Top o the mornin' to ya!

We spent the morning at Sky Top Orchard today the forecast called for thunderstorms, but we trekked up to North Carolina anyway.

37 lbs of fruit, and a shared apple cider donut, later We're happy we did.

A Babe is Born

 I scooted out of triage with my IV drip and my butt firmly planted in a wheelchair at 4am. My contractions were making me double over and I was dilated three centimeters. The birthing room where I would deliver my baby was a place of serenity with its flat screen and wood floors. The husband was digging the comfy couch by the window. I was happily anticipating that nectar of the gods, King Epidural.

I met Dr. Price who ordered the anesthesiologist and a dose of Pitocin. "Are you ready to have a baby today?" Yes, sir, I was ready to have a baby.

At 10am Dr. Price returned to examine me. He took one look and said we would have a baby by the afternoon. Shawn's face beamed. His boy is coming! The the shizz got real. Dr. Price felt my gigantic belly. "Hmmm..." he hummed. Then he did an internal exam. "This baby has a soft head," he said... out loud.. to a panicking me. What?! WHAT?!?! "How long has he been breech?" What?! I had an appointment on Monday...this was Wednesday. I think I would feel if this giant baby flipped upside down. To be sure he pulled a portable ultrasound machine into the room. Four minutes later I was looking at my baby's head by my tailbone.

Emergency c-section. I have never had surgery before aside from getting my wisdom teeth pulled. I have never had my organs removed from my body and placed back all willy-nilly. I was terrified of the dreaded episiotomy. Dr. Price called Dr Chasedunn-Roarke who saw me on Monday and she was shocked, but told him that at least I wouldn't have the episiotomy like I was worried about. No, now I was going to be opened up on a table in a cold and sterile operating room rather than this hotel suite I was crying in. I was seven centimeters dilated and progressing fast. 14 minutes later I was being prepped for surgery, getting dosed with even more epidural and Shawn was putting on his scrubs.

At 10:33am on Wednesday, January 11, 2012, our baby boy came into the world with the loudest cry I have ever heard. Shawn looked into my eyes and we both teared up. The nurse showed Henry to us and asked Shawn if he would like to hold him. I wanted to jump up too and hug that screaming and wriggling body. Obviously, I couldn't feel anything below my shoulders, so Shawn held our sweet baby and brought him over to me to kiss and snuggle. By this time, Henry's baby blue were wide open as he took in the scene. By 10:50am I was sewn back together, intestines in their rightful place, and was being wheeled into the closet sized recovery room where we would spend the first three hours of our lives as a family of three.

How I Knew It was Labor

Somethings just cannot be explained, they must be lived to be remotely understood. Birth is certainly one of them. I have conquered one of my biggest fears... having a baby. This is how I did it:

On a cold and foggy night...

At exactly 12:59am on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 I woke up with a start. I sat bolt upright, "I think my water broke," I said out loud. Shawn teleported to my side of the bed (seriously, I am sure he broke the sound barrier with how fast he ran around our king-size) saying "What?! What?! Are you sure?! What do we do?!"

"I could have just peed myself," I cautioned. I have snizzed my pantalones on more than one occasion throughout the past 39 weeks. Not pretty, not fun, and (dreadfully) not unusual. "Gross! I did it again!"With another whoosh underway, I just looked up at Shawn's beaming face, then decided to mosey on over to the bathroom. A moment later there was yet another whoosh of water into le toilet. As I suspected I would, I started to voice my doubts. Phrases like "extremely incontinent," "never actually going to come," "only 8% of women's water breaks, I am the 92%" and "not ready not ready not ready" spilled forth from my mouth.

No smiling once the contractions begin

Then the contractions started. Oh my word, the contractions did a-start. "Crap. I think I really am in labor." was answered by Shawn with "I'm not even sorry. I'm so excited."

What to do when you have finally convinced yourself that you will be birthin' a baby:
1. Repack entire hospital bag
2. Make husband take a shower, despite his anxiety baby will be born in bathroom if he does
3. Put a maxi pad on since this faucet drip cannot be turned off once started
4. Unpack hospital bag after remembering need to brush hair and teeth
5. Squeeze into car and backseat drive as husband driver is blinded by pure adrenaline excitement and that deer on the side of the road looks like a jumper

Thank you, Husband Love, for allowing me to see what real pain looks like (also check out the drawer full of my contraction ticker-tape)

I also suggest once you are at hospital, remind your husband that he could have dropped you off at the doors rather than having you hoof it at 2am through a parking lot in the middle of January - do not voice frustration as you both trudge across parking lot in between contractions. Holy mother contractions! The lady that sees you pain and will not help you find triage is definitely the person who only cares if you have insurance, do not be mad at her when she tries to avoid eye contact and pretends not to see you, she knows not what she does. If she does, forget to date a paper so she can search all over the hospital for you until her shift ends at 7am.

