The Nest of e

Two Months

2009-09-10T14:52:00.000-07:00

I guess it's pretty obvious I am not one of those that can hold a baby and update my blog! I am finally learning how to accomplish things in small blocks of time. Quinn is doing awesome. We are very lucky, indeed. She is sweet natured, calm, happy, healthy and cute as a button. Did I mention that she has been sleeping through the night since she was about 6 weeks old? I told you we were lucky. She had her 2-month doctor's visit and weighed in at a scale-tipping 12 pounds 15 ounces. That puts her somewhere between the 75-90 percentile. Enfamil mailed me some free formula and in the package they had a chart to show how much your baby "should be eating". It said between 2-4 ounces every 2-4 hours. Ah, I don't think so. She is drinking 7 ounces every feeding. I guess that explains the 75-90 percentile.

She smiles all the time, is trying really hard to talk and is getting the hang of holding her head up. I have to admit I am having a grand old time with all of the cute clothes, socks, shoes and hair bows. I am going to post "a few" pictures over the most 2 months since she has changed so much since these last pictures I posted.

I will try to update more regularly though I know I have said that plenty of times before. Thanks for checking in with us. Much happiness here.

2 Weeks Old:

3 Weeks Old:

4 Weeks Old:

5 Weeks Old:

6 Weeks Old:

7 Weeks Old:

8 Weeks Old:

9 Weeks:

One Week Old

2009-07-12T13:48:00.000-07:00

Everything went really well on Tuesday at the hospital when we all met for April to sign the consents and say goodbye. I had such a huge knot in my stomach, not because I thought she would change her mind but just because of how life changing the whole moment was. I held it together while giving her a necklace (3 hearts connected) but once I hugged her and said "thank you" I had to do everything in my power not to totally choke on my sobs. We both wrote notes to each other and we both asked the other to read them later.

Quinn is one week old today. Considering I am a first time mom caring for a newborn in a hotel room by myself, I think things are going surprisingly well. It certainly helps that Quinn is such a good natured baby. I am getting the hang of only getting to sleep in 2 and 3 hour increments. I am not a pro at diapering yet (especially the poopy ones) but at least now it doesn't feel so awkward. Speaking of poopy diapers we already had a minor blow out. Ah, the joys of motherhood. I know the "professionals" say that babies only smile because they have gas but Quinn smiles consistently in response to me smiling, me singing (obviously she is tone deaf) and she really smiles when I kiss on her neck. That's one of her faves. Did I mention she is cute as all get out?

I think I am going to be here until Friday and quite possibly through next weekend. My husband is beside himself. He had to go back to work Wednesday morning and is missing us so badly. Having to work for a living is really an inconvenience sometimes.

Thank you all for your well wishes. It is so meaningful to have people who have been reading my blog since 2007 be able to share in us finally realizing our dream to adopt. It feels awesome.

Finally!

2009-07-05T11:01:00.000-07:00

Quinn was WAY too independent to share a birthday with a stinkin' national holiday so she waited until today to be born. She was born at 8:13 a.m. weighing 8 pounds and 4.25 ounces and she is 21 inches long. We were able to be in the delivery room with April and I actually got to cut the cord. Poor Shon almost passed out twice (hence me cutting the cord). She is healthy (although they predict jaundice because of some positive test though she isn't showing signs yet) and has all the appropriate parts, including a full head of hair. She already looks different than these pictures that I took this morning.

April is amazing. She gave birth without one drop of any kind of drugs and didn't let out one single scream. She is in a little pain but didn't need an episiotomy so she doesn't have any stitches. She seems in good spirits and has referred to us as "the parents" already. The next 48 hours (until she can sign consents) will probably be some of the longest of our lives although the last few have gone by pretty darn fast.

I will write a little more coherently later. I am going to take a nap and then head back to the hospital for a few hours.

Baby Watch Update #3

2009-06-30T17:55:00.001-07:00

April has a doctor's appointment at 8:20 tomorrow morning and has asked that I meet her there. She is going to ask the doctor to schedule a C-section. She thinks that the baby is very big and if they try to induce her that she will labor long and hard and then end up having to have a C-section anyway. I hope that he will go ahead and schedule something tomorrow (induction/c-section). I know April is reaching the end of her patience rope and is really, really anxious to get on with things. I promise I will update here as soon as I learn something.

