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Hello, my fellow fabulous bloggers.

I have new sponsor packages up! And yes, some of the packages are free! Skip on over here if you want to come hang out Along Abbey Road with me!

It's a party you won't want to miss out on :)

A Random Thing Or Two-sday

1) Luke already knows how to hold hands! Such a cuddle bug. We can't get enough, can't you tell? 

2) I have mastered the art of typing one-handed at a rather remarkable pace. It's quite impressive, the new skills one acquires as a mother.

3) Fun fact of the day:

"Research shows that men know they’re falling in love after just three dates, but women don’t fall in love until date 14" (source). That can't be true. Really? I feel like girls are always the ones being all romantic and lovey-dovey and won't stop talking about their feelings. Apparently not!

4) Sometimes it just feels good to let it all out and write run-on sentences that would make your 8th grade English teacher cringe with frustration since she made an earnest attempt with every fiber of her being to ensure she turned out grammatically correct individuals to society and not wanting to run the risk of sounding like a babbling moron or a valley girl that relays stories like this... thank you, Simone.

5) Did I already mention my sugar addiction has increased? I ate 6 of the 8 pieces of my birthday cheesecake. In 3 days. And I thought my problem was bad before... yikes! First step is admitting you have a problem, right? At least you don't have to feel as bad if you ever substitute meals with candy and sweets, because I do it too!

Spring Dreaming

Can we talk about how great it is to fit into normal clothes again? I can finally go shopping! Yippee!

Here are the transitional spring pieces I will be adding to my closet in the very near future.

1) Blue plaid shirt: H&M. I'll mix prints for days in this number.

2) Pink cigarette jeans: UO. I die.

3) Smarty-pants readers: Anthropologie. Pretty sure my IQ will be through the roof every time I wear these.

4) Inwood dress: Anthropologie. Let's have a tea party, shall we?

5) Creme accordion maxi skirt: American Apparel. I will be pairing this little diddy with #8.

6) MAC Fluidline. Cat eyeliner for dayyyys. Meow.

7) Fitted skinny jeans: F21. Can't have enough colored skinny jeans.

8) Cropped anchor top: F21. I will be pairing this with my pleated skirt, a rose-colored long sleeve tee underneath, and wedges. Perfection.

People, I think I've caught a case of shopping spring fever. Heaven help me.

Slouchy Sweater Issues

 

 

Button-up: F21. Sweater: LOFT. Skinnies: F21. Oxfords: Steve Madden. Necklace: LOFT. Sunnies: Anthropologie.

So, I am at that point where I have that little bit of left over tummy. You know, the tummy that looks like I'm 4 months prego or slightly chubby? Yeah, that one. I figured my slouchy sweater would cover it up, but I'm not exactly sure if it helped or just enhanced this awkward body phase. Can I just say I am excited to get the clearance from the doc to work out? My yoga pants are calling out for a friend!

In other news, Dianne, my mother-in-law, is here to hang out with the Lukester and I. We are having a ball! We love our mamas!

Birthday Smirthday

Source: Uploaded by user via Jane on Pinterest

I am officially 24 years old. I feel so old. Sure, it's not that old, but I've been alive for almost a quarter of a century! When put that way, it sounds kind of ancient.

This next year is going to be awesome. Age 24 is going to treat this girl right. I can feel it. 

As for today, it will be filled with shopping (I have the aforementioned 15% Anthro coupon to use), watching hilarious Youtube videos (this one literally had me in tears), and stuffing my face with cake.

I also found that I share my birthday with Ellen DeGeneres, Eddie Van Halen, Paul Newman and the Suleman octuplets, aka Octomom. Pretty awesome people if you ask me.

Eat some cake for me, will ya?

Happiness Is...

Wearing a messy top knot practically everyday. It's chic and baby friendly.

Blouse: LOFT. Necklace: Sprightly So.

Sporting a leopard print blouse. No better way to add some va-va-voom to your wardrobe than with animal print.

Skinnies: Paige Denim.

Fitting into my skinny jeans again (insert Hallelujah chorus)! It may require the assistance of Spanx and some rather tight buttoning, but hey, they're on! And let's not forget the pink pedicure.

Fuzzy baby mohawks. So presh.

