A Quick Boston Update

Man oh man if feels good to get on here. I've been so overwhelmed with all of the things I want to do but can't get to. Like writing the birth story before I forget things. I also have all of these profound mommy revelations I'm DYING to write out on here so I don't forget those either. All my little man does is sleep, eat, poop and sing. He SINGS! It's the cutest darn thing I've heard in my entire life. I'm so in love it's ridiculous. Now I know EXACTLY what Steven Tyler was talking about when he said 'I don't wanna close my eyes, I don't wanna fall asleep cuz I'd miss ya babe, and I don't wanna miss a thing.' I could seriously lose hours just watching him sleep.


Still in the hospital. I love the wrinkled ol' man forehead

A person can never really understand a parents love for their child until they themselves are parents. I thought I had a pretty good idea how much love a person could give a child, but I wasn't even close! Now I know just how much my mom loves me and it makes me love and appreciate her 4,894,374,373 more than I already do! I'm just a huge well of happy tears and emotions around my house constantly. Everything makes me tear up with happy tears. Just watching Ryan with Boston actually takes my breath away.


Getting ready to leave the hospital

I want to document every second of this, but I already feel like I'm falling behind! I have sooooo many pictures and videos already. I have major plans for a pregnancy/labor/delivery music video. I almost have enough pictures and videos already to fill a hard drive I swear! LOL. Ahhhh. I had a pretty hard time just trying to figure out a new photo filing system because naming a folder 'Boston march 9, 2011' just won't cut it!


Car ride home

Boston is an epic sleeper (so far). I've gotten more sleep than I even know what to do with! I'm sleeping a heck of a lot deeper and better than I did at any point during the pregnancy!!! It's crazy! I fall into a really, really deep rejuvenating sleep, but the second I hear a little song or whimper from Boston, I snap awake and make sure he's okay. I have to pull out all the tricks to get him to wake up in the night to eat and be changed--he just doesn't want to wake up! He had his first doctor appointment yesterday and the nurse practitioner told us that once he gains back his birth weight, we won't need to wake him up in the night to eat at all. (she also said he has some awesome muscle tone. Must be from all of those late night workouts he was doing in-utero!) I still would feel horrible though if he went really long stretches of time without eating, because he would just sleep, sleep, sleep if he could!


Cousin Kiley holding Boston. I think she thinks he's a keeper

When he is awake and eating, he does awesome. He took right to it about 20 minutes after he was born. He was skin to skin with me while they were doing all the end of delivery stuff and he was rooting around for some food very quickly. It doesn't hurt and it's great to be able to have that bond. I just about melt every time he looks up at me while I talk to him. He answers me back with his little songs. So far he has two nicknames that I call him. I call him my Little Singer (obviously lol) and my Little Sweet. And of course his name. I have soooo much more to write, but I'll get to it later. Tons of pictures coming very soon.


Kiley is concerned. He makes this face but rarely even cries!

***There are more pictures on my Flickr to the right ----> If you want to see more.

Boston Ryan Dunn is Here!

Lots and lots and LOTS of updates to come. I have so much to catch up on it's ridiculous. Little Baby Boston (ha, no more having to say Baby B!) was born Friday, March 4th, 2011 at 5:05 PM. 6lbs 10 oz, 19.5 inches. We are so in love with this little man! He eats, he sleeps, he poops, and he even sings! I can't get enough!


Hospital Picture


2 1/2 hours old

Lots of pictures, videos and updates to come!

Curtains Part 3: Elephants and Elephants and Elephants, Oh My!

DONE!!!!!! Sorry, I really just wanted to shout that from the rooftops. For some reason, this turned into the project that would never end. It took forever and a day to get all those ink elephants onto the curtains. Bending over a table and painting intricate faces for 2 days REALLY took a huge tole on my back. I could barely walk yesterday, and I'm pretty much just hovering today. But I'm quite happy with how they turned out, so that's good!

It was hard to get a bright picture since it's so horribly overcast outside today. Yuck, I'm so ready for spring!




Here they are before getting their faces


We're really coming down to the wire! I just hope I can get it all done in time.

Ryan's Baby Things

Ryan's mom found a few of his old baby things while cleaning out her garage.



The outfit in the middle is the one Ryan wore home from the hospital!

