Thank you to Lisa, Sheena, and Natalie for nominating me for the Liebster! I have finally gotten around to responding ... sorry! I have been couch deep in 36 week pregger-dom. But Lizzie, can't you blog from your couch? No, I can't do anything but wallow and change diapers from my couch. I had to go type this in the kitchen to keep the wolves at bay. So, without further delay, here is the info!
Instructions + Rules:
Thank the person who nominated you and link your post to their blog |
List 11 facts about yourself then answer the 11 questions given to you |
Create 11 more questions for your 9 nominees, all of whom have 200 or
less followers. | Comment on their blogs informing them of their
Liebster Award nomination.
11 Facts About Myself:
1. I was born in San Francisco, California. Which makes me a (Northern) Californian by birth, Coloradan by Heart, and Virginian by marriage.
2. I am less afraid of black bears and mountain lions than I am of garden snakes and spiders.
3. I can tie shoelaces with my toes in under 5 minutes. (Someone else's shoelaces, not my own).
4. I love red wine. I love it, I love it, I love it.
5. I have never broken a bone, but I have had stitches. When I was 4, Jenny, my big sis, told me that if I tied a towel around my neck and jumped off of the top bunk bed I would be able to fly ...I did not fly.
6. My primary sports of choice in high school were "throwing". I threw discus and shot-put from 8th grade thru my senior year.
7. Jurassic Park is in my top 3 for Desert Island movie choice, which I guess is kinda ironic seeing it is set on an island ...
8. When I hear about something bad happening in the news I often remark, "See, that's why you should only let your kids listen to country music". It's true.
9. I am expecting a baby (GIRL!) in 3 weeks. Making that 3 babies, in 3 and a half years. We are BLESSED! And busy!
10. When I was in high school my favorite pair of jeans were embedded with glitter. I would leave a sparkly trail everywhere I went.
11. My very favorite place I ever visited, Doolin Ireland. :)
11 Questions from Lisa:
If you could play any instrument what would it be?
The guitar. I would love to be able to play well.
Favorite fashion trend ever?
Snap bracelets and t-shirt ties/holders, the neon ones. Missing childhood.
Favorite vacation spot?
Topsail Island, NC!
Favorite religious devotion?
St. Therese's "Little Way", and Opus Dei.
Mountains or ocean?
Mountains.
Chocolate or Vanilla?
Chocolate!
Would you rather have to empty/take out all the trash in the house or clean the toilet?
Eww neither, but it ends up being the toilet.
Do you prefer emails/texts or handwritten letters?
Receiving letters, but writing emails. I am weirdly insecure about my handwriting.
Tell me about your favorite pair of shoes.
Boots! :) Each fall a new pair, but my ideal would be my own pair of Frye riding boots, brown leather, yes please!
Do you have a favorite book you’ve read more than once?
I love futuristic dystopian youth genre and have read an embarrassing amount of these novels, but Jane Austin is truly my favorite author. I have read all of her books, obviously Pride and Prejudiced more than once.
For your wedding did you do (any of) the traditional “Old, new, borrowed, blue”? If so, what were they?
Old, was my pearls that I wore; new, was my dress, accessories, etc; borrowed, was my rosary from my mom, and blue was my Scottish garter that my neighbor/adopted grandmother, who is from Scotland gave to me from her recent trip there.
Questions from Sheena:
1. What blog inspires you the most?
Spiritually and as a mother, My Child, I Love You
2. When you go shopping for yourself, what's the first thing you buy?
A new, inexpensive top. I'm always on the lookout.
3. What's your favorite t.v. show?
Downton Abbey, only I am heartbroken right now, so it's tied with Once Upon a Time and Parks and Rec.
4. If/when you go to Target, what area of the store do you spend the most time?
Start at Starbucks, then to Home/ Decor clearance aisles, then to Baby.
5. What is the best book you have read?
hmm that's too hard. I have many "bests" and all evoke different emotions and thoughts. The Devout Life by St. Francis De Sales really impacted me spiritually during college, and I Believe In Love is one I like to re-read yearly. But I also love to read crappy, easy to read in a day novels, for example everything Nicholas Sparks has written. I know, embarrassing.
6. What is one food you could eat every day?
Salsa, normally accompanying something else.
7. Name the funniest movie ever, of all time.
Caddyshack.
8. Coffee or tea?
Coffee.coffee.coffee!
9. What is most misunderstood about you?
My sense of humor. Sometimes my sarcasm confuses others...and me.
10. Which city in America do you like best?
D.C. Really! My heart still flutters when I enter the skyline of the monuments. I love history and it is the most historic city we have in this young country of ours.
