America's Beauty Show

This weekend, I had the opportunity to attend America's Beauty Show in Chicago. I've been looking forward to it for months. Ross even took Monday off so that I could go.

Sunday after church, I helped Ross get the girls settled and finished packing before heading out. We were explaining to the girls that mom was going on a trip, and that they were going to have a special Daddy Day. Usually when we leave the girls, it's because we're going on a date, so Claire thought I was going on a date. We had to explain that Mom only goes on dates with Daddy. This was just a trip.

I didn't even get out of the neighborhood before almost tearing up. It was weird going on a trip alone, though I was excited to be a grown up and possibly sleep at night. Out of habit, I kept checking the mirrors to check on the girls, only to find empty car seats.

I started the show Sunday night with the Stylist Choice Awards. Stylists voted for the best products, educators, and platform artists of the year and there's a big show to present the awards with artistic presentations from different stylists.

The show started with a cocktail party. I had no clue what to expect so packed a black dress with black boots. Unfortunately, I also parked as far away from the correct building as possible. By the time I made the hike to the event in the high heeled boots, my feet were completely shredded. MISTAKE. Turns out I probably could have worn whatever I wanted. Some people were completely dolled up, while others just looked trendy in jeans and cool tops.

There was so much AMAZING hair. It was so fun to see everyone's style. There were so many incredible stylists and it was so cool to be in the same room as them. The Stylist that does fashion week everywhere had a mini presentation of the Spring/Summer fashion week they did a few months ago. It was AMAZING!!!! (Totally geeking out over the hair.) I LOVED it!

At the end of the event, we got massive goodie bags full of amazing products.  I didn't get back to the hotel till pretty late, and only got a few hours of sleep before my alarm went off. Honestly, the sleep felt so good, I was almost tempted to skip the show and sleep.

Let's just talk about Chicago traffic. I'm grateful I left early, because it took an extra HOUR to get there than it should have. All of the stop and go with more stop than go was lulling me to sleep. Which is terrible really, since that's when you need to be the most alert. I'm not sure why they even have speed limit signs when no one gets above 25-30 anyway.

The tops of my feet were SHREDDED from the night in high heeled boots. I couldn't even get them in my cute flats, so I had to wear flip flops. I wasn't even in the building before the comments on my flip flops started. I was truly embarrassed. Ok, HORRIFIED. I'm at a BEAUTY event in FLIP FLOPS. Without a good pedicure.

At the show, I was on a mission. There's a pair of shears I've been DROOLING over. I wanted to get them in my hands and try them out. And you can guess it, they're made by Sam Villa. I wanted to meet him, too. BADLY. When the doors opened, I booked it over to the Sam Villa booth. Of course he wasn't there, but those beautiful scissors were. I chatted with a lady from his team for a while and tested them out and fell even more in love with them. I think they'd make a lovely graduation present.

There was so much to see and do. It was insane. After picking up some make up for my Casper-white skin, I decided to start on one end of the room and work my way up and down. After a couple hours, I was probably about half way with a bag full of samples and pamphlets. Redken had a runway where they had education/shows going on all day. I had scoped out the time that Sam Villa would be on. I wanted to get there early to make sure I had a seat, so I started heading over about 45 minutes early. I turned the corner and froze. There was SAM VILLA! Right there! A few feet away from me! I was so excited, I almost threw up.

He was doing an interview with some Chicago TV people. After, they all shook his hand and hugged him and I was right there. Stalking him. I followed him while he was talking to people.Another girl had the same idea and we joked about how creepy we were. But the creepiness paid off! After the important people cleared, he made a point to talk to me. He shook my hand, gave a massive hug, and chatted for a little bit.

Here's the thing about Sam Villa: He's very humble. And personable. He treated me like a long lost friend. When we took a picture, he took me by surprise and shoved his face right next to mine.

Mission accomplished.

I took a front row seat to wait for him to come on. I'm glad I got there early. So many people came, the fire marshal came a few times to have people move, or he'd shut it down. It was really cool to see him work in person.

There's a newer product line out, at their booth they were doing color and cuts. I love watching different customizing techniques, and one gal really stood out. And my creeping side came out. Most people stand pretty far back when watching, but I got up in her bubble and asked a million questions. Looking back, I was probably a little too intense. I all but asked if I could try her technique, but she didn't seem to mind, and I learned a lot. Turns out, she's from Milwaukee and went to Martin's before it became Empire.  At the end of the cut, she gave me her card and told me to reach out to her.

