Christmas is coming... and so is Baby

Well... it's been about 17 months since my last blog post. Clearly, I am no blogger. But my little family is growing, and stuff is happening, and it's probably time for a small flurry of blog activity... which will probably be followed by a long period of blog silence. This is the pattern that's been established; why change now?

And now, for the updates...

BABY NEWS
Baby number 2 is due on Christmas day. We are hoping for a slightly earlier arrival, so that Christmas can be spent with family and snuggling a new little one. That sounds much better to me than Christmas at the hospital. In labor. I'm just sayin'...

ROSEMARY NEWS
Rosemary is growing and changing every day, and I can hardly believe she is almost 20 months old already. She is very chatty and loves to color (scribble with crayons) and write notes and lists (scribble with pens or pencils). One of her most frequent phrases lately has been "Go play downstairs?" Which means, "Mommy, why are you making me hang out upstairs while you cook/clean/whatever - all my toys are downstairs and we need to go down there so we can play!" Another common phrase to be randomly uttered: "Stupid squirrels. Make grandma mad." Ha! I love it! But what I love the most is her singing. She is starting to catch the lyrics of a lot of the songs we sing to her, and she sings them to herself or sings along with us on occasion. "You are my sunshine" and "Eidelweiss" (sp?) are big hits, but she also enjoys "Bang bang, he shot me down..." thanks to repeated watchings of her favorite dance number on her favorite show: So You Think You Can Dance.

OUR LIFE RIGHT NOW
We are settling in to our new house, having taken possession at the beginning of September and having finally moved our stuff and ourselves at the end of October. We still have a lot of boxes to unpack, but it is definitely feeling like home. Our new home has a split entry, and Rosemary loves the stairs. I, on the other hand, am quietly (OK, not so quietly) cursing the fact that we moved into a house with stairs to climb just in time for my third trimester. Nothing like getting winded after a short flight of stairs to make you feel completely ridiculous.

B is for Baby. C is for cute.

Look at the cute baby!

Three Months Old

Rosemary is three months old today! She celebrated by insisting on an unprecedented FIVE outfit changes over the course of the day.

She also spent a little time in her crib getting to know her friends. She was smiling at her bear, so I moved him closer....



The two of them had such a good time, especially when I helped the bear move a little, so I thought she might like to hang out with her giraffe. He plays a tune and slowly moves his head when you wind him up.

Her reaction to the giraffe was decisive and immediate.


This giraffe is not Rosemary's BFF.


Our growing girl was 10 lbs 4 oz at her surgery consult on the 14th, so she is getting pretty big :)

Her hernia does not seem to bother her, which is especially good since they don't seem to be in any kind of hurry to get her surgery scheduled. At the consult, they basically said, "Yep, it's a hernia. We'll call you to schedule the surgery." To date, no phone calls have been received from their office.

What else is our three-month-old up to? She smiles pretty frequently and makes adorable little noises when she's happy... She swats at anything we dangle within reach, and occasionally even makes contact... She generally doesn't cry through baths or diaper changes any more... And to answer the most frequently asked question: No. She most definitely is not sleeping through the night!

Nursery Progress

As promised, here are some pictures of the progress on the nursery thus far.

We don't have a "before" picture of the room piled high with stuff, or a "before" picture of the room with its corner cleared out and cleaned up for baby... Our "before" starts with the raw room, with only a few items of furniture remaining in the middle (draped with a black sheet - that is the dark blob in the middle of the room). As you can see, the room started out with floral wallpaper, gray carpet, and dark wood molding.

First order of business: remove wallpaper. (Second order of business should have been a nap for mommy - sleep deprivation does not help you look pretty. Yikes!)

Next, spackle the walls, remove the molding, and sand the remaining woodwork.

And now, for the painting... the walls are no longer covered in wallpaper flowers, but are a pretty shade of yellow called "Shortbread."

We've had lots of help from my parents... here's Rosemary's grandma helping with the painting and also a bit of comic relief :) ...

... and here's Rosemary's grandpa pulling up carpet...