11. What do you appreciate most about your life?
My husband. Really, truly, I feel like I am the most blessed and luckiest woman. Mike works so incredibly hard to provide for us, and he loves us so much. I love watching him interact with our boys and they just light up when he gets home every night. Melts my heart!
Natalie's Questions:
I tried not to re-answer any questions, so here I just put the ones I didn't think I had already answered.
1. If there was one home goods purchase you could make, what would it be?
Paint, paint, and more paint! I would love to paint our entire house, but when renting, I know it's a big task to take on and not really worth it in the long run, so for now I will just be happy as I continue to paint all of our furniture.
2. What's your favorite joke?
I prefer antidotes from real life. I can't tell jokes, just stories about funny things that have happened to me or others.
3.And your favorite memory?
A group of 11 of our friends went to Ireland 10 days before our Semester in Austria began in Fall 2006. We traveled together without any premeditated plans. On the day that we visited the Cliffs of Moher, after touring, we all sat at a couple of picnic tables and passed around a couple of bottles of wine while talking and playing cards. I told everyone then, and it's still true now, that it was just my favorite memory of our time there. Everyone looked like trolls from not showering and from sleeping on buses etc. but it was hilarious and so much fun to get to know everyone in a way different than ever before. You're so out of your element, literally, when you are visiting a foreign country. And, of course, to have the freedom of adults for the first time ever was incredible.
5.What piece of clothing can you not live without?
Black leggings, essential to my "mom-iform ". Unfortunate, and true.
6.Favorite time of year? Why
Fall! It's truly the only time of year that I can say that I enjoy living in Virginia. Half of it is because of my child-like anticipation for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, oh, and Pumpkin Spiced Lattes, but also because both my boys are October babies, and we get to do all of the best things during the fall. Wine tasting, Apple picking, visiting pumpkin patches and just being able to be outside for the first time all year, since Spring, makes it the best ever!
11 Questions for my nominees:
1. Boxers, briefs, or pantaloons? JK
1. Where would you go if you could visit anywhere in the world?
2. Favorite novel, guaranteed to make you weep?
3. Beer, wine, or mixed drink?
4. What quality is most unique about you?
5. Cooking, organizing, or crafting?
6. Best date ever?
7. Who in your life challenges you the most?
8. What job would you do if you could do anything?
9. Who's your biggest role model?
10. What are you most afraid of?
11. What word best describes you? One word! Explain. :)
And my Nominees are:
1. Jenny
2. Hillary
3. Lauren
4. Ana
5. Audry
6. Steph
7. Brittany
8. Francine
9. Kristin
Some of you haven't written in a little while, but when you do, I love it! So please, please keep it up!
Good luck!
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Friday, February 1, 2013
7 Quick Takes Friday
Thank the Lord it is finally Friday! This week has been a blurry, sweat-panted mess. Here are my 7:
1. I am STILL potty training Mikey. He's 3, and almost 4 months... This is
 |
| "Do the (clap, clap) potty dance!" |
7am- Me: "Mikey, do you want to go on the potty like a big boy?"
Mikey: "Sure, are we gonna potty train today?" (promptly goes in Pull Up).
8am-(after changing him into big boy undies (orange with dogs on them)
Me: "Mikey, tell Mommy when you need to go potty okay?"
8:15am- Mikey: "Ahh! Oh no! Save the puppies!!!" (As he runs, while peeing, down the hall to the bathroom, where when we "try" there is nothing left.
Replay this situation 3 times over, only alternate in Thomas the Train, and Spiderman with "the puppies".
Overall, I'd say we are well on our way to success, and I dare you to offer me some unsolicited potty training advice, ready ..., go!
2. Whine, whine, wine? (I wish!). You don't want to hear me complain about what it's like to be preggers while parenting a 3 year old and a 15 month old, that's why I dropped off the blog-o-sphere for all of the first trimester, (and second?). But, can I just say that truly the worst and hardest part is when you do go out in public, or to the big kid doctor appointments, that you are constantly reminded by the sweet, young things, with their bodies still hot and stretchmark-free (secretaries, nurses, even the doctors) that,
"Wow, do you have YOUR hands full!" (literally, I mean, they had a point with this one, I was holding my whopper of a Charlie, (27 1/2 lbs).
"I can't believe you still lift him!" (however, aside from finding a very sturdy baby leash, what else could I possible do? Plus, he'd totally chew through it if I did get him one).
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| "I will Mom, I'll eat right through it." |
And my favorite, while checking out, "You have to schedule his 18 month check up at exactly that week, oh, it's your due date, well then you can just bring them both. Just think, you were about to get to once a year appointments only, and now you have to start all over again with this one!" (Evil, youthful cackle). I am not making this up, and yes I am crazy and hormonal, but these women, are brutal!
