What I Learned This Weekend!

This past weekend we ventured an hour drive to visit with my sister and her family. We don't get to see her often due to our families conflicting schedules and sometimes the drive just seems so long. My mom went down as well with plans of making cookies for the holiday.

We arrived around lunch time, would have been sooner but we had a mishap with the homemade bread the previous night and my daughter woke up with a swollen eye. After determining that we needed to stop and get store bought bread because we definitely had no time to make fresh bread, and Bug was having an allergic reaction to clove oil from the night before, we set off and made our stops. We were greeted, as usual with open arms and a loud house. Side note: My sister is in denial that she needs to get her hearing checked. We started making the cookies soon thereafter our arrival. I sat on a stool ever so uncomfortable, attempted to mix the ingredients that were told to me. How many people does it take to make a batch of cookies? In our family, it takes at least 4. We successfully made old and new recipes. My favorite being the orange and lemon wafer cookies. YUMMY! 

We had a great day and it gave us time to catch up on the happenings in our lives. My sister got to feel the baby move in my tummy, boy was the little one active from all the noise yesterday. We got to discuss family, work, school, teenagers issues, preschoolers and pregnancy. It was a very loud day to say the least. But everyone had fun and created memories that hopefully last a long time. I love creating new traditions.

To end the night, my partner and I got to discuss the day and just enjoy the ride home together. He and I don't always get quiet time to talk and really hear what each other is saying. The kids passed out as soon as we hit the main road.

What a great day!

Here is the "delish" recipe my mom had:

Orange-Lemon Wafer Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons grated orange peel
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon orange extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 5 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Thin orange or lemon peel strips, optional

Directions

• In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, orange peel, lemon peel and extracts. In another bowl, mix the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into creamed mixture.
• Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets. If desired, top with orange peel strips.
• Bake at 350° for 6-8 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. Yield: about 4 dozen.

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

31 Weeks and Colds

I am still excited that the end is near to this pregnancy. I don't seem to be enjoying it like I had wished. With all these aches and pains and feeling like I can barely walk just make it that much harder. Mid week the kids and I developed a pretty nasty cold. It was so bad, that I had to keep my little guy home from school. He was very whiny and crying, he wanted to go to school and yet he wanted to lay in bed and relax. The little lady refuses any and all medicine which means that she is quite grumpy and snotty. I am feeling the equivalent but not much I can do. I am trying lemon honey tea for the first time. It seems to be helping already. Here is my recipe:

Honey Lemon Tea
Ingredients:

1 tablespoon organic wildflower honey
Half a fresh lemon, squeezed
1 cup hot purified water

After heating your water to a boil, add lemon juice and honey. Let sit for at least 5 minutes before drinking. I use purified water because we have well water and it doesn't sit well with my stomach. The honey will sooth your throat and the lemon is like a decongestant and soothes a cough.

Does anyone else have natural pregnancy safe recipes that can be used for colds and influenza? 

30 Weeks and First Day of School

Wow! 30 Weeks! I can hardly believe it. My counting down will soon be single digits. I feel like there is so much to do and I really want to enjoy this holiday season. 

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Mine was good, my partner and I made Thanksgiving for my dad and step-mom. We had a lot of food and everyone got stuffed very quickly. He guy did a great job on the turkey, it was fall of the bone good. Funny thing was, he forgot to take the giblets out of the turkey. He got the neck but thought that was it. He found it after he finished carving the turkey. That was the only faux pas of the day.

And to get a jump on things, I already have my supplies to make our ornaments for our Christmas tree. We have a theme this year, Victorian Christmas. I am so excited!!!! I also already have my Christmas cards printed and will be doing some decorative things to them. I am trying to get a start on this happy season and sending warm wishes to everyone. Soon I'll be making presents for our family members and other Christmas gifts. I love giving homemade gifts. I love the representation of this season, it is truly about family and giving.

More news...my oldest started school today. He was diagnosed developmental delayed and will be attending the special education pre-k class. He gets to go four times a week. He was so excited about going to school today, he could barely eat breakfast. He ran to the school bus and didn't even say goodbye. He was too happy. I am so proud of him.

28 Weeks and So happy its November!

I am so glad it is November and today I am 28 weeks, that means only 12 weeks until my due date! Next week is the beginning of my biweekly week check ups too...YAY! I love the last trimester of pregnancy. The end is so close and I can hardly wait. We are waiting until the birth to see if we are having a boy or girl and I couldn't be happier about doing so. 

