Baby E,
I'm sorry that you're getting the shaft. Its so hard to keep up with writing and taking pictures of you in my belly when your sister is all over the place, as rambunctious as can be. She definitely keeps me on my toes and makes sure I don't have a spare minute to rest. You'll have so much fun once you come because you won't ever be alone. Eden will take good care of you and make sure nobody messes with you, I can already tell.
This week was a great week, I took out all your clothes, got them washed, hung, and ready for when you arrive. Its hard to really get things ready since I'm not sure if you're a boy or girl but at least all the clothes you can wear are out and ready. Eden made sure to help, taking all the ugly folded clothes to make sure I fold them a second and third time until I got it just right. She even helped get me hangers to hang your clothes.
I can't believe you'll be here in less than 17 weeks. Time sure is flying by when I've got a helper next to me awaiting your arrival and its not just dad and mom here. We can't wait for you to come and I'm so excited you'll be here for Christmas. You are seriously a gift from above and I can't be more thankful to He that made everything possible.
Till next time baby E,
your loving mom
P.S. I promise to take more pictures of you to post
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Win a $25 gift card to Sweet Bottom Boutique
To all my friends who cloth diaper or would like to try, Sweet Bottoms Boutique is giving away a $25 gift card RIGHT NOW. Check it out :)
www.sweetbottomsbaby.com
www.sweetbottomsbaby.com
Thursday, January 5, 2012
great customer service deserves an applaud
I decided before having Eden that I would make my own baby food for her for a few different reasons.
1. I know exactly what she is eating.. let it be veggies, fruits, pasta, meat. I'd rather have make it myself then to feed Eden something someone else made that I had no control over. Plus, meat and pastas in a jar are plain GROSS.
2. Cost - with just about anything in this world, convenience costs money and inconvenience saves. Some may think that making your own baby food is inconvenient but because of this you save so much money. I bought frozen organic peas, 2 packs for $3.00. I made the equivalent of 15 jars of baby food peas. If you bought Earth's best or another organic brand, 1 jar would be about $1.00 = $15.00 and saving you a total of $12.00!
3. Mixing flavors. After freezing different veggies and fruits, all you have to do is mix 2 cubes of fruit/veggie together to create a new flavor at each meal time. Totally easy and so much fun! The big plus is that little one can try something new and doesn't get tired of the same old veggie/fruit blend.
With creating my own food for Miss E, I bought some freezer trays that are 1oz each. There were a few things that I needed to make sure my freezer trays had.
1. A cover - I wanted to make sure that each freezer tray had a cover so if for some reason there was a spill, it would be contained. Also, with a cover, you can stack your trays on top of each other and freeze a few trays instead of only 1 or 2 at a time.
2. Measurement - Knowing exactly how much each cube contained was important so that I know exactly how much food I'm giving Miss E.
3. Price - I didn't really care to spend more than $10 on a freezer tray, I'm not THAT crazy!
With all that, I found one brand that I really liked and met all my criteria - KIDCO.
Well two days ago, one of my freezer trays broke. It didn't break all the way where I wouldn't be able to use it, but I wasn't happy and I wanted to see if Kidco would do something about it. I decided to contact them. Within 5 minutes of contacting them, the man in charge telling me to send him a picture of my broken tray, I was given a confirmation that I would be receiving a new tray. TWO DAYS later, what do I receive in the mail? A brand new package of freezer trays. Just one of my freezer trays broke, a package contains 2 freezer trays.. so I got a whole new package and I couldn't be happier. They truly sold me and showed me exactly what customer service should be like, and for that I am giving them a little bit of my time to applaud them as well as give them two thumbs up for all my readers to see.
(a side note: KidCo is based out of Libertyville which is only about 10 miles away from me, which I think is pretty awesome.. and hits so close to home)
1. I know exactly what she is eating.. let it be veggies, fruits, pasta, meat. I'd rather have make it myself then to feed Eden something someone else made that I had no control over. Plus, meat and pastas in a jar are plain GROSS.