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| "You're fat, and crazy for having babies!" |
3. I'm 27, and my body which only gave birth 15 months ago, feels like it's 13 going on 30(+20). I'm not kidding. If this is how I feel at the spry and agile age of 27, what the heck is going to happen if I have a baby a decade from now?!? Which, you know, is possible. I've done my math. I'm pretty sure that I will be wearing Spanx everyday, for the rest of my days, 'til death do us part. Somehow I managed to pull something that should not have been pulled, so even walking has been painful and difficult, so you can guess how many times I have hit the gym as of late. And can I preface this by saying that to date, I have only gained 11 lbs, so don't go assuming that I have been hitting the ice cream carton too often and that there in lies my problem, 'cause, it doesn't ...
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| Get in my mouth! |
4. Can someone, other than Youtube, teach me to sew? My mother-in-law gave me her sewing machine a couple of years ago, and it's awesome and I even painted it to make it adorable, but I rarely use it. I really want to now that I am having a baby girl. I told Mike I was going to teach her to sew and moved the machine into her room. He says it's maybe a little premature; I say it's ambitious.
 |
| Really? |
5. I made Ana's peanut butter cookies today. Mikey and I scarfed half the batch. The were delicious and I don't usually really like peanut butter cookies, but I'll admit I was tempted by the 3 ingredient simplicity. Go try them, they rock!
6. Are you familiar with the CCC Saint videos? Mike and I both were raised on them, and Dear Aunt Hillary sent Mikey and Charlie the St. Patrick dvd for Christmas. To say that Mikey is obsessed with it, is the understantment of the world. After watching it only twice (It's 20 minutes long, give me a break), he began to quote the catchy lines from it to me. Like when it's naptime, and I tell him it's time to go into his room he says, "You've got to be kidding me, Druid, let me go!". Yeah, that's probably my favorite. Or, "Patrick, come back, teach us about Jesus, the one true God!" Actually, that one totally melts my heart. And I have to admit I much prefer this obsession to the "Yo Gabba Gabba" one (creepy little creatures).
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| I'm not quite sure of the historical significance of the "Irish Twins" who complete each sentence for one another, or that of the little black sheep, but it's all very exciting. |
7. I must say it as it is fresh in my memory. Mikey had at nightmare around 5am this morning. What's the worst possible thing that you could imagine dreaming about? Multiple it by infinity because you're about to be rocked. I awoke to hear Mikey yelling, "I need my party, I need my party!!!" I went in to console him, where he told me repeatedly that we were, "out of Birthday candles!" and "needed decorations and cake!" His life is really difficult. Truly, coming from two very large families, someone is literally celebrating a Birthday every two weeks. This month's even worse, I believe we have 3 in a row, so you can see where the stress is coming from. This kid lives and breathes birthday parties. I figure if he is going to have a nightmare, there are worse things he could be dreaming of.
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| Partying is scary business. |
Now, go see Jen at Conversation Diaries for some real quick takes. :)
Thursday, January 31, 2013
A Few Simple Projects
I've got to admit, I have gone a little stir crazy as the weather has kept us all but captive in the house these past couple of months weeks. We did get a nice/strange break yesterday however, when it was literally 70 degrees for most of the day. Although, crazy windy and ending with thunderstorms and tornado watches all night, what? ANNNNNNND of course it's suppose to snow tonight.
Anyway, enough with the weather, it's definitely forced me to tap into my creative side. Here are a couple of little Pinterest inspired projects that I have whipped up over the past few weeks.
This one we did a couple of weeks ago. I picked up this mirror from Salvation Army for $15.00! Already adorable and in no need of paint! I was so excited, I knew it would go perfectly in the entry way. Then during my "Support Hobby Lobby" shopping spree, I snatched up theses cute fleur de lis hooks ($9 total) and had Mike attach them to the board that was already up on the wall. I think it was asking for us to add something it! Yay! Extra storage instantly! Of course Charlie's also a huge fan, as he now has an extra easy way to steal and hide my wallet from my purse before every outing. :)
This I did a few nights ago. I got bored with this "chalkboard" that I had made from an old picture frame (thrifted) and sprayed with chalkboard paint. So I added an "H" from Michael's that I had purchased a while back. Still boring, so I ended up using a hot glue gun and gluing a bunch of shells that I had collected from our last beach trip to Topsail Island. I don't know if I love it, but it cheers me up during this bleak, bleak 3rd trimester.
The next project I had been meaning to do for some time now. I really wanted to organize my jewelry, and I like the ideas I had seen on Pinterest, so I used two old frames that I had, an old lace curtain, some craft wire, and again, my trusty glue gun, and very easily made these. I hung them in our bedroom and I am pretty happy with the result, although I may change the frame color. I room is lookin' kinda bland these days. Also, I pointed out to Mike, that I may need at least 10 new pairs of earrings to add to the almost empty one. :) Off to Forever XII I shall go.
