Lucy's Birth Story & Life So Far

As many of you might know, Max's birth was not ideal. With Lucy however, it was a lot better.

I had been having contractions on and off for two weeks. They were pretty regular at night, then would go away in a couple of hours. On my due date, I'd had regular contractions from midnight until 6am when I called. They told me to come in.

On the way in, the contractions slowed. I was only dialated to a 2 and not effaced at all. Definitely not in labor. They decided to do a non-stress test on the baby since I was 40weeks. My OB looked at the results and let us know that the baby's heartbeat was strong, but it wasn't going up when she moved or when I had a contraction. They wanted to induce. Since I wasn't effaced, they had to give me something to do that. Then they would check me again in 4 hours to see if they needed to give me Pitocin or break my water.

My contractions got way intense and closer together. After 4 hours, I was dialated to a 5 and moving quick. I asked for an epidural. The anastesiologist was on his way to my room and got called for an emergency. I almost missed it, but they found another one. They got the epidural set and me comfortable and it was time to push.

4 sets of pushes and she was out! Around 12 minutes of pushing. It was so much different than Max's delivery!

Transitioning to being a family of 4 has been hard. When I found out I was pregnant with Lucy, I was very nervous. More nervous than I was with Max. I was scared I wouldn't have enough time for each kid. I was really worried about them needing me at the same time. AND apparently I was right to be worried. Lucy isn't happy unless she is being held and Max has reverted back to needing to be rocked to sleep. These are some of the two hardest things for me to deal with. After 5 weeks I think I have a schedule, but Lucy seems to not want to stick to it!

I know it will get easier as Lucy gets older, but man is nap time and bed time hard! It's also hard to get anything done. I tried putting Lucy in my Moby wrap, but of course she doesn't like it. So as I type this on my phone, I am reclined in my chair with Lucy snoozing on my chest while Max naps after three attempts. The house is quiet and I can think. I am truly blessed with all I have been given.

If any mommies or daddies have any advice on Max sleep reverting or Lucy being klingy, please comment!

Miley Cyrus is Smart...

Yes, I said it: Miley Cyrus is smart... I did not say her performance wasn't the most disturbing, disgusting, most distasteful thing I have ever seen; because it was. I am just saying that she is smart because now more than half the world is talking about her. Heck, more than half of my Facebook and Twitter friends talked about her! One of her YouTube videos has over 10 Million views! Her performance sparked 306,000 tweets per minute (Yes, that says Three Hundred and Six THOUSAND tweets per minute)! I have a 40 minute drive into work, and today and yesterday, all they talked about the whole time was her. It wasn't good, but they were talking about her. They even played the video of her, but since it was the radio guess what? All we heard was her song. Yes, hundreds of people heard her song just from one syndicated radio station playing the video and making fun of her!

I'm not sure if it was all her idea, but if it wasn't, she is still smart for hiring the person responsible!

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Bad Press" or "she will never come back from this". Maybe, Maybe not! If she can turn this around, she will be more popular than anyone! If she can play on the worlds heart strings, she is golden. And if not, she is rich as all get-out already and if she can keep out of lawsuits and jail, she will be good for life!

Plus, think of this, the world was appalled 10 years ago when Britney Spears and Madonna kissed on the VMAs! And everyone still remembers it!

Drop-Box

I like my iPhone, but there is one thing that bothers me. My videos don't upload to the iCloud. All of my pictures do, but my videos don't. This makes me mad. 

I have taken a lot of pictures and videos of Max. And now, my phone is telling me that it is running out of space. OH NO! What do I do with my videos? Also, me being the crazy worried person I am, I can move the videos to my computer, but WHAT IF something happened to my computer? 

My father-in-law uses Drop-box. I love this app and software, because one, its free and two, it will upload my photos and videos automatically. I delete my photos off there, since they upload to the iCloud. BUT you only get 5G of space and let's just say, that isn't even close to enough for my videos.

It is a great tool and I can save some of my videos, so if you are in the same jam as I am, sign-up! It's free!! 

http://db.tt/tvPodTB8

P.S. And if you use my name, I get extra space! Help a momma out!! 

Magic Butt Cream

This past spring I was at my wits end because Max had been sick and put on antibiotics. While I have other reasons for not giving him antibiotics every time he is sick, they have horrible after affects with him. He had terrible diarrhea for 3-4 weeks! Then he has a terrible diaper rash.

I tried everything, Cloth diapers, letting him go naked, natural creams, regular creams.... nothing worked. Until my amazing day care provider told me about Magic Butt Cream. She said that her pediatrician told her about it. They can give a prescription for it, but it is cheaper to make at home.

