L-A-B-O-R !!!

My friend Tiffany called me at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning to tell me she was in labor!!! She had been having contractions since 3 a.m. and was doing fine. On and on this went through the day....her and her hubby (and her little girl, Alana) went out to breakfast, went on walks and just hung out at home.

I went to her house around 4 p.m. to check and see how things were going. The contractions were getting more intense, but she was handling them just fine. She enjoyed laboring while walking, leaning over and being in her bathtub.

She decided she was ready to head for the hospital around 9 p.m. Her plan was to get there pretty late in labor so they could not mess with her. Attempting a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) is not easy, and she did not want any staff interference.

We walked in the hospital about 10 o'clock p.m. She was checked in and had all the "stuff" done upon admission. The doctor said she was 5 cm and the baby was pretty low.

I went out in the hall to put my cat in the microwave (my lavender filled cat...used for a hot compress on the shoulders/back) and I heard some nurses talking. One was telling the other, "There is a VBAC in room 2....which means another C-section, of course."
I was livid. How dare she?! Her client is trying to give birth naturally instead of having major abdominal surgery. She should be thrilled. In fact, medical research says that a mom has a three-fold risk of death from a c-section verses a vaginal birth. Gee wiz. Don't they read their own literature?

Fast forward a few hours...and a few run-ins with the THREE doctors that were in our room alllll the time....around 1 a.m. Tiff felt a little pushy. I told her to go with what her body was saying...so she did. A loud POP resonated around the room (her bag of waters that she would not let the doc break...it broke on it's own) and the baby fell out. Literally. Right there on the bed. Tiff was on her knees leaning over and had that baby right then and there. Nate (her dear hubby) reached down and picked up his baby and started talking to her...and she began screaming. The docs were saying (and I am not being sarcastic nor am I exaggerating), "What do we do? What do you want to do? What should we do?" That upped my confidence in the medical staff. Yeah. Thankfully the civilian dad knew just what to do...and his little girl was fine.

All this to say....Tiff went against all odds and gave birth on her own!!!!!!!!!!!! She was fantastic and the baby (Briana) is perfect in every way.

Briana was born at 1...ish in the morning on Thursday after 22 hours of labor. We say 1...ish because she came so fast no one saw what time it was till later. :)

Below are a few labor pictures. The baby was born so fast that we have no pictures of the birth or right after....but that is okay. At least she was not pulled on or even touched by anyone at her birth except the two people that love her the most...her mom and dad.




Oh. Her first C-section was for "failure to progress"....which, of course, means failure to progress fast enough for the doctor. She had been on pitocin for many hours...as high of a dose as is allowed...and did not get past 6 cm. Slice and dice. But this time.....her body apparently CAN work! Uuumm....wonder what would have happened in her fist birth if they had let her body work...uuummmm.


Oh. (again) I missed the field trip this morning to pick all the fresh veggies and tomatoes to make and can salsa and marinara sauce. Sniff...sniff. Oh well. There is always next year!











Tiff laboring in her tub.












Nate helping Tiff through a contraction. He did great! (oh yes, so did she!)










Walking around the living room.....












Mom and baby Briana!!!



















The New Matthews Family...Nate, Tiffany, Alana and Briana :)

Adventures in Potty Training

I have a saying...a theory, really. Kids should not be forced to go "big boy potty" until they are ready...AND, (I say this to those people that make negative comments about my 2 1/2 year old who is still in diapers)..he will not go on his honeymoon in diapers.

Well, until now. My child will be the first in history to need diapers when packing for college.
He will also be the first man to hide diapers in his suitcase when preparing for his honeymoon.

WHY?

It is all my fault.

I got a brilliant idea the other day. "Let's potty train Presley!" To the onlooker it seems quite ingenious. Potty training a 2 year old cannot be THAT difficult, right? Who cares if none of his brothers were potty trained that young. He has above average intelligence, right?