2. Cost - with just about anything in this world, convenience costs money and inconvenience saves. Some may think that making your own baby food is inconvenient but because of this you save so much money. I bought frozen organic peas, 2 packs for $3.00. I made the equivalent of 15 jars of baby food peas. If you bought Earth's best or another organic brand, 1 jar would be about $1.00 = $15.00 and saving you a total of $12.00!
3. Mixing flavors. After freezing different veggies and fruits, all you have to do is mix 2 cubes of fruit/veggie together to create a new flavor at each meal time. Totally easy and so much fun! The big plus is that little one can try something new and doesn't get tired of the same old veggie/fruit blend.
With creating my own food for Miss E, I bought some freezer trays that are 1oz each. There were a few things that I needed to make sure my freezer trays had.
1. A cover - I wanted to make sure that each freezer tray had a cover so if for some reason there was a spill, it would be contained. Also, with a cover, you can stack your trays on top of each other and freeze a few trays instead of only 1 or 2 at a time.
2. Measurement - Knowing exactly how much each cube contained was important so that I know exactly how much food I'm giving Miss E.
3. Price - I didn't really care to spend more than $10 on a freezer tray, I'm not THAT crazy!
With all that, I found one brand that I really liked and met all my criteria - KIDCO.
Well two days ago, one of my freezer trays broke. It didn't break all the way where I wouldn't be able to use it, but I wasn't happy and I wanted to see if Kidco would do something about it. I decided to contact them. Within 5 minutes of contacting them, the man in charge telling me to send him a picture of my broken tray, I was given a confirmation that I would be receiving a new tray. TWO DAYS later, what do I receive in the mail? A brand new package of freezer trays. Just one of my freezer trays broke, a package contains 2 freezer trays.. so I got a whole new package and I couldn't be happier. They truly sold me and showed me exactly what customer service should be like, and for that I am giving them a little bit of my time to applaud them as well as give them two thumbs up for all my readers to see.
(a side note: KidCo is based out of Libertyville which is only about 10 miles away from me, which I think is pretty awesome.. and hits so close to home)
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
now, where to begin
5 months later I finally decided to sit behind my keyboard and restart my blog. It's been quite a journey with little Miss E, the first 3 months were ridiculously hard and of course that would be the case for me. As a first time mom but nanny to 4, I thought having my own child would be a breeze - and of course that wasn't the case. Eden loved to cry. Plain and simple. She would cry waking up, cry going to sleep, cry anytime in between. For 3 months, could you imagine the only sound being cries? It was pretty horrendous but finally we are out of the "colic" stage and now into a much more lovely, active stage.
Miss E is 5 months old and hardly rolling over. At first I was worried that she was hitting her milestone but the DR basically said that she's on the heavier side so there's more weight to move around which could be hard. From what she has seen, heavier babies tend to roll over later than those that are light... well isn't that great, her weight already is holding her back! kidding, of course. I"m so glad she's a healthy, happy baby now.
This is my hello back to the blogging life.. and with that, I leave you with these pictures that tell more than 1000 words.
Miss E is 5 months old and hardly rolling over. At first I was worried that she was hitting her milestone but the DR basically said that she's on the heavier side so there's more weight to move around which could be hard. From what she has seen, heavier babies tend to roll over later than those that are light... well isn't that great, her weight already is holding her back! kidding, of course. I"m so glad she's a healthy, happy baby now.
This is my hello back to the blogging life.. and with that, I leave you with these pictures that tell more than 1000 words.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
6/26/11 changed my life
8:30am - woke up and took the dogs out for a mile walk
9:30am - woke Eugene up to take a shower and got ready for church
10:00am - about to walk out the door to church, I start getting a little cramp and decide to sit on the couch for a second to make sure it wasn't something more. 10 minutes later I realize that this may be the infamous contractions everyone was telling me about. I decide to time them, why not! Well 30 minutes later I realize that yes, these were most likely contractions and they're 5 minutes apart (I mean what the hell do I know, I've never felt a contraction!). My doctor on Thursday said there were three things that might happen for me to go to the hospital: 1. I would have a bloody show, 2. My water would break, 3. I would feel contractions 5 minutes apart.
