Garden Produce

This is my favorite time of the year: the sun is shining, the weather is warm, there are flowers in everyone's yard, and best of all, I get to start eating produce from my garden. My spinach, lettuce, and arugula that I planted in early April are ready to eat. I guess it was worth all the back pain I felt after hoeing and planting with an 8 month pregnant belly. I love fresh spinach from the garden. Friday night, we ate a yummy salad with the pizza that Peter brought home for dinner for our date night. Our date night isn't quite what it used to be. I held Laura while Peter hurried to eat his pizza so he could hold Laura while I hurried to eat my pizza so I could feed her when I was done.

Peter also brought home a documentary on America and war. Sometimes I wish my husband would bring home a good movie. Something other than a documentary or a movie where people drive fast cars and get blown up. But, the documentary turned out to be perfect because Peter got to watch it while I took a much needed nap.

Healthy Version of Tin Foil Dinners

Last night we had a yummy and healthy version of tin foil dinners. I have always loved tin foil dinners with hamburger, potatoes, onions, and carrots. Last night, I found a recipe online that inspired me to come up with this version that is way better and healthier. These are the ingredients that I used:

Salmon Fillet (I used the cheap, frozen version that I got on sale at Smiths)
Asparagus Spears
Zuchinni and Yellow Squash
Lemon Juice
Salt and Pepper

I cut up the veggies and placed them with 1 salmon fillet in individual tin foil pieces. Then I poured lemon juice over the top and added salt and pepper. Then I cooked it for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees. It took less than 5 minutes to make and it was so yummy. We ate it with brown rice which is my new favorite thing to eat. I don't know why I ever ate white rice when brown rice is so good and so good for you. I like to add a little bit of chicken base and garlic to the rice cooker while it is cooking for more flavor.

I love finding new healthy dinner ideas. Even Peter liked it!

More Pictures of Laura

I love staying home everday and taking care of my baby. I love watching all the funny things she does with her hands, arms, legs, face, etc. I found her sleeping in this position during one of her naps.

While we were in the hospital, the nurses brought Laura back to our room with a pacifier in the crib. That night she was crying and we couldn't figure out what to do so we put the pacifier in her mouth and she immediately stopped crying. It was amazing. We have used the pacifier ever since. She loves it. However, it is both a blessing and a curse. I spend many hours each day and night putting the pacifier back in her mouth!

I wish I could say she inherited these skinny legs from her mother.

Grandma Laura Hammond

Here is a picture of Laura with her grandma, Laura Hammond, who she is named after.

When we were trying to choose a name, I couldn't get Peter to commit to any of the names that we were discussing. He just kept saying that he didn't just want to pick a name that was cute, but he wanted a name that had significance. One evening, we were discussing name ideas with his parents and Peter's mother mentioned "Laura." Ever since then, Peter was sure that was the name that we would choose. Luckily, I liked it as well.

We are happy to have our daughter named after such a wonderful woman and hope she follows in her Grandmother's footsteps.

Going Home From the Hospital

It was one of the weirdest experiences to leave the hospital. Not just because we couldn't believe that they would let us walk out with a baby that we had no idea how to take care of, but also because there was an extra little person in our family. When we came in on Friday, it was just Peter and me; on Sunday we left as a family of 3.

This is her all dressed up ready to go home. She doesn't look very happy here. Maybe she is scared that the hospital is sending her away with 2 inexperienced parents who don't know what they are doing.

She is all buckled up in her carseat that Daddy thinks Mommy spent way too much money on. I told him if he was that upset with having to buy a carseat, he could call my brother-in-law, Brent, who could teach him how to make a harness out of rope to strap her in with. It seems to work well with his children.

Laura Munk

Laura Munk, May 1, 6 lbs 7 oz

I went to the hospital on Thursday for a routine fetal NST monitoring appointment. During my visit, the nurse found that Laura had an irregular heart beat pattern, so she transfered me over to labor & delivery to be examined by a doctor. After 4 hours of monitoring and an IV stuck in my arm (I still don't know what the point of that was), they sent us home saying that everything seemed to be okay and telling us to come back the next morning for more monitoring. After being stressed out all night about the health of our baby, we called our doctor Friday morning and asked if we could be induced. She fit us in at 1:30pm. So yesterday morning we cleaned our house, packed our bags, rented a couple of movies, and left for the hospital to have our baby.

They started me on pitocin and after several hours of painless contractions, they broke my water to help speed along the process. This was followed by an epidural. That was the best thing that has ever happened to me. Don't ask me why some women choose to go natural. I was perfectly relaxed and calm and we spent the next several hours of labor hanging out with Peter's family in our room. I was so relaxed that Peter was even allowed to watch a basketball game, which I never would have imagined my husband would be doing while I was in labor!

By 10pm, the family was getting tired and the end still seemed several hours away. I was dialated to a 4 and 80 percent effaced. The nurse guessed the baby would be born sometime around 5am, so the family took off with plans to come back in the morning when things heated up. Meanwhile, Peter and I got ready to take a nap and rest up for labor. Around 10:15 the nurse came in to check and see how things were progressing and, much to her surprise, as well as ours, I was dialated to a 10. She called the doctor in and we were told it was time to start pushing. It seemed like up until this point, labor was way too easy, but I figured the pushing would make up for it. They told me that lots of first time mothers push for 1 to 2 hours. But, once again, things were way easier than expected. After 9 or 10 pushes, and no more than 10 minutes, the doctor said, "Push really hard on this next contraction and you are going to have a baby."

And that is exacty what happened. It's a good thing that it was over so quickly because Peter almost didn't make it. He was holding one of my legs and everytime I looked over at him his face was turned towards the back wall and he looked like he was going to faint. Not really the encouragement I was looking for from my labor partner.

So with in 10 hours of checking into the hospital we were blessed with a beautiful and healthy baby girl with brown fuzzy hair and the cutest nose I've ever seen. Since then she has continued to be the perfect baby and is nursing well and sleeping lots.

Thank you all for your prayers and