Miss Mabel Shout Out

This is an extra special post for an extra special person in my life. 

I've known Katie Cross since we were wee little ladies growing up together in Idaho Falls. It would take multiple other posts to fill you in on all our adventures together, so that will have to wait for another day. In the meantime, I am bursting with excitement to help spread the word about her BOOK that she had come out today.

It also happens to be her birthday. Best birthday ever, right? 

Katie has always been a book snob, and for years and years has loved to write. She would send me stories she was working on and we would come up with plot ideas over dinner when we were roomies. When she told me that this Miss Mabel's book was something special and was going places, I knew it would be good.

I wish I could give my full book review on here, but I have yet to finish the book. NOT because I'm bored with it, quite the contrary. Mainly because I have a little nugget to take care of all the time (it's her one month birthday today, by the way! Sniff sniff!), and I had company visiting this past week, so I am only about a third of the way through the book. Two thirds behind where I wanted to be. But life is life, as we all know.

Here is my honest opinion of it so far:

I am intrigued. The plot is unfolding as you read, which keeps you interested. I'm getting the vibe that main character Bianca has a lot more secrets and backstory than I know at this point, and I am excited to find out what it all is (I WILL find out, right Katie??? If not we will have a chat). The characters are believable, the destinations are painted vividly in my mind , and the dialogue is catchy and humorous, and dark and secretive all at the same time. 

It's a book worth reading. If you are into young adult fantasy, by all means you should have a copy right now and get going on it.

If you aren't into that genre very much (like me, because let's be honest: all I like in that genre is Harry Potter. I KNOW I'm narrow minded but whatever), you should still read this book. This book gives hope to picky readers like me that YA fantasy isn't all just like Twilight. This book is refreshing so far, and like I said, I'm only a third of the way through. 

So go find out more about it  on facebook here, the pinterest version here and the official site here.

Then go buy the Kindle version here, or paperback version here.

And give Katie a virtual high five for fulfilling her dreams. From the chats we've had since Miss Mabel's seemed to develop there have been blood, sweat and tears brought into this by this amazing girl. Writing a book may seem easy, but writing a good book takes a lot of work. I am so proud of my best friend!

Here's the Story

I never thought I would actually want to post about my child's birth story on my blog, but then I actually had a child. . . and changed my mind. Ha. I just don't like hearing all the gory details so I'll try to keep them to a minimum. 

Anyways, last Wednesday the 26th I had my usual doctor appointment. I wasn't expecting to have made any progress because I still hadn't felt any contractions or anything. . I was figuring I was doomed to be more like my mother. . .going way past my due date and possibly having to be induced. 

Luckily my doctor said I DID make some progress and I was actually at a 2 and said he wouldn't be surprised if I had the baby within the next week. I was still not trying to get my hopes up though.

But that night around 8 or so I actually started having contractions. I always wondered what that would feel like. . if I would know if it was a "real" contraction or one of those Braxton Hix type things. Everyone always says that "you'll know" when you are having a real contraction and boy were they right. It was cramps times like 1,000. And they kept coming. I tried going to bed but as the night wore on they got closer and closer together. . starting out at about 8 minutes apart, and then around 5 in the morning they were about 4 minutes apart. By the way, Paul slept through all of this. . I was up not sleeping, once in a while debating whether I should wake him or not but I knew he would probably just get all excited and want to go to the hospital right away and I didn't want to go and just get turned away because I wasn't dilated enough or something (that was also a big fear of mine, having to go through endless hours of pre-term labor. I'm a pansy.)

Sooo by the time Paul woke up around 6:15 am I was pretty much done. I told him there was a good chance we will need to go to the hospital because my contractions were getting really close together. He of course got up right away, started running around with me telling him what last minute stuff I needed and then we headed out. We get there and I ask him for my wallet. . . .and he tells me he forgot it. Awesome. I can't really check into the hospital without my ID and insurance so. . . we turned around and went back to get it. Luckily the hospital is only 5 minutes away, so it didn't add on that much extra time. We got there around 7:30 that morning the 27th.

I was also lucky that my doctor was already there doing rounds with other patients of his, so he was able to come and check me to see if anything had progressed. Turns out it wasn't all in my head and I had gotten to a 5 and he said I could be admitted! I was so relieved that the pain wasn't all in my head and that I would actually be able to stay and have a baby! I was impressed that I made it halfway on my own, but by that point I was ready to get my epidural. Like I said, I am a pansy. I wanted to actually be able to somewhat enjoy the experience.

After I got the epidural things were going great! I was a little nervous to get it just because, oh you know, they are injecting something right around my SPINE and you never know. But it only stung a little when they numbed the area and then I became one happy camper as it kicked in. I was glad that I wasn't so numb that I couldn't feel anything, I was still able to feel some pressure when I would have a contraction.