I watched a few more Redken artists throughout the show. Redken has a 'pay it forward' and share what you know attitude. I think that was my biggest take away from the show. While there are talented, amazing stylists out there, they all just want to give what they have back. They would show you how to do something, provide the knowledge, and then tell you to go out and make it yours. They provide the knowledge and inspiration, but want you to mix it up and make it your own. And it isn't wrong. Everyone was willing to share what they knew to help everyone else out. And I love that. I got to see and learn about some amazing products, see some AMAZING hair, and meet some incredible people.
  

We've Been MIA.

And quite understandably so. Since becoming a family of five, we celebrated Christmas, moved two days later, settled in, I've been going to school, Mama and Papa Loveland came to visit, my mom came to visit, everyone had the flu, and Aoife turned two.


I feel a little guilty not documenting the happenings of our family, but blogging was just one more than I didn't need on my plate.

I'll spare everyone the details of the challenges of adjusting to having three kids in three years (and three kids in diapers.).Tiegan is a pretty needy baby. I do freezer meals instead of actually cooking, my house is never clean, I get dressed just before I need to leave for school, and my girls have been wearing their dress up dresses daily and I don't even care. I spent most of the day on the couch and wanted to punch everyone that talked about how wonderful motherhood is.

I was drowning. I lost my patience more than I should have. I yelled, I cried, and most of all I thought someone screwed up in designing Kate's plan. I was not meant to be a mother. Or a wife. I was meant to have lots and lots of cats. I love things from Pottery Barn. I like my house clean. And quiet. I like to sleep. And none of those things come from toddlers and babies.

I get anywhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours of sleep per night. I felt like the nights I prayed the hardest for help/sleep, were the nights Tiegan struggled the most. It was easier when the sun was up, but I still wanted to trade the munchkins in for fish. Not even dogs, fish.

I reached the lowest of lows and asked Ross for a blessing. Immediately after, I felt relief and I wasn't drowning anymore. I started getting a handle on life and these crazy girls. My house is still disgusting the majority of the time, and I do freezer meals instead of actually cooking, but none of that matters.

I watch Claire blow bubbles and remember the joy of being a child. Aoife is just plain insane and impossible to keep up with, and Tiegan has the biggest gummy grin in the mornings to go with that intoxicating baby smell that makes everyone happy. I still don't fit in my pants, and I might not ever fit in them again, and the only thing in our house that is truly MINE is the Diet Coke in the fridge, but all of the little things are reminding me of just how blessed I am and how much I really do love being a mom. There's my explanation for being MIA -Now for Loveland happenings!

Aoife turned two. I had class that night, and having recently moved, we kept everything low-key. I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest. Since when did birthdays become a huge production?
We met up with Ross for a birthday lunch. She got a massive sundae bigger than her head. She wasn't too sure about everyone singing to her, but loved the ice cream.

We had one really nice day a couple weeks ago. We took full advantage of it and went to the zoo. It's been a long COLD winter. As in school was cancelled a few times because it was too dangerous to go outside cold. It was wonderful to get outside. The girls loved the puddles from the melting snow and were soaked head to toe within seconds.

Claire sometimes gets in her own world. I think she thinks she's a princess? Amy way, she gets in her world and will say random movie lines. (Can you tell what we did all winter?) We were at the zoo when she entered her world. The ENTIRE time we were there, she'd walk around saying, "Who are you and how did you find me?" "Why do you shut me out?" "Why did you bring me here?" Things like that. Really great lines for her to be saying out in PUBLIC. I'm not sure why she couldn't have said happier lines. Bless her heart. It was hilarious.

We also signed Claire up for ballet this summer. She's finally old enough for a couple of the community sports! With the temperatures now consistently above freezing, I'm getting excited for all of our summer adventures. We will be living outside after this awful winter. I'm so grateful to finally be getting a handle on myself so now I can enjoy these three sweet babies. Summer can't come fast enough!

And now for pictures from the last couple weeks.

Tiegan Is Here!

