Goodbye For Now

After 3 time changes, my c-section is (hopefully) officially tomorrow (Wednesday) at 1:30pm. I have to be there at 11am and can't have anything to eat after midnight tonight. I can have sips of clear liquid until 6am. I'm really mad about this because when my c-section was scheduled for 7:30am (getting there at 5am), I couldn't have any food or drink after midnight tonight. So instead of going 7.5 hours without food, I am now going 13.5 hours without food. I don't get it but I'm going to starve! I'm sure the baby will be worth it and everything but still. I'm not sure why that didn't get changed. Plus, sips of clear liquid (examples given were water, apple juice, and 7 up) isn't really going to do squat because I can't have enough to equal anything worth having but I suppose anything could be better than nothing.

Anyway, rant over. Since I will be in the hospital a minimum of 3 days and unable to stairs, bending over, etc plus I'll have a new baby (and my mom here to help out, although David is also taking off of work), I will not get to blogging (or doing anything worth blogging about) for a while. I'm not sure when I will make a come back but I am fairly confident that this isn't good bye forever.

I have been nesting a lot lately. I've been making more burp cloths, nursing pads, and a crib sheet. I never did get around to making enough cloth reusable pads (for bleeding, not nursing) but everyone always says that there will always be things you wanted to get done but didn't, even when you know exactly when your baby is coming (of course, there is still a chance I could go into labor before then but I really highly doubt it. Teeny has shown no signs of coming anytime soon--which makes me wonder if I wasn't having a c-section when Teeny would come.)

So for those of you who have wished me luck, thank you and I will try to keep everyone updated as soon as I can but please bear with me and understand it may be a while, even months. 

Pork Chops and Donuts

Yesterday, David worked from home because I had a doctor appointment (they told me that they counted the weeks wrong and my c-section makes more sense at 41 one weeks so now it is the 22nd--less than a week!). On these days, I find it easiest to make slow cooker recipes because then I can guarantee he is home (not stuck in traffic or at work) when it's ready. I know they can stay on warm for a while but I don't like to do that, plus that means eating alone. Plus, we usually have time for a nap when he's work from home because we don't have his hour+ commute. Then when we wake up, dinner's ready. It's really quite convenient.

So I decided on pork chops and something with mushrooms. I found this recipe but I modified it a smidge and I cut it in half (since I was only making two pork chops). If you use fresh mushrooms, be sure to cut the water (or wine) in half since they will let out moisture too. I wanted to keep the sauce as a gravy so I was trying to be very careful about how thick or thin it got. I only used a half of an onion instead of a whole onion (if you were cutting the recipe in half) because that seemed like plenty of onion to me. I also added carrots and red potatoes (but next time I'll add these halfway through because they caused issues with the amount of liquid in the pot and especially the carrots, cooked really fast).

It was really good though! The pork fell apart and you didn't even need to use the side of your fork to cut it. I would definitely eat it again. Since we added so many vegetables, we have some of those leftover that tonight we will serve over quinoa (for the protein--otherwise we'd use rice).

Also last night, David had such a hankering for donuts since we had talked about picking some up after my appointment but ended up not doing so. The weather wasn't the greatest so we didn't really want to go out and buy some (plus buying donuts at night is always risky because they've been out all day. Mornings are really the best time to go). I found a recipe online that uses cake mix, since I didn't want to wait for the yeast to rise in the traditional recipes. Plus, we have box cake mix on hand for some reason (we don't usually). I'm not sure where the recipe people got their cake mix because they ask for 18.25oz of mix but our boxes were only 15.25. However, we decided to make it anyway and adjust from there if it was too liquidy. I'm so glad we waited because they ended up pretty thick as it was. I don't know what that extra 3 oz of mix would've done to it but I don't want to find out!

We don't have a thermometer that went high enough for the oil temp so we had to guess. At first, the oil was definitely too hot and they cooked way too quick. So we turned down the heat (more than we would've guessed was right but they started coming out better) to basically low. We didn't add the sugar at the end (mostly out of laziness I think). Of course they're deep fried so they're going to taste good but they remind me of the ones you get at Chinese buffets. They're good but not quite what I would call a donut. It seemed to get rid of the craving though so mission accomplished!

Breech Baby

As of yesterday, I am 39 weeks pregnant. At my 38 week appointment, I was told that Teeny is a complete breech. This means that they are butt first (instead of head first) and their feet are crossed and not over their head. This is the worst breech there is and there is no hope of a vaginal delivery if Teeny stays like this. I also had to start seeing a doctor and lose my midwife because my midwife doesn't do breech babies or C-sections.