Then it was just a lot of waiting. . .I was exhausted from being up all night so I just tried to sleep. . it kind of worked, I was able to relax more. I was really thirsty the whole time and kept demanding ice chips from Paul. It gave him something to do. Ha. 

I made it to a 10 all on my own but she was still not moving down like she needed to, so they started me on some pitocin around 2:30 to see if that would help. It definitely made me feel more pressure with each contraction, which was good. Finally, around 4:00 I was ready to get going! My doctor, Dr. Seale got called to come in. We also had to have people from the NICU present because when my water got broken earlier that day they suspected she might have pooped in the amniotic sac and were worried that she might breathe it in. So when it was go time there were quite a few people in our room. I didn't have to push very long and by 4:32 p.m. she was out in the world! Lauren Amy Siddoway decided to make her appearance. Dr. Seale tried to suction all the stuff out of her before she could take a breath but he only got about halfway done before she let out her shrill cry.  She turned out ok so that was nice to not have to worry about her. It was such a surreal experience. . . .I really don't know how else to describe it.

And now onto some photos. I debated whether to put up the ones of me because well, I was up all night and then was in labor all day. BUT that was how things were and I really don't care, now that I think about it. I had zero energy to put into looking good. I was giving birth, for crying out loud. 

Here she is right after she came out. She turned her head sideways at the last minute coming out so her cone head was more on the side of her head. All the nurses affectionately called her "Gumby". Ha ha it was funny, and true. 

Getting weighed. She still makes that sour face when she's upset. 

Dad holding her tiny feet.

One proud Papa.

Dr. Seale (who is an awesome doctor, by the way. We really enjoyed him. And he plays the banjo and bass guitar so Paul likes him too.) Paul's face in the picture kills me. So cheesy.

My nurses were so awesome and took all these pictures. I think this one is hilarious because of Lauren's face! She doesn't seem to know if she likes it or not.

Yes, I look awesome. I know. My hair is all nasty because for the last hour or so I was BOILING hot. They took my temperature and I was at 104! They didn't seem worried about it though. They put cold rags on my forehead and that was heaven, along with me gulping down ice chips. After all of this stuff though my body just kept shaking. Not hyperventilating shaking, but the kind where you just had a ton of adrenaline and now your body is recovering from it. . .hopefully that makes sense.

The ONLY reason I put a kissing picture on here of us is because of her face. Ha it kills me! She already doesn't like seeing Mom and Dad give each other affection.

My awesome labor and delivery nurses, Shea and Laurel. They were the best cheerleaders and really funny. We had fun joking with them during the day.

 Dad changing the diaper. She really hates getting her diaper changed now so we have gotten really good at being really speedy at it so that she doesn't have time to really get all up in a tizzy.

We had called our parents when we found out I was going to be admitted. My Mom came down that afternoon and got here right before I was ready to push her out. She stayed with us for the first week and was a LIFE SAVER. Seriously. She helped out so much I can't even begin to thank her enough.

I snapped this picture the first night. So cute.

A few hours old.

We made it home no problem. This is us giving her  her first bath at home. She might look like she's somewhat enjoying it, but she's not. She still screams bloody murder every time we give her one. Counting down the days until she actually enjoys them. . . .

After being home a couple days. One of the few times she was wide awake. 

There are so many more things I could write about that have been going on this past week. I can't believe she was only born a little over a week ago, because sometimes (especially at like 2:00 in the morning) it seems like she's been with us for way longer. Other times I can't believe it has already been that long and that she is already growing so much. I know I'll blink and before I know it she'll be a bigger baby and that is already bittersweet.

Next post (when I find time to write it. . this one took me a good two days to get around to finishing!) will be about post-partum stuff and adjusting to all of this. I plan on laying it all out.

How Life is Going

This picture below should sum up about how life is going for me right now:

A little. . . .busy. Messy. Trying to get organized and I'm feeling that whole nesting thing coming on so it's really driving me nuts. Why the heck can't I get bursts of energy like this when I don't have a huge belly that makes it hard to sit, bend over, pretty much everything? So I do what I can but it still seems to be taking longer than I want it to! I shouldn't complain because this week is my last week at my job and I should spread out my little "projects" so that I'm not finding myself all caught up and twiddling my thumbs and wanting to pull my hair out because this little lady has decided she's more comfortable inside than outside. So, for now I guess it's fine. But I'm still bugged because I'm 8 1/2 months pregnant and ready to be done but at the same time I'm still freaking out that I'll have a CHILD to take care of for the rest of my life. 

See all these things going through my mind? I feel a little crazy.

