Friesencold

I plan to write the whole story later, but the super-quick version is that I had the natural birth I wanted all right! TJ delivered our new baby boy Cash Benedict in the Honda Civic on our way to the hospital yesterday morning. We don’t know exactly what time Cash was born and we didn’t think to take a picture of him after he was first born in the car. Actually we realized later we had forgotten to grab the backpack with the camera in it, but I would have at least gotten TJ to take a picture with his phone if I had thought of it. But at least Cash got a cool birthdate of 8-28-08 and TJ got to estimate the time of birth and if you know us, you know he picked 10:47am. Cash weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and is 19 1/2 inches long. He sure is cute. And Bauer seems to like him already.

Today is my due date.

Today I started reading a new book called Love Walked In.

Today we bought Oberweis 2% chocolate milk and I’m drinking a glass right now.

Today my mom and I took a nice morning walk while pushing Bauer in the stroller.

Today I wore my gray American Eagle t-shirt with the little green bird stitched on the front. Again.

Today I didn’t wear mascara.

Today I talked on the phone with Jamie, Jaime, Jeff, Jill, and Meghan. That’s a lot of J’s.

Today I emailed a bunch of my old high school classmates to ask for their mailing addresses because I am on our class reunion planning committee.

Today I added 4 new friends on Facebook.

Today my mom bought Bauer the game called “Guess Who.”

Today we took Bauer to a park and then to lunch at All Aboard Diner, a train-themed restaurant where we are having his birthday party in a few weeks.

Today I bought red and green grapes for 99 cents a pound, which is 1/3 the price of grapes at Whole Foods. What cost me $4.62 at Target would have been $13.86 at Whole Foods.

Today I took a 1 hour and 45 minute nap while Bauer was napping and I feel great!

Today we ate a whole cantaloupe for breakfast. That was only $1.50 for me, TJ, my mom and Bauer all to have some.

Today I made a smoothie with 3 bananas, a peach, and some frozen strawberries.

Today Bauer wanted to read the Blue’s Clues book called I’m Sorry about 10 times.

Today I bought a vegetable brush. I want to scrub potatoes and apples really good from now on if we are going to eat the skin.

Today is 4 months till Christmas.

Today was TJ’s day off but he had to go to work this evening for a couple of hours to do a video shoot.

Today my sister has a bad cold and had to stay home from work. I hope you feel better soon, Holly!

Today somebody had a baby, but not me.

No our baby star wasn’t born yet.

But I did feel like a celebrity last night when TJ and I went out for dinner to Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery. TJ had the idea for us to go to dinner since my mom is now in town and could watch Bauer. I hadn’t even really thought of us being able to go out since I had really thought by now we’d be busy taking care of a baby and using my mom’s help for that. But when TJ suggested, I was definitely up for the idea. And we both had Rock Bottom in mind as where we’d like to go, so it worked out perfectly.

That is, until we got there and we found out they had just recently gotten a new menu and the one menu item I had fallen in love with the last time we went there was no longer on their menu. TJ’s fish tacos were still on there, but not the portobello mushroom sandwich on wheat ciabatta bread with sundried tomatoes, spinach, fontina cheese, and some sort of delicious pesto. I was so disappointed as soon as I scanned the menu and couldn’t find it. We asked our waiter about it and he apologized and offered a couple other vegetarian options, but none were really what I was wanting since I loved that mushroom sandwich so much and only wanted that.

Well, I was trying to decide between a pizza and an artichoke, spinach, and tomato wrap, when another lady who worked there (we later found out her name was Jackie and I assume she was a manager because she was dressed in nice clothes and seemed very empowered to please the customer) stopped by our table and told me that she was going to quickly drive to a nearby restaurant and get a portobello mushroom from them since Rock Bottom no longer has them. She said they really wanted to make me happy and try to make the sandwich as close as possible to what used to be on the menu. I don’t really know how she knew I was so disappointed when I saw they didn’t have the sandwich anymore – I guess maybe our waiter told her, but I didn’t know I looked that disappointed. Anyway, she was so nice about it and really seemed eager to do whatever she could to make my experience a good one.

Just before she had come over to our table and offered to recreate the sandwich for me, TJ was reading this little card that had been inserted in the front of each menu, stating Rock Bottom’s desire to make each customer’s experience a positive one and wanting to do whatever it takes to make this happen. The card noted the new menu and even went so far as to say that if you try something off the new menu and are not pleased with it, then they will replace your food or refund your money. That’s a pretty good deal, although at the moment of my disappointment, as TJ was reading the card, he commented that we should let them know about the missing mushroom sandwich and take them up on their offer to put the customer first (not that I was thinking they should bring back the sandwich just for me).

