Happy Birthday Little Duck!

*written 10/13/14

 

One year ago today, you were just a stubborn baby that wouldn't come out!

One year ago today, I was terrified, excited, nervous, and so ready. I had read all the books, done the classes, been around plenty of babies. I was ready for you. But I had no idea....

One year ago today, I was a totally different person. You have changed my whole world for the better. You have made me stronger yet more vulnerable. You have made me laugh so hard. But also cry like a baby. You have made me confident. But also second guess my every move. You have shown me a love I never knew existed. You gave your dad and I the family we always dreamed of.

One year ago today, I had no idea what the year ahead would bring. This year has been such a joy! You have been such a fun baby and I can't wait to continue watching you grow and learn. There have been major frustrations and some bad days, but those are so easy to forget when you giggle or give a me a snuggle. It is such a blessing to be your mother. I am honored to spend every day with you and help you become the little person you are meant to be.  I love you!



*written 10/14/14

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILLA ROSE!

Where has the time gone!?!?  I feel like this was just yesterday.

But on your first birthday, I'd like to share with you my wishes for you as you grow.

I wish that you keep that beautiful smile and laugh. It brightens every room and makes the day of anyone who sees it. Continue to smile and laugh often and easily. It's a wonderful quality!

I wish that you are strong (or stubborn as some people might call it) like your momma.  Know that you have a voice and that it deserves to be heard, even if not everyone agrees with it. But also know that it's important to listen to other opinions. And know when to ask for help. That's a hard one for your mom :)

I wish that you have your dada's curiosity. I hope you want to learn about anything and everything. That you explore, read, and research all that interests you.

I wish that you show compassion. Be kind. Period. Be generous with your talents. Help people when they need, even if they don't know they need it.

I wish that you have the happiest childhood! That you always know how much you are loved. And that you always feel supported. Happy birthday Little Duck!  I love you so much!

 

 

                            

 

When I grow up I want to be a...

When I was growing up, I never knew how to complete that sentence. I was the kid who couldn't pick a college until the last minute, let alone chose a major. There were lots of things that sounded interesting but nothing that seemed to quite fit right. When I first accepted my job at Butler University as an advisor to students undecided about their majors, my family and friends gave me so much grief. The blind leading the blind.  I have always been an exploratory student myself.  But there is one thing I have always known, I wanted to be a mom.

Family has always been important to me. I am very fortunate to have a loving family.  There are a lot of us, which means I have always been surrounded by the love, guidance, and support of family. I knew I wanted to add to that madness and have some of my own kids someday. Whenever I looked to the future and pictured myself as a mom, I saw a house full of boys. As a tomboy, I never imagined I'd have a girl.

When we got pregnant, even though we didn't find out what we were having, I knew from the beginning that it was a girl.  To be honest, I was terrified. What was I going to do with a girl!?!?  I knew this had to be some kind of payback, karma, for being such a pain in the you know what to my mother.

Now that Willa is here, I know that everything I've done my whole life has lead me here, to being Willa's mom. I have no idea what I'm going to do if she ends up being a girly girl. Thank goodness Willa has aunts, godmothers, and cousins to help me! But I've always loved a good challenge. I love to learn and try new things. Willa is going to push me to be a new and better person. She isn't even talking yet and I can already see how profoundly she has changed me. Being a mom to a daughter has made me softer, yet stronger. More compassionate, yet defensive. More giving, yet more protective. I'm sure I would have grown similarly if Willa had been a boy, but for me, having a girl was perfect.

Country Gal has a baby

I can't believe it's been almost two years since my last post...and what an amazing two years it has been!  First, I married my best friend, love of my life, and most wonderful man I've ever met.

 

This picture sums up our day-to-day life together!


