Look Who’s 1 Month Today

Photos by Ari, Eli & me

Ayden is doing well. We’re tired from having a baby at home, but doing ok. I’d write more but it’s hard to type while holding this little guy.

Mother’s Day…Oh how I lothe Mother’s Day

Now the concept of this holiday is a great one. I’m all about honoring the mom in your life, but when it comes to me being a mom this day is not for me.

Ever since we moved to TN Mr. Man has worked at Outback. Working at a restaurant means that every holiday that people go out to eat for he’s there working longer than usual. Mother’s Day, being the biggest out to eat holiday, is the longest day he works…maybe next to Valentine’s Day. Needless to say we have never celebrated Mother’s Day as a family which in some ways is ok by me. This year I was dreading the day at least a week in advance.

I got to be a mommy all day Sunday. It was my first day having all 3 kids by myself since Ayden got to come home.  Mr. Man left for work around 9:30am. I did get to take a bath and put on real clothes before he left which was great in more ways than one. Things were going well and I was getting some cleaning done and things went downhill fast. Around 10:30 am I took the filter for the vacuum cleaner outside to get the dust out and while I was out on the deck Ari locked me out of the house. I didn’t realize the key was still in the deadbolt and she turned it. I had no phone, no keys, and no way at all to get inside. I tried to get her to turn the key the other way but at first she thought it was a game, and then started crying when she realized I wasn’t coming back in. To make this situation even better I had eggs boiling on the stove, Ayden was getting close to needing to eat again, and the fact that there were 3 kids under 4 in the house alone.

Praise the Lord that our neighbor came outside at the right moment. For many reasons they are the best neighbors ever, but this day really made them the best. He drove to Outback to get keys from Mr. Man because it was the only short of breaking a window to get inside. The kids stayed in my line of sight the whole time. Eli started crying really bad and was scared. Thankfully Ayden slept through the whole thing. The eggs had plenty of water and though they boiled for a half hour didn’t catch on fire. This is where the bath and real clothes were important. I was happy to have been stuck outside in jeans and a t-shirt getting help from our neighbor rather than in random pjs and not clean. Not that it really mattered since the kids are obviously more important than my clothing, but I’m sure you understnad what I mean here.

Ari’s punishments were varied and lasted all day. From then on they were ok kiddos. I was so thankful for the pizza Mr. Man had gotten the night before because it turned into dinner. Ayden didn’t want to sleep all day and that theme followed well into the night. I think it was 2:30am before he let me put him down. After eating again around 4am I went to bed until 8 this morning.

Now I’m off to feed my baby boy and get to bed, I hope.

I hope your mommy’s day was better than mine:)

Our New Little Man

What an adventure we had bringing Ayden into this world. My water broke for the first time around 10:30pm on Monday April 20^th. I wasn’t 100% sure if it had really broke so I kept up the cleaning I was doing, took care of the kiddos, and packed a bag just in case. At 12:30am there was no doubt my water broke. I called Ethan and thankfully someone at work was able to leave with him to watch the kiddos overnight and into Tuesday. We headed down to the hospital.

Thankfully I was 35 weeks on Monday so we didn’t have to go to the big hospital. I was never put in triage and went straight to a room. I wasn’t really having contractions yet, and was maybe at 1cm, so they let us rest the best we could. By 11am I still hadn’t shown any progress so they started me on a very low dose of pitocin. Every hour that went by my dose was slowly increased since I was making no progress. I was having contractions but they were a walk in the park compared to the Braxton Hicks I’d been having for the past few months. At this point I was still on my way to a natural delivery.

Around 3pm or so my contractions really started to pick up and get strong, but I was only dilated to 3cm at the most. By 6pm I was completely miserable, exhausted, and in a lot of pain. My midwife checked me and I was 4cm at the most. Even being this low she thought I would likely deliver within the hour. I hung on for one more hour and then had to have an epidural. I was in so much pain and had no more energy to endure. I got my epidural around 8pm or so and instantly felt better. I was laughing and smiling again. They checked me around 9/9:15pm and I was already fully dilated and ready to push. By 9:37pm Ayden was here. 5 pounds 13 ounces, 19 inches long! *forgot to add the important stuff earlier *

It was a long 23 hours for him to get here. The nurses and doctors were wonderful as always. My midwife was wonderful and really worked with me through the whole thing. She worked with me during delivery and I didn’t need an episiotomy, I didn’t tear, and happened to need 1 random stitch. Recovery for me has been easy once my epidural wore off.

 Because I was only at 35 weeks Ayden had to go to the special care nursery for observation. They think he will do just fine. We had some scares early in the pregnancy with cysts on his brain and he looks normal as can be! Since we’ve been here we’ve learned that white males statistically have the hardest time when born early. Since Ayden is 35 or 36 weeks at the most his lungs aren’t quite ready. He’s doing great but is on a CPAP to help him breathe. The doctors are hopeful that tomorrow they can start doing some tube feeding from what I’ve been pumping for him. Then once he’s off the CPAP he can move onto bottle feeding and then breast feeding by the time we get to bring him home. He’s doing great but please keep him in your prayers that he can go home soon.

