A day late but we were having a great Christmas with family and the blog could wait. Braedan was so excited for all his presents (more so for unwrapping them!). I got the sewing machine I wanted so this momma is happy camper! I can't wait to find out the sex of the baby and get started on making some cute stuff! I also got a new coffee maker and I almost cried when I brewed my first cup. I haven't had a decent cup of coffee since my old Keurig broke a few months ago. I thank my amazing hubby for bringing that cup of sanity back into my life.
Braedan has left with my mom to visit California for a week and a half. He is going to have a blast seeing all of his cousins and aunts and uncles, but his mommy misses him so much! He's only been away from me since last night and yet it feels like he's been gone for weeks! Rich is at work and I'm sitting here in my too quiet house appreciating the silence at the same time missing the noise. What am I going to do with myself?!
Well, for starters I'm going to watch my new copy of Magic Mike. :)
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Don't worry....
I just wanted to let everyone know that this blog and text/calls are going to be my only way of technological communication for a while. I decided tonight that I need to take a serious break from social media.
The hype and hysteria surrounding the Connecticut shooting and the "end of the world" are just too much right now. I cannot stand to read one more idiotic comment about gun control, or threats, or school lockdowns, or pulling your children out of public school. The fact is that there are evil people in this world, and if they want to take others out with them they will find a way to do so. Nothing is going to stop them, not gun control, not gun bans, nothing. It won't matter if our kids are at school, at the grocery store with us, or having a fun day at the zoo. So unless you want to live your life in fear and lock your children away forever then the best you can do is to live every day to the fullest and have no regrets in life.
I, for one, don't practice living my life in fear and refuse to change that. The state of our country today really makes me sad. We are so divided, paranoid, and antsy. Maybe I was just too young to get the full effect but it seems worse now than it did after September 11, 2001. Perhaps now that I'm an adult I'm seeing the full tilt of paranoia. I've got to say, I don't like it. People are panicking and the media is doing nothing to help that. It feels like everything is slowly slipping into utter chaos, all because of people overreacting.
So, for my own health and sanity I've chosen to step away from the social media and reduce my interaction with all of it. I want to be able to enjoy the holidays with my family without the added stress of the insanity of the world. I know it'll still be there whether I pay attention or not but the less I'm reading about it 24/7 the more I feel I can enjoy my life right now.
The hype and hysteria surrounding the Connecticut shooting and the "end of the world" are just too much right now. I cannot stand to read one more idiotic comment about gun control, or threats, or school lockdowns, or pulling your children out of public school. The fact is that there are evil people in this world, and if they want to take others out with them they will find a way to do so. Nothing is going to stop them, not gun control, not gun bans, nothing. It won't matter if our kids are at school, at the grocery store with us, or having a fun day at the zoo. So unless you want to live your life in fear and lock your children away forever then the best you can do is to live every day to the fullest and have no regrets in life.
I, for one, don't practice living my life in fear and refuse to change that. The state of our country today really makes me sad. We are so divided, paranoid, and antsy. Maybe I was just too young to get the full effect but it seems worse now than it did after September 11, 2001. Perhaps now that I'm an adult I'm seeing the full tilt of paranoia. I've got to say, I don't like it. People are panicking and the media is doing nothing to help that. It feels like everything is slowly slipping into utter chaos, all because of people overreacting.
So, for my own health and sanity I've chosen to step away from the social media and reduce my interaction with all of it. I want to be able to enjoy the holidays with my family without the added stress of the insanity of the world. I know it'll still be there whether I pay attention or not but the less I'm reading about it 24/7 the more I feel I can enjoy my life right now.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Road Trip!
So yesterday we took a little road trip over the mountains to visit Denver. Since it's a decent trip and we don't go often it's sort of a big deal.
The purpose for the trip was mainly for the memorial service for my friend Brittany who passed away two weeks ago. It was a beautiful, beautiful service and I can only imagine that Brittany was smiling down on us all. It really helped to see her family, give them hugs, and cry with them. We will all miss her but we know that right now she's busy in heaven helping some other innocent souls that were taken from this world by evil people.
After lunch we dropped Braedan and my sister off at this place called Monkey Bizness. It's a little warehouse full of climbing obstacles and inflatable jumpy castles and playthings. My sister wasn't comfortable going to a funeral for someone she didn't know and we really weren't sure about making a 4 year old sit quiet and still for a funeral. So off they went to play while we went to the service.
