My colors are Blush & Bashful

Or as M'Lynn would say: Pink & Pink ; )

Here's a little lookie-loo at the festivities from Sassy's 1st Birthday Bash.

Delicious cupcakes I made all by myself!

Paint Chip Garland made by me. Name Plaque-y thing & "Birthday Girl" sign made by Aunt Donna.

The sweets table

A Little Cake Eatin' Action:

And some additional cuteness for your viewing pleasure

After all that waiting...

Apparently, my scheduled post didn't schedule itself...oops! So let's get back to Sassy's birth story:

At 8am the next morning, the doctor came in to see how I was doing. This wasn't my doctor but one of the others from the practice that I happened to dislike based on a bad office visit experience a few weeks before but that's a whole other story. I had been having contractions all night (so they tell me, I didn't feel anything) they checked the whole "dilation situation", nada, nothing, zilch. Sassy was content in her 'oven' kicking the crap outta me. They amped up the Pitocin again and said they'd be back in a few hours to check again.

Fast forward to around 11:30, they come in check me again and nothings doing. The contractions were, according to the little screen, getting stronger but I was still not feeling anything. The doctor then suggested that if I wanted an epidural that this would be a good time because they were going to see what they could do to get me dilating...whatever that means.

The anesthesiologist came in wearing an orange TN do-rag so we were fast friends. Thank goodness we had things to chat about while he was back there stabbing me in the back because Mr. Pickles face when he saw the needle was less than comforting. After the epidural was in my BP dropped to insanely low levels and then and there my claims to a vomit-free pregnancy ended.

After my BP stabilized to acceptable levels, the doctor came in to explain what they were wanted to do. I don't remember the specifics now but it involved a balloon, several more hours, only a slight chance of success, and a sharp refusal from me to let them "try" it. So the decision was made to do a c-section.

At 12:32pm on Friday, September 23, 2010. Sassy made her grand debut. She weighed exactly 7 pounds and was 18 1/4 inches long.

She had a lot of fluid in her lungs and was swept off to the NICU before I even got to hold her. The nurse did let me see her but this was as close as we got.

After they finished me up and got me into recovery, I sent Mr. Pickles to check on Sassy. After what seemed like forever, he came back and delivered the news. She was on oxygen and would be staying in the level 2 nursery for up to 10 days. My baby was hours old and I still hadn't got to hold her. To say I was devastated would be an understatement. I was still hooked up to the magnesium drip and had a hole in my belly so I couldn't even be taken to the nursery to see her until the next day.

The pediatrician working the nursery came in the next morning with good news, at midnight see had been taken off the oxygen and the fluid was clearing from her tiny little lungs. She was still on antibiotics and fluids to clear out the effects of the magnesium.

 It would still be several more days before they'd even consider letting her go home. I spent the next 8 days in the hospital, sitting in the nursery with her every moment that I could. When I wasn't with her, I was crying my eyes out. I wanted my baby and they wouldn't let me have her. Looking back now, I know that we were lucky; she wasn't the sickest baby there and she left the hospital with a clean bill of health. But in that moment, seeing other moms leave the hospital with their babies, seeing the "healthy" babies that the moms sent to the nursery so they could "get some rest" (that will always be a seriously sore issue with me now) all I could feel was "they won't let me have my baby".

On October 3, we finally got to bring Sassy home and I finally got to stop crying and get some sleep.

1st Day Home with Momma

It was going to be an ordinary day…

On the morning of September 23, 2010, I woke up to what I thought was going to be “just another day”. I was finishing up my 1^st week of modified bed rest (I’d been given a diagnosis of Pre-E the week before), enjoying the doctor-ordered rest & relaxation and not spending a 45+ minute commute hoping I didn’t pee my pants even though I ‘went’ before I left. I had an 8am appointment for my 38 week check up so I’d gotten up, tossed some yummy ingredients in the crockpot for dinner, and headed to the doctor’s office.

I spent the first few minutes chatting with my favorite nurse while she checked all my vitals. I knew it couldn’t be good when after taking my blood pressure she took off the cuff and then put it back on to check again. After checking a second time, she removed the cuff and said she’d be right back. She returned with another nurse in tow, who proceeded to take my BP one more time. The nurses exchanged a look and left the room saying they’d “be right back” they didn’t come back though, the doctor came instead. My BP was way too high and she wanted to induce, immediately. My deodorant? It failed me. All the deodorant in the world wouldn’t have kept me from being the giant ball of sweat that I was that day. Up until that moment, I must have still not realized that I was actually going to have to expel this small person from my body at some point.

