Waiting

It's been a while since my last post...but I really don't have much of an update today.  Since my beef freezer cooking post, not a lot has happened around here.  Just a lot of waiting. =)

I did try to make muffins yesterday for the freezer, but they turned out terrible.  It was a new recipe that I've never tried before for banana-blueberry-bran muffins.  Sounded great, looked fairly easy, got some decent reviews from other folks....just didn't turn out for me.  I think the dough was just too wet, because even after baking them for an extra 10 minutes they still weren't baked all the way through.  And the outsides of the muffins were almost burned.  I was pretty disappointed...they smelled amazing in the oven and I really wanted to eat one!  I ended up throwing them all away...serves me right for trying a new recipe when I already have a perfectly awesome recipe for blueberry muffins. =(

I have a few things left on my freezer cooking list that I haven't accomplished yet, like banana bread and pancakes.  I made cookie dough a couple of days ago (using this recipe for Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies--which are my absolute favorite!) so I've got about 40-50 cookies in the freezer.  Definitely not the most healthy food...but I know I will be grateful for them when I really want something sweet later!  I need to make more Breakfast Burritos for Billy (and I have all of the ingredients) but I just haven't been all that motivated...I also want to make some lunch burritos for myself but just haven't gotten around to it. You would think I could get these things done since all I'm doing is sitting around waiting for Piper to come...but at 39 weeks, my energy and motivation are quickly dwindling.

In other news, poor Ellie has seasonal allergies.  I guess I passed that on to her, since Billy has been blessed by not having to suffer in that department.  I've had them since my pre-teen years, so I'm really surprised that Ellie is showing symptoms at such a young age.  But I called the pediatrician yesterday just to see if it was possible, and they said that it definitely sounds like allergies.  And what's weird is that mine aren't bad at all right now...I've had just a teeny bit of stuffiness in the past couple of weeks and a sore throat on occasion but that's it.  Poor Ellie has the whole deal...coughing, sneezing, watery eyes, and TONS of snot.  Thankfully the nurse at the pediatrician's office gave me a dosage for children's Benadryl based on Ellie's weight, so I feel okay giving it to her.  We're definitely not big on medications in this house, but she obviously feels pretty bad and the Benadryl is helping her sleep a lot better.  We've also got the humidifier going in her room during naps and at night and I think it's helping, too.  I'm praying that she won't have to suffer long and that soon she'll be back to her normal self.

It's hard to believe that two weeks from tomorrow I have a scheduled C-section.  We're still praying and hoping that I'll go into spontaneous labor on my own and have a successful VBAC, but I've kind of reserved myself to the fact that it might not happen.  I'm having contractions sporadically every day, but nothing to indicate labor.  I still have another week until my due date, and then another week after that until the C-section, so maybe Piper will come on her own before then.  I've been trying some "at home" methods of labor induction (haha) but nothing has happened yet.  I've been drinking red raspberry leaf tea, tried lots and lots of walking, and even eaten spicy food...the only results so far have been soreness from the walking and horrible heartburn from the food =)  Oh well, I'll have lots of stories to tell Piper about how anxious I was for her to arrive!

Which reminds me...I've been meaning to go to Michael's this week to buy a photo storage box (like the pink one pictured below).  I bought one shortly after Ellie was born to hold all of her little newborn "treasures," like her first bottle from the NICU, her foot imprint from when she was 2 months old, her hat from the NICU, and the only preemie outfit we had that actually fit her perfectly.  I'm a big memorabilia hoarder...but I really try to only keep things that are really significant.  Anyway, I want to get a similar box for Piper so that I'll have a place to store those little things that I want to show her someday.

Isn't she a cutie?!  I think she had just turned 1 when this picture was taken.

And that's about it for me...stay tuned, Piper Josephine will be here in two weeks (or less)!

Beef Freezer Cooking Day

Whew!  It's really been one of those days...Ellie has been in a mood since mid-morning and my patience is running thin.  I'm hoping it's just teething, since she's been working on getting some molars lately.  Just last week she got 3 new molars, and I know that had to have been miserable for her.

I had my 37 week appointment with the OBGYN this morning, which went great!  My blood pressure is good and low and Piper's heartbeat is a healthy 140, so all is well.  Now we're just waiting for her to decide that she's ready to come out...which I have a feeling will not be on my time table =).  If I had it my way, she'd be born right after we get to see The Hunger Games next Friday...haha.