Once I was firmly planted in triage and gussied up in my bum-exposing gown, the monitoring began. Contractions were one and a half to two minutes apart and freakin' awful. I would grit my teeth and clench the bed sheet and blankets so hard, my nails could have bored holes through the fabric.

How Henry came to be... to be continued..

Oh Postal Service and your sneaky ways!

My mother sent us a big ol' box of Christmas gits wrapped lovingly (she can't stand wrapping, so I know there was love involved in the process) in scarlet paper tied with green plaid bows. The postal service ran over the box with a truck, but it in a new box and laid it at our doorstep as if nothing happened. It was a ding dong ditch delivery. Having called Mom and asked her about her packaging methods, she insisted that we open the presents, even though it was Christmas Eve, to make sure they all were there. Behold! Our smashed presents, and the giggles we had while opening them.

The apology was the first clue that something was amiss

All the boxes were crunched without care

Please tell me this wasn't glass

Smooshed

Just slightly wrinkled, but still spectacular

Nightshirt for the hospital and a disaster of wrapping paper (we open presents like toddlers)

You can destroy our parcels, post office, but you can't even come close to dampening our Christmas spirit!

Last Christmas as a Twosome

The eve before Christmas Eve was a lovely evening with a late start. We each had taken too long naps and missed a hockey game we had received comp tickets to, but we didn't let that get us down. We opened up our newest game, The Game of Life. I dominated the whole game until the very end when my little red car of a mommy, daddy and baby boy landed on ridiculous items (pay 35,000 for a home gym, a 25,000 art collection, 65,000 for a butler and a maid - so different is my actual life) but still allowed me the retiring comforts of Millionaire Estates. I beat a bewildered-when-he-doesn't-win Hubster by only $10,000. Booyah!

That was the end of that game. We stuffed the 1,000 pieces into the box and pulled out the old game of strategy, Uno! This wasn't Hubby's night as I swept him in that game, too for the first hour and a half. I ended up winning by only 7 points, but I still won. I don't have a competitive bone in my body, but watching him squirm was just as much fun as playing in the first place.

An Xmas Eve Surprise (posting about this tomorrow)

Christmas Eve was spent at church with a wonderful and moving service. We really enjoy the church we have found and can't wait to become members. Each Sunday, we leave the parking lot feeling uplifted and whole. It is amazing how sometimes you don't know how much you needed something until you bring a taste of it back into your life. After church we made it to Kohl's to get Hubs a few presents. I am struggling being on my feet for too long and am constantly surprised at how easily exhausted I become. Fondue for dinner! Our Christmas Eve tradition!

Honeycrisp Apple, Summer Sausage, Baguette, Onion

When I dip, You dip, we dip

Christmas Day brought with it cheer and joy that only such a blessed day can provide. Bread and Butter Pudding for Breakfast followed by  present opening. Shawn loves his new leather jacket, shoes and Kenneth Cole watch that I gave him. I spent all day playing with the iPhone he got me and dreaming of the day i will be able to squeeze into the shirts he bought me, too. Later that night we put on real clothes and makeup for me and saw Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. While it may not be a Christmas classic; it was very intense and very good.

Bread and Butter Pudding breakfast

The Mommy Milker/Booby Juicer from Shawn

Our family photo

How the dog spent the entirety of the holiday

Armful of Philosophy Gingerbread Girl products (Remster wanted to eat it)

A very Cubbie Christmas

Hope everyone had a great day just as we had. May your new year be showered in many blessings!
Love,

The Family G!

Thanksgiving Baby Shower

I am truly, truly blessed! Not only did my family drive 13 hours (my sister and her boyfriend drove 16 hours from Providence, RI) form New Jersey and New York. One of my bestest and most favorite friends in the whole wide world, Heather, flew in from Arizona. All to throw me a baby shower in South Carolina over Thanksgiving weekend.

