Lesson Learned..

My favorite dinner of all times is Poppyseed chicken. This is the dinner I always requested on my birthday, the first dinner I wanted after little hoot arrived (...don't worry, I still got my First Supper) and this is the first meal I attempted to cook for K when we started dating. Poor guy. Directions didn't say to cook the chicken first. Too obvious a step to mention, perhaps? Like "get the pot out of the cabinet?" Ugh. Anyway. My first try at impressing him/tricking him into believing that I could cook for him like a true southern belle turned into me serving him raw chicken in a warm pool of sour cream and cream of celery soup. Luckily, he is a wonderful cook. He fixed it for me that night while I cried on the kitchen floor- literally- surely with a bottle of wine in hand.

Mistakes happen and you learn from them. Like the time I put dish soap in the dishwasher to return home to a kitchen ankle deep in bubbles. Or the time I searched in the grocery store for over an hour looking for "Urban Tomatoes" only to learn I was supposed to be looking for "Herb and Tomatoes." You know, common mistakes that everybody makes.

My mom and my sister were in town last weekend and I decided to try and redeem myself by making Poppyseed chicken for us all. Here's the rundown:

wash the chicken and bring it to boil

in a separate bowl, mix together cream of chicken soup...

cream of celery soup...

1 cup of sour cream...

and of course, poppyseeds

(about a tablespoon and a half)

stir

in the microwave, melt a half a stick of butter

crush one package of ritz crackers

(i spy a hungry doggie!)

pour crackers into melted butter

and fold over

cut the chicken into small pieces

(or leave chicken breast whole and serve one breast per plate)

...

pour topping over chicken

sprinkle crackers over the top

bake for about 20-30 minutes @ 350 degrees

serve with pride.

I can't believe how easy this was. I will now add it to my repertoire of recipes. Grand total: less than a handful. Hey, it's progress!

Until Next Time,

The Guff

Sweet Dreams

Babies really do take up a lot of time. I figured I would be blogging every day with all the down time I was going to have- you know, not working and all. Sike! Between feeding and changing and playing and crying and burping and rocking and ironing and folding clothes and .... well, you get the point... I am not blogging. In fact, today is the third day I have tried to write this blog. I keep saving it and coming back- adding a sentence- then saving- then adding- etc. It probably has no flow, and makes no sense at this point. Oh well.

Little Miss C is adapting well to life outside of the womb. Her schedule has been booked solid with visitors and lunch dates. Sunday she lost her belly button and I think her newborn diapers are getting too tight- both of which mean she is getting bigger. Not. Cool. I was pretty convinced that she would stay my little tiny eensy weensy precious baby girl forever. Maxing out at around 7 pounds. This is not the case. She's filled out and growing by the day. I am not a fan!

My two babies

The first few days of her life Chamblee slept like an angel. I thought to myself, "We lucked out! Who gets babies who already want to sleep through the night?" We had hit the jackpot and I was all over it. Now she has decided to throw us a little change up. She has flipped her days and nights and, I'll tell you, it is rough. She sleeps all day, which is good because I get a lot done. But it also means that we don't sleep at night. At all. She'll work herself out. ...Right?

When I do sleep, I am dreaming heavily...dreaming of these things:

A plain and simple TB bag. I love it. I need it.

It could second as a diaper bag, right? I need to convince K.

Ahhh. Louboutin peep toes.

Will I ever wear heels again?

Kellie Buttercup.

That's right. The dog I have already named

and been talking about for the past 6 years.

Unfortunately I have to wait for Bailey to bite the dust.

(Too insensitive?)

I mean, really.

Little Hoot would rock these.

This is the dream.

A cruiser bike with a wicker basket.

And it's red? Die.

A plantation house with white columns.

Green, green grass.

A canopy of oak trees...

Ok, the plantation house is a little much.

I'll settle for a white picket fence with fresh flowers.

Hey, A girl can dream. That is, if she can get any sleep...

