Where has the time gone??

Wait, what?? My last post was when she was almost eight weeks? Jeez.

I guess it goes without saying then that motherhood can summed up in one word: busy. Keeping up with Eva and work and making sure my house isn't in chaos is a lot. Yes, it's challenging. Maybe more so than I thought, but I'm learning so much, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Blogging about life has taken a back seat to, well, life. So here's a little catch-up.

Our sweet little one was in the 98th percentile for weight and 99th for height at her eight-week check up. She's one healthy little nugget, and for that we are very thankful. She's going through clothes like crazy and so we are also very thankful for a closet full of adorable little things to keep our babe snug and stylin' through the fall and winter.

Just a little perspective:

This is her when we first brought her home...

And here she is now!

Crazy, right!?

Right now, we're really in awe of how engaged and responsive she is. She smiles and giggles all the time and isn't afraid to let you know how she feels. 

For instance, here:

                            

Or here, when she was just over it:

This pulling the blanket over the head thing is fairly new. I'm assuming it's a comfort to her as she's falling asleep. We always get a good giggle.

Lest these pictures make you think she's always cranky or sleepy, she also loves to smile... 

And wear her hat.

I still really love this face though...

And these...

Anyway...is that enough pictures?? There's tons more where that came from!

I have so much more to update on, like her first trip up to Maryland, her first Halloween, and my diy haircut (yep, about as bad as it sounds), but this is already a really long post. So I hope to post a few more times this week. 

Almost Eight Weeks!

Can you believe it!? Time has gone by so fast with this little one. It's incredible to me how much a little baby can grow and change in such a short time. She's becoming so much more animated and expressive. Smiling has been a common occurrence, and now it's not just when she has gas! Her neck muscles are getting super strong, which is great for Mama and Daddy because wobbly-headed babies kinda freak us out, and tummy time just usually turns into her staring at the pretty, colorful dresser her dad made for her. It's so cool to see her actually starting to recognize and focus on things.

It'll only be a matter of time before this little one is all over the place!

And for that reason, I'm doing everything I can to soak up every moment of this precious time.

Besides the fact that she's adorable, I love this last picture because that quilt was my baby quilt given to me by my great-grandma. I love it and love that I can pass it on to my little boogie!

We left Eva with babysitters (our besties Megan and Eric, who are expecting their own little booboo in February) last Friday and went on our first real date since Eva was born. All I have to say is: Yay for babysitters! It was SO nice to get some good one-on-one time with my wonderful hubby. I think dating after a baby is even more fun because to me it's more special. You really have to plan, which gives you something to look forward to. 

And speaking of things to look forward to, I started my first work project since having Eva and I'm super excited to get back into it. I've revamped my design blog and am excited to be a guest blogger at The Soho later this month. There are a lot of exciting and cool things coming down the pipeline for the design biz, so stay tuned for updates!

All I can say right now is this: life is so good. I have so much to be thankful for. 

New Baby 101

Ok, so maybe the title of this post isn't the best. After all, I'm no expert on the subject of babies. But I'm learning so much everyday, which has been such a cool experience. And with an influx of expecting friends, I thought I'd pass on some of what I've learned over the last month.

But before that, here are some pictures! I mean it's not a good post without some pics, right?

Ahh! She's so cute. I die. 

Anyway...back on topic. Here's what I've learned about childbirth/newborns:

