Garage Sale Saturday

I was able to escape the house by myself for a bit this morning.  I was not planning to stop at any garage sales but they sucked me in.  What if there was an amazing deal to be had?  Currently, I am on the prowl for toys for the Sullymon since he gets bored quickly and I need to have a good rotation of fun toys for him.  This is what I came home with.

Lots of toys and a sweet Polaroid camera ($2!).  I only spent about $17.50 on all these treasures.  I am drawn to toys from my childhood and toys that you can't just go out and buy anymore.  I had to get that stand up thing since the little Mister will be standing in no time and he obviously needs a stand up piano-type thing to conduct masterpieces.  The best part is you can adjust it for a baby lying on the floor or sitting (see below).

See?  Perfect!

I am especially obsessed with the old generation Fisher Price toys.  I think they are so cool and vintage-y.  I got a ferris wheel one from a garage sale earlier this summer.  Problem with these toys is that they are never in good shape because, well, they are toys and played with a lot.  None of these comes "gently used."  I was pretty pumped about the items below that I found a two separate garage sales today.

And lastly, this fun little item.  Who does not love a Polaroid camera?  Now, I just hope I can find some film for it.

Sully in his "new" toy heaven.

Lucky boy:)

Thank you for all of you that have taken time out to read my blog and listen to my thoughts.  Also, thanks for you comments and feedback.  I love reading them!  Have a great Saturday!!

Mom jewelry

My little man is eight months old today!!! 

Lets see, it has been eight months since I slept through the night, eight months since I didn't have drool or spit up on my shoulder, eight months since I found out what it takes and means to become a mother, eight months since my heart was all mine.  It has gone by so slowly but also lighting fast simultaneously.  It has truly been life changing in every way.  The most difficult and the most rewarding, wonderful journey at the same time.

Also, it has been eight months since I started sporting mom jewelry.  I never thought I would be the one to get any mom jewelry as I thought that was too cheezy for me.  However, when I took Sully in for his 2 week appointment, one of the receptionists at the check-in desk had a coupon and ad next to her keyboard for The Vintage Pearl.  Naturally, I am a nosy person so I cranked my neck so I could see what it said and looked like and saw the following:

I fell in love with the style on the right immediately.  I went right home and ordered my Sullivan necklace with (ugly) yellow birthstone as soon as I got home.  (Believe it or not, when I went into labor on November 26th, I briefly mourned the fact Sully would have the ugly yellow Topaz gem (same one I have and Clayton has) for his birthstone instead of the pretty blue one I thought he would have).  Here it is:

I have been wearing it ever since, constantly, like not EVER taking it off.  I would highly recommend the product to anyone.  Check out other designs at http://www.thevintagepearl.com/.  If you sign up for their newletter, they will send you specials and occasionally 20% off your order.  Ok, I am going to go squeeze my Sullymon.

Building a Home

For as far back as I can remember, when my brother and I would talk about our dreams for our futures, my brother wanted a family, with 2 little boys (to be exact).  There were many moments in time when I really was not sure he would get there.  Well, fast forward to today.  He is a husband, loving step-dad to a tween girl and dad to a 2 year old boy with another little boy on the way (in about 2 weeks).  He and his family have bought their first house together.  I am so happy that I was able to be there today when his house got put up and set.

 



My brother going to greet the crane.

 

Front of the house.





Back of the house.



Foundation.



Back of the house getting put on the foundation.











Front of the house getting put on the foundation.











It's a house!!



  It was impressive (and done by only a 3 man crew!).  There is much more to do but the house will be a home very soon.  I am so proud and happy for my little bro!  No one deserves it more!  Love you and congrats!!!!

Workin' my Fitness

Ok, I am just going to be honest.  Despite losing my 42 lbs of baby weight (which I am pretty sure I carried 10 of those in my face-see previous post) and training for 8 weeks for the Crazy Legs 8 K (which I finished running the whole way-yay!), I was still having problems fitting comfortably into my pre-pregnancy clothes.  And as much as I would like to scrap my whole wardorbe and start over What Not to Wear style, I just don't have the cash flow to support that.  I NEED to eat so I was not going to get anywhere depriving myself of food only to totally binge 3 days later and feel terrible about myself.  A friend of mine (Kelly K) suggested the 30 day shred by Jillian Michaels.

