36 1/2 weeks and five to go!

I figured out the hard way during last pregnancy that you go longer than you are patient with. So I have longer expectations this time. Mentally, I am preparing for 41.5 weeks. But of course hoping for earlier than that. 

I know that labor isn't soon; I know my body well. I also know that labor is on its way. My blood pressure is creeping a little, my body is exhausted by the end of the day, and occasionally I get nerves shooting feeling in my thighs. But the Braxton hicks contractions are slow and normal. They show up when I'm working hard to get things done. And when I'm walking, or pushing Naisa around. My womb measured the same as last time. I thought that was interesting. But it makes sense, since its just one baby. I've been waiting for this since we found just one at the ultrasound. 

I don't like mirrors. I like the mirror in our bathroom, but not any other.. They make me feel very round. I cannot bece less round at this point, so I'm thankful I only see myself in our bathroom mirror. I almost didn't fit in a normal persons lawn chair today. That was a surprise, but since I can't deflate my hips right now, I take a deep breath and look forward to the exercise that I do get to do and the fun exercise I will get to do after the baby is born. 

Our farmer gave us a gallon of cream last Monday, and Ben and I have been dreaming about ice cream since. We made some last night, with honey, a vanilla bean, and some egg yolks. Excellent! Especially with the homemade magic shell I put on mine. And it's not too sweet! We reduced the amount of sweetener used (to about half) and it is very satisfying.

Marie has been around everyday since she been here. She came to church with us Sunday evening, ran errands with me yesterday, and came by today to do an interview at a restaurant and also came to our midwife appointment. And then we enjoyed some delicious Ethiopian food at grandma and Grandpa's house. And we sat outside after dinner becaus Naisa wanted to be "out". And she ran all over the yard chasing after na-na until she got tired. We came home and have been relaxing ever since. 

Things I am looking forward to about not being pregnant:

1 Being able to put on shorts/pants without bowling to the floor (talk about a major balance issue being so top heavy!)

2 not having to pee every half hour when I am fully hydrated.

3 being able to lie on my back and still be able to breathe

4 Bending my legs and ankles without feeling the water retention

5 Energy!!! To do things and carry Naisa and not be intimidated by exercise!

6 stop being bored of food.... Not sure if this will happen or not.

7 not being twice as hot as every one else, and needing a fan on me as much as possible

Things you can pray for:

A smooth and safe arrival for baby

Smooth breast feeding. I am reminded of how hard it was when Naisa was born when a mom called our midwife during our appointment because she was having issues. 

 

The Waiting Game

So, the wait is on... Again

We had our 24 week appointment on Tuesday and my uterus was measuring 30 weeks. We had discussed using the Doppler to possibly hear two heartbeats, so she used two Dopplers, first finding one, then the other, then listening with both to hear for a difference. Two heartbeats were found, one at 125 and one at 152. 

 Then we decided to use the office ultrasound to see if we could tell I there were two babies in there. Apparently it is harder than it looks to peer inside a Uterus when babies start to get big. At first we found a head near my ribcage and then another (facing up!) pointing down, but returning to the first head, it wasn't as easy to find again. We found a hip, but not a head, so it was inconclusive from the u/s. but it's still a 90/10 situation. 

We have scheduled an ultrasound with an obstetrician who the midwives work with consistently and we will know then. I am convinced there are two...my appetite certainly thinks so. And the size of my abdomen plus the amount of kicks I feel daily, and their locations. 

If you are reading and are praying , we'd appreciate your prayers for a couple different things. In the event of twins, you have an ultrasound to heck out a couple things: are the babies in the same sac or different ones. Are they connected to the same placenta or are there two. Hess are important factors because one or the other can raise the risk level of your pregnancy and Require more monitoring.

Pray for babies that are in two different sacs, with two different placentas. And also pray he placenta is nowhere near the cervix, because this can mean automatic c section if the cerci is covered. I desire to do an water birth, if at all possible, with this birth just as with Naisa.

The other thing I have coming up is a fasting blood sugar test. Thankfully I do not have to drink the GMO glucose drink they routinely have at OBs. But I do have to (somehow) make it brought he might without eating, and skip breakfast and have my blood drawn. I do have a plan for that night- seltzer water flavored with freshly  juiced lemon- but every night it seems I need a fourth meal to sleep efficiently.

Blessings.

This is 24 weeks.

This is what bed time looks like nowadays.

We're pregnant again.

Now, we're 21 weeks! Wow. That was fast. :)

I have been feeling kicks a lot more often lately. :) the past few days, especially. They have been all over my uterus, not just in the bottom right quadrant. I am enjoying this a lot! I have lots of energy- I made bread, lactation cookies, and shepherds pie on Wednesday. And then I went to bed at eight. But that's how it goes.

I have continued to workout four to five times a week with T- Tapp. It has been a great workout to do during pregnancy. And not just great because I actually do it, but because it helps with my neck aches from bad sleep and I have had no round ligament pain or hip pain since the middle of the first trimester.Plus, I discovered the exercise called awesome legs, and its helping my maternity pants fit better! I always gain weight in my legs and hips, especially during pregnancy. I am hoping it helps me curb my weight gain for this second half of the pregnancy. With Naisa, it signed thirty pounds after 20 weeks... I would love to gain only twenty more for the rest of the pregnancy. But we'll see. Interesting things have been brewing. I can't wait to see what the next few weeks' growth shows. We are measuring at 24.5 and 25 weeks at our 20 week appt. last week. I asked if it could be because its my second pregnancy and one of the midwives said that in her practices, moms always measured similar to their previous pregnancies. I measured right on with Naisa until the end. 

