A big thanks to my brother Carter for this video. If you're in need of something heartfelt this holiday season or a delightful birthday video or a video for nothing special in particular,  check his company out. Anthracite Studios. He pretty much awesome.

**🎃🎃🎃  UPDATE  🎃🎃🎃**

You can now purchase a printable flat mask. Talk about an easy button.

PURCHASE PRINTABLE MASKS ON ETSY

🎃🎃🎃***🎃🎃🎃***🎃🎃🎃***🎃🎃🎃

This year however was special because it was baby Penn's 1st and probably the only year he'll let me dress him up as an adorable inanimate object. We went through a couple of ideas, Poppi, Olive and a can of spinach, Squints, Wendy Peppercorn, and the Beast, and then a couple months back while searching the web for ideas I came across this delightful costume.

It was perfect! And what goes better with spaghetti than Lady and the Tramp.  I pitched the idea to the hubby who was on the Poppi (fitness buff) bandwagon and he was less than enthused. I had to agree the idea of grownups dressing up like fluffy dog cartoons sounded dumb but the adorableness of Penn being spaghetti was too hard to pass up so I set to work brainstorming some ideas to take cutesie cartoon dogs to human adults tastefully.

I wasn't interested in:
-Fur
-Bodysuits
-Tails
-Face paint

Then I stumbled upon an Etsy listing for a leather owl mask and I thought by George it's perfect. But the leather animal masks weren't cheap coming in at around $100 bucks a pop. I also knew that a custom inquiry would run even steeper, so I sunk into a pit of despair...

As I usually do, I get myself into something I want but can't afford and decide I probably have the skills to make that. So I YouTubed leather mask making. The results were slim but I was able to decipher the basic idea.

Wet leather is moldable.

Here's what I did:

Measured out our facial dimensions, eyes, space from forehead to nose etc. and I came up with these templates.

LADY

The blue lines indicated the measurements that matched up with the points on my face. Ex. sides of nose.

 TRAMP

Then I cut these templates out of 6oz leather with an Exacto knife. I ran the blade gently through the leather on the details as to not cut all the way through.

The molding of leather is actually pretty easy. I wet the leather and used a cheap face mask as a form. I used the form to get a basic shape and the blow dryer to set it. then I would just mold, test (on my face) blow dry until I had formed the mask into the shape I wanted. 

 Then it was just a matter of paint and a few details (eyelashes, nose)


And Voila
 For the rest of the costume I bought clothes I would wear again in the colors of Lady and the same for Mr. Robinson's Tramp

You can purchase Lady's skirt HERE.

You know that conversation you have with your parents and they tell you where babies really come from. You know the one, where if your a girl you realize that babies don't come out of tummies but rather the lady bits. That a watermelon sized object is going to pop out a whole the size of a cutie orange and because you're really special you'll get an audience of strangers to witness this master piece. Ya, I think that's the day I decided I was never going to have kids.

Fast forward a good 17 years 8 of which were spent married to Mr. Robinson and we find ourselves in our current predicament. Somehow along the way whether we call it blinded by love or stupidity I FORGOT about the watermelon and the orange and the pain and the lady bits on parade and found myself with child. That makes it sound kind of biblical, heck even monumental. I'm keeping it in this was defiantly noteworthy and I'm writing it down so that's basically the same thing.

As we walked home that bright and warm afternoon in March I casually joked with Mr. Robinson that I had just finished the last remaining item on my "Before Baby"check list. Teach Relief Society lesson, *check* and that I fully intended to spend the last week before D-day relaxing in PJs. He smiled and chuckled softly to himself.
After lunch I snuggled down for a small afternoon nap while Mr. Robinson busied himself around the house preparing for an unexpected meeting. At 1:00 he kissed me on the cheek, told me he'd be back in an hour and a half and hurried out the door. At about 1:30 I started feeling kinda crummy. Crummy enough to text Mr. Robinson at 2:00 the follow before the completion of his meeting...."Can you come home? I'm having some pretty weird sporadic pains but some are hurting crazy bad." Yes, my texts are always this poetic. He called immediately and told me he was on his way.

