The Six-Week Check-Ups

Here we are! Levi and I have both made it to our week of six-week check-ups with our respective doctors. Levi went in to his on Tuesday, and he now weighs 11.5 pounds and he's 22.5 inches long, which means he's grown half an inch every week since his last check-up. No wonder he eats so much!

He's started smiling just a little bit, and he still talks and moves constantly. Luckily when he talks at night he doesn't keep me up, but Scott says this morning he was awake and talking almost constantly from 3 to 6 a.m. He doesn't fuss, he just lays in his crib and looks around at everything and keeps a running commentary of talking, grunts and groans.

He's able to hold his head up really well. When you hold him on your shoulder he holds his head up on his own and takes it all in, especially if you walk around with him. He loves to lie on the couch and stare up at Scott's antelope head.

My appointment is in about an hour, when Dr. Smothers is supposed to officially clear me from my c-section surgery, not that I haven't already been doing everything again, anyway, especially with Scott having his abdominal surgery soon after mine.

I'm curious to see what my official doctor's office weight will be... to me, I think I'm down at least 20 pounds from before Levi was born, and I'm steadily fitting into my old jeans, one by one, and it's nice to have my wardrobe back!

Tonight Aunt Penny and Cousin Kyle will be here to spend the night with us, because they're going elk hunting tomorrow while we look for antelope, so Penny is going to look after Levi and Scott and I are planning a trip to the Beacon. It's evenings like this that are the reason I've been diligently pumping to store up enough for Levi to eat. I try to pump every morning at his 5-6 a.m. feeding, and I've been pleased to get about three or four ounces of extra milk to stockpile every morning.

So, Levi's check-up had positive results with a good report for the doctor, so hopefully mine is as encouraging!

An Elk Weekend

Over this last weekend we packed up our family of three, met up with family in Douglas, and headed south to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park for the weekend.

We had two goals: take photos of fall color and elk, and hear the bull elk bugle. While I didn't come away with any photos I'm in love with, I did get some, and haven't edited all of them, and we did hear quite a few elk bugle - the first time I'd heard them.

When we got to the park the first leg of our drive was up a gravel road to the summit, which was above treeline. I was impressed they had a visitors center clear up there. It was just below the visitors center that we found these elk, and let the record show that Scott took the photo at the top of this post. :-)

This rock chuck was also up there near the elk. Also a Scott photo.

Otherwise, the scenery was pretty, but nothing that can't be equally matched by Wyoming's mountains. I wasn't too impressed with Rocky Mountain National Park, as it's really not very big, and was packed full of tourists from the city. Granted, I'm sure Yellowstone is the same way, and that's why I haven't set foot in Wyoming's park since I moved here. It's much better to find your way into the backcountry wilderness than touring mountains on a highway and seeing them out of a vehicle window. There's a lot of national forest and wilderness areas around Rocky Mountain NP, and I'm sure they have a lot to offer.

But it was a nice trip. We spent the night in Grand Lake, south of the park, and drove back through to Estes Park Sunday afternoon, where the annual Elkfest was taking place. We were going to do some window shopping, but didn't, since we couldn't find a park place due to the 30,000 attendees that packed downtown.

More photos to come, if I find some decent ones in those I haven't sorted through yet.

In my absence

This is what I've been up to in the month since I last posted - Levi! He was born Aug. 29 at just after 2 a.m. by c-section here at the Casper hospital. I'd had mild contractions all day on Aug. 28 and didn't think anything of them - I assumed they'd stop, as they weren't getting any more frequent or intense, although some of them did last for a long time. 

It was about 9:30 that night, as Scott and I were thinking about going to bed, that we made the ultimate decision - to go the hospital or not to go to the hospital. After weighing the pros and cons, we decided to go, since it's just a few blocks away, I was already all preregistered, and we figured that way they could send us home and we could sleep in peace, after being assured the baby wasn't coming anytime too soon.

Alas, we got to the hospital and I was three centimeters dilated, though my contractions still weren't very strong. They sent us away, telling me to walk around and come back in an hour. We got back to the hospital at 11 p.m., and my doctor was there seeing to another birth, so she came in to the exam room to talk to me, and that's when she did a quick ultrasound and discovered that our baby was, indeed, breech. 

