Ivy Grace

Greetings, blog world.  Little Ivy Grace is here!

She was born on Father's Day, which was about 2 weeks early, but she's doing great.  We're just working on fattening her up the best we can.  Too bad she can't digest cookies yet.

I feel as though I've lived ten years since I last posted on here.  I think having a baby is even more like Inception than I thought.  Haha.  Time somehow slows down but also sometimes speeds up?  I don't even know, but I do kind of feel like I'm passed out in that van free-falling into the river.

There's so much to say about everything that went on, but pushing a child out of your body isn't exactly material for the internet (in my opinion--although I sure am glad others have no shame so I can google whatever the heck I want). So I'll just say that it was a really really awesome experience.  Bizarre, sure--but awesome.  Let's all take a moment to appreciate the person who invented the epidural.

Ivy is attempting to learn to live life on the outside.  Scott and I are also attempting to learn to live with her on the outside.  She is definitely harder to take care of outside the womb, but she's also so sweet that we can't help but love her and her crazy behaviors.  I've come to find that taking care of a newborn is hard, but it's even harder when you (1) are a crazy person with crazy-person hormones, (2) are tired and can never catch up on sleep to stop being tired, and (3) are dealing with the repercussions of childbirth.  So...I'm not sure who designed this system, but it is flawed. ;)

We are happy and healthy though and shucks, my window of opportunity to write this post just ended.  It's time to feed the little bundle of joy fury.

Haha this photo is one that just has to exist.  Poor Ivy doesn't like family photos.

Inception

I really do try to write about things other than the human in my stomach, but anytime I try to think about or do something else I get a sucker punch in the *insert any body part here* to remind me who's boss.  So here we are again, but just know that the end is in a couple of weeks and then the blog can move on from this stage of life that is only second in awkwardness to the 7th grade.  Actually I may have no time to open this laptop ever again, so maybe this blog will just die an awkward death, I don't know.

A few weeks ago we watched Inception and I realized having a baby is inception.   "Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate."  YES.  The sucker punches certainly contribute, but this is exactly what has happened--it's hard to think of much else.  Just call me Creepy Mal.

I think I do kind of look like this sometimes in my pregnant state...

Just waiting for that train to take me to the hospital...

While we were watching the movie, Scott noticed Leo's watch and had some inception of his own creep in. He hasn't worn a watch since his mission ten years ago, but now suddenly he needs one.  Haha.  We convinced ourselves it could be a 5th anniversary present and ta-da: new watch (not Leo's, but it's a nice one!).

This may be my last pregnancy post, so I figured I'd wrap it up with some final observations.

• Why haven't we established better predictions surrounding due dates?  I don't even care if the birth is soon or not, I just need to know when it is.  
• I haven't had a single pregnancy craving but I think it's due to the fact that I'm normally pretty strict about what I eat so allowing myself to have normal treats is indulgent enough that I don't have to take my palette to any other extremes.  Maybe that Sonic tater tot I ate the other day was the gateway though, who knows.
• We hit that point in the pregnancy that I feared would come: the time where we wavered in our 5-years-and-running top name choice and now have no set baby name.  I went to my brother's high school graduation and heard the names of approximately 500 females, which I thought would be helpful but instead it made me wonder how on earth some of those parents really thought those were the ideal names for their children?  If any of you readers feel that way about whatever name we choose, you can just assume we cracked under pressure.
• I'm still exercising 6 days per week and I'm pretty positive this has contributed to my general dislike of pregnancy, but I'm still happy I haven't given in.  As a note to my future self who comes back to read this: You made it through that, so you have no valid excuse to not exercise ever.
• Stubbornness reins supreme when it comes to doing whatever the heck you want when you're pregnant I think.  If I want to edge the yard at 38 weeks, then I'm going to do it.  Try to stop me.
• I think by this point, most women are ready to give birth just to get out of being pregnant any longer, but my fear of childbirth and taking care of a newborn are significantly stronger than my desire for a normal waist.  So I guess I'm content to wait it out a few more weeks, which is good since I have no say in the matter.