My mom brought home a bag of kettle corn from somewhere, and it was SO AMAZING GOOD FANTASTIC DELICIOUS ADDICTIVE. So, I thought, I’m sure we can figure out how to make it at home! Easy! 

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt

I’m trying to be better at cooking Korea things so I started easy with a mushroom soup. I made it so spicy that I couldn’t eat any of the liquid. Oopsy. Next time it will be better!

Bring to a boil:

• Half a medium sized pot of water
• 1-1.5 tbsp Hot red pepper paste
• 1/2 Tbsp dashida
• 1/2 tbsp garlic (minced)

Make sure you turn down the heat after it’s boiled or the foam from the pepper paste will boil over!

When that is boiling add:

• Mushrooms (I only like the shitake ones, but you can add any kind of mushrooms, as much as you want)
• A LITTLE, very small pinch of Mi-won. (optional)
• SMALLLLL gochu garu! (This was my downfall).  (red hot pepper powder)

I LOVE a house that smells festive and inviting.  I’ve tried candles and incense but nothing has ever worked as deliciously as this! And so simple :)  I’ve been burning the same pot for a couple of weeks, I just keep adding to it.  Make sure to continue adding water so it doesn’t boil dry!

• A few cinnamon sticks
• A couple bay leads
• Some whole cloves
• A splash of vanilla
• Whole or ground nutmeg
• Orange/Lemon peel dried (optional)
• Water or Cider

Just put it on the stove and boil on medium.  If someone is coming over soon and you want it to smell good quickly, turn it up to high for a few minutes. Oh~ good smell.

This is the third slow-cooked meal of the week.  We weren’t crazy about it, but it wasn’t that bad!

Ingredients:

• 4 medium red potatoes
• 1-1/2 lbs. beef stew meat
• 1/3 cup Whole Weat flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 cups water
• 3 carrots
• Crushed Chilli Flakes

Preparation:

Scrub potatoes and cut each into quarters. Place in bottom of 4 quart slow cooker. Mix flour, salt and pepper and toss with beef to coat. Add to crockpot. Add undrained tomatoes and water and stir. Sprinkle with Chili Flakes if you like it spicy.

Cover crockpot and cook on low for 7-8 hours until beef and potatoes are tender. 4-6 servings

This is the second slow cooked meal I made for us. I really liked it, but my husband was so-so on it.

Like a lot of people, the most annoying question my husband and I ask each other almost every day is “What’s for supper?”.  We throw our hands in the air, get frustrated, hate to even think about what we could possibly have.  This week, I decided to find some new (and EASY) recipes, that I could do.  I have very very little hands free time. Bobae loves to play with mom, be carried by Mom, and sleep in Mom’s arms a lot of the time. SO, I found slow cooker recipes that I could throw together in the mornings while she played happily in her exersaucer for those magical 25 happy morning minutes. SEE! My husband told me I wasn’t allowed to buy anymore cookbooks (because usually I only read them and don’t use them to cook), so now it is worthwhile for him! This one was my favourite this week:

Ingredients

• 2 cans of Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup (Low fat)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 8 boneless pork chops, 3/4-inch thick
• 4 large Granny Smith apples, sliced
• 2 large onions, sliced

Directions

1. Mix soup, water, sugar, Worcestershire and thyme in slow cooker. Add pork, apples and onions.
2. Cover and cook on LOW 8 to 9 hours or until done

I’ve been nursing Bobae exclusively since she was born.  She is now 5 months old, and I thought I would try to find a fun way to keep my milk supply strong.  I started taking “More Milk Plus” drops which seem to be working, and also found this recipe for milk supply cookies!  And they are yummy.  I baked 60 cookies, and left almost half of them in my mom’s freezer. My dad ate almost all of them.

Momma’s Milk Cookies
recipe by Danelle Frisbie

2 eggs
1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
1 c. flax
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. melted butter
2 c. Agave nectar
3/4 c. walnuts (crushed)
2 c. chocolate chips
3/4 c. raisins
4 T water
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 T brewer’s yeast
3 c. oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

I have found greased cookie sheets work best, but you can also use parchment lined sheets or a baking stone.

