I’ll admit it. I’m a sucker for the cleaning aisle. Now I *know* that all you really need for a clean home is some water, vinegar, and a bit of elbow grease. Yet it seems everytime I walk through the cleaning aisle I’m lured in. The cleaning aisle holds so many promises of making your home cleaner. It wants you to believe that it will make the cleaning go faster and be an enjoyable experience instead of a hated chore. Even the smell holds promise. Your house could also smell like a pine tree if you drop off your paycheck in exchange for all of these products. So tell me, what’s your weakness?

I’ve started shopping about 5 stores routinely.  The first one that I don’t go to often is the Red Gold Factory Outlet.  Red Gold is a major manufacturer of tomato products here in the Indiana area.  They have an outlet store where you can buy first quality goods but also buy missing label and dented cans.  You buy by the case but it is worth the investment!  A big can of whole tomatoes, something I use frequently, is less than 60cents per can.  Considering that a can of whole tomatoes (28oz size) is well over a $1 at the store even on sale, this is a good deal!  I also buy ketchup, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and crushed tomatoes there as well.

The second store that I frequently shop is the Aunt Millie Thrift Shop While I can and have often baked most of our bread, with summer approaching it’s to hot to run the stove.  And the three amigos and Erich also eat copious amounts of raisin bread, whole wheat bagels, and english muffins.  I enjoy Aunt Millie’s bread because most of their products are HFCS free.  The $2/loaf bread only costs .89cents at the thrift shop.  This last week I bought bagels buy one get one free. And the english muffins were buy 1 get 2 free! They also sell Amish egg noodles. Yum.  If you have a freezer and/or use a lot of bread (we can easily go through 3 loaves a week!) then look for a bakery thrift store near you!

The third store I frequent is Sams Club.  I like to get there first thing when they open and head straight to the meat case.  I buy up hamburger, stew meat, roasts, pork chops, and steaks there when they are “reduced for quick sale.”  It’s the only way to roll my friends.  We also buy my husbands Monster drinks there.  He often drinks these at work in the afternoon.  If he runs to the gas station the price is $2.80.  At Sams we buy them buy the case and they come to roughly $1.33 each.  We also buy Mountain Dew there for the same reasons (though I will buy those at other places when they start “giving” them away at bargain prices!)    I also buy all of my milk at Sams.  At $2/gallon, it’s a good deal.  And Sams Club milk is now RBST free – a huge bonus in my book!  Considering the price is around $2.50-$3.00 per gallon at the grocery store, the savings is significant considering we can go through 12-15 gallons of milk every 2 weeks!  Other things I buy there are apples, bananas, grapefruit, strawberries, raspberries, potatoes, yogurt, tubs of magarine, cheddar cheese, and mozzarella cheese.  I also buy dry spaghetti and macaroni there as well.  You do have to buy a lot of food at once, but when you use a lot of food it doesn’t really matter.   At least that’s what I tell myself.

The fourth place I shop is Aldi.  There I buy eggs, cream cheese, cottage cheese, chicken and beef broth,  sour cream, fresh mozzarella balls, pickles, bbq sauce, assorted baking supplies like flour and sugar, butter in stick form, and various canned goods such as green beans and corn.  I also buy cereal here as well as ramen noodles.  My kids and husband love ramen and it makes for a quick, cheap, easy meal once in a while.

The fifth place is a combo of Marsh (local Indiana grocery store) and Meijer.  I rarely ever shop Kroger, I’m just not a Kroger fan.  Though I do peruse those ads.  I only ever buy from the front page of the sale ads in these stores.  These are the “loss leader” sales.  They discount this food to entice you to come in to the store where they will then try and get you to buy lots of other things!  This week I’m headed there for the 10 for $10 sales.  They have sausage on sale and $1 for a pound of it is a good deal!  I also go into Marsh for things I have forgotten or can only get there (like beef consumme).  I try to limit these trips as they can start to drain my budget.  But sometimes leaving town (I live in a very small town and Marsh is the only option for grocery in town) is not an option or the price of the trip is more than the savings!

It sounds like a lot of shopping, and it is.  My 6 year old always comments on all the food we buy. But we try to make it a fun trip and also work together to put things away. And the three amigos are usually dying to get home and eat some of the yummy fruit or yogurt they got to buy at the store.  I generally treat them to lunch out at Sams Club while we are out as well.

For about a week before Little Dude was born, I had been having this pain right under my ribs on my right side. Then I would start contracting and contract for about two hours, every single night. It was really starting to get old, knowing that I was definitely having a C-section whatever happened. I attributed the pain to being feet stuck up in my ribs.

