Introducing Austin Jerome McGee =)

As I look back at my last post back in June, I can’t help but laugh.  I wrote about having my hospital bag all packed.  Well, good thing it was packed because Austin was born not long after that.  But, before I get to that, let’s recap some highlights/lowlights of last 9+ months.

August- Drew and I decide it’s time to start a family!

October- After only two months of purchasing pregnancy tests every day (maybe only a slight exaggeration), the test finally came back positive.  Yippie!  The estimated due date is July 6.

February- It was time to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl.  It’s a boy!  We not only found out the sex of the baby at this ultrasound, but we also received some other news.  There was a chance our baby could have Down Syndrome, as he had three physical markers visible on the ultrasound.  The markers were not worrisome alone, but together they increase the likelihood of Down Syndrome. To think that my child will already have a difficult time in life no matter what, is one of the saddest feelings I had ever experienced.  We had to make a decision whether or not to have an amnio done so that we could be sure.  Since there is a risk of miscarriage, people are sometimes only advised to get one if there is a chance of terminating the pregnancy.  Since that was not the case for us, we didn’t think we would get one.  However, the next few days of wondering “what if”, was too much.  I think the stress would have done more harm than the chance of miscarriage.  There was so much to think about, since I am a planner.  Since my background is in special education, I was just thinking about all the planning and services to get an early move on.  The amnio went smoothly, and the results came back negative for Down Syndrome and other chromosomal disorders.  Although this was good news, there was also news that only one kidney was visible.  Since this is more medical in nature, it was less of a stressor for me. Also, many people are living with one kidney and don’t even know it. I do know I will be that crazy mom who is going to not want her son to be involved in contact sports, since the risk of injury to the working kidney is higher. But we can worry about that later.

March- Babymoon to Arizona

May- Baby Shower! (I finally have the pictures too, maybe I should post some)

June -

June 12th-

Drew and I had a consultation with Austin’s future pediatrician.

I went to my weekly Dr. appt.  Nothing spectacular.  She informed me we would measure dilation the following week.

June 13th – I fell in love with someone else and his name is Austin.  Sorry Drew.

But I am pretty sure he fell in love too;).  But, I am getting ahead of myself.  2:30am- My water broke.  I wasn’t exactly sure, but I pretty much knew that’s what was happening.  Off to the hospital we went,  three weeks earlier than expected. Well, that’s a lie.  The whole pregnancy I was saying Austin would come early, since he was measuring big the whole time.  So, we hung out at the hospital all morning.  I really wasn’t feeling anything until about 7 or 8.  Austin was born at 1:53 p.m. and weighed 6 lbs 14oz.  Not bad for being 3 weeks and 2 days early.

We stayed in the hospital for 2 days and went home Friday.  Monday, at our first doctors appointment, we were sent to the hospital.  Austin was looking a little too yellow and had lost a lot of weight.  We were a wreck.  Long story short, he had jaundice and dehydration, something not too uncommon with premature babies.  A couple days at the fabulous, new, Lurie Children’s Hospital and we were good to go. Austin spent a couple of days there tanning like Snookie and  filling up on fluids.

He just celebrated his one month birthday and is better than ever!  He now weighs 8 lbs 13 oz and is eating like a champ.  He is starting to become more alert and is sleeping more at night which is great.  He loves building his eye/hand coordination on his play mat.  Today, he seemed to find his lips and started making some smacking noises which is so cute.

Well, there’s the story of Austin so far.  Expect more Austin updates the cooking/baking ones, since there is a lot less time for that lately.

~Jess

WIAW

Well once again I have been horrible about taking pictures of some delicious food I have been eating, but  I managed to remember a few times.  Maybe pregnancy brain is to blame.  Especially since this happened yesterday:

Bags all packed

I packed my hospital bag yesterday.  Drew has been insisting I do this, although he is usually the one that packs last-minute.  Also, is it normal to pack a suitcase like this?  I mean, we are only going to the hospital and don’t need much.  Drew has not added his things to the bag and I am scared of what he might pack.  I have images of him trying to keep up with a regular routine.  For example, I have images in my head of  it being 7 am at the  hospital and him deciding its a good time to take a shower- you  know, when I am in labor and all.  For his sake, I hope he knows better =).  My cord donor paperwork also arrived in the mail yesterday- it’s supposed to arrive 3-4 weeks before delivery date.  Which means, we are only weeks away.  Yikes!  I hope we are ready for this!

