New Approach to food

I was talking to my sister on Saturday night and she was telling me about something she is trying for her and her family. Well, maybe her kids are doing it?? At least she and her husband are doing it. It's a new approach to eating and food in general. It's supposed to make you feel better and make the most of your meals, while lowering cholesterol, etc.

So I'm trying it.

You eat vegan for 2 meals a day (usually breakfast and lunch) and you can eat whatever you want for dinner. Also, you eliminate all processed foods.

It's tough! But I did it yesterday and I really did feel better and I liked it. So I'm back trying it today. I had some oatmeal that I made (not instant, but rolled oats) and some raisins for breakfast. Right now I'm enjoying a soy latte too. Then for lunch I'll do some salad I believe. Then I'll get to do whatever I want for dinner.

This is the kind of "diet" I like. No counting, no looking up calories, carbs, etc. Not too restrictive either because you can eat whatever you want for dinner. Or one meal a day, whichever you choose I guess.

So here we go. My sister has already lost 10 lbs doing this and I would like to lose about 25 so let's see how this goes!!

This idea is from Mark Bittman, a food author that my sister loves. I have one of his cookbooks "How to Cook Everything" and I love it. Here's the article describing this approach to eating.

I can totally do this for 2 meals a day... :) 

The Scariest and Proudest Moment of my Life

This literally is the scariest and proudest moment of my life until now.

This happened at my Grandpa's on Christmas Eve. It was the end of the night and a lot of people had already left. We were actually getting ready to leave and I was getting sippy cups for the kids. I was in the kitchen getting Annabelle some milk and picking out my leftovers of the delicious food. Yum!

I was walking back toward the family room where most of the family was when I heard someone screaming my name. I stopped because it was one of those moments where you aren't 100% sure you really heard someone call your name.

I asked, "Did someone just yell my name??".

No one else heard it. Then my brother in law Andrew came into the room and said, in a very hurried voice, "Meghan! Angela needs you. Addie's choking!".

I dropped the sippy and ran into the living room where Andrew had come from and saw my sister and Addie on the floor. It was the scariest sight of my life. Not Addie. Which in itself was downright terrifying. But because my big sister was on the floor holding Addie and crying. I can probably count on one hand how many times I've seen my sister cry. It's that few. My sister is brave and strong and always so tough and sure of things. She's who I look to or call when I need a strong one. So to see her so visibly scared was horrifying.

I dropped to my knees and grabbed Addie and could hear my sister say, "Help me, she's choking! She's choking!".

After that, I don't really remember hearing anyone else. I just remember thinking, thank goodness they make us take a Basic Life Support class to get into Nursing school! I flipped Addie over onto her tummy, held her up (kind of rested her on my leg) and started hitting her on her back. I hit her about 5-7 times and I flipped her over. I looked in her mouth and lightly felt for the object, then I flipped her back over and started hitting her again. On about the 3rd hit of her back, she coughed out the object. It was a teeny tiny binder clip.

Like the smallest one on here:

Angie picked her up and she started crying. I don't blame her. I was hitting her kind of hard to get it out of her. I was so scared. After she calmed down she wanted a sippy cup. I don't blame her for that either! Poor girl had a binder clip stuck in her throat! We got her a sippy and she was a happy girl again. Although she didn't really want much to do with me for awhile! Although, one more time, I don't blame her. :)

Angie kept saying telling me thank you, thank you! I was just so happy I could do it! She made me nervous but she's a happy and healthy girl again. And she didn't need to thank me, of course I would do that! I'm just happy I learned the class and could do it. If it had happened to Annabelle though, I probably would've just freaked out and forgotten everything, so not that I wanted it to happen to anyone, but I'm glad it didn't happen to Annabelle because there could have been a different outcome. We were lucky though and my cousin's girlfriend is a resident at a hospital in Chicago and they had just left. While I was working on her someone grabbed her and she was on her way in. So I think we had her covered.

