3 weeks

Three weeks postpartum and I think life needs to return to more structure. While lounging and snuggling a newborn is SO nice, I just can't justify it for much longer. Not that I won't snuggle the little guy, he'll just be in the sling more often! This also happens to coincide nicely with the new year starting up in a few days.

~My goals for this month~

**Start up homeschooling again on Monday and actually teach school each and every day!

**Daily chores- the kids & mine. Plan them out and enforce them.

**Menu plan- I do this most of the time but I've taken a few weeks off as people brought meals :O)

**Eat wiser. One of the great things about people delivering meals is that they bring desserts...it's also the reason I probably haven't lost a single pound. I'm not going to 'diet' but I do need to make wiser choices.

**Work on inventory/pricing of items for my store (I'm getting excited about this one, I worked on it some today)

How about you, do you have any current goals?

Merry Christmas!!

~ The Sims Family ~

Rocky Road

I have really fond memories of cookies and candies that my mom made around the holidays and Rocky Road has always been one of my favorites.

I'm not sure why I only make these at Christmas time, other than it seems to preserve the tradition. Maybe they're more special when only eaten once a year? Maybe my hips and thighs and belly jiggle will thank me for keeping this to a seasonal tradition. :)

Ingredients:

4 cups rice krispies cereal
2 cups mini marshmallows
1 cup peanuts

12 oz peanut butter
1 1/2 lbs baking chocolate

Directions:
Melt chocolate and peanut butter in a large pot. Remove from heat and dump in all other ingredients. Stir thoroughly and drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper. Try and wait until cooled to eat. :O)

Birth Story

Warning: details included may be too much information for some so read ahead with caution.... :)


I mentioned a couple posts ago that I was scheduled to be induced Thursday morning...well, I woke up Wednesday feeling a bit off. Just not quite normal. First thing when I get out of bed is a trip to the bathroom. Then I was up preparing breakfast for Ian before he headed off to work. Only I ended up back in the bathroom about three times over the next 20 minutes. The thought crossed my mind that maybe my water had broken but I wasn't sure. I mentioned to Ian that this might be the case, but I also could just be crazy. :/

I wasn't in any pain, no contractions or anything...just LOTS of trips to the bathroom.

Finally about noon I was convinced that I was indeed leaking amniotic fluid. I made a phone call to the doctor and they said to head on over to their office so they could check things out and see for 100% certainty and whether or not I was dilating.

Fast forward a couple hours and a few phone calls later, a friend is watching the kids and Ian, Amanda and I are on our way to the doctor. He checks me and verifies that yes, my water has broken and I'm dilated 3-4cm. Still no contractions.

I had tested positive for the group B strep so the doctor needed me to receive antibiotics for at least four hours before birth. We headed to the hospital (the building is joint with the doctor's office, so it wasn't far). There they hooked me up to the iv with antibiotics and proceeded to ask me the standard millions of questions. The nurse hooked up the baby monitor and the contractions monitor belt things around me. I'm still feeling perfectly fine, no pain but she tells me that I am having contractions. Huh, okay well at least I can't feel them! :)

8:00 p.m. approaches and the doctor gives the go ahead for me to get some pitocin. Time to get this show on the road!


It doesn't take long before the contractions pick up, not to fast and still bearable. We pass the time watching Mythbusters on tv and the nurse pops in every 20 minutes or so and cranks up the pitocin.

The doctor wanted an update about once an hour so the nurse checked me a little after 9:00, 6 cm.

A little after 10:00, 7 cm.

About 10:30 contractions are starting to HURT! I'm in pain and I don't think Amanda was really sure how to watch/act. The nurse was really sweet and pulled her aside and showed her how to wet down a wash cloth with cool water and bring it to me, also how to swing it around in the air as a fun way to cool it faster.

Around 11:00 I'm really uncomfortable, on the pain scale 0-10...I'm about a 8-9. The nurse checks me once again and says I'm 8 cm and the baby is LOW, which explains all the pressure I feel. She calls the doctor in assuming that things are going to go quickly from this point. He checks me and says yes I'm 8 cm and could probably push a couple times to fully dilate but there's a lip (whatever that means) on one side of my cervix. He looks at the nurse and says, "have her breath through a few more contractions"....and then he leaves the room. I don't think I've ever, EVER been so disappointed then I was at that moment!

I'm feeling really, really weak. I think this is because I hadn't eaten now for almost 12 hours. There was a lot of crying, moaning, me crying "I can't" (I think I say that during every labor as illogical as it is) The pain isn't letting up, between contractions I have a lot of back pain and pelvic pressure.

I think I must have said that I felt like pushing enough to convince the nurse, so she grabbed the doctor back in FINALLY. I don't think I'd dilated any more at this point but he tells me to try and push anyway. I get about half a push in and he tells me to relax and STOP PUSHING. He says baby's head is out and I need to relax and let the rest of him just slide out so I won't tear. UMMM, have you ever tried to NOT PUSH? So, so hard. Seconds later baby was placed up on my chest and oh what a GREAT feeling that is!!!!

The contractions are gone and all eyes are looking at this little miracle. :)




Rough, rough, super painful....but SOOOO worth it!

Theophilus James

Born on Wednesday, December 8th at 11:50 pm

8 lbs 6 ounces

19 inches long

Welcome Theo, we love you!

He'll be here soon...

Well, I can't believe I'm at the end of this pregnancy already!

After my doctors appointment today, I scheduled to be induced on

Thursday, December 9th.

This isn't because of any health concern, mainly just because I'm far enough along that the doctor approves of it AND it sure makes scheduling child care for the other kids easier. :O)

So unless little man doesn't want to wait until Thursday, that'll be the big day!

Stay tuned....