Nora is all decked out in her pumpkin attire. She has several pumpkin/Halloween inspired outfits that will have to make several appearances throughout the month.
She’s pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself.
Welcome, October!
On to the next installment of this blogging exercise…
This one is hard. Generally, I try not to live with any regrets. But let’s see what I can pull together.
Blog Activity, Day Five
Six Things You Wish You’d Never Done
I wish I would have never:
1. Quit playing an instrument. I played the piano when I was in elementary school, but it was forced on me by my mom (it’s OK, Mom!) so it was “uncool” and I begged her to let me quit after a couple years of lessons. Instead, I picked up the flute in school and played in band until I was a sophomore in high school, at which point that became tremendously uncool and I quit that, too. I need to dig my flute out and see if I can even still play it… it’s been so long. Even if I can play, though, I’m sure it’s not well. So now, I regret that I can’t play anything. I should’ve stuck with something!
2. Declined to study abroad in college. I didn’t want to “miss out” on a semester at school, or an opportunity to work and earn money during summer vacation. Seriously, what an idiot. I so should’ve taken the opportunity to travel somewhere for a couple of months.
3. Gained weight between 8th and 11th grades. I felt so unattractive, and carrying around 30 lbs. of extra weight made an already difficult time of life even more challenging. My high school experience wasn’t horrible by any means, but I think it would’ve been so much better if I felt better about myself. But who knows… the weight gain was the result of emotional over-eating and carelessness, so it’s hard to say what came first–the chicken or the egg!
4. Lost touch with some friends over the years. I look back on my life and there are friends that I wish I was still friends with. So many great memories and it’s sad that we aren’t still “partners in crime,” creating even more.
5. Been in such a hurry to finish college. I definitely ate up every moment of my college experience, but still, I was in a hurry to finish. I graduated in exactly four years, and I started my first job just a month after commencement. Given the current state of the economy and how much trouble college graduates are having, I feel lucky, but at the same time, I wish I could’ve relaxed and “lived” a little more.
6. Given up on my pregnancy journal. I’m so glad I kept up with the weekly blog posts once I started them, but I’m sad that I didn’t keep up with the traditional, handwritten journal I started at the beginning of my pregnancy. I really want to be able to give Nora something some day, a journal that she can read and keep, and I’m upset that I don’t have all of those entries in there as a start. Pregnant mommy FAIL.
I feel like there has been a significant amount of “build-up” regarding our nursery, since we’ve received questions about when we’d post pictures, and when we’d do the BIG REVEAL. I just hope that, now that it’s here, you all aren’t disappointed! Because while we love the way it turned out, I don’t think it’s anything out of a magazine like so many beautiful nurseries I’ve seen. Plus, our walls our still pretty bare–we need to add artwork, which will most likely be photos and such–but if I waited until that was all done, you guys would be waiting FOREVER for pics.
As you’ll recall, we really wanted to do a gender-neutral nursery, but didn’t want to go for the traditional green or yellow. For more insight into our inspiration, see my original nursery post.
So, without further ado… here are some pics of Miss Nora’s nursery. Keep in mind that this was completely gender neutral until Nora arrived, at which point we added some hot pink accents. :)
View from the hallway
Wall color is Behr’s “Surfer”
Wall color is Behr’s “Surfer”
From the doorway.
Dresser is from JCPenney’s Hartford collection.
We put a simple contoured changing pad on top to use it as a changing table, too.
The diaper pail is a simple step trash can from Target with a pail liner (since we’re doing cloth diapers.)
White wall shelves are from Christmas Tree Shop.
Glider is from Babies R Us. It is the Shermag Chocolate Glider Combo.
My mom and I made this “book sling” using the instructions on this blog. It was a very easy project, and I love that it’s a space-saving design. It also allows us to have access to several books from the chair, instead of having to get up to go to one of the book shelves.
Crib is also from JCPenney’s Hartford Collection. (It comes in both a straight-back and curved-back style. This is obviously the straight-back.)
