A lady is born

Announcing the birth of our little lady!! Monday night she made her first appearance in this world and we are so proud of her! Welcome to your second estate, our little El (or L for short (: ).

*****Warning. Birthing details ahead. Proceed with caution if you're a wimp... :)*****

Monday night, while making eggplant Parmesan for dinner (Jared's favorite way to eat eggplant),  I realized this was it! All my practice pressure waves from the previous week were actually leading up to something. It was 5:30 pm, Jared was on his way home from work already, and I was making dinner for the little guy. Many of you know we used Hypnobabies for self hypnosis and relaxation during birth. More info about that approach to birth can be read here and here. This technique has proven to be a winner for our family twice now. 

So, I listened to my Birthing Day Affirmations track (from the course material) while making dinner. The track is just relaxing music with a calm woman repeating positive, encouraging thoughts like "I am going to have a calm, beautiful birthing" or "Every pressure wave brings my baby closer to being in my arms today." They are so positive and help set the mood for an optimistic, fear-free birth.

Jared got home at 6:30 and I had just laid down to relax and get into my hypno-zone, listening to the Fear Clearing track. He jumped into action like he always does when I need his help. (thank you, my love!) He fed the guy dinner, dished me a serving and cleaned up the mess. I ate dinner very slowly while still in my "trance" :) and laid back down. I originally asked Jared to put the guy to bed and run me a hot bath. But by the time he was down for bed, I realized things had progressed so quickly that there was no time for that.

I asked Jared to give me a blessing and that only added to the peaceful, happy calm that filled the house. He packed the car, arranged to drop the guy off at my brother's (thank you, bro!), and we were off to the hospital. I listed to a different Hypnobabies track (Easy First Stage) in head phones all the way through the rest of the labor until it was time to push my baby out. It was on the background for about an hour before she was born. 

Anyway, all those Hypnobabies details are for those that I know want to know more about this method. 

We checked in to triage, my legs were shaking lots and I was dilated 7 centimeters. My midwife arrived as quickly as she could and was a superstar! She was right where I needed her when I needed her, but allowed me and Jared to be alone when he was all I needed. She added to the calming atmosphere. Jared made sure that the nursing staff received our homemade banana chocolate chip muffins and thank you card. We did that with the guy's birth too, to thank them for their help and support of a natural hypno-birth.

The nurse ran me a burning hot bath in the deep jetted tubs they have in every private room at the Birthing Inn. It was a great place to give birth because of that little detail. I love the water. Although, hospital policy is no water births. But labor in the water is AWESOME. While in the water only after 10 minutes, I felt like I needed to push. I got out, everyone got ready (including putting on the Pushing Baby Out track) and then the weirdest thing happened. My body took a 10 minute break and I just laid in the bed waiting for the feeling to push again. It was so strange and I kept asking Jared what happened. Bless his heart, he just patiently said I don't know. Like he would know why my contractions stopped... I knew I should squat again to get things going, but I was so comfortable laying there. I even said out loud, "I should move but I am so comfortable." I wonder how often the delivery nurses hear that during transition or pushing!

My midwife checked to see if my water broke at any point while in the tub, and later told me that at that point I was only dilated 8 centimeters. The sac still had not broken. I knew I should squat if anything was going to progress, but squatting did not get the desired effects. So, I remembered that my job is just to relax and let my baby's birth happen. We sat the bed up a bit so I was squatting a bit but fully supported. I completely released all my muscles to a complete limp state and a couple minutes later she was born! Relaxing everything completely allowed we to dilate the last 2 centimeters, not tear at all, and I pushed her out in one contraction. It was incredible. Seriously out of this world. I got to hold her immediately and told her she did such a good job. I am really so proud of her because I know it is hard work. But we did it! Team Ondricek did it again!

She was born at 10:42 pm, 6 pounds, 15 ounces, 19 inches long and a screamer. She has proven to be a very vocal baby since then. She's got opinions and she makes them known. :) 

Our hospital stay was longer than I wanted and there are several things that happened that reminded me a healthy birth is a hospital is not my ideal birth. For example, someone came in at 6 am to draw my blood and she turned on the lights immediately upon walking in the room. Jared, the lady and I were all asleep in there, so I barked out, "You can take my blood without giving my whole family cardiac arrest!" I felt bad for being rude, but seriously that sucked. I want to be at a birthing center, but I want to know a hospital is close in case of emergency. There is no good combination like that close enough to us. 

