All the Sun For You

A mom, two boys, a husband, and a whole lot of adventure!

Monthly Archives: December 2012


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THIS Moment in Time (#7)

I am not a cookie baking mom – not yet, anyway.

But I am a pie baking mom!

I have loved making apple pie since I was a teenager. My cousin taught me how to make it all from scratch but I’ve changed my ways in the last three years. After a crust disaster one time, I had to buy rolled crust last-minute. I never made my own crust again! I see no point in that and buying the crust means less work, and more frequent pies in the winter months. The crust is the hard part, after all!

My apple pie has a citrus kick to it – and I love it! This is round 2 so far this winter and round 3 is coming in 2 weeks. I can’t get enough!

I messed up and put the pies on the top rack instead of the bottom, so the sugar browned up more than I’d like. That little dish is a treat of baked apples for my little muffin. 😉


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Happy VLOGiversary, PAIL!

PAIL Bloggers is 6 months old – which means I’ve been blogging for 6 months.  PAIL is near and dear to me because the creation of it is what got me to start blogging in the first place.  Thank you, PAIL!

This month’s theme post was supposed to be a VLOG entry – so that readers could see and hear us.

I failed miserably at this assignment – and not because I was hesitant to film myself.  The long and short of it is that I do not know how to make a video on my computer.  I can take a video with my phone (of other people) with no problems, but I wouldn’t know where to begin with my webcam, software, etc.  My tech support guy (B) has been very busy this week and working into the evenings, so the idea of even bothering him with it while he’s dealing with work stuff was a fleeting one.

But I will answer the questions – because I am a joiner (even if I have to do it in a weird way!)  😉

1) What country do you live in? If you feel comfortable sharing, what state or region as well?

We live in the United States – in the middle of it – in Iowa – in the middle of it – in Des Moines.

 
2) What is your favorite “ordinary moment” of the day?

This is an easy one for me.  My favorite “ordinary moment” of the day is when I go in to get Matthew up from his nap, and he chit chats with me, his Boo monkey, his Max monkey, and whatever kitties of ours are in the room.  He wakes up so happy from naps and that makes me happy!  He’ll sit in his crib for up to 5 minutes chatting me up and showing me all of his crib friends who napped with him.  It’s adorable.  I love Matthew’s voice more than anything and after his naps, he loves to use it.  It’s like he’s telling me all about his dreams or something.  It’s magical!

 
3) What is the first thing you do with your little one in the morning?

The very first thing we do is get his milk ready and then go in and pluck him out of his crib and bring him into bed with us to watch an episode of Curi.ous Geo.rge with the lights dim.  At least two of our three cats are always on the bed at a given time, so it’s the only time of day that our bed is truly a family bed.  We all love it – and B & I wish that Matthew would stay tuned into CG a little longer than just one segment.  Matthew snuggles up to B and they sit with their arms around each other, and I get random hugs and kisses from Matthew throughout the episode.  It’s great fun!

 
4) What has infertility changed the most about you?

Infertility has made me a better parent.  I truly believe this.  Our struggle to get Matthew taught me patience and the acceptance of lack of control, and both of those things have carried over into my parenting.  As I posted the other day, I am much more patient than I ever thought I would be and I accept things for what they are much more readily than I did in the past.  IF taught me that there are just some things we can’t control – and if we feel we can – then that is just an illusion of control.  I needed to learn this.  I make way fewer spreadsheets now than I did prior to IF.  What does THAT tell you?

 
5) What do you wish people knew about pregnancy or parenting through the ALI journey?

The second I read this question a week ago, I knew my answer.  And my answer is simple.  I wish that people struggling with ALI in the moment could know, and truly believe, that in the end, most of us get to where we want to be.  You could have told me this when we were struggling and I would have rolled my eyes at you.  But the statistics are in our favor – eventually.  Some way, some how, most of us get to be parents.  The road may be ugly, and it will never be forgotten, but most of us get there.


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Things Are Changing Over Here

It was time to get more comfortable, so I pulled out my old maternity clothes.

Heaven!

I dress better when I’m pregnant than when I’m not because I can’t wear all of my old, baggy stuff from over the years. I had to go out and buy maternity clothes two years ago and it turns out they’re nicer than the things I usually wear. Probably because I bought them for work . Ha!

What’s nice about this is that I just feel better about myself. I look more put together, and quite honestly…. I’ve needed some motivation lately to not look like a SAHM who doesn’t have time to do her hair!

