Seeing Smiles?

Call me crazy, but I think NatureForce might be smiling at me. I know, I know, it's probably too early to be a smile. It's probably "gas." All right then. I love to see the little involuntary smiles in the sleep though, and we've been seeing those for a few weeks now. But I'm starting to see what looks very much like a waking smile, although sometimes it can be followed a few moments later by a piercing wail. So we've either got bipolar baby on our hands, or it's probably just gas.

It's funny how you don't remember the timeframe of development the second time around. You'd think you could draw on your earlier experience as a parent and know the appropriate time for the first smile to appear, or even such things as baby acne. A couple of weeks ago I was remarking to my mother-in-law how clear NatureForce's skin was compared with LittleMum's "at that age." She gently reminded me that baby acne could still appear. Then BOOM! NatureForce develops a full-blown case of red splotchy pimpliness just this week. The beautiful baby skin is perhaps a thing of the past. I guess the lesson is to take each developmental milestone as it comes, don't get too hung up on when things are "supposed" to happen, and to enjoy each day's gifts and deal with each day's challenges.

The days are fleeting, you know. I often wonder where the day has gone when I look at the clock and realize that "LittleMum should probably be in bed by now." And NatureForce? Well, NatureForce runs her own schedule and mine. I figure it's better to live out of the laundry baskets yet another day than to stay up late after NatureForce has gone down for her nightly 3-4 hour stint. I just can't seem to get on top of the laundry nowadays; even when it's done and folded it sits in the basket for several days.

Hmmm. I think I'll try to get NatureForce to sleep and go put the laundry away...

Long-overdue update: Life with Baby

I'm typing one-handed. I've done quite a bit of that lately, although at times I'll pop NatureForce in the sling carrier to have two hands free. I always hope that she'll just fall asleep so I can put her down without wearing her. Her eyes are currently rolling back in her head, so maybe we'll get lucky.

To pacify or not to pacify: I'm sure the pacifier debate has been raging for years. LittleMum never liked a pacifier, although we did purchase two different kinds and try them. Instead, we just used our pinky fingers when she just needed to suck and I didn't want to feed her yet again. She'd suck on the finger and promptly fall asleep.

With LittleMum, she was showing a bigger need to suck and our fingers are less available than they were the first time around. Because she caught on to nursing from the get-go, we decided to try a pacifier. We pulled out LittleMum's scarcely-used ones and boiled them, then tried them out. After a bit, it actually stayed in her mouth, which never happened with LittleMum. But the first time we went out to her doctor's appointment, we encountered a problem that we never ran into with our pinkies: the pacifier got lost. We still had a couple at home, but I sent Paul to the store to buy Gerber Nuk-Nuk pacifiers, because I've heard they're better for breastfeeding babies (or is that just some marketing schpiel?). A few days later I sent him to get a pacifier clip, because a frequently asked question around our house was "where's the pacifier?" But currently, one Nuk-Nuk and the pacifier clip (they're together, I'm sure) are missing in action.

More to come!...

Loving the baby sling... wow!

Well, I'm trying out the baby sling I bought for the first time (and that's not me in the photo...), and it is going to be so nice! Any of you moms out there who remember (or are currently experiencing) the one-handed juggling act of doing things while holding your baby will appreciate this little device. It allows you to wear your baby while doing other things and have both hands free! So I'm typing two-handed, and NatureForce is content and sleeping right here on my front. Ahhhh....

I researched some different makes and models, and decided on a Hot Sling, because it had a higher ratio of positive reviews to negative reviews than any other pouch-style carrier. I got the hemp stretch natural padded, and it's lovely. It's very packable because it's not fully padded, but it has a ridge of padding in just the right place. It's useable from birth to about 30+ pounds, but of course by that time toddlers usually want to walk instead. Many of the mothers who use these slings talk about the convenience of popping the kid into the sling instead of wrestling a stroller, and although we didn't purchase it for a stroller replacement, it's going to be a nice thing to use for many different things.

Coming home

NatureForce and I arrived home from the hospital yesterday morning. It was a bit of a rush getting here. Paul had decided to sleep at home the second night and keep LittleMum with him instead of sending her back to my sister's. I asked him to be back to the hospital by 9 a.m. so we could leave by about 10, and he called me at 9:10. "Where are you?" he asked, which is his favorite query when he knows that I am wondering where HE is. He proceeded to tell me that he had just gotten out of the shower and hadn't left home yet, and of course it takes a little longer with a toddler in tow. So I greeted the pediatrician and my nurse midwife in succession, and they both gave us the go-ahead to go home, tried to feed NatureForce for the umpteenth time (she's getting anxious for Mama's milk to arrive), needed to get dressed and get her dressed, pack everything up, and eat my own breakfast! It was a little rushed without help, but we managed. Paul arrived shortly before 10 a.m., and although I didn't get a shower, we made it out of the hospital by about 10:10.

