The mommy life...

First Firetruck experience!

The Best Taco Soup EVER!

This recipe is one I have been making for the last few months and we love it in my house. It's a very simple "dump" meal where most of the ingredients are not needing to be measured and you just dump them into the pot. This provides that as you make this yummy meal it will probably develop into a unique meal for your family. Hope you enjoy!   

Taco Soup

Ingredients needed:

1 can sweet corn        ​1 can cream corn

1 can black beans        ​1 can pinto beans

2 sm cans Rotel​1 lb cooked chicken or ground beef

1 packet taco seasoning              1 packet powdered ranch mix

​(also needed but not to be added during cooking: Sour cream, shredded cheese, and corn chips)

Cook:
         ~ Combine all ingredients into a large stock pot on stove

~ Cook on medium-high heat for 1 hour

~ Serve in bowls

~ Top with shredded cheese, sour cream and corn-chips

~ ENJOY!

This meal can also be accomplished by cooking in Crockpot on low all day (at least 2 hours) to be ready for dinner after a full day of work.

​

He's here! Welcome Baby Ayden!

Photo Credit: Jess Pentecost

Well He is finally here! My little man, my whole world....my son. I could not be a more proud and in love momma. As hard as parts of the past few weeks have been, it's a blessing in disguise. A good friend, who also just had a baby back in May, told me that we make it through these first few weeks, the hardest ones, by the grace of God and nothing else. And it has only been by His grace that I have made it through some of these long nights where we struggled with breastfeeding, sleeplessness (on Ayden's part), or any number of other newborn daily struggles. This is one of the hardest and most rewarding things I have ever done.

Here is a little recap on how this little peanut came into this world:
There we were at 40 weeks, 2 days and he had still refused to turn. My parents had arrived in town the day before and were anxiously waiting to meet their first grandchild. So Ken and I gathered our things and headed to the hospital that morning, June 26th, 2014 for our scheduled c-section. So many emotions, fear and excitement, running through my mind. This is not at all how I planned my sons birth to occur. I had researched, I had prepared, my birth plan was typed! I felt defeated and in some way responsible, AS IF I could have in anyway changed that my son was stuck and too big to turn. And for the record, we tried!

 "Leave it to a little boy, to 

ruin mom's best laid plans."

 We met my friend Trisha on the way up to Labor and Delivery. "let's have a baby!" I said to her as we made our way to check in. She was going to be with me through my labor and delivery but since plans had changed, she would be with us in the room before and after the c-section instead. 

Photo Credit: Jess Pentecost

My great friend Jess had been entrusted with photographing this event and arrived just in the nick of time to shoot a few pictures right before they whisked me away to the OR (Operating Room). Ken was handed a pair of scrubs, a hat, and a mask. He would get to sit by my side during it all, but had to be in hospital garb. 

Once that had me all hooked up and my spinal block had been done, Ken was allowed to come assume his place in a little chair right next to my head. An OR is not a very warm and fuzzy place to be, let alone be relaxed when you're awake while in one. I could not have done this, bringing my little man into the world, if Ken had not been there to hold my hand and talk me through it all. I was numb from the chest down but I could feel pressure and tugging as they made their way in to getting Ayden out and into the world. 

Then, I heard that first cry. It was all over then. I was in love. Hadn't even seen him yet and I was in love. Then they held his little body up over the curtain in-between me and the doctor and I saw his wrinkly little body. The cutest baby you'd ever seen. That moment is forever etched in my mind. I was really a mom now. That screaming baby getting checked over by the NICU nurse, was mine. And you better believe he came out kicking and screaming. I have never heard a baby scream so loud, but he was mad and he was going to be heard. :)

Ken had the camera with him and was taking pictures the moment Ayden landed under the warmer. Once he had been checked once over and cleared by the NICU nurse, they wrapped him and gave him to Ken until Dr. L. was finished closing me up. When all was said and done we were in the OR for less than 30 minutes total. 

I could not stop crying when I first held him in that OR. All my anxiety and fear of having surgery had fallen away and I could not contain the smile on my face from seeing this little tiny human that I had created. 

We made it back to the recovery room where Trisha and Jess were waiting and Jess jumped on taking pictures of everything, which I am so grateful I had her there to do that. I then had a 2 hour window to start breastfeeding if he would latch and to be monitored before we were taken to our postpartum room. 