Casey and I knew that we wanted to start a family immediately. We both wanted kids and couldn't wait to start that adventure together. Our journey started with a few bumps along the road...taking longer than normal to conceive, a miscarriage last fall, and talk of fertility drugs.  Luckily, in January, right before the doctor wanted to start us on meds, we got lucky! Those bumps made us so much more grateful for our coming blessing.

We found out we were pregnant the first weekend of February.

We had just celebrated our nephew's first birthday and found out my brother and sister-in-law were expecting baby number two in August (news that was received with mixed emotions...over joyed for them while a bit sad for us while we were still morning our lost pregnancy and didn't yet know about the coming good news).  I had a feeling all week that something was happening. I had my first pregnancy symptom immediately, hips so sore I couldn't sleep unless I put ice packs on them. The day after the birthday party I took the test and got the answer we had been praying for. Next came the agonizing wait to see the doctor to confirm the results and ensure that everything was okay. The doctor had us come in for an early ultrasound at 6 weeks and we were able to see the baby's heartbeat!  Everything looked good!

My pregnancy progressed pretty normally. I had all day morning sickness everyday for the first 17 weeks. I also had some of the weird pregnancy symptoms with the more common ones: nose bleeds, plugged ear, memory loss, sore hips, uncomfortable sleeping. I didn't get any weird cravings or mood swings.

We did have a few scares along the way.  At 10 weeks we had a miscarriage scare. Lots of bleeding but baby was fine. At the 20 week ultrasound they were concerned about the placenta's location. There was concern about placenta previa, luckily the placenta moved up by week 28 and wasn't an issue. I also failed my first glucose test and was worried about gestational diabetes. Luckily I passed the second test. Whoever said pregnancy was easy lied!  While I enjoyed the process of bringing this baby into the world, the pregnancy was tough and scary every day.

Baby D was due October 7.  The journey to her arrival was quite an adventure. She dropped around week 37 so we thought she would arrive early. Little did we know, she had other plans. A stubborn girl like her mother. Side note, we decided not to find out what we were having so we would be surprised on delivery day. However, I had a strong feeling it was a girl from the beginning of the pregnancy.

Our due date came and went with no baby. A few days after the due date I had six hours of consistent contractions that proceeded to stop as quickly as they started. Our doctor doesn't let you go past 41 weeks so we were scheduled to be induced. As that date approached, I pleaded with Baby D to come on her own. I wanted this process to be as natural as possible. Well, baby was holding out!

We checked into the hospital on Sunday, October 13 at 6:00pm. I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced when I checked in. They started me on Pitocin right away and I started having contractions immediately. The contractions were 2-4 minutes apart. The nurses actually thought we'd have the baby that night because things started moving so quickly. Again, baby had other plans. By 6:00am Monday morning, no baby and very little progress. The nurses started upping the Pitocin every half hour at that point and the contractions then became 1-2 minutes apart and more intense. At 9:00am my water broke as I was laboring on a birth ball (yoga ball). Weirdest feeling ever! As soon as my water broke, the contractions became increasingly intense! I was checked at that point and was 5cm dilated and 90% effaced. After 3 hours of extremely difficult labor, I asked them to check me again. I was certain I had made serious progress. NOPE!  Still 5cm! After some thought, tears, and conversation with Casey and the nurse, I decided to get the epidural. I had planned to go natural but after 18 hours of labor, and no sign of the end to come, I gave in. I am so glad I did!  At noon, I got the epidural and I was able to relax a little in between contractions.  Eight hours later, I finally got to the pushing point!

The nurse checked me again at 8:00pm and I was between 9-10cm so we decided it was time to push. First time mom's usually push from 1-2 hours.  I was mentally prepared for that. And even with the epidural it was the most intense pain I've ever felt (you'll see why in a minute). I'm so glad I got the drugs!

