Welcome Little Cowgirl

This morning I was very pleased and honored to host a baby shower for Erin to welcome her new little cowgirl, Carys Olivia!

We had brunch at Iron Cactus and had a loosely "cowgirl" themed shower. With the cold weather (and I assume the theme), we had many many pairs of boots in attendance which I truly loved.




As a shower for a second baby, Erin needed more specific things as opposed to the pure volume of onesies and blankets that a first time mom needs. She received a double stroller from her moms' group friends, glider from her in-laws and a couple other big ticket items that round out her kid supply.

From the hostess perspective, I was very happy that our shower craft worked out. We made a name sign for little girl's room with each attendee decorating a different letter. It turned out beautifully!

Cade's Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party

Baby's first birthday party - done! Success!

This afternoon we had Cade's first birthday party. The theme was "the very hungry caterpillar" which I think is his favorite book. We read it at least 3-4 times per week. For the theme I found a few simple decor ideas, specifically a caterpillar out of balloons (4 green balloons, 1 red balloon and some construction paper eyes) and a construction paper picture caterpillar (4 green circles, each with a picture of Cade in the middle, a red circle and the same construction paper eyes/antennas).



Yesterday while eating breakfast and wondering what in the heck I was going to feed people at the party, I thought to do the same food from the book. Ya know "On Monday he ate through one apple, but he was still hungry." Monday-Friday in the book is all fruit so very kid friendly. On Saturday the caterpillar eats a ton of stuff, including one slice of Swiss cheese so that translated into a cheese and cracker plate. While Cade took an AWESOME nap yesterday morning I had a rogue shred of ambition and decided to create table tents/labels for all the food. Holy cow I got SO lucky because one Google search produced an huge graphic that had pictures of all the food and the text from the book. So I saved it, opened in photoshop, did some quick cropping and sent them to Walgreens to print as photos. Score! The fruit/cheese with labels and a caterpillar cake from HEB rounded out the decorations and theme. And I gotta say, I was pretty damn proud of it all. It came together very nicely!

For his part, Cade was a birthday party champ. He took almost an hour nap right before the party and then got dressed in his birthday boy t-shirt and plaid shorts (of course, I love that kid in plaid shorts). And he was happy, happy, happy.

For the first 45 minutes of the party, everyone mingled, snacked and the under 2 crowd played with toys (the over 21 crowd enjoyed a few beverages). Cade received a "Cars" themed toy early from my parents and so he showed the other two kiddos, Rowan and Kenneth, all about that. He was such a ham! He was playing, smiling, walking and just loving all the attention.



Then we sang happy birthday (Cade almost stuck his hand in the candle but my ninja-like mommy skills had that sucker blown out too quickly) and ate cake. This was Cade's first REAL taste of legit, super-sugary cake. He was in total heaven. He gobbled up his piece and then wanted more to eat. We redirected his hunger to pear though because one piece of cake when you are one year old is plenty.



When I got him out of his highchair to go open presents we discovered a huge glob of yellow frosting on his shorts. So in true Cade style, he got to be pants-free for the rest of his party.

"We" opened presents (I did most of it but he paid attention for some). He made out like a bandit. A new baby animals book, a pirate ship rocker, a fire truck, a wagon, a hammer-music-ball thing, college money and the hands-down winner of the day...a Batmobile from Auntie Meg and Uncle Stacy. Cade and the other 2 kids could not get enough of it. In fact we had to sit him on it to get him to pay attention to the other presents he was receiving.

The party wrapped up 1.5 hours after it began which was good because he was starting to get a little over-stimulated (and tired though sugared-up, super combination). He had some real dinner, played with his toys and then was whisked off to bed by his dad.

All in all, a VERY GOOD first birthday party. No meltdowns (kid or adult), few leftovers, quick clean-up and an overall easy afternoon with our closest friends and family.

Special shout-out to Mom who came into town yesterday for the event and helped get the house ready. Also special shout-out to Ross for doing the vast majority of the clean up and then convincing the birthday boy to go to bed at his normal bedtime.

WBC

WBC has a new meaning - Walking Baby Cade!

This afternoon while Cade and I were home on an "ice day" we had our neighbors Jenny and Holden over for a playdate. Gotta keep these crazy babies entertained while it is too cold to go anywhere.

And during this playdate, Cade took two steps!

He just stood up and took two steps toward me! What a champ!

There have been no step sightings since then. But ya know, those two probably wore him out. Rumor has it there will be more steps in his future.

Ross actually claims to have seen Cade's first steps a couple weeks ago but I declared it a farce. Either way, now that we have both seen baby steps, we can confidently call him the Walking Baby Cade.



