The Conception of Zofia "What are the Odds" Brocus

Many of us blogger moms write beautiful, wonderful stories about the births of our children. They're stories filled with happy tears, love, and smooshy newborns. A recent tweet from my friend Keli got me thinking... Sometimes the stories start a little sooner and aren't all unicorns farting rainbows. Sometimes they're more PANIX AND SWEAR WORDZ AND MOAR PANIX!

For all the Henry "Mini Pills" and Zofia "What are the Odds," today we celebrate you.

I found out I was pregnant with Zofia on October 20th. I took an old test in the closet. POSITIVE! NO! Went to the Dollar Store for a fresh new test. POSITIVE! NO! Ran like my hair was on fire to a quick clinic. "I NEED A PREGNANCY TEST RIGHT NOW! I CARE NOT THAT YOU'RE ALL STARING AT ME WITH MOUTHS AGAPE! MOVE PEOPLE!" A nurse gets me to pee in her cup and we wait. NEGATIVE. THANK YOU JEEBUS! I collapse in relief and wait for my "get the hell out of here you lunatic" papers.

In walks the doctor. "Congratulations. I see you're going to have a baby."

"Nooooooooooooo. Not me. Nurse said all clear." says I.

"Well, I looked at the test myself. Definitely positive. You're pregnant." says she.

ROAR WITH RAGE! I run out crying and punch my steering wheel. Why was I acting like such a nutter, you ask? Well, I had JUST gotten on the right meds for my OCD. I was finally going to get better. Pregnancy #2 was NEVER in the plan.

 Little did I know when I woke that morning that a story was a'brewin' in my belly and actually began a couple weeks earlier. Louis and I had been practicing natural family planning for about 2 years, which was just me charting my cycles and telling him to keep the hell away from me the whole week of possible ovulation. One day in late September Athena was spending the night with her Yia Yia and Louis started making with the sexy eyes. "Dream on buddy," I says, "I'm only 2 days out from possible ovulation so don't even breathe by me." Not to be rejected Louis kept pushing the issue. I can still see my self standing in my kitchen, looking at the calendar, and biting my thumb nail. "What are the odds?" I thought. It took 4 entire years to get pregnant with Athena. What are the odds that ONE TIME will do anything.

Ahem. The odds are just fine.

This now 2 year old sitting here next to me is pawing at my chest, yelling "BOOBEES!"and is the absolute light of my life. Every day I sing to her that "I love her like a love song, baby," and I thank God, Allah, Buddha, and Oprah Winfrey that she's here. The universe knew exactly what I needed when they put our molecules together.

Thanks, Universe. I owe you one.

Curvy Girls in Swimsuits

Are you a reader of The Curvy Girl Guide? You should be. Their Project Real - Swimsuit Confidence has been amazing. They are joining forces with Lands' End for National Swimsuit Confidence week and they're making it their mission to get all the shy, self-conscious, and embarrassed women back into the pool. Every single one of those incredible ladies put their swimsuits where their mouths, er, curves are and aren't afraid to lose the cover ups, toss the t shirts and flaunt their assets. They were even on Good Morning America this morning showing off those bodacious bods.

They want to encourage ALL women to have confidence this year. Go on and gitcha'self over to the Guide and look all all the lovely ladies in their suits. (They also show you just where you can get yourself a Lands' End suit of your own.)

In an attempt at Curvy Girl Solidarity, I took a photo of myself in my new swimsuit. .

I'm feeling just fine

Every girl needs fashion advice from her friends...

...and since my dearest lovelies are all here, I pose this question to you.

Since hitting 30 I've become more aware of the appearance of other mommies. In certain situations I look around and wonder why these other mommies look so much more mature than me. I wonder how they make the jump from shopping at, say, Forever 21 to shopping at Chico's. (Not that there's anything WRONG with Chico's. I just think it's the epitome of fine, classy, middle-aged lady shopping.) Is it a slow transition or can it just happen overnight?

My personal quandary today? Bathing suits. The ones I have been drawn to the last few years are VERY different from the suits of summers past. Here are the front runners:

Am I drawn to these because of my love for all things retro or because they're "mom suits?" If you saw me in one of these (which some of you have) would you think "Cute!" or "Look at that mom in her swimdress! Hahahaha!"???

I think my age and my van and my demure hem lines have me feeling insecure. What do you think?

Sunday Sharing - food, blogs, and shopping

There are some things that I'm enjoying more than usual today, and what kind of friend would I be if I didn't share?

First off, Food.
Just because Zofia only let me get about 3 hours sleep doesn't mean Athena isn't expecting me to bake something yummy for breakfast. Enter these little gems:

 Tastefully Simple Oats & Cranberry Bars.

SO tasty, and I used eggs from my mom's chickens and organic butter to make myself feel better :)

Next up, Blogs. Deal Delivery Blog "Your one stop destination for the latest freebies, deals, sweepstakes and more on the web." It's all the coupon codes and free samples you WANT to look for but just never get around to searching for yourself. For example, I KNOW it's a pain to enter all the Pampers and Huggies codes into their sites, but have you browsed their rewards? This is how I did all of my Christmas cards, photo packages, and calendars. The quality of goods they offer as rewards are AWESOME. She has tons of codes listed on her site that you can use. Awesome.

