Halloween 2012

As usual, even though I want to dress up and make the most of our Halloween experience, I wait too long to plan, so nothing happens. At least this year I have the excuse of having a baby. (And of course last year we were in London.) Next year...no excuses! In fact, I'm already planning our costumes. Now if I can just get Miles to cooperate...

Last month, Owen dressed up for Talk like a Pirate Day. And he seemed to enjoy the costume, so I went easy on myself and stuck with it. (Thanks to Carly for the costume loan.) Miles found our build a bear Darth Vader outfit and thought Elsie would look smashing in it. However, by the time Halloween came around, she had grown too much to fit in it. We were sad. It would have looked awesome. So thanks to the Internet with last-minute ideas, she ended up as a Facebook "like" button.

I didn't have the time or energy to decorate or do fun games or make cute Halloween food, so Owen was pretty clueless about the holiday in general...until our ward Trunk or Treat party! Unfortunately he didn't take a nap and was quite cranky and whiney leading up to the party. I had to bribe him with promises of candy to get him to dress up. However, once we were there, he got right into the spirit of things.

He was a good little trick or treater. After telling one lady "thank you" after receiving his candy, she said, "Wow. That was the first unprompted thank you I've heard!" He walked away with a huge stash of candy, and I got away with him only eating two pieces before bedtime.

Afterward, we came home and Miles's cousin Tyler and his family came by to visit. Annelise had the awesome idea to dress her little girl as Richard Simmons. SO perfect with her curls! And the costume was only enhanced when Sophia went at it on our trampoline.

That was about the extent of our Halloween, but it was quite enjoyable. It was a lot of fun to see Owen get excited about walking around asking for candy. I mean, what kid doesn't love getting candy for free?!

Elsie's Blessing Day

We tried to figure out a time to bless Elsie that would work for both of our families and so both sets of Elsie's grandparents could be here. We thought about doing it soon after she was born since Miles's parents were already here, but it was just too much to get everything taken care of that quickly and make sure my dad was out here in time before they returned to Arizona. We waited a couple of weeks, and did it at the end of October. Unfortunately the Wright grandparents couldn't make it, but Grandpa Van de Wetering was able to drive out (just barely - due to snow in Tahoe postponing his trip) for her blessing day.

My Mom took a quick picture of me leaving the house. You would think with 1 PM church and Sacrament meeting last that it would have been easy to get there plenty early. You would think.... At least we made it a few minutes before Sacrament meeting started.

Kerry walking in with Elsie:

Owen was a little chatterbox during Sacrament meeting.

The people in attendance were Grandma and Grandpa Van de Wetering, Aunt Kerry and Uncle Matt, cousins Hadley and Elena, Great Grandpa and Grandma Wright, Great Uncle Jon and Great Aunt Becca Wright (and family), Aunt Megan, Uncle Mitchell and Darrian, cousins Marissa and Jesse Welsh (and family), and Christina and Jackson Rudd.

Here is a picture of everyone:

Miles did a beautiful job on the blessing and gratefully Elsie did not cry or spit up during the blessing. However, after is a different story that included spit and a blow out. It was quite the pain getting her changed and redressed for pictures. Luckily it didn't get on the blessing gown and only a tiny bit on the slip.

Some pictures of our little family after the meeting was over:

Elsie wore the same blessing gown that Owen wore (seen here). (Yes, yes, my son wore a gown for his blessing.) She looked beautiful and I love that both babies wore it. My mom is going to embroider their names and blessing dates on bottom of the slip.

After the blessing, everyone went over to the clubhouse at our complex for dinner. We had lasagna, Caesar salad, breads, pumpkin pie, chocolate cake, cookies, and these yummy chocolatey/butterscotchy rice crispy treats that Grandma Wright brought. It was nice to spend some time with family and enjoy the day. Apparently we didn't take any photos though - probably because my camera died right after we took the group shot at church. At least we got one of Elsie with her namesake:

It was a wonderful day. I'm grateful for the priesthood power and authority we have here on Earth. I'm grateful that my beautiful baby girl was given a lovely baby blessing by her father. And thank you to all the family who were a part of Elsie's special day!

What's in a name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

I know the same is true for my sweet Elsie Jane. However, her name still holds meaning.

