The Miracle Blanket

I just had to make sure to write about a new purchase we made recently for the baby.  I read on someone's blog that they were excited to try out the Miracle Blanket (mb), and the  name alone got my attention :-)  So I looked it up.  I have been trying to train Aubrey to go to sleep on his own.  I have most of how I've been doing that almost written up.  So for specifics, stay tuned!  Aubrey was having difficulty staying asleep.  He would wake up consistently at the 7, 20 and 45 minute marks.  Every.  Single.  Time.  It made nap time very difficult for me because I had to be there to help him get back to sleep.  This would take up at least an hour of my time for each nap.  But more often than not it took two hours.  So things have not been getting done around here, and it shows!  After reading about the blanket we immediately bought one. 

 We were already swaddling Aubrey for each sleep time, but none of our blankets were large enough.  That meant that he would get unwrapped.  Or if he didn't get unwrapped he would loosen it up enough to move around too much.  While I was waiting for the mb to arrive I was having second thoughts.  I was wondering if it was a splurge more than a need.  Let me just say that after I wrapped him in it for his first nap and he slept for the whole nap through, I deemed it a necessity!!  WOW!  This blanket has transformed my life :-)  Plus I had nothing to lose as the blanket comes with a 100% guarantee!!! How incredible is that?  If I didn't see a change I could just send it back and get a refund.  I assure you this blanket will NOT be going back.

Here is even more incredible news.  Their customer service is amazing.  We had the blanket for a few days when I noticed a small hole next to one of the seams.  I knew I could repair it, but we only had it for a few days.  So I looked up their policy about exchanges.  On their site they say that even if the baby's older brother runs the blanket through your paper shredder (in the first four months from purchase) they will give you a new one.....FREE.  Plus, if they can repair the damage, they send the repaired blankets to a charity for special needs babies.  How amazing is that?  The company knows how horrible it would be to be without this blanket so they ask you to take a picture of the damage and email it to them.  They then send you out a new one, along with an envelope with return postage!  This way I got to keep our damaged blanket and still use it and wait for the new one to get here.  It came yesterday.  So now I just have to wash the new one to use, and wash the old one to send back (they ask that you wash them before returning). 

How I wish I had this blanket for all my children!!  I was reading the multitude of testimonies on their site.  At first I didn't see how many there were.  The customers were RAVING about this blanket.  I was beginning to wonder if they were fake.  But then I saw just how many there were, and I knew that it was probably legitimate.  And I assure you that they are, now that I see what this blanket does for our baby. 

So if you have a newborn, are expecting a baby, or are looking for a baby shower gift,  BUY ONE, or two, or three :-)  Ha, ha!

Check the Miracle Blanket out for yourself, the testimonies and videos are real.

Update at 1 o'clock pm

So the update?  Nothing, nada, zilch.  I got the pool set up and cleaned.  Making sure to charge some camera batteries.  Put 'up' my kefir and kombucha, as I won't be making them any time soon :-)  I tried to lay down for a little while. Unfortunately I had oatmeal for breakfast, not exactly high protein.  Not to mention I had some brown sugar, apples and bananas in it.  So low and behold my heart rate was high.  Relaxing was pretty impossible.  Not to mention that the girls were NOT being helpful.  There have only been a few times that I have been really, really disappointed with them.  This would have been one of those times.  Talk about seriously falling short.  I explained to them that I really needed their help today, making sure to upkeep their assigned rooms, and helping to watch the boys when I needed to lie down.  They tried their very best to not do their work as I had instructed.  Then afterwards, which took a couple of hours instead of only needing to have taken 15 minutes. I let them play with a new toy that they got today.  I was hoping it would keep them occupied for a while.  Silly me!  After it became apparent that they needed to take this toy to THEIR room so that Mr. Jonah wouldn't ruin it, I told them to go to their room, and I went off to finish washing the pool.  Does anyone want to guess where they went with it?  They took it to the BOYS room!!!  The BOYS room!!!  I mean really, how smart was that?  Then Jonah got into my room, even though I told the girls to keep him out, and he swallowed half a bottle of a homeopathic remedy.  Thankfully it's harmless, but still!  Not to mention that the girls have been totally self serving.  I mean, it's BAD!!!  I am seriously thinking of sending them away for the next few days.  Unfortunately I have nowhere to send them.  And to top it all off our rebellious child is totally acting up and REFUSES to see that it is HERSELF at fault.  I almost had to call Jeremiah home to deal with her.  People, this is insane!!!  My children are NOT perfect, but by golly they usually do rise to the occasion when the stakes are high.  I am afraid I totally lost it on Isabella.  I mean this is really gone far enough.  I am in tears now, just thinking about it all. 

Off to try to calm down.  We have to leave shortly for the chiropractors.  My next appointment isn't until Thursday, but I'm afraid to wait to see if anything happens before then.  My friend Melody was here earlier and she said, "Oh, you'll probably have the baby sometime tonight."  Um, yeah, that's what I'm afraid of!  Right now, if we had a maternity rider on our insurance I would seriously be going in, getting an epidural, sleeping through all of this, wake up to find a baby needing pushing out.  No kids, no pain, no more drama (yes, I'm not totally bonkers, I realize that getting an epidural puts me at risk for all sorts of other drama, it just seems like the easier road right now).  But thus, we are not meant to take the easier road.  And so I have to trudge on, through the muck and pain.  And, no I'm not having any pain right now, still no contractions, not even braxton hicks, but you know what I mean.

Well that's the reality of our current situation.  Not pretty, but I am praying we will all be able to stop, meditate, and take a step in the right direction.  I'm not sure what happened with today.  It started with anticipating this could be the day and an hour later all chaos broke loose.

Could this be the day?

Ah, nothing like a little saga for today.  So it seems that "something" is up as far as this baby/labor is concerned.  Yesterday I was having some strong braxton hicks.  Strong enough I didn't want Jonah to keep pushing on my tummy as he tried sitting in my non existent lap.  But clearly just braxton hicks.  So early this morning I had a few (3 or 4) braxton hicks with the really pinching sensation....not a lovely feeling to be sure.  And when I got up I had a bit of 'show'.  Hmmmm, interesting.  Out of six babies, that has meant I was in labor.  I got up and started breakfast.  It's been about an hour now since I've been up and not one contraction since.  Ahhhh, yes, I am definitely not going to count on any of my past experience with this labor, as that has been the case for this whole pregnancy.  And so we go about our day as usual.  Jeremiah went off to work, the girls are doing their chores and school, and I made breakfast and plan on continuing as usual. Until something else happens.  Like actual contractions :-)  So it could be today, or tomorrow or next week.  Hey, no need to go through this all alone, right?  Hee, hee.  I'll pull you all in, along with me, wondering, waiting....oh the agony of not knowing!!!  :-) 

I'll check in later with an update, if I'm able. 

