a few cute pics from the week

little cousin Amory met ashlyn for the first time! She calls her "the B"

Pat and i have gotten lots of cuddle time in with our little girl

and we took a couple of christmas pics..... but i need to decide what is going on the card before i post more.

hope you all had a fabulous Christmas!!

Ashlyn Elise O'Brien

Okay so it has been 9 days...but as you can imagine things have been pretty nuts!

The good news: Ashlyn is here and she is absolutely perfect.

She weighed in at 8lbs. 8oz and she was 22 inches long.

The labor and delivery was pretty much textbook and i feel so lucky that everything went as smoothly as it did. Basically, I started having contractions last friday at 10:30 while i was vacuuming the house. They were only like 7-10 minutes apart, but weren't that awful so i hesitated to call anyone and let them know - i totally thought that it might have just been some cramping because i was sort of over doing it for being 39 weeks and 6days pregnant :). I did call Pat at work to let him know, but i was sure that they would stop as soon as he got home and warned him many times not to be disappointed if that was the case. Right around noon they were getting much stronger and only 5 minutes apart - so it was officially go time. We ate lunch, i took a shower, changed into some comfy clothes and headed out the door. Lets just say five minute contractions hurt much more than 7 minute contractions.....and guess what? Contractions every 2 minutes hurt WAYYYY worse than both of those combined

I got to the hospital and the nicest old man wheeled me in the door while Pat parked the car. He kept his hand on my shoulder the whole ride back to labor and delivery and seemed so excited for us that we were about to have a baby. I got checked out in triage by a nice little resident that had a "pocket guide to obstetrics" in his pocket filled with post-it notes and earmarked pages. Luckily it looked like he had read it a lot, but soooo funny to see an instruction manual in the "doctors" pocket.

Ummm just as we suspected before going into triage i was actually in labor....so they moved me to the Labor and delivery area. I was in between contractions and feeling okay so i actually walked to my room. Up until that point everything seemed so manageable. I could deal with the pain and the anxiety hadn't really set in. It kind of felt like an out of body experience - like i still wasn't "really" having a baby. Once we got into Labor and Delivery things changed. I think that walk to the room really kicked my butt. The nurse talked me into trying "the ball" (umm eww) I swore afterwatching way too many episodes of a baby story that i would never use the exercise ball thing but i was in a lot of pain at that point so any option sounded like a good one. 2 contractions later i was fahhhhhreaking over it and opted for the epidural ( sidenote: I truly couldn't care less if you want to judge me for this...cough cough..... Emily).

Let me tell you - Epidurals are magical!!!!

I got my epidural and within a couple of hours i was fully dilated and ready to go. I simply watched the monitor so that i could tell when i was having a contraction but i had enough control to where i could still move my legs. pat and i just hung out and he would tell me when it looked ike my contractions were getting huge. i just chilled. Things moved along extremely quickly and i felt like i had a ton of energy saved up for when it actually came time to deliver. that was a great feeling and i dont think it would have been that way had i been in agonizing pain for hours beforehand.

That is just my experience though - if you go without - that is great for you. Everyone has there own reasons for making the decisions that they do....and i respect everyone for having a baby no matter how they go about it.

So anyways, Ashlyn was born after about an hour of pushing. The full Labor and delivery time was 7 hours total. She was alert and happy from the moment she was born and totally healthy.

Now that we are home, she loves to sleep...even at night...and she just gets sweeter every day.

I have loved nothing more than to see Pat with his little girl too. We are so lucky and feel so blessed to have had the experience we did. Two minutes after having her I said "wow that was easy...i could have 10 kids...lets do this again"

So anyways...stay tuned. I will have many more updates on this little peanut.

We love her so much :)

39 weeks 5 days

i am REALLY pregnant.....and i have been really bored....and now i think someone is trying to tell me something because BRAVO somehow disappeared from the channel lineup on my family room TV. Ummm how do you spend a lazy pre-baby maternity leave on the couch when there is no BRAVO available to entertain???

I know all i have to do is call in to Direct TVs customer service and have them re-send a signal, but dude......annoying!

I am going to take this as a sign that maybe i am "resting" too much.

i think i will spend this fine afternoon off the couch doing some baby yoga instead..... i love hanging out with "sunshine" the earth mother baby yoga instructor that graces me with her presence via DVD

Annnd in baby news: if i had to put a guess in I would say that Ashlyn is going to make her debut this Saturday. It is her actual due date...and it has been my guess all along.

