Happy Independence Day!

For the fourth my mom and Bill came up for a visit.  In reality it is to see A, but we'll take it, it is always nice to see family and get a little bit of help doing stuff around the house.  A continues to nap well as long as she is cuddling with someone.  She seems to be an equal opportunity cuddler as well, so if you need a napping buddy, she's your girl.  Here is a picture of Chris and me hanging out on the couch one day. 

Today we went to the MSI and saw the Body World exhibit.  It was Mom's first time to see the bodies, and A's first time to not be in utero to visit the museum.  A was very patient and hung out in her sling, while mom read all of the different placard throughout.  The coolest things from this body worlds were the animal plastinates.  I'd never seen any of them before and they are just interesting to me.  My zoo girls would understand the fascination, but they had a plastinate giraffe in the entry way to the museum.  We didn't really have time to see much else at the museum, but that's why we're members -- so we can go for free and not feel pressured to see it all in one day. :)  Here are a few pictures though:

Other than that we just did house improvement things for the fourth, oh and we watched some fireworks from our balcony.  I actually made some slings to carry A in while Chris and Bill worked on the UV tinting for the door and mom occupied A.  They are GREAT and much more comfortable for me than the backpack carrier we got.  I switch sides every so often, and at the end of the day my back doesn't hurt.  Everyone always asks me if carrying A in either the backpack or slings is a comfortable thing, my response has become, "Well, I carried her there for about nine months, at least this way its only a few hours," and we both laugh and go about our separate business.  The other really cool thing with the sling though is that I can nurse A in public without much exposure of me (provided she cooperates) to the general public, so I don't really need a nursing cover if I've got her in the sling.  I found that out today at the museum. 

In terms of A: we're getting a lot more noises out of her for simple things.  She makes different sounds and is smiling a lot.  She has her toothless smiles that do brighten up the day and make changing that dirty diaper not so bad, though occasionally if she's worked really hard, she kind of gets upset that we change the diaper.  Cloth diapers are still going well.  She really really loathes the heat, so we're running our AC more than we ever have, at least since we've been here in Chicago.  Really we need a dehumidifier more than an AC sometimes, but that's not really a good idea for our place.  A didn't really seem to mind the fireworks until we got several from several locations.  She still likes to look at stuff with lots of contrast, so I think she enjoyed the museum.  She isn't sleeping as much, so we're able to read more and play a bit more. We have more good days in a week than bad ones (days when she is inconsolably cranky, but most of the time turning on the air helps the crankiness exponentially), so that's encouraging.  Hopefully June will be the hottest month of the summer, but I won't hold my breath about that. 

As always it seems, I'm cutting in to my sleep time, but think it is worth it to kind of keep a record of A this week so that I can look back on it and see things.

Peaches Foster

What do you do when Chris shows up from a trip to Costco with a flat of peaches?  You are: 1) secretly glad that you can eat them and have a new snack, 2) learn to experiment with peaches.  This led me to my latest creation while I will essentially call peaches foster, as it was more like bananas foster than peach cobbler.

1 peach
2 TBS butter
2 TBS vanilla
Cinnamon
Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Tapioca flour or starch

I cut up the peach and put it in a saute pan.  I added the butter and vanilla (since I make my own vanilla there was still a bit of rum left, so I would also add some rum if you want it to be yummy) here.  Stir the peaches into the vanilla and butter as the butter melts.  Let that mixture just start to boil then add the tapioca starch.  As the mixture starts to thicken add the cinnamon and sugar.  Serve over ice cream.  :)

I keep a cinnamon and sugar mixture around that I use for things and I used some for this recipe.  I used about two tablespoons of the mixture.  The mixture is made with 1 cup of white sugar with 2 TBS cinnamon and then mixed well. 

When I started this Chris told me he didn't want any because he was full.  Apparently he has a separate dessert stomach and decided he wanted some once I was done.  His word was, "yum." He also said that I could make it again, so I probably will be since I've got a lot more peaches to use!

