Simon Eliot's Arrival

After much anticipation, we are pleased to announce the arrival of our little boy, Simon Eliot de Schweinitz to the world! Simon arrived on September 25, 2009 weighing in at a hefty(for Nanda)7lbs 12oz (our biggest baby yet!).







The Delivery. Yikes, is all we can say about it! It was crazy. It all started out like a normal day. Hannah and I set out to walk to the elementary around the corner to pick up Nick from Kindergarten. I suddenly got an intense pain. I had never felt something similar before (it didn't feel like a contraction) but I couldn't even walk it hurt so bad. I was only a short 5 minute walk from Nick's school but I felt like I couldn't even walk that far because the pain was so bad. Of course, I had forgotten my cell phone at home so I couldn't call Marc at work. Fortuneately, a nice neighbor lady who was walking down the street noticed I was in distress and insisted on helping me. I walked back to the house while she pushed Hannah in the stroller and by the time I made it back to the house the pain had stopped. I climbed in the car and picked up Nick. I didn't feel anymore pain after that and so I didn't think I was in labor or anything. Marc insisted that I call the doctor and the doctor had us go to the maternity testing center to get checked out. I was fully expecting to go back home but after the nurse checked me, I was dilated to 5 cm already! I hadn't even been having any regular contractions. Anyways, I was admitted right away. I couldn't believe that I was already dilated to a 5 without any major pain so I was feeling pretty confident that I was going to progress quickly. My last two delivery's took forever to dilate to 5 cm. To progress more quickly, they popped my water. It didn't accelerate the delivery much so they started me on pitocin. After the pitocin is when the pain really started. They gave me an intrathecal (AKA "walking epidural"). Well it worked for seriously like five minutes and then I was having major pain again! During this whole time I was hardly progressing at all, I was still at 6cm. The baby's heartbeat was going up and down which was a major concern. After an hour of this and no progression at all they decided to do a c-section. At that point I was in so much pain that I was thankful that they were going to cut me open. After the c-section, my blood pressure dropped extremely low and I wouldn't stop bleeding. I was wheeled back into the surgery room (they put me out this time) to find the cause of all the bleeding. I was very delirious during all this, so it's a bit hazy now. I still don't even know all the details of exactly what happened. All I know is that it was a miracle that they didn't have to remove my uterus and that the source of the bleeding had suddenly stopped after they opened me up again - so they never found out exactly what was causing all the bleeding. I feel thankful because we still plan on having one more baby (crazy I know - especially after all this craziness). So after two blood transfusions and some very sore days everything is going well. I'm happy to not be pregnant anymore and so thankful to have a healthy and strong baby.

Lots of Projects

Summer has officially been kicked off for us with lots and lots of home improvement projects.
Our first project was opening up a wall from the kitchen to the dining room. I have been dying to knock down this wall ever since the first day that we moved into this house! It made the kitchen feel so cramped and it was really quite pointless to have the wall there. So many times I was tempted to just start tearing down the wall myself but I knew that Marc would think I was totally crazy. It was so exciting to finally get out the hammer and start smashing up the wall. Nick was thoroughly enjoying it! (I told him that that was the only wall he would ever be able to hit in our house with a hammer). I think it turned out so much better! It has a much more open and airy feeling now and we get more light in the kitchen.
Here is a before shot of the wall:

During (It made such a huge mess - Marc is not too fond of DIY projects but I think he actually enjoyed this part!):


The After:


Notice how Nick is continuing the smashing up of the wall. I thought the wall needed to be open a little more but unfortunately we hit a snag. I hadn't even thought about how the cold air return vent that is in the wall came from the floor. Anyways, to make a long story short - we're now patching up that little section. (Kind of frustrating to make more work for ourselves) If you've ever put up drywall, you'll know how tedious it is to make it nice and smooth again. I've been working on that now and it is extremely tedious! Oh well, live and learn.

The biggest project so far has been our wood floor. Thankfully we didn't do it ourselves (that would have taken us like three years to do ourselves and a lot of stress!!) So while the kids and I went to visit my family in Utah, some guys came and ripped up two layers of vinyl flooring (yes, two layers!), teal carpet, and all of the particle board under the carpet and vinyl (you can see why it would have taken us three years to do it!) Unfortuneately, Marc had to stay home for work but he was able to see all the progress each day (he was very thankful he didn't have to do it).
Here is a picture of the teal carpet before (it was actually in like new condition but not my thing)I don't have a picture of the vinyl but trust me when I say that it was UGLY! I think I wanted to get rid of it so bad that I never thought of even taking a picture of it!