Miles and I worked on picking a name for a long time. Early in our relationship, Miles told me that when he had a girl, he wanted to name her Hazel after his great grandmother. I told him not to hold his breath cause I wasn't necessarily sold on it. Years later, the name had grown on me. However, there were two *loud* dissenting voices. Both of his sisters said they wanted to use the name as well. While we weren't ready to give up on using the name, Miles and I promised that we would make a valid effort to search for other options.

So just as we had done for Owen, we read through each and every name in a baby name book and wrote down anything that might be of interest. When we finally got through "Z" our list was about 30 names long. We narrowed it down to 15 and eventually I (without much help from Miles) narrowed it to my top five names:
(listed in no particular order)
Hazel
Elsie
Charlotte
Daphne
Scarlett

Miles seemed ok with the list, but I knew he was leaning toward the first two. However, once again as with Owen, we wanted to wait until she was born to decide.

Once she arrived, I was pretty anxious to name her. However, the time Miles and I had together at the hospital was often spent with other people and we didn't have a lot of time to discuss. Finally, as our 48 hours was drawing to a close, I told him we had to name her. I didn't want to leave the hospital without a name, and I was feeling anxious about her not having a name besides, "baby girl," or other love names. But I was struggling to decide on which name fit her best. After talking it over and looking at our sweet baby, we decided to go with Elsie. When the nurse came in, I told said, "We decided on her name. It's Elsie Jane." Miles looked at me and said, "Oh really? Jane, huh?" I said, "Yep." I guess I didn't really give him a chance to weigh in on the middle name. But that seems to be how it goes in our family - he chooses the first name and I choose the middle. Typically there is more discussion involved on both counts and we both have to agree, but I wasn't budging from Jane.

Now neither of these names were random choices. Elsie is the middle name of Miles's paternal Grandmother, Elaine Elsie Wright. We absolutely *LOVE* and adore her. She is such a wonderful, kind, thoughtful, giving, hard-working, gentle, spiritual woman. As I've mentioned before, I have no living grandparents, so I have 100% adopted Miles's grandparents as my own - and they have 100% adopted me. :) It feels so good to be in a family where blood relations are not necessary to be accepted as their own. Our baby Elsie could not have been named after a more wonderful woman. I hope that she gets to know her and have fond memories of her and even take after some of her many, many amazing attributes.

As for her middle name, it was a two-part decision for me. Elsie's due date was October 9th which is my niece, Elena's, birthday. Elena's middle name is Jane. I thought it would be a nice gesture to use it in recognition of her. (And we have since realized that both Elena and Elsie have the same initials - EJW, which is kind of fun.) And the most meaningful part is the actual meaning of the name Jane: God is gracious or Gracious gift from God. As soon as I read that, I felt so connected with it - for God IS gracious and has given me the most incredible gift ever - the gift of motherhood. I not only have a son, but now I have been blessed with a beautiful baby girl. I could not ask for more. My Dad said that my grandpa told him, "You're a rich man. You have a son and a daughter!" I feel extremely rich in love and happiness. So, while in the eternal perspective of things names are not that important, there is definitely significant meaning behind Elsie Jane's name. I hope she holds her head high and wears it well.

Here are some pictures of Elsie with her namesakes.

Elaine Elsie:

And Elena Jane:

Poison Control

Today I had to make the dreaded call to poison control. While my mom and I were otherwise engaged, Owen was off playing on his own...or so we thought. After a minute, I thought I should check on him. I walked in to find him surrounded by pills and holding a pill box. He had gotten into my mom's travel case, opened it up and dumped out her pills. We asked if head eaten any. He said yes. Part of me wasn't sure if I should believe him since he often answers the opposite of what is actually the case (or just says yes to anything we ask). However, the other part of me was concerned since I know he loves candy and tic tacs and could have easily mistaken them for something yummy. So I immediately called poison control to determine what my level of concern should be if he did ingest some.

My mom spoke with the woman on the phone and told her all the medications that has been in the box. The lady said that three of the four would need to be ingested in large quantities (as in 20-30 pills) to cause any problems. However, one of the smallest pills (a blood pressure medication) would only take one pill to cause concern. We weren't sure if he had eaten one, but we did find crushed remains of that type of pill on the floor, making us believe that he could have chewed on some and spit them out. However, since it's such a small pill and we couldn't be sure, she advised us that it would be safest to take him to the ER for monitoring. I was trying not to freak out, but of course I cried anyway.

So we quickly got ourselves ready to go and had our first outing since Elsie was born, to the ER. Owen was so cute. He was clueless to what was really going on, and made a little friend in the waiting room. He and another boy were watching the fish in a tank. The other little boy would lift him up to see better and then Owen would hug him and say, "I love you." It was so cute.

