BzzAgent review: Green Mountain Fair Trade Coffee- Three Continent Blend

When I first opened the bzzzkit and saw that the Three Continent Blend K-cups were labeled extra bold, I was a bit apprehensive.  I have tried extra bold coffee in the past and was not a huge fan.  However, I went ahead and brewed my first cup... and I was very impressed with how smooth the coffee tasted- not at all bitter but had a depth of flavor that was impressive.  

As I was drinking my delicious cup of joe, I took some time (it was a Saturday so I actually had time) to think about fair trade and what that really means.  I had recently read some articles about companies that are taking a stand and deliberately sourcing their raw materials more responsibly not only to make a better product, but to promote a better world, and how that is not usually the "easy" road to take for business and other reasons.  I had made a conscious decision to support these companies when I can (I am realistic and know that it won't be all the time, but I will do my part.)  I think that drinking fair trade coffee definitely falls in line with that.  I like the idea that me enjoying my morning coffee doesn't come at the expense of someone else or the environment.  

In all, the coffee tasted great, and I felt great about what fair trade really means.  Can't really start the day out better than that!  Check out ChooseFairTrade.com to learn about how you can support fair trade today. 

I was provided a sample of of Green Mountain Fair Trade KCups, but the opinions expressed here are 100% mine. 

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We did it again!

Moved, that is.  And not just moving from one house to the next- we have moved back to Indiana!

After we had Haley it became clear to us that we were simply too far from our friends and family.  The East Coast is nice, but even after two years just didn't feel like home to us.  We had some friends (and great neighbors) there but just were not established to the point that we felt comfortable.  So, I started looking for a new job.  We were originally looking to move either to Wisconsin or Florida to be close to at least 1 set of Grandparents, but then when I got a message on LinkedIn from a headhunter about a job in Fort Wayne, we really started thinking about Indiana again.  It occurred to us that we had really loved living here.  Its a great sized city- you can get anywhere in town in roughly 30 minutes- great shopping, great restaurants.  More importantly, it was a place where we had an established group of friends, babysitters and also all of our "people"  i.e. doctors, dentists, hair stylist, etc.  It is also right in between Madison and Pittsburgh so an easy 5 hour drive from either of our families.  Once we started thinking about it, it was perfect.

So, I told the headhunter that I was interested in pursing the position.  The following week I had a phone interview with the Tax Director and then two weeks after that they flew me out for an interview.  I had an offer from them the following week.  In the meantime we had started working on getting our house ready to go on the market.  I accepted the position and we put the house on the market in early June.  I gave my notice at my old job and then we were bombarded with showing requests and open houses.  I think we ended up doing 12 showings/open houses in about 3 weeks before we had an offer on the house.  For the record, selling a house when you have a toddler and an infant is not fun.  Keeping the house immaculately clean with said rugrats is really, really challenging.  We did end up hiring a cleaning lady to come a few times to help out with the big cleaning so that we could focus our time on the small daily picking up of the toys and just keeping the place looking presentable. 

Our last week in the house was the week of July 4th.  We had a great 4th- ended up cooking out at home and then went to the parade in our town which Nicholas loved.  They had a firetruck there which he got to peek inside.  Then we came home and chilled out for a bit and then went back out to the Middleboro carnival, again a really good time.  We had the inspection the next day and after that had some marathon packing to do to get ready for our travels.  I'll cover the details in a separate post, but I travelled with Nicholas and Haley by myself.  On an airplane.  It was an adventure! 

So, once we all got here (Josh got here about a week after us- he had to hang back to wait for the movers) we got somewhat settled.  We are in a temporary apartment for about another month - we will be renting a house from some friends and they need a little bit more time to get it ready for us.  Sometime after the holidays we are going to get more serious about looking for a house.  We have looked around a little bit and think we are going to build and even have a neighborhood targeted but don't want to get too attached since we are not quite ready to pull the trigger yet. 

We have already visited with several old friends and definitely feel at home here.  I am really looking forward to the next 12 months- getting to our rental house, Nicholas's 3rd birthday, the Holidays, then we will have building our house to look forward to.  We are so, so happy with our decision to move.  This place definitely feels like home.   

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Haley's stay in the NICU

My Mom and Nick had just arrived at the hospital when the doctor told us they had taken Haley to the NICU.  Since Nick wasn't allowed in there, Josh took him to the cafeteria and my Mom and I headed down to see her.  It was kind of surreal being pushed in a wheelchair to go visit my baby.  When we got down there, they took us over to where she was and I couldn't help but start to cry.  She was hooked up to an IV and had a bunch of other wires on her monitoring her vitals.  The pregnancy hormones kind of washed over me and I lost it for a few minutes.   The doctor came over again and reassured us that this is a pretty typical problem for big babies and that they suspected that Haley would be able to go home after just a few days.  The plan was to slowly wean her off of the IV sugar they had her on as long as her glucose stayed at an acceptable level after she ate.  So, every three hours they would wake her up, check her sugar, lower the IV if they could, and then feed her again. 


