I have lots of pictures from the weekend but they are being held captive on my mother's camera, I will have a Halloween picture post up this week, but today is a busy day and I'm feeling really bad so I'll keep this brief.
Happy Halloween,
Be Careful out there,
Please don't point and laugh at the pregnant fairy.
10/31/2011
10/26/2011
Enter Sunshine - A Birth Story
Sunshine was born a week early on April 9th, 2008.
We were living with Mutti at the time, Jeeves, myself and Pumpkin shared the master bedroom and Mutti was living in the 2nd room. Jeeves was working a midnight shift, Pumpkin was sleeping, Mutti was sleeping and at 3am I am woke up having contractions. I wasn't sure if the contractions were going to mean that my baby was on her way, so I made use of the fact that I was unable to sleep and hanging out in the basement to avoid waking up the rest of the house. I did some laundry.
The funny thing is that my bag was not packed for the hospital yet and I figured this was a good a time as any to work that out. If the baby was coming I'd need it and if not I'd have it done early. For about two hours I did laundry, timing and counting my contractions. I got through the rough ones by leaning on the washing machine and shifting my weight from side to side. At about 5:30, I knocked on Mutti's door and said, "I think the baby is coming, but we've got awhile before I'm going to the hospital, just go back to sleep"
She thought I'd lost my mind. She got up and showered and spent the next hour or so helping me breathe through and time my contractions. We called Gram who came and picked up Pumpkin to take her our to my Aunt and Uncle's house, where she would stay until the baby was born. Then Jeeves got home a little before 8 am and he started freaking out, I had called him and let him know that we were going to have the baby but, told him to finish up his shift because it was going to be awhile. He was not prepared for the writhing, puffing loony that he came home to find. At around 10:30 am we decided that it was time to go to the hospital. We got there about 5 minutes later, in truth I could have walked if I'd been less, you know, in labor.
When we go to the maternity ward things moved pretty quickly and by noon I was napping with my very excellent epidural in place and my family in the cafeteria eating some lunch. At this point Jeeves had been awake for well over 24 hours and was showing signs of wear. At about 12:45 the nurse came to check me and saw what she needed to see to begin the flurry of preparation for baby arrival. The doc came in at a little before 1. I pushed twice and Sunshine came into the world with a huge healthy snort. In fact we called her "The Snort" because she kept up the snorting for quite a while, still does it now actually.
Both before (during the preparations) and after she was born (while they were doing the clean up part) the doc and nurses were surprised that I could lift my body up off the table to allow them to slide the giant trash bag into and out of place. I was up and walking about an hour later and had eaten, peed and was transported into my recovery room by about 5pm. I wanted to get up, eat and pee because those were the criteria for having the IV removed. I hate those damned things. Part of the reason I labored so long at home was because I wanted to go as long as possible without needing one. I used that home labor time to drink tons of water and eat a huge bowl of shredded wheat cereal, because I knew that if I was hydrated doing the IV would be easier. I also knew that the shredded wheat fiber would be helpful when my digestive tract started working again a few days later.
We had lots of visitors the first night, including my oldest friend who sort of snuck in after "visiting hours" were technically over. Sunshine looked just like Pumpkin for the first 6 hours. After that if she hadn't been in the room with me I would have thought she was someone else's baby, she changed so drastically. I swear it was like I watched it happen. My SIL was there and got to see her born and then she and my brother picked us up some Pizza Hut pasta for dinner, super yummy!
I was discharged the following day as I was feeling just fine and there was no reason to keep me there. We were home by dinner time the following day, though we didn't go home, we went to gram's so my cousin could see the baby, and I could show off my new little munch.
You know, they say each labor is different so either I'm going to sneeze and Daniel will be born or it's going to be awful and terrible. I'm going to prepare for the latter so I can be surprised by the former. Any way, that's the story of the day that my Sunshine girl came into my life.