A long night

Actually last night was a good night, it was the night before that was long.  It started with me having a few braxton hicks contraction (bhc), that I realized were close together.  I decided to get up as sometimes a change in position will stop them.  It was time for the boys to get to bed anyways.  After getting them ready I headed to the kitchen to take my vitamins/herbs/homeopathy.  I decided to skip out on my herbs as I realized the bhc were coming every five minutes.  I also noticed my heart racing a bit.  I had to think back to what I last ate to see if I had too much sugar (sugar makes my heart race nowadays).  I couldn't quite remember, but didn't give it too much thought.  I put the boys to bed and decided that I would just get ready for bed as well.  But I noticed I still had the bhc.  So I figured I'd take a nice hot shower to see if I couldn't stall them out.  They were not painful in the least, but they were keeping me awake wondering what was going on :-)  The shower did nothing to stop them.  I laid down to find out that my heart was beating even faster than before.  Not only that but now the bhc were every three minutes apart.  Ugh.  I have been praying/begging God to not have an all night long labor, so I wasn't very happy with my present situation.  Not to mention that these were clearly bhc.  Maybe they were there to help turn the baby, but if so it didn't work.  I absolutely can not get to sleep with my heart racing.  And by racing, it was clocking in at 130 bpm lying still!  So I tried a remedy.  Nope.  Tried another.  Nope.  Got up and took a bath to see if that would help the baby turn and maybe stop these bhc.  Nope.  I got up and crawled around on hands and knees seeing if that would help the baby turn.  Nope.  Eventually, by about 5:30 or 6 Am I got online to look for some other ideas for getting my heart rate to come down.  Ah, yes, how could I forget....magnesium.  Not that I thought I had a shortage as I am taking an extra supplement of the stuff!  But I had a spray and thought I'd give it a try.  Thirty minutes later my heart finally calmed down!!!  Not only that but the contractions stopped as well.  So they clearly were going hand in hand.  Of course no sooner than I lie down than the boys woke up!  Thankfully it was a Sunday and Jeremiah was home, so he got up with the boys so that I could get some sleep.  I slept for about an hour and a half.  Then I needed to get some breakfast.  We decided to go out to eat.  We took separate vehicles because Jeremiah and a couple of the girls needed to go pick up our baby Nigerian Dwarf goats.  I headed home with the three youngest.  I sat them down with a cartoon and took a nap on the couch.  Ah sleep!  I was having a few, although not consistent, bhc last night before bed.  I was a bit nervous about that as I still only had a total of about 4 hours max of sleep for that whole day.  I took some magnesium, and a couple of Advil (for hip pain...I'm waiting on some more Arnica to come in) and prayed for the best.  I was blessed by a great nights sleep!!  I am so thankful for that.  Hopefully I can catch a nap today.  I am really trying to keep up on my sleep so that I will hopefully have the energy for this labor.  A couple of nights sleep will do me good.  Although it's hard to erase a few months of
sleep deprivation. 

Jed starts back to speech therapy today.  He's had that big nose dive backwards that we have been dealing with for the past month or so.  I will say that we turned off the wireless about four or five days ago (it had been on due to some work at home Jeremiah had done) and there has been improvement with Jed.  He's eating more and talking more!  It's been noticeable only because he really wasn't talking with us.  He might answer us with a yes/no, but not engaging in any conversation.  Nor was he even saying hi/bye.  But for the past few days he's been talking to us about things, and saying hi/bye.  He is still not back to where he was, but it was nice to see him actually improving as opposed to declining.  This just means we need to be careful with our wireless and that he still needs to go back on homeopathy.  Those two things were clearly contributing to Jedidiah's improvements of the past.  I am just so happy to see some of my boy coming back!  It truly felt like we were 'losing' him.  He was just closing himself up into his own little world, one of which we didn't belong.  It was sad to see him disappear like that. 

Well off to work.  I have a few things on my list of things to do today.  Small things, but it would be helpful to get them done before the baby comes.  One of which is to lay out our homeschool day for Jeremiah to follow after the baby is born.  Not a hard thing to do, but tedious.  I am hoping to take some pictures soon of the new baby goats.  They are cuties!  Speaking of pictures I am awaiting my new camera lens to come in.  I've been stuck with a telescopic lens for months now, and I am so excited to get my 50mm back!!  I am hoping it comes before the baby comes.  But if not we have our family camera to take some photos of baby.  I can't wait to see who this baby looks like!  That's always a fun 'game'.  The girls all love figuring out who the baby looks like.  They are all hoping it looks like them :-) 

the four hour rule

So it appears that there is some unspoken rule that I should not be able to sleep more than four consecutive hours.  This has been proven over and over, more comically seen the other night.  None of the usual things woke me.  Didn't need a run to the restroom, or have any hip pain to wake me, nor did any of the six children come into my room to tell me about some ailment they were suffering from, even the babe inutero was quiet.  I wasn't having a bad dream, and would have continued sleeping past the four hour mark IF I wasn't awoken by a loud bang/scrape/crashing sound coming from our closet.  When did this happen?  At the four hour mark!  Exactly!  What was that sound?  There was a bit of confusion at first, and it was pretty funny what I thought Jeremiah was saying, and what he thought I was saying.  I thought he said there was someone in our closet!  Yikes, I hope not!  He thought the noise was coming from outside.  But then one of the sounds 'clicked' in my brain and I realized I heard the sound of rattling plastic clothes hangers.  So I asked Jeremiah to look again in the closet to see if one of the wire racks had fallen.  It had.  All of Jeremiah's clothing was on the floor.  Looks like we need to add another 'to do' item to the list.  So if it's not one thing, it has proven to be something totally crazy, like falling shelving.  Oh well, four hours is still a long stretch compared to what I had been getting for the past couple of months.  I'll just have to try, try again :-)

The next two days Jeremiah will be home, and I am hoping to finally finish up all my necessary and needed to-do's.  I would really like the rest of my time in waiting to be more restful, just doing basics.  I am getting very antsy about getting these things done.  We had a few things that came up that made me take time away from my to-do list.  For example I had to wash two comforters by hand.  They had both been soiled by sick children with the tummy bug and going through the washing machine did not take care of it all.  So I had to partially fill my bath tub to let them soak (one at a time) with some soap on them, then scrub and then rinse.  Jeremiah carried the wet soaking comforters to the washing machine to be spinned out.  Not a big deal, but it took time, and made other work (like having to clean the tub out). 

I had just looked at my baby count down ticker......11 days!!!  Wow, that's close!!  I need to get going and get these things done.  First stop, breakfast :-)

A Blessing

   I've been blessed in many ways lately and I wanted to hop on here to share them with you.  First I was greatly blessed by a dear friend who took the time to speak truth to me about my sin that I posted about in my last post.  She recommended that I read nothing but Scripture for the next few weeks.  Although I haven't done that completely, I have most certainly dropped a lot of extra reading and increased my time in the Word.  Jeremiah was 'borrowing' my Bible that I had gotten for Mother's day a few years back that I had underlined and made notes in.  What a blessing to have it back to read over my notes and the things I found important.  It has really helped me during this time.  It has really helped me to meditate on the Lord.  It has helped to take my complaining and turn it into thanksgiving. 

   I was also blessed by a great nights sleep.  I believe a big part of what has contributed to my fear of labor is that I have been chronically tired for the past few months.  I've been dreading labor, wondering how I was going to make it through with no energy.  Well what a gift I received the other day.  Although it came from a 'pill' I believe it was from the Lord.  It was only since I started turning over all of my fears to Him that I 'found' some sleep.  I started taking some arnica 30C for some pain that I was having.  I saw some improvement from it, but needed more relief.  I decided to try using arnica 200C (more potent than the 30C) to see if it would help.  It did help, but what I did NOT expect at all was that the night I took it I was able to to sleep in four hour stretches with NO hip pain!!!!  I've been waking every hour to two hours nightly for months now due to the pain in my hips.  I woke up feeling like a new person!!  For the first time this pregnancy I thought, 'hey, I think I can really go through with this labor thing!'.  I have two weeks till my due date and I am praying for a few more nights like that to try to catch up on some much needed rest. 

  Another blessing is that it appears that the baby is finally head down!!!!  It has stayed that way for a week now.  Unfortunately it is posterior, so it still needs some work to do, BUT how thankful I am that it is head down!!!!  A HUGE answer to prayer.  Please continue to pray with me that the baby makes it's full rotation to the front so that I have a quick, uneventful and easy delivery :-) 

  Time to get off to finish a few things for the night.  Blessings!

Big scare with baby!