Also, Angie told us what happened when the whole thing was over and I'm glad I didn't see it. Ang was changing Addie's diaper and she was laying on her back and holding the binder clip in the air. Ang didn't know it was a binder clip because it was so small and my aunt had brought these 3D felt stickers for the kids and they had all been holding them all night. She just thought she was holding a small sticker. Then Addie dropped it and it literally dropped straight down her throat. How scary...

Ang told us she was screaming at the top of her lungs for help and no one heard her. She was in tears by the time Andrew came in. Andrew didn't even hear her. She asked Cecilia to go get Daddy and that's how Andrew found all this out. So Addie had been choking for a minute before I even got in there. The whole thing has randomly given me nightmares since it happened. I've played the "what if" game a few times and started freaking out and Nick has to remind me to stop, because everything worked out and Addie's fine.

I'm so thankful that I've decided to go into nursing school. I'm proud to be going into a position to help save people's lives or at the very least help them. I'm extremely thankful for my BLS class that taught me CPR and how to help choking victims. I think everyone should take a Basic Life Support class if they have the opportunity.

Here's the posted on how to help a conscious choking victim:

Whew. What a Christmas Eve!

My Immediate Family Christmas

We always do our immediate family Christmas the Saturday or Sunday before Christmas just because the holidays get so crazy busy. This year, my sister and I took my mom to see Wicked at the Fabulous Fox on Saturday so we did Family Christmas on Sunday.

It was a great time. We went over to my parent's around 3 pm. We did dinner first because I knew my kids wouldn't sit through dinner if we did presents first. We had a great meal and then did presents. All of these kids are so loved and spoiled that it's ridiculous. :)

Dominick got a ton of stuff on his Christmas list, including: new Christmas PJ's, a new "piggy bank" which is a big green dinosaur, a big boy green cup, a new puzzle, Ice Age: Continental Drift, and a ton of the Melissa&Doug brand wooden food. What a lucky boy.

Annabelle got a new baby doll, a baby stroller, Melissa&Doug wooden food, new Christmas PJ's, and something else I think, but can't remember...

Gretchen got new Christmas PJ's and a TON of clothes. Just what I wanted her to get!

The food was great, the kids had a blast, everything was perfect!

We gave some presents and got some presents but of course, Christmas is now all about the kids.

Here are some pictures of our day:

 Dad, Dom and Celia all opening a few presents

 Addie opening one of the presents from us, a bag full of baby accessories

 Annabelle looking at her new Christmas PJ's (which she's wearing today!)

 Celia opening her Lego Camper from Grandpa and Grandpa

 Celia opening her play-doh present that Dom picked out

 Gretch just taking it all in

 Angela opening her gift from us, kitchen stuff! 

 Andrew opening a present from Mom and Dad, a signed copy of Tony La Russa's book

 Another pic

 Grandma opening the Cookie Jar the kids made then

 Grandpa opening the calendar of the kids that Angela makes him and Mom every year

Annabelle playing with her new stroller and new baby that she named "LaLa"

It was a great FIRST Christmas. One of many that we got the pleasure of going to this year. What a lucky family we have. :)

We survivied!

Nick went out of town for the annual golf trip and I was on my own with Dom, Annabelle, Ruby and Peyton from Friday to Sunday afternoon. Oh and I'm almost 35 weeks pregnant. :)

But I had a TON of  help and we survived! It actually went pretty flawlessly. For me anyway. Nick left Friday afternoon and I had to work on Friday from 3-11:30 pm so Nick's mom picked up the kids from school and kept them overnight. So Friday was a breeze!

I picked them up around 8:30 am on Saturday and we headed back to the house. For some reason I was really nesting on Saturday. When Annabelle was down for a nap, I cleaned the first floor and switched out Dom's furniture (by putting it on a little rug and pushing it. I didn't exert myself too badly, I promise). In case you were wondering, the nesting is already over. I'm back to wanting to nap all the time...

We stayed at the house until about 2:40 and then we headed north to my mom and dad's. Now let me back up and tell you that this is no small golf trip. This is like every male on my dad's side of the family. They've been doing it for years (this is Nick's 4th or 5th year) and about 70 or 80 guys go. It's a big deal. A big weekend. So my dad was there and so was my brother in law. And since my sister lives in Springfield now, she came up with the girls. So when we went to my parent's house, it was 3 adults and 4 little ones. It was crowded! In a good way.

