Just Call Me Suzy Homemaker

Well, this post, my friends, is a post to boast.  I felt like I started off my maternity leave quite void of any crafty skills.  Partly because I really do lack them and partly because I had been so out of practice with my creative and fine motor skills. I felt like such an klutz around the ladies in my ward. Seriously, they were making hair bows for little girls and I completely struggled, I felt like a fumbling idiot. Well, I still can't make hair bows.  For whatever reason that seems to be beyond me. I'll just leave that craft to the ladies of my ward and my sister is who is a master of that skill (BTW, Stacey, I LOVE the bows you made me. I now realize that there is more to them that I originally thought.)

But I have a few things to show for my maternity leave and my developing creative and crafty side.

I have taken up making little girl bracelets. (I haven't ventured into the world of making grown-up jewelery. So far, it doesn't sound as fun but I don't know how many bracelets a little girl needs.)

I made myself a new scarf. It's been nice to have since it's been such a freezing winter.

This year our family exchanged Christmas ornaments for Christmas. So I made 12+ little snowman ornaments. (I have no idea what I was thinking. When shipping to twelve different people don't send glass balls. Next time, I'm totally doing something that will fit into an envelope.) :)

By the way, I LOVED exchanging ornaments. Now I have an ornament from each of my siblings that I can put on my tree every year and think of them.  I'm not sure if I should have a favorite but my favorite ornament, was the most unexpected, a handmade ornament by my brother Jimmy. It made my heart smile. :) (Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to rotate it on my husband's silly mac.)

The other night I was looking at my Christmas decorations and lamenting the fact that they must soon come down. I hate it when they come down. Everything looks so drab. I was looking at my "NOEL" blocks and realized that I could turn them around and decorate them for the next upcoming holiday and spell "LOVE". So today, I took a trip to Hobby Lobby and spent way too much buying way too many things but this is my end result:

I still have a few more projects that I want to accomplish before my maternity ends in only 14 days. :( We'll see what we can do.

WE MADE IT!!

I just wanted to say thank you to all the advice and comments that were made in regards to my traveling concerns. Rebekah did sooo good during the flight. She slept pretty much the whole time and didn't even cry. We did end up taking our car seat with us because logistically we couldn't make it work without. We checked at the gate. We did get a few scratches on it but it was still intact. I'm thinking maybe I'll bubble wrap it for the trip home. :)
We also had a wonderful friend who conveniently had the same flight as us and helped us carry our bags and little girl through the airport. It made it soooo much easier!! THANKS MARIA!!!

Now we only hope that things go as well when we go home!

If we don't get to blog again before Christmas, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! 

White Dresses

Sunday our little girl was blessed. I think I've always overlooked this ordinance but as I arrived at church and sat down I found myself emotional. It really was a special day to have her surrounded by family and friends and be given a name and a blessing. As I dressed her that morning in her white dress, I thought to myself, " I hope this is the first a few special white dresses she'll be wearing." This is just the beginning of her life and it was nice to have a blessing that was given to bless her as she embarks in this scary, exciting, and joy-filled journey known as life.

need your experience

Okay, on a completely unrelated note, we'll be traveling (flying) during Christmas break visiting family, do any of you seasoned parents have any advice, tips that you've learned from experience? Things to bring/not to bring, etc. I realize that people have learned a lot by experience and instead of me learning everything the hard way, I'm hoping to gain some wisdom from you.

We love you all!!

Hypothetical

Hello Friends!! I've got a question for you but first here's a quick update on life with a baby.

So we've made it almost two full weeks...at home!! YAY!! We are learning to get into the swing of things. Some days I'm a bit tired and frustrated because I can't get things that I want to get done done. But other than that not too bad. The diapers aren't as bad as I thought they would be. (For those of you who don't know, I don't do diapers. I used to pay my sister a dollar a diaper when she came with me to babysit my brother's kids. That's saying something when you only got paid $3.00 for the entire evening. cheep labor. )

Okay, so we've been getting our insurance explanation of benefits for our hospital bills...which first, I must say thank heavens for insurance, but I noticed that before insurance an epidural cost nearly a thousand dollars! I started wondering to myself, because I can be too practical sometimes, if I didn't have insurance would I pay $1,000 for an epidural. Then I started to be curious what others would do in this hypothetical situation, would you pay $1,000 for an epidural?