Phew!  First thing first, everything seems to be ok.  I had a big scare earlier this evening.  As I wrote earlier today I was up half the night.  So I ended up going back to bed around 9 AM and didn't get up till noon.  I had a bit of a snack and then got busy in the kitchen.  During that half hour or so of first starting kitchen work I remember the baby moving around quite a bit.  Well I was busy all day in the kitchen.  Cooking six chickens, four batches of waffles and cleaning.  It was close to six o'clock or so when I was sitting down cutting up chicken.  I had been doing so for a little while and had expected since I wasn't so busy that I would be feeling the baby move around.  But it wasn't.  So I started thinking back to when the last time it was that I felt the baby move.  And I could only remember feeling the baby last around 1 o'clock.  I thought I must be mistaken.  So I took a break and decided to lay down and feel around for the baby.  The baby always seems to hate that.  Maybe I always just get the baby when it is awake, but it usually kicks around when I try to feel for it's position.  So there I was lying on my bed moving this baby around.  No kicking.  I keep probing and giving my belly a few shakes.  Nothing.  At this point I was totally freaking out.  I've never had the baby not respond to my probing.  So I asked Jeremiah to get me some juice (Yes, I TOTALLY broke my no sugar diet as I ended up drinking a quart of lemonade!) and lay on my left side, all the while praying everything was fine.  Jeremiah decided to call the midwife, who told him to have me lay on my left side and drink a lot of juice, and then count how many kicks/movements I felt in 30 minutes.  I was already doing all of that, except counting kicks at that point.  It took a little while, but FINALLY I got movement!  I was so relieved.  I think I counted 18 kicks/movements, which the midwife, and myself I must say, were happy about.  I got up after that to get some dinner.  The baby is still moving, just not a ton.  I would think it would be on a sugar high at this point, but it's more regular movement than disco baby.  For now I think we are fine.  I go to see the midwife tomorrow morning.  When I go to bed is when the baby turns into disco baby.  I'm looking forward to feeling disco baby tonight!! 

I was seriously very freaked out by this experience.  I kept thinking maybe my diet did the baby in, or the belly band I've been wearing non stop cut off the umbilical cord or something like that.  No, the belly band is not tight or anything, my mind was just going wild.  I've never had this happen before, and it really upset me, especially seeing how many negative feelings I've had during this pregnancy.  I think I was just writing this morning about how when I feel the baby move I get mad because I can tell it's not in proper position.  Oh, how I felt so horrid feeling that way tonight!!!!  I was never so happy to feel the baby, I didn't care where I felt it kicking. 

Ok, sorry for carrying on.  I need to go and make up another batch of waffles as the girls ended up eating a whole batch for dinner since I was not going to cook this evening with all that happened.  They just happened to be "my" waffles as I am making my freezer food without milk or cheese as all of our babies have had big time issues with milk.  Oh well, no biggie :-) At least everyone got food.

not much to say

I just wanted to pop in and say that I am glad that the brain fog has lifted :-)  Day 4 of no sugar/carbs.  I have to say the hardest part has been the crashing I was doing.  Jeremiah and I were very blessed by the girls this morning as they brought us breakfast in bed!  So even before I got up, I ate.  Ah, no crashing.  I just have to make sure to eat asap upon waking to make my days go smoother.  Jeremiah was working from home today as we had another slew of winter weather.  Thankfully all should be melted by tomorrow. 

Since it was a winter wonderland schools were closed, which means no speech therapy for Jed. I have to say I was relieved.  This break couldn't come soon enough.  I was very pleased that the girls got a head start on their chores this morning.  I am assuming they did so in order to get outside as quickly as possible :-)  Either way, that meant I didn't have to worry about it getting done before I started my cooking.  I was able to make two batches of waffles.  That doesn't sound like much, but waffles take forever to cook!  But I was able to do other things in between taking them off the griddle and pouring more batter in.  I made up four batches of pumpkin muffins and two batches of granola.  Later I was able to get two and a half batches of egg burritos made.  On top of all that I was able to get all the schooling done (except spelling), washed a few loads of laundry and managed to keep people fed. Phew!  A good work day!

Tomorrow will not be so productive as I have two appointments to go to.  Plus later in the evening I have a Bible study to go to.  But I am hoping to get a few things done.  Although our new freezer is now completely filled!  And there isn't a whole lot of room in our other freezers.  So there isn't a whole lot more I can make.  I want to make at least another batch of pizzas as they are a real hit for lunches after I have a baby.  The girls are really looking forward to them.  The funny thing is that it's my normal pizza recipe, just made into personal sized pizzas.  Silly girls :-)  Plus I want to make some more waffles.  And if I can find the room I may make some bread dough.  Although bread dough can be so finicky, I may just forgo it. 

I read a good article today, which someone else was linking to.  I thought I would pass it along.  I like her take on the 'preparedness' and 'survival' movement.  I've often reminded myself (when things don't seem to be going too well) that I am only doing what so many others before me have done.  They lived this way everyday, all day.  For us, we are doing it bit by bit as we learn as we go.  It is a shame that a lot of these 'survivalist' skills which were so normal just a few decades ago, have failed to be passed on.  So it feels like we are in a constant state of learning.  Once I start getting the hang of one thing, there's another to take it's spot for me to fumble over :-)  Hopefully this will just mean it will be more of second nature to our children. 

Alrighty, off to bed.  Long day ahead of me.  Tomorrow I get to see if the baby is head down.  I think it was for about thirty minutes today!  Ha.  Come on baby, I need more that that :-) 

Here is the link:  http://homesteadgardenandpantry.com/agrarian-life/self-reliance/survivalist-prepper-or-housewife/

Sugar Woes

Sugar, carbs, startches, etc.  They can cause problems.  Especially when one is pregnant with hormones raging :-)  It has become apparent that it is time to dive into eating no sugar and no carbs for the next few weeks.  It is proving hard to do.  Not due to cravings, thankfully.  Although I am thinking it might be easier than the brain fog, the falling on my face crashes and the yucky, weird feelings I am having.  I'm only on day two.  Well, really day one and a half as I realized yesterday a couple of things I had did have an ever so small amount of sugar/carbs in them.  However, even with those little slips I could not believe the change I saw come that very night.  One may see this as too much information, so skip if you don't like medical issues :-)


For the past few months I have had to wake multiple times a night to use the restroom.  This is completely normal when you have a baby laying on your bladder.  However, what wasn't normal was the fact that only two hours had passed since the last time I visited the ladies room and it felt like my bladder was going to explode!  That my friends would be IC (interstitial cystitis--or some such spelling).  I was very pleasantly surprised to find upon rising last night that my bladder did NOT feel like it was going to explode.  Wow!  Just after one day of watching those carbs!  I'm looking forward to see how the next few days go.  With less than four weeks till my due date I really want to be ready for this birth.....and I am not just talking about birth supplies.  Being in shape isn't going to happen.  I still REALLY need to get to walking.  I feel like that is a very important piece of being ready.  I am still praying for peace, which hasn't arrived as of yet.  I'm still hoping for a head down, anterior baby BEFORE labor starts as well.  But I am making some progress in the freezer meal department.  And I do feel better that I should be free and clear of the wee little nasties that are plaguing me come the end of this week.  I am hoping that this fog and total loss of energy will not interfere with the cooking that still needs to be done. 

This week there is a lot on our plate.  With Jed's speech, two Bible studies, an appointment with the midwife and with the chiropractor, well that makes it difficult to start some of these big cooking projects, knowing I have to cut it short.  I really hate having to find the energy to start cooking only to have to stop because we have to leave the house.  I have to clean up, and restart everything when I get back.  Not fun.  No where to go now for the rest of the day so I need to start working as I have some energy from eating.  The funny thing was my midwife told me to make sure I was getting enough calories when I did the no carb thing.  Ha!  That will not prove to be a problem.  I'm going to have the opposite problem.  I have to keep eating to keep myself from falling over!  So much for protein lasting longer!!! 

Alrighty, off to make up some pizza dough. 

Baby update

Just thought I'd write up about my appointment yesterday.  This poor baby doesn't even have a journal!  Granted some of my others do, and there are like five pages written in them, but still, at least they have one :-)  It will have to settle on reading my posts when it is older.

Yesterday marked the 36 week mark.  It is now officially safe for the baby to come at any time now.  Not that I am quite ready for that to happen, but if it were, it would be a safe time.  I had gotten everything ready that I could.  I still have to sterilize the towels, wash cloths and receiving blankets.  Other than that everything is ready to be set up as it needs to be when I go into labor. 

