My Labor and Delivery Story

So I realized I haven't even done a blog about becoming a mom. How do I even put it into words? I'm not sure. We waited 6 long years for this miracle and he is the biggest blessing we have ever received. 

Lincoln Anthony was born on March 20, 2013 at 8:59am after an emergency c-section, weighing 8lb13oz and 20.5" long. I guess I could start with my labor and delivery.

A c-section was my biggest fear when it came to labor. I dreamed of that moment of birthing my son and having him placed on my chest. Around 8:00pm on March 19 I started to have contractions. Louie frantically got the house ready, cleaning and doing last minute preparations. At the time I wasn't even sure I was REALLY in labor. Contractions started at about 30 seconds long and were every 4-5 minutes. Since the actual contraction was so short I thought they were just braxton hicks. They were hardly painful either. After a few hours of it continuing, I decided to take a shower and relax and see if that helped. So I took a shower, and laid on the couch while watching Bones on netflix. Contractions were getting closer and longer. I figured I would call the hospital to see if I should come in, they said to come in just to see so we got in the car and went. We probably got there around 2am. I was checked to see how dilated I was (which was more painful than ANY contraction I had let me tell you) and was about 5 cm. I couldn't believe it. I was having a BABY. After that my contractions started hyper stimming. So basically I was having one long contraction with no breaks. They gave me a shot to try to slow the contractions down which didn't help. Eventually I was moved into a room, and my parents showed up. I got the epidural and felt SO much better. But the combination (I think) of the drugs put Lincoln into distress. His heart rate started to drop, more than they would like to see. My Dr got to the hospital and checked me and I was about 7-8cm and she broke my water to try to help because we were really trying to avoid a c-section. Also should add, the combination of all these drugs REALLY put me into another world. I was SO out of it. Time meant nothing to me. 3 hours felt like 10 minutes to me. She broke my water and it didn't help and Lincoln's heart rate kept dropping. They tried to put fluid back inside, but that also didn't help. Finally, his heart rate got so bad, out of nowhere every nurse on the floor was in my room, prepping me for a c-section. I knew thats what needed to be done but I was terrified. I just remember looking and Louie with tears streaming down my face. I was wheeled off into the room, and I was SO out of it. As they were prepping me I remember almost falling asleep. I started to get really nauseous so they gave me the ridiculous lima bean to throw up in, but thankfully I never needed it. Louie finally got into the room, and it was time for them to start the c-section. I remember telling Louie "talk to me, just talk to me" and he was so scared he said "I...I dont know what to talk about". I started asking him about work, and lord knows what else, and they told me I was going to feel some pressure. They weren't kidding! It felt as if they set a car on top of my chest. It felt as if my ribs would break at any moment.  Then Lincoln was born. I heard him cry and just looked at Louie and said "oh my god, we have a baby, thats our baby"

I remember my Dr telling me that Lincoln did NOT want to come out, she said he was trying to squirm away from her. His cord was also wrapped around his neck AND he was holding it like suspenders. My kid, I swear. lol. 

I was wheeled back into the room, but all that is fuzzy. I wasn't breathing well. I was hardly breathing at ALL. They kept shaking me telling me to breathe. I just felt like I was going to fall asleep but I wanted to see him so badly. I knew he was in the room, I could hear him but I couldn't see him. I believe at this point the nurse was giving him a bath. She finally brought him to me and he started to nurse right away. I remember thinking "oh this doesn't hurt like I thought it would". This was all really fuzzy and I can't remember how long I was in there until I went to the post partum room. They gave me this little contraption that I had to breathe in and out of to get my lungs working better. 