Well, my contractions were 5 minutes apart so I decided that I might just have to go to the hospital to figure all this out. Well since I was up since 8:30 I decided I would eat something before I go in, just in case I do deliver and I can't eat anything for the day. Eugene and I ate some breakfast.
11:45am - I called my doctor to tell them I think I'm in labor (OMG I'M IN LABOR?, LABOR what a huge word that I thought I wouldn't have to use for another week or so)
12:00pm - Eugene and I put our bags, pillows, blankets, and most importantly the baby seat into the car and headed over to Labor&Delivery at Northwest Community Hospital.
12:30pm - We got to the hospital and they took all my information and checked me in. They started timing my contractions, I was excited to see if these were real contractions or if this was just cramps that I was feeling (they felt like period cramps by this time). Well lo and behold, they were real contractions so they decided to check my cervix. They checked and I was still just about 4 cm, which means no change from Thursday's doctor appointment. Well they decided to call the doctor and let him know and see what he had to say.
Doctor said that since I have no change that they can observe me for about 2 hours and if there is still no change that I'll have to go home. If there is a change, they'd figure out what they would do. Yes, you read that right.. even if I was to get dilated, if there wasn't that big of a change I would have to go home (WHAT A BUMMER).
Here is the problem behind everything. On Sunday, I was 38 weeks and 3 days. The hospital doesn't do any type of intervention until 39 weeks because from their experience if they do intervention before 39 weeks it usually concludes in a c-section. Because of this they wouldn't break my bag of water that was bulging and ready to pop, they couldn't give me any type of pain medication to ease the labor pains and they couldn't emit me until they were 100% sure I would have the baby without interventions.
2:30pm - They did a cervical check on me to see if there were any changes, turns out I was 5 cm dilated so just a little bit of change but a change nonetheless. By this time, my contractions were pretty painful so I told them there was no way I was going home and that I wouldn't even be able to make it out the door with how much pain I was in. The nurse told me they would call the doctor and see what he wanted to do.
Oh by the way, the doctor was not even a doctor I've ever met. There are two different practices that go through the hospital and take shifts during the weekend. Well of course the weekend I'm went was a weekend that the other practice covers.
3:30pm - Word from the doctor is that I didn't change that much so that they would be able to give me some nubain which would take the "bite" out of the contractions and make me feel tired and "drunk". They then would see if my water would break on its own.
Doctor was finally on his way in and I was now going to be admitted to the hospital.
4:00pm - Now that I was finally admitted and the news of me having a baby on the way settled in just a little bit, I was able to relax and finally text my family that I was officially in labor.
4:30pm - The nubain wasn't doing too much for me so I asked them if I could have the epidural, especially since I was going into full on labor and I didn't know how I would be able to handle it.
5:00pm - Got my epidural and a nurse came in to break my water. They checked my cervix and I was at about 6-7 cm dilated and labor was about to really hit hard since my bag of water was now broken. Thank goodness my epidural was in and I wouldn't have to feel much pain.
5:30pm - My mom and brother made it to the hospital and kept me company while I tried to "relax" and get myself prepared for the pushing that was going to come in the future (near future if I had any clue).
6:20pm - Doctor finally comes in and introduces himself to us. He checks my cervix and says that it's time to push. I hit 10 cm dilated and 100% effaced in just a little over an hour. Doctor said he would be back since he needed to change. The doctor reminded me that I needed to be ready to push for about 1-3 hours on average for a first time mom and if I pushed hard, I would be able to hopefully push for just an hour.
6:30pm - I started to push with my nurse and she said that they would get another nurse to also be in the delivery room with us. Pushing was HARD and I had no clue if I was doing it correctly or if I wasn't really pushing anything at all. Eden started sorta high so I had to push a little more than usual since I had to push her down. The nurse said I was doing it correctly (even though I kept doubting myself) so I kept pushing. Now pushing is 3 sets of 10 second pushes during each contraction. Between contractions is about 2 minutes which means you get to rest for 2 minutes and then push for 30 seconds. I was exhausted after 5 pushes so I definitely didn't know how I would be able to push for 3 hours if I had to.