I googled the recipe and found this site: http://www.savingaddiction.com/?p=28077 and scrounged up all of the components. I had everything but the Maalox. I had used the Clotrimazole when I had Thrush. It was kind of expensive, but it made a lot!

Well, I mixed it all together and used it on him and BAM, 2 hours later, the rash was gone! It is AMAZING stuff!

A couple of weeks ago, a lady a work was talking about her grandson having a bad diaper rash and I told her about the Magic Butt Cream. She didn't use it right away because she has just gotten a prescription from the doctor, but when that didn't work, she tried the Magic Butt Cream and it went away the next day! She was soooo thankful!

I needed to use it again yesterday and thought that I should shout about this stuff from the roof tops! So blogging it is!!

So, for any mothers, future mothers, grand mothers, baby sitters, aunts, sisters, let everyone and anyone know about this whenever you hear their kids have a diaper rash that just won't go away.

Google Yourself!

I've always been good at researching things on the internet. Some of my friends and co-wokers make fun of me because it seems like I can find anything online. Honestly though, it isn't that hard. A lot of things are really easy to find, because people don't seem to think about what they put out there.

So, I suggest that you google your name (or maiden name). This will show you what anyone can find out about you. Then you can work to erase the things you have out there that you don't want to be out there anymore. When I did this, I found some social media sites like Hi5 that I didn't use very much, but had some very public information that I didn't want out there. Luckily, I could sign in and delete my account. One was so old however, that I didn't have the email address that was used for the forget password, and I had to contact the company to get it deleted.

There are sites dedicated to finding information on people though. They could list your age, date of birth, town you live in, and your family members names. This is what creditors and scam artists use to find people. This is all on public record anyway though, so there isn't any need to try to find out how to get it removed from those sites.

Picky Eater

I always told myself (and anyone that would listen) that I wasn't going to have kids that were picky eaters. As I sure you might be doing, almost everyone shook their heads at me or smiled politely while I could practically see what they were saying in their heads "Yeah right!!!"

I should preface this a say, I am not a picky eater! I like just about everything (except peas, and even then I will eat them mixed in things). Opie is not a picky eater either, but he doesn't like some things that a lot of other people don't like.

When Max was starting to eat pureed food I wanted to make all of my food. I made my own sweet potatoes, squash, peas, and green beans to start. Well, he loved the sweet potatoes and squash, but not the peas or green beans. I could get him to eat the store bought green vegetables, but never the baby food I made. Big fail.

So, now Max is 14 months old and I would like to stop buying baby food and move him on to an all solid food diet. He won't eat vegetables! This is very frustrating for me! He loves fruit, which is great, but a lot of it will give him bad diaper rash. I don't want to trick him with it and hide it in things because I feel like that isn't teaching him to eat them either. I just want him to like to eat them like I do!!

Well, today I was going to put my foot down and get him to eat some green beans. I made a small bowl and put them on his tray. No such luck! So, when I felt the defeat, I started to eat the green beans (since I love them!) and he thought it was funny and he started to eat them! Then I sat down next to him and he would feed one to me and then eat one himself! It was great! He probably only ate 10 or so, but I call that a win!

I'm Back!!

Hi everyone! It's been over a year since I've posted on here. I tried to use Tumblr, but I didn't really like it. It kind of reminded me of another Facebook.

Anyway, I've definitely had a lot to say over the past year and I've started quite a few posts, but couldn't finish them for some reason. So, I'm going to take a few different paths!

I work part-time now, so I've been doing a lot more of the things that I am interested in; cooking, crafting, and of course spending time with Max!

I plan on sharing these things on here. I've made a lot of interesting things from Pinterest, some of which haven't always worked out! I look forward to blogging more frequently! It is a great way for me to relax! I've recently realized that I love to write! I used to write a lot at work. Even though it was business rules, it was still a good way to put my words together. So, I look forward to hearing your feedback and stories of your own!!

Max's Birth Story

I was due February 29th, Leap Day. I was convinced that I was going to have the baby on Leap Day because that was just my luck. My whole pregnancy I wanted to have the baby on March 1st because that was my Grandpa Kauffman's Birthday and he lived to be 100 years old and had passed away last August. When we told him we were pregnant and due on Feb. 29th, he kept saying that if it wasn't a Leap Year, it would has been due on his birthday. My Dad's side was also hoping that I would have him/her on the 1st as well.

