Review - Straces Laces

Around the time I first got pregnant, I received an email asking me if I would like to try out some of these laces for free, and what color would I like. I wrote back and said I would love to try them, and pink please.

I got my Straces laces in the mail very quickly, but I was in the midst of feeling sick and overwhelmed with being pregnant so I just put them in my closet with my running shoes and they sat dormant for several months. Now that I've finally got my energy and will to run back, I thought I'd dust off the old running shoes and put in the new laces.

I kind of wish I would have gotten yellow so it would look like the original laces, but the pink looks pretty good too. I actually don't think yellow was even an option.

When I first got the laces, I couldn't think how a different shoe lace could possibly make a difference, and how great could they possibly be?

Well, the difference is that these shoe laces are stretchy. You just lace them, put them on and knot them where they feel comfortable. Then you can just slip your shoe on and off.

Wait.

I don't have to tie my shoes in transition anymore? How awesome is that!? Plus, I don't have to untie them and loosen them every time I put them on. Man, I really should have put these in my everyday shoes while I was pregnant. That would have made things a little easier!

"Ok," I thought, "this is a great idea, but is it going to work with my very narrow shoes that are a pain in the butt to put on?" The answer is yes, yes it does work with my shoes! I can't say I've tested them out in a transition-type setting at all, and sadly, I'm not scheduled for another tri until July. I'll have to wait and see how much they help my transition times, but I can already tell they will make getting ready for a run that much easier and quicker which will be great when I need to go running at 6am and I'm right on the verge of just going back to bed.

Thank you Straces!

PS I also think these would be great for kids who tend to have un-tied shoes a lot. I think I'll be picking up a few more pairs soon. Click here to check out their site.

More on Cloth Diapers

Because of the huge response to my post about cloth diapering (yes, I consider 4 comments a huge response... There were more on facebook too), I thought I'd do a little follow-up post.

I was surprised and excited to see how many of you also use cloth diapers! (Even my sister-in-law! I should have known that!) I think, perhaps, it is becoming a little more mainstream. Or it could be that the people I know are all just really cool and edgy like that. :)

Anyway, I had some people ask about what kinds I use so I decided I'd show you. George and I did a little photo shoot the other day just for you!

These are the ones we use the most. I also have green and blue, he just happened to be wearing the white ones at the time. They are the Thirsties Duo Wraps Diaper Cover with Unbleached Indian Infant Prefold Diapers. The cover is snapped up into the smallest size, but since then, I've moved them up to the middle size, and I love the snap closures because I don't have to worry about them wearing out. I got them in this package from nellsnaturalbaby.com which comes with 30 diapers and 4 covers. It's supposed to be enough to wash every 2 days, but I pretty much have to do a wash every day. Maybe a day and a half. I find them very handy, especially since the diapers double as burp cloths, and I love a good absorbent burp cloth! I only have to change the cover a couple times a day, and I haven't really had any problems with leaking yet. But maybe he's not old enough to really have leaks, I can't remember, I haven't had a baby for 4 years! I still think it's crazy that I have a baby again...

With all this extra laundry, I'm very lucky to have a sweet little helper who loves to fold the diapers for me.

As you can see, though, the diapers are all getting stained. Any tips on how to get the stain out? I'm still not sure what I can use on them.

I also have some Thirsties in the newborn size with velcro that my friend, Rachel, lent to me. George is starting to grow out of those already, though, and I don't use them too much because they are mostly in girl colors since Rachel had a little girl.

Rachel also lent me some newborn (xs) All-in-one diapers. They are the bumGenius brand, and they are super cute!

These are really easy, just like putting on a disposable diaper. They fit really well, and are a lot trimmer than the prefold with a cover.

George has pretty much grown out of these ones. I didn't use them very much because I didn't want to get them all stained because they were too cute, also I mostly have pretty pink and purple ones. :) These green ones are great for a little boy, though! They do take longer to dry, and that was a problem at the rate I'm going through diapers right now.

I had actually planned on getting All-In-Ones from the start, but my practical/thrifty side won out because they are quite expensive ($13 each), and I would have had to get at least 12 of them to get me though a day. Plus he would have grown out of them really quick, and I would have had to get bigger ones already.

Well, that's enough diaper talk. I'm staying up way to late again! I have been super tired lately and I've been getting a lot of headaches. I use to never get headaches! I think I'm just sleep deprived so I'm going to go to bed now.

First Run Back!

I was supposed to wait 6 weeks before doing any real exercising. They told me not to do anything more than walking. Well, today I went out for a "walk." I decided I'd try running a little just to see how it felt, though.

As soon as I popped my earbuds in and started off down the sidewalk, I just couldn't help but smile. It just felt so good to be out doing my thing again! I made it a whole 2 minutes before I just had to run, and it felt so good! I had planned on just running (I mean walking) outside, but after a few blocks, I found myself turning towards the rec. center where to run on their indoor track because it was really cold! I had a long sleeve shirt and jacket, but no gloves or ear covers. I probably would have gotten used to it after a little while, but I also liked the idea of staying close to home in case Pete called to tell me I needed to get home and feed the baby or if I got some weird pain or something.

I ran for 30 minutes, taking a couple walk breaks for a minute or so each. I wasn't really too worried about distance or time or anything, I just wanted to try it out. It was really fun running again, though I still felt kind of tentative, and didn't go too hard. I also noticed that my heart is what felt it the most, and was the reason I would decide to stop and walk. I didn't wear my heart rate monitor, but maybe I will next time.