So, I am thinking of making my blog private. I know, I know- the number of people who read it will likely plummet, but at least I will know who is reading it. I sometimes feel like if I am posting pictures of my child and writing details of our lives they shouldn't be for just anyone's eyes to see. I like seeing the different places where people who view my blog are from, but when I don't know anyone from a place that appears, I get a little wigged out. Overprotective? You tell me.

My sister is coming! My sister is coming!!!

TODAY!

She's flying in from Santa Barbara tonight to hang for a long weekend with me and sweet baby girl. I am so excited!!! This means lots of wonderful advice and lots of laughing. Yipee Yahoo Day!

Until Next Time,

The Guff

The Times, They Are A Changin'

Things around here are starting to slow down. My mom left yesterday :( and Kraig is back at work this week (half days). It's my first day alone with her, and it's really quiet. Thanks be to God!

Times are a'changing, though. Now, instead of milk, I am gulping down Prune Juice. That's right. Prune Juice. Contrary to popular belief, there is pain worse than delivering a baby. It's called having a bowel movement with a 4th degree tear. I said it. Yowza! Instead of blow drying my hair, it goes up in a pony. Instead of makeup- well, there's nothin'. Instead of big girl clothes, I throw on sweats and a shirt that's easy boob access for feedings. It's not cute- and if you've stopped by to meet the babe, you've seen it first hand. Yike. My apologies.

I am loving that I can eat what I want now that I am not pregnant, and I want to thank all of the desserts that were brought by and made by my mother for making it dang near impossible to lose any baby weight! Actually I have lost almost 20 of the 30 pounds I gained so far- Thank you breastfeeding!- I just have quite a bit of toning to accomplish. And by 'quite a bit' I mean I still look about 3-4 months pregnant. I know it's only been 10 days, but come on! Shrink already!

Cham Cham got her first bath last week and loved every second. Not. She wasn't horrified, but she definitely would prefer to stay dry. I just couldn't resist putting her in her too-big, but too-adorable robe and slippers afterwards:

Chamblee's First Bath!

Not too happy about it.

I. die.

All Clean!

I couldn't resist the bow. She has enough hair for them, but her head is still so tiny, they just make me giggle when I clip 'em on. Don't be confused by the look on her face- she loves it.

Until Next Time,

The Guff

Labor & Delivery

::WARNING!::

Long, boring, detailed, picture-less post ahead!

On Friday, August 6th, K and I had mattress and movie night. Around 3:30am I got up to go to the bathroom and thought I had wet my pants, again. (Don't. Ask.) The bed wasn't wet so I was happy to find that I wasn't incontinent. I went to the bathroom and was walking back to bed when I thought I was wetting my pants...again. A little sleepy and confused, I turned on the light to see water trickling down my leg. I didn't really get it, so I went back to the bathroom, cleaned up, and walked back to bed. Again, water started running down my leg. Oh! This is it!!! It finally hit me. "K! Get up! My water is breaking!"

We called the doctor, and our moms, and headed for the hospital.

When we arrived they did some testing to make sure the fluid was, in fact, amniotic fluid. All tests came back negative. What?! Lastly they did an ultrasound to check my fluid levels, and low and behold, my levels were really low. I was leaking from somewhere- who knows where. They told me because of this I would be having a baby that day! Woop! Liars.

I still had high hopes for a natural, non-medicated birth. After a long time, I still wasn't contracting. Because of how long my water had been broken they said that they needed to augment my labor to get things started. They gave me a round of Cervadil, and said they would be back to check on me in 8-12 hours. Huh? That's it? I have to wait 8 hours? Lame. So we waited. When I was checked again I still hadn't made any progress. The clock was ticking and my water had been broken for almost 24 hours so they started me on Pitocin to rush the contractions. After a few hours of that I was definitely contracting. I was breathing through each contraction and had in my head that I could do this. I can do this! I am doing it! Hooray! Yeah, hooray for abouuuuut 5 hours. When I was checked again- after all these contractions- I had made it to *Drumroll Please* 1 centimeter. 1 CENTIMETER?! I have been here forever!!! I am hurting!!! I am working hard!!! Ugh. So, they decided to up my dose of Pitocin. And, by "up" my dose I mean kick it up about 10 notches.

