Weekly Dinner Plan 4/26/10

The highlight of last week definitely came at the end of the week when Meg and Mahbod came into town for a visit. They arrived on Friday and I had everyone, including Matt and Christine, over for dinner at my house. The menu included rosemary ranch chicken kabobs, roasted asparagus, and spaghetti squash and chard gratin. The gratin was definitely my favorite and I look forward to making it again. Last night I put together a plan through Thursday.

Mon - Palak Dal w/ Rice and Naan

Tue - Blackened Chicken over Fettuccine Alfredo

Wed - Taco Night

Thur - Out for Dinner

Last night on a whim I made this recipe. It was so so good. I cannot wait to eat the leftovers today.

Weekly Dinner Plan: 4/19/10

I yearn to be a very organized person. Someone who has all there Tupperware labeled, laundry done for the week in a day with the clothes put away in the right drawers all neatly folded and ready to go. I want to be that person who can find anything in their house instantly and never runs to the store for a last minute ingredient. Luckily, I was recently advised by a friend to visit orgjunkie.com and I am so so glad that I did. My first step is to start planning my meals out for the week on Sunday night (oops...already a day late so there is definitely room for improvement).

Monday - Easy Skillet Lasagna

Tuesday - Braised Balsamic Chicken w/ Rice

Wednesday - Spinach and Feta Quesadillas

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Grilled Teriyaki Chicken

Saturday -Out to Dinner w/Friends

For more menu plans:

My Mid-April Resolutions

Because why not?? Why must one only resolve to be a better person the first of the year. It's right after the craziness of Christmas and it's my birthday month. I happen to prefer to take a break. Not to mention that January is a cold and depressing month and not at all a motivating time for me to positive life changes.

So without further ado, my Spring 2010 Resolutions are as follows:

1) Blog as much as possible - I will achieve this by not being overly concerned with grammar, punctuation, interesting anecdotes and writing, jokes, or posting pictures. I will just write daily about what is going on and I may bore (you?) myself to tears one day if/when I read this in the future, but at least I will have something to read about my life.

2) Meal Plan on Mondays - See next post.

3) Work-out 3-5 days a week - Warning!! I will be posting pictures to track before/after progress.

4) Do not bite off more than I can chew, daily - So that's all I will resolve for now.

*Still need to work on re-designing this blog - colors, format, pictures, and title are all under construction.

It's "Only" Taken Six Months to Get Back to This Blog....

The title pretty much sums up how crazy life has been.

I mean, I have been BUSY. Really busy. And then when I am not busy I am sleeping or trying to regain my sanity via alcohol or funny sitcoms (see: The Modern Family) John and I have been spending the last six months saying how life is a mere modification when you have your first child but with the second....well that is life changing. No Joke, yo.

Anyway, the last six months have been some of the best yet trying moments of my life. The newest member of the family is sweet and cuddly and everything I ever wanted in a cat but never had. I spend so many moments of my day grasping on to each and every precious sweet baby thing that he does because I know that this time is fleeting and yet life is happening and I need remind myself constantly to stop and smell the roses. The first 3 months were very difficult. Mainly because I went from very structured well thought out planned days to oh holy god crazy nonsense madness days. And it was everyday for the past six months. And well, let's just say I don't do well in these circustances.

However this is still my life and I am dealing much better than before. I am learning to embrass the madness and even - gasp - sometimes enjoy it. The great part is that everyday is a surprise. I wake up and I never know what to expect. Happy children. Laughter. Smiles. Hugs and Kisses. Surprise! Or simetimes, sad children. Crying. Screaming. Throwing (or most often a combo of the two). Surprises also come in the form of Finn saying his first sentence or expressing himself in a way he never has before or the day Elliott broke his first tooth or sat up unassisted for the first time.

I am so lucky that I have had a front row seat for all the madness and craziness that is my life.

One Month Old

Today my beautiful second born son is already one month old. I am doing my best to cherish each and every moment I have with him in his infancy, hold him, kiss him, love on him as much as humanly possible. I know how fast this time rushes by and so every spare moment goes to loving on him, smelling him, cuddling with him....(hence the lack of blog updates. Opps). It seems like yesterday his eyes would barely stay open wide enough and long enpough for me to see how stunningly piercingly blue they are and now he can hold my gaze for several seconds at a time, intently and wide eyed. He is growing out of clothes and into new clothes already. Gone are the 5-8lb Gerber wrap shirts and premie 0utfits that once fit him so perfectly and snuggly. Now he is finally wearing his newborn* sized clothes and footed pajamas. Big brother Finn is soooo good and sweet with his little brother, constantly running to his attention whenever he cries, rubbing his head, giving him kisses. Finn even helps change diapers (by throwing the dirty ones away). Eating and sleeping are Elliott's favorite pastime. Right around 4 weeks he went from eating every 2-3 hours to eating 3-4 hours, which means that I get a little extra sleep at night.



So all-in-all life is good here...no really good. Apparently the economy is in the crapper, the world in shambles but here I sit in my own little Utopia, ambovelent to other harsh realities because this is my reality....

