We Made It!

Hello, 36 weeks! I am so glad to have reached you! If we can get through another 3 days, I will be more than happy to meet Baby any time. *hint, hint*

In an effort to help Baby be as ready as possible in the event of going into labor at the end of this week, I am eating lots of eggs (the choline in eggs helps with lung development) and ice cream (for weight gain). I've been taking 1,000mg of fish oil for some time, along with Vitamin D and K2, so I think I've covered all of the bases that can be covered. I won't say I'm not hoping to go into labor this week, because I am. Sometimes I feel guilty about that, but after two and a half weeks of bed rest, I'm ready to be on the other side of things.

Tony was measuring my belly today. It was the cutest thing ever. He found the measuring tape on my craft table and brought it to me, pulled my shirt up, trying to say, "Measure." He then proceeded to pull it over my belly.

We have the birth pool set up, which is awfully exciting. When Tony first saw it, I told him it was for when the baby comes. His follow-up question was, "Deb?" Now he tells us, "Tub. Water. Baby. Deb. *pause* PUSH THE BUTTON!!" I love it. I can't wait to be on the other side of labor, learning the ropes of life with two little people.

During my confinement on the couch, I have finished three books, and started a couple more. First, I read, "Mommy, Teach Me To Read!" by Barbara Curtis. I really liked it. I would recommend it to other moms of young children who are thinking about homeschooling. Next, Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth." The ending depressed me, but I suppose it is more honest than the ending I hoped for. "To Kill A Mockingbird" followed. I had not read it before, and enjoyed it. I think I read it in less than 24 hours, if that tells you anything. Now I want to get a copy of the movie, since I've also never seen that. Currently I am going back and forth between C.S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce" and Sienkiewicz's "Quo Vadis." I'm reading "Quo Vadis" through Amazon Kindle on my phone, which isn't as enjoyable as an actual book, but there isn't a copy at my library, and I can probably finish it before it gets to my library through the loan system. I never would have though of reading it, but my interest was piqued by the discussion on Like Mother, Like Daughter, and I've found it to be very interesting (not dull at all, which would probably make me abandon it until I could get a real copy of it). I remember watching the 1951 film as a younger person, and even though it's been a while, I still have enough memory that makes reading the full story more enjoyable.

Part of me cannot believe that I have not driven a vehicle in nearly two weeks, and until yesterday, I had not left the house in 9 days. It feels kind of like being in jail. I have to remind myself that it isn't going to change any time soon, though, because I will be confined again after Baby comes. At least then I will have a new distraction. 

Now I am going to go brush Tony's teeth...after many months of struggle, I stumbled across a great way to get him to let me brush his teeth: his teeth are named after engines from Thomas the Tank Engine and we have to clean them. He loves it. He will bring me his tooth brush and ask to clean "Harvey and Douglas." Thank goodness. 

Hope everyone has had a good weekend!

Love,

Jess

"Happy Birthday to You!"

 "Mmmm....chocolate cake!" 

When I wasn't there he put his little teeth into the top of it and came up with chocolate on the tip of his nose and chin.

 "Sing Happy Birthday!"

Nice candles, huh? That was Zach's improvisation since I forgot to get birthday candles. Tony is a future pyromaniac. I think I lit close to 10 matches after we were done eating cake so he could blow them out.

 More Cora. My only regret is that the background is the fridge.

Tony turns TWO!

 Happy 2nd Birthday, Tony!

It seems impossible that it has already been two years since I held that 7 pound bundle of newborn for the first time. I say it a lot, but he brings so much joy and love to our life, and to the people around us. I simply can't imagine life without Tony.

Still such a baby face at 1! And those two little teeth!

At the lake on his 1st birthday!

Today was originally going to be a very quiet day - just the three of us, with the possibility of a couple of honorary uncles for dessert. Due to my invalid status, and my Mom's arrival with three of my brothers, and little Cora, it feels like more of a party! We opened presents after breakfast, and then everyone went with Grandma to do my shopping in Ithaca. When Grandma told Tony they were going to the Market, he said "Market. Donut!" He is too smart for my own good - when we go to the Market I usually get him an apple cider donut. If I don't do that first, he asks me constantly while I'm picking up our CSA veggies and meat.

It is so difficult to get him to look at the camera and smile!

Tony made out like a bandit in the gift department... I can't wait to read him The Story About Ping, The Fox Went Out On a Chilly Night, and Noah's Ark. We have animal and ABC magnets. A child-size table and chairs, that I set up a couple of days ago and has already been much used! Bertie the Bus has joined the collection of Thomas trains. And a Thomas ride-on, which has a compartment under the seat perfect for hauling most of his other gifts in. Tonight he gets to enjoy his new favorite food: hotdogs. He has been asking me for them since the 4th of July. We got lucky and Smitty found a single package in the freezer, after he originally said they were out.

