More over here!

So... I've kind of let my blog fall off (if you hadn't noticed).  While I do want to write posts, it seems my priorities have been rearranged for now.  But, I did start an Instagram account!  It's much easier for me to post a snapshot with a quick caption right now.  Hopefully I'll be back.

Two Months

I've been mother to three for two months!
I have to say Charlize has slipped right on in.  There have been a couple difficult days, but by and large, this transition has been smooth!  I wear her a lot and while it does free up my hands, there are lots of things I still don't like to do while I have her in the wrap.  So when I've got her napping in the pack-and-play, it's a crap shoot on whether I'll be super productive and work out or go into a cleaning frenzy or do meal prep, OR just veg on my sofa enjoying the freedom of posture provided by not having a baby strapped to me.  Also, for some unknown reason, I envisioned it being cool for longer into her infancy.  It's hot already.  So between the demands of nursing and wearing a wrap all day (with out without baby in it), I rarely venture away from leggings and a tank with a shelf bra (to secure nursing pads).
I went back to work, albeit part time, two weeks ago and even that has been smooth.  I still hate pumping, but Charlize is more quickly accepting of the bottle than Bauer was when he started daycare at 4mo, so that is a relief!
It's also neat to see Damon as a third time dad.  His confidence and responsiveness have at least quadrupled since Emberly was a baby.
She is such a joy and I already have a hard time remembering what our life was like before she got here!  Seriously, what was I doing all day?

Collector

Bauer loves ties, hats, glasses and blazers.  More than the average 3yo, I think.  So when a girlfriend (Leah, a gorgeous girl with whom I used to model) opened up an Etsy shop selling her handmade custom bow ties, I knew Bauer would love one (or many) to add to his tie collection.  She had several bold and interesting fabrics, but to my surprise, Bauer picked out a more simple polka dot pattern.  I'm probably creating a monster (since it'll be quite a while before he can fund his own accessory collection), but he's just so handsome!

Vintage Fox Market

wonder week

Today, Charlize is happy about nothing.  Nothing, I tell you.

psst, I knit those little knickers!

crutch

The other day someone mentioned "third baby syndrome," as the reason behind the lack of pictures they had.
There are a few things where the third time around, I just can't be bothered.  But pictures is not one of them.  In fact, the opposite.  I feel like every part of this experience needs thorough documentation because it's the last time!  A gazillion photographs are my crutch.  I briefly lost my camera shortly after she was born and I'm certain that panic attacks were around the corner if I hadn't found it when I did.
This past weekend Sarah (of Sarah Goodsell Photography) brought me a thumb drive of the images from Charlize's birth.
Oh. My. God.  I wept!  I'm beyond thrilled with them and so glad that we decided to hire her to share this talent with us.  I wish I could have hired her when Emberly and Bauer were born!
Below are some of the images.

Obsessed

It's hard to sit down at my computer and really write something.  I've had lots of lovely visitors and it's kind of rude to type when they're trying to make eye contact and talk to you.  So there's that.
But also, I'm obsessed.  Obsessed with my last little cherub.  Obsessed with knitting.
With that said, here's my little cherub in a little smock I knit her to wear today :)

Precipitous

I was drafting a cheeky "still pregnant" post with this picture:

But then, wouldn't you know, at 38wks and 6 days, I went into labor.
At 5:30 Wednesday morning, I woke up to an intense contraction. I laid there and nothing else happened, so I dismissed it as my uterus again being irritated by my full bladder. I got up a quarter after 6 and due to spicy Thai for dinner last night, had an unpleasant trip to the bathroom. As I tried to wash up and get ready for the day, I kept feeling like I needed to get back on the toilet but it felt like upset stomach cramps, not birthing waves.  I finished dressing and went downstairs to try to make Emberly's lunch and breakfast, and the cramps started to form a pattern. At 6:50, when it was time to be getting Bauer in the car to head to daycare, I was pretty sure I was having contractions and was afraid to drive. So instead I shot a text to my photographer and midwife's apprentice. I undressed and hopped in the shower. It felt great, but did not make them stop, in fact, they started lasting over a minute. My midwife arrived and listened to her heart tones through a contraction and got set up. I went for my go-to seat on the toilet and the waves seemed to lose their "peak" and spread apart and I got a little worried that we'd be here a while and I'd called everyone too early. But every time I tried to stand, I'd get hit with a more intense wave that sat me back down. I decided to just not worry about how while seated it felt more like menstrual cramps than contractions. And sure enough, I started feeling like I had to go #2 again and when I tried to breathe through the urge, my body forced me to push. I reached down and felt the bulging bag of waters.  What?  Was it really already time to push?! I waited for one more wave to confirm the need to push and I moved out to our bed. I kneeled on the floor and draped myself over the edge of the bed. Damon and the kids were downstairs eating and my midwife thought she'd let them until birth was imminent. Well, next contraction, during which I was still trying to "breathe baby down" without actively pushing, she was crowning. So everyone came in the room and took a seat. Next wave, waters broke, I took a breath and my body forced me to push and out she came at 9:37 (at under 3hrs from the onset of regular contractions, labor with her was over 30min shorter than with Bauer and 2.5hrs shorter than with Emberly; if I were to have another baby {I'm not!}, I'm afraid of how fast it'd be)!  Welcome to the world, Charlize Athena (who nearly *everyone* was convinced was a boy for the last month!).
She weighed in at 6lbs, 10.5oz and 20" long. So despite coming over a week early, she's bigger than Bauer! And longer than Emberly was too!  Her siblings are so in love and want to hold her all the time.  She's nursing like a champ and so far, sleeping like a champ too!

