Back, in what now seems likes something of a former life, I spent my days quite differently. Where now I bath babies and play dress up, I used to dress myself fashionably (that was back when clothes actually fit). Where now I stay home all day relishing the quiteness of naps, I used to head out early and drive downtown. Where now I put off my own hunger to meet the needs of a crying baby girl, I used to each lunch on the steps of the State House. Needless to say, my life has changed quite significantly in just four few short weeks.

However, a part of the former me still lives on. You can check out a bit of my past work at here, at the Columbus Dispatch. As much as I like being a mom, some days it is nice to remember there is more to me than dirty diapers, screaming babies, and sleepless nights.

Lonica Stuff, My Dewey Decimal Degree | 3 Comments »

Decent Shot #1

Since Amelia’s birth I’ve been on a quest to obtain a professionally, artistic photo of her. Previous to her birth I spent hours searching online for positions and images I wanted to duplicate. We bought a nice camera, in part, to capture the precious moments of our growing daughter.

Decent Shot #2

We staged multiple photo shoots in our home, which resulted in two decent shots, a screaming baby, and a thoroughly soaked drop cloth, pillow, duvet cover, and down comforter—be wary of taking off a two-week-old’s diaper. The majority of the images, however, looked something like this:

Grumpy Face #1 (out of two-hundred billion similar photos)

Blurry, Screaming Photo #5,672

Possibly hilarious wave, but not at all what I was going for…

Finally, I gave up, threw in the towel, and insisted we head down to the local JC Penny’s and join the throngs of adoring parents to get our pictures taken by a “professional.” I scheduled an appointment for Saturday afternoon and carefully planned our attire.

One thing I’ve learned about motherhood: It requires a lot of advanced planning. Second thing I’ve learned about motherhood: Despite your advanced planning, rarely do things work out.

I strategically planned our photo shoot so that Amelia would get a good nap beforehand and I could nurse her immediately before the picture taking. The thought was this: either Amelia would wake up with happy eyes and sit contentedly for the pictures or she would immediately fall back asleep (as she often does) and we could shoot to our hearts content.

Neither happened. Amelia refused to take a nap. All. Morning. Long. She fussed enough that she got to eat before anticipated in an attempt to settle her down. She arrived at the portrait studio red eyed, neither hungry nor satisfied, thoroughly tired, and covered in poop. Her stupid mother had dressed her before leaving the house only to arrive and find she had messed all over her outfit. A diaper change, outfit rinsing and redressing later, we were ready to start taking the pictures–twenty minutes later than our appointed time.

A careful look at the images will show you a baby who was completely unhappy—whether from a wet onesie, lack of sleep, or frustration with cameras can only be imagined. However, with the combined efforts of her mother, father, photographer and assistant, we managed to snag just a few passable shots.

After evading a un-helpful sales associate—who wanted to surround all of our passable images in tacky, fluffy, pink borders—and throngs of other parents on similarly futile quests, I managed to leave the studio thoroughly exhausted with a finally sleeping baby. As I walked out, though, the impossibly perfect baby portraits hanging on the walls mocked my efforts and flaunted their flawlessness.

Don’t look too close, for you can just make out her messy, wet outfit.

Can you blame me for returning home, at 6:00 pm on a Saturday night, to crawl into my pajamas and hunker down on the couch? It was certainly all I could manage at that point.

Amelia Marie | 4 Comments »

I’ve never been a fan of referring to little girls as “Princess” or “Angel.” Apparently, Amelia—as evidenced by this photo—doesn’t like it much either. In fact, this (admittedly, cute) bath towel which sports a bejeweled crown over the wearer’s head is as close as we currently get to anything “princess-y.” I’ll admit, I try to stray far, far away.

However, every baby girl must have some term of endearment—especially when her given name is only now starting to feel really natural. In only three short weeks, Amelia has acquired quite a few…

Peanut: When swaddled in one of her many blankets, Amelia certainly comes close to looking like a little peanut.

Piglet variations include: “My Little Piglet” and “Piggy.” If you’ve heard about her growth history, this one is rather self-explanatory. It also steams from the fact that she makes little snorting and rooting noises while eating. Not to mention the fact that she can down her entire breakfast in just ten short minutes.

Sister: Grandma Honey coined this term. Not sure that Amelia actually has a sister, but we’ll go with it, as it reminds me of my own childhood when my dad would always call me “Sis.”

Snuggle Bug: Who couldn’t watch her sleeping like this and not want to snuggle her?

