Home Visit

Today was my home visit with my midwife. I am 36 weeks tomorrow. It was a good visit. She did a demonstration with a doll and fabric uterus/amniotic sac/umbilical cord/placenta model of the different stages of labour for James and Tobias which was fun to watch. She thinks that we are going to have a good sized baby, which doesn't shock me.

She left all of the home birth supplies they bring. Now I just need to get my act together for the supplies I have left to gather (pillows/homeopathic stuff etc) and we'll be good to go! It'll be a while yet I'm sure but still, it's getting real now.

~Faith

A Productive Weekend

This turned out to be quite the productive weekend.

For the baby I got the longies we have all washed up. They are still drying in the bathroom and when they are done I just need to lanolize them and they will be ready to go.

We got a bunch of general cleaning done, including finally tackling the window sills in the bedroom, toyroom, and kitchen so far with TTO. The house smelled like TTO all weekend LOL. Our new freezer will be here on Thursday so James moved the couch today to it's new spot so that the freezer had a place to go. He also put sheets on the bed part of the couch (it's a pull out) so that it can be used by a guest or by us if we want/need it during labour or after the birth.

Yesterday the big jobs were organizational in nature. Tobias spent the night with Grandma, so we took advantage of that and went through all of his toys and books and purged a whole bunch of them so that it's a more managable amount. Then this morning the ones we didn't need anymore were picked up by a lady from freecycle. *yay* We also went through all of the bins in the attic to catalogue what was in them so that we aren't frantically looking when we need something. We got it about 2/3 of the way done, which was a huge accomplishment.

Today after church I spent most of the day working on school work. I got over six hours in after we got home, which I am very proud of. Tomorrow I hope to get the same done.

All in all it was a full, productive, good weekend. Tomorrow is my home visit with the midwife and errand day, and then James is back to long days again on Tuesday...

~Faith

A Month To Go

Today marks one month until I am 40 weeks pregnant... which is essentially useless information since full term is anywhere from 37 to 42 weeks and I went past 43 last time. But, it's a midway point, and it's fun information if nothing else. And it means I really need to get my butt in gear because a month is not a long time, and 10 days (which is when I'll be 37 weeks) is really really not a long time.

Today has been a productive day... and now, back to work!

~Faith

Lack of Progress...

My to do list isn't as complete as I would like it to be. I wasn't just slacking on posting on here, I havn't been getting as much done around the house as I should have been either.

In the past few days around the house I've done general upkeep, unpacked and put away about half of the Christmas presents that weren't already done, and started cleaning out my desk (though sadly I am only one drawer in...).

For schoolwork I have finished a couple of assignments, and today I had a rockin' good day putting in six hours of productive work. Mostly reading necessary books, but also I set up a few assignment pages as well.

For baby prep I filled out the parent/family tree pages of the adorable baby's first year calendar that Tadpole's Aunt El and Uncle Ryan gave for Christmas. It's now also hanging on our wall. James and I also asked the two God parents we picked for Tadpole if they would accept the role, and both agreed, so we were excited about that.

Tomorrow (or I guess today really) I have committed myself to another productive, busy day. Hopefully I can get as much done or more as I got done today, and it would be nice if I could cross lots of things off of my list. There are lots started but as of right now it's only 9% done at six full days in which is 15% of 40 days so I'm running behind... Better get cracking!

~Faith

The Human Body Never Ceases to Surprise Me

I woke up with an extremely sore back and so I decided that this morning would be a good time to clean my bathroom since that normally makes my back hurt I figured I'd just do it while it was already hurting (not the best logic but hey...) I scrubbed the toilet, sink and counter, and bathtub... and amazingly my back hurt LESS afterwords. Go figure.

I also bought the last things I couldn't get locally today. I placed an order for postpartum Mama cloth for if/when I got out and about in the first couple of days after the birth. I also purchased preemie prefolds, some for me for postpartum (thank you MDC for the tip!) and some for the baby as diapers and/or pocket stuffers.

I also managed to get other cleaning plus school work done today too... and now I'm ready for bed! Tomorrow (or I guess today technically) is my nieces' 1st birthday party and so I'll be heading over there for a while to see her :D

~Faith

40 days to 40 weeks

As we ushered in a new year... the year my new baby will make his or her appearance... I had 40 days to get stuff done before my due date, the 40 week mark. I am fairly certain this baby will be in still on my due date, and am not so secretly hoping for it because then I will have time to get stuff done *smiles*

So the first full day of 2009 is officially over and it was a very productive day for me :)

Today I:

• Found the infant insert for the convertible car seat we will be using for the new baby (now just to wash and install it)
• Took down all of the Christmas decorations with the help of the boys and got them boxed up and put in the attic for next year
• Scrapbooked for the first time in ages!!! Got two new layout pages done
• Organized all of my scrapbook materials so they are easily accessible for next time
• Washed a load of diapers that I got back from a friend today in newborn and small sizes

I also got James to deep clean under our kitchen sink which was really needing done, and he and Tobias processed the pumpkin that we've had sitting waiting for us to do something with it. It is cooked and now just waiting to be pureed tomorrow and then we can make soup with it *yay*

And I blogged... I told myself I really wanted and needed to and I actually got it done :D

Now I'm off to bed :P

~Faith

How Time Flies

WOW... I am a bad blog updater. So much has happened in the last eight months and I have never come back to update though I have meant to many times.

Since this blog is about our growing family I suppose the biggest news would be that I am pregnant again! In fact, very pregnant... due in less than 6 weeks in fact. I concieved not long after my last post, without having a cycle post miscarriage, and I am now just over 34 weeks pregnant with what will hopefully be our second baby to have in our arms. I'm due February 10th.

I am planning on updating this blog more... I have a LOT to do in a huge to do list before the baby gets here. I'm going to record my progress on here, and then I hope to have lots of baby updates when he or she finally does make their appearance. :)

~Faith

Two Steps Forward, but Still One Back...

I have been feeling much much better lately. Thank God! The physical realities of the miscarriage were short, intense and overwhelming, but short in terms of number of days actually going through it. The emotional side is getting better.

In fact yesterday I was having a really good day. T and E (the little girl I watch during the day) were happy, I was being productive, and my emotions were fairly calm :)

And then... I read a post on a board and I was in tears again. It was a happy post. The Duggars (for those who aren't familiar with them they are a quiverfull family with a multitude of children) are pregnant with their 18th child. James and I had joked about us having 18 children so that we would have one more than the Duggars before because people are always asking us what our upper limit is (we don't have one is the actual answer, as many as God gives is how many children we will have). Reading that she was pregnant again, due at the very same time I thought I was released some emotion in me. I am very happy for them, a baby is always a blessing... I'm just sad for what isn't going to be for us at the end of the year/beginning of 2009.

The steps forward have been so encouraging, I guess I still need to work on accepting the steps back as they come. Emotions are a funny (and sometimes not so funny!) thing...

~faith

Different paths

I am meant to be a mother. I always was. I grew up knowing I was supposed to have many children, and knew they'd come into my life in more than one way. J and I are discussing adoption still (we have been since before we were living together). There is a huge push in our area for more foster and foster-adopt parents as the need outweighs by far the amount we have. So we are going to go to the next information meeting, I just have to find out when that is.

I feel a sense of peace about this. Adoption isn't better or worse than pregnancy as a route to our children. It is one of the right choices for our family. I am excited to see the possibilities that are in front of us, which is a much better frame of mind than I have been in the last few days.

We are going to continue to leave our fertility up to God. However our next child is meant to come into our lives we are open to it.

~Faith