A rare (spare) quiet moment

{ June 1, 2010 @ 10:33 pm } · { life, Peepertrons }
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Naptime is bliss.

I find myself tonight with a rare and spare moment to myself. Hubby is playing D&D with friends downstairs, and my little one has gone to sleep quite early. Normally she goes to sleep between 10 and 11, but tonight, 8:30. And she’s still sleeping, so that’s a good sign.

I have all kinds of thoughts swimming around in my head and I feel like I need to squeeze it all into this post because I don’t know when I’ll have time to post again. Lately all of my spare time has been spent working since I am working from home and have had quite a bit to get done.

She started school today, for a couple hours. I’m having her go about two hours a day this week, 4 hours next week, and then full time (~7hrs) the week after. I’ll work half days next week, and this is my last week to be working at home. I’m a little sad that my time to be home with her is over, but she is growing so much and changing each day that it is more exciting than sad and I can’t wait to see what she will do next. 

I am having a much easier time with the daycare bit than I thought I would- when I was pregnant and checking out daycares I cried every time I went to one. The thought of leaving my baby made me so sad and she hadn’t even been born yet. But part of it was hormones and the other part of it I guess is that I realize that this life we have is her mockup as well as mine.  and many other parents have encouraged me and told me that she’ll be well-adjusted, socia lized and will have fun. I think that is true, it is just hard right now because she is so little.

But, fortunately I have a job I love and am looking forward to getting back to, that really helps. I think if I hated my job I would have a really hard time with this.

So today she went to school for a few hours. She did really well. She started to cry when I left because it was her lunchtime. She got her diapee changed a couple times, ate a lot, and slept, which is what babies do. When I picked her up she was playing in a boppy with some little rings in her hand. Just 2 days ago she started grabbing rings and toys in her hands.  She was in really good hands.  I love her teachers and her school. She gets a lot of attention and there is always someone there who can hold her. I think she will do well and easing into this was probably one of the smartest things I could have done… it’s making it so much better for both of us.

So life with the little one is great, and I am looking forward to getting used to our “new normal”, getting back to work and giving them as much as I can. They have been really great to me through the whole baby bit, I couldn’t have asked for more. Now I am ready to kick some ass for them.

One of these days I want to make a blog just for Sorcha and her pictures. I also need to scrapbook. I don’t know how other moms get this stuff done, even if they didn’t have to work, it’s hard to get anything done with a baby, other than taking care of that sweet baby.

birth day

{ May 3, 2010 @ 4:08 pm } · { life, Project Fusion }
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Daddy holding Sorcha less than an hour after birth

Our little girl Sorcha Skye also arrived about 6 weeks ago on March 20. She weighed 7 lb 5 oz and was 19″ long.  Turns out she didn’t want to be born on St. Patrick’s day after all (her estimated due date).  I was having fake contractions for several days, early in the a.m. where they’d be strong enough to wake me up, and then once I was awake they’d go away.  I wanted to get things moving so the midwives recommended acupuncture and said that they’ve noticed it helps shorten early labor for the moms who have tried it.  So I went on Tuesday, and then again on Friday for treatments. It was really relaxing and felt nice energetically, and I figured if nothing else, that made it worth while.  On Saturday morning I woke up at around 4 am having contractions again, only this time they didn’t go away. I timed them for about an hour and during that hour also lost the plug and had bloody show- so I knew this was it.  I thought I should probably try to eat something but I couldn’t bring myself to (which turned out to be a good thing later since I spent a lot of quality time with a big dog dish if you know what I mean). 

 

 

 

 

After letting Jeremy sleep as long as possible I finally woke him up around 6am and he timed the contractions for me for an hour, they were averaging 6 minutes apart and lasting for 30 seconds to a minute. We decided to take a shower and something about that made everything go even faster. I started having contractions every couple minutes and told him he had better call the midwives. When they got there I was in active labor and dilated to 8 cm. I definitely found my rhythm and spent most of it on my hands and knees back and forth. I got in the tub for transition which helped ease the pain some, and started pushing there, but ended up delivering on the birth stool. 

Sorcha was born at 12:12 pm after a little more than 8 hours of labor.  I didn’t expect it to go this quickly but I was glad it didn’t go on any longer.  I don’t know how much of it can be attributed to the acupuncture, but my early labor was almost nonexistent.  We did hypnosis for birth as well and all of that preparation helped tremendously with handling the contractions.

