It's Christmas Time

So, with above said post title start humming that little holiday ditty. Christmas music is my fave to listen to, from Handel's Messiah and the Nutcracker to Mariah Carey (sing it, sistah!)and Michael Buble.

This is my first Christmas in New Jersey and therefor away from my family.  With moving and two small children the day sort of snuck up on me, despite having 4 weeks of Advent to constantly remind me.  Presents were not so carefully wrapped under the Christmas tree and there were no stockings to be hung by the fireplace with even the least amount of care, so yeah. I hope I'm sounding more like a busy mom and less like Scrooge's long lost sister.

My brother and his wife are oh-so awesome and came to visit! The boys love their Uncle G and Aunt Ke-ke. I really enjoy watching them all interact and my brother is going to be the bestest Dad. So weird to type and even weirder (more weird?, come get me grammar police) to say.

Without further ado, the day in pictures.

1. Daddy and X-Man opening his gifts, complete with an awesome "motion" frame of pics

2. Auggie the doggie, with possibly a tumor growing out of his head

3. Baby J with Aunt Kelsey

4.Gotta love the grainie selfie

5. MORE X-Man and Daddy

6. Uncle G with the boys

The longest of walks down memory lane

I've been staying with my parents while my husband finished up the remainder of his training in Oklahoma up until our home closes in New Jersey.  It has been a wonderful experience for so many reasons, but today definitely takes the cake.....you see, my mom has saved SOOOOOOO many of our "things" from my childhood (almost receiving the gold medal in hoarding, but not quite) and going through it all has been very fun and nostalgic with a twist of sad longing for my youth (this adult responsibility thing really is for the birds).  Without further ado, I give you my YOUTH in a Wordless Wednesday:

*I don't care how old you are, Little People will always and forever ROCK

*1980 something neon grill or banana clip....you decide

*This top was actually my dad's when he was a kid

*I feel like this picture speaks very highly for itself, especially of my generally good taste in music

*I really did want to be a ballerina, but my mediocre training and pointe skills left something to be desired

*On the count of 3, everybody sing with me how they heard it through the grapevine....

*My very first backpack

Love,
K.

Case of the Mundays

Yes, yes, yes I know that today is Tuesday but the rainy icky weather has given me a double case of the horrible, no good, very bad Munday two days in a row.  Is that possible? Yes, or maybe I'm just letting the grey rain cloud hovering over my head give me a case of the frownies.  I've shirked my personal running goal for two days and replaced it with television (more than any one person should consume), hiding under a warm blankie and my mom's brownies a la mode with raspberries and chocolate syrup....overindulgent much? What happened to my beautiful fall?  The trees always turn too fast, but the wet weather has made them turn even quicker.  Blah! This is why I could never live in the pacific northwest. So, yeah....now that I've given you MY ray of sunshine for the past two days......I dare you to not smile at these cheesey faces.

Introducing Baby J and X-Man
Love,
K.

Facebook Free

I DID IT! I DID IT! I was threatening it to myself for months now, and last week I put a "final notice" status update on my timeline.  Now the time has come, I was strong, I didn't shed a tear...I DELETED MY FACEBOOK ACCOUNT and I'm totally patting myself on the back with a smug smirk on my holier-than-thou face. I did offer my email address to remain in touch with anyone that wanted to, as I would genuinely ENJOY getting a personal email and maintaining relationships with friends and family that are no longer close by....aaaaaaaaaaand I received a whopping two emails. Clearly I am THE most popular facebook friend of all my facebook friends?!?!?!

Alllllllllllll this started when I was waxing sentimental, maybe feeling a little blue about friendships that have been neglected and people I once knew that I now only know anything about BECAUSE of facebook and that just made me even more sad....especially when I attempted to reach out and was left with nothing but the aforementioned feelings.  Then I realized that my expectations of what facebook could or should be were just WAY TOO HIGH (the eternal optimist in me was a little crushed-NOT!). Anywhos, I'm over it and being a voyeur into other lives without actually getting to be a participant in anyway made me feel a little bit too much like this:

My oh-so-wisest of the owls mom listened to my sob story, probably rolled her eyes more than once at my saddest of tales and reminded me that facebook is the water cooler of our generation, the place to check-in with people and not to get my panties into such a wad over it.  On a another note, I'm completely demoralized that so many conversations I have start with "did you see this or that on fb?" Well, I certainly hope the new way to communicate and relate with people doesn't come solely from someones latest status update, overshare or most recent pic upload. Besides, I just spend too much time on it and that is really what it boils down to.  So, instead you can find me here on a daily basis. 

My final feelings about today and how awesome I feel to have finally pulled the trigger can BEST be summed up with interpretive dance:

Love,
K.

p.s. I just hope I don't wake up in the middle of the night panicking that I've forgotten to do something or lost something important only to realize that all the fuss is about deleting fb. 

Ummm....

Not a single word....I found this "draft" hanging out from May of 2012. Apparently I was in the mood to write absolutely nothing!

