The Big Unveiling

I've won a few giveaways in my internet days, but never one this cool (click)! I was so very excited to win the Seventh Generation Health Home Kit from Mom it Forward and I've been waiting for it not-so-patiently since I found out. I was afraid the delivery would get messed up since we live in a strange apartment setup, but IT ARRIVED!!

I obviously got all dressed up for the occasion, and I certainly didn't wait until 10pm to open the boxes so that I had a photographer. :D

6 months!!

Hello Cora!

Don't worry!

It has been brought to my attention that there are a few family members that have been concerned about whether there will be a repeat of some of the scarier things that happened in my last labor and whether or not it's safe for me to be pregnant again. I'm guessing there are probably more who have wondered if I'm concerned at all and who maybe haven't seen all the bits and pieced of info I've posted on here or heard the whole story, so I'm going to copy/paste an email I recently sent off to a couple of people. You can read Aidan's birth story here if you met me after he was already with us:

"I spoke with my doctor extensively after Aidan was born, before trying to conceive Cora, and now during pregnancy about how things went last time and got some reassuring answers. My labor was long and tiring, but there weren't any dangerous complications. I asked for copies of all of my records to review myself so I could ask very specific questions and what I found and what my doctor confirmed was that my uterus was and is just fine. The bleeding was almost entirely from my vaginal tear. Aidan's cord was short - but it didn't cause any damage to my uterus, they were just uncertain at first about where the bleeding was coming from. I had an ultrasound and multiple examinations in the weeks after he was born to make sure there wasn't any damage done to my uterus and everything looks just fine.

My lab reports say that I lost about 700cc of blood. Women lose an average of 500cc of blood during vaginal birth, and 1000cc of blood during a cesarean section. Most women recover just fine from both without the need for a transfusion. My problem was not that I lost too much blood, but that my body didn't recover from it quickly. My doctor thinks that's because I was low on iron. That makes sense since I wasn't taking any iron supplementation and lots of women are affected by iron deficiency while pregnant. I never felt fatigued or had any of the other signs of anemia during my pregnancy so I wasn't worried about it. This time around I *am* taking iron supplementation to be safe, and I'm getting my iron checked periodically to make sure it's not too low. I also hired a birth coach (doula) to be in the room with me during delivery to help me find a position to labor in that will make tearing less likely to be severe.

One interesting thing that contributed to the unnecessary scariness of last time is that I have a tipped uterus - which doesn't cause any discomfort or problems at all - and my regular post-pardum bleeding sometimes pooled up in my uterus since it wasn't perfectly verticle and then came out all at once. That's what happened two weeks after Aidan was born when I went to the ER. I woke up one morning and went directly to the shower but the blood had been pooling all night so as soon as I stood up in the shower, it all came rushing out and gave us a scare. My blood tests showed up just fine at the hospital though and they didn't find anything wrong in my uterus - it was just normal post-pardum bleeding. So anyhow, now that I know more about what happened last time, I'm not worried at all that there's anything that we can anticipate to be worried about this time around."

I do still have a couple of questions for my doctor and want to be very thorough in making sure there's nothing I could be doing/do differently this time. We are planning/hoping for another unmedicated birth but have chosen the hospital rather than home this time around to make sure that what happened last time was as simple as iron deficiency anemia. Stay tuned for a post about our general birth philosophy when I get a chance to type it all out. :)

Making Money Online

(on edit: I have updated my amounts after just one day - you'll find them in parenthesis after the first amount for each program below)

There are quite a few referral promotions going on right now around the internet that I want to take advantage of, so I thought it would be a good time to post about all of the ways I make extra money online. You've probably noticed some of the little advertisements over on the right of the blog. Most of them contain links that refer you to join under me. Let me briefly explain each and tell you what I've earned:

My Points: 876 points currently (936 points)
previous: 5150 points redeemed for various gift cards (Starbucks, Walmart, Cabelas, JC Penny)

I've been a member of Mypoints.com for a few years now. I learned about them through BzzAgent and have had more success with them than anyone else. I've earned points mostly through reading emails - 5 points at a time - but I've also completed quite a few of their surveys and offers. I also earn mypoints through surveys and BuzzReports at BzzAgent. Gift cards start at 1400 points for $10 and go up from there depending on the merchant and value. It has only taken me a month to earn that last 800 points after I redeemed my balance for a Walmart card in October. Last year I used my points to get gift cards for family at Christmas. If you are interested in signing up, leave me a comment or email me and I'll send you an invitation.

Sunshine Rewards: $5.17 ($6.77)


Requires a $20 balance to cash out. I've only earned a few dollars on here so far but I just signed up a few weeks ago, and I have a lot of $ pending. The reason I signed up at all is that they are having a referral contest this month and the person with the most referrals will win $25. One of the people they referred will also win! My friend Brynna referred me and so far she is tied for first! Check out her blog for even more great ideas for making/saving money and either sign up under her through her blog or under me by clicking the banner above.

Swag Bucks: 141 SB currently (146 SB's)
previous: $5 paypal, $5 gc to Euphoria Baby

Swag Bucks is primarily a search engine. However, they have gained popularity and expanded into offers for points, and distributing swag codes via their blog, facebook, twitter, and youtube. Still, the easiest way to earn swag bucks is by searching. And when I say easy, I mean it! I get 2 a day on average. And then there's usually a chance for a swag code or two a day, and you can earn all kinds of sb's with their special offers. You can redeem 45 swag bucks for a $5 amazon.com gift card, or 70 swag bucks for $5 paypal cash. There are tons of other prizes to choose from as well. I am holding out until black friday or after to redeem my swag bucks because they are doing a great promotion on their gift cards from then until the end of the year. You can read here for more info on the gift card blowout, and click the banner above to sign up as my referral.