In a bowl mix flax and water until thoroughly mixed.
In a large bowl mix flour, baking soda, salt and brewer’s yeast.
In another bowl mix together butter and ONE cup Agave nectar (the other cup will be used later). Stir well until the butter and nectar are completely mixed.
Add eggs to the nectar mix, stirring well after each one.
Add vanilla, stir.
Add the nectar blend to the flax and mix well. (A hand mixer or mixing bowl works best)
Pour the nectar/flax blend into the large bowl of flour and mix well.
Mix in walnuts, chocolate chips, raisins.
Mix in oats.
After everything is blended together well, add the applesauce and final 1 cup of Agave nectar and stir through well.

Scoop onto sheets, and press down each ball of dough lightly with a fork.
Bake 13-14 minutes.

Most of you know that I haven’t had the best luck with sleep these last few months. For the first 3.5 months, Bobae was up almost every hour-2 hours in the night. In the evening she would get SO cranky. It’s funny.. it took us quite a while to actually realize that she was so cranky because she wanted to go to bed! oops! Sorry baby. We would try to start bedtime at 7:30.  She would have a bath first.  Bobae LOVES the bath. No matter how cranky, or upset she is in the evening, she begins to calm down when I take off her clothes, and is absolutely ecstatic by the time she gets into the bath tub.  She splashes around, and mommy and daddy get her squeaky clean.  Then we would go into our bedroom, play on the bed a little, get lotion on, and clean PJs.  Then I would rock her to sleep and watch Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman on the lap top for a couple of hours until she was finally in a deep sleep :p.  Then when her limbs were limp I would VERY CAREFULLY lay her in her co-sleeper, which was between Charles and I on our bed.  Usually she would wake up immediately, and I would try a few more times until she stayed asleep.  After that I would wake up with her every couple of hours and nurse her back to sleep.  In the day time, I would have to nurse her and rock her for her naps.  I had NO free time.  I couldn’t barely get lunch. She wouldn’t play alone, or sit in the swing or lay on the floor with toys. I had to hold her 24/7.

We started sleep training her abotu a week ago, and things are starting to look up.  A friend of mine emailed me an ebook called “The Sleep Sense Program”.  I am not an advocate for the cry-it-out method AT all, but realized I would have to let her cry a little bit so she can break the association of only being able to sleep if Mommy  nursed her.  So We moved her to her own room and sat beside her crib until she fell asleep.  The first night, she cried for about 45 minutes or so, and slept for thirty, cried for 30 more, then slept for about 4 or 5 hours! WOW!  The next couple of nights were less crying, more sleeping. YAY! AND: For the first time in 3.5 months, my husband and I could spend time together in the evening and sleep in our own bed!  Before we couldn’t move during the night for fear or waking her up (and because there was no space with the co-sleeper wedged between us. We had to sleep on our sides.  

After a few days, she started waking up every two hours again at night.  We finally realized maybe she was waking up because she was thirsty. We had been keeping glasses of water beside our bed those two nights that she woke up a lot because we were parched!  We put the humidifier in her room and she slept almost 12 hours! (waking up twice to eat quick and go back asleep).

Nap time is harder. When I put her in her crib for a nap, she gets hysterical.  I’ve started letting her nap in the swing which for me is a HUGE improvement!!! Before she only napped in my arms, now i have her whole nap time to do anything I need to do!  It’s like we are a whole different family now. 

She has learned now that she doesn’t NEED mommy to rock and nurse her to sleep, so she is a lot more comfortable going to sleep in her bed on her own, with a lot less crying!  We have moved the chair from beside her bed, to the middle of the room.  If she cries, we go to her bed and stroke her face, and say “It’s ok, Mommy and Daddy are here”.  If she is particularly fussy we take 20 min shifts sitting in the room until she’s deep asleep.  We make sure that before bed we do her routine exactly the same each night so she knows to expect bed at the end.  At 7:00 she has a bath, gets lotion and PJs, reads a book with daddy, has a snack with Mommy (VERY IMPORTANT that she doesn’t fall asleep while eating before bed or in the middle of the night), has a burp, gets a kiss and a snuggle, and is placed in bed AWAKE.  We tell her it’s “night night time”, so she knows that it’s bed time :) She moves around for a few minutes, and fusses a bit then falls asleep.  When she wakes up in the night to eat, she goes right back to sleep once she’s in bed.  It’s a little hard to keep her awake, but i talk to her and tickle her belly, and make funny noises to keep her awake before putting her back in bed.

