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! 

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.

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...

Happy Mother's Day!

Brendan and I were walking back home from a friend's house last night and happened to catch a glimpse of this lovely little mama and her two little babies nesting in a beautiful hanging flower basket. The picture looks fake, but I promise it's real! It was such a sweet site and so fitting for this Mother's Day weekend. 

If you're someone who's close to your mom this Mother's Day, count yourself lucky. My mom's nine hours away, but thankfully I was able to spend some great time with her when she came down to Charleston for the shower last weekend, which I promise to post pictures of soon!

Since I'll be a mother myself this year, I'm all the more appreciative for the sacrifices my mom's made for us over the years. And I love this point in my life where my mom can truly be a best friend. If you're a twenty-something girl, you probably know what I mean. All of sudden, mom goes from being someone who's keeping your curfew and what you wear out of the house in check to someone who you can giggle with over a glass of wine. And then all of sudden you find yourself telling her about how you snuck out of the house that once at a little tapas bar in New York. Once that "WHAT!? I can't believe you did that!" quickly wears away, you laugh and she tells you something funny she did when she was that age and you're both just happy to be able to enjoy each other's company.

Mom's are so special.

 I'm so thankful for my mom's creativity, her sense of humor and her friendship.

Happy Mother's Day Mom! I hope your weekend is relaxing and delightful! You deserve it! 

Happy Spring!

Spring has definitely sprung here in Charleston. In fact, I think it's been here for a while. We've been super busy getting things done around the house, which I will show you later, and we've had some delightful people around that we don't get to see that often. So it's been a really good couple of weeks!

My mom visited last week and we had a blast! The weather was fantastic and we got to spend some time at the beach, and scouted around for things for Eva's room. We found some perfect fabric for curtains, which I couldn't be happier with, and also made some progress with other things too. I'm so excited to see it all come together!

Speaking of Eva, here she is pooching out!

I'm 24 weeks and feeling really good. My energy's good and now that my uterus is the size of soccer ball, I think I'm really showing. As my friend Megan put it, "That ain't no food baby!"

Aaand....speaking of Megan, she and her hubby Eric also came to visit this weekend from Knoxville and we were so happy to see them! We celebrated Eric's birthday at Basil and they got a chance to catch up with some friends in the area too. Fingers crossed that we'll be seeing more of them soon! ;)

What else, what else?

It's amazing how much stronger Eva is getting even this week from last. Her kicks and punches are much more obvious from the outside now. By that I mean you can actually see and feel them from the outside, it's not just me feeling them from the inside.

She's probably a little more than a pound now and anywhere from eight to twelve inches long. I can't believe that!

July will be here before we know it. In the meantime, I'll be getting work done and eating my newly beloved broccoli.

Hello, 2012!

Happy New Year!! Hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday season. It was an interesting one for us. For the first time ever, we spent Christmas day at home. It was the first time in a while that Brendan's family was all able to spend it together and it was really nice. The week before was busy for Brendan, since we had six Christmas services and he had to be at each one. But come Christmas day, the food was good, I felt good all week. It was great.

Then came Monday morning. My family had put off their normal Christmas dinner and festivities until we got up there, so we got up super early to hit the road at 5:30 am. It was good because we made really good time, but it was also the beginning of more sickness for me. Basically, I was sick/sleeping the whole way up, and while I thought it was just the car ride, the sickies didn't stop there. I was sick pretty much every day, but was able "woman up" as my mom says, to get through and had a really nice time relaxing with family. I pretty much laid around on the couch the whole time and we ended up leaving a day early. Que cera cera.

So given that little holiday recap, I have to say I feel a bit a whiney. I don't think I've been able to write one post since announcing the pregnancy that hasn't mentioned being sick and I really hate that. But at the same time, I have to be honest. I had completely underestimated the potential for feeling crappy while preggo.

At my old job, I worked with pregnant women all the time who occasionally had a bad day, but for the most part just carried on as usual. I'll just say that has not been me. This has really been a challenging time. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't work from home. There's absolutely no way I'd be able to go into an office everyday.

