pains

Terrible pain this morning. I was sitting on the floor changing N and when I got up I must have pulled something. I couldn't stand or walk without horrible pain for about an hour. Thankfully it is gone now. Baby is fine, moving like normal.

Thirty Weeks

Thirty? THIRTY? I cannot believe I've reached this point.

Ten more weeks to go. Give or take. I'm leaning towards the take only because of that conference we have going on on my due date. I got a little snappy with J the other day when he said he was going to preach at a church two hours away from where we live on August 7. "What?" I yelled at him. "You know we can't plan anything after the end of July!" Then after he calmly said "Whoa, I'm sorry, I forgot" I realized how I must have sounded and apologized. Really, I shouldn't expect him to remember everything, like the exact dates that we need to burrow down at our house until the babe is born.

Thoughts this week are solely financial based. Not, "how am I going to afford this baby?" but rather "how am I going to afford everything else that is happening in my life right now?" I feel a little stressed about money which isn't normal because when we were in OK and J was in seminary I promised myself to never be stressed out about finances and I never was. But we aren't in Oklahoma anymore. I guess my mind needs to not be stressed about finances no matter where we are. I'll work on that.

I've realized that I need a new pregnancy photo. I'll work on getting that done this week.

I've also realized that I want a little more support during my labor and delivery. If it can be arranged. I also need a photographer since I can't take awesome photos of myself, even though I've done so in the past, it would be harder taking awesome photo of myself holding a beautiful baby after giving birth. So I'm going to ask around and see if anyone would be willing to come over and witness the miracle of a birth. Relatives are excluded. We are going to try to wait to inform them of the birth until after it happens. :-)

Here's to thirty!

One More to Thirty

I guess I write this in a tired/exhausted mood. I really don't know how I will make it another 11 weeks. I feel like I tire easily. Sleep is either good or bad. Heartburn is on and off. Baby likes to turn in a transverse position which is more than a little uncomfortable. I am sometimes a little more snappy with my children than I should be. Honestly this past week has been filled with the little thoughts of "How are you going to handle another one?" Today I was thinking "Yes, we produce beautiful children. But they sure are crazy." I try to love the craziness of this life and that is a big part of what keeps me sane at the same time wishing my children were a little more calm. Writing this makes me smile because honestly I do love their spunk and life would not be the same without it.

So 29 weeks definitely brings mixed emotions but I think that just comes with being pregnant.

Oh, and I found the perfect crib set! I am loving owls. Sorry, not going to say if it is blue or pink owls that I am loving. But its one of those colors and it's owls and I just wish that I could somehow afford it. But maybe I can afford to make my own? I'm going to look into that route. Because really if it comes down to a crib set or homeschooling curriculum I will need to go with the curriculum, even though the crib set is super cute!! Maybe I can sell my iPad?

28 Weeks- Beginning of Third Trimester

Wow, can I really be this far along? It does not seem possible. This pregnancy seems to be slipping by. It doesn't help that I've been busy with moving, packing and un-packing, organizing, all on top of the normal day to day activities. I think I say this every time I post but this baby seems to be moving more, or I can just feel the babe move more.

I bought more prenatal vitamins along with some magnesium supplements and omega 3 supplements that the midwives recommended. I usually take my vitamins at night, I have other medication that I take in the a.m., so I took them all tonight at the kids snack time with some blueberry yogurt. I would like to say that all the energy I have right now if because of them but maybe it's all in my mind.

I'm not sure we will be able to work on the babe's room before the little one arrives. Maybe I should just work on getting our room in order since he/she will most likely be sleeping in with us for the first year of life.

I have a feeling the next 12 weeks will go much faster than the past 28 weeks.

Randomness at 26 Weeks

So I guess I'm 26 weeks preggo + a handful of days. Needless to say with the craziness of the move I lost count. Or maybe I lost count because I've had how many children? and after the first or the second there is no need to count anymore. Baby will arrive(hopefully) sometime between July 24 and August 14. I am hoping for the first week in August. If we keep in line with our previous birth dates, all on weekends, two Fridays and one Saturday, my estimated date of arrival for this little peanut would be August 5. Now my Grandpa's birthday was August 4, so it would be nice to have the little one born on that date. I am positively wanting the babe to arrive before August 12, we have a conference that weekend that we are suppose to be at, J was volunteered to lead a bible study in the morning.. guess no one thought that I might be giving birth that day! Anyways, obviously I won't let him go if I am still knocked up. It's a couple hour drive from here to there and we are already hoping the midwives can make their one hour drive to our house. I've talked of the possibilities to Jake, what if they don't arrive on time and have eased his fears a little. But still, he really hopes he is not the baby catcher or if he is the baby catcher there are at least a couple of supporters there to help in the "just in case" moment.

