Recipe: Yummy Chicken Spinach Alfredo -- Four Ingredient Meal

Looking for something pretty easy AND cheap? Have no fear, I am here. (Sounded better in my head.)

Talk about yummy though, I love pastas of any kind. They are so easy to make too, you can pretty much whip up anything into a pasta.

Chicken Spinach Alfredo

Ingredients

2 Chicken Breasts
1 box of frozen spinach (or canned)
1 jar of any kind of alfredo sauce (I used three cheese alfredo sauce for this)
1 box of penne regate pasta noodles

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first; Bring your pasta noodles to a boil; meanwhile cut up your chicken breasts and add it to a skillet.
second; Once your pasta is tender (or the way you like it) drain it and add your alfredo sauce.
third; add your cooked chicken to the same pot as your noodles and alfredo; stir
four; heat up your spinach (if frozen) and add it to your pasta. I usually use half but depends on your taste buds. stir, stir, stir and enjoy.

That is it, easy right? Delicious too. If you are a carbs lover like I am, I served it with a roll and fresh mixed vegetables. Yummy!

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Life of A Young Mother Of A Toddler and A Newborn // Our Routine + 10% Discount Code for A Cute Girl Clothing Shop

Whenever I was pregnant I never thought about how much life would change once Zooey made her arrival. It never hit me - until recently honestly. Don't get me wrong, she is a perfect baby. But she is also so much different then Dorrian was so I wasn't expecting it. 

For starters she is awake during the day A LOT. I thought that maybe she would be a night owl because that is all you hear whenever you are pregnant -- "oh, enjoy your sleep while you have it!" Yes, she wakes up every two hours to feed of course but she goes back to sleep so soundly it is unreal. I guess that is where bed sharing has its perks though. But also has its downfalls because now she can not go to sleep without being in my arms. Which I do not mind because I love it and according to my husband she "will be my last one" (doubt it.) I plan to once she is about 6 weeks to break her from bed sharing and put her in her own crib. Should be an easy transition, right? Knock on wood "knock...knock." It is just almost impossible if you are breastfeeding to not bed share unless you want NO sleep what so ever. Which face it.. I have a two year old, I need my fuel for the day to cope with it all. 

She is a happy baby -- hardly EVER cries. Which is another thing I just was not expecting. I was ready to bust out the ear plugs on her arrival but I haven't needed them. I am just so happy with how this is going so far. Although Dorrian has been acting out a little bit -- but it is kind of cute, kind of. 

My routine starts with getting up whenever my son comes in my room to wake me up, between 7-8 am. Changing Zooey and Dorrian (because he still has yet to get potty training down) and getting Zooey fed. After that preparing Dorrians breakfast and milk. Usually after this I take a little "wake up break" meaning I wake my brain up a little bit by watching Grey's Anatomy while Zooey sits in her swing because this is when she is wide awake. Which stays this way until afternoon time. I will do some house cleaning between 10-12, while she is content. I feed her until she goes to sleep once I am done and make Dorrian his lunch. I will eat because usually around this time I realize I haven't ate all day, which you would think the low blood sugar and shaking would alert me but it does not. After he eats, I use this time to have "mom time." Usually I either blog, web browse, facebook and/or listen to music. Around 4-5 is when the husband gets home and I spend the evening preparing dinner for us all, cleaning it all up afterwards, bathe time for Dorrian and he goes to bed at 8:30 pm. This is when we all go down. Netflix and cuddles until we all fall asleep. Every day is basically the same. Same shit different toilet.  (insert sarcastic thumbs up emoji)

Now drum roll please... We recently became brand enthusiast for a new cute etsy girls shop. The creator gave me a discount code to share with all of you daughter havers. 10% off anything in her shop. You should totally go check it out! It is a very cute little shop and once we order Zooey her clothes from there I will share the pictures! Just click here to go check it out! Just use the code ZOOEY10 to get your discount. Enjoy! 

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God Bless.

My Second Birth Story

I remember at the beginning of my pregnancy, I thought to myself "maybe this time I can experience what going into natural labor myself is like." Because with my son I had to be induced because I was not going in on my own, which I didn't mind because I was pretty done with being a giant balloon at that point. With this last pregnancy with my daughter it was pretty smooth and REALLY fast. One day I was peeing on a stick and the next day I was pushing. The last month of my pregnancy it seemed by my last few check ups I was dilating and effacing good and everything seemed to be moving along.

