What an amazing thing....

this parenting thing that is.

My little puffin is now 3 months old (yes I prefer to refer to months rather than weeks). He is changing and becoming more of a real person (with attitude mind you) everyday. Whenever it is just the two of us, I'm constantly thinking of ways to make his brain grow, whether I'm reading to him, singing the ABC's or other fun songs, or playing with toys, everything I do makes me wonder how and who he's going to develop into!

When I first got pregnant, I was of the mindset that we were not going to have all those baby toys all over our house. You know what I mean, the swings, the bouncers, the play mats, those jumperoo thingys....but you should see my house now! It isn't THAT bad, but I'm already looking into a jumperoo (becuase they look like so much fun) and always looking for a toy out there that will help my little munchkin develop skills that he needs....although I know, really, that all he needs is interaction to build those skills, not all these toys, but they ARE fun!

In order to afford all these wonderful toys for his development, my new favorite website is Craigslist. If you haven't checked it out, its time. You can find ANYTHING on there and usually for a great price! Yes, I'm bargaining my way to a genius child!

Anyways, I think "baby martini" is going through a growth spurt. It is to be expected at three months I guess, but I've been blessed with such a good baby, that these little disruptions to his schedule don't make either one of us in a good mood. He has been having the hardest time getting naps during the day (actually, as I write this, he is sleeping in his snugli because it is pure magic to "wear" your baby, it puts them right to sleep, I promise!) he fights them with all of his might making for one cranky kid! And even worse comes 5pm when the devil child comes out, though when I speak of a devil child, I've never dealt with colic and probably am not appreciating his temperment enough.

Well munchkins is awake & hungry, so ta ta for now...I'll be back soon

~momma martini

7 weeks down, and infinity to go!

So 7 weeks old, can you believe it! I would have shared sooner had I ANY time as motherhood is more than a full time job. But things are starting to even out, I get a little free time during the day when he is content in his bouncy chair or his swing, but usually during that time, I'm trying to suck down a cup of coffee or get something to eat, or change my clothes that he either A. peed on or B. spit up on.

"Let yourself go" takes on a whole new meaning when you have an infant. Before it used to consist of not getting dressed out of your sweats, pulling your hair up and probably not wearing any makeup, none of which I partook in before I had gotten pregnant. Now, after 7 weeks of being a mommy, letting yourself go consists of not caring that you have spitup on your shirt, or even worse, not realizing that you have spitup down your cleavage, (cheese,anyone? Okay, admittedly a little gross, but unfortunately true). It also consists of maybe getting a shower (or in my case a bath) 2-3 times a week, if its a good week. And if you do by chance get out of the house, your probably wearing your maternity clothes still because the pants are so comfortable and the shirts are the only ones that fit your engorged breasts! Well enough sharing how I've let myself go (speaking of which, I now have spitup in my hair, hopefully I get a chance to wash it out today...you never know), You should also know how wonderful it is to watch your baby eat and listen to his adorable sounds. And how good it feels when the only one who can get him to stop crying is mommy, and that your the one who knows just how to make him smile and sometimes it feels like those smiles are for you and only you!



So regardless of how frustrating it is when the baby cries when you put him down to clean up the sick dogs mess while trying not to be sick from the smell, and realizing that there is no coffee in the house...all he has to do is make that cute smile as he dozes off in you arm to be reassured its all worth it!



So here are some of the things I've realized as a new mom!



1. You'll no longer buy bags for how stylish they are but for how well a diaper and other baby necessities fit in them (AND for how stylish they are..hence my cute new kathy van zealand that looks even cuter with a diaper in it)


2. The highlight of your shopping trip to Portland will not be the perfect black pencil skirt but the manual breast pump that amazingly gets 4 ounces from each side!


3. The cutest outfit you put on all week buttons in the crotch and has an elastic waistband (and fits a 12lb person)


4. Your most trendy piece of clothing is your moby wrap with the asian brocade that you wear your munchkin in because its easier (and way better) than carrying around a carseat. (http://www.mobywrap.com/, they're awesome...puts him to sleep in .2 minutes)


5. It is harder to make a decision of what mobile, playmat, baby mirror (insert toy or baby gear her) to get than it is to find a pair of heels that fit perfectly.



Well thats all the wisdom I'm going to share for now....he's asleep and I need to eat! I'll be back to posting more often...I've been putting my evenings to good use and I'll have to include blogging!


TTFN!

He's Here!!

Okay, sorry I haven't posted in a while! Last Wednesday I spent 24+ in early labor and and then another 2 hours before the precious Paul IV was born!

The last week has spent getting to know the little bean and I have not even taken any time to write about this experience! Currently we are welcoming visitors on a daily basis so I really haven't had the time...but will soon! In the meantime here's a little picture of who I'm spending my days & nights with...

pretty cute huh!

