Slacker Slacker Bo-Backer

Hello all it's me...the slacker slacker bo-backer. I haven't posted in a while, well, because I've been focused on motherhood. Motherhood is awesome. Don't get me wrong, it's completely exhausting at times, but the truth is - it's pretty freaking awesome. Now, we (Binderclips and I) have had our share of ups and downs, but I love it. Would I go through labor again? Right now I plead the 5th.

So, where did I leave off last time I posted? Oh yeah that's right, our little Baby G had just arrived!

Since then a lot has happened but let me share with you the experience we had getting her newborn pictures taken (and let this be a lesson to all of you possibly wanting to do the same thing in the future). Here is the chain of events:

1. We show up, photographer insists Baby G is naked
2. Baby G is now naked and pissed (majorly pissed)
3. We try to get some pictures of her on her belly, she screams as if she is being tortured
4. We decide  to stop doing that
5. Photog decides Binderclips needs to hold Baby G with her hands and head on his shoulder. She's still naked at this point. Binderclips cannot be seen in the photos since he's wearing black and the background is black and the photog is taking the pictures very close up. This is a good thing.
6. As soon as the photog starts snapping pictures a yell is heard from Binderclips
7. Upon further examination it is discovered that Baby G has peed ALL OVER Binderclips
8. The fun doesn't stop there
9. The photog continues to snap pictures and another yell is heard from Binderclips... this time just slightly more urgent
10. Upon another examination it is discovered that Baby G has pooped ALL OVER Binderclips (Quick note here: Baby G is being breastfed. Breastfed baby poop is usually very runny and it was in this case, just fyi.)
11. We decide to take a break to clean her and Binderclips up
12. As soon as we clean her up I feed her a little bit and am holding her trying to comfort her (maybe for approx. 15 minutes). 
13. I hand her to Binderclips who has just gotten cleaned up
14. As soon as she's in his arms she poops all over him again
15. As I decide to go clean up the poop that has landed on the ground I'm crouching under Binderclips and Baby G who are standing above me. At this point I realize I could get pooped or peed on, so I move.
16. Not even a second after I move Baby G proceeds to pee all over Binderclips
17. We all laugh hysterically

Now I know Baby G is not going to enjoy this story being shared once she gets old enough to read but, seriously? How could I not share it? Right? Any who, I'll leave you with some of the pictures taken that day. I will try to post more frequently but I'm not making any promises. Later gators!

photos taken by Olga Thomas Photography

Bacon Baby has Arrived!

Hello Everyone! I haven't updated the blog in a while and thought you all would want to know the good news... Baby G has arrived! She was born on October 9th at 9:06 am after 10 hours of labor weighing in at a whopping 7 lbs 13 ounces and 21 inches long. Our original due date was October 20th, but I had a feeling she wanted to arrive early and boy did she ever! The above picture is of her immediately after delivery and the one below is of her and I immediately after. Isn't she a cutie? Well, clearly I'm biased, but even if I wasn't I'm sure I'd still think she's a cutie. ;)

This picture is after we got her home. She's just maxin' and relaxin'. 

So, what's up with the title of this post you ask? Well, I'm here to tell all the pregnant ladies as you get closer to delivery watch what you eat! The day before she was born I had a wonderful breakfast with lots of bacon. Immediately after pushing her out I started to smell a familiar smell. 'What is that familiar smell?' I thought to myself...then they placed her on my chest and it hit me - the familiar smell was bacon!! My amniotic fluid was scented in bacon and so was Baby G! 'No one warned me about this' I thought as I looked around the room wondering if anyone else noticed the bacony smell. (No one seemed to, but I can't be too sure they didn't. Most likely they did smell it but were polite and just didn't say anything, but who knows.) This is a warning to pregnant ladies everywhere, be very aware of what you eat before you deliver because it will come back to haunt you! My advice is - if you want to test out the folks doing your delivery eat something like bacon (meaning something with a distinctive smell...or just eat some bacon) and play Guess What I Ate This Morning in the delivery room.

Any who, I hope all is well with you all! Better get back to my little pumpkin....later gators!