There was a little excitement after she was born where I passed out a couple of times from dehydration and blood loss.  But the midwives were fabulous and knew exactly what to do. I was fine after drinking about a gallon of gatorade and resting on the floor for a while.

We are really enjoying getting to know our baby, she’s very laid back and we love her to pieces.

 

Jeremy was a great birth partner. I couldn’t have asked for a better one, he really was great and helped me so much.  I didn’t even have to yell at him. ;)

I spent most of my labor with my eyes closed, my hands covering my face. I think there is just so much going on that you have to cut off some of the sensory stimulation, so closing eyes was the easiest.

My awesome team of Midwives- Sunita, Suzanne, and Lindsey.

All in all it was a wonderful experience despite ending up with a 3rd degree tear and passing out. The midwives knew what to do and were able to handle everything just fine. They were totally prepared with oxygen, smelling salts, pitocin, and sutures. I’m very grateful I got to have this experience at home, I can’t imagine having to get in a car during labor, that would be one of the most unpleasant experiences ever.

And of course we love our little Peepers as we like to call her, she did a great job coming out. Such a good girl!

comfort.. at last!

{ May 3, 2010 @ 4:08 pm } · { Domestic Goddess }
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Those of you who know me know I have been bitching about our bed for a while… I should have taken pictures, but let me just say that our bed was terrible. Our bed has been terrible for a few years now… so last year we bought a new mattress as a stop-gap until we could afford the bed we really wanted. Well, at $399 you get what you pay for. This “new” mattress was really only ok for a couple of months and then it just failed. Jeremy and I would sink into the middle of the bed into each other and every day we both woke up with sore backs and hips.

It was bad enough normally but being pregnant meant I slept terribly, tossing and turning all night and some nigths not being able to sleep at all because the bed was so terrible.

Well, we finally got our king sized Tempurpedic bed, and in serendipitous fashion it was delivered the day before I went into labor. We kind of wish we had had a few nights to enjoy the bed and catch up on sleep before that happened, but alas I am just happy I didn’t go into labor while it was being delivered, that would have been kind of awkward.

And here it is, in all its glory. I finally feel like a grown-up.

Somehow I managed to spend $750 on bedding for it…but I guess that is what happens when you change bed sizes and have to start from scratch. I didn’t take Jeremy with me to buy it because I knew it would get up there in $$, though I didn’t think it would get up quite that far. Fortunately he really likes it and didn’t let the price bother him.

It really is heaven and I highly recommend a tempurpedic to everyone. We sleep so well and it’s been really great that we don’t wake each other up when we get in and out of bed, especially with how many times I have been getting up at night with the baby.

AHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…

topsy turvy

{ March 2, 2010 @ 2:38 pm } · { Domestic Goddess, life }
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Say hello to my new house:

Everything still feels a little topsy turvy.  But, overall better, because we moved!  My nest is feeling better in general, it’s kind of a difficult time to have the nest disrupted- when you’re about to lay an egg.  But I am happy we got moved when we did.  It was an arduous process, truly. I still don’t even feel like we have that much stuff but clearly we do, despite getting rid of a lot of it already.  I know the last time we moved we said we’d get movers next time.  But hubby seemed to forget that and wanted to do it himself with 4 friends.  It took about 12 hours in total on Saturday, 2 truck loads. The boys had a few breaks so it wasn’t constant work, but it was a lot of work. I was feeling really bad for them but fortunately they had no delusions that it was going to be an easy job and had planned to spend their whole day doing it. Thank goodness for that. Hubby is of course very on board with getting movers next time it happens.  Though, it was nice that this move was cheap- we just fed people and had to pay for the truck and moving supplies.

Even though I got off pretty easy by not having to move anything myself, except the pets, and a couple of small things, I spent a lot of time on my feet which just totally sucked.  But fortunately we have a ginormous bathtub that we both fit in, so we have been taking baths together at night to ease our soreness and it’s been helping.

We still have a ton of unpacking to do, but we got the baby room all set up, and our bedroom, and most of the kitchen. Those really are the essential spaces I guess. Bonus is we can even park in the garage, though it’s full of stuff that needs to go inside and/or be stacked and stored appropriately.  We absolutely love the new house. It is sooo quiet and still.  It is not a shoddy piece of crap like our old place. We have nice appliances that actually do what they are supposed to do. Stairs that don’t creak loudly with every step. It really is the little things that add up and make it nice.