Since I was being such a rebel today, I decided to go one step farther and vacuum. That felt good too! :)

And now, George wants to eat again. Goodnight.

The Touch, The Feel of Cotton

Today George is 3 weeks old and he's getting so big already! Note how his newborn onsie can't even snap. Of course it doesn't help that he has such a big diaper on either.

I've started using cloth diapers with this baby. I hadn't done it before with my other kids pretty much because I never really considered it a valid option. I never even thought about it. Everyone gives you disposable diapers at your baby shower, you see all the diaper commercials and the baby isle in the store is filled to the brim with disposable diapers. Who uses cloth diapers anymore anyway? Well, two of my friends who recently had babies started using cloth diapers, and you can read about how much they like it on their blogs here and here, and they inspired me.

Now I hate to even imagine how much space in a landfill I've used up with 3 kids worth of diapers. They say each baby goes through about a TON of disposable diapers in their lifetime. (I actually can't remember where I read that, so that might not be the right amount, but google "cloth vs. disposable diapers" and you can get all sorts of statistics about it) So, yeah, that's 3 tons for our family. Gross. Plus, I hate it when I see old, disgusting used diapers on the side of the road because for some reason this always happens. I don't know how. Do they fall out of the garbage truck or are people just throwing them out their car windows as they haphazardly change their babies while they're driving?

Anyway, suffice it to say that I am pretty grossed out by disposable diapers now and I feel so good that out of the 250 or so times I've changed George so far in his short lifespan, only a handful of those diapers have ended up in the garbage (mostly because I used the ones they gave me while I was in the hospital). I don't feel like I'm waisting anything when I change him either. That just makes me feel good. It also makes me feel good to be putting cloth, and not garbage (what are those diapers made out of anyway?) on my baby. No offense to anyone who is using disposable diapers. Like I said, that's what I did for 3 babies without a second thought.

I weighed myself again today, and I'm back up to 149.2, but I did weigh myself at a different time of day. It probably didn't help that I ate 3 cookies after our nephew's blessing today either. But they were delicious! Here's our not-so-little family at said baby blessing:

And, just because I know you can't get enough of my kids (oh, wait, that's me!), here's Elle with her beloved little brother yesterday.

Hungry, Hungry Hippos

Last night George woke up every 2 hours wanting to eat. It seems that's all that boy wants to do, and if he's awake for an hour, he wants to eat again. I even took him in the car yesterday after feeding him half an hour before, and he got so mad!

Of course, with George being so hungry all the time, and getting his calories from me, I'm also hungry all the time! It doesn't hurt that this morning, I was too busy feeding him, changing him, and holding him because he didn't want to be put down to make my own breakfast until almost 11:00. By then I was starving, and ate a ton!

I just need to be careful and make sure I'm eating the right stuff, and getting plenty to drink, and I will hopefully not get as chubby as George is getting!

I was so tired this morning. It's now 10:00 and I really need to go to bed. Here's hoping he sleeps for more like 3 hours at a time tonight!

George - 2 Weeks!

Yesterday George turned 2 weeks old. I went to the first half of church while Pete stayed home with him, then I came back and we switched. This is how they were when I got home. So cute!


I can't believe it's already been two weeks! But at the same time, it's hard to believe that we've only had this little guy for two weeks!

I took George to his 2 week check up today, and he weighs 9lbs 9oz now (he was 8lbs 4 oz at birth) and measured 21 1/2 inches (he was 20 at birth)! Way to go little man. He's going to be a big boy like his brother!

Tonight we put up this growth chart. Mindy is almost 2 years older than Ethan, and look how close he is to passing her up!

While we're on the subject of sizes... I weighed myself yesterday and I'm down to 148. Three pounds to go! Wahoo! This morning, when I was up with George at 5:30, I almost seriously thought about going to the gym. Then I decided that I should give myself another week at least, and that rest is probably more important right now so I went back to sleep. I am excited to start training though!

I do need to decide for sure if I want to switch from the full to the half marathon in June, though. Last year the half sold out by the end of March, and they're already way ahead of that pace this year. Any thoughts?

The Weight Game

I'm not one to put much stock in how much I weigh. Before I got pregnant, and even when I did my Ironman, I weighed probably 10-20 lbs more than my lowest weight, but I was in much better shape! But it is fun to look at the numbers sometimes, and I have no problems putting those numbers out here on the internet for the world to see (gulp).

Ironman Weight: around 140 (It was even 140.6 once and that really made me smile!)

Pre-pregnancy Weight: about 145

Pregnancy Weight at last dr. visit: 168 (total of 23 lbs gained)

Post-pregnacy Weight when I came home (2 days after baby was born): 159

I don't know how I only lost 9 lbs after having a baby that weighed 8lbs 4oz, but these were different scales so it's probably not totally accurate.

Weight 1 week after baby (today): 152.4

So that, my friends, is how you lose 16 lbs in a week without being on The Biggest Loser! I LOVE nursing!

My goal is to get down to 135-140 again before Utah Half which is 8 months away. I think with a little help from George to burn off the calories, I'll get there easily. That is, if I don't eat too many carrot cookies. I'm planning on making some today. I can't wait! But, first a nap.

PS - I LOVE not being pregnant anymore. It's the best! :)

PPS - Happy 1 week anniversary, George!

Babies, Babies, Babies

Warning: This is a birth story so if you don't like that kind of thing, go ahead and skip this post.

And, uh, it's a little long.

