ABOUT ME

1.30.2015

OMSI After Dark


OMSI After Dark is a 21-and-over event held by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry once a month. On their website they boast, "Enjoy child-free, brain-building science fun featuring live demos, new exhibitions and old favorites! Guests can indulge in tasty snacks, sweets and beer and wine from regional food and beverage artisans." After reading that, and being a science nerd, I thought it would be a great idea for a date night. January's theme was Sugar.

A giant devil cupcake…mobile?

So we got our $13 a person tickets and invited our friends Stephanie and Gabe along. When we got there the entire parking lot was completely packed. At 6:30 PM there were barely any spots left. WOW, we thought. This was way more popular that we expected. It must be super cool. Unfortunately, the result was merely satisfactory.

Pulling our own taffy. Literally the best part of the night. 
What we got were small samples, an overpriced cash bar, and a lot of this:

Standing in line!!!
The only good part of the night was when we found a hidden free sample room and tasted enough bit-size bundt cake samples to satisfy our entry fee.

A caramel apple of the future! Cool science, but worth 30 minutes in line?
The main hall with free samples was so crowded you almost couldn't move. But no matter how I tried to wrap my mind around how people would pay to come get free samples, I couldn't figure out the logic. Well played advertisers. It seemed like the "hip" Portland crowd attended just so they could talk about the cool "nerdy" thing that they did. I can't blame OMSI for using this as a revenue stream for what they do (which is great by the way!), but next time I think I will stay home. Maybe I'll put a marshmallow in the microwave and do my own sugar science.

xoxo

K


1.25.2015

gypsy jazz

On Thursday, Karl and I decided to go on a little adventure to a new restaurant in our neighborhood. He had met a new friend on the MAX while going to work with A and the guy said he was in a band that was playing there that night. We had never been to the Chameleon Restaurant & Bar before, so we thought it would be fun to try it out. It was more of a date night restaurant, so the meal was $$$, but the food was good and luckily A was well behaved (although she did try to eat the table a few times).



 The restaurant was hard to classify, at first it looked like a Thai place, but then it morphed into Italian. For example, for appetizers I had a Caprese salad and Karl had bacon wrapped dates, but egg rolls and chicken satay were also an option. Chicken curry and cilantro lime salmon for dinner, with handmade cheesecake for dessert. The food was great, but I'm not entirely sure it was worth the price. Portland is funny like that; you can get a $20 gourmet meal at a dive, whereas expensive date night restaurants offer good but 'vanilla' food by comparison.



But the music was fantastic! (Karl and I are kind of going through a big jazz phase). If we had got a babysitter we would have definitely stayed past 7:30.



You can check them out on Facebook, Le Combo Diabolique.

xoxo

K

1.17.2015

Pinterest Worthy? A Photoblog of Charlotte's Baby Shower

(as planned by yours truly)



Close up of the "Guestbook", hand drawn by Karl




Soup Bar


Headband making station
Desert Table

The Mama-To-Be


1.15.2015

Birth Day

I'm feeling the love on my birthday today :)

But I'd thought I'd share a story of another birthday today, the story of Andromeda's Birth Day!

June 6th, 2014 I started to have a bit of sharp cervical pain, like someone was poking a needle into me down there, and chalked it up to my body preparing for birth as my due date was only three days away. That day I also got acupuncture to help my body naturally progress. I really enjoyed it and recommend it to any expecting mom. Although, Karl did not help my zen vibes as it was a hot day and he ran the car battery all the way down by blasting the air conditioner while I was at my appointment! Luckily his mom came to our rescue and soothed the ire of a very pregnant woman.

After my work baby shower around 37 weeks.
Sunday morning, June 8th, I started having light contractions, strong enough to feel a bit of pain, noticeable, but not really as bad as my normal period cramps but definitely timeable. As I went about my day they subsided, I would get a contraction about every 30 minutes to an hour for about 30-45 seconds. This continued over the next few days. Looking back I was probably in this "early" labor stage of light contractions for about a total of 5 days.

On Monday morning, June 9th (my due date), I lost my mucus plug when I got up that morning. At my 40 week appointment at the OB, I was only 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. No change from before but I was mentally ready to be about a week late anyway.  Everyday I would try to walk a mile at least once or twice, not getting much sleep at all because the light contractions, hip pain, and bladder would wake me up. My due date passed but I was enjoying spending time at home with Karl for our last few days alone. 