Pat was born on his due date...he is a first born...naturally his daughter could do the same right?

I'll keep you all posted...the doctor sounded surprised that i have lasted this long so who knows it could be sooner (could be later).

:)

Winter Turkey Chili Recipe

I don't know if your outside looks anything like my outside right now....but if it is snowing sideways and freezing (or even if it is sunny and you are just in the mood for a nice wintery meal) ....you have to try this soup!

My friend Emily made it for Pat and I last week and it is beyond good. Pretty light, but filling all at the same time...... She got it off of the foodnetwork.com site (its Ellie Krieger) but I included it below for your convenience.

Bon Appetit!

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 2 stalks celery, diced (about 1/2 cup)
• 3 medium poblano peppers (about 4 ounces each), seeded and white ribs removed, finely diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, more to taste
• 1 pound ground white meat turkey
• 2 (15.5-ounce) cans white beans such as cannelini, preferably low-sodium, drained and rinsed
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 (15.5-ounce) can hominy, drained and rinsed
• Salt
• 1/4 cup nonfat plain Greek-style yogurt
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• Lime wedges

Directions

Heat the oil in large pot or Dutch oven over moderate heat. Add the onion, celery, poblanos, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, coriander and cayenne and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add the ground turkey and cook, breaking up the meat with a spoon, until the meat is no longer pink about 2 minutes. Add the white beans, broth and oregano. Cook, partially covered, stirring occasionally, for 25 minutes.

Add the hominy and salt and more cayenne pepper, to taste, and continue cooking, partially covered, 10 minutes longer. Ladle into individual bowls and top each serving with 1 tablespoon of yogurtand 1 1/2 teaspoons of cilantro. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Per Serving:

Calories 320; Total Fat 6 g; (Sat Fat 0.5 g, Mono Fat 2 g, Poly Fat 1 g) ; Protein 31 g; Carb 37 g; Fiber 9 g; Cholesterol 30 mg; Sodium 310 mg

Excellent source of: Protein, Fiber, Thiamin, Vitamin C, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus

Good source of: Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin K, Potassium, Zinc

37 weeks 2 days

There was a point last week where i would have paid 1 million dollars to induce labor.

Luckily, the discomfort and anxiousness that caused all of that has dissipated and as of today (at 11am) i am ready to stick it out for the long haul and make it to my due date on December 18th.

Much of that feeling has to do with the fact that I got sick over the weekend - Lots of coughing, lots of nose blowing, lots of laying around like a bum hoping to feel better soon and i realized how awful it would be to start my shift as "mom" with this awful cold. I need to be well rested and healthy...so i need at least a week more of being pregnant to accomplish this....oh yeah and i have a hair appointment scheduled on the 10th. It would be tragic if i had these roots in all of the pictures from my little girls first week of life!

So yeah i need highlights and good health.

lets just hope it doesn't take a week for these symptoms to disappear. Coughing your head off while being this humongous has a whole new set of ramifications that i don't intend to discuss but just know, it isn't fun.

In other news: we had a nice Thanksgiving. Pats brother was in town with his fiance from DC and it is always fun to have them here. We got lots of time in with family and friends -watching Notre Dame finally beat USC and eating like it was our job all weekend.

Pat and i did some holiday shopping on Black Friday. It was kind of worthless to get up early but it ended up working out. We got some good deals....but i have a feeling those same deals were available at 11am vs. 6am. Nonetheless, we are now the proud owners of a very very fancy new desktop Mac and an elliptical that BETTER allow me to morph back into a normal sized post-pregnant human being. I guess it stinks that there wont be any big surprises on Christmas morning, but Pat and i are all about the practicality and it made more sense to just get each other these things we needed ahead of the baby being here.

Hopefully the new comp will contribute to some renewed inspiration for blogging. Once every 2 weeks kind of sucks - i know.

So that's it for now. I am hopefully optimistic that i can make it to my due date ( i swear i am trying mom ;) )..... there has been a little bit of progress made towards having the baby though so we'll see how this all ends up. i guess i can't change what happens either way.

i definitely am beyond excited to meet little Ashlyn O'B though!!....whenever she decides to make her debut.