Since her birth, we have all fallen in love with E and make sure she knows it. Big brother loves her, enjoys holding her, saying her name, and showing her his toys. He wanted her to go down his slide once she came home. He is so excited to have a sibling and friend. 

The poor girl was uncomfortable with gas the first 2 days. Probably all the delicious cheese in my eggplant parm. Yum!

We also have enjoyed the incredible assistance and love from LeAnn or "Mimama" (Jared's stepmom) and Aunt Rachel this week. What a difference they have made in our transition. Thank you so much for your help!!

And thank you to all who have offered their love and help. We love you so much in return!

The proud makers of a delicious homemade white chocolate raspberry ice cream pie!

We heart games. We are kind of obsessed lately.

Lastly, Jared and I are so grateful to the Lord for helping our family grow and for making the journey so enjoyable. E's name means different things in different languages. Among its meanings are "my God is bountiful," "God's promise," and "consecrated to God, noble." Jared and I know that our God is bountiful, has given us great bounty in life, and that He keeps his promises. And we hope to teach our lady to love God and consecrate her life to Him. Her middle name is in honor of her grandma, Ann Marie Ondricek, who passed away last year. We trust that these two wonderful ladies already know each other from before E was born. :) We have undoubtedly felt Grandma O's love and support this week. The tender mercies of the Lord have been many these last few days. And for that, we are grateful.

Jack-o-lantern pancakes

Yesterday we rang in the first day of Autumn with a special breakfast: pumpkin pancakes shaped like jack-o-lanterns as seen over at Artful Parent. I used sprouted spelt flour and coconut oil as substitutes.

I really like pumpkin treats and this one is especially delectable with the caramelized banana. Check out the recipe. YUM!

 Our little guy helped me make the batter, but was ready to eat the first pancake. So I got to make the silly faces all by myself. It may have been too hard for him anyway. I had fun!

What fall, pumpkin recipes are your favorites? I want them! :) 

Happy Birthday to me!

As promised, here is my report on our fabulous birthday celebration. 

I turned 28 and now I feel old. This one feels much bigger than last year.

We first celebrated by going out to breakfast. 

Our bigger celebration however was our roaming our CSA farm, where we are shareholders. It is an all organic farm 17 miles west of our home and we reap their fresh harvest every week. My awesome husband found them earlier this summer and we have thoroughly enjoyed the fresh, local, organic produce. Nothing in the store compares to a fresh tomato picked that morning! Our harvest has included tomatoes & potatoes of all varieties, corn, bell peppers, hot peppers, sorrel, basil, summer squash, butternut squash, watermelon, bitter melons, garlic, okra, broccoli, salad mix, apples of many kinds, pears, peaches, eggplant, onion, sweet potatoes and more. God is so good to us for sending such a beautiful Earth and a bountiful harvest. We thank Him for our farmers often during family meal prayers.

Without further ado, here are the pictures of our farm adventure:

The dirt road to get there

Bell pepper greenhouse 

Seedlings and... do you see them?!? BEEHIVES! We get fresh honey next month!

That morning's harvest. We went home with our fresh share picked that day!

Smile for the camera

We also went home with about 15 fresh zinnias for the house. A bonus for coming to the farm in person.

Look at the chickens, daddy!

The guy LOVED the chicken coop. The owner is collecting fresh eggs.

This is one thing I love about organic farms. The birds fertilize the land, so their coop is a mobile, rotating one. Right now they are living over what used to be the broccoli field, picking at the remains and pooping out the leftovers. Waste not! :)

"Organic farm. Do not spray."

Our lovely centerpiece later that day

I have to say, it was a fabulous birthday filled with love, gratitude, and giggles. Thank you to all who reminded me of your love. 

words and wounds

So many new happenings around our house!