We were living with Mutti at the time, Jeeves, myself and Pumpkin shared the master bedroom and Mutti was living in the 2nd room. Jeeves was working a midnight shift, Pumpkin was sleeping, Mutti was sleeping and at 3am I am woke up having contractions. I wasn't sure if the contractions were going to mean that my baby was on her way, so I made use of the fact that I was unable to sleep and hanging out in the basement to avoid waking up the rest of the house. I did some laundry.
The funny thing is that my bag was not packed for the hospital yet and I figured this was a good a time as any to work that out. If the baby was coming I'd need it and if not I'd have it done early. For about two hours I did laundry, timing and counting my contractions. I got through the rough ones by leaning on the washing machine and shifting my weight from side to side. At about 5:30, I knocked on Mutti's door and said, "I think the baby is coming, but we've got awhile before I'm going to the hospital, just go back to sleep"
She thought I'd lost my mind. She got up and showered and spent the next hour or so helping me breathe through and time my contractions. We called Gram who came and picked up Pumpkin to take her our to my Aunt and Uncle's house, where she would stay until the baby was born. Then Jeeves got home a little before 8 am and he started freaking out, I had called him and let him know that we were going to have the baby but, told him to finish up his shift because it was going to be awhile. He was not prepared for the writhing, puffing loony that he came home to find. At around 10:30 am we decided that it was time to go to the hospital. We got there about 5 minutes later, in truth I could have walked if I'd been less, you know, in labor.
When we go to the maternity ward things moved pretty quickly and by noon I was napping with my very excellent epidural in place and my family in the cafeteria eating some lunch. At this point Jeeves had been awake for well over 24 hours and was showing signs of wear. At about 12:45 the nurse came to check me and saw what she needed to see to begin the flurry of preparation for baby arrival. The doc came in at a little before 1. I pushed twice and Sunshine came into the world with a huge healthy snort. In fact we called her "The Snort" because she kept up the snorting for quite a while, still does it now actually.
Both before (during the preparations) and after she was born (while they were doing the clean up part) the doc and nurses were surprised that I could lift my body up off the table to allow them to slide the giant trash bag into and out of place. I was up and walking about an hour later and had eaten, peed and was transported into my recovery room by about 5pm. I wanted to get up, eat and pee because those were the criteria for having the IV removed. I hate those damned things. Part of the reason I labored so long at home was because I wanted to go as long as possible without needing one. I used that home labor time to drink tons of water and eat a huge bowl of shredded wheat cereal, because I knew that if I was hydrated doing the IV would be easier. I also knew that the shredded wheat fiber would be helpful when my digestive tract started working again a few days later.
We had lots of visitors the first night, including my oldest friend who sort of snuck in after "visiting hours" were technically over. Sunshine looked just like Pumpkin for the first 6 hours. After that if she hadn't been in the room with me I would have thought she was someone else's baby, she changed so drastically. I swear it was like I watched it happen. My SIL was there and got to see her born and then she and my brother picked us up some Pizza Hut pasta for dinner, super yummy!
I was discharged the following day as I was feeling just fine and there was no reason to keep me there. We were home by dinner time the following day, though we didn't go home, we went to gram's so my cousin could see the baby, and I could show off my new little munch.
You know, they say each labor is different so either I'm going to sneeze and Daniel will be born or it's going to be awful and terrible. I'm going to prepare for the latter so I can be surprised by the former. Any way, that's the story of the day that my Sunshine girl came into my life.
10/25/2011
Week 20: Half Way There
Week 20 is finally here and I'm halfway done with this being pregnant nonsense. Now we measure Squirt by the length of his whole body which, according to both the ultrasound tech and the baby websites, is about 10 inches from head to foot. His bones are hardening and his fingerprints and toe-prints are just about done forming. He has got the beginnings of eye lashes and eyebrows and his tiny little lips are almost fully formed. Also he's started growing little tooth buds in his gums (the better to bite you with, my dear)
This sounds like a complete baby, but he's still less than an 8th of what he'll weigh when he makes his grand entrance next year. The girls were 7.8 and almost 7.15, So I'm sure little mister will be 8 and some change.