I spilled the waterworks when everyone left and didn't quite recover for a couple days after they had left. During the weekend, though, it was all smiles. The room looked spectacular! The theme was children's books. Heather and my sister know me so well! I want to grow a massive library for Baby Henry! Little Golden Books, yellow roses, book page garland and beautiful cookies, cake and cupcakes, covered the table. We played a couple games including Name that Baby Tune, which was won by Elise's boyfriend, Matthew and Guess the Baby Food (I was dying inside as I recalled Shawn's previous gag-inducing run in with baby food). The turkey and gravy was a particular favorite amongst us players. Blech!

Opening presents from my friends and family who couldn't be at the shower brought tears to my eyes. I miss them all so much and may have hugged a couple gifts as if they were with me in person. Pregnancy brain has made me over-sentimental and over-weepy. If any of you are reading this... Thank you! I love you all so much!

Walking Egyptian in Milwaukee

On Monday the 7th of November Shawn's parents, his brother Jamie and we the expecting trekked to Milwaukee, WI for the afternoon. We ate at a Greek burger joint called Omega. I devoured my feta-less gyro while Shawn noshed on a Reuben and the others ate burgers. Its amazing that I can recall what we ate a month ago, but I forget what a refrigerator is called ("that machine we put milk in that keeps it from getting hot and stanky" was my most recent catchphrase-appropriate entry).

Milwaukee Public Museum

We drove around downtown searching for a parking spot that would actually fit an SUV only to park a few yards from where we initially entered the garage (isn't that always the case? no? well... moving on). Into the Milwaukee Public Museum we went. My Arizona Science Center membership has reciprocity with MPM so bang! We only had to pay the entry for one of us. Anddddd is got us discounted entry to the Cleopatra exhibit, too!

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Cleo was fascinating! I wanted to take pictures of everything, but museum employees were everywhere. Blast! In reality I was seriously impressed with their knowledge of the exhibit. I am a museum nerd for sure and could have talked with one particularly informed staff member for hours. In a nutshell, this exhibit is brand spanking new. The artifacts were all discovered and recovered from the Bay of Alexandria in the last 15 years. The objects have taught researchers even more about Cleopatra's life, loves and her reign as they were preserved for centuries underwater. Fascinating and beautiful! I highly recommend anyone in the Milwaukee area to take a tour before the exhibit moves on to it's next destination.

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The rest of the museum takes you on an anthropological tour of the world, primitive man, and turn of the 20th century Milwaukee (this being my particular favorite exhibit hall which allows you to peek into store fronts and homes of the the different nationalities who immigrated to Milwaukee). The first floor has a rain forest, dinosaurs and wooly mammoths, and a Butterfly Garden. I was hot flashin' all over the place in there with all that humidity and mist. Apparently the butterflies didn't mind that my forehead and lip were sweating and that my hair was plastered to my scalp. They came to me like forest creatures to a singing Snow White. I am the mariposa whisperer.

We dashed off to have dinner with Grandpa Charles in Menomonee Falls. I love this man as if he were my own blood relative. He cracks me up. Asking if we had decided Henry's middle name, we told him that we settled on James. Without missing a beat, he said, "I guess Charles didn't make the cut."  Love him!

The Family G

And that concludes my trip to the Midwest that I should have cleared with my doctor before embarking on :) tee hee!

Chicago Suburb Shower

On November 4th, Hubster and I boarded our flight from GSP (that tiny airport that I adore just 10 minutes from our house) to Midway (that giant airport in Chicago in a sketchy part of town wo hours from in-laws' house).

Our hour and a half flight made stupendous that pregnancy is considered a "temporary disability" by Southwest Airlines. Baby Bump was jumping with excitement as hubs and I preboarded the little plane nabbing the very first seats so we would also be the very first to exit. Suh-Weet!

I scooted to bed early, because that's how I roll - deep sleepin' on my side y'all and awoke the next morning to my in-laws house completely decked out in safari animals and yellow and green streamers. My cup runneth over with joy. Our Illinois and Chicago family and friends came in droves to celebrate the first grandchild of Hubster's parents.

