Happy Halloween!!!

Picture Taking Tip: If you have time a few hours before you go trick or treating (or before any major picture taking event; Christmas/Easter outfits, etc) take pictures of your kids before the excitement begins. You'll all be more relaxed! You can also take pictures a few days before or even the day AFTER the big event...no one will ever know that you dressed your kids back up for a photo shoot!

Tried it, hated it, won't do it again

Gentlemen readers beware: This post is for ladies only!
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After so many "would you just relax and enjoy your baby?!?!" type comments the other day (on the post where I mentioned already starting Jason on a schedule) I had the perfect opportunity yesterday to practice flying by the seat of my pants and going with the flow.
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I took Jason to his first pediatric appointment and he got (*gulp*) circumcised. He slept A LOT all day long, barely ate and when he was awake, he was screaming crying. He was not a happy camper.
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Part of the problem was that they didn't get us in to see the doctor until 8:30, which is when he's been taking his first nap. Every time he nodded off, someone needed me to strip him, they weighed and measured him, the doctor poked and prodded him, then they finally took blood and circumcised the poor boy, which I was not around for. (I excused myself to the waiting room...just couldn't handle it.) By the time we left, it was 9:45, he was exhausted and beside himself and I had to listen to him scream most of the 20 minute drive home. A lovely way to start the day.
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He should have eaten again when we got home at 10:00, but he was out cold and refused to nurse. This teaser caused the first of many painful engorgement issues all day. He slept. He was finally quiet. He needed to rest, so I went with it.
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He woke up (screaming) with a dirty diaper somewhere around 11ish and ate a little bit before passing out again. Unfortunately, he didn't eat enough to reduce my pain, plus I swear my body produced even more milk for the additional feeding. Oh, ouch.
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The next time he woke up was with another dirty diaper, he pretended to eat again, screamed for a while, took his pacifier and finally fell back to sleep. That was a fun stint in the early afternoon.
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Before long, his pacifier fell out and he woke up starving - mama got some relief. He was full, but not happy. I'm sure he was exhausted and probably in pain, but there was nothing I could do about it. I truly had no idea how to meet his needs. He cried and cried inconsolably.
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Around dinnertime, a friend stopped by and told me to try feeding him again, suggesting he may need to cluster feed for a day or two. But he just ate his first full meal an hour ago, I protested...he can't be hungry again! I gave in, tried feeding him and he ate for 15 minutes. Talk about Mommy guilt! He nodded off again with his pacifier afterward, then woke up screaming. Again.
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Just to re-cap, he had a day full of mini-meals/snacks, catnaps and screaming fits. Every time I thought he was awake and ready to actually eat a whole meal, my milk would let down only to find out that he wanted to suck, but not eat. Hence, his bliss over the pacifier to help calm him or lull him to sleep. By 9pm, both of us were confused and exhausted. And I was petrified that Jason would be wide awake all night after sleeping so much during the day.
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Let's just say that this whole system didn't work for me. I can't say I had much choice yesterday, given the doctor/circumcision issue, but seriously - I was a mess, he was a wreck, it was a joke. And I tried to just relax, snuggle, bond and respond, honestly I did!
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When my kids are on a schedule, even at a week old, I am much more able to anticipate their needs. I know when to feed them and when they're tired and if they're crying outside of those two time frames, I know to check their comfort level in terms of diaper needs, surroundings, temperature discomfort, etc.
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So even though it sounds like it would be more relaxing to let go and throw any sense of routine out the window these first few weeks or months, I just can't do it. I'm already exhausted and easily overwhelmed. It drives me crazy not knowing what to try next to console my baby. And I know they're happier on a schedule because they don't cry all the time, begging me to figure out what they need.
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Disclaimer: Please don't think I'm getting defensive here and pu-lease don't feel badly if you made a "relax and enjoy" type comment. I welcome all comments and am very difficult to offend. But seeing just how many of you told me to "lighten up," (especially friends that I know personally) well, I started thinking that maybe I was being too rigid on myself and on Jason. Interesting how God chose to show me the very next day that my seemingly anal, overly neurotic, type-A way of doing things might be the very reason I stay sane in the early stages of my kids' lives. Because, for some reason, it seems to work for me!

