Lily, Take Two

I'd like to give her a little more time before making any rash judgments, but I'm afraid that our sweet Gemma is becoming less sweet by the day. Her usual calm and easy demeanor has been eroding a little more every day, and worst of all her sleeping is beginning to suffer (translation: my sleeping is beginning to suffer). Unless she's nursing, she'll only fall asleep in her swing with the nature sounds turned up full blast (she's partial to the babbling brook), but within minutes of laying her down in her crib, she wakes up and it's game over. Last night I tried putting her down four or five times with no success--she was just mad. Adam and I commented on how she was reminding us more and more of someone else in our house (i.e. Lily), when the thought came to me that we might try what we did with her as a baby (see below).

Lily

Gemma

I had hoped to avoid this, especially because she has been such a good sleeper for the last month, but guess what? She slept for 8 hours straight! I woke her up this morning to feed her, then put her back down, and she slept for 3 more hours!

Here is Adam with Gemma during last night's failed attempts at sleep.

And as a footnote, here is my sweet, not-so-little Lily before church on Sunday. She looks so big!

Photo Shoot Fail!

Excluding the fact that we only have a basic digital camera (on loan from my parents, at that), it's fairly obvious why I don't attempt this more often, and why we leave this sort of stuff to the professionals. I don't know which kid was more difficult to work with (not really--it was Lily). Here is a succession of photos of Lily and Gemma's first photo shoot.

Session #1

Session #2

Session #3

The End

Gemma Eleanor Denison

Well, I figured this was as good a reason as any to start blogging again (or at least to update my blog seeing as it's been over a year). Gemma is the newest addition to our family. She was born on Friday, the 27th of August, and we are enjoying every moment we've had with her. She weighed in at 8 lbs 11 oz, and is 22” long. She has been a very mellow baby so far. She sleeps pretty much all the time, and hasn't fussed too much (hopefully that doesn't jinx us). We keep waiting for the fussiness to begin, because that's all we knew with Lily, but it's been a week, and she's still pretty good. Adam's parents and sister drove up from Virginia to stay with us and help out during the time Gemma was supposed to be born, but she was very obstinate, and rather than coming early, like Lily did, she was nearly a week late. I was scheduled to be induced Monday morning, a week and a day after my due date. That happened to be the same day his family had to drive back home, so we were all disappointed about that. The hospital I was delivering at won't induce you until you are more than a week past your due date, unless there is some medical reason why it should be done prior to that. Thankfully at my appointment on Friday, after explaining the situation to my fabulous doctor, she kind of made up a reason for the hospital to admit me that day to be induced. Once at the hosptial, we waited around for several hours before they broke my water and started the pitocin, but once that happened, it was only 3 hours until Gemma was born. I was already dilated to a 4 when we got there, so everyone kept telling me it would go rather quickly. The real drama revolved around getting an epidural (which was never not an option in my mind). When I had my glucose test done back in May, my doctor noticed my blood platlets were kind of low, so she had me come back to have my blood redrawn --same results. I had it drawn again the week before she was born, and it was still the same. All I had ever been told is that low blood platlets could affect how well my blood would clot. It wasn't until my doctor was writing the induction orders for me to take to the hospital that she said, "Your platlet count should be high enough for you to still get an epidural." Wait a second. What was that? No one had ever told me that low platlets possibly translated into no epidural! I played it off like it wasn’t a big deal but was secretly screaming inside my head. I was not at all prepared for that. At the hospital they told me I was right on the border of whether they could give me one. They drew my blood yet again (that’s, like, ten times now, right?), and it was still the same, but because my count wasn't going down, they said they would do it. Such a relief—that is until my nurse came back and said that actually, the anesthesiologist would be the one to make that call. Someone sure was having fun screwing with my head. So once again it was the waiting game. Of course, at this point, my contractions were pretty strong so I was a bit of a basket case at the thought of how much worse they were going to get before it was all over. The nurse anesthetist came in to get information from me, and finally the anesthesiologist arrived and started prepping me for it, so at that point I figured it was a go. A few minutes later, life was wonderful once again, and it was probably about an hour and a half or so until she was born. This week at home has been great. Adam had the week off, which has been wonderful, and Lily has been a big help too. We got Netflix to keep me awake and entertained during Gemma’s nighttime feedings, and Adam thinks it’s the best thing ever since discovering that he can stream episodes of Man vs. Wild and Dirty Jobs. We’re getting used to the new dynamic in our house and are really enjoying being a family of four now.

