Labor-Inducing Cookies (Gingersnaps)

When you are in the last few weeks of pregnancy, you will do anything to get that baby out!

My doctor just told me that "there's probably a 9-10 pounder in there" at my appointment. Not the news I wanted to hear. It explains the excruciating hip pain, I suppose. As well as the inability to breathe...at all. 

Needless to say, despite the size they are anticipating, the low amniotic fluid, and now the more-frequent non-stress-tests, they want that baby to stay in as close to 39 weeks as possible.
(I guess her measuring 39 doesn't count) 😞

So I went on a quest to find natural "at-home labor-inducing remedies".

I'll give you the news now. 

These didn't work for me. (A BILLION SAD FACE EMOJIS)

Basically they are just a delightful gingersnap cookie laced with cayenne pepper. You know, spicy things are supposed to get things moving.

I even made my favorite Chicken Tortilla Soup to eat for dinner (with a little extra kick).

No luck. Its been 5 days. They detected contractions yesterday on the non-stress-test, but not enough to be considered "real" ones, I guess. 

Oh well. We enjoyed snacking on these cookies! 

My daughter ate them, but only after I made her promise to not give birth to a baby.  :D

She thought it was hilarious.

The tale says to bake the cookies and then eat as many as possible and lie down for a bit.

I munched on five, hey! I'm pregnant!

Then when I got up to use the restroom every hour throughout the night, I tried to eat another one. 

Hopefully they work for you if you are desperate!!

I just used my favorite gingersnap recipe and added the cayenne pepper. You can add 1/8 teaspoon - 1/4 teaspoon, depending on the amount of spice you'd like. I added more towards the 1/4 teaspoon and nobody at my house could tell it was in there. 

Just remember to not over-bake these cookies or else they get hard!

Labor-Inducing Cookies (Gingersnaps)

by Sugar For Breakfast

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 8-10 min

6080675

Ingredients (4 dozen)

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup molasses
• 1 egg
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/8-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2-3 tablespoons milk
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar (to roll dough in)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a stand mixer cream butter, sugars, and molasses until fluffy - about 2 minutes.

Add in egg and mix to combine.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper together.

Add the flour mixture slowly to the creamed butter and mix until no white of the flour remains.

If mixture seems a bit dry, add milk slowly until it creates a nice, soft dough. Using a cookie scoop, or spoon, roll 1-inch balls of dough into the sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until bottom edge just starts to turn brown.

Let sit on the cookie sheet for a minute before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container.

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Baby Shower Brunch

The countdown is officially on!

There are only 16 days left until my scheduled delivery date. My first daughter was a whopping 10.5lbs when she was born. Plus, I was crazy anemic and all sorts of fun stuff...so this baby will be a c-section baby also.
Luckily this pregnancy is going super smooth in comparison. Very little swelling. Just lots of naps :)
Last week I begged my doctor to not let this baby be as jumbo as my sweet Sophia was at birth (I mean, c'mon...10 pounds is just too much baby at once), so she ordered an ultrasound.
During that we found out that the amniotic fluid is a bit on the low side. She's got a 2x2 pocket, which I guess is the minimum needed for her in the womb, so now we have an ultrasound and non-stress test scheduled this week and next week, or until she is born. Whichever comes first.
She was already showing to be 7lbs 8oz +/- 18oz, so she could be a jumbo baby like her big sister by the time January 25 rolls around.

I wasn't really wanting to have a baby shower, as this is our second child...but my sister reminded me that it will be eight years between the two kids and I need everything all over again. We didn't plan on having another child, ever. So we had nothing saved for a baby, thus I agreed to having a baby shower and we had one back in November.

I decided on a brunch because nobody really likes going to a baby shower mid-afternoon. I mean, really, nobody does.

We just purchased bagels and donut holes from the bakery from our local grocery store. Of course punch with sorbet is always a must at parties. My friend printed the water bottle labels off of Etsy. I made fruit-pizza (recipe here) instead of having cake or cookies. I never knew fruit pizza was such a hit! For the bagel bar we did have a variety of cream cheeses, peanut butter, and Nutella. It went over well with all the moms and their daughters that came along. Sophia had to have her dance girls in attendance after all :)

For the guest book I picked up a baby book and just had all of the guests sign the inside of it.

I also laid out the thank-you card envelopes so each guest could self-address one to help me out with sending out cards. Of course we did a diaper raffle also, and just set out a pail for each person to toss their name in to win a prize!

We played the classic "name the baby food" game and "make a baby out of Play-Doh" and then gave two prizes out for the diaper raffle. We gave out a coloring book and pack of colored pencils that were picked up in the wonderful $1 section at Target. The others were scratch tickets (FUN) and a $5 Starbucks gift card!

My sister also picked up these gold banners in the same section at Target, and I used a gold paint pen to write "Baby Abigail" on the flags. It was a cute little special touch with the fun mylar balloons we got at the dollar store!

I also wanted to give out a fun baby shower favor so each guest could take home a little something from the day. I found a seller on Etsy that sells succulents that are perfect for favors. 

I purchased 30 succulents from the seller ExoticSucculent and couldn't have been more happy with the quick shipping, the packaging, and the overall price for them. 

To make them cuter for gift-giving, I purchased small jelly jars, and laid some fish rocks at the bottom. Then added some cactus soil, the plant, and tied some twine around the ring of the lid. 

For the little sign I bought gift tags in the scrapbooking section and just hot glued them to some skewer sticks after writing a message on them. (Watering instructions of course are on the back).

They were popular and a fun twist on the typical favors you receive!

I purchased my daughter's "Big Sister" button also on Etsy from dustyLuck. It is made-to-order and she loves it. It is a bit on the heavy side, due to the all of the fabric, but we just clipped it on her scarf and she was good to go!

It was a fun baby shower! With all of my wonderful friends and family that came, we were overwhelmed with all the gifts we received and there was very little that we had left to purchase on our own. It was day I appreciated so much!

Me and Sophia!

My wonderful sister who organized the shower and Sophia.

Now this baby can come!
Christmas decorations are all down and all the baby things are officially up. Hoping it is sooner than later, because I'm ready to meet this baby girl, Abigail!