He did really well when they took his vitals. I needed to feed Elsie at that point, so they put us in an empty triage room while we waited for a room in the ER. Owen was eating some snacks and playing games with Grammy.

Once we were back there, the doctor checked on Owen.

He said if there were a problem (the medication could lower his blood pressure) that it would be evident within the first couple hours of taking it. So he wanted to monitor his blood pressure every 10 min for the next 30 min, until we were at a time he felt there was no further concern. He was really nice and told us he understood how stressful it could be, and told us a story about his brother who had gotten into a bottle of Tylenol and eaten the whole thing and had to have his stomach pumped. So sad!

Owen wasn't such a fan of the blood pressure cuff, but he was able to kick back and watch TV.

Grammy also showed him some fun games on her iPhone. After 30 min of good blood pressure readings, we were sent home.

So it was quite the adventure having to return to the hospital only a few days after leaving with my newborn baby, to make sure Owen was ok. Thank goodness he was! Grammy has since moved her bag to higher grounds where Owen cannot reach. He's far too ingenious to be trusted. And while it was a scare for all of us, and Grammy was feeling terrible that it was her medication he had gotten into, we're all ok. And that's what matters. I just hope I don't have to make that call again anytime soon...or ever again!

Happy Birthing Day!

I can't believe it, but my baby girl is already a week old! Time really does fly by and I know it's just going to continue to soar. Well...the masses are waiting and I need to get Elsie's birth story written down, so here it goes...

All along I thought that baby girl was going to come early. I wasn't holding my breath believing it to be true, but just had a feeling. Sunday morning I distinctly remember having a conversation with myself in my head. It went something like this...

"I am so sick of thinking this baby is coming early and it's just not happening. I'm tired of thinking that all these Braxton Hicks contractions I've been having actually mean anything. She's not coming early...she's probably going to be late!"

And with that, I decided to give up and let go of anxiously awaiting and wondering if and when she was on her way. I guess that was all it took for baby girl to decide to make her debut.

I was going to attend church that day because I knew it might be a while before I would be able to go again since the following week was General Conference, and I was seriously hoping she would arrive before the Sunday after that. However, after going to a meeting and visiting teaching in the morning, I wasn't feeling awesome so I decided to stay home with Miles and a sick Owen. And it's a good thing I did.

****The birthing story starts now. If you have a weak stomach, or don't want to hear nitty, gritty details...STOP READING. You have been warned.****

Around 3:30 PM I noticed what I thought was possibly some amniotic fluid or other sign of labor. At one point, there was some red tinging that made me think that I was for sure starting labor since I had that before my water broke with Owen. At this point I was only having some occasional Braxton hicks contractions. I told Miles that I was pretty sure I was in labor and called my mom to tell her. She was pretty sad since she had plans to fly out the next day. I also informed my friend, Jess, to be on stand-by since she was planning on coming to the hospital to help support me through my natural delivery. And I called my sister, Kerry, so she would also be ready to head down from Salt Lake. When Kerry answered the phone, she said, "Happy birthday!" (since it had been my birthday two days earlier) and said, "Just kidding." I replied with, "Well...it might be a happy birthing day!"

So Miles and I kicked back and watched some TV. By 5:20 PM I was starting to have some very mild contractions and fluid seemed to be leaking more heavily. My next trip to the bathroom had me wondering about things. I looked online to see what color amniotic fluid was supposed to be. Mine was kind of greenish and I did not remember that with Owen at all. Everything I read made me believe it was probable that there was meconium in the fluid. I called the on-call doctor to ask about it, as I wanted to stay at home as long as possible. She said she didn't want to alarm me, but would like me to go to the hospital right away.

I hadn't gotten around to packing my bag yet, so I got all my stuff together while Miles called his parents to come over. Miles was fairly peeved that baby girl was on her way. He said, "I told you not to have her on the weekend. I wanted to take time off work." Then he added, "I'm not ready for her to come." I said, "Too bad. She's on her way!" :)

Miles's parents arrived and we were about to head out. Owen had woken up from his nap and said, "I want to come!" I told him I was sure he didn't. Then he hugged me tight and said, "Don't go Mama!" Aw...poor little guy. I looked at him and said, "You will always be my first born and I love you so much!" He hugged me back and exclaimed, "I love you too!" We took one last photo of us as a family of three, and with that...we were off and out the door by 6 PM.

