Introducing Eilly!

Our sweet baby finally decided to make her appearance a week and a half ago. She was exactly one week overdue, and I was beginning to feel like I was going to be pregnant forever! Then, I woke up at 6am on Saturday morning feeling very uncomfortable. I had this yucky ache in my lower back. I had Garrett rub my back for a minute, then I'd feel better, and then a couple minutes later it would start all over again. Think I was in labor? Garrett didn't. He went back to sleep. I hung out on the couch, watching TV, not at all freaked that my contractions were only three minutes apart.

At seven, my mom came down and she was a little more concerned than I was. She woke Garrett up, let him know I was in labor, and said I should get ready to go to the hospital. I decided to take a nice long shower, do my hair and basically drag my feet as much as possible because I wasn't very excited about going to the hospital.

We finally got to the hospital around 10:30am. I was feeling pretty relaxed even though my contractions felt much stronger because I was listening to my hypnobabies cds. The nurse said I was only a 3 or a 4, but they wouldn't send me home because I was a week overdue.

After that, everything went pretty quickly. I spent some time on the birthing ball, and some time in the tub. Then my fabulous, amazing midwife showed up and pulled me out of the tub to see how I was doing. I was a 7, and about 15 minutes later, I was a 10. My mom, sister and Garrett were all great supports, literally (they were each hanging on to a limb) and figuratively.



The kidlet was finally born at about 3:15pm. Garrett got to catch the baby, and we had all decided beforehand that Garrett was the only one who was allowed to announce the sex. After he handed the baby up to me, he was so choked up, he barely managed to whisper "It's a girl!" It was very sweet. After looking at her cute little face, we decided to name her Eilly Lorraine. Eilly (pronounced "eye-lee") is a cute Irish name that Garrett picked out. And we named her Lorraine after my mom.



We've had a pretty exhausting, pretty great week and a half at home with little Eilly. Sadly, we've had to miss out on Thanksgiving dinner this year, as I am home sick with a terrific case of mastitis. I hope I recover quickly because Garrett will be going back to work on Monday. He's been such a great dad! Honestly, I have not yet changed a single diaper, and now that I've been ordered to stay in bed, he's been great at taking care of everything. Even though we had to miss Thanksgiving dinner, I'm really grateful that I at least got to spend it with the two people I am most thankful for.

So busy!

As we get closer and closer to D-day (Delivery Day!), I can't help but think that I should be getting less busy instead of busier. I started an internship this month which I plan to work at right up until D-day. Every day when I come home, my feet look like hobbit feet. Not hairy, but puffy and fat. I prop them up and hope that they'll have time to return to normal before I have to put my shoes on the next day. And I thank my lucky stars that my mom magically makes dinner appear each night because she knows I am just too darn exhausted and uncomfortable to cook. After dinner, I listen to my Hypnobabies CD to get ready for D-day, and then fall fast asleep. Garrett usually manages to wake me up for a few minutes when he gets home, so I at least get to see him. Then I fall back asleep and get to start a whole new day.

But, as exhausted as I am, I really love having such a great internship that keeps my mind focused on helping others rather than dwelling on how uncomfortable I may feel. I keep begging the baby to stay in there as long as possible so I can spend more time working. That may sound a little crazy, but I really do love the work that I do. And I feel very grateful to have a family that is so supportive of me.

Sharing this experience with my family has really been the main thing that has kept this last trimester fun. I love that when I tell Lanna that she has to slow down to a "pregnant lady waddle," she holds my hand and waddles with me. I loved having my aunt, who has no children of her own, feel the baby move and think that was the most awesome experience. I even recorded my grandma singing and reciting a poem for the baby to listen to in utero. As I waddle my way down the home stretch and try to enjoy the journey, I feel so comforted knowing that this baby will be well-loved.

Cloth Diaper Giveaway

And here is a totally awesome cloth diaper giveaway from Diaper Junction.

Free Vitamins!

For all of you ladies who, like me, spend money on multivitamins (or feel like you should, but never get around to it), you should read my cousin's great post on how to get a 90 day supply of multivitamins for free from the Utah Dept. of Health.

The Baby's Dresser!

