Wednesday, May 28, 2014

First Week with Amélie

^^Just hanging out in bed one morning. Her bangs are already getting so long, I think she'll need a haircut soon! 

Amélie's First Week
she eats every 2-3 hours with the exception of one 3-4 hour stretch at night 
she hates not being dressed - particularly being changed and sponge baths (i.e. she was crying so much one day when A was changing her diaper, he forgot to put on a fresh one, then left for work and I was left with a surprise of poo all over her onesie and bouncer) 
she farts (loudly) whenever she poos
she loves to be cuddled (especially in a towel after a bath) 
she loves tummy time with dad and can lift her head up really well 
she loves being carried over one shoulder
she lets us sleep for at least one 3-4 hour stretch per a night 
she sometimes snores when she sleeps
she falls asleep in cars right away (just like me) 
she needs a little tap on the ear to remember to stay awake when eating

^^Just after a bath. She's already starting to pull my hair, but she just looks so adorable with her hooded towel. 

First Week Favorites 
aden + anais swaddles: i use these as blankets, for feeding and just to swaddle (arms out) 
lansinoh soothies: another lifesaver 
sugar snap files: for my diaper bag, it keeps everything so organized
stokke scoot car seat adapter: so easy to attach to the stroller and we don't have to wake amelie up if she is sleeping and need to take her out of the car and put her onto the stroller 
plastic mason jar water bottle: i get really thirsty breastfeeding so i always have this water bottle nearby
granola bars: for those random 3am feedings when not only is baby hungry, but mom is too 
zip-up onesies: much easier than the million snaps they put on baby clothes
what to expect the first year: a good resource for an overview of just about everything
online grocery shopping: so good when it's difficult to leave the house with a newborn

^^This is her "please mom, stop taking pictures and bothering me. i'm trying to sleep" face. She does this a lot. :) 

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Amélie's Birth Story

^^Right after giving birth to little Amélie. 

Thursday night on May 15 around 11pm, Andrea and I were in bed getting ready to go to sleep. We just came back earlier that evening from an NCT class and finished up learning about pain relief techniques. I was looking up something called a TENS machine which many people in the UK use during labor. I was about to place an order to rent one when I felt my first contraction. I thought it was just a practice one, but they kept coming. We both got out of bed and didn't really think it was really going to happen that night. I was just about 38 1/2 weeks and my due date wasn't until May 27th.

When the contractions kept getting stronger and became more frequent, we called the hospital, but the midwife told us just to take two paracetamol and to go to sleep. I couldn't imagine going to sleep during the contractions. They were not consistent, but coming every 3-5 minutes. I took a shower, which was the best idea ever thinking back and we waited some more. After 2 more calls to the hospital, they finally said to come in to get checked out. My water still did not break, but Andrea really pushed for us to go to the hospital since there was some blood with every contraction.

We quickly gathered everything together and I tried to make it to the car in between contractions. It was around 3am when we were at the hospital so it was very quiet and was quite a mission to even get inside since it involved buzzing through multiple doors and entrances. By this time, the contractions were STRONG and I really struggled to make it to the third floor of the hospital. The midwife on duty, who was AMAZING throughout the whole process, did a quick assessment and said I was already more than 6 out of 10 centimeters dilated.

I had to walk to the delivery room across the hallway and two contractions later, I was already ready to push. No time for any pain relief or epidural since I was so far along when I reached the hospital, but I was planning on a natural birth anyways. It was just me, Andrea and the midwife in the room, which was a very calm environment, different than what I expected for some reason. I pushed for about an hour and little Amélie was born at 4:27am on May 16. I was exhausted after all the pushing, but the midwife immediately wiped Amélie off quickly and then we had skin to skin and feeding time. Andrea and I fell in love with her right away and from then on, she never left my side at the hospital.

Afterwards, we were offered tea and toast (so English) and made our way down to the recovery room with the baby. I was surprised how calm I was during the whole hospital stay. I thought I would be an emotional wreck and start crying immediately after Amélie was born, but instead I was just overjoyed to meet her and relieved it all went well. The whole experience went so smoothly and I was extremely lucky to have such an easy and short labor/delivery.