It's a good thing we have all that help, because most of my "helping" involves taking care of the baby. Speaking of Rosemary, here she is in her favorite position...

And then there's Henrietta. She is not so sure about all this ruckus, and she does not seem to particularly appreciate the carpet removal. As we were removing the padding, she kept moving to sit on a new section of padding until nothing remained but the wood floor... She also took a few time-outs to gaze out the window and occasionally glare at us in disgust.

That's all for now... we will be painting trim this weekend, but not installing it. My dad decided that the best way to make sure that Rosemary's room doesn't look like it was put together by a bunch of amateurs would be to hire a professional. :) So Alvin (family friend and professional house fixer-upper) will be here Monday morning to install trim.

I think that's all that remains before we start putting her room back together... yay!

The Many Faces of Rosemary

Rosemary has been watching toys for a while now... she doesn't really play with them yet, but she'll stare at the mobile on her swing for 20 minutes at a time, and her face goes through all kinds of different expressions as she watches. Lately, she has also started making happy noises while she watches her mobile go around. I'm convinced that she is talking to her friends as they circle her head. It is incredibly cute.

We spent the last four days at my parents' house while our hardwood floors were being refinished, and during that time Rosemary got to know the new toy at Grandma's house. This morning, her Grandma took (literally) 100 pictures of her as she watched the frog (on her left) and beach ball (on her right). Unfortunately, you don't get to hear how cute she is, but at least you can see it. I managed to narrow it down to just 11 pictures (I know! It's still a lot... but she's just so gosh darn cute!!)... and now, I present to you... the many faces of Rosemary:



















Uh oh... looks like play time is over...


Grandma! Stop taking my picture and get me out of here!

Fixing up the nursery

I was still in the process of sorting through the boxes stacked in Rosemary's room when our girl surprised us with her early arrival... And my mom saved the day by moving most of the boxes to my parents' garage, disassembling the bunk bed, and setting up a corner of the room to be ready for baby, all while we were still in the hospital. When we came home, we found a nicely cleared space with baby's armoire, a borrowed changing table (thank you, Silvas!) and a new garbage can and diaper pail. Everything was ready for being able to change diapers and dress the baby, and keep most of baby's stuff organized. This is how the nursery has remained until a few weeks ago, when I decided it was time to get her room "finished."

Since then, our house has been in a state of upheaval... We moved almost everything out of her room and into the living room, with the exception of a few pieces of furniture, so we could remove the old wallpaper and then paint. Our plan was to remove the carpeting in chunks so that we wouldn't have to move the remaining furniture out of the room... This plan didn't stick, as we didn't count on my parents (our landlords) insisting that the hardwood floor get refinished. It was a bit of extra work, but we got the rest of the furniture out of the nursery, and stashed it in the living room with the rest of the stuff - by this time, the living room was quite full. Removing the carpet was not too tough; it only took an hour or so. When the flooring guy came to look at the space and give us a bid, he recommended that we also do the hallway and living room because it would be more cost effective.

So now here we are, three weeks into the project, and spending our second day at my parents' house while half the floors in our house are being refinished. Todd is being a real trooper, especially because I know this is a lot more than he bargained for when he agreed to this whole project! It's been pretty fun for Rosemary and I, getting to hang out with her grandma and her cousin Emma for two days, but it will be nice when we can be back in our own house. And even though Pokey and Henrietta Pussycat seem to be acclimating to our temporary lodgings, I'm sure they'll be happy to return to familiar surroundings as well.

I'll post some pictures of our progress later - I can't get to our pictures until we are allowed back in our house!

Baby needs surgery

How to stress out new parents:

1. Tell them their 7-week-old baby needs surgery. (What? Yikes!)

2. Let them sweat it out for a week trying to schedule a consultation visit with an unresponsive surgeon's office.

3. Get their appointment scheduled for the soonest possible time (with a big push from the pediatrician), and tell them it will be in THREE WEEKS.

4. Give them a list of things to watch for in the meantime that would necessitate an immediate trip to the Emergency Room.

Trust me, this works.

