Our Birth Story (One Year Later)

This is a long, wordy post but I want to get it typed out for posterity before I forget even more than I already have in the year since it happened!  

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One year ago today (a Tuesday) I was 31+ weeks pregnant. I was extremely uncomfortable, having a strong, squeezing pain around my chest/ribs. I had been experiencing the same pains over the weekend and was unable to get comfortable, or sleep.  Late Sunday and Monday I felt better, totally fine actually.  So when the pains returned on Tuesday I finally gave in and called my doctor.  I though maybe it was heartburn?  I've never had it, and know it's a common pregnancy complaint.  I was hoping she'd confirm that and tell me to take some antacids.  Instead she suggested I go to the hospital, just to get monitored and make sure everything was OK, and it wasn't pre-term labor or anything along those lines.  I'd been visiting the hospital (and the doctor) quite often. (I had horrible carpal tunnel syndrome, gestational diabetes, and high blood pressure.)  On top of all that my baby was measuring small so we were checking in on him with weekly ultrasounds.  My doctor suspected my placenta was not doing it's job as well as it should be.  The baby was regularly measuring in the bottom 10th percentile for size/weight.

So...I texted my boyfriend that I was going to get evaluated.  He asked me if I wanted him to come home and/or go with me and I declined, thinking I'd be home in a few hours. I didn't have a bag packed, I didn't have a birth plan, I didn't have a replacement at work trained.... Heck, we didn't even have a name chosen!

When I got to the hospital I checked in and got hooked up to the baby monitoring devices.  They drew my blood and I got out my Kindle to try to distract myself.  I was still pretty uncomfortable and hoping they would give me some suggestions (or maybe some medication) to help with the pain. The monitors kept alarming due to my blood pressure.  I wasn't too concerned since it always seemed worse when I went to the doctor (white coat syndrome!). Within an hour a nurse came in with some test results.  To my surprise (understatement of the year) she told me our baby would need to come out soon, within the next couple of days probably.  I had just had blood and urine tests done the week before and my OB didn't see anything alarming.  Over the weekend (apparently) I had developed pre-eclampsia with HELLP syndrome.  A lot of details get confused at this point, I honestly think I was in shock from that point on.  I do remember my platelet count was really low.  I think regular levels are over 100,000 and I was at 40,000 at that time.

I called my boyfriend and he was as shocked as I had been.  He headed down to be with me in the hospital, as I wasn't going to be released...until we had a baby!  The nurses explained that they'd give me another blood test in a few hours to determine how long we had until the c-section needed to be performed.  They were hoping to give me a round of steroid shots, to encourage the baby's lungs to develop more. They gave me one shot and I could have had another in 12 hours.  It turns out we didn't have that long, though. I was put on a magnesium drip to discourage a stroke (!!).

I called my Mom, who was in Yellowstone for the summer.  I told her the baby was going to be delivered very soon.  She told me she was leaving right then! (She drove straight through, arriving in San Diego around 5pm the next day.)  I also called my boss, letting her know the situation.  

My boyfriend showed up pretty quickly and we both kind of sat in stunned silence.  It was probably around 9:00pm by this time.  Luckily my Mom had thought to call my brother (who is a doctor and lives in Los Angeles).  He called me to say he was on his way down.  He showed up a couple of hours later, and I am so thankful he did.  He was calm, supportive, and understood all the medical lingo that was being thrown around.  (Later I found out that he knew how dangerous the situation was, and scared the crap out of my Mom when she called to tell him!)

Around midnight they did another blood draw, which would give us more of a time frame. They said it would take a couple of hours since the lab was busy, and nothing had come back by 2:00am.  At this point I sent my boyfriend home to sleep.  There was nowhere for him to lay down in my room and he and my brother were taking turns between sitting in the (uncomfortable) chair and on the floor. I slept for a bit but there was a constant stream of nurses checking on me so it wasn't very restful.  Of course, not long after he left they came back with my test results, which didn't look good. My platelet levels were even lower, around 25,000 and I was told they were scheduling me for 6:00am surgery.  I cried.  I was nervous, worried, and really just still in a state of shock.  There wouldn't be time for another steroid shot. Looking back on it now, I should have been more worried about the baby, but for some reason I wasn't.  I could feel him moving, hear his heartbeat on the monitor, and I guess I just had confidence in the doctors/hospital that things would be OK. (Or...I was just in shock!)

