QOTW: Mar 30 - Apr 3

Well ladies, it's the last QOTW for March!

What sort of activites are you looking forward to doing with you LO as the weather gets warmer?

I'm really looking forward to more park trips and eventual trips to the beach. We are also going to spending a lot of time swimming in pools this summer. We've already been spending a lot more time outside than we did earlier this year.

~Leslie :)

Wednesday Recipe Share

Happy Wednesday! Here are some links to Passover recipes for a Jewish members.

http://www.koshercooking.com/Recipes/passover/index.html

http://kosher4passover.com/recipes.htm

http://www.epicurious.com/recipesmenus/holidays/passover/recipes

Enjoy!

Mommy/Baby Spotlight

This week's Spotlight is shining on Alison (Bartsgirl) and Benjamin:

DOB: May 5, 2008 at 7:07 am (A cinco de mayo baby)

Wt: 5lbs 11oz

length: 20 in.

Here is Alison's story:

Benjamin was due June 15, 2008...Father's day! However, he decided that he was ready to come out 6 weeks early. May 4th at 8:00pm I stood up in our family room and SPLOOSH! I looked at my husband and said, "I did not just pee myself. I think my water broke." I ran into the bathroom in complete shock and yelled for him to get me the phone so I could call the after hours line. The nurse told me to get to the hospital because if my water had broke the baby was coming. I was completely freaked out. I didn't even have a bag packed yet. So, my husband ran around the house like crazy packing a bag and we got to the hospital by 9pm. Once we arrived at the nurses station I broke down crying. I was so scared and just couldn't hold it together anymore. They put me on Magnesium to try to stop my labor. They hoped to stop it for a day or two so they could give me steriods to get his lungs stronger. After 5 hours it still hadn't stopped and I was 6 cm. But 6:30am I was 10 cm. At 7:07 am Benjamin Bartholomew was born a large 5 lbs 11oz and 20 in long. Benjamin was whisked to the Special Care Nursery where he spent the next 9 days. My little boy finally came home on May 14th and it has been a whirlwind ever since! Benjamin is now 19 lbs 14oz and 28.75 inches. He is a happy, precocious little boy, and the light of my life.



Thank you to Bartgirl and little Benjamin for sharing their story with us this week!!!

QOTW: Mar 23-27

After a long few days with DS, the question this week just popped into my head.

What sort of things do you do to help you de-stress and unwind after having difficult days with DC?

My favorite thing to do is honestly sleep. I love to take a nap and I honestly feel much calmer and relaxed after I can catch some shut eye. I also like to read or be crafty when I have the time.

Birthday Tips

This week's tip will be on decorations.

What type of decorations will you be doing of for DC's party?
Are you going all out and decorating to the nines? Or is simple more your scene?
Where are you getting your decorations?

Comment with you ideas and answers.

Wednesday Recipe Share

Rather than post one single recipe today, I did a quick search for Easter recipes for kids. Here's a site I found with a ridiculous amount of Easter recipes. http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/special/specialfeature/easter_recipes_ms/

Next week, we'll focus on Passover for our Jewish members. Then, we'll look at just some fun spring recipes. If you have any recipes that you'd like to share over the next few weeks for Passover or spring, please email them to mayflowersmoms@gmail.com! Thanks!

Need Mommy/Baby spotlight info

We are in need of another Mommy/Baby to spotlight for next Tuesday. Please email two pictures (newborn and recent) and information about birth date, ht/wt, funny story or labor story, etc by Monday, March 23 to mayflowersmoms@gmail.com. Thanks!

Easter Crafts

I don't know about you ladies, but I'm excited for when DS can do crafts with me. I've been looking for crafts that I can do with him for Easter, but being that he's so little, I'm coming up short. I did find a bunch of crafts that will be super cute for our little ones when they are older. Here's the link: http://www.parents.com/holiday/easter/crafts/

Here's another fun site for a cool Easter craft to do with our babies! http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=12147

QOTW: Mar 16-20

It's already the middle of March! Here's this week's question:

I've noticed on the Bump that many moms are getting professional pictures done for not only 3,6,9, and 12 months, but also for many holidays. I'm talking about Valentines, St. Patrick's, Easter, etc.

What pictures are you or have you gotten professionally done? What are your opinions on them?

My answer:
I've only done 3, 6/Christmas, and 9 month pictures done. I will be getting his 1 year pictures done as well. I don't think there needs to be professional pics for every single occasion that there are greeting cards for. I will be taking pictures at a St. Patty's Day party I'm having with my playgroup on Tuesday, but I just can't justify spending that money. Now I guess if I were sending out cards for every holiday, maybe, just maybe I would consider a cute professional picture of DS.

Next Week's Ideas

Hello ladies,
Since St. Patty's day is next week, we thought maybe on Tuesday we could post St. Patrick's day pics of our LO's. If you will just send an email to mayflowersmoms@gmail.com with the pic, your name (SN is fine) and your LO's name. Then check back to see all of our lil leprechauns.

Also, since Spring is just around the corner, we were thinking of doing some recipes for Easter/Spring on Wednesdays for a while. So if you have any recipes that you would like to share please send them to our email.

If anyone has any ideas or tips to add please email us. Have a great Thursday!

