Why I <3 the Hubs.....

This morning, after he dropped me off at work, Hubs went to do the grocery shopping with the baby. A few minutes ago he sent me a text with this picture :



Not only did he drop me off at work and do the grocery shopping but he got the ice cream I asked for.....a week ago.

I'm one lucky lady...I've got a great guy, and that half gallon of ice cream waiting for me at home!

Extreme Couponing Diapers

Hubs and I started buying the paper and using coupons a few months ago. I've used coupons on and off for years, but never as many as we are using now.

We started our couponing trips basically cause hubs was bored. Of course we had watched the TLC show a few times and he was intrigued He found a bunch of coupon blogs online and decided to give it a shot. He's very detail oriented and took to it right away. At first we only couponed at the grocery store. We have since added CVS to our couponing routine (if u can call it that). I really like the CVS trip. I'm a sucker for drugstore products.

Last week, we headed over to CVS for our weekly trip. We had all our coupons and extra bucks ready. I had received some coupons from Huggies in the mail so we brought those too. The baby needed diapers (basically the baby always needs diapers...babies poop a lot). When we got there I went straight to the baby aisle to check out the goods. What I saw was a sale so incredible that I filled my arms and ran to get Hubs. The Pure and Natural diapers that I like were 75% off in newborn and 50% off in size 1.




Not only were the newborn diapers on sale for 2.74 (why I have no idea) but I had a coupon for $2 off!!!

We bought everything on the shelf....4 packages of newborn, 2 of size 1. What we didn't realize then is that CVS has a buy six Huggies get one free program going. We ended up getting a free bag of diapers for buying all these heavily discounted ones! Bonus!!

Each package was supposed to be 10.49, meaning that all together we should have paid near to $66 dollars for what we got. We paid about $19 for them all.

Hubs and I were psyched about our find. We checked a few more stores to see if we could cash in more. But they were only 25% off there. I have no idea why they were so cheap at the first CVS we went to, but I don't care. Olivia's butt is covered, with organic cotton, and I didn't have to give up my morning coffee to do it.



There she is...enjoying her organic cotton diapers with her puppy.  She loves how thrifty we are :)

Baby Hats and my next project

Over my maternity leave I promised my friend Julie that I would make something for a silent auction they were having for her sister. Julie's sister has had a run of bad luck medically in the last few years. She's been really sick and needed a double lung transplant. The silent auction was to help raise funds for the transplant.
Julie and I actually went to both high school and college together. I've known her for a long time. Her sister was quite a bit younger than me, but I knew her, as everyone in a small country town know each other. I had seen a few pictures of her that were taken recently and the vibrant younger sister of my friend had become so skinny. I felt awful and wanted to do something, so I took out my crochet hooks.

I had made a cloche from this pattern I found on Aesthetic Nest for Olivia before she was born. It fit pretty good on her little head and just looked so cute I thought I would make it again. Isn't she just adorable?

This time I made the hat in a cream whit color. I whipped up a pair of booties to go with it. The silver ribbon ties were added because I couldn't find silk cording, and of course had finished the set just hours before it needed to be sent.

I do think it came out really cute though. I need to make a few more sets for some baby girls i know that were born this summer. I am at the age where EVERYONE I know is having babies (and I love it).
Before my crochet hooks come back out I need to do some sewing (yay!!). Hubs is watching the baby when he doesn't have court or meetings and he refuses to carry my Vera Bradley diaper bag. One day he brought the baby into work to see me without bringing a diaper bag with him at all. Miss Olivia taught him an important lesson when she pooped through her diaper and onesie. He had to go up to labor and delivery and beg for some diapers, and to the giftshop to buy a new onesie.




It is a very cute onesie I might add.

Long story short, Hubs needs a diaper bag. I'm going to try to make him one from this tutorial. Fabric is bought and washed. It just needs to be cut now. I'll keep you posted.

If you are reading this thanks so much for sticking with me. I know the updates have been sparse lately, but that will be changing :)

Blogging.... with a Baby

Before I had Olivia I thought it would be easier to get my blog articles written. I saw my eight weeks of maternity leave as a great expanse of free time I could get lots of crafting done in. Oh how naive I was.

I went back to work on Tuesday July 5th (thank God for the Monday holiday) and I have blogged once since the baby was born. I've crocheted twice and sewed once (and it was such a disaster it ended up in the trash).