To make matters worse, this was the first appointment in a long time that Mr. Pickles didn’t go along. He was at work trying to tie up loose ends since we new the big day was coming soon and he would be out for a week. As the doctor is giving me instructions to head over to the hospital across the street, a thousand thoughts are running through my brain – the loudest being I can’t do this, I ask if I can go home first so that I can get my bag and meet my husband – no, you need to go right away. Thanks, that makes me feel  SO much better. I called my husband and in a panicked babble told him he needed to meet me a the hospital then went to the parking lot sat in my car and cried.

I should probably explain that from the moment I found out I was pregnant, I was terrified of the delivery aspect of having a baby. We went to a child-birth class and I cried for hours afterward convinced that there was no way I would ever be able to do that.  So being told out of the blue (in my mind at least) that we’re gonna make you have that baby, well that was a little traumatic for me. Judge all you want.

I managed to get myself across the street to the hospital, up to the labor & delivery floor, and the nurses took care of me from there. Poking me full of holes for an IV for Pitocin and magnesium to help lower my BP. And of course, hooked up to a plethora of machines to monitor every little bodily function that Sassy or I even thought about having.

Mr. Pickles arrived around 10:30 and at this point, I was starving. Did you notice when I described the beginning of this day that I didn’t mention breakfast? Yeah, I hadn’t had any yet. I thought I was going to be in & out of the doctor quickly and was planning an attack on the Dunkin’ Donuts down the street. Obviously, that didn’t happen. So the next time the nurse popped in to put the fetal monitors back in their proper place (Sassy’s super kicking kept knocking them out of place, she wasn’t a fan of being under surveillance) we asked if it was ok for Mr. Pickles to get me food. The nurse had to check with the doctor and came back to say that I could not eat. Whaaaat? I’m pregnant, I gotta eat…right? Guess not!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful: I was frustrated with being stuck in that super uncomfortable hospital bed, starving, bored (hospitals really should have free wi-fi), and terrified of the child-birthing that was going to happen one way or the other. Around 6pm my doctor came by checked all my machines, arm-raped me, and said that even after 8 hours of Pitocin I was not even the teensiest bit dilated so I would spend the remainder of the night hooked up to those machines filling me full of goo. Her partner would be in the next morning around 8am to see how I was doing and then we’d discuss further options if necessary.

I spent the entire night listening to what seemed like 100 other babies being born, one in particular with a great deal of screaming on the mother’s part – not exactly what my already frazzled nerves needed to hear but that was my problem not hers. But even after all the noise of babies being born all around us (not literally, I had a private room) Sassy must have been just as scared of being birthed as I was of having to birth her, she wasn’t budging, except to kick the monitors off my belly for the eleventy-fifth time.

Obviously, Sassy was eventually born. We’ll visit that event in celebration of Sassy’s first birthday…tomorrow!

T-Minus 2 days

Here's a look at my little Sassy girl at 2 months. So much attitude in such a tiny little person!

T-Minus 3 days and some projects

I've gotten no where in the cleaning department because I've been too busy brewing eleventy-thousand ideas for the birthday bash. Hopefully I'll have time to complete all these projects AND clean the house!

Aside from being a place to waste a huge amount of time, Pinterest is also a great place to fill my head with big ideas at the very last minute! Here's a preview of the things I'm hoping to finish (and not have turn out like crap, that's important!)

DIY Cupcake Stand - Mine is about half done and so far it's looking good. This one is probably the closest I found that uses the same "ingredients" as the one I'm making but rest assured, mine will be much more colorful!

Source: wanderingchopsticks.blogspot.com via Julie on Pinterest

Paper Garland. I'm pretty sure that one day I'm going to be arrested at Lowe's for swiping all the paint samples. I asked the girl in the paint dept last night if there was a limit on how many I could take for free and she said I could take as many as I needed.

Source: etsy.com via Julie on Pinterest

A little high chair decor, perhaps?

Source: etsy.com via Julie on Pinterest

Lots of pink balloons for pictures are a must!

Source: flickr.com via Julie on Pinterest

And another little fun photo-op idea

Source: maciephoto.com via Julie on Pinterest

And of course, let's not forget a look back at Miss Sassy at 3 months.

T-Minus 4 days

The house? Still a mess!

The menu? Just cupcakes so far.

This Momma? She's stressed!

This cheers me up though!



I know it's sideways, no idea how to fix that!

I just love that she is totally ok with falling down, how can you not laugh when she's having so much fun?!

And here's a look back at Miss Sassy at 4 months old:

T-Minus 5 days

Holy Smokes...5 days until Sassy's birthday. That means I have to:

• get my house in some state of cleanliness so I'm not embarrassed when my parents arrive on Friday & then keep it clean until Saturday for the par-tay. 
• get off my butt and find this baby a present or at least wrap some empty boxes.
• determine what the heck I'm going to feed the party-goers other than cupcakes.
• finish what is thus far, a major craft fail of a cupcake stand {more on that later}.
• come to grips with the fact that my sweet little Sassy is growing into a big girl!