The last picture taken of me pregnant! This was before we went to the Portland Opera.
June 10th we came home from his parents after dinner and were sitting on the couch when I felt a pop in my lower abdomen at around 9:45 pm. I immediately though my water broke and yelled to Karl to grab a towel. Sure enough, when I stood up a gush of fluid came out. I called my doula/montrice Jocelyn and she agreed, saying she'd head over to the house to check and monitor baby in a bit. I was excited and started to get everything ready for the hospital, however by the time Jocelyn arrived 20 minutes later I had had at least 3 or 4 painful contractions I couldn't walk through. She confirmed it was my water and listened to babies heartbeat, but even just sitting still waiting for her to check became really uncomfortable. We timed the contractions and they were 5 minutes apart for about a minute. I got in the shower briefly but soon realized it was time to GO. Karl called Sunnyside as we got into the car at around 10:45 pm. I had planned to labor as long as possible at home, but I progressed so fast it wasn't for long!

At labor & delivery I couldn't even walk 10 feet from the car to the door without having a contraction, so they wheelchaired me in to triage. I was so focused on getting through contractions that I barely remember much besides blindly signing papers! Couldn't get the hospital gown on without having one or two contractions from the bathroom to the bed. My contractions were 3 to 1 minute apart at this point, definitely very active labor. Sometimes I wouldn't even get a break between them. I don't think they even checked my cervix! Karl called my mom to come in to the hospital. I was able to get a room with the deep tub and we moved there.

I labored in the tub for an hour or two before I started getting overheated and my face was tingling so I moved to the bed. I labored there in almost a reclined sitting position as I worked through contractions. I thought I was being loud with vocalization, but apparently they couldn't even tell when I was having a contraction! My doula suggested other positions like standing and knees but those were just too painful. My hormones hadn't had enough time to catch up with how fast and strong the contractions were. I ended up getting an IV because I kept throwing up (at random, never felt nauseous) and couldn't even keep water down. I did have continuous monitoring (luckily with telemetry) but I think that was because my contractions were so close together or because my water had broken. But according to babies heart rate she barely noticed I was in labor. 

At about 6 am June 11th, I had the "I don't think I can do this anymore" feeling so I asked that they check my cervix. I was 8 cm! That really helped me, whatever I was doing was working :) By around 7 ish I was complete but still didn't feel the strong urge to push, although mentally I was ready to push that baby out! I started to do self directed pushing but it wasn't as effective as it needed to be so the midwife offered her help. I pushed on the toilet with her really directing me, it was hard to push past the pain and that wall of pressure. We got baby almost all the way through the birth canal and moved back to the bed. That was a fun walk! With my mom and Karl holding my legs and supporting me Andromeda Wren was born at 9:45 AM.


Andromeda Wren Baker was 8 lbs 14 oz and 22 inches long. Her head was 14 centimeters (no wonder pushing was so hard!). My 12 hour labor was totally unmediated and I was so happy with the whole experience. We did skin to skin immediately and she barely fussed and was super alert. I tore in a few places but none were too bad, although my tailbone was a bit bruised. I would go through the whole thing over again in a heartbeat. 
Her daddy and I love her so much!



xoxo 

K

1.12.2015

Resolution

It's the New Year and after finally decompressing from the holidays (although it seems as though my body is still catching up) its time to start in on a new routine!

Karl and I have both been vegan previously, and it helped my health tremendously. From my skin (no break outs), to my mood (after getting over the sugar addiction hump), to my gut. But we have fallen off the proverbial wagon, and who can blame us? We have a demanding 7 month old after all.

But life is no excuse when it comes to health and happiness. From my approximately 6 months of vegan-ness that I experienced I can truly say that eating that way made me literaly happier. And what better time than the present to make a new resolution?

However, knowing that life throws you curveballs, I find the best way to set yourself up for success is to be realistic. Making a home-cooked vegan meal EVERY night is not a realistic staring point. So here are the rules of my new resolution:

  1. Eat primarily vegan (avoid meat and dairy, although don't beat yourself up about the dash of honey)
  2. Limit the amount of white flour and white sugar
  3. Stick to whole foods
  4. Don't count calories, but only eat when hungry (I'm looking at you fig newtons)
  5. Eat breakfast every day (Starbucks doesn't count!!)
  6. Bring lunch to work as often as possible using dinner from the night before (this works well as most recipes are written for 4)
  7. Have 1 meat day a week (chicken or fish - lean protein)
  8. Have 1 cheat (eating out) day a week.
  9. And most important of all, MEAL PLAN. Go grocery shopping and stick to the planned meals, even if the days shift around a bit.
Personally, I see this as more of a lifestyle choice then a diet, and I know it will take some time (and grumpy-ness) to change the routine. But honestly, I see this plan as being more effective in the long run than any fad diet.

