Meet Our Baby

We've had a very busy, but GOOD morning here. Lily and Eamon are actually napping together right now, it's really cute.
Well, we were confused as to just how old this baby was [and whether or not it was one or two!] so we went to the ultrasound clinic to check on the bean.

Meet Rhys or Norah [or whatever God says it's name should be ;]

He or she is the size of a little blueberry, only seven weeks old [but somehow still causing quite a ruckus in there!]

Eamon and I have decided to only have one ultrasound unless something goes wrong, and not to find out the sex until his/her birthday so the rest of it's journey will be a mystery to us! We love you SOOOO much little one, even Lily. [Even though she tried to crush you during our sneak peak. She IS sweet, I promise]

Hope you all have a loverly Tuesday!
Mae

Bad Wifey, BAD!

So, somewhere between throwing up, successfully teaching Lily her eyes, nose, and mouth, eating and being repulsed by everything in sight...

I've forgotten how to be a good wife.

Seriously. On about day three of this funk, I realized what was going on but was WAY too proud to admit it. I kept saying "But I'm in my first trimester, all of my other friend's husband bend over backwards for them, WAAAAAAH!!!"
Sidenote: It pisses me off beyond belief when women gab about how amazing their husbands are all. day. long. "oh, my husband is SOOOOO PERFECT, blah blah blah" They sit there on Facebook, Twitter and their blogs building up their expectations of their husbands SO HIGH that when they aren't met that everything falls in their lap like a crappy plate of spaghetti. FACT: A young lady I know did this so much I cut her out of my "social networking life", gay, I know. But it turned out their marriage didn't even last a year! Come on ladies, keep it real. I'm not saying air your dirty laundry, but when you do this sort of thing not only are you creating false expectations of men for the women around you, but you're setting yourself up for failure.
So then after a few days of feeling sorry for myself and truly convincing myself that I was doing everything humanly possible to keep up with the house- Eamon called my bluff. Seemingly out of nowhere [preg-nant] Eamon said the words I'd been fearing all week "I just don't know what you DO all day!?!?"

In my head I started scrambling to put together a list of "what I do's" to prove him wrong...but he was right. I've totally been laying around, half assing all of the chores, not giving my best effort. I AM pleased to say that Facebook wasn't the culpret this time around. There have been times in my life where I have very, VERY guilty of sitting on FB bouncing from profile to profile...wasting my life. Not the case anymore, THANK JESUS.

I got this tattoo about a month ago
For a few weeks I was totally inspired, totally convicted, every day. After about a week of...not being an Industrious Woman, I finally remembered why the heck I did this.

Proverbs 31:10-31

¹⁰ ^c]">[c] A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.

¹¹ Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.

¹² She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.

¹³ She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.

¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.

¹⁵ She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.

¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

¹⁷ She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.

¹⁸ She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.

¹⁹ In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

²⁰ She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.

²¹ When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

²² She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

²³ Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.

²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.

²⁶ She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

²⁷ She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

²⁸ Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:

²⁹ "Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."

³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

³¹ Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Here's to being inspired by this woman, and here's to me getting the energy and motivation to keep up with my home!
Mae

NO! SLEEP! TIL BROOKLYN! [style pizza]

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Guess who went to bed at 11 last night in hopes of a long, luxurious sleep?
Me!!!

But wait...who only got four hours of sleep [which is probably the most she's had all week!] las night?
MEE!!!

I don't know how many of you follow me on Twitter and Facebook, but I have said before that Lily wakes up from a dead sleep anytime we have pizza, it's kinda scary actually. She loves it. 90% of the time it's homemade so I don't mind but last night we ordered Domino's.

Let's back up a little bit further.
We have NO groceries in our house. None. Nada. Last night I improv'd dinner and it wasn't good. Or filling. For me anyway.
I did have some chicken that we needed to finish off, a can of crushed tomatoes and some onions and some cous cous. So I made "soup" out of the tomatoes, water, salt, onions and garlic, and a little milk. It was gross. I served it over cous cous and ate two bowls because I was so hungry. Lily ate two wings and a leg of the chicken. I was so excited. The more protein she eats, the harder she sleeps. I ate supper with her even though I usually eat when Eamon comes home because I was so hungry and planning on going to bed early.

I got her to sleep, NO problem. Cleaned up the house, blogged, relaxed, was ready for Eamon to come home and go to sleep. But at 930 [when Eamon gets off of work] I got so hungry I almost puked. He usually gets out at about 935 so I called him at 940 to ask him to pick me up some more food. No answer. At 942 he walked in the door.
WWWHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!!
Usually, I'd be thrilled that he was home twenty minutes early. But my stomach was eating itself and I was trying not to show him I was pissed. He didn't feel good so he headed home early. I really didn't want to be the horrible wife that slapped her sick husband for not feeding her.

