letters to little liberte: 01

Hi baby,

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Tomorrow marks 4 weeks since we were admitted to the hospital. What a whirlwind it’s been. I never thought that we’d be hospitalized at 25 1/2 weeks. I never thought we’d have a normal prenatal appointment on a Tuesday, be sent to do some labs that afternoon because my blood pressure was a bit high, monitor blood pressure at home with it increasing to a concerning rate over the next day, come to the hospital that Thursday for “some monitoring,” and then not be able to go back home for at least 9-10 weeks, until you arrive. I never thought we’d be diagnosed with severe preeclampsia or subsequently with gestational diabetes. I never thought we’d be on the cocktail of medications or the near constant monitoring we’re now on just to make sure we can keep me healthy and you growing strong for as long as possible. I never thought this pregnancy would be a fight for our lives.

We’ve learned a lot since being here. For starters, we’re among only 1-2% of pregnancies that develop severe preeclampsia and have been told by our doctors that it was a “very early” diagnosis, which is concerning as severe preeclampsia can progress at an alarming rate. We’ve also learned that none of this is our fault and that we couldn’t have controlled or changed the outcome no matter how hard we tried. Severe preeclampsia and gestational diabetes are both caused by placental hormones — nothing we could have known or done to change our course. It’s a myth that if we were just “less stressed out” we could have prevented this from happening. We were always meant to go on this journey together. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still question daily why my body has failed us.

While it’s been 4 weeks since we were admitted, I still haven’t found a good routine to keep busy and keep my mind off of all the what ifs and away from the darkness of it all. I have more bad mental health days than good ones, but I’m trying to keep my mind on the end goal — that each day we’re here is a great day. It means you’re still growing healthy and strong and my body is still hanging on and giving you what you need.

The staff are wonderful. Every nurse that’s taken care of me so far is my favorite — and that’s a lot of favorites. I’ve seen at least 17 at this point. Most of the doctors are wonderful too and I found out one of my favorite doctors “claimed” us and will be on call for your delivery — YAY! But even though everyone is wonderful, I still wish I could be home. It’s lonely in this stale hospital room. I miss the warmth and joy of our home — the reading chair in our room, the cozy fireplace, the way the sun comes in through our big windows.

I feel lucky that I’ve never had to experience any major medical trauma before this and haven’t had to stay in a hospital long-term, but now I can say I understand what it means to feel overstimulated and “touched out.” Even though I have a good idea of our daily monitoring routine now, it’s still a lot each day: blood pressure monitoring every 4 hours (yes, through the night as well!), insulin shots 4x/day, blood sugar checks 2 hours after every meal, monitoring you 2x/day for at least 20 minutes (unless you’re not cooperating in which case it could be several hours… you do better every day 😉), a cocktail of meds after breakfast and before bedtime, and then any myriad of other to-dos depending on what’s happening — e.g. this last week we switched from an oral iron supplement to an IV infusion instead so it’d be easier on my stomach.

And that’s just a “normal, uneventful” day. If my blood pressure spikes at or above 160/110 (if either number reaches those maxes), we go on an intervention protocol where blood pressure meds are given through my IV midline, sometimes oral meds are taken as well, you’re put on a monitor, and my blood pressure is checked every 10 minutes for an hour, every 15 minutes for an hour, every 30 minutes for an hour, and then once per hour for 4 hours after that, for a total of 7 hours of monitoring and adjusting meds as needed. I’ve been on protocol at least 5-6x since I’ve been admitted and it doesn’t get any less scary and uncertain. I know for medical professionals it’s probably just standard and normal, but the way things can just change so quickly with this disorder is quite the heavy mental load. The last protocol we went on my blood pressure was the highest it’s been since we were admitted and we had to do 2 rounds of IV medication instead of just 1. I was also in a lot of pain due to another, we think separate issue, so it was freaky all around. Your daddy came last-minute in case we had to deliver you, but we made it through!