Missing the Hospital?

I'm so glad to be home, but I have to say that there were certain "perks" about staying in the hospital vs. being on my own at home.
Here is what I have come to miss in the last few days:
- Not only getting breakfast in bed, but lunch and dinner, too.
- When the meal tray was removed, the dishes didn't pile up in my kitchen sink.
- Amazing pain medication available at all hours of the day and night.
- That great bed that reclined and inclined so I could lie down or sit up at the touch of button.
- Turning the lights on and off without getting out of bed. (maybe I should invest in The Clapper?)
- The cool side table on wheels that held my phone, magazines, water pitcher, notepad and pen, everything within arm's reach and just a wheel away.
- Jason's rolling bassinet with drawers underneath holding anything and everything he might need.
- The giant receiving blankets that they don't seem to sell in stores.
- Not caring about being clean, pretty or presentable for 4 days.
- An endless supply of free diapers, wipes, formula, maxi pads and a gazillion other toiletries that magically replenished themselves when they got low.
- "Hospital Mike" who snuck me bites of his dinner during labor, interrogated the nurses about the health and well being of me and the baby at every opportunity and brought flowers (invisible at first when he couldn't find a nearby grocery store - he even pretended to put them in my water cup - then real flowers the next day) and a dozen Paradise Bakery cookies.
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What I do NOT miss about the hospital:
- Graham crackers. They were actually Honey Maid brand, but I think I ate my weight in apple juice and graham crackers during the 16 hours of labor and in between meals. I never want to see another graham cracker again.
- Getting interrupted at all hours of the night for the most ridiculous, inconsequential reasons. (I still want to know what possessed them to loudly change my trash liners at 4am every night.)
- The nurses who don't think it's necessary to whisper or keep the lights dim at 2am, even though your husband is trying to sleep 4 feet away.
- The nurses hounding me to force-feed Jason every 2 hours.
- The nurses unswaddling a peacefully sleeping Jason to "check something" then leaving the room, expecting me to remember how to calm a screaming, unnecessarily awoken baby.
- The t.v. speakers that were on my bed rails. Intended to be a convenience, hearing surround-sound-by-my-head football while I was trying to nap and Mike was bored was more than a little distracting.
- The fact that there was no where to put my towel in the bathroom. The toilet didn't have a lid, the shower didn't have a tub ledge, the hook on the door was too far to reach...I ended up dragging a chair in there so I didn't have to put my clean towel on the floor.
- The long brown hair on the wall of the shower that was clearly from the occupant before me. Or before her. Who knows when they cleaned that shower last.
- All aspects of showering at the hospital.
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I finally realized that I need to set up multiple "stations" all over my house for basic necessities, especially because we have a 2-story home. I have two diaper changing stations in addition to the changing table that is currently unused in Ryan and Jason's room, a bath station, a stack of burp clothes and a change of baby clothes near the two main places I change and feed Jason, an ample supply of...um, "post partum necessities" in both bathrooms, still and rocking contraptions to put the baby down in the family room downstairs and near the computer upstairs, receiving blankets and baby socks sprinkled throughout the house to quickly warm a shivering Jason...my house has been taken over with baby stuff.
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Sometimes I still can't believe we have a baby in the house. A baby who was crammed inside my belly just one week ago. I already have trouble remembering life before he showed up!

