365 Days of Everything Georgia

September 19, 2010 - Success? My God I Hope So.

I got smart today. No more attempts at birthday invite pictures... by myself. Did you think I was going to say "at all?" Nah, I don't give up that easily.

I signed up my husband as assistant. His assignment, should he choose to accept (and moms, we know how much of a choice he had)... dance and make a fool of himself behind me to make this little girl laugh and smile and look where I wanted her to. And bless his heart, he accepted (oh so willingly).

And guess what?!?!?! We got pictures!

Which one won... ::drum roll::...

Tah-dah!

September 18, 2010 - Exercise?... Not Without Me Daddy!

My husband is much more disciplined than I in many areas. Maybe it's his former military career or perhaps it's my lack of pushing myself.

Take exercise. My husband is very diligent about working out when he can find a few minutes here and there throughout the day. I'm the one with the baby bump, but my motivation is... zero. And yes, I use Georgia and my lack of personal time as an excuse.

My husband could use her as an excuse, literally. His attempts at side crunches today - thwarted by a little terror.

Oh, but that didn't stop this daddy from finding a way to exercise WITH Georgia. What a way to bench press.

September 17, 2010 - So... Anything Good?

Well, of course they're all good. They're pictures of Georgia after all. But after my many hiccups (read "complete failures"), I took an assessment of what pictures I do have that might work for Georgia's one year birthday invites.

What do ya think?

Hmmm... they would all "work," but there's not quite what I'm looking for in this group. What am I looking for you ask? Figure that out and you just might be the one to solve world peace or end hunger or something fabulous.

September 16, 2010 - Maybe I'm Crazy!

... but I'm giving those birthday invite pictures another try. My little lovely is starting to feel better and is in a much better mood. However Mother Nature is still not cooperating, the ground is still wet.

That's what shoes are for, right? Oh, and hopes that she doesn't plop down on the ground in her cream-colored dress. Sheez, I need to have my head examined.

Well, here we go:

Since when did my daughter have bags and dark circles under her eyes? OK, the dark circles I'll take the blame for... damn DNA. But they've never been this dark. And the bags, I can only assume that's what a week-long cold packed.

I'm losing hope. Scratch take 3.

September 15, 2010 - A Year of Changes & Colds

I will remember Georgia's first year as so many things, so many wonderful, priceless details. My first year as a mommy, my husband's first year as a daddy and so many changes for our little love.

I will also though remember it as the year of the crud, the daycare crud that is. Georgia's almost non-stop colds which have turned into my almost non-stop colds. Today, I turned to drugs.

Funny how my husband never seems to get this funk. I need to find out what Kool-Aid he's drinking.

September 14, 2010 - Another Try...

Soooo, still no birthday invitation pictures which means no birthday invitations ordered yet. ::gulp:: We're less than one month from Georgia's first birthday and one month and two days from the party. I am so behind!

This prompted me to do something a rationale woman/mother would probably not attempt - a photo shoot (again) with a sick baby oozing snot and who knows what else. Nevertheless, a wipe of the nose (OK, a lot of wiping and suctioning of the nose) and outside we went.

Such a sad girl...

... so sad I didn't even notice the pink blanket I had her sitting on was reflecting on her face. And did I mention it rained overnight? The ground was soaked. My idea was getting worse by the minute.

So is Georgia's demeanor. But can you blame her?

When the tears started, my mommy guilt kicked in. We were done. Cuddles and kisses commence and smiles soon followed. Pictures, however, did not.

September 13, 2010 - Feed Me, Please...

You know how we all start to develop feeding patterns? We know when it's about time to eat. Animals start pacing close to the place their food is dumped, fish school near the top of the tank, co-workers start jingling change and circling the vending machine and Georgia sits watching as her bottle shakes.

Georgia's Birth Story

The timing of Georgia's birth, in a way, came out of a journey to death. I'd like to think with every death comes new life, and for me, Georgia is that life. She is my saving grace and has kept me breathing when my lungs were screaming to stop, screaming to drown in my own self-pity.

My husband and I decided to try for Georgia just a few months after our walk down the aisle. You see, my mom had been diagnosed with incurable Ovarian Cancer, so I wanted a baby soon. I wanted a baby while there was still time to have my mother there as I brought a new being into the world, to see my mother hold her granddaughter, to ask my mom which of my baby features my daughter bore, to lean on my mother when I had those "new mom" questions and for so many other moments I had played out in my thoughts over and over again through the years.

My husband and I were thrilled to soon find out our little Georgia was growing inside of me, rounding out my belly day by day, pushing tiny feet into my sides, entertaining us with a neverending chorus of hiccups. We went to the doctor's appointments, the baby classes, took the hospital tour and had everything ready for the day we brought our darling home in Omaha, Nebraska.

It's funny though, life seems to fight our planning and always chooses its own course - and so it did. When my belly was just shy of 38 weeks round, the day came. After a 52-year-long life, which was as bright as they come, my mother faded away. She died on Sunday, October 11, 2009.

Early Monday morning, with my doctor's permission, my husband and I got on a plane to fly home to Georgia for my mom's funeral. We got off the plane in Atlanta around 3 p.m. Twelve hours later, at 3 a.m. on Tuesday, I was sleeping at my parents' house. As I lay in the home where my mom had been just days before, that journey toward life took a leap. My water broke and the contractions started coming within minutes. We were more than a thousand miles away from our doctor, our hospital and our house.

So off to the local hospital we went in the dark of night, my husband driving my mom's SUV and not having a clue where he was going. I had to give him directions between contractions. We arrived at the hospital and didn't even know what entrance to go to. We found locked doors twice before finding the right entrance, and yeah, I floundered up to both locked doors!

We checked in and by the time we got to a room, I turned around and there were my sister, brother and cousin in the room with my husband and I and my other sister and father were on the way. We had thought we'd be delivering in Omaha with just my husband and I and the calming classical CD's I'd burned. I guess my mom had other ideas.

So there we were, in the hospital where two years earlier they had cut cancer from my mother, in the hospital where my two nieces were born, in the hospital where my delivery nurse had also been my sister's bridesmaid - there surrounded by those who love me most and the memory of one who just couldn't stay long enough to make it. I delivered Georgia Katherine at 10:46 a.m. She weighed 7 lbs. and 8 ounces.

We left the hospital on Wednesday with a borrowed car seat, a bag full of borrowed baby clothes, a lot of flowers and hearts bursting with every emotion you can possibly imagine. We arrived at my parents' house to a borrowed crib, borrowed baby supplies and relatives arriving in town with funeral clothes and baby gifts packed in their suitcases. On Friday, my daughter and I looked down on my mother in her casket, and on Saturday we buried her. It's the only time my daughter every saw her grandmother.

My mother fought hard to live long enough to meet her granddaughter and in the end, she missed the date by two days. But life doesn't stop, and it's the beauty of my daughter's life that keeps me smiling. And oh how her life makes me smile. I like to believe whenever I'm holding my daughter and she's starring off into the distance, over my shoulder, that she's seeing my mom - a guardian angel for both of us - and that they are already the best of friends.

Linkbar

September 19, 2010 - Success? My God I Hope So.

September 18, 2010 - Exercise?... Not Without Me Daddy!