The last week before the arrival of my due date my doctor asked if I wanted to schedule an induction. She didn't believe I was going to make it to that date but she knew I needed to have her around her due date because I needed help with my son, which my mother took the week off that my due date was on to help. So I scheduled it for April 7th at 5:30 in the morning.

The night before my induction my husband and I dropped our son off at my mothers an went to eat at Red Lobster for a "last date for awhile" sort of dinner. To enjoy time to ourselves because we knew we were not going to get it again for awhile. My nerves were just skyrocketing as I watched the clock ticking at dinner. That is probably the one thing I hated most about being induced because I knew what was happening and I had all the time in the world to think about it. Around 9 p.m. we went to bed and of course I could not sleep for the life of me, I was praying I would wake up before 5:30 with contractions and labor would have already started. The next thing I knew my alarm went off and it was that time.... scared shitless I woke up and got everything together. As we were walking out the door to load up in the car I took one last look at our home that was empty, quiet and peaceful...

As we got to the hospital and up to the women's center I had to sign a bunch of papers, some of them were just very useless but it kept my mind off of what was happening for a second. Nurse made me change into my gown and hooked me up to the monitors. Shockingly the nurse told me I was having contractions and was shocked they weren't hurting me.. She said I was defiantly going to go into labor that day or the next. So that eased my mind a lot... Although I still was being induced.

I wanted one last picture of my pregnant belly before all of this started.

They started my IV and my pitocin at 6:40 a.m. My doctor came in to check me and I was 4 cm dilated and 90% effaced. My mother arrived after her radiation around 8 to be with me because this time I wanted her with me for my labor and delivery. So my aunt was watching Dorrian, she was visiting from England for a couple weeks. At the time of her arrival the contractions kicked into high gear at that point. They started dull in my lower back area then made their way to the front and got so intense it brought tears to my eyes. I tried so hard to make it through them but I had to cave in and get the epidural. I just wanted this experience to be one that I could enjoy and not be in so much pain, so I was so ready for that needle in my spine.

By this point things were progressing so so fast. At 10:30 I was 6 cm dilated and then an hour later I was 7 cm dilated. They told me whenever I started feeling pressure to let them know and after 30 minutes of them just checking me I felt that pressure. They came into the room to check and I was 9.9 dilated and 100% effaced. At this point I started freaking out as they were bringing in the supplies and all of her stuff. It hit me this time that this was real, this was happening. Everyone tried to call me down but they just had no idea, they weren't laying on this bed.

At 12:30 it was time for me to push. I was ready to meet her but I was terrified. I started pushing and thought she was going to slide right on out. But I got my hopes up with that.. She was turned the wrong way in my birth canal. Meaning the way her body was angled was going to make it so much harder to get her out. I remember yelling asking if she was nearly out but they just smiled and said keep pushing.. I have never wanted to punch someone so hard before then at that point. My doctor said when I push she goes down but then when I stop she goes right back up. I was so aggravated and tired. I just wanted it over because my energy was giving up. I remember screaming because my doctor was trying to turn her in my birth canal as I was pushing. I thought that it was her fingers but later on my husband told me she was elbow deep on me trying to turn her... So that explain why it was so painful. Which I guess I should of known this because every time I took a break, my doctors arms were covered in blood. But honestly that was just the least of my worries. After an hour and four minutes of pushing she was here at 1:44 p.m... She decided to make her grand entrance (thank God.) Because my nurses said if I wouldn't of pushed as hard as I did the last few time they were going to have to get me into emergency C-section because they did not think I was going to get her out.

Her cry brought tears to my eyes, I was so excited and happy. My beautiful little girl weighing in at 8 pounds 13 oz and 22 inches long. Which is 8 oz bigger than my son, shocked the hell out of me. I thought she was going to be tiny. Her size and the fact she was facing the wrong way made my pushing unbearable but all so worth it! As my doctor was repairing a small tear and stitching me up, I held her and she immediately stopped crying when she heard my voice. It was truly magical. She was so healthy and had no complications, just a knot on her head from my doctor trying to turn her. I was able to breastfeed her immediately and she latched so perfectly.

