Today definitely started off as one of those days.  It was gray and dreary outside with a thin blanket of fog.  The kind of day when you lay in bed, dreading the thought of leaving the warm, fuzzy cocoon of your covers, and wishing you could spend the day there, safe and cozy, staring out the window at nothing in particular.  Alas, it can't stay that way, and I got up.


   Fed the baby, put her in bed, went back to bed.  Got up in time to barely get my breakfast down before feeding her again.  We fell asleep together on the recliner.  Woke up, gave her a bath, dressed her, and she wants to eat again.  Does any other new mom out there feel like all you get done is go from feeding to feeding throughout the day?  Ah well, she's a sweetheart, and she's healthy and growing, so what more could I ask for?

   I've discovered that Jocelyn has already perfected "THE LOOK" and she's not even a teenager yet!  Oh boy.  Here she is giving it to me during her bath.


  That's the look that comes with a tone dripping with sarcasm as she sighs deeply and says, "Oh, MOM."   Somehow, she still looks adorable even with that expression, so I can see that I'm in for a hard time with this one.  How will I say no?
   Another thing she doesn't care for, is getting all dressed up to go to church.  I feel almost guilty making her wear uncomfortable clothes, but it's just too much fun to resist!
 We FINALLY got a picture of the three of us, but it was self-timer and indoors, and a lame picture for a lot of reasons.  Plus, Jocelyn did NOT enjoy it.  Hopefully we will get a better one soon.

 I think for every new mom, those first little smiles are like a sugar rush. You can fly high on those for a while.  It's just so reassuring that she is happy, and enjoying her little life.:)

    Gotta love Daddy/daughter time.  Especially when it gives Mommy a break so she can have some much-needed "Me time". :) I'm very blessed to have a wonderful, husband who just so happens to be a hands-on dad.  And devastatingly handsome.  This participating fathering quality is a lifesaver when Jocelyn gets the notion that daytime is for sleeping and nighttime is for partying like it's 1999, which she just so happened to have last night.  *Sigh*  With that lone exception, she is a perfect baby. *wink wink*




   In addition to holding, rocking, calming and settling this little dear in the wee hours of the morning today, he cleaned the bathroom.  That's right, toilet, shower and all.  And he organized my kitchen cupboards.  And brought me McDonald's.  He's the best.  That's all. :)

   I have to admit, I avoid copying people like the plague.  Especially when it comes to fashion.  If I see something in a store that reminds me of someone I know because of their personal style, I will most often skip it in favor of something different.  Don't get me wrong, it's not my life goal to be different than everyone, because that's practically impossible, but it is my goal to strive for a little originality and unique-ness (is that a word?) in my wardrobe.  And I fully realize I have a long way to go, for those of you thinking that my wardrobe sorely lacks any originality.  Sometimes I want to just take everything to Goodwill and start from scratch!  Patience is a virtue...

HOWEVER...

   Strange though it may be, I've realized something about myself lately that surprised me.  Even with my strong dislike for copying other people, I've discovered that as long as I don't personally know the person I'm copying, it's totally fine.  For example, I am inspired by this girl's fashion sense, and delight in stalking her blog for new ideas.  And while shopping today, it occurred to me that each of the 3 items I bought were inspired by her.

http://tandsdaybook.blogspot.com/

The items I purchased: a denim button-down shirt from American Eagle, a horizontally striped sweater (gray and cream) and striped tank-top (white and navy) from Forever 21 so I can start playing around with some of her outfit ideas.  Pathetic?  Maybe a little.  Guilty?  Nope. :)  She's so stinkin' cute!  And I'm quite sure I will not pull it off like she does, but hey, a girl can try. 

