Rachel has been eating lots today, so I got another one handed page done. These are shots as I was on my way out the door to the hospital. I had an 8:30 appointment to be induced.

This page was completed using Doris Castle's Precious Moments kit.

Well, here I sit typing one handed while feeding baby Rachel. You would swear she has a built in alarm clock that tells her that it has been exactly two hours since her last feed. I really can't complain though, because she has been a very good dispositioned baby. It probably doesn't hurt that she gets no shortage of attention around here.

Yesterday, she had her first doctor's visit. Obviously she is eating well because at 9 days old, she has already gained 8 ounces and grown 3/4". Yay! She actually SLEPT through her entire exam with the doc! He poked her, listened to her and looked her all over, but she was just a sleeping rag doll. She didn't ever wake up when he pried her eyes open and shined a light into them. After he was done and I was getting her dressed, she opened her eyes and looked at me like "did I just miss something?" Too funny!

I am trying to get myself back into some sort of routine with the baby, the house, the kids and the schooling. I have a long way to go! This week has just flown by! Hopefully next week will be a little better. I have had it pretty easy this week because I was not supposed to drive and had to say no to stuff and cancel appointments. It has been SO NICE just being home. It is making me think that I really need to limit the running around that I usually do. That can be tough with managing our apartments, though. Perhaps I need to have just a couple of days that I leave the house and fiercely guard my other days at home. The other great thing this week has been that my "peeps" from bible study have been bringing me dinner every night. That has been SO GREAT! Although I have been teasing them that I am never gonna lose the baby weight because they are feeding me too well! Good friends are such a blessing!

I managed to put this layout together rather quickly the other day. This is Doris Castle's newest kit called Sweet Decadence and she included a couple of quickpages with it. It was so pretty and I immediately thought of this photo when I saw it. My daughter snapped this wonderful photo of my mom holding Rachel for the first time. Isn't it great?

With all this eating that baby Rachel is doing, maybe I will get a jump start on her baby book!

Reviving the art of one handed scrappin'

So what do you do when you have to feed a hungry baby and want to be efficient with your time? You do it in front of the computer and scrap one handed!

This first layout was really fun to do with Betsy Tuma's Aa to Zz PSD Templates which are on sale right now at Scrap Outside the Box. I may just have to do an entire album with these templates. They are so EASY to use!
Layout Credits:
Betsy Tuma's Aa to Zz templates
Papers by Doris Castle
Mo Jackson's Crepe Paper flowers
Mo's Charm alpha
Mo's Betsy's bath - old tag
Mo's Designer DooDad labels

The tag at the bottom reads:
Rachel
meaning little ewe; one with purity
Little label reads:
2 days old

The top photo is of Rachel laying all cozy in my hospital bed and the bottom photo is of her dressed and ready to come home from the hospital.

This other layout is of Rachel's first bath at home. Yeah, she wasn't lovin' it! My daughter snapped these photos. I just love what she captured in the main one. So pitiful!

Journaling reads:
Rachel's very first bath happened shortly after her birth and took place in the hospital nursery. She got her first bath at home when she was 5 days old. Since she is not a fan of even being undressed for a diaper change, it was no surprise when she began to holler about being naked AND wet. Poor thing! We made the ordeal a quick one and she settled as soon as she was covered in her wrap-me-up hooded towel.
October 1, 2006

Layout Credits:
Backgrounds, ribbon trim, duckies, tub charm are from Mo Jackson's Betsy's Bath
Letter "b" from Mo's Caroline.
Stitches from Mo's Stitches One.
Water splashes are my own (from Splash City.)

Rachel has been a great baby so far! She only fusses when she is hungry and when I change her diaper. Although she eats like clockwork even through the night, she doesn't keep me awake any longer than it takes her to eat. As for myself, I am not supposed to drive at all this week which has forced me to cancel appointments and just stay home. It has been great and allowed me to rest. I was able to avoid the c-section and had a regular delivery so my recovery has been relatively easy. I am SO thankful for that!

My little ones have not been the best behaved since I came home from the hospital, but they are adjusting and everyone adores Rachel. My older girls argue over whose turn it is to hold her. Patrick doesn't pay much attention to her at all and Abi just loves to talk to her and "pet" her. Now, if I could just get Abi to stop wetting her pants, I would be a happy camper. I know it is common for toddlers to have potty training issues when a new baby comes into the house, but this is the first time I have experienced it first hand. I have cleaned quite a bit of pee off the living room carpet in the last few days. [sigh] I just hope this passes soon.

Announcing...

Our little girl has finally decided to come out and meet us! Rachel arrived after a full day of coaxing last Tuesday evening. Both of us are now happy to be home and are doing well. Thank you all for all your prayers!

***EDITED TO ADD***
In my postpartum, brain-dead state, I forgot to mention that this was created using one of Doris Castle's Baby Announcements from www.scrapbookgraphics.com. I just tweaked the photo to match and added the text. I was gonna create my own, but this one was just WAY too cute not to use!

Tomorrow is BABY day

Unless I go into labor before then, tomorrow is BABY day. I am scheduled to go into the hospital tomorrow morning to try and get my labor going. Hopefully that will work or I will be facing a c-section. Doctor doesn't think it would be wise to wait any longer though with my gestational diabetes and all. Wish me luck and I would greatly appreciate any prayers for a safe delivery for baby and I.