So, there was a brief baby update.  Now on to food updates.  I still have some energy so I have been trying to cook when I can to avoid eating horribly. Like, for example, the McDonalds dinner we had Sunday. We are going to try to avoid those.

We had people over for Memorial day and I made a bunch of snacks which everyone seemed to love- and of course I completely forgot to take pictures.  In fact, I didn’t take any pictures at all!  Pretty sad considering it was our last get together as a household of two.  Anyways, here are a couple of dishes I made since then:

Chicken Kabobs and Brown Rice Salad

Chicken Kabobs and Brown Rice Salad

I don’t know why we don’t make kabobs more often. I always have chicken, peppers and onions at the house.  And it’s so easy to make!  I just marinated the chicken in Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce an hour before and the vegetables in balsamic vinegar and olive oil.   So tasty.  I found the recipe for the Brown Rice Salad on my favorite blog.  The recipe says to serve it at room temperature or slightly chilled, but I definitely enjoyed it warm the best.  I loved it the first day but didn’t care for it the next.

Orzo stuffed peppers and mixed greens with raspberry vinaigrette

Orzo stuffed peppers and mixed greens with raspberry vinaigrette

I’ve made this before and it’s a really good meatless dish.  I added the salad and prayed it would be enough to fill Drew up; he tends to think of meals as always needing meat.  I found the Orzo Stuffed Pepper on pinterest.  I just finished left overs for lunch and it was just as good the second day.  I put this little salad together and I was pretty impressed at how tasty it was.  I just bought some raspberry vinaigrette so I decided to add that to some mixed greens, along with some fresh raspberries, slivered almonds and some red onion.  Drew was equally impressed.  I put it together on his plate without asking him the usual “What kind of dressing do you want?”, since that always means 1000 island and a mound of croutons.

And now, for my favorite food of the week:

Low Fat Banana Bread

Low Fat Banana Bread

I just finished baking and chowing down on two pieces of this Banana Bread.  I am going to have to watch myself before I eat the whole thing today.  Drew doesn’t like bananas so that means there is no one else to help me devour this; but at least it’s low-fat, right?

Well, that’s it for now.  The baby countdown is underway!

~Jess

Ahoy!

Austin’s nursery is almost finished!  We are waiting for our glider to be delivered to finalize the positioning of all the furniture and then we will hang decor on the walls.  It’s pretty much done though and this mommy to be is happy!

~Jess

Cleaning, not nesting

Happy Friday.  This is going to be a short post because I am in the middle of cleaning.  Some of you might be thinking, “Uh oh, pregnant woman is nesting”.  Nesting is when pregnant woman have the sudden urge to clean house so that it’s ready for baby.  But, I wouldn’t consider this nesting.  It’s just who I am.  A messy house drives me crazy, which means I’ve been going crazy the last month.  Currently, there is so much dust caked around this place due to all the painting/sawing/etc. and now that it’s finally over, it needs to be cleaned.  Especially since this weekend will call for the window unit air conditioners and I don’t feel like blowing the dust throughout the place even more.  But, anyways this is the reason for my post:

The nursery is painted and the crib and dresser arrived today!  A big thank you to Drew for finishing up this week so it was ready for the delivery.  I can’t wait to decorate this weekend although I also think this weekend is going to call for some time outdoors in the summer weather.

Jess

WIAW

What I ate weekly, (the last few weeks).

The nursery is almost done being painted and the furniture will arrive Friday!  Until I can post those pics, I thought I would share some tasty meals I have made and/or ate over the last few weeks.

Homemade Pizza

Homemade pizza

I got this recipe from my mom, although I am not quite sure where it originally came from.  I usually top it with green peppers, onions and ground beef.  I also make it on my pizza stone, which helps crisp the bottom.  The canned tomatoes are really good, although you have to be careful to drain them partly otherwise the pizza will turn out to be a soggy mess.

Mom’s Pizza Recipe

Dough ingredients:

• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1 pkg dry yeast (fleischmans brand usually comes in 3 pack)
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tsp salt
• 2Tbsp oil
• 2 1/2 cups flour

Pizza:

• 1 29 oz can of diced tomatoes
• 1 16 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped green pepper
• sprinkle salt, oregano, and pepper over whole pizza
• 8 oz (1/2 Lb) bag of shredded mozzerella cheese
• 1 Lb ground beef

Directions

• Mix dough ingredients with a big spoon then by hand. Put a little water at the end to moisten. Let dough rise for 1/2 hour.