I had noticed some strange swelling just below Rosemary's abdomen a few weeks ago, and was not sure what to think about it, but kept an eye on it at each diaper change. Sometimes it was there, sometimes not...and sometimes it was two swollen lumps, sometimes just one. Last Sunday, she had two very swollen lumps, and I asked Todd and mom to look and see what they thought. The three of us agreed that it would be best to take her to the pediatrician ASAP. We took her in on Monday and found out that Rosemary has a hernia, probably a double hernia, and the solution for that is surgery. (Surgery?? This is not something I had expected to hear!! Yikes!)

I called the surgeon's office on Tuesday morning to schedule a consult (per the pediatrician's instructions), and was told they were working on the schedules and would have to call me back. I hadn't heard anything by Wednesday, so called back and asked when I should expect to hear from them. Their response? "By the end of the week." (umm... Ok... What? Are you kidding me?) So Friday rolled around, and Todd had taken the day off work and we were heading out to run errands, so I called the surgeon's office to give them my cell number... At which time they told me they'd probably call me by the middle of the next week. What?? By this time I am quietly freaking out. Our girl needs surgery, and I can't even get them to call me back to schedule an appointment for the consultation!!! Aaaaaaargh.

On Monday, the bulge looked and felt esprcially bad, so I called the pediatrician's office and they asked me to bring her on in. By the time we got there, Rosemary looked normal as can be... So no real cause for alarm, but the doctor was surprised to hear of our scheduling difficulties and asked her assistant to make some phone calls. Apparently, we were on page four of a list of people to schedule. Thanks to the pediatrician's intervention, we were moved to page one and are scheduled for a consult on June 14. This still seems like a long time to wait - I hate to think how long we would have had to wait if we'd stayed on page four!

So for now we wait. And keep an eye out for the indications that she needs to go to the Emergency Room (if the bulge looks red or purple, or feels hot to the touch, or if Rosemary has a fever). We don't think it's causing her pain right now, but it's kind of hard to tell since she can't really tell us what hurts or why she's crying. The good news is that she doesn't cry ALL the time, so even if it is painful once in a while, it is not a constant pain.

Birth Announcements Coming Soon

Well, it took me forever, but I finally put together a birth announcement. That's right - the baby is here! She's been here for over a month, so it's probably time to get some birth announcements out the door, and maybe update the blog while I'm at it. Procrastination at its finest. That's how the Macy slackers roll, although now at least we have a semi-legitimate excuse... we have a newborn!

In case you missed the Facebook postings, Rosemary Lea Macy joined our family on March 27 at 11:59 a.m. She weighed in at 6 lbs, 11 oz, and was 18.5 inches long. She has now gained over a pound and is a very healthy little one month old. We will post more information (such as the story of Rosemary's entrance into the world)... but I won't say that we'll post it soon. I can't make those kind of promises. Let's just say this: Eventually, more details of Rosemary's little life will make it into blog-land.

A little advertising for Shutterfly means I get $10 off my next order... hey - what do you want from me? I was thrifty already, and now I am a mommy and we have college to save for! So, here it is. An ad on our blog.

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Time to Get Serious... There's a baby coming!

We're at T-minus 12 weeks, give or take, and are sort of kind of starting to seriously think about getting started on the nursery. We did buy a crib mattress a week or two ago, and I ordered the crib today (in white, if you're curious). It should be here in 6-10 weeks. So... I guess that's progress! There's no actual "room" to put these items in, however, and that is the daunting project that faces us. Well, not so much US, more like ME. The future nursery is filled (to the ceiling, it seems) with boxes of my stuff that needed to move out of the way to make room for Todd. I determined that this room would be tackled after the Christmas stuff was put away... and, shockingly, there are still Christmas decorations adorning our home. (What's that? You're not shocked? Rude. Justified, of course, but still rude.) So, I suppose step 1 is to get Christmas put away... and I'd better get moving, since my belly isn't getting any smaller and April isn't getting any farther away.

Going to Class

It has been a mostly uneventful pregnancy so far (hooray!)... and now it really feels like we're heading into the "home stretch." April 16 has felt so far away, and now it seems so close!

