yeah, that hurt.

As everyone knows, Rhett Charles was born August 21 at 0757 in Boblingen, Germany. It was quite a surprise let me tell you! At 37.5 weeks I was laying in bed while Chad was eating Fritos. I took one and slowly rotated my heavy belly in order to hand a frito to Meatloaf and BAM... broken water.

I would like to add at this point that about 5 minutes prior I told Chad that I thought it would be really gross to have your water break in your bed.

And so it was.

Gross.

Anyways, we went to the hospital where I took baths, rolled on a ball, received lots of counter pressure and after 8 hours, 8 cm, and horribly miserable pains received an epidural.

Then we rested.

At hour 11... we had our baby boy.

And I think I will be forever spoiled having delivered in Germany.

It was a.w.e.s.o.m.e.

But that's another story.

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37.5 weeks and leaving for the hospital. Had just crawled into bed but the Frito incident changed things. Forgive me for the swollen face, no make up, squishy pants photo.

Below is half of the delivery room. This photo was taken after the epidural, hence the thumbs up. Had the picture been taken 10 minutes earlier I'd probably be holding up a different finger.

And that thing hanging from the ceiling came in really handy... I like to think it had a hand in my 20 or so minutes of pushing before Rhett emerged.

"I'm Rhett.... I'm new here"

Rhett being monitored after birth... in his German onesie.

Rhett had a rough morning...but he's still beautiful.

Rhett in his rolling crib... we wheeled this little man all over the hospital... and all the nurses told us what a sweet boy he is. Except one... she loved him but called him a 'kleine Scheiße' or 'little shit' since he stayed up all night and slept all day. Rhett's first german lesson.

Home and enjoying his swing.

Babies are such a nice way to start people. ~Don Herrold

Thank goodness for 4 days [click on photos to enlarge]

Even with Chad's shingles, he rallied and used his 4 days off last weekend to assemble baby furniture.

When I left for work on Friday, the nursery and Chad looked like this:

When I got home from work on Friday the nursery looked like this (although Chad can't take ALL the credit, he had some help):

And by Sunday evening, just in time for skyping with my mom and dad, the nursery looked like this:

I won't go into all the details but we recovered the storage ottoman with our new staple gun (this is also where I'd like to add that Chad whacked my left pointer finger with the hammer... if he weren't so good at reupholstering he would have been in big trouble), I sewed pillows, and together we cleaned, hung hot air balloons, and made Baby White a nice little place to sleep.

Just in time, too...

37 weeks, 1 cm dilated, baby low in pelvis.
Chad has also fully recovered from his bout of shingles... all that is left is a gnarly black scab. My finger is miraculously okay and fully functional. Both Chad and I have decided remodeling together at any point in the future is out of the question.

can you say...

Overwhelmed?

Stressed?

Swollen?

Tired?

Of course you can.

I can too.

I woke up with boats the size of... I don't know... something bigger than they use to be.

I also had to go pee 8 times during the 8 hour work day.

My friend, Jill, is in the hospital because her water broke.

They've been prepared for this moment for months.

Chad and I... not so much prepared for that moment.

Jake (Jill's husband) was going to be Chad's helping hand this weekend putting together baby stuff.

That's not going to happen.

Chad also only has one good arm... it causes him pain to lift his other one.

We're pathetic.

I could be assembling things right now I guess... ya know... little things.

Instead I'm complaining about things via this blog.

Okay, I'm going to waddle upstairs and look at all the things that aren't put together.

And maybe cry a little.

That seems appropriate at the moment.

Or I might just take a nap... that seems equally appropriate and less messy than crying.

There's good news..

and bad news. Of course.

The good news is that our shipment arrived this morning and is sitting upstairs in the baby's room- neatly stacked and unpacked.

The bad news is that the shipment will be staying that way for the next couple of days because my poor husband has shingles (adult form of chicken pox).

