Mother's Day Craft

 Hello, this is a simple craft you can do to make beautiful cards. You will need paper, a rainbow ink pad (any color works, but rainbow gives a little extra special touch) and the feet of a very sleepy baby (you could also use a stamp or the side of your hand).

 Press the foot of the very sleepy baby into the stamp pad...

 and onto a piece of folded paper.

 Use a crayon to add details, make sure to wash baby's feet off before the ink dries... And there you have it! A beautiful card just in time for Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day from my family to yours. Make it a beautiful day and Have fun!

Welcome, My Son.

 

Welcome, my Son to this wide and wondrous world. Yours was not the birth we had planned for you. We wanted you to enter this world in our home surrounded by love and comfort, but my body was not strong enough in the end. Plans had to change quickly or we both could have been lost. It was no ones fault and could not have been avoided. This was just the way my genetics played out. 6 days before your estimated due date our midwife sent us to the hospital because some of our lab works were slightly off. When we arrived only half an hour later, things had progressed at an alarming rate. My platelets were low, my blood pressure was extremely high, my blood oxygen levels were dangerously low, my protein count was ten times what it should have been, I was in the first stages of organ failure, and I was at high risk for a stroke or seizure at any moment. The decision was made that you had to come out if we both were to survive.  Amazingly as I got worse and worse, your heart rate remained perfect throughout all of what was to come.  Though I did not feel them yet I was already having contractions at 7 minutes apart and was dilated to 4cm. The only method of induction they had to use was to break my water and things got rolling. 

Our wonderful Doula (Laura) came driving home from Chicago (a 6 to 8 hour drive) the second she heard what was going on. She was amazing and gave me the focus I needed. Our midwife (Cathrine) came to be with us. She also was amazing and took command of that little hospital room. Your Poppy, my Bear, my strength, my love, was there by my side the entire time and yes, he was also amazing. There was so much love in his eyes and I drew so much strength from him as he literally held us together. We filled that room with strength and love despite the bright lights and a Dr. who stood back and made it clear what she thought of home births. We ignored her and did what we had to do. Somehow we managed to convince the hospital staff that I needed no pain killers (I was able to give you that at least). My hips started to sublex and your Poppy and a nurse braced me on either side. The hospital refused to let us labor in any position other than on our back (I am sorry. I did not want you to have to work around my pubic bone so hard). I tore. I tore bad, but we kept going. You stopped while crowning for an hour and a half to two hours. I could feel your head but you would not come the rest of the way out. We could get though this. That much I knew for certain.  

After 10 hours of labor on April 14th at 10:27pm you made your way into this world. Your father carried you up to me and laid you across my chest. They would not let us wait for the cord to stop pulsing like we had planned, but your Poppy was the one who got to cut it. You began looking for food immediately and I refused to let the nurses take you from me. They preformed every test they could while you were in my arms. I think you were about two hours old before they convinced me to let them weigh you right next to your Poppy and I (and then to return you immediately). You were 8 lbs and 5 oz, 20 inches long, and perfect in every way. 

10 days later and I am still on bed rest. My blood pressure is still extremely high but we are home. We've had a few scares since, and you developed a rather nasty case of jaundice, but we were able to treat you here at home and even that has cleared up now. We are doing fine. We are going to make it.

I sit here with you in my arms and think, while this is not how we planned for your birth to go, it is where we needed to be. The people who needed to be there were there, and what had to happen happened. There were so many prayer warriors around the world praying us through this and God heard every single one of their sweet voices. Truly nothing but the grace of God brought us through this. We are home. We are healthy. We are safe. We are family and you are our son. This is how you entered this world. Glory to God indeed! Proof evident that prayers are heard and answered.. Even if it's not what we planned it is what God planned. In His wisdom and mighty hands I place my trust and you, my son.Welcome to this wide and wondrous world. With all my love, Your Mum.

Knit Baby Clothes and Anniversary

It's done! My first knit sweater and baby's first outfit!

4 years ago today I woke up just Me;
That day in a chapel Me became We.
After years of love and laughter
Our We is about to become 3!

Happy Anniversary Bear. I love you more and more every day and am looking forward to this new chapter in our lives. We made a commitment to stand beside each other no matter what. Thank you for daily proving to me that  I chose the right partner. You are going to be a wonderful father to our son. Our son. Such beautiful words. We are full term and he could arrive at any moment. He will be the best of the both of us and more. We have made a unique and beautiful individual together. I can't wait to meet him and place him in your arms. I love you always.
Your Fox~

Nursery Mobile.

 Hello. We have been so busy getting every last minute detail in order for baby that there has not been much time for me to finish this one item. A few weeks ago I posted about my baby shower and am back to show what I did with the pieces of my decorated chandelier afterwards.

 

 I really wanted to make a mobile to match the nursery's decor; so I saved all the pieces off the chandelier after the shower, added a grapevine wreath and some pretty scrap ribbon. 

 Here are what the animals look like close up. They are made with shrinky dink plastic. Originally I was going to do the entire mobile out of shrinky dink.... Then I thought that perhaps breathing in melting plastic might not be so good for myself or the baby (face palm); I switched to card stock to make the leaves for the rest of the mobile and tied them in groups of 3 and 4 using embroidery floss to make a leaf chain. Hmm, the pictures might illustrate that better than my description. 

 Next I tied them all to the wreath keeping in mind how I wanted them to look when I hung up the finished project.