There is still hope that Teeny will turn on their own. At one time or another, lots of babies are breech. However, after 37 weeks, only 3-4% of babies are breech. So I have a scheduled C-section for January 29th, which is 42 weeks gestation (the latest they'll let you go). If Teeny turns before then and my cervix is favorable, then I will be able to be induced to avoid the C-section. If Teeny turns before then but my cervix isn't ready yet, we have to hope that Teeny stays turned the right way until my body is ready for labor. If Teeny does not turn before then but I go into labor, I will still need the C-section. I think those are all the possibilities...

I know that 20% of people have C-sections (not always for a breech baby. There are other reasons too) but that is not the birth plan I want. That may make me sound a little selfish but after carrying this baby for 39 weeks (and more until delivery), I feel like I should have the option to choose. A C-section carries more risks, is more expensive, you're in the hospital longer, the healing process is harder, it isn't the natural way you're supposed to have a baby, can more likely lead to postpartum depression and many other negative things. I'm sure you could scrounge up some negative aspects of a vaginal birth as well (I hear it's not exactly a walk in the park either...) but between those two options, I will always choose vaginal birth.

I am lucky that at my hospital, they don't have the policy of "once a C-section, always a C-section" and because my baby is breech and the C-section isn't for a different reason, I have a high chance of being able to have a succcessful VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean).

I'm also not sure if it's because Teeny is now breech or because I am reaching the end of my pregnancy but lately, people ask me how I am but they really mean how is Teeny. It drives me crazy! I'm starting to feel like I'm not a person anymore but just a baby carrier. I know everyone is excited but I am too. I am more ready to be done with the pregnancy and meet my child than anyone one else on the planet (not the other pregnant moms. I mean the grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc of Teeny). I am SO uncomfortable, I don't fit in any clothes anymore (my baby belly is exposed out the bottom of even my largest shirts---which gets cold!), I am barely sleeping (both from stress and from being so uncomfortable), I have a head in my rib cage just about constantly (and when it's not a head, it's feet), and I can't seem to go anywhere without people staring at me. I am ready to be done!

Pulled Pork

I apologize for not posting the last couple days. We were having internet issues (and unrelatedly, extreme cold temperatures).

At the grocery store, they had pork shoulder ribs on sale and we decided to get some. No recipe in mind, I decided to try them in the slow cooker. I didn't want them barbecued since we already have a lot of barbecued meat stocked up. I decided to make what's called Korean Ribs. To me, this means putting my 4.5 pounds of ribs in the slow cooker with 1 cup water, 1 cup brown sugar, and 1 cup soy sauce (basically the whole bottle). Because my ribs were frozen, I had them on high for an hour and then turned it down to low for another 8 hours (I timed this horribly and we ended up eating dinner around 8pm instead of our usual 5pm ish), turning over partway through.

It was so worth the wait! The ribs basically shredded themselves when you tried to turn them over. They had enough flavor on their own but since we were only eating a portion's worth before freezing the rest, we didn't want to season them too much. That night, we had them with a side of asparagus and mashed potatoes (both leftover from when we made lobster tails over the weekend. This was something we also found on sale and they are SO easy to cook!) Then we froze about half of the rest in individual containers for when Teeny is here and we want quick sandwiches and the rest went in a leftover container in the fridge.

As usual, we had no recipe in mind for the leftovers but figured we should put them in something, rather than eat them all plain. I found a recipe for Brunswick Stew (which I had actually never heard of before) and very very loosely based the soup I made on that. We used our pork (probably around 2 pounds worth, maybe a little more), a big jar of tomatoes (with their juice, fresh from David's Grandma's garden), 4 red potatoes (chopped), half an onion (chopped), 3 cups water (we wanted a broth and only have bouillon cubes. I only used two cubes instead of 3), corn (half a bag, frozen), paprika (a LOT, probably around 2 tablespoons), garlic (also probably around 2 tablespoons), and....I think that's everything. I was worried it was going to taste too much like chili, especially because we have already frozen some chili and I knew we'd be freezing this but it definitely turned out with a different flavor. It was really good! We basically just threw everything in the pot and let it simmer for an hour. This would've been another good recipe for the slow cooker but we used the stove top since it was already dinner time when we started (lately we've been having dinner later and later...)

So there you have it! Two amazing recipes to use both frozen pork ribs and leftover pork. Both gave us enough leftovers that now I am feeling more confident in the amount of meals we have frozen for when Teeny comes.

