Christmas

I am inspired by some of the blogs I read posting their Christmas (eve) day activities already. So here I go....

Christmas Eve we went to the Christmas Eve service at church, which is always really good. We were able to go to the early service because Russ was able to get off early. I was really happy about it because the later service would have made it difficult to have dinner but get Penelope to bed at a good time. The church service, surprisingly, was standing room only! Isn't that amazing! Russ and I still had pretty good seats in the back on the floor. We decided to then have dinner with Russ' family at CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) and then we went home to prepare for Christmas morning. When we got home we watched The Nativity Story (the movie). It was the first time Russ or I had ever seen it and it was amazing. I highly recommend it. I think I'm going to buy it and make it a tradition every year to watch.

Christmas morning I had all my family coming over to celebrate Christmas with a Christmas brunch and opening presents. I wanted to get as much done the night before as possible so I stayed up pretty late. But I was able to relax and enjoy Christmas morning. My mom brought over a huge hunny baked ham and cranberry sauce. My sister brought an apple pastery and apple cider and sparkling apple cider. Then I had an egg and sausage casserole, an egg/ tomato/ basil quiche, cinnamon rolls, strawberry chesse pastery, donuts, muffins, white chocolate peppermint bark, fresh fruit, and biscotti. And then we also had coffee, tropical fruit ice tea, mimosa, poinsettias, juice, and baileys. In any case we had a FEAST for 7 adults and 1 toddler and an infant. LOL. It was really nice and relaxing.





After brunch we were due at Russ' parents at 3 pm. It turned out that Penelope hadn't settled down enough with all the Christmas excitement to take a nap so when we showed up at their house both kids had crashed out. We showed up just in time for another Christmas feast. There was prime rib, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, Watergate salad and for desert Lindsey's version of Jesus' birthday cake (a white cake with green/ red gelatin and cool whip frosting with sprinkles). After dinner Penelope woke up and we did another set of presents. I felt so sorry for Penelope after each present she opened she kept asking to play with the toy. But we kept keeping her going to open other presents. I have heard of families that get together and let the kids open and play with one gift at a time. And that sounds so much better then the rush that usually happens. I just don't think it is doable within the time restraints of visiting multiple placing on Christmas.

Here are the pictures of the kids crashed out at Russ' parents.




We are still trying to recuperate around here. Our living room is finally looking back to normal. We also ended up getting some money for the holidays and combined that with a bonus Russ got at work for being a top seller, we bought a Wii with the Wii fit plus so that we can loose weight. I defiantly have to work on losing this baby weight now that the holidays are over. And with some other money that we got for the kids we got Austyn his own piggy bank (Penelope has several so we had to make sure Austyn has one too). And Penelope her own Camelbak water bottle, she absolutely loves using the adult ones when they are around. Overall we were abundantly blessed this holiday season.

favorites

As I've gotten older I have grown to have favorites. If you know me I don't have "favorites". I don't identify with a favorite color, food, ceral. And I've always explained that my husband makes it up for me. He has a favorite EVERYTHING. He has a favorite sugar ceral, favorite non-sugar ceral. You name it and he'll give you the category and where it lines up in his book. But as I have gotten older I have begun to like people. For instance,

If I would have lunch with anyone in the world and just pick their brain it would be Beth Moore, hands down. I love her. I love the bible studies. Her desire to have more and more of Jesus. To dive head first, no, maybe belly dive or cannon ball into the scripture.

If I could have anyone make me a meal it would be Paula Deen. Her food looks sooo good. And she just has one of those lovable personalities, I would love to sit and eat with her.

If I could meet a famous actress it would be Jennifer Aniston. And maybe some of her adorableness would rub off on me.

When I get to heaven and get to sit at Jesus feet I think I would ask to see a how He made the universe. Man, would that be a sight to see. Just play it back on a video. And I think I would be blown away.

If I got to meet anyone from the bible I think it would be Apostle Peter. I love that guy. I love every story about him in the bible and find him so relate-able to my own mistakes and pitfalls.

What about you? What are your favorites?

all what's new...

