It's been two weeks

It seems the babymoon is over. I'm feeling stressed. And a little overwhelmed. Thank goodness Jason has not yet gone back to teaching full time.

Kaia has what appears to be colic, which our baby book reminds us is a five letter word for "the doctors don't know why my baby is fussy." For the past three nights she has had bouts of crying that last for way too long and are intense. Her little body tenses up, her toes curl, her tummy gets hard and she cries out. We try changing positions, walking around, burping her, changing her, swaddling her, unswaddling her, etc, etc. Nothing seems to help. We had this same problem with Sierra and just sort of rode out the storm. For four weeks. Sigh. It's just so frustrating that this tiny little person is so obviously hurting and I am powerless to do anything. I don't know what's causing the hurt, but it could be something that I'm eating that's transferring to breastmilk. First step I'm taking is eliminating dairy from my diet. Let's hope it does the trick. And this kid better realize how much I love her to give up cheese for her.

Sierra's also been having a rough time sleeping for the past several nights after doing really well for awhile. She's awakened 2-3 times and had to be taken back to her bed, crying, and put back to sleep. Thankfully, Jason has stepped up and taken care of our oldest because I have, of course, been waking up several time a night to feed and change the little one.

Sierra continue to do really well in her role as big sister, though we do have to remind her to be gentle around the baby. She often wants to hold her and touch her and she will bring me a diaper when Kaia needs a change. We've been telling her a lot that she's such a good big sister, and it's sinking in because she'll say that about herself when she very gently pats Sierra's head "you're such a good big sister." Very sweet.

Harper turns 2

Saturday, we ventured out of the house to celebrate Harper's 2nd birthday with her family and some Woodberry friends. Sierra had fun with her buddies that she hadn't seen all summer, and was really upset when it was time go. I guess we'll have to set up some playdates in the near future!

Tommy and Sophia have a tea party. (Sierra was here moments earlier as well, but I didn't move quick enough for photographic evidence)
The girls eat cake
Sierra and the birthday girl read some stories with Lorae

There was more fun to be had, but admittedly, I did a crappy job taking photos. C'est la vie, I suppose.

Sierra escaped at one point and wandered upstairs. Hunt had seen her escape, though, and I found them on the floor of Harper's room where Sierra was looking at all the books on the shelf. The kid love books. Which is good, I suppose. Not so good is the fact that there are constantly books on the floor of every single room in our house!!

I also got to finally meet Reiss, Harper's little sister who was born while we were in Montana. How fun that Sierra and Harper both have little sister so close in age as well!

Fashion faux pas?

Do you think you could rock this outfit?

Fur-lined brown winter boots
Navy blue "Universidad Salamanca" t-shirt
(no pants)
Too small mint green sunhat

If anyone can do it, that person had better be as cute as this little blondie:

Life: Better with a serger?

A what? A serger. What the heck is a serger, anyway? Take a look at the seams of the clothes you're wearing right now (you are wearing clothes, aren't you)? See those funny, loopy stitches that connect the front of your shirt to the back? Those were made with a serger.

Sew, Mama, Sew is having a contest to win a new serger. To enter, I have to answer this question:

"How would your life be better with a serger?"

Once upon a time I was going to start a business based in my sewing. I make baby carriers (and lots of other stuff), but I was ready to launch a small business selling a few carriers a month.
I started the process, put in a lot of time and research and then was stopped cold by a little thing called "product liability insurance." It seems that the insurance industry is terrified by baby carrying devices. Who knew?

So, no making baby carriers to sell. And since I was running out of friends who were having babies to make carriers for, I had to find a different outlet for my need to sew. The answer: little girls clothing!


Could this possibly be Business Plan B?? I'd love to think so, but in order to make sell-able quality garments, a serger is a must.

I'll show you why. I'm going to make a "scrappy ruffle skirt" for Sierra with my regular ol' sewing machine. It will do the job, but the job would be soooo much easier and the finished product so much better if I had a serger. Without further ado ...

Step 1: Empty scrap bin on floor. Beware that the scrap monster does not consume the baby lying near by.
Step 2: Choose scraps of fabric to use in patchwork design. In this case, I'm going to use fabrics that have various shades of green in them.

