- Oh Happy Daze

Crock Pot Chicken Tacos

I Know, I know… I am equally surprised that I’m posting a recipe on my blog. And one that I have actually made, to boot!

I’m not sure how or why but something changed when I had Charlotte. Well, lots of things changed actually, but I have noticed a few new things about myself that I am really starting to like.

First off, I suddenly have very little interest in spending money on myself. This came as a big shocker to me! What?! Polka-dot rain boots on clearance? Just kept walking right on past. New fall nail polish color? Nah, I’ve got plenty of other colors at home. New curly hair miracle product? That’s alright, I’m ok with my frizz. My priorities have definitely shifted. I also know that if I want to be able to go back to work only part-time then Chris and I really need to reign in our spending. Don’t worry, we are big savers too, but until now we have been able to splurge on extras (like yummy DD coffee <3 ) without really worrying about the bottom line. In the long run, I’d much rather give up things for myself so that I am able to be home with Charlotte, as I’m sure every parent does. So… that means trying to cook more meals at home.

Secondly (is that a word?!), I have become quite the homemaker over the past few weeks. Now that I am finally feeling better I have started to enjoy doing more around the house. Up until now I was usually too exhausted after a 10 hour work day to do any substantial house work. I would typically just come home, eat dinner, watch some tv, then crash for the night (especially when pregnant). Fridays were my day off and the day I would typically try to get things done around the house, but that usually resulted in me feeling completely overwhelmed with my long to-do list. Or I would start a project that would somehow result in creating even more of a mess.

Let me just steam this work shirt for Chris… hmmmm the steamer isn’t working… commence hour long attempt to de-calcify the steamer…that doesn’t work so I track down some tools and take it apart… find nothing… put it back together… get out the iron… ironing board crashes down on my toe… I get out the clippers and trim my toe nails… then paint them… then organize the drawer that the clippers are in… find something that belongs in another room… take it to that room… probably the kitchen where I decide I need a snack. WHAT?! It’s 5:00. oops, I didn’t cook dinner. or, um, finish any task today for that matter.

It’s all very “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” now that I think about it.

Now, the cleaning and organizing I’m still working on but I HAVE been cooking dinner quite a bit. And if you know me at all then you know that this is quite a feat! I never cook. Except for the occasional mac & cheese and spaghetti when we are desperate.

ok, all of that to say –> I’ve been cooking. here is a recipe that is yummy. you should try it.

Crock Pot Chicken Tacos

Cooking time: Not really sure… let the crock pot do the thinking. (man, writing a recipe is difficult)
Serves: at least 6? at least. Chris and I have been eating this meal for several days now (and Chris eats about 4 tacos per meal, I eat about 2).
Ingredients
  • 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts – frozen or thawed. (side note: I bought Tyson frozen boneless skinless chicken breast from Walmart and was pleasantly surprised that they were individually frozen. At first I was like “what the heck?” but it actually made it easier to thaw without getting chicken juice everywhere – You just stick the number of breasts in a warm water ‘bath’ (which also cuts out the whole ‘microwave defrost’ thing), then open up each individual packet and get cookin’. Also, this recipe is so flexible – you could easily add more chicken breasts and increase the amounts of the other ingredients to cook for a larger group.
  • 1 packet of taco seasoning – (I used an awesome recipe for homemade seasoning that I found here. It was SUPER easy to throw together and cuts back on the preservatives found in the packaged kind. If I can do it, you can do it). If you choose to make your own taco seasoning using the recipe on the link, use 1/2 of it for this recipe.
  • 1/2 jar of salsa – spicy level of your choosing (I used what was left of an already opened jar in the fridge since we were out of chips anyway)
  • Whatever fixins you like for your tacos – tortillas, cheese, sour cream, guacamole , lettuce, tomatoes, etc.
Instructions
  1. Set your crock pot to high and put the chicken at the bottom. Then throw the taco seasoning and salsa on top, covering the chicken.
  2. Set it and forget it! 6 hours if chicken is frozen, about 4 if it is thawed. I cooked the chicken from frozen and I’m pretty sure it was done way before the 6 hours (especially since I put it on high) – you are probably better at this than me so use your best judgement depending on how quickly you want it to be done… or use a meat thermometer 🙂 Also, even though I cooked it for a really long time, it was still very juicy. Also, I didn’t really “set it and forget it” – I turned the chicken breasts over about 3 hours into it, just for good measure, but I don’t know that this was necessary.
  3. Take two forks and shred the chicken – mix into the awesome juices at the bottom of the crock pot and assemble your tacos!

- Oh Happy Daze

Attempted ‘photo-shoot’ with cousins.

