Watch Me Grow!

new goal

2010-08-02T11:49:00.002-05:00

check out my new goal

Marvel A Day

Kasen Say Linthakhan

2010-03-15T12:13:00.003-05:00

Born 2/24/2010
Weight 7 lbs 2oz
Height 19 3/4 inches

Before our 2nd son was born I had always viewed birth has this huge life event. Yes, bringing a life into the world is an enormous and life changing event, but the event itself does not seem as vast as I used to view it. Giving birth to our 2nd son was just part of that days events. There was no big commotion over anything going on, there was no chaos. The day was completely unruffled by giving birth, it was like it was a completely natural thing to be going on inside that day. It was so natural and calm. Yes, I’d been planning out every little detail for countless weeks, we’d been preparing our home, buying all the supplies we would need, coming up with all these ‘worries’, and at the time of planning it seemed like it was going to be this huge time stopping event in our lives. That day came and went so quickly that our lives didn’t seem miss a beat. Maybe is has something to do with it being the second child, maybe it has to do with having a home birth this time, but no matter what the reason Kasens birth felt so comfortable happening. Its like he just slipped perfectly into our lives one Wednesday afternoon.
Planning a home birth in Nebraska is a little tricky because of the laws that are in place. I want to make things clear that this was not a decision that we took lightly. Home birth is a very safe and practical choice for some families. I didn't just say one day "lets do it at home" and left it like that. We did a ton of research on our own, I connected with other moms who had given birth outside of the hospital, and we made sure we took the necessary precautions for all the "what ifs". We finally decided that having our second child at home was in the best interest of our family. The very thought of having to goto a hospital to give birth had me very uneasy. So the months of planning went by very quickly yet as soon as the third trimester kicked in everything seem to slow down. I’d spent my days organizing the closets, cleaning the cupboards, and baking anything that would keep my mind occupied so I would not be counting down the days. My due date finaly came and passed. I knew that it was not likely he’d be born on his exact due date so we waited…and waited…and waited. A week over due I started getting all the questions, “When are they inducing?” “You know its dangerous to go so far over due right?” “You’re still pregnant?” as if I didn’t realize I was still pregnant, thanks. So off to the acupuncturist I went to see if that would start labor. It didn’t. I’ve heard being intimate with your husband is a sure fire way to get things going. It sure wasn’t. “Eat a whole pineapple” someone suggested. That did nothing. We tried just about every technique to naturally induce labor. It was pretty clear that this little boy was not going to come out until HE was good and ready. I reached two weeks overdue and from that point on I pretty much secluded myself from the outside world because I knew what everyone would say. I did quite a bit of research on the dangers of going past your due date...and to my surprise, the dangers of being medically induced are far greater then going past your due date. So from that point on I decided that we would just let this little boy pick his own birthday.
On Tuesday night my husband and I broke out one of our old favorite games, Rock Band! He jammed out on the guitar while I beat on the drums. It was nice to stop obsessing over when this baby was going to come. We went to bed a little later then planned and the thought of going into labor that night didn’t even exists in my mind. Six o’clock a.m I was coaxed awake by this gnawing pain in my stomach. I tried to ignore it and tried to go back to sleep. Ten minutes later there is was again. I decided I would try to get up and goto the bathroom. By seven o’clock these cramps were coming on every five minutes and lasting for over a minute. I woke David up, and then made a phone call to, we will call her Mary. “It’s finally my turn to have a baby” I told her. I figured things would take a while so we just laid in bed and tried to get some more rest. I quickly knew that sleeping was not going to happen. Then a million things rushed into my mind that needed to get done. I should cook breakfast for me and the boys, I need to do the dishes, vacuuming would be a good idea, my hair was a mess and I wanted to put on some makeup (we were, after all, having company), the pool needed blown up and filled, I needed to get all the supplies out and ready. So I got up and a contraction hit me to where I had to stop and work through it. When it was over I took a few more steps to get started on my to do list, and WHAM another contraction hit me again. These were not those nice little ‘wave’ contractions, these were hit you hard, knock you to your knees contractions. After a few more of these I realized I had only made it a few feet from my bed, I would not be getting anything done. I laid back in bed to slow the contractions down because I knew it would still be a few hours before Mary would get there. Our son, Jace, had woke up and wanted to be in bed cuddling and playing with me. At that point I was having to concentrate through contractions but I was trying my best to smile at him and explain to him he was going to meet this baby that had been in my tummy all this time. I tried to coach my husband through the most important things that needed done and I just decided I’d forget about the little things that didn’t really matter. He ended up getting Jace dressed and off to my mothers. He called Julie, our photographer, and told her to be prepared to leave work today. He got some water boiling, all the birth supplies out, the pool blown up and started being filled. Meanwhile I’m laying in bed working through these fairly strong contractions in between puking in the trashcan. I knew throwing up was a sign of being in transition, but I knew I was not there yet.
By 10:00am everyone had arrived at our home. Mary, her two apprentices, and our photographer. I tried to smile and say ‘hi’ to everyone but I knew I was not going to be a very good hostess today. We ended up running out of hot water so I had to wait till around 11am to get in the pool so they could fill the rest up with water from the pots on the stove. I almost felt like I was in the olden days with each stock pot of water they’d pour. Finally, after checking the babies heart tones, I gladly eased into the warm pool. Immediately things felt so much better, contractions were bearable again and I was able to relax and enjoy the moment. With each contraction coming and going I just floated through the waves of intensity. With the warm water surrounding me, everything was so calm. I sat in the pool with my eyes closed. The room felt so warm and welcoming. I sank deeper in the pool with each contraction, I became lost in the noises around me. The trickling of the water off my body, the soft music playing in the back ground, the swooshing sound of that Marys dress made, the soft opening and closing of Julies shutter on her camera. I became lost in the feelings around me. The feeling of everyone waiting…but waiting patiently. The feeling of the water surrounding me completely, the feeling of a loving strong hand pressing firmly on my back through each contraction, the feeling of knowing this labor was going to be ending soon.
At 12:15 it happened. I hit transition. I stopped and said “I can’t do this”, I knew pushing was coming up and I did not want to push. I was done! A soft, calming voice said to me “Yes you can, your body will just take over, work with it”. I looked up and saw the two apprentices smiling, like they knew something, they knew I could do it and they knew it would be soon. I closed my eyes to the world again and at that point I could hear soft rustling of people around the room getting things ready. Mary asked David if he was going to catch his baby, I remember thinking “no way is it already that time” and I remember thinking “no way does David want to catch his baby”, he is a little squeamish, but to my surprise he went over to where she was and she started explaining things to him. She said the position that I was in sometimes indicated a shorter cord so she explained what to do when the baby came out and to take the cord and baby under my leg, she explained quite a lot to him but her words started floating away. I must have called David over because the 1st chance he got to come hold my hands he took. I was on my knees bent over the pools edge holding on to David with all my might. By then Mary was right, my body had taken over and there was nothing I could do to stop it from pushing this baby out. With each push I heard Mary say “good job, that’s it”. She felt a cervical lip and ended up pushing it up through a contraction, which I was not even aware of that happening until afterwards. Finally I felt a POP, my waters had finally broken. With another push at 12:30 the MW said “whoa, pant pant”. I felt that horrible yet wonderful ring of fire. With my husband holding my hands he panted with me as I eased the babies head out, the next thing I heard was “The heads out, there’s a hand, the other hand, the body…” then at twelve thirty two, the rest of him slipped out. I sat back and I felt him for the very first time, in my arms. I will never forget how his precious skin felt against mine. He was so soft, and slippery. At that moment I felt every feeling and emotion there was to feel, yet I was completely numb. I felt like crying, I felt like laughing, I felt like I could do anything. Nothing else existed in that moment except my baby, myself and the arms surrounding me.
We sat there and waited until the cord stopped pulsing and David cut it. We sat in the pool for an hour and a half. He was so calm and peaceful, not a cry came out. His eyes were wide open and he was just looking around at his brand new world. He nursed, Mary fed me some food, and we all just let it sink in. Baby Kasen and I finally took a bath, got a weight and height for him, and then got dressed. He was 7lbs 2oz 19 3/4in long with an apgar score of 9! We then crawled into our own bed and just soaked him up.
We finally made phone calls to tell everyone and it was finally time to introduce Jace to his little brother. Jace immediately loved him and gave him kisses. Jace still isn’t sure if he wants to keep his little brother around, but he does love Kasen and is sure to give him kisses whenever he’s crying.
Giving birth at home was truly amazing, I wish more women were able to experience what I did that day. We all have these “Birth Plans” we put in place when preparing to give birth, and it almost never goes as planned. I certainly did not plan on only being in labor 6.5 hours, I had planned to do a lot more then I did that day. I thought I’d be able to get a little housework done while listening to this immaculate birth CD that I had been making for the past 6 months. I planned to do a lot more then I did, but sometimes in birth it’s best to relax and breathe and do nothing else, and that’s exactly what I needed to do.