Perhaps I'll tell you in another post why I wanted to get out of the hospital on a "schedule." Some of you already know and are chuckling a bit at my insanity.

We did have time for a picture before we left.

It was so nice to be home and sleep in my own bed. We're loving our little NatureForce... she is such a sweetheart. Life is good.

More photos!

In considering the "photo post," I decided against a big long post full of individual photos. Instead, you'll see a new addition to our blog in the right sidebar (if you're viewing this post elsewhere, go to the blog). It's a "badge" from flickr.com, and you can see all the best pictures at Flickr when you click on it. Either click on the Sara's Pics link, or you can even view my photo stream as a slideshow. It will start to also cycle through my Toronto Trip photos from May of this year, so you can either enjoy them when they start, or click back in your browser.

Hope that makes sense! I'll be monitoring comments if anyone has questions. Enjoy our pics!

The baby is here!

NatureForce was born Tuesday, November 15th at 8:26 p.m. She weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz., was 20.5 inches long, and has beautiful long fingers and toes (10 of each...). She's got dark hair and has been a very good baby during her first half day of life. We're so happy to announce that she's joined our family!

More photos to come, but here's a little primer:

It seems that this is it...

This kid's sense of timing is interesting. It looks like we won't be going to Grandma Fisher's funeral after all. Some of you will be checking our blog a little later because you'll get my business newsletter today. All I can say is check back within the next day or so, and we'll probably have an announcement for you.

Waiting patiently

Dear readers,

I figured it was time for another update. I was hoping to have some news like, "the baby's here!" Well, not quite yet. She's quite content, it seems, to wait a bit longer. Her due date is officially tomorrow, so we're hoping she doesn't wait much longer than that!

In family news, my sweet grandmother Erma Fisher had a fall last Saturday and had been in the hospital until last night, when she quietly slipped away to join her late husband and my grandfather. She would have turned 97 years old next week, so she's lived a long, full life that we can really celebrate and honor. Maybe she's gone home at just the right time to send our little baby to us, but I know for sure that the reunion with Grandpa was a joyous one.

My Grandma's funeral is next Tuesday, and I'm a little uncertain what will be happening then. I hope to have an announcement very soon that the baby is here, get in and out of the hospital, and be there with my family. I have a brother coming from Texas and a sister coming from Arizona, so they could see the baby while they're here, which would be nice. But I'd like to have the baby come when she's ready rather than schedule the birth. And it would be okay if she waits until after Tuesday as well... I just don't know if she will. Send your prayers and good intentions our way!

As promised - the before picture!

Here I am with LittleMum today... Daddy's comment, "I'm not a photographer." Okay, so the quality is not great, but it gives you an idea what things have come to.

I'm still feeling good, and everything is looking good with the baby. We went to the doctor's office yesterday for my weekly exam, and the certified nurse midwife said, "just let me know if there's a date you don't want to be pregnant past." Well, I'd like the baby to come on her own, but we'll see how things progress this week.

In the meantime, I was thinking the other day after my last post that I should tell you how I get into bed with all those pillows (and our bed is very high as it is). I have to basically put one knee on the bed and launch myself over the left side pillows, then lie down in between. There's about a six-inch gap between left side and right side pillows, which gives me just enough support and cushioning. Ah...

We'll keep you posted!

Pillows, anyone?

Do any of you women remember trying to get comfortable in bed when you were pregnant? Thank goodness for pillows. When I was pregnant with LittleMum, I used a head pillow and two body pillows, one on either side. But this time around, it seems like I've increased my pillow use exponentially... I now have SIX pillows that I use nightly. I like to sleep on my left side, so I have a body pillow on my left to support my bulging belly and legs, a king-size pillow sham in between my legs, a body pillow at my back (right) with another pillow sham on top of it to support my back even more, and my normal head pillow with another head pillow on top of it. I've given up making my bed most days because it's a pain to configure my pillows again when I'm ready to go to bed. Poor Paul has his one pillow, and I've got my stacks. But it sure has made getting comfortable a lot easier.

Baby's kicking and screaming, "Let me out!"

Okay, no not really. But the baby is VERY active tonight. And tends to be more active in the evening than during the day. You can tell she's trying to get into a more comfortable position in her cramped quarters, because her movements feel like pushing and stretching to me, not really kicking. I can't imagine... I wonder if there are any in-utero babies who have claustrophobia.

I'm waiting up to see if I can get my husband up-to-speed on the whole blog thing so he can post pictures while I'm at the hospital. He's been distracted by reading a friend's blog and posting a comment, so I have been unable to encourage him to break away to make his first post to our blog. And I've got to get to bed soon... so maybe this won't happen tonight.