Two days postpartum in the hospital was all I had to start in there for. I remember with my son I had to stay for five days because of complications with him. Our first day home was glorious, I was so happy to be home. No nurses knocking every two hours checking my vitals or asking when the baby ate last, it was so great.

Now here we are almost three weeks later and everything is still going perfectly. Zooey is such a perfect little baby and I could not be any happier.

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Try the New Pictli + 20% Off Order With My Code!

Have you pictli yet? It is an amazing new online business app that you have to try! All you do is just pick a photo of your choosing out of your camera roll, instagram or facebook and choose a high quality frame from their choices and it gets delivered at your door step! It is that easy. No needing to print them off and run to get them at Walgreens and put them in a frame yourself, it gets way easier than that with pictli. Try it by clicking here. OR download their app with your phone or tablet.

I love it and found it pretty exciting so I just had to share it. Here is my photo with my pictli frame. I ordered it Monday and it just arrived yesterday. So they are pretty fast on shipping and delivery also, which is big for me.

Such cute wrapping and even a little gift note card, which I thought was adorable. There are many frames to choose from, sizes and what landscape you want the picture. So the customization of it was pretty easy and fun.

Go try it out now and use my code to get 20% off your order --  HG1504.

Have fun! Follow them on instagram and twitter too! Use hashtage #pictli

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Zooey and Breastfeeding Update Week 1 + Pictures

My choice of breastfeeding was a last minute one -- literally. I decided I was going to breastfeed the last week of my pregnancy. I say choice because I was really rallying on formula feeding, just like I did with my son. Except with him I tried it and gave up. Reason being I had NO idea what I was doing and I was a first time mother, so the fact that I had no idea if he was latched or getting enough just startled me into formula feeding. I didn't have the support as I do now, living closer to my mother so it all helps. 

As soon as I had Zooey they wanted me to get her to latch. She latched on the first try and the nurses were just so shocked to see a newborn latch to perfectly the first time. That is when I knew this was going to be piece of cake -- when I fell in love with breastfeeding. I have always heard how bonding it is to breastfeed and I never could figure out why or how it was any different then bonding with a bottle. But now I see it, it is literally the most beautiful bonding experience I could cherish with my daughter and I regret not sticking with it with my son. Plus you really do bounce back fast. It is like every morning when I wake up my stomach has shrunk a little bit. So that makes me extra happy!

Although I am still a noob to breastfeeding, I learn something new every single day. Right now I am just trying to keep my milk supply up. Which I have to pump after each feeding, which is what I am trying to do. Also watch what you eat, which is another thing I am trying to do. This time I am determined to lose weight and get healthy/fit! I started so late after Dorrian last time that I just was not motivated. I just need to talk the husband into buying me a scale.

Week 1 Update -- Zooey

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Let me start off by saying... Oh my gosh, she is a cake walk compared to Dorrian! She NEVER cries, only time she does is if she is REALLY hungry or you just stuck a super cold wipe on her. But all I have to do is pick her up and she stops. She is also so good at sleeping, which is crazy. I remember walking the floors all night to get Dorrian back to sleep and I was so stressed every single day. I co sleep with Zooey though so that may be why. It just makes everything so much easier on us all to be that way. My husband and I have a routine of him getting up whenever she needs changed and me feeding her. Which by feeding her all I have to do is plop the ol' boob out and away she goes! 

She is such an easy baby though, I could go on for hours about how great she is. Dorrian is taking to her so well also. He loves helping and holding her, he is so proud of his little sister. There is nothing more beautiful then to see them bonding. I say that now but I know once she starts taking his toys there will be war. 

Being 21 and having two kids is quite exhausting, but I have never been so happy in my life. Having children at such a young age has grown me up to be a woman. Which I bless God every day for allowing me to bear two healthy and beautiful little beings. Some people might believe that having children holds you back, which is not the case. It may slow it down and make it a little more difficult but it is worth every single step. 

I hope you guys enjoyed this post -- don't forget to vote for my blog on topbabyblog. Help me get this blog growing so that I can excite you all with new things to try.




Also if you don't mind taking the time and voting for Zooey for this little contest. I have never done it, but I see so many moms entering and figured what the hay, worth a shot! Just click here and vote, please!

God bless you guys and thanks!

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Zooey Bronwen

Zooey Bronwen

8 pounds 13 oz

1:44 p.m.

4/7/15