I thought, "A 20 minute workout DVD?  Pshhhh, I can so do that."  So I went out and bought it.  I even had Clayton do the first day with me which we barely got through because we are soooooo out of shape!  After one day I truly wanted to throw in the towel but I somehow managed to continue the routine everyday (well almost, I took one day off a week).  I spent 7 days on workout level 1 and I have done 6 days on workout level 2.  I really don't think I will lose the reported 20 lbs it claims you will lose but I can comfortably button my jeans and dress pants again which is a major win! (Sully did try to sabatoge me tonight when he started crying in his sleep halfway through the work out requiring me go up and feed him more of his bottle but I came back and finished it- winning!)

Birth Story

I am suprised that after only 7 1/2 months, I am already forgetting the "discomforts" of the extra long labor that brought Sully into this world (although I am sure that Clayton is not forgetting any time soon).  I realized that I really needed to document the events that occured last November that changed my life forever before I forget anymore. 

The Story of Sully

Saturday, November 20th

Monday, November 22nd
I was just over 36 weeks pregnant and I really was not feeling well.  I have Mondays off so I was at home feeling dizzy and nauseated with a lot of Braxton-Hicks contractions (I had been getting them for about 2 weeks prior to that).  Clayton was not feeling well either and we assumed it was something we ate over the weekend.  That night, the vomitting started.  I never had vomitting in the first trimester like most people did and I sure paid for it that night.  I had about 4 vomitting episodes, I was unable to keep anything down or sleep.  My BH contractions were really intense now and I was having a constant pain in my abdomen.  I really did not think this was labor as I still had 3 1/2 weeks to go.  But, I knew I was getting dehydrated and had Clayton take me the the ER for fluids and antinausea medication.  I was there for about 5 hours and I did feel better after the fluids and Zofran.  I was 1 cm and 50% effaced at that time.

Tuesday, November 23rd
I stayed home from work that day as I was still feeling off.  I had major body aches and the sweats.  I felt even worse that day than the previous day but at least I keeping liquids down.  At that point, I decided I was staying home the rest of the week.  No way was I going to tough it out at work the way I was feeling and being super huge pregnant.

Wednesday, November 24th
I slept most of the day and I was starting to feel better.  No vomitting and only a few BH contractions. 

Thursday, November 25th (Thanksgiving Day)
We spent the holiday at Clayton's Mom and Dave's house.  I was feeling pretty good and definitely ate too much.  After dinner, I remember sitting on the recliner thinking, "I am feeling strange again.  I don't think I am going to make it to my due date."  (My due date was December 19th)

Friday, November 26th
I got up and was not feeling sick so I felt silly being home from work.  I decided since I was feeling ok, I was going to get the Christmas decorations up.  I got the tree in the dining room up and put up the other dining room/kitchen decorations when I realized I really needed a nap.  So I layed down on the couch.  I was woken up about an hour later with a call from Clayton.  He needed my social security number for something but I could not answer him, my brain was not functioning and I couldn't say anything but "ummmm, yeah, ummmm, I don't know."  It was so weird, I swore I was having a TIA.  Anyway, I hung up the phone and tried to fall back to sleep but, of course, I had to pee so I got up to go to the bathroom.  When I sat up, I felt a gush and ran to the bathroom.  There was no doubt about it, my water broke. (Thank God I stayed home that day)  It was 2:30 pm.  I called my doctor's office and they told me to go to L&D.  I called Clayton and he headed home.  I showered, packed my hospital bag and grabbed the baby bag.  When Clayton got home he was rushing around, getting some clothes together for himself, installing the car seat base in the car.  We left for the hospital around 3:45 pm.  I was getting a few contractions but they didn't really hurt.  Once I got checked into the hospital and into my room, they checked me and I was 3 cm and 75% effaced.  I dawned on me that this was really happening.  Since I wasn't having real regular contractions, they gave me the option of starting Pitocin or walking around to get things going more.  I chose the walking, I really did not want Pitocin because then I knew I would need an epidural.  So we walked and walked and walked.  My contractions picked up and became really regular.  Below is me at about 10:15 pm that night at about 6 cm.

