Thursday, February 23, 2012
How do you prepare for the unknown?!
So I know this is something pretty much every mama to be experiences. The wait. Not knowing. How soon is too soon to pack my bag?
I'm just past the halfway mark of week 37. Earlier in my pregnancy it was easy to think "oh ya I won't have any problem waiting til 40 weeks." and truth be told, I still sort of don't have a problem with it. We still have some unfinished business, between P, hubs and I. We're still finishing the renovation of our house, which I hope we can have done by this weekend. I haven't even started washing her clothes. I had my birth center bag mostly packed, and then needed to use the duffel bag for a weekend trip back to our house.
And so, the mad rush to wait begins. I alternate between total conviction that Penelope will be fashionably late or early. I don't have any indication of an early birth, but part of me really believes that we are both running out of room and she's going to want to come out soon. But, no action from her. So I will wait.
I don't think it would be a bad idea or that it would drive me too crazy to have everything prepared even for 2-3 weeks before her birth, but part of me feels like I'm postponing this so that i have something to do while I wait. Instead I guess I choose to sit out most of my days in relative boredom (although they seem pretty full).
Monday, February 6, 2012
Her First Day
On Friday I ended my, what I call now, self gratifying, life.
It's been quite a bit of a lead up to this day and I want to be sure I get it done right. It all started back in mid July when my little pregnancy test told me that my life had already been changed for about 5 1/2 weeks now. We were going to be parents. !!!!
Quiet celebrations abounded between us, but we chose to keep our excitement subdued in case of miscarriage. An 8 week ultrasound confirmed, yes, there is a little someone in there, and we dubbed him/her "Pierogie," after my favorite (and notably the cutest) Polish food. That week we found the opportunity to share the news with both sides of our family in person and then came more waiting. A few more weeks passed by and we were comfortable making the big announcement to all our friends. Right on schedule, within days my employer was asking about my plans for the future. Don't you think it's a bit early to be asking questions like that?
Fast forward to October and our decision was finalized. The hubs applied for and was accepted for a bitchen new job, which gave us the financial security of me becoming a stay at home mom (SAHM). The catch: pack your bags, you're leaving the house you've been renovating for the past year and you've gotta move 3 hours north. A small price to pay for what is going to make the single most largest impact on the financial stability of our family. So, there is was. He began his new job in November, while I stayed at the homestead and finished out the rest of my pregnancy and he couch surfed during the week and came home to work on the house on the weekends. Did I mention that my husband is literally Superman incarnate?
The day came where after 14 weeks of seeing each other for roughly 48 hours per week, I made my exit from the {paid} work life to begin my life serving a more appreciative power- my family. We packed up our necessities and said goodbye to our home... we've still got work to do and will be coming back, but it won't be home base anymore.
Which leads me to the second catch:
We'll be living at my parents til a TBD date. We made the choice to wait until our house sells before jumping into another mortgage. I'll finishing out the last ~5 weeks of the pregnancy living at the 'rents house and be delivering our Pierogie at a local birth center. Husband will still be doing the couch surfing thing with friends and family for part of the week, but we'll now only be about an hour apart (non rush hour time) so we'll see each other more often and get to spend more nights together. Like, lunch dates will now be an option. Wash, rinse and repeat until the house sells and we'll likely have our replacement option waiting in the wings ;) Move into a fabulous new home with babe in arms. A girl can only dream...
It's been quite a bit of a lead up to this day and I want to be sure I get it done right. It all started back in mid July when my little pregnancy test told me that my life had already been changed for about 5 1/2 weeks now. We were going to be parents. !!!!
Quiet celebrations abounded between us, but we chose to keep our excitement subdued in case of miscarriage. An 8 week ultrasound confirmed, yes, there is a little someone in there, and we dubbed him/her "Pierogie," after my favorite (and notably the cutest) Polish food. That week we found the opportunity to share the news with both sides of our family in person and then came more waiting. A few more weeks passed by and we were comfortable making the big announcement to all our friends. Right on schedule, within days my employer was asking about my plans for the future. Don't you think it's a bit early to be asking questions like that?
