I’m excited to share that I’m a guest blogger again today for Soleil Moon Frye’s site, Moonfrye. Still pinching myself because Punky was one of my childhood heroes and here I am, sharing my thoughts about being a new parent on her site. Really?! Check it out here. I wrote a piece about never saying never… ever had a similar experience? Yeah, I thought so.
We made it to 40 weeks! It’s in the upper 30s and a bit blustery here in northern Michigan so I’m bundled in a wool sweater with my favorite winter scarf (thanks, Nic!). The baby is still in there somewhere, I assure you. I’ve never been this pregnant before. Uncharted territory, lovelies! Oof. Looking forward to meeting this new little birdie and beginning to reclaim my body. Enough already! Ahem.
I feel like something strange happened between Monday’s quick grocery shopping trip and yesterday’s trip, like I went through a time warp. I was under the impression that Halloween was just around the corner, but my milk was dated December 19! I looked to my left and spotted egg nog, walked a little bit more and the peppermint ice cream jumped out at me, then in the produce area, fresh cranberries and pomegranates? Yikes.
Please don’t tell me you’re already done with your Christmas shopping because I haven’t even finished (err, started) my spring cleaning yet this year, lovelies…
I love a surprise, especially a thoughtful one left by a squirrely friend. I still don’t know from whom it came, but I was happy to arrive home from the hospital on Saturday to this fun button on my mailbox. Thank you, lovely squirrely friend. Could it have been you?!
Lovelies, I thought for sure I’d be home by now with our new little birdie in my arms! We went to the hospital early Saturday morning after I started having contractions and some bleeding. It was going to be the same exact timing as with Wren – six days before my official due date. And the same exact room! I got checked in, got into the gorgeous hospital gowns, got monitored, got mentally prepped. But things slowed down, too much bad early morning TV was watched, progress wasn’t made; I was only at about 3 cm six hours later. So I was given three options: 1) stay and wait, 2) stay and get my water broken, or 3) go home and wait. It was a beautiful day here so we decided to go home and come back later when things picked up again. Well, here I am, several days later. No baby! Well, there is a baby, but it is still tucked safely inside. Sigh.
At first I was discouraged and disappointed, but now I’m feeling fine with it as long as I can be home for Halloween with our little birdies! Again, I realize this is really out of my control, but I would just hate to miss the sugar-fueled time with my little strawberry.
It seemed like other women’s stories about their deliveries (after their first) all seemed so fast, but maybe this is just what I was hoping to hear. Since our weekend false alarm, I’ve talked to quite a few women who went through a very similar experience. How had I not heard these stories before? Likely because I didn’t want to… regardless, it is inevitable that this baby will come out some day. And some day relatively soon, right? Heck, it could even be today. It’s cold and rainy, a perfect day to be spent laboring away… please and thank you?!
Thanks to Plum Organics for sponsoring my post about tips for baby feeding magic. What if you let baby choose what’s for dinner?
Check out their cute “Quest for Yum!” video and see what happens! [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIMWdA5K9pw&w=560&h=315]
Today Wren and I went to our local Target and picked up a couple Plum Organics for Tots fruit purees to try – strawberry and banana “mish-mash.” Wren loves fruit smoothies so I thought they would be a hit with her – and they were! And truth be told, me too. Usually I add some kind of juice or vanilla yogurt to sweeten a smoothie, but now I’m thinking that a super fresh fruit puree like this obviously doesn’t need any extra sweeteners. And with Halloween around the corner and candy everywhere we look (sigh), we don’t need ANYMORE added sweeteners, thank you very much.
While I didn’t use too many pre-made baby foods with Wren, I bet I will be more likely to take advantage of them with our new little birdie. And I’m pretty sure these will make me feel better about not doing everything from scratch because they’re healthy, tasty, organic, portable, resealable, easy to use. No jars, yessssss. I’m a bit disappointed that they can’t be recycled, but I’m sure the packaging engineers at Plum are working on this, right?!
One thing I love about the product line is the range of flavors, from traditional banana to more interesting blueberry oat & quinoa and spinach, peas & pear. We didn’t shy away from introducing any strong flavors or textures to Wren and this has served us well because she eats almost anything now at two and a half, and is willing to at least try a bit of everything new-to-her that we put in front of her. Food is one of life’s greatest pleasures and adventures for us and we hope to continue to encourage this with our little birdies. I’m sure she’ll go through a pickier stage like most children, but I’m very grateful that hasn’t hit home quite yet!
Have you used the Plum Organics products? What are your thoughts? Have any favorites?
Lovelies, this was my first sponsored post – yee-haw! I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. To learn more about Plum Organics, visit their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/PlumOrganics.
I was gifted with a child-free day today and made use of my special (read: don’t know when this will ever happen again!) time on last-minute nesting projects like finally turning all those October tomatoes into roasted tomato salsa and a big batch of roasted tomato soup. Since I was in the mood to boil water, I also sterilized a bunch of pacifiers. Funny juxtaposition, isn’t it? Ah, well, such is life right now.
I can’t really even begin to describe the great sense of relief I have now that I don’t have to stare at all those tomatoes every time I come through the back door. I’m so grateful they didn’t go to waste because I knew I wouldn’t be able to get to them once our babe arrived; I just dreaded the thought of having to see them again as I was walking through the door with a new little birdie. Whew!
Have a great weekend in your nest, lovelies! Here in Traverse City there are a couple really cool things happening that I just had to mention: an indie art fair and the nation’s first XC ski race of the season, for which they are hauling in shaved zamboni snow from the local ice rinks. Something for everyone…
{this moment} 39 weeks – a brief moment from our week, a Friday ritual inspired by Soule Mama.
It’s been cold and rainy here in northern Michigan this week; we walked outside yesterday morning and Wren said, “it’s a blustery day, Mama!” Indeed. So the little birdie and I have been spending a lot of time cuddling up on the couch together this week, reading lots of books, “one, two, three more, Mama?” OK.
This is one of our favorite lap-sized board books by Lois Ehlert: Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z . Have you read it?
Happy Friday and happy weekend to you, lovelies! Any big plans? I’m hoping to have a baby this weekend. We’ll see how that plan goes…
I’ve been reading a lot lately about ideas for welcoming a new baby into your family and thinking about how to best prepare Wren for her new little birdie friend. There is a great discussion on preparing siblings for the birth of a new baby with lots of different ideas over at Design Mom that have inspired some of my thoughts. One simple thing someone shared was to have a small gift for the sibling FROM the baby and I thought this was a great idea. So I went downtown today to one of my favorite shops and found a cuddly, sweet little bear for Wren that will be given to her when she visits us in the hospital. Soon!
Have any traditions in your nest when you welcome a new baby home, lovelies?
