Cropped Minties

Oh life.  This past week was a doozy.  Last Thursday night Anthony and I were perched on the couch watching our favorite show, White Collar, when all of a sudden our furnace suddenly just shut off and our nostrils caught a whiff of burning something.  I freaked out a little thinking something was going to blow and Anthony remained calm and checked out the situation.  A few phone and house calls later and we found out the not-so-wonderful news that our furnace had breathed it’s last.  After all, it had a good 30 years under it’s blowing belt.  Even though we knew that at its age it was coming, it’s timing with a newborn around and the unseasonably cold weather here down south was nothing less than impeccable.  A few days of playing musical space heaters and a few thousand dollars later, we’ve got a shiny new furnace and a/c to put on this house’s resume.  Great.  Going along with the impeccable timing, Anthony had to leave in the middle of our outage to head up to D.C. with four bus loads of teens to stand up for the unborn in the March for Life.  It was bittersweet to see him go but a great sacrifice all the same.  Lucky for me, my younger sister flew over here from Dallas to help a mother hen and her three chicks out.  Thank God for her.  So, with all that hustle and bustle, the french door Anthony and I were planning on making and installing in the kitchen didn’t happen…yet.

.           .           . 

Oh parenthood.  I’m a go-getter.  Sitting all day just doesn’t do it for me.  And TV, I sat watched enough in the hospital before and after Sebastian was born to last me a year.  With that said, the new kid on the block is only satisfied if he’s nestled in the arms of ma or pa.  No swings, no soft surfaces, no co-sleeper…  So, as much as I love holding the kid alllllthedaylong, nothing ever gets done – no cooking, no cleaning, and especially no DIY.  It’s bittersweet and leaves me longing for the day when he’s old enough to just relax in his bumbo and watch his sisters scrap the place while I do something productive…not that holding him isn’t productive because it is and I love it, but I’m just in need of some activity/movement/excitement in my life (which is why Anthony is holding down the fort this afternoon so I can go out into the world sans children for just a teeny bit.) 

Anyway, what do you care, right?  I know.  It’s probably rambling and there are tons of people out there with weeks more trying than mine but the point is, I’m sorry if it’s a little slow around here in the next few months.  I’m going to try as hard as I can to blog because I really love and miss it and I hope you’ll keep following along!  And while you’re waiting for Sebastian’s birth story (if you even are), here’s a little something to keep you occupied until I’m awake enough to remember type out all those details.

Around the eight month of carrying around Sebastian in utero, I found these Liz Lange (Target) maternity pants at Dirt Cheap for $6.  Maternity pants from Target have never quite fit me right in the hip area but these were just asking for an alteration and since they were so cheap (and that color!!), I couldn’t help myself.  Home they came. 

 

I took them in using the same technique (technique probably isn’t the right word…hack job is probably more like it) I used with these white Gap maternity pants last year.  Here they be now…err, previous to the boy’s arrival: 

And that’s that.  I’d stay and write more (because you know my life be like crazy and lots of words could be poured out on it’s behalf…I only wish) but Anthony just suggested we go for a nice little family walk ‘round the block and guess who’s jumping at that chance…yep, this mom.

Have yourself a good weekend!

Oh and P.S. Some sweet somebody nominated us for a Sheenazing Award (inspired by the incredible Venerable Fulton Sheen…only a bit ironic that my name happens included in the title…) for having the best-looking blog over at A Knotted Life!  I’m truly honored and humbled!  I guess all my googling HTML and CSS code and pretending to be a blog designer has paid off!  Head over to check out all the award nominees and to vote for your faves!

Battle of the Bellies

Until I get the gumption to write up Sebastian’s birth story for y’all (crossing my phalanges for later this week), I thought it’d make sense to back it up a bit and post the bump comparison pictures I took during this singleton pregnancy.  I posted them on Instagram but never blogged ‘em so for those of you who aren’t ‘grammers, take a look.  It was obvious that my twin pregnancy would laden me with a king size belly but I thought it’d be fun to see how much bigger exactly.  Check it:

 

Crazy, huh?  I mean, the first half of Seb’s oven time wasn’t that much different than the girls’ but the second half?  Whoa.  And believe it or not, my singleton pregnancy was overall more difficult.  I was sore, my hips and back ached, I had some crazy nerve pain,  I was tired (because of chasing the twins around no doubt), and I had minor morning sickness up until week 15 (with the twins I had zero).  However, the weight difference was incredible.  Sebastian felt as light as a feather compared to the truckload I carried with the twins – 13 lbs. of baby compared to 7.5 lbs of baby.

Towards the end of this pregnancy I whipped up this comparison pic as well:
A 10 week difference in belly sizes!  So I wonder if that means that at 37 weeks with the twins I was actually measuring at 47 weeks…  Crazy thought.

One Week In

Greetings from Cirque de Tobin!  Let's talk about the past week, shall we?  It's been wild and tame and everything in between.

First, the obvious.  Baby Sebastian - one week young and in the business of making our family of four a family of five complete with three kids under TWO. 

It's as crazy and intimidating as it sounds.  However, I will tell you that taking care of one baby vs. two is a cake walk!  Where with the twins I spent the majority of my days during their first months nursing them, I spend about 10 minutes every two hours nursing this boy.  He came out of the womb knowing how to eat (I expect he gets that from his Pops) and gets his fill in no more than 10 minutes each feeding.  It took S and C at least 20 minutes to fill their bellies, making that 40 minutes plus to get them both fed when I wasn't feeding them at the same time.  It probably helps that I've got a little nursing experience under my belt now plus maybe men are just better and quicker at inhaling their food but the point is, it's crazy how much time I don't spend nursing these days.

