Wrapped Up

One of the latest/oldest fads with mothers of infants is "babywearing."  A lot of moms spend $40 for a Moby Wrap, a long piece of fabric that you wrap around yourself in order to hold your baby.  Kind of like a third world Baby Bjorn.  I decided that I wanted one of these before Lila was born, but I did not want to spend that much money on a long piece of a fabric.

So while at Jo-Ann's, I got on the phone with Johnny and had him find this website which explains how to make your own.  Essentially, you buy six yards of some kind of stretchy cotton fabric, like a thick jersey.   

Then you lay it out and cut it in half (because there's enough fabric for two wraps that are 6 yards by about 30 in depending on your fabric). Then, if you want, you can round off the ends to make it easier to tie.

After rounding off the edges, pin a hem around the entire piece of fabric.  (This is unnecessary if you have a serger because then you can just serge the entire thing.)

Once you're pinned, zig zag stitch your hem. This takes a long time because it's a lot of fabric. But do not despair!  You will eventually finish.

And voila!  Go to the Moby Wrap website to see how to tie it, and then stick your baby in and go on a walk.  The fabric will stretch a bit once the baby is in there, so don't worry if it seems a little hard to tie at first.

Bathtime and Spaceships

We are home! Yesterday Lila got to get her first sponge bath at home on the kitchen counter.



Daddy washed her dark dark hair.

And she got to dress up like a froggy.

She loves her daddy so much.

One little issue that we've had is that Lila was jaundice when she arrived.  She has had to have a special blue light blanket on to get rid of all the bad stuff.  We call it her spaceship.

Breastfeeding has been difficult and so has sleeping for her because of her broken clavicle, but how can you resist that face?

 

It's A Girl!

After 41 whole weeks, we finally get to welcome Lila Margaret Hutson to our family!

I woke up Sunday morning with what I decided was a contraction.  Johnny and I started timing them on our sweet free Ipad app, and after only one hour, the contractions were over a minute long and five minutes apart.  We drove to the hospital, where the contractions immediately started to pick up to only about a minute or two in between each one.  I started out in the labor and delivery room planning to not get an epidural.  I sat on an exercise ball and got in the shower, but the contractions got to a point where there was no break in between them.  So I wimped out and got the epidural, and I was literally pain free until the two hours of pushing.    Lila was born at 5:31pm after only 10 hours of labor.  She was 9lbs and 6oz (only 9 oz less than her Uncle Mitchell) and 21 in long.  For being so big, the only problem that she has is that she broke the right side of her clavicle on the way out, so we're being very careful when we hold her. 

We got to go home today, and she did a great job in the car.  Thank you to all of her wonderful visitors and to everyone who's been thinking of us these last few days!  And Lila, we're sorry we all thought you were a boy!

The Great Movie Challenge

Well we are still here.  Yes I've been walking and eating spicy food and everything else overdue women are supposed to do.  Baby Hutson just really likes the home that I have made for it, and I can't blame him/her.  It's like living in a hot tub.

Though I haven't been able to do much beyond bouncing on my exercise ball and getting my brother to do our lawn work (it's his spring break after all...gotta keep him busy), Johnny and I have been able to keep up with our latest endeavor -- watching all the Academy Award Winning films for Best Picture.  Here's a little list with my reviews so you can decide if you too would like to see them.

Marty 1955

http://www.amazon.com/Marty-Ernest-Borgnine/dp/images/B00005AUKB

Marty is about a middle-aged guy who's never been able to find love.  He meets a girl that he likes, but his super Italian mother and his friends don't like her.  That's pretty much the whole movie.  It's a great movie if you enjoy well-written characters, but if you want something to happen as far as the plot, it's probably not for you.  I give it a C+.

My Fair Lady 1964

http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/my-fair-lady.html 

Now I have seen My Fair Lady numerous times, but I don't think I've actually ever sat down and watched the entire thing in one sitting until this recent time.  It is one long movie, let me tell you.  For those of you who don't know, My Fair Lady is the story of a wealthy linguistics professor who takes a poor flower girl under his wing and teaches her how to speak and act properly.  Audrey Hepburn is superb in this role, and the music is excellent.  Johnny particularly liked the songs "I Shall Never Let A Woman in My Life" and "Why Can't A Woman Be More Like A Man?"  I give it an A-.

Midnight Cowboy 1969

http://criminalmovies.blogspot.com/2011/11/midnight-cowboy.html 

So when this one came in the mail from Netflix, I said, "Johnny, what's this one about?"  He started reading the summary: "Midnight Cowboy is the only X-rated movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture."  We kind of looked at each other, thinking, "What have we done?"  I will say, however, that the X rating is not necessary.  Midnight Cowboy is the story of a young man from Texas who travels to New York City to become essentially a male prostitute, assuming there are a whole bunch of rich women in New York who would want him.  His plans go awry, and he eventually teams up with a con-artist, played by Dustin Hoffman, to try to make ends meet.  I'm not saying you should go rent this for your elementary schooler, but the X rating seems to come from some homosexuality that probably today wouldn't earn more than a PG-13 rating.  Because I love Dustin Hoffman, I give this one a B-.

40 Weeks and Still Pregnant

Here we are.  The end of week 40.  I'm feeling really great minus the swollen feet and trips to the bathroom every thirty minutes.  Our bags are packed, we've got our birth plan, and the doctor says we should be ready to go any day now.  Today is the actual due date, but we have an induction date set for a week from Tuesday.  So if Baby Hutson decides to stay in a little longer, we'll be ready.  Just FYI, we're delivering at St. Luke's on the Plaza, and we'd love to have visitors!  So feel free to come and visit once we're there.

March Book Club

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Omnivore's_Dilemma

As mentioned earlier, for this month's book club we read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.  I have a hard time summarizing this book because I don't feel that it was organized in a manner that makes complete sense, but generally the book is about the idea that as omnivores we have a lot of options for what we can eat.  Pollan wants to give us more information on various fads such as eating organically, eating locally, and hunting and foraging for food.  He also addresses our dependence as Americans on corn and how we've messed with the natural order of things so that farmers can keep making more corn than we need.

 Last night, the ladies got together to discuss our reactions.  Generally most people thought that it was informative with some parts that were really interesting.  However, there were a lot of slower more sciencey parts that made some of us, i.e. me, a little sleepy.  I will say that reading this book made me think about where my eggs come from as I'm cracking them, but I haven't yet changed from whom I purchase them.

Overall I would recommend this book if you're particularly interested in this subject, but if not, skip it.  Next month's book is the ever popular Hunger Games, in anticipation of the upcoming movie.  I'm very eager to reread this one, an excellent book.