Since I was already in labor, it was too late to try to do anything about it, and she simply said, "We'll have to do a c-section."

Those weren't the words I had been expecting to hear when we'd left for the hospital two hours earlier, but at that point there was no way around it, and they started prepping me for surgery. That included three tries at an IV, two in one hand and one in the other. That hurt. So there I was, getting attempts at an IV in one hand, blood drawn out of the other arm, and having labor pains on a very uncomfortable exam bed. It was awful, and made even worse by the fact that I had to lie there for about two-and-a-half hours, waiting for my turn in surgery. It wasn't the hospital's fault, as an emergency c-section came in shortly after they prepped me, and another girl also came in at eight centimeters dilated, so I ended up being third priority. Granted, I wasn't an emergency, and there was no harm in waiting, I just wish I'd asked to move to a more comfortable location. 

Finally, my doctor came back in and said it was my turn to go. They wheeled me out of the exam room in the labor and delivery unit to the operating room, which is on the same floor. On the way we passed my mother-in-law Shirley and sister-in-law Penny, who were patiently waiting in the hallway waiting area. 

After getting to the operating room things actually started to move along. It was freezing in there, and I only had one of their flimsy cotton garments on, so they layered me with warm towels while the anesthesiologist prepared me for a spinal block. Those warm towels were wonderful. I was sitting on the edge of the operating table when he did it, and by the time I got my legs swung up to lie down I was already going numb. 

I want to add a note here that all the doctors and nurses at the hospital were wonderful - the girls in the operating room were very good to me, and comforting, and I really liked the anesthesiologist, too. And, of course, I like my OB, and was very glad that she was the one on call and the one to do my c-section. 

After I got my spinal block and they got me all arranged, Scott came into the OR to sit at my head while they worked on getting our baby out. It was the strangest feeling, as I could feel everything that they were doing, but without any pain. There was lots of pulling and tugging, and the anesthesiologist said I'd feel some strong tugs up under my rib cage when they got ready to pull the baby out, and he wasn't joking. Those spinal blocks sure do work. 

Scott sat at my head the entire time, checking on me to make sure I was ok. I was. I was mostly just thankful that I was comfortable and that I wasn't lying on that exam room bed anymore. 

After they pulled the baby out, I heard them announce that it was a boy, and one of the nurses commented on his big hands and feet. I couldn't see him, because of the blue curtain that was near my face, but I heard him start to cry as they cleaned him all up and got him warm. When he was all clean and wrapped up, Scott picked him up and brought him to me so I could see him. He was wrapped tight in a flannel blanket, with a little knit white cap on. 

His name was Levi Frank Martinez as soon as we were sure he was a boy - that name had been decided since last January. We chose Frank for a middle name because that was Scott's dad's name, and my dad's middle name. To add even more meaning to the name, Levi was born 21 years to the day after Scott's dad passed away, and it was almost exactly to the minute, as well. Levi was born at 2:04 a.m., and Scott's dad passed away at 2:15 a.m. We are thankful that now the Martinez family has a new life to celebrate on Aug. 29, while still remembering their husband and father, who is still very much a part of their lives. 

After Scott went with Levi to the nursery, passing Shirley, Penny and Levi's cousin Kyle along the way, they finished putting me back together and sewing me up. I was transferred to a wheeled bed and taken to recovery, where another kind nurse looked after me while I regained feeling in my legs. More warm towels! I was so tired by that point that I kept dozing off, but the unfortunate thing was that, whenever I did, the monitor I was attached to started beeping because the oxygen in my blood would drop. So no sleep there!

I was in recovery for about two-and-a-half hours before being taken to the mother/baby unit, which is one floor down in the hospital. I was transferred again to the bed in the room, and soon after Levi and Scott arrived and I got to hold Levi for the first time. That wasn't my preference, as I would have loved to be able to hold him much sooner than several hours after his birth, but I was glad that Scott got to be with him in the nursery and observe as the nurses gave him a sponge bath and do all the things they do for newborns. Levi weighed eight pounds, 6.6 ounces at birth and was 20.5 inches long. 