Well, the 29th and 1st both went by and I still I felt great. (Honestly, I felt great for all of my pregnancy. Even in the end I felt good. I just wanted it to be over because I was so excited to meet him/her). I had had some regular contractions on and off for a couple weeks, but they never lasted very long and didn't get very strong. I wasn't dilated at my last two appointments either.

Now, let me preface this by saying that I wanted a natural delivery, however, I was going into the situation with a very open mind knowing that I didn't know what was going to happen or how it was going to feel. I knew I was going to try it without drugs, but if it got to be too much, I would have them. The only thing I knew for sure was I didn't want to drug through IV that made you feel/act loopy. Haha!

On March 3rd Opie and I went shopping. I had been having small contractions about 12-10 minutes apart, but they didn't get any stronger. We had dinner with my family for my sister's birthday that evening and my contractions still were 7-10 minutes apart, but they weren't any stronger.

Opie and I went home to try a few at-home remedies to induce labor. It started snowing pretty bad (that luck I was talking about)! I was worried because it was a 35-40 minute drive to the hospital when it was nice out. My contractions picked up to 7-5 minutes apart. I called the doctor and she said that she would normally have me wait, but since it was snowing that I should come in so that they could check me just in case I progressed fast.

We headed in around 10:30pm. I got to the maternity triage around 11:30pm. The nurse checked me and I was only at a 1 but my contractions were pretty regular and had picked up in intensity. I could still talk through them all though. So, we walked the halls to see if that helped. And it didn't.

They didn't want to send me home because we lived so far away and it was still snowing so they sent me to a room that had a whirlpool tub that I could labor in. It felt so nice, but didn't help me dilate.

They moved us to a delivery room around 3am. I sat in the tub a little while longer. Still nothing. The doctor came in around 9am and said that we could go home and wait a few hours or they could break my water. We decided that they could break my water. We were so anxious to meet our little one.

They broke my water and we waited. I progressed a little, but not enough. Around 11am the doctor came in and asked if we wanted to start Pitocin. We decided that we would. I really didn't want to, but I wanted to get this party started. I hadn't ate anything in over 12 hours and I hadn't slept for over 24 hours.

They started me off "slow" (or at least that is what they said). Wow, did the contractions pick up! They checked me an hour later and I was dilated to a 3 almost 4. They gave me some more Pitocin and were going to check me in another hour. Contractions were SUPER intense at this point. I was at a "good" 4 an hour later. I asked for an epidural at this point because I couldn't handle the pain anymore and it was making me tense and frustrated. I was hoping that easing the pain would calm my body down enough to dilate.

I got the epidural around 1:30-2pm and finally got to relax for the first time in hours. I was so hungry, so tired, and I just wanted to hold my baby. They kept checking me and I was progressing a little faster. I started to feel some pressure that evening and felt the need to push around 9pm. Our families went out to the waiting room and our wonderful nurse Kathy started to prep my room for delivery. I started pushing around 10pm. 1 hour and 23 minutes later I had a beautiful baby boy!

Opie was an amazing help during delivery telling me how much my pushing was helping and pushing the oxygen mask on me. Even though I had the epidural, I could move my legs and even got a chance to use the squat bar a couple of times.

Labor and Delivery didn't go at all how I wanted it to, but none of that mattered because he is healthy and that is all that mattered to me! I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Family of Three

It's been three weeks and three days since I had Max. It's all seems so surreal still. I can't believe I am a mom!

Max is amazing and we are doing great! There have been a lot of things that I didn't expect and a lot of things are exactly like I thought they would be (even if people told me they wouldn't).

The biggest thing that I didn't expect was to have such a hard time Breastfeeding. I had heard from so many people about how amazing the experience is. My experience hasn't been anywhere near amazing; it's been quite frustrating actually. It hurts and it seems like I am constantly feeding him. It is pretty much a roller coaster. We have a good day typically followed by a bad night followed by a bad day followed by a good night etc. But it does seem like it is getting better (or at least I hope so)! I did read a good article that has given me some encouragement. If you are also having a hard time breastfeeding, read it!

The lack of sleep has been exactly like I thought it would be. I actually do quite well on little sleep (at least I think so, Opie might disagree!) haha! He will sleep anywhere from 1-4 hours. It all depends on how he eats. If he has a full belly, he will sleep for quite awhile.

He is a great baby. He doesn't cry much; just when he is hungry. As of today he weighs 9 pounds 6 ounces and is 22 inches long. That is almost a pound and a half gained in a month (like I said, he likes to eat!) He is strong and holds his head up for quite awhile during our burpings and tummy-time.