(Sorry these pics do not do it justice, Mike bought me a rockin' new camera for my birthday, but I am lazy and quite frankly not the brightest when it comes to "new" technology, so I am still snapping away with my camera phone here).
This is the other side of our entryway. I also got this cute key hook at Hobby Lobby, it looks SO much better than the thumbtacks I was previously using, shocker, right?
Oh, hey pallet furniture! A Room With a View.
My little sister, Katy, was here last week and we were discussing how all of us have a little "Glam'ma" in us all. Mine comes out in glitter and spray paint, her's was apparent when she wore a large amount of cheetah print to mass on Sunday, and we both giggled at Jenny's blog the other day where both she and Tia were seen sporting this:
Hillary's comes out in her storytelling, or something. I have to think about it. But this is pretty much why I avoid animal prints at all cost. You can only mix so much shimmer and animal.
Well that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed my project expo.
Anyway, enough with the weather, it's definitely forced me to tap into my creative side. Here are a couple of little Pinterest inspired projects that I have whipped up over the past few weeks.
This one we did a couple of weeks ago. I picked up this mirror from Salvation Army for $15.00! Already adorable and in no need of paint! I was so excited, I knew it would go perfectly in the entry way. Then during my "Support Hobby Lobby" shopping spree, I snatched up theses cute fleur de lis hooks ($9 total) and had Mike attach them to the board that was already up on the wall. I think it was asking for us to add something it! Yay! Extra storage instantly! Of course Charlie's also a huge fan, as he now has an extra easy way to steal and hide my wallet from my purse before every outing. :)
This I did a few nights ago. I got bored with this "chalkboard" that I had made from an old picture frame (thrifted) and sprayed with chalkboard paint. So I added an "H" from Michael's that I had purchased a while back. Still boring, so I ended up using a hot glue gun and gluing a bunch of shells that I had collected from our last beach trip to Topsail Island. I don't know if I love it, but it cheers me up during this bleak, bleak 3rd trimester.
The next project I had been meaning to do for some time now. I really wanted to organize my jewelry, and I like the ideas I had seen on Pinterest, so I used two old frames that I had, an old lace curtain, some craft wire, and again, my trusty glue gun, and very easily made these. I hung them in our bedroom and I am pretty happy with the result, although I may change the frame color. I room is lookin' kinda bland these days. Also, I pointed out to Mike, that I may need at least 10 new pairs of earrings to add to the almost empty one. :) Off to Forever XII I shall go.
This is the other side of our entryway. I also got this cute key hook at Hobby Lobby, it looks SO much better than the thumbtacks I was previously using, shocker, right?
This I did last night. :) I am getting into the St. Valentine's Day spirit, consider yourselves lucky, this usually means the house is covered in garland and glitter, and it only ends in tears. (Mike's usually, not mine).
Anyway, I thought this would be a cute way to use my ever growing collection of mason jars (which I am so over), so I used the same lace from the curtain, (the gift that keeps on giving), and a flower from a pin that I no longer was using, and some jute rope. I hot glued them all on, added a candle, and now I have a pretty Valentine votive, and ya know what, it actually DOES look better without the glitter. Go figure. I am sure Mike will be thrilled when he discovers that this is all I plan to do as far as decorating is concerned. Although he will not escape my ritual of decorating the whole house for his birthday which is coming up this next Friday. (I will post pics of previous years, and you probably need to see what I did this New Year's, but that's a different post entirely).
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| "Teehee, Glam'ma Rules!!!" |
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| "Wee! I think so too!!!" |
Well that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed my project expo.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Charlie's Birth Story
Charlie true to his temperament and wild child nature, came into this world just as he lives in it now. Like a wild man!
I was 7 days overdue with Charlie, and scheduled for an induction in just 3 days, so I had pretty much settled on the the fact that I was going to have this baby as I did with my first. It was a Tuesday afternoon, around 1pm and I started to feel a little like I was having contractions. I wasn't completely sure what to expect and I had been having a lot of Braxton-Hicks at that point, so I was fairly certain that it was still just "false labor" i.e. painful, annoying, and non-progressive. I need to mention here that Mike works an hour away, his commute sometimes taking up to an hour and a half to get home from in the evenings, and our hospital is about 40 minutes to an hour away depending on the time of day that you drive there. Awesome right?
So naturally, as this feeling started to bother me a little bit more, I called Jenny for my daily, "Am I in labor, I must be in labor, no, I am so not in labor" pep talk. Jenny having had a very different first birth experience than me lasting close to 28 some hours, I kid you not, encouraged me to shower, try to lay down and to see if I could time them if they were regular. Notice that at this point, I had yet to call husband or doctor.