My mom had already been planning to drive out from Iowa on the 29th, so we kept her posted on all the happenings through the night and she headed west first thing Monday morning, arriving at the hospital that evening to see her first-ever, brand-new grandson. On Monday we had many visitors, and it was great to see everyone who came to wish us well, but by mid-afternoon I was wondering if my conversations were coherent or not, I was so tired. Levi and I received many flowers and nice gifts, and we sincerely appreciate all our friends and family.

We were in the hospital for two full days, and got to go home the following Wednesday. While still in the hospital Levi and I got started on breastfeeding, which took some practice, but he's four weeks old today and things are going along just fine now. He's had two visits to his pediatrician - at two weeks old he'd regained the four ounces he lost after birth and we've been on an upward trend ever since. I went in at two weeks to get my incision checked, and I also received a passing grade. 

The week after he was born we had two baby showers, one hosted by the wonderful girls I work with at the Roundup, and another at Alcova, hosted and attended by the community women whom Scott grew up around. 

My mom was able to stay for two weeks - a stay that was extended by a day because of an additional surgery I had to have on my leg where I'd been stepped on by a horse at 37 weeks pregnant, but that's another story for another post. :-) My dad also came to visit for a couple days, and it worked out so that my brother Nathan also came by when Levi was a week old, and my sister Melissa came over for the Roundup baby shower. 

So, hopefully blog posts will become more regular and timely once again. Today Levi and I are getting ready to head into the Roundup office for a little while, so hopefully that goes as well as I hope it will. :-)

Sewing up a Storm

And the sewing continues! This is the completed Boppy cover that I started the other day. It was a little tricky, because on the inside of the curve there's a strip of fabric I had to figure out how to sew in... because of the nature of the curve and the thickness of the pillow, you can't just sew front to back and be done with it. But, it worked and it fits!

Instead of bothering with a zipper, buttons, velcro, snaps or anything else, I took the lazy - but trendy - way out and used ribbon ties instead. :-)

I'm very happy with it, and will use the same process and pattern to make another cover once I get through the other things on my list.

Last night I started on the changing pad cover, which was on the 'must-finish-before-baby-comes' list, as I haven't purchased one. This is what my sewing table looks like these days. It works best to keep all my fabric and remnants out where I can see them and mix and match. Also, my laptop stays handy, as I've been using patterns from Prudent Baby.

This is the first project for which I've used my cowboy print fabric.

After stitching the corners, ironing in and stitching a pocket for the elastic and threading the elastic through this morning, this is the final product.

Of course, more canvas dropcloth fabric is used for the neutral part of the cover.

This is what the bottom looks like, with the elastic.

So now I've taken it downstairs, and next I'll do the curtains for the little window in the baby room. It's also occurred to me that my mom might want curtains in the sewing room, which is also our guest room, so I'll have to sew some of them up, too, while I'm at it. :-) She will drive to Wyoming next Monday, then spend some time in Lander with my sister Melissa if the baby hasn't arrived yet, coming back to Casper either when the baby starts to make its entrance into the world, or by Thursday evening, whichever comes first. My brother will also be out in Wyoming soon, as he and friend Aaron are coming out for a four-wheeler trip over Labor Day weekend.

Also for projects in the baby room, I have the cowhide, drawer pulls and nailhead trim all gathered together for the cowhide door fronts on the armoire... it just needs to come to the top of the list. Once I get started I don't think it'll take long - maybe this weekend! I know, I know, my time is quickly counting down, and I don't expect to get all the projects done before the baby comes, but I'll keep working down the list until Delivery Day! Besides, I'll need something to do when I'm just sitting around at home being lazy after the baby arrives, right? :-)

Baby Update: One More Week

Well, we've officially hit the 'one week left' mark, as next Wednesday, the 31st, is my doctor-assigned due date for Baby Martinez. After my appointment last Monday, it looks like I'll for sure make it to that date, and perhaps even beyond.

So, in the meantime, I decided to share some photos of my other babies. :-) That's April's Pipsqueak filly in the photo above. She is an ornery little critter, and will be a handful. I've already started halter breaking both of them, and she certainly does not approve of being told what to do.

This is the laid-back baby, Cindy Lou. She really doesn't care about the halter, and leads pretty well, except for when I try to take her too far away from her mom. She's getting big!