Post Partum Rambles

At this very moment, I'm finally feeling human again. Mike went into work late to get both kids off to school for me and while he was home, I put away the piles of folded laundry scattered throughout the house, picked up random toys and games, threw away stray dirty diapers, showered and even straight-ironed my hair. Not because I'm actually going anywhere today, but because I don't like the scary image I've seen staring back at me from the mirror when I stand over the sink to wash my hands 100 times a day.
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I had planned to nap until Jason's next feeding, but the shower perked me up, so I decided to get some of my thoughts out of my head. I remember little of Ryan and Kaylin's first weeks, so even though I'm feeling refreshed at this moment, I won't remember much in a month or so.
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I'm physically feeling good, recovery-wise. I'm obviously getting pretty tired and am still crampy. (PS...post-delivery contractions get worse with each pregnancy. I practically I hear my uterus screaming, "You want me to return back to WHAT shape? Uh, I don't think so.") I need to sit down and figure out my pump because it seems like I'm making enough milk to feed all of the babies born on 10/23. I forgot how painful engorgement is!
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Believe it or not, I think Jason's already on a 7, 10, 1, 4 Baby Wise schedule. Granted, it's only been 2 nights and one full day, but so far, so good. After being forced to nurse every 2 hours in the hospital, I was wondering how long it would take to stretch him to a 3 hour routine, but he fell right into it like a champ. And praise God - he doesn't have his days and nights mixed up! I held him close to me between feedings on our first night home and he slept well, not insisting on any wake time. Last night, I decided to put the bassinet in Mike's closet so that I wouldn't scoop him up and disturb him every time he breathed funny or changed sleep cycles and, sure enough, he woke up every 3 hours to eat. Like I said: so far, so good. But time will tell.
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I forgot how LOUD babies are. Jason starts out with a tiny squeak, but when he's mad, he let's you know. Yesterday, I needed a nap so badly that I put him (asleep) in his crib in Ryan's room so I could lay down. He woke up shortly after and I decided to let him cry it out for the first time because I was positive he was tired based on all of his wake time that morning. I discovered that he does what Kaylin did (which I'd forgotten about) - just before he falls asleep, he screams so hard and so loud that it sounds like he's going to lose his voice, then he passes out. I remember that with Kaylin; when Mike and I did the cry-it-out thing for a day or two to teach her how to fall asleep on her own (FYI, that's what we do and it works for us...I'm not hoping to open up a debate here!) we'd give each other an, "I can't take this anymore" look before going to rescue her and before we could make it to her room, dead silence. It spooked us into checking her breathing the first few times it happened, but then we figured out that it was consistently her norm. And apparently it's Jason's, too.
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On to a lighter subject, I am so thankful for all of the help we've received these last few days. My mother in law stayed with the kids while I labored all day Thursday so my mom could be at the hospital with me, a neighbor friend picked up Kaylin from school then proceeded to relieve my MIL from 9pm-2am Thursday night and stayed at my house until my mom came back from the hospital. My mom took care of the kids all weekend, exhausted but without complaint, then spent my homecoming Sunday doing laundry, vacuuming and making us a huge ham dinner. That was all before bathing the kids and putting them to bed for us. Seriously - what do people do without family in town???
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There was some de-programming that needed to happen after so much time away from us, but I think the kids (especially Kaylin) are getting back to being themselves again. Ryan apparently did really well while we were gone, then was so over excited when we returned that it turned into misbehavior, but Kaylin gave everyone a run for their money this weekend and she's finally realizing that her attitude doesn't fly with me.
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I think I'm going to temporarily lift the t.v. ban for Kaylin. The 7, 10, 1, 4 schedule works well with most of my routine, except the minor fact that when Kaylin goes down for a nap at 1:00, Jason is waking up to eat and play for an hour and a half. Translation: I get NO time for a nap myself. So I've decided that after Kaylin and I eat lunch every day, I'll turn on a show for her so I can fall asleep on the couch until 1:00. I love that I've decided to put this into our schedule. I foresee it keeping me (relatively) sane.
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The last couple of mornings have been hairy. Trying to get up out of bed and help move everyone through the before-school routine has been a challenge. And I've even had Mike's help! Tomorrow might result in missing the bus with me doing it all on my own. The kids are so distracted with kissing the baby and getting up from the breakfast table to watch his every move that things have been pretty rushed. And I need to go back to having the kids put their clothes for the week in their cubbies because we've had some wardrobe battles. Ryan came out of his room yesterday in a long sleeved shirt and jeans (it's still 90 degrees during the day here) and today, Kaylin emerged with a red shirt and fuchsia pants. What's worse is that she left the house for school in an orange, black and white Halloween shirt with the fuchsia pants. I think the red shirt was better but I didn't have time to argue. Oh well, at least I took a few minutes to do her hair.
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Mike thinks I'm already spoiling Jason by rocking him to sleep for most of his naps. But here's what I've decided: first, I want to get his body used to the 3 hour schedule I want him on, then I'll tackle getting him to fall asleep on his own and being content just hanging out in the infant seat or his swing during his wake time. Granted, I'm getting VERY little done holding him all the time, but I only see this going on for another few days. I need to deal with one issue at a time and for me, the schedule is the most important thing right now. It's so nice to be able to narrow down why he's crying instead of desperately feeding him every time he's unhappy. That's what was going on until yesterday and he was eating every hour or two, never getting a "full" meal, just lots of snacks to keep him quiet. That's SO contrary to how things have worked successfully for us in the past and I'm thrilled it's already nipped in the bud.
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Speaking of holding him all the time, my biceps are SORE. Not because I carry him around, necessarily, but because my arms always seem to be in the bent, cradled position. I have to consciously keep my arms straight when I'm not holding Jason to stretch out the muscle. I will admit that I'm absolutely looking forward to getting my arm strength back. My arms have always been so toned from post-delivery through moving the kids out of their cribs into a bed. Ba-bye jiggly arms!
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This is a little random, but what is it with all of the paperwork hospitals send you home with? I have a huge stack of forms, copies and stupid advertisements to go through. Like I have time for that! If it's not a coupon, promotional stuff should be banned from new mothers for a mandatory period of time. It's beyond ridiculous.
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Okay, that's all for now. Time for Jason's next meal. The cow needs to get off of the computer for more pressing matters! Thanks to everyone for all of the sweet well wishes about our new baby. I'm so glad he's finally here!

