Thursday, April 21, 2016

Our Little Lily is Here! (But you probably already gathered that.)

Ok, friends. I know I'm way overdue for getting started on the Baby Sister posts (c-section...newborn...medication...lots of impediments, you know). Never fear: I'm going to start now! I spent an hour last night sorting through pictures from the past week (an HOUR), so hopefully, I can get things rolling!

I'm planning to write out Lily's birth story plus some other fun, birthday-related stories. Oh, and post pictures. Lots of pictures. I've been putting some on Facebook and Instagram, but there are so SO many more than what I've posted there. I don't like overwhelming everyone on social media with pictures of my children, but here in my little corner of the blogosphere, I reserve the right to post as much as I want, thankyouverymuch.

So, until I can get some more detailed posts written, here are some quick stats:

Lily Catherine Boswell
8:31 am
Duke Regional Hospital
Durham, NC
Weight: 6 lbs. 15 oz.
Length: 20"
Hair: has some!


First family picture.

Thank you so very much to everyone who prayed for and checked on us. Your prayers were so felt, and we are so grateful. We love our little Lily and are so thrilled she's here!

Monday, April 11, 2016

A (side of the) room of one's own.

Quick note: I had the best of intentions of keeping up with my twice-weekly posting habit, but I started slipping this month. The baby will be here in no more than 4 more days, so I guess it's to be expected. I'm going to try my best to do a good job, but bear with me if things are slow. I even made an effort to prep some "random things posts" that I can put up in a pinch while getting into the groove with a new baby. We'll see how it goes. I have a serious goal of blogging as often as possible so that I can document our life before I forget things! 

Back to regularly-scheduled blog fodder:

Ever since finding out about New Baby, I, like many other moms, I'd imagine, have felt a little worried that I would have trouble making sure that she gets the same attention as Claire and feels as firmly established in our family as Claire has been. I think about it a lot during the night when she won't go to sleep and keeps herself very much on my mind...

So, I started thinking about some of the little things I did for Claire before she was born and when she was a little bitty. The first thing that came to mind was the little owl mobile that Kat and I made for Claire when she was a few months old (it's actually still hanging above her bed. Her big girl bed. Because she likes it.). I decided to try my hand at one for New Baby, as well. I started brainstorming for it before Kat came to visit back in November so she could help (obviously). At the time, we didn't know if New Baby was a girl or a boy, so I wanted to make something that could go either way (we're not exactly gender-neutral in general, but I was aiming for it with this) and something that was meaningful. I decided to go with hot air balloons. 

It's not that hot air balloons are particularly meaningful or anything, but I decided they were whimsically representative of where I wanted to go with New Baby's decor. When we were deciding on how to "decorate" Claire's little corner of our apartment in Boston, our friend, Laura Kay, made Claire the sweetest matroshka pillow ("trosta"), which I later used for Claire's weekly and monthly pictures. Since Claire moved into her big girl bed last summer, she's been rather insistent on sleeping with her "trosta" regularly, if that shows you how connected she's been to her pillow. I was thrilled when we got LK's gift for Claire and immediately decided that matroshkas/Ukrainian-themed items were going to be how I decorated for Claire. Having lived there for 2 years, Ukraine is very near and dear to my heart, and I have quite a lot of matroshka/Ukrainian-themed items that I was able to pull together for Claire's room. I even framed a chocolate bar wrapper that I think is adorable and sports a little Ukrainian girl. When my Ukrainian friend, Nastia, visited me in 2014, she saw it framed and hanging in Claire's room and rolled her eyes at me. "Erinochka. We do NOT hang trash on the wall." Well, I DO, apparently.

I loved how I was able to use little items that were so close to my heart to surround my daughter; I see them as a reminder of a time of life that was full of adventure, independence and responsibility, friendship, relying on the kindness of others, lessons learned, opportunities to practice humility, and- most importantly- God's faithfulness in every area of my life. ALL things that I hope and pray are major elements of Bearsy's life. It will be so exciting to share with Claire the significance of her bedroom decorations as she gets older. And I want the same for New Baby.

Now, I realize that perhaps this makes me the worst Pinterest Mom ever, but I have strong beliefs that spending very much on decorating a nursery is a waste of money. At least for our family. Claire spent hardly any time in her room when she wasn't sleeping. That's actually still the case. I didn't even nurse her in her own room. We almost never changed her diaper in her room unless we had an overflowing diaper situation going on in her crib. Our family life was just not set up like that, so spending money on her room was pointless. Thus, we decorated with what we had (I even framed some of my favorite baby cards that people sent). 