Toddler wakes up, demands a snack. Feed toddler. Dress toddler. Feed baby. Burp baby. Change baby. Return to sewing room.

Step 3: Lay fabric out to visualize how prints look next to one another. Rearrange the order. Rearrange the order again. Remove that weird one from the plan entirely.

Remind toddler to be gentle with the baby. Decide toddler is not being gentle with the baby. Rescue baby. Toddler demands, "BUT I WANT TO HOOOOLD HER!!" Distract toddler by reading a book about elephants. Read a book with Nicholas the Bunny. Read a book about Olivia. Read a book about dogs. Feed baby. Burp baby. Change baby.

Step 4: Begin sewing scraps together. Vary the size, creating a patchwork pattern as you go.

This step would be made ever so much easier with a serger. That machine would very quickly put together all the scrappy pieces into a lovely patchwork design.

Toddler is getting bored and begins removing items from cubbies in sewing table. Return curtain rings, spools of thread, several zippers and a roll of elastic to their proper places. Take baby and toddler to the playground. Return and make lunch. Feed baby. Burp baby. Change baby.

Continue sewing scraps into a patchwork until you have enough for a 3-tiered skirt.

Increased level of toddler crankiness indicates it's naptime. Put toddler in bed. Read story about Alexander's day. Put toddler back in bed. Put toddler back in bed again. Read story with baby animals. Lie down with toddler. Fall asleep. Wake up and realize you are napping during precious toddler-free sewing time. Slide out of bed.

Step 5: Trim all extra fabric from patchwork pieces.

With a serger, this step could have been completely eliminated. The serger would have trimmed excess as I sewed the scraps together. Wouldn't that have been nice?

Feed baby. Burp baby. Change baby.

Step 6: Iron all seams open. (There are a lot of seams)

Another step that a serger would have eliminated from the process. Not only would my patchwork have had nice, neat serged seams, no ironing would have been necessary because the serger removes that extra seam allowance.

Step 7: Cut patchwork into strips to use in constructing skirt: 2 long pieces, 2 medium and two short pieces. Cut another fabric to use as the skirt's trim and waist band.

Toddler wakes up, demands a snack. Cut up some fruit for toddler.

Step 8: Sew the 2 long pieces, 2 medium pieces, and 2 short pieces together to create front and back of skirt. You now have three loops of patchwork that will form the 3 ruffled tiers of the skirt.

Feed baby. Burp baby. Change baby. Remove toddler from sewing chair. Realize toddler has spun your spool of thread around and around and around while you were taking care of baby. Remove thread from sewing machine. Untangle. Re-roll onto spool. Rethread machine.

Step 9: Baste along the top of edge of each of the three loops of fabric. Line up side seams of lower ruffle with side seams of middle ruffle. Pull on tails of basted thread to gather. Pin in place. Repeat to attach middle ruffle to top ruffle. Repeat to attach top ruffle to waistband.

Toddler runs into the room with no pants and exclaims, happily, "I went pee-pee! I went pee-pee and poo-poo!" Go to bathroom. Empty frog potty. Wipe toddler's bum. Wash toddler's hands. Put toddler's pants back on. Wash own hands. Find toddler gummy bears as reward for going in the potty.

Step 10: Sew the tiers of the skirt together.

A serger would make this step easy as pie, trimming excess seam allowance while neatly attaching each level of the skirt. Instead, I'm left with ragged edges. While these don't affect the finished look of the outside of the skirt, they do make the inside look rather sloppy.

Step 11: Attach the trim around the base of the skirt. Fold over. Iron. Top stitch.

Step 12: Attach the waistband. Fold over. Iron. Top stitch, leaving an opening to insert elastic. Pull elastic through waistband. Sew opening closed. Realize squirmy toddler resulted in mis-measurement of elastic. Get out seam ripper. Open waistband. Adjust elastic. Close waistband again.

Feed baby. Burp baby. Change baby.

Ta-da! The scrappy ruffle skirt:

And the inside of the scrappy ruffle skirt after a wash:

(insert music from a slasher movie here) AAAAAAAUUUGH!!! THE HORROR!