I love my sleeping (and non sleeping) baby <3

There have been so many things recently that I felt would NEVER actually happen, but miraculously it always does! Here are some of them.

• When I was pregnant, I listened for her heartbeat with the at home fetal doppler I bought.  I would press it into my stomach, moving all around, gel all over the place trying to find the heartbeat.  Then FINALLY after weeks of searching, I heard that beautiful beautiful beautiful sound.  
• I really couldn’t imagine that I would ever feel the baby kicking.  It didn’t seem possible that it would happen! Then at 19 weeks, while we were in Florida for vacation, I felt the first little bubbles of movement. Oh my, what a wonderful feeling.
• I didn’t think my belly would ever get really big, it seemed to take so long. We all know how that one ended :p
• During labour, it really felt like a baby wasn’t actually going  to come out of me.  Wow, it sure did.
• Every night in the first few weeks, I would get overwhelmed and think she would NEVER go to sleep. I would rock and rock and rock, jiggle, feed, rub.  Every day she eventually went to sleep.  The next day, I would try to remember that she DID go to sleep eventually.
• Sometimes, I think that she will never be finished eating. Then I think, she’s eaten hundreds of times, and she always finishes.
• For the first six weeks, I thought it would never be possible for my nipples to recover from the trauma, and I was sure that feeding would never be comfortable or bearable. That changed!  One day, it just all got better and I’m sooooooo happy I stuck it out :)
• I thought she might never smile, that she would always just be a little baby looking around.  Then she started smiling, and it’s like fuel to me!  Charles calls it her “secret weapon”.

Now, I think she will never be able to go in the car seat without screaming.  I hope that one works out like the others!  I’m honestly shocked every time these things happen! I really can’t even imagine that it will happen and it does.

My husband applied for permanent residency almost a year ago.  It should take about 6 months to be approved or rejected. I had started to believe it would be something looming over us for the rest of our lives, but after eleven months he was approved! Yay! I can remember when I was little, my parents would go on vacation, and I missed my mom SO much. I would think it seemed like she would NEVER be back! Then, one day, they would finally get home and come to get me.  When I was 13, I thought “It’s going to be FOREVER until I’m 16 and can drive!”. Suddenly I was 16 and I could drive.

Ps. My baby is the cutest baby in the world

It’s only 3:45 and it’s already been an amazing, peaceful birthday!  Here are the wonderful things that have happened already :) :

• After I woke up to feed the baby at 5:30, her daddy took her to sleep with him in the living room for 3 more hours! 10+ hours of sleep for me! WOW!
• Daddy made breakfast: Bacon, eggs, toast, potatoes, juice and a latte! YAY!
• Bobae played in the swing while mommy and daddy ate TOGETHER!
• Lots of smiles from my dolly
• A dozen roses from Daddy!
• He is a permanent resident!!!!!!!!!!!
• Bobae’s grammie came over to visit with presents ^^
• I got to watch Bridget Jones while Bobae slept (!!YAY!)
• Daddy is helping Bobae take a rest right now
• I had pie for a snack instead of lunch <3
• Daddy is going to make Dak Dori Tang for supper!!
• It was rainy and gloomy when I got up (my favourite!)
• My favourite t-shirt was clean when I got up
• Daddy bought me a cool new hair dryer for my birthday and I got to take a leisurely shower AND dry my hair!!!
• I’m 27! (really?!)
• We’re happy ^^ !!!!!!

Six week update:
Wow~! Things sure change a lot in 6 weeks don’t they?  Most of the things that were so difficult and unbearable have gotten MUCH better! A lot of this has been made easier by the wonderful support of the smart ladies who became Mommies earlier in the year.  I really cherish every piece of advice and encouragement from all of my mom-friends.  When ever I start to freak out, I email my best friend who had a baby girl in January, and somehow she always know what to say and how to help.  