Because I'm in the home stretch of my pregnancy, I'm constantly trying to stay busy and occupied.  If I get bored, I start to fret over how the birth will go and end up wasting so much time wondering about things I really don't have control over.  Luckily this week has been super busy for us...we've literally had something scheduled for every day this week.  We got Shelley groomed on Monday for the first time (at PetSmart) and she smells amazing!  Yes, we paid $27 to get our dog bathed, nails clipped, and ears cleaned, but it was so worth it.  It's something we really dislike doing (and being as big as I am, it's hard enough for me to bend over the tub to wash Ellie, let alone a huge squirming dog!).  She is now wonderfully clean and good-smelling...and I don't feel guilty one bit for that extra expense this month!  Tuesday Ellie and I went to MOPS...I am SO glad I have that to look forward to twice a month!  It really is a wonderful way to meet new moms and to talk to other adults while the kiddos are playing in the nursery.  Wednesday I had my pre-registration appointment at the hospital, so that's all done and taken care of...today I had my OBGYN appointment, and tomorrow Ellie and I are going to Charlottesville to see our good friend, Jenn!

Since our obligations for today were completed pretty early this morning, I took Ellie to the park for about an hour and a half, which I *thought* would be fun for her, but that's really when she started to get grouchy.  She enjoyed playing, but anytime I told her not to do something or set some sort of boundary she freaked out and threw a temper tantrum.  Just part of life with a toddler, I guess =).

This afternoon I accomplished my beef and pasta freezer cooking...I ended up making 8 meals (4 recipes doubled)!  I made double batches of stuffed shells, spaghetti casserole, baked ziti, and beef tacos.  For recipes, see my Chicken Freezer Cooking Day post.  I meant to link the recipe for the tacos and totally forgot, so I'll include it in this post.  We used to always buy the taco kits from the grocery store anytime we wanted tacos, and then I found this recipe for DIY taco seasoning and decided to give it a try...I am so glad I did!  I think this seasoning tastes great (and Billy loves it, too!) and it's so much cheaper than always buying a seasoning packet or taco kit.  The sodium is also probably infinitely lower than what you get in the pre-packaged stuff, and you can tailor the recipe to your specific preferences.

Anyway, my freezer cooking session today didn't go as quickly as I had hoped (because little munchkin kept having issues), but I cooked all 8 meals in two hours...pretty good for a newbie like me!  And now we have 14 dinner meals already made in the freezer, which makes me SO happy!  I've kind of run out of room in the freezer...but realized that we have another refrigerator in our basement with an attached freezer...duh.  Not sure why I didn't think of using it before (it's our landlord's, but it stays plugged in...so we pay for the electricity, might as well use it, right?).  Here's a picture of what I accomplished today:

Sorry the angle is kinda bad...I was too short to get a good aerial shot and too lazy to pull out the step ladder just for a picture. =)

I also tried a new recipe this week for Fruit Pizza to take to our MOPS meeting.  I don't know why but I somehow got it in my head that I wanted to make fruit pizza, so I searched high and low for a recipe that wouldn't require too much effort or money on my part and this recipe was very easy.  I modified it for my personal tastes...so here's my version of fruit pizza:

Ingredients:

• one roll of refrigerated sugar cookie dough
• 8 oz. Cool Whip
• 4 oz. cream cheese
• kiwi (I used two)
• blueberries
• strawberries

1. In a pizza pan or casserole dish (I used a 9x13 because we don't have a pizza pan), roll out cookie dough in an even layer so that it's one giant cookie.  *I actually sliced the dough into cookies and then pressed them together in the pan since rolling out the dough would take forever.*  Bake according to package directions.
2. Allow cookie to completely cool.  Meanwhile, blend Cool Whip and cream cheese together.
3. Once the cookie is completely cool you can "frost" it with the Cool Whip/cream cheese mixture.
4. Top with fruit however you want!

This was a very easy dessert and I really liked it because it wasn't super sweet.  The original recipe called for powdered sugar, but I just thought that would make it way too sugary for me, especially considering the sugar cookie on the bottom and fruit on the top.  

And to end this super long post on a high note, here are some recent pictures of Ellie....

Snuggling with "blankie" on the couch after a busy time at the park

Eating a hamburger bun...no meat, just the bun.  What a strange kid =)

Chicken Freezer Cooking Day

One of my goals for a while was to try my hand at freezer cooking.  I wasn't very familiar with that concept until I started following Money Saving Mom and I thought it seemed pretty neat and efficient, but for some reason figured it just wouldn't work for me.  I have this strange fear of putting things in the freezer and then forgetting about them, or them coming out all ice-crusted and gross looking.  Over the past 6 months, I've slowly been training myself to use what's in our freezer (and to look in there frequently) so that it doesn't become a black abyss of freezer-burned food.  In the past month or so, I've tried a few different freezer meals (things I was already making for dinner that were freezer-friendly and just doubled the recipe--one for dinner that night and one to go in the freezer) and they've all been successful.  A couple of weeks ago I tried this recipe for Freezer-Friendly Breakfast Burritos for Billy, and he LOVES them.  So after building up my confidence, I decided that I would do an all-out freezer stock up before Piper was born.  I know that things might be a little crazy around here after her birth, so I thought it would help me out to have dinners already prepared in the freezer.