(That's my horrified face. Do I look horrified?)

If only I had a serger, this terrifying result could have been prevented. Post-wash, all serged seams would have looked lovely and clean, ready for the next wear without trimming a mass of frayed and tangled threads.

So would life be better with a serger? Well, certainly my sewing would be better with a serger. And if I could use the serger to launch a little online shop, well, yes, life would be better as well. Now if I could just find one that will also clean the bathroom and vacuum the dog fur off the rug ...

One week later

Our second daughter, Kaia, was born 8 days ago. Exactly one week ago, we brought her home from the hospital (where, as you know, she was not born!)

We have all been adjusting to life with a newborn, and Jason and I are remembering all the little things we used to do automatically. A few days ago, I had just fed Kaia and she was still fussy. "Did you burp her?" Jason asked. How could I forget that? (Lack of sleep, maybe?) A few taps on the back and a baby belch later, she was happy as can be.

The major difference this time around, of course, is that we have a toddler. A toddler who doesn't sleep past 7:00am and still fairly regularly gets up at least once a night. This means that there aren't really a lot of opportunities to sleep in with the baby or take long naps in the afternoon. Not to mention, I want to make sure that I'm giving Sierra plenty of focus and attention so she doesn't feel slighted by her little sister. I've walked with her to the playground a couple different mornings, and Jason has taken her to the pool. So far, I've been really impressed with how Sierra has taken to her role of big sister. She has asked to hold the baby almost every day, and she will say, "I want to snuggle Kaia," and asks us to lie the baby down on the couch so she can snuggle up next to her. She has been very gentle and comments, "She has tiny ears, she has teeny tiny fingers." It's really adorable. A couple days ago, Kaia was lying next to me on the couch and Sierra climbed up next to us with a book. Instead of asking me to read it, she said, "I'm going to read a story to Kaia."

My mom has been here since before Kaia was born, and that has been a huge help. She has done quite a bit of toddler chasing and book reading and baby holding. She's leaving tomorrow, though, so Jason and I will really have to figure out the balancing act of two children on our own.

The transition is made easier by the community we live in and for that I am so thankful. A friend of ours set up a calendar for our friends to come by with dinner for the next couple weeks. That should give us enough time to figure out our routine with the ever-looming question of "What's for dinner" already answered. So to our Woodberry friends who are helping us while we adjust to having a newborn again and being a family of four: Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Yesterday was Kaia's first post-natal check up with our family physician. She weighs 7lbs 5oz, an amazing jump from her birth weight of 6lbs, 11oz. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised based on the way she eats, but it is just such a different experience from when Sierra was this size. With her, we really struggled with breastfeeding and as a result, she lost too much weight and there were several scary days when we were really worried about her. Perhaps this is my karmic reward for being so determined through the struggles we had with Sierra? Maybe I just know what I'm doing this time around. Every child is different, every parent I know has told me. I'm looking forward to the adventures to come.

Not just for the movies (Jason's account of delivering a baby in a mini van)

Em here. Because he had so many requests for his account of Kaia's birth, Jason relented and wrote up his perspective. Enjoy.

Opening Remarks:

Sometimes, men do know what they are talking about.

2:21pm: Em informs me as I’m taking an afternoon siesta that she has been contracting and has started timing them.

3:00pm: I’m told I should get my overnight bag ready for the hospital. Everything is calm and things feel low key and steady. There’s a sense of having done this once before and knowing what to expect (how’s that for foreshadowing!?).

3:30pm: Em decides her contractions are getting further apart and that this may be false labor pains. I suggest calling our midwife and making our way to the hospital (turns out this is an important remark in the story). My darling wife, being the one in possible early labor and knowing her body, feels this is not warranted because Donna, our midwife, will just tell us to call back when the contractions are closer. So what does Em decide to do? Why go into Orange, and run a couple of quick errands.

4:30pm: Em returns and she has visible labor pains on her face. The decision is made to go to the hospital. As we get stuff together I ask if I should grab some food for the road. Em feels we have plenty of time and insists I eat something before we go. Mom Komiskey pushes Em to get out the door while I cram food into my mouth.