Maternity Pictures and Random Stuff

Thought I'd share a few more of the maternity pictures with you all. Again, this is me a little over 32 weeks. The photos were done by Olga Thomas Photography - and I think she did a fabulous job. I don't think I've ever felt as comfortable being nearly naked around someone after having known them for just an hour before. :)

In other news, Binderclips went to China a little over a month ago. When he was gone he ate all kinds of stuff that he had never eaten before... After he came back I was watching Andrew Zimmern's show Bizarre Foods and they mentioned that they eat a lot of donkey in China. This prompted me to send Binderclips the following text (he was at work, so no I did not text him while we were in the same house/room or whatever you might be thinking, however I would not put that past us):

Hey, while you were in China did you eat any donkey? I hear it's popular there...

To which he responded with the following:

What on earth is this about donkey?!...some things did taste like ass - but I thought that was just me.

Any who, I'm going to keep this short - I need to go be overly anxious about if our little girl is going to show up early (as I'm typing this I'm saying to her out loud "please don't come early, please don't come early..." over and over again). I just have a feeling she wants to get out of there early. Good news is she gets the hiccups often so I know exactly where she is. So, far she's down (she dropped a couple of weeks ago) but I do not want her out if you get my drift.

Also, just so everyone knows I literally look like I swallowed a watermelon now. Binderclips thinks this is hilarious since we fight about watermelons often. Just thought you all should know. Ok, I'm outta here.

Later gators!

Slip N' Slide (But Not the Fun Kind) Part 2

This is part 2 to my last post. Read on....

As soon as we arrived at the emergency room we told the woman at the ER desk what had happened. Immediately they got me a wheelchair and made me get into it, apparently when you come in with issues during pregnancy they do not let you walk to the labor and delivery department. As soon as I sat down in it I started to cry. The mere thought of having to get into a wheelchair terrified me and here I was in one. Somehow it made the whole situation even more real than it was on the way there. Binderclips saw me starting to cry and began to comfort me - telling me everything was going to be ok. In my mind I thought 'But I'm in a wheelchair, they don't make people who are fine get into a wheelchair!!' However, when I looked up at him I knew that I was just making it a bigger deal than it actually was, at least I hoped that was the case.

We arrived up in the labor and delivery department shortly after. Once in our own room I got into a gown and the nurse hooked me up to the external fetal monitor. The monitor has 2 bands that go around your abdomen; 1) to measure the baby's heart rate and 2) to measure if you are having contractions. Aside from worrying about not hearing our little one's heart beat (since they usually turn the speakers up so you can hear the heart beating) I was not concerned about having contractions or being in labor.

Boy was I ever wrong, I WAS having contractions - regular contractions, about every 3 minutes apart. I didn't even realize that that's what they were honestly, but it helped me identify what contractions felt like. I have a high pain tolerance, so I didn't find them painful at all just felt like I had to go the bathroom really bad...like, every 3 minutes.

Anyways, at this point a calm came over me, I still wasn't worried about delivering the baby that day (for some reason the reality of the situation didn't hit me) - then, I looked at Binderclips' face. He was trying to remain calm on the exterior but I could tell inside he was freaking out. It was at that point that he was near tears and that I realized that I could have the baby that day. All of a sudden I was terrified, but I tried to remain calm myself. I focused on the sound of the baby's heart beat. It was beating regularly and it was very strong.

The nurse began talking to us and telling us that the hospital we were in did not have a neonatal intensive care unit, so if the contractions didn't stop we'd be shuttled to another hospital that did. I'm pretty sure, almost simultaneously, Binderclips and I both realized the baby might be coming that day.

All I could think was 'we are not ready for this baby yet, what are we going to do? We aren't even home and by our doctor.' I also started to worry as to if the baby would make it our not, I mean, I was only 28 weeks along. At this point to say I was terrified is an understatement.

They started an IV and began loading me up with fluids, sometimes (in fact, many times) loading up on fluids stops the contractions. The good news is that this was the case for me. After 2-3 hours the contractions stopped, thank goodness. We didn't end up having the baby that day and are very thankful for that.

What I can tell you is even with some scares we've had since that day, I cannot recall a scarier day in my life so far. The situation made me realize that there is no other person in this world that I would have wanted by my side other than Binderclips. Not to end on a sappy note, but it was sincerely a life changing experience.

Any who, I hope all is well with you guys. I'm sorry I haven't posted or read any blogs lately. I'm doing fine, just very, very tired and BIG (read: uncomfortable). The picture above is one of our maternity pictures, it's me at 32 weeks (I'll share some others soon). Right now I'm 37 weeks along and the time is going by soo quickly!!

