Charlotte Grace

I don't know if any of you know this, but I am a planner. My life has always been a perfectly planned series of events. (give or take) I plan everything. So much so that Ander sometimes tells me I need to lay off and let things just happen. But I don't seem to have been born with the ability to do that, so I just plan some more.

During this pregnancy my planning has been thrown completely under the bus, but none so much as this past week.

My body was ready to go into labor at any moment. I was reaching 40 weeks and my doctor told me that we should move my induction date from September 11th to the 5th because I probably couldn't wait that long. 

Yay! A plan! I love plans!

So I planned away, making work arrangements, making phone calls, and getting myself ready to finally meet this little girl! My mom decided to fly out to Austin on September 4th so she could actually be here for the birth on the 5th (Our appointment was at 5am Friday morning) and she was going to stay with us for about eight days to really help us out with our new little bundle. I changed my last day of work to the 3rd in preparation for the induction, and Ander changed his last day to the 4th. Everything was set, and it was glorious. I had peace of mind (other than the thought of having to push this baby out in a day or so) and I was so happy that everything had worked out.

After what seemed like no sleep at all we all awoke at 3:45 AM on Friday September 5th and had a light breakfast, gathered our hospital things and headed out the door to meet our baby girl! Walking into Labor and Delivery I thought to myself, "Well good, this will be the last time I ever have to walk in here, because we are having this baby and hopefully won't be back for a looooong time!"

I'm staring into the face of a male nurse who seems extremely flustered. Nurses are running back and forth all around us. "Woo, this place is busy early in the morning!" I'm thinking to myself. "Did you not get our voicemail we left you?" the male nurse asked us.

"Voicemail?" I blink a few times.

"Yes, we left you a voicemail this morning about an hour ago. We have to delay your induction, we don't have enough rooms. You're induction technically speaking isn't medically necessary so we need to hold onto our empty rooms for mothers that are naturally in labor. We're really sorry, but we have to delay your induction."

Delay? The plan? All my plans?

I blink again.

My mom chimes in, "Will it still be today?"

"Oh yes," he says, "it'll still be today."

My brain seems to have jammed. "Well, let's stay positive," I think to myself. "If I were a mom in natural labor right now I'd want a room instead of some silly girl who doesn't have a medically necessary induction."

We were told to go home, and call back at 9 AM to see how things had progressed.

It was a quiet drive home. We got home, we all went back to sleep, and I tried not to soak my pillow in tears.

"No, things still haven't really changed around here," the charge nurse said on the phone at the appointed 9 AM. "Honestly, it could still happen today, but it's a pretty slim chance. I'll have your doctor's nurse call you to discuss your options."

Waiting. Agonizing waiting. What do we do? Everything was done? How could we focus on doing anything at all? More waiting. Sleeping, maybe? I felt like a zombie. My phone rings: It's my OB nurse!!

"Well, the best we can do is reschedule you for Tuesday September 9th," she says. "Tuesday? That's four days away! My mom just flew in from Utah and can only be here for a week! No one told me there was even a POSSIBILITY of me getting bumped off of my induction day, so I told my mom to fly out. Can I come in tomorrow?"

"We don't schedule inductions for weekends, I'm sorry."

My end result: Wait over the weekend to see if I go into labor naturally. If I don't, then I'm on stand-by on Monday September 8th for an induction, even if it isn't my doctor. If I don't get a call on Monday, we are scheduled on Tuesday September 9th at 6 AM for an induction.

I was heartbroken. And honestly, it wasn't because I wanted to meet my little girl, or that I was still pregnant, or anything like that. To have my hopes set so high and my anticipation to be through the roof... to have had a priesthood blessing the night before to calm my nerves... to have my mom fly out here... and to have all of that come crashing down around my ears was just too much for me. I cried. I sobbed. I couldn't help it. I was so disappointed. How could I have thought that it would work out the way it had been supposed to? It was too perfect.... too planned. (I didn't know there was such a thing!) I was crushed.

I'll spare you the weekend details. We did end up going into the hospital on Sunday because the baby wasn't moving as much as she had been, but that ended up being a false alarm and once again we were sent home. That weekend was awful. Waiting waiting waiting, with nothing to show for it.

On Monday morning I had just made some french toast for all of us and was sitting down to have mine when my phone rang. "Hi Susie, this is Laura, the nurse for Dr. Gutierrez. How do you feel about having a baby today? We can get you in at noon!"

I almost dropped the phone.

Fast forward to 12:30 PM on September 8th. There I was, hooked up to an IV and all tucked into a labor and delivery bed. Ander and my mom and sitting on the couch next to me, and we're waiting for my doctor to come in and break my water. Talk about surreal. 

But when the doc actually did break my water, and I began to have contractions, the baby's heart rate would drop after each one. They hadn't even started me on Pitocin yet! I could tell the doctor and nurses were beginning to be concerned. Shoot, so was I. They did start me on Pitocin, but by the time I got my epidural and wasn't feeling anymore pain, the doctor told the nurse to stop the Pitocin. She explained to me that my labor couldn't progress because the baby's heart rate kept dropping, so we might have to do a C-section. I didn't care. Whatever we needed to do to get our baby girl here safe and sound. But even after they stopped my Pitocin the baby's heart rate still dropped after each contraction. It always came back up, but the doctors told me they couldn't chance having my labor progress like this if the baby's heart rate continued to drop.

