It’s been a minute, no? The move out, the move back in, the living through the remainder of the renovation, the final days of pregnancy, the first days of life with a newborn… You get it. It’s been difficult to find time to sit down at the computer (with two hands to type) and connect here.

But I do love it, this little community we’re building. And I love writing. I feel most me when engaging with words, so it is absolutely part of my Postpartum Recovery Plan to make time for this going forward. We’ll start easy with some life updates, Evangeline’s (mercifully short) birth story, and a few things making life a little easier or more beautiful lately.

House Updates

The house is FINISHED. Or, rather, this current round of renovations is finished. Our bathroom was a close one; we actually had to kick out our shower glass installer the night our baby was born because I had a feeling I was about to go into labor. But he’s come and gone again since, so we are officially done. I’m so so grateful and love the way everything has turned out. I’ll make separate posts outlining all of the details of each project, so be on the lookout for those, but to recap we:

• replaced all of the engineered wood flooring with real hardwoods

• painted the main living areas

• fully renovated our primary bathroom (see our inspiration here and selections here)

• fully renovated the boys’ bathroom (surprise! Can’t wait to show you everything from this one)

• lots of little fixes here and there that really aren’t worth documenting (like adding a door and exhaust fan to our guest bathroom).

Evangeline’s Birth Story

The two days leading up to Evangeline’s arrival were filled with little cues that she might be coming soon, chief among them intense but inconsistent contractions. I just tried to ignore them as best as I could, carrying on with life as normally as possible.

By Wednesday evening, they still had no consistent rhythm, but were definitely requiring focus to get through. A kind friend offered to bring us dinner that night, which we gratefully accepted. However, I didn’t have much of an appetite. I ate what I could and begged David to ask our glass installer to leave (poor guy; he was having a really tough time and was ALMOST done, but I really needed him - and his drilling noises and his mess - out).

I tried to sleep, but after about two hours of tossing and turning with these inconsistent contractions, I decided to try and let gravity help out. I walked around our bedroom and bathroom, rolled my hips around on the birthing ball, all of which seemed to really help kick things into gear. I woke David around 10:30pm and had him call our midwife to update her. My contractions were about 4 minutes apart and very intense. She arrived around 11:20pm and I had David fill the tub while she checked baby’s heart rate.

I was nervous because while things were definitely progressing, I was concerned I was getting into the tub too early (I wanted to try to wait until the very end, and I just wasn’t convinced I was there yet). But sure enough, contractions shifted into pushing and my water broke. We’d decided that water breaking would be our cue to wake up the boys (well, Coen and Truman; no way was I having a toddler down there, and Deacon had already told us he wanted a “Christmas morning” experience if the baby came in the night, so we let him sleep to be surprised when he woke up).

Almost immediately after David snuck upstairs to get the boys, baby’s head was out. The birth attendant ran out and called after him to come back so he wouldn’t miss the actual birth. He had just enough time to run in and reach into the water to catch our baby and put her on my chest. The two oldest boys came in right after, which was honestly perfect timing. After unwrapping the cord around her neck (3 out of 5 of mine have had nuchal cords), I asked everyone if they were ready to know who it was who had just joined us (meaning, boy or girl). We all agreed, I lifted baby off my chest to take a peek, and honestly couldn’t believe my eyes. “It’s a sister!” I laughed, and we all collectively gasped, cheered, and cried tears of joy. It still gives me goosebumps to think about that moment.

Listen, I realize that wasn’t as short as I’d led you to believe it would be; but believe me when I tell you I wrote it all out and then cut about 50% of the details out, lol. So, you’re welcome.

Loving Lately

Evangeline is living in this wrap, as all of my other babies have in the past.

This was my first read postpartum and my goodness - an absolute game changer. It’s so short, but so incredibly rich.

I’m not able to be perfectly consistent with my skincare at this current time (sometimes I literally just fall asleep with baby girl on top of me without even washing my face), but I switched to exclusively Dime products recently and my skin feels healthier than it has in months. The Works Discovery Set is such a value and a great way to try all they have to offer.

Spending time in God’s word is both critical and extremely difficult in the newborn season. Our church is reading through the entire Bible together this year, and being able to use the app to listen to the text while nursing or holding a babe has been so helpful. Feel free to jump in and read along with us!

This top and shorts set + a nursing tank is my postpartum uniform.

xo,

sarah