Welcome Penelope!

 Penelope Elizabeth Ringia Was born this past Monday, July 25th.

I have another beautiful amazing daughter, Autumn, who is about 2 1/2, and I am absolutely amazed by how different the birth of Penelope was.

Sunday evening, or in reality, very early Monday morning,  I woke up to go to the bathroom and my water broke.

I wasn't really sure what had happened, because I was under the impression that when your water breaks it is pretty obvious. It was almost more like I peed myself, and then continued to expel fluid for about an hour.

I had not had any noticeable contractions before my water broke in this pregnancy, and they did not start immediately after it broke, so I was not really sure what to do... so I called my mom, who just happened to be at the airport waiting to fly back to her home in Savannah.

My husband called the hospital, and they told me to come in within 6 hours or when I started having contractions.

I had an order that needed to be rushed, so I went ahead and printed that while I was waiting to start having contractions, and before I got it packaged I started having contractions. I quickly finished packaging the order and called my dad. I dropped the package off in the mailbox and my husband and I drove my daughter to my dad's house.

My mom decided to stay in Albuquerque a few more days to meet my new daughter and I was lucky enough to have my mom at the hospital with me. Only my husband and the hospital staff were in the room for delivery because that is what I was comfortable with, but it was really wonderful to have my mom there for so much of the process.

She was at the hospital for the entire labor and delivery process and kept us company for various parts of Penelope's birth. She was in the room when I called for the epidural and left when they administered the epidural. A few hours later, after a nap she came back and she was really impressed with the difference the epidural made :)

The delivery was easy and fast, and I had a successful VBAC.

I had my other daughter Autumn Via emergency C-Section and it was much more stressful. I never actually went into labor with Autumn, and I was really worried I wouldn't know when I went into labor with Penelope. When Autumn was two weeks past due I went to the hospital to be induced. I was 8cm dilated when I had the epidural and it was only starting to become painful at that time, but the contractions never felt anything like what they felt like with Penelope.  Autumn was not positioned correctly and after 17 hours of labor I was whisked away for an emergency cesarean.  The recovery for Autumn didn't really feel that hard, but in comparison I feel really great after this pregnancy. Recovery is MUCH easier after a vaginal birth.

I also am having much better luck breast feeding  this time around. I know it is much harder to breastfeed after a cesarean, but I am sure that the hours spent with lactation consultants when I had Autumn probably helped a lot this time around.

I was surprised  to have to stay in the hospital for 24 hours after Penelope was born, I guess I felt so great that I thought I should be able to go home right away.

I was released from the hospital in the afternoon on the 26th, and it was really wonderful to come home to my mom and my beautiful daughter Autumn. I have spent the past few days relaxing and recovering with my family and finally started production again for Caustic Threads. I have several orders that I will be slowly catching up on, and will reopen shop when I have all of my current orders (including my wholesale orders) complete.

I don't expect to be finished  and back in full swing especially quickly, as I have more important things to tend to.










(The beautiful blanket in many pictures was made by Angela, her etsy store is http://www.etsy.com/shop/allthingsgranny )

Procrastination

I have orders to go do, and a local post office to drop by, but I feel like waffling a little longer so I thought I would drop in for a moment. I would like to be able to say I will be around more often but I try not to make promises I cant keep.

I had my 28th birthday on Monday, and other than the expected disappointment of my husbands inability to really celebrate holidays I had a pretty good day. We went out to dinner at Gardunios- yum- and I enjoyed cheating on my low glycemic diet both with dinner and some yummy birthday cake.  I am on a low glycemic diet for pregnancy, but I will probably continue to follow it after the baby is born because it is a really healthy lifestyle and I feel really great. It is a really new idea that all calories are not created equal, and I am finding it to be so true. I have been doing a ton of research on nutrition, health, etc. since I had autumn and have found this to be one of the most beneficial things I have learned.

I recently received  a really awesome and unique pendant from Erin at http://www.etsy.com/shop/elegantgirl I think the pictures in her shop are great, but it is one of those items that is really much more special and wonderful in person.

Isn't it lovely? all of her pieces are one of a kind and come packaged really beautifully.

This is one that is in her shop now that I really love. This coral color is so great for spring and summer.

So, what else?

Due to an unexpected emergency I will be helping my Dad out at his shop for the next few Thursdays until he hires someone. I was willing to work during the rest of the week too, but am a little relived to only be working on Thursdays, I am afraid I would fall pretty far behind in Caustic Threads work if I were at his shop more.

The pregnancy is going well, I am about 24 weeks along, and it seems to be going much faster than when I had my daughter, and I feel better in general. Adam thinks I have more energy. We didnt get to find out if it was a boy or a girl at the last ultrasound because the baby's foot was in its crotch... which means we will probably have to get another ultrasound before it is born because I am really not patient enough to wait to buy baby clothes... Autumn did the same thing, and I learned that buying gender neutural colors just ment that people guessed the wrong sex of the baby about 90% of the time. (or at least it felt like it) 

The dirt on my belly from my daughter climbing up me is awesome, right?

One last thing. Something changed in blogger, and I am totally bummed... I used to be able to copy and paste treasuries into the text and it would realign perfectly and all the great items would be clickable. This is no longer true.

Sad face.

Ok, Take care,

♥Erica