we blend into the neighborhood

so i've been feeling a lot better and oliver, sophia and i usually take a quick walk in the evenings. however, i have not been brave enough to try to get the stroller out all by myself (it involves lugging oliver in his car seat down the stairs to the entryway, with sophia in tow. then getting the stroller base down the stoop and opened up. then getting the car seat attached to it, all while holding on to sophia's leash!) but yesterday i did it! we took a nice walk and oliver didn't cry (he's not a big fan of the car seat), and sophia didn't misbehave, and i blended in with everyone else in the neighborhood with my stroller, baby, and dog! it was really nice using the stroller, but it was a lot of work getting it down, and then back up. some days i really miss the suburbs.

growing growing growing

well, as you guessed, little ollie is getting bigger and bigger. i guess i can't really call him "little" ollie anymore! we took him to the doctor today (to have a clogged tear duct looked at) and he now weighs 11.2!

he no longer fits in this: (the sling part)

or the bassinet attachment on the pack-n-play:
last night he was promoted to the regular mattress (raised of course). he seemed to like it.











at this rate, by next week we will probably be buying him a king sized bed! we are having such a good time with him though. i'm kind of sad that he's growing so fast because i'm really enjoying the way things are right now. i know that i'll love each stage (at least parts of them!) but i just wish he would stay a little baby a little longer.

chubby monkey

i took oliver in to the doctor today to check his weight and to ask about his stomach problems. as i predicted, they said it's normal and there is nothing they can do to help. the big surprise was his weight. he now weighs 10.7lbs!!! i don't know why or how he is getting so big, but he is growing like CRAZY! the doctor said they are supposed to gain 1 ounce a day, and oliver gained 26 ounces in 10 days!!! he is a chubby monkey. he is so sweet and cuddly though. it makes me said that by next week i probably won't be able to lift him anymore though. j/k



today was a busy day for us. we had the doctor's appointment at 1, and my good friend lauren is in town visiting family and she came by to help me get there. then we went to lunch with her. 2 outings in 1 day! oliver was so good through it all. and then, right when i sat down to eat dinner, he got fussy. oh well, i guess you can't be perfect all day, right? i just hope we get more sleep tonight than last night.

it's a boy!!!

sorry i've been absent for so long! things have been hectic here, but for good reason: oliver james was born on august 1! it's already been 2 weeks, i can't believe it. he is such a good baby, we are really lucky. the only bad thing is he gets terrible stomach aches that i think hurt me more than him. i feel so awful not being able to help him. hopefully we will get that worked out soon.









anyway, i thought i'd share a little bit of the birth story with you guys. i started having contractions at 5am and they were coming strong and close together. we went to the hospital about 7:30. i was vomiting and shaking terribly the whole morning. once we were admitted my water broke (while vomiting). i was far enough along, and miserable enough that they went ahead and gave me an epidural. however, it didn't seem to be working. i could still feel everything and it wasn't just pressure, it was cramping. i also wasn't dilating as quickly as they wanted so they started pitocin. around 5:20pm i started pushing. it was extremely painful and i asked the doctor (who by the way wasn't my doctor, he was out of town) about the pain and she said "well... i turned your epidural off. i didn't want to tell you because i didn't want you to freak out." WHAT??? it turns out they were concerned about me not pushing correctly and the baby's heart rate being too high, so they turned it off. i ended up pushing for almost 3 hours (which is the limit before they do a c-section). i thought i was going to die! it was soooo painful and exhausting. i felt so bad because i was so tired and hurting that i wasn't even very emotional when the sweet little boy came out! i was just spent. he look HUGE but we wouldn't know what he weighed for several hours (they weigh them in the nursery). jamie and my mom were both in the room during the delivery and jamie's parents got there right after oliver was born. it was pretty good timing. and jamie's dad says it was a good thing he wasn't there during the delivery because he would have been raising hell! my eyes were swollen shut from the pushing and my right leg was completely numb from the epidural. it was from this moment on that the quality of care at the hospital (new york methodist) went drastically down hill! the orderly came in to take me to my room with a wheel chair and told me to get in it. i told her i couldn't walk, my leg was numb. she was dumbfounded. she didn't seem to understand this. so jamie and his dad had to help me into the chair while she just stood there, not even putting the foot rests down for me! we went upstairs to the rooms and no one checked me in or checked on me. they didn't bring the baby to us until 1am (and he weighed 9.3lbs!!!) and no one checked on me the rest of the night. the rest of the stay went like this. the nurses were kind and i loved the doctors, but i hardly ever saw any of them. it was always these nurses assistants who were extremely lazy and rude. i was in so much pain and unable to get out of bed and one of the assistants came in once and asked me if i took what i needed for when i got home (pads and such). i said no (did i mention this was at 5:30am and i had been sleeping???) she said "well get up then and come with me!" i was so confused "get up?" "get up and come with me! there's a cart in the hall and you can take what you need. come on!" i got jamie up and he got what he could. later the lady came back and asked if i got everything. i said "i didn't see any of the underwear, can i get some of those?" "they were on the bottom of the cart." i said "oh. we didn't see them." "did you look?" "we tried to." she says "but you didn't." i got mad "no, we DID!" this was all on the last day there and i also never received my breakfast. we were supposed to check out at 11, but they didn't get our paperwork ready until 2:30. still no breakfast. when we were finally discharged i asked for a wheel chair (can you believe i had to ask?) and the nurse said "why do you need a wheel chair, what did you do?" i said "i had a 9.3lb baby! and i can't walk that far." she was like "oh. well, if you want a wheel chair you're going to have to wait." and i did. then an orderly came with it and again, no assistance getting into it. thank god for my perfect, beautiful baby boy, but i will NEVER set foot in that hospital again if i can help it!