We got there a little after 3 and I was a little nervous about how Dom and Celia would play together. They love each other and are always talking about each other and sending each other pictures, etc. but when they actually get together...sometimes it's a different story. But that's being 3 and 4 years old I guess.

But they did really really well together! And the little girls did well too!

We had a wonderful dinner, mainly put on by Angela with help from Mom...I seasoned asparagus for the grill. That's all I did. But dinner was an awesome salad (my sister makes the BEST salad I swear), grilled shrimp, grilled vegetables (asparagus and corn on the cob), grilled salmon, and hot rolls. It was awesome. I ate so much. And lucky for me, it was mostly food I could eat!

After dinner the kids played some more and then we attempted some dessert. We tried making cookies from the cookie dough Mom bought from Dom's school and it did NOT turn out well. I don't know if we didn't let it thaw enough or if it was the cookie dough brand is just bad or what the problem was, but it was not good. So we settled for ice cream instead. The kids were ok with that. ;-)

After dinner, I stayed for a bit longer and then I headed home with Annabelle around 8:45. Dom was lucky and got to have a sleepover with Celia.

Sunday morning Annabelle slept in until 7:15, which was perfect, because then we got up, got dressed and headed back north. Mom wanted to go to 9:00 am mass and didn't want to leave Angela alone with the kids. So we headed up and got some donuts on the way (Old Town Donuts in Florissant = awesome; if you've never had it, you should!). We got there about 8:40 and Mom went to mass. We just hung out and the kids played some more (and each had a donut - of course).

When Mom got home we started prepping for brunch. Michelle came over with Eliza and Baby Tucker (her hubs, Adam is part of my family and also on the golf trip) and we added two more little ones to the party! We made breakfast and it was also awesome. We had watermelon, scrambled eggs with cheese, made from scratch plain and blueberry pancakes, sausage patties, coffee, orange juice and I don't even know what else. But it was good.

After brunch, I stayed until Nick got back (he had ridden with Dad out there so his car was at my parent's). Nick got home about 3 ish and we left shortly after that to go home.

It was a great weekend for both me and Nick and I had SO much help with the kids (thank you Sue and Mom and Angela!!!!) but it was great to get the four of us back in the same house again. I love having the whole family at home where we belong. I told Nick that I hope he had fun because that's probably his last trip out with the boys for awhile! Not trying to be mean, but I can't stay home with three of 'em for awhile!

Gone... :-(

My sister is gone... :(

She has moved away. She'll still be back in the next few weeks for a bit but basically she's gone. They've sold their house. They've closed on their new house. The movers are delivering all their stuff tomorrow. She's gone.

I'm going to miss her like crazy. We didn't get along when I was younger (that happens when you are 8 years apart) but since I started college we've been great friends. Maybe even best friends.

I'm already missing her.

She's only 3 hours away so I can go visit a lot. I have to get my calendar together and pick a weekend and get down there.

I'm proud of her though. Even though I almost wish she never moved away, I'm crazy proud of her. She got a good job at a good college. She just got her PhD and now we have to call her Dr. That's awesome. She's amazing. :-)

But I'll miss her. Thank goodness for email and cell phones and long weekends away, right?

Halloween!!

One new post at a time!

So here we go, Halloween!!!

We had a great Halloween weekend!

Starting with Friday:
Dommie and Mommy day.
Dominick's been struggling a bit with me and Nick working so much, me in school, Annabelle not always with Dom at daycare, all kinds of things. So on Friday, I switched the kids and dropped Annabelle off and kept Dommie home. I had intended on going to the Magic House with him, but that couldn't happen (no comment on that) so we laid low. The one big thing we did do was carve our pumpkins!!

