First Father's Day

Our first family Father's Day was a double Father's Day. Ed and Carol came to visit from Tucson and Emma got to help both Daddy and Grandpa celebrate. Her gift to Daddy was her first finger painting!

We also had a short photo session to make Daddy a fun card.

Bring on the Bibs!

I really think there is a market for baby outfits with matching bibs. Emma has been drooling since she was three months old and there have been days when she’s soaked through six or seven bibs. Never mind all of the cute onesies or dresses I put her in. Most of them get covered up by the bib. Occasionally I can find a matching bib for an outfit (luckily she wears mostly pink) but usually I just grab whatever is most absorbent. It’s also starting to interfere with pictures (take off the bib for the picture!) and with her learning to crawl (she’s caught on her bib!). I am thinking about losing the bibs this summer when hopefully her clothes can just air dry. The bibs were originally meant to keep her dry and from getting a rash under her neck, but now she’s getting a rash in the back of her neck from the bib rubbing!

Bibalicious!!

Better Late Than Never

Ok, so I admit that this post is obnoxiously delayed. However, I really do want to continue blogging, so I guess that a much delayed post is better than just deleting the page and giving up! After a busy few months of maternity leave, visits from family and friends, getting back into work, and then another medical leave, I am finally ready to get into a routine. I know that things will never "slow down" but I do think that I finally have a better sense of what I have time to do. So instead of stressing about all the events that I should have included on my blog, I am going to play catch-up with pictures. Hopefully after this I will be ready to continue on a regular basis! :)

2 months - First Christmas, four generations


3 months


3 months - La Jolla


4 months - Valentine's Day with my future supermodel!


5 months - Honoring cousin Taylor for St. Patty's Day


5 months - Go Cats!!


5.5 months - Great-grandma comes to visit


6 months - First Easter


6.5 months - My first Mother's Day!


7 months - Back to Washington for Memorial Day Weekend

Out Little Peanut

Our baby girl has arrived!! Emily Ann Carpenter joined the world exactly 3 weeks early on 10-20-10. She decided to surprise us and spare me another 3 weeks of careful planning and preparation!!

The story of her birth began on Tuesday, October 19 when I was at work. It was a rare rainy, stormy San Diego day. I was walking to my car from a client's building and slipped in a puddle. I fell on my right side; onto my leg, shoulder, and unfortunately, my belly. I didn't feel any pain, but I did start having some cramping almost immediately. It wasn't bad so I went back to work. I also noticed that I was having quite a few Braxton-Hicks contractions, so I decided to wrap up my day and go home. I called my doctor on my way home and they told me to go to triage immediately so that they could monitor the status of the baby. When I got home, I threw a few extra things into my half-packed hospital bag (just in case) and Kyle and I headed to the hospital. Once I was on the monitors, the nurses noticed that I was having around 20 contractions in an hour. I also had some blood work done and it showed that there had been a small tear; some of the baby's blood had mixed with my own. My doctor wanted me to stay for 24 hour observance to make sure the contractions lessened. Neither Kyle nor I wanted to stay, since if by some chance I did go into active labor we wanted to do so at home. I had wanted a natural birth, and we took a special class on hypnobirthing to prepare. The hospital staff, of course, tried to convince us to stay and told us that leaving would be against medical advice. After we talked about it in private for a bit, we decided to stay and consider this a "practice run". Looking back now - we made the right decision!

Kyle went home to get our bags and take Zoey to our neighbors. He also threw the box with our car seat and stroller (which had arrived in the mail that day) in the back of the car - again, just in case. I was put on a floor with high-risk momma's and we tried to get some rest. I was still having around 16 contractions an hour. Around 3 in the morning, my water broke. It was nothing like I had expected, and Kyle had to take me through some breathing exercises to calm my excitement! We were moved downstairs to labor and delivery around 3:30 and by 4 I finally felt the contractions strengthen a bit. Kyle was amazing; giving me water, putting on my music, and talking me through the contractions.