I can't wait for the coming months to see how he grows and how his personality develops!

Pinterest Adventure: Snickers Popcorn

I have decided that I am going to blog about my adventures with making things that I have found on Pinterest!

I've made a few things already. Some have turned out, but some haven't so I thought that it would be fun to blog about the things that do and don't go well.

This time I tried making Snickers Popcorn for a Superbowl snack. Here is my pin. The final product was amazing, but I had A LOT of trouble making this recipe.

So, the recipe said to use 1 cup of kernels. I made the popcorn in the air-popper and placed it in a brown paper bag and mixed in the peanuts.

Next, was making the candy coating. I used a small sauce pan as my medium/large pan was dirty. Bad idea. When it started to boil, it boiled over... All over my glass top stove. very sticky mess. So, if you make this, use a large sauce pan.

So, I poured the candy coating over the popcorn and shook the bag. The recipe said to pour it out on a cookie sheet. Well, it needed to be on two if not three cookie sheets. It was a ton of pop-corn!!

Next I added the snickers and put it in the oven. However, the recipe didn't say what the oven should be pre-heated to. So I set it at 400 degrees; which I think was too high. I would set it at 350 degrees.

In the mean time, I melted the chocolate chips. I took the cookie sheets out of the oven and tried to drizzle the chocolate. It didn't drizzle... it clumped. I tried to spread it around with a fork... which was unsuccessful.

Opie helped my put it in bowls as it was pretty difficult to get off the cookie sheets since the candy coating had hardened.

Here is my finished product:

Even with all the trouble I had with it, it was amazing! I would recommend making it, but use a large sauce pan and maybe only a half a cup or 3/4 cup of pop-corn!

Top of the Hill

So my sister pointed out that I hadn't blogged in awhile, so I thought I would get on and do a little writing. It isn't like I haven't had things to talk about. Actually, I have a draft list that has 5 or 6 half done blogs, but I just couldn't seem to concentrate. Sleeping was so much better!

So, the big ticket item: I'm 20 weeks today. "At the top of the hill". The way up the hill has been pretty easy. I wasn't sick and I didn't have any complications. Opie might think differently, he had to deal with my raging hormones more than I did. He lived though.

My expectation for the hill going back down: Uncomfortableness... I have a tiny little belly; Big enough that I can't button my pants, but still not anywhere near what I thought I would be so far. I think we can rule out twins since I'm still so small.

We have our first ultrasound next Monday. We aren't going to find out the sex of the baby. When people ask and I tell them that we aren't finding out, people seem to think that I care what they think about the decision. Well... I guess people have been reasonably nice when they don't agree, but some have been down right rude. But like I said, I don't care if people think it is stupid or not. It's not their baby, deal with it. I have my reasons; None of which I need to share.

The biggest challenge so far as been picking out baby stuff. One, I don't know what I need and don't need. Two, there are a gazillion different brands of everything and I can't seem to decide which I want.

I've felt the baby move, usually I don't realize that is what it is until I am resting. It's very weird. I know it will get even more weird once I recognize it's body parts moving across my belly.

Well, that is all I have to report right now. More to come I am sure!

Lake Odessa Farmers Market. Help?

I've been reading the Lakewood News about this Farmers Market for which the township would like to build a new building for down by the fairgrounds. I don't feel like I was properly informed about this to have an opinion on the situation, so maybe you can help get my questions answered.

First of all, it is VERY frustrating for these newspaper stories and reader comments to say that this is going to be great for the community and say that people don't understand because they just don't have "all the facts" WELL, let us know what the facts are!

My Questions:

1. Why isn't the current building that is up at the fairgrounds good enough? Or any building downtown that is abandoned?

2. Isn't there already a Farmers Market up at the fairgrounds?

2a. How it is doing? Are people showing up to buy things? Are farmers making money?

2i. If not, why? Is it because they don't have a formal building?

2ii. If so, why do we need a building to house it when it is already doing well?

I know there has been a lot of talk about how a Farmers Market has done well in other cities. It has been well known that Farmers Markets have helped communities a lot. But, how many of those Farmers Markets were 1/2 miles+ away from the heart of downtown? The farm markets in all of the towns that were mentioned in the Lakewood News were all in the downtown of that town.

If you think this will stimulate the community and get people to come to Lake Odessa, it's going to be hard when they don't even need to go downtown to get there. If you're going to start a farm market, why not start it downtown where our struggling business are? JMO

Gravida

I'm pregnant! It's still weird for me to say. I haven't had an ultrasound or heard the heartbeat yet, so it all seems like it isn't really happening (if it wasn't for those spot on symptoms).

