Picture Project

Inspired by John, Sherry and Clara, of Younghouselove.com, Phil and I have started a weekly picture project of little Joel. I am not nearly as talented with photoshop or my camera as they are but with some help from their online tutorial I was able to get through the first two weeks!

We hope to continue this for all 52 weeks of little Joel's first year but we may switch to months after he is one month old. Here are his first two weeks. I wasn't able to get the pictures the same size so the scale is a little off.

Joel's Birth Story

I am really going to try and stay up on the blog posts so that our friends and family from out of town can be as much a part of our little ones life and those who live just down the street. I am sure that there will be times when I don't succeed at this goal but know that I have every intention of at least trying :)

Here is Joel's birth story:: Thursday evening was spent watching Thursday night comedy, eating triscuits and staying up too late, something I would later regret. We went to bed around midnight. I woke up at about 1:40 to use the restroom, a normal occurrence during my pregnancy. Once I got back in to bed I noticed that I was having some cramp like feelings. I went to sleep but woke again at 2:40am. It took me awhile to wake my sleeping husband and get him to start helping me time what I was certain were my very first contractions. At around 3 I called my mom to ask her what she thought, she said that I should just try and go back to sleep. It was clear after 2ominutes of trying to fall back asleep that I was in fact having real contractions and wasn't going to be able to sleep the rest of the night. I called my doctors office and they suggested I wait 1 to 2 more hours before coming in to the hospital.

In the meantime we continued to time the contractions, which were consistently 5 to 7 minutes apart. Unfortunately they didn't seem to be getting any closer together or stronger. I took a hot shower, ate some toast and laid in bed trying to will my body to go to sleep for even a few minutes. I had no such luck and at 5am we set off to St. Elizabeth Hospital, a six minute drive from our house.

They checked us in to triage for monitoring. I was nervous, excited and anxious all at once. The bed was extremely uncomfortable and not the ideal position to be "laboring" in. Our nurse Lisa was great at talking with me and keeping my mind occupied during contractions. It felt like we were there for an eternity because we had nothing to do but listen to our babies heartbeat and watch the clock tick as we waited to see if I had progressed at all. At 8:30 they checked me and I was dialated to 1 cm. They gave me the option of staying or going home. I hate options like this when it comes to my health, I am not a doctor, please tell me what to do don't make me decide. Our nurse told me that if I was her daughter she would tell me to go home where I can relax, get something to eat and be in my own environment. We decided that that was probably best for me since we hadn't gotten but 2 hours of sleep and it seemed like we would have a long day ahead of us.

After a quick phone call to my parents who were already on there way and a stop at Big Apple Bagels for a bagel with cream cheese I parked myself on the couch to wait it out. Laying down quickly became unbearable and I resorted to kneeling on the floor with my head on the couch and a heating pad on my back. Phil brought me sips of water and forced me to eat my bagel. Which was good because it would turn out to be the only thing I ate for more than 36 hours!

My parents arrived and helped Phil rub my back, warm my heating pad and provide support and love. At 11:30 Phil decided that it was time to head back in to the hospital. My pain was getting worse and I was nervous that things would progress quickly and we'd be stuck at home. They checked us back in and Lisa our nurse was quick to help me get comfortable in a triage room. Once they checked me and saw that I had dilated a little more they admitted us to a room. Little did we know that room D4 at St. Elizabeth's Women Center would be our home for the next 4 days. Lisa allowed me to be hooked up to the machines minimally because she knew that I wanted to be able to get up and move around during my labor. I was able to walk the halls a bit, eat some ice chips, and drink water while rocking back and forth with my head on a pillow near the bed. My contractions continued to come with force but at 3:30 when they checked me I still hadn't progressed past 3 cm. We decided to try some IV pain medication in hopes that it would let me get some rest in preparation for labor. Once the IV was in and the medicine started flowing I felt a bit better but still wasn't able to sleep. At 8pm the doctor came in to check me and discuss our options. He recommended that I get an epidural because of how exhausted I was and how little I had progressed. They wanted to give me pitocin to help speed things along so an epidural was the best way to get rest while that happened.

Our anesthesiologist was really nice and from Rochester Michigan. It is a small world but he noticed Phil's sweatshirt that said, Rochester College, and he said I grew up in a town called Rochester, in Michigan. He did his residency at the hospital I was born at and worked with the doctor that delivered my sister and is still a good friend of my parents. So very random! The Epidural procedure to this day is the strangest thing I have ever experienced in my life, not painful, just strange, but oh so WONDERFUL! It was weird to have my body numbed and be confined to a bed but it was absolutely glorious to be able to sleep through contractions. Phil and I both got 3 hours of sleep and I went from 3cm to 7cm shortly after they started the pitocin and broke my water.