We're doing the same for New Baby. The "theme" we've decided to go with is- loosely- travel/adventure/the great big world. Claire's Ukrainian theme is sort of in the same vein, I guess, but New Baby's will be a little broader, less country-specific. Brad and I have both been blessed to have traveled quite a bit, and I've lived in three different countries that were so formative for me, so we're going to use those experiences as inspiration. We want her to be surrounded with reminders that the world is big and diverse and exciting and compelling...and that our God is God over all of it. Now that I have a child(ren), I have so much more respect for my parents and my friends' parents (Hi, Mrs. Tidwell!) who supported us traveling and working overseas so much at such young ages. It kind of terrifies me to think about letting my little ones leave and go out into a world that is so unpredictable. Which is partly why I like the idea of this theme for my youngest daughter. As I worked on her hot air balloon mobile, I prayed over her and myself, asking that she would follow the Lord where He leads...and that I would be obedient, faithful, and supportive of what He has in store for her. It's scary and overwhelming, but I very much want it for her (and me).

So, her mobile is hot air balloons. Her pillow (that I made...I wish I'd commissioned Laura Kay to do it) is a koala (mostly because it's an exotic concept but not too complicated to design), and the pictures on her wall are of places that we've been or hope to visit, etc. I hope it inspires and encourages her. I pray that she learns courage and obedience and that she gets to experience seeing God at work in places outside of her immediate scope of Durham, North Carolina, the South, and the US. 


Before we left Boston, we bought Claire a "Mass Roots" burlap print from a vendor at SoWa (SIDE NOTE: guys, if you're ever in Boston between May-October on a Sunday, PLEASE go get brunch at Masa in the South End, browse the shops at SoWa, and then eat late lunch at the food trucks just past the SoWa farmer's market. Preferably, get a Green Muenster sandwich at the Roxy's truck. Then, take a nap before going to church at Church of the Cross at 4:30, obviously. You will thank me later.). ANYWAY, I took the guys' card and held onto it. A few months ago, I ordered this "Carolina Roots" print for the wee one. I was able to buy the same frame that we have for Claire's print, just in a different color. And no, in real life it is NOT Carolina blue. Like I would ever do that, as a Duke person. Sheesh. It matches the curtains in the girls' room almost exactly.

Here's Claire's on the other side of the room. 

We are a Waste Not, Want Not kind of crew around here. The fabric for the koala pillow came from my stash and the paper that I used to make the pattern was actually packing paper from inside our Ikea boxes. The papers weren't crumpled or anything, so I had Brad save them as drawing paper for Claire. And pattern-making for me, apparently. 

The finished product. Claire loves it, so I hope Baby Sister does, too.

Here are the balloons for New Baby's mobile. All of the fabric was salvaged from an old shower curtain (clean, non-moldy, don't worry) we inherited in our apartment in Boston. The filling I stole from some old throw pillows.

Finished product! I used skewers (like, from a pack you buy to grill kabobs...with the sharp tips cut off) and regular thread to suspend the balloons and cloud. The ribbon actually came off of a Vera Bradley set of pouches that Mom and Dad gave me for Christmas. It just happens to go with the color scheme in their room perfectly. How serendipitous. Claire loves this mobile and keeps calling it "the Baby's Owlies." Claire's mobile is owls, so that's her frame of reference. I think she's hoping that she'll actually end up with both mobiles for herself. Bless.

Baby Sister's side of the room. I'm hoping to add a few more items to the cork board on the end; currently, it's sporting a few pictures from a travel calendar.

I made this map when I was pregnant with Claire and had insomnia. I found a pattern (of sorts) on Pinterest and loved the idea. I used fabrics that I had from around the world and had the best time stitching it. I hope it piques the girls' interests in this great homeland of ours. I'm really looking forward to exploring it with them as they grow.

On the far end, I framed these two postcards. The bottom one is of the opera house in Budapest. Budapest is one of my favorite international cities. I've been twice (once with Brad!) and just absolutely loved it both times. I hope the girls can experience it one day. The top card was mailed to me by a sweet Boston friend when she visited the UK a few years ago. She knows of my Harry Potter love and sought out the cafe where Rowling charted out the course of the novels. She apparently got lost in the process of finding it and spent several hours searching it out so that she could buy me this postcard. I have truly wonderful people in my life. Clearly, I hope to share my passion for Harry Potter with the girls (in the right time and in the right way- I have strong opinions on this), and I would love to travel with them to the United Kingdom someday.

