geting ready for the holidays

I can't believe Christmas is right around the corner!! I am excited and a bit overwhelmed. All 3 of my brothers, their 2 spouses and 3 kids are all coming to Charleston for the week before Christmas and I'm really excited to see them. They're not staying with us (no way I'd have enough room!) but are renting a place a short bit away, and all the new little boy cousins (and one girl) will get to meet each other! It's going to be so cute!

Right after Christmas, we hope to see Mike's brother and family as they come through town - their 3 kids are much older, and have been writing letters to Aiden and I over the past few weeks. I love them! We have become pen-pals, and I think everyone should do this more often, as the letters are witty and fun and just wonderful!

What that also means, is lots of preparation on my part. I want to get a tree, decorate and have most of my shopping done before they all get here. Easier said than done though.

Most of my time is spent in front of the computer, as Aiden is still eating quite frequently, and the doctors have recommended we not take him out in public very often due to the flu season and crowds - at least until he gets some of his shots. So I'm trying to do most of my shopping online. This would be a lot easier if I really knew what I wanted to get everyone! So I spend waaaay too much time browsing websites and looking for deals. Not so much on the actual shopping.

Mike is finishing up his semester with finals this week, and then will be off for the rest of December and all of January. We're really looking forward to that time together with both of us not working or in school.

I do love watching Mike interact with Aiden - he gets such a kick out of his son, and it just lights up both their faces! I have to say - I just love both my boys!!

On the knitting front, I have a new pattern that I'm in love with (ravelry link) that I'd like to make 2 or 3 of for various people. The instructions took me a bit to muddle through as they're very general, and I was hoping for my specifics, so I started one, started a second, and am going back and forth between the two as I go through the pattern. Pictures as I get further along.

Here are a couple more pictures of Aiden - proud momma can't help but brag:

At 4 weeks (8lbs 3.5oz):



Why is everybody lookin' at me?

Ok, enough photos mom - I'm bored of this!

2 weeks into motherhood

It still hasn't settled in yet that Aiden is my son - that I'm his mother. - that he's not leaving with my MIL on Tuesday, or that I'm not just babysitting the most adorable child. I think once my MIL does leave, and with Mike back at school, it'll hit me then. Right now I'm just floating along.. feeding, sleeping, eating, rocking.. and repeat. With the C-section, Mike and his mom won't let me do much more, which is good, because I keep wanting to.

I didn't have many nesting instincts when pregnant, but now that Aiden is here, I really am feeling the nesting urge - but because of the surgery, I can't do most of it - I'm not supposed to be bending down and picking up, or going up and down stairs a lot, or transitioning from sitting to standing often. And I can feel it when I have been doing a lot of that - usually when my meds are wearing off or I'm due for another dose.

It's been lovely having her here - I really have been blessed with some wonderful in-laws. Next week is going to be .. a new challenge I think. Great way to start off my 34th year - as my birthday is Tuesday! Being 34 hasn't sunken in either, but I'm not too worried about that.

This week I had some friends stop by to see me, and they all came bearing the cutest of gifts for little Aiden.

My friend Sue hand made the softest rag quilt:

It's just beautiful! and I love the colors!!

Pam and Vera stopped by to hang out with Aiden:



and brought food (Jim & Nicks - yum!)

Vera made two super-cute hats - one for now:


and one to grow into:


(I think he looks like the LOL cat with the lime on his head here)

and soft socks for Aiden's monkey toes!


I keep wanting to knit, but don't have the focus right now. I can't seem to put a yarn and pattern together for the life of me, so that's been put on hold for a bit. Let's get through Thanksgiving first and we'll see where we're at by then.

Presenting Aiden Michael Lauer!!!!

He's finally here!

Aiden Michael Lauer was born on Monday, November 9th at 11:21 pm after a long and arduous day!

So I had my 41 week doctor's appointment on Monday, and went in at 11:30 wanting to talk to the doctor about the changes I had been feeling all morning. I was thinking either a.) the baby had finally dropped, b.) I was having Braxton hicks or c.) something was going on! All I really knew is that it was finally something different than I had been feeling for the past two weeks, and I was hoping this would lay to rest the idea of having to induce me.
I met Mike at the Dr.'s office and was worried I would have to use the restroom before I had a chance to give my urine sample for the day, so when my name was called, I rushed right into the bathroom - where my water broke!!

I realized this when the color was all wrong (there was meconium in it) - otherwise I don't know if I would have recognized it for what it was! The nurse seemed awfully calm, and put us into the examining room, and I had Mike start timing what I now am realizing are contractions. It only surprises me more when Mike says that they are 2-2.5 minutes apart! I guess I had always thought of contractions as feeling sharper or more distinct. All morning they had just been an uneasiness in my stomach, as if someone was tightening my belt on my pants and I had just eaten a really full dinner -that plus some mild crampy feelings. I will admit, now that my water had broken, they were getting more painful - now they were more like a stitch in your side, just all across my belly.