 I was doing very well with the pain.  In fact, I was not in any pain.  I was able to breathe through the contractions and I was shocked that I was not in actual pain.  I continued to dilate about 1-2 cm every few hours. 

Saturday, November 27th
By about 4 am, I was 9 1/2 cm, fully effaced and still doing well with the pain.  Unfortunately, my contractions dropped off and my progress stalled.  By 10 am, I was still at 9 1/2 cm.  According to the doc (which was not my doctor), I was not progressing because either he was too big to come out or my contractions were not strong enough to get him out so I needed Pitocin.  Booo, Hisssss!  I was not happy about this and now I was starving, tired and starting to have a lot of pain.  I wanted an epidural if they were going to start Pitocin but this doctor would not let me get one until my contractions were regular again.  So Pitocin was started at about 10:30 am.  Finally, they let me get the epidural at 1 pm and it was HEAVEN!!!  I took a little nap and at 2 pm, I was actually at 10 cm!!!!!!  It would not be long now, I thought (fool).  And so the pushing began at 2 pm, almost 24 hours after the whole process started with my water breaking.  I pushed, and pushed, and pushed and pushed some more until I was positive my eyes were going to pop out of my head.  About an hour after I started pushing, that heavenly epidural wore off.  Completely.  I begged and pleaded for some more meds to be pushed into the epidural but it was no use, the epidural was not working at all and I still had this baby inside me!  Alright, fine, I will just push through the pain.  Getting him out was the only thing that was going to end this horror.  So I pushed and pushed for another 1 1/2 hours with no results.  I swore a lot.  So many F-bombs.  At that point, I had hit my limit.  I was done.  It was 4:30 pm.  I refused to push anymore and the C-section was set into motion with a flutter of activity- blood drawn, Clayton donned the OR gear, the anesthsiologist came back (and became my best friend again).  I remember telling Clayton to get the camera but he was way to flustered and said he could not find it (are you serious?!?!).  As they wheeled me into the OR, my mom, dad, aunt Val and niece, Harlie had arrived and were walking to my room.  I got to see them before getting into the OR and that was comforting.  Once in the OR, they set up the scene with the drape and strapped my arms down.  The surgery began.  At 5:27 pm, I heard his cry for the first time.  Then they held him to the side of the drape so we could see him and he looked like, well, he looked like a blueberry.  He was totally blue with lots of curly black hair and crying and the anesthesiologist must have seen the horror on our faces because he quickly reassured us that he looked perfectly normal and will pink up quickly.  And he did.  It seemed like only a few minutes and I was in the recovery room and my family was allowed in.  Here are the proud grandparents meeting the little man for the first time!

We were so exhausted, we were taken to our new room, sent the baby to the nursery and basically passed out.  We could not even name him yet but we did think he looked like a Sully.  We decided to sleep on it.

Sunday, November 28th
We officially named him Sullivan James.  We always knew the middle name would be James (after my grandpa, it is also my brother's middle name).  About 5 minutes after we officially named him, the visitors arrived and we were able to share his name with our family. 

Tuesday, November 30th
A picture of us right before leaving the hospital and beginning our new life!

Projects

I like to find projects for myself that I really am not at all qualified to do or have any experience with whatsoever.  Here is my latest one:

 This ugly chair I got for $20 from a garage sale recently.  I have ripped off the ugly upholstery, cut my pieces of fabric that I am going to use to re-upholster the chair with and now I am just waiting for the motivation to finish the project.  Actually, I have to borrow my parents heavy duty staple gun to finish it which I am hoping to get my hands on next weekend.  The chair is ridiculously comfortable, rocks and swivels.  I have never re-upholstered anything in my life but I figure it is worth a shot on a $20 garage sale find.  I will post a pic of it when I am done.  (No the lazy, evil cat did not come with the chair, she has always lived in our house and loves to claim any new chair I bring into the house as her own.)