Friday morning my dad came over bright and early so he could be here for the kids while I went in to get induced. Maybe. First I had an appointment with my doctor to decide if we really wanted to induce me or not.

After a few hours at the doctor's office, being hooked up to some monitors, getting an ultrasound and a blood test, we decided it would be better to wait. I was dilated to 4cm, though. That was good news, but I kind of thought it would be more after having contractions all Wednesday night that were 3-4 minutes apart. We had actually planned on going to the hospital Thursday morning if they were still going, but they weren't.

But, it wasn't like nothing got done on Friday! The guys came and put the new window in the girls' room downstairs, and my dad brought a door that he put on! It was so exciting! Since my dad was here with his truck, I had him take me to Home Depot so we could get the rest of the stuff for the room. I ended up spending a lot more than I had planned!

Pete and I got to work painting that night after the kids were in bed. We did one coat of the pink that night, then another coat in the morning. I also painted the downstairs bathroom blue, and, oh, it's so pretty! I love both colors! (pictures to come... sometime)

My dad came back Saturday to help us (Pete) put wainscoting up on the walls, and we got my brother to come help too. I helped out a little, but I mostly stayed out of the way, cleaned the house and watched kids.

Watching a movie with the cousins - they were really happier about this than they look! (Our next project is to fix that wall behind the couch.)

It was probably 8 or 9 by the time everyone left, and the girls were all set to sleep down there for the first time. They were so excited! (I wish I would have taken more pictures!!)

Anyway, just before everyone left I decided I should start timing contractions because I was starting to have a lot again. They were the same kind I was having on Wednesday: not painful, just really tight and uncomfortable. They were about 4 minutes apart, but I wasn't too concerned. I figured I'd just go to bed and have a repeat of Wednesday night.

I woke up during the night several times, still noticing the contractions, but they were about the same. Then at about 5:00, Ethan woke up with a bad dream. I got him calmed down, and when I got back in bed I started timing again. My contractions were still about 4-5 minutes apart so I woke Pete up and told him we probably should go to the hospital soon, but that I wanted to wait just a little longer before we called anyone. I just hate calling people so early in the morning!

So, I laid in bed for about an hour, and I was just thinking, "I should get up and get something to eat before we go because it's probably going to be a long day and I'll need my strength." Plus my stomach was growling.

Then, all of a sudden I sat up, saying, "Woah!" because my water had just broken! I probably scared Pete to death! He jumped up and grabbed me a towel. I could not believe how much water it was either! Yikes! By the time I got to the shower, I had my next contraction, and BOY what a difference that water breaking makes. It was already really painful!

Pete called my dad and our neighbor to come over until my dad got there. She was very nice to come over so early in the morning! She got here at about 6:30.

We were all settled in our awesome, huge room at the hospital by about 7am. My contractions were really strong and close together, but I really wanted to try to do this one naturally. I kept telling myself, "I can do this. I've done an Ironman - I can do this." At one point, Pete reminded me of this, and I said, "An Ironman is a lot more fun!" He was a great coach, though. He also kept having me think of the contractions as one more mile I could tick off or just a hill I had to get over, and he kept having me imagine all the people cheering at the finish line.

I made it until 9 (2 hours), then I was crying and shaking and saying "I can't do it!" and I was hardly getting any relief between contractions. When the nurse checked me again, I was only at 4.5 cm so I told her, "Ok, Epidural then." Now I could understand how people on TV get to the hospital and want an epidural right away. I've always just had it get painful so gradually that I've been able to wait a while.

The nurse told me that with the epidural I might progress a lot faster because I would be able to relax and let the contractions do their work. I was NOT relaxing before the epidural. After I got it, I was so happy. I just laid there thinking about how this was the first time in 9 months that I was able to just lay there without feeling any pain in my belly, back or hips.

It was kind of funny because I was just laying there texting my sister for a while. I thought my phone would have kept better track of the time of these texts, but it only shows the time twice. I'm thinking there must have been more time passing than it shows. (maybe Katie's phone shows the times and she can get me that info...) Anyway, here's part of our conversation:

8:57am

me: I'm in the hospital. We'll get to meet George soon!

katie: What happened? All that work yesterday

me: I guess so! My water broke while I was laying in bed this morning. It was pretty crazy!

...

me: I just got an epidural. I like.

katie: Well, now you know what it's like to go into labor

me: Yeah, I'm so happy about that!

...

me: She just checked me and I'm 8cm! Wow!

katie: Two more to go!

me: !

...

10:02 am

katie: Is he here yet?

me: Not yet but I'm at a 9 now. We're really close!

I loved my epidural and was glad to just be excited now. I was sublimely happy from here on out for the next few days. I did start feeling nauseated again right before they had me start pushing, but once I started pushing I felt better.

I don't know how long I pushed for, but it was a little while, and at one point my doctor said, "The baby's not doing great so lets try to hurry and get him out." That made me nervous, and helped motivate me to push really hard. They had set up a mirror for me so I got to watch him come out which was really surreal, and it was such an awesome feeling to get him out! I don't think there's anything that's more of a relief than to have your baby come out, see how beautiful he is and hear him cry.

George was finally born at about 11am, 5 days after his due date. He was 8 pounds 4 ounces - my biggest baby. My others were all in the 7 pound range. Only 20 inches long, though. I think that's shorter than Ethan was. He has reddish blond hair, almost exactly the same color as mine, and he's just so sweet!

(first bath)

I love that I was able to go into labor myself! It was so much better that way! I'm also so glad I didn't have to have another C-section. Those really hurt! :)

Recipes!