Onesie: Babies R' Us.

Cute baby onesies with even cuter owl appliques. 

 

Tiny baby footsies, all wrapped up and toasty warmy.

A Random Thing Or Two-sday

1) Yesterday I saw a truck driver do a U-turn in a very cramped intersection. In a huge semi. To say he has mad driving skills is an understatement. Sometimes I hardly make those turns in my Honda Accord! Bravo, truck driver man. Bravo.

2) "About 80% of neonatal and newborn sleep time is REM sleep, suggesting a tremendous amount of time dreaming" (source). Luke laughs in his sleep all the time. Yes, it's the cutest thing in the world. I wonder what he is dreaming about?

3) The ability to produce milk makes me feel like a cow. Mooooo.

4) I am ready for Chuck and Blair to be back together. The whole "I can't be with you in order to save you, but I'll always love you" thing is getting old. I really hope Chuck's wedding crashing next week makes me scream out of excitement. And how are we feeling about Serena's love for Dan? I often wonder if any of those feelings are real, considering they are ex-lovers in real life. Oh the drama. I live for Monday nights.

5) My mom is a saint. She stayed with us this last week to help out with Luke. I love her so much. I'm very grateful to have such a wonderful mother and blessed to have her around whenever I need her.

The Birth Story

Crawling out of bed the morning of Friday, January 13th was a bit different than my usual wake up routine. Instead of moseying around in bed, I quickly ran to the bathroom as there was a substantial gush of liquid all over my PJ's. Had I peed my pants? Nope, that couldn't be it. There was only one other conclusion to draw from this...

My water had broken.

The nurses at the hospital didn't seem alarmed, so Matt and I waited for my 9:30 am NST appointment before going in. As I greeted the attending nurse, I exclaimed with enthusiasm, "I think my water broke!" and proceeded to give her a hug. Matt made fun of me because he said the nurse had reached out to show me the way to the triage room, not for a hug. Whatever. I was about to have my baby in the next 24 hours and I deserved all the hugs in the world!

I changed into a hospital gown and they wired me up to the monitor. Nurse Sharyl watched for about an hour to see if my water had truly broken. She came in 45 minutes later and found no fluid on my seat pad, so we proceeded to an amniotic fluid test. It came back negative, meaning it didn't detect enough fluid to determine that my water had actually broken.

I was confused. I know my body and that fluid definitely was not coming from my bladder. Back to the NST room they sent me to have the fluid levels checked by ultrasound. Sure enough, there was only 5 cm of fluid, meaning my water had broken within the last 48 hours. Turns out the amniotic fluid test could only detect broken water if it was within the last 12 to 18 hours. 

You know what that meant? 

Induction! 

Now, I had wanted to try to go through labor naturally and unmedicated, but the risk of infection was too high to not be induced. Beside, I had been over the whole pregnancy thing for the past 4 weeks and being induced sounded like a dream.

So I thought...

Nurse Sharyl started the Pitocin drip at 12:30 pm, January 13. I was already dilated at 3 cm and 50% effaced. My suspicions were that Baby Rod would make his debut no later than 12 am that night/morning. At 4 pm, the contractions were becoming fairly intense so I opted for an epidural. They moved me to my birthing room and in waltzed the anesthesiologist. Must be nice having a job where everyone adores you the moment they lay eyes on you. The man seemed like an angel, sent to relieve the ever-growing pain of labor. I'm not going to lie. I was pretty nervous about having a 5 inch needle rammed into my spinal cord. It didn't help that he kept saying how "tight" my dura mater space was as he was jamming it in. I should have known then that something could very well go wrong.

Within 10 minutes, I felt on top of the world! All pain vanished and my painful grimace was replaced with a big smile. Nurse Sharyl checked to see my progression. Four hours had passed since the Pitocin was started and I was only dilated to 4 cm and about 75% effaced. Since the epidural had kicked in, she maxed out the Pitocin to its highest amount to get the process moving along faster. 

Suddenly the monitor started flashing purple and baby's heart rate completely dropped off the screen. I felt in my gut something wasn't right, and Nurse Sharyl was scrambling in the room not 10 seconds later. She rearranged the heart monitor and was able to find his heart beat again, but I was pretty shaken at this point. Tears filled my eyes and I couldn't help but start bawling. The Pitocin level was decreased to ensure a healthy heart rate. 