Uncle and Nephew. So precious.

Flash back - Tony was a day old and Teddy was 2.

I don't know what I would do without my Mom here. Keeping the contractions away has required spending 99% of the day laying on the couch, with short periods of sitting, though that is fairly uncomfortable because Baby's head is so low. There is no way I could be making meals, or taking care of Tony. It would have been a stretch to even make a cake tonight, especially since I can't grocery shop.

James and Bertie, being driven with great concentration.

 Next weekend the festivities will resume with my Dad and all of my siblings joining us for another birthday celebration! 

A bit of chubby cuteness. Cora will be 1 next month!

This bit of nothing is brought to you from the comfort (and boredom) of my couch. Even my minimal amount of on my feet time yesterday must have been too much.

So today I'm giving the full-on bed rest thing a try. Minus the bed part, because Tony won't sit up there with me. 

I'm trying to keep things in perspective by thinking about Dwija and baby Nicholas who is only 20 weeks with a tear in the sac. If my baby came today it could be a matter of 2-14 days in the hospital - not even the NICU, necessarily.

One of the hardest things is staying hydrated. 700mg of magnesium and hourly doses of cramp bark are not being kind to my system, though they do seem to be helping a lot today with the contractions.

I appreciate all of the prayers, and ask for some for my Mom, who is coming back to help me out. She's leaving 10 of her babies behind to help keep mine inside.

Love,
Jess

Hey, Baby!

I don't know if it's the shirt, or reality, but I feel like my belly looks a good deal bigger today.

My awesome midwife came to our house today. I emailed her yesterday because I started freaking out. I had a contraction that woke me up in the middle of the night, which hasn't happened before. After going to Ithaca and doing all of my errands, I was feeling pretty good, but had this nagging worry. So, I went ahead and tried to check myself. I don't really know why I did. I have limited (read: next to none) experience, but in a moment of pregnancy panic, I gave it a shot. And totally felt like I was about 2cm.

That added to my panic, and got me to send an email off to Deb. (I'm the world's biggest baby when it comes to calling. It makes me feel like there really is a problem, and I just cry.)

When she wrote me back and said that we should meet today, I was prepared to drive to her office, but she was going to be passing by us in a roundabout way and saved me the trip.

She confirmed my guess that I'm about 2cm, and said I'm 50% effaced with baby at -1 to 0 station. In spite of the ramifications of that confirmation, I was glad to know that my guessing was accurate.

Since we're still two weeks from the minimum ideal delivery time, I've been put on light duty only and am not allowed to travel far (no more Ithaca until Baby gets here!). Once I get to 36 weeks I can resume normal activities, but still have to stay close to home.

Please pray that the next two weeks go smoothly. Deb is highly doubtful that I will make it past 38 weeks, and we could be looking at sooner than that. Which is exciting and also kind of like, "Oh my gosh. I am totally not ready for this."

Tony turns 2 on Saturday, and I can't believe it's already been 2 years since he made his entrance into the world. He brings me so much joy, and amazes me every day with the things he learns.

Hope a good Sunday was had by all!
Love,
Jess

Let's talk about food...

We ended up cooking some sausage, too...which was a good thing because we were left with but half a hamburger when dinner was finished!

First, the new pie crust recipe was perfect! A little time consuming to press it into the plate, and I don't know how well it would work trying to roll and cut it into strips to do a lattice design on the top, but it was tasty. Our non-gluten-free guest said the pie was awesome, and Zach said excellent (which is saying a lot, because he loves apple pie). The recipe is Paleo Pie Crust from Elana's Pantry.

One thing that I loved about this recipe is the amount of ingredients - only 4! I really hate it when recipes call for 20 ingredients, often times only needing small amounts of things I don't have on hand. Or calling for ingredients that it doesn't really need...why do I need maple syrup in my pie crust? (I'm kind of stingy about certain things in the pantry; they can be so expensive and I hate using them unnecessarily.) 

MAYO!

After many failed attempts to make homemade mayo in the food processor (I had good luck for a while, but lately it has been a disaster), I did a little research on how to not screw up mayo. I went ahead and whisked it by hand, which left me with a tired arm, but that mayonnaise came out beautiful! It's very important that your oil and eggs are the same temperature, and that once you whisk the egg with the water/lemon/mustard/salt, you add the oil by single drops until it starts coming together. Hopefully I will get faster at it over time. 

This kid will not look at the camera for pictures. Unless he has an object in front of his face, of course.

Since I'm on the topic of gluten-free baking, I made pizza the other night. I don't think I have ever tried a pizza crust recipe; the couple of times that I've made pizza, I just used Bob's Red Mill GF pizza crust mix. Unfortunately, brown rice gives Tony and I tummy aches, so that's out.