Just so you know, I've updated my Ironman post, adding in pictures. I don't know how I can call myself a blogger and not have put pictures in there in the first place!

Also, just so you know, I haven't had the baby yet. :)

While I'm sitting here timing contractions, I thought I'd share some fun recipes I've been enjoying lately! (I'm so happy to have my appetite back!)

Aloo Gobi

This first one is an vegetarian Indian recipe that is actually from the bonus real of Bend It Like Beckham. If you haven't seen that movie, you should watch it. It's pretty good, and while you're at it, watch how to make Aloo Gobi, then use this recipe to make some for yourself sometime.

It is so good. I've tried making this a couple times, but this recipe is the best I've tried and it turns out so good! It's like you're eating at an Indian restaurant (minus the naan. I just need to learn how to make that good now). Plus, you can feel good about what you're eating while you enjoy it, especially if you make some brown rice to go with it.

Now for Dessert

I actually have two kinds of cookies I've really enjoyed making recently. I need to cut back on making cookies, but at least these cookies are healthy-ish.

First: Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Craisin Cookies

(adapted from Nestles Choc-Oat-Chip Cookies)

These were also slightly inspired by RubySnap (formerly known as DoughGirl) with her Audry cookie: "Almond dough packed full of adoration, almonds, cranberries and white chocolate." I usually hate it when people put nuts in cookies, but these cookies are an exception! Anyway...

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/2 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup craisins

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat brown sugar and butter in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs, milk and vanilla and almond extract. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats, morsels and craisins; mix well. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies or 12 to 13 minutes for crispy cookies. Cool on baking sheets for 1 minute; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Second: Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies

(adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe, thank you very much!)

Oh. My. Gosh. These are so good! My mouth is watering just thinking about them...

I made these one day when I happened to have some left-over cream cheese frosting and grated carrots and Elle wanted to make cookies with frosting. They were perfect!

Ingredients

Makes about 25 sandwiches

1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots, (about 3 large carrots)
1 cup raisins (I did not put raisins in mine. Yuck! But, please feel free to put them in yours if you wish.)


Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with Silpat baking mats or parchment paper, and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine sugars and butter; beat until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat on medium speed until well combined.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger; stir to combine. Gradually add flour to butter mixture; mix on a low speed until just blended. Mix in oats, carrots, and raisins. Chill dough in refrigerator until firm, at least 1 hour. (I didn't chill mine. They were thick enough for me for some reason, on the reviews people said it was really thin, so use your best judgment here)

Using a 1/2-ounce ice-cream scoop, scoop dough onto prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between cookies. Transfer to oven, and bake until browned and crisped, rotating pan halfway through baking to ensure even color, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Repeat baking process with remaining dough. Once cooled completely, use an offset spatula to spread about 2 teaspoons of cream-cheese filling onto a cookie. Sandwich together with a second cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

(We didn't store these in the fridge because they didn't really last long enough to store. I did only make half a batch with just enough for everyone to have one for family night. And one for Elle and I to "try" beforehand.)

So, there you go. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did! And I'll try to stop think about them now. I mean, now. NOW.

40 Laps for 40 Weeks & The Plan

Thank you all for your support and encouragement! It really does help me out a lot to know so many people are thinking about me. :)

This morning I decided I didn't want to sit around waiting to go into labor again so I went to the pool and swam 40 laps - one for each week I've been pregnant. It seemed only fitting. Plus it was a good little workout.

I broke it up into 10 sets of 4 to help me keep track, and here's what I did:

1. 4 kick board/fins
2. 4 free
3. 4 pull buoy/paddles
4. 4 free
5. 4 pull buoy/paddles
6. 4 free
7. 4 butterfly - I've never even done a full lap with butterfly, usually just a few strokes at the end for fun, but the guy next to me was doing it and it looked like fun so I thought it would be good to mix things up a bit. It was painfully slow, though! Plus, it felt like it was going to use up all my energy so I switched back to free after 2 laps. Then I felt like a big ol' quitter and switched back to butterfly for the last lap.
8. 4 pull buoy/paddles
9. 4 free
10. 2 kick board/fins + 2 backstroke

It took me about 40 minutes to do all that, which isn't bad considering I was taking it easy and all the belly drag and whatnot. It was so nice to be able to do this while Elle was at preschool so I didn't feel rushed or anything. By the time I got out, though, I was having some pretty bad heartburn. Yuck. I will be happy when that's all over! I'll be happy to get rid of this big belly too. Pete likes me when I'm pregnant and I have to say I like some of the added curves, but the belly's getting old. It's so weird to think that there's a baby in there!!

I feel really good today. Too good! I'm really going to to try not to worry about it. It will happen when it happens. Later will actually be better because then we might actually get the girls' room done before George comes!

Anyway. We had a nice little teaching moment last night with the kids that I wanted to write down.

We've been reading The Book of Mormon as a family, and last night we were in Mosiah 3 and we got to verse 11 which says:

For behold, and also his ^ablood ^batoneth for the sins of those who have ^cfallen by the transgression of Adam, who have died not knowing the ^dwill of God concerning them, or who have^eignorantly sinned.

