Charles Joseph Williams

I know it's been 7 months since my sweet little bundle of joy was born, but I need to get this written.  I've started writing his birth story in his baby book, only to get interrupted and not get back to it.  At least if I have it written here, I know I can go somewhere for reference!

Let me just preface Charlie's birth story with a bit of information from my 37 week appointment the Thursday before he was born.  My entire pregnancy was normal, I was an anomaly when it comes to pregnant ladies.  I never once got sick - no nausea, no morning sickness, no back pain, and I never (never ever) woke up in the middle of the night to go pee.  If you would have told me I was pregnant before I started showing, I would've thought you were crazy.  At my 37 week appointment, my Dr. (who is really a nurse midwife, but I'm calling her a Dr. because it's easier to type out, and I absolutely adore her!) did our last sonogram and said everything looked normal.  After checking everything out, she estimated that the baby probably weighed in the upper 6 pound range and I would probably be having a high 7 pound baby.  But, I was in no way ready to go into labor and would definitely not be going early.  The entire pregnancy I had the mind set of holding that baby in for 40 weeks or longer, so this didn't surprise me in the least bit.

Fast forward to the early morning of Tuesday, March 10, 2015, and by early, I mean 4 AM!  I woke up and felt the sudden urge to go to the bathroom.  So I make my trek into the bathroom, take care of my business and go lay back down.  It didn't feel like I got it all out, but I was so tired, I just went back to sleep, knowing my alarm was going to go off in a few hours.  At 5 AM, I'm woken up again by another urge to go to the bathroom and this time it was URGENT!  I'm running to the bathroom and slight gush between my legs, but thankfully I make it to the tiled bathroom in time.  The whole time I'm thinking, I don't get up in the middle of the night to go pee, this is so strange, then it hit me... MY WATER JUST BROKE!  I holler at Brett and he leaps (quite literally) out of bed and it's game on... he was ready to go asking what needed to be done and what he needed to do and if I needed help!  I wasn't convinced yet, even though I was pretty sure that's what just happened, I wasn't ready to face reality of the baby coming quite yet.  I hadn't packed my bags for the hospital yet!

I wasn't feeling any contractions or in any pain so I decided to take my time and get fully ready and pack everything up.  I told Brett to just go through his normal morning routine and I would call the doctor's office once it opened.  I started packing my hospital bag and looked up our doctors website to see what I needed to do.  Remember... I wasn't due for three more weeks so we hadn't gone through the drill of what to do if I think I'm going in to labor!  Around 6:30 I called my mom.  I waited to do this because I knew as soon as I called her she would be in her car and on her way to Kansas City, but I didn't want her to rush if there really wasn't going to be a baby!  She told me to call her back after I talked to the Dr. and she would wait to leave until then.  I was pretty sure it was my water that broke, and I knew that if it was, the baby needed to be delivered within the next 24 hours, so I called the doctor's office to see if they wanted me to come in.  I got the answering service and the doctor on-call called me back shortly after.  I'm pretty sure that Dr. didn't really think my water had broken, but told me to come into the hospital to be checked out.  I texted my boss and told her I wasn't feeling well so I wasn't going to be in.  At this point I still wasn't feeling any contractions or pain, so I took my time taking a shower, ate a small breakfast (which I'm glad I did!) and got ready.  My husband still gives me a hard time about this, but I knew it would be the last time I'd ever get to take a shower in peace without worrying about someone else needing me!  I got completely ready, hair, makeup, and fully dressed... in sweats!  If you know me, you know I don't go out of the house in sweats!  But I had heard so many horror stories of women who's water broke and fluid just came gushing out on their way to the hospital, I wasn't about to ruin perfectly fine clothes!  During this time Brett and I also decided on a boys name.  The entire pregnancy we had a girl's name picked out, but not a boy's name.  I was convinced it was going to be a boy, just because we didn't have a name picked out, but we finally agreed on something so it was set!

Around 7:30 AM we left for the hospital. I was feeling small contractions, but they were still about 7-9 minutes a part and not very painful.  I remember the drive to the hospital being so weird because it was along the same route we took into work every morning and it was about the same time of day as our usual commute.  But I definitely wasn't going in to work that day... I was going to have a BABY!

