Monthly Archives: March 2009

Tiny Tangerine


Per Catherine’s request, I made Esme an orange shirt just like hers. I had to do a little finagling with the pattern to make it smaller overall, but big enough to fit over her diaper. It knit up nice and quick and I think the two of them are pretty darn cute!

Tangerine Dream

This is the blog where I come clean about my Mama-crush. I’ve been following Amanda’s blog, Soulemama, for quite some time now and am so often inspired by her words and her projects and her views on life and parenting. I own a copy of her first book, The Creative Family and am eagerly anticipating her second, Handmade Home.

I was most recently inspired by this post in which she talks about a knit, spring-time top that she made for her daughter. I took one look at the top and knew I had to make one for Catherine.



The pattern is called “Girl’s Cap Sleeved Spring Top” and is available at no cost here, or for those of you on Ravelry, here. Knit seamless on circular needles it was a very fast project that yielded fantastic results. I really love the way it looks on Catherine and have plans to make a few more in different colors for the Spring and Summer.

Catherine loves it as well. She asked, almost immediately, if I would make a matching one for Esme. Call me a sucker for a cute face, but I’ve made some alterations to the pattern and a (hopefully) Esme sized top is already on the needles. I think I’ll make it a bit longer and call it a dress 🙂

[As always, click on the photos for larger versions!]

The Second Time Around

The past two weeks have gone by so quickly, yet the days have gone by slowly. These first fourteen days with Esme have been so different from Catherine’s first two weeks (click Here for those of you just tuning in). Here’s a little rundown of life with Esme.

Esme’s birth went about as smoothly as I could have hoped for. I know birth details aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, so I won’t go into specifics- but feel free to ask me if you’re interested. I’ll be open and honest! Suffice it to say we had a completely unmedicated birth assisted by a nurse and a Certified Nurse Midwife. Everything went pretty quickly. We checked into the hospital around 10pm and were settled into our post partum room and napping by 4am.

With the benefit of experience (and lack of breathing apparatus) Esme and I had an easy start to breastfeeding. She latched on perfectly on her first try and has continued to go strong ever since.

We’ve been enjoying having Peter home from work and have been taking advantage of his vacation by ‘lying-in’. Esme and I have been getting to know each other well, mostly while hanging out in bed. We’ve been reentering the world at our own pace and I think it has really helped our bonding and our ‘after birth’ recovery. It has been a relaxing Babymoon!

Catherine has taken to the role of big sister like a fish to water. It must be a hard transition to make, but she seems to be coping very well. It is impossible to capture her cute tone of voice here, but you can imagine how cute it is when she says things like, “Baby Esme, you crying? You need your Mama’s milks!” or “Hey Esme, you want a carrot?” And, out of desperation to get a cuddle with Mama, “Papa, YOU want to hold Esme?”


Big sister is already teaching Esme things. While I was nursing the other day I said to Esme, “Oh Esme. That is a bad latch!” Catherine quickly came over and instructed her little sister, “You need a big latch, Esme, like this…” and she gave a shining example of a big mouthed latch. Ahh, my little lactation consultant!

It has been nice to have a teeny babe at home; hearing her little sounds and counting her little toes. I’m pretty sure it will only get better from here on out!

The Wood Family is Proud to Present…

Esme Caroline

Born Thursday, March 5 at 2:12am. She weighed 8lbs 2oz and was 20.25 inches long.

Labor and delivery went blessedly smoothly. Esme latched on right away and is a nursing champ. Catherine is a proud and loving new big sister.

We couldn’t be happier! More details to follow, I’m sure, and lots of pictures can be found right here!

40+3

Here we are at the end of day 40+3. I’m still pregnant, but not as pregnant as I’ve ever been; Catherine came at 40+5. Baby seems pretty comfortable for the time being.

Life continues on. I’ve continued to add and cross things off of my master “before the baby” list. Most of these things are little housey projects like “fix the doorbell” (which turned into “replace the doorbell”) and “clean the oven”. But there are also baby related items as well- “pack for hospital” (partially finished) and “convert top of bureau and top drawer into changing table and baby drawer” (done!)

I also keep a day to day list going as well. This is much smaller and has items like “empty dishwasher”, “email so and so” and, if I’m feeling ambitious, “go to library”. I like crossing things off these little lists- it makes me feel accomplished!

snow!

We had a lovely snowstorm here last night and today. I’d say we got 10-12 inches of nice white snow. I stayed inside and enjoyed the view while Catherine and Peter went out and shoveled and played. They were awfully cute out there. All the pics from their frolicking are here.

I’ve been surrounded by baby news lately. So many women I know have just had or are expecting little ones! I love hearing their news and sharing stories of our experiences with them. Congratulations to (and I hope I don’t leave anyone out!) Andrea, Shirpa, Heather, Leanne, Deanna, Meaghan, Angelique, Megan, Laurel, Lisa, Marisa, and Trisha!

Now I’m just rambling… what would you all like to talk about?