Pre-walking practice by climbing his hippo chair.

Best 2 Minutes of Your Life

You're welcome.




(Thanks Meg!)

#Winning at Motherhood

Hi, nice to see you. I know it's been five days. I'll try not to go MIA for so long again.

At also helps to have a supremely cute baby

Tonight one of my not-yet-a-mom girlfriends asked me what I thought the tangible things were you needed to be successful at motherhood. I'm not sure how she defined success but I was mentally thinking "to keep your family alive, healthy-ish, happy and sane-ish."


She asked for the #1 but that's really hard. So here are my top 4, in priority order.

1. The real, genuine desire to be a mom. Because when you get simultaneously peed and spit up on while changing a poopy diaper only really, really wanting to be a parent will keep you sane. That and excellent baby wipes. Seriously though, motherhood is both wonderful and challenging. Sometimes at the same moment and sometimes you just feel one of those things. When you are feeling the latter, it is incredibly helpful to remember how much, in the big picture of life, you want to be a mom.
2. A good relationship with your significant other. I assume fatherhood is also wonderful and challenging. Inevitably there will be moments that you are both feeling the challenging part and will lean on each other. Many times that will get you through it. But sometimes you will fight. Sometimes you will have big, sucky, awful fights. You need to love each other and be so committed to each other that you can power through the big, sucky, awful fights. And work well enough together that even in the middle of that fight, you can get the baby dressed, fed, diaper bag packed, house locked up and be out the door to do whatever it is life mandates you do, fight or no fight.
3. A strong village. Not your literal town of course, but the village in "it takes a village to raise a child." People you trust with your kid, pets, house, car, self, etc who you can call to help with whichever one of those is needing some extra help. And who will find a way to help you, come hell or high water. The kind of people who will call in sick to their own job because you need them that desperately. People who will non-nonchalantly wash your dishes and not mention that you have spit up in your hair and your breath smells like a horse's rear. You really really need those people.
4. Financial stability. There is likely someone who will debate this one and that's fine. In my experience though, financial stability matters. In the pre-baby days, Ross and I had a seriously impressive (not from the dollar amounts so much as the organization) family budget. We could tell you exactly how many dollars came in when and exactly how many went out and to what. Post-baby, the reality is we know roughly how much comes in, what the big bills are and when they are due. I have no idea where all the little $5, $10 and $20 things go to like I used to. NOT A CLUE. And with a baby, there are a lot more of those. My point is for me, it is important to have enough financial stability not to need to track those things. Because if we are too tired to cook and we really just want to spend $15 on ordering in pizza, we need to be able to do that without concern.

So there you have it. In the World According to Cheryl, those are the four things you need to say you are #winning at motherhood.

PS BONUS I would say you need to be happy with what you did pre-baby. Like for us we really wanted to go to Europe. So we did. And if it is 10 or 15 (gulp) years before we can travel like that again, so be it. We checked that off our list. DOUBLE BONUS You also need Amazon Prime.

To the Royal Mum

Like most of the developed world, I've spent the past 48 hours on Royal Baby Watch. God bless ABC News and its extensive coverage. As one new mother to another, if I could speak to Kate, here's what I'd say.

Our heir and his throne

Yes - this is a letter of unsolicited advice. I suspect it won't be the first nor the last piece of unsolicited advice you receive.

I'm going to assume you are nursing, at least for a short while. In which case, grapes are your new best friend of a snack food. You can eat them with one hand, they are cold and they are juicy which is perfect because you are already or are about to be wildly dehydrated.

What works this week for Baby Cambridge may not work next week but might work again in two weeks. Rhyme or reason? Nope. No such thing.

Even with a palace full of cooks, butlers, nannies and maids, if you feel like a crazy person, that's OK. It's the sleep deprivation. Because there are some things all the hired help in the world can't do for you - like nursing your baby, eating your meals, taking your showers or taking your naps. And somehow, 24 hours in a day really really isn't enough. (And if you feel the urge to punch the next person who tells you to "sleep when the baby sleeps" that's OK too.)

And finally, though you probably own every baby contraption in England, if you don't already have it, may I recommend the $37 vibrating bouncer chair from Target. It is like baby crack and is totally worth importing.