We arrived at the hospital right at 8 o'clock and I made my way up to Labor and Delivery.  The Dr. had called ahead and told them I was coming so they had all of my paperwork ready to be signed.  I went in and took a urine test and then they put me in triage.  A very kind nurse came in and checked me out and then we waited on Lee to get there to do the full exam.  I still wasn't having consistent contractions so I was in pretty good spirits.  By this time, my mom was on her way to KC, but I hadn't told my sisters yet.  I wanted to make sure this baby was really coming before I told them!  Lee came in shortly after and began to check on how things were progressing and to see if my water had actually broken.

I had never had my cervix checked at my appointments, I was only 37 weeks with no signs of labor, no sense in having it checked!  Oh.  My.  Word.  Now I'm glad I was never checked!  That was the most painful experience of the entire day!  But sure enough, my water was broken and I was dilated to a 3.  We were going to have a BABY!!!  They put me in an actual delivery room and things started rolling!  I STILL wasn't feeling consistent contractions so once they got me fully checked in around 9 AM and hooked up to the IVs, they started me on pitocin.  I finally called my sisters to tell them they were going to become AUNTS TODAY!  They had strict instructions to go to all their classes that day before they could head to Kansas City.  Both of them promised me they would, but do you think they really did?  I knew the baby wasn't going to come any time soon, but they didn't listen (what a shock!) and left for Kansas City right away.  By noon, our waiting room crew had arrived!

The pitocin was starting to kick in and my contractions were getting stronger and stronger... finally, something was happening down there!  I was dilated to about a 5 by now.  I thought I could handle the pain and wanted to try to see if I could do the birth naturally, but I had no clue how long it was going to take to get fully dilated.  The pain was getting pretty bad and by 12:30 I decided to go with an epidural.  It was some time after 1 PM by the time the anesthesiologist made it to my room to administer the epidural.  After getting the epidural, the nurse had me place a peanut ball between my legs to try to get the baby to drop and to get me fully dilated.  This whole time I'm busy texting my family and friends while Brett and I watch HGTV and Food Network.  We had to stick with HGTV after awhile though, Food Network was making me too hungry!

All day I kept telling my nurse that the baby wasn't going to come until later in the day because I had a Dr. appointment scheduled for 4 that afternoon.  Well, about 4 PM, it was time to rock and roll!  We waited on Lee to get to the hospital and once she got there it was time to push!  We started pushing around 4:40 PM.  The epidural really did its job and I couldn't really feel a whole lot, so every time there was a contraction on the screen, Lee would tell me to push.  The entire time, we were watching HGTV, Fixer Upper was on TV and talking about what was going on.  (I really hope all of my labor experiences are like this one!)  I pushed through five contractions until finally.... HE was here!  He was SO beautiful, I couldn't believe my baby was actually here!  I remember my first words being, "What is it?!".  The way Lee was holding him up, I couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl!

It's a BOY!!

Charles Joseph Williams was born on March 10, 2015 at 5:06 PM, weighing 8 pounds, 7 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long, pure perfection.

He started sucking his thumb right away when they placed him on my chest... it was the best feeling in the entire world.  I couldn't believe I finally had my baby to have and to hold.  Shortly after they gave them to me, they took him away, he was coughing and having troubles breathing.  It wasn't anything serious, he just needed his mouth cleared out.  At that time, they also took his vitals while I was getting cleaned up.  When they weighed him and told us that we weighed 8 lb,. 7 oz, none of us believed the nurse, we all made her weigh him again.  Remember me saying they thought he would be in the upper 7 pound range?!  He was one big boy, and 2 1/2 weeks early!

 Our first picture as a family of 3!

Charlie, you are the light of our lives.  I never knew I could love something so much until you came along.  You bring us so much joy on a daily basis, my life is more complete with you in it.  Your dad and I have big dreams for you, little one.  I hope and pray every day that you will grow up following your dreams, that you will be intelligent beyond words, that you are kind and respectful to others, that you love with all your heart and that you know how to laugh and make others laugh.  I want the world for you, and it's all just at your fingertips.