Fear had consumed me and anxiety was beginning to take over my consciousness. My own heart rate was now at an alarming 150 and the constant awareness of it made it worse. At this point it was 7 pm. Nurse Natasha replaced Nurse Sharyl. She took one look at me and gave me the best pep talk in the world. Her reassuring words and amazing care are what got me through the night. 

At 7 pm, I was about 5 cm dilated, and 80% effaced. Slow progression, but we were getting somewhere. Matt stayed right by my side and held my hand as we watched a movie to get my mind off my anxiety. 

A few more hours passed, and I was finally at 7 cm and almost 100% effaced around 10 pm. Baby Rod was coming soon! 

Matt and I sat there together, reveling in the thought that we would meet our beautiful son soon. Moments later, I felt a horrifically intense pain on the left side of my abdomen that shot all the way through my back. It literally felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach. Not 4 minutes later, the terrifying pain returned.

My epidural has stopped working. Let me repeat that. MY EPIDURAL HAD STOPPED WORKING. At the height of my active labor! Where the contractions were the most unbearable, especially since the Pitocin augmented them to 10 times the intensity!

Was this really happening to me? The anesthesiolgists's complaints of my insertion area being "really tight" rang in my ears. I wanted to slap the guy at this point, not hug him. Nurse Natasha helped as much as she could and requested what they call a bullet of pain medicine into the epidural line. Guess what? It didn't work. The pain was increasing at an alarming rate. It felt like a UFC fighter was grabbing my insides and wrenching them as hard as possible, while kicking me in the back. This was not how I had imagined labor.

I consider myself to have a fairly high pain tolerance. I felt like the biggest wussy in the world. I hurt and ached and just wanted it to be removed from me. I began to throw up. 

The anesthesiologist gave me a second round of the bullet shot, but to no avail. It was about 12:30 am and I threw up a second time. The good news was I had finally dilated to 9, almost 10 cm and pushing was imminent. 

I had been in labor for 12 grueling hours and felt hopeless. The life was slowly being sucked out of me, and all I could manage to do was whimper in pain to Matt. Bless his dear heart. Matt was amazing. He stroked my hair, cooled me off with a wet washcloth, and whispered sweet words of encouragement as tears welled up in his eyes from witnessing the suffering I was enduring.

At 2 am, the pushing began. As much as I thought it would hurt, pushing with the contractions felt liberating. It was a time for me to push out the agony and visualize the moment when I got to meet my stubborn boy that didn't want to come out. An hour later, I was still pushing. Nurse Natasha coached me through each and every push, and assured me I was going to get our little guy around that corner. She called my doctor and asked what she wanted to do at around the hour mark. Keep pushing, she told Natasha. How could I go on? I had zero strength left and wanted them to cut him out of me. It's funny how your perspective on things tends to change when you are faced with extreme difficulty. I was ardently opposed to a cesarean section the entire pregnancy, but at this point I no longer cared and wanted him out of me as I laid there helpless and weak. 

Around 3:25 am, January 14, I pushed the hardest I ever have in my life. Baby Rod had finally crowned. Waiting for Dr. Vu to rush to the hospital was a challenge. Fighting the urge to push with each contraction seemed almost impossible. Finally, the doctor arrived and I pushed with all the might and strength I could find within myself. At 3:55 am and five solid pushes later, I was met with the most glorious feeling of lightening imaginable. The pain immediately melted away and all I could hear was the cry of a helpless little baby.

I did it.

The doctor laid my sweet, precious baby on my chest. I was overcome with fear, exhaustion, and excitement all at once. He was covered in a waxy coat of vernix with a very cone-shaped head. He looked more like an alien than a baby, but he was still amazing. 

Matt cut the cord, to both our surprise, and they whisked him off to be cleaned, measured, and weighed.

Being placed in my arms once again, Matt and I both stared at the true miracle of life we had created.

Childbirth is the hardest thing I have ever gone through, but by far the best.

Lucas Timothy Rodriguez is ours forever, and we've been falling more madly in love with him with each passing day.