The major issue, painful excruciating breastfeeding, is MUCH better.  It became almost pain free last week.  I’m so glad I stuck it out and didn’t give up. How easy it is to just feed her on demand instead of having to mix up formula, clean the bottles, ect.  As you probably recall, (anyone who spoke to me, ran into me, looked at me), I had horribly painful nipples.  Cracked, bleeding, etc.  I went from that to nipple blanching, where after she ate, my nipples would turn white, and then purple, and throb horribly, every time she ate. That only happens once in a while now. PHEWF!  She’s eating like a champ too!  At 2 weeks, she was 8lb 1oz, at five weeks, 10lbs! YAY! Good girl!

The sleeping hasn’t got much better, but I think we’re dealing with it better. I’ve adjusted to 4 hours average a night.  She usually sleeps for three hours, wakes up for 2 hours, then sleeps for 1 hour and is done for the night. Aghhh. Exhausting! I’m so jealous of people who say their baby sleeps 4 hours, wakes up, then goes right back to sleep again!! LUCKY!   Once every couple weeks, she’ll sleep well, but those seem few and far between!  Luckily, she loves her daddy now, so when he is home, he can hold her and let me take a rest. That has been sooooo helpful.  For the first month, I could only hold her. She didn’t like daddy, the swing, the bed, the bassinet, the chair, nothing.. just mommy.  I was lucky to get a shower every couple days through her screaming in daddy’s arms, but now she goes crazy when she can’t see him for a while!!

She’s recently started smiling and talking more. It’s soooo cute! Her cousin Madison was over yesterday and the two baby girls talked to each other for a while. Aghhh so CUTE!

We’ve only had one poop explosion.  Daddy took the diaper off before she was quite finished, and it shot across the room. Haha! I thought it was funny. He didn’t.  
She’s really been suffering from heat rash too… I’ve been paranoid that it was something worse, but the doctor said not to worry, just heat rash because of her sensitive skin.  We’ve switched from using Johnson and Johnson products to natural products, so hopefully that will also be better on her poor baby skin! Plus, now she smells like a honey comb :)

I love my baby!!!! How can one baby be so smart and cute and pretty and funny???

Bobae is a week and a half old now. Wow~!  Way to grow baby girl!!  Before she was born, we bought every thing we thought we would need to welcome our precious treasure into our lives and homes.  Some things have been extremely useful so far, and others are still waiting in her room for us to use them (maybe?).  I just want to let other moms know what we personally have found very useful so far!  

Sleep Sheep by Cloud B

My best friend gave us this for a shower present.  Bobae doesn’t like the room to be too quiet, so we put this sheep in the bottom of her bassinet.  It has a timer for about 25 min or 45 min.  The sheep plays nature sounds, Bobae and I prefer the stream, and her Daddy likes the Whale setting.  

Bassinet

At first, we had a lot of Bassinet Problems.  At night, as soon as I would put her in her bassinet she would wake up, realize she was in the bassinet and freak out.  Eventually she would sleep for about an hour at a time in it.  Now we find that if we use the bassinet in the living room in the day time for her naps instead of night time, she loves it and will sleep for a few hours at a time.  It’s really useful for day time!

Wipes Warmer

Personally, I wouldn’t have bought this, but I got it at a yardsale just to try.  My husband LOVES this! He’s afraid of anything cold, so it really bothered him to use cold wipes on her bum.  Honestly, I don’t see that much of a difference, she doesn’t really seem to mind the colder wipes very much, but it definitely puts his mind at ease to have this.

Nursing Pillow

This has been truly invaluable!  My best friends mom made this for our shower gift and it has already been used so much! In labour, I used it behind my head, after the baby was born i used it to sleep between my knees in the hospital. I always use it to feed her in bed and in the car.  When I was sore in the days following the delivery, I would curl it up and sit on it like a donut so it wouldn’t be so painful to sit on a hard chair.  Sometimes I keep in on my lap and let her take a nap in it. I love my nursing pillow!

Probiotics

The doctors say to only feed our baby breastmilk for 6 months, and I know some people will probably disagree with my decision, but we give Bobae probiotics every day.  We regularly visit a naturopathic doctor, who told us that these are very important for the baby to be taking, and we trust him.  At first we couldn’t figure out how to give them to her without spitting them up.  Eventually we got the hang of it! Open the pill, and put in a small dish. Add a LITTLE bit of COLD water, just enough to liquify it, one step more than a paste.  Lay baby flat on her back, and using a small eyedropper, drop her one drop at a time.  She won’t like it at first, but will eventually get the hang of it. They MUST be kept in the fridge, and never heated AT all. No warm water or milk to mix.  After she eats it, she’s usually a little mad, so I feed her after.