• Milk the hospital for the all freebie supplies you can. This includes the sitz bath, super hot disposable underwear, squirt bottles, witch hazel wipes, various creams and sprays, et cetera et cetera. If you want the pretty details of what all these things are used for, I'd be happy to fill you in.
• Take advantage of the nursery at the hospital! You're not a bad parent if you don't sleep with your new baby in the room. You need sleep and the nurses will let you get it while you can. So do it!
• If you're like me, you might have a little anxiety about the level of...hm...exposedness (yes, I made that word up exactly for this purpose) you will experience in the hospital. Let me tell you. Don't even worry about it. Do you know how many things these nurses and doctors see every day? You are not the worst by a long shot. So don't give it a second thought to let them help you out in delicate situations. They are angels. 
• You will recover. It may feel like a land mine down there for a little bit, but you'll probably be surprised how quickly things start to get back to normal. I had it in my head that it would be so utterly horrendous that I literally didn't get out of the hospital bed for a whole day. That was stupid. Be careful, take it easy, but don't convince yourself that it's worse than it is or that it's ruined. It's not. But! I will say, do not, under any circumstances, look at it for like a week. There's no need and you may be horrified. Just don't. 
• Let people help you, but know that it's ok to say no too. Sometimes you just need a nap or some time alone when the baby's sleeping. So guard your time. 
• Don't get worked up about schedules or routines or how many poops the internet says your baby's supposed to have. If your baby gets a clean bill of health at the hospital and is putting on weight, they're fine! There was a day I panicked that Eva wasn't eating enough so I just kept feeding her and feeding her, which was stressing both of us out. Then she through up all over me. Babies are little people. And like regular size people, they're gonna eat when they're hungry and poop when they have to. Do you let a schedule you found on the internet dictate when you poop? Probably not. So don't worry about your baby. It's not good for either one of you. You'll learn what's normal for them.
• Don't stress about finishing the nursery before the baby's born. You may not really even use it that much for the first month at least. And your baby won't know the difference anyway! So sure it's nice to have done, but if you can't settle on curtains, or still need to add a few things, don't worry about it. There are far more important things to think about. 
• Sleep whenever you can! That's that. 
• Don't read things online that stress you out. Instead, read this pregnancy/baby blog. You'll feel better. 

So there's that. 

Things are going really well around here. Eva's been a really good little baby and we're learning what makes her fussy, so in general we can figure out what's wrong when she gets upset. 

There's no doubt that she looks like her Dad, but I can see some of my personality coming through. For instance, she doesn't seem to be a morning person, she gets hangry, and when she's sleeping, she cannot be bothered to wake up under any circumstances. 

She's off the charts as far as growth goes, so that makes me feel good (not stressing about if she's eating enough), and it's just so crazy to see how much she's grown and changed even in this first month of her little life. 

I so wanted to take pictures of each week for the first month to see how she's changing, but that kinda fell to wayside with feedings and naps and trying to keep the house from turning into one of "those" houses. You know the ones I mean. We'll probably get there someday, but today is not that day. 

As much as I can't wait to give updates on things like "she ate her first solid food!" or "she said her first word!" or "she's walking!" I know that these moments are precious right where we are and there will be a time when I wish we could go back. So I'm just doing my best to soak it all in and enjoy it while it lasts! 

Thankful!

This first week and a half of being home with our little girl has been so incredible. From quiet time studying our new daughter's cute little face, to rocking in her nursery, to enjoying all the meals and snacks brought by amazing friends, we have so much to be thankful for.

So thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who's stopped by and everyone who's planning on it this week. Having a new baby is exciting and challenging and exhausting (in the best way) all at once, so not having to worry about meals has been an amazing blessing.

I'm also super thankful for a healthy baby who did great at her first doctor's appointment, and despite being a finicky little eater, she's managed to keep up her birth weight.

And finally, I'm so incredibly thankful for my sweet hubby who's been taking such good care of his girls since he's been home. We've been so fortunate to have him at home for two weeks and will be sad to see him go back to work. But I'm also looking forward to spending lots of one on one time with Eva and (hopefully) getting into some kind of a routine.

Here's a little look at out first week and a half at home...

Not surprisingly, I've run out of room on my phone from taking so many pictures, so I'm off to back them up so I can share more soon!

Hope your week's been great!

She's Here!

I've been waiting so long to finally announce this! Our sweet baby is here!

Evangeline Joy Mendenhall was born at 4:02 p.m. on Friday, July 13.

I'd begun to accept the idea that at almost 41 weeks, I'd have to be induced. I'd only had off-and-on mild contractions at night, would fall asleep, and wake up the next morning...still pregnant. I'm not going to lie, I was getting impatient and a bit discouraged because while scheduling an induction would have still done the trick and we'd be thrilled for her to get here, I was beginning to really get excited about the whole surprise of water breaking, having close contractions, making the highly anticipated trip to the hospital...probably the only time in life that you'd actually be excited for these kind of painful/pretty gross things to happen.