Fast forward to October and our decision was finalized. The hubs applied for and was accepted for a bitchen new job, which gave us the financial security of me becoming a stay at home mom (SAHM). The catch: pack your bags, you're leaving the house you've been renovating for the past year and you've gotta move 3 hours north. A small price to pay for what is going to make the single most largest impact on the financial stability of our family. So, there is was. He began his new job in November, while I stayed at the homestead and finished out the rest of my pregnancy and he couch surfed during the week and came home to work on the house on the weekends. Did I mention that my husband is literally Superman incarnate?
The day came where after 14 weeks of seeing each other for roughly 48 hours per week, I made my exit from the {paid} work life to begin my life serving a more appreciative power- my family. We packed up our necessities and said goodbye to our home... we've still got work to do and will be coming back, but it won't be home base anymore.
Which leads me to the second catch:
We'll be living at my parents til a TBD date. We made the choice to wait until our house sells before jumping into another mortgage. I'll finishing out the last ~5 weeks of the pregnancy living at the 'rents house and be delivering our Pierogie at a local birth center. Husband will still be doing the couch surfing thing with friends and family for part of the week, but we'll now only be about an hour apart (non rush hour time) so we'll see each other more often and get to spend more nights together. Like, lunch dates will now be an option. Wash, rinse and repeat until the house sells and we'll likely have our replacement option waiting in the wings ;) Move into a fabulous new home with babe in arms. A girl can only dream...
Friday, February 3, 2012
uhm, why Pierogie?
We sort of came up with our own affectionate name for baby before we find out the gender. I've had friends call their unborn baby "sweet pea" "bean" "peanut" etc. Where does "Pierogie" come from, and what does it mean??
Well for starters, I'm Polish :) My parents immigrated over from the motherland and I grew up speaking Polish for most of my childhood and even though we don't really speak the language very much anymore or eat as much traditional food as I was accustomed to, it's still a good portion of who I consider myself to be.
A pierogie is pretty much a pasta shell filled with anything under the sun. My favorite flavors are "ruske" ("russian": potato and cheese, pretty much mashed potatoes), strawberry / blueberry (these are more of a dessert) or ground meat. My mom once told me that while visiting our family in Poland, I asked my pra-babcia (great grandma) to make me banana pierogies. She obliged, but I don't think the result was what I was hoping for.
Making pierogies can be a time consuming task. If you don't have a KitchenAid mixer, you have to kneed the dough by hand. Then, roll the dough out and use a cup to cut perfect circles. You fill each circle with your filling, fold it in half and press the edges together. Kind of like a ravioli. Then you boil them, and if they are a main course style (the potato or meat variety) you may also pan fry them with onions and/or bacon.
I don't really know why I'd choose to call my unborn child after my favorite food in the world. But it's cute.
Well for starters, I'm Polish :) My parents immigrated over from the motherland and I grew up speaking Polish for most of my childhood and even though we don't really speak the language very much anymore or eat as much traditional food as I was accustomed to, it's still a good portion of who I consider myself to be.
A pierogie is pretty much a pasta shell filled with anything under the sun. My favorite flavors are "ruske" ("russian": potato and cheese, pretty much mashed potatoes), strawberry / blueberry (these are more of a dessert) or ground meat. My mom once told me that while visiting our family in Poland, I asked my pra-babcia (great grandma) to make me banana pierogies. She obliged, but I don't think the result was what I was hoping for.
Making pierogies can be a time consuming task. If you don't have a KitchenAid mixer, you have to kneed the dough by hand. Then, roll the dough out and use a cup to cut perfect circles. You fill each circle with your filling, fold it in half and press the edges together. Kind of like a ravioli. Then you boil them, and if they are a main course style (the potato or meat variety) you may also pan fry them with onions and/or bacon.
I don't really know why I'd choose to call my unborn child after my favorite food in the world. But it's cute.
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