TodaysMama

I've Got it Goin' On

So - a funny thing happens when you have a baby. You are so excited to have the baby out of your body and here in the world - the heartburn goes away, the skin clears up, the waddle eases up - all in all it's quite a liberating feeling. . . . that is until you see yourself naked.  Well, or clothed - either way.

The deflated uterus is not a pretty thing.  I can only hope that elasticity kicks in and some semblance of my old self comes back - which I am daily realizing how much hotter I was previously than I ever thought I was! ;)

Until then - to boost my spirits and confidence - I find myself singing to myself - yet another FOTC song - but I replaces Bret's name with my own.  "Rach you've got it goin' on"

So I'm a Snake!

I thought I was something noble and peaceful like a horse . . . but apparently I'm a SNAKE! And the truth is - Snakes are rockin' it in 09!

You can find your 2009 outlook on Yahoo Shine -

Snake Overview

The Snake has an incredibly favorable year ahead. The year of the Ox provides many opportunities for the Snake to fulfill long awaited career goals and achieve more than he/she ever imagined. Your wisdom and patience are tools that prove successful in all aspects of your life. Relationships could be taken to new heights and deep and meaningful friendships are acquired. This year proves to be one of action, the year that all of your planning and waiting pay off for you. The later months prove to be especially successful, tying a year of arduous work into an extremely blissful culmination.

Snake Rating

79% (10 favorable and 2 neutral months)

Snake Career

Your wisdom proves to be most resourceful this year, particularly in your career endeavors. Colleagues will admire your input and your opinion will be well respected among business circles. Your work will take you to new levels in your career, as you may see a promotion or a position change that offers you a direction that is more suitable to your skills. March, April and May are strong months for a career change or an upswing in your current position. Be prepared for an outstanding year in your work and don't be surprised if everything you do results in success

Snake Relationships

The Snake's social life will bring a high amount of satisfaction to you this year, as will your family life. Though you tend to be more of a loner, this year will provide occasions that may bring you out of your shell. You have always been a good listener and you will benefit from being more assertive in social situations. More to the point, you may be thrown into a position to be more assertive, rather than volunteering. Your quick thinking will prove to be most useful. Single Snakes may find the romantic relationship they seek, as romance is favored.

Snake Health

The Snake will not suffer any more than minor health issues, but you may want to watch what you eat and make it a point to exercise more often, as these may be areas that you tend to neglect. Your busy work schedule and social endeavors may make it difficult to maintain a regular schedule of exercise, but you can find time here and there to do something active. This will help your heart and may relive stress from a long work week.

Snake Wealth

The Snake will do well with your conservative approach to spending. You have always been disciplined in your finances and this year proves to be no different. If you maintain your frugal manner, you will find that you have accumulated enough by the end of the year to make a large purchase that you have been planning for a long time. If you are in doubt about a particular endeavor, don't hesitate to receive a second opinion before committing.

Season 2!!!!!

Check it out -- Season 2 of FOTC started last week!

Tooth Fairy?

So - how much does the tooth fairy leave at your house?  I've been hearing a variety of totals out there on the street - anywhere from a few quarters to a $20!  (I'm pretty cheap - all those fairies leaving $20's out there need to check themselves!) :)

Leave a comment if you are willing to disclose what your tooth fairy stashes under the pillow.  This is our first loose tooth and I need to be on my A game when it pops out!

Here is a CNN article someone sent me on Twitter: http://tr.im/cuz2

Home at last!

We almost had to stay another day -- right before we were suppose to leave the nurse came in and let us know that our little one had some lab results that came back "abnormal" and that we would probably need to stay another day or two to make sure that the were on top of it. 

They drew some more blood from her and inserted an IV into her head (ready to give antibiotics and draw more blood etc.) and back to my room I went.

IV's in the head make moms cry.

Luckily a few hours later they came back and said the short term follow up results were good and that they would let us go home but we have to go back for more blood draws tomorrow to follow up on both her bilirubin and the other blood work that was done.

Before we left I took a picture of the kids all next to each other.  We have 3 of them.  THREE! We drove home in the mini-van (that's what cool people do when they have 3 kids).

After 5 days at the hospital it feels good to be home!

The Delivery

Well - someone above knew better than to let me go about making all my inappropriate jokes about forks and knives . . .

During the C-section I was nauseous with my head hinged over a little pink dish the whole time while the sweet anesthesiologist was wiping the drool from my mouth.

I was so excited to see all kinds of stuff in this C-scction that I didn't see in the past - like I wanted to see my organs and all kinds of other stuff.  But alas - my blood pressure kept dropping so it made me sick.

However - aside from that everything went well and our little girl was born a little over 3 weeks early weighing in at 6 pounds 9 ounces and 19.5 inches long and she is truly Smokin' Hot! (just like her ultrasounds showed us!) :)  

Smokin Hot #1

Smokin Hot #2

We are all doing well - she has a bit of jaundice and is hanging out at the nursery under the lights and looks like a sun tanning diva.  

