Baby updates….

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April 21st—21 weeks 1 day….

Well today was the check up with the one Doctor visit I am required by law to have when I use the midwife.  So my mom went with me we went through my whole case history of my pregnancies…discussed about my blood clotting disorder and was that an issue in some of my miscarriages or was there something else happening in 2007 that might have contributed….it wasn’t until he mentioned that fact (because no one else had ever mentioned that perspective) that I thought about that year…..that was the year my husband started his own business…so there is a chance that there was some stress related there that might have been a contributor to me losing so many babies….I would never have thought and I will never know but it is there to be considered….

I should say that this particular Dr. did not think that the blood clotting disorder was a contributing factor to the loss of my son Corban….again something we’ll never know this side of heaven the true answer.

We went through listening to the heart rate and my blood pressure, my actual weight, how everything was going etc.. the normal stuff….and everything seemed to be fine!

The significance of this visit is important.  This Doctor is responsible to review my case and then right a letter of recommendation or whatever his thoughts may be regarding my case history to be submitted to a review panel by the state to see if I am eligible to have my birth at the midwife’s facility.

There is a gray area in the law as to whether it is your 6th birth or if you already have 6 and it is your 7th you are not allowed to use the midwife’s facility…..I could still have a homebirth and have my midwife come to our house…but we are using a bit of common sense…considering what happened last time, we don’t think that would be a good idea….for one..we are 12 minutes from the hospital even though the fire station is a mile away….her office is less than a mile from the hospital and she has flashing lights on her suburban for transportation.

If by chance they vote against me, the next option, which our midwife has agreed to, is to get a room at the hotel which is directly across the street and over one building from her office…. we would get a first floor room and she would bring all of her supplies and set up shop in the hotel room! 

So right after that appointment I went for my one ultrasound for this pregnancy…basically to make sure everything is measuring right….I think I was still measuring one week ahead when the Dr. did his measurement earlier.  The first words out my mouth when we went in to see the tech…were..I do not want to know what it is, and please do not tell me what the heart rate is!!  So we were in there for about 20 minutes…and even though they had used the warm tummy gel, it had gotten cold and the room was slightly cold and of course you know what that means….HIVES….my tummy was covered in hives by the time we were through….and so I stand up to get ready to go and she goes…Oh my I forgot to get the heart rate information….so back on the gurney and more gel and more irritation, I wanted to itch like crazy but everything measured within a day of what we had originally stated….August 29th!!

So without further ado….. here are few ultrasound pictures!!!

 

So we had the ultrasound done and I realized that I had forgotten my eyeglasses at my midwife’s so I stopped back by there on the way home and I happened to see my midwife and she asks how everything went I said good/fine and she replies did they say anything about the heart rate, I asked them to check it?  I was like ummmm no, they didn’t so I am not sure what that meant and will have to ask next time I see her!!

May 24th—25 weeks 6 days

So today was my next checkup. I was weighed and then asked to get up on the exam table and I asked her what was her thought process behind her comment the last time…that I mentioned above…  She looked through her notes and could not find anything and felt that the only thing that came to mind was that she and the Dr. wanted to be very thorough and that they checked everything to make sure that everything was the way it should to not hinder me being able to deliver at her facility.

Oh ok, then no biggie!  She said that he was very gracious in his notes…he could have simply, like some doctors would have, marked in huge letters HEMMORAGE  but he didn’t instead he didn’t remark on it but left it to her notes from my last pregnancy that anything that came up was addressed and taken care of!!  She was very optimistic by his comments and he had said well you handled it…Great!!  That is what she is there to do…it doesn’t happen that often but that is why we use a midwife and not do it by ourselves!!!

So the baby was really active kept kicking the dopplar which was good, my blood pressure was normal so that is good…the only thing that she was really concerned with is that I have not gained very much weight…

I think I am on target for at least another 15 pounds but we are only looking at approx. 12 weeks so that is not so good….my first four pregnancies I gained 35 pounds and the last one only 25 so we are hoping to get close to that 25.  I pulled out my food journal from my first pregnancy so I could start keeping track again of everything I eat and we are going to look and see how that is going…If I am eating well and getting the calories and protein and still not gaining that is ok, but if I am not eating and not gaining then we are in trouble…mainly just to build up my strength…labor is always intensive and trying for me and I need as much extra strength as I can get.