To the operating room!

As far as having a C-section goes, let me just say this: I had no idea how major of a surgery this was. I had never really thought about it. But good grief, they cut through your abdomen! I was on so many drugs for the surgery, I felt like I was at the bottom of the ocean. I was coherent, but only just. The worst part was probably the shivering. They said everyone experiences that, whether they have a C-section or a vaginal delivery. It's a combination of the hormones and the pain meds. My upper body shook uncontrollably. My teeth chattered. I couldn't relax, but all I wanted to do was sleep. When Ander finally came into the OR to sit with me I could barely hold his hand.

And then we both heard a baby cry!

I squeezed out two little tears of joy before feeling like I was at the bottom of the ocean again, and I had to chuckle at myself because when they finally brought Charlotte to me while I was still being operated on I could barely even say hello from the drugs. "Hi baby," I slurred while Ander held her close to me. I couldn't take my eyes off her, even though all I wanted to do was sleep.

I realized this post is super lengthy, and I apologize. I'll cut to the chase:

Baby Charlotte Grace Meine was born at 7:46pm on Monday September 8th. She weight 8 lbs and 15 oz, and was 20 1/2 inches.

So off went Ander with my baby to the nursery to get cleaned up, and I had to get sewn up. They told me to rest and get some sleep while I was being stitched up, but I was shaking so badly I couldn't relax. So much for that.

By the time they wheeled me into recovery I was still shaking pretty badly, but it was beginning to subside. (Thank goodness! That shaking was exhausting!)

Everything after that is a little bit of a blur. I was still heavily drugged, and although I remember seeing Charlotte, my mom, and Ander, trying some breastfeeding and failing, and being wheeled to my postpartum room, everything kind of runs together. But who cares? We finally had our baby girl! And she is so beautiful!

Baby Charlotte was born on my Grandpa Richard Rassmussen's birthday. Out of all the people vying for the same birthday as Charlotte, good ol' Grandpa Rass won. I'm sure he was up there in heaven telling her, "Now you just wait a minute missy, don't you go down there yet. It's not the proper day." So she stuck it out up there until September 8th.

Remember all that talk earlier about planning? Well, this whole experience sure gave me a run for my money. Looking back on it now I know Heavenly Father had a plan from the beginning and He knew exactly what needed to happen. If I hadn't have been induced, we never would have known that Charlotte's heart rate was dropping. Imagine if I'd been laboring at home for a few hours! I'm so thankful we were there being monitored by doctors so we were informed. There really is a reason for everything, He has a plan for each of us, and we need to be patient and have faith in Him. I was given a really hard time by some people for choosing to be induced, but in the end, I believe it was the best decision I could have made regarding the birth of my baby girl. She is healthy and happy, and I am truly grateful for that.

She. Is. Perfect.

Such a short video for such a long journey

I decided to make a little time lapse video of all my belly photos. It's odd that we really only took about eight of them, but I thought once a month was a little much. So enjoy!

38 weeks!

This will probably be our last belly photo, because we are officially on "baby watch!" Our little Baby Charlotte could literally come at any time! So prepare yourselves for a phone call one of these days (or nights!) because she should be here any day! We can hardly wait!

Soft Almond Sugar Cookies

Stop what you are doing right this minute and go into your kitchen. It's time for you to bake the most amazing cookies you'll ever eat in your entire life. I know, I know... that is quite the bold statement! But trust me, once you taste these cookies you'll never go back. They will be the biggest hit at every party, cookie exchange, family reunion, school event, and church function. People will beg you for the recipe and ask you where in the world you found it. I know this because all this happened to me after I made these cookies! 

So are you ready to become cookie famous?

I thought so.

Let's begin our Almond Sugar Cookies

The thing that makes these cookies so unbelievably amazing is this:

That's right. Almond extract. This is why these cookies taste like heaven. ALMOND sugar cookies? Can it get any better? No, my friends... it cannot.

 Cream together the butter, sugar, and shortening until well combined.

 Add eggs and almond extract. Cream until combined.

 Add the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. This recipe calls for two different types of flour. All purpose flour, and cake flour. I'm not quite sure what the difference between the two are, but you need both.

 Add mixed dry ingredients to the dough a little at a time. The dough will be nice and thick.

 Chill the dough for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and put out your little bowl of sugar to roll the dough in.

Roll dough into tablespoon sized balls and roll in extra sugar. Place the dough balls on a greased cookie sheet. The nice thing about these cookies is they don't spread a whole lot because of the cornstarch, so you can load up your baking sheet.

 Bake cookies for 9 minutes. DO NOT OVER BAKE! The original recipe here says to only bake for eight minutes, but I made these cookies bigger than the original girl did, so I had to tweak my cooking time. Trust me, 9 minutes is perfect. They'll firm up when the cool.

