Sorry this is a bit late in coming–we’re still adjusting to the new routine.

Elspeth is just over two weeks old and just as sweet as ever. Her favorite things include eating, sleeping, bath time, making adorable facial expressions, and pontificating (rather loudly) about the relative discomfort of diaper changes.

As for me, I’m trying to master the art of Motherly Multitasking. Basically, do everything you’d normally do except with one addition–try to breastfeed your kid at the same time! Eating, sleeping, and checking e-mail all become complicated endeavors when you add a boob to the mix, but I’m sure I’ll be a pro by the end of January.

So here it is–the long, long birth story. Elspeth did not make her entrance into the world quickly or easily, but then I’ve always been one to do things the hard way… why would my daughter be any different?

Read the rest of this entry »

Elspeth Margaret Moore
Dec. 20, 2008 @ 7:01 a.m.
7 lbs, 13 oz | 21.5 inches

More to follow when I have a chance to type with both hands. 

Apparently our daughter is a champion procrastinator… we had a consult with a breech specialist last Monday, but when the doctor examined me, she’d already turned. At some point last weekend she must have flipped around. Hurrah! Thanks everyone for the advice and well-wishes. It looks like the home birth is still a go!

So now we play the waiting game. 12 days (not that I’m counting or anything…) until her estimated due date. Earlier would be just fine with me, though! *hint hint, baby girl*

In the meantime, I doodled this little portrait of our soon-to-be family… aren’t we cute?

Baby girl is full term… yesterday marked 37 weeks, and let me tell you, I am so ready to meet this kid and have my body back!

Only the last week or so has been truly uncomfortable. My feet look like overstuffed sausages. I walk like a duck. The smallest physical effort–climbing a flight of stairs, for example–requires the focus and concentration of a professional athlete. I’ve never been in particularly great shape, but prior to this I could easily walk a mile or two without feeling the strain or having to stop for breath. Now? The idea of walking any distance greater than a couple car lengths is laughable. My body has never felt so cumbersome and foreign.

We’ve also discovered that our dear daughter is breech, which could throw a wrench into our granola-hippy home birth plans. We’ll know more on Monday. As I’ve told Tim, she’s not even out of the womb yet and she’s already defiant and stubborn… we’re doomed. And I mean that in the most loving, motherly way possible!

All the drama, all the discomfort… is it worth it? Yes. I’m trying to be positive.

But ask me again in another week.

I keep telling myself I should blog about something, because I personally hate it when I subscribe to someone else’s blog and they don’t update except for every other Tuesday when there’s a full moon. Now I’ve turned into one of those people, and I can’t have that. It’s blog blasphemy! Because as we all know, the Internets are actually powered by hot air. If all bloggers were as lazy as me, there would be no more Internets! And then what would I do with my Saturday nights?!? I might actually have to go out and do something, and that’s just… well, I shudder to think about it.

But aside from the growing belly and a sudden penchant for beef jerky (OMG DRIED MEAT YUM) things around here are pretty much business as usual. I eat, I sleep, I work, I cook, and I watch my soon-to-be daughter re-enact scenes from Alien via tummy-vision (hey, it beats watching the election debates–besides, she’s infinitely more adorable than Sarah Palin, lemon-shaped head and all). Nope, there’s really not much to say these days.

So for lack of all things new, I’ll talk about something old! A few months ago I finished a custom order that I just have to share with you. It’s probably the strangest request I’ve had yet–a drawing of a boy and girl riding a giant shrimp–but for that reason it’s my favorite custom order to date. We all know how much I enjoy strange. You can find these two shrimplets on the cover of a new Canadian novel, Bestiaire by Eric Dupont. My client was kind enough to send me three copies of the book and it looks fantastic. Now I just need to learn French so I can read it!