What have I been doing?Well, I've become friends with this contraption:




I've desperately been clinging to breastfeeding as it's the only thing I planned for Olivia that I've been able to stick to....kinda. She never really took to nursing and after the second mastitis, I gave up and cozied up to my pump. We spend 15 minutes together every four hours. I find it absolutely exhausting but am trying to keep at it.

I've spent a lot of time just gazing at this beautiful face:





It's hard for me to accept sometimes that this beautiful little baby is mine. I remember carrying her for eight months but it's still completely surreal. I spent most of my maternity leave absolutely awestruck at the beauty of how life is created and that I'd actually made a human being. I'm still awestruck. Shes's just a beautiful absolutely wonderful miracle. I can't get over it.

I've changed dozens and dozens of tiny diapers, folded tiny clothes and filled bottles. I've learned how to get good burps and how it it not a good idea to feed her cold milk (even if she's crying hysterically).

Of all the things I've been doing my absolute favorite is sleeping with the baby on my chest, like my sister in law is doing in this picture:




There's really nothing better than having tiny baby snuggles. I'm completely addicted.

So, to sum up a long story, I'll get back to crafting soon. For now I am just too preoccupied with my little baby to pick up my crochet hook or pull out my sewing machine :)

Post Baby Milestone #1

Finally I'm able to put my engagement ring and wedding band back on!! I've had my wedding band on for a couple weeks, but hadn't been able to get the engagement ring over my knuckle. Today, I forced it on over that knuckle and headed off to work. Who knows if I'm going to be able to get it off, but it's on there, and after only 2 months and 7 days. :)

Now for getting back into my pre - pregnancy clothes (this will undoubtedly take much longer).

Olivia's Arrival

I've been absent, again, for a few weeks.  This time, though, it was for a good reason.  I had my baby!  Her arrival was early (5 weeks) and quite a surprise.  Now that everyone is happy and healthy and at home it's time for me to tell the tale of her arrival. It's a long one, so grab a cup of coffee before you start reading :)

Miss Olivia Barbara :)

The Thursday of my second week of bed rest I went to the doctors for my twice weekly checkup and Non Stress Test and got a nearly clean bill of health.  The midwife thought that my blood pressure had gone down a good amount, my swelling was much better, and there was no longer protein in my urine.  She even talked about maybe sending me back to work (which honestly made me incredibly nervous).  Everything seemed good, so that night I actually let myself get up off the couch to help Hubs prepare dinner. It seemed like maybe I was going to be able to make it to June before I had the baby after all.

Friday morning I woke up and was absolutely STARVING.  I woke Hubs up and asked him if he would make me something  (he was absolutely INCREDIBLE while I was on bed rest and waited on me completely.  I am a such lucky girl).  He made me some cereal (I <3 cereal) .  I scarfed it down and then went back to sleep.  When I woke up again I had a weird pain on the right side of my upper abdomen, but I figured it was just heartburn.  I kinda took it easy all morning, but the "heartburn" got worse.  The more it started to hurt, the less I began to believe that it was actually heartburn.  Up till this point, I hadn't mentioned anything to Hubs.  When I did, he wanted me to call the doctor just to make sure.  So, I did call the doctor, and they wanted me to come in right away.  I was scared.  I had Googled upper abdomen pain, and it wasn't sounding good for someone who already had been diagnosed with pre-eclampsia.   As I was getting dressed to go to the doctors I noticed that my stomach was feeling kinda weird and was really really hard, but since I was basically having a panic attack I didn't think much of it. There was way too much on my mind at that point anyways.

At the doctors I was poked and prodded and then told to go to the hospital for more tests.  Since it was Friday afternoon, the labs at the office were taking a while to come back, so my OB wanted me to go to the hospital to have them run again.  I absolutely didn't want to go to the hospital.  Bed rest at home was bad enough, I did NOT want to have to go on bed rest at the hospital.  Nowhere in my mind did I think that I was going to the hospital to deliver a baby.  At this point the pain in my upper abdomen was making it hard to breathe, and my stomach was still feeling weird.  I was worried about the upper abdomen pain, but the stomachache I thought was just cause I was hungry.  I hadn't eaten since breakfast (thank God Hubs had made me eat an English muffin with scrambled eggs for second breakfast around ten).   

Hubs and I had agonized over where we should have the baby.  We had initially planned on having her at Brigham and Women's, and then switched to Newton Wellesley.  Unfortunately, now none of that mattered.  Since I was only 34 weeks 6 days we had to go to Brigham and Women's.  Newton Wellesley didn't deliver babies that early.    The hospital was absolutely huge, and I was still trying to convince myself that everything was okay.