After 2 hours of hard labor (pushing) our beautiful baby boy was born. The clock read 1:44am. The doctor was off delivering another baby just 11 minutes before Joel entered this world so he just barely made it in to the room to deliver Joel. Once he was born they whisked him off to the corner of the room to get him cleaned up. I was able watch the whole thing on a TV which was really neat. He looks just like his daddy but he has his momma's nose and lips.

We spent the next 3 days in the hospital adjusting to life as a family of three and enjoying visits from friends and family who were anxious to meet Joel. We are blessed!

Our Little One is Finally Here

Introducing our beautiful baby boy....

Joel Edmond Travis
born 2.18.12 @
1:44 in the morning
weighing 7 lbs 4 oz.
measuring 20 inches

He is an absolute bundle of joy and cuddles! He is eating and sleeping well though he has his days and nights a bit mixed up but who can blame him when he entered the world at 1:44 in the morning!

He also loves visitors! I hope to post more about his birth story and his name soon but in the meantime I am enjoying cuddling under warm blankets with the new love of my life.

The Nursery :: Complete

For most of you this won't come as a shock but I am a planner. I have had an idea for a nursery in my mind since before Phil and I even got married or purchased our house.

The Starting Pieces:: My mom dug this gem out of someone's garbage pile. It has a few scratches on it but that only adds to its appeal. I knew the minute I saw it that it would be great in a kid's room filled to the brim with books. This was the start of the "future nursery" planning! Since the piece is red we decided to go with a primary color theme. The 2nd piece we bought for the "future nursery" was a hoosier cabinet which we successfully made in to a changing table (pictured below)

Painting:: Every room in our entire house is a different shade of beige. We believe the people who owned the house before us watched "Designed to Sell" religiously and decided to go with the paint every room neutral before selling mantra. We have slowly been painting rooms different colors in hopes of one day getting rid of all the beige! So when my parents came down for a week last May we decided to paint the room that would one day be the future nursery green. This was before we even knew that we were expecting little monkey.

Fabric:: On that same trip down, Mom, Grandma and I found some really fun fabric at JoAnns that I thought would work well for curtains and the bedding. We bought it and let that be our inspiration.
Inspiration:: Once Philip and I knew we were actually having a baby the real planning began. I started browsing online and found a slew of ideas for rooms decorated in the primary colors. Here is a collage of some of our inspiration pictures.

The Actual Room:: My mom and dad came down this past weekend for one last visit before the baby came, actually we were hoping the baby would come while they were here but he has other plans. During this trip mom and I were able to finish the nursery decor. We hung the artwork, laid out the blankets, and put up the valance that she made for us. Here are the pictures of the final product! Feel free to come over soon because it looks better in person!



Thanks for letting me share with you all.

24 Hour Flu ... head cold .... tulips

These three things are all on my mind today! Last week I was plagued with a nasty case of the 24 hour flu. Lucky for me I have an AMAZING husband who stayed up with me all night and stayed home during the day bringing me sickness essentials, Saltines, Water, Gatorade and Vernors with straws and a lid interchangeably throughout my napping and TV watching. It took me two days to get back to normal, losing almost 24 hours of sleep while 8 months pregnant will mess up your schedule.

This week I have been plagued with a severe head cold. Orange Juice, chicken broth and water are the items of choice this time around. Straws for the OJ and a mug and spoon for the broth. I slept wonderfully last night after taking some Nyquil which my doctor says is okay to take at this point in my pregnancy! My sinus flush has become my best friend and I plan to take another nap this afternoon before heading to church.

The tulips are on my mind because we have been blessed with some crazy warm weather this January. My crocus' and tulips are both coming up and Sunday I went for a walk outside with NO COAT on. Last night it snowed about a half an inch and it is colder today but it has been nice to have the sunshine out to lift my spirits during this nasty cold.

We are still writing for baby to come, I'd be happy if he stayed in a bit longer until I have totally kicked this cold. My mom comes down this Friday and is planning to stay until baby comes, which will be nice.

We hope to finish the nursery artwork this week, so we will post pictures of that soon!

In other news, our dear friends Rachel and Jeffrey announced last week that they are expecting a little one in august! We are SO excited to have friends our age joining us on this journey! And our babies will be U of M and Detroit Tigers fans together and may even attend kindergarten at the same school together in 2017!