Baby Watch Update #2

2009-06-28T11:27:00.001-07:00

We decided to fly to Florida yesterday.

We tried to pack light.

We figured April would deliver or be induced in the next few days anyway and it was making us crazy waiting around at home. Now we are in a hotel room that overlooks the hospital. We could walk over if we needed to.

April is going to call her doctor on Monday and try to schedule an appointment to talk to him again about being induced. She asked if I would like to go with her! I am very excited and touched by the offer. I will find out some time tomorrow morning when she was able to get an appointment.

Last night we went to a cute little restaurant that overlooks a like. Shon ordered fish and chips. Turns out one of his pieces of fish was very fish-like.

Yes, this is the kinds of things we notice.

Houston was having a ridiculous heat wave when we left and it's so much cooler here. Who'd think you had to fly from Texas to Florida to find some cool weather (cool is 92 degrees).

More info soon.

Baby Watch Update

2009-06-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

Sunday we got a call that April "lost her mucous plug" (gack on that term) and that with her last two pregnancies she delivered within a week of losing it. She had her doctor's appointment today and was told the baby needed to come down some more. He didn't say anything about being dilated or not. She asked to be induced and he told her he wasn't comfortable with it. He said that he expected her to deliver before her appointment next week (on July 1 - her due date) but if she hadn't delivered her would talk to her about inducing then. So we are patiently (yeah, right) waiting here.

I don't know if I mentioned before that my parents are living with us right now. They put their house on the market because they kindly offered to live in our house while we were in Kuwait. They received an offer on their house 10 days after they put it on the market and closed on June 5. We STILL don't know if we are going to Kuwait but now it seems more likely we won't go. I have really enjoyed having them here as has my husband. We are lucky that we have a house that seems to accommodate 2 families very well. My dad has been doing a lot of the cooking and grocery shopping, which has been great and I have really enjoyed the company. Also, having my mom here when I bring home a newborn won't be a bad thing. I am hoping we don't go to Kuwait because that would be my preference because of having a newborn and all. If we do get the offer then it will be the 3 of us off on our Arabian Adventure.

My mom told me yesterday that she felt like it was me that was expecting because we are all uptight every time the phone rings. It's like you get this build up and then a let down. It's been pretty crazy around here although yesterday I was so bored I almost slipped into a coma. Today I have some errands to run and some activities to keep me busy. Tomorrow I am getting my color done (see ya gray hair) and some highlights. Anyone want to bet that I get the call when I have a head full of tin foil? Anyone want to hazard a guess on what day they think the baby will be born? Earlier this week I was really "feeling" it was going to be Thursday or Friday but today I am not getting anything. I guess my signals must be jammed. I think it would be awesome if she was born on Friday (June 26th) because it would be the same day that our referral from Vietnam was born, just two years later. That would be pretty cool.

Edited to add: What's up with all the italics today?

No Baby Today

2009-06-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

Crap. April went to the doctor this morning and he said "see you next week"!? WTF? I don't have many details except he decided not to induce this week. I guess he's not too worried about that being a 14 pound baby anymore. Her caseworker hasn't spoken with her directly yet so I am hoping after she does I will have a few more details of how he got from being so sure the baby was going to be huge and wanting to induce to just scheduling another appointment in a week. I am still keeping my fingers crossed that he will decide to induce next week (she will be 1 week out from her due date by then) so we can at least have a little notice to get there in time for the birth. Now I am back to having my stomach do a back flip every time my cell phone rings.

Sign me as pins and needles in H-town.

Baby Maybe?

2009-06-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

April, our expectant mom, went to her doctor's appointment last week and he told her that her baby had grown so rapidly since he had last examined her (three weeks prior) that he would most likely decide to induce her after her appointment tomorrow. He said that if the baby kept growing around the same rate that she would be 12-14 pounds by her due date! Holy Schmoly! She obviously knows her body because she told us back on May 22nd that she thought it was impossible she wouldn't deliver before her due date because she felt so much bigger than with her last two children.

We are very excited (and nervous) that it is so close to the time when the baby is going to be born and that we are going to have the opportunity to plan some and not just wait for the "she's in labor" phone call in the middle of the night.

Please send your positive thoughts our way. Who knows? We could be parents by tomorrow night. Crazy!

