Linking up with Hallie at Moxie Wife for Five Favorites!

Soooo before we knew we were having baby #5, I wanted to take some steps to make the early stages of pregnancy a little easier on all of us.  Things were BAD when I was pregnant with John Paul.  Not so bad with Cecilia, but really pretty bad again when I was pregnant with the twins...  I was researching what supplements to take to avoid bad morning sickness and I happened upon this blog post on the REAL cause of morning sickness.  It sold me!  I wasn't really willing to take a million different supplements, but magnesium oil?  I thought I could do that.

--1--



Magnesium Oil

I've been using this once or twice a day, and started pretty much right when we found out we were expecting.  I had read that you should start before you got pregnant, so I was a little concerned that it wouldn't make a difference.  But it has had a HUGE effect on my cravings, food aversions, and overall nausea.  It's not gone completely, but for the first time in ANY of my pregnancies, I actually want to eat meat.  And the smell of onions and garlic doesn't make me want to puke.

Come to think of it, I haven't puked AT ALL this pregnancy, and I'm 14 weeks along now!  That is some kind of miracle.

I still feel gross overall and have good days and bad days.  But it's SO much better than it has been in the past, and I'm convinced it's the magnesium oil!

It's a little sticky-feeling on my legs if I don't do a good job wiping it off.  But I'll take sticky over puking and confined to the couch ANY DAY.

Apparently you can make your own spray too, and pretty easily.  It's just a cup of Magnesium Bath Flakes dissolved in a cup of hot, distilled water.  Mix.  Spray.  Repeat.  Whenever my spray runs out, I'll probably make my own because it's cheaper.  But considering I've been using it for 10 weeks and have *maybe* used an ounce or two, I think it'll be a while!

--2--

I don't usually have problems with pregnancy insomnia, but for some reason it's been hitting me hard this time around.  So when Lisa told Ana about Sleepy Dust, I forgot about it for a while.  But then I remembered and I made it (okay, my own version which is just organic sugar with kosher salt because that's what I had on hand...) and it's been working great!

Easy fix.  And tasty, too!

--3--



Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate with Sea Salt and Almond

 A student brought me these the other day and ooooohhhh they are so good!  I want to eat them all immediately.  Right now.  I wish I hadn't left them in my office, and I may eat the rest of them tomorrow.  They are good.  Really good.  Really, really good.

--4--

Okay this one has nothing to do with pregnancy...




SpiceStack Organizer

It sits in my cabinet and ORGANIZES ALL MY SPICES!  I am totally incapable of remembering where anything is, but this makes it SO much easier.  And they have all different sizes for different types of cabinets.  The only problem is that I can't put Costco-sized containers in the slots, but I just transfer them to smaller containers and it works fine.  We've have the same one since we got married and it's lasted almost 6 years and through 4 moves and is still doing great.

--5--

And while I'm on an Amazon kick, have you used the website Camel Camel Camel?  I swear I've used this as a favorite before, but I keep forgetting it exists...  You paste the url of whatever product on Amazon to check price trends before you buy, so you know that the $10 measuring cup you need is USUALLY $4 and you just need to wait for the price to drop (or set up an alert so you buy it when it's your target price).  Amazing.

Thank you for anything you buy through my Amazon links!  I get a (very) small percentage of the cost of whatever is purchased through my links, which helps me buy books by other bloggers!

Answer Me This: What We Wore Easter Sunday

Alleluia!!!  He is risen!!!

And now to hammer out a super-quick post so my sister doesn't shoot me for not having posted since Monday...

Doubling my link-up fun today with Kendra's Answer Me This and Fine Linen & Purple's What I Wore Sunday (Easter edition!):


1. What did you and your family wear to Mass on Easter Sunday?

I need to get better pictures of the dresses - my mom and I were up waaaaaaaaaaay too late last night finishing them up (thank goodness she's an expert because I am still VERY much learning to sew...) and wow are the girls ever adorable!

John Paul's wearing a vest I made him but I couldn't figure out that darned buttonhole foot soooo we decided it's a "loose, swingy vest" that's meant to hang open :P  

Andrew's suit is the same one he wears every year, and isn't it fabulous?  Every time he leaves for court in that thing, I love to imagine the looks on people's faces when he walks into the room :)

And my dress is eShakti from a while back - I've worn it here once, but not for a while because buttons keep falling off and I forget to sew them back on (frustrating!).  The cropped cardigan is oooooold H&M I think, at least from college.  The hat is the one I wear every year, and the hair is in serious need of a chop.  A BIG chop.

