I just had to pop in and finally announce the arrival of our daughter, Natalie May Coyle!
She came into the wold with an early morning waterbirth at home, with the help of an amazing team of midwives and friends, last Wednesday May 12th at 1:23 am. She has sparkly big eyes and her papa’s brown hair; 8lbs 6oz, 22 inches. She was 13 days late, and is already surprising us with smiles and coos, and gazing back at us from her first moments.

We are now spending our days and sleepless nights gazing at the adorableness of this starry-eyed little one, mostly in disbelief, really, that we created her. I’m sure I’ll be back soon enough with more stories; I promise I will share some of the story of her birth eventually, which was definitely the most amazing, intense, challenging and profound experience of my life. I must say that I am so beyond happy that we chose to have her at home, and I think a tub full of warm water is a wonderful place to come into the world.

(we're so in love with this hat from Cloo Gifts Etsy shop)

With lots of blissed out love,
xoxo
Laurie

needing some distractions…

today is our “due date” — but no real signs of this baby coming our way soon, so I’ve decided I need a little distraction, and I also decided it needs to be positive and send goodness into the universe, so here’s a little grateful list for today, Thursday April 29, 2010, in no particular order:

• the fact that I am about to become a Mama any day now

• having had a healthy and easy pregnancy, the prospect of a healthy and easy birth

• a gorgeous new nursery and new studio, all ready and waiting to be used

• a green couch!

• the beautiful washer and dryer in our new basement bathroom (and the washer works on hot AND cold water!)

• birds, bears, bunnies and other creatures of spring

• leaves on the trees, even tiny ones

• our Curly Willow tree that has grown from a twig to a 15-foot tree in 4 years

• daffodil bouquets from my hubby

• offers for distraction and fun from friends

• HappyDog’s unbridled passion for squeaky toys

• sea-salt brownies (I KNOW, right?)

• pre-sliced mangoes and pineapple

• imagining my hubby as a papa — and all the joy he will bring to this little one’s life

• imagining our HappyDog and the little one as best friends; we imagine it is inevitable.

I also want to thank you for holding us in your thoughts today, on our official due date, and for hanging in there with us as we stay patient and wait for the little one to decide when she (or he!) is ready to greet the world. We will of course keep you updated, and will post something here soon after the birth. {But, you know, not too soon. We are planning to take it easy and revel in the beauty of this new life; thanks, I knew you’d understand}

Just in case you were wondering….

36 weeks & 4 days — due April 29; we all can’t wait to meet this (not-so-little) little bean!

Also, it is spring!

That’s my very first crocus of the year! We planted these bulbs last fall during the big wall-building/porch renovation project, and it seems they like it here. Spring is a little later to arrive here up on the mountain, but it’s happening!

Not like you wouldn’t have guessed, but I’m taking a little break from all things web-related. I’m also going to be putting my Etsy shop in vacation mode in the next day or two (meaning it’s closed to new orders, but you can still see things that have been sold, contact me, etc., and you can sign up to be notified when it re-opens), and I’m not sure if I’ll re-activate it before the baby bean is born or not. We’re in the middle of project basement right now, and my entire studio is going to be moving down there in the next week. Since I probably won’t know where anything is or have access to everything for a while, I figured it’d be best to put the shop on hold for a while.

So, if you have any shopping you’ve been meaning to do in the Laurie Coyle Designs Etsy shop, now’s the time to do it! If you order something in the next few days I’ll be sure to include a super special free gift, too! yippee!

As for this blog, I’m just going to let myself off the hook, ok? I miss you, but I also feel bad when I don’t post, and that’s just no good for either of us. So I’m here to officially say that until I get into a routine with the little one, I’ll probalby not be here much. There may be no noticeable difference from the current infrequency, but who knows. I totally love you, though, and appreciate all of your encouragement and kind words and your interest in my work (and life!). It really means a lot to me, and I’ll be sure to keep you updated on baby-progress, as well as any new work that comes out of the new studio. I’m also planning a big before-and-after reveal of the basement space, but the project is definitely not done. Not quite yet. So until then…

xoxox

She’s been kicking up a storm these days! She was particularly active this morning during an acupuncture treatment. Wonder if I was just noticing it more because I was lying quietly, or maybe she just really liked it?

taken with my iPhone yesterday, Jan. 9th, just over 24 weeks. It was maybe 13 degrees?