I have also include a couple of recent LOs I have done that I thought I would share. The left one used several fun photos that my oldest daughter took one morning at breakfast. I used Doris Castle's Enchantment kit and her Stroke of Art brushes from www.scrapbookgraphics.com. The one on the right was done using the American Cancer Society Calendar of Hope charity mega kit that I talked about in Saturday's post. And yes there ARE five children in that photo - one's still in utero, though. :-)

I will probably be pretty quiet for a while since I expect to be in the hospital and I don't have the luxury of a laptop to keep things updated.

God bless!

Charity kit and crop

I just thought I would share about this mega kit that was created to raise money for the American Cancer Society. One of my fellow designers at Scrap Outside the Box has been deeply touched by brain cancer and wanted to do a charity kit. As it turns out, many of the Scrap Outside the Box designers have been affected by Cancer of their loved ones and wanted to do something to help others suffering from the same difficulties. We decided to create this lovely kit and donate the funds to the American Cancer Society. I, personally, haven't lost a close family member to cancer, but have still been touched by it. I just found out this morning that a special man at our church passed away last night. He was just diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer last Thursday. I am deeply saddened and I can only imagine how devastating this is to his family. So, anyway, I am so glad that I was able to participate in this mega kit, too.

Scrap Outside the Box will be hosting 4 special crops today to promote this kit at 10am, 2pm, 6pm, and 10pm (EST). There will be prizes from all over the digital community.

CREATING KEEPSAKES WILL BE JOINING SOTB Rachel Thomae of Creating Keepsakes @ 2 p.m. and Jessica Sprague of Creating Keepsakes @ 6 p.m., 10 p.m. EST
There are also crop freebies available, posting bonuses, a layout contest and a participation contest. More details and the links to the downloads can be found here.

I am hoping to be able to attend at least one of these crops today. Although, I would not be too disappointed to miss them if it was because I went into labor. I am still trying to be patient and wait for this baby in God's perfect timing...but it is so hard :-)

Waiting for baby...

STILL waiting for baby. I do really think God is trying to teach me patience! Just like all of my other babies, I have seen my due date come ...and go and still no baby, no labor. [sigh] That's ok; it's not like I don't have anything to do. I went to see the doctor yesterday. They did another ultrasound and the baby is measuring 7 lbs. 6 oz. Perfect size! She is moving just a bit less than she was, but everything still looks just fine. My doc doesn't want me to go past a week overdue because of the gestational diabetes, so if by next Tuesday I haven't gone into labor, she wants to try and get something started or do a c-section.

Yesterday, I was feeling productive and got some cleaning and organizing done around the house and on the computer. I burnt a bunch of photos onto DVDs and cleaned them off my hard drive which is making things run SO much better. I also decided that I should package up these jiffy scraps that I created several weeks ago. I have a bunch of fall papers that I created and these are made with some of my favorites. There is something about the cool crispness of fall that makes me want to wrap up in a cozy quilt. With these, your photos can do that, too! Ü

Just for fun, I did this:

I don't know that I truly see the resemblances and I used a really bad photo, but I am just happy to see that there are some gorgeous women in the bunch! Ü

Hopefully, I will have baby news to post soon. Hope your day is great!

Better mood

Sorry for that downer of a post yesterday. I woke up feeling SO much better today - way less achy and tired. I'm sure it helps that the sun is shining today, too. The kids aren't behaving any better today, but kids will be kids. They have already earned extra chores and schoolwork today because they were all fighting and misbehaving. I may feel a bit better today, but I still have NO patience for that!

Today is my official due date and I have another doctor's appointment and ultrasound scheduled for this afternoon. Hopefully the baby will still be on the small side and all is well.

So do you like my little tomato dude? We came across this cool tomato this summer and all thought it looked like he had a nose, so I photographed it. Perhaps I should get creative and use it to make some cool artwork for my kitchen.

Unenergetic and uninspired...

How's that for a motivating blog title? I had really hoped that I would be posting a baby announcement by now, but, alas, no baby to announce yet. I have eaten spicy foods and walked up and down hills at a local craft festival, but obviously, this little lady just isn't ready to make her appearance. My mood is icky. I am trying to shape it up, but I woke up feeling totally exhausted and achy. As if on cue, my children have been bickering and whining all morning. [sigh] I am hoping things look better after my morning coffee kicks in.

I keep looking around my house at all the things that should be done. There is too much clutter and things are not as clean as I would like them to be. Unfortunately, my energy level isn't what it should be to kick into gear and do some serious "nesting." I am off to try to have some quiet bible study time. Hoping my outlook will improve after that.

A ticking time bomb...

That's what my dear hubby called me the other day. That's because I am just a week away from my due date and have regularly telling him that I am really READY to have this little blessing. I had an ultrasound today. My 4th. That's protocol for someone taking insulin. I will be having them every week until I deliver. All is well and according to her measurements, she is 7 pounds. Now, I am just waiting for my body to go into labor. [sigh] I think God is trying to teach me patience!

Anyway, isn't this a fun little photo of my son? He is so funny about talking to his baby sister. Several months ago I was telling him that she could hear him and he could talk to her. So, he will put his mouth right up to my belly and say something real fast like "I love you" and then act kinda shy. It is so cute, and I wanted to try and capture that in a photo. This is the best we could get and was taken by my 12 year old.

I did the scrapbook page using Doris Castle's BellaDonna quickpages and page set. I love the way the sepia photo looks with this.

Hopefully, I will have a fun announcement soon. Otherwise, I will be praying for patience!