Oh. My. Pain.

It hurt so bad. I was stubborn and focused, and I did not want an epidural. I handled it. I cried, a lot. I moaned. I walked around and squeezed K's hands raw. I was numbed with agony. I was going. to. do. this. It was after about 6 hours of excruciating pain that I became delirious and started saying, "I am losing my mind!" over and over again. (This is now a joke around here- but it was so not funny at the time!!!) With my mind slowly and painfully slipping away, they checked me again and I had made it to a whopping 2 centimeters. No, seriously. It had come to the point where we had been there for a long time- the doctors were starting to get concerned because I wasn't making any progress, I was exhausted and the baby needed to come out because my water had been broken for what seemed like days. The midwife offered me a few options and when I heard epidural I said, "Yeah, I want that." Huh? Did that come out of my mouth? Before I could second guess myself, I heard my mom say "I second that..." and K was at my side fervently nodding his head. "You won't be disappointed?" I asked. I had let myself down and really, I didn't care all that much. If I kept on it would be another 24 hours of this and at that point I would be too exhausted to push her out. Bring on the needle.

I had avoided the dreaded hospital gown up until this point. I walked around in a tank and bottomless with no shame. When the nurse told me to put on the gown I asked her if I could just be naked. I hate the gowns. She said sure, but the anesthesiologist might be uncomfortable with that. "Oh Fine." I was sporting an attitude and I didn't care. Stupid gown.

The first epidural was fine, until it completely wore off and I awoke with contractions the size of Texas. Ouch. When dude arrived to fix me back up, I started having serious chest pains. Turns out the epidural had moved out of the spinal cavity and into a vein- Uhhh... WHAT?! Yeah. Dude was trying to paralyze my heart. Thanks. He quickly ripped it out and had to re-do the line. After that I was more than miserable. I guess he was really busy and didn't want to have to come down to fix me again, so he really doped me up. I was so numb it was absolute misery. I hated it. I cried a lot, complained, whimpered and prayed for relief. There was none.

The monitor watching little Cham Cham's heart rate wasn't working accurately, so they had to put an internal monitor on her. (Ouch?) This machine would beep with every heart beat. All. Night. Long. Every 15 minutes or so the little wire that monitored her heart would wander and her heart beat would disappear. "MOM! HER HEART ISN'T BEATING!" all. night. long. Sure enough, a few seconds later it would pick up and beat away. Talk about anxiety.

Little Miss did scare us once. Her heart rate dropped into the 40's for about 4 minutes. All I know is my mom started talking medical talk to the nurse, I was strapped with an oxygen mask and they were flipping me from side to side. The one time K stepped out of the room he got called back in to see chaos. I was totally freaked out. After a few minutes she livened up- She really did not respond well to the Pitocin.

My midwife checked me, told me that I was at 8cm and I should have the baby within 2 hours.

Wahoo! Yipee! Yowza! Call Everyone! She's Coming!

:Shift Change: New Midwife: She checked me and said I was only 5-6cm. --Did I mention this midwife was one of the 2 doctors I said would not deliver my baby? Yeah. She so did.--

I was devastated! I ordered everyone out of the room and cried all by myself like a baby. I just needed a minute.

Longest story in the world, semi-shortened- After a good 12 hours on the epidural I had fully dilated and was ready to start pushing. They told me we could try and push and see where it got us.

5 pushes later, on Sunday August 8th, 2010 at 11:38am, Chamblee was born. And, surprise surprise, I cried. A lot.

It was exhausting and painful and overwhelming and frustrating- and I would do it every single day over and over again. My little girl is the most precious thing in this world to me. Even though she ripped me a new one- quite literally- I am in love with her. There is truly nothing like being a mommy. As my mom put it, "It's like trying to tell someone what a banana tastes like. You can't know unless you've tasted it." Everything changes in a moment. One minute there are two of us, and in an instant, there are 3. It's such a miracle.