After you take your cookies out of the oven (at EXACTLY 9 minutes!!) You can gently press the top of each cookie down with a spoon while the cookies are still hot. Then let them cool for about a minute before you transfer them to a bowl or plate. You don't have to do this, I've made these cookies both ways and they are both equally fabulous.

And one more thing: this recipe makes a ton of cookies!!

These cookies taste THE BEST when warm, but they are pretty darn good when cold too. 

So here's the recipe. It came from Pinterest and it is one of my top favorite dessert pins by far. You can find the actual blog post here

Soft and Chewy Almond Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 C white sugar

2/3 C unsalted butter (cold)

2/3 C shortening (room temp)

2 eggs

2 tsp almond extract

2 3/4 C cake flour

1 C all purpose flour

1 Tbsp cornstarch

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

sugar in the raw (I like raw sugar for this, but any coarse sugar  or sprinkles would work)

Cream together butter, sugar, and shortening

Add eggs and almond extract

In a separate bowl combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. Add to the butter/egg mixture a little at a time until fully combined.

Chill dough for 30 minutes

Preheat oven to 350

Roll dough into tablespoon sized balls and roll in sugar. Place onto greased baking sheet and bake for 9 minutes

Believe me when I tell you, these cookies will make you feel like you've died and gone to heaven. Go ahead! Give them a try! I dare you to eat just one.

Home stretch

There is a secret meaning of the saying "home stretch" when it comes to pregnancy. Never in my life did I think my skin could feel any tighter... stretching indeed.

36 weeks!

Two nights ago I had my first contraction of this entire pregnancy. It happened in the middle of the night, so I don't remember it much, but this is such a good sign! I'm hoping to get his little one to come on her own instead of needing to be induced.

We are so ready for her to get here. Now it's just a waiting game! My last exam showed that I am 2 - 2 1/2 centimeters dilated, and we've been put on baby watch. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she comes soon!

This video fills my heart with so much happiness I feel like it's going to burst.

July seems to be FLYING by, and each week brings us closer to "baby watch" as Ander puts it. Being pregnant is really weird, because some days you feel like you're going to be pregnant forever, and some days you look back and realized it's not that long at all! This week is one of the weeks where I feel like it's never going to end, I'll be pregnant forever.

No, I KNOW this baby will come in September, but these days I feel like I've been pregnant all my life.

I apologize for the somewhat poor picture quality. This is 32 weeks, believe it or not!!

But July has definitely had it's perks. A client of mine who lives right behind the Lash Lounge asked Ander and me to housesit for her family while they were out of town the entire month of July. Ander and I had never housesat before, (we would be dogsitting too, their little Yorkie/Maltese mix Otis) but I knew she lived in a nice area so we agreed. It would cut down on our power bill for the month if we didn't stay in the apartment!

Needless to say, we got a little more than we bargained for! This is a view of the house from the backyard, the front yard has too many trees to get a good view, but this is our vacation home for the entire month of July!

I will admit, I am going to miss some things about this house. For one thing I feel almost no sense of responsibility except keeping the kitchen clean and sometimes doing laundry. Most days that I'm not working I lay around on the couch and play iPhone games, or play my video game on the Wii upstairs. Of course I have to get some pool time in, along with May-May and Otis. May-May LOVES the pool, and it feels so good to get the weight of this baby off of my body.

In the evenings Ander and I cook in a cavernous kitchen and then watch our favorite shows on Netflix in the movie theater room with reclining seats.

But I think the thing I will miss the most about this house is just having a yard. I don't have to walk May-May around our apartment building just go get her to go potty. I can open the door and both dogs go out and do their business without any supervision. It's wonderful.

Although the other night we did find a SCORPION. That changed things just a little bit. I don't really walk around barefoot anymore. We found him outside, (whew!) but still. That was the first scorpion I have ever seen since moving to Texas. He was running straight for Ander's bare feet, too.

But so far we have enjoyed our time here immensely. It's given us both time off of the stresses of the tiny Meine, and all the things we worry about at our apartment. It's like a "staycation"!

But because I'm in the last two months of my pregnancy, there are not-so-awesome moments I'm beginning to have in this awesome house:

I have to go to the bathroom ALL the time. Usually in the middle of the night.

I can't get comfortable very easily while trying to sleep

The tile flooring throughout the entire kitchen KILLS my feet

I am hot, all the time

and last but not least:

Last night I was informed by a hospital doctor that I have a kidney stone.

Darn darn darn DARNITY darn!!!!

I'm so mad at myself for not drinking enough water. I was trying to cut down on water intake because I was always in the bathroom so much!! I always had to choose between quenching my thirst or spending all night in and out of the bathroom.

So this morning after sitting in the hospital until 1am this morning, I feel better, but sad. I feel like I brought this on myself and it could have been avoided completely if I would have just drank enough water. Unfortunately we're learning to hate the hospital. Each time we've had to go we've been there for HOURS, and it just wastes so much time.

But on a happier note, and for a happy ending to this post, baby Charlotte gave me some good video footage this morning.