I've read all the pregnancy books I care to read (and more), several books on caring for newborns, and have finally decided that the time has come for seeking out a parenting book or two... which, as it turns out, is much more difficult for me than finding the other types of books. With pregnancy and newborn care, I have a pretty firm idea about what will fit my style and can easily discard books that don't seem like a good fit (I know that I want a natural birth, I know that I want to breastfeed & use cloth diapers, and in general I want to keep things as simple and "natural" and inexpensive as possible).

With parenting books, it's not so easy. What is my parenting philosophy? I don't really know. What about Todd's parenting philosophy? Hard to say. What are the big issues that could easily let me know that a book is wrong for us? I don't really know. I don't want to read a book that will put a bunch of ideas in my head that are contrary to "my style," or will steer me down a path of weirdness... but how will I know those books when I see them? I DON'T KNOW!! It's overwhelming. So for now I shall procrastinate... (SOP for indecisive Karisa!) there are plenty of things to keep us busy, anyhow.

Speaking of keeping busy, our childbirth classes start tonight. One of the many pregnancy-related books I read early on was Husband-Coached Childbirth, and I was not too far into the book before I realized that THIS is the birth experience I am hoping for... so I read the book cover to cover, Todd is currently reading the book, and we will be taking 8 weeks of classes on The Bradley Method of natural childbirth. I'm pretty excited to get started. :) I don't think "excited" would describe Todd's thoughts, but I'm glad that he (without any begging from me) agreed to go. I kind of took that for granted at first, but after a great deal of internet research on natural childbirth I was surprised to see how many women had husbands who refused to go to a class or read a book. I already knew Todd was awesome, but this is certainly further evidence of his awesomeness!

10 Weeks

There really is a baby in there! And its heart is beating! And it has arms and legs and a head! Yay! Go, baby, go!

Baby wants...

We went to the Oregon State Fair a couple of weeks ago with Brad and Ann. Of course, while we were there, baby wanted... funnel cake!




As you can see, baby gets what baby wants :)

So far Karisa hasn't been too sick, mostly a general icky feeling. Certainly not as bad as many of the stories we have heard. Hopefully this is as bad as it will get.

Knocked Up

Well, we have not been very good little bloggers. Our poor little blog has been completely neglected, because, well, we've been busy. Doing stuff. Like riding motorcycles (Todd). And gardening (Karisa). And sometimes we do stuff together, too... like cooking dinner.

In a completely unrelated story, we'd like to share with the world our very happy news... there's a baby on the way! The stork should be dropping by mid-April sometime to pay us a visit and bring us a bundle of joy.


So, maybe we'll post some updates along the way, or maybe our next post will be a picture of Baby Macy. You never can tell with the slackers who write this blog.

Wedding Photos

It took a while (what do you expect from a couple of procrastinators?), but we finally posted our wedding pictures for all to see. :)
Yay!

www.flickr.com/photos/toddpluskarisa/collections

The Honeymoon

What's the one question everyone ask when you're getting married? Of course it's, "Where are you going on your honeymoon?"

Karisa alluded to our plans in the post she made after we watched Titanic. I've always thought it would be fun to go on a cruise, so what better time than now? It seems most cruises (at least the ones I looked at) depart on a Saturday. Since we're getting married on a Saturday, we would have a week between the wedding and the cruise. What to do during that week? Go back to work? No way!

While there are cruises that leave from New York or Miami, we didn't want to deal with flying. I picked a cruise originating in Los Angeles, so we can take the train down. What magical place, that Karisa loves, happens to be located in L.A.? If you said Disneyland, get yourself a cookie!

The train ride is about 30 hours, so we got a Superliner Roomette. It's the only way to go if you're on the train overnight. We spend three days in Disneyland, and then a week-long cruise to the Mexican Riviera with stops in Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlán, and Puerto Vallarta before returning to L.A. After spending another night in the City of Angels, we board the train and head for home.

Flowers and Photos

Karisa met with the florist today to decide on, well, flowers. Below is a preview. The camera on my phone isn't too good, but it gives you an idea.



