High Five for {Hastag} Friday!

Normally, I'm all "Oh man, it's already Friday! Look at that!" but I'll be real honest with you... This week DRAGGED. Kirk was out of town for work all week, so that meant that my mom and I were on 24 hour baby duty. I haven't slept for more than 90 minutes at a time while my husband got to sleep undisturbed, in a four star hotel, likely enjoying a night cap... #mynightcapisadirtydiaper

Also, our AC isn't working properly, and we're in triple digit heat down here. It's been a week-long battle with the landlord, my hormones, a newborn who is too hot to be swaddled, and AC repair men. The only thing I can say is, the next idiot who claims our AC unit is fine and just needs to be "hosed down a little outside" is getting ROUNDHOUSE KICKED TO THE FACE... Just kidding. #notreallykiddingatall #watchyourface #ihavelonglegs

Ahem! Excuse my rants. There were some pretty awesome things that happened this week, so despite my lack of sleep and nonstop over-heated-ness, let's call them out!

1) I got a new car! I had stated that I was happy to keep my little Audi A4 until we decide to have baby #2... However, in TX we have to get a smog test every year, and wouldn't you know, the dang thing failed it! So we took it in to address the issue (you can't renew your tabs with a failed smog test), and wouldn't you know, it was $1000 to fix it! And when Kirk told me what the issue was, wouldn't you know, I had that EXACT same repair done the summer of 2011! Given the car was too small anyway, and now having performance issues, we decided to trade it in and get me upgraded to Official Mom Car Status with an SUV. Boom.

I bought this car for myself after I finished my Master's degree at 25 years old... Little White Car, it was a fun five years and I appreciated the fact that no amount of snow would stop you and you had six levels of heated seats for my tenure in Minnesota! See ya on the other side, homie.

The new ride: 2015 Volvo XC60! I was SOLD on the automatic hatch that opens with a remote or with a touch. That is a GAME CHANGER with a baby... and, even without one! Yes, I only drive white cars. You'll regret your life if you get anything else this far South. #yourcarisanoven

2) I changed my hair color! Check out this post all about it and to see pics. #redhairdontcare

3) Henry is starting to outgrow his newborn clothes! Ahhhhh! These were the pants that we took him home from the hospital in, which he was swimming in at the time. Now, they fit perfectly, and in another week they won't fit at all. If he keeps his current growth pace up, he'll be 6'3 by his first birthday. You're welcome for that height, son! #hegetitfromhismama

He's getting tall, fast! Growing a whopping inch per week.

4) The mani/pedi that I got last Friday (OPI Cajun Shrimp - a long standing favorite) is still on my fingers and toes, un-chipped! And it's regular polish, not a gel. Whoohoo! #babyproofmani

5) I'll find out on Monday how quickly I can return to yoga. I'm hoping it'll be a week or two... But we'll see what the doctor says. I'm ready to get this running party re-started, too! I secretly think Henry is pumped to head out to White Rock Lake in his BOB running stroller, as he loves being pushed around the neighborhood at a slower pace. Just waiting for my "all clear" and I am SO OUTTA HERE! (I know doctors typically say at least 6 weeks, but my more holistic and patient-focused doctors/midwives base their answer off the individual patient and her abilities/recovery, not a standard answer.) #readytoTURNUPwithmyrunningstroller

I hope you all have a wonderful, cool, sleep-filled weekend! And while you're at it, have one for me. And while you're busy with that, check out these lovely ladies blogs, too!

Everything Changes: Cosmetic Edition

Somewhere around 18 weeks pregnant, I noticed that my roots were growing in dramatically darker than what my natural color used to be. Pre-baby, my hair was a dirty-ash-blonde that was easily highlighted to a bright blonde and required only four or five trips per year to the salon for touch-ups. But shortly before the halfway point in my pregnancy, I noticed that there was a major contrast between the colored shaft of my hair and the root. Boo!

I blamed my new stylist down here in Dallas for a while. See, I had been going to the same stylist in Minneapolis for 13 years. (Darrin at Darrin James Salon if you're in the Minneapolis area.) Since moving to Dallas, I've been trying to find someone who did half as good a job as he did. I had done the trendy ombre highlights thing this past fall, too. I figured either my stylist or changing up the highlighting process was to blame for these wacky roots...