LittleMum and I met a friend of mine from years ago for lunch. We reconnected when I received her wedding announcement and bridal shower invitation in the mail. It was great to see her, and especially to hear the news that she is expecting a baby. Congrats to her!

Quick Baby Update

Readers,

Well, the baby's getting ready to come much earlier than LittleMum did. I don't know if that means she'll come early, but she's in position and my body's getting ready for labor.

I have finally packed the bags! Everything's ready to go, so we just wait. My certified nurse midwife said that we could go ahead and schedule the birth if we wanted. The baby's good size (a little less than 7 1/2 pounds), conditions are favorable, and everything looks good. I would like to wait until the baby's ready to come. I think it makes it a little more difficult for attending physicians and CNMs, though... I'm sure Dale would prefer to attend the birth on a day he doesn't do clinic hours. He'd have to run back and forth from Layton to Ogden during my labor.

If the baby's born on her due date, it'll still be a week and five days. If she comes early, it could be any time now. Pretty amazing that it's almost here!

I still may post a photo of the "before" me, but that would require Paul's cooperation. He's at work for the next few days, so if I remember while he's here...

The Name Game

Both Grandmas posted a comment guessing what frequently asked questions we get asked most frequently... and Grandma Hurd guessed correctly to the one: "Have you picked a name?" The answer, "No, not yet" is the appropriate answer to that question. *sigh*

Yes, we have a bit of a challenge in the name department. I come up with suggestions, which Paul readily dismisses. He can't really give reasons most of the time; the names I suggest just don't strike him in the right way, I guess.

Paul has come up with a couple of suggestions, which I don't mind, but don't necessarily prefer. He came home from work one day and said, "The nurses at the hospital have been trying to help me come up with names." So I asked, "What did they suggest?" The only name he could remember was Shea, because the others he readily dismissed (just as he does with my suggestions). I told my sister a few days later about the name, and she said, "That's cute... and you could give her a middle name Lynn. Shea Lynn." "Cute," I thought. So I suggested that to Paul. "Yuck," he said (or something to that effect; I don't quite remember). So Shea's okay, but Shea Lynn is unacceptable. And we differ on spelling too... He thinks if we spelled it Shea, people would end up calling her "Shee-a," so we ought to spell it Shay or Shae. So that's a possibility that we haven't crossed off the list yet.

The other suggestion he came up with the other day was Sally. I like it... but it hasn't quite settled with me. It would be cute for a little girl, but how appropriate is it for a grown woman? And the fact that it's a nickname for Sarah feels a little strange. Does that mean she'd be named after her mommy?

Yesterday I got on the internet and Googled "Baby Namer." I found some good sites to help me figure out our next baby naming steps. Probably the most helpful site I found was Oxygen's "Find the Best Name for Your Baby." It includes perceptions, namesakes and potential drawbacks for names parents are considering.

Another gem I ran across was called "The Utah Baby Namer." Okay, so I knew that historically Utah had been known for some very strange names. But to see many real names posted on this web site was hilarious. If you visit, make sure you read "What's in a Utah Name" to understand how these names come about. I guess that Paul and I are somewhat guilty of a Utah name with LittleMum... one feature is combining either parents' names or grandparents' / ancestors' names. And LittleMum is a combination of Grandma Hurd and Grandma Fisher. We figured it an appropriate tribute to the women who brought us into the world and mean so much to us. Hopefully LittleMum's name is not too bad... at least it's a name that can be seen in other regions. My niece and her husband recently named their new daughter Avrianna, which is a combination of four grandmas' names (Avis [maternal great-great-grandmother], Carrie [maternal grandmother], Anne [maternal grandmother], and the fourth which I can't remember). Avrianna made my favorite name for my little one, Ava, a little less desirable. I wanted to pay tribute to my sweet grandmother as well. But Paul didn't like it anyway.

The Utah Baby Namer led me to another fun tool, although I don't know how helpful it is. It's called the NameVoyager, and it shows the popularity of any name you type in from the 1880s to 2004. Apparently, my parents were on the leading edge of a trend when they named me "Sara" in 1974. The names Sara and Sarah were very popular in the 1980s.

And then I started on a very big tangent, Wes Clark's "Avocado Memories." Wes and his wife run the Utah Baby Namer site, so I linked to this find from there. Wow, this guy has so many incredibly fun memories of growing up in Burbank, California in the 60s and 70s. He has posted photos that he took of his home growing up, documenting his parents' interesting attempts at home decorating. His memories encouraged me to look back at my own childhood (hey, we had avacado appliances, mustard yellow carpet and a wood-paneled station wagon), and I think it would do the same for you. I had intended to make this post yesterday, but got sucked right into Wes Clark's world. Enjoy!

