40 Weeks and 1 day....and tomarrow Feb 23rd is my "due date"...

Hmmmmmm.......we shall see if my "due date" is the actual date of arrival! Really "due dates" are just a number, well unless you are a momma who has to be induced or chooses to be. Me, no thank you to to induction...I am lucky to be in a position to let nature take it's course. To allow baby to come when baby is ready. I am getting a bit anxious I must admit at this point, I am really REALLY excited! We are really ready now that our diaper service has started! The apartment is clean, the co-sleeper is assembled and made, babies clothes have been washed numerous times (in all natural gentle on the skin detergent) we have the birth tub here (it has been for a few weeks now), we have our grape juice ice cubes made, we are stocked with energy replenishing drinks & spring water jugs, snacks, frozen foods, my labor music is all entered into itunes, my camera batteries are charged and my camera's are ready to go etc etc......so bring it on!

Here is the latest photo comparison, 38/39 weeks to 40 weeks (taken today)


And here are some mitts I knitted for baby w/mathcing hat!

Today I am 40 weeks!

I can't believe it! I went to our weekly midwife appointment by myself today, Matty had to be at work this morning so he could leave early to teach his afternoon class at 3 (he drives 45 minutes to get there). It was really ok though.
Today I measured 39cm, friday I was 41cm! Baby is dropping oh yeah! Kirsten (one of our midwives) said that baby's head had moved a little further into my pelvis since friday, and baby's back is even more turned and come to the middle of my belly. All good things =). I still feel so good, and today is beautiful outside so I took Macy for a long walk/hike at a local mountain...she has fun and so did I. Its kind of spring like weather here today, almost 50 degrees outside. Well I haven't had a chance to work much more yet on the pregnancy photo colages that I spoke of in my last post, so here are the 2 that I am pretty much done with. I would love critiques!

I can't believe that there are only 2 days till my "due" date.....

However, a "due" date does not exactly mean all that much. It's just a number really. I had started to think that I might deliver early, but now I am not so sure! We found out at our friday midwife appointment that the baby's head is now very far down into my pelvis, and the baby's back which was sort of nested into my right side has moved more to the middle of my belly getting into position for birth! I had suspected that there was a signifigant change, because there were a few days last week that the baby was moving around SO MUCH! It was incredible to feel those movements and see some of them! Again on Saturday night the baby was moving even more, and I was feeling lots of movement in my pelvis...little hands pushing on my bladder! We had some spicey Indian food that night, so Matt was joking that "this could be it". Honestly I was not so unsure about that myself....but nothing happened and we went to sleep and woke up--no baby yet.

The good thing is that we are "ready" for my going into labor....my parents came again on Saturday to help us clean the apartment. I went and got a haircut, a fairly easy to maintain cut.....but also one that doesn't really allow me to keep my hair in pony tail holders all the time. I needed this simple change, as I have started to feel like a rolly polly slob! I spend most days in a tank top and comfy pants! I will have Matty take a photo of my awesome funky hair soon! Also, I have begun to work on some photo collages...finally I have found the motivation to make some work based around my pregnancy. I have been taking photos of course of myself, but I had not felt the motivation to work with them. I will post some of these collages when I have a more complete set of them.

Well darlings....I need to get to work.
Luv, Erin

Today is 38 weeks and 6 days....(early 38 weeks photo below)

We are pretty much ready for anything at this point. We have the birth tub here, though the non-toxic, lead free hose doesn't get here till thursday. Our apartment got a good cleaning this past weekend, thank you Mom & Dad for being such troopers in helping us with that! Most of our laundry is done. The co-sleeper is together, baby's new clothes are all washed, dried and put away in baby's dresser. I do have to make a few more meals to freeze, and we are fortunate enough to have our mothers making and freezing food for us as well. On thursday I will call the diaper service to request to start next week. We do still have some reading to do in "The Baby Book" by William and Martha Sears (an awesome book!). As of my last midwife appointment the baby's head was not engaged...but I suspect that at tomarrows appointment we might find out that it is. I have been having some cramping in my lower mid belly, its nothing that comes in patterns or stays around. This morning I woke up with a stronger cramp though and I was like UH OH for a few minutes. Then I did some practice contraction breathing that we have been learning in our Hypnobirth class, and it dissapated.....and I was like oh thank goodness. We need to make it to thursday atleast so that we have our hose to fill the birth tub!

All in all things are still great, and I feel great....a bit more tired, but I feel great!
I do feel bad for Macy (our boxer girl). I just cannot walk her 3 times a day anymore, 1 walk is about all I can do, and should do at this point. Hopefully she will get to hang out with her uncle Ron soon (when we have 2 cars again and I can deliver her to him)....and get some of her energy out!




Here is a 3 week comparison: 35-38 weeks...do you think my belly is dropping?

Oh.....