Out came the little potty. The bain of every parent...Traipsing through our nightmares as we dream of toddlerhood. The little plastic "big boy potty". (fully equipped with the shield that guards against flying urine)

I set the potty on a large beach towel in the middle of the entry hall. My thinking around this idea was, if I do say so myself, quite brilliant. Pres will not want to miss anything that is going on...so I will put the potty where he can sit on it at will and still be in the middle of the action (and the large towel...on a hard wood floor)

Initially, Presley was thrilled with his new potty. He was more than obliged to get naked and sit there for 10 minutes straight.

At first.

Those 10 minutes were spent with his brothers cheering him on....telling him how to "go"...and with his mother (yours truly) force feeding him gallons of water to, uh, aid in the situation. After the first 10 minutes (still no pee) the older boys get bored and wander off to find their own interests elsewhere. I mosey on into the kitchen to start breakfast. And Pres looses his audience.

A few minutes later I peek my head around the corner to check the progress....and notice that the entire area around his potty and towel are soaked. WITH WHAT? Oh, just water. He had been pouring out the cup of water -that I had supplied him with- all over the floor and into the potty.

"Ook! Mom! Pee-pee bgboy potty!"
*translation*
"Look Mom! I went pee-pee in the big boy potty!"

It was my job to explain that pouring water from a cup into the potty did not count as going pee-pee.

On and on this goes....for at least 15 more minutes. Poor little guy was so bored he was dancing on the potty while sitting there. Unfortunately, this became his downfall.

The dancing on the potty while sitting dislodged the potty insert (that some genius parent got millions for....but that actually is a pain) and the movement caused Presley's baby fat legs to get pinched in between the insert and the potty.

OUCH.

He had a huge bruise and bleeding...and was VERY traumatized. He kept crying "No-no Bah!! No-No bah!!! Potty!!!"
*translation*
"No-no STOP! No-No- STOP! Potty!"

No more potty.


Fast forward about 2 weeks later. No more potty time has happened since "the incident". I have decided to wait a bit longer.

Until the fateful day at hand.

Pres picked up a stomach bug from church on Sunday. "Stomach bug" in this case meant diarrhea like water. Poor little guy. He had this tummy ache and a high fever AND his bottom was red and sore from the burning poopie.
After one such blowout I put him in the bathtub to ease his burning little bottom. He was sitting in the tub playing with his toys when he said "uh oh". I know what that means.
Sure enough, the poor guy was "going" in the tub.

#2


I said "hold it! hold it!" and grabbing him out of the tub I ran him to the toilet to finish.


Oh, the trauma that ensued.

As he is trying to hold in water-diarrhea and his mom is racing him across the bathroom, wet and naked, to...the potty...he is screaming, "No Mommy! Potty Bite Me!!! POTTY BITE ME!!!!!"

Watching him try and flex is body around the impending hole of doom was heart wrenching.

So you see?????????????

He is warped for life with the whole potty thing. He is scared to death. He will be the first grown man in history to worry if his diaper is leaking during a long business meeting.

We were jammin :)

Jam! Glorious Jam! (sing this to the tune from Oliver and you will have it right)








Homemade-fresh-Raspberry Jam and homemade-hot-out-of-the-oven bread. The aroma weaving through my house right now is edible...literally.




Isn't it pretty?! It pains me to consume such beautiful looking preserves.

Okay, I am over it.





So.........canning. Never attempted this aspect of homemaking before...out of fear, really. So, in order to conquer my fear of canning......I asked my neighbor to help me. :)

Yesterday was spend washing, smashing, cooking and canning fresh raspberries. (for the picking story, see the post below)
Things went relatively well (despite burning ourselves numerous times) until we began to actually "can". In order to get an airtight seal on the jar, one must fill it full of the desired substance (raspberry jam) and put the lid on....and the completely submerge the jar in boiling water. (those of you that know me are cringing right about now. You know how accident prone I am). The jar then boils for about 11 minutes and then the lid is supposed to pop down and create a seal. Yeah, well, in theory it is a fabulous idea. But here in Highlands Ranch other powers are at work.
One jar made a POP sound as soon as we put it in the boiling water...and we noticed dark red raspberry jam beginning to fill the pot...yep, the jar had broken. The bottom was totally sheared off. ooooddddd.