First, our little man - the guy - said his first four word sentence this week! He got up from his nap and I laid him down to change his diaper. Pointing at his bed he said, "blanket on the bed." Woot! He had never said "the" and has been using it more and more this week. I am so proud of my growing boy. One day we will have a long, intellectual conversation about the world and religion and I won't even notice his use of "the." (insert motherly sigh)

Also, the poor kid fractured his shoulder this week. He fell from a chair, landed terribly, and is in the process  of healing. It is not excruciating, but we are doing what's necessary to allow him to heal.

Not only is our boy growing, but our lady is getting so big too! Every day I feel her kick and stretch and turn and grow. I experience practice birthing waves (aka contractions) nearly every day. Some are quite strong. Yesterday's appointment shows my belly measures 38 cm, 2 centimeters of growth since last week. She is definitely engaged and ready to come soon: I am 50% effaced, 2 cm dilated, and her head is at a +2 station. She's so far down there, her head could not be felt from the abdomen.

Jared and I regularly discuss what we have ready and what still needs preparing for her to come. We practice our Hypnobabies scripts in order to achieve our comfortable, medication-free, quick birth and quiz each other.

Me: "What would your responsibility be if I went in to labor in the middle of the night tonight? GO!"

Jared: "What would you do if I am at work and don't answer my office phone? GO!"

We are so excited to meet her and welcome her soul to the world and our family. She could come any moment now.

And that's not all. More posts to come on my birthday celebration, our CSA farm visit, and my baby shower! Stay tuned.

Wildlife

I know we only moved 14 miles away, but it feels like we are now on the edge of civilization. We moved from the Town Center to a townhouse, on the western edge of our county and just one county over is farm land. The biggest change to me is the wildlife. I am amazed at the animals we have seen right in our own yard. In the 5 months we've been here we have seen in our own yard:

• a raccoon
• a baby rabbit many times
• a frog twice
• a turtle
• hummingbirds
• several butterflies
• a baby mole
• bats
• chipmunks
• and the usual squirrels and full-grown rabbits

We saw the turtle this morning. The guy loved it and kept calling its back a rock. I am glad to be in a community where animals can live also. Except for the wolf spiders. Did I mention we found a huge wolf spider in our basement?!? Yep. My poor niece found it and thought it was fake. It nearly gave her and me a heart attack. I am good with sharing the yard with wildlife, but not my house. You enter my house uninvited and you are likely to die. Just a friendly warning. But out in the yard, they are super cool. :)

I hope you can sleep tonight. Sorry to say these are very common in our area.

UPDATE! Add to the list of sitings one more turtle visit and a SNAKE! Yikes. 

Poisoned!

A few weeks ago I had a great idea - I'll weed the backyard while my wife is in Utah at her sister's wedding!  There were a few obstacles however.  For instance, the jungle had eaten our lawn mower.

Lawn mower in the jungle

After I courageously battled my way through the underbrush and rescued my only weapon against the foliage I was finally able to tame the grass.  Yet there was still an overabundance of plants that the previous owners had planted that were dead and plenty of weeds.

Poison ivy!

So I knew exactly what to do.  Put some gloves on and go to work.  It was hot outside so I had a t-shirt on, but I put some gloves on and started pulling until I had conquered about 3/4 of the yard.  Fast forward two days and I woke up with a horrible rash on my arms where they had been exposed.

My poison ivy rash

It looked worse in person - and got worse for about a week before sloooooooowly going away until now, more than three weeks from "First Contact", it has faded to almost non-existence, but will probably still be there for a few more days.  And now I know without a doubt what poison ivy looks like!

Summer reading reviews

I've tried to read several books this summer and have finished a depressing percentage of them. I do not always love the books chosen in my two book clubs, but at least they get me trying new material. I am such a slow, picky reader that I don't keep reading a book if I feel like it is not worth the amount of time required for me to finish it. Time is precious. And I read slowly.

My top summer read is Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. I could not put it down.