For pictures from that day be sure to visit www.juliebranyan.com

Its been a while....

2010-03-15T12:12:00.000-05:00

More pictures from our maternity shoot

Sneak Peak Maternity Photo's

2010-01-21T20:09:00.002-06:00

The wonderful Julie Branyan once again did a beautiful job capturing my family and i!! There are only a handful of pictures up on her website, but there will be more to come

Check them out www.Julie Branyan.com

Super Scrumptious!!

2010-01-21T20:01:00.005-06:00

Nourishing & Scrumptious "Mounds" candy bars

"These little tasty frozen candy bars fill my sweet tooth, and are an easy way to get a higher amount of coconut oil into my family’s diet. I used coconut flakes, honey (I prefer raw), homemade chocolate, almond extract, dehydrated almonds, and coconut oil. A delicious and natural combination. Though I haven’t had one for years now, Mounds was a favorite candy bar of mine. These remind me a lot of them because they contain the same type of ingredients.

They have definitely been a hit around here. My husband has been taking them in his lunches (packed next to his ice pack), and my toddler loves them, when cut into small pieces.

And who said you couldn’t have candy bars on a “healthy” diet? With a little creativity, we are denied very few things while remaining committed to a nourishing diet.

I blogged about Nourishing Tradition’s Carob (which I made into chocolate) chip recipe here. It’s quite good. The original recipe used rapadura. I decided to use honey for this project. I think it’s a little easier to get to dissolve into the mixture (always a problem with using rapadura in this recipe), but you can really use whatever sweetener you want. If you use a sweetener like honey, be aware that if you were to refrigerate the chocolate mixture instead of freeze it, it would stay a little softer than if you used rapadura.

“Mounds” Candy Bars-makes 12, large

1 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1/4 cup of honey (raw is nice)
1 teaspoon almond extract
36 almonds, left whole or chopped (your choice)

1-Melt the coconut oil and honey over low heat until just melted. Whisk to combine. Add the almond extract and coconut flakes.

2-Now take out your muffin tins (you will need a 12 compartment muffin tin). In each compartment, place three almonds, or divide the chopped almonds) Then, divide the coconut mixture, making sure you get an even mixture of coconut flakes and coconut oil. Place in a freezer (make sure it’s on a flat surface), and freeze until hard (about 30 minutes)

Now it’s time for the chocolate! You will need:

3/4 cup cocoa powder (not dutch cocoa)
1/4 cup of honey (I used a scant 1/4 of a cup)
1 cup coconut oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3-Combine these ingredients in a 2 cup glass measuring glass and place in a pot of simmering water. Heat until everything is just melted, and remove from heat. Either whisk briskly, or use a hand blender to combine well (the hand blender is the easiest way to do this).

4-Take out the frozen coconut flakes mixture, and divide your chocolate mixture over it (about two tablespoons per muffin compartment).

5-Put back into your freezer, and freeze until hard (again, about 30 minutes). To get them out, simply slide a butter knife down one side, and pop it out. This is very easy to do, as long as you do it directly from your freezer.

Then, enjoy! (and keep them frozen, they melt fairly quickly)"

Guess when baby #2 will arrive!!

2010-01-01T22:26:00.001-06:00

2009-10-04T22:56:00.002-05:00

so i've gotten so lazy about updating....sorry to those who check this hoping for a new post. its hard to get around to everything.

But we found out last wednesday that we are having our 2nd boy, and we couldn't be happier! I did feel a tiny bit sad when i saw up there on the ultrasound a little buldge between the legs. I thought how i wouldn't be able to dress my daughter up in little dresses, or do her hair, or have that bond mothers and daughters have, plan her wedding, watch her give birth. I defiantly felt a little sad. but honestly, i don't think i am made to raise a girl. the drama, the tears, the attitude, the exspenses, the teenage years ect ect.... I've always imagined raising a houseful of boys and i couldn't be more blessed. Yes, boy are tiring. But i feel girls are tiiiiiiiiiiiireing. I am getting anxious, finally, about having a little baby around. i've been scared to death about how i'm going to handle it, but tonight i just had this vision of holding a little baby again and i smiled. The excited to give birth is slowly coming to. i'm starting to gather up a good soundtrack and that always helps to look forward to. But with the whole moving thing up in the air i'm still pretty unsettled about giving birth because i'm not sure where exactly it will be happening. I think i just need to let it go and let whats meant to happen...happen. things have worked out thus far, so i guess i shouldn't stress. onto the the names...now thats stressful...

i couldn't help but love this

2009-09-29T20:58:00.001-05:00

Many fathers that I have read about made the decision (circumcising their son) based on wanting themselves to match their sons. Personally, I think that if that is your only reason, then you need to look at more practical approaches – haircuts, shirts, matching tattoos, but leave the boy’s poor penis out of it. I can't imagine there will be a time that my son will look upon my penis with a glimmer in his eye and a smile on his face and exclaim, “Daddy look, we match!” It’s just not that important to me. Taken from here

Birth is not an illness

2009-08-29T22:59:00.001-05:00

Its 2009...we have a 'black' president...7 year old children have cell phones...we can go anywhere in the world with-in hours...movies that used to be rated R would now be considered almost PG...yet in the state i live in having a baby at home is taboo! Its actually illegal to have a medical professional attend your home birth, which in turn makes it more dangerous to deliver at home in Nebraska. These laws are forcing families who want to deliver in the privacy of their own home to have unassisted births, of course there are grey areas but it's still can be pretty messy to work around.