5:02pm: We depart for Martha Jefferson Hospital.

5:03pm: We stop on Woodberry Forest Road next to the varsity soccer field so Em can get out of the front seat and lie down in the back. This is my first inkling that we may be pushing this rather close. I turn off the radio while Em puts on her iPod and selects a hypnobabies track for relaxation during each contraction. I tell myself everything is fine and continue to our destination.

5:21pm: I had just turned left onto US 29 South when I hear a humming. What the hell is that? Something wrong with the car? I realize it is my wife softly humming with the latest contraction. Obviously they are increasing in strength and duration. Stay calm.

5:30pm: Driving through Ruckersville, the humming as now transformed into “ohms” like which you hear during meditative yoga. Why am I hitting every red light? Stay calm.

5:40pm: Damn, traffic is heavy right now. As I make a steady 40 mph through Forest Lake, Em’s yoga chanting has increased in octaves and duration. What if this baby is going to come before I make it to the hospital? Stay calm. Hospital is just 15 minutes away…you’re going to make it.

5:47pm: As we enter Charlottesville, the road opens up to four lanes and I attempt to distract myself by turning on the radio. Something is being mentioned about how the Nationals only have until midnight to sign their top draft pick. Em chants again at a volume just under a scream and then… "My water broke! All over the place!" Damn, I just cleaned the car. “It’s okay babe,” I reply. “Do you have a towel to place under you?” Em begins to fish a towel out of her bag. Stay calm. Sierra took 30 hours to come out after she broke the water. Damn it! Another red light! 10 minutes to the hospital. I turn the radio off.

5:50pm: Screaming from the back of the van. “Ahhh! Baby’s coming! Pull over! Pull over! Pull over!” Houston, we have just lost gravity. It takes about three microseconds to process this information and another three microseconds to realize I could not be in a worse lane in order to pull over. Emerging from another red light I find myself three lanes away from the ability to turn right. There’s a car one car length behind off my right bumper. I easily cut him off (though somehow I still managed to put on my turning signal). As I made my way into that lane and began to go to the next I recall seeing the insignia of an Audi in my passenger side mirror. You know the one that says “objects may be closer than they appear”. “Pullover! Right now!” I cut off the Audi and I have no idea how we did not wind up in a minor fender bender. He must have seen my craziness two lanes over. “Right now! Right now!” I hit the brakes and make a hard right onto the first road I see which seemed to come up ridiculously fast. In fact looking back on it, I’m pretty sure I spotted an exit from 29 South while I was in the third lane and just made a bee-line to it and hoped no one would hit us. Driving on the unknown road really fast, I realize I’m entering a parking lot and make another sharp right and spy an empty parking spot. I aim for it and brake hard. I’m loosely in the car spot and a lot still in the road. “You’ve got to help me!” Good enough. I cut the engine and open up the side of the car and rush into the back seat. Holy shit she’s crowning. I reach into my pocket and grab my new phone to dial 911. “911, what’s your emergency?” I reply as calmly as I can manage, “Yes my wife is having a baby…Hello?...Hello?” I look down to see the call has been dropped. Thanks for nothing Verizon! “Focus! The baby’s coming,” says Em whom has found a sense of inner peace as she gives herself to the birth process. Suddenly there was no time for doubt or fear. All that mattered was delivering Kaia into the world. “Push” I tell Em and then I was cradling Kaia’s head as she emerged from the birth canal. Another push and she was out.

5:55pm: Jeez she’s slippery. She’s not breathing! A second later I had her body positioned chest down in my right hand as I gave a quick but firm tap to her back between the shoulder blades with my left hand. Kaia began crying. YEEESSS! Breathe Getz! I had not realized I had been holding my own breath. I place Kaia on her mother’s chest to create the bond between the two and again call 911. This time the call goes through and I give our precise location (the parking lot of the IHOP in the Colonial Auto Center). I’m asked if we need the ambulance. It is the first time I considered that as an option and not a necessity, but seeing that Kaia and Em are both doing well I ask what Em thinks. “Let’s just go to the hospital”.

6:03pm: With adrenaline still running through my veins, I pull the car back onto US 29 en route to the hospital. I am the freaking man!