Ugh! So much to do and so little time! Anyone want to come clean my house?? :-)

T-Minus 8 Days...

What does "t-minus" actually mean anyways? Does any one know?

To mix things up a bit instead of sharing pictures of Sassy at 8 months I'm going to share a little video. Sassy learned the oh so valuable skill of growling and she did it so often that the teacher at daycare asked Mr. Pickles if he growled at her one day when he was picking her up - apparently Sassy was showing off her newfound skill at school at those old cronie's just weren't as impressed as we were.

T-Minus 9 Days

Here's a look back at my Sassy at 9 months old.

Mr. Pickles and I are trying to decide what to get her for her birthday and while I've been threatening to just wrap a big empty box {since she's just going to want to play with the box anyways} I want to get her something she'll have fun with. Growing up, my mom always made birthdays fun and we never just got "stuff you need". Everyone deserves a special day!

Any suggestions as to what 1 year olds like to play with?

T-Minus 10 days

10 days until my baby is officially a toddler! Here's a look back at Miss Sassy at 10 months

Countdown to Sassy's 1st Birthday

That's right in just 11 days my sweet little Sassy-pants will be one whole year old. Where does the time go?? It seems like just yesterday I was yelling "get out of my bell-eh" to my giant belly full of elbows {I was convinced she was going to have at least 6 arms as much as she banged my innards with her elbows}. For the next 11 days you'll be listening {reading, whatev} to me go on and on about how much she's grown and {of course} how stinking cute she is.

So without further ado, Let the Stinkin' Cuteness Begin!

How did you guys deal with your baby growing up? It's going by so fast it seems like she'll be off to college next week!

Big Girl Food

Sassy will be 1 in 39 days {Holy Shitake!!} and I’m feeling the pressures of the evil “milestones” list that we’ll I’ll be judged on come the 12 month well baby visit.

My main concern: Big Girl Food.

Sassy is just not cool with moving up to “big girl” food. After months of just sucking the flavor off of puffs then spitting out the squishy, disgusting remnants, she’s finally started eating the whole thing . So I thought we’d try baby cheese puffs – Nope, not happening! I’ve tried giving her a french fry (I know, Momma of the Year right here!) but she won’t have anything to do with it. Bananas in those weird ‘netted put real food in them for baby’ things that are impossible to clean, nope not interested and she LOVES baby food bananas.

I’m 110% to blame for this – Am I the only one who’s convinced that if you hand your kid a ‘whatever’ to eat that they’re going to choke to death on it?  Maybe it’s my fear that I’m completely unqualified to be a Momma and one false move and I’ll screw up and kill the baby. I know how to do the Heimlich but I’ve never actually had to use it and I’m pretty certain that in an emergency that knowledge would escape me.  Because of this I’ve been slack in the ‘try new foods’ department , I also have an issue with throw-up  so anytime Sassy makes that gaggy-I'm might barf face, I’m more than happy to not push the issue cause ya, know… I don’t want to get barfed on!  

So all you veteran Mommas out there: Any suggestions on how to transition to “big girl food”? I’d prefer not to leave the pediatrician’s office looking like this:

This is an old pic but I thought it was funny because I'm somehow frowning & smiling at the same time. Who knew that was even possible??

Rock A Bye Baby

It's been a long two weeks! Sassy seemed to be recovering from her double-whammy ear infection only to be attacked by the snot monster for oh, I don't know, the eleventy-billionth time in 10 months. Sick babies make for cranky babies and cranky babies kinda make me want to rip my hair out; but there's not enough to go around because Sassy has discovered the joys of ripping peoples hair out.

In the midst of all this crankiness , Sassy has decided to abandon her love of sleeping, much to my dismay. Once upon a time (or 3 weeks ago, whatever) you could give her a bottle at bedtime and she'd be out by the time she'd sucked it dry those days are apparently gone, now she finishes up her bottle and looks at you like "ok, now entertain me wench" {in my head she talks to me like she's a pirate, I don't know why}. So I decided to try out that whole 'rock the baby to sleep' business I keep hearing about and apparently (according to Mr. Pickles) you also have to sing to baby when you're rocking them. And here's where I fail Momma 101 again…I don't know any freaking lullabyes and even if I did I don't think you'd find me sitting around singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, that's just not how I roll.



My attempts at the main-stream baby songs goes a bit like this:

So after a lot of trial and error (and realizing that I know the words to way to many songs) we nailed down our Momma-playlist to these little ditties: Rocky Top (that's my girl!), Hello, I Love You – The Doors, Nothing Else Matters – Metallica, Lake of Fire – Nirvana. We also discovered that we don't need no stinkin' Patty Cake 'cause we stomp and clap to We Will Rock You by Queen. That's way cooler than Patty Cake!

I Scream, You Scream

Or in this case, you cry, I cry.

