We celebrated my mom’s birthday last Sunday night at my grandparents. We enjoyed dinner from Olive Garden and then continued to do what has become our favorite past time, we stared at the babies.
Happy 58th Mom!
Food
25
Aug 10
Getting It Done
On Thursday Kingston and I rocked out some errands. Speed was a by product of his lack of interest in shopping.
18
Aug 10
Date Night
Saturday afternoon we left Kingston with Grandma and we hit the town for our first date night since his arrival. First on the agenda was a movie matinee. I honestly think it’s been a year since I’ve been to the movies and since my parents gave me a gift certificate to AMC for my birthday, we took this opportunity to see Inception. I’m not sure I understood everything that happened, but I really enjoyed it, even finding myself on the edge of my seat during a few scenes.
After the movie we decided we would try out a sushi joint in town that was having a 50% off everything deal for their 2nd anniversary. I’m not sure why we continue to deviate from our favorite place, Amura (Lake Mary) , because we are always disappointed by comparison.
Our rolls at Samurai Sushi were good, but so not worth the 2 hr wait for them. After an hour and 15 minutes of waiting we asked the waiter how much longer because my stomach was eating itself and I was getting cranky. When he told us another 15 to 20 minutes, Jeremy told him he needed to bring us something free to eat right away.
So we had salad and soup on the house while our waiter apologized for the long wait. He explained that they were just so swamped because of the 50% off deal. Which would be understandable if we had seen sushi come out of the kitchen on a regular basis. However, what we did see was that more than half the restaurant was waiting on sushi for as long as we were and the people that had come in after us who were told it would be a 20 minute wait were still sitting at the bar over an hour later. So an hour and 40 minutes from being seated we finally had our 4 rolls.
I think we would have enjoyed the extra “alone” time more had we not spend the last 40 minutes staring at the sushi bar willing the next plate to be ours. I get that it was extra busy, but how long does it normally take to get sushi there? Even half the time we spent waiting seems a little long. Nothing ever beats the tastiness and speed of our Amura’s.
We had a nice time out though and hope to make our date nights a little more often than every 2 months : )
16
Aug 10
The Mystery of the Pineapple Cravings
Last Monday we made another visit to the chiropractor. While there we went over the results from my pelvic x-ray. It doesn’t appear that birth knocked me too far out of wack, my right hip is a little higher than my left and the tip of my tailbone is sticking out a little bit farther than it should. Nothing a few adjustments can’t get back inline. What did show up on the x-ray that is concerning is that you can see where my hips are in the beginning stages of deteriorating. Yikes! This is alarming. I’m too young to be showing these signs, on top of that both my dad and his mom have had hip replacement surgery. I am not looking to join them on this trend. Dr. Erin suggested some supplements which I will start taking soon, but I wanted to know what foods I should also incorporate in my diet to help. I was shocked when she said pineapple. I’m a big believer in that when you crave a certain food (I’m talking fruits and veggies here, not that big slice of chocolate cake) your body is telling you that it needs some nutrient from it that you are lacking. How interesting that I CRAVED pineapple during pregnancy like I might never be able to eat it again. Finally, I know why I wanted to eat it all the time. Now if I could just figure out what my grape juice craving was about. Maybe iron levels?
13
Aug 10
Happy Birthday Grandpa!
We spent some time with my family Friday night, Aug. 6th, celebrating my dad’s 61st birthday. We got take out from Olive Garden and enjoyed dinner at my grandparents’ house (grandma just had gallbladder surgery and is still recovering).
Happy Birthday Dad!
28
Jul 10
Egg Roll Bonanza
Saturday night we went over to the Marchmans’ for dinner and we made homemade egg rolls (Jeremy’s mom’s recipe). Gina had all the ingredients ready and we all pitched in to roll them and then Jeremy fried up all 40. Gina and I downed 4 a piece, while the guys each ate about double that.