We went to the pumpkin patch (on a day Nick had to work...boo) and I forgot my camera (double boo) so I have no pictures of that, and we were planning on going back so I didn't get us a big pumpkin. Well we didn't go back, so on Friday, Dom and I went to Schnucks and got two pumpkins and then went to Target and got some Halloween stuff, including a carving kit. Dom picked out both pictures we carved and he helped with pulling out the goo (something he didn't like very much). Here are our finished products. I'm pretty proud! I think we did great!

How grown up is my baby??

Two ghosts on the left and a kitty bat on the right (and a handsome little man!)

Saturday:
We went to the Ketterer's house for a Fall Festival. There was food, beer, pumpkin painting, cookie decorating, haunted frisbee golf and other fun! Dom got into this costume for a bit but we didn't get Annabelle in hers for that night. I didn't want to risk getting it dirty since we had two more Halloween events to attend that weekend.

Dom did a pretty good job with everything but he's still struggling to listen sometimes. I guess that's just pretty standard for an almost two year old though. We're working on it. ;-)

Here are some pictures from the Fall Festival:

Dom and Celia on the hammock

Annabelle chillin' on a blanket

Our little fireman

Pumpkin painting!

A cute little kitty drinking her milk!

Sunday:
Halloween at Glen Echo Country Club.

I don't know when they started this but we went last year too and it was really fun! They had a lot of stuff like an amazing buffet, pumpkin painting, a haunted blow up house, a haunted hay ride through the golf course and more!

Dom and Celia had a blast. They spent a good 20 minutes just running around in the blow up house playing house. The haunted hayride was fun too. At the halfway point, the tractor stopped and there were 3 witches around a fire handing out bags of candy, so the kids had fun. The funniest part about the hay ride was that any time someone jumped out to scare us and everyone screamed, Dom and Celia didn't get it. They asked why everyone was screaming. We told them that it made the people in the costumes happy. They we asked if they could yell too. From then on, anytime someone jumped out, both kids would say (SAY, not yell) ahhhh. Very bored like. So clearly our kids weren't traumatized from the haunted hay ride!!

One of the best parts about this event was that my Grandma got to come! So Dommie and Annabelle got to see Great-Grandma for Halloween, something we weren't going to be able to do since Halloween was on a Monday this year. So yay for that! :)

Here are a few pics from there (with Annabelle in her costume!):

Dom, Celia and Aunt Angie painting pumpkins (yes, Dom's shirt got ruined during this process, but that's ok!)

Grandpa with his ladybug and kitty cat!

Daddy and his lady bug getting ready to go to the event (how cute is SHE?!?!)

Great Grandma and her sleeping lady bug.

Finally: Monday!
Halloween Night

This year (same as last year, and the year before, and the year before that!) we went to Nick's sister's house to do trick or treating with them. I do this for many reasons. 1) Dom is still too young to really have fun doing this by ourselves. It's more fun for him to do it with his older cousins. 2) He gets to see more family (cousins and his Nani) if we go there and I like to get to see some of my nieces and nephew. 3) Kate's neighborhood is a very private neighborhood so there aren't a lot of cars going through it and I feel like that's a little safer for us to be walking around there. 4) Last but NOT least, their neighbors hand out beer to the adults while trick or treating...who doesn't love that!?

This year, my mom came along. My sister's mother in law's birthday is Halloween so she was with her in-laws and I knew we wouldn't get out to my parent's house on Halloween day so she met us at Kate's house and walked with us. That was especially helpful because Nick (unfortunately) had to work this year during trick or treating and couldn't come. I needed the extra hands to have both kids this year.

So it was a great year. Dom even told his joke once!

Which was: Q) Why don't monsters eat clowns? A) Because they taste funny!
Or as Celia pointed out, an alternate answer could be: Because clowns aren't food!! (which is more true and equally funny when a 3 year old says it!).

Anyway, here are a few pics from Halloween night:

Cousins! (Dominick, Jilly, Sophia with Annabelle, and Henry)

Annabelle and Grandma

Dommie, our little fireman

The grandma's. My mom, Dominick, Jilly and Nick's mom with Annabelle

One more funny story about trick or treating. One man asked Dommie what he was. Dom told him that he was a fire man. The man then asked how many fires he had put out. Dom answered 2 fires! So the man told him that was worth 2 pieces of candy. Then he asked Jilly if she had put out any fires. She said yes. When he asked her how many, she thought about it for a second and then said, very proudly, "THREE fires!". Haha, smart girl. ;-)

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get another post done!