Other than that, not much is new since last week.  We had a good weekend.  Chris and a friend went to help a widow -- they are trying to start a group of guys who get together and go help widows and single moms do handyman type things -- on Saturday while I stayed home with A.  We went to church and then made muffins.  Sunday we went to the bookstore to look for Eric Carle books, and found a few but didn't buy any.  We are wanting some more large board books to read for A since we've only got a couple.  She likes the pictures and the board books are stiff enough that we can prop them up and make her lift her head to see the pictures.  That was the extent of our weekend though.  I'm off to bed since everyone else is already sleeping and I need more than a 20 minute nap sometime in the next 12 hours.  

Yummy Quiche

Today we went to the doc for A's one month check-up.  She is actually 5 weeks old now, but that's okay.  She is doing well, gaining weight and length.  She's also moved up a little in the percentiles.  Doc says that she read the manual before she came and seems to be a healthy happy baby.  :)

The other thing we did today was make a great quiche for supper.  We were going to simply have "breakfast for dinner" but I suggested a quiche since it is definitely cool enough to bake something right now.  Here's the recipe.

Crust:
1.5 C flour total (I used 1/2 cup each of chickpea, brown rice, and casava)
2 tsp guar gum
1/3 C butter (small chunks added gradually to the flour mixture)
enough ice water to form a ball but not be too sticky

To make the crust mix the flours and gum.  Add in the butter small chunk at a time.  Add in the water a tsp at a time until a ball forms.  Roll the ball on parchment paper or a floured surface (since the flours are so pricey I tend to use parchment paper).  Fit to pie dish and set aside.

Basic quiche egg mixture: 4 eggs with 1 1/4 C milk or milk/cream mixture.  Add in what you've got laying around -- we used spinach, sauteed mushrooms, and bacon.  Then cover in cheese. 

Bake at 375 for about 40-45 minutes.  It is done when you insert a knife or toothpick and it comes out clean, it will also wiggle a bit but not resonate when you shake the pie plate in the oven.  Remove from oven and let cool then serve.  Here's a pic: 

Father's Day #1

Well this past week has been us mainly settling back into a routine of being home.  Well, as much of a routine as you can have with a five week old.  A is now five weeks old, okay, she will be tomorrow.  Friday was her "month" day, so we felt pretty good about that.  We've survived the first month of us having a child, here's to the rest of our lives....  Though hopefully she won't always be this way and will eventually learn to walk and talk, like she is trying hard to do!

Yesterday was Chris's first father's day.  A let us sleep in a little, after I put her back to sleep about six she made it until about eight thirty.  :)  I tried to make pancakes, but A decided she was hungry so I made the batter and Chris got to cook them, but they were tasty.  I think I'd like to try and make lemon poppyseed pancakes, but that will take some time so maybe when I have company that will watch A I can get a recipe for those together.  After breakfast Chris fixed the freezer (we think he may have actually fixed it as he found a blown fuse that has been replaced a few times, so here's hoping!) and then fixed the washer (we had come home from OK to having the switch ignite and last week he had created a bypass for the switching mechanism so that we could do laundry) with the new switch.  Finally we got to do some hanging out and playing with A.  I told him that I felt bad he had to do all these different chores on Father's Day, but he said that with me spending most of the day feeding A, that I had given him the best present about a month ago.  Though we'll see if the enjoyment continues as we become more and more exhausted...

She is definitely starting to be more vocal and starting to stay awake more.  She has her likes and dislikes and wants us to know them.  She also has become kind of clingy, but that's one of those things we hopes goes away.  At night she is starting to sleep longer *happy dance* but at times it seems she is having bad dreams.  We know she is dreaming, and find it fun to watch her dream, but what exactly is she dreaming about, either good or bad?  If you have any ideas (besides milk) then let us know!  She has started smiling a lot (when she's not telling us she doesn't like something) so that's nice.  We also spend some time each day on our tummies -- typically reading.  Right now we're working through Harry Potter and some other more good books like, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Brown Bear, Dr. Seuss' ABCs, and other such books as well.  We'll probably start the Narnia series when we're done with Harry Potter. 

