Return to Work

Howdy, friends!  It occurred to me today that I hadn't blogged in almost a week - a rarity, for me, since I always seem to have so much to say.  We were the busiest we've been since Lilly was born last week getting the house ready for her big weekend.  Both the weekend and her baptism were wonderful, and I can't wait to blog about them later in the week.

Today was a day I have been dreading and trying not to think about ever since I went out on maternity leave: my return to work.  I can honestly say that I wasn't sure whether I'd ever want to stay at home with my children, but I loved spending getting to spend my days with sweet Lilly so much!  I have loved hanging out with her, watching her grow and change every day.  I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I've been trying to figure out ways not to go back to work for two weeks - I don't want to miss one second, and I feel like I'll miss so much during the days when I don't see her.

I didn't sleep at all last night, even though I was exhausted from our exciting weekend - my stomach was in knots.  Lilly must have been tired, too, because she slept for almost 12 hours last night, yay L!  I got up this morning and went to the gym and then came home and got ready for work, and she did not wake up until I was walking out the door at 8:15.  I didn't get to nurse her and spend a lot of time with her before I left because I wanted to let her sleep as long as possible, and honestly it may have been better that way.  I made it through most of the morning without any tears, but when she woke up the water works started.  I snuggled her for a few minutes, and she and Dan walked me out to the car and I just sobbed the whole way.  I managed to compose myself to walk into work, but indulged myself in a few short cries throughout the day.  When I got to my desk, I was greeted with this sweet picture from my manny (man nanny aka Dan): 

The morning flew by, I was so busy on several conference calls, getting settled and just generally getting back into the swing of things.  I had a nice surprise at lunch time when Dan brought Lilly to see me.  I'd brought my lunch so we had a picnic at my desk.

I cried again after she left, but I knew I didn't have much longer until I'd get to go home and love on Lilly and tell her how much I missed her all day.  The afternoon, like the morning, went by pretty quickly, and before I knew it, it was 4:30 and time for me to head home to relieve Dan so that he could go to his meeting.  The funniest part of the day was trying to coordinate a schedule for the pumping room with my two other co-workers who have babies close in age to L.  I've been spoiled the past few weeks with Lilly nursing and I forgot how much I hate pumping.

Today was hard, as I'm sure tomorrow and the rest of the days of this week will be.  Rumor has it that leaving Lilly every day will get easier.  I think having Dan at home with her today and my Mom tomorrow and most of Wednesday will greatly help me in the transition.  I'll report back in a later post on childcare.  When I got home, Dan left to go to his meeting and L and I got to have a long talk about what she and Daddy did all day (sorry about the gross pooping at the very beginning!):

We hung out for the rest of the night and my bestie brought us dinner.  That's why she's my bff, y'all.  She brought dinner because she said that she wanted me to get to spend time with Lilly instead of having to worry about cooking dinner on my first day away from her.  That's the definition of a best friend if I've ever heard it.  And it was the best dinner ever - home made chicken & dumplings, green beans & yeast rolls.  Can't wait to eat it again tomorrow for lunch.  :-)

Hope you all had a great Monday!  Here's to hoping the rest of the week gets easier by the day - and to making a conscious effort to find time to blog!  Don't forget to vote for us today!

Sarah

Happy Birthday, Hadley Jo!

It has been quite an eventful day for me.  I am exhausted and will therefore update you all on my doctor's appointment at another time, but just wanted to tell you that MY BESTIE HAD HER BABY TODAY!

Steph had a doctor's appointment this morning and was anticipating him giving her the OK to go home for Christmas.  She normally texts me to let me know what's going on, so when my phone rang around 11:20 I KNEW she was calling to tell me she was in labor.  I was almost right...her doctor didn't like the looks of her fluid level, so he was going to induce her and she was going to have a baby TODAY!  I was so excited, I'm still not sure how I got any work done.  In fact, at one point, Dan texted to tell me he was sure I was more anxious than even Steph was (true), and that when it was my turn he was going to have to slip me some valium (also probably true). 

I had to go to the doctor at 1:30, so I decided to camp out at work and try to finish up a few things until the appointment and then go to the hospital  after.  My appointments (sans ultrasound) have never taken more than 20 minutes, so I thought we'd be at the hospital by 2:15 at the latest.  Wrong-o.  We were at the doctor for two hours.  Two.  But that's for another post.

