Baby Hannah May Schramm

Hi everyone! Baby Hannah was born on Monday, October 16th at 7:40 PM. She weighed 7 lbs., 8 oz. (Yay! under 8 lbs!!!) and was 18 1/2 inches long. We got home on Wednesday to a house full of chaos. Let me just say that having new carpet installed in your house the 3 days after you have a new baby is NOT a good idea.

Talk about exhausting! Thank goodness my mom and Mark's parents were here to help pack things up and move furniture. We also had the help of a few friends to move things. We fit almost the entire contents of our house in our garage!

OK, so back to the baby! She is an angel. She didn't sleep too well in the hospital, but once we got home and she started nursing well she is sleeping about 5 hours straight at night and then 2 or 3 more! We are truely amazed. Neither David nor Luke were good sleepers as infants (and sometimes aren't now!). She has been blessing us with some relatively peaceful nights and sweet days. She is pretty easy going and doesn't cry except when she has to have her diaper or clothes changed and when she is hungry. She is making those sweet newborn baby noises and likes to stare at things and make funny faces.

The boys just love her and want to get as close to her as possible. Unfortunately, they are both still a little sick and we have only let them hold her once. They always want to look at her and touch her head. We found David staring at her in the bassinet yesterday while she slept. It was so sweet.

Things are starting to settle down here. Mark's parents left for home today and my mom is staying with me this week. Mark went back to work today. David will go back to school tomorrow. The "stuff" in the garage is slowly making it's way back into the house. I am looking forward to getting some kind of schedule back into our lives soon and feeling better.

Here are a few photos of our newest Schramm:
Hannah, about 5 days old


After her first bath at home


Mark's mom holding her

Sickies in the house

Just when we thought David was over his fever, he came down with a nasty cough. Yep, last night he started coughing. His fever came back and he actually, voluntarily laid down for a nap at 5:30 PM. If you know David, he never does this. I can count on one hand how many times he voluntarily napped in his lifetime. We let him sleep an hour, fed him dinner and he he went to bed at 9. We were awoken at 3 AM with a boy with really raspy breathing and a croupy cough. We ran the shower to do the steam treatment for him, gave him some advil and he slept in our bed till 8. Unfortunately, croup (if that is what he has) is contagious via the air, so I went to sleep on the couch in the living room for the rest of the night. Not the most comfortable night. I am just praying that I don't catch what he has. I can't imagine being sick and in labor. Not to mention the danger to the baby.

She still has not made any progress. I'm still having those contractions, they are just not very close. I am planning on doing some extensive walking today to try to get things started. Yesterday I did my best to keep active. I gave David a haircut, weeded the garden for about an hour, cleaned the bathroom, and baked. By the end of the day my feet were really swollen. Why isn't this baby cooperating?

On another note, we ordered new carpet for our house and it is scheduled to be installed on Thursday. Yay! So excited about it. We were hoping that the installation would happen while Mark's parents were here so they could help with the packing and the kids. So, that is a relief!

Contractions, haircuts, fevers and sweaters

Contractions: I'm having them, but they are far apart. I have actually been having them for a few days now. They range anywhere from 1 hour apart to 10 minutes. Last night they were very consistent 10-15 minute contractions and then I went to bed and they stopped. I woke up this morning with 30-60 minute contractions and they haven't really gotten closer. Only time will tell what happens the rest of the day, but I am not banking on meeting this baby today. My mom was all prepared to fly down tonight, but she cancelled her flight this morning. I even offered to mow the lawn if that would get things started, but nobody else thought that was a good idea. Maybe I will vacuum and mop the floors again like I did yesterday.

Haircuts: Luke had a haircut the other day. I just have to show you the before and after shots. I just got around to photographing him today because the camera has been packed away in my hosptial bag for a week. And, I had a cooperative subject. Yay!

Here he is last week blowing bubbles on the playground in our back yard:



And here he is today in front of our window in the living room:



Fevers: David unfortunately woke up this morning with a fever. No school for him. Not sure what is going on since that is his only symptom. I called the school to make sure that they knew that he was sick and I was still pregnant. We are going to attempt to take him to his school's open house tonight. We hope he is feeling better by then.

Sweaters: I'm done! Finally! I started working on this baby sweater about a month ago on a trip up to Mammoth Lakes. I finally finished it yesterday. It is knit with size 2 and 3 needles using a super soft blend of wool, cashmere, and microfiber yarn. Machine washable too! I used peach because I couldn't find the dusty rose color that pattern book featured. It took me a little while to get used to the small needles and the thin yarn, but it was so soft to knit with. During this project I learned how to make tiny button holes and how to pick up stitches (to make the collar). All in all, it was a great project and I love how it turned out. I will leave you with a few photos of the sweater. It is size 3-6 months.

Still no baby

But, my in-laws arrive tonight to help with the kids when she does decide to arrive. I was worried about what we would do if I went into labor before they got here. Our neighbors offered to watch the kids for us, but then they left for the weekend yesterday! We are looking forward to our visit with them. I'm still hanging in there. Mark is working this weekend, so he requested that I have the baby on Monday! I'll try honey!

Not much else going on here. I managed a big grocery trip today as well as a trip to Joann's weekend sale and to Home Depot to pick up a kitchen faucet. I think I will spend the rest of the day knitting. I am almost done with the last piece of a baby cardigan I am making. After ripping out the first sleeve twice, I finally figured out what the instructions were saying. I just have the other sleeve to make, and then to sew all the pieces together. I'd love to finish it before baby arrives.

Oh, I said I might post some un-pub'd HOF entry layouts. Here are 2 from my entry that didn't get picked up for the book or any other publications.

This was my personal statement assignment:

This one was a freebie page:

I got it! I got it!

Finally got my hands on the 2006 Hall of Fame special issue! Yay! Picked it up at my local scrapbook store 2 days ago and I can't put it down. They changed the format this year and I must say that I really like the way they laid it all out. It is divided into chapters based on things like Photography, Design, etc. I am featured in the design section. They gave me a whole 2 page spread with some questions I answered a while back and one full page featured layout. It looks so good! And, I am so glad I don't sound dumb with my answers! LOL! Oh, and I wanted to let you know that the layouts they chose for each section were not necessarily the ones I did specifically for them. For example, they used my best candid photo assignment layout in the product usage section, and my product usage assignment went into the journaling section. Maybe I will post the layouts that didn't make it into the book in my next blog entry. I still haven't shared them publically.

As far as the rest of the book goes, I have been reading everything in there and I feel like I know all the ladies so much better now. What amazint talents and wonderful women. It has been a pleasure to get to know them over the last 6 months. I feel so thankful for the chance to be in this book with them. It is really just frosting on the cake! Oh, and don't miss the HM layouts either. I bet we will see some of these ladies win HOF next year.

Well, my plan to tuck this book into my hospital bag is no more. I just had to read it cover to cover right away and I am afraid I have been through it twice already. So, I got Elsie Flannigan's 52 Scrapbooking Challenges for the hospital and it is tucked all safe and sound in the suitcase. I promise I only peeked at a few of the challenges! I am restraining myself so I can at least have something to read during quiet times.