Jars that had boiled for the required 11 minutes were taken out to cool. The lids had popped down. However....about 7-8 minutes later....we hear the lids...popping back UP again!!!!!! No kidding.

So on and on this went.

Finally....after 3 hours of canning (while simultaneously refereeing 7 children), one broken jar, several burned arms, stained shirts and jeans and a LOT of homemade salsa (we HAD to pass the time...) our homemade, naturally sweetened, organic raspberry jam preserves were finished. :)

And I plan to attempt it again next week.

Yes folks, I am going to can (or jar, really) some homemade tomato marinara sauce with my fresh picked tomatoes we will be picking next week. :)

Raspberries and A Pregnant Mom

Wednesday we went on a field trip to Berry Patch Farms to pick strawberries and raspberries.

Yuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmy :)









The boys are stoked about picking berries.....








....however, the strawberries were all picked out. Boo-Hoo......












Tarin was disappointed that he did not get any strawberries.






However, the raspberries were plentiful!!!!! We found that the trick was to pick up the lowest branches and underneath we would find dozens of plump, sweet raspberries.











My Kell-O







Pres was a big help, letmetellya. He probably ate his body weight in raspberries.












Yeah Baby!!! Now....time to go home and make raspberry jam!!!!







My dear friend Tiffany (yes, for real) is due with her baby #2 this Sunday. Ah yes....the last week or so of pregnancy....the best a woman feels. Ummmm, I am totally being facetious. Poor Tiff is *ready*.
So Steph and I decided to take Tiff out for a little R&R on Wednesday evening (while my kids stayed at home with Josiah eating raspberries).



Tiff, Tiff and Steph. Yeah, we were a fun group. I am little Tiff (because I am about a foot shorter than anyone else I know) and pregnant Tiff is big Tiff (only because she is taller, nothing else!). We also have another Tiff at church who is pregnant....so it is SO fun telling everyone apart. After meeting maybe 2 other Tiffanys in my life I now find myself in this Tiffany triangle (or square, if you count my neighbor....yep, another Tiffany). There are more Tiffanys at church than Jennifers.






Tiff on Monday night during our church baby shower. She is having a girl!!! :) Briana :)



Keep her in your prayers....she is going for a VBAC this time and is hoping that the docs/nurses are supportive and the labor goes great.










Aaaahhhh...............a spa pedicure. Is there a better way to spoil a 9 month pregnant mom?! And Tiff had NEVER HAD A PEDICURE.
No, I am not kidding. We called her the pedicure virgin :)







And to top the night off.....Cold Stone Icecream!

What's in a Flu Shot?

Before you get your next (bird) flu shot, watch this short video and make sure it's something you really think you need. Ha. No, really, it is hysterical :)

Udder feeding

A Busy Week...

The week began on Labor Day with Ryan, Josiah's brother, coming in town for a visit. We all ate at MiMi's Cafe (yum yum gimme some) for lunch. The boys do not call him anything normal like "Uncle Ryan"......nope, they call him "Silly Ryan" because he is a hoot and doesn't mind being silly and playing around with the boys. We all love Uncle Silly Ryan. :)







Little Pres at MiMi's Cafe. Doing what he does best..............making a mess and having a marvelous time.












Tarin finds a gummy worm at the bottom of his chocolate pudding (and crumbled Oreo) Sundae.










I think he likes it. Gee, what IS IT with boys and wanting to eat worms??????????????????












On Wednesday we had a special visitor fly here all the way from San Diego, California.

Nana Collins!!!!!!!! She is Josiah's Grandmother. We have not seen her for about 5 years, so this visit has been quite nice. She will be here till next Thursday....although we are running her ragged....








Nana and E playing a game in the backyard.










Ethan is displaying my VERY large zucchini. (well, by the word "My" I mean, of course, that I own it...not that I grew it. Our friends the La Rosa's were nice enough to toil over their garden all summer and then lavish this gift upon us). We have had zucchini something-or-other every night! And I made zucchini bread and zucchini muffins....we are fiber-ed out.