First Trimester

The first trimester was nothing short of a miracle-that I survived it that is!  I was SO nauseous from sun up to sun down that I started to let my mind run away from me (ie panic that I would be one of those oh-so-lucky women to be nauseous my entire pregnancy).  I google'd my heart out for any possible remedy, I read any and every blog out there and I actually tried every suggestion.....from every natural herbal possibility to finally calling my OB (at the time I still had one).  I tried nux vomica, peppermint tea, eating saltines first thing in the morning (not so easy to do without a glass of water close by), eating every 2 hours and making sure it was plenty of protein, sea sick bands worn 24/7 and finally going the pharmaceutical route.  I took generic zofran during the day and phenergan at night.....but these only lessened the symptoms and only slightly.  I eventually stopped taking the meds once I talked to my midwife.....because as she stated "those drugs are for nausea of a different kind, not pregnancy".  I'm certainly not judging anyone who does need to take medication, because if it had actually worked I probably would have kept taking it.  I did discover ginger ale and P.F. Chang's (insert restaurant plug here) ginger beer-that stuff is AMAZING!  Its made from ginger puree and very strong, which I found that I really enjoyed.  I turned into a blob fairly quickly.....I could only muster the strength to go to work and then come home and be a blob on the couch for the rest of the night.  I missed over 8 weeks of pilates and boy could I feel it.  On the bright side of being a blob on the couch there was plenty of time to research pregnancy, and educate myself on just about everything from natural birth, to cloth diapers to labor and everything in between.

In August Chris and I went to Chicago to partake in some most excellent music and city life.  This was my 4th year at Lollapalooza and the line up was quite promising!  This was week 14 and nausea was mostly gone with the exception of a night spent in the bathroom over some lobster corn dogs.  We ate at my favorite deep dish Chicago pizza joint-Lou Malnati's and the organic food vendors at Lolla were awesome-fried cheese with olive oil and fresh fruit smoothies.  On Saturday a pretty wicked storm blew through and delayed the Foo Fighters from starting, the storm only subsided long enough for the Foo to get on stage and as they began singing their opening song the clouds opened up again and the crowd roared! It was pretty awesome, except I had been waiting for Chris to return with my awesome bratwurst wrapped in a pretzel bun only for it to be a soggy mess when he finally made it back to me.

Going to Chicago is always a fun trip!  On Sunday we found a great Thai restaurant somewhat off the beaten path of downtown and I enjoyed the most fragrant lemongrass coconut soup.  We got a huge bag of Garrett's popcorn-the Chicago mix!

I LOVE CHICAGO!

HOMEBIRTH HERE WE COME!

I have some exciting exciting exciting news to share!  We have decided on a waterbirth at home.  I have been seeing a OB/GYN in Arkansas who is great, but I will be moving to Oklahoma and decided that I needed to find a new doc.....so began my quest.

I began watching too much TLC's "A baby story" (I've already decided to stop, as it kind of freaks me out cuz that will be me soon) and one of the mom's did a water birth.  I was so moved by the interviews given by the midwife and doula, that I knew this would be something for me.  Further research led me to the possibility of giving birth at home-and honestly (to me at least) what better place is there? 

Much to my chagrin, there are no practicing midwives in my town and most of the OB offices weren't exactly friendly about it either.  However, when I get an idea into my head I blaze forward all engines running with full steam and so I have stumbled upon some pretty neat websites and forums (ie Heaven Sent Births, Mother.com) plus some really fun resources that led me to my midwife.

We (midwife and I) had a brief discussion earlier in the week, and she suggested two wonderful documentaries: "Pregnant in America" and "The Business of Being Born".  I have watched the first one, and so has my husband.  I really enjoyed it, cried at times (but to be fair I cry at most things lately) and was left with a new sense of purpose.  This movie sealed the deal for me....there is just no way I am interested in giving birth in a hospital.  I'm not going to be talked into an epidural, c-section, induction...NADA! Please don't be offended, it just isn't the choice for me.  So, to be fair I'm going to share that my best friend had to be induced and had to have a c-section because it was MEDICALLY NECESSARY, but on any given day childbirth is not some life and death situation.

My husband and I made the trek by meet with the midwife, and came up with a lot of good questions for her like 1) do we need a back up dr plan? ANS: NO (phew!)
2) what are your stats? ANS: She sends about 11% of clients to hospital, and only 1% of her clients have had to have a c-section (another phew!, she really knows what she is doing)
3) how do we prepare at home? ANS: You buy a kit, pretty inexpensive with everything the midwife will need (another PHEW!, You mean they make kits for this?!?!?)
4) What to avoid? ANS: deli meats, raw fish, raw cheese, all sweeteners-because apparently splenda has chlorine in it, and nutrasweet turns into some formaldehyde derivative in temperature above 88 degrees  (ok, I can handle that and a little freaked out by sugar substitutes)

She gave so many other helpful ideas, and of course I'm going to try them all.  I'm also excited that she is attempting to get in network with our insurance!

She did also give us a wonderful gift-we got to hear our baby's heartbeat! 166 bpm, so strong and I think Chris was got pretty excited too!

So, we get to the car and he ask me who I want at home with us.....to which I respond "just you and me", and he gets all panicky and says "no way, I can't deliver a baby by myself!" (poor guy, I can only imagine how freaked out he must have been).  ME: "Chris, the midwife does that part, you assist" So, with that major crisis averted we went off to lunch and treated ourselves to Jamba Juice! YUM YUM!