My contractions were more intense at this point. Miles even noted that they seemed to be more intense than when we left for the hospital to deliver Owen. He pulled up to the hospital doors and dropped me off. (Don't worry. I told him I'd be fine. There was no valet parking available.) I walked in and went up to Labor and Delivery. I filled out some papers and they checked me in. Miles and his mom arrived shortly after. I got changed and they checked me out. They confirmed that my water had obviously broken, and I was dilated to 3 cm. While I was hoping for more, it was nice that I was at least making progress. (At my 38 week appointment I was 1 cm.) I had to get my IV for my group B strep antibiotics. She hooked me up to the drip and Miles and Margaret made my room more comfortable by diffusing lavender into the air.

Enjoying some tiger's blood flavored ice before things ramped up.

The great view from my room.

Things were going ok. Each contraction was strong, but I just tried to focus and breath through them. After a bit, I asked how long I had to be hooked up. The nurse (Summer) said that it takes 30 min to an hour for the antibiotics. I was bummed about that because my contractions were getting more intense and I was ready to try some different positions (birthing ball? standing/walking?) to see if it would alleviate some of the discomfort. She checked me again around 7 PM, shortly after Kerry arrived. I was at 4 cm. While I know it's pretty average to go about 1 cm an hour, I was bummed I wasn't progressing faster, and I was surprised at how intense things felt at a relatively early stage.

Kerry and Jess took turns videoing the birthing experience.

Over the next 30 min, it really started ramping up and by the time the drip stopped, I couldn't even think about moving. The contractions were coming more rapidly and intensely. I was feeling weak - physically and emotionally. Miles played affirmations by my ear while I tried to focus on my breathing. Summer came in again after a rather large contraction and said, "How was that one?" Um...yeah...it was great. She checked me again and I was at 4.5 cm...right on track for 1 cm an hour. UGH. I remember thinking of my friend, Taryn, who during her delivery had been told it was too late to get her epidural and had to go naturally because it all went so quickly. I had thought that would be great - quick delivery, no other option, etc. I suddenly realized how crazy that was and I would have died if it wasn't a possibility, so I started talking about getting an epidural. Miles was so good and supportive of my plan and told me no and that I could do it. Kerry was having a hard time watching me in pain and said, "It's her body. It's up to her if she wants to get one." I think Miles was frustrated because he knew what our birth plan was and was trying so hard to stick to it. I just kept feeling weaker and more unsure that I would be able to keep it up. My body was shaking and I was SO hot. Everyone was trying to make me comfortable and I just wanted to be dunked in an ice bath. I asked for cold rags and Miles, Margaret, and Kerry asked Summer for ice packs for me. At one point, Miles tried to rub my feet. I quickly said, "Don't touch me. You're hot." I think I scared him off and he didn't want to make me upset. Of course it wasn't about him - he can't control his body temperature. And in his defense, earlier when he was doing light touch massage and stroking my head and hair, I really appreciated it.

A little after 8 PM I finally decided I just couldn't imagine going on like this for another five+ hours and asked for the epidural. Miles called Jess to let her know that her "natural birthing support" was not needed, but that she was still welcome to come. She wasn't too far away and said she wanted to be there.

The nurse said she needed to draw some blood since they couldn't find the labs anywhere. What??? Um...ok. So in between contractions, she poked me in the arm.

***Side note: The nurse couldn't find my labs, right? Well...they ran my blood and when she checked me into Mother and Baby after the baby was born, she gave a report to the nurses. She said my blood work came back positive for Hep B. I said, "What does that mean?" She said, "It means you have Hepatitis B." Duh...thank you. I wanted to know what it meant for me, my body, and my baby. So I asked again. She said, "You're doctor said not to worry about it and we're going to run the blood again. She'll talk to you about it tomorrow." I said, "How do you even get it?" (I'm thinking it's one of the other Hepatitises - one that's not a big deal.) She said, "From not washing your hands after you go to the bathroom." Huh? I told her I do. She said, "Or from other people not washing their hands." Huh? Ok. Whatever. I don't know if she was being evasive because my mother-in-law was in the room, or if she really thought that was the case. Either way, it was false.

