, 2012 (On her due date!)

6 lbs, 10 oz

20 inches

We are in love. 

No matter what anyone tells you, you are never, ever fully prepared for this parenting thing. The last two weeks have been the most intense and challenging of my entire life. We've been on a sleep-deprived emotional roller coaster, with moments of pure joy, terror and sometimes, utter frustration. Also, breastfeeding is hard. But more on that stuff later. Above are some photos from the hospital. Poor thing's face is scratched up in the second one...she's like Edward Scissorhands, but freaks out when we try to put mittens on her. More to come whenever I come up for air again. 

39 Weeks

Also, from the looks of it, this baby will still be cooking in there at Week 40. He/she is too comfortable and doesn't seem to have dropped down low enough for anything to happen yet, according to my doctor's latest prediction this morning.
I'm not so comfortable, but I guess that doesn't matter.

Pregnancy Essentials

So now that I'm 39 weeks today (yikes!) I figured I'd share some of my wardrobe staples over the last several months. I tried to get use out of my pre-pregnancy clothes for as long as I could, graduating from a hair tie as a clasp for my jeans to a belly band, which was way more flattering, since my gut started busting out through the zipper opening and creating weird bumps. The band had a smoother finish under t-shirts. I wore it until I hit six months and decided it was time to give in to the elastic waistband jeans. I know lots of people who swear by Paige and Seven maternity jeans, but since I was just planning on rocking skinny jeans under a tall pair of boots and a long sweater, I didn't want to bother with getting super pricey pants, of which only a small part (mid-thigh to knees) would be seen.

I forfeited my heels (mainly because my new job as an editor has no dress code and it was winter) so my daily uniform was very similar to my pre-preggo cold-weather style: jeans, riding boots, long slim-fit t-shirt and a few different chunky cardigans. I had success with Gap and Target maternity clothes and just mixed and matched a few of those t-shirts with a collection of non-maternity stretchy tees over a long tank top. (I'm a big fan of the classic v-neck tri-blend from American Apparel.) I should also mention that I've spent the last month or so living in these Gap leggings. 

In December, my mom gave me the Snoogle pillow as a birthday present, and while it's absurd and creates a wall in bed between me and C, I love it and could not have been able to sleep without it. I found it so worth the price, and obviously, even better if you can guilt someone into buying it for you.

I used the Occitane Shea butter cream, but not religiously. I think the stretch mark thing is really genetic, but I included it in the list because your skin still tends to get dry from the stretching (and if you're pregnant during colder months) so I think it's worth investing in a good lotion that's not greasy and heavy on scents. (I was particularly sensitive to smell, especially in the beginning.)

I'd also strongly recommend prenatal yoga classes and massages, if you can swing them. I'm still going to yoga at least twice a week. I got one amazing massage (C surprised me back in November with a gift certificate to Bliss) and he got me another one (at a different place that specializes in prenatal) last week, so I'm hoping I can use it before baby comes. I'm due in exactly one week, so that really means any day now, and I (stupidly) didn't take any leave beforehand, so I'll likely be getting a massage this weekend, if I make it that long.

In the meantime, the Great Boys Name Debate of 2012 continues in our household and it's so stressful, you guys. If we ever do this again, I'm putting a deadline on this naming thing. I'm worried we're going to be that couple that can't decide and leaves the hospital without a name. Isn't that how Picabo Street ended up with her's? I think she named herself once she started talking. (Hint: she was quite fond of the peek-a-boo game.) Maybe we'll go that route.

Home Stretch

It happened. My feet are finally gone. What was the point of getting that cute pedicure on Saturday if I can't even see my toes?

Anyway, I'm in the home stretch now at 38 weeks, and finally starting to feel DONE. I was fortunate enough to have a pretty easy pregnancy with little complaints, except for the usual sleep issues and heartburn. But once I hit 36 weeks, that heavy feeling just started to weigh me down, and now, I've begun fantasizing about cute summer dresses and things I took for granted before, like running and biking, or even the ability to walk briskly without waddling.  I know it'll be a while before I'm back to running 3 miles a few times a week, or let's be honest — once a week —(my workout regimen is grueling, you guys :) but just the idea of physical activity sounds exciting.

Here's a photo of me looking freakishly large at 37 weeks in a dress I wore to my shower, nearly a month before. (I swear, it looked much cuter when bump was the size of a large jicama as opposed to a big bunch of swiss chard. What? Yes, the weekly "information" provided by the BabyBump app is stupid.)

