Happy

I have been slowly entering into the state of new mom sleep deprived zombie. Despite Cedar's best efforts, she is in fact a newborn and does not necessarily respect the rules about sleeping at night. Bryce asked me this morning (as I nursed the baby in bed at 4am) if I was going psycho yet. I had to think about it. But even though my mom leaves tomorrow and I'm sort of in denial, we are happy. Happy to be together. And not psycho quite yet.

Three Kids, No Time

I keep thinking I am going to sit down and write about Cedar's birth before I forget all the details. And I will. But it has been hard to find the time between three kids that all need my attention more than ever these days. I've been really wondering how we will manage to get through the day after my mom has left, and even she admitted that this whole thing seemed like a two person job.

Despite that, we are doing well! I actually got five hours of uninterrupted sleep last night (knocking on all kinds of wood surfaces). And now the baby needs to be fed, and I'll have to leave this for later. Thanks so much for all the kind wishes, they have been wonderful to read.

And then there were five

We are settling into life here as a larger family. It really helps that my mom is here, allowing me to spend much of my day resting and nursing. Cedar has been a very mellow baby so far, and pretty much looks like this picture all day long. I know she is going to wake up at some point soon, and I'm trying to enjoy this stage as much as I can.

I don't have time for a whole birth story yet, but being at home has been such a blessing this time. We have eased into life with a new baby in such a smooth and peaceful way. And Cedar seems to appreciate being surrounded by familiar people and sounds, she seems soothed by it all, even the craziness.

I am infinitely glad to not be pregnant any more, to sleep on my back and to enjoy a beer. I still am amazed by this new life in front of me, and knowing she is my last, I find myself wishing she would stay this tiny forever. Her newborn baby smell and little gassy smiles even make me a little teary (I'm sure the hormones don't help either).

And to answer many a question, Bryce actually came up with the name Cedar. It really fits him and our family and I love it. Her middle name is after a friend of ours, although I also love the meaning. It's different than our other kids' names, less traditional I guess, we'll have to see if she goes by a less traditional route in life as well.

And finally a HUGE thank you to my wonderful midwife Debbie and her assistant Abbey. And thanks to my mom and Jennifer for taking so many pictures!

Cedar Luna

Cedar Luna.
Born April 12, 2011 at 2:37 pm.
7 pounds 10 ounces and 20.5 inches long.

Her birth at home could not have gone any better. We are all doing well and are all completely enamored of our new baby girl. She is perfect in every way.

More details soon.

No, actually

No. Baby. Yet.

Chocolate

I have a friend who is pregnant right now as well, and she told me the other day that she'd been craving eggplant and spinach. And I've been thinking that her baby is really, really lucky since all I've been craving is chocolate and Haagen Dazs Blueberry Crumble ice cream. This weekend, we had a severe lack of chocolate (in any decent eatable form) in the house, so I tried a couple of new recipes from this website.

The first was homemade chocolate peanut butter cups. These were incredibly easy and so, so good. I only made a half batch, which I instantly regretted as the three other members of my household gobbled them up. I used butter instead of shortening in the chocolate mixture, and they turned out perfect.

The second was oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I really like this recipe, it is super full of oats, and would be good with raisins and nuts as well.

We're still working on these, but I don't think they'll last all that long. This weekend Bryce also started building Molly a new, big girl bed. No time like the last minute to build furniture! She is really excited about it, and it's going to look very nice once we move the crib out of her room.