7:00pm - The doctor came in and checked to see how things were progressing. You know when you look at someone and can kind of tell if they have "gentle hands" or more of the "rough and tough"? Well when you look at my doctor, you can tell he's not gentle and more rough and tough, let's get things on the road type of guy. Well great, he came in and looked at the progress and started stretching and moving things around down there to really get the show on the road. It was PAINFUL. Okay so I couldn't feel pain but the pressure was so intense I could feel how painful it was. The doctor as rough as he was though, was a pretty great motivator. Throughout the next 2 pushes he motivated me to push as hard as I could and gave me so much encouragement that I was doing it right. By the 3rd push he said that I was there and I just needed to push one more time and I'd have a baby. I couldn't believe it and I didn't. I gave my last push as much as I had and well he was right, I had a baby by 7:05pm.
Now for the nitty, gritty, dirty details. At the end of pushing Eden out and having a baby, I wasn't able to hold Eden because when they broke my water they saw some meconium (baby poop) in the bag of fluid and they wanted to make sure that she didn't swallow any and there was nothing in her lungs. They said that if she cried that there was no way she swallowed it and that she would be fine. But either way they would test her and make sure everything was okay. Well she cried when she came, but they still took her away and while they took her away...
I was stitched up. And I was, what you call "man-handled" to get my placenta out and to make sure I don't hemmorhage. Now when I say man-handled, I mean the doctor was totally pushing down on my stomach with all four fingers with all his might for about 5 minutes. It would have been nice if I couldn't feel it but I felt every bit of it and it was probably more painful than the contractions I was feeling before my epi. Both of these two things, the stitching and the man-handling to get the placenta out, was painful but I got through it thankfully.
So at the end of my delivery, the status is that I have stitches, they didn't tell me how many but he showed me how long of a cut he made (he didn't even tell me he cut me and I had no clue he did) and I have swelling in my bottom area (some nurses say swelling, some will say I have minor hemmroids). Monday was a painful one. I couldn't sleep very well because I was in pretty much a whole lot of pain and it was hard to just lay down without feeling pressure and pain all throughout my bottom region.
Through it all though, Eden is in this world and I would do it all over again in a second if I had to. Ever wonder how it feels like to fall in love at first sight? Have a baby.
9:30am - woke Eugene up to take a shower and got ready for church
10:00am - about to walk out the door to church, I start getting a little cramp and decide to sit on the couch for a second to make sure it wasn't something more. 10 minutes later I realize that this may be the infamous contractions everyone was telling me about. I decide to time them, why not! Well 30 minutes later I realize that yes, these were most likely contractions and they're 5 minutes apart (I mean what the hell do I know, I've never felt a contraction!). My doctor on Thursday said there were three things that might happen for me to go to the hospital: 1. I would have a bloody show, 2. My water would break, 3. I would feel contractions 5 minutes apart.
Well, my contractions were 5 minutes apart so I decided that I might just have to go to the hospital to figure all this out. Well since I was up since 8:30 I decided I would eat something before I go in, just in case I do deliver and I can't eat anything for the day. Eugene and I ate some breakfast.
11:45am - I called my doctor to tell them I think I'm in labor (OMG I'M IN LABOR?, LABOR what a huge word that I thought I wouldn't have to use for another week or so)
12:00pm - Eugene and I put our bags, pillows, blankets, and most importantly the baby seat into the car and headed over to Labor&Delivery at Northwest Community Hospital.
12:30pm - We got to the hospital and they took all my information and checked me in. They started timing my contractions, I was excited to see if these were real contractions or if this was just cramps that I was feeling (they felt like period cramps by this time). Well lo and behold, they were real contractions so they decided to check my cervix. They checked and I was still just about 4 cm, which means no change from Thursday's doctor appointment. Well they decided to call the doctor and let him know and see what he had to say.
