Surviving week one

So little Morgan has been home with us for a little over a week. What a crazy week it has been! I still can't believe that I am a mom. Luckily Morgan is a really good baby.....she really only cries if she is hungry or needs to be changed. (I think we have almost gone thru a whole box of diapers already. )

Learning how to breast feed has been a challenge. She falls asleep five minutes after I start feeding her, but everyone that I have spoken to says that is how it is in the beginning. I have been given several different ideas of how to keep her awake. Including, putting a cold wet washcloth against her skin and flicking her feet. I will try my best to diligently keep breast feeding, but it definitely is frustrating.

I now know what everyone means by the "baby blues". I hate to admit it but I think I have a mild case. I don't want to cause harm to my daughter and i'm not unhappy. I will however cry at the drop of a hat. Poor Kevin has witnessed this a couple of times, but thankfully he understands that my hormones are a little out of control right now.

Sleep deprivation....AHHH yes....that is one thing that everyone talks about with newborns. Kevin and I have had some rough nights, BUT somehow we have started our own little routine. I try my best to wake her up every couple hours during the day and keep her awake so when night time comes she is nice and sleepy. We try to get her tummy full by 10:00 so we can all go to bed. This little plan as worked out a couple of nights. Last night she didn't wake up again until 4:45 A.M. Actually, she might have slept longer I woke up and then I woke her up.

Everyone said that is better to have newborns sleep in your bedroom for the first couple of months because of how often you will be tending to them at night. We thought that would be a good idea. Especially since as a new mom you find yourself constantly checking to see that they are breathing. Anyways, we didn't have a bassinet and didn't feel like spending 150 dollars on something for her to use for only 2 months SO we got creative. We took two chairs and pushed them up to the side of the bed. Then we got a laundry basket and put a mattress type pad inside. It works great! Also, whenever I want to look at her and make sure she is ok I use the light from my cell phone. Gotta use what you got :)

 

Introducing!

Morgan Olivia Shaw

 Born on December 8, 2009 at 8:04 PM

She weighed 7 lbs 13 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long

Morgan was due on Dec. 1st, but just wasn't ready to make an appearance. My doctor recommended that if by the following Tuesday she hadn't shown up for me to be induced. I was really stressed about that. I didn't want to be induced. I wanted to try and have this baby as naturally as possible and I also heard that when you are induced the contractions are WAY more intense. To my disappointment I didn't go into labor on my own and I headed for the hospital at 7 AM on the 8th to start the induction process. So I checked into the hospital and they brought me to my private delivery room with an ocean view. I'm not kidding...I delivered at Hoag hospital in Newport Beach and all they have are private rooms with views. Anyways, At 8:00 AM my doctor broke my water and started me on Oxytocin to get my contractions started. As time went by I am started to feel pain stronger and stronger until after 5 hours of no pain medication I gave in. After the Epidural I was able to relax and my labor progressed pretty quickly. 4 hours later I was ready to push. (Which by the is extremely difficult to do when you can't feel anything from your stomach down.) An hour and 45 min later Morgan was here! It is such a surreal experience and looking back it seems like a blur. I am just so happy that she is heathly and that there weren't any complications. I am still a little disappointed that I had to use the Epidural. I have such respect for woman that can give birth drug free. HA maybe next time :)

Before Morgan was here everyone would ask us if we had a name picked out. We knew that we wanted to wait and meet her before we decided for sure, but our two main choices were Rylie and Summer. It took us until an hour before we checked out of the hospital to actually pick the name, but we just looked at her and felt like Morgan suited her better than either of the names we had picked out.

Now I just want to take a second and talk about my husband. He has truly been amazing these past few days. He has done a great job of taking care of both Morgan and me. He has done everything from running all over the place getting things I need or cooking and doing laundry. . I don't think I could have survived the last few days without him. He is so sweet to our little girl. I can hear him talking to her while he is changing her or comforting her and I can't wipe the smile off of my face. For someone who had no previous experience with babies he is a natural. I am so blessed to have him as my husband and I couldn't have asked for a better father for my little girl. Thank you Kevin for everything. I love you!