Luckily we had a private room. But getting rest in a hospital is impossible. The walls are thin, nurses come in constantly, or they would forget to shut the door and the halls were loud. My nurse made me get up out of the bed that night I believe. SO painful! I thought my stomach would just rip right open. They told me moving and walking would make me feel better and heal faster. They were right, but it was still horrible. I was SO ready to get home though so I walked as much as I could. I told them thursday night I was ready to leave the next morning. They seemed surprised I wanted to leave so early, but I hated it there and I needed to get home. Friday morning came and we were so excited. The pediatrician came in and listened to his heart, and told me that she heard a heart murmur. My heart sank. I had heard of heart murmurs before, but was not knowledgeable about them at all. She told me they would need to do an echo cardiogram and they wheeled him away from me. I broke down. I was so worried for him. I got dressed and met him in there while it was being preformed. Apparently during it though his heart rate kept dropping when he would fall asleep, so we had to sit there with him a little longer as they monitored that. They told me that we would get the results that following Monday at his first dr appointment. 

I couldn't imagine waiting that long and I hoped I could try to put it out of my mind until then. 

We went back into our room after that, and finished packing and put Lincoln in his first outfit ever (which he wasn't very happy about lol), and we were on our way home! Finally! 

Cuban Black Beans

So that isn't the best picture of this dish, BUT, it's so good I wanted to come on here and post the recipe anyway.

This dish is pretty versatile and you can pretty much serve it however you would like, and with tons of different options for toppings.

Ingredients:

-2 cups dried black beans, rinsed

-1 large onion, diced

-2 bell peppers, diced

-5 garlic cloves, minced

-2 dried bay leaves

-1 14.5 can diced tomatoes

-2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

-3 cups water

-2 tablespoons olive oil

-4 teaspoons cumin

-1 to 2 tablespoons chili powder

-few dashes of cayenne pepper (optional) 

-salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine all ingredients into your crockpot.

Cover, and cook on high for 6-8 hours (mine went for about 7.5 hrs)

Remove bay leaves and serve!

We served ours over brown rice, with lettuce, tomato, and a tablespoon of sour cream. Delicious! 

Lactation Cookies

Now that I'm a mom (totally need to do a blog post on that trust me I know), nursing is something I'm very passionate about. It's something I was always determined to do when I was pregnant, and even before. Everyone says how difficult it can be, and boy they weren't kidding! When Lincoln was about a week old I almost gave up. But I saw a lactation consultant and stuck it out. 

I have a manual pump, and I try to pump a couple times a week in between feedings so I can have some on hand for emergencies or if Grandma and Grandpa want to babysit. However, pumping for me is almost pointless. Lincoln nurses quite often during the day so when I try to pump during a nap in between feedings I'm lucky if I get .5-1oz from BOTH breasts. I tried taking some supplements (ie fenugreek) and didn't see a difference. So last night I decided to try lactation cookies! I have yet to see if they actually work, but here is the recipe anyway!

Lactation Cookies:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 1 & 1/2 cups brown sugar 
• 5-6 tablespoons water 
• 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal 
• 2 teaspoons chia seeds 
• 2 large eggs 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups oats, thick cut if you can get them
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup macadamia nuts (or any nuts you like)
• 2-4 tablespoons of brewers yeast (be generous THIS is what should boost your supply) 

Directions: 

Preheat the oven to 350…

1) Mix together 2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal, chia seeds and water, set aside for 3-5 minutes.

2) Cream (with a hand mixer or stand mixer) butter and brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mix well. 

3) Stir flaxseed mixture and add with vanilla to the margarine mix. Beat until blended.

4) Sift together dry ingredients, except oats, nuts and chips.

5) Add to your butter mixture. Stir in oats, nuts and chips.

6) Scoop or drop onto baking sheet, preferably lined with parchment. 

Bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on size of cookies.

MAKES TONS OF COOKIES! You may want to cut the recipe in half to try first.

The way I meal plan & budget!

So I had a request to make a blog post regarding how I meal plan and budget. Some of you may know we are following Dave Ramseys plan for getting out of debt. If you are familiar with Dave he always says while following the debt snowball you have to sacrifice things such as going out to dinner a lot, expensive meals etc, and to "eat beans and rice, rice and beans" while paying off debt if you have to. So I have to get creative with finding some less expensive meals than I may NORMALLY make if that makes sense. Having some meals be meatless help with cost, as well. So its not often we grill up some steak! Sometimes I do better than other times, its a process and something you have to learn and practice.

