Ollie!

<p>...or Nico.<br>
...or Bean.<br>
...or Monkey Bean.</p>
<p>She has been called all of these.</p>
<p>She was born Thursday the 13th at 1:48pm after 5 hours of active labor. </p>
<p>I started having contractions around 9pm the night before and they came ten to fifteen minutes apart around eleven. Then they were at 7 to ten min apart at 4 and that's when we called Marilee.</p>
<p>She came, as well as her assistants Leanne and Camilla. They were all in our room watching me so my contractions slowed down. I should have gotten up and baked the almond energy muffins like I was intending had I not gone into labor. </p>
<p>I went on a couple of walks which resulted in more contractions.

Then Mike and I popped in Despicable Me and watched that until the contractions were 5 minutes apart and really intense.

That's when I hopped in the tub.

I wanna say I was in there for 2 or 3 hours breathing through the contractions. I totally agreed then and there that we weren't having anymore children, ha ha.

Mike said I mastered the Kung fu. Marilee said she wasn't sure how far along I was because I just breathed through the contractions.
I told her that I knew if I didn't, the pain would only be worse- and dude... It was insane.

On every contraction, I focused on feeling my cervix open and her coming down.

This proved to be the thing to do because she came out in 3 pushes and as Marilee said to me, Your bottom looks great.
Ha ha.
I feel great.

And Ollie is amazing.
So far she is chill and awake, alert, a great nurser.

She was 6.8 pounds and 19.5 inches long w short little legs!
Even though she weighs as much as Ami did and is shorter than Ami was, Ollie fits the onesies Ami didn't because her torso is longer.

Preparing....

... for the sew struggle....

I decided to make some plushies.
I cut out templates and cut out enough of everything to make five plushies.

My daughter helped me decorate. 

I really didn't realize how much I need to learn.  I'm working on it though- two have been rejected so far.
Maybe I'll post pictures of those later... I dunno...

The First Love Monster!

Friday Night

New Adventure....

This idea I am implementing full force.

There is no turning back.

It started a few years ago when I was working at the Y. A co-worker sewed some fleece letters onto a fleece blanket and gave it as a present to a severely injured girl- those letters sewn on the blanket were her name..

Then a couple of years ago, I got a fleece blanket with knotted fringe for Christmas. It is warm, snuggly and handmade, therefore one of my very favorite blankets.

My friends Gabby and Larry are having a bambino near Labor Day, I decided to utilize my little knowledge and great interest to make little Bean a blanket.

I feel bad that I gave them an experiment.

I embroidered the green letters onto the red background with yellow floss then used the sewing machine to stitch it all together.

I then had an idea to resurface love monsters that my husband had drawn a few years ago. I think there were 3 or 4 to the series. I got the material to make another blanket using one of the monsters from this series.

I organized a few friends together for a potluck dinner/craft night this Friday.

There, I will make patterns and cut out my appliques to prepare my first Love Monster blanket.

Plushies, onesies, and bibs will soon follow.