Despite the fact that it is illegal, we are currently planning a home birth for our 2nd child due in February. People ask "Why? With all the wonderful technology why would you want to deliver at your house?" even my husband said once, before he looked into things more, "our house is not sterile enough to give birth in". Yes hospitals do have wonderful technology that is very important and should be utilized when necessary but unfortunately it seems like now-a-days its routine to use all that equipment and therefore interfering with a very natural process. The thing with nature is that when you mess with it, it usually bites back. Yet with all this technology the united states has the SECOND worst newborn death rate in the developed world! The united states stands alone, almost everywhere else in the world midwives are attending the majority of births. It is almost an automatic thing now to give a women who comes into the hospitalpitocin to 'help' their labor along. Pitocin induced contractions are so much more intense then natural contractions, so the rate of requesting an epidural sky rockets! Epidurals slows the contractions down to where the doctor needs to administer morepitcocin . The women is in pain again, so what do they do? Up the dosage of the epidural. All these things are putting so much stress on this poor little baby whose trying on its own to find its way out. Eventually the baby is under so much stress that the doctors decide to do an emergency c-section and then in the end say "thank God we got your baby out in time!". Wait...how did this all start in the first place? Think about it for a minute... A Cesarean is extremely doctor friendly, because instead of having women in labor for an average of 12 hours, a C-section only lasts twenty minutes. Statistically, most C-sections happen at 4:00 PM and 10:00 PM. This way the doctor can be home in time for dinner, or in time to go to bed at a decent hour.
I think what a lot of women don't realize is that our Obstetrician are trained surgeons and trained to do procedures. Giving birth is not a procedure and it isn't anything that needs fixed.
“Unfortunately, the role of obstetrics has never been to help women give birth. There is a big difference between the medical discipline we call “obstetrics’ and something completely different, the art of midwifery. If we want to find safe alternatives to obstetrics, we must rediscover midwifery. To rediscover midwifery is the same as giving back childbirth to women. And imagine the future if surgical teams were at the service of the midwives and the women instead of controlling them.” — Michel Odent, MD

Birth is a miracle, a rite of passage, a natural part of life. But birth is also big
business, in fact it is a billion dollar business! Hospitals need to make money and hospital birth brings in HUGE revenue! So its no wonder doctors use all their technology....cha-ching!! They don't want women laying around their hospitals laboring for hours, they want you in and out so they can fill more beds.

Now of course if something starts to go wrong at our home during labor i will not hesitate at all to go to the hospital if that's what needs to be done. We do have a backup doctor that we are doing a fewprenatals and an ultrasound with so if something goes wrong that doctor will be the one delivering our baby instead of just an 'all call' obstetrician. We were actually in a prenatal visit with this doctor and one of the nurses came in to draw some blood and she says to me "your brave!". I wanted to tell her thati'm not the brave one, women who choose to deliver in a hospital are the brave ones. They are the ones who have to deal with interventions and scare tactics doctors use. Now the most important thing is my babies safety, and that is a huge reason we're doing it at home. I strongly believe that it is in my child's best interest to let our bodies work together do what they were made to do. I do not want someone offering me drugs that will hinder mother and babies natural process of working together. I do want a nurse telling me i need to lay on the bed when it feels better and helps the baby move down wheni'm up and moving. I do not want wires and IV's stuck to me everywhere. I will drink and eat just fine while in labor i do not need synthetic nutrients pumped in my veins. I do not want my child to be born in a chaotic mess with people in face masks running around, and bright lights shining in its poor little eyes that have never seen such horrible things. I want it to be a calm, relaxed, quiet, and dark environment to where it comes into this world. Being born is such a shocking experience in itself, i do not want it to be any more traumatic then it already is. I do not want a dirty look from the nurse when i decline the eye goop they put in their eyes, i want my baby to be able to see its mommy and daddy and know our faces. I don't want it whisked away to be put under a heat lamp. My bare breasts will do the job better then any synthetic light would. My heart beat and temperature will regulate the baby's. I don't need my baby to be put in a plastic tub and taken away to a nursery to bathe and to let me rest. I will bathe my own baby, my bed will do just fine for its crib, and i will be too high on my own endorphins to want to sleep anyways. But when i am tired, i will rest peacefully with my newborn right beside me. There will be no one coming in disturbing us every hour of the night. I will birth where i want, in the kitchen, in the bathtub, on the toilet, in the bed. I will have no one telling me what i should do because my body will instinctively know. At home i will enjoy my labor. "Birth is not an illness, it is not something that needs to be numbed"-Riki Lake, taken from the Documentary movie The Business of Being Born.

Wedding photos are in!!!

2009-08-22T12:35:00.002-05:00

Julie did an amazing job! I love the pictures and how it all turned out!

Click here to goto the pictures!

Well its official!

2009-08-03T13:36:00.002-05:00

Thats right, we found out over a month ago that we were having another baby! David is hoping for a girl this time around....and me? It doesn't matter to me one bit. Jace it excited some days and other days not so much. I ask him "are you going to love you baby brother or sister?"...depending on the day he either says "ya" or shakes his head "no". So we're just going to have to play it by ear. We are defiantly preparing to have an amazing birth, i'm convinced that it will be different this time around! (not to say Jace's was not-amazing, it was). So come sometime in february our family will turn into a family of 4!

whew

2009-06-27T11:47:00.004-05:00

Its been crazy lately! I've been so busy and so tired i can't seem to get anything done!

David got promoted to Internet Sales Manager at work, he puts in a significant more amount of work but he likes it.

Jace is a crazy 1yr old! Although he is starting to sleep through the night, yea! He loves being outside sooo much, and that kid is getting tan!

Here's some random pictures since i've updated last.

Family picture are by the wonderful Julie Branyan. Who also did our wedding and we're waiting patiently for the pictures for her! Meanwhile we're holding ourselves over by looking at all the pictures friends and families took!

Me and Jace did crash Davids Stag weekend (by invite), and we brought some boob and butt cupcakes!

More to come....Stay tuned for more up and coming exciting news from The Linthakhans!

Back from Cali

2009-05-30T16:44:00.008-05:00

Jace and i boarded a plane with my sister and her family and off we flew to California....

We had a connecting flight in Denver...

Did a little driving around....

There was lots of jumping on the bed...

Slumber parties...of course Jace was the 1st one awake...

Saw where every single Jelly Belly in the whole world was made

And of course ate some!

Yes...it did get a little hot...

We did hang out by the pool a bit...

Went to Lagoon Lake...

We chased the "puppies" around....
"Here pup pup"...

We jumped on the train and headed to San Francisco...

We got to ride the F-line through Fishermans warf...
Saw Alcatraz...

um...but no body warned us when we left that the 95 temperature would drop down to 62 by the bay...so needless to say we left with some nice unplanned souvenirs---fleece!

When your on the coast you HAVE to eat at Bubba Gumps...

Late night train ride back...

We started to miss daddy a lot so we headed home...

of course you have to drink on the plane!

all in all it was a fun trip. It was nice to be back. Five days without David was just enough time to realize i should marry him. Hehe...just kidding. He also realized that he HATES doing dishes...what did he think...they did themselves?

****TIP****if you ever go to San Fransisco dress in layers, just in case its cold. now you can't say no ever told you! thanks for the warning locals. *shaking fist*

wedding to come....