I panicked! No food, pregnant woman, hormones, sick husband...WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?!?!?!
I went to the Domino's website. Ordered a LARGE mushroom Brooklyn style pizza. And waited as though I might die if the delivery guy didn't show up in the next ten seconds. I watched the computer screen INTENTLY watching the progress bar as it went from "taking your order" to "prep" to "bake" to "quality check" to "delivery."
Juan finally arrived with our..ahem, MY pizza. I sat down, opened the box, inhaled the chemical concoction smell that filled the air, and heard Lily wake up. I SWEAR, this kid KNOWS when there is pizza in the house. I had a theory that she just heard the oven timer go off and that she just knew THAT meant pizza. Nope. She got out of bed, walked down the hallway and waited to see if I indeed had pizza. I finally came out of the corner I was hiding in and she waddled over sticking her hands out waiting for her slice. I gave her a piece of crust and let her sit with us while we watched The Office. Eamon ate one slice and Lily ate one bite of one of my slices. I ate the rest. Every last bite.

Then it hit me [no, not that I was poisening my unborn child] Lily was up. LILY WAS UP! I'm supposed to be going to sleep and LILY IS UP!!!!!!

So, eight times last night I put Lily back in bed. Rocked her, tried not to nurse her too much, rubbed her tummy, sang...whatever it took.
At FOUR THIRTY she gave up the fight. Untill about 630. She then took her baby doll, and blanket and came into our room, for the eighth time. And I gave up. Whatever kid.

SOMEHOW she is alive and perky this morning and I look like a zombie.

So, all of that was to just give you some back story to my question,
Anyone have some crack cocain?

Mae

Not Meal Plan Monday

Because [honestly] I haven't written it yet...there will be no meal plan this week. As you've noticed, I've been recycling a lot of recipes because I DIDN'T get a chance to make them the week before. Exhaustion has totally taken over, but I'm gonna make it!

Today was also recoup, recover and move the crap on day for me.
Last week was SO stressful for me.
"How stressful was it?!?!"
I thought I was gonna miscarry. Twice. I stressed myself out so bad that I thought I was going to have a miscarriage. Once while I was on the phone and another in the middle of the night. I started cramping so bad that I couldn't move my legs. It was horrible.
Every single day last week I ran into a new obstacle. Hypocritical "friends", my photography was severely taken advantage of, my mom getting ready for surgery, horrible catty gossip. Ugh it was horrible. I thought that yesterday it might finally be over, but when we were out the door to go to see a doctor about my cough that's allowed me little sleep, I saw that all of the lemons off of my lemon tree had been picked off. I cried. Seriously. Lemons take two years to ripen. I had just re-potted it and put it on our front porch. On Lily's birthday it blossomed about a dozen new flowers in addition to the half dozen plump little lemons that were already growing. Eamon got so mad. He banged on our neighbor's door and chewed out the mom and her kids for constantly screwing us over. The oldest daughter and mother were really apologetic, but the little girl that did it was being such a freaking brat! I wanted to spank her myself!

So, to keep my mind on lighter things and keep connected with my little baby, Eamon and I have been talking baby names. We won't be finding out the sex again, it's all just part of the birthing experience for us, but we have been talking about all the frivolous things to keep me mood from turning sour.

Boy Names
Finn; Both of us were dead set on this name last pregnancy and decided to throw it in again this time. Finn McCool was like the Robin Hood of Ireland Eamon says, so that's why he likes it. I just loved how unique and Irish it sounded, lol. BUT With Glee starting it's second season, I would NOT be surprised if Finn [the main character] started to become VERY popular
Desomnd; I just like it because my favorite character on Lost's name was Desmond. I won't even deny that. It's the manliest manly name I know of, but it has NO meaning, lol. "From Desmond" isn't much of a namesake!
Rhys; This is officially my personal favorite. It means "passionate, ardent, fiery, zealous" YES PLEASE! Oh, and it's pronounced "reece" but that's the lame girl spelling of it.

Girl Names
Iris; For a very long time I've wanted to have two girls named Lily and Iris. If I had twins last time, they would have been Lily and Iris, but I just got the one ;] Downside? I'm gonna look like a freakin hippie walking around being named Mae with Iris and Lily flower children, lol.
June; This name just sort of came to me. It's kinda country, kinda 1950's lady, fun, elegant. June's got it all.
But guess what? Morgan sent me this link last night "Hipster Baby Names" and both of these are on there :[ I'm thinking about re-thinking them...