Nope! My hair is just much darker post-baby. It's also stick-straight. So much so, that I don't want to deal with heading to the salon every two months to maintain the blonde color, because finding a sitter for Henry will be tough... And frankly, that's more high-maintenance than I ever want to be.

For the past few months I had been having "red hair envy" so I figured - what a great time to give a new color a try! I have an olive complexion, so I can't go too bright or too orange. I'm not into colored hair that veers too far from natural hair colors, so I can't go too red. This is what I'm thinking:



Amy Adams' red isn't too red or orange, and isn't overly bright. This could be a good look on me. Her skin has some color to it in this photo, which makes me hopeful that the color will work for someone like me who tans instead of burns.

I'm not sure who this person is (found the pic on Pinterest), but her hair color is super adorable! This could be an easier transition away from blonde, since it's a few shades lighter than Amy's color. It could also look terrible on me, since I'm no where near as fair as this woman in the photo.




Have any of you made a dramatic hair color change? The last time I did it I was in grad school, and went from my normal blonde to dark brown. I look back at pics from that time in my life and shudder at how terrible I looked! So hopefully, this looks better than that, because that was rough. Rrrough.

As it would turn out, I wrote the first part of this post a week ago. Therefore, I already have my end results! I showed my stylist at Dear Clark Salon the pics I found, and she thought it was a great idea and a good change. So she mixed up the coloring that she thought would work best with my complexion.

If you follow me on Instagram, then you saw this shot yesterday!

I got a little nervous while the color was processing because it was looking DARK... And I was getting flashbacks from my awful brunette grad school days. But, she was indeed a pro, and the color turned out really well! Here's what it looks like dry:

Ta-da! It's a fun change. Plus, it's still light enough to go back to blonde, if that's the route I want to go. Brunette isn't NOT my color, but maybe I can pull off a nice red!

In other news, I've found a fellow blogger who hosts a Wednesday link up about sharing girly ideas! I figured a new 'do post qualified as girly :)  Check her out!

Mommy Monday: Henry's Birth Story

I started having some pretty regular contractions at 35 weeks. When we attempted our (failed) ECV to flip our breech baby, our doctor told us that while she couldn't schedule us for a c-section until 39 weeks (hospital rule to prevent "designer" birthdays and keep babies where they should be for as long as possible), she knew we would be going into labor well before then.

At just over 36 weeks and on Kirk's birthday, we had our final prenatal appointment with our midwife before we transitioned to the care of a M.D. due to our breech position. She checked me over and said, "I give you one week! You're going into full out labor... SOON!" Then she faxed all our medical records over to our new doctor.

The very next day, I went into labor.

I knew I was having contractions, but I thought, "Ah, hell. It's probably not the real thing." So I went to barre class. Later that night, I got up from the couch and noticed I left a wet spot where I was sitting (sorry if that's TMI - turns out, birthing a baby is one big TMI story). I thought, "Dang, pregnancy just keeps getting more disgusting! What the %&*! is that?! Man, I hope Kirk didn't notice..."

Friday morning (the day Henry was born), I still had contractions and still didn't think it was the real deal. Yes, they were painful, but I have a high pain tolerance and they didn't stop me from doing what I wanted/needed to get done. So I had a normal blogging morning, then headed out to White Rock Lake to get a walk in. There was a few times I had to slow wayyyyyyyyyy down for a contraction to pass. After my three to four mile power walk, I continued to go about my day, just breathing through contractions as they came. In fact, I even headed to the mall to get some more Clinique products I was running low on!

Now, after my trip to the mall, I was very low on gas. I also had to pee really bad, so I decided to skip the gas station and just head home. It was about 4pm. I was wearing bright white shorts. When I went, I noticed there was (yet again!) a wet stain on my shorts, that had leaked all the way through to the outside (of COURSE I wore white out in public, right?!). "Hmmmm... Yeah, I know I didn't pee on myself, and sweat wouldn't look like that in my shorts. I'm calling my mom!" Ok, so I have an advanced degree. I'm nearly 30 years old. But when sh*! gets real, the first person I think to call is my mom. Do we ever outgrow needing our mamas?! I don't think so.