I have never been in to romance novels. They tend to be too trashy and fluffy. But this story based very loosely on Hosea in the Bible contained an inspiring message of love in marriage and the redeeming love of God. Although the main character is a recovering prostitute, Rivers keeps it surprisingly clean. Clean enough for a prude like me. :) I was hooked, laughed, cried, and even got Jared a little interested. Five stars!

The other books that I have started and pathetically have not finished this summer include:

• The Shack, Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity, William P. Young 
• The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy, Stewart O'Nan
• Samurai's Garden, Gail Tsukiyama
• The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafron

The Shack mingled too many philosophies of men with scripture and lost me when God was portrayed as a African American, teasing female. To the author's credit, it can be found in the fiction section, but not my kind of fiction. I am trying to finish it however, so I can talk to a friend about it. Slow and steady, maybe I'll finish it.

The Circus Fire is my kind of history story telling, but moved too slow to hook me before I moved on to Redeeming Love. :) I am also trying to finish this one. It is my slow-going bathroom book. 

Samurai's Garden was simply boring and fluffy. Even after the book club discussion, I am not sure what the take home message was intended to be. Sad.

Shadow of the Wind is supposed to be awesome, and it probably is very interesting. It lost me after 80 pages when a scene left me unable to trust the author's clean content anymore. Maybe that's a double standard after loving Redeeming Love, but it is what it is and I already returned it to the library. Maybe it will captivate me on round two.

Other books I have read this year that I loved and highly recommend are:

• Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption, Laura Hillenbrand
• Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Amy Chua
• The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, Erik Larson

These are true stories, which I really enjoy. Since I read slowly, true stories are a better use of my time because these are real people with a real history. They connect me to the world I live in and I appreciate both the story and my fellowman more.

Unbroken was the best. I listened to it in the car and so Jared enjoyed a lot of it with me. We could not wait to get back in the car and hear more. We learned about the Olympics, WWII in Japan, pilot training and the capacity of human survival. Amazing read. Or should I say, amazing listen?

Battle Hymn was a super quick read and caused me to evaluate my parenting methods. I learned more about Chinese parenting and enjoyed that I finished motivated to be a better parent.

The Devil was very dark at times (the devil always is, isn't he?) and also slow going with architectural details, but only in pockets. The other sections kept me hooked. I learned so much about the World's Fair, American architecture, patriotism, and the criminal mind. Unfortunately, my take home message was that psycho killers could be anyone, even the very likable charismatic guy next door. A sobering reality check. But still an amazing read.

What's that you say? You didn't ask for my book recommendations?!? Sorry, you got them anyway. :) Happy reading!

Wedding and Reunion

The guy and I took a trip to UT this month to join most of my family for my sister's wedding. Constant party! I adore my family. We really enjoyed this trip and the bride and groom were GLOWING. Words cannot describe how happy I am for my sister's new found happiness. 

 We celebrated lots of summer birthdays at a party. These peeps joined us.

 This indoor playgroup was absolutely perfect for the guy and I wish there were one in my neighborhood. The soft and clingy structures are perfect for him to practice climbing and strengthen his leg muscles and balance. It was heaven for him. Bless his heart, he is not prone to athleticism but he adored this gym.

 He worked SO hard to get to the top of this pink beast.

"what is that girl doing, mama?"

 Wedding day:

 The guy just wanted to dance on the empty dance floor all night. And he did. All by himself, most of the time.

 I wanted to make sure I got at least one picture with each of my siblings, self-portrait style. 

 And the 'rents.

I had to add my sister-in-law for good measure. She is basically a sister anyway because she has been in our life and family since I was 12. :) 

 The gorgeous view of the golf course and mountains from the reception. There's nothing like rocking out on the tee to celebrate a wedding. :) The groom is a golfer at this country club. I have to say, he chose an excellent venue. 

 Last and definitely least, my sad right leg. This pregnancy has turned my right foot into an elephant foot, glorious with bulging veins, clots, and just this week edema. Pregnancy doesn't have to be difficult, but my experience has shown it is not easy-peasy either. I feel great, but my body has changed. For some reason, the left leg is totally unaffected, but my right side is struggling. Only a few weeks left and we'll be +1!!!!! 

I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it!!! Come on, you know you want to sing a long and maybe even dance with me.....