Les Granparents

Part of my hesitation in having a baby overseas was the fact that my family would not get to be at the birth.  I envisioned the waiting room full of my family and best friends, the visitors, the flowers, the meals... everything! I knew that having a baby in France wasn't as easy as calling them up and saying "Hey, my water broke! So head to the hospital!"  Our little town is a 10 hour flight, 3 hour train ride, and 1.5 hour car ride away... so it isn't that simple. 

What I didn't expect was that my family would make the effort anyway.  

My Mom was planning to arrive in France on my due date of January 28th but once she heard I had gone into labor, they switched their flights and flew out the very next day.  She arrived on January 21st when Stella girl was only 2 days old.  Since my hospital stay was 5 days, I was still able to have the experience of my mom visiting us in the hospital and it made things feel somewhat normal. They were able to stay for 2 weeks and helped us through the inital transition back home.  Gigi and Opa did laundry, cooked, cleaned, and all that good stuff as Logan and I tried to figure out a rhythm with Stella back home. 










My Dad and Kelley had purchased their tickets to arrive on February 1st!  The reason behind this was that it was the day the hospital would induce me if Stella hadn't arrived yet.  The last thing I wanted was Pappa and Mimi to come to France for a week while we sat around and waited for Stella to join us on the outside world. We knew by them coming Februrary 1st, they would have a full week with their grandbaby. 

We took this picture the night before they arrived... and let me just tell you... if you want to know what "Happy Hour" LOOKS like, here is a perfect example :) 

This was taken the very first moment they arrived at The Colorado after 24 hours of traveling! My Dad said his heart was beating out of his chest. 


The first time Pappa held Stella.  She was exactly 2 weeks old and still tiny as ever! 


There was only one day of overlap between all the grandparents so we had Logan's friend Nicholas take pictures for us with everyone.  Having all 6 of them in the same place will not happen very often and we wanted to take advantage of it.  We know Stella will treasure these pictures forever and so will we.  Having everyone there to meet and love on our little girl made France not feel so far away despite the obvious ocean that separates our families.  To say I am grateful my parents came over to meet our daughter would be an understatement. It was what made these hard and lonely months being so far away completely and totally worth it. 

















I will forever treasure the 3 weeks we got to spend with the grandparents for the rest of my life.  It was such a fun time of hanging out, relaxing, catching up, exchanging belated Christmas gifts, marveling at our tiny new addition, and introducing them to our everyday life in France.  We even took Pappa and Mimi to the hospital where Stella was born so they could see the nursery and the maternity wing.  I think it helped them put everything into context and my Dad is so happy that someday he will be able to tell Stella he saw the place where she was born. 

Thanks to Gig & Opa and Pappa & Mimi for coming to visit us in France.  We miss you but can't wait to see you again in April so Stella can meet the rest of the extended family and all of our friends :) 

Valentine's Day DIY

My family finally received their Vday packages a few days ago so I figured I should share how incredibly cute they turned out!!! 

Note: I can't take credit for anything but copying and embellishing a few Pinterest finds :) And forgive me for the non-professional iPhone photos- I ran out of time and these are all I have!  Trust me, all of this was much cuter in person! 

Stella's Valentine's Day package: 

• Copies of our Valetine's Day "photo shoot" pictures
• Baby Footprints VDay Card
• Long distance hug 

First up was the "Long Distance Hug." It was SO simple, quick to make, and a great keepsake! I printed out tags from this blog post, traced/cut out Stella's hands, measured her arm spam to cut the ribbon, then attached the tag, and viola! A long distance hug for the family overseas :) 

The Baby Footprints Valentine's Day card was inspired from this pin on Pinterest.  Logan and I waited until Stella was asleep to paint her feet white thinking she would sleep through it... um... yeah, right! She woke up screaming so it was a labor of love... AND patience.  I like to think she will thank me someday for putting her through 5 minutes of utter torture! Then I just used scraps that I had lying around in my scrapbooking stash to create 4 unique cards :) I think they turned out really cute! 

NOTE: The footprints are a 2-man job. I cannot fathom doing this solo with a squirmy baby so I highly recommend recruiting a helper. Person A holds the baby while the Person B paints the baby's feet with non-permanent water-based paint.  Person B then gets thick card stock and presses the feet on the paper. Then you "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to see who cleans up the baby's feet before the paint gets everywhere! :) 

Stella and I had a blast making these on Valetine's Day... I can't wait to ACTUALLY craft with her someday - what fun :) 

Hope you enjoyed this post and got some ideas for future gifts or cards - these ideas could easily be adapted for any celebration or holiday! 

BIG BIG NEWS!!!

It is finally time for me to let you all know... 


Our plan was to move this November and due to certain circumstances, our move has been pushed up 7 months to APRIL.

We are a big mix of emotions: excited, scared, stressed, sad, disappointed, overwhelmed, and hopeful all at the same time.

Leaving France is going to be bittersweet.  This is Logan's home and has become my home. We started our little family here and it feels like just yesterday that I put the finishing touches on Stella's precious nursery. 

Because France is such a HUGE part of Logan's life and our family, we are going to make it a goal to come back and visit every other year.  We really want the French culture to be engrained in our children.  We want them to be familiar with the country, the cultures, the people, and the language.  Logan will continue to speak only French with Stella after we move back and we have invested in a lot of French children's books to read to her as well.

Please send your thoughts and prayers our way as we make this transition... Moving back is a leap of faith. We are basically hitting the "reset" button and starting from scratch moving back...WITH a baby! No cars, no place to live, Logan doesn't have a job lined up, and I am starting 2 new side businesses that will hopefully allow me to work from home.  I can't wait to share both of those with you all in the coming weeks.