And then there were four

Jason and I left the hospital about 24 hours after we arrived.

(side note: the standard is to stay an extra night in the hospital, but it's not particularly comfortable, and everyone was doing well, so we were discharged. We were happy to head home to our older daughter and our own bed!)

On the way home, Jason pointed out to me where Kaia was born (in a parking lot between IHOP and a car dealership, if you were wondering), and where I yelled at him that my water broke. It wasn't that far. I'm still amazed by how quick it happened!!

I headed in first to give some love to Sierra and let her know that she was going to meet Kaia. When I told her we brought Kaia home, Sierra said, "She's inside Mama!" I wish I could have a picture of the shocked look on her face when I explained that she came out, she's a baby, and Daddy was bringing her in so Sierra could meet her. That first glimpse of her baby sister, she looked totally confused.

She recovered quickly, though, and wanted to hold the baby.

Kaia looks pretty pleased to have a big sister, doesn't she?
I had forgotten that newborns take awhile to get their nights and days straightened out. Just as I was getting ready to head to bed last night, around 10, Kaia decided that she was ready to be awake. Wide awake. And looking around, and no thank you, she would not like to lie down in the dark. So we stayed awake, and as a result, so did Jason, until 12:30 or so. And Sierra was in our room, ready to start the day at 6:15 this morning. Jason, wonderful man, took the toddler and allowed me to sleep in with the newbie. And he even had breakfast ready when I got up. Love him!

My mom is here to help, which is great. She cleaned my bathroom while we were in the hospital, and she's been doing quite a bit of toddler chasing and reading stories. Right now, she's being rewarded for her efforts by having a 2-day-old snuggled in her lap.
Sierra has taken well to being a big sister. Today she asked to hold the baby again, unprompted. And when I lay Kaia down on the couch to get a few pictures, Sierra wanted to snuggle up with her. I hope this lasts, even though I'm sure there will be good days and bad days. Sierra did need a little extra "Mama time" today, so I made sure to do bedtime, read stories, and give her some extra snuggles.

How to: Make an Entrance (Kaia's birth story)

Ahhh, yesterday was certainly one of the more interesting days of my life.

I am currently resting in the hospital, a tiny, new baby girl wrapped up on my chest, and I wanted to start getting my thoughts down while they are still fresh.

I was 40 weeks pregnant as of this past Sunday.

Here I am in all my 40-weeks-pregnant glory
Sierra says "I'm givin' hugs!"
And the last photo of our family of 3

I made it all the way to the due date without meeting Baby #2, which actually surprised me since Sierra was 10 days early and gave me my very first lesson in parenting: don't expect things to go as planned.

Well, the birth of our second daughter certainly reiterated that lesson!

Yesterday was one day past the due date. I had been having some low back pain for a couple days, but nothing to get excited about. Probably late morning yesterday, I started noticing the back pain more regularly, but since my Braxton Hicks contractions had been increasing in frequency for the past couple weeks, I didn't really pay much attention to it. About 2:00pm yesterday afternoon, I lay down with Sierra to get her to nap and I started timing the contractions. They were about 5-6 minutes apart. I thought I might nap a little with Sierra, but with the contractions that distance apart, I was excited that we might soon be meeting our second daughter, so I went downstairs to make sure Jason had his overnight bag packed and alert him that we would likely be leaving for the hospital that afternoon.

Downstairs, my contractions spaced back out to about 12 minutes apart, and they were only about 35-40 seconds long, so I thought we had lots of time to go. I went into town to run a couple errands and when I got home, I called my midwife to let her know we would be heading to Charlottesville shortly. Jason wanted to know if he should get something to eat first, or if we should just go. At that point, contractions were 8-ish minutes apart and not all that intense, so I encouraged him to get some food because I thought that it would be awhile before he had the chance to eat again.