You can hop on over to Stephs blog to check for updates on how everything went, but in a nutshell, her labor progressed VERY quickly.  Hadley Jo Aldridge was born at 6:24 p.m., weighing in at 7 lbs (I won the weight pool, woot!) and measuring 18 inches long:

Isn't she gorgeous?!  In all of the excitement, I somehow managed to forget to take my camera or phone into the room to take pictures.  Sigh.  Maybe tomorrow.  Anyway,  baby girl is beyond perfect.  She's got Steph's nose, Jon's mouth, long fingers and toes and the prettiest blue eyes you've ever seen.  Both Mommy and Baby are doing wonderfully!

Hadley Jo, I'm so glad Aunt Sarah and Uncle Dan were able to be there to celebrate your arrival.  You are so beautiful, and we love you so much already!  We can't wait to watch you grow, and we certainly can't wait to come back to the hospital to love on you some more tomorrow.  Steph and Jon, we love you both and are indescribably excited for you!

Sarah

Operation Baby Shower: Success!

I am going to preface this post by telling you that I did not take nearly as many pictures as I should have, and the ones that I did take were not very good.  So sorry!  I was a busy bee and time just got away from me. 

This past Saturday night, Dan and I hosted a couples baby shower for my bestie.  She has done so much for me over the years and we are so excited for she and Jon (and Ralph!) and the arrival of baby Hadley that we wanted to do something special for them.  I had grand ideas for this shower - some I executed well, others I didn't - but overall it turned out wonderfully.  We had a great turnout, everyone seemed to have a good time (including the boys, but that's probably because there was beer and football), and of course the parents-to-be got some great gifts that I can't wait for Baby Hadley to use!

Here are a few photos of how everything turned out.  I'm hoping that Steph got some better ones because mine are terrible!  I also hope that she doesn't have many with me in them, especially if I looked anything in real life like I did in the pictures taken with my camera.  Ew.

Below are a few pictures of the spread:

The banner says "steph's cravings."  It didn't hang quite the way I envisioned - long story, but there was a snafu with our clubhouse and the setup so not only did we not get to set up on time but I ran out of time to measure for the banner and had to just guess on length.  Either way, it still turned out pretty cute, I think.  Any of you who have been following Steph's blog know that she has been craving Mexican, fruit and pizza.  I tried to incorporate that into the food.  Our menu was as follows:  Nacho bar (beef and chicken) with various toppings, pepperoni pizza dip, fruit tray, veggie tray, and pulled pork BBQ sliders (I know, BBQ was not one of her cravings, but my Dad's so good at it and I wanted to make sure we had substantial food for drinking boys, so we went with it).  Mom and Dad came in on Thursday night to help me get ready, and we spent all of Friday and most of Saturday shopping and cooking.  It paid off, because several guests thought I'd gotten the food catered.  It really was delicious - thanks again Mom and Dad for all of your help!

Steph's sister Bekah made a diaper cake:

Impressive, right?  I've always wanted to make one of those.  Hers turned out perfectly!  She also helped bring one of my favor ideas to life:

I LOVE the way these turned out!  I was trying to think of a favor that people would actually keep and use, and everyone loves koozies.  Thus, the shower koozie idea was born.  Pretty cute, right?  Bek, you are awesome!  As you can see, the colors were pink and red: red because it's Steph's favorite, and pink because it's Hadley and I's favorite.  :-)

The following photos show how I decorated the space.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any full room shots, but there were four cocktail tables.  I tied them with red and pink patterned ribbon.  For the centerpieces, I filled mason jars with baby's breath (get it?  BABY's breath?) and tied with a ribbon (thanks for the idea, Leah!) and then used empty baby food jars as candle holders for tea lights.  They turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself:

I got the baby's breath from Fallon's Flowers here in Raleigh. Who knew they sold wholesale?  Flowers were very reasonably priced and Fallons was very helpful in determining how much I'd need, etc.

My original plan was to get cupcakes from my fav, the Cupcake Shoppe (pretty in pink and red velvet, obviously, because they are the most delicious and also to keep with the pink and red theme).  At some point the week of the shower I nixed that idea and decided to make them myself because I wanted to make cute little wrappers for them:

I made the toppers myself, and bought nice paper and cute flowers from Michaels and made the wrappers using this template (more thanks to Mom for helping me cut!).  The cupcakes were chocolate and vanilla with funfetti icing, and they were a huge hit!