   I never really understood new moms that quit going places, seeing their friends, answering their phone, updating their blogs, a.k.a. fell off the face of the earth.  Well news flash folks, I am officially one of "those moms"!  And it's not even that I never have the time to do those things, I do.  It's just that the precious time I DO have is usually spent sleeping, eating, or snuggling with my baby.  Or Jocelyn.;)  And those things are more important anyway, so it's a win-win situation, right?  It mostly is.  But I do miss writing a little.  So I will try to squeeze it in now and then.  As for the other things, I am slowly but surely emerging out of my house more and more.  And the reason I don't more than I do, is not even because I have a little baby now.  It's because I really don't feel like changing out of my pajamas, which is what my entire wardrobe consists of these days.  

   Jocelyn really has been doing great.  She was fussy some tonight, but I think it may be due to her eye-cold.  I think that's what it is anyway.  Her poor little eye is all goey and crusty and I just feel so bad for her.  But other than that she's been a splendid little dear, and we feel pretty stinkin' lucky to be her parents!

   Invention I am LOVING right now---the baby swing!  Seriously, a Nobel Peace prize should have been awarded to the inventor of this lifesaving device.  That's the only reason I'm posting right now, as a matter of fact.  Otherwise, I would be falling asleep in the rocking chair, trying to get Jocelyn to sleep.  As it is, she is peacefully swinging (and it plays classical music. much less annoying for mommy than little nursery songs) and sleeping.  *delight*  Randy's sleeping too, which means I feel no obligations to anyone, and I can sit here and blog!

   Something I never got around to doing before now was a picture post of the nursery...so here it is!












   I had so much fun preparing this room...I remember putting everything in its place and rubbing my swollen belly and literally aching for this child to come.  I could hardly WAIT to meet the little life growing inside of me!  Sometimes I had the silly notion that I already loved the baby so much, so how could I love it more?  I think each day I love her more.  And now that she's here, it's hard to remember what life was like without her.

   This room is such a special place for me.  It's where all her cute little outfits are.  It's where late-night feedings take place.  It's where I read her Bible stories.  It's where I change her diapers.  It's where I sometimes just stare at her in awe and wonder how I ever became so blessed to become a mommy. 

    Speaking of those late-night feedings, another is creeping closer and I haven't got any sleep yet!  I'll probably pay for this in the morning....


Good night everyone. 

We are pleased to introduce to you......


JOCELYN KATE SMUCKER
   Born Monday, December 20th, 2010 at 9:22 am.   She weighed 7.0 lbs and was 20" long.  There are plenty of pictures on facebook, but I will try to put some on here too.  It's just I have very limited "me-time" these days, and blogging falls into that category, hence the reason it has been quite neglected lately.  Oh well, priorities people!










   She's growing and changing so fast (as you can tell from the first picture to the last) that we can hardly keep up!  The whole experience has been pretty incredible, on so many different levels.  Incredible how painful labor can be, incredible how much you can love a little person you've only "known" for 5 minutes, incredible how tired the human body can feel, incredible how a little smile, whether it's genuine or gas:), can make it all worthwhile.  She's so precious, and we are so, so thankful for her.

   Now for the labor story! (For those who care:)  If you don't, you can just stop reading now.  My water broke around 12:30 am on Monday.  I tried to go back to sleep because I figured I wouldn't have the baby for a long time yet, and I would need my rest, but I was too excited to sleep much. I showered and spent some time online trying to distract myself as I counted contractions.  When I was pretty sure this was the real thing, I woke up Randy and he really helped me deal with the pain.  We labored at home as long as possible, and went into the birth center around 8:30.  The midwife was skeptical that I was far enough along to come in, but when I got there, I was 5 cm dilated, so I got to stay!  Things escalated really quickly, and Jocelyn was born about an hour after arriving at the birth center.  We live about 30 minutes away, so I'm really glad we didn't wait any longer to go in!  Things went really well and we were glad we chose to have her naturally at the center. 


   Well I must run, but I sincerely hope I will be able to update this blog more often than I have been.  We are loving being parents but it sure takes a lot of time and energy!

God is good.