Photo credit: Jess Pentecost

A special thanks to go out to my nurse Debbie who was absolutely AMAZING throughout the entire prep, c-section and recovery. She helped and made me feel safe, encouraged, understood, and relaxed. The PERFECT Labor and Delivery nurse you could ever have. And that meant so much.    

There could not be any greater privilege or responsibility than being blessed with a child and I could not fathom trading it for anything in the world. I pray everyday that God is giving me the strength and wisdom to raise this little guy into a man of God.

Keep watch as I'll start posting about my breastfeeding journey and my new adventures into motherhood! :) 

Week 39 update

Seven days! Seven days and I could be a mommy? I can’t believe we are already that close! Well the saga continues as he is still breech and I have not dilated at all. No progress. My little man is apparently not interested in joining us out here in the real world quite yet. But boy he is definitely interested in stretching and wiggling and kicking when he wants to. My belly feels very tight and I am getting more and more contractions but then…nothing.Everyone who sees me at work is surprised every day I come in, thinking I must have gone into labor by now. It’s quite comical.However, while I await the arrival of my son I am in the ever sowarm company of lower back pain, hot flashes and (huge) swollen feet.  And they never seem to completely go down. I wake up in the morning and they are still swollen enough I can noticeably tell. Not fun I tell you. However I feel like I have been productive this past week. I started hardcore meal planning. I even busted out Microsoft Excel and made a spreadsheet for this. I feel pretty proud of myself and what’s nice is the effort in one afternoon has allowed us to not eat out once during the week. We haven’t said, “What are we going to eat tonight?”  Which was usually followed by, “___________ sounds good.” And we would go out and eat whatever it was.Yesterday I busted out a meal plan for the next 2 weeks that included freezer meals for the first week I am home with Ayden. While I will NOT refuse food brought to us by friends and family, (hint hint) it’s nice to know I have a plan and won’t have to think about it. J

On the note of friends and family, Ken and I have been so blessed these past nine months with amazing support, encouragement and donations of baby things. We want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has been there for us. I have sent out a lot of thank you cards but I just wanted to say it again. THANK YOU!

As this week seems to crawl by we are making huge progress in finishing up the Nursery. We have a dresser now and are quickly filling it up with cute little onsies and such. All my cloth diapers are washed, folded, and ready for use in their baskets on the book shelf. All of his little elephants are in a basket by the crib. It’s really starting to look like a nursery and not a spare room that happens to contain a crib. What a miracle that is. We also finally have a bigger bed for ourselves. We had been talking about getting a queen sized mattress for a while and the more pregnant I got the more we said it would be nice but we will just wait. Well the wait is over. Neither of us was getting any sleep for nights and off we went to the store. Well home we came with an affordable memory foam mattress and we love it!

Something that keeps me sane every morning is my hot cup of peppermint tea. Since I am attempting to drink as little caffeine as possible, I have been getting in the habit of drinking hot tea in the mornings before work. Hot tea is good for you in general and mine is caffeine free but somehow it make me feel like I can conquer my day and I feel relaxed and at peace. This is not a common feeling at 39 weeks pregnant and I cherish it every time I can.

Well that’s about it for this week. Cannot wait to be typing up the post that says, “I am officially a mom, Welcome Little Ayden!”  We will chat again next week!      

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Week 38 update: RAIN, RAIN, RAIN...

It won’t stop raining here. It’s like we are living in the time of Noah and I searching for my life raft. Well, it just makes it more comical that I have been craving animal crackers like crazy this past week. Something is comforting about little-kid food to calm this pregnant momma. YUM! Being 38 weeks pregnant is definitely rough ya’ll but the excitement is building on getting to actually hold my little guy. And the excitement is building on both ends I think. My little man is “excited” to stay in my womb as long as possible…. Little stinker has decided to stay in the comfy little nook he has found and not turn head down despite our (and the docs) best efforts. We had our scheduled ECV on Friday and low and behold that little man did ¾ of a somersault and bounced right back to his original position. I guess he just loves looking up at me, even from inside the womb J My doctor said his wrist hurt afterwards and that my little guy did not turn but it was not for the lack of effort or trying. The nurse asked him if he remembered to take his Aleve that morning haha. We were in L&D for probably 4 hours after all was said and done. They like to monitor you an hour before and at least an hour after just to make sure baby isn’t showing signs of distress. Nope, no distress in this little man and we were back home to rest. My belly was quite sore for the next few days. We went ahead and scheduled our c-section for June 26th. I wanted to wait till the final moment just in case he takes after his father and flips at the last minute J Needless to say; if that does happen I will be ecstatic. Either way, I have our bags packed and we are ready for whatever comes. Ayden has cute onsies, diapers, and wipes. I even packed a little elephant for him. I have a Labor goody bag for in the instance that I do go into labor before the c-section and he has flipped. And I have a small bag that needs to be finalized, that is for postpartum. It will have nursing bras, a loose pair of pjs for me and change of clothes for Ken, breast pads, a few snacks, all the essentials, etc. 