End of the Year Updates

I am back! David went back to work today. I find it really hard to get anything done when he's home just because we don't have a schedule anymore so my blogging kind of fell to the wayside. I apologize.

As always, the end of the year is a busy time but I managed to get a lot done! The main thing I am most proud of is reading 85 books in one year! Around the beginning of December, I had gotten sick and wasn't reading as adamantly as I was before and I got really behind. I managed to catch up and I finished two days early! My goal for this year is only 30 because with a baby, you never know what your day is going to be like. I doubt I'll be able to spend entire afternoons devouring books after Teeny is born.

I also sewed our curtain tie backs for the living room. I'm sorry I don't have a picture but maybe I will add one later. Since our curtains are gray and turquoise, I used turquoise fabric for the tie backs. You need almost a whole fat quarter, at least if you make them as wide as I did. I didn't taper them or curve them. They are just rectangles. I designed them after a headband I had made the previous night (that I'm also excited about!). I wanted them to be 2 inches wide with a quarter inch seam allowance so I cut three strips of 4.5 inches (I had three spots that needed a tie back). Then I folded them in half, sewed along the long, open side and flipped them. Then I ironed them with the seam down the middle of the back. The edges got folded in (to hide the raw edges) about a half inch (but you can do however much you like) and pressed. Instead of using interfacing, I top stitched a quarter inch around the entire thing (which will catch your folded in edges). Then I hand sewed on little plastic rings we had (you could also do d rings or anything similar) so they can hang on a hook by the window when you want them to hold the curtain. I think they look great and I regret not having a picture. They were really simple and a lot easier than what I found some other people doing online. Hopefully, the directions are clear enough.

We had the chance to freeze more meals before Teeny comes. We now have the quinoa with vegetables, chili, cream of potato soup with brats, and empanada filling. I'm hoping for more but this is a great start. For those of you interested, this is the empanada recipe I used (http://www.turntablekitchen.com/2012/02/argentinian-beef-empanadas-a-return-to-calm/) We did make a few changes and I would by no means call them authentic. Our dough wasn't working out (we only got 7 circles out of it anyway) so we decided to stack them (i.e., make a circle, fill it, put another circle on top and seal the edges) and that worked out better. We still ended up with a lot of extra filling and not enough dough (but that's fine because we just froze it). We didn't put an egg wash on top and we also left out the capers and the hard boiled eggs. It was still really good and we were really impressed with how they turned out.

I think that's enough updates for today. You can hopefully expect another blog post tomorrow and then returning to my regular schedule.

Freezing Meals Before Baby

I am due in less than a month (eek!) so we are trying to prep as much as we can to help make the whole process smoother when Teeny comes. This includes making meals in advance to freeze in order to avoid having to cook or think about what to make when you're sleep deprived with a baby never more than a foot away from you.

I did a lot of looking around online to see what other people are making and the highest recommendation seems to be things you can eat with one hand (presumably, you are holding the baby in the other). Another thing that I hadn't thought of was breakfast and lunch, not just dinner.

This is my compiled (but incomplete) list of things I will make and freeze before Teeny gets here.

• empanadas. I am actually making these tonight for dinner and just making extra to freeze (that's the easiest way to do it instead of spending an entire day cooking and freezing). You can freeze them before you bake them or after. You put them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper until frozen then you transfer them to a ziploc bag so they aren't all frozen together when you only want to eat one.
• waffles. We have a fancy waffle maker that we actually get a lot of use out of. We have made big batches and frozen them before, even without a baby on the way.
• quinoa with vegetables. I cheated and already made this. I was unable to finish the leftovers in one day so I froze the rest. I am excited to have this again! (Recipe in a previous post)
• banana bread or muffins. I'm undecided which to make, which probably means I'll end up making both. I will preslice the bread before I freeze it so I can easily take out one piece at a time.
• soup. Probably chili because we eat that fairly frequently. I won't make it as spicy as we normally have it because I plan on breastfeeding and you may need to adjust your diet if your baby is gassy or intolerant of some things. Spicy foods are included in that.
• lunch meat. Okay so I won't be making this but I will be freezing it so I can easily make sandwiches.

I may add more to this list (notice above where I said it's incomplete) but I will also have my mom and David around for the first few weeks and they can help out with meals too.