I called my boyfriend who wasn't really getting any sleep and told him to come back by about 5:30am so he could be with me.  I slept a bit, talked to my brother, tried to call my mother-in-law (who didn't have her phone nearby and didn't get my messages until the morning!) and just tried to get comfortable.  My doctor showed up sometime early in the morning, and we had a consult with the anesthesiologist.  He told me that if my platelets were too low I would have to be completely knocked out for the surgery, and nobody would be allowed in the OR with me.  Luckily that didn't turn out to be the case.  I tried to argue for my brother being allowed in the OR as well (since he IS a doctor and all, even though he is actually a psychiatrist!  haha) but only my boyfriend would be allowed. My doctor was wonderful, as always, and said she had been keeping such a close eye on me, because she just had a feeling something like this would happen!  Looking back on that I was amazed and thankful and... I just love her.

Fast forward to 6:00am.  My boyfriend had arrived and we were still waiting in the same room I had been in all night.  Finally, closer to 7:00am, they started prepping me for surgery.  We went into the OR, my boyfriend was left outside to change into scrubs, and my drugs were administered for the surgery.  I was given a shot in my back to make me numb from the waist down, but still awake (not sure what that kind of anesthesia is called...and don't remember now as I am sure they told me at the time).  There were probably 6 people in the OR (besides us).  I recognized my doctor (duh) and another doctor who had filled in for her earlier in my pregnancy when my doctor was on vacation.  There were also quite a few nurses and the head neonatologist for the hospital, who we would come to know VERY well and love.

I don't remember much about the surgery.  The anesthesiologist kept chatting with us, and I tried to listen to the doctors/nurses but don't remember any of it in detail.  My OB let us know when she was going to take the baby out and then (at 7:42am)...he was there.  He was there in the room with us and he cried, and I said "Oh my god!" and cried and my boyfriend cried and we all cried.  They took him over to the scale and put him under the heat lamp.  He was 2lbs 12oz.  Small even for his gestational size, I realized after the fact.  My boyfriend cut the cord, they wrapped him up and we got one quick pic before he had to be taken away to the NICU (or Special Care Nursery as it was called at our hospital) to be given some care of his own, while I was sewn (stapled!) back together.

Oh, hello there, baby!

While I was in the recovery room my mother-in-law arrived, and my brother was there.  Once the feeling started coming back to my legs I got moved into a regular L&D room.  My Dad, step-mom, younger brother and step-dad arrived throughout the afternoon. My mom arrived in the early evening.  The neonatologist came by a few times to let us know how the baby was doing and get us to sign some release forms in case various treatments (or a possible hospital transfer) were necessary.  

I got to go see him a few hours after the birth and he was so tiny and hooked up to a million wires, it was a bit overwhelming.  But I never worried.  I had heard him cry at birth and just knew things would work out OK in the end.  I took everyone in to see him 2 at a time (max visitors in the SCN) and eventually everyone went to their hotels and my boyfriend and I stayed the night in the hospital room, which I had to myself and had 2 beds.  

That is a preemie diaper he's wearing!

Our little guy was one tough cookie.  He was extremely tiny and his lungs needed a little help at first, but overall he just needed to GROW!  He had a few surfactant treatments to help his lungs not stick together when he took deep breaths.  He was on (minimal) oxygen on and off for the first few days. I was finally able to hold him (a bit of an ordeal with having to get all the wires untangled and free to move) on the 3rd day.   That was a wonderful feeling.  :-)   

First time holding him. 

Every time I wanted to go visit him I had to call a nurse (or nursing assistant) to wheel me from my room to the SCN. I went basically any time I wasn't sleeping or eating or being checked on by nurses.  I sat for hours looking at him, touching him, talking to him.  

Staring contest with Mama.  I could never look away.

 My doctor kept me in the hospital for 5 days, since she knew we wouldn't be taking the baby home yet.  Leaving him there to go home (the first time and every night for those few weeks) was heartbreaking, but I got used to it eventually.  I spent the next 6 weeks going back and forth to the hospital twice a day.  I would go in the morning whenever I got up (after pumping, eating, dressing), and stay until early afternoon.  Then I would go home, pump more, rest, eat dinner, and go back until around 11:00pm or midnight.   