In preparation for this huge project, I sat down and made a list of every meal we already have in our dinner repertoire that was freezer friendly...I went through my personal cookbook where I keep all of our tried-and-true recipes, and also searched my boards on Pinterest for foods I had pinned that were good and freezer friendly.  After coming up with my list, I determined which recipes would be really easy to double.  This is my list (with links to recipes for some of them):

• Stuffed Shells (x2)
• Spaghetti Casserole (x2)
• Crockpot BBQ Chicken (x2)
• Twice Baked Potatoes
• Italian Chicken
• Blueberry Muffins
• Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
• Chicken Tacos
• Beef Tacos (x2)
• Banana Bread
• Hashbrown Casserole
• Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake
• Baked Ziti (x2)
• Asian BBQ Chicken
• Southwest Roll-Ups
• Pancakes (x2)

I then went through each recipe and determined what ingredients and quantities were needed.  I found this article on Money Saving Mom's website that was really helpful and instructive on how to plan a freezer cooking day, and pretty much followed this method.  After figuring out my ingredients, I went through the pantry and cupboards to figure out what I already had on hand and what I needed more of.  Once I refined my ingredients list, Ellie and I took a shopping trip to Kroger to get everything.  I saved up some personal money for this, since I didn't want to have to try to factor the freezer cooking day into our weekly grocery budget.  I spent $79, which I was extremely happy with, since I had set aside $100.  

I knew that if I tried to cook all of this stuff in one day I would totally lose my mind, so I broke my list up into four categories--chicken, beef/pasta, vegetable-based, and baking.  This gives me a more reasonable amount of things to make at one time, and then I don't have to worry about trying to bake cookies while also handling raw chicken.  Today, I tackled the chicken during Ellie's nap.  I prepared 5 bags of marinated chicken (Italian, BBQ-x2, Asian BBQ, and chicken tacos) and one casserole, plus I set aside some cooked shredded chicken for the Southwest Roll Ups I'm making on vegetable freezer cooking day.  I am totally amazed that I was able to do this, considering how quickly I get burned out in the kitchen lately.  Here's a picture of my success!

I feel so great knowing that there are 6 meals sitting in my freezer that are ready go...all I would have to do is throw them in the oven or crockpot, add a side, and some bread.

I also made some burp cloths for Piper last night...I think I must be in the nesting zone because I've been really motivated the last 24 hours =).  I will warn you, my burp cloths are kinda tacky looking, but I didn't want to spend money on pretty, coordinated fabric when I already had a bunch of scrap fabric around the house!  I used up some flannel that I've had for over a year, plus an old Eddie Bauer t-shirt that I loved but got a stain on, and two grimy, stained baby towels that were Ellie's.  I made 6 burp cloths total (two of each pattern pictured below).

The colors and patterns are kinda weird...but seriously, they're going to mop up baby vomit.  They don't have to be pretty =).

I also spent most of this morning (pre-freezer cooking) working in the girls' room.  We finally got our baby furniture situation resolved (we ordered a chest of drawers but got a dresser instead and didn't realize it until we got home--after 4 hours of driving in one day!) so we rearranged their bedroom last night to make everything fit.  This morning, I made Piper's bed with Ellie's old bedding (Ellie now has a big girl set with a comforter and pillow) and put all of the baby blankets, towels, sleepers and gowns, shoes, socks, and other accessories in the chest of drawers and dresser.  It took me quite a while (I'm funny about how things are organized...what makes sense and what's most efficient are very important to me!) but I think it's pretty much done!  I also set aside a few baby items to take to the hospital, so now I just need to work on packing my hospital bag.  It's hard to believe that I'm going on 37 weeks, and Ellie was born at exactly 37 weeks.  Motivation for me to get things done!  Although let's pray that the circumstances are entirely different this time... =)

And just for fun, I wanted to include this picture of Ellie enjoying her very own smoothie!  I make this Pick-Me-Up smoothie pretty much every morning for breakfast, so I decided to share some with Ellie and gave her her very own cup!

Her face cracks me up! =)

36 Weeks!

So I had my 36 week checkup today at the doctor's office.  I had an ultrasound done, which was pretty fun...it was neat getting to see little Piper all squished up in the fetal position!  Last time we saw her was at 21 weeks, so she had plenty of space back then to stretch and kick her legs as much as she wanted...not so much now.  She's head down, which is a great relief to me...it definitely increases my chances of having a normal birth this time.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to see her sweet little profile today...her head was too far down to really see much (but again, this is a good thing!).