Nipple Cream

Unfortunately I have had very sore nipples.  In the hospital they gave me Lansinoh cream, which keeps nipples moist(er), but doesn’t quite do the trick for very very sad nipples.  I was perscribed Jack Newman’s Nipple Cream, which does a much better job. I just couldn’t find a picture of it.

Vaseline

In the hospital, the recommended we use Vaseline on Bobae’s bottom every time we change the diaper.  We’ve been using it since she was born and haven’t had any rash problems yet.  It’s also a lot cheaper than regular diaper cream!

Lavender Night Time Set

We received this as a gift from my cousin for our baby shower.  Every night before bed we wash the baby with the shampoo, body soap, and put lotion on her body.  She really does seem to be more calm in the evening after that.  Not to say she doesn’t scream her head off halfway through her bath!  She LOVES having her hair shampooed though. The icing on the bath-time cake :)

Co-Sleeper

Bobae hated sleeping her her bassinet, she only wanted to sleep in Mommy’s arms, or beside Mommy in the bed.  We are TERRIFIED of something happening to a baby in the bad after hearing horror stories of babies who fall off their parents and get wedged into cracks, etc.  We bought this co-sleeper from a lady off of kijiji, just to try.  It’s so nice to have the baby right between us in a safe place, without worrying she might get smooshed. She’s doing better sleeping in it too! Good girl!

Snap-n-Go Stroller

Okay, I think this is the thing I would recommend the MOST out of everything! We LOVE this!  As most parents know, the infant car seat is HEAVY!!!!!!!!!!!! I can barely get it to the car sometimes!  And that’s with just a 7lb baby in it! So we bought this. It’s so light and easy to use, I can do it myself!  I just keep it in the back of the car.  It’s one handed folding, and so smooth and simple.  You just pop the car seat on top of it, and have an instant stroller!  It’s so easy, I even use it just to run in somewhere close for a second. I LOVE THIS THING!!!!!

Night Light

Bobae seems to be really uncomfortable and nervous in completely dark places. We just keep the nightlight on for her every night.  It also makes it easier because I can see to help her latch on to eat at night too without turning on the big light.

Kissaluv’s Diaper Lotion Potion

This natural diaper spray is so convenient for quick diaper changes. When I want to get it done quick, I use this spray instead of the Vaseline. It smells really good too!

Swaddleme Wraps

My best friend also gave this to me as a shower present.  We really believe that babies are much more comfortable and secure when they are swaddled.  When Bobae was in the hospital she was swaddled 24/7 but since we’ve been home we swaddle her just at night time.  We were using blankets to do this, but decided one day to try the Swaddleme. It works SO well! We ordered three more from amazon.com the next day so we always have a clean one! We really love these too.

Receiving Blankets

I thought we had too many of these, but I don’t think that can happen.  We use these little blankets for everything. Change pad covers, towels, blankets, wraps, cleaning up spit up, everything!! THe more the better.

Baby Mittens

We had a pair of these in a gift pack from registering at Babies R Us and they were SO useful!  Her little fingernails are so sharp, that we keep these mitts on her to keep her from scratching up her face when she’s flailing around.

Head Snuggler

This really helps keep her head cozy and snuggled in the carseat.  We feel better not having her poor little head flap around too!

Before Bobae was born, I knew I’d be an excellent mother. I knew everything would come naturally for me, and I would be so happy!  Well, I’m definitely happy, but things sure didn’t come easily for me!!!  The first two weeks have been quite hard. When I see my other friends’ post about motherhood they all seem so well adapted and natural about taking care of their precious babies.  I was starting to feel like I would never get the hang of anything! So, I want to write about this in case there are any other new moms having a hard time, just to know they aren’t the ONLY one struggling with being a mommy!