So this week, as I'm waiting for baby to arrive, I've been busy at the Roundup office getting this week's paper together, still editing senior photos here and there and doing my best to keep chipping away at Fall Cattlemen's interviews, which I transcribe to get the quotes and accurate info before writing the articles.

At home I've been cleaning and sewing... At the top of the cleaning list was the refrigerator and freezer, and it was high time they were cleaned. As I'm expecting my mom and other visitors at the house in the weeks ahead, I figured I better clean my most embarrassing dirt collections. :-) So that's done, and the quarter-inch of dust of gone off the top of the fridge. Next on the cleaning list for tomorrow morning is the patio - Foxy really has a thing for tipping over my flower containers and spreading garden soil everywhere. It's an eyesore that I haven't gotten around to addressing quite yet.

And in the evenings I've been working on sewing projects. Yesterday I finished up the cover for my Boppy nursing pillow, and next will be a cover for the changing pad. I'd eventually like to have several of each of the covers I'm making, but for now I'm just trying to get one of each made.

On another note, Scott's also started a special diet in preparation for his surgery in three weeks, so I've also been helping pack him lunches and have been measuring out and cooking his dinners in the evening, which consist of eight ounces of meat, vegetables and lettuce salad. Never a dull moment around here!

Sewing for Baby With a Cat

Over the weekend Link and I were able to work a little bit on a few sewing projects.

The first project we worked on - and finished - was the slipcover for the rocking chair. It's good to have that one done!

Link was very helpful, offering his advice at every turn.

We decided to cover most of the cushion on the plain canvas dropcloth fabric, but we did use one other kind of fabric on one side.

So this is the one side of the cushion with a piece of fabric I picked up at the church thrift store in Iowa Falls when Melissa and I went to Iowa about a month ago.

And here's the finished chair! I had considered doing a blue star applique on the seat back, but decided I'll leave that detail for later, and for now focus on getting some of the other sewing projects done.

There are 2x4s under the chair because Scott still has yet to finish his part of the rocker project - blocking up the legs a little bit so it's a little taller and easier to get out of.

The next project we worked on was a cover for the Boppy pillow that my mom found for me. We decided to use the red stars because that fabric hasn't been used anywhere else yet.

And Link approved of my choice.

He's such a helper, and doesn't get in the way at all!

Of Biscuits and Gravy

This morning is a beautiful summer morning, and as always I'm enjoying the sunshine streaming in through all the east windows in our house.

I've got the biscuits baked and pork sausage from Iowa ready to make into gravy, once Scott wakes up and comes upstairs. I would still be downstairs sleeping, but he's ruined me for sleeping in since we got married, and I was awake and ready to start on my to-do list by 5:30...

So I've got laundry going, the sprinkler on the yard, dishes done and have done a few tasks around the baby room. The birds are singing and it's 58 degrees! Today I'll try to make it out to check on my fillies, since I didn't get out there last weekend.

The top to-do priority for the day is finishing my slipcover, which has turned out fabulously so far - way better than I had hoped for my first attempt! I took this photo as I was headed out the door and it was still dark the other morning, so I apologize for the quality. My plan is to finish a dust ruffle for the bottom, sew up a quick cover for the cushion, and perhaps applique a star on the seat back to match a contrasting dust ruffle... One of the things I was pondering as I lay in bed at 5 this morning was where I could find a pattern for the star without having to print something offline, since I don't have a printer here at the house....

Baby Update: 37 weeks

Well, here we are, three weeks from the designated D-day! I thought this would be an appropriate time to get around to posting these baby room photos that I took even before our trip to Iowa in July... I apologize for the low photos quality... I just took them quick so that I'd have something to show people in Iowa, to give an idea of how the room was shaping up.

The above photo was taken from the door to Scott's and my room. There are two finished rooms in the basement, plus a full bath, and they will be the sleeping quarters for all three of us.

This photo is from the corner with the window, and the door to Scott's and my room is on the left, and the door to the bathroom is on the right. Behind the open door is a closet.

Here's my crib project, with the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I'm really happy with how the color turned out, as pink as it looks in the can, and the light and dark wax turned out well, except it still remains a little tacky... not really sticky, but not really smooth. I'm curious to see how it wears over time.

