Heartwarming Stories

I would love to share a local homebirth story I recently read from a friend of a friend (and it's a dad's perspective) whose wife birthed her second child with the midwives we are using. The story is to the point, hilarious, and right on. But it's not my story to share so, instead, I will share this blog post from a famous knitter who I think used to be a midwife or doula. I love what she states about the woman and how the experience prepares her and others in her life for parenthood.

3 months

Heard the healthy heartbeat and it was around 140 beats per minute. Boy? Maggie tricked the midwives last time, she was low too (150 is mid-range, 160 is high end). My fertility chart in terms of determining gender is inconclusive. We were too good and excited at timing that cycle just right to give us good information on whether it's a boy or girl. I can't decide whether I want to know the gender early or not. Hubby does but I see a form of magic in waiting until birth. The baby is the size of a lime and I need to post a picture to document my tummy at 3 months.

My heart goes out to my friends that are experiencing hardships with pregnancy. For every positive outcome, I hear the opposite and it breaks my heart. I also know that these are teaching experiences and part of life. Not every experience is sunshine and lollipops (as my hubby says) but we make it through and hopefully come out stronger/wiser in the end. I feel like I'm coming out of a dark emotional/hormonal period that was tough to get through and life resumes in a wonderful way.

Happy early birthday to my dad of 59 years and congrats to my sister-in-law in buying her first home. Today is the 1st day of fall and such a good sign of things to come.

In need of good books

I love to read and my stack of yet-to-read books has left me uninspired. I was reading Raffi's biography which was an unexpected one to find (Raffi is a popular children's singer that generations have loved) but it was fizzling out toward the end and is still sitting on my nightstand. I enjoyed some of his insights, history about his Armenian background, and how he came to working with children, especially since he has no children of his own, but his lengthy commentary on environmentalism was a bit much. So then I picked up The Lace Reader but it's not hitting the spot. The Help is ready for pickup at the library and I've heard this is a good one. I saw the movie trailer and it looks like an inspiring yet sad story.

Recommendations for fall reading? Leave me a comment.

I spent time yesterday uncovering old knitting projects and organizing my craft area as part of re-organizing Maggie's room to make it more toddler-friendly and not just geared toward being a baby. I got my sewing repairs done and now I should tackle my gone-by-the-wayside craft projects before I start anything new.

Last of the Summer Days

Got the new haircut and love it. It's short and not a bob and was what I needed.

Pictures from July. I knew our family would be expanding this year so I wanted to capture some special moments of our family of 3. Our friend Bronwyn took them for us.

We're planning a second homebirth and this week marks our first appointment with our beloved midwives. I know they can't take away my nausea, but what they do provide is love and support and the extras, like doppler and listening to the baby.

At 12 weeks, one day I feel the same (sick with nausea), the next day I don't feel so bad (like today!). I hope this is a good sign that the end is near. I tried nausea medication but it seemed to work one day and not the next. So far with this pregnancy, I've felt pretty darn tired, have less patience for things on some days, and feel great adversions to food and much of the good stuff in life :-) It's been quite a teaching experience. Those teaching moments seem to come during the dark times.

With heading into the 2nd trimester, I'm looking forward to getting my diet/nutrition back on track and getting a little exercise. I think tonight hubby lucks out for once in a blue moon and dinner will be made!

C'est la vie

My mind goes to the negative these days with feeling cruddy and that is why there is a lack of blogging. It's a hard period for me to get through. I will document a few things that have stood out to me though about how weird my 2nd pregnancy has been so far:

1. For a meal, I am likely to sit and watch my family eat while a little bit nauseous, then slowly make my way to the kitchen to stare into the refrigerator and force myself to eat something. The other night it was watermelon for dinner. Because of the afternoon nap I took with Maggie that day, I stayed up way past my bedtime and watched cable TV and ate too many sour patch kids. This is when I do a little re-evaluation of my life and think "what have things come to?"

2. Usually, every year, even though I like where I live and grew up in the area so I have a particular fondness for it and have my family surrounding me, when I'm feeling down and driving around town, especially during the hottest month of the year, I see the dry grass and hide from the almost 100 degree temps and think I've got to move or go travel somewhere...FAST.

3. Just when I think I can eat a little more in my diet without my stomach making a fuss, I happily down a bag of popcorn at the theater on a far-and-few-between date with hubby and realize as it's almost gone that I haven't really offered him any. Oops! Or, the opposite - I get confident that I can eat spaghetti and a small salad and it quickly has me running to the bathroom. TMI?

I'm going for a new haircut today, that always cheers me up. Can I dye my hair too? Already got the pedicure.

Maggie is potty trained and wearing panties like a big girl. This presents a problem though but hopefully it's one that will resolve itself soon. She's still a crib girl/never trying to hop out like I hear with some kids. The fact that she uses the toilet now and wakes up at night to go has us running in to deal with it. So, changing her room around. Moving out baby furniture, mattress going on floor until we get the big girl bed, etc. I hoping for a smooth transition.

Family pics to come soon, taken over the 4th of July weekend. We got some goodies.