Preparing for Baby :: The Essentials

We are in the "red zone" as Phil likes to say. I prefer the home stretch but whatever way you want to say it we could have a baby any day now. I am now past my 37 week mark and we are ready. I think because I have had such an easy pregnancy these last few weeks could be bad. The pregnancy hasn't disrupted my lifestyle or my sleeping habits until now. Monday I had the 24 hour stomach flu and since then I haven't been able to get adequate sleep or rest since.

I am physically and mentally ready to meet his little baby boy growing inside of me. It will be fun to see who he looks like, learn his mannerisms and dress him in all the cute clothes we have collected. I am most looking forward to just cuddling with him and looking over his ever feature with awe and love.

The title of this post is about the essentials, we have them all. Here are the top 5 things that we have ready for baby:

1. The carseat - I LOVE everything about our carseat. It combines two of my favorite colors, green and blue. Phil has had it installed in the car for several weeks and it makes me giddy every time I look at it. Little Monkey is happy to try it out for us!

2. The Crib - My parents graciously purchased our crib for us. Dad spent countless weeks pouring over websites and stores to find the perfect crib for his grandbaby. I think he hit the nail on the head. It was a little bit larger than we thought it was but with some maneuvering of the rest of the nursery furniture it now fits perfectly.Phil helped me to put the sheets on and place the soft blue blanket we got from Two Tulips, a local store owned by a church friend. Mom and Phil helped to hang the lanterns about the crib and I love them!

3. Diapers - We are joining the "granola" world and will be a cloth diapering family. The day our diapers came in the mail was a happy day and over MLK weekend my parents helped me wash and stuff them all so they are ready to be used! We purchased 20 diapers from JustSimplyBaby and are borrowing some newborn diapers from our dear friend Natalie. We also have some disposables to help us get through the first few weeks. I am excited to start this eco friendly journey!
4. Clothes - Little monkey has SO many outfits thanks to the generous hearts of our dear friends and family. I have only purchased a few select items for him and everything else was given or donated. Here is to hoping he stays in 0-3 months clothes for a bit so he can actually wear these cute things! The red basket above holds more diapers (the night time ones with double the inserts), our moby wrap and cute elephant humidifier are also on the top shelf. The hanging shelf on the right holds burp cloths and more blankets :)

5. The Diaper Bag - I am not a huge purse girl but I have had my eye set on a particular diaper bag from Petunia Pickle Bottom for quite some time, however when it came down to actually registering I couldn't justify a $160 bag to carry diapers in so I did more research and visited a fabulous store in Holland Michigan called Tip Toes. They had so many different bags to look at, I found this similar styled bag for only $50 and added it to my registry. It is a JJ Cole bag and I love it. It is very gender neutral and not too girly so Phil won't feel silly carrying it. It is stuffed to the brim with all the diaper bag essentials :)

Now we are officially ready for baby :)

Preparing for Baby :: Food Edition

I am not sure how soon I will get back in to the kitchen after the baby arrives in early February so I wanted to have some things on hand that Phil or I could simply pull out and make in to a meal. I am not a fan of pre-made frozen meals that you buy at the grocery store. I think they are overpriced and don't really taste that great, with the exception of California Pizza Kitchen's BBQ Chicken Frozen Pizzas. So I set out with my friend Amy to create our own freezer creations.

The Tuesday before Christmas we spent almost 9 hours in the kitchen cooking and baking and the results were fantastic. For $40 a person we made the following meals:

• 2 meals worth of Cranberry Chicken with Sweet Potatoes
• 2 meals worth of Swiss Chard and Sweet Pea Manicotti
• 2 meals worth of Chicken Enchiladas
• 2 meals worth of Beef Bourguinon
• 1 large chili cornbread bake
• 24 raspberry breakfast bars that I wrapped in packages of 4 for easy breakfasts with visitors :)
  
• Turkey Pot Pie Filling

I have also been inventorying everything that is in my freezer and will be putting together a list of quick meals that can be made with the contents of our freezer and pantry. This will help keep us organized and limit last minute trips to the grocery store with a newborn.

This afternoon I prepared the chicken I scored on sale last week at Meijer for $1.77 a pound. This price is almost unheard of down here so I bought 2 family packs leaving me with 12 breasts. I cut up 1.5 breasts for chicken Alfredo, left 1.5 breast for grilling, and will use 3 breasts to make Chicken Chili tomorrow night for dinner! The other 6 breasts are currently cooking in the crockpot with some stock so that I can shred them and bag them in 2 cup quantities for chicken pot pie, chicken tortilla soup and chicken tacos down the road!

Food wise I think we are prepared. We just need to stock up on some coffee and Dr. Pepper for the long nights and days :)