Well, it is no secret that after baby, you body gets a little...Hmmm, lets call it funny. (I guess I think feeling like a squishy brick is funny - weird). Anyways - this blog is a shout out to my husband. While I feel like the bottom half of this commercial, when he tells me how beautiful and hott he thinks i am he makes me feel like the top of this commercial.
Thanks babe for making me a hott mom!!!
xoxo

Names I call my child

Noodle: Sevyn's nickname from Mom
Squirrel: Dad's nickname for Sev
Poodle: Derived from the later "Noodle". Poodle refers to the noodle when she is fussy just because. Like a poodle, she is spoiled.
Toodle: Also from Noodle, Toodle is a combination of Tiny and Noodle.
Sloodle: Silly Noodle
Stoodle: Stinky Noodle
Foodle:Fussy Noodle
Nugget: Another nickname from Mom
Nuggy: Short for Nugget
Noodle Nugget: Duh
Nuggy Noo: Combination of Noodle and Nugget
New Noo: New Noodle

I can't believe myself right now...What have I become?!?!?!

Diaper update

Well...Sevy is officially one month old!!! It has really been so much fun and the time has relatively quickly. I hesitated in saying that only because I hate it when people say/assume that it is such a bummer that time is going by so fast.Yes, someday I will long for the days and nights of tiny baby cuddles but honestly, the joy of having a baby is that you know that the love you give them will go with them as they grow up...We give Sev a lot of love so I am pretty excited to see what she will do and be as a real person.
The nights are not quite as long now, she sleeps at night instead of the day now. We still have to give her a bottle every few hours but she is much calmer in the evening and even sleeps in her basket.
For those of you who don't know, Sevyn does not sleep in her crib...No, she prefers a glorified wicker laundry basket with a pillow in it. It sounds a Little funny but it is adorable!
We have finished our Baby shower run...They were all so great! We had 4 showers and they were all fantastic...Between family members, my girlfriends, and my parents church, we really were showered with some of the most thoughtful gifts we have ever received. Thank you to Angie, Jan, Cimmy, and Carla for throwing us showers filled with love and generosity.
Back to Sevyn - she is amazingly hilarious...So many people were so quick to remind us that babys are so much work or that we'd never get out or that diapers are awful...Seriously folks, we have laughed our asses off at least twice every day since bringing her home. She is just so funny! She farts like a whoopee cushion, giggles in her sleep and make some really funny faces!
I have to again, just say "publicly" that Nathan is amazing. I truly could not do this with out him. He is my rock of emotional strength and encouragement. He does so much for both of us and always puts us first. And in the midst of all of that he still manages to tell me every day that he is the happiest he's ever been, with me and us and the baby! What a winner!
Well, in other news, I cancelled my smile box account due to technical difficulties so give me a couple of days - I am testing different sites for hosting pics and slide shows.
Well, Noodle wants her food - gotta go!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Baby Sevyn

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Baby's 1st Bath!

Make a Smilebox scrap pages

Baby's First Few Days

Make a Smilebox photobook

Day one of my early leave

Well as most of you know by now I have started my leave of absence early...I have been in quite a bit of pain for a while now and have, in turn, turned into quite the hellion at home. I was concentrating so hard on giving all of my good energy at work that when I came home I was awful to be around. I thought long and hard and Nathan agreed that having extra time before Sevyn's arrival that is happy time and time that we can just be together is worth more than a full paycheck.

So, here I am...at home...not bored per say but well, here is the run down of my day...We'll start at 3:30 this morning because that is when Sevyn typically turns into a pumpkin and makes my life a living hell.



3:30am - woke up to go to the bathroom and get water...Ended up waking up the dog so I put her in the bathroom with food and water.

4:00am - played 6 losing games of solitare on my phone

5:30am - I think Nathans alarm went off around now - I did get a little nap in, I can sleep if I don't move. I got up to go to the bathroom again.

7:00 am - Nathan left for work and I got up to pee...again...and decided to also catch up on Smallville and Supernatural since I didn't have to be quiet anymore.

8:30am - got up to let Charlie out and get some breakfast...Breakfast was quite the adventure since I was aparently very hungry... 2 waffels (Kashi, so I could justify 2), 2 eggs (1 whole and 1 white) toast, OJ and a yogurt later I felt like a beeched whale and took a little nap.