I don't know how I came across this recipe, but I did somehow, and was excited because it called for quinoa flour. My Mom gave me a box of quinoa flour some time ago, and it was still untouched in my pantry. I had my wet ingredients all mixed together when I opened the box to find that the bag had already been opened, and some bugs had decided to move in. Google came to my rescue regarding substituting almond flour for quinoa. I ended up adding a half-cup more almond flour because it looked really soupy, but I don't know if that was totally necessary, because it was still kind of soupy, and baked fine. 

The end result was much like a focaccia, and Zach declared it the best gluten-free bread item I have ever made. I topped it with a homemade sauce, Italian sausage, and homemade mozzarella (!!). It was amazing. Tony kept saying "PEETZA!"

One of these days I will write about my adventures in mozzarella making. I've done it twice, making two batches on Wednesday. The final batch was the best so far. I have a bunch of milk in the fridge right now, so I'll probably be making more next week. I'm also thinking about making farmer's cheese, since it's so easy, but I'm not sure how I will use it. I guess it can be used like ricotta, but I rarely need ricotta. We'll see. Kefir is on the list, too, but that doesn't require any work.

For a parting recipe, here is a super yummy shake: Vanilla Chai Breakfast Shake. I buy a lot of bananas, and inevitably have some that get far too ripe for Zach, and even for me. Now I'm just going to toss them in the freezer when they're to that point and use them in this shake. Out of all of the spices, I just used ginger and cinnamon and it was awesome. 

Have a good weekend!

Love,

Jess

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

 {pretty}

 Ta-da! 

 The sofa is still unfinished, but done to the point that it can be used again. Despite my hopes to reuse the tack strips, they were too bent, so I need to order new ones. For some reason that slips my mind whenever I sit down on the computer. Thankfully you really can't see the sides, and obviously not the back, so it isn't the end of the world. I think that the cushions are going to be covered by that green sheet until I can find a good deal on fabric that I like.

{happy}

Our Father's Day trip to the playground. Tony always has the best time, and we are fortunate to have three nice playgrounds very close by. It makes a great activity for Daddy and his boy when Mama needs a little break.

I can't remember what it was, but something had him excited. A dog, perhaps?

 {funny}

Tony loves bringing trains and cars wherever we go. I finally got my act together and made him a little bag, so that they didn't end up in my purse. We had very autumn-like weather a couple of weeks ago, so we donned sweatshirts and went for a walk. It was beautiful. We stopped at a bench on the Ludovico Sculpture Trail, and out went the toys. That was his first full day in underwear, I think, and he went three hours that morning while we walked without wetting his pants. 

{real}

I found this at the Salvation Army last week - the frame is in great condition, and there are no water marks on the picture. Definitely one of my best finds ever. When Zach saw it he asked what I wanted to do with it, and I said I was thinking about giving it as a wedding gift (is that tacky? It's a beautiful, beautiful piece of art, in excellent condition.). I could tell from the look on his face that he would rather keep it, so I think it is going to take up residence in our guest room. I can't say I'm disappointed, myself. :)

I hope that everyone has a glorious Fourth of July! We are having a low-key celebration with one of Zach's friends, and will be serving up hotdogs and hamburgers from my beloved Autumn's Harvest Farm, sweet potato salad, watermelon and apple pie (trying a new gluten-free pie crust recipe...praying it is good!).

For more contentment head over to...

The Story of the Broken Belt

You know those crazy ideas you hear, and you think, there's no way that actually works? 

Sometimes they do.

See that? That's a shoelace doing the work of a serpentine belt. 

Our serpentine belt broke two Fridays ago and the battery died while Zach was on the interstate. We were blessed to have free towing through my in-laws AAA, which took the van to a gas station, and a friend from school who generously gave up many hours of his night to go with Zach and try to figure out what was wrong. A quick look under the hood and he saw the broken belt, along with a fried battery. 

There isn't anywhere to get a serpentine belt at midnight, so he suggested using a shoelace. Said he saw it in a movie (I asked Zach what movie, MacGyver?). You can only imagine the amount confidence that inspired in Zach, but a pack of shoelaces costs less than $2. They picked up the shoelaces and a new battery at Wal-Mart, and headed back to the van.

With a new battery and shoelace, the van started up, and drove 20 miles back to our house. Zach said he could feel the alternator slipping a little because the shoelace loosened up while driving, but it made it.

Once they got it home, they took the battery back to Wal-Mart, and made a successful return. Zach is still laughing about that. He bought a better quality battery from AutoZone the next day, and they got it put in, along with the new belt on Sunday.