I’m hoping we get some more unpacking done before the weekend. I might work on it a little tomorrow while I am working from home, in between doing actual work. But, my main goal of just having the house in a state that would function if I went into labor, is complete.  Now it’s down to business so we can get rid of the “clutter” of unpacked boxes and stuff not being in the right place.

So my meal planning and creative activities, and everything else has been on hold. But once the kitchen gets back to normal I am looking forward to the meal planning again. It really is annoying now, to not be doing it, to have to figure out what to do for dinner every night. I hate not having a plan!  Tonight at least I have stuff to make chili, so we have a plan for dinner and leftovers- however.. my cornbread mix is somewhere in the garage…must find it. That’ll be fun. =P

this too shall pass

{ February 26, 2010 @ 1:30 pm } · { life, Project Fusion }
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I’m kind of stressed.

Life feels tense, there is a lot going on all at the same time and I feel like it’s about to culminate into hopefully a non-explosive event.   We’re picking up the keys to our new house today, and moving tomorrow.  I’m stressed about that, because I feel somewhat helpless. My body does NOT respond well to being up and down and around for very long at all.  We did some packing last night and it about killed me and I don’t even feel like we did that much.   So while part of me is glad that I don’t really have to do much tomorrow (supposedly) it’s hard to give up total control and just sit on your ass while a bunch of guys do the work. It makes me feel kind of like a jerk. But unfortunately that’s how it’s going to have to be.

I have a fear of going into labor before we’re ready, the other night I was having a bunch of braxton-hicks contractions and then the baby positioned herself in a way that was so painful I couldn’t hardly walk. Or breathe. Fortunately she moved. But I am having contractions pretty often lately and the reality is setting in that it’s going to happen soon, which is great! But there is too much other stuff happening at the same time and it’s stressing me out.

I also just found out that my hubby’s work, where he has been interning for almost the past year, and recently they made him salaried (at intern pay) is making him an offer but only as a 6-month contract. And the salary is absolutely insulting. Like. 50% or less of what market dictates. Like, it starts with a 3.  No programmers anywhere make that shitty of a salary.  So basically this means that in May he’s out of a job. BUT I am not toooo worried as his bosses are both pissed about this development and that they can’t hire him permanently, and really pissed they couldn’t get more money for him, and will help him find a job elsewhere. There is even one at my company that I think he’d be a good fit for.   So surely, just like other opportunities that come and go or seem shitty at the time, like when he didn’t get the job at Microsoft, and then he didn’t get the one at Surreal.  Both of those were complete total bummers at the time but if it hadn’t been for that he wouldn’t have gotten the job he has now (and loves, and is unfortunately being stupid now).   The good news is he has good experience from this internship and shouldn’t have trouble finding a new job.  But I think because I’m about to have a baby and my nest is totally disrupted finding out about this is now just another thing that contributes to the overall uncertainty in life.  I just want to feel taken care of and yet here I am facing the prospect of being the sole breadwinner for a while longer.  But I guess I just am going to have to trust that it’s all going to work out, just like it already has.  There must be a better opportunity out there for him which is why this change is happening.   But as much as I like to think of myself as not resistant to change, change is hard.

Then my car broke down this morning. He was driving it, but it still doesn’t matter. I had the exact problem fixed like 6 months ago so it’s a little irritating to have it happen again. I am pretty sure last time it was fixed it cost $589 which … is not money that I really want to shell out right now, ya know? But I will have to wait til next week to find out for sure. And maybe since this was just recently fixed… I should get some kind of credit or something, I mean I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to break again this quickly.

I feel like I have to take life one day at a time right now and it’s weird.  Like if I can just make it through today without going into labor, that’ll be great. If I can just make it through tomorrow and not be in total excruciating pain, that’ll be awesome. And then Sunday so we can get unpacked, that’ll be great.  Because one of these days I am going to have contractions that don’t stop.  And I think the rest of the world around me is going to come to a halt and I’m not going to care, so I just hope that whatever else is going on in orbit around me is going to be ok because it’s going to have to be.

a hot cup of yum

{ February 1, 2010 @ 10:20 pm } · { Domestic Goddess }
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Hot Cranberry Tea

Normally a recipe I’ve only had at holiday time, I’ve recently been enjoying it more and more when I just want a hot drink that doesn’t involve milk.  I’m not a huge fan of straight up tea, so this recipe makes me happy.  I don’t know where it came from originally, but it has been in my family for my entire life and we make it every Christmas to sip on throughout the day.