Other things I learned in my research:

• freeze things in individual portions because they're quicker to defrost and you never know how many people will be eating at a time
• I don't agree with this but some people say to make and freeze desserts like brownies and cookies to serve to people who stop by to meet the baby. I personally think they should be bringing YOU something but whatever.
• If you need things frozen for longer than 3 months, make sure you follow the proper freezing procedure (usually double wrapping things) to make them last longer without freezer burn.
• People recommend cooking up their meat and seasoning it then freezing it so you can use it with lots of different things (taco meat, sloppy joes, etc)
• Chop vegetables ahead of time if you won't be cooking them ahead of time. This will save you lots of prep work later.
• Most things taste better if you are able to freeze them before heating them and then just throw it in the oven when it is time to eat it. However, sometimes this isn't possible (especially if you don't have a nice, big chest freezer like we do).

Getting Ready for Teeny

Now that Teeny is due in like, a month (my due date is January 15th), I'm starting to panic about how little time is left. I did have both of my baby showers and we got a LOT of stuff but of course, there's always more. Babies require so much stuff and it doesn't help that we don't currently have a place to put it all. The room David and I came from before moving to the master is going to be Teeny's room for a few weeks (most likely) until the real nursery is ready but we were living in that room without trim and a few other fix ups so we are working on doing that now. The room should be done by Christmas and then we can move all Teeny's stuff in there. For now, it's in the living room, haunting me that it doesn't have a home.

I am also discovering that lots of things for babies are easy to make and cheaper to make than to buy but now that it's getting closer, I have to make the decision if I have the time to make it or if we'd be better off buying it to save me stress. I do plan on making some burp cloths, bibs, an extra crib sheet, patchwork sleep sack, and a changing pad though. Because of this, I have been busy sewing. There are other projects I want to get done before Teeny too so I have been working on those. The most recent being a Christmas tree skirt and living room curtains. I'm almost done with both and will try to post when complete (we are having major computer issues so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post this month and then of course, when Teeny comes I imagine I will have a hard time finding time to post as well).

It is also about the time to start making double batches of meals to freeze one batch for when Teeny is here. Then I don't have to cook. I will have my mom come help but of course, anything I can do to prepare and help beforehand will make everyone's lives easier.

I guess I'm just starting to feel the stress of it all. I wouldn't say I'm nesting but I'm definitely wishing I could get more done, let setting up the nursery. I just have to take it one day and a time and remember we can always buy more stuff (like clothes because it's impossible to know what size to buy until you know how big your baby will be) when I'm in the hospital or within that first week.

I'm definitely getting huge and uncomfortable, although I'm pretty sure I was saying that months ago. I'm barely getting any sleep between being too warm no matter how few blankets or clothes I have on, getting up hourly to pee, rolling over in bed requires a three point turn, and not being able to lay on my back, sides, or stomach. I haven't figured out how to sleep yet. I suppose it's just preparing me for when I will truly get no sleep once Teeny is crying all night.

35 weeks and just trying to stay positive and get a lot done!

Third Trimester Hunger

Tomorrow I will be 31 weeks pregnant and I couldn't be any hungrier! I eat a regular sized meal, complete with protein, fiber, and nutrients and an hour later, I am starving. I don't just mean if I have a snack, I'll be good. I mean hungry! My stomach growls, my head hurts, and I just have to eat!

I'm worried about the weight gain from it. I know Teeny is growing a lot and needs more calories but even without these extra meals, I already feel like I'm eating a lot. My weight gain has been very good this whole pregnancy (or so my doctor says. I feel huge most days but I have only gained weight in my bump area so I suppose they're right). I just don't want to eat a million calories these last months and then balloon up.

On the bright side, this is the one pregnancy symptom that my husband can actually relate to because I've been eating like a teenage boy. I'm going to eat us out of house and home! It also makes leaving the house difficult because I need to pack snacks or make sure I'm going somewhere where I can eat.

It has gotten to the point where I will have to wake up in the middle of the night (no need to set an alarm. My growling stomach is loud enough!) to have a snack before I'm able to keep sleeping.

This is ridiculous!

Beef Stroganoff With Cream of Mushroom Soup

I was looking for a way to use up sour cream I had bought on sale a couple weeks ago. I decided on stroganoff. David and I found a really good recipe for mushroom stroganoff a few years back but now that I require more protein (basically if I get anything less than 70 grams of protein a day, I feel really sick and can barely function. I'm hoping this goes away once Teeny is born because I find myself eating a lot of meat) we decided to look for a beef stroganoff recipe.

We asked David's mom for her recipe but after finding out that it takes an hour and a half just to simmer everything, closer to two hours for the whole recipe, we decided to search elsewhere. I know my mom uses cream of mushroom soup in hers so I looked up if Campbell's had a recipe and sure enough, they did! That's this recipe. We mostly followed it but didn't like some of their instructions so I'll rewrite it for you the way we did it.

