Great News!

We just found out that the midwife is charging us $700 less than we originally thought. Really good news in light of the fact that we now need a new (to us) car.

I told someone the other day how much we had to pay for the home birth (when I still thought it was going to be $2600) and she told me that was how much her birth had cost even with insurance. Made me feel not so irritated that the insurance won't cover it. I'm feeling even better now that it's less that $2000!

Dramatic!

Well, we had a bit of a scare on Tuesday night and thought the little man might arrive six weeks early. But God is good and answered our prayers that he stay put a little longer.

The scenario goes: A lot of bleeding and me pretending to be calm so Jeff doesn't get freaked out, and Jeff pretending to be calm so that I don't get freaked out. In the end, it turned out that I was passing a (rather large) blood clot that had formed because my cervix has become active. It's common, apparently.

So yea! Nothing wrong, but WOAH! Things are moving along in there. Kind of puts the time line on perspective now that I am dilating.

40(ish) days to go!

It's huge

And I keep asking myself, "can it get any bigger?" How in the WORLD can there still be two more months?

More Donkeys

This photo was in the BBC this morning. Isn't it one of the funniest things you've ever seen?












Speaking of donkeys, often we drive by a field in LaFayette that has several and I usually comment about the little burritos (the Spanish for little donkey). But the other day I was trying to tell Jeff something about the donkeys and for the life of me I could not remember the English word for donkey! So I just spit out the word burrito really quick and he thought I was talking about the food. Kind of like the time I told him to look at that doughnut in the road and he was looking for a small pastry.

On to serious news, I actually slept for four hours straight last night, TWICE, with out having to get up for a potty break. It was amazing!

And we went to a Braves game last night, but the Marlins beat them (sad, since the Marlins are also a crummy team). The game was over in less than two hours. But, we got the tickets free when we bought our new toilets (ironic, huh? Free tickets for buying toilets and the team is basically in the toilet this yea) at Home Depot. Well, really the tickets were for spending $100 or more at the store, not because the items we bought were toilets.

So, besides my new (first!) stretch marks:-( There's nothing else new here. Don't know what made me thing I might dodge the bullet on that one.

Another reason I chose home birth

I've heard stories like this before, and I already decided in high school that when I had kids, I would use a midwife (several of my allied health teachers spoke of the difference during class time. I LOVED those discussions.). I've even heard an MD that I attended college with (when he was undergrad of course) talk about how OBs, like all Drs. are trained to react as if everything during birth is an emergency.

Here's the story I read today that affirms my choice:

excerpt from Susan McCutcheon-Rosegg's book Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way

"In many ways her [the midwife's] experience with normal birth is superior to most physicians'. For example, she recently attended a couple from one of our birthing classes at home. Their baby was born with the cord looped three times around its neck - unusual, but not out of the range of normal. The midwife calmly slipped the loops one at a time over the baby's head in a matter os seconds and the body was born with the next contraction. She had listened to the fetal heart tones frequently and knew the baby was in no danger. Later, at the hospital birth of one of our couples, the baby's head emerged with the cord looped once around the neck - something quite common. The baby was having no problems, but the physician attending was shouting at the mother (whose control was perfect) not to push. The doctor then pulled out a bit of the loop, clamped it, and cut the cord before the body was born. That meant the baby had to breathe immediately since the lifeline supplying it with oxygen had been severed. Fortunately, it did. Neither baby had any problems at birth, but the hospital baby had been put to greater risk."

A funny thing

O.k. It's not like "HA HA HA! THAT IS SO FUNNY!" but just sort of interesting to me.


One of the baby tickers says I've 114 days to go (the one with the baby floating around) and the other says 113 (the one with the frog on the lily pad). I set both up with the same data.

In addition, the ultra sound tech said they calculated my due date as October 21. My calculations and the ticker company's calculations both say November 4th/5th. I am positive that we are right because this was meticulously planned, and I had been charting since December to make sure little one came along at the right time (after Jeff's fire fighter 2 raise).

Not that I would be sad if this thing comes a few weeks ahead of schedule. I hate the cold, so I would have to buy a bunch of warm clothes for the end of October/ early November, but then that is the only time they'd get used. As it is right now, I've only bought a few things and my two friends have lent me the rest of what I have been wearing.

One more funny thing:

We went to the Blueberry Farm with the Aaron and Sarah and their two little boys on Tuesday. The picking were decent. Not spectacular, but fair. We were able to at least each get a gallon of berries.

Well, I heard Sarah tell her oldest (he's 3) to turn his hat around so he wouldn't get sun burned on his face, but every time I saw him, the hat was backwards. I was relating this to Jeff, and he told me that Jeremiah (the little boy) told him he had to wear the hat backwards so that we could see him:-) I'm guessing he couldn't see us well enough with the hat on. Or maybe he couldn't see the berries? Not that that mattered. The kid ate more berried than he put in the bucket. I bet potty training was fun that night!

It's a. . .

Well, you'll have to guess.

Here's a photo from the ultrasound (we had to take our own pictures because they're not allowed to give them out at a diagnostic place, which is where we had to go since we're doing home birth).

Imagine the little critter is standing on its knees with its butt facing you. The indicator is going to be pretty near the very center of the screen. (Oh, and Jeff accidentally took it as video, but it's easier to tell if you just leave it still. Push the play button at the bottom, but pause it pretty quick.)


And here's the kid looking at you. See its head over toward the right? One of the eyes is visible toward the top (that would be the right eye), and nose, mouth and an arm right there under the chin. Peek-a-boo.














So, any guesses?