When I talked to Dr. Savage the next day, she said, "Yeah. I was so bugged about that last night." She said that they called her to tell her I was positive when she was on her way home. She said she was angry they even ran the labs and asked why. Summer said they couldn't find mine. Dr. Savage asked how far back she looked since you get them done at the beginning of your pregnancy. I said it seemed weird you couldn't just look for them under my name. She said, "You can, but it only shows the last four labs. You have to change it to show the last 50." I said that didn't seem like it would be very hard. She smirked and said, "It's not." Then she said, "You don't have Hepatitis B. It's a sexually transmitted disease and you get it from intravenous drug use." Ah...lovely. She said she adamantly told her I did NOT have Hep B. I'm glad my doctor was on my side. But so annoying that these nurses thought I had it, and that she had to take my blood while I'm in the middle of laboring.***

Back to the birth story...

I asked if she had called the anesthesiologist yet. She said she would when she finished. Seriously? I was so bugged. At this point I had given myself over to the fact that I was getting an epidural and was so done with what I was experiencing (which, by the way, was strong cramping/pain at my hips going in toward my back and across my stomach/uterus). Finally he arrived and started on my epidural. He told me to curl in a ball on my side. I told him I couldn't move. In the beginning when I had contractions it felt doable. It would be strong and intense, and then it would all subside and go away. It was as though I wasn't even in labor. However, once they were coming fast and strong, I felt as though I wasn't even getting a break. Even when my body wasn't contracting, I still felt residual pain, and my body was shaking like crazy. Also, the anesthesiologist was so rough with me. I felt as though he was just shoving and pushing and yanking. He pulled a tube around my head and it totally yanked my hair. You would think that when you're in pain, small and minor pains and annoyances would just be ignored and melt into everything else. NO. Everything felt amplified in the midst of my pain. (And yes, I realize this post is so not hynobirthing friendly - my nice terminology has flown out the window.) At one point he told me to push with my back, against his thumb. I was doing it and he was pushing really hard. I remember saying in my head, "What the hell is he doing?!" It did not feel good, and I was so annoyed. Then, just as quickly I thought, "Actually...that kind of feels good." Ha! I think I must have been experiencing some back labor pains and it was almost like a nice counter pressure on my back. (Apparently I was bleeding and he had to stop it. It's probably because both times he told me to be still, I jumped. Always a good thing to do when someone is putting a rather large needle/tube into your spine.)

Anyway...he finally finished and I was dying for some relief. They said it would take about 10-15 min for it to take effect. I wasn't feeling anything and told the nurse. She asked if I felt any tingling. I could feel some mild tingling in one foot. The anesthesiologist came back in and gave me some more medication. I'm really not sure on time of all this, but I think it was close to 8:20 PM, right around the time that Jess arrived. I didn't feel as though I was getting any relief, but apparently I was because Kerry and Margaret said that I had some HUGE contractions that I seemed to weather well. I certainly couldn't tell! Around 8:30 or 8:45 PM (about an hour after she had checked me last) Summer checked me again. I was at 9.5 cm!!! WHAT?! In a little over an hour I went from 4.5 to 9.5. No wonder I was in so much pain and couldn't feel a dang thing from the epidural - I was in transition! I was still feeling really sharp pains in my front, lower, abdomen/pelvis. The anesthesiologist said, "I'm afraid if I give you more, you won't feel a thing when the baby is born." I was weighing in my head what I wanted to do. With Owen I specifically said I didn't want as much medication toward the end so I could feel it when it came time to push. But at this point, I was done feeling anything at all. So I said, "Go ahead and give it to me."

Jess giving me some love and support. I had a cool, wet rag on my head during most of the labor, and was squeezing the ice pack (and Margaret's hand) during contractions.

The doctor arrived shortly after 9 PM. She said that it is so common for women to say, "I can't do it anymore," and then they're complete within no time. I was kind of frustrated that I didn't just push through it, but there was no way I knew it would go so fast. She said she wanted me to do one push and see where we were at. But after she looked, she said, "No. The baby's head is right there. She's going to come fast," and put her garb on to deliver the baby. After about five pushes, baby girl was born at 9:27 PM.

One of the parts that I was really sad about was that due to there being meconium in the fluid, they had to take her right away to check her out. Which meant no immediate skin-to-skin time or allowing the umbilical cord to continue pulsing before cutting. When they first told me this, I almost started to cry. I loved having that time with Owen. Dr. Savage told me that if she didn't cry right away, I might be able to hold her for a minute or two before they took her away to suction and make sure she didn't swallow any. However, right as she came out (posterior I should add - which means face up and makes for a harder back labor experience) she burst out with a loud cry. They put her on me right away while they clamped her cord and Miles cut it. But just as quickly, she was whisked away.