And the winner is...

The commenter who guessed closest to my actual delivery date and time for the Baby's Birth Day Contest was...Rebecca M. who guessed 10/23 at 5:23am. Congratulations, Rebecca!

I've already sent you an email, but just in case you didn't get it, please send me your full name and address to claim your prize. Thanks for playing, everyone!!!

Jason Matthew is HERE!

We're home!!! After a total of 4 days in the hospital, I'm happy to be home with my family. I returned to 96 emails and tons of questions about the delivery, so I'll give you all of the highlights without going into no-one-wants-to-hear-your-birth-story type of detail.
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We were called into the hospital at 7:25am on Thursday to be induced, just as Mike was walking out the door to go to work and a few minutes before walking Ryan to the bus stop, so it was PERFECT timing. I had been having contractions all night, but they had stopped around 2am, so I was glad to be getting induced.
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Around noon, my doctor came to break my water and when he checked me, couldn't feel the baby's head. He did an ultrasound and discovered that the baby had turned around and was BREACH. I know many of you are very pro-C-section, but I was crushed. After progressing along all morning, already numb and ready to have a normal delivery, my mind raced with the 6 weeks of post-surgery: recovering, pain, no driving, no lifting...I was willing to do it, but not excited about it. My doctor gave me the option to go home and see if the baby would rotate back on his own, to get a version (where he would manipulate my stomach and try to "encourage" the baby to shift head-down, which presented the risk of potentially breaking my water, internal bleeding and rapid drop in the baby's heart rate - all of which would send me into a C-section right away) or I could just get the C-section. I decided to have him try a version, then get a C-section if it was unsuccessful. But HALLELUJAH - after much prayer, pushing, rotating and manipulation, my doctor was able to get the baby to face head-down. When he did the ultrasound to confirm, I was so relieved I burst into tears. Hormonal much?

