rooted

(a project inspired by Inner Excavation)

life with ellie jane (the first five weeks)

 

current favorite EJ photo . taken by vivienne mcmaster

while i was pregnant, i became quite excited whenever i came across a blog post about the items new parents found helpful in the first few weeks of their newborn's life. because jon and i don't have siblings with children and haven't been around newborns really much at all in our adult lives, we relied on our friends (and the magic of blog world) to help us figure out what we needed and what we could wait on so that our already full home didn't become too filled with baby "stuff" that we did not need just yet.

so in the spirit of sharing information, here are a few of the things we have been really glad we have and then a few just for fun tips...

oh and if you reading this have anything to add or share (or questions), please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments. and if you can, share links because links are always helpful for the mama who has pregnancy or newborn brain...thanks!

feeding

the Boppy Pillow has been perfect for feedings. because of my c-section, having this for ellie to rest on while i am nursing her (or feeding her a bottle as we are doing both) has been great help. the custom patchwork cover we have (from delightful vintage fabrics) is from the etsy shop "for the love of joy." and if you are reading this, you probably know this but i just have to say: you can never have too many burp cloths. we are mostly using the cloth diapers from gerber cloth diapers from gerber but i also made some from fabric i love + chenille. we use the burp cloths for feedings but also for, well, everything as messes abound with a baby. (oh and these nursing tanks from target are perfect. i actually wore them the last few weeks of my pregnancy, especially to bed.)

sleeping

after doing a lot of research, i decided to splurge on the cariboo folding bassinet. it has been perfect for the very small space we have in our bedroom. it is very sturdy and so easy to move when we want to have her in another room with us (and she wants to nap). and when we head to the ocean next month (i am putting this out there in the hopes it will actually happen), we will be able to easily fold it up and put it in the car. we will also use it later for toys in ellie's nursery. we received the halo sleepsack from the hospital when ellie was born. she sleeps in it every night. we also have the Kiddopotamus SwaddleMe but ellie was a bit too small for it until week 3. we love them both and so does ellie (especially after finally watching Happiest Baby on the Block, which, by the way, you also need dear pregnant one who might be reading this).

changing

the Wipe Warmer. so this one seems silly doesn't it? a wipe warmer? but when jon and i saw this online, we both had the same thought, "shouldn't everyone have one?" the answer is simply "yes." diaper changes are simply easier with a warm wipe. end of story. now onto diapers...so the hospital gives you a package of these pampers with this wetness indicator that turns blue when the baby needs to be changed. and then you get home. and at about day three, you realize the regular newborn pampers swaddlers do not have the strip. and you ask every person you know where to find them and no one knows...but then you use google and AHA! you find that the pampers sensitive diapers (in sizes newborn, 1, and 2) have the stripe! (and your husband agrees to continue to do almost all diaper changes because you order a box bigger than the one the stroller came in filled with aforementioned diapers!) 

a few random tips:

keep your camera in the room where you spend most of your time. you will want to capture so many of the facial expressions your little one makes, but you won't want to leave him or her alone while you run around like a crazy person looking under everything for your camera. have a spot for it and leave it there when you aren't using it.

meals ready in the freezer BEFORE your water breaks is not a bad idea.

have confidence in your partner when he or she is taking care of the baby. (my friend lindsey gave me this advice a few months ago and it has been so helpful. i sleep through the middle of the night feeding jon gives ellie because i am not wrapped up in the idea that only i know how to do things for her.)

carriers/slings: you are probably going to want one of these but you might want to wait until baby gets here and take him or her to the store nearest you that sells them to try them until you find one that works...we are currently figuring this out and i will share my finds.

kindle + iTouch have been so helpful for one-handed reading of the online or book variety.

audio books are a wonderful companion to pumping.

nursery: we are slowly finishing up the little bean's room and i hope to share photos of her space in the next few weeks. it is the space in our home that is most the style i would love our entire home to feel like, so i am hoping that the light, airy, happy, creative feel is contagious.

nine {with michelle ensminger}

Today's Nine interview is with dear soul Michelle Ensminger. Michelle was the very first person to comment on this blog of mine back in 2005. As bloggers, we always remember our first commenter don't we? I think it is because in many instances that person will forever represent someone who gently says, "I see you." Michelle is that person for me. She is a woman who lives with an open heart, a poet's heart, and she shares pieces of what she sees and what she knows in such an honest, brave way that when you meet her you know your life will be forever changed. I know this to be true.

Enjoy this peek into Michelle's world.

*****

Question 1: Who are you?

Question 2: What do you love about where you live?

Question 3: What might your perfect afternoon look like?

Question 4: If you had an hour alone in your studio/creative space, what would you do?

Question 5: Right now, what are some of your favorite things?

Question 6: What foods nourish your soul?

Question 7: When you need to simply take a breath and reground yourself, what do you do?

Question 8: How do you nurture your creative dreams?