We left for the hospital around 5:00pm, leaving Sierra with my mom, who arrived last Wednesday. My contractions were about 5-1/2 to 6 minutes apart, lasting 45-50 seconds and we had about an hour drive ahead of us. I started out in the front seat, but then decided that I would be more comfortable lying down in the back seat, so before we even got off campus, I asked Jason to stop. I climbed in the back and lay down with my pillow and a hypnosis for childbirth track playing on my headphones. I was certainly feeling my contractions, but the birth track I was listening to kept me relaxed and though I was feeling intense pressure, I wasn't really hurting. Still thought we had plenty of time to get to the hospital.

As we continued toward Charlottesville, I started vocalizing through each contraction. I started out with a sort of humming and continued to increase my vocalizing to a sort of "ahhhh"-ing sound.

We were in Charlottesville, but not yet at the hospital when my water broke, or rather, exploded all over the back seat. After the next contraction, I managed to get up, and lay a towel down on the seat underneath me. Jason continued to drive.

Within minutes of my water breaking, I suddenly realized that we were not going to make it to the hospital. This baby was going to be born right here, in the back seat of our Toyota Sienna. I started yelling at Jason.

"YOU HAVE TO COME BACK HERE! PULL OVER! PULL OVER! BABY'S COMING! RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOW!! RIGHT NOW!!!

Jason said he swung across three lanes of traffic and parked erratically in a parking lot. I was struggling to get my shorts off and I could feel the baby starting to crown. Jason was in the back with me at this point, and within three (maybe four) pushes, he had caught our second daughter, rubbed her to get a cry, and put her on my stomach, cord still attached. I wrapped another towel around the both of us and glanced at my watch: 5:55pm. At some point in there, I had ordered Jason to call 911, which he did, but once we realized she was breathing, crying and fine as far as we could tell, we let the ER know that we didn't need an ambulance and we would just meet them there, as we were only about 10 minutes away.

Jason got back in the driver's seat and paged our midwife. For some reason, she wasn't able to call him back, but she later told us that she heard someone was coming to the ER who had just delivered a baby in the car. "Oh! That's me!" she said. And she met us in the ER with a couple nurses from Labor and Delivery. I was really, really happy she was there. She whisked me away from the ER folk, who were ready to try and get me out of the back and tie off the baby's cord with a shoe lace since they didn't have a clamp. A little alarmist. Donna (our midwife) was a wonderful calm presence, and she helped me out the side door of the mini van and onto a stretcher, where I distinctly remember saying something along the lines of, "Does this actually happen in real life?" (Clearly, it does!!) We went upstairs to Labor and Delivery and delivered the placenta.

A big welcome to Kaia Louise Getz, a little peanut at 6lbs, 11oz, and 19 inches long. We welcomed her at (about) 5:55pm August 16th, 2010. So far, she's been doing great at breastfeeding, and looks absolutely perfect. And every single person who's been through our room in the last 16 hours has said something along the lines of "I hear you had quite the day!" Yes, yes we did.

First picture of Daddy and Kaia
And of Mama and Kaia
Our midwife, Donna
What a sweet face
All snuggled in

Do we look tired? Sleep in a hospital is a bit disruptive.
Ready to head home. So tiny!

Out and about ... without!!

Without diapers, that is! Yes, it's true, we have now been out of the house several times and Sierra has not worn a diaper. Exciting, yes? Oh, I think so. The first time was early last week when friends from Connecticut were visiting. We headed up to Culpeper to have breakfast and then did some shopping. Next up: the longer trip to Charlottesville where we went to my midwife appointment, the bookstore, the fabric store, and stopped for a muffin. Yesterday, the farmer's market. Today, grocery shopping and Target. So far, so good. Let's hope it continues.

It's a big step, I think, for both the 2-year-old and the parents. We have been casually potty learning with Sierra for most of the summer, and as long as we have been home, we have pretty much not used diapers during the day. But up until now, I was not really brave enough to actually take her anywhere without a diaper on. But now we've made the plunge. The trick is being diligent about taking her to potty every hour or so. So far, we've avoided accidents (big, loud knock on wood) but I'm still going everywhere very prepared with clean-up items and extra clothes!

Blogging hiatus

Hey there. Seems a few people have been wondering where I've been in the blogging world.

First of all, no, there is no new baby yet.