I stayed up late Sunday night knitting and Monday morning I got up early with Erich to get him ready for work. We were in the bathroom and I was talking to Erich, telling him that I thought I slept wrong because my shoulder really hurt. I thought I had pulled a muscle. I was also having a few contractions here and there, but I figured they were just annoying Braxton hicks.

We were out of bread so I headed to the grocery store (at 6am!). I was starting to hurt more, it hurt a bit to breathe, but just felt like a pulled muscle. I came home and got Erich out the door, and laid down on the couch to get some more rest. At about 830am I talked to Erich on the phone and told him I was really hurting. He suggested I call the OB, but I was hesitant because I really didn’t want to bug them. I did call them about ten minutes later, and the nurse suggested I take some Tylenol and get a heating pad to put on my shoulder. She said to call if it got worse.

I took some Tylenol and laid down on the couch with the heating pad. The pain seemed to get worse and I sort of felt like I was contracting but I really couldn’t tell because I was in so much pain. At that time I posted on a private forum of friends asking for advice.

Then I decided that I should take a shower, thinking that the warm heat would make me feel better. I found myself leaning over in the shower though with contractions and was feeling a bit scared but definitely in denial that anything was going on.

When I got out of the shower I was in so much pain I was pretty sure that I would not be able to get dressed, and had visions of going to the hospital naked. At that time I called the OB and left a message. I probably sounded like a maniac. I had been trying to get a hold of my mother too, and at that time I finally reached her. She asked if I wanted her to come get me, which I refused. She lives an hour away and the thought of waiting an hour and then another half hour trip to the hospital was more than I thought I could handle.

At this time I realized I was in labor, but I don’t think I really let myself believe it. I was trying to pack a diaper bag for Carmina the whole time reassuring Magdalena that I was fine. I was talking to my friend Tanya on the phone asking “what do I bring?” I had no bags packed; I was not ready for this birth.

And I didn’t think I was going to the hospital to *give* birth. I thought I was going for some sort of pain relief for a pulled muscle, and that my OB would tell me I was doing too much! I decided to grab Little Dudes hat and blanket, figuring that if I brought those two things, I was certain that I would be coming back that evening.

I got everyone loaded in the car and said a silent prayer. I dropped a Netflix movie in the drop mailbox, because I figured Erich would wonder why I didn’t return it if we came home that night. I also went to pay the utility bill. I’m not even sure why that was so important, as the late fee is like $5, but I was a bit irrational. I didn’t know the exact amount and the lady took FOREVER to find my amount due. I begged her to just let me pay the majority and just pay the difference in the next day or two. I told her I was pretty sure I was in labor, and heck I looked in labor, I could not sit still. After what seemed an eternity, she came up with the conclusion that I owed her $3 to pay my bill in full. I crazily wrote out another check and threw it in the little box. She said to wait for my receipt at which point I told her not to bother and sped off.

About 15 minutes into my half hour drive I thought that I was really stupid to think a hospital 30 minutes down the road was “close” I was in PAIN. I called Tanya up to help distract me. When I got to the park right before the hospital I distinctly remember Tanya saying “Oh my god Suzanne, you are having a baby today!” I said “No I’m not! I have ten days left before my scheduled section!”

I got to the hospital and I could barely walk. They wanted to wheel me back to labor and delivery triage, but the thought of sitting down sounded awful. (At this point, I didn’t really think about how stupid it was that I had packed up my two children and drove us to the hospital while in labor. I only had the thought in my mind that we *needed* to get to the hospital.)

In triage they did all the usual stuff. I wasn’t dilating, as usual the monitors weren’t picking up my contractions, but dudes heart rate was in the 180s. His usual was in the 130s, so that worried me a bit. I had a slight fever, I think something like 99*. A little while later my mom showed up and started helping with the girls. The phone rang and it was my OB. She didn’t want to talk to the nurse which I thought was funny; she wanted to talk to me. I was *so* glad that she was on call that day, I had teased her before that she better be on call if I go into labor or I would make them bring her in to do the section. She was worried that I was having gallbladder issues or maybe my appendix which I thought was crazy! Appendicitis in late pregnancy is not common!

At that point she said she was admitting me, and they got me up to walk down the hall to a labor room. I could barely walk all hunched over and she met me at my room. I’m pretty sure she didn’t leave my side at that point until dude was delivered. She came in, started getting the IV set up, and talking to me. She had already called in a general surgeon, and an ultrasound tech was on the way to check out my gallbladder. She didn’t want to give me pain control until the surgeon had seen me. At this point I also talked her out of cathing me for a specimen.

