Bread

Almost a year ago I took this bread making class. They claimed they would teach you how to make bread from start to finish in less than an hour...they were right! Oh man...can I just tell you it is the easiest, yummiest thing to do? It costs CENTS to make it too...something like 0.25 per loaf! You can't pay that little in the store for bread...and definitely not bread this good! The best thing is, is the dough can be used for so many other things too ex: pizza, cinnamon rolls, dessert or dinner braid (not sure what that is? google it!), bread bowls, etc etc. You have to have either a kitchen aid mixer or a bosch in order to make it...I had purchased on awhile back on KSL (see old blog post) for a good deal so I already had it. You might say, it is expensive to spend $200 on a kitchen aid, but think of how much $ and time I am going to save making my own bread....well over $200, that's for sure! I also love my kitchen aid to make yummy things like ice cream and cookies...but that's another story. Anyway, I wish this post had smell-a-vision because my whole house smells like fresh baked bread right now...mmmm mmm good :)


PS. If you have a kitchen aid/bosch and you want to learn how to make it...I'll secretly teach you (but don't tell because they say you are supposed to pay to take the class to learn and you have to be certified to teach)

Check out their website: www.pantrysecrets.net

2 Week Checkup and Sewing

Things seem to be sorting themselves out around here. I'm quickly learning how to juggle 2 kids and make them both happy (most of the time). Things seem to be going TONS better in the nursing department...so thank you for your prayers haha. Addie had her 2 week checkup on Tuesday and she weighed 6 lbs 7 oz and is 19 inches long! We were SO excited! In a week she gained 14 oz...guess something is working lol. I've been sewing a lot lately. It is my way of getting away and doing something for myself. I feel so good when I accomplish something and I love making new things and saving us a ton of $$! I made a "Hooter Hider" the other day...they retail for like $35 and I made one for like 1/4th of that....I also just made this blanket thing called a clover blanket, or carseat swaddle blanket...for now, I am calling it a Baby Bungalow Burrito...they retail for like $60..which is a rip off in my opinion! Anyway, they are awesome! I'll post some pics later tonight! Anyhoo, all is well at the Maas household!

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls has a brand new meaning to me....

Notice how there are TWO waterfalls in this picture...and yes, sightseers too...that would be Riley

Hospital and Home

My first night in the hospital was HORRIBLE! I had possibly THE worst nurse EVER! She never came in when her shift started to introduce herself (not that big of a deal to me typically) BUT the CNA came in and said they needed to do routine vitals on my baby, so she took her. Well I fell asleep for 45 min and when I woke up Addison was STILL gone! So I paged my nurse...well she came in and was like oh, well I didn't write it down but I THINK your babies body temp was low so we had to put her under the warmer...sorry I don't know if that is your baby though....ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! I was like well figure it out because I want to know where my kid is. Low and behold it WAS my baby who was cold and under the warmer. The other awesome thing she did was tell me I should nurse AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. So that entire night I nursed Addie for like 1.5 HOURS at a time...no joke. Ya, the next morning my new nurse was like no no no no no! They should only nurse for 10 min on each side because they burn too many calories otherwise...great. She also refused to take out my IV for no good reason other than she didn't want to. It was serving NO purpose...I had already gone to the bathroom and the bag had been empty for hours...eventually my CNA took it out in the middle of the night for me. Don't worry...I asked the next day to never have her as my nurse again.......