With this little Gummy Bear comes things I knew were going to happen and some things I didn't expect.

Telling people was fun. Especially my families and closest friends. However, telling people has given me my first expectation. Advice. Now, I like it when people give me advice, but it really all depends on how they give the advice. A lot of people will start out with "Well, this is what worked for me" but that statement can come with two tones. 1) This worked for me, but it might not work for everyone. 2) This worked for me, it will work for you. Then there is the advice that is more a long the lines of "You need to do this". For those of you that know me, I don't do well with people telling me what I need to do. These people have been challenging. Especially since my hormones are all out of wack. I've been good. I've taken the advice, but ultimately we are going to do what we think is best. So, next time you think to give advice on anything, please be considerate and try not to tell people to do something or suggest they should do what worked for you. Nothing works for everyone.

Week 7 Day 6

The Hunger Game Trilogy

I like to read, but I am picky about the type of book. I rarely like real life like books. I like the occasional biography, but what I really enjoy is "fantasy" books with some action in them. If a book can't grab my attention, it is no good. I will end up reading the same sentence 10 times.

For the people that know me, they know that Happy Potter is my most favorite book series ever. However, I found my second favorite series of books though. The Hunger Games Trilogy.

I first saw a friend on Facebook comment that she read the first book and loved it, then I saw that it was being turned into a move. I read the snopsis and it looked like just what I enjoy. Action, Adventure, and fiction.

I asked for the first book The Hunger Games for my birthday and read it on my way to Florida. GREAT Book! Even being in Florida couldn't keep me from reading as much as I could.

Then I went and bought the second book Catching Fire and read that in two days! It was also a great book for the second book in a series.

The next day I went a bought the third book The Mockingjay. I read it in a day! I couldn't put it down! Even though I didn't like the ending, I still loved the trilogy.

I would suggest these books to anyone who likes fictional adventure stories. It kept me interested and hanging on. It didn't quite have a pallor of Harry Potter, but I'm not sure I will ever find a book to do that!

Enjoy!

What is Failure?

I was talking to a friend the other day. She pointed to a guy and told me that she thought that he was cute. I told her to go and talk to him. She then told me that she didn't think she could and that she was too chicken. I have little to no concept of this. If I want something, I go and get it. This whole conversation got me thinking of the word 'Failure'

Failure is defined as an act or instance of failing or proving unsuccessful; lack of success. Well, that is the Dictionary.com definition anyway.

Personally, my definition of Failure is different. I don't see failure as someone being "unsuccessful" (insert snide air-quotes). Here is my definition of Failure: Not trying because one is afraid of being unsuccessful.

I would rather have tried and "Failed" than not try at all. And even if I do try and "fail", at least I know I gave it my all and it was just not meant to be! I'm not scared of failure.

I'm scared of missing out on something because I didn't try. Possibilities are limitless and you are never going to know what you're capable of until you try!

Please Stop Complaining about Gas Prices

Gas Prices seem to be high on a lot of people's list of complaints. Please stop! You aren't going to do anything by complaining on Facebook or Twitter!

I try to live by 'You can't complain about something if you're not doing anything to change it'. People complain about the gas prices but don't do anything about it and keep buying gas! They are just buying into it.

Very few people can tell me that if you had a Supply and there was a Demand for it, you wouldn't be doing the same thing. It is a rat race people! Everyone is looking out of Number 1 and the gas companies know that we in the U.S. rely on gas more than other import.

THEN, when companies try to get US oil and some mistakes are made, people then complain and complain about how oil is ruining ocean life and people are losing jobs! Can't we win?

As my husband pointed out earlier, you have to factor inflation into the gas prices. You can't expect gas prices to be the same as last year and definitely not two years ago. The cost of living constantly goes up; prices on everything else will too. It seem like everybody expects to get a raise every year but doesn't expect products to get more expensive. Your pay is dependent on the product you sell/develop/make etc.

So, please stop complaining unless you are trying to do something about it. To those of you that are doing something, thank you for trying to better the gas demand and make our planet better at the same time.

If you feel very passionately about changing the gas demand, DO SOMETHING. Go (back) to school for engineering, research how to make the best electric car, go buy an electric car, ride your bike to work, walk places instead of driving, lay off the gas pedal and go at a constant speed rather than gunning it from stop lights and constantly speeding. Think before speaking then act on it!