Official overcooked!

So here we are on the last day of March 2008! I'm still pregnant with my first baby and wondering why in hell won't they come out! The squirming going on in there has become quite uncomfortable. Its hard to imagine that a full grown little baby is still all snuggled up INSIDE me! Think of that the next time you see a new baby that is OUTSIDE the womb...that same little person, not a week or two before was crunched up inside its mom. That part is whats amazing when you think about it!

I've been having strong contractions, but not regular and increasing which is what we've been waiting for for weeks now. I do want to spend my "waiting time"more productively (as opposed to surfing the web, making lists, watching TV as I have resigned myself to do for the past couple of days) but don't want to drive a half hour away by myself just in case, and don't really want to head into town for the inevitable comments "You haven't had that baby yet!" So that means that hanging out at home is pretty much all I've got. Not that I mind, I love my house, but I have lots of hanging out at home to do once the baby finally gets here!! At least after a week or two, I will be able to get out in public again without all the questions! I get to show off my baby instead!!

So we decided to wait for the birth to find out the sex. I think that makes the wait a bit more excruciating for us, becuase we have no idea who we are about to meet! Will it be a mini-ME or a mini-HIM? RIght now, we are all green and yellow, so I'm really looking forward to adding some blue or pink to our color scheme!

So right now, I'm watching a baby show (of course) and the midwife was just scolding the laboring mom for whining and moaning loudly! What! B$(*#%, you better not scold me! I'm the one pushing a baby out! Thankfully, my midwife is wonderful, super laid back and I actually look forward to laboring with her. I hope I keep my sense of humor! I hope my husband keeps his lunch down! He has a tendency when he gets nervous, to yack! Though I think age has hardened his stomach a little bit because he successfully made it through our wedding without puking once! I think its a cute and endearing quality! "He's so sensitive"

Well now I'm just babbling....but in the meantime I have two good contractions! Here's wishing this is my last post before I FINALLY get to be a mom!

Natural Induction? Not for the weak stomach!

So its now March 26th! I had fully expected to have a little baby attached to me by now (attached on the outside, as it technically is still attached!) I thought mom's knew best...I was so certain that I would have an early delivery, I would've bet our house on it! I guess, as someone said, this is their way of showing me that I really have little control, already.

I have been having some regular and good strong contractions, they actually got pretty painful yesterday afternoon right when my husband got home! Speaking of which, I'm already on maternity leave and have been spending some significant amount of time cooking...two nights in a row, hubby comes home to something in the oven and we are eating dinner by 6pm! I told him not to get used to it as once this baby makes their debut, that will likely stop for a while, but I can't lie, its kind of fun. I made some italian bread last night, homemade, fresh Italian bread and it was yummy! I just added some garlic butter and we had it with our spaghetti pie, that I also made (and stuck one in the freezer for when I've got the aforementioned attachment). I also made a lemon creme pie, though it didn't quite hit the lemon craving I was going for....I really want a meringue, but have no clue where to start and don't feel like looking it up today. Well in regards to the contractions, they slowed down and eventually ended once I went to bed! Damn it!

So back to my topic at hand, natural induction. I tried a couple induction methods last week...I even tried sex! I needed to "ripen my cervix" for the Castor oil I took the next morning. This was Wednesday of last week. Obviously, it didn't work. Well, I WON"T be trying the sex again. I won't go into details, but I'll just say it wasn't sexy! I did however just finish two ounces of castor oil in some OJ! I figured I have to be almost ready by now! My mom took next week off to stay here and I wanted to be home a couple days with baby just to kind of get used to each other. I'll tell you, I don' t mind the effects of castor oil so much as the effort of trying to get it down, it really is nasty, its best if you don't think about what you are doing at all!

Well it seems to be doing the job it is designed for....if you all don' t know what that is, I'll just say that you purchase it in the same aisle as you would an enema or the like!

Oh, there's a good "Surviving Motherhood" episode on regarding kids affecting your marriage and drinking a glass of wine in front of your kids.... I'll have to sign on now to watch but will return!

Come out, come out, wherever you are!

First off, let me start by asking that you please excuse my spelling and grammar! Looking over my past couple of posts I realize just how much damage mommy brain is doing to my writing! Now that old wives tales now have tails and everything else seems to be in past tense (except of course what I want to be, pregnancy) I will carry on with my train of thought typing with probably a tad more editing before posting!

So today was my own personal due date. I have been convinced since about the beginning of December that this baby would be coming today. Don't ask me why, I just had the hunch. Then in January, when I had my growth ultrasound because this little munchkin going to be HUGE, the ultrasound had analyzed my due date to be TODAY, March 18th, based on the size. I thought it was my own personal confirmation.

