Peppermint Chocolate Chip

I've been making a conscious effort lately to eat better and less.  Never before have I been so aware of calories and fat content.  It's been an eye opener, to say the least.  I look at what I used to eat and I'm realizing that my weight gain in recent years was not entirely the fault of my children.  

For instance, I went through a phase where I was addicted to the mint chocolate chip milkshakes at Chick-fil-A.  I had no idea how many calories were in that little bit of heaven.  I would crave them, and satisfy that craving a few times a week.  They were so accessible with a drive-thru window!  I was devastated when they stopped serving the mint chip flavor.  Sure, I had seen the balloons and signs advertising the flavor as a limited time only thing...but it had been months.  And I was hooked.  I tried the cookies and cream flavor, but it was a sorry substitute.  I went through a withdrawal of sorts, and got off the milkshake band wagon.

Yesterday, DH and I made a pit stop in Chick-fil-A for lunch...for the first time in a long time.  They now have balloons up advertising a new milkshake flavor, for a limited time only.  Peppermint chocolate chip.  Good lord, that sounds divine.  I was so tempted.  DH was telling me to order it.  I resisted.  I wasn't going to let them get me hooked on a limited time only flavor again, only to have them discontinue selling it.  But it was tough.  As I started to waiver, I grabbed one of their nutritional information brochures.  I nearly fell over.  One peppermint chocolate chip milkshake has 850 calories!!!  No wonder I gained 10 pounds last summer during the mint chip addiction!  I had no idea it could be that bad.  Like I said, calories are a totally new concept to me and 850 is enough to keep me away from that milkshake....at least for a little while.  :)

Expiration Dates

I just went to grab something out of our spare fridge, and noticed that I have a half of a case of Trix yogurt out there.  And it expires next week.  I guess we bought it on our last BJ's run, but really, how much yogurt can we force our kids to eat?  Especially since we have Halloween candy being rationed out, and now birthday cake leftovers....and soon to have Thanksgiving goodies.  I hate buying things in bulk, and then wasting half of it because you can't eat it fast enough.

Speaking of expiration dates though.....my mind is boggled by the "Best by..." stamp on so many items that I wasn't aware ever expired.  I understand food products.  I am petrified of salmonella, botulism, and even freezer burn.  So, we follow those dates pretty closely.  But soda and water expire now.  What's up with that?  Maybe soda goes flat, but what's the deal with water?  What could possibly happen to bottled water?  I just loaded my dishwasher and noticed an expiration date on the detergent bottle.  Really?  Soap goes bad?  

Is this all a marketing ploy?  So that, if you buy in bulk, and can't use up your detergent fast enough, you'll notice that expiration date and buy more anyway?  Maybe, after that date, it won't clean the salmonella germs off of the cutting board I used when I cut up my raw chicken!

Happy Birthday!

I sit here tonight reminiscing about four years ago.  Four years ago, I was 39 weeks pregnant with my second baby and had a c-section scheduled for the next morning (10 am to be exact).  That afternoon, my parents had arrived in town to stay with my son, who was 3 1/2 at the time.  I was all showered and packed and ready to welcome our daughter.  It was all going according to plan.....until 3 am.  

But first, the back history.  I am not one of those women who enjoy being pregnant.  I ached, I complained, I gagged, and I gained a lot of weight.  And, with #2, I was even more exhausted since I was keeping up with the activities of my first child.  My first baby was born via c-section (scheduled) at 37 1/2 weeks.  He was breech and large.  Despite being 2 1/2 weeks early, he was a healthy 8 pounds 4 ounces.  So, the second time around, I opted for a repeat c-section, and assumed the delivery would be at around the same point.   Much to my absolute horror, my new practice said they would not deliver the baby until 39 weeks!  I balked.  That extra week and a half was going to kill me, I was sure.  Or worse, what if I went into labor before then!?  (Then you come in and we deliver the baby was the answer to that.)  However, my concern was that, with a scheduled c-section, I should not need to labor!

So, eventually, I was able to schedule my date for the c-section.  Wouldn't you know it, 39 weeks fell on a Monday.  I asked if we could do it on the Friday before since all of our family would be coming from NY and they could stay for the weekend before heading back to work.  A resounding, "No" was what I got.  Absolutely not before 39 weeks.  There was a chance the baby wouldn't be ready for the outside world before then.  Defeated, I scheduled it for the first day of the 39th week...Monday.

When I went for my last office visit on the Friday before D-day, I was getting really worried that I might go into labor.  I told them that I didn't think I was going to make it to Monday.  The doctor told me that I was sealed shut (TMI, I know), and she didn't foresee anything happening.  "But how will I even know what labor feels like if it starts?"  (Not having labored the first time around.)  She had the nerve to tell me that it's instinct....you just know.