Your dad and I couldn't be more in love.

"Kid, you'll move mountains! Today is your day!  Your mountain is waiting,  So... get on your way!"

Dr. Seuss

Easy and Delicious Guacamole

 I could eat guacamole every day week, so every time I get the chance to make it at home, I'm all over it!  This recipe is super easy and SO good!  My husband and I always try to save some to have the next day with leftovers, but that never happens, it's just too good!  If you happen to save some for the next day, I've found that saving the avocado pit and putting that in the guacamole and covering the surface with plastic wrap helps to keep it from browning.

Here's what you'll want to start out with:

2 Avocados
Half of a red onion, diced small
1 small tomato, diced
A handful or two of cilantro, chopped
1 large lime (or two small)
2-3 Tbsp of minced garlic
Hot sauce - to taste
1 tsp. Chili powder
1 tsp. Cumin
Salt and Pepper, to taste

The line up of ingredients.

Start by slicing open your avocados, taking the pit out and mashing them up in a bowl.  I use a fork to mash them, leaving some chunks, but making it kind of smooth.

Next, dice your red onion and tomato.  You can make it as big or as little of a dice as you want.  My husband likes the guac chunky, so I do a little bit bigger dice with the tomato, but I like the onion to have a small dice.

You can toss both the onion and tomato into the bowl with the avocado once you've got it diced up.  

Roughly chop the cilantro and add it to the bowl.  I LOVE cilantro, so I add a ton.  With that beign said, add as much or as little cilantro as you like.  Then add the juice of the lime to the bowl.  I usually use the juice of one lime, but the grocery store only had small limes, so I used two limes.  I actually found that the smaller limes had more juice in them than the larger ones!

Add your minced garlic to the bowl.  You can mince fresh garlic cloves, but I really like using the garlic you find in the jar.  It's just like fresh minced garlic, except I don't have to do all the work!  I really like garlic, so I will add about two heaping spoonfuls of garlic, add less if you don't like garlic as much.

Next add a squirt or two of hot sauce, this will add some spice so add as much or as little as you can handle.  Then add the chili powder and cumin.  Finally, add the salt and pepper. 

Once you have everything tossed in the bowl, mix it up!  I always taste test mine after mixing it and add what I think it's missing,  Usually it needs a little more salt and lime juice.  The beauty of this recipe is that you can add as much or as little of each ingredient as you like, make it your own!

Here it is all mixed up and ready to eat!

There is nothing better than homemade guacamole!  Enjoy!

Baby Food - My Homemade Version

I never would have thought my first recipe post would have been on baby food, but that seems to consume my life right now!  That and I keep forgetting to take pictures when I'm making dinner for Brett and I and what fun is a blog post without pictures?!
Homemade baby food is really simple and easy and SO much better for baby.  I gathered some extra produce at the grocery store the other week and went to town roasting pureeing away!  First up, sweet potatoes and squash!

I started with two medium sized squash and three sweet potatoes.  After rinsing them off, I cut the squash in half and removed the guts and placed them cut size down on a foil lined baking sheet. I pierced the sweet potatoes a couple times and placed them on the same baking sheet.  Then I placed it all in a preheated 400 degree oven and roasted them for about an hour.  Time can vary on this, I think I pulled mine out at about the 45 minute point.

Once the meat inside the squash and potatoes were tender, I pulled them out and let them rest to cool.

I removed the skin on the outside and put tender squash in a food processor with a touch of water.  I did the same with the sweet potato.  

 Blend (or chop, whatever your food processor says, I only have two buttons on mine!) until you reach your desired consistency.  You can make it super smooth, but I wanted mine a bit chunky so Charlie would get used to "chewing" the food.

I then placed the pureed food into ice cube trays.  Then popped them in the freezer.  This way I'll have individual servings and can take them out of the freezer as I need them.

Once they were frozen solid, I popped them out of the ice cube trays and put them in labeled freezer baggies with the date on them.  Baby food will last in the freezer for about three months.  Whenever I need a serving, I just put it in a bowl and let it thaw out a bit until Charlie is ready to eat it.  It's usually not thawed enough by the time he's demanding more, so I put it in the microwave for about 20 seconds.  It's still a little cold, but easy to mix and mash and he doesn't seem to mind the cold food!