The first hour of pushing went really well.  Baby moved down the birth canal a lot. Then she got stuck!  She proceeded to stay lodged there for 3 more hours!  She was trying to come out ear first instead of the top of her head first. The doctor came in at 11:00pm on Monday, October 14th. He spent 45 minutes with both hands, up to his wrists, in the birth canal trying to get her to move so she could come out. Now you see why I'm so glad I had the epidural and why there was still so much pain even with the drugs! Finally at 11:41pm, after almost 30 hours of labor and 4 hours of pushing, the doctor was able to pull her out.

Willa Rose Dregits was born Monday, October 14 at 11:41pm. She was 7lbs 3oz and 20.75in.

While this should have been an extremely exciting time, it was full of stress and chaos. Willa had been very stressed during delivery. I had to use oxygen during the four hours of pushing because her heart rate kept dropping. When she came out, they saw that she had pooped in the uterus so they were worried that she had inhaled some of it. She was also breathing weird. So as soon as the doctor had her pulled out, he handed her over to the special care team (he even forgot to tell us if the baby was a boy or girl). They worked on her for a while in our room, without telling us much, which is very scary for new parents!  Finally, they let me hold her for a few minutes before taking her up to the special care nursery. Casey was able to stay with her the whole time. After the doctor and nurses finished with me, I was left a lone with my fears and emotions. I had just had a baby but didn't know where she was or how she was. Four hours later, she was given the all clear and was able to come back to our room! What a relief!!!!

After a few other minor issues at the hospital, we were finally able to go home Thursday morning. Since then, we have just been enjoying our new bundle of joy. So far she has been a wonderful baby and we feel so blessed!

Merry Clucking Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Mattinglys!

Happy Holidays!

It's been awhile! Just a brief update about the garden:

1. We tarped the garden this fall which will hopefully get rid of the blight



2. Our chickens got themselves a pet! Apparently there is a field mouse living in the hen house in the hay with them.

3. Not much else happening in the garden. Just day dreaming about fresh produce:




We had our annual Christmas cookie baking on Saturday. We beat last year's total again!http://countrygalinthecity.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html And this year we upgraded to an industrial kitchen. This is getting out of control!

Perfect Summer Weekend

You don't have to grow all your own food to take advantage of all the great produce in your area. This weekend I went up to Lake Michigan and stopped to pick some of their sweet cherries...amazing!









The farm we stopped at lets you pick all types of fruit: blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, peaches. I could get in trouble in a place like that!

When we got home, we had a great dinner with all the produce from our own garden. It was a feast!


The cucumber salad had cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions from our garden. We also had our green beans (we spent the weekend canning!), potatoes, and yellow squash. The fruit salad and dessert included blueberries picked at a local farm.

Good News, Bad News

Let's start with the good news! Our blueberry plants are doing great and we've had our first few berries!!! Look how pretty





Now for the bad news :( A fungus called blight has infected our tomatoes again. There are two types of blight:

"Early Blight can affect the foliage, stems and fruit of tomatoes. Symptoms: Dark spots with concentric rings develop on older leaves first. The surrounding leaf area may turn yellow. Affected leaves may die prematurely, exposing the fruits to sun scald."

"Late blight affects both the leaves and fruit of tomatoes. Late Blight is the disease responsible for the Irish Potato Famine. Late Blight spreads rapidly. Cool, wet weather encourages the development of the fungus. If you suspect you have Late Blight, contact your Local Extension Service for definite ID. Symptoms: Greasy looking, irregularly shaped gray spots appear on leaves. A ring of white mold can develop around the spots, especially in wet weather. The spots eventually turn dry and papery. Blackened areas may appear on the stems. The fruit also develop large, irregularly shaped, greasy gray spots."



There isn't really a good way to get rid of blight once it's infected the plants. The best thing to do is remove the infected plant. Do not try to compost it! Make sure it is completely removed from the garden area. If the blight doesn't seem to be too bad yet, you can try removing the infected areas of the plant first. This fall we're going to need to treat the soil to try to completely remove the blight and prevent it from occurring again next year. Not sure how we do that yet...I'll keep you posted.