I should mention here, that while she was getting taken care of by the nurses, Dr. Savage was taking care of me. I saw her hold up her hand, and her entire hand and arm up to her elbow were covered in blood. I said, "Bleh, I didn't need to see that." She said, "I'm really sorry, but your placenta didn't come out all the way and I need to try and get it all out so we don't run the risk of you hemorrhaging or needing to come back in for a D&C." She then said as she literally was up to her elbow inside of me, trying to clean me out, "It's a good thing you got that epidural. Otherwise, you would hate me and would probably be screaming in pain." I had felt so disappointed that I had gotten the epidural when I realized that by the time it actually kicked in, I was ready to delivery baby girl. I had basically gotten through the majority of the transition phase without medication only to have it at the very end. However, after she said this, it made me glad that I did. I'm not sure I could have handled it. Just having the nurses pushing on my stomach to encourage contracting and bleeding was bad enough. I literally had to restrain myself from shoving their arms off of me since this was a pain I could stop.

Baby girl getting all cleaned up.

Miles feeding me ice chips post delivery. I was still feeling pretty hot and had the shakes SO bad. (Before it was from the adrenaline and intensity of labor, this time it was from the epidural.)

Happy parents waiting for their baby.

Baby girl weighed in at 7lb. 11oz. and 19 1/2 inches long.

It felt like forever before I got to hold her again. I just kept thinking, "Where is my baby?!" Also, I found out that they didn't even have to suction her because she kept her mouth closed while she was in utero. I was happy about that, but sad they still had to take her away and it changed my birth plan. But of course it's always better to be safe than sorry.

My first extended moments with my sweet baby girl.

Then, of course she had to get love from everyone who was there for her birth-day.

Daddy

Auntie Kerry

Grandma W

"Auntie" Jess

Dr. Savage

While things did not go as planned (when do they ever?) and I was initially disappointed, I am really happy with how it worked out. And of course, the most important part is that I have a beautiful, healthy, baby girl to show for it. (Btw, they said her Apgar was an 8 and her bilirubin level was one of the best they had seen.) I am so grateful for the support and love I had during my delivery, and for a kind, caring, and competent doctor.

Quilt

Being pregnant with a little girl allowed my mind to start exploring all the cute and endless options for decorating her room. Despite the fact that I had a beautiful bedding set that my mom made for my niece, I started looking at different fabrics to make my own. I fell in love with a brightly colored line and decided to go for it. However, when I found the quilt pattern I wanted to make, I had a difficult time fitting my line into it. After spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to decide how to make the quilt and bedding with the fabric line I had chosen (and enlisting the help of friends), I gave up and decided I'd just use the line that was used in the quilt pattern.

I really haven't done a lot of sewing and I've never done quilting before, so I had to ask a lot of questions of my friend, Bridget, who had made her baby's bedding earlier this year. I'm glad I chose a fairly simple appliqué quilt for my first project. It made it feel much more doable and less overwhelming. Not to mention that it was a relatively quick project. This is the tutorial I followed.

I started by deciding what fabrics I wanted to use. I followed fairly close to the ones in the tutorial, but wanted the flowers to be a little more pink heavy than red heavy. Here is my terrible mock up of what I decided to do:

Here are some pictures of my work along the way...

I procrastinated sewing around the leaves for a while because I was nervous about messing up. I finally bit the bullet and I think it turned out ok.

Here it is all appliqued prior to being quilted:

  
Once I finished my quilt top, I took it in to be quilted here. I was so anxious to get it back even though I told her she could take her time. Luckily she didn't listen to me and got it done in about a week. :) Here is the finished product (minus the binding).

The back:

I LOVE it! I am so happy with how it turned out. I think the swirls complement the circular pattern of the quilt. (And obviously it is not the typical "baby" quilt size. This way she'll be able to use it for longer and even on a toddler bed.)

All that is left to do is the bedding (bumper, crib sheet, crib skirt). This is what I have decided to use. The top is the bumper with the green dots as piping. The grey will be the crib sheet and the houndstooth will be the crib skirt.

Luckily, my mom is taking care of doing all that. :) I kind of want to do it so I get more practice with sewing, but I also don't think it's going to happen between caring for two children. I'll just stick with making a pennant for her room out of the scraps.

Oh, and here is a newborn shot of Elsie with the quilt in the background.