Bedding was DIY, made by my mom and me.
(OK, so if I’m being honest, it was pretty much 100% made by my mom. She rocks.)
We picked out the fabric and used a pattern we bought at Joann Fabrics to make the bumper and the crib skirt.
The sheet is just a plain yellow sheet from Babies R Us. Since we ended up with a girl, we also bought a hot pink crib sheet to switch things up every once in a while. :)
For her name on the wall, we purchased the wooden (white) letters at Michaels. Then I bought hot pink scrapbook paper that has a little bit of a textured design to it. I used Mod Podge to glue the paper to the letters, then used an Exacto knife to cut around the letters to make the paper fit exactly. Then I went over the top of the paper with another layer of Mod Podge to give the letters a more finished look.
Cube shelf from Target. White lamp/pink shade from Target.
Lava lamp left over from our former den. :)
Closet organization was one of the biggest challenges. The closet is really small, and we wanted to make sure to make the most of it.
We had trouble fitting the cube shelves into the closet, but we finally had success using two 3-cube shelves and stacking them on top of each other. Those are from Kmart. Fabric drawers are from Target.
The bins on the shelves up top are from Bed Bath and Beyond.
We had trouble fitting the cube shelves into the closet, but we finally had success using two 3-cube shelves and stacking them on top of each other. Those are from Kmart. Fabric drawers are from Target.
The bins on the shelves up top are from Bed Bath and Beyond.
And no nursery post would be complete without a pic of the little one who inspired it all. :)
It was almost perfect.
I was thisclose to having an absolutely perfect labor, delivery, and postpartum experience.
*sigh*
It turns out that, on her way into this world, Miss Nora broke my ass. In other words, her little head–when it was coming down through my pelvis at lightning speed–fractured my tailbone.
I just have one word for it, really: Ouchie.
So now I am the weirdo carrying around a special ass pillow wherever I go. I just bought it today, and now I can’t imagine trying to sit without it.
Without going into tremendous detail, my postpartum recovery has been pretty easy. Except for this tailbone business.
Following Nora’s birth, my first complaint was about pain in my tailbone area. When the nurses made me lift my hips up off the bed to change the padding underneath me, or when I got up out of bed, I was struck by a lot of pain in my tailbone. I told them as much, and they said that a lot of pressure is put on the tailbone when you push a baby out, and because Nora came out so quickly, they said that I probably bruised it.
Throughout my time in the hospital, every time they asked me about my pain, I always mentioned the tailbone. I really didn’t experience much discomfort where you’d think you’d have discomfort after a baby, despite suffering from a tear. (And no, I don’t know the ‘degree’ of my tear. I don’t know anything about it, except that I had stitches, and that it took a while for the doctors to do them. When I gently inquired about it, asking “Is it bad?” the doctor looked at me and simply said, “Um… she tore you.” He didn’t elaborate, and I took that to mean I DON’T WANT TO KNOW.)
The funny thing is that the entire time I was in the hospital, when the nurses would come in to do my vitals, they would always ask, “How would you rate your pain?” (on a scale of 1 to 10). The first few times they asked, I laughed so hard, because childbirth had just handed me the WORST pain I had ever felt in my life. To ask a woman to rate some simple soreness after THAT is just crazy.
Anyway, I never had an ice pack. I never needed Tucks pads. I barely used my peri bottle. I didn’t have any trouble or pain from going to the bathroom. I was all good, except for the stinkin’ tailbone pain.
Even so, things seemed to get better as I recovered in the hospital, and in the first few days we were home. But then the discomfort in my tailbone came back with a vengeance, so I called my doctor’s office as Nora was about to turn 1 week old. I said that my tailbone pain was still pretty significant, and didn’t seem to be getting better. The nurse said that a bruised coccyx can take some time to improve, told me to keep taking ibuprofen, and said that I should avoid sitting on it. Because yeah. THAT’s easy to do. Especially when you have a newborn baby that needs to nurse every few hours. Ugh.
