Lasagna..conquered

Ok just to make myself feel better about the cookie disaster (oh yea they never did turn out right) I had to let everyone know that yes I actually made dinner the other night. Miss Paula Dean's lasagna. And yes, it turned out perfectly. I strapped that baby on my chest and she slept through the whole process. The whole hour and a half it took to make. I had forgotten what a process it was to make. Anyways, it was a good recipe except that it called for seven, yes seven, different cheeses. No butter though, odd. In the future I would leave out the Greyere, because after adding swiss it was a little redundant. Also as I crumbled up an entire stick of cream cheese I realized how ridiculously unhealthy this was, so yes I'd leave that out too or at least cut it in half. And finally, it needed sausage, not just ground beef. I'll try and put up a link to the recipe if anyone is interested.

Yesterday, Madelin and I went to my Uncle and Aunt's for dinner and swimming. Sadly, daddy had to work and missed the fun. She was an perfect all day, and I'm not being sarcastic. She also had her first dip in the pool. Luckily, she loved the water. So as embarrassed as I was to get in with my cheap, mismatched, and hopefully temporary swimsuit it turned out to be a lot of fun.

No Susie homemaker

It had been good day, some might even call it productive. Lots of eating, sleeping, and pooping (Madelin, not me) with bouts of pumping here and there. The house got cleaned, laundry was finished and errands ran. I figured it was safe to start making the cookies I told Andrew I'd make him, um last week. I'm a little ashamed (wait, no I'm not) that its taken a week to make cookies you don't even have to bake. There's only like 6 ingredients for goodness-sakes. What a disaster. It started out all well and good; ingredients out, baby in her carrier watching from a safe distance. Right about the time my sugar and butter started boiling, the dogs started barking like crazy, the baby was screaming and it inevitably boiled over causing a burning smoking mess. In a effort to save the cookies, I shove the dogs outside, put Madelin in her swing all while swinging a pot of boiling sugar in the one hand. Not my brightest idea. Luckily, I managed to get oats and PB mixed in before the baby started screaming again. Forty-five minutes later the cookies finally reached the wax paper. Needless to say, the kitchen is not getting cleaned tonight. Lets hope I get a little better at juggling tasks, otherwise we may be limited to leftovers for awhile.

Its exactly as they say it is

The first two weeks were nice and quiet. Then came week three; the week I decided it was time to actually get stuff done. What exactly do I have planned you ask? Well, nothing as of yet because Madelin decided that momma's not going to get any sleep, not unless its between the hours of 4am and 8 am. Then her and I precede to spend a good portion of the morning in bed to make up for the lost sleep. When I feel as rested as I'm going to, I get up and get in the shower as quickly as possible while Andrew is still home otherwise I either don't get one or it doesn't happen till around 3. So needless to say, getting the "to do" list done is very slow going. Not that I'm complaining. I love staying home with our darling. I'm just looking forward to the time when she sleeps more at night than she does during the day.

Sleepless Nights and spicy food

So I thought eating while pregnant was a pain. Well, eating while nursing may turn out to be worse. I have (had) a slight addiction to caffeine. They say its alright to have the equivalent to three cups of coffee a day, but after a couple nights up till 4 I'm terrified that me drinking a coke is going to make her be up all night. I'm still wondering if I can enjoy real sushi, so if someone knows the answer to that please let me know. Anyways, so when I made dinner for the first time in, oh I don't know, to two weeks it never occurred to me that spicy food was a no-no. I learned that over and over and over as Madelin fed that night. It was as if I was trying to poison her as she would shake her head back and forth as if to tell me "Noo Mom! I'm only eating this cus I have to." Unfortunately, I mindlessly order the curry tonight, so I'm sure we're in for another late night/early morning.

Madelin's Arrival

Well, just as we had started losing hope of her getting here by her due date (May 30th) good signs started showing up. All weekend I'd been having bad but still irregular contractions. On Sunday they started getting pretty awful. So bad in fact that I needed a little emotional support. This is where mom and dad come in. For a couple hours they join me in some "tv watching" and contraction timing. After a couple of hours without any progress my dad suggests a walk. Usually I would have been up for a walk, but not this time. He managed to get me out for a short half block walk before I was ready to turn back.
As soon as we get back I feel something very, well, uncomfortable. Come to find out later this was my water breaking. So off the the hospital we went. Three painful hours later, I got my epidural. Oh, the wonderful epidural. I was able to get a long nap in at this point. Apparently, I was the only one that was able to sleep that night. When the nurse woke me up for the last time I was dialated all the way to 10. So much for that painful transition stage. (Thanks again to the nurse-anesthetist) Since I was fully dilated they told me to labor down for an hour to see how much progress could be made. After that hour, I was able to start "practice" pushing. After 15 minutes, however, I was told to stop or the doctor wouldn't make it. So, another 15 minutes later the doctor shows up, and one big push later, Madelin shows up! And through all this Andrew was right there beside me. I had the best labor experience, didn't feel a thing after my block, and will probably pay for it with my next pregnancies I'm sure.