Rocking Chair 100% Finished

I know I already posted the finished rocking chair, but my mother-in-law ended up making the arm covers. So here it is updated with those.

The Big Checklist: Coming Down to the Wire

I think it's time for another checklist post. It seems that every time I make one, I see in writing all of the things left to be done and I really kick it in gear. I've been juggling many different projects the last week or so. I need to just focus my energy on one thing, get that done, and check it off the list. I feel like I have project/house cleaning ADD! I can't focus on one room/area. I bounce (literally I'm sure) around my house from room to room doing a little of this and a little of that every day. Today I spent a good deal of the day ironing and putting elephants on one of the curtain panels. I have about 4-6 more elephants to add to that one and I'm finished with it! Then I'm going to force myself to work on the next till it's finished. THEN that whole project is done and crossed off the list.

Next I'm going to go about cutting my quilting fabric into squares and get going on that. I didn't get the most accurate of measurements because the crib is still not ready of course. But I think it will be close.



Here are the items left to do from my February 6th post. I omitted the things that are 100% finished:

- Cut and hem curtains and add elephants
- Install curtain rod and hang curtains
- Put crib together
- Paint all picture frames, frame art and hang.
- Make crib skirt
- Make crib quilt (contingent on crib measurements once it's set up)
- Make pillows
- Put up shelves (this one might be awhile, I got the wrong brackets at Ikea)

Here is the list of things still to get:

- Crib Mattress pad
- Moby wrap
- Burp Rags
- Wet bags for diapers (Ordered)
- Newborn grooming supplies
- Non-baby looking diaper bag
- Night light

I have a LOT of updates to post tomorrow and in the coming days.

Rabbit (in da) Hat

Since Baby B is going to be born the year of the Rabbit (Chinese Zodiac) I thought I'd crochet him a little bunny hat. I still have to add the bunny face on it. I just hope it's not too small for him. I guess we'll see very soon!



The fabric that it's laying on is for the crib skirt. I really wish I could get that project going!

Curtains Part 2: Adventures in Elephant Application

As you've probably seen in earlier posts, my generous mother-in-law has taken on a lot of my sewing projects for me. She hemmed the curtains for me and I hung them (without the elephants added) and I LOVE how they look in the room!


Please ignore all the power tools, this was taken last week when the room wasn't as put together.

Some people might look at this picture and say 'what the heck? Why are they sooooo far away from the window? They are basically touching the ceiling!' Observant! If you google how to hang curtains to make a room look bigger, it says to hang them high and wide. By hanging them wide, it makes the window appear so much bigger. I want to allow as much light as I possibly can into the room. The ONE good thing about the mirrored closet doors (see I guess since I have to live with them for awhile I'll spend some time looking for at least one redeeming quality in them) is they are awesome at bouncing the light all around--making for a very bright bedroom! With the room being so small, I'll do anything I can to make it feel not so cavernous! Hanging them high makes the room appear taller. I'm sure some might say that floor length curtains in a nursery is a ridiculous choice, but I'm happy with it. Since I'm totally trying to break the matchy-matchy nursery mold in this room, the last thing I wanted was a generic valance. Not that there's anything wrong with matchy-matchy or bed-in-a-bag-decor nurseries. There are some really cute themes out there. It's just not what I wanted when I envisioned this space. Half the fun for me in this whole thing is hand picking every piece of fabric, every toy, every book, everything really.



So far all I've done is make the elephant template and make a sample elephant on a scrap that was left over after hemming. I have to say it turned out pretty nice! I was afraid the ink coverage would be cloudy, but it's pretty solid. Though it's pretty easy to apply an elephant, it's kind of time consuming, so this is going to take me awhile. I hope to have the finished product very soon!



Judy was just dying to get her Fiddler on the Roof on. Okay, maybe that was me, not her.

I'm Still Here

I've had a few people ask where I've been the past few days. I'm still here. Baby B's still swimming. I've just been really busy around my house. I have a LOT of updates to post and hope to get them on here soon. We are quickly running out of weekends before Baby B is here, so we are using this time wisely and knocking out all sorts of last minute projects. I even have a pretty sweet surprise to post (if all goes according to plan, at least) soon!!