Early in my pregnancy, my sister sent me a link to one of her friend's blogs who had refinished an old dresser for her nursery. I was inspired and spent months scouring ads on ksl for the perfect baby dresser. After months of searching, I was worried that we wouldn't be able to find one that was just right and in our price range (cheap!), but we did! We picked up this beauty for $30.


And we (with the amazing help of my awesome family!) transformed it into the most beautiful, most perfect baby dresser ever!

It turned out so great, it is really making me wish we had a nursery to put it in. Until we do have a nursery, it and the baby will be in our room, and I can gaze lovingly at it whenever I want.

On Nesting...

I am generally not a huge planner, and I don't tend to worry too much about future events, particularly those that I can't control. But holy moly, pregnancy hormones are kicking in! Every now and then, I find myself feeling really stressed about having things ready for the baby. It's ridiculous because I still have plenty of time left, but I am starting to feel this drive to get things done. Garrett and I have been going full steam ahead on our baby dresser refinishing project (halfway done!), and we even set up the Pack n' Play bassinet in our bedroom. Garrett's been great at humoring me because really, who needs a bassinet set up at 27 weeks? Me, apparently, and fortunately Garrett's willing to do it for me just so I can rest a little easier at night. Sometimes I think I'm going a little crazy... and sometimes Garrett agrees.

P.S. Speaking of Pack n' Plays, Garrett really hates the phrase "Pack n' Play." Don't ask me why because I totally don't get it. Anyway, the entire time we were setting it up and even now, he's decided that our new word for the Pack n' Play is Marv. Yes, Marv is all set up in our bedroom. Sometimes I think Garrett's a little crazy too.

Great deals on baby stuff

So, now that the bar exam is over, I've been doing a lot of sleeping, cleaning, job searching and baby stuff. Because the baby stuff is by far the most fun, I wanted to tell you all about a couple of my very favorite baby deals websites.

The first is Babysteals.com. This website posts one deal a day (like woot) on really cute baby stuff. I've bought things from them in the past for baby shower gifts, and now that I'm expecting my own baby soon, it's been very difficult waiting until after baby showers to buy some of these cute things. If you miss a day and they haven't sold out, you can always buy past steals on their archive page. And for those of you with older kids or who love scrapbooking, they also have Kidsteals.com and Scrapbooksteals.com. The really dangerous thing about these great websites is that their warehouse is in Salt Lake, so you can choose local pick-up and not have to pay any shipping! My favorite steal that they've had so far are my diapers. As many of you know, Garrett and I will be using gDiapers to cloth diaper our baby. While I certainly don't have all the diapers I'll be needing, I was able to snag some at a great price thanks to Babysteals!


My other favorite website is Mamabargains.com. Much like Babysteals, Mamabargains has one deal listed on their page at a time, but unlike Babysteals, as soon as that deal sells out, they put up a new deal (like a woot-off all the time!). The age ranges for the deals on this page vary quite a bit, so you can find both kid and baby stuff as well as the occasional maternity/nursing stuff. Lanna is the proud owner of a fabulous pair of red hightops we bought from this website. She loves them so much, she wears them every day. And my very favorite deal from Mamabargains is the one really big baby purchase we've made, a stroller! We bought a beautiful Easywalker QTRO stroller, complete with the carry cot, from Mamabargains for $325. That's half off the retail price of $650. And because Mamabargains also has their warehouse located in Salt Lake, we didn't have to pay for shipping. This stroller is super nice, has all the features I could ever want and looks really cozy. So cozy that we have to keep kicking the cat out of the carry cot.And finally, I also wanted to mention Greenbabybargains.com. Like Babysteals, they have one deal a day, but unlike Babysteals, their featured items are always environmentally friendly. I haven't yet bought anything from them, but they have also had some really cute stuff. Unfortunately, they don't have a warehouse in Salt Lake, so no local pick-up. :(

With such fun bargain sites, it really is a wonder I don't have all the baby stuff anyone could ever need, but I keep telling myself I have to wait until after baby showers. Hopefully the weeks go by fast because baby things are just so darn cute! It makes me really glad that we chose not to find out the sex of the baby because then I'm not tempted by all the gender specific stuff.