Emma’s Baby Book

This morning I was walking around Greenlake with a friend and we were discussing baby books. And lo and behold, look what was waiting on the doorstep when we arrived home: The Book of Emma 

Just like Ben’s Book, we ordered it through MyPublisher and went for the gigantic 11"x15” size.

There are a few changes since we ordered Ben’s three years ago, the first one being that the covers are thicker and have a bit of gloss.

You should know that I blurred some portions of the text, just to provide our wee gal with some birth info privacy. 

Like Ben’s book, this album is divided into several chapters.

Ready?

Here we go:



Chapter 1: Formal Monthly and Weekly Photographs

All those weekly picture sessions finally paid off! Never again will I be doing that project. :)

I know some people consider it a waste to only put one picture on a page, but the big photos are some of my favorites. Especially this one.

Chapter 2: The Baby Journal

The journal includes stats, birth details, notes, and milestones. There is also a section for future 'accomplishments' and height/weight entries. 

There is also: “The Price Of: ...a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk, the cost of your first house, etc”. Another fun section: What Famous Events Happened On Your Birthday, Which Famous People Share Your Birthday, etc.

Many of the questions we used in the baby journal can be found in this link. 

Here is a new page: photos of Chris and I as babies. I think Emma is a dead ringer for Baby Christopher, bottom right. Especially the hair! I wonder when Emma’s hair will go dark. 

The one of me with my mama (bottom middle) is a favorite of mine. 

Chapter 3: Informal photos

These are arranged chronologically and begin with her birth (very early January) and end with Christmas (December). Basically a “Year in Review” section.

Here is a prime example: The summer trip to Alaska

In addition to the bigger album format, I also sprung for lay-flat pages. Fancy, fancy. 

I love picking out pictures for album. Hopefully she’ll see the humor in these...

This one is mostly of Ben but I crack up every time. Because clearly this is the photo one should make when forced to do posed pictures with family members.

 If our little girl ever gets too big for her britches then I can always whip out the baby book to show her what the first year was really like:

Oh Ben, you’re so sweet. And I am such a horrible mother for choosing to photograph this rather than saving the poor wee babe from nasal tickling.

Chapter 4: Keepsakes

This section has been revamped. Ben’s book is a bit unwieldy because I pasted in all the cards and hospital keepsakes right into the album. With Emma’s version I decided to scan everything as photo files and incorporate them directly into the book. Much better.

Remember we did the Wishes For Emma project at her party? Here is how it turned out. I also scanned these, rather than pasting in the card stock.

Chapter 5: Birthday Book (Ages 1-18)

I went ahead and filled in her one year birthday party page but all the subsequent pages are blank.

Here is a good example. On the left, we have space for descriptions and photos of Emma’s 4th birthday (and year) and on the right is the annual questionnaire (What is your favorite animal, what do you want to be when you grow up, tell us a funny joke, etc). Some of the questions I used for Ben’s interview can be found here. I tweaked them a bit for Emma’s version.

There is also space to post pictures and announcements in the Time Capsule section.

Another new feature: a customizable back cover. Whoohoo.

Darling, 
You are loved, Emma. Fiercely, unconditionally, and without reserve. We are, and always will be, grateful to have you in our lives.
Love, Mama and Daddy

(I know, 'Mama and Daddy' sounds slightly off. But I don’t love ‘Mommy’ and Chris doesn’t adore ‘Papa’ so this is the compromise)

So, the nitty gritty:

Book: MyPublisher

Size: 11”x15"

Extras: lay flat pages, linen book cover, 100 pages

Cost: $236 face value. (I know, crazy expensive. But I used a coupon so the total cost after rebate was $104. Still not cheap, but hopefully she’ll keep this around for many, many years to come)

MyPublisher requires that you download the program from their website and it’s available for either Mac or PC. We used the Mac version and it was fairly decent. There were a few things in the program that I found somewhat limiting (background colors, resizing photos, spacing/aligning photos, moving pages around) but overall it was fine. Once you’re finished, you upload the entire thing to the website and fork over your $$. The ordering process was easy. 

xo, 

Sonja

Wishes for Emma - Baby Book Project

One of the things we did at Emma’s party was to ask guests to write a few words of welcome to our new baby girl. I created two blank templates and had them printed out on card stock at our local printer's. We taped them down to backer boards, added a pen, and voila! Ready for writing. I’ll tape or scan them into her baby book. 

I’ve been reading a few of the thoughtful words that have been written by our friends and my dears, I’m getting a little sniffly, even now. This little girl is so lucky to have wonderful, amazing people in her life. 

Here is the second sheet (slightly different):

I cheated a bit; nobody else had the luxury of sitting down at the computer to peruse the web and write out a rough draft. But I struggle with eloquent words and wishes when it comes to my children so my initial attempt would have mostly been: I love you, I love you, I love you. The end. I wanted something slightly more creative. 