We are guessing little man is around 7.2 lbs. He should be gaining a lb. every 2 weeks now. Man he is going to be a big baby. Since I am approaching my due date, I had been answering phones for the administration at work. I am still doing that but my feet are definitely starting to swell while I am sitting for so long each day. I have to get up and move around every so often. The Third Trimester is so weird! I had never had swelling in my feet much before these past two months. New experiences I suppose. Gives me a good reason to prop my feet up when I get home, which is nice. Speaking of home, the nursery is coming together. We have a built crib and a dresser that is en route to us as I am writing this. Instead of a pile of stuff in our apartment, it looks like we might be having a baby soon. Now all we have to do is clean out the closet and we might have room to put all our “stuff” that’s not baby related. I’ll let you know how that goes :)

You know how pregnant moms all seem to chop off their hair when its close to their due date. Well I promised up and down that would never be me. I love my long hair. Well I may not have gone pixie haircut but I definitely cut off quite a bit. By that I mean 8 inches. I did not realize how long my hair had grown during my pregnancy. But none the less I love it! I can still get it back into a pony tail if I need to and it’s easy to manage. So when I wake up in the middle of the night to breastfeed there isn’t any hair hanging in my little man’s face.  

Well that’s about all for this week. Keep an eye out for other posts and such I am going to try to get back on the ball with having at least one post outside of my updates each week. Love getting to keep everyone in the loop to what’s going on in our little growing family. Till next time…

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Breech babies

This is a topic I had not put very much thought towards until I got the news that my little guy, at 36 weeks, is breech. I kind of felt like I had been punched in the gut. What did I do wrong? Is there a way I could have prevented this? Am I now destined to have a c-section no matter what? Well a good dose of prayer and some research later I have discovered a few things.
To start, what does a breech baby really mean?

Breech is when baby does not turn and point his head downward towards the birth canal. There are three common breech positions; Frank breech, Complete breech, and Footling breech. He is an illustration:

Factoid: 1 in every 25 full term births are breech (Americanpregnancy.org)

While there are no known reasons why babies decide not to turn at the appropriate time; in some cases it can mean problems in the uterus, distress on part of the baby, or early labor. But do not start stressing out quite yet and scheduling an early c-section. Let’s look at the options for mama’s and their babies.
Once at 36 weeks, if a breech diagnosis is given, your doctor will be keeping a closer eye on you. Preferably they do not want you to go into labor with a breech baby as it makes things more complicated. It’s time to start trying to coax baby into turning.
Natural options:

•   Pelvic tilts
• Play music with headphones on lower abdomen
• Swimming
• Do somersaults in deep water
• Do handstands/ walk on your hands on the bottom of the pool.
• Sink to the pool floor and lay facing up
• Massage 
•  Elephant walking (bear walk)
• Walk around with hands and feet both on the floor. Tilts your uterus and allows baby more room to flip on his own
•  Tailored sitting
• RELAX!
• The more tense and anxious you are about baby turning the more you are constricting the little space he has to move. Get loose!
• Good websites to check out for turning your baby:
•  Turningbaby.com
• Gentlebirth.org/archives/breechcl.html

Disclaimer: There are tons of crazy methods that people will claim to be the most effective.  None of these methods are necessarily 100% effective and always talk to your doctor beforehand to make sure these are safe for you and your baby.
Medical option:

• External Cephalic Version (ECV)

o   This is a procedure where uterine relaxing meds are given and your OBGYN coaxes baby to turn head down by manually applying pressure, with his hands, to your lower abdomen and manipulating your uterus.

o   Some risks of this are: possible for your water to break, kick starting early labour, vaginal bleeding, or cord prolapse.

o   The success rate of this procedure is about 54%. And it reduces the need for a c-section by 33%.

o   Attn: It can be advised for you to not undergo version if you have previously had a c-section, you are suspected of having a big baby, high or low amniotic fluid levels, or if there is fetal growth restriction.

o   Because of the risks, rule of thumb is that this is preformed no earlier than 35 weeks.