9:30am - woke up with searing heartburn which I should have anticipated because thats what always happens when I sleep right after I eat.

10:00 am - checked my email (I was so excited to get emails form the girls!!! I don't think I have ever actually responded so quickly to emails before!)

11:00am - Paid some bills, ate a snack, played with the dog

12:00 Sent Nathan the following pic and told him Charlie was dead because she missed him so much...





12:30 blogged on our family blog

1:30 Nathan came home!!!

And no it's only 1:50...oh dear.

We shall see how this goes.

Sigh

Well...it is 5:30am... I have been up since 2:30. I cannot sleep to save my life tonight. Nathan says it's God's way of preparing us to help each other (he sleeps while I'm up and I sleep while he's up etc)...I say how about we don't prepare for that kind of stuff? I think I'd rather just wing it when the time comes and get lots of sleep now. Soooooo, here I am - full of lower back pain (I wish someone would just snap me in half backwards), and totally unable to get rid of my daughters hiccups. So what does one do on late nights like this? Well, thus far I have played with the dog (who I am sure appreciated being woken up to hang out with me - what are friends for), googled a million and one things (baby stuff, trivia, random words...awesome), taken 3 baths (the water company loves me - the whales, not so much), and longed for the days I could take 4 Tylenol at once and not have to check the time as opposed to now where I can take 2 every 4 to 6 hours...Useless. (Sigh)...babies sure make you do weird stuff.

Becca is sad

Becca, Here is a new posting just for you!!! :-) (Yes, everyone really should thank Becca, she tells me when I need to post!)

Well - another appointment down...I feel like a circus dog who's only trick is peeing in a cup. Sev is an active little lady... When she is not hiccuping (in perfect meter thanks to her musically gifted father) she is rolling and punching and hiccuping some more. As I explained to my husband (who was imitating a baby's hiccups and remarking at how cute they were) it is not cute when it feels like some one is flicking you in the lower abdomen from the inside...It is annoying and makes you want to hum songs that match the beat to try and go to sleep. Downside - those songs are never soothing. I have had nights filled with Christina Aguilara and Katie Perry and those nights are not soothing in the least (It doesn't help that I only know the words to the disturbing chorus on both songs). But back to the baby...Yep, I guess that is it for now. My mom did bring up an interesting point the other night that I will share...When my mom was pregnant with me she craved and ate Franco Americano Spaghetti-o's and I in turn L-O-V-E Spaghetti-o's. I have craved salads but have really gotten into Wendy's Frostys, and I just can't help but wonder what this means for our daughter...I guess the good news is that Wendy's serves salads - you could say that Sevyn will be able to have her cake and eat it too. Great, just what I need, a sugared up tot.
Lol, this will definitely be interesting.

Brief Up Date

There is not a lot of newness to tell here... We registered at the hospital the other day. That was inter resting. It was basically a long employment application but with a few more questions regarding medical history. My favorite line was "Fill in the date and time of the accident" at which time I turned to Nathan and said, "Do you know how to figure out her actual conception date?" You don't have to think it is funny but we sure did.
Anyways - My mom and long time family friend are in the process of planning a 2nd baby shower for us. My 1st one was just me an my girlfriends so his one is the "meat-and-potatoes" shower so to speak. Family, family friends and my moms church friends, it will be awesome. I am working on my baby chat skills now - I am not a huge fan of spending time talking about pregnancy, babies (other peoples especially), or doctor stuff. I have been so fortunate to have a husband and doctor that are both easy going and don't make me think about labor and such (it make me want to puke FYI). Dr Frank has told me more than once, there are only so many things you can plan on to be 100% for sure and the rest I should just let happen. He's lucky I trust him. But I do just like knowing that when the time comes he will guide us through everything as we need to go through it... None of this Lamaze crap or birthing classes for me. If Nathan and I went to those we would probably end up slapping one or more of the other couples there...Gosh, we sound like terrible parents - no, technically parenthood is 10 (ish) weeks away still. I guess we just do whats important and forget about the rest until the rest becomes important.
Wow - this has gone on longer than I had anticipated. I gotta go wake Nathan up from his nap so we can go to Borders!