Breast Feeding:

I’ve always known that I would breast feed my baby.  The immunities, nutritional benefits, bonding, etc., that could never be replaced.  Within about 10 minutes of Bobae’s birth she was nursing, and doing it quite well!  For the next four hours, she didn’t stop.  My nipples were so sore, it was unbearable. THey were bruised, cracked, bleeding, etc.  She had a good latch, so that wasn’t the reason, but she ate so often they didn’t have a chance to heal.  I would cry almost every time I fed her.  Once in a while I would scream with pain. Awful!  She was eating constantly.  If she was awake (which was often) she was eating.   Finally a doctor gave me a perscription for ‘Jack Newman’s Nipple Ointment’, which has helped a bit but she eats so often, I don’t think it gets a chance to heal me!  16 days later, I still feel like someone is sawing off my nipple with a jagged knife every time she starts to eat. BUT we keep doing it!  In the last week she’s gained a pound, so that makes it ALL worth it.  Good job baby girl :)  At her one week birthday she started a growth spurt.  Eating constantly. I couldn’t even get 15 minutes without her eating.  She didn’t sleep ALL night, she just ate the entire night… i stayed up crying and feeding her.  For the next week, she was like this! It’s only been the past couple of days that she’s settled down some. YEESH!!!!!!!!!!! Despite all of this, I’m so happy I can help my baby girl grow strong and healthy.

Nights

Oh. My. Goodness.  I am an eight hours a night+ kind of person. I NEED my sleep!  If I don’t get 8 hours, it’s hard for me to function.  Before I had the baby, I was a very light sleeper.  I needed the right pillow, the right temperature, the right blanket, right side of the bed, right level of light, etc.  Well I have gone from being “the princess and the pea” to “the princess and the watermelon”. I will sleep any way I get the chance these days.  Before the baby was born, people always gave the annoying advice “sleep when the baby is sleeping”. Well obviously that sounds ideal but it doesn’t always happen.  On an average day, I get about 3 hours where she’s not in my arms.  I have to decide between brushing my teeth, taking a shower, eating, cleaning, organizing, posting pics on facebook, doing something I want to do…  I thought before she was born that newborns sleep a LOT so why would there be any problem getting sleep?  AGH!  I have to start 3 hours early every night.  About 8:30 we have a bath, and I start feeding her.  She’ll eat lots, then drift off to sleep.  As soon as I put her down, she wakes up and realizes I’ve put her down and FREAKS out!!!! So it starts again, I feed her, she falls asleep, i put her somewhere, she wakes up mad.  This usually goes on for 2.5-3 hours.  FINALLY she goes to sleep~~!~!!  The last couple days I’ve been very lucky and she’s slept for 4 hours the first set of sleeping.  THen she usually wakes up for 2 hours, with the feeding sleeping waking cycle, then sleeps for about 2 hours, then is up for 3 hours.  Those three hours are HARD! Sometimes they start at 3am or 4am,but almost always last for three hours of the feeding cycle.  It really wears on me. There’s nothing my husband can do to help me, and I’m so exhausted!!  She must be tired too….. We’re only two weeks into this, but I’m hoping we can get into some type of schedule!! When she finally sleeps, she’s so precious and sweet that I don’t (hardly) care anymore that she’s kept me up all night.

Diapers:

Okay this one is easy! It’s not hard to change a diaper, nothing to be scared of! WHen my husband is here, he’s on diaper duty, but when he’s not, it’s up to me, and honestly it’s very easy.  Speed is of the essence.  Bobae does not like to be cold and exposed, so the faster the better.  We’re planning to use cloth diapers, we have them all prepped and ready, but we’re using the little disposables we’ve received as gifts until i’ve got things more under control. 

Pain~ down there :|

Bobae was born naturally, and I had no stitches.  I DID have tearing though.  The doctor said the tears should be able to heal naturally and I wouldn’t have to have stitches.  After she was born, every time I would pee, I would have SO MUCH PAIN! It was like acid being sqirted into my cuts! AGH!  It was still hurting very badly when I left the hospital, so they did a urine test to make sure there was no infection. THere wasn’t.  Besides the burning pee, I just had so much general pain that it made walking sitting and standing quite painful.  This pain went on for about 10 days, and then went away! Yay!  I used the squirt bottle with baking soda and warm water every time I peed, and that seemed to do the trick :)  Now I’m so excited that my pain has gone from 10/10 to 2/10!! The bad pain made me appreciate the absence of pain :)  Thanks baby girl for coming out so smoothly!

