Category: Pregnancy

2011outfitsSo in September of 2010 I started taking photos of my work outfits after leaving one district and starting in another (this was the job I just left last June). I kind of just wanted to see if I could go a month without repeating outfits, but I kept it up. Then in 2011, I took a photo of myself almost every single day; the results are the above photo. This turned out to be the year I became pregnant with H, so the outfit photos became a diary of my growing baby bump. I stopped the photos after she was born in March of 2012 because, you know, newborn.

But last week I’m pretty sure I wore yoga pants 5 out of the 7 days. And turtlenecks, and sneakers.

This must stop.

Read more on I Think It’s Time to Bring Back the Outfit Selfies…

I’ve had kind of a mental block around H’s baby book since before she was born. Baby books are not a thing in England, so it was a new concept to Adam and he looked to me for direction. But I don’t know, something about the cookie cutter nature of the questions, the limited space in all the books for writing and photos. We’ve been given several gorgeous baby books to keep a record of H’s firsts, and we’ve even started writing in some of them. But somehow the process just felt…incomplete.

Read more on H’s Project Life…

We had our first cookout of the year on Sunday, and another one today to celebrate July 4th. It’s been a great week for hanging out with friends and family; this time last year Adam and I were in Hawaii, and we’d just found out that H was on the way. It was such an incredible time, so I don’t know…I was feeling really festive this July. Several teachers from school came on Sunday, and they caught me up on everything I’d missed while on maternity leave. H loved just hanging out on the patio under an umbrella. We tried putting her in the crib for a nap, but she didn’t want to miss the party! So she took all her naps on me that day, lol. I’m not complaining.

This week was also the first time I’d really put out a coordinated spread since our 2010 Christmas party, and I tried to use a lot of tips from Amy Atlas’s Sweet Designs. I didn’t take photos of today’s table until the end of the day, and they aren’t anywhere near as great as the photos Adam shot of Sunday’s table. So I’m posting Adam’s photos from our Sunday cookout here. I had so much fun putting this together, and I love how it turned out.

I made strawberry pies-in-a-jar for Sunday. I actually made cherry pies-in-a-jar today, too. This is my new favorite party trick. I use my favorite pie recipes but cut out the dough to fill my mini Weck jars. The crust and filling for a regular pie are enough for 12 mini pies, and you bake them in the oven at 375 for 50-60 minutes. They are easy and so delicious. I love the gooey, exploded nature of these. Perfect summer cookout food!

I did kind of a strawberry color scheme (the berries of my obsession lately). Red berry colors and a little bit of green.

Read more on Holiday Weekend Cookout…

Other posts on this project: Go to Your Happy Place Quilt Pt. 1, Go to Your Happy Place Quilt Pt. 2.

This quilt is finished and delivered!

So I made this quilt for my sister-in-law Kathryn, who is expecting her first baby in just a few weeks. H can’t wait to meet her little cousin CJ, but since he’s been getting all the attention (and quilts made by my mom) I wanted to make something for Kathryn during her hospital stay. I brought my Rainbow Quilt to the hospital when H was born, and I was so glad I did. It made such a difference to have something personal and cheery to liven up the depressing side of days spent in the hospital.

Read more on Go to Your Happy Place Quilt Is Finished!…

In the spirit of documenting this process, this is what I looked like the day I went into the hospital (March 12th, left) and what I look like now after H’s birth (March 26th, right).

Read more on Pre- and Post-Jackie…

My daughter H Frances Reeve was born on March 15, 2012 at 1:11am. She was 8 lbs., 8 oz. and 19″ long. It took 52 hours to get her here. I spent a full week in the hospital from beginning to end, but I wouldn’t change a single thing.

Read more on Welcome, H!…

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So we checked into the hospital the night of Monday the 12th so I could be induced for medical reasons, the doctor didn’t want to wait too far past my due date (which was Friday the 9th). We’ve now hit the 40 hour mark of waiting here at the hospital. Day One of induction didnt take and Day Two isn’t very eventful yet, either. Except lots more pain and discomfort. But H is perfectly happy where she is and has shown no signs yet of wanting to come meet everyone.

Read more on Waiting for H…

It’s 5pm on Wednesday, and I have been cooking pretty much every waking hour since Monday around 10am. I’ve prepped and frozen about 30 dinners, canned 6 jars of homemade marinara sauce, frozen 2 more of bolognese, and gone through somewhere around 30 pounds of meat from our weekend at Costco and Whole Foods. Our freezer is full to bursting, and I love it. This is all to prepare for the arrival of H Sprout and the expectation that neither Adam nor I will have it together to do much cooking for the foreseeable future. But we can throw things in crockpots or stick things in the oven!

But let’s not talk about how I’m feeling physically.

Read more on I Am Not So Good at Putting My Feet Up…

Yesterday I had my 33rd birthday, and I also hit my 36 weeks pregnant mark. Needless to say, this particular birthday has been unlike any other I’ve had.

I feel strong. Yes, every inch of my body aches, my feet are unrecognizable, and I basically need a pregnant lady crane to get upright these days, but I can’t stop looking at my bump. I feel like that bump is one of my best accomplishments in life. I’ve managed to grow a really big, perfect, incredibly wiggly kicker of a bump. I’ve avoided all the stretch mark remedies because I want to see the full progress my skin has made growing that bump–they are my own growth chart. I’m already starting to miss being pregnant even though I can’t wait for this H sprout to get here. It’s going to be strange not to have my constant companion this close. Kicking my iPad off of my belly when I’m watching TV, wiggling like crazy when I’m (she’s) hungry or reading a really great story to the kids at school. In complete honesty I can say that I’ve loved every single minute of being pregnant, even the far from glamorous ones.

Read more on 33/36…

It’s February 1st, a month and a day from the start of my maternity leave. And things at school have kicked into high gear since New Year’s while I wind down my school year and try to fit everything in with the kids before I go. I’ll be back for 2 weeks in June, but really this is my end-of-year in a lot of ways.

Read more on January in the Library…

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