Maternity DIY /3

I made this maternity maxi dress by taking a very old too-short sweater from Express (I think I've had this since high school!) and cutting it to empire length and then attaching a skirt of two way stretch jersey!  I put all the gathers over the belly but I still ended up ripping out the back seams and tapering it more to get rid of extra fabric that was pooling at the small of my back.  I also didn't bother actually hemming the knit fabric; just cut it to floor-skimming length!

Belt: Target, Necklace: F21

Daydreams

We've been guessing and taking wagers on this baby's sex and weight.  And I've been wondering about what this little person will look like.  And then I was looking at Emberly and Bauer's newborn pictures and realized they were twins for the first several days.  I'm thinking this baby will also be pale with a button nose and a head full of dark hair.  But will he or she have blue or brown eyes?  Will his or her hair stay dark or turn red/blond?  Will it turn to tiny spiral curls or big sausage curls?!  Daydreaming...

Park Snapshots

Sugar

The other day the Starbucks inside the Target I frequent was out of soy.  I'm not a fan of soy, or even Starbucks, really, but my limitless cheapness and the 5% off granted me there with my RedCard seemed to make it worth it.
I was forced to explore an alternative.  Enter Layer's Cafe.  They have alternatives to cow's milk and soy!  The caramel silk flavored latte is delicious.  And they have gluten free treats.  Salted Caramel Whoopie Pie?  Don't mind if I do.
Except I should!  I started exploring the Paleo diet before I got pregnant.  At first to lose weight, but I stuck with it because of how much better I felt.  Being stricter about dairy and not eating grains improved my skin, tummy issues and seasonal allergy symptoms.
Once I got pregnant, I got a little more lax about non-gluten grains because of aversion/nausea issues.  But I was still a good 90% Paleo.  And I was enjoying the benefits of feeling great and gaining even more slowly than when I ran through a pregnancy.
Enter the last trimester.  I would have off, low energy days that made sweets sound really good.  Added sugar isn't a grain or dairy, so, not sooo bad, right?  Wrong.  My off, low energy days seem to be crawling closer together and while some of it is undoubtedly the darling little parasite inside me, I'm also sure that the candy isn't helping.  And it's going to help less and become more of a problem when babe is here and I'm sleep deprived.
So, this weekend I enjoyed my Salted Caramel Whoopie Pie while promising myself that I would stop eating candy and other sugar laden treats and relegate my lattes back to a once-per-week treat I meant for them to be.  And hopefully I'll have this under control by the time I go into labor!

FYI, my favorite resources are nomnompaleo and against all grain!

Term

Baby should stay cozy in there another couple weeks at least, but I'm 37 weeks today!  I bought my birth kit and got my prescription for the after-pains (seriously, they're no joke; staggering acetaminophen with 800mg ibuprofen didn't *touch* the after pains while nursing when Bauer was born. Like, can I just give birth again, instead?).  And my midwife affirmed for me that despite my paranoia caused by all the peri-navel-region movement, baby is left occiput anterior; meaning the baby is head down with the back and bum just to the left of my navel.
Exciting!!!

Necklace/Earrings: Charming Charlie, Jacket: F21, Dress: American Apparel

Great Date

Want to laugh really hard while feeling like a horrible person?  Daniel Tosh can help!  Damon and I went to see him at the Mirage last weekend (his anniversary gift!) and it was a great show.  He's such a jerk and I wonder how much of it is his genuine personality and how much of it is exaggeration for comedic effect.  My favorite part might have been the nervous way the couple next to us glanced at me while they were laughing at a bit he did about if people would stop having kids.  It's okay people, I wouldn't come to a Daniel Tosh set if I was easily offended!
I'm still randomly laughing out loud when particular jokes pop into my mind...