After all these exercises and procedures, some babies will still just not budge. It’s even possible for you to have a successful ECV and your little one decides to flip back before you go into labor. Don’t be disheartened. From here there is still a choice to be made.
If the stars align and baby is in the Frank breech position there is still a small option to birth vaginally. A lot of doctors and hospitals will not let you birth breech period but some will. Talk with your doctor and see if you are a good candidate for this if you are wanting to avoid c-section at all cost. However keep in mind it could still end in a c-section if your labor does not progress smoothly and the baby is in distress.
I many cases, if your little one is still breech after all your maneuvering and coaxing, your doctor will suggest to schedule a c-section for sometime in your 39^th week. It’s better to have the c-section before you are thrown into full labor, as there can be fewer complications.  However, there is always a possibility that baby can flip even right before your c-section. Because of this possibility you will have an ultrasound and exam before you go into the Operating Room to check baby placement and position in case of a change. Even as common as cesarean sections are becoming, there are still risks as it is major abdominal surgery. Make sure to understand all the risks and give yourself plenty of time to recover after it’s all said and done. You’ll need it.
Always remember God is in control of your birth. Be it without any medical intervention or by the steady hands of a surgeon. As hard as it is, we have to trust Him with our babies and know He is with us the whole way, no matter the outcome.

Week 36 Update: Did somebody turn up the heat?!

Apparently when you are 9 months pregnant you feel like you are a menopausal woman having hot flashes. Hormones must be raging but that means my body is prepping for the finale. I cannot WAIT to meet my little Ayden! I am now down to weekly doctor appointments. I have my first internal exam and the doc said I am 0cm dilated, so no progression yet. Right before I went to my appointment I had my 9 month growth ultrasound. To our surprise, Little Ayden is actually average size. 6lbs and 2 oz. Unfortunately, He is also getting comfy in the breech position.  According to Doc if he doesn’t flip by next week we should discuss having ECV preformed to try and manually turn him while he is still en-utero. They give you some medicine to relax the uterine muscles and then push on your belly to try and coax baby to turn head down. If that doesn’t work then it will most likely need to be a cesarean delivery.  Praying He will wiggle his way around and get in position so we don’t have to take that route but God is in control and I have to believe he will come out the safest way he can manage.

I have started feeling some contractions off and on depending on what I am doing at the time. Focusing on drinking lots of water just to make sure the contractions don’t start from dehydration. In the heat we have been having off and on around here it would not be hard.

Started packing our bags for the hospital. Not knowing when he will come kind of stresses me out and I want to be prepared. However, our home is filling up with cute cloth diapers and little baby elephants so it’s hard to be super stressed out when I see all we have prepared and gotten for him already. I am even going to bring a little elephant stuffed animal with us to the hospital for when he is born. It will help me focus during labor on what is coming J

We had a good Memorial Day weekend. Our church had a picnic out at a local park on Sunday evening grilling yummy food and hanging out with friends. The pool at our apartment complex also opened up and I have already gone swimming twice. It feels so good to get in the water! Takes all the pressure and weight off my belly and soothes all my joints. LOVING IT! Kind of wish I could just live in the pool for the next few weeks.  Which is only 4 weeks in all!

IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! Just so everyone is aware.

     