Amelia Marie: Yes, I know this is her name, but I refer to her by both first and middle name quite often. In fact, when discussing naming potentials, I really wanted to find something that worked well with “Marie” as a middle name. My dad would always call me “Lonica Marie,” not out of anger, but endearment, and that was something I wanted to pass on to my little one.

Baby Girl: For whatever reason, I find myself using this rather generic name quite often…

My Little Pony: This has nothing to do with the little dolls I played with as a child, and more to do with the fact that she whinnies and sighs just like a little pony.

Pumpkin: Not sure where this one came from, maybe the large pumpkin on our doorstep?

Sweetheart or Bumblebee or Lady Bug or Strawberry Shortcake or Butterfly: This one is simple. Match the corresponding name to the corresponding footie pajamas. What is it about baby pajamas that they all have to have a theme?

Miss Amelia: This is one of Scott’s favorites.

Perhaps these aren’t the most flattering names when appearing in black and white print, but each name—in my opinion—carries more originality and personality than any “Princess” or “Angel” could—after all, those could apply to almost any little girl.

Amelia Marie | 7 Comments »

and we’re not sure who enjoyed the visit more—us or Grandma Honey.

Grandma had all sorts of special tricks for getting Amelia settled down. Apparently, after five children of your own, you learn a thing or two.

We weren’t always so nice to Amelia, though. We let her get nice and frustrated, while we tried to take a good photo of her lifting her head. She really is getting strong at holding her head up.

The visit was one of firsts. Grandma bought Amelia her first fall pumpkin, which despite her tremendous growth rate, still manages to be bigger than her.

Grandma Honey, also treated Amelia to her visit to City Barbeque. By all accounts the little lady loved the food as much as her parents do.

We also paid a visit to Spagio, which had very yummy food.

Grandma was also kind enough to accompany us on a visit to Green Lawn Cemetery, where I was able to visit the grave of Emil Ambos, about whom I learned so much this summer at the Dispatch.

I was also able to check out the graves of other Columbus noteworthy figures, such as Eddie Rickenbacker.

Scott wasn’t that interested in the graves, but he did have a good time pushing the stroller and checking out the suspension on the Jeep…

Grandma was able to find lots of little buckeyes…

which makes any visit to the Buckeye State complete. We are so glad she could come out and spend some time with us and help take care of our Amelia Marie.

Amelia Marie, Vistors! Visitors! | 4 Comments »

Item #1: My baby now weighs in at a whopping 9 lbs. 14 oz according to her doctor, who we saw on Wednesday. This thought actually makes me rather sad, as I find myself mourning the loss of the baby I came home from the hospital with. Every time I pull her to me to feed, I notice how quickly she is changing. Her little hands now have dimples over her knuckles. She’s developing a little roll of fat on her forearm. She has a dimple at her elbow, and I find myself having to check extra carefully amongst her new fat rolls to make sure her bottom is clean. If that’s not enough, this little bracelet (in the picture above) would fall right off her wrist a week ago, but now fits well over her chubby little wrist. The thought at how rapidly she is changing makes me a little nostalgic and she’s only three weeks old!

But the happy thought is this… babies at this age should gain an ounce a day. In the last eleven days, Amelia has gained 22 ounces. That means she is growing by two ounces every day! The doctor, after taking note of this feat of effort, gave me to the okay to let her sleep as long as her little heart desires through the night. While I’m sad she is growing so quickly, I was more than thrilled to once more dream about a solid night’s rest.

Item #2: Amelia went a whopping nine hours last night between feedings. This means, that I slept for a straight seven. and. a. half. hours. I can’t remember the last time that happened. I didn’t startle myself awake by trying to turn my nine-month pregnant body from one side to the other. I didn’t have to get up and use the restroom during the night. No one came in during the night to take my blood pressure. No one started to cry and whine for more food. I didn’t wake myself up, thinking about how badly this little girl needed to eat—and soon! I didn’t wake myself up at 3:00 am wondering when she was going to wake up and want to eat. None of that happened.

I slept soundlessly and dreamlessly for the first time in weeks. Of course, I did wake up at 7:00 and jerk awake, wondering how I could have slept that long—was she still breathing? Did Scott somehow feed her? What could she be possibly be doing? I had a glorious half hour to ponder these questions before she decided to wake on her own and feed ravenously. I didn’t mind so much. A solid seven and a half hours makes me begin to understand how people can entertain the thought of waking up before nine, ten, or even eleven o’clock in the morning after having a child.

P.S. Nursing is going much better; thanks for your concern, words of encouragement, and shared suffering, everyone. Obviously, our little Amelia is receiving all the nutrition she needs without too much discomfort to her mother…

Amelia Marie | 7 Comments »