2. Easter Bunny: thumbs up or thumbs down?

Thumbs down, mostly - I think it's a weird, weird tradition and would rather keep standards low and let the kids know that what they get comes from Mom and Dad.  Heck, they filled their own eggs AND hid them for their egg hunt this morning...  But it's not a moral or religious thing really, it's just that we don't really do Santa or the Tooth Fairy or any of that, although they do firmly believe in many, many imaginary things (including Santa...), so I think their childhood is still plenty magical :)

3. Do you prefer to celebrate holidays at your own house or at someone else's house?

Our house!  I like to be the one in charge of the food, plus it's a lot of work to coordinate naptimes and not worry too much about the kids trashing someone else's house.  John Paul has an inner compass that points him to all things electronic, so he tends to reprogram DVRs, set every timer he can find, change the temperature on someone else's refrigerator, etc...  And the babies eat everything they can find.  Cecilia sits and reads quietly.  Sigh.

4. What is your favorite kind of candy?

For Easter?  Starburst jellybeans, no question.  Really at all times I love those.  I REALLY love candy.  A lot.  Also the Ferrero Rocher hazelnut truffles.  And Cadbury mini-eggs (not the ACTUAL eggs, those are nasty...).  And Heath Bars.  I'm just going to stop now, because all we ended up getting was a bag of regular jelly beans and we're planning on hitting up the post-Easter sales to get the rest of our candy fix.

5. Do you like video games?

I do, but I don't really have time to play - I kind of love all the Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones and all of those types of games.  I used to play The Sims a lot in high school and college.  But I stopped playing a while back because there was no time and it just felt like there were much more productive things I could do.  We'll see if the kids get much exposure - right now they like to watch Andrew play Mario every once in a while, but that's about it.

6. Do you speak another language? 

Not really - I took yeeeeeeears and years of French, but have forgotten most of it.

Here!  Some more pictures to make my sister happy!

Mouths full of animal crackers, Elizabeth holding 3 of the 4 weird Easter bunnies that the kids got in their baskets...

Not impressed by Grandma's silly face (I LOVE her expression here!).

And the baby "Easter egg hunt" indoors before naps...

I'll do Holy Week & Easter recap posts soon, I hope - I've got tons of pictures but have been spending all my free time sewing and cooking!  

ALLELUIA!!!  He is risen!  Go eat some bacon!!!

7 Quick Takes: All the Questions!

Ohhhh the Liebster Awards.  Not a thing.  But also a thing?  I blame Kendra for starting it up again...  And then lovely Kate tagged me buuuuut I only have to answer 4 questions so I'm going to answer my 4 and give up there because I'm too lazy to tag or come up with questions!

Okay fine, I'll add 3 more questions and answer them (and ask YOU to answer them, too!) and make this my Quick Takes this week...

First Kate's questions:

1.  Where are you from, where did you go to college and where are you now?

I'm from Northern Virginia, went to college (at Northwestern) just outside of Chicago, and am back in Northern Virginia (after a brief detour in Williamsburg, VA).  You should come hang out with us if you're in the DC area!

2.  What song has been getting stuck in your head lately or have you been listening to on repeat?

But not the actual song, just John Paul singing it.  Yup, in my head all. The. Time.  Shark CAR!!!

3.  If you could live anywhere and do anything, what would it be?

Ummm on some sort of Catholic hippy-ish commune where we all have a community garden and grow a ton of food and have chickens and homeschool our kids together while our husbands do...  something to make enough money for us all to live?  Anyone want to start one?

4.  What are you Easter plans?

Ham.  

Um, I don't know - we're still getting into actually celebrating it with the kids, so I'm sure there will be an Easter egg hunt of some sort buuuuut our plastic eggs have been in the toy rotation since last Easter because they get played with all the time, so I'm not anticipating that being hugely exciting!  We might also dye eggs this year because John Paul has figured out that that's a thing, so pressure's on...  Also I will be eating all the Starburst jelly beans, probably within the octave.

One year we did Resurrection Rolls and they were delicious but Marshmallow Jesus is a little too weird of an analogy for me...

Our Easter day celebrations are pretty low-key - for us it's more about continuing the celebration through the Octave and then throughout all 50 days of the season!

OH!  But I AM making matching Easter dresses for the girls (in blue, pink, and yellow seersucker) and *hopefully* will make a vest and bow tie for John Paul (blue seersucker) and Andrew will probably wear his seersucker suit as always sooooo I probably shouldn't wear seersucker myself for fear of looking overly-kitschy!  

ALL THE SEERSUCKER!!!

Here's last year's picture if you're curious:

Oh yes, and I will be wearing that hat.  Every year from now until the end of time.

And the year before, just for continuity!