Ah yes, and here is my granola girl self coming out in the form of making homemade baby food.  I used to scoff at those moms that made their own baby food before becoming a mother myself.  Now I understand the strong urge of a mother to do anything to ensure your child gets the best of everything (AND I felt super guilty for not doing this myself when a friend of mine was making her own child's baby food in a seemingly effortless fashion).  This friend told me, "its easy, just boil the (insert vegetable here) until it is soft, put it and some of the water you used to boil it in in the blender, freeze in a muffin pan or ice cube tray and you are done."  Oh geez, how stupid of me that I could not figure that out on my own.  I decided to use a food processer since I had one and didn't know what else to use it for but to making guacomole dip.  I made sweet potato puree, mashed potato puree, pea puree, peach puree and carrot puree.  Turns out babies don't like mashed potatoes (who knew?) and the carrots and peas don't get ground up enough for Sully to eat them without fake puking on the texture.  He does love the sweet potato puree and peach puree though.  So I am batting about 40% on this little venture.  Not too bad.  Although, for the most part, I feed him store bought, perfectly healthy Gerber baby food (and I am still an excellent mother).

Hemangioma

"Oh, what happened?"

"Does he have an owie (I have no idea how you spell that word)?"

"What is that (as they point at his head)?"

These are the most common comments that I get when I take Sully somewhere.  These comments are not confined to acquaintences but are extended from strangers of all ages.  At first it really bothered me and I felt self-concious about my baby (if that makes any sense).  In fact, I often stared at it, rubbed it, pressed on it in those first few weeks that it seemed to be growing so big so fast.  No, he was not born with it but it is still considered a "birthmark".  Here is a not so good pictoral documentary of the hemangiomas growth.

Three days old, the day we left the hospital

One week old

Two weeks old

Four weeks old

Five weeks old

Six weeks old

Three months old

Six months old

In the beginning, it was just a little red dot.  I thought it might have been from the internal monitor they had put on his head.  But the red mark never went away and it just got bigger and darker and then raised.  Once it started to raise, I knew what it was immediately.  I had seen them before on my cousin and my niece.  I also knew that it would eventually go away and that it was benign and did not hurt him. 

Here are some facts about hemangiomas:

-30% of hemangiomas are present at birth

-a hemangioma, aka strawberry birthmark, is an abnormal overgrowth of a collection of blood vessels

-they are not hereditary (although I question this as I had 2 cousins with them, one of Clayton's siblings had one and our niece had two of them)

-there is no known cause of hemangiomas they but are often seen in premature babies (I would not consider Sully premature but he did arrive 3 weeks early)

- it is not a result of any sort of trauma in the womb, during the birth or after the birth

-eventually the blood vessels stop growing and shrink down to normal size, causing the hemangioma to disappear

-50% of them are gone by the time the child is 5, 60% are gone by the time the child is 6, and so on

-hemangiomas grow the most during the first 8-12 months of life

-when the hemangioma is growing it will appear very cherry red and shiny and raised, when it is involuting it will appear paler in the center and flatten out and turn more purple in color

-hemangiomas are the most common birthmark in children

-they can range in size from small, like Sully's, to very large, encompassing most of the face

-they are most commonly found on the face, neck and trunk

Sully's hemangioma has not grown since he was about 6 weeks old.  It has gotten more purple in color and flattened somewhat so I think it is in the involution phase.  We have to be careful not to allow him to scratch it as it will bleed a lot from trauma from all the blood supply to that area.  It is so a part of him now, I could not imagine Sully being Sully without that hemangioma.  Since it is here to stay for a little while, I see it as an opportunity to educate others on hemagiomas.  Hope you all learned something!

Addiction...

Ok, it is time to just admit it.  I am completely, utterly, 100% addicted to...





THE DOLLAR BINS AT TARGET!!!