Some Updates

 Not a whole lot has been going on around here. The kiddos and Mr. Man have been battling colds/allergies and other funk for the past few weeks. I’m sad they’ve been sick but happy that it’s missed me. Slowly I’ve been starting to get things clean and organized for #3 to get here. My midwife is keeping my original due date of May 25 instead of the 18th. Still a long way to go, but I know it will be here in no time. I’ve found some great deals on cloth diapers and covers which has been great. I need to get some size smalls sewn up soon, and then I think we’ll be set for a while. Here are a few photo updates for you.

 

 K-Mart was doubling coupons this week so I ran over there on my lunch break and got all this stuff for $3.74!

Price before tax and coupons was $14.46 which was a savings of about $10.72 saving about 74%.

 

 I finally finished these pants for #3! I love how they turned out. Well, all but the eyelets for the drawstring, but they function.

 

The kiddos saying “CHEESE!” Ari will be 3 1/2 next month and Eli will turn 2. They’re getting so big.

I was trying to take a picture of my big belly and Ari got right in the picture, but I love it! Maybe tomorrow I’ll get Mr. Man to take a better picture.

Some of my couponing deals

Sadly I have no pictures of the deals I’m going to share, but they aren’t that grand or exciting compared to some of the coupon queens out there. I just wanted to share my deals.

CVS Trip #1

• 1 trial size ACT mouth wash
• 1 box pedialyte pops
• Paid $1.97 OOP (Out of Pocket) after using a $2 pedialyte coupon, some CVS ECBs, and I earned $0.99 in ECB

Walgreens Trip

• 2 Red Baron Pizzas
• 2 Coffee Mate liquid creamers
• 1 5 pack of pens
• 1 9 roll pack of Charmin
• Paid $2.36 OOP after $10 Walgreens RR, and $2.25 in coupons
• Saved $20.32

CVS #2

• 1 box Airborne
• 1 Lumene eye makeup remover
• 1 Lumene moisturizing face wash
• Paid $2.34 OOP after $7.99 ECBs and $8 in coupons
• Saved $23.13

The trip to Walgreens was planned and I would have spent under $1, but I found the pens on sale. The trips to CVS were not planned, but since I had my coupon book with me I was able to get some supplies for little man when he was sick and for myself today. I wasn’t planning on getting the Lumene but thanks to Fun and Frugal I saved $8 on those products and made the most of my ECBs since you don’t get money back if you don’t use them all in a transaction.

I hope to find big deals at Bi-lo this week with all of the sales and coupons out there. It takes a little bit of time to make all of this work, but in the end it’s worth it.

My new addiction…coupons

Thanks to two wonderful women from church I am addicted to coupons and trying to save as much as I can on all of our shopping now. I went to a coupon class they did at a local church and got some great tips for how to use coupons, especially at drug stores. If you happen to live in the south you need to check out Southern Savers for some great deals on weekly grocery ads and other shopping tips.

Since I’ve started using coupons, shopping weekly ads, and doing some menu planning I’ve cut our grocery bill in about half the past few weeks. I did my first CVSing trips this week and have $16 in ECBs to use for the rest of the month. Tomorrow I’m heading to Walgreens for some deals on free toothbrushes and nail files. A while back I was able to stock up on some baby dry diapers that will last us about 6 months or more since we only use them at night. I also got some pull-ups and paper towels that will last a long time.

My goal in all of this is to start a pantry and stockpile of stuff that we use when the price is right. We’re going to need a van one of these days and we need to save all the money we can. Now the girls I work with are getting into couponing too and we’re going to swap coupons every week.

In other oh-so-exciting-news Eli has been sick with a bad respritory infection. He was on breathing treatments for a few days and now is on steroids for 5. He’s been sleeping the past few nights and is starting to feel better. He’s banned from going out for awhile so he can build up his immune system again. Ever since he had RSV when he gets sick at all it always moves to his lungs.

I got a really short haircut the other day and other than still getting used to it I really like it. One of these days I’ll get a picture up. Along with that picture I’ll try to get a belly picture up too. I’m starting to feel big and prego. There’s still a lot we need to do before he comes in May. Overall this has been an easy pregnancy which I’m very thankful for. Other than that life has been the same ol’ thing which I’m thankful for too.

Work in progress

These are some longies I’ve been working on for our baby boy on the way. I’m sure they will get done by the time he gets here. I’m mostly happy with how the colors are knitting up. I dyed this yarn with Kool-Aid a while back and I’m glad I started to make a size small because I won’t have much left once I’m done. Maybe by posting this it will motivate me to get it done faster. We’ll see.

