Better Late Than Never

 It's only taken a year--Peanut's room is finally done.  We got it painted before he was born, but the decorating has struggled.  I knew if I didn't get it done before he came, it may not happen, but honestly, being sick for the entire pregnancy really affected my productivity.  But I've dabbled here and there, and now the room is pretty much how I want it.  Good thing, too, since Peanut may only be in there for another year or so before we play musical rooms.

 Refinishing the dresser/changing table was the last project I finished a few weeks ago.  I saw this idea here and loved it.  And with the $3 sample jars of paint, its a very inexpensive way to add a splash of color.  After almost 8 years, the dresser needed a new coat of paint anyway, and it will be easy to redo the drawers if we change the color scheme.

 The stars over the bed have been hung for awhile now.  I wanted something reminiscent of a mobile, but in the color scheme of his room, and making a few stars to hang from the ceiling seemed like a quick fix.  Peanut was fascinated when I first put them up and still loves it if we send them all swinging.

The fabrics I picked out for his quilt had a splash of orange in them, so I painted the little shelf over his dresser and the coat hooks orange.  Not a color I'd feel safe using much of, but I think its fun to have a little bit here and there.

 And the "H" on his wall is a yarn-wrapped piece of cardboard.  I've seen a lot of different ones on Pinterest--and it looked so easy, but the execution was a little trickier, maybe because I picked a style of letter that had curved spots.  I had to do some notching, and a little hot glue, to get the yarn to stay, but I like the finished product.

 And the quilt.  I need to get a better picture of the whole thing laid out.  That project was all my mom.  She's made a baby quilt for each of my kids and I love them.  She also helped out with the curtains and valence when she came to visit this last summer.  Even with them almost complete, it still took me several months to get them hung.  I'm just not good at finishing things up when I have so many distractions (and so little sleep).

Finally, I love having these pictures of my sweet little guy.  When I hung these up, he wasn't much bigger than in the photos, but now, it's been almost exactly a year and its getting harder to remember that sweet little newborn who just snuggled and slept so much of the time.  Peanut loves to say "night-night" to the babies, too.

Only thing left is some sort of bookcase or book holder on this wall under the photos.  I wanted to repurpose some wood spice racks from Ikea, but they haven't been in stock for months so I may need to give up and do something else.  Or if I wait another year, Bean will be ready to move in here and I can completely change the whole thing.

Where Did That Come From?

 I finally pulled up some old pictures of the kids so I could compare Peanut's full head of dark hair to the other two.

 Bald. . .

and Not Quite So Bald.  They've each gotten more hair than the last, but Peanut wins by far!

And in case anyone was wondering who he looks like. . . it's pretty easy to see when he's mad!

Peanut:

Bean:

They've got the same mouth for sure.  And a good set of lungs, although if I am remembering right, no one can quite compare to Bean.

One Week

 This little peanut is one week old today.  It's his due date, but we are sure glad that he's been with us this last week, instead of still incubating.

He is by far our sleepiest baby--in fact, sometimes its pretty hard to get him to wake up.  But he's eating pretty well, sleeping in his own bed for naps a couple times a day, and doing the little sleep grins that are so sweet (and I know they say its all from gas, but I can't see how gas would make you smile--he may not know what smiling means, yet, but they sure look like smiles, not grimaces.)

We love having this little guy in our family!

Happy Mother's Day!

I got the best Mother's Day present this year--not sure that this one can be topped :)  Our little guy (who still needs a blog nickname) was born at 10:58 a.m.  7 pounds, 13 oz, 21.5 inches long, and a full head of dark hair--something new for our family!

It was another pretty fast labor, although not quite as fast as Bug's, and we left for the birth center a little earlier on to avoid the crazy car ride this time around, so I actually spent 3.5 hours at the center before he was born.  I woke up just after 3 a.m. with some contractions, let Daddy-o sleep until 5:30 when I finally decided this might be it, and then felt really guilty that I couldn't wait more than another hour before I thought it was time to get the kids up and start waking up our friends and midwife on their Mother's Day, but I really wanted to get down to the birth center, so we were on our way by 7:00 and there a half hour later. 

The first couple hours there, I kept saying I really hoped it wasn't going to end up being a false alarm.  For once, I wanted to not get sent home, but my midwife never questioned it and just let Daddy-o and I rest and work through the contractions when they came.  And then, after a couple hours, I decided I was ready for her to fill up the birth pool because it did feel like things were getting more intense.

I've used the Hypnobabies program for my last two births, and while I can't say I have the painfree experience that some do, I do think that it's helped me relax enough that my labors are fast, and really, its only the last hour or so, when I'm in transition, that gets pretty uncomfortable and intense.  I was in the water at that point this time around and even though I had this nagging fear that I wasn't that close and this was going to go on for longer than I could handle,  Daddy-o totally called it and said at 10 a.m. that he thought I'd have the baby within the hour.  He recognized all the signs from the last time around.  The water took the edge off the back pain between contractions, and maybe some during--I coudn't really tell, but it did feel nice and gave me breaks between. 

And then, it was only 3 minutes of pushing till we got to meet our little boy.  The way I was holding him, I couldn't see at first if he really was a little boy and since Daddy-o and I had this little nagging fear that all our struggles over boy names would end up being an even bigger struggle to come up with a girl name at the last minute, I had to ask, but sure enough, the ultrasound was right, and we were back to trying to decide which of the names on our list fit this little guy.

The experience at the birth center and with the midwives there was seriously the best I can imagine.  It was so peaceful, being there on a Sunday morning, no one else in the building, and it was all about our little family.  The two midwives who were attending quietly cleaned up while we snuggled on the bed and then did the newborn check, made sure we were both okay and eating and knew what was coming up in the next couple days, and then, we got to go home, just 3 hours after he was born.  I guess with a first baby, that would have made me nervous, but third time around, it was just awesome to get home to nap in my own bed, and then spend the rest of the day with my other two kids as well.

And speaking of the siblings:

 Bug was really excited to meet his new baby.  The first thing he'd said to me after Daddy-o woke him up in the morning was a very ecstatic, "I'm going to be a big brother today!"

 And he is loving his "adorable" baby.

And Bean is pretty happy to have another little brother--she hasn't even mentioned wishing he was a sister since she met him.