Leftovers!

This is a Tenisha blog...I just need to record this in case I ever need to look back and remember it.

So, I'm not very good at making rice and beans, though everywhere I go and have them I love it. After attempting to make it the other day I had waaaay too much leftover. I had used 2 cups of rice (uncooked, whoops!) and 1 can of black beans and 1 can of diced tomatoes. Way to heavy on the rice. But I choked a bit of it down. Tyson gave a courtesy bite and didn't like it. I didn't blame him.

But..

Tonight I fixed it!! I had some precut pork in the freezer (from batch preparing about 8 lbs of it). So I stir fried it, added a few cups of unbalanced rice and bean mix and a 2/3 of a can of corn. Also threw in more cumin and a big dash of..get this...CINNAMON! Mixed it all together and we topped it with some shredded cheese and added a handful of stale tortilla chips. It was really pretty good! Tyson ate it all and almost asked for more, then decided he wanted to go play.
For the record Tyson does not like to eat:

Corn

Tomatoes

Beans

Yet for some reason he ate it all, heaping spoonful by spoonful. It was the cinnamon I think.

YUM!

Now, I wouldn't go out of my way to make this..it's not that good of a meal. But it is good for using leftover rice and beans and creating some new flavor with them. Chicken, of course, would be a good substitute as well.

If you happen to be reading this and have any good rice and bean recipes I would love to hear of them! I decided to freeze the rest of the rice and bean mix...maybe something else wonderful can be made with it...or maybe I'll just make this again.

Kaiya's birth day

On our way to the hospital we were joking about making this day of labor and delivery like an episode of 24 thinking that it would be a long drawn out process. Little did we know the plan for our day would be completely the opposite of that!!


My doctor had kindly scheduled me for an induction, I say that because after 6 weeks of being in the first stage of labor I was ready to move on. All the walks, teas, jumping jacks and running around the baseball infield was not making labor happen any faster. She wanted us to be prepared though, that even though I was going to be induced we could still be sent home after 24 hrs. if nothing was changing.


We arrived a little late..around 6:10, which was fine as it is the night shift that checks you in and then the day shift (7 am) that gets things started. The nice thing about having a set time was that we were rested (somewhat, someone was setting off fireworks in the park until midnight) and we had eaten breakfast. Compared to my first labor this was already a huge plus. The plan was to start the pitocin at 2 mL/hr and up it every half hour in order to get the contractions stronger and consistent at 5 min apart. And so we began.





At 8 am the pitocin was started along with saline which as it turns out, gave Kaiya and me a nice round puffy look for the next few days...:O)





At 8:30 am the dose was upped to 4 mL/hr. Not much change and these were the same strength as I had been feeling at home. Not really painful, just a bit uncomfortable.








The bottom black line shows the strength and length of contractions. The red line on top is trying to keep track of Kaiya's heartbeat and movement.


At 9:00 am I was going to ask the RN to keep the pitocin at that level to see if the contractions would keep going without much help, but my water broke! So then the painful, horrible, real contractions kicked in.


This is the part I thought would be long and drawn out. But, at 10:18 am Kaiya was born!




She was very blue at first, apparently she had been a little stressed flying out so fast, but gave a big hearty cry and by 1 min her first APGAR score was 9! At 5 min it was a 10. There was a baby team in there initially to help with her entrance into this world in case she had inhaled the meconium, but they must not have stayed there long because I never even saw them. She was doing great!




We had been praying for a safe and smooth labor and delivery and God definitely granted us that! I had energy after and was just amazed all day that it was over and done with so quickly. According to the RN I wasn't really induced, just nudged, since we only had to turn it up once. :O)

Tyson meets Kaiya

He's waiting to meet this 'new baby' that's arrived...little does he know, life will never be the same again!





He is quickly finding out 'life is never going to be the same again'. He's not really sure about this 'baby' everyone seems to be interested in.




Time with Papa - without the baby.



Wanting to be anywhere else in the room but this close to the baby.



Would rather not be looking at the baby.

Since those first few weeks Tyson has since become quite comfortable with poking her eyes, lifting her head up and jumping on couch cushions while she is laying on them...

Whew! :O)