New Links

I've added a couple more links to our site. One is my Mom's blog and the other is my sister's Flickr site. Mom is sharing her adventures as a new Canadian, and Katie's Flickr site is fashion focused. She does have a few pictures from the weekend on there if you want to check them out.

Baby Shower!

Last weekend we had a baby shower here in Madison. It was a lovely shower hosted by Matt's Aunt Jayne, cousin Claire, and a good family friend Mary Curran. My Mom and sisters were able to make it here for the shower, too. It was wonderful to see them!

Mom's condition improved drastically over the weekend. It's good to see her on the mend; however, she is definitely still working back to full strength. I would add some pictures of the shower, but I didn't take many good ones. Also, I seem to have misplaced the cord to upload pictures. I'm hoping that this is just a temporary brain fart, and I'll be corded again soon.

We received so many special gifts, but I think the most surprising thing about the shower was the amount of art we received. The baby now has more art than I do! We were blessed with three extremely thoughtful pieces.

The first was a painting from Carol and Tom Lowes who are good friends of the Lee's inscribed to "The Wee Baby Lee." I'm not very good at describing things like this, but I'll give it my best shot. The painting is on a long horizontal piece of canvas. To one side there is cute cow standing on a hill and floating away from the cow to the right is a stream of pink balloons with udders! There is a bonus painting of one of the udder balloons which is the balloon that got away through the break in the border. The balloon that got away gets to travel around the baby's room until Baby Lee notices that its been moving.

The second piece is from Matt Lee's marker on butcher paper collection from his five-year-old era that his Aunt Mimi had framed for us. Now, I have not had a chance to really study the piece because it had to make a return trip to the framing shop, but from my inspection at the shower the piece is a scene from the Nutcracker. Matt drew out all the characters and labeled them. The main characters from left to right (best I can remember) are - Ballerina, Another Toy Soldier, Toy Soldier, Nutcracker, The Polished Table. Don't worry, I'll have pictures soon enough.

The third piece of art was a painting done by my Aunt Tammy given to us by my Mom. It's a picture of a mother and child titled, "Efflorescence." You can see the painting on her website. I would encourage you to look at all of the pieces. Everytime I look, I'm amazed by the beauty and thoughtfulness in her work. The painting looks fantastic in the room. The colors could not be better.

Lastly, my sister Katie knitted a blanket for AK. Her note brought tears to my eyes. It read:

"Be assured that love went into every stitch. It has flaws, but is beautiful, nonetheless. Looks delicate, but is meant to be drug through the dirt, spit up on and generally loved. It will take a good washing and full-on drying when the world has had its way. And then it will get a fresh, clean start. Life as a blankie."

We all grew up with a special blanket. Mine was so worn out at one point, my Mom used it as filling for another blanket. The flood of memories that came back with that gift was somewhat overwhelming.

All I know is that AK is going to be one lucky baby to have so many people in his or her life that have so much love to give.

Childbirth Preparation Class

On Saturday Matt and I attended our childbirth preparation class. All in all, I would say it was pretty good, and I'm glad we went. I will say that I don't think I was fully prepared for the class. Even though I'm pregnant, I just don't think about birth in such detail. The class was a Lamaze-based one-day class that covered labor and delivery.

Periodically throughout the class, they would show us videos to demonstrate different topics. Now our hospital is pretty sophisticated, but they have not invested in their childbirth education class materials in a long time! They were using a VHS tape version of the video and the instructor was having to rewind and fast forward to find the appropriate topic. I had almost completely forgotten about the days of remembering the number on the VCR to tell where in the video you were. I guess birth has not really changed, so why update the materials, right? The other beef I had was that all of the women in the video were overweight. Average-sized people have babies, too. There is a difference between being big and pregnant and being overweight, these women were overweight. I guess I just wish that I could relate to the women in the video more.

Now, despite how I had difficulty relating to the women in the video, I guess I must have been touched on some level because after we watched the first birth, I was kind of overcome with emotion. It's like I have the same reaction watching a birth now that I've always had when the wedding march starts. I was somewhat unprepared for that reaction during the first video. Luckily I was sufficiently braced for the others.

A large portion of the morning was learning different breathing techniques and different positions to use while having contractions. There were about ten different positions in the book for us to choose from. Matt had picked out "lying on your back with your legs elevated" as the one for us to try. Nothing about this position sounded appealing to me particularly considering that lying on your back is not recommended after the first trimester. I resisted this suggestion for a while, but finally gave in. Well, after making my way to the floor and attempting to lift my legs up still thinking that this is not a position I want to be in when actually in pain considering the difficulty while not in pain, Matt says, "There are no pros listed here for this position, only cons." We quickly moved on to a different option. Luckily, we found a few alternatives that sould work when the time comes.

Mom Update

Well, my mother finally made it home yesterday after three days in the hospital. Now that they live in Canada, they get to experience the joys of socialized healthcare. So, when you break your arm and the hospital is experiencing a stomach flu epidemic, you just get to wait until they can get to you. If a trauma comes in, you get bumped. She is at home recovering now.

Thankfully she is still planning on making the trip to Madison next weekend for a baby shower. I'm getting really excited for the shower. Mom, Katie, Kelly, and my friend Erin are all going to be here. I think Mom is looking forward to having three hairdressers :)

Seriously, They Expect Me To Concentrate

Concentrating is difficult these days. I find my mind wandering off into babyland quite frequently these days. I think it has something to do with the constant reminder I'm carrying around. I can't sit still for too long. I can't stand for too long. Clothes get uncomfortable after a day of wearing them. I guess I'm just a bit restless.