OH! And there's a rule out there that everyone seems to be forgetting-

FRIENDS DON'T STEAL FRIEND'S BABY NAMES!!!!

If someone in your circle has a baby named Conor, DO NOT name your baby Conor! That's just crazy to me! Which is why I'm calling these names now, lol. Yes I know I have 8 and a half more months but I'll be damned if someone steals my names. Their pretty unique if you ask me!

Also, did you noticed the colors I picked? Since we don't know if we are having a "pink or blue" we tell our friends and family to chose different colors. Last time we did green and yellow. THIS time, We're doing aqua and tangerine :] And it'll still look great with all of the decor Lily has now.


Well, tomorrow Eamon goes to take a placement test to start college again and we plan on going to see Inception tomorrow night with the Brownings...totally stoked about that!

Hope your week started off great!
Mae

"Does the Birth Controll Pill Cause Abortions?" From the Mommypotomus

I read this article this morning from a dear friend and thought it was too good to not pass along, as well as give you our personal experience with.

"When Eamon and I got engaged, part of our marriage counseling was decided what for of birth control we wanted to use. Both being virgins it was a whole new world for both of us. But, the decision did seem simple-neither of us put drugs in our bodies [prescription or otherwise] for many, many years so why start now. We agreed that sex just wouldn't be fun til I graduated from college.
When I told our pastor and his wife this, we were met with total opposition. Words like "irresponsible," and "stewardship" were met with phrases like "added stress to young marriage" and "unwanted surprises". We were shocked. I felt DEEPLY about this and had NO IDEA that the Christian community-not only that I belonged to, but nationwide thought the tenth commandment was to take your Pill after your "alone time" with God every morning. And again, shocked I was.

Eighteen year old me began to do my research, because I TRULY felt that there was something more here, something sinister that was being hidden under the commercials of women living their lives so much happier because they were without child. When I found this...all bets were off.

When I started preaching the ugly truth I was met with "well, I have a really irregular period, so my doctor prescribed it anyway" and "I have acne and this seems to be the only way to deal with it" and even "Well, I've got to keep my hormones in check SOMEHOW!" There was no getting through to these women. But what about married women? Married women that WERE taking it so they could continue to live "their lives" which required no children. I KNEW that these Christian women were against abortion, so I was hopeful.
Nope, same story. "Stewardship," "responsibility," and now "conviction" were being thrown around like a baby seal between two killer whales. Lifeless, shredded, limp words that had been regurgitated so much by their peers that I assume they believed that they still carried weight.

We used TCOYF for a few months and then got pregnant. There were some women who I had spoke to who looked at me like I "got what I deserved." The ugly truth that pregnancy- EVEN FOR A MARRIED WOMAN- at a young age is not only frowned upon in our post feminine world, but a punishment from God for not being "responsible."

After my the red on my "letter A" started to fade, I started to dig again. Not only did I find that this Pill was a weapon of mass destruction, I found that a VERY SMALL MINORITY of Christian women who were taking it prayed with their husbands over the decision! That this was a mere dinner conversation or text message, and BOOM! life decision made. But what was a relief is that I found that the majority of women who had stopped using the Pill, or other forms of contraceptives had done so AFTER praying about it with their husband! Testimony after testimony was given to me of the unbearable conviction that both husband AND wife were laden with, that they could no longer continue as they were. Regardless of what it did to their career, or there budget, or their lifestyle.

I have sadly given up my career as "whistle blower" for various reasons, but one thing I still stress to ALL newlyweds, and even couples who have been married for years is to pray fervently and INTENSELY about what decision is right for your family, together. True conviction from the Lord can never be combated against.

Thank you so much for writing this Heather. I hope you are blessed graciously for shedding a light that many of us our afraid to, or have just given up because our arms are tired. Bravo."

Please, please, please. If you or someone you know is taking the pill, have them read this article. There are more important things in life than "fewer periods."

Meal Plan Monday

Long, long day today, but I survived!

Here's what we got going on in the kitchen this week :]

Monday
B Oatmeal
L Cous Cous with beans and spaghetti sauce
D Pizza

[OBVIOUSLY, we are out of groceries, lol!]

Tuesday
B Scrambled eggs
L Bueno
D Portabella burgers with mashed sweet potatoes and roasted corn

Wednesday
B baked oatmeal
L Black Bean quesadillas and smoothies
D Sloppy lentils

Thursday
B Eggs in a Basket
L Tuna Fish Sandwiches with Mediterranean Garbanzo Salad...DROOL
D Vegetarin stir fry with Soba noodles

Friday
B Oatmeal
L Hummus with falafel
D Tomato Soup with Cous Cous

Saturday
B Fritatas
L Beans and rice with shrimp
D Pizza [I really want sardines on it!!!]