Maternity Shots

Last month my good friend Megan came for a visit. It was so nice having her here, but Kevin and I felt like the worst hosts ever...We had BOTH just gotten over a cold (well Kevin was still fighting it) and I was very pregnant. Therefore I wasn't feeling up to running all over the place being a tourist. We did, however, go to the L.A temple which I had never been in before so that was pretty awesome. I also tried my best to take her to some of our favorite restaurants that they don't have in Florida. Other than that we did what we do best. Hang out, watch movies and play games :)


Megan and her husband have started a photography business and she said she hadn't done any maternity shots yet....so of course I jumped at the chance to be her model. I'm not really into the naked belly shots with the silk scarf draped around you look (i'm sorry if I am offending anyone by saying this...if you are into it great..its just not MY thing) so we played around with some other ideas.Here are some of the pictures we got from that shoot.

I thought they turned out great! It was a lot of fun thinking of different poses and I'm thankful that I have such a great friend not only to fly ALL the way across the country just to spend time with me, but to take pictures for me as well. Megan you are the Best, I love and Miss you!

(oh Megan was also here for my baby shower...she took some pictures of that too. I haven't seen them yet, but I'm sure I will post those too eventually.)

Halloween Par-tay

Kevin and I decided we wanted to host a Halloween party this year. We thought it would be a good way to reach out to some of the young married couples in our ward as well as re-connect with some of our friends we hadn't seen in a while. So of course the first thing you need when planning a party are invitations.

The next thing you need to have when planning a party are decorations and some refreshments. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of our decorations, but I did get some pictures of some of the goodies I made.We started off with a caramel apple bar.

I got the idea for these cookies from another blog. She used Trix cereal for the spider bodies, but I used Reese's pieces instead. I obviously don't use frosting much. They looked a little sloppy but they were eaten

fast!

I found the idea for these candy corn sugar cookies from a magazine at the grocery store. I had to laugh because I made the first batch a little too big! Haha they were Huge.

I made up a couple of games for the party. One was name that spooky song and the other was a Halloween version of Scattergories. We even had prizes for the winners. (two boxes of Halloween cereal and one Halloween Mr. Potato Head). Overall, I think the party was a success. Hopefully, this will help us branch out and hang out with some of these couples more often.

Here I am dressed as an oven. I can't claim that I came up with the idea on my own. My friend Megan told me I should do this. Everyone seemed to think it was a pretty cute idea. Thanks Megan!

Kevin as Dexter the serial killer. After getting his parents addicted to the show they told us they thought Kevin looked like him. So it seemed like the perfect choice.

 Rob and Emily came and Harry and Hermione

Their son, Joseph, was Dobby the house elf :)

Pam and Mike came as east L.A. gangstas

McKenzie and Bryce had a costume perfect for the Nickelodeon watcher from my generation. They were contestants on Legends of the Hidden Temple

Angie and Tyler were Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.

Christina as Cruela Devil and Joey as a Canadian.

Ally dressed as the "Swine Flu" and Matt as John Mcenroe

 

I hope your Halloween was a safe one :)

Let me introduce you to my new sewing machine.I got her a few weeks ago as an early B'day present from my wonderful Mother-in-law. I wouldn't say that my sewing machine and I are best friends yet, but we are definitely getting to know one another. We started off my making some curtains for the baby's room.

I have NEVER made curtains before. I really have never sewn much of anything before. I remember taking Home Ec in middle school and we made some kind of pillow, but for that I had someone there showing me step by step what needed to be done. I also made a quilt for a good friend of mine, but for that project I had another friend showing me the ropes. These curtains were a solo mission and I'm not gonna lie...I was intimidated! I didn't have a pattern and it was up to me how I wanted them to look. SO....I picked out pink fabric and I layered white behind it so they wouldn't be thin. Then for the top and bottom I added some white fabric that had pink polka dots on it. I am really proud of myself for starting and completing this project. There are some definite flaws but overall I am happy with how they turned out. Here are a few pictures of the completed project.
Kevin just laughs and says "This is definitely a little girls room." It is pretty funny how it all started with the bedding and snowballed from there. I also go this cute mobile for the baby's crib.
Now all of the major decorating is done. Maybe just a little something here or there. I will show pictures of the full finished project soon :)

Those who can't paint

Stick?

So I was looking in to different ways to make baby Shaw's room look like it was suited for a little girl, without having to paint. I don't know why but I decided to look up wall decals and I found some really cute stuff. I would really recommend it to anyone who wants to add some fun to a nursery (or really any room), but may be renting and not able to paint. I found several different websites like this one and this one, but I decided to get one from this one :).

They make it really easy for you to put together. They labeled each limb with a letter and labeled the places along the trunk where you need to put that limb.
As for the birds and blossoms....well it is really up to you how you want to decorate it. We decided to make our tree look like it was in Autumn so we have some blossoms at the bottom of the trunk as well.
I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Now on to curtains!