We have also lined up a photographer. We made decisions! Yay us!

Tuxedos

Here are the tuxedos we decided on. The green ties are to match the bridesmaids green dresses.

T minus 20 days

Just under 3 weeks. So much to do. And I want to get it all done in 2, because I just know that the week before the wedding will be packed with all kinds of things that haven't even made it onto my list yet. Trying not to panic. Must keep moving.

Some big things have been checked off the list recently... Todd and I went to Rosewood Bridal and chose tuxedos for the guys. We didn't really want tuxedos, mind you, but gray suits are apparently not something that you rent. Black, yes. Brown, navy, or "Oatmeal," yes. Gray, not so much. ("Oatmeal?" Seriously? It's tan. If I told you that the wedding party is wearing oatmeal, you know that the first thing you're picturing is a disgusting sticky mess.)

Gray tuxedos are not plentiful either, in case you are curious. Men's Wearhouse has one style option in gray. Rosewood Bridal also has only one - which we preferred over the MW option. Technically, Mr. Formal has one gray option, but it is charcoal (so really, it looks black) and has tails... so as far as I'm concerned, Mr. Formal does not have a gray tuxedo option at all :)

Todd and I went to Rosewood Bridal on Thursday to get the ball rolling, and went back Saturday morning to finalize our order. Brad, Tyler, and my Dad all answered the call to get themselves to Tigard for measurements, pronto. All three of them, plus wives, plus Todd and I, showed up at Rosewood Bridal around the same time... completely unplanned. Go team! I'm sure that Tim, Trevor, and Dallas will get their measurements soon as well. So, I can check "choose and order suits for Groom, Groomsmen, Ring Bearer, and Dads" off the list, with "make sure all suit measurements are in" soon to follow. Although I will probably edit my list to say "tux" instead of "suit," because that's how I roll.

Another big thing that's in the process of being checked off the list is the cake. My friend Missi will bake the cake (yay!) and my Aunt Pat will decorate (yay!). Aunt Pat and I are getting together this morning to go over ideas for decorating, and I am working on cake flavor options to send to Missi. Todd and I went to a cake decorator shop yesterday, and found out that we can rent a cake stand that will not require any precarious stacking of cakes, but will still look like a tiered wedding cake. I know this will put Aunt Pat's mind at ease, which eases my mind as well, since I won't be worried about her worrying about the cake. And, of course, it will look fabulous!

We took a break from wedding planning last night and watched Titanic. Todd had never seen it, and I thought it might be nice to refresh my memory on what not to do if our cruise ship starts sinking. Todd was not impressed - he is convinced that an hour could easily have been cut from the movie, without any significant loss to the story. Whatever.

Rings

We went ring shopping yesterday after work. I did some looking online in the days prior, to see what I might like, but I didn't know how hard is was going to be to pick out jewelry for myself.

In any case, I'm happy with my choice, and we left with wedding bands. Slightly over budget, but close enough so it's OK :)

Babblings from the Bride

My husband-to-be has chastised me for declaring that "we should have a blog!" and then failing to contribute anything myself. My memory of the genesis of our blog varies from his telling of the story, but I suppose that is neither here nor there. :)

Many things are happening in Weddingland, where every evening and weekend is a constant flurry of activity, and where I chant my own little mantra "must keep moving... can't stop moving" to keep pushing myself to get everything done. (Sadly, although similar to "just keep swimming, just keep swimming," my mantra is not accompanied by a blissfully oblivious sense of calm. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's time to watch Finding Nemo again.)
Mostly, I am terribly excited to move out of Weddingland and establish our own permanent residence in Marriedland, making a stop in Disneyland during the move.

Every once in a while, though, I am enjoying my brief stay in Weddingland. Addressing our wedding invitations myself was a very important part of my "dream wedding," and I know it may seem odd to some people but I enjoyed every minute of it. :) Many other "dream wedding" details have fallen by the wayside at this point, so it was really awesome to have one thing go exactly and precisely the way I wanted it to go! (Some might classify this as "control freak" behavior. I prefer "vision-oriented.")