"Hey mom - do you think my water broke and I just didn't notice a pop and there just wasn't a gross gush?" I asked. "Paige, CALL YOUR DOCTOR!" So I did. And she said that I needed to come in right away, and to bring our hospital bags. Then I was left with the task of calling my husband and figuring out what the heck city he was in! "Hey, babe, where are you and when will you be home?!" I asked. "I'm just about 20 minutes away. You want me to pick up something for dinner or something?" he replied. "Nope, turns out, my water broke! We need to go to the hospital as soon as you get home!" "WHAT?! Ok. Bye!"

My husband has never exited a phone call faster. See, he was making a two hour drive home from client meetings and on a conference call. It just so happened he decided to answer my call in the middle of his professional conference call. He had to get back and excuse himself from his clients!

So we go in. They check us into triage and I see a resident to run a few tests on me to ensure that, indeed, my water had broken. While we were waiting for my doctor to arrive and review the results, my belly was hooked up to a monitor to check on Henry's heart and monitor my contractions. Once our doctor arrived, she learned that they couldn't find my tests... She was clearly annoyed with the residents when she glanced over at the monitor readout. "Paige, are you really having contractions every two-three minutes?!" she asked. "Um... Yeah." "Don't they bother you?! Aren't you in pain by now?!" she asked. I replied, "Well, I'm super uncomfortable, but what good is complaining going to do about it?!"

All checked in and awaiting a room for our c section... Looking super pregnant and sweating from the TX heat!

And with that, the doctor didn't even need to see the results of the amniotic fluid test. She said that if my water hadn't broken yet, that I would be back to the hospital within four to six hours anyway, so they were going to admit us, and we would have our baby that night! I was 36 weeks and four days.

It was surreal getting checked in, getting an IV placed and running, and waiting for an operating room to open up (the hospital we were at had 36 beds for the birth wing... and they birthed 57 babies the night Henry was born!). We had to wait about four hours for the O.R. and in the interim, the contractions got STRONG. Kirk rubbed my back, as I got more and more agitated about our long wait.

When everyone and everything was ready, I got escorted to the O.R. They began an epidural and a spinal block on me - which is what I was TERRIFIED for! But truthfully, it wasn't that bad. The first shot (of whatever the heck it was) was the worst. Then, everything started to feel numb. I even said to Kirk, "Oh thank God! The contractions are now gone!"

The doctors took over from there! I was so surprised to see my husband pull back the curtain and snap all kinds of shots of what they were doing to me. How do you watch doctors cut open your wife's belly?! I don't know, but he did... Then again, he did do three years of college as a pre-med student, before coming to his senses and switching to business school. Anyhow, I went in to the O.R at 10pm; Henry was born at 10:15pm; and we were in the recovery room holding our new baby boy by about 11pm!

Daddy with Henry right after he was born and while mommy got stitched up.

The first night was ROUGH. I'm talking shaking, sweating, vomiting rough (nurse Andrea at Baylor Dallas - you're an angel of a nurse for taking such good care of me!). On top of that, we opted to keep Henry with us in our room throughout our stay, because I did NOT want the nurses feeding him formula garbage. So, in addition to being quite ill, I had to nurse and take care of a baby! Kirk did all the lifting and changing since I still couldn't feel my legs. Things got much easier by mid-day the second day, and by the second night, we were in good shape!

I absolutely could not have done this without Kirk. He did pretty much everything for me for our hospital stay, from feeding me ice chips to changing Henry to running home to let our dogs out. He watched his wife get cut open, got puked on by her and peed on by his son all within 24 hours, didn't get served food by the hospital and froze to death on a couch every night since I demanded the room be kept to about 62 degrees. I may have had to suffer through a pregnancy and a surgery, but he had to tough out some bad conditions himself! Let's hear it for the good husbands, right ladies?!

That was how little Henry entered our world! We've been in love ever since.

The day we came home from the hospital with our sweet boy Henry Malcolm.