The last (and pretty much only) pregnancy shot

Not Gemma's most flattering picture

Our first family photo

Gemma's first outfit ("Little Sister")

Going home!

All swaddled and ready for bed

Adam and his girls

Lily loves being a big sister

Do-It-Yourself Cupcake Stand

Ever since I went to California in June and experienced the bliss of a Sprinkles cupcake, I've been wanting to bake some of my own. Naturally, I will also need a cupcake stand to showcase them. I didn't really like any of the ones I saw online and didn't want to fork over $20 or more, so lucky for me I found some websites that showed how to make your own for a lot cheaper. My favorite was this site that used painted terra cotta pots and platters: http://www.oncewed.com/7598/diy/diy-wedding-cupcake-stand/. Here's how mine turned out.

Under Construction

So I thought I would tinker around with my blog layout since I haven't changed it since....well, ever. I don't have a clue what I'm doing, so it might be a while before I figure out what I want the finished project to look like, especially since we're leaving on vacation tomorrow. So if it looks kind of mismatched and bizarre when you check it, just keep that in mind. The only thing I've figured out so far is how to change the background. Currently I'm trying to find cool blog fonts, since Blogger has such a limited and boring selection. If you have any tips, feel free to advise me.

Okay, so I've been meaning to do this blog post for a while, but we all know how dedicated I am to blogging, so I'll say no more on it. This year Adam gave me a book called Stoneflower for my birthday--I already have two other books by this author, and I may have hinted to him that I wanted this one as well. With shame I confess that this book falls under the LDS romance novel genre and probably will not fundamentally enrich your life, but it's a quick and enjoyable read. I was introduced to the author's first book, Summergreen, by one of my friends back in high school, and absolutely loved it. Later I discovered it's sequel, Valley of Fire, which I enjoyed equally as well. It wasn't long after that that I noticed this third book at the library. As excited as I was to read another of the author's books, I just couldn't bring myself to check it out for the sole reason that the cover was so craptastically cheesy! I was embarrassed just looking at it and would rather deny myself the pleasure of reading it than be associated with such a book. Years later, when I was in college, I discovered it again, and decided to just read it (though I'm sure I handed it to the librarian face down at checkout). It was summer and I often took a book out to the pool, but there was no way I was being seen in public with it, so I took what I thought was a precautionary measure by taping a piece of paper over the offensive cover. Thankfully, I had a very good and concerned roommate, who stopped me before leaving the apartment and informed me that it looked like I was taking something much more objectionable than a romance novel to the pool. I think she suggested that I also drink my soda out of a brown bag, if I persisted, to complete the effect. We had a good laugh, and still joke about it. Adam, who had heard this story, didn't believe the cover could be as bad as that, but sure enough, as soon as the book arrived, he was converted to my way of thinking. I thought I'd list just a few of my favorite elements: 1) the popped collar and rolled-up sleeves 2) the feathered hair (that goes for both of them), 3) the severe 80's make-up, 4) the giant sweatshirt (or whatever the heck that is she's wearing), 5) the Tom Selleck mustache, 6) the hand placement on his manly chest--this is all aside from their expressions as they gaze longingly into one another's eyes (I think I just threw up a little in my mouth). Adam also suggested I give you a flavor of the book by including a couple of lines:

(Let me know if there's something about this description that doesn't quite add up)

If her jewelry and the classy apple green jumpsuit were any indication, she was loaded.

(Classy....jumpsuit???)

(And now for my personal favorite)

Dazed, the coarse caress of a moustached mouth lingering on my lips (barf and a half!!), I pushed up on my elbows.

(No further comment needed)

So ya, let me know if you want to borrow it.

Adam's New Haircut

'nough said.