Until Next Time,

The Guff

6 pounds, 14 ounces

She's Here!!!

Chamblee Ophelia Guffey arrived on Sunday, August 8th, 2010 at 11:38am!

Progress Report

I have to cut back on the milk. Or so I've been told.

This week we are almost out of our 3rd gallon. We went to the store Sunday and got 2 gallons and on Wednesday morning I had to run to Target and get a 3rd. 2 gallons in 2 days? A little much. K is pleading with me to slow it down and have some water, so I am going to give it a go. It's just SO. GOOD! Mooooo.

Nothing has changed as far as progress down there, and Chamblee seems pretty content. Our doctor's appointment was a little disheartening. For one, She is still sitting pretty high and I haven't dilated at all. (Boo!)
For two, the doctor guess-timated that the babe is around 8 to 8.5 pounds. Already. Really? Salt in the wound! I have to practice patience (ugh) and when she does arrive, she'll be huge!!! Yike.

I am getting better at this staying home, thing, though. I am sleeping a lot more during the day now that the house is to my satisfaction, and I am getting a lot of reading done. For real. We are reading Baby Wise and really enjoying it, actually. I don't have much time to finish it (Lord willing...) so I am trying to cram it in before she gets here. I take looong showers and exfoliate and do mani/pedis, hair masks and self tanning. I was courageous (slash stupid) this morning and put self tanner on my FACE. I mean, the rest of me is tingy orange, so my face should match, right? And the weird stained feet take away from the awful pedicure. I am so scared for the morning when the tan has set in on my face. Hopefully it A) isn't too shabby or B) has time to fade before I have baby and have to be in pictures. Either way, it was dumb. For other fair-skinners, preggos, anti-sun peeps and etc., this is the brand I use:

Neutrogena Sublime Bronze

It's really good (for me) because you can see where you put it, it doesn't really stink and it dries really fast. One better? It also comes in wipes- which are a little more expensive but way, way easier. Anyway. I would much rather sit at the pool and get it al natural, but when you're 9 months preggo in the heat of the hottest summer in years, this will do. I think there is also a 'face' Sublime Bronze if you aren't as stupid, I mean, as brave as I am.

Happy Weekend, everyone! I am looking forward to spending it with my husband. Preferably in the hospital.

Until Next Time,

The Guff

Chamblee's Nursery

Oh my sweet dogs. I am not sure when this started, but now every time someone comes to the door they bark. Loudly. State sounds fierce and Bailey, well, he tries. I initially would scold them when it began- but now we have decided that it's a good thing. We reward them. My protectors. Like they would do anything, but they may scare some tricky person away. And, by 'they', I mean State. They are going to be so good with little Cham. Can't wait!

Speaking of Chamblee, I decided that since she wasn't coming today I would dig my camera out of my hospital bag and snap some shots of her nursery. Sure, it's not exactly 100% complete, but if I don't show you now, it may never happen after she's arrived. Oh, and the chain link:

Yipee Yahoo Day! 12 left!

Bedside Table, Rocking Chair, Diaper Bags

Closet & Crib

Crib Closeup. I LOVE THE SLEEP SHEEP!

Changing Table, Guest Bed

Decor Pillows- Handmade with love by Nona

Hair Bow Holder- Handmade with love by Aunt Jessica

Diaper Caddy- Handmade with love by Nona

I would just like to point out that I have the most talented mother in the history. She made everything you see above. Bedding, window treatments, table cover, pillows- she even made the sheets for the crib, so they would match exactly. I cannot even tell you how proud I am that she made everything for our little girl, and how lucky I am!!! Thank you Nona!!! <3

I absolutely love her nursery. We aren't {obviously} really baby pink, baby butterflies and tinkerbell kind of people, so the fabric we chose suited us well- and we figured it would grow with our little hoot. Not that there is anything wrong with butterflies and tinkerbells; it just doesn't fit us. If Cham Cham wants butterflies & tinkerbells once she can speak... ... ... I guess we'll consider it ( ...but she won't).