Afterward we did a little shopping. Maybe it's Christmas, and maybe it's because in Denver we have access to stores we don't have near us, but there was something a little magical about shopping. I had wanted to stop by a Babies R Us and look around since we don't have any baby stores here and the selection of baby stuff in stores here is slim. Unfortunately we got caught up in everything else and didn't make it. So that just means we'll be making a return trip this spring before the baby comes.
The nice thing about coming back in spring is that we likely won't have to fight the snow. We had a beautiful drive to Denver, but coming back got a little sketchy. The snow moved in right as we hit the top of the Rockies and stayed with us all the way home. Snow is beautiful when you can sit in your living room drinking hot cocoa and watch is drift toward the ground, but not when you're driving through the mountains next to boulders and cliffs. No thank you! We made it home safely though and are looking forward to our next little road trip.
The purpose for the trip was mainly for the memorial service for my friend Brittany who passed away two weeks ago. It was a beautiful, beautiful service and I can only imagine that Brittany was smiling down on us all. It really helped to see her family, give them hugs, and cry with them. We will all miss her but we know that right now she's busy in heaven helping some other innocent souls that were taken from this world by evil people.
After lunch we dropped Braedan and my sister off at this place called Monkey Bizness. It's a little warehouse full of climbing obstacles and inflatable jumpy castles and playthings. My sister wasn't comfortable going to a funeral for someone she didn't know and we really weren't sure about making a 4 year old sit quiet and still for a funeral. So off they went to play while we went to the service.
Afterward we did a little shopping. Maybe it's Christmas, and maybe it's because in Denver we have access to stores we don't have near us, but there was something a little magical about shopping. I had wanted to stop by a Babies R Us and look around since we don't have any baby stores here and the selection of baby stuff in stores here is slim. Unfortunately we got caught up in everything else and didn't make it. So that just means we'll be making a return trip this spring before the baby comes.
The nice thing about coming back in spring is that we likely won't have to fight the snow. We had a beautiful drive to Denver, but coming back got a little sketchy. The snow moved in right as we hit the top of the Rockies and stayed with us all the way home. Snow is beautiful when you can sit in your living room drinking hot cocoa and watch is drift toward the ground, but not when you're driving through the mountains next to boulders and cliffs. No thank you! We made it home safely though and are looking forward to our next little road trip.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
16 Weeks
Today we met with Tiffini, our midwife, for our 16 week check-up. It was pretty routine but we did talk a little bit about the hospital. The hospital I'll be delivering at is a baby-centered hospital. Which means they support a lot of my labor and delivery choices. This is exciting for me considering I really didn't feel I got what I needed last time.
Don't get me wrong. The hospital I delivered at in Tucson, Arizona is an awesome hospital. They do really great things every day. You might have heard everything they did for Congresswoman Giffords after that awful shooting. At the time I was a hospital employee and I have no complaints for them as an employer, and honestly few complaints about how everything operated during labor and delivery. The problem lied in their inability to listen to my requests for birth.
Rich and I have decided that delayed cord clamping is best for our baby. This means not clamping and cutting the umbilical cord right after birth, thereby letting all of the good nutritional blood in the placenta to flow into the baby. It's supposed to be very beneficial to the baby and I figure, why not? I wanted this with Braedan but apparently my doctor didn't think it was important.
We also decided that letting the baby be skin to skin for as long as possible right after birth is something we want to do. I believe this is called kangaroo care and it's supposed to help initiate breastfeeding. I've mentioned before that I didn't get the breastfeeding experience I wanted to have with Braedan. So I'm really determined to be successful at it this time. I'm willing to do whatever I can to increase my chances of doing it successfully.
The great thing? This is standard practice for my midwife (and happens often at the hospital) so I won't really have to fight for it this time. I can be comfortable knowing that even if I am as exhausted and out of it as I was last time, my midwife knows what I want and will advocate for that. Not to mention I have an awesome husband who knows what I want and will be there for me every step of the way. Can you get better than that?
In other news we scheduled our next appointment...which includes our anatomy scan. Yes folks, we know the date we will find out if Baby Liggett is a boy or a girl. Hold your breath for January 3rd!
Don't get me wrong. The hospital I delivered at in Tucson, Arizona is an awesome hospital. They do really great things every day. You might have heard everything they did for Congresswoman Giffords after that awful shooting. At the time I was a hospital employee and I have no complaints for them as an employer, and honestly few complaints about how everything operated during labor and delivery. The problem lied in their inability to listen to my requests for birth.