So that put a glitch in things for a while, but after they put a corset-like thing around me to keep the baby's wiggle-room restricted so he would stay put, we were back on track. He was quite comfy and in no rush to come out, because it took me hours to progress. I was 2cm all day (and had been for a week) then went to 4cm when they broke my water, then stayed at 4cm most of the evening. Jason was finally born at 12:27am.

I had the perfect epidural because I didn't feel a single contraction, yet I could move and partially feel my legs and felt much of the delivery experience. It didn't feel good, necessarily, but it was a crazy sensation to be able to, for the first time, feel my baby coming into the world. It was all a little surreal at the time and I almost felt kind of disconnected from the experience for a bit. While they were cleaning Jason up, weighing him and my mom and Mike were taking pictures, I was fascinated with the Discovery Health Channel-like stuff I was seeing my doctor do to my body. It was almost like I was more interested in that than bonding with Jason. (Am I not supposed to admit that kind of stuff???) It didn't last long, though. I connected back to the new-mom experience in no time.

Early Saturday, they tested Jason's jaundice levels and they were too high, so they took him away from me and put him under biliruben lights all day and all night, except during feedings. As selfish as this sounds, I was relieved to be able to sleep after being up most of Thursday night and awoken every hour on Friday with people taking my blood pressure, reminding me to nurse, shift change introductions, changing the trash can liners at 4am, taking my blood at 5:15am...you know, all of the "necessary" hospital middle-of-the-night interruptions.

But by Saturday afternoon, I was really missing my baby. Badly. They'd bring him to me to nurse and I'd conveniently snuggle him for 30 minutes before feeding him so I wasn't "done" when they came to pick him up. It was a lonely afternoon without my baby boy! They kept him all of last night and gave him formula (per my request) so I could get ONE LAST good night's sleep and today I'm a new woman. I slept from 9pm to 8am, with the exception of nursing and snuggle time at 4:30am. It was...divine.

We got the green light to go home around 10am today. I had psyched myself up for the possibility of having to stay with Jason one more night until his jaundice was gone, but they tested him and all was fine! The kids were BEYOND excited to meet their brother. I didn't tell anyone we were going to be home when they returned from church, so it was a fun surprise. I'm so glad to be home and ready to incorporate the little peanut into our family and our lives.

Do You Eat at McDonald's???

I saw, touched and smelled a 3 year old McDonald's Happy Meal in person while I was pregnant with Kaylin 3.5 years ago. It prompted me to take a health class at church that changed the way I feed my family. We have been to McDonald's exactly twice since I saw that presentation, buying salads, apple slices and milk. I refuse to put that stuff in my kids' bodies.
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This video is a little longer than it needs to be, but if you ever eat fast food, PLEASE take 5 minutes and watch it. I don't know about other fast food chains, but McDonald's uses so many preservatives in their "food" that it doesn't rot or deteriorate, even after years of sitting around. YUMMY! Happy dining...

Waiting...waiting...