I talked to the doctor about a few things, like having the option to get a saline lock instead of an IV when I'm in the hospital, which they were totally fine with.  If I have a natural labor, I really want to be able to get up and move around instead of being restricted to a hospital bed, so the saline lock is definitely a better option.  I also talked to her about going past my due date, and she said that if I haven't gone into natural labor by 41 weeks I will be automatically given a C-section.  Definitely bummed me out a little, since I really want to have the chance to have a normal birth, but that's their rule.  My chances of having a successful VBAC are kinda low if I'm induced since I've already had a C-section, so it's not really an option for me if I'm not showing any "birth readiness" signs.  There's a part of me that wants to argue my case with them, but I also know that I was so adamant about having a perfect natural birth last time (and we all know how that turned out).  They did say that they could refer me to UVA if I'm really desperate to be induced versus C-section, so I guess we'll reevaluate if it comes to that.  I wouldn't really like to drive over an hour just on the off-chance that it might work, so we'll probably just stick with the plan here in Harrisonburg.  So let's just pray that I go into labor on my own before then! =)

I went ahead and scheduled my C-section (just in case) for April 13th.  That's the latest they'll let me go, and I figured it would be best to go ahead and have it scheduled than to be scrambling for a hospital appointment at the last minute.  So at least we know Piper will be here by April 13th!

This is definitely a test to see how willing I am to give this whole situation to God.  Initially, I could feel myself tensing up and getting all stressed and annoyed about being "forced" to schedule a C-section at 41 weeks, but I got in the car and just prayed, "God, You know what You're doing.  I trust You with it, so just give me peace that whatever happens is in Your will."  I would really love to have a normal birth, but if it's not God's plan for me, then I have to be okay with that.  And to be honest, even though I had a bunch of complications after Ellie's birth, none of them were due to having a C-section (that part of my hospital experience actually went really well!).  I had the best surgical outcome possible (normal scar, horizontal incision, etc.), so I can't really complain about that part of it.  I think it just gave me a really negatively-tainted view of the recovery period after a C-section because of all my other complications (which made my recovery period MUCH longer).  Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that the best outcome is a healthy baby (and a healthy me!)...if that comes via C-section, then praise the Lord that I live in a place that can do that for me.  BUT...I still want to have a normal birth, so I'm going to pray hard that it will happen!

The Children's Museum

Today we went to the children's museum here in Harrisonburg called the Explore More Discovery Museum.  We met up with some of our friends from MOPS and had a great time!  Ellie just explored all over the place...

They have a toddler area for children three and under that is gated, so we definitely took advantage of that.  Sometimes it's nice to be able to sit down and just watch Ellie play, knowing that she can't escape anywhere.  There was a little house that had a slide connected to it, so of course Ellie did that over and over.

Crawling through the tunnel to get to the slide

She kept saying, "One...two...three!" and then sliding down

She found lots of interesting things to play with

There was also a neat play area with soft blocks and obstacles to promote "safe climbing."  She is such a climber right now, so that was right up her alley.

There was another exhibit in the toddler area that I'm going to call a light box.  Basically, it was a wall with circular holes in it and a light behind it, with colored cylinders that the child puts into each hole.  Think of it as a large-scale Lite-Brite...remember those? =)

The track with cars was also a big hit with Ellie.  She spent quite a bit of time just pushing the cars up and down the hills on the track and saying "vroom vroom," of course!

We did go out of the toddler area for a little while and explored some of the "big kid" exhibits.  She was particularly interested in the farm area, which had lots of toy produce.  

Weighing her produce on the scale

Showing me the apple she found

Riding the tractor

The museum had several other cool exhibits, like a news station where kids could videotape a news and weather broadcast, a life-size and realistic kitchen, an art area with supplies to make your own craft to take home, a theater with play makeup and costumes, an automotive area where kids could "work" on a car, and more.  Those exhibits are a little more advanced and Ellie wasn't too interested in those, but she definitely loved the toddler and farm exhibits.  We spent a good hour and a half there and she seemed to have a great time.  We may have to invest in a family membership, because the cost per visit is pretty high.  For the two of us today, it was $10, and in April it's going up to $6 per person (meaning $12 for us).  A year's membership for a family is $85, so it would pay for itself in 7 visits.  I'm thinking it would be a good outlet for Ellie when we need a change of scenery, especially with Piper on the way.  I could just wrap her in the sling and carry her with me while Ellie played and explored on her own.  Might have to start saving my personal money to work toward a membership! =)