A few more pics of our time in the hospital...

Socks on his hand to prevent him pulling on his feeding tube.

Skin to skin with Daddy.

He loved getting on that scale every night!  (I thought he was SO BIG at this point, 3lbs 7oz! haha)

He gained, on average, an ounce a day. 

We finally brought our baby boy home on July 2nd, 

and he was a whopping 5lbs 4oz by then.  :-)  

The day we brought him home!

Those days at the hospital seem very surreal now.  But we loved the nurses and the doctors were amazing.   It's a time I will never forget but sure hope to never have to experience again!  I do regret not having a "normal" pregnancy sometimes.  I never got a huge bump.  (I only gained 14 lbs in fact.) I never felt a contraction.  When we recently visited babies R Us (for baby gates!) I got a little sad seeing the "expectant mom" parking, never got to use that!  Like my blogging friend Kelli said, though, I take some comfort in knowing that there wasn't anything I did (or didn't do) to cause his early arrival.  It was just my body reacting (negatively) to the pregnancy. (Her whole guest post reflecting on the preemie experience is written much better than I could express things! And her birth story here and here.) I thought about not having a great bond with him due to all the crazy circumstances, but I don't believe that has been an issue. I spent a ton of time (hours and hours) holding/talking to/singing to him in the SCN.  I just tried to focus on the positive throughout the whole experience and not let anything get me down.  I think that was the best thing for me and for the baby.  I rejoiced at each milestone he conquered (moving to an open crib, having his feeding tube removed, etc) and tried not to think about other things I missed (like being able to breastfeed right away). 

Home with (exhausted) Mama. 

Now we have been parents to this beautiful boy for almost a year and I can't believe how much he has changed our lives.  I'm looking forward to everything that will come in the future, but looking back on the past year with mixed emotions.  

Oh, and we did finally choose a name (3 days into his life).  

We love it, and him, so much. 

Baby's First Easter (Basket)!

I'm hoping to get my pictures from the weekend uploaded/posted soon, but in the meantime here is what I got for the boy's first Easter basket!   

I know he won't remember any of this but we'll have pictures to show him when he is older.  :-)  

I LOVE the basket, found it at Target and I think it will last us for many years to come.  It's big and sturdy and my favorite color.  Some of these items I have had for a little while but have been holding on to.  He has so many toys already, but I am constantly picking up new stuff. (Target and Amazon, you kill me!)  

Besides the items shown below, the Easter Bunny also gave him a pair of (the CUTEST baby) sunglasses, a new food bowl, a pair of bunny ears, and some plastic eggs with Cheerios in them.

He already has one of the Melissa & Doug Jumbo Knob puzzles (Jungle), and he loves it.  So of course I wasn't surprised when he happily started banging the Rainforest friends one around. 

He's always trying to get at our remotes for the TV, so I am hoping the toy remote will be as interesting.  So far he doesn't seem as interested in it, but maybe if we put it near the others he'll be convinced. haha

A few new books are always good, we've read all of them already and he seems to like We're Going on a Bear Hunt the best so far. 

The sippy cup and bibs should get plenty of use at mealtime. 

The giraffe pull toy will get more use once he starts walking I think, but he did push it along the floor for a few minutes yesterday.

Melissa & Doug Puzzle, V-Tech Toy Remote and 3x Books from Amazon// Bibs and Sippy Cup from Target// Giraffe Pull Toy (by Hape) from Citrus Lane

Of course, at Target I also snagged this.... (and he was adorable in it!)

An "EGG-stra Handsome" onesie and pants to match.  I just can't resist the holiday clothes, especially for this first year.   We'll see what happens as the years go on and we celebrate the 2nd, 5th, 10th Easter.  hahaha

   I know I won't get away with hats like this for long, that's for sure. 

I really worried this hat might not fit his big old noggin, but it was stretchy enough!  He didn't leave it on for long, and it was tough to get a good picture of him in it.  He's always on the move nowadays!

Happy Easter everyone!  

Hope you had a great day filled with loved ones 

and the Bunny delivered what you hoped for.  :-)

 Linking up with Darci @ The Good Life   

(click on the eggs below to see other baskets!)

  

Currently...4/3/14

This post is inspired by Lindsey over at Ot & Et  

and Randalin at Harvesting Kale  for their weekly link up "Currently"... 