1 pound round steak (we actually asked the guy behind the counter at the butcher part of our grocery store for his recommendation)
vegetable oil (we didn't measure since we pour it off later anyway but it was about three tablespoons)
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (not diluted)
2 sprinkles of paprika
1 cup sour cream
1 box of medium shells (noodles), cooked (I recommend starting the water for these when you're slicing up the beef. We thought the beef would take longer to cook so we didn't start right away and they weren't done at the same time).

1. Cut up the beef. My parents usually use ground beef for this recipe but David's family's recipe uses the round steak so that's what we used. I would've made the pieces even smaller but anything bite size is manageable.

2. Heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook beef until almost done, stirring often. Add the onions and continue to cook.

3. Pour off fat. With the onions in there, I'm really  not sure how David mastered this step because I would think it would be hard to keep the onions in the pan too but he did it.

4. Stir in soup and paprika. Heat to a boil (this really doesn't take long). Stir in sour cream. Cook until everything is heated through and serve on noodles.

And there you have it! It takes less than a half hour (even for people as inexperienced as us) and for the most part, these should be ingredients you can find in the pantry. It's even short on prep work so you really don't have an excuse.

If you notice, the original recipe only used 1 can of soup and 1/2 cup of sour cream. It was also only 4 cups of noodles, whereas we made the whole box so by doubling these ingredients, you get more sauce. Plus, some people in the comments on the original recipe complained the sauce was too thick and I think they made it more the right consistency.

Hot Weather, Kicks, Sunburn

Boy oh boy has it been hot here! This last heat wave (which hopefully ends today, started on Sunday) was even worse than the one a month ago! The temp was easily 100 every day with heat indexes even higher (living in the midwest with humidity is REALLY awful sometimes). Of course, being pregnant and without a/c I am a million times hotter than most people. It took some pretty intense public air conditioning (think library, out to dinner, seeing movies, etc) for me to even stop sweating while David is sitting next to me shivering. Being warmer while pregnant is no joke! 

But a happy thing about being pregnant this week is that David felt Teeny kick! Well, actually I think it was more of a headbutt because it definitely felt bigger than a foot but it's so exciting that he can feel too! He can't feel nearly as many as I can but it's still early. They say usually the dad can start feeling around 20-27 weeks and I'm 20 weeks today but he felt it a couple days ago. I seem to have advanced symptoms for everything. 

One more sad thing about being pregnant during this heat is that pregnant women get sunburned more easily because we produce more melanin. Great! I literally got sunburned walking from the house to the car in our driveway (maybe 40 steps away?). Not enough to get pink but enough to get itchy and start peeling. If you're outside for under 30 seconds, you should not be getting sunburn! That is just ridiculous but I guess I'm stuck in the house for the rest of summer unless I want to slather on sunscreen (which by the way, the smell makes me nauseous). 

I hope I don't complain about this pregnancy too much...I can't wait for the baby but I seem to have every bad symptom there is! Usually people don't get ALL of them but I guess I'm an exception. 

The Last Week Updates

So as I mentioned, I was cat sitting (and apartment sitting) for my sister and then going to my parent's house for a wedding this past weekend. Boy, was that a busy week! Cat sitting went just fine but they live in the city and it's nice for a little bit of a vacation but I don't think I could ever live there. It's just not my lifestyle. Then, the wedding was lots of fun but I felt like I hardly got to spend any time with my family because the weekend was so rushed (we got there Friday night, slept most of Saturday, then left Sunday afternoon) so we might go back soon. On the way home, due to lots of construction, our exit was closed and we had to go the long way home. I was so angry because we'd been in the car forever since we had missed the last rest stop (also due to construction). It seems like our whole route was under construction!

Our bunny, Cocoa, seems fine. We had David's brother check on her once or twice while we were gone (she can go about five days with a full food bowl and a full water bottle). She is looking at me now though like, "are you here to stay this time? Or are you just leaving again?". It's kind of cute but I think we're all trying to get back to our regular schedules.

One other thing we did last week was go to my doctor appointment to listen to our baby's heartbeat! I hadn't mentioned I was pregnant before (I'm almost 11 weeks now) because we were waiting due to the high risk of miscarriage in the beginning but after hearing the heartbeat and knowing how much teeny (that's what we call the baby) moves, it seems like we have a very healthy baby. I'm due January 15th and so far, have experienced pretty much every symptom they said I would, the worst being the nausea and vomiting. They do say that should pass in these next couple weeks though so I'll keep you posted.

I think that's everything new with us. Just getting back to regular life and I'll try to keep up with blog posts this week.