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Week 32 Update

Life has been crazy and I apologize for not getting up a week 30 update. So here is an update for the past few weeks.
I had my 32 week appointment on Monday, and Doc says everything looks great. I have been consistently measuring a week ahead of my due date and doc thinks baby might end up being a big boy :) Ultrasound to check growth is scheduled for May 27th.  I'm still a bit in shock that in about 8 weeks I will be holding my little man in my arms. That's right Grandpa (Dad)! 8 weeks and counting! Haha. Had to make a shout out to my dad whom I feel is shocked every time I mention how soon his little grandpeanut is going to be here. Quite a milestone and it is approaching fast! Getting around at work is becoming significantly more difficult but I am hanging in there. My coworkers are the best. They really have encouraged me every step of the way. Little Ayden has definitely run out of wiggle room and therefore it feels like a kick-boxer has taken over residence in my womb. Haha. He is already vying for mom's attention and he has not even been born yet.We had a wonderful Easter. We helped out with the pancake breakfast before the service at church and ran the drink station. Watched and enjoyed a wonderful Easter play put on as part of service.  It ended up being a crazy day but ended with a steak and asparagus dinner with my Hubby. Could not have asked for a better end to Resurrection Day. YUM! We also started our childbirth prep class at the hospital. We have the best instructor ever! I am excited to go back this week. She is so energetic and knowledgeable about all things pregnancy, labor and delivery. My husband likes her approach too and I think he is soaking in all the info. She is definitely pro-natural birth. You can tell by the way she words everything, emphasizing on the pain relief techniques we will be learning and the fact that the first 3 of our 5 classes are going to be spent on natural birth, unmediated. God is definitely putting people in my path to help me out. He is so faithful to do that is He not?

 Currently my cravings are golden Oreos and good ole' fashioned french toast :) I have definitely hit the sweets craving stage lol.  I have also decided that these onsie rompers are my favorite thing ever. Hope Ayden doesn't mind cause that's all he is going to be wearing!
We  also had our baby shower at church a few Saturdays ago and it was a wonderful success! Of course it was baby elephant themed and stuck with the teal and orange color scheme. The food was wonderful and we had the most adorable cupcakes made by a wonderful lady, Christy Gott, from Highly Flavored cupcakes.

Courtesy of Highly Flavored Cupcakes

Raspberry Zinger Punch

Adorable onsie decorating!

 We used baby things as the centerpieces. In addition, everyone brought a white onsie with them to decorate and we had a fun crafty time. We were blessed with so many gifts and words of encouragement. Thanks Jess Pentecost and everyone who helped and made food, for everything you did and organized :)

Gender: Boy!!

Total Weight Gain: Jumped to 35 lbs gained. Alittle swelling in the ankles and hands.

Exercise: Have been laying off getting out as much due to sleep deprivation. Kinda bummed, was enjoying our walks 

Food cravings/aversions: French Toast and mango pomegranate yogurt

Signs of Stretch Marks: Still using Burt's Bees Belly Butter! But plenty of stretch marks have been appearing regardless. 

Maternity Clothes: Still fitting. Got a new dress for Easter.

Sleep: Broken at best. I sleep on the couch in the semi sitting position almost every night and have been battling horrific leg cramps in the middle of the night.

Feeling: Stretched this week. Bending over has become a thing of the past. I have to remind myself to squat when I can’t reach things on the ground.

Baby Movement: I can feel him stretching out a lot. Can tell his head is pointed down now.

Belly Button In or Out? Still in but very flat and you can tell it is being stretched thin.

Wedding Rings On or Off? On but fingers are swelling from time to time so I remove it at home. 

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Prayer and Husbands

As a wife, are we not given the privilege and responsibility to keep our husband (or future husband) at the top of our prayer list? This is concept that is not often thought about. We often are prompted to pray for our lives, our worries, a big decision, a sick or hurting friend, etc. How much more important should it be that we lift our husbands (or future husband) in prayer every day? Paul wrote that we should all pray for each other, Ephesians 6:18. This has been on my mind for some time now and I thought putting it into writing would be great for anyone else who has been feeling the same way.

Satan seeks to destroy Godly marriage in every way he can. However I believe prayer is powerful and we can beat Satan in his endeavors. All we need is to trust God everyday as we surrender our husbands and marriage to God. One way I am going to build this concept into my day to day is to start with a great concept I found on the blog below. 

http://www.raisinggodlychildren.org/

This post speaks to praying everyday, for 31days, for a different aspect of my husband, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I think this is a great starter for when you aren’t sure what to pray. It gives a direction to go in. I can’t wait to see how God uses this to bless my husband.

Day 1:

            Pray that your husband will grow spiritually and consider his accountability before the Lord. Pray that he will guard his heart by developing spiritual disciplines—Bible reading and study, prayer, meditation, scripture memorization, etc. (2 Peter 3:18; Prov. 4:23)

I also found this great list:

A great way to keep track of your prayers is to journal. Keep a record of your prayers and see how God answers them and works in your Husbands life and your marriage. Find time to pray for your husband this week. Bend God's ear for the man in your life and lift him up.