Yesterday was the start of my second trimester and I thought for sure I'd be over this by now. And while I have had some really good days, I would have never imagined that I'd kick my second trimester off hugging the toilet all day and have a pretty lame head cold on top of that, for which I can take no medicine.

I haven't been able to gain any weight, and the last time I stepped on the scale I was down another two pounds, which in normal circumstances would be great, but in my head, it just stresses me out and makes me worry that I'm doing something wrong. The last time I talked to my doctor about it, when I had been really sick, he told me it was very common and as long as I was able to stay hydrated, he wasn't worried. But now that I'm further along, I feel like I should be able to eat more and drink more water without fear of throwing it all back up.

Our next doctor's appoint is Wednesday and I'm sure everything will be fine, it's just so easy to get caught up the "what if's," especially if all you can do sometimes is lay on the couch while your brain is going a mile a minute.

I'm really trying to hold on to this verse that's the background of my phone:

"Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through the deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown."

Isaiah 43:1b-2

So even though this hasn't been the walk in the park I thought it would be, it's good to know that I have nothing to be afraid of and that I'm not alone. And maybe in a few weeks, I'll even be back to normal! We'll see! Maybe I'll even get around to prettying up enough to finally take some baby bump picks. But let's not get too ahead of ourselves...

A Message From the Blogger Impaired

Ello ello! This is the time I should say something like "Ohh I'm so sorry I haven't blogged in a long time" or talk about how ridiculously busy I am or give a whitty list of possible reasons why I haven't been able to blog including but not limited to: loss of fine motor skills, an unsuccessful encounter with a samurai which rendered me handless or slipping into a comatose state initiated by over-consumption of the typical holiday goodies starting with Halloween (a likely scenario).

Mais non. I will not bore you with such tacky antics. I have not blogged. That's that. Now I am blogging. Yay!

Let's start with Halloween. We went trick-or-treating with our nephew and brother and sister-in-law. It was fun and Hayden and his buddy Landon were the cutest kids on the block. Seriously.

Brendan tried but he couldn't really pull it off...

Ha.

And basically since Halloween to Thanksgiving we've been working like crazy people and time not spent at work has been a blur of football, chili, friends and cats breaking things.

Thanksgiving was a short trip up to Raleigh to spend some time with the fam. I have to say that I am so amazed by the men that my brothers are becoming. I feel like just yesterday they were smelly little dirty boys who asked awkward questions and couldn't pronounce their r's. Now we always seem to slip into conversations that leave me in awe of how smart and grown-up they are. I ♥ them.

Grandma sunk the bag on her first shot. And quit while she was ahead. She's a smart cookie.

And that brings us to now. We've completed approximately 87% of our Christmas shopping which I am very proud of/relieved about since it's not even December. We've also put up our Christmas tree (still needs to be decorated) and have decked out the outside of house with the help of our neighbors who coincidentally have the same affinity for putting Christmas lights everywhere as we do. I'll put up some pictures once it's done.

In other news, I made my first ever successful cheesecake (chocolate with chocolate ganache- yeah, yum). It wasn't burned and it wasn't gooey. It was a Christmas miracle. And it didn't even look too lumpy or misshapen as one might come to expect from me. I was going to photo-document this momentous occasion in my otherwise bleak baking repertoire, but our aforementioned neighbors and Brendan got to it before my camera did. It may or may not have been our dinner. Don't judge us.

Grandparents

"Grandparents are people with gray hair and golden hearts."

Today is grandparent's day and I am so thankful for the most wonderful grandparents in the world, who's presence in my life has been such a great blessing. I hope they know they are so loved.

I Told You I Would...

From what I've seen of the world, this is my favorite place so far. How lucky am I to live right down the street from my favorite place in the world?

Even more, how lucky am I that I got to take my favorite people in the world to my favorite place in the world?

Here are a few shots of my family's visit to Charleston.












Then end ♥ .