37 Weeks 3 Days Pregnant

I'm just full of updates today! It might be hard to tell just by looking at these pictures, but if you compare them to past weeks, you can see just how LOW this baby has dropped. I hope he doesn't fall out! Haha.





I've gained 46 lbs so far. Oops! Still no tummy stretch marks though, so that's a bonus. I'd have thought for SURE I'd get them. Thanks again Megs for the tummy butter. You're still as awesome a friend as ever!

Thanks Grandma Dunn!

My mother-in-law got us some much needed items. How sweet! I love being able to cross things off my list!



Now if I could just get the crib figured out and dealt with I'd be sooooo happy!

Closet Divider Project

This was a quick little project. This was more for Ryan than for me. I wanted to be able to hang a lot of the clothes in the closet and it seemed like a good idea to have dividers between the different sizes. Nothing fancy, but it works.

I just got some closet dividers pretty cheaply on ebay, 4/$1 scrapbook paper, and used my Mod Podge that I already had.

Off the Deep End: Deep Cleaning Fun

Not. Okay, there's every day cleaning and DEEP cleaning. I've been doing a lot of the latter the past few days and it is NOT fun. I think Ryan must think I've gone crazy, but I'm cleaning and re-cleaning cupboards, corners, nooks and crannies. It's so hard with a big ol' belly in the way. There's still so much clutter all around and I just want to get rid of everything!




I've been pretty exhausted this past week, so that doesn't help my "need to clean" at all. Saturday I took a five hour nap. I didn't even know I was capable of doing that! Normally I can get tired in the middle of the day, but when it comes to actually shutting my eyes, forget it. Just talking about napping is making me tired. I still have a lot to do around here, I haven't even really touched the tip of the iceberg. I feel like time is running out so fast and I just want to at least be able to have a clean house before the baby is born. Only 19 days till my due date, and I know it's going to fly by.

Little Truck Project

I have a few small little projects going on right now, and I finished this one.

Since this truck is going on his shelves and not going to be something he plays with, I used the same gray paint that we painted the wall. Add a ribbon and a little b and we're all set. It's crazy what a little paint, dollar store wall stickers and ribbon can do!

Before:


After:

More Crib Drama

My husband is what I like to call a "fixer". He hates to see those he loves sad or stressed. I'm sure I've been exuding a lot of the former and the later the past few weeks because of this crib debacle. He does anything he can to help fix situations and resolve problems. I can tell it's been hurting him to see ME hurt over this whole thing. He decided that today he'd do whatever it took to get the pieces that get this crib put together. I was up in the room looking over the assembly instructions and kept seeing the word "stabilizer bar". I looked at the parts list and huh, looks like we're actually missing two pieces of crib that I didn't even know existed!

From all of the pictures I've seen of this Annie crib all put together it just looked like the bottom of the side rail, then the drawer. But nope, there IS another part between the bottom of the side rails and the drawer. It's the stabilizer bar, and we're missing both of them!



Okay now, if I was going to sell something, I guess in the excitement of getting it sold I might somehow overlook making sure it had the hardware to put it all together. But not realizing TWO other boards were missing? Hmmm, not sure. It really makes me wonder WHY she was even selling it! A lot of the parts and pieces are missing. Could she really not have known she was selling me something I couldn't even put together, let alone get use out of? Again, if I'd known that for the price I was getting something I couldn't use, I would NEVER have made the trip all the way to Seattle for it! I'm sure if she had sold it locally, she'd have had to either give them the parts they paid for or their money back. With my being so far away, I guess she just figures she can be done with it, without making it right.

I'm a very trusting and forgiving person and(some might say I'm too forgiving, that I let people run all over the top of me) I'd like to give her the benefit of the doubt in all of this. But really, the fact that she's still avoiding me after all this time tells me that she most likely knew she was cheating us out of parts we paid for. Again, I was too trusting. I was too excited while she was dropping it off, that I didn't see that we could be headed down a bad road. Maybe I should have asked to keep some of the money till I got the rest of the parts? And now to find out a month after she dropped it off to us in the parking lot we're missing 2 actual pieces of the crib and not just the hardware she said she'd send.

I'm sure most people are sick of hearing about this already. All I want to do is get this resolved. I'm not sure if I should even bother emailing her one last time before talking to Craigslist about what I can do about the situation. Ugh it's all just so frustrating.