Happy Valentines Day!

I LOVE LOVE! It's the most amazing feeling, emotion, powerful thing on this earth. Josh first told me he loved me 8 years ago on this day. It's the day I always get a love letter from my dad...I think I have every one he's ever given me. And it's a day when we can hopefully say that we didn't miss an opportunity to tell those close to use how special they really are! This year had an additional meaning...Today Norah was officially 2 months old! Josh took the day off to spend with Norah and I. This year, instead of riding around hand-in-hand, daddy drove us around in the back seat. Instead of getting a reservation at a nice restaurant, we made out favorite dinner in-home after Norah's bedtime. And instead me worrying about what cute outfit I'd wear out to that dinner, we couldn't wait to get our little lady dressed for the occasion. Somehow with all of those changes, it felt as though it was our most romantically intimate, positively amazing February 14th to date. Norah received her first love letter from her daddy, a tradition one day she will come to appreciate more than he can ever imagine. She also received 8 others! 8! She is definitely loved.

We Love You Sweet Girl...
You'll always have at least two Valentines


"Thank you Josh for still making me feel so special on this day! I'm so blessed to have you as my husband, and for our little girl to call you her daddy"
-Me

GILT!

G.I.L.T!
Ok, so throughout my pregnancy I had many guilty pleasures ...IKEA ice cream! Don't ask, just buy! and only $1...anyways, back to what I was saying...I had many guilty pleasures, now as a new mom, I just have guilt! I have realized that as a new mom, you are CONSTANTLY second guessing yourself or feeling guilty on a daily basis for having failed your child in some way. I have worn many hats in life- daughter, designer, wife, friend, etc- but "mom" is a whole new world! After talking with several N.M.O.T.B (New Moms on the Block as I refer to us:) I am at least comforted by the fact that I am not alone in this feeling. I know this may sound very dramatic if you are not a mom, but it comes from a combination of fresh hormones and a love for your child that is the deepest earthly love you've ever know.

Examples:

Got out of the shower today only to hear Norah crying as she had woken up VERY early from a nap. Instead of rationalizing the fact that I was doing her a favor by bathing myself, I felt terrible knowing that she had been laying there sobbing as I was letting Calgon take me away.
Vertic? GUILTY

We are following the BabyWise philosophy of "training" Norah. According to BabyWise and my pediatrician, Norah should be having only approximately 45 minutes to an hour of awake periods at a time before going down for a nap. They say it prevents overstimulation (I'm learning the lingo), aka fussiness, as their nervous systems go in to overload. Well I could not for the life of me figure out why Norah would get so moody towards the end of her awake times. THEN, a good friend of mine just happens to inform me that feeding time (which happens immediately prior to awake time) should be INCLUDED with the awake time. So here I am trying to figure out why she's cranky. Of course she is! She's exhausted
GUILTY AGAIN-Sorry Norah...I promise to be better:)

These are just two samplings of feelings of failure that I've experienced so far...and she's only 5 weeks old! BUT, I got really good advice from a dear friend of mine. Hopefully this will help any of you that may experience this as well. Two things:
1. The fact that you even feel guilt is proof that you ARE a good mom. It shows how passionate you are about this role and how much you care.
2. We don't have as much power as we think we do to mess it all up...they're still God's little people and He'll work it all out anyways.

This is what I'll choose to believe anyways:)

I think these feelings of inadequacy hold true for women in general! We're never pretty enough, in shape enough, too tan, too pasty. We're either too insecure or overly confident/vain. We desire to be the Ephesian 5 wife, but to have our voices heard as well. We want to be seen as a sweet "nice girl" but be sexy at the same time. etc.etc.etc. We are complex creatures to say the least, but isn't that what keeps us interesting after all? When will we give ourselves some GRACE, accept that we're exactly as we're meant to be, and start to seeing ourselves just as God sees us? This is my solemn vow to try to be this example for Norah....Pray for me:)

Snorah strikes again

Snorah Strikes Again....

Cinco Semanas!