I bought little mister his first new outfit last night. A local discount store has these baby jammies that I buy for my babies. They are super soft and often have cute little sayings on them. When Sunshine was born her's were pink and said "Princess Crabbypants." Super cute. Squirt's jammies are green and say, "you were never THIS cute" I don't know how much I love the saying but the outfit is soft and cuddly. If it were smaller it might be what we brought him home in but I'm going to find a "newborn" outfit for coming home. The tags are often misleading and 0-3 months can often be translated into "that will fit when he's 4 years old" So one new newborn outfit, added to the few that came from my awesome SIL, should be enough for the first few weeks.
On friday this week we are doing our very first, "Trunk or Treat" at church. Since the family is going as fairies, we will be decorating the car to look like pixie hollow, with big flowers, grass and mushrooms. We also used some leftover felt to make some really cute butterfly decorations. It's not done but this will be going in the back of our van to show off Mutti and I's creative awesomeness. Who doesn't go buy decorations at the store...this guy.
This sounds like a complete baby, but he's still less than an 8th of what he'll weigh when he makes his grand entrance next year. The girls were 7.8 and almost 7.15, So I'm sure little mister will be 8 and some change.
I bought little mister his first new outfit last night. A local discount store has these baby jammies that I buy for my babies. They are super soft and often have cute little sayings on them. When Sunshine was born her's were pink and said "Princess Crabbypants." Super cute. Squirt's jammies are green and say, "you were never THIS cute" I don't know how much I love the saying but the outfit is soft and cuddly. If it were smaller it might be what we brought him home in but I'm going to find a "newborn" outfit for coming home. The tags are often misleading and 0-3 months can often be translated into "that will fit when he's 4 years old" So one new newborn outfit, added to the few that came from my awesome SIL, should be enough for the first few weeks.
On friday this week we are doing our very first, "Trunk or Treat" at church. Since the family is going as fairies, we will be decorating the car to look like pixie hollow, with big flowers, grass and mushrooms. We also used some leftover felt to make some really cute butterfly decorations. It's not done but this will be going in the back of our van to show off Mutti and I's creative awesomeness. Who doesn't go buy decorations at the store...this guy.
10/24/2011
The Great Pumpkin
No wait, that's me.
We went to the family fun farm, ate yummy succotash and played with the munches. I have dozens of photos, but I'll only bore you all with a few. I am so looking forward to this next weekend.
We went to the family fun farm, ate yummy succotash and played with the munches. I have dozens of photos, but I'll only bore you all with a few. I am so looking forward to this next weekend.
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| This is the 3rd year they've worn these! |
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| Sunshine riding the range...um circle. |
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| Pumpkin spent ten minutes after this petting the pony. |
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| My Cute Little Pumpkin! |
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| Livvie, Sunshine and Pumpkin |
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| We rode through the pumpkins, but did not get off the wagon |
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| Post Outing Snack: Rock Candy! |
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| Me and My Munches |
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| Tinkerbell and Silvermist. |
10/21/2011
Friday Baby!
This has been such a wonky week, I'm so glad that it's friday. Not that I have a relaxing weekend planned or anything, but tonight I'm going to clean house, and get our laundry done. Tomorrow we are going to the Pumpkin Patch with Mutti, Felix, Brit, Livvie and Rhys. We are going back to the orchard I wrote about back in September which also has a pumpkin patch and it promises to be a fun day full of yummy food, photo ops and great weather (Hello 67 degrees!)
Then later that night I'll be headed out for probably my last "night out" until after Squirt is born. (I'm still gonna call him squirt till he comes out and earns a new nickname) My girl-friends wanted to go clubbing and dancing and since I'm a non-drinker right now I offered to be the DD, in exchange for baked goods (I was totally kidding but now I'm told there will be some yummy things there for me anyway, I love you guys!). I'm still able to hide the belly to some degree so I'm gonna go dance it up and have a good time. Probably not going to post pictures of that, but I bet Erin will (am I right?)
Sunday I'm hoping to visit with my Dad if I can convince him to come out to the house and hang out with us. We'll see. I hope everyone else has a fun weekend. See you all Monday!