Well of course, as I sit here in bed (with the flu no less) I have no baby, and no definite sign that he/she will be making their appearance within the next 3.5 hours. There are lots of natural induction methods out there that are supposed to help, the most popular recommended one of course, have sex..WHAT, how can any 9+ month pregnant women seriously even have the slightest desire to do the deed just to get the baby out! I mean really! Don't your hips hurt enough with all the stretching going on, and what about the pain from having a baby head banging up against your pubic bone as it tries to get in that pelvic opening? Not to even mention the heartburn, the ever changing map of stretchmarks, the swelling, I think you get my point... but I seriously read these mommy message boards about these women bedding down all the time to get the baby out. I guess I should just be impressed with their motivation! I would rather use castor oil and have exploding bowels...but hey that's just my choice! Maybe TMI for some of you out there, sorry.

Hmm, what are some other fun ways to get this baby out? Trying to talk it out hasn't worked, I don' t have the patience for nipple stimulation, I've tried the manual breast pump, but that's a little uncomfortable and time consuming, and I'm saving the castor oil for tomorrow night I think. Since I have a horrible cough from the flu, I'm thinking that might be helping move things along, in fact I'm actually worried that all the pressure from coughing might break my water. My midwife is convinced that happened to the other midwife in the office! Yet, I want this baby out, so I guess if it takes some forceful coughing to do it, I won't complain. But the deal should be that the coughs go away for labor right!

Anyways, this baby is coming this week, I still promise. I've got the moon on my side, its full on Friday and being the star gazer I am, I have faith that its going to bring on the labor!

Right now, the baby is rebelling against the wait (seriously, I typed that, wait instead of weight, it's so embarrassing) of the laptop and so I guess I better sign off...wish me luck in bringing this baby home this week!

Cramps, Contractions & Heartburn - Oh My!

So yesterday, I made a little trip to the OB Ward from some fetal monitoring...THE date is getting pretty close and the baby wasn't moving as much as I'm used to, so we got hooked up...and doesn't it just figure...the baby starts kicking right away... One thing the monitoring did tell me was that I was contracting pretty regularly, had one pretty good strong and long one (no pain, but good just the same, and since when is pain so good anyways!) Well on the way in to the hospital, I couldn't help but smile to myself, probably looking pretty gooberish, that we might be bringing home a baby in a day or two if "something" was up! Well it wasn't of course, but the smile is still there because, it's true any day now...we could be bringing home a baby in a day or two!

I'm sure you've all heard the Old Wives Tail about heartburn and hair on the babies head when it is born! Well I can tell you that my mother had major heartburn, whether that was due to hair or all the orange juice she craved, we'll never know, but I was born with hair long enough to put in a ponytail.... If there is any truth behing the old wives tails (which there is a tie, I'm still looking for the actual results of the testing to post here) this baby is going to be born with hair down to its butt! I should have invested stock in GlaxoSmithKline if I had only known how much I would be spending onTums. They've become another food group in my diet. Heck, maybe I'll still invest as there are plenty of pregnant women who I'm sure deal with the same beautiful pregnancy symptom as mine!

And here's a debatable topic. If I don't go into labor before next week, I will purchased Castor Oil....to "help things along" IF they are ready to be helped along! I'm not kidding when I say this baby is coming next week. I will do all I can to work with this baby, but if isn't working with me, what can I say...I'm the mom and I'm the boss! I'm going to set up those expectations now, right!

Well, have to head off to Childbirth Education, the perfect place to go into labor, as I've been having pretty regular and sometimes strong contractions! COME ON BABY!!!

Diaper Bags - Fashionable or Functionable

Or can they be both?

My first post was brought on by my want of a beautiful designer handbag! I'm from small town Maine, the land of entreprenuership and ingeniuty! So what do you do when you can't buy what you want! Well...if you're me, you figure out how to make the damn thing yourself!

As many of you who know me already know, I have a bazillion ideas in my head at any given time about making money doing this, or that, or just creating a fun new hobby to keep my busy for a while (I thank my mother for that trait). So heres my next mission, design and sew my own fashionable AND functional diaper bags! There are lots of beautiful, quality, handmade bags everywhere (if you haven't visited www.etsy.com, you should definitely check it out) but I am of the mindset of, why would I buy it if I could make it. Granted I don't have the ability to make a Coach diaper bag, don't get me wrong. But I bet you I could make something equally as cute, for less money and with more pride! And the bonus, I could get away with changing my diaper bag every month if I wanted to (which is another bad habit of mine)!!

So Moms out there, I'm asking for your help. Please take this survey

http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB227JJF5HKTU

and help me come up with a design (or designs) that not only will work for me, but other moms who love to buy handmade quality items!