For everyone who would rather not read through all of the details-

Tiegan Skye Loveland
Born at 7:14 AM December 13th, 5 weeks early.
5 pounds 10 oz
19 inches
And absolutely perfect.

Thursday I had every intention of cooking, cleaning, and going to class. When afternoon rolled around, I had a weird feeling that I should stay home from class and clean. I was feeling pretty crampy, but I hate missing class so I was just going to go in anyway. I went to get ready and noticed just a little bleeding. She also hadn't been moving as much as she normally does. The longer I thought about it, the worse my imagined scenario became. I decided to call and see if I was okay to just watch it. But of course they told me to go in to get checked out. Ross was going to be home within the hour, so I decided whenever he got home I'd head in.

By the time I got to the hospital, contractions had picked up, but they still weren't painful. I've had a ridiculous amount of contractions throughout the entire pregnancy so I didn't think anything of it. The crampy feeling had gotten worse though. A couple different doctors came in to talk to me in triage and asked what I thought was going on. They decided to check to see if I was still leaking fluid and check my cervix. The first doctor checked me and said I was dilated to a 6. They left to go consult with my specialist team as well as the doctor on call. After a while they came back in and decided to have someone else check. The second doctor said I was a 4 or 5 maybe, but that I definitely stretched to a 6, so she wasn't sure where to call the number. They left again to go decide what to do with me.

I ended up spending a few hours in triage while they decided what to do. The plan changed a million times and it was frustrating not knowing if I needed to have Ross find someone to watch the girls so he could come in. At that point I was pretty uncomfortable, but just wanted to get sent home so I didn't have to be in the waiting game. I think it was around 10 they came in to check me again. I had thinned and dilated a little more so they decided to admit me.

Wisconsin has an attitude of "Keep the baby in at all costs!!" So none of the doctors wanted to do anything to intervene or help things progress. They were pretty sure I was in labor, but not 100% sure, so there was a chance they'd just be watching me over night and I'd be sent home in the morning. Contractions had picked up. I was uncomfortable but not really in pain. We decided to have Ross come in just to be safe.

I had packed the hospital bags a week or so ago, but I kept them in our room where Aoife naps. During "naptime" Aoife had been slowly unpacking and scattering the contents. When Ross went to get the bags, they were empty. I had to make up a list off of the top of my head and sent him on a scavenger hunt. He was also in the middle of doing laundry, and cleaning as fast as he could. Everyone give him a pinch and tell him what a fantastic husband he is.

While Ross was en route, I was moved to another room. I hadn't been pregnant long enough to have done the Group B strep test, so we decided to play it safe and get the antibiotics going. I was pretty uncomfortable and started feeling nauseous. I got to poke around the room. The bath tub was ridiculously deep and looked fantastic. They also had a birthing ball there that I loved. Once I was hooked up to the antibiotics, I got set up on my ball with my barf bag and water jug and I was set! Ross came in and played a game of Skip-Bo with me before I sent him to get some sleep.

I decided to hop in the tub. Because I was early, babe had to stay on the monitor and they also wanted to keep a close eye on contractions. They were every 2-3 minutes. But they had a really cool portable monitor I could take in the tub with me. The nurse was fantastic and brought me bath blankets and kept checking on me to make sure I was as comfortable as possible. I wasn't hurting enough to want anything, but she kept a close watch on me anyway.

After the tub I decided to get back in the bed and distract myself with Netflix. The doctor wanted to check me again and I was thinner and pretty loose. But still, Wisconsin wants to keep the baby in no matter what, so no intervening. They figured my water would need to completely break to get me progressing much more, and since they weren't going to break my water, the nurse suggested morphine to help me relax. The morphine only lasts about an hour, and just takes the edge off. Right after it went in I felt weird and was wondering what I had gotten myself into. My body just felt heavy and I was woozy. I turned on my lullaby station on Pandora and settled in. Contractions were picking up, but the morphine was wonderful. I was able to sit back and relax. A couple hours later the nurse came in to check on me. I was back to feeling nauseous and was now HURTING. It didn't take long to get to the "kill me now" point. It was close to 6:30 and Ross was awake now. The doctor came in to check me and I was now at a 7. She said my composure had completely changed and I was definitely in labor so she decided to break my water. Instantly contractions got a million times worse and it wasn't long before the tears were rolling and I was rocking around, getting on all fours, and acting crazy.