This went on all day Friday and Saturday.  On Friday Josh ended up going home with Nick and my Mom stayed at the hospital with me.  We spent lots of time in the NICU in the chair next to Haley's little bed and quite a bit of time back in my room as they had advised me to start pumping every three hours.  So, we would go to the NICU in time to attempt to breastfeed (no luck most of the time) then participate in feeding her formula, then back to my room to pump, wash pump parts, chill for a few minutes and then repeat the whole thing.  It was exhausting.  On Saturday my Mom left and Josh came back and we did the whole thing all over again.  Haley did pretty well, would have stable sugars, would get weaned and then would have a few setback feedings where they wouldn't be able to wean.  Luckily, on Sunday morning, her body seemed to get things figured out and she had consecutive feedings where her sugar stayed normal so they finally weaned her off of the IV.  The next step was to have 3 more "good" readings after feedings before they would release her.  I was discharged from the hospital on Sunday and although I could have stayed there with her, I decided that I really needed to get home and have a good night sleep.  We called the NICU around 11 pm and they confirmed that she had gotten her 3rd good reading and that she would be discharged on Monday.  We were so happy!

On Monday we went back to the hospital for the last time to pick up our girl!  They had to do a few more tests- one to make sure her sugar would be good on regular formula (they had been giving her a slightly higher calorie formula) and then a test for Jaundice.  Finally they let us bring her home in the early afternoon, we were so, so happy to get out of that place!

Haley's Birth Story

The last few weeks of the pregnancy were pretty miserable.  I was in quite a bit of pelvic pain and just getting around was getting to be a huge pain.  Each week my doctors appointment would come, they would check me, and send me on my way reminding me of the signs of labor and/or pre- eclampsia to watch out for.  I had been convinced that Haley was going to arrive before her due date.  To that end, I had my Mom come out to MA at the beginning of February so that she could be here with Nicholas when we went to the hospital.  At my 38 week appointment they did find sugar in my urine and then did a finger prick and my glucose was quite high.  My OBGYN's office attributed it to the sugary (waffle crisp- so good!) cereal that I had that morning.  More on this later.  We ended up going to the hospital twice before we were actually admitted.  The first time (was somewhere around 39 weeks) I was having very regular contractions one night for over three hours so we went in.  Got sent home because the contractions were not dilating me at all.  Second time the doctor actually sent us in(actually this was on my due date) because my blood pressure was slightly elevated and they were concerned about pre-e since I also had a headache that wouldn't go away.  That also turned out to be a false alarm and we were sent home.

Finally at my 41 week appointment, the doctor said that I could go in to the hospital on 2/20/13 in the evening to start the induction.  Their policy is to not induce a healthy pregnancy until 41 weeks, so the idea is to get there the night before so that they can start the cervical ripening process.  Although I was already at a 2 or 3 at that point, she said she thought I could still benefit from some cervical ripening.  So, I made 2/19 my last work day (I had been working from home) and then we spend 2/20 getting ready/relaxing since we knew we were likely in for a long few days based on the induction experience we had with Nicholas.  The hospital finally called us around 7 pm and asked us to be there around 8.  We said goodnight to Nicholas and my Mom and headed to the hospital.  When we got there, there was apparently some debate as to whether or not I really needed cervical ripening or could be sent home and then come back the next day to get the induction started.  I was pretty pissed off at this point and didn't want to be sent home again.  They finally agreed that I could benefit from cervical ripening so they got the Cervadil going around 10 pm or so.  They also got an IV started that bruised the hell out of my arm.  They offered me an Ambien and I took it knowing that the next day was going to be a long one.  Josh also had some Z-Quil and got a good nights sleep as well. 

The Cervadil did a pretty decent job getting my contractions going.  They left it in until 10 am and then got the Pitocin going.  They also gave me some pain meds at this point- I think it was called Nubain which pretty much knocked me out for most of the morning/mid-day.  Not gonna lie- it was awesome :)  At some point, they came in and broke my water so that they could put the internal monitor on the baby as she kept moving around and the external monitors were not doing a great job tracking her.  I think I asked for the epidural at some time in the late afternoon and they placed it without incident (much better than the one I got with Nicholas.)  With the epidural I dozed on and off for a few hours until I started feeling more and more pressure. I should also mention that I was flirting with a fever the whole time I was there and at one point it was over 101 so they started me on some IV antibiotics in case there was an infection starting.  Around 8 pm they checked me and I was ready to push. 

