Birth Story

I actually really enjoy reading other people's birth stories, so I'm going to type this while it's still fresh in my mind. Just skip to the end for pictures if you don't like this kind of thing :)

June 23- Dan and I went out to dinner together to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We went to a steakhouse in Porter called The Hofbrau and our waitress was quite talkative. She asked me when I was due and I told her June 27. She said I had "the glow" and that I would deliver sooner, and she seemed pretty confident about it.(I just laughed to myself thinking "I just took a shower and put lotion on my face, that's what you're seeing") She even told us we had to come back and tell her if I delivered in the next couple days. Her next few comments were about how she "walked one of her babies out" when she wanted to deliver. She walked for a few hours straight and delivered that night. Dan and I just kind of laughed and told her I had never had a baby come before its due date, but we'd come back and tell her if it did. After dinner we decided to go to Target to get the last few things we needed before baby, and joked that I could "walk him out" while we were there. We had a fun time picking out some things and ended up walking for about 2 hours. I had a few harder-than-normal contractions while we were there, but they were few and far between. So we went out for frozen yogurt afterward then headed home. I took the babysitter home at about 11, and we went to bed by about 12. I had a couple more of the "harder" contractions before I got in bed, and I told Dan to take a picture of my belly because I wouldn't be surprised if these contractions turned more regular.

June 24- I had kind of a restless sleep until about 2:30am when I woke up to another of the contractions, which still wasn't very painful. I tried to go back to sleep but by about 3:30 I noticed they were starting to get closer together. I started timing them and they were 7 minutes apart. I woke up Dan and we had a little laugh about our prophetic waitress... At 4am I decided to call my mom and get her to come over, just in case things started progressing. By the time she got here at 5, I was in bad shape. They were about 4 minutes apart and more painful than any other labor I can remember. I hadn't planned on getting an epidural this time (I had done 2 with and 2 without) but I was tired and figured I had nothing to prove, so I decided that I would ask for one when we got to the hospital. We arrived at 5:30 and the nurses took their sweet time with me. The nurse checked me and I was 4 cm, which really put her in slow motion. I guess she figured she had plenty of time... I was starting to shake at the pain of each contraction, which I knew from the past meant I was getting close and tried to communicate that to the nurse. By 6:30 we were still filling out paperwork and she had just drawn the blood they needed for whatever labs they needed to get an epidural. Now, I am usually pretty tough about pain and such, but I have admit, by this point, my silent suffering had turned into some whimpering. I was just really sad. Suddenly I had a really strong urge to push and couldn't stop it, and my water broke. I told the nurses my water broke and one of them decided to finally check me again. Of course I was 10cm and the baby's head was starting to come out. They figured this would be a good time to FINALLY CALL THE DOCTOR who was at home sleeping in bed. They asked me if I wanted something through the IV for the pain and I said yes, although I should have known better. The drug they gave me made me sleepy between contractions, but really did nothing for the pain. I had probably 5 more contractions and they told me every time to resist the urge to push. My sister pointed out that at this point I should have kicked them in the teeth and said, "Resist the urge to scream," but I digress.... (p.s. I have decided that any nurse who tells someone to resist the urge to push had earned themselves a one way ticket to you-know-where). With every one of those contractions I resisted as long as I could and gave in a little at the end. The doctor finally got there and the first thing he said was for me to resist the urge to push (he earned his ticket...). I watched him suit up and put his gloves on and as soon as I could tell he was in position I just gave in to the urge. That's all it took and baby was out in one push. It had taken the doctor 7 minutes to get to the hospital. It was a wild night. It was frustrating, but in a way I'm happy with how it went. Fast and Furious. And I have never felt better after a delivery. I don't know if it's because I didn't have to push much or because I was in better shape this time, but I really almost feel like nothing happened (although my jelly belly reminds me...) (sidenote: I weighed 14 pounds less at this delivery than at my first. Bam!)

So there you go. And of course it all feels totally worth it when a guy like this comes out:

Of course then we had to name him, which is a whole other post entirely. :) we finally settled on 

Jack Leon Prince.

Aaaaaand I can't resist saying that we hit the "jackpot."

 OOOHHH how I love all these boys! 