What’s not nice about my old stash is that I started this pregnancy 25 pounds lighter than I started Matthew’s pregnancy (I’m not actually complaining) … so the jeans and pants are too big. Good thing my little sister sent me her smaller jeans when she brought my maternity clothes back to me. She’s a nice girl!

Today, I am comfortable. It’s wonderful!

And today, I started these… they’ll all go on my pregnancy page, but I thought I’d kick it off here since today is the big move to more comfort. 😉


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Let’s Make It “A Thing!”

A recent post of mine elicited many comments saying that we should “make it a thing.”  I don’t really know how to “make it a thing,” so here is my attempt!

We all learn things about ourselves when we move into new phases in our lives – and parenting is no different.  What have YOU learned about yourself, as a parent, that has really surprised you?  What are your top 10 surprising realizations of yourself as a mom or dad?

Go ahead and make your own posts and link back to this so that I can come read them all.  HA!

Here’s my #1 – will it be on your lists?

🙂

Organic-Whole-Milk-316x500


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Who Knew?

We all learn things about ourselves when we move into a new phase in our lives – and parenting is no different.  I, of course, have learned a lot of “deep” things about myself – like the type of parent I actually am versus what I thought I would be, but I want to document the top 10 things that have REALLY surprised me about myself.

10.  I really enjoy being a SAHM.  I never planned to stay home – that decision caught me completely off-guard and made me uncomfortable at first.  But I really, really love it!  I love spending every day with Matthew and watching him learn new things.  I love hanging out with him and talking to him all day long.  I don’t miss much about work because we still get lots of adult interaction with daily activities – and he and I are constantly interacting.  We’re best buds!

9.  I am an incredibly patient mother.  For those who know me IRL, I am not a patient person – at all.  I am not patient with myself, with others, with gadgets, or with certain situations.  But I am so patient with my child.  Very little gets me riled up and even when that happens, I shake it off almost instantly and can laugh out loud about it.

8.  I have no control over so many things.  Being a control freak, this has surprised me a lot.  However, I think our IF experience prepared me for the lack of control I have in motherhood.  Sure, I can control our schedule (for the most part), what Matthew eats, etc., but I can’t control when/how he gets hurt, when he’s fussy, when he can’t sleep, etc.  I accept this and welcome it.  I wasn’t always this way – Matthew’s sleep caused me much distress before he was sleep trained (and B and I had many conversations about how Matthew was not a robot and couldn’t sleep on demand – and I needed to accept that) but once we got past that, the lack of control I have as his mother is a non-issue.

7.  I handle stressful situations much better than I ever thought I would.  Matthew has been hurt a few times (fell down the stairs, fell out of the car, almost broke his ankle, tried knocking out his teeth two days in a row) and each time, I have not freaked out and I have kept it together.  When he started choking twice, I knew exactly what to do and did it, without hesitation.  When he had his ear infection, I knew right away what the problem was and how to help him.  The only time I really felt helpless was when he was having what we think was a night terror and there was nothing to do but wait it out (but it was so sad to watch).

6.  I am not a yeller.  I was raised by yellers – we were yelled at all the time.  I worried this would become a trait of mine because it “runs in the family,” right?  My sisters are both yellers and there were clues early on in my childhood that I wasn’t going to be, but I wasn’t a parent yet so I really had no idea if I would become one or not.  I have not.  Whew!  The only times I have yelled are when Matthew is in danger (about to put a power cord in his mouth that’s plugged in).

5.  I can function on very little sleep.  I am a night owl – if I could stay up until midnight every night, I would.  In fact, most nights, I do.  I’m changing this now because it’s just not healthy – but I like being up at night and sure there are moments that I’m tired after only 6 hours of sleep, but I’m never flat-out exhausted.  Even pregnant, I’m not exhausted at the end of the day.

4.  I still love my cats as much as I always have.  I expected this to change – because everyone told me it would.  But it hasn’t.  I still worry about my old girl, Lily (who is diabetic), every single day.  I still obsess over her behavior and have actually become more regular at giving her her insulin twice a day.  I am just as in-tune to her now as I’ve always been.  I still snuggle with Jackson every night when I climb into bed (sorry, B!).  He and I still snuggle periodically throughout the day while Matthew naps.  I still make sure to seek out Janie who tends to enjoy time alone and not on our laps.  When I seek her out for one-on-one time, we both enjoy it so much (she’s in my lap right now as I write this).  My kitties are still my 3 little besties – I just now have a fourth bestie as well.

