Finally got some Calcium Magnesium!

The nearest Walmart is 30 miles away, so I don't get out there too often.  The only other places that would have a supplement like this are over 60 miles away.  Today I ran into town so I did a Walmart trip for some Calcium Magnesium. 

The only one they had also had Zinc and Vitamin D3.  The serving size is 3 pills.  I called my Midwife group to get it OK'd before taking it and the nurse said that I just had to make sure to only have 1200-1500 mg Calcium and 400-500 mg Magnesium per day.  That includes what I'm eating!   3 pills of this has 1000 mg Calcium and 400 mg Magnesium... so, I can't take all three of them, but today I took one and we'll see how it goes :)

Exhaustion and insomnia?

One would think that the two wouldn't necessarily go together, but in this preggo lady they sometimes do.  Tuesday night I got maybe 2-3 hours of sleep (thanks to Daughter wiggling, being hot, and just not being able to sleep) and the entire day yesterday, Wednesday, I was exhausted!  I did get about a 1.5 hour nap in late afternoon.

Last night I slept much better.  But of course I'm still hot all the time and getting up for bathroom breaks and water.  Daughter is just training me in for the newborn phase, I guess!

I found  this link on raising a daughter on the Life97.9 website.  I like it :)

30 weeks!

30 weeks today!  Woot woot!

30 weeks with Mookie!

30 weeks!

I already feel (and am, really) so huge!  I honestly don't know how I'm going to keep growing!  But, I guess I am rather short and I have a short torso... so Daughter has to go somewhere!  

At the Bible study after church today I got a leg cramp.  The Pastor stopped to ask if I was ok... I guess when the pregnant lady makes a pained face and gasps it freaks people out.  Hehehe.  But I'll probably have to try some of the calcium stuff that blogger Tracey told me about.  They're coming at all hours of the day now!

Daughter is almost 16" and 3 lbs!  That's exciting :)

Freedom and Liberty apple trees :)

Our orchard is doing great!  The best part?  Freedom and Liberty apple trees are doing the best of them all!  They were bought as tributes to the twins we lost in 2011...

Freedom

Liberty

Golden Spice Pear

Just felt like including one of the pear trees that is doing great.  I can't wait for all our fruit in a few years :)

3rd trimester exhaustion!

Yesterday it hit me... severe exhaustion!  No real reason... aside from the third trimester. 

I'm hoping to be able to get some more seeds and plants into my garden this weekend.  Maybe when I'm not working (desk job from home, not too draining at all) this weekend I'll have the energy.

Mat is awesome.  Last night when he got home I had made a frozen pizza (go preggo me!) and he said he loved it... then he went and mowed two acres before coming in and cutting up a watermelon for me.  It was after 10 when he started on the watermelon.  He wakes up at 5 for work! 

I smelled watermelon, came out of the bedroom, saw him, and I cried.  He's just too sweet!  He said he was doing it for Daughter, too :)

Love you, sweetie! I'm so blessed to have such an amazing husband.  God really knew what He was doing when He made us for each other :)

29 weeks and starting a garden :)

Yesterday marked 29 weeks!

29 weeks!

29 weeks!

I've been getting a lot of leg cramps lately.   Yesterday while gardening I cramped up quite a bit, but usually it's just at night.  I've woken Mat up more than a few times by screaming "Ow ow ow ow!" and he selflessly gives up sleep and comes to my aid with massages or helping me out of bed to walk it off.  Yep, I'm pretty blessed to have that guy :)  Last night before bed he massaged both legs fully and I only got one small cramp all night!

I also got my glucose test results this morning.  119!  Anything below 140 passes!  Woot!

 Mat's parents were up for the weekend.  They had kindly offered to help paint the nursery, so that's what they and Mat did Saturday.  I got out of the house because of the paint, but Mat took this cute pic of Mookie trying to help :)

Finished product!  The room is a light lilac color.  We'll get white curtains and pink wall decals.  Very girly! 

On Sunday afternoon, after Mat's parents had left, we started the garden!  We borrowed a tiller from my aunt and uncle.  Worked amazing!  Mat got a 20' by 30' garden tilled in no time :)

While Mat was tilling, I was weed pulling.  I got this amazing new weed puller from my parents for my birthday.  It's so awesome!   Get's huge weeds (which we have in abundance) so easily with the root!  I can use it with one hand and I don't have to bend over at all.

Going out to plant the blueberries with my new garden cart (birthday gift from Mat)

Mookie and I planting Raspberries.  We got Boyne and Latham raspberries, and Nelson and Jersey blueberries.  We may have waited too long to plant them, so the raspberries don't look the best, but we hope some make it and we have fresh raspberries!

Such an amazing day.  I love homesteading with my hubby!  I can't wait until Daughter is born so she can be out there with us in her carrier :)  

2nd midwife appointment and glucose test

Today I met with Midwife #2.  The man... he was very friendly and open to answering all of my questions.  Seriously, as someone who started with a Family OB, the midwives are so much more relaxed and willing to sit with you to patiently answer all of your questions.  I hope that future pregnancies can be handled by a midwife.  I love midwives.