Good luck and may Baby Cambridge be an excellent sleeper,
CB

Modern Mommy Must-Haves

Taken on my iPhone of course

How did the moms of yesteryear do it? "Yesteryear" being anything pre...2005. I don't think I would be as happy or good of a mommy without

• My iPhone. I think my iPhone and I have become even more attached (didn't know it was possible but yes). I use that sucker to track Cade's eating, sleeping, etc; share pics with grandparents, text other mommy friends when I need to be talked off the ledge and to FaceTime video chat with the hubs. I think I would rather live without my left hand than without my iPhone (I'd like to keep my right hand as it is more text savvy).
• My Kindle. Rocking and feeding Cade are good bonding experiences. But I do both 6-8 times per day. I don't have enough hands to read a magazine or book the old fashioned page turning way but I can usually free up a leg to balance a Kindle on and a single finger to swipe to the next page. I'm a well-read mommy as a result.
• Facebook. I know I know. Sounds absurd. What in God's name am I doing on Facebook when I have a baby to care for? I'll tell you: I'm polling parent friends on sleep techniques, comparing meltdowns with kindred new mommy spirits and sharing pics with far-flung friends. Using one of the two devices mentioned above of course.

PS Not kidding. I finished this post, grabbed my phone to upload a Cade pic to Flickr to include here and the thing did nothing. NOTHING. Damn near had a panic attack. After 5 minutes of pressing the power and home button in every way imaginable, I seem to have revived it. God bless America (and Apple).

To My Cheer Squad

Wednesday while in the hospital I had a virtual cheer squad. Coast-to-coast, Deltas were texting me asking about my progress, the awesomeness of the epidural and in general entertaining me. Ditto to a handful of Lone Star state girlfriends.

It was like having my very own dedicated cheer squad, all on my iPhone.

2 members of the Lone Star State squad

The nurses probably thought I was a little kooky for being concerned with keeping that bad boy plugged in until it was time to push but whatever. When you are hooked up at 17 different wires and tubes (or so it felt like) and are watching a pink line tell you that your body is freaking out, a virtual cheer squad is pretty fantastic.

So to my cheer squad, thank you for your encouragement, love and wonderfully inappropriate comments on good drugs as a benefit of labor and delivery.

Cade is here!

He's here!

I guess all I had to say was "please" because Tuesday night the ball got rolling on Mr. Cade's arrival.

(I'll give the short, PG version of labor and delivery here. If you want the rated R version, give me a ring.)

Tuesday evening we thought my water broke and instead of taking any risks went into the hospital to check it out. After some testing it was confirmed that some of my water had broken so it was off to labor and delivery with me. Tuesday night was pretty uneventful; I had contractions but they were so mild I didn't even feel them. Since Ross had worked Monday night and fought a 7 hour fire resulting in zero sleep, he eventually crashed at home and Mom stayed with me on the off chance that things got more interesting (they did not).

Wednesday morning we started me on pitocin to increase the contractions and move things along. I started getting uncomfortable during contractions but nothing I couldn't handle. Until one. I was so surprised by it my first thought was the position I was in must have pinched a nerve in my back. That was when I said bring on the epidural ASAP. Thank goodness. Because real labor, as in active pushing labor, did not begin until 3:30p. And lasted FOUR AND A HALF HOURS. Ladies, if you have had a baby you know that pushing for 4.5 hours is not quite normal. I didn't know how not normal it was until after the fact (probably for the best). In short - big smart genius baby head and a fairly small mama are not a match made in labor-and-delivery heaven. Ross was by my side the whole time, less about 5 minutes during our one break when he persuaded me that he should tell our parents I was still alive. He was a champ and worked just as hard as the delivery nurse.

Cade Daniel Black; 7 lbs, 3 oz and 20.75"

Then at 7:52p our baby boy entered the world.

That night he met most of his Texas-based immediate family and his godfather. Thursday he met more of the important people in his life and today we came home.

We're all doing really well. A little tired as you can imagine but happy to be home and slowly starting to settle into our new routine (as much as anything with a newborn is routine). He's feeding well, sleeping well and is under Lexi's watchful eye most of the time.

I'll share more of the post-delivery goodness later. For now, I am going to spend time with little Cade, relieve my Mom, and get ready for the 10 pm-ish feeding.

Enjoy the pics!

39 Weeks

39 weeks pregnant! I've transitioned into PJs all the time. I'm also avoiding shoes that I can't just slip into. I'm trying to avoid socks too (its really hard to reach my feet) but sometimes your feet are just cold and socks have to be put on.

How big is baby Cade? I dunno. Oversized pumpkin from the state fair? A pony? A VW bug? He's BIG and Mama is BIGGER.

If you have any pull with the baby-birthing gods and don't mind calling in a favor...well, I'm not above asking you to do it. Let's get this kiddo here!

PS BabyCenter.com says he's the size of a mini watermelon. Mini. Please.

Amazing Things About Pregnancy

While you know all the things I'm cranky about with pregnancy (lucky you), there are two things I've found really really amazing.