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid of birth. The only thing I want is to meet you, but knowing how unpredictable this disorder is, I’m worried you might have to come too soon or that my body won’t handle the stress of the delivery well. I’ve been reassured that this special care unit we’re in specializes in our issue, but it doesn’t make it less scary. I’ve also been told that we may have to stay for another 6 weeks after delivery if my blood pressures don’t adjust back to normal after delivery. I feel like we’ve already missed out on so much of this pregnancy — I’m not able to finish your nursery, we had to cancel our baby showers, we couldn’t do “normal” maternity photos — I don’t want to spend a second longer than we absolutely have to here, but I also want to make sure both you and I live long, healthy lives.

One thing is for sure — I can’t wait to get our lives started together, and I know your daddy can’t wait for us to come home. We love you little nugget. ❤️

DIY Fall Floral Pumpkin

By now, you guys know I LOVE fall. 🍂🎃 And one of my other favorite things? Crafting. Put them together and you get some fun fall DIY content like this DIY fall vintage dough bowl centerpiece and today’s post: this adorable fall floral pumpkin!

Let me tell you… the love for fall runs DEEP in my family. We don’t mess around with the fall vibes -- everything from home decor to DIY to crockpot soups. So it won’t surprise you that my mom is the one who inspired this project! She sent me a cute inspiration photo (below) with a real pumpkin decorated with faux succulents. My immediate reaction was 1) this would look great on my porch with the lanterns I just purchased and 2) what a fun project to kick off fall! 

Based on past projects I’ve done, I knew I didn’t want to use a real pumpkin because I want to be able to display and love this beauty for years to come! So off to Michael’s I went to grab a sturdy faux pumpkin. They had several more standard round options, but I wanted it to be a bit taller and more oval and ended up purchasing this 13” craft pumpkin by Ashland. It was perfect!

I grabbed the leftover faux floral from my haul for the dough bowl centerpiece and got to work trimming. I knew I wanted varying lengths, textures, and colors that popped against the orange of the pumpkin, but still stayed true to fall. I decided to go with a mix of stems and large and small flowerheads. 

After figuring out the right mix of faux floral, my next challenge was deciding the best way to secure them to the smooth-surfaced pumpkin. I was heating up a glue gun but knew it was going to be hard to get the tiny floral stems to stay attached. My husband is theeee best brainstorm partner when it comes to these types of questions. He at first suggested I sand down the surface a bit, but then recommended I try out a staple gun.

My first thought was 'staple gun?!’ I’m not going to lie… I was skeptical because I was nervous the pumpkin would split. But the material was strong and sturdy enough that it worked like a charm! It was smooth sailing from there -- the staple gun made it go SO fast! Of course, there were a few floral pieces that logistically I couldn’t staple, but with the pumpkin surface area covered with multiple layers toward the end, I could easily secure those last finishing touches with the glue gun.

I love how the asymmetrical look turned out! What do you think? Would you replicate this on a real or faux pumpkin?

Summer Throwback: Magnolia Silos

As I was checking out at Magnolia Home, I thanked the cashier for such a great experience and told him the whole day had felt like I was at Disneyland. He was appreciative and casually said, “yeah, we get that a lot.” 

And I wasn’t exaggerating. Visiting Magnolia really was like going to Disneyland for me… someone who’s obsessed with home decor and all things cozy, and who has watched Chip and Joanna’s show since the beginning. 

Magnolia offered everything you needed -- coffee shop, food carts, refreshing drinks and snacks, baked goods, picnic areas, playground areas, and lots of great shopping. One other similarity to Disneyland: there were only two ways out (that I noticed), meaning you were a fish swimming in a school all going with the current in the same direction, hitting up every last shop along the way. It was a money trap, but in the best way.

We ended up going to Magnolia a bit last-minute. After getting vaccinated, we felt more comfortable traveling and finally made it out to see Tim’s parents’ new home near San Antonio, Texas. We flew into Austin and had an amazing time with them and his brother’s family; we even got to meet our cute little Godson for the first time 🥰 We explored San Antonio a few nights, grabbing some food at an amazing brewery and pizzeria and exploring the San Antonio river walk for an evening out on the town. We also hit up a lot of cute little towns right around them, filled to the brim with antique shops, farmer’s markets, outdoor concerts, and coffee shops.