I'm now much more comfortable with the male midwife.  Call me sexist, but I was unsure about it.  He totally made me feel at ease.

He is actually the chair of the department, so the people whom I had spoken with previously had said I needed to speak with him about water birth.  I did.  He said that due to OSHA requirements, they couldn't allow it.  They had done a survey last summer to see how great the interest was amongst their clientelle.  Only 5% were interested in water birth. 

So, that's disappointing.  But on the bright side, one of my questions that was answered was that I can eat and drink normally during labor.  Whew!  I was a bit worried about that... I need to keep my strength up and I get really cranky when I'm hungry.

Mother's Day and 28 week pics

Yesterday was my very first Mother's Day with a live child!  Sure, Daughter is still in my womb, but that doesn't make her any less of a child or me any less of a mother. It was wonderful!

At church, the Pastor had all of the mothers stand to be recognized and for the first time in my life, I was able to stand.  Such an awesome feeling!  It's amazing to go to a church that recognizes life and therefore me as a mother :)

Daughter and Mat got me beautiful cards and made me a new ironing board!  This may sound boring, but the quilter in me has been wanting a big one for ages.  Now I have one that completely covers the chest freezer! 

 Generally, my sewing machine is right next to the freezer on the kitchen table.  So this will be so convenient!  Thank you so much, Mat (and Daughter... I'm sure she commissioned it ;)

28 weeks!  With Mookie

28 weeks!

Yesterday afternoon, we finished our orchard planting.  We now have an orchard of 10 fruit trees!  Hopefully they all survive and we'll have fruit up the wazoo in a few years :) 

I had a wonderful first Mother's day.  My husband, Daughter, and Mookie are such awesome blessings (among my many blessings!).  I'm so thankful!  :)

Grass fire and preggo brain...

Burning the trash used to be my job.  When I got pregnant, Mat took over because he didn't want me so close to flames and smoke.  Good thing!

Last night we were out checking the trees and he decided to light up the burn barrel.  When we walked back past it, there was a grass fire!

turns out a few of the embers jumped out of the barrel in the wind and caught the dry grass on fire (the blackened section is what burned).  Mat immediately went to work stomping out the small flames... and I just stood there.  He urged me to snap out of it and go and get our hose... which I did... but I got the wrong end.  It was hooked up behind the house for orchard watering.  He came over laughing (once he had stomped out all the little flames) and said "wow, you really do have preggo brain.  You got the wrong end!"

It's a good thing I wasn't in a crying mood, because I totally would have cried.  I was still kind of in a daze as he started hooking up the hose to the hitching post water spout and told me to wet down all the grass around the burn barrel.  I did.  Even with preggo brain, I guess I'm pretty good at following direct orders.

Good thing Mat had me stop burning the trash when I got pregnant!  We need to get another 100' hose.  Then we can have one on the hitching post (near the burn barrel and garden) and one near the orchard.

Ah, adventures in homesteading :)

27 week pics!

We forgot to take pics on Sunday, so these are actually 27 weeks 1 day pics.

27 weeks!

27 weeks!

In other pregnancy news, I've started wearing wrist braces at night to help with the tingling in my hands.  It really helps!  My wrists get hot, and it's not the most comfortable thing, but my hands rarely fall asleep at night now.  So I'm waking up less from that, but more from needing to go to the bathroom.

You can see the fit of my watch in the pictures.  That's after Mat added two links! 

We had just taken a walk before the pictures, so I'm a bit flushed.  It's nice to see me with some color :)

I am a mother and orchard planting

I am a mother.  I have a daughter here in my womb, 12 snowbabies, and several children waiting for me in heaven.  I feel daughter moving, talk and sing to her- she knows my voice.  She knows me.  I am a mother.

Do not tell me I'm not a "real mother yet" when I tell you that I'm going to celebrate mothers day.

Now that that's off my chest, onto the fun stuff!  We forgot to take pics yesterday (we'll take them tonight) so, sorry about that.  I've had a request to start doing weekly pics.  Since now I'm 3rd trimester (27 weeks!   Woohoo!) I think that makes sense :)

My wrists are so swollen that my once spacious watch band was pinching.  Mat put two extra links in it last night.  Thanks, sweetie!  Between the watch,  the "not a real mother" comment, and the stress of the rushing weekend, I had a break down... Mat held me and calmed me down.  He's so good at that!  I love him so much :)

We got our order of trees from the nursery on Thursday.  Friday night we started planting.  We started with the fruit trees, because they're the most fragile.  We ordered bare root stock trees and most of our fruit trees are semi-dwarf.  According to the woodstock nursery website, they should start producing in 3-5 years!

Mat planting one of our pear trees

muffin break!

Mat planting by lamplight

Mat was out planting until about 10:30 so we had to break out a lantern.  He's amazing!  It was fun, but we were both pretty exhausted the next day.  And then we had a long busy weekend to boot....

Two of the apple trees that we ordered are apples we've never tried before.  When we were ordering last fall, we noticed they had Freedom and Liberty apple trees.  Those are the names of the twins we lost!  So we made sure to order one of each.  We hope to get the rest of the trees in the ground soon, but we planted all of the budding trees, so we think we should be good.