So after I showered, (a luxury only a mother of one has), I decided that it was still painful, and wow, coming quite frequently it seemed, "only 4 to 5 minutes apart?", that I should probably call Mike just to let him know. I called him, encouraged him to get his work that he had going on finished, and then to maybe head home soonish. He still had about an hour of work to do, and was again, an hour away.
Mikey had woken up from his nap, so he was hanging out with me in the living room, where I decided to watch "The First Wives Club" and sit and time my contractions. (Okay, I know this is so weird but I really like this movie. My mom and I used to watch it all the time and I love Goldie Hawn. Also yes, I am 50 years old). So I am sitting on the floor watching the movie and trying to time my contractions all the while assuming that I am doing this wrong because, "they aren't supposed to be 3 minutes apart, are they?", when my water breaks. It full on breaks, like I hear a "pop!" sound and a giant gush follows. At this point I'm like, "oh crap, I AM in labor!". Obviously the 3 minutes apart contractions did not tip me off any. When I went to change I realized that the baby was also quite possibly in distress because their was meconium in my water (sorry, so gross, but honest).
So, I call Mike and yell at him, "Ahh my water just broke! Come home! Where are you!?" After 30 minutes prior telling him to take his sweet time. Then I call my brother-in-law who graciously offers to pick up Mikey and to wait in the driveway for Mike to arrive (ha ha which is probably the safest distance from what was going on inside). As I am waiting for him to arrive, I am freaking out and running around the house trying to gather all of my belongings, none of which were packed yet, and Mikey is totally freaking out too and just following me around. During all of this and even with being worried and having sudden incredibly painful contractions, I couldn't help but laugh because the whole situation was just ridiculous and hysterical to see. I called the doctor also and they told me to just get to the hospital ASAP.
This continued for, you guessed it, another hour because Mike had to rush all the way home. Oh, and guess what time it was? 4:45pm, ever been to Northern Virginia to witness D.C. rush hour traffic? I was literally flipping out at this point. We also had taking our minivan to the shop to have it serviced, you know, before baby arrives, so Mike had to drive me in his work truck to the hospital, which like I said, was 45 minutes away.
You haven't had a contraction until you've had one in a pick up truck. You're just gonna have to trust me on this one. It seemed like we hit a bump in the road at each peak of contraction, and I was NOT a happy camper. Traffic was outrageous and I kid you not, we got stuck behind a girl with a choose life bumper sticker. I wanted to lay on the horn and to proclaim to her that we were not only prolife, but that she was about to witness life if she didn't hurry up.
So, we arrived in style to the hospital about an hour later. I was brought by wheel chair, equipped with multiple frightened looking bystanders to the birthing center. They could see that I meant business and got me fairly quickly to my room where they checked me. 9cm. I believe it took 30 minutes for them to "process me" with multiple men running in and out of the room asking me again, "how much do you weigh?, and "what's your favorite color?", all while having the worst contractions of my life! It's pretty much a miracle but they still gave me an epidural, and about 10 minutes after it started working, I was at 10 and ready to push.
I pushed 3 times, and Charlie was born within 5 minutes. It was crazy. I kept being like, wait, he's here? We just got here? Thank you Lord for not letting him be born in Daddy's pick up truck.
Charlie was a darling 7 lbs 13oz, and 21 inches long, tall and kinda skinny looking. He was so sweet but having a really difficult time breathing. I wasn't allowed to nurse him until 2 hours later because of his breathing issues, and we had a bunch of extra doctors in the room running multiple tests on him. It turned out that his white blood cell levels we sky high, so after just one night of having him in the recovery room, he was rushed to the NICU to begin antibiotics. We were so fortunate that they had an incredible staff of doctors and nurses who kept us very informed. Charlie did really well and after 48 hours in the NICU he was transfered to the Children's ward where he would stay for the remaining 6 days to finish his antibiotics. He was such a strong little guy and after finishing that long week out we were able to bring him home, 8 days after birth.
The whole experience was really surreal. My labor with Charlie totaled only about 4 hours, and I was literally at the hospital for about 40 minutes before he was born. It went shockingly fast, but that was a huge blessing as Charlie was ready and needed to come out and have immediate attention. I am still so thankful for how well they took care of my little man. It's really crazy that there is nothing that you can do to prepare for how different each birth will be. A least I know this time around that maybe I should error on the side of preparedness rather than waiting til the.very.last.minute! We will see how it goes this next time around when little Charlotte makes her appearance this April. :)
I was 7 days overdue with Charlie, and scheduled for an induction in just 3 days, so I had pretty much settled on the the fact that I was going to have this baby as I did with my first. It was a Tuesday afternoon, around 1pm and I started to feel a little like I was having contractions. I wasn't completely sure what to expect and I had been having a lot of Braxton-Hicks at that point, so I was fairly certain that it was still just "false labor" i.e. painful, annoying, and non-progressive. I need to mention here that Mike works an hour away, his commute sometimes taking up to an hour and a half to get home from in the evenings, and our hospital is about 40 minutes to an hour away depending on the time of day that you drive there. Awesome right?