We still need to get things together as far as the things we need for the baby. We are hoping to have a baby party but that is for celebrating the baby but not to expect any gifts. Maybe diapers, haha. 

More good news, Scooter is going to be going to Pre-K at our local district school. I am so glad. I will be headed over to the school next week to get him enrolled. Thankfully he already had his 4 year check up so no immunizations will be needed and he is up to date. Once he is enrolled he'll be off riding the school bus like a big kid and we'll get to go school shopping. I have no idea what Bug will do without he big brother. Looks like we'll be having a very crafty and artsy winter without him.

On another note, I am so excited for Thanksgiving. It is truly my favorite holiday of all the year. I don't even get this excited about my birthday. Side note; to me birthdays are just another day. Christmas is my least favorite. I don't like dealing with greedy people and children. People that only care about buying as much crap as possible and giving it to their kids and putting themselves in debt. No thank you! The true meaning of Christmas is for me and my family. But Thanksgiving, that's the holiday that is about people, love, being thankful and FOOD! I love food. I sometimes wish we could have two or three thanksgiving dinners in one day just because of how much I love the food. Mmm I can already smell the rolls and stuffing. 

Gobble! Gobble!

Hello Third Trimester and Hurricane Sandy

Hello third trimester, I am so glad to finally get to this point. After our recent experience with hurricane sandy i almost felt like i wouldn't make it. We lost power for about two and a half days. We had no running water, no heat and no light. We managed through it and finally the weekend was here. Thankfully the family slept through the worse part of the hurricane. So most of the heavy winds and down pouring we got happened while it was dark and everyone was content. I really cannot say hurricanes and night time are my favorite. With it being so dark you cannot see a thing. I hate this in any storm actually. We live in a heavily wooded area and it is always a fear of mine that the house will be hit by some horrible "insurance" tree. But then I think of the positives...we'd get a new roof. Which we are in desperate need of. Hurricane Sandy also brought lost of leaks in our roof, I mean they were already there but they sure helped things stay moist in the house. All in all, our experience wasn't really terrible. We got through it, we stuck together as a family and the kids didn't even miss television until the third day. I think we really could make it off the grid...if we had a wood stove.

In light of the tragedy that happened on the east coast I finally made it to the third trimester. I have been praying for some time to make it to this point and i finally did. After all, its all down hill from here. I am so glad about that. I am not the type of person to enjoy being pregnant, more like a miserable one. But in light of this, I am trying to stay active, healthy and stress free. I think I have the active and healthy thing going but the stress free, not so much. I have been contemplating a lot in the past few weeks or so and in my efforts to staying and being healthy and un-miserable during my last pregnancy, I have realized a few things, that people take advantage of others. Should I be offended by this, at first, yes I was. And then I think about my reaction to that person and realize that I have control over my feelings and my actions, not theirs. I also realized that I want my family to be less dependent on my parents. I'd like us to be as self sustained as possible. I'd like us to more independent and have more respect as adults. It feels most of the time that we are viewed as some young people that don't know what we are doing and we need guidance or help. But we don't, we have made it on our own before. I have a background in preschool education and both of us have a long history of child rearing, we do not need help in how to discipline, etc. When will people realize that just because things were done 30 or 40 years ago, does not mean it is appropriate now. If you have never been a parent, i really don't care for your advice anyway. We will and need to do things and parent on our own, without other butting in. Like I said, I've been reflecting on a lot the past few weeks and now is as good a time as ever to put my action into the works. If we need help, we will ask.

Here's to sanity in the third trimester and through the holidays. I think I am going to have to start drinking mock-tails and pretend they are real, that might help a little.

26 Weeks...14 weeks to go! Yipee!!

I am so happy to be getting closer and closer to the end. And in a few weeks, I'll be lucky enough to say that I am in my third trimester, but not yet. All in due time. As I count up the weeks, I also do the count down which would be 14 weeks to go. I'm so excited!!