My blood pressure was good, I was a bit nervous about that as it was a bit off last time.  Nothing bad, but I worry (I'm am quite sure, unnecessarily so) about those sorts of things.  My midwife had a couple of things for me.  One was half a bag of the herbs I JUST opened that very morning.  Ha, ha.  I always have left overs as well and told her she'd have to pass them on, and that when I'm done she'll have more to pass on.  Then she had a small bag of baby girl clothing.  All the babies born last month were boys, and one woman was passing on some girl clothing.  I took it with a bit of hesitation....I mean after all we *are*  having a boy.  (just in case some do not know, I really don't know what I am having)  So it came time to figure out where the baby was.  Let's just say this is a bad, bad baby :-)  It was transverse.  However, this time it's back is up high in the uterus, as opposed to lying low cradled by my hip bones.  I suppose this is a bit of an improvement as the head is at least facing the right direction.  So this just means to keep up with the chiropractor, I need to get walking to encourage the baby's head to settle in the hips and to bind my belly as soon as I feel the baby has gotten into a good position.  I was told this baby still has plenty of room to move around, so no fear that it will be stuck where it is.  Then is was heart tone listening time. The midwife first finds the heart tones with the fetascope.  This just helps to confirm our findings of the baby's position.  So she's listening, gets the heart rate and says, "Well, I guess you won't be needing those baby girl clothes."  See, even the midwife is on my side :-)  The heart rate was 124, a boy heart rate.  Now granted I know that it's not certain that the heart rate means girl or boy, at least according to scientific findings.  Science, smience, I mean come on people, who needs cold hard facts when you have old wives tales.  (I'm joking)

So all is well, just waiting for the baby to realize it still has a job to do, a very important one I might add!

Other than that we had a quite evening.  Jeremiah took the girls out to see the new Narnia movie.  The boys and I stayed home.  I was feeling very, very exhausted.  So the boys just played while I watched them.  Then I remembered there was a movie I wanted to watch. SHOCK!!!  It was more of a documentary.  There is no talking (well, not that you would understand).  The movie is, Babies.  It follows four different babies, in four different countries.  OH MY!!  I was having issues with some of it :-)  Like calves stepping over the nine month old baby in Mongolia.  Yikes!!  Or the baby in Africa who is getting its head shaved with a knife.  Shudder.  It was a very interesting.  It kept the boys engaged, and when I told the girls about it they all wanted to watch it as well. 

I was able to talk to a different homeopathic doctor yesterday to ask him some questions about  how he practices.  It was quite interesting to say the least.  The midwife's assistant told me about him.  So I thought I would check into what he does.  I was pleased with his more reasonable rates.  Plus he only believes in giving only one remedy at a time.  Jed was on six remedies at a time.  I told him how Jed was getting more sensitive to his remedies, to where I had to go to the dosage cup method.  From his point of view he felt that meant he needed a different remedy.  He is very well aware of how our other homeopathic doctor practices as he actually was tutoring under him at one point.  It is neat to see the differences.  Right now there are no plans to pick up with constitutional care, but I wanted to have talked to him before any acute things come up.  Plus, when I was at the doctors the other day with Jed, our family doctor asked if we were open to growth hormones for Jed.  YIKES!!  Seriously the thought scares me.  I would really like to address the underlying issues.  Jed has been tested for his growth hormone levels and his thyroid, all of which have been normal thus far.  So if a diet change doesn't address it, which I believe it could have a big impact on, then I think we'll have to start up with the constitutional care.  Not to mention I've heard of some kids getting improvement with the GAPS diet, but still needed to do some chelating from mercury (what we believe is affecting Jed's brain).

Well off to get kiddos ready for the parade and the tea party. Only the girls and I will be attending the tea party.  It should prove to be fun. 

A blessing on our trip

When we went out to eat the other day, during our trip to see Grandpa, we were blessed by an earthly angel.  We were almost done with our meal.  We were eating a very early dinner, as we had no lunch.  We ate at our favorite place, Golden Corral.  We had a whole 'room' to ourselves.  So after eating we didn't feel too bad about letting the boys wander around the room we were in.  They had both been so good, sitting still (for the most part) while we visited Grandpa.  There were windows on the dividing wall between the room we were in and the rest of the restaurant.  We noticed Jonah laughing, and when we looked he was playing peek a boo with a patron on the other side of the window.  It was very cute to watch.  Both he and she were really enjoying themselves.  A little while later it was time to leave.  We were just about to walk away from our table when the lady that Jonah was playing peek a boo with came up to us. 

She is originally from England, her husband from Ireland.  She had been a pediatric nurse, and she told us how she would much rather spend her time with children than adults :-)  She pointed to my tummy and said, "Oh, the lucky number!!".  I have to say I have not had any negative comments about this pregnancy, but this lovely lady was SO happy for us that it really ministered to my soul.  She was just loving our children, and was so pleased and happy that we were so blessed to have all these wonderful children.  I have never experienced anything like that, and it was such a blessing.  I've shared a little bit about how this pregnancy has been so hard for me, and it's not just the physical stuff.  I had recently gone through a hard week.  I know that my emotions were a bit hot wired, but knowing that sometimes takes a while to catch up to the heart.  So I had a few dark days thinking that this poor baby was 'not wanted'.  It IS WANTED, but I was *feeling* like it wasn't.  I know God does not make mistakes, but I was seriously doubting that a few days ago.  It seems silly now, but that is how I was feeling.  Anyways, this lady was like an angel sent from above.  I have never met anyone so happy with life than she was.  I left the restaurant feeling refreshed in my soul.  Such a blessing, on such a hard day.

I have been much more at peace with the pregnancy these last few days.  I still have a ways to go, but I'm praying that my prayers will be answered for the peace I need for this birth.  Tomorrow I have my 36 week appointment.  The midwife is coming here.  It is traditional to make the 36 week appt at the birthing mother's home.  That way the midwife knows the route, and gets to know the house a bit more.  I am supposed to be all set up in my bedroom for the birth.  Do notice the words, "supposed to be".  It just seems like it's so early to get things ready.  I have always been totally ready by the 36th week.  Not this time.  I have most of my room cleaned up.  But there is still a bit more to do.  Plus I need to lay out all of the supplies on my sewing table.  I have all the supplies, I just need to gather them up.  I am supposed to have a certain number of towels, wash cloths, and receiving blankets all bagged up and sterilized.  I do have them all washed, and I have the bags.  I just don't have those items IN the bags and sterilized.  I am sure I will have most of it done by tomorrow evening.  I've never gone earlier than seven days early (on my own, we induced Jed 10 days early).  So I just don't feel this need that I have to have everything ready by tomorrow.  I suppose there is always a first for everything!!!  Ha!  Well in the event that I went into labor tomorrow I at least have everything on hand :-) 

Off to put a couple of boys to bed, and to clean up a bit more.

Exhausted!

First I need to say a big Happy Birthday to my nephew!  I have been totally slack in getting anything of substance up for his b-day.  So sorry Remmington!  I keep doing the next thing, and before I know it it's bed time!  A bad aunt, I am!  Try, try again.

Today started at 7 AM.  I have been going, going, going all day long.  I got a ton done, but I can only hope I didn't overdo myself, leaving me incapable of accomplishing the basics for tomorrow.  Let's see if I can recap my day.