Hello readers of thy blog. Another week has passed by and I am still feeling fine. I am still in day-by-day mode and in no hurry to not be pregnant, I am enjoying this time growing baby and being completely awkward and round. While I am a bit anxious to meet baby, Matt and I both are...baby will come when baby is ready. =)

We had our home visit with our midwives this past week, and both of our parents were there too. They got to meet Tanya & Kirsten and ask any questions they had etc. The best part was that both our mom's got to feel the babies head and hear the heartbeat, that was very special for both our moms. =)

I measured in at 41cm this week....and all is well! I also had another blood test for my iron levels this week through our backup midwives lab. I haven't heard anything so I am assuming that I am good, though I am going to call and make sure. My levels were slightly low last month, and so I have been taking Floridix and eating kale and lots of spinach, and taking chlorophyll.
I am slightly green from all this extra iron intake. JUST KIDDING!

Here is an end of 36 weeks....beginning of 37 weeks photos:

THE CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG BABY!
WE ARE HAVING A HOMEBIRTH!
YEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAA!

I am SO EXCITED about this....I mean WE BOTH ARE! We have been keeping this to ourselves pretty much until we told our folks, and today I called my mom and told her...she is super excited too! She had the opposite reaction than I thought she would, I was a little surprised.....happily of course! YEAH MOM BIRTH ACTIVIST! Matt is on the phone with his mama right now and he told her a little while ago....so now the folks know and we share it with the world! Since I first found out I was pregnant, I knew that I wanted to have a homebirth...but I have MassHealth and they don't pay for homebirths in the state of Mass! So, we called around anyways to see if we could afford it on our own....do my dissapointment no, even though homebirth is almost $3,000 less than a hospital birth! Anyways, after months and weeks...things have worked out in our favor and I want to cry I am so happy about it! I am so extatic to be bringing baby into the world in the most peaceful and gentle environment, our home.

Our midwives ROCK! Kirsten (also our Doula) and Tanya are the sweetest, warmest most gentle and loving people...we are so fortunate to have them as our midwives.

Here is a link to thier site (under construction): Sacred Birth Midwifery Here is a link to Kirsten's Doula Site: Graceful Birth

Really there are way too many awesome things to say about these women.....=) They are so incredibly confident in who they are as people/women, as well as being extremely competent in thier profession and true believers in the power of a womans body to labor a child naturally, that is what our bodies were made to do!

So our homebirth....is going to be peaceful and quiet (soft meditative music)....relaxed, candlelit and romantic. Matt and I are going to spend as much time alone during labor as we can, we are both looking forward to having this beautiful experience together and deepening our relationship. Ok, I need to go and eat some more food. I promise to write more about this later!

Luv, E

35 Weeks and 4 days......2 days to go to 36 weeks!

Holy Canoli! Hi there, here I am and there you are.....reading this blog. Things aren't much different than they were with my last post, but I have some new photos that I was to share and also an amazing momma blog that I have just been alreted to. It is the blog of an amazing woman who had an unnasisted birth at home, truely inspiring and BEAUTIFUL!

Here is the link to her Blog:

So, things are good. I still feel pretty great, though it's getting harder to motivate to go for walks.....but I was reading last night that I need to keep on with it (which I knew anyways). So, today I am going to bundle up and take Macy for a long slow walk, and then I will head to the Y to go swimming. I really do love to go swimming as a pregnant lady, it feels so nice to move through the water. Last weekend Matt and I went to the Bershires and we went swimming at the indoor pool that the resort has. While were swimming around so was the baby! It was so cool! When I swim at the Y the baby doesn't move too much....
It could have been that Matt was making whale like sounds underwater right to my belly!

Here are some photos from last weekend in the Berkshires....on the cusp of 35 weeks....





These are images from this past weekend....there are a lot of Macy & Matt......so cute!

35 Weeks and 1 day....

Sorry that I have not been posting too much.
I have been working still and trying to be sure that we have all we need for the birth next month and trying to keep this apartment clean. We continue to also have car issues, finally today we brought in my car to have it repaired and its going to cost $360 buckaroos! I wish that we could just have a newer car (I realize that doesn't mean there are not problems then), but I have had the car for a year and had to put $1,000 into it, not to mention money my parents kindly put into it before giving me the car (my moms old car). Its a cute car and drives great when its in full working order.

Anyways, I am still feeling great! Though there are days when I am deffinately exhausted in the afternoon, so Macy & I usually take a couple hour nap. I almost schedule my day around needing a nap, a good thing. I am still taking Macy for atleast 2 30min walks everyday, sometimes she gets and hour walk. It feels good to walk, and I wish that I got the Y more to go swimming.....
I want to go there right now but its getting dark, and much colder outside and I have not car to get me there and home.
Probably tomarrow I will get there in the am after Macy has her walk. I don't have to work tomarrow as I fufilled my weekly hours quota, Yeah! I also had hoped to get to Yoga tomarrow but, I don't know that I will have my car back in time. Arrrg! We need to get Matt's car fixed too......he had brought it to Jiffy Lube to have it re-inspected and they burnt out the clutch! DONT GO TO JIFFY LUBE! There was a big to do after this happened, and basically the company was awful towards Matt about it making it seem like it was his fault, when obviously the technician left his emergency brake on!