And The pretty ribbon worked lovely to hang the finished mobile to the ceiling. And at long last it is done! Not much longer and we will be welcoming our son into this world. I am so excited to meet my little Red Panda. Take care!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

 Happy Saint Patrick's Day. This is one of my favorite holidays and I wanted to post our nature table today. Wherever you are have a blessed day.

Baby Shower!

 Warning: This post has many pictures and is very long!

My dear friend SARN was so kind to throw a baby shower for us. After many months of planning the day of the shower arrived. The day was filled with laughter and love. This baby has many people who have stepped in and are fighting for the title of Grandma. Bear's mother gracefully sat and took it all in with a warm smile. She is the only person who has a true blood right to the title since my mother has opted to not be a part of this child's life. I let them all banter back and forth about this for a while. There is Nana, and Nona, and Grandmama, and Grams, and a whole army of Aunties, and so on and so forth. I don't know how I will keep them all straight in the end. What a lucky little boy this is to be so loved. You are all so precious to us. Thank you for being a part of our lives and letting us be a part of yours. Thank you for your love.

 The Decorations: The shower was a tea party and the decorations were based off of the nursery's decor. The leaves and animals hanging from the chandelier are going to be part of a project in the near future, so please check back in a week or so.

 SARN made these  trees for the shower and insisted that I have some of my felt table puppet animals present as decorations. The whole things was adorable.

 This owl greeted people as they came in my front door. I am tempted to leave him up.

 I had a hard time weeding out which decorations to post. There were so many trees, leaves, little animals (felt and paper), and so on and so forth tucked around the house. It was truly  beautiful.

 The Food: I have to mention the food. Everyone worked so hard. Even though my midwives have put me back on a dairy and gluten free menu I was still able to enjoy a lot of these things. There were a lot of finger sandwiches, berries, cookies, a few other sweets, and of course 4 different types of tea.

The Games: We played a few games such as:

      Hot Dolly. We passed around a dolly and everyone had to say a boy's name in alphabetical order before they passed it on. There could be no repeats. The timer went off every minute and whoever was holding the dolly when it went off was out. The last person standing won.

 Daddy knows best. I made a list of questions up for Bear to answer. Then I made a multiple choice list to go with them. The guests had to guess which answer they thought Bear answered. It was not necessarily always the right answer and it made for a lot of laughter. The person with the most correct won.

  Guess the Baby food.  There were 10 jars of baby food without the labels  They were numbered 1 -10. The guests had to write what they thought each food was without opening the jar to smell or taste. The person with the most right won. 

Our Wish Tree. This was not really a game but it was so beautiful I had to share. Each guest was handed a leaf and a ribbon at the start of the shower. On one side they wrote their name and address and on the other side they wrote a piece of advice or a wish for the baby and soon to be mum. Later in the shower we collected them, read them out loud, and tied them to these branches. There were so many beautiful things written. When I can finally bring myself to take this beautiful tree down, the leaves will be saved in a memory book.

The Gifts: Thank you everyone for your generosity and love. There were so many beautiful and thoughtful gifts and it was hard to pick what to post; but since this is largely a crafting blog I chose to post these two. This hat, sweater, and booties set was made by my lovely friend L. You can feel the love stitched into every inch of this set. L is a master of all things yarn. I know this set will be loved and carefully folded away when our son out grows it to save for his children one day.

 This amazing baby quilt  was made by my friend SARN. It is breathlessly beautiful. I had to take a picture before years of love turn this blanket into a velveteen rabbit. I know it will be treasured by my son. It is already a treasure to me. 

 The Favors: These adorable buttons were to perfect to pass up. I found them on Etsy at Pandalove Shop. The owner of the shop was very helpful and wonderful to work with. I know I will be going back for party favors in the future when our son is old enough to have birthday parties. 

We put the pins in bags with a few chocolate eggs and a little raffia to look like a nest. I think everyone was happy with them. They certainly were adorable. 

Thank you everyone for making this such a beautiful and memorable day. I know that there were a few of you who could not make it but wanted to be there. I know your love and support was with us in spirit. I am so lucky to have so many beautiful friends. I can't remember ever feeling such a beautiful outpouring of love like that. The whole day I felt like I was wrapped in a cocoon of love, laughter, and comfort, but most of all love. It was the type of shower every woman dreams of and I am blessed to have such wonderful friends and now these beautiful memories to look back on for many years to come. You are all my family and I love you all. Thank you and God bless.

Feeding Geese and Soul

I've had so many posts and crafts I've been meaning to get to, but nature and pregnancy have had other plans for me. However, this weekend Bear and I escaped to feed the ducks along the river. It is a favorite winter past time of ours, but problems with this pregnancy have been preventing us from getting out. It came to a point, bed rest or no, I just had to get out. We took it slow and easy. Usually there are hundreds if not thousands of ducks here, but this year we only found a small flock of about 8 Canadian Geese. They were happy for the bread. We were happy for the stillness and the sound of the river flowing around the ice. It's such a peaceful activity and it helped us take our mind off of the looming threat that we may have to go too another state to have our baby. Things have not been going well. There is a specialist who can help us but he is in another state. It's all set up. If things don't improve soon we will be making a road trip; but for now we are thankful for the small things, sharing a quiet walk along the river, the sound of running water trickling under ice, and for a handful of geese. Wherever you are, have a blessed day and be well.