After a brief discussion we decided to time my crummy, sporadic, hurting crazy bad pains. Emphasis on the word sporadic because despite our best efforts and Mr. Robinsons timing skills we couldn't find any rhyme or reason to the madness. So after a Google search on the definition of Braxton Hicks,  a conversation about my need to wash and curl my hair if this got serious (because nobody wants to look homeless when your having a baby) we put in movie.

 At about 5 or 6 the crummy pains started picking up speed with a little more regularity. We called our Doula seeking some advice she told us to keep a watch full eye and call her back in an hour. It was at this point that Mr. Robinson told me it might be time to wash my hair. so between the movie, Mr Robinson's multi-tasking ability of timing, holding a mirror/my curling iron while I pushed though my crummy sporadic pain we somehow made it though another hour. We called the Doula and she said she would join us when we felt ready. I was READY.

While we waited for the Doula's arrival we made sure to cover all the bases. So we called the midwife who insisted on talking to me. By this point the crummy sporadic pain had morphed into a furious beast and I was splayed with my puke bowl on all fours on the ground but hey my hair was curled.

My midwife was out of town and her replacement proceeded to test me with a burage of questions. "What baby is this? "1" "How far apart are the contracts?" "When did they start?" "5 minutes at 2:00." Sweat started to prick up at the edges of my hairline. I ran my fingers over my face in a fit of exasperation as I braced for another crummy sporadic pain. "Are you in very much pain? Now I'm grumpy. For heaven sakes women yes, yes I am in pain?" "On a scale from 1-10."  Ahhh, breathing heavily holding back the urge to call her something mean "10, 10!!!!" "I think you still have a long while hang in there." Click.

Somewhere in between the pain and midwife conversation our Doula had arrived. She went right to work asking me where I was most uncomfortable  and trying to ease some of my back labor with a few tricks that proved helpful but provided short lived relief and ended with me in the bath tub saying that I felt the need to push.

After much debate between Mr. Robinson, the Doula and mostly me because I was truly worried this really wasn't labor and after dragging me to the hospital the staff would all look at the dumb newbie with pity and send her home, I agreed to get out of the tub and dawned my gray and pink floral night gown sans underwear (It was very freeing) and took the longest (shortest... less than 5 minutes) ride from H. E. double hockey sticks to the hospital. I kept thinking to myself this must have been what it felt like in a covered wagon. Thank you lord for allowing me to be a modern day women.

In the commotion from the car to the wheel chair to the hospital Mr. Robinson forgot to give the valet the keys and dropped our birthplan out of our bag and left it on the back seat. Our Doula had told me a good way to push through contractions was to moan long and low. When She told me this I had laughed and said to myself there was no way in Hell I was going to be loudly moaning down the halls of the hospital. Never say NEVER.

As we raced to labor and delivery, wheel chair a blaze gray and pink floral night gown billowing in the breeze and I pantieless moaning to beat the band I kept thinking to myself if I am only at a 2 Just kill me now.

By this time we had reached our deluxe natural mama sweet complete with jetted tub. They popped me on the bed checked my current progression and proclaimed I was at an 8! (cue the choir of angels).

For the next hour I pushed. I pushed through a nine, bit Mr Robinson 5 times, told the nurse she was mean for putting the monitors on my tummy during a contraction, had my water break on Mr. Robinson's leg and kept wondering to myself why in all the movies does it only take 3 pushes to have to baby come out. Told Mr. Robinson I wanted to die, that I couldn't do it. Stuck my naked bottom dollar in the air with no shame and Then we hit 9 and a half and everyone started getting worried.

My contraction which for 80% of my labor had been in my back switched to back labor coupling contractions which meant I was no long getting a break in between cycles and one contraction rolled right into the next with a constant urge to bear down. The midwife kept say there's a lip on your cervix and we can't get the babies head through. Every time you push we move it but when you stop the baby falls back down. For the next 4 and a half hours I pushed and  pushed but no baby. So we asked the dreaded question. What are our options? With a heavy sigh the midwife laid it all out.
1.Keep pushing, hopefully the lip will dissolve.
2. Baby goes into distress and we have to get a c section or
3.You get an epidural.
Everyone went quite.... And then I sat up on the bed (this is Blake's favorite part) had a come to Jesus meeting with myself pointed at the nurse and said, ladies get the man with the needle!