No, my head isn’t really that small… but my belly is indeed getting increasingly larger, which is kind of fun. I’m feeling lots of kicks and punches, too. It’s still difficult to feel it from the outside, but I get to feel it myself through most of the day and especially when I’m trying to fall asleep.

In other news, I’ll be revealing the winner of the calendar giveaway tomorrow! See you then.

{I have been secretly hoping to use this image (from the best ever cake-tastic website Cakewrecks) for this exact post for my whole pregnancy.}

It’s true, we’re having a girl!

…Well, as long as the ultrasound tech’s “guess” is right. We’ve had that guess twice now from two different trained professionals, so we’re going with it. Neither said they were 100% sure, because the little bean wouldn’t stay still long enough to get a “good look” — so we have a hyperactive girl! The photo they printed for us today looks pretty right-on, according to all the google-ing I did today. So… we’re making it official:

“it a gril!”

This was today, at almost 22 weeks (5.5 months).

my cup runneth over. for reals.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents’ with 20 family members and friends, followed by some visiting with John’s family.

Then a second round on Friday with a gang of friends at our house for our “Annual Day-After Thanksgiving Leftover Feast”. Yum! Just writing about it makes me want more mashed potatoes… seriously.

A few things I am grateful for this year:

• my family
• my wonderful husband
• our growing baby bean (almost 5 months!)
• our dry basement
• craft fairs, loyal customers and awesome fellow crafters
• art, craft and doing-it-yourself
• furry friends
• my tribe of fantastic human friends
• mashed potatoes (can you tell I’ve gotten my appetite back?)

I don’t know if this is creepy and crazy pregnant lady stuff or not, but I know I like seeing them on other people’s blogs, so here’s our first real photo of the baby bean:

It’s a profile. Can’t you tell? Those are two little arms/hands poking up! He/she was waving at us and doing quite a qymnastics show for the first half, then settled down and wouldn’t turn around toward the end. We got a good look at his/her side, though.

They weren’t able to tell the sex today, and are sending us back in a few weeks. But they were able to tell that everything heart/brain/skeleton looks good and healthy, and there are 10 fingers, and two cute feet, long legs and a sweet little face with an opening and closing mouth! All good news, making me feel very relieved and happy.

I guess it’s normal, but as the day of this appointment got closer and closer I started to imagine all the things we could see that could be wrong. 3 arms? 1 leg? 3 eyes? I know… it’s silly, but that’s how my mind is working these days. I didn’t REALLY think that would happen, but I almost wanted to not see it, just in case. So I’m happy to say all is well. He/she seems to be measuring a little smaller than the age we thought it was — but only by a few days, so they still keep the due date the same (4.24.09).

All is well in baby-bean land.

***happy dance***

I was at Twist this weekend! I did not take any photos!

It was wonderful, though, and I had lots of fun chatting with customers and friends and my fearless helpers and fellow vendors (why are you all so wonderful and fun to be with?!) — and thankfully some of them captured the day in pictures. You can see a few nice shots on fellow vendor Maeg’s blog, including a photo wherein I appear to be as humongous as the Sasquatch on her t-shirt, but that’s ok — there’s a baby in there (Did you hear?)! I was so grateful to be able to spend the night with my lovely friends, too, so I didn’t have to drive back and forth Friday night/Saturday morning. They showed me the sights in Florence and Leeds; I’m definitley going to have to go back for some swimming this summer!

So yesterday I spent the day lounging and doing not much of anything, in an attempt to recuperate and get some energy back. John and I had a lovely and gluttonous brunch at the Dakota restaurant, followed by movies and tv-on-the-internet and a leasurly stroll or two around the neighborhood. One of those was at sunset and the sky was so darn pink, it was quite amazing! And again, I didn’t take any pictures. I’ll try next time, I really will.

I am so thankful that I sold almost all of my new holiday ornaments (little stuffed birdies!), but now I need to get back into making-mode for Mass MoCA this weekend! My back is still bothering me, though, and I’m trying not to aggravate it and make it worse. I am going to attempt some gentle yoga today; I really need to get back into that. And apparently back into taking photos for you, too. Like I said, I’ll try!