Then and Now

Lately I have been acutely aware of how much my little girl is growing up. Maybe it is the fact that we are about to have a newborn around again (weird!) but I keep realizing that Reese is getting older and smarter every day and I feel like it is all going so fast. She is terribly excited to be a “big stister” and talks every day about “baby stister” and how she wants to give her a “baba milk” and that she is going to go over to grandma’s house when “baby stister” is born. She often puts her hands on my belly and asks in whispers if the baby is sleeping. I am not as afraid anymore about having a toddler and a newborn because Reese is so much easier these days. I just know she will be a good helper.

For all those who did not hear, I do not have to have a C-section. My placenta finally moved enough by my 36-week appointment that I have been cleared at this point for a normal delivery. I had mixed feelings when I got this news. Part of me was glad to not have the recovery and scars that come with C-sections. The other part of me was a bit disappointed that it will not all be as easy as scheduling a date for the baby to be born and waltzing into the hospital for a quick and relatively easy delivery. However, we would have had the c-section this week if that had been the case, and I am grateful that I still have another 11 days to accomplish a few things considering I am still training my replacement at SmugMug AND designing a wedding album that needs to be ordered before baby girl comes into my life and makes me a sleepless zombie.

Mark has been cracking me up lately with his nervousness about another labor and delivery. He brought up the need for us to pack our hospital bags when I was only 33 weeks along. He also suggested that if I go into labor in the middle of the night, even if It’s not time to go to the hospital, we should wake up Reese and all go over to his parent’’s house because they live so close to the hospital. Hello! We only live 15 minutes from the hospital ourselves and last time I was in labor for 63 hours. I am pretty sure we can make it to the hospital from our house when the time comes, with more than enough time to spare. I love that he is so worried though. It makes me feel cared for and safe.

I am still nervous about giving birth again and the only thing that makes it worth it at this point is to get rid of this discomfort. The only thing that makes giving birth a little more appealing at this point is the knowledge that I won’t have to be pregnant anymore. I am uncomfortable about 90% of the time and the other 10% I am probably asleep and still uncomfortable but don’t know it. Man I can’t wait to not be pregnant anymore!

So in honor of the soon to be “Big Stister” of the house, I have a little photo comparison for you since I seem to be much better at taking photos of my child around this time of year for some reason…

Reese with the bunnies at the pumpkin patch her first Halloween:

Reese at the pumpkin patch with the bunnies last year:

Reese at the pumpkin patch with the chickies (the bunnies were all caged) this year:

Reese on the tractor last year:

Reese on the tractor this year:

Reese with her buddy Luke at the pumpkin patch last year:

Reese with her buddy Luke this year at the pumpkin patch:

Reese at the orchard with Luke last year:

Reese with Luke at the orchard this year:

Can you believe the hair growth on this little one?

Happy Halloween!

I like to call our costume idea “Just like Daddy.”

See them bigger here.

7×7x7

So even though we generally use OS X at SmugMug, we still game on Windows boxes and have to test/develop on them as well. So when our copies of Windows 7 arrived, 7 of us went down to In N Out and took on 7×7’s (7 patties and 7 cheese slices).

I generally eat much healthier now than I used to, but sometimes I make exceptions.

It’s raining, it’s pouring…

Well, lately my life has been a perfect illustration of the saying “when it rains, it pours”. How ironic that the last week has been rainy and wet. Reese seems to enjoy the rain though, it gives her a reason to wear her kitty raincoat and boots and stomp around in the puddles. I, on the other hand, have been using the rain as an excuse to hibernate and drink obscene amounts of hot chocolate. Can you believe Mark took Reese shopping last spring while I was out of town on one of my many business trips and bought her this cute rain get-up? He is such a super-dad!

Last weekend we had not one, not two, but four house guests all at the same time. Mark’s roommate from college who works for SmugMug remotely from Utah now comes out and stays with us for work about once a month. It just happened that this month his visit coincided with the visit of my sister and her husband who came to visit for the weekend before heading to Disneyland. We also had an additional unexpected visitor-Mark’s old mission companion drove out for a wedding and needed a place to stay. It was quite the party at the MacAskill abode, that’s for sure.

To top off the chaos, Mark took advantage of having some men around to help and enlisted our house guests for our big room swap in which we moved all the entertainment equipment into the den in preparation for Mark’s “Man Cave” transformation. I have a big post in the works about the crazy results of my nesting this pregnancy, so I will leave the details for that post, but let’s just summarize by saying that Mark and I recently decided that his entertainment equipment and my throw pillows and decorative knick-knacks could not happily coexist in the same room any longer. Our house guests were very understanding and helpful with our project but I have a feeling they left thinking we have gone absolutely mad as the weekend included mounting our TV on the wall above the fireplace, me successfully convincing Mark and Dustin to pick up a computer armoire I found on craigslist for only $40, cleaning out the garage, and me finding a perfect chair for my new computer armoire at a garage sale around the corner from our house as we were driving home and immediately walking over to buy it for only $10. Maybe we are crazy, or maybe I’m the one that’s gone crazy and Mark’s just along for the ride because he knows better than to argue with his crazy pregnant nesting wife. Who cares? If being crazy means my house will be cute and in order for the arrival of this baby, I’ll take it. I have already painted the armoire red and started planning where to put things in my stylin’ family room.

