Songs to Enjoy

Today I would like to highlight some instrumental songs I enjoy!

Most are from soundtracks, so you're going to notice a lot of Hans Zimmer in this list, as I have a fangirl crush on just about every soundtrack this guy's done (Hans Zimmer has done the soundtrack for lots of movies, some of which you may recognize: The Da Vinci Code, The Dark Knight, Inception, Kung Fu Panda, and the entire Pirates of the Caribbean series).

Feel free to pop into the comments section and suggest other awesome songs!

Saint Patrick's Day 2012

The minute Connor and I arrived at my parent's house, he was scooped out of the car seat into Pop pop's waiting arms. My parents then played their favorite new game: pass the baby around. Seriously, this kid spends all his time being held when he's around them.

 The shirt Nana bought for him. Isn't it cute?

 Connor was staring at something past Nana's shoulder. Turned out to be a pink flamingo. We won't tell Daddy, will we? :D

 Pop pop watching NASCAR with his grandson. Funny story. Before we knew the baby was a boy my parents were looking at baby stuff and saw a tiny baby Cars recliner. My dad said it was too early to buy baby stuff, especially since they didn't know if it was a boy or girl, so they didn't pick it up. We told Dad a girl could just as easily enjoy NASCAR with her Pop pop, but by the time they went back to buy it, it was gone. Lesson learned. I am sure we can find something similar when the baby is old enough to, you know, hold his head up at least.

Speaking of sitting up, Connor really enjoys being vertical. We propped him up against the chair and some pillows and he was a happy baby. We're looking into those baby wedges because he also seems to have some acid reflux going on.

Our neighbors, getting in on the "Pass the Baby" game. Another funny story. They have ten kids, and no grandkids yet. They are bitter. They both have brothers and sisters with about a kid apiece, and each one has a grandchild. They have ten kids, and yet, no grandchildren yet (before you get indignant, the oldest is 29, so it's not like they expect their 20 year old to go out and give them some grandbabies).

The food! The delicious food!

And now it's time to go home. Mommy is tired. Connor slept great since he was being held all afternoon. 

Once again, you guys can feel free to photo shop yourselves into the photos. It could be like you were there as well! We had a slightly tamer Saint Patrick's Day this year, but considering how tired I am, I was okay with that.

How did you guys enjoy your Saint Patrick's Day?

Coming Soon to A Blog Near You!

Image: farconville / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Remember the time I took pictures of my family's insane antics on Saint Patrick's Day? And then blogged about it?

No? Well, check out the link. I'll wait.

...

Back? Okay. So guess what tomorrow is (not just Saturday, smart alecks)? If you guessed Saint Patrick's Day, you get to have a cookie. 

Tomorrow I will be once more returning to my familial abode, this time armed with my newborn progeny. Pictures will be taken, corned beef will be eaten, and since Nana has already bought the baby his Saint Patrick's Day shirt (are you starting to see how crazy we take this holiday?) no babies will be pinched. 

My husband sadly must work tomorrow, so it will just be Connor and I. Once again I will use my intrepid journalism skills to bring you an inside look my family's particular way of celebrating a holiday that most people use as an excuse to get drunk. It will be like the Jersey Shore, only with Irish people and no spray tans. And pictures, instead of only heaven knows how many TV seasons the JS has. And best of all, no Snooki.

Will anyone commit the ultimate faux pas and forget to wear green? How many outfits will the baby spit up on? Will Mom remember to add the soda to the bread this year?

Check back here on Monday to find out!

*Allow me to address the elephant in the living room. That awesome picture at the beginning of this post? Yeah. I was going for something generic and family friendly in Free Digital Picture's Saint Patrick's Day section.But then! But then! I found that gem. I couldn't not use the picture once I saw it. I don't know what I like the best. The Saint Patrick's Day stripper outfit? The obviously photo-shopped body? His pose that seems to say "I have no idea what arms are for"?


Or the fact that there are MORE where this photo came from? As in, someone thought it was a good idea to do several poses of the soulless Saint Patrick's Day stripper (how's THAT for alliteration?). 

One such pose looking like he is sliding into home base, simultaneously combing two favorite American pastimes: baseball and sex.

Home run!
Image: farconville / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 Folks, we live in a Golden Age of Awesome.

On The Night You Were Born

Either the postpartum hormones are hitting me harder than I thought, or having a baby has instantly turned me into a much sappier person.

My husband and I went out and about this past Sunday, the first time I'd been out of the house (save for two doctor's appointments) since I had the baby. We were getting some pictures developed and while we waited, we killed some time in the shopping center.

A shopping center that just so happened to have a Babies R Us. After picking up an "abc dog" (as my husband calls it) and some more onsies, I found the book section and my chosen prey: On the Night You Were Born. When I rejoined my husband though, the conversation went like this:

Husband: A book? The kid's going to have an ereader before too long. Paper books are obsolete. We might as well buy him a VHS tape.

Me: But I want to sit in my glider and read him a book! With paper!

Husband: You just got a kindle for Christmas. Download it on there.