Shift change was happening so the new doctors and nurses hadn't met me when I was still happy and making jokes. They were walking in to meet me at the worst time possible. Later I found out I introduced myself as "Crazy". I always thought women who said awful things to their husbands while in labor were crazy, but after going through that, I completely get it. I didn't say anything to him, but I definitely shot him looks. Poor guy. Have you seen Bill Cosby's Natural Child Birth? Yeah- it was a lot like that.

While I was praying for death, I said yelled some gems that are now the nurses' new favorite labor quotes. Among the winners:
"Holy Frick!"
"Frick on a Stick!"
"Holy Crap!"

And the winner (while I was pushing)-
Me: "HOLY BURNING RING OF FIRE!!!"
Nurse 1: Did she just say holy burning ring of fire?
Nurse 2: Yup. I think that's a song.
All Million People in the Room: HAHAHAHAHA

And of course I had the sobs of "I can't do this." "I don't want to do this anymore." "I don't want to have a baby." "I don't want to push." Everyone was very encouraging and of course kept saying thing like, "You got this" "Good girl" "You're doing great" "Here's your barf bag" But my main nurse was my tough love gal and just what I needed. Every now and then she looked like she wanted to slap me, but she'd say, "We're having a baby right now. You HAVE to do this. You're fine." I was absolutely in panic hysterical. Tiegan was also facing the wrong way so they tried a couple things to get her to turn. They didn't work.

Not much longer and it was time to push. And I really didn't want to. Ross and I had always joked that he'd do the Bill Cosby chant, "Push him out, shove him out, way out!" But due to concern for his safety, he decided not to. It was probably for the best. A few pushes and a lot of "HOLY FRICKS" later, Tiegan came out crying. We had the nursery staff and NICU staff in the room just in case. I got a tiny peek at her before she was whisked away to be checked out. I sent Ross over while I got stitched up. She scored 9's on both apgars, and was absolutely perfect. I'm so grateful for doctors and medicine and for the aggressive approach we took with steroids. And everyone should throw Ross a couple Benjamin's for enduring an epidural-less delivery with me. Poor guy.

We got to cuddle for a while before we moved to the recovery room, which was great because she didn't have a name yet! We thought we picked her name months ago, but recently we started thinking of others. We came to the hospital with a few we liked, but after she was born, none of them were right. It was a little stressful having to start from scratch, but eventually we found the right name.

 She's a champion nurser and eats like none other. Because she was so early, they had to test her blood sugars before every feeding for the first 24 hours. She did perfectly. It was so much fun getting to keep her with me and take her home with us. We've had to take her in every day to make sure her weight and bili levels still look good, but we love this little nugget and can't believe we have a trio of little girls!

We are absolutely smitten. And life with three littles is absolutely insane so I'll have to post about that next nap time.

Protein Pumpkin Pancakes.

Yesterday I forgot to start the crockpot and had to quickly throw something together for dinner. My go-to fallback dinner is always breakfast. Last night I decided to try protein pumpkin pancakes. And they were glorious. The original recipe was Paleo-but we are a family on a budget and while we love to eat healthy, coconut or almond flour is never on my grocery list. The recipe also claimed to only make 4-5 pancakes so I quadrupled it. I had 4, the girls each had 3, Ross ate 11, and we still had plenty for the next morning. I love leftovers, so I'll post the recipe as I made it, but feel free to half it if needed.

Protein Pumpkin Pancakes-
1 C. Flour
12 eggs (yes, TWELVE of them.)
1 t. Baking Soda
2 t. Cinnamon
1 t Salt
1 C. Pumpkin Puree
2 t. Apple Cider Vinegar
4 T Oil (Recipe called for coconut oil. I love cooking with coconut oil, but didn't have any on hand so I used vegetable oil.)
1 t. Pumpkin Pie Spice
 And Maple Syrup, because who eats pancakes without syrup?

I tossed everything into the Kitchen Aid to mix and we were good to go. They came out thinner, but oh so tasty. I think the Lovelands have a new favorite pancake recipe.

A Little More News.

I'll start with my doctor appointment last Friday. Remember a couple weeks ago when I said I had graduated to only needing to come in every other week? I take it back.