Then later that night I'll be headed out for probably my last "night out" until after Squirt is born. (I'm still gonna call him squirt till he comes out and earns a new nickname) My girl-friends wanted to go clubbing and dancing and since I'm a non-drinker right now I offered to be the DD, in exchange for baked goods (I was totally kidding but now I'm told there will be some yummy things there for me anyway, I love you guys!). I'm still able to hide the belly to some degree so I'm gonna go dance it up and have a good time. Probably not going to post pictures of that, but I bet Erin will (am I right?)
Sunday I'm hoping to visit with my Dad if I can convince him to come out to the house and hang out with us. We'll see. I hope everyone else has a fun weekend. See you all Monday!
10/20/2011
It's A Boy!!!!
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| He's already doing the "face palm" |
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| Mother's of boys, you've seen this before right? |
10/19/2011
Like A$$holes...
I'd like to take a minute to address one of the things pregnant women have to deal with as soon as they begin showing, advice. To be fair, this affects most women. It doesn't matter if you are trying to conceive, sharing your good news, or just looking kind of fat that day. Near as I can tell, there are 5 types of advice.
1. The not-really advice: This comes from snarky women in Target as you lumber through the store, steering the cart with your new outie belly button. You just came in for tube socks for the kids (where the hell do those things disappear to?) but you are now standing in line with a purse, candy apple flavored candy corn, olives, a box of Stauffer's lasagna, new underwear, clearance rack Easter decorations, a purple washcloth, 2 new "unbreakable" water bottles to replace the one's that broke (have you met my children?), and 7 coloring books. Your children are arguing/giggling/fighting/crying/sleepy/hungry/whiny, and this woman pulls up beside you with her two containers of diet yogurt and says, "Having another one, eh? Brave woman, you're gonna have your hands full, Better you then me." Then she proceeds to sashay her tiny ass past you, but not before poking you with her elbow like you are co-conspirators in keeping the gods from getting her knocked up. (anybody else wanna deck this lady?) I sort of wanted to chase her down and give her a Sugarbaker-esque dress down about how my children are the light of my life, but I figured I'd end up a weeping puddle and they'd start a "Lunatics of Target" website based on a picture of me.
2. The scarily dangerous advice: This advice usually comes from a member of the generation or two ahead of you who tries to convince you that, in fact, Drain-o was created to cure cradle cap and when her babies were small she take a shoe brush and grind that green powder into their skulls and it "just cleared right up" Let's not mention the fact that her children now resemble the Toxic Avenger and eat wall paper, but hey, they didn't have any more issues with cradle cap.
3. The well meaning yet WTF!!!, advice: This usually comes from a "friend" (read: psycho who won't forget your phone number) who can change diapers while doing stand on her head yoga poses. "Oh, your little one has pink eye, squirt a little breast milk on there, it'll clear it right up." This could actually be true, however, ew! "Also did you know bathing in olive juice and anchovies will help with stretch marks?" um, no.
Sometimes there are things that you might do in the privacy of your own home that should not be shared.
4. The thinly veiled criticism: Coming from everyone you know (come to think of it, maybe I'm just being overly sensitive) this advice often sounds like..."Oh, you're drinking coffee, and you're pregnant?"
"Did you know that unpasteurized cheese is not good for mommies to be?"
"Wow, how much have you gained so far? You know, they say that 25-30 pounds is the most you should gain"
"Was your face that puffy before you got pregnant?"
"You're never in the mood? I was hor-ny when I was pregnant, couldn't get enough of it"
"Are you sleeping well, your face looks like it's been beaten with a hammer"
Dude. Shut. Up.
5. The Good Advice: None.
Seriously folks, stow it.
This is not my first time at the rodeo, I got this.