Next up, blueberry and banana puree!  This one was super easy!  You place a pint of blueberries and two ripe bananas on a foil lined (this helps with clean up!) baking sheet.  Make sure you rinse your banana off and rinse the blueberries good.  I had to pick a few stems out of the blueberries before I cooked them.  Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Place the banana and blueberry sheet into the oven and roast for 20 minutes.  This is what it will look like when it comes out of the oven.

Let it stand to cool for a bit, the banana peels get super hot!  Once they are cool to the touch, place the blue berries and unpeeled bananas in a food processor.

Puree away until you reach your desired consistency.  It will have a somewhat pudding like texture to it.  Then place in ice cube trays and pop in the freezer.

Again, I put these in a plastic freezer bag and labeled them.  

This texture was a new one for Charlie.  He wasn't sure about it at first.

But now it's definitely Charlie approved!  This kid loves to eat!

Making your own food definitely takes some time, but it's not hard.  I did all three of these purees in about an hour and a half.  This was also my first time doing it, so next time it will go much faster!  I've also made peaches and plums since then, but no pictures, as I was in a hurry to get them done before the fruit went bad!

Outer Banks Vacation

A few weeks ago, we were fortunate enough to travel to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with my mom and sisters.  I am so lucky that my mom loves to travel, and take everyone along with her!

This also happened to be Charlie's first flight! Doesn't he look excited?!

Our flight was at 5:40 AM!  What was I thinking with an early morning flight and a baby???  Charlie decided to wake up with us at 3 am and not go back to sleep.  That makes for a very upset, tired, crabby baby when the plane is getting ready to take off.  Thank goodness for Grandma!  He actually ended up doing a lot of sleeping on the flights.

And when he wasn't sleeping... he was the life of the party...

Once we arrived in Norfolk, VA, we had about a 2 hour drive to the Outer Banks.  We were staying at The Sanderling Resort in Duck, NC.  It was perfect, the pool was right outside our room and since we were on the 1st floor, we could access the pool from our deck.  And the beach was just a short walk away!  As soon as we got checked in, it was time to hit the pool! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the pool on this day, but this is Charlie post-pool time.  He's always such a happy baby on vacations!

That night we went to eat at a restaurant at the resort, I couldn't wait to eat seafood since we were on the coast, the scallops I had definitely didn't disappoint!

Charlie and Dad waiting to head to dinner.

Day 2 started out at the beach.  It was overcast, but the temperature was perfect!

Charlie's first time in the ocean!  

He loved squishing the sand between his little toes

The whole gang on the beach!

Charlie and his Aunt Maddi and Aunt Kenzie

Charlie better get used to taking lots of pictures!

After a morning at the beach, we headed to the pool for a little more fun in the water.  I promise he was having fun, even if this picture doesn't show it!

Later that afternoon, we went to some shops along the boardwalk.  The view was so pretty and the water was so peaceful!

The next day it rained... and rained some more.... and some more.  We had breakfast at a cute little coffee/book shop and then went to a few stores.  But there's only so much shopping you can do when the shops are outside and it's raining!  We had early dinner reservations that night, at Kimball's Kitchen, so it was nice to have a free afternoon to lounge around... and maybe get in the hot tub in the rain!

Little guy couldn't partake in the hot tub, but wanted to make sure he was dressed appropriately! 

Dinner was delicious, I highly recommend going there if you are ever visiting the Outer Banks and want a nice dinner!

We ended the night with s'mores on the beach and a few more family pictures before packing up to head home the next morning.

It was a fantastic vacation, shared with the best people.  Thank you Moma for taking us on this fun trip!  We can't wait to see where our next adventure takes us!

And So It Begins...

I've always wanted to have a blog.  I love reading other people's blogs, just ask my family!  Every time I share a new recipe or find out about a big sale or some cool new gadget, they can almost always guess that I read it on a blog.  So here we go, we'll see how this blogging thing works out.  Here's to stories about my family, my adorable little guy, Charlie, the food I create in my kitchen and a good glass of wine to go along with it all.  Cheers!