2009-05-22T13:17:00.002-05:00

MySpace Countdowns

i've tried to be on top of everything and send out invites to everyone i could possibly think of....if your readying this and did not recieve an invite...i sincerely apologize and hope you won't hold it against me :) check out the wed-site and see if its something you want to attend and then just RSVP, we would love to have everyone we love there. Also if you've heard "well i wasn't invited"....point them to the website too :) i don't want anyone feeling left out.

And those of you who did get an invite and have NOT rsvp'd....you better get on it :) there is valuable information on our wed-site you shouldn't miss !

Check out our wed-site

photo shoot

2009-05-18T14:32:00.004-05:00

We found a wonderful photographer to do out wedding....actually we got extreamly lucky. instead of an engagment shoot we did a 1yr old/fam shoot. I am blown away at the photos she took of us and could not be more excited for her to share our wedding day with us and capturing the little moments. She is so talented and is turning me into a vain person because all i want to do is stare at the pictures of us :)

to see a sneak peak of the pics so far go to her website!

click here

www.juliebranyan.com

HE'S ONE!

2009-05-17T22:05:00.007-05:00

So the past two days i've been thinking back to what we were doing this time last year. I've been playing through in my mind each stage of labor...giving birth...the time right after...the first few hours....In my memory its all so beautiful! It was so exciting to see him grow up this past year and i can't wait to see what the next years bring. He is truly the biggest blessing ever and he has taught me so much. There is still a lot to learn...and i'm ready.

We had a party at our home, thank you to all who made it! Sorry to those i didn't really get to talk to...it is a little crazy and hectic. Trying to keep everyone full and happy, trying not to drag things out too long since some people couldn't stay long, trying to make it feel not super rushed. But i felt like i had to be in a million places at once. Its defiantly different when YOUR the one throwing the party....lessons learned for next year. There were a few unexpected things come up...but nothing we couldn't handle....ready for some pictures...?

Some of the little details...

Mr. Social...

The "kids" playing with the drums

Cake time...

You sure i won't get in trouble?

Opening presents...

Playing after everyone left...

Need a little help getting up the hill...

almost EXACTLY one...

1st tubby time as a one year old :)

...and for you Aunt Ne.....he LOVED his cards....

Easter!

2009-04-28T12:17:00.005-05:00

i know i know its been a while.....but it amazing how busy one can get. So much has happened!

1- i'm now feel like a real stay at home mom. I'm not watching any other kids...i couldn't be happier!

2-our party buisness partywise is actually doing things and getting paid for it!
our newest cake creations...

3-the wedding planning is coming down to the nitty gritty. the to-do list is definitely getting things checked off. YES!

4- busy planning Jace's 1st birthday party.

Speaking of Jace....he is a walking machine! Once he got it...he got it quick. He still wobbles and can crawl faster...but he does look darn cute walking around the house...then falling on his butt.

Easter was pretty fun. He didn't care about the easter baskets...

egg dying...

or the egg hunts...

or the easter bunny...

or the candy...

But he did love the bubbles...

being outside...

the tractor...

and the deer...

and the snake...

These feet are made for walking

2009-03-31T17:25:00.003-05:00

so jace can pretty much walk! he's been doing two or three steps for about a month...but he finally got brave and let go of the furniture and took off...well untill he fell down :)

yes thats paint on his hand, he helped me paint all last night and i guessed i missed a spot. note the rub on the floor....yup, those are his little painted handprints. he was a HUGE help painting :)

he does know how to wave, and of course as soon as i stopped recording he waved.

Happy St. Paddys Day! and random thoughts...

2009-03-17T18:00:00.005-05:00

Real orignal that i would do this bog in green today i know. Today was Jace's 1st St. Patricks Day, of course he wore green, and because it was in the 70s of course we played outside!

Of Course We ate Shamrocks!

Oh Man These Are Sooooo Good

Uh....does this mean 7 years of bad luck?

Now for the randoms....

Well we're down to 90 some days for the wedding. I'm pretty sure there are a ton of details i need to work out still....unfortunatly those details cost some moo-la that i'm not willing to spend on "a day". So we'll see how creative i can get, i have a feeling some people are going to call this a hick/hippy wedding. But thats alright with me, dave already calls me a Hippy....i'm pretty sure that the word for the modern day hippies is "hipster" you can check out the official hipster handbook

www.omahapartywise.com is offically up and running, i'm still doing some tweaking to the site, but at least its up.

I have my newest tattoo idea offically ready. I'd love to get it done before the wedding, we'll see though. Actually i have two ideas for tattoos...but the 2nd one is a little more intense and could take awhile.

HAPPY ST.PATTY'S DAY!!

the weekend

2009-03-11T09:34:00.007-05:00

(click pic to enlarge)well my moms wedding was this weekend....we made the cakes, big feat, and it actually made it all in one piece. well....the harley cake ended up cracked in half. but it was nothing frosting couldn't fix :)

"let me help you out there"

my sisters secret passion, and she dragged me up with her

oh the 'usual' wedding dances

Too cute

After the weekend was over the kids needed some time to relax....in the tub...
so i'm getting tired of buying all these snacks that are loaded with preservatives, surgars, unhealthy fats ect....so what did i do? i made my own crackers.

Rich, buttery Crackers (made out of Yogurt Dough)

source

The night before cream in a large bowl:

1 cup of plain whole yogurt (I used baby banana yogert for a little flavor)
1 cup of butter, softened

Mix in:

3 1/2 cups of freshly ground spelt or wheat flour (I used wheat flour)
This is what my dough looked like at this point.

The dough would look like this when squeezed in my hand

Cover and leave in a warm place for 12 to 24 hours (this is the “soaking”(click to read why you should soak your grains). Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Knead in 2 tsp of salt, herbs, cheese ect....what ever you think would spruce it up. Using white flour to dust your surface and dough, roll your dough out thin. Cut into strips and then cut into squares.

Place your squares on an ungreased cookie sheet and prick with a fork (you can sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar at this point if you want a sweet cracker. Bake for about 8 minutes and check, keep checking every two minutes until done. They should be browning slightly on the edges, when done. Take off of sheet and place on a cooling rack and enjoy!

And the verdict?...he likes em!

and on a side note....my wedding dress has begun the process of being made. YEA! and after going to my moms completly traditional wedding i am getting very excited about our offbeat wedding. i want to enjoy the day....not be stressed about every little detail. i'm very happy with how we decided to do things! 3 months to go....

an exspensive obsession

2009-03-02T17:28:00.005-06:00

so dave worked super hard this month and decided to treat himself to a lobster....weel 2 actually, but he did share.

Jace had his "hat" on and was totally prepared!

I will have to say i'm not a big fan of my food staring at me

"cartoon of the post"

1st baby sign

2009-02-28T18:21:00.005-06:00

So today Jace signed his first baby sign. i'm pretty sure he knows what it means. i've been signing it to him for months now every time he nurses....i think he may be figuring it out! he does it when he's nursing...so i don't think he's figured out how to "ask sign" yet. soon though!

Jace went to his 1st circus the other day. i think he missed the whole thing because he was so busy looking at all the other kids...and of course his sucker.

weeeee.....the slides downtown

Valentines Day & a taste of summer

2009-02-24T18:11:00.009-06:00

So needless to say our valentines day has changed a bit (as everything else in our like as well).