farmstand dinner

so... now my mom is here, and baby t still isn't. we are patiently waiting (maybe not totally patiently, i was bouncing on the exercise ball last night trying to bounce the baby out!) i had another doctor's appointment today and there has been no change since last week. not what i was hoping to hear. he offered to induce me the end of the week but i opted to wait. there is a full moon tonight and i'm hoping it might help move things along. also, i figured if the baby is ok, and i'm not dying, then i might as well wait as long as i can. i will be having another sonogram on thursday though, and he had me schedule 2 for next week also. my doctor will be on vacation next week, but if i haven't had the baby by the time he gets back he will induce me on sunday night, august 8th. that sounds soooo far away! surely baby t will find the way out before then!

on another note, what do you do while waiting for a baby to arrive? EAT! on sundays in our neighborhood there is a really nice farmers market. we don't buy things there too often, but we always want to. we took my mom there this weekend and decided to have a farmstand dinner. we got fresh green beans, baby potatoes, green tomatoes, red tomatoes, and corn. i was so excited!

i decided to share my recipe for fried green tomatoes, since it's really different than most people's. we call it italian style fried green tomatoes, or tallerico fried green tomatoes, but it was inspired by some we had at our dear friend's cass and maggie's rehearsal dinner. it's pretty easy.

ingredients:
•green tomatoes (however many you think you can eat) sliced vertically (so the core is the center)
•salt and pepper
•1 egg
•italian bread crumbs (i don't have an exact measurement for this, i just pour some and add more as needed)
•olive oil
•bruschetta (recipe below)

to make:
•slice the tomatoes and lay out on a cookie sheet.

•season with salt and pepper on both sides (you can then refrigerate if you aren't quite ready to make)


•heat olive oil in a large frying pan


•whisk egg in a bowl
•add bread crumbs to another bowl (you are setting up an assembly line)

•once the oil is hot (try flicking some water in it to see if it sizzles) take one tomato and dip it in the egg (coat it well), then in the bread crumbs (give it a nice coating), then add it to the frying pan. keep going until your pan is full, then keep an eye on it looking for crispy edges. when you see these, flip the tomatoes. it doesn't take very long, a few minutes on each side.

•after both sides are fried remove tomatoes from the pan and set them on a paper towel lined plate. keep going until all tomatoes are fried!

bruschetta:
you can either buy bruschetta or make it. we make it and here's how:
•chop up 1 red tomato, 2 cloves of garlic, and about a 1/4 of red onion.
•mix all these ingredients up in a small bowl. add salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil to taste.
•lastly add fresh chopped basil. it's best if you make this a little ahead of time because the longer it sits, the better it tastes!


then just top each green tomato with a little bruschetta, eat and enjoy!

maternity pictures

things have been kind of crazy here since the weekend. if you remember, jamie was sick the week of the 4th, well, i got what he had this past week. everyday it got worse! by saturday i had a fever and was achy and miserable. we were supposed to have maternity pictures taken saturday afternoon by one of our good friends. thankfully we were able to reschedule for sunday and i got some antibiotics. i did nothing all day. it was really boring but needed to happen. by sunday i felt sooo much better! still congested, but not achy or feverish. and we were able to do our photo shoot! it went really well and was a lot of fun. steve is awesome! here are a few of my favorites:

we started out at his apartment with this super professional back drop (don't we look like we are in a jcrew catalog???)
















then we went to a little park in dumbo. it was beautiful. unfortunately the lighting wasn't cooperating enough for you to see the amazing background.










we had so much fun and after the pictures we went to eat at lombardi's, which i supposedly the first pizzeria in america! it was delicious! thanks so much steve!!!

and here's a quick baby update: i had a doctor's appointment today and am 1cm dilated! but i guess that doesn't really mean much in terms of time. it's still up in there air when baby t will join us. i have another appointment on monday if nothing happens before then. oh! and some of you may not know my mom is coming today!!! i'm really excited. it feels less stressful having her here than trying to hold off the baby's arrival until she gets here. it's also jamie and my 5th anniversary today! what a busy wednesday!

baby t's new shoes!

i ordered baby t some shoes a while ago and have been wanting to do a photo shoot with them. however, i think i mentioned before that darling jamie got rid of my tripod. so... it didn't go as smoothly as i had hoped, but i got a few good shots i think.


aren't they cute? we love vans. i used to have some just like this, now i need to order some more so we can match!