Pres is playing with my friend's little girl (girl #4!) Kristiana. Isn't she a doll?! And Pres plays SO well with her.....he needs a little brother or sister, doesn't he?










We went to the park today....braving the ominous clouds and sprinkling rain. It turned out to be a HOT afternoon once the rain shower passed. (by "hot" I mean 68 degrees). Pres and Maiza are enjoying the teeter-totter.











The boys bundled up at first and then had to strip down because of the heat!













Daddy taking Pres on a scooter ride.












So what sounds good when it is hot outside?

Cold Stone Icecream, of course!!! I think Nana is enjoying hers :)








UUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM







Tarin kept closing his eyes when I took the picture, so in this one he was SURE to keep them WIDE open!











Soooo, my innocent little charming Presley has picked up some....................rude habits from his older brothers. One in particular is SO embarrassing (in public) and yet so endearing that I cannot make him stop.



He pretends to burp.



LOUD.



And when he does, he makes this face. Is it just me (and my over-abundant mothering hormones) or is that the cutest little face you have ever seen?



Now picture a long, very loud burping noise coming from those lips.




Welcome to my world.

Pampered Chef Party!!!

I am shamelessly using my blog as an overt attempt to boost sales for my Pampered Chef Party.



So if you have anything at all kitchen/cooking related that you need, please take a gander at the new items from Pampered Chef! The new things out for the fall are super cool....including new stoneware and all new Chef's knives. I also personally love their spices. Yum. Yum.



So click the link below:

http://www.pamperedchef.biz/staciabain?page=home

and scroll down to the bottom left corner where it ways :
Order Products.



Click on that tab and then on the next page enter my first and last name to enter my show. Proceed to order as much as your credit card will hold (or your hubby will allow without threatening divorce). In a week or so, you will receive a ton of wonderful items from the worlds most famous line of kitchen gadgets! (well....almost the most famous...)


If you would like to support me in every possible way (I get free stuff and discounts from the orders...) but have no idea what to purchase, I can help! Just send me your credit card information and I can place an order for you.


Okay....maybe that was going too far :)

New Curtains

So...after living in this house for over a year, Josiah finally painted my kitchen (the beautiful red shown here) and in doing so, he had to remove the window hangings that came with the house. OH NO! They broke!
Bummer.
Time to shop for new ones :)

Below is a picture of the new curtains for the sliding glass door and window. I am stoked because I put my two favorite colors together (red and a cool blue) and they actually match! The paisley pattern in the red contains the icy blue color that you see lining the curtains....nice. And since I am domestically challenged in the area of decor I had some help from my friend Christie...thankfully.

Aaahh...living in Paradise

The joys of living in Paradise...

After our neighbors rockin 4 year old birthday party (it really was fun.......so, did you know that you can get a 2-liter bottle of Coke and drop in a few Mento's -the fresh maker- and the coke will literally explode out 0f the bottle like 8 feet in the air?! NO KIDDING. It was AWESOME!!!!!) we decided to get out of town. The weather here was NASTY...cold, overcast and drizzle (Noelle's fav, I know).
Soooo.....we loaded up the kiddies and headed for...you guessed it...Breckenridge!!! Low and behold, about 20 minutes from Breck...the sky cleared and all we had was beautiful blue sky and *perfect* weather. Aaaah.........

There was a festival going on in Breck so we walked around for a while...and we found the kids section. :) No, really, it was fun. They had a ton of those cool inflatable slides, moonwalks and obstacle courses. The best thing...all of it was at the foot of the mountain and right by the river flowing through town. Yeah baby.

Did I get any pictures? Well.....no. I DID bring the camera with all the good intention in the world of photographing the beauty and the boys.....but alas...I accidentally left the camera in the truck. (and since we parked in ARIZONA so we could have free parking I could not go back and get it for fear of passing out from the shear mileage of it all). But allow me to reassure you...it was great fun and very beautiful. :)

Tomorrow....homemade ice-cream :)