Pete stopped to explain to the kids what that means. (I love that he does this!) How some people believe that if someone dies without knowing about Jesus, they go to Hell, but that that's not true. The kids were asking questions, and Elle said, "If there wasn't Hell, then people wouldn't go to Hell," or something like that. (That sounds kind of funny coming from a 4 year old.) Pete decided he had some more explaining to do so he drew a diagram of The Plan of Salvation that looked almost exactly like this:

He explained that there isn't really just a Heaven and Hell, that all the kingdoms of glory are really nice, and that Outer Darkness is very small and not very many people will go there. We want to make it to the Celestial Kingdom because that's where Heavenly Father and Jesus will be, but you have to be perfect to live there so there has to be a place for everybody. Pete explained that even people who do bad things, can repent and get to the Celestial Kingdom. (For more info about this click here.)

We talked about how George is right on the line between Pre-Earth Life and Mortality. Isn't that exciting? Of course, we don't really know when you actually leave pre-earth life and when you enter mortality. I mean, he's definitely alive and moving around right now, but he's not born yet so it's hard to put a label on that.

Then, when Pete asked if anyone had any questions, Ethan asked, "Why did they make this world anyway?"

Elle pipes right in, "So we could live here!"

It was so cute, and such a perfect answer! Leave it to a child to keep things plain and simple. As adults, we tend to over-analize everything and make things more complicated than they need to be. I mean, I'm sure the Plan is much more complicated than we can ever understand, but all we really need to understand is that Heavenly Father and Jesus did make the Earth so that we could come live here, and so we could get our bodies and our families. It's a wonderful plan. I'm so glad I know about it and that I can teach my children where they came from and what we're trying to accomplish in this life.

Last night I also got released from my calling in the Primary at church which is really sad, but it will also be good to be able to just focus on the baby for a little while. I'm so excited to meet the newest person in our family! Hopefully it will be in the next few days!

1-11-11

Well, today came and went just like any other day with no signs of labor whatsoever. It would have been too good to be true to have my baby ON my due date, though.

I had a doctor appointment yesterday and at least I am progressing! I'm dilated to 3+ cm and 50% effaced. I did tell her that I really don't want to be induced so we set up an appointment for Friday morning so she can monitor the baby and do an ultrasound just to make sure everything's ok to wait. However, she doesn't want me to go more than 7-10 days over so if we don't induce on Friday, we will between the 18th and 20th.

Now I'm feeling really torn about being induced or not. I know it's safer for me to go into labor myself, but I just don't know if I can do that. I was induced for my first two four days after their due dates, then had a c-section with Elle because she was breech, so I don't know what would have happened with her. So, we're thinking maybe we'll do the induction after all. I do want my doctor to check me out first on Friday before we decide, but it would be a lot more convenient since my dad already has the day off and is planning on coming to watch the kids. Crazy?

I can't decide! Hopefully I'll just go into labor myself Friday morning, then I won't have to worry about it.

1 Week to Go!

Are we there yet?

Wanna know something weird? The past few days (not counting yesterday), I've been feeling so much better! It's weird. I've had this surge of energy, I haven't felt sick very much and I'm actually getting a ton of stuff done! It's so nice. I've been nesting like crazy! The house is cleaner than it's been in a long time, we got the crib set up in our room, we got a car seat, I've been happily making dinner every night and I even made bread today!

That isn't to say that I'm not terribly uncomfortable, but that kind of goes without saying, doesn't it? I mean, I think I would explode if someone poked my belly with a pin like they do in cartoons!

Watch out for that little orange, poky dinosaur belly! (?)

Sunday night, right after bragging about feeling so much better, I had the worst night! I get this pain in my left ribs that feels like something is pushing on them (which is probably exactly what it is), and sometimes it gets so bad it even kind of goes numb. I usually only get this when I'm sitting up, but Sunday night I had it all night and couldn't find a position to make it go away. On top of that, my hip kept hurting, I was feeling sick and my mind would not let me rest! Ug, it was terrible. I finally got up at around 3 for a little while, then I was able to go to sleep for a couple hours after that. Luckily, the kids were back in school on Monday so I was able to take a nap pretty much the whole time Elle was in preschool. I did feel a little better after that.

Last night I slept so much better, and I have felt really good today! Taking advantage of feeling good, I took Elle to the childcare at the gym and went for a nice easy swim. It felt so good to be back in the water. I haven't been swimming for probably 2 or 3 weeks (Or more?), not counting taking the kids swimming twice during Christmas break. I just love that I feel like a normal person again when I'm swimming.

I swam for about half an hour and did a total of 1550 yards.

Tonight I also got to go out to dinner with my sister-in-laws. They brought me cute baby presents and we had a nice time talking about all things baby. One of them just had a baby and the other one is newly pregnant so it's on all of our minds!

It was a great day. I can do this!

Happy New Year!

Wow, I can't believe it's already 2011! I'd like to say that this year just flew by, but then I think back to all my long days feeling sick and I can't decide if it did or not. It does seem weird because I'm now planning for the same race schedule (almost) I was last year at this time, so it's like last year didn't happen.

Looking back at my New Years post from last year, here are my resolutions for 2010 and how I did:

1. Pay the credit card off (We DID have it paid off before Christmas... I don't dare look at it now.)
2. Have family home evening every Monday (I'd say we had family night most Mondays, and the kids now expect it so that's good!)
3. Read from the scriptures every day (I may have skipped a few days)
4. Finish the whole Bible (Um, yeah, the Bible is really long! I'm still in the middle of Psalms. Pete says I'm crazy and that nobody reads the whole Bible, but I'll keep plugging along.)
5. Be more patient with my kids (... this one's hard to really track. I think I'm getting better though)
6. Give my kids more positive feedback (Also hard to track. I'll keep working on it.)
7. Go to the temple more often (This really didn't happen. We only went a few times. Sad.)
8. Finish a marathon in under 4 hours (No marathon for me last year.)
9. Qualify for Age Group Nationals at BAM (No BAM either.)