Pictures - AJ's baptism

Here are a few from the big baptism!

Our family - Mama, Dommie, Daddy, AJ

Getting baptized!

Godmother - Angela, Godfather - Jim, Daddy and AJ, and Mama

"God Bless Annabelle!"

Happy Godparents!

We were lucky to have a great day! The whole party and everything turned out beautiful.

Rough Night and EXHAUSTED

It's really starting to hit me now...the exhaustion. I spent some time yesterday re-reading my blog from right around when Dom was born and this is the time I started really slowing down with him. Actually, just after 35 weeks is when I was put on bed rest with Dom and that's right around the corner!

Yesterday was tough. I'm not even sure why. I went home and Nick and I started to watch Parenthood (our favorite show). When it got to be 5:00, we left together to go and get Dominick. We picked him up and headed home to let the dogs out one more time and get a few things and then we headed to my sister's house. She had picked up our Fair Shares (organic food co-op) food while we were on vacation and we had to get it.

When we got there, Angela was feeding Addie and so we just came in and sat down. Dommie and Celia (with her little cast and all!) went off to play and we just hung out and talked for a bit. After Addie had been fed, Ang went to go and start dinner and I got the baby. Oh I can't wait!! I love those sweet little baby noises and those sweet little baby smells and those sweet little baby cheeks and feet and everything!! Of course Dom got jealous for a bit but he settled down quickly.

We stayed for a bit until Dom got really crabby. He wouldn't share anything with Celia and he would just start crying for no reason. I guess he was tired, but it was exhausting to listen to. He was crying/yelling until we left. He continued to do that until we got home. When we got home we gave him dinner (and we ate dinner) and we watched a Mickey Mouse Club House episode. Then we put him to bed and went downstairs to relax.

That's when the contractions started. They were pretty intense for awhile there. Coming about every 5-6 minutes and lasting about a minute each. I grabbed a BIG cup of water and laid on my left side and tried to will them to stop. They were getting more intense but further away, if that makes any sense.

Nick told me that I'm doing too much. I guess he's right. But how do you stop doing too much?? I work full time, I have a 2 year old full time, I have a house full time. What do you cut out?? I've already been neglecting the house so now it's either my work or my son. Neither are good options!

I have a doc appointment today so I'll talk to him about the contractions and see what he says. I'm just hoping I don't hear those two little words that I heard last time...

Bed Rest

(or is that one word?? Oh well, doesn't matter!).

After we laid on the couch until about 10:30 last night, we headed to bed. It was hard to fall asleep but once I did I thought I was out for the night. But then Dom woke up at 3:40 screaming. I went into his room and he told me he had a bad dream. I rocked him and tried to put him back down put he clung to my neck and I couldn't get him in his crib. So I finally gave up and brought him into our room. He laid down for a bit but never fell asleep. Around 4:30, Nick brought him back to bed. I told him it would be hard but Nick was back in our bed within ten minutes. I asked how he did it and he just told me that he has "the touch". :) I'll take it!

I had another few hours to sleep in my bed and it was great!

But now I'm back to being exhausted and it's only 8:45.

It's going to be a LONG day!

♥ ♥ She's HERE! ♥ ♥

My sister had her baby!!!!

Adelina Margaret (pronounced Add-a-leen-a) was born on Saturday morning at 7:30 am. She was 8 lbs. 13.8 ounces and just over 20 inches long. She has a LOT of dark dark hair. She's beautiful.

Nick and I were still in bed on Saturday when my dad called us at 8:15. He called and said, "I have no details, but Angie had her baby and everyone is doing well.". I was so excited! I waited until Andrew called about 40 minutes later and then I got some more details. Everyone was doing great he told me. I asked if visitors were allowed and he said yes, but wait until the afternoon because they still weren't even in their room yet. They were still in the delivery room waiting for their overnight room.