So, things are good. I am almost washing all of the lovely new organic clothes we got for baby....yesterday we went to IKEA and got a lovely new dresser for baby, we got it for only $96 bucks! The full price was around $140 I think......we found the exact dresser we wanted in the up to 50% section...there are the tiniest of scrathes on it, other than that its fine and it was already assembled! I will have photos soon.

I WANT MY SLEEP!

I just cannot sleep through the night anymore. Its now almost 6:30 in the morning and I am awake! I have been since about 5am. Its hard to adjust to being so incredibly uncomfortable sleeping...but it's supposidly a preview of what is to come after baby is here right? So here I am typing away playing opera music for baby...headphones on the belly. Not sleeping is becoming a pretty intense issue for me, I am usually a very heavy sleeper and I can sleep like a champ through the night. However the combination of being uncomfortable now and baby moving in the night have made my sleeping nights a thing of the past. Its all worth it....I just need to be more active closer to bedtime, a brisk walk before bed would be great (per suggestion of our midwives). The only thing about that is that its SO COLD at that time of the night, at least the last few nights have been totally frigid! Also I have some new photos...they are self portraits from week 33. For those of you who might feel uncomfortable at the sight of a nipple I have blocked mine out of the images....though I feel that its kind of silly to do so, I AM SO TIRED OF BEING MODEST ABOUT MY BODY! I mean I am will most likely be completely naked in the birth tub during labor, it seems that that would be the most comfortable way to be....pregnancy, labor and birth are so beautiful! Anyways, here are a few of the self portraits from week 33.

Christmas is over, the New Year is here...the year that we will meet our little nugget. Ahhhhhhh.....It's very exciting to think that next month our baby will come into the world....oh my gosh, and I am also very exited that we will meet our little one very close to our home (I will write about what I mean by this soon). I am just so excited and so happy! We had another midwife visit last week and my weight seems to have really stablized, I am not ganing like I had been. I have put on about 45 pounds, which is a lot for me but being a small person it totally normal its just what my body had to do. I also had a blood test to check and see if I am anemic, well I found out yesterday that I am slightly anemic. My score went from 37 to 29, so it's not really that bad. Last night we went to Whole Foods and I am taking a liquid iron supplement called Floridix, as well as adding walnuts to almost every meal, drinking tea with nettles in it and cereal with extra Iron. I also spoke with our Doula (midwife) who said that she has seen really good results with Floridix with her clients. So thats that, I am doing ok and I still feel GREAT! The baby is getting so strong, pushing on my belly right around my belly button...one of these days the baby will push my belly button all the way out! We have also been making some progress on names! I am pretty sure we have found our Naturopathic doctor/pediatrician, and we are meeting with an Alopathic pediatrician that was reccomended to us on friday. We have been readin a lot about vaccinations, I cannot believe all the info that is out there about these things! Its really very scary what vaccinations actually do to a persons body, especially the body of a small little baby! I highly reccomend to everyone to read this book: There is so much info in this book, things that your pediatrician might not be willing to share with you unless you know to ask about them!

Here are some images from last week (WEEK 32)...I think that these images are my favorite thus far.
Notice how sweet Macy is...

Christmas trees with adorable doggies....and pregnant ladies and thier ginormous bellies! Happy Holidays all of ya'll! Yes there is a photo of my belly here, and yes we have been slacking on the photos...we missed last week..well I have some but I didnt get them onto my computer yet! So this weeks is from 31 weeks.....I am 31 weeks and 3 days! I cannot believe how big my belly has grown, I mean it really blows my mind! I think that I kind of always knew that as a pregnant woman I would gain weight because I am normally really small (petite 5'2, 110 lbs)...but the belly, holy cow it is just HUGE! I/we are starting to get really excited thinking about labor and birth, I am so looking forward to the love and hard work I will have to do! It is going to be SO worth it....I am staying positive and still taking things day by day until "the time" comes. =) Maybe I sound a little naive saying this but I think that even as hard as it will be it is still going to be fun and amazing and transforming!


My belly at 31 weeks and 3 days......look at that its just GINORMOUS!

FINALLY, some baby shower photos!
There are whole lot HERE that Meg took!




Matt's Gram with her Blessingway Candle









My Nana being ever so cute in mid-sentence









This is Merlin one of our cats, he looks like he is sword fighting.....nothing to do with the baby shower at all









Matty with one of the baby carries we got that will fit us both, The Moby Wrap....Rad!









Baby Cake











Stevie has tied himselg up in the red yarn and he had a blast!











I cried so much when I first started to go through this gift, a large assortment of my fathers baby clothes that my grandmother had saved and my parents then kept.....so beautiful!

Here are some images from 28 weeks (taken on Saturday Dec 2nd)