I have said it before, this family can throw a party! We played several games, my favorite centered around baby food. Always a delight! I sat blindfolded as I fed jar after jar of some pretty goopy food to Shawn. Let's just say that, we know who will definitely NOT be taste testing Henry's strained peas when that day comes. He gagged on the pureed bananas, begging to know what it was claiming that I was feeding him mustard. I told him to suck it up, when he tried to quit after the first bite.Gordon Ramsey would not be amused. Older brother Jamie rocked that game out of the living room! He downed 6 jars (Shawn couldn't even compete, eating nearly 3 jars). Bravo almost-uncle-Jamie!

We were not just showered with gifts, we were drenched in them! Good thing we brought an empty suitcase stuffed with empty carry-on bag. One whole suitcase was stuffed with diapers, crib and stroller toys, tiny little clothes, bath tub toys and thermometers, ointments and creams, brushes and clippers and combs, about 100 bibs, spoons and bottle brushes, a cart cover, blankies, pacifiers and so much more! Bursting at the seams with Henry's goodies.

Wish I had a photo of me carrying the diaper cake that cousin Jackie and Kelsi made, too! Waddling around the airport with a big ol' diaper cake balancing on my ginormous belly must have been a sight to be seen. A glorious hour and a half later we came home, picked up the pooch from the Pet Hotel, and watched hours of DVR'd delights.

Halloween Traditions - Dressing Up

I am linking up with Casey at The Wiegands for Follower's Fest to talk about some of my favorite Halloween Traditions. Thanks for stopping by!

Last year, Shawn and I wore my favorite costumes - The Sailor and Nurse from V-E Day ("The Kiss") photograph from Time Magazine.

The only thing I haven't made a decision on is my costume. We aren't attending a Screaming Soiree this year, opting instead to pass out candy to the neighborhood kiddies. When I suggested to my dear Hubby that I dress up as a crazy person because I feel like I lost my dang mind. He laughed and said, "Yeah, I can't argue with you there." Hmmph. My hormones may have gotten the best of me this week (a bottle of non-toxic cleaner may have flown across the kitchen earlier) and I may not remember the "name of that thing you stand in and get wet with soap." That really came out of my mouth, my baby is stealing all of my brain power from me.

Perhaps a Mama Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde? The Incredible Shrieking Woman? Good Old Fashioned Witch? How about Hungry? I AM that costume.

Halloween Traditions - Pumpkin Carving

I am linking up with Casey of The Wiegands for Followers Fest. Thanks for stopping by!

We always carve pumpkins just before Halloween night - anyone who lives in a hot climate has probably experienced a pumpkin melting and or disintegrating. FYI, they leave a stain on concrete if not cleaned up quickly... and they stink, or so I have heard. Greenville, SC is a taaaaaad cooler than the deserts of Arizona. We threw caution to the wind and carved those gourds a full five days before All Hallows Eve. Only time will tell.

This year we free-handed our carving. No stencils. No outline. No mercy. They ended up being a couple of my favorites we have ever done.

 Happy Halloween, y'all!

Halloween Traditions - Decorating

 

 Happy Halloween, my lovelies! I am linking up with Casey at The Wiegands for Follower's Fest. Thanks for stopping by to hear a little about our favorite time of year. 

 

We decorate our little home with ghouls and skulls and enough spiderwebs to catch an unsuspecting Trick-or-Treater. I dream of making our humble abode a haunted house one day - a la Modern Family.

This wreath was "crafted" by yours truly. Okay, I added a glittery owl to a premade feather wreath. I was going to make one myself, but the two boas I would have needed cost more than the one that took no effort. Decision done.

Every year I bust out Edgar, my ghoul. I don't even dust him off as it lends to the old and creepy vibe I'm going for.

I cover most of our furniture in black, gray or white cheesecloth that has been slashed and shredded. Mrs. Havisham would feel quite comfy in our living room. Fred, my Macbeth skull, proudly sits atop our entertainment center, as he is used to being center stage.

We certainly don't neglect the outside of our house, but we certainly have big plans. Our dead tree forest will have a private cemetery next year (buying decor after the holiday saves buko bucks).
So if you see this house, be sure to stop by. We have some treats for you! Bwaaa ha ha ha ha!

We always carve pumpkins just before Halloween night - anyone who lives in a hot climate has probably experienced a pumpkin melting and or disintegrating. FYI, they leave a stain on concrete if not cleaned up quickly... and they stink, or so I have heard. Greenville, Sc is a taaaaaad cooler than the desrts of Arizona. We threw caution to the wind and carved those gourds a full five days before All Hallows Eve. Only time will tell.