This waiting thing is for the birds. I almost wonder if it's worse waiting to be induced because I have to be on my guard and ready to walk out the door at the drop of a hat. If I was waiting to deliver on my own, at least I'd have a few hours to do stuff around the house while waiting for the contractions to get close enough before going to the hospital. But when I finally get the call from the hospital, it's going to be "get here now or we might give away your bed."
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So here I am. On the edge of my seat. Bag packed, toiletries sitting on the bathroom counter ready to be added to the bag, grandparents on standby, backup neighbors ready to come over in the middle of the night...who needs this stress?
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Apparently I do. I brought this on myself, kind of. I didn't create the ridiculous induction policy at the hospital and I didn't ask for a 7 day induction window, but I did ask to be induced. However, I thought they'd give me a one-day window like every other hospital on the planet. Little did I know.
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Here's the torment I've been going through: Sunday night, I called to find out the likelihood of being called in the middle of the night, just to get an idea. They said it would be Monday morning, at the earliest, and if I don't hear from them by noon, call back. That's why I was up at 3:16am...in addition to having contractions all night, my mind wouldn't shut off. I was under the impression that Monday was THE day. But the phone didn't ring, so I called back at noon only to be told that it would be Monday night at the earliest, anytime all night long.
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I got all of my ducks in a row, took a Tylenol PM so I would get one final night's sleep before the baby came, everything was set. I called this morning and found out that they didn't get to 3 of their 4 medical inductions last night, so they wouldn't start on the elective induction list until tonight. Oh...kay...I could wait another day. At least I wasn't waiting by the phone and could go about my (boring) day as usual. I scheduled a deep-muscle-on-all-the-trigger-points maternity massage at my chiropractor and hoped that would help throw me into labor naturally.
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Finally, I called tonight to find out the likelihood of getting called so I know where to put my kids to bed. (my childcare options are limited tonight) As it turns out, they now have SEVEN medical inductions to get in tonight before they start on the elective induction list. SEVEN. "Check back in the morning," they said.
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In the meantime, I'm still having contractions, still doing little (and big) things here and there to try and help along the labor process, I'm just so ready to meet my little boy! But no. He's nice and comfy where he is. Every time he moves, I think, "I could be HOLDING you! What is going on!?!?"
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Watch: this kid won't be born until this weekend. And I'll laugh that I thought I was frustrated on TUESDAY. The days are seriously just draaaaaaaaaaaging along. I need a project or something, yet I kind of can't get TOO into something because I need to be available to drop everything and leave for the hospital at a moment's notice.
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I think I'm going to go rent a movie. I need to get lost in something...

Seasons of Friendship

Does anyone else seem to go through seasons with their friendships? Since high school, I've always seemed to have lots of people around me. Mostly good acquaintances that I would call "friends." People that would congregate in groups, but few that I ever got together with individually.
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This continued when I moved to Phoenix after college. My best friends were 6 girls that I met with weekly for a Bible study, yet I only ever hung out with 1-2 one-on-one. Maybe that's just me...
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Once I got married (and most of my friends were still single), Mike and I found some "couple friends." And throughout our marriage, we go through phases of hanging out with the same couple A LOT for a few months, then we'll either spend the next few months with a different couple or go through a phase of spending lots of time just the two of us. Or more recently, as a family.
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Regardless of how often I see someone, I'm one that holds on to friendships. My Christmas card list is out of control and it wasn't until last year that I finally started deleting addresses from my files, due to years and years of not getting Christmas cards in return. I try to keep in touch with people across the country and across town, even though our lives may head in different directions.
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One such friendship has taken an interesting turn. Let's call this friend, "Dana." I met Dana at the wedding of a mutual friend. At the reception, somehow her past boyfriend came up in conversation and I realized that I'd been praying for her the year before. I knew her ex-boyfriend, but I didn't know her. And at the time, he was abusing her and she was stuck in the relationship and our friend who was getting married had confided in me about the situation. This may or may not have been the reason we clicked so quickly, but regardless, we clicked.
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Dana soon got married and we both got pregnant around the same time. We kept in touch, but grew even closer when our babies were born a day apart. She was one of my first all-natural, home-birthing, home-schooling, non-vaccinating, no preservatives, sugar-free, goes-against-the-grain-of-society friends. I learned a lot from her and wished we lived closer.
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Here we are 6 years and soon 6 kids (between us) later. Once she had her 3rd, life obviously got a little more complicated for her. When I had to reschedule our recent play date (our first in almost a year) a few weeks ago, her response caught me off guard. She said, "No worries! We can just be email friends." HA! I think not. That's not how I roll.
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I've run into Dana a few times at church lately and realized this weekend that she's quite serious. There are no hard feelings, but she's come to a place where she knows that we live across town from each other, have our own little network of friends, each have three young kids 5 and under at home and that get togethers are unlikely.
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How sad is that? I've never had someone verbalize the inevitable. I've drifted away from friendships and I've grown apart from people over time, but never before have I been in a situation where it's been laid out so honestly.
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Maybe I'm naive to think that it's possible to have friends all over town that run in different circles as me. Maybe I need to concentrate on and appreciate the people I know and have met that have kids my kids' ages, go to their schools and live in our neighborhood. Maybe I need to simplify a little.
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Or maybe this is just a rare, one-time occurrence.
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Disclaimer: there are several of you reading this post that are the exact type of friend I just mentioned. Please don't think I'm ready to dismiss our friendship! This whole situation just has me pondering and you know me...I have to get it out of my head. Much love to all of my friends - especially "Dana," if you're reading this!