• Roll out dough, pinch ends up. Put 2 Tbsp oil on (1 on each side of dough).

• Put sauce, salt, pepper and oregano on dough, followed by onions, green peppers, tomatoes, ground beef and cheese.

• Bake at 425 for about 20 minutes or until it looks cooked (check the bottom)

  Strawberry Stuffed French Toast

  

  Strawberry stuffed french toast

  This Strawberry Stuffed French Toast recipe tricked me into thinking I was out to brunch, instead of in my living room.  It was that good.  And it was so easy to make.  Except for the whole cut a slit into the bread part; my hubby helped with that. It probably isn’t that complicated for normal people.  But, me, I am bad with knives.  So instead of ruining the one challah loaf I had, I let Drew help.  We made a good team.

  Raspberry Rhapsody French Toast

  

  Raspberry Rhapsody French Toast

   Now this french toast was actually from a brunch restaurant in my ‘hood.  No pretending here.  Overeasy is in Ravenswood at Damen and Ainslie.  It gets really busy on the weekends, so I have only gone during the week on my days off.  If you have to wait, though, it is worth it.  This masterpiece was on the weekly specials menu, but pretty much their whole menu is delicious.  Here is the description of this french toast from the menu:
   ”brioche french toast layered with vanilla bean cream & fresh raspberries, topped with bittersweet chocolate ganache & served with house-made raspberry syrup, powdered & whipped cream”.  There was no hesitation on my part that I would be ordering this, despite how much I also love the sassy eggs and the banana spiked french toast.
  
  
  Light ‘n Easy Cincinatti Chili
  I don’t have a picture of this since I forgot to take one before I started to chow down.  It smelled so good I couldn’t wait.  I will tell you, it was much better than this:
  

  Skyline Chili

   Skyline Chili is a popular place for Cincinatti Chili.  I am not sure why, since it made me want to vomit.  Really.  I am only smiling in this picture because it was taken, BEFORE I ate the 4 way chili.  However, Courtney’s version was indeed amazing.  You can find it on her site, which is a favorite of mine.
  Well, it’s time to hop onto pinterest to find out what to make this week and get to Mariano’s (my favorite grocery store by far) to stock up for the week.  Hopefully I will get to write about the completed nursery soon!

  ~Jess

Finished Bedroom

I am so excited that one room in our house is completely finished completely livable!

Here is what our old family room looked like before.

Old Family Room

Here it is during construction.

And here is our new bedroom!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love it!  This is currently the most livable room in our condo.  We Drew still needs to paint the closet and french doors, but it’s pretty much finished.  A big thanks to my brother and dad for spending their week off helping get this done!

My brother is on his way over to sand the soon-to-be nursery.  That is the room I can’t wait for.  This past week has been super busy and included my baby shower.  Since all of Austin’s gifts are in our kitchen and living room, his nursery can not be completed fast enough.  So hopefully in the next week or so.  I will post some pics of the beautiful shower shortly, when I can get ahold of them.

Now I am off to get some breakfast.  Which reminds me that I should eventually get to What I at Weekly- or in this case bi-weekly  since I have been slacking.

 

 

Before and Afters

It’s been a busy week!  I have some before and after pics to show some of the progress to our place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our old dining room is now our family room!  We were only able to enjoy it for a couple of day before this happened last night: It became even worse after this picture was taken.  The closet/door/electric crew is working as I write, so the closet had to be emptied before today.  So, its entire contents has been dumped in our family room. Speaking of work, this is what they have sectioned off so they can work.  The hallway is painted!  All it needs is paint on the trim/doors, which my dad is taking care of Wednesday.  Drew and his friend Erik painted the bathroom and the hallway yesterday.  Those two rooms are almost finished. Here’s a look at the bathroom color.  From white to blue; I love it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also changed the kitchen light.  unfortunately, we are scared to take down the molding because we don’t know what’s under there.  But, I am kind of okay with it as time goes on.  Anything is better than that ugly fan.

Also, switch plates can make such a difference!  We opted for some silver ones instead of the white ones that were used before. To be continued….