David and my 1st valentines
-woke up probably somewhere around noon in my tiny 1 bdrm apt
-laid in bed for another hour or so listening to the neighbors enjoy part of their v-day
-jetted out the door and headed to Mnt. Cresent for a few hours of snowboarding (pretty sure i still have the bruises to prove it)
-had some hot coco
-went back to my apt, cooked crab legs on my teeny tiny stove while watching a movie
-enjoyed a nice quiet evening laying in each others arms

This valentines day
-woke up at 6:30 to Jace crawling on our heads
-7:30 dave left for work
-i baked some cookies, cleaned and then set up the table
-7:30ish david gets from work
-we cook some crab legs

-we sit at the table and try to talk about our day but jace is babbeling about his day that we can't even hear each other
-Jace body surfed on dad

-they took a ride around the house on a chair

-then we put jace to bed, and pretty sure we went to bed not soon after

......and i wouldn't change a thing!

(seriously we do not encourage underage drinking)

Ah, the outdoors.....can not wait for summer! we will be outside ALL the time!!

See my stick kailie!!!

Mr. P90X

oh and our newest cake creation....

Crabby

2009-02-19T20:20:00.007-06:00

so we went to the asian market and bought a live crab....because we felt adventurous!

Meet Mr. Crab

MMMmmmmm was he good!

We stuffed Jace in the toy box while he cooked
Then he decided that he wanted a beer (it was empty, no one call cps)
Then after a few drinks and tubby time....it was onto hide and go seek under the coversThis Boy loves his daddy!

Bear Grylls

2009-02-10T18:21:00.003-06:00

so on a side note........Bear and his wife, Shara, had their 3rd boy

"Last week Shara and I had our third little boy, Huckleberry Edward Joscelyne Grylls, weighing 7 pounds, 11 ounces, and he is pure heaven.

Shara had him at home (which was interesting, with me armed to the teeth and holding the toolbox at the ready!), and she was amazing. She did it all with no pain relief (I tried to give her an aspirin at halfway but then remembered she wasn't even allowed that, as it thins the blood!)

The other boys, jesse and marmaduke, are so happy to have a baby brother. The Three Musketeers. Brilliant!"

i knew there was another reason i liked this guy. not to mention he's pretty hot lol

It Dad

2009-02-09T09:49:00.005-06:00

this weekend daves dad and wife came to visit us. They also had gone down to texas and picked up davids brother (that he just talked to for the 1st time a few short months ago) Richard. All in all we had a pretty good time. Nancy cooked SO much Lao food.....mmmm the sticky rice, larb, Thom Nam, papya salad, lao sausage, Pho...mmmmmm. But i pretty much burned my face off eating it all...they like their food SPICY. Richard broke a sweat everytime we ate, but loved it!
The boys had fun playing Rock Band and just getting to know each other. I think they all enjoyed themselves for the most part.

Jace ran a high fever almost all weekend.

His little body was fighting something off. With a few baths, some egg whites, carefully (maybe obsessive) monitoring, and a lot of worring on my part he broke the fever finally. I'm not big on the medicine, in fact i'd rather not go to it unless i absolutly feel its nessisary. there are reasons you run fevers. i did give him some motron at night so he could get some better rest. This was his first real fever so i defiantly felt it too. I know its just a fever and its not that serious...but i tell you this child and mother connection is an amazing thing. i'm so attached to this kid that i can feel what he feels and everything he goes through effects me BIG time.

We went to the zoo last week and had a good time. Jace had gone to the zoo when he was like a week old and this time he actuallly stayed awake (most the time) and was able to look at the animals! He loved the turtles and the BIG gorilla. I think his favorite part was all the other little kids running around. we'll definatly go back again and again, we only saw a tiny bit of the zoo that day

8 months old!

2009-01-28T09:24:00.007-06:00

Well i think we're working on a few more teeth. He's been chewing and chewing again. So far we have 4 teeth total. Possibly 2 more in a few weeks. He's getting taller now so he loves to pull himself up on our culligan water and pull the handle for a nice little cold shower. He is a little exhibitionist too. He'll go crawling to bathroom whenever he's naked (since tubby time is his favorite!). He's pushing his walking toys and chairs and stools and tables all over the floor and walking behind them.
i'm busy planning this wedding still. ugh. i've got most things worked out in my head. the food part is defianitly the main stresser. it should be fun though, hopefully it will be a nice change of wedding pace that everyone will appreciate a little, hopefully it won't be akward since its not what everyone is used to.
Jace will be in my moms wedding this march....maybe he'll be walking by then. if not he'll have to do a crawl down the isle. or at least walk holding his cousins hands. He should be walking by our wedding...possibly running and doing flips as well.

mmmm aunt Nea's yummy cookie recipe...dads favorite...and i think his son his following in his foot steps.

playing in the snow. BRRR-COLD! No more snow!!

our latest cake we did for my brothers 15th bday

Jace loves to dance

watch out, here i come!

2 new teeth

2009-01-12T16:20:00.005-06:00

Christmas Trains
Happy New Years boys :)
This is what we did for New Years

well i've been busy....trying to get this wedding planned! but Jace is quite the little man, he's so funny. he crawling and pulling himself up and walking along furniture. he says dada and mama but i'm pretty sure he has no clue what they mean. its still nice to hear though...he did say dada first! here's some new pics for ya!

Dave says he's going to have buck teeth :(Looks like a little wrestler Loves being naked He looks guilty...wonder what he just did?
Christmas Horns

After mom baked cookies he got into the dishwasher and found a ''mmmnnnmmm"

1/2 Christmas's down...

2008-12-26T14:04:00.005-06:00

From the mind of Jace...."So i had so much fun! Ever kept giving me all this colorful paper to play with

mom was always more interested in these plain boxes...but after they opened there was always something fun in them. NaNa and Pappa Jo got me my favorite puzzles, they are sweet! I got this blue bowl i can sit in...AND stand in! Then this really cool toy i like to hang on....mom calls it an activity cart. i just call it FUN. My Grammy gave me an outfit that mom says makes me look like a little man, and this really cool hammer! My greats got me an outfit too that mom can't wait to put on me. My aunt made me this super comfy pillow with bean bags...but that pillow...i was a little sleepy...so christmas eve i decided to take a little nap instead of playing with anymore paper. After that was done we had to drive...FOREVER! We finally got to Aunt Nea's and i got to open my presents from my godparents. They got me this book my mom says every kid should have, an outfit that calls me a bugger (personally i don't get it), and this awsome toy i can ride and push...although when i pull myself up on the toy it always runs away from me, its a little frustraiting. We went to bed and when we woke up mom and dad were both smiling and saying "merry 1st christmas" they looked like they slept with hangers in their mouths, but i guess it made me excited to. We got up and i got to open a giant sock! It was filled with moms fav...chocolate! I was a little mad...she took it all...i didn't even get one piece! Later gramdma gave me the best sweet potatoes ever, and mashed potatoes. I'll have to have mom get the recipe from aunt Nea.mmmmm mmmm mmm. I got some super comfy jammies that day and played with a really cool kid. Pretty sure we're buds. All my cousins and aunts and uncles and everyone that was there i had so much fun with. Then they stuck me back in that darn carseat and drove again...i was so worn out though i didn't care, i just slept. it was so fun, but i was defiantly glad to be home. Mom says we have 3 more christmas's to goto...i can't wait!" "Oh ya one more thing...i got me pictures taken professionally with mom and dad. Every keeps saying they are so cute"

1st army crawl

2008-12-19T10:09:00.004-06:00

this is a few days after he started army crawling

Crawling for the 1st time

2008-12-19T09:42:00.005-06:00

Dec 11th David and i were sitting around watching a little tv with Jace playing on the floor next to us. Jace had been army crawling for about a month....when all of a sudden he popped up on his hand and knees and started crawling on all fours. It just clicked i guess.