The ultrasound tech came in and said my gallbladder looked good. There was absolutely no way to even see my appendix at 36 weeks pregnant though, it was buried in there. When the ultrasound tech was moving her wand around, I did ask her again if it was a boy. She said it was definitely a boy, but I still had a hard time believing that.

Up until this point I had yet to call Erich and tell him to come to the hospital. He had no PTO and I thought it was pointless for him to come and just sit by me while they figured what was going on, and I was so sure that I wasn’t having a baby that day, even though at that point I’m pretty sure they were certain they were sectioning me, just needed to know if they should do something else while in there. My OB convinced me to call Erich. It was about 2pm at this point, and she said that if she decided to section me, she was not waiting for him.

At that point the surgeon came in. My OB had laughed because he asked if I was nauseous and she had to tell him that my baseline was nauseous. I had been puking this entire pregnancy just like every other pregnancy. The surgeon started to poke around and ask me where it hurt. There was some argument about what was hurting but I think my OB was pretty sure it was my appendix.

The contractions were picking up around that time and my OB noticed that my contractions were inverted on the monitoring strip. I was also given some morphine at that time. It helped the belly/contraction pain, but it didn’t stop the excruciating pain in my shoulder.

At this point Erich walked in, it was about 3pm. Right before he walked in the OB had come in and said that she was sectioning me at 4pm and taking my appendix out. I was crying and feeling overwhelmed and panicked. It was *too early*. Everyone assured me he would be fine. The pediatrician on called said “they are pretty much done at this point.” The OB filled in Erich and took off to get ready.

At this point the anesthesiologist walked in. He started going over his questions for knocking me out which I promptly stopped him. He was talking like we would do the spinal and then knock me out to get the appendix. I adamantly refused. He argued that they don’t normally do appendectomies under spinal, and I said they usually don’t pull out babies when doing an appendectomy either. He agreed to “try it”.

I kissed the girls, and my mom and Erich took one last picture of my belly. Erich had also called our entire family to let them know that I was going in for an emergency section, and also called our friend Krista to ask her to go to the hospital to get stuff for us. I walked to the OR that point and remembered that I *hate* spinals. My OB came in and helped hold my hand during the spinal, and I also begged her to not let him knock me out for the appendectomy.

Finally we were under way with the section. The general surgeon assisted and the procedure went quickly. The surgeon didn’t really know how to give fundal pressure to help get him out. I remember it felt like he was literally sitting on me trying to push him out. Finally, my OB called for suction and he was easily delivered after that. The first sound I heard from him was him “saying” ‘hi’ and my OB said “hello cutie!” He immediately started crying and they took him to the warmer. Erich leaned down next to me and said “they didn’t say it, but he is definitely a boy!” <3 He knew this whole time that I just didn’t believe that it was a little boy.

After he was out they reached in to get my appendix. They really had to dig for it. My OB said she just held the retractor and he reached in elbow deep to get it! He also squished on my gallbladder for good measure, to make sure that there weren’t stones. That my friends HURT. Later we would find out that the pathology on my appendix came back as acute appendicitis.

I was taken to recovery. My OB came in and said that I had really scared her and that appendicitis in late pregnancy would have killed both him and me. I said thank you and commented that for the first time all day I was in no pain.

Our little boy was born at 4:57pm weighing 6 pounds 11 ounces, 19” long. We named him Kevin Clayton after my dad who died when I was 9 years old. Everybody commented on how huge he was, and we now believe that God must have known what was going to happen and made him bigger so that he would survive the first week after his birth and his journey in the NICU.

ETA: Bloodwork showed that my white count was very high prior to surgery. Immediately after surgery I no longer hurt in the shoulder at all. My white blood count dropped significantly after surgery. I was the talk of the hospital apparently, the woman who delivered a baby and an appendix all under spinal!

I did this pair of pants though the other day and I just think they are SO cute!

A Monkey, Cow, and “Flutterfly” (aka butterfly)

Several of us are donating to a fundraiser to raise money to go to her chlidrens college fund.  I’ve knitted the most gorgeous set that includes a hat, kimono sweater, and pants.  Someone else is donating a diaper to this set.  Please join us October 28, 2008 at 2pm as we stock the store and raise money for a friend we loved dearly.  http://www.hyenacart.com/tinyladycooperative