Then, last week, I started to feel a “clicking” when I’d sit down or shift my weight while sitting. Like I can feel the bone moving in there. Ewwww. It was then that I became convinced that my tailbone is officially fractured. The clicking is accompanied by some pretty intense pain shooting through the area. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
The continued pain (with no improvement) + clicking = broken tailbone. I was sort of hoping that my doctor would insist on an x-ray just so I could have photographic proof of my broken ass (I mean, come on… that’s one for the baby book!), but alas, there is nothing that can really be done for a broken coccyx, so it’s pretty pointless to x-ray.
I talked to my doctor’s office again today and they recommended getting a coccyx pillow to help ease the pressure on the bone while I’m sitting. I had to make a special trip to a medical supply store to get one, but $15.50 later, I AM SO GLAD I DID.
My doctor said that I should expect my tailbone to be healed by the time of my postpartum appointment (six weeks after the birth, so a little less than four weeks from now). Thank goodness.
If, for some reason, it’s not healed after six weeks, I will be referred to an orthopedic specialist.
FOR MY ASS.
Dude. Let’s hope that’s not necessary.
Nora is already two weeks old!
It’s funny for us to think about how, a little more than two weeks ago, we didn’t have her yet. It’s true that once they’re here, you have a hard time remembering what life was like before.
Our first week with Michael back at work went well. It was hard having him leave the first day or two, but now we’re developing a bit of a routine. I’ll admit to feeling a little bit lonely sometimes, but generally, the days go by so fast. I don’t really know how, since at the end of the day, I never feel like I’ve accomplished much, but somehow, living from feeding to feeding and trying to squeeze in a shower, a load of laundry, or a little computer time in between makes the day fly by.
After we spent Monday and Tuesday at home all day long, I couldn’t take it anymore so we’ve been trying to get out of the house on a fairly regular basis, too. I’ve been taking the baby on a few errands every couple of days so I don’t go stir crazy. And while the errands make me feel more productive, they make the days go by even FASTER.
It’s really hard to find the time to blog. I also have newborn photos I want and need to edit, but I haven’t even transferred them off of my camera yet. :( I’m going to try to set aside an hour or so every day this week to make a bit of progress on that front. I want to get birth announcements out!
A little update on Nora…
Nora has been a champion eater AND sleeper. I’m afraid to say these things out loud, but (knock on wood) she’s been a really good baby.
We took her to the pediatrician for her two-week check-up on Friday, and she is up to 6 lbs., 13 oz. She gained exactly nine ounces in nine days, which the doctor says couldn’t be more perfect. She’s between the 10th and 20th percentiles for everything, so she’s a peanut all around. :)
She still sleeps a lot, but has been having longer periods of awake time the last several days. I love when she is awake and content (fed, clean, dry, warm). She just stares, and will listen to songs, stories, or study our faces. It’s so cute. Other than that, she doesn’t really *do* much, so our lives aren’t very “exciting.” But even so, life couldn’t be better. I love every minute with my girl.
Some photos from the last week or so…
First walk! (We’ve been on several others since then, too. I think she loves the fresh air.)
“Mommy, PLEASE! No more pictures!”
Funny sleep position
Soothing herself with her index finger. Sweet angel.
I’ve cut her nails like four times in the last two weeks. They grow SO FAST. She manages to scratch herself sometimes, but I feel bad having those little mittens on her all the time, too.
Her loooooong fingers
And looooooong toes
Wide awake one morning this past week. I love these little nightgowns, they make middle of the night diaper changes very easy.
Another walk. I love the Pooh hat.
Reading a bedtime story with Daddy
The onesie says “If you think I’m pretty, you should see my mommy.” Love how she makes *this* face when I try to take a photo of it. HA! :)
Yesterday, we took Nora on her first trip to the apple orchard. She rode the wagon…
…and helped Mommy select the perfect apples from the trees.
All while staying cozy in the Moby wrap.
Appropriate onesie, right? :)
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
