Single Mommy 101

So a couple months ago, just before christmas, our dryer broke. We dont know what the problem is but this is the second dryer to break in our house in the past 2 years. It was probably either the fact that we have so many people in one house (7 kids 1 baby 2 adults[well me and the baby dont live there, we just do our laundry there for the time being until i can affrd my own washer and dryer]) and the dryer is running more than it was meant to, or that the kids who are doing the laundry are overloading the dryer and it just cant take the weight of the wet clothes. But instead of going out to find another dryer this time we decided that it would probably be a better idea to put up clothes lines in the back yard and dry our clothes the old school way. Not only did it save us about 200$ on our electric bill but i found it to be a very relaxing and stress relieving activity to do.

Whenever i am doing laundry, i take Avangaline and put her in her sling and then, with laundry hamper in tow, i make my way out to the back yard to hang it up. I dont know what it is, the repetitive motions, the smell of the clean laundry, or the smell of the fresh air. But something about it is really calming. And being a single young new mom, i get pretty stressed out every day between having to be the only one feeding, changing diapers, rocking, and waking up with the baby day in and day out. Dont get me wrong, it is all worth it for my baby girl, she means everything to me and part of me is glad that her daddy isnt here for her because that means that i dont have to share her, she is all mine. But it is just nice to have something i can do that takes some of the stress away.  

okay, so i have decided to do the February photo a day challenge because it seems every other ‘mommy blog’ i follow is doing it as well… so here is to catch up 

1. My baby girl bouncing happily in her bouncer <3 as i am stuck on my laptop for school all day 

2. okay okay not many words there but still, ive been watching the count for the petition to bring back Chuck for a couple days and it has started to slow, and we are no where near our goal yet!! 

3. my baby girls hands :) the cutest, most beautiful thing that i have ever seen… her long gorgeous fingers that are just like mommys :) absolutely amazing <3

So after a very long wait (41 weeks and 2 days to be exact), my beautiful daughter Avangaline May was born January 8th at 4:35 in the morning. 

ill post more on that later though :)

just the other morning i woke up to a little redness in her wet diaper. I freaked out because 1. it looked like blood and 2. she hasnt been pooping lately. So i rushed to the emergency room at 5 in the morning and thankfully they took us in right away since she is a baby. They checked her temperature, took a stool sample, and checked her heartbeat and bowel sounds, then asked me a few questions like: “is she formula fed or breastfed?” (breast) “have you noticed her in any pain before you change a wet diaper?”(no) “was there any problems with your pregnancy?” (no) “is this your first baby?” (yes) and by this point i was getting frustrated and was about to yell at the doctor “ARE YOU GOING TO TELL ME WHATS WRONG WITH MY BABY OR NOT?!”  then he weighed her and i noticed she had lost a whole pound already, now i was worried she wasnt getting enoughh to eat from me and that id have to formula feed her. That doctor left the room and then another doctor came in. This doctor came in and right away started explaining that my Angie was okay. Apparently the redness I saw in her diaper was perfectly normal for baby girls (its them getting rid of mom’s hormones) and breastfed babies not only loose weight before they start gaining, but also sometimes go a while without pooping. 

ok so i have read alot of blogs, books, magazines, and articles on websites about pregnancy and labor and baby stuff… I have read two different rules about when to go into the hospital and am confused which one to really go with… 5-1-1 rule or 4-1-1 rule?? 5 minutes apart 1 minute each for 1 hour or 4 minutes apart 1 minute each for 1 hour?? anyone able to help me with this? (i am writing this while noticing small contractions about 13 minutes apart so i have a bit to go till i have to SERIOUSLY worry about whether or not to be rushing to the hospital… but id like to know so that im not noticing them 5 minutes apart and am sitting there wondering “uhm, should i leave now or wait till they are a minute closer?” end up leaving when they are a minute closer and i end up not making it to the hospital. Or leave when they are 5 minutes apart and end up getting to the hospital for them to just send me back home and tell me to come ack in when they are closer together. so help anyone?

So i am now 5 days past my due date and still haven’t noticed any signs that i could be going into labor. I have heard that it is normal for first babies to be late but couldnt i have been an exception?? I hate having to wait for things, i am one of the most impatient people i have ever known! But of course with my luck I am probably going to be 2 weeks late atleast. Anyone any ideas on how to speed this up a bit??

For those of you that have been pregnant before you will understand what i am talking about. You know that point iin your pregnancy, during the last few days when you feel like labor will never come and you’ll just be hue and pregnant forever?? yeah, thats where i am at right now and ever trip to the doctors office isnt helping! a couple weeks ago he told me that i could go into labor any day but then the appointment a week after that one he told me that i wasnt as far progressed as he originally thought and it would still be a while. So now i am just waiting… trying anything i can to make labor come sooner. Patience has never been my strong suit :P so can anyone tell me ways that you found work to bring on labor??

I started a zazzle store a while back but just recently made the few items i have there visible by everyone. There isn’t much there and it is baby clothes, but i thought I’d share the link with you. Some of the items are things that might only interest a single mother like myself, but i am going to be adding more items soon :)

http://www.zazzle.com/boutiqueavangaline

So this is way late to be posting this but i thought i might as well now, i am expecting! 

Yup! I am expecting a baby girl in the next few weeks. So i am thinking of changing my blog on here from what it is now since i dont update it that often, to a parenting blog soon. Maybe even in the next couple days. I go to school online so i have alot of time on my hands that i could be blogging on here but i dont know why i havent been. I love writing and sharing what i am thinking, i guess i wasnt that interested as i thought i was in the topic i made my blog about, or i was just too lazy to do so. Hey it could even be because i was to lost in baby land in my brain. So i guess i am posting this to say sorry to anyone who might have followed my blog thinking it was going to be interesting and i never posted anything, and sorry that i am going to be changing it to something totally different! But I dont have time to be thinking about tattoos really when there is a little one on the way that takes up all my time already just because i am really excited to finally meet her.