Talking of the midwives, I emailed our new Michigan one a couple days ago and we set an appointment up right away. Drove out to her farm in the middle of nowhere Michigan and met with her and one of her apprentices. It was great. The children had toys to play with. Relaxing. The drive though really brought the reality of how far away we are back and he said he would pay for any speeding tickets they might acquire on the way to our birth. Now there are a lot of things to think about. Waterbirth. Birth in our bed. What do I want? Rent a tub, use our bathtub. I asked her about tearing and she said birthing on your side actually seems like the best is that is a concern. So there is a lot to think about and consider.

Movements. Still weird because of anterior placenta blocking me from feeling anything. I feel movements down almost right about my pelvic bone and around the edges of my belly. J has yet to feel a good kick, abnormal compared to our previous pregnancies.

L has started calling the baby the "surprise" baby. Right now we are having a conversation about what the baby is a boy or a girl. She wants me to tell her, "someone should know" "you can tell me" she says. She has determined the baby is a "girl" and can't be convinced otherwise. But because every time she says "she" when referring to the babe I say "what if it's a he?" She has started saying the "surprise" baby. I like that. Poor sisters, It is frustrating for them to not know.

Little N is going to be surprised for sure when he becomes an older brother and is kicked out of our bed. He falls asleep in his bed but always comes to ours in the middle of the night. It needs to be fixed soon before the babe arrives. We will work on that along with his potty training.

Did I say how well cloth diapers are going? They are going great. Can't wait to order some for the little babe.

Cloth Diapers

So, I was thinking about ways to save money. We will be moving back to MI in the next two weeks, I will be starting my new job again as a full-time stay-at-home mom, and honestly we are going to be poor. So, again, I was thinking of ways to save money and two things I have decided to do is #1 shop by using coupons and following sales trends and #2 start cloth diapering.
Have you ever had a sudden epiphany? Well you can kind of say that is what has happened to me.
For the past year or so we've used reusable shopping bags instead of the plastic bags they usually give you at grocery stores. Now, every time we shop without the reusable bags I cringe at the amount of plastic bags I walk out of the store with. Now that I've decided to use cloth diapers... I cannot wait until we can start. Little N has started the potty training process already. He peed on my floor at least 3 times today and removed his diaper every time he was wet. He sat on the toilet maybe 6 to 7 times. It has become frustrating because I feel like I can't encourage him. Just wait a few weeks little man, we will be moved and you can run around our new house naked for all I care! So... done with the rabbit trail.
Cloth diapering.
I've been on information overload for the past 3 days ever since I did the math and found out how much money it will save us. I've already made two orders and when we arrive at our new house in two weeks N will have 6 bumGenius 4.0 one size diapers waiting for him. I really, really, really, don't want to buy any more disposables. I might have enough to last us the next two weeks. Then when we arrive in MI, I'll be potty training N, so I'm thinking those cloth diapers might be enough.
Information overload.
I messaged a few cloth diapering friends on Facebook and received a lot of information about the different cloth diapering systems out there. The two that sound the easiest are the All-In-One(AIO) and Pocket Diapers. Most of them come in one size fits most so basically one diaper will be able to fit your babe from birth(depending on how big they are) to toddler hood. Sounds lovely. But with all of my previous children being under 7 lbs. at birth, I have then researched what diapers to use at the newborn stage. They have Pocket diapers and AIO's that fit babes that young but I cannot justify spending the money. I've decided to get at least 4 AIO, Pocket or Fitted diapers that I can use at night to make the night changes easier and possibly use during any outings that we head on during the first 2 weeks or so. Most of the One-Size diapers are suppose to start fitting around 8 lbs. So for the newborn stage I've decided to go old school with the Prefold diapers and diaper covers. It won't be a wasted investment. Newborn Prefolds can be used as inserts in the pocket diapers, burp clothes, or just saved for the next little one. You can use pins to pin them or a Snappi(which I'll be using). There are many different ways to fold a Prefold around your babe and then put a diaper cover or wrap on top of that and that's it! So what about the dirty diapers? I will absolutely be investing in something like this. They are a little expensive but I'm taking the leap. Laundering doesn't seem like it will be too difficult. I plan on line drying, outside as much as possible. Babe will be born in early August, that gives us a few more months in MI to use the clothes line outside. I'm so excited. I can't wait to start and my nesting instinct wants to be prepared as soon as possible. Like I've already said I have made two orders already. Kelly's Closet has a lot of deals that I can't seem to pass up. I've checked out Wee Bunz, Green Mountain Diapers and plan on buying a few things from each of them... as well as this site I found a positive review from a cloth diapering blog and the diapers are so cute and surprisingly affordable. So I've started on this journey and have decided that there is no turning back. I will make it work!