Here's her "Carolina Roots" print in its designated spot, next to a framed card that my friend, Karen, sent me a while back. I love this card because a) it goes with the hot air balloon mobile and b) Karen sent me this card during a very hard season for me here in Durham. We had had a brief conversation where I shared just a few of the things I was feeling and thinking, and the next week I got this oh-so-encouraging card from her that just made me cry and cry. Good tears, no worries. I love the idea of surrounding the girls with beautiful pictures, inspiring ideas, and reminders that we are so blessed to have people that love us so well. And, apparently, you never know if you will mail me something that ends up as art in my house. :)

I can't remember if I've shown Claire's side of the room before, so here's a shot for ya. On the far left are a framed shot of Bear and Amiee (top) and framed Easter egg wrappers of fancy matroshka dolls that I bought in Ukraine (bottom). Next is a matroshka that Amiee painted (!). Her "Mass Roots" print (green frame) is hanging over two framed matroshka note cards, which are next to the framed chocolate wrapper (yellow and orange matting). The poster right behind Claire's head is a vintage Soviet-era poster about reading. Hanging above all of that is a pennant banner I made out of Ukrainian fabric. It's a very colorful room, to say the least.

And that's where we stand on the "nursery decorating" front. Claire and I sure do like the way things have some together. Brad is glad that we've done something and likes the theme, but he doesn't have any particular leanings on decorating in general, so it's not quite as thrilling for him. That's fine; I'm glad he's studying important things, but I have very little specific interest in the Cappadocians (what? you aren't familiar with them?). Also, I should mention that Baby Sister will be in our room for at least the first few months while she's eating a lot in the night, so there's potential for changes to be made, if Claire and I feel the need. Or if anyone sends me particularly fabulous cards. :)

Monday, April 4, 2016

Around here lately: March 2016 edition

So the question is: how long will I keep lists of the funny things Claire says? I can't seem to stop myself. I don't know if I'll be able to keep up monthly lists once we have New Baby at home, but I doubt I'll be able to completely stop (and I don't really want to). Hope y'all enjoy!

"Can we talk about those egggggs?" Her way of asking if we can talk about the Resurrection Eggs.

"We got EVERYTHING we NEEDED!" What she says after I pick up any item on our list at any store we visit.



"I'm being sweet to Daddy. That makes him happy." Making sure I notice her sweet behavior. Recognition...or it doesn't count!


Oh, that foot-pop.

"I don't want to make Jesus sad!" We had been talking about disobedience and how it makes Jesus sad when we do wrong things. I was quite happy about her response.




"Oh no! Kat is sick. I better pray for her! It will make her feel better." Kat had texted to let me know that she was basically ON HER DEATHBED with a cocktail of wintery illnesses, and I told Brad. Claire overheard and became very concerned. She loves Kat, so obviously, we needed to do what we could to help.


Don't mind her...just looking like a teenager!

Me: "Be careful- you're going to hurt Daddy."
Claire: "I don't want to do that!" 

I think this was in reference to Claire climbing up Brad's back while he sat on the couch. She's really good at scaling his back but isn't always terribly careful about it.

"Look, Mommy! It's a whistle pig!" There's a Curious George episode about Groundhog Day, but because it's set in the Midwest, they call them whistle pigs. Later, we were watching The Amazing Race, and a commercial with a groundhog came on. She was very proud of herself for identifying the animal correctly.


Check out the guard bear in the doorway.

"Daddy, I'm so glad you're back!" Said while hugging Brad tightly after he was gone for a very long day.

"pine combs" Otherwise known as pine cones.


Playing dress-up with and then lining up her princess dolls.

"Daddy's getting away!" Brad was walking ahead of her. Obviously.

"The end. For tonight." Every night after we finish reading her Bible story, she says, "The End!" and Brad says, "For tonight." Eventually, she just began saying both parts herself.


A new favorite activity.

"Stop being so 'matic." I regularly tell Claire not to be "so dramatic" (I have NO idea where she gets her dramatic flair from, geez). When my parents were heading to the airport after Claire's birthday weekend, my mom said something along the lines of "Oh, I'm sad we have to leave," to which Claire responded with this gem.