Getting pregnant really changed a lot of my plans for the year and made it a lot less eventful, but it was still a really great year! I am just so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and fun children, and I'm excited for the new baby who we'll be meeting really soon now! I know 2011 will be a great year too, and I can't wait to get started!

Last night I went out for New Years Eve for the first time since y2k I think! We have some awesome friends who offered to have the kids sleep over at their house so we could go out, and I'm so thankful to them! We had reservations with some friends at a fancy restaurant called Forage where we had a 9 course "tasting" meal. It was so cool. They brought us the menu, but we didn't have to make any decisions. The waiter just started bringing us food. Each course was really little, but very beautifully presented and very good, and we had a lot of time between courses to chat with our friends. It ended up taking 2 1/2 hours for the whole thing, and we were all just amazed at how delicious some of the things were. We even got to try squab ("What is a squab anyway?" "You know what a squab is. It's kine of like a pigeon I guess.") which was delicious, and Elk. I've eaten Elk a ton, but our friend had never had it before, and this Elk was like a really good steak. It must have been farm raised. Everything was local and seasonal which is really cool. It was so much fun! It might have to be our new tradition.

We got home at around 10 so we just watched a movie and had cheese and crackers. The movie ended at exactly 12 too! It was a fun night, and since we didn't have kids this morning we went out to breakfast. We wanted to go to The Park Cafe which is our favorite for breakfast, but it was closed so we went to Coachman's instead which was really good. I'm excited for the kids to get home, though. Oddly enough, I miss them! I even dreamt about Elle. I hope she had a good time and didn't wake up with any nightmares like she is prone to do.

iCal - how I've missed you!

If you didn't hear from my last post, I got a new laptop for Christmas!!

It's really nice, and really more than I deserve or need right now, but I'm going to put it to good use! It came with the new iLife and I'm excited to use that to make some awesome photo books so I don't lose any more photos! It's also got iCal. One thing I really missed about having my own computer was iCal. Sure, I know I could have gotten an old fashioned analog calendar and used it to keep my life organized, but let's be realistic here. How could I ever go back to paper when I've experienced the ease of using iCal?

In the last few days, I've gotten 5 Calendars going: Training, Dinners, Food, Finances, and Appointments (and that's the order I created them in... where are my priorities?).

It's probably too small to really see, but here's my training calendar: (click on it to see it bigger)



I've got myself starting running about a month after the baby's due. I might have to push that back to 6 weeks or just start out a little easier than I've got planned, but we'll see. I'm flexible, but I still like to have it all spelled out there for me. :)

I've also got myself going to a Cycle and Core class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and swimming on Saturdays. I like to think of that swim as a nice recovery for the week, and I can bring the whole family with me since we now have a family pass to our nearby rec center! Yay! Sundays, as usual, are rest days.

There's also something called TriWater on Monday and Wednesday mornings. I might just have to find out what that's all about, or I can just go swim those mornings when I feel like I need to add in more swimming. Really, I just need to focus on running for a while, though, to get myself ready for Utah Valley Marathon which I'm pretty sure I'm going to switch over to the Utah Valley Half Marathon. That just sounds a lot less stressful and I know I can be ready for that on time without hurting myself in the process. My sister likes this idea as well since she'll be working and going to school full time and doesn't feel like she'll have time to train for a full marathon right now. That's cool. Half will be my distance this year. Full next year.

Onto the food! Here's my Dinners calendar:



This one is my favorite because now I've got dinners planned out for the whole month! Yay! I also have each dinner repeating every 4 weeks so I don't have to go through and plan this out every month. If we don't like something, I'll just switch it with something else. Also, if 4 weeks seems to be to often to eat everything, I can always go in and add more things later.

The hardest thing for me about cooking dinner is knowing what I'm going to make and having the ingredients to make it when dinner time comes. I've been really bad about this lately, especially because when dinner time comes around, usually nothing sounds good to me. I'm hoping that will change once I'm not pregnant anymore. Of course, then I'll have a baby to add into the mix.

Anyway, this calendar is really handy because I put the url of the recipe (if it's online, which most of them are) in the location section of the event so I can just pop over to Safari and look at that when I'm making my shoping list and when it's time to make the meal. I'm really excited for this, and I hope it helps keep us eating healthy dinners and also save us money because we won't be so inclined to eat out as much if I've got a yummy dinner planned.

Speaking of babies, my friend who was due the same day as me, was induced today. She's in the hospital this very minute having her little girl! (Congratulations, Sara, I hope everything goes well!)

I have a doctor appointment tomorrow so we'll see how things are progressing for me on that front. I've been having a lot of contractions and just feeling super uncomfortable, but I don't know if that means labor is in the near future or if it just means I'm 38 weeks pregnant.

Our Christmas

We had such an amazing Christmas this year! It could have been the best one yet. George even got some stuff, and he’s not even born yet! Lucky guy.

The day started off with Pete waking me up at 3am because he sat up to see what time it was. I guess he was too excited to sleep which has to be pretty excited for him! At the time, though, I thought it was more like 6 for some reason so I just kind of laid there waiting for the kids to wake up. Eventually, I realized how early it was and went back to sleep for a little while. They ended up getting up at about 6:30 which isn’t too bad. I think we told them 7, but we got up anyway since we couldn’t sleep any longer either.