I kind of knew this for awhile but today it really became obvious.  I was at work when daycare called to say that they forgot to tell me Sully needed more formula and would it be possible if I could bring some during the lunch hour?  Ok, no biggie, of course I could as I could easily swing by as I was driving from Janesville to Madison for work.  I could just "quick" stop at Target and pick some formula up there.  I probably had about 10 minutes to perform the task at hand.  What was the first thing I did when I get into Target?  I head to the dollar bins, of course.  It did not matter that I was just at a Target about 3 days ago and carefully looked through the dollar bins at that time.  It did not matter that I only had a few minutes to get a very essential item so I could make it back to work on time.  Of course there is always time for deal-finding.  (For all of you judging me for using formula and not breastfeeding, I will have a post that explains the reason for using the more expensive but perfectly healthy alternative to breast milk another day)  Lets look at some sweet dollar bin deals that I have gotten the last few times I visited that treasure trove...

Foam letters and numbers



Foam people and animals

Little boy sunglasses

Wooden pirate mask

Bath books

And most importantly, the bug hat

Am I crazy or are these items irresistable?  I better be careful before I end up on an episode of hoarders.

Life with Sully

Here is a little taste of my little Mister in action.  He is so very full of life it truly amazes me.  I can't believe he grew inside of me (my body really out did itself, don't you think:)).  Everyday brings more giggles, screams, squeals, smiles and the hugs (along with hair pulling, nighttime feedings and the rare Grumpy Gary sighting).  The little man is only 7 1/2 months and I already know so much about him. 
Sully loves:
-cuddles from his Mama
-original songs sung by his Daddy (especially those that contain swears or inappropriate content for children)
-orange vegetables
-any fruit
-his blankie
-sleeping on his belly
-being read to
-baths
-attention
-being naked
-looking at himself in mirrors (he found the mirror on his exersaucer yesterday)

Sully hates:
-green veggies
-any food with any sort of texture (I may be pureeing all his foods until he is 18)
-getting strapped into his car seat
-getting his top teeth brushed

Other Sully facts:
-he has 5 teeth (working on a 6th)
-he is an early bird, up for the day around 5:45 am-everyday!
-he is not crawling or pulling himself up yet but he is scooting backwards
-he is not sure about the sippy cup yet
-he spits his food in my face when he decides he is done eating (his newest and my least favorite physical feat)
-he is a little guy (13th percentile for weight and 26th for height at his 6 month appointment)

If you become a regular follower of this blog, you will be hearing a lot about this little Mister as he is my greatest accomplishment and such a joy.  Eventually, I will post his birth story and the seemingly long struggle to get pregnant at all.  I will also be posting some information about hemagiomas (strawberry birth marks) like the one Sully has on his left forehead (for those of you out there with questions about them).

Hope you all had a great Tuesday!

Name

Picking a blog name was very hard for me.  I wanted something that I would not get sick of anytime soon.  Originally, I wanted Mama Bird since that is what I feel like when feeding Sully.  He is so funny, he just sits there with his mouth open, like a baby bird, waiting for me to feed him.  He doesn't even try to grab the spoon or the food...yet.  Anyway, that name was taken.  My next thought was something about a nest since the blog was going to be about our home life- decorating, parenting, etc.  The best thing I could think of was Making Our Nest.  I know, it is not the most exciting, original name, but I can eventually change it if I think of something more fun.  I even grilled the hubs about a name.  I loved his suggestion, but I thought was too long.  It was "Bored Housewife Activites for the Working Woman."  What do you think?  Should I go with his suggestion?

First Time

Well, I have been thinking about starting a blog for awhile now.  So here I go.  I really should have started the blog while I was pregnant because I had so many experiences that were too funny not to share.  Now, as a first time mom, I know that those embarrasing, hilarious moments will not cease to happen and I would love to have an outlet to share them with all of you!  Also, I love to try new crafts and projects that I would like to share as well.  One of the things I enjoy doing is finding treasures at thrift stores and garage sales.  Just today, I convinced the hubs to go with Sully and me to Goodwill just to look around.  Here are some of our great finds today.

Yup, a sit n spin, 2 hot lunch trays and a vintage-y desk lamp.  Sit and spins are not easy to come by these days.  I fondly remember my childhood sit and spin, it was blue and I was super good at it!  Sully will have soooooo much fun with this little yellow one!