A lot has happened over the last year. Wouldn’t you say?
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Being that my little munchkin is turning 1 tomorrow, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on how much our lives have changed over the last year. This day, in particular, holds a lot of meaning for me. A year ago today, I went into labor. Before having a child I always assumed my birthday way about me. Having been through labor, delivery, and my kid’s first year of life, I realize now that birthdays should be about the mom. Now, I’m not saying this so everyone celebrates me (well, you can if you want Anyway, as a way of commemorating this day, I thought I’d re-share my birth story that I posted on my old blog after Parker’s delivery. It’s crazy to read through this and remember all the pain, emotions, and love. Enjoy! August 24, 2009 As the morning progresses, my contractions keep getting closer and stronger but still not painful. I am really in doubt as to whether this is labor at all. Shouldn’t I be in more pain? We keep taking walks and going about our normal routine (i.e., I am quilting!). My contractions are now three minutes a part and lasting about 90 seconds, clearly something is happening. I decide to take a nap before my regularly scheduled OB appointment at 4:45 pm. After the nap I still feel really unsure of myself, but the contractions aren’t stopping. We go to the appointment and tell the nurse what is going on. She immediately tells me I’m in labor and that they’d like to monitor a few of the contractions. As we are watching the needle move up and down, monitoring my contractions, I feel a sudden gush of liquid. Yep, my water just broke. In the doctor’s office! My doctor quickly comes in to check me and I’m already 4 cm dilated. He strongly urges us to go to the hospital now. The hospital is connected to my doctor’s office, so it made a lot of sense to check-in at this point. Now, this was not in my plan at all, we wanted to labor at home for as long as possible before going to the hospital, but you can’t really schedule a play-by-play for labor! We didn’t have any of our stuff with us, but the minute my water broke my contractions really started picking up. We knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to head home with how I was feeling. I had been freely talking through contractions before this point, but everything changed once my water broke. We decide to check-in to the hospital and call our doula. After a million and one questions, we finally get settled into the room and are able to get down to business. And I mean that in all seriousness – labor is really hard work! It takes every ounce of my will to focus through each contraction. My husband never leaves my side and is whispering encouragements into my ear. He holds me, massages me, helps me walk around, supports me in the shower, and prays with me. Our doula comes and is able to give Brian suggestions and to provide extra support for me.
I really have no concept of time as our room is dimly lit and everyone is very quiet. We have piano music playing and the atmosphere is very soothing. My doctor allows me to be monitored for a small portion of time during each hour so I am free to move around. Laying down feels incredibly painful, so I spend much of my time sitting on the birthing ball, leaning on the birthing ball, or sitting on the toilet (seriously, it was comfortable!). The contractions are extremely powerful and I have a lot of pain/pressure on my lower tailbone. (It didn’t occur to us at the time, but later found out I was having back labor and my little man was sunny-side up.) A couple of hours into the labor I vomit and the doctor puts me on a saline drip to keep up my energy. At various points he checks me and I am stuck at 6 cm for what seems like an eternity. I know this is probably the natural alignment plateau, but feel like I just want to give up. I keep telling my husband “he isn’t coming”. He reassures me that he will come and soon! August 25, 2009
They hand Parker to me and he snuggles right into my chest. He cries right away, but has a lot of fluid in his mouth/nose. I keep exclaiming “he is here!” and “he is perfect!” After several minutes Brian cuts the cord and I deliver the placenta. They weigh and measure Parker and we learn he is 21 inches long, 7 lbs and 11 oz. When they place Parker back on my chest, he quickly grabs onto my finger.
We immediately notice that our little man has his dad’s feet and they are just the cutest!
I am able to nurse Parker for 15 minutes while they continue to clean everything up and the doctor repairs a small tear in my perineum. All the pain of the preceding hours vanishes and I am lost in the face of my handsome newborn.
Daddy finally gets to hold his son for the first time as we get ready to move to our new room for the next day.
I know it’s a long story, but I wanted to be detailed so I can remember this later! We were really so pleased with how everything worked out. Our doula was a fabulous support to Brian (and me too!), and our nurses were truly outstanding. We were hesitant to deliver in a hospital since we wanted to do everything naturally, but we found nothing but support and help at every turn. No one once pushed any procedure on us and we were able to have the birth that we had hoped for. We give all praise and glory to God for blessing us in this way! Sooooo, somebody has a birthday this week!! And since I like ice cream, I’m making lots of it to celebrate! First off, we’ve got Banana Ice Cream. You know, for those who like simple recipes that are good for you. Oh, and have no dairy, so that’s a plus!
Then, for the adult-palate, we’ve got Coffee Ice Cream with Chocolate Chunks, from the Baking at Home cookbook. Yum-a-licious.