Another Doctors Appoinment

We had another appointment today...The usual things happened - weight, blood pressure, peeing in a cup...I know it all sounds like fun and games but let me just tll you, it actually got off to a rough start...Allow me to enlighten you:
So, I have this goal weight in mind of what I don't want to gain more than (and no, I will not be posting the actual number). Today I came within .2 pounds of that weight. That was enough to start the avalanche...Then our nurse (who looked like she was 12 mind you) had to switch out the regular blood pressure cuff for the (her words) larger one. Seriously? I just freaked about my wieght and you say OUT LOUD that you need to get me the larger cuff???!!?!? She also told me it looked like I could be getting a bladder infection...WHERE DID YOU FIND THIS NURSE?!?!? OMG! Well, finally she left and my amazing husband managed to make me laugh which always make me feel good. Then Dr Frank came in and as I prepared to freak out on him he said what he always says " You are not fat, yo uare doing great and you are making this look easy." I don't know why but those words, no matter how many times I hear them always shut me right up. We listened to babys heart, I told him I stopped doing the kick count chart and he said good, those are for dummies. (One reason I like Dr Frank is because he is not uppity about pregnancy...He is a realist.) I asked him if I could use icy hot and he said yes - thank the Lord! and we found out that Sev is head down and feet up which explains my constant discomfort in my right rib cage (her foot). All that said, I have to say - Nothing in this whole world could have made the ickyness of gaining weight, the constant discomfort, they heart burn and every other weird pregnancy thing float right away and give my heart wings and make me feel like the most loved woman in the world that when Nathan said today, "Babe, you are the bravest most amazing woman in the world"...that just did i for me. Thats right folks - not only do I get a kid out of this, I get the best husband/new daddy there ever was. HA!

Hmmmmm

I don't really know how i feel about this one but people seem to be obsessed with the bellys of pregnant ladies. I feel like a magnet sometimes...Complete strangers will come up to me and just touch and rub it...I am not a buddah people - and you are getting my shirt dirty.

(Sigh) anyways, here are some preggo shots, including me at the doctors.

About her name...

For those of you that don't know, our baby's name is Sevyn Cherise Christensen. We are asked every time we tell peole "Why Seven with a "y"?". Well, let us tell you!

First of all, both of us like unusual/different names. We also both apprecitate a name that can be shortened into a nick name (Like Bob from Robert or Nate from Nathan). In her case, Sevyn already goes by Sevy when Courtney talks to her and we've also thought if she ever wanted to she could go by Evyn.

Sevyn also holds more meaning than you might think. Nathan actually already has 7 tattooed on his arm (little money saver there lol), he did it himself and he has always had a bit of an affinity towards the number. Seven is also a charecter from Star Trek Voyager, and yes, we know there is actually an entire Seinfeld episode dedicated to naming a child Seven after Micky Mantel's number. But as far as meaning of the actual name SEVYN goes, there is not one. We like that - to us it says that this girl will define herself...Every day we hope that as parents we raise a woman that will be her own person, un afraid of being different if she wants to.



















Facts about the number 7 - the starting point for Sevyn's name:
There are seven wonders of the ancient world.
Many Preists believe that the number seven represents perfection.
There are seven virtues.
There are seven petitions in the Lords Prayer.
There are seven continents in the world.
There are seven colors of the rainbow.
There are seven days in a week.
The limits of human cognitive capacity lie within the range of 7 + or a - 2.
There are seven basic musical notes, 'do', 're', 'me', 'fa', 'so', 'la' and 'te'.
And - We like it, we think she will really have a lot of fun as Sevyn.


Cherise is a family name. It comes from Nathan's mom, it was her middle name and is very special to us. It also makes her name sound really beautiful.
Sevyn Cherise Christensen

I'll take great doctors for $400, Alex

One great thing about our pregnancy is our doctor. Doctor Fredrick Frank (Yep, two 1st names!). He paid for medical school by winning Jeapordy! We are very proud of this achievement as (for you watchers of Jeapordy) it is not easy to win...Not only is our doctor book smart, he actually knows everything!
We knew he was going to be great when he laughed after Nathan looked him in the eye at our first visit and said very seriously, "I'd appreciate it if you answered in the form of a question from now on". Like he hasn't heard that one before.

Say Hello to the Baby

This is an ultra sound picture of our baby...You can see that she is already very social as she is waving her right hand at everyone.