So I, though not my husband, am contemplating the possibility that we could have twins (EXCITING), we could be due earlier (much less exciting), I could have a large cyst in my womb (awful), or I could just be measuring big. But hmmmm.... I like to think if the other options... Particularly the twin one. 

What an adventure that would be. And I was doing some research of other moms pregnancies and their births, and I realized how much more monitoring that they do during twi pregnancies and births.... 

And of course it bugged me. Twins are not always high risk. 

I personally want to deliver naturally even if the baby is breech because I have a "generous" pelvis. (Naisa was born (pushed 1/2 an hour in the steamy relaxing water bath) with no issues and a "skid" of a tear. She was 9lb 3oz. ) I feel like I could do anything. 

The only reasons I would find it necessary to get a c-section would be a placenta previa, a cord prolapse, and possibly a stubborn transverse baby that would turn. ( and there may be more that I am unaware of, but i am not thinking if them now.)

it's funny it's Valentines day today. I blogged about very different things in the past years. 

So, as we unthaw from the winter storm, take a date break, I am going to treasure up these things. I had a hard time treasuring my last pregnancy, so right now, I'm treasuring my little girl, my husband, and my bouncing womb. 

Blessings on your day!

Grace

Sustainable Wife! I mean... Life!

 So today we are 24 weeks pregnant, also meaning six months. It's hard to believe that we're this far along. We have 16 weeks to go, and our child is alive and kicking! Hardcore. I mean, really, you don't understand. :) This baby has feet and fists that wiggle my uterus. Sometimes. Not every time.

So before this picture was taken, Ben went to work out, and I took over the kitchen. :)

But first, the epic events of yesterday:Yesterday, you probably weren't aware, but I roasted a chicken. Now this was an exercise of patience for several reasons. We'd put it in the refrigerator from the freezer the night before, but the hunker was over eight pounds, and hadn't budged in it's frozen ness. This would be fine and all, but the dang giblet bag was frozen into the cavity of the bird, so I valiantly tried to unthaw it by spraying hot water into the anus of the bird. This did nothing. So while I was waiting for the fattie to unthaw, soaking it in hot water in a large bowl in the sink, I began removing the skin from the bird. Ben preferred his chicken to have a low percent of body fat (like himself), so I obliged by peeling/ripping/cutting the skin from the dead bird's body. There were many points in this process that I wanted to murder the bird for being such a pain, only to remember that it was already dead. After I'd removed mostly all of the skin, the giblet bag was still frozen in the depths of the bird, so I returned to spraying it with hot water, yanking on the bag and removing various organs (they could hire me at a chicken processing plant. . NOT.) FINALLY, the bird let it go. In the process, I was fairly certain I'd severed the spine of the bird. Anyway, I tossed it in the roaster and seasoned it with liberal amounts of salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary and put it in the oven. It was done within two hours, even though the package says 6-8 pound birds should take 2 to 2 1/2 hours. It had lost some weight in the process. After finishing roasting, I waited for it to cool, and deboned the meat for the week.

We use the chicken during the week for sandwiches and other recipes to feed my hungry husband and my baby belly. This saves us time and money on lunch meat, not to mention sodium, nitrates and nitrites, and other preservatives.

Crockpot and lovely blender.

 We use the crockpot a couple times a week, and today we used it to make black beans for Ben. He's addicted to their deliciousness and protein content. I just like it because we can leave it for hours and don't have to be nearby, and it's only dirtying one dish. How wonderful. It also saves us money on canned beans, which cost more per ounce, and the black beans we get in bulk are actually organic. Plus, most cans are lined with BPA, so we are avoiding that as well.

I also unloaded the blender today to make a lovely chocolate banana soy smoothie. The blender has a capability to chop fresh veggies and I hope to use it to make salsa or pico de gallo sometime this summer. :) Fresh is best!

My whole wheat oatmeal bread rising on the stove.

Ben and I live to eat fresh bread.  We like it best when it's fresh from our oven, whole grains, and uses ingredients that we can smile about. At the beginning of May, we discovered a white whole wheat flour that is unbleached (it's a different wheat than the red wheat berries used in most whole wheat flours). It gives bread a pretty yellow tan color. We use butter for our non-stick spray on our glass pans, and this time, Ben requested olive oil. In addition, I used brown sugar instead of white sugar to use a holistic sugar. I might try molasses in the future, and have used honey in the past, but we're low on honey from our weeks of having coughs and making homemade cough syrup (1 part honey + 1 part apple cider vinegar).

 Here you can see the chicken and fresh black beans in the fridge waiting to be eaten. Yesterday, we also made many cups of brown rice at one time, because it takes SOOO long to make for just two servings (and last time I burned it). I think we'll use chicken broth to cook it next time, for flavor and to use the chicken broth.... This makes me crave plough! Oh you have to try that recipe. It's LOVELY.

 Here we are in our kitchen, with our awesomeness. :) We're ready to eat all the food NOW!

Also, we found this epic raw choconana pudding recipe that we're going to try. It was in a Mothering magazine from May-June 2010. It's made of
an avocado
1/2 a banana
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1/4 c. honey
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Blend in a food processor. Can't wait to try it.

What do you do for sustainable and time-saving yumyums?