Although this is bittersweet for us, I am so glad to be closer to my family and all of my best friends. I am happy the language barrier will not be an issue, that I can go get a pedicure whenever I please, there will be a Starbucks on every corner, I can run to Target with Stella, and grab a Friday night movie (IN ENGLISH) with my husband after dropping Stella off at the grandparents for the evening.  

I would never trade this experience for anything, but it sure will feel good to be back home.

A Bientôt Texas! 
XO, Stella Rose

Happy Birthday Aunt Katy!!!

Valetines Day 2013: Times have CHANGED

This Valentines Day was our first as a family of 3! (Shout out to Gigi for the CUTE Valentines Day outfit for Stella!) We spent the day making some really cute Valentines Day cards for our families (I will do a DIY post once the grandparents actually receive them!) and Logan cooked us a wonderful meal.  Unfortunately it fell right in the middle of our girl's "Happy Hour" so we had to trade off scarfing our food down and bouncing her all over the kitchen.  We exchanged cards over her tearful screaming and since you cannot find cute cards anywhere in our area, Logan and I both MADE our Valentines Day cards this year. We weren't supposed to exchange gifts but Logan surprised me with the Huguenot cross which is the French Protestant cross.  (Everyone in his family has one so it's extremely meaningful.)  It was not the most romantic of evenings, but it is our reality as new parents.  I will say that NEXT year Logan and I have decided to hire a sitter so we can go enjoy a romantic and quiet meal :)

My C-Section Recovery

Wow. Holy C-Section recovery! I have had minimal surgeries in my life - the tonsils, the wisdom teeth, and then the D&C last year...but the C-Section recovery was way more painful than I had anticipated.  

The night Stella was born I felt great because I had a constant morphine drip plus the adrenaline from finally holding my little girl...BUT the next day was really awful physically and emotionally.  When they came in to remove my catheter, they said "This is going to hurt" and after it was finished I smiled and said "Um. That was NOTHING compared to what I went through yesterday!" But THEN they made me walk to the bathroom and I couldn't sit or stand up to even get out of bed. In my mind I was thinking... Seriously? Haven't I been through enough after yesterday???  They had to help me stand up (and even then I was hunched over like an old woman) to escort me to the bathroom. I still remember dying to take a shower but I physically was not able to bring myself to do it for 2 days.  Stella on the other hand had her first bath, diaper and clothing changes, a vision test, and an initial appointment with the pediatrician and I had to stay in the room for all of those "firsts" because I wasn't able to stand up or walk.  It was really hard emotionally feeling so disconnected on top of the language and cultural barrier.  If Stella cried in the middle of the night I couldn't even get up to pick her up from her bassinet.  It broke my heart that I was failing her as a Mom and that Logan had to always be the one to pick her up to soothe her or check on her.  Honestly just sitting up in bed was a 10 step process for me. Oh how I longed to bounce my baby around and hold her while standing up.

Day 2 was a bit better.  Something I was not expecting was all of the air that got trapped inside of me when I was cut open... this was not your typical gas... this was AIR that had been in my body that needed a way out.  It was really painful and I felt similar to a balloon! People have asked if I felt the painful uterus contractions and I am not sure that I did.  Maybe it was masked by the other pains I was having or maybe it was part of those pains and I did not realize it? On Day 2 I finally brought myself to take a shower and made my way across the hall to the nursery to watch Logan change her diaper.  Up to this point I hadn't even seen my little baby naked! I loved studying all her little features but after a few minutes I felt a burning sensation right around my scar. It started to feel really hot and the only relief I could find was sitting down...  BUT it was progress.  

By Day 4 I was finally able to walk around more and stand up straight for longer periods of time. I even accompanied Stella to another floor for her hearing test.  I was able to bend over to help bathe her even though the bending over motion was a bit painful.  Something I figured out on Day 4 was that laughing, coughing, and sneezing was BRUTAL.  I seriously felt like I was going to pop a stitch... So anytime my Mom and Logan were laughing about something I would snap at them to please stop and this typically didn't work and I ended up laughing so hard I cried...but out of pain.  Note: No stitches were actually popped. :)

We were released on Day 5.  That morning the nurse came by to remove all of my stitches which was uncomfortable but not overly painful.   Upon release we were told that I needed to take it easy for the first month- no housework or lifting anything other than Stella. I haven't exactly stuck to this but I have tried. I asked my doctor if he was sure it was only 1 month and not longer ;)

By Week 2 we ventured out on a family walk with Gigi and Opa.  It was nice to get out of the house and walk around, but I was pretty exhausted by the time we got back. Baby steps I suppose :) The only medicine I was on at this point was the same Tylenol equivalent I took while I was pregnant- they couldn't give me anything stronger because of breastfeeding.

I also had to have a daily morning shot in my thigh to prevent blood clots.  This started the day after she was born and lasted for 3 weeks!  They sent a nurse to our house every morning to give it to me and my legs stayed black and blue from all the bruising for a few weeks.  It wasn't overly painful, just more a hassle.  I am happy that part is over!

I am not sure why my recovery was so hard initially. Like I said, I cannot imagine being released from the hospital the day after or even 2 days after my surgery.  Any other C-Section Moms out there have a hard recovery? Was mine different than most? I am sure part of my pain and exhaustion was due to the 16 hour labor and all that came along with that but I am just happy things are getting better. I still have soreness and try to take things easy on a daily basis but I am amazed at how far I have come in a month!  She was worth it :)