The dining room before: (The carpet in here was already totally trashed from the kids)



During:




After:


I've also been working on painting the dining room table black - actually I've just done a couple of chairs. I'm not sure how much I like it - I think I like it but since our set is nothing fancy, it will be good till we get a new one in a few years.

Here is a before shot of a chair (I still have to upholster them):


After:


I also bought this little red desk chair at Salvation Army for 6 bucks. I wish I had taken a picture of it before (it was really sad looking but I knew it had potential because it was solid wood and sturdy). I spray painted it a colonial red - I think it turned out really cute! I love the red.


Of course right now I am finishing up the last touches on that wall and also prepping all the baseboards which means I am removing all the nails and tons of old caulk, filling in nails holes and priming and painting them all again in preparation to put them back up again. I also have big plans for our rec room downstairs. I want to paint the two ugly old laminate bookshelves and add trim to it to make it nicer. I'll post pics of those as soon as I get a start on it. It's overwhelming to think about doing it all but I make lists and take it one day at a time - then it seems a little less intimidating because it seems I'm accomplishing something. I get so inpatient and just want to finish it all at once! Once I finish everything, I'll put up pictures of everything. Hopefully I can get it all done before the baby is here- that is my goal(couple more months)!

It's a Boy!

We are so thrilled that we are having another boy!

MIA

I know I have been totally MIA these last few months. My blog has been so severely neglected! I have good reason though. I was feeling sick for a few months (yes, it is probably what you are thinking it is!) and because of that I've been also feeling totally uninspired. Thankfully I am over that sickness part now and am feeling so much better! I am also so happy that Spring is rolling on in and that the looooong winter is almost over! Yes, our first Michigan winter was a bit brutal but thankfully we survived and Spring and Summer were never more appreciated!
Some pictures from the last few months - Silly Hannah, snowy Michigan winter, and some Christmas break pictures in Utah with my family.







(4 generations - Hannah,me,my mom,my grandmother)

Before and After

Here are the before and after pictures of our dining room. I can't believe it is close to being finished finally!! (We still need the wood floor and then re-attatch the base mouldings after the floor is installed but we are planning on doing that in a few months). The before picture is what it looked like when the previous owners lived here! Now it's a lot lighter and brighter! I think the paint color looks better in person than it does in the picture.

Before: (The room was wallpapered with 3 layers!)



After: (We stripped the 3 layers of wallpaper,primed, painted, added wainscoting, and crown moulding)






Also I am still working on the decor in this room. What color drapes do you suggest? I was thinking something with color (I have decorations in apple green and red)? I was trying out a friends drapes (in one of the pics). I was thinking something like that would look nice. I have some white ones like the living room but I don't know if I need more color in the room? Does the wrought iron decor look better next to the window or the mirror? I also want to paint my dining room set black. I'm not sure if it's a good idea because the table is not solid wood (it's covered with a thin wood veneer). The chairs are solid wood though. I've read you can paint just about anything but I don't want to totally ruin my set so I'm not sure. It would look so much better though!

Summer Weather in November?

I can't believe the weather this week! It's been in the 70's! It seriously feels like summer. I guess it's unusual for this time of year. Hey I'll take it! I'll take whatever warmth I can get! I know it's going to start getting very cold very soon (brrr ...my first Michigan winter!)So we have been spending as much time outside as possible.


Here are some pictures of Halloween that I didn't get around to posting till now. Hannah is a little lamb and Nick is Superman. (I am suppost to be SuperMom!)




On another note, we have finally made some progress on our dining room and living room. We decided to put up wainscoting in the dining room and crown moulding in both the living and dining room. We started this project like two months ago and it is finally just now getting done. This project has taken us so long to accomplish (well, it's not totally done yet but very close). We've been doing all the work ourselves which takes so much longer because we have to work on it after Marc gets home from work and its so hard with the kids. DIY projects are not easy! And why do they always seem to be so much easier before you do them than they actually turn out to be? It's probably because we have like zero experience and hardly any professional tools. But it's definately been a learning experience and I have to admit, it's quite rewarding once it's done (knowing that you did it yourself). I will post some pictures of how it's turned out. We still have to caulk, fill in nail holes, and paint (much simpler things but still time consuming). I am so excited to finally see it getting done. Of course there is already another project that I have in mind to do. (Poor Marc, he just "loves" it when I come up with one of my ideas). In his words, I am "opening up a can of worms"!

Some Fall Pictures

The Fall is so beautiful here! There are so many different kinds of trees and some of them turn into the brightest colors. It is so amazing.
The only bad thing about having so many trees in our yard is that it makes such a mess! It's a lot of work to rake all those leaves! Nick had a great time with his little friend from accross the street playing on the huge mountains of leaves!