  

This week they asked what we've all been reading, feeling, racing, using, smelling  lately.  

Well, over here at my house we've been:

Reading... 

I know I mentioned this in my last "Currently" post but I'm still reading the Outlander series (again for the third time) in anticipation of the TV show and the next book coming out this year!  If you are also a fan, you can understand my excitement!  If not you might want to check it out!  (Outlander series, by Diana Gabaldon)

And with the boy we've been reading lots of board books!  Lately he seems especially drawn to Brown Bear, Brown Bear & Five Little Monkeys. 

Feeling... 

Tired!   Baby boy has a couple new teeth trying to break through and has NOT been sleeping very well the past few nights.  I feel bad for him, poor little guy!  But I wish they would just pop through already so I can get some better sleep!  I've been feeling like a zombie at work this week.  Ugh...

Racing... 

Against my son as he crawls ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE!   He is so quick!   It's adorable to watch him cruise around but it is sure keeping us on our toes!   When one of us is in another room he comes charging down the hall looking for us and peeks his little head around the doorway to looks for us.  Makes me smile every time. 

There you are, Mama! 

Using... 

My phone for practically anything nowadays. (Directions, FB, Wikipedia, weather, shopping.) I only turn on the desktop when I am working from home on Tuesdays. It's just a hassle!   (And don't get me started on the crappy laptop I have!)  BUT... my phone is constantly giving me an "out of storage space" message so I think I need to invest in a new one.  Not ready to make the iPhone leap yet, since I use a prepaid service and definitely don't want to deal with a contract.  Hmmm.

Smelling ... 

Rain!  It's been raining here overnight the past few days.  We need it, being in the middle of a pretty serious drought.  It's helping our newly planted veggies and flowers get a good start.  Since we pretty much skipped winter here in California, I suspect we might have a loooooong Spring!

That's what's been going on around here lately. 

Can't complain too much!

(Although more sleep would be appreciated - side eye BABY BOY!  haha)

Currently... (Sunday 3/16)

Thinking about: Baby proofing!  The boy's a fast crawler now and is CONSTANTLY pulling himself up on EVERYTHING!  We got some baby gates to keep him in one spot when Nana needs a bathroom break during the week when she is babysitting, or when Mama needs to put in a load of laundry, etc.  We don't necessarily want him to be stuck inside the gates all the time, but our house just isn't ready for the tornado he has become!  We'll have to keep working on it in the coming days/weeks.  For now we have 2 gates hooked together making a little area for him in the living room.  Not a good permanent solution, though.

Reading:  The Outlander series, for the 3rd time.  With the show in production & the next book coming out later this year, I figured I might as well refresh my mind.

Via

Listening to: all kinds of music on the iPod playing over the surround sound in the living room.  It's nice to have it on as background music as we are doing laundry, some gardening, and other house chores on this lovely Sunday. 

Watching: Nothing today but we've been watching the first season of Vikings that we have had saved on the DVR.  The second season just started up and we've enjoyed the show so far.  Also looking forward to watching the next episode of Amazing Race! 

Via

Thankful for: Our new lives.  Everything is so different now with our baby, and there are some days it seems crazy/busy/tiring... but we wouldn't change it for the world!   He's made us both better people.  We may have imagined, but never really knew how much we could really love our little man! He's the light of our lives.

Linking up today with A Mama Collective! 

Currently 3/5

      This post is inspired by Lindsey over at Ot & Et for her weekly link up "Currently"... 

(If she has time to post a link up this week, I'll link. If not I will join her next week!)

Her regular co-host is on a blog maternity leave but she's had various co-hosts filling lately.  All lovely ladies!  

This week Lindsey asked what we've all been declaring, saving, demolishing, sniffing, despising lately.  

Well, over here at my house we've been:

Declaring...

that this (9 month old) baby needs to stop sleeping in our bed for half the night! Even though ultimately, it is up to me to make the change, and since I have to get up at 6am every day for work, that's a lot easier said than done.  I need to start a new routine on a Friday, so I have at least 2 days/nights for a trial run.  But by Friday night I am so tired!  I just haven't done anything about it.  My boyfriend has thoughtfully not mentioned it, but I am sure he'd like to have our bed back, too. Baby boy's never even slept in his own room, except for the occasional nap.  I know it needs to change, but it also makes me kind of sad.  Is that crazy??  One night (a couple of weeks ago) I declared I was going to do it, and instead I cried while nursing him and thinking about it...so nothing happened.  His doctor (very kindly) told me to get on it at his 9month appointment yesterday!