If A can do it so can we!

Mommy's milk is vegan right??


Now to convince the husband :)

xoxo

K

7 months.


Baby girl, you are 7 months old and full of personality. Bright blue eyes and light brown hair. We have to clip it to the side already to keep it out of your face! No teeth yet, but plenty of drool. You love to be scared and giggle, snort, and laugh. "Da" is your favorite thing to babble, "Dada" as Karl likes to remind me. You also know "Baba" and "Ts" and how to blow bubbles. You can sit assisted, a master of tummy time and rolling. Not crawling yet, but we are guessing that it will be any day now.


Eating is a daily activity and you get to try everything that we eat, from avocado to ravioli. You smack your lips when I'm cutting up your bananas and apple. However, a good portion seems to go off the table as a treat for the dog. The only bad thing about the food is the stinky poops that come out! It makes cloth diapering a bit more interesting. Good thing daddy installed the sprayer on the toilet downstairs.


You are growing so fast I can barely remember how small you were (although you weren't that small at almost 9 pounds). You love to make music or listen to jazz, dancing around the house with Daddy making big kicks. Every day you read books and you talk at the pictures, or yell, covering your face with them while wiggling or gnawing on the end of the page. The kitties are very exciting and you love to pet Oscar. You also like to bounce up and down in your jumper. It seems like you would do it for hours on end if we would let you.



We love you so Andy Wren.

xoxo

K



1.11.2015

Ravioli Slumber

Last night A ate a whole ravioli. She is really getting the hang of this eating thing. Then, she slept until 5 AM!

In other news, I woke up at 4:30 AM to discover that my breasts had become filled with achy rocks and were porn star size.

You win some, you lose some.

1.09.2015

Left out

Such is the life of a new mom.

It might my own pessimism that seems to have clouded my mind the last few weeks, but I feel more alone then ever when it comes to friends. Because I was the first one to have a baby in my group of friends, I feel like there is so much misunderstanding about what I am interested in, how much free time I have, how to even be my friend now. What a culture I live in where everyone wants to see the baby the first two weeks of their life (forget about how mom feels) and then disappears until the maybe special occasions. I wish I lived in a society that reached to new families and surrounded them with the support they need.

Before I gave birth, I will admit that I would tend to be the one to reach out to people. Despite struggling with having friendships that weren't necessarily reciprocal, I accepted that. If I didn't put myself out there, make the plans with people, I would have to live with the fact that I may not have friends. Always the instigator. And I did have close relationships. But after having A, I rarely have time to reach out more than an offhanded Facebook message. My needs are different now; I either need to go out after baby goes to sleep at 7 PM or get home before I have an overtired, fussy, screaming child. I would gladly welcome any invitation to escape for a few hours.

So not only do I have to lean on my husband for almost all of my physical and emotional support, all the friendships that I had seem like they are indefinitely on hold.

"I think everyone just assumed you'd be on baby duty."

I feel like no one reaches out to me. It's so isolating.

1.08.2015

Buddhism fail

Well, that was major fail. We went to the 7 PM class and I mistakenly, naively, thought that A would sleep through the mediation and teachings. WRONG. I was trying to nurse her to sleep but the room and people were just way to interesting. During the mediation she stopped nursing to look around at all the others, Why are you guys so quiet? "DADADADADA". Needless to say, I had to remove myself and we ended up leaving early.

How embarrassing...

Havarti Dog Farts

My cloth diaper addiction continues…


In other news, Arctic (the bad dog) managed to feast upon hummus, a whole package of havarti cheese, tortillas and an undisclosed something in a plastic bag today. This dog drives me insane.

Time to eat delicious vegan pizza before heading out to Buddhist meditation with the bae's.

NW Flight - Admiring the beauty

Some pictures of my flight to Grand Coulee/Electric City on Tuesday. It was a beautiful day despite the stagnant air on the ground, in fact, it made it more beautiful.



Mt. Rainer


Mt. St. Helens

Downtown Portland through the haze

The views almost made up for the fact that I nearly had a panic attack before the flight upon realizing that I had not yet finished getting my travel approved. Thankfully the pilots let me on the plane.

K