1. The not-really advice: This comes from snarky women in Target as you lumber through the store, steering the cart with your new outie belly button. You just came in for tube socks for the kids (where the hell do those things disappear to?) but you are now standing in line with a purse, candy apple flavored candy corn, olives, a box of Stauffer's lasagna, new underwear, clearance rack Easter decorations, a purple washcloth, 2 new "unbreakable" water bottles to replace the one's that broke (have you met my children?), and 7 coloring books. Your children are arguing/giggling/fighting/crying/sleepy/hungry/whiny, and this woman pulls up beside you with her two containers of diet yogurt and says, "Having another one, eh? Brave woman, you're gonna have your hands full, Better you then me." Then she proceeds to sashay her tiny ass past you, but not before poking you with her elbow like you are co-conspirators in keeping the gods from getting her knocked up. (anybody else wanna deck this lady?) I sort of wanted to chase her down and give her a Sugarbaker-esque dress down about how my children are the light of my life, but I figured I'd end up a weeping puddle and they'd start a "Lunatics of Target" website based on a picture of me.
2. The scarily dangerous advice: This advice usually comes from a member of the generation or two ahead of you who tries to convince you that, in fact, Drain-o was created to cure cradle cap and when her babies were small she take a shoe brush and grind that green powder into their skulls and it "just cleared right up" Let's not mention the fact that her children now resemble the Toxic Avenger and eat wall paper, but hey, they didn't have any more issues with cradle cap.
3. The well meaning yet WTF!!!, advice: This usually comes from a "friend" (read: psycho who won't forget your phone number) who can change diapers while doing stand on her head yoga poses. "Oh, your little one has pink eye, squirt a little breast milk on there, it'll clear it right up." This could actually be true, however, ew! "Also did you know bathing in olive juice and anchovies will help with stretch marks?" um, no.
Sometimes there are things that you might do in the privacy of your own home that should not be shared.
4. The thinly veiled criticism: Coming from everyone you know (come to think of it, maybe I'm just being overly sensitive) this advice often sounds like..."Oh, you're drinking coffee, and you're pregnant?"
"Did you know that unpasteurized cheese is not good for mommies to be?"
"Wow, how much have you gained so far? You know, they say that 25-30 pounds is the most you should gain"
"Was your face that puffy before you got pregnant?"
"You're never in the mood? I was hor-ny when I was pregnant, couldn't get enough of it"
"Are you sleeping well, your face looks like it's been beaten with a hammer"
Dude. Shut. Up.
5. The Good Advice: None.
Seriously folks, stow it.
This is not my first time at the rodeo, I got this.
10/18/2011
Week 19 - Earthquake Squirt
This morning I was actually woken up by my darling little shrimp kicking and rolling around in my midsection. I lay there for about 15 minutes having some quiet time in bed feeling my new little having a party in there. I'm not going to lie to you, I cried a little. Any woman who has had a baby will attest to the constant worry about "what could go wrong" and each time the little sea monkey starts kicking up a storm it gives you a measure of peace in your heart. Also after months of "being pregnant" which doesn't mean much aside from feeling like garbage and tossing back Tums like potato chips: baby kicks bring it all home, it finally feels real.
It's Week 19 today, and we are heading toward measuring her length from head to toe rather than just head to rump. This week she is 6 inches from head to rump and about 10 from head to toe, which if my previous two pregnancies are good measures, is about half as long as she'll be when she is born. (anyone else think it's crazy to measure them one way for the first half and another during the second?)
Her sensory organs (eyes, ears, nose) are all developing and most believe that baby can hear you talking now, or singing which is something I do a lot. It's no wonder my girls love to sing, it's the first thing they hear when they start hearing sounds. Her hair is starting to sprout on her scalp and the waxy coating on her skin is thickening to keep her from having super pruney skin for the next 20 weeks.
In gross and disgusting baby fact news today, Squirt is now able to swallow and is gulping down amniotic fluid and (ew) early baby pee often these days...*shudder*
I'm going to have labs done today in anticipation for my appointment on Thursday and I'm not totally sure when but soon I'm going to have to go and drink the "syrup of gnarly-ness" (seriously it's like downing a bottle of snow cone flavoring) and have my glucose level checked to be sure I'm not developing gestational diabetes. But I'm not worried about the outcome of the test, I'm still a full 20 pounds lighter than I was when I got pregnant with Sunshine, and my worse symptom these days is an occasional headache. (granted they feel like a wolverine is eating my brain, but it could be worse)
It's Week 19 today, and we are heading toward measuring her length from head to toe rather than just head to rump. This week she is 6 inches from head to rump and about 10 from head to toe, which if my previous two pregnancies are good measures, is about half as long as she'll be when she is born. (anyone else think it's crazy to measure them one way for the first half and another during the second?)
