The past 4 months...whirlwind!

Well, I am officially a mom! I know this announcement is coming late because I'm such a horrible blogger. Thought I'd catch up on the last 4 months. Being pregnant was one of the most fun things I've ever experienced. Getting to feel that little baby move around in there, hiccup, kick was incredible. I was extremely huge at the end of it, I'm talkin HUGE. I didn't think my body could stretch like that.

Birth was also amazing, due to my amazing support team and drugs. I was going to try to go all the way naturally but come to find out, I have a pretty low pain tolerance. After the drugs kicked in, I had a pretty fun day...sipping hospital cocktails...yum, talking with friends and family, laughing! Everything I wanted the day to be. All in all, 8 people were in the room to see little Amilee come into the world...Jeremy and I, my mom Kathie, my mother-in-law Gwen, Erica, Kassie, Kristena, Liz, another nurse, and my doctor. Some people think I'm crazy, but I'm so glad they were all there! It's such an amazing thing to see! Thanks for being my cheering squad!

So the first couple weeks after Ami came home were full of all kinds of emotions, exhaustion, and amazing visitors. Nursing is excruciating at first, recovery was gnarly, and the sleep deprivation is nothing I've ever gone thru so I was pretty miserable. I love little Ami but man oh man, it was tough being a mommy. The complete loss of independence was at first more than I thought I could handle. Jeremy was so amazing and such a support, so caring and understanding. I couldn't have asked for a better partner in this. It's so amazing to see him with Ami. He sings to her and it puts her right out. So cute. My parents stayed for 2 weeks and were such a support...mom cooked and held the baby, dad fixed just about everything on our 8 month old fix-it list (plus some). He also had "papa time" at 5am every morning so I could sleep. Amazing. After they left, I had great dinners delivered from Stirring friends and my amazing sister-in-law Erica and niece Ava came over a couple times to help clean and take the baby so I could rest. Thank you! It is so nice to have a family like I do.

We had a couple photographers...Hannah Howell and Brent VanAuken....take pics of Ami. Naked baby pics are not too fun...there is always that chance of explosive diarrhea and that is exactly what happened. Twice. Here is a family pic from Hannah...

Ami and I went to NM to see my parents at 2 months. Got stuck in the Denver airport for 26 hours. Great fun with a baby, but everyone is so helpful when you have a baby with you. We had a great time, great grandma was there and Uncle Matt...

Despite the poop, throw up, crying, etc that all babies do, I am starting to really enjoy being a mom and having her cuddle with me, smile at me, need me. She's an amazing little gift from God and I'm so thankful to have her. Ok, time to get back to it. Hopefully it won't be 4 months from now that you hear from me next.

45 days to go!!!

Amilee is now 4 lbs and roughly the size of a pineapple. It's so funny how they compare your baby to a fruit most weeks. I'm sure there is old man humor somewhere in there. Mostly I've just heard "2 turkeys in the oven this year, eh?" Even from a Winco checker.

Hopefully she doesn't look like a scaley turkey!
I've been loving feeling her kick, and so far it hasn't hurt at all. She's very gentle, but you can definitely see her rolling across my tummy. For the past few days she's had bouts of hiccups. Hopefully to her its not as much of a pain as it is for us to get hiccups. I'm loving being pregnant and I feel huge (in Juno's words "I'm a planet") but it is so worth it! I can't believe I only have a month and a half left, it's gone by soooooo fast (hopefully Jeremy will make it back from tour to see her enter the world)! Ahhhhhh! Before Jeremy left, Emily took some maternity pics of our little family-including Marley. Here is the site if you'd like to see more. I love all of them-thanks, Em!!