Last week my sister and I took our kiddos to the park (that sounds so strange….our kiddos…. gah, I HAVE A CHILD!). Anyway, we thought it would be fun to try and get a few photos of the cousins together. It was…. difficult, to say the least. Trying to convince a 5 year old, an almost three year old, and a newborn to maintain happy faces and keep them wrangled  together in one spot when the glory of the playground swings were calling to them turned out to be pretty much impossible. We did manage to get a few cute ones… and if nothing else, documented ‘life’.

 

 

 

 

and then the window of opportunity closed…

The reward? Play time for the boys

 

and making faces at mommy for Charlotte.

 

 

 

 

Thanks Aunt Melissa for taking these photos!

(I realized I was in very few pictures with my nugget…Tragic!!)

Even if you didn’t have time to ‘pretty yourself up’ or shower, even,  it’s important to document mommy too, not just baby 🙂

- Oh Happy Daze

Mommy lessons

Over the past 6 weeks I’ve been on the crash course to ‘mommyhood’ … not that there is any other course – there’s really no other way but to be thrown into it. Thank goodness for other mommies out there who are always willing to answer questions and give advice.

A few things I’ve learned so far:

1. There is always some parent, somewhere who has gone through what you are going through.

Lesson? Ask for help; your’e silly if you don’t.

2. Reflux sucks. For baby. For mommy. For sleeping dog and daddy. But mostly for baby, who screams and screams when nursing and when in any position other than upright… and even then screams some more.  (That’s a little dramatic… she doesn’t scream all the time. And even then, her cries are still little blessings each day).

Lesson? A crying baby doesn’t mean you are a bad mom and your baby probably won’t hold that against you when she’s older… probably.

Haha, I’m actually really glad my husband took these photos. I mean, it was a struggle for me not to delete them right away when I saw them, but they’ve sort of grown on me. A true glimpse into parenting a newborn. I’m sure all of you mommies out there have experienced some moments of exasperation like this.

 

3. Not all babies love their carseat. I’ve heard that lots of babies love their carseats and will fall asleep during car rides. Not Charlotte. I’m thinking it relates to #2 above; regardless, it’s a tad stressful when you are driving and your daughter is crying so hard she goes into the ‘stop breathing, no sound coming out’ mode. Breaks your heart.

Lesson? Nothing lasts forever. Neither the car ride, nor this stage of baby craziness.

(A miracle… she’s asleep and cozy in her carseat!)

4. Sometimes baby breathing is very shallow, almost nonexistent, which makes you panic and pick them up, which scares them out of their sound sleep and you spend the next hour trying to get them back to sleep.

Lesson? Chill. Out.

5. Sometimes baby is a NOISY sleeper. Grunting, moaning, coughing, hiccuping, whimpering. It’s OKAY to not follow through with your ‘plan’ to have baby co-sleep in the same room with you and instead to move her to her own crib. If each peep she makes keeps you awake and in ‘supersonic listening mode’ all night, then it’s not worth it.

Lesson? A mommy who gets at least some restful sleep will be a happy mommy.

Happy mommy = happy baby.

6. Blogging about your life is very cathartic. I’d recommend it. Putting things down into words helps you maintain perspective.

Lesson? This blog is more for my own sanity than it is for keeping family and friends updated, though that is super important to me – I don’t want you to feel like you are second fiddle! I love having a way to keep you all updated on our little family 🙂

There are many more lessons I’ve learned over the past 6 weeks, but tummy time is over now so that’s all for now 🙂

- Oh Happy Daze

A Baby Story (Part Two)

If you’re just tuning in, my last post was about the events surrounding Charlotte’s arrival. I wanted to make sure I documented some of the details of those crazy first days because, let’s face it, it’s something that will only happen once (and it’s not like the parameters of my memory are never-ending. Actual factual: I have the worst memory ever). Charlotte was born early, early Saturday morning and by Sunday evening our new little family was headed home! Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. Fair warning, this is another looooong post.

On the following Tuesday (2 days after leaving the hospital) I woke up with a really terrible headache. I am prone to tension headaches and headaches from dehydration so I chalked my pain up to new baby stress and forgetting to drink water. By wednesday night the migraine had become so terribly painful… I was almost wishing to trade it for labor contractions again! Thursday morning I finally decided to call my OB’s office; after heading in for a blood pressure check and finding that it was 192/106 my doctor told us (in a very calm voice so as not to alarm me I guess) to head over to the emergency room and that she was going to call ahead of us and talk to the ER triage nurse about her concerns for preeclampsia (which can apparently occur after you’ve already had your baby, though it’s not so common).

The adventure begins.