Emma, 

May you have the wind in your hair and the sun on your face and know joy, kindness, and love all the days of your life. May you be blessed with empathy, confidence, and bold courage. This is your one, glorious life, my darling. Make it a grand adventure. We love you forever. 

xo, Mama

I contemplated using a direct quote, but ultimately went with the mishmash of hopes and wishes. Here were a few that I thought were sweet:

“Cherish your solitude. Take trains by yourself to places you have never been. Sleep out alone under the stars. Learn how to drive a stick shift. Go so far away that you stop being afraid of not coming back. Say no when you don’t want to do something. Say yes if your instincts are strong, even if everyone around you disagrees. Decide whether you want to be liked or admired. Decide if fitting in is more important than finding out what you’re doing here. Believe in kissing.” -Eve Ensler

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece, but to slide across the finish line broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, and shouting GERONIMO!!!”

Ok, that last one is definitely not appropriate but funny, yes? I’m definitely going for that version of life. In fact, I’m going to make it my personal motto. Mostly because I like shouting GERONIMO!!!

And a few others that I love, especially the Mark Twain one:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain

Promise me you’ll always remember: you’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” - A.A. Milne, Winne the Pooh

We may run, walk, stumble, drive, or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey, or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way. - Gloria Gaither

“I wandered everywhere, through cities and countries wide. And everywhere I went, the world was on my side.” -Roman Payne

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. 

-Emerson

GERONIMO!!

Sonja

Artwork adapted from here. Here are some other beautiful monograms. 

PS: nine wishes for my daughter. 

Keeping Up With My Formerly Energetic Self

The problem with taking thousands of pictures, writing letters on pertinent milestones, and making photo albums of your first born is that you are required to do it for your second born as well.

Chalk it up to a really excited first-time parent but I’ll admit that I was a little overzealous in documenting our son's early beginnings.

Here is what we did for Ben in his first year of life. And what we should do for Emma as well (although I’m finding just the thought of compiling it all to be a wee bit exhausting):

-Weekly Photos (plus holidays & big ‘firsts’)
-A letter to the child on the day they were born. Ben’s is three pages long. Emma’s will be...shorter.
-A small photo book of their first month of existence.
-Journal. This one is going to be the hardest to keep up. I’m already behind on chronicling her first few days.
-A baby book (presented on the first birthday), filled with all 52 weekly photos, candid snapshots, growth stats, Firsts (first smile, first food, etc), and the journal entries. More details can be found here.

Right. Time to get cracking.

I’m proud to say that so far, I haven’t fallen behind in the photo department. I’ll take these small wins wherever I can find them. Instead of posting one a week (like I did with Ben) and overwhelming you with pictures of my child, I’m going to post them in larger batches. Because, really, I’m the only one that going to pore over this post time and time again, right?!

And then of course, there are the non-official ones that are often much more interesting/funny/strange.

Like this one: “I Give up. The bathtub has me beaten”. 

On an unrelated note: Whoa chubby baby! Fat cheeks and belly, with stick arms and legs. Babies are so hilariously awkward.

xo,

Sonja

Bunny for Baby

I finished this little bunny just a day or so before Emma was born. 

I used the template from Molly’s Sketchbook over at the Purl Bee - it’s definitely a beginner-friendly project with easy sewing and a small supplies list.

Instead of the suggested (but expensive) felted wool, I went with a cream flannel. Still nice and cozy.

My biggest dilemma was which fabric to use for the ears. In the end, I loved the coral flannel but decided to be bold and go with the circles. - Always a tough decision for this plain jane grey/black/blue-clothes wearing gal.

Frankly, the rabbit is only a bit smaller than our little girl, although Emma’s got bunny beat in the buddha belly department. 

Ben has been coveting the bunny (and the rest of Emma’s toys); perhaps we should whip up another version for our little boy. Maybe we’ll have more luck with the stuffed animal than we did with the offer of a doll. 

xo,

Sonja

Twinsies

Well, I guess they’re related. Same smushed newborn nose (and nose crease), big ears, chubby cheeks, and crazy hair.

 Let’s hope they don’t look this similar in 20 years.

Emma’s Birth Story

6:00 pm
On Saturday evening Chris and I attended a function for his work at the newly-reopened Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) in South Lake Union. We figured it was our last night out on the town for a good long while. 

On the car ride down, Chris joked that it would be hilarious if my water broke during the event. Going into labor at a fancy cocktail party with 400 of his closest work associates? Yeah, no thanks.

We checked our coats, dug into the appetizers, talked with Chris' coworkers, and spent a few hours moseying through the museum's exhibits.  MOHAI has done a nice job of documenting Seattle’s early beginnings as a logging and fishing port, through the Depression, the war years, and into the fantastic city that it is today. But perhaps I’m a wee bit biased.

It was a nice evening but we were also glad to head home. My feet were aching (4” heels will do that to a pregnant gal) and my belly was feeling tight. We climbed into bed around 10:30pm. 

11:30pm
My water broke an hour later. Which was a bit of a surprise, given that I was fast asleep at the time. Woosh, liquid everywhere. 

We called the birthing center. “Are you having contractions? No? Ok. Stay put, and keep us posted on any progress."