It's begining to feel a lot like christmas

2008-12-14T23:05:00.004-06:00

Well today was the coldest it has been yet! a freezing 8....yes i said 8. brrrrrr. It was the holiday light festival downtown and i wanted to go so bad. There isn't much to do in omaha so when there is something i like to go. It took forever to get David convised to go. "he's too young....he's not even going to remember". So does that mean that we should sit inside all day every day untill Jace is old enough to remember....and THEN we can go do things. Of course, why did'nt i think of that.

so we went to the childrens museum and played around for a while. Santa was gone by the time we got there....but Jace is to young to remember anyways.

Oh Christmas Tree

2008-12-04T11:29:00.009-06:00

We went and cut down our christmas tree yesturday. I think we're starting a tradition. It was frezzing so we didn't spend a whole lot of time picking one out, but i think we found a good one. Kailie had fun going with us too, her and david are buddies.
Found it!Getting warm

Helping me decor ate the treeA few minutes later he was out

Play Time

Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T13:40:00.007-06:00

whew...3 thanksgiving dinners, TONS of people and WAY too many pies thanksgiving is over.
Here are a few pics of Jaces 1st thanksgiving. He loved mashed potoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, and pumpkin pie...and whipped cream thanks to grammie.His 1st remote control car Playing with Mom Playing with cousin Gabbie his cousins found a wig for him Jaces face is looking MUCH MUCH better!

now its on to christmas.....and my birthday!

The Bite

2008-11-24T18:23:00.006-06:00

Jace is doing much better! thank you to all who loved ad prayed. Here is what happened....

It was tues the 18th. One day after Jace turned 6 months old. I had mon and tues off of babysitting because we were both trying to get setteled into our new homes. I was busy painting and sorting through things all day long. Jace was his happy self playing on the floor and having a blast being able to scoot anywhere in the house on our new wood floors. Kai and Meya (our two dogs) were adjusting to the new house and loving all the extra room. So jace was army crawling around and Kai was laying on the floor with a ball.....this is what our house is ussually like. The dogs don't mind Jace, they actually seem to like him and they let Jace play with them quit a bit. Apparently it was on off moment for Kai. Jace was army crawling along the floor and got too close to Kai and he snapped. It was so quick. He jumped up and bit down on Jaces's little face. I saw it all happened and i'm sure i screamed, which made Kai run. Jace was laying with his back on the floor. I was only two steps away but it seemed to take me minutes to get to him. I picked him up and turned him every which way to see what kind of bite marks there were. There was a pretty nasty one on his chin but i could handle that one. As i flipped him to his other side my stomache dropped. I screamed, i cursed, i went absolutly blank. For half a second. Then something else took hold. I went into a mode i have never been in before. My mind thought a million things....

get to the hospital.....1st put the paint roller in your hand down...should i put the paint away.....put the dogs in the kennel.....take your lunch out of the oven....get some shoes....grab the phone and the diaper bag....diaper bag is still in the car....move!fast!.....washcloth for the wound......
the only things a managed to do in those 2 seconds i was thinking was drop the paint roller and put a washcloth on this head.
so shoeless i ran to the car and with Jace on my lap i honked at every car to get out of my way. i was in survival mode. I was shaking and a mess. All i could think about was this hole i'd seen in Jaces head. I looked down and it hadn't started gushing blood yet so i saw a hole and i saw white. (i thought it was his scull at the time, but it turned out to be tissue). Jace was wimpering at this point so i was scared he was going to go into shock so i was trying to talk to him, drive and call dave at the same time. I couldn't get a hold him though! At the hospital a parked 3 car lengths away from the Valet parking guy who was waving me to drive closer. I flung the door open and said i had to go. running down the hospital halls i was trying to find the emergency room (i'd apparently gone in the wrong entrance). a group of people where walking down the hall and i looked at them in a panic asking where the emergency room was. This woman (she had to of been a mother too) too me by the arm and jogged us to the back entrance of the emgency room. The doors opened and she yelled for help, the whole room stood still, everyone turned around and looked at me. Right away the rushed me into a room to get a look at what had happened.
in the mean time jace had started screaming, i had nurses asking me a million questions, i kept getting david on the phone for a second befor service would cut out. 3 phones later i finally gave him enough information that he knew to come to the hospital, kai bit jace.
What seemed like hours later, i'm sure it was a little over an hour. Jace finnaly stopped screaming after being held down to put over 20 stitches in his face. It was a nightmare an absolute nightmare. David kept saying "are you serious right now". i kept crying but was trying my best to stay calm for Jaces sake.
Anyways.....we went home. i didn't want to see either of the dogs because i knew we had to get rid of them. So that night David took them to go run free. We keep telling ourselves they are happier now. And we don't talk about them either.
Well a week later we got Jaces stitches out. It was another 45min of being held down and screaming. but the doc said that he's healing great. It was a rough few days. he would smile, hardly ate. Sleeping was very uncoftable for him. But its over now.
I feel so bad that he is going to have these scars. They may be almost impossible to see when he gets older, but his toddler years he is going to have some nasty scars. He was so perfect, he was so beautiful. Not that he isn't those things now but i know what its like to have scars that stay with you forever. sigh. i just wish that his little face was flawless again. Don't get me wrong i thank God everyday for how lucky he was. no broken bone. missed his eye and other organs.....but still....i want him to be the way he was born.

First Halloween

2008-11-01T22:29:00.004-05:00

(for those of you who don't get what he was...he's from the Guiness commercial, the ''brilliant" beermasters)
Jace had his first halloween. It was a little uneventful, but it was still fun getting him dressed up. We went and saw Grammy (my mom), then saw Deidra at her work with Kailie. They were the cutest Cruella Devil and her pup :) Then it was off to make another bowtie for Jace since he ripped his first one. We went and saw pappa Joe, who gave Jace a red fruit roll-up of course and some yummy nilla wafers. By the time we got home he was sleeping....so no trick-or-treating this year. Next year we'll get-em!

photo fun

2008-10-17T15:31:00.009-05:00

oh and Jace Got his 1st tooth! yea for it FINALLY popping out! whew what a ruff few days though

Two kids

2008-10-17T11:16:00.007-05:00

Kailie Love him!
Jace Wanted to take a picture for Myspace

I have gone from one kid to two kids...well two in the day at least, i get to give one kid back at night. Its defiantly different. i don't always get the laundry done, the dishes usually sit until the end of the night, i tend to be a little more tired. I'm far more active. But its fun! And i enjoy it. I would love to get another kid to watch but then we might not be able to go anywhere (3 car seats in the car? not sure if that will work) I'm a little nervous about going out with BOTH kids by myself. i have yet to do it. Luckely Dave is super good with Kailie and he runs around chasing her while i carry Jace. but i have a feeling that i'm going to have to venture out with them alone soon. *bites nails*. Jace loves watching Kailie do everything and she loves playing 'momma'. She is such a well behaved girl, for a one year old. She so content and laid back (most of the time). It'll be fun to see these two grow up together.
They were both laughing so hard
The three of us
Too cute

it was a wedding weekend

2008-10-13T10:44:00.007-05:00

Jace Slept through the cermony
Best friends for life...Dave as his bestman

Dave pretending he can't find the ringThe minister came over to see if he could help

The End of the night...can you tell!
caleb and katie got married this weekend. crazy! it was a long weekend, but it was fun. Katie did a great job puttting the wedding together, it was beautiful! dave was the best man, his speech was cute,

BOOBIES!