I'm adjusting to two kids better on some days then others. Personally I do a lot better when Russell doesn't have to work 12 hour days, but there isn't a whole lot either he nor I can do about that. We recently bought a new coffee machine (a Keurig personal brewer! YUM) to replace the old coffee machine we had that carafe broke and didn't have a replacement carafe anywhere. So I foretell it being a lot easier with my coffee so easy to get.

Aussie and Nelly are two different type of babies. Don't get me wrong they are/ were both very good babies. I consider myself very blessed. But I'm surprised about how different they were. Nelly was defiantly a pacifier baby. Man, did she need that. Aussie on the other hand, grimaces and gags on it if you try to put it in his mouth. Nelly we had to rock forever to make sure she was in a deep enough sleep to put her down. Aussie, well, when Russell went back to work I gave him 10 minutes. But he doesn't really seem to need that. Aussie sleeps so much more then Nelly ever did. Nelly dropped a feeding as a newborn, like in the hospital in the middle of the night she didn't wake up to nurse and I would get yelled at from the nurses for it. I didn't expect to take an alarm clock with me. But during the day she was awake a lot! She would nurse and then be awake for a while then only sleep for 30 minutes and then be awake to nurse again (3 hours later). Aussie only has about 2, sometimes 3, wake times during the day. Otherwise he is either sleeping or nursing. Nelly was a very lazy nurser and Aussie (a true Stade boy) nurses like a pro. Aussie loves laying down. In fact he sometimes gets fussy if you have been holding him too long. Where Nelly always wanted to be held. LOL. Such different babies.

Aussie has brown hair with possible blond highlights. His eyes look hazel right now (which my dad has hazel eyes, so maybe they'll stay). Sometimes they look more brown or blue but I believe they are hazel right now.

Here are some recent pictures of him:



Aussie in my Alma mater Letterman's jacket.


Aussie at thanksgiving


Nelly at thanksgiving


We went to visit Aunt Jodi and got to see Russ' cousin Justin and his wife, Norma, and their family including the new baby, Jake. Jake was born October 7th, about a month before Aussie. Here are a couple of pictures of the two of them together in their matching outfits, bought by Aunt Jodi. Look how cute!





We got some newborn and family portraits done but I only have some of them back. So I'm waiting until I get them all to post my favorites.

Here is the Christmas tree for this year.



And of course the kids in front. Ohh how cute!

Austyn's birth story

As most of you all know I was experiencing a lot of false labor contractions at the tail end of this pregnancy. It started about 35 weeks, but only when I was overexerting myself. But as the pregnancy continued it happened more and more frequently to the point where I would wake up at 2 a.m. with contractions for 45 minutes or in the middle of a daytime nap. It was aggravating to say the least. So I was not wanting or expecting to go past my due date. Nelly was a week early. As days ticked by past my due date I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted to take the extra time to relax or try to naturally induce labor. I ended up going on that one last date, and I took a couple extra days doing nothing. And then I had it, I wanted this baby out. I tried all sorts of stuff including walking, raspberry tea, and spicy food. I ended up going walking with my friend, Hattie, on Monday (5 days past due) around Wilson Park. We loaded up our kids, played with them at the park and walked about 4 miles. At the end I was tired but not really feeling any contractions. I was feeling a tightening in my pelvic muscles, but I figure that was more of all the walking and the strain of the baby being so low. We went and had some Mexican food (hopefully spicy enough). And then I went home. By that afternoon I started having contractions every 5 minutes for about 2 hours. But as soon as Russell got ready they stopped. Russell and I were so disappointed. In the middle of the night I woke up a couple of times with contractions but they would stop so Russ and I would go back to sleep. Then about 3: 30 am I woke up to contractions every 3 minutes and they were really hard. I kept going back in forth whether or not I was in labor, having so many false starts. But the nervousness of every 3 minutes made me not wait around to go to the hospital.