Now here are my questions for YOU (answer in the comment box or add them into your own post!):

5.  What's your worst "mom" habit?  Or general "grown-up" habit if you're not a mom :)

I'm talking locking-yourself-in-the-bathroom-with-your-smartphone-for-some-uninterrupted-blog-reading, sneaking-cookies-while-the-kids-can-only-have-fruit, extending-quiet-time-for-an-hour-because-nobody-is-complaining habits...

Not that I'm guilty of any of these.  Nope.  Not speaking from personal experience.

6.  What's your fast food guilty pleasure?

McDonald's bacon, egg & cheese bagels.  I could have one every day for the rest of my life and die happy.  And really, all the protein sources!  So good for you!

7.  What is the craziest/weirdest thing you've ever eaten?

We went to a SUPER-fancy restaurant for our anniversary last year and the salad included "lettuce panna cotta" and I totally ate it.  Yes, that's basically lettuce-flavored pudding.  It tasted exactly like lettuce.  In pudding form.  So weird.  What about you?

OH!  Today's your last chance to enter the Flexi Clip giveaway!  Click here for your final chance to enter (up until 11:55 PM Eastern time, I think).

And click HERE for more Quick Takes!

John Paul's Birth Story: Part II

I know, I know...  I started off Part I and never got to anything having to do with birth.  I'm sorry!  I started writing and it got so long that I felt like I needed to stop...  But I have a guest collaborator for Part II!  My awesome sister!!!  She'll be writing in bold to distinguish between the two of us

 

If you don't already read her blog, you should - funny, Catholic, and educational!

Anyway, when we left off, I was heavily pregnant and all alone in Williamsburg, VA, 2.5 hours from my OB, husband & hospital where I'd be delivering.  I just had a couple weeks left of teaching my little hooligans before joining Andrew in Northern VA, and my due date was in mid-July.

Sure, I was huge, but I had PLENTY of time left!  Every woman in my family who has ever had a baby has always been ridiculously late.  The secretaries in the office were convinced I wouldn't make it to my due date.  My students made jokes constantly about my water breaking in the middle of class.  But John Paul stayed put and there was no early arrival!  I packed my bag full of maternity clothes and headed up to NOVA to join my husband.

Only a month left!

I was ready for John Paul to be REALLY late.  My sister joined us after her school year ended and we spent every day either sitting in the pool or trying to do random things to keep our minds (well, my mind) off of when this baby would make his appearance. 

Have we mentioned that this meant all three of us were staying with Andrew's father at his house? Just imagine the bizarre dynamics that led to.

  It was HOT.  I was swollen.  And exhausted.  And the baby was staying put.  And every time I didn't answer my phone, my mom would leave a frantic phone message asking where I was and was I in labor and did we need her and she was going to call the hospital to see if we had checked in!!!

I have no recollection of going to the pool. What pool would we even have gone to? Maybe I wasn't there yet. But I do remember many, many panicked voice mails. I'm pretty sure one time she even started driving to NOVA because we didn't answer the phone....

My strategy to keep my mind off of the due date was to plan something exciting for every day past the due date that I was pregnant.  I was due on July 14, so we decided that our due date excitement would be seeing Ice Age 2 in theaters (WILD, we were!).  I was pretty excited to see the movie!  I figured there was no way I'd have had the baby by then...

We also went to the Newseum.  Not the first time I took advantage of a free wheel chair while heavily pregnant...

Well, Monday July 13 came and at about 5 AM I woke up feeling serious stomach cramps.  I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep.  10 minutes later, same thing.  10 minutes later, same thing.  As Andrew's alarm went off, I told him, "I've been having contractions for an hour but they don't hurt that much, so I don't think it's anything..."

"Do you want me to stay home?" He asked.

"No, I'm sure I won't be having the baby any time soon, just go to work and maybe we can go to the hospital when you get home."

The contractions continued throughout the day, still about 10 minutes apart, not really increasing in intensity.  When Andrew got home, we walked around outside for a bit, timing the contractions.  Things weren't speeding up, so we decided to go to Mass and to my friend Leslie's house.  Having contraction all through Mass was not a pleasant experience, since it's not like I could lie down or bring my exercise ball in!  We chatted with some friends in the parking lot afterwards and headed to Leslie's for a late dinner.

It wasn't until after Mass that Rosie mentioned to me that she was in labor. I'm a fairly observant person but had missed her evenly-spaced grimaces throughout the day. At that point, we just figured she was really good at being in labor and that the whole delivery would be a piece of cake since the early part was. Ha.

The best part of the whole day was borrowing books from Leslie. We were at her childhood home so all of the books were pretty much at a 6th-grade reading level or below, but that didn't bother me. It's not like anybody was going to see what I was reading and judge me. (We call this foreshadowing--something those books did not have.)