Well, last night we found out that my Mom broke her arm skiing. She is in the hospital, and they are going to do surgery at some point. We still don't know when. Most of you who know me know that I like to know what is going on. Situations like this, where there will be an answer eventually, but we don't know it yet are pretty much torture for me. I can't even let the mail sit in the mailbox for a few hours much less know that my mother is in the hospital in pain waiting for surgery without much more to go on.

Please keep her in your prayers. Everything will be fine. I just wish I could be there with her right now.

Dwell Studio

Ever since I started looking for baby bedding I've had a thing for designs by DwellStudio. I think that their modern, but cute designs are fantastic. I just could not bring myself to spend nearly $400 on sheets and bumpers for the crib. This is one of my favorite patterns that they have:





Yesterday I discovered that they have teamed up with Target to create a new line of baby bedding at Target prices, DwellStudio for Target. The website also indicates that these items should be available in our local store. So if you are on the hunt for baby bedding, I would encourage you to check it out. I am partial to the Circles pattern:



It seems like there is new baby stuff all the time. I can't even keep up.

Sarah and Chris's Visit

Our good friends Sarah and Chris came for a visit this weekend. It was so nice to hang out with friends. The boys played some X-Box, and the girls did some shopping. The weather played a few mean tricks on us, but we worked through it. It was overcast and warmer yesterday, and clear and frigid today (-9 degrees!). Here are some pictures of all of us.

Also, if you are wondering what it's like to get mail when it snows 70 inches, check this out. All I can say is that you start to feel tall.

Let it Snow!

It's your lucky day, two posts! We were blessed with another foot of snow last night. This brings our total to 72 inches of snow this year! We are within inches of breaking the record. Matt has been a real trooper about keeping the driveway clear since I can't help too much. Shoveling and pregnancy don't mix to well.

40 Days - 40 Weeks

Yesterday at our Ash Wednesday service I found myself reflecting on the duration of Lent more than anything else. I remember thinking that Lent was a long season when I was younger. The thought of giving up something or doing something during Lent made the six weeks seem like an eternity. Right now I'm 31.4 weeks pregnant. When I was 30 weeks pregnant, I told my Mom, "10 weeks has never seemed like such a short amount of time." Even now, I see the time between now and when the baby comes filling up quickly, and I feel like it is going to be here before Matt and I even know it. The funny thing is that Easter is going to come before AK. Well, most likely anyway. I guess this is just one of the many ways having children changes your perspective.

Maternity Clothing Wrap-Up

Warning: If you are a man, you probably will have zero interest in this post. I'll have to get Matt to post something to balance out this one :)

Maternity clothes have come a long way since our mothers were gestating, but I would still call them a necessary evil. The day after we found out we were pregnant, my clothes started getting tight. Now in the first three months, I only gained the typical 3-5 pounds, but everything started moving around quickly. By the time I was 12 weeks along, I was not wearing anything that I wore pre-pregnancy. So not only was I trying to find clothing that fit, but I was trying to find clothing that did not look maternity since I had not told any of my coworkers yet. That paired with the fact that anything with a waistband made me feel like vomiting made getting dressed in the morning particularly challenging.

Madison does not have a huge selection of maternity stores. We have Motherhood Maternity, Target, JC Penny, Kohl's, and a Mimi in our Macy's. I have also ordered clothing online from the Gap and Old Navy. I have purchased most of my clothes from Mimi, Gap, and Target, and I have made limited purchases from Motherhood and Old Navy. I only purchased stuff from Old Navy once. Everything showed significant wear after the first washing, so I quit buying from them. Motherhood's clothes are ok, but the quality is not the same as I would normally prefer. If you are looking for good inexpensive clothing, Target is best. I've been happy with Gap and Mimi's clothes for work and social outings. I find that in general maternity clothing tends to wear out rather quickly. I'm amazed that I've actually worn out a bunch of clothes that I've only worn for a few months.

Now, since I was in maternity clothes so early, I purchased a bunch of the expanding waistband or below the belly pants. These were great for the first and second trimesters. Around the end of the sixth month, I needed a whole new batch of maternity clothes. Now I need the pants with the bellys. One thing to pay attention to with the bellys is the stretchiness of the seam between the panel and the pants. I have more than one pair of pants that fit above and below the seam, but the seam itself is so unbearably uncomfortable, I can only stand the pants for a limited amount of time. Then again, wearing anything for an extended period of time is unbearable.

I was thinking that I could comment on the clothing now that I only have 9 weeks left, but I've noticed some shirts feeling a bit short these days. Wearing tank tops under the shirts and sweaters has been a pretty good solution so far. Hopefully, I'm already an expert on the topic and won't need to learn too much more before the baby comes ;)

Sarah and Will's Wedding

Our trip to Atlanta was great. I wish I would have had less travelling during the first trimester and more since then. It is so much easier now that I'm not getting used to the onslaught of hormones. Matt is just happy that we are done travelling until I'm done with pregnesia. After forgetting which rental car company we were with on our trip to Lawrence, Kansas, in the fall, I managed to book a hotel in Milwaukee for February 29 instead of January 29. Luckily they were able to accomodate us without any financial penalties. I can only imagine Matt's reaction if we had to switch hotels at 10 pm on Thursday night with the roads covered in four inches of wet slippery snow and pay more for it to boot.

Anyway, enough of that. The wedding was beautiful, and Will and Sarah seemed very happy. Here is a picture of them as they processed out of the church.

The reception was at the Georgian Terrace Hotel. Everything was beautiful, and they had a spectacular band, Complete Desire. I was particularly impressed with their coordinated dance moves to the songs. Here are some pictures of our friends who made it to the wedding. Holly & Bill, Jessica & Greg, Emily & John, and Valerie & Craig.