 

And Shopping. For some reason when I'm sad and sleep deprived, I LOVE online shopping. I'm fairly certain there's an 8x10 glossy of me in a heart shaped frame at Amazon.com and Old Navy headquarters.

 

Give & Get Ends Today! (You can see the online code or print the instore bar code here.)

Last chance to get 30% off at Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Gap Outlet and Banana Republic Factory Store in-store or online.

For me:

Athena picked this out for herself:
 

And Athena picked this out for Fifi:

*Note: I LOVE Old Navy's sleepers for babies. They actually have ZIPPERS. Does someone somewhere get off on torturing me with 500 buttons on a squirmy baby's outfit? Come on now...  
And there you have. That seems to sum up this Sunday quite nicely.
 
**Another note: No one is paying me or giving me stuff to make me tell you this stuff rocks. I just really think that all of this stuff does, in fact, rock.

About last night... thank you.

First of all, I want to be totally honest about something. While I thought all of the suggestions I got sounded great in theory, I didn't think there was any way anything was going to work for Zofia and me. I honestly thought this was something that I just had to deal with until she grew out of it. With that said...

Around 9 o' clock I was nursing Zofia in her room, she was dozing, and I was praying to dear God above that we weren't going to have a repeat of the night before. As she started to drift off further and released her latch, I gently put her down in her bed.

SCREAM. FLAIL. ROLL.

Oh no... and I fell right back into it. I picked her up and started nursing again. Why? Because it was soooo successful the night before? Sigh.

She drifted back off again and I gently put her down.

SCREAM. FLAIL. ROLL.

And here's where my brain intervened. It said, "You know what? You got a lot of advice that YOU ASKED FOR yesterday. Aren't you even going to try?"

So I did. I didn't pick her up and nurse. I just gently rubbed her back and let her know I was still there. After about 2 minutes I started to cry a little too because I thought that there was no way I wasn't going to be doing this all night. There was no way just rubbing her back was going to work and I was never going to sleep again. Then after minute 3 SHE.FELL.ASLEEP. I did it and it worked.

Now this isn't to say that the night was perfect. I had to do this a couple more times and I slept for a little while on the floor next to her bed where she could see me, but I did it. It would seem so minor to some, but I got over a HUGE hurdle for myself. I am so grateful for the advice and support I received yesterday, I just can't even put it into words. It made me think of my poor mother when I was born. When she had me, she lived north of Detroit with my biological dad and no friends or family around. After she brought me home, my dad decided it was too much to deal with and took off for Florida, leaving her utterly and completely alone. I was a screamer, colicky to the max, and got croup twice when I was an infant. I was the first baby she had ever been around and she was terrified. I wish so much I could go back in time and beat Al Gore to inventing the internets for her so she could have mommies like you guys to talk to and make things all better for her. How people go it alone, I'll never know.

It takes a village, right?

I've never had a favorite joke.

While I have quite the sense of humor, regular old jokes never really get me. I love stand up comedy and funny stories, but the one liners with the dopey punch lines generally just make me groan.

This is no longer the case.

Every week I read Little Big's "Follow Friday" posts. (It's an abundance of fabulous tweets from various Twitter users.) One of them included this tweet:

AKbirder The bartender asks “what’s that steering wheel doing in your pants?” The pirate answers, “Aaaarg, it’s driving me nuts”.

I keep thinking about it throughout the day and randomly laughing. It's my new favorite joke.

Crafty things going on in the Toledo area today

and

Craft show at the church today from 9am-3pm

8330 Lewis Ave. Temperance, MI

Go see FreckleFace and her Fleur de Lulu creations

Friday Feast - Tardy Edition

Hooray! My sister in law, Jill, over at 2 Peas  did the Feast on Friday. This is one of my favorite weekly posts and it disappeared for quite a while. I'm SO happy to see it back!!

Appetizer:


What is your heritage?
My mom is about 100% British and my dad is Spanish and Macedonian.

Soup:

Where is your favorite place to buy cheap stuff?
I LOVE Meijer!!

Salad:

Have you ever committed a crime or been a witness to one? (i won't rat you out ;)
My best friend and I got caught stealing from Khol's when we were 16. I'm actually banned from there. :)

Main Course:

What car would you buy if you could afford it?
My favorite cars are actually quite affordable. I want to buy a Jeep Cherokee from the last year they were made. Mine right now is ancient. (This actually goes along nicely with the next post I'm writing.)

Dessert:

Do you miss anyone?
My brother.

Join in with us this Friday, won't you?? I LOVE learning random stuff about people.

Finding the Happy

I just stumbled upon a WONDERFUL project called "Finding the Happy" over at Mr. & Mrs. Wright, and I think it sounds like a lovely idea. There couldn't be a better time for it.