Another project that I made time to do was prepare some freezer meals:

My goal was to make about 2 weeks worth of dinners to have ready for those days I am not going to feel up to cooking. I dread that because already there are plenty of days I don't feel like cooking. But now I at least am prepared! And it wasn't even that big of a hassle to do it. Maybe I'm just super woman or something (ha), because as I was looking into recipes I wanted to try there were all these pin on pinterest like "This woman is AMAZING! A WEEKS WORTH OF FREEZER MEALS FOR $130 BUCKS AND 1 DAY OF PREP" or stuff similar to that. So after I figured out the recipes I wanted to do, I was expecting to spend at least that amount and take that much time to prepare.

Umm. . not the case, thankfully! Maybe it was the recipes I decided to do? I looked into a lot but most of them didn't sound good, or sounded like a lot of prep the first time around, and then even more prep when you actually wanted to eat them, which does not make sense to me. Like casseroles. I vetoed every casserole recipe because a.) I don't have room in my freezer for those and 2.) I didn't want to "half cook" something and then cook it again. That sounded silly to me. I wanted something that all I would have to do is either dump all of it in my crockpot and let it cook, or dump it on a cookie sheet and cook it once when I actually wanted to eat it. 

So I came up with mostly things I've already eaten and realized they would work just fine as freezer meals and not take up too much space. Here's what I came up with:

Chicken Roll Ups (I've made these before and they say you can freeze them. I've done that too and they turn out great)

Homemade Pizza Pockets (we've had these a lot, but never frozen them. . . I'm assuming they will be just fine. If not, then whatever.)

Taco Soup (all I'll have to do is add the meat \)

Brown Sugar Turkey Loafs (made these before too, both in the oven and the crock pot.)

Crock pot Pineapple Chicken Verde (this one I haven't tried before. But chicken? Good. Pineapple? Good. Green chili Verde sauce? Good.  All together sounds good to me)

So to make all of that my WinCo grocery bill was only $65 bucks, which isn't too far off how much I spend on groceries most weeks anyways! And to prep ALL of those it only took me about 2 1/2 hours. Not bad at all. I still had my sanity afterwards and now have 2 weeks worth of meals! Sa-weet. So if you've thought about making freezer meals but see posts like the ones I saw and thought "Yeah right, I am not dropping a $140 bucks and giving up a Saturday to do this" it really isn't that bad! I guess it will all depend on what you end up doing. 

And this is just a picture of Paul and his brother David putting together the stroller. David and his girlfriend Allie are AMAZING and bought us the stroller/carseat combo, saving us a lot of money! We are very thankful for that. It was funny watching them attempt to put this together without bothering to look at the instructions. Of course they got stuck and had to end up using them and what do you know-it went a lot quicker!  

That's pretty much life right now. People keep asking us if "we're ready" for this baby and I always want to say (and most of the time do say this) "Um. . .no? Were YOU ready?" at which they laugh and say they weren't. So why did you think me, who has never had a child, is READY??? People are funny. I know they are just being concerned and nice. So no, I am NOT ready for this baby. In fact, I could (and maybe I will) write a whole other blog post about how totally unprepared I feel for motherhood and that it still doesn't seem real that I will have an actual child to take care of in a matter of weeks. Oh, and I'm trying not to panic about the fact that in order for me to even have this child to take care of, I have to go through the whole birthing process. 

Paul and I went to one of those classes at the hospital last week and while it was very informative and the nurse who taught it was HILARIOUS, it still left me feeling slightly terrified. We had to watch an actual birth and let me tell you, I am not one of those people who find medical things fascinating. They make me want to vomit. We watched this natural birth and this lady pretty much pooped out her child and it caught me completely off guard. I know I had a look of grossed out/shocked on my face and I turned to look at Paul and he had the exact same expression! Ha ha ha it was hilarious. And then after the class Paul said "I can't unsee that stuff!" Which is just how I feel. And then we talked about postpartum recovery stuff and that is like a whole new battlefield! You mean I'll be bleeding in various places and super sore AND have a child that will need constant care and attention, not to mention all the hormones leaving my body making me cry plus combining the lack of sleep, oh and my uterus will have to shrink back down causing even MORE contractions?? Man, this is going to be an adventure for sure. But everyone can do it, right???

Trust me, I know this whole process is miraculous and I am very very VERY grateful that I am pregnant and that everything has been going well with this little nugget, but I also want to be realistic on this blog. I will not be one of those people planning on going natural, I will want my epidural and I will want it quickly. I am not one of those girls who would like to have a mirror down there to watch my baby be born. No thanks. I want to have some joy out of the experience and not feeling pain or seeing that stuff that will make me queasy is the way for me.

So here's to hoping these last few weeks go well. That the nugget is healthy and strong. I know she'll have me wrapped around her little tiny fingers the moment she gets here. And I really am excited.