After we got home, I promptly vomited up everything I had eaten.  The contractions started picking up and by about 2 AM they were 5 minutes apart.  We called the hospital and they said to come on in!  I was so excited - I had been in labor for 21 hours already, surely I would be 8 cm dilated and practically ready to push by the time we got there!  But I was also concerned that when we got there they'd just send us home for not being far enough along...  I was torn, and so was Andrew - should we stay or should we go?

This is my favorite part of the story. I stayed up too late reading a Sweet Valley Twins book--yes, I was 25 at the time--and had been asleep for an hour or two when Rosie came and woke me up. 

"I think maybe I'm having the baby but I don't really know because I'm having contractions but I'm not sure if we should go to the hospital."

"Well, what does Andrew think?"

"He doesn't know either."

It was about this moment that I figured out that I was going to be doing more than just getting Rosie ice chips.

"Okay, well why don't we all just go for a walk and see how you're feeling?"

So it was that at 3am Rosie, Andrew, and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. As we were walking back up the driveway, Rosie and Andrew were still torn. They wanted to go in but Rosie was worried that it was too early and we shouldn't go yet. She'd mentioned the day before that we needed to stop at the store and buy some hard candy, though, so I made the following ridiculous statement:

"Well, we have to go to the store to get hard candy anyway, right? So why don't we all get in the car and go to Walgreen's (or CVS - neither of us can remember - Rosie) and see what we think once we're there?"

Because why wouldn't we all go to the drug store to buy candy in the middle of the night?

Once we got to the store, I was pretty sure that Rosie wasn't going to be getting any sleep anyway so she might as well labor at the hospital as on the streets of suburbia. So I suggested that maybe we should go to the hospital. Rosie was a little woozy from pain and hunger and lack of sleep and Andrew was way too concerned with taking care of Rosie to be decisive so they agreed and we got in the car to go to the hospital.

Well, we got to the hospital and went to triage, where they checked me (after asking about a trillion questions, of course.  WHY?  I answered all of those on the pre-admission forms!!!).

1 cm.  Which is where I was at my last appointment.  The contractions had slowed down, and it was time to go home and come back when things sped up again.  But I still had a chance for a due date baby - it was July 14!

And I was going to get to sleep!

To be continued (in Part III - I'm the worst!!!  I'll try to get it up soon but my mother-in-law is about to come to town and time may be at a premium!)

5 Favorites - Sugar High

ONE

Saltwater Taffy

 

Caramel Corn flavor

Specifically, Taffyshop.com

Seriously, if you ever need anything to get me for my birthday or Christmas or Mother's Day or just because you love me (or maybe for the anniversary I have coming up in just 9 short days...), THIS.

LOOK at the flavors and tell me there's nothing for you.  Buttered Popcorn.  Caramel Cheesecake.  Cinnamon Roll.  ALL AMAZING!

 

TWO

 

My First Piano Adventure

 

John Paul is weird.  You knew this already...  But he keeps taking my old piano textbooks from college and trying to teach himself how to play, so I finally got a book for him that's aimed towards kids his age (well, 5 & 6). 

 

He LOVES it.  The pictures are adorable, the teacher parts are easy enough for me to play, the lessons for teaching technique are cute, and it keeps him busy for a loooooooong time.

 

I haven't listened to the accompanying CD yet (no CD player at home), but he loves it even without the CD.  It presents notes in a variety of different ways without going straight to the staff, so he's using different parts of his brain to figure out how this all works.

 

THREE

 

 

Haribo Gummi Bears

I would go so far as to say that these are the ONLY gummi bears that should be consumed.  Ever.  Seriously, there is nothing better.  They're SO delicious!!!  And the fact that a 5-lb bag on Amazon is only $12.63 right now?  Yeah, I think I know what we'll be ordering soon...

FOUR


 

San Pellegrino Aranciata Rossa (Blood Orange) Sparkling Water

 

Don't ask me why it's called sparkling water, it's soda.  And it's delicious!  And does NOT cost what Amazon would sell it to you for...  Go to your grocery store and pick up a 6-pack for $5 - so yummy!

 

FIVE

 

 

Baby Bargains: Secrets to Saving 20% to 50% on baby furniture, gear, clothes, strollers, maternity wear and much, much more!

 

Given the chance, I will over-research every baby product on the market and ultimately make no decision because the results are too overwhelming!  Baby Bargains takes out the guesswork - concise descriptions, comparison charts with grades, and every baby product you could imagine!  I like to get this as a gift for expectant couples, since it's relatively inexpensive and so useful!

 

 

Join up with the other ladies at Moxie Wife, or just check out the links!

 

PS Need a new pair of glasses or sunglasses?  Check out my very first giveaway!