But that is just what they did. So this girl Jackie drove to some neighboring restaurant and came back with a portobello mushroom and then asked me about what kind of bread I wanted it on, since they no longer have the wheat ciabatta bread. She told me my options, which I evidently seemed unsure about (onion kaiser, onion rye, sourdough?) because not long after that she came back and asked if I wanted a wheat bun and I was like yeah, now that sounds about right for a portobello mushroom sandwich. It was as if she was making the sandwich for me just how she would have wanted it (she had previously commented that she loved the old sandwich). I felt like Jackie really was excited to try and make the sandwich perfect for me and without hesitation, almost without even asking my opinion, she was telling me she was going to go next door to Red Robin and get a wheat bun from them. And that is what she did.

And we really didn’t have to wait all that long for any of this. We got the NEW! Homemade Guacemole and Chips for an appetizer while we waited, and before long TJ was getting his fish tacos and I was getting my portobello mushroom sandwich on a wheat bun with the same spinach, sundried tomatoes, fontina cheese (just a little), and rosemary mayonnaise on the side. I guess they didn’t have the pesto anymore but that mayo was delicious too. I ate every single bite of my sandwich and loved it! It was just as good as I remembered, maybe even better since I knew it had been so customized and created with love (can you call it that?) especially for me.

I felt like a celebrity and I didn’t even have to whine or make a scene to get what I wanted. I truly was just going to pick something else off the menu and then later in the ordeal, I was going to pick a different bread, but Jackie was so enthusiastic about making our experience a perfect one, that I had to let her. And now I am an even bigger Rock Bottom fan. I’ll know next time before we go that the mushroom sandwich is not on the menu, although as a post note, let me say that Jackie told me that the next time I come, I could even call ahead and let them know I’m coming and would really like to get the portobello sandwich that used to be on the menu and that they would do their best to accommodate me. I don’t know that I’ll ask them to go to all that trouble, but wow – what restaurant even offers such a suggestion?

Today is my dad’s birthday. I think he is turning 54. And I also think it would be cool to have our baby share a birthday with him. I really did think I was going to go in labor during the night last night, or at least that is what I was envisioning all day yesterday, especially after I went to my doctor’s appointment in the afternoon and found out I am 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced.

I know the Bradley Method teaches you that the amount of dilation doesn’t have a whole lot to do with how soon labor will start, but it did make me feel good to think that whenever I do go into labor, I’m not going to have as far to progress. The doctor suspected it may go pretty quickly. He said the baby’s head is VERY low, although the number he wrote on my chart is still the -1 position as last week. So I guess the baby is just sitting there really low and waiting for the uterus to start doing its work to gently ease him further down and out.

My mom arrives into town today and we had a backup plan and everything for her to be picked up from the airport in case we were at the hospital when she arrives. But unless something starts this morning, it looks like TJ will be picking her up and then Bauer and I will get to spend the afternoon with Gigi. I am looking forward to her visit and especially to her help with Bauer and the new baby (whenever he makes his debut).

I made a list of all the fun things that we can do with Gigi, or that Gigi can do with Bauer while we are at the hospital. Naperville is such a great place to live if you have kids and if you can survive the winters. But right now it is summer and we are again loving it. Here’s my list of ideas:

1) new Whole Foods – gelato bar (I got Bauer a strawberry-mango gelato there one time and now every time we go, he remembers and asks for the same thing. I keep telling him Gigi will take him there when she visits.)

2) Barnes & Noble or Anderson’s Bookstore, both in downtown Naperville – to play with the Thomas train table sets (I love doing this because I get to sit in a chair and read while Bauer enjoys playing with the trains)

3) DuPage Children’s Museum – located 0.2 miles from our house!

4) Morton Arboretum, which includes tons of walking paths, nature trails, and a children’s garden, and which is where I took Bauer yesterday and right after we got there, he stepped with both feet (including shoes and socks) right into this little wading pool

5) Various parks that are part of the great park districts around here. I would guess there are at least 10 parks within easy walking distance of our house.

6) All Aboard Diner – a train-themed restaurant where your food is delivered via train and where we are having Bauer’s 3rd birthday party in a few weeks

7) Airtastic – one of those indoor bounce places with all the blow-up jumpy things for kids to climb and slide and basically be out of control and tire themselves out

Library – Bauer and I usually go to the library once a week to exchange the DVDs we’ve rented and pick out some new books. We also go to storytime sometimes.