Elliott's Birth Story

When I went to my 38 week appointment, the doctor checked me and I was 2 cm. dilated, near completely effaced, and baby was at -1 station. I was measuring 42 weeks and possibly had low AF. The decision to induce labor was discussed and I decided that it was the best for both of us. The "birth date" was set for Wednesday July 1st, 3 days before my due date. I was hesitant to be induced again only because I had never really experienced any labor pains and/or didn't have a fun "water breaking in public" story to tell one day to my children who will more than likely not care anyway. I decided that waiting was silly and along the same lines of trying for a natural childbirth.

The morning of July 1st I woke up and got ready complete with make-up and freshly straightened hair. Finn was dropped off the night before to spend the night with Mimi and Papa Duck. I call the hospital an hour before (as instructed) and I am told that all the beds are full and maybe they would be calling me by early afternoon. What?!? The "waiting place" is the most horrible place to be when the thing you are 'waiting' for is a human life. There is pretty much nothing that can keep my mind off that and almost immediately I started feeling nauseous. Ahhh....but John knows me all too well and decided that we should spend the morning shopping. It actually turned out to be a lovely morning, just he and I together, which is so rare these days. Then the morning came and went and soon it was the afternoon and there was still no call from the hospital. My stomach ache returned and was followed by a mild headache.

My parents arrived from Chicago around 3PM. Then finally around 4 PM the hospital called and told us they were ready for us. Finally!!! Of course we were all packed and ready to go and rushed right over there. We were checked into our room at 5:15PM.

My final belly shot at 39 Weeks

The story becomes painfully boring at this point because I am checked again for dilatation and nothing has changed from my 38 week appointment and they start the Pitocin drip at 2mg. A half an hour later it is turned to 4mg. Then another half an hour the new 'feisty' nurse turns it to 6mg, all the while I am feeling nothing and just reading magazines. At this point the nurse disappears for over and hour and the next person to walk into my room is Dr. Meckler who explains that my nurse has been working on an admin issue involving me not having an HIV test on record. Oh, please. She clears the issue and sets the pit at 7mg. It is about 7:30 PM. The Pitocin keeps getting turned up like this and around 1:30 AM they page the on call doc in to break my water. I wonder to myself if I should ask for the epidural even though I am not in any real pain, just a bit uncomfortable. I decide to wait. John falls asleep. Nothing continues to happen.

Looking a little disheveled but still smiling...

I decided to get the epidural sometime around 3 AM, mainly because I was hoping it would help me relax and get some sleep. At this point the nurse decides my fluid levels are too low and pumps my uterus with water to give the baby more room to move. At 7 AM my doctor returns and I had just been checked by the nurse and was still only 3-4 cm dilated. You've got to be kidding me. My doctor heads into surgery and I continue to wait. At this point the Pitocin is up to about 18mg. I feel no pain, just tired and hungry.

Finally somewhere around 8AM I start to feel a whole lot of pressure and I tell John that I am positive I am close to 10 cm. I feel ready to push. My nurse comes in to check and sure enough I am ready!! But my doctor isn't so they turned the Pitocin off and turned the epidural up. Fantastic...more waiting. I stayed like this until almost 11 AM when my doctor showed up and they prepared the room. Five easy pushes and 15 minutes later Elliott was here but not before he made a grand entrance, just like his big bro. This boy had the cord wrapped around his neck and so when he came out he was grayish blue instead of the nice rosy pink color he should have been. The baby nurses immediately started massaging him and extracting fluids from his mouth. I, on the other hand, nearly bled to death on the bed while being injected with several doses of blood clotters and yet somehow I could not have been happier.

The bleeding eventually stopped and they brought Elliott to me all wrapped up and looking quite pink and healthy and hungry. He immediately latches on enjoys his first meal a la boob.

You know, all the waiting was a pain in the ass. It really was and seemed sooo many times that it could have been avoided but I tell you, I would have waited an eternity to enjoy those moments after birth when he was brought back to me to eat. It was one of the happiest I had ever been in my life. I felt cheated out of this part of the experience with Finn. He was taken from me and sent to Special Care for 72 long horrible hours. So after an entire day of waiting to check into the hospital, 18 hours of a long boring pit drip, 15 minutes of painless pushing, almost an hour after birth of near bleeding to death it was all so worth it to be able to hold my baby in my arms and nourish him for the first time outside my womb. He never left my arms after that and slept by my side on the bed all through the night. Another precious and gorgeous baby boy. My second little man. Elliott William.



How so VERY easy it is to open your heart and love someone else so much, so fast. Sooo EASY.

So In Love...

I can't put him down long enough to type out a coherent sentence. Somethings I will note about this week though.
1) I love having John home and fear the day he returns back to work.
2) The boy loves Boob. His discharge weight was 7lbs 3.5oz!! Pretty darn good for a BF baby.
3) OMG..he is so darn cute. How did I get so lucky to have two really cute baby boys?