Thanks for taking the time to fill out the survey and maybe I'll have some pics to share of my first creations in a month or so!

For now I guess I'll be schlepping around my husbands camo diaper dude bag!

A baby is born!

My best friend found out she was pregnant shortly after our 10 year HS reunion (of which we both were peeing on sticks in order to feel confident to have a few drinks). About a week after she got home, I get a text from her "Knocked up"! I was so excited for her, and happy because we were also trying to get "knocked up" and I was hoping to have a pregnant partner to share our stories with! Low and behold, within 4 weeks, I got the two lines as well! We've had many overly honest discussions regarding the effects pregnancy has had on our bodily systems and our minds! Its been a fun ride and we are nearing the end...in fact she has crossed the finish line with a beautiful healthy little boy born this morning at 1:50am! She's already tried to share some of the honest gruesomeness of going through labor and deliver and I am so releived that I can count on at least one mom being 100% honest about what I can expect regardless of the stomach turning that it might bring on!

Congratulations momma! I can't wait to meet him!

Nuture vs Nature

Does Nature take over and therefore your need to nurture your previous self go out the window?

I’m 4 weeks away from actually producing a real life brand new human on to this planet and while I couldn’t be more excited/nervous/scared as hell, I do have a few ponderings?

Are my days (or nights) of reckless abandon, i.e. girls nights where I drink too much, dance my ass off and bar hop, over? And do I really care if they are?

More importantly, do I have to sacrifice my want of style and quality for the greater good of our family? This should be an easy answer right? Maybe thats why I'm losing sleep over it.

Today, through no small feat, I convinced my husband to do some “window” shopping in a popular outlet haven. I had to pull the, “Its one of our last weekends as just the two of us, lets DO something!” It worked, but not without lots of resistance even after we got to our destination. First stop, Carters Outlet, two focuses, ooh and ah over the adorable selection of baby clothes (read: little girl clothes, especially the easter ones! When are they going to get on the boat with the boys…though they did carry 2 sweater vests, I LOVE sweater vests) and to get my hubby more excited about this whole, baby is going to be here in just a couple of weeks, reality. Next stop, Coach Outlet. I’m on a search for the perfect ME diaper bag. I’ve found it. A gorgeous Coach tote that’s available at an extremely reasonable price, being the outlet and all. Will I get it? That is yet to be determined as my hubby is strongly against it. (Wow, he is coming off with a stick up his butt, maybe there is one, called the need to provide and the reality of having no money). I keep thinking about this bag, my shoe fetish, my desire for fashionable quality clothing, and all of a sudden I feel guilty that I worry those things won’t be as common anymore now that I will have a baby to provide for. Do we really have to give up some of these perks of being adult once a non-adult becomes your responsibility? Am I going to be a fashionista by desire, but by design, have to purchase my clothes at Old Navy and Target as opposed to Banana Republic and Ann Taylor? Not that there is anything wrong with Old Navy and Target, don’t take offense, I get plenty of goods there already, but I’m not sure how I feel about being LIMITED to them!

There are lots of changes coming our way with this little baby, I have no idea to what extent they are. But I truly believe that every aspect of my life will be affected. When we chose to become parents, I never viewed the choice as selfish or not, though when couples choose not to become parents because they enjoy their lifestyle, I admit to thinking that it's a little self-serving, like the reward of raising a good person to add to our not-so-good society is so worth not having the nightlife, wardrobe, car you desire. But yet, here I sit, blogging about my fear of losing the ability (or maybe, just maybe it will be my desire) to dress a certain way, or carry a certain brand handbag. I should be more concerned about how I’m going to balance my career, and my goal to have one of those families that make other people jealous! That is mostly what takes up my limited pregnant brain space these days, but I feel confident in the parent that I want to be, I feel confident in the relationship I want to have with my husband when the baby makes three, and I’m okay with not being so sure about what effect this change will have on my work life.

The realization that I am going to be a mom weighs heavily on me these last few weeks, as I suppose it should. Throughout my entire pregnancy, all I did was relax in how fun being pregnant was. Yes, I am/was one of those pregnant women who enjoyed just about everything about being pregnant! Even with weighing over 200lbs, the inability get a good nights rest, killer heartburn and oodles of stretchmarks, I still loved it. I’m going to miss feeling the baby move. I was thinking today about my first shower after I have the baby. I’m not sure if it was a dream as I dozed off, or just a passing thought, but I imagined looking down and having a flat belly (okay, flat may be a stretch) and breaking down in tears, realizing my baby was no longer in there, being my personal treat every day with the squirms and hiccups that I only I could truly revel in. There’s so much that goes in through a mommy’s head, does it become less the more children you have, or do these questions continue to keep you up at night?