The news I will share with you before going is that we are having a girl!!!! YAY!! (We would've been happy either way honestly.) I'll try to post again soon. Later gators!

Slip N' Slide (But Not the Fun Kind)

This is a picture of me at 7 months pregnant (yep I am now the proud owner of a very obvious baby bump). I'm with my brother and his girlfriend (who have helped us tremendously with everything - thanks again guys!!!).

We all remember Slip n' Slides, right? Weren't they fun? I remember as a kid I would get really excited about being able to go on one. The wet plastic-y surface was something that my brother and I could not resist. We'd be soo excited to jump on the long plastic surface being doused with water and slide down it at full speed (even though it was likely one or both of us would end up hurt in some way or another).

I also remember being at a fraternity party a long time ago and them having one there. I didn't go on it. To me, it seemed like a bad idea (I mean like a really bad idea, like deciding to try to body surf on the top of a car moving at 100+ miles per hour) to combine alcohol consumption with Slip N' Slide usage (honestly, there should probably be a law against it, talk about dangerous).

Anyways, what I have to share with you today does have to do with slipping and sliding, but believe me it does not involve an actual Slip N' Slide (Binderclips won't even let me get gas on my own at this point in time, so you can imagine how he would feel about me wanting to go on a Slip N' Slide).

Our baby shower was scheduled to be on 7/30 in Michigan, however we arrived in Michigan on 7/28 and planned on working from my In-Laws' home on 7/29. The morning of 7/29 things were going somewhat as planned (we didn't have internet access, which we both needed to do our jobs, but Binderclips was working on it). I got us some breakfast and took Binderclips his up the stairs to where he was working to make sure he ate something (a hungry hubs = a grumpy hubs and a grumpy hubs is not my favorite kind). I had put on my running socks since I find them to be super comfy (they're as comfy as slippers honestly) to walk around in.

Anyways, as I descended down the stairs with Binderclips' bowl in my right hand the stairs became my own personal Slip N' Slide. The combination of my running socks and the carpet (well and probably my changed center of gravity due to being pregnant) resulted in me slipping down the last 3 stairs. I landed on my butt, but I landed hard people. So hard, that as soon as I landed I felt major cramping in my abdomen start to happen immediately.

I sat there for a minute just holding my abdomen like my insides might spill out if I didn't, then Binderclips yelled down to me "Are you ok? What happened down there?" "I slipped down some stairs, but I think I'm ok. Just sitting here resting for a minute" I responded. "How many stairs?! OMG!" he said, following it up with "It sounded like a hard fall from up here".

As I sat there I kept telling myself the cramping 'will go away if I just sit here for a little bit', but it didn't. I got up and the cramping remained. It was then I decided to call my doctor back in Wisconsin. They told me to go to the nearest emergency room (ER) immediately. I began to cry. Hubs was already stressed out enough about us not having internet connectivity and now I needed to go to the ER to have them do some fetal monitoring to make sure nothing happened to the baby. This wasn't going to be good.

It was at this point he came in to the room I was in and saw me crying. Worried he asked "What did they say?" When I told him we needed to go to the ER there was no hesitation in his voice as he said "Let's go now."

Soon after we were on our way to the ER. On the way there we talked about how we were sure it would be fine, that once on the monitor we'd see the baby's heart beat and they'd discharge us soon after. I wish it would have happened that way, but it didn't. To be continued....

French Toast Failure = Motherhood Failure?

Look how happy I am that I no longer throw up daily, now I'm just hungry constantly!

While Callie gets swallowed up whole by our lovesac I pose for the camera (aren't I sweet?). This is me at 27 weeks. I will be 28 weeks this Thursday (geesh, where does the time go?!) 

About a month or so back I woke up in a panic. I mean a real panic people. I nearly felt like I was hyperventilating. After I calmed myself down I still could not get what had me in a panic off my mind, although I didn't know if it was something I could talk to Binderclips about - so, I kept it to myself.

Well, as the day progressed I got more and more distracted by my thoughts. Finally, I must have looked distraught because Binderclips asked me what was wrong. All I could say to him is "how about we have French toast for breakfast tomorrow?" (We never eat French toast or sweet-type stuff for breakfast EVER.) He responded with "Oh, ok, sure" in a very confused tone, then said "but you still didn't tell me what's wrong."

