Tales of Me and the Husband - Page 152 of 207 -

September 13, 2011

things that have been making my life a bit smoother.

1. boston’s weather has been getting a wee bit chillier as of late. a few days in the low 60s and out came the socks. i heard from more than one credible source that trumpette socks were the only ones that stayed put on your baby’s feet. and who wants to have missing socks and cold baby feet? not i. sometimes they show up on zulily too, which is nice, cause otherwise they are a little spendy.

2. i would not be nearly as efficient (or happy) without my beco gemini. seriously. i have the paige one and love it. so does parker. i mean he really loves it. kid can sleep hours on end in it while i cook dinner, do laundry, go for walks, etc. you can see it on me here. i have the moby too and like it but it is a little bit more daunting a task to get it on real fast when you’re in desperate need. it is better for nursing in though, which is awesome.

3. one of my major go-to’s when basically anything germy comes to town is colloidal silver. the brand i have at the moment is sovereign silver and i got it at our local natural grocer. it’s good for ALL things. like, seriously. you can ingest it, use it topically, the possibilities are endless. a few weeks ago william came home from a sleepover with a major case of pink eye. like mad pink eye. i put some drops in his eyes for the next few days and it was gone. no need for a prescription!

4. smoothies. i love me some smoothies. it’s hard to get everything in me that i need these days with a newborn. quick and easy snacks are best. smoothies are pretty easy, delicious, and good for me, so i’ve been doing them lately. i use either almond or coconut milk as a base (unsweetened) and then a variety of whatever i’m in the mood for… always a banana and spinach, and then sometimes strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, etc. i want to try a scoop of coconut oil but i’m afraid it’ll mess with the consistency. anyone?

5. aden + anais swaddles. i use these every single day and go nowhere without them, seriously. i use them for spit up, for sun protection for the fresh newborn skin, for nursing covers, for a swaddle (its original purpose!), for a make-shift baby carrier insert, etc. they’re huge, soft, light, and pretty. their burp cloths are great too… much bigger than the jj cole ones, or any other brand.

6. i hate being sick, having others sick, everything sick. so when wintertime comes, i equip myself with a few things to try to combat it. don’t get me wrong, william and lindsey will still come home with at least one stomach bug and cold per winter. at least. but they don’t last for weeks on end luckily. this is one of my go-tos. source naturals wellness herbal kids liquid. i got mine at whole foods. it’s got a minty flavor that isn’t so bad, and is easy to just squeeze in their mouths really fast.

7. a good book for the many, many hours i spend nursing. i don’t spend many, many, many consecutive hours nursing (those who are coming upon their due dates are breathing a collective sigh of relief) but, when you add it all up, my boobs are being put to good use by mr. parker. so, a good book is a welcome addition to our routine. i’ve tried to do email at the same time, but my one-handed typing is just frustrating. oh, and the hunger games trilogy is no true work of art, but entertaining? indeed.

8. red wine. sometimes the mamas need a little red wine at the end of a long day, no?

9. my favorite, favorite (and only, so far, so i guess i’m biased) baby shampoo/body wash. it smells nice and is all sorts of natural and easy on their tender skin. parker loves bath time and it’s not just the warm water. it’s california baby, baby!

10. baskets make even the most chaotic spot in your house organized. suffice it to say, i love them. i was given this one in blue at my baby shower, full of sooo many fabulous gifts (thanks elizabeth!), and now it serves as a catch-all for wipes, diapers, burp cloths, and other baby-related-miscellany, right next to my bed. if all that was plopped on the floor, it would surely stress me out, but contained in a basket? voila!

11. i haven’t really broken into my crock pot this season just yet but when i do, it makes me a happy lady. and i swear, everything tastes good (like this taco soup, for instance) after it’s been soaking in the crock pot for hours. everything. don’t put it past me to give a dirty diaper, some cumin, and a splash of chicken broth a try.

anything i should add? what are your faves? give it to me straight.

September 12, 2011

a comedy of errors.