Question 9: Does your heart have a secret wish you want to share?

*****

Michelle Ensminger loves poetry, photography, and dates with her 7 year old son. She strives to nurture her creative life and pursue an authentic spiritual path in the midst of motherhood and working an 8-5 job.  

She is currently taking a hiatus from blogging (http://blog.tangledwings.com) but you can find more of her writing each month at The Wish Studio blog (http://wishstudio.com/).  She can also be found on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ordinarymatters/) and Facebook.

(All photos copyright Michelle Ensminger.)

*****

Nine is an interview series with creative folks that began in the Spring of 2009; the interviewees are asked to respond to the interview questions in photographs (or video). You can scroll through all the interviews here.

notes for the journey. invitations of inspiration.

leg warmers + flip flops on the 4th of july

i have been peeking my head out into blogworld and even into the "real" world every now and then, and i have come across a few things that invited me to want to do, create, play, and open up:

elizabeth's postcard project

kristen's new project exquisite corpse collective (and her new digs in the violet hour)

mati's painting a day

betsy snyder's book Haiku Baby(a present from viv. we. love. this. book). betsy has a blog and the book even has its own adorable site.

maddie's videos invite me to get out my flip and capture the world around me. love the whimsy and poetry of the little film in this post. and the light captured in this one makes me a bit weak in the knees (in the best of ways). can't wait until this fall when maddie teaches at reveal.

kate's words at the wishstudio about living from your whole body

(oh and just in case you need a little sixty seconds of cute...you can find miss ellie in moving pictures here)

PS a big thank you to all my guest bloggers who stepped in to share inspiration while i took a bit of a maternity leave from this space. their posts will fill up your soul's well, so if you haven't already, please read them all here.

today . a through the lens (backyard) walk

*****

i took five minutes just for me
and went out to the backyard
for a quick artist date
to see what i could see...

what are you seeing in your world? i would love to know.

(and thank you. yes. thank you. for your kind words about my last post. thank you for getting it and reaching out to let me know you do.) 

realness. (rambles of a sleepy mind)

our days are upside down. what i wear for the day becomes my pajamas as what i wear for the day means yoga pants and a nursing tank. maybe it is that i am wearing my pajamas all day but putting them on in the morning or at noon instead of in the evening. sometimes i snap at jon because my brain seems mushy. not an excuse, just real. then i notice that he looks as tired as i feel and i try not to snap the next time. the burst of energy to create or do something fun comes around 9 PM, when miss ellie decides she has the same burst of energy but hers manifests as a need to cry. one book said that after having the whole day filled with newness (as my brother says, each moment for a newborn is filled with "why? why? why?" which makes me think of the seagulls in finding nemo saying "mine. mine. mine.") the little ones have a need to cry as a simple let down from it all. who knows if that is true as, of course, there are more opinions than there are babies it seems...but i do think about our adult need to sometimes cry just because after a long day filled with stuff and learning and new.ness. yes. i might have that need at any moment lately. i don't think people honor the truth of how shocking it is to have surgery while awake. this is a phrase that has been running through my mind. and to have that surgery while you are awake when you have been awake for 36 hours, when you spent 24 of those in intense labor...well, not many people talk about that. maybe they do but they just don't talk about it to the people who need their wisdom. or so it seems. is that too much information to share in this public place? will the judgement begin when the story is not even known? deep breath. i would love it if the sun would come out again this afternoon. she appeared yesterday afternoon out of no where so we sat outside for dinner with ellie in her bouncy seat and it was really wonderful. i hope for more moments just like that one. maybe today, as the delightful miss viv will be in the house (how lucky i am to have friends who get me and want to spend the night even though a newborn is in the house and might prevent a long night of sleep) and it would be superb if we could eat the berries + whipped cream i have been dreaming about while sitting on quilts outside in the sunny rays of early evening. that would be perfect. trying to decide if i am going to keep sewing today during those bursts of free time or if i want to bring out the paints. am working on a few new designs for the shop inspired by time with miss ellie. funny how even in this sleepy-mind time i have had more new ideas for what i want to create than i had all of last year. we have rearranged some of the house and have the big dining room table in a place where we can actually use it. it can be a table for eating, sewing, grading, painting, and how the list goes on. finally. we are figuring it all out. together. this family thing. we are figuring it out...

and i can't get this song out of my head...have loved it for years (though eleanor was named after someone, not this song) and found the video on youtube and just had to share...(a song that has groovy rhyming with movie AND the word etcetera? what more could a girl want?)

hope things are beautiful in your world...thanks for reading the ramblings of mine...

a soundtrack for a very specific 24 hours in june.