I tested positive for a strep bacteria that is normal for any women to have but if the baby catches it can be harmful. To treat this they usually give you two doses of antibiotics while your in labor. Otherwise you have to stay in the hospital for 48 hours with the baby to be monitored. I admit it, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I didn't end up getting the antibiotics but I didn't want to stay that long and I really didn't want to worry for the small percentage of a chance something did go wrong. First they weren't letting any children in the hospital, and so Nelly wouldn't be able to come and visit. And I didn't even stay that long in the hospital when I had Nelly. I really wanted to be in and out with this one. Plus when I had Nelly she ended up getting an infection secondary to a very common hospital procedure. She was the 1% chance that it would happen and I just don't like playing with odds anymore. And I had Nelly in about 6 to 7 hours so they wanted me to get to the hospital quickly. So antibiotics NEEDED to get in before I birthed this child. Needless to say every 3 minutes wasn't exactly giving me a lot of time before this child was going to arrive.

I ended up text messaging Nicky, my sister-in-law, about 4 a.m. "If this isn't labor I think I'm going to lose my mind". She got the point and called me back to see about watching Nelly. Since she lives next door she was able to keep an eye on her the easiest at that ungodly hour. We ended up leaving the house about 4:30 and getting to the hospital about 5 in the morning. They took me into the triage and monitored me where they verified that I in fact was in labor. A nice relief to me, I had been nervous about giving anyone any false alarms. When they checked me in the hospital I was 4-5 cm dilated and 100% effaced and Austyn was at -1. The contractions were still coming every 3 minutes and I was having some light bleeding which is normal from my cervix dilating. It felt like it took a while for them to triage me, I guess I was only in there for about an hour. But with Nelly I didn't get triage at all since my water broke with meconium. My mom came to the hospital rather quickly and everyone on the "I"m going into labor" list was called by the time I settled into my room.

Shortly after I settled into the room I started feeling nauseated but the pain was getting worse and worse so I decided to ask for a epidural and was hoping that the nausea was caused by the pain. I felt better after the epidural but shortly after I settled down the nausea came back. And wasn't able to hold it back. The throwing up lead to my water breaking. When they checked me right after I was a 6-7 cm dilated (a little before 7 a.m.). I ended up feeling a lot better after that but asked when the nausea came slightly back for an anti-emetic medication. Then I started getting the shakes, a normal body reaction to either the labor or the epidural. and then I started itching all over. Right about this time my mother-in-law walked in and Grandmother. They didn't really get to stay too long, sorry. But the shakes subsided after about an hour and then I felt soo good. Man, I love that epidural! It was decided about 8 a.m., since I was doing so well just sitting there, that I would wait till after the last antibiotic at 10 a.m. to push. So I just sat around and chatted with the visitors. LOL. It was great!

We started pushing about 10:45 side-lying for a little bit and then the doctor was called. As soon as I started pushing he was already crowning. I think I was sitting at a 10 for a while. When he came out he had a big cone head but he also had a little pouch (looked like a hematoma) on top of his head where he was crowning for a while. In total I only pushed through about 7 contractions and out he came. I think it was quicker then Penelope but I didn't keep track with her. Austyn Thomas was born face up and the doctor was so good she helped me not tear at all!

He was born at 11:33 a.m. 8 lbs 20 1/2 inches long. His apgar score was 9, 9. I was able to bring him right to my belly after birth, which was a dream. Sitting there with him I almost didn't know what to do. It was so sweet, just as nature intended. We started our first latch with breastfeeding about 10 minutes later. At his two week appointment on the 27th he weighed in at 9 lbs 7 ozs and 23 1/2 inches long!

We ended up not being so good about telling people after he was born. So I hope none of you guys who got left out were upset. I never wrote a list of everyone who needed to be called afterward. And I had lost track of who was called because everyone in the hospital was on the phone right after he was born. I figured it was covered. I tried to send out a mass text message to my friends. We ended up forgetting to tell a set of my grandparents and our homegroup that he was even born. My sister-in-law didn't get the stats after he was born. And one of Russell's close cousins didn't find out anything until a week later. Ugh. Again I'm sorry, please don't take it personal. We just aren't any good at figuring it all out in the end.

In the end it was a wonderful birthing experience and my little boy is thriving just fine!

Introducing Austyn Thomas Stade

Austyn Thomas Stade was born Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 11:33 am. He weighed 8 lbs and was 20 1/2 inches long. The birth went great! And I feel really good. He is a good breastfeeder and loves to suckle all the time. From what I can tell by the last two nights he has his days and nights mixed up, but hopefully we will be able to switch that around soon. I'll have to update later about the birth. Here are some photos.