The Meeting

2009-05-27T16:45:00.000-07:00

Our meeting with the expectant mom went very, very well. She seemed like someone I would be friends with anyway. I really liked her "energy" and got a good feeling from her. At this point she doesn't seem very interested in contact except pictures and letters through the agency. Whatever works for her works for us. She thinks that she will deliver the baby before July 1. She says that she feels bigger than she has with her other pregnancies so she thinks she is farther along. She feels like it will be sometime in the last few weeks of June. Her last labor only lasted about an hour (!) so I doubt we will be able to make it in time for the delivery. She is worried she is going to have the baby in the car on the way to the hospital! Luckily, she lives very close so hopefully she won't panic too much once her contractions start.

She brought us pictures from her ultrasound. She looks pretty good to me, for an alien!

I am feeling very good about her, as a person, and the reasons she is choosing adoption for this baby. I am holding all of it in a positive light and know in my heart that it will work out like it's supposed to.

It's A Match

2009-05-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

Wow. Am I a crappy blogger, or what? So sorry for the long breaks. I should either do it or don't, for goodness sakes. At least I am back with some good news.

My husband and I were matched with an expectant mom in Florida who is due with a biracial (cc/aa) baby girl on July 1st. We are flying to Florida this weekend to meet her and have dinner. I am excited, apprehensive and a feeling a little more than jaded. Certainly not with domestic adoption specifically as this is our first match and so far, everything has gone as it should, but with just adoption in general. I have the feeling of been there, done that, waited before, lost a referral, lost money, emotional drain, yada, yada, yada. I am not consciously trying to protect myself I just feel kind of numb. I just can't seem to work up a lot of "feeling" right now. I am really hoping that after our meeting with her I will get that buzz. The excitement and nervousness and mental planning and shopping! Believe or not, after all the shopping I did in anticipation of our first adoption, there are LOTS of things we need. I didn't by any clothes for a baby under 6 months of age and we don't have anything practical like a car seat, stroller, bottles or diapers! I still haven't bought much and want to wait until I "know" it's going to happen but that just isn't practical.

So here we are. Waiting again. I feel kind of sad that I'm not climbing the walls with excitement and nervousness. I know that feeling will come eventually and I am very much looking forward to counting down the weeks, days and minutes until she goes into labor and flipping out every time the phone rings wondering if it's "the call". I can't even imagine how long the flight is going to feel! Wow. Actually, just thinking about all of that makes me feel more excited. See, blogging is good!

Thanks for reading.

There is a Man in my Shower

2009-03-25T11:40:00.001-07:00

(and it's not my husband) and other happenings around the house this week.

You know how some people see shapes in clouds, can read your palm or tell your fortune from tea leaves, etc.? Well, I see people and animals in tile and other surfaces. This is the man I discovered in my shower. He is in profile facing left.

If you aren't a whack job like me and can't see The Ayatollah Kramer, I have attached a picture with some notes on it.

I went to Lowes last week and when I opened my bag I found this flyer in it:

Maybe I am just narrow minded but I am trying to figure out the appeal here. Ants aren't cute (unless you're an animator at Pixar or Disney) and have you ever been stung by a teeny, tiny fire ant? It feels like a tiny match is burning you. I'm not a scientist or entomologist or anything but I am pretty sure that being stung by a 30 foot fire ant would kill you and if it didn't it would certainly hurt like a mo fo. Maybe that's what they mean by "plus other fun surprises!!"?

I already had a tomato ripen on one of the plants in my garden. It seems early but I'll take it. It's small because it's a "Patio" variety but dang, it's cute and I grew it all my own self.

Photographic evidence that a little person was in my house this weekend. A perfect hand print on my bathroom mirror.

Etsy Friday

2009-03-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

I'm sure a lot of you have seen this poster:

During World War II the UK was being bombed constantly. The British War Ministry put out this poster in 1939. Lately, it has been shown in homes in designer-y mags and such and has become quite trendy. I hate when that happens.

My first Etsy shop today has an awesome spoof. This calendar is from Little Brown Pen. I think my favorite months are February and July. This girl is some kind of funny and very talented. Her printable stationery is an awesome idea. Check it out.