We are so excited to have her and our other two kids are absolutely in love with her. It's been 5 years since we've had a baby at our house and things seem remarkably new and overwhelming and remarkably the same all at the same time.  

Now we'll see what happens when we actually go home . . .

I'm pretty confidant that I've all ready had a few hormonal moments -- like when Mark took a picture of me and the kids the other day and deemed it a mugshot.  It was all I could do not to cry and be like "oh! So you think I"m fat!" poor guy better brace himself.  

I also woke up this morning from a dream that I was in an ice cream shop with Eskimos and I just got to make the ice cream creation of my dreams - I was just about to take my first bite when . . . my nurse woke me up to give me my painkillers . . . I again wanted to shed a single tear. :)

More updates to come!

Inappropriate

Saturday the 17th came - and we were suppose to be to the hospital by 6:00 in the morning.  One thing to know about me, is that when I get nervous, I talk a lot, and when I talk a lot, I can't help but be inappropriate.

So typically when I am in a medical situation - like, let's say lying naked on the O.R. being filleted open - I tend to talk too much and make inappropriate jokes.    

Apparently I woke up all ready to go because this song was all ready playing in my head - and I sung it to Mark all the way to the hospital;

The Countdown

The last few weeks were full of lots of tests and appointments to determine when she would come out.  For a number of reasons the doctors wanted to take her early.  1- In case she did have any problems 2- Risk for Rupture: I had a large window on my uterus from my last c-section which puts me at higher risk for rupturing and having something catastrophic happen.

I was shooting for the 21st or 23rd -- (I wanted an Aquarius) ;)  but we ended up with January 17th.  We had an amnio last week that said her lungs were cooked and ready to go and the Dr. felt like it didn't make sense to leave her in there much longer.  We booked her appointment for Saturday the 17th and off we went crazily getting ready for her arrival!

3rd Trimester

Food: I started to eat normally again!  Except when heartburn hit me . . . and everything would give me heartburn - even CHOCOLATE! And with the holidays in full swing and all the good deserts around that was totally depressing.  I cried a single tear for every good dessert that I could not partake of!  I finally gave in mid September and started taking Prilosec OTC - which SAVED MY LIFE.  Throw the tums in the garbage and just get the over the counter stuff - it rocks!  

Life: We had super fun holidays with the kids and started getting ready for the baby.  As you all know I started posting some of our ultra sounds from the "Smokin' Hot Baby".  The Doctor's were following her closely so we started doing lots of detailed ultrasounds to track her growth and watch for soft markers for genetic disorders.  I also started doing NST's (non stress tests) to make sure she was doing well.

Oddly, with as much watching as she had - she was my healthiest pregnancy.  My blood pressure was awesome, my weight gain was awesome (but doesn't look awesome now that she is out of my body and I'm staring at the pile of mush that is on my belly). and she was growing bigger than my other two were.  At 34 weeks she was on track to being an 8-9 pound baby!

2nd Trimester

Food: Here is where I moved on to cheese quesadillas and Oreo shakes.  Oddly I was doing pretty good and hadn't gained much weight, no thanks to the pork extravaganza I had just put myself through.  I started to feel better about 20 weeks and got more energy.

Life: Just as I started feeling better life got a bit crazy.  As everyone knows my sister passed away the end of September.  She was diagnosed with cancer the first week of August, started chemo immediately, was hospitalized by the first of September and passed away in the hospital by the end of September.  

The same day the doctors let us know that Heather was probably not going to make it home from the hospital - I got a call from the doctor's letting me know that my AFP test had flagged me for a high risk of down syndrome in the baby.  We had completed an ultrasound earlier that day which also revealed that she had some cysts on her brain that were correlated with having Down Syndrome.  That was on a Friday.  I cried so much that weekend that my eyes were about swollen shut and I walked around with a cold wash cloth on my face to try to reduce my swollenness.  (don't think that is a word)

I'm glad that I was physically feeling better during this time and that I was at the stage of my pregnancy that I was so that I could be at the hospital with Heather and to be able to be with my family the way I was throughout the experience.  Oddly her death has been one of the most trying and amazing experiences of my life.  I've never learned so much about the way God works as through her passing.  

As you all know by now - the baby is healthy and doing great.  She does not have Down Syndrome or anything else that went a rye with the pregnancy aside from her jaundice which each of my kids have had.  She is sun tanning under the lights as I type.

1st Trimester

Or, first Porkmester - whatever you'd like to call it.  All I wanted to eat was bacon and sausage.  It was pathetic.  I went to my first Dr. Appointment and "if you do my blood-work and my cholesterol is high - it's because I've put myself on a pork only diet!. Don't worry, I'll stop soon . . ."

I think I only threw up once or twice, and once was because of food poisoning - but in general was super tired and mildly nauseous all the way to 20 weeks.  

Telling the Kids

We waited until July to tell the kids - 5 year old (at the time, now 6) had all ready been asking me if I as pregnant saying things like "Mommy, your chest chests look big - are you pregnant?"   That's what they are called at our house apparently . . . "Chest Chests"

We told the kids on our family vacation with Mark's family to Laguna beach.  We went on a walk on the beach before everyone else got there and told them in a cool little beach cave.  