5 Weeks Already!...

This week's changes:

1. SMILING, SMILING, SMILING!
2. More (shall we call it) "passionate" crying 
3. 10 lbs (mostly in her cheeks:)
4. Following us with her eyes - makes you feel super special and important!
5. Staying awake during feedings! No more stripping, tickling, or wetting her to awaken:)
6. Hair is thickening, eyes are "blue-ing", and side burns are fading (oh hallelujah!:)

Smiling at Mommy

Guess who dressed me?

Pretty in White 

Wearing my "Peanut" shirt from Poppy

 

Paparazzi!

 First Photos...
Recently, I had the privileged of working with one of my clients, Michele Manning
in designing her photography studio.  I was able to see alot of Michele's beautiful work and knew I wanted her to do Norah's newborn photos.  Michele came out to our house and spent a few hours hanging out with us while we listened to Adele, captured great images, and had such a relaxing, enjoyable experience with our 10-day-old!  

Needless to say, we both cried at the viewing!

  Click Here To See Slideshow

Looking Back At All The Preparation....
I now know why the good Lord gives us 9 months to prepare for a baby...you need it!  It's almost like planning for another wedding.  It always seemed that there was a doctors appointment to go to, something to buy, a class to attend, something to buy, a place to be, something to buy:), or a book that needed to be read.  Don't get me wrong, we loved, loved every minute of it, but it just blew my mind how much was involved.  Now, I'm sure the perfectionist in me definitely overcomplicated this quite a bit, but this was our first baby after all (sorry Weez!) AND my first little girl.  Being the Dave followers that we are, we were committed to staying on a budget while getting everything that we needed.  Our friends told us about this huge "baby sale" that is held in Charlotte twice a year at a local church.  We were told they had everything you could ever need for a baby at crazy low prices...we were sold!  Here was the deal though...they would start handing your required ticket for admission at 8:00 a.m. and would give them out in order of arrival in line.  This was crucial because they only let in a certain number of people at a time and all of the "goods" apparently went fast!  So what does Josh do?  He is the first one there...at 4:00 IN THE MORNING.  I was early in my pregnancy here so was needing ALOT of sleep just to function, so promised to meet him in a few hours.  When I arrived, I found him there, proudly sitting in his chair, the only dad in line...period.  I fell in love all over!  This sale was totally worth it too!  We got lots of clothes, two car seats and bases, a NEW breast pump, and several other items all for about $160!  We'll definitely do the sale again!

Then there was the nursery....

This is one room that I put my heart in to!  Josh would laugh when I would ask, "do you think she would like this?"  He would remind me, "we're still not even 100% sure that it's a she."

Mimi painted the room

SW7081 Sensuous Gray

Putting together the pieces....
 

 

The three of us spent forever putting this together, only to realize it didn't work...returned:(

 

Her storage piece from Ikea took us 6 hours to put together! It had SO many pieces!  Weezie supervised...

Getting creative....

Josh, Dad, and David built a custom changing station for lots of Norah's things.  The room was small so we had to get creative with space.  I designed the space by ripping off the existing closet doors and maximizing the interior, then gave the boys the specs and they made my vision come to life!

 All of the prep, planning, and prayers all paid off.  Now we are able to focus our attention on what's most important, our little Snorah, and not be distracted with all of the other details~ I hope she likes it!

Three Weeks Old....
We have now been so blessed to have spent three weeks getting to know Norah (though she's already wearing 3 months!).  They keep telling us her hair will fall out, but as of right now, it's only getting thicker!  Each day she's more and more alert and feeding is going MUCH better...HALLELUJAH!  I thought it would be the end of me there for a while!  I am just amazed at how babies can tell you so much of what they like, don't like, feel, and need without saying one word.  It's made me start thinking...(here's where Josh says, "Oh no!":)  When we care so much for someone, like our child, and are truly paying attention to them, words aren't even necessary to getting to know them.  Sometimes, I think as adults, we even often say too much, too little than what's expected, or just completely the wrong thing altogether.  Maybe if we all slowed down things a bit and truly paid attention to and were present with others, our relationships would be strengthened to a whole new level, people would always feel like someone truly cared, and alot of the sadness that exists in the world today would disappear. I'll consider this one of my New Year's resolutions!