So, back to the original intent of this post... the name. Although I could just decide and tell Paul that's the way it is, he does have strong opinions and I'd like him to have a say. He may still get some inspiration or something... and a few weeks ago he said, "just don't think about it for a while and maybe I'll come to like something I didn't like before." Time's short, but I figure we'll come up with something. Even if we have to bring the baby home as "Baby Girl" and call her real name in.

Have you taken the time to watch the leaves fall?

I took a break in the middle of that last post to watch the leaves fall with LittleMum. We've got a big tree outside of our sliding glass door, and the leaves have turned yellow and started to fall. I was surprised to see that many of the leaves had already fallen, and decided that we'd not have leaves on the tree too much longer. As we sat there, we'd round our mouth with a sharp intake of breath as we saw one fall, and then LittleMum would say "one time," then "two times," etc. She'd start over when she reached ten... "Ten times..." "One time..."

We read the scriptures a bit after that. LittleMum is funny when we read scriptures; she'll point to one verse, and then a totally different page and different verse for me to read. So of course it makes little sense because it's not in order, but reading the "scrip-ures" is something she really enjoys.

We also waved to our shadows on the floor. LittleMum had her hair up in pigtails again today, and I asked her who's shadow she was waving to, and she said it was "Mei's shadow."

And lastly, here's a contribution from LittleMum:
kn nnnbnbn nnnnnnnnnnnbnnb nnbbbbbjbbjnjjn jnnb nnnnnnjnnnnnnjjjjjnjjjj

nnnnnnbnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bjjjjjjjnnjnbbbbbnnnnnnnnnnnnnvvvv nnnnnnbnbvbbbbbbbbbbbbbbhhhhhh bb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbvbbbnmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Answers to FAQs

I taught the women's organization in church today (called the Relief Society), and because everyone at church is asking about my pregnancy and the soon-to-arrive, I began my lesson with "Answers to Frequently Asked Questions." Here's a sampling:

• Less than four weeks
• Girl
• No, not yet
  
• Big, and excited to have a baby

I'll bet you can guess the questions... this can be like Baby Jeopardy. No money for prizes, though

Our LittleMum

LittleMum's response when we put her hair in pigtails is this: "I look like Mei!"

For those of you who are familiar with the Japanese animated film Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro), you'll know who Mei is. When we rented the English version of the movie, LittleMum watched it over and over again and loved it. I wish we could own it, but the version we rented is no longer available (I wouldn't want to own it anyway, as it has no original Japanese track), and Disney has not come out with its version. This Hayao Miyazaki classic is immensely popular in Japan, and when I was there as a missionary I saw Totoro merchandising all over the place. With good reason - the movie is delightful and the animation appeals to young and old. I've preordered Disney's version from Amazon.com, but they are publishing its release date as Dec. 31, 2025 (huh?). I hope we don't have to wait that long...

So are you curious? Here are some pictures of "big Totoro," "little Totoro," "Satsuki," and "Mei" (in LittleMum's words).

LittleMum's awfully cute in pigtails, but she hates Mommy to mess with her hair. As a result, most days she looks like this:
The "whiny look" is not too typical, luckily... but the "bedhead look" is pretty standard. And even better - Mommy cuts her hair. Poor girl. Hopefully she won't be scarred for life.

LittleMum is an active, delightful little girl. She's excited for her baby sister to come, but not sure yet what to expect. Neither are Mommy and Daddy. We hope that she's a loving, helpful big sister.

LittleMum's favorite pasttimes are learning ASL and signing, drawing, "reading" books, singing, dancing, bossing people around, and acting out scenes from her favorite DVDs. She loves Primary songs, especially "If you chance to meet a frown..." "I am a Child of God" and "Book of Mormon Stories." When we put her down for a nap, we often hear her singing at the top of her voice in her bedroom instead of sleeping.

I know I'm biased, but LittleMum is, without a doubt, the cutest two-year-old in the world...

Prepping for Baby's arrival

I have received many requests from friends, clients, and family members that they be informed when our new baby girl makes her appearance in November. "How can I make this easy?" I thought. I first started creating a web page, but my knowledge of html is pretty rudimentary. It would be a challenge for me to make it look good, and it would take more time than I currently have. When our daughter LittleMum was born, two-and-a-half years ago, we used Babies Online to announce her arrival and post pictures.

This time around, I think we'll try Blogger. Blogger will give us the chance to communicate our thoughts and experiences as well as our photos. It also gives you the opportunity to respond to what you see and read... not just your congratulations, but your own thoughts and experiences as well.

Baby is due to arrive November 12, 2005. She's been moving around like crazy... I think she's getting excited to join our family. Perhaps in the coming weeks, I'll post a photo of my growing belly, but I'm not promising anything... :-)