Me: But it won't be in color. The entire time I was in labor, I kept thinking about this book.

*husband wordlessly puts book in shopping cart*

BOOM! And that's how you play the game, people. 

Seriously, I wasn't lying. Despite not having read the book, I had the title stuck in my head, because I kept thinking about how I'd look back on the pain and discomfort of labor and it would be worth it, because it would be the night that my son was born (which turned out to be totally true).

So Sunday night I sit in the glider to read him this book. 

It starts:

"On the night you were born,
the moon smiled with such wonder
that the stars peeked in to see you
and the night wind whispered.
“Life will never be the same.”

Yes folks, that's how the book starts. It only gets more sentimental from there. I could hardly read the book to him, I was crying so much. I blame the hormones. 

Also, the pain meds. I had a root canal yesterday and I am still somewhat loopy (ergo why I think this is amusing enough to blog about it). Yes, a root canal. My filling fell OUT of my tooth last Wednesday, so I had to have some dental work I was carefully avoiding taken care of yesterday.

Yes, between the root canal and my c section almost three weeks ago, life's just been a barrel of laughs. I say that to be sarcastic, but I am also serious. Because when you pick up the baby to burp him, and he spits up ALL OVER the front of your shirt, or when you just get finished changing him and he immediately poops in his diaper SMILING the ENTIRE time, you have to laugh.

Laugh, because if not you'd cry. 

As my friend Liz says about the baby, "he has this look like he's smarter than everyone in the room...and he's waiting for them to figure it out."

Flexibility Matters

I smile because I am holding my son. Also? IV pain meds.

 It's impossible to say how much my life has already changed, and what more is to still come.

I was supposed to be induced for labor on Thursday, February 23rd. I was. I spent the entire day in labor, walking back and forth between a 3 foot space. I was hooked up to an IV with pictocin and minerals in one arm, and a fetal heartbeat monitor and a monitor for my contractions around my stomach. But I walked within the space I had, because it would help me dilate. 

Around six that night the midwife checked me, and found I was 3 cms dilated. Hooray! So I kept walking. I would sit on occasion, but that was very uncomfortable. The contractions were getting stronger and stronger as they upped the pictocin drip. It wasn't until 2 in the morning that I realized my legs hurt too badly to walk on, that they were swollen purple. So it was time for the epidural. They broke my water and set me up on some awesome IV pain meds.

I was told to get some rest, which I would have loved to, but people were checking on me often, and I had a blood pressure cuff that went off every 30 minutes or so. I named it Eeyore because of the sad noise it made after it finished deflating. I was 5 cms by this point.

A few hours later, very early on Friday, the midwife came in to check me again. I was only 6 cms for some reason. Breaking my water should have sped up the contractions, but instead my body just plateaued out. They started talking about a c section, but said we could try taking me off the pictocin for an hour and then starting it back up again.

We tried that. It didn't work. I actually went back to 5 cms dilated. I could have waited until later on in the day to see if I would dilate further, but it was a numbers game at this point. Once they break your water, you have a high chance of infection. My body was showing no signs of dilating further, and the longer we waited, the better chance there would be that they would move me from an unscheduled c section to an emergency c section where they are worried about me and or the baby.

So I decided on the c section, and less than 10 minute later they started prepping me. They gave me this nasty tasting stuff to prevent heartburn, which I promptly threw up (I would have rather had heartburn). They put pressure garments on my legs so I wouldn't clot. They wheeled me into this large, cold OR, and upped my epidural so I couldn't feel anything from the waist down. A thin blue curtain draped across my chest separated me from the doctors. My husband sat with me, holding my hand and looking funny in the hospital gown they gave him. 

I was scared and cold and nervous something would go wrong. But I was lucky. The baby came out no problem. He was perfectly healthy. And while I am still sore from the labor and operation, I am healing well. 

I would have rather not be induced. And then, I would have rather not had a c section. Nothing about my son's birth went how I'd planned, except the most important part about both of us being healthy.

On our way to see the doctor. He sleeps blissfully unaware.

Writing is a lot like that. You have all these ideas and expectations. It comes with the territory. We're imaginative people. Why wouldn't we imagine what it's going to be like to get published, to get an agent, to reach any milestone we have our heart set on?

But it's important to remember that life has other plans. Being flexibile can completely change your experience of an event. I could have gotten really upset and pissed off about how the birth of my son turned out. I could have been mad that I also have to recover from major surgery after being in labor for a day and a half while taking care of a newborn. 

But why? Why get all caught up on how you wanted things to be? Why not plan for every outcome and just know that things are going to change, things are going to be different, and that's okay?

If you get too upset about the curve balls life throws you, just look at this picture. I dare you not to laugh: 

Sausage baby! To the rescue!

  

My Baby

Here's the baby!

He was born at 1:31 in the afternoon on Friday, February 24th. He weighs 7.6 pounds and 20.5 cm long. 

Sorry it's taken a little while to update you guys, but I had an unscheduled C-section and I am still recovering. But holy crap he was worth it. 

I'll fill you guys in on the details later, but I'd thought I'd give a quick update now.