We arrived home six days ago and I have been busy. I have to fit two months worth of "nesting" into two weeks. Or less. Who knows how much time I'll actually have. In fact, I could go into labor tonight. I hope not. I'd love a few more days to finish another project or two. And I'd love if Baby #2 would wait until my mom gets here (tomorrow night ... late).

So ... what have I been up to? First let me give a you a little background on the layout of our house. The upstairs has 4 "bedrooms". Don't get too excited. That sounds a lot larger than it actually is. Two of the bedroom are small and the other two are tiny. The tiny rooms have normal sized closets. The small rooms have uselss closets. One has a hamper in it. The other had a litter box in it. Nothing else fits. Up until this point the rooms have had this breakdown:

Small room 1: Our room. Our furniture all fits as long as you don't want to walk around in the room.
Small room 2: This has been my sewing room with sewing table, another small table, shelves along two walls and a twin bed with a trundle.
Tiny room 1: Work space for Jason that's not in the heart of the house. There's a futon, a small student-sized desk, and a 3-shelf bookcase. Oh, and Sierra's toddler desk. That is all that will fit in there. Tiny, right?
Tiny room 2: This has been Sierra's room. Small baby furniture fits in here. Just enough room for a crib, changing table, dresser, and a small bookshelf.

Baby #2 will start out in our room for probably the first year of her life, but after that, we hope to have both girls in the same room. Obviously, Tiny Room 2 is not large enough to accomadate two people (even if they are small people). Not to mention, Sierra has not been sleeping in a crib, so we want to move her to the twin bed that's been residing in my sewing room. So, I'm swapping Sierra's room and my sewing room, leaving the twin bed in the room that will now be Sierra's. But I want to paint first. Currently, all items from both Sierra's room and the sewing room are in Sierra's room. There is a path to the changing table (which we haven't really been using since Sierra appears to be nearly completely day-time potty trained). It's pure chaos.

Also, because of the insanely small size of the closet, I've added a row of shelves along one wall with a hanging bar at the top to serve as a partial closet. The bottom shelves can be used for toy storage and the like. Phew. I'm almost finsihed. With that part, anyway. Then I hope to move the baby room stuff to Sierra's room so that I can at least have access to my sewing machine and make curtains for the room. There's more. But if I can get that one room finished, I'll be beyond happy. We shall see.

Welcome home?

We arrived back in Virginia yesterday afternoon. Virginia has not done a very good job of making us feel welcome. It was 90 degrees yesterday, followed by severe thunderstorm warnings yesterday evening, and today, an expected heat index of 110. Great. (Did the sarcasm come through digitally, because I'm laying in on pretty thick.)

The five day trip was, for the most part, uneventful. Which is a really, really good thing. The fear in the back of my mind was that Baby #2 would decide to make her arrival along the way. She did not. She is welcome to come out any time now that we have arrived home, but I would really prefer another week to finish some projects.

We left Montana Saturday morning, and drove half-way through South Dakota. Sunday, we woke up early and went to my parents' in Galena. We stayed there for a day and Jason and I actually had a date! A date! We really should try to get out more. It seems we only go out without our child (soon to be children) when our parents are around. But this time, it was Jason's birthday. So we went out. We saw Inception (amazing. If you're think about seeing it, do) and had dinner at the sushi place in Galena.

Tuesday we drove to Ohio. That was Sierra's worst day. She was done with being in the car, and she really let us know about it. Most of the morning she spent yelling. Any time she needed or wanted something, she would yell. "I NEED A DRINK!! HELP ME WITH THE COLORS! I NEED A SNACK!!!" Frustrating. Yesterday was better.

Everything is in the house and the obvious items have been unpacked (kitchen items, suitcases), but there are still some miscellaneous bags to sort out and put away, Sierra's suitcase and toys, plus things that got taken out of bags and not put away. I'm trying to remind myself that it took 3 days to get packed. Everything will not be unpacked in a couple hours. Then! We must clean! Did you know bathrooms get disgusting even if you dont' use them for 8 weeks? Did you also know that when you are not in your house for 8 weeks small, crawly things move in? Ugh. Our cats are still at Jason's brother's, but I anticipate when they return (tomorrow, I think he's heading up to get them), Sophie will dispatch with any remaining unwanted visitors.