So things at home have been good for the most part. Riley transitioned SO well. He LOVES his little sister. He always wants to hold her hand and he says he wants to hold her in his arms, but then when he does he says "Too heavy mom" lol...she's rather light in my opinion :) At her 1 week check-up she weighed 5 lbs 9.5 oz and was 19 inches long. The dr recommended I nurse her every 2 hours instead of every 3...ya, that didn't work out so great. I cried and cried and cried. Nursing was going well, but then everything seemed to fall apart. She forgot how to latch and would get so mad about it...it was like Riley all over again. I was seriously determined to nurse this time around though because it is FREE and SO good for your baby. We didn't budget formula into the 2011 budget (lol, I know!) so I would feel guilty spending all that extra $$ when I could provide free, better food for Addie. Now, with Riley nursing just did NOT work (due to the minor detail of taking an allergy pill EVERY day...ya I NOW know that depletes your milk supply....) So anyway, nursing was good, then bad, very bad. Poor Jeff, I've been an emotional wreck (as most of you probably have read on facebook) I think it would help if my boobs weren't like 4 times the size of my babies head...I need like 4 hands to maneuver everything....ya, not exaggerating. So on Friday I made Jeff take a half day so I could go see the lactation specialist. THANK HEAVENS. Things have been SO much better since then. I won't say it is easy, or that I love having to feed every 3 hours ALL DAY and NIGHT long...but it's working. Well by working I mean she poops and pees....so she is getting something. We have an appointment on Tuesday for her 2 week checkup and we will see how much weight she has gained and we will know if it is really working. I am not totally opposed to the idea of pumping. I mean heck I don't leave the house so who really cares if it isn't the most convenient thing....but it is still free. My goal is week by week. Well really, more like day by day. I've heard if you can make it to 6 weeks things are sooooo much better. They also told me that once we finally get to her due date things will click a lot more too because she will be more mature and close to where she needs to be...we only have a little over a week until we get there! Soooooo if you'd like to add my breast feeding needs and well being to your nightly prayers, I'm all over it! I pray all the time about it and thank Heavenly Father it has worked for at least 2 weeks...I'm so not thinking long term...it's too scary. Ok, I'm done ranting :) I'll be back to blog soon...and when Jeff gets home I'll have him help me add pictures :)

Surprise...She's Here!

Holy crap! It's been almost a year since I've blogged...shame on me! I felt like at the time nothing exciting was happening and my life seemed pretty dull...well looking back on it, lots of things actually happened...I'll update those later.

Soooooooo as I'm sure pretty much all of you know by now, our little girl was born!!! I kinda knew things weren't going to be much longer, but I didn't think they would be as soon as they were! At 34 weeks I was already dilated to a 2, but they did a FFN test (preterm labor) and it came back negative. That meant I had at least 2 weeks before she would be born and there was only a 1% chance that she would be born in those next 2 weeks. So things went by relatively uneventful for the next 2 weeks...then at 36 weeks (Thursday January 27) I went in and I was at a 2 still, but I really hadn't been having too many contractions. Well a few days before my apt we had a little snow and I decided to shovel to start some contractions, I mean I KNEW it wouldn't put me into labor. So anyway, for like 5 days I had contractions. Well on Monday January 31, I was having more contractions, but nothing too crazy. Then I got a phone call mid to late afternoon that one of my best friends brother had passed away...we knew it was coming, but it seemed so soon. Anyway, I spent the better part of the afternoon bawling my eyes out. Jeff got home and I hadn't even gotten around to making dinner. Well we decided to run to the store to grab a couple of things and so Riley could use a gift card he had gotten from my Aunt for Christmas. So we did this few errands, came home, ate dinner, and started putting together these Lego vehicle things Riley had gotten. Well my contractions started to pick up and were pretty strong, but not horrible. Well they just kept happening and happening, but they felt weird...more like my back ached and I had period cramps. I figured it was too early too because I wasn't even 37 weeks yet! Well I finally fell asleep around 1 am...and woke up at 2:30 feeling horrible. I woke Jeff up and told him I thought I was in labor but was going to take a shower to see what would happen. So I got in the shower and things didn't get any better. I tried drinking water, walking around, laying down, etc...well finally at like 4:15 I decided to go to the hospital. I had to go to the ER because the rest of the hospital was locked up shop for the night...I felt like such an idiot as the WHEELED me in a wheel chair to labor and delivery...I was like I can TOTALLY walk on my own. Well anyway, my contractions were now 2 minutes apart and relatively strong but not horrible. So the lady brings me to L&D and I look up and one of my BEST friends is working! So she checked me in and got me all set up and stuff and sure enough my contractions were 2 minutes apart and I was dilated to a 3. So they called my dr and he decided to have me walk around for an hour to see if things were progressing. My friends shift was just ending so she hung out with me and we did laps around the hospital for an hour. Well then they checked me and I was at a 4+ and officially in labor! I called Jeff and let him know it was REAL and he needed to get to this hospital. He quick woke Riley up and got him ready and met his mom in Farmington and headed up to the hospital. By this point my contractions were getting a lot stronger and hurting. My doctor came in and checked on me and said he would wait to break my water until I had my epidural because I was hurting so much. So finally the anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural...it was so nice! Well it was like 11:30 and the nurse came in and checked on me and I think I was at like a 7 or something...so Jeff went to get lunch. Right before he left one of my machines was making this beeping noise for like 5 minutes...we couldn't figure out what it was so we just ignored it. Well Jeff got back from lunch and the nurse came to check me again and I told her I was in pain and about the beeping noise...well my epidural pump had DIED and for the last 40 minutes I had NO pain medication. I was now at an 8 and wanting to scream. They put new batteries in my pump and had me press the button every 5 minutes for like 15 minutes but it wasn't working as fast as I was progressing, so they paged the anesthesiologist so he could push another round of meds into my epidural directly. Well that was pretty much instant and intense and I then felt like I needed to push and sure enough I was at a 10. Well that's exciting except for the fact the epidural screwed me over. I felt SO drugged and couldn't talk and was having a hard time breathing. I was super flushed and couldn't keep my eyes open. I was secretly freaking out inside, but everyone else was worried too. I was pretty much silent the entire time I was pushing, which was only like 30 minutes. The nurse kept making sure I was ok because I went from talking non stop (you know, the normal Carrie) to not talking AT ALL. So I quick had the baby and like 5 minutes later I started to feel normal again and not need the oxygen anymore or anything. It was so weird, but I was glad I didn't actually FEEL the act of giving birth and I was coherent enough after giving birth to enjoy the moment. Our precious little Addison Rae was born 1 day premature at 1:40 p.m. weighing 6 lbs and 18.5 inches long! She has SO much hair and squeaks a lot! She is tiny tiny tiny! When he left the hospital she was only like 5 lbs 6 oz or something along those lines. We had to stop by the store and buy newborn clothes because we were totally not prepared for such a little baby! Anyway, that is a way long story, but some of you were wondering what the story was so there you go! Don't worry, I have lots more to blog about...like the WORST nurse ever the first night I was in postpartum. Ya...wait for it, you'll die!