I mean...Look at this face!  I can't even...

Saving...

 vacation time (and money) to hopefully go visit my mom in Yellowstone this summer.  This is her 3rd year going up there to work and I had SO.MUCH.FUN in 2012 when I went to visit.  I skipped last year (for obvious reasons - BABY!) but I am hoping we can make it this year.  (Although, I admit to being a bit nervous at the thought of traveling with a 1yr old!)

So fun seeing a bunch of these guys!  :-)

Demolishing...

 the head size chart!  haha   I was not surprised to learn my boy is in the 75th percentile for head size of 9 month old babies.  The doctor said she doesn't even look at his "adjusted" age stats any more, he is basically all caught up to other babies of his chronological age.  Makes this Mama happy. (25th % weight at 18lbs 15oz, and 50th% height)

  
 

Sniffing... 

(besides the obvious, baby's butt.  haha)  rain in the air!  As you may know, we've had an exceptionally DRY winter and it finally rained this week.  Good for the land here in California.  Not so good for the traffic.

Despising...

  the fact that we are not independently wealthy.  Yes, perhaps a bit unrealistic! I have had a few days lately where I just REALLY wished I didn't have to work. I would so love to be able to stay home with our boy for the next few years.  Unfortunately we don't have that option. Especially not living in San Diego!  Maybe if we lived somewhere with a lower cost of living we could pull it off...but then, well, we wouldn't live in San Diego!  haha  Luckily, we have the next best thing to Mama staying home, as his Nana cares for him every day and she loves him almost as much as I do.  :-)

Happy Hump Day everyone! 

Well, hello. Anybody out there? (1&2/52)

What can I say... 

Life gets busy and changes and you change and get busy...and... I had a baby!

The most wonderful, crazy, amazing, scary, fun experience of my life.  

To try to prompt myself back into blogging I thought I'd start with the 52 week project...  

One picture a week (of a particular subject, can you guess what mine will be??  haha) for 52 weeks.  

I am obviously already behind since today is January 9th but... I'll post 2 (ok 3) to make up for it.  

The first two don't really follow the idea of the 52 week project, as I think it's meant to show how something (in most cases a child) grows/changes over the year, but I wanted to have a starting point.   

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My little guy was born early (31.5 weeks) and only weighed 2lbs 12oz.   

This is us just minutes after he was born, back in May!

Here he is getting his nightly weigh in at the hospital (where he spent 5+ weeks finishing cooking!)...  I thought he was so big at 3lbs 7oz!!  hahaha

Here he is yesterday being ridiculously adorable and shopping with Nana.  This is actually the first time he has sat in the cart, I usually just take the whole carseat with me, but his Nana (my mother-in-law, who watches him for us) didn't feel like lugging the whole thing in for a quick trip.   

He looks so grown up (for an almost 8 month old)!!

So... that's what I've been doing since I blogged last!

Growing, birthing, and taking care of a baby.   

He's changed my life in so many ways I couldn't even begin to explain them.  

Just think of every cliche out there about babies, and they pretty much all apply. 

P.S.  I have still been reading blogs, and trying to comment when I get a chance!  

I realized after previewing this post I need to do some updating to my blog, particularly my "About Me", my buttons, other people's buttons, and my Link Love page!  *sigh*  Maybe one of these days...

Happy New Year to you all!

Friday's Letters

Dear Readers... (If any of you are still out there)  I truly apologize for the blog silence lately.  No good excuses (as I believe I said last time, haha) just life, sicknesses, holidays, laziness.  But thank you for sticking around!

Dear Other Blogs I Read... I don't know how you guys do it!  I assume some of you have little helper elves or something to keep you posting on the regular.  You inspire me.  (Particularly any of you working moms.  How??)

Dear House...  We are working on getting you re-financed.  Not QUITE as difficult as buying you was, but certainly not an easy process, either.  Hopefully by March 1st we will be done with this and have lower house payments!