What you need:

4c water

4 black tea bags (or however many tea bags to make a quart of tea-Lipton works great)

4c Cranberry juice cocktail (doesn’t matter what kind- works just as well with low/no sugar added or regular)

3/4 c sugar

1/2 lemon, sliced

1 stick cinnamon

8-10 whole cloves

dash nutmeg

How to make it:

Boil or microwave the water, then add the tea bags and let it steep until it’s nice and dark.

In a pot on medium-low heat, put the cranberry juice, sugar, lemon slices, cinnamon stick, cloves and nutmeg. When the tea is done steeping, add it to the pot. Warm it all throughout and then it’s ready to serve.  You can also make this in the crock pot and keep it on low and just keep helping yourself to the tea!

Hope you get as much joy out of this recipe as I have.

I really hope this works

{ February 1, 2010 @ 3:05 pm } · { life, Project Fusion }
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So much for my “good health gratitude” post the other day.  I’m full-on miserable with this sinus infection.  Normally I’m sure I would have been able to nip this on my own, but it’s become obvious to me that my immune system ain’t what it normally is while pregnant.

I’ve been trying to do all of the right things:  Taking Umcka, Vitamin D, Vitamin C…

Using the neti pot a few times a day…

Only taking Tylenol on occasions…

I thought I was getting better over the weekend, until last night my head felt like I had been hit with a baseball bat.  My jaw, teeth, forehead are in so much pain I can’t even chew food.  It made sleep very difficult and I was in tears this morning.  I decided I had to have an intervention, so I went to my primary Dr.

She prescribed nasal steroid spray and vicodin, and said that if I didn’t start feeling better at all by Wednesday then we can think about antibiotics.  I upped the ante and got myself the makings for homemade chicken noodle soup, since I can’t chew anything.

So I really hope this works, because as it is I don’t like the idea of taking any drugs right now.  I think because I am in the 3rd trimester that there should be no ill-effects on the baby.  My Dr. said antibiotics can cause you to feel really crappy, and have diarrhea which in turn can trigger preterm labor. Lovely, huh? So I just don’t want to go there.

It would also be kind of cool to be able to go back to work…I can only take so much daytime TV.

Please work!

At least I have good company.

The 100 things de-cluttering challenge

{ January 31, 2010 @ 4:39 pm } · { Domestic Goddess }
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I heard about this challenge from my friend Rochelle on one of her blogs.   The challenge involves either decluttering and getting rid of all but 100 things in your house, or easier, get rid of 100 things.

I honestly don’t know how anyone could live with just 100 things in their house, although it totally depends on how you categorize it. Would you have to count each individual plate, book and piece of underwear?  I honestly think homeless people have more than 100 things in their shopping carts. So that’s really out of the question for me.  I am not a clutter fan, nor a collector of anything, so decluttering is one of my favorite things to do, and clutter-free is my favorite way to live.

That said, I’ve been in MAJOR de-cluttering mode for the past month as we are preparing to move in less than a month.  And having been at our current place for over 3.5 years, we’ve accumulated more than I wanted to bring to the new place.   I’m very certain I have already accomplished this challenge a couple weeks ago, when we cleaned out our garage and took about 2 Honda Element loads of donations to a charity. It included furniture, video games, lots of clothes, and more.

Now that we’re actually packing things in boxes, the de-cluttering continues.   I kicked this challenge’s butt again just yesterday.  Here’s what we got rid of:

These are just the books...most of them anyway.

It’s interesting how having Kindles has changed my life and my desire (or complete lack thereof) to lug around books I will never read again.  As much as both the hubby and me have wanted to have a library some day, it just doesn’t seem worth it to keep most of the books we had.  We kept classics like Harry Potter and some of the more “important” books, including reference books and things we know we’ll want to share with our children.  But the rest had to go.  All together we donated 147 books.