9) IKEA – My mom mentioned the last time she was here that she wanted to visit IKEA with us the next time she came, and Bauer really enjoys going there too. It’s either because he gets to run around wildly and jump up on furniture, or because TJ often gets one of their Lingenberry fountain drinks when we visit and Bauer knows he’ll get to have some (which also may be the reason that he runs around wildly and jumps up on furniture). We just found out our replacement recliner is in at the nearby IKEA so we’ll have to pick that up in the next week or so, so it should work out for my mom to go with us. In case you’re wondering, our new recliner has had a few issues, including that you have to practically kick the footrest to make it stay down once you have opened it up, so we are getting a replacement. We do love our new furniture though.

10) The mall, which is not my favorite place to go in the summer since I’d rather be outside or at least be in a place where I can see the light of day from inside, but they do have a carousel that Bauer really enjoys riding and a fountain for throwing money in and lots of room for him to run around yet again. And there’s a Disney store and Build-A-Bear which Bauer has never done, but which maybe Gigi will want to take him to do.

So those are the 10 ideas I came up with, but also a good picture of the kinds of things I’ve been doing with Bauer lately. Our playgroup has also done some really fun activities this summer like going to Pelican Harbor (a splash park and pool) and Blackberry Farm (which has an outdoor miniature train ride, an outdoor carousel, and pony rides).

I am so thankful that we have all these opportunities here but I’m also thankful for how our life is about to change with the new baby coming. Even though I know it will be more difficult to just pick up and go to the Arboretum or the library or IKEA, it still is very nice to know we have so many options and so many things Bauer enjoys.

Has anyone read any other books by Barbara Kingsolver? I just got done with Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and am wondering if her other books are just as good.

TJ took Bauer out for a couple hours this morning to give me a little break. They were going to ride bikes (I guess I should say bike since it’s one bike with Bauer’s seat on the back) past the train station, to the post office, and then stopping at a park for a few minutes before heading to TJ’s work. I am picking Bauer up there in a little while. And then I’ll take him with me to Whole Foods to pick up a few things we need before we head back home.

I was hoping to stop by the bookstore too to look at the Kingsolver books and decide if any of them look good enough to buy with the Borders giftcard I received recently. I also got a 30% off one item coupon from Borders so it should be a good deal.

Last night was the Parent Orientation for the Parent’s Day Out program Bauer will be in starting in September. It was a great meeting and the program seems so well-run. I think Bauer is going to love it! And I feel sure I will enjoy that chunk of time on Friday mornings with just me and the baby. I saw two of my friends at the orientation last night, and we all have our boys going on Fridays, but one of the kids will be in the younger 2’s class, Bauer in the 2 1/2’s, and the other little boy in the 3’s. So that’s sort of a bummer, although I’m hoping I will run into the moms (my friends) during drop-off and pick-up sometimes.

Okay, I hate to break it to you, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my downtime this morning writing on my blog. So I’ll go. And hopefully I’ll go, as in have this baby soon!

I honestly didn’t think I’d make it this far, but here is another day. The full-moon effect had no pull on me on Saturday and I even walked around downtown Naperville with Bauer for close to 3 hours, hoping for a little contraction action, on Saturday afternoon while TJ was at work.

Walking with our new double BOB stroller is seriously the easiest walking I have done during this entire pregnancy. That stroller practically pulls you along. And Bauer likes it a lot, too! It is so roomy for him and seems like such a smooth ride over bumps and cracks. It really is amazing and I am so happy I had a couple friends highly recommend their single BOBs. (It just makes me wish I had had a BOB all along and none of this Graco stuff.) Even though there is no baby yet to go in the other side of the stroller, I am enjoying using it with just Bauer. Plus, this way, there is room for Tucker, as well as the Blue’s Clues books that we stopped and checked out from the library on Saturday afternoon, to be in the seat beside Bauer.

We had another of our Bradley classes yesterday afternoon and had a good review of second-stage labor. Bauer spent time at home with our babysitter and when we got home, they were out in the backyard playing tee ball. That was a nice thing to see because Bauer looked so happy and he was really hitting the ball good.

Not much on the agenda for today. TJ has off work, so perhaps I’ll take a walk outside by myself. Or then again, maybe I’ll take Bauer just so I have the stroller to push and it seems easier. The one little project I’m working on lately is getting our address book on our computer in order and making a new list within that of people that we want to send birth announcements to. You know I like to organize and throw away, so deleting names (mostly duplicates) from the address book and updating the others is quite fulfilling for me.

