Hollin’s Nursery

I had Hollin’s room perfectly arranged before she was born. Perfectly arranged in my head, that is. In reality, I brought this baby girl home to an unfinished nursery! Very unlike me. I’m not sure why it wasn’t finished…I went in there everyday and ‘nested’, I guess. I would spend so much time in there folding clothes, hanging them in the closet, rearranging, but not actually fininshing the room. I had everything in the room, just not hung on the walls. We finally finished it before Matt’s parents left. They left on Saturday (29th) and we stayed up late on Friday night getting everything finished. I still need to get curtains, but for now it’s finished. The wall decal is from etsy and is really cute….but NOT easy! The letters were one of my craft projects. The view from the doorThe crib, rocker, night stand, & changing table are from Zane’s room. DeeDee got Hollin the lamp & recovered the lampshade. The mirror was in our house in Little Rock and hadn’t found a place in the house here, so we ‘bronzed’ and ‘antiqued’ it to match the room. I’m in love with the canvas that Dayle made! Matt found this rug on clearance at Target!Our beautiful Hollin Bell     

Zane meets Hollin

Is that not the sweetest face you’ve ever seen? Matt went home Sunday morning to tell Zane that his new little sister was here! They both headed to the airport to pick up his DeeDee and then came straight to the hospital so that he could meet Hollin. When he first walked in the room, he came straight to me and asked if had a boo-boo. I still had an IV in my hand, so he was a little concerned with that. I told him that it had medicine in it that was making me better and that baby Hollin was there to see him. He said, “Her not in you tum-tum no more? You tum-tum not big anymore?”He was very excited to hold her and gave her lots of kisses. He said, “She so tiii-ny.”Then, just as any good puppy dog would do, he gave her a nice lick on the nose.And he thought it was hilarious! Here’s a close-up.We asked him if it was ok to feed her pizza and he said, “No, her don’t have any teeth.” Is it ok if we bite Hollin? “No, she not so tasty.” Funny kid. Matt dressed him in his ‘Big Bro’ shirt and then he insisted on the hat and boots. And DeeDee made him a ‘Woody vest’ for Halloween and obviously he had to wear it immediately!

Here’s our first picture as a family of four.Her actual due date was November 5th and we had planned the delivery for October 28th. My mom had booked her flight for the 26th, and Matt’s mom & dad hadn’t booked their flights yet, but were planning to come the beginning of that week, too. So, obviously none of them were here waiting for her arrival when we headed to the hospital on the 15th! We were so lucky that they flew up here on the first flights available! DeeDee left Little Rock on a 6am flight and was here by noon!Nana Beth was at the hospital by 10 that night. They were so disappointed to miss the birth and so anxious to get their hands on this baby that you would’ve thought that they waited a year! They both met her before she was even a day old and she will never know the difference.Here are a few of the only pictures I’ve gotten with her eyes open. They were taken on Tuesday, our first afternoon home.   

Hollin Elizabeth Bell

 

October 16, 2011 @12:34am

6 pounds & 14 ounces, 20 inches

Sleeping babies

 

This little boy is obsessed with what time of day it is. Every night he asks, “It nighttime, mama?” First thing in the morning he says, “It not nighttime anymore. It mohn-in time.”  Sometimes, just before dark, he’ll say, “It not really, really nighttime.”

Last night Zane and I were in ‘mama’s bed’ watching cartoons. It’s kind of our nightly routine. He’ll tell me, “Ni Hao (or whatever is on) not over yet, mama. Ni Hao not over yet.” So when Ni Hao went off, I turned off the TV and we said our nighttime prayer. Then Zane said, “It nighttime, mama?” “Yep. It’s nighttime.” “Ok. I go get in Ane’s bed.”

WHAT?! He grabbed his blanket and off he went. I just stayed there, a little in shock. I looked at the monitor and sure enough, he had crawled into bed! I waited a minute, but I couldn’t stand it. On one hand, this is a dream come true. Just a month or so ago, bedtime was a kicking, screaming fit. So this is a definite improvement. But it made me SO sad! And there was no way I could just let him go to bed without being tucked in, so I went in to tell him goodnight. I told him that he was such a big boy to get in his big boy bed all by himself. He said, “You get in bed with me.” Um, ok. Today he came and told me, “Don’t wake Hah-yin (Hollin) up, Mama. She’s seeeepin.”  I said, “Ok, she’s sleeping in mama’s tummy.” “NO! She seepin ov-uh dare. Don’t wake her up!” This is what I saw:That’s a good sign of a great big brother, right?  

Bumpdate: 34, 35

 

                             34 weeks, 3 days                                    35 weeks, 3 days

My 35 week & 4 day ‘Top Ten List’:

10. It takes me about ten whole minutes to maneuver myself out of bed. First I have to wrestle with “Boppy”, my human-sized pillow that I sleep with to attempt at a comfortable position. After I untangle myself, I then try to roll over. It’s not so much a fluid rooolllll, as it is a ‘scootch, nudge, roll, toss, rinse & repeat.’  Throw legs over bed. Push up from side. And, finally, attempt to stand.

9.  Nine (hundred) times per day (at least) that Zane says one of the following: “Hold me, Mama. Ane’s feet don’t work. Ane can’t walk—he TIE-YUD. Ane can’t go up stairs—him a puppy dog. Mama puppy dog take me up stairs.” Adorably cute, annoyingly heavy.