The way I meal plan is every two weeks. I sit down on the days my husband gets paid (bi weekly), and I figure out a menu. Then, I go through my kitchen as I am writing my shopping list and see what ingredients I may already have (for instance, I may already have rice or carrots leftover from the last shopping trip). So essentially I only grocery shop twice a month. It works for us. We shop at Trader Joes almost exclusively and its not around the corner from us, so I would rather only go twice a month than 4 times to save on gas. I also occasionally have to go to Stater Brothers to get the few things Trader Joes does not carry and Costco for some other things, although Costco is only every month-two months give or take.

What we also do is add EVERY SINGLE ITEM into our calculator as we add it to our cart. That allows us to know whether or not we are on budget, under budget or over budget. This is KEY. This last shopping trip we were really under budget, so we splurged on a couple little items, and still were under.

So for instance, I will share my most recent menu, shopping list, and cost for everything.

For the next two weeks I budgeted for $160.00 at Trader Joes and $60 for Costco. Normally I don't go to Costco often, so I wasn't quite sure how much I would need to spend. We needed compactor bags as well as a couple food items. So I over budgeted to be safe.

My Menu-
Cheese Raviolis & side vegetable (something I have frozen in my freezer)
Lemon Chicken & Vegetable bake
Vegetable Burritos
Salsa Chicken in the crockpot (can be tacos or burritos)
Creamy Chicken & Broccoli Casserole
Italian Vegetable Soup
Toastadas
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce, double batch to have once per week
Breakfast Frittata with Chicken apple sausage
Taco Salad
Chicken Scarpariello (basically chicken, cooked with onions, garlic & stock over brown rice, served with vegetable)
Homemade Apple Muffins
Homemade Blueberry Waffles (husbands weekend Sunday tradition)
Crazy Bites (little snacks, balls made out of different nuts, flax seed, coconut, dried fruit & a little chocolate chips)

Ok so in general thats my menu that I made. My husband usually has breakfast at work, and I will normally have either cereal, frozen waffles, oatmeal or eggs. I dont really meal plan for these things since its staples I always have in my home. But its still ingredients I need to buy (ie cereal). So when making your shopping list you still need to remember these staple items and account for them in the budget. Lunches are generally leftovers, sandwiches (ie lunch meat or tuna) or I will throw something together random that I have.

Shopping list for Trader Joes:
Brownie Mix-splurge item
Mint Chip Ice Cream- Husband splurge item
Turkey lunch meat
Frozen blueberry waffles
Baked Alaska-splurge item, new dessert for TJs to try out!
Crackers
Shredded Coconut
Sliced cheese
Tortilla Chips
2 packages ground turkey
Salsa Verde
2 cans Tuna
28oz can whole Tomatoes
2 containers of chicken stock
2 packages cream cheese
2 small cans Tomato paste
Frozen Peas
Oatmeal
Frozen Blueberries
Cheddar Cheese
2 cans of corn
Pancake Syrup
2 jars of Marinara
1 can white beans
Sour Cream
1 can salsa beans
2 gallons milk
Dried Mango
2 packages tortillas
Cereal
1 can Tomato sauce
Package of Organic tomatoes on the vine
2 Organic Bell Peppers
8 Bananas
Half & Half
Sour Dough Boule (for homemade croutons)
Garlic
Fresh Green Beans
Celery
5 Lemons
Head of Lettuce
Package organic carrots
3 Limes
3 Potatoes
7 Onions

Total: $137.30

Shopping List for Costco:
Cheese Raviolis
2 packages eggs
Frozen Chicken Breasts (which last us WAY longer than two weeks)

Total: $35.60

Total for two weeks (even though the frozen chicken will last us more than two weeks) $172.90. Average per week $86.