I really, REALLY needed to jump into making up my freezer meals.  The ground beef I bought was marked down to a great price, and although the expiration date is still a week away, it's been in our fridge for the past 4 or 5 days.  I needed to either get it in the freezer, or cook it.  I really despise having to deal with defrosting meat.  So I knew that cooking was my only other option.  Yesterday I chopped a whole bag of onions, which I am so thankful for as all I had to do was scoop out a cup to put into my recipe.  I cooked up 8 chicken roasters.  Two in my stand alone roaster, the other six in the oven (two at a time).  After the first two were done in the roaster I used it to start some chicken broth.  I was VERY thankful that Flannery and Saoirse thought it great fun to debone the chicken!  Seriously it was a big help.  After the first four chickens were done, I made them into chopped, breaded pieces for chicken salad.  The other three are going to be used in chicken soup.  I can't put that together until tomorrow since the broth needs to simmer all night long.  The last chicken, we ate for dinner :-)

Around two o'clock I asked Moira to take the boys outside before it started to rain.  The forecast for today was rain this afternoon, changing to some snow tonight, but no accumulation.  Um, yeah, they got that wrong!   Just as the kids were going out it started to snow.  I figured it wouldn't last long.  Well, a handful of hours later, and THREE inches on the ground later, it finally stopped!  The kids were loving it outside.  Unfortunately they came in and out 50 gazillion times for extra clothing.  By the end of it all I had a pile of wet clothing and a bunch of muddy water all over the floor.  The girls all took a bath to warm up and afterwards I had them vacuum and mop the floors.  I had already took some paper towels to mop up the puddles.  While the girls were taking a bath Jonah decided to 'help' me with putting together some meat loaves.  He thought that the meat loaf was a lot like the bread dough he likes to play with.  Let's just say I needed to haul him off to the bath tub after I put the meat loaves in the freezer. 

After Jonah's bath I started cooking the beef for the taco meat.  My pan can only handle so much meat, so I had to do batches.  When that was done it was time for dinner.  Then I decided to catch up on the dishes before I started anything else.  I started to put together the recipe for the beef stroganoff.  I got half done.  We can not find our wine bottle opener, so I decided to wait till tomorrow until I finish the stroganoff (my recipe calls for red wine).  Bummer.  But I have half done, which is better than none.  So tomorrow I just need to make up the other half, and make up a large batch of pasta sauce.  Then I will be done with most of the meat dishes.  I think after that I need to use some of the pasta sauce for two lasagnas, and I need to cook a couple more chicken roasters to make the enchiladas.  But I got a LOT done today and I am very thankful for that. 

In between all of this cooking I did seven loads of laundry.  We even managed to fold and put it away!!! 

I went to the chiropractors yesterday to get adjusted, and to have her do the Webster technique on me.  The Webster tech. is supposed to help loosen up the sacrum, giving the baby the room it needs to get in the proper position.  I will say that the baby was doing a whole lot of moving around afterwards.  It appears that it *may* be turned head down.  But I don't think it is staying that way all day long.  It is so hard to tell!!  I am still trying to do the exercises, and wearing the belly band to help get this baby to go where it's supposed to go.  Only five weeks left.  Obviously plenty of time for it to turn, but by now most babies are head down.  I would just feel a lot more comfortable about the upcoming labor if it would be in it's proper position.  I've had enough apprehensions about the pregnancy and labor, and this just isn't helping!

I started taking double the amount of my vitamins.  I was only taking half the dosage, so now I am taking the full dosage.  I did this in hopes that my muscle cramping would improve.  Nope.  So we bought a liquid calcium/magnesium supplement.  I took that yesterday, and for the first time since the beginning of this pregnancy, I wasn't having the cramping I have been having.  However, it must have been a fluke as today I had some major cramps in my shin, leg and arm.  Ugh.  I am sooooooo seriously done with this!!!  I can't win.  I will continue with the supplements as I am sure it will take more than a day to catch up if I am deficient.  I guess that is what is so frustrating....I don't know why my muscles keep cramping up, and no one else knows either.  Labor is hard enough, I certainly do NOT need to be having major muscle cramping through the whole of it. 

I need to tackle my bedroom.  My 36 week appointment is coming up on Friday, and I am supposed to have all the birth supplies ready and waiting.  Part of that is having my room not be a maze!  I had just cleaned it two weeks ago and you would never know!  I have things in there like, two huge plastic boxes of Christmas decorations (we can't put up our tree until we get new lights), about six pails of wheat and oats (the girls were supposed to put them in my closet), and some of the things that were on top of our cabinets in the kitchen that we needed to move out to paint.  So it's not messy because of the normal stuff.  I did get my birth kit in the other day, and today Jeremiah picked up a new hose and plastic tarp (for the birth pool).  I think the only thing I need to get is a homeopathic remedy that is supposed to help prep the uterus during the last three weeks of the pregnancy.  I think my uterus needs all the help it can get :-)  So now I just need to get everything set up in my room. 

Alrighty, it's time for bed! 

a few second scare, and a horrid red "O"

First my little scare.  My midwife was here on Friday for my 34th week check up.  After some chatting, talking about my herbal status, and taking my blood pressure it was time to check for the position of the baby and fundal height.  It was pretty hard to figure out the position of the baby.  But "something" was engaged.  We were hopeful for it to be the head.  So she checked the heart tones and then pulled out the measuring tape.  She checked, rechecked, moved things around, and checked again.  Hmmmm, this is not normal I thought.  So she says to me, "Well you didn't look 34 weeks and now I was just checking to see if I measured wrong, but you are only measuring 32 weeks."  That's when for about two seconds I FREAKED out.  The phrase, "failure to thrive" probably repeated itself more than I can think imaginable in two seconds!  But she rechecks the baby's position and sees that whatever was engaged, had unengaged.  It took a few minutes to really figure out where this baby was.  It was in its beloved transverse position, totally posterior (so all we could feel were knobby points of the knees, elbows, etc.).  That explains why there was no apparent fundal growth.  PHEW!  But now I have the 'worry' of a transverse baby.  Babies don't come out that way :-)  So it looks like I'll be doing a lot of exercises to encourage the baby to turn.  She tried to assure me that most babies know to get into position when the time comes, in anticipation of labor.  And if not, then my labor will be putzy, all the while I am doing more exercises to get the baby to turn.  Not my idea of fun.  Actually sounds like a nightmare to me!!  So I'm doing what I can physically and spiritually (praying and leaving it in God's hands).

Now for our red 'O'.  Moira had taken a shower this morning, and comes out wrapped in a towel, to the kitchen where I was making breakfast.  She asks me to take a look at a bump she has.  She's pointing to some VERY, very, small little itty bitty teeny tiny bump.  Um, that little thing?  It's a skin tag or some such thing, no big deal, I tell her.  She looks perplexed and says, "Really?"  Now this is not like Moira.  If it were Flannery, I wouldn't be surprised, but Moira is not one to have me look as some small minuscule little anomaly.  So she tells me that maybe it's on the other side of her neck.  Hmmm, it can't be big if she can't even remember where it is!  I'm tending to eggs when she reports that she found it.  I go over to look, and lo and behold we have a very unwelcome red ring!  My first thought was Lyme's Disease.  But the ring was raised, and there were little prickles in the middle.  Plus tick season is over around here.  Not to say some very mean evil little beastie didn't stick around to bite her, but they haven't had a tick on them all summer and fall, so it's unlikely a tick bite.  So that leaves the evil nasty of ringworm.  Ah, gotta love it.  NOT!  Saoirse had it when she was one year old.  She got it from our dog. It didn't react to the OTC meds, nor from the prescription meds.  It only got worse.  So I pulled out our tea tree oil, and that did the trick.  So that is what we are doing for Moira.  Where she got it from, I don't know yet.  It can be on any of our animals or in the ground.  So tomorrow or sometime soon we will need to go out back and check over our animals, because if any one of them has it we will need to treat it, lest it be passed on.  And as an f.y.i., ringworm has nothing to do with worms, it's a fungal rash. Depending on where this rash resides will determine what it is called.  On the foot, it's athlete's foot for example.  Regardless of what it is called we need to treat it lest it makes it's rounds through the household.  Not something I would want to happen!  If you get it on your scalp it actually makes your hair fall out where the rash is present. Not a pretty thing I am sure! 

Here are some pictures taken over the last few days.  There are more pictures I was trying to download, but Blogger has locked up my computer three times now, and I am beyond my patience level.  I'll have to try again another day.

This was our Thanksgiving centerpiece.  You'll see these stars again soon.

Jonah playing hide and seek in one of the clothing bins.  This was after we had packed all the bags and boxes.  I know this because you can actually see carpeting in the photo!