The Saturday we were hosting this random group of people also happened to be the day of my baby shower. I am incredibly blessed and lucky to have some amazing friends and family who put together a beautiful and fun shower for me even though I am expecting for the second time and with another girl no less. It was so nice to see so many of my friends together at the same time. I am also really glad my sister Kellee got to attend and meet so many of my close friends. The food was delicious, and the company was divine. Thanks so much for putting on such a great party Kim, Jen, and Tiffanie! I feel so special and loved. Your friendship means so much to me and I’m so lucky to have you girls in my life! (And a special thanks to Jen for thinking to take pictures. I love having the reminders of this special day.)

Left to right: My pregnant self, Tiffanie, Kim, and Jen- the hostesses of this rockin’ party.

My good friend Elena who drove all the way from Walnut Creek to come to the party.

Left to right: Whitney, Lindsey, and Kim- all of whom recently had babies of their own who will probably be fun playmates for our little one.

left to right: Julianne and Mikila

Can you believe Tiffanie made this beautiful diaper cake? Um, yeah- amazing! I have very talented friends. You should see the quilt Jen is making for baby girl, it’s going to be stunning.

How fun is that? My sister-in-law Kim and my sister Kellee having a good laugh together. Love it.

As soon as the last out-of-towner had left there was no time to rest and recharge my batteries, I was scheduled to host my friends for our monthly Bunco night and being the perfectionist I have become lately, I had to get it just right. I made all my favorite holiday foods, bought prizes that were perfect for getting into the Fall spirit, and cleaned my house within an inch of it’s life. The day of Bunco I realized 15 minutes before people started to arrive that I had not sat down or eaten since first thing in the morning. This is just one example of the many ways I have become OCD lately. I become obsessed with a project until it’s complete and it’s hard to see past the blinders. Luckily Bunco was a success and I won’t be hosting again for a year, at which point I hope to be normal again.

I am still editing the last of my photo shoots. I am looking forward to the long sabbatical I will be taking from shooting anything other than my own little girls. I am a bit burnt out to be honest and I hope that when I start shooting again it will be fresh and new and I will have my creative juices flowing again. It’s very exciting to me to think about only having to worry about being a mom for a short while and there may be days that I will get bored, but at least I will feel like I am not stretching myself too thin.

I have one more ultrasound in a week that will determine whether or not I still have placenta previa and need a c-section. As of my 34-week ultrasound my placenta still has not moved enough. Apparently, your placenta must be 3 cm away from your cervix to be cleared for normal delivery. Mine is 1.8 cm away from my cervix. Yeah. That’s right. I might have to have a c-section because of a lousy 1.2 cm. Bummer.

Baby X is still active and healthy. I am 35 weeks along. I’m large, uncomfortable and pretty much ready to not be pregnant any more. On the flip side though-I am not ready to have a newborn yet. When Mark and I walked out of our ultrasound on Monday realizing that we may have a c-section at 38 weeks, I asked Mark how he felt about having a baby in just 4 weeks instead of 6 weeks. His response? ” Sure, bring it on!”. My response? “NO! No, no no. I’m not ready yet. I have a list of things to accomplish before this baby arrives and I need those extra two weeks. This baby is not allowed to come until then. She will just have to wait.”

The rain has actually been a blessing in disguise. I loved all the chaos but now that it’s over, I am using the weather as a reason to stay home and check things off of my to do list. Besides, hanging out in my sweats all day is the only way I’m even remotely comfortable anyways. So if you are wondering why I haven’t been around lately, I’m being a slug. Sorry to disappoint. I’m sure I will come out of my shell a few more times before the baby arrives. Until then, let it pour!

For Posterity…

…and not because I necessarily want to remember what it’s like to put on 20 lbs.

Some of you may remember this post when my dear friend Jackie took photos of me and I had only two weeks to go until Reese was born.

Yeah, sad that I am as big now as I was then and I still have 9 weeks to go. Yay for second babies!!!!

In all seriousness though, I didn’t want to have my photo taken all that much this time around, but I thought that baby #2 would feel snubbed if she didn’t have even one good photo of me while I was pregnant with her. So baby girl, this one is for you. It didn’t hurt that Jackie insisted and she has amazing skillz with a camera! I mean really– who else could make me look like this after a full day at Gilroy Gardens with 20lbs of extra weight to lug around in the 90 degree weather?! Yeah. SKILLZ.

Reese’s first date

Reese’s friend Luke took her out on the town Saturday. This was the result:

Video.

Photos.

A Full Summer

To say that life has been crazy lately would be a big understatement. There have been days that I dread, and few that I have looked forward to. I thought it was time for a nitty-gritty update, and sadly I have neither the time nor the creativity at the moment to write a flowery or poetic post. This makes me sad. I have always loved blogging. It makes me feel like I have returned a bit to my high school days when I used to keep notebooks full of my thoughts and writing. I love coming up with witty phrases, interesting titles, and epic ending lines. Somehow that has been lost to me in the last few months (possibly because this baby insists on sucking every ounce of creative energy out of me). So boring me will be updating you all today in a scattered-sort of way.  Welcome to my brain these days!