So this past week has been one of the best, most exhausting weeks for all three of us now. I keep thinking that I'll sit down and write up the labor story, as I'd really like to, but always end up wanting to sleep and that takes a bit of priority. Right now I'm waiting on the wash to finish so I can grab a nap while A sleeps. She's currently in a milk coma on my chest so the years of bad typing practice with one hand are coming in handy.
A was born last Tuesday (May 17) very very early (107 am). She was punctually on her due date (well we had both May 16 and 17 given to us as due dates) and we stayed in the hospital until Thursday. We were admitted to the hospital last Monday as my water broke when we went for a short walk. Every one has been shocked by the amount of hair she has -- from the nurses to the people we saw as we were leaving the hospital to the people at church. She weighed 7.53 lbs (about 7 lbs 8 ounces) and was 19 inches long. Most of last week is a blur for both Chris and me as we were up for over 24 hours Monday and then with me being in the hospital and Chris sleeping at home yet bringing me food, it all went by rather fuzzily. It is a good fuzzy, but fuzzy nevertheless. It was stressful for all, so I suppose fuzzy is to be expected.
Chris has started going back into work most days, for at least a few hours. He doesn't like having to leave us here, but is willing to to help us all get into a routine. I feel really badly that I have to stay home some days while he goes to work, but someone has to keep working in this family. He continues to have interviews and is talking with several people about a possible job change, so pray that something good comes through. There are a few possible things up in the air right now, and a couple that would be perfect.
While I don't like Chris leaving for the day, it helps me to have the time alone with A and get organized on how to do things at home versus in the hospital. It is quite nice to not have her taken for vitals every few hours and she is slowly learning to sleep through the night. While we were in the hospital she was in my room except to have her vitals taken since we were learning to breast feed and all. Right now she is waking up hungry about every three hours, so we're excited about that. She doesn't seem to do much except sleep, but that's normal for someone just a week old. She is overall a quiet baby thus far, hopefully it will hold out. She doesn't really complain about much and doesn't even seem to have a "witching hour" that infants are known for. She simply likes to sleep, nurse, and cuddle. She seems to be a non-picky cuddler who will cuddle with anyone if given the chance. She'd cuddle with the nurses at the hospital even, so that's excited news! Granted she occasionally will want me (and is starting to want Chris) over other people, but that's okay with us for now.
One thing we've had to do is change from the disposable diapers to cloth diapers. There were a couple of days in the hospital where her bum looked kind of irritated with the diapers. Now that we've got her home a lot of the diapers just made it worse. It didn't really matter if we let her go diaperless for hours at a time, any time we'd put a new diaper on her, the skin wouldn't be happy at the next diaper change. I was looking at doing cloth diapers as soon as she can fit into all-in-ones, so we were more or less ready for this type of thing. Chris though is the one who really pushed for trying out the cloth diapers now, as opposed to waiting, and he really likes them. I like them too, but most importantly, A seems to like them as she's not having any trouble with irritated skin at all.
This coming week several members of Chris's family will be coming to visit, so there will be lots of pictures I'm sure to share. We're excited to see everyone and to share A with family. Anyway, I've now had this sitting at my computer half of the day (so I'm learning to not be obsessive about things) and need to go feed myself so that I can feed Alexis. Then she'll probably go into another milk coma. Hopefully she'll be awake some of the day though, particularly the part when Chris is home so that we can play a bit with her!
Monday, May 23, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
A Pictures
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| Just after delivery before they really cleaned A off |
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| Just after the first bath given by our friend Laurie. |
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| Proud papa holding his daughter. She's only a few hours old here. |
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| Ready to go home |
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| Hanging out on dad's lap after he got home from work. |
Monday, May 16, 2011
Maybe it is time...
Well, the past weekend was eventful. We had some fun on Friday thinking I might actually be in labor, but no such luck. However, on Friday Ripley dropped like a cannon, so all the contractions and such were very much worth it. I can breathe again, and I'm no longer really being kicked in the ribs. :) I managed to make a couple of loaves of bread since the weather was cool enough that I didn't mind turning on the oven. Go nesting instinct!
