Henry's first week/ Grandma Mitchell's visit

Henry had his first long-distance visitor this week. Grandma Mitchell wasn't schedule to arrive until today (10 days after his birth), but simply couldn't wait to meet him. So she booked a crazy, last-minute ticket (that included four planes each way!) just so she could meet her grandson right away. She spent tireless days cooking, cleaning, and, of course, helping with Henry. I've never known anyone to be so enthusiastic about changing a diaper- Grandmas are a special breed :) She got to be there for Henry's homecoming/ his introduction to the dogs, his first trip to the pediatric office and his umbilical cord falling off. It pains us that the Mitchell grandparents are so far away, but we will find ways to stay close through pictures and Skype. We miss you already, Mom, and we love you!

What I learned about Henry this week:

Well, it was his first week, so the obvious answer is "everything," but here are some highlights:

-Nothing in the world beats his newborn smell. I never really knew what people meant when they talked about a "newborn smell"- babies are still just humans, right? But it's amazing how strong and distinctive his smell is- especially to Drew and me, I imagine. I hope it's not like new car smell that fades way too fast!


-His hands and feet are disporpotionately large! We obviously know where this comes from, but I'm still not sure if it correlates to height.


-He forms sweet little smiles even though he doesn't yet know what they mean. At this point, it doesn't matter... it's just an awesome preview of what's to come.


-He sneezes just like his Dad. Andrew always sneezes multiple times in a row (I, alas, am a single-sneezer) and Henry is a multi-sneezer! It's fun to discover traits beyond just the empirical.


-He and the dogs will coexist in harmony. They are really interested in sniffing him, but always keep a gentle distance.
A beautiful moment from this week:

In the early days when Henry and I weren't getting the best latch for feeding, Drew came and sat behind us in bed to lend a helping hand. I know what you're thinking: how many adults does it take to feed an infant? Well, let's just say, four hands were helpful at the beginning. So there we are, this brand new family of three, all working together to try and get Henry fed. It was really beautiful.

Henry's birth

I've noticed that the story of Henry's birth takes me a long time to tell, so I thought I'd write it down here and those who care can read it, and those who don't can be spared all of the miniscule details. I think it takes me a long time to tell because everything was such a blur that day and retelling it helps me remember some of the details.

* * *

I delivered Henry without any pain medication. It feels so surreal to write that! I was always undecided about getting an epidural, but Drew and I were pretty convinced that I would end up with one, considering what a wimp I am when it comes to pain. But with the incredible help from Drew and Lindsey the awesome labor doula (and my mom in early labor), I was able to push through the pain and deliver Henry naturally.

* * *

On Thursday morning (10/13) I woke up with what I thought were more Braxton Hicks, but these seemed to be a little extra painful. But I'd had a false alarm two days before, so I didn't get too excited because I'd been wrong on Tuesday. However, the contractions seemed to keep going and so I called my mom over to time them while I tried to go back to sleep. They were erratic, but certainly not going anywhere. The pups were right with me in bed as the contractions started to increase in intensity and I started having to do deep breathing through them. I noticed that the pain seemed to be more in my back that in my stomach (which is called back labor and it's awful!), so I jumped in the tub to try and ease the pain a little . My mom was advised to push on my tailbone really hard when the contraction started to help ease the pressure a little bit, but it was about this point that we decided to get the car packed up with the hospital bags and get checked out in triage (Drew was still at work). I ended up having to wait in the waiting room for probably 45 minutes before even being put in a gown- so I was bent over in the corner with my mom pushing as hard as she could on my tailbone... all in front of strangers. I did not like that one bit. Once I was finally checked in triage, I was about 4 cm dilated and was admitted. Drew and Lindsey arrived and took over for my mom and we were moved to the labor and delivery ward.

* * *

The next six or so hours are kind of a blur. My pain was far too intense to be able to talk through, so every time I'd feel a contraction start- I'd say "push" and either Drew or Lindsey (bless their hearts and their sore, aching hands) would push on my tailbone and my hips to try and help me get through the contraction, and I wouldn't be able to say anything else. I'd just breathe deeply and do my best to find ways to mentally cope with the pain. I went back and forth from doing this in the tub to a standing position, leaning over an exercise ball. It was at some point, deep into the fifth or sixth hour that I had two nasty bouts of doubt. I remember starting to cry between two contractions, telling Drew and Lindsey that I just couldn't go any further. Lindsey, in her sweet, encouraging way, and Drew in his firm, direct way, both wouldn't let me give up. They told me I was doing it and that I would just take it one contraction at a time. Not long after this point, the midwife told me she would check me and would break my water to get things moving along. I was 8 cm and entering transition.

* * *

Then comes the really intense part- the breaking of the waters kicked things into high gear in terms of both intensity and pain. Rather than breathe deeply through this part, I was (in my mind) screaming my head off, but Drew describes the noise as a low, gutteral "animal" noise. An incredibly unpleasant part of transition was that with each contraction, my whole body would dry heave about four times from the pressure. I'm not sure exactly when transition ends and the "pushing" phase begins, but before long, the incredible pain and pressure I felt down there was actually bringing Henry along and I started to feel encouraged as the midwife started setting up her delivery equipment. As the true pushing started, Drew started to become so animated and excited (he'd had a couple of trying moments of exhuastion in the process, as well). He was telling me how great I was doing and that our baby was coming. Drew and the midwife said they saw the top of his head- specifically that he had lots of dark hair (whose baby is in there?! I wondered) and it took probably 15 minutes to push the head out. With the final push of the head, the whole body followed at once and Henry Lawrence Mitchell made his arrival at 12:49 am on 10/14. I think that means I had about 7 hours of early labor, 9-10 hours of active labor, and only about 1 hour of transition and pushing. Drew cut the cord and I held my sweet boy for the first time! Ultimately, all of the pain and struggle brought Henry to us and I felt an incredible sense of accomplishment for making it all the way through. I'm certain I couldn't have done it without Drew and Lindsey and I can't ignore how much they did for me physically, pushing on me with every contraction. Would I do it again without medicine? Ask me again when the memory of the pain has faded a little bit.