Sunday
B Eggs
L Udan Soup
D Letil Pockets

Ok, if you had smell-o-vision, you'd know that I need a shower!
Mae

Pregnancy Essentials

With number one under our belt, we have a better idea with what we consider essential to pregnancy around the Burke house. We've been talking about different things and what we are going to have to make sure we do/have-even if that means cutting down on some of the fun stuff.

So here's a quick look at how we'll be taking care of number two, with some possible additions [or subtractions! those are always good!] along the way.

Prenatal Care
Midwifery Team
We've already called the midwives [who seem to have been waiting on this like "Come ON!" What's taking you so long?!?"] and let them know they've got some more business for late March. We will be birthing at home just like last time, but both of the midwives we will be using work at Gentle Beginnings Birth Center in Hurst. We will be using Sarah and Angela [who caught Lily and was the hugest blessing at our last birth] this time around. I know both of these women believe that women are designed to birth, and that they are trained to handle any situation, including transportation to a hospital if it ever came down to it.

Chiropractor
I know this may sound crazy to some of you, but I have seen the chiropractors I used to work for perform virtual miracles on pregnant women and their little unborn babies. They relieve pain, turned breech babies upside down, put labor into women, and even attend births sometimes! The doctors at Lifetime Family Wellness Center in Hurst [neighbors with the birth center] use the Gonstead method when treating their moms and have a gentle and effective touch. A MUST for pregnancy!

Yoga classes
Last time I attended yoga classes [in the waiting area between the birth center and chiro office, lol] almost every week after my first trimester. The breathing techniques, relaxation tips, and weekly escape were an amazing tool during my pregnancy and labor. I remember all of Jenni's tips on "lbelly moans" during labor and I can't wait to go back! You can check out her prenatal yoga classes here.


What to Wear
Bella Band
Yup, that stetchy belly bandaid saved me HUNDREDS on maternity clothes. Considering I got all the way to about 36 weeks wearing my pre-pregnancy pants, the band was my bff. I even used it as a tube top during my labor so no one saw TOO much...even though I turned into a complete diaper wearing nudist after the actual birth, lol.

A Damn Good Bra
As of right now, I do NOT have one of these. Lily is still nursing so anything that actually provides support for my double d's are not nursing friendly. [And I mean, do you really want a bra that your boobies pop out of that easily anyway?] So, whether or not Lily nurses, I NEED a good bra. I'm open for suggestions. [Somtimes, I feel like I should be on one of those Playtex commercials]

Winter Wear Suggestions?
Now while I do remember slipping around on the ice of our porch and not being able to button my coat the winter I was pregnant with Lily, I only spent a little bit of my second trimester during the coldest part of it. I was lucky to have a baby in the summer because I got to wear lots of dresses and skirts. Turtle necks and jeans do not sound as fun and comfortable. If you have any suggestions on winter maternity wear, LET ME KNOW!


Personal and Spiritual life
No More Drama
Even though Eamon will soon only have a part time job, and be going back to school [yup, in the next couple of years I'll be the hot wife of the cute/weird Senior English teacher...be jealous] we are trying our hardest to not put any more stress on our lives...without stressing out. The last two months of my pregnancy with Lily were aweful. I had so much joy stollen and stress pile up, that I still feel that I missed out on the last few months that I had with Lily in-utero. Not this time. How are we going to do that? Well, we're simplifying things A LOT around here, and having plans for any situation. Also, I'm not going to allow my joy and my time of pregnancy to be stollen by anyone else. That was my fault then. I think I know better this time around.
And now that I think about it, there's one more thing. I'm not going to take as much unsolicited advice from random strangers this time around! I got so sick of every single person I met telling me how they knew the deepest insights of pregnancy and raising children all because I started to believe that I was "too young", "naive" and "ignorant." Not this time Crazy Lady in line at Kroger...not this time ;]

Peace
There were only a handful of peaceful memories I have of my first pregnancy. This time I'm going to make a sincere effort to pray EVERY MORNING for peace. Not just in my house, but in my heart and mind.

Date Night
While we did make an effort to do this last time, I think it's going to be even more crucial this time around for Eamon and I to have a date night every now and then to reconnect. It's essential in every marriage, and definitely hard for us without having any family here as it is, but we are only going to be a family of three for so long!


Ok, so what gets you through pregnancy? What do you think you cannot live without? Got any suggestions?
Mae