The Dr. came in and decided to wheel me over to the hospital (the office and hospital are connected) - I was officially in labor!!!

To make a long story short, my water broke at 11:30, I was admitted around 12 and was about 3 cm dilated but the baby hadn't dropped. By 1:00 I had decided an epidural was going to be a good idea. They had to do two takes on the epidural, the first one put in had a kink in the catheter in my back and was stopped up, so they had to put in a second about an hour later. By 5:00 I was 8cm, and at quarter to 7pm I was 100% effaced and 10cm dilated, but still no droppage from the baby - so it was time to start pushing. After 3 hours, the baby hadn't moved very much, and his blood pressure was dropping - that with the meconium in it, they wanted to get the baby out sooner rather than later, so I was wheeled to the OR for a C-section, and our beautiful baby boy, Aiden Michael Lauer was born at 11:21pm on 11/9/9!

We arrived home on Thursday, and I can't believe that he is officially one week old now! Here are some pictures of my new baby boy:

Here he is home from the hospital:


A few with Daddy:




and at one week:





Ahh Sweetness:

still waiting....

No baby yet. Technically this Monday I'll be at 41 weeks, and no signs from baby that he or she is making a move for the door. :(

I think that's the hard thing about due dates - I'm perfectly happy being pregnant (I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit) and everything has been going quite smoothly, but now I have a little voice in the back of my head saying "something may be wrong here... no baby yet.. is this going to make delivery harder?...no baby yet....where's baby? why haven't you felt contractions yet?" etc. etc. and the little whispers go on...
If I didn't have a due date, I'd like to think I'd still be in my bliss of happy pregnancy. Although all the test I've had so far says' baby's doing fine - and I can feel (and see!) the little one moving all the time, so things like that usually quiet the voices.

Monday I have a Dr's appt. and I have a feeling an inducement will be scheduled. I know, I know, inducements happen all the time, but I know a lot lead to C-sections as well. And I know that a C-section is not necessarily a bad thing, just didn't jive with the image I had in my head of how labor was going to go.

I also realize I need to let go of any notion I had of how things are supposed to go, because from now on, I'm not in the drivers seat anymore - baby is. I think I can deal with that... I'd just like to meet the new driver!!! :)

I have finished a newborn baby hat - we'll see if it fits - I've heard 5-7 lbs for baby, but don't know how big the head is:


And I made mittens to match:



I'm almost done with Grumpasaurus Max - just needs feet and new facial feature colors - the blue is too light:


And I'm slowly working on another hat and the Ice Queen Pattern:


We'll see how Monday goes, and hopefully my next post will be all about our new baby!!!! yeah :)

waiting on baby

...to get a move on!

Baby is completely content to just hang out in mama's belly and dance! My due date technically is this Monday, the 2nd, but they had also given us the date of the 5th, and I've had that date in my head for most of the pregnancy. Although it is the first full moon of Nov. I think baby's going to wait a bit till the end of the week at least.

As of right now, I don't feel much different than I did a week ago, or 2 weeks ago.... and it's not a bad thing, I'm pretty content too. The heartburn and that I get tired more easily are really the only things that bug me. So I'm good to wait until the baby's ready to say hello.

The Dr. was worried a bit because I'm so small for how far along I am, and we had a couple of extra ultra sounds to check and make sure baby had enough food/fluids etc. to be okay - and all is good. Baby passed his/her first in-utero test with flying colors! 100% - go baby go!

We're getting tested again on Monday, and we'll see how that goes - hopefully we'll have the same results. The nice thing about it was we got another ultrasound and Mike was there for this one- he missed the 20 wk ultrasound due to being in NY, so it was nice for him to see baby in real-time. Here are a couple of profile and face shots from last weeks ultrasound:

Here is a profile - and what looks like bubbles is the umbilical cord:



These two are face forward shots, you have to turn your head to the side, but I think they are so sweet... top of baby head is ---->this way looking straight at you.

look at those cheeks!



Here - baby is sleeping same as above - forehead is ----> like baby is laying on the side facing out:



My friend Jean made me the cutest baby hat EVER!!! I just love it! it puts my knitting to shame, and it was her first attempt at fair isle - it's just beautiful:



This week, Mike and I attended his school's fundraiser, called the RED party - it was a masquerade ball, and everyone was all dressed up. They had this fabulous person in drag with an amazing costume:

My friend Meghan and I got our pictures taken with... her

Not my favorite shot of me, but ah well!

Meghan made her mask out of broken mirror parts - it was really cool:


It was a good time but really loud, and I was tuckered out by 10pm.
Off to do some more knitting and enjoy the last few days of my pregnancy!

preparing for baby

Ok, I first started writing this post when I had three weeks to go - now I have.. um 2 days.
We'll start with the old post...

Three weeks to go! Eeek!!