They called us back 20 minutes later: “Actually, the first nurse was incorrect. Since you think your water broke, you’ve got to come in and we’ll verify that indeed it has ruptured. And then if labor still hasn’t started that you can go home again”. 

Gee thanks. Just what we wanted to do at midnight on a Saturday. We called my parents and asked them to come back to the house (they’d been our babysitters for the work party a few hours earlier) as we prepared to head in for monitoring. 

12:00 am
I was not enthused about this midnight foray. With Ben, my water had broken but it hadn’t started labor and 30 hours later I’d had to be induced. And here we were, exactly three years later, going down the same road. Frankly, I just wanted to go back to bed, get some sleep, and do the checkup in the morning. But it wasn’t to be. Rules are rules. 

But things took a turn when, at midnight, the contractions did commence. Quickly. They went from irregular and soft to stop-rock-and-breathe in the space of about 20 minutes. By the time my parents arrived, I wasn’t talking and the contractions were only a few minutes a part. Definitely time to head for the birth center. 

I take no responsibilities for those toes - those are clearly her father’s!

12:30 am
We’re going to skim over the car ride; it was long, it hurt, and I was exceptionally thankful that it wasn’t rush hour. At one point Chris got off the freeway and was winding his way up the hill. I distinctly remember saying: “Hey, the speed limit here is 30 mph, not 25. STEP ON IT”. 

I was also that lady that had a contraction in the parking lot AND the middle of the waiting room during the check-in process. 

The nurse walked us down the hall to the evaluation station but quickly diverted us to a room when it became apparent that I was in active labor. 

“What’s your birth plan?” she asked.

Long pause. breathe, breathe, breathe.  “The bath tub”. 

The poor woman, she must have figured we were in for a long night if that’s all I could come up with in response. [And how different from my first birth. I'd discussed our printed birth plan in meticulous detail with my midwife and all the nurses. I'd even asked them to sign the damn thing.]

1:00 am
Once in our room they paged the midwife on duty so we could see how far I’d dilated. Which was great, but as we soon learned, the midwife was still en route to the hospital. So the nurse did it. “8.5 cm! This baby is ooming!”

I won’t lie. Labor, even quick labor, is painful and exhausting. I was hurting. It didn’t help that they couldn’t insert the IV (small veins) and that I found the belly monitors to be extraordinarily uncomfortable. And I was ready to push. 

To which the nurse responded (God bless her, but it was the wrong thing to say): “You can’t push, the midwife isn’t here yet!!”

1:20 am
Tough titties, dear nurse, this baby is coming anyway. Hope you’re ready to catch her.

And then, magically, the midwife shot through the door and we were in business.

1:29 am
Baby Emma arrives. 



And that, my dears, is Emma’s birth story. All two hours of it. 

Somebody sure likes the heat lamp.

---

Things, at least for me, were a bit better this time. I didn’t lose copious quantities of blood and my perineum didn’t suffer quite so long a tear as it did during my labor with Ben. There is also something to be said for confidence the second time around, both for my brain and my body. I was more willing to move around to find a comfortable birthing position and to make my preferences known to the nurses. Right before I started pushing,  I whipped from the preferred on-the-back birthing position to my hands and knees, and bless them, the birthing staff didn't miss a beat. They totally rocked it. 

Update: We had one little bobble in that some (likely exhausted) nurse goofed on Em's original birth weight. They came back 4 hours later to find that she'd gained weight, which simply doesn't happen to newborns. It wasn't a big deal at the time but over the next week it became problematic as she had jaundice, and they need to closely track weight gain. We'll also never know her true birth weight but it's probably in the ballpark of 8 lbs, 5 oz. 

Since delivery was quick and we were doing well, we busily began to petition the staff to let us go home 8 hours later. Those hospital beds (or Chris’ fold-a-bed) aren't too comfortable and we were loathe to spend another night camped out in our loud little room. Plus we had a toddler that was dying to meet his baby sister. 

It took all day to make good our escape but in the end we were so grateful to head out with our little girl in tow. 

There truly is no place like home. 

Our welcoming committee:

--


Predictably, little Emma is not sleeping like a champ, but that is the way of new babes, right? I didn’t miss the crazy patchwork of interrupted nights with a newborn Ben. Knowing that they’re likely to occur for a long while is also a tough pill to swallow. I am a girl that likes her sleep. 

But our wee little gal is doing well, although she might have a touch of jaundice that we’re currently monitoring. She’s almost gained back all of her birth weight and is learning to let us know in no uncertain terms when it’s time for a long nurse. This is a family of good eaters. 

She’s slowly opening her eyes and looking around at this strange new world. Ben is most likely the object to be within her immediate view as he just can’t get enough of this new little person. He’s dishing out wet kisses and examining every wee little finger. She’s going to have to be a tough cookie to withstand his constant attentions. Welcome to the family, little one!


And that is the story of little Emma’s arrival and first few days.

Thanks for reading, my dears. 

xo, 

Sonja


PS: Ben’s Birth Story