Opening presents was fun and crazy of course. I just managed to take a few pictures:

Ethan got a book that they learned the song to last year in school so that was just perfect! He sat down right then and there and read the whole thing! We're so proud of him, he's getting really good at reading! At 3:00, all my family came over, and the excitement began again! We had a really yummy dinner, then opened more presents:

Shane, Heather, and Aria

Baxter

Grandma Angela, handing out some pretty freaking awesome handmade presents for all the kids.

Katie trying to get Mindy to smile. This is the best we could get! It was such a fun day. Everyone got WAY too spoiled, especially me since Pete got me a Macbook Air! It's so beautiful and little! Plus, we got the kids a Kinect for the Xbox360 and some fun games to go with it. It's like a wii, only without controllers. You just move around to do everything. We had quite a good time playing that with everyone, along with Rockband 3 to finish out the day. Wow, what a Christmas!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

We love you and wish you all happiness this Christmas, and in the year to come!

Love,

The Lasko Family

Staycation

For the last few days, Pete and I had a wonderful "staycation" (as they call), where you just take time off and do fun things or relax around your house. The kids were at my dad's and we did both fun things and relax, and it was really nice. I told you about Monday night, when we got a new couch and put it together. Well, here's the couch in all her beauty:

I couldn't quite get the whole thing, it's so big, and the boxes were in the way so I couldn't back up any more! The kids have now made an awesome fort out of all the boxes!

Tuesday I had my doctor appointment, and Pete went snowboarding. I'm happy he got to go, and he said the powder was unbelievable! When he got done, I picked him up with our swimming stuff and we went to a near-by rec center that has a hot tub for him and a lap pool for me. We had to pay because my membership is up. So sad. Maybe I'll get a new one for Christmas. (hint hint). Anyway, I took it really easy, and I was glad to not be doing a serious workout because the pool was really warm! It felt nice to just swim a few laps in, though. I think I did a total of 800-1000 m or something like that. I had a few contractions, and the baby kept kicking me while I was swimming. That's just a weird feeling so I was happy to get out when Pete was done with the hot tub.

After swimming we went out to dinner and got Pho. I'd never had it before, but Pete's always talking about it. It's a Vietnamese soup with beef and rice noodles that you put thai basil and bean sprouts in. It was so good! I think I'm going to be craving that again very soon!

Yesterday we drove to Heber to pick the kids up. It was raining here, but snowing and so beautiful there! It really made me miss Heber, but Pete reminded me that that was because I'm not the one who would do the shoveling! Very true.

They were all out playing in the snow when we got there, which is good since we don't have any snow at home, and look at the awesome Dr. Seuss snowman they made:

While we were driving around they kept playing my running songs on the radio, and it just made me want to run! I'm getting so excited to be able to start training again so I started looking into a training plan for the Utah Valley Marathon. I know it's a little early, but I'm just a planner!

I think I want to do the FIRST marathon training plan. It just has you run 3 times a week, which I like because then I have time for other things (swimming, biking) that I like to do. The only problem is that it puts my first long run at 8 miles, the second week in February! That's exactly a month after the baby's due so I don't know if I'll be able to safely pull that off. Maybe it would be nice if he came a little early... (just kidding!)

I'll leave you with a picture of a delicious salad I had on Tuesday after my doctors appointment:

It has a handful of baby spinach, a handful of baby spring mix, a whole avocado (what? There was no one to share with, and I couldn't let it go bad! Personally, I don't think there's ever too much avocado!), chicken from a freshly roasted chicken I brought home from the store, some chopped up almonds and some craisons. I did put a little, tiny bit of poppy seed dressing on there too. It was so good! I'm planning on making it again for everyone for Christmas, and I can't wait!

3 Weeks to Go!

I had my 37 week checkup today, and everything went well. I'm dilated to 1 cm, and my doctor said that was good progress from my last visit! She set up an appointment for me to be induced on January 14, but it's just tentative, we might have to cancel if she doesn't think I'm ready enough by then. I really am still hoping to go into labor ON my awesome due date (1/11/11), but if I don't get that day, I'm ok with waiting a little longer. Though it would be nice to have a for sure day to plan babysitters around, let him come when he's ready.

My doctor said, "You've only gained one pound this week. Congratulations!" I'm not too surprised since I'm still not really eating that much. Even when I do feel hungry, I can't fit that much food in my stomach. I feel bad that I'm probably not getting all the nutrients the baby needs, so I finally went in and picked up my prescription for prenatal vitamins today. I had a ton of samples so I used those up until maybe a month ago.

So far, I think I've gained 22 pounds, but that's a lot when you step down from a car bumper and you're not used to the weight. My leg was hurting for a few minutes after doing that last night while helping Pete tie some big ol' boxes onto the top of our car:



Have I mentioned how much I love our car? Seriously. Especially in the winter. I'm always so glad to have the all-wheel drive and traction control. It is sweet!

Yesterday we dropped the kids off with my Dad and he took them to Heber where the good snow is, and they're having a grand time. He had taken the days off to watch them while we went to St. George, and they were so excited to go, we decided to still have them go even though we aren't going to St. George anymore.

Since the kids were gone, and we were able to fold all the seats down in the Jeep, we decided last night was a good time to go get the couch we've been wanting from ikea. Merry Christmas to us! It was actually a really fun date night. We had an early dinner at Bombay House, went to ikea and got our couch, and took the long, slow way home so we wouldn't lose it. Once we got home, we couldn't find any instructions so it took some thinking to figure out how to put it together. Then we opened the slip covers and found instructions! So, if you ever order a couch from ikea, make sure to look in with the slip covers for the instructions!

