Help! HELP!

I entered a contest on the local Channel 2 News and I was one of the 3 finalists chosen for a Scrap-Off! The three of us were given the same materials - papers, ribbon, brads, chipboard, etc, even photos, which were of the News team - and we had 30 minutes to complete a 2 page layout. 30 minutes in scraptime is crazy because most of us scrappers take MUCH longer than than to complete a page! We were allowed to bring adhesive, scissors, paper peircer, pens/markers, and a paper cutter. And to top it all off - we were all on air! Not just like 'walking on air', but they did this during the noon newshour and we were all on TV!

So... ready, set, SCRAP! About 5 minutes in to it, the girl next to me ran out of adhesive! Yikes! So I shared mine with her. (Awww, aren't I a good sport?) And she so kindly shared her chalks with me so I could color my plain chipboard. Afterwards, the other girl to the other side of me was so sweet as to bring me and the other girl a TON of scrap stuff from her stash! It was so thoughtful of her! (Yes, we call our 'stuff' our 'STASH'. Every scrapper has a Stash.)

Channel 2 promptly put our layouts online and opened up voting, which will go until August 25th at 12:30pm. You have to register to vote, but it only take a minute (and you can check a box to choose not to receive marketing stuff from them), and... get this... You can vote ONCE PER DAY!

What does this mean? Get busy and get to voting!

(Pretty pretty please with 10 pounds of sugar and a barrell of cherries on top!)

CLICK HERE TO VOTE

P.S. I'm supposed to go BACK to Channel 2 for another TV appearance (said like I'm famous, hehe) on Wednesday, August 25th, at noon so they can announce the winner!

P.S.S. I reeeaaally needs your votes. I'm trailing behind! And the winner gets a HUGE gift basket full of $500 worth of scrap supplies!

One and two and Streeeeetch!

My little guy will be 6 weeks old come Monday. Wow! He's been doing great and is already 11 pounds! Ethan still thinks he's pretty neat too. He already has a brotherly nickname for him... Poop Machine. When Austin wakes up in the morning, Ethan will say, "Mom, go get the Poop Machine!".

Austin seems to have some slight torticollis though, which has caused some plagiocephaly. In other words.... A muscle or tendon in his neck on one side is tight or shortened, which has caused him to prefer to sleep and lay and generally favor that side and now his poor little head is a little mis-shapen. We've been working with him stretching that muscle/tendon though and giving him as much tummy time and time off his head as he can handle. So far, he's becoming more comfortable sleeping with his head turned to the opposite side, but we're still waiting for his head to re-mold. If his head is still pretty out-of-rounds at his 2 month appointment, we'll likely be referred to a specialist. Hopefully it 'shapes' up by then though! *Cross your fingers!*

Captured sweetness

A couple weeks ago when Austin was 3 weeks old, I had my old friend and co-worker from many years ago do his photos. She is so talented and, of course, had a handsome subject to work with. :) Here's a post on her blog with just a few of the pics from our session.

Lilac Photography

What've I been doing?

I'll tell you what I've been doing.. A whole lotta SCRAP, that's what!

No, seriously though, my goal for July is to do 15 pages. So far, so good, and just about there! Thanks to my fancy moby-style wrap, I can wear Austin while I am crafty so it's a win-win situation all the way around! (Okay, a double-win for me because I also get to snuggle with my babe!)

Another adventure!

This morning we went to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum with my sister, my neice, and my nephew. It was crazy! I would really like to know where my child gets his insane amount of energy from though because he was like a wild rocket in there! The first thing we saw was the ball area. I think the kids would have been satisfied if that's all there was to the place! When we finally dragged them further into the museum they had even more fun! There was a construction zone, a little house (complete with a vacuum and a lawnmower), a store, some cars, a rock wall, a water area. They even got to see a helicopter! Most of the activities had a learning thing to them, but to a 3 year old, they don't care about that - they just want to play! So even though we had a ton of fun, I think this is something he'll enjoy even more in a year or two when he can actually learn from it.

Let's go see some stinky animals!

I've been having such a wonderful time being home with my boys! Yesterday we went to the Hogle Zoo. We took my brother's girlfriend from Kansas, Andrea, with us since she's never been there. Austin slept the whole time, but E had a BLAST! He got to touch a snake (or squeeze it rather.. because that's just what 3 year olds do). And he was SOOOO excited to see the elephants. He probably would have stayed there watching them the whole time! Him and Andrea then went into the giraffe building. Apparently, it was stinky in there. When they came out, he was running around saying he wanted to see more 'stinky animals'! So we continued on and saw the rest of the 'stinky animals'! (A name that he meant in love!)

Welcome, Baby Austin!

Baby Austin arrived June 7th, 2010 at 3:37pm. He weighted 8 lbs 8 oz and was 21 inches. He's a handsome and healthy baby boy!