Our weekend went south at approximately 4:30 Friday afternoon when we received a call that Sassy had a 101.6 fever. She's a pretty tough cookie and this is the first time she's actually had a fever - even with ear infections and one evil stomach bug she maintained her usual 97.9 (she's cooler than most kids, like her Momma). Given that she's not one to run temp and she'd just had an ear infection 2 weeks ago, we called the doctor's office who was, of course, getting ready to close for the weekend. The nurse gave me the stellar advice of "give her tylenol" - wow, really I'd have never figured that one out on my own! And said that if it did not come down or went up to take her to the ER.
After a couple of hours it looked like the tylenol was doing it's job and her fever was slowly coming down...until around 10pm when we were getting her last bottle of the night ready. I picked her up to change her and she was scalding hot, her temp was 103.6 and she'd had a 2nd dose of tylenol an hour earlier. We immediately packed her into the car and off to the ER we went. I expressed my concern that the ear infection hadn't been knocked out by the antibiotics the previous week, she'd been holding her hand over her left ear earlier in the night. The doctor reports that her ears are "perfect" shoves a popsicle stick down her throat and says "it's probably strep", gives us a weak dose and prescription of antibiotics and sends us on our way. All day Saturday Sassy was still one hot chick, her fever bouncing back to 101ish whenever the tylenol was starting to wear off. As much as I hate to pump her full of drugs she was on a constant steam of tylenol Saturday and Sunday. Sunday she decided that she did NOT want to eat - anything. Hand her a bottle and she'd scream like you'd just made her drink razor blades. She was inconsolable, she was crying like I'd never heard her cry before, nothing seemed to make her feel better.
And that's when this Momma, who'd only slept about 4 hours in two days couldn't hold it back any longer. She was crying, I was crying. My baby was miserable and I was helpless. My mom told me once that babies can sense your mood and if you're tense or upset they will sense that and mirror those feelings, I don't know if that's true but I've always kept my cool when she was upset; if I'm calm she'll be calm or at least that's goal. This time, it seemed my crying distracted her - my sweet little girl looked at me, touched a tear on my cheek, then laid her scalding hot little head against mine.
This morning we went to see her pediatrician. Those "perfect ears" they are both rife with infection-y badness. That ER doctor...he's officially on my list of people to punch in the face.

Momma Says the Darndest Things

As I was being peed on the other night, { seriously, Sassy peed on my lap - that’ll teach me to take the diaper off before the bathtub is ready } I started thinking about all the bizarre sounding statements I’ve made since becoming a Momma, things that people without a kid would never have the occasion to say…

Like these for example:

1.        Get your foot out of your mouth so I can put your pants on!
2.        Carrots are not hair gel!
3.        Stop trying to stick your hands in the poop!
4.        OMG, you’re dancing in poop!
5.        Don’t let the dogs kiss you, they eat poop!

Source: theblackship.tumblr.com via Julie on Pinterest

Right now you’re probably thinking “wow, there’s a lot of poop talk in this post”; Well, for those of you who don’t know: Momma-hood is full of poop, lots of it! { And yes, I am a total loser who says OMG( the letters) out loud.}

What are some crazy things your kids (or pets) have made you say?

Cookie Monster

Sassy had her first Arrow Root Cookie the other day...

Cookie Eating is messy business! I'm not sure if she liked it or not, I think mostly she just enjoyed playing with it.

Development Milestones can result in some interesting Googling

If you've ever taken your kiddo for a "well baby" check up you know what I'm talking about. The doctor or nurse will rattle off a list of things your kid is supposed to know how to do based on their age, can your kid smile, roll over, sit, fetch, recite the Gettysburg Address...you know, the usual crap kids do.

Usually, I'm the uber-proud Momma who's saying "oh yes, she's been doing that for awhile" while thinking "Are you kidding, Sassy is the world's cutest and smartest baby!".

Cute Baby Evidence: Exhibit A

But at her 9 month check up a few days ago the list had my number.

• Crawling: check
• Pulls up to stand: affirmative
• Waves Bye-Bye: sometimes
• Plays Patty-Cake: uh.......I don't know how to do patty cake and I'm 32, what's that say about me?

So, I went home feeling defeated by the vile, evil patty-cake milestone but determined to defeat it with the help of my good friend Google. 

Here's what I learned:

1. Make sure you have your safe-search enabled before googling Patty Cake images. No, really! 
2. There are some very interesting rap videos entitled Patty Cake
3. There are several videos of cats playing patty cake 
4. It's easy to get distracted from your original goal when there are videos of cats playing patty cake

I never actually learned how to do patty cake and I just decided that we'll work on clapping and the Gettysburg Address instead. Take that Milestone List!!

Speaking of milestones, Sassy is competing for votes in the 2011 Gerber Generation Photo Search on Facebook - we'd love it you would pop over and vote for her!