We let dinner settle for a bit and then we made S’mores the way you do when you live in the suburbs and don’t have a fire pit, we roasted the marshmallows on the grill. So tasty! Things got a little messy when Gina bit into hers and got it on her face, which then resulted in marshmallow on Alan’s face when he laughed at her. Good times with friends :) I could go for another S’more right about now …
20
Jul 10
Meal Time With Dad
Last week we delved into the world of breastpumps and bottle feeding. I will be returning to work in August, but we didn’t want to give up the amazing nutritional benefits that come with breastmilk, so we decided to start introducing Kingston to how his meals will soon be served. Kingston has made the transition between nursing and bottles great.
I wasn’t sure how much his tummy could hold, or how well he would do the first time, so Thursday night we started with 2 ozs and then finished his meal nursing. He didn’t miss a beat switching between the two. He seems to be very adaptable to whatever we throw his way. He handled things just as well during our middle of the night feeding on Friday.
Saturday night, we thought we would up his bottle intake and throw another new twist in. Dinner with Daddy. We switched up our roles and while Kingston drank 4 & 1/2 ozs with Jeremy, I read him a bedtime story. Then he had a little dessert with me, before nodding off for a solid 6 hours, our longest stretch of sleep yet. I think there might be something to this bottle-before-bed thing.
Our next mission is to stock pile the freezer so we’re ready for work, sickness, or anything else that might come our way (except the freezer dying, in which case we would be very sad).
12
Jul 10
Meeting The Uncles
This weekend both Kingston’s uncles came by to meet him.
Uncle Arthur (my brother) came by on Friday to say hi. He was a little hesitant to hold Kingston since the last time he held a baby the diaper leaked all over him. Kingston saves those kind of accidents just for mom and dad, so Arthur was in the clear.
Uncle Josh (Jeremy’s brother) was in town for business so he came over to hang out on Saturday. Jeremy brought Kingston out and said “This is your Uncle Josh.” Kingston replied by spitting up. We don’t believe this is a direct reflection of his feelings towards Uncle Josh, but only time will really tell ; P
While Josh and Jeremy worked on some projects around the house, Kingston and I chilled on the couch.
All the sitting around watching the guys work wore us out, so we took a little nap.
After our exhausting day, it was time for dinner. We decided to hit Delano’s for our first dinner out with Kingston, since it’s small and close to home. Kingston was on his best behavior and slept through most of dinner. We ran into Hemarie’s mom while we were there so she had the chance to meet Kingston.
A little after dinner we stopped by Alan and Gina’s since Josh hadn’t had a chance to see their house yet. Alan’s brother, Kellon, and his fiancé, Jacquelyn, were in town so the guys played some cornhole in the backyard while the girls hung out inside. Then eventually we all ended up on the floor surrounding Kingston. He’s quite the entertainer, you know all that laying around and staring, it’s quite thrilling ; )
29
Jun 10
Meeting the Lawleys
Kristy and Rob stopped by Monday night to hang out, meet Kingston and bring us a delicious dinner.
20
Jun 10
1st Father’s Day
For my first Father’s Day Jen had a card written from Kingston and dressed him in this cool H&M onesie that said “I Heart Dad”. We had a lazy morning until my parents came over for lunch and my dad’s favorite dessert, Key Lime Pie. It’s the first Father’s Day in years that I’ve been able to spend it with my dad, so it was cool to have him here. They hung out for a few hours and got as much Kingston time as they could before leaving for home in the early afternoon.
We napped in the afternoon before Jen’s family came over for dinner and dessert. Jen’s aunt Denise and cousin Brittney were in town and haven’t had a chance to meet Kingston yet, so they tried holding him when they could pry him from Grandma Bev. This was a cool Father’s Day because Kingston had a great-grandpa and grandpa there. We hung out, had some dinner and afterwards some cookie cake and cupcakes. All in all it was a pretty good first Father’s Day, keeping it simple and low-key at the house.
17
Jun 10
Meeting The Wares
Anna and Gary stopped by Thursday night to say hi and brought a yummy dinner of chicken salad and cupcakes.