Saturday we kind of hung around and tried to see if we could start labor or not. We made some cinnamon rolls to put in the freezer for the next few weeks. Ripley really needs to get here simply so that we can get rid of some of the food in the freezer that I've been working on for the past few weeks. Saturday night we went to Jessie and Jason's for Jason's "surprise" 30th party. Everyone was shocked to see me, but it was nice to get out and about. Everyone kept going, "You look great" to the inevitable question of, "when are you due again?" with my answer simply being, "Monday."
Sunday we went to church for the early service, since we were up and all. I suppose that officially makes us old if we go to the early service to get it out of the way. It was weird getting up and going to church on Sunday as we've been going to Saturday night services for about six months or so now. It was also quite interesting to see how the room filled as when we started there were probably 50 people there, but ended up with 100-150 or so I imagine.
Now we're up again and Chris is staying home. I'm piddling around as I have contractions that are fairly regular. Chris decided that he would stay home since we'll probably end up with a Ripley today. That means this may be my last post for a bit. I'll try and get some pictures up if nothing else. Hopefully this is it though! Now we're going to be parents. We're excited and ready for it, so the waiting game may finally be over. Overall the pregnancy hasn't been horrid or really all that bad, just annoying more than anything. For me the jury is still out on it being "worth" it, but Chris is super excited, which does help in the "worth" it category. He's sitting there attempting to nap currently while I piddle and say, "okay, here we go," wait a bit and then, "good." Had we known this was going to happen this morning, we would have slept in some, but Chris was going to try and go to work. He was curious about how I was doing so we started timing, little did we know they were quite close together and regular. Anyway, I'm going to do some laundry and such since I probably won't have a lot of time to do that over the next few weeks. I hope that all is well with you!
Saturday we kind of hung around and tried to see if we could start labor or not. We made some cinnamon rolls to put in the freezer for the next few weeks. Ripley really needs to get here simply so that we can get rid of some of the food in the freezer that I've been working on for the past few weeks. Saturday night we went to Jessie and Jason's for Jason's "surprise" 30th party. Everyone was shocked to see me, but it was nice to get out and about. Everyone kept going, "You look great" to the inevitable question of, "when are you due again?" with my answer simply being, "Monday."
Sunday we went to church for the early service, since we were up and all. I suppose that officially makes us old if we go to the early service to get it out of the way. It was weird getting up and going to church on Sunday as we've been going to Saturday night services for about six months or so now. It was also quite interesting to see how the room filled as when we started there were probably 50 people there, but ended up with 100-150 or so I imagine.
Now we're up again and Chris is staying home. I'm piddling around as I have contractions that are fairly regular. Chris decided that he would stay home since we'll probably end up with a Ripley today. That means this may be my last post for a bit. I'll try and get some pictures up if nothing else. Hopefully this is it though! Now we're going to be parents. We're excited and ready for it, so the waiting game may finally be over. Overall the pregnancy hasn't been horrid or really all that bad, just annoying more than anything. For me the jury is still out on it being "worth" it, but Chris is super excited, which does help in the "worth" it category. He's sitting there attempting to nap currently while I piddle and say, "okay, here we go," wait a bit and then, "good." Had we known this was going to happen this morning, we would have slept in some, but Chris was going to try and go to work. He was curious about how I was doing so we started timing, little did we know they were quite close together and regular. Anyway, I'm going to do some laundry and such since I probably won't have a lot of time to do that over the next few weeks. I hope that all is well with you!
Friday, May 13, 2011
No Bake Oatmeal Cookies
As an easy thing to do I'm going to start experimenting with no bake cookies. I will probably be using oats as my main starch, though some other simple stuff may also be thrown in. I want to try a pb version of these, maybe tomorrow, maybe use more pb over milk?
Today I started with a recipe from the site I get my oats from: www.glutenfreeoats.com. It is a variation of their no bake cookie so here it is:
1/2 C butter
2 C sugar (I used 1 c vanilla sugar and 1 c regular sugar)
1/3 C cocoa
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 C cream (I used cream instead of milk since we need to get rid of our cream)
1 TBS vanilla
3-3 1/2 C oats
Melt the butter in a pan. Add the sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and cream. Continue stirring until the mixture just boils. Add in the vanilla and remove from heat. Stir in the oats (I'd like to try adding in the oats while it is still heating to slightly cook the oats, but I imagine one would need more water to do that). Drop by spoonfuls on a cookie sheet (I also used parchment paper over a cooling rack since I couldn't reach the cookie sheets easily, and it seems to work fine.) If the mixture is "runny" then add more oats. Let them cool. Store for future enjoyment.
