the giraffe life

Our family expanded earlier this week! Ahh still in shock that I have a baby! She is happy and healthy though and I'm recovering fine :) I chose to have her at a birth center and it was perfect. A relatively short labor and then I delivered her in a giant bathtub. I would definitely have a water birth again! Pushing was the hardest part and crowning was painful for me (though I'd already forgotten how bad it hurt when they put her on my chest) but I'm glad I did it drug free because I could feel everything and giving birth is an incredible feeling. Plus I was super proud of myself afterwards, haha! We love her so much. Just soaking in every minute.   I'm not sure I want to post her name and have it searchable on the blog, so check out  this list - her name is number 8 .  And to think, last November we thought we couldn't have children. Feeling sooo grateful! :) Oh and please excuse my absence around the web these past few weeks . . honestly, I probabl...

Just a quick update (prompts stolen from Olives n Wine ) . . feel free to ask me questions in the comments! Due Date: November 1st How far along? I hit 36 weeks yesterday! Full term at the end of this week :) Maternity clothes:  Yes, I've had to wear them for quite a while now. Looking forward to wearing regular things soon though! Stretch marks:  None yet. Sleep: I sleep soundly from 8pm to my first bathroom break (around midnight or 1am), then I toss and turn til about 5 when it's time to get up. My hips get sore so I have to switch sides every hour or so. Best moment this week: Going to the doctor's and hearing the baby's heartbeat. Always amazing! Miss anything? Sleeping on my stomach and bending over. I have to squat when I drop things on the floor, haha.  Movement: Lots of movement! This baby loves to dance around after I eat and when I'm laying in bed at night. Sometimes it will just push on the sides of my belly and stay there, like a...

Mr. G and I aren't finding out early if our baby is a boy or a girl - we're happy to wait until the baby is born. Of course I've heard a lot of predictions (adamant predictions!) so I thought I'd go through some old wives' tales for fun. Morning sickness - nausea = girl, little/no nausea = boy For me:  on/off nausea depending on the day = girl Chinese Gender Chart - a chart matching your age and month of conception For me:   girl Mayan Gender Prediction - add the year of conception and the mother's age. Even number = girl, odd number = boy For me:   girl Baby's heart rate   - over 140 bpm = girl, under 140 bpm = boy For me:  the baby's had a range of heartbeats, so inconclusive ! Besides, our midwife said the heartbeat gradually slows down over the course of the pregnancy anyway. Season of conception - winter = girl, summer = boy, spring and fall = equal chance For me:  conceived in the winter = girl Cravings - craving s...

Yes, it's crazy - I'm pregnant. Ahhh! I was feeling off the last week of February. Mr. G and I agreed I'd take a pregnancy test on Saturday morning (our work schedules don't mesh any more so we're only both home and awake at the same time on weekends). I saw that second pink line and immediately sank to floor, head in my heads. It was such a shock! Mr. G was surprised (and I think a little overwhelmed too though he'd never admit it) - he drove to the store for another brand of test, and all told I took 5 that morning. Ha!  We just stared at all those positive tests and each other. Then we moved on to elation + surprise. :) a bump! I still kind of can't believe it. It's hard to wrap your head around! I've toyed with the idea that perhaps our infertility diagnosis was inaccurate but it doesn't really matter. Sometime this fall, we'll have a baby! (I'm officially due November 1st, but not holding my breath.) The first trimeste...

I think the only thing better than dreaming up goals is checking them off :) Finances Put at least $2000 toward mortgage prepayment  - Yes! We actually paid $2600 by September.  Save for daycare  - Change of plans! My employer doesn't provide paid maternity leave so I figured we'd kill two birds with one stone - practice paying for daycare and use the money to pay bills while I was home with a baby. Since we now know we'll need medical intervention to have a baby, this savings account will instead be the start of our fund for that. I'm super glad we have this moolah set aside!  Personal   Finish my degree  - Probably my proudest moment of the year! I turned in my final project in April and graduated in May :) Read 50 books  - Success! 73 books in all. I'll have a post about my favorites soon. Marriage Travel at least twice  - Yes! We traveled to California to celebrate our anniversary in June and to NYC for a day in November. Learn something ...