Reason #962 I'm glad my Mom taught me how to sew

I really, really hate hospitals. When I had George I stayed the full 2 or three days (I don't remember how long) and wore the hospital gowns the whole time because I didn't know you didn't have to! For every baby after that I have sewed myself a hospital nightgown that I could wear after delivery. It makes me feel halfway human while I'm there. So this time I was thinking of what to make when I saw these designer hospital gowns on babycenter.com:

These gowns were over $100 dollars. I saw some others for around $50-$75. I have always made mine white so I could bleach them if anything got on them, but nothing ever got on them so I decided this time I would go for some color! I could have tried harder to find cheaper material, but I saw this in hobby lobby the other day while I was there with the boys and thought it looked bright and fun. So here's my "designer hospital gown" for less than $15 total. 

Now time for baby to come :)

Oh, and we might even have a name picked out for him :D

be careful what you wish for....

i am 37 1/2 weeks pregnant. every time i am pregnant i get to a point where i kind of want to just stop going out in public. i just start to hate to be seen. like in jane austen novels when they go into "confinement." i always kind of think that would be a good idea. obviously nothing like that ever happens, but the idea has always appealed to me :)

the boys and i enjoyed riding our bikes to and from school almost every day last school year. i am happy to report i made it to the end of the school year with our bike rides, but just barely. it was REALLY starting to get hard to pull the little boys in the trailer and carry the bun in the oven. i was kind of looking to the end of the school year as the effective end of my bike riding until after baby. (can i admit that it crushed my spirit a little to give it up, even for a few weeks??) and in a way i was looking forward to the end of the school year so i could keep a low profile and not "be seen" as much.

well, like the title of this post, be careful what you wish for. 

a couple weeks ago sam got a little throwing up and fever illness that was really very mild and lasted about 36 hours. about 5 days later, down went ben. 5 days later, george was down, and 5 days later, henry. henry's was a little more severe than the others, lasting loner and causing him a little more pain. but last tuesday, henry seemed to be all better. yay! we'd gone through the whole cycle and were ready to enjoy some summer fun. but wait.... 

tuesday afternoon, sam started running a fever. wednesday, ben had a fever and sam threw up on me, then began the problems with the "other end". thursday, friday, ben and sam had diarrhea so bad i kept debating whether to take them to the ER (ben would not admit until friday that there was anything wrong with him). saturday morning, ben and sam had perked up a bit, but still were not functioning properly. by saturday afternoon, both of them were actually hungry and wanting to eat, although still lethargic, sunken, and sad. 

there was a little pool party we were invited to saturday night and i felt bad for poor george (who had remarked several times that "this summer vacation isn't going so well..") and henry who had both been well all week but had been forced to stay in quarantine because the rest of us couldn't leave the house. so i let dan take the two of them to the party and i stayed home and ran the infirmary. well not long after they left, dan came home and said that henry had THROWN UP AT THE PARTY!!!! ooooh. my. goodness. it was all i could do to hold back tears. 

so here we go again. a few more days of "confinement."

Black bean soup

I made this soup tonight thinking I would double it and freeze the rest for after baby comes. Not so!! I doubled it, but  it was a surprise hit! George and Ben each had 4 helpings and I maybe have enough left for 2 bowls!!! 
Notes: I did not use any sausage, so I put it in parenthesis. I ended up adding more broth and water because it needed more liquid. I served it with rice, sour cream, cheese, and tortilla chips. Below is the original recipe, which I then doubled.

Black Bean Soup
Makes: 6 servings
Yield: about 7 1/2 cups

Prep: 1 hr 30 minsCook: 1 hr 15 minsStand: 6 hrs to 8 hrs(soak) overnight

ingredients

• 1
  cup dry black beans
• 2
  cups chicken broth
• 2
  cups water
• 1
  cup chopped onion (1 large)
• 1
  cup chopped celery (2 stalks)
• 1
  teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4
  teaspoon salt
• 1/8 - 1/4
  teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 4
  cloves garlic, minced
  
  
  3 tbsp dry sherry (optional)
  
  
• (8
  ounces cooked, smoked turkey sausage or Polish sausage, chopped)
• Dairy sour cream or shredded Monterey Jack cheese (optional)
• Snipped fresh cilantro (optional)

directions

1.Rinse beans. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven combine beans and 6 cups water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand for 1 hour. (Or, place beans in water in pan. Cover and let soak in a cool place for 6 to 8 hours or overnight.) Drain and rinse beans.

2.Return beans to saucepan. Stir in chicken broth, water, onion, celery, coriander, salt, crushed red pepper, (sherry), and garlic. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 1 to 1 12 hours or until beans are tender.

