Comfort Food

One of my biggest passions is cooking and baking. I find that cooking and baking soothing, with my home filling with wonderfull smells, and knowing that my family will have treats and goodies to eat. I keep meaning to post more about my baking obsessions, but alas, I never do. So here I start!

One of my favorite recipes is Cream Cheese Brownies. I love them because they are so simple to whip up but have the effect of something much more complicated! You can either make the brownies from scratch, or use a box mix. I usuall just use a box mix.

1.) Prep brownie mix as directed on the box. Pour 2/3 of the mix into a 9x13 pan. Set aside.

2.) Cream together :

• 1 egg
• 3 oz. cream cheese
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 Tbl. flour

3.) Pour cream cheese mixture over brownie batter. I usually use a rubber spatula to push it to the edges and spread it around;make sure you use a light hand while doing this. Spoon remaining batter in tablespoons around the pan. Lightly run a knife around the batter and cream cheese mixture to create a pretty marbled effect.

4.) Bake as directed, let cool for a little while, then enjoy!

Survival Mode!

Today was Matt's first day back at work. I have to admit this day had me nervous...

Having a very active, adjusting three year old and a two week old baby, together, on my own, for eleven and a half hours?

How would it go?

I'll tell you how it went.

1) I managed to get four loads of laundry done. No it isn't folded yet, but as that it's washed, dried, and waiting in our room patiently to be folded? Good enough for me!

2) Went to the store with kids in tow...not once, but twice.( Never again will I forget a list. Going once was an adventure, going twice was exhausting.

3) I managed to plant my garden finally. This involved breaking up the sod and all.

4) Cooked part of supper. I didn't make the hamburgers, but only because I wanted them to be hot when Matt got home, and it wasn't anything to get the already made patties cooked up in no time.

5) Played kickity-kick ball with Noah outside.

6) Took a shower AND blow dried my hair.

Overall, I would have to say that, not only did the day fair well without Matt, I was downright productive!

Just call me the milk maid!

I've pumped over 200 oz. in a week.

I feel ridiculously excited by this.

I think only other nursing moms must know how I feel.

Henry Jon

This is a little late, but I've been busy watching someone sleep and counting eyelashes...

Henry Jon Wappler was born at 8:16 a.m. May 2nd 2010. He weighed 8lbs, and was 21 inches long.(Which is weird, Noah weighed and measured the exact same!)

All day Saturday I felt Braxton Hicks contractions. They were strong but all over the place, so I felt that there really was no point in going to the doctor. I told my mom and we tried timing them that evening, but all of the contractions weren't regular. At about 10:30p.m. I went to bed (but not before I told Matt that he was tempting fate by not having the suitcase packed and ready to go for overnight...he told me he had no idea what I was talking about.)

All night I was pretty restless( or so Matt tells me), and at 3a.m. I was woke up by a particularly painfull contraction. I thought, I'll go to the bathroom to try to make it go away. I went to the bathroom, then laid back down, then immediatley decided to try a bath to make myself more comfortable. I took a long, warm bath, where I pampered myself a little, and washed up. ( Thank God I shaved my legs!) After timing the contractions I was feeling for about 45 minutes( while in hte tub) I decided to get out. My mom was on-call that night( She works as a L&D nurse in a town about a half hour away. I didn't know this though, I ddn't want to wake her up needlessly is she had been cut.) I got out of the tub, ate a banana(which would come back with a vengence) then crawled back into bed. Just as I was snuggled in, and I thought to myself "Now I'm feeling much more comfortable, maybe I will sleep well" I had a terrible contraction. About right in the middle of it, I felt and heard a "POP". Right away I told Matt" I think my water just broke" which I think he replied "Really?" I managed to scoot out of bed without any amniotic fluid getting anywhere, until I stood up. "Yup, it did."

Matt went downstairs to "wake up" my mom. She was, in fact, on call, so she had been awake all night. I went to the bathroom to get cleaned up, and then we called the perinatologist at Abott to ask what we should do next. ( Since I'm high risk,I was suppose to deliver in the cities, but we wanted to know if we should just drive down to the cities, go to the Little Falls hospital, or go to St.Cloud hospital.) The perinatologist told us to go t St.Gabriel's(Little Falls), and get checked. Once we knew wher I was at, then they would decided from there where we would go.) We proceded to St.Gabriels where it felt like forever to see the doctor.

It felt like this since the contractions were getting stronger and more painfull, and the nurse refused to check me because "she didn't feel like it". Finally the on call doctor came in, checked me, and said that I was 3-4 cm dialated. Then he went to call my cardiologist, and the perinatologist. They called the LifeFlight ship too and had them come down. The perinatologist told them to check me right bofore sending me up to the helicopter. In the meantime I was in alot of pain, but with alot of help from Matt, and from my mom, I was able to concentrate through the pain and breathe through them. We heard the helicopter land, and I admit, I was terrified. I didn't want to deliver my baby without Matt there. The doctor came in, and checked me. I was dialated to 5-7 cm, in only an hour, so he went to contact my other doctors again. In a few minutes he came in again with the OB and together we decided that even a half hour helicopter ride would be to much of a risk. We disussed if I should even go to St.Cloud. While the doctors went to confer with each other, we waited and contracted. It was by far the worst pain I had ever felt in my life.

When the doctors came back I was a full 7cm. We decided to deliver there at St.Gabriels, so we asked for pain medication, and then the OB went to catch up with the family doctor. At this time, I felt the need to use the bathroom, so I asked for help with that. One of the nurses helped me to the bathroom. Iwas unsuccesfull, and when I laid back down I felt a not-so-painfull contaction, and then a terrible contraction right on top of it. The nurses prepped me for pushing, and almost right after that I needed to push! They told me I couldn't. The next contraction I did mini pushes, then finally the doctor gave the ok for full pushing, In four minutes, we met our baby boy! The pain meds finally took effect after all the work was done, so I felt great! Henry seemed small, but perfect, he got a 9/10 on his apgar, and took to nursing right away.

Now he's already a week old, and getting on a schedule. He isn't fussy at all, and loves to look at mom, dad, and his big brother.He soothes really well for Nana and Grandma, and loves to sleep on Papa.