Rich and I have decided that delayed cord clamping is best for our baby. This means not clamping and cutting the umbilical cord right after birth, thereby letting all of the good nutritional blood in the placenta to flow into the baby. It's supposed to be very beneficial to the baby and I figure, why not? I wanted this with Braedan but apparently my doctor didn't think it was important.
We also decided that letting the baby be skin to skin for as long as possible right after birth is something we want to do. I believe this is called kangaroo care and it's supposed to help initiate breastfeeding. I've mentioned before that I didn't get the breastfeeding experience I wanted to have with Braedan. So I'm really determined to be successful at it this time. I'm willing to do whatever I can to increase my chances of doing it successfully.
The great thing? This is standard practice for my midwife (and happens often at the hospital) so I won't really have to fight for it this time. I can be comfortable knowing that even if I am as exhausted and out of it as I was last time, my midwife knows what I want and will advocate for that. Not to mention I have an awesome husband who knows what I want and will be there for me every step of the way. Can you get better than that?
In other news we scheduled our next appointment...which includes our anatomy scan. Yes folks, we know the date we will find out if Baby Liggett is a boy or a girl. Hold your breath for January 3rd!
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Gender experiment
Time for some updates! I mentioned in my last post that we performed a gender experiment this past weekend. There are loads of "tests" you can perform while pregnant to predict the sex of the baby.
There are the old wives tales that say you hold a ring on a string and if it spins or swings a certain way then it can mean girl or boy.
Then there's the baking soda test. Pee in a cup, add a tablespoon of baking soda and see if it fizzes. If there's fizz, it's a boy, no fizz means girl.
There are also commercial gender prediction kits you can buy at the drug stores. They are usually pretty pricey and from what I can tell aren't that reliable.
Here's the thing though. All of these are just for FUN and honestly any one of them has a 50% chance of being right...or wrong. So, we won't be painting the nursery based on our results.
Out of all the prediction tests I found online the test we did seemed to be the most scientific (aside from the baking soda test). I decided to do the red cabbage test. There's something in the coloring of red cabbage that is reactive to pH levels, which is the scale of acidity or alkalinity of a substance. I learned years ago in chemistry class that you can make your own litmus pH testing papers from red cabbage and coffee filters. (You can experiment with the leftover cabbage water after the test. Add lemon juice, baking soda, ammonia cleaner, dish soap, etc. and see what colors it changes into!) Interesting, very very interesting!
So here's what we did:
Cabbage Test
Materials:
-Red cabbage (size doesn't matter ;) )
-(2) Clear cups (regular glasses work fine but if you're squeamish disposable cups might be best)
-First morning urine
-Knife
-Pot or large saucepan
-Water
Process:
Cut cabbage in half
Cut one of the halves up into small cubes
Place cut cabbage into a large pot or saucepan and cover with cold water
Bring water to a boil, then remove from heat
Let sit for 10 minutes
After the 10 minutes you should have a dark purple colored water with your cabbage. Strain out the cabbage and leave water remaining.
Fill one cup 1/3 full of cabbage water. Fill the other cup with an equal amount of urine.
When your ready pour the urine into the cup of cabbage water and watch the magic happen!
If the water stays a purple color then this means you are having a GIRL. If the water turns to a magenta/red/pink-ish color then you are having a BOY.
The results are related to the pH of your urine. Boys are said to cause a more acidic urine, while girls urine is more basic. Who knows if this is really true or not, but in most of the cases I found online the predictions were correct. This was not the case with the other tests I looked up.
Here is our result:
There are the old wives tales that say you hold a ring on a string and if it spins or swings a certain way then it can mean girl or boy.
Then there's the baking soda test. Pee in a cup, add a tablespoon of baking soda and see if it fizzes. If there's fizz, it's a boy, no fizz means girl.
There are also commercial gender prediction kits you can buy at the drug stores. They are usually pretty pricey and from what I can tell aren't that reliable.
Here's the thing though. All of these are just for FUN and honestly any one of them has a 50% chance of being right...or wrong. So, we won't be painting the nursery based on our results.