I lined the drawer beneath the mattress with kitchen liner - not the sticky kind. I was glad to find something I could just cut to size and lay in there, without having the permanance of contact paper.

This little toddler chair came from my mom, along with an even tinier chair to match. The tiny chair I now use for a little cowboy teddy bear on the bookshelf.

There's the tiny chair, when it was in the corner, next to the saddle from Uncle Bob.

I'm really happy with the dresser stain project. Last night I finally purchased the drawer pulls for it and for the armoire - I've been waiting three weeks for them to go 50 percent at Hobby Lobby. Have you looked at Hobby Lobby's drawer pulls lately? They have a great selection of all types.

This is the box my little Western hankies came in. The box itself is pretty adorable. :-)

And here are just a few of the hankies... I haven't done anything with them yet. Still debating all my options...

The dresser and armoire also got lining for their drawers - this time a blue pattern.

I've been collecting enamelware for the room, to use for storage, decoration, etc. Little did I know these enamelware canisters I bought in Pendleton last September would fit in so well!! Or what I'd end up using them for. :-) The lovely C} wood piece is a gift from Emily in Missouri - she made it and stained it for me, and I love it.

This is my old camp coffee pot... It was a cheapy from Walmart, and the little 'glass' knob on top of the lid melted one morning as the coffee was simmering, so I removed the lid, kept the pretty red pot, and will use it for something, if only decoration.

My mom has done a great job collecting things for the baby room - these books are just another small part of the things she's found for Baby Martinez. They're all Western cowboy books, so they fit perfectly with the theme.

This is the view from the baby room window...

So that's what the baby room looked like in mid-July. Since returning from the Iowa trip I've worked on putting away baby gifts from the Iowa baby shower and have washed and put away most of the clothes in the dresser and armoire. More pictures to come, as soon as I get the room to a more put-back-together state. Right now I'm working on a slipcover for the rocker, and after that will come curtains. Those pink sheers just have to go soon. I'm tired of looking at them in pictures!

Weekend: Checking Off the To-Do List

This weekend was a good one for finishing and starting on projects around the house. It included finishing the binding on the baby quilt, starting the slipcover project pictured above, grocery shopping, a trip to Pathfinder Ranch for Pathfinder Days and a night spent at the Association, watering the whole yard, cleaning up some spent potted plants (it hasn't been a good year for me and flowers), exchanging our blueray player (this is our third one. maybe the charm?) and spending 30 minutes on the phone with an Indian man to figure out how to get it to connect to our router, taking a couple naps, cleaning both bathrooms, vacuuming, and lots more things along those lines...

I was going to do some riding with the menfolk Sunday up at the ranch, but turns out their Saturday cow-moving task turned into two days, so I skipped out, as I didn't know for sure how long Sunday's portion would take, and I didn't want to ride more than a couple hours. Instead, I woke up with them at 4, had breakfast and headed into town, where cat Link and I got all kinds of things done.

I also worked quite a bit on sorting and folding the baby laundry and getting it organized in the armoire, along with the other baby supplies I have, like toys, feeding essentials, diapers, etc. The drawer pulls I want at Hobby Lobby still haven't gone on sale, so opening the drawers on the dresser/changing table is still a trick. :-)

This is the baby quilt - the blocks of red and green fabric are parts of the table runners I used at our wedding party in May.

And I used dropcloth canvas for the backing.

Yesterday I started on the puzzle that is cutting pieces for a slipcover for my rocking chair. This is the first try ever at a slipcover, so we'll see if it ends up fitting the chair, with no glaring mistakes. I thought about piping the edges, but then decided to keep it simple...

I didn't get much farther than this yesterday - I did get these pieces all pinned together and started stitching, but then headed over to publisher Dennis's house to pick raspberries and never went back to this project yesterday evening - I wrote all my thank-you notes for the baby gifts from Iowa, instead. I have yet to cut out the rest of the pieces. The chair is sitting up on 2x4's because I'd like to cut some blocks to raise the chair up a couple inches - right now it's kind of a low-rider.

So, a few more things were finished, or at least started, over the weekend. Just a few short weeks until baby gets here!