Gnocchi for Valentine's Day

For someone who has repeatedly proclaimed Valentine's Day a farce — a "holiday" created by Hallmark to pressure us into buying uniform crap — C really hit it out of the park yesterday, with homemade butternut squash gnocchi, topped with herbs and a balsamic brown butter sauce. It's hard to tell from the phone pic, but it was ridiculously good...the taste and texture were perfect. I'll have to stop complaining about his latest addiction, but sadly, I probably won't.
The yummy cupcakes from Sweet were my only contribution, along with a Peanuts compilation book, to add to his collection. I basically just sat on the couch all night, with my feet up.

But when you look like this, you can pretty much get out of anything. 

 PS. I'm 36 weeks and I can no longer see my toes. The home stretch is exciting, but totally scary at the same time.

The Tale of a Bloody Foot Bath...

True story: I spent a summer in a dorm in the hills of Le Marche, a region bordering Tuscany and Umbria during college. It was magical for all the reasons you might imagine: I was 18, I met a group of exciting new friends, there were love interests, and duh - I was in Italy.
But I was young and hadn't fully embraced my current philosophy, i.e., I can look fashionable and hot and still be comfortable. (Or so I tell myself.) So back then, I wore heels, all the time. And they weren't the kinds of cheap shoes that are expected to destroy your feet. My great-grandfather was a cobbler by trade, so it was ingrained in my mother (and thus, in me) from a young age to never, ever wear crappy shoes. She was more concerned about the development and care of our feet, than anything else, so even though my dad was working two jobs when we were little, my parents splurged on sturdy and beautiful tiny shoes imported from Italy.
As it turns out, I have the most sensitive feet in the world, and I'll get cuts and blisters after a few hours of walking in just about any shoe, unless I'm wearing large fuzzy slippers, and then I'll get arch pain anyway, so there's no winning.
Oh yeah, so that summer in Italy....one afternoon -- after a long day of pounding on cobblestone with a new pair of amazing leather sandals bought in Rome -- my roommates came home to find me sitting on the toilet (cover was down) with my feet in a bidet full of blood. Seriously, it looked like something had gone horribly wrong in there. I have never seen so much blood before, and needless to say, anyone who had been using that bidet, promptly stopped after seeing that.
Years of pain have made me wiser. Winter and fall are easiest. I'm usually in flat (usually Frye) boots, shearling-lined snow boots when we're having a normal winter on the east coast and not this disturbing weather that makes me have nightmares about the earth burning up into a fiery ball, and my beloved Hunter rain boots.
Spring and summer, things get tricky. I try to stick to flat, leather-lined sandals or Havaianas flip flops, and I'm still obsessed with wedges (I always keep the flips in my bag in case things go bad), but every time I try to buy a pair of cute, chic flats to wear to work or any situation where sandals just aren't going to cut it, I end up writhing in pain by the end of the night.
Needless to say, if Toms' new flats are anywhere near as comfy as their classic slip-ons, I'm already sold. In fact, I'm pre-ordering them from Nordstrom, since I have a gift card there. But, you can get them on Toms' website. You're welcome.

*Or, I should say thank you for suffering through a story about a bloody foot bath just to get to a link for comfy ballet flats.

Baby Ninja Pants

Oh, hi.
Sorry I've been MIA. I am in this weird place where I feel like I have too much to say, so therefore, I can't possibly organize my thoughts enough to post daily blurbs here, because I'm not sure any of it would make sense. Does that make any sense? Probably not.
Anyway, this is still my happy place and I miss it, so hopefully, I'll be back on the regular at some point. I just don't want to make any promises that I can't fulfill. I still love reading your blogs, though. For now, pinning stuff I like on Pinterest is about all I can handle, so if you'd like to follow me there, that would be awesome.
In the meantime, I'm 34 weeks today and feeling HUGE. We went to our first childbirth class at my yoga studio yesterday and C learned how to help me cope with labor pains by massaging my back, squeezing my hips and rubbing my feet. Pretty sweet.
Here's one promise, actually: for anyone planning on taking this journey somewhere down the line, I'll try to share some of the stuff I've learned from excessive and most likely unnecessary research. At some point in the next few weeks and most definitely when I'm on the other side.
One thing you should know - no matter how sane and grounded you think you are, at some point, you will OBSESS over something totally silly and inconsequential, like whether it looks ridiculous that your changing table is a different shade of wood than your crib, all the while understanding in your head that cribs and changing tables aren't even (arguably) necessary in the beginning, or ever.
And, you will convince yourself that your baby NEEDS ninja pants. Seriously. I've gone over the edge.


*Sckoon Organics, on sale at Zulily until Wednesday.