5 | Oh Yeah, I'm Getting Married

Oh Hey, Friday! Nice to see you again! With all things baby recently, you I may have forgotten I'm getting married in just over six months. When Erik and I got engaged in February, June 2015 seemed like an eternity away, but now it's right around the corner. Funny how that happens. So today I bring you 5 of the 187 things I still need to do.

1 | Send invites.  I guess we want people to actually attend our wedding, right? It took us long enough to send out Save the Dates, who knows when the actual invite will go out. And I'm just now recovering from writing addresses on nearly 100 envelopes and licking all those stamps. Did you know when Erik and I finally sat down to send out our Save the Dates he said his job would be to "lick the stamps." What is this 1995?! He really, really thought you still had to lick stamps. Oh, my future husband.

There's our Save the Date. We make a cute wine glass and bottle, huh? Also, don't know why I said I was writing addresses on envelopes, seeing as this is a POSTCARD.

2 | Food.  I would say I could just send this blog post to everyone on our guest list and call it a day. But I suppose part of the reason you need to send out wedding invites is to conduct a small survey of what people want to eat. Except we haven't decided what food will be served. So there goes half the invitation. But the important thing is that there will be an open bar. 

3 | Find a wedding dress.  Oh right, that thing I'm supposed to wear. Not only have I not started looking for a wedding dress, I have no idea what style dress I want to wear. I do watch Say Yes To The Dress anytime I happen to catch it on TV, that counts for something, right? I'd also like to be in better shape before I start wedding dress shopping, which brings me to number 4...

4 | Stop eating like I'm pregnant.  You know, it's really hard to do something for 9 months and then just stop cold turkey. Mmmmmm turkey, Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie. You see what I mean? My mom told me yesterday I was "just as skinny" as I was before I was pregnant. Then later she asked if the jeans I was wearing were pre-pregancy jeans. Ummmmm I thought I was just as skinny as I was before I was pregnant?! Gotcha there, Mom. 

I made this for breakfast the other morning. Ooops. 

5 | Cake, flowers, officiant, tuxedos.  All minor details. And if you're following along closely, you probably noticed no where did I mention bridesmaid dresses. I gave that responsibly to my bridesmaids. Genius! I sent out a "very confusing" (their words, not mine) mass text one morning telling my "easily confused" bridesmaids they would get to pick out their own dress and shoes. Takes the pressure on me, puts it on them. But hey, now no one can be mad they don't like their dress! 

Okay now that this post has throughly stressed me out, I'm off to wedding plan. Just kidding. Probably make another bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit.

Sofia Belle [one month]

I can't believe Sofia is one month old! But I also can barely remember our lives before her. She is the best and getting more and more of a little personality everyday, which I love! 

When Erik got home from work yesterday and Sofia heard his voice, she turned to him and her eyes lit up.
Already such a Daddy's girl.

oh you like my white onesie? well it doesn't exist anymore because of the massive poo explosion I had two minutes after mom was done taking photos -- hey at least I waited until she was done! 

[one month update]

stats: Her last doctor appointment was when she was two weeks old, at that time she was 7lbs 7oz & 21 inches. I'm positive she is close to 10lbs now, no joke. 

eating: Girlfriend loves eating. She eats every 2-3 hours during the day and about the same at night.

sleeping: She is awake a lot more during the day which is fun because she is so much more alert and interactive! She naps more in the afternoon now and the evening has definitely become her fussy time... but it's nothing a bath and a swaddle can't fix! Last night she set a personal record and slept for 5 hours straight!! (from 10pm-3am) Keep it up girl! ;)

likes: eating, bath time, white noise, music (trying to get her to like music more than white noise because mom & dad aren't quite the white noise fans Sofia is), pulling mom's hair, bouncing (I'm going to get Michelle Obama arms from bouncing this nugget around so much).

dislikes: the 3 seconds it takes to get out of the bathtub and into a towel, when she was hungry 5 minutes ago and you didn't know it, being swaddled with her arms down.