We get to the ER. I have to explain numerous times to nurses that I’ve “already had my baby” and “well, apparently it can happen even after you’ve had your baby”. Well, we sat and we waited and we waited. The waiting room was packed (crazy for a Thursday morning!). Charlotte slept perfectly for most of the 2 hours that we waited (I know right?! TWO HOURS before even being called back!). Eventually, though, she got hungry while in the waiting room. Being new to the whole nursing thing, I wasn’t coordinated enough yet to juggle her and a nursing cover and all parts required to nurse her right there (with the whole waiting room looking on). If I could do it over I would have asked a nurse to let me use a room or sit behind a curtain or something, but that didn’t occur to me at the moment. I was just trying to help my screaming child and find any sort of relief from the headache monster. I ended up nursing her in the bathroom (EEK, I know!) and almost cried from the thought of her breathing in those germs (along with all the germs she probably breathed in from the waiting room).

Eventually we were given a room in the ER. Blood draw, urine sample, CT scan (just to be thorough). I was eventually diagnosed with postpartum hypertension and started on magnesium treatment (to prevent seizures) and medication to lower my blood pressure. No relief from the migraine yet. We spent at least 4 more hours in the ER, and of course, my newborn daughter needed to nurse about two more times during those hours. The problem was that the ER nurse placed my IV port at the inside of my elbow so I wasn’t able to bend my arm to hold her, let alone nurse her. Chris is now an expert on nursing and could probably become an excellent lactation consultant, should he so desire, because of all that he had to do to help me. It was certainly a learning experience.

We were finally told we would be admitted and we were moved up to the Labor and Delivery department where they could better monitor my progress and were better equipped to handle preeclampsia issues. My nurse immediately moved my IV port to my forearm so I could move my arms a little better, saying “Those ER nurses don’t know nothin’ about nursing mamas and their babies”! Bless her. I was hooked up to a magnesium drip for more ‘seizure management’. Unfortunately, my body wasn’t able to process the magnesium very well because by the next morning I had magnesium toxicity. I don’t recall this because I guess I was ‘out of it’ but Chris tells me that when the morning nurse came in after shift change she freaked out and began unplugging things, hooking up other things and called for a doctor (I’m pretty sure the word “STAT” was shouted in a very Grey’s Anatomy sort of way). The nurse told me later that when she saw that I was white as a sheet (even my lips) and limp as a rag doll that I gave her 20 gray hairs. My doctors decided that the risk from more magnesium treatment was greater than the risk of seizure so they discontinued the magnesium. Because it was still in my body, though, I was on a strict ‘liquid only’ diet (due to aspiration risk), which, roughly translated meant my nurse got to decide how many ice chips I could eat. Sad day for a girl who loves food.

To add to all of this, the doctors noticed that my creatinine levels (That’s some kidney lingo for those of you out there who don’t know) were very high and they were not sure if it was caused by the stress of the hypertension on my body or if it was something that was pre-existing. More blood draws, urine samples, ultrasounds of my kidneys, etc. No real answers. (Even as I’m writing this 4 weeks later, the nephrologist just told me at my outpatient visit “Well, something is jacked up with your kidneys, but we don’t really know what it is”).

This drama with hypertension, magnesium toxicity, and questionable kidney function went on for 4 days.  Also, there was a catheter involved. Vomiting (apparently pregnancy + me = vomiting). Some tears. Begging for food. More tears. Hair and face a mess from not being able to shower (well whole body a mess, really). Bed rest and orders from the doctors that I needed someone with me (especially when it came to taking care of Charlotte).  I am sort of able to laugh about the craziness of it now…. sort of.

Throughout all of this, though, Chris was my knight in shining armor. This was a true test of “in sickness and in health” (which oddly enough wasn’t actually a part of our wedding vows, just implied I guess). I’m not sure how he did it, but Chris managed to care for our newborn daughter and care for me (since I was on bed rest and ‘out of it’ for a bit) as well as stay emotionally strong. Not once did he complain. He kept me laughing (with episodes of Wipeout), he kept me relaxed (with a mix on my iPod), he took care of our daughter, and he very smartly kept me in the dark about things that would have made me freak out had I known what was going on at the time. He is truly an amazing husband and I couldn’t be more proud to be his wife.

God truly provided for us throughout this whole ordeal. We actually had to tell people they shouldn’t come visit in order to keep the atmosphere ‘calm’ and less stress-inducing. That’s how awesome our family, friends, and church are… we had to turn them away! There are no words to express how grateful we are for all of the support we received through meals, visits to the hospital, prayer, and family and friends willing to stay and ‘supervise’ me so Chris could have a break.

I guess all I can say is ‘thank you’.