I don't think it's a secret that Mr. G and I would like to expand our family - it's made appearances in both my 2014 goals post and my bucket list post. But I guess the secret is - we've been trying for a while with no luck.  So Mr. G and I had some tests done and the doctor broke the news to us last week that for us, becoming pregnant naturally is extremely unlikely. We are infertile. We're devastated. How could there be no kids in our future? Mr. G's doctor wants us to wait 6 months, then repeat the testing. If the results are poor again, then we'll be referred to another doctor to start talking about IVF (fertility drugs alone won't work in our situation). Unfortunately, IVF is a complex, costly procedure not covered by insurance. We could afford one round (about $12,000), but what if it's not successful? Adoption is just as complicated and even more expensive (about $25,000). So many what ifs. While we haven't given up completely...

To celebrate my dad's birthday, we took him to a live  America's Test Kitchen  event. It was a behind the scenes look at the TV and radio program by the same name. My dad has enjoyed the show for years (Mr. G and I don't watch it, so we were clueless). We learned that the test kitchen's mission is to help everyone cook great food at home, and they try to help people accomplish this by testing kitchen equipment, comparing food products, and perfecting recipes.  The TV and radio show's host, Christopher Kimball, was also our host. He was excellent! So funny and a great storyteller. He highlighted different parts of the show for us (a relief for this newbie) and they did some live demonstrations of the show's typical parts.  One such part was a recipe experiment. The match up was between burgers made with store-bought ground beef and those made with freshly ground meat that is immediately cooked. They found the freshly ground meat was superior in ease of cook...

It's 2014? That'll probably sound weird to me until at least March. I'm looking forward to the new year, despite the fact that it doesn't quite feel right yet. I've been enjoying reading everyone's goals too and have some of my own to throw out there: source:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/HappyTownUSA haha, I love this graphic! Becky and Lucinda also used it, so I'm in excellent company. Finances Put at least $2000 toward mortgage prepayment  - Last year, we put an extra $1550 toward the principal, and I'd like to beat that! :) Save for daycare  - I'm not pregnant. And I know it's impossible to fully prepare to be a parent - but this is something we can start now. Hopefully it'll help us get used to the added expense way before we have a baby. Childcare estimates seem to run about $150/week in our area, so this amounts to setting aside $300 per paycheck. Personal   Finish my degree - Should be done in May! Woohoo :) Read 50...

My family always makes cookies for Christmas. It's one of my favorite traditions. This year, we ended up baking 5 batches of cookies - peanut butter, chewy chocolate chip , Black-Eyed Susans, oatmeal (minus the raisins), and chocolate chip . While that's certainly not setting any world records, we had fun without the stress (which is what happens when we try to make 12 batches in one day). My ever-present inspector I thought I'd share one of my favorite cookie recipes - Black-Eyed Susans (I also love  the plant ). They're made with peanut butter and chocolate so this is just the perfect recipe for me. They'd be great for spring parties too. Aren't they adorable?! Black-Eyed Susan Cookies • 1 stick melted butter (1/2 cup) • 1/2 cup sugar • 1/2 cup brown sugar • 1 egg • 1 1/2 tablespoons warm water • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract • 1 cup creamy peanut butter • 1 1/2 cups flour • 1/2 teaspoon salt • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda • chocola...

So I promised you more details about the quilt I mentioned here . It was a present for my hubby. Care to guess the theme? I guess the post title kinda gave that away ;) While I am super proud of this quilt, I did very little of the actual sewing, pinning, etc. and don't feel comfortable writing a post with any semblance of a tutorial. Instead, I just want to share photos and some of the behind-the-scenes logistics.  I came across the quilt above online (sadly, I have no source) and loved it immediately. My mom's made tons of quilts - probably around 35 - so I emailed her the picture to see if she could recreate it. Usually, she starts with a pattern or measurements in mind, not just a photograph, but she was willing to try! Picking the colors was easy - my husband loves the Flyers, so we took a Flyers' hat to the fabric store, and bought the closest color matches. Then we played around with varying size stripes that would add up to 84 inches (since our bed is...