The good news is her head is up pretty high. And that's about all of the good news. I've been having more and more contractions that hurt much worse than before. It's a little funny. Ross and I will be watching a show and every so often I'll take a breath, hold it in and leap off the couch because it's too painful to sit. All the while muttering all kinds of things to myself.

Doc thinks I probably won't last much more than a few weeks, so I'll be going in every week now to get checked. We'll probably do another round of steroids soon, which is great for the babe. She's pretty much guaranteed a spot in the NICU, but the steroids will help a bunch. I really don't know what to expect this time around. It's the first time I've been on shots to keep her in there, so it's hard to say when she'll actually come. That's the hard part. Last week I pulled out all of the newborn clothes, and the toys and bottles just so I know where everything is.

Which brings me to the next bit of news.

The Loveland's are moving! A couple of weeks ago we signed a lease at a new complex about 20 minutes away. It's right between the office Ross works out of the main Epic campus. Which will be wonderful since he works out of Verona sometimes. It's closer to where we grocery shop, work, and school, but it's also more out in the country, so it's a little quieter.

Our complex decided to raise our rent but they also really wanted us to renew our lease. There have been a few things I really don't like about the complex, so we decided to check around for other options. For a while it didn't seem like we could find much for January. (Seriously, the WORST time to move.) But then this place popped up, and we're so grateful. It's an end unit on the third floor. (I am going to have amazing glutes hauling 3 kids and groceries up and down those stairs.) It's about the same size that we're in now, but with a pantry, underground parking, brand new cabinets, light fixtures, and appliances, and a HUGE bathroom. And the best part: It has a washer and dryer!! Momma's getting a washer and dryer for Christmas!!! I couldn't be more excited. With cloth diapers, three kids, and remembering all of the newborn blowouts, we NEED one.

Unfortunately, that means we're moving. In January. Our lease begins January 1st, but the manger will probably give us keys before then so we can get started. With not knowing when the babe will arrive and the notorious Wisconsin winter, it's a bit of a hassle, but it feels like it'll be a good thing for our family. And did I say I'll have a washer and dryer?!

Claire's Three!

Well she will be. On Wednesday. We decided to have her party the Saturday before her birthday. Claire really wanted a princess party. I honestly have no idea how kid's birthday parties are supposed to work, and I was overwhelmed scanning Pinterest for ideas. Since when did birthday parties become such a big spectacle? With potty training and my school schedule, I had to keep it pretty simple. We completely forgot about the BYU/Wisconsin football game, and I'm so grateful some of Claire's friends could still make it to her party. Claire had a blast and loved having everyone there.

I set up a dress up table with some necklaces, bracelets, hair clips, and ring pops. I wanted to find some knight things for the boys, but couldn't find any.

We had a craft table where everyone could decorate a crown. The girls seemed to love that and were very creative.

The food was themed, and I meant to make place cards, but when it came down to it, I really didn't care. The pigs in a blanket were supposed to be "swords in sheaths", chips were "dragon food" and the fruit was made to look like magic wands.

Because I had class on Saturday, I decided to set everything up Friday night. I was excited about making Claire's cake, even though it was probably a little too ambitious for me. I wanted to make her a castle, but I ended up using 5 boxes of cake mix and spending 3 1/2 hours on the stupid thing. It started out fun, but when the cakes started sticking to the pans, and I had to throw away two of the cakes, I started to get really frustrated. I think I scared Ross. After a second trip to the grocery store to get more cake mix, I calmed down. And I was happy with how the cake turned out, even though it wasn't quite what I was envisioning. I now know what it means to do anything to make your child happy and their day special.

Saturday morning Claire came out front. First she saw the streamers, and then she saw the cake. She had the cutest shocked expression and said, "MOM! You made this for ME? For my BIRTHDAY?!" Then she talked about how beautiful it was and asked if we could take a picture. She's so funny. Then she ran in to wake up Ross. "DADDY! You have to wake up! You have to come and see! You have to open your EYES!!" We saw the future of birthdays and Christmases and all of the excitement. It made all of the frustrations of last night totally worth it. She LOVED her cake and was SO excited about it. She made us sing Happy Birthday to her five times before I had to leave for class.

Thanks to everyone for coming and making her birthday so special! She had so much fun and is still talking about it!