I was at 2 cm at 4 am and by 6 am my surges had intensified so much that I told the nurse I was feeling as though I needed to push. She checked me again and said I was at 6 cm. She also seemed a bit confused and went to get another nurse to check me. This went on through FOUR nurses. The final nurse stepped back and said, "oh yes, that's a butt coming through, not a head". A doctor with an ultrasound machine was rushed in and through some very intense contractions announced that the baby was on her way through, breeched. The room became frantic and I can only describe it as a kind of Nascar pit crew. They stopped talking to Kyle and I and started shouting orders about calling the doctor and how the baby had to come out NOW. It was all very frantic, but strangely enough I felt quite calm. Despite the fact that I very much wanted a natural birth, I remembered my hypnobirthing instructor telling us that if there really was an emergency or need for an intervention, we would know because we wouldn't be ask us what we wanted. Hospital staff wouldn't give options for a c-section or drug intervention if it was truly necessary. They would instead go into action and do whatever they could to save mom and baby. That's what happened in my room. No one was saying that I was going to have a c-section, they weren't telling me anything at that point, I just knew that's what was going to happen. I knew there must be a true emergency so I accepted it and just went it.

The OR was very hectic and we found out later that there was another emergency c-section at the same time. Nevertheless, it all happened quite quickly and our little girl arrived safely. Emma arrived at 7:03 am and was 5 lbs, 7 oz and 17.75 inches long. She was a little jaundice but otherwise healthy.

We have been spending our days since, adjusting to the feeding/sleeping schedule of a newborn and cooing over her in between. We have also had a lot of family in town to help with cooking, cleaning, and just keeping the house up! This has been so great and has given Kyle and I time to recover and bond with our little girl.

Sleeping peanut

Sleeping in daddy's hands

First trip to the pumpkin patch

September Showers

Ok, so not all of my showers have been in September (the last one was at the beginning of October) but I have had three in the past month! They have all been fabulous and each one unique. First, I had a surprise shower during a mini family reunion in Texas. Kyle and I went to visit his family in San Antonio over Labor Day weekend. We were all set to have a family lunch one day and – SURPRISE!! They had actually set up a lunch/baby shower. It was so special because it was soley a family shower, and I had already been a bit bummed that none of them would be able to attend my other showers.

Texas family shower

My next shower was in Seattle. My mom and sister flew me back home for a weekend of more family and a few close friends. My sister did a great job at hosting the shower, and we played some crazy games of chugging water from baby bottles and blind baby food tastings.

Chugging water out of baby bottles - SO difficult!!

Momma and sissy

My last shower this past weekend was held at my house. Candice and Vanessa came out from Tucson and, with the help of Amber and Janelle, threw me an amazing ‘sugar and spice’ themed shower full of baked goods.

SUGAR (and spice) and everything nice - yum!!

My beautiful hostesses!

Craving Christmas

I can’t say that I have had many cravings during my pregnancy. I was sick for so long and my “cravings” really just came across as being ready to eat anything that didn’t make me feel nauseas. But something I have been thinking about almost this whole pregnancy is how I wish it was Christmas. Fall is my favorite season and I love the crisp air and good feelings of the season. I love holiday in general but am slightly obsessed with Christmas. This year, I am just excited for my first family Christmas; to introduce this little girl to all our traditions, play Christmas music for her; walk her through neighborhoods of glittering lights, etc. I have actually been playing her Christmas music for awhile, and I think Kyle is a little worried. He keeps telling me that he hopes, for my sake, that this little girl loves Christmas – I don’t think there’s any other option!

31 Weeks (2 weeks ago)

New Mom Resolution #2 - Nursery Furniture

As soon as I found out the sex of Baby Carpenter, I started looking at crib bedding. I was so excited to pick out colors and a theme. It turned out to be a lot harder than I thought! Everything was either too girly or too modern. I actually learned that I like boy bedding a lot better. I love greens and browns, leaves and trees. As much as was into this style, I decided that I really did want a more ‘girly’ nursery. Once I finally settled on my bedding, I started looking into the actual pieces of furniture that I wanted in the room.

Candice and I both listen to a podcast called Pregtastic, and one of the episodes featured ways to be a “green” mom. The woman being interviewed warned about crib material and how you should choose solid wood instead of particleboard or pressed wood. She warned that these kinds of wood contain formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is volatile organic compound (VOC), meaning that it becomes a gas at normal room temperatures. It is also a known carcinogen - a cancer causing substance. It's not only carcinogenic to humans, but to many animals and birds as well. We had known that formaldehyde was in a lot of things, such as nail polish, but not in furniture!
Formaldehyde also appears to have a large impact on children’s respiratory health. Studies have shown that chronic exposure to formaldehyde at levels greater than 16 ppb in indoor air is linked with an increased likelihood of respiratory symptoms (such as coughing) and/or allergic sensitization in children. A brand new crib and changing table contain indoor formaldehyde levels of about 30 ppb on average throughout the whole house!