After the birth I got to put him right on my chest. It was really nice!

Happy daddy with his son : )



Morning after bringing him home we brought all the kids into bed with us and did a little photo shoot.

It's official

It's official, I am post due. Typing that I chuckle to myself. Seriously! Oh well.....

With my pregnancy last time and ALL the extra contractions I've felt since 35 weeks I thought there was really no way that I could go PAST my due date. But never the less here I am. Currently I can't sleep, not because I'm in labor (I wish). But more I can't get comfortable. Maybe it's the naps I have been getting into a habit of taking. The night before I had Penelope I had a random sleepless night, but there were all sorts of different situations surrounding it. So I personally don't think I'm going into labor just because I can't sleep.

The only "good news" that I can hold onto right now is that I'm already 3 cm dilated. So all those extra contractions I have been feeling are adding up to nothing. My Doctor told me at the last appointment that I would probably go into labor within the week. But to make an appointment for next week because otherwise it is bad luck. I made the appointment and if I actually make it to the 41 weeks appointment I'm going to be upset to say the least. I'm really trying not to go down the path of "I'm going to be pregnant forever". Don't get me wrong those thoughts do come up but I try not to linger.

In the mean time I can't decide whether I want to try natural induction, such as walking, raspberry tea, or castor oil, or take this opportunity to go on one more date night or the pampering that I have really wanted to have....hmmmm....in the meantime time still ticks by.

not just a sitting duck

I've still been keeping busy around here. Here are some pictures from a trip Russell and I took to Disneyland for his birthday. Which was really fun. We went down with some friends of ours who share his birthday with their anniversary. Below is a picture of Russ and I right outside of California Adventure. We actually went to Disneyland and walked around when I was very similar in time of pregnancy with Penelope.


Here with Austyn


Here with Penelope

It doesn't look like a whole lot has changed, does it? LOL. Here is another pictures from our trip.


Sadly our Disneyland annual passes just expired. So we managed to go one more time to bring Penelope before our passes expired. Here is Nelly with Tinker Bell.


I knew that I would be sad by our passes expiring, but I didn't expect to be as sad as I was. In explaining it to Penelope or talking it over with Russ I cried. Which is pretty pitiful because in our family I am really not considered to be the Disney fanatic. I'm blaming it on hormones, for the record. Russell and I are planning on making a mini vacation in Summer and visiting Disneyland again. With Austyn coming I don't think we will be using it too much anyways.

For Halloween we went to Trunk or Treat at Calvary Assembly of God. This was our second time going but this time we didn't host a trunk. I had considered dressing up for Halloween and someone had mentioned about drawing a pumpkin on a orange shirt. But I had pushed that aside, until a girlfriend of mine who was just as much pregnant sent out an email with her pumpkin orange shirt. After much debate I decided to do it, only if Russell joined me. I couldn't get a hold of the friend to do it with her (she ended up being in labor!). Here are some pictures of our sight for sour eyes belly's.


Penelope was so cute as Snow White this year. Isn't she cute!


Here she is with all her cousins at the Trunk or Treat!


And of course here is her Aunt Nicky at the family trunk they had decorated. She was Luigi to match her oldest son, Matthew, who was Mario. And their trunk was decorated in Super Mario Kart.


Besides all that I'm hoping to have Austyn any day now. He's officially due tomorrow. I had a doctors appointment today and she thinks he'll come this week. So now it is just a waiting game (a sitting duck). Right now I'm 3 cm dilated and I think 100% effaced. I'm hoping and praying Russell will be home when I go into labor. It would just make everything so much easier. I'll of course keep you posted.

"Turkey in the Straw"

Here is a video that I attempted to take of Nelly with a stuft turkey that sings and dances to "Turkey in the Straw". When I first brought it down this year from the rest of the Harvest decorations her face totally lit up. It was so nice to see. So I tried to take a video of it a couple of days later but she didn't really show the interest in the turkey as much as she showed in the camera. Well as you can tell.