3:16am

What do normal people do when they can't sleep at 3:16am? Some people watch infomercials, others read. Me? I might never know what "normal people" do when they look at the clock at 3:16 and are sick of staring at the ceiling. Because I finally just realized that I'm not normal.
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People like ME act like we're high on speed. We upload videos to our blogs.
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And unload the dishwasher.

And do laundry.

And finish making the chicken stock that's been cooking in the crock pot all night.

And pour it all into nice, neat little ice cube trays for easy access.

And make a homemade chicken pot pie. Or two. With fresh green beans.

And were fully willing to make a homemade pie crust but didn't have enough flour, so decided to freeze them instead using the new freezing method in a recent blog post.

And put more chicken in the crock pot for dinner.

Then, people like ME will take pictures of everything and blog about it at 6:30am when there's nothing left to do and no one else is awake yet.
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Because people like ME who wake up ever hour on the hour with contractions and are anxiously awaiting a call from the hospital to get induced to get this show on the road...well, we have a little too much on our minds to sit still.

(my belly this weekend...one last shot!)

Bull Riding

I should have known this wouldn't end well. And can you hear who's egging them on? Yeah, that's me...

Last chance to enter!

I'm going to close entries for my "Guess Baby's Birth Day" contest tomorrow morning at 8am PST. I get 120-150 visiters a day and I only have 20-some entries? COME ON!!! You guys can do better than that!
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So here's your last chance to enter. Go to the original post (linked above) - do NOT comment here. I'll only be looking at the dates in the comments of the original contest post. Good luck!!!

Project 365 Details

I'm going to start answering certain reader questions as their own blog post, because some of you might wonder the same things. So here we go...my first reader question answered!
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My fellow mama friend, Rachael, asked: Katie, can you tell us more about the 365 project? I know it's a Becky Higgins thing but can you elaborate on the type of album and pages you are doing and possibly post a picture? Thanks!
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As some of you know, I am a huge Becky Higgins stalker fan. She's somewhat of a scrapbooking celebrity and I get tons of inspiration from her ideas and her blog.
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In January, she came out with a great kit called Project 365. The idea was to take a picture every day for the whole year and journal something significant about that day, compiling it all into a single scrapbook. Even if you're not a scrapbooker, this concept is an easy, streamlined way to document a year in your life. Her kit was extremely reasonably priced, but Mike was out of a job at the time, so I couldn't purchase it. The kits quickly sold out and by the time I had some money at my disposal, it was too late.
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So I had to get creative. I used the 12x12 We R Memory Keepers album that I always use because I like the 3-ring binder style. (you can buy them online here or here) They're leather and have a pocket on the spine so you can label the album's contents.
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As for the page protectors, I had to do a little searching. The pages that came with the kit had 4 pockets for horizontal 4x6 pictures at the top and 4 vertical 2x3 pockets for the small daily journaling cards along the bottom. I have a friend who sells Close to my Heart scrapbooking supplies and found that they had 12x12 sheet protectors with 6 - 4x6 slots for pictures. I figured out how to make that work.
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When the kits sold out, Becky posted pdf links to print out the journaling card templates and weekly date inserts that were included in her kit. What's cool is that this allowed me to type directly onto the journaling cards and print them that way, instead of writing them personally (because I don't like my handwriting).
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*I tried to link the free download site, but it's no longer valid. If you want the templates, send me your email address and I'll gladly send them to you.*
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Her kit also included day-of-the-week tabs and rub ons, so again, I got creative and used my HP program to add a "title" to each daily picture in the form of the date. To keep it streamlined, I use the same font and size each time, varying between black and white, depending on the background of the picture. (I add this before sending the pictures to be printed.)
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I knew I wanted to do Project 365 from the beginning, so on January 1, I started taking a picture each day. This was the easy part for me because I take TONS of pictures. I try to vary my pictures between shots of people/events and shots of something else significant. Even 10 months into this habit, some days I forget to take a picture and have to put a "filler" picture in the album; something that I want to remember but may not have happened that day.
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For instance, I have a picture of a Pull Up with coordinating journaling about how we were tackling getting Ryan to wake up with dry underwear at night. I have a picture of our Bibles on a Monday because we host a weekly Bible study in our home on Mondays.