Unfortunately, my pushing was not any more effective with Haley than it was with Nicholas and I got to push FOREVER.  Ok, 2.5 hours, but still, it felt like freaking forever.  At one point I was absolutely exhausted and telling them that I couldn't do it, she was to big, and I couldn't push her out.  The doctor came in and said they would give the vacuum a try but said they can only do 3 pushes with it and if she didn't come out that way then I would have to push her out on my own.  We agreed to the vacuum and it didn't work.  Basically the doctor and nurses started yelling at me at that point to push harder, better, etc.  I think it took 3 more pushes until she came out.  She was born and immediately started screaming her head off.  The doctor told me that she thought Haley was well over 9 pounds.  I sent Josh over to be with Haley while they finished up with me. 

I couldn't believe when they weighed her and she was almost 10 lbs!  Even more surprising was when the doctor told me I hadn't torn or anything!  From that point on pretty much everybody was calling me a rock star for birthing a 10 lb baby intact.  The next 30 minutes are kind of a blur- the baby nurses were there taking care of Haley and they were getting me all cleaned up.  I finally got to hold her and it was love at first sight. I was surprised how much she looked like Nicholas.  She was really pissed off and still crying- she probably cried off and on for about an hour.  They checked her blood sugar (standard procedure with a baby over 9 lbs) and said it was low so they needed us to give her some formula since she didn't appear to be very interested in nursing (big surprise.)  Finally, they took her to the nursery so that they could do the state screening, etc on her and so they could take us to the mother/baby unit.   The hospital pediatrician came in and told us that Haley looked great but that due to the fever I had during labor she was going to have to be on IV antibiotics for 48 hours as a preventative measure.  I felt really sad that my brand new baby was going to have an IV but we knew it was for the best. 

It was after midnight at this point so we were getting pretty tired.  Once we were in the mother baby unit, the baby nurse came in and said she wanted to keep Haley in the nursery for a bit because she had another low glucose test and they were going to have to give her some more formula in a few hours.  We agreed to that so we could get a few hours of sleep.  The nurse did bring her back a few hours later and I got to snuggle with her for a bit and attempt to nurse- still no dice.  The lactation consultant came in and was helping us work on nursing for a bit but also stressed the need to keep giving her some formula because of her glucose.  Haley was having some trouble with the formula so the LC took her back to the nursery.  A few hours later, the neonatologist came to the room and said they had transferred Haley to the NICU for Hypoglycemia. 

The doctor explained that it was possible I had an undiagnosed case of Gestational Diabetes toward the end of my pregnancy and that Haley was getting a lot of sugar from me.  When she was born and the umbilical cord was severed, that sugar went away, but her body was continuing to produce a large amount of insulin.  They explained that she would need to stay in the NICU until her body regulated its sugar and that this was a pretty normal problem with big babies.  I was crushed that my baby was in the NICU. 

To be continued. 

Haley Miranda is here!

Haley Miranda was born on 2/21/13 at 10:39 pm.  She weighed in at 9 lbs 12 oz and was 21.5 inches long.  She was a full week past her due date!  Birth story to come...

37 Weeks

How far along? 37 Weeks.
Symptoms:  Extremely pregnant, BH contractions, very sore pelvic area, lots of pressure. 
Total weight gain/loss: +33 lbs.
Maternity clothes?  LOL, like anything else fits.
Sleep:  Not so great.  Its nearly impossible to get comfortable, and then I am also waking up every 2 hours to pee. 
Best moment this week: We had a growth ultrasound this past week to check in on baby girl.  Everything looked good and they said she is about 7 lbs 2 oz.  If she goes to 40 weeks, she will be over 8 lbs!
Movement: Girlfriend likes to be on the MOVE.  I'm happy she is enjoying herself in there, but OMG I am over being her punching bag!
Food cravings:  Nothing really.  Often hungry but nothing tastes very good. 
Gender: GIRL- Her name is Haley Miranda.
Labor Signs: Contractions and just generally sore.  Hoping for some progress in the next few weeks.
Belly Button in or out?  Out.
What I miss:  Being able to get up out of a chair or get onto the floor without feeling so huge!
What I am looking forward to:  My Mom comes back today!  She was supposed to come next Sunday but I have been nervous that Haley is coming early and we have nobody here locally to watch Nicholas.  Mom and I are going to stop at the outlet mall on the way back from the airport and I am hoping to find a new bag!