Basic Pancake Recipe:
2 c flour
2 tsp gum
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c butter (completely melted)
2 C milk
1 TBS vanilla
2 eggs

Well, it's about dinner time and Chris needs some relief since he's been trying to calm A down while I do this.  We'll see if she's hungry, yet again, and if she'll create a cocoon and emerge a butterfly in one weeks time.

OK pictures

 We just got back from a good trip to OK.  We managed to see most of our families that are in the area still.  It was great to see everyone mid year as most of the time we only make it back to OK in the winter.  We also realized that we still don't like the heat and would rather have our coldest days than the OK summer heat, we've become spoiled I suppose. 

It was interesting taking a car trip with a 3 week old, but A did really really well.  We drove down and it took us about 12 hours.  Everyone was pretty good until about Joplin, at which point we saw the tornado damage and all wanted out of the car.  At the first "welcome center" in OK we arrived about 10 minutes before closing.  The problem being that we needed to get inside the center to use the washrooms.  There were about a dozen or so people standing outside because one of the ladies had tried to "close early."  She was talking about how they were closed when we walked up with A.  As soon as that happened she opened the doors and said we could go to the bathroom.  As to be expected, she was like, "what a beautiful baby. How old is she?"

We spent a day or so in Tulsa, including going out for our 6th anniversary on Friday.  :)  We let my mom babysit A while we went to Mimi's cafe.  After breakfast we drove to Shawnee and met up with some of Chris's family.  Then for supper we went into OKC with his family for the rehearsal dinner.  At the dinner there was another baby there, born May 11, who was significantly smaller than A.  We are pretty sure A could have eaten him for breakfast, but we didn't really try.  We were just shocked like normal about how well A is doing and how well she is thriving. 

A with grandgrandmother Godfrey

Saturday we went to a beautiful wedding of Chris's cousin.  We dressed A up and here is a picture of that.  The parents with the other little baby entered the church right behind us, so they joked, and said, "there's your girlfriend" to the baby, it was cute.  After the ceremony Chris went to the reception while I went with A to the Godfrey's.  I just didn't think that I or A could take two late nights out, and I was right.  We ended up getting a lot of sleep which did us both a lot of good. 

Dressed for the wedding

Sunday we hung out with Chris's various families and then drove to Tulsa.  We decided that the twelve hours it took for us to get to Tulsa was going to be long enough and we didn't want to try making it an extra couple of hours all in one day.  It also saved us a stop and all sorts of stuff.  The drive home was a lot easier than the trip down to OK, but that was a factor of all sorts of things. At the Godfrey's Chris's mom said that the dogs had looked for A and me after we left on Saturday night -- this is really funny since the dogs didn't quite know what to do with a baby, and being dachshunds they were about the same size as the small human.  The dog in the picture is one that LOVED Chris while we lived in Arkansas, so naturally the dog also took to A and became her "protector" while we were there.  The dog wanted us to know when A was crying, so he joined in by barking.  Nothing like having 2 things speaking at you that you don't really understand...

four generations + a dog

set for a day in the sun

Today we've spent getting stuff sorted out here at the house while Chris went to work.

Edit: A few of the pictures my father took with his camera while we were in Tulsa.

Dinner at Elotes in Tulsa

Family photo with A

Exciting life in Chicago

Today was an exciting day for A and me.  We got to go into downtown Chicago for an allergy shot!  :)  We also got to go by UIC and see the front office staff, all of whom were incredibly excited to see A (and catch up with me briefly).  Everyone was shocked by her head of hair, but that's okay, I simply told them that full headed is how we make babies in OK.  Everyone that Chris works with (his couple of undergrads and Tom) were also excited to see A.  I even surprised my old boss, Dr. Wink, with a visit.  It was good to see him, and I realize that I don't miss grad school even an iota. 