This recipe is stupidly simple -- it took me 20 minutes from start to finish. You could also make it with regular oats and it would taste the same.
A couple of notes:
1) The oats seem to be pretty crunchy in these, so adding more moisture and then letting them cook may work to soften them up some. Maybe substituting agave nectar for the sugar would also work -- that would also make the quite diabetic friendly -- as well as giving the solution more moisture.
2) I added a few too many oats I think and the cookies just kind of crumbled.
3) Don't really try and roll the cookies, that just causes them to crumble more. This may be because there were too many oats, so you can try it however you can.
Today I started with a recipe from the site I get my oats from: www.glutenfreeoats.com. It is a variation of their no bake cookie so here it is:
1/2 C butter
2 C sugar (I used 1 c vanilla sugar and 1 c regular sugar)
1/3 C cocoa
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 C cream (I used cream instead of milk since we need to get rid of our cream)
1 TBS vanilla
3-3 1/2 C oats
Melt the butter in a pan. Add the sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and cream. Continue stirring until the mixture just boils. Add in the vanilla and remove from heat. Stir in the oats (I'd like to try adding in the oats while it is still heating to slightly cook the oats, but I imagine one would need more water to do that). Drop by spoonfuls on a cookie sheet (I also used parchment paper over a cooling rack since I couldn't reach the cookie sheets easily, and it seems to work fine.) If the mixture is "runny" then add more oats. Let them cool. Store for future enjoyment.
This recipe is stupidly simple -- it took me 20 minutes from start to finish. You could also make it with regular oats and it would taste the same.
A couple of notes:
1) The oats seem to be pretty crunchy in these, so adding more moisture and then letting them cook may work to soften them up some. Maybe substituting agave nectar for the sugar would also work -- that would also make the quite diabetic friendly -- as well as giving the solution more moisture.
2) I added a few too many oats I think and the cookies just kind of crumbled.
3) Don't really try and roll the cookies, that just causes them to crumble more. This may be because there were too many oats, so you can try it however you can.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Ready, Set, Wait!
This past week has been quite full. We've managed to get a lot of stuff done and ready for Ripley, now we just need a Ripley.
The biggest thing we've accomplished is getting everything ready in Ripley's room. We now have everything put together and are just working on "stocking" it with what we'll need for a baby once it gets here. We managed to get the recliner into the room as well, so hopefully that will be great for night time feedings and whatnot. We shall see. Here are two pics of the room though. We've got some ideas on what else needs to happen, but for now, we have to wait and see how everything works with Ripley.
We are in the days of waiting for Ripley though which means we're both quite excited. We're looking forward to being three instead of just two, despite our qualms. We're quite thankful to everyone who does reassure us that it really is an okay decision and that it isn't as scary as we might think.
We finally are getting spring here as well. We didn't get a ton of rain this past week, so that means everything has really greened up. It helps that we're getting a TON of sunlight each day though -- by about 445 it is starting to dawn, and twilight starts about 8. As always, we still have a few more weeks until the summer solstice, so soon it will be really really hard to sleep with the light outside. As always though, hopefully this summer makes up for the winter in terms of wonderful weather. This year it will be nice to go out with a baby and enjoy the weather.
Anyway, I'm going to finish doing some stuff in Ripley's room before I take a quick nap and really get my day going. I hope everyone has a great day!
The biggest thing we've accomplished is getting everything ready in Ripley's room. We now have everything put together and are just working on "stocking" it with what we'll need for a baby once it gets here. We managed to get the recliner into the room as well, so hopefully that will be great for night time feedings and whatnot. We shall see. Here are two pics of the room though. We've got some ideas on what else needs to happen, but for now, we have to wait and see how everything works with Ripley.
We are in the days of waiting for Ripley though which means we're both quite excited. We're looking forward to being three instead of just two, despite our qualms. We're quite thankful to everyone who does reassure us that it really is an okay decision and that it isn't as scary as we might think.