thursday night was rough. parker fell asleep on me…hurrah! this is, indeed, his favorite place to fall asleep. “yes! the child is asleep! now i can get to the laundry!” “not so fast, my fine friend. the child is asleep on you and will wake up if you attempt a move! don’t you do it!” he’s got like spidey-senses and can tell that i’ve moved him or that i’m not right next to him even without opening his eyes. how does he do it?! so, i attempted a move nevertheless, and he awoke. and did not want to go back to sleep. then, we had the 16-year old getting a good, much needed talking-to (and i swear, babies know when there is unrest in the house) by his dad, parker was like, “nah. i’m not goin’ down and you can’t make me. i want to hear what all this is about.” so, in my infinite wisdom, i decided to walk him outside. it was 11 pm and sort of chilly so i zipped him inside my jacket chest to chest. he fell asleep, finally, but then i realized i’d zipped his onesie into the zipper of my jacket (not his skin people, not his skin!). it didn’t come loose without some working it by steve and by then parker was back awake and his onesie had a big hole in it (see the picture?). it was laughable but sometimes at midnight funny things aren’t so funny. so then dad is walking parker, mom is laying down (and is it just me moms, but even when dad is walking the babe i really can’t rest till i know parker’s sleeping too?) and people are startin’ to get irritable. irritable, i said! and let me tell you, nothing good can come of conversations that happen post midnight when there’s a newborn in the house. nothing good. so, mom is mad at dad, dad’s mad at mom, 16-year old is mad at everyone, and parker’s like, “hey guys, just keep walking. just keep walking.“

moral of the story? just keep walking. oh, and careful with zippers and excess onesie fabric.

September 11, 2011

9/11/11.

i was watching one of the many 9/11 specials last night. the stories were heartbreaking.

there was one story i wanted to share because, while heartbreaking, it was also beautiful.

there was a woman working at the aftermath because she was a welder and her company asked her, after she first fled the city, to come back and use her skills to disassemble the wreckage, find bodies, and be a helping hand. she worked there for a few weeks straight, and took home a souvenir. she brought home some of the huge bolts that held together pieces of what was the world trade center buildings. she brought them home because her father, since deceased, was also a welder. and one of the projects he worked on was the building of the world trade centers. she said, “i brought some home because, who knows, he might’ve touched them.”

i’d like to say, “we will never forget.” because we won’t.

those who were alive on that day will never forget exactly where they were when they heard the crazy news. but i can’t say i think about it all the time. or want to. but, on this day i am, and my heart goes out to everyone, and there are so many, who were affected by what happened… large or small.

picture

September 8, 2011

parker’s birth story.

me & parker taken the morning after he was born.

and, to add to your reading pleasure, a few of the songs that were on my birthing playlist

… now, if only i could dub in the sounds that i was making.

it’s sort of surreal to be sitting here, parker sleeping on me in the carrier, writing my own story of the labor and delivery of my son. truly, the whole experience of pregnancy and childbirth and all that it entails–the worries, the excitement, the flutters that turn to kicks, the “can i eat that’s”, the frequent bathroom trips, and the heartbeats on the doppler, the ups, the downs–is amazing. i’m getting weepy as i write this. the whole thing was just so significant, so huge. i remember one of my older sisters saying that, after giving birth she felt like the president of the united states should’ve called her up and been like, “congratulations! job well done! today marks a new holiday forever in your honor!” this, of course, doesn’t happen. life goes on outside the walls of that hospital, or birth center, all the while you’re pushing a baby out of you. but it feels like everything should stop, at least for a moment, to pay tribute to this new life that just came into the world. right?!?

now, where to begin? i loved pregnancy. as evidenced in my 39/40 post, i was so content with parker staying put as long as he wanted. and that really wasn’t BS for the blog world to be like, “ohhh, she’s all mother-nature-crunchy-woman on us, all happy with a 56-week gestation period!” i really loved being pregnant and i found myself the happiest towards the end. since having parker i’ve seen other pregnant girls walking around and i get a little pang of jealousy. having the little man with me always, our secret little relationship of kicks and jabs, was special. and i do miss it.

but he’s here now. and that is pretty great. his little eyes opening and closing slowly when he first wakes up next to me and his feet all folded up frog-like, and his hair getting all matted down and sweaty from sleeping on me for the umpteenth hour, and his smiles, oh the smiles! i like having him here a whole heck of a lot. safe to say, i’m obsessed with the little man.

so, the birth story. i thought i’d go late. i was prepared to be one of those castor-oil-chugging-at-41-weeks-and-6-days-for-fear-of-induction pregnant women. my mom and dad were arriving on friday (july 22nd), staying overnight, going to a wedding in NH on saturday, and then my dad would head home to the philly area and my mom would stay on for 2-ish weeks waiting for his arrival. our plan was always to have her in the birth room with steve and i. she would stay on after his birth to open a can of nanny mcphee in the hunt house… doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, and waiting on the new mom (yes, it’s a sweet set-up, and yes, i love her dearly. one of my sisters, who’s had this a+ treatment after her first-born called her a “whirling dervish of efficiency” and ’tis true, my friends, ’tis very true). so, friday night, she and my dad arrive, and we head out to dinner nearby. we were having a heatwave and it had to be low 90s even in the evening. i had some spicy chicken tenders and wondered when this babe would make his appearance (hoping it wouldn’t be towards the very end of my mom’s 2-week stay). we walked around town afterwards, took some pictures, the kids played around a grassy field with their cousins, and the sun went down on that friday night.