THE BELLY BUTTON!

Okay, this is probably the scariest of all the things.  On day 10, her umbilical cord fell off!  We were scared of it to begin with.  Charles handed her to me to feed and screamed “Ahh! It’s gone!!”  We looked down and it was laying on the floor!.  We picked it up and put it on the coffee table.  Later charles was cleaning stuff up and I said “Did you know her belly button is in your hand?” He looked down and realized, screamed and jumped up in the air “AHH!!”.  He thought it was a dried up bean.  ANyway, her belly button was kind of oozing, gooey blood a bit, some yellow stuff, and a bump would push out when she cried.  I called the hospital freaking out and they told me as long as it doesnt smell bad and she doesnt havea fever it should be fine.  First the next almost week, we’ve found dry blood on the sleepers when we change her and the belly button still bleeds a little.  The doctor said yesterday it is perfectly fine and no problem, so don’t worry about it :) PHEWF!!

The Crying (of me)

Lucky for us, Bobae doesn’t cry unless she’s hungry and I don’t get to her in time. SO I make up for it.  For her first two weeks I would cry at least once a day. Sometimes out of exhaustion, sometimes out of despair, sometimes out of guilt, but always something! This was very disconcerting to my husband :p

The Scratching

HOLY razor sharp claws batman!  If we let her hands loose, within minutes she will have scratched herself and me. YIKES! So we wear mittens on her all the time :)

Hiccups

Poor baby gets hiccups ALL the time!!!  It seems the only thing that gets rid of them if for her to cry.. So usually we let her have the hiccups until she gets frustrated and cries. Then I feed her to make her happy again :)

Despite these hard things, I wouldn’t change her for the world.  I feel so lucky and blessed every day to have this precious gift from God.  Being Bobae’s mom is the best feeling in the world. I love you baby girl!

WARNING:!   There are some details about child birth that you may not want to know!!!  I’m going to be completely honest about my labour and delivery~ details and all :)  Consider yourself warned.  

After we arrived home from the hospital I wrote an email to my friend who is also a new mom to tell her the details of our baby’s birth.  I thought I had better put that story somewhere so I would be able to find it again when I want to remember. So~ here it is! My birth plan seemed quite solid and natural going in.  I was going to try to do everything as natural as possible.  Weeks before the baby was born I started to drink Red Raspberry Leaf tea, took primrose oil, did every healthy thing possible to ensure a timely and healthy labour and delivery.  At 41 weeks, baby STILL hadn’t arrived, and I was getting worried. I had refused to have a “membrane sweep” every week, saying that the baby would arrive on time when she was ready.  On week 41, the doctor sent me for an ultrasound to check the levels of amniotic fluid, and found that they were getting low. She informed me that they would try to start an induction after lunch.  This was on Monday, May 30th.  So, we went home, got our bags, had some lunch, took a shower and went back to the hospital around 1:00.  Before they do a full on induction, they start by inserting a little gel-soaked thing to try to ripen the cervix.  At this point I was 3 cm dilated, but had had no contractions yet.