So there you have it…two updates in one!!! I’ll see if I can get my daughter to snap a picture of me tonight or tomorrow!!

Craft project…Baby Gift

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I saw this project on the Feltorama website a while back and loved it so much I ordered the pattern…One of the ladies at church had a little baby boy recently and I made these little shoes in black to give to her.

 

The pictures are clickable and you can see a larger view and see the eyes that were sewn on….I opted to not do buttons as I was afraid it might become a choking hazard later so just did French Double knots.

I would not recommend buying the felt from the Feltorama store only because I was able to find it better by shopping around on the internet and found a great deal at Prairie Junction!!

THE Mother Daughter Luncheon….

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Well I am posting things in random order just to get them posted at this point…I want to share and if I don’t start somewhere, it won’t ever get on this blog and ya’ll will really be wondering where I went!!

Several months back at our church there was an announcement that the Mother-Daughter (MD) Luncheon was approaching in May and if you would like to help out there would be a meeting to attend.  Well I know the lady who did the food last year was swamped and I didn’t want to see that happen this year so I mentioned to the lady in charge, prior to the meeting, that I would help out with food.

Well the evening of the planning meeting arrives and I show up with about 6 or 7 other ladies…this was my first time helping out, we have only been at this church for a little over a year….I was a little surprised that not more ladies had shown up….

Well the lady in charge gave her vision of what she wanted to see accomplished and what our theme was to be…we went around our small group and talked about decorations and it came to the food and she mentions that she had me down for food and from there…I ended up being in charge for all the food!  No one else volunteered to be in charge of food and the lady who did it last year said she would give me help wherever I needed it….See last year they had the food catered and the lady who was in charge of food was a little stressed because the caterer literally walked out one door as they opened the main doors to let the attendees in to start eating…a slight nail biter there!

So I was put in charge of finding out the cost of food which would include having fresh meat for everyone to make their own deli sandwiches, the selection of breads, the tomatoes, lettuce…they wanted to have this huge table filled with fresh fruit i.e. melons, grapes…Chips and then for desserts…Cheesecakes, brownies, strawberry shortcakes…and don’t forget beverages…

Now mind you, I am an extremely organized person…it’s the only way I could get something like this done…When it was all said and done, I think I had no less than 6 different spread sheets that had cost analysis break downs, etc.  And within the first week, I think I only had maybe two days of complete restful sleep…my mind was constantly thinking about this event and all the details that would be involved.

I had two rooms to work with, our ladies Sunday School room and the attached room next door that we used as our baptismal…I needed to get the long buffet tables in there as well tables for desserts and beverages.

The theme we were working with was His eye is on the Sparrow…from the bible….so all the decorations in the gymnasium where the ladies would be sitting had to deal with birds, birdhouses, bird nests, etc… There was a whole team to decorate that area and I said I would worry about the decorations for my little area.

Then we also decided that it would be really neat to have aprons made to give away to all the little girls age 10 and under and for 15 of the 30 raffle prizes… someone spoke up and said since I knew how to sew I could help with that, and I was like sure, I would like to help…it was going to be about 15 aprons to be made. (Thankfully my parents were here visiting the week before the event and my mom made the 8 aprons that we ended up needing from me…way to go mom)!!!