More than just books- here is what else was gotten rid of:

1 Eyeglasses

2 Halloween Costumes

1 Queen Sheet Set

1 Duvet cover

1 Sony digital camera

1 Side table

3 window fans (new house has AC, hallelujah)

3 Rugs

3 baby blankets

5 pair baby shoes

10 baby clothes

11 puzzles

7 blouses

6 tank tops

1 bra

4 sweaters

4 jackets

4 T-shirts

1 dress slacks

1 fancy ball gown

2 fleece jackets

1 polo shirt

1 wig

1 nintendo gamecube with 2 controllers and 8 games

7 PS2 games

2 handbags

All in all 236 items.  That is just what was donated, there were also a couple bags of trash. Fortunately most of what we got rid of can be re-used and didn’t go into the trash.

We’ll see how many more times I complete this challenge in the next 26 days. We’ve only finished the spare bedroom, garage, and downstairs bookshelf at this point. Haha!

I am amazed at how much we have gotten rid of considering we live what I consider to be pretty clutter-free. I am definitely more conscious about bringing things into my house over the past few years, and I don’t do it unless they have a specific purpose and place.  I am also very happy about the fact that we’re moving to a place with a lot more square footage and less stuff than we have here! Hooray.  I’m betting this challenge gets done again next weekend and the week after.

My new favorite breakfast

{ January 31, 2010 @ 4:15 pm } · { Domestic Goddess }
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A few weeks back I referenced the dutch apple pancake recipe I found on epicurious. It turned out delicious and great, but I didn’t take any pictures.  I decided to make one again yesterday and documented it this time!

I highly recommend it anytime you’re looking for something different for breakfast. I enjoy it because it’s made with eggs, but I’m not always a huge fan of eggs on their own. So you get protein and some sweet and fruit without a diabetes-inducing breakfast like french toast.

The recipe originally comes from epicurious though I modified it slightly by substituting granny smith apples and adding extra cinnamon and brown sugar to the apple baking step.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup whole milk (I used 3/4 cup of 1% and 1/4 cup heavy cream)
  • 4 large eggs
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2/3 cup all purpose flour
  • 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
  • 12 ounces Granny Smith apples (about 2), peeled, cored, thinly sliced
  • 5 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar, divided (2+ 3)
  • Powdered sugar (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425°F. Whisk milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon in large bowl until well blended. Add flour and whisk until batter is smooth. Place butter in 13×9-inch glass baking dish. Place dish in oven until butter melts, about 5 minutes. Remove dish from oven. Place apple slices in overlapping rows atop melted butter in baking dish.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and the 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.  Return to oven and bake until apples begin to soften slightly and butter is bubbling and beginning to brown around edges of dish, about 10 minutes.

Pour batter over apples in dish and sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake pancake until puffed and brown, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired. Cut into squares and serve warm. (Saves and reheats well too.)

Here it is with a dusting of powdered sugar and ready to eat:

Yum!

time for some gratitude

{ January 27, 2010 @ 2:58 pm } · { life, Project Fusion }
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I’ve been kind of bitchy lately, about this stupid cold I seem to have caught. I am annoyed, because I just had a cold a month ago and here I am with another one.   This one has yet to really manifest into a cold. So far it has just made me feel like shit, with head, body aches, and swollen lymph nodes in my throat.  I spent the first two days this week working from home, trying to recover, and other than the body aches getting better, it hasn’t really changed.

But instead of being so bitchy, I decided I should express some gratitude for my overall good health. I just went to another midwife appointment, which I’m doing every 2 weeks now, and as usual I have absolutely no problems with this pregnancy.  My blood pressure is consistently good (98/60 today).  I have no protein in my urine, no swelling, no gestational diabetes.  Baby is head down and doing great, though her shoulder is pressing into my ligaments now which KILLS. Sleeping is difficult and I’m uncomfortable a lot. My hips ache and my pelvis hurts. When it’s all put into perspective I feel these are lame complaints, and that I have many more reasons to be grateful.

I am grateful to be so healthy and to be having such a normal, uncomplicated pregnancy. I am grateful my cold hasn’t turned into an all-out phlegm fest. I am grateful I have avoided the flu altogether. I’m grateful I have a healthy baby growing inside me and that it wasn’t a struggle to make her in the first place.

I think when I do get a cold or something minor and my health’s not 100% it’s so easy to just bitch about it, but really, I’m grateful that’s the worst that ever happens to me.  Health is one of those things we take for granted until we don’t have it, and then we realize how important it is and how precious.  Not feeling quite 100% this week has made me realize how grateful I should be for how I normally feel. And even despite this minor setback, how really I am fine.

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