I've also moved pictures from one day to the next, knowing that I likely won't remember that I switched dates years from now. For instance, Ryan rode the bus to school for the first time on my birthday, but I already had a picture of the day (POD) for my birthday, so it will forever be documented that he first rode the bus on August 20th, not the 19th. (I know - GASP! I'm such a rebel.)

I have a picture of my tennis shoes on a day when I needed to vent and called my neighbor to go on a long, last minute walk to air my frustrations. The picture of the shoes isn't all that interesting, but the journaling that goes along with it explains the "story" behind the picture. Plus, years from now, we might have a laugh over how ugly Nikes were in 2008.

The first time I took Kaylin to have lunch at Ryan's school, I brought my camera, but the battery was in the charger at home. I ended up taking a picture of the kids' lunch bags when I got home as my POD. Again, not exciting, but how many of you have pictures of lunch boxes from your childhood? Seeing them today might be fun and nostalgic. I know it would be for me because I don't even remember who was ON my lunch box!

The day we found out I was pregnant, I took a picture of the pregnancy test.

Right after we got our new camera, Mike was playing around with it and caught this picture of me in "planning mode" for Ryan's carnival birthday party. Seeing this picture months later is a little glimpse into my world during that time. Had I not been doing this album, I might have deleted the picture because it's really nothing special.

Wednesdays are the day when Mike's mom comes over to watch the kids so I can get my hair cut, run errands and catch up on my to-do list. One week on a Wednesday, nothing extraordinary happened that day, so I took a picture of my crossed-off to-do list. Again, it might be interesting to look back on years from now.

I try to take pictures of seemingly boring, everyday events like swimming, backyard picnics and playing board games with Mike. Most of these things aren't scrapbook-worthy, but give a realistic picture of my life.



Here is a sample of my journaling. Now that I know how to use Photoshop, I've figured out the font and appropriate size to use to type directly onto the template. I use CK Becky font (yes, it's Becky Higgins' handwriting...I used the word "stalker" for a reason...) in 16 point. I then print the journal blocks side-by-side (as they were downloaded) as a standard 4x6 picture and slide it into the bottom slots of the sheet protectors. Below is a journal for a 2 day block and the pictures that go along with it. Journaling comes fairly easy for me, and I try to keep up with it every month or two so I don't get too far behind. Some of my journaling is even pasted directly from my blog posts.



And now that I'm finally learning Photoshop, I can easily use a vertical picture for my POD and I occasionally combine 2-3 pictures if I can't decide which to use for my POD or if a series of pictures tells a better "story."



And finally, here are some pictures of the completed layouts...



While reading through my journaling blocks (to make sure there's nothing too personal in there!) I just realized I printed the wrong picture for what I journaled about on June 12th. Oops! That happens every now and then...I can't keep it all straight and organized ALL the time!