She's just 11 days old today and the most perfect baby girl. I'm of course tired, but feeling pretty good and have been able to be out and about already with her and Andrea. I've yet to go to with Amélie solo, but maybe I'll try that this week. More to come on her first week in the next post.

^^This was on the day the contractions started. 38 weeks and a few days and very ready to pop. 
^^Sweet Amélie sleeping at the hospital, she was very very sleepy the first 24 hours. 

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Meet Amélie Mae Senso

Introducing Amélie Mae Senso
Born the 16th of May at 4:27am in Chichester, UK 
Weighing 6 pounds, 13 ounces (3.08 kilograms)
Measuring 18 1/2 inches (47 centimeters)

She's the sweetest baby anyone could ask for. Andrea and I are so in love. 
Here are a few pics of the little one since we've been home from the hospital. 
More to come whenever I get a free moment. 

^^tummy time, but just so sleepy 
^^cracking a little smile during cuddles
^^a quick walk around the neighborhood

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Freezer Meals

^^I started off the other morning by baking up a couple of new recipes that looked really. Those mini chocolate glazed donut holes on the left were SO good. A and I finished them all up that day (there were only 12!). The blueberry muffins to the right had no fat added and were moist from nonfat greek yogurt plus the added chia seeds made them a little "healthier."

After that, it was a full two days of finishing up all the freezer meals I wanted to have stocked up before Baby Senso's arrival. At 37 weeks now, I knew I wanted to get the freezer completely full with meals to have on hand in the first hectic weeks of having a newborn.

The Plan: 
I researched a bunch of different blogs plus Pinterest for easy freezer meal ideas and came up with a list of meals I knew I wanted to have ready to take out of the freezer and reheat. In the end, most of the meals I made were ones I already made before and didn't really need a recipe for. One interesting tip I read about was freezing uncooked and cooked marinated chicken breasts, which I never thought of. Some of the links I used:


Then it was time for grocery shopping. I made sure to go through all of the recipes, even the ones I knew by memory, to make sure I didn't forget anything. There were a few of the meals on the list I made in previous weeks from leftover meals, but a majority I made and prepped in two days total. 

^^So much meat to deal with, my least favorite part. 

Chopping and prepping took the most time for everything, but I chopped one ingredient at a time for multiple recipes to save on time.

 ^^Scooping out all of the meatballs with a cookie scoop to make sure they all came out the same size. Also, I baked them rather than frying them, which cuts out some fat and took less time. 
^^Here's the sauce with meatballs simmering away. 

Containers & Labeling: 
I usually freeze soups, stews, sauces in small plastic storage containers that hold enough for one portion, but due to our small freezer, I decided to use mainly plastic storage bags which could lie flat instead. The ones I bought from a store called Lakeland here in the UK were great and feel much more solid than an ordinary Ziploc. I also used a bunch I had bought in Italy from IKEA, which hold up pretty well too. For the individual portions that are oven-friendly, I used small foil trays that I can just pop directly into the oven. Of course, I used my Sharpie to write on all everything, either either with a label or directly on the bag.

^^These are the raw chicken breasts in lemony, garlic marinade ready for the freezer. There are two chicken breasts per a bag so I can defrost in the refrigerator then cook. 
 ^^The tomato sauces were all stacked on top of one another which saved so much space compared to if I stored them in glass jars or plastic containers. 
^^Whoops, spelled shepherd's pie wrong. Here are some of the individual oven-ready foil tins. To the left are the blueberry muffins wrapped individually in plastic wrap, then sealed in an IKEA bag. 

Portioning:  
Most of the meals are portioned for two, but there are a few things like the butternut squash soup, lasagna, and mac & cheese which I also portioned out for one. I figure I will be eating something quick during the day for lunch and most of these meals will be for dinner, which will be for both A and myself. All the baked goods/bread are individually wrapped so I can just take one out at a time to snack on.