8. I have eight items that need to be hung on the walls in the nursery.

7. Seven more shifts left at work before maternity leave!

6. I washed and packed six gowns/outfits for the hospital. All with matching hats or bows. Some with shoes. (On a side note, I’ve packed nothing for myself. Plan to do that in the next week or two.)

5. Five seems to be the magic number of times I get up to pee during the night. Five times getting up x 10 minute process = pretty much one complete hour of sleep lost just because of the smooshed bladder.

4. I have four pieces of clothing in my closet that fit. Hope it doesn’t get really cold between now and post-baby because ain’t nuttin’ gonna zip over this watermelon.

3. Three more doctor’s appointments before Hollin arrives!

2. TWO pieces of bedding that I am waiting to arrive in the mail. This is a whooole ‘nother story, but to sum it up….I ordered CUSTOM-made bedding. According to the pictures that I was shown AFTER the bedding shipped, the skirt was not made out of the material I requested. I emailed the lady (and attached my original email stating which fabrics go where) and she replied, “Oh, you’re right. Sorry I missed that.” ???? I was expecting, at the least, that she would refund part of the money or offer to make the skirt in the correct fabric. Anyway, I received the sheet, blanket, and pillow, but am still waiting on the bumper and skirt. We’ll see what I think of it when it’s all here and go from there. And I’ll post pics when the bedding is here and everything is hung on the walls.

1. One more weird pregnancy occurrence this morning. I say ‘one more’ because with Zane I had a few things happen to me that were weird. Well, actually they weren’t that weird, they just occurred in the wrong order. One of those was PUPPPs (puritic urticarial plaques and papules in pregnancy), which only occurs in about 1% of pregnancies, normally occurs in the third trimester, rarely happens in subsequent pregnancies, and may be associated with a reaction to male DNA. (Ha, I’m literally allergic to boys!) Instead of getting it in the third trimester, I got it about one week AFTER Zane was born.  But, no worries…it doesn’t happen in subsequent pregnancies and I’m not having a boy…..Right??? Well, this morning I woke up with this WEIRD, bright red, rashy looking thing on the right side of my belly. Normally, I wouldn’t expose this big ole belly on here, but I had to document:Beautiful, right? Also, I have no idea why my belly button looks so pointy. I had an appointment at 10 this morning and by the time I got there, the redness was almost gone and it never itched. So who knows what it was?? Everything else was normal. Her heart rate was 136, my blood pressure was 110/70, and my weight was still 110 pounds (hahaha yeah right!). Almost there!

being productive

 

So what have I been doing while my little boy is having the TIME OF HIS LIFE? Running errands (I’d forgotten how easy it is to run in stores by myself!), cleaning, load of laundry #6, got my flu shot (and you should, too if you plan on holding baby Hollin anytime soon!), working on the nursery, and learning a few crafts.

Did I just say ‘crafts’? Me? I’m the least crafty person I know, but decided to give it a try. Here’s some pictures of the picture frame I made:

I started with a $1 wooden frame from Michaels. Found some cute scrapbook paper and paint at Hob Lob.                     And then added her name!                           Next up…blocks!                         Her name for the wall:  

Finally, some frames for the family to put Disney pics in:This last picture was taken last week. It just documents the other really important stuff I’ve been doing. You know, like growing a human.

32 Weeks

 and 2 days.

Here’s the belly pic. She’s a growin’. Her ‘tiny little tap dancing’ on my hip bones now feels like she’s doing this yoga pose with her feet pushing my hip bones apart.But if her feet are pushing my hip bones apart….that would mean that her head was below the hips…Uh huh. That’s what it feels like. ‘Nuf said.

And when she finishes that pose, she moves on to this beauty:See that left foot in the air? It has no remorse for my right ribs…the same ribs that Zane had an affinity for. But at least they’re not numb yet.

Things that I miss: having more than one cup of coffee, sleeping through the night, taking a hot bath and having more than 50% of my body actually under the water, being able to bend over, wearing normal clothes, being able see/reach my legs to shave them. And this proves that you can find An.y.thing on the internet. The ‘Razor Reach’. Haven’t tried it, but I’m curious…. Things that are flat-out annoying: getting out of breath walking up the stairs (for that matter, sitting on the couch and feeling out of breath), getting up five times at night to pee, back pain, grunting every time I put on shoes or bend over to pick something up. And let’s face it, with a two & a-half year old, I’m constantly picking things up….including said two & a-half year old.

Things I’m craving: orange juice with lots of pulp and fruit punch gatorade. I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch almost every day. It’s not so much a craving as it is that nothing else sounds good.

Things I fear: going into labor with no family here (what the heck would we do with Zane?), another baby that never sleeps, jumping back on board the Crazy Train, Zane’s world getting turned upside down again. I feel like I’m constantly telling him how much I love him and trying to explain what’s about to happen. I tell him that he will still be my favorite little boy, even when he has to share mommy with his sister, even when I can’t spend all my time with him. But how much does he understand? He just looks at me and says, “O-tay. Luj you, too, mama. You my besssss fran.”

Things I’m happy/excited about: having a healthy, uneventful pregnancy, getting the bedding in and finishing the nursery, looking at a closet full of pink stuff, getting a pedicure (it doesn’t take a lot to make me happy), meeting our little girl, going home in November, seeing what a great big brother Zane will be.

Things that make me laugh: Zane asking if Hollin will build a snowman with him and him bringing me a heating pad and saying, “You back hurt, mama?” Sweet boy. :)