Doctor said that since I have no change that they can observe me for about 2 hours and if there is still no change that I'll have to go home. If there is a change, they'd figure out what they would do. Yes, you read that right.. even if I was to get dilated, if there wasn't that big of a change I would have to go home (WHAT A BUMMER).
Here is the problem behind everything. On Sunday, I was 38 weeks and 3 days. The hospital doesn't do any type of intervention until 39 weeks because from their experience if they do intervention before 39 weeks it usually concludes in a c-section. Because of this they wouldn't break my bag of water that was bulging and ready to pop, they couldn't give me any type of pain medication to ease the labor pains and they couldn't emit me until they were 100% sure I would have the baby without interventions.
2:30pm - They did a cervical check on me to see if there were any changes, turns out I was 5 cm dilated so just a little bit of change but a change nonetheless. By this time, my contractions were pretty painful so I told them there was no way I was going home and that I wouldn't even be able to make it out the door with how much pain I was in. The nurse told me they would call the doctor and see what he wanted to do.
Oh by the way, the doctor was not even a doctor I've ever met. There are two different practices that go through the hospital and take shifts during the weekend. Well of course the weekend I'm went was a weekend that the other practice covers.
3:30pm - Word from the doctor is that I didn't change that much so that they would be able to give me some nubain which would take the "bite" out of the contractions and make me feel tired and "drunk". They then would see if my water would break on its own.
Doctor was finally on his way in and I was now going to be admitted to the hospital.
4:00pm - Now that I was finally admitted and the news of me having a baby on the way settled in just a little bit, I was able to relax and finally text my family that I was officially in labor.
4:30pm - The nubain wasn't doing too much for me so I asked them if I could have the epidural, especially since I was going into full on labor and I didn't know how I would be able to handle it.
5:00pm - Got my epidural and a nurse came in to break my water. They checked my cervix and I was at about 6-7 cm dilated and labor was about to really hit hard since my bag of water was now broken. Thank goodness my epidural was in and I wouldn't have to feel much pain.
5:30pm - My mom and brother made it to the hospital and kept me company while I tried to "relax" and get myself prepared for the pushing that was going to come in the future (near future if I had any clue).
6:20pm - Doctor finally comes in and introduces himself to us. He checks my cervix and says that it's time to push. I hit 10 cm dilated and 100% effaced in just a little over an hour. Doctor said he would be back since he needed to change. The doctor reminded me that I needed to be ready to push for about 1-3 hours on average for a first time mom and if I pushed hard, I would be able to hopefully push for just an hour.
6:30pm - I started to push with my nurse and she said that they would get another nurse to also be in the delivery room with us. Pushing was HARD and I had no clue if I was doing it correctly or if I wasn't really pushing anything at all. Eden started sorta high so I had to push a little more than usual since I had to push her down. The nurse said I was doing it correctly (even though I kept doubting myself) so I kept pushing. Now pushing is 3 sets of 10 second pushes during each contraction. Between contractions is about 2 minutes which means you get to rest for 2 minutes and then push for 30 seconds. I was exhausted after 5 pushes so I definitely didn't know how I would be able to push for 3 hours if I had to.
7:00pm - The doctor came in and checked to see how things were progressing. You know when you look at someone and can kind of tell if they have "gentle hands" or more of the "rough and tough"? Well when you look at my doctor, you can tell he's not gentle and more rough and tough, let's get things on the road type of guy. Well great, he came in and looked at the progress and started stretching and moving things around down there to really get the show on the road. It was PAINFUL. Okay so I couldn't feel pain but the pressure was so intense I could feel how painful it was. The doctor as rough as he was though, was a pretty great motivator. Throughout the next 2 pushes he motivated me to push as hard as I could and gave me so much encouragement that I was doing it right. By the 3rd push he said that I was there and I just needed to push one more time and I'd have a baby. I couldn't believe it and I didn't. I gave my last push as much as I had and well he was right, I had a baby by 7:05pm.