My new favorite morning coffee

Thanks to Fly Lady I have a new morning treat. In one of the e-mail in the past few weeks she shared a recipe for an instant mocha mix to pamper yourself with. Even though I’m not a huge mocha fan (it can give me migraines just like hot chocolate) I thought I’d try it and see if I can make it work for me. Here’s my version

• 1 pouch powdered milk (I used Wal-Mart brand since it was the cheepest I could find-1 pouch=about a cup)
• 2 packets hot cocoa mix (I think it was Land-O-Lakes hazelnut hot chocolate-the single serving pouches)
• 1/3 cup instant coffee (I used some Folgers because it was what we had even though it is probably on the old side)

Mix all of these together in whatever you’re going to store the mix in and stir. I use 3 scoops of mix in a big mug and fill with hot water. My scoop size is a standard coffee scoop maybe 1 tablespoon or so. Since I like my coffee extra creamy I top it off with some half and half. This is also really good without the hot chocolate mix. Then you can add your favorite coffee creamer to it.

I’m so glad I found this because I’m the only one in the house that drinks coffee, and though I love my 4 cup coffee pot Mr. Man got me, it’s one more thing to prep and clean just for one cup of coffee. I can’t drink more than one cup or I feel like I’m flying high on caffeine. Plus, being prego I probably shouldn’t even be drinking the stuff at all. Now I need to make a batch of decaf to help me unwind once the kiddos are in bed.

If you try this please share how you make the recipe work for you!

Something accomplished tonight

After having the parts for over a year at least, I finally fixed the upstairs toilet and attached the diaper sprayer. I don’t remember when we got the diaper sprayer, but it was before we moved into the house which is at least a year and a half ago. It took forever to get one little par off, but once I got that it was easy as can be. My back is paying for it, but it was worth the effort. Now there are a bunch of other projects left to get done around here. Since we no longer  have expanded cable I might get some of them done. A few are

• Patch holes in kitchen and stairwell wall
• Finish knitting longies for baby
• Sew some diapers for all kiddos
• Clean basement
• File papers for 2008
• Find our dresser tops again

The list could go on and on. Even doing one project a week would make me happy.

As far as the pregnancy goes I’m around 27 weeks or so. My current due date is May 18th I think. I’m feeling alright, uncomfortable, but alright. He’s moving a lot which is good unless it is a day he wants to camp out and have a dance party on my bladder. Life goes on though. The other kiddos are doing well and getting big. One of these days a picture will come.

What a day

So, I finally have something to write about!!

Today Mr. Man and I had a friend watch the kiddos so we could do something together. Sadly our day didn’t turn out as planned, but it was ok nevertheless. With baby #3 on the way we need to find a van. 3 car seats will not fit in either of our cars. We could drive 2 cars around when all of us will need to go somewhere, but that’s not ideal. We got one of those things in the mail to go see if you won a car so we went to start our car shopping journey there.

We started and ended the experience laughing. As we were pulling up to the dealership this morning the sales people were outside bundled up in winter clothes waiting like vultures for us to get out of the car. We went in and talked with the lady who picked us out. We let her know that we’re looking for a van or anything that will hold 3 car seats, and we don’t have a lot of money to work with. They get our info, do a credit check, realize we easily qualify to finance, and proceed to show us two vehicles. The first was some crossover SUV/Van thing. It was ok, but you couldn’t even fit groceries in the back. The next was a 2007 van which would be perfect. Once they saw we liked it they tried everything they could to sell us on it. There was no way we were going to commit to a car payment so they were wasting their time, but they wouldn’t take the hint. We said we needed to talk about it. They gave us the van to go home to grab our budgeting stuff and get some lunch.

I pickede up my budgeting binder and we headed to get some Chinese food. We looked at our numbers and realized it would be very stupid to buy the van right now. At the end of our meal we get our fortune cookies. Now at this Chinese restaurant the cookies taste like fruit loops so we never eat them. For kicks Mr. Man opens his up and starts laughing. It said, “Listen these next few days to your friends to get answers you seek.” After hearing that I open mine up and laugh so loud people are looking at me funny. My fortune read, “You will find your solution where you least expect it.” Now, we are not superstitious people who read anything into fortune cookies, or say that things are a “sign” very often if ever, but you never know God could have been sending us a confirmation through our cookies today. I’m not saying He did, but it’s just amusing how it all worked out.

After lunch we headed back to the dealership and tried to tell them no. They knock some more money off the van and it was  a great deal, but way more than we were planning on spending. Plus, we have too many financial variables right now. Sure it was the only van on the lot today, but it won’t be the only van for sale in the Cleveland/Chattanooga area in the next 4 months. God will provide us with the vehicle we need when we can afford it. We’re going to keep looking and wait for our tax return and all that good stuff. As long as we find something by April or early May, even June all will be good.

Not much else has been going on. Baby #3 is doing well. I’m getting big and pregnant. The kiddos are growing like weeds and doing well. Mr. Man is about to start his final semester of school. I need to start knitting and sewing like a crazy person to make diapers and soakers for this little one, we’ll see how that goes. Even after cloth diapering as much as we have I have no idea what kind of diapers I want for this little one. Our stash is beginning to die out. Fleece is wearing thin, elastic is shot, and velcro is losing its stick. Some of these things I can fix, but I need to get motivated to sew up a new stash or find some good deals on used ones.

I hope your new year is going well, and I’ll try to make a blogging appearance more often.