Teagan Has Visitors!

Teagan has been having several visitors as you may imagine! Unfortunately I wasn't always on top of my picture taking game and missed a few people, but I'm sure we will get more!

Of course there have been several visits with both sets of grandparents.

Here is my mom and dad with Teagan.

And Mike's parents with her :)

And of course we had a good visit with Auntie B (we miss her so much!)

She also got a fun visit with our friends Nicole and Mike.

(We missed pictures of Patina, Bill & Dylan's visit :( - sorry guys!)

David and Jeannie were also able to make it up for a couple of days - It was great to have them finally meet their first niece!

And Teagan got to meet her only cousins! Conell was so excited to meet her and just wanted to hold her all the time. He was so cute. And then Evan was the complete opposite and said - I don't like to touch babies :) It's so funny how different they can be at times! Evan at least was able to kiss her on her head before leaving.

Mike's grandparents were also able to make it over for a quick visit!

And also my boss, Sue and her husband Don got to meet Teagan as well.

We've been out and about a few times and have gotten to see most of the people we work with. So that has been fun. We're just so excited to share her with everyone!

Formal Announcement!

Teagan Anne
Born 6-26-09 @ 10:58 pm
8 lbs. 10 oz.
20 in.

Such a sweet little girl - we are so grateful for her!

Then Along Came Teagan

She's here! It's only taken me about 2 weeks to get around to posting this, but I'm sure you can understand the delay.

So our due date was June 19th and exactly one week later on the 26th, Teagan Anne blessed us with her emergence into the world.

Here's a little about how it all went: I had begun feeling some contractions late Tuesday night, but nothing painful, just more regular and strong. We had an appointment at the hospital Wednesday morning where they did a non-stress test to make sure the baby was doing well. Everything looked great - my contractions were pretty regular - about 7 mins apart and lasting around a minute each. I was getting excited! And I finally got the ok to stop working. I had been working full-time up until then and was really ready to just focus on the birth and taking it easy (so to speak.)

Here is Mike and me at Taughannock Falls - two days before Teagan was born. Betsy had never seen the falls so we had to make a quick stop by them.

Mike and Betsy

So we continued through Wednesday with not much difference, and by the time we were going to bed, things were slowing down a little - the contractions were only about 10 mins apart.

Thursday was a great day though! The contractions sped back up to being 7 mins apart. Mike took the day off because we had a good feeling things were going to get moving that day. We had big plans. In the morning I was able to squeeze in to see an acupuncturist and she did some things to encourage labor to progress. Then we decided to get some spicy Thai food and then go for a hike at Robert H. Treman State Park. It was all we could do to encourage the baby to get a move on :)

Here I am - the day before Teagan was born, hiking up the steps at RHT.

But evening came and still no signs of things changing - just that our hopes were high and we were staying positive and REALLY HOPING that tomorrow would be the day. (Also - Michael Jackson died that day) sort of crazy!

Then, at 3:50am, lying asleep in bed, my water broke! What a crazy sensation! And by 4:30am, my contractions began to finally have some umph to them - I could really start feeling that they were changing and becoming more intense. We went back to bed and tried to sleep some more - as hard as that was. I actually did sleep a little longer, just waking up for every contraction.

By 8:00am I was ready to get up and get some things ready (let the final nesting comence!) We let Betsy know that my water had broken and it looked like we might have finally arrived to our birth day!

I didn't actually call the Dr. until around 11:30 because I knew they would probably have us go to the hospital right away. I had really wanted to stay home as long as possible. But by that point I was feeling ready to get there and wanted to be able to relax and not have to worry about traveling in the midst of active labor.

We got to the hospital around 12:00pm and settled in. But really only about an hour after getting there, things started to get much more intense. I won't go into much detail since a lot of it is kind of fuzzy to me. I didn't use any medication at all, which I'm proud of myself for. I actually feel like it really wasn't nesessary. It's so amazing what your hormones can do and how well they take care of smoothing the process over. I know it was strong, and at times very painful, but I can't imagine it any other way. And I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with using medication, just that for me, it was the way to go.

Both Mike and I's parents traveled up to be here for the birth - here they are, anxiously waiting down the hall.



Anyway, at 10:58pm, Teagan Anne was born! It was sooo amazing and incredible, I'm still in shock daily that she is here and is so perfect. She was completely healthy and weighed in at 8lbs. 10oz!

And then there were THREE! Here we are right after she was born. And I must say that it was a lot of fun not knowing if she was going to be a boy or a girl. It was funny because that was a big thought of mine through the whole labor, so when she was finally born I was waiting for someone to YELL it out right away! But everyone was just standing there watching her and I finally had to ask what it was. They asked me if I could see, so I looked down and then saw that it was a girl.

We didn't actually name her until Sunday morning. We had a huge list of both girl and boy names and wanted to wait to see her before picking a name. We both really are happy with the name and think that it's quite fitting :)

The proud family:

Auntie B

Gram & Grandpa

Grandma, Daddy, Grandpa & Auntie B

Proud Daddy

Proud Mommy

We stayed at the hospital for two nights. Ithaca is luckily small enough that most times their maternity ward isn't very full. So Mike was able to stay with us both nights in our room and even have his own bed. The hospital experience was wonderful and all the staff (doctors and nurses) were really sooo great! We really felt so lucky to have had such a great. all-around experience.

Just a cute picture of a very sleepy Teagan in her Dad's arms (and a silly wrap job :)

Three cheers for Teagan!! We did it!!