Sneak Peek: Sofia's Newborn Photos

Oh hey, it's Wednesday! Formerly known around here as Humpday Bumpday. Speaking of the ol' baby bump, I miss it a little. Not miss it like I wish I was still pregnant, maybe miss it more like I'm just being nostalgic. Does that make sense? No? Yes? No. Okay, moving on. We had maternity photos done with Kristin Anderson a couple months ago and loved her and our photos so much, we knew she had to photograph ze babay. She sent over our sneak peek yesterday, and I know this is my child so I am very biased, but I am obsessed and had to share! 

Happy Humpday! 

Sofia's Birth Story Part II

Towards the end of my pregnancy, one of my coworkers asked me if I had had a relatively easy pregnancy. Why yes, I had! She told me that meant I was in for a difficult labor.  Of course, this is what every pregnant lady wants to hear weeks before giving birth, but I can't say she wasn't wrong. In case you missed it, you an catch up on part one here. 

After deciding it was baby time, I was hooked up to an IV and a nurse came to take me from triage to the delivery room. My nurse was Crystal and she was a SAINT. When we got to the delivery room Crystal asked me a bunch of questions, none of which I remember except for, "Who did you choose as your pediatrician?" and "This is a stupid question, but on a scale of 1-10, how much pain are you in?" Obviously it was clear to Crystal that the answer to that was ELEVEN. 

Because of said pain, Crystal quickly got the anesthesiologist to come in and give me the epidural. How women are able to give birth without an epidural is beyond me. You go girl.
It was around 8PM at this time, I was started on pitocin, and my parents were finally able to come in and visit.
Around 10pm, Crystal came back to check me and I was 5cm dilated. Wooo making moves, people! Between 10pm and 1am there was a lot of attempted napping, ice cube eating, and epidural wearing-offing. Because of the way Sofia was laying (head down, face up) there was one part of my tummy I could still feel tighten every time I had a contraction, and it was getting progressively more painful.
At 1:30am when Crystal checked me, not only was I 10cm but my water had broken. News to me! As I couldn't feel a thing down there.
However, she also noticed I had a fever and the baby's heart rate was elevated. She thought Sofia might have some sort of infection and started me on antibiotics. Although hearing Sofia could have some kind of infection made me nervous, deep down I knew everything was going to be okay.
Now it was time to push. And push. And push. And push.
It's also worth noting that around this time Mad Money was on TV and my mom decided it was "too stressful" to be watching and she got up and quickly changed the channel to something more calming-a slideshow of oceans and beaches with zen music in the background. Sometimes I'll be up feeding Sofia at 3am now and catch part of Mad Money and it will always take me back to this moment. (And I can clearly see why my mother thought it was necessary to change the channel-dude has got a lot of energy!!)
However, I started feeling really discouraged after literally hours of pushing and seemingly no progression. I got to a point where I started to think, "Why isn't anyone suggesting a c-section?!" But Erik, my mom, and Crystal were so supportive and encouraging the entire time.
Then finally, right before 5am, Crystal said it was time to call the doctor in. (The baby was crowning!) She also said several doctors from the NICU were going to come in because Sofia would have to be taken there for a few hours after she was born, due to her possible infection.
I pushed 3-4 more times after the doctor came in and I will never ever forget the moment Sofia came out and they placed her on my belly. I will never forget the way she looked or felt. I looked up at Erik and he was crying, and I looked down at Sofia and thought, this is my baby! 
After they cleaned her up, I got to hold her for a few more minutes before she moved to the NICU.

 Sofia Belle 6lbs. 15 oz., 20.5 inches of perfection. 

Our first family photo.

After spending 6 hours in the NICU, Sofia ended up being just fine! And not to sound like a total cliche but, I would do this all over again ten thousand times if it meant I got to be this girl's mama.
We love you so much, Sofia!!