My VBAC birth story

My son was born two weeks early via c-section due to concerns about his size. So when I discovered I was pregnant the second time around my best friend was getting ready for her VBAC and mentioned I should look into it. I had recently moved and needed to find a new doctor anyways. I was lucky that I easily got into a pro-VBAC doctor. I wish I could say my pregnancy had been that easy lol. First three months I actually had to go vegetarian because just the thought of meat or slight glimpse made my stomach turn. Although over all except for pain and discomfort that apparently is a given for many second pregnancies. My water broke first as a trickle but steadily increasing as my contractions began to pick up on February 8th. Three hours passed and by this point I had gone through four pair's of shorts and we decided to call my doctor and go to the hospital. I was sure that something was going and I was dilating. But sadly when I was checked into triage they discovered I hadn't even started to dilate but I was almost fully effaced. They also confirmed that my water had in fact broken. That was at 11am Feb 8th. I was moved to L&D where they checked me a few hours latter with very little chaneg I agreed to start pitocin. Around that time I also requested an epidural. Around 8 pm I finally started to show real progress and had dialated 4 cm. By 2:30 my nurse checked me again and said I was fully dilated and in the next 30 minutes I would begin pushing. Due to having to increase the epidural I was unable to feel any of my contractions. But this was also tricky because my contractions never became evenly spaced out even this far into delivery. delivery. After pushing for 30 minutes my baby girl was born at 3:30 am. A healthy 8 lbs 9 is. I wasn't done yet as I needed to be stitched up. However I got to blissfully hold my baby on my chest. My nurse later told me that she had written me off as going to need another c- section because my contractions never became evenly spaced. She said your body knew what it was doing even though it wasn't "normal". I'm glad she didn't try to persuade me into a c- section and I'm glad I had my families & doctors support.

Shopping on an EXTREME Budget 1

Ok so I know the word extreme is highly over used.  But I'm serious I have an extremely tight budget of $400 a month for food/paper products/ and cleaning products. This includes diapers, wipes, dog food, and pretty much anything else we need. I normally try to stay under that budget.  Here are the ways that help me stay under my budget.

• Shopping the sale ads!
• This is extremely important if you don't know what's on sale you can't make the best purchase for your money.
• Look for coupons
• I'm horrible when it comes to actually bringing coupons with me. When I found out my favorite grocery store lets you download them to your rewards card I was game.
• Look for coupons that will further discount what's on sale
• This is the time consuming part
• Also good to use if you shop at WalMart and price match
• Find a grocery store where you spend the least.
• Ok so here is the thing if I go to WalMart I get suckered into stuff that I really didn't need to buy. 
• Make a list
• stick to the list
• Don't bring the husband and kids
• Yeah seriously! They make me go over my budget every time.  So I try to leave them at home as much as possible.
• Shop Manager's Special's for meat and or shop at dollar stores.  
• 99 Cent only stores often have decent produce it's 99 cents a pound or 99 cents for a pint of strawberry's or blueberries.  
• Buy Meat you can use for multiple meals
• Whole chickens often are on sale for as low as 70 cents a lb. While roasts are normally more expensive can also be found for under $6 and make multiple meals.

I've been shopping this way for years now and it's saved me a good amount of money.  I will be offering more helpful tips and recipe ideas to keep your grocery bill low and ways to possibly cut what you are spending in future posts. 

Blueberry Pancakes

My son love love LOVES!!!! pancakes. So Saturday morning I decided we where going to make a yummy breakfast.

Truthfully I normally cheat and use a boxed mixed however I didn't see it so figured we ran out (only to later discover it was hidden on the top shelf behind the syrup).  But this time I made them from scratch. And they became blueberry pancakes when I realized the blueberries I bought a week before were about to go bad.

So I followed this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/pancakes-recipe.html

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups milk, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more as needed

Once you've mixed all your ingredients add the blueberries.  The trick with the blueberries is that your heat has to be high enough to not burn the pancakes but also get the blueberries to "lose their juice" so to speak.

 

My secret grocery spot is the 99cent only store (guess it's not so secret now). They have super cheap produce especially for strawberries and blueberry's you just have to carefully examine what you are purchasing.

Let me just start off by explaining why I chose the name of untraditional mom. I'm a full time working mom with a husband who currently stays home with the kids. I enjoy craft beer and the occasional rock out session with some hard core metal music. However most people see me as a girly girl. So here's to all the mom's who like to kick back, cook good food, and occasionally rock out!