So as the days go by and I get all the costs involved to have the sandwiches made in the deli dept. at a local grocery store…and had priced out item by item all the other food we would need..I came across a website…Ellen's Kitchen

this lady is wonderful about catering for huge large crowds and offers up her advice to people on a daily basis….Well I wrote in with my menu and let her know we were planning on a buffet luncheon for approx. 130 people.  Last year in attendance we had 124 show up.  She looked over my menu and said it was really much cheaper if you provided the sliced meat and condiments and had the attendees make the sandwiches themselves instead of buying the sandwiches pre-made…. so I went back and did some more calculating and then we had a sign up sheet for what ladies could sign up for to bring to help defer the food costs……

Well the sign up sheet ended up not being a good idea…we had priced the food out at two different stores and there was no guarantee that the ladies would shop at those stores for the items and then drive the price up for the event.  Then not to mention the fact that I had specifically broken it down by fruit platters, what each lady would need to make a complete fruit platter…well when the first lady came up to me and said…well I will bring a platter of watermelon….I was like um….I need a plate of these 5 fruits…and she kept insisting that she just wanted to bring one tray of watermelon…I finally got through that I would need a complete tray and so she said she would get back to me….and then there was one lady that said she would just buy a fruit tray…well that would be a smaller tray than what I had a recipe for from Ellen’s website….so that wouldn’t work…. 

I went and talked to the Pastor’s wife and she and I agreed it would be best if I bought all the food and had some ladies come help cut it up and get it all ready.  The luncheon was on Saturday May 7.  Thursday I had arranged to have a lady come help me do the decorations…we were orig. going to meet at 10am and then she asked if she could meet up closer to noon because she wanted to get some homeschool done…I said sure… I arrived about 11:20am and start getting busy ironing… I had chosen to use garden flags with birds and bird houses on them throughout both rooms so they needed to be pressed first to get the wrinkles out from shipping… I had the children with me and they were playing in and outside throughout my time…I was just about done with my decorations..I had one small table to put a table liner on and four tiny posters to hang on one wall and I was ready to go…It was 2:30pm and the lady who was to show up at noon…just drives up….promptly walks in and says…Well what can I do now that it’s all done…I just smiled..I said it is all done..there really wasn’t anything to do. I felt sorry for her she felt really bad….but she knew she had told me when she would be there and had taken her time and had been watching a movie with her children….sigh… 

Friday, I met at church with a different young lady from church and the Preacher to go to Sam’s club.  I had my grocery list and we arrived there about 7:30 in the morning. I had priced everything I needed at Sam’s about a month and a half prior…I just had to go and find the items and put them on our carts….You know what is somewhat of a dilemma shopping at Sam’s…not all items are stocked on a regular basis!!!  The packages of pound cake that were just the right size…3 loaves to a package….they were no where to be found!!!  I asked, it turns out they had been discontinued…acckkk…the base for one of the main desserts….well sometimes you have to think on the fly…we ended up getting Angel food cakes…  The boxes of 12 count croissants…..no where to be found!!! I asked the bakery department….they hadn’t been baked yet for the morning I would have to come back after 10am….akkkk…I put a hold on the four boxes I needed.

So we left Sam’s made it to Wal-mart for the remaining items and then back to the church.  I had several ladies scheduled to help me out.  It took until about 4pm to get everything prepped for that next day…and I still needed to go home and get  seven pounds of Pasta Salad made and two large bowls of dip made as well as pick up to huge tree decals that were to go up on the walls and go back to church and get that completed.  We ended up leaving the church  about 9pm on Friday and it was about midnight when I finally got to bed.  The event was the next day starting at 11am….

I guess there was a break down in communication for the day of the event between the lady who said she would help me, mentioned earlier and myself….she told me she would be there to help with whatever I needed…I thought that meant she would be there before the event started to help get all the fruit trays, condiment trays plated up, desserts plated etc.  I arrived about 8:30 and started work….I had scheduled the young men of our church to come and help out with the food service that was the idea, so the mom’s could spend time with their daughters…hence the name of the luncheon…Mother/Daughter   by 11am I was just looking at final touches and saw I needed to go sit down….the lady never once came to see what help I needed….towards the end of the guest speaker I had gotten up to go get a tissue for my allergies and the lady who said she would help me…..she comes following me out to see what she could help with….I kind of looked at her with questioning look….we had all the help the guys were in their assigned spots, and I was just going to oversee there was nothing left to do…..