Beginning our adventures in toddler gardening.

"Not Mommy- just you and ME!" I overheard her say this to Brad when she thought the two of them were having lunch without me. It would hurt my feelings, except she says the reverse to me about Brad periodically.



"I scared myself!" This is said after she runs into something or falls off of something. Basically, if she does something that doesn't exactly hurt but is jarring, nonetheless.

"It looks like I want to eat chocolate." She asked for a snack. I offered carrots. She counter offered.


She voted! Or rather, I did and she got a sticker.

"I crashed into the leaves..." After a hilarious tricycle run into the bushes.

"I don't want the day to be over. I want it to come back on."


Sometimes, we cannot be bothered to look up or smile.

Me: "Mommy doesn't feel good. I think I worked too much."
Claire: "Or maybe you want chocolate." Yes, dear one. This is almost always true.

"Please don't take my party down, Nana!" Mom was helping take down some decor in preparation for the baby shower a few weeks ago, and Claire entreated her with this pitiful plea. Poor Mom.


Don't be fooled: that bottle of salad dressing is actually her mandolin/ukulele.

"I heard the baby kick my hand!" She gets a little confused about the baby's movements.

"It's Baby Sister's trosta!" I finished New Baby's pillow that is similar to Claire's matroshka pillow made by our friend, Laura Kay- the pillow I took all of her weekly and monthly pictures with. Claire calls is her "trosta," rather than "matroshka." She saw the one I made for New Baby and made the connection instantly.


Hanging with the two trostas. Claire's is on the left and New Baby's on the right.

Me: "What should we name Baby Sister?"
Claire: "We should name her 'George.'" As in, the Curious Monkey.

"This needs more squish!" In reference to a tower of pillows she constructed.


Mr. Bear must look sharp always.

Seriously. She means business. That's a headband and a hat.

"Don't be so smarky, Daddy." I think she's heard me tell Brad not to be snarky a time or two.

"I want one piece of bread folded over on purpose!" Referring to whether or not she wants one or two pieces of bread for her sandwich. No idea where the "on purpose" part came from.


Crafting is serious business around here.

"Let's see if I can make you feel better!" To me, after my day spent at the hospital. Of course, she made me feel better!

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Keeping things equal + Gestational Diabetes and things I've learned

There was this time when I was pregnant with Claire where I ended up spending quite a few hours in the hospital getting fluids after a really long day of being non-stop sick. It was just super fun. So, in the spirit of keeping things equal among my offspring, I did it again. I am all about making sure New Baby feels that she is just as important as her sister.

It was slightly different this time but essentially the same. It all started with a migraine that just got worse and worse and worse throughout the night. So I started vomiting. Which meant I couldn't keep my migraine medicine down. Which meant that the migraine got worse. Which meant the vomiting continued. See the spiral of evil in which I found myself? By the time morning rolled around, I was super dehydrated, still vomiting every 10 minutes, still dealing with the migraine, and the midwife on-call at my doctors office told me I needed to head to the hospital for monitoring and fluids. Oof. Thankfully, it was a flexible day for Brad, and we were able to cobble together a nice lineup of childcare for Claire. Actually, she ended up having a blast; she spent the morning with our friend, Colum (his wife has watched her for us in the past, but she is a nurse who works 12-hour night shifts and had just gotten off work), and then the afternoon with one of her little friends (whose mom is a saint to watch two 3-year-olds, as well as her 4-month-old). 

I ended up spending about 6 hours at the hospital; we got there right as several women went into labor (they had me in L & D, not the ER), so I had to hang out for a while before they could get to me. Also, let's just reflect for a second about how I actually walked through the metal detector at the hospital entrance, carrying my vomit bag. How classy am I? It took three attempts and two different nurses to find a vein for my iv, which was so not fun. (#dehydrationprobs) Thankfully, though, they eventually got my fluids and phenergan started, so I could stop being sick and start being rehydrated. They kept monitors on the baby to make sure she was fine (she was, by the way. Totally unaffected. I believe the descriptor they used for her was "happy.") and gave me two bags of fluid over the next several hours. Sweet Brad was such a sport and worked on school work while I slept and hydrated (in addition to keeping all the parents posted and making sure Claire got everywhere she needed to with all the things little people need). I eventually felt better and was able to be discharged, even though I still had a headache (downgraded from migraine, thankfully). I was just happy not to be vomiting anymore (although I did once more after we got home). It was quite a way to spend a day, that's for sure.