You know how I said the car ride to the hospital was the longest 5 minutes of my life. I take it back waiting for the anesthesiologist was the longest 5 minutes of my life. He told me to hold perfectly still. So I boar down with all my might and he stuck me with my drug of choice and everything went quiet. My bodies ferocious quaking slowly began to ease. My mind became clear and as the heavens parted I looked up and said to the man in scrubs. "So that's why they pay you the big bucks"

Then we slept for one glorious hour. Mr Robinson on his tiny hospital sofa and me with my giant numb elephant legs. We slept until the nurse woke me to, say my contractions had slowed and because of the babies position we needed stronger contractions to turn and push him into the birth canal. Her solution potocin. Ugh, I'd given into the epidermal no, no potocin. She agreed to give me a half an hour longer to see if my contraction would pick back up but then we would need to make some decisions.

My half an hour came and went with no luck and then baby Penn started to get grumpy so they put me on oxygen and gave me 2 options pitocin or c section. I took the pitocin. They gradually increased the dose until the nurse came in with a worried look to say the babies heart rate had dropped again but that she was going to check me and see where I was at. I had finally reach 10 centimeters a crazy 2 and a half hours post epidural. At this point I was feeling good about my decision to get the drugs. However the baby was still in the wrong possession but I was completely dilated so the midwife agreed to call a doctor to try and turn the baby while I pushed.

The next 6 hours were a flurry of pushing and hands internally trying to turn baby into the correct position with no luck.That's when they discovered I had an abnormality of tissue blocking the babies exit out of the birth canal. They asked me if I had know it was there.  I remember thinking you have to be kidding me why am I paying all of you professionals money. You've been poking around down there for nine months why didn't you notice my abnormality. That's when Mr. Robinson proudly announced that he knew it was there. I laughed.

After a brief discussion between the higher ups they decided it would have to be removed in order for baby to come out. Since I couldn't feel a dang thing I was pleasantly optimistic about the minor surgery. And was feeling extra good at this point about my decision to get the drugs. Mr. Robinson on the other hand was more coherent and began looking rather pale after the doctor called for extra help to "stop the bleeding"

It was at about this time 7:00 AM that we had a shift change and our room went from one nurse to six, one midwife to 2 and then they called in a specialist to try and suction cup baby out.

 As the doctor got everything ready I asked if we were still going to have to have a c section his response was that this baby needed to come out now. My Doula leaned over and told me that the situation was serious and that the doctor would need to use any means necessary to get the baby out. This meant an episiotomy . Truthfully our birth plan despite our best efforts had just been chipped away at piece by piece I was tired and out of it so I simply nodded my head in understanding.

The doctor told me he needed a good push. I asked if the suction cup would fall off before my babies head popped off ( I told you I was out of it) he laughed and reassured me it would. He pulled, I pushed. Mr. Robinson coached with a chorus of positive reinforcement. The suction cup popped off babies head but it was enough and out he came. 7:31 AM March 24, 2014, 6pounds 2 ounces, 19.9 inches long.





Mr. Robinson likes to tells me baby Penn looked like a purple frog when he came out which makes me giggle. All I can remember is his expression. It went from worry to confusion to wonder to pure joy. That's the part I like to remember most. I thought I'd regret my decision to get the epidural but I don't somewhere near the end of it all I asked my Doula how I would have dealt with all the unforeseen complications. (painful complication) she said we would have had to use a few coping techniques. So, ya I'm happy I got the drugs. I'm super glad we selected our delivery team carefully. I truly believe without there willingness to discuss my concerns and possible options our birth would have ended differently. My midwife told me that next time I need to be really close to a hospital because I have a high pain tolerance and I might not make it next time. That made me feel good. I guess the only thing I'm kind of bummed about is I never got to experience the good part of natural labor. You know that part where the baby comes out and you get that rush of feel good hormones that make it all worth it. But hey I guess there's always next time. *wink wink*