We went to registration, and then upstairs to labor and delivery.  I was taken to triage where they did their workup and tried to decide what to do with me.  My blood pressure was high, liver enzymes elevated (which meant that the pain in my upper abdomen was probably a swollen liver), and I was having regular contractions (the stomachache). The doctor on call decided that my pre-eclampsia had gotten severe, and it was time to induce.  Only then did it hit me that I was actually going to have the baby.  

They got me settled in my room, started me on pitocin and magnesium sulfate (to keep me from having seizures).  The nurse had mentioned that some people get nauseous from the magnesium.  This may have been an understatement.  It made me throw up A LOT.  What I didn't know then, was that this was just my first bout of throwing up for the evening.  There would be much more.

About four hours passed before the doctor checked me again.  As far as my "labor" was going I had progressed nowhere.  I was still having regular contractions, but I couldn't even feel them.  My labs however were progressing for the worse.  Both my liver enzymes and blood pressure were going up, and my platelet count was slowly dropping.  The doctor suggested abandoning the induction and doing a c-section.  I really, really didn't want a c-section, but the fetal monitor was showing that the baby was still doing really well.  Both Hubs, the doctor and I, thought it was best to do the c-section while the baby was still doing well, instead of continuing the induction until both the baby and I were in distress. 

So much for my medication and intervention free birth! 



At fifty minutes past midnight, on May 7th, my baby girl, Olivia, was born.   I was exactly 35 weeks pregnant.  Since she was so early, there was a team of medical specialists waiting for her arrival to access her (pediatrician, neonatologist, respiratory therapist..etc.).   She didn't cry right away, which made for the most terrifying couple seconds.  Hubs left my side and went over to see her and make sure she was okay.  Our daughter clocked in at just a mere 4 lbs 5ozs and 16 inches.  Hubs snapped a bunch of pictures of her and brought them over to me to see (since I hadn't seen her yet).  Olivia had some fluid in her lungs and needed to go to the NICU, but before her team left with her, they pulled aside my curtain so that I could meet her.  All through my pregnancy I had imagined how happy I would be after delivery when they first placed the baby on my chest.  Though it didn't happen exactly as I had imagined, the happiness I felt the moment I first saw my daughter was indescribable.  I fell in love with her instantly.

I stayed in the hospital recovering for four days and Olivia stayed for nineteen.  Those nineteen days she spent in the NICU were the hardest, most emotional days of my life.  Leaving the hospital without her was excruciating.  It absolutely broke my heart.  I started crying the day before I left and didn't really stop until she got home.  I can't imagine how hard it must be for the parents of babies that need to stay for months and months before coming home. She came home the Thursday before last and has been sucking down bottles like a champ since then.  I'm so glad to have her home, that I could care less about the sleepless nights and countless diaper changes.

In summary, Olivia's arrival was a rough ride for all three of us (Me, Her and Hubs), but we're all healthy and happy and can't imagine life without one another.

Restin' Up

Last Wednesday I went to see my midwife for my regular "how's your pregnancy" going check-up.  To my surprise my "normal" pregnancy had taken a turn for the worse.  My blood pressure had risen quite high, and the swelling (that I had been complaining about for weeks) was an issue.  They whisked me off to the lab for blood work, called the OB that had been overseeing my care, and put me on a strict regimen of bed rest.

Turns out that all of the symptoms that had been making my pregnancy unbearable lately were all due to the fact that I have developed pre-eclampsia.  Now that I have pre-eclampsia, my normal pregnancy has become high risk very quickly.  It was so upsetting how fast everything changed.  When I went into my appointment, I was right on track for having the spontaneous birth, natural delivery that I had planned.  By the time I left, that wasn't looking so likely anymore.  But, it's okay, because at the end, I'll still have the same sweet baby.  So, I'm keeping my chin up :)

With all of my new found time, I've been catching up on reading and watching movies.  I finally got a chance to watch The Young Victoria.  My sister has been raving about that one for at least a year.  I watched it Thursday as part of my royal wedding preparation.  I loved it.  The costumes were beautiful, and I just can't help loving a good story about the British Royalty.

With Hubs help I loaded up my Nook and have been powering my way through the new books he added.  Right now I'm about 3/4 of the way through the first Hunger Games book.  My sister in law recommended that I read those.  I'm really enjoying it so far.

I'm thinking I'm going to try starting another knitting or crochet project too.  Of course, now that I'm simply lying on the couch full time for the next three weeks or so, I'll be better with updating the blog.  Promise ;)