Ironically, that Friday was supposed to be my appointment to discuss induction, but as Brendan's boss predicted, we skipped the appointment to go for the real thing. My water broke at around 4:30 a.m., which came an invited surprise. We got to the hospital an hour later and after I while, I still had no significant contractions so they stared me on pitocin, which did the trick.

After the contractions got pretty painful, I opted for the epidural which worked wonders and soon after fell asleep for a little bit. When I woke up, I felt a lot of pressure and started to understand why sometimes women who get their epidurals really early on think they don't work because the pressure is still pretty significant.

But then it became more than significant pressure. About ten minutes after waking up, I felt actual pain. I'd completely missed the part about pressing the little IV button to increase the epidural. Oops. And by that point it was kinda too late for it took kick in more because things were happening already. I knew something was going on and Brendan grabbed the nurse to check me again. Sure enough, I was 10 centimeters and she could see the head.

Oooh boy.

I'm not sure how long I pushed for. It wasn't too long, but felt like forever (that is no joke, especially with only 50 percent of what your epidural should be). Thank God the last push was the last because I remember thinking it was the last one I had in me.

And taaadaaa! There she was! The first thing I thought when they threw her on me was that she definitely has her daddy's nose.

She was completely beautiful.

Since being home, she's been so good. She got to hang out her Mimi Jeannie and has already met tons of new friends. She's not too fussy, eats a ton, and is making progress at night sleeping in her pack-n-play.

Here are a few pics from the hospital and coming home...

We are so, so appreciative for all of the prayers and well wishes. We can definitely feel the love :)
We're so thankful to have this sweet little girl in our lives and can't wait to see her little life unfold.

Maybe Today...?

"Maybe today!" That seems to be the running theme around here. No baby yet. I've had contractions the last couple nights, but then I fall asleep and they stop. Bummer.

But she's gotta be ready soon! If there's no action by Friday, we'll be inducing at the beginning of next week. I don't know how I feel about that, but at this point, I'm really ready to see her squishy little face, so que sera sera.

Here I am on my due date, last Sunday...

Look how low she is! I mean, I feel like she's just gonna fall out, but then when I think of the logistics, I know it's not very likely to happen like that. 

We're all ready to go; mom's here, laundry is being done in an OCD fashion, meals are planned and prepared...now if only this little one would decide to join the party, we'd be all set!

Lately

I'm playing a bit of catch-up here since Father's Day and our four-year anniversary have passed since my last post...two big days!

First was Father's Day. Brendan insisted that I not make a big deal out of it yet. I think his thoughts are that besides the work put into the nursery and that kind of thing, he hasn't really had to do anything fatherly yet, but I beg to differ. I'm already so proud of the father he will be to our little girl and how super helpful and supportive he's been to his baby's mama. I can't for him to get to hold her (and see how heavy this little booger is that I've been carrying ;).

Not only am I so lucky to have an amazing dad for my little girl, I'm pretty darn lucky to have a great dad myself. Though we live a few states away, I hope he knows how often he is thought of, prayed for, and loved.

Love you, Dad!!

Just a few days after celebrating Father's Day, we celebrated four years of amazing marriage! I know that sounds cheesy, but this is my blog, and I'm preggo, so I'll take license to sappy from time to time. And I feel like now's a good time for it!

It was a completely beautiful night downtown. We hung out at the waterfront for a while and upon my friend Abbie's advice, drove around several cobblestone streets and ate deliciously spicy Thai food at Basil, in hopes that maybe it would help convince Eva that coming into the world would be a super fun thing to do on our anniversary.

Welp, no such luck. My due date's a week and a half away, and I wish I could speed up the clock (the doc said she's in position and could come any day now), but I have to remind myself to just enjoy the calm and quiet now...before everything changes! :)

On the agenda this week: lots of yoga ball bouncing, walking & spicy food. Stay tuned...