A Day at the Doctor

So, what do you and your doctor do at the end of your doctor's visits?

I had to go see a general practitioner today because TN state law allows midwives to attend homes births as long as they report to an overseeing doctor. Like my midwife, this doctor has her office at her home. We sat around talking and whatever while I was filling out the paperwork, then she did the poking and prodding that would indicate I was having a physical.

To wrap up the visit she prayed with us and then told me that she always likes to give her patients a book and that I could pick which ever one I wanted off the shelf (I got one about end times called, "Left Behind or Sincerely Taken").

Then as we were getting ready to go she asked us if we'd like to go get some vegetables from the garden. I wasn't sure if I'd herd her correctly, but she was like: "Let me go get a bag for you." Here's what we made out with, and it would have been a lot more if I hadn't reminded her that it was just the two of us.















I can not remember for the life of me what she said this squash is called (so if you know, feel free to fill me in. I figure that I can figure out something to do with it.














These little guys that look like tomatoes are actually plums.














I wish that there were doctors like Dr. Pat in LaFayette (although it almost seems worth the hour and a half drive to switch her to my GP).

Arg! Registering!

O.k. So I know very little about registering for a baby. I mean, I've taken care of enough kids to know the basics: diapers, clothes, something to sleep in. But since people keep grousing about me buying things myself for the baby (how will people know what to buy you if you keep getting them yourself. I've heard it twice now.) I figured I better be pretty comprehensive with our registry.

So, if you are one of my friends (or relatives) who's a mommy, would you please check over my registry and advise me if I missed anything.

We already have a swing (thanks MIL & FIL!), a stroller (thanks SIL!), a crib and changing table (FREE from freecycle.org!), a glider rocker that we bought at a consignment sale, and a cosleeper that we bought on e-bay. Plus, we have gotten a start on clothes and cloth diapers from yard sales, Goodwill, and Craigslist. And, I have two whole shelves of baby books from a friend whose kids are grown. Not that I ever mind getting books!! (I have over 600 books in this house:-)! ) Just don't see the need to register for them.

P.S. We're half way there (as of yesterday)! Whew! Seems just like yesterday I thought I'd never stop throwing up.

School's out for summer. . .

School's out forever! Who ever thought that the great philosopher, Alice Cooper, would have written a song about my life? (sooooo joking)

But really - I started my life as a "retired" person today. Now what I have to look forward to this fall is doing all I can to get ready for our new arrival:-)

Pagan Church

Yeah, I bet some people are checking this entry out thinking I going to say something profoundly spiritual. But really this is just to share my amusement that my midwife's last name is Church and the doctor that oversees her has the last name of Pagan. So together they are Pagan/Church! Both are believers, by the way. I think if I was a believer and my last name was Pagan, I might just consider a name change:-)

Well, that's all of my senseless musings for now.

Business of Being Born

If you're interested in why we chose home birth and you have an hour to kill, check out the movie "The Business of Being Born." This link will take you to it for free. Disclaimer: a couple of the women say really bad words during their deliveries (wouldn't you?) and of course since it is showing births, there will be some nudity.

Baby Fruit

Well, as of tomorrow, we have a plum:
















As stated on this funny little web site.

How to cure a migraine?

Do you know what it is like to go ten weeks without a migraine? Before, I didn't even know what it was like to go ten DAYS without a migraine. Since I have been pregnant, I haven't had a single one. It's a trade off: throwing up for migraines, but I'll take it (despite my mortal fear of throwing up!).

A Good Husband

Well, it finally happened today: that thing that I feel like I have been waiting for for the past three weeks. The morning sickness came to a head.

Here's the scene:

We were driving back from the mortgage place in Chattanooga. When we were only about four miles from home I tell Jeff he has to pull over. It was very nice that he was so careful not to bounce over this one driveway, but that slowed things down a little. I'm throwing the truck door
open and trying to lean out before he has even stopped.

Well, you know what happens in most vehicles when you hit the brakes, and ours was, of course, no exception. The seat belt locked. So the first round went all across my truck door and the step thingy (door frame?).

After everything was done with, I said to Jeff that I had some tissues in my purse, but I heard the other door close as I was saying it (my eyes were still closed because I am a HUGE baby when it comes to being sick that way). The next thing I know, there's Jeff on my side of the truck, taking his t-shirt off (did I mention that it was snowing?) to clean the door off!

True love is this: that a man would clean your throw up with his t-shirt while it's snowing:-)

Hello Morning Sickness!

Uh, did I say morning? I mean all-day-that-I-am-not-asleep sickness! Wasn't really prepared for this. I ate half a box of ginger snaps BY MYSELF today, just trying to stay vertical.
Any remedy that someone throws at me, I try. So far the ginger has been the best, though the SeaBands have helped to take the edge off (but I think that they are going to leave permanent bruise on my wrists if I wear them too much longer).

On a positive note, my college roomie/co-worker/best friend Jenn has not experienced any morning sickness yet (she's 2 weeks behind me) and I am praying that she won't, either! They tried for so dang long for this little one, so I just want it to go as smoothly for her as it can possibly go.

Do you like the cool little baby tracker on the side of the page? Thanks to Karen (who is due on the same day as me) for putting that on her blog, so that I could find it for mine:-)

Oh, and resigning from my job wasn't as terrible as I was suspecting. Both bosses were very understanding, but assured me that this was a door that was always open if I wanted to come back. Hmmm, maybe in about 19 years? I wonder if it would still be open then. It would be very rare for a principal to be at a school that long.

Well, well!

I think that this says it all:-)