So, fast forward to 3 am, the night before D-day.  I wake up.  My stomach hurts.  Wow, what a yucky feeling.  I get up, thinking I have to go to the bathroom.  My stomach feels crampy, but I feel like I need to make a #2 (again, TMI, I know).  I had been anemic this pregnancy, and had been taking iron pills, which led to some constipation.  I thought this was the problem, and tried to "go".  No luck.  Try to go back to bed.  Yucky feeling won't go away.  Turn on QVC.  Hmmm, cute Dorney & Bourke bags they're selling.  Need to go to the bathroom.  Go back in, push...nothing....just pee.  Go back to bed.  Hmm, another cute bag.  Back to bathroom.....damn, more pee, but I missed the toilet.  Think to myself I'm a sloppy, incontinent pregnant woman.  Sick of being pregnant, mutter, mutter.  This went on for quite some time.  My DH would occasionally wake up and ask if I was OK.  I told him I was just constipated and trying to "go".  After a couple of hours, I realized I was running to the bathroom trying to poo every 9 minutes, with no luck.  That's odd.  A pattern.  I woke DH to tell him of my need-to-poo pattern.  He wanted to know if I thought the baby was ok.  I told him the baby was fine, I felt like crap (literally).  By 6 am, he'd had enough of my every 5 minutes poo run.  He thought we should call the doctor.  I thought I could wait until we had to be in at our scheduled 8am prep time.  I ran to the bathroom to try one last time to push that poo out while he called the doctor... who said to come right away.  

When we got to the hospital, I refused to be dropped off at the door, and made him park the car and walk in with me.  I had to stop a number of times due to the pressure in my "lady parts".  Oh, and the crotch of my pants were soaked.  I'm not sure when in the last hour that it dawned on me what was going on, but at some point I did realize it wasn't poo.  My instincts, apparently took far too long to kick in though, and I didn't "just know".

We finally made it up to Labor & Delivery (third floor, mind you) and they checked me out.  I was 7 cm dilated, and did I know when my water had broken!  So I wasn't an incontinent, sloppy pregnant woman!  At this point I yell for drugs, because when you're not planning on laboring, you have no coping skills.  They can't give me any painkillers because they were were going to bring me right into the operating room for delivery, and they'll give me anesthesia there.  But, I got bumped.  Some laboring mom's baby's heart rate dropped, and she needed an emergency c-section....I'd have to wait my turn....without drugs.  I was so mad.  This was not how this birth was supposed to play out.  Finally, my turn.  I get the epidural, and relief.  Then, during the delivery, the doctor had the nerve to joke with me that, see, they got the day right, they were just off a little on the time.  Not funny.  

DD made her debut at 8:15 am, on the day that we, and nature, had picked for her to be born....at a whopping 9 pounds 13 ounces.  She's going to be 4 tomorrow.  And because her fiasco of a birth still seems like yesterday to me, my childbirthing days are so very over.  :)

RSVP

My DD is turning 4 on Saturday.  We're throwing her a party on Sunday.  (Just an "at-home" party, but a party regardless.)  I've learned my lesson, from DS's previous parties, not to assume some kids won't come.  With his, I'd send out 20 invitations, (thinking it would be great if I could get 10-12 kids to come) and every last kid would show.  Mayhem.  So last year, I only invited a handful of kids to DD's party.  It was wonderful.   This year, following suit, I only invited the little girls in her preschool class, plus two she was friendly with from last year.  That makes 7 invitations that I sent out this year.  Today is the RSVP date.  I have only heard from 2 kids. Where are the other 5?  Are they waiting to see if a better offer comes in? Maybe a party at Bounce U would be more appealing??  I just don't get it.  Yes or no.  It's really simple.  

A Post for the Sake of Posting

Ok, so I'm a little under the gun to get started here (ahem).  Really, I've been meaning to start a blog for a long time now.  (Not because I'm a great writer, but sometimes, I need a witness to some of the odd things that happen in my day to day life.)  Time just has a way of escaping me.  Last year was a series of comedic tragedies, so I'm feeling a little inadequate and boring lately (although really relieved that I have not backed into any garage doors recently).  

When I was in elementary school, they used to assign us "Current Events" assignments.  You know, where you cut an article out of the paper and fill out the who, what, when, where and why.  They tried to get us familiar with the newspaper, and to encourage us to read it.  I never did.  And not just as a kid either.  I've always had this feeling that I need to gather information, from the beginning.  Which, as far as newspapers are concerned, is a pretty daunting task.  How could I just jump into an article about an ongoing war, if I'm not familiar with why it started in the first place?  I'd need to start from the beginning.  So, instead of just jumping in, I tried to time it so I caught some newsworthy event from the start....and follow it.  Needless to say, I never did. 

I mention this, because my friend has encouraged me to start this.  I have this hang up that I need to tell my stories from the beginning....for whoever is out there reading this.  An utterly overwhelming thought.  I'm trying to let that go.  So, I'm going to begin.  Right here, in the now.  But I will probably be referencing plenty from the past....there's so much good stuff back there!

There.....my first post.  It's not much, but now, I'm official.  :)