Thanks ladies,
Heather (ugabrat)

Birthday Tips

So, it's March already and our babies are coming on up on their big day! Let's start sharing some ideas and tips to help each other plan their parties. This week, I want to focus on invites. I've noticed that there are lots of questions on the Bump about invites.

Invites:
Are you making them yourself? If so, how are you making them?
Are you getting them made? If so, where are you getting them done?
Do you have any cool ideas for the design?

Answer below in the comments!

Thanks!
Leslie

Wednesday Recipe Share

Thanks to Kim for this week's recipe share. I know I love me some spinach and artichoke dip. Yum!

"It's an appetizer, but this recipe if a fav of all my family. I make it at every holiday and it's gone before I ever get a bite!"

Hot Artichoke and Spinach Dip

1/2. Cup Frozen Spinach
1 Cup artichoke hearts
8oz. cream cheese
1/2. Cup parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
Salt and Garlic powder to taste.

Finely chop the spinach and artichokes. Boil in 1 Cup water for 10 minutes to make sure they're soft. Drain well. Microwave cream cheese for 1 minute or until soft. Add everything together and serve!

Mom and Baby Spotlight

This weeks spotlight is featuring me! MrsD_111106 or Leslie as I'm known in the real world and my wonderful son Nathan.

Nathan was born at 3:12 pm on May 8. He weighed 8lbs, 9oz and was 20 inches long.

The day that Nathan arrived started at 2:30 in the morning. I suddenly woke up with a strange pain and I knew right then that my water was starting to break. I somehow leaped out of bed and ran into the bathroom where my water broke just like in the movies. Brad was awake the minute I jumped out of bed and started getting dressed. I called my parents and my mom came right over. We were in the car by 3am headed for the hospital. It was really great timing since the hospital I was going to deliver at was about an hour away and I was so worried that we'd hit rush hour traffic. During the car ride, my contractions started and were 3 minutes apart. After having zero contractions to having one every 3 minutes was pretty bad. It was like I was induced.

Once we got to the hospital, we were sent to the triage area to check that I was really in labor (water broke, so duh). The contractions were so intense that they made me throw up, which is not fun while in labor. We got moved up to my room after about 30 minutes of paperwork (why do they have you sign so many papers during contractions??) and exams. I requested and epidural and the angel of a man who was my anesthesiologist showed up almost immediately.

During the course of my labor, they discovered that there was meconium in the fluid and I started getting a fever. Luckily I was able to sleep while I labored. I get to 7cm when the doctor started some pitocin. My contractions were starting to become irregular and Nathan was having trouble staying down in the birth canal. The pit worked for about 5 minutes, and then would start to wear off just like my own natural contractions.

After 12 hours of no amniotic fluid, the doctor said I could continue the pitocin for an hour or deliver by c-section. I suspected this would happen as it has for almost all of the women on my mom's side. We're a little crooked up in there so Nathan wasn't coming down straight and couldn't cause my cervix to dialate enough. We chose to do the c-section while Nathan was still showing a strong heart beat and not in distress.

Within 20 minutes of getting prepped for delivery, we had our beautiful baby boy. Because he came down crooked, he had a pretty big bump on the side of his head where it was pushing down. It's gone now, but it made his hair all crazy for a while. The only complication I had after the surgery was fluid in my right lung that appeared about a week later. I guess it can happen when you're stuck in bed for a few days. That was a whole other stressful ER visit.

Nathan is now 10 months old and a crawling machine. I'm cherishing every day I spend with him while I'm on leave from teaching. I have to go back in August and every minute is precious to me.

The picture on the left is Nathan while we were still in the hospital. Look at that head of hair!






The picture to the right is Nathan during our attempt at his monthly picture in February. It has proven to be quite difficult to get this picture now that his so mobile. :)

QOTW: Mar 9-13

Thanks to the anonymous commenter on last week's QOTW for this week's question. It's very appropriate after last night (DS was awake from 2-4am. Fun!). :)

Anyone's baby recently changed the sleeping schedule?

Here's my answer:
DS has suddenly had some pretty drastic changes in sleep. The last few nights, he's been having trouble staying asleep and I keep finding him whimpering while sitting up in his crib. He's also been having a bit more trouble falling asleep on his own during naps. I used to be able to just lay him down and give him his blanket. He would pull the little thing over his head and conk out. The past week, he's wanted me to rock him and not leave the room. Good times. Hopefully he's teething or going through a growth spurt or something because I do not like this change one bit.

~Leslie (MrsD_111106)

Wednesday Recipe Share

Hello out there......anyone....Bueller....Bueller. But really, we haven't gotten any recipe suggestions lately, so this will be on hold until we get more suggestions. mayflowersmoms@gmail.com

QOTW: Mar 2-6

Wow! It's March already! Where has the time gone? If you suggestions for questions, please email them to mayflowersmoms@gmail.com. Here's this week's question:

Have you started planning DC's birthday party yet? If so, what type of party are you doing - big, small,etc?

My answer, as usual:
I just started planning Nathan's party this past week. We are planning on having a relatively small party at a local park, just bbq kind of stuff. We have a pretty big family, so it may end up having quite a few people at it, hence the park. We'll probably just get regular old party decorations, but nothing too fancy. I'm not really into a big gigantic theme party for a 1 year old, but to each their own!