Finally!

I FINALLY got my craft on and finished a project that had been in the works for quite a while. I had originally seen this on the internet a while back, here. I figured I would maybe get around to it, but even buying teapot and teacups from Good Will and such can still be pretty expensive!

 But then I got lucky! The school I was teaching at did an "Alice in Wonderland" themed prom grad, and collected teacups and teapots to decorate with. When they were done with them I asked if I could have them. Most of the people I worked with thought I was crazy and had no clue why I would want old ugly things that were stuck together, whereas I was in HEAVEN! :)

So this is the final result!

 I absolutely love it! I wanted to get a cute colourful lampshade to put on it like this or this, but alas, I'm not going to the states for a bit, so this will have to do until I can get to target! :)

I also decided to make some totally unhealthy but delicious pretzel turtles. I used to melt chocolate and melt caramel to make these, but using rolos is SOO much easier! (I don't think it tastes quite as good, but oh well)

And of course! I can't make a blog post without the most recent pictures of Zak!

 

Sleeping with daddy!

 Wearing matching Polo Shirts!

 Zak helped daddy with laundry! (he was in charge of socks)

 Chilling in his swing...

 First time in the Bumbo! 

He found his finger!

Getting It Back!

First: a little update on Zak

I've had fun trying to dress him up a little more lately. For the first couple weeks it was ONLY sleepers except on Sunday and special outings, but he is already getting big so fast, and I have all these cute clothes for him, so I've started to dress him even just on an average day.

 

Love my little guy!

 

 All Dressed up for church (sorry about the lighting, camera was set to no flash)

 Found this picture of me while I was in labour at home, it is crazy to think that is little Zak in there! At the time I didn't even know if it was a boy of girl!

So I titled this post Getting it Back. Getting What Back? you may ask.  My pre-pregnancy body back!

I've decided I need to start working on getting my body back! I'm breastfeeding, so I don't want to cut back on any calories (I know you can if you are careful, but I'm just not that intense). Instead I'm working out, and setting 1 goal for myself each week. Taking it slow! So my goal for this week:

*** No Snacking after 7pm***

I thought this would be a good place to start because I only snack on junk food after dinner. But no more! 

Here are some others things I am trying to do, but I'm not beating myself up if it doesn't happen:

Making smoothies to get my fruit intake up:

Here's the one from this morning. Why so nasty looking? It has some spinach in it! I need to start throwing in other healthy things like flax seed (that's for you mom!) But I absolutely love my magic bullet, it makes making a smoothie for one so easy!

Also, here is my workout schedule

Monday: Zumba
Tuesday: Go for a walk/run (do a stroller bootcamp routine)
Wednesday: pilates video at home for now. I start an ab class in May!
Thursday: Zumba
Friday: Walk/Run (stroller bootcamp routine)

So hopefully I keep it up! I was very sad to see the snow on the ground this morning and the chilly weather, so I'm going to skip my walk/run, BUT there is a RS Zumba Activity tonight so I'm going to do that! :)

Such a boring post, but maybe the 2 people that read it can hold me accountable to my goals! (At least my mom will read it and check in on me :)

Nursery (and more)

So I am finally putting up pictures of the nursery! I didn't really do much planning for it, and the colour theme kind of just happened. It is very bright but I like it!

 one side

 crib (with the quilt my mom made on it)

 

the other corner (I recovered the rocker but they didn't have the off white fabric I wanted at Fabric Land...)

Zak doing his classic arms up sleep

 I love the door pulls I spray painted to match

 Zak is getting much more interactive these days, he smiles lots, but this is the closest I have gotten to getting a picture of it!

Zak all dressed up for the shower!

Zak enjoying his bath! (rubber duckies and all)

Did I mention he turned 1 month on April 1st?

 posing away!

Mommy Photo Shoot

After giving Zak his bath today I just thought he looked too cute. So of course I decided to do a little photo shoot. It was so much fun and he liked just chillin in the sunlight! These were just a few I took. I also captured pictures of his eye, ear, hand, foot, belly button, lips, etc. and plan on making a little collage of them all. It was really fun!

BABY ZAK!

So I am terrible at blogging, but will try to be better with little Zak around now, I'm sure it will be much more fun to write about him then just Jeb and I!

So overall my pregnancy went GREAT! No real complications, and I was able to work up until a week before my "due date" which I was happy about. About the due date: originally my due date was February 29th according to our calculations. When I went in for the "dating" ultrasound they confirmed this date. But when I went in for my next ultrasound they said the baby was measuring larger and they wanted to switch my due date to February 22nd. So they went with that which made me all psyched up to have this baby by the 22nd. Boy was I wrong.

