I Gave You Words: Field of Cradles

I Gave You Words/Field of Cradles


Preeclampsia is a disease that does not discriminate against race, ethnicity, sexuality, religious beliefs, social/economic class or age. It affects as many as 1/12 pregnancies and is characterized by high blood pressure and kidney failure. If left untreated, it can cause liver failure, seizures and stroke. The only known "cure" is delivery of the baby, regardless of gestational age. Preeclampsia is responsible annually for approximately 500,000 infant deaths and 7,500 maternal deaths.

Field of Cradles is an art exhibit that will be shown at the Boston Promise Walk for Preeclampsia. The project honors the lives of those babies lost to this terrible disease, using the parent's own words to describe their feelings and experiences to create works of art to spread awareness. If you live in the Boston area and are interested in participating in the Promise Walk and/or Field of Cradles art exhibit, please visit: http://promisewalk.org/pfpw/fundevent.asp?nnaffundid=34

Social-Networking Addiction, Not Just for Adults!

Hello, my name is Mindy and I'm a social-networking addict. In fact my blog post is being typed with my thumbs via my Droid between facebook updates! But I'm not the only person in my family who suffers from this condition -- my husband is overtly addicted and our two-year-old daughter, Lily, is already showing signs. Today she grabbed my phone and said, "Mom, I on facebook." Before requesting the Gummybear Song and funny kitty montages courtesy of the YouTube app. Even Baby Tatum wants in on the action, drooling on my Droid whenever given the opportunity. A family of 'tech-junkies', as my hubby would describe us, the only known treatment is an updated facebook status until someday we find a cure! ;p

Couponing Made Trendy ---- Extreme Couponing

As a mother of two little girls and a wife of a husband who was laid off for the majority of last year, couponing was a natural resource to feed our family and save a buck. I had began my couponing endeavors in September of 2009, more for fun than anything, and by April of 2010 my new found hobby had become a necessity. I've enjoyed collecting coupons from several people and the newspaper and printing online coupons to ensure savings of at least 50% on all shopping trips just to make ends meet.

Life before babies equated to my husband and I spending money frivolously, having fun and not really thinking about the consequences. We were living the American Dream. It was common place for us to spend between $200 - $300 on a single shopping trip. I saw women in lines using coupons and thought they were cheap and simply had too much time on their hands. But as the Coupon Diva on Extreme Couponing would say, "Honey, you ain't never been broke enough to coupon!" She was right, I was living in a fantasy world that would soon come crumbling down. By January of 2008 I was pregnant and expecting a beautiful baby girl, at this point we started slowing down our spending quite a bit, but couponing was still out of the question. On August 28, 2008our beautiful daughter was born four weeks early and we resorted to credit cards to buy the little things we didn't have that we thought we HAD to have for a new baby.

The next year went pretty smoothly, but we became increasingly conscious of our spending and in September of 2009 we decided it was time to start paying off our American Dream (debt) in anyway possible. We met with a financial planner and he told us about "The Grocery Game" in passing. I was intrigued and promptly Googled it the very next day. I learned about the world of couponing, the shift in thinking, and my couponing craze began. The next month my husband was laid off of his commercial plumbing job for 8 weeks before being called back to work for several months before yet another round of layoffs which led to the end of his plumbing career.

I was pregnant, had a small toddler, a husband and myself to feed on a very meger budget. The girl that once spent upwards of $300 a week on groceries had a budget of $100 per week (and that was being generous). This is when I put my couponing skills to the test. Using the online database and my coupons, I was able to ensure that my family had plenty of food in the cupboards at all times, despite the lack of income we were accustom to.

Thankfully, my husband now has a fabulous job working for the Ball Corp. making as much as he did before, I'm still teaching and we have two beautiful daughters. Despite having the ability to spend full price on groceries, I feel like I'd be crazy to actually spend that kind of cash when I could get at least 50% off (on a bad trip) and upwards to 101% off (on an extremely good trip). I'm not an extreme couponer, I'm a mom. I find good deals, I stock up on them, I use coupons to get the deals, but I don't buy 1,000 products.

I find it funny how in the past month since Extreme Couponing has aired how popular the concept of couponing has become. Couponing is TRENDY! Who would've thought? It'll be interesting to see if people will find the thrill in couponing that I have found or if it'll just be a fad waiting to expire with the rest of the coupons they printed in the moment.

Denver Promise Walk for Preeclampsia

As most of you know, I developed severe preeclampsia and HELLP Syndrome at 36 weeks gestation, which resulted in an emergency c-section and the birth of my premature daughter, Lily. My body was deteriorating at such a rate that the doctors were forced to transfuse me three times with blood platelets to save my life. Lily was small, 4lbs 10oz, but was strong enough to avoid a stay in the NICU. My body began to slowly recover and after four days in the hospital we returned home together.