On another note, I've been gestational diabetic-ing for a while now and am in a groove, of sorts. It's still not terribly fun (I really want some cake, was bitter about no Easter candy, and my fingertips get pretty sore from the pricking), but it's definitely more doable and less overwhelming than it seemed at first.

In the spirit of honesty, I will say that the first week or so of checking my glucose was extremely stressful for me. I am such a rule-follower, so I was sticking staunchly to the letter of the law, regarding where my glucose readings should be, which made me feel crazy. Interestingly, stress can cause your glucose readings to go up. I had to figure out how to chill out and make a workable plan. 

My daily glucose check-ins (pricking fingers and using a glucometer to read my glucose levels) look like this:
1. Fasting reading. This is first thing in the morning before I eat anything.
2. Post-prandial #1 (that's fancy for "after you eat"): 2 hours after breakfast.
3. Post-prandial #2: 2 hours after lunch.
4. Post-prandial #3: 2 hours after dinner.
In between meals, I'm also supposed to eat protein-carb balanced snacks to help maintain an equilibrium. This works out well for me because I've always adopted a Hobbit-style eating plan.

I figured out some good meal and snack options that kept my post-prandial numbers where they needed to be (below 120). That lowered my stress level greatly. The tricky thing was getting my fasting numbers (the first-thing-in-the-morning, pre-breakfast glucose readings) where they needed to be (under 90). My daytime numbers were controllable with diet and lifestyle (i.e. "exercise" and movement), but there was basically nothing I could do about my fasting numbers. I followed the dietician's guidelines by the book and could NOT get my numbers under 90. My stress level went up again as my doctors kept making comments about how I might need to go on medication and monitoring if I couldn't get my fasting under 90 (which made me feel- irrationally- like I was doing something wrong). Fortunately, one of the doctors casually mentioned I might want to try eating avocado as my last snack of the night. I did, and IT DID THE TRICK. The mighty avocado became my hero in this GDM process.

I've figured out quite a few things about how my body processes sugars and what I can do to help it. For example, not only does avocado before bed lower my morning fasting number, but eating a slightly larger snack than was recommended on my nutrition suggestion sheet helps, too. Maybe my body metabolizes the food faster and therefore needs more? Brad figured out that I can enjoy Mexican food more fully (i.e. not have to eat my sad pile of 10 tortilla chips while everyone else eats as many as they want) if I eat guacamole along with it. Yay! Don't get me wrong; I still have to limit my chip and tortilla intake, but I can help balance it a little better. 

I've also developed a pretty handy ability to judge how many carbs will be in just about anything that's being served. We eat most of our meals at home, so obviously, I can control that; however, when we're out or at church or with friends, I have to pay closer attention. All of my obsessing over carb counts and portion sizes at the beginning of this journey are paying off now, and I don't have to think as hard, which makes life feel more normal.

One really unexpected aspect of GDM that has been interesting to chart is how it has affected my weight gain. Or, I should say, non-gain. Since I started on my diabetic diet, I've gained about 1.5 pounds. And that's highly dependent on what time of day they check my weight + how much water I've had. One of the doctors I saw (I see a rotation of them rather than just one) a couple weeks into the process told me not to be surprised if I don't gain much from that point on. I kind of didn't believe her, because I had well over 2 months of pregnancy left. Apparently, she knows of what she speaks. :) If there is an upside to gestational diabetes, I guess this is it. 

Those are some of my take-aways so far. It's not fun or always convenient, but it's definitely doable and not nearly as catastrophic as it seemed at first. I've learned things that have been super helpful to me, AND I've learned that one or two high numbers do not call for a panic attack. I have higher number on days I have migraines. This is expected; if you don't feel well, your glucose will be higher. DON'T PANIC, ERIN. If I order something in a restaurant and have higher numbers later, it's probably because there were sugars or carbs I didn't take into consideration, not having prepared the food myself. THIS IS NOT A REASON TO FREAK OUT. See? Such excellent lessons learned. 

This was a lengthy update. Whew. I'm impressed if you made it to the end! Maybe you deserve some chocolate (but it will have to be dark chocolate and a small portion, because that's what fits into the GDM diet).

Boswell beach trip 2022: part 1

Just another friendly reminder that I'm still playing catch-up. Clearly, it is not currently July... We made another annual trip to Tops...