Category: Pregnancy

Calvin Edward Balch

I joked on Wednesday evening that I had just bought some fancy flowers to photograph in my entryway for an upcoming post, thereby guaranteeing that I would go into labor before being able to take pictures the next day. Well?

Calvin Edward Balch was born at 8:18 a.m. on Thursday, October 2, 2014. He weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces (the smallest of our three), and measured 21 inches long. He has fuzzy brown hair with a polka dot of a blonde spot, right in the center on top, and very dark blue eyes that make it impossible to predict what color they will stay.

I’d given birth before without an epidural, so that part of the experience wasn’t new, but this delivery was the first that was free of complications (thank goodness). Calvin and I are happy and healthy, and our family of five is doing well!

October 5, 2014
Nesting, Waiting

Tomorrow is my due date, but I had my weekly checkup this morning and the baby doesn’t seem to be in any rush to get here. I am in full-on nesting mode for sure at this point, and focusing on little details. Stacking books just so. Rearranging the display on the fireplace mantel. Hanging art. It’s imperative that I find both a blue cachepot and a beautiful decorative tassel, and I’ve come to find that the cabinet doors in the library (which have been just fine until now) need knobs ASAP. I’ve also picked up two new houseplants to care for — perhaps because I’m feeling extra nurturing right now? It’s satisfying to walk around the house, tinkering and playing with the decor.

I snapped this picture yesterday when August got back from school. A few toys, a few pets, family… the house feels good. Comforting, colorful, and cozy.

The baby’s clothes have been washed, and the nursery got its coat of primer. I’ve given the cradle a good cleaning and had Brandon bring it up to our bedroom. We feel ready, and not ready. Excited and nervous all over again.

Eleanor was born fifteen days after her due date. Labor was induced at 42 weeks, and took nineteen hours. August arrived four days early. My water broke while Eleanor and I were napping, and he was born less than three hours later. (Ten pounds and an all-natural birth, which was an experience, to say the least.) I had some complications after the deliveries of both babies, so I’m nervous about it happening again, but I’m ready and trying to remain optimistic. I wonder how baby number three will make his appearance; we’re so looking forward to meeting him!

September 25, 2014
Almost

Home stretch! It doesn’t feel like it’s almost time, but I’m 38 weeks along already.

We’re expecting a boy, and every stranger that has put forth a guess has guessed correctly. “It’s like a basketball!” they say. “All belly!”

p.s. Me at similar points with the first two pregnancies, here and here.

September 11, 2014
Five Years Old (Eleanor’s Yearly Photo)

I took a monthly photo of Eleanor in the same Eames rocker, in the same spot, every month for the first two years of her life. (I did the same thing for her little brother, August.) When I came to the end of my two-year project, I decided to keep the tradition going with yearly photographs instead.

Eleanor is five years old now. Here is her yearly photo.

We found out recently that baby number three will be a boy, and Eleanor will soon be a big sister to another little brother! She continues to be very helpful when it comes to name suggestions, but Super-Boy has been the best to date.

Happy birthday, Eleanor! We love you to Mars and back. (It’s much farther than the moon, you know.)

April 29, 2014
Nap All Day

Not really, but I wish.

I’ve been pregnant for half the time that we’ve lived in this house. Each morning for the past few months, I would wake up with a running list in my head of all the things I would set out to accomplish that day. I can organize the closet! I’ll upholster August’s bed! Paint a room! Strip some wallpaper! Get my office in reasonable order! And then I’d be all, nah, I should sit down and rest. Maybe go to sleep early. Eleanor has her motto, and so do I.

I am getting things done, just not at the pace I’d like to. Painting the walls black downstairs was not fun. Normally I love to paint! My body isn’t dealing well with this pregnancy though — it has been much harder than it was with the other two — and I don’t think I can make it up and down a ladder again right now. I slogged through and I’m glad it’s finished, but I haven’t been eager to repeat the experience.

I’m so glad we hired someone to do the built-in bookshelves for us, because there’s no way that project would be near completion right now if we’d tried to do it ourselves. I’m too stubborn to hire out for a paint job or small projects around the house though, and too much of a perfectionist to ask Brandon to do it (he has been a huge help with the kids and helping run the house, but I’m the handier of the two of us). Some days I feel like I’m finally getting some energy back, but then I’ll have three days in a row where I’m exhausted and in pain. It’s frustrating because I have all of these ideas inside, waiting to be put into action, but I can’t act on them except in short bursts. Maybe soon? I’m being cautiously optimistic.

April 21, 2014
Another Baby on the Way

We’re expecting our third baby this September!

I bought these hooks back when Brandon and I had decided to try for another baby, and then tucked them away for a while. I was going to do a whole little setup like in the picture above to surprise him with the news. Instead what ended up happening was that I saw that faint second line on a pregnancy test, I ran and found the ‘number 3’ hook, then thrust it at a still-sleepy Brandon. It might have been a little confusing, being woken up by your wife with a hook in her hand and a very goofy smile on her face.

We told the kids a couple of weeks ago, along with the rest of our family. August is happy, but I don’t know if he really gets it yet. Eleanor, on the other hand, is so excited. She talks about the baby all the time, and has come up with a few name suggestions: Cinderella if it’s a girl, otherwise Super-Boy. Brandon keeps joking with her it’s going to be Maudius or Claudius, and she wrinkles her nose up at the idea. Hers are just so much better, you know?

We’re all looking forward to the baby’s arrival in September, but it’s a good thing we still have six months to think of some possible names. Or maybe Eleanor’s on to something?

March 18, 2014