On a side note, I've been having a lot of anxiety, related to a few things and people. But I am attributing it to hormones but I don't necessarily thinks that is all it is. I just keep having these moments of anger; angry at the way people are treated or I am treated. Feeling like I am being taken advantage of and then I start to feel like no one even cares or wants me around. So then all of the makes me angry. I am starting to really think I need counseling. I know counseling isn't bad and I put thought into it a few months ago when I had anxiety and my PTSD got pretty worrisome before. But more now, it feels like things are out of control and I need to get a handle on them. It might just be my OCD but I think my PTSD is going out of control again. Or I am just going out of control emotionally, which makes OCD and PTSD go off the track. I need to get things in check. I am really getting tired of hiding my panic attacks and my nightmares. I have been able to change my mindset to a more optimistic view point and I think that may be some of it, I am surrounded by negative people. No one sees the good, no one is thankful. So when these people make comments that are negative, I usually brush them off or let them boil inside me. But I keep it to myself, another bad habit of mine. I think this is the hardest things I struggle with and being a wellness coach I want to help other people with these types of issues. Knowing what I should do, face that big green monster in the closet, I just can't do it. The anxiety and fear build up. Afraid of the worst all the time, thankfully not involving this pregnancy directly. But all these emotions and not knowing how to handle them, feeling like I am alone, etc. is just starting to bother me more and more. I feel like I am at a loss. Another reason to be excited about counting down to the baby coming. The hormones getting back in check.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am headed getting my glucose screening done, fun!

24 weeks and going strong

  24 weeks, can you believe it? I can't! Its only 16 weeks to go. Wow!! I really can't believe I have made it this far, there have been moments and days where I felt like I couldn't go on. But here I am, writing about it and realizing time it going by and how quickly it does pass. We take for granted the time we have and just try to get through things to move on to the next. Its my new goal to try to enjoy this experience, after all, it will be the last time I am ever pregnant. So here's to staying optimistic!!

  My new goal is to defy the si joint dysfunction, exercise more and try to eat more healthy. I have gained more weight then I wanted and with 16 more weeks to go, that also means I should put on 16 more lbs, a pound a week. I do not wish for that to happen, at least not 16 lbs. I want the baby to gain the weight, not my thighs. So I am going to trying to switch my family, ALL of them, to eating healthier. Not just so I can watch my weight gain but so they all can benefit and be healthier too. Our menu this week consists of more lean mean like grilled chicken, pulled pork. and whole wheat homemade pizza. My goal is to not only eat better but to eat less take out. It appears that a majority of our spare money goes to unhealthy take out...well unless is it sushi and miso soup. I don't think that is ever a waste of money. But it is also my goal to make more scratch made snacks to match my pregnancy cravings like homemade nachos and homemade potato skins. 

  On another note, our four year old is improving with his speech and development. Though not as much as I personally would like, but baby steps right? As some of you may know, it has been determined that he is on a 2-3 year developmental age level in most things. But as each day passes, I see him improve. We are working mostly on sounding out his words right now. I really wish we could potty train but he isn't ready. When it comes to potty training I have the view of the old saying, You can take a horse to water but you can't make the horse drink. Well this saying definitely applies to our 2 1/2 year old and 4 year old. Speaking of our little princess, as each day passes she becomes more and more defiant and strong willed. But as each day she goes down this path, I also become more strong willed. I can definitely tell you, she inherited this trait from me. 

  I hope everyone has a great autumn weekend and I hope everyone gets family time together.

22 Weeks and Holidays

  The joys of being 22 weeks pregnant is realizing that even though I am half way through, I still have a long way to go, but do I? Expecting our new addition the beginning of February has yet to hit me until last night when I did this BabyCenter due date thing. You put in the first day of your last period, and it gives you your estimated due date. But what really hit me was how they broke it down to months and gave you dates. To actually see how far along I would and what the dates would be. Like, apparently on January 11, 2013 I will be 37 weeks (15 weeks away!!) which means our baby will be full term. Oh great you might think, but NO! This means that anytime after this date could be go time, my official due date is February 1, 2013. Though this might make you think, of that is forever away but here is reality for you. 

• Halloween is 28 days away (October 31st)
• Election Day is 34 days away (November 6th)
• Thanksgiving is 50 days away (November 22nd)
• Christmas is 83 days away (December 25th)

  Need I say more? That is three major holidays in less than 100 days!! But do you realize how many weeks that is? I'm not doing the math for you but in reality, it really isn't that many. So its time to get to saving money, shopping, redecorating and making my own maternity clothes...and "enjoying" the holidays.

   

21 Weeks and counting

   So happy to be progressing as far as I have and knowing that our baby is doing well. Its bittersweet to feel our little kick and squirm and to know that after the new year we will have a new addition. With everything we have to do and the ups and downs we are facing and will face in the future, I know, with confidence, everything is going to be good. 

Here is our little person at 19 weeks 5 days!

   Update on our 4 year old...after evaluations we have learned that he is developmentally delayed and delayed to the point of 2 to 3 years old. It breaks my heart because he has made so much progress and here we stand waiting to find out what is next.