saturday morning around 4 am i woke up to use the bathroom and noticed that my underwear was wet. not soaked, but just damp. “did i pee my pants?!” my first thought. it’d be a first this pregnancy, but i didn’t think it was entirely unlikely seeing as there was a child on my bladder. i didn’t think much of it (silly bridget). i just went to the bathroom, changed my underwear, and went back to bed. the next morning i woke up, steve and my dad went out to breakfast nearby, and i noticed more water… never a gush, but certainly a trickle. i was still sort of in disbelief that this could be “the water.” i’d been having a lot of braxton hicks over the past few days, and every time i had one that morning, i’d feel more water coming out. i soon realized, this was it. steve came home from breakfast and i met him in the garage in my pajamas and said, “i think my water broke.” he said, “are you serious?!” and we hugged. obviously pregnancy has to end with a baby, but (is it just me, ladies?) i was almost in denial that labor would ever get here. did i think i’d have that bump forever? perhaps. nobody ever said pregnant women weren’t a little cah-ray-zee.

so, i told my mom and dad what was up, and they figured they’d skip the wedding. i wasn’t having any real labor and once your water breaks, you’re “on the clock” so to speak. they don’t really like you going past 24 hours without having your baby, so it’s in everyone’s best interest to get labor started!! i ate some yogurt, granola, pineapple, drank lots of water, and called my sister to get her advice (she was also our birth instructor!). she suggested not calling the hospital yet. they might want me to come in immediately or at least put me on their timetable since my water had already broken. i felt safe to stay home for awhile–there was no meconium in the water, i was strep b negative, and i could feel him moving still. our plan was always to labor at home as long as i felt i could. so around 10 am we went for a 2.5 mile walk around our neighborhood. i was staying fairly relaxed and letting my body do its thing. throughout the walk, i’d keep having contractions but nothing i couldn’t walk and talk through. i’d just take note and guess about how long they were, while moving. we eventually made it home where my mom did foot reflexology on me, particularly working the pressure points that can induce labor. i continued drinking water, breathing through the fairly mild contractions, and swaying (for some reason, i swayed from the moment i woke up throughout most of the day… swaying felt natural.).

around noon they started getting more serious. where i found myself focusing during the contraction, on all fours, leaning over my bed or the counter. i could still talk between them, but was more “in the zone” during them. steve started recording them and realized they were coming every few minutes and lasting a minute or more. we got on skype with my sister (this happened at my house, not in the hospital, for those of you who read her guest post and thought that!) and i’d disappear from the skype screen every minute or two to have another one. we decided around 1 to call the hospital, see which midwife was on call, and give them the latest.

in the ob-gyn practice i go to, there are five midwives and by the end of all your prenatal appts. you end up getting to know all of them. of those five, there were two that i was hoping for more than the others. i was thrilled when one of them was the one on-call that night. i told her my water broke sometime that morning and she suggested i come in sometime later that afternoon. towards the end of our conversation i had to hand the phone over to steve to finish the conversation because of another contraction. they definitely were progressing.

around 3, we got in the car to go to the hospital. i will say, i was torn about whether to go or not. i felt like it was a good place to be, but i was freaked out about them intervening if i ended up being in really early labor (i did give them my “birth plan” and trusted that, barring any issue with the baby, it would go fairly accordingly). i will say too that i have a bit of a competitive side–three older sisters who’ve all had beautiful labors, never arriving at the hospital in super early labor to only be told to go home, and hells no would i be the sissy-pants who arrived at 1 cm. thinking i was at 5 cm. to only be the laughing stock of the carmody girls for the rest of time! in the car i had a serious contraction on all fours in the backseat. confirmation that i was heading to where i needed to be? i think so. either way, i accepted the fact that i was going to the hospital and just hoped that i was motoring through this labor as i hoped.

on the way to the elevator i had another contraction, got up to the room, had another, tried to sign hospital papers, had another. i had my midwife check me. 5 cm! SCORE. things were moving along. the time was around 3:30.

i got in a hospital gown (even though i was all, “i’m not laboring in a hospital gown. i’ll be in my own clothes, dammit!). when the time came, i could’ve cared less and, let me tell you, birth is a messy process. i mean, the linen changes alone… there had to have been 86 towel-changes throughout the next few hours. “a clean one? ah, give me just a few seconds girls, i will fix that in just a jiffy.” so being in a hospital gown was no problem. i was now in the zone during, in between, and after contractions. i didn’t talk to anyone much, i didn’t give positive or negative feedback with what steve or my mom were doing, but i would continue doing what was working and what felt good.