They weren't as ecstatic as I thought they'd be - I think they'd been waiting too long and were like "finally!".  But my ever so smart little boy connected the dots too quickly and said "mommy, you LIED to me! I asked you if you were and you said no!".  To which I was like . . . "well buddy, that wasn't really a lie . . . ."  good parenting skills in action!

Pre-Pregnancy

Getting pregnant with baby #3 was a total leap of faith for us.  Our two kids are potty trained, sleeping through the night, mildly bearable in public, can feed and clothe themselves when necessary and are both in school (pre-school and kindergarten) and soon to both be in elementary school by the fall.  

As you all know Mark and I have our own businesses - and by most accounts I'm going to say that we have mildly unpredictable lives.  

We starting thinking about it in December and by May decided we were ready and we got pregnant that same month.  

It's amazing how decision making works - if we had decided to try in December like I originally thought - had we gotten pregnant we would have been due the week that my little sister passed away.  The timing of this little one has been amazing both considering the circumstances of our lives and the joy that she has brought to all of our family in a brand new year.  

Her original due date: February 8th 2009

How I told Mark: he found a test that I thought was negative in the garbage, and it had turned positive so he made me go take another one.  :)

Woulda Coulda Shoulda

Woulda Coulda Shoulda meant to blog more about this whole pregnancy and baby thing.  Not so much that you'd all want every detail - but at least I'd be keeping track of it somewhere!  

Now I've got some free time on my hands with an extra day in the hospital and the baby sun tanning under the "bili lights" for her jaundice so I figured I'd do some catching up.

I'll do it in a series of shorter posts so that I don't write a massive novel post.  Most will probably be pointless -- but bare with me -- or go visit another blog! ;)

VOTE FOR US!

Because I have no shame I will beg for your votes for TodaysMama!  We entered a little contest with Ladies Who Launch and Start Up Nation and would love if you would click (and if you really love us click EVERY DAY!) and give us your vote for top 200 mom owned businesses. 

If you are REALLY feeling the love -- write us a lovely comment.  Good mojo will come back to you the whole year round for showing love to Mama! ;)

Thanks!

Click Here to vote: http://tr.im/83mo

Smokin' Hot Baby Gets Smokin' Mad!

As you all know - my 4D ultrasounds have revealed that I am carrying a smokin' hot baby!  Well, we made her smokin' mad the other day when we tried to get her to turn her face to get a better shot during or last regularly scheduled ultrasound (I think she's sick of them!)

The nurse started to push my belly a bit to try to get her to move since she is so squished in there and the baby literally screamed at us!  I'm just glad she didn't open her eyes!

Happy Holidays in the Middle of January!

So - I had originally typed up this post back on December 13th -- at which time I apparently had a bug in my blog that did not get fixed until recently.  So in my opinion that just enhances the total slacker nature of the post itself.  To go the extra mile though - I have posted an 08' album in my facebook profile to fill in the gaps for holiday family pictures!

December 13th

My 2008 Recap - Merry Christmas

So let me be blunt.  I will not be sending Christmas cards this year.  I am 8 months pregnant, busy, tired, and all ready behind on my Christmas shopping (um, maybe I should start).  But the cool thing about technology (Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, etc.) is that I can blast my holiday wishes out to my peeps in a fairly efficient and timely manner (and I don't even have to pose with my 3 chins for a family Christmas picture!) 

In a year that seems to have kicked our trash - I tend to look back with the most gratitude on any year that I have ever had.

In a quick wrapping up in my personal life - of course most of you know that my little sister who was 24 was diagnosed with cancer the first part of August and passed away towards the end of September.  She was followed shortly by my Grandpa who will be in turn followed shortly by my Grandma.  The same day I found out my sister was not going to make it we also received the news that our baby might have down syndrome based on a couple of tests and some cysts on her brain.  (I am however confidant that she is going to be great in either instance and in testing since then shows no additional signs that anything is a rye). 

From a business perspective I call 2008 the year of the cursed programmer.  There have been a few that I have wanted to reserve a very warm place for with the man with the pitchfork. ;)  TodaysMama have grown and done some very cool things, and it has stretched me to the limits of my own patience and intelligence. 

From a world perspective we've watched a really crazy election and witnessed a really scary falling out of the economy.

All in all, this year should leave me feeling fairly wary of the world and what happens in it.  Yet I leave this year with a keen sense that God has a hand in everything and in every detail of my life.   I have never before felt so watched over or the feeling that God was so keenly aware of me, my family, and everyone around me.  I leave this year with a few words emblazoned in my mind "Expect Miracles" because I know that He brings them every day.  In my life, in my business, in the world around me. 

I look forward to 2009 - kicking it off with the birth of our little girl in January.  I truly expect miracles every day and out of the coming year and I hope that you and your family do as well. 

woo! the blog is back!

The blog has had a bug for weeks - but we are back up and running -- more to come soon!