After her birth, I wanted to know as much as I could about this mysterious disease and stumbbled across the Preeclampsia Foundation's website. The website not only provided me with a wealth of information about preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome, but their forums gave me a place to connect with other survivors, to heal the emotional wounds and find strength to pursue another pregnancy. Today I continue to participate on the forums to pay it forward to other survivors, to give them hope for healthy pregnancies and arm them with knowledge.

Three years later, I'm proudly co-coordinating the Denver Promise Walk for Preeclampsia to help raise awareness, find a cause and a cure for this disease that threatened the life of myself and my beautiful daughter Lily. All proceeds of the walk benefit the Preeclampsia Foundation to fund research to find a cause and cure, provide information to patients and doctors, and to maintain their website (which I've found so incredibly useful). Please register to walk with us on June 26th, 2011 at City Park in Denver or donate today! www.promisewalk.org

Join Team Boo and HELLP me find a cure for preeclampsia and HELLP Syndrome!

My Own Business: Bowtanical Bowtique

I've started my own business....Bowtanical Bowtique, which specializes in handmade floral bows for infants and toddlers. It's very new and merchandise will be posted within the next couple days on my Etsy.com shop. Click on the badge below to be linked to my shop. In addition to bows, I will also be offering tutu's!

Tatum Nicole Completes Our Family

On August 6th, 2010, Tatum Nicole Aucone was born at 9:58 am. She weighed 7lbs 3oz and was 20 inches long. My pregnancy was much different from my first, no complications whatsoever and we made it to the scheduled c-section date. Those last four weeks were fun to experience, my belly grew soooo much. The morning of the c-section, Tatum O'Neill made headlines for her reconciliation with her father. Mike and I thought this was a sign that this was the day Tatum was meant to join our family.

We arrived at Exempla Good Samaritan Hospital at 7:00 am to prepare for the c-section. The nurses started the IV and doctors began coming in to introduce themselves, I was thrilled to learn my anesthesiologist would be the same one that I had during Lily's birth! This eased my fears going into the surgery.

Because I had the same anesthesiologist, Mike was able to be present throughout the preparation process, including when I had my spinal block. Everything went smoothly and before I knew it they were delivering our precious baby girl. As mentioned above, Tatum Nicole was born at 9:58 on August 6, 2010 weighing in at 7lbs 3oz and 20inches long. She was born with brown hair and dark blue eyes. She spent the majority of her first days of life sleeping. My fear of having another child was that I could not love another as much as I love Lily, but the second Tatum was born, my fears were washed away. I love Tatum just as much as I love Lily, unconditionally with all of my heart! We are so blessed to have her to complete our family.

Part of me is sad knowing that we are done having children, but the other part of me feels complete and so happy to be blessed with two beautiful and healthy girls. Adjusting to life as a parent of two is difficult, but I wouldn't change it for the world. Lily is loving being a big sister, and Tatum is now a few months old and smiles when she sees her sister. It's a special relationship blossoming and I hope they become best friends. Sorry if this post is a bit corny, but it comes from the heart.

It's a GIRL!?!?!?!?! Maybe?

Mike and I went for my 20 week ultrasound with my Perinatologist yesterday! He's an amazing doctor who really know his stuff, and he's funny, which is always a plus, especially if you're dealing with us! :) I provided him with my hospital records from my stay when I delivered Lily and we discussed the care that I'll be receiving this time around. I'll start seeing my OB every two weeks at 28 weeks and I'll see the perinatologist again at 32 weeks to check on the growth of the baby. Right now the baby is growing a week behind, 19 weeks instead of 20. I'm going to begin a baby asprin regiment to reduce the risk of developing preeclampsia again, but it's not a guarentee, so I'm trying to stay vigilant. He also advised me to start taking my blood pressure at home, which I already have, and he seemed impressed with the amount of knowledge I have on the topics of HELLP and preeclampsia. It's really been my way of coping with the experience.

On to the best part, the ultrasound! This was my 20 week anatomy scan, so he measured the baby's head, abdomen, and femur to determine it's size, he checked to make sure there were two arms, two hands, two legs and two feet! Check! And finally, we asked if we'd be able to determine the gender! Well, little baby duece had it's legs crossed and was in the breech position, which made it nearly impossible to determine the sex! Grrrrr! Initially, he said, "If I have to lean one way, I'd say girl, but that's only 70%!" Oh no, that didn't slide, I can't have only 70%, I need 100% dang it!!! I told him I'd stand on my head if I had too, but the more he looked the more he was convinced that this baby is also a girl!!! Mike and I are estatic that Lily will have a baby sister!!! The pics above are pretty ghetto, especially because I took them with my cell phone and there's a mean glare coming of the u/s paper (super glossy)! But, come Saturday, I'll have some AMAZING 3D ultrasound pictures to share...as I need a 100% confirmation that this baby is really a girl so we can plan accordingly!

Yay for baby girls!!! :)