3.If desired, mash beans slightly. Stir in sausage; heat through. If desired, serve topped with sour cream, cheese, and cilantro.

4.Makes 6 servings (about 7 1/2 cups)

from the test kitchen

• Equipment Slow-cooker directions:Prepare as above through Step 1. In a 3 12- or 4-quart slow cooker combine chicken broth, water, onion, celery, coriander, salt, cayenne pepper, and garlic. Stir in beans. Cover and cook on high-heat setting for 5 to 6 hours. If desired, mash beans slightly. Stir in sausage. Cover and cook for 30 minutes more.
• Variation Shortcut Black Bean Soup with Sausage:Prepare as above, except omit dry black beans and the 6 cups soaking water. Decrease chicken broth to 1 1/2 cups. Rinse and drain two 15-ounce cans black beans. In a large saucepan combine beans, broth, water, onion, celery, coriander, salt, cayenne pepper, and garlic. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, about 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stir in sausage; heat through. Makes 4 servings (6 1/2 cups).Nutrition Facts per 1 1/2 cups: 268 cal., 8 g total fat (2 g sat. fat), 1,421 mg sodium, 35g carbo., 11g dietary fiber, 25 g protein.Daily Values: 1% vit. A, 8% vit. C, 13% calcium, 19% iron.Exchanges: 1 Vegetable, 2 Starch, 2 Lean Meat

nutrition facts (Black Bean Soup with Sausage)

• Servings Per Recipe 6,
 
• Calories 198,
 
• Protein (gm) 14,
 
• Carbohydrate (gm) 24,
 
• Fat, total (gm) 6,
 
• Cholesterol (mg) 29,
 
• Saturated fat (gm) 2,
 
• Monosaturated fat (gm) 2,
• Polyunsaturated fat (gm) 2,
 
• Dietary Fiber, total (gm) 6,
 
• Sugar, total (gm) 1,
 
• Vitamin A (IU) 49,
 
• Vitamin C (mg) 3,
 
• Thiamin (mg) 0,
 
• Riboflavin (mg) 0,
 
• Niacin (mg) 1,
 
• Pyridoxine (Vit. B6) (mg) 0,
 
• Folate (µg) 12,
 
• Sodium (mg) 682,
 
• Potassium (mg) 603,
 
• Calcium (DV %) 81,
 
• Iron (DV %) 2,
 
• Vegetables () 1,
 
• Starch () 2,
 
• Lean Meat () 1,
 
• Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

LOVE YOUR CURLS

This post is for my fellow curly heads. Most especially the ones in hiding.

I am an advocate for CURLS. I'm pretty sure I have annoyed a few people around me for how often I talk about this topic (sorry!!!) but I guess you could say I kind of have a testimony of the wonderfulness of curly hair. 

I straightened my hair a couple Saturdays ago. I used to straighten my hair every day because for some strange reason I thought my hair was ugly curly. But this last time almost made me think I may never do it again. It took me over an hour, then stressed me out the rest of the day... Does it still look good? Is it getting frizzy? Does it look like an ugly witch wig? Oh no, I just broke a sweat! UGH. Then Sunday morning I had to spend another hour on it to get it to look good, only to end up pulling it back because I wasn't satisfied that it looked good enough. I was so impatient to wash it and get my curls back!! 

Now, I'm not going to lie. I really, really think my hair is pretty. I know that sounds conceited and awful, but I feel like there's nothing wrong with loving what God gave you. 

I love this picture because I think my hair looked freaking gorgeous that day. Yeah, I just said that.

I also feel like I deserve to love my hair because of how much of my life I spent hating it. My dear, wonderful, talented, freaking awesome mom who can do anything in the world she puts her mind to had no idea how to deal with my curls. (Hi, Mom!) I grew up feeling like my hair always had to dealt with- braided, pulled back, hot rolled, straightened, anything but its natural state. Mom always had me looking my best as a kid, but it was never with my natural curls. It was a horrid fuzzy, awful mess- unless it was "tamed." In junior high my older sister suggested I put some leave in conditioner in it, which I did and I was amazed that that frizzyawfulmess became lovely curls! I wore them off and on in junior high because I still didn't really know how to deal with them. Then in about 9th grade I straightened them every day. (I thought curls weren't cool enough for high school, apparently...) That year the school boundaries changed and I was slated to go to a different high school for 10th grade. I decided that with the new school I would get a fresh start. I grew out my bangs that summer and finally learned how to work with my curls. And I began to LOVE them.