I know I know. Everyone wants pictures of me and my belly. It's just hard to find a good time to take one - in other words - when I feel like I look cute or at least half-way decent! Here are a couple of shots to sooth you all. (The ones in purple are from 2/3 weeks ago - the ones in blue - last week - I really haven't changed much...)



Mike and I are trying to pull things together for the baby. We're putting together the final details and trying not to freak out in the process. Or more than that - not get overwhelmed. There is SOOO much advice out there, and so many differing ideas, it's hard not to get swept away by all the chaos.

We have the crib set up, and have finally decided on a glider/rocker -although the picture isn't that cute, it looks much better in person and is very comfortable. We have our car seats and bases - and are putting them into the cars this weekend. I have started packing my bag and need to pick up some snacks and books to put in there. I'm hoping I'll have a quick labor like my SIL's though.

I have been knitting. I'm half-way through the cutest little guy called grumpasaurus - I misplaced one of my DPN's half way through knitting him, but I just picked up the next smaller size and substituted - it's a toy, and the fabric should be tight anyway!

I finished the baby sweater for Max and sent it off - here's a final picture, which doesn't do it justice:



And to torture myself, I've started IceQueen in a beautiful red/pink/purple colorway - not sure how it'll look with the hot pink color, but I couldn't find anything else I liked to make with the yarn (which is soft and oh-so-pretty!), since I only have one ball. I am still open to suggestions if anyone knows of a laceweight wrap/shawl etc. that would look good in the Alchemy yarn. Here's my colorway:


I'll put my new thoughts into another post....

having a bit of pre-mamma anxiety

So at the Dr.'s last week, I realized that I am 34 weeks along, which means.. I have about a month and a half to go. Yikes!!! we're not ready!!! (is anybody ever???)

My due date was either the 2nd or the 5th, the doctors office chose the 2nd and I've always kept in my head the 5th (I hear your first is usually late), but I just checked the moon cycle and the full moon is due for Nov. 2nd. So... I may be right on time! (not that I hold a lot of stock in such things, but... they do say more babies are born on a full moon!)

I have some pictures from my trip to visit my brother and SIL in DC
Here are some pictures of "baby Dominic" as Gabriella called every toy/doll and her brother all weekend - it was so cute!!

Baby Dominic and Daddy



Baby Dominic and Mommy:



Baby Dominic and Gabriella:


G being much kinder to her brothers than mine looked like they were to me....


Me and Baby D:
(not the best picture)


And Daddy and his babes taking a nap:



I did finish my purple sweater and it fit Gabriella perfectly - but I didn't get any pictures of her in it - At first she wouldn't take it - all presents were for 'baby Dominic", but eventually she warmed up to it and I was happy to see it fit! Just she and I went to the park and played while her parents had an event to go to, so it was nice to spend some one on one time with her. One of my favorite shots was of her on the swings:



Having just come from 3 days at a work conference, I was pretty worn out - between having my 'game-face" on the whole time, and staying up late while everyone drank and socialized, it really exhausted me. The scary thing is, I know that when the baby comes, I'll be 8 times more tired than I was that weekend! Yeah, feeling a bit unprepared, but I know we'll do fine when the time comes.

Mike and I are going to pick up the crib and narrow down our choice for a chair today. I have one more baby shower coming up next weekend, and we're just trying to spend some quality time together and get the house ready. Crazy times eh?

watching time fly by...

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted! So much has happened - most of which has kept me from blogging, I just haven't had the time/energy!!

First off - Baby updates - 2 new babies in the Tamburro family - one to each of my two older brothers

Carlo/Kristin are the proud parents of :
Dominik "Nico" John Tamburro - born on Aug. 16th and



Alex/Amy are the proud parents of:
Max Michael Tamburro - born on Sept. 4th



Here are the boys "practicing" with me many years ago - I think they're going to do much better now!



I also got a promotion at work, and have moved up into a larger role - which means I'm spending a bit more time at work trying to get all my 'ducks in a row' before I go on my own maternity leave! So my focus there in getting into my new stride has taken up some of my time too, but I'm enjoying the position and excited about it!

I spent a week in KY with some old school friends who threw me a great baby shower! Here are a couple of shots of me out with friends and at the shower:

An evening out:


The best type of cake:


and the shower:



It was fun and silly and good to see my friends.

Mike started school again and is working hard as a Junior this year. He's also trying to get things lined up for when the baby comes. I can't believe it's happening so fast!! I've only got 2 months left - and I feel like there is so so so much to be done!

I have a few things on the needles to be finished up in the next few days and sent out to the new parents, and then a couple more in que for me and some other prego mamas! Pictures next time. I'm converting my office and craft room into the baby's room, and we're trying to find a place for all my stuff! It'll all work out, I know, I just need to keep calm and breath. There are days I get totally overwhelmed with all the decisions and things to do, and others I've got more energy than I know what to do with and don't know where to focus it. I usually have my hands full on those days anyway. Maybe that's for the best!