Sorry y'all. I don't blog much anyway and all of a sudden there's a BABY and babies take a LOT OF TIME. Who knew?

Baby deets: Born Monday, November 22, 2010. GIRL!!! Named Elanor Grace and we call her Ellie.

Quick birth story: I birthed in a birthing center with some FANTASTIC midwives. I started having signs of labor the Wednesday before she was born, and again on Friday, but I brushed those signs away and told myself that's just what happens in late pregnancy. On Saturday the 20th I was at work and started having a little bloody show. Not a lot, but that is usually a sign of imminent labor. Oh, and I was a TOTAL GROUCH. I hadn't gotten to the point yet that most pregnant women reach; the I'M DONE LET'S HAVE A BABY ALREADY point. Until Saturday. And then I went into labor! Two weeks before my due date!

Contractions started Saturday at midnight. I contracted regularly from midnight till about 5 am. By 7 or so they had piddled down to nearly nothing so I took a nap! (I do NOT pull all nighters. They make me unhappy) My husband had worked super late to get a project done (again, two weeks before due date) so we both slept till about noon. Then we piddled around the house, finished packing our bags, and waited for labor to start again.

By 6 or so I wanted to go to the birthing center and we got there at 7. Labor stalled again in the car so we went for a walk. By 10 it was back in full force. Andrew was an incredible birth partner.

I think it was about midnight when the back labor started. And I was completely committed to natural birth but hot dang it hurt. We called a chiropractor in (yes in the middle of the night) and even though she adjusted me to get the baby to turn it didn't work. Turned out that Ellie was in a perfect position and something about my pelvis not opening up right caused the back labor. Anyway. Pretty painful.

At about 5 in the morning I was EXHAUSTED. My midwives suggested I try to sleep between contractions. I didn't have to TRY I was already falling asleep as soon as a contraction ended. But when I consciously relaxed the contractions spaced out from 2-3 minutes apart to 5, 7, 10, 15 minutes apart.

At 7 am my midwife talked with Andrew. He told her that I didn't need a hospital transfer, I needed a goal to reach. So she came and told me they were filling the birth tub, and I was going to get in and work hard, and by 9 I would be pushing. So we did that. The sun was coming up and I had them turn all the lights on so I could wake up and work hard. Man it was tough. Andrew and the chiro would push HARD on my lower back during contractions. At 8:30 my water broke and I immediately started pushing. With every contraction I could only push 2, maybe three times. Then I would say "Ok I'm DONE." Andrew and the Dr. would stop giving counterpressure and I would holler "NO KEEP PUSHING OWWWWW!" When I said I was done I meant mentally - I had to devote the rest of my concentration to getting through the pain and couldn't push anymore.

At 9:15 or so I realized something. I wanted to catch the baby and to possibly birth in the water. I didn't have the mental energy to be able to catch the baby and with the necessity of counterpressure no one else could have reached the baby. So I got out and ended up on a birth stool. I pushed and I pushed and I pushed. When the baby was nearly crowned I felt myself starting to tear. And I was still having immense back pain in addition to heartburn and the crowning ring of fire. (Google that, I dare you) I told myself THAT IS IT and with the next contraction I pushed with everything I had in me. The baby came FLYING out and the rest of the amniotic fluid (which was most of it) came out and baptized my midwives, who were sitting on the floor in front of me. But they caught the baby and immediately handed it to me.

AND IT WAS A GIRL!!!

Guess what? ( She's adorable! )

July 4 (about 7.5 months)


I love being a mom. I didn't know momhood was this good. But it is. And now I hear that she has woken up so I need to go love on her <3

1 lb black beans: soak overnight, dump water, cover with more water, boil till soft. Please allow to boil over onto your stovetop so I don't feel alone.

Once they are pretty soft, chop up about 1/4 of an onion (I used a white one) and add to the pot. Simmer for a while. Let the beans get really REALLY soft.

Then add a heaping teaspoon of cumin. Yes it's a lot. Yes you will thank me. And a teaspoon of granulated garlic, and salt to taste. I think I used a scant teaspoon of kosher salt.

Allow to simmer for a few minutes then turn the stove off and walk away and surf the Internet for an hour before you remember you still need to refry them.

Melt about 2 tbsp butter in your biggest skillet. While that's melting, drain the beans but reserve the bean liquid.

Dump the drained beans + onion mix into the buttery skillet and start to stir and mash with a potato masher. You can turn the stove off at this point too. Add the bean juice as necessary to make it a good consistency. Don't be afraid to add too much bean juice, otherwise once the beans cool they will lose their mushy texture.

Bust out a bag of tortilla chips and go to town with my blessing. :D

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100607/ap_on_he_me/us_med_overtreated

Duh.