I also have a little project planned for when I go into labor. My friend Hannah said she read that you should have a labor project so that when the time comes, you will have something to occupy your mind and body for a while in the beginning stage of labor when you definitely aren’t ready to go to the hospital yet. One idea from whatever book that was was to make cookies, so that is what I decided I will do. I haven’t made cookies in a while and I have a bunch of recipes for different kinds that I’ve saved from magazines. So I picked one and bought the ingredients last week, and I was even thinking maybe I can take some to the nurses at the hospital as an additional birth plan bribe, or just to be nice.

First, the furniture from IKEA.

Then, the BOB stroller.

Next the baby’s crib and change “table” all set up in our bedroom.

My cool Bebe au Lait (a.k.a. Hooter Hider) and HotSling.

And here is a little plaque I painted for Bauer at our last Ladies Night Out with our small group.

Finally, my 38 week belly. Oh yeah, and my new American Eagle t-shirt in my favorite color.

Things seem to be coming together well around here as we prepare for the arrival of our baby. I have 2 weeks to go until my due date, but I’m trying to mentally and physically prepare myself for any day now.

I have finished reading the Hypnobirthing book as well as the Bradley Method book, and have been diligently practicing some of the exercises and relaxation/breathing techniques from each of the two methods. I have been stretching my inner thighs, doing lots of squatting, and working those Kegels. In fact, I’m liking the exercises so much (gasp!), I think I will keep them up once the baby is born. It has been amazing to me how quickly my body has adapted to these exercises, but maybe it’s because my mind has been highly motivated to make it happen quickly since there is so little time left. Now, I’m actually glad that Igot into the natural birthing hoopla so late in the game because it has made me have a greater sense of urgency to get my body and mind ready, plus I think if I knew I had 4 months ahead of me still, I would have difficulty being diligent to practice my exercises every day with my “deadline” looming so far out. Six weeks has been a perfect time frame for me and my all-or-nothing personality!

I have my iPod shuffle all loaded up with the Hypnobirthing affirmation track, a couple relaxation guided exercises, and the Rainbow Relaxation track. I also added a bunch of slow, peaceful songs to my iPod yesterday, including Yanni’s The End of August. It was interesting how many of the song names I picked seemed to go along with the direction I want my birth experience to take.

We wrote our birth plan and discussed it with our doctor this past Friday. It was quite well-received by the particular doctor we met with (there are 4 others in the practice I go to), so I am hoping the others take it just as well or that this doctor is the one who is on call when I deliver. Only a couple of things on the birth plan did he point out we might run into a small bit of difficulty with, one being getting out of the “SO-ROUTINE” pitocin that is given after the delivery to help cut down on bleeding, but he did say it is always my choice. So I guess I will have the choice – it just might be that we have to be a little more forceful than we had hoped to get out of that. We’ll play that by ear and talk to our doula if the situation occurs.

Everyone seems to think that because this is my second baby, everything will go quicker and easier – not that my labor and delivery with Bauer was all that long or that hard. But it does seem nice knowing I’m doing my first natural birth with my second child. Bauer has prepared the way, they all say.

We have the crib set up in our bedroom now with the safari-themed sheets and bumper all washed and made up. I have the baby clothes washed and organized in drawers. I have my new HotSling, my new Bebe au Lait, and my old Boppy ready for use. TJ and Bauer put together the new portable swing we purchased from our registry using mostly gift cards and they set up the little bouncy seat. The infant carseat and the baby bathtub have been taken down from the rafters of the garage, and TJ happily ordered our Bob stroller last night. He was checking out the stroller website a friend had recommended and they were running a sale and we got the very last one of the exact one we wanted – the orange Revolution Duallie with the infant seat connector bar add-on, plus a cup holder for me!

And most recently – this morning at Whole Foods we picked out the natural baby products we want to try this time around: Weleda Diaper Cream and Burt’s Bees talc-free baby powder. Just before that, we had breakfast with some friends at their house and my friend Dena was showing me the cloth diapers she uses for her daughter Adelyn. They are called Fuzzi Bunz and seemed really easy to use, not to mention environmentally friendly and ecomonical. So that is something we plan to look into once the baby is a little older and past the pooping-every-20-minutes stage. I have to honestly say I never thought I would be a cloth diaper person, but it only seems like a natural progression of all that we are already embracing. It’s at least something I plan to look into and consider, while in the meantime using the Pampers Swaddlers we were given at our baby shower.