I thought I had by asking him about the French toast, but clearly he missed the very obvious response. So, I responded with "Well, it has to do with the French toast" as I started to tear up. With a concerned look on his face he responds with "Ok, sounds like we need to talk about it." "I'm not sure I can talk about it without crying" I say. "I've seen you cry before, so I think we're covered there" he says as serious as he can.

"Ok, well I'm afraid..." I start sobbing "thatifIcantmake" I sob a little harder so that the words become unrecognizable for the rest of the sentence "fren..most..mumble (sob) mumble (sniffle) mumble (trying to catch my breath)..ure" I say as I wipe the tears from my eyes, then look up at him. Binderclips gets me a kleenex then just gives me a hug, I'm certain at this point he thinks 'man, this must be some traumatizing French toast experience to have her so upset' as he tries to comfort me. He lets me cry it out a little before trying to talk to me again.

"So, let me get this straight - we need to have French toast for breakfast tomorrow but it makes you really upset?" he asks. "Did you have a bad experience with French toast at some point? I mean whatever it did to you I am a man and can certainly take care of this terrible French toast" he says acting all macho. Then he follows it up with "We can make the French toast then chop it up into teeny tiny pieces, then eat it for punishment...is that what you had in mind?" he asks with hope in his voice. I suspect it was at this point he probably thought I'd start laughing also, but I didn't - I just started crying more.

"No" I say as I try to calm myself down. I wipe the tears that are pouring from my eyes away, then take a couple of deep breaths. I calm down enough so that I can explain and say "If I can't make French toast I'm afraid I'll be a failure of a mom" then look at him with what I'm guessing are as close to puppy-dog eyes I can have. I suspect this because I kind of see him start to laugh, then he sees me and tries to maintain his composure. "Ok, well I know you're going to be a great mom and I'm sure the French toast will be a success" he says. This makes me feel better, but the rest of the night I keep thinking about if I fail at it, I just would not/could not calm down until I successfully made the French toast.

The next morning I did succeed, but as I thought about it more I wondered why that defined me being successful as a mom. I think it's because my Dad used to make my brother and I French toast all the time when I was little and I always looked up to him so much that I wanted to believe our little bundle would feel the same way about me. I will say, that I hope it's for more than just making French toast, but I blame the pregnancy for my unstable mental state that lead to this incident. Let's hope that goes away after the baby comes! :)

This prompted me to think about the actual things that I think would define me as a good/successful mom. Some of the things on my list are having patience, being caring, leading by example, teaching to value relationships over material items, being disciplined, giving discipline, and giving motivation (just to name a few). What defines you guys as successful people in your own lives? I'd love to hear if you want to share!

Have a great day everyone! Later gators!

Vietnamese Waltz & Baby Bump Update

With the popularity of dance shows these days, we all have been able to see many different types of dances performed. In fact, these different types of dances have become more well known to society than ever....well, some members of society, but not all. Case and point - Binderclips and I are watching TV one night and the following transpires:

We're watching So You Think You Can Dance and they announce that one of the couples is going to perform the Viennese Waltz next.

Binderclips: "Really?!" he says surprised as he looks at the TV (as if he and it are having a conversation or something)


Hulabuns: I look at him very confused, then look at the TV with the same confused look as if I've missed something it's said. I even think 'Did I miss something?' to myself.


Binderclips: He's staring at the TV baffled as if the TV is providing some long explanation as to what he's so surprised about


Hulabuns: I, again, look at the TV confused wondering what on EARTH he's doing and having an imaginary conversation with it about. I say "What is going on here?" looking at him then at the TV and back again while making a hand motion back and forth as well.

Binderclips: "I didn't know the Waltz was a Vietnamese dance" he says as serious as can be.

Hulabuns: I bust out laughing

Binderclips: "What!?" he says still as confused as ever

Hulabuns: I respond with "It's Viennese NOT Vietnamese" still laughing

I love my life. lol

Any who, here are some updated pictures...just a warning, I've really blown up since my 23 week pictures. Today I'm 25 weeks and a day and I feel the baby moving all the time. In fact, Binderclips can feel it move also. It's great.

Hope you enjoy the pictures! Have a great weekend. Later gators!!

PS We successfully got moved - YAY! That's why the LoveSac (Larry the LoveSac) is all wrapped up in the background...just fyi :)