We finally made it to the allergist and he was excited to see A as well.  He wanted all the birth stats, and since she is 3 weeks old today he also was curious what she weighed now.  He had one of the nurses weigh her for us -- she weighed in at a 9 lbs 8 ounces, a full 2 pounds more than she was at birth.  This helps me out a lot because I constantly wonder if she has stomach issues when she becomes fussy after eating or simply won't nurse.  If she can gain weight a 1 pound per 10 days then I think she is doing okay.  She's just getting so big!  We didn't do a length on her, but she is starting to get pudgy around the middle, so that means we're heading for a growth spurt I think.

In other cool news, I found bagels that I can eat.  There is a small grocery/vitamin store about a mile away that we couldn't ever find, but I managed to find it yesterday.  They have about five aisles in the store, and then a bit of frozen stuff around the outside.  About half of the aisles have vitamins/supplements and then two have food stuffs on them.  One of the aisles (and most of the frozen/chilled stuff) is ALL gluten free.  The bagels are made by a company called, Against the Grain.  The bagels aren't horribly more expensive than regular bagels (about 2x the price, as opposed to 5x for a lot of stuff) and they even make baguettes that I can eat! 

Anyway, I'm busy getting stuff together for a fun exciting car adventure that we'll be taking the next few days.  Here's to finding out how well A does in the car for hours on end... More like how we do with a newborn for hours on end in a car, but that's just semantics right?

Labor & Delivery

Well, this is more for me than anyone else, but if you are interested you can read this.  It is essentially what I remember from L&D two weeks ago.  I don't really want to forget it and I may want some of it for a baby book at some point, so I want to get it typed up now.  Chris has A, and I've got a few minutes of missing sleep I can do for this.  I've slept off and on all day, so we'll see how I sleep tonight...

We started out Monday the 16th as usual -- getting up way too early to get Chris to the train.  I was having contractions about 30 minutes apart on Sunday night, so Chris wanted to time them when we got up in the morning.  We realized they were much closer than we thought -- about 10 minutes apart so Chris decided that he was staying home to help me since it seemed a hospital trip was imminent.  There is already a post on here about that morning so I'll basically pick up from there...

About 1130 we went for a walk because it was a BEAUTIFUL day outside.  Plus walking and changing activities is supposed to help you know if you are in "false labor" or "real labor".  We took our walk on the pond that I normally run by across the street.  We saw a Mallard family that had three ducklings.  I wanted to get close enough to take a picture but the Mother Mallard hid the ducklings in the grass since the water is so high and I couldn't get them on camera.  We cut the walk a bit short as walking was increasing my contractions.  As we were getting close to the street I felt a small pop in my abdomen and said, "I think my water just broke," because that was the only thing I could think of to say.  When we got home I checked to see if it was amniotic fluid or urine (since that's a common mistake).  It looked like water and didn't really have a smell, so Chris thought it was the amniotic sac.  I wasn't sure so I wanted to wait around and see what happened.  We ate lunch and Linda came over.  We went for another short walk about 130 and I got more fluid to come out.  Once we got back from that walk Linda and I played some Mario Party until I decided maybe it really was my amniotic sac that broke and I rang the OB office.  While calling the OB office I found it very odd that of the "options" there wasn't one for, "I think I'm in labor."  In fact, when I finally got a person to speak to, they were like, "Why are you calling this number, but let me connect you to a nurse."  When I told the nurse what happened, she agreed that my bag of waters had probably broken and that I needed to get to the hospital ASAP.  We got to the hospital about three. 

At the hospital I got "triaged" in L&D.  We walked in and I said, "I think my water broke."  The nurses were like, "When is your due date?"  I answered, "Today" and you could see them thinking, "well, we do this all the time and she'll be going home."  The nurse triaged me and took a few samples.  Apparently amniotic fluid crystallizes, so they do a quick pH test as well as a couple of slide tests to see if crystals grow.  Crystals are supposed to take 5-10 minutes.  The pH for me wasn't right, but the slides showed crystals in about 2 minutes so the nurse came back in to the room and said, "You're getting admitted."  This meant that I was on the clock since you only get 24 hours after the amniotic sac breaks for the baby to get here, and often after about 16 hours the doctor goes in for the baby. 