A little more on Seb - he sleeps like a champ.  Those of you who have kids know you're supposed to wake your newborns up every two hours during the day and every 3-4 hours at night to eat.  Sebastian's pretty good at hinting he's ready to eat every two hours during the day but at night he'd go four plus hours without eating if I let him...which I have.  The nurse (just out of nursing school) who told us in a straight-from-her-nursing-textbook that we couldn't do that after he slept five hours straight in the hospital one night can sue me.  During the day he's in typical newborn-sleep-mode and while he's not sleeping is content with just peeking at his surroundings, which usually includes two over-interested twins getting all up in his biznaz.

They're absolutely smitten with him...a little too much sometimes.  C gives soft kisses (and licks) to his fuzzy head but then gets really excited and goes in for the ear grab or the binki snatch or the sock steal with full force.  S is always gentle with him and her fave place to be is nose-to-nose watching him bat his eyes or contort his face the way newborns do.  And then they're always pointing out his "nose" and stabbing him in the eyes to point those out.  It's cute and overkill all wrapped up in one big package stamped "sibling love".  

I have yet to type up a widdle birth story but let me tell you a little about the recovery...ouch, ouch, ouch.  I don't remember being as sore and in pain after the twins (whose labor was actually EASIER!)  Then again, I think a week after I had had them I was still constrained to a flat surface whereas a week after this one I feel 90%.  It's a real good thing you forget the pains that bearing a child brings because if you didn't, well, overpopulation wouldn't even be a word.  Am I right moms or amIright?

Anyway, the girls are still asleep and Sebastian is neatly tucked into the moby wrap strapped to my person so what else can I tell you?  Oh yeah, I FINALLY ordered a new laptop!  We actually ordered an HP a few weeks ago but sent it back because it had some major issues in the screen coloring department that couldn't be resolved after a frustrating call to HP and me repeating "I'm sorry, could you say that again" to the foreign man on the other line with the accent I just couldn't untangle.  Here's to hoping this one (which is supposed to come this week) won't disappoint and I'll be back and blogging per the usual because I SO miss it.

Oh and guess what?  I found my nesting bug!  Turns out it was waiting for me on the other side of pregnancy!  :)  I have all this new-found motivation to sew and create and paint and build and...and then I forget that I have a newborn.  So maybe it'll all happen a little slower than usual but there will be projects.  Actually, this week we're working on making a french door complete with inset glass out of a solid wood door to replace the hollow-core door between the kitchen and laundry room.  Also, we built that co-sleeper out of a thrifted changing table for Sebastian and so I'll get a post up all about that.  Here's a peek:

(There's been a little confusion with how it works based on the picture I took.  I snapped this after picture quick while it was not in it's usual spot of right next to the bed.  The short side at the top butts right up against our mattress and is the same height as our mattress, creating an extension of sorts.  The post will explain it better.)

Well, before I ramble some more I should probably scoot.  There's no time like nap time to do fun things like laundry, am I right?

#wrong

Evicted at 40.5 Weeks...

From my uncomfortable perch in the bed de hospitale, I don't have the brain power to write up a birth story quite yet (sorry Dwija, I hope this suffices for now!!) but be relieved that it's really not that interesting.  We checked into the hospital at 10 pm on January 2nd to start the labor process going and get going it did.  Not much sleep and way too many contractions before the anesthesiologist finally got around to me to deliver relief, lots of pushing and feeling like I was going to either pass out from exhaustion or just plain fall asleep during the process and Sebastian arrived, perfect and healthy in every way.  :)

More later!  Thank you all so very much for your thoughts and prayers!  

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P.S.  The blog and I have been battling insane amounts of spam so I had to cap the comment box with an ID login...so sorry!   

Missing: The Nesting Bug

Just waddling in to note the obvious...it's been a leedle slowwww around here. It's all because of this...err, him:

Yep, that's me and the boy at 38 weeks.  

Contrary to popular pregnancy side effects, I am not nesting and I have no clue where/when I missed that bus.  Believe me when I say there's lots to do around here, just no one to do it cause I sure ain't gonna.  

Mornings used to be prime time for me but these days I get out of bed to a rising twin(s) only to find myself really wanting to get back in.  Coffee?  I've become immune apparently.  Their first nap is also my first nap and their second nap is mine as well.  Anyway, I'm just trying to excuse away the fact that I've been a little quiet on the blog front.  I wish I could say I'll be back at it next week but sadly, I can't.  Actually, I'm going to take a little break for a couple of weeks until the boy is here and a new computer arrives at my door step.  Right now I'm writing you all from Anthony's work computer while my dino sits dead on the kitchen table.  It still works but I don't have the patience anymore to find the 3+ hours (on average) it takes me to write a post on that thing.  But, Santa promised he'd bring me a new laptop so you can bet that once it comes and I'm happily stuck nursing a wee one for hours on end, I'll be populating this here blog with a lot more words and some projects that have been on the waiting list.

I'll even be telling you all about this:

We scored this old changing table for $10 at a local thrift store with plans to transform it into a co-sleeper.  I know what you're thinking, "You mean your son could come any day and you don't have a place for the kid to sleep yet?!".  Yep, last minute.  That's us.  We'll (ahem, Anthony will be) working on this thing this weekend and praying #3 doesn't pop out before then.  Offer up a few for us if you think of it.  Speaking of last minute, did I tell you we just bought a swagger wagon??  Up until last week neither of the two vehicles we owned could fit a family of five without utilizing the trunk or roof as prime seating space but now, NOW we can fit seven!  Hallelujah!

Well, all I have left to say is have a great week!  You can be sure I'll still be gramming over at the Insta (quickly becoming my fave form of social media) so you can catch me and us - @beaninlove - there with any and all updates on the daily, baby, and changing table front.  Should be fun.  :)