So naturally, as this feeling started to bother me a little bit more, I called Jenny for my daily, "Am I in labor, I must be in labor, no, I am so not in labor" pep talk. Jenny having had a very different first birth experience than me lasting close to 28 some hours, I kid you not, encouraged me to shower, try to lay down and to see if I could time them if they were regular. Notice that at this point, I had yet to call husband or doctor.
So after I showered, (a luxury only a mother of one has), I decided that it was still painful, and wow, coming quite frequently it seemed, "only 4 to 5 minutes apart?", that I should probably call Mike just to let him know. I called him, encouraged him to get his work that he had going on finished, and then to maybe head home soonish. He still had about an hour of work to do, and was again, an hour away.
Mikey had woken up from his nap, so he was hanging out with me in the living room, where I decided to watch "The First Wives Club" and sit and time my contractions. (Okay, I know this is so weird but I really like this movie. My mom and I used to watch it all the time and I love Goldie Hawn. Also yes, I am 50 years old). So I am sitting on the floor watching the movie and trying to time my contractions all the while assuming that I am doing this wrong because, "they aren't supposed to be 3 minutes apart, are they?", when my water breaks. It full on breaks, like I hear a "pop!" sound and a giant gush follows. At this point I'm like, "oh crap, I AM in labor!". Obviously the 3 minutes apart contractions did not tip me off any. When I went to change I realized that the baby was also quite possibly in distress because their was meconium in my water (sorry, so gross, but honest).
So, I call Mike and yell at him, "Ahh my water just broke! Come home! Where are you!?" After 30 minutes prior telling him to take his sweet time. Then I call my brother-in-law who graciously offers to pick up Mikey and to wait in the driveway for Mike to arrive (ha ha which is probably the safest distance from what was going on inside). As I am waiting for him to arrive, I am freaking out and running around the house trying to gather all of my belongings, none of which were packed yet, and Mikey is totally freaking out too and just following me around. During all of this and even with being worried and having sudden incredibly painful contractions, I couldn't help but laugh because the whole situation was just ridiculous and hysterical to see. I called the doctor also and they told me to just get to the hospital ASAP.
This continued for, you guessed it, another hour because Mike had to rush all the way home. Oh, and guess what time it was? 4:45pm, ever been to Northern Virginia to witness D.C. rush hour traffic? I was literally flipping out at this point. We also had taking our minivan to the shop to have it serviced, you know, before baby arrives, so Mike had to drive me in his work truck to the hospital, which like I said, was 45 minutes away.
You haven't had a contraction until you've had one in a pick up truck. You're just gonna have to trust me on this one. It seemed like we hit a bump in the road at each peak of contraction, and I was NOT a happy camper. Traffic was outrageous and I kid you not, we got stuck behind a girl with a choose life bumper sticker. I wanted to lay on the horn and to proclaim to her that we were not only prolife, but that she was about to witness life if she didn't hurry up.
So, we arrived in style to the hospital about an hour later. I was brought by wheel chair, equipped with multiple frightened looking bystanders to the birthing center. They could see that I meant business and got me fairly quickly to my room where they checked me. 9cm. I believe it took 30 minutes for them to "process me" with multiple men running in and out of the room asking me again, "how much do you weigh?, and "what's your favorite color?", all while having the worst contractions of my life! It's pretty much a miracle but they still gave me an epidural, and about 10 minutes after it started working, I was at 10 and ready to push.
I pushed 3 times, and Charlie was born within 5 minutes. It was crazy. I kept being like, wait, he's here? We just got here? Thank you Lord for not letting him be born in Daddy's pick up truck.
The whole experience was really surreal. My labor with Charlie totaled only about 4 hours, and I was literally at the hospital for about 40 minutes before he was born. It went shockingly fast, but that was a huge blessing as Charlie was ready and needed to come out and have immediate attention. I am still so thankful for how well they took care of my little man. It's really crazy that there is nothing that you can do to prepare for how different each birth will be. A least I know this time around that maybe I should error on the side of preparedness rather than waiting til the.very.last.minute! We will see how it goes this next time around when little Charlotte makes her appearance this April. :)
Mikey's Birth Story
I thought I'd join in the fun of adding the two birth stories I have under my belt to Grace's little birthing party. Keeping true to the order that my boys arrived, I will start with Mikey.