And for everyone in between, I’m thinking of making a batch of Peppermint Ice Cream. It’s my favorite homemade ice cream, so maybe it’ll get added to the Dessert Menu in our house. You are probably thinking we’re having a huge party to require so much ice cream. But, you’d be wrong. It’s all for us!! But, if you have a sweet tooth and want to wish Mr. PT a “Happy Birthday” feel free to stop by anytime and you might just get lucky! There is a dry basement! There are walls! There are doors! There is paint! There is light! There is tile! There is a laundry room sink cabinet, and functioning washer and dryer! Yes, there has been much progress!! Hopefully after today and tomorrow we will be closing in on the elusive goal: a completely finished basement! We should be getting a waterproof floor pad today as well as getting our new couch and guest bed delivered. Then, tomorrow, we might get the carpet in!! Clearly, my excitement can’t be contained (and neither can my use of exclamation points, apparently!)! After that, we’ve got detail work to do (baseboards, door casing, touch-up painting, etc.), but the major part of the renovation will be done–and not a moment too soon! We’ll be having three rounds of visitors between now and the beginning of October starting next Friday. We are so pleased to be able to offer our guests a real room to stay in! OK, so onto the basement pics:
At the top of the stairs, exiting the kitchen and going down to the basement. We have a curtain here dividing the kitchen from the basement (and also our handy-dandy guard rail). The door will stay white, but the rest will be painted a light yellow. We’ll be adding a stair-rail after the carpet goes in.
This is the first room (hallway, really) that you see when you get to the bottom of the stairs. To the left is our storage closet. It will be a lot emptier once we can move stuff into the rest of the basement! The door has since been painted white. Check out the recessed lighting done by the hubster! Nice!
So, you’ve gone right down the hallway and you come to our laundry area. To the right we are hoping to put in cabinets for storage and hopefully for some counter space. There is laminate tiling under the sink, washer, and dryer. Do you like the exposed beams? We painted them black and added the recessed lighting. Just a little detail work and this area will be done!!
Ah yes, the sewing area!! It is divided from the laundry area by a small wall. I ended up using Audubon Russet from Benjamin Moore as the orange/red color. A friend had an extra can so I got to use that–I totally love it!
The den! To the right (where the door is) is the sump pump closet. Now equipped with powerful battery back-up and ridiculously huge dehumidifier. Should keep everything dry and mold-free! In the back right corner is the electrical box, so we’re creating a little cabinet around it. To the left is an access panel for the water line. Other than getting those things finished off, pretty much done in here!
Guest room. Pretty much done except for detail painting, door framing, and carpet. Come stay!
Directly across from the guest room is this little office space. The walls on either side are a nice light gray. The back wall is planned to be a dry-erase wall using the special dry-erase paint. We’ve since put a few coats on, but may need a few more to get it working properly. Other than carpet, pretty much done in here too! Thanks for joining in on my tour–hopefully there will be completely finished pictures up soon! If seeing that homemade salsa last week didn’t put you in the mood for spicy food, maybe this guacamole will! I learned how to make the best (at least, I think so!) homemade guacamole from my mama. Being a good California girl, I like to have avocados as often as possible (especially when they are affordable). I think the problem with commercial guacamole is it cover up the taste of the avocado too much. They add all kinds of seasoning and spices, and before you know it you are missing that distinctive avocado taste entirely. No, I think I good guacamole should enhance the avocado taste, not cover it up. I never measure my ingredients, so this is a rough estimate. It’s probably best to do it by taste. Put in a little of each ingredient, and then add more if you think it needs it. You can always add more, but you can’t remove it if you add too much! Homemade Guacamole Slice the avocado in half and scoop out with a spoon, leaving one seed on hand. Mash the avocados in a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. Taste-test and make any modifications necessary. If the avocados aren’t quite ripe enough or not creamy enough, you can add one spoonful of sour cream or creme fraiche. Top with diced tomatoes if you’d like. Enjoy with your favorite tortilla chips, on a taco, or as a garnish on any Mexican dish.
Remember that pink dress? Just thinking about it reminds me how much I’m itching to get back in the sewing room!! *Sigh* Maybe just another week or two? Back to that fabulous dress. The fabric was divine. The pattern was fast and easy. The result was super cute (IMHO–in my humble opinion for those of you who might be less text-savvy). What’s even better than all that? It fits my littlest niece like a charm and she stinkin’ adorable in it! What do you think?