An Embarrassing Moment: Jess

Jess is one of the best people you'll ever meet. She is beautiful, kind, elegant, and lives a wonderfully charming life. Kind of like Mary Poppins. I wouldn't be surprised if she had magical powers at the snap of her fingers. She is that awesome. See for yourself! Take it away, Jess.

Hello all! I'm Jess and I'm here to tell you about the most embarrassing moment with my significant other (aka my hot hubby Steve). Steve and I met on a study abroad in Jerusalem, and let's just say I fell for  those blonde curls and baby blues pretty fast. We were walking around the city, deep in conversation- now let me interject and say that this was (at this point) a one-sided crush in its infancy- that said, we were walking together and I was getting lost in those cute creases at his eyes when the unthinkable and highly embarrassing occurred. Ladies and gentlemen, I ran into a pole. Yep. straight into it. How cute. Needless to say, I was mortified. I tried to laugh it off, but to tell you the truth...it really hurt (physically and emotionally). Luckily he eventually saw through my clumsiness and eventually did think I was pretty cute. We rode off into the sunset and lived happily ever after, but I don't think I'll ever blush that deep again.

A Romantic First Experience: Rebecca

Meet Rebecca, my loves. She is the stylish lady behind See Me Rwar and a proud owner of Hunter boots that I am currently coveting (I know coveting is bad, but I'm working on it). Here's a little love story about how she and her hubs met. Take it away, Rebecca!

My husband and I met under very unusual circumstances. We lived in the same apartment complex. It was summertime, and I was down at the pool. There was a sweet little family there, and my friends and I were playing with the kids. A cute boy walked by while I was laying out and said hi briefly as he passed. My friends started to head home, but I went into the club house. A few minutes later I looked out at the pool and saw the family gathered on the far end of the pool. Something wasn’t right. I walked back out to the pool and a friend of the family was on the phone. She ran to me and handed me the phone. English was her second language and she was having a hard time telling the 911 Dispatcher where we were located. The youngest girl had hit her head and passed out in the pool. She wasn’t breathing. She was blue. And as they did CPR we all stood in panic scared for this little girl’s life. The boy who had said hi earlier stood behind me as I stayed on the phone with the dispatcher. The ambulances arrived and whisked the little girl off to the hospital. The next day I went down to the clubhouse to see if they knew what had happened to her. They said she was revived and doing fine and had gone home that same night.

Later that month when I was at a party and ran into that cute boy from the pool, we had an obvious conversation starter. He jumped at the opportunity to pull me away from my friends so we could talk about that day and share our relief that the little girl was okay. The conversation spun and we found out that some friends I had met a few weeks ago were actually his roommates and best friends from high school. We flirted and laughed and at the end of the night, he asked for my number. 8 months later, we were married.



Thanks for letting me stop by! I hope you'll come visit me here.

A Romantic First Experience: Melina

Melina is the sweetest bloggy friend you will ever have. For reals. See for yourself! Take it away, Melina!

I am beyond excited to be guest posting for Abbey. The 

baby is almost here and she's going to be super BUSY.

I am glad she asked us all to help her out so we can

keep her blog updated until she gets back. So love

 don't you worry, we'll take care of your blog while 

you change diapers and spend time with the little one.

My name is Melina and I blog over here:

I am an Argentinian native living in Los Angeles, CA.

I been in a long distance relationship for over 2 years.

I am a loving, caring, sweet, honest and creative girl

that will try to do anything to put a smile on your face.

I am addicted to Oreos and chocolate. You will find me

baking, cooking, doing DIY projects, drinking margaritas, 

or taking pictures of ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING.

 

I blog about my person life, my relationship with 

Sebastian, my friends, my family, and everything

that revolves around me. In other words, my

blog is MY ONLINE JOURNAL.

Abbey asked me to pick between an embarrassing funny

moment I've had or a first experience with my other half.

I picked the first experience one.

Back in June 2010, I went to Argentina to visit

my boyfriend. I was craving sushi really bad and

to my surprise he had never tried it before. Well,

it was understandable because Sushi was not a

big thing in Argenitna until the end of 2010.

We went to a restaurant called Itamae Sushi.