This is a  bad photo of Moira's Thanksgiving turkey name plates.  She went outside in the afternoon to gather feathers.  Then traced her hand to make 8 turkeys.  Then glued on the feathers, and made some eyes, etc. Then put our names on each one.  We had them by our plates during our meal.  It was a really cute idea.

See, I told you, you would see the stars again.  Here they are now decorating the family room and dining room.  There are 25 of them, so we can count down to Christmas.

This is Jonah's blanket I have been working on.  I wrote about it a long while ago.  The pattern is from the Attic 24 blog, it's the Granny Stripe.  I am half way done.  I ran out of yarn, so until I can get some more, it will remain in it's half finished format. 

We went to the new to us park as a family the other day.  Unfortunately we found out it is for the residents of the community only.  When I first went there one of the girls was holding open the gate for me as I was trying to usher in two little boys and an armload of food.  So I never saw the sign on the outside of the gate saying we weren't allowed.  Oh well.  While there we found out about another park that is open to the public that we will try some other time.  We were not about to leave as getting there was an adventure filled with almost running out of gas!

Isabella was playing with the boys on the swings.  They were loving it!

She would do an under duck and then look around for the boy she just pushed.  In this case it was Jonah.  Here she is calling out Jonah's name.  Pretending she doesn't know where he went.

\Here she is after she has "found" the lost boy :-)  The boys got a kick out of this game and asked for her to play it again and again.

Flannery had just found some 'treasure' in the sand pit and was all discouraged knowing she didn't have a pocket to keep it in. I caught her in her despair.  Not five seconds later she came over to ask if I had a pocket, and upon finding out that I did she looked pretty much like the below picture!

Yeah, Mom has pockets!  Too funny.

That's it for now.  Until I can work up enough patience to deal with Blogger and uploading photos :-)

FOR WOMEN ONLY

Trust me guys, you don't want to read this!  Now, if you have a wife that is looking for a natural way to ward off beta strep, by all means send her my way.  But under no circumstance should any male reader continue with this post.  Don't say I didn't warn you if you decide to disregard my warning.











Before I start let me first get all the gibberish formalities out of the way.  I am in no way a doctor, nor pretending to be one.  I am not giving medical advice.  I am only sharing with you what I do in the last few weeks of my pregnancy.  Take it for what it's worth :-)


So the end is near!  The end of this pregnancy that is.  I have racked my brain as to how I wanted to do things this time around as it pertains to beta strep.  I've followed the same routine the past few pregnancies, but had a few different thoughts with this one.  So I decided to change things up a bit.  I am still going with the garlic/ACV/honey concoction and the herbal suppositories.  However, instead of starting these the last two weeks of the pregnancy I've decided to start them a bit before the 34th week.  You are supposed to take the concoction and do the suppositories for ten days.  That will take me to the 35th week.  I've decided to start earlier because I realized this time around that the garlic and herbs can not distinguish between the bad guys and the good guys! 

So for the remaining 5 weeks or so (I am hoping it will be LESS than 5 weeks) I will be 'injecting' yogurt or kefir into the birth canal.  How to do this?  I went out and bought the cheap 7 pack of yeast infection medication.  Make sure to get the one with the cream.  That way you can use the nifty tubes to 'inject' the good bacteria to where it needs to go.  Make sure you have a pad on as it doesn't stay in place!  But it will coat the walls, and that is what I am aiming for. 

On top of that I am going low carb for the remainder of the pregnancy.  Sugars don't do a body good!  I also plan on upping my probiotics as well. 

A word on the garlic/ACV/honey concoction.  Last time around I couldn't bring myself to use the whole half cup of raw honey that the recipe called for.  So I only used 1/4 of a cup.  It was BAD!  I mean, I seriously had to psyche myself up to take the nasty stuff.  Twice a day....for ten days!!  I would DREAD garlic time!  Don't just take my word for it, you can ask Jeremiah what his experience was.  It went sort of like this:  Jeremiah started to come down with something.  I told him he should try my garlic stuff as that stuff seriously has to be able to kill anything it comes in contact with.  I told him it was "strong".  I told him to ONLY take 1 tsp of it.  He decided to go for a whole tablespoon instead.  Hey, I warned him.  Let's just say he just about lost the contents of his stomach upon consuming! Yeah, it's that bad.  So this time around I decided to use the whole amount of honey.  I also armed myself with some juice to chase it down with.  WOW, what a difference that other 1/4 cup of honey does!  Don't skimp on the honey is all I have to say.  Now I don't dread taking my garlic stuff.  Phew! 

I believe that I got my concoctions off the internet, but I have them written down with some other herbal remedy ideas from a book I got out of the library.  So for now, until I can locate them online I won't post the recipes.  I just don't have the energy to look it all up right now.  I'll get back to you all as soon as I can on the matter.

As a background, I tested beta strep positive with my first pregnancy.  I had the IV antibiotics.  With my second pregnancy they told me "once beta strep positive, always beta strep positive".   I found out later that what they told me was not true.  With my third, well I had her at home, and IV antibiotics are not an option :-)  I did for my peace of mind take the test though.  It was negative.  Same with Saoirse.  However, with Jed, I had learned that even though you are negative at 36 weeks, doesn't mean you are at 40.  But I did take the test, it was neg.  But with each of these home births I did some variation of my garlic remedy/ suppository routine.  With Jonah I opted out of the test, and just did the remedies.  And so it will be with this baby.  Everyone needs to do what they feel is best for their baby.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

a new house!

Ok, not really a new house, but new to us it seems.  Our main rooms got a wonderful makeover!  The festivities began around Wednesday.  Lots of cleaning and washing going on.  I knew with new paint on the walls that our white trim and white doors would 'pop' out.  And in the state that they were in, that would not have been a good thing.  So the girls and I got to work scrubbing.  Then one Thursday and Friday I taped up the rooms that were going to be painted, with the exception of a few spots that this pregnant belly would not allow me to access :-)  Jeremiah puttied all the holes and dents in the walls, slathered Kilz on all our lovely cave drawings, and took off all the outlet plates. He also moved all the furniture to the middle of the room.  By Friday night we were ready for some cutting in work.  I worked on cutting in the living room and family room (they are both the same color). That went smoothly and since I was on a roll I put up the first coat of paint in the living room.  The following day we had a member from our small group come at 7:30 AM to help us finish the rest.  A couple of hours later two more men came to help paint the walls.  They tackled the hardest room, which we thought was going to be the easiest, the kitchen.  I went in and did a first round in the girls' bathroom.  At some point Jeremiah called me out to take a look as the guys were done with the kitchen.  Let's just say it was more beautiful than I imagined it would be and I actually cried when I saw the finished work! 

We finished our work on Sunday by removing the tape and putting the furniture back in place.  Even though I thoroughly cleaned the house right before the painting party it was a wreck come Sunday.  I would have left it for another day to tackle, but we were being blessed by some friends who were coming the following day to steam clean our carpets!  So Sunday night and Monday morning was a flurry of pick up and vacuuming.  My two friends came late morning to tackle our floors.  Kim worked on scrubbing, and I do mean *scrubbing* my kitchen and the girls' bathroom floors.  Melody worked on cleaning the carpets.  When I left she had already done one pass of the boy's carpet and the family room.  I seriously did not think there was any hope of them getting any where near cleaned.  I was greatly surprised when we arrived home later that day to very clean carpets!  She had to do a lot of elbow grease, but the carpets look wonderful.  Plus just when they were walking out the door (they only had 5 minutes before they HAD to leave), Melody asks Kim what she would do differently with our living room set up.  It appears I wasn't the only one bothered by our living room arraignment.  Ha, ha.  Kim threw out an idea and Melody announced that they were going to make it happen.  Kim thought she had lost her mind!  But they rearranged our living room furniture.  So when we walked in, it seriously felt like I had the wrong house :-)  Everything looks WONDERFUL!  Each day someone here is making a comment about how different everything looks. 