It's pretty nasty- pink, painful, and blistering.

The doctor took one look at it and said without a doubt that it was shingles and prescribed something the poor guy has to take 5 times a day, in addition to a topical creme.

Also, to be safe, Chad and I can have no contact for like 10 days. Chad has been kicked out of the love nest and has to sleep upstairs. Even the dogs are off limits.

So on a day where I thought I would be ecstatic, over the moon, giddy with happiness... I'm instead feeling exhausted, drained, and itchy (although I'm sure that is psychosomatic).

Hopefully a couple days of rest and Chad's favorite dinners, we'll both be ready to go and set up nursery this weekend.

Wish us luck.

We go for the food.

Sommerfest 2010 was wonderful. The food, the music, the WEATHER was lovely.

The sun was bright but the wind was cool resulting in perfect fest weather.

We browsed the shelves of our favorite downtown stores, walked through the flea market, and met friends for lunch and drinks all before calling it a day.

Even though I really wanted to stay downtown into the evening, my right butt cheek and lower back weren't having it and I knew it was time to go home.

And so we did.

(Now Chad is passed out on the couch... I believe this is a direct result from his midday beverage choices.)

Sommerfest 2010

Stuttgart, Germany

Lots of street artists and musicians in the city but Chad liked these ones because they were doing a chalk mural of Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean.

German Flammkuchen

(German pizza essentially except it's very thin crusted with sparse toppings... Chad enjoyed his with Speck, also known as bacon)

Kartoffel

(German 'home fries' topped with a delicious, creamy garlic sauce.. and the drink in the background is Chad's new favorite... Caipirinha... a Brazilian drink with sugar, lime, and rum)

We also enjoyed a falafel wrap, alcohol free pina coladas and Nutella Crepes of course!

but it feels good to be home.

36 Weeks

White Flag

Yesterday, August 5, 2010, was the day I almost declared defeat. Almost.

Last night, after a long day at work and a frustrating trip to the commissary (no blueberries... are you kidding me?), I was officially out of steam. Raise the white flag. Stick a fork in me. I was done.

Heartburn, swollen feet, increased fiber, rain, German garbage schedules, and peeing 30 times a day almost got the best of me.

Fortunately, with a couple extra hours of sleep I was feeling better today.

And we finally got news that our shipment will indeed be delivered on Monday.

Anytime between 0700 and 1700.

To celebrate we're going to Stuttgart's Summer Fest... since it seems that every weekend after this one will be spent assembling baby furniture and getting ready for Baby White (who has dropped... resulting in a really small bladder).

Kitchen Mayhem

It was recently brought to my attention that I've been stockpiling cream cheese in my cellar. I'm not sure why or when this phenomenon started but by the looks of it I've picked up a brick of cream cheese every time I've gone to the commissary for the last 6 months. I knew it was bad when my unobservant husband pointed out that I had my body weight in cream cheese in the fridge downstairs. The odd thing is that I haven't even purchased a bagel in months so what my plans were for this cream cheese remain unknown.

In an attempt to start battling my cream cheese hoarding I did buy a bag of bagels. That used about 2 ounces of the 20 plus ounces stashed downstairs.

Then after careful research and a hefty grocery bill I began the "cook every food item that includes cream cheese and you can freeze for when things get crazy around here" weekend. Oh yes I did.

Let's just say that there were not festivals, flea markets, exchange stops, or dog walks this weekend. It was hardcore cooking madness.

I now have one thing of cream cheese left but 30 twice baked potatoes, 4 dozen bran muffins (no help in the cream cheese department but I had about 10 zucchini that were giving me hell too), and 60 sugar cookies.

I never said our meals would be balanced.

I do have Grandma's spanish rice on my list for freezable meals but right now I'm just going to put my feet up and rest in the comfort of knowing my freezer is full of food (well, starch, fiber, and fat groups at least).

Keep your fingers crossed our shipment arrives this week!