ready or not here comes mama!

Here we go. 4 days over my due date and I'm ready to just dive in there and get this baby out myself. I'm going to reach in, grab him by the foot and yank him out! Ok I won't do that (yet), but that's how ready I am to get this over and done with.

A couple of days ago I asked my midwife if it was ok to try the old castor oil trick and she told me to wait for my next appointment so we could discuss some less "violent"  methods. Well that appointment was today...

Let the homeopathic labor induction begin!

Since the midwife if not a fan of using castor oil to induce labor she gave me her "bag-o-tricks" with a detailed list of instructions for use. There's a lot of stuff in the bag and a long list of instructions and I really don't feel like explaining what's what right now... but if any of these products work, I'll be sure to let you know.

 My mom swears by castor oil and red cabbage to jump start labor so we picked up some pre-mixed salad after the appointment..and a bottle of castor oil "just in case".

 I looooooooove salad and I haven't had any in forever. I was a little freaked out to find that I ate the whole bag by myself but oh, well. Right now I can still shrug it off and say "I'm pregnant" and everyone will think it's cute... cute that I ate a pound of salad by myself. 

This behavior won't be acceptable soon. Especially not with the way I eat salad- just as much shredded cheese, bacon bits and dressing as there is salad. Delish.

Let's hope this red cabbage thing works.

Any signs of labor yet?

My contractions are getting a little stronger and definitely more frequent, my cervix is nice and soft, I'm just a teeny bit dilated and I cut my hair tonight (failed at a new years resolution already). I usually freak out about my hair when I'm super hormonal. When I get to the point of taking the scissors to it myself, that means something's a'brewin'.

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Will this be my last bump shot??

Sorry for the boring outfit but my wardrobe is pretty limited these days.

 My footwear selection is also pretty limited as well... and surely you can see why...

Who's foot is this?!?!?

OK, folks. I'm off. The next time I write a post hopefully it'll be about the arrival of this little one.
Let's get herbed up and go have a baby!
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Oh! One more thing!
Look at these gorgeous necklaces I just bought from my bloggy friend Natasha Hanson's Etsy store!
She's moving her online shop so she's having a 60% off moving sale.
Check out her amazing goods here!

it started with red leggings

So a few days ago I made a post called "my first New Year's resolutions like, ever...."

In this post I declared one of my resolutions to be "try some color" meaning I would like to try my hand in adding some color into my wardrobe.

 I came across a shop on Etsy that sells colorful leggings for only $7 and figured "eh, well leggings is a good place to start I guess." So I ordered a red pair and I got them in yesterday. They fit like a dream and I was actually pretty comfortable with wearing the color.

I may not be a fan of color but my socks are always something to behold.
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I had an appointment with my midwife today and everything is looking swell.

Birth class came afterwards and Jen (the teacher) brought some pretty delectable noms.

Today in birth class we focused on labor and delivery....

and different massage techniques. 

Needless to say, that was my favorite part.

The birthing center is over an hour away so by the time we got home I was pretty tired and loopy.

 What do loopy people do? They make their husbands take photos of them doing weird things in red leggings.

when two's a crowd...

It's past 2am and I'm lounging on the couch in naught but my skivvies fanning myself vigorously with a Christmas card. I just got out of a long, warm, peppermint scented bath and now I'm miserably hot. I can't cool down and I can't turn the heat off in the trailer for fear my sleeping husband will freeze to death in a matter of minutes. I'm wide awake, boiling hot and my mind is racing.

I can't stop thinking about a conversation I had with my mother over the phone earlier.
I called her to let her know that I don't want anyone at the birthing center while I'm in labor except for me and my husband until after the baby is born. She claimed she was ok with this, but I could tell that she wasn't.

The birthing center is made from a small two bedroom house and I will have the place all to myself during labor and delivery. I will be able to roam around naked if I wish and have the baby in the kitchen if I so desire- total freedom -  but for me this would require some serious privacy.

My mother is not familiar with natural births and she was a bit reluctant to accept my decision to have a natural birth at a birthing center. It didn't sound safe to her and I know she still worries about it a little. I'm afraid that if I allow her to attend the birth, she'll become afraid for me and try to convince me to go to the hospital for drugs whilst pestering me with her old wives tales and out of date medical knowledge about labor birth.
Her knowledge of natural birth and birthing methods is very poor and she hasn't done much to educate herself on the matter. I would love for her to witness a natural birth for the first time but only under the condition she stays out of the way and observe quietly.

And my mother-in-law? Should she be there? Well, she had 4 home births and one hospital birth so she's no stranger to giving birth the natural way... but... I don't know her well enough to feel comfortable with her watching me give birth with my bare bottom up in the air, bleeding and sweating and grunting like a stuck pig.

To me, birth is very intimate and I'm already a very private person so to have the mothers there would be a great violation of my privacy. If I could truly have things my way, it would only be me, ONE midwife and my husband there.

Now to spare her feelings, I feel obligated to let my mother attend the birth... and I feel that if I allow her to come then it would only be fair to let my mother-in-law come as well...

My heart is telling me that this is the best and most peaceful way to go about it (having both the mothers attend the birth) but I'm so afraid that having them there is going to result in a very unhappy me.

30 weeks pregnant? Already? Woah mama!

I'm 30 weeks pregnant now! Here are a few snap shots of my visit today at the Midwife's office. 

Cravings

Fresh fruit

Physical Symptoms

I'm getting my energy back but I'm still sleeping about ten hours a night. I also found out today that I've gained about 15-20 lbs. Not too bad.

Emotions

I'm not having any more mood swings but when something irritates me, I'm pretty grumpy for the rest of the day. 

Fashion

What am I wearing?

In the photo above: Dress from Ross that I've had my eye on for quite a while! I looooove this dress.

In the photo below: Dress: Goodwill. Leggings and cardigan: Walmart. Boots: Local beauty supply store.

Baby Movement

"He's" getting bigger and stronger everyday and his stretching and kicking is becoming very powerful!

What the Midwife Says
At the last visit we did a blood test to check for gestational diabetes and anemia. Everything is fine!!!

It takes an hour and a half to get to the midwife's office so I decided to pass the time on the way back home by taking some pictures.

(The date of my next visit)

(Squish husband's head!)

It's hard to believe that so much beauty and talent can dwell within one person. His music is very special to me and so appropriate for Autumn, especially his album "Want: Two". 

Today: 22 weeks and junk breakfast

Today the Husband and I took a trip down to Marshall to visit our midwife for my monthly checkup.  I got so excited about waking up at a decent hour for our trip that I went out and bought breakfast. See, when you wake up between noon and three in the afternoon everyday, breakfast either becomes a luxury... or dinner.
I went to Sonic to get us a couple of sausage biscuits and my hungry eyes discovered a donut shop right across the street. Sweet. We're going to have sausage biscuits AND donuts for breakfast. Well, that's what  thought we were going to get. I wound up ordering a dozen donut holes and two boudin kolches, plus the two sausage biscuits. Breakfast was heavenly... until  got horribly nauseated from all the dang sugar.

The appointment with the midwife went well. My anemia is getting much better and I feel better. The baby is very wiggly and has a good heartbeat. For those of you who are new to my blaaawg,  I don't know what I'm having yet. Well, I'm having a baby- I just don't know the gender yet and I'm not sure if we'll find out. To be honest, kind of don't care what it is. Just as long as it's a beautiful little healthy ball of joy.

Listening to the baby's heartbeat - 22 weeks, 130 beats per minute