We finally are getting spring here as well. We didn't get a ton of rain this past week, so that means everything has really greened up. It helps that we're getting a TON of sunlight each day though -- by about 445 it is starting to dawn, and twilight starts about 8. As always, we still have a few more weeks until the summer solstice, so soon it will be really really hard to sleep with the light outside. As always though, hopefully this summer makes up for the winter in terms of wonderful weather. This year it will be nice to go out with a baby and enjoy the weather.
Anyway, I'm going to finish doing some stuff in Ripley's room before I take a quick nap and really get my day going. I hope everyone has a great day!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Blondies (For Katie)
1.5 c of packed brown sugar
1 c butter
2.25 cup flour (1 cup sorghum, 3/4c tapioca, .5 c arrowroot, 1/4 tsp gelatin, 1/2 tsp guar gum)
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 TBSP vanilla
Optional: 1/2 tsp cinnamon, chocolate chips, nuts of any sort, etc.
Melt butter and sugar in a sauce pan over low heat until butter is completely melted -- this will help carmalize some of the sugar and blend the butter well. I added my vanilla at this stage, essentially making very gooey caramel. Add in the eggs to the sugar mixture after the mixture has cooled back down to room temperature (don't want to cook the eggs in the warm caramel). Mix in the flour. Makes a 9x13 pan. Cook at 375 for about 20 minutes.
1 c butter
2.25 cup flour (1 cup sorghum, 3/4c tapioca, .5 c arrowroot, 1/4 tsp gelatin, 1/2 tsp guar gum)
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 TBSP vanilla
Optional: 1/2 tsp cinnamon, chocolate chips, nuts of any sort, etc.
Melt butter and sugar in a sauce pan over low heat until butter is completely melted -- this will help carmalize some of the sugar and blend the butter well. I added my vanilla at this stage, essentially making very gooey caramel. Add in the eggs to the sugar mixture after the mixture has cooled back down to room temperature (don't want to cook the eggs in the warm caramel). Mix in the flour. Makes a 9x13 pan. Cook at 375 for about 20 minutes.
May flowers?
Well, with the end of April we're mostly over our showers here. We haven't had any tornadoes or t-storms really. We're also entirely out of the possibility of freezing. This means they've put the dreaded speed bumps back in the parking lot and we've also got some green stuff sprouting on trees and such.
Besides for the weather not a lot is new here. This past weekend we did some yard work for an elderly couple. Our small group got together and we managed to get a LOT done in not a lot of time, as is typical of dividing and conquering something. I was only allowed to do simple things -- like install the batteries in the solar powered lights, skim the pond (ah, good old swimming pool cleaning days) for leaves and leave the koi alone, and as Chris said, "entertain the old people." Chris helped dig up some dead grass (funny, when you salt your driveway and that gets on the grass, the grass dies), dead bushes, etc. He also helped trimmed some branches from trees. Here's a picture of some bleeding hearts the lady had that were around the pond. I found them to be spectacular flowers.
The other thing I did on Saturday was go to a gluten-free, allergy friendly expo. It was nice to walk around and see some of the different foods that are becoming available for gluten intolerant people. I found several things out there that I can eat -- mostly new stuff that will have to be special ordered off the internet. It was always interesting because I kept reading labels, and the people manning the booths were like, "it's gluten free, promise," (since anyone who watches for gluten reads labels religiously regardless of the advertisements on the front since the FDA hasn't standardized labeling -- there is a petition going on at www.1in133.org if you're interested) and would always give me a sympathetic look when I'd say that I was looking for more than just gluten. I did manage to get a subscription to "Living Without" which is a magazine with recipes and articles on recent research in the food allergy/intolerance community. This past issue, the April/May one, has an article on the eosinophilic disease that I have. Here's a link to the article if you want to read up on it: http://www.livingwithout.com/issues/4_13/Life_Without_Food-2400-1.html. It really is amazing to both Chris and me to read articles about eosinophilic disorders and literally check off symptoms that I had before we started messing with my diet. I personally love that the article is titled, "Life Without Food," as that's what it seems like at first. Then after a while you realize what foods are acceptable and go from there. The only real symptom that we can't seem to get rid of is the dysphasia (something stuck in throat feeling.). It was the last thing the GI doc and I were working on, and we had hoped that getting some allergy shots for my environmental allergies would help. While the shots have helped my environmental allergies, they haven't so much helped the swallowing problem. I suppose my new GI doc and I will get on that here in a few months once things settle down. Or, who knows, maybe it will just go away after Ripley comes.