It took us a few hours to put together, but it was fun, and made us feel like furniture builders! Now we have a nice big couch in our basement just in time for having everyone over for Christmas! Yay! (It's even red!) I'll post a picture of it once I can get passed all the boxes to get back down there!

Speaking of Christmas, it sure is coming up soon, isn't it? Here's our cute little gingerbread house:



(it came pre-assembled from Costco, all we had to do was decorate! That was stressful enough with 3 kids trying to help!)

PS - sorry about all the unintentional ads in this post. First Jeep and Ikea, and now Costco! Jeez!

Thank you!

Thank you so much to everyone who left such sweet comments on my last post, or otherwise sent me messages. You're support and advice really made me feel so much better! I feel lucky to have so many awesome friends, even if I don't know most of you in real life! :)

I feel so much less stressed now!

What we're going to do is just skip the window, keep the baby in our room, and get me a new tri bike! :)

JUST KIDDING!

What we've really decided to do is go with the cheaper window that's big enough to be safe, but not necessarily to code. We've told the contractor that we want to do it, but he's been busy so who knows when it will actually get done.

I'm not going to worry about it any more.

Several people suggested just keeping the baby in our room, and I guess I had just ruled that out since I'm such a light sleeper and have trouble sleeping with a baby in the same room as me. I just wake up at every little grunt or movement the baby makes, and end up constantly checking on them all night. If they're in the next room over, I can hear them cry, but at least get some sleep in-between feedings. Maybe this baby will be a really quiet sleeper, or maybe I'll just get used to it. If not, it won't be for very long since we will get the window in and move the girls downstairs eventually.

Besides, won't it be so cute to have a little baby in our room with us?! He's going to be so little!

Birds Nest, Humans Stress

I'm at 35 weeks and counting (5 more to go!!). Here's what I look like today (Well, last night...and thank you, Pete, for telling me there was a sticker on my belly!):

I would say I'm officially to the "nesting" stage of this pregnancy. Actually I've been there for a while, but there's really not much I can do right now. Here's the story.

Right now we've got all 3 kids in the same room, upstairs, next to ours.

We're not really wanting to squeeze a crib in there too.

There is a bedroom in the basement, but the windows (like all the windows in the basement) are not to code. What that means is that if there was a fire, the windows are too small for a fireman to get in to rescue someone. Not an ideal place to put my precious little girls.

No big deal. When we found out I was pregnant, we started getting our debts paid off and saving up to put a new, bigger window in. We were thinking we would need about $2000 to do this. Well, the first guy came in and gave us an estimate of $1500 so we were really happy with that. We even told him we'd do whatever work we could to keep the price down, like digging the hole outside.

In digging the hole we found out that this house (built in 1914) originally didn't have a basement. It just had a shelf foundation (I think that's what it's called). Someone went in, dug the basement out and poured in a huge cement footing. This kind of gets in the way of the window, and it would also mess with the structure of the foundation if we cut it without pouring more cement.

The first guy had another guy, who specializes more in this kind of thing, come in and look at it, and the estimate suddenly turned into $4,200!

Um, ok, that's a lot more to chew on.

So, now we're wondering if it's even worth it to put that much into this house (just for a window!), and how much we could get if we tried to sell, then we could just rent a bigger place for the same price we're paying on our mortgage.

We talked to a realtor who went to run the numbers, but haven't really gotten any answers back. We're just kind of in limbo, which is a place I hate to be. I want to get stuff done!

We've also talked to the first contractor and he's still willing to put a bigger window in for the price he gave us, but it might not be strictly to code. This seems ok to me, as long as the kids are safe down there.

Still waiting to hear back from the realtor to see what he thinks about that.

What would you do??

I just hate sitting around waiting. Like I said, there's really not much I can do. I'd love to show you the crib set I made, but we have nowhere to put the crib yet so you'll have to settle for a sneak peak:

I'd also love to show you the matching car seat cover I made, but we don't have a car seat yet.

I have sanded 2 dressers and painted one. The second one is waiting for the paint. Ethan wants it to be red, but I did the first one white and it looks so nice I just want to do the second one white too. It will be for the boys though. I can't decide. What do you think?

Icing On The Cake

Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment, and everything went just fine, but I asked her about our trip we had planned to St. George (about 5 hours away) in 2 weeks. Pete's business partner and company is down there and we were going to leave the kids with my dad, go down for the Christmas party and to see our friends. Um, yeah, I wasn't really thinking about the fact that I'll be 37 weeks pregnant at that point when we made the hotel reservation. Sadly, my doctor said it would probably be fine, but that she doesn't recommend I go. (Shocking, hu?) I was so looking forward to one last trip alone with Pete before the baby's born. I guess it's better for us to listen to the doctor though.

Also, yesterday, I found out that I did not make Team Trackers. I'm not really surprised, and it's probably better this way since I'll have a new baby and won't be able to train, travel or race too much, but it's hard not to be a little bummed about it. I am really excited for my 2 blog/twitter friends, MAraul and Tribirdie, who did get in, though! Congratulations!

So, that's about it. Less than 5 weeks to go and we have nowhere to put the baby.

*dramatic sigh*

And I have a hangnail.

No, I'm not stressed at all...

(Seriously, though, we have 2000 square feet in this house! We will find somewhere to put the baby. Worst case scenario, he'll just be in our room for a while. Hopefully he's a quiet sleeper.)