So on Sunday evening, June 6th, after dinner around 6pm I started having some contractions. They weren't really painful so I wasn't worried about it. I just went along with my business. They were consistent though and were about 5 minutes apart. They kept up though and by around 8:30 the intensity had increased some. It still wasn't super painful and I could carry a conversation through them, but it was enough for me to make some phone calls to have Mandi on standby to come stay with Ethan, and my parents prepared to get out of bed in the night and head to the hospital if necessary. I also took a shower and picked out two sets of clothes - work clothes or comfortable head-to-hospital clothes.

Around 10pm the intensity had increased even more and the contractions were coming around 3 minutes apart. Bill and I decided that it might be a good idea to just have Mandi stay the night, just in case. When Mandi got here, her and I went for a walk around the neighborhood to see what would happen. This is when I started getting a dull pain in my lower back as well as the contractions. The contractions also started getting a bit more painful. Bill and I ended up at the hospital by 11pm.

When we got to the hospital, we felt a little silly. Like maybe we should have just stayed home a bit longer, or maybe we were over-reacting. I had no idea what to expect of a spontaneous labor because E's was not spontaneous. I didn't know how fast things could progress because of my mom's quick-labor and delivery story with my brother and I was scared of things getting too close too far from the hospital. They hooked me up to the monitors though for an hour. I was still only dialated to 3cm and had a 'favorable' cervix, which is the same as I had been all week. This made me feel even more silly to be there that soon! But then they noticed that the baby's heartbeat had a low line (but would peak beautifully so it was okay) and they wanted to monitor that for a bit. They decided they wanted us to walk around for an hour and then come back and see what was happening.

We walked EVERYWHERE in that hospital! I was starving too and was worried that if this was it, I didn't want to be famished when I needed energy. Luckily Starbucks was open and I got a sandwhich that I nibbled at. At 1 am (Monday, June 7th now), we came back to Labor & Delivery to have things checked and monitored again. I was still only dialated to 3cm, but because my cervix was so 'favorable', they thought anything could happen. We were given the choice though of going home or walking for another hour. Bill didn't want to take chances of having to delivery a baby himself so....

We walked. And walked. And walked. We went in every stair well and every long hallway there was. More than once! We got back to L&D around 3am. I was only dialated to barely a 4cm! They gave us a choice though - go home and see what happens, or be admitted and get the party started with some pitocin. I was nervous about the induction, but I was more afraid to go home like that. So I was admitted at 4am.

We got settled into a room and the IV was put in my hand. I felt like such a big wuss because this hurt and stung and burned when the antibiotic was going through and the other stuff (not pitocin yet though). I was already crying and the real fun hadn't even begun yet! The antibiotic took 4 hours though and I needed two doses before baby was born so I labored naturally until about 7:30am when the pitocin was finally started.

I toughed through the contractions as they started getting more intense. By 10am though, I asked for the epidural. I was a little disappointed though when I was still only 4cm (I was at 6cm with E before getting the epidural) and I felt even more like a wuss. And it didn't help any that, even though I didn't say it at the time, I was completely terrified of while the epidural was being placed. COMPLETELY terrified. Once it was done though and started working, I felt alot better. Strangely though, near the end of the labor, the bottoms of my feet started to itch, which was strange because my legs were tingly and numb, but dang! My feet were itchy! (Later I felt a little itchy everywhere and when the tape covering my whole back holding the epidural stuff in was removed, I was in heaven! It was the best back scratch EVER! Anyways, a huge, giant thanks for Mandi for all the foot rubs and foot scratches she did for me. I was very grateful!

Anyways, what seemed like hours later, I was checked to be at 5cm. Such slow going! But when what seemed like only at hour had passed and I was at a 9cm, I was so excited!!! And it wasn't long after that that I got the urge to push. After the first set of pushes, I was told to stop pushing! The baby was going to come more quickly than we'd thought and the doctor had to get scrubbed up! She ran from the room and then quickly returned. Two more sets of pushes and my baby boy was here!!! And he was healthy! And I got to hold him right away! (Bill said that I yelled, "Give him to me! Give him to me!") He was born at 3:37pm.

I prayed for a healthy baby and an easy delivery and my prayers were answered. Austin is healthy as can be and he was so gentle on me during delivery that by the next day I was feeling great and ready to go home. (I am still in a bit of shock at how well it went because I distinctively remember the many days of pain after having E!)

I have also been blessed as well with this child because he eats!!! From the moment he first was laid on my chest, he knew exactly what to do. Even the nurse was surprised because, even though textbooks say babies are born with natural instincts, very few actually latch properly that quickly. This is also making for sleepless nights for me though because he is hungry all. the. time! But I honestly can't complain about this because this has always been a subject that has concerned me. Thank heavens!

E is also pretty thrilled about his baby brother. When he woke up Monday morning to find Mandi where mommy usually is and he was told that mommy went to the hospital and the doctors were going to use their "magic tools", he knew exactly what was going on. He excitedly asked Mandi if his baby brother was coming out of mommy's belly now. Since we've been home, he's been a great helper too. He likes to gather a diaper and hand me the wipes when I change Austin's diaper. He also likes to pick out his clothes. In the hospital, he gave him a pretend 'winkie' (aka binky), which I thought was really sweet.

Well, gotta go! I hear Austin waking up now!