19 Weeks & 4 Days

This was our last peek inside - 19 Weeks & 4 Days

Can you see it's mouth open?



It didn't want to take it's hands away from it's face. But you can still get a little peek - so cute!

Belly Bump

We're back! Well, at least for today. I know that I've been horrible with updating but I'm sure you can imagine things have been a bit busy.

These past 9 months have been a whirlwind of excitement, celebrations and anticipation. The pregnancy has gone so smoothly - I am truly so grateful!

So yesterday was my due date and as you might guess since I'm updating this blog - still no baby. But we are patiently waiting and are so curious as to when this little person will decide to enter the "outside" world :). Betsy (Mike's sister) has arrived from Portland, OR and is here to be our doula and support person throughout the labor and after delivery. We are SOO grateful to have her here. We were getting a little nervous that the baby wasn't going to wait for her, but it worked! Now we are just hoping the baby will come before she has to leave on the 29th. I have confidence though :)

Well, I have a list of things to accomplish this weekend so I won't be able to update much more but I figured I should at least put up some belly pictures before the baby arrives. Fun stuff!

13 Weeks

17 Weeks

21 Weeks

24 Weeks

28 Weeks

30 Weeks

32 Weeks

34 Weeks

39 Weeks

I've also started experimenting with making silhouettes on the computer and have had fun with doing my changing profile. Here are a few from our
"Bump Growing Journey".

17 Week Poke

24 Weeks
28 Weeks

35 Weeks


39 Weeks

Mike's Craft

I almost forgot - Mike started a tradition in 2007 with designing our holiday card. I think he does such an amazing job! Don't we have such a great looking family? :)
Happy Holidays (and that's all for 2008 - we can now enter into 2009)!

2008

2007

My Crafts for 2008 Holidays

I had a lot of fun with my holiday crafts this past year :0). For my main gift I ended up doing these cool 3D snowflakes. I had so many different ideas that I was throwing around but in the end I came back to these beauties. They're actually relatively easy to make but have such a pretty end result.

I first saw these last year at the papercutting conference that I went to. Then a friend of mine was making them for her craft, then Lauren (the girl I worked with) designed a snowflake program for work and had these as the craft. It was actually thanks to her because she taught me how to make them and inspired me to do more.



And if you would like to try and make one yourself, you can check out this website:
How to make a 3D Paper Snowflake

There are actually lots of websites and YouTube videos on how to make them - just search 3D snowflake. The only difference with the ones that I made were that I used hot glue instead of tape or staples. I found it worked better and looked nicer. Oh, and I sprayed them with glitter.

Then I also got into making ATCs (Artist Trading Cards). I've been hearing a lot about these and thought that they could be a fun and easy craft to do. I actually belong to a papercutting ATC group, although I had never attempted one before the ones I did for the holidays.

ATCs are miniature works of art created on 2 1/2 X 3 1/2 inch card stock. They are originals, small editions and most importantly, self-produced. Anybody can produce them. The idea is that you trade them with other people who produce cards, either at trading sessions, through the mail or wherever you meet another ATC trader.

The project was initiated in 1997 by Zurich artist M.Vanci Stirnemann, who created 1200 cards by hand as part of an exhibit. At the closing reception he invited others to create their own cards and trade with him. Since then several hundred people from all over the world have traded ATCs.


Artist Trading Cards are typically made on a base of card stock, however any base is acceptable. The art on the cards can be done in any media; pencil, pen, acrylic, oil, collage, textile arts, scratch board, digital art, calligraphy, beadwork, rubber stamps, pen and ink, colored pencil, airbrush, pastels, and many others - basically anything you would like to use.

Anyway, I tried to personalize them with things that represented the people that I was making them for. This picture is a collage of the ones that I did, but below is a slideshow that you can see them in more detail if you click on it.

I had a lot of fun with them and actually have more that aren't on here yet because I still need to send them out. But here is a call to all of you. If you received an ATC from me, I challenge you to make one for me. And it can be any style at all - it does not need to be a papercutting. The only rule is that it needs to be the 2 1/2 X 3 1/2 inch size. AND, if you have yet to receive one from me, feel free to send me one and I will send you one back! (and that really goes for ANYONE! - just send me a message through this blog!)

I also got to do a couple of special papercuttings. This one was for my cousin Tori. It (of course) way very late. It was actually for her graduation. She likes Snoopy a lot so I thought it would be fitting :)


I was also comissioned to do this one for our friend June. It was a gift for her husband as a graduation present. He got his Ph. D. from Penn State and did a lot of work with acoustics. I thought that it turned out really neat.

And this one was a first for me. A girl that worked with me over the summer comissioned me to make one for her mother. She collects pictures of Rainbow Falls at Watkins Glen State Park. So I took a picture of Rainbow Falls and turned it into this cutting. I was pretty freaked out while making it but really liked the way it turned out.

Here is the real picture that I used for the cutting below.

And one more fun craft - a Wordle! I was at a conference for invasive species and saw my first Wordle. Basically, you go to this website and type in a bunch of words. Then it shuffles them and makes them into pretty word clouds like this:

Here is the website for endless fun: www.wordle.net

(But beware - sometimes not all words show up. This wordle that I did was for a gift tag for my mom's family celebration. I typed in all the names but for some reason Jim and Dan would not show up. Of course I didn't realize until I had already passed them out and felt really bad, but I eventually got it fixed. The only way I could make it work was to put the names with another name. So just beware that there are still some quirks with it.)