* * *

So, there it is. I told you it was long, and thanks for letting me share. It's good for me to recount the events of that night because it will forever be one of the most important days in my life. Thanks be to God for giving us strength in trials.

Baby boy... your room is ready!

Little one, many people have contributed to your nursery with gifts and handmade items to show you how much you are loved. Maybe you should come on out here and see for yourself!

Here's where I'll sleep on maternity leave, so we don't wake up your Daddy seven times a night. Grandma Mitchell sent you this little doggie pillow, because she knows you will be a dog lover. Noni Isaac sewed the green pillow for you, and believe it or not, I sewed the one with the white button on it.

One of your Daddy's favorite songs- and also good advice for your Mommy.

One of my favorite elements in the room- the green glider! This was your grandparents' (Isaac) gift to the nursery, which Noni then recovered in green fabric.

Had to squeeze in a train or two, since I love them

You'll have lots to look at from your crib!

But don't look too closely at the yarn-wrapped letters... they didn't come out exactly as I'd planned...

(And we'll have a first initial soon!)

This beautiful quilt was made by your great Aunt Liz

Here's where you get your tushie wiped... pretty exciting, right?


A closer look: Uncle Toby drew a whole series of pictures of our little family, and I had to frame one.


Last, but certainly not least, Noni made you this amazing quilt with letters and shapes! Maybe it will help you learn the alphabet one day

I'll do my best to keep the riffraff out... but no promises!

Now, all we need is you! And I can't wait until Grandma Mitchell can come out and see everything in person

Non-maternity, maternity photos

Because I'm not sure how many times I'll go through pregnancy (maybe once more? If it were up to Drew, it would be at least two more times!), I decided it was worth documenting the belly. Now, I am not a fan of the bare-belly, black and white preggo photos taken in a studio (please don't take offense if that is your thing; they just weren't for me) and I wanted to just get some pics of what our growing family looked like without the expected emphasis on the belly. So here we are with our practice babies, at about 8 months pregnant:

This is the beautiful field in our neighborhood

And even the pups got a little time in the limelight :)

It's funny to look back and think about Henry being in there, now that I know so much more about him!

We found the train tracks as we were walking the photographers to their car and had to get a few shots there. It's funny that we always end up on/near trains for out pictures, even though we've never planned it that way. But it's serendipitous because I love trains!

Showered with love!

At some point, when I get on my work computer, I'll post the shower pics of the great surprise lunch/shower Natalie threw me in July.

But for now, here's some pictures of the shower held at my mom's house from late August

My mom worked very hard on all of the little details

My friend, colleague and Toby's mother-in-law, Ursula, prepared the most delicious spread! Here she is getting the chocolate fondue station ready... yum.

And she gave me this cute little bouquet made up of little baby clothes to loook like roses.

Some other little details...

But the BEST surprise of all was my sister-in-law Monica's surprise visit from Texas! She flew in that day and out the next morning- all to be a part of Baby M's shower. What a sweet sacrifice! Love you, Mo!

The guests dutifully playing along with the games

And Baby M made out like a little bandit!

He's got a nice little library of books started- thanks, English faculty!!

And here he is!

Thanks to everyone involved for making me feel so loved and for spoiling the little guy already :)

A song for baby

Before I was pregnant, I used to hear this song and the lyrics would always make me think about future children for me and Andrew. I know it's actually a love song from a man to his future lady, but the sentiment rings the same: when the time is right, we'll meet the person who will become part of our family- someone we never knew we could do without.

So now that I am expecting the newest member of our family, this song resonates even more with me, and has sort of become the anthem for our little baby. Here are some lyrics that feel like they could be about Baby Mitchell:

"Wherever you are, whenever it's right,
You'll come out of nowhere and into my life"

"Baby, your love is going to change me"

"I promise you, kid, to give so much more than I get,
I just haven't met you yet."

We should be meeting him in about 6 weeks! And once he's old enough to dance with Mama, we can still have it be "our" song.

Have a listen!

Doggie DIY

So when I was browsing the web for ideas for the nursery, I came across the following framed picture from Green Frog Art, and I LOVED the aesthetic- especially because we are using a lot of pops of that kelly green around the nursery (well, and I love dogs- have I ever mentioned that?)

...and then I saw the price tag- $160. Whoops. Not going to work. So I started browsing some other items on their site and saw the following pic, which was in a series of four: nap, tickle, sing, and I can't remember the last one. I thought the idea of a little verb above a dog was cute, because it could easily translate to things babies would also do.

But, each picture was listed at $100, so the series was $400 total. Neither of these paintings was reasonable for our budget. So I had to get crafty! I decided that I could try and blend what I loved about each picture and create something on my own at a fraction of the cost. Here's how they turned out:

I paid a few bucks for the three doggie stencils (the bone I had to freehand) and I already had the painting supplies, so the only real cost was the frames. It was really hard to get a pic of all four without getting the glare from the glass, but you get the idea:

For obvious reasons, my favorite is the beagle!

Here's one of my two muses:

And no, we're not doing a doggie-themed room- we're not doing any theme. Instead, we're doing more of a color story. I'm really excited to post pics of the crafts my mom has been working on, but I think I'll wait until the room is a little more finished. Don't come too early, Baby Boy Mitchell, we've got a lot left to do!