Next is Lady Bird Land. I heart Allison Strine. I purchased three of her prints for the nursery so I have been in contact with her because of this and she is an absolute sweetheart. I felt a bond immediately. Below are the three prints I purchased. I haven't received them yet but will post a picture of them in nursery when they get here. She also sells pendants, notecards, etc.

This one says: "She's sassy, classy and a little bad-assey".

This one says: "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single trip to the shoe store."

And this one says: "Candy corn is her favorite veggie."

This is Nea: Jewelry and Wall Wear. I have had this shop bookmarked forever. I thought I had posted it before but don't see it on my other blog. I ADORE her cross-stitching. Who knew it could be so modern & cool? Check it out.

And last, but certainly not least, is LoveMely. Take a gander at these awesome headbands. You aren't going to find anything that looks like these babies down at Target.

Happy Friday.

The New Nursery

2009-03-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

I always seem to work way better with a deadline and too many things to do. Being a woman with no children who doesn't have a job outside the home is probably not the best combination for me. I don't accomplish much because I have a lot of time and not a lot to do to fill it up. I am looking forward to a new baby in the house making this current situation I'm in to become a non-issue! The reason I bring this up is because I got more done around my house in the week before the home visit by our social worker than I did in the month previous. I hung a curtain rod (in the spirit of full disclosure, my husband hung the rod), bought and glued 8 yards of pink pom poms to curtains to go on said rod, painted a tree in the nursery and finally unpacked, put together and decorated one of the last remaining rooms in the house we moved into in November.

Our social worker came out to the house on Saturday and she was totally awesome. I was comfortable with her from the moment she walked into our home. She made a situation that could be awkward or uncomfortable feel like meeting a new friend. Our home study should be ready by the end of the month. I finished putting together our adoption profile and really enjoyed the process more than I thought I would. I thought I would totally stress out about how it would look and what I would say. I mean, for the most part this document alone is what a birth mother bases her decision on. No pressure there! It turns out that the creative process was a lot of fun (I haven't done any digital scrapbooking in a long time) and as I was going through photographs and writing about our life it just made me appreciate my husband and the life we share even more.

Now that we are only a week or two away from being fully ready to start the adoption process, I have been downloading applications and such from several different agencies. Egad! More paperwork and most of it redundant. I am hoping that most agencies will take what is already in the home study and not make us recreate it just so it's on their letterhead. A girl can dream, can't she?

I am attaching a couple of pictures of the finished nursery. The tree I painted this time is more whimsical than the one from the last nursery. I don't know if I like it better or not. I think the last one suited my design sensibility more but I didn't want to create the exact same room, although I did use the same items as last time. I found the tree I used (painted using an overhead projector) at The Shabby Shoppe. It was included in the digital kit called Yours Truly. If you like digital scrapbooking at all you should check out this site. They have really cute stuff.

Here is the nursery before: (not from the last house just before I painted the one in this house)

After:

Here is the nursery bath before:

And after. I still need some new towels and such but I am just using what I have for now.

Spring Forward

2009-03-08T13:28:00.000-07:00

I live in Texas so winter here is not a big deal. We barely get to wear our sweaters, much less coats but I know it has been a very different experience for a lot of other people. Snow, snow everywhere and I know my friends are sick of it. Here is a video I saw on another blog that I think you will relate to and it will give you hope of what's to come. The song is lovely and the animation is so sweet I can barely stand it.

And it anticipation of Spring, here are some fresh items from Etsy.

From Paloma's Nest. I think this would look great on a table in the entry hall of a house. Maybe my house, hhhmm ...

Here is a whimsical necklace from Bionic Unicorn. This would look really great with a crisp white shirt. All of the jewelry here is very "happy".

Check out the pretty, fresh paintings at Gallery Zoo Art.

Now these from Lori's Place Gourmet Delights look good enough to eat. Wait a minute ...

And a little spring happy from my house to yours. Azaleas are in full bloom here.

Happy Sunday everyone.

And now, a word from our sponsor

2009-03-05T14:46:00.000-08:00

I lurve this commercial. It makes me laugh out loud every time I see it.

Here's another one:

This one makes me tear up every time. They made a couple others after this but none of them move me the way this one does. I LOVE the song, I love that some of the gestures are so small and I love that it comes full circle.

Do you have a commercial, new or old, that makes you laugh? Or cry? Or just moves you in some way (insert lame DanActive yogurt comment here).