Well, the produce has started to roll in from our tomato plants this week. We’ve been eating fresh tomatoes on salad, in pasta sauce, on tostados, and now in my first attempt of homemade salsa! I used this recipe and it turned out so good! I made two quarts of salsa from just 6 tomatoes. The best part is this recipe is lacto-fermented which means that it will last a long time without going bad. Even if I don’t use it all up in a month or so (which I probably will!), I can just throw the jar into the freezer and it will last even longer. I definitely see more homemade salsa in our future! My next tomato-related attempt will be tomato sauce, probably later this week. I’ll let you know how it goes. What do you do with fresh tomatoes? Any good recipes to share or tips on canning?
What is it about baby feet? They just grab our attention right away. The first time I saw Parker’s feet I was so in love. They are just like his daddy’s — just a smaller, chubbier, more kissable version. For some reason, whenever I look at his little feet, I can just sit and dream about all the places those feet will some day take him. I can picture him taking his first wobbly steps, then running around our house and pitter-pattering on our wood floors. I can see him proudly (or possibly timidly!) walking to his first day of school. I can imagine him running on the playground, playing with friends, kicking balls, and jumping in puddles. I can see him growing up into a man, graduating highschool, going to college, and getting married. Yep–all that from just looking at those little feet. I’ve never wanted to cover those little feet up. Even as an infant, it was rare to find him in socks. I’d explain, “he just pulls them off” or “they just fall off”. Once he got a little bigger, I’d just justify his lack of shoes saying, “why do babies need shoes? They don’t walk anywhere! His feet never touch the ground, it’s a marketing scam to buy shoes!” And lately I’ve used the excuse of “his feet are too chubby to fit in shoes” (which is actually 95% true). But, really, I just like seeing his little bare feet. We must be reaching some sort of milestone, because for the first time ever, I bought him a pair of shoes. The guy is almost one year old and he’s getting his first pair of shoes! With walking near on the horizon, I figured it was about time. But it still makes me a little sad to cover up those chubby baby feet. Though, the sandaled version is almost as cute!! I haven’t sewn anything in weeks. Since our basement renovation started I hadn’t been able to get down there to my sewing area, and well, then the flood happened. Now all my sewing stuff is packed into rubber bins in our storage closet (which is finished by the way–yay!!!! one thing to check off our list!). It’s a sad state of affairs. Especially since Parker decided to become a rock-star napper these last few weeks. I have more time than ever and can’t do anything with it! Wow. That sounds a lot like complaining about having a good napper. I’m really not! I’ve been getting lots of other stuff done, I just really miss sewing. Like, really a lot. So, in the midst of my sewing withdrawals I’ve been dreaming about my new sewing space and all of the projects that I’d like to get to. I thought I might share some inspiration with you! Sewing Area
I also really like the above desk from Ikea. It is super long, and you can customize the legs of the desk to your liking. I’m thinking I like the thin drawers for one side and maybe the open shelving shown above on the other? It would be nice to have drawers for all the little doo-dads you end up with, but I’d still like open shelves for some of my sewing books and patterns. I decided that I want the back wall of my sewing area to be a really bold color. The rest of the basement is a light yellow-tan color, but since this one wall is mainly going to be covered with shelves, I wanted a pop of color behind it. I’m really digging the New Brick color from Behr. It’s a nice deep orange-red. Sounds lovely! But, I’m also attracted to the light and open feeling of the color scheme in Grace Violet’s craft room. And let’s just drool a little, shall we? Check out this compilation of craft rooms from Crafting a Green World.
What would be in your ideal sewing area? Hehe. I crack myself up. I made a sourdough starter this weekend. (Get my joke now? Sigh. I guess it isn’t a great joke if you have to explain it, huh?) I am really excited to try and make my own sourdough bread! And, of course, you need a sourdough starter to make sourdough. My starter is still starting (hehe, oh dear) so it will be a few days until I can use it, but I’m still proud of myself for taking the plunge! So, wanna know exactly how easy it is to make a starter? 1 cup flour, 1 cup warm water. Mix together and leave on the counter in a covered container. Every 24 hours toss 1/2 of the starter and add 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of warm water. Once it gets bubbly you are done! Move to the refrigerator for storage or use in recipes. Like any living thing, you do need to keep feeding it and cleaning out any hooch that builds up (I know, the name cracks me up too!). Other than that, easy peasy!
Also, I got this new flour container to keep on my counter. I LOVE it. It was a HomeGoods special (with a birthday gift card too!) and I’m just thrilled. It has a lovely wide mouth so I can get my measuring cup in without spilling everywhere. And the seal is really tight to keep my flour fresh. Oh, it’s the little things! Oh, speaking of the little things, guess what is making an appearance on my menu this week? My own fresh veggies!!!
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), but more to give credit to my own mother. Everyday I am more and more thankful for all the work, love, sweat, and tears she has put into my life. What a truly incredible gift it is to have a mother.