20 Weeks and new projects!

   Well we made it to 20 weeks. Last week we got to have our ultrasound and see our precious little one. It was a great experience, especially since it is my partner's first child. It was wonderful to see his reaction to seeing our little person and hear the heartbeat. We are both very happy our peanut appears to be healthy and is growing just as it should. The downside of our visit...baby was modest. So no idea if we are having a little lady or a little gentleman. As disappointed as so many are, I really am not to disappointed. We will know what we are having in good time. I mean we are half way there!

   On a side note, I had to get more blood work done to check my platelets. They were low in my last blood test and it can apparently be a serious thing. As worried as I am, I have to keep reassuring myself that things will work out. However, our baby is healthy and I have to do my best to make sure it stays healthy. Now it is a waiting game to see what the doctor says and if my platelets are still low. If they are, he will send me to a high-risk ob-gyn and possibly have to see a hematologist. After all my research of the downside of low platelet count, I am definitely paranoid.

   Now to occupy my time with redecorating bedrooms and possibly the living room. We'll see how that goes. Oh the possibilities of decorating. More to come on that too. Mostly, I would like to have my bedroom completed by Thanksgiving or Halloween. I know the baby isn't expected until the end of January/early February but whats wrong with being prepared months in advance??  

Privacy!!

  I think in the world of Facebook, blogging, Twitter and every other possible online resource, our importance and perception of privacy has become distorted. I have a right to my privacy just like anyone else does. If I wanted my information public, I would post it, blog it, tweet it, etc. And I accept the responsibility of having that information out there, regardless of others opinions, etc. But people think it is okay to tell other's business that isn't there's to tell. You are doing more harm then good. I don't do it to you, why do you do it to me. Have people really lost the understanding of do unto others as you want done unto yourself. I'll decide what people know about me and my family.

  With that said, we find out about the health of the baby today. As excited as I am to see our little person, I am extremely hesitant about telling people the outcome. We could also find out if our baby is a boy or girl. As excited as I am to know what we are having, I again don't want to tell people. I feel like people will spread the word to people we, or I, don't want to know what is going on in our lives.

   I am having a hard time coming to the conclusion that I can trust people when I ask them to not tell other people our news. Will that person tell other people? If we say we don't want it public, will people still spread the word? Can we really trust people? 

  On a side note, being 19 weeks pregnant and practically at the halfway point is making me realize that as hard as life is now, life is going to get even harder. Dealing with the OCD, IBS, lactose intolerance, sacroiliac joint dysfunction and severe anxiety, this pregnancy has become the hardest yet to endure. This will definitely be my last pregnancy. All in all, I need prayers!!

18 Weeks

   So excited to be able to go have our ultrasound this week. We will be able to find out if we are having a little boy or a little girl. Its almost bittersweet because we are looking forward to seeing our little one on the screen. Its almost hard to believe that we are almost at the half way point.

   Now to just prep the older kids on being ready for their little sibling. How do you get a 4 and soon to be 3 year old ready for a newborn. For the most part they are still in their own world and aren't ready to share mama or anyone else for that matter. Any tips on how to prepare two preschoolers for a newborn?

   We also need to figure out how to manage our space and rearrange things so that everything will fit a newborn's stuff and the rest of us. I think we are going to soon be bursting at the seams. Anyone have suggestions on how to accommodate everyone in what feels like a small space? 

17 Weeks and Counting

   As of today, we are 17 weeks pregnant. Hard to believe that there is only 23 weeks left before our little peanut will arrive. I love being able to document the goings on of our lives and this pregnancy. The first trimester of this pregnancy was unbearable with the morning sickness that lasted 24 hours a day and would even wake me up in the middle of the night. Then there was feeling extremely tired and feeling like I had the flu for weeks on end. It wasn’t until a few, maybe 2 weeks ago, that I started to feel better. Now I am just dealing with migraine, IBS, anxiety and SI Joint pain. But I had all that before getting pregnant.

   This is my third pregnancy, so I have a “been there, done that” kind of attitude. But little did I realize that, this would be the worst of all of them. And all that knowledge that I obtained three years ago wasn’t really as fresh as I had hoped. I went through the migraines and night nausea with my first pregnancy, then the SI joint and depression with my second. The constant worry of it all was over before I knew it, but during it all, it felt like it would never end. I am mostly excited this time around because aside from the usual problems I have a very positive attitude this time around. Mostly because it is the last pregnancy and the last time I will to experience this, so why not make the best of it all.

   Upcoming in a few weeks, our first official sonogram that lets us see our new addition and hopefully find out if we are having a boy or girl. Yay!! We are soooo excited, I just can’t wait!!