Which brings me to the present day. I know soooo many women who battle with their curly hair. And it makes me sad. Every time I straighten my hair I feel sorry for women who think they need to straighten theirs.

After I straightened my hair a couple weeks ago, I was telling Dan that I really feel silly admitting how much I really love my curly hair and how I wish other people could find their curly hair zen. He told me it wasn't silly and that I should start a blog about curly hair tips and tricks that I've learned over the years. I don't think I have enough to say for a whole blog, but I have decided to just do a little series on "How to LOVE your curls." I've had several friends with curly haired daughters ask me how to deal with their little girl curls, so this will be for them, too. So watch for that in the coming weeks. In the meantime, give your curls a chance. Try different products (tip #1, expensive does NOT mean better.) Let your curls be big and beautiful, or small and subtle. Let them be themselves! Enjoy them! LOVE THEM, whatever shape they take!!

Sam's story

For those of you who know my little Sam, you know about his horrible cough. Here is the story of how we finally figured out what was the matter with our little buddy.

The day Sam was born (June 2010), he was hanging out in my hospital room with us and he started to cough. I had never heard anything like it and wondered if there was something wrong with him. I asked the pediatrician at the hospital if he was ok and he told me that newborns just have some fluid in their lungs and have to cough it out. Sam being our fourth newborn, I knew the sound wasn't normal and pressed the issue with the doctor. He continued to spout off nonsense about how it was perfectly normal. He never actually heard Sam cough, but he didn't seem to believe my description of how bad it sounded. So was took our little lovee home and just hoped that it would go away. A couple months later, he came down with a cold. He sounded like he was going to die. I took him in to my pediatrician and told her about the horrible cough and how I had noticed it the day he was born, but now it was substantially worse with this cold. She gave him a breathing treatment in the office and sent us home with a little xopanex puffer and directions to have him sleep with a humidifier. The cough was so bad I was scared to have him out of my sight. Like gagging, spluttering, hacking-up-a-lung type sound. I set up a little "tent" in my room for him, consisting of his pack and play, a large blanket, and the humidifier inside the blanket. He slept in our room for over a week (and I DO NOT let my babies sleep in my room). I remember this as one of the most stressful, anxious times of my life. I know that sounds dramatic, but I was really scared for my new baby. I was actually scared he wouldn't make it through the night almost every night. I even missed my ten-year high school reunion because I was too scared to leave him. Eventually (like weeks later) he got better, but still had that lingering cough....

Every time Sam got even so much as a cold it was the same story. In addition to his cough, his little chest would just rattle when he breathed. When I put my hands on his chest I could feel the rattling. He had probably 5 X-rays before his 1 year birthday because he always sounded like he had pneumonia. The cough never completely went away when he was well either. By this point, he had also started randomly,  violently spitting up his whole meal after I would nurse him, usually in the mornings. He would do this horrible cough where it looked like he was choking, then all the milk would come back out. He would also have what we called "night fits" where suddenly in the night he would cough so hard it seemed like he couldn't breathe and we would have to pick him up and pat him to calm him down so he could breathe again. Sometimes he would cough so hard he would throw up. Oh it was so scary!

I was bringing Sam to the doctor over and over and over. I started to feel like the paranoid mom who is always bringing her baby to the doctor, but there was something obviously wrong with my baby!! Everywhere I went, people would comment about Sam's cough and how it sounded so bad and I should get it checked out. Other mom's would give me dirty looks for allowing my sick baby to be around their kids. I had to explain a million times that he wasn't sick, he just sounds terrible and we don't know why.

When Sam was just over a year old I was getting really sick of the whole thing and I brought him in to the doctor when he was well and she finally heard his cough when he wasn't sick. This was the first time I felt like she really took me seriously. I told her it sounded to me like he didn't have enough room in his throat or something. So she sent him for another x-ray and then to an ENT to have his throat scoped. The ENT scoped his throat and said there was nothing wrong with his throat, but that he had thick fluid in his ears and should have tubes put in and his adenoids out. She thought maybe his adenoids were causing mucous to get stuck in his throat and causing his cough. So we took little man in for surgery and just kind of waited to see if it helped him at all. After a couple months it became obvious that the surgery hadn't helped with the cough at all. The surgery was at the end of August 2011. So Sam's pediatrician started treating him for GERD and put him on antacids. She also told me to treat him for allergies and prescribed allergy medication. Aaaaand she also gave him a nebulizer with more Xopanex. She told me to give him all of those things at the same time! I thought that was a dumb idea, so I gave them to him one at a time to try to see if we could isolate which one was working, if any. So for a month or so I gave him only the Antacid. It seemed to help with the throw up/spit up problem, but not the cough. Then I gave him only the allergy medicine for a month or so. It didn't really seem to help either. Myabe dried up his congestion a little, but still coughing. Xopanex didn't seem to help either. Nice.