The past couple months have been a little rough. Being pregnant had not been too bad, but not great either. I have had very little energy because of the baby and very little time because of all the overtime I put in at work. We had 4 big events in 7 weeks. During the month of April I had 5 days off and mostly I spent those days sleeping if I could. Then the weekend after the last big event my sister got married in Colorado. The day before we were supposed to get up at 3 a.m. and drive 15 hours straight through we both got rather sick and thought that it was to our advantage to sleep as much as we could that night, then make the trip in two days.

All that to say that April and May were hard months for us. My workweek is usually Friday through Tuesday, but because of weird schedules I got this weekend off in addition to my normal days off. So the last week has been AMAZING. I got Wednesday and Thursday off, worked Friday, and then got Saturday through Monday off. The first couple days I just sat around and basically caught my breath. But yesterday and today I have finally had the energy to do things around the house! It helps that the first trimester is ending and though I get hungry all the time I am not really nauseated much any more.

In the mornings when it's cool I have been working outside in the gardens. I completely de-weeded my veggie garden in the back, installed a soaker hose, pulled out the dead pea plants, planted cucumber seeds, and mulched. In the front flowerbed (it stretches around the entire front and right side of the house), I decided to hand-weed around my most prized plants and kill the rest of the weeds with chemicals. I am not a strict organic gardener expect with food. The grass from the lawn had grown under the barrier and set roots in much of the flowerbed, so I needed something that would kill the stupid grass down to its roots. I did put the time into weeding around the herbs and roses though. It was great to find one of my rosebushes again under all the weeds! Then I got a cereal box to shield the good plants from the spray and went to town on the bad plants. I'll probably reapply in a couple days once I see how much of the grass I missed. It was hard to tell. Once it is dead I will put down 2-3 more inches of mulch. We mulched it...2 years ago? Most of the old mulch has broken down by now.

Anyway, all that to say in the last 2 days I have had more exercise and sunshine than the last 2 months it seems like! I am in SUCH a good mood because of it too.

Then that carries over to inside the house. I cooked last night!!! And didn't throw up in the process! It was a momentous occasion! We have eaten a LOT of sandwiches lately. And I have eaten a LOT of mac n cheese. Homemade mac n cheese but still. I also swapped my summer and winter wardrobes and set aside about 10% of my wardrobe for donation. It's always nice to get rid of stuff you've been hanging on to. Plus my wardrobe is going to have to get bigger as I get bigger, so I needed the hangar room ;)

I was talking with some of my coworkers about having some fun together, and the idea came up to have a Memorial Day picnic. I started organizing it on Facebook and it exploded. We have about 30 people for sure and maybe up to 50. Not at our house thankfully. At a park. In a covered pavilion. I am very much looking forward to hanging out with my friends - we've all had to work a lot but we work really well together and we like each other enough to hang out outside of work!

We're gonna have a baby.

SQUEEEE!!!

(Early December)

The Pioneer Woman responded to a tweet I wrote about her today, and that is the coolest thing.

Also I am wearing a Dunder Mifflin hoodie that my husband bought me for Christmas. He knows me pretty well!

Happy New Year to all :)

Nearly 3 weeks ago I was on my merry way to work when a guy pulled out of a parking lot to the right of my car right into incoming traffic. He hit the passenger side of my car - more specifically, he dented the cast aluminum wheel, poked a big ole hole in the brand new tire, and damaged the steering so badly the front wheels pointed in different directions. His car? Scratches and dents on the bumper.

No one was hurt, and the police didn't file a report, calling it a minor accident. However, he told his insurance company that he wasn't at fault so it took them two full weeks to look at pictures, hear our stories, and then finally decide that yes, he was indeed at fault, and they accepted the claim. So we finally started repairs on my car last Wednesday and got a rental for me then. Sharing Hubbie's truck for two weeks was not super fun.

I cleaned off my desk three months ago and it was beautiful. Then I cleaned off the bookshelf in the office to get rid of the nasty old thing and put a better one in. Now my desk is covered in crap again. Whups.

I'm in such a food mood today! So far:

-Started refreshing the sourdough starter to bake bread this weekend
-Baked sweet potato fries for lunch
-After grocery shopping, made a bowl of pasta with marinara
-Want to make some pumpkin butter but there aren't any pumpkins in the store yet
-Am planning on making some pesto later on today with my homegrown basil...mmm

I love my job.

I love my hubbie.

I love my car.

I love my dogs.

I love the guy who's leading worship this weekend. The other person who was on the schedule got sick, so he got called to lead yesterday. He's so funny and so much fun. He was singing Rubber Duckie for sound check. In Ernie's voice.

Next weekend I'm going to visit my sister in Colorado :D

I was just chasing my husband across the house and he totally threw that wall up in my way so that my foot ran into it. Poor toes! It's ok though. I still won.