I will post my Happy picture every Monday along with a link to the original Finding the Happy, so you can head on over and check out all the rest of the happiness being spread around.

Wanna participate? Just take a picture (has to be a picture you took) of something that makes you happy along with a caption as to why it makes you happy, plus a link on the blog to share. (Share it with me as well, will ya?) Your happiness can be anything: babies, lipgloss, doggies, coffee, etc. So grab your camera and join in the happiest little project this side of the Mississippi.

This calls for Guinness Cookies. Yeah, you heard me.

As many know, I am a breastfeeder and I love it. (In fact, I'm doing it right now!) Athena drank breast milk until she was 2 1/2, and I never had a supply issue until I got pregnant with Zofia. Pregnancy made my milk disappear completely. Athena decided organic milk was tasty, so she switched and made it a non-issue.

Since Zofia was a week old I have had enough milk to feed 3 babies. The only problem was it came out like a fire hose and made her cough, sputter, and fuss. I started researching and discovered that I had breastmilk oversupply & hindmilk/foremilk imbalance. So I started using their suggestions for cutting back. This was a mistake. My production has PLUMMETTED. I'm freakin' out man. I'm in panic mode. I'm making her nurse like crazy, I'm adding pumping sessions, and I'm drinking beer. Call it an old-wives' tale if you must, but it's always worked for me. The problem? I don't like beer. The solution?

Grumbles and Grunts' World Famous Milk Maker Cookies!!

Oatmeal and beer are two of many items thought to increase milk supply, so a-baking we went!

(Athena's baking in her witch costume.)

These cookies are the perfect vehicle to get all the oatmeal and beer-y goodness into me without all the beer-y taste or alcohol! And this morning? I nursed Zofia then pumped out 3 extra feedings .

I believe that's what you call BOO-YAH!!!!!

Hey guys!

2 PEAS IN MY POD brought Friday's Feast back!

Go answer the questions so I can stalk you better.

Real quick like, can I just tell you guys...

... that I have been crazy enjoying NaBloPoMo and actually doing it every day.

90% of that is the warm reception I've gotten and all your fun comments.

Thanks oh so very much blogger friends :)


Speaking of the term "blogger friend," if you are speaking to someone and want to make reference to one of the bloggers you frequently read, what do you call them? Do you say "my friend," "this blog I read," "my blogger friend," or am I the only one that talks about other bloggers in everyday conversation?

Just curious.

BlogHer? I barely knew 'er!

I just became a member. I know, first NaBloPoMo now blogher? I'm not sure where all this full-force blogging desire is coming from, but whatever. I'll ride it out.



Anywho. Anyone else a member? Do you use it? Do you feel like you're networking? Are there any other blog communities you like?



Fill me in. I'm ready to join you.

H1N1: A love story

In case you don't read her blog, or in case you didn't see it on Facebook, or in case I haven't shoved it down your throat enough:

H1N1: A love story.

by barefootfoodie on October 21, 2009

Ok, so here is the deal.
I seldom get all mommy up in here.
This is my place. For my life stories.
Sometimes the stories are about me being a parent, mostly they are about me being an asshole.
In fact, not a week ago, I would have written some scathing post about that ballsack of a father that creepy, Village of the Damned balloon kid has.
Or about my dad’s recent decision to conduct his daily business in denim overalls.
Or even about this old boyfriend I had that I caught in bed with a stripper named Shauna, whose entire upper lip is now just one giant, oozey herpe sore, and I am pretty sure his dick fell off.
But today, I can’t.
I’m gonna take a moment, as a mommy, to tell you…the last thing you should have to do, as a mommy, is to sit with your sick kid in a quarantined hospital room, with needles coming out of his arms. And, the only contact he has outside of his mommy is with people in scary masks and full body rubber suits, who treat him like he has the plague.
And, there are all these other kids, just like him. Equally sick. Equally miserable. Totally fucking freaking out.
And to think. If the vaccine would have been available sooner, this all could have been prevented.
Get yours.
Share and Enjoy.

I shall follow this up with a little Q & A based off of the things I have seen, heard, and been asked RE: The dreaded H1N1 vaccine.

Help a blogger friend win!

This is the post from Charming.Magnificent.Talented.

I am trying SOOOOO hard to win the scrapbook desk from The Original Scrap Box and I have
had so many wonderful people help me!

Everytime I think I have done good, I haven't done good enough. Wednesday,
I was in 1st place with 3978 points and now I am down again....by 1139 points.
The top 3 winners get the WONDERFUL EZ View Scrap Desk! I just want to be in the
top 3!

This desk would give me a space of my own not taken over by toys and paint
ball crap. (Sorry Jeremy, I love you!) It's bad enough I share my closet with my
Aubrey but I have to keep my scrapbook things in a rolling tote that is jam
packed and is to heavy to even roll!! Having this desk would make my life so
much easier.I am begging you bloggers and scrapbooker out there....if you can
post a blog about The Original
Scrap Box (with photo), I would be forever grateful!