Around the first of Decemeber 2011 my big boys got a very mild cold. One or two days of coughing and a couple more of stuffy noses. Done. Then my buddy Sam caught it. It just took hold of him. At Christmas all the family we visited with commented on how he sounded. By the end of January he wasn't better yet.


Then a little miracle happened. Our insurance changed so I didn't have to go through our PCP anymore (the doctor who had seen Sam 100 times). Suddenly I was able to pick any doctor I wanted. So I looked up a pulmonologist with Texas Children's hospital and took Sam in to him. His name is Dr. John Roberston. Houston friends, if you ever need a pulmonologist, he is a Godsend. He was so patient and sat with me for over 30 minutes asking me question after question after question. He took me seriously and actually believed me when I said I heard the cough the day he was born. For the first time I felt validated, like my Mother's instinct was right. Dr. Robertson told me that the cough could be a lot of things, but the key piece of information was that it was from the day he was born. He told me what he thought Sam's problem was and that we need to take Sam to Texas Children's and have a bronchoscopy.  So on March 9 we took Sam down to the hospital and had the procedure. Dr. Robertson's diagnosis was right: tracheomalacia. So after seeing Sam ONCE, he knew exactly what was wrong with him. Because tracheomalacia can have a couple different causes, Sam needed a CAT scan to see if his was caused by a certain blood vessel that can pass in front of the trachea, smashing it. Dr. Robertson called down to see if they could get Sam in for a CAT scan right away since we were already there and they worked him in. The CAT scan showed that the blood vessel wasn't the cause. (I have to insert here how impressed I was with everything at TX children's. The staff was amazing and went out of their way in every way for us.) Here is Sam's trachea:

It should be nice and round, but his is all flat. The dr. said this picture is as wide as his gets. The good news is now we know what's wrong. The bad news is there's nothing to be done about it. Severe cases would  require surgery, but Sam's isn't severe. SOOO little man will go on with his old man cough. Sam should grow out of it eventually, but until then there's just not much we can do for him. But he doesn't have to be over-medicated and have his brain fried with x-rays anymore.

The funny thing is I was right all along. There WAS something wrong with him from day one. He DIDN'T have enough room to breathe. I just didn't know enough about anatomy (and neither did Sam's pediatrician... ) to know that I was right. I'm so glad I trusted my instincts and kept pushing for my little Sam.

So let me end with a picture of my sweet little Sam, for good measure:

Lime chicken tacos

I have now made this recipe a couple of times (which as we all know is not something that happens often in this house) and I really enjoy it. It's super easy to make. The best part? If I forget to put it in the crockpot early in the day, I can make it in 15 minutes in the microwave! You can put completely frozen chicken in a covered dish (usually with water, but I do the lime juice and chili powder with this) and microwave it for somewhere around 10 minutes (depending on your microwave) and you can shred it easily with 2 forks. Then add the corn and salsa (and I like to add black beans!) and microwave a couple minutes longer. I've also served it over chips with guacamole and sour cream. Enjoy!



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Photo by: Taste of Home

Lime Chicken Tacos Recipe

Prep: 10 min. Cook: 5-1/2 hours
Yield: 12 Servings 

Ingredients
1-1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup chunky salsa
12 flour tortillas (6 inches), warmed
Sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese and shredded lettuce, optional 

Directions

Place the chicken in a 3-qt. slow cooker. Combine lime juice and chili powder; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or until chicken is tender. 

Remove chicken; cool slightly. Shred meat with two forks and return to the slow cooker; heat through. Stir in corn and salsa. 

Cover and cook on low for 30 minutes or until heated through. Serve in tortillas with sour cream, cheese and lettuce if desired. Yield: 12 tacos.


Nutritional Facts1 taco (prepared with fat-free tortillas; calculated without sour cream and cheese) equals 148 calories, 2 g fat (trace saturated fat), 31 mg cholesterol, 338 mg sodium, 18 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 14 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 2 lean meat, 1 starch.