3.  I hate putting Matthew to bed.  This is not because he makes bedtime difficult (he does not), but because I just hate the idea of putting him to bed and not being able to play with him anymore.  I struggle with this for every nap and every bedtime – and it’s caused me to be the primary problem in getting him to bed on time.  We are fixing that this week – he needs more sleep and I need to stop standing in his way of it.  But it makes me sad.

2.  I am a softie.  Sure, I have my rules and Matthew is good at following them – but when he wants another Cutie orange, I can’t say no.  When he wants more milk, I always say yes.  When he wants to drive around to look for school busses or holiday lights, I oblige.  I like him to be happy, and I tend to go over the top sometimes.

1.  I love, and I mean LOVE, whole milk!  I always thought whole milk was gross (because I was told it was – HA!).  I always thought it would be like drinking cream.  It’s not.  It’s divine.  It’s wonderful.  It’s the best stuff in the world!  I love to finish Matthew’s cups of milk that the straw can’t reach anymore.  I love pouring myself a little bit when he gets his cup of milk in the afternoon.  I love sipping it from his cup, in an attempt to get him drink more.  I just love it – and I love yogurt that is made from whole milk.

Who knew?


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It’s Sort-of… Wonderful!

We went to the OB today for the first time today.  It was… different.  Not in a bad way, but just different.

I knew that Dr. H would do an ultrasound to confirm pregnancy and I was not nervous about it at all.  This is a total 180 from what I experienced when I was pregnant with Matthew.  I was a wreck with him, anticipating each ultrasound to be the end before a real pregnancy began.  I wouldn’t sleep the night before an ultrasound back in 2010 and 2011.  But in 2012 – no problem!  Sleep, sleep, sleep I did last night!

Everything went just fine, with the exception of Matthew not digging the chit-chat that we had with Dr. H prior to the exam (we will not be bringing Matthew to appointments that involve an ultrasound again – he does not have the patience!).  We talked about lots of things, but most importantly… we talked about Dr. H being on vacation the week of my delivery.  WHAT?  He is going to Hawaii on the 23rd (Sunday) and the hospitals won’t (usually) let the docs schedule c-sections for a Saturday – and that Friday is technically too early for the c-section since I won’t be 39 weeks yet.  In the old days, this would have set me into a complete panic but now?  Meh.  No biggie.  I mean, we love Dr. H but if he can’t do it, he can’t do it.

This may all be easier for me to accept because he’s putting a special call into the hospital to see if they’ll let him make an exception for me and schedule it for the Saturday before he leaves town.  I love this man!  He has his nurse’s wedding that evening and that’s the only reason he’s not heading out-of-town that Saturday – and he’s willing to come in to deliver for me if the hospital will let him.  Have I mentioned that we love this man?

If this happens, I will deliver at Mercy instead of Methodist which is fine by me because Mercy has the awesome water cups that we need more of in this house  😉

Besides that, the appointment went just fine and we have a heartbeat at 165 bpm and a fetus now measuring 10w6d instead of the official 10w1d/10w2d (somewhere along the lines, the RE moved our date up a day – making me wonder if they considered this cycle a day 6 transfer?).  B missed the ultrasound because Matthew needed to stretch his legs, but there wasn’t too much to see (they use the low-end ultrasound machine for these confirmation scans) and we go back in 2 weeks for the NT scan anyway.

Seeing the baby made this more real, but being perfectly honest – we both forget that I’m pregnant.  I do think my belly is starting to pop out just a tad but besides that – everything seems the same.  I don’t look pregnant, I don’t feel pregnant, and I’m not obsessing about being pregnant.  It’s sort-of… wonderful!

 


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The Monday Snapshot(s) – More Holiday Love!

I swore long ago, LONG AGO, that I would never have two things at my house during the holidays – colored lights on my tree (aside from my vintage accent globe lights) and lawn ornaments in my front yard.

Well, I happily have colored lights on my tree because, well, babies/kids like colored lights.  Matthew loves his tree with colored lights – and I wouldn’t have it any other way (until next year when my old tree returns and his tree goes into his room in the kitchen).

And… I now have the CUTEST little lawn ornament!  We went to Targ.et to get some lights for the yard and fell in love with this cute little polar bear.  I am a sucker for polar bears – I appreciate their plight to survive and just think they’re awesome – so there was no way this guy wasn’t coming home with us!  I got him, and the lights on the bushes, all setup last night and since then, Matthew must hug and kiss his bear every time we come home from somewhere.

Love, love, LOVE!

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This is my contribution to the Monday Snapshot over at PAIL.  Check it out!