The children are having to get used to eating all their food at the table.  When we first moved in this house Jed was only six weeks old.  With a newborn and a whole house to unpack we were not diligent to keep the children and their food at the table.  Unfortunately soon after we had the stress of Jed's medical issues, and it just went down hill from there.  But all food is off limits to the rest of the house now, so that we can keep the carpet clean.

When the carpets were getting clean I took the kiddos to Jed's speech, a new to us park, and the library.  It was a full afternoon!  The great thing about the park was that it was all fenced in.  With all the work that I did over the weekend the thought of having to keep track of six children at a park boarded by woods was just not sitting well with me.  So I drove a little extra to a park I had heard about months ago.  It was so nice to not have to worry where everyone was every moment.

Tuesday found us finishing some cleaning and then having to deal with a very sick chicken.  The chickens have had this AWFUL illness.  The first one that came down with it was laboring to breathe for five days!!  Poor thing.  A few others started to fall ill, and I knew I had to do something quick.  We tried a couple of antibiotics that did nothing to help.  As a matter of fact more chickens became ill even though we had the whole flock on the medicine.  So I decided that I needed to find a homeopathic remedy to see if we could get them relief.  I really did not have a lot of time to devote to it, so I made up a remedy with multiple medicines in it.  Not sure if that was what helped but all the chickens, save one, were able to breathe fine in 6 to 12 hours after the remedy.  And that's saying a lot since the first chicken suffered for five days.  However it did not prevent some of them from getting swollen eyes.  But we persevered with the remedy and within a day or two their eyes were much improved.  We do unfortunately have one chicken who is sooooo very sick though.  I went online to see what could be done.  Not knowing exactly what they have I had to go based on symptoms.  I came down to two things it could be, one a bacterial infection, one a viral.  I went out to get the injectable antibiotic.  First time I had to give a shot to anything!!  They said if it was the bacterial illness we would see improvement in 24 hours.  Um, that didn't happen.  Sigh.  Thankfully this very sick chicken only had the breathing problem for a few hours.  However both of her eyes swelled up HUGE!  Not only that but her throat swelled up such that she can not close her beak.  Poor thing.  She was really weak this morning with not having enough food or water.  So I told Isabella, it's her chicken, that if she wanted to give this chicken a chance we were going to have to dropper feed it every fifteen minutes.  We made up a solution of egg yolk and water and went out there every fifteen minutes to feed her.  We did that for the first hour and a half.  Then went to every thirty minutes as she was taking in more solution.  At one point I got the idea to give her some ibuprofen to see if it would help with the swelling.  I have no idea if it is safe to give to chickens, but at this point, well, I was willing to take our chances.  We held off a feeding to give the medicine some time to work.  Isabella went out at the next feeding and said her throat was a little better and although her eyes are still very swollen, one of them has gone down enough that the chicken could open it up a bit.  And with that feeding she took in the most food yet (still not a ton, but I think the steady supply will help better than one full tummy's worth).  At this point it is looking more hopeful.  If she wasn't eating then I would know she was just getting ready to die.  But with her continuing to eat I feel she at least has a chance right now.  One other chicken was nearly as sick as she was, and we thought she was going to die, but she if fine now, out and about acting like a chicken :-) She lost a lot of weight, but I am sure that will come back on in time. 

The funny thing is I was telling my friend Melody about all of this and she said that it would have been a totally different scenario at her house, with mostly all boys.  She said it would have gone something like this:  "Hmmm, see those sick chickens.....what do ya think, get the gun?"  Ha, ha!  Well, with a house full of girls we have a whole lot of nurturing instincts that prevent that conversation from happening at this point.  This will just mean that come this weekend we will have to spend a LOT of time disinfecting the barn and barnyard area.  Not looking forward to that.  But regardless if the chickens had died or lived we would have had to do it, so as to try to prevent this from spreading.   The bad news is that it is possible our chickens that got sick will be carriers of this disease.  So any future birds we bring in, or even for the chickens that somehow escaped the illness, may end up coming down with it if is carried.  I am hoping that doesn't happen. 

Ok, lunch time is over, and now it's time to get back to work.  We've had a much more normal day as far as getting schooling and cleaning done.  Hopefully we'll be able to get to the rest of our studies so that we can go outside before it gets dark out. 

Here are a few pictures of our new to us house :-) They did not come out very well at all.  We have horrid lighting in here.  I also took some pictures of the new living room layout.  I wish I had before/afters to give you, but I was having issues with windows explorer and don't want to deal with photos any more!

Look at that CLEAN floor!!  Looks like new!  We do still have some stains here and there, but even those have been reduced in their intensity.

Our kitchen!  I LOVE this color.  It really helps to bring out our cabinets.  With a light flooring and all the woodwork being maple, including our table we really needed something on the darker side to bring them out. 

This is a poor picture, I was trying to get the two colors of both rooms for the full effect.  Didn't really work.  In one of the pictures of the living room, down below, you will see more of the true color of the above wall (both the living and family room are the same color).

Our magnetic wall!!  So cool!!  It really could have used a third coat, but we didn't have enough to do that. So we'll only be able to use small magnets, and only hang up single sheets of paper. 

I'm in the living room now, standing in front of the door.  This wall had one of our couches on it and it really made the flow of traffic not work smoothly as the couch stuck too far out into the pathway from the door into the kitchen.  It works much better to have the book shelf there.

I'm still standing by the door, although more at the end of the staircase taking this picture.  The color of the paint looks more like it does in real life.  That door you see is our bedroom door. 

Panning to the right a bit we see the rest of the living room.  I wish I could get the whole room into view, as these pictures don't seem to do the room justice.  It's a really nice change though, you'll have to trust me :-)

Oh, I forgot to mention that I had an appointment with my midwife on Friday (it was one busy weekend!).  Everything looks good.  The baby happened to be transverse!  Never had one do that on me.  But I was only 32 weeks pregnant, so plenty of time to get the baby to move.  Let's hope he cooperates.  Talking of 'he' we got to listen to the baby's heart beat.  I thought that this time we would get a better picture of it being a boy or girl (not that it's 100% accurate) and wouldn't ya know it was 140.  I thought that was definitely a boy's heart rate.  But my midwife said that at this stage of the pregnancy it could actually go either way with that number.  What?  I am quite sure she is mistaken :-)  Ha, ha.  Well only around seven or so weeks to go now!!! 

Zoo, bugs, baby....oh my!

Ok, so none of those things in the title have anything to do with each other!  But I had to think of something, and these are the things I plan to write about :-)

Zoo:
For some odd reason Jedidiah has been obsessed about going to the zoo.  He asks me if we can go first thing in the morning, and continues to ask throughout the day....all. day. long.  One time I asked him why he wanted to go to the zoo.  I'm not sure if he wasn't sure how to answer, or if it's just that he's in the fledgling stage of learning the art of conversation, but he just sort of mumbled something and then looked at me.  Hmmm, I should help him out, I thought.  So I asked him if he wanted to see the animals. His face lit up and he started naming a bunch of animals that one would find in a zoo (giraffe, elephant, hippo, etc.).  I thought that was pretty neat, so I asked him again on another day with Jeremiah there so that he could hear Jed talk about seeing the animals.  Imagine my surprise when at the end he adds, "balls".  Balls?  What balls?  There are no balls at the zoo.  We figured out he was talking about the children's museum!  They had a ton of those hollow, colorful, plastic balls.  So since both of our memberships to the zoo and the museum will expire soon we thought we would go to both.  That thought lasted but a day, when Jeremiah got an email from a couple of parents from the kids on his soccer team telling him that their child was sick and couldn't play.  Not just a cold mind you, but strep.  Whoa!  Hold the horses!  There is no way I plan on reliving our strep experience that we lived through last year!!!  So NO kid's museum for us!  I feel bad about that, but seriously, we really can not afford to all be sick again like that.  Not that we couldn't pick up strep from Walmart or the likes.  But the kid's museum....well I mean we are talking about hundreds of kids a day *touching everything in sight*!  So to play it safe, we'll just go to the regular ole zoo.  Jedidiah doesn't comprehend "in a few days" so I am still being asked multiple times a day if we can go to the zoo :-) 