I had a few surprises in store for Steph.  The first was these wish cards:

I borrowed the idea from something I saw on Pinterest and re-created it.  These cards were so cute - Steph said she and Jon read them all and were both laughing and crying.  My intention was to get a really nice scrapbook for her to put them in, but it honestly slipped my mind.  Maybe next time!

The next surprise is one that some of you may have seen at weddings.  A lot of people have started coming up with creative ideas for their guest books.  Enter below thumb print tree:

I wanted her to have something for Hadley's room so that Hadley would know how much she is already loved, and so that Steph and Jon would have a little piece of the shower to take with them.  I found several designs I liked and roped my friend Moneque into painting the canvas for me.  She did a fantastic job - I was beyond pleased with the way this turned out, and I know Steph absolutely loves it.  If y'all get a chance, check her Gifts and Mo page out on Facebook...you won't regret it!  She is so talented and has never NOT been able to do something I've asked about.  Thanks Mo!  I bought various shades of green ink (and baby wipes for clean up!) and some nice pens for guests to make leaves and write their names.  My favorite signature was "Fun Uncle Jeff."

Finally, one more favor and the gift table:

The popcorn idea evolved from about 10 other ideas that didn't work out, but I'm pleased with the way it turned out.  I got the popcorn from Carolina Popcorn Shoppe over on Western, and I am here to tell you it is delicious - people are still raving about it (If you ever drop by, I highly recommend their caramel popcorn.  To DIE for.).  I bought the bags and ribbon at Michael's and made the labels myself.  The very last picture is of the gift table - just wanted you to see my cute banner (and the bird cage that Diana let me borrow for my wedding which housed the wish cards).

Apologies that I didn't get more pictures, but the shower was a huge success.  Steph and Jon, we love you both and can't wait to meet Miss Hadley!  Special thanks, once again, to the following:

• Mom and Dad, I couldn't have pulled it off without you!
• Bekah, for the diaper cake and koozies, and all of your help with set up.  And for eating.
• Heather, for your help with set up.
• Mo, for the fantastic canvas which I cannot stop talking about because it is amazing.

Hopefully I didn't leave anyone out!  Almost hump day, and I am pretty stoked about it, because it's one day closer to the release of Breaking Dawn on Thursday.  No judgment zone, you know you're all wishing you could stay awake to make the midnight showing, too (clarification: I'm not saying I'm going to the midnight showing, I'm saying I wish I could keep my eyes open long enough to make it, because I totally would).  :-)

Sarah

IT'S A GIRL!

I realize that the title of this post will be confusing to those of you who know that I am only 10 weeks along and do not in fact know the sex of my baby.  I am referring to the baby of my bestie, who is also pregnant and due before we are on December 30, 2011.

Steph and I met a LONG time ago (12 years?  Maybe longer?) at choir camp (yes, you read that correctly).  Church choir camp, to be exact.  We were instantly friends and have never looked back. I am so lucky to call her my friend, and we are so lucky that our  husbands like each other, too:

Baum Wedding, May 16, 2009

Sometimes, like when we're out of town and leave them at home alone and they act like fools, we might wish that they didn't get along quite so well, but for the most part we feel lucky (really, now that I am thinking about it, it is the husbands that should be glad that we chose our mates well, because if they didn't like each other, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't really care).

Anyway, today Steph & Jon found out that their little bundle of joy is PINK!  We are so excited for them, and I can't wait to buy lots of cute little girl things for my future neice. 

Hadley Jo, you are so blessed to have the best Mom & Dad in the whole world.  You are already so loved, and we can't wait for you to make your appearance in December!  I promise to always buy you clothes when your Mom won't, especially if they are pink and sparkly.  Steph, I am so grateful that we are able to share this important journey in our lives together, and I can't wait for our babies to be besties, too (or better yet, husband and wife!)!  Also, you have to let Hadley wear these when I buy them, or else you will risk hurting the feelings of a pregnant woman, and I'm pretty sure you know better than to go there.  :-)  And Jon?  Sorry in advance, because you've already got "SUCKER" written across your forehead. 

Love you both!

Sarah