these pictures verge on inappropriate. i assure you, steve is not trying to get me knocked up again whilst giving labor, as the image might suggest.

anyway, in our bag we had our ipod dock and a birth playlist that was playing right from the start. those are some of the songs you might be listening to now. i was aware of the music, aware of things happening around me, someone rubbing my leg or telling me good job, but i was definitely in the zone and not a very verbal birther. i found i was one of those, what should i call it, groaners? i made this sort of low groan as i exhaled to match my contractions each time i had one. it was like a distraction from the pain? i certainly didn’t plan to do that but i found myself groaning each time one came on. there is a video. no, you’re not going to see it. and when you think, “oh, i will be too embarassed to groan!” you won’t.

those pictures, i think, are me during transition. particularly where i’m hanging on steve doin’ the labor dance. that seems to be when i went from 7ish to complete because it was soon after that when, in the middle of my contractions, i felt the urge to bear down. “like you’re pooping?” “indeed, ladies, indeed.” i think this was around 6:30ish. though i wasn’t a real verbal birther, i do remember thinking at various times, “there has got to be a better way to do this” and “i see why women get epidurals.” those thoughts definitely ran through my head. anyway, i had more contractions like that–where i felt like i was approaching pushing time. i asked to be checked and was complete. hurrah!

so, i pushed for about an hour. nothing in labor felt like a long (or short) time–i honestly wouldn’t have known the difference between 10 minutes and 1 hour it seems. it was like time stood still (cliche much?). i pushed on a birthing stool, on all fours, on my side… i moved a lot, trying to usher parker through the birth canal because, let’s face it, while i loved being pregnant, at this point i was ready to be done. it seems he was too. so, the most effective pushing seemed to be on my back, grabbing my thighs and hiking my legs towards me as far as i could–like a c-curve. i had a few contractions like that… using literally every ounce of strength i had, before he came out. i will say, i lost my cool a little bit at crowning (they don’t call it the ring of fire for nothing… and i tore, ladies, but i can confidently say it does heal!) and steve had to remind me to breathe slowly. but that was like the last two seconds of labor, thank goodness. and, at 8:05 pm, here was parker…it was him all along…in my arms, and i was overcome with emotion. we were overcome with emotion. being handed this baby, both a stranger to you and someone with whom you feel this incredible bond, is out of this world.

there are no words.

so, labor was hard work. it was definitely hard work… and then you’ve got this beautiful child who is yours forever at the end of it and love fills up any space that the work, and sweat, and pain, and blood might have. it’s just… gah, like i said, there are no words. i loved it.

so that’s our story. where parker’s life met ours. i love you sooo much little boy. we are so glad you are here.

and…three cheers for these two… team parker (or team get-parker-out?)… i am sooooo grateful for them. they were amazing, encouraging, hands-on… everything i wanted and more. (and i would totally be remiss to not mention my birth-teaching sister meghan who’s 8-week class steve and i took. i highly recommend a birthing class. i felt so prepared for what labor would entail and honestly wouldn’t want to go into it any other way).

there you have it. parker’s birth story. one of the most incredible days of my life.

September 6, 2011

lately…

The kids started school this week. So, it’s just me and Parker (and Gracie, of course) getting into the swing of things these days. The weather has turned very fall-like all of a sudden too. I’m feeling torn. Sad to say goodbye to summer, in a lot of ways. This summer was the summer of my first pregnancy and birth. The more time moves away from that, the older Parker gets. But, at the same time, I’m looking forward to becoming more and more accustomed to my new normal. Sad to have the kids one year older–William is in sixth grade! I find it so hard to believe. I heard this quote recently about being a mom: “The days are long but the years are short.” It’s so true. I find myself desperate to savor every moment, but equally feeling stressed by this, that, and the other and also by my inability to truly savor the moments! It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? A learning process, indeed. Well, either way, happy September to you and yours.

September 3, 2011

the goods on zulily this morning.

i know everyone says girls are more fun to dress than boys, but i don’t know. i’m enjoying dressing this little guy so far. and i’m loving the luca charles stuff that popped up on zulily this morning. soft cotton stripes? i’ll take it. are you on zulily yet? you fool, get on that.

have a good saturday!

September 1, 2011

the pictures that break my heart (in a good way) every time i look at them.

I had Parker at 8:05 pm on July 23rd (this isn’t the birth story. But, it is coming!). By 10 pm, the kids came to visit their new baby brother. Each one took turns holding him while he slept and slept and slept. When Lindsey got him, she looked down at him, and she began to cry. It was perhaps the single sweetest moment ever. I’m so glad Steve got it on camera.

Parker is lucky to have this one as an older sister.

August 31, 2011

i like when (good) books i’m reading are made into movies.

let’s go, book club!