Labour Story:

I was 2 cm dilated at my 39 week appointment. The baby was “really low” so they were thinking it would come “soon”. Wrong Again. My mom flew into town on the 20^th, thinking that I would have the baby a few days after. Well we ended up having lots of time for cleaning the house, making meals, and of course MALL WALKING (anything to try and get this baby out). The 40 week appointment came and there was still no change, I was not impressed. They told me they would schedule an induction for 10 days from then. So I started to try some of the old wives tales to get labour started (everything but castor oil). Walking, spicy food, swinging on swings, stairs, dancing around. greasey foods, etc. etc. Nothing worked.

February 29^th at my 41 week appointment I told the doctor to do whatever she could to try to help induce labour and to not hold back anything! So she swept my membranes and told me to be sure to walk around lots. Well I had an ultrasound appointment booked for right after so everyone in the waiting room at the ultrasound place thought I was crazy because I was just pacing around. I was determined to get this baby out! I got home and walked in circles around my main floor, and luckily all the walking worked! At around 4 o’clock I started to feel very light contractions, at least what I thought were contractions. My dad flew into town at 6:30, and I still wasn’t 100% positive I was in true labour yet. At around 8 we were all sitting on the couch talking, and you could tell when I was having a contraction because my whole stomach would change shape, it was kind of fun! We started timing them and they were 4 minutes apart and lasting 45 second or so.

The contractions were not too painful and I continued to labour at home. Jeb had gone to bed so he could get some rest, but I woke him up around 3am so we could get to the hospital. I was a bit concerned about ensuring I got the antibiotics I needed (I had to get 2 doses 4 hours apart). We got admitted to the hospital at 4:30am, and I was 4 cm dilated. They gave me the IV with the antibiotics and I started the walk the halls! By around 7 I got admitted into my own room. I spent some time in the shower which I had been looking forward to since the hot bath at home helped a lot with the pain. At 9:30 the doctor checked me again and I was 7 cm. She offered to break my waters but I decided just let nature take its course. But my next contraction after the doctor left my water broke naturally anyways! At 10am the contractions started to get more painful, and I had to be in bed so the nurse could keep the monitors on me. I started using laughing gas which I think helped a bit. By 10:30 It was starting to get pretty painful and the nurse told me that the anaesthesiologist was going in for a scheduled C-section and I had to decide in the next 5 minutes if I wanted an epidural or not. So I asked her to check me, I had decided if I was over 8 cm I would not get it, but she said I was just under. I decided to go ahead with the epidural. 20 minutes later the dude finally shows up, and by the time he was done asking all these questions and getting me all prepped and ready I felt like it had been forever! He said it would take about 15 minutes to start working. Well, the nurse checked me after he was done and I was 9 ½ cm. So much for dilating with an epidural. I was 10 cm by 11:45, but the nurse said we would wait to push and let the contractions do a bit of the work now that the epidural had kicked in. Well by 12 o’clock I had such an urge to push I told her I could wait any longer! Well by 12:52 little Zakary had arrived. Right after he had come out I was just looking at Jeb waiting for him to announce the babies sex. It was a BOY! It was an amazing experience to have him placed in my arms and being able to cuddle him.

It has been an amazing first week with little Zak. We are pretty tired, but everything is going GREAT! We are so blessed to have such a sweet little spirit in our home!

Jeb not letting me smile because I was in labour (this was in between contractions)

Jeb cutting the cord!

First family shot!

With Grandma and Grandpa

All ready to go home

We totally love this little guy!

Baby News

So since I never blog, I figured a good reason to start is this pregnancy! So back in June Jeb and I found out that we were pregnant! We were pretty excited. I had taken a pregnancy test a day or two before and had gotten a negative, so Jeb didn't want me to try again. I believe he said something along the lines of "Rachel, you're not pregnant, and those are expensive! You'll just be wasting 5 dollars!" Ahh, in the true cheap Molcak fashion. But I did anyways, I just had a feeling. I think he didn't really believe me when I said it was positive! :)

So far everything has gone really well. I was a little sick during my first trimester, and felt very tired, and didn't really want to eat much (so unlike me) But that is all a distant memory now! Since school started up in the fall I have been feeling great.

Jeb and I have loved going for each of the ultrasounds. The 12 week one was especially fun and we loved really being able to see the baby for the first time. Here are some pics from it!

We went on a family walk/photo session with Kat and Josh and Riley! This is one of the photos Kat took for us! They turned out great!

Recently Jeb has been buying baby clothes whenever he is in washinton, so we now have a nice little collection going. I have also been blessed to have 2 SILs in Calgary that have been very generous with their baby things while getting ready for this baby. Our house is already full of stuff and this baby is still 4 months away!

Recently the baby has been moving around a lot! And Jeb finally got to feel it two days ago which was really exciting!

I am so excited for this baby!

YAY for Easter