Amilee

So here is my little girl and her hand waving at us! She has great fingers and a really straight neck from what I can see! Yay!
This ultrasound was waaaay better than the first. (The first technician we had scared the crap out of me with doom-and-gloom scenarios of what could be wrong. This technician actually explained things to us, showed us everything possible anatomically...even though baby kept crossing her legs, not wanting us to see anything down there. I know she was just being really modest and not at all difficult. ( ; I'm so excited! I'm already so much more attached in a weird way knowing what is growing inside. Jeremy's going to be such a great daddy and I'm sure she'll be a daddy's girl, playing electric guitar and bass, running a studio, touring with the band. I asked him if he was excited that it was a girl and he said he was but it meant he was going to have to kick more guys butts (some words have been changed to keep this blog clean) than he thought...
This also means way more clothes, shoes, makeup, drama, tampons, weddings, etc. Whoa.

Bug bites and shaving cream.

So I got home tonight from Erica's family birthday dinner (Happy birthday, Erica!) and found 2 things...1. from the front gate to my front door-shaving cream. All over the side walk, all over our porch, a giant shaving cream heart on our house, cream covered door knob, and "sucka" written on our doorstep. IF YOU DID THIS...do not confess, seriously. I'm pretty ticked. I will probably throw my preggo hormones into a punch to your throat. It would hurt.

And 2. a giant knot on my forehead from a little blood sucking insect or a swarm of them. I have no idea how I did NOT feel this thing sucking my brains out. It is HUGE!!! I kind of wish it was a zit so I could have the satisfaction of a puss explosion when it popped, but no, it itches like crazy and looks horrible. Ugh. Here it is...

So, I'm going to bed now. Ticked and bitten but really excited for tomorrow. Tomorrow morning I will find out if I'm having a Cohen or an Amelie. I'm so excited!!! I'll let you know!

Hawaii!

Just got back from a week of relaxing on beautiful white sandy beaches, snorkeling with turtles, eels, and an octopus, kayaking, hiking into a volcano, eating delicious food, and hanging with great friends. The Faulknors invited us to join them on the big island, and we could NOT say no! Our favorite thing to do is vacation and snorkel on the Hawaiian islands.
Jeremy and Brett were like little boys when it came to ocean. We couldn't get them out of the water. At one point Jeremy called out to Em and I that he was standing on the only rock on this beautiful, pristine beach ten feet into the water. I just happened to have been in that area and didn't remember any rocks. I kinda laughed and said make sure your not standing on a turtle. He kinda got a weird look on his face and looked down and sure enough the "rock" swam away!
Two days into the trip, Jeremy's cell phone and my nice digital camera ended up in the ocean and were completely ruined (I won't tell you who did it, but it wasn't me!) So dang, we had to rely on the professional photographers to take all the pictures of us!
Anyway, it was so nice to just get away, forget about work, and just have fun with friends! thanks, Faulknors!!!

Baby

so i'm going to have a baby! i know I was supposed to blog about this 2 months ago, but well, it's been crazy. within 1 week (at the end of April) we finished the studio (which is beautiful-I'm so proud of Jeremy), moved the offices, organized the Stirring's music art and film festival,moved into our new home, and found out that we're pregnant...talk about an amazing week. All at once. it was information overload but all great information!
I'm getting more and more excited about the baby. At first, i had so many fears-mostly of miscarriage, then of what we were going to do once the baby came. I had crazy dreams of weird looking baby boys with random teeth coming out every which way, having the baby early and not having anything ready, etc, etc. I kept thinking "what the heck did we do, what am i going to do with a baby?" i felt bad thinking that but I heard its kinda normal. after getting over some fears, i feel better and more capable of bringing a little person into the world. We don't know the gender yet-but we have names so I'm officially claiming them! Haha. If it's a girl...Amelie Joy, if it's a boy...Cohen Jeffrey. we'll find out in a couple weeks!

Moving Day--This Saturday!!!

So we're signing for the house tomorrow, and we'll be able to move in on Saturday! I'm so excited! So....9am my house on Saturday the 28th if you can help us move! Everything is almost packed-thanks to my amazing friends, Sarah Schepens and Emily Branca and Kristena Hayes, and we have a huge uhaul truck ready to go! Let me know if you can come help! Thanks!