I'm feeling a little better. I'm still having contractions every day but if I'm active it helps to ignore them. The problem is they are always during the time that I like to relax, but whether I relax or not they come on. I had the doctor check me the first week I had them about 2 weeks ago but I wasn't dilated at all. So I don't know whether or not these are actually causing me to dilate at all. I'm a little disappointed that they very well could not be making me dilate. I thought late last week if I got a lot of the stuff on my to-do list done maybe then I would just go into labor. I heard about people who psychologically have an issue that holds themselves back from the labor progressing. The only "issue" I had was just the list of things I wanted to get done. So I wrote down a list, that you saw partially on the previous post, and it was 16 items long. And yes I have completed everything. So now I'm again just sitting here with contractions that don't seem to be progressing. Well, I guess that wasn't it. Oh well....

It is nice to enjoy being a stay-at-home mom with just one child. I'm really trying to make the best of the time of only Penelope and I. Until baby brother comes....

warning: a little grumbling

Well I've been having more and more contractions (crampy feeling) and bad back pain. I feel them everyday and sometimes so bad that I can't do anything but deal with the pain. After some research on it however I'm probably only in pre-labor or false labor. Which absolutely sucks because it can last for weeks on end. It's really tiring to be in this much pain all the time but not really get anywhere with it. I don't necessarily want the baby to come this early. Some people have heard me say that I want a "fat baby". Meaning I want a chubby little boy! Right now if he was born he'd only be about 7 lbs and that isn't exactly plump. So if you can pray that either the pains lighten up or that I go into labor. I told Russell I don't know how much more I can stand of it.

In the mean time I have been thinking about all the stuff I want to get done before the baby comes. Here is list

1. pack hospital bag
2. buy candies/ cookies for the nurses at the hospital
3. buy MOPS stuff for craft in December
4. make sure all laundry is done
5. grocery shop and get quick meals in the freezer
6. Clean and reorganize bedroom closet, bathroom closet, and computer desk (bc I'm never going to have time to do it when the baby comes)
7. finish baby shower thank you cards
8. paint the white cord holder blue in the babies room

The problem with this to-do list is that I'm completely exhausted and can't get very far on one task to complete it. Plus Russ has been working 12 plus hour days, which means I have to take care of an interesting rambunctious 2 year old. Oh well....

Fall is here!

Fall is here! It's so nice. I really enjoy the weather. I use to curl up in sweats, a good book, and make yummy baked goods, or a pot of tea. Moments like that are far and few between now to say the least. But they are still enjoyable. Today Nelly and I sat around wrapped in a blanket, cuddling in front of cartoons, as I filed through a couple of pages of a book. Warm soup is still on the burner and ideas of baking aren't far away, though it wont be fulfilled today. The house is all decorated in present fashion. I have come to enjoy decorating for fall in my house much more then decorating for Christmas. It is so much more easier to through a couple of candles out and a few figurines then upload the Christmas tree and fluff it out and decorate it from head to toe and then hang garland around the doors and find spots for all the nick-knacks that come along. I don't know how much "the simple life" is going to integrate my Christmas decorating this year. But it will be interesting with two little bundles instead of just the one.

We have been also involved with festive activities. We were able to squeeze in a trip to the Big Horse Feed and Mercantile for our annual trip to the largest corn maze in California and other activities. Then additionally to the Apple Festival in Oak Glen. We were too late for apple picking this year but we did enjoy the petting zoos, little handmade boutiques, and some homemade apple dumplings, dutch apple preserve, apple butter, and all the other goodness.

Here are some cute pictures of our adventures....

Here is a picture of the family posing.



Nelly and Russ outside of the bouncer


Nelly bouncing around with Alton


Inside the large corn maze, such little people in a big world.

On Daddies shoulders (Travis and Alton, Russ and Nelly)

In front of the pumpkins


inside the shop, saddling up

At the petting zoo in Oak Glen. Here she is with the miniture horse.

Here with the lama



Nelly and Russ enjoying an apple

Baby Shower

Here are some pictures from the baby shower that I had a little bit ago. Nicky had payed for a friend of hers, Stacee Lianna, to professionally photograph the event.