This prompted a whole other strain of thought in which you could worry about all the other furniture in your house. The woman on the podcast later discussed how most of the toxic levels of formaldehyde are released within the first two years, so buying used cribs and other furniture would be a better option as well.

It actually wasn’t too difficult to find furniture made from solid wood and safe paints and/or finishes. They are just VERY expensive. No offense to anyone who has, but we refused to pay $800+ for a crib! Since the random Google results weren’t compatible with our budget, we started searching traditional baby stores. Even seemingly “quality” places such as Pottery Barn Kids use medium-density fiberboard (MDF) in their cribs. MDF is an engineered wood product formed by breaking down hardwood or softwood residuals into wood fibers. Formaldehyde resins are commonly used to bind MDF together and testing has consistently revealed that MDF products emit urea formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds that pose health risks at sufficient concentrations, for at least several months after manufacture. The urea formaldehyde is always being slowly released from the surface of MDF.

In addition to the toxic VOCs that are off gassed from these types of products, the life cycle analysis indicates that MDF and other plastic composite products use twice as much energy and have 100% more global warming potential than their unaltered wood counterparts (Dovetail Partners Inc., 2010). Life cycle analysis takes into account all the resource, manufacturing and transportation needs, product usage and end-of-life disposal. So the best thing would be to buy/borrow a used crib – but we have to admit – we’re a little picky when it comes to these things… the next best thing with the lowest environmental impact would be a crib built with sustainably grown wood that is stained with a non-toxic finish.

So we both arrived at the same solution – a DaVinci crib. However, the parent company to DaVinci furniture, Million Dollar Baby (http://www.milliondollarbaby.com/faq#1), doesn’t say much with respect to the sustainability of wood used. We find it a little suspicious that considering the “green marketing” boom, they’re not making a bigger effort to promote this side of their business. Many retailers that sell DaVinci cribs market them as eco-friendly options, but this is the extent of eco-information on their website:

Q. What kind of wood are your cribs made out of?
Most of our cribs are made of Pine wood from sustainable forests in New Zealand. The New Zealand Radiata Pine, used in our furniture, is eco-friendly. We also use Rubber wood from Malaysia and Sepetir wood from harvested forests in other Asian countries. We NO longer use protected wood species like Ramin wood from Indonesia in any of our furniture.

Q. My baby has been teething on the crib and the paint is coming off, is your crib safe and what can I do?”
We understand that when babies are teething they will chew on anything they can. If your baby is chewing on one of our cribs, rest assured that we use non-toxic water based paint that is safe for your baby. All of our cribs meet JPMA and CPSC safety standards. If you would like to avoid your child chewing on their crib, several companies manufacture crib rail protectors for you to purchase.

Besides this info (which we assumed to be legitimate) there’s not much supporting evidence online. We emailed the company with some additional questions, like, “What are the ingredients in your non-toxic paint?” We hadn’t received a response at the time we wrote this. Apparently the cribs are made in China, which makes us wonder about the non-toxic paint finish. Nothing exported from China seems to be non-toxic these days. Is it unrealistic to buy a sustainably forested, non-toxic finished crib for less than $300? Maybe so.

However, to spend $1,000+ on a crib was out of our budget if we wanted other non-toxic, eco-friendly products as well. It would be silly to have a super high-end crib and then put a regular mattress in the crib. Many mattresses say they are Organic, but that means only the outside cover and the inside still contains vinyl/PVC and polyurethane foam. These plastic materials also off-gas toxic chemicals like Dioxin and phthalates – neurotoxins and endocrine disruptors that are linked to learning disabilities, breast cancer and reproductive issues (CHEJ, 2009).

Considering how much time babies spend sleeping in their cribs, we felt the mattress was also a very important choice. So we chose the Naturepedic crib mattress and changing pad with ABC Organic Cotton Velour covers/sheets. Naturepedic mattresses have a polyethylene cover and are filled with Organic Cotton. Although still a plastic, polyethylene is considered non-toxic and the mattresses are GREENGUARD certified for Indoor Air Quality and Children & Schools, meaning these mattresses off gas 1/100th of the industry standard values for VOCs, phthalates and other toxic chemicals.

Zoey helping daddy put the baby's crib together