The List: 
Here is the final list of everything in the freezer with links to recipes if I have them: 

  • White Chicken Chili
  • Tomato Sauce (just cans of whole peeled tomatoes with sauteed garlic & onion, oregano, salt & pepper then blended with my immersion blender) 
  • Roasted Eggplant Sauce (tomato sauce from above as the base with added eggplant that has been roasted in the oven) 
  • Spinach & Ricotta Lasagna (ricotta, mozzarella, tomato sauce, lasagna noodles) 
  • Meatballs with Tomato Sauce
  • Beef Stew
  • Zha Jiang Mien (sauce and a bag of noodles frozen separately) 
  • Baked Macaroni & Cheese
  • Butternut Squash Soup 
  • Shepherd's Pie (kind of made this one up with ground beef, carrots, celery, onion with a beef broth sauce thickened with flour topped with mashed potatoes) 
  • Marinated Chicken Breasts (lemon juice, garlic, herbs, olive oil, salt, pepper) 
  • Marinated Chicken Breasts (soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, shaoxing wine, lime juice) 
  • Cooked Chicken Breasts
  • Turkey Burger Patties (seasoned with salt, pepper & herbes de provence, then shaped and ready to cook)
  • Superfood Blueberry Muffins (I omitted the hemp hearts and used an extra tablespoon of chia seeds)
  • Carrot Cake Bars

Store Bought:
  • Whole Wheat & Cinnamon Raisin Bagels 
  • Whole Wheat Pitas 
  • Challah Bread


In addition, since I have had more time on my hands, I've been trying new recipes before Baby Senso's arrival. Here are a few I've recently tried that will definitely be on the menu again: 

The freezer meals were the last major to-do on my list. My and the baby's hospital bags are now packed, Baby Senso's clothes are washed, the bedside crib is ready and the car seat is installed. We've done the hospital tour, and I've met with the Health Visitor who will do home visits after the baby is born. The nursery is still a work in progress since it also will double as a guest room the first few months of the baby's arrival for various visitors, but since she will be in our room during that time, I will take my time to make it perfect. Now, we're just waiting and cannot wait to meet little Baby Senso! 

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Week 36

How far along? 36 Weeks, 6 Days
Total weight gain: About 15 kilos, baby girl is getting pretty heavy to carry around
Gender: Girl
Sleep: Waking up for the bathroom and due to pregnancy carpal tunnel particularly in my right hand, pretty uncomfortable for the past week especially
Best moment(s) this week: Our virtual baby shower, making more progress on Baby Senso's room, and the foodie festival we went to in Brighton today.
Miss Anything?: Just not feeling huge anymore. I've started to wear A's t-shirts more and more since they are way more comfortable now than anything else.
Movement: Yes, lots of stretching her legs to the right of my belly
Food cravings: Still chocolate, more specifically chocolate covered pretzels. The McDonald's cheeseburger craving has started to come back, but I've resisted!
Labor Signs: Nope
Belly Button in or out? Outie
Wedding rings on or off? On still, but my hands have been getting more swollen so I usually leave them off when I'm just at home
Happy or Moody most of the time: More and more moody. There's just a lot going on with just a few more weeks to go and I'm just all around emotional.
Looking forward to: A calm few weeks (hopefully!) ahead with time to just focus on preparing for the baby. That means laundry, organizing, freezer meals and general nesting plus sleeping all I can. A and I have been taking advantage of being able to eat out and going to the movies (Bad Neighbors is so funny by the way and so appropriate to our lives right now).

Other updates: I'm almost finished with getting everything together for my hospital bag, just need the car seat to be delivered to be completely ready. We also had a tour of the hospital where I will be delivering. It was very quiet and calm with a bunch of private rooms and also birthing pools, which is now making me think possibly a water birth? I need to do some more research, but it sounds like it could be calming? We had our first NCT (National Childbirth Trust) antenatal class this week, which is actually taught by an American whose been living in the UK for years which is cool. She gave us our range of May 6 to June 10 of when Baby Senso could arrive. May 6 is Tuesday! Though I cannot wait to meet baby girl, I hope she stays cozy in my belly for a little while longer.