We both had to work almost the whole trip, so our adventuring was limited to the evenings and weekends, but I’d say we really made the most of it! We actually did quite a bit of exploring even with the limited time off.

So Friday evening rolled around and after we met up with his brother’s family, ate some delicious Texas BBQ, and said our goodbyes, we drove 3 hours to Waco for our big Magnolia adventure. I’m not kidding when I say I was so excited the night before I almost couldn’t sleep 🤣

We booked the cutest Airbnb TWO BLOCKS away from the Silos -- and we only booked like 4 days in advance! That was definitely a sign that we were meant to go 😉 The house was fantastic; way too much room for just the 4 of us, but the location was perfect and it was everything you would have thought it would be being so close to all the goodness of Magnolia -- very similar style to Joanna’s (because why wouldn’t it be?!). If you’re looking to go to Magnolia, I highly recommend the Avenues of Waco.

So we arrived on Saturday morning at Magnolia Press around 8 a.m. Most of the shops open at 9 a.m., so we decided to grab coffee and breakfast at the coffee shop. We heard Magnolia Table is amazing, but that the wait is horrific, so we decided to skip it this time around. The coffee shop and grounds weren’t too busy when we got there, so we relaxed for a bit in the coffee shop and outside in the patio area and wandered around for some photo opps 📸

After coffee and breakfast, we hit up Magnolia Home first, walked around, took everything in, and browsed. There is so.much.good.stuff! But I felt like there was still so much to see (and their furniture is a pretty penny) so I decided not to buy anything quite yet.

We explored the cute little row of shops. I went into all of them and bought at least one small thing from each -- jewelry, clothes, beauty/skin care, kids gifts, birthday gifts, etc. These were fun because they had such uniquely curated items.

At this point, it was getting pretty hot and humid out, so we sat down for a bit and had some refreshments -- lavender lemonade for me (so YUM)!

We then made our way over to the Magnolia Market which has a ton of kitchen stuff, plus even more souvenir-y gear. After shopping to our heart’s content, we grabbed lunch from the food carts and drank the yummiest sweet tea I’ve ever had.

We made two last stops before leaving the Silos: 1) Magnolia Seed & Supply and 2) Magnolia Bakery (how could we NOT?!). Magnolia Seed & Supply was a cute, quaint little shop. I didn’t get anything related to gardening, but I did find a cute baseball cap 😉 And the bakery cupcakes were amazing (see mouthwatering photo below).

We spent a good half day+ at the Silos and then went home to rest up for a bit before heading out to do some more exploring. We couldn’t leave Waco without swinging by Joanna’s very first home store, the little shop on Bosque. It was adorable! So small, but they had a cute selection of stuff (+ sale items) and definitely worth going if you’re a Joanna fan like I am ☺️ I bought two latticed shutters that are now hanging at the top of our stairs - forever a fun memory piece.

There are sweet non-Magnolia antique and home decor stores around the Silos that you won’t want to miss -- we went to The Findery, which also has a warehouse a few blocks down. Lots of good finds there. 

And how could I forget -- we also just happened to meet THE Jimmy Don -- the guy who makes all the iron signs for Chip & Joanna in Fixer Upper! It might be open by now, but when we were visiting he was building a shop right across from the Silos that wasn’t finished yet, so they had a trailer in front of it with some ready-made signs for sale. As we were walking up, I saw him standing there and basically whisper-yelled to Tim and his mom that I thought that was Jimmy Don himself. And, sure enough, yep! It was totally him and he was as nice as could be. We ended up buying a sign from him and he signed it! So fun.

All in all, I’d say our trip was a success. I’ve heard mixed reviews about whether or not visiting Magnolia is worth it, but I would say it definitely is -- just know what you’re getting into. You can do it in about a half-day, so don’t go for a week thinking that’s all you’ll do. If you love everything home, home decor, family, and fun, you’ll have a blast.