We started the admission stuff while the nurses attempted to start and IV since I needed antibiotics and the electrolyte solution since I was no longer allowed to eat.  During the admission stuff I had to educate my nurses about eosinophilic disorders, and the proper way to start an IV.  Apparently I have tough skin and veins that roll.  I told them this and told them that typically IVs end up in my hands.  They wanted me to have my hands free so that when it came time to push I could easily, but after three sticks they called an anesthesiologist in to start the IV for them.  He put it in my hand and then asked if I was a phlebotomist since I knew so much about the IVs.  They also called in a lab person to draw blood because the nurse wasn't going to have any part in trying to stick me again.  I was having contractions but they were simply causing me to efface, not to dilate. 

At shift change we got a new nurse, Jackie, and our friend Laurie (a mother/baby nurse) was also there off and on all night.  About seven Jackie came in and said they were going to start pitocin.  This was a problem for me because I really wanted everything to be as natural as possible.  I didn't want drugs and felt that my body was getting mixed signals since I was having mild contractions and this was a major hurdle for me mentally and emotionally.  By about 8 we had the drip going, so I now had three bags attached to my IV pole.  The pitocin contractions started getting bad and all of a sudden I had the urge to go clear my bowels, this was probably 830-900.  Jackie let me go since I was only dilated to a 2.  By about 1030 I had dilated to a 4 and deemed in "active labor."  From then on the contractions started coming rather quickly and it seemed like I would only ever get a minute or two break between contractions.  Both Chris and Jackie were helpful in getting me through a few of the later contractions. 

At one point, the time completely escapes me, but it was probably 12-1230 on May 17, I had the urge to push.  I remember telling Jackie this and she said she needed to check me for dilation, she estimated me to be about an 8.  She kept telling me to breathe through the contractions but that I had to take shallow breaths.  What seems like a few minutes later I had the pushing urge again and she once again checked me, I was at a 9 and change.  Apparently you could already see hair though, so baby was coming, and coming soon.  At this point the room became rather active and I remember hearing, "get the doctor in here."  Jackie had me give a "little" push at this point to see if I'd complete the dilation and hit 10.  It worked and baby was intent on coming.  I also remember hearing that the doctor was finishing up another labor and would be a minute.  This meant that I had to "not push" through several more contractions.  This is probably the most difficult thing to do.  Jackie and Chris both tried to give me breathing patterns to get through it, but I ended up kind of laughing almost, but the artificial laugh more than a true belly rolling laugh.  When the doctor came in I finally got to push!  The first contraction I almost knocked the doctor and the baby nurse to the ground.  I had missed the pegs.  Chris at this point was asked to help hold one of my legs -- a job he had repeatedly said he NEVER wanted to do.  The doctor also helped coach me through the next contraction and wanted me to put my hands on the inside of my knees versus on the hand holds to help me push.  That was contraction #2 of pushing.  Then the doctor told me to both hold my breath and stop arcing my back during the pushing.  I did this for contraction #3.  At the end of the third big "push" the doc told me to try one more, and out came Alexis.  I didn't have to push for shoulders or anything else after that.  She was immediately screaming and fussy and I got to see her before they cut the cord.  Chris did cut the cord, and the Alexis was dried off, weighed & measured before being put on my chest.  The doc sewed my minor laceration up and kept telling me not to move my legs that were shaking worse than any run I've ever done.  I also kept having to move them since I had a bit more feeling and my back was a bit uncomfortable.  He tried giving me a local anesthetic that didn't really do much seeing as I could feel the threading and stitches going in. 

We tried to breast feed and Jackie helped me do a couple of "holds" that were difficult simply because I had so many machines attached to so many different parts of me.  Alexis latched quite well though to both sides with all the different holds and Jackie gave me a few pointers.  Jackie also gave me a lot of numbers as to how many people come in and get the pitocin and end up with an epidural.  Apparently I am one of a few who managed a pitocin induced labor with no epidural as well.  I did have a mg or two of an IV opiod anesthetic, but that was towards the end and really to take the edge off the never ending contractions.