Speaking of food though, yesterday we went to breakfast with Chris's dad. He was in town for a seminar and we were able to meet up with him for breakfast in Chicago. I didn't do my typical spiel with going out and managed to get some minor contamination. I could tell pretty quickly, and it has made me not feel so well today even. It was nice to catch up with Chris's dad and share in the excitement that is waiting on Ripley.
Well, I'm off to do laundry and fun stuff cleaning out the car so we can get the seat base in at least. We're contemplating having the car detailed since it has been a while, and quite frankly since we use it mainly for long car trips, it could probably use it. I'm also sorting through swag picked up at the conference and trying to find good websites that might help me along my journey. I've got to pre-register as well, but that involves talking with strange doctors for an unborn baby, and that just seems weird to me, though apparently it happens all the time.
Besides for the weather not a lot is new here. This past weekend we did some yard work for an elderly couple. Our small group got together and we managed to get a LOT done in not a lot of time, as is typical of dividing and conquering something. I was only allowed to do simple things -- like install the batteries in the solar powered lights, skim the pond (ah, good old swimming pool cleaning days) for leaves and leave the koi alone, and as Chris said, "entertain the old people." Chris helped dig up some dead grass (funny, when you salt your driveway and that gets on the grass, the grass dies), dead bushes, etc. He also helped trimmed some branches from trees. Here's a picture of some bleeding hearts the lady had that were around the pond. I found them to be spectacular flowers.
The other thing I did on Saturday was go to a gluten-free, allergy friendly expo. It was nice to walk around and see some of the different foods that are becoming available for gluten intolerant people. I found several things out there that I can eat -- mostly new stuff that will have to be special ordered off the internet. It was always interesting because I kept reading labels, and the people manning the booths were like, "it's gluten free, promise," (since anyone who watches for gluten reads labels religiously regardless of the advertisements on the front since the FDA hasn't standardized labeling -- there is a petition going on at www.1in133.org if you're interested) and would always give me a sympathetic look when I'd say that I was looking for more than just gluten. I did manage to get a subscription to "Living Without" which is a magazine with recipes and articles on recent research in the food allergy/intolerance community. This past issue, the April/May one, has an article on the eosinophilic disease that I have. Here's a link to the article if you want to read up on it: http://www.livingwithout.com/issues/4_13/Life_Without_Food-2400-1.html. It really is amazing to both Chris and me to read articles about eosinophilic disorders and literally check off symptoms that I had before we started messing with my diet. I personally love that the article is titled, "Life Without Food," as that's what it seems like at first. Then after a while you realize what foods are acceptable and go from there. The only real symptom that we can't seem to get rid of is the dysphasia (something stuck in throat feeling.). It was the last thing the GI doc and I were working on, and we had hoped that getting some allergy shots for my environmental allergies would help. While the shots have helped my environmental allergies, they haven't so much helped the swallowing problem. I suppose my new GI doc and I will get on that here in a few months once things settle down. Or, who knows, maybe it will just go away after Ripley comes.
Speaking of food though, yesterday we went to breakfast with Chris's dad. He was in town for a seminar and we were able to meet up with him for breakfast in Chicago. I didn't do my typical spiel with going out and managed to get some minor contamination. I could tell pretty quickly, and it has made me not feel so well today even. It was nice to catch up with Chris's dad and share in the excitement that is waiting on Ripley.
Well, I'm off to do laundry and fun stuff cleaning out the car so we can get the seat base in at least. We're contemplating having the car detailed since it has been a while, and quite frankly since we use it mainly for long car trips, it could probably use it. I'm also sorting through swag picked up at the conference and trying to find good websites that might help me along my journey. I've got to pre-register as well, but that involves talking with strange doctors for an unborn baby, and that just seems weird to me, though apparently it happens all the time.
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