A Whole New Human

Admittedly on your fourth overnight trip to the bathroom it can be challenging to remember the coolness of it but I'm actually creating a new person. Prior to this the most exciting thing my body ever grew was strong fingernails. Now it's magically producing a little person with muscles, bones, organs and even a little personality. When I remember to think about it, that is nothing shy of amazing.

Impact on Marriage

We're one of those lucky couples who have a happy marriage. We love each other, like each other, respect each other, work well as a team, have fun together and a whole lot more. So when we decided it was time to transition from 2 to 3 people in our little family, I didn't really think about how it would change our marriage (I just thought about teeny tiny socks and preschools).

But wow! Being pregnant has made things better than ever. I've never depended on, appreciated or been more impressed by my husband than during my pregnancy. He's awesome. He cooks, assembles furniture, cleans, holds my hand through pregnancy freak outs, races to the phone like a crazy person when I call in case it's "the call" and all kinds of more. Being pregnant changed what I needed from him and he's come through like a champ. I love him more every day for it.

Hi, I'm cranky. So nice to meet you.

My poor husband. He lives with such a cranky pregnant lady.

Though there are no "official" signs of labor, this pregnancy thing is starting to feel a little different, more weight on my pelvis for example, so I think yes, labor must be getting closer. (I suppose that's the only option; it certainly isn't getting further away.)

And though we got our wireless internet fixed today, now we're having problems with our TVs. We have this potentially awesome wired-through-the-walls home theatre system where all cable, internet, Blu-Ray box things are kept hidden in a closet and we can play audio throughout most the house. But I swear it is the most finicky system. And AT&T, which provides our home internet and cable is also a pretty finicky system. Together, they can be a nightmare. We're experiencing buyer's remorse on the home theatre system. And it has me very cranky. (Ross is frustrated as well but he's handling it a little better than I am. I've called/emailed everyone I can think of for some customer support. I also feel a bit of guilt since this home theatre system was something I begged for in the house and has turned out to be so painful. It should be so cool though...)

If you made it this far, you deserve a treat. Ten bonus points to you my friend. And one free baby snuggle when the little guy arrives.

Game On

I'm 38 weeks and 1 day pregnant. Cade is the size of a leek. (More importantly he's the size of a baby.) It's baby-birthing month. GAME ON.

There's really not much to update on. At our doctor's appointment yesterday, we discovered that I shed 2.5 pounds from the week before. Amazing the results of switching from full fat ice cream to low fat ice cream. Otherwise... everything was basically like it was the week before. No significant progress to report.

Now I'm just battling intermittent home wireless access and hoping I'll be able to work from home Monday. Because I'm big and PJs are way more comfortable than regular clothes but are kinda frowned on at the office, even at my pretty casual office. And I'm planning to work up until he arrives so the more my home office situation is conducive to that, the better.

Also on the wireless internet access front, I never realized how dependent we were. Working, Netflix watching, printing (wireless printer), iPad using, Facetime-ing. Our current modem is like a Hollywood romance, on-again off-again. Hopefully it will be more on-again between now and whenever the new one arrives...which was supposed to be today but was not but will hopefully be soon, internet gods willing.

T Minus 15

I know babies don't always come on their due date (in fact most don't) but still, I'm keeping my countdown based on our due date. Because that's the best I've got.

Tomorrow we go in for our 38 week appointment. There's no reason to expect any earth-shaking news but I guess you never know.

...And that about covers it. Over and out.

Very Pregnant

37 weeks and 3 days. I am VERY pregnant. Friday's doctor's appointment confirmed it.

Up until now my weight gain has been very low but everything was looking good so I was just chalking it to one of the good cards I drew in the game of life. Well Friday I got on the scale at the doctor and had put on FIVE POUNDS IN EIGHT DAYS. That means 27% of my total pregnancy weight gain occurred in just one week.

I guess this explains mine and Ross' perception that I was looking much bigger by the day.

I'm still in a super healthy, relatively low weight gain range but needless to say, that was quite a surprise. I asked the doc if we should be concerned or what I should change (if anything) and she said no reason to be concerned, just keep up with the normal healthy eating. I take that to mean possibly not eating ice cream seven days per week. Which is really quite sad. I haven't had any ice cream since then but I have every intention of buying frozen yogurt today and enjoying that tonight.

In other very pregnant news, yesterday I was especially cranky. Nothing was comfortable. (And the threat of an ice cream-less existence did not help.) Well last night we figured out at least one contributing factor: I was running a slight fever. We're 95% sure that it was a side effect to the TDAP vaccine I was given Friday (as in fever was among the 6 things you might experience in the days following the vaccine). Thankfully with some Tylenol, my temperature dropped within an hour and when I woke up this morning, 12 hours after crawling into bed, I felt entirely normal.