E-rewards: $115.75 - $4.25 away from $50 in Upromise 529 ($119.75 - $0.25 away!!)

I signed up for e-rewards through Upromise and it has taken me a *long* time to earn this much. And unfortunately in the process, they increased the amount to be redeemed for $50 in Upromise savings from $100 to $120. So as you can see, I'm close. The money will go into Aidan's 529 plan.

Associated Content: $26.28
previous: $82.56 in 2007-2008

This has been my biggest cash earner over the last two years. I've generally gotten paid $3-$5 per article and have only written four articles this year. The rest of the payout has been from page views. I wouldn't say that I'm super-amazingly-proud of every piece of content I've submitted, but I love that I will be getting residual income from this indefinitely.

Foodbuzz: $29.08
previous: $5.90 last year

I love this company. In addition to paying me for advertising on my food blog, they have a great community and have sent me tons of free stuff including a spatula, apron, business cards, and food samples! I haven't had much time to work on my food blog this year, and I've still made a great amount! You should check them out, and let me know if you'd like an invite for your food blog!

Upromise 529: $9.87

$25 pending for credit card

Most of you are probably at least aware of Upromise. You may have seen the logo at the grocery store or around the web. We don't do a lot of eating out or eating name brand foods, so we haven't earned as much there are we could have. We've set up a 529 for Aidan for college, however, and I'm close to getting $50 from e-rewards as I mentioned above. We also have $25 pending for their credit card that I just applied for. We've made most of our balance so far with the minimal eating out that we do and with the credit card we'd get 10% back instead of just 3 or 4%, so we'll see. If you *do* shop a lot or eat out a lot, check out this link that you can shop through to benefit Aidan. http://www.upromise.com/guest/2189530476 And if you're family and want to register your credit card or grocery card with upromise on Aidan's behalf let me know!

So... 2009 so far...

Total Cash: $60.36
Total Gift Cards: $20 (wmart, euphoriababy, starbucks)
Other: $9.87 in 529

Fell free to ask any me anything about the specifics or my detailed opinion on the above programs, and check them out if you have time!

Stolen photos

First, some adorable photos stolen from my older (but not very old ;P) sister taken during our trip to CO this September:

Shh! Don't tell them they are cousins!

And yet more adorable photos taken by Tiffany during our trip to William Jewell to treat the students and teachers to some Halloween candy (good idea Tiffany! We had a ton of fun!):

Oh, and random, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNIE!!! :D

Our First (Psuedo) Emergency

This morning we woke up to the first snow of the season! It was only a dusting, but we bundled up and went outside to explore, braving the nasty slushy steps:

Aidan considered the slide and swings but thought better of it.

He settled for turning on his "light" and just looking.

Made for a fun morning.

And then....

Right before naptime I sat Aidan down at the table and let him play with his light and his trains while I went to the bathroom and got him a new diaper for night-night. I came back to find the light dismantled:

He'd done this before and knew it was a no-no, so I scolded him and took the light away then laid him down to change his diaper. He made a funny face and complained at the obvious injustice of it (and oh man, can he complain! How old is he? I thought this started at 2! haha!), and I thought his expression looked a little like he was concerned about something in his mouth. My brain made the connection pretty quickly and I picked him up and checked his mouth. Nothing in it. I went back to the light - missing a battery. I searched all over the floor and around the table and didn't find anything. Awesome.

I did a quick search on battery ingestion and found enough to scare my pants off so I called the closest urgent care place to make sure they had x-rays and that they take our insurance. Then I had to find a ride. Found one and called Rob and he suggested that I call the battery ingestion hotline out of DC even though we were already taking action. I did and they suggested that we skip urgent care and go straight to the ER in case they found out that the battery was lodged in his esophagus, as this is where the acid of the battery is most likely to do damage and if they found it there he'd have to be admitted anyway.

I prayed that the ER people would be calm, that it would be fairly empty, and that they wouldn't overreact and try to stick any needles in him or give me any reason to be the bad guy - especially without Rob there. Praise God, they were wonderful. Aidan didn't even catch on that there was something scary happening. He said "cheese" as they took his x-rays, and he pleasantly said hello and goodbye to every doctor, nurse, etc. who came into the room. :D We were there for less than half an hour total.

The verdict: no battery anywhere in our little guy! yippee! So, we're $100 less (materially) wealthy but have peace of mind. We just have to watch him for any weird signs of illness. And find that darn battery... :)

The Blessing of Good Friends

My house is cleaner that it has been for months.
My mind is quieter than it has been in too long.
My days are full even though I rarely have transportation.

I am so very thankful for friends who care and who have gone out of their way recently to make life awesome. I'm excited to have one of those friends living so close now. My friend Kim moved into the other resident manager apartment here at Hillcrest a few weeks ago and it has been wonderful having someone to meet for coffee or breakfast or to chat. And she's made my job here to much easier that I feel more excited to work for Hillcrest than I have for a long time. So basically, I think she deserves a blog post to say THANKS Kim for being you and being here. :D