 

while we were waiting . may 31, 2010

almost four weeks ago now, we walked into a hospital ready to meet our child knowing we probably had quite the journey ahead of us before we would see her face. and oh how we journeyed. (deep breath) i learned that i am braver and more powerful than i truly ever thought i could be, and i have never been so proud of the person who is me who has walked to this moment in her life. and together, we learned about another layer of our love and how strong we are when our hearts are open and our hands are clasped.

over the next few weeks, i plan to share pieces of that journey and moments from this next chapter that we have just begun as we get to know our daughter and learn even more about love and bravery and strength and being present.

this evening, i want to share the soundtrack of part of this journey. the following songs (and these songs too) were sung (with my amazing doula and her incredible apprentice, jonny, and the [really i was so lucky to have them] nurses sometimes joining in), danced to, breathed through as i experienced each contraction every minute or two for almost 24 hours...they were the soundtrack that kept me centered and focused and grounded and holding onto something real and beautiful and true.

yes.

i share them knowing you might need to gather a few for your soundtrack as you walk on your path.

Galileo (Indigo Girls)

Have a Little Faith (Michael Franti & Spearhead)

Caravanserai (Loreena McKennitt)

Under African Skies (Paul Simon)

End of the Line (The Traveling Wilburys)

Virginia Woolf (Indigo Girls)

Walking in Memphis (Marc Cohn)

Everything (Michael Buble)

Caravan from Chocolat (Rachel Portman)

White Sandy Beach of Hawai'i (Iz)

Brave (Stephanie Dosen)

Brand New Day (Joshua Radin)

I Got Love for You (Michael Franti & Spearhead)

Home (Marc Broussard)

Dreams (The Cranberries)

Power of Two (Indigo Girls)

Stolen (Dashboard Confessional)

Have a Little Fain in Me (John Hiatt)

Peaceful Easy Feeling (Eagles)

Watershed (Indigo Girls)

Say Hey (I Love You) (Michael Franti & Spearhead)

Graceland (Paul Simon)

These Photographs (Joshua Radin)

Hallelujah (k.d. lang)

asking questions {a guest post from meghan o'rourke lecates}

while we are soaking up the wonder of a newborn in the house, a few of my blogging friends are sharing some guests posts...enjoy these musings from Meghan O’Rourke LeCates.

*****

one of the most powerful + life-saving tools
i use
to grow + mend + thrive
{perhaps my first real tool in this realm of grow + mend + thrive}
is this:
asking questions

yes
this asking questions
coming from
{mostly in my younger years + sometimes still}
shy me
easily red-faced {to match my hair} me
the one who didn’t want to raise her hand
to draw attention to herself

asking questions = scary

someone{s} would be looking at me
focused on me
maybe even
seeing me

{i have long danced with:
i don’t want to be seen + i want to be seen
of course, you know, it’s all about wanting to be seen
yes, even the “i don’t want to be seen!”
is about this:
“i want to be seen”}

yes, me
asking questions

the one who didn’t want to ask
because it would mean
i didn’t know
and
“shouldn’t” i already know?

i thought i was supposed to know things

{how i was just supposed to know
i don’t know
but i was supposed to know
you know?}

if i didn’t know
it was on me

{a failure
a lack
on my part}

sigh

{can you identify with
any of this?}

yes
i started to ask questions
and
{at first}
not the kinds of questions you might expect
like
how does this work?
or
what does this mean?
or
could you explain that to me again, please?
{although i practice asking these kinds of questions, too}

the questions i started to ask
were questions i asked myself

necessary questions
questions
desperate
to be spoken + answered
hungry
to heal + lighten

deeply, deeply, deeply sensitive being that i was
{and still am
gratefully
with many tools in my ever-expanding toolkit -
i am ready for a toolshed}
i sometimes {= incessantly} thought
not helpful thoughts about myself
thoughts of the
i-am-wrong + i-am-not-good {enough}
variety 

finally
one day
this question made it’s way
mysteriously
{it’s not something i had ever heard before}
to me
and
rose up
through me:
is it true?

is it?

Is
it
true?

one question

it changed my life

here’s how it worked
i thought a
i-did-something-wrong thought
and
i started to feel
low-down-dark about it
and then
i inquired

i started to do
some investigating
some excavating
with this
singular question:
is it true?

is it?

Is
it
true?

True
as it turned out
mostly was
{always, even}
something else entirely

i don’t ask
is it true?
as much anymore

in this case
i do
just know

a question i ask a lot now is:
what do i need?

what do
i
need?

truly need?

i also ask:
does this resonate?
and
is this aligned?

i dwell in the asking of this:
what am i grateful for?

i am newly inspired + guided by this question:
what is the most playful + lighthearted choice i can make right now?

i wonder:
what question(s} are you asking?
how is this question{s} changing your life?

*****

Meghan O’Rourke LeCates is an ordained interfaith minister, ceremony designer + officiant, Reiki Master practitioner, spiritual director + coach and inspirational writer. Her motto these days: Rise + Shine!

Find out more about Meghan + her work and read her blog here: http://withpractice.com/. Follow Meghan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/withpractice.