So there you go! You just have to get creative, and figure out what you can make that is not to expensive, or unhealthy. I make ALL my meals. No boxed processed meals. That stuff is EXPENSIVE! And bad for you! Make cooking fun, and easy for yourself.

I hope this helps those of you who are having trouble either menu planning, or sticking to a budget. Its not easy, but with time it gets easier. Just remember to stick to your list and your menu, and to add up what you put in your cart. That way when you get to the register, you won't be surprised with going over your budget.

One Pot Chili Mac!

One Pot Chili Mac

This is similar to something you could maybe make from Hamburger Helper, but its HOMEMADE not processed and SOOOO much tastier! AND its all in one pot, so hardly any dishes to wash!

Ingredients:

-1 tablespoon Olive Oil

-1 lb lean ground beef or turkey

-4 garlic cloves minced

-1 onion, diced

-2 tablespoons flour

-1 tablespoon chili powder

-3 to 4 dashes of cayenne depending on how much 'kick' you want

-1/2 teaspoon paprika 

-sprinkle to taste of Oregano (im not a huge herbs person, so this is totally up to your tastes)

-8oz tomato sauce

-2 cups beef broth

-2 cups dry macaroni (or any of your favorite small pasta)

-1 can corn, drained

-cheddar cheese for topping

Add olive oil to large pot over medium high heat, and add your diced onion and ground beef. Mince garlic while that's cooking. Cook until brown and drain fat. 

Add garlic to beef and onion mixture. Cook for a couple of minutes. Add your flour. Stir constantly and cook for a minute or two. Don't let the flour burn. 

Add your spices, tomato sauce, and broth. Combine.

Add the dry pasta and corn. Bring to a simmer, not quite a boil. Place lid on top and turn down to medium-low. Simmer for around 15 minutes. Stir a few times while its cooking so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.  

Check pasta, once its done, serve with shredded cheddar cheese on top!!

Enjoy!

Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup

Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup

Ingredients:

-3 cups tomato soup *I used Trader Joes boxed tomato soup*

-1 small onion, diced small

-2 cups half & half or milk

-2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

-1 package cheese tortellini

-4 garlic cloves, minced

-2 tablespoons olive oil

-sprinkle of Italian seasoning *however much you like*

-few dashes of cayenne for kick, totally optional

-Salt & Pepper to Taste

-Parmesan cheese for topping

In a large pot over medium/high heat cook the onion until softened. Add in the minced garlic and cook for a couple of minutes, be sure not to let the garlic burn.

Add the tomato soup, half & half, stock, and the spices. Bring to a boil. Add Tortellini.

Reduce to simmering and cook about 12-15 minutes until Tortellini is cooked through.

Serve topped with Parmesan cheese!!

This soup was SO easy and delicious. I was missing a vegetable though, so next time I plan to add about 1/2 cup cooked peas to this to see how that works. 

Enjoy!

Creamy Mexican Crockpot Dinner

Creamy Mexican Crockpot Dinner

This dish is SO simple and delicious! You literally throw everything in the crockpot and serve it over rice.

Ingredients:

-8 oz block of cream cheese

-4 to 5 chicken breasts (or substitute tenders)

-1 can drained and rinsed black beans

-1 can of corn drained

-1 can of fire roasted tomatoes

-1 4oz can of green chilies

-10 oz packet Trader Joes frozen brown rice, cooked (or cook whatever rice you would like, that amount is good for two people for dinner, there is lots of leftovers so additional rice would need to be made)

-Add whatever seasonings you liked, I literally just sprinkled cayenne, taco seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper. You know me, I dont measure. ;) 

Throw all ingredients EXCEPT the rice into the crockpot, and cook on low for about 6.5 hours. I stirred this a couple times while cooking because you wont be able to combine the cream cheese in the beginning very well.

Once done, break up or shred the chicken.

It will be somewhat soupy. Its supposed to be. The rice will soak it up. However, letting it set for 30-45 minutes after the 6.5 hours will let it set up more if you prefer it thicker. 

Serve over rice!

Delicious, and easy! :)