That was fine with me. Leslie was in town and a bunch of us were going to lunch at noon anyway. So we went to lunch (which was fabulous, by the way) and then Nick, Dom and I headed over to the hospital.

When we got to her floor, we were walking to her room when we saw Jack, Ginnie (Andrew's parents) and Cecilia walking our way. It was too adorable. As soon as Cecilia saw us, she came running down the hall. As soon as Dom saw Celia, he started running to her. They met in the middle and gave each other a BIG hug. We didn't tell them to do that or anything, they just did it. And it was adorable. Wish I had my camera out then!!

We went into Angie's room and she was feeding Addy so we had to be patient for a little while longer. While we were sitting in the room, I asked Angie about her birth story.

She said it wasn't a very long one, but she'd tell me anyway. She woke up Saturday morning around 3 am with a contraction. She tried timing them, but had to wake up Andrew. They continued to time them for awhile and around 4:20 am they were only 5 minutes apart. They called Andrew's brother, John, to come to the house to be there for Cecilia and they headed to the hospital. They got to the hospital around 5:00 am and Angela was in pain. They brought her back to L&D and got her hooked up and checked her. She was already 6 cm. She got the epidural and they waited. It didn't take much longer after that until she was ready to push. At 7:30, their beautiful baby girl was born.



I was so jealous when I heard her story. That's not a long labor at all!

After Addy ate, I got to hold her. She's so sweet! I forget how little they are. Dominick did really really well. I was afraid of how he would react, since he's usually not a fan of Nick or I holding other babies but he did great. He ran right up and looked at her and said, "Baby!". He wanted to hold her too. I let him give her a hug and he seemed ok with that. We did a few pictures of me holding both of them and then he was off playing Legos or something again. :)



We spent a little time there and then headed home.

I couldn't stay away though. Sunday morning around 11:00 am, I headed back to the hospital. For awhile it was just me, Angie and Andrew so I got to hold her for a long time. I loved it. They are so sweet and little and I can't get enough!

While I was there, Andrew's parents came up with Cecilia and then my parents and my Grandpa showed up. Also in the middle of all the visitors, Addy got her pictures taken. They were so good! It's a new company from when Dom had his hospital pictures done and this company does a much better job. I'm excited for Annabelle's pictures!



I stayed until about 2:00ish and then I headed back home to my boys.

I'm in no way ready to have my baby girl yet, but being at the hospital and seeing the babies and everything makes me really really excited to have my baby girl! I'll know this Thursday what the countdown is until my delivery date! So exciting!

Patience

Or lack thereof.

My sister is 5 measly days from her due date on February 1. We thought for sure she'd have this baby early. Cecilia was almost 3 weeks early and the second baby typically comes sooner and faster than the first...but not this baby apparently.

She is so ready to have this baby girl. With Cecilia she was an exercising queen. In fact, Cecilia was born on a Saturday and the Thursday before, my sister did 45 minutes on the elliptical at the Y (which she did regularly throughout the whole pregnancy; yes, she was crazy). This time she hasn't done as much, since she's got a 2 year old, she's working full time, going to school, teaching a class, etc. And I think she's more tired because of it. At least that's how I feel. I'm not exercising as much and I'm WAY more tired this time around...(although I never worked out at the Y regularly with Dom either, so who really knows).

She's also never been this pregnant, so she's just ready in general.

She had a doctor appointment a few days ago and they did an ultrasound to check the growth of the baby. She was 3 cm dilated and the baby weighed "approximately" 8 lbs 9 oz. I say "approximately" in quotes because ultrasound weights are seldom accurate. There is usually a discrepancy higher or lower somewhere. But you never know. And I was thinking about it. Dominick was born one week early and was 8 lbs. 9 oz. So this baby could be that big.

Now the title of this post has nothing to do with Angela. I keep having to tell myself that I need patience (and obviously I have none). I keep calling/emailing her to see if anything has changed. So far, nothing.

