Nesting

Last Saturday I woke up. I wake up every day, not really such a feat, but last Saturday I woke up and could not control the urge to clean the floors, on my hands and knees, until every ding dang dog hair was purged from our living space. Not an easy task, mind you, as our dog is seasonally challenged and is currently shedding like it's springtime.

The kids and I scrubbed and vacuumed and dusted like our lives depended on it. Even Mister got into the nesting game, helping with cleaning the basement and clearing any cobwebs that he could find. I had the insatiable urge to bleach the bathrooms. I have NEVER bleached the bathrooms. Until now. Since then, Mister has become even more efficient with the cleaning and is helping with dishes, blew off the deck and porch, washed the icky green stuff off of the railings, and generally vacumming every 5 minutes. When he sets his mind to something, he's really dedicated.

I have been occupied with laundry.. tons and tons of laundry. All that cleaning must have stirred something up because the kids both came down with colds which turned into bacterial conjuctivitis on Tuesday. They got the first antibiotics of their lives in the form of eyedrops this week... a monumental day for sure. I've been washing their bedding every night to prevent reinfection and it looks as though we are in the clear for now.

Thank goodness; Little Miss must be on her way soon...it's the only explanation for this cleaning compulsion.

My own belly...

Last weekend, my friend Kath helped me shoot some maternity portraits... of myself. I got the camera set up and would do a few shots to show her the framing, and then she went to town trying to get the exact shot I wanted. I think she did a swell job, don't you? I was 35 weeks 3 days...

Kath in a test shot... (yes that is a pillow in there)

The resulting shot of me...

Music to Birth By....

So each time I have a baby, I make a mix tape... well a mix CD anyway...or a playlist...whatever, you catch my drift. I love music. I associate songs with different times in my life... I have always been a huge fan of movie soundtracks, so I suppose over time I have created my own soundtrack ... the soundtrack of my life. My kids love music, too, although they hate when I sing. I THINK I have a pretty decent voice, but sometimes there's just no accounting for taste.

Anyhow, when I was pregnant with G, I was all about Allison Krauss. I learned every word to the New Favorite CD, and her rendition of Baby Mine is still is at the top of my all time best baby song chart. I was well armed with my mix CD full of almost-bluegrass, but then ended up not bringing the music along to the hospital. Instead, the hospital had this really crazy new age TV channel that played psychedelic mood music and showed images of outer space that was on the entire time. Not entirely what I was planning, but worked out just fine as I sort of had the feeling I wasn't really all there during G's birth anyway. Endorphins can do crazazy things to you, including make you feel like you are totally having an out of body experience.

With Little Guy, I was much better prepared... instead of lugging 17 bags full of all the stuff that babycenter said I "needed" to the hospital and forgetting my music, I took exactly 1 bag with 1 outfit (a Just Had a Baby Shirt warm socks and, of course, yoga pants) some toiletries and my snazzy new mp3 Player complete with wireless FM transmitter and DH's clock radio. Little Guy's playlist included... Jack Johnson. That's all... every Jack Johnson song ever released up to that day was on that playlist. And a little ditty called "Under Pressure" by Queen... very fitting.

With Little Guy there was no out of body experience... I was definitely in body.. felt every pain, the entire time. He was a big baby, and was ill positioned, but we managed to get him out eventually. Thank goodness I was laboring and delivering in the water... that aquadural is a lifesaver.

Right now, I am working on my next birthing playlist. I have a feeling I won't need as many songs this time, which is good since I am superstitious and wouldn't use one of the songs from a previous playlist anyway. I will try to find all the titles on Playlist.com and put them on the blog after I finalize the list, but sometimes my tunes are hard to find.

Here is what I have so far. I am totally looking for more suggestions, so if there is a song you think would be appropriate, please let me know.

Colbie Caillat - Capri
Jack Johnson - Angel (Sleep through Static was released after Little Guy was born)
Allison Krauss - Get me through December
Jack Johnson - While we Wait
Eric McCarley - Pitter Pat
The Be Good Tanyas - I wish My Baby Was Born
Joe Purdy - Wash Away
Adele - Make You Feel My Love
Greg Laswell - What a Day (I listened to this song on the way to baby Eli's birth)
Dave Matthews - Steady As We Go
Dave Matthews - Oh
Ingrid Michaelson - Oh What A Day
Priscilla Ahn - Dream
Michelle Featherstone - Sweet Baby
Elizabeth Mitchell - Here Comes my Baby
Elvis Costello - Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash Cover)
Amerie - I'm Coming Out (Diana Ross Cover)
Yael Naim - New Soul
Fisher - Beautiful Life

And then sometimes....

I get a family who is so photogenic and easy to photograph that I can't stop editing. Their sessions take forever to post because I want to process every single image about fifteen different ways. I promise I am almost done, guys. Here are a few starters for you...

Long time, no see.

Hey there blog. Sorry I've been so negligent. Things have been crazy around here these days. I have been editing many shoots, and still have some shooting to do before baby arrives. I've ben having these troubling contractions lately that make me feel like she's going to make her grand entrance a bit earlier that I really expected her to... and that is freaking me out. I have so much work to do before then! And all of the sudden I am exhausted again. Drop dead, eye-crossing, can't work up the energy to roll over, exhausted.

One of the sessions had some negative feedback the other day. It made me sad and frustrated all at once. I've never felt like someone was truly unsatisfied before, and it made me sad because all I want to do is make people feel good and be happy. Frustrated because it was a fairly difficult shoot in the first place, and I was pretty happy with what I was able to catch and how the final images turned out. And, this is a family I really adore, so I wanted them to be especially happy. Hopefully, I've been able to reprocess the images to their liking, but we'll see. Such a downer.

What else.... Oh, riding the school bus isn't going to work out for G, at least for now. There is a 5th grade, trouble-making bully on there who is saying exceptionally inappropriate things to her and her Kindergarten friends. Why he is sitting near the Kindergarteners when he is a known troublemaker, I don't really understand... He is fairly lucky I was able to restrain my hormonal self, and thus he remains a breathing human being... and I remain a free lady. Hopefully, he will be removed from the bus soon and we can resume our regular routine. She does love the bus.

On a happy note, my dear friend Laura threw me a lovely baby shower yesterday. :)
It was perfect. My very dear friends and family were there and we were able to just hang out and relax for a bit int he midst of all of this crazy December time. Laura provided exquisite refreshments... coffee from my favorite coffeehouse, plenty of tea, buscuits from the Flying Buscuit, pumpkin muffins, fruit salad, cookies... she really went all out. Everyone decorated these little onesies for my girl, and it was so fun to see each person's personality shine through with their designs. I got to see and hold baby Eli again, who ended up falling asleep all curled up on my chest... so sweet.

And of course I opened presents.... lots of simply ADORABLE baby girl clothes. So precious! I also got some much needed diapers (NatureBabyCare even!), some of my favorite organic wipes, a couple of nursing camis (woohoo!) and a convertible carseat for the new addition. So, I am going to have the best dressed and most well-coordingated baby in the land.

Back to editing... and then to a Christmas Pageant play where my neighbor's daughter has the lead! It's a musical, and a pretty big deal. Talk about talent!