Here's to hoping today is a more pleasant day in pregnancy, if for no other reason than Ross is at work and the only person I'll have to whine to is myself and I really don't want to hear it from me.

We made it!

We've officially made it to the promised land. Full-term! 37 weeks pregnant and Baby Cade is likely the size of a stalk of Swiss chard. (I don't think that means chard like chardonnay which is really too bad because that sounds delicious.)

BabyCenter.com estimates 6 1/3 pounds but I know the margins of error are pretty big at this point. I mean some babies are big and some are small, they have to start trending that way eventually.

Ross built the glider yesterday and I've finished packing the hospital bag (well at least as much as I'm packing it). We're making progress!

Now it's time to wait.

And wait. And maybe even wait some more.

I'm not pushing (pun intended) for him to come this month but pretty soon we'll start trying out every old wives tale there is to get Baby Cade out of my belly and into the world.

Spicy dinner destinations in North Austin/Round Rock anyone?

Grandma Caro Knows

While Mom was visiting this weekend, she said to me "I realized nearly everything I've given you for the baby is travel related."

That, Grandma Caro, is because you know me. Car seat, stroller (with tight turning radius for navigating shoe store aisles), clutch-like diaper changing thing, car bottle warmer. Yes these are the things that Cade and I will need. This is, after all, the baby who will have seen both US coasts before his first birthday! (Cali in May, Boston in October - yay weddings!)

Also yup - Grandma Caro! Mom's family has traditionally done "Grandma [first name or nickname]" so growing up I had Grandma Betsy, Grammy Dot, and Grammy O. Caro is the nickname her college roommate and BFF gave her after deciding that Carolyn was simply too long of a name.

And finally, I realize I've become one of those women who only blog/talk about their baby. I promise I know there are other things in the world besides Baby Cade. One day, I may even blog about them.

What to pack?

Since I'm off work today for President's Day I decided I'd take the extra time and get our hospital bag packed. Here's the conversation with my hubby about it

Me: Most the stuff will be for me of course but I've got a go-home outfit for him. And I thought I'd pack a change of clothes, toothbrush and contact lens case for you. Anything else you'd like to make sure we have on us so you don't have to go run to the store or home? Deodorant maybe?
Ross: Yeah, deodorant. Gum.

So I picked up and packed not one but two packs of gum. How couples ever had babies before gum, I know not.

Among the other things I've been told to pack (and have packed) are a bathrobe, bendy straws (very good suggestion!), shampoo, face wash, socks and a variety of things too personal to blog about.

If you've been down this road or have helped someone down it, what else do you suggest packing?

Showering Baby

This afternoon was our Austin baby shower hosted by Brittany, Nichole, Erin, Meg and Karen. I gotta tell you, I am lucky to have such fantastic girlfriends because I had another wonderful shower!

They served us delicious food (mmm southwestern egg rolls...mmm hot spinach dip...mmm), a beautiful jungle cake topped with a stuffed giraffe and pregnant lady friendly blue punch which I drank out of a special purple wine glass. We played the "how big is Mommy" game and fellow TriDelta alumna Megan won. I'm 11 sheets of toilet paper fat if you wanted to know.

And then so many wonderful gifties! My friends obviously know me well as books were a big part of today's shower too. They served as the cards and many have little notes to Cade written in them. Especially near and dear to my heart is Make Way for Ducklings from my parents. It is one of my favorite childhood books and when Cade travels to Boston with me in October for my cousin's wedding, we can actually go to the Public Garden and get his picture taken with Mrs. Mallard and her ducklings (well the statue version).

Today's gifts were overwhelmingly also of the practical variety. Feeding accessories, pacifiers, swaddle blankets, bath time necessities, all things we really needed. Including, the gift that made me giggle most, a coffee maker. Up until now we've never had one and I don't even know how to work one honestly (I also only drink fancy Starbucks "milkshake for breakfast" style coffee so the lack of coffee maker is no problem in my life). But Ross recently announced that his infrequent coffee intake was going to increase with fatherhood so it was time to get one. His mom came through and now the dad-to-be will be caffeinated for those late night feedings (which I can assure you will be happening now that we have all the necessary supplies).

The girls took lots of pictures and I promise to share as soon as I have them. Thank you to my wonderful hostesses and to our many friends who helped us get ready for the arrival of the wee baby Cade!

Update: Picture Proof!

This Baby

This baby, he wiggles. A lot. Wiggling with every inch of his body he must be because I can feel him up, down, right, left. How can you be in so many places at once little boy??