{in the Terry Fator theater}

{with the munchkins prior to leaving}

Blazer & Necklace: F21, Top & Booties: Nordstrom, Leggings: Asos

Polka Dots & Bubbles

Last week we happened upon some tickets to go see Jay Mohr at the South Point hotel.  He had some really funny things to say about marriage and parenting but then went into some stuff about rock band concerts that was somewhat universally humorous, but I imagine was far funnier to the people who fully got the references.  I've never been much into rock and roll!
Onto what I wore!  Polka dot blazer and bubble necklace!

{American Hustle revived my love for late 70's level eye makeup and plunging necklines ;)}

{photobomber in pajamers!}

Top: F21 (very old), Jeans: AE, Blazer & Wedges: Target, Necklace: Charming Charlie's

Anticipation / Dread

The other night, I got the kids into bed right on time and they magically fell asleep without coming down the hall 100x to tattle or tell me about some imperative I'd forgotten (You didn't hug me!).  And I snuck out some chocolate I'd hidden and sat on my sofa, snuggled under my favorite throw when it hit me.
This is going to be over in about a month!
In about a month, bedtime will no longer be the light at the end of the tunnel that I can sprint toward on difficult days.  My nights will be just beginning.
I can only cross my fingers that this little one will quickly settle into our routine and be one of those babies that nurses and immediately falls back into slumber during the night.
But the nice thing about this being my third time to the rodeo is that I know even if baby isn't "easy," that babies are only babies for so long and that in all likelihood, I'll make it out alive!
It's easy to gloss over the work and sleeplessness involved when you spend 40+ weeks imagining who this new little person will be and can't wait to peer into a little face and steal all his/her sugar...  And, this time I have two excited little helpers!

Thirty Days!

30 days until my due date!  Who knows how many until we actually have a baby, but, countdowns are fun.
Here are some randoms from my eighth month with this 3rd babushka!

Big Hair Don't Care

After I took Emberly's twists out, I gave her a fresh hair cut and she did an afro or 'fro-hawk all last week.  Then this week we started with flat twists with perm rods on the ends to get these no-heat curls!

Inspired

When I was pregnant with Bauer, I hired a photographer to take some maternity family photos.  It was a fun experience and I loved the photos!

This time however, I thought considering all the photos I take for the blog, "been there, done that;" I'd rather invest in a birth photographer.  But as the big day draws near, I am feeling more bittersweet about it.  I'm so anxious to meet this final member of our family but also a little sad about experiencing all of this for the last time.
Then a friend I used to model with posted a link to a photographer's instagram account and I was struck with inspiration by this photo.  How fun would it be to style a more editorial-feel maternity shot like that!  I was already more than halfway through a box of chocolates (shhhhh!) so I saved the box and wrappers.  I picked up some pickles and gelato and voila, props galore!  I was hoping my girlfriend that recently started a photography business would help me actually take the pictures, but she's in the middle of a cross country move and it wasn't going to happen.  So I enlisted Emberly, with bribes of gelato.  It didn't turn out exactly as I was imagining, but we did have a blast staging it all and I did end up with a shot that I like a lot!

six weeks

Just six weeks left.  Baby must be practicing breathing a lot more in there because the hiccups seem nearly nonstop lately!

Top: Motherhood, Cords: Target

Walking a Mile

Walking a mile in Mama's shoes!

Anniversary

I thought of the outfit I wanted to wear to Damon's and my anniversary dinner a couple days before and I was excited.  And then we went to a huge kid birthday party that day.  And someone (ahem) maybe drank a lot of punch with ice cream in it.  Said someone took a lactase supplement before drinking it, but maybe pregnancy hormones cancelled it out or something?  I ended up with painful trapped gas.  I drank hot lemon water all afternoon and proceeded to get dressed just *knowing* it was going to pass.  It got a little better, but not really.  I did not want to waste a more-expensive-than-we-usually-do dinner being careful not to further upset my tummy.  So we went and saw American Hustle with me dressed like this.  The nice thing about Vegas is that the theaters are in the casino resorts so it's not completely weird that I'd be there dressed like this.

Necklace, top and skirt: F21; Boots: Aldo

And then, we went to lunch on our actual anniversary and it was much less glamorous lol  But it was at a tried and true favorite place of ours and we were there together <3

AND... just for extra giggles, a pic from when we were dating