From Addison 0 to 3 Months

From Addison 0 to 3 Months

From Addison 0 to 3 Months

From Addison 0 to 3 Months

From Addison 0 to 3 Months

From Addison 0 to 3 Months

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

This post is a little late...but whatever :) Riley turned 2 on Saturday!!! I can't believe it! He is so much fun. I love love love being a stay at home mom (which is a recent occurrence- the staying home and the loving it part). Riley is so stinkin' cute. He loves to play with cars, trucks, motorcycles, and anything that "goes" or that he can push. He loves hotdogs, chicken nuggets, tater tot casserole, hawaiian haystacks, green beans, fruit, applesauce, anything sweet (thats my boy!) and KETCHUP! We must put ketchup on EVERYTHING these days...he even eats it on his cookies (disgusting...I know!) He still babbles a lot but is talking a little...he says ma, da, shoe, hi, bye, dog, dog, dog, dog, dog, dog, car, go, no, yes, wow, uh-oh, nose, eye, ear, head, ball, balloon, and probably a million other things I can't remember right now. His new thing is to roar like a lion and mooooo like a cow! He loves "Little Einsteins" and does all the little activities on the show when they tell him to. His new favorite thing is to watch Jeff and I play Mario Kart on the Wii. He is a cuddly little ball of spunk and I love him so much! Thanks for being my crazy little man Riley...we love you!!!

(PS...I'll add pictures later once I figure out where Jeff has hidden them on the computer!)

Boot Camp For Me!

On Tuesday I decided to join Boot Camp 4 U in Clearfield. After I had to go off the HCG (because it was making me sick) I still lost about 5 lbs. Well then my mom came to visit and we ate really bad and while I didn't gain anything I just kinda got into a funk. I stopped doing Turbo Jam and wanted to loose weight and be healthy but I didn't have anything to jump start me. Anyway, there was a coupon for this Bootcamp 4 u place in The HomeTown Values catalog and I decided to look into it. There were some good success stories on their website and I knew it would kick my butt. I asked Jeff if I could sign up (because it's wicked expensive) and he agreed! I started on Wednesday and HOLY CRAP! They kicked my trash...hard. The first 5 workouts you have to wear a 20 lb. vest because it helps train your body. You use more energy, burn more calories, and jump start your metabolism with it. It also teaches you endurance and stamina. Anyway, the first day was hard. We focused on lower body stuff. We walked on a 3.5 incline for 3 min then ran for 10 then did front lunges then side lunges, then burpies (it's a football drill where you jump up then go down into like a push up position bring your legs in and jump up again...kinda confusing but they suck) jumping jax, etc etc (all while wearing this 20 lb vest mind you)...you get the point. Anyway, it's an hour long and I am going 3x per week for 6 weeks. I'm really hoping to get in really good shape from it. I feel awesome...wicked sore...but awesome! It's totally worth the $$. I highly recommend it for anyone who is out of shape and needs a really intense workout.