 

 

I seriously had a blast with him. Do you have an 

idea how long it took to show him how to use the 

sticks? LOL Just thinking about it makes me want 

to laugh all over again. At the end of the night I was 

so proud of him for learning and for trusting my taste

and knowledge. He tried everything and loved it.

I can't wait to go back to Argentina and have this

experience again. Better yet, I can't wait for THIS

to happen so we can all the Sushi we want here.

An Embarrassing Moment: Kristen

 Kristen is an awesome momma and did I mention her style is amazing too? I'm learning to take notes on how to keep the balance! Take it away, Kristen!

Hey there!  I'm Kristen from The Mrs. and The Momma.  While Abbey is busy with her new little bundle, I'm here today to guest blog!  My topic today is something I have not told that many people about due to it's embarrassing nature....my first kiss with my husband....well, my first kiss ever for that matter.

My husband and I have dated since we were young.  You could say we grew up together.  Just to set the stage a bit, I'll provide a nice little mental picture for ya....

Circa 1994.  Braces.  Mild acne.  Body-waved hair.  Slightly awkward but thought I was pretty hot stuff.  I had never kissed a boy.  I was head over heels for this boy.  I desperately wanted to kiss him.  Like totally.

Got it?  Okay.  So there we were, at a playoff football game and sat way up high in the stadium pretty much by ourselves.  Well, I think my cousin and little brother were somewhere around us, but I pretended that they weren't.  At the end of the game, we were huddling together in no less than 5 layers of clothing due to the perfectly cold, crisp football weather. I knew it was coming.  He had that look in his eyes and I was determined.  (A little forward much?  Yes, maybe...but look where we are now!)

{I don't remember how exactly it happened because I'm pretty sure I could only hear my heart beating in my ears and the after-effects of that kiss scarred me for life, therefore erasing any minor details from memory.}

We leaned our heads together...eyes closed...

I thought "this is it!"

and.......wait for it....

WHAM!

My braces hit his teeth with an audible metal clank!  It somehow didn't deter the actual kiss, but I was MORTIFIED.  Absolutely 100% embarrassed to the core.  I kept thinking to myself, "How did I mess that up?!?  People kiss with braces all the time!!!"

My sweet husband was gracious enough to pretend not to remember that incident when I finally got the nerve to mention it to him years later.  And I mean years later....having a first kiss that could have been a scene from Sixteen Candles (and not by the cool kids, mind you), takes some healing time before you can even acknowledge it actually happened that way, much less vocalize it to another human being.

Thankfully now I'm over it.  What a great story it makes though.  When we tell our girls about our first kiss, the lesson to be learned from our experience is that they should never, ever kiss a boy with their eyes closed.  You never know when an over-eager guy might be coming in too fast, resulting in a tooth-collision with your brace face.  Therefore you have to keep those peepers alert...gauging distance, speed of approach, etc.  It's quite scientific.

If only I had been warned of these minor details of a first kiss...it might have turned out differently.  But then again, it might not have been as memorable either.

Introducing...

The moment we've all been waiting for...

Lucas Timothy Rodriguez

AKA
Luke, Cool Hand, Bruiser, Lil' Lukey

Born Jan 14, 2012 at 3:55 am

7 lbs, 13 oz

20 in 

Birth story to come. It's a good one, albeit dramatic.

Since I am now genuinely sleep-deprived and baby-obsessed, I have a line up of bloggy friends that will be sharing some fun and happy stories this week during my absence. Enjoy it and catch a couple of extra winks for me, will ya? ;)

xoxo

Who Comes Up With This Stuff?

A little birdy told me laughter is a good way to induce labor.

Oh really?

Well in that case, bring on the funnies!

Here are just a few of many hysterical pins that I've been collecting over the past 6 months. I can always count on this pin board to get me rolling.

Source: m.9gag.com via Abbey on Pinterest

Source: icanhascheezburger.com via Abbey on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Abbey on Pinterest

Source: facebook.com via Abbey on Pinterest

Source: a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net via Abbey on Pinterest

Source: tumblr.com via Abbey on Pinterest

Source: someecards.com via Abbey on Pinterest

You can imagine my particular enjoyment of the last one. Still gets me, every time.