I was 10 days overdue when Mikey was scheduled to arrive. For those of you who can't do the math, that is literally 41 and a half weeks preggers. It was a miracle that I could walk without having to resort to all fours. On the morning of his scheduled induction, October 2nd, 2009, I was checked in at 7am. By 7:30am they had me set up in my bed and checked to see my progress before beginning the Pitocin; I was already 5cm! Wahoo! This is crazy because this meant that I had been walking around half way to the finish line for at least a week. It was a really surreal feeling, going into a scheduled induction, knowing that you're going in pregnant, and then that you will have your baby (hopefully), by the end of that day.
Around 8am they started my induction, and I watched "Saved by the Bell- The College Years" which was apparently having a marathon, for about 2 or 3 hours on their TV. I thought this was really lucky as I am an avid fan of the show from childhood, but who isn't, am I right?
I also napped on and off. I know how ridiculous this sounds, but it's true, it just wasn't that painful, yet. When I was check again, I was 8cm and offered an epidural. It really didn't hurt that much at that point, so I continued to wait and see how it went.
Probably 30 minutes later, my doctor decided to break my water. It was just one.hot.minute later that I was close to saying words I rarely ever utter, and demanding that epidural that I was previously offered. Once I received my epidural, I went quickly from 8 to 10cm, around 20 minutes, and was then ready to push.
I had minimal feeling/pain. I will call it uncomfortable, but seriously not a big deal. Nothing like the contractions before the epidural. After 25 minutes of pushing, Michael Joseph Hadro was born! He was 8lbs 12oz and 22inches long. A big, happy boy, and I swear he smiled when they put him down on the table to measure him for the first time; the nurses even said so!
So Mikey, really, truly was an EASY, 9 hours total, no complication birth story. (Somewhat different than how is "life story" is now, but I digress).
If this story seems boring and weird and somewhat similar to the births that they show on television, the ones where the baby is born as a 3 month old and the mom says it's just uncomfortable, and her hair and makeup are still perfectly intact afterwards, that's because that is seriously how it went down. Not at all how I pictured my first birth, especially because it was an induction, but I know I was so blessed and lucky to have this as my first birth experience.
Charlie's was completely different than Mikey's. COMPLETELY. I will try to post his ASAP as to not lose all the interest I am sure this has drawn up ...
I was 10 days overdue when Mikey was scheduled to arrive. For those of you who can't do the math, that is literally 41 and a half weeks preggers. It was a miracle that I could walk without having to resort to all fours. On the morning of his scheduled induction, October 2nd, 2009, I was checked in at 7am. By 7:30am they had me set up in my bed and checked to see my progress before beginning the Pitocin; I was already 5cm! Wahoo! This is crazy because this meant that I had been walking around half way to the finish line for at least a week. It was a really surreal feeling, going into a scheduled induction, knowing that you're going in pregnant, and then that you will have your baby (hopefully), by the end of that day.
Around 8am they started my induction, and I watched "Saved by the Bell- The College Years" which was apparently having a marathon, for about 2 or 3 hours on their TV. I thought this was really lucky as I am an avid fan of the show from childhood, but who isn't, am I right?
I also napped on and off. I know how ridiculous this sounds, but it's true, it just wasn't that painful, yet. When I was check again, I was 8cm and offered an epidural. It really didn't hurt that much at that point, so I continued to wait and see how it went.
Probably 30 minutes later, my doctor decided to break my water. It was just one.hot.minute later that I was close to saying words I rarely ever utter, and demanding that epidural that I was previously offered. Once I received my epidural, I went quickly from 8 to 10cm, around 20 minutes, and was then ready to push.
I had minimal feeling/pain. I will call it uncomfortable, but seriously not a big deal. Nothing like the contractions before the epidural. After 25 minutes of pushing, Michael Joseph Hadro was born! He was 8lbs 12oz and 22inches long. A big, happy boy, and I swear he smiled when they put him down on the table to measure him for the first time; the nurses even said so!
So Mikey, really, truly was an EASY, 9 hours total, no complication birth story. (Somewhat different than how is "life story" is now, but I digress).
If this story seems boring and weird and somewhat similar to the births that they show on television, the ones where the baby is born as a 3 month old and the mom says it's just uncomfortable, and her hair and makeup are still perfectly intact afterwards, that's because that is seriously how it went down. Not at all how I pictured my first birth, especially because it was an induction, but I know I was so blessed and lucky to have this as my first birth experience.
Charlie's was completely different than Mikey's. COMPLETELY. I will try to post his ASAP as to not lose all the interest I am sure this has drawn up ...
Playroom Makeover
It's been a LONG while, so I thought I would offer up my latest projects as evidence that I am still:
A. Alive
and
B. Crafty, like a fox.
So here we go.