Bugs:
Ahhh, living in the south has it's advantages.  AND it's disadvantages!  The major disadvantage being bugs.  Bugs that are bigger and more plentiful and more varied than you will find in upstate NY, where I am from.  I don't like bugs, so this clearly is a sore spot for me living in the south.  But over the years I've gotten, if ever so slightly, better at dealing with them.  I mean now at least I will attempt to vacuum up any large crawling critter.  Which is better than popping a container over it and waiting for Jeremiah to get home to kill it.  So I've made some strides.  Anyways this summer I have to say was better in terms of the large buggies, and the annoying teeny tiny ones (ticks).  That being said it was the common house fly that got me!  Tons of them.  In my house.  *IN* my house.  I did say 'tons' right?  Yeah, not a pretty site.  Sigh.  So I was ever so pleased to see the cooler weather come to town as that meant a huge drop in the fly population.  So instead of 30 flies in my house I only have one at the moment.  Much improved!  But with the cooler weather came another critter, not a bug, that I was hoping we wouldn't see.  One night I was doing dishes and out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of *something* large and fast scoot under the cupboards.  OOOOoooh please tell me it's not a mouse, oh, please.......No such luck, it was a mouse.  I found out when I saw it run across our family room in the day time!!!!  Thankfully it was caught.  So mouse season has started!  Oh, joy! But lets go back to the bugs shall we?  Yes, I wasn't done with them just yet.  So after a busy Friday the girls were very eager to premake our Saturday ritual breakfast.  They said it would make the morning go much smoother if we had our pumpkin muffins made ahead of time.  I couldn't argue with that.  So off to the kitchen we went.  Much to my dismay we didn't have enough wheat ground up.  And there was no wheat in my gallon jars.  So off to the laundry room I went to refill said jars, only to find out that both my wheat buckets were empty.  I asked Isabella to bring out both bags of wheat from the boys bedroom closet.  After she brought out the first one I opened it to start filling up the buckets.  However something wasn't quite right with it.  There was a LOT of 'dust' in the wheat.  I wondered if the company didn't clean the wheat properly. I was a bit weary of it and thought I would go online to ask someone before I used it. But I didn't need to do that when Isabella called out that the other bag of wheat had 'ants' on it.  Ants???  Oh no, not ants.  Then she says, "oh, wait, no these are not ants, but some other little tiny black bugs".  Oh, that is pleasant, an unidentifiable black bug, just what I need!  I go back there to see, but she had brushed/killed them.  So I opened the bag.  Yup, little black bugs (I call them wevils).  That's when I notice all these itsy bitsy little holes all over the bag, where the bugs got in.  I go check the other wheat bag, the one I was pouring, and see that it is riddled with holes as well (we are talking about pin holes).  Sigh.  Two bags of wheat (my only two left) are no good.  Well, not entirely no good, as we took it out for the chickens, who are ever so happy with the grain AND bugs!  That's my bug story, I am sure you all wanted to hear it :-)

Baby:
One thing that made our Friday busy was having an appointment with the midwife.  I was ever so pleased to think that I had just hit the 28 week mark, hitting the third trimester milestone!!  Imagine my surprise and HERS as well that somehow I am actually 29 weeks along!!!  I missed my milestone! Oh well.  Somehow we both must have miscalculated or something!!  But I'll take 29 weeks, moving me ever so much closer to my due date :-)  This time around I really wanted to hear the heart beat.  I know I said I didn't want to use the doppler again, but I really miss not hearing my baby.   I told her that I wanted to know the heart rate this time, to see if it was a girl or boy heart rate.  You see, from the moment I saw the double lines on the pregnancy  test I *KNEW* that this baby was a boy.  I didn't just 'think' it was a boy, I KNEW it was a boy.  Over the months that hadn't changed.  Jeremiah joked early on in the pregnancy that we should find a name to see if it was a boy.  In case no one knows about our "name thing" it seems that I will get 'stuck' on one name, a name I HAVE to have.  Interestingly enough the name has always been the correct gender of our baby.  I told Jeremiah that it doesn't work that way.  The name has to just come to me, I can't search high and low for it.  Not to say we don't look for names, but just that the name will jump out at me.  So needless to say months have gone by and a few weeks ago I thought, hmmmm, it might be time that we put some thought into looking for a name, with only three months to go till baby comes.  We threw a few back and forth.  Nothing.  One thing that seems to shape our name picking is what type of 'season' we are in.  By that I mean our circumstances.  This particular baby is entering our lives at this particular moment.  And this particular moment happens to be a season that we are experiencing.....for each child it has been different.  With Saoirse, it was a season of 'freedom', with Jonah, it was a season of 'hope'.  With this child it is a season of 'reconcilliation/and seeing God moving in our lives'.  So with that backdrop we keep a look out for names that have a meaning that pertains to the season we are living in.  During one of our meetings with a small group member, going through a marriage book, he brought up the scripture of Jesus being the good shepherd.  BOOM!  Name alert!  The word 'shepherd' totally jumped out of me, and made my heart skip a beat.  But then at the end of the night he happened to mention another family in our small group, and I realized that they had a son named Shepherd!  It's obviously not a common name, so I didnt' want to 'steal' it from them, but I could NOT get that name out of my head.  I figured it would make a good middle name.  So my 'confirmation' that this was a boy grew.  But then, as we were looking for names the only name that I liked (although it didn't jump out at me) was a girls name!  How can that be?  I'm having a boy.  And you can all laugh, but it hit me.....by golly this baby just might be a girl!!!  News flash, hold the presses, I was seriously blown away by this ever so obvious epiphany.  Go ahead and laugh, but I am not kidding when I say this blew my mind.  A girl??  This baby *could* indeed be a girl.  Shock.  Speechless.  This was only made worse by my appointment with the midwife.  That heart rate I was talking about.....yeah, well she puts the doppler on me and it reads 160...that would be a girl heart rate!  I almost fell off her couch!!  But I could feel the baby kicking, which she also picked up on the doppler.  She was 'looking' around and found the placenta and the cord (how she can tell, I have no clue), and then she says, "Oh, wait, the heart rate is going down".  It finally ended at 137, a boy heart rate.  Seriously?  This baby is playing games with me!!!  Ha, ha.  We are assuming that the 160 was due to all of the activity (no doubt brought on by the doppler from past experience), and once the baby settled down so did it's heart rate.  So now I am back to thinking it is a boy.  Plus we may, I say "may" have a name.  It goes along with the meaning we are hoping for.  Plus it goes along with a pattern.  Oh no. not one of those again, patterns.  You see, this would be our third boy.  Flannery happens to be our third girl.  She is the only child that has a name that ends with the long 'e' sound.  All five of the others end in the 'uh' sound.  Plus her name, although from the moment I heard it was a girls name to me, pretty much most people think it is a boy's name.  And the name for this baby?  Well at the moment it ends in a long 'e' sound and although we will be using it for a boy, I do believe most people will think it is a girl's name.  I'm not going to tell what the name is yet, because we haven't settled on it at the moment.  But I do think those attributes are quite interesting.  And just as interesting and quite frankly *frightening*, Flannery, well Flannery, has been our child who stands out above the rest.  She's the child who I was sure one of us (either she or I) wasn't going to make it to her second birthday!  Although each of our children are different in each of their own ways, Flannery, well unless you know her, it's hard to explain, but she is the odd ball in our family.  I know that may sound weird, since with 6 kids, and all of them with their own unique personality, she's just different.  Probably more so just because she has been such a handful.  So this being (well, *IF*) our third boy.....I'm a little nervous.  Especially with this baby coming after Jonah.  Jonah's been a handful, but more because he is into everything. I am afraid to think of a second handful child in a row :-)  But God did promise us that He wouldn't give us more than we can handle, right?  Right?  Please tell me I am right :-) 

Ok, this has gotten long!  I've got a busy week ahead of me.  Hopefully it will be productive.  Have a blessed day!