I think that I probably would. Even if I had convinced myself to try without, I would inevitably give in and get one...I'm afraid I can't tolerate pain.

Hope you are all doing well!!

We're Home!

I was more excited about bringing her home than I am about actually being home with her. Wow! How do moms do this? I've always known that my mom was amazing but really how did she do it?? 12 kids??!! I'm getting worn out with one in only one day. I'm hoping it will get better. :)

In the NICU she was pretty much good. She seemed to be on a nice schedule and fairly predictable but now that she's home she's thrown that out the window.  Yesterday morning she would only eat a little bit at a time and maybe sleep for a few minutes and then she'd eat and sleep. I couldn't tell how long she would sleep or how long it would be until she would eat again. She finally slept long enough for me to shower around 2:00. We headed to Grandma's house and she slept the whole time! Good grief.  Right now I'm at my mom's house and she's asleep. I'm about ready to move into Grandma's!

I really can't complain too much however because she has done well at night. She's only waken up around 4:00 each morning to eat and has gone back to sleep. I just need to get her to stick to it and maybe figure out how to deal with her fickle morning schedule.

Little girl and I just came from her first Doctor's visit. I can see the office from my apartment building and yet I couldn't make it there on time. MAN! I'm still standing in amazement of moms.  How do they make it anywhere on time when kids have their own schedules?

Anyway, here are a few more pictures...we just can't seem to get enough pictures. :)

Grandpa and Little Girl just having a nice little chat.

In her going home outfit...a little snug but we had to at least wear it once!

Ready to Go!!

My Little Girl

I know she's not so little but she's still Little Girl to me. (That's how I seemed to talk about her when she was still in the womb.) Right now, she and I are just hanging out in the NICU, well she's sleeping and I'm just hanging out. She is doing well.

We are basically just here until they give her the last dose of antibiotics tomorrow. They've taken her of oxygen and the glucose (I'm not exactly sure why they were giving it to her anyway.) So it feels like it is pointless to be here for them just to administer antibiotics but what can you do?

As nice as it would have been to have gone home Wednesday had all been normal, it's been a blessing to be here. It's given us a nice transition to parenthood. We've been able to learn from the nurses (although at times frustrating) how to take care of our baby. Its been nice to go home at night and sleep most of the night except for waking to pump. I'm still nervous about caring for her on our own but more confident about bringing her home. Here are some pictures of Little Girl during her first week. (They go most recent to when she was first born.)

Enjoy!

I love this scowl! It's so funny it makes me laugh almost everytime.

This is her one eyed look. She does this all the time. She gets this from me!

The NICU parent group had a Reunion Halloween Party. They made little costumes for the babies in the NICU. This is little girl as gumball machine. Cute huh? It's great they have a parents group for the babies in the NICU. Some of these babies have been here for months, they would need that extra support.

Grandma Sue and Little girl Haines. Not that I could ever keep Grandma away from a newborn baby let alone a grandchild, its been nice to have her come and visit everyday. I'm sure little girl enjoys the visit as much as I do!

Daddy and Baby Girl! You can just tell how much he loves her in his face! Mom said that when he went out to get her to come into the room after our girl was born, he looked like a boy that just got his first bike.

Announcing Our Little Girl Haines

Hello Friends! We are proud to announce that we are no longer just Victory and Alissa. We are now the Haines Family!

She measured in at 9lbs 9oz and 22 inches! We are both smitten with her and love her very much.

The sad news is that they think she has pneumonia and will need oxygen and antibiotics for seven days. Which means she will be in the NICU during that time. Otherwise she is doing really well.