What I Did on my Summer Vacation

2009-03-03T15:12:00.000-08:00

Since I didn't post for many, many months I thought I would try and give you a synopsis of what has occurred since last July.

Just because we FINALLY got an offer on our house in Austin didn't mean things went smoothly. Our buyers getting approved for their financing left us sweating through the whole freaking process. Thank God for our buyers because our house sat on the market for 7 long months but damn, we weren't 100% sure their loan was going to go through until they were actually sitting at the table in the title company in Austin. The closing kept getting delayed and considering we don't have WADS OF CASH LAYING AROUND, we couldn't close on the new house until we closed on the old one. The close in Austin was scheduled for the 8th so I had all of our worldly possessions packed on 2 moving trucks on that day with the plan they would bring it to Houston the next day after our close there. Well, our buyers didn't close on the 8th. Or the 9th. Or the 10th. They didn't close until late Thursday, September 11th (like that date isn't dire enough). This whole time I am having to tell my movers in Austin don't bring my stuff until I don't know when, having to tell the builder in Houston we are postponing our close until we don't know when all the while trying to find and stock up on bottled water, batteries and canned tuna since Hurricane Ike was roaring straight towards Galveston. I was worried we were going to close before the Hurricane and our new house would be blown down before I cut the tape off of one box and I was also worried we wouldn't close before the Hurricane and we would be screwed over by some sort of penalties. Bottom line, we didn't close on the house before the hurricane. So we went to look at the place after the storm and it had water through the roof, onto hardwood floors etc. Although the hurricane caused part of this, it also revealed that the house was not properly sealed and had mold already growing in it from water getting in BEFORE the storm. We told the builder "no thanks" we weren't going to buy his leaky, mold-infested house. Although this time period was more stressful than I can really express, it turns out that all of the delays in closing and Hurricane Ike saved our butts. We would have bought a house that would have had continual problems. Who needs that? We ended up getting stuck in a one-bedroom corporate apartment with two dogs and no clothes or shoes to speak of (it was a dire, dire fashion meltdown) for two months but did end up getting a much better home that was less money to boot. Here is a photo montage:

Sold this:
Thought we were going to by this:

Then this:
And this happened: So we saw this:
And bought this instead:And not to confuse the issue too much. We may move here for a year:

And hoping we won't have too much of this:

Etsy Finds

2009-02-27T11:45:00.000-08:00

Here are some cool shops that I found on Etsy. Enjoy!

This shop is BirdznBeez and has really cool nature inspired jewelry.

This shop is Evelyn Markasky. Her jewelry looks like a combination of sea creatures and flowers.

This shop is Exotic Flavour. She makes awesome jewelry with cord.

And finally, check out the whimsical necklances and tin birds at Little Black Rabbit.

Happy Friday, everyone.

The Eagle Has Landed

2009-02-25T19:06:00.000-08:00

Hi. Welcome to my new place. Thank you to everyone that kept checking my old blog although I rudely dropped off the face of the planet. I apologize. I should have at least posted something along the way. But, I'm back and am going to start off with a bang. Drum roll, please.

My husband and I are (most likely although not 100% firmed up) moving to Kuwait for a year. Yes, I said Kuwait. As in the Middle East. This was totally, freakishly out of the blue. My husband is an attorney and the firm where he works asked him last Wednesday if he would like to go to assist with a new, large client there. It was certainly hard to wrap my brain around this information but within an hour I was really excited. I stated doing lots and lots of researching on the internet and found out a lot of good things. But I still have one major reservation. Are you thinking I am worried about our safety? Or about the fact that it gets to 130 degrees during the summer? Or maybe that I am moving so far away from friends and family? Nope. You'd be wrong on all those counts. My biggest concern is that you can't get alcoholic beverages. Anywhere. In the WHOLE country. Try wrapping your brain around that little nugget. I have been told that diplomats and such can get alcohol so there are exceptions to the rule. Seriously though, we are very excited. We always said we would like an overseas assignment, granted we were thinking France, Germany, Amsterdam, but still it's overseas, baby! More information regarding this adventure as it unfolds.

I have a lot to catch you up on. The move, the hurricane, the house that got away, the house we eventually bought and the changes I have made and am making, domestic adoption and a move to a far away land.

Thanks for sticking with me. I hope we share lots of new adventures together.