I think I need to stop doing that though because I'm making her MORE anxious I think!

So until I get the phone call that her Baby A (yup, it's an A name too!) is on the way, I'll have to at least pretend to have patience...

I can do that.

30x30 change

So I changed one of my 30x30 goals...ok I changed two. And I still need a 30th!

The first one I changed was the Full Marathon goal. This is still a goal of mine, I swear. But it's not going to happen before I'm thirty. Training for a full marathon takes time...a LOT of time. And it's just not going to happen with going to school and having two small children. So that got changed. Instead I think I'd like to do an indoor triathlon like Nick did. It's something I think I can do. And who knows, maybe I'll love it and keep doing them to get new better times.

The second one I changed was the no caffeine one. I still haven't had caffeine since January 5th so I'm on my 20th day of ZERO caffeine. But after a long talk with my sister, she doesn't think it's worth it for me to do this one. She was telling about various studies that show that caffeine isn't bad for you and can even be good for you. Especially a little caffeine before a workout, etc. So I changed that one. I still won't be drinking caffeine while I'm pregnant (or at least limiting it a lot) but I'm not giving it up for a year. And I'm happy with this.

Instead, I'm going in a whole new direction. Instead I'm going to attempt to try every beer on Growlers Pub's list of beers. They have 131 beers and you can get a card that lists them all. When you get one, you get a stamp for that beer. I'm going to sample all 131 before I turn 30. :) So I kind of went in a different direction here but I'm ok with that.

And I still need a 30th goal....

I'll keep thinking on this one!


PS - I just started looking at my goals and was trying to plan some out. For example, I looked up how to get Ellen tickets (http://ellen.warnerbros.com/tickets/) and I was thinking of surprising Nick and going to Chicago this summer for our 6 year anniversary of our engagement. I was going to look up first class tickets and get us reservations at the Signature Room. Knock two off my list at once...well 2 first class tickets for July 22nd 2011 from St. Louis to Chicago would cost me just $1,091.00 per person....so I might need to rethink my 19th goal....

Hospital Scare

Not me.

My sister threw a Cousin's party on Sunday, the 26th. She did it last year too and hopes to make it an annual party. Anyway, back to the story.

Nick and I got to her house around noon on Sunday. She was running around and trying to get a million things done and looked exhausted. The party was a success even though it was a small party. A lot of people opted to stay home after the long holiday weekend. And that was fine. Angela looked like she needed rest.

Around 4, Dominick fell asleep in my arms and Cecilia had fallen asleep on the couch. Nick and Andrew went upstairs to play XBox and Ang and I watched football and talked.

I noticed that she kept grabbing her stomach and taking deep breaths. I asked if she was ok and she said she thought she had a slight bug, or Braxton Hicks contractions, but that she was fine. I agreed to let it go, but not 15 minutes later and she was grabbing her stomach again. I told her to call the exchange and talk to someone.

She said no.

A little while later, we started cleaning everything up and she was white as a sheet and still having stomach pains. We cleaned as fast as we could and I told her to drink water and lay down. She said she was fine, but I could tell she wasn't.

When we left, I asked her to call the doc if things stayed the same or got worse. She said ok.

I didn't talk to her again until Monday afternoon, but apparently things got worse. She called the doc and her doc office was closed on Monday. She decided to go to the hospital and get checked out.

She was having contractions.

Now she wasn't in labor, and they weren't "productive" contractions, meaning they weren't moving the baby down or causing her to dilate, but they were still painful. They were caused by dehydration. They pumped her with a few bags of fluids and she felt better. Not great, but well enough to be released.

I knew exactly what she was going through. When I was pregnant with Dominick, we were supposed to host Christmas Day with Nick's family and I got sick. I was trying to do too much while 8 months pregnant and got sick and ended up in the hospital with extreme dehydration. It's not labor but it feels like labor. Even after going through labor, those contractions felt like the early stages of labor and not like Braxton hicks. It was not fun.

But I'm glad she is home and better. Hopefully she continues to get the rest she needs and stays hydrated. That baby girl needs a little more time to grow.