Out of all the prediction tests I found online the test we did seemed to be the most scientific (aside from the baking soda test). I decided to do the red cabbage test. There's something in the coloring of red cabbage that is reactive to pH levels, which is the scale of acidity or alkalinity of a substance. I learned years ago in chemistry class that you can make your own litmus pH testing papers from red cabbage and coffee filters. (You can experiment with the leftover cabbage water after the test. Add lemon juice, baking soda, ammonia cleaner, dish soap, etc. and see what colors it changes into!) Interesting, very very interesting!
So here's what we did:
Cabbage Test
Materials:
-Red cabbage (size doesn't matter ;) )
-(2) Clear cups (regular glasses work fine but if you're squeamish disposable cups might be best)
-First morning urine
-Knife
-Pot or large saucepan
-Water
Process:
Cut cabbage in half
Cut one of the halves up into small cubes
Place cut cabbage into a large pot or saucepan and cover with cold water
Bring water to a boil, then remove from heat
Let sit for 10 minutes
After the 10 minutes you should have a dark purple colored water with your cabbage. Strain out the cabbage and leave water remaining.
Fill one cup 1/3 full of cabbage water. Fill the other cup with an equal amount of urine.
When your ready pour the urine into the cup of cabbage water and watch the magic happen!
If the water stays a purple color then this means you are having a GIRL. If the water turns to a magenta/red/pink-ish color then you are having a BOY.
The results are related to the pH of your urine. Boys are said to cause a more acidic urine, while girls urine is more basic. Who knows if this is really true or not, but in most of the cases I found online the predictions were correct. This was not the case with the other tests I looked up.
Here is our result:
Tell us what you think it means!
Saturday, December 1, 2012
In loving memory
Today started out great. We woke up and tried out a gender experiment (which I'll talk about in a later post), we had lunch with friends we haven't seen in a while, bought some more Christmas lights, and then I sent my loving husband and son off to see the light parade while I got ready for work.
We had sushi for lunch and afterward they passed around a plate of fortune cookies. Mine read: "Life is a gift, don't waste it." I had no idea that wisdom would mean so much only hours later.
After sending Rich and Braedan off to the light show I logged on to Facebook really quick, only to see that a good friend of mine passed away last night. Whenever I see the phrase "passed away" I think of something that happened peacefully, perhaps during sleep. This was not the case for my friend. Unfortunately Brittany was murdered, by someone she knew, and left in a cold intersection. I couldn't believe it, I still can't.
Brittany Grosse was one of the most bubbly people I knew, and her 100 watt smile could cheer you up on the gloomiest day. Brittany was one of those people who made you feel right at home, she got that trait from the rest of her family. I called them my big fat Greek surrogate family. She was smart, classy, down to earth, and loved her family and friends fiercely. She was young, too young to be taken from all the possibilities life still had to offer her. My heart aches, not just because she's gone but because she'll never get to be a mom, an aunt, a grandma. She'll never graduate from college and go on to have a successful career. She won't get to wake up on Christmas morning and flash that brilliant smile while she opens her presents.
I know Brittany would want us to remember her the way she was. Funny, loving, passionate. I know she's in a better place, and she's safe now, but that doesn't make it hurt any less.
We had sushi for lunch and afterward they passed around a plate of fortune cookies. Mine read: "Life is a gift, don't waste it." I had no idea that wisdom would mean so much only hours later.
After sending Rich and Braedan off to the light show I logged on to Facebook really quick, only to see that a good friend of mine passed away last night. Whenever I see the phrase "passed away" I think of something that happened peacefully, perhaps during sleep. This was not the case for my friend. Unfortunately Brittany was murdered, by someone she knew, and left in a cold intersection. I couldn't believe it, I still can't.
Brittany Grosse was one of the most bubbly people I knew, and her 100 watt smile could cheer you up on the gloomiest day. Brittany was one of those people who made you feel right at home, she got that trait from the rest of her family. I called them my big fat Greek surrogate family. She was smart, classy, down to earth, and loved her family and friends fiercely. She was young, too young to be taken from all the possibilities life still had to offer her. My heart aches, not just because she's gone but because she'll never get to be a mom, an aunt, a grandma. She'll never graduate from college and go on to have a successful career. She won't get to wake up on Christmas morning and flash that brilliant smile while she opens her presents.
I know Brittany would want us to remember her the way she was. Funny, loving, passionate. I know she's in a better place, and she's safe now, but that doesn't make it hurt any less.
Brittany Grosse. It's not a recent picture but it's candid. I will never forget that smile.
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