One Week In

Stella has been out of the belly for a week now and a lot has happened. She had a date for Valentines day. She played hard to get.

We went out for a walk today and took advantage of 60 degree weather in February.

Today we even squeezed in a quick trip to the skatepark (no photo documentation available)

This little girl is pretty much occupying all of my thoughts and activities lately. There is a lot of other stuff on floating around in my brain and a good bit I need to get accomplished, but now it is way too easy to blow it off and play with my baby instead.

I try to stay in touch with this blog,  Life? . Today's entry particularly stood out to me. A reminder to love life and keep going for all those things that bring happiness and significance to our lives.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

A post is definitely in order. I have been thinking of a lot of different things to write. So, lets start with the facts. At 9:47 on February 9th Stella Louise Rand was born weighing 7.5 lbs and a length of 21.75". That's it. That's how she came out.
 
                                                               -----------------

The night before (8th) Bailey's water broke at 10 pm. Surprisingly, the labor started pretty quickly after. I sprang into action. Before this happened I was nearly asleep, but now I was full of energy, like I had just drank 3 liters of coffee. I finished cleaning the house. Quickly rearranged the living room to fit the tub. Rearranged the bike room to fit living room furniture and still easily access all the birth supplies and washer and dryer. (Living in a small house with a lot of stuff has made me a master of space conscious stacking and ordering - unfortunately it hasn't curbed my desire for more stuff)

Next I began inflating the tub. Then made the bed with a few different layers and plastic sheets in between so that we could quickly and easily have a clean bed after the birth.

And where was Bailey and why wasn't she helping you may ask? In between all of the previously named activities I listed I was also rubbing Bailey's back while she was having contractions and/or puking in the bathroom.

Around 2 in the morning Cindy (Bailey's mom) and our midwife arrived at the house. A few hours later Marry Annes assistants arrived. This baby birthing was happening.

Bailey was amazing. So calm through the whole thing. She never yelled or cussed at me. It was beautiful. She kept her composure throughout the whole thing. That's better than can be said about me. I was a sobbing mess towards the end.


                                                               -----------------

The last 6 days have been like nothing else I have had in my life.  So now lets see what happens next.

Scrimp kept his composure as well

Reppin' Cashville!

The weather in middle Tennessee has been unreal lately. We had so many days in the 50's and 60's during the month of January. I tried to take advantage of as many as possible. Bailey, Stella, Scrimp and I took lots of walks. Thats Stella Belly, not Stella Baby.
I did get to sneak away for a few rides though. One of which was with the guy on the cover of this magazine.
It was a perfect afternoon. We shut down spots all over West Nashville (in actuality, Alex may have "shut down" a few more than I did.).
Most people would agree that riding through poop is the absolute worst thing on a bike. It is. This afternoon I got the worst of the worst. There is a sweet spot around music row- there is this concrete lip into a big grass hip landing. This grass evidently also served as the bathroom for every neigborhood dog. I made that discovery a few minutes too late. There was shit all over both tires, all over the downtube, fork, chainstays, brakes. The worst. I literally road through three big piles. This was behind a recording studio so maybe this was from some dog that was owned by someone famous, maybe Miley Cyrus. Thankfully I found a hose a few buildings up and gave my bike a bath.
Why did I just write about this? First, HUGE props to Alex on the cover shot (FYI, this is a big deal). I can't wait to read this, he told him he was reppin' Cashville and the east coast pretty hard.
Secondly, I am about to have a daughter!!!!!!!!! This is all I am thinking about right now. A few lighthearted paragraphs took me away from baby thoughts. I am back to baby thoughts. I think she is coming today. But, I have had that thought everyday for the last week. I guess it's kind of out of my hands.