Dear Influenster... I know, I know.  I need to blog about my Cosmo VoxBox.  It's not you, or the stuff in the box, I just haven't been blogging at all!  I will say my favorite thing in the box was the razor.  :-)  Maybe I'll get around to blogging about the rest sometime soon.

Dear Rain... Please go away by Sunday so I can go to Disneyland! 

FRIDAY - Phew, I made it...

 Dear This Week... You sucked. Work sucked. I felt crappy. The dog was hurt and then was a pain in the butt all week. My BF is grumpy.  

 

Dear Friday.... Seriously, so happy you are here.  It's been a rough week all around.  I'm very ready for the weekend.

Dear Blog Swaps... You were really the one bright spot of my week!  I got 2 swap packages and can't wait to blog about them. 
 
Dear Readers... Thanks for hanging in there! I promise to return to more regular (and less whiny) posting next week. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Fancies!  This cheered me up a bit. :-) 

Per Alison: Have you ever been shopping with a friend when they point out a top which is "totally you"? For Friday, November 30th, you'll have your chance to channel you into an outfit. Dress yourself = express yourself!!

I am big on layering and have a cardigan handy almost all of the time.  I just love the casual/comfy look of this outfit and it is totally something I would wear.

Caual Tea by katiejeanne featuring essie nail polish

I hope everyone has a great weekend 

and hopefully I'll be feeling more like myself next week. 

We Gave Thanks

Hello, friends!

And welcome to my new friends from Mish Lovin Life and Messy.Dirty.Hair!

So, I'm still kind of on vacation, which (apparently) also includes blogging the past few days.  Work was really hectic this week (even for only 3 days) and I didn't get time to prep any posts. 
Anyhow, I'm stealing most of this post...from myself. (I wrote a pre-Turkey Day post on my food blog.)  My plans for the holiday turned out pretty close to reality. We ate a ton yesterday and will be having leftovers all weekend! :-)

I decided to try a couple of new recipes, along with all the old (delicious) standards.  

One of the Pinterest finds I definitely wanted to try were these cranberry and brie cups.  There are only 4 ingredients in this one, and they look so yummy.  I love cheese and fruit, and warm brie... mmmmmm.  I don't think you can go wrong with warm brie. (These were a BIG hit and I should have made more than i did!)

Source: celebratemag.com via Cynthia on Pinterest

One of my favorites every year is green bean casserole.  I literally just make it from the recipe on the container of French's Onions, and, actually, I haven't even looked at the recipe since I was a kid.  I just know what goes in it.  I like it to be on the drier side, with lots of crunchy onions. (It turned out perfect, and we never have enough of it.  Maybe next year I'll remember to make more!)

Every year we always have POUNDS of mashed potatoes (and gravy).  My BF and his brother are usually in charge of that.  We make them do the mashing.  (Correct, they mashed 15 lbs of potatoes!)

Another of my favorites (one of my very favorite foods actually) are the sweet potatoes.  This year, though, I really want to try this sweet potato dish I saw on Pinterest.  Roasted grape, goat cheese and honey stuffed sweet potatoes....umm, yes please!!  
(DONE, and excellent!  Next time I might try a different cheese, but the roasted grapes?? TO.DIE.FOR. We actually had quite a few extra grapes and ate them pre-dinner with some Havarti cheese we had in the fridge. OMG.)

Source: howsweeteats.com via Cynthia on Pinterest

We'll definitely have a turkey, but once in a while we also have ham.   Now, as I may have mentioned (haha), I'm no chef, or even much of a cook. The sauce for the ham comes from my Nana. It's just a small jar of grape jelly mixed equally with mustard. It might sound strange, but TRUST ME, it's sooo good!   What I've done in the past is buy a precooked (but not flavored) ham, lay a bunch of slices out on a baking sheet, cover them in the sauce, and bake for a few minutes, just to warm the meat and caramelize the sauce a bit. (No ham this year, but I'm planning to do this ham for Christmas dinner!)

And of course, DESSERT!  I have never made a pie... maybe next year.  But I will buy one, or three. Pecan pie (my fave), pumpkin is always good, and the BF likes apple. 
(Actually... my BF and his mom did the shopping and we had a cheesecake!? Weirdos. It was still delicious, but I need my pumpkin pie!!) 

I hope everyone had a great meal, with great family/friends, and is enjoying a long weekend...Like I am!!  

