Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Wordless Wednesday - Let's go fly a kite.




More Wordless Wednesdays:
Seven Clown Circus


Winners!

The winner of the Protect-A-Bed giveaway is #4 Vera.

The winner of the UPrint Business cards is #8 Erin.

If the winner does not respond within 48 hours another will be drawn.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Monday, March 15, 2010

Promote your business with UPrinting free business cards. CLOSED

http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=407cbedde9&view=att&th=12740974dd0c05e5&attid=0.1&disp=inline&zw


Are you looking for a great way to promote your business or generate business? Uprinting is wanting to giveaway a set of 500 business cards to one lucky reader of my blog (complete specifications below). You will be able to either upload your own design or choose from a variety of designs Business Cards Online.

500 Business Cards for One (1) Winner
Sizes: 2 x 3.5”, 2 x 3”, 2 x 2” (square card) or 1.5 x 3.5” (slim card)
Paper: 14 pt gloss cardstock, 14 pt matte cardstock or 13 pt recycled uncoated cardstock
Specifications: Full Color Both Sides; Offset Press; 3 Business Day Printing
Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping
Eligibility: Limited to US Residents only

To enter:
Visit Uprinting: Business Cards Online and let me know what design you'd choose.
Additional entries:
Follow Protect-A-Bed on twitter.
Follow me on twitter and tweet about the contest.
Follow my blog via Google.
Subscribe to my newsletter (must confirm subscription).
For 10 extra entries blog about this giveaway (please include a link to your post and leave a separate numbered comment for each entry i.e., blogged about giveaway #1, #2, etc).

One month (and then some)!

Today is my due date for Tucker and it's hard to believe that he is five weeks old already! This picture was taken at one month old. If you are long time reader of the blog then you know that for the first year this blue smiley guy gets to have his picture taken with the baby every month to show how much they grow. This was taken on 3/7 and he has already grown even more. They grow so quickly and it's just too hard to imagine that I will have to leave him next Sunday and return to work :(. I can't wait to see how much he's grown at his apt tomorrow, I'm going to guess that he's near the 10lb mark.

Protect-A-Bed National Napping Day + Giveaway! CLOSED

National Napping is the first Monday after Daylight Savings, the day when we lost an hour of sleep. As the people at Protect-A-Bed say "Napping is an art – an art studies show bolsters health and creativity. History has produced a legion of great nappers. Among them are Leonardo DaVinci, Thomas Edison and Lord Byron, who after sweet slumbers achieved great feats of art, science and literature.Is this a coincidence – this combination of greatness and napping?"
This year with a new baby, every minute of sleep is needed. I know what you're thinking, babies nap all day right? Well, yes, they do sleep a good portion of the day but anyone who's had a baby knows that they generally sleep when you need to do things and are awake when you want to sleep. So today I will attempt to acheive greatness and take a much needed nap!
In celebration of National Nap day the people at Protect-A-Bed would like to give you a way to make your own bed dust mite and allergy free, and give you a queen size mattress cover.
To win:
Visit
Protect-A-Bed and leave a comment on which product would make napping more enjoyable at your home.
Additional entries:
Follow Protect-A-Bed on twitter.
Follow me on twitter and tweet about the contest (2 tweets per day).
Follow my blog via Google.
Subscribe to my newsletter (must confirm subscription).
For 10 extra entries blog about this giveaway (please include a link to your post and leave a separate numbered comment for each entry i.e., blogged about giveaway #1, #2, etc).

Contest is for US residents only and winner will be drawn and announced on 3/30/10)

Friday, February 12, 2010

Tucker's Birth Story.

I had been contracting every 12 min or so since Friday, they weren't getting closer but they were getting stronger. We were doing our Saturday chores and was having a lot of back pain but I thought that was due to cleaning. By 3pm I had to sit down and leave the rest unfinished. When I sat down the contractions remained the same, tried taking a shower and that helped but didn't make them go away. As I was getting dried off and putting on lotion and doing my hair and stuff in the bathroom my water broke. Toby was in Seward that day and it is over an hour from there to our house so I was kind of freaking out. About that time he called me to say that he was nearly back to Lincoln and was telling me how our neighbors called wanting him to look after their dogs as they were in labor lol! That's about the time I let him know that we were too. It's so funny because he gets all in a panic and is freaking out thinking the baby is going to come right then. In his defense we have had that happen, when I was in labor w/Loryn they broke my water at 4cm and she was born an hour later BUT I was in labor for 4 hours at that time AND on pitocen.

He stopped and got his mom to help w/the kids, honestly this was a shocker but it was much appreciated. Haley is great w/her siblings and would have done fine but she would have been overwhelmed at times. I made Toby eat and shower as I knew things weren't going that fast and I wasn't sure how long it would be and my hubby is a bit of a germaphobe and would not have been comfy w/o the shower.

We got to the hospital about 8pm which was 2 hours after my water broke. The contractions were about 6 min apart at this time. They got us to our room and changed and hooked up. I was thinking that I would have made a bit of progress from my apt on Friday but nope, when the nurse checked me I was *maybe* 5cm and about 75% effaced, went backwards on effacement, didn't get that but oh well lol. She made us walk the halls for an hour where we ran into our neighbor. He was excited that his wife was already at 7cm and was thinking it would be soon. After the hour I was rechecked and I was effaced more but still only maybe a 5. They still let me just labor on my own until about 11pm when I was hooked up to pitocen.

I have no idea what the heck this nurse was trying to do to me but she must have been cranking the juice big time. My labor went from 4-5 min apart contx that were manageable to 1-2 min apart unbearable pain. I hung on until 12:45am when I asked for anti-nausea meds and pain meds. I couldn't manage it this time, Toby knew that it was bad as I had labored the last three kids no prob w/no meds but nausea meds. At that time I started getting the shakes and told the nurse that I don't feel like I have to push now but it is going to be very soon (it was about 1am when I said this and I told Toby that I was hoping to have the baby by 2am lol). Neighbor check, they still had not delivered and race was on LOL!

The nurse checked me and I was only 6cm but completely effaced and I told her that I go very fast and to call the dr. Thankfully she listened, had some issues w/nurses not listening and then trying to get me to "breathe thru the contraction" umm yeah right LOL. It would be easier to stop a train wreck w/my bare hands! So about 2 min before the dr got there I was ready to push and the nurse kept telling me to wait he was coming up and just had to change. She was really trying to say anything to get me to not push and at one point had said once he got in there all I had to do was push once and the baby would come right out.

So when the dr got there and I was able to push for one contraction I was able to relax and calm down and manage better. After that contraction I looked at the nurse and started laughing and told her she lied, he didn't come out in one push. Had the whole room cracking up and poor Dr Millius didn't know what to think of someone w/o an epi laughing and joking as they start to push thru another contraction lol! I finally got his head out w/the second contraction, third push and before he could be suctioned my body went nutty and pushed him out the rest of the way. All I remember about that was Toby and the nurse grabbing my shoulders telling me not to back away from the dr, I guess I was pushing up on the bed and pushing him out. So odd lol I blame it on the over cranking of pit.

Tucker came out pink and screaming and was doing good but breathing fast and pulling in when breathing. He weighed 6lbs 2oz and was 19in long. And if you were wondering, yes we beat the neighbors by about two hours. It will not be hard to remember their daughter's birthday :).