We recently turned our dining room into a playroom for the boys. Post Birthday and Christmas there was just too much stuff and no room at the inn. Plus, carpets are not the best option for feeding a 3 year old and 15 month old. We would eat dinner with Charlie sitting in his separate room (the kitchen) at a safe viewing distance, and optimal for his mad food-launching skills. That didn't really keep Mikey from dropping half of each meal onto the floor, so, enough said, we are a happier family in the kitchen.
Anyway, the playroom. I received a free $20 to use from Shutterfly, and I am a sucker for "free", and even though I had to pay $15 in shipping, I still think I got the bang for my buck. I ordered the collage vinyl wall decal, but used different chevron prints from online instead of pictures, and so I ended up with cute wall decal that I can remove without damaging the walls, and it adds a nice pop of color for the room. Check it:
I also had been given this side table. It was just a basic light wood color, so I painted it white and then spray painted the top with chalkboard paint. Now all I need is a couple of little chairs from Ikea to go with it. Unfortunately, we don't do a lot of chalk play at our house, as it usually ends up in Charlie's mouth. I do not know how he does it, but literally every piece of chalk that has entered this house, has also entered his mouth. Maybe in a couple of years...
I found this cute little rocking horse at Salvation Army for $8.00! It was all scratched up and drawn on, but nothing a fresh coat of spray paint couldn't fix. I decided on light gray, gender neutral, you know?
My sister-in-law gave Mikey this letter floor mat for his Birthday a couple of years ago, and honestly I hadn't been using it much because he was in the "rip everything to shreds" mode of boy-dom, so I only recently brought it back out, but of course now Charlie is in that mode. It makes a cute area rug/ room focal point, when I can keep Charlie away from it. :)
I had purchased these three mirrors a while back from Target for a total of about $9.00 I believe. They were a weird blue though, one I didn't like anyway, so I ended up painting them gold. Then I added three frames and free letter printables to the middle of each. M is for Mikey, C is for Charlie, and C is for Charlotte! It's officially, baby girl will be named Charlotte. You can't put it up as part of your home decor and not follow through with the name, so there, it's settled. I had been wavering between a few different ones, but Mike's known for a while that it was Charlotte. :)
This cutie mirror came from big sis thanks to supporting Hobby Lobby! Don't you love it? It's perfect for the playroom, but may eventually end up in Charlotte's nursery. We will see.
You may remember this bookshelf. It has held up through half of a summer outdoors, as I attempted to make it part of my patio furniture. It is now working well holding these Dollar Store baskets to store some toys. Although obviously Mikey's favorite pastime is banging on them with a shovel. Which is also why they are pretty much empty. Also, the wall art is from another free printables blog. I can't remember exactly which one right now though. Everything I find is through Pinterest. It's too easy.
We scored this train table for FREE on Craigslist right before Christmas. It's awesome and came with huge pull out draws. I love it, except we cannot keep Charlie off of it. Every time he gets up on it, Mikey yells, "Woah, we've got one dancing on the table!". His words, not mine. So I am just waiting for when he busts through the top, but until then, a happy home.
I had bought this shelf from a consignment sale and painted it navy, and I got the baskets from the dollar bin at target. The picture frames framing the letters that I printed out are from the Dollar Store again. I got the chevron fabric from Hobby Lobby for $9.00 and framed it with a frame that I already had.
A. Alive
and
B. Crafty, like a fox.
So here we go.
We recently turned our dining room into a playroom for the boys. Post Birthday and Christmas there was just too much stuff and no room at the inn. Plus, carpets are not the best option for feeding a 3 year old and 15 month old. We would eat dinner with Charlie sitting in his separate room (the kitchen) at a safe viewing distance, and optimal for his mad food-launching skills. That didn't really keep Mikey from dropping half of each meal onto the floor, so, enough said, we are a happier family in the kitchen.
Anyway, the playroom. I received a free $20 to use from Shutterfly, and I am a sucker for "free", and even though I had to pay $15 in shipping, I still think I got the bang for my buck. I ordered the collage vinyl wall decal, but used different chevron prints from online instead of pictures, and so I ended up with cute wall decal that I can remove without damaging the walls, and it adds a nice pop of color for the room. Check it:
I also found some cute patterned shelf liner for like $6 bucks at TJMAX, so I put it over cardboard, framed it using a frame that I already had, and printed out this cute free printable from online, and I have yet again another cute pop of color.
I found this cute little rocking horse at Salvation Army for $8.00! It was all scratched up and drawn on, but nothing a fresh coat of spray paint couldn't fix. I decided on light gray, gender neutral, you know?
And for your final viewing pleasure, the view of the playroom from the safety of my kitchen. Pretty cute for under $50 total, wouldn't you agree? Yes, this mess occurred within 30 seconds after I took the first pictures. They're THAT GOOD.
Have a great day!
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