It was really painful and I had BAD cramping the rest of the day. We slept there that night and at 5:30am I woke up with really painful contractions. Lucky for me I paid attention in prenatal class and was able to breathe through most of them!!!! They were about 5 min apart, and after a couple of hours they brought me the laughing gas. I found that I didn’t make enough difference to use it, so I kept doing my breathing instead. I got in the bathtub a couple of times, but worried that that could be slowing down the process so didn’t go in much! We walked the halls of the hospital and I walked in circles around the room. At supper time, after the whole day of these awful painful contractions, they checked me and i was dilated~~~ 4 cm. AHHH i broke down and started sobbing!! All of that hard breathing pain and ONE CM!!! She decided that she would try to break my water to see if that sped things up, or if they would have to go ahead with the induction (oxytocin drip). NOPE, breaking the water did the trick! Contractions immediately changed to about 1.5 to 2 min apart, lasting for about 90 seconds. Mom was there writing down all of my contractions and times the whole day, and Charles took care of me so well. It was so painful so fast that I couldn’t keep myself under control anymore. I couldn’t get my breathing going, I tried not to cry and scream. There wasn’t much rest between each contraction. They said they wanted to give me Fentanol for the pain, so they gave me an injection of that. It was awful! I just felt out of my mind, like I was drunk or high or something, and I got really sick feeling and thew up a lot in a little bowl. Ew. After that I just tried to bear the pain, but I was going out of my mind. The doctor came in about 7:30 to check me and I was 7 cm dilated! She was really surprised. Yeesh! But the pain was so intense and I was getting out of control she said “I think we should consider an epidural”. And I said “YES PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Our hospital doesn’t do epidurals much, I was the first one the nurse had seen before. Usually the epidurals had lead to C-sections because the mommy’s couldn’t feel the urge to push, and it seemed to slow down labour. Anyhow, I got the epidural about 8:30 I think. The contraction pain went away but I got a different intense pain that literally felt like a “pain in the butt” I just kept saying “my butt hurts!!”.I felt so much pressure and pain in my bottom. I thought the epidural would take that away but not at all! So painful I was still wailing half the time! After the epidural was in, I was shaking uncontrollably for quite a while, I think it scared my husband.  I had a really bad feeling in my chest, and I could feel that my heart beat had slowed quite a bit. I kept saying “something isn’t right! please check my heartbeat!”.  My blood pressure had dropped a lot, quickly, but no one told me that was why I was feeling that way. About 10:30, I kept saying “I feel like I have to poop!” (sorry) and the nurse said Ok I’ll check you again. She checked me and said “OMG you’re 10 cm! You can start pushing now!” and i was like “ummmm…. how?” and she said “when you feel the urge to push, push like you have to poop”. I didn’t feel the urge though because of epidrual. BUt I was really determined and pushed everytime I felt a pain in the butt. I asked what would happen if she didn’t come out, and they said they would stop the epidural. NO THANK YOU! I was laying on my back and i was like, isn’t there any other way I could be to do this?! Laying on the back doesn’t make sense! They thought my legs would be too weak tho because of the epidural. I said I had to pee, which i kind of did but not too much, I just wanted to sit up. So they brought this chair with a hole in it and I sat in it and tried pushing sitting up when they went around the corner. When they came back, the agreed to let me sit up in bed to push. At this point I’d been pushing about an hour. Mom said the nurse went out in the hall and said to the other nurse “she’ll probably be pushing another 2-3 hours”. When she came back I was pushing with all my might and she checked and said “OMG IT”S A HEAD!! THE BABY IS COMING! GET THE DOCTOR!!!!”. The doctor ran in, and I was doing my pushing with all my might, and in 15 minutes or so she was born :) It was sooo painful, even with the epidural, but the pain ALL went away the second she came out!!! Charles and the other nurse held my legs back behind me ears almost while i pushed her out at the end. She kicked her way out and they could see her kicking through my stomach and pelvis and i felt it and it was so weird! When she came out, the cord was around her neck and I was terrified, they took her quickly over to the baby table and put oxygen on her and she was fine, and brought her back. Charles cut the cord and sprayed blood all over the doctors face haha. Bobae started nursing immediately and didn’t stop for almost 4 hours. WHICH led to very painful cracked bleeding nipples. Her latch was good but I guess it was just too much. The next day the pain was so bad that every time I nursed I would cry and do my labour breathing exercises. FINALLY they gave me some special cream yesterday and it seems to be getting better. She gained 2 oz already so I think we’re doing a good job despite that! Good girl! Everyone at the hspital loved her said how smart and pretty she is, the last nurse said to me when we were getting ready to go “your baby is so alert and content… i can tell she’s going to do big things”. It made me so happy!!!! Now we are home, and I was worried about how hard it would be without the people at the hopsital right around the corner, but it seems to be a bit easier and more relaxed being here. It REALLY hurts to pee, and walk or sit much, but other than that doing good. I never could have imagined how much I would fall in love with this precious baby. I could just stare at her for hours and hours and hours and hours! I think I’m still in the hormone induced emotional state because when I think abotu how much i love her i just start crying!! We are so lucky!!!!!!!!!!  Oh~ all evening we had been wondering if she would be born in May or June. She arrived the first minute of June. 12:01am. :):):)

Bobae Lavender Lee~  Born June 1st at 12:01am.  7lbs 5.5oz, 21 inches long and perfect.