Now for the nitty, gritty, dirty details. At the end of pushing Eden out and having a baby, I wasn't able to hold Eden because when they broke my water they saw some meconium (baby poop) in the bag of fluid and they wanted to make sure that she didn't swallow any and there was nothing in her lungs. They said that if she cried that there was no way she swallowed it and that she would be fine. But either way they would test her and make sure everything was okay. Well she cried when she came, but they still took her away and while they took her away...
I was stitched up. And I was, what you call "man-handled" to get my placenta out and to make sure I don't hemmorhage. Now when I say man-handled, I mean the doctor was totally pushing down on my stomach with all four fingers with all his might for about 5 minutes. It would have been nice if I couldn't feel it but I felt every bit of it and it was probably more painful than the contractions I was feeling before my epi. Both of these two things, the stitching and the man-handling to get the placenta out, was painful but I got through it thankfully.
So at the end of my delivery, the status is that I have stitches, they didn't tell me how many but he showed me how long of a cut he made (he didn't even tell me he cut me and I had no clue he did) and I have swelling in my bottom area (some nurses say swelling, some will say I have minor hemmroids). Monday was a painful one. I couldn't sleep very well because I was in pretty much a whole lot of pain and it was hard to just lay down without feeling pressure and pain all throughout my bottom region.
Through it all though, Eden is in this world and I would do it all over again in a second if I had to. Ever wonder how it feels like to fall in love at first sight? Have a baby.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
38 week appointment update
Got back from my 38 week appointment, was kind of excited for it since it was my first internal and I wanted to see what was happening inside of my body.
Got my weight checked, blood pressure, talked to the nurse if there is any way to go through lightening since it doesn't seem like Baby Chon has moved down at all, and then waited for the doctor to come in.
Once the doctor came in, we checked the heart beat and then went into the cervical check. Well as my Dr was checking, she goes "oh wow, omg" and I'm thinking uh oh what is going on and she says that I am 3-4 cm dilated and that my water is bulging and ready to pop. She then said that she didn't know what to do with me and that she was going to call Dr. Goldin who is on call at the hospital to see if I should go to the hospital right away or what we should do. After she talked to Dr. Goldin, she came back and told me to hang out, relax, and wait for my water to break and once it does to call in. She then said that if that happens to go to the hospital or if my contractions get to be 5 minutes apart. I've been seeing my Dr. every week since 37 weeks and she said that we can set an appointment for next week but she highly doubts that I'll be seeing her for my next appointment and will be highly shocked if I do keep it.
Basically, Baby Chon is coming pretty soon.. we don't know how soon but soon enough. I'm finally slowly getting ready for this.
Got my weight checked, blood pressure, talked to the nurse if there is any way to go through lightening since it doesn't seem like Baby Chon has moved down at all, and then waited for the doctor to come in.
Once the doctor came in, we checked the heart beat and then went into the cervical check. Well as my Dr was checking, she goes "oh wow, omg" and I'm thinking uh oh what is going on and she says that I am 3-4 cm dilated and that my water is bulging and ready to pop. She then said that she didn't know what to do with me and that she was going to call Dr. Goldin who is on call at the hospital to see if I should go to the hospital right away or what we should do. After she talked to Dr. Goldin, she came back and told me to hang out, relax, and wait for my water to break and once it does to call in. She then said that if that happens to go to the hospital or if my contractions get to be 5 minutes apart. I've been seeing my Dr. every week since 37 weeks and she said that we can set an appointment for next week but she highly doubts that I'll be seeing her for my next appointment and will be highly shocked if I do keep it.
Basically, Baby Chon is coming pretty soon.. we don't know how soon but soon enough. I'm finally slowly getting ready for this.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
terrified
I am absolutely terrified for what's about to happen. I know that you need to come out some way or the other but I'm completely scared of labor and delivery. I'm scared, REALLY scared and I can't get over this fear. I'd love for you to come out for me to hold you, see you, love you but I am truly terrified. Watching all these shows with labor and delivery doesn't help my fear either. I can't imagine the pain and just everything that is about to happen in the next 2 weeks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)