17
Jun 10
Meeting Kelly
Aunt Kelly stopped by for a visit Thursday afternoon and brought us a meal for next week.
17
Jun 10
You Found What?!
We eat smoothies a lot. Like most mornings for breakfast. It’s a easy way for us to get our fruit intake and they taste so good.
As normal Jeremy pulled out our big bag of Dole’s frozen mixed fruit and started throwing pieces in the blender. And then he felt something that didn’t seem right. As he pulled it out of the bag he discovered a piece of glass about the size of a quarter. Yep, nothing like some good ole glass in your smoothie. It’s a new feature Dole’s offering. Thank goodness he was paying attention, but who knows if we ate another piece some other day that was frozen between two pieces of fruit.
Jeremy called up the customer service number on the bag and they offered us $25 dollars and a ton of coupons for free bags of fruit. Apparently the lady is only authorized to offer that much or we have to do some sort of claim, and since we didn’t actually eat it and having something else to do right now is not what we need, we accepted. They also are sending a courier out to pick up the bag and glass so that they can investigate and find out how this could have happened (they claim they don’t have any glass in their factory). Nothing like a little glass to start your morning off right.
10
Jun 10
Adventures In Natural Induction
Well nothing happened last night. I really thought I was starting to have some progress. As we were going to bed I was getting more intense cramping and some pangs across my stomach, but I still woke up this morning pregnant and the pangs had disappeared.
Our original plan was to wake up at 7 a.m. and start the day off with a nice refreshing glass of castor oil. We didn’t get to bed until after 1 a.m though so we pushed it back to 8 a.m. I had a meltdown once we got up, so it got pushed back again. At 9 a.m, Jeremy made me a castor oil shake, 4 oz. of castor oil, a cup of ice cream, a splash of milk, and lots of chocolate syrup. It took me 10 minutes to chug it and surprisingly wasn’t that bad, didn’t taste good by any definition, but was doable. About 10 minutes later the fun began.
The rest of the day was divided between the bathroom, H2H, and sleeping on the couch. The castor oil wasn’t as awful as I had imagined (although don’t be deceived, it was no walk in the park), there were cramps, and extreme nausea, but survivable. At 4 p.m. I started to feel a little better and had my first meal of the day.
The cramps eventually disappeared and around 8 p.m. I finally had enough energy again to go for a walk around the neighborhood.
Didn’t really seem to provide much help however. I’m now 2 cms and 80% effaced, but it didn’t kick start any contractions. Not worth the hassle if you ask me. I can’t really imagine going through labor with that still in my system, I’m very impressed with those who have.
Tomorrow is another round of different herbs. Then they want me to take a break on Saturday and relax so that we can go all out on Sunday. That means, castor oil, acupuncture, chiropractor, and then breaking my water. This afternoon we made the decision that we’ve done enough. We’re going to try the herbs tomorrow, but if that doesn’t work, we’re done. We’ll enjoy our last weekend as the 2 of us and take our chances at the hospital. Not ideal, but we’ve simply tried everything now, from what the midwives have advised, to suggestions from friends, to random advice from strangers. It’s not working and we just have to be okay with that. I don’t feel comfortable with them breaking my water since I know that starts the clock and I only get 24 hours from then, so if it comes to that point, we’ll choose the Pitocin first. Another decision I didn’t think I’d have to be making, but we really feel it’s the better option in our situation.
5
Jun 10
Warning: May Induce Labor
I heard rumor that Briar Patch in Winter Park has a dish that touts labor inducing powers. Being willing to try anything at this point, Christina and I headed out to lunch on Friday. Sure enough, right under salads there it was.
The waiter knew exactly why we were there and asked “did you see what you are supposed to order?”. It wasn’t a dish I probably would have normally ordered, but it was really good. I asked the waiter as we were leaving if I could come get a refund if it didn’t work and he assured me I’d be bringing my baby by to say hi in no time. Let’s hope he is right.
Afterwards we took a stroll up and down Park Ave. Gotta keep moving. Maybe this kid will be here by Saturday …