Her sensory organs (eyes, ears, nose) are all developing and most believe that baby can hear you talking now, or singing which is something I do a lot. It's no wonder my girls love to sing, it's the first thing they hear when they start hearing sounds. Her hair is starting to sprout on her scalp and the waxy coating on her skin is thickening to keep her from having super pruney skin for the next 20 weeks.
In gross and disgusting baby fact news today, Squirt is now able to swallow and is gulping down amniotic fluid and (ew) early baby pee often these days...*shudder*
I'm going to have labs done today in anticipation for my appointment on Thursday and I'm not totally sure when but soon I'm going to have to go and drink the "syrup of gnarly-ness" (seriously it's like downing a bottle of snow cone flavoring) and have my glucose level checked to be sure I'm not developing gestational diabetes. But I'm not worried about the outcome of the test, I'm still a full 20 pounds lighter than I was when I got pregnant with Sunshine, and my worse symptom these days is an occasional headache. (granted they feel like a wolverine is eating my brain, but it could be worse)
10/17/2011
World Series Baby!
I'm a baseball fan, I love the game, and I love my hometown team. When they say that Saint Louis has the best fans in baseball, they are not exaggerating. Last night the Red Birds beat the Brewers 12 runs to 6, and the representation of Cardinal fans in Milwaukee was, according to the announcers, bigger than any other they'd ever seen. Wednesday we are going to have game 1 of the world series in Saint Louis and we have home field advantage.
We had an impromptu NLCS party at our place last night. I cooked up some BBQ type foods, apple dumplings and pumpkin shaped sugar cookies. The apple dumplings exploded a little so I'm going to investigate what I did wrong and try again. A good time was had by all and the munches were so funny, they did not understand why everyone kept yelling and cheering at the TV, but they were having a good time any way.
The weekend was fun, busy and I'm actually glad it's Monday. I get to see my baby this week and I am super pumped about it. I have the ability to scan photos here at work so I'm going to try to show you the ultrasound photos on Friday, If everything goes as planned. Also, this is going to be a short week as I'm working half days on Tuesday and Thursday. I'm back on plan these days, keeping my calories right at or just under 1800, and trying, mostly successfully, to avoid the call of the nachos. Skinny latte and Yogurt (300 cals) for breakfast today and Chef Boyardee for Lunch (480 cals.) <- don't mock the chef, it has a serving of veggies and I'll be snacking on carrots and hummus today. Dinner will be something with chicken and veggies, but I'm not sure what that looks like yet, probably a casserole or stir fry.
Happy Monday Everyone, I hope your weekend was lovely!
We had an impromptu NLCS party at our place last night. I cooked up some BBQ type foods, apple dumplings and pumpkin shaped sugar cookies. The apple dumplings exploded a little so I'm going to investigate what I did wrong and try again. A good time was had by all and the munches were so funny, they did not understand why everyone kept yelling and cheering at the TV, but they were having a good time any way.
The weekend was fun, busy and I'm actually glad it's Monday. I get to see my baby this week and I am super pumped about it. I have the ability to scan photos here at work so I'm going to try to show you the ultrasound photos on Friday, If everything goes as planned. Also, this is going to be a short week as I'm working half days on Tuesday and Thursday. I'm back on plan these days, keeping my calories right at or just under 1800, and trying, mostly successfully, to avoid the call of the nachos. Skinny latte and Yogurt (300 cals) for breakfast today and Chef Boyardee for Lunch (480 cals.) <- don't mock the chef, it has a serving of veggies and I'll be snacking on carrots and hummus today. Dinner will be something with chicken and veggies, but I'm not sure what that looks like yet, probably a casserole or stir fry.
Happy Monday Everyone, I hope your weekend was lovely!
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