It never ceases to amaze me how people will come together to help you out. My in-laws helped us, my Dad was on the phone with Zach trying to help him troubleshoot, Ryan gave up his night, Brendt picked up my sister-in-law and took her to the hotel because I didn't have a car. It restores a little bit of one's faith in humanity. And is a reminder that you need a community. We don't have an ideal community (which to me would be a faith-based community), but I am grateful for what we do have. (On the flip side, I also have to remind myself that Catholic communities are not necessarily the most edifying, either. They hold their own host of problems. Right now I cling to my long-distance Catholic community, and remember that there is a reason for everything, even being alone as an example to many people who don't know what being Catholic means. We are forced to go outside of our bubble and share our Faith through the way we live. I pray we don't do a disservice to the Church.)

Love,
Jess

Happy Week 33!

I'm not loving this picture, but it was the best of the bunch that I managed last night. 

I had my 32 week appointment on Friday and had lots of great news! All of my blood work came back fantastic. My hemoglobin is at 12 or 13, my vitamin D is at 38, which falls in their "sufficient" range, and the glucose test was totally normal. After finally having a good bit of belly growth at my previous appointment, I was measuring small again this time, but I think I measured small most of my pregnancy with Tony. Baby is head down, and terribly active. Deb is feeling confident that I'm going to make it to term this time. I wouldn't mind going early, but I'm not holding my breath at this point. 40 weeks is only 7 weeks away, and time is passing so quickly, that I feel like I will blink and it will be over. My in-laws are planning to come in September (there WILL be a baby by then, without any question!), and when my Mother-in-law was saying goodbye, she said she couldn't believe that next time the baby would be here. Yeah. Wow.

Tony loves going to see Deb. He talked about it all weekend. He gets to push the button on the doppler, which is a huge deal to a little kid. 

I don't know why he was biting her hand. He loves this doll. It warms my heart when he says "Don't cry, don't cry."

Our last two weekends have been busy, busy. We had my Mother- and sister-in-law for a visit last weekend, and my Mom, Grandma, and three sisters this weekend. I don't know if Tony will know what to do with himself without all of the extra people to play with him. Coming off of a couple weeks of Zach studying like crazy for midterms, it was so nice for me to have company. 

Yesterday we quickly organized the attic, which had turned into a jungle. AND, we moved things around in Tony's room to accommodate the birth pool! I need to remember how quickly things can come together with an extra set of hands. Some days I feel so discouraged because there's only one me, often with Tony hanging on my leg.

See all of that space in the back right corner? It wasn't there yesterday! Now we can build the whole train track!

We're in a bit of a situation about the baptism, and if there are any spare prayers out there that could be directed at Fr. John Hardon, I would appreciate it. I know that we can have the baby baptized by the priest who says the Latin Mass we attend. My only issue is that it is an hour away, and I don't really want to have to drive that far a week or two postpartum. Talking about it with my Grandma yesterday, she suggested that I email him and see if there is perhaps a religious order in the area who might be willing to come to our town and baptize the baby in the Old Rite. Last night I found a group of Franciscans just under two hours away who say both the OF and EF, so I emailed them this morning. IF they are willing to make the drive, we would have to get permission from the pastor here, but I don't really see that being an issue. What would be totally awesome is if we could have someone come here, say a Traditional Mass, and baptize the baby! (Yes, I am optimistic!) Why did I bring Fr. Hardon into it? After emailing Grandma the website for the Franciscans, she went to the main website for the Order (Franciscans of the Immaculate, for anyone interested) and found that Cardinal Burke is very close to them, and he was a great friend of Fr. Hardon (who my Grandma knew, and loved).

I was just perusing our wedding pictures from my MIL on Zach's computer. Had to share one.

 Oh, and one more thing, because this isn't long enough. Last night I stumbled upon House Unseen, and read about Dwija's very risky pregnancy. Today while I was looking around, I saw this post: "NFP doesn't work. You have so many kids!"  She makes really good points, and I appreciated reading her perspective. Some of the comments are awesome, too. We had someone close to us ask if this baby was planned. It made me so angry. How do you answer that question? "Yes." is the shortest, end-the-conversation answer, but if you're talking to someone with a contraceptive mindset, to them it probably means that you went off your birth control. Not the impression we want to give. "Well, it wasn't not planned..." I feel like a moron saying that. You could say, "Planned by God." but sometimes that feels like far too mild of a response, depending on the questioning party. Thankfully I encounter that question far less than my poor husband. It makes me so sad that this society looks at children as such a burden! The debt incurred during our four years here will be a far greater burden than a child could ever be! And yet people don't even blink to take on $150k worth of loans to start a career.

On that sunny note...

Fr. Hardon and St. John the Evangelist*, pray for us! 

Love,

Jess 

*St. John the Evangelist is the patron of this baby, should we be having a girl (Evangeline), and perhaps Fr. Hardon's patron, too!