Well food service started and overall it went well, there would be some things I would do different next time if it was to be the same menu….like pay to have the sandwiches pre-made, not do cheesecake….it’s a wonderful dessert and all but does not lend itself to a buffet very well unless you have one person make them all or buy them all pre-sliced…possibly consider having all the fruit trays pre-made as well. I would get a second opinion as to the amount of food that was needed….the website that I had contacted, she answers tons and tons of emails each day about cooking for large groups of people and has tables and charts why would I not think that the numbers she gave me would be inaccurate….I had enough food left over to feed the church fellowship the following night and for ladies to take fruit and chips home, cake home, etc.  We had 144 ladies at this years attendance!!  I feel really bad about that part….so much money spent on food.  Regardless of the fact that I was completely exhausted, a total basket case, completely stressed wondering if there would be enough food, trying to make sure everything got restocked on the food lines and there were no major foul ups….it went really well.

I do not think I will be in charge again, I missed out on getting to spend any time with my daughter, spent way to many sleepless nights, stressed because I wanted it to go so nicely and to glorify God with my efforts, but it took its toll. I will however give assistance as I see how hard it is to put something like this together!!

Anyhow….here are some great pictures…These first pictures are of the night before when I had the decorations set up in the two food areas

These were the inside of the doors to the food area that would get opened up and welcome the ladies in….I just loved the banner on the right…it says “Taste and see that the Lord is good”  how appropriate is that!!

 

I chose to do Mother Daughter Quotes throughout the two rooms as the ladies would be standing in line for a little while and it would give them something to read!  You can click on the photo’s to enlarge all the pictures.

  

  

  

These are pictures of the buffet the day of….

  

    

Here are some pictures from the gymnasium that my friend Christy took, she was on the decorating committee for where the ladies would be seated…

 

This was the gift table, we had 30 gifts to give away and all the little girls received aprons and then they had a really nice seating area to get pictures afterwards of Mom’s and their daughters….

They did a photo montage of Mother Daughter pictures from the ladies of our church…

The opposite corner from the sitting area up near the front by the stage.

the stage area and the area to the left.

The tables all set with little topiaries with birds on them that had our theme verse and little tiny birdhouses that were all for the guests to take home, the larger bird houses were just for the decoration.

This was a wonderful little birdhouse that was made so that you could pull it out and get pictures of you standing in the opening…so sweet!!

Well, that’s it… that is the main thing that took up so much of my time and why I wasn’t blogging for all of April!!!

God Bless~~

 

 

What type of legacy are you going to leave……

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Well this is not what I was gong to be posting today, but through a serious of events, I have felt the Lord lead me to share some thoughts….

So how many of you are hoping to see your children married one day?  I am! How many of you look forward to being a Mother in Law?  I do!

How many of you are Mother’s in Law’s already?  What type of legacy are you leaving behind to your daughter in law should you go to heaven before she does?

I have said before and I think it bears worth repeating, that we all have the choice to be a blessing in every circumstance, we have the choice as Christians to follow God’s word in the bible…we have the choice to be encouraging, uplifting….

Are you going to leave a legacy of one who was always concerned about themselves and how the Daughter in Law didn’t do enough to please you? 

Or are you going to compromise in your thoughts and see things from the other side that may affect why something didn’t go the way you wanted it to.  Are you going to be gracious and offer grace to the woman who has born your Grandchildren?  Are you going to be gracious and offer grace to the Lady that has won your son’s heart and affections or are you going to hold a grudge that no woman or lady is good enough for your son.

Are you going to offer the first blessing instead of waiting for the blessing to come to you from a woman that hardly knows you?  Are you going to open your heart and open your arms and open your home no matter if she is a Christian or not and not sit in judgment. 

Are you going to make a point to enjoy whatever time you get to spend with your son’s new family or are you going to make life so miserable and take no accountability for losing focus of God and focusing on yourself that you make your daughter in law wish she could just end her life and not have to deal with you any more…..Are you going to leave a legacy of a loving MIL that was joyous in the Lord and always tried to be a blessing or are you going to leave a legacy of a person filled with bitterness, self-absorption, that left your daughter in law feeling she could never do anything right. Do you really want that to be her lasting memory of you…..

We all have a choice in life, to be a blessing in every circumstance even when it is not working out the ideal way we would have wished in our own mind……

God Bless~~