So far being a stay-at-home "mom" is kind of weird. I still get up around 7:30 and start the day with breakfast & maybe a shower. If I feel like it. (Don't give me the stank eye, I still bathe. Just maybe not first thing, geez.) Then it gets a little tricky. Do I rest or do I go for a walk? Do I organize or do I read? I know, the decisions are so hard. It's a tough life. I kid now- and when my daughter arrives I probably won't have time to eat. Or bathe. I am really enjoying the quiet and the time to read & catch up on Robin Hood: The TV Series. Netflix, I love you. I am on the final season, though, so if she doesn't come in the next 11 episodes I will really be in a tight spot.

Other than the occasional boredom and butt-numbing from sitting on the couch, nothing is new here. We go to the doctor again on Thursday afternoon. Hopefully they will have something positive to say. It is so weird going because I haven't seen my doctor in weeks! Months maybe! All preggo's are required to see every doc in the practice in case my doc doesn't deliver me, so that I will be semi-familiar with whoever does. Just so happens my doctor has been on vacation for the last 4 weeks, and wont return until the 9th. Wonderful. I see some rando every time and get different opinions and answers for everything. Ugh. On the plus side, I know who won't be delivering my baby. We have 2 doctors that are an absolute NO- Just. NO. (Can't my mom just do it? I'm pretty familiar with her.)

Here's my mom trying to console me today on the phone:

Mom: "Oh, honey. You got my back."

Me: "Wait, huh? Do you mean you have my back?"

Mom: "Yes."

Me: "Well, you said I have your back, which I do, but for what?"

Mom: "Is that what I said?"

Oh my. Now I don't even remember what we have each other's backs for...

Until Next Time,

The Guff

Oh, It Finally Happened...

My mom tells this great story of when I was 3 years old, she woke me up on my birthday and said "Happy Birthday!" and I replied with something like, "My birthday! Oh, it finally happened..." That's how I feel today. It finally happened...

August is here! My sweet little girl will be born this. month. I become a mother this month. A stay-at-home mother. Our world flips and spins around and tilts a little bit this month. This month- I have been waiting for. Not just for the previous nine months, but for a lifetime it seems. I have always known that being a mom would be my career. I have waited for this day, and for this precious little girl for a long time. This month- it happens. Oh, and K's birthday is this month, too :)

Today I am 38 weeks pregnant! 14 days to go! We have decided to just accept that she is coming on her due date- not an early bird (like her dad) and not fashionably late (like her mom). Just right on time. In her own way. And if she decides to be late, I will make her come out. Because I am her mother and I said so.

If any of the myths about naturally inducing labor are true, she should be walking out at any moment. Walking, skipping- heck, jumping rope. We have tried everything. My camera is charged and packed up in my hospital bag (over eager, anyone?) but I can tell you that the chain link countdown is very, very little and that the nursery is 99% complete. We hung a couple of things on the walls this weekend and got -seriously- the last of what we needed for the little babe. The only thing we need now is a baby. . . Chamblee, take a hint. . . I can't imagine a life with her, and I can't imagine a life without her. Is that weird? Anyway. Sleep is pretty much not happening these days. Not for going to the bathroom really, but for just waking up and being uncomfortable. It's so freaking hot and my sides get numb from laying on them all night with all of this extra weight. So I just get up and walk around until I can go back to sleep from boredom. Rinse and Repeat about every 2 hours. I am really looking forward to these next 2 weeks of rest. I probably need it more than I think I do.

On a better note, K just scooped me a bowl of ice cream and blogging while bouncing on the birthing ball is getting a little intense. No way I could add eating to the mix. And dangit, I have to pee again. 3rd time in 20 minutes. Ughhhhhhh...

Until Next Time,

The Guff