I finished my re-reading of the Babywise book so that I could remember how to work toward a flexible schedule with the baby: by trying to keep with the eat-wake-sleep order and do the feedings between 2 1/2 to 3 hours apart. The first week though is a grace period and I’m not even supposed to look at the clock but focus only on trying to get the baby to take full feedings. That sounds good to me. I keep telling myself I’m going to start my re-reading of Secrets of the Baby Whisperer, but I can’t divert my attention from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for long enough to start a second book at the same time. I have Baby Whisperer in my stack of stuff to take to the hospital, thinking I may get some reading in during my couple days there. And yes, I do have my stuff laid out for the hospital, just not in a bag yet.

Our doula recommended we buy some large candy bars or other treats to wrap copies of our birth plan around to give to the nurses who are on duty when I go in to deliver. She called it a “Birth Plan Bribe” or just a friendly way to make friends and let them know we aren’t trying to be difficult just because we are approaching things differently. So in my hopital stack are the 4 boxes of movie-theater candy I bought with copies of our birth plan wrapped around each. I wished I could have thought of a more healthy option than candy, but for some reason, I don’t think they’d get too excited about a “Birth Plan Banana.”

Me, on the other hand – if it was just the right green-ness of banana, I would. I am the pickiest banana eater you ever saw, and usually the only way I can eat a banana straight out of the peel and into my mouth is if I pick it out in the store and eat it as soon as I walk out of the store. It has to be the exact right ripeness (or rather green-ness) or I can’t do it. Thankfully, 75% of the bananas we buy end up in smoothies, and so it works out great since the best bananas in smoothies are the ripe ones.

But that doesn’t have anything to do with baby preparations, or perhaps it does. All those smoothies I’m eating are giving me lots of vitamins and minerals and that is building a healthy baby. But let’s see – what else?

I have a toy (a Lego Mac truck from the Cars movie, but ssshhhhhh) all wrapped for Bauer, for when he first visits the hospital and sees his baby brother. It will be a gift from the baby to Bauer and I just know Bauer is going to love it (the toy, that is, and I’ll keep you posted on the baby brother part).

My mom is scheduled to arrive on the 22nd, which is my dad’s birthday and a prime candidate for another birthday. I wouldn’t mind if they shared, although I always sort of minded thinking someone else in the family might be born on my birthday. My mom will be here to help us for 9 days! Yay!

And the last thing I can think of is that we got our new furniture from IKEA. Ever since we had Bauer 3 years ago, we realized how much we wished we had gotten leather couches the last time we bought furniture. What we had bought instead were these 2 fabric sofas (cool, nonetheless) from a store in Orlando called Living Quarters. We got a lot of good use out of them, while they got a lot of baby spit-up and probably even some poop and pee included. But even being 5 or 6 yeras old, they were in great shape and still looked cool and modern, especially with the throw pillows TJ made – as in went to Joanne’s Fabrics, ordered fabric, and used an old-fashioned sewing machine – to go on the couches. (Yes, my husband is very talented and you only wish you could be so lucky).

But ever since knowing we were going to have our second baby, I’ve been saying how much I’d like to have a recliner so I would have a comfortable place to sit and nurse the baby in the middle of the night and a place to rest with the baby during the day. In addition, both me and TJ knew we wanted leather whenever we would buy new furniture, so we had been looking at couches recently, trying to decide where to buy and what combination of pieces we might like.

We settled pretty quickly on IKEA (duh!) and now have a black leather couch, a black leather recliner, and one other fun funky chair with a light blue and green leaf pattern that is the same shaped frame as the recliner. The two chairs look nice together and to top it off even more, one end of the couch also reclines and the other end has a built in chaise lounger. I never thought I’d be into that either, but it is really nice and Bauer enjoy leaning over it and playing. We were able to sell both our old couches on the very day after we had the new furniture delivered. Thank God for CraigsList and for God Himself. That was a blessing to get that furniture off our hands just in the nick of time since we would have had no place to store it. And don’t you know that money came in handy for our new Bob stroller!

How did this

become this?

Yeah, I know, it’s more of a jungle than a garden.

But look what we’re eating!

It’s very timely that I’m now reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I am only through the first chapter, but I am totally trucking with the idea, as presented on page 9:

“This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew. We tried to wring most of the petroleum out of our food chain, even if that meant giving up some things. Our highest shopping goal was to get our food from so close to home, we’d know the person who grew it. Often that turned out to be us, as we learned to produce more of what we needed, starting with dirt, seeds, and enough knowledge to muddle through. Or starting with baby animals and enough sense to refrain from naming them.”