Baby Katie - i'm 35 weeks now

My mom sent this picture to me this morning. We realized last night that when i was born my mom was 27 and my dad was 30....the exact ages that Pat and I are going to be when little Ashlyn (or the mystery 20% chance baby that happens to have a wiener) will be born.

I am just surprised to see how much hair i had. I was a total towhead blonde later on....and isn't my dads pink tie cute? No offense to my 2 older sisters but i was the only one that got a pink tie tribute :) ...love you dad!

SO anyways, my feelings at 35 weeks: it is getting so close....and we are ready to some extent but it still feels like there is just so much left to do. Anxiety has definitely set in, but overall I think i am confident that Pat and I are going to be great parents.

I am kind of in list mode with just 5 weeks left.

Yesterday i looked up hospital information - and made a phone list in my phone of numbers we might need.

I also sent my sister Kristen an email to find out what kind of things i would need to pack for my hospital bag. Thank god i did because the boppy pillow and big butt undies could have been forgotten. Ugggg - I hate those kind of underwear. I own like 2 and they are only worn as pajamas when no one is looking.... i guess times are a changing (temporarily at least)

This weekend we are tackling another list item- pat and i are going to finish out the practical baby purchases and head to babies r us for the pump the baby tub, a little bit of extra sheeting, and God only knows what else! I think we need more warm onesies, some cloth diapers (not for diaper business but for other stuff) pacifiers, a nursing cover.....ummm etc.

We'll see how that all goes. Pat "looooves" shopping.

As far as the "me" stuff goes -I am feeling pretty good, but this "pretty good" only comes after some hard work to get back to normal. A few days ago i was almost freaking crippled by a pinched nerve in my back. I have had sciatica on and off at different times, but this was the first time it didn't go away. The pain was constant and i was miserable. So for the first time this whole pregnancy I left work - for a non doctor appointment related issue. I got a prenatal massage, i took a bath, and i did baby yoga. That - my friends- is an unbelievable combination of greatness. I woke up the next day feeling like it was my second trimester again :)

All in all - things are good.

I am done decorating the nursery.

I am close to getting ready to leave work.

I am ready to decorate my house for Christmas.

I am excited for our baby basics class on the 29th.

I am ready to finish Christmas shopping on black Friday.

I am ready to pack a bag for the hospital.

...I just haven't finished or done any of that stuff yet.

Heres to hoping that some of these get crossed off my list now that they are in writing for the world to see.

Hope you all have an excellent friday! If you want....have a martini for me (one with a little champagne too). I really want/need one at this point but i am willing to live vicariously through you for at least 6 more weeks :)

32 weeks...and the nursery :)

Here is a 32 week update. Anyone else sick of seeing me with my hand on my hip in every single picture i take these days?? I am...but you should see what pictures look like without that elbow. Angles are good ladies. I may look like a dork, but something needs to balance out all of the roundness :)...so stay tuned because these next 8 weeks could get very interesting. I just hope you will still be able to see my elbows by December 18th!

And enough about me. In much bigger/better news- does anyone want to see the princess palace we created for the baby?
you do??? okay
and you want to know what we are naming her right???

well here you go...
this is Ashlyn's nursery :)

soft pinks....light grey.....a baby crystal chandelier....i die.

the bedding close up.

and one fabulous, overstuffed closet filled with gorgeous girl garb.

I bought this chair at a cute little baby boutique by my house. It has a really high back which is so nice for when i happen to fall asleep here. It also reclines.

I'm a little nervous about the white but i guess we will just have to wait and see how that goes - it was too pretty to pass up (ha ha)

and this little element is so much cuter in person. I bought some fabric that matched the changing pad and made this little hair bow board. For my shower, everyone brought me a headband or a hair bow for little Ashlyn. She pretty much has every single color and pattern a girl could imagine. And this doesn't even include her impressive collection of hats.Keep in mind that pat and i were both pretty bald for a good long time, but i do l really look forward to the day when Ashlyn can learn her colors by pointing out which bow she feels like wearing for the day.

All of this with only an 80% chance that this is a girl.

I will either feel like a total idiot...or very lucky that my intuition was correct.

i guess we will see in December.

How "funny" would it be if i have to post the total room remodel and renaming of Baby OB????

(don't worry - there are plans to reverse all of this if we are surprised with a little boy)