Your Best Birth

I picked up a book, Your Best Birth by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein, you might have watched A Business of Being Born, the documentary they did a few years ago. So far it's been a great read. One thing I found really interesting was a part about pain medication and discovered that with each of my births, my ideas of pain medication during birth has changed, somewhat dramatically. They cited another book by Penny Simkin called The Pain Medication Scale.
I'm not going to list everything here but the scale starts out with
+10 I want to be numb, to get anesthesia before labor begins(an impossible extreme)
to
0 I have no opinion or preference. I will wait and see(a rare attitude among pregnant women)
to
-10 I want no medication, even for a casarean delivery(an impossible extreme)
Of course with varying degrees in between.
When I was pregnant with my first I can honestly say I was at 0, I had no preference, if I made it without pain medication then good for me but if I felt like I couldn't I would get it. I was honestly very uneducated when it came to birthing, no research was done, I knew that I didn't want pain but never thought about searching for other ways to reduce pain other than the normal pain medications. Result= narcotics and epidural. Two hours into the induction I just could't stand the pain, of course I was just laying in bed and my loving husband was sleeping(he had just gotten off a night shift). So there was a feeling of lack of support and my loving nurse said "I can make all the pain go away". Who wouldn't cave in at that point? Overall I loved my birth, labor only lasted 10 hours, after the epidural I hardly felt anything, the only thing I would have changed was the coached pushing that lasted 2 1/2 hours. But at that time the pushing seemed normal, I had nothing to compare it to.
With my second pain scared me. I was scared that my labor would progress so fast that I wouldn't be able to receive my blessed epidural and would have to experience the pain I missed with my first. I had heard that second labors usually go faster than firsts and with my first only being 10 hours long..... Yes, I was scared. On the pain management scale I was a
+7 I want anesthesia as soon in labor as the doctor will allow or before labor becomes painful.
Sign me up! Was my model and I let those nurses know it. I got my way. Epidural, 7 hours of labor, 10 minutes of pushing, it was perfect.
With my third, epidurals were still in my game plan. They seemed to work for me. I was induced at 36 weeks because I had developed pre-eclampsia. Induction to birth was 12 hours. I went from 4 to 12 in one hour. Everything happened so fast that went I mentioned the idea of an epidural the nurse said "if I sit you up for the epidural your baby will pop right out" Maddened I thought, " then sit me up" I was told not to push, only because the doctors were not there. My baby was not handed to me right away, instead he was bundled up and rushed to the nursery because he wasn't holding his temperature. To this day I wonder why kangaroo care wasn't the first choice and blame myself for being knocked up on the narcotics given to me an hour before I gave birth for not having the state of mind to advocate for my child. His whole birth changed me in so many ways. I was first empowered. I can do it without an epidural! It's not necessary. Definately no more narcotics for me, I want to be in charge of my births, how can I do that when I can't think straight? The idea of no more pain medication led me to researching alternatives. Through home birthing mothers and documentaries I decided that now on the pain medication scale I am a
-9 I want medication to be denied by my support team and the staff, even if I beg for it
I first decided that if I ever gave birth in the hospital again I would need to fight for my rights. I would need some more support than just my husband, someone who would help me advocate when I was in pain. I wanted to be able to be free to move. Didn't the nurse tell me if I sat up my baby would pop right out? Yes, I wanted that. Through inspiring people and stories I've decided that a birth at home would be my best birth place and I am now looking forward to it. No drugs. Freedom of movement. A relaxing atmosphere. Sleeping in my own bed. The only thing I might miss is food being brought to me but I might be able to save so we can order out for the first couple days or convince my loving husband that he is responsible for it, he is already looking forward to changing the first diaper, he was always on diaper duty in the hospitals. Maybe I can change more diapers and he can bring me food in bed? We will see.