Four day weekends don't happen very often in my world so I am trying to take full advantage of it!  

See you guys Monday!!   

(Or maybe Sunday for Confessions, if I can get my act together!)

Valitar!

I don't think I mentioned in my Yellowstone post, but I was born in Cody, Wyoming.  

I spent the first 5 years of my life living on this dude ranch.

Due (I suspect) to being around dozens of horses from a young age, and then having a horse for a few years again after we moved to California, I've always loved them. 

I imagine if we'd stayed in Wyoming I might have a little boy like this by now.  :-)

Source: joaniemcmahon.com via Cynthia on Pinterest

 

When we visited the ranch this summer, the horse barn might have been my favorite part. The horses are so calm and serene, and a few came over to say hi to us.
Oh, and they are so soft.  I forgot how soft they are.  And how good they smell.  :-)

The point is, I like horses. 
So when I saw billboards around town for Valitar, I was intrigued.

My BF and I drove by one of the billboards together last week and we realized we were both interested, so we looked up some info online and settled on a night to check it out.

  I read the "story" of Valitar on their website (which is not very specific), but intentionally didn't watch any of the videos.  So I wasn't exactly sure of what we might see on Saturday night. 

That evening, we headed up the coast to Del Mar to attend the big event!  No photography was allowed as it might distract the horses, so all of these pics are courtesy of Valitar/Equustria Development, Inc. 
Saturday was only the second public performance (EVER!) of this show.  Kind of exciting!

This is what the tent looks like.  I've been driving past it twice a day for weeks on my way to/from work.

Some contortion starts off the show.

 

Once the horses join the show, it's kind of mesmerizing.

These guys were doing all kinds of stunt riding, racing around the arena. 
There was also some trampoline acrobats and 2 guys on rugged skateboards. 
Pretty crazy!

I really liked the trick riding, where the guys were jumping on and off of the horse, riding backwards, STANDING up on the horses backs!!

This was my boyfriends favorite acrobat... the rope lady. :-)
(There may be some more techniocal term for that...?)

We both thought this guy was really impressive. He did a lot of the stunt riding and was entertaining and engaging.

 This woman had 9 beautiful white horses running and dancing around in sync, with no harnesses/leads or anything.

Probably the most thrilling stunt of the night. 
He went underneath and back to the top while the horse was galloping around the arena. Yikes!
(Also, I loved this horse. Light mane, caramel colored with a few darker spots.  I wanted to pet him!!)

I really don't have anything negative that comes to mind about the show itself.  I was kind of expecting maybe a few more "WHOA! OMG!" moments.  But it is more about the beauty and grace of the horses (and the humans!), and relationship between them. 
Don't get me wrong, the guy going under the horse? The people standing on the horses backs and dancing? The guy being pulled by the horse on the mountainskateboard onto a ramp?  Those were all crazy, but the overall feel of the show is more "zen" than "cRaZy".  And I liked it that way. 

I didn't love the 2 people near me who kept whistling, that ear piercing,  sports game kind of whistle.  They mention no pictures because of the DISTRACTION it could be to the horses.  Not only do I think those whistles could have been, too...but they hurt my ears! Plus, one of them, a guy behind me, was also talking through most of the show. Not quietly.

Besides that the entire experience was extremely pleasant.  

All of the ticket takers and ushers were nice and helpful. 
The parking was easy (though a bit of a rip off at $9). 

The food & drinks in the concession tent were expensive (which is to be expected) but there was a pretty decent variety of snack type items to choose from.  We had an iced mocha and a piece of cake before the show. :-)

 The merchandise area didn't have a ton of options, but there were definitely a few cute shirts I liked.  I ended up buying a long sleeve t-shirt, but in large because no XL available (I've now determined it is going to be extremely tight, but wearable).  And it was $45.   Ouch.  I don't think there was anything under $30 besides the printed program.  (Of course, I still bought one, cuz I'm a sucker for a souvenir.)

I saw on their website that Valitar will begin touring to other cities soon.  If any of this sounds interesting to you, I suggest checking it out!  It was really fun and a great way to spend and evening with my boyfriend.  I think it's a great show to see for a date, or for a family night out! 

 

Disclaimer: I was provided 2 tickets to see Valitar, but all opinions are my own. 
They did not ask me to provide a positive review or to fall in love with the caramel horse.