2008-10-03T16:03:00.005-05:00

so i figured i would make a boob cake since Jace likes boobies so much.....just kidding, actually its Calebs Bachelor party cake. He's not having any strippers so i thought i would give Caleb a pair of boobies.

This is going to be boobs?

those are some BIG boobies....

"you want some?"

Camping

2008-09-30T09:04:00.003-05:00

Well it was Jaces' first time camping...and he even got to ride Spook the horse with his grandpa Jack. it was super cute. One of his uncles was a little uneasy about the whole situation, but i knew grandpa Jack would be just fine with Jace. i guess Spook got his name for a reason.

All in all it was pretty fun. Jace saw a lot more relatives and we had a nice time. Its just too bad that we got to only come up for one day. I know David loves riding horses and being out in the country. He's a little country boy at heart living in the city now.

Om my goodness the ride home sucked BIG time. He started out driving, then he got tired with in 45min. so i drove....then Jace started screaming....i ended up missing the exit to a highway we were supposed to take so by the time we realized it we were pretty much in KC. So it took us almost 2 hours longer then it should have to get home. ugh. but it wasn't all bad. It gave me and dave a few hours to have a ridiculously long discussion. we are so similar yet we are so different. we just have to work through the differences.

well we are moving in a month. YEA! i'm excited. Anyways...here's some pics of the weekend.

Play Dates & Weekends

2008-09-21T23:51:00.005-05:00

We went with my sister and Rebekah to the botanical gardens. They have a kids structure event and although Jace fell asleep 1/2 the time we were there, it still was pretty neat.

This weekend me and my sister made some cupcakes we're entering into a contest, i'm a little biased but i think we might win.

Pink is the new Blue right? or is it the new black?
either way only real men wear pink, and he's adorable in it!

OUCH!

2008-09-18T15:02:00.003-05:00

It was shot day today :(
and shot day has defiantly turned into a very tired and fussy day. He was so brave though Last tim e he got shots he screamed and i could not console him. But this time he wanted to prove how big of a kid he was. He was looking at a book and when she stuck him he got this look on his face like, 'why the hell did you do that?' and then with the next shot he let out a little cry but it didn't last long at all. No real side effects, besides the being fussy. I can't beleive that they reccomnd giving a baby that small 4 shots at once! Since he's not in daycare my doc and i have decided to opt out of some shots with no risk to Jace, some shots just aren't nessiasry for all babies. But my boy is getting BIG he's 13 lbs 3 oz and 25 long! Although he's little compared to most babies...but he's being compared to formula fed babies. Why is it that they don't have serperate charts for breastfed babies? They are getting a complete different source of nutrution. Anyways....He's got some pretty tough bandaides on!

The end of 3 months!

2008-09-14T12:51:00.006-05:00

Jace is almost 4 month old! Crazy how fast it goes. He seems so big already! He is defiantly ready to start taking tastes of solid foods. We got bored one night and thought we would try out a little baby cereal. It is so funny, David is learning about babies as we go on...i asked him, "should we try giving him some cereal?" David responded saying, "NO! He'll choke!". I think he though i was going to pour him a bowl of Cheerios. Jace got the hang of eating pretty quick. By the 3rd bite he was grabbing the spoon and pulling it towards his mouth. Of course we made a mess!

Of course when dad is home they spend their time playing video games, reading the paper and napping.

labor day

2008-09-02T16:49:00.002-05:00

Labor day

2008-09-02T16:27:00.001-05:00

we had a long but wonderful weekend meeting a lot of family on Davids side. Davids real dad, after years of not seeing him, actually came up to his his grandson. We had a blast!

laughing

2008-09-02T16:21:00.001-05:00

first 3 months

2008-09-02T15:46:00.001-05:00

cousins

day #2

fathers day nap

smile!

Since i started this blog when Jace is 3 month here is a collection of some of my favorites...

0-3months old...

Our Birth Story

2008-09-02T15:35:00.000-05:00

It has been three months since I gave birth to my wonderful son Jace Saang Linthakhan. It was hard, it was painful, and it was intense. But my birth pains no longer remain in my mind and I now can look back on my experience and see it how it was meant to be seen.

First a few quotes that stand out strongly in my head and that cause some thought provoking issues....

“An obstetrician is a trained surgeon” (and we wonder why there are so many interventions during birth!) “They should not be doing normal births because they’re not trained in it. They have no idea how to do it.”

"Caesarean is extremely doctor friendly, Its 20 min, and "I’ll be home for dinner" “peak hours for Cesarean section procedures are 4:00pm and 10:00pm”

"Everywhere else in the world, Great Britain, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan... You can go to all the highly developed countries where they are loosing fewer women and fewer babies around the time of birth. And what do you see? You see midwives attending 70 or 80 percent of all the births. And the doctors are there to take care of the small percentage that develops a complication. That is the proven system everywhere in the world. And the United States stands alone."

"Nothing compares to the privilege of giving life and the responsibility of that. Nothing. So if you don't have the reverence and the respect for that, where do you go from there?"

“The united states has the 2nd worst newborn death rate in the developed world”

Doctors give women an epidural…thus slows contractions…then doctors give pitocin…makes contractions longer, stronger, causing more pain…doctors give another epidural (or up the dose)…which then requires more pitocin…longer, harder contractions…stress to baby…caesarean. It ends with the doc saying “thank God we got your baby out in time!” hmmmm how’d this start in the first place?

“Putting the mother flat on her back literally makes the pelvis smaller, makes it much more difficult for the woman to use her stomach muscles to push, and therefore makes it much more likely for an episiotomy to be cut, or for forceps to be used, or for the vacuum extractor to be used.”

When it comes to giving birth…it’s not an illness, it’s not something that needs to be numbed. It’s an experience that needs to be felt. 4 am I awake to a cramping feeling in my stomach, immediately I wake up and wait to see if it happens again, sure enough about 15 minutes later there was another. I smiled and snuck out of bed. I went to the bathroom, took a shower, straightened my hair, and smiled with each contraction. 5am I was doing the dishes and straightening up the house. I heard David get up and he walked into the kitchen and asked me what in the world I was doing. I said, “the dishes”, he just looked at me like ‘oh goodness’. I then told him that I was having contractions and we were going to have this baby today! Humph little did I know. I said it would still be a while so he should go back to bed. So he did. I continued to be up and doing things because it was less painful when I was up and moving then lying down. A few hours later David was up with me. I was trying to do things to keep my mind busy and not concentrating on the contractions, which were now about 10 min apart. I was doing mandallas, cleaning, and braiding a necklace to put my clay pendant I had made on. I remember contractions getting a little harder and stronger. 4pm David was playing Xbox and I thought it might be time to go; my contractions seemed to be 3-4 min apart and lasting almost a minute. So we got ready to go and then I 2^nd guessed myself and said we should wait longer. We hadn’t really eaten anything all day, so we jumped in the car and headed to Long Johns. We came home and ate…I automatically threw up. Then I wanted to go to the hospital. We arrived and waited and waited…finally in the room I looked around. I saw a TV. With a DVD player right in front of the bed. I thought, “do people really lay here like it’s any other day watching TV and movies while they’re in labor?” What about that is special? They checked me..3cm! Only! After all that work! They said that I needed to go for a walk to see if that would help me dilate more…tears from pain & an hour and a half later I was back in the room. Still 3 cm! Kate, a wonderful midwife, came in and sat down to talk to me. “Its too soon for you to be here”. I was so discouraged. “Go home, eat something, get some sleep, hopefully we’ll see you back here later”. I was mortified for not knowing I wasn’t that far along. But the contractions hurt so much so I thought it was getting close. 7pm At home I tried to eat a baked potato…I couldn’t keep it down. I was very dehydrated. I lay in bed trying to close my eyes to sleep…I couldn’t. 11pm we were on our way to the hospital again, this time they wheeled me up in a wheel chair…I was so sick. They put us in a room and gave me an IV and morphine to sleep. 5am Anita, another midwife, came in and checked me “5cm…we’re having a baby today!” she said. I was so excited and felt much better. I just needed some rest. We got up, ate some fruit and were handling contractions so well today. Walking around, joking with the nurse between contractions, it was so much fun. 1pm things started getting intense again, I got into the tub and relaxed for while. 7cm…8cm…9cm…my water still hadn’t broke yet and I was sitting at 9cm for the last hour and not progressing. They broke my water. Oh how the pressure released. I got onto the birthing ball for a while hoping the position and bouncing would help bring him down. 3pm still 9cm…went to the tub. I was now in transition. I was in my own world with each contraction; in between I would fall into a state of deep relaxation. I could hear the midwifes talking “shhh she’s in transition, its going to be soon”. I could feel David’s hand rubbing my arm. Then another contraction. 4pm…still 9 cm…4:30…still 9 cm, 98% effaced, that last little bit would not go. The midwives came to me and said, “it’s been a very long time for you, you could push and I could stretch the rest of your cervix to 10cm, or we could give you some pitocin to help you over the edge.” Pitocin, pitocin….NO! I got so scared then. The contractions were so hard I couldn’t handle them any harder. I was throwing up. I could handle things the way they were but not any worse. David’s parents were at the hospital waiting for what seemed like hours, I felt so bad. I finally said that if I get some pain meds then I would take the PIT. They put a little pain med through my IV and hooked the PIT up. “This is not how I wanted things to go” I was hooked up to all these wires and laying in bed. I closed my eyes with each contraction. The pain med was not strong enough…it did nothing. Epidural flashed through my mind…”one more contraction and maybe I’ll ask for one”. 5pm-another contraction; I sat up in bed and said; “I need to push”. It seemed like chaos in the room. I went and sat on the birthing chair, David sat on the bed behind me with his arms under my arms. I remember my sister saying, “pushing feels so good”. No, no it didn’t. It was so hard, less painful though…until he crowned. Kate was sitting on floor with hot compresses and talking to me calmly telling me everything to do. The damn nurse was pushing the Doppler on my belly constantly. “Do you HAVE to do that every time?” I almost yelled at her. Her response, “well we could hook up an internal fetal monitor”…with that threat I just shut my mouth and continued pushing, something in my baby’s scalp was the last thing I wanted. I could feel all these eyes watching me, my MW, the nurse, David, the nic-u docs. I didn’t care who was watching I cried out with each push, somehow it seemed to help get through them. Another push, “reach down and feel your babies head”…I couldn’t, was I scared? Was too I tired? Another push. I put my hand down…there he was, I could feel the top of his soft head. Another push…I looked at Kate “he’s coming” she says, “one more long push one more time”. I pushed with everything I had left, there he was, and I could feel him slipping out. 6:11pm Kate pulled him out and made sure he was breathing, he was. The nurse was trying to grab him away from her. There was meconium in my water so the nic-u was waiting and watching to take him away to suction him out. Kate put him in my arms and I couldn’t believe what I saw. He was so precious. So tiny and wrinkled. He looked up and smiled at me “your not supposed to smile yet” I said with tears. It was an instant love that I had never felt before, he was mine. The nurse kept reaching over to take him and the midwives swarmed around me to keep her away. They cut the cord because David was too busy looking at his son. A few moments later the doctors came and took him away into the next room. I could hear him screaming. 5 minutes went by while the midwives were waiting for my placenta to deliver, we were talking and I just kept saying, “I want my baby”. They finally brought him to me all wrapped up. We tried to nurse, he latched on a little but I knew we would have work ahead of us with that. 15 min later the MW were getting worried that my placenta hadn’t came out yet. They gave me a little Pitocin to see if that would help…no luck. They tried to pull it out…they couldn’t get it. They had to call an OB in to remove it. David was over with Jace taking a few pictures and talking to him. Then they rushed them off to the nursery because they didn’t want them in the room when the ob was there. After was seemed like an eternity and pain that was worse then giving birth itself…finally my placenta was out. A while later David came in the room with a look of shear fear in his face. “What happened, what’d they do”? They hadn’t told David anything; he was scared and didn’t know what they had to do to me. He came over and told me about how brave our son was when they poked his foot. Finally they took out all my IVs…after begging the nurse to. God, she was a stubborn one. I wanted to get in the bathtub with him, but she wouldn’t let me. So her and David gave him a bath in the sink, I jumped into the most painful shower I had ever taken. I was so dizzy. I got dressed, and eased into the bed. My mom, Jordan, melany, jeff, anna and Lauren all came into the room to look at him. We hadn’t decided on a name yet and finally just said Jace…it had been the only name that we had really liked the whole pregnancy…and it fit him. David wanted to hold Jace, but he was in the warmer with the little heart monitors on, so David went over to him and took off the little stickers and picked him up. Immediately this alarm went off and the nurse came rushing in and grabbed Jace and put him back under the lights…sigh…I couldn’t wait till we got a different nurse. 9pm we were moving to another room, ate some food, and then settled into bed. By then Jace had started getting the hang of nursing and he was rooming in with us. The nurses only came in twice that night. Jace also only woke up twice to eat. As tired as I was I was able to stay awake and just stare at him while he ate. Daddy got up and changed his diapers every time he needed it because it was too hard for me to get in and out of bed at that point. We had Jace Saturday night and we got to go home Sunday night, it was so nice to be at home adjusting. I was so thankful we only had to spend one night in the hospital. All in all it was wonderful. It was intense and hard at times…but now that I look back on what happened I’m so thankful it happened the way it did. If I had been with an OB I surely would have had a c-section since labor was so long and not progressing the way OB’s think that it should. I thank God my midwives were so patient. I can remember them sitting on the floor rubbing my back just waiting….waiting for me to be ready. I don’t think you would ever see a doctor doing that. 39 total hours of labor. Not all were hard, but all were long. A Healthy baby boy 6lbs 13oz, 20in long. Born at 6:11